Chapter 20: The Worst Day Ever
“Babbeh pwease. Pwease wakies fow daddeh.”
Travis gently shook his blue son in his hoofs, trying to rouse the little Alicorn. He already knew the foal was dead, starved to death after going over a day without feeding, but his desperation didn’t allow him to quit that easily.
“Babbeh pwease nu gu foweba sweepies, daddeh hab wowstesh heawt-huwties.”
The blue colt’s head flopped back and forth, his neck limp and his dead weight straining Travis’ arms, his eyes weren’t fully open but they weren’t fully closed either, giving Travis that horrid feeling in his stomach just looking at his sons face.
After several minutes, it was the crying of his surviving two foals that finally broke through to Travis, with tears streaming down his face he placed his starved son down and curled up to his final two children.
It had been eight hours since they left their home, the new morning sun was slowly rising but nobody could see it for the dark clouds, the rains were starting to pour as Travis sheltered his yellow filly and his white colt from the sky wawa. The small family was sat underneath an awning, the door behind them long since boarded up, the shelter was minimal and now Travis’ foals were crying from the cold and wet as well as hunger.
Travis did his best to cover his foals from the rain, feeling the brunt of the freezing water drilling into his back.
“Brrr. Nu cw…cwy babbehs, da…daddeh find miwkies so…soon.”
He lied to his children, he didn’t know how he was going to find milkies, he didn’t know how he was going to keep them safe. He had nothing, he had no-one.
Travis coddled his children tighter, too scared to think about what might happen.
It was afternoon by the time the rain stopped, Travis’s foals hadn’t eaten in nearly 12 hours. More to the point, Travis himself hadn’t ate anything in nearly 18 hours and the energy he’d wasted trying to stay warm in the rain meant that he was starting to feel the pains of starvation as well.
Part of him felt guilty, he could go another day, maybe 2 without eating whereas his children were already starting to waste away after mere hours and his focus was on his own survival.
With the yellow filly and the white colt sleeping deeply if not comfortably on the cold stone step, Travis decided to leave them for a moment, just so he could find some food nearby. No point in trying to save his children if he wasn’t around to look after them.
Unfortunately for Travis, the abandoned neighbourhood he’d chosen to make his shelter was a concrete jungle, no people meant no abandoned food, no overflowing bins. There was some tufts of unkempt weeds breaking out of the sidewalk but that was it, Travis chewed through a couple of them quickly but couldn’t reach anymore without wandering too far from his foals.
Then he saw it, the body of his blue son. And the thought nearly made him throw up. He couldn’t… could he? Slowly Travis approached the body, sniffing it slightly, there was a very mild smell of rot but nothing he couldn’t ignore.
He jumped back in disgust. What was he doing, this was his son, a good Fluffy son he deserved to be at peace, not chewed up and turned into poopies. But what else could Travis do, he couldn’t take the blue colt with him, there was no dirt to bury him under, if Travis didn’t eat him then it was likely a wingie munstah or a barkie munstah would eat him instead.
Travis sniffled. “Am su sowwy babbeh, Twavis nu wan num babbeh, bu need nummies tu hewp bwudda an sissy. Yu am gud babbeh, stiww hewp famiwy afta gu foweba sweepies, daddeh awways wub yu.”
With his eyes shut tight, Travis picked his son off the ground with his teeth and dropped him into his mouth, the dead chirpy slide right in and down his throat without even the need to chew. Travis didn’t know if that made him feel better or not.
He stayed still for a moment, letting his body and his mind process what he had done, fighting with both to keep from throwing up. As he stood there, Travis cried again, wishing Angel was with him, wishing he could hug his mate, tell how much he loved her, how sorry he was for doing anything that made her leave, telling her how much he hated her for leaving, how the deaths of their children was her fault, was his fault, was her fault, was his…
‘Chirp peep, CHIRP!’
‘CAW CAW’
Travis was broken out of his mental anguish for the loud noise behind him, he turned just in time to see a bird clawing at his yellow filly, the white colt lay nearby having been pushed out of the way. The birds talons gripped around the filly, puncturing her soft flesh.
“NUUUU!”
Travis dashed forward, trying to scare the bird away, the winged monster flapped its wings at him but didn’t give up its grip on the filly.
“GU WAY WINGIE-MUNSTAH! TWAVIS NU WOSE MOWE BABBEHS!”
‘CAW, CAW’
‘CHIIIRRRRRPPPPPP! PEEP PEEP!’
Travis tried to get closer to hit the bird, but with its free leg it lashed put, scratching Travis across his left eye.
“AHHHH! SEE-PWAVE HUWTIE!”
His vision blurred and bloodstained, Travis almost missed the bird readying itself to fly off with its prize, but desperation and self-destruction kicked in, and Travis quickly let out a blast of sorry-poopies at the bird.
His aim wasn’t perfect, but he hit the bird in the face, shocked and disgusted, the monster dropped the filly and flew away, wet drops of Fluffy shit raining down as it tried to rid itself of the stink.
Ignoring the pain and the blood in his eye, Travis gathered his two foals. “Babbehs. Daddeh am su sowwy, neba weave yu gain, nu fow anee-fing.”
As much comfort as he tried to give his foals, Travis knew it wasn’t enough, the white colt was shaken up quite badly from the assault but the yellow filly was worse. The puncture wounds on her body, while not deep, were still bleeding, her cries were still loud so her lungs hadn’t been wounded but she was in so much pain and there was nothing Travis could do for her.
He wanted to take the two of run away, but his daughter needed huggies, and huggies made everything better. Right?
Travis moved onwards, trying to find something, anything that he could use to save his foals. The white colt had calmed down as was sleeping on Travis’ back, but the yellow filly was awake and had not stopped shivering despite her feeling exceedingly hot in Travis arms.
Part of him wanted to find a human doctor, someone who could help his daughter with whatever sickies she had, but like the food, he didn’t know where to begin.
“It ok babbehs, daddeh find miwkies, pwomise yu.”
With each new promise it was getting harder and harder for Travis to believe his own lies anymore, more and more he felt like his children knew that milkies weren’t coming, that their father was the worst Fluffy.
Heading deeper into the city, Travis passed by another alleyway, hoping for at least some shelter, he started to walk down it only to be caught offguard by a soft voice coming from one of the corner.
“Mummah wub babbehs, babbehs wub mummah.”
Peering down the alley, Travis saw a happy brown unicorn mare singing to her three foals, two of them suckling at her teats, the other sleeping in her arms as she rocked it back and forth. Nearby, a soft blue earthie stallion dropped off some fresh berries and nuzzled with his mate.
“Coo, wub speciaw-fwiend, bwing nummies fow make miwkies.”
“Heaw dat babbehs, daddeh hab nummies su mummah can make wots of miwkies.”
Travis stared at the couple for a long time, the mare had milk, lots of milk apparently. And only three babbehs. Could he ask to share some, she was a ‘poopie mare’ after all. Travis wasn’t sure why brown Fluffies were called poopies but he knew they were bullied and abused, maybe this mummah would be kind to his children and understand.
But what if she wasn’t, what is she was mean, what if the daddeh didn’t want Travis anywhere near his foals? The white colt was a unicorn and the yellow filly was an earthie so there was no chance of them being called ‘monsters’, but did Travis want to risk that?
He couldn’t, after losing most of his foals he couldn’t find it within himself to put the ones he had left at risk. Travis turned and slowly walked away, never knowing if he could every trust a Fluffy with his children ever again.
Never hearing the brown mare turn down more food because she still had plenty of milk left over for the next feeding.
As the evening rolled in, the yellow filly died.
While her quick healing prevented most of the blood loss, she still lost a decent amount from the many holes in her body. Coupled with the trauma and infection and she had no chance, even if Travis had found someone to help.
By now there wasn’t anything in Travis to even cry anymore, over the course of two days he’d failed his children, he was unable to protect them, unable to feed them. Another loss was just a certainty at this point.
Unable to do anything with his daughter’s body and unwilling to put himself through eating another child, Travis lay her body on a patch of grass and left her. He couldn’t bring himself to consider what might happen to her now but he had no other option.
Wanting to avoid the approaching darkness, Travis took shelter in a small alcove, better than the doorway he tried yesterday but nowhere near as good as his alleyway home. Once settled into the uncomfortable stone, Travis took his white son off his back and held him.
“Yu am wastesh babbeh, Twavis nu knyo wha du. Aww bwuddas an sissies gu foweba sweepies, daddeh nu can find miwkies, nu can find nummies. Hab nuffin bu heawt-huwties tu gib babbeh.”
The little colt wriggled weakly in Travis’ hoofs, its stomach still wailing for milk. The only upside was that the colt was still too young to open his eyes yet, so he hadn’t seen the rough scar on Travis left eye.
In fact, none of his children had lived long enough to open their eyes, none of them even had names.
Travis looked over his final child, this was his first born son, the very first babbeh Travis ever had, his green mane looking just like Travis’, his white coat reminding him so much of Angel. Angel who Travis loved, Angel who Travis hated, Angel who wasn’t here.
With a heavy heart, Travis placed the colt down on the stone floor, he chirped and cried at the harsh cold his body was being tormented with.
“Am sowwy babbeh, daddeh onwy du dis coz daddeh wub yu and nu wan babbehs hab huwties nu mowe.”
With one hoof, Travis gently stroked his son, trying to sooth him as best he could. And with his other, he swiftly crushed the colts skull with all the mercy a father could give.
The silence killed Travis. No more chirping, no more crying, for the briefest of moments he felt… relief. He no longer had to worry about his children, about trying to keep them safe, about finding them food, all the stress of the last two days started to melt away.
Then the moment passed and he threw up.
“HUUU! Twavis am wowstesh Fwuffy. Wose speciaw-fwiend, wose aww babbehs, am daddeh nu mowe. Huu, huu. Wha Twavis du wong, wai speciaw-fwiend weave, wai gib babbehs wowstesh tummeh-huwties, wai menaie Fwuffies gib babbehs foweba sweepies. Hatchu meanie speciaw-fwiend, Angew nu am speciaw-fwiend nyo, Twavis nu wub Angel nu mowe, Twavis… Twavis nu wan stop wubben Angew, Twavis wan Angew bak, wan speciaw-fwiend fow gib huggies an make heawt huwties stop. Twavis wan… Twavis wan…”
Physically and emotionally exhausted, Travis lay down and felt his eyes started to droop, with a final breath before sleep overtook him, Travis whispered a final sentence.
“Twavis wan die.”
When Travis awoke he was back in his alleyway home, the sun was shining bright and there was a sweet scent in the air. He looked around, confused as to what was going on, until he saw her, her white fluff as crisp as the day he met her, Angel was sitting on her side feeding their foals.
Travis raced to her and hugged her tightly, tears streaming down his face.
“Twavis? Twavis wha wong?”
“Twavis hab wowstesh sweepie-time pictas. Twavis fink speciaw-fwiend weave Twavis an babbehs. Twavis twy be gud-daddeh bu babbehs awways gu foweba sweepies. Tummeh-huwties an meanie Fwuffies and wingie munstahs and Twavis hab wowstesh heawt-huwties.”
“Speciaw-fwiend, dat am siwwy.”
“Twavis knyo, bu sweepie-time pictas feew su weaw, Twavis bewiebe speciaw-fwiend did gu.”
“Wai wouwd Angew gu… an nu take babbehs way fwom dummeh wike yu.”
Travis felt his blood chiil. “Wha speciaw-fwiend say?”
“Yu nu am speciaw-fwiend, yu am jus enfie dummeh, nu stawwion enuff tu be daddeh, Angew neba wub yu, yu jus fow gud-feews and findin nummies fow soon-mummah. Nyo dat babbehs am hewe, Angew nu need yu nu mowe.”
“Nu… nu dat a wie, yu wub Twavis.”
“Nu-wun wub Twavis, nu Angew, nu famiwy, nu mummah, NU WUN!”
“Huu, speciaw-fwiend stop, yu gib Twavis biggesh heawt-huwties.”
“Nu, dis nu heawt-huwties. Angew nyu speciaw-fwiend gub dem.”
A looming shadow cast over Travis, he turned to see who had taken his precious Angel away from him, and promptly shit himself at the sight of Crow.
“Nu… nu Twavis gib yu foweba sweepies.”
“Heh, enfie dummeh fink yu can gib Cwow foweba sweepies? Yu nu eben gib wittew huwties. Nyo, Cwow gun take yuw speciaw-fwiend, and tuwn dummeh babbehs into enfie toys. Afta Cwow wemind Twavis of his pwace.
“NUUUUU!!”
Travis was still screaming as he woke up, he didn’t know where he was, he didn’t know who he was, all he had was pain and misery and confusion. With his blurry vision, Travis ran around the alcove trying to decipher anything around him, until he saw two shapes coming towards him, both looking vaguely human.
Traumatised and looking for the slightly bit of comfort her could find, Travis reached out to the two figures, crying and hoping for comfort. Instead he was roughly picked up by his scruff.
“Eek, bad upsies.”
“See, I told you I heard a Fluffy down here last night.” One of the humans said, a tall, skinny teenage boy.”
The other, a shorter, fatter teen boy, looked over Travis with disgust. “Filthy fucking thing isn’t it, is that sick on its mouth? Fuck I’m gonna throw up. Let’s just break his fucking legs and leave him here.”
“No stupid, look at his coat, that’s a decent shade of green. I say we take him to Vinny, try and get a couple bucks for him.”
“You think Vinny’s gonna take a shitrat like this?”
“No harm in asking.”
The two boys agreed on the decision and dropped Travis into a carrier cage. Travis didn’t whine or cry about the sorry box, he just curled into a ball and cried, wishing for death to take him.
Wishing that wherever he went next, it was better than here.
