“Nyuuu, bestes babeh! Nu gu foweba sweepies! Nyuuu, bestes!” Martha had managed to grab Bella before she could reach the foal. She didn’t want her to be bloodstained when Marie got back, that would be hard to explain. Cleaning the blood of the orange foal had been hard enough and Bella’s hooves had finally lost their stained tinge. She could shave the mare but that would upset the remaining foals that loved to snuggle their mom’s fluff.
She scruffed the mare and began to walk back out of the chicken enclosure. No need to dispose of the remains. The chickens would devour it as soon as she was gone, they were circling the dead foal as it was.
As she walked Bella back to the house, she reminded her of all the rules she had broken and how kind she was for only taking one foal instead of all of them. “And, you don’t tell anyone about your dead babies unless you want forever sleepies, ok?” hu hu hu “OK?” “Yes ma’am…” hu hu hu.
As she stepped into the kitchen they were assaulted by the chirping of a crying foal. “oh, does the splorin baby want out of the sorry box?” Martha asked. She walked over and retrieved the brown foal before setting him down with Bella on the towel. “Bella was such a good mommy for saving her bestest ‘splorer from falling, right?” Bella knew what grandmummah was doing but she was too tired to fight back “yus, mam”. Martha’s gaze burned into Bella, “Say it.” Bella’s memory of her bestes dying was still fresh in her mind but she forced a smile “Fwuffeh am confus, say whu-”
Martha watched the tiny psychopath make a fake plastic smile after watching its child get ripped apart. “Say it.” She said as sternly as she was physically able. Ice shot through Bella’s veins as she looked at her three cream-colored fillies. She knew grandmummah would hurt them next if she didn’t. “Bwown spwowin babeh am dah bestes bebeh ebah Gwandmummah!”
They both smiled at each other with hate that could burn the entire house down.
Martha needed the sack of shit happy for Marie though. Or at least the foals. So, she reached into the pantry and grabbed a can of sgettis for lunch later. She had a thought for a second. She wondered if sugar cubes would work, then she decided against that. She saw a dusty box in the pantry and had another thought.
She left the kitchen to the sobbing mare and her foals, smiling sadistically to herself.
Her foals instinctively nuzzled up against her and began drinking milk. She felt two hooves press against her chest in a hug where bestest would always sleep. She looked down and saw her poopie babies trying to comfort her. It peeped and struggled to sound out words “Mu…Mu…mah…nuu….cwy” The same as her bestes’ last words “beh…beh…wub…mummah.”
Bella cried herself to sleep.
When she woke hours later, she was greeted by the smell of sgetti. She jumped up excitedly throwing the foals that had piled up on her off with a series of startled chirps. “Sgetti wewe sgetti!?” As she frantically looked around for the source of the scent which was equine ambrosia, she locked eyes with grandmummah, she had set up a folding chair in the kitchen and was staring bullets at her.
Her excitement turned into panic. She looked at her feet and saw her crying foals, they were covered in red boo boo juice. She closed her eyes and began to cower. She knew this was the end. Then… nothing? She saw for what felt like a fowebah as she waited for grandmummah to walk over and end her miserable existence. Carefully and painstakingly she slowly opened her eyes, standing in front of her were her four remaining foals. All covered in red. But looking closely, it wasn’t booboo juice, it was sgetti sauce.
Martha chimed in, “Your babies made a mess eating their first sgettis, you should clean them off.” Bella was confused but her stomach was growling. “Wewe sgettis?” Bella looked around “Wewe sg-” Martha interrupted, “Gone. Clean your foals.” The last bit was spoken as a command, not a suggestion. Bella looked at her foals who were all vying for her attention. She was hungry but she wouldn’t defy grandmummah.
She picked up her cream-colored unicorn and began to lick the tomato sauce off of it. Then the pegasus, then the earthie. She was hungry and the taste of her sgetti babies was able to barely satiate her. She looked at the brown foal, his fluff was obviously dirty, but the red was not as apparent on his brown fluff. Bellas eyes locked with Martha once again, she picked up her brown foal and began to lick the sgettis off of him. He tasted like sgettis but she secretly thought he also tasted like poopies.
“Gud mummah make wikkie cweanies, get nummie sgetties nao?” she sheepishly asked. “Your babies already ate all the sgetties, but they still need miwkies so you will still get nummies.” Martha said as she grabbed a bowl off the counter and set in in front of Bella. Bella smiled up at grandmummah with her eyes following the bowl, “gud mummah so happy foh sgett-” As the bowl finally got lowered enough to see inside, she could see it wasn’t sgettis. It was yellow and smelled like…. Like…. wingy not fluffy food.
Martha thought it was a nice touch, while she was digging through her pantry for soft food for the foals she found some old polenta. It wasn’t as coarse as the cornmeal for the chickens but the smell was unmistakable for the traumatized mare.
Bella cried as she ate. She lost her appetite at the smell and struggled to gag down the gruel. She lost her bestest, her poopie’s first words mocked her, and she missed her foal’s first sgettis.
Martha would separate Bella and her foals for solid food the rest of the week.
A shorter chapter than the rest but I had some trouble breaking up everything I wanted to do into equal size parts.