Ok, so I titled Chapter 5 as END, but I felt I rushed through the last little bit, so here’s a quick little epilogue wrapping things up a little bit neater.
The car door shut, the engine started and the customers drove off, leaving Johnny waving to his new customers as they started their journey home.
It was finally over, the last of Lothario’s foals were sold off, the farm ready to start again fresh. While there was certainly a lack of pedigree to them, the amount of foals they had combined with the novelty of selling them before they were fully weaned allowed Johnny and Gheorghe to make a tidy profit, enough to cover the loss of their stock plus a little extra.
Johnny had wanted to keep a couple of the fillies but the mares refused, they wanted a fair turn for all of them, none of them were allowed to keep any foals. It actually shocked Johnny at first but the more he talked to them about what happened, the more he understood why they wanted their children to have a better life away from the horrors of their beginnings.
Johnny waited until the car was out of sight before turning back inside, as he shut the door he found Gheorghe in the kitchen, setting out the kibble for the mare’s lunch. Johnny took a moment to watch the man he loved at work, and he sighed.
“You were right.”
Gheorghe looked up, his mind still processing what Johnny had said. “Sorry what?”
“I said you were right, we should’ve saved the Fluffies sooner than we did. The tracker chips told us exactly where they were at all times, it wasn’t too far away from the house, we knew they were all pregnant and… I put too much focus on the punishment, I wanted to hammer home just how good they had it here, how awful out there was for them, I never considered HOW awful that would end up being.”
Gheorghe put down the bag of kibble and walked over to Johnny, placing a hand on his shoulder. “It not that you didn’t listen that bothered me. It that you didn’t care. We are Fluffy breeders now, not for money, but because we want Fluffies have good life. You right to punish them, they no listen to us, they all make fuck with that purple shit, but you leave them in bad snow for too long, longer than need to. I know you Johnny, you say weather too bad to drive, no find Fluffies, but you lie, you know bad weather for driving is even worse for Fluffies, you not want hurt Fluffies, but you not care about them also.”
Johnny placed his hand over Gheorghe’s on his shoulder and gripped it tight, slowly nodding at his partner’s words.
“You’re right, I didn’t care, I thought this would show them, that a few dead friends would remind them why they loved it here. But Christ man, cannibalism, murder, having to eat their friends, eat their own young just to survive. I went too far, and I’ll never be able to make that up to you, or to them.”
“You understand you do bad thing, that good start. I know you better than that, I can forgive little lapse, the Fluffies can too, they still love you, think you bestest daddy. Let them have good time, help them forget bad things.”
Gheorghe leant forward and gave Johnny a quick kiss, the two men chuckled for a moment before Gheorghe returned to the kibble. Johnny played the words over in his head and he knew Gheorghe was right, the Fluffies would forgive him, but he still needed to make it up to them, for his own sake as well as theirs.
Johnny went out to the back garden, while the weather was warming up it was still quite cold so most of the mares were huddled together in their little shelter, the wooden panels and fresh blankets made for a much more comfortable time than the hovel of dirt and trees they’d been subjected to.
All except one, one mare was by herself, intentionally isolating herself from the rest of her friends to sit near the bed of the mare who gave her life to save her. Sandy lay down next to Betty’s old bed, whilst most of the other mares were still crying over the loss of their foals, Sandy still cried for the loss of her friend. Johnny walked over to her, sat down on the wet grass outside the enclosure, and reached in a hand to stroke the poor peach Fluffy.
“It stiww smeww wike hew.” Sandy said with a sniffle.
“I’m sure it does Sandy, we’ll leave it empty as long as you need to.”
“It San-dee fauwt Bet-ee gu foweba sweepies, it San-dee fauwt aww mawes gu foweba sweepies. Am wowstesh dummeh fwiend.”
“Hey now, I’ve been talking with the other mares about what happened, they all say you’re the one who stopped Lothario from hurting anyone else, you took charge to protect your friends even when nobody asked you to, you looked after everyone you could, even Penny after she killed your foals.”
Sandy wiped a tear from her eye. “Pen-ee am meanie, bu nu desewve hab Wothawio gib hew bad speciaw-huggies. Pen-ee am pawt of hewd, San-dee nu wan wose mowe of hewd.”
“That’s my point Sandy, you looked after everyone, regardless of how you felt about them. In the end, it doesn’t matter how many friend you lost, the fact that you were in the worst place for a herd to be and STILL had this many of you survive, that’s the testament of a true leader, of a real Smarty Friend.”
Sandy looked up at Johnny, slightly confused at what he was suggesting. “San-dee am Smawty Fwiend?”
“If you want to be, Lothario was a mistake, one that we all need to learn from going forward, but you’ve shown to understand WHY he was a mistake, you’ve shown you can learn, you can grow, you can lead, and you can sacrifice. I know about Amber’s wingie-pointy daughter, I know she was yours.”
“Wha? How Mistah Joh-nee knyo dat?”
Johnny chuckled, trying to work out how to explain genetics to a Fluffy and how Amber didn’t have Alicorn genes but Sandy did. But he figured there was a much easier explanation.
“She looked just like your mother.”
“Mummah? San-dee nu wememba mummah.”
“Your mother and father belonged to me and Gheorghe long before we started gathering more mares for the farm. Your mother Violet was part of a mean family who me and Gheorghe rescued her from, your father Lazarus was also part of a mean family and was rescued by nice Mister Herman, you remember her right?”
Sandy nodded, remembering the kindly old man who stopped by every now and again.
“Well, Violet and Lazarus fell in love, and they had lots of babies together, but something went wrong. When you were a tummy baby, along with your brothers and sisters, Violet started… something was wrong inside her, the Fluffy doctor said it was because of the tummy-babies and he said that for Violet to live, you and your siblings needed to… go forever sleepies before you were born.”
Sandy gasped. “That am howwibew fing tu say tu soon-mummah. Bu… San-dee nu am foweba sweepies.”
“That’s right, because Violet told the doctor that she would NEVER hurt her babies for anything, not even her own safety. And I won’t lie to you Sandy, it was hard, your mother fought and cried and begged for many, many forevers. But she held on, and she was able to give birth to you and your brothers and sisters, in fact she was so tough, when everyone thought she was going to die during the birth, she pulled through that just fine, although the damage to her tummy meant she would never be a mummah again.”
“Huu, San-dee am bad Fwuffy, mummah neba hab babbehs gain coz of San-dee.”
“That’s not true Sandy, your mother knew that waiting until you were born was going to hurt her, she knew it might even kill her, but she gave that up to protect you, to make sure that you made it to see the sunshine one day. After you were born, we gave Violent and Lazarus to Herman, so they could spend some quiet time with Lazarus’ parents and kept you here to help start our little farm. The point I was making, is that hearing what everyone’s said about you, I saw your mother in you, I saw a Fluffy willing to make hard choices, willing to put others before herself, and I saw how proud Violet would be if she saw you now. You don’t have to say anything just yet, but if you want to, you can be the Smarty Friend of this herd, and keep them all safe by helping me and Gheorghe understand if there are any problems and fix them before the become Lotherio sized issues.”
Sandy paused for a moment, part of her was thrilled that Mister Johnny trusted her so much, but the horrors and fear of what she’d just went through still haunted her, she wasn’t sure if she could…
“Du it.”
Sandy and Johnny looked over, Scarlett, Amber and Penny had all wandered over, clearly being there long enough to hear most of the conversation.
“Du it.” Scarlett repeated. “Fwuffies am awive coz of San-dee, be bestesh Smawty Fwiend.”
“Amba hab chance tu be mummah fanks tu San-dee, eben wen wose babbehs tu tummeh-huwties San-dee stiww hewp Amba keep udda babbehs awive, neba wepay dat.”
“Pen-ee was biggesh meanie tu San-dee, gib wowstesh heawt-huwties. Bu San-dee stiww pwotect Pen-ee fwom Wothawio, stiww hewp Pen-ee’s babbehs. San-dee am betta Fwuffy dan Pen-ee eba be, Pen-ee awways wisten tu wha San-dee say.”
Sandy stepped out of the enclosure, internally she felt Betty’s scent slowly leaving her nostrils, and she approached her three friends. With tears in her eyes, she gathered them all in a hug and cried.
“San-dee neba wet bad fings happen tu fwiends gain, San-dee be bestesh Smawty Fwiend fow aww hewd.”
The group cheered and hugged Sandy back, they all still needed a long time to recover, but they were taking small steps, and that was all that mattered.
love this epilogue Sandy now will lead this herd.
nice