I have more chapters of this basically done with some basic editing to finish. Please PM me if I don’t drop one every week.
Anna cracked some windows to let in fresh air. She grabbed the travel carrier and some towels from the closet after some searching around. She managed to get all the foals in it together and pried a few words from Maybell. After she had fully roused she began to scream in terror at the sight of Anna. “Pwease nuu huwt famawy!” “Wewe mummah!” “Please nuu bad uppies. Nuu good foh tummeh babies!” “Pwease, speciaw fwen nee’ nummies fow tummeh huwties!”
The mention of tummy babies calmed Anna a bit. It explained her bloated stomach and she dismissed the fantastical thoughts of fluffy cannibalism as abuser propaganda. It made more sense when they didn’t know most things were food unless someone told them. Runaways would starve in a yard full of grass.
Maybe the yellow foal had just dreamed of a sister. Fluffies had overactive imaginations and a ‘pink wingy pointy sister just like mommy was more likely to be the product of a stress dream than the genetic lottery of an alicorn birthing another alicorn with matching colors. She had done some research herself on breeding when the opportunity for a promotion to a breeding center had come up.
Anna made a quick call to the nearest emergency fluffy vet and made preparations to move the family. Nimbus was wrapped in a towel and laid down in the basket under the stroller. She got Maybell to agree to lay down on the top basket and didn’t use the straps as they could cause complications to a pregnancy. She grabbed a spare key hanging by the door, it had a plastic novelty keychain of rainbow Pegasus and a quote about the efficiency of their coolness.
Pushing the stroller with one hand and holding the scared chirping foals in the carrier. She made her way out of the apartment, locking the door behind her and getting in the elevator to the parking garage. She placed the travel carrier in her passenger seat, lowered her back row of seats in her green hatchback, and laid Nimbus and Maybell on a pile of towels together in the back. She told Maybell to lay still for the ride.
The foals continued to peep and cry to be let out. Hastily shoved in and experiencing the sorry box for the first time, by a stranger no less, the whole situation sucked. She didn’t have the time to give them her full attention. She told them to be quiet and promised they would get delicious nummies if they were good and listened.
She looked at the stroller. She really hadn’t thought through having to store that in her car. In the back it could slide and crush Maybel and Nimbus. She decided to fold and wedge it behind her driver seat. It took a moment but was better than just abandoning it in the garage.
She started the engine and began her journey to the vet, “Goin tu pawk?” Maybell mumbled from the back, Anna checked her mirror and saw the pregnant mare trying to stand on shaky legs. “Lay down!” She commanded in a firm but polite tone. “We’re going to someone who will make your special friend’s hurties better.” Maybell stopped struggling and curled back up against Nimbus. “Wike vetwinaw-vetwi…?”
“Yes, A vet! That’s right! You aren’t afraid of the nice vet are you?” Anna tried to keep the mare engaged. She was doing all right for a starving pregnant fluffy. She wasn’t showing any clear signs of brain damage from malnutrition either. “Nuu wike pointy dingies but mummah Wizabeff take Maybeww tu vet an’ see pichaw tingie ov tummeh bebbehs.”
Anna connected her phone to the Bluetooth and played a FluffTV podcast of “Singie Babies” on a low volume to sooth the mare and foals as they continued driving. Soon enough she pulled in front of the vet and into the parallel street parking. A car honked at her as she backed into the spot, impatient that people besides them existed and also used the road.
She carefully got out and grabbed the carrier. “Don’t worry, I’ll be right back.” She reassured Maybell. She walked in to the receptionist and set the carrier on the counter. “Hi, I’m Anna, we spoke on the phone. I have the parents in my car.” The receptionist reached to secure the carrier in his hands and nodded to her. “Hey Jill, the alicorn pair just arrived. Can you help bring them in?”
A short portly woman in scrubs stepped through a swinging door and walked after Anna. “So, how are the babies doing?” Anna was mildly disgusted by the overly cute tone of her voice; it was normal to talk like that to fluffies but some people didn’t know how to switch it off when talking to other humans.
“They survived the ride. Now we just have to wait and see how bad they got it.” Anna opened her trunk door, and they scooped up Maybell and Nimbus. Jill let out a sad little “oh” at the sight of Nimbus before chiming back in: “Doctor Hoffman is the best! Don’t you worry. Now I hate to bring this up while you are dealing with this overwhelming and difficult experience but will you being paying out of pocket, or do you have insurance?” She was going to recommend euthanasia to save the woman her money on the gray one as she swaddled him in a towel and gently lifted him.
Anna quickly flashed her Fluffmart manager ID from her purse. Jill shut up. Anna wasn’t a concerned relative or fluffy owner so she could stop with the bedside manners. “Oh, okay.” Jill delivered politely. Fluffmart had a special insurance program with every licensed vet which included mandated reporting on abuse. They offered the insurance to customers, but most turned it down. Most vets rarely dealt with fluffmart employees directly, but they knew they all had that same demeanor about fluffies.
They came back inside and were greeted to the sight of a white mare with a pink mane on the counter talking to the foals through the cage door. She was a Nurse Fluff, a sterile mare trained to provide comfort to sick and injured fluffies to fulfil her instinct to care for others. Another woman sitting in the lobby struggled to hold her dull green mare as she struggled in her hands. “Bebbehs? Wet Wiwwow see bebbehs!”
Another nurse rolled out a steel cart and Anna and Jill placed Maybell and Nimbus on top. Nimbus was muttering to himself. Most of the words were unintelligible but Anna was able to make out her own name and ‘babbehs’.
Anna grabbed the carrier off of the counter and went over to a seat to wait. The foals would be seen soon enough but as they were all walking and talking it did not warrant a medical emergency. The man at the desk let the Nurse Fluff down to the floor and she followed Anna over.
Anna looked down at the white mare. They were so use to death and suffering that a litter of foals must be a shining light in their life. She invited the woman sitting next to her to let Willow look as well to shut her up. And she spent the next half hour waiting as Willow and the Nurse Fluff, named Mary apparently, babbled through the bars to the overstimulated foals. “Dawktah Hoofieman da bestes! Make aww yuu mummah an daddeh owies guu ‘way!”
Eventually she was interrupted, Jill came back out from the back room with a look of concern. “Um, Anna was it? The doctor wants to see you.”
Anna got up and followed her, she was expecting this. Nimbus was probably too far gone and dying of systematic organ failure or sepsis from eating feces. As she stepped back into the treatment room she saw Nimbus with his head propped up on a huggy toy and an IV in his front leg.
The doctor was standing at another table with Maybell, He had a sonogram machine next to him and the alicorn had gel slathered all over her teats. Anna walked over to Dr Hoffman “Don’t worry, I’ve seen it all. Miscarriage?” He looked at her with concern. “Um, it’s better to just see for yourself.”
He placed the sonogram wand back on the mare and the picture formed on the screen. A litter of foals a few weeks along were all wiggling helplessly inside. One wasn’t, it looked almost peaceful, a solitary miscarriage was rare given the trauma required but not impossible. Then he rotated the wand to the side.
A picture began to form behind the womb, a much larger foal was inside. Bones that were crushed, and she saw the fragments of a wing. Then a crushed skull with a shattered horn protruding from it.