A few bright times had passed since the foals had been born. The litter box was piling up and the safe room didn’t smell pretty any longer. Despite this, the two alicorns tried their best to care for their little chirpies who had been testing their legs and crawling around by dragging their stomach like a soldier under machine gun fire barbed wire. The silver one made it the farthest and Maybell constantly begged him not to ‘splore so hard as it worried her when she discovered he left her mummah bed.
The purple one constantly latched onto her siblings. The silver one was the filly’s favorite, but it took a lot of effort to keep up with him. The yellow one was the first to open her eyes, she didn’t crawl a lot, but she would struggle to crane her head around in take in the world, cheeping and cooing constantly. The lime one just drank milk and napped when Maybell would pluck him from her teat. The grey one would climb all over Maybell and Nimbus, nuzzling into their fluff constantly.
Nimbus confronted Maybell over her special treatment of the alicorn foal, she insisted it wasn’t over color and it was just that since they were mummah’s bestest awicown bebbehs and this was an alicorn that she had to keep happy for when mummah came back. Maybell agreed that all bebbehs were the bestest but the alicorn was the bestest bestest bebbeh. Somewhere in the back of his mind he agreed.
Deep in his memory he vaguely remembered the phrase “munstah bebbeh” It was from when his biological mother almost turned him into paste before she took a sorry stick across the face, and he was rescued by a Hasbio employee in the breeding mill. Not that he remembered those details. Still, fluffy memory as a byproduct of their artificial nature was pseudo-eidetic and they often knew more than they remembered.
They argued every day. Nimbus thought mummah wasn’t coming back. Enough humans had told him they would adopt him and then left the Fluffmart, Elizabeth obviously abandoned him. Maybell knew mummah was the bestest mummah. Mummah would never abandon them, the apartment was mummah’s nest after all. She just couldn’t explain where mummah went is all. They still loved each other and made up after every fight.
Nimbus worried for his special friend and children, this killed his appetite and his auto feeder emptied slower than Maybell’s. Even accounting for the fact that she was eating for seven. He also hoped to save some of his food for his mate if they couldn’t find more before the bestest mummah kibble ran out. He would scoop his food out of the bowl to keep it dispensing when he didn’t eat it. He had figured it would stop dropping food when he didn’t eat.
Maybell worried too, mummah always told her she was the bestest fluffy, and Maybell promised to give her the bestest babbehs. But she needed mummah’s help. Her bestest babbies weren’t getting the bestest sgettie milkies and it broke her heart to spoil the alicorn filly over the rest. Still, she did it because she knew mummah loved alicorns and that made it the bestest bestest babbeh.
More time passed and the chirpy babies opened their eyes. “Maybeww hab suuu manneh heawt happehs!” They went through the whole gamut of responsibilities they had decided between the two of them as the chirpies made sounds that sounded like they were trying to spit out words. If Elizabeth had been here she would have explained that they couldn’t explain all the fine details of things like blockies, or the park, or Fluff TV to a chirpy baby.
As Maybell explains Fluff TV to the foals she talks about dancing alicorn babies, she looks up at the TV, she wished mummah was here to turn on Dancing Babies. It was so quiet every day without it on, excluding the chirp of her foals. Cheep cheep Her happy little alicorn chirpie cried. “Das wite bebbeh. Yuu am bebbeh wike dancie bebbehs buh yuu nu wawkie ow dancie yeht.”
Nimbus was getting thinner. Maybell worried that heart hurties made fluffies be not as big fluffies. She made extra sure to give her special friend the bestest huggies. On one partucular night she took him to the other fluffy bed and told him to give her special huggies. He refused, explaining that she needed to save her nummies for milkies for their bestest babbehs, not for other tummeh bebbehs.
They argued about mummah coming back again, they made make up huggies and despite his strongest efforts, her pheromones overwhelmed him. They had make up special huggies and Maybell became pregnant once again.
“spechow peep huggehs?” The gray colt had a front row seat to the show the previous night. He crawled out of bed the night before and watched his mummah and daddeh from the edge of the fluffnest. These were his first words. “Wewe am heaw dose wowds!?”
It had been two weeks since Maybell gave birth. All her foals were talking now in some capacity. She was adamant about her alicorn becoming a dancing babbeh to impress mummah. She was the bestest mummah and she would have the best dancing bebbeh. The gray unicorn picked it up pretty quickly and would dance for mummah but received at most half of her focus at any given time. “Nu now! Mummeh am bisseh wit yuu sistah!”
The little yellow talkie filly began to annoy Maybell. “What dat? Wookie dewe! What am bwudda doin? Wut am dat buzzy fwen? Wut am fwy? Why fwy eat poopies? Why window placie no bwite time aww da time?” Nimbus tried to answer all her questions but usually failed. She would forget and need the same explanation every day anyway. She was so curious and full of joy, and they didn’t have the heart to tell her to stop.
The lazy days took the worst toll on the splorin’ silver colt, he had got into every nook and cranny of the safe room a dozen times or more. There was nothing new to keep him stimulated. He would go over to the child gate and stand up on his hind legs, pushing against it trying to look out into the rest of the apartment.
The purple filly would stay glued to her brothers. Asking to play. The silver one would stack blocks with her just to stave off boredom while the lime one would play ball with her just to get her to stop interrupting his naps.
Maybell’s autofeeder tank had now run out but she kept finding nummies in the bowl. She woke from a nap to see Nimbus dropping kibble in it. “Nimbuhs fiwn nummies?” She jumped up with excitement. There was not much to look forward to: The litterbox was overflowing with shit, the TV was always off, mummah was still missing and couldn’t give them sgettis, and now they were out of food.
She was panicking now too but kept it to herself. She was the bestest mummah and bestest mummahs didn’t scare or worry their foals. The glimmer of home she felt washed weeks of anxiety that she hid away.
Nimbus couldn’t lie to her or keep it secret anymore; he led her into the corner behind the toybox. It was all of his kibble. He explained his plan to her. She was livid with him.
“Buh Nimbuhs nee tchu hab nummehs tuu! If Nimbuhs nu hab nummies den Nimbuhs guu foweba sweepies! Den bestes bebbehs nuu hab bestes daddeh!” Nimbus was more pragmatic “Bebbehs nee’ Mummah mowe den daddeh! Mummah mawke bestes miwkies fow bebbehs! Nimbus nuu mawke miwkies!” The reality that he would starve to death for them began to hit “Huu Huu Huu…. Nimbuws awweady meet bebbehs. If Nimbus go fowebah sweepies dat okeh.” He hugged Maybell and eventually they both calmed down.
Maybell found the will to correct him as they huuhuu’d “Nimbuws nee’ tuu habe sum nummies. Pwease speshaw fwen. Maybeww habe mowe tummeh bebbehs. Nimbuws nuu meet tummeh bebbehs yet.” She knew the day it happened, but kept it secret as Nimbus was already so worried about their newborns. She pulled away from him and looked into her eyes “Pwomiss Maybeww.” Nimbus looked back into her eyes; he couldn’t make her heart hurties more. “Pwomise.”
He made a compromise. He would take a few bites of Kibble but began numming on the poopies in the litterbox as they had now begun to overflow. They tasted awful but he kept his promise to have nummies while still saving the precious kibble for his mare and foals. He went back to his routine of talking to her tummeh babbehs while they slept. He told them everything he felt he would never get the chance to say after they were born.
Maybell forced the kibble down, she wanted to share more with Nimbus but knew here foals still needed milkies. These were not the mummeh nummie kibbles though so she was worried that she wouldn’t be able to make the bestest nummies for her bestest babbies. This was seemingly confirmed as the third week came around and the foals acted less excited for milk.
In reality the foal’s teeth were growing in and they were craving soft food. Maybell’s teats were gnawed on by the foals and as much as she wanted to tell them to stop, she wouldn’t be a bad mummah and give them sorry hoofsies ‘cause they were widdle bebbehs and didn’t know any better.
She was running dangerously low on food now. They had made two auto feeders last three weeks; each feeder was designed to last a pair of fluffs a week. Filling them above the feed line made it last eight days. Thirty-two days’ worth of kibble in total for a single adult fluffy. There was still the small pile of kibbles set aside by Nimbus that the foals had begun to climb and num on. They couldn’t handle the hard kibbles; they hadn’t had any softer food to help develop their jaws. They would throw up and make pee pees on the food.
Nimbus tried to herd them back to their mummah, but he was exhausted and couldn’t stay awake 24/7. “Daddeh, why nummies huwt moufie?” He sighed. “Bebbehs neechu dwink miwkies! Please nuu make peepees on dah kibbwes! Nuu am tawste gud fow mummah!” The babbies begged for sgettis too. They heard they were the bestest nummies and mummah was supposed to make it for them.
The pile dwindled down further and began to grow mold from the moisture of the vomit and piss. Maybell began throwing up her food too but would eat her sickies. She couldn’t waste any food for her bestest babbehs. She had started to lose some of her pregnancy weight as well, either from the spoiled food or the rationing. The fourth week came and there were no more kibbles left. She stopped making milkies soon after.
Her spoiled bestest bestest began to give her deflated teats sorry hooves, “dummah miwkie pwace am bwoken!” She looked at the filly and felt anger, she knew it was wrong, she was just a widdle babbeh after all and she was so hungry just like mummah. “Pwease bestes bebbeh, nuu gibe sowwy hoofsies to mummah. Mummah habe tummeh bebbehs. Neechu pwotec tummeh bebbehs.”
Maybell looked over at Nimbus, “Speciaw fwen. Pwease caw fow mummah.” He had stopped doing it daily by the end of the second week. Now he only went to the gate and called when she asked. He knew she was never coming back but Maybell held onto hope.
He gathered his energy and walked over, standing up and shaking his hooves against the frame to rattle it, he called out “Mummah wizzabeff! Pwease! Bebbehs nee’ nummies! Tummeh bebbehs nee’ nummies! Maybeww and Nimbuws suu hungwy!” He watched out the gate for a short while and then crawled back to his personal bed to curl up, he didn’t want to die next to his mate or his foals and make them sleep next to his corpse. He closed his eyes wondering if he would wake up again.
The pink foal, now with a poofy pastel blue mane kept kicking her mother’s tummy and ignoring her pleas. “Dummeh tummeh babbehs steawin aww ob bestes miwkies!” Maybell’s blood pressure spiked. She bolted upright and smacked the foal across the face. It looked up at her mother in shock, a drop of boo boo juice leaking from the corner of her mouth.
“Nuu am faiw! Bestes tummeh bebbehs am onwy widdwe bebbehs! Dey nuu am steawin miwkies! Bestes miwkies am fow aww bestes bebbehs!” She looked down at the filly with an expression of anger. Her eyes drifter over to the blood dripping from her child’s mouth. She was immediately overcome by shock and grief. What had she done? She hurt her bestest bestest. Mummah would be so angry with her when she found out.
Where was she? Where was Elizabeth? Where was Mummah? The strain of worry and abandonment was too much for Maybell in that exact moment. In the back of her mind a fuse burned out and she accepted what Nimbus had weeks earlier. Mummah wasn’t coming back.
“Hatchu…” The filly’s eyes narrowed with hate and anguish at her mother’s sudden but inevitable betrayal. “Wuh bebbeh says?” Maybel couldn’t believe the words leaving her little alicorn’s lips. “Hatchu!” The filly chirped out louder. “Hatchu! Hatchu! Hatchu! Yuu am wowstes mummeh! Nu make miwkies fow bestes nuu mowe!”
She stood up and started hitting her mother as hard as she could in the tummy again. It was very weak but enough to disturb one of her tummeh bebbehs. Maybell felt it go forever sleepy inside of her, it flailed around at the sudden loss of blood from a severed umbilical cord before going limp.
Maybell could not emotionally process the death of her unborn foal. She was filled with rage as her face turned to anger. The filly saw this and was fully aware that she had somehow just fucked up. She picked the spoiled ungrateful alicorn up in her hooves, livid that her bestest bestest had become a foal killing munstah bebbeh! She stared as her terrified filly started flailing and chirping. She had given it all the bestest nummies! Now they were all inside her when they should be inside her other foals!
She looked around at her other foals. They were emaciated and half-conscious all around her, the gray unicorn’s ribs were visible, and she thought of how much she ignored her real bestest, one that always stayed by her and tried to talk and play to make mummah happy. In that moment, she hated her mummah Elizabeth. This was all mummah’s fault; she only had an alicorn bestest bestest for her!
“Yuu am wite! Bestes bebbehs nee’ dah bestes nummies! Bestes bestes make bestes nummies!” Confusion replaced the anger and fear on the filly’s face as Maybell shoved her head into her mouth. She bit down hard. “Screeee! Sabe bestes! Nuu am nummies! Onwy widdle bebbeh! Sabe beste-” Crunch her soft skull finally collapsed after several seconds of agony.
“Huu huu!” Maybell sobbed and slowly choked down her dead former bestest. Her special friend and foals were sleeping. Fortunately, the muffled screaming of her foal in her mouth had not been enough to wake her exhausted family. The filly had grown quite large now from the extra milkies and took Maybell a while to finish chewing.
Next Story: The Call
Will you survive?