The foal never knew love. She had never received it from her mother, a spoiled, bratty dark purple mare with a bright blonde mane that was surrendered to a local Fluffymart by a breeder after they killed their pregnant, Alicorn sister. Her name, which the foal only knew due to a Fluffy’s almost universal speech tic of talking in third person, was Sweet-roll, which was ironically in complete contrast to her personality. As the filly had learned the hard way, Sweet-roll was an arrogant bitch who demanded the very best toys, blankets and safe rooms; she even refuses to eat anything but the best spaghetti, able to somehow tell when someone is trying to feed her the cheapest noodles with cold sauce, unlike most other fluffies, whose instincts usually make them blind to such cheapness; she even refuses to eat any meatballs unless they were handmade and cooked.
This demand for the best has also unfortunately bled into the way Sweet-roll saw her own foals. Like many stereotypical bitch-mothers, she had bestest babbehs, good babbehs, okay babbehs, ugly babbehs and poopie babbehs. Unlike some other terrible mothers or the stereotype, Sweet-roll didn’t label the eye-watering neon colored foals or the ones that look like her or her “special friend” as bestest babbeh. Instead, it was a set of colt and filly twins. Both were a velvet red with beautiful, midnight blue manes and tails. They looked so alike, in fact, that the two could be told apart by their eye color; the filly had blue while the colt had yellow. Naturally, the two were given the most milk and were consequently the largest and strongest of their litter. They were also the brattiest of the bunch, bordering on Smarty Syndrome, though constant punishments from the tired employees kept them from going over that particular horizon.
The good babbehs were surprisingly the two brown colored foals; Sweet-roll had apparently found their colors pleasing to the eye. Both were fillies, with one being dark chocolate with a gold-yellow mane and tail, while the other was a pale brown with a rich, brick-brown mane and tail. Both were also of completely different outlook and personality. The dark chocolate one, a Pegasus, was bubbly and inquisitive, wanting to explore everything that she could find and discover new things about her surroundings; an exploring babbeh at heart that was blissfully unaware of how many times she had come close to death. The light brown one, on the other hand, was moody and insular, preferring to spend her free time either playing with or hugging a small, red and blue ball; she not only doesn’t share it with her other siblings, she has been spotted in joining the twins in bullying their lesser siblings from time to time. The filly shows all the hallmarks of Toughy Syndrome, though she has yet to get physically violent with the rest of her litter, so the apathetic employees have decided to leave her be for the moment.
The two okay babbehs was two colt that were practically inseparable from one another; they used to shriek so loudly whenever they left each other’s sight that they were usually kept in the same room when receiving a bare-bones checkup. One of them was a steel-grey with a grass-green mane and tail, while the other was a beige with a white mane and tail. The least active of the litter, they spent most of their time either sleeping in a pile, grooming one another or hugging and nuzzling each other while cooing. Though this potential neurotic behavior would’ve marked them for death in more seedy stores and mills, Fluffmart found that these kind of fluffies sold well to those not as active for numerous reasons. The filly found them weird but harmless, just wondering why they didn’t want to play with her. Maybe it was something she did…
The three ugly babbehs were two fillies and a colt. The first filly was a dull orange with a purple mane and tail, while the other filly was a bright yellow with an orange mane and tail, with the colt surprisingly having the same dark purple color and bright blonde mane and tail as his mother. Due to being so low on the hierarchy, but not at the bottom, the three kept to themselves and usually played in a corner off to the side with a few soft colored blocks and a ball or two. The filly has tried to play with them a couple times in the past, but they usually refused to let her join them in fear of their mother’s wrath. This denial was usually led by the colt, who seems to have some smarty qualities in him, but has yet to show any signs of smarty syndrome, causing the employees to figure that he was just a petty brat who disliked how low he was in hierarchy and took his frustration out on his sister in a nonviolent way.
The poopie babbehs were once again made of two fillies and a colt. The first was the foal herself, a dark green with a dark purple mane and tail, while her sister was a neon pink with a neon orange mane and tail, with her brother being a dull white with a grey mane and tail. They were always fed last before they were finally weaned off of milk. It had gotten so bad beforehand, that the employees had to begrudgingly step in and force Sweet-roll to feed them so that they wouldn’t starve. Despite that, the filly was somehow as large as the twins, meaning that they were more reluctant to push her around despite her very meek personality. Despite all three of them being at the bottom of the totem pole, her pink sister and white brother very rarely interacted with her much, since their mother for some reason hated the filly more than the others, and they feared to lose whatever nonexistent favor they held with their own mother. This also meant that she was the very last to eat the soft kibble given to them twice a day, which meant that she only had a few bites before it was gone. This naturally left her feeling hungry and more miserable than usual before she went to sleep.
All in all, the filly was very isolated from the only potential sources of comfort that she could seek; whenever she tried to hug the hand of an employee or lifted her hooves in the upsie position in order to be picked up, she was either ignored or even flicked on the nose for her perceived demanding behavior. The filly had long since given up on seeking any slimmer of affection from the humans after a particularly mean employee snapped and loudly yelled at her and had even roughly shoved her over. Though she had yet to see see that particular employee since then, the green foal had come to fear the employees and fled to a corner and shivered in fear whenever one passed by their pen. With no one to play with, the filly usually contented herself with meekly pushing around a deflated ball that had lost all of its color after being repeatedly played for so long; if she squinted really hard, the foal could just make out either a dark blue or jungle green. She tried to play with the other toys, but were either chased away by her twin siblings or her own mother, who said they were only for good babbehs, not poopie monsters like her. Why did her mother call her such mean things? Was it because of her horn, her extra fluff or her tiny wings?
Things have recently gotten worse for her somehow with the birth of Sweet-roll’s new litter, which was made up of eight chirpy babbehs. Sweet-roll had also gotten even more demanding in nature, with the employees only ever slightly humoring her due to her new brood having some good colors. Sweet-roll had also started hogging even more of the kibble than before, to the point that the filly was digging up bits and pieces of stale kibble that had fallen into the shaggy carpet of the pen. Though the employees had eventually increased the amount of kibble they received by three after noticing how much Sweet-roll was eating, their mother still hoarded the majority of it for herself and the twins, forcing the rest of her litter to scrap over the remnants whilst she contented herself with meager morsels like always.
The filly wasn’t even allowed to go near her new siblings, her mother always keeping them close to her chest and harshly smacking any of her foals, besides the twins, who come too close to her; even the twins weren’t immune if they push their luck. As usual, she was the one to receive extra sorry hoofies if she was either caught sneaking too close or if Sweet-roll thought if she was staring at one of the nursing foals for too long. It was after yet another such beating by the hooves of her own mother, who intentionally made sure that her bruises were never serious enough to show through her fur lest she gets punished for it, that something had started to bloom within her chest whenever she looked at any member of her family. Wether it be her cruel mother, the arrogant twins, her apathetic brothers or even her infant siblings, this burning, seething ember within her heart exploded into an open bonfire that threatened to take control of her hooves and make the filly do something that she would regret immediately. It would frighten her more if she wasn’t so hungry and sad at the practical isolation from her family.
Today started like any other day. The filly was rudely awaken by the annoying peeping and chirping of her infant siblings as they made their hunger very well known and the problem of everyone else. Once their shrieking had managed to finally stir their snoozing mother from slumber, she immediately swatted aside any of the older foals that were too close to her and started to feed her chirpy babbehs from most favorite to least favorite; the green foal had learned long ago to sleep well away from Sweet-roll and in one of the corners, lest she be forcefully awakened by the smacking of a hoof to her side if she failed to awaken quickly enough.
As usual, however, Sweet-roll ran out of precious milk long before she was halfway through feeding her chirpy babbehs, and started her practically ritual routine of screaming at the top of her lungs for demands of more food for “bestes’ babbehs”, causing the nearby families to wake up and complain, with some shouting back at her to shut up; those with foals usually are too busy trying to get their now crying foals to calm down to be disgruntled at being so rudely awakened. Sweet-roll, of course, cared for none of this and wanted to be fed now so that she could finish feeding her babbehs and go back to sleep; it also didn’t hurt that she was given more food of a higher quality while nursing a litter.
Eventually, after a couple minutes of this ceaseless wailing and screeching, a very tired and underpaid employee came around the bend with a bag full of kibble specially geared towards pregnant or nursing dams. Knowing that she wouldn’t shut up unless fed first, the tired man made his way to Sweet-roll’s pen, opened the bag and poured a liberal amount of kibble into the rectangular bowl before stopping after a moment. When she was still throwing a fit and demanded sketties, he roughly slapped her on the snout with his hand and automatically reminded her what happens to fluffies that demanded what they were not owed, though he knew well enough that she would throw the same fit again tomorrow morning and so went to the next pen without waiting to see if his threat had actually sunken in or not.
It hadn’t. If anything, Sweet-roll was too busy crying and feeling sorry for herself after being hit in the snout to notice anything; even the distressed chirping of her newest litter as they fell off her back and onto the carpet of the pen after she sat down failed to penetrate her self pity. As usual, it fell to the begrudging twins and whatever other siblings felt like helping to round up the screeching chirpy babbehs and put them in a pile on their usual spot near the bowl.
Eventually, Sweet-roll’s hunger and growling stomach overrode her over exaggerated meltdown and made her way over to the now filled bowl with a huff of irritation. While her chirpy babbehs continued to let out a series of continuous huuhuus and distressed chirps in an attempt to get their mother’s attention, Sweet-roll outright ignored their pleas for comfort in favor of filing her own belly well beyond necessity and into the sphere of gluttony and excess. If she wasn’t so afraid of her own mother and didn’t have that strange feeling in her chest every time she stared at them, the filly would’ve gone over and hugged each and every one of them until they at least stopped making all that racket.
She couldn’t even go over to the bowl to satiate her own gnawing hunger; her mother had made it very clear that she was not to go anywhere near the bowl while she was eating. In fact, none of her older litter was allowed to go near the kibble with the exception of the twins, naturally, who were wolfing down all they could stomach without barfing it back up on each side of Sweet-roll; throughout all of this, the filly’s remaining siblings were standing towards one side, looking at them with envy-filled eyes while their stomachs growled in protest. Her light brown sister also had her cheeks puffed in anger, showing her anger at having to wait to eat. Her two odd brothers, on the other hand, had blank looks on their faces that made their envious looks glow like the eyes of a predator.
By the time Sweet-roll and the twins were done feasting on the kibble, less than half of what was given was left. The moment that the bowl was left unguarded by their mother, who was currently returning her focus on her crying infant brood in order to feed them, the remaining litter-minus the filly-charged towards the bowl, and started scraping over their own section of the food. Her light brown sister, as usual, dominated the fight by giving sorry hoofies to anyone who tried to swipe from her own rather large section of kibble. Her two brothers worked together and secured their own section that even their light brown sister was unable to steal due to the teamwork. Even the filly’s dark chocolate sister, usually the nicest of the bunch in almost every other situation, became a meanie that bullied any of her siblings that she had found lacking in their resolve to defend their food.
The only one to not take part was the green filly herself. Not only did she dislike conflict of any kind with anyone, she also usually lacked the energy and resolve to actually take part in energy wasting activities. So instead, she was sitting on the sidelines, waiting for when her siblings were done eating in order to scavenge her for her own food, looking away as well so that she could better ignore the pangs of hunger that wracked her body every moment of her awakening. Eventually, her siblings seemingly had their fill and waddled away from the bowl and scattered to their usual spots in the pen, either going into their groups or going by themselves to play with stuffed animals and toys that weren’t hoarded by the red twins.
Standing back up, ignoring the numbness she felt in her extremities from laying down for so long, the green foal made her way to the bowl slowly, not expecting to find much if anything. That employee must’ve been more tired and sloppy than usual, for she saw that there was just enough kibble left over to fill her stomach up and nothing else. Quickly looking from side to side to make sure that none of her siblings were coming over to steal it from her, the green foal quickly bent down and began scarfing down the bland kibble with the gusto of a starving beggar. Though it lasted less than 30 seconds, every mouthful created a sensation of bliss for the filly, only increasing in intensity when she swallowed it and it reached her stomach. When she finally ate the last bite of kibble, the green foal frantically licked the bowl so that she could get every crumb possible, not wanting to squander this boon bestowed upon her by sky daddeh.
Once she was sure that she had licked the bowl clean, the foal was left unsure on what to do now. Originally, she was just going to scavenge whatever bits of kibble she could find and then go back to sleep in her usual corner, but now she’s too full of energy for that and wants to play with something or someone. Looking around, she found most of the playable toys and stuffed animals currently occupied by her siblings, none of whom she was sure would share with her. Spotting her flattened ball off to one side, the green foal went over and fiddled with it, trying to catch that ever fleeting spark of entertainment that she gained from moving it around. Today seemed to not be one of those days, with the green foal looking uninterested as she moved the worn thing around in circles.
Looking around in mild desperation, the green foal spots her light brown sister holding her favorite ball with all four legs with angry look on her face, her dark chocolate sister playing with the ugly babbehs, hollering and laughing in excitement as they chased one another. Her light brown sister must’ve wanted to play with her today, and was mad when she wanted to play with their other siblings instead of her. Not really wanting to play with a meanie like her, but definitely not wanting to play with the twins or weird brothers, the green foal made her way towards her sister with great reluctance and reservation.
“Sissy? am sissy wonewy,? do wan’ babbeh to pway baww wiff sissy?”, the green foal hesitantly asked her sister with a slight tremble in her voice and a hoof raised in an offering gesture. Snapped out of her funk, her light brown sister looked up from the ball with that angry look still on her face; if anything, she somehow managed to make herself look even more mad by narrowing her chestnut eyes and forming a sneer on her muzzle. Before the green foal could react, she was hit squarely on the nose by the red and blue rubber ball with such force that it knocked her off balance and caused her to land on her back. Being just a foal, the green filly naturally began crying out in pain and holding her now bruised nose with her two front hooves; luckily, it wasn’t broken or bleeding, but it was more than likely that it would soon be swollen and sensitive to touch, an annoying issue since fluffies use their sensitive noses to investigate and interact with their environment and surroundings.
Looking towards her litter mates with teary eyes, she all but begged to them for some form of comfort; by this point in time, really, the green foal was willing to accept even the most meager form of vocal support or comfort. The twins were pointing at her and laughing at her pain and misery, while her two brothers ignored everything going on around them as usual; the ugly babbehs were playing with a ball with the other poopie babbehs, intentionally trying to ignore her gaze and cries until she had stopped. Her dark chocolate sister was the only one who ever made the effort of showing concern and compassion for her green sister, and had even started walking towards her before she looked towards Sweet-roll in fear, lowering head in shame and slinking away with her ears lowered as well. This abandonment, combined with the pent emotions she had bottled up deep inside her and pain she was currently in, caused the green foal to tip over the edge and have a complete mental breakdown and start to loudly scream and cry even harder than before. Why were they always so mean to her?! What did she do to deserve such pain and misery from those who she would’ve loved with all her heart?! Why do they hate her so much?! Was it too much to ask for a hug or a word of encouragement?!
“Shut up, poopie babbeh! sweet-woww am feedin’ bestes’ babbeh, an’ youw scawin’ them!”, Sweet-roll snapped and loudly shouted at her green foal while laying on her side and letting her blue chirpy babbeh-her newest bestest babbeh-continue to gorge itself on her milk long after they rest were done. Not only did the green foal not hear her, but she also caused the rest of her youngest litter to wake up from their resumed sleeping and start crying out in distress themselves. If she weren’t feeling so slothful at the moment, and didn’t know what the punishment that would await her afterwards, Sweet-roll would’ve gone over and beaten her green foal with her hooves until she had shut up; her dying would’ve been a welcomed bonus, in Sweet-roll’s opinion. For the moment, however, she was content enough to watch the meltdown happening in front of her with a bored expression on her face, ignoring the pile of babbehs right next to her having their own mini-meltdown.
The green foal cared for none of it, however, with her meltdown causing her view of the world to shatter and shrink down to her immediate surroundings. It felt like her whole, entire world was burning down around her into cinders that continued burning afterwards. Her heart pounded in her chest so hard that it felt like it would burst out into the open at any moment if it went any faster. Her eyes even burned and grew irritated from all the tears she was shedding, causing her to shed even more tears and blur her vision to the point where she could only see smudges and blurs.
Suddenly, she felt something small roughly kick her in the side, causing the green foal to let out a pained “screeee!” in response, before curling up into a ball as her unknown assailant rained more painful blows down upon her side that made her cry out even louder. The blows were by no means lethal, the assailant putting inadequate amounts of force behind each blow to do nothing more than to leave a nasty bruise; they still left the green foal’s mind reeling even more than the meltdown had done. Who was attacking her?! Was it one of her siblings?! Why are they attacking her?! Why are they such mean bullies?!
“Babbeh hates 'ou, dummeh poopie babbeh! nu wub 'ou, munsta!! gib wowstes owwies tu ugwy sissy! go fowebah sweepies!”, the voice of the green foal’s light brown sister shouted at her as she continued kicking her, shocking the green filly even more than when she threw the ball at her. She had never gotten this violent with her or their other siblings before; angry and belligerent, yes, but not physically violent before. The few rare times ever even swung a few against one of them, all that it ever amounted to was a harmless shove that pushed one of their brothers over. This unexpected violence was a new low for her.
What stung the green foal the most, however, was the words of utter hatred and condescension that was spewed at her by someone who was supposed to love her unconditionally, and who she would’ve loved unconditionally in return. She never knew that one of her siblings ever even felt that way about her; sure, the twins were mean, but they never told that they wanted her to go die or called her a monster. But if they did want her to die? Did they also think that she was monster, poopie babbeh? WAS she a monster poopie babbeh? She didn’t feel like one, but that must be what all of her other siblings thought of her. Why else would they avoid the green foal like the plague despite being her litter mates? It was at that moment that something tore in her heart, like something has been irrevocably severed into thousands of pieces and scattered to the wind. The green foal felt such despair that she had never felt before leech her her resolve and sap away any will to live from her body. Though she still cried out whenever dealt a blow from her hateful sister and stayed in the tight ball on the shaggy carpet, she no longer had any thought of begging for her sister to stop or getting help from one of her sisters. Maybe this is what she deserved. Maybe this is what she wanted. Maybe she wanted to di-
“Jesus fucking christ: where on earth is that horrible shrieking coming from?!”, a human mare’s voice suddenly exclaimed loudly, causing the green foal’s light brown sister to immediately cease her attempted murder of her own sister. It must’ve been one of those humans that sometimes came to take a fluffy to their new home! That was the only time that her light brown sister was ever nice and sharing; not even the employees could get her to act the way she does whenever she tries to garner the attention of wandering human or two.
The green foal felt her sister move away from her and join the rest of the siblings to the see-through walls in order to shout at the human in the hope that she picked them. The green foal did not move from her spot, lacking the will to even uncurl herself from the ball she was still in, and continued crying to herself in a more dull tone; though her ‘wan die’ loop was fortunately stopped before it truly began, these despairing revelations were too much for such a young, innocent mind such as hers. All she wanted to do right now, was to bawl her eyes out until she ran dry of tears and then go to sleep until the next day. Who knows, maybe this is all just a bad nightmare that she will soon wake up from. If it was, the green foal hoped that it would end soon…
“Obah hewe, mummah! sad babbeh am in pen obah hewe! wawtah find souwce!”, a adult fluffy voice suddenly exclaimed somewhere near the pen, an adult stallion if green foal had heard right; she had seen some mares with deep (for a fluffy) sounding voices that had tricked some of the more desperate and dumber mares in the other pens that they were a potential special friend to get them out of here. Some of the meaner employees found it funny to watch the hope on their faces to crumble away into sadness and disappointment, making a game out of how long it takes for these mares to break into bawling tears and snot.
Unexpectedly, the green foal felt large, unfamiliar hooves grasp her on both sides of her body and lift her up into the air. Snapping her eyes wide open in terror at being touched by a stranger, as well the hooves putting pressure on her now tender bruises that caused her pain, the foal flailed her hooves wildly in the air as she was lifted over the lip of the pen and brought onto the other side for the first time by somebody other than a employee for one reason or another. Currently, however, the green foal was too terrified about her current predicament to look around in excitement at her new surroundings.
“Nu hab scawedy, wittwe babbeh! wawtah am gud fwuffy. Wiww gib huggies, su nu mowe sad wawa.”, the unknown stallion claimed with kindness, before gently bringing her to his fluffy chest and wrapped her in a warm embrace. Instinctively, the green foal returned the hug with great gusto, spreading her frontal legs as wide as she could, the green foal pressed herself as hard as she could against the stallion’s fluffy chest so that she could feel the warmth within it and hear the steady rhythm of a heartbeat. Calming down, the foal felt her senses returning to her, with her heart and chest no longer feeling like they were about to rip themselves apart from the great bouts of emotional pain she had felt.
The green foal then heard a subtle, smooth song emanating from deep within the stallion’s chest; it was a Soothing Song, used by fluffies to either calm themselves, their offspring or loved ones. Usually sang in frequencies beyond human hearing, the capability of producing these songs came from the cat DNA within them. It was something that every fluffy knew how to do by heart, but it took practice to learn how to do it on a whim. It was especially used by mothers to calm their young litters and stallions to calm easily frightened special friends so that their fright didn’t give away their hiding spot to predators or cruel humans looking to hurt them; some ferals consider those two things to be one and the same.
The green foal naturally knew none of these facts, or would care if she did know them; all that she knew and cared about was that a fluffy was finally showing her the compassion and kindness that she had longed sought after her entire life up to this point. In the growing sense of joy and happiness, the green foal nuzzled the stallion’s chest-ignoring the flare of pain that came from her now swollen nose-and started to slightly coo in joy.
The foal then felt a large shadow loom over both her and the kind stallion, whose name she had learned was Walter. Not expecting something so large to come so close without her knowing, the foal let out a squeak of fear and turned her head to look up at the unknown creature. What she saw was a human mare, but she wasn’t wearing the clothing of an employee nor have one of those weird magic box things on her waist. So she was one of the humans that often came to take good fluffies to their new! But why had she come this way? None of the humans that entered huge room ever chose the green foal or one of her siblings; they always chose the other babbehs from the nearby pens without giving theirs a single glance despite her litter’s constant screaming. The green foal also noticed that the human mare was strangely out of breath, as if she was running or fast walking.
“Huff…Huff…There you are, Walter. Don’t run off like that, you know how I worry when you do that to me. Whew, I forgot how fast you can be on your hooves when you get going. Now, who is this little one you’re currently hugging?”, she asks in interest as she took deep breaths, leaning downwards in order to gently scratch the green foal on the head, but the foal ducked her head and pressed it back into Walter’s chest when she saw the hand grow closer. The foal lifted her head back up once she had felt the hand move away from her.
Realizing that she had yet to actually get a good look at the kind stallion that was hugging her, the foal lifted her gaze up higher and was awe struck by what she saw. Walter’s coat was a veritable rainbow of every hue of yellow she had ever seen in her lifetime (and a many more that she hadn’t), smoothly transitioning from one to another to create a canvas that was pretty to the eye; his mane and tail were of same kind of beautiful rainbow of hues, only with blue instead of yellow. It was the kind, perfect eyes that were currently looking down at her that enraptured the green foal the most, however; they were, quite frankly, as if someone took every color the foal saw on the fluffies in the other pens, swirled them together, and put them in another fluffy’s see places. The foal couldn’t even begin to tell where one color ended and another began. It was so enrapturing, in fact, that she almost didn’t even hear Walter speaking again.
“Babbeh hab wowstes’ saddies an’ owwies, an’ wawtah nu can stand heawin’ gud babbehs shed sad wawa. Su wawtah come an’ gib gud huggies to pwetty babbeh!”, Walter proudly declared with a flap his impressive wings, causing the green foal to blush slightly and forget that he had both wings and a horn on his head. He thought she was pretty? No fluffy had ever called me pretty before; not even any of the humans had ever met called her pretty. They either took one look at her coat and called her ugly and disgusting, or straight up said that she was a ‘shit-rat’, whatever that meant. This was a first, and it made her feel even more shy than usual for some reason.
“Aww, that’s nice of you to go comfort someone who needs it. Next time, though, how about you run this sort of action by mommy, okay?”, the human mare softly reprimanded Walter with a sigh, causing his ears to wilt a little before responding with an apologetic “ Otay’, mummah.”. The human mare-who was apparently Walter’s human mummah-suddenly got a look on her face that seemed to suggest that she had just remembered something that they were supposed to be doing.
“Anyways, it’s time to put her back with the rest of her family; I’m sure they miss her terribly and want her back. Don’t forget that we’re looking for a new addition that we’re looking for a new addition to our family, remember?”, Walter’s mummah softly said before reaching down once again towards the green, causing her to let out a screech of fright and latch onto Walter’s chest with all her insignificant might.
“Nu! nu! don’t take babbeh ‘way fwom bestes’ wawtew! babbeh wants to stay wiff wawtah fwend! nu take 'way! pwease!”, she frantically pleaded, letting out chirps of fear when she felt the human’s hand grasping onto her mid frame and start gently tugging, causing the green foal to tighten her grasp on tufts of Walter’s fur in order to not be put back with those who clearly didn’t love her like Walter did.
“Come now, sweetie. I’m sure you’ll meet someone who is just as nice as Walter and I, I can promise you that.”, Walter’s mummah tried to reason and assure her with kind words, apparently not wanting roughly tug her off like most of the employees would readily do to clingy foals and annoying fluffies.
“Wait, mummah! wawtah picks pwetty gween babbeh to be new fwend. Wawtah chooses pwetty babbeh!”, Walter rapidly spouted out, grabbing hold of his mother’s hands that were over the green foal with his own hooves, causing her to cease her tugging on the foal lest she cause him to fall forward and hurt himself.
“You are certain, Walter? We haven’t been here for long, and we haven’t even reached the area where the older foals are yet. Are you certain that you want to adopt her?”, she questioned him, causing some hope to bloom once again in the foal’s chest. He gave her one look with those incredible eyes of his with an unreadable look in them before responding.
“Wawtah am suwe, mummah. Wawtah wan’ babbeh to be fwend.”, he repeated his original confirmation with more confidence and assurance than before. This seemed to please his mummah, for a happy smile spreads across her face and she opened her mouth to say something before Sweet-roll started screeching her anger at one of her poopie babbehs being chosen over herself, her bestest babbehs and good babbehs.
“Nu!!! why nice wady an’ handsome stawwion take poopie babbeh an’ not sweet-woww an’ bestes’ babbehs an’ gud babbehs?! am pwetty an’ gud!”, she whined incessantly, her cheeks puffed up in anger as she glared at her green foal with a look that could kill, causing said foal to shake in fear and let out a chirp of fear. She even saw her own mother trying to scramble over the see through walls of her pen in order to give sorry hoofies to her, completely the fact that the height of the plastic walls was specifically chosen to keep Sweet-roll inside and out of the way. That still didn’t stop her from futilely trying to climb over and deliver her impotent wrath onto her own young spawn. The twins and her light brown sister were also uselessly pounding at the plastic wall while screaming their own mean words at their sister, causing her to shed new tears.
Walter’s human mummah face had an unamused look on it, apparently unfazed by Sweet-roll’s frightening rage. Letting go of the green foal after giving her a calming pat on the head, the human mummah made her way towards the pen and stopped in front of the foal’s enraged family members. Leaning down, she flicked Sweet-roll on the nose, causing her to let out an overly dramatic “Skreee!” In response and fall onto her back and let out tears of self pity, luckily missing the pile of chirpy babbehs that she had readily abandoned once she had noticed that one of her least favorite spawn was about to be adopted. With that taken care of, the human mummah then used the same hand to sweep the three bratty foals off of their hooves, sending them spinning into one another until they slammed into a neighboring wall and into a messy pile. While they cried to themselves about superficial bruises that didn’t even go beyond the skin, the human stood straight up and put her hands on her hips in disapproval.
“Why would I need a bunch of bratty, mean fluffies running around my property, causing all sorts of trouble and destruction, as well as demanding things that they don’t deserve, when I could have a kind, sweet foal who would listen and do as I say? You guys have proven to me that you’re nothing more than a bunch of shit-rats who wouldn’t even bat an eye at harming their own family member if it meant that you would get what you wanted. Shame on all of you for being so selfish and cruel to your own sister!”, the human harshly scolded them, raising a hand and wagging her finger at them in disappointment, causing the entire older litter to start crying, distressing the younger litter and making them cry as well. Though she felt that so much loud crying was grating to her ears, the green foal couldn’t help but perk up at the wording used by the human.
“Nice wady choose poopie babbeh? take bad babbeh wiff 'ou to new housie?”, the foal asked in wonder as she looked up at the woman with sparkling eyes before looking back towards Walter, who also shared her excited expression.
“That’s right, you adorable ball of fluff! Since Walter seems to have taken such a shining to you and vice versa, I would be dishonored as a mother to ignore such obvious signs.”, she happily stated with a wide grin on her face as she walked away from the pen and back towards the two fluffies in order to pick them up and walk towards a cash register. As the foal started to smile and wipe away her tears with her fur, however, she noticed a tired male human in an employee uniform making his way towards them with a glazed look in his eyes.
“Alright, alright, what is the problem this time Swee-oh! Hello there, what seems to be the issue?”, the man perked up when he finally realized that a customer and her fluffy was in front of him. His blue eyes settled for a moment on the green foal, causing her to tense up and shake slightly; they just as quickly looked away from her and focused on the human mummah, however, when she spoke again.
“Oh, nothing’s wrong. I was just telling the rest of the family that I was only taking their green sister with me!”, she nonchalantly stated, easily lying to the man who could’ve cared less than if she had told him the truth. Though the foal hated lying to those that could get her into trouble, she held her tongue since her family had clearly burned the bridge between them. The man harshly sucked in air between his teeth, obviously not liking what he had to tell her.
“Sorry, no can do ma’am. Sweet-roll and her broods are in a ‘no-separation’ pen, so you’ll have to buy the whole family if you want to get the green one.”, the man explained, tapping a rectangular label stuck to one corner of the pen’s wall with a pointer that he had been carrying for some reason. Though the green foal couldn’t tell what it said, due to never being taught the human alphabet by anyone, it was enough to get the human mummah agitated.
“No-separation pens?! This is the first I’ve heard of something like this being implemented.”, she angrily stated with a heavy frown on her face and her brows furrowed. The employee gains an apologetic look on his face as he continued speaking.
“I’m not surprised that you haven’t. They’re a recent change that is meant to not only prevent problematic behavior development from occurring due to separation from other fluffies, but also to discourage purchases from abusers, who give establishments such as this a bad reputation that discourages potential buyers from entering the premises by upping the price.”, he explained while using the pointer to tap on a specific point of the label, which the foal once again couldn’t tell what it said due to not being taught the written language.
“I can see the logic behind that; those abusers tend to want to spend as little money as possible when getting their next victims. That’s the big reason why Sensitive Babbehs are not as cheap as before. A $154.98, though? That’s a bit much for those colors, even from a chain store.”, the human mummah questioned skeptically with a raised eyebrow, which the green foal did not get. Why does it matter how much green leafs it takes to get a fluffy, when you’re getting a new bestest friend for life?! She could never wrap her head around the concept of ‘money’ whenever one of the employees complained about their meager ‘paychecks’, whatever those were.
“Well, Sweet-roll comes from a long line of alicorns, with most of her siblings being one as well; a few of her past litters have even consisted entirely of alicorns. Look, I can see that you’re hesitant on buying the whole family just to get the green one due to the price, but I have something else to offer you: the store is currently offering a discount of 50 percent on groups/families that have more than eight members, with an extra discount of 20 dollars if they have two litters. That means that you’ll only have to pay $57.50 for the whole group. Does that sound reasonable for you, ma’am?”, the employee asked with an outstretched hand, showing that he was willing to come to an agreement with her.
The human mummah’s face showed some hesitancy, with her eyes darting from the green foal and Walter and back towards the foal’s family, causing her to let out a small whimper at the thought of being rejected with Walter giving a reassuring squeeze in response. Eventually, however, the human mummah gave a look of defeat before responding.
“I guess I have no other option, unless I want to deal with a very unhappy adult fluffy on my hands. On that note, do you have a couple carriers that I can use? I rather not juggle a mother, an infant litter, and an unruly brood with just my bare hands.”, she asked him, which was ignored by her confirmation of her taking the entire family home with her.
Amongst the family not currently on their back or in a pile crying, and those who were old enough to comprehend what the human mummah had just stated, they were loudly celebrating amongst themselves at the thought of getting a new home to live in and explore. They constantly talked about how they would get to play with new toys, sleep with new blankets and beds, get new nummies to eat, and other nonsense that only they could understand; even the currently crying ones were slowly comprehending the fact that they were going to get a new home, and were internally celebrating. Even the odd brothers were celebrating in their own, more subdued way. All of were celebrating, with the exception of the green foal.
Despite getting what she had always hoped for, the foal felt that the taste of a dream come true was soured by the prospect of her family coming with them as well. In her mind, they have made it abundantly clear on how they viewed their own offspring and sister, respectively. Not only would she have to deal with the same bullying as before, but she would now have to experience it in an unknown environment with only a single, unknown human mare to keep the peace and mete out punishment as she saw fit on an unknown set of rules.
The worst part about this, in the foal’s view, was that it meant that she would have to share Walter with the others, especially her biological mother. Though she was young, and focused largely on the hatred focused on her earlier, the green foal could not miss the brief glimpses of lust in Sweet-roll’s eyes whenever she flicked her amethyst eyes onto Walter moments ago. The thought of the foal having to share Walter with that demon of a mother caused her to be filled with jealousy and caused her to tighten her grip onto Walter’s fluff in anger.
Walter was hers, and hers alone. She would make sure of that.
