Sorry this is late, got writers block near the end. Hugbox is hard.
Sequel to Bella’s Vacation.
Arrival
Dakota the brown colt with white mane, nervously tapped his hooves together as he sat in the sorry box. He was worried about going back to grandmummah’s house, but Marie, his mummah, assured him everything would be ok. His last memories of the place where he was born were of his fluffy mummah telling him she hated him and that he killed his brothers.
His mummah’s daddeh, Dan, called grandmummah to sort everything out. Dan said that grandmummah said his mummah had given his two newborn bruddahs worstest sorry hoofsies for smelling bad and she tried to keep it secret to protect his mother Marie and the other foals.
Dakota found out that other fluffies didn’t like brown and other dull colored fluffies. While playing in the backyard, he saw an orange fluffy through the cracks in the fence. “Dummy waww! Wewe am speshow fwen, smawty Mandawin wan enfs!” He threatened to give Dakota forever sleepies when he saw his fluff was brown through the cracks.
That didn’t matter though. Mummah loved his fluff color and that was all that mattered. He looked through the bars of the sorry box, he saw his mummah sleeping in the seat next to him in the vroom vroom munstah with a smile on her face. He felt better just seeing her face. He curled up in a ball and went to sleep.
“Alright, we’re here!” The announcement from Dan startled Dakota awake as the car sharply rounded the corner into the long gravel driveway. His mummah let out a squeal of excitement. Dakota stood up uneasily and stretched his stiff legs, trying to maintain balance as the whole car bounced down the unpaved road. “Am hewe? Hewe am gwanmummah’s house?” Marie giggled. “Yep!”
The truck came to a stop and Marie unlatched the door to let Dakota out. She climbed out and waited for Dakota to first jump down off the seat then out of the car door into the fine layer of snow that had fallen the night before. He immediately began to shiver and trot in place to keep his hooves warm.
“Why don’t you go to the bathroom before we go in?” Dan asked Dakota. Dakota took that as an invitation to run off to a bush a void his bowels. He quickly trotted back to then as they were walking up to the house, Dan carrying their bags. The door opened and Grandmummah stepped out smiling at them. “Grandma!” Marie shouted and began to run towards her.
Dakota started galloping as fast as his stubby little legs would take him trying to keep up. ““My two precious babies are growing up!” Grandma kneeled and hugged them both. “Look at you, you’re practically a stallion.” she added, tousling Dakota’s long mane.
“Weawwy? Am stawwion?” Dakota asked. “We’ve been avoiding that word. We don’t want him to get ee-en-effs on the mind.” Dan interrupted. He was secretly concerned that Dakota would begin demanding a special friend and didn’t need a horny stallion waving his meat around his daughter.
Martha booped his nose. “Well, you’re certainly a big colt. By the way. Someone has been missing you.” She reached back and pushed open the door. Three cream-colored fillies tumbled through the door. “Sistahs!” Dakota exclaimed and let go of Grandmummah to give them huggies.
“Dahkowtuh!” Spirit and Ballerina practically tackled him and began rubbing their noses into his fluff taking in his smell they had missed the past few months. They were much bigger and smelled different to him too. Lily struggled to stand after tripping but made her way into the fluffpile that was rapidly approaching critical mass. “Bwubba!” She spat out as she fell onto pile, knocking the wind from Dakota.
Grandma called them all inside out of the cold. “I see you got a new couch.” Dan observed. “Yea, the old one was getting dingey.” Martha replied. “Marie, can you take their bed up to your room?” Pointing at large dog bed sitting at the base of the tree. “Sure grandma! Come on, lets go!” She addressed the puffy herd rubbing up against her legs.
With Marie out of earshot Martha leaned over to Dan. “So, I have some bad news. Before I break it, has she asked about Bella at all?” Dan had a look of concern. “No, she’s practically forgotten about her. Did something happen.” Martha tilted her head and pursed her lips. “Kinda, she tried to run away a few weeks ago. Saw the barbed wire fence and though they were skettis, I was hoping it would heal but she can’t talk no more. I’ve been keeping her in the laundry room where she can’t cause any more problems.”
She lied, she tried running away a few times but always came back begging for nummies and hoping mummah would take her back. Martha happened to overhear Bella plotting to herself and decided to crush her tongue with a pair of pliers. “at cwismus, gunnah teww mummah dat gwandmummah gibe bebbehs sowwy stiwk, gunnah teww mummah dat meanie gwandmummah gib Bewwa bad enfies, gunnah teww mummah gwandmummah am bebbeh nummie munstah. Mummah sabe bewwa fwom gwanmunstah!”
She didn’t so much care that Bella spilled the beans on her actual punishments but wouldn’t abide blatant lies and slander. She had brought the fillies in after a week in the barn, then Bella when the temperature dropped. The fillies learned quickly to respect the rules and were given free reign of the first floor. If not for the occasional scratching on the laundry room door and incoherent grunting, Bella would be completely forgotten by her fillies.
“Well, that’s too bad. But after those mean things she said to Dakota, it’s probably for the best.” He picked up the suitcases again, “I’ll go tell her.” and went upstairs. A while later they all came downstairs. “Bwuddah nu am pway in snowies yewt!?” Marie had them all wearing hoof mittens and little knitted caps to keep their ears warm. “Dad, can we go play outside?” They all bounced excitedly. “Sure. Just make sure they don’t get too cold.”
Marie led them all out the back door. Dakota heard some scratching at a door and almost went to inspect it but had his attention redirected by Marie as she opened the door and called them through. Bella sobbed on the other side of the laundry door, hearing Marie’s voice and only able to huu huu and let out incoherent ‘ouugh’s.
Snow Day
Dakota galloped across the snow. He made sure to turn around and circle his sisters to make sure they kept up. He was much faster than them, but Lily struggled to keep up with even her sisters as she lost balance and tripped repeatedly. “Am wiwwy otay?” Dakota stopped to ask “bwabbeh hawh nuh guh wehgehs. Nuh wisseh tuh bwabbeh!” Her voice slurred. Why was she calling herself baby?
“Am otay, Sistah! Dahkohdah wiww wait fow wiwwy!” He slowed down and walked alongside her as they made they way to a small hill in grandmummah’s giant yard. Marie doubled back to the house and came back with a sled, noticing the fluffies struggling in the snow and pulled them all along to their destination.
At the top of the hill, she had them all get off and sat on the sled. She explained that it was a fun ride, and she would demonstrate first. She pushed off and slid the thirty or so feet down the hill letting out a scream of excitement the entire time. Before trudging back up. “Ok, your turn!” She started placing the fluffies on the sled. Spirit trembled a little. “It’s ok, it’s fun! Just hold on!” And she pushed them down.
Dakota felt the wind rush through his mane, it was faster than he could run and felt so fun. “Weeeeee!” he let out. “Screeeeee!” Spirit let out. As they reached the bottom, mummah was catching up to them and they all climbed out. Spirit made a little puddle of pee on the sled as she stood up. “Oh, I guess no more sledding right now.” Marie said with disappointment.
“Well, ummm, how about a snowball fight?” She scooped up a ball of snow and began packing it together. She sized up the fluffies. “Um, maybe not.” Ballerina looked up at her mummah. “Snowbaww? Am baww? Bawwawinuh wub baww!” Marie set it down on the ground, Ballerina ran up to push it but with a kick smashed it into loose snow again. “Huu huu! Bawawina bwoke baww!” Lily stumbled over and poked at the mush. “Bwabeh nuh bahh?”
Marie was trying to hide her frustration with the fluffies. Despite their thick coats of fluff, they were poorly suited for playing in the snow with humans. “Oh! How about we build a snowman?” She quickly packed some more snowballs and set them down in a row. “Look, push them gently, like this!” and demonstrated how to get the snowballs to grow in size. They all tried with mild success. Lily was too uncoordinated and ended up sinking her hoof into one and getting stuck.
Once they got too big to push with their hooves, they began to push with their heads. Spirit got her horn lodged in her ball and cried to mummah. “Pwease sabe Spiwit! Wowstest thinkie pwace cowd huwties!” As agonizing brain-freeze quickly overwhelmed her. Dakota gave her huggies to make the hurties go away.
Dakota got the largest ball formed, followed by Ballerina, then finally Spirit. Lily tried repeatedly but failed. Meanwhile Marie went to gather rocks and sticks. When she returned she congratulated them all for their hard work and went about stacking the snowballs.
In all, it was only about two and a half feet tall. Marie poked the sticks in for arms, gave it rock eyes and buttons. She ran back to the house and returned with a straw hat and a carrot. She added them, only for Ballerina and Lily to repeatedly try to eat the orange nummie.
Martha called them all back in, as they made it through the door, the warmth of the house quickly hit their fur and they realized how cold they had all gotten. The sudden heat change of her horn caused Spirit to cry out in pain again. “Screeeee! Hown am hab wawm huwties!” A unicorn’s horn had a lot of nerves and blood vessels, and was sensitive to thermal expansion the way teeth were.
Hot cocoa was awaiting mummah and warm runny oats were awaiting the fluffies in a big shiny bowl. They all lapped at it excitedly, Martha had made sure to add extra sugar for them all. Lilly tried drinking too quickly and ended up coughing some up. It was quickly wiped up and she went back to drinking. The stopped shivering and all formed a fluffpile next to a pile of presents on the soft red rug under the tree. They swiftly drifted off to sleep.
Dakota dreamt of playing with his sisters like when they were barely talkie babbies. It was a wonderful dream. They even met one orange and one green fluffy and played with them, pushing a ball around and stacking blocks. Dakota felt a bit empty; he looked around. “Wewe am mummah?” He asked. “bebbeh nu am nuu bwuddah!” The green one said.
He was suddenly woken by a distant clang. He stood up gently, careful not to wake his sisters and tiptoed down the hallway towards the sound. Still drowsy and half asleep, he ended up in front of the door where he had heard scratching before. Something started humming on the other side and he heard tapping of metal. The sound that a jacket zipper made clanging against the inside of a dryer. The door swung open, and Martha stared down at him, startled. “Oh, you’re awake. Let’s get you a treat.”
He looked past her legs into the room. He saw his mummah, sleeping next to the dryer. He recognized it since they had one at home too. They were warm and the noise of it running wasn’t all that scary. The dream returned, and he was in the mental state of being a foal when his mummah still loved him. He cried “Mummah!” and wiggled between Martha’s legs to run over to her.
Bella was slowly roused awake at the noise of him yelling and blinked her eyes open. She opened them just in time to see him tackle her and give her the warmest embrace. She ignored the warmth of the feeling, not acknowledging that he might be the only creature on earth that still remembers and loves her in this moment. He felt hooves pushing him away. “Mummah?” He made eye contact with her and the scowl she was wearing. His memory of her betray came flooding back.
“Uuuhee puhpeh! Aehuu! Aehuu! Wheaaw muhmuh hwom bewwa! Hib huwebah hweebehs!”
*Ugly Poopy! Hatchu! Hatchu! Steal mummah from Bella. Give forever sleepies
Martha scooped Dakota up as Bella raised her hoof to strike him and kicked her in the face. “Bad Bella, trying to hurt your own baby.” She took Dakota to the kitchen as he cried in her arms. “There there Dakota, its ok. Marie and I love you. That’s all that matters.” She stroked his mane as he cried.
She gave him some sketti from a can and asked if he wanted to stay in the kitchen while she made dinner. He agreed to stay and laid down where his old nest used to be. Grandmummah explained that Marie had gone to play with her friend Callie and would be back in time for dinner.
She roasted a chicken, some baked macaroni, and a green bean casserole. She also grabbed a pie out the fridge and tossed it in the oven to reheat. The air near the oven was warm, which Dakota liked. The air inside was warmer than outside but still chilly.
He heard a car door slam and bolted to the front door. Ballerina stirred as his hooves clopped across the floor. “Why am bwuddah wunning?” Mummah was back, he heard her talking to Dan. Dakota sat by the door patiently. “Mummah am back!” Ballerina shuffled over and woke Lily and Spirit in the process. Marie opened the door “Aww! They all waited for me! See dad!”
“Go see if grandma needs help in the kitchen.” Dan responded and she ran off to help. “Hey Dakota. I need to talk to you.” Dakota stepped out the door and Dan knelt down, closing the door behind him. “Hey buddy. Marie was asking about bringing your sisters home with us.” Dakota felt really warm inside at that “Dakohtah wub sistahs! Hab suu much fun pwayin an-” Dan frowned. “That’s not what I mean. We can only take care of one Fluffy.”
Dakota tried to make sense of what mummah’s daddeh was saying. “You see, grandma here really loves you. If we brought one on your sister’s home, you could stay here with your other two sisters. She even said she would get you a special friend.” Dakota’s mind was racing. “Buh, Dakohtah wub mummah. Mummah nuu wub Dakota nuu mowe?” Dan looked into his eyes. “Marie loves you very much, but don’t your sister’s deserve a chance to live with her too?”
Dakota thought for a moment. He really had missed his sisters and thought about how much they must miss mummah too. “Otay, Dakohtah wub sistahs. Nuu cawe ‘bowt speshow fwen. Onwy wan mummah an sistahs tu be happeh. Sistah deswewb huggies and wub fwom mummah tuu.”
“I’m glad you understand. Let’s keep this a secret from Marie and your sisters.” Dan hugged Dakota. “Huu huu huu.” They stayed there for a few minutes while Dakota cried his heart out.
After drying his tears, they went inside and gathered at the table for dinner. The fluffies were too big to all sit on the table any longer and they got plates arranged on the ground between Marie and Martha’s seats. They all had spaghetti and a side of green bean casserole.
Marie looked down at Dakota. “Ready? Remember that it’s Christmas eve!” They took turns saying grace at dinner but from the look of it he was expected to do it again. He thought for a moment, mummah had explained that Christmas was God’s birthday but that they got presents instead.
“Deaw gawd, dank yuu fow bestes nummies, an bestest famiwy, an keep fwuffies wawm in cowd tiems, an pwetty pweasants, an… an bestes mummah ebah. Amen.” Dakota quickly buried his face in his food. He didn’t have an appetite but didn’t want anyone to see his tears.
He finished eating last. After dinner, they all went to the living room and sat around the tree. Everyone opened a present. Dakota’s sisters all got collars with nametags like he had. He got a big red dodgeball. Marie got a doll with a horse that looked like Rusty. She tried to put the saddle and doll on Dakota and his sisters, but they were all too big. Dan got socks that Lily tried to chew on and Martha got a sweater.
Afterwards they had desert, grandma gave them some apple slices, leftover from making the pie. All the fluffies went up to Marie’s room. She let them climb into bed with her instead of laying on their dog bed. It was a three-dog night, and they all needed the warmth. Grandmummah and Dan wished them a good night and a Merry Christmas Eve. Dakota fell asleep with his face buried in his mummah’s hair. He would miss her smell very much. He dreamed of her.
Christmas Day
“Wake up! Wake up! It’s Christmas!” mummah gently shook Dakota. He jerked awake. He saw his sisters running in circles excitedly. “Cwismus! Cwismus!” Lily lost her bearing and ran headfirst into a dresser before falling back on her butt and shaking her head. Marie opened the door and they all scrambled to the stairs. The three fillies, to get to the tree. Dakota, to watch his sisters. Lily was the slowest down the stairs and Dakota stayed one step in front of her to catch her if she tripped.
As they all made it to the front room they saw the tree had a small mountain of presents. “Su many pwetty bwockies!” Ballerina cried out. Marie giggled, “Silly. Those are presents.” To a Fluffy the appearance of random items was not in fact a surprise, nor would they consider that someone was in fact responsible for putting them there. Object permanence was a shaky concept to them, and they would often somehow discover ‘new’ things even if you locked them in an empty padded cell.
“Wuh am peasans?” Lily chirped. Inspecting one wrapped in a minimalist dancing baby pattern “Santa brought them since you were all so good this year!” Marie was happy to share the magic of Christmas with her fluffies but was a bit excited to open her own gifts. She sat down in front of the tree and started grabbing presents. She found one for each fluffy with their names attached and passed them out while her dad found a present for her to open.
They all ripped into them; Marie’s first present was custom Christmas sweater with a picture of Dakota on it. She loved it. Each fluffy got a bag of sketti-treats. Dan opened them and distributed a piece from each bag to the excited biotoys.
The next was a present from grandma. It was a miniature riding saddle that she had a neighbor sew together for Dakota. The three fillies, nearly mares, got foal sized huggy toys. The claims advertised were that the foal dolls would placate a female fluff’s maternal instincts. The fluffies got a few more minor toys, foam blocks, balls, ect. The usual from a Fluffmart bargain shelf and for the average fluffy it was basically just replacing a worn-out toy with a new one.
Marie continued to open her gifts. Mostly clothes but interspersed with things like the new book in young adult series that she was reading, a cowgirl doll that looked like her, and a new laptop for school. The fluffies themselves each got a Christmas onesie to keep them warm on cold nights, Dakota’s was a red flannel pattern while the others got pastels.
She also got a board game, ‘Skettis!’, designed to be played with fluffies with large choke proof foam blocks for dice and brightly colored game pieces. There were oversized waterproof cards that were ninety percent illustration to explain bad things that happened to fluffies that stepped on red squares and good things that happened to fluffies that stepped on green squares, they had zero impact on game progression.
The only choices that mattered was that the path outside was longer with lots of red squares and the picture of the skettis at the end had poop on it and flies circling it. The winner was the one that got the most green cards and the least red cards by the end. It would collect dust in a closet after a few games, but it was worth it to pad the pile of presents.
There were a few large presents remaining, one was a sidecar for Marie’s bike to carry fluffies in. Another was a large fluffbed for multiple fluffies. Finally, Dan invited the fluffies to all work together on the last big one with dancin’ baby wrapping paper. It was an oversized travel crate.
The fluffies were a bit confused. “Am big sowwy bocks?” Spirit asked. She knew well enough about the benevolence of Santa from what had been explained by mummah, grandmummah, and Dan over the course of unwrapping that presents were supposed to be good things.
Dan corrected her. “That’s a travel carrier, so we can take you all home together.” Ballerina perked up at this “Weawy! Fwuffies am gu howm wid mummah an’ bwuddah?” Dakota was reminded of his talk with Dan and became very sad, all his sister’s were leaving to be with mummah. He would be left here alone, he liked grandmummah, but with no mummah or sisters he would be very lonely.
He tried to hide his face. And buried his face into his belly to dry his tears. “Dakota, what’s wrong?” Grandmummah asked. “Nu am wowng. Dakota am onwy sweepy.” He mumbled into his fluff. “Aren’t you excited your sister’s get to go home with you and Marie?” Grandmummah never lied to him. “Weawy, Dahkowtah gu home wid sistuhs?”
Dan chuckled, realizing that Dakota misunderstood the surprise after his test for Dakota the day before. “That’s right buddy, you’re all coming home with us! We can’t force grandma to watch you all forever!” He had gotten a raise at work and could finally afford to take care of them all, he looked over at Marie who was obviously excited for this announcement too and hugging the mares a bit too tightly.
Dakota sprung up and joined the hugpile, tears of happiness replacing the ones of sadness. “Am suu manneh heawt happies!”
They all played together and with their board game before going back out in the snow, now wearing their onesies, to make more snowmen and get pulled around on the sled.
Grandmummah made them skettis for lunch and dinner while she, mummah, and Dan all had fancy people food. Grandma disappeared into the laundry room from time to time, but they didn’t pay any mind. They all gathered around the table for dinner. Marie said the prayer this time, thankful for among many things that she could show Dakota’s sisters their house.
Another night came and Dakota went to sleep in their new fluffbed. With his sisters, it was very warm, and they didn’t even mind that they weren’t in the warm bed with mummah. The next morning Dan got them all together in the travel crate. Dakota was babbling to his sisters about all the cool things mummah’s house had. Things this house had too, but they were better because it was mummah’s house.
They all drove home with a trunk full of new presents happy to be reunited as one big happy family.
Epilogues:
Bella
Bella awoke to the sounds of her mummah and shouting foals in the other room. She scratched on the door and tried to call out for a bit but knew it was hopeless that Marie would hear her let alone recognize her guttural cries.
She turned around to return to her sleeping spot only to see a large red present sitting next to where she was sleeping. She was surprised and a bit scared. She sniffed at it and recognized something familiar. She tore at it only to find her old fluff bed inside.
She felt a few tears form, it smelled like Marie’s room. She climbed inside and rubbed her face all over it to take in the smell. She missed this bed a lot, all she had to sleep on in this house were towels.
Dan had decided to wrap up all her old stuff that had been sitting unused since they traded her in for Dakota. A few more presents sat on top of the dryer for her that she would eventually receive. For now, she went back to sleep taking in the smell of mummah.
Grandma brought her a slurry of warm skettis to slurp down. The next few days she was nicer and brought more good nummies. The house got quieter, and she no longer heard her foals. She only got up to eat or use the litterbox. She spent her isolation laying in her bed daydreaming of mummah.
Cindy
Cindy banged on the door of her ex-husband’s house. “Let me in bastard! I want to see my daughter!” Oblivious to the lack of car in the driveway or lights inside. She had two presents tucked under each arm and a lethal dose, for anyone except an addict, of amphetamines mixed with other substances in her blood.
One present was for Marie, the other for Bella. Cindy thought she had found the best presents for her daughter in the week before Christmas having panicked and selling some stolen wiring for scrap, she scrounged thrift shops and Chinese dollar stores after discovering the hottest toys of the season had sold out over a month ago.
She saved so much shopping this way that she spent the rest with her dealer and was enjoying her own Christmas present to herself. If only her flip phone wasn’t broken, and she had listened to the message from Dan saying he was at her mother’s farm for Christmas.
The first was a rodeo cowgirl doll set complete with a large plastic horse with riding gear. She had heard her daughter on her birthday talk about Dakota and figured she could cannibalize the riding accessories and obstacles for Bella’s foal. She hadn’t taken the effort to size up a fluffy and the doll set, if put on a fluffy would be too small and injure it. She was also oblivious to the fact that Marie didn’t have Bella anymore.
The second was a large makeup set for fluffies complete with a doll sized vanity, designed so that fluffies could imitate child owners. This was chosen for Bella. Hasbio officially advocated against the use of cosmetics on fluffies due to irritation and discontinued their own set a few years ago. This was a Chinese knock off with makeup that was toxic to ingest. Somewhere on the box was a warning instructing it to be used under parental supervision that most buyers would ignore resulting in many emergency vet trips before New Years Eve.
After a few minutes of yelling and banging she experienced enough lucidity to realize they usually spent Christmas at the farm and last year was an exception. She stumbled out into the street and slipped on a frozen puddle. She decided the pavement was soft enough and went to sleep. A patrolling police car responding to a noise complaint found her splayed in the middle of the road. The officers made sure she had a warm bed on Christmas.
