“Daddeh? Whewe babbehs?”
Simon sighed as his Fluffy Bluebell asked the same question she had asked a thousand times a day for the last three days. And he gave the same answer he had given her thousand times over.
“Bluebell, you don’t have any babies.”
“Bu Bwoobeh hab biggesh poopies, dat am babbeh feewin.”
“No, you just had a big poop, remember how the vet said you were constipated. It was just poop, not babies.”
“Babbehs nu am poopies daddeh, Bwoobeh wan babbehs bak.”
Simon rolled his eyes and kept on driving, ignoring her whining from her cage in the backseat, until last week he didn’t believe Fluffies could get constipated but he just so happened to get the one who could. A minor complication when she was spayed as a filly had left a dent in her intestinal walls, narrowing the passage, a good diet of milk and kibble hadn’t done enough to cause any concern but a Birthday dinner of fattening spaghetti was enough to cause the blockage, leading to the issues.
Of course, even discounting Bluebell’s currently infertile condition, she hadn’t even had special-huggies yet to make babbehhs. Bluebell tried to argue that the very nice hugs she got from neighbouring stallion Tiger – a gelding who also lacked the necessary parts for child making – were special enough to put babbehs in her tummy. By now Simon was just cutting his losses and stopped trying to convince her otherwise.
They arrived at the daycare right on time, Simon rushed out to hand Bluebell’s cage to the attendant Hillary already waiting for them.
“Mr Mullen, good to see you. And you too Bluebell, how are you today?”
“Huu, nu hab babbehs, daddeh weave babbehs behin.”
Hillary and the daycare staff had already been warned about Bluebell’s little incident and were ready to deal with her as best they could.
“Bluebell, your daddy tells us you don’t have any babies, you just had a little tummy problem. But don’t worry, we need some help in the nursey so you can spend all day with the babies if you want.”
“Weawwy? Bwoobeh be wiv babbehs aww bwite-time?”
“That’s right, you fancy giving us a hand, or a hoof even.”
Bluebell’s enthusiastic nodding sent Hillary into a giggle fit as she passed the blue and white mare to her assistant Maxine before turning back to Simon to sign her in.
“Thank you.” Simon smiled at her. “She’s been on about her foals ever since we came home from the vets, I just don’t know how to convince her anymore.”
“It’s fine Mr Muldoon, we’ve seen things like this before, Fluffy imagination is a wonderful thing, but it can also be dangerous if not handled correctly. We’ll let her play nurse for the newborns for a little while, let her get the excitement out of her system, then we’ll try to distract her with something new, we just received a new Fluffy-Safe Swing-Set from Charles Mulberry, that should entertain her enough to forget about non-existent foals.”
“Here’s hoping, ok I’ll see you at 5.”
“See you then Mr Muldoon.”
Simon gave Hillary a quick nod goodbye before rushing off to work, hoping that the Daycare would be better prepared for Bluebell than he was.
The first two things Bluebell noted about the nursery wing was the sounds and the smells, the whole ward was awash with the sound of suckling, you could barely hear the happy Mummah Songs over the sounds of foals both chirpy and talkie suckling away at their warm mummah’s milk. It also stunk to high hells of liquid shit, Bluebell felt her sensitive eyes start to water and the stench beginning to cling to her deep blue Fluff.”
“Nu smeww pwetty.” She whine in Maxine’s arms.
Maxine, surprisingly, laughed. “Ha, yeah it’s not nice in here, but it’s a necessary evil to keep the little ones safe, can’t have them running around with heavy blocks or runaway balls now can we?”
Bluebell shook her head, now suddenly realising how dangerous playtime could be for a babbeh.
“Now thankfully our job is fairly simple, we just need to keep everyone together. You see how everyone has their own little pod?”
Bluebell looked up and down the room, each mother and her litter was situated in their own personal space, looking like a cross between a tiny Fluffy sized tent and a dog-house, each with a bed, a blanket, and bowls for food and water.
Maxine continues. “What we need you to do is patrol the walkways, and make sure that no baby goes exploring, they all need to stay in their pod with their mother because it’s not safe out here for babies. Also keep an eye on food and water and if anyone is getting too low, you let us know, ok.”
“Ok miss Mak-een. Bwoobeh be gud wowkah.”
“Attagirl.”
Maxine placed Bluebell on the laminate floor and immediately she got to work, she zigzagged from pod to pod, making sure that all foals were kept inside their housing unit and each family had their supplies in place. It wasn’t long before she found a tiny red colt, no more than a day or two old, blindly crawling his way out of his pod.
Gently Bluebell nudged him back inside with her nose. “Nu babbeh, mummah am dat way.”
The colt, likely not really understanding what she was saying, following the direction he had been pushed in until he felt his sleeping mother’s familiar warmth.
“Good job Bluebell, you’re a natural at this.”
“Fank yu miss Mak-een.”
Over the next hour or so, Bluebell carried out her work diligently, over the sounds of deafening suckling her voice could be heard saying ‘Wong way babbeh’ or ‘Nummies hewe miss Mak-een’. It was a gentle and happy day for Bluebell, but every so often she would see a foal giving their mother a gigantic hug and she couldn’t help but think of her own babbehs.
She didn’t even know what they looked like, daddy had taken her from the vet so quickly she never even got the chance to see them, maybe daddy didn’t get the chance to see them either which is why he didn’t believe her when she told him about them. She just needed to convince him to go back to the vet to find them.
All of a sudden, Bluebell’s work was interrupted by Hillary rushing through the door, a look of worry and annoyance of her face.
“Max, we got a problem. Clipper and Johnson got into a fight again and one of them shit… one of them pooped all over the lunch bowls. We need clean-up and feeding done stat to prevent a riot breaking out.”
“Damn, alright I’ll be there in a moment. Bluebell, you’ll be on your own for a little while, but I promise I’ll be back as soon as I can. Don’t worry about food and water, just keep everyone safe until I’m back.”
“Ok miss Mak-een.”
Maxine rushed off to join Hillary and assist with the clean-up, leaving Bluebell alone as the sole authority within the nursery. She couldn’t help but feel… iffy, worried about the whole thing, after all she was one mare and the mummahs and foals were… more than one.
No, no she knew she could do this by herself, she’d done so well so far, and she wouldn’t be alone for too many forever, Miss Maxine would return at some point.
Confident in her abilities, Bluebell returned to patrolling, making sure every foal remained with their mother and everyone was safe and happy. She happily wandered up and down the aisles, gently pushing chirpy foals and talkie babbehs back into their nest for several more minutes until…
She saw her.
It was so quickly she almost missed her, but Bluebell just caught sight of a chirpy filly blindly pulling herself out of her pod as she explored the world around her.
A filly with near enough the same blue Fluff as Bluebell.
Ok, not the EXACT same, this filly has small pieces of shimmer and sparkle in her Fluff, but that just proved it even more to Bluebell, this HAD to be her babbeh, they were the same colour AND only her babbeh would be this pretty.
“Hewwo babbeh, wai yu git su wost. Nu hab wowwies, mummah hewe nyo.”
Bluebell carefully lifted the filly up with her teeth, the foal’s actual mother too sleepy to notice the abduction, and carried her over to a small bedding area Maxine set up for Bluebell to rest.
“It ok babbeh, mummah hab yu. Hab biggesh wowwies, fink yuh ab wowstesh huwties.”
The filly shivered and cried, the unfamiliar sounds coming from this unfamiliar smell was making her worried.
“Wha wong babbeh? Yu hab hungwies? Mummah hab miwkies fow yu.”
Bluebell lowered the filly and placed her against her non-existent teat. The filly shook her head, not wanting to put this dry, milk-less nipple into her mouth, it didn’t smell good, it didn’t taste good, she wanted real milkies, she wanted her mummah.
“Wai babbeh nu hab miwkies, pwease babbeh, mummah nu wan yuh ab tummeh-huwties.”
‘Peep peep chirp’
The filly made the first sounds of her very young life as she cried out from fear as Bluebell pushed harder, pressing the soft and fragile filly against her solid adult body. The filly kept chirping and wailing until eventually….
CRACK
She didn’t make a noise again.
Bluebell looked down at the filly, wondering why she had stopped making so much noise. “Babbeh? Wha wong?”
She lifted the foal up and examined her, the filly’s eyes were half closed and glassed over, her tongue was dropping lifeless out of her open mouth and her head rolled loosely with a sickening crick every time her broken spine rubbed against itself. It could only mean one thing.
“Siwwy babbeh, hab sweepies befowe miwkies. Dat ok, mummah gib yu miwkies wen yu wakies.”
Bluebell laughed and placed the ‘sleeping’ filly onto her bed, satisfied that she’d found one of her children, Bluebell set off to find the others, surely they would all be together, that just made sense to her.
Now actively looking for foals, it wasn’t long before Bluebell found two of ‘her’ sons, both nestled in the Fluff-pile of their fake mother. One colt was blue, though a lighten, more turquoise shade than Bluebell, the other was bright orange, just like his father Tigger she thought. She took the two of them out of the pile, which immediately set them both off in a chirping fit.
‘Chirp peep, peep peep chirp.’
“Nu be woud babbehs, nu wan gib udda babbehs wakies.”
The purple mare that had mistaken herself as the two colt’s mother was slowly stirred by the chirping, half asleep she looked around the nest just as Bluebell carried the foals away.
“Babbehs? Am ok?”
Unable to make out all of her foals from her blurry eyes, the mare took the silence to mean everything was fine and went back to sleep.
Bluebell carried the two foals back to her bedding area and excitedly showed them off to the filly.
“Wook babbeh, mummah find yuw bwuddas.”
The dead filly remained silent.
Bluebell didn’t notice and happily set herself up to feed the two new foal in her life, both of them just as restless as the other as they cried and tried to escape this unknown entity that had taken them away from their mother’s warmth.
“Ooh, babbehs mus be hungwy, nu be siwwy babbehs, mummah hab miwkies wight here.”
With a hoof pressed to each of their necks, Bluebell smothered the two colts against her breasts, the loose flesh of empty teats enveloped both foals, creating an air seal around both their mouth which slowly began to suffocate them.
Bluebell remained unaware of her actions, happily humming a mummah song as she kept her sons against her teats, letting them drink their fill.
She couldn’t hear their frantic cries being muffled by her skin, she mistook their terrified flailing as happy dancing, she didn’t even know she was killing them and with a massive smile on her face.
It wasn’t long before both colts stopped waving their arms and went silent, Bluebell peeled them both off of her teats and examined them, the turquoise colt’s mouth was wide open, nearly cracked in two from being forced against Bluebell’s body. The orange colt’s eyes were wide, lifeless and severely bloodshot, in his terror he had ripped his eyelids open before they were ready, instantly blinding himself before his eyes were ready for light.
Bluebell giggled at the sight.
“Siwwy babbeh, how yu gu sweepies wiv see-pwace open. Make mummah hab gud waughies.”
The delusional mare placed the two colts beside their ‘sister’ and trotted off to find more of her children. And unfortunately she found them.
For the next 20 minutes, Bluebell recovered 12 of ‘her children’, carefully picking up any foal she thought looked even slightly like her – and a few that were clearly too pretty to NOT be her foals – and taking them back to her bedding area where she would ‘feed’ them until they fell asleep and place them in a Fluffpile with their siblings.
Bluebell was so proud of herself, she had so many babbehs and they were all so well behaved, so quiet and friendly to each other, and they all knew how to share properly, Bluebell hadn’t yet needed to eat any kibble to refill her milk, all of her babbehs knew exactly how much they needed and no more.
“Mummah wub bestesh babbehs, aww su nice and pehfik.”
A fly landed on the glassy eye of the blue filly, Bluebell shooed it away. “Gu way buzzie fwiend, weave babbeh awone.”
Knowing she must have more foals out there somewhere, Bluebell set off to find them, she didn’t know how many foals she would end up with, but she figured she would know in her heart once she had them all returned to her. It didn’t take long before she found her next babbeh, a small white filly nestled in with a red mare, this filly looked to be a little bit older than the other foals, already a Talkie Babbeh, but Bluebell reasoned that she was probably born first and therefore was older than the other foals.
“Come on babbeh, mummah am hewe nyo.”
Bluebell tried to lift the white filly out of the pod, but the extra weight of the older foal made it a harder task than previous attempts, and pretty soon Bluebell’s actions had woken both the foal and her mother.
“Wha… mu…mummah? MUMMAH!?”
“It ok babbeh, mummah am hewe nyo, mummah sabe yu.”
“YU NU AM MUMMAH, GU WAY!”
The red mare stomped her hoofs down in front of the filly, protecting her young from this intruder.
“Yu gib babbehs wowstesh scawdies, wai yu hewe.”
“Dat am Bwoonbeh’s babbeh, Bwoobeh take babbeh bak tu nestie.”
The red mare stared confused at Bluebell. “Bu… dat am Toowips babbeh.”
“Nu, am Bwoobeh’s babbeh, Bwoobeh knyo babbehs wen see dem. Gib babbeh bak.”
“NU! Am Toowip’s babbeh, hab same pwetty Fwuffy, wook.”
Bluebell looked closer and saw that both Tulip and the filly had the same colouration, the mare was red with a white underbelly and the filly was white with a red underbelly, both colours the same shade across both Fluffies. Bluebell was silent for the longest time as her brain tried to make sense of what she was seeing.
Then she suddenly slammed her hoof into Tulip’s nose.
“YU GIB BABBEH HUWTIES, YU AM WOWSTESH MAWE!”
Tulip was too shocked and distracted by her hurt nose to see Bluebell take her white daughter out of the pod and back to her bedding. By now the commotion had woken up the other mares from their after-breakfast nap as one by one they all looked over to see what was happening.
And one by one, a group of them started to wonder aloud why they had less babies in their nest than before they went to sleep.
“Babbeh? Whewe babbeh?”
“Babbeh come bak, mummah nu wike dis gamesie.”
“Joween wose babbehs, Joween am wowstesh mummah eba.”
Bluebell dragged the white filly back to her bed, a harder fight with an older foal as she kept trying to escape and run back to Tulip. Eventually she stopped and whacked the filly on the top of her head.
“Bad babbeh, nu be meanie to mummah.”
“Yu nu am mummah, huuuhuuuu, babbeh wan weaw mummah bak.”
Bluebell rolled her eyes, there was just no getting through to some people. She kept pushing and pulling the filly closer to the bed to join her ‘sibling’, and at the sight of them all, the filly screamed.
“NUUUU!!! BABBEHS AM FOWEBA SWEEPIES! YU AM MUNSTAH!”
“Nu be siwwy babbeh, dem am yuw bwuddas an sissies, dey jus habben gud sweepies. Gu hab sweepies wiv dem.”
“DEY AM FOWEBA SWEEPIES, WAI MUNSTAH MAWE HUWT BABBEHS!”
A small crowd of mares were gathering, none of them had put two and two together yet to realise what had happened, but the cries of dead babbehs had them all worried at what was going on. Tulip could hear her daughter, but the blood running out of her broken nose was too much for her to start running off to find her.
Unaware of the crowd, Bluebell grew more annoyed with the white filly. “Yu am bad babbeh, nu wub bwuddas an sissies, mummah nu wub yu nu mowe.”
“PWEASE NU HUWT BABBEH, BABBEH JUS WAN MUMMAH!”
“Bwoobeh AM yuw mummah, dummeh!”
With a hefty swipe, Bluebell smacked the filly in the back of the head, the young foal went flying forward, cracking her face against the solid flooring and remaining still forever more.
“Nyo say yu am sowwy tu yuw bwuddas an sissies, dey aww wub yu.”
The white filly did not move, a small trickle of blood started to pool out of her broken face, Bluebell snorted at the mean filly.
“Bad babbeh, mummah nu wub yu aneemowe.”
As she turned away from the white filly, Bluebell noticed the crowd of mares for the first time, she was taken aback at first but she soon rationalised that they were all in a stunned silence by her perfect parenting. In truth, all of them were shocked at what they had just witnessed, none of them smart enough to realise that the white filly was dead yet, but they all knew something very wrong had just occurred.
At that moment, the door opened and Maxine returned. “Hey guys, sorry that took so long, what’s going on her….”
Maxine could feel the tension in the room as she saw every mare in the nursery frozen in fear at what was occurring at the front of the room. Maxine looked up and saw Bluebell smiling and waving at her.
“Miss Mak-een wook! Bwoobeh find hew babbehs.”
The colour drained out of Maxine’s face as she saw what was surrounding Bluebell, on one side a substantial pile of dead chirpies, some already starting to rot as flies began to encircle them. On the other side, a white filly with a pool of blood growing from out of her broken face, as dead and unmoving as the chirpy pile.
Maxine’s bad day had just gotten worse, and unlike the poop incident, no-one was coming out of this one clean.
“Oh shit.”
.
First I though she was recovering until that foal because “fluffy brain shit” thinks its hers and everything went down hill 