Part Ten
Sam froze, unable for a moment to process what she’d just heard. Only through force of habit did she pick up the still-bleeding Smokey and start applying the quick-heal gel from the medical kit. Upon being pulled from harm’s way, Smokey began to chirp and cheep, too stressed to form words.
Aqua, upon seeing that Smokey was no longer in her way, quickly dashed towards his bowl of spaghetti; unlike the other foals, she’d gluttonously devoured her own bowl without spending time to savor it, so it was completely empty while the other foals’ bowls were still half full. Aqua promptly dipped her snout into the spaghetti to eat.
Before she could take a single bite, however, Hope cried out a wordless scream of rage and, moving faster than Sam had ever seen a fluffy move, charged forward and kicked Aqua heavily in the side, sending the foal rolling across the floor and eliciting cheeps of pain. Not content with that, however, she stormed over to where the foal lay chirping and started screaming, her voice too strained for any words to be made out.
Sam finally managed to act. Quickly pinning the enraged fluffy down, she pulled Aqua out of harm’s way and carried the two injured foals out of the saferoom, placing Smokey on her couch and Aqua in the sorry box. She wasn’t too concerned about Aqua attacking again, as her front left leg was either dislocated or broken, but she knew Smokey wouldn’t be able to relax if placed too close to his attacker.
Sam was almost overwhelmed with anger and confusion. How had things gone so bad so quickly? She knew with certainty that Hope and Knight wouldn’t have raised one of their foals to believe she was better than the others. On the other hand, she had thought that Hope would never actively seek to harm any of the foals, but there had been a lot of force behind that kick.
Well, first things first, she needed to get the two injured foals treatment. She could work out what she’d do with Hope and Aqua afterwards. It was pretty late, but if she knew Mikhael he’d still be at the clinic, so she grabbed her phone and called, pacing anxiously.
“Hey, Sammy, what’s up?”
“Mik, Aqua just attacked Smokey. She said she was the bestest babbeh and said that he shouldn’t have any food because she said he was a poopie babbeh.”
“Shit. I thought your fluffies weren’t the type to raise a foal like that.”
“They aren’t, Mik, but I’m not done. Hope really hurt Aqua when she kicked her away from Smokey. I don’t know what to do. Aqua’s leg is really messed up, and Smokey has a stab wound in his leg.”
“Don’t move them, if you can avoid it. I’ll be right there. I was closing up for the day anyway. Talk to Hope and see if you can figure out why she reacted so badly. She didn’t seem like the kind of fluffy who would injure her foals, even if they were fighting. I wouldn’t have thought that she would be capable of that.”
With that, Mikhael abruptly ended the call. Sam stormed into the saferoom, still seething with fury.
“What in God’s name was that, Hope? You really hurt Aqua. I don’t understand. I thought you were a good mummah, but first there’s a bestest babbeh and now you hurt one of your own foals?”
“Nu bestest babbeh! Hope nebah ebah wan bestest babbeh! Aww babbehs am gud babbehs!”
“Where did she learn it from, then?”
“Mummah. Smokey towd Sunbeam an bwuddas and sissies ‘bout owd hewd. Say in owd hewd bestest babbeh am pwettiest babbeh an git bestest nummies and huggies. Say owd hewd wewe dummehs, bu’ mebbe Aqua tink Aqua am bestest babbeh. Sunbeam nu nyo, bu’ mummeh nebah towd babbehs dat any babbehs am bestest. Onwy towd babbehs dat aww babbehs am gud babbehs.”
Sam relaxed a little. It did make a little more sense than Hope teaching Aqua that she was the bestest babbeh, only to kick the shit out of her the first time she acted on it. That, and Hope had used her name when denying it, which was a surefire way to tell if a fluffy was being honest.
Still, it didn’t make sense that Aqua would be so affected by such a little thing. Unless she already felt that way and had just learned the words to express it. Sam felt sick thinking about it, about how one of her precious foals could be so selfish and willing to harm the others.
“You still really hurt Aqua. You gave her leg the worst hurties, and now she may even lose it. I understand that you wanted to protect Smokey, but you went too far. Why would you think that was a good thing to do?”
"Befowe Hope wive wif owd hewd, wen Hope wewe a babbeh, Hope wived wif mummah an’ owd hoomin-daddeh. Owd mummah towd gween brudda dat he wewe poopie babbeh and yewwow brudda dat he wewe bestest babbeh. Owd hoomin-daddeh make owd mummah choose if wan bestest babbeh or odda babbehs. Say mummahs nu can hab bestest babbeh an’ odda babbehs, tuu!
“Owd mummah choose bestest babbeh, su owd hoomin-daddeh trew Hope an’ gween brudda an’ blue sissie in nu-smeww-pwetty twash can. Bwudda an’ sissie gu fowebah-sweepies, bu’ owd hewd heaw Hope an hewp.” Hope sobbed as she told her story. “Hope nu wan hab choose if wan keep Aqua or odda babbehs! Dey am gud babbehs, nu deserbe forebah-sweepies! Nu wan babbeh be bestest babbeh, jus’ wan keep aww gud babbehs! PWEASE NU MAKE HOPE CHOOSE!”
What the fuck is WRONG with people?! Sam was appalled. She’d had the normal conversation about how there were no bestest babbehs and that all babbehs were good, but she hadn’t even considered that something like this had been hanging over the poor mare’s head this entire time. No wonder she’d reacted so violently. She’d probably seen Aqua’s words as a death sentence for at least one of her foals.
“Oh, Hope!” Sam cried, holding the sobbing fluffy in her arms. “I promise that I will never make you choose between your babbehs. I’m so sorry, I didn’t know.”
"Hope nu hab choose?
“NO! You’ll never have to choose, I promise!”
“Tank 'ou, mummah! Hope wewe suuu scawed! Tank 'ou fow wetting Hope keep aww babbehs!”
“But Hope,” Sam said, hating what she had to say. Rules were rules, after all. “You still hurt one of your babbehs. You understand that that’s not good. I don’t want to, but I have to punish you. Fluffies who hurt other fluffies get the sorry stick.”
“Hope undastand. Hope nu mind sowwy stick if Hope can keep babbehs.”
“I’ll come back later. Right now I need to take care of Smokey and Aqua. They’re both hurt, but the doctor is coming over and he’ll help them, so don’t be afraid. Still, I can’t let Aqua spend time around the other foals for now, since she hurt her brother, so it might be a while before you see her again.”
With that, Sam stepped out of the saferoom and sat with Smokey, anxiously waiting for Mikhael to arrive.
Part Twelve
I wouldn’t honestly punish Hope. She already went through a trauma from her childhood on top of seeing her adopted son bleeding on the floor.
She already acknowledged doing wrong, punishing her for it might send the wrong message methinks.
Added im bit shock of her reaction time of full blown anger , it was really very traumatic to the poor girl 
Im sure her old owner is some asshole playin mind games on fluffies and this is why Hope was strongly against bestesh.
Added her mother is a dumb shit of a peabrain as a typical fluffy 
You know, I was thinking about that. I’d agree, but I realized something about humans who act that way. Going for “Save your bestest or the others” is in a way enforcing the thought that the bestest is indeed the bestest, as the human refers to it that way. And when confronted with a losing choice, wouldn’t you pick the best one among them?
The mare in this case was forced to make such a choice. Of course, the whole “green baby was poopie” indeed warrants the title dumb shit of a peabrain.
“Time for your punishment, Hope.” (Give a single, half-hearted swing to Hope’s rump) “All done, be more careful next time.”
I still worry of Aqua, she might not be saved anymore as it trigger her ego bs now, im sure she would argue bout why “hurt” her “dummeh mummah” and “ugwy poopie babbeh”.
Would have rung her neck by that time. What her mother did to her by now deserved it, tryin to eat a bowl that its not hers im sure dumb reason cause she is bestesh
As she already intended to or not kill smokey.
Aqua needs to die now because smarty syndrome can’t be cured except in pretty rare headcanons. The owner is just going to suffer if they don’t do this. Aqua will likely kill one or more of the other foals before things are done.
Hope should get one or two swipes with a sorry stick and that should end her punishment.
We’ll just have to see if the owner is an idiot or not.
Hope’s original owner fully intended to make things worse by making her mother choose. It was just another form of psychological abuse. That, and he may or may not have been a hellgremlin breeder trying to ensure that the best baby was as selfish as possible.
I figured as much. Grade A asshole then.
The rules are the fucking rules. That goes for humans and for fluffy as well.