That’s a hell of a lot of questions. I’m going to do my best to answer, even though my brain is fried right now.
- Most mummahs wouldn’t use the term “bestest babbeh” to describe any one foal. I tend to think of it as a generic term to describe their ideal for the whole litter (e.g., “Sketties am bestest nummies. If mummah num bestest nummies, den mummah make bestest miwkies fow bestest babbehs!”) A mummah might use the term to describe a foal that shares its color, but I don’t see where there would be much favoritism shown outside of a conditioned mill setting.
- Fluffies are idiots, so a foal would probably be better off being hand-raised by a caring human. That being said, the foal would need to be taken before its eyes open or after weaning to minimize trauma.
- (a) not very, outside of a mill setting (or a particularly spoiled-ass mare. (b) No. They might adopt another foal/litter, but they wouldn’t abandon their own foals just because they were ugly (same caveats apply here as in (a)).
- Protective? Mostly, though results may vary. Abject terror may be a common cause for parental abandonment. Responsible? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
- Yep. At least, this was a stated reason in Soon-Mummah Specials.
- [100% pure, undistilled headcanon] “BABIES”, like most other original FluffTV programming, was intended to be pure marketing and entertainment. Of course, the end result was the triggering of maternal urges among domestic mares (whether or not the showrunners and sponsors intended this was unknown), and the deluge of complaints resulted in a smattering of “educational” content intended to show how hard it is to responsibly raise a litter was included.
As with everything else in this fandom, your mileage may vary.