Bluebell stirred awake, slowly her eyes adjusted to the low morning light peeking in through the window, the familiar grey concrete walls of her home came into view and she felt the cause of her stirring softly smecking away at her teats.
“Heh heh, hewwo nyu babbehs.”
The dark blue Pegasus mare with a violet mane turned over to allow the litter better access to her milk, she giggled as their soft fuzz tickled her. As they took turns suckling, Bluebell took a moment to count them all, three and two babbehs, one less than last time but she had gotten used to varying numbers from day to day.
Still though, she glanced around the room just to be sure.
Once satisfied that none of the babbehs had wandered off, Bluebell took one of the full foals and gently hugged them to allow their siblings to feed as well. All five of the babbehs were not-pretty colours, dull browns, drab greys, the one in her arms was a sickly green colour, with a dishwater brown mane. Part of her missed the pretty colours of her last litter, but she knew it wasn’t the babbehs fault.
“Babbehs wub mummah, mummah wub babbehs, aww babbehs am pwetty, yeh dey awe.”
It was a few hours later when Bluebell finally had a visitor, through the big glass wall of her home she saw Dr Goodman approaching her door, she smiled and waved as he opened the door and stepped inside.
“Hewwo Doctah Gudmin, Bwoobeh hab nyu babbehs wast dawk-time.”
“I can see that, good job. Where there any issues with the birthing?”
Bluebell proudly shook her head. “Nu, Bwoobeh nu eben feew babbehs come out of speciaw-pwace. An dey aww am dwy an cwean an pwetty wen Bwoobeh find dem tuu.”
Dr Goodman smiled at her and wrote somethings down on his clipboard. He then refilled Bluebell’s kibble bowl with the green nummie bag before crouching down beside her while she lay wrapped around her resting foals.
“Not as pretty as the last batch are they?”
“Nu, bu babbehs am stiww gud babbehs, nu dem fauwt dey nu pwetty. Maybe deiw daddeh am hab nu pwetty Fwuff tuu.”
Dr Goodman glanced down at his clipboard. “No, it’s not their father who’s the issue?”
“Du Doctah Gudmin knyo babbeh’s daddeh? Can Bwoobeh meet him?”
“Now Bluebell, you know the rules, you can have as many foals as you want, but you can’t meet any of the other Fluffies. The mares would be so jealous that you have so many easy births without hurties or bad poopies, and all the stallions would see what a loving, wonderful mother you are and would hurt each other trying to make you their special-friend. You don’t want that to happene now do you?”
Bluebell’s ears drooped. “Nu Doctoh Gudmin. Bwoobeh jus… jus wittew wonewy.”
“You have your babies don’t you?”
“Yeh, an Bwoobeh wub babbehs, wub aww da babbehs Bwoobeh eba hab, but neba hab speciaw-fwiend, neba hab weguwah fwiend. Bwoobeh jus wan pway wiv Fwuffies wike hew fow wunce.”
Dr Goodman glanced down at his clip board again before smiling at Bluebell. “Tell you what Bluebell, you let me finish off some work, and I’ll come play with you for a little bit. I’ll even bring you some spaghetti for your dinner.”
Bluebell gasped. “Sketti dinnah?! An pwaytime? Fank yu Doctah Gudmin.”
“You’re welcome Bluebell, and thank you for being such a good mummah.”
Dr Goodman scratched Bluebell’s ear before leaving her to tend to her babbehs. Bluebell kept a happy smile up the rest of the day, eagerly awaiting her playtime with Dr Goodman.
It was a few days later when Bluebell was awoken once again by light smecking at her teats, the blue bare was confused since she was sure she fed her babbehs before they went to sleep, but when she opened her eyes to see what had them all so boisterous, she saw three entirely new babbehs laying beside her.
“Nyu babbehs awweady? Dat am qwick.”
The three babbehs she had just birthed were all Alicorns, and all very pretty, she had had Alicorn foals before but never a full litter, she knew Dr Goodman would be so pleased with her. The foals were two fillies and a colt, one filly was bright yellow, the other a soft rose pink, while the colt was a simmering, shining green, she took the colt first to feed him.
“Hew yu awe babbeh, dwink wots of miwkies, be big an stwong tu pwotek sissies.”
As Bluebell picked up the colt, she saw him wince at her touch, confused she looked over him and saw a nasty bruise on one of his legs, like someone had given him some awful sorry-hoofies.
“Oh babbeh, whu gib yu huwties? Nu fink sissies gib bwudda huwties, maybe Bwoobeh du bu nu mean tu. Pwease nu hate mummah babbeh, mummah pwomise neba gib huwties gain.”
With tender huggies and sweet milkies, the newborn colt soon forgot all about the bruise on his leg, or how he came to have it at all.
“Gud bwite-time Doctah Gudmin, how am fings?”
“Things are good Bluebell, thank you for asking. How are your foals today?”
“Hab nyu babbehs nyo Doctah Gudmin, dey aww wingie-pointy babbehs tuu.”
“Are they now, how very lucky you are? Are they doing well.”
“Babbehs am gud, gween babbehs hab huwties on weggie, nu knyo how he hab dat, fink Bwoobeh gib him huwties wen he come out of speciaw-pwace. Nu mean tu huwt babbehs, pwomise.”
Once more, Dr Goodman glanced down at his clipboard, but he quickly looked back up with a smile.
“Oh I wouldn’t worry about that Bluebell, chances are you had nothing to do with hurting him at all. These thing just happen, how is he now?”
“Gween babbeh am gud, fink pinkie babbeh an yewwow babbehs am hungwy, Bwoobeh hab wots of nummies bu nu gib wots of miwkies.”
“Hmm, I see. How about I give you some more and we’ll see what happens.”
“Ok Doctah Gudmin.”
Dr Goodman placed down his clipboard and refilled Bluebell’s kibble bowl from the yellow nummie bag, he then placed it down in front of her and she happily chowed down, only for her face to drop at the bitter taste.
“Aww, it am da yuckie kibbew, can Bwoobeh hab gud nummies pwease?”
“Oh I’m sorry Bluebell, that was all we had. I’ll pick you up some taste kibble before the end of today.”
“Pwease du.”
Reluctantly, Bluebell kept eating the nasty tasting kibble, she wasn’t sure why it tasted so bad, considering how much it looked and smelt like the regular stuff, but something was different about it. As she kept eating though, she felt something in her body start churning, she couldn’t be 100% sure, but it felt like she was making milkies again.
“Wook babbehs, mummah hab miwkies gain, nu mowe tummeh-huwties.”
Dr Goodman chuckled at her enthusiasm and scratched her head. “Attagirl Bluebell, now you make sure to eat all your food and then…”
Suddenly there was a knock on the door, Bluebell and Dr Goodman looked up and saw Dr Kidd peeking his head in, Bluebell didn’t interact with Dr Kidd as much as Dr Goodman, but he seemed friendly enough, although he looked awfully worries about something today.
“Hewwo Doctah Kidd.”
“Uh hey, um… Bluebell. You mind if I borrow Dr Johnso…. I mean Dr Goodman for a moment. We have something… private to discuss.”
Bluebell looked over at Dr Goodman and momentarily saw something angry and frightening cross his face, then she blinked and he was smiling again. “Of course, not a problem. Bluebell you stay here and make sure your babies are all fed and happy now, ok.”
“Ok Doctah Gudmin.”
Dr Goodman stood up and followed Dr Kidd out of Bluebell’s room, the door shut behind them but it didn’t close all the way, meaning Bluebell caught a few parts of their conversation here and there.
“….Candyfloss went into… ve birth abou two ho… killed two before…”
“…surviv…”
“…ut one of the… his leg was… amputate… eed Bluebell to…”
“…too soon… just took her las… get suspic…”
“No opti… foal too valueab…”
“… need to prepare… keep safe until… I’ll switch them after…”
There was a few more words that Bluebell couldn’t make out before Dr Kidd left and Dr Goodman returned.
“Ebewyfing gud Doctah Gudmin?”
“Everything’s good Bluebell, don’t you worry, just a small issue, nothing to worry about. How are the babies doing?”
“Babbehs am gud, aww hab miwkies an biggesh heawt-happies nyo.”
“Good, good. Listen, my work just got cleared up, how about we spend the rest of the day together, since you’ve been feeling so lonely recently.”
“Weawwy? Fank yu Doctah Gudmin, Bwoobeh hab biggesh heawt-happies tu hab Doctah Gudmin as fwiend.”
Dr Goodman chuckled and sat down next to Bluebell as he pulled her blockies closer to them. In the corner of her eye she spotted him glance at his watch but she didn’t think anything of it, it was still a long time before they needed to worry about bedtime just yet.
That night, Bluebell was woken once more, but this time not by babbehs trying to get at her milk, but instead by the soft pained crying of a wounded infant.
Instantly she was awake and looking at her babbehs, it was an entirely new litter now, four of them with only one of them being a wingie-pointy this time. Bluebell was momentarily confused at why she had had so many babbhes in such a short period of time when she noticed the wingie-pointy and her heart dropped.
The wingie pointy colt was missing one of his front legs.
“BABBEH!”
Bluebell grabbed him and gave him all the hugs she could, her eyes brimming with tears as she wondered what kind of horrible thing could’ve happened to hurt her little babbeh like this.
“Huuuhuuu, poow babbeh, neba wun, neba gib huggies. It ok babbeh, mummah am hewe, mummah wub yu.”
The door opened and Dr Goodman walked in, a frantic Bluebell waved him over.
“Doctah Gudmin! Doctah Gudmin! Bwoobeh babbehs nu hab weggie.”
“What? Let me see.”
Bluebell handed the foal over to him. “Bwoobeh nu knyo how babbeh hab huwties, neba eban see him tiww he cwy bout weggie huwties. Huu, am wowstesh mummah.”
Dr Goodman gave the amputated foal a once over before gently passing him back to Bluebell. “Well I can’t see what happened to him, but I think he’s fine. Just give him lot of love and he’ll still be able to run and play with his siblings.”
“We…weawwy? Babbehs can wun an pway tuu?”
“Well he won’t be as fast as the others, but he’ll be otherwise healthy. Plus he’ll have you as a mummah, I think he’ll be just fine.
Bluebell giggled at the compliment and softly rocked the three-legged foal in her arms while she let his brothers and sisters suckle from her. As Bluebell say there cuddling her new babbehs, she spotted movement from the window, she looked up and saw Dr Kidd standing with another Fluffy, he was giving her bad upsies and looked very upset with her as he pointed to Bluebell. The Fluffy was another mare, she looked like she used to be quite pretty with pink Fluff and a white mane, only now she was stained with blood and bruises, and her eyes seemed to be staring quite angrily at Bluebell.
Or was she staring at the three-legged colt? It was hard to tell.
“Doctah Gudmin? Wai am Doctah Kidd angwy at dat Fwuffy?”
“Hmm, oh her. Well Candyfloss was a bad mummah, so Dr Kidd is showing her what a good mummah looks like so she can do better.”
“She wook scawy.”
“Don’t worry, you won’t see her again.”
Dr Goodman motioned to Dr Kidd who turned and took the pink mare away, Bluebell briefly wondered what could make a Fluffy look that angry towards another Fluffy they’d never seen before.
Then the thought left her head and Bluebell never thought about the pink mare ever again, too focused on making sure her new babbehs were as happy and healthy as she could make them. She had lost count of how many babbehs she had had, but she loved every one of them, and she would continue to love every babbehs she ever had.
She would be a good mummah. Forever.
