“Hey Glitter, I want to play hide-and-seek!” Amy said to her pet fluffy pony, a fuschia unicorn mare.
“Wha ‘hidey-seekies’?” Glitter asked.
“It’s a really fun game! I’ll count to ten, and you go hide, then I have to find you! If I can’t find you, then you win!”
“Ooh! Gwittah un’a’stan!” Glitter said. This game sounded easy!
“Okay Glitter, go hide.” Amy said, covering her eyes. “One, two, three…”
But Glitter had already hidden. She had plopped down on her belly and covered her eyes with her hooves. Nobody could find her now!
“…nine, ten! Ready or not, here I- …uh, Glitter?”
Glitter snickered, barely able to contain herself. She was a genius!
Then, suddenly, she felt something on her back.
“EEP! Munst-”
She looked, and saw it was just Amy, petting her neon pink fluff.
“Glitter, you have to hide, remember? I’m the one who counts.” She said softly.
“Buh… buh Gwittah was hidin’!” Glitter insisted. How had Amy managed to find her so fast?! If Glitter couldn’t see Amy, then Amy couldn’t see Glitter! That was just 'LODGE-ICK’I!!!
“Oh, well… try hiding somewhere else next time.” Amy said gently.
“Otay! Gwittah hide weawwy gud!”
“Okay. One, two, three…”
Glitter turned and looked around the safe-room. There! It was perfect!
Glitter waddled over to her favourite ball and crouched down behind it, covering her eyes again just in case. It was foolproof!
“Ten! Ready or not, here I come!” Amy said. She took a second to look around the room, at first excited that Glitter seemed to be actually hiding this time… until she spotted a huge tuft of neon pink fluff poking out from behind a tennis ball, which was not necessarily the best place for an adult fluffy pony to hide.
With a sigh, Amy stood up and walked across the safe-room.
“Found you.” She said, already getting bored with how easy this was.
“Wha?!” Glitter squeaked, looking up and seeing Amy towering over her (despite only being a seven-year-old girl). “Buh… buh Gwittah HIDEY! Gwittah hidey so-o-o-o gud!”
“Well, I still found you.” Amy said, looking around the safe-room.
Maybe it was her fault. The safe-room was… well, safe, but as a result didn’t exactly have many places for a fluffy pony to hide. There was the bed and it’s blankets, the food and water bowls, the litter-box, and the loosely scattered amount of toys around the room. There wasn’t really anywhere for a fluffy to ‘hide’ where they wouldn’t be easy to spot.
“Tell you what.” Amy said conspiratorially. “Let’s go play outside the safe-room!”
“Wha-a-a?!” Glitter peeped. She had never been allowed out of the safe-room before, if she ever went out somewhere with the family she was carried out in someone’s arms.
“Yeah, mom and dad aren’t home, it’ll be our secret! And it’ll be more fun too!”
The safety gate erected across the doorframe was unlatched, and the game continued.
…for approximately ten minutes.
Glitter tried hiding everywhere. Under the glass coffee-table, behind the tall narrow standing-lamp, even right behind Amy while she was still counting (she’d NEVER think to look there, surely!), but every time, Amy found Glitter in seconds.
Either Glitter picked a spectacularly stupid hiding place, or her neon pink fur stuck out from behind it, making it impossible for her to actually ‘hide’ anywhere. Amy was only a kid, but she’d heard all about feral fluffies living in the wild, and how difficult it was for them to survive. With Glitter’s neon colouring, it made sense how hard it’d be to hide from a predator, if even a child was having no trouble finding her.
“Ten. Ready or not.” Amy said, boredom in her voice. She dropped her hands, and sighed. Glitter, the adult-sized fluffy pony, was hiding behind a shoe.
Again.
“Found you.” Amy said, slumping back to lie on the floor, bored out of her mind and incredibly disappointed.
“WHA?! NU! NU NU NU!” Glitter cried, stomping her hooves on the ground. “NU FAIW! GWITTAH HIDE WEAWWY GUD DIS TIME!”
“Yeah, well, I found you again.” Amy replied bitterly, getting sick of both Glitter’s stupidity and brattyness.
"DAT NU FAIW! NU FAIW!" Glitter cried. Amy sighed, feeling a tantrum coming.
“Glitter, stop it. You lost the game, quit being a baby.”
“NU! NU AM DUMMEH ‘BABBEH’! GWITTAH BESTEST AT HIDEY-SEEKIES! MUMMAH CHEATY!”
“I didn’t cheat!” Amy snapped, shouting back at Glitter. “You just suck at hiding! I found you every single time, Glitter!”
But Glitter wasn’t listening, she had flopped down on her belly and was pounding her front and rear hooves against the floor, throwing a full-on tantrum.
“GWITTAH BESTEST AT HIDEY-SEEKIES! BESTEST! MUMMAH CHEATY! NU FAIW! NEBAH WET GWITTAH WIN! MUMMAH CHEATY! HUHUHU!”
Amy had had enough.
When she had gotten Glitter, her mother and father had made her understand the importance of taking care of her. Feeding her, cleaning her, and yes, even disciplining her when necessary.
And this tantrum was more than enough to warrant disciplining.
“That’s it. Come here.” Amy said, snatching up Glitter, who was still in the throes of her tantrum.
“WHU?! Eep! Bad upsies!”
Amy carried her past the safe-room and to the basement, where the washer and dryer both sat. Next to them was an old metal trash bin that they’d repurposed into a ‘sorry box’, which Amy promptly deposited Glitter into with a ‘thud’.
“Owie! Gwittah sowwy mummah! Gwittah gud fwuffeh! Nu mean it! Gwittah wub mummah! WUB MUMMAH! PWEASE NU WEAVE GWITTAH IN DAWKY PWACE! PWE-”
Glitter’s futile begging and pleading was quickly silenced as Amy placed the bin’s lid on top and walked away, leaving the pink fluffy pony in a stinking, rusty, dented trash bin.
Glitter was upset.
Well, that was putting it mildly, but she wasn’t sure if there was a word to describe being both very angry and very sad at the same thing. Sangry? Anad? Whatever. It was what she felt anyway!
The stupid ‘hidey-seekies’ game had been stupid from the start anyway! Mama was never going to let Glitter win, it was obvious now. And obviously mama was cheating, because she was too stupid to play properly! That’s how she kept finding Glitter, even though Glitter was hiding really, really, really well!
Then, to top it all, mama had dumped Glitter in the sorry-box!
But Glitter hadn’t even done anything wrong!!!
All she’d done was call mama a big stupid cheater to her big stupid cheating face! And mama was a cheater! She was! She had to be!
Glitter curled up in the cramped space of the dented old bin and cried quietly to herself.
It just wasn’t fair. Glitter had hid everywhere in the safe-room, and mama had found her. Glitter had hid everywhere outside of the safe-room, and mama still found her!
Then, Glitter had an idea.
What if she hid somewhere else? Not the safe-room, not in the other rooms… what if she hid outside?
(Next)