The response I got to ‘Josef & The Awful Technicolor Smarty Herd’ was a lot more positive than I was expecting with a lot of people taking to the character of Sweetheart and her troubled life. Well since she was so well-received I started planting seeds for a possible sequel series where her story would continue.
I do recommend you read Technicolor Smarty Herd before this because I am going to refer back to Sweetheart’s origins and what she’s been through, it’s been a rough fucking life and it’s not going to get any better anytime soon.
The sharp knocking at the front door woke Archibald and his human mother Henrietta up, it wasn’t too late but later than the young colt and the old woman were used to. Henrietta took a moment to collect her thoughts before walking as quickly to the door as her old bones could carry her.
Outside, her neighbour Hannah Parker stood, shaking from tears with a handful of flyers in her hands.
“Hannah? You poor thing you’re shaking like a babe, what’s the matter darling?”
“Hen, I’m so sorry I know it’s late but… it’s Sparkles, Mulligan’s daughter, she’s gone missing and we can’t find her.”
“Sparkles? The black one, with the silver, right? I’m sorry dear, I’ve not seen her since I was over yesterday.”
“Could you keep an eye out, please, Mulligan is distraught, Kathy as well, she loved Sparkles, we all did, and now we can’t find her.”
“I don’t mean to sound mean Hannah, but is there any chance she might have just wandered off, or gotten… caught?”
“No, no Sparkles was still a chirpy baby, she could barely walk, let along walk far enough to escape.”
“HANNAH!”
Hannah and Henrietta turned, seeing Hannah’s husband Dave running towards them, the look on his face told them is wasn’t with good news. By this point Archibald had walked up to join the conversation.
“We found some dirty hoof-marks in the kitchen, fresh ones, we think another Fluffy came in through the cat-flap and took Sparkles.”
Henrietta gasped. “My goodness, what kind of Fluffy would steal a baby from its mother?”
“If we’re lucky, some misplaced Mare wanting her own foal to look after, if we’re unlucky… well I’m sure you’ve all heard about Hellgremlins. Mike’s gone to follow the hoof-prints but he doesn’t like his chances, those woods are a haven for Ferals, there’s every chance he’ll lose the tracks.”
Hannah sniffed. “He has to try, all of us have to. We can’t leave Sparkles out there.”
“Awchie hewp.”
The three adults looked down at him, Archibald was still young, he’d only started talking a few days ago, but he was brave and he was confident, he puffed his periwinkle blue chest and tossed his summer yellow mane, trying to appear big and strong for The Parker’s to help find their missing babbeh.
Dave smiled and knelt down to talk to Archibald. “Thank you for the offer Archie, but what I need you to do for the moment is stay here and look after your mummah, Sparkles has all of us looking out for her but Henrietta has you looking out for her. Can you do that for my pal?”
Archibald felt a little deflated but he could sense wisdom in Mr Parker’s words. “Awchie stay hewe fow mummah. Bu wook out fow Spawkews tuu.”
“That’s perfect Archie, thank you.”
He picked Archibald off the floor and handed him back to Henrietta. “I’ll keep an eye out too, if I see anything I’ll call you.”
“Thank you Hen, that’s all we can ask for.”
“All the best, tell Kathy she’s welcome to bring Mulligan over anytime if she wants company.”
The Parkers left to return to their search, Henrietta closed the door and returned to her sleeping chair, though her mind was a little too flustered to fall back to sleep now.
“Mummah? Wiww Spawkews babbeh be ok?”
“I don’t know Archie, I hope so, Mulligan deserves to give all of her children love, even the Alicorns.”
“Awchie wan hewp, babbeh need hew mummah wub.”
“I know you do Archie. Tell you what, when it’s bright-times, let’s say you and I go for a walk and we’ll see what we can do to help.”
“Awchie wike dat pwan mummah.”
Archibald curled up into Henrietta’s lap and fell asleep, his mind dreaming of the day he could find Sparkles and bring her home.
2 Years Later
Sweetheart awoke to the sound of painful crying, as her vision returned to her she looked through the bars of her cage to see her captor, a man she once called ‘daddeh’, drilling a hole into the leg of another Fluffy. She didn’t flinch at the screams, she’d seen so much pain and torment during her captivity that they didn’t even phase her anymore.
Her kids on the other hand, they didn’t need to see such horrors.
“Mummah? Why Fwuffy cwying?” Her eldest daughter asked her, her voice quivering with fear.
“Nu wook at Fwuffy, nu can hewp. Come hewe babbehs, mummah pwotect yu.”
Her three foals gathered round her, she had had more in her months of imprisonment, all of them fathered by a monster Fluffy called Crimson who left bite marks in her neck when he finished inside her, but per her agreement with ‘daddeh’, she was allowed to keep one foal per litter and the rest would be sent away. She was told they were taken to good mummies and daddies but seeing how hers treated other Fluffies, she wasn’t sure that was true anymore, at times she found herself crying over the loss of her babbehs that she’d never see again.
She’d had five litters in total since she arrived, but she’d lost two of the foals she was allowed to keep, the first was a unicorn male who got sick and had to be separated from the others, by the time he was returned to Sweetheart he was already dead. The second was just a chirpy babbeh, a beautiful silver girl who wandered too close to the edge of the cage and was eaten alive by Crimson, her own father. Now Sweetheart made sure none of her chirpie babbehs left her sight.
The three foals she still had were Ozzy, a black Pegasus colt with a dark red mane, her first-born and her oldest living child, Peach, a unicorn filly with a soft orange fur that golden sparkles underneath and a yellow mane, and J.D., her newest foal, still just a chirpie babbeh but growing fast. J.D. stood for Junior Daddeh because his rich brown fluff reminded her of her adoptive father, a Fluffy called Whipped who looked after her despite not being his daughter, it didn’t matter that he was a poopie colour – Sweetheart saw it more like a coffee than poop – and it really didn’t matter that he was an Alicorn like her, she loved the little guy just as much as her other foal.
The drilling stopped and Sweetheart looked up, the Fluffy, whoever they were, wasn’t moving, either passed out or dead, it didn’t matter. Her captor put down the drill and turned round, coming towards her cage. She covered her children, hoping that whatever he wanted, it wouldn’t involve them.
The captor bent down, and Dr Josef Mongola smiled at the terrified faces of his prized family. “Hello Sweetheart, how are you and your foals today?”
He was toying with her, she knew that, but she played along for the safety of her children. “Sweetheawt gud, wawa bottew awmos gune, can hab mowe pwease wen daddeh Joesep hab time?”
Josef looked at the water feeder he installed on their cage, and sure enough it was almost empty.
“I’ll get on that after dinner, would you and the little ones like some kibble?”
“Yeh pwease daddeh, wub kibbew nummies.” She didn’t, it tasted like cardboard, but it was all she and her babies were getting.
“I’ll bring some right down to you then.” Josef smiled once more and left them, Ozzy made to shout at him, asking why he hurt the other Fluffy but Sweetheart stopped him, not wanting to see her son hurt.
Once Josef had left the basement Sweetheart turned back to her children, Ozzy was fuming, Peach was shaking and J.D… well J.D. was still feeding from her teat, none-the-wiser about the situation his mother and siblings were in.
“Ozzy hate meanie daddeh.”
“Mummah knyo, bu nu can du mush wight nyo, need wait tiww weady.”
“Bu wen weady? Mummah gun wet Cwimson gib hew mowe bad huggies? Ozzy nu wan see mummah huwt gain.”
Sweetheart hugged her son, he was very protective of her and it hurt him when she told him not to help her, it was for his own benefit but that didn’t make it any better for him.
“Mummah pwomise, she wookin fow way ousside, nu knyo wat du next, bu famiwy stick togetha.”
Just thens he felt J.D. shift below her, she looked down and saw him smiling at her, his eye big and bright, unburdened by the knowledge of his captivity.
“Mummah?” He spoke his first word, staring right at the woman he loved and cared for without even knowing what those words really meant.
For a normal mother her babies first words were a moment of great joy as her young transitioned into Talkie Babbehs, for Sweetheart it only meant trouble. The only reprieve she got from Crimson was the time between given birth and her foals first words, it was to allow her body time to recover before the next litter. Now that J.D. was talking, she had only days – if that – before Crimson was set on her again.
And if she was pregnant, then escaping was going to be even more impossible than it already was.
Sweetheart looked up, Ozzy was old enough to know what J.D.’s first words meant and Peaches could guess by the worried look on her mother’s face. Whatever plan they had, it had to work and it had to work now.
“Mummah change pwan, Fwuffies weaving nyo.”
I’m still doing chapters on The Farm but I had this rolling in my head and figured I’d give a quick intro chapter to this series, it only exists because people loved Sweetheart so much so I wanted to give her one last go around, maybe it ends well, most likely it won’t, either way this is for people who wanted to see her story again.
skia might give josef some irredeemable fluffs