So it’s been brought to my attention that I’ve forgotten my own stories. In my first series, Breaking The Family Bond, I wrote that Cobalt and his family escaping was the first time Josef let Fluffies get the best of him, and yet for this story to work – which is set about a year or two beforehand – I need to let Fluffies get the best of him.
Now I could try and bullshit my way through this, saying that Cobalt and his family lied to Josef so it was the first time he made the mistake of believing them whereas as you’re about to see, Sweetheart’s escape was sneakier in nature so he didn’t technically didn’t make a mistake with her. But it’s all lies, I forgot my own writings and I fucked up.
For the sake of continuity, Josef doesn’t consider Sweetheart’s escape to be his fault because he’s a fucking narcissist and refuses to take responsibility, whereas Spike leaving the infected scar on his face means he HAS to take responsibility because he can’t avoid it. Sorry again, let’s move on with the story.
Being an Alicorn, Sweetheart was smarty than the average Fluffy, however she was self-aware enough to know that she still wasn’t as smart as Josef, which meant that every single element of her plan needed to examined, thought over and assessed before she was certain it could work.
Even still, this plan required a lot of luck, and Sweetheart wasn’t sure she had any left.
Dinner time was the only part of the day when she and her foals were allowed out of her cage together, Josef kept an eye on all of them but this was also their only chance to find tools to help them open the cage door. As Josef took all of the Fluffies out of the cage, Sweetheart took to opportunity to scan the floor, looking for anything that could help them, so far nothing.
Josef placed her on the ground next to her food bowl, then took J.D. and put him on top of her back, J.D. was under strict instructions not to speak which was harder to do than the little foal realised since all he wanted was to show off his new talkie status. Peaches and Ozzy were next, both being sat down next to their mother, Ozzy’s eyes suddenly light up and he has to fight back a yell, off to the side was a Fluffy bone, probably a thigh bone judging by it’s thickness, it was just what they needed.
Ozzy looked at his sister, then shifted his eyes to the bone, silently telling her go get it. Peaches shook her head, too scared to follow through on the plan, Ozzy though wasn’t given her the option to chicken out, he suddenly hunched over and put his hoofs to his stomach.
“Oooh, nu, bad poopies.”
Ozzy let out a small but significant pile of poop onto the floor, putting on his best ashamed face to fool Josef into thinking it was a genuine accident.
“Ozee sowwy daddeh Joesep, nu mean tu du bad poopies, can Ozee nu hab sowwy-stick if Ozee cwean up bad poopies?”
Josef looked down at the little piss-ant and the mess he left behind, part of him wanted to just smack him there and then, but Ozzy had clearly learnt enough, and Josef was a fair man.
At least he thought he was.
“Ok Ozzy, if you eat shit I won’t hit you with the sorry-stick, but you won’t get any kibble either, that’s your dinner for today.”
“Fank yu daddeh Joesep, Ozee undastan.”
As Ozzy started to num his own poopies, Peaches realised that he took the hit so that she could steal the bone, she didn’t have time to be scared, with Josef watching Ozzy num his own poopies, Peaches quickly ran out to grab the bone, almost bursting into tears with every step fearing it would be her last. But Ozzy made sure all the focus was on him, really putting in the effort to make the poop numming last as long as he could, eventually she grabbed the bone and brought it back to Sweetheart, hiding it in the Fluff on top of her mother’s back with J.D. using his body as extra cover.
It wasn’t perfect, but in the dimly lit basement, it might just work.
Sweetheart and Peaches returned to their meal, pretending like nothing had happened, Josef waited until Ozzy had completely cleaned his poop before turning back to the others. Sweetheart had made sure to leave a little bit of kibble left for Ozzy, just in case.
“Daddeh Joesep, can Ozee hab wittew nummies, poopies nu make gud nummies.”
Josef smiled at Sweetheart. “You’re cute, but Ozzy made bad poopies and has to be punished for that. If he’s good, he’ll get proper food in the morning.”
“Ok daddeh Joesep.” Sweetheart looked a little dejected, she’d hoped to get some extra energy in Ozzy before tonight.
“Are you all done with your dinner?”
Sweetheart and Peaches nodded, J.D. was sound asleep on Sweetheart’s back. Josef picked Peaches and Ozzy up and placed them back into the cage, both trying their hardest not to look too worried. Josef then turned and gentle tugged at J.D. to pull him up next, when suddenly the little guy woke up and grabbed onto his mother’s fluff even tighter.
“Nu wan weave mummah!”
Sweetheart’s felt her chest skip, now Josef knew J.D. was a talkie-babbeh, the timeline wa shortening by the minute.
“Well now, it seems J.D. here can talk, did you know this Sweetheart?”
“Babbeh tawk wittew eawwia, bu Sweetheawt nu fink wittew wowds mean mush. Am su happy dat babbeh am tawkie babbeh nyo.”
Josef knew she was lying, and Sweetheart knew that he knew, but to Josef it didn’t matter, he already had her punishment sorted.
“Well that’s great news, you’ll be having babies again in no time. Not tonight though, Crimson’s still in the sorry-box for eating that silver girl, if I didn’t love the little bastard I would’ve killed him for costing me a small fortune. Anyway, let’s get you and your ‘talkie babbeh’ into bed.”
Josef lifted Sweetheart and J.D. into their cage, putting on a very fake smile the entire time, Sweetheart returned the smile, hoping she’d never have to see it again. Josef shut their cage door and left the basement, whistling away to himself. Once he was gone, Sweetheart lifted J.D. off her back and dropped the bone to the ground, Peaches chastised her little brother.
“Why babbeh bruddah tawkie? Nyo meanie Joesep knyo mummah can hab babbehs gain, Cwimson gunna take hew.”
J.D. came to his own defence. “Jay-Dee hide Fwuffy inswide-stick, Joesep see if Jay-Dee moves. Need make tawkie tu stay hidies.”
Sweetheart agreed. “If babbeh nu make tawkies, pwan wuined. Gud babbeh, bu teww mummah befowe tawkies neks time.”
J.D. smiled innocently, Sweetheart softly tapped his head then sat on her behind, pulling him closer to her teat. “Dwink up babbeh, nu mowe miwkies tiww bwight-time, need Fwuffy stwength tu escap.”
Ozzy and Peaches looked at each other, the thought of finally leaving excited and terrified them in equal measures. “Famiwy weawwy weaving?” Ozzy asked.
Sweetheart nodded. “Famiwy weaving.”
That night the family went to work, there was a very small window just below the ceiling where they could see outside, Sweetheart knew it was too high up for a fluffy to climb – she’s witness one poor stallion literally rip his legs to shreds trying to climb up the brick wall in the vain hope of escape – but it allowed her to keep an eye on how far into the night it was and she used that to her advantage.
For the few hours before hand, Ozzy and Peaches (and a little bit of J.D. as well) took turns between napping and scraping any excess fluff off their mother, making a small pile of it that they put under a blanket, trying to give the impression of them all still being underneath.
Finally, with only the thin stream of moonlight shining through the tiny window, they were ready. Ozzy pushed the bone through the bars between the cage and the door, Josef had essentially stuck them in a remodelled hamster cage, knowing that the Fluffies were too weak to push the door open, what he never anticipated, was a desperate family understanding and using the basics of leverage to push the door open themselves.
Ozzy, Peaches and Sweetheart all pushed on the bone, trying to bend the bars far enough to open the latch – J.D. tried to help but his legs were too small to reach the ground. Suddenly there was a small jolt, then another, then the latch gave way and the door opened, the whole family fell to the ground but Ozzy recovered quickly and ran up to grab the door with his teeth before it could bang against the side of the cage.
The family took a moment to themselves, the first part of their escape had worked, now for the next part and the heap of good luck they needed to make it work. Sweetheart shut the cage door behind them and looked at her children.
“Babbehs wememba pwan.”
They all nodded, Peaches looking ambivalent. “Nu wike pwan, bu wan escap.”
The four Fluffies walked across the table their cage had been put upon, each of them moving in slow, soft footsteps, towards the edge where Josef’s rubbish bin had been placed, thankfully it was almost full which is exactly what they needed for their plan to work.
Sweetheart went first with J.D. on her back, jumping into the bin and cushioning her fall on a piece of cardboard, Ozzy followed suit, landing on a crisp packet. Peaches was still unsure, between the plan resting on a lot of ‘Maybes’ and the thought of getting herself dirty, she wasn’t keen on the whole process. But as she remembered her father and the violent things Crimson has done in front of her, she knew she wanted nothing to do with that anymore and dove in, narrowly avoiding a juice can as she landed.
“Ok babbehs, make bestesh hidies an nu tawkies at aww, need be vewy quiet. We awmos fwee.”
Finding an assortment of wrappers and detritus, the family covered themselves and waited, wishing that morning would be on their side.
While the bin was uncomfortable, the children were all so exhausted that they fell asleep fairly quickly, Sweetheart stayed awake, too fraught with worry to sleep, everything depended on what happened next, if she was found then it wasn’t death than awaited her, she knew Josef would never kill off his money-maker, no she’d be pillowed, mutilated and raped, never seeing her children again, never seeing any children again except for when Josef would taunt them in front of her.
No, she needed to escape, or die trying.
At the moment she heard the basement door open, Josef was awake, quickly Sweetheart woke her children up, making sure none of them made any noise, she didn’t want Josef to startle them awake and gave the game away.
Outside, Josef made a beeline for the cage, only to stop when he saw the bin, it seemed slightly fuller than he remembered, but then again the light in the basement was pretty shit at the best of times. He looked to the cage, seeing the blanket with Sweetheart and her foals still sleeping underneath, and he figured they could wait a little longer, housework chores needed dealt with first.
Sweetheart and her foals felt the bin move as Josef took the binbag out, Ozzy had to hold a hoof to Peaches’ mouth to keep her from crying out, the four of them were jostled around but they all kept quiet, not wanting to ruin this little bit of luck they had going for them. Sweetheart listened out, she heard the basement door open, she heard the muffled footsteps of Josef’s hardwood floor, then she heard the front door open and the bag was tossed into the trash outside.
When the front door shut again Sweetheart waited a moment, seeing if Josef was still playing games with them, after a beat she was satisfied and gathered her foals, Part 3 was now underway, and there was no time to waste.
“Babbehs hewp mummah, need teaw open bag.”
Working together, the four Fluffies used their hoofs and their teeth to tear a small hole in the bin bag, just big enough for them all to climb out of. Sweetheart looked up, there was a small ray of sunshine peering through where the bin-lid hadn’t been put on properly, and it was just within reach.
“Babbehs fiwst, take bruddah an cwimb.”
“Wha bout mummah?” Peaches cried.
“Mummah can cwimb afta babbehs, hewp push fiwst.”
Using her arms and her snout, Sweetheart lifted Peaches and Ozzy – who had J.D. holding onto his fur – to the lip of the bin, the two young foals perched themselves on top, holding on with their little legs until Ozzy looked down and saw the bushes beneath them.
“Wook, bwanches sabe Fwuffies.”
“Ooh, wook wike huwtie bwanches.” Peaches foresaw a lot of cuts and bruises with this plan.
“Betta huwtie bwances dan bwoken weggie, nu hab time tu awgue, need tu move.”
Ozzy climbed up and out of the bin, he sat himself on the edge so he could manuvere J.D. to his belly and covered his little brother as much as he could before diving it. He felt the whip like branches cut into him as he fell through the bush but he landed safely – though knocking some wind out of himself – on the ground. He sorted himself out and looked at J.D., poor little guy was shaking with fear and had dribbled a little pee, but he was safe.
Peaches saw her brothers leave the bush, it eased her mind a little bit but she was still sacred. Sweetheart came up behind her.
“Yu be ok Peechee, mummah knyo yu scawdies, bu bruddahs need sisstah, nu wan Ozee get in tu twoubews.”
Peaches smiled slightly, still unsure. But she pushed herself forward, closing her eyes and biting her tongue she jumped into the bushes. Like Ozzy she felt branches whip at her, cutting into her soft flesh as she fought every instinct to scream out, but she landed safely all the same and went to join her brothers, Ozzy gave her a hug for being so brave.
Sweetheart climbed out last, she gave one final look to the house that had been her prisoner for so many months, the place where she’d watched Fluffies she’d loved and hated die in the worst ways imaginable, the place that had torn her from any semblance of happiness. And she turned away from that misery and jumped, falling through the bushes and landing besides her foals.
They had done it, they were free.
Except they weren’t, Sweetheart knew they didn’t have long before Josef noticed they were gone, she gathered her children who were all in awe of how big the outside world was and spoke with such authority they knew she was serious.
“Babbehs come, need to wun fast, find wawa an go fwom dewe.”
Ozzy looked confused. “But wawa bad fow Fwuffy.”
“Wawa cwean Fwuffies, need nu tu smeww wike Fwuffies, Joesep use Cwimson sniffies tu find famiwy.”
That set the fear into her foals, Ozzy helped put J.D. onto his mothers back and together they made a run for it, towards the scary outside world and hopefully a better life.
Josef almost laughed when he realised what had happened, if he didn’t he would’ve cried.
When he found the fur-pile under the blanket he nearly tore the basement apart looking for Sweetheart and her foals, they were Fluffies, they couldn’t have gotten far. Then when he remembered the bin, the very bin he decided to take out moments ago before waking the Fluffies, he almost laughed.
He’d been looking for a while, long enough that Sweetheart and her young were likely long gone, still he checked to be sure and sure enough, he saw the hole in the bag and the broken branches leading out of the front garden, he couldn’t see them or where they’d gone from there. He needed help on this one.
Josef went to the back garden, to the icebox he’d converted to a sorry-box back when Sweetheart’s herd had ransacked his flowers. He opened the lid and inside, Crimson hid his eyes from the morning sun.
“Wake the fuck up Crimson, we have a city to burn.”
Josef lifted Crimson out of the sorry-box and placed him on the patio, wiping him clean of the cold and damp water inside the box.
“Cwimson sowwy daddeh, nu num babbehs gain wivou…”
“Yeah yeah, fuck that. Sweetheart’s escaped, and she’s taken your foals with her.”
Crimson’s face perked up, a cruel grin forming on his face. “Munstah mawe take babbehs, wha daddeh wan Cwimson tu du?”
“Find her, bring her back here, alive. We need to teach her a lesson. As for the kids, well… why don’t we let fatherly instinct take charge of that one.”
Crimson chuckled, his mind already racing with what he was planning for the foals.
Elsewhere, not too far from Josef’s house, Sweetheart had found a river bed and was carefully washing her foals, making sure they were cleaned and rinsed in an effort to wash their scent off, she didn’t know if it would work, but it was worth a shot.
“Ozee nu wike cowd wawa.” Ozzy complained about having to bathe himself.
“Peechee nu wike tuu, bu nu wan meanie Cwimson tu smeww famiwy.” Peaches was still scared, but having felt the fresh air, she wasn’t about to let this go without a fight.
As Sweetheart rubbed her hoofs over J.D. who was chirping about ‘bad wawa’, she heard something, a rhythmic noise coming from inside the reeds of the riverbank, then the small hit her, it was other Fluffies, a pack of them, and something strange yet familiar. She placed J.D. with his sibling and went to investigate, if it was Fluffies she needed to check if they were safe enough to ask for help, or if they were dangerous enough to be avoided.
She peeked her head through the reeds and saw two things that shocked her little mind, firstly these were NOT good Fluffies. And secondly, she was looking at a ghost.
Toughie lay in his wooden prison, still alive and still suffering after over a year and half, Josef had kept his promise and made sure Toughie had enough food and water to keep him alive and sprayed him with Mare scent so that any stallion would see him as an easy target. However, after so long with just the bare minimum of nutrients to keep him alive, Toughie was looking worse than ever, his green fluff was barely recognisable underneath the dirt and the blood and the cum, his right eye had been completely removed, either by force or by infection Sweetheart couldn’t tell, he was missing several teeth – alongside his missing legs and special place but she already knew about those – and his muscles had worn away to nothing, his body had been slowly eating itself since Josef clearly wasn’t giving him enough, leaving Toughie as little more than a sack of bones left to die.
Behind him, three mean looking stallions took turns enfing him, unbeknownst to Sweetheart, they had found Toughie weeks ago and had returned to him several times for ‘Gud Feews’ since he couldn’t stop them. The leader, an orange unicorn, roughly mounted Toughie and readied himself into position.
“Am dummeh mawe weady fow gud enfies?”
Toughie spoke in a horse, weak voice. “Towd dummehs awwready, am nu mawe, am…”
He was cut off by a brown Pegasus punching him in the face. “No tawkies, if smawtie say yu mawe, den yu mawe.”
The third, a black and blue earthie, followed his comrades decree by kicking Toughie in the ribs, satisfied that his lieutenants had made their point, Orange Smartie bucked his hips forward and penetrated Toughie, ignoring his wails of ‘Wan die’ as he had done many times before.
Sweetheart had seen enough, she hated Toughie but she didn’t want to see him hurt like this. Seh turned to leave but the movement caught Toughie’s eyes, in his desperation he cried out.
“HEWP, HEWP, NU WAN BAD HUGGIES, HEWP TOUGHIE!”
Sweetheart tried to run but Brown and Black ran out in front of her, Black cornered Sweetheart while Brown found her foals.
“Wook Smawtie, is munstah mawe.” Black smirked at Sweetheart as he pushed her closer towards Orange Smartie. Orange himself pulled himself off of Toughie and went to investigate, his no-no stick still hard.
Toughie looked up and saw the older but still familiar face of Sweetheart, given what Josef had told him he thought the rest of his herd was all dead, it had been so long they must’ve been.
“Toughie sowwy Sweetheawt. Nu mean tu huwt yu gain.”
She spat at him unable to hide her anger at him. “Yu bad Fwuffy, Sweetheawt neva fowgib yu for gibben Bubbagum wowstesh enfies.”
Orange stepped in at the mention of enfies. “If spawkew munstah wan enfie, Smawtie can hewp. Nu wan babbehs, jus gud feews.”
He surveyed her, she was a monster but the sparkles in her fluff were pretty, she’d be good for a few turns then he could be throw her to his lieutenants.
Sweetheart wasn’t going that easily. “Dummeh Fwuffy nu gib bad huggies, mummah an babbehs weavin.”
She made to leave buy Black stood in front of her, Brown was snapping his teeth as her children, Peaches and J.D. crying with fear. Orange turned to Black, his face grinning with malice.
“Howd mawe down.”
Black nodded and raised his hoofs to pin Sweetheart to the ground, but she was ready, as soon as his hoofs lifted she rammed her horn into his side, not wounding him but catching him off-guard enough to throw him into Orange Smartie, knocking them both over. Using the distraction, Ozzy slammed his horn into Brown’s back leg, causing the Pegasus to collapse in pain and shock, the family used their chance and ran away, heading towards the city, no idea where they were going, so long as it wasn’t here.
Orange pushed Black off him and snarled at his lieutenants. “Bwing dat dummeh munstah tu Smartie NYO.”
Black and Brown gave chase, both slightly wounded which held them back but they kept good pace with Sweetheart and her foals. It was still relatively early so there were few people and fewer cars, allowing Sweetheart and the foals to avoid any dangers in front of them, keeping just ahead enough of Black and Brown to keep going. Sweetheart turned into an alleyway and saw another stallion, a light blue earthie with a yellow mane, she couldn’t avoid him so she needed to take a chance that he wasn’t as mean as this pack.
“HEWP!”
Archibald sniffed the garbage, it wasn’t pretty, but it was food and that was good enough for him, he took a bite out of stale bread and chewed it, not happily but content with having some food.
It had been a little over a year since his mother Henrietta died, the old woman just collapsed one day and never got back up. He had been so heart-broken by her death, but was even more so when some movers came to take her stuff away, when he tried to stop them one of nasty men tried to stomp on him, calling him a ‘shitrat’.
Archibald didn’t even know what that meant but it hurt his feelings to hear it, he narrowly managed to escape and ran away, ran from the only home he’d ever known.
He’d thought about going back, a few times he’d managed to follow his path back and each time got a little closer to home, but then he’d start thinking about where he could go, now that he didn’t have a home to go back to. Once he considered his neighbours, The Parker family, they were always so nice and Mulligan was a lovely old Fluffy he could talk to, but The Parkers were still upset over losing their young babbeh Sparkles, he’d feel guilty if it seemed like he was taking her place.
So for the moment he was alone and eating trash, not the best life but he was alive, he went to take another bite when he herd it.
“HEWP!”
He turned and saw an Alicorn mother with three foals running towards him and two stallions chasing after her, he saw the angry looks on their faces and he made the snap decision to help her.
Archibald raced forward, rushing past the Alicorn and slamming his body weight into the Brown stallion, sending him crashing into the wall, a loud crack told Archibald that he’d broken a few ribs. The Black Stallion turned and growled at Archibald.
“Dummeh betta weave ow git sowwy-hoofies.”
“Nu wet yu huwt mawe ow babbehs.”
“Den yu go foweba sweepies.”
Black darted forward for the kill, but he was slower and fatter than the lean, starving Archibald, who deftly moved out of the way and brought his hoofs down onto Black’s front left leg, breaking it instantly.
Black let out a howl of pain as he tumbled to the ground, picking his sorry self up, he and Brown ran away to tell their leader about the mean blue stallion, hoping that the Smartie would think of a way to get back at him.
Archibald waited until the two of them had gone then turned back to the Alicorn. “Am mummah an babbehs ok?”
The Alicorn nodded “Yeh, fank yu fow hewp, meanie Stawwions wan gib bad huggies, gib babbehs foweba sweepies.”
“Dey gun, bu nu fow wong, need tu move. Am Awchie, happy tu hewp.”
The Alicorn smiled at him. “Hewwo Awchie, am Sweetheawt, an dese awe…”
She stopped, Archibald was looking at her funny, not like he was going to do anything, he just an intense look on his face, like he recognised her, but she’d never seen him before. Archibald looked closer, the black fur, the silver shimmer, the grey mane, something in his mind from a long time ago clicked into place as it suddenly dawned on him who he was looking at.
“Spawkews?”