Crimson burst out of the water and grabbed onto the first piece of land he could find, the colossal gulp of air he had to swallow damn near crushed his lungs but it was air, and he was alive. No thanks to that crazy monster bitch.
He turned back to the river, he saw a faint black figure being washed away by the current, Sweetheart was dead, that was good enough for him. He didn’t care about the foals, frankly he expected them all to die in the forest, right now his focus was on getting back home.
And trying to figure out how best to tell Josef that he failed.
Crimson climbed up the embankment, it was only cause of his stronger muscles that he managed to survive the fall at all and even then he still came closer to drowning than he ever wanted to be. This whole exercise was an absolute clusterfuck, and even though he failed his mission, he was glad it was over.
“Stoopid fukin mawe.”
The walk home was slow and arduous, the water had stuck to Crimson’s fluff, making him heavier and harder to walk, his bad mood just made even worse by what he had to endure. Plus the weight of failure didn’t help matter either
Failure wasn’t anything new to Crimson, he’d made a few mistake in his time – mostly involving eating his own young – but this felt different, he’d allowed Sweetheart to get the better of him, to play him like a goddamn toy. That’s what stung, the indignation, the shame that he let a fucking monster outwit him, it didn’t matter that nobody else knew, HE knew and he always would.
Crimson took the long way home, still trying to think of an excuse to tell Josef why he lost Sweetheart, when he realised his journey was taking up by the riverbanks towards where Toughie was. Crimson figured he could use some stress relief to clear his head, Toughie wasn’t his first choice, being both male and an adult, but he’d do in a pinch.
To his dismay however, as he got closer to Toughie’s prison he heard the grunts of a stallion and he realised that another Fluffy was already having a go at Toughie right now. But as he got closer still, he started to notice they weren’t enfie grunts, they were something else.
Crimson pushed through the reeds to find Toughie surrounded by six Fluffies, all trying to break him out of his wooden prison. There was a unicorn stallion, red and white striped fluff with a blue mane, a red earthie stallion with a yellow mane and yellow patches across his fluff, a red Pegasus stallion with a grey mane that ran over his back so his entire top and wings were grey, a green Alicorn stallion with a purple mane and two twins with black fluff, one a unicorn stallion with a purple mane, the other a Pegasus mare – the only mare in the group – with a red mane.
Crimson looked at this odd group of coloured Fluffies, his mind too tired to deal with this shit right now.
“Who da fuk awe yu?”
The six Fluffies jumped – the red Pegasus and the green Alicorn shitting themselves – and turned to face Crimson. The red and white unicorn and the red and yellow earthie jumped forward to face Crimson.
The unicorn spoke first. “Hawt eviw-duer, yu wiww nu stop ouw qwest fow just-ist. We wiww fwee dis pwisona fwom yuw cwutches an be on ouw way.”
“…Gain, who da fuk awe yu?”
The earthie stepped forward. “We da Abengas, hewoes of eawth, we fight for aww Fwuffykind an sabe inn-o-sents fwom munstahs.”
Crimson scrunched his eyes trying to avoid a headache. “Wook, yu hab da wong Fwuffy, jus fuk off befow Cwimson bweak yow fukin skull.”
“NEBA! ABENGAS, ASSEMBEW!”
With the striped unicorn leading the pack, the six Fluffies all got into attack formation, ready to take on Crimson as soon as their leader gave the word. The striped unicorn stared down Crimson, it was almost impressive.
“Yu nu huwt Toughie Fwiend anymowe.”
“Toughie Fwiend hewe cause he fuk a babbeh.”
The mood of the group dropped, they never considered this poor creature being out here as punishment. The red Pegasus turned to Toughie.
“Is dis twue?”
Toughie suddenly got very agitated as his dreams of freedom were once again being taken away form him.
“NU! NU AM TWUE! Toughie neba huwt a babbeh, am pwisona, wike yu say, hewp Toughie, pwease.”
“It twue.” Crimson said in a mock voice of disappointment. “Fuk babbeh tu foweba sweepies. Daddeh put him hewe so he can be fuked tu foweba sweepies as well. Take his fukin time bout it doh.”
“NU WISTEN TU MEANIE, WET TOUGHIE OUT!”
The green Alicorn smacked Toughie in the face. “YU DUMMEH. FWIEND NU MOWE. HUWK SMASH!”
“HEY.”
The group all turned to face Crimson, his face even more pained than before.
“Can yu aww jus fukin go, Cwimson nu wan deaw wiv dis shit.”
Dejectedly, the six would-be heroes put their tails between their legs and went off on another quest to save the world from evil-doers, hoping their next mission might actually let them help someone. As they left, Toughie cried out after them.
“COME BAK, TOUGHIE NU WAN BE STUK NU MOWE. PWEASE HEWP. PWEA…”
Crimson punched Toughie in the face. “SHUDDUP. Cwimson nu wan heaw it, hab finkie-pwace huwties an nu wan yu cwying.”
“Huu huu, why Cwimson stiww meanie, Toughie hab enuff punessmen, onwy wan die nyo an Cwimson nu eben wet Toughie du dat.”
“Oh, Toughie wan die? How bout nyo?”
Crimson stomped his hoof into Toughie’s face.
“How bout nyo?”
He stomped again.
“Nyo?”
And again.
“Yu wan die ow yu wan stop bein a whiny wittew KUNT!”
Something snapped inside Crimson and he let out all of his frustration onto Toughie’s head, each stomp carrying more and more anger behind it.
“STOOPID FUKIN MAWE, NU FINK SHE BETTA, NU BETTA DAN CWIMSON! NUWAN BETTA DAN CWIMSON! ENUFF CWYIN, NU WAN HEAW YU NU MOWE, STOP FUKIN CWYIN YU WITTEW! FUKIN! BABBEH!”
There was a loud crack and Crimson felt something wet splat onto his face. He opened his eyes and saw that he’d completely smashed open Toughie’s head like an egg, Crimson’s face now stained with the blood and brains of the long-suffering Fluffy, finally given the sweet release of death.
Crimson looked around at the mess of bone and blood he found himself surrounded by and realised that now he had to explain THIS to Josef as well.
“Fuk.”
This is just a little off-shoot chapter away from the main storyline, firstly to finally give Toughie a death, little bastard survived more than he should have. And secondly to act as a back-door pilot for The Abengas, I’ve got a couple ideas for them and I figured this would be a nice way to bring them into the franchise since they’ll mostly be their own series once I get round to them.