Spike woke up to a gentle prodding from Chopper’s hoof, as she shook the little fluffy awake in the midst of his mid-afternoon nap. The rest of the fluffies were all sleeping in the fluff pile under the hollowed-out root of a tree that his momma had made into a nest.
She gestured for him to follow her into the bushes leading away from the nest, and after a bit of brief hesitation, Spike trotted along slowly behind her.
Chopper lead Spike up a small incline near their nest, showing him a small path that had been worn out through the underbrush by the passing of rabbits and other small creatures.
Eventually, the two fluffies broke through the bush and arrived at a small clearing in the bushes overlooking a more open part of the forest. There was a small sheer drop to the left of them and the view of the forest was filled with sunlight streaming through the thick canopy.
“Wow, pwetty!”
Spike said as he looked out on the woods for perhaps the first real time, having been used to spending his time with his head down to avoid eye contact with his mother and siblings. His appreciation of the beauty of this area was broken suddenly by an odd sound.
The little unicorn tilted his ears toward an odd droning buzz that seemed to be coming from the bottom of the hill. He began to peer over the edge when a dark pink hoof reached out and grabbed a hold of his fluffy.
“Cawefuw Spike, easy tu faww wound dis pwace”
Chopper warned him, he nodded in response and they both tilted their heads over the edge of the drop.
Spike took in the sight of a large, rounded cone made out of what seemed to be a paper like substance, it looked like it had fallen down to the ground down there but it had been rebuilt over time.
He saw numerous small monsters, black and yellow in color with segmented bodies and pointy looking tails crawling over the outside of the paper thing, some of them flying in and out of an unseen entrance bringing bits of wood and other things in or setting out in search of something outside.
Spike remembered these things. These were buzz-buzz monsters, one of them had stung his daddy when they were out looking for nummies one day, it hurt him bad for a bunch of forever’s and the side of his head got all puffy.
“Buzz-buzz munstahs! Nu wike!”
Spike quickly backed off from the edge and Chopper followed him, the pink fluffy remaining oddly calm in spite of the present danger. She looked down at the nest, before turning her head back up and noting a couple of wasps buzzing around in the shrubs.
“Hoomin daddeh say buzz-buzz munstahs nu hewt fwuffies if fwuffy weave dem awone. Dey onwy make hewties wen dey scawed ow hewt ow pwotec nesties.”
“Yu hoomin daddeh no wots of tings.”
“Yus… Yus he du…”
Chopper seemed to trail off into her own thoughts briefly before returning to back to reality with a twitch of her head.
“Choppew nu wan show yu da buzz-buzz munstah nestie, Choppew wan show yu nummy place! Fowwow, dis way!”
She gestured with a hoof toward deeper into the underbrush and after a moment’s hesitation, Spike followed after her.
They only walked a short distance away from the clearing with the wasp’s nest, but the dense brush they had to go through made the entire walk seem longer and more tedious than it was.
When they came out on the other side, they were in an area with an open canopy that was surrounded on all side by bushes and nestled in under a big leafy tree.
Although the thing that stuck out most to Spike was the large, almost umbrella shaped, yellow plants growing out of the dead leaves on the ground here. They smelled sweet and earthy and caused the foal’s mouth to water slightly.
“Wuh… wuh am dose?”
“Dose am mushywooms! Choppew hoomin daddeh hab bwuddah, he caww dem cha… can… Chantew-elles? Makes gud nummies and safe fow fwuffies tu eats!”
Spike looked on in amazement as Chopper walked over to the stalk of one of them, grabbed it with her teeth and pulled the mushroom out of the ground before placing it in front of him.
“Dis aww youws nao, su whenebew mummah nu wan gib yu sumting tu num, yu can gu tu mushywoom pwace and hab nummies.”
Spike started to tear up, he was so hungry but so happy that his emotions ran out from his eyes as he knelt down and began to bite into the spongy flesh of the uprooted chanterelle on the ground. It was one of the best things he had tasted in his short, miserable, life.
“S-s-s-Huu-huu-huu, Spike wub Choppew! Choppew am su nice tu Spike! Huu-huu-huu.”
He sobbed as he grabbed onto the bigger foal with his nubs, embracing her in a tight hug that almost knocked both foals off balance and began sobbing into her chest fluff. Chopper slowly wrapped her own legs around Spike and began to brush his back lightly.
“Choppew wub Spike tu, Spike am gud fwiend…”
“DUMMEH BWUDDAH HAB NAMESIE?! DUMMEH SISSY GIB WOWESTEST FWUFFY NAMESIE BEFOWE GUD BABBEHS!”
Spike opened his eyes and quickly brushed the tears out of them to turn toward the sound of shouting that had pulled him out of his moment with his new sissy. He noticed that Chopper was stark staring into the brush nearby where he could see a small pair of eyes and a matt of light purple fluff amidst the leaves.
She followed them when they left the nest?!
“DUMMY SISSY FIND NUMMIES, BU ONWY SHAWE NUMMIES WIF STUPI POOPIE BWUDDAH! SISSY AM WOWST SISSY, MUMMAH GON GIB WOWESTES SOWWY HOOFIES, AM TELLING MUMMAH!”
His light purple sister turned and began running the rout back toward the nest, and Spike panicked. He clambered clumsily to his feet, falling once as he set of running after his purple sister. He looked back for only a moment, to see if Chopper was following him, catching a glimpse of her returning to her feet and glaring in the direction the purple foal went.
“NUUUU! SISSY PWEASE! NU TEWW MUMMAH! IT AM POOPIE BABBEH FAUWT, AM FIN NUMMIES AN HIDE FWOM MUMMAH! NU HEWT CHOPPEW, PWEASE!”
-=-=-
The purple foal ran as fast as her nubs could take her! She had to tell her momma this!
Not only was her dummy sister hanging around the poopie brother, she had given it a name, A NAME, before any of the other babies had gotten one from her momma! She would tell her momma; momma would give sorry hoofies to the bad babies and then she would be her mommas new favorite baby!
The undergrowth was hard to navigate for her, but she soon found the path that her dummy siblings had used earlier and followed it back toward the nest.
Eventually, the undergrowth parted and she found herself standing beside a very familiar hillside, she paused, hearing the sound of the buzz-buzz monsters and trying to figure out which way it was back to the nest.
She didn’t even have a chance to react when something dropped down from out of the tall parts of the bushes beside her and slammed full force into her side, rolling her over onto her back and sending her tumbling down the cliff with a resounding;
“SCREEEEE-EEE-EEE!”
-=-=-
Spike was running full force behind his purple sister, but he couldn’t keep up with her. He had hoped that maybe she would listen to him, maybe if he offered to share she wouldn’t tell his momma that Chopper and him were exploring and playing while she was asleep.
Maybe if he called his purple sissy a liar his momma would leave Chopper alone and just hurt him for being a bad fluffy.
Soon he had lost sight of her, and despite him eating better over the last couple of days, his generally poor health made it so he had to stop and catch his breath before continuing to try and follow his sister.
As he found his second wind, managed to break the bush line into the clearing just in time to see Chopper looming over the hill where the buzz-buzz monster made their nest, lying on her belly close to the edge with her front nubs dangling over the line.
“NUUUUU! SISSY!”
Spikes blood went cold as he ran over toward the edge of the hill, just as he heard a terrible noise that sounded like ripping paper and angry buzzing.
He looked over the edge and saw what hat happened. Their purple sister had clearly fallen down the hill, and despite her small size, when she impacted the side of the buzz-buzz nest she had punched a hole right into the side of the paper like structure.
“SCREEEEEE! STINGY HEWTIES! MUMMAH! MUMMAH! HEWP BABBEH! EEEEEEE!”
His purple sister ran out of the broken hole in the nest, followed by a small cloud of buzz-buzz monsters! Some of them clung to her back fluff and legs, and with every movement she tried to make, the monsters would stab into her with their horrible pointy tails.
“EEE! NU MOWE HEWTIES! SCREEE! MUMMAH! BIGGEST OWWIES! HEWP! HEEEWP!”
Spike flattened himself on his belly and tried to reach down to his sister with his front nubs, although he quickly realized he wasn’t going to reach her like this.
He turned to Chopper, tears beginning to well in his eyes.
“Huu… Choppew hewp Spike! Spike nu can weach sissy, hewp Spike pwea-”
“Babbeh? BABBEH!?”
Spike looked to his side as his momma and his pink brother broke through the tangle from back in the direction of the nest. His momma clumsily ran to the edge of the hill, idly smacking him away from the edge to plant herself where he was.
He quickly returned to the edge near Chopper and cast his gaze to his sister at the bottom of the hill, she had collapsed from the buzz-buzz monsters biting and stinging her legs and was desperately trying to crawl back up the hill, sobbing and screeching the whole way, but the incline was too steep.
“MUMMAH! BABBEH NEE HUGGIES! HUU HUU HUU! TU MANY OWWIES! HEWP BABBEH!”
“BABBEH WEACH FOW MUMMAH! WEACH BABBEH!”
Cookie screamed, dangling her legs down as low as they could go and trying desperately to grab her purple baby.
The purple foal almost managed to reach her mothers outstretched hoof, before one of the buzz-buzz buggies landed on her nose and planted a stinger firmly in the center of her right eye, causing her to scream and tumble back down the hill.
Within moments of hitting the bottom, she was swarmed by buzz-buzz monsters and a few seconds after that, her eyes were rolling back into her head and a thin white froth formed at the edge of her mouth as she frantically twitched in agony as dozens more stings and bite rained down on her.
Cookie collapsed into a series of wracked sobs as her bestest baby looked down in horror at what was happening to his sister and Chopper walked over to hug her right front hoof.
After a few moments, Cookie stood to leave when she realized that her purple foal was well and truly dead and she slowly made her way back to the nest with her bestest baby on her back and Chopper following close beside.
Spike waited for his momma to disappear into the bushes before started to walk back toward the general area of the nest, until a light gust of wind picked up and caused him to hesitate in the face of the breeze.
Something drifted down in front of him was a small, a clump of deep pink down. At first, Spike though he must have just not noticed Chopper lose a bit of her fluff from her wings when she ran here.
But then he slowly realized that that didn’t just blow up from the ground, it fell from up in the tall part of the bushes. He turned his gaze upwards and spotted a deep pink feather, caught between a pair of snapped bush twigs in the canopy above him.
Spike was stuck standing there for a moment, trying to process what he was seeing there, until another gust of wind picked up and blew the feather out of the tall bushes and over the cliff further into the woods.
“Dat nu weaw, Spike, yu see tings. Sissy nu can be ups dewe, she nu can…. She… she jus fastew den yu… she wun hewe jus wike you…”
“Wight?”
-=-
