Part 3
With the foals clean and dry, Nico could finally make out their true colors. The alicorn wasn’t quite black like he initially thought, but he might as well be. It was actually brown, but a brown so dark that you could only tell up close, or when the light would catch its sheen. His mane was a very rich brown with a slight reddish tone, like mahogany. He was beautiful. Maybe I should call him Coffee? Nah that’s lame. How about…
”How about we call you ‘Café’?: Nico said, yawning.
”Fank yu. Caffay wike namesie” The foal said, briefly looking Nico in the eye for the first time.
Now for the other colt, who was looking up at Nico expectantly. If he hadn’t just bathed the fluffy until the water turned completely clear, Nico wouldn’t have been able to tell he was clean at all. The dusty, dull brown coat was lightly and unevenly dappled with spots of a slightly darker brown, the same darker brown that was showing in the hairs on his tail nub, and just barely starting to grow on his head. He… wasn’t much to look at. And given his size and lack of wings or horn, Nico thought he looked like a baked potato. He might be mistaken as one if he weren’t so skinny. *But we can’t call you Potato. Baked Potato? Too long. How about…
”We’ll call you ‘Russet’!”
”Wussit. Wussit… Wussit wub nyu name!” He spoke his first full sentence to Nico as the corners of his mouth lifted.
Lastly, the little purple filly. The dull greyish purple color also wasn’t very appealing, but Nico was coming to appreciate how she stood out from the other two. When he lifted her up to see what color her tail was growing into, she nuzzled his finger with her face and wrapped her hooves around. Cute. Her tail looked to be a light brown very similar to Russet’s coat. They seemed to be around the same age too. If they’re not all siblings, I bet these two are at least. Nico thought. Her colors also were nothing to write home about, but he had to come up with something original. What’s the name of that flower? The purple ones that grow on potatoes or something? He checked his phone.
”Deadl- Uh. Nightshade. Just Nightshade. Ok you’re Nightshade!”
Nico had no way of knowing if she understood or not. She just smiled and wiggled around in his hand. One eye staring into his with admiration, the other seemingly looking at the ceiling. Ok, this thing is too cute to have a dumb edgy name like “Nightshade.” That’s like a 12 year old’s Xbox username. Oh well, maybe she can’t understand me. Nico decided to come up with something better later.
With that over with, he made sure all foals were comfortable under their still warm washrag, and watched them all for a few minutes. Under the soporific influence only achievable by a warm blanket, Nightshade stayed wiggling for less than 30 seconds before her mouth opened wide in a silent yawn and she closed her eyes. Russet was looking all around the room with wonder in his eyes, as if he had a new appreciation for it allowing him to see it for the first time. Café no longer looked quite as dejected, but still he just stared, open eyed into the corner of the basket. It was sad to watch, juxtaposed by the enthusiasm of the other two. Nico made sure to give his head some light scratches. The foal jumped at first, but accepted them without complaint, though also without smiling or closing his eyes. Nico then carried the basket into his room to set it down in a chair by a desk, and finally let himself collapse fully clothed into his bed where he was quickly snoring.
Nico woke the next morning before the sun did to the sound of chirping little cries for “miwkies.” As if he needed to confirm, he checked the time on his phone, giving himself a few brief minutes of pointless scrolling after reading that it was, in fact, the ass crack of dawn. Sighing, he sleepily pulled himself out of bed and made his way to the kitchen to mix and warm up some more formula. Despite his stupor, he managed to remember the hyper enthusiasm his stove had to perform and was able to avoid wasting the neighborhood’s gas to boil the formula. One good thing about his dangerously hot stove was that it was warm in a very short amount of time. He returned to the bedroom where he fed them from left to right. He started with Café, who took small and gentle sips, before he moved onto Nightshade (better name pending). Café let out small protesting chirps of “m-miwkies huu- huw-” as Nico took the bottle from his mouth and moved onto Nightshade for the time being. He stroked the alicorn and reassured him he’d get his fill. He wanted to keep them in the basket and under the towel so they’d fall back asleep and he could get a couple more hours of rest, so he had no room to give them all their own bottles this time.
Nightshade peeped out a few happy words of Miwkies! Wub!” when her eyes had moved from her daddeh to the bottle. She took deep gulps and complained with some light cries and a pout when Nico moved onto Russet. Russet was the least vocal about the feeding and seemed to be surprised and grateful to get any milk at all. While it made Nico feel bad to admit, his sleep deprived brain could feel some favoritism for the one not complaining in the early hours of the pre-dawn. He let those surface thoughts fade and finished feeding them all. Café was done first, and quicker than Nico expected, holding his full belly and drifting off to sleep. The other two quickly followed suit with some cute, finalizing little burps. It was then Nico noticed a pungent smell.
Nico pushed away the temptation of willful ignorance to lift up the blanket and find what he dreaded - soiled fluffy butts under a shitty washcloth. With a throaty groan, he took them all to the bathroom sink. Tempting as it was, he couldn’t leave them like this. Not to mention he had no desire to sleep in a room full of that awful smell. Luckily he didn’t have to deal with another full-on bathtime of lung-splitting screams, as the extent of the damage was done only to the washcloth. He tried to wash it out, but the shit was determined. Why the fuck didn’t I just use the easy-clean crap I just bought. He thought spitefully to himself. Filling the sink shallowly with warm water, he used a clean section of the rag to clean both Russet and Nightshade as they chirped in alarm, but thankfully little more. He was ready to work on Café but was pleasantly surprised to find his ass clean. I guess he’s old enough to know better. Good. Works for me. He noticed the water backing up in the sink and decided to deal with that later, leaving the poop stained rag in there as well.
After taking his new little family back to his bedroom, he left and returned with a new blanket for them, only to find them all sleeping adorably in a little cluster together, much to the envy of Nico who was now too awake to go back to sleep. He pushed down the intrusive feeling of resentment, It’s not their fault. They’re just babies. he thought, and opted to make some coffee. The foals were still asleep hours later when it was time to leave for his day life - morning general ed classes. He carefully tipped them out onto a nest of the new fluffy blankets he bought and cleaned out the bicycle basket. He added reminders into his phone to get a litterbox (wondering how he forgot to get it one in the first place) And was off on his bike in the early hours under the cold morning sun. Unnoticed in his sleep deprived state was the door only partially closed, the automatic deadbolt pushing the door open slightly.
What else Nico couldn’t have known was that the foals were now nearly fully ambulatory, only delayed by their malnourished physique which was already quickly healing thanks to his intervention and the overactive metabolism and healing power of fluffies. Well into the morning, nearing closer to noon, the foals were all awake. Café was awake the soonest, but didn’t move from his spot, only looking around in wonder at all the sights his first taste of domestic life had to offer. It was so different from the shit piled corner of the old alley. He looked all over the bed, the walls, the open door to the rest of the small apartment which was still bigger than any home he could ever remember. His focus spanning the environment was broken when his eyes fell upon a sleeping Russet, whose legs twitched and distressed peeps elicited from his rapidly raising and lowering chest. He was having a nightmare, as was common.
Café slowly rose with some difficulty to walk and stumbled slightly over Nightshade, who slowly started to wake. The black alicorn nuzzled the back of the dull brown earthie colt’s head.
Wakies, bwuddah. Hab bad sweepy pictuws” Café said to him.
Russet awoke slowly, blearily thrust into an entirely different world than he had just been. He was warm. He was comfortable. He was lost. He was confused. He was home. His new and better home. By the time he shakily stood up, (finding it now much easier than he ever had before) Café had already returned to his original position and laid down. Nightshade was looking around with her good eye, calling out for her daddeh. Russet nuzzled her and she responded with a hug, momentarily distracted by the lack of her caretaker. She stretched her thin legs while Russet was giving morning cuddles and attention to his big brother Café. Nightshade got up and started moving towards the open door, half stumbling and half toddling. When Russet noticed he was able to relatively quickly catch up to her.
”Nighshayd! Sissie! Whewe yu goin?” He said behind her.
Inattentive, she continued forward, slowly finding her footing. Or hoofing, so to speak.
”Sissie Nighshayd!” Russet repeated impatiently. It was then she turned around and looked at him.
Russet wasn’t sure if she was paying attention to him. One of her eyes looked at him but the other was looking at a spot on the floor even though there was nothing there. The smile that grew on her face as she recognized her big brother confirmed for him that she was acknowledging him. Something he had said rang in her brain, bouncing around her little head.
”Nighshay!!! Babbeh am Nighshay!” She said with a giant smile on her face.
”Bwuddah!” She exclaimed, hugging Russet.
”Sissie am talkies now! Yus am bwuddah Wussit. Dat bwudda Caffay.”
Nightshade flailed her front leggy enthusiastically for a long time over at Café, still laying in the same spot. Café acknowledged her with a sad smile before laying his head down again and closing his eyes. Nightshade finished her flailing motion that could barely be described as a wave, and turned around to continue her venture on bony toddling legs. Russet ran around to her front, repeating his previous inquiry, “Whewe goin?”
Nightshade, her language still developing, answered with two of the most important words in her lexicon: ”Miwkies! Daddeh!” To which Russet replied ”Wussit hungwy too. Wussit hewp.”
Checking in with his big brother, Russet had a short, one sided conversation with Café. ”Bwuddah hungwy?” Café shook his head. ”Gon’ go fin’ nyu daddeh. Bwuddah wan’ come?” Café shook his head. “Okay. Wub yu bwuddah. Come back watew” The alicorn answered with a slight smile and a simple ”wub yu.”
Returning to his sister, Nightshade noticed the newest addition to their new home in a small spot of liquid shit on the faux wood floor.
”Sissie! Yu make diwties! Hav tu cwean!”
”D-diwties? Cwean?” She answered with a frown of confusion.
Sighing, he “cleaned” it for her to demonstrate. She was always slower than the rest of her siblings. Smaller even. And she smelled bad, but in a different way than the poopy smell. Some bad smell from deep inside her. Thankfully, as time went on the smell had lessened, as well as his innate resentment towards her for the bad smell. Somewhere inside him, he understood that she couldn’t help it, and she was better now. A proper sissie. As Nightshade cleaned her mess, she curled her lip in a sort of sneer of disgust.
”Nu pwetty.” She said with distaste. This was met with a small bop on her head by Russet. She started crying. ”Wai huwt! Ownwy babbeh!”
”Yu poopy babbeh! We am aww poopie babbehs! Nee’ cwean diwties! Nu wan’ homesie smeww bad!” Russet clarified rather eloquently. It was enough for Nightshade’s simple mind and, even though she hated it, she relented and agreed with her brother. As soon as the altercation started, it was resolved with a hug between the siblings. They continued their search for their daddeh while they conversed simple sentences and bonded. They searched all around the entire room, a veritable odyssey for these newly cognizant little creatures that took several hours. They looked under, around, and all over every piece of furniture, in the small walk-in closet, everywhere a giant daddeh conceivably could be! All the while cleaning up any “messes” they inadvertently made, much to the chagrin of Nightshade. But she was a good fluffy. She had to be, for her daddeh! She loved him even more than she loved her wonderful siblings. As she explored her home and thought about her family she was filled with even more love that simply grew and grew with every thought.
A lovely home, a lovely daddeh, and two lovely siblings. What more could a fluffy ask for? That answer was quickly answered by the tingly growling of her belly that told her it really wanted milkies! “Recycling” could only placate it so much, and while she knew her daddeh was around here somewhere and she wasn’t scared, it did hasten her search somewhat; especially as the light coming in the windows seemed to have changed from how she remembered it, instinctively she knew time was passing, which meant the dark time was coming. It was time for her and her brother to search the rest of the house.
Small as Nico’s one bedroom apartment was, it was still enough to keep the tiny foals occupied for several more hours. They checked all over the bathroom, in and around every piece of stray toilet paper, around the sink, near the bathtub. Eventually moving to the kitchen. They were simultaneously in wonder of all the environment and wondering where on earth their daddeh could be. It’s not like he’d just leave them! They checked around every piece of furniture they didn’t know the names of. Behind the big matte white box that smelled like bad? No. Near the funny dark see-through door that smelled like burnt? No. Under the giant wooden plateau in the living room, standing on four boxy legs? No. It was then they heard a rustling sound of paper and their attention was drawn to the pretty beam of warm evening light shining in from the cracked door and they saw a white paper rectangle drop into the room from outside.
Nightshade didn’t hesitate to approach the door, and Russet followed her. When they got close, Russet was bothered by the somewhat familiar smells and the drafty feel coming from beyond the door. He didn’t know what was beyond this big, looming monolith of a door, but it made him nervous. Still, being the good big bwuddah he was, he followed his duller and littler sister outside, determined not to leave her alone with whatever evil may lurk beyond.
By now, Nightshade was outside and several feet ahead of Russet. When he turned the corner, he saw the hunched and looming dark silhouette of a giant hooman turned away from them. Russet was conflicted about this person. Part of his thinky place told him this man was nice and wanted to be his friend. But a deeper, more insistent part told him he was best left alone. He wasn’t quick enough to tell his sister this and stop her from loudly crying out towards the shadowy back-lit figure.
“Daddeh?”
Russet froze as the man turned around in slow motion and locked eyes with his sister’s smiling face. He had dark skin, funny see-through rectangles in front of his see places, and no fluff on the top of his head. Even from Russet’s low vantage, he could tell this man was much shorter and skinnier of stature than his daddeh, and his dark face was lined with wrinkles. But what really caught Russet was his uncaring eyes. They said something to him that he couldn’t hear. Something bad. Something his little sissie didn’t have the capacity to pick up on. She smiled happily up at the shadowy sole of the man’s foot as it shakily raised over her head, arms spread wide, inviting a welcoming embrace soon to come from her new friend.
Hope you enjoyed, and I hope I can do justice to the story I want to tell. As with my art, I feel my writing is improving too. This might be a longer or it might be a shorter chapter. It’s hard to gauge these things until I actually post it. Now that the foals are growing up we’re going to start seeing some more content next. Thanks for reading and have a good one.
