Hoo boy this is a long chapter. At least longer than I’m used to. Hope you enjoy.
Part 5
Candy sighed as she looked down at her offspring, their multicolored little faces chirping and searching around with blind eyes, alerting their mother to their hunger. She left them to make another round cautiously around the dumpster, underneath of which was her humble home. She moved quickly and carefully as she could, her yellow fluff and pink mane doing poorly to camouflage her. She confirmed what she already knew quite clearly. No hoomans had been by since last bright time. She would have heard them if they did. None had come and so no new nummies, icky or otherwise, had fallen within reach. The acrid stench of rotting, but possibly still edible food above and out of reach teasing her as she listened mournfully to her babies’ cries of hunger. A decision had to be made soon, “for their sake if not for my own” was the sentiment processed much less eloquently through her mind.
Her former mate should’ve been back with nummies two days ago, after their childrens’ birth. She didn’t have to wonder too hard what happened to him, though. Surely, here in this terrible place, he met with the same fate as her old family did. ‘Hoomans always wanted to give you hurties for no reason here.’ At least that’s how Candy understood it. Even her mother, a runaway, met the same grisly fate as her father, a streetwise feral - under a boot. The collar did little to dissuade their attacker; and both her parents and her newly weaned siblings were killed quickly and without prejudice while she was able to hide and eventually get away, after some vain attempts to wake their crushed bodies. It was not some sadistic urge by an abusive maniac that ended their life, but one of instinct in response to a plague infesting what was already a dangerous ghetto. Though Candy had no way of knowing this. To her it was just a cruel act by the careless bipedal gods of whose space she crawled on the underbelly.
Candy’s mind shifted to an image of her mate, River, and his crushed skull looking oh so much like her father’s underneath the foot of some faceless two-legged monster, so many forevers ago. She cried for a good while before deciding she couldn’t stay. She had to find food. For her babies. Even the scary monster one that was so… unnatural. Wingies and a pointy? Preposterous. Aberrant. Terrifying. But yet, she kept him and fed him even, though not nearly as much as his siblings. This was because Candy, with all her flaws, did have something other fluffies didn’t - a modicum of intelligence. Two days ago, logic had persevered over emotion in her small mind as she held her hoof over his soft newborn skull. She realized something so many others of her kind failed to even conceptualize. It was not the dark brown colored colt’s fault he was born an abomination. It couldn’t speak, it couldn’t even see. How would it have chosen to be a monster?
And so, Candy treated her children more or less equally (less).
The pecking order existed, unbeknownst to her, and her pretty pink baby - a color close to the shade of her mane - always got her milkies first. Next was the ugly baby. He was, unfortunately, all the worst parts of his father (visually), colored brown an even less appealing than her former mate’s mane, and unevenly dappled with more poopie colors as opposed to the tasteful blue-grey spotting that was on River’s coat. He was definitely ugly, but he still ranked higher than the monster. Even lower than the monster though, was the bad baby. It smelled awful when it was born. It may have been a better color than the poopie babies, but not by much. And it was smaller and dumber than her siblings, it couldn’t even drink milkies right and Candy had had to force her onto the nipple she was crying for, doing so with a sneer of distaste at the awful smell from deep inside the little foal, trying to tell her it didn’t belong. But Candy didn’t listen because this time, emotion ruled over logic. As with the monster and the poopie baby, it was still not its fault that it was a dummy.
Candy took a brief and stealthy (for a fluffy) trek to find just enough scraps to produce enough milk that her foals, (unsatisfied but quiet after realizing no more milk was coming) would have the strength and clarity of unfamished mind to instinctively climb into their mother’s back as she would slowly roll over. She noticed with pleasant surprise the purple one did not smell as bad this day, and it even managed to follow her siblings by herself, working her way in the direction of her mother’s spine, instinctively understanding her mother’s intentions. Candy was not sure she would have taken her had she been unable, but was nonetheless glad she could. She stopped when she had only the monster left to place in her fluff. Staring at its confused, blind movements, searching for his siblings and mother, she contemplated her options, but eventually decided she must take him along, too, and placed him on her side for him to work his way up. She waited and rested forever as she watched the shadows grow longer, listened to the bustle as the bright ball fell and with it, orange skies became grey then black. Finally, only when she stopped hearing so many of the hooman steps and voices and no more metal monsters in the street did she go off, braving the dank, wild, concrete grey yonder.
Beams of xenon light from street lamps cut through the soft glow of the full moon, highlighting airborne detritus as Candy passed through, looking for any sign of more of her kind anywhere. She hated the darkness and silence, but suffered it as it was infinitely safer than the certain death hours of dawn to rush hour. Candy’s heart ached as she thought of River again. Why couldn’t her babies have waited until the dark time to come out? Then maybe he wouldn’t have had to go out to find nummies during the bright time. Her melancholy would have begun to turn to resentment but her rumination was shaken by the sound of shuffling and clinking.
Candy followed the sounds around the corner of a building that smelled like nummies. It was that smell hitting her nose that inspired the urgency in her step as she went to investigate the noise to confirm her hope. A lime green shape rummaged through a tipped over garbage can. It took several repeated calls by Candy to grab the fluffy’s attention as it shuffled through the garbage, noisily spelunking into its smelly depths. Finally, Candy called out and the green mass turned to face her with surprised emerald green eyes below a shaggy, filthy purple mane.
“Nyu fwend?” Candy asked.
“Fwend? Nu knyo yu. Whewe fwuffy cum fwum?” the green stallion asked.
Candy regaled her sad story rather quickly with the curt efficiency only the fluffy dialect could offer.
“Dat am saddies. Weaf sowwy bu’ smawty nu wan mo fwends nao.” The stallion said to the yellow mare.
“Who smawty? Why nu wan fwends?” Candy asked, cocking her head in sad confusion.
“Smawty am bewy smawt fwuffy. He weadew ob hewd. Smawty say why nu wan fwends but Weaf nu knyo why. Weaf am dummeh…”
“Nu say dat fwend! Yu nu dummeh! Candy wub nyu fwend eben if Candy nu yuw fwend.” She said, ignoring the sticky filth on his coat as she rubbed sides with the only other fluffy she’d seen since the ostensible death of her mate. “Sowwy, nu can gib huggies. Hab babbehs on back.”
Leaf’s heart fluttered in response to the close contact, and something else was stirring inside the young stallion. Something when she said “babies.” Gosh, she sure was pretty…
“Weww maybe smawty hewp pwetty mawe wif babbehs… wan hewp fin’ nummies, den Weaf bwing to hewd?”
“Weawwy??” Said Candy, smiling. Perhaps her luck was finally changing…
“Smawty! Weaf find wotsa nummies and nyu fwend an-”
Leaf’s announcement was cut short by an orange hoof to the snout. The strike sent Leaf reeling back a few steps. A few teeth clattered to the ground, followed by Leaf himself, bleeding from the muzzle.
“Huuuu… Wai huwt-”
“DUMMEH. NU SU WOUD.” The orange smarty hissed through his clenched teeth.
“SMAWTY smack SAYD smack FWUFFIES smack TUU smack MANY smack NU MOW FWENDS, DUMMEH.”
Each word emphasized with a blow to the young stallion’s side or face, and finalized with a front leg kick to the snout. The green stallion’s nose was now slightly veered to the side and bleeding profusely to the rhythm of his shaken breaths.
“buh… she habbb babbis kaff smawwy. Jus’ kaff wibbow…. babeh…”
Leaf whimpered, his voice quiet and strained, interrupted by rattling breaths.
The monochrome orange, blue eyed fluffy, legs widespread and cheeks puffed, looked over the pile of refuse they’d scavenged from the trash; before finally looking over the horrified mare who was slinking back after witnessing the sudden assault. She tried to keep herself small and not show the babies on her back. The orange stallion sighed and turned away from Candy and her broken new friend on the ground. It was a lot of food, he had to admit. Returning to his herd in the alley’s nook, every fluffy’s full attention on their charismatic leader, he finally spoke up.
“Yu can stay. Fin’ mo nummies. Smawty wiww gib babbehs wowk tuu.” The smarty finally said to her.
“Buh… babbehs jus’ chiwpies.” She said uncertainly, still fearful of the violent and dominant fluffy.
“Wet smawty see babbehs.”
All her babies had been chirping out of hunger and alarm at the new voices at this point. Hesitantly, Candy laid down and slowly rolled over to carefully dump them on the ground. The orange smarty came over to inspect them, starting with the pink filly.
“Dis gud babbeh. Meybe be mummah when owdew.”
He then looked distastefully at the purple and brown foals. He walked right past the brown foal to sniff the pegasus, and sneered as he pulled his head back.
“Dese bad babbehs. Ugwy and smewwy. Pupuw wingie baby am dummeh. Dey poopy fwuffies nao.”
“Wh- Wha?? NU! Babbehs gud-!”
Candy quickly paid for her insolence much the same as Leaf, one hoof planted on the eye and it was already starting to bruise, then another pop in the mouth sent her stumbling back.
"Dummeh mawe. Hewd nee poopie fwuffies. Not enuff nummies fo aww fwuffies an’ tuu many fwuffies mean tuu many poopies. Poopies smewws bwing munstas. Nee get wid of poopies ow fin’ nyu homesies. Wha’ dis?"
Smarty looked down at a fourth foal that the mare had been standing over before his onslaught knocked her away. It wasn’t pretty. It looked dark and plain. The smarty watched as its eyes cracked slightly open while its horned head searched around. Its eyelids fluttered as did its wings. Wait… wings?
“M- m- mumma- CHIRP! CHIRP! CHIRP!”
The foals newly acquired blurry vision darkened momentarily as grown hoof met young face, and it rolled several feet towards some of the other fluffies. It only took one frightened mother’s exclamation of “MU- MUNSTAH!!” for all pandemonium to break loose. Screeches and incoherent babbling were met with what the smarty did best. It took many examples of Smarty’s corporal punishment to get them all to calm down.
“SHADDUP DUMMEHS. Weaf. Gu see if munstas comin’.” He said to the broken green stallion behind him. Whimpering, he obeyed his master and managed his way up on shaky limbs and limped out to the alley. Meanwhile, there were several whimpers and disconcerted mumbling at the mention of the word “munstah”. They were quickly shut up by a meaningful blue eyed glare and intimidating puffed cheeks.
“Why yu hab munstah wif yu?”
He said, eyes staring daggers at Candy.
“N- nu mean tu. Bu’! He…!” Candy started but she couldn’t finish. She couldn’t deny he was a monster. Even now she wasn’t entirely sure why she kept him. Meanwhile the alicorn foal watched and chirped his distress to his presumed loving mother, waiting for her to take notice. When she didn’t, the foal tried to crawl towards her before being blocked off by the smarty, who raised his hoof over its head.
“NU! Pwease! Babbeh nu huwt Candy ow- ow- ow bwuddah ow sissies ow nubudy! Jus’… jus’ make babbeh poopy fwuffy… he stiww be gud babbeh fo smawty” Candy said.
Smarty considered this for a few seconds before finally lowering his hoof and reaching down to grab the little foal by its leg as it began emitting rapid chirps in pain, trying in vain to reach a sense of pity from either his attacker or mother. The orange stallion walked over to the shit pile in the corner of the nook and roughly tossed the foal nearby, who rolled into a fresh turd covered in scrapes and bruises, peeping a storm of chirpy protests and half formed words. Candy watched sadly but was hesitant to interfere.
With a quick turn, the smarty kicked the foal with a hind leg before returning over to the mare and the remaining children.
“If mustah babbeh huwt any of hewd, yu haf gib munstah fowebah sweepies. Is yuw babbeh.” He said as he reached down to grab the other two and take them over to their hurt and crying sibling. Candy opened her mouth to argue. She had hoped that, perhaps, one sacrifice of a monster would be enough to spare the two from their shitty fate, but evidently this was not the case. She simply closed her mouth and looked away when her two children were dropped into a separate shit pile.
“Wewcome tu hewd.”
With that, the smarty returned to his cardboard home to sleep until bright time.
“Babbehs. Wakies.”
Under the cold blue dim of the approaching sun, Candy nudged her filth covered children. When they awoke, she sat on her haunches, offering what little milk she could with the minimal food she had sneaked away from the rest of the herd. It had been nearly five days since she joined, and this had become her regular early morning routine while every other fluffy was asleep.
“Bwownie and puwpuw babbehs fiwst.”
She said unnecessarily, as the purple pegasus filly, ever unaware as she was and still blind, had immediately latched and started sucking. The brown colt was already approaching on his own shaky, malnourished legs and was about to begin eating when he noticed his brother. The dark alicorn had been verbal and cognizant for several days now, longer than he had. But he always made sure to stay small and quiet, lest he invoke the wrath of the herd leader, or his mother who was always under the watchful eye of said leader. The colt wasn’t looking at her, but his eyes shifted repeatedly towards her as his stomach growled. The brown colt stopped his advance and laid down.
”Babbeh… miwkies.” Candy urged her son while glancing worriedly back to the sleeping smarty.
”Nu miwkies. Nu… hungy. Gib bwuddah.” He replied, choosing instead to settle for his usual, smarty enforced choice of meal. Candy watched in disgust and was taken aback.
She still couldn’t get used to this arrangement, but she knew it was for the best. Smarty said so after all… And he was… well… smart! And these babies were very not-pretty. But she still couldn’t help but try to care for them at least a little. In a way they were actually safer than their more fortunately colored pink sister, who was now sleeping back at her makeshift nest. Smarty, in his infinite wisdom, had advised all “nummie finders” to carry a baby with them whenever they were out and about. They always made sure to scavenge during the hours of the night well after rush hour to avoid any run-ins with wayward pedestrians. Fluffies were “kill-on-site” in these parts of the massive city and while most met a swift death, free from care of wellbeing, the sounds of prolonged torture of the less intelligent rogue fluffies were not unknown to the alley-fluffies. Smarty was under the mistaken belief that mothers with children could invoke a sense of mercy from passersby, should they be caught. And in a last case scenario, the babies could be left as a decoy while the mothers got away. Rarely was this the case.
To say that Candy was conflicted was an understatement. She knew she had to be a good mother, to the point of sneaking around to attend to their nurturing. But her internal programming, as well as the external influence of her new leader, told her they were lesser beings that deserved less. And yet, the smarty would not let her use any of these three of the untouchable caste as her obligatory sacrifice while hunting for food. “Dey hab impowtant job.” He would reply simply. Candy, oblivious to the sentiments of her brown earthie son, nevertheless beckoned his alicorn brother over, who approached with a hesitant smile and started suckling.
”What chu doin’?” Came a voice from behind. Candy’s blood ran cold.
Candy turned around slowly to see the angry orange face of Smarty. Looking into his intense stare, she suddenly kicked the foal away from her teat. He scree’d in pain and alarm while the purple filly, conscious of the sudden movement and hearing her brother’s distress, popped off and chirped in confusion.
“B- bad munstah babbeh! Nu steaw miwkies!” She said, eyes still on Smarty. He approached her with an angry expression, unconvinced by her sudden act of betrayal.
Smarty grabbed Candy’s ear in her teeth and wrenched her away. She cried out simultaneously with the purple filly’s increasedly panicked chirps. Smarty planted a hoof on her face, forcing her down where she covered her face with her hooves, expecting a storm of sorry hoofies to buffet her every exposed area. The attack did not come and she dared to peek through her forelegs to see Smarty’s back as he walked towards her monster child. She wasn’t happy to see any child of hers attacked, but she couldn’t help but feel relieved she wasn’t on the receiving end.
"Dummeh! smack Munstah babbeh!” smack Stay 'way fwum gud babbehs and gud mummahs!” SMACK
With a final forelegged kick, the alicorn foal rolled several feet in the direction of the other mares who had since woken up and shielded their respective children instinctively upon hearing the commotion. One dam audibly cried out as the aberrant monstrosity came nearly within reach of her precious babies.
Smarty’s blood began to boil at the impertinence of this abomination casting its malevolent shadow over his herd. His family. He kept them safe from the outside, but what of the inside? He could no longer ignore the nefarious presence hiding among the innocent like a wolf in sheep’s clothing. He approached the colt, whimpering pathetically and clutching its ribs on the ground. With just fury in his eyes and murderous antipathy in his heart, he placed his hoof on the side of the colts head and started applying pressure.
“NU!!!”
Smarty heard the outburst from two sources, but turned his attention to the more present, the yellow and pink mare suddenly beside him. None paid attention to the small brown shape trying vainly to crawl over. Weak chirps and cries died against the concrete walls with nary an echo.
“N- nee’ poopie fwuffies. Wemembew?” She said to him.
Smarty took some time to consider her.
“Fine. Bu’ babbeh nee punissment. Yu puniss babbeh. Is yuw babbeh.”
Candy opened her mouth to argue, but relented under Smarty’s piercing glare. She approached her mutant son and slowly placed a hoof at his side. The foal whimpered at her touch. With a light but sudden move, she nudged his ribs. He cried out a squeaky and breathy screech. But this wasn’t enough for Smarty as he bopped Candy’s back, causing her to flinch. She nudged the foal again, them again. Then she hit him. And again. Harder.
As Candy tapped and bopped the young alicorn over and over, her mind drifted off to ruminate on the past few weeks. She wondered how she got here. Things used to be good. She used to have a mate, and even if things were scary, they were better than they were now. Why was she here?
All the pent up emotion she’d had to squash down for the sake of her foals and her safety, all her frustration, her remorse, her fear, all bubbled up into a cacophony of pure emotion that sparked and boiled into a white hot rancor. She no longer cared to think. She was seeing red. None of this would have happened, had she never had these babies, this blight on her once contented if humble life. And this monster, this selfish beast was the reason River was dead. He was the reason she was now in this horrible place with a smarty that hurt her. He forced his siblings to eat shit and never again experience a mother’s love. Her ears rang as she pounded into his soft, bony body. She couldn’t hear the desperate cries of her other son, much less the pained screeches of the one she was currently bombarding with punishment. She felt that soft flesh cave underneath her mighty hoof, she felt the thin bones crack under her strength. She was lost in the elation of furious, righteous brutality.
And then it was over. Her heart pounded in her ears as she over what she had done. There wasn’t as much booboo juice as she thought there should be. In her raging fugue state, she must have unconsciously been holding back. She… still loved him. She realized her mouth was open, wide as her eyes were. Her blood was still pumping hard. All was quiet, except for her poor son’s pained, shaky breathing and intermittent whimpering whenever he moved. She should feel terrible, but all she felt was exhaustion.
“Go sweepies.”
She looked to her side at Smarty as if she was seeing him for the first time.
He walked past her to grab her groveling child and bring him back to his feces ridden home. She watched him as he went, eyes glossing over all the other fluffies in the alley, even her pink filly who was fast asleep not a minute ago had her eyes on her, the monster, and Smarty.
“Go sweepies. No mo’ gibbin poopie munstah babbehs miwkies.”
Smarty repeated. She obeyed.
She laid down in her dingy cardboard hovel, eyes still wide open. She fell asleep at some point without even registering it. She did not dream.
It was still early to be out scavenging, but Candy couldn’t wait any longer. She had made up her mind to leave. She didn’t know where she was going or if anywhere would be better than here, but she had to try. It had been many hours since she lost control and viciously attacked her own son. She knew quite clearly now that this was all her fault, and she had to rectify it.
It was the late hours of the evening, with a soft line of indigo kissing below the crimson layer of the setting horizon. It contrasted with the brutal right angles of the concrete grey jungle. She had told Smarty she would be back soon. Hopefully she would be. Where she was going, how long it would take, those were problems for later. Now all she needed to do was find food for when her babies get hungry. Then she would need to figure out how she would leave with her foals. She didn’t know how, but she would not let Smarty stop her.
The evening light glinted off something on the black asphalt of the metal monster path. She hurried over to it, as she did not hear any metal monsters, and recognized the glinting as a bag of crispy, salty nummies. She took a step off the curb, recoiling slightly at the surprising heat emanating from the street, but quickly stepped over again, the rest of her body quickly following suit. She reached over with her teeth ready to grab the bag.
Pain. All of a sudden, horrible, sharp agony. She couldn’t feel her back leggies or even her back half for that matter. And the entire edge of her circumference where she stopped feeling there was only pain and wet.
“SCREEEEEE!!! WAI HUWT FWUFFY!!”
She was no longer thinking of anything but the horrible anguish she was in. She barely registered the hooman monster coming over, surely to finish the job. She had to get away. She needed help from someone. Anyone. Her babies. Her babies. The little blood she had quickly slowed its flow and she felt cold. What would happen to them now?
“MUMMAH HAF HUWTIES!! NEE HUGGIES! NEE HEWP!”
She saw the monster move even closer, teasing her, mocking her. She tried to crawl forward with the leggies she could feel but something was dragging behind her. Someone had to come save her. Anyone.
“SMAWTY PWEASE HEWP MUMMAH! HUUHUU!” She was frantic, rapidly approaching hysteria.
With horror, she watched the monster lift its big not-hoof over her head and her memories flashed back to her mother. Her father. Her sisters. Her love, River. Her horrified face looked onto the sole of the man’s shoe.
“PWEASE MUNSTAH PWEASE! MUMMAH NU WAN FOWEBAH SWEEPIES! SCREEEEEE!!!
SCREEEEEEEee—"
The foot lowered and she watched it contact the ground next to her head. As quickly as it had started, it was over. Life burned out from the shell of Candy, eyes glazed over and staring blankly, fixed on a threat that was no longer, nor ever, there.
The man walked away towards the alley, unaware of the weak chirping emanating from the pink filly foal underneath the front half of the dead yellow and pink mare.
You know the drill. Thank you so much for reading, let me know honestly what you think, and I’ll see you next time.