Claire returned from the vets with Jelly and Snowflake, who were relieved that there had been no more “opewashuns” or “owies”. Claire realised that she would need to have a difficult conversation with the fluffies, so she decided to treat them beforehand.
Taking them into her bathroom, she sat them down on the rug and started to fill the bathtub with a couple of inches of warm water, adding some FluffyBubbleBath™ to the water. While they were waiting for the tub to fill up, Claire stroked and hugged the fluffies, giving them grapes as treats, and silently ignoring Jelly’s requests for peanut M&Ms. Then, she bathed both fluffies, before gently drying their fluff with her hairdryer, now that they were not afriad of it. Then, she brushed their fur, apologising if any “fwuff tangews” caused them any hurties. Then she put some ribbons in their hair. A blue ribbon for Snowflake, to match her mane, and a larger, red ribbon for Jelly, who was missing most of her mane since the attack. For Snowflake, there was also an eyepatch, to wear over the eye which she had lost, now that her bandages had been removed. It made Snowflake look like a little pirate.
“Snowfwake WUV mummah,” Snowflake purred, looking up at Claire and squeaking with delight, “Mummah am bestest mummah, Snowfwake so wucky to hav bestest mummah.”
“Jewwy wuv mummah too,” said Jelly happily, but added, “Bestest mummah can giv peenut emanem tweaty?”
Claire looked at the greedy little fluffy, and couldn’t help but laugh. When Jelly was being cute, as opposed to bratty, it was hard to resist the urge to hug and treat her like a little princess, even if Snowflake was the regal looking Unicorn, and Jelly was just a fat little earth fluffy.
“OK, Jelly, you can both have ONE peanut M&M each.”
Claire went into the kitchen and got the M&Ms and walked back into the bathroom. Just before she entered she heard the sounds of the fluffies squabbling.
“… Nu! Jewwy am da bestest Cwaire-babbeh!”
“Nu be woud, or Cwaire no giv us tweaty!”
As Claire entered the room, the fluffies immediately ceased their bickering, looked up at her with their innocent little eyes and beamed the biggest fluffy smiles at her.
“Mummah!”
“Cwaire!”
She sat down and fed them M&Ms. It was too much to expect them to be good all the time, but if they behaved for her, and didn’t hurt each other or run away again, that was good enough for her.
“Okay girls, Claire needs to have an important talk with you, so lets go sit on my beddy.” Claire explained, noticing that she was starting to talk more like a fluffy when she spoke to them.
Picking them both up, she carried them through to the bedroom and sat them down on a towel on the bed, just in case of any “haxidunts”.
“Mummah,” asked Snowflake, looking curious “what is pawtant tawkies?”
“Important talkies,” Claire started, “Is about things that fluffies mustn’t do any more.”
“Uh… Otay,” said Snowflake, looking a little worried.
“Now girls,” Claire began, “You have to promise, never to run away again. We were all really worried about you, and its dangerous outside.”
“Otay mummah-Cwaire,” agreed Jelly.
“Otay…” added Snowflake, “Wun away was bad-idea… bad fwuffies hurt us… hu hu hu… an it am Snowfwake idea. Dat mean it Snowfwake fauwt. Snowfwake am bad fwuffy an deserved owwies… huu huuu huuu… huuuu huuu huuu.”
Claire comforted the little fluffy until she stopped crying, then she continued her talk.
"Its ok Snowflake. Its not your fault that the mean fluffies hurt you. But it was a bad idea to run away, so you both have to promise never to run away again.
“Fwuffy pwomise,” said Snowfwake
“Jewwy pwomise too,” added her sister.
Claire was pleased. At least the first part of her talk had gone well. Now to move onto the second part.
“Since you’ve been back, you’ve both been really good. Jelly, you’ve gotten really good at using the litterbox, and haven’t had any accidents in a week. I’ve seen you helping Snowflake get around too, since she lost her leggy. This is good.”
“Can have tweaty?” Asked Jelly.
“Maybe later,” Claire said, which she’d found was a good way to deal with Jelly’s constant requests for treats. “Snowflake, you’ve been really brave. I’m sorry you’re leggy and see-place are gone, but I will always love you, and will make sure you never get hurt by mean fluffies ever again.”
“Snowfwake wuv mummah… wiw neva wun way again.”
“That’s good. Now there’s one more thing…” Claire began, but hesitated.
“Wat ting?” asked Snowflake.
“Well, you know how your tummies are getting bigger?”
“Yes?” the fluffies both asked.
“Well, thats because you are both pregnant.”
The fluffies looked confused.
“Pwegwunt?” said Snowflake, “Wat is pwegwunt?”
Realising the fluffies had no idea what she was talking about, Claire tried to explain things in an easier way.
“It means you have babies, growing inside your tummies.”
“Babbehs?” Asked Snowflake, as if this were some kind of magic.
“In fwuffy tummehs?” added Jelly, “But… but how babbeh’s get in dewe?” Jelly looked at her fat red tummy, and prodded it with one of her hooves.
“Well…” Claire started, unsure how to explain this in a way that they would understand, and not be hurt by, “If a mare, thats a girl fluffy, like you and Snowflake, and a Stallion, that’s a boy fluffy, have um… special huggies… then…”
“Nuuuu! Is fwom Wed Bawon, an Cwonic an da ova meany fwuffies!” Snowflake squeaked, “Dey sneaked meanie babbeh fwuffies into fwuffy tummehs!”
“Um… yes,” Claire said, as this was kind of correct, and she could see that the truth would be painful, however she said it.
“Nu wan meanie fwuffy babbehs in tummeh!” cried Snowflake, before starting to hu hu hu all over again.
Jelly just sat there, starring at her belly incredulously, and prodding it with her hooves from time to time.
Eventually, Claire had managed to get the fluffies to settle down to sleep. Now that they were not pooping on the carpet, they were back to living in her bedroom, and today, Claire had gotten them a special treat, FLuff-TV. Sitting the fluffies down in their nesty, Claire turned on her TV and changed it to the fluff TV channel, which her dad had reluctantly agreed to pay for. The fluffies already liked “TeeBee”, but had been used to watching cartoons. When they realised that Fluff-TV was all about fluffies, and had happy fluffies playing with each other and their owners, they were overjoyed.
Claire left them watching the show as she went off to school for the day. She told them that there was a very important show, called “Babies!” which they both needed to watch, as it explained all about “tummeh-babbehs” and what things a “soon-mummah” needed to do. Both fluffies agreed to watch the “pwatant show” and Claire went off to school.
When she arrived back that evening, she found Jelly and Snowflake playing with all of her plushy toys, pretending that they were baby fluffies, and singing a song together.
“Mummah wuv’s babbehs,
babbeh’ wuv mummah,
babbeh’s get miwkies,
gwow up big an stwong!”
“Wook! It mummah-Cwaire!” said Snowflake.
“Hello girls, how was your day? I see you’re playing with the plushies and that you’ve learned a song?”
“Yes!” Said Jelly, “Jewwy weawn song fwom Fwuff-Teebee, it go - Mummah wuv’s babbehs, babbeh’ wuv mummah, babbeh’s get miwkies, gwow up big an stwong! Jewwy am soon-mummah! Dat mean hav tummeh-babies! Dey gwowin, inside da tummeh of da Jewwy. Wun day, dey gonna come outside of da tummeh an den Jewwy can giv dem hugs and wuv an miwkies, and can wun an pway wiv dem”
It made Claire smile to see Jelly so happy. Snowflake was also happy, and sang along with her sister, although for some reason she was complaining about “tummeh-owies” and asking the tummeh-babies to “pwease nu huwt mummah.” Claire sat down with the Fluffies and played with them and the fluffies, talking about what would happen when the babies arrived. The fluffies asked “How wong tiww babbeh tiem?” and Claire said a week, which meant nothing to them. She then said it would be about seven “dawk times” and then they understood. Seven was the number of hoofies that both fluffies had between them.
Later that night, Claire’s mother served spaghetti, and this time, both Snowflake AND Jelly were able to behave long enough to eat all the sketties nicely, without stealing any from each other and without squabbling or fighting. They both ate “sketties” until they could eat no more. Jelly had eaten so much that she looked like a ball of red fluff. Snowflake ate slightly less. Then, after Claire wiped the excess sauce from their little faces, they went to bed.
“Uuuuhhhh… Jewwy eat too much… tummeh-huwty…”
“Snowfwake tummeh huwties… tummeh-huwties… pwease tummeh-babbehs, nu huwt mummah nu mowe… hu hu huuuu…”
Claire realised that there was such a thing as too much sketties.