“Dis way!” Nish yelled as Traveler, Maple, Lieu and the other foals made a break for it to the loading dock door.
Their brief capture by the taunting smarty perfectly showed Nish how quickly things were falling apart. They needed to get out fast before things get worse.
“Hewe!” Nish saw an open blue door that said “Loading Dock” as they ran. They all turned and ran through the door. Lieu was the last one through as he was struggling to catch his breath.
“Daddeh! Wieu… nu can… wun… nu moa!” Lieu was so distracted huffing hard to catch his breath, he didn’t notice a pale blond alicorn fluffy on the shelf above him push a heavy box over the edge… set to fall onto Lieu.
“WIEU WATCH 'OU!!” Traveler called. Lieu looked up just in time to see the box falling toward him before Traveler tackled him out of the way as the box crashed to the floor. They tumbled about six inches away. Traveler rose to his feet. Lieu lay there as Traveler stood up.
“Yu otay?” Traveler asked. Lieu looked up at Traveler, still huffing from exhaustion, nodded.
Maple ran up to them. “Awe yu tuu otay?”
“Am fine.” Traveler responded.
“Awe yu otay, Wieu?”
“Mummah! Wieu tiwed an scawed!” Lieu said still huffing and then ran to Maple’s embrace.
“Eye nu. It am otay, weww gu tu betta pwace soon.”
Lieu cooed in Maple’s embrace, only to be interupted.
“How pweshish. Tu bad yu and yu dummie babbeh wunt get tu enjoy it foa wong.”
Traveler looked up at the source of the voice, the alicorn on top of the shelf. The alicorn stood with front legs crossed over the edge of the metal shelf.
“Nu yu again.” Traveler said.
“Eye’m shew yu am wundawin bou’ owa bestesh pwan!”
“Dis am gettin owd! Jus weab us awone!” Nish said as Maple and Traveler noticed the other two buff alicorns stood encircling them.
The leader of the alicorns chuckled.
“Dat am nu goin to 'appen. Wha we gun do ih…”
As the alicorn went into his evil villain monologue, Nish looked around, hoping to figure out a way for them to get out of this confrontation in one piece.
Traveler stared at the door that lead outside and then analyzed the metal shelf the leader alicorn made his speech from.
They could easily run out the door, but the buff alicorns would hunt them down. They were faster and stronger than them. They needed to find another way to make their escape.
The two alicorns started moving closer. Lieu was shaking as he and his siblings held on to Maple.
“…an when we dun wit dat, we gun hab bestis speciaw huggies wid da pwetty mawe!”
Maple was instantly frightened. “NUUUU!! NU WAN SPECIAW HUGGIES WIT MEANIE MUNSTAS!!”
The alicorn leader laughed.
“Buh fiwst… we need to mae da dummies and poopeh babbehs gu foweba sweepies!”
“NU!!” Traveler had had enough.
"You weab speciaw fwiend an babbehs awone!
One of the two alicorns angled himself behind Traveler. The other one stood in front of Nish.
The leader alicorn laughed. “An wha awe yu gunna du tu shtawp us?”
The situation was becoming tense as the two alicorns could pounce at any moment. Maple and the foals could get away if Nish and Traveler could buy them time, but the alicorns were essentially evolved hunters. They could easily track them down and Nish and Traveler’s sacrifice would be in vain anyway… unless.
Traveler felt his bowls quiver.
“Dis.”
Traveler then let out an explosive torrent of feces… which went right into the mouth of the alicorn standing behind him.
“SCREEE-URGUGUGUGUGUGLUG!”
The alicorn couldn’t scream from the shit blocking his airway as he ran into the hallway, disappearing from sight.
One down, Two to go.
The alicorn leader stood dumbfounded and irritated. He didn’t wait for his victims to make their next move.
“GEH EM, TOUFFIE!!”
The other alicorn leaped at Traveler, but Nish tackled him mid-jump.
“WAH?!!”
They tumble to the ground. Nish gets up and calls Traveler.
“TWABAWA!! GU!! GET MAPWE AN DA BABBEHS OU’A HEWE!!”
Traveler looked left and right. Maple and the foals were running out, but Lieu sat right outside.
“NU WITOUCHU!”
“Eye’m gettin tiwed ob dis!”
The leader alicorn lept down, the shelf shaking from his inertia.
“Is tyme tu end dis!”
The leader then runs and tackles Traveler, knocking the wind out of him.
“DADDEH!!” Lieu screamed.
Traveler tried to breathe, but only coughed up a bit of blood. The alicorn had pierced his lung with his horn.
“Stupi dummeh.”
Traveler groaned in pain as the alicorn removed his horn from his chest.
“Di du weawwy tink dat yu couwd oba powa us?”
The other alicorn came walking around, thinking Nish was out for the count.
Traveler could only grunt as tried covering the wound in his chest from the alicorn’s horn.
“Eye… duwn hab tu… gib ou… stompies…”
He spit out some blood.
“Jus… distwact ou.”
From out of nowhere, Nish rams into one of the alicorns so hard he flies straight into the metal shelf.
As the shelf starts to topple, Nish runs to Traveler’s side.
“I’m geddin yu odda hewe.”
Traveler coughed. “Nu… Nu yua not.”
Nish tried to get Traveler on his feet, but Traveler screamed in pain; he couldn’t move.
“Tae… tae Mapwe and da babbehs… and geh odda hewe. Befoa… meanie munstah comes.”
Before Nish could do anything else, the shelf came crashing down, squashing the one alicorn while the leader jumped clear. The top of the shelf landed on Traveler.
“TWABAWA!!”
“GU!!! GED SPECIAW FWIEND AN BABBEHS TU SABETY!!”
Nish didn’t want to leave Traveler behind, but his wounds were too great, and Nish himself was on the verge of exhaustion from the day’s events… and the alicorn leader was still up and walking.
“Eye’ww pwetect dem.” Nish promised.
Traveler nodded, “tank… ou…” before he succumbed to his wounds.
With regret and the pain in his heart rising up his throat, Nish fought back the tears as he ran out the door following Maple and the litter.
Lieu was waiting there for him.
“Wewe Daddeh?”
Nish couldn’t stop to answer him as he took him in the mouth like a lioness carrying a cub and ran as fast as he could away from the building as the sun was setting. Lieu only got a glimpse of his father laying underneath the collapsed shelf as they turned a corner, and Traveler was out of sight.
As Nish disappeared on the horizon, the Alicorn leader stood by the edge of the loading dock and watched.
“Yu gun pay foa dis. Eye sweaw it.” He then leapt off the platform and walked off into the sunset.