Cherry has been diligently exploring her saferoom. Composed of hastily painted planks of plywood it did its job of keeping Cherry contained well enough. To the little chirpy it was like having a whole new world to explore.
Cherry loves to explore despite not really being able to walk yet. She stumbles and crawls and waddles her way around the enclosure, taking in the sights. “Waow… su pwetty…” she thought to herself at the majestic trio of water fountains that she’s seen for two days now.
“Magic nummies” she thought while admiring the kibble dispenser. She heard the telltale sign of kibble falling onto metal and decided to check it out. After a fair bit of struggling she hefted herself into the bowl and gummed a piece of kibble. “Ams mummah nummies… wan be big fwuffy!” she thought as she lapped her tongue at the kibble.
“Oh hey, food.” Strawberry thought as he heard the dispenser go off. He walked over and saw his baby pointlessly trying to gnaw on a piece of kibble. God his kid was dumb. “Chewwy. Uwe needses teethies tu nom kibbwes. Uwe haves at weast 5 fowevahs tiww teethies.” He picked up Cherry with his teeth and placed her down next to him. She could keep gnawing, whatever floated her boat. He pressed his face into the bowl and started eating.
Much like cats or dogs he couldn’t see what was directly under him; he had to guess and explore with his tongue. It was easy at first and got harder as he ate, kind of like a game. The kibble was delicious as always. Maxine had sprung for the deluxe Mummah’s Special Sketti brand and you could really taste the sketti.
“Mums-ah!” Cherry always loved to see her fluffy mummah. She had been too busy exploring and hadn’t seen her for at least a forever. She spit out the kibble and waddled up to give mummah a hug. “W-wubs!”
“Yuhs, yush, wubs. Mummah ams nommies.” Strawberry said as he took a break from eating. She hoped her next litter would be smarter, or at least less annoying. Maybe a different color? Cherry took too much after her.
Strawberry went very still. She wordlessly walked over to the wall of the saferoom and bashed her head against it over and over.
“Mums…ah?” Cherry looked horrified as her mother started hurting herself out of nowhere. “Nuh… huw-huts! Pwe-pweas?”
Strawberry kept getting his head on the wall, it didn’t hurt much if at all, but jumbling his brain around was helping him come back to reality. He was considering having more foals? Really? At this rate it wasn’t a question of getting to turn back, it was getting to the point where even wanting to was in jeopardy.
Cherry started bawling her little eyes out which woke up the sleeping Eclair. “…chewwy?” she said groggily, “wai ams sads?” Her vision was fuzzy from the painkillers but she could make out two pinkish blobs not too far from her.
Strawberry felt a tinge of panic deep within his fluffy body. His baby was upset, and it was his fault! He needed to resolve the situation quickly, letting these feelings fester was a one way ticket to being a mummah for real. He scooped up Cherry into his hooves and started singing, “Mummah wub babbeh, babbeh wub mummah” over and over. Cherry sniffled and stopped crying.
“Mums-ah… ams o-tah?” Cherry asked with real concern. Mummah didn’t appear to be hurt, which didn’t make a lot of sense to her but maybe mummahs couldn’t get hurt?
Eclair squinted harder, she could make out the mummah song but it was a surprise to her. Strawberry wasn’t exactly the type of mummah to sing it. She wasn’t a bad mummah, just a weird one. Eclair rolled onto her belly to get a better look and cried out in pain, “hurties!”
Cherry gasped and turned to her sister. She pointed urgently, “Mums! Ee-cwai!?”
Always something. Strawberry bit his baby’s scruff and carried her over to Eclair. He sat on his haunches and let Cherry go onto his hooves and then onto the floor. “Uwe ams gunna haves huwties foh a whiwe. Maxeen wiww hewp when she wetuwns. Be toughies.” Strawberry patted Eclair on the forehead consolingly. Speaking of, it had been a few hours. He wondered where she was. Mummah Maxine was a comforting presence and god damn it. He bit his tongue to hide the self abuse. The pain helped to ground him. Maxine was not his mummah, she was his captor damn it.
Did she know this was going to happen? Strawberry wouldn’t put it past her, the woman called him her fluffy earlier today. She wouldn’t let him die, and now he knew his mind was going, trapping him in the body of a baby crazy bitch. Maxine is a monster among monsters.
“Oh no, it’s just a prosthetic, it falls off sometimes.” Maxine said as she picked up Geoff’s arm and waved it around, “It’s experimental, very realistic.”
The gathered crowd of customers and employees of the fluffy mart looked from the miniature woman to the shambling giant next to her. Geoff’s arm popped off clean and there wasn’t the torrent of blood you’d expect from a dismembered arm. Maxine was really hoping the crowd was buying it, she needed to save up her magic to help heal Eclair faster and mind wiping a crowd would empty her out for the day.
“Eeeet eeeees pros-theeeet-eeek.” Geoff said helpfully. He took his arm back from Maxine and slapped it onto the socket. It stayed and started moving again after a few adjustments. “Cee? Eeet eees fiiine.”
Maxine gave a double thumbs up and the crowd dispersed. She held Geoff’s hand and patted him, “Good job buddy, you’re doing well.” Her expression said otherwise but Geoff 2.0 wasn’t equipped with the facilities to register white lies. She made a note to herself, the upper weight limit on Geoff’s arms was around 50 pounds. She hefted up two 50 pound bags of kibble onto her shoulders and continued shopping.
Strawberry had to distract Eclair from the pain. If Eclair starts crying Cherry will follow and then there goes his sanity. Every time he starts slipping it’s like he takes a back seat and Strawberry takes control and Strawberry has wants that he does not want to come to pass. He’d have to take a risk and take the foals out of the safe room.
“Chewwy, snuggies wid Ecwair.” Strawberry said authoritatively. Cherry waddled over to the edge of the basket Eclair was resting in and hopped over the edge, flopping next to Eclair on her back.
The two foals giggled, “Ams boff upsie downsies!”
Strawberry picked up the basket and made his way out of the saferoom’s airlock double doors. He placed the foals on the sofa and made his way to the tv. He had it on a wall mount and could rotate it if he got on his hind legs. He moved it 180 degrees and walked back to the foals. Hopping onto the sofa he rolled onto his back as well and turned on the television. “Dewe. Nao it ams wite sides up foh babbehs ans Stawbewwy.”
But what to watch? Strawberry scrolled through the channels until he saw the title card of the timeless classic, “Robocop.” That’s fine for kids, right?
Turns out, no not so much but the gore was so over the top that the fluffies couldn’t comprehend it to any reasonable extent. Eclair was very interested in the idea of rebuilding someone after they lost limbs which wasn’t too surprising. Cherry wasn’t following along at all, only really getting the idea that she didn’t want to go to detroit.
Strawberry emphasised with Murphy more than he would have liked. He too had to deal with a strange body with overpowering directives. 1: Do not harm Cherry, 2: You can’t kill yourself, 3: …well he couldn’t come up with a third one but it probably existed. Robocop got the better deal, they were both practically invulnerable but only one of them was dragging around a pair of udders. Speaking of which, he moved the foals to his teats and continued to channel surf. The two latched on and he felt a deep sense of fulfillment that he immediately turned up the volume to conceal.
“Honey, I’m home!” Maxine said as she played a sitcom laugh track from Geoff’s phone, “How’s my favorite ladies?” Maxine walked into the livingroom to see Strawberry rolled onto his back watching an upside down television breastfeeding the foals. She was at a loss for words, “I’m sure this makes perfect sense in context. How’s you miss Strawberry?” She put dropped bags of litter with a loud thump onto the floorboards.
“Stawbewwy ams goin cwazy. Dis fwuffy wans tummeh babbehs ans Stawbewwy does’n…”
“That’s rough buddy. Well, when you want more foals I’ll hook you up with a stallion or could arrange something else. Just let me know! Got a few more things to unload and I’ll be right with you.” Maxine ruffled the manes of her fluffies and walked out of the room.
Strawberry stared at her as she left. Why’d he tell her that? Was it Strawberry betraying him again? He punched himself in the jaw with a hoof. Stupid mare, keep your mouth shut!
“Geoff, wait in the project room until I need you.”
“Yeeeees Meeesstreeeesss.” The lumbering homunculus walked past the fluffies without a word.
“So, got what you asked for with a little extra! Harnesses for all of you!” Maxine was dangling three neon pink harnesses in front of Strawberry’s face, “We’ll go on a walk later, I’ve got a double baby carrier for Cherry and Eclair since they’re still a bit challenged.”
Strawberry groaned, “Nuh need hawness. Ams aduwt.”
Maxine grinned sardonically, “Oh yes such a big girl. No choice, can’t have you running off on me and getting preggers. Have to make sure we get a good stud when you’re ready.”
Strawberry bit his lip. That was… not an unlikely scenario. “…fines.”
“That’s the spirit!” Maxine sat down onto the couch and picked Eclair off of Strawberry, “Sorry to interrupt your feeding time but I’m ready to help with your hurties.”
Eclair tilted her head and licked the milk off her lips, “Mummah hewp?”
Maxine only nodded and held her hand onto Eclair’s belly. It radiated a warm green light that made the foal feel quite a bit better. The pain wasn’t gone, but it was manageable. “By tomorrow I should have the hurties all gone. You’re such a good girl, miss Eclair.” Eclair was given a boop on the nose for good luck and returned to her feeding.
“Ok, you finish feeding the girls and have them use the litter box. I’ve got a few more things to unload and then we’re going on a family walk in the great outdoors!”
