"No! No, Winston! Bad fluffy! Bad!"
Winston cowered as the harshest possible words (‘bad fluffy’) scratched themselves into his brain.
“Buh… buh mummah, Winston hungwy… pwease wet hab nu-”
“Winston, you have food already, it’s in your bowl!”
“Buh wan’ mummah’s nummies! Smeww nice, wan’ twy!”
“No Winston! This food isn’t for fluffies, it’s bad for you!”
“Buh… buh Winston wan’ it!”
“God, just once I buy a snack for myself, and you’re all over it… Winston, this is your last warning. Eat your own food, and stay away from mine, or you’ll be sorry. Got it?”
“Huhu… meanie mummah…” Winston muttered to himself as he waddled away to sulk next to his untouched food bowl.
It just wasn’t fair! Every day, for breaf-kast, lunch and… uh, the third one, Winston had kibble. Always the same smelly stupid boring old kibble! Winston hated kibble, he wanted good food, but mama never let him have any! There was a word she used for it, but he couldn’t remember it, it was long and sounded weird, so it wasn’t important!
All that mattered was mama never let Winston eat the things he wanted to! Which wasn’t fair, it wasn’t fair at all!
Winston glared at his kibble and angrily jabbed at it with his hoof, willing it to go away but, alas, to no avail. The kibble remained in it’s bowl, untouched and as gloopy as ever.
It just wasn’t fair!!!
Winston looked over his shoulder and saw his mama sitting on the couch, looking at her phone, her own food sitting on the coffee-table, mostly ignored until mama reached out a hand, eyes not moving from the screen, and pulled one of the delectable nummies out of the bag.
The sight of the nummies made Winston’s mouth water and his tummy rumble. He was going to get one of those nummies for himself, he was sure of it. He just needed to wait for his chance…
There!
Mama was so distracted by her phone, that when she pulled out one of her nummies, she knocked another one out of the bag which rolled over the foil packaging, across the coffee table, and down onto the soft carpet beneath.
Winston’s piggy little eyes watched it the entire time, not blinking once.
It was all his.
He got up and shuffled along, walking in no particular direction. Mama saw him moving and picked up her plastic bag, confirmed it was empty, then crushed it and walked to the kitchen to throw it away.
As soon as she was gone, Winston darted towards the coffee table, to where the lone nummy was sitting on the floor, small and light-brown and coated in a thin layer of salt. Mama hadn’t noticed it had fallen, but Winston had, and now it was all his!
He snatched it up between his lips and chomped down on it with his blunt teeth, relishing the delightfully sharp taste of the salt as it hit his tongue. It was chewed up and swallowed in seconds, but that didn’t matter. The nummy had tasted wonderful, and best of all, the absolute best part of all… was that Winston had gotten one over on his dummy stupid didn’t-know-nothing ma-
“Urk.” Winston said. Why had he said that? Then he coughed. That was strange, he didn’t feel sick. Then, suddenly, his neck felt funny, all fuzzy and warm and… and tight. So tight, he couldn’t actually breathe!
“HORK! HURK! HORK!” Winston gasped and wheezed as he fell over onto his side, his heart pounding in his chest as he fought with all his might to try and stay alive.
He couldn’t understand it, what had happened?! All he’d done was eat a nummy, there was nothing wrong with that, right?! Okay, fine, so it was a ‘bad’ nummy that he wasn’t supposed to have, but what did that matter?! Okay, fine, so mama said he was alley… allup… alloy… what was it again? That stupid word that mama said was the reason why Winston couldn’t have certain nummies…
Allergic! That was it! Winston was ‘allergic’ to certain nummies!
Boy, he sure was smart to remember that! Smart with a capital ‘B’!
Winston felt a surge of smug pride throughout his being… which was the last thing he felt as he finally passed out from the lack of oxygen. Ten seconds later, his heart gave out, and Winston was dead.
His owner, Bethany, found him a few seconds later, and realised quickly what had happened… although she was hardly too upset. Winston had been a pain ever since she’d gotten him because, much like a child, telling a fluffy pony they couldn’t have something was the perfect way of making them want it more.
Winston was allergic to a lot of things, but peanuts were the biggest one.
Bethany had done her best to keep peanuts away from him, but nuts were in an awful lot of food-products. In the end the only thing that was always safe for him to eat was regular fluffy kibble.
But Bethany had been in a hurry after work last night, had grabbed herself some food from the corner store on the way home and didn’t even think twice about it, and the next thing she knew, she was carrying a multipack bag of salted peanuts into her home.
But she figured, where was the harm really? All she had to do was keep them out of reach of Winston, and it’d be fine. Sure he could huff and shout and pout and cry, but as long as he didn’t eat any of them, there was no real harm, right?
Bethany looked down at the lifeless fluffy pony lying on her carpet, and mentally shrugged.
At least now she could eat peanuts again without having to guard them.