Anthony opened the door to the safe-room and smiled. “Well, what do you think?”
Bumble gasped when she saw the room, it was the biggest safe room she’d ever seen, she didn’t even believe she could get from one side of the room to the other in one trip. There was all her favourite toys, plus more she’d never seen before, of all shapes and colours, and best of all, a massive Fluffy bed with her stuffy-friend, a stuffed hound-dog called Elvis, waiting for her.
“Daddeh it pewfeck, Bumbew neba see a safe-woom dis big befowe. It tuu big fow Bumbew, daddeh am tuu nice.”
“Actually Bumble, it’s not just for you, it’s for your babies as well.”
Bumble’s face lit up, her eyes actually sparkled with joy. “Daddeh mean it.”
“I did say, once we’re in the new house you could have foals, and you’ve been very patient with me so yes, you can have babies.”
“FANK YU DADDEH!”
Bumble threw herself into Anthony’s arms, tears running down her face, she would finally be a mummah and bring her special babbehs into her daddeh’s special life.
Bumble was a yellow Pegasus with a black mane, Anthony had picked her up after a nasty break-up as a way to feel less lonely. At first he found her neediness to be grating but after a while, he realised that she was giving him a reason to keep going, her inability to look after herself pretty much forced him to get up in the morning and while he resented her for that at the start, now he loved her for it.
Over time, the much happier Anthony started to get more notice at his work, with his bosses looking to him for more and more high-value clients until eventually, Anthony was given a long overdue promotion. Now with a steadier income coming in, Anthony was able to buy a bigger house and a bigger safe-room for Bumble’s upcoming family.
He knew the risk, he knew the signs and he was careful, when Bumble first asked him to have babies he told her they didn’t have the space to keep them. She was clearly upset but accepted his reasoning, but she asked again, then again, then again, until it was becoming a weekly thing with each new no hurting her more and more.
Anthony never got mad at her though, he knew it was because Bumble was lonely in the house, stuffed toys and TV only go so far and with Anthony working later and later hours, Bumble’s isolation was making her more and more depressed.
So when Anthony finally got the promotion, he told her that once they were able to move into a bigger, nicer home together, he would allow her to have babies, so long as she understood the rules. First; these would be the only babies she could have, Second; She could keep the babies until they were ready to start their own families, and Third; There would be no poopies or bestesh babbehs, she would love all her foals or lose them all.
Bumble agreed and waited patiently for the day to arrive when daddy would allow her to have a family. She still felt lonely, but knowing that one day her dreams would come true made the wait that little more bearable.
Now, that day had arrived.
Anthony arrived at the address, he double-checked it to make sure he was at the right place since it looked like a block of flats instead of a breeding pen. But the stallion was too good to pass up so he took the chance and walked upstairs.
When he knocked on the door, a young woman with red hair opened and smiled at him.
“Mr Simon? Pleasure to meet you, I’m Katherine Townsend, I trust you’re here to see Stud.”
“That’s right.” Anthony walked inside and shook Katherine’s hand. “I must say I wasn’t expecting such a low-key area for a breeding stage.”
“My partner Josef and I prefer to keep things home-brewed, at least until we can build enough reputation to branch out. Until then, Stud is popular enough to keep us afloat.”
“I bet he is, but only the best for Bumble here.”
Anthony lifted the carrier cage so Bumble was eye-level with Katherine, the little yellow Pegasus waved at her. “Hewwo nice wady.”
“Well hello to you too, aren’t you a friendly one? Now Mr Simon before we begin, is Bumble aware that Stud is… not a permanent mate?”
Anthony nodded. “She understands, she knows I’ll be there to help her raise her foals.”
Katherine’s eyes flashed with something… unnerving, but her friendly demeanour soon returned as she turned to Bumble.
“Now Bumble, my Fluffy Stud is waiting for you so he can give you tummy-babies. However… he’s not been feeling great lately, he’s sad that he doesn’t have a special-friend. What he doesn’t know is that we’ll be getting him one soon, we just need to wait a moment for her to get here. So if Stud asks you to be his special-friend, just tell him that you can’t, but he’ll have one soon enough.”
“Bumbew feew sad, nu wan Stud tu hab heawt-huwties.”
“It’s ok, take some time if you like, play with him and make him feel comfortable, but don’t get his hopes up yet, we want to surprise him.”
Bumble still felt bad for Stud, but she understood Katherine wanted to surprise him so she agreed to keep quiet. With everything ready, Katherine took Bumble out of the carrier box and carried her through to the bedroom.
Bumble’s little heart wet into overdrive when she saw Stud. This god-like Fluffy with a golden and red coat and a white mane was the most handsome stallion she’d ever seen, she barely even noticed his wings and horn because he was so pretty.
And he was going to give her tummeh-babbehs.
Katherine placed Bumble on the bed and left the room, leaving the two of them to get to know each other. Stud broke the silence first. “Hewwo Pwetty mawe. Am Stud, wub tu see nyu fwiend.”
“Uhhhhh.” Bumble was drooling at the sight of Stud, until she was brought back to reality. “Oh, sowwy, am Bumbew, hab happiest u meet nyu fwiend tuu.”
“Am Bumbew gun be speciaw-fwiend?”
Bumble so badly wanted to tell Stud the truth, but she knew she couldn’t, and she was a good Fluffy who did as she was told “Sowwy nu, Bumbew jus hewe tu hab speciaw-huggies su can hab babbehs. Bu Kat-A-Wine say Stud hab speciaw-fwiend soon.”
Stud was saddened to hear Bumble would be another mare he wouldn’t see again, but the news that his mummah was getting him a forever special-friend made him feel much better.
“Bumbew wan pway huggie-tag?”
“YEH!”
Jumping across the bed, the two Fluffies chased each other, bouncing up and down on the mattress until one of them caught the other, gave them a big hug, then the chased started again. After a few moments, Stud caught Bumble and the two of them tumbled over laughing, until they felt something between them. Stud could feel something hot against his no-no stick, and Bumble could feels something hard against her special place.
“Du… du Bumbew wan speciaw-huggies nyo?”
Bumble only nodded, too scared of her own tongue to talk. Stud moved off of her and allowed Bumble to move into position, sticking her rear in the air and moving her tail. She shuddered as Stud rubbed himself against her, before carefully mounting her, pressing his phallus against her, and pushing in.
“HOWY SKY-DADDEH DAY AM BIG!”
Outside the room, Anthony got a fright at Bumble’s sudden cry, until he saw Katherine laughing.
“Don’t worry, he gets that all the time.”
Anthony calmed down, just as the faint but happy sounds of ‘enf, enf, enf, enf’ could be heard coming from the bedroom.
Bumble’s pregnancy went by quite well all things considered, she had her moments of acting up, mosty aroind wanted more sketti on Sketti-Day to help her foals grow big and strong, but for the most part, the next month went by quite happily for her and Anthony, he found a purpose in helping her prepare for motherhood and she got to live in comfort knowing her babbehs would be safe and sound.
She even sang a daddeh song among her many, MANY mummeh songs so her foals would know that Anthony loved them almost as much as she did.
When the day finally came, Anthony had taken a week off work to make sure he was there when she popped, and in typical Fluffy style Bumble picked just before dinner time when Anthony was just getting started on making their meal when he heard…
“BIGGESH POOPIES!”
Dropping everything and grabbing a towel, Anthony rushed through to the safe-room to find Bumble struggling over her litterbox.
“DADDEH! Bumbew poopie-pwace hab wowstesh huwties, nu can make gud-poopies.”
“That’s no poopies Bumble, that’s your foals.”
“BABBEH!”
Suddenly she was hit with another contraction, a painful one. Anthony placed the towel down behind her and positioned himself to help her.
“It’s ok Bumble, I’m here, I’ll help you, you just push ok.”
“OK DADDEH!” She somehow screeched between clenched teeth. Fighting with her own biology, Bumble birth her first child, a ruby red Pegasus filly with a white mane. Bumble heard her foals chirping behind her.
“Ba… babbeh? Bumbew am mummah?”
“Yes you are Bumble, congrats.”
“Bum… bumbew wan see babbeh. Babbeh need miwkies.”
“Not yet Bumble, you’ve got more coming.”
“More babb…EEEEEEHHHHHHHSSSSS!!!”
Bumble clenched tight as more foals came out of her, a monochrome gold Alicorn colt, a white unicorn filly with a yellow mane, and a black Alicorn colt with a golden mane, followed by the afterbirth.
Realising she could walk again, Bumble slowly turned around and her little heart burst at the sight, she had four beautiful, wonderful babbehs. She loved them all instantly.
“Babbehs, babbehs wook SU pwetty. Am pwettish babbehs eba, Bumbew hab sush biggesh heawt-happies tu be mummah. Fank yu daddeh.”
“You’re welcome Bumble, now make sure they’re all clean and I’ll cook up some sketti for you to feed them.”
Bumble nodded and walked over to her first foal while Anthony left the room, she picked up the red filly and licked her clean, making sure to get every inch of the shiny red baby she could reach.
“Nu taste pwetty, bu Bumbew du it fow babbeh.”
‘Chirp, chirp, peep’
Bumble placed the red filly between her legs and manoeuvred her over to teat, the filly fumbled with the nipple as her blind face bumped against it before she latched on and took the long suckling of her first meal. Bumble then moved onto the golden Alicorn and licked him as well.
“Shy-nee babbeh nu taste pwetty tuu, bu Bumbew wan keep babbehs cwean.”
Once finished she placed the gold colt beside his sister and waited for him to latch onto her other nipple, when she saw him starting to greedily gulp down her milk she picked up the white filly, licking her clean too.
“White babbeh nu taste pwetty as weww. Bu mummah nu cawe, stiww wub babbeh.”
Bumble gave the white filly a big hug to make up for not having milk for her yet, and placed her down beside her siblings to keep her warm. Then Bumble picked up the black colt, happily licked his back and…
Almost threw up.
“EWWW, Babbeh nu taste gud, nu smeww gud. Yu bad babbeh.”
Anthony returned just in time to see Bumblew reject her black foal, he sighed with disappointment, he thought her better than this.
“Bumble? What’s going on?”
“Babbeh nu smeww pwetty, babbeh smeww wike bad babbeh.”
“Bumble, do you remember what I said. You have to love all your foals I’ll take them all away from you. Only good mothers get to have babies.”
Bumble gasped. Was she a bad mummah? No, she couldn’t be, she loved all her foals… but she had just pushed away her own babbeh, but he smell so bad, like milkies from a mummah who had gone forever sleepies a long time ago.
No, she WAS a bad mummah, she should love her foals no matter what. With a cautious hoof, she picked up her black foals again, and started to lick him clean.
The little guy peeped at the sensitive touch of his mother. ‘Peep… peep… peep.’
Bumble held on for as long as she could before putting the colt down. “Am su, su sowwy daddeh. Bu babbeh smeww WEAWWY nu pwetty. Bumbew twy bu nu can hab babbeh.”
Anthony was starting to get cross. He knew runt smell was a problem but looking the colt over, he saw no problem with him, all his legs were working, his chirps sounded fine. He feared Bumble was pushing him away because his black coat was considered ‘bad’.
“Bumble, there’s nothing wrong with your baby, stop pushing him away or I’ll take ALL your babies.”
“NU! Pwease daddeh, Bumbew be betta. Wet Bumbew keep babbeh, may-bee git use to smeww duwing sweepie-time.”
“You better hope so, because I mean it Bumble, it’s all your foals, or none of your foals.”
Anthony put the bowl of skettis on the ground but kept it from Bumble until he watched her feed the black colt as well. He could see the tears in her eyes as she swapped her two fed foals for her two hungry ones, but he felt no sympathy for her.
How could such a wonderful Fluffy turn on her own kids like that?
Things didn’t improve over the next few days, Anthony didn’t trust Bumble not to reject or even hurt the black colt so he made sure to be there for every feeding to make sure he got his fair share. The weeping Bumble didn’t faze him anymore, he thought she was better than this.
Bumble though was hurt, confused and ill, WHY did her baby smell so bad, why couldn’t she show him the same love she gave his siblings? Because she did love him, he was her babbeh, of course she loved him, but she couldn’t hold him, couldn’t feed him, couldn’t even be near him without wanting to make sicky wawas.
She felt like the worst mummah in the world, it made her fear how badly she was treated her other babbehs if she couldn’t even look after one, no matter how many times her daddy forced her to.
Things finally broke down when Anthony returned home from a hard day at the office to find Bumble hugging three of her foals while the black colt lay off to the sides, seemingly abandoned.
“GODDAMIT BUMBLE!”
Bumble yelped in fright as she, and all four of her foals, shit themselves in fear of the loud noise. “Daddeh?”
“I told you, look after ALL your babies, and you’re ignoring that one, the one I’ve told you to look after time and time again and you still refuse to.”
Bumble was confused, she’d forced herself to feed the black colt just moment ago so she could play with her other babbehs without his smell distracting her. “Bu Bumbew du wook afta bad smeww babbeh.”
“REALLY? Cause it looks to me like you’re ignoring him, like you don’t love him, like you’re a bad mother.”
Bumble felt her heart break. She was a bad mother, even with all the love she gave her foals, even the bad smell one, she was still a bad mother. She wanted to break down and cry until she saw Anthony coming towards her.
“You’re going in the sorry box Bumble, and then I’m gonna find new homes for your babies so that they can have mothers that actually care for them.
“NUUUU!”
Bumble found an immediate burst of energy and gather her foals together, even the black one, and stood protectively over them.
“Daddeh nu take Bumbew’s babbehs, Bumbew wub babbehs, nu wet meanie daddeh huwt dem.”
“I’m not gonna hurt them Bumble, but you can’t take care of them and…”
“DADDEH NU WISTEN!”
Bumble had screamed the loudest she’d ever done before, her vocal chords hurt from doing so but it was enough to shock Anthony into stopping. The Fluffy and owner looked at each other, the only sounds being the terrified chirping from Bumble’s foals as Bumble spoke slowly and angrily, tears openly falling down her face.
“Bumbew DU wub babbehs, wub AWW babbehs, eben bad smeww babbeh. Bu babbeh smeww tuu bad, Bumbew nu can gib him miwkies, nu can gib him wub, wan SU bad tu wub babbeh bu bad smeww make Bumbew wan tu weave babbeh awone, make Bumbew wan tu gib babbeh foweba…”
She chocked back a sob, too disgusted with herself to finish that thought.
“Bu Bumbew nu du dat, Bumbew twy tu wook afta babbeh, twy tu wub babbeh, bu he stiww smeww bad an it gib Bumbew biggesh heawt-huwties nu can wook afta babbeh wight. Pwease daddeh, pwease wisten tu Bumbew, hewp Bumbew knyo wai babbeh nu smeww gud su Bumbew can wub babbeh pwopawy.”
Anthony sighed, clearly whatever was wrong was enough for Bumble to make this impassioned plea, he conceded that something needed to be done.
“Ok Bumble, we’ll take him to the doctors. Maybe they can tell us why.”
Bumble smiled, it felt like days she was actually smiled, and sat down, curling herself around her foals. Not even the bad smell could ruin her happiness now.
The next day, Anthony took Bumble and her foals to the vets, the foals were still chirping and blind so they were scared by the carrier box and the vroom-vroom monster, but Bumble did her best to calm them down.
Inside the vet’s office, Bumble and the foals were let out so that Bumble could feed them all while Anthony explained the situation to the vet.
“She keeps saying that the colt smells bad, like bad enough to make her want to throw up. He looks ok to me so I don’t know if it’s runt smell or something else, but she can’t be near him and I don’t know why.”
“Hmm, does sound like runt smell, but with no outwardly physical damage it’s hard to tell. I’ll do some tests on her and the foals, hopefully I can find something.”
“Please do, I want my happy little Bumble back.”
Anthony expected the vet to take at least an hour to finish off his testing, but to his shock it was only 20 minutes before he was called back into office, and seeing the look on the vet’s face did not fill Anthony with hope.
“What’s the news?”
“It’s bad, real bad. I listened in to the foals’ heartbeat, the other three are normal and healthy,but the black colt’s sounded off, weak and irregular. So I put him through an echocardiogram and… well see for yourself.”
The vet pointed over to the light-up wall with two, side-by-side black and white pictures of tiny foal hearts on display. He pointed to the left one first.
“This is from your golden Alicorn, this is a how a foals heart should look, tiny but powerful. Now look at your black Alicorn.”
Instantly Anthony knew this heart didn’t look right, it was even smaller than the healthy heart, with a completely grey portion in the central vein near the middle.
“His ventricles haven’t formed properly, they’re too weak to work properly so his heart is pumping twice as hard and still only being half as useful. Honestly the fact he didn’t die in the womb is astounding.”
Anthony felt like absolute shit. “So he was a runt.”
The vet nodded. “Bumble must have a strong will not to have immediately kill him, he won’t last to adulthood, he might not even talk it’s that bad, most mothers would’ve killed him the minute they smelt him.”
Anthony didn’t even bother to wipe the guilty tear on his face. “Bumble wouldn’t, she’s a good mother. She loves all her foals.”
Anthony didn’t want to do this part, but he knew it had to be him to tell Bumble the news. He found him in the play pen feeding two of her foals while she hugged the other two, Anthony could see the sour look on her face being so close to the black colt but she was powering through it. Whether out of love for her child or fear of Anthony he couldn’t tell.
Truthfully he didn’t want to.
“Hey Bumble, how’s thing?”
“Bumbew gud daddeh, babbehs am tuu, eben nu smeww-pwetty babbeh.”
“That’s good, that’s good. Listen Bumble, I need to apologise, you were right, there it something wrong with your baby, the smell bad one. He’s got… he has the biggest heart hurties ever, and we can’t do anything to save him.”
“Nu, can huggies nu hewp?”
“I’m afraid not, his heart was born properly, that’s why he smell bad, it was his way of telling you he was in pain because he couldn’t talk.”
Bumble started crying. “Huu, am wowstesh mummah, nu can teww babbeh hab huwties.”
Anthony shot out a hand to stroke her mane. “Hey, hey, that’s not true and you know it. You loved that baby so much, you gave him all the love and care that a mother should then you gave him even more despite his smell. You were the best mother he could ever need or want and you made sure that he was safe and happy, there was nothing you could do to help him, but you looked after him all the same.”
“Wha… wha happen tu babbeh nyo?”
“The vet is going to give him something, something to make him go forever sleepies but in a peaceful way, we could take him home but he’ll go forever sleepies soon anyway, and it might hurt at home since we can’t help his heart.”
Bumble looked down at her little black colt, she so badly wanted to see him open his eyes, to hear him say his first words, to look into her eyes and know that she was his mummah.
But she knew that was selfish, her babbeh was hurting, and the vet could help him, she looked up at Anthony and nodded.
“Gib babbeh gud sweepies, Bumbew stay hewe wiv him.”
“Ok, you’re a good mum Bumble, I’m sorry I never listened to you.”
Bumble didn’t look up, she kept her focus on her black colt as the vet stepped in and injected him with the medication. The black colt yelped at the sharp pain but Bumble quickly licked his forehead and hugged him tighter.
“Yu am Waven, yu am mummah’s wittew babbeh. Mummah nu cawe bout bad smeww ow heawt-huwties. Mummah wub Waven awways. Mummah wub babbeh, babbeh wub mummah, gu tu skettiwand, mummah see yu dewe.”
Bumble hummed to Raven as his breathing slowed down until it eventually stopped, she kept his body close to her as she cried for her lost son. Her other foals could sense the sadness and cuddle up closer to their mother to share in her grief, all of them mourning the brother they never got to meet.
The brother they would never forget.
rest well lil Raven be joy in skettiland.