Gumdrop is a beautiful fluffy, even when judged by the standards of humans. A pegasus filly, with short, soft, cotton candy pink fluff with a hint of gold that catches in the sunlight, a long, flowing, candy apple red mane, shiny purple hooves and eyes that seemed to gleam in the sun. She even had a heart shaped patch of white on her chest. She was specially ordered from Hasbio themselves as her mummahs 8th birthday present, and couldn’t lead a more happy life.
She sat contentedly, buckled into her special car seat next to her mummah. The two nuzzled happily as Melody’s father drove them home from the fluffy park. “Wub mummah,” she cooed as her mummah Melody softly stroked her mane.
Melody smiled and planted a kiss on the fillies head. “Not as much as I love you!” The two giggled and snuggled together as Sam looked at them in the rearview mirror and grimaced. He was happy Melody was happy, she was the only light of his light left after all, but she only dealt with the good parts. The skettis, the huggies and love, the play dates at the park. Sam was the one who had to deal with the less glamorous parts of fluffy ownership, cleaning litter boxes, putting away toys that the fluffy left out, giving her kibble instead of spaghetti, cleaning up scaredy poopies, and worst of all, saying no.
No to so many things, no to another hour of FluffyTV, no to three sketti nights in a row, no to letting her have a special friend, no to having special huggies, and worst argument of all, no to babies. Every. Single. Day.
Sam couldn’t even discipline her. Each time he would put the mare in a sorry box for throwing another baby fueled tantrum, Melody would lock herself up in her room in protest until she was let out. Every sorry stick he’d buy would ‘disappear’ into thin air. He’d try to explain to Melody that spoiling the filly wasn’t good for either of them, but she didn’t listen. Her therapist thought that she had formed an unhealthy bond with the fluffy after her mother’s death, but separating them right now was basically impossible.
“Daddeh?” The mares cutesy voice startled Sam out of his thoughts. “Yes Gumdrop what is it?” The mare did what Melody called her ‘tappy dance’ in her seat, alternately bouncing each front hoofpad as she rocked from side to side. “Can Gumdwop hab’ skettis fo’ din-nah?”
Sam sighed. “No, we had spaghetti last night. We agreed only twice a wee-“
“NU! GUMDWOP NEE’ SKETTIES!” The mare huffed indignantly, her tappy dance ending with a forceful stomp of both hoofpads against the plastic car seat. “Nee’ bestest nummies fo’ mak-“ Melody’s hand shot up to cover the mares mouth. “Come ON dad, it’s only $6.00 a can!”
Sam groaned. “We already spend 50 dollars a month on spaghetti alone, and that’s if we stick to twice a week!”
“Please dad?” Sam’s rearview mirror reflected two sets of puppy dog eyes as he sighed. “Fine. But this is the last time!”
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The sun hung low in the sky as Melody and Gundrop raced around the yard at the fluffy’s top speed. Sprinting as fast as she could, Gumdrop barely managed to touch her leathery hoofpad to the back of Melody’s shoe. “Gumdwop gotchu!” The mare shouted in excitement, tackling Melody’s leg with a hug as the girl slowed down. “Awww, you!”
The two hugged for a while before separating. “Otay, it am mummah’s tuwn tu be ‘it’ nao!” The mare was practically giddy with excitement, her tail wagging side to side in anticipation. Hiding was her favorite part of the game. Being ‘it’ involved counting, something fluffies struggle to do past the number of leggies. But hiding, that was something fluffies were great at. At least fluffies thought they were great at it, most other people, including both the blind and the deaf, could easily find them by following the giggling, vibrant colors, or shrieks of terror as a fluffy either hid in a hazardous location, or covered their eyes for too long and got scared of the darkness. Then it was only a matter of following the smell. Luckily, Melody’s home had a large backyard for a suburban area, with plenty of spots in which a fluffy or girl could hide.
“Alright I’m going to start counting!” Melody shouted, running up to the wall and covering her eyes. “One…”
Gumdrop ran quickly. Where should she hide this time? She had already hidden under the shrub, inside the playhouse, in the sandbox, all the usual good spots. But this wasn’t the only thing on the soon to be mummahs mind.
Soon she would be able to play ‘Hiden-goseek’ with not just her mummah, but with all the babies she could feel growing in her stomach! She knew mummahs dummy daddeh would be angry if he knew, but as soon as they came she KNEW that he would realize they were the greatest thing in the whole WORLD!
But right now, Gumdrop had to hide. And she had finally found the perfect spot! The usually tightly latched gate hadn’t closed properly, even with the automatic gate latch. She was able to nudge the door open with her nose and took off running down to the end of the drive way, not even noticing as the automatic gate latch finally fulfilled its function. How surprised would her mummah be to find her in FRONT of the housie instead of behind it?
“Ready or not, here I come!”
Gumdrop laughed to herself. Mummah must look so silly trying to find her in her back yard. The mare felt tickled by the mere thought.
Actually she felt very tickled right now. She looked down in confusion to see the myriad of fire ants beginning to crawl up her leggie from the nest she stepped in.
“BUGGIEH MUNSTAH!”
The mare shrieked as the first ant bit down on her soft hoofpads, its stinger rapidly injecting venom directly into a nerve cell, which quickly relayed a searing pain to the mares brain.
“SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAWWWWWWWW!!!”
“Gumdrop?” Melody heard the scream but could not determine the location, racing inside the house through the open patio door.
As Melody ran inside in search of Gumdrop, the mare instead took off down the street, screaming and flailing in pain as more and more ants began injecting their venom into her arm.
“WOWSTET BUWNIE HUWTIES!”
The mare screamed as her leggie seared with pain, soiling their tail with a spray of scaredy poopies. Her hoofpads, used to the soft, well manicured grass of the backyard, chafed and bled as the hard pavement shredded them.
The last of the ants on her had made its way up her leg, across her back and neck, and to the delicate ear of the fluffy. Even through their pain the mare was aware of the ant, due to the substantial web of nerve endings that makes fluffy ears so very sensitive. Gumdrop became far more aware of the ant as it stung her ear, the pegasus falling to the ground thrashing in pain while shrieking, a spray of feces jetting out from her backside. Neither she nor the teenage pizza delivery boy knew what happened next.
Gumdrop experienced an explosion of pain from her stung front left leggie, then from her stung hearie place, and then suddenly from her back right leggie as the car plowed into her, sending her skidding across the street, peeling away the layer of fluff on her right side and shredding her skin. Then suddenly it was dark and Gumdrop was falling. And then, she landed, and everything went even darker.
The pizza boy on the other hand, felt a thud, and looked in the rearview to see a wisp of red hair disappear into the storm drain. Having just finished reading IT, he chalked it up to his imagination, and continued on.
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Gumdrop woke up in pure agony. “WOWSTEST HUWTIES!”the mare shouted, the echo near deafening on the concrete walls. Flailing her leggies only served to inflict more pain on the pegasus. Prior to this experience, the worst pain she had ever felt was bumping her nosy place against a sharp wooden table corner (Sam had bought toddler proofing corners the next day at the insistence of Melody).
Her hearie place was burning with pain, and that was the least painful boo-boo. Her shredded skin had already begun to heal, the Hasbio bioengineered muscle tissue either pushing sand and grit out of the wound, or scarring over it. The fire ant stings had inflamed her leggie to the point she could no longer bend it properly, and it burned with pain even now. And though she could not see it, nor could she see much of anything, her back leggie felt… wrong.
“Huuu huuuu, why weggies nu work wite?”
She tried to wiggle it a little bit, leading to an explosion of pain. The fluffy chirped in pain, something she hadn’t done since she was a chirpy babbeh. Luckily, due to her special huggies having only taken place earlier today, her own babbehs have yet to form.This didn’t stop the mare from attempting to comfort and talk to them, cooing softly.
“Babbehs am otay, mummah wub babbehs, gib bestest huggies an’ wub’”
The mare hugged her tummy as best she could with her good leg. She knew mummah was already looking for her, and mummah would defintely find her, she always did. Then mummahs huggies would make her all better, she would get sketti for dinner, and mummahs daddeh would let them watch all the FluffyTV they wanted. Then, once the babbehs came, she would get to do so SO many things! She would give them milkies, huggies, love, sing the mummah song to them, play with them, stack blocks with them, teach them how to make good poopies in the litter box, how to make secret bad poopies, how to eat sketti, and so much else! All she needed to do was wait.
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“GUM DROOOOOOOOP!!!”
Sam walked down the street shouting the mares name into the quickly darkening sky. He steadfastly refused to let Melody run around the neighborhood this late, and had managed to convince her to make up a set of missing posters for the mare. In the meantime, Sam began to walk down the street following the trail of rancid shit that started at the driveway. As he followed it, the trail of shit stopped, and was followed by a trail of bloody hoofprints that turned onto the next road.
He could have SWORN he latched that gate. But why the hell did the bitch need to go out front in the first place? He’d sat her down and made her watch those damn FluffyTV warning tapes about the dangers of the outside, he cleaned the shit out of the living room couch after she got “Scawedy poopies.”
The bloody hoofprints ended in an even bigger streak of blood and pink, glossy fur. The trail continued all the way to the storm drain catch. He called out.
“Gumdrop?”
“Huuu huuuu, daddeh? Whewe am mummah?”
Sam breathed a sigh of relief, but tinged with a slight pang of disappointment. Had the mare died Melody would be absolutely devastated, but had he not found the fluffy he could maybe wean Melody’s interest off the mare gradually. He appreciated how the fluffy got his daughter through the loss, but now he felt it had begun to stunt her growth. She was in crucial years of her social growth, but she was refusing to form friendships at school, opting instead to only play with the pony.
“Hang on, I’ll call the city, see if we can get someone out here to get you out.”
“Huuuhuu huu, Gumdwop hab’ da’ wowstest huwties EBA’” the mare sobbed, her cries echoing out of the street drain. Sam felt his gut drop at the cost of a vet visit for an injury of this magnitude. Then it fell even further.
“Huuuu huuu, daddeh Huwwy! Sowwy bawks nu gud fo’ tummeh’ babbehs!”
Babies? How and when did the bitch get pregnant? The shock turned to seething anger as he knelt down next to the storm drain. “THE FUCK DO YOU MEAN BABIES?”
The mare audibly recoiled at the amplified naughty word. “HUUU HUUU DADDEH SAY NU-NU WOWD!” Sam gritted his teeth. “I said, what do you mean babies?”
Gumdrop sniffled. “Gumdwop meet spechuwl fwen’ at pawk.” Today? On the day you also demanded extra spaghetti? After you went behind explicit rules not to have special huggies, not to have babies, and not to leave the back yard?
She can rot.
“Just wait here for a bit.” Sam checked his phone, then looked to the sky. Decent sized rain storm on the way. Wash all the blood, shit, and fluff down into the storm drain with it. He’ll help put up the posters. Deny anyone who calls about it. No one will. Missing fluffies are a dime a dozen. He can replace her. Or not. Best his daughter grows out of this.
Sam put his phone away and started walking down the street as the first few rain drops hit the street, quickly soaking into the hot dry pavement.