“Huuu huuu, pwease daddeh nu weave’ Gumdwop in sowwy bawks!” The filly frantically sobbed. The small slit of dusk light that filtered through the opening of the storm drain grew more and more dim as a trickle of scaredy peepees soaked into the mares backside, mixing with the boo-boo juice and scaredy poopies to form a foul slurry that pooled around her sore leggies. The cold stone floor chafed against her tender hoofpads as she attempted to stand, collapsing with a screech as her back leggie bent inwards, bones splintering as the simple fracture turned compound. “WOWSTEST HUWTIES!”
Why had he left her? Was he mad about the babies? He couldn’t be, they were BABIES, they were the best thing ever! Was it because she asked for sketti again? But she needed that, they were the bestest nummies and she needed the bestest nummies to make the bestest babies!
“Huuu huu, Gumdwop nee’ huggies, nu’ wan’ be in dummeh sowwy bawks”
Gumdrop heard a pattering of raindrops against the concrete above her. The noise was soothing, giving the fluffy something to focus on that was not her aching body or heart hurties, or the stench of the rotting detritus. With great pain in difficulty, the mare curled itself into a ball, softly sobbing. The adrenaline and cortisol had run their course, leaving a hollow exhaustion. As the mare began to drift off, she sang to her tummy babies, a discordant mummah song that echoed off the concrete walls.
“Mummah wub’ babbehs, babbehs wub’ mummah, mummah make bestest’ miwkies su babbehs gwow up big’ an’ stwong”
————————————
Gumdrop woke with a start and a splash, a pool of rainwater having formed below her as she slept.
“WAWA BAD FO’ FWUFFIES! BAD FO’ TUMMEH BABIES!” The mare shrieked, scrambling to find higher ground in the inky darkness of the storm drain, flailing and screaming as she managed to right herself into a seated position in the corner before her neurons caught up with her actions, the audible snapping off her destroyed leggie following the stench of boo-boo juice.
“SCREEEEEEEEEEEEE WOWSTEST WEGGIE HUWTIES!”
The mare began chirping and suckling her hoof, feeling warm rainwater lap against her body, soaking into the bloody scabs covering her. The last remnant of light was gone. Where was mummah? How had the day gone so wrong?
“Huu huu, chirp, why see pwaces nu wowk nu mow’ huuuuuu” the mare softly cried and chirped in pain as each of her frantic heartbeats brought on a new throb of hurties. Gumdrop suckled her hoof, her tongue feeling nice against the odd bumps and ridges covering it, the silence of her prison broken only by peeps, chirps, and the dripping of water.
——————————————————
Gumdrop was awoken once more by agonizing hurties. The rain water, previously warmed by the hot pavement it fell on, had grown cold, soaking the fluffy down through her beautiful but poorly insulated coat. Her sodden fluff clung to her pudgy body, causing her to shiver. “Mummah! peep! Gumdwop am suuuu cowd! Nee’ huggies peep! Nee’ bwankie!” The fluffy whined. The echoing of her chattering teeth resonated through the drain.
The only part of her not freezing was her front leggie. The stings of the ants had become readily apparent as dark purple pustules dotted its length, each bump burning with a fiery itch that only got worse as the fluffy began to gnaw at it. Sour, acrid pus popping on her tongue. “HUUU, nu taste pwetty!” Tears welled in the fluffies eyes as she continued her futile struggle against the hives. “Pwease weggie, nu huwt fwuffy!” She sobbed, continuing down the length of her leggie until she reached the hoof, shoving it into her mouth and beginning to suckle and peep. Why was this happening to her? She was a good fluffy, bad things don’t happen to good fluffies! They get sketti, hugs, love, and babies, that was the rule, that’s what her mummah told her, that’s what she saw on FluffyTV, that’s what her very genetic programming told her, so why was she feeling so many hurties? Why was she in the sorry box?
“Chirp. Chirp. Peep.”
——————————————————
The night had ended, and the day began. The once dim dawn light had intensified into a blazing midday sun, warming the concrete of the storm drain. Gumdrop woke, hot, sweaty, panting, and then screaming. Sweat had managed to find its way down her back and along her skinned side and all the way to her back leggies, trickling onto her hindquarters.
“ScreeeeeeeeeEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAGhhhh!!! WOWSTEST HUWTIES HUU HU-CHEERP!”
Gumdrop painfully craned her neck to see the source of the pain. A sharp, translucent lavender spike jutted from the mares leg. This must be the source of all these hurties, this dummeh…. What was it? A sorry stick? It’s a stick that was causing her hurties, so it must be a sorry stick. With great effort, she managed to reach her mouth down to grasp the meanie mystery object, then yanked. A spray of peepees, poopies, and booboo juice splattered against the wall as the splintered remains of a cannon bone tore from the few weak ligaments that had held it in place. The fluffy screamed. A long, shrill, piercing scream that resonated through the dank, hot sewer. Almost unwillingly the filly clenched her jaw, chipping two teeth and cracking a molar as the bone splintered in her mouth, the metallic tang of marrow gritty against her tongue.
“Wo….. wos….. wossstest huwti…. peep.”
The mares programming told her she must announce pain, and the amount. But her instincts wanted her to peep and chirp and hope that something would take pity on her and grant her peace, a reprieve, something. And so she struggled, trying to do both at once.
“Wowst….peep. Wowsteschirp. Huwties… peep”
Shaking and shivering despite the sweltering heat of the storm drain, the filly managed to drag her shaking front leggie to her mouth, shoving her hoof into her mouth and suckling furiously as she sought comfort. Exhausted, she soon lost consciousness once more.
—————————————————————
When Gumdrop awoke again, it was night once more. Her leggie still ached and throbbed, and the cold, wet wind that rushed through the storm drain opening licked at the mares bare right flank, causing her to shudder and shiver. Gumdrop began to cry. Thick, heavy tears cut a path through the dirt and grime that caked the fillies face. Where was her mummah? Had her daddeh not told her she was hurt and needed help? Was he really that upset that she was going to have babbehs? Babbehs were the best thing in the whole world, didn’t he understand that?
THE BABBEHS! She hadn’t sung to them in so many forevers! She must be the worst soon mummah EVER!
“Huu huu, mummah am sowwy tummy babbehs, nu mean fowget tu’ sing, pwease nu be angwy at mummah!” The mare cooed, hugging her stomach as she wiped her tears with her good leggie. Mummah would find her. She always did. But right now, she needed to be a good soon mummah for her tummy babbehs. The mare softly crooned to her unborn litter, currently just an instinctual warmth in her stomach.
“Mummah wub babbehs, babbehs wub mummah, gonna make da’ best miwkies su’ babbehs gwow up big an’ stwong!”
—————————————————————
Gumdrop woke to a throat drier than ever before. The early morning sun had finally hit an angle where it shone directly into the drain opening, allowing light to filter in. The drain was filthy before Gumdrop had fallen in.
The storm drain, a small three foot by five foot square of concrete and rebar, had been neglected for many years, with pile of trash, landscaping trimmings, and soil forming an embankment on one side of the rectangle. The other side, in which Gumdrop lay, was a pool of storm water, road sludge, and fluffy. Bits of pink fluff, scaredy poopies and peepees, booboo juice, and bone. The rain had washed the mess she had made on the road into the drain with her, forming a half inch deep pool of the thick black slurry that clung to her fluffy coat and tail.
Even with her limited intellect, Gumdrop knew that the first thing she should do is escape the water. Slowly and painfully, the filly pulled herself to her feet, flinching as a searing bolt of pain rocked her tiny frame.
“Huuhuu, pwease weggies, Gumdwop nee’ get out of icky wawa, nu goo’ fow tummeh babbehs!” The mare pleaded with her leggies as she slowly limped up the six inches of branches, gravel, and fast food wrappings that made up the small platform of dry land. The task was a Herculean effort on her part, the filly collapsing into a heap as she crested the top. There was enough space here for her to curl up, but not much else. And so she did, curling tightly into a ball, attempting to get comfortable. She was not. Once more she began to suckle her hoof, the thin purple kerating sheath that surrounded the leathery pad beginning to de-glove from the constant suckling.
——————————————————
Gumdrop woke with a start, removing her hoofpad from her mouth with an audible pop. She was thirsty. So very, very thirsty. It had been two days since the filly had last ate or drank anything, and while the hunger that gripped her stomach was painful, the thirst was worse. Her cracked, chapped lips split and bled as she licked them. She needed water.
The pegasus shakily stood up. Her healing capabilities were hard at work, sealing up over her mangled leggie and side, though even the amazing healing power of fluffies could not regrow bone. Her back leggie hung loosely as she stood, causing her to lose her balance and fall down the embankment into the slurry, the sludge caking into the frantically fluttering wings on her back. “Wows-“ the fluffy inhaled to scream again, sucking down a mouthful of the water. A mistake.
The mixture managed to be so many things. Bitter, acrid, sour, sickly sweet, spicy, greasy, oily, gritty, metallic, but in no way was it good. The pegaus vomited, expelling ‘sicky wawa’ and bile, continuing to attempt to vomit long after her stomach was empty, her small back heaving in the dimly lit drain. “NU TASTE PWETTY!” The mare cried, frantically wiping at her tongue.
“Huuuuuuu huuuuuu……… fwuffy nee’ wawa!”
The filly leaned against the wall below the storm drains opening. She had no nummies, no wawa, and no mummah. She hurt. She hurt so much. She wanted nothing more than to be hugged, to be held, to be anywhere but in this sorry box. She chirped like a babbeh again.
The babbehs. She failed them. Even the most dummeh of fluffies knows you need nummies and wawa or tummy babbehs go forever sleepies. She had failed them. She was the worst soon mummah ever. Great, heaving sobs racked the mare as she began to cry, even though she had no tears left to give. This sadness turned to anger.
“DUMMEH MEANIE SOWWY BOX!” The mare cried, attempting to give sorry hoofsies to the concrete, her attempt only serving to send her tummy first into the sludge once more. She leaned her head against the cold concrete wall and sobbed again. She was the dummeh.
Unbeknownst to the mare, the storm drain she had fallen under was next to the home of Frank Reynolds, retired electric store manager. A shrewd and handy man, Frank had few joys in life, but his yard work was one of them. Frank had a meticulously maintained lawn, mown into a diamond shaped pattern every week. Even Gumdrop had admired it on her walks, once telling him that it was “da pwettiest gwassy pwace eba!”, a compliment that had even earned her a smile and a scratch behind the ears from the usually dour and taciturn man. But the secret to his beautiful lawn is to water at dusk, or so he told everyone who asked.
But Gumdrop did not know this. What She did know however, was that some variety of liquid was running down the wall, across her nosie, down her chin, and soaking into her neck fluff. Out of reflex, her tongue darted out to dry the droplet clinging to her snout. Water. Not the nice clean water she got at home, but way, WAY better than the toxic ooze she was standing in.
Gumdrop eagerly received this nectar, her tongue lapping against the rough concrete wall. Tears began to well in her eyes once more. She had saved them. The tummy babbehs were saved! Even after she drank her fill, the wawa continued to trickle down in. A small stream that tasted of plastic, grass, and dirt, not enough to flood the drain, but enough to sustain her.
“Tank ‘ou…” Gumdrop didn’t know who she was thanking, but a gift of this magnitude was deserving of thanks. Her thirst finally quenched, Gumdrop dragged herself back up the embankment, curling into an exhausted ball, and beginning to sing once more.
“Babbehs wub’ mummah, mummah wub babies, mummah make da’ bestest miwkies su babbehs gwow up big an’ stwong!”