Chapter 2
Princess was unhappy again, but it was worse than before.
She was already hungry when she’d decided to run away from home… that had been MANY minutes ago, and she was even hungrier now! And big loud metal things kept roaring past her and scaring her so much she made poopies right there in the street, and it was getting darker every minute, and she was cold, and her feet hurt, and, and, and…
Princess sobbed quietly to herself. Her journey hadn’t gone very well so far. She was lost, and hungry, and scared… and STILL had no babies! How was that even possible when all she’d been doing was looking for them?!
She huffed, angry at the imaginary babies for hiding from her, and turned a corner, finding herself in a grubby, smelly alleyway. Princess wrinkled her nose and was about to turn and leave, whens he heard something faint, coming from behind one of the huge, stinking dumpsters.
“Fwuffy wub yoo!”
“Wub yoo too, speshul-fwiend!”
Another fluffy? Maybe Princess had found a friend! Well, not a friend, more someone she could bully and order to find food for her, but it was something at least!
She scampered into the alley, reaching the dumpster, and peeked around the corner.
What she saw was a ramshackle nest made from old newspapers, sticks, scraps of dirty clothes and what looked like a stray boot. Plopped inside the nest was a big dark-yellow stallion and a smaller dusky purple mare.
“HEWWO!” Princess announced, jumping out from behind the dumpster. Both ponies jumped with surprise but relaxed upon seeing a fellow fluffy.
“Hewwo!” The stallion said. “Nyu fwiend?”
“Am Pwincess.” Princess said, ignoring his question completely as she waddled closer to the nest. She was about to continue speaking, when she realised something.
There was a noise coming from inside the nest. Lots of noise. Lots of quiet, peeping, chirpy noise. As she drew closer, she saw the noise was coming from-
“BABBEHS!!” She squeaked in delight. At last, she’d found some! “Yoo hab babbehs?!”
“Yus!” The mare said proudly. “Dis am babbeh, and dis am babbeh, and dis am babbeh, and…” She babbled on, pointing to each of her five babies in turn, who were each nuzzled tight up against mama’s warm belly, cooing and snuggling and peeping in gentle contentedness.
Princess looked them over. They were an odd bunch, in various colours, some with horns, some with wings, none of them were exactly ‘pretty’, but in the end she settled on one with a dull pink coat and a tiny tuft of dark blue hair on it’s head and rear. It was the least ugly one at any rate.
“Pwincess wike dat one.” She said, stepping closer and pointing a hoof at the pink one. It chirped in response, facing her with it’s still closed eyes, curious about who this new voiced belonged to.
“Wub aww babbehs.” The mare said, gazing lovingly at her spawn.
Princess ignored her, stepped forwards and grabbed the foal in her mouth.
“WHA DOIN?!” The stallion peeped, leaping up immediately. “WET BABBEH GO! NAO!”
“I’ o’ay!” Princess mumbled around the chirping baby’s head. “Pwi’ess ‘us’ nee’ a babbeh!”
“NU! NU TAKE BABBEH!” The mare squeaked, too weak from giving birth to get up, but her stallion could handle it himself. Princess turned to waddle away, but he immediately charged forwards and whammed into her side, knocking Princess over and sending her rolling across the grimy concrete of the alleyway.
“OWIES!” She shrieked, letting go of the baby, which landed hard on the ground directly on it’s tiny, undeveloped legs. With a barely audible ‘crack’, it fell over, chirping and crying out in distress.
“Yu huwt babbeh!” The stallion roared. “Huwt babbeh weggy!”
“PWINCESS HAF OWIES!” Princess wailed, oblivious to the injured foal on the ground before her. She unsteadily stood up, then spied the baby again. She reached for it, intending to pick it up again, but the stallion was ready. He immediately charged her again, this time head-butting her directly in the face. Princess staggered backwards, blood starting to drip out of her nose.
“OWIES! STOP HUWTY PWINCESS!” She snapped, through the fat tears forming in her eyes.
“Yoo go 'way no! Owe fwuffy gib you BIGGEST owies!” The stallion snorted at her, stomping a hoof on the ground for emphasis. He picked up the crying foal in his own mouth and began to carry it back to the nest, at which point Princess snapped.
“NU! DAT PWINCESS’S BABBEH! YOO GIB BACK NAO!” She charged forwards, returning the stallion’s own move against him, throwing her full weight against him. He staggered slightly from the impact, wobbling and teetering over to one side, and in his surprise, dropped the baby. It landed on it’s side this time, leaving it mostly unharmed, but the noise, chaos and sense of falling for a second time was too much, and it began to cry out all over again, wailing desperately for it’s mother with it’s tiny, newborn lungs.
“Nu! Nu sad wawas! Gib babbeh back to mama!” The mare wailed, reaching vainly for her crying foal from her position within the nest but struggling to get up on her own. Before the stallion could recover from the bump, Princess glared at the mama in her nest, hatred and greed in her tiny, pig-like eyes.
“NU! Dis babbeh am PWINCESS’S! Pwincess wan babbeh! Pwincess GET babbeh! Nao babbeh come home wit’ Pwincess!” She snapped, before stomping her hooves on the ground with every word. “Babbeh mine now! Mine! MINE MINE MINE!”
And, with a wet ‘crunch’ sound, the foal very suddenly stopped crying.
Princess looked down, and saw that one of her furiously stomping hooves had landed right on the foal’s head. The foal, left forgotten on the ground, had been aimlessly, blindly crawling around, desperately trying to find it’s mama’s warm, loving embrace once again. In doing so, it had unfortunately wriggled it’s way directly under Princess, who had then promptly crushed it’s frail, barely-a-day-old skull under her foot.
“Ew.” Princess grumbled. “Dummeh babbeh get booboo juicies on hoofsy.”
“Yoo… yoo… YOO HUWT BABBEH!” The stallion roared, charging at her again. Princess barely had any time to realise what was happening before she was knocked to the ground again, with a rain of blows landing all across her soft, fluffy body.
“Owi- URK! Nu huwt Pwin- HORK! Pwincess good fwu- ERK!” One after another, painful blows landed across her body. Her head, her side, her tail, her legs, eveywhere.
“YOO HUWT BABBEH!” The stallion roared while he continued his brutal assault. “DUMMEH MAWE! STOOPID DUMMEH! YOO GIB BABBEH FOWEVEW SWEEPIES!”
“Nu! Nu huwt Pwin- AURGH!” Another hoof-blow landed directly on Princess’s face, causing another spurt of blood to burst from her already bruised and swollen nose.
At long last the stallion stopped, wheezing and gasping for breath, tears pouring down his face. He turned and walked over to the foal’s lifeless, unmoving body, and grasped it’s limp form in his mouth. He then turned, flicking his head and let go of the body, letting it sail through the air and land with a ‘slap’ in Princess’s face.
“DEWE! TAKE BABBEH! DUMMEH MAWE!” He snapped, before returning to the nest with his special friend and their surviving litter.
Princess got up, feeling the foal’s limp, bloody body sticking to her face, and with trembling legs, she waddled away, quietly sobbing to herself. Not out of sadness, but of simple pain. After all, she hadn’t done anything wrong! That stupid baby had walked RIGHT under her hoof! It should’ve known better! Okay, it couldn’t see, but that wasn’t Princess’s fault, it was the stupid baby’s for not opening it’s stupid eyes!
Bruised, bleeding, and miserable, Princess trudged out of the alleyway, the baby’s corpse falling from her head as she walked, every step causing a new surge of pain in her aching body.
And worst of all, she thought to herself, she’d never even had a chance to ask the stupid couple where they’d gotten THEIR babies in the first place!
