Fluffy logic is an incomprehensible thing. If A Fluffy doesn’t understand something, then they will make some incredible mental gymnastics in order to fit this new information in with their world view.
For Apricot, it was Fluffy logic that was currently hurting her children.
She’d spent so long trying to make sense of why things were so horrible, why the time spent with her babbehs were so anxious and stressful instead of the happy and comforting times she had believed they would be. And then they stole her food, her big Fluffy nummies while she had been out, braving the terrors of the house to find them something to eat, like a good mummah does, and then steal HER nummies, and they didn’t even say sorry.
It wasn’t Apricot’s fault she was stressed out, it was her bad, greedy babbehs.
Victoria quickly noted the change in attitude, Apricot wasn’t mean to her children but the coldness was hard to ignore, there was less huggies, less playing, less lickie-cleans, and more selfishness, Apricot no longer asked for more food whenever she got her kibble, happily scoffing it away to herself.
“Apricot? Are you finding food for your babbehs too?” Victoria asked one day after seeing the foals struggle to even raise their heads.
Apricot didn’t look up from her bowl as she answered. “Babbehs nig enuff. Dey find own nummies, wike how Apwicot find own nummies.”
This was what Victoria had expected, but the callousness was far too much, she couldn’t have Apricot learn a lesson if she didn’t care about the lesson.
“Apricot, I think you should share some food with your foals.”
“WHA? Bu dey gweedy babbehs, take mummah’s nummies wivout askin. Dey find own nummies.”
“Did you teach them to share?”
“Nu bu…”
Apricot trailed off, her babbehs weren’t bad, she just hadn’t taught them to share. But she was sure she had, she’d seen them sharing their toys and playtime with each other. Because they didn’t have any toys, they HAD to share, because she hadn’t been able to find them any.
“Huuuu, am wowstesh mummah, babbehs am GUD babbehs, Apwicot am bad Fwuffy.”
“It’s not too late to make it up to them Apricot, there’s still some food left.”
Apricot sniffled and gently pushed the bowl over to the bed. “Hewe babbehs, mummah bwing gud nummies.”
“Nummies?” Green croaked out, her voice so dry and pained from the effort to speak.
Apricot nodded. “It gud nummies, hewp tummeh-huwties.”
There wasn’t a lot of kibble left but Apricot distributed it between her children with mostly even results, Shiny of course got a little more but not too much more.
Victoria looked upon the family feeding time and felt a warm glow of sadistic glee wash over her. Even with the shared food, there wouldn’t be enough for Apricot to save her children from starvation, if anything she was just prolonging the inevitable and causing more harm to her babbehs.
And she didn’t even know it.
Shiny woke up from the gurgling in her stomach, something she was all too familiar with these days.
The filly had been hungry for so long that she wondered if she’d ever knowing what a full belly ever felt like, but then she looked at her siblings and realised that even the tiny amount she got was still more than they had. Green seemed like she hadn’t lifted off her side in days, Orange was softly crying as a half-conscious Evergreen chewed on her ear, too exhausted and too starved to think about what food was in his mouth, just that he could chew on it, and Blue…
Shiny wasn’t even sure if Blue was breathing.
And laying beside them all, sound asleep with a contented smile on her face, was their mother. Oh how Shiny had grown to dislike her mother, it wasn’t even that Shiny wasn’t allowed to be a sploring babbeh anymore, it was Apricot’s impossible to predict attitude that drove Shiny wild.
Some days Apricot would be her usual overprotective self, never letting the foals out of arms length, fretting over their tummeh-hurties and making sure everyone got something when Victoria brought them kibble. Other days Apricot would horde the food for herself, calling her foals greedy and letting them spend the day starving, only to revert back to her overbearing ways once she saw the foals pained expressions.
Usually once all the food was already gone.
Food. After exploring, it was the main thing on her mind, she was so hungry so could practically smell the skettis through the open door. Hold up… she COULD smell skettis through the open door.
Curious, Shiny carefully climbed out of the bed, making sure not to wake up siblings, or worse, her mother, and carefully toddled over to the door, fighting back the urge to giggle about sploring again.
She squeezed herself through the open door and took a look at the first world outside the safe-room she had ever seen. And she was astounded. Far from the soft pinks and yellows of her safe-room this new world was filled with rich browns and dark greens, with splashes of vibrant reds and oranges on the pictures of the pretty flowers along the walls. Shining metallic yellows hung from the mini bright-balls in the sky and the carpet, while still soft, was a new, sturdier feeling for the young Fluffy.
All of this would be overwhelming for Shiny, were it not for the bowl of spaghetti just laid out on the floor.
Shiny had never seen sketti before, she’d heard her mummah ask for it but she’d never actually seen the godly feast before. And yet here and now, she knew exactly what she was looking at, and how lucky she was to have found it. Without stopping to breath, Shiny run forward and shoved her face into the nest.
From behind a corner, Victoria held back a laugh as she watched the fillies excitement drive her crazy.
Shiny threw her head back, her face drenched in sweet tomato sauce, strands of noddles stuck to her cheeks and a long string of spaghetti being sucked into her mouth. This was EVERYTHING, this was what she’d been dreaming of, not just food but the best, most delicious food EVER.
And it was right here. It was right outside their room this whole time, and Apricot hadn’t told them. She had left them all to starve while she had kibble AND skettis.
Shiny wipes the sauce from her lips, a feeling of guilt smashing into her. She would not be like her mother, she would be better. After a try to bite the bowl an pull it left Shiny with some sore teeth, the little filly decided if she couldn’t bring the food to her siblings, she would bring her siblings to the food.
Running back into the safe-room, Shiny approached her siblings, trying to rouse them from their sleep without waking Apricot, she tried Blue first.
“Bwue, bwudda wakies, Shy-nee find sketti.”
No movement, no reaction, he wasn’t yet cold but something still smelt off about him. Shiny turned to Orange and Evergreen, by now Evergreen had stopped chewing on Orange’s ear but only because he’s bitten a chunk of it off and had rolled away.
“Bwudda, sissie, come wakies, hab sketti.”
Evergreen said nothing, too lost in the sensation of eating something to know who he was or what he was doing anymore. Orange meanwhile was weeping, openly sobbing and crying for her mother, but she had no energy to scream, so all her pleas came as rasping croaks, barely heard by even Shiny beside her.
Desperate to help at least one of her siblings, Shiny turned to her final sister, Green, gently nudging her with her muzzle.
“Wakies Gween, sissy find sketti.”
“Sketti?”
Shiny froze as a shadow loomed over her, it wasn’t Green that answered her, it was the smiling, slobbering face of Apricot that stood above her.
“Babbeh find sketti?”
“NU, MUMMAH NU…”
But it was too late, Apricot charged off, Shiny was painfully knocked to the side with one leg, a sickening crunch rang out from under another. But Apricot paid no mind, her thoughts were only on the sketti, it had been SOOOOOOO long since she had any, before she had babbehs and that was so many forevers ago.
The peach mare dove into the bowl without hesitation, scoffing and chomping away, sending sauce and spaghetti in all direction but primarily into her mouth, not giving a damn about anything else.
Victoria made to intervene, until fate stuck its tiny little horn into Apricot’s backside.
“AGHHH, wowstesh huwties.” Apricot jumped and turned round to see what hurt her, only to find Shiny glaring at her, tears in her eyes and blood on her face.
Shiny spat at her mother. “Yu am WOWSTESH mummah. Dose am SHY-NEE’S sketti, Shy-nee find dem, nu mummah. Mummah am sketti feef, Shy-nee gun gib skettis tu bwuddas an sissies bu mummah GIB DEM FOWEBA SWEEPIES!”
Apricot licked the sauce from her face. “Babbehs am fine, dey sweeping.”
“NU! Bwue nu make bweathies, he neba wakies, Owange am cwyin fow mummah cos Ebagween hab wowstesh tummeh-huwties dat he num hew heaw-pwace, an Gween… Mummah gib Gween wowstesh stompies wen steawin Shy-nee sketti.”
Apricot looked down at the carpet, there were bloodied hoofprints leading from the bed, across the safe-room, outside towards the sketti bowl, and ending right where she was standing. She blinked for a moment, trying to process what Shiny was telling her, that Apricot, a good mummah, had given her own babbehs forever sleepies? That just didn’t make sense.
The only alternative, was that Shiny was lying.
“Bad babbeh, nu lying tu mummah. Mummah gwad bad babbeh nu git sketti.”
Shiny was gobsmacked. “NU! Nu mummah am bad Fwuffy, gib sissie foweba sweepies, am sketti feef. Shy-nee find dose skettis fiwst an…”
“NU WYE TU MUMMAH!”
Apricot, fed up of the slander against her, smacked Shiny away. The filly was thrown straight into the wall, landing directly into her horn which cracked through her skull and pierced her brain.
Shiny died before she could even register what had happened to her.
Unaware of her daughter’s demise, Apricot started delusionally shouting. “APWICOT AM GUD MUMMAH, APWICOT NU WET BABBEHS GIT HUWTIES, APWICOT GIB BABBEHS NUMMIES, APWICOT WOOK AFTA BABBEHS AWW ON OWN, APWICOT…”
“Apricot? What’s happened here?”
Apricot turned around again, Victoria had finally made her appearance, she’d seen everything but wasn’t about to let Apricot know that.
“MUMMAH! Mummah, Shy-nee was bad babbeh, say dat Apwicot am sketti feef, an dat Apwicot gib Gween babbehs foweba sweepies, bu it nu twue. Apwicot am gud mummah, skettis am tweat fow gud mummah. Su Apwicot gib Shy-nee sowwy-hoofies, wet hew knyo she bad babbeh.”
“Apricot… she’s dead.”
“Wha?”
“Look at her, her pointy has gone into her thinkie place, you killed her.”
Apricot looked over at Shiny’s body, seeing the blood pooling around her.
“N…nu da… dat nu wight. Apwicot am gu… gud mummah.”
“And those hoofprints, is that blood?”
Victoria followed the bloodstains to find the truth, Green had been stomped to death by her mother, a casualty of Apricot’s starved excitement over spaghetti. Beside her, Blue lay eerily still having starved to death in the night, Orange’s croaked cries for help had devolved into hacking coughs and painful breathing as she wasted the last of her energy, withering away in front of Victoria’s eyes, and while Evergreen was the best of the litter physically, mentally his faculties were gone, so long without sustenance had melted his brain into base instincts, he was essentially derped but somehow even worse.
Apricot followed Victoria into the safe-room, seeing the state her children were in and crying out. They weren’t like that before, they couldn’t have been, no good mummah would let anything like that happen to their children.
There was only one possible answer.
Victoria suddenly felt a fluffy of marshmallow hoofs striking against her leg, she looked down to see Apricot in floods of tears as she attacked Victoria.
“HUUUHHUUU, YU AM WOWSTESH MUMMAH, GIB BABBEHS WOWSTESH HUWTIES AN FOWEBA SWEEPIES, APWICOT HATCHU, HATCHU!”
“APRICOT! That’s not nice, mummy didn’t do anything to your babies, you just couldn’t look after them…”
“NU! APWICOT AM GUD MUMMAH, WOOK AFTA BABBEHS PWOPAWY WIKE MUMMAH SAY, AN MUMMAH GIB BABBEHS FOWEBA SWEEPIES, HUUHUUUHHUUUUUUU!!!”
Victoria picked Apricot off the floor and carried her outside, whilst not the reaction she was hoping for – she’d been looking for more guilt and woe – the delusional breakdown was a nice bonus, Apricot might blame her, but her emotions too broken to ever heal properly, Apricot would spend the rest of her life thinking she was a good mother, no matter what pain and misery she brought upon her family.
Whatever family that might be, it wasn’t going to be under Victoria’s roof.
“You are a bad mother and a terrible Fluffy. I never want to see you again.”
And with that, Victoria tossed Apricot out into the street and slammed the door on her, she watched from the window as Apricot stumbled about for a bit, turned herself around in a panic, and then waddled off into the unknown, too blind from crying to see where she was going or which direction it would be to go home.
With the house finally silent, Victoria went back to clean up the mess, she had hoped Shiny could’ve lived so Victoria could’ve let Vincent take her in as breeding stock, but it was a small loss. Orange passed a couple hours later having cried herself to death on an empty stomach, and Evergreen went later in the night when he started chewing on his blanket and accidentally choked himself to death.
The five foals were gone, and Victoria didn’t even touch them.
Back in the present day, outside the alleyway, Victoria realised she had spent so long reminiscing about Apricot that the feral orange Fluffy had managed to climb out of their shelter and approached her.
“Pwase nice wady, sabe Apwicot an babbehs fwom cowd-wawa.”
Victoria held her breath to keep from gasping, this feral didn’t just look like Apricot, it WAS Apricot. Her Fluff – what remained of it – was dark and dirty, her mane had been torn out either from the environment, or – judging by the bruises on her neck and back – by stallions who wouldn’t take no for an answer. One of her ear was missing, both of her eyes were dulled, no blind but clearly struggling to see properly, and her back right leg was dragged behind her.
But it was Apricot, and she was alive.
The mare whined and repeated her question, still not recognising the woman in front of her. “Pwease nice wady, cowd-times am bad fow babbehs, need wawm homsies so babbehs can gwow big an stwong.”
Leaning in closer, Victoria could see several bumps of colour on Apricot’s back, four foals, each as filthy as their mother, each one starved and most of them shivering. One of them wasn’t moving at all. Whether Apricot hadn’t been able to feed them or of she was still so delusional that she thought she had, Victoria didn’t know. Nor did she really care to find out.
“Oh, I’m sorry dearie, but I don’t have enough room at my home for a whole family. But if you want, I could take one of your babies and make sure they’re kept nice and warm.”
“Huu, Apwicot nu wan wose babbeh, bu nu wan aww babbehs gu foweba sweepies. Nice wady pwomise gib babbeh wots of huggies an wub?”
“I promise to look after them as best as I can.”
The half-blind Apricot pondered for a moment, before turning her head back and picking up one of her still living foals, a dark blue Pegasus colt with an orange mane.
“Dis am gud babbeh, wook afta him pwease.”
“Oh don’t worry, he’ll be in good hands.”
As Victoria knelt down to take the colt from Apricot, she gently scratched the old mare’s chin, Apricot giggled until it hit her, a strange but familiar scent on the nice lady, a scent that scared her, that reminded her of a life so long ago.
Of her babbehs.
“NU! MUNSTAH WADY COME BAK, GIB BABBEH BAK TU MUMMAH, NU HUWT…”
In her blind haste, Apricot tripped over her own feet and landed in a puddle, her foals scattering off of her back, she would lay there dazed and weeping for hours, until the night dropped the temperature enough to freeze her to the ground.
And once again, she would live long enough to outlive her foals.
Victoria heard the shouting and ignored it, focussing on the little colt in her hand, Apricot might have been her first Fluffy, but she certainly wasn’t the last.
And she had honed her craft so much since then.
Absolutely marvelous