Beloved was sleeping in front of the fluff pile. Dolly and Feather slept against the wall with their foals between them. Beloved hadn’t gotten much sleep in the last two weeks. He had to protect his family from the monster they called their mummah. Their mummah good to them when they were good, but if they are a little bit bad or did something she didn’t like, even if they didn’t mean to do it. She would hurt them a lot. He didn’t want his foals to get hurt. He wanted to keep them safe as much as he could.
Beloved felt something small curl up against his back. He knew who It was without looking. It was his brown and cream bi colored pegasus colt that they named Cupid. They won’t suppose to name them, but they named them secretly. They never told them their names. If mummah found out, she might hurt them or the foals. But they could whisper their names to each other.
Cupid wasn’t a talkie baby yet. But they could tell he was going to take after his father. He got milk last and had to drink from both of his mummahs teats to get his fill. But he was a good baby. If they were allowed to have one, he would be the best baby. However, for every good baby, there was a bad one. Their bad baby was a indigo and blue earthie, Rogue. She push off any sibling that was on a teat when she was hungry, refuse to try to use the litter box, tried to beat up her siblings, played alone and had a tantrum when she didn’t get her way. They tried to correct her behavior. They didn’t allow her to get away with anything. Called her a bad baby, booped her nose and grounded her. But it was no use. She was just a bad baby. They watch each other to see if any of them was the cause. But they all treated the babies the same.
Beloved got up. He picked up his son and put him between his mummahs. Beloved would love for Cupid to stay with him, but he couldn’t give him special treatment.
Cupid peeped and looked up at Beloved. “Daddeh.” He waved his little hooves for his daddeh to pick him up.
Beloved felt pride. His best baby said his first word. He shook his head. He couldn’t think of Cupid that way. It made good babies bad.
Beloved nuzzled his son. He spoke low trying not to wake the others. “Tat wight, am daddeh. Go sweepies. Mummah an’ Dowwy wiww be happy 'ou an tawkie babbeh nao.”
The little foal yawned. “Wub.” He wiggled closer to Feather.
Beloved laid back down. He knew he needed more sleep, but he couldn’t fall back to sleep. If one is talking, that met the others will start talking too. He needed to get Rogue to be a good baby before she learn too many words.
Beloved didn’t know when he finally fell asleep. He woke to his foals cries of mummah, duh and daddeh. One of their first words was different. It was “miwkies” in a demanding tone. To none of the parents were surprise, it was Rogue.
Beloved got up and nuzzled his Special Friend Feather. He gave Dolly a quick nuzzle. He didn’t love Dolly, he didn’t think he could ever love her, but she was the mother of some of his foals. To him, that gave her the same rights as Feather.
Beloved caught Rogue beating on one of her siblings again. Before he could get to them Cupid got in the way to protect their hurt sibling. He booped Rogue on the nose. “Nu…”
Rogue fall to the ground and cried.
Beloved got to the three foals. He praised Cupid for protecting his sibling and told them to leave Rogue there to have her tantrum.
Rogue stopped crying and looked up at her father. She peeped and reached up towards him to pick her up and give her a hug. “Owwie.”
Beloved shook his head. “Bad babbeh nu git huggies. Beat up sissy, 'ou bad babbah.” He picked her up and put her in the corner. “Babbeh stay untiw can be gud.”
Rogue started crying again. She didn’t understand why everyone was so mean to her. She couldn’t say it with words. But she knew she was better than everyone else. That she could go anywhere she wanted. She can poop and pee anywhere she want. That she was the only one that deserved milkies, love, toys and something called sketties. She didn’t know what sketties were, but she knew they were good and she wanted it. She didn’t understand why no one knew she was the best baby. She knew it, why didn’t they know it. She knew they were all dummies. She couldn’t believe they were that dummy. She was only beating up a bad sissy that was stealing her milkies, and playing with her toys.
A week passed. The foals grow and started to learn more words. They started to try the soft big fluffy nummies their human mummah left out for them. All but one would thank Ruby. Ruby did take note which one didn’t thank her. She figured the foal was just quiet and shy. The foal would wish she was.
It was during dinner time when Rogue decided to speak her mind. She had complaints and she finally had the words to voice them.
Rogue walked up to Ruby. “Sketties!” She stomped her hoof.
Dolly booped Rogue’s nose. “Bad babbeh, 'ou nu demand, 'ou ask.”
Rogue snared at her. “'Ou am bad dummeh not mummah, num poopies.”
Feather picked Rogue up. “Nu nummies fow bad babbeh.”
Rogue stuggled. “Put bestes’ babbeh down.”
Beloved booped Rogue this time. “Nu am bestes’ babbeh, just babbeh. Nu nummies untiw next bwite time.”
Rogue screamed and released a torrent of shit. Why was she surrounded by dummies? “Dummehs do as smawty say. Gib smawty what smawty wants.”
Dolly and Beloved were about to make Rogue’s punishment worse when their mummah stopped them. She a wicked smile curled her lips. “Did you just say you’re a smarty?”
Rogue nodded. “Dummeh hooman gib sketties nao.”
Ruby laughed. Finally, some fluffy she could fix from the ground up. She knew the foal being a smarty wasn’t any of the adult fluffies fault. They had been great parents. She originally was going to punish them for circumventing the roles she gave them. But the arrangement worked and she decided not to ruin a good thing.
Ruby held her hand out towards Feather. “Give me the bad baby.”
Even though Rogue was bad. None of the adult fluffies wanted to hand their daughter over. They knew they couldn’t protect her. She was going to be punished even if Ruby had to go through the others to get to her. They had to sacrifice one to save everyone else.
Feather was shaking when she gave Rogue over. She gathered the other foals and the other two fluffies and went to the far side of the room. She knew her mummah was going to make them watch. She always made them watch. “Nu cobah see-pwaces, babbehs, make hooman mummah angwy when cobah see-pwaces.” Tears began to stream down her face.
Ruby put Rogue in a sorry box. She needed to preper and foals tended to be messy.
After the taped down pee pads on the floor and pin a string to the wall. Ruby got Rogue out of the box and onto the floor. She tied Rogue’s tail with the string. She need to nip this in the bud now before she got worse. “Now who are you?”
Rogue stood her ground. “Am bestes’ smawty babbeh.”
Ruby tipped Rogue across the nose. “No, you are just baby until a human names you.” Ruby repeated to question. Rogue gave the same answer. Ruby hit her a bit harder. This time it hurt the foal and she began to cry. “Why gib owwies tu bestes’ smawty babbeh?”
“Because you are not best smarty baby, your are just baby.” Ruby hit her again a little harder. “Who are you?” This continue five more time. Ruby, asking Rogue who she was, Rogue saying she was a best smarty baby, and Ruby hitting her harder with each hit until Rogue said she was just baby. Ruby wasn’t done. She got a harder sorry stick. Rogue had one chance not to get hit with it. “Now, do we demand things or ask?”
Rogue answered without thinking. “Dummeh hooman gib babbeh wat babbeh wants.”
“That’s wrong, we ask.” Ruby hit her.
Rogue screamed. “Mummah, daddeh, hewp bestes’ babbeh.”
Ruby made a sad face. “Oh no, I have to start with question one. Who are you?”
It took Rogue four times to get to question three. “Okay, final question, what do you have to say to me and your family?”
Rogue gave Ruby a raspberry. Ruby gave Rogue a quick hard smack across the muzzle. Rogue bit off her tongue. She panicked and tried to run away. Blood pouring out of her mouth.
Ruby shrugged. “It’s really your fault for sticking your tongue out.” She picked up the now mute foal and took her to the kitchen to fix her up.
Ruby came back to clean. She looked at the eight foals hugging their parents crying. The little brown and cream one was running around trying to comfort everyone. Ruby made a note of him. Another breeder she knew was in the market for good fluffies they wanted to raise from foals. The other breeder was a hugboxer, but that was fine with Ruby. She learned her lesson, someday, so would they. “Remerber this day, my darlings. Being a smarty is bad. And bad babies lose something.” Ruby cleaned up her mess. “I’m going to bring your sister back.” She pointed at the corner. “She will be in the sorry area over there. No giving her love or food until the morning. Or you will get the sorry stick.”
Ruby left and came back with Rogue. She set up the cage she had set up for the bad foals from the first litter box. There was only enough room for Rogue and the litter box.
Tears fill Feather’s and Dolly’s eyes. Old memories of different sides. Feather did love the foals from her first litter. She wanted desperately to give them love, hugs and milk. To give them what this foals had. It made her heartbreak thinking of them. She wished she could tell Beloved and Dolly about them. But their mummah forbidden it.
Dolly thought of the conditions she lived in as young foal. She had to fight to get milk from the one bottle hanging on the side of the cage. Had to make sure she wasn’t the one standing in the litterbox. Had to watch a big fluffy she couldn’t remember run and play and get the things she wanted. She was told that she was a bad baby because her father was a smarty that raped her mother. Was told her mother hated her and wanted her to die. But somehow they all survived.
Beloved hugged the two mares the best he could. Cupid did the same to the other foals. They couldn’t fix it, but they could be their comfort.