Chapter 4: The Long Walk
The herd awoke sometime later to the sound of Smarty loudly farting, which echoed through the long, dark tunnels of the sewer.
One by one the fluff-pile disengaged. Some fluffies squeezed out some turds or some dribbles of urine, and one by one they all came back to the waking world. Last awake was Smarty, who was only stirred out of his slumber by the sudden cold feeling of the fluff-pile no longer being there to keep him cosy.
Smarty woke up grumbling and grousing, but being too incoherent with sleep to actually form any proper words.
Smarty, half asleep, plodded over to the monsterâs corpse again and took another mouthful of itâs meat into his mouth, but almost immediately spat it back out.
âEww! Nummies bad!â He squeaked. Then it hit him. How could nummies have gone bad from being left out in warm sewer air overnight?! It was impossible!
âHEWD!â He shouted, grabbing their attention. âWho wuin dah nummies?!â He asked.
The herd looked confused. None of them had even been near the nummies yet⌠mostly because the crusted poopies from the night before had smelled too foul for them to go near.
âWha?â One fluffy asked.
âNummies gu bad! Taste bad! Nu can eat!â Smarty said, the words falling out of his mouth in a random jumble. âWha happen?! Who do it?!â
While Smarty was accusing the herd of nothing, Limpy dragged himself towards the monster corpse, and nibbled at one of the cleaner parts. It tasted bad, sure⌠but not too different from how it had tasted last night.
âNummies otayâŚâ Limpy quietly said. âNu taste pwetty⌠buh nummies otay.â
And with that, he took another bite.
One by one, the herd approached the monsterâs corpse and took some more bites, each one echoing Limpyâs complaints. Even Smarty had to reluctantly take some bites himself, certain it had tasted far worse beforeâŚ
Regardless, it was the herdâs fault, obviously.
âHewd, eat up!â Smarty told them. âWe movinâ today! Nu can stay hewe⌠munstah smeww nu-pwetty.â
One by one, the herd had their fill of the monsterâs meat, before turning and trudging their way to rejoin Smarty. All had eaten their fill⌠except for a handful of foals, even a particularly fat one.
âMunstah nummies smeww nu-pwetty!â The foals whined. It was true, the spotty monster was giving off a really bad smell, to the point that most of the fluffies were staying FAR away from it after having eaten their share.
âDummeh babbehs!â Smarty huffed. âNeeâ nummies fow jouwney! Nao eat dah nummies!â
A swift hoof to the head sent each one sprawling face-first into the monsterâs meaty corpse, where they wisely began chewing on the stringy meat once more, revolted by every mouthful of the warm, smelly, rancid meat.
The foals ate as little as they could and finished as quick as they could⌠all except for the fat one, which merrily gorged itself on the string meat, just happy to have something in itâs tummy.
âOtay!â Smarty announced. âHewd aww hewe! Wetâs go!â
And with that, he turned and left, leading the herd down yet another path.
One of the fatter foals was still busy chewing at the monsterâs stinky body, but itâs mother soon came along and bapped it on the head, bringing it back to the herd with many quiet sniffles and sobs.
Several minutes later, the herd was still walking.
âMummah⌠babbeh fiwsty⌠neeâ wawaâŚâ One foal whined. Smarty ignored it and kept going, but soon the rest of the herd joined in.
âFiwsty! Fiwsty!â They began chanting. Smarty growled in frustration. âSmawty find us nummiesâ, âSmawty find us wawaâ, âSmawty nu gib special-huggies to babbeh, babbeh too widdleâ⌠they NEVER stopped complaining and begging he do things for them! It wasnât HIS fault they were so stupid that they NEEDED him to survive! Why did they have to make things so hard for him?!
âFine! Smawty finâ wawa!â He snapped at the others. The herd stopped to give a quiet cheer, but quickly got moving again, as Smarty hadnât stopped walking.
Smarty was thirsty too. Although he wasnât going to COMPLAIN about it, like the rest of the idiot herd always did! No, he was going to take it like a big fluffy! He was going to be quiet and just deal with it! Because he was brave like that! âŚand also because he had maybe forgotten he needed water to survive and thought the prickly feeling in his mouth was just⌠yâknow, the way a mouth normally feels. But regardless!
Smarty turned a corner, his grimy hooves tip-tapping along the bare concrete, his herd quietly stampeding behind him, determined to find water as fast as possible. Smarty was about to take another random turn, when they heard something coming from one of the deeper tunnels⌠a kind of strange sound, like wind blowing, or some kind of big creature roaring.
âM-munstah?!â One of the foals chirped.
âNu, stoopid dummeh babbeh!â Smarty snapped, shooting a vicious glare at the stupid idiot baby for being so stupid. âDat WAWAS!â
The herd gasped. Smarty was so smart! Of COURSE it was water! There must be LOTS of it after all the rain yesterday!
Smarty took off, leading the herd at a fast trot towards the roaring sound, hearing it grow louder and more intense with every plodding, waddling step.
Then Smarty turned a corner.
And halted.
The concrete ground gave way ahead to a rushing torrent of murky brown sewer water. The roaring, splashing sound they heard wasnât delicious clear-blue water at all, but sickening filth flowing faster than they could even run.
Smarty looked down into the river of sewage, and gulped. There was no way they could drink THIS wawa.
The herd caught up with Smarty, and had the same reaction.
âDis⌠dis poopies!â A pegasus chirped. âSMAWTY WED US TO POOPIES AGAIN!!!â
Smarty was on the verge of panic. He needed water, the herd didnât think he was smart⌠he needed to make sure they thought otherwise!
âShaddup dummeh!â Smarty said, bonking the pegasus hard with his hoof. âSmawty know what Smawty doin! Dis no da wawas fow dwinkinâ, OBVIOUSWY!!!â
The herd sighed quietly. Smarty looked around, and saw a narrow concrete ledge ran along the side of the surging river of sewage.
âWe⌠uh⌠we fowwow it!â
âHuh?â The herd collectively mumbled.
âWe fowwow da wawas!â Smarty said, proudly. âEvewyone knows wawas go to mowe wawas! We fowwow dis BAD wawa, we find da GOOD wawa!â
The herd wasnât sure, that didnât SOUND right⌠but at the same time, the wawa was clearly going SOMEWHERE in a hurry! Smarty MUST be right! Why else would it be going somewhere so fast?!
Smarty waddled off, trudging along the narrow ledge. It was only once he got onto it that he saw just how narrow it truly was. Smarty was an adult unicorn, no bigger or smaller than any other average adult fluffy pony, but his thick fluff rubbing against the wall was threatening to knock him off balance. There was only JUST enough room for him to waddle down the ledge, and that was only if he focused and made sure not to lose his balance. Even one mistake meant tumbling into the thundering torrent of sewage on his right side.
One by one, the herd nervously began to follow Smarty, with nothing but blind faith in his brainpower to keep them alive in their terrible situation.
Limpy went first, his bad leg actually being a benefit as it forced him to go slower, practically guaranteeing he wouldnât fall over any time soon. After him came a mare (one of the remaining four), then another mare, and then a stallionâŚ
Soon the entire herd was toddling along the ledge, each one focusing intently on their foosteps to ensure they werenât going to fall. Foals and babies had a much easier time of the journey, but their legs were smaller and they tired faster, so many were still clinging to their mothersâ backs, eyes screwed shut so as not to look at the roaring water of certain death right next to them.
Conversation was completely out of the questions, as the filthy water kept thundering past them without ending, crashing and splashing and roaring, any and all sounds being magnified by the echoing expanse of the sewer tunnel.
So the fluffies walked, one step at a team, hearts racing in terror, flinching any time a stray splash of murky, stinking water caught them on the side, chilling them to the bone and threatening to knock them down.
Finally Smarty saw the ending in sight. The concrete ledge led to a metal walkway, which spanned the length of the surging river. He turned back and saw the rest of the herd timidly waddling across the ledge. Smarty gave a dramatic groaning sigh.
âCâMON DUMMEH FWUFFEHS!â He snapped at them. âSMAWTY WANNA FINâ WAWAS! HUWWY UP OW SMAWTY WEAVE YOO BEHIND!â
The herd moved as fast as they could, even Limpy, but still stayed as careful as possible. The roaring water crashing past them was a constant and all too real reminder of just how easy it would be for ANY of them to die at a momentâs notice.
All it would take was a momentarily lapse of concentrationâŚ
âDUMMEH HEWD!â Smarty screamed again, ruining their concentration. âDUMMEH FATTY FWUFFEHS! SO SLOW! TAKINâ SO WONG! SMAWTY BOWED! HUWWY UP!â Smarty snarled and spat, huffing and stomping his feet constantly. He just couldnât understand it! Heâd crossed already, why were they taking so long?! Okay, so he was in front, so obviously heâd be first, but that was no excuse! Why hadnât the others already been there?! Because they were stupid, thatâs why! Stupid and fat and slow and lazy andâŚ
Finally Limpy made it to the bridge too. Smarty wasnât even happy to see him, he felt like heâd been waiting for a⌠well, he didnât know any time longer than a second, but it felt like itâd been a REALLY long kind of time!
One by one the rest of the herd made it to the bridge, each one stepping onto the safe metal surface before bounding up to the rest of the herd, delighted that the roaring water had been nice enough to spare them.
âAwe hewd hewe?â One of the mares asked.âIs aww of us hewe?â
Smarty groaned again and ran his eyes over the herd. Stupid herd, couldnât count themselves! It was ALWAYS up to Smarty to do the HARD work!
There was Limpy, then the first mare, and then the second mare, and the stallion, then⌠altogether, with a loose smattering of babies running around everywhere, the total was eight adults, including Smarty (although Smarty couldnât count higher than three, so it was more like âthree, another three and a twoâ).
All present and corre-
Smarty stopped.
No, that was wrong. There should be more of them than that! They left the stupid mare who couldnât save her baby behind in the room of sludge and poopy and poopy-sludge, but there was another missingâŚ
He turned, and hissed in annoyance. A stupid mare was still on the ledge! Worse than that, she had one of her stupid babies still with her too!
âHuwwy up! Smawty fiwsty!â Smarty snapped at them.
The baby was in front of the mama, and had been waddling along when it suddenly stopped and fell to itâs belly, itâs face screwed up tight. Smarty vaguely recognised it as the fat baby that had been ravenously eating the stinky monster nummies before they left to find the wawas. Stupid fat dummy baby.
âWha wwong?!â Mama asked her baby.
âMama, hewp! Tummy huwties! Babbeh⌠babbeh hu-â
The baby let out a sharp âGLURKâ sound, and squeezed itâs eyes shut again.
âMAMA! TUMMY HUWTIES! HEWP! HEWP!â The baby began screaming. By now all of the herd were watching. Mama was at a loss, she couldnât move forwards without stepping on her baby, and the ledge was too narrow to do anything else but walk backwards⌠but she couldnât leave her baby! He had tummy hurties!!!
âMummah hewe babbeh! Mummah he-â
Then it happened.
At first, it just sounded like the baby was letting out a fart, which made some of the herd giggle and snort at the funny sound the babyâs rear was making.
Then the sound stopped.
And then the poopies began.
A torrent of foul brown liquid erupted from the babyâs anus, pouring out and spattering all over itâs mamaâs face, landing in her staring eyes, her open mouth and her tiny nostrils, as well as soaking her fur and covering the ledge in slippery diarrhea.
âACK! BABBEH! NU! MUMMAH NO FOW POOPIES! MUMMAH CANâT SEESIES!â She wailed, stumbling and slipping in the brown mess. By now, the torrent had stopped and her baby, fresh from having emptied itâs guts of the rancid meat, turned to face mama.
âMummah, babbeh hab tummy huwties⌠neeâ huggiesâŚâ It weakly squeaked, dragging itself through the slippery mess it had made on the ledge. Mama was still stumbling and staggering, every placed foot sliding away immediately from the slick coating of liquid shit that now covered the ledge. All the while mama was shaking her head furiously, trying to knock the feces out of her eyes, mouth and nostrils, but having no such luck.
Baby reached mama at last, and tightly hugged her hoof as it landed in the liquid filth. Once again, she slipped, and this time baby came with her. The added weight on her foot completely threw her off balance⌠and she slipped straight into the surging river below.
âNU!â The herd wailed as a group. Smarty just watched silently, stunned, his mouth hanging open. He wasnât even paying attention really, he was busy thinking about shapes.
The mama landed with a crash in the rushing brown water, vanishing beneath the surface for a moment before reappearing, spluttering and coughing.
âHEWP! HEWP FWUF-â
She was pulled under the water by the raging current halfway through talk, before managing to surface again, this time with her baby clinging to her face, smothering her mouth with itâs fat, soaking wet body.
âHEP! HEWD, HEP! FWUFFEH NEEâ HEWP! NE-â
âHEWP BABBEH! BABBEH TOO WIDDWE! WAWAS BAD FO-â
The pair were sucked under again, then resurfaced, too busy spluttering and spitting to get any words out, then they were gone again.
âSmawty, wha do?!â A member of the herd asked Smarty. He hadnât been paying attention, heâd gotten distracted by looking at the bricks that made up the walls.
âWha? Oh. Dummeh mawe faww in da wawas wif dummeh babbeh.â He stated absentmindedly, as if only just registering what was going on.
âSabe mummah, Smawty!â The pony repeated.
âWha yoo fink Smawty doin?!â Smarty hissed, bucking the idiot pony in his face, sending him sprawling backwards. In truth Smarty had been difting off to thinking about toys and spaghetti again, but with a heavy, heavy, HEAVY sigh, he figured he ought to help these brainless dimwit morons at least ONE more time today.
âYoo!â He said, pointing at one of the largest stallions in the herd. âYoo gwab mama when she go by bwidge!â
With the obvious solution presented to the stupid herd, Smarty plopped down on his rear to try counting his hooves again. He always got up to âthreeâ, then lost count, and he was REALLY excited to find out what number came after that!
The big stallion waddled to the edge of the metal bridge, watching the mama bob and bounce through the surging filth. The stallion dropped down to his belly and lowered his head, craning it down as much as he could, to the point the filthy, stinking water was splashing his face.
Suddenly, the mama and her baby reached the bridge, still clinging to each other despite the thrashing water around them. The stallion reached as far as he could, feeling like his head was about to pop clean off⌠and he managed to snag the mama just in time, biting into her fuzz.
âOWIE! OWIE! NU HUWTIES!â The mama squealed as the stallion tried to lift her out of the water⌠but her soaking wet fluff was too heavy, and she began thrashing around in pain from the sensation of having it yanked and pulled on.
âTwyinâ hewp yoo!â The stallion grunted around a mouthful of soaking, stinking fluff. âSmawty! Neeâ hewp!â He called.
âWhu?â Smarty asked, roused from his intense counting. âWha say?â
âNeeâ⌠HEWP!â The stallion grunted. The soaked, thrashing mare was making it harder and harder for him to pull her up, and with every passing second it seemed like she was gone for good, the rushing water still pulling at her heavy form.
âYoo dummeh!â Smarty snapped. âYoo just puww dem up! Stoopid dummeh fwuffy! Smawty busy!â He said, and went back to counting his hooves while the stallion struggled to save two of the herdâs lives.
âNeeâ⌠neeâ hewp!â The stallion groaned, trying to stand up, but he was unable to fight against rushing water pulling at the screaming mare and her baby. Try as he might, the mare was simply too heavy for him to lift. âSmawty⌠pwease hewp!â
âSHADDUP DUMMEH!â Smarty finally yelled. âSMAWTY TIWED OF HEWPINâ YOO! TIWED OF AWW Oâ YOO! AWWAYS HABINâ SMAWTY SOWVE PWOBWEMS FOW YOO! NO TIME FOW SMAWTYâS FINKY FINGS! SMAWTY HATE AWW Oâ YOO! STOOPID DUMMEH STOOPIDS!!!â
And with that, Smarty charged forwards and rammed into the stallionâs rear, tipping the balance enough to send the stallion tumbling into the rushing water with the mama and her baby. With one almighty splash they were gone, sucked down under the water. The herd looked all up and down the river to find them, but they had disappeared completely.
Two more of the herd were gone, three counting the baby.
Smarty was puffing and huffing, from both the anger he felt in his tiny fluffy heart, as well as the physical exertion of tackling a pony bigger than him. It took him several minutes of wheezing before he remembered the rest of his herd was still there.
âWHAH?!â He snapped at them. âWHAH DUMMEHS WOOKINâ AT?! Huwwy up, fowwow Smawty! Smawty fiwsty, wanâ wawas!â
Smarty glared at the herd, but none of them said anything, none of them even moved. None, except for a tiny pegasus foal with a coat which had once been brilliant white, but was now smudged all over with dark brown smears, giving him more of a calico appearance.
The foal waddled up to Smarty, puffed out itâs cheeks, and stomped itâs hooves on the ground.
âNU!â It peeped. âNu go wif Smawty! Smawty dummeh! Me new smawty!â
Smarty looked down at the tiny foal in front of him.
âShaddup stoopud dummeh babbeh.â Smarty huffed, too tired to argue with this stupid idiot moron.
âNU!â The foal huffed, stomping itâs hooves on the ground again. âMe new smawty! Me say yoo dummeh! Biggest dummeh ebah! Big dummeh who smeww wike POOPIES!!!â
Then, with unbridled audacity, the foal stepped forwards and actually tried to give Smarty sorry-hoofsies!
And then, Smartyâs vision turned blood red.
He reared back, lifting both of his hooves in the air⌠and brought them slamming down on the foalâs tiny back. With a soft âcrackâ he felt the foalâs spine break, a thin spurt of blood erupting out of the tiny broken body.
âEEP! MUMMAH!â The foal shrieked. One of the mares in the herd twitched slightly, but seemed too afraid to move forwards. âMUMMAH HEWP! BABBEH HAF BIG OWIES!â It continued to squeal.
Smarty reared up again, and brought his hooves down on the foalâs back again. There was a âcrunchâ and the foal squealed in agony once more. Then again, another âcrackâ, and the foal began openly crying, tears pouring from itâs face, as blood seeped out of itâs back, broken and twisted bones having torn through the fragile skin with the third stomp.
Smarty looked at it and felt nothing in his heart but absolute hatred. How dare this insolent little BABY dare to try and replace him! HIM! The smartiest smarty who ever smarted a smarty-smart! Smarty wasnât going to let it get away with it.
The foal had stopped speaking, stopped procaliming itself to be so smart, and had been reduced to newborn chirps and peeps, but that wasnât good enough. Smarty felt sick looking at it. It was pathetic! It didnât deserve to live at all. He was smart enough to decide that.
And with that, he turned, pointing his rear at the broken body on the bridge, and emptied his bowels, drowning the baby in mostly liquid, somewhat lumpy feces. Within seconds the baby vanished under the brown torrent, and by the time Smarty was done, the foal had gone completely silent and still, totally and utterly dead, either from blood-loss or drowning.
Smarty turned back, and remembered AGAIN that the herd was still there.
Indeed, they were still there, staring at what had happened. The baby. Smarty. The stomping. The poopies. Some of the herd had been born wild, but some were runaways, and had heard many stories from their former owners of âabusersâ⌠abusers who did similar things to fluffies, young or old.
A thought passed among their heads at that moment.
Was SMARTY an⌠an abuser�
The herd was completely silent. Smarty puffed his cheeks and kicked the shit-smeared corpse with his hoof.
âDummeh babbeh. Got sowwy-hoofsies. Got sowwy-poopies.â Smarty glared at the rest of the herd. âDummeh babbeh desewved it! Now fowwow Smawty! Neeâ finâ wawas!â
And with that, Smarty took off again, waddling down another dark tunnel. The herd were, again, too stunned to properly deal with what had happened, and so silently followed Smarty, each one carefully stepping past the broken foalâs corpse lying on the bridge. Even the foalâs own mother waddled past, trying her best not to think about why she was suddenly lighter by exactly one baby.
The herd was as ragtag as any other, some joining recently, some joining earlier, but they all thought they had known Smarty. Despite his name, he wasnât always perfect (but nobody would ever say as such to his face, he got angry VERY easily!), but he had never been so violent or aggressive with them before. He had killed at least five of their group already, two adults and three foals⌠and he didnât even seem to care! He just kept stomping around, demanding the others listen to him, while he continued to make bad decisions.
One by one, each of the tiny fluffy ponyâs minds came to the same, silent conclusion: Smarty was making too many mistakes. They couldnât trust him anymore. In the âup-aboveâ, maybe, but down here in the smelly dark? No, no way. Smarty didnât know what he was doing⌠but he would punish them if they said so.
So the entire herd remained in glum, morose silence, toddling along behind Smarty, who continued to lead them deeper and deeper into the darkness.
At the rear of the party, Limpy continued to drag himself along. His foot hurt worse than ever, and there was another problem⌠it was starting to smell really bad! And THEN, Limpy had even noticed it was starting to leak! But not owie-juices⌠a kind of sticky yellow stuff! It smelled bad too, Limpy didnât know what it was, but he tried not to think about it.
Maybe it was just a sign that his leg was getting better! But even he couldnât be deluded into thinking Smarty was making the right choices.