If you haven’t read Silver, part 2. By Poopieplace, click here.
In no time at all, the four foals had made the transition from chirpie baby to talkie baby.
Not that Charlie wasn’t delighted of course, but it did make for a noisey den.
And that was before they started to walk!
And so it was that Charlie and Flower found themselves gathering up their tiny brood, as they prepared take them on their first proper trip outside of the den.
It was high time that they learnt about the outside world, and especially time that they met the rest of the herd.
And besides, Charlie and Flower, proud parents that they were, couldn’t wait to show them off.
Needless to say, the foals were excited.
“Weaf su 'cited tu see udah fwuffies!”
“Bewwy hab suuuu many happies! Am udeh fwuffies pwetty wike Bewwy?”
“Teehee! Chocowate gun be 'splowin babbeh!”
“Siwvew wan gu wite nowie!”
“Otay babbehs!”, shouted Charlie. “Wisten. Dis nu wike wen we gu outsidie tu make good poopies. Fwuffies gun see aww of herd dis bwightime, su need tu wisten to Mummeh an Daddeh.”
The chattering died down a little bit, although the foals were still whizzing around each other, scarcely able to contain their excitement.
Charlie looked at Flower, who gave him a nod.
They were as ready as they’d ever be.
+++++++
The fluffy family stepped outside the den and found themselves underneath a tall, leafy tree.
Their tree was in the middle of the outer ring of one of two roughly concentric semicircles of trees.
The trees surrounded a patch of grass, which was roughly the size of a football pitch.
A creek ran along the right side of the outer semi circle and eventually flowed into a lake.
In the middle of the patch of grass in the centre was a huge oak tree.
The four foals gasped in awe.
Fluffies milled around, enjoying the summer sun.
Factoring in the changing weather, predators and the various other hazards of nature, there were generally between 15-20 fluffy families at any one time.
Not that any of them were capable of counting that high of course.
The family started walking towards the centre of the ring.
Between having to stop every few minutes to greet another fluffy and desperately trying to kep track of four foals who were literally hopping with excitment, it was slow going.
“Ohhhhh”, came an admiring gasp from a neighbouring fluffy, who lived in a den in the tree next to Charlie. “Wook at pwetty wingy babbehs”.
This did nothing to calm Leaf or Berry and their egos only grew with each passing compliment.
Flower in particular was overjoyed. She had given birth to two beautiful fillies.
She was so caught up in her maternal pride that she didn’t notice that there were some looks being cast that were less flattering, particularly at Chocolate.
Charlie noticed, although he decided to ignore it, especially as the foals didn’t seem to have picked up on it.
The family finally made it to the centre of the tree ring, where a red Unicorn with a bright orange mane lay basking beneath the oak tree in the very centre.
"Babbehs, dis am hewd Smawtie. ", Charlie explained, in a duly reverant tone of voice. “He am cawwed Cucumbew”.
Cucumber looked nothing like his namesake.
Although he had been born in the herd, his Mummah, like a good number of the fluffies who had lived there at one time or another, was not.
As domestic fluffies joined the herd, they brought with them memories of the outside world, although being fluffies, they didn’t always have a full and correct understanding of the context.
This resulted in domestic fluffy names being passed onto herd born fluffies more or less arbitrarily, simply because a fluffy Mummah or Daddeh liked the sound of it.
Confusing though it may have been to an outsider, it was probably preferable to gaving a herd of fluffies who could only name their foals after things they had direct experience of, which would have resulted in a herd full of fluffies with the same names.
“Hewwo widdwe fwuffies”, Cucumber said, not bothering to get up.
“Hewwo Cucumbew!”, the four foals chirped in unison.
Silver’s attention was drawn to the oak tree in the centre.
“Ohhhh dat..twee pwace suuuu biggie!”, he gasped out in wonderment.
“Dat’s wite widdwe fwuffy”, Cucumber replied proudly, as though he were somehow responsible. “Dat am da nummie twee. Dat twee am whewe hewd keep nummies wen it am cowdtime. Hab bewstest speciaw cowd time nummies in dere.”
Silver, like his siblings, had only just been weaned and so could barely imagine what the bestest nummies could possibly taste like.
“Wat am bewstest nummies?”, he asked, his excitement building “An wewe Siwvew fin’ dem?”
“Weww, wen it am cowd time fwuffies…”, began Charlie
“Cucumbew fin’ dem becawse am su smawtie!”, the Smarty interrupted tersly.
Charlie pulled a face at this, but before the conversation could continue any further, Chocolate interrupted with a frantic squeak of “Chocowate nee’ make gud poopies!”
One look at the little brown eartie was sufficient for Charlie to realise that walking to the poopie area nearest their tree was not an option.
“Nu wowwy, babbeh”, he smiled reassuringly. “Fowwow Daddeh”.
The other foals cheered and tagged along merrily, more from sense of familial unity and the spirit of adventure than because they actually needed to make poopies themselves.
They trotted along giggling to themselves, although there was a distinct urgency to Chocolate’s canter by this point.
Eventually, they came to the side of the herd’s land opposite the trees, at the bottom of the semicircle.
A respectable distance away, was a natural dip in the ground, which members of the herd used to relieve themselves.
Several fluffies walked past, having finished their business.
Although Chocolate didn’t notice, one of them gave her a distinctly hostile look.
“Nu smeww pwetty”, Berry complained, seemingly forgetting that she was no princess when it came to voiding her own bowels.
“Gu on babbeh”, said Charlie in an encouraging tone. “Famiwy wiww stay wite hewe an wait fo’ yu.”
Chocolate waddled to the edge of the pit, clenching her poopie place with all of her might.
With not a moment to spare, she squatted over the edge of the pit and let rip.
With a sigh of satisfaction, Chocolate was just about to move off when she heard a faint sound from below.
“Hewwo?”, she called out.
A pause, followed by more noise.
It sounded a lot like crying.
Chocolate’s heart swelled with a sense of intense empathy, which only the innocence of youth can muster.
“Hewwo?”, she called out again. “Nu hab saddies, fwen’. Chocowate wiww hewp.”
She peered cautiously over the edge of the pit, her muzzle wrinkling involuntarily at the vile odour of fluffy shit.
She squinted, trying to pinpoint the source of the heart broken sobs.
Who was crying and what could possibly be so sad?
She was going to give so many huggies!
She scanned the bottom of the pit some more, finally seeing movement.
Chocolate’s little brown muzzle wrinkled in confusion.
It looked like a pile of poopie, but that couldn’t be right…this poopie had eyes!
Chocolate edged as close as she dared.
The pile at the bottom of the pit reared it’s head up and the sobbing intensified, seemingly in response to its audience.
“Wai fwuffy hab to wib in poopies?!”, it wailed plaintively. “Nu unnerstan! Am onwy widdwe babbeh! Huuuuuuhuuuhuu!”
As if in cue, a chorus of wails joined in with the lament, as several more heads rose up to gaze at Chocolate in an appeal for pity.
Chocolate stood frozen and slack jawed in horror, as the realisation slowly hit home.
Those were babies in the pit.
Chocolate began to back away slowly, as a barrage of confused thoughts roared through her mind.
Why were there babies in the poopie pit?
Why didn’t their Mummahs and Daddehs help them?
Oblivious to her surroundings, she backed into another fluffy, a large blue and yellow Pegusus, who had waddled to the pit to answer a call of nature.
“Hai! Wai nu poopie babbeh wook were dey wawking?”, she barked angrily.
“Chocowate nu unnerstan’”, she cried. “Dere am babbehs in poopie put. Dey nu poopies! Dey am babbehs! Ne’ hewp!”
“Dummeh poopie babbeh!”, came the contemptuous reply. “Dey am poopie babbehs wike yu. Nee’ gu in poopie howe wif west of poopies!”
Chocolate started to sob as she attempted to take all of this in.
What was a poopie baby?
They were just little babies.
Like her.
Like her…
As the howls of despair from the pit reached a heart wrenching crescendo, the final, awful comprehension dawned on Chocolate.
All of the babies in the pit had the same colour fluff as her.
And as that understanding took hold, Chocolate began to scream.
+++++++++
Silver lay awake in the darkness, the sound of his sleeping family echoing through the den.
The rest of the day had been horrible.
Chocolate’s scream had brought Charlie and Flower running over, resulting in a shouting match.
It was chaos.
Chocolate had screamed herself hoarse and lay on the ground sobbing, her hooves over eyes.
“Huhuhuhuhu! No wike. Nu am poopies. Am onwy widdwe babbeh!”
Charlie was furious with the offending fluffy and a heated exchange of “dummeh” and “meanie” flew back and forth.
This was enough for Leaf and Berry to join in the sobbing, less because of their sister’s plight and more because “nu wike woud noisie”!
Flower, outraged at the impact this was having on her two “pwettiest wingy babbehs”, joined in with the yelling, adding another layer to the cacophony.
Silver had stood there, unable to know what he should be doing.
The irate fluffies were eventually separated by the intervention of Cucumber, who flanked by two of his toughies, sent them all on their way.
The family had gone back to the den in dejected silence and there hadn’t been much more said about the incident.
As Silver lay there reflecting on what he had seen, a mixture a guilt and anger started to build.
He should have given that mean dummeh worstest sorry hoofsies. He should have defended his sister.
He looked up and stared at the other side of the fluffpile, where Chocolate lay, nuzzling into Charlie’s side as best she could.
“Sissie?”, Silver whispered.
Chocolate looked up and their eyes met through the dim.
She didn’t say anything.
The look on her face spoke for her.
“Am Chocowate otay?”, whispered Silver, wiggling over her.
It was the first time that evening that anyone had really checked in with her and this small act of kindness was enough to trigger a fresh round of quiet sobbing.
Charlie stirred but didn’t wake up.
Silver got as close as he could and cuddled his sister, wrapping his front legs around her.
“Chocowate am ugwy poopie babbeh!”, she rasped.
Silver’s had to practically choke back his anger.
“Nu”, he whispered back, in a tone so vehement that it startled Chocolate out of her misery for a moment.
She gazed at her brother, not knowing what to say.
“Yu wisten to Siwvew”, he continued, not breaking eye contact. “Chocowate nu am ugwy an nu am poopie. Dat udeh fwuffy biggewst dummeh meanie eba”.
Chocolate reciprocated her brother’s hug, even though she wasn’t convinced by his words.
“If Chocowate nu am poopie, den wai uddeh babbehs hab tu go in poopie pit?”, she whispered back sadly. “Dey wook jus’ wike Chocowate.”
“Siwvew nu unnerstan”, he replied, seeing no point in pretending otherwise.
“But Siwvew wub Chocowate. Siwvew nu dat”.
Chocolate hugged Silver tighter. “Chocowate wub Siwvew tu”, she cooed gratefully.
“An Siwvew nu wet nuffin bad happen tu Chocowate. Siwvew pwomise”.
As the two of them embraced and finally drifted off to sleep, Silver made a mental note that he would be true to his word and that he would always protect his sister, no matter what.
Like so many promises made with the passion that goes hand in hand with youth, it was completely sincere.
Unfortunately, like so many promises made with the inexperience that also comes with youth, it would turn out to be utterly worthless.
Click here for part 4 Silver, part 4. By Poopieplace
