The next few days passed without incident and whilst Chocolate’s discovery about her place within the grand scheme of things was not forgotten, it remained unspoken, as is so often the way with families and unpleasant topics.
The only positive thing to come of it was the bond between Silver and Chocolate, who had become inseparable.
Chocolate had become withdrawn since the fateful day of the family outing and had retained none of her previous enthusiasm.
If it wasn’t for Silver, she may have even spent the rest of her life as a recluse, hiding away in the family’s den.
But Silver had not forgotten his promise.
He was going to protect his sister and that included making sure that she didn’t feel the need to hide herself away from the rest of the herd, just because she was born with a fluff colour that had been deemed unattractive by some meanie dummeh fluffies.
And that was how they found themselves outside one fine morning, enjoying the summer day.
Leaf and Berry had already headed outside, more or less immediately upon waking. That was how thhongs worked for them these days.
They spent the majority of their waking hours sitting near the central oak, preening themselves with the other fluffies who were lucky enough to meet what the herd considered to be the accepted standard of beauty.
Whereas Chocolate’s recent experience had traumatised her, the two winged fluffies had come away from the day with massively inflated egos.
Certainly, they hadn’t enjoyed the shouting and conflict.
But they hadn’t forgotten all the admiring looks they had drawn from the rest of the herd before that, or all of the compliments they had received with them.
Plus, during the past few days, the rest of the foals’s manes had fully sprouted.
Nature is very unfair in how it distributes its gifts.
Whilst Silver’s mane was the same shade of grey as the rest of him and Chocolate’s a slightly darker shade of brown, the two Pegusus sisters had won the genetic lottery once again.
Berry had a neon green mane, which matched her sister’s fluff.
Likewise, Leaf was now rocking a bright pink mane, which was the same colour as Berry’s fluff.
The contrast was striking and it complimented the two of them perfectly.
Although neither of them had said so, their general demeanor made it very clear where the felt they stood in the family pecking order, compared to their drab looking siblings.
Chocolate had picked up on this and consequently, had been reluctant to venture outside at first.
But Silver wasn’t going to take ‘no’ for an answer and within moments of setting out, she and Silver were enthusiastically engaged in a game of huggie tag, the air filled with the sound of their joyful giggles.
After a few more moments of frantic running and hugging, they finally collapsed on top of each other, still chuckling merrily as they gasped to get their breath back.
They were lying on their backs, hooves raised to the sky, when they heard a little voice squeak “Nuw fwends?”
Silver rolled onto his front, suprised by the intrusion, by remaining outwardly unruffled.
Chocolate gave a little squeal of shock and nestled her head into Silver’s side.
Standing a few feet away from them was a white unicorn colt, with a mane which was such a light shade of yellow that from a distance, he looked monochrome.
He was flanked by two other fluffies.
On one side, stood a green earthie with a dark blue mane.
On the other was a winged pegusus with fluff which was a mottled red and black, his mane a dark black at the edges, with a streak of red running through the middle.
All three were beaming at the discovery of other fluffy foals.
Silver gave them an appraising look.
He looked down at Chocolate, who was still pressing herself into his side, apprehension written all over her little features.
He looked at the new arrivals once more.
“Be nuw fwends?”, he finally asked cooly. “Nuw fwuffies nu am meanie?”
The white unicorn, who was clearly the leader of the trio, crinkled his brow in confusion.
“Nu am meanie”, he replied. “Am jus’ Miwkie”.
This was enough to embolden Chocolate to raise her head and look their new companions over herself.
“Nu unnerstan’”, she said eventually. “Yu nu am Miwkies. Yu am fwuffy”.
The white unicorn took a second to process this before throwing his head back and letting out a hearty guffaw.
“Teeheeheeheehee! Siwwy fwuffy! Nu AM Miwkies. NAMSIE am Miwkies”.
There was a moment of silence whilst Silver and Chocolate processed this, before bursting into peals of laughter themselves.
Eventually, all five of them were rolling around, tears of mirth rolling down their cheeks.
“Teeheehee! Chocowate thinkie dat Miwkie thinkie dat he am weaw miwkies!”, she gasped, doubled over with laughter.
“Teeheehee! Nuuuu…teehee… Miwkie am cawwed Miwkie…teeheee…cos of fwuff cowour!”
Chocolate was laughing so hard that she had given herself hiccups, her earlier anxiety totally forgotten.
The hilarity eventually subsided and the foals composed themselves.
There were introductions all round.
“Dese am Miwkies’s brudders, Gwassie an’ Buggiefwend”, the white unicorn said.
If Silver and Chocolate thought these names were odd, they were too tactful to say so.
In fairness, Grassie’s fluff was the same shade of green as grass and with his black and red mottled fluff, Buggiefriend did look a bit like a ladybird.
Not that any of them could have identified a ladybird as anything other than a “buggyfriend”.
Their Mummah and Daddeh both had several generations of herd born fluffy ancestry behind them and so, their experience limited their ideas of things to name their offspring after.
To their credit though, their foals at least looked vaguely like the things that inspired thier names.
With the formalities out of the way and good intentions from all parties established, another spontaneous game of huggie tag broke out.
After a manic couple minutes, which may as well have been hours as far as the foals were concerned, they collapsed into a fluffpile and enjoyed a moment of quiet respite from the arduous task of play.
After a few moments of rest, which took place in companionable silence, Milkie poked his head up and looked at his new friends with an excited glint in his eye.
“Miwkies hab bewstest thinkie pwace pwan!”
Four other heads raised to look at him in eager anticipation.
“Wets pway spwowin’ babbehs!”, he exclaimed.
A mummer of excitment run through the group.
Excitment from everyone that is, except Chocolate.
Unsurprisingly enough, the last excursion she had made did not make the idea of exploring sound like a fun one.
To her dismay though, Silver was chattering away animatedly with the rest of the foals, already talking about how brave they were going to be.
She didn’t want to let her brother down.
And the thought of spending the rest of the day by herself wasn’t all that attractive either.
As if seeming to read her thoughts, Silver looked down at his sister and the wild grin he had been sporting faded as he registered her expression.
Chocolate tried to smile and mirror his excitment but Silver was clearly unconvinced.
“Am sissy otay?”, he asked hesitantly. “Nu hab tu pway spwowin babbeh if nu wan’”.
Chocolate’s fekt her heart melt a little bit.
She could see how much Silver wanted to join in.
And yet, when it came to it, his first thought was of her feelings.
She couldn’t let him down. She just couldn’t.
“It am otay, bruddah”, she replied, hoping that she sounded braver than she felt.
“Wets gu pway spwowin babbehs. Siwvew wiww pwotect Chocowate?”
Silver swelled with pride, delighted that his sister was willing to put her trust in him over her obvious anxiety.
“Nu hab scawdies, sissy!”, he exclaimed.
“Siwvew wiww nu wet Chocowate hab huwties!”
Chocolate nuzzled against her brother lovingly.
Having settled this, the two of them hurried off after Grassie, Milkie and Buggiefriend, who were so caught up in the adventure that they had been oblivious to the exchange between the two siblings.
And so, with an eager spring in their step, the little group set off, dashing through the grass with renewed energy and purpose, their excited chatter filling the air.