Of course it’s scary to let Boss-Mummah leave, but Sundae is, above all things, a Good Fluffy. She watches Boss-Mummah go, and tries not to start sniffling. It helps that Dapple is right next to her, warm and comforting.
“Sundae wan’ huggies?” she asks, very gently. Sundae nods, and Dapple sits down on the floor and pulls Sundae in with her front hoofsies, hugging her tightly. “Sundae am otay,” she says, soft and sure like a good mummah. “Sundae am bein’ bwave, gud fwuffy.”
“T’ank ‘ou, Dappwe,” Sundae says, after a little while. “Sundae feew bettew.”
They go back to playing, and Boss-Mummah comes back so soon! Sundae runs to her, tail wagging, and raises her front weggies for Boss-Mummah to pick her up. She does, laughing softly and nuzzling Sundae, tucking her back into her shirt. Sundae doesn’t really need it right now, but she’s definitely not going to complain. She always feels so special when Boss-Mummah does this. Boss-Mummah has to wear a big shirt, and the part that goes around her neck is all stretched out.
“Got it all set up,” Boss-Mummah says. “Litter box, toys, my human stuff, and there’s a little pen for outside time.”
It sounds amazing, but it’s even better to see Boss-Mummah smile when Sundae asks to be put back down to play. The second Sundae’s hoofsies touch the floor, she scampers off. She’s not sure how long she gets to play with her new friends. She loves Milly and every foal they foster, but she doesn’t get out to meet other fluffies very much. Too many stallions running up to her, calling her ‘pretty mare.’ She’s glad to be pretty, but she still can’t handle how aggressive most of them are! And just one, not even meaning to scare her, can ruin a whole trip to the park. Especially because Boss-Mummah gets so mad at the stupid ones. And the mean ones, but Sundae never minds that. A human can give the sorriest hoofsies ever, and it gives her heart-happies to see a bad stallion go flying through the air.
But here at Sunshine Feels, she’s a new mare, and it’s against the rules for the stallions to even talk to her right now, let alone start trying to have enfies. She hadn’t even realized how tense she usually is, out in public with other fluffies. She can even be calm when the two special friends come out of the side room, and the mare nuzzles the stallion in farewell before trotting over on her little white hoofsies. She still smells like enfies, even, but it’s okay. She’s the same size as Sundae but looks smaller, because she has a velvet coat, and her smile is nervous.
“Nyu fwen?”
“Nyu fwen!” Sundae coos, opening her front weggies for huggies. Sundae’s mummah didn’t get much time with her, but she remembers that Mummah had loved Yellow Pointy-Wingy Brother just the same, and in her whole life after she has never seen anything to convince her that alicorns aren’t just another kind of fluffy.
The alicorn trills happily, hugging Sundae. “Fwuffy am Domino!” she says, and Sundae introduces herself in return.
Sundae doesn’t ask what kind of heart-hurties brought Domino here, and Domino doesn’t mention it. Instead they play, take a nap, wake up to skettis(!), the best possible way to wake up, and then it’s time for everyone to either go back to the saferooms for dark-time, or, like Sundae, go with their human to the little for-now housie.
Sundae wishes Milly was here. Or that she was a bigger fluffy. Boss-Mummah won’t let her make a nestie in the big human bed because she’s afraid of squashing Sundae. And she must be right, she’s so smart, but Sundae almost wishes she wasn’t, so Sundae wouldn’t have to sleep alone. When she says so, Dapple says that one of them can ask the humans to spend the night with her, and Candyfloss says she’ll do it if Dapple has to stay here. Sundae scampers over to Boss-Mummah and nudges her leg.
“Yeah, little one? It’s about time for us to go.”
“Sundae can hav fewapy mawe stay wif us?”
Boss-Mummah looks confused for a moment, then looks to Miss Luna. “I think I remember this from the site… sign-out and tracking collar, right?”
“Right,” Miss Luna says, and then reaches down for Sundae, who is happy to reach up. She likes Miss Luna, who scoops her up gently, and, asks which of her friends she wants to keep her company. It turns out that Dapple doesn’t have to stay tonight, and after Miss Luna hands Sunday back to Boss-Mummah and writes some things on a piece of paper, and Boss-Mummah does, too, she sends a man into another room for a little while. He comes back with a collar, and calls Dapple over, putting it on and reminding her that it is waterproof and that she does not need to take it off.
“Dappwe sowwy again fo’ scawwies,” she says, puffing her cheeks just a little, and the man laughs.
“Yeah,” he says, gently scratching around the base of her horn in the way all the unicorns Sundae has ever met like so much, “I know. We just care about you, little girl. Now, go and have a nice time with Miss Uma and Sundae, okay?”
“Otay!” Dapple chirps, and trots over to join them. “Dappwe am weady now,” she says, gently butting her head against Boss-Mummah’s leg.
“Do I need a carrier?” Boss-Mummah asks.
“Not at the speeds we drive back here,” Miss Luna says. “Have a good night!”
