Soot was born under ordinary circumstances in July. Daughter of a green and purple Alicorn named Bride (who was given by a man named Frank along with the appropriate amount of cash in exchange for not involving the police after a sideswipe car accident) and a random white street Fluff who had mounted her in the backyard before being scared off with a shout and a threat; his scant preejaculate was enough to swell Bride’s belly. Two of the three siblings who owned her, youngest Sam and oldest Jackie, questioned her claims it was unwanted, but nothing was to be done regardless. Middle child Tabitha loved her mother’s little darling, and would love any intelligent thing that came out of her, and that was the end of any train of thought on the subject. Sam at that age had disliked Fluffies to a point bordering on celebrating Abusers (as did most insecure boys only just entering puberty), but loved anything he could name and act dramatic about while Jackie generally hated every group of anything and only loved individuals, regardless of topic.
Soot was firstborn and a Pegasi, with coarse (for a Fluffy) black fluff that inspired her name. Sliding out after her was three living siblings and a stillborn who was named Willmouse for Mary Shelly’s son who died young. Another would not live to adulthood, lapping up cleaning agent that smelled like citrus and tasted only mildly bitter after it was not fully wiped up when cleaning a dribble of feces off a patch of the tile floor; this one, days from receiving a true name, was posthumously named Harriet after Mary Shelly’s suicidal in-law. Jackie claimed the orange Earthie named Fritz as her own and he survives to this day, fat and lazy but also quiet unless spoken to.
Ernest the maroon Earthie was unfortunately a Smarty. After the loss of his siblings the three surviving Foals were doted on by the humans so he never needed to demand anything, and encouragement by his mother to chirp even as a Talkie lead him to remain undetected until the day he decided that Soot was a rival for Jackie’s attention, and kicked her with no warning straight in the face, smashing the poor dear’s horn partially into her skull and causing severe swelling to the brain that left her cognitively impaired. Soot was assumed to have run into a wall despite her claims that “Sootie Bubbah mae’ heab go tickehs”, as Bride was the only witness and intended to see to the greater good of all her Foals. She knew Soot would always be loved by her two Mummahs and Daddeh, and their own Mummah and Daddeh too, but the fate of Ernest was precarious; for her part she disciplined him as best she could, lying on him to immobilize him as a reverse Sorry Box and blaming his rage-induced shit blasts on the pitiful Soot. He learned better than any Smarty could be expected to, even regretting his actions when seeing Soot break into tears after forgetting her own name once and being held alongside her by Mummah Tabitha.
Still, Smarties do what Smarties do, and one day Ernest escaped out a backdoor left open to bring in groceries from the car. The fence was not fully Fluff-proofed at that point, and he found an opening before anyone knew he was gone. He was mourned as if already dead by Bride, and remembered fondly by Sam surprisingly. In truth Ernest survived another five years as Smarty of a herd made up of survivors from an overambitious Abuser who had underestimated the will to survive once paralyzing terror fades as well as the ability of chickenwire to contain skinny Foals. One month of watching wilderness survival movies (the meaning of Homeward bound was unfortunately lost on him) had taught him enough to preserve his herd, and Bride’s lessons on kindness had sunk into his mind. He was killed by a cowardly nameless Smarty’s top Toughie a week before his fifth birthday. The Smarty’s rule was short, for the herd was used to proper governance and revolted one month later when food was scarce and the Smarty inhaled a precious stockpile by himself overnight. One month after, in a December Fluffpile in a former rabbit warren, Ernest’s bloodline mixed with that of his successor’s. All others of his killer’s line failed before the spring. Soot of course knew none of this but Bride had an inkling when she caught something like her lost boy’s scent on the breeze in the following summer while the young Ferals were scouting the suburbs. She kept the information to herself.