Smarty-friend had ruled the herd since before Yellow-fluff Fluffy opened her eyes and he came to inspect her. She had never thought to ask how many babbehs (the pregnancy rearing of a Fluffy to adulthood being a more understandable metric than forevers and bright times for a Fluffy to grasp) he had been around. He was simply the Smarty, and was good, so he was obeyed. He had taught them all many things that he had learned from his humans as a Foal, and his time as a Smarty leader. Being quiet was important. Avoiding humans was important, since most who wanted to adopt a Fluffy wanted ones that a human already owned. Just because Fluffy felt hidden didn’t mean they were and they should hide more and more until they couldn’t even find themselves. Dig a hole to sleep in so the cold air stayed on top of them instead of in their fur. Better to be a dummy and poopie than forever sleepy Fluffy, so poopies should not be ignored as food until good nummies could be found.
All of these lessons helped her survive in the time since the herd scattered. Bad humans in all blue came, their faces made up of big shiny eyes and hoses. Smarty-friend screeched to run, so she had. She didn’t know what happened to the other Fluffies or Smarty-friend. She could sense other Fluffies with her as she zoomed across the grass, bounding over small rocks and branches. Voices fell off, sounds veered away. Occasionally one ran into her, and they would run pressed side by side for a while. She kept running even though she felt her heart would give out. Her body shuddered and her legs felt like they would seize up, but she forced herself to keep running. She made it to the human forests that protected their houses, unnatural colors of flat wood or metal circles. Yellow knew that she could repeat something Smarty had done with her when she was a Filly food scout. Find a place they could hear Fluffies, get into the human land, and hide. Don’t attract attention from the humans or Fluffies. Humans would defend their Fluffies, kill the monsters or scream at the humans until they went away. When the humans and Fluffies couldn’t be heard anymore, sneak out and go back to the safe place. There wasn’t a safe place anymore, but the rest of the plan should work.
She wandered frantically from place to place until she smelled signs of Fluffies behind a blue fence. Shit, piss, fluff, toys that smelled very good and best. The fence seemed perfect all around, but the Mummah was lucky to find a hole under a bush leading in. From the smell it as a very excited Stallion that had made its way in, but a long while ago. Thankfully the Stallion was very big and Yellow was somewhat small, allowing her to go under the fence without it getting too close to her Babbehs. One did fall off her back, the little brown one. Smarty-friend said humans want all babies to be safe and loved, and the compulsion to obey him mixed with motherly instincts had overwhelmed the desire to destroy this one. Before long his strange bad baby smell went away, lost among the smells of her sweet good babies. She quickly sang the mummah song, the words coming from the part of her brain where words and instincts came from while memory of her own mother provided a sweeter melody than the instinct song, and quickly the brown Babbeh fell asleep. He was transferred from her mouth to her shoulder and when she stood back up he rolled gently against his siblings.
She looked around, saw it was safe, and ran for the side of the house. Frantically looking around for a place to hide, she settled on the black cloth that was draped over something next to a tree that turned out to be metal pipes and rubber round things. The little metal sticks on the round things frightened her, reminding her of her brother who was caught in the metal wires that protected bird corn; his blood stained the ground and caused him to scream, which alerted the humans. The sudden end to his voice lingered in her mind more than the anguished wail did. She scooted between the two rubber round things and waited. She had settled into a tucked in position, ignoring the sounds of playing Fluffies that came a short time later. Yellow felt like sleeping, but knew she couldn’t go to the sleepy place until the Chirpies on her back were out of danger. After a short time she heard humans again. They went back and forth for a bit before there was the sound of shuddering wood. Then came the screaming of startled Fluffies. Yellow’s brain commanded her to go see the humans and present herself for a new house and all the good things in life, but it also screamed to run and never stop running. She knew the right thing was to stay there, stay hiding and safe like Smarty taught her. The choice was aided by the small heartbeats of her still sleeping Foals that made her want to stay resting.
A moment later and she was glad for her choice. Sudden hissing, and a Fluffy scree’d. The human said something and laughed, then all the Fluffies started screaming. She heard frantic small hooves patting around, then heavy footsteps pounding the ground. More hissing. More screaming. It became less and less, and at one point she heard the human say something then one of the Fluffies pleading. The Fluffy voice became a scream again, then a slow tearing noise as the scream became a wet wail, a gurgle, then a loud ripping. There was a soft thump in front of the bicycle cover, and she didn’t have to look to know she wound find half a Fluffy when she chose to make her exit. Yellow closed her eyes regardless and was thankful that her Babbehs had not yet opened their eyes. Unfortunately one had woken up and began peeping, quickly waking the others. She sat up and felt them roll off her, quickly turning around and trying to comfort them so they would go back to sleep. She didn’t dare sing the Mummah song now, their only hope was the Babbehs being quiet. She desperately attached two to her teats, a few seconds of resistance giving way to the comfort that suckling provided although they kneaded and fussed regardless as if they weren’t getting any milk; concerning, but far from worth investigating at the moment. That left three she had no way to quickly silence. Brown Babbeh was placed between his siblings, the comfort of their bodies making him feel that comfort was coming which quieted his peeps for the most part. She tried hugging the other two, but it did little as they weren’t pacified by action and didn’t have their tiny ears covered by sibling bodies. Human voices and heavy footsteps drifted nearer, then a new voice came. She strained to listen.
“WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU THINK YOU’RE DOING?!”
“Our jobs, ma’am. Clearing out Fluffy infestations.”
“This is my yard! Those are my pets! You fucking son of a bitch, you just killed my daughter’s Fluffies!”
“We inspected for collars ma’am, didn’t see any.”
“What do you mean ‘inspected for collars’? This is my yard! You jumped my fence and killed my pets! Cindy, call the police. “
“We’re government workers ma’am, we’re-“
“YOU KILLED MY PETS! FUCK YOU, YOU KILLED MY FUCKING PETS!”
“We had reason to belie-“
“THEY’RE GROOMED! NO MORON COULD MISTAKE THEM FOR FERALS!”
“They’re Fluffies, they didn’t have collars. We found a dead Feral only twenty feet from this place. Policy is to take out all Fluffies in the area. You know about the variants that have been popping up, right?”
“THIS IS MY YARD, I SHOULD SHOOT YOU STUPID FUCKS.”
“If one of them managed to get in and breed with one of yours then the hazardous strains could have infected the Domestic population.”
“What is this shit you were spraying? WHAT IS THIS SHIT YOU WERE SPRAYING?”
“Its an anticoagulant, dissipates fairly quickly. Shouldn’t leave any major effects but you need to leave your kids and any remaining Fluffies indoors for a week or two.”
“Cindy, go back inside. I’m getting my twelve-iron, you two assholes better be gone in one minute.”
A door slammed.
“Alright help me fin-“
“Fuck that, she looked serious.”
“Who cares, we’ve got the law on our side. These shitrats are just bad color Earthies, dumb trashy bitch bought her kid snake food for pets, so they’re not even gonna be enough for small claims court. Fera-cide is approved for use everywhere but California.”
“That isn’t gonna shield you from buckshot, dumbass.”
“Fine, call it in and I’ll wait.”
Yellow waited a long time trying to keep her babies as quiet as possible. Thankfully there was a family of birds in the tree above them that could be blamed for the peeping, and the woman had made it quite clear that the two men wouldn’t be investigating when she fired her boomstick into the air and pointed it back down at them. More shouting when the human saw the Foal that had been ripped in half. Yellow began to hear faint chirping and early Talkie Fluffy voices which confused her, but she focused on the humans. After some more attempts by the older man to placate the woman the two left. Another man’s voice came later along with flashing lights. He talked to the woman for a short time then left. After the bright time ended Yellow Mummah finally felt it was safe. She realized how much better she felt for some reason, but her heart ached; she had no milk for her Babbehs which were all now peeping from hunger and crawling over each other. Mummah was confused, at the bright time start she had plenty of milk and she did not feel hungry right now. But the only solution she could think of was to eat. She dug a shallow hole so her Babbehs would stay away from the spokes of the bicycle wheels, arranged them into a Fluffpile, poked her head out to check that it was safe, then ventured forth.
Inside the house she heard a human crying softly through the open window. The grass smelled strange, a mix of Fluffy blood with poopies, peepees, and something she could not identify. The bodies had been cleaned up but the Fluffy came across a small severed head as she made her way through the grass. Straining her ears she heard distant chirps and pleas for comfort but ignored them. Those Babbehs needed another Mummah, she still had her own to take care of. On the street she saw a big metal bucket, and smelled nummies inside. She knew she needed these nummies, something in a place in her mind she had never heard before said those nummies were what she had to have. But the big metal cans took a herd to knock over, and the noise they made attracted everything else from humans to monsters. Especially human monsters. But Yellow Mummah needed what was inside, so she planted her feet and pushed against the can. She was shocked when she felt it fall. She was startled by the loud noise it made but didn’t jump because the new feeling in her mind said she knew there was no reason to be afraid now. Yellow began to scarf down the food on top of the mound of trash, chewing the hard crunchy stuff methodically so she could turn it into what she needed. Something made a noise behind her, the rapidly approaching silhouette of a monster greeting her eyes. She stared it down disdainfully, causing it to pause. A silent staredown between the two ended when the dog let out a high pitch whine, tucked its tail between its legs, turned around and fled. Mummah resumed her feast on the dead Fluffy Mummah until it was mostly gone. She was much bigger than Yellow Mummah, so she didn’t need to finish it.
Leaving the remains of the domestic Foals for other scavengers she returned to her offspring. They were laying quietly, but gasping from hunger. She picked up her green baby and placed him up to her teat. Now he refused to even latch and squealed as she tried to press her to the nipple, frustrating the Mummah. Each baby shrunk away from her touch. Yellow had never heard about or seen this before, but a faint thought in her mind suggested this made sense. The only course of action left was to see if the humans would take her in. Thankfully she had the dead Mummah’s skin and bone to make her strong enough to touch the door.
Slowly she approached the porch, tension in every gram of her body though her heart remained still. The Babbehs on her back squirmed, trying to free themselves from her fluff. Every step risked one falling as she carefully reacted to the shifting weight, balancing her steps to roll them back to center as their efforts to escape made headway. When she reached the door she slowly dropped her back legs so they would slide gently off. She picked up each one and placed them in a pile beside her, then she knocked on the door. After there was no response she waited so as to not anger the human or her own Babbeh. When Yellow Mummah felt enough time had elapsed she knocked again. After a third time there was movement from inside. Yellow stayed silent and backed up into shadows, hoping the human would see the cute babies first and take pity on them.
“Who’s there? I’m not in the mood for bullshit today.”
“Hewwo pwetty wady! Fwuffy hab Babbehs but no mowe miwkies! Pwease sabe Fwuffy Babbehs! Dewe am scawy Munstah hoomins awound wookin fow Fwuffies!”
There was a pause. Then the sound of a heavy object being set down beside the door followed by clicking and shuffling as the latches were undone. A crack of light appeared and a face peered down. After a moment lookinh at the Chirpies she unlatched the chain and opened the door wider still. Suddenly it was thrown wide as a little girl, eyes puffy from crying, looked down at them. She hesitated for a moment before falling to her knees and picking up a blue Foal. “Mom, look! Babies!”
“Honey, stop, those are Ferals, they’re dirty and probably full of diseases.”
“So lets wash them and take them to the vet.”
“Honey, that will be expensive. They’re probably not going to make it, they probably got into the poison in the yard. In fact I don’t want you touching them, put it down and I’ll shoo them away.”
“But mom, you said you’d get me some new Fluffies.”
“I thought you didn’t want new ones?”
“I don’t. I want these ones.”
The girl held the green one to her face, causing it to let out a loud peep and paw at the air with its front hooves. “It looks like they want us too! I think Sparkles would have wanted it this way.”
The mother bit her lip and let out a sound of anxiety, watching her daughter inspect the Fluffy babies. Finally she let out a terse sigh.
“Fine. Bring them inside, carefully. We’ll clean them off and try to get them to survive the night.”
The human Filly happily went back into the house to retrieve a small box and placed each Babbeh inside it.
“Alright, Fluffy mom. We’ll take you and your babies in. You’d better learn the litter box quick or you’re living in the yard. Come on out.”
“Nu. Fwuffie mummah nu can be wiff babbehs anymowe. Buh fwuffy heaw babbehs out dewe that nee’ mummah. Pwease take gud cawe of babbehs an’ keep them safe fwom monstews an’ bad hoomins?”
“Hey, I ain’t about to take care of your brats for you to go pop out another bunch. Get your ass up here!”
The human Mummah grabbed a metal thing off the table beside her and shone a light where the Fluffy’s voice was coming from then screamed and dropped it. She grabbed her daughter to pull her back from the door, struggling as smaller Mummah kept the plastic box upright and steady.
“Mummah wiww wub 'ou fowebew, babbehs.”
Then she was gone.
Yellow no-more Mummah shed her temporary flesh by the can where its babies were. Then she set off back towards the forest. There she found six babies, crying and confused. Several were Talkies, but all had their eyes open. Their Mummah was gone, having passed on without them as she accepted a fate that they could not have understood. A mark was on the neck of the pink and brown Filly where she’d been separated from her body, and and the green on green Colt at his waist. Gazing at them for a few moments silently, Yellow no-more Mummah made a decision. She approached them, and they called to her with voices that did not carry on the wind. “Gud babbehs. Fwuffy wiww be youw mummah nao. Nu teaws ow scawedy peeps ebah again.”
With that she picked up each Foal and put them onto her back, then looked back at the human house. She could remember where it was when she wanted to return, she could feel wherever the home of her own litter was. She would never have difficulty finding them.
The Yellow now-again Mummah turned and headed with her new family back to the safe place in the forest.