Hey, I totally didn’t forget about this series, I’ve really honestly been working on it for… well let’s ignore that timeline and just focus on moving forward.
Victoria was awoken the next morning by a dull clanging and a strong stench of shit, climbing off the couch in Dee-Dee’s office, she carefully – and with her nose covered – followed the sounds outside to investigate.
Heading round the outside of the building, Victoria found Dee-Dee pouring a large metal jug into a much larger concrete box, between the stink and the lumpy brown sludge Victoria could tell this was a septic tank.
Dee-Dee looked up, unable to keep from smirking at Victoria’s obvious discomfort. “What’s the matter? Never dealt with an industrial size tank of Fluffy shit?”
“No, I just needed something to burn away my sense of smell this morning. Christ that is revolting.”
“I’d say ya get use to it, but you really don’t. But it’s a necessary evil, Fluffies shit like the devil and I’ve got a small army of them in there, the tank is needed.”
Victoria nodded, only half-listening as she reached into her pockets to pull out a cigarette. She only got as far as opening the packet when Dee-Dee grabbed her arm.
“What the…”
“I wouldn’t if I were you Tori, not unless you wanna light up half a city block.”
Suddenly remembering high-school chemistry, Victoria slowly nodded and followed Dee-Dee back inside.
“Got some breakfast I can cook up if you’re hungry.” Dee-Dee offered as she opened the front door…
“How can you think about food right now?”
“It’s Fluffy shit Vicky, it’s gonna be there no matter what. Now do you want breakfast or not, I got some bacon and eggs if you fancy.”
“No bacon, I’m a vegetarian.”
Dee-Dee stopped in her tracks and stared at Victoria. “You serious?”
“Yeah, haven’t touched meat in eight years.”
“Little Miss Cold-Hearted Bitch is a vegetarian?”
Victoria couldn’t help but smile at her little nickname. “Yeah. Does that surprise you?”
“Honestly Vicky, I think the only surprise you could give me is to NOT be surprised by you.”
Vicky just smirked and followed Dee-Dee to the kitchen, her mind already swimming with ideas for today’s lessons.
After a quick breakfast and a wash, the two women returned to the Bad Bunch, Dee-Dee having called her staff and given them the day off so they could deal with the problem children undisturbed. Dahlia’s bloodied corpse was still in the room, already starting to decompose, partially stuck to the floor with her blood solidifying, almost all the other foals were on the opposite side of the room, trying to avoid looking at their dead sister.
Well, all except Poppy who was staring at the gruesome sight with a wide-eyed smile on her face.
Only Baccara remained, taking the opportunity to slowly chew on the remaining food, but even he had to turn away from the sickening sight of Dahlia’s burst open stomach, if only to keep his appetite.
As soon as Victoria and Dee-Dee entered the room, Periwinkle charged at them, his unicorn horn lowered as he screamed.
“AHHHHH, PEWIWINKEW GIB MUNSTAH WADY’S FOWEBA SWEE…!”
The little fuckwit didn’t get very far as Victoria swiftly kicked him in the face, sending him ass-over-head and landing on his back. Periwinkle was dazed for several moments before he opened his eyes and looked around, confused as to why his siblings were upside down.
“Bwudda, sissies, wai nu wight way up, stop being dummehs an hewp Pewiwinkew gib munstahs wowstesh sowwy-hoofies.”
“Now why would you want to hurt us?” Victoria asked with a grin.
“Yu am munstah wady.” Potos snarled as he pushed Periwinkle back onto his feet. “Yu gib sissy foweba sweepies.”
“Your sister wanted food, I gave her food. Why is that such a bad thing?”
“Yu make sissy tummeh gwow tuu big, dat am meanie fing tu du.”
Dee-Dee stepped forward, ready to call Potos out on his bullshit, but Victoria quickly stopped her, her eyes not leaving Potos’.
“Your sister, was a bad Fluffy. I hurt bad Fluffies.”
Hibiscus shot forward. “Babbehs nu am bad, am gud Fwuffies. Wady jus wan ek-coose tu huwt gud Fwuffies” The waver in his voice was clear, even he didn’t believe his own lies.
“Oh I don’t need excuses to hurt good Fluffies my clever little friend…” Victoria took a moment to watch the hornless Alicorn process the sly dig to his origins. “…I’ve hurt a lot of Fluffie both good and bad, but it’s always so much better when they deserve it and all of you little monsters definitely deserve it.”
“UUUGGGGHHHHHH!!!” A loud groan came from Periwinkle. “Am dummeh wady stiww guin on but dummeh munstah? Babbehs du GUD fing gibben munstah foweba sweepies, nyo hew and hew poopies babbehs am gun and gud babbehs can hab mummahs bak. Wai dummeh Dee-Dee and munstah wady nu gib mummahs bak?”
Unable to control herself any longer, Dee-Dee let loose. “IS THAT ALL THEY WERE TO YOU? Dummies and poopies? Unworthy of even existing near you? Or could you not understand a mother genuinely loving all of her children because you’re all spoiled little brats.
A silence passed in the room as Dee-Dee stared down Periwinkle, the idiotic blue unicorn stared at Dee-Dee for several seconds before eventually…
“Whewe mummah?”
Dee-Dee stormed off before she lashed out again, Victoria eyed the Fluffies for a moment before following her out. Dee-Dee barged through to the kitchen, throwing the fridge door open to grab a drink, she stopped in her tracks when she saw Dandelion’ corpse still on the kitchen counter, it was wrapped in newspaper to hide the gristly sight but a corner was still loose and Dee-Dee could see Dandelion’s soft yellow Fluff and the white spiral mark on her hindquarters, not quite a cutie-mark but pretty close.
And seeing the mare’s corpse broke Dee-Dee completely, she collapsed down, her stomach catching on the counter-top as her top-half fell into the sink, trying not the dry-heave.
“Mummah?”
Dee-Dee turned round, behind her Mustard, Paprika and Cloudberry stood at their food bowls, Cloudberry on her father’s head, all of them watching Dee-Dee’s breakdown. Paprika stepped forward and placed a comforting hoof on Dee-Dee’s leg.
“Am mummah ok? Stiww hab heawt-huwties bout Dan-dee-wion?”
Feeling the jelly in her legs starting to solidify, Dee-Dee straightened herself up, sat down in the closest chair and picked Paprika off the floor, cradling her to scratch her belly.
“Yeah, I… I guess I am. I’m sorry you guys had to see me like that.”
Mustard shook his head. “Neba feew bad bout heawt-huwties, it gud tu cwy, wet heawt-huwties out, nu gud keep heawt-huwties inside.”
“Well…”
Dee-Dee and the three Fluffies jumped at the sudden voice at the door, Dee-Dee felt Paprika fart but her good training kept her from shitting on her mummah. Dee-Dee then looked up and saw Victoria leaning against the doorframe, smirking at the four of them.
“…That was surprisingly eloquent for a Fluffy.”
Mustard growled and bared his teeth at Victoria, watching one too many doggy videos online had done that to him. “Yu nu gu neaw famiwy, Mustawd pwotect dem.”
Victoria rolled her eyes. “Relax numbnuts, I only want to talk to your mother.”
Mustard, Cloudberry and Paprika all looked up at Dee-Dee, she nodded and placed Paprika on the floor. “It’s ok guys, I’ll be alright. Go play with your toys.”
The Fluffy family knew their mummah needed more huggies and love, but they also knew better than to question her, reluctantly the three of them trudged through to their playroom to half-heartedly play with their toys. Once they were out of the room, Dee-Dee turned to Victoria.
“You gonna mock me for giving a shit again?”
Victoria shook her head in a surprisingly solemn fashion. “I’m not gonna fuck with you Dee, I get it, you cared for Dandelion, you care for all of them, Hell I bet you cared for those little cunts in the backroom before they turned out this way. It’s difficult processing love into hate, believe me or not but I’ve done the same thing before, confuses you unless you have a healthy outlet.”
“You think abuse is healthy?”
“I think it’s cathartic, I think it clears your mind when all you can think about is how best to hurt the little bastards. But I’ve not cared about a Fluffy in close to five years, so maybe my mind works a little bit differently. Maybe what you need is some distance, let these wounds heal before you lash out of the Bad Bunch again.”
“I thought that’s why I asked you here.”
The two women shared a laugh, the first laughed they had together in years. Dee-Dee slumped back in her chair and sighed.
“I guess you’re right Vicky, I’m still mad as Hell everytime they try to justify what they’ve done. And fucking Periwinkle only caring about his mother, God that drove me insane.”
Victoria shrugged. “Not much you can do about that, he’s gonna keep asking because that’s all he cares about.”
Something flashed across Dee-Dee’s eyes, it was brief but Victoria got a glimpse of it. “What, what’s on your mind?”
Dee-Dee’s smirk grew into a smile and then into a grin. “Periwinkle wants his mother right?”
“Yeah?”
“Why don’t we let him see her?”
Back with the Bad Bunch, Hibiscus was freaking out, him and his siblings were being punished for being bad babbehs, but they weren’t bad, they did god killing that stupid monster mare and her stupid monster babbehs… Didn’t they?
The monster lady gave Dahlia forever sleepies and that was bad. Hibiscus and his siblings gave Dandelion and her foals forever sleepeis, was that bad too? Was any form of forever sleepies bad? Had the babbehs been lying about being good foals this entire time? Was lying bad? Was it bad that Hibiscus had been lying about being a wingie babbeh this entire time?
Feeling his chest constricting, Hibiscus rushed over to the watering bowl, needing something to sooth the tightness in his throat. He gulped down the water as fast as he could, nearly spluttering at one point but able to just hold it in. As he took several deep breaths he caught his reflection in the water and stared at it for several seconds, while most couldn’t see it, Hibiscus couldn’t help but look at his forehead, where the tiny remnants of his broken horn used to be.
His mother told him that he was born wrong, that a babbeh that pretty didn’t deserve to be an ugly wingie-pointy monster, that he deserved to be a wingie-Fluffy like her, the best of all Fluffies since only they could fly up and escape whenever they were in danger. But mummah hadn’t escaped, she hadn’t been able to use her wings at all, now she was hurt, likely dead, and now Hibiscus – being too smart for his own good – was questioning everything she had taught him.
And still his eyes burnt into the reflection of his forehead, more and more convinced that everyone could see it, and they all knew the awful truth. That he was a monster too.
“What dummeh bwudda wookin at?”
Hibiscus spurted out a little fart in fear at the sudden voice, he turned round to see Poppy walking towards the bowl, curious she peered at the water and gasped.
“Udda babbehs, dey hewp wiv dummeh Dee-Dee an munstah wady, hewp Pop-ee git babbehs ou of wawa.”
“Dat… dat nu udda babbehs, dat am babbehs.”
“Wha bwudda mean?”
“Wook, babbehs wook jus wike He-bis-cus an Pop-ee, see.”
To prove his point, Hibiscus raised a hoof and waved it at the water bowl, the reflection waved back. Poppy stared at Hibiscus for a few seconds before giggling.
“Pop-ee nu undastan, bu bwudda am smawt, if bwudda say…”
“NU AM SMAWT, NU CAWW HE-BIS-CUS SMAWT, AM WEGUWA DUMMEH BABBEH!”
Feeling his anxiety spiking again, Hibiscus ran away to the other side of the room. He didn’t want to be a smart Fluffy, the only Fluffies that were smart were monster Fluffies and he wasn’t a monster, he wasn’t, he wasn’t, he wasn’t.
“Am He-bis-cus ok?”
Hibiscus looked up, he’s unintentionally ran over to Baccara’s resting spot, he looked and saw some stray piece of kibble piled up beside the crippled Alicorn, food gathered in case he never got the chance to eat again.
“Wha dummeh munstah wan?” Hibiscus spat at him.
“Jus wan knyo if bwudda am ok, wook wike hab biggesh heawt-huwties.”
“He-bis-cus nu am munstah bwudda.”
“Bu… He-bis-cus am bwudda, aww babbehs am bwuddas an sissies. Nu shawe mummahs bu hab same daddeh, wai He-bis-cus nu wan be Baccawa’s bwudda tuu?”
Hibiscus thought about it, was this why they were bad babbehs, because they gave forever sleepies to their brothers and sisters. Nothing could be worse than that, even if they were monster, and Hisbicus’ mother had saved him even though he was a monster, so surely…
“NU! MUNSTAH TWY PWAY TWICKS ON HE-BIS-CUS, YU AM TWICKY MUNSTAH, TAKE SOWWY-HOOFIES!”
Hibiscus raised up his hoofs and slammed them into Baccara’s side, the Alicorn squealed as shat himself at the sudden attack, his ribs bruised by Hibiscus’ violent stomp. Hibiscus turned to give sorry-poopies to Baccara but stopped when he saw Periwinkle, in all his lumbering glory, racing over to the pair of them.
“MUNSTAH BABBEH TAKE SOWWY HOOFIES!”
Hibiscus jumped out of the way just in time for Periwinkle to crash into Baccara, the sudden force threw Baccara into the wall, winding the poor little guy and sending him into a weeping heap on the floor.
“HUUUU, NU WAN HUWTIES NU MOWE, AM ONWY WITTEW BABBEH!”
Periwinkle let out a low, dumb chuckle. “Munstah babbeh am ONWY fow huwties, Pewiwinkew gib dummeh munstah wowstesh sowwy hoofies nyo.”
As Periwinkle raised his hoofs to stomp down on Baccara, the black foal jumped up, trying to escape the incoming pain, and inadvertently threw his horn into Periwinkle’s leg.
“SCCRRRREEEEEE, WOWSTESH WEGGIE HUWTIES! WAI MUNSTAH GIB BABBEH HUWTIES, NEBA DU ANEEFING WONG!”
Baccara stared slackjawed at Periwinkle, a small trick of blood running down his leg, a small trickle of the same blood running down Baccara’s horn.
“Bac…Baccaw…Baccawa nu meen…nu meen tu, jus…jus…jus…”
“NU CAWE!” Periwinkle screamed. “YU AM WOWSTESH MUNSTAH, HUWT GUD BABBEHS, PEWIWINKEW GUN MAKE SUWE YU GIT WOWSTESH EBA HUWTIES AN FOWEBA SWEEPIES AN…”
“Oh are you now?”
The foals all turned towards the door, Victoria was standing in the open frame with Dee-Dee just behind her, both of them with a matching smirk on their face. Periwinkle saw his chance and rushed over, conveniently forgetting how much ‘pain’ he was in.
“DEE-DEE, MUNSTAH WADY, DUMMEH BACCAWA GIB WOWSTESH WEGGIE HUWTIES AN…”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah.” Victoria interrupted as she knelt down. “We saw the whole thing, we’ll deal with him later, first though, I think we need to look at your leg.”
“Wha… wha gun happen tu Pewiwinkew weggie?”
Victoria softly took Periwinkle’s wounded leg and examined it. “I think it’ll be alright, but just to be safe, maybe we should give it some huggies to make it all better. Wouldn’t you agree Dee-Dee?”
Fighting back a laugh, Dee-Dee nodded. “Yep, I’d say MUMMAH huggies to be safe.”
Periwinkle gasped. “Babbeh git see mummah gain.”
Victoria smiled her fake smile and nodded. “Of course, need to make sure that leg heals right now, don’t we?”
Ignoring the protests of the other foals, Victoria scooped the smiling Periwinkle off the floor and carried him out of the room, leaving the foals angrily shouting at the closed door. The only foal not shouting was Baccara, his mind still on what happened with Periwinkle.
After all, Periwinkle was the strongest Fluffy Baccara knew, and Baccara had hurt him so easily.
What else could he do?
Periwinkle hummed and swayed in Victoria’s arms, he did it, he finally convinced these dumb humans to take him to see mummah. This was going to be the best day ever.
At least it would’ve been had he not been taken to the bathroom.
“Uh… munstah wady? Mummah nu am in baffwoom, wight?”
“Oh no, of course not. But we need to make you nice and smelling pretty for her now, don’t we?”
“Pewiwinkew nu wan baff, wawa am bad fow babbeh. Bu mummah am bestesh Fwuffy, nu knyo wha du?”
Expecting this, Dee-Dee stepped forward. “You could close your eyes.”
“Wha?”
“If you close your eyes, the water can’t hurt you, if you can’t see the water then the water can’t see you. Think about it, are your eyes ever open when you drink from the water bowl?”
Periwinkle paused for a moment, then another longer moment, his tiny brain wondering if he had ever drunk water with his eyes open or not.
“Pewiwinkew nu knyo, bu if dummeh Dee-Dee say, den Pewiwinkew fink dat it twue. Ok Pewiwinkew keep see-pwaces cwose an wawa nu gib huwties.”
The two women stifled back giggles at how easy this was. With his eyes firmly shut, they were able to run Periwinkle a warm bath in the sinks and pull off their little plan for him. A few months back, Dee-Dee had a problem mare rejecting her brown foals, not being abusive but distant and rude, in an attempt to combat this, Dee-Dee dyed all of her foals the same brown colour. The result was mostly unsuccessful, the mare still had a bestesh babbeh but she at least fed all of her foals now, but more importantly, Dee-Dee still had the dye-box on hand.
Victoria set about putting everything into place, Periwinkle was distracted by the warm water and his closed eyes, he didn’t even notice when a slightly colder, slightly thicker liquid was poured onto his back and rubbed in for several minutes.
By the time the dye was finished and the wash done with, Periwinkle looked like he had always been a poopie babbeh, and he didn’t even know it.
Dee-Dee picked the now dry Periwinkle up so Victoria could wash her hands and carried him out of the bathroom.
“Are you excited to see your mother?”
“Yeh, Pewiwinkew miss mummah su muchies. Wan bestesh huggies an miwkies an wan mummah sing bestesh mummah song for bestesh babbeh an…”
Dee-Dee ignored his prattling as she opened the door to the milking room, she stood in the doorway for a bit, waiting for Periwinkle’s chattering to die down and for him to realise where he was. As soon as the unicorn saw the dark horrors of the room, he felt his heart sink.
Mares, hundreds of them, some he recognised from the nursery, were all lines up along the walls, all of them missing their legs, all of them with their mouths covered by an ugly grey feed mask, and all of them with two suction cups on their teats, draining away their milk to parts unknown.
“Wha… wha am dis pwace?”
“This? This is the milking room Periwinkle. This is where bad mummahs come so I can take their milk and give it to good babies.”
“Bu… mummah nu am bad Fwuffy?”
“Are you sure about that? Why don’t we ask her herself?”
Periwinkle turned and screamed, his beautiful mother Begonia was strapped up against the wall, her beautiful orange Fluff matted with filth and blood, her strong legs reduced to ugly scarred stumps, her eyes bloodshot and tear-stained. Eyes that looked up and saw Periwinkle, eyes that didn’t see her son, but a disgusting shit coloured waste.
“Mummah, it Pewiwinkew, wan huggies mummah, babbeh hab wowstesh scawdies.”
Begonia just screamed, the mask muffled her cries but her eyes were furiously boring into Periwinkle, how DARE this poopie babbeh call her mummah.
“Mummah pwease, wai hab angries, Pewiwinkew jus wan…”
Begonia growled again, shaking with rage, this piece of shit couldn’t be her son, her son was perfect and beautiful, nothing like whatever THIS was.
Periwinkle broke down crying. “Huu, wai mummah nu wub babbeh nu mowe, am gud babbeh.”
Dee-Dee softly stroked Periwinkle on his head and carried him outside, making sure to shut the door and leave the bad mares in the dark for a little while longer.
“Huu, mummah am meanie, wai nu wub babbeh nu mowe?”
“Oh I’m sorry Periwinkle, but like I said your mummah was a bad Fluffy, that’s just how she is.”
“Wai Dee-Dee caww mummah bad Fwuffy, mummah am gud Fwuffy.”
“Is she Periwinkle? She hates poopie babbehs, and clearly she hates you now too. Either you’re a poopie babbeh, or she’s wrong.”
Too dumb and too upset to think on what Dee-Dee was saying, Periwinkle burst into tears again and remained silent as Dee-Dee returned him to the backroom with the other foals. Victoria was already waiting for them, she opened the door and allowed Dee-Dee to place Periwinkle back inside.
“Now you run along and play with your brothers and sister, they’ll cheer you up.”
“Huu, ok.”
With a heavy heart, Periwinkle trudged forward, seeing Pothos first, he smiled at his brother and jogged towards him.
“Bwudda, Pewiwinkew hab wowstesh heawt-huwties, need huggies tu…”
Suddenly Pothos pounded Periwinkle in the nose, the blue colt howled in pain. “HUUUUU! Wai bwudda gib smeww-pwace huwties, onwy wan…”
“Yu nu am bwudda, yu am ugwy poopie babbeh.”
“Wha, nu am poopie, am Pewiwinkew, wai bwudda say meanie fings?”
“NU AM BWUDDA!”
Pothos slammed his hoofs forward, just barely missing Periwinkle’s head. The large colt usually would’ve taken on Pothos quite easily but his hurt, and his confusion made it difficult for him to fight his brother.
“Wha am dis, wai nu-wun wub Pewiwinkew nu mowe?”
Dee-Dee and Victoria giggled from the side-lines, all they had to do was ostracise Periwinkle from the rest and the dumb lug would do himself in through sheer stupidity and sadness. But then something happened that neither of them expected.
Hibisbus pointed to the water bowl. “Gu wook in wawa, yu see yu nu am bwudda.”
Periwinkle raced over to the water bowl, he looked down at his reflection and saw a poopie brown foal staring back at him. He didn’t know why this ugly brown babbeh was, or why everyone could see him instead of Periwinkle, but he knew there was only one course of action.
“YU GIB MUMMAH WOWSTESH ANGWIES, TAKE SOWWY HOOFIES DUMMEH POOPIE!”
Periwinkle raised his front two hoofs and slammed them into the water bowl, the solid, metallic, water bowl. Two loud, simultaneous cracks echoed through the room followed by a horrific scream and then frantic splashing. Periwinkle had broken both of his front legs in his misguided attack and now had nothing keeping his head up from the water, he tried to shake and scream but with nothing holding his front half up, he couldn’t keep his head above the water. His mind was too scared, too helpless and too stupid to do anything, all he could do was panic as the cold blackness rushed down his throat and chilled his insides.
The other foals could only watch as this strange brown foal attacked the water bowl, shouting and gargling like a Fluffy possessed, they all stood still, frozen with confusion and fear as eventually the splashing began to die down, and the brown Fluffies head dropped further into the water until eventually it grew perfectly still and lifeless.
Pothos was the one who approached the brown foal first. “Poopie babbeh, wha duin?”
He gave the foal’s body a swift kick, the force onto the dead weight knocked it over and out of the bowl, in his frenzied splashing, Periwinkle had washed off the brown dye from his face. The foals didn’t understand why this brown foal had a blue and orange face, but they recognised the face of Periwinkle and they recognised that he was dead.
Victoria turned to Dee-Dee and chuckled.
“Well… that went better than expected.”
