Coffee gathered her charges outside, leading the other nurse mares, and even a fair number of the best behaved mares and stallions. They stayed on their best behaviour, they knew to, and in truth were far too beside themselves to consider mischief.
Derek: their owner, the owner of the heavily renovated and high quality warehouse facility that they called home, stood with a bundle in his hands, wrapped in black cloth. He placed it upon the bed of sticks he, Mandy, and the two Daves had constructed in the wee hours of the morning.
The forenoon sun was just beginning the promise of peeping over the edge of the world and tinted the fields of Deacon farms in a deep golden glow.
There was much âhuuhuuâ-ing and sniffles as Derek lowered the wrapped body of Cream to her bed of stick and kerosene soaked twine.
âlast night, cancer took from us the greatest nurse mare that I had ever had the privilege of knowing. Cream wasnât an athlete, a field working fluffy, nor did she ever produce particularly valuable litters in her breeding years, but in her nine summers upon this earth, she had acted with the best interest of those around her, and in doing so, she was the most true to her calling, and lived to her duty as a nurse mareâ Derek said proudly, trying ever so desperately to bury the creaking in his throat. âGoodbye, Creamâ Derek said as he laid her collar and head mare badge upon the pyre beside her.
Next to step up was Mandy, the on site veterinarian. She did not seem so invested, more so annoyed that she received a phone call at 4am to come down and light a goddamn funeral pyre for a fucking fluffy of all things.
âWhen I came in on my first real day of work, after orientation, I saw a white mare with a ruby red mane, standing in the row. She was in my way and I told her to move or Iâd stab her with this exact pen. She turned to me, while holding a foal in her hooves. âwat am da magic wowdsie?â she said so confidently, unfazed, as if she had seen so much worse. Sufficed to say, I was shocked. How dare a fluffy question me, or expect me to talk to her as an equal. She annoyed me, to be honest. She actually pissed me off with that snobby attitude and commanding voice. And lets face it, Iâm a scary bitch, but Cream⌠no, she never shrinked when I walked by, my tone never phased her resolve, and she always demanded that I treat her station and her job with the amount of regard that she herself held it in. And for all these things, she has my respectâ. Mandy sighed, before placing the pen from her scrubs next to the collar and badge.
French Dave (the on site security), then went up next and cleared his throat.
âCream was one of ze most friendly fluffies zat I have ever met, but in a subtle way, a sort of way zat I understood. She would disdainfully chastise me for using foul language around ze fouls and yet warn me of wet spots on ze floor in ze next sentence. Zhere was an understated goodness to her. She was good to ze foals, and she was good to ze mares, and just as much, she was good to ze staff, even if it was subtleâ.
Next up was black Dave, the other on site security guard.
âIâm gonna miss Cream. For real, she was a good mare⌠And I guess, thereâs no better time to admit it than now. I went through her file once. I wanted to know why she was so jaded, why she took her job so damn seriously, then I found out that she was the anonymous nurse mare in that Bonniegate business six years ago. You know the one, that story that came out of Armitage manor.
Man, I remember that shit, that was BIG news⌠And, I saw the footage she had recorded on her smart collar too. Damn, if she werenât the bravest little mare Iâve ever seen, then I donât know who else deserves such a title. As I read her file and watched the footage, I shuddered at her fallings, I punched the air at her successes, and I learned from her humility. Goodnight, Creamâ.
Derek was nearly ready to light the pyre up, until a brown hoof raised up high.
âyes, Coffee?â he asked.
âSiw, Cowffie wan saysie gudbye tuu, pweasâ she asked. Derek thought on it and then with a silent nod he let her up.
âWen Cowffie git nuwse mawe jobsie, wus su scawdy ob Cweam⌠Cweam wus meanie, bu, awso nu wus meanie. Cweam wubbed aww da bebbehs an aww da mummahs. Cweam wus meanie cus wife can be biggest meanie, an Cweam wanâed mawes be stwong, su stwong dat meanie wowwd nu mayk mawes huuhuu nu mowe. Cweam mayk Cowffie stwongest mawe, su Cowffie can mayk udda mawes stwong tuu. Tank yew, Cweamâ.
The brown alicorn hopped down and went to return to her crowd of tearful nurse mares. Suddenly she was stopped by Derekâs shoe, pressed lightly against her chest fluff.
âHey, you alright?â he asked.
ân-nuâŚâ she sniffled.
âYouâre going to be, I need you to be, because Iâm going to need a new head nurse mareâ he said warmly.
âB-b-bu, wat bout Sugaw?â Coffee asked.
âShe only a bit younger than Cream, sheâs too old⌠And, Cream liked you, she liked you a lot. Sheâd be happy with how much youâve improved this last yearâ he assured.
âT-tank yew mistah Dee-kanâ Coffee sobbed.
The farmâs owner then tried to take the pin from Creamâs collar and put it on Coffeeâs, to which the chocolate hued mare backed away.
âNu!â she exclaimed, âNut dat wun!â.
âW-why?â Derek inquired, âIs this because it was on Cream when she died?â.
ânu, id nu am bout dat⌠id am jus⌠haow am da udda fwuffies in skettiewand gun kno dat Cweam wus bestest nuwse mawe ib Cweam nu hab id un?â, she asked innocently.
âh-heh⌠good pointâŚâ Derek said as he laid Creamâs pin back beside her. âIâll get you a new one, tomorrowâ he assured Coffee.
âNow!â he said, before clearing his throat, âdo any other fluffies have something nice to say about Cream? Any last goodbyes?â.
To the shock of nobody, not a single fluffy in the crowd lacked a raised hoof. Not the stallions, not the mares, and even the weaned foals had their little nubs held up, ready to throw in their piece.
âFuck⌠Itâs gonna be a long nightâ Mandy sighed, âThis counts towards my shift, right?â
-The End-
More stories containing Cream below:
Coffee, Sugar & Cream
Bonnie VS: The Faith PART:1