Sandy started her day like any other, get up, shower, check the daily news on her tablet while eating breakfast, pork prices went up again, damn it, then it was off to the barn. stepping out to her large fenced in backyard she undid the latch on the barn door as was greeted by dozens of little yawns. As the encroaching sunlight peeked into the pens full of fluffy couples and their litters of hungry foals, she refilled their food dishes with high grade kibble then topped off the water bottles. Then of course was the litter boxes, she was barely through the third pen when she heard the words she hoped never to hear from a few pens over.
-Bestest bebbeh wans skettie miwkies NAO! Dummeh mummah gif nao!-
-Bad bebbeh!-
-Screee! Owies! cheep! cheep! cheep!-
looking into the offending pen she saw Castor, a shiny blue alicorn with a bright red mane, dealing with one of his daughters who had started to become problematic these last few days. His special friend, a pink and green maned uni named Sophie had bopped the offending foal on the head and was now throwing an even worse tantrum. the little pink and yellow maned filly was now on her back kicking at the air demanding skettie milkies between chirps of distress then said the worst word a foal at Sandy’s farm could say.
-Bestest smawty bebbeh wan skettie miwkies!-
The foals and parents audibly gasped and each parent bopped the filly again.
“(SIgh) Castor go get your brother and take Sophie and the rest outside while I deal with this.” Opening the pen latch.
-Otay Miss Sandy. C’mon famwy weave da bad babbeh hewe an gu pway.- Leading his family out the pen.
Castor and his twin brother Pollux were the same Foals Jake had brought to her a year ago and they both had grown into a fine pair of studs, neither requiring a reset and took to their training well. pushing the latch up to his brother’s pen with his nose the pair then did the same for the rest and led them entire barn outside to play in the yard were the toys waited. When the barn was empty Sandy picked up the screaming foal and gave it a good flick across the ear and she finally stopped only to cry and rub her tender ear.
“You have been a very bad baby and now you’re not getting any breakfast and you’ll be spending the morning in the sorry box!” She scolded the filly setting it in the plain wooden box. “And if you give sorry poopies in there you’ll be getting a cold bath later too!”
Returning to the arduous task of clearing out the rest of the litter boxes, ignoring the foal, she was thankful for Castor and Pollux despite the present circumstances. the twins themselves were a delight, having taken on helper type roles on the farm, cleaning up the toys in the yard, keeping the dumber ones out of trouble and acting like everyone’s cool uncles. She just got started on the sixth litter box when a collective screech from the yard caused Sandy to run outside to see a heron had landed in the yard and was going for the foals. It was at the far end of the yard and the heron had cornered one unlucky foal and skewered it through the left side from back and out the front with the bottom half of its bill. Sandy was already at a full gallop but Castor and Pollux were closer and together they tackled the heron’s spindly legs knocking the foal free of its bill. the bird tried to get back up but Pollux plopped all ten pounds of his torso over its neck pinning it while Castor started stomping on its head.
“Boys move!” Sandy shouted never breaking stride.
the twins managed to get off the heron just in time for Sandy to punt it like a football sending it over the fence. The foal screeched non stop as Sandy did her best to stop the bleeding wrapping her in a handkerchief when she heard the doorbell from the house. she sighed getting up and cursed under her breath, she wasn’t supposed to open for another hour then she remembered that someone was supposed to come over for community service. Foal still in hand she went inside and headed for the front door opening it to see Sheriff Brody who was looking surprisingly smug but when she saw who was sitting in the passenger seat of her patrol car…
“Oh hell no! Him?! C’mon sheriff, anyone but him!” Seeing Earl just as upset as her.
“Sorry Sandy, court orders.” Strolling over to the passenger side. “Come on Earl, get out.”
“This is bullshit!” Earl bellowed.
“You opened fire in a rehab center and killed a therapy fluff!”
“NOT! MY! FAULT! If those incompetent dipshits had bothered to read my psych profile then they would have known to not bring green monochromes anywhere near me!”
“And that’s the only reason why you’re not in prison right now! Now out!” Opening the door.
Groaning like a scolded teenager while Janice got his crutch out of the backseat, Earl hobbled out, his left leg sporting a new full length, thickly padded brace. slinging his backpack over his shoulder he leaned heavily on the crutch and gimped his way over to the front door. before he could go inside Janice stopped him and frisked him, taking the revolver from his boot and the 1911 stuffed in the back of his pants.
“You carry license was revoked till you complete you service, you’ll get these back when it’s done. One word and I’m taking you to jail.” Cutting him off before he could protest.
Sheriff Brody got in her car and drove off leaving the two behind giving a friendly wave to Sandy as she backed out leaving the two alone with the still screeching foal.
“So whats her deal?” Looking down at the foal.
“A heron pierced her side with its bill.” The foal’s voice starting to get hoarse.
“(Sigh)… Alright, bring it to the shed. I’ll see what I can do.”
Following Sandy to the shed where fluffies were processed to leave or come to the farm he put his backpack on the table and took a seat on a stool. She was hesitant to put the foal in Earl’s care but the weakening cries meant she didn’t have much time and put her down in front of him while he soaked a cotton ball in chloroform from his neutering kit. As soon as the foal was out he took a bikini zone trimmer from the kit and cleared the injured areas and poked around with a light and tweezers then sniffed the wound.
“Intestines weren’t perforated, I don’t smell feces so were good there. But she’s gonna need some blood once I get her sewn up. Go pick a donor while I close her up.” Threading the needle he intended to use.
Sandy took a moment to marvel at the dexterity of Earl’s new sleek, metallic blue prosthetic before leaving and returning with Pollux in her arms, the brave little hero volunteering himself to help. Earl handed her the shaver and told her to pick a leg while he prepped a syringe. When Pollux realized the needle was for him he became nervous at the prospect of getting owies, trembled at the sight of the needle. Sandy had to remind him it was for the baby and he closed his eyes and stuck out his leg with the shaved spot on it and Earl took what he needed. Giving Pollux a skettie stick treat for his bravery Earl finished the transfusion while Pollux was let back into the yard where he split his reward with his brother.
“So what’s next? neuterings? weld jobs? home repair?” Earl asked while Sandy wrapped the foal in a towel.
“You can finish what I was doing before you showed up.” Handing him a litter scoop. “I was supposed to open half an hour ago and I still need to finish setting up shop for the day.” Still holding out the scoop to Earl.
“Damn it.” He grumbled under his breath taking the scoop.
the foals parents waited outside the door desperate to know the fate of their child and followed Sandy back to the barn with Earl in tow. Once they were settled back into their pen with their foal still in the towel they huddled up around her and kept a watchful eye on her while Earl got to work on the litter boxes. Sandy had converted her two car garage into a store front with a register, accessories, food, and show pens for the foals who were ready to be sold. Ushering the families of the nearly weaned foals into the show pens she opened the garage door and was now open for business but she still had a few things to set up.Earl sat on a short stool scooping fluffy shit into a bucket grumbling under his breath the whole time, using his crutch to stand himself up to move onto the next pen a familiar complaining caught his ear.
-Bestest smawty bebbeh wan out sowwy boxie! Wan Skettie miwkies! wan toysies! Nao! Nao! Nao! Nao!-
Limping his way over to the sorry box he peered inside and saw the offending foal pounding her tiny hooves against the wall having blasted shit all over the opposite side. Now if it was up to him he’d just smash the thing with a hammer and be done with it but he knew Sandy wouldn’t sigh off on his community service hours sheet if he did. But he had other things he could do solve this problem without blood shed, it just wasn’t nearly as fun. finishing his assigned task he knew that hugboxer Sandy couldn’t handle truly disciplining a shit-rat smarty, that’s why she relied on SkettieLand E&C so it was up to him now. He plucked the foal out of the box by the scruff of the neck and carried her out into the yard, the foal complaining and shitting the whole way and plopped her down in the grass.
“Alright fluffs listen up!” He shouted and they all turned to look. “This little filly claims to be the bestest! And a smarty! Well let’s see if what she says is true.”
the fluffies gathered around curious as to what would happen next, then knew being a smarty was a bad thing they could get hurties and other bad things for being one. so what was the strange injured human up to? Earl un-slung his backpack and fished out a mesh bag of what looked like plain, colorful, foal sized wooden blocks and held them up over his head.
“These… Are the smarty blocks! the bestest blocky toys for smarties and bestest babies! Only a real bestest and smarty can stack them!” Pouring out the blocks in front of the filly. “Well go ahead miss smarty, stack them.”
-Pppppth!- Sticking her tongue out to everyone -See? bebbeh am bestest! get bestest blockies!- Sitting down in front of the pile.
setting the first block in front of her she took the second nearest and easily set it on the first and it fell right off. She looked upset but picked the same block up and stacked it again only for it to fall off again a second later, now she was confused and tried a different block. same results. she screamed knocking the blocks away and pick two more but they fell off each other no matter how many time she tried and anger melted into confusion then frustration and then the tears started to flow.
“What’s the matter Smarty? can’t stack the bestest blockies? I thought you were supposed to be a smarty? more like dummy!” Then he started to chant like a schoolyard bully. “Bestest am dummy! Bestest am dummy!”
He repeated over and over and soon the fluffies around him started joining in on the chant, their voices echoing in unison. it took a few minutes but then the filly dropped the block she was holding and started bawling loudly.
-Bebbeh am dummy! hu hu huuuuuu! Bebbeh sowwy! nu am smawty! huuuuu! Mummah hewp bebbeh haf wostest saddies!- She sniffled.
Castor and Sophie broke ranks and went to comfort their foal while the chanting died down and Earl returned the blocks to the bag and went off to find Sandy.
The customers had started to show up and Sandy’s fluffy farm being a high end store with quality foals and fluffies for sale this store had a vetting process to see if you could even buy one from here. well to do families who wanted a quality bred, well behaved and trained pet for their child and would pay top dollar for it. of course it also meant entitled self righteous entitled assholes would find this place from time to time, thinking they could do no wrong and the world answered to them and only them. living by the credo the customer is always right… or else. well today one of theses assholes showed up with his spoiled rotten tween son who had little to no concept of how to handle anything gently or with any sort of care. well right away the brat reached into the nearest pen and picked up a foal by the tail dangling it in the air as it cried and its parents pleaded not to give bad uppies to the crying foal.
“Hey! HEY! Stop that!” Sandy yelled walking out from behind the counter. “That is not how you handle a living creature!” Trying to take the foal from the brat.
“Get your fucking hands off my son bitch!” Bellowed the father grabbing Sandy’s wrist and jerking her away hard.
“OW! You’re hurting me let go!” The short stout woman pleaded with the much bigger man.
As the entitled asshole continued to jerk Sandy around by her wrist and berate about touching his brat, said brat decided to take the foal he had and started swinging it around by its tail. by its fourth spin the foals tail ripped free from its body and went flying, smacking face first into the glass display case counter with the register.
“NOOOOOO! Let go! get out now!”
“That’s what you get for being such a bitch lady!” The brat grinned with a smarmy tone.
“You’re gonna pay for traumatizing my son you bi–”
Before he could finish the armpit end of Earl’s aluminum crutch wrapped around the father’s head staggering him enough to let go of Sandy. When he turned around to hit Earl his fist was caught in Earl’s metal hand, the bones crunching like dry brittle twigs while Earl pummeled his face. the brat tried to grab another foal by Sandy blocked him so he decided to turn around and kick Earl’s brace forcing his to let go of the dad to backhand the brat with his metal hand knocking him down. the brat spat out some blood and his last baby tooth wailing like a toddler while the dad cradled his shattered hand bloody and bruised, one eye starting to swell shut. Earl leaned against the counter holding the spot he was kicked cussing out the entitled pair daring either of them to get up while Sandy called 911.
“Fucking city folk, think the world owe them everything! Well you got what you were owed now, huh? I swear to fucking god if you re-broke my leg I’m breaking all of yours!”
the police came along with an couple of ambulances, the entitled asshole spun the usual lies about being the victim and was trying to defend his son from a pair of violent hug-boxer psychopaths. Then Sandy showed the sheriff the security tapes with audio of the entire incident, she may have been a hug-boxer but she wasn’t a fool. the father was arrested for assault, property damage and contributing to the delinquency of a minor and the brat would be sent to juvie jail for the time being. And once again Sheriff Brody was having it out with her brother yet again.
“Jesus Christ it’s barely been five hours! What did I tell you I was going to do if you started weaponizing your arm?! Huh?! Huh?! what did you do to it?” She yelled at Earl sitting on a stretcher getting his leg checked by a paramedic.
“Nothing.”
“Bullshit! What did you do?!”
“Nothing! I haven’t had the time! the only thing I did was pull the limiter circuit for better grip strength! It’s still all stock! all I did was void the warranty!”
“I swear to god Earl when you get out of the hospital I’m gonna-”
“ENOUGH! E-FUCKING-NUFF!” He exploded and stood up to tower over his sister. “FOR THE LAST SIX MONTHS I’VE BEEN FIGHTING FOR MY LIFE AGAINST DOMESTIC TERRORISTS AND KILLER MUTANTS! AND ALL I’VE GOTTEN IS PUNISHED AND BLOCKED AT EVERY CORNER BY “THE LAW” AND I’VE HAD ENOUGH! ESPECIALLY FROM YOU!! I HAVE SAVED THIS TOWN FROM ABSOLUTE RUIN AT LEAST THREE TIMES AND THIS IS THE THANKS I GET?! YOU SAY ONE MORE WORD, TAKE ONE MORE ACTION AGAINST ME, MAKE ONE MORE THREAT AND I WILL MAKE IT MY MISSION IN LIFE TO RUIN YOURS!” Limping forward as Janice backed up. “I’m going to the doctor, then I’m going home and Sandy is signing off on all my service or so help me I will start a war you will not win.” His tone becoming frighteningly cold and calm. “Do you understand me, little sister?”
Janice made an audible gulp and nodded looking away and Earl snapped his fingers at her then pointed to his right ear.
“Y-Yes.”
“Good.” Reaching into his vest pocket and shoving a folded piece of paper into Janice’s chest. “Get it signed.” He ordered. “And gimmie my guns back!” Sitting back down on the stretcher.
The entire area had stopped what they were doing to watch the spectacle, awkwardly staring at the two and went back to work trying to look like they weren’t. Sandy signed the papers while a paramedic wrapped her left wrist as Earl was loaded into the back of the ambulance to get his leg checked out and soon she was left alone. She did her best to comfort the fluffy parents of the murdered foal sending them all to the back yard while she cleaned the blood smear off the display glass. Closing shop and wrapping the dead foal in a hand towel she sniffled and wept for it and carried it to the backyard where she heard even more sobs and cries coming from the barn. Placing the dead foal on a shelf out of sight she looked into the pen with the wounded foal, her parents were trying to wake her, it had been hour since her injury and when she reached into the pen to check she knew it had passed in her sleep. the tears flowed freely now as she collected the body apologizing profusely to the parents and put it into the same towel as the other. Taking the bodies to the burn barrel in the separately fenced in secluded area in the yard behind the barn she place the bodies in the barrel, poured in some lighter fluid and lit a match. she staggered back into the main backyard and collapsed to her knees sobbing uncontrollably as her fluffies gathered around her. Castor and Pollux each taking a side and hugged hips, the rest following suit huddling in close to give her one big collective group hug. She sniffled and cleared her throat wiping the tear fro her face when she noticed the foal that was supposed to be in the sorry box hugging her knee.
-Bebbeh sowwy bebbeh bad! Nu am smawty! nu am smawty! hu hu…(hic!) nevah be baddy 'gain. pwomise!-
“It’s okay…(Sniff)… I forgive you.” scooping up the foal to cuddle her.
Earl was thankful none of the bones in his leg were re-broken and he spent the rest of the day at Jimmies’ abusement park with Carol to blow off steam. They got back to his house late that night and Carol stayed over to keep him company, they had been asleep in bed for hours when Earl woke to a strange sound in the middle of the night. pretending to not be awake his hand slowly crept to his nightstand reaching into the drawer and pulling out a handgun he sat up and aimed it directly ahead of him. Sara, in her human form sat in a wooden chair from Earl’s desk at the foot of his bed facing him, she held a large bottle of whiskey in her hand chugging it down, the gulping having woken him. she stopped to take a deep breath and belched, swaying from side to side in the chair looking ready to fall out of it.
-How do you live with all this pain? hhhow can y’feel thish muh-(Urp!)ch paiiinnn an…an not go fffuckin nuts? Jus… th’ depthhhhh of these em…emo…feelings. (Hic!) izz too much…- Staring to chug again.
“That don’t help. Tried it alredy.”
-Then… then wut will?-
Earl’s only answer was to squeeze off three rounds causing Carol to sit up in a panicked start screaming in fear from the noise.
“What the fuck is wrong with you!?” She screamed at him.
“It was the meta! she’s here!”
Before she could cuss him out for being delusional the sound of glass spinning against a hard wooden floor with that distinctive “ting ting ting” of a bottle falling over got her attention. creeping to the foot of the bed she peered over and saw a nearly empty whisky bottle rolling around spilling cheap booze on the floor.
man I hate these entitled idiots and Earl just protect Sandy for that asshole for cryin out loud.