The Tragedy of Cupcake, Part 3
You’re Cupcake! You’re a pink fluffy with a blue mane, and not really a big fluffy yet, but you’re getting bigger! You’re not really a babbeh anymore, but you’re not a big grown-up fluffy yet either. You don’t know if being not-babbeh and also not-big has a name…
Daddeh’s shouting again (well, it was just one word this time, but that’s still better!) and you scamper off! You still get the feeling he’s KIND OF meanie, even though he promised he wouldn’t be anymore, but you understand that at least he’s trying to be less meanie.
The growling of the monster you were hearing has stopped, at least, so you hope that means it has gone away. Carefully peering around the corner of the doorway into your saferoom, since that’s where you heard the growling coming from, you see Mummah with some tall thing next to her, wrapping some strange black line around it. You notice that all the scaredy-poopies you made last dark-time while you were running from monsters seem to be gone now, which is good! Scaredy-poopies smell VERY not-pretty…
“Oh, there you are!” Mummah says, setting the thing next to her against the wall as she comes up to you and scooping you up into a hug! You giggle and hug her back! “I got your room all cleaned up, but I don’t wanna see you poop on the floor again! Okay?”
“Yus Mummah! Cupcake am sowwies fow make bad-scwedy-poopies, Mummah! Cupcake ams be gud fwuffy and onwy make gud poopies fow Mummah now!”
“Good girl!” Mummah says, carrying you off somewhere. “Let’s go play in the backyard now!” You’re so excited to be going somewhere new with Mummah that you don’t even ask her what ‘the backyard’ is, or tell her that you’re not a girl!
A few seconds later Mummah sets you down on the floor and pulls on some big puffy not-fluff thingy over her other not-fluff before she scoops you up again, then opens the door and you’re outside! Everything here is SO bright! And cold! You don’t like cold! But Mummah’s warm and got her not-leggies wrapped around you so you’re not TOO cold!
Mummah sets you down, though, in some light brown stuff that kind of crunches and rustles under your hooves. It’s still cold, but not too bad. Sitting down next to you, Mummah pulls a pretty brightly-colored thing out of her not-fluff and holds it out to you. It smells REALLY pretty! “You know how to play fetch, Cupcake?”
“What ams fetch, Mummah?” you ask as you look up at her with a smile. You don’t really know what’s going on and you don’t like the cold, but you don’t care because Mummah’s here and playing with you!
“It’s easy, okay? I throw this rope here,” she says, wiggling the pretty thing she has, “And then you run after it and catch it and bring it back to me! Got it?”
“Otay Mummah! Cupcake wub pway fetch wiff Mummah!”
“Great! Go get it!” Mummah says, throwing the pretty rope-thing over your head.
You turn and watch it sail off, getting up and scampering after it, fluttering your little wingies to help you fly and catching it after a second! You really like the way it smells! Kind of a warm, almost tangy smell that makes you think of pretty reds and greens and whites! It almost makes you want to num the pretty thing, and you try chewing on it, but you’re pretty sure it’s not nummies from how it feels in your mouth. It smells SUPER pretty but it’s not good for numming. You bring it back to Mummah and drop it in front of her. “Cupcake bwing back pwetty-smewwy-wope-ting, Mummah!”
“Good girl, Cupcake!” Mummah says.
You giggle and sit back on your rump. “Cupcake wub pway wunny-chase! But Cupcake nu-”
“Go get it!” Mummah says before suddenly throwing the pretty thing again, causing you to giggle again as you pop back up on your hoofsies and chase after it again, scampering after it as fast as you can so it doesn’t escape! You bring it back again and Mummah throws it again, and again, and again! Lots and lots of times! It’s fun every time, and you keep thinking the smell-pretty thingie is going to escape, but you manage to catch it every time before it can, even if it does go a little further every time!
One time it goes REALLY far, and you’re SURE it’s gonna escape, and Mummah seems to think so too because you hear her mutter “Oh, crap!” but it doesn’t! Instead the smell-pretty thing just winds up hiding behind a big pile of sticks that are right up against the fence, but it’s not as good at hiding as it thinks because you can still see it!
“Cupcake get pwetty-wope-ting fow Mummah!” you say, scurrying after it before it can hide better! You can see a little clearing through the big pile of sticks, so you lay down on the ground and start to squirm your way through!
“Ah, hey, wait! Be careful!” you hear Mummah calling as she jumps up and hurries over to you. “Mom will kill me if you mess up her rose bushes!”
“Cupcake ams be cawefuw gud fwuffy!” you say, squirming through the sticks, but suddenly something scratches at you! You let out a little ‘eep!’ of surprise and jump, only to get more scratchies! You let out an “Eee!” of pain as you try to hurry away from whatever it is that’s scratching you, but that just gets you MORE scratchies! “EEEK!”
“SSSHHHHH!” Mummah hisses. “Be quiet, Cupcake, quiet! Shit! You’ll get me in trouble!” she says. You can’t really see her since you’re facing away from her, but she sounds upset! You’re too scared and hurty to listen, though! Because YOU’RE GETTING ATTACKED BY A MONSTER THAT’S TRYING TO EAT YOU!!!
“EEEEEK! NU NU NU NU NUM FWUFFY MEANY MUNSTAH! SCREE! SCREEEEEE!!” you cry, thrashing and struggling to free yourself, but the monster only attacks you more! YOU CAN FEEL ITS HORRIBLE MEANY POINTY TEETH ALL OVER YOU!!!
“Shut up! Aw crap!” Mummah says, when suddenly you feel something grab you around the middle and yank you backwards, getting LOTS more scratchies, but suddenly they’re all gone! You burst into tears, terrified and confused by how everything went so horrible out of absolutely nowhere!! Mummah’s hugs and rocks you, whispering “Sssh! It’s okay, Cupcake! It’s okay, you’re safe!” but you’re still really scared and crying, huuhuuing into Mummah as you hug her back as tight as you can! She strokes your mane and rocks and hugs you, and after a little while you calm down enough to stop crying, even though all the scratchies the monster gave you still hurt!
“Tank yu Mummah fow sabe Cupcake fwom meany scawy munstah!” you say. Huggies make everything better…
“No, Cupcake, there’s no monster, you were just getting scratched by the thorns! See?” she says. You don’t really understand, but she reaches out and points out some of your pretty pink fluff stuck on the sticks you were trying to crawl through. “See the thorns? The sharp pointy parts? THAT’S what was scratching at you, not a monster, see?” Now that you see them, there’s LOTS of your fluff caught on them.
“Cupcake nu wike meany-pointy fowns! Cupcake gib fowns sowwy poopies!” you say, puffing out your cheeks to look bigger and meaner as you start to climb out of Mummah’s arms, but she suddenly sweeps you up and away!
“OH NO you don’t! Mom will KILL me if you shit all over her rose bushes! She was mad enough when you pooped all over the saferoom!”
You huff and let your cheeks unpuff, not really satisfied with letting the meany thorn-monster get away with being meany, but you know good fluffies listen to their Mummah. “Cupcake am sowwies Mummah…”
“No, I’m sorry, I threw the rope too hard…” Mummah says as she pets you for a little bit, then sets you down. “Why don’t you explore the yard a little while I get all your fluff cleaned off the rose bushes?” she says, stroking your hear places a little. “Hopefully Mom won’t find out you got stuck in them if I clean it up…” she says, reaching forward and starting to pull your fluff off the meany scratchy thorns.
“Otay Mummah,” you says, sighing a little. It was fun playing runny-chase, but you guess that’s over now. You pick up the smell-pretty toy in your mouth and carry it around with you as you explore. You’ve always wanted to explore! You’re excited enough by the idea that you kind of forget about the meany hurty scratchies you got from the thorny-monster and the cold.
There’s a couple trees, which you kind-of know about, but not really. They’re big and tall but they don’t really seem to do anything except move back and forth a tiny bit, and only at the top. You circle around them once or twice before deciding they’re not very fun.
You still want to play runny-chase, so you sit back on your rump and try to throw the smell-pretty toy like you saw Mummah do, but it doesn’t go very far. Seems like you’re not very good at playing runny-chase alone… That’s disappointing, but you pick up the smell-pretty toy in your mouth again anyway as you continue to explore the backyard.
Next you come to some big boxy-thing made of pale yellowish wood. It doesn’t look much like your magic safety box. You walk in a circle around it but it looks the same from every side, as far as you can tell. You set your smell-pretty rope down for a second to stand up on your back leggies to try to see over the top of the wood to see what’s inside, but you can’t really get a good look. It’s just full of something kind of pale yellow-white. You look around for a bit, upset that you can’t find any way in, but then!
You remember!
You’re a wingie-babbeh!
You can just FLY into the strange boxie!
Excited by the idea and how smarty you are, you sit back and lose your balance, tumbling onto your back, but you squirm for a few seconds and manage to roll over enough to get your leggies under you! You scamper onto your hoofsies, taking a deep breath and puffing your cheeks out in determination, you flap your little wingies as hard you can!
You almost feel like you’re flying, but you’re not off the ground at all! Closing your eyes, you flap your wingies even harder, straining every muscle in your body as hard as you can as you try to fly over this enormous barrier in your way! Soon you start to feel like you’re flying, kind of like when Daddeh or Mummah picks you up! You strain even harder, feeling like you must be a hundred feet high now, and spinning around! But when you open your eyes you find you’re STILL on the dummy meanie ground!
How?!?!
You were trying your BESTEST!!!
You let your breath out and pant for a few seconds, sitting back on your rump and glaring at the meanie boxie in your way for a second, puffing your cheeks out at it.
Well… Maybe you need to try again? Sometimes things don’t work the first time! Deciding to try EVEN HARDER this time, you think for a few seconds before realizing what was wrong! Of course, you can’t just fly by flapping your wingies! You have to JUMP first!
Turning around and waddling off a few steps, you turn back to face the dummeh meanie boxie and take a deep breath again, flapping your wingies as hard as you can as you charge as fast as your leggies will take you towards the side of the boxie, launching yourself in a mighty leap over it, your expression changing to brilliant triumph as you make it over the edge!
…
Almost!
Getting enough height to get your front half over the side of the box, you land painfully on your tummy on the edge of it and tumble forward, your sense of triumphant joy instantly turning to terror as you see the yellow ground on the other side of the sandbox wall rushing up to you!
You barely manage to close your eyes in time, but you still land facefirst in the soft, cold sand, plunging almost the entire front half of your body into darkness as the sand fills your mouth and nose and eyes and ears! You try to call for help, but whenever you try to breathe something dirty and gritty and awful fills your mouth and nose!
OH NO!
SWEET
FLUFFY
JESUS!!
YOU JUST FLEW STRAIGHT INTO A MONSTER’S MOUTH AND NOW IT’S NUMMING YOU!!!
WHY ARE THERE SO MANY MONSTERS EVERYWHERE?!??!
MONSTERS ARE WORSTEST POOPIIIEEEEES!!!
Thrashing frantically to free yourself, you try to inhale to call Mummah for help, but the gritty dirty sand makes you cough and you can’t get a breath! Your lungs burn as you try to escape, but you’re afraid the monsters REALLY have you this time!!
Suddenly you feel something gripping you around the waist and you let out a tiny little scaredy-poopie (since you’re still almost completely out of scaredy-poopies from being terrified of the monsters that tried to eat you last dark-time,) but THEN YOU CAN SEE AGAIN!!!
“kaff! kaff! kaff! kaff! kaff!”
“Cupcake! Are you okay?!” you hear Mummah ask as she strokes you quickly all over!
You can’t see though, the dirty gritty monster-stuff is in your eyes and making you cry! And it’s in your mouth and nose, so you can’t even breathe! Unable to do anything but cough pathetically, you feel spit and snot pouring from your mouth and nose as Mummah pats and strokes you all over! It might feel nice if you hadn’t almost gotten nummed by a monster!
It takes FOREVER but FINALLY you can see and breathe again! Snot and tears and saliva are running down your face, but you can see the shape and colors of Mummah as she hugs you!
“What happened? How did you fall into the sandbox?” Mummah asks.
“SANDBOXIE MUNSTAH NUM FWUFFY!” you wail in despair.
“Cupcake, it’s not a monster, it’s just sand…” Mummah says, sounding tired. “See?” she continues as she starts to get up, but as you see her moving towards the boxie-monster that tried to eat you you panic and thrash, your little leggies scrambling and your little wingies flapping frantically as you try to keep away from the horrible monster!
“NUUUU! NU FEED FWUFFY TO MUNSTAH MUMMAH!! FWUFFY AMS GUD FWUFFY!! FWUFFY WUBS MUMMAH NU GIBS TO MUNSTAH, SCREEE!! SCREEEEEEEE!!!”
“Jesus CHRIST you’re loud…” you hear Mummah say, kind of quietly. It almost sounds like she’s talking to someone else, but she still hugs you and strokes you gently, shushing you gently as you cry for a while and slowly calm down.
After a while you find you’re not really scared anymore, just very, very tired… Who knew that almost dying no fewer than thirteen times in less than 24 hours would be so exhausting? Now that you’re calming down, you find you really can’t ignore your exhaustion anymore and conk out in Mummah’s arms.
=======================
Lilly looked down at her pet. Cupcake was… well, not really what she’d expected from a fluffy. She seemed to be scared to death of everything, but… well, Cupcake WAS awfully small, and still just barely older than a baby, she told herself. Not even an adult fluffy yet. She had a LOT to learn, and it was up to Lilly to teach her. She felt bad about how frustrated she was getting, knowing it wasn’t REALLY Cupcake’s fault, but did she have to freak out at EVERYTHING?
“Lilly?” she heard coming from behind her. Her father’s voice.
“Yeah Dad?” she asked as she turned to face him, starting back inside with Cupcake.
“What the hell is going on out here? I could hear Cupcake screaming bloody murder from the living room, what on Earth are you doing to that poor thing?”
“Nothing!” Lilly protested. “I was just trying to play with her! I threw the rope for her to fetch, and it got stuck behind the rose bushes so Cupcake got scratched up when she tried to get it! She thought a monster was trying to eat her! Then while I was trying to pick her fluff out of the thorns I just took my eye off her for a second and she jumped into the sandbox and buried herself alive! I tried to show her it’s just sand, but now she’s scared of the sandbox! She thinks it’s a monster too!”
Robert just stared at his daughter and her pet for a moment. He ALMOST declared they were returning Cupcake to the store, but seeing the way Lilly was cradling that freaky little shit and how upset his daughter was, he just sighed. He almost hoped Cupcake had died of a heart attack or something, but no such luck… he could see the faint rise and fall of her chest. “Okay. Sweetie, I think Cupcake is exhausted right now. Why don’t you put her back in her room for a little while? I think she needs some rest. Evidently she didnt sleep much last night, terrified of monsters in the dark…”
Lilly grimaced and felt her stomach tighten up. That HAD been an oversight on her part. (Well, on everybody’s part, she thought… but Cupcake WAS supposed to be HER pet, so she should have thought of getting a nightlight for her. But now that it occurred to her…) “Do we have that old nightlight of mine anywhere?”
“Hell, I don’t know,” Robert said as he stepped out of the doorway to let Lilly inside. “We probably have it somewhere, you know your mother never throws anything away. It’s probably in the hall closet or in a junk drawer somewhere, maybe on one of the shelves in your room.”
“Okay. Well I’m gonna find it so Cupcake’s not scared tonight.”
“That’s a good idea, sweetie. Now let’s give her some time to rest, you can play with her again when she wakes up, okay?” Robert said.
“Okay, Dad. Thank you for getting me a fluffy.”
“… Anything for you, sweetie,” Robert said. He REALLY loved his daughter and his wife, but he was already dreaming about the day that little pink freak died…