The smarty laid on his right side and breathed shallowly in a restless sleep. The herd was unable to come up with a plan of action that they could all agree on, and so instead they made sure that their injured smarty was safe and comfortable. The black and tan mares plucked loose neck fluff from themselves and used it to cushion the smarty’s sleeping spot. Berry and Spike stood guard at the entrance to the cardboard box, and the brown filly gave the biggest hugs she could to the sleeping smarty in hopes that it would fix what ailed him.
While the small herd had been attending to the smarty Tulip had slipped away on her own adventure. It took a few minutes but Spike finally realized something was missing, namely his sister. Spike looked around the box and its surrounding area only to find little muddy hoof-prints trailing out toward the sidewalk. He quickly ran back to the box to inform the rest of the herd about Tulip’s sudden departure.
“Sissie am nu hewe! Sissie wun awa’!”
Before Spike had come back the rest of the fluffies had been laying in a makeshift fluffpile, trying desperately to nap and escape the cruel reality of their situation for a fleeting moment. However once the news of Tulip’s disappearance was made known, the group was wide awake and crowding Spike for more details. That is… all of them except for the brown filly who was suckling away at her lunch.
“Wha happen tu Sissie!?”
“Whewe am Tuwip?!”
“Am babbeh otay!?”
“Spike nu knu! nu knu whewe sissie gu!?!?”
The little brown filly who had just finished her lunch kept hearing the words ‘sissie’ and ‘babbeh’ being thrown around. Not understanding the situation fully, the little filly playfully chimed in, “Siwwy bwuddah! Babbeh am hewe! Heehee!”
Spike’s nerves were on edge from the onslaught of bad things happening to the small herd, most recently being the smarty’s injury and now the disappearance of his sister. So when this little baby started joking around during such a tense situation, Spike didn’t restrain himself.
“NU! BABBEH NU AM SISSIE! YU JUS AM BABBEH! NU AM SPIKE SISSIE! NU EVAH AM SPIKE SISSIE!”
The little pegasus shrank into herself and her voice became weak as she responded, “Bu’… smawty-bwuddah an’ babbeh hab same mummah…” she said pointing at the black mare, “A-an’ babbeh gwow up wif smawty-bwuddah…”
Spike was fuming and puffed his cheeks in a threatening display toward the small foal, “DAT NU AM SPIKE MUMMAH! DAT NU AM BABBEH MUMMAH! DAT AM JUS’ FWUFFY WIF MIWKIES TU GIB!” he pointed an accusatory hoof toward the black mare who began to cry and mutter to herself, “Nu am mummah… nevah mummah… babbehs aww gu foweva-sweepies… nu am mummah… am bad fwuffy… am bad mummah…”
The brown filly tried to cling on to the sobbing mare and began crying herself, “Bu’ dat mean babbeh nu hab famiwy… babbeh am awone… babbeh hab nu wuv… Huuhuuhuu! Babbeh nu wan be awone! Babbeh wan wuv! Babbeh-”
Before she could continue Berry wrapped her in a warm hug, “Sissie du hab famiwy an’ wuv! Nu am awone! Bewwy wuv sissie foweva!”
The little filly was crying too hard to respond but fell into Berry’s embrace and gradually grew quieter as her crying turned to sniffles. Once she had fully tuckered herself out Berry nestled her gently into the black mare’s fluff. Berry then approached his brother with a ferocity that even caused the hotheaded young smarty to falter.
“Spike nu am bwuddah nu mowe… am jus’ meanie smawty-babbeh…”
This statement caused the fire in Spike to extinguish and his temper to soften. His cheeks deflated as the meaning behind the words hit him: he had failed as a brother, he was just a meanie, he was a bad fluffy. The words held in the air for almost a minute as the whole herd watched the siblings argument. There was no conviction in Spike’s eyes any longer, no fire, but he still had a job to do. So with a heavy heart Spike walked to the box’s entrance and said one last thing before leaving, “Dummeh Spike gu wook fo’ sissie…”
Soon after Spike had left the tan mare followed him to make sure that both him and Tulip were okay. The rest of the herd sat together and hugged trying to console one another, “Babbeh hab wowstest heawt-huwties… huuhuuhuuuu…”
"Bewwy knu… bewwy hab dem tuu…