“Gon find da nummies, Tuwip get da nummies! Gon be gud nummies, gib bwuddahs heawt-happies!~”
Tulip sang an out of tune song as the tan mare and her looked for food. Trashcans and dumpsters were always viable sources of food in the city for fluffies, and while the smell would have caused Tulip to cry a week ago, she had adapted to the rank smells of city trash and barely registered them anymore. An apple core in one trashcan and a mostly eaten burrito in a dumpster, these were the sort of foods found as they traversed from one trash spot to another. Puddles littered the back alleys from the rain the previous night, Tulip and the mare would always look for a way to walk around the puddle no matter how long it took to find and regardless of how shallow the puddle itself was.
After a suitable load of food (for two fluffies to carry) was collected the duo would return to the nest and offload some. Tulip and Berry nibbled on the burrito while the mares ate some old fruit and half eaten candy bars.
“Dis am gud nummies! Sisse am gud nummie-findah!”
Tulip giggled at the compliment, “Bwuddah am gud toughie tuu!.. Whewe am oddah bwuddah?”
“Smarty an’ bwuddah am wookin’ fo’ nyu nestie tu pwotec fwuffies fwom sky-wawa!”
Once the foals were full they decided to start up a game of huggy-tag, they were super excited to play as it had been over a day since they last played (which is quite a long time for a fluffy). The brown filly even joined in the game, Berry would run slower when the filly was chasing so she could catch up as Tulip usually liked to show off her speed and wouldn’t stop for anything once she got into the flow of the game. The mares watched from the sidelines as they were a bit too big and fast to join in the game with the foals.
“Tuwip am su fast! Bwuddah an’ babbeh nu can catch Tuwip!”
Berry and the filly honestly couldn’t catch up to Tulip, all of the scouting had helped her become much faster than both of them and have the endurance to keep going.
“How am sissie su fast! babbeh wan be fast tuu!”
“Tuwip hab wingies! Wingies hewp Tuwip be weawwy fast!”
In actuality Tulip’s wings did absolutely nothing for her speed; Pegasi just had slightly lighter bones than earthies or unicorns which caused them to be lighter, faster, and weaker. However the topic of wings caused the little filly to become melancholy as her own were twisted and featherless. She tried to imitate the way Tulip ran by gently flapping her wings only to stop and wince from the pain.
“Huuhuu, babbeh wingies nu wowk! Babbeh neva gon be fast wike sisse!”
Tulip finally stopped running around on her own when she heard the little filly crying and went to go comfort her with Berry. Berry hugged the filly while Tulip thought of what to say to cheer her up.
“Nu hab saddie-wawas sisse, Bewwy wuv yu.”
“Huu Babbeh knu… bu’ babbeh wan pwetty wingies wike sissie… onwy hab ugwy nu wowk wingies!”
“Dat nu am twue! Babbeh hab mowe den jus’ wingies!”
“Weawwy?”
“Yus, Babbeh hab pwetty fwuff!”
“An’ wittwe sissie gib bestest huggies evah!”
“An’ Tuwip mummah say aww babbehs am bestest-babbehs, su babbeh am bestest-babbeh tuu!”
As the pep talk went along the little brown filly stopped crying and began to giggle at each compliment given to her.
“Tank yu bwuddah an’ sissie, babbeh nu hab saddies nu mowe. Babbeh wuv bwuddah an’ sissie!”
With one crisis averted the three foals went back to playing, and this time Tulip slowed down just like Berry so that the little filly could join in. After a short while they had to take a break as the concrete made the filly’s small soft hooves sore from running around. That wasn’t to say that Tulip and Berry’s hooves weren’t sore themselves, but a thin keratin shell (the thickness of a fingernail) grows around the hoof around the same time the teeth grow in, this allows them to have the slightest bit more resistance to hard surfaces even though inside the shell is the same soft leathery hoof.
The foals got a refreshing drink of rain water from one of the nearby puddles and proceeded to have a rousing conversation about how much they love each other. A fierce debate almost started on which one of them loved hugs the most. After a few more games of huggy-tag with breaks in-between the herd could see the figures of Spike and the smarty returning, however the smarty was limping. The tan mare ran to the smarty while the black mare ran towards Spike.
“Wha happen? Am smawty otay?”
“Am babbeh otay? Du babbeh hab huwties?”
“Spike am otay… bu’ smawty… smawty am-”
“-Am gud tuu!.. jus’ nee’ wittwe sweepies…”
The group led the limping smarty inside the box to lie down and rest and then asked Spike what was going on.
When the groups had split up Tulip and the tan mare went deeper into the alley while Spike and the smarty went out onto the sidewalks. Spike thought they were going to ask the humans about a new nest but the smarty ignored them in the same way they ignored the fluffies. Spike followed behind the smarty while ducking and weaving between a sea of legs in an attempt to not be crushed underfoot. He got so caught up in dodging the legs that when the smarty stopped Spike ran right into him.
“owwie, why smawty stop?”
“Dis am hoomin nestie!”
The smarty confidently pointed with his front hoof towards an old Motel, it looked like it had been built before most of the buildings in the city and was barely being held together.
“Fwuffies ask nice mistah fo’ nestie, smawty see nice mistah gib wots of hoomins nesties!”
The smarty strode toward the motel front counter entrance with confidence only to be stoped by the door. He tried to pry it open on his own but could only get it open slightly.
“Smawty-babbeh hewp smawty gib dummeh doow sowwy-hoofies!”
So together they beat on the door with their front hoofs again and again without any progress. The smarty considered scaring the door open with sorry-poopies but that thought was cut short when the door opened and a well built man with graying hair stepped out.
“Oh you have got to be kidding me… What in the world do you two think you are doing?”
“Nice Mistah! Fwuffies wan hab bestest nestie fo’ hewd!”
“What? What in the world are you talking about? I’m not a wildlife reserve, get off my property!”
Oh! Smawty am sowwy… Fwuffies wan hab bestest nestie fo’ hewd pwease?
“You things really are little idiots aren’t you? Listen: I DO NOT HOUSE FLUFFIES! I already have a rat problem, you think I want to deal with a &$%#rat problem too?!”
Spike and the smarty both instinctively winced at the swearing, but the smarty was determined to get the best nest for his herd.
“pwease nice mistah, hewd nee’ nestie… nu hab be bestest jus’ nee’ nestie fo’ hewd.”
“I will only say this one more time: GET OFF MY PROPERTY YOU FILTHY VERMIN!”
“Pwease! Hewd wiww be bestest fwuffies evah! Nu bad-poopies o’ tummie-babbehs o’ wan skettis!”
The man was done talking, he simply picked up the smarty by the scruff of his neck eliciting a “bad upsies!” and chucked him into the parking lot. The smarty fell onto his front left leg when he hit the pavement and an audible crack could be heard from it.
“SCREEEE! Weggie hab wowstest huwties!”
“If I ever see any of your ‘herd’ here again I will do a lot worse than throwing! Now get out of here, both of ya!”
Spike ran to the crying smarty and hugged him, “Huggies hewp huwties! Huuhuu!”
After an excruciating few minutes the smarty was limping back to the nest while Spike gave his left side support. The smarty was crying as he declared something Spike never expected, he didn’t know where to go.
“Smawty nu knu oddah nestie hewe… an’ naow smawty nu can wook…”
The smarty had searched the surrounding area and the best nesting spot he had found was the old abandoned building, but that was gone now. While there were other spots out there somewhere the smarty didn’t know exactly where and he could no longer search for them due to his injury.
The news was hard on the herd, their smarty was injured and they didn’t have a new home. If it rained again or a ‘monster’ came through the alley they were sitting ducks without protection or escape routes.
“Huuhuuhuu! Bu’ babbeh nu wike dis nestie! Wan nyu nestie!”
“Gon be otay babbeh, bu’ yu nu bein’ nice tu smawty! Smawty hab wowstest owchies an’ heawt-huwties wight naow!”
The brown filly gasped realizing she had just been a bad baby, and quickly went to go apologize to the smarty with a big hug.
“Babbeh nu wan be meanie! Babbeh am sowwy mistah-smawty!”
The herd talked among themselves about what they were going to do now that the smarty was injured, Tulip took this opportunity to slip out of the nest. The smarty couldn’t look for a new home anymore, that was obvious, but the herd still needed a better nest. Tulip decided that she would look by herself, I mean this was obviously a job suited for a splorin’-babbeh and Tulip was the bestest splorin’-babbeh she knew.