Raspberry hissed as Victoria rubbed some iodine onto her back, the small cuts and scratches from her cold bath (and a little bit of hard scrubbing from Victoria) stung as the disinfectant liquid poured over her.
“Huu, Waspbewwy nu wike buwnie huwties.”
“It’s for your own good Raspberry, we don’t want those cuts to get infected now, do we?”
Victoria was lying of course, one of the fucked up biological quirks of Fluffies was a near inability to get sick, Raspberry wasn’t at risk of being infected anytime soon, but she didn’t know that.
“Wai mummah gib cuttie huwties tu Waspbewwy, am soon-mummah.”
“Because you were covered in vomit you little turdblossom. Mummy doesn’t want vomity little fuckwads running around her house.”
“Hmmph, nu say meanie-wowdies neaw tummeh-babbehs….OWWWWIEEES!”
“Oops, sorry, spilled a little too much on you there.”
The sarcasm was so thick that even Raspberry momentarily wondering if Victoria was lying.
The air between the two remained still and silent for several seconds before Victoria spoke up.
“Raspberry? I wanted to talk about your foals. Given that Nova is an Alicorn, there is going to be a high-chance at least some of your kids are going to be wingie-pointies. What will you do if you do have some Alicorn foal?”
“Bestesh mummah nu hab munstah babbehs, bu if du hab munstahs, Waspbewwy weave dem awone, nu wisten tu deiw tummeh-huwties. Waspbewwy knyo hoomins nu wike wen mummahs gib munstah babbehs foweba sweepies, bu Waspbewwy nu hab tu gib dem miwkies if nu wan.”
“Well at least you’re smart enough not to kill them. But I can’t have any dead kids laying about here, so you’re gonna need to feed all of them and make sure each gets a fair share.”
“Hmmph, wha if Waspbewwy nu wan gib miwkies tu munstah ow poo….URK!”
Raspberry’s voice was suddenly cut off by a tight clench of fingers wrapping around her throat. Victoria held the mare in place as she leaned in and growled at her.
“Listen here you little cunt. You don’t mean shit to me, but your little brats do, so here’s how this is going to work going forward. You are going to love and feed and do the bare fucking minimum to keep each and every one of those kids alive until they’re old enough for my purposes. If you can do that, I’ll fuck you off to someone who actually does care, who will look after you and whatever ‘Bestesh Babbeh Bastard’ you may have until you’re swimming in spaghetti. But for every one of your foals that dies, whether it’s by your hand or pure accident, I will start cutting piece off you, BIG fucking piece, pieces that you will miss. Am I fucking clear you self-serving bitch?”
“GAK, Wek… UHGH, Wek Wakkerry gu… amk sook-mu…”
“I said… AM! I! CLEAR!”
Raspberry shit herself but nodded, at least on some level understanding Victoria’s deal. Victoria smirked and let her go.
“I’m glad we have an agreement.”
“Mum…kaff, kaff, mummah am munstah.”
“Congratulations, you finally figured it out. Now you understand why I’m happy to punt you on to someone else. And you will get a nice, happy home, provided those kids live lone enough for my purposes.”
“Wha am munstah mummah’s puhpuhsees?”
“Are you sure you want to know?”
Raspberry opened her mouth to speak, then slowly closed it again. In the end, she really didn’t want to know what Victoria was planning, her imagination was already scaring her, and part of her knew that the truth was even scarier than what she could think of.
Down in the basement, Reek struggled to acclimatise to his new surroundings. The dank atmosphere made him feel oily and wet at all times, the room was mostly darkened corners only punctuated by a harsh florescent light that flickered constantly, giving him a headache, and the only toys he had for entertainment were blockies too deformed by water damage to stack properly and a ball too deflated to roll properly.
He didn’t like it down here, but mummy said it was only temporary, however long that meant.
After some time – actually only a few hours but Reek had no way of knowing that – the basement door opened and Victoria climbed down the stairs, finding the little guy smiling at her return. He was grimy from the general muck in around the room but he was still happy to see her.
“Hewwo mummah, hab yu nyu woom fow Week?”
“Oh I’m sorry Reek, I’m still looking, I haven’t found anything good enough yet.”
“It ok mummah, Week nu need bestesh woom, jus…”
“No, no, you’re giving up your family for a short while, it’s only fair I get you the best room I can find. Until then though, we need to talk about buying food for Raspberry.”
Reek’s ears dropped. “Du… Du Week stiww hab tu hab huwties tu git nummies?”
“Well of course you do, silly boy. I can’t hurt Raspberry now, can I? She’s a soon-mummah, it would be cruel to gib her hurties now, wouldn’t it?”
Reek gave out a little whine and dropped his head, knowing that Victoria was right. “Wha huwties du Week hab tu hab nyo?”
“Well it’s going to be a high price Reek, Raspberry wants spaghetti for her and all of her babies. We can’t really deny her that now can we, not if we want those babies to become big and strong like their father. I’ve been thinking about it and I think the price might have to be… we take your horn.”
“NU! Nu Week’s pointy. Week am wingie-pointy, it am wha make Week speciaw.”
Victoria hid a smirk as the grimy Alicorn covered his horn with his hoofs and pissed himself.
“Ok, ok, I take it you won’t want to lose your wings either?”
Reek shook his head, and pissed a little more.
“Hmm, well I suppose I could… no that’s too much.”
“Wha am mummah?”
“I supposed we could take your tail instead, but I know we talked about that before and you weren’t up for the idea. I’ll keep thinking of something.”
As Victoria pretended to think, Reek look back at his tail, he had once been proud of it and was against the idea of losing it last time, too focused on his perfectly white coat and the long wispiness of his appendage. Now, between his constant hurties to pay for food and the dirt he found himself frequently covered in, he no longer felt as pretty as he used to.
“Mummah? If Week need tu gib taiw fow nummies, den Week du dat. Wan be gud daddeh fow babbehs.”
Victoria knealt down in front of him. “Are you sure Reek? This will be permanent, you’ll never have a tail again.”
Reek gulped but nodded all the same. “Week am suwe.”
She smiled at him, hiding her malice behind fake pride. “I’m so proud of you Reek, such a good Fluffy, those babies are going to be lucky to have you looking out for them.”
Distracted by the faint praise of his mother, Reek didn’t notice Victoria take out a pair of large, sharp scissors that she’d conveniently brought with her. By the time he noticed she had them, she had already angled them towards his tail.
“Now Reek, I’m going to do this quickly so it doesn’t hurt as much, I need you to be ready for me.”
Reek was growing tenser by the moment, but seeing his mother’s smiling face gave him the courage to go on.
“Ok Mummah, Week am weady. Jus wet Week knyo wen…”
SNIP
“HUUHHUUUUUUU!!!”
Reek jumped, shit and leaped all at the same time, landing in Victoria’s lap and burying his face into her shirt, trying to hide from the pain.
Victoria took the moment to admire her good work. She has snipped him as close to the skin as she could, taking the entire tail in one snip and even shearing off a little skin from his backside as well. Once the wound was healed, it would be like he never had a tail to begin with.
“Nu wike huwties, wan huwties gu way.” Reek sobbed into Victoria’s shirt.
“There, there Reek, it’s all over now. Here, let me wipe away the blood and we’ll get you sorted.
Using the cuff of her top, Victoria dabbed at the blood dribbling out of Reek, she could hear him whimpering as she intentionally pressed a little harder than she should’ve, making the poor guy sting with every touch.
Once Reek’s quick heal biology kicked in and the wound began to clot properly, she pulled him from her lap and placed him on the ground, making sure he saw his amputated tail laying on the floor.
“See, it’s all over now, nothing left to worry about.”
Reek just stared at his tail, laying in a dirty puddle, its white, willowy strands soaking in filth. Every move it made as it lay on the water, he swore he could feel behind him, like it was still moving on his body.
Eventually he turned away, unable to keep looking at what he’d lost.
“That was very brave of you Reek, I’ll go delivery Raspberry the good news and tell her how much you gave up to make her happy. Then I’ll bring you down some dinner.”
“Du mummah hab tu gu? Week hab heawt-huwties an need huggies.”
“Oh I wish I could Reek, but it’s almost dinner time and I need to get the spaghetti paid for before they start asking for more hurties. The price of food has been crazy recently. But once I’m back with your dinner, I’ll stay with you for a bit, ok?”
“Huu, ok mummah.”
“Attaboy, I’ll see you in a bit.”
Victoria gave him a head pat and shot off back up the stairs, she could hear Reek shout after her but she ignored him, pretending she couldn’t hear.
“MUMMAH WAI….”
No good, the basement door closed and Reek was left alone once again, only now he had his severed tail to keep him company, the amputated limb left floating in foul grey run-off, a reminder of the filth Reek now found himself in.
He curled up into a ball and started crying, only the promise of his mother’s return keeping him from falling into the Wan-Die loop
Upstairs, Raspberry was enjoying the quiet of a solitary Safe-Room, no dumb monster Nova to distract her, no monster mummah to give her hurties. Just her, her tummeh-babbehs, and an off-key song.
“Mummah wub babbehs, babbehs wub mummah, mummah pwotek babbehs, eben munstah wuns tuu.”
The pregnant mare sang to her foals for some time before she heard the door open, she looked over, tensing up as she saw Victoria entering the room, but immediately relaxed when she saw the food bowl in her hands.
“Munstah mummah gib nummies?”
“Of course Raspbewwy, if you’re going to keep those babies safe, ALL of those babies safe, I’m going to need to feed you, aren’t I?”
Raspberry was still iffy on Victoria, but her hunger and desire to keep her tummy-babbies happy overrode any fears and she happily waited for Victoria to bring her dinner over. But then the bowl was laid in front of her and Raspberry’s face dropped at the sight of the dryest, blandest looking kibble she had ever seen, no flavour could be smelt from the bowl other than an overwhelming stench of paper.
“Mummah? Wha am dis?”
“It’s your dinner Raspberry, now eat up.”
“Nu wike dese nummies, wan gud nummies, wan sketti.”
“Now Raspberry, this was all Nova could afford to give you, he’s still upset about having to be left downstairs so he couldn’t take as many hurties today but he still endured to make sure you and your foals got something to eat. If you want spaghetti then you can pay for it but it’ll be a big hurtie to make enough for you and all your babies.”
Raspberry desperately wanted spaghetti, but the pain for her wash earlier was still fresh in her mind and she didn’t want to go through that again. Reluctantly she lowered her head and started chewing on the hard, cardboard tasting food-like substance.
Victoria smiled when she saw Raspberry fighting to keep from throwing up.
“Nugh, nu wike dese nummies. Teww dummeh munstah Noba tu gib skettis neks time.”
“Why not tell him yourself? I know he’s missing you so how about I record a video message on my phone and I’ll show it to him next time I’m downstairs.”
Before Raspberry could answer, Victoria pull out her mobile and started recording a video, Raspbberry was momentarioy caught off-guard but seeing the bland kibble in front of him renewed her hatred of her former mate.
“Noba am dummeh munstah, nu gib Waspbewwy gud nummies, nu twy hawd enuff. Noba ma jus dummeh babbeh Fwuffy, nu du aneefing wight. If Noba nu gib Waspbewwy bestesh nummies, Waspbewwy neba wet Noba see babbehs eba.”
Victoria stopped the recording, oh so happy with what Raspberry had said. “That was perfect, Raspberry, I’ll make sure he sees it right away.”
Victoria left Raspberry to her awful dinner and exited the room. She would make sure Reek saw that video, but she needed him to be at his lowest point first, she needed to absolutely break him if she was to rebuild him into her weapon.
And with her phone in her hand, she called the one person who could deliver the tool she needed to fully break Reek into nothing.
“Hey Vinny, it’s Tori. Listen, is Patriot still available?”
hoping at least Reek will still have the last laugh before he dies.