Where the Poopie Babbehs Go
By @Za
Originally Penned January 17th, 2020
Chapter Five:
Premonition
You are Strong Branch.
It has been many bright-times since the hunter monsters came, but everyone was still on edge. The once lively clearing had become a soulless wasteland, devoid of playing foals. Fluffies were hiding in their nesties all day, never coming out except to go to work or make poopies. At first, this was the result of the hunter monsters. Now, though, it was simply too coldies to be out all day. The lush greens of the village had shifted to vibrant warm colors. Leafies fell from their branches, blanketing the grass with a crunchy exterior. The green had faded from the scenery, but watching Grassies Green die was something that would never fade from your think-place.
You trotted through the leafies, the ground cracking beneath you with each step. The two toughies stationed on the stump at the village’s center turned to face you, smiling sympathetically. “Huuh… heww-wo Stwon’ B-Banch, how ou?” one struggled to spit out. The other just continued to smile, offering hushed encouragement to the stuttering fluffy. You hated the patronizing behavior everyone showed towards you. You missed your daddeh enough without them reminding you. You hummed quietly as you continued your march towards the Smarty nestie. You peered in through the entrance, but couldn’t spot anyone. “Where Fas’ Hoofsie?” you called to the two in the middle. Now that you looked, you actually recognized them. The orange-grey one on the left was Fanta Nummies, supposedly named after a human wawa nummie that nummie finders would occasionally come across down the path leading to human villages. He was one of the strongest stallions in the village, despite being a derpy fluffy. You supposed it was his derpiness that caused him to not feel fear like other fluffies. Beside him was Black Heart, who was your teacher at the learning-nestie when you were little. Despite his heavy scars, Black Heart was the kindest fluffy anyone would ever meet.
“Dat way, Stwong Bwanch!” Black Heart pointed towards the nummie path. Fanta Nummies nodded enthusiastically, sticking out his tongue and making the usual “pbbt” noises. “Thank you,” you regarded them, galloping down the path towards the nummie field. It was odd to you that simply from listening to Fast Hoofsie, you were able to learn human talkies to a certain degree. You hated it, though. Everyone in the village hated it. Not because it was different; no, being different was the very essence of the tribe. It was because of what had happened with the hunter monsters. Hunter monsters that used human talkies.
“No, no, no! You dummy! You stupid, stupid fwuffy!” Fast Hoofsie shouted, giving ruthless sorry hoofsies to a bleeding toughie. Squealing, she begged for forgiveness. “Thowwy! Thu thowwy Thmawty Fath’ Hoofthie!” Something was wrong with this mare’s mouth, but you couldn’t tell what. You were standing at the edge of the field, watching the scene before you unfold. As you crept behind a bush, Fast Hoofsie kept screaming. “I said NOT to hold the sharpy rock with your toothies!” Every sorry hoofsie to the tummy caused the mummah to spew boo-boo juice out of her mouth. “Nuuuuhuhuhu! Thowwyyyyy!” This wasn’t right. This wasn’t the way of the tribe, and Fast Hoofsie knew it. You emerged from the bush, puffing yourself up. “Stop! Stop NAO, or get wowsest sowwy hoofsies!” The Smarty turned to meet your gaze. “Weww, is the orphan babbeh,” he snickered, backing away from the reeling mare. “What you want?” You stared sharpy sorry-sticks into his see-places. “Ou know beddah. Nu huwt oddah fwuffies,” you grunted, stepping towards him. “Weww maybeh if these DUMMEH FWUFFIES wouwd wisten to me,” he said, taking a step back towards the mare, “I wouwdn’t HAB TU!” He landed another sorry hoofsie into her face. You knew how it felt to have someone you trust, someone you look up to, insult you and hurt you. It happened to you when you were born, and you weren’t going to let it happen again. Especially not to a mare.
Charging towards Fast Hoofsie, you leapt into the air with a raging screech. He sidestepped, landing a hoofsie in your muzzle. You rolled onto your back, bucking him in the jaw. Fast Hoofsie flew backwards into a tree with a sickening crack. “Grunhhh, ou DUMMEH!” You jumped to your hoofsies, biting into his fluff as he charged past you. He squealed, head-butting you. Everything went double as you fell to the ground. Staring down at you were two fluffies, but only one of them was Fast Hoofsie. The other one looked… just like your birth mummah. They both smiled devilishly. “You wose. Stupid dummeh babbeh.”
You shot awake, screaming as loudly as your voice would let you. Your see-places darted rapidly around the nestie. Your mummah was awake and staring at you. Every deep breath you took did little to calm your nerves. “Babbeh hab scawy sweepie-pictuwe?” your mummah asked, nestling herself back into a crinkling pile of leafies. You hummed affirmatively, flopping back down into the fluff pile. Of course that was just a sleepy-picture, Fast Hoofsie was a good Smarty.
Your daddeh had told you about humans before, but you’d still never seen one for yourself. He told you that humans weren’t monsters to be feared, but monsters to be respected. You remembered that well as you drifted back off to sleepies.
“Stwong Bwanch,” he told you as you helped him pick berry nummies, “nebah cum hewe awone. Is hooman wand.” You looked at him puzzled. This was the berry patch your tribe had always gotten its nummies from. “Aww dah wowwd is hooman wand. Hoomans wan pwotect nummies an housies. Dat mean…” He looked down at you, his greying brown fluff glistening in the afternoon sunshine. “Sometimes hoomans gib fowebah sweepies tu fwuffies.” You were taken aback; so much so, in fact, that you crushed the berry nummies between your teeth. You had heard of forever sleepies, but had never been faced with the reality that it could happen to you. “Hoomans nu aww bad. Sum gib nummies and housies fow fwuffies. Oddahs… onwy wan gib huwties.” Your daddeh looked off into the brush, narrowing his see-places as if he were remembering something. “Hoomans awound fowest hewp twibe… mostwy. Buh nu can be tuu cawefuw.” You nodded silently. What were you supposed to say? You were scared stiff at the thought of being hurt by a human. The gentle touch of a hoofsie against your fluff brought you back. “Babbeh,” he softly called to you, “if hoomans ebah huwt Big Twee… pwotec mummah and bwuddah.” You shook your head, tears forming in your eyes. “Nu daddeh! Nu gu fowebah sweepies!” he held you tightly in a loving huggie. “Nu wowwy, babbeh. Nu happen fow many fowebahs.” You smiled, hugging him tighter. “Buh pwomise.” You stepped back, examining your daddeh; his see-places pleading for you to say something. “Pwomise,” you murmured halfheartedly. He looked at you sternly. “Pwomise wuh?” You shuffled nervously, your see-places looking everywhere but towards him. The trees, the grassies, the berry nummies; anything was better than having to meet his gaze and make that promise. But you couldn’t just let him worry. “Stwong Bwanch pwomise… pwotec mummah an…”
“BWUDDAH!”
Oh no, oh no.
You leapt up, searching the fluff pile. You turned every leafie, but you couldn’t find him anywhere. The fact that it was dark-time didn’t help, either. You knew something seemed odd when you had woken up earlier, and it had just clicked. Your brother was gone! That dummeh babbeh and his stupid dummeh leggies had run off somewhere. Your mummah was now awake, noticing the lack of Cloud Softies as quickly as you had. Her tears stained her beautiful yellow fluff, and it gave you heart-hurties to watch. “Am bad mummah! Nuuuhuhuuu!” You clung to her, hugging her back to her senses. Poor mummah, it couldn’t be easy for her to deal with this so soon after losing daddeh. You parted from the hug, holding her by the shoulders. “Stwong Bwanch fin bwuddah,” you told her. As you galloped for the clearing, you called to her “Nu weave nestie!” You didn’t turn to see if she nodded or not. In the cover of darkness, you tried to pick up your brother’s scent. You could smell two disgusting scents, both similar to sicky poopies; one was emanating from far down the berry path, the other was a short distance down the path to the humans. The human path was dangerous, and Cloud Softies knew that. He wouldn’t run off that way. You turned to the well-groomed berry path, picked clean of grassies and other nummies, and hurried off.
You ran for what felt like many, many forevers. You ran and you ran until your leggies finally collapsed beneath you. Despite your expectation of a rough landing, you didn’t feel any pain. No scratches or scuffs, just… softness. You opened your eyes and immediately leapt backwards, blasting sicky wawas from your mouth.
Oh… oh God.
What you had just tripped onto was the rotting corpse of Grassies Green. He was untouched by hunter monsters. His meat was being eaten away by wormies and other buggy monsters, but he hadn’t had his fluff taken like the toughies said had happened to the others. You stamped your foot, kicking up dust and wailing at the top of your lungs. The tribe could have healed him. Fast Hoofsie sent Grassies Green to die, and for what? Safety from hunter monsters that wouldn’t even chase fluffies? There wasn’t time for this now, even if you needed it. You turned and bolted, powering through the pain that came with every huffing breath. It was too late for Grassies Green now, but it wasn’t too late for Cloud Softies.
As you sprinted back through the clearing, you noticed that everyone was still asleep. Everyone aside from your mummah, who was still sobbing in your nestie. You wanted to stop. You wanted to help her, to give her huggies, to let her know that she was the bestest mummah ever. But you couldn’t. You had to save Cloud Softies, no matter what. You promised.
Sicky wawas stained your fluff, but you continued pushing forward. You wouldn’t even stop to make the sicky wawas, you just kept running. The bright ball was peeking over the horizon, shining right into your see-places. Running ever and ever faster, the hurties worsening with every step, you never heard your brother’s cries for help. You simply kept running until you heard him call out to you.
“Buh… buh… bwuddah…”
You collapsed again, clutching your head with your hoofsies. You ejected more sicky wawas from your stomach, giving your throat burny hurties. This time, you didn’t know if it was from running or from the unbearable stench of your poopie-covered brother. You knew it was him, though. It smelled just like him. Writhing in pain, you searched for the voice. You dragged yourself into every bush nearby, through every last patch of tall grassies, into every little hole in the ground… but couldn’t find him. “Haff… haff… CWOUD SOFTIES, WHEWE OU?” you cried desperately, slamming your hoofsies into the ground.
“Uh… upsies… bad upsies…” the voice replied, a resigned weakness chilling you to the bone. You looked up, locking eyes with your brother. He looked as sweet and as innocent as ever, despite his predicament. He had metal spikes shoved through his dummeh leggies into the tree, far out of your reach. “Nu wike… haff… bwuddah hewp?” he chirped weakly. You simply stared back, tears clouding your see-places. You couldn’t help. There was no way you could reach him. “Nu can… nu can weach. Bwuddah suuuu sowwies…” you cried, scraping your hoofsies against the tree until they made boo-boo juice. No matter what you did, you couldn’t climb. “Is okay… babbeh nu huwties…” he yawned, his see-places fluttering shut. “Nu, nu bwuddah! Nu go sweepies! Ou nu wakies!” you cried weakly, your throat burning from the many times you’d made sicky wawas. You turned, bucking the tree with all your might. Bucking, and bucking, and bucking some more until your back hoofsies had hurties just as badly as your front hoofsies. You had to keep trying, maybe the spikes would wiggle loose if you just… kept… TRYING!
You screamed, coughing up boo-boo juice from your throat hurties. You dropped to the ground again, wailing. The grassies around you were a beautiful orange from the shining bright ball. At least your brother would go forever sleepies in a pretty place and your company. You smiled. “Wub ou, Cwoud Softies.” He cooed softly, closing his eyes. You closed your eyes too, weeping into your hoofsies.
You cried there for many forevers until the sound of a distant “Hoo! Hoo! Hoo!” invaded your thoughts. Oh great, more crying. As if you hadn’t heard enough of that lately. “Hoo! Hoo! Hoo!” Was it crying? No, you had heard this before. You didn’t care enough to investigate it, though. You just closed your see-places again and kept crying. The sounds fell into the background, overshadowed by the chirping birdy monsters and pretty windy noises you preferred to listen to. You drifted off to sleep.
“Wuh-wuh! Wakie! Ou wakie!” came the gibberish from right beside you. You twitched fearfully as the fluffy the voice belonged to began to shake you. Your barely-open see-places were met with the derpy gaze of Fanta Nummies. “Yee! Fwuhfee wake-wake!” he sputtered, hopping up and down. “Who dis?” another familiar voice chimed in from further down the path. “Strong Branch and Cwoud Softies!” yet another familiar voice called out, this one much closer. You recognized this one as Fast Hoofsie. “Go back, No-See. Both dead,” he commanded with a false sadness, trotting away. “Humans did this, no can risk taking them back.” Fanta Nummies called out to them, still at your side. “Nuh! Nuh! Stiww wakies!” You heard thundering footsteps tromp back towards you. “No, idiot. DEAD. Weave them here,” Fast Hoofsie demanded. You chirped, just a small chirp, to let him know you were alive. “See? Huggeh… h-hewp fow fwuffee!” Fanta droned out slowly. A horrible crack and a muffled screech filled your hear-places. “I said… weave them. Go.” the Smarty demanded. Fanta Nummies sputtered, walking away as he sobbed. You cracked your see-places open again to see Fast Hoofsie staring at you. He was glaring at you with an emotion you couldn’t identify, a muddled mixture of regret and determination. Neither of you said anything for a long forever. You extended a hoofsie, begging for help. You couldn’t leave your mummah alone. You couldn’t fail your daddeh. Not like this. He shook his head and turned away. “Sowwy,” was all he could say as he walked back down the path.
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