Listen to Smarty 12

"-awty Fwiend! Smawty Fwiend! Pwease nu sweepie!"
>You are Listen, a Smarty Friend
>You're head aches as you slowly regain consciousness; you can barely hear yourself think over the terrible ringing in your ears
>Trying to get back on your feet, you stumble a bit and are caught by a pair of pink hooves belonging to Freddy; you realize he is trying to talk to you, but you can barely understand the panicked pegasus
>You try to pull yourself together, try to recall what happened; your mind is filled with jumbled of pictures and sounds, nothing fits together or make any sense
"Smawty otay? Fweddy scawedy dat Twig an' meanie fwuffy gif yuu biggest owwies."
>It all comes back to you
>The safe place, the raiders
>TWIG
>Your teeth clench as you remember her: her hoof slamming down upon you, her mocking tone rising above the ringing in your ears
"Wooks wike Smawty nu su smawt aftew aww."
"Whewe Twig?"
>Freddy mumbles something, too panicked to speak; you begin to growl, frustrated with his weakness
"WHEWE TWIG?!"
"Twig nu hewe."
>You snap your head around to find yourself face-to-face with Cinder
"Whewe Twig gu?!"
"Fweddy an' Cindew chase Twig off afta she gib Smawty owwie-sweepies. Twig an' waidews den wun off into fowest, nu could fowwow."
>Freddy looks at the ground sadly
"Waidews take wossa fwiends."
>Turning your attention to the herd, you try to assess the damage: many of your stallions are crying, either from owwies or loss; there are several fluffies laying down on the field, not moving at all, but you can't make out if any are yours
>The mares on the other hand, have been decimated: only Sweetie, Ice, and Greenie remain
>You notice that Greenie is hugging two foals tightly, as if letting go would make them disappear: one you recognize as Licorice, the other is Purple's dark blue and grayish blue unicorn colt (you think his name is Giggle?); you don't see any other foals
>You make your way down to the battlefield, trying to identify the big sleeping fluffies: though their scents are somewhat masked by the smell of boo-boo juice, from what you can sniff out and judging by their unfamiliar colors, you don't think any of them were from your herd
>It seems strange to you that despite the raider's successful sneak attack, none of your herd perished; before you can consider this further, however, your herd mates surround you, having noticed you are awake, and start bombarding you with complaints
"Sky nu can fin' speshal fwiend!" "Mint hab owwies…" "Babbehs nee' mummahs!!" "Twig meanie fwuffy, nu wike."
>Your ears twitch violently as you try to speak to the herd, but you can't get a word in edge wise with all your fluffies so focused on whining at you
>Their stupid, idiotic whining
"Why Smawty nu hewp hewd?!"
>You whip your head around towards your accuser, finding yourself glaring straight at Raindrop
"Shut. Up."
>Your herd immediately becomes silent, several even backing up several steps; Raindrop tries to hide behind Mint, withering under your hate-filled gaze
>Cowards
>Letting out a low growl to get the fluffies standing before you to part, you make your way out of the herd circle; you've got to many important things to think about to waste your time with your dummy herd
>You scan the surrounding forest, looking for any sign of Twig's herd, listening for any cry of your mares, but there's nothing, not a single trace
>Twig's herd is long gone and you'll never see your herd mares again
>The herd will move faster, at least, and without foals to look out for, there might be enough nummies for everyone to eat their fill
>Such thoughts give little comfort; your herd is broken and it's all your fault
>All because you COULDN'T-
"Smawty Fwiend?"
>You don't bother turning around
"Wha' Ice wan'?"
"Nu nuu wha du wit meanie fwuffy. Wha Smawty wan du?"
>Meanie fluffy? What is she-
>You feel your eyes go wide as you realize something important
>A raider
>Your herd has one of the raiders
>You turn around to face Ice; if you have one of Twig's herd...
"Shuw meanie fwuffy tu Smawty."
>Ice leads you back towards the herd, filling you in with the events leading up to your owwie-sleep; apparently while you were in the hide-hole, Cinder noticed several fluffies he didn't recognize mixed in with your herd, some of whom were leading groups of mares away from the rest of the herd; when he told them to get back with the rest of the herd, they started trying to give owwies to everyone and dragging off mares into the woods
>Apparently, the fluffy you hold captive actually tried to give Ice special huggies in the middle of the herd brawl, only to receive a buck in the no-nos; after the raiders ran off, Ice and the others beat the meanie into submission, waiting for your approval before giving him biggest owwies
>You find your prisoner being sat upon by Sliugger, the raider desperately struggling to free himself from being pinned underneath your large herd mate's weight
"Dummy fwuffy ge' offa Ugwy! Ugwy wan' speshal huggies!"
>While most of Ugly, which you guess is your prisoner's name, is hidden under Slugger's bulk, you can from his head and tail that he isn't very clean: his purple fluff is very dirty and full of knots, while his mustard tail is covered in dried poop; his purple horn, sticking out of his messy mane, is chipped at the end, which may be why he hasn't tried to shoot any sparks yet
>Judging by his name and appearance, Ugly was probably his herd's Bad Fluffy: a fluffy who does bad things and refuses to be good or clean or brave to make up for them; he reminds you a lot of Bad Fluffy Sharp, who refused to clean himself or help the herd, but then get angry at everyone else when they wouldn't groom him or let him sleep in the fluff pile
>Ugly notices you and Ice and begins shouting at the both of you
"Dummy fwuffies wet Ugwy gu! An' dummy mawe gif Ugwy speshal huggies now!"
>Ice blows a raspberry at Ugly, causing him to start ranting about how much he deserves special hugs
>Uninterested in listening to Ugly's selfish wants, you walk up to the restrained stallion and slam your hoof hard on his nose, pinning his mouth closed; he whimpers as a small amount of boo-boo juice trickles out of his nose
"Dummy Ugwy be quiet ow Wissen mek hewd gif dummy Ugwy biggest owwies. Unnastan?"
>Ugly weakly nods his head and you can smell the faint scent of urine coming from underneath Slugger, who grumpily shifts his body to try and touch less of your disgusting prisoner
"Ugwy waidew?"
>Ugly looks at you meekly but says nothing; you growl at him
"Ugwy twy waid hewd?!"
>He still says nothing; you smack his head with your hoof
"Ugwy tek Wissen hewd mawes?!!"
>Ugly begins to sob softly again but still refuses to-
>Oh
"Ugwy can tawk if Wissen ask qwesshon."
>Ugly mumbles into the dirt as he continues to sob
"Fwuffy nu wan take Wissen mawes, Smawty say Ugwy take mawes ow geh biggest owwies. Say if Ugwy bwing bak mawe, Ugwy haf speshal fwiend, finawwy haf speshal huggies!"
"Whu Ugwy Smawty?"
"Smawty meanie fwuffy Twig. Su pwetty, buh nu wet Ugwy speshal huggies! Ugwy- mmph!"
>You press back down on Ugly's nose, shutting him up as you think: Twig was the smarty! That's why she was so good at tricking you! You feel your insides growing hot as you think of her pretending to be nice and dummy while all the while, all so you wouldn't notice your herd being raided until it was too late
"How big Twig hewd?"
>Ugly seems hesitant to answer, his eyes darting around in an attempt not to look at you; you raise your hoof up to smack him, causing your captive to wince and begin babbling
"Twig hewd smaww, nu hab mawes ow mummas, nu hab many stawwions! Twig say hewd nee' babbehs tu be stwong again, nee waid. Buh waid dummy, gif hewd big owwies, nu wet hewd sweep in safe hidey-hole, mek hewd sweep in icky wog insted…
>You feel your lips curl into a mean feeling smile: Twig's herd is weak; that's why her herd couldn't give yours biggest owwies even though your herd mates acted like dummies instead of protecting each other and the mares
>Excitement begins to mix with the hot, painful feeling in your chest; your herd is stronger: you can get the mares back, you can make your herd whole again, you can fix your dummy mistake!
>You can HURT Twig
>All you need is for Ugly to show you the way
"Ugwy show Wissen whewe Twig hewd saf' peace am, ow Wissen gib Ugwy biggest owwies."
>Ugly pupils shrinks and looks like he's about to make scaredy poopies
"NU! Ugwy nu can! Nu fwuffy shuw nu-hewd whewe wog is, ow hewd tek no-nos an gib fowevah sweepies!"
>You consider just beating Ugly until he tells you, but he might go big sleepies before you find out where Twig is; luckily, you know how to get a bad fluffy to do what you want
"Wissen hewd stwong, nu wet Ugwy ge' owwies. Wissen hewd gif Twig hewd owwies, mek dem sowwy dey be meanie tu Ugwy."
>Ugly's eyes go wide at this: you can tell he's beginning to falter, just need to push him a little farther
"If Ugwy shuw Wissen whewe wog am, Wissen hewd mek dummy hewd cwean Ugwy, mek dem mek Ugwy suuu pwetty. Den, wet Ugwy hab speshal huggies."
>Ugly looks at you with happy sad-wawas in his eyes
"U-Ugwy hab speshal huggies? Ugwy be pwetty, hab speshal huggies wif pwetty mawe?"
>You can barely hold back the wicked grin on your face
"Wet Ugwy hab speshal huggies wif pwettiest mawe! Wet Ugwy hab speshal huggies… wif Twig!"
>Ugly squeals with excitement and starts humping the ground he lays on; Slugger finally has enough and practically leaps off the disgusting stallion, who continues to slam his crotch into the pee-soaked dirt
"Ugwy *enf* show fwiend *enf* safe peace! *enf enf* Ugwy shuw meanie hewd, *enf* Ugwy gonna speshal huggies Twig! *enf enf enf*"
>You head back towards the herd, leaving Slugger and Ice to watch Ugly; you doubt he'll try to escape now, though
>Have to get your herd moving: the glowy sky ball is starting to go home now, Ugly might not be able to find his way back in the dark
>Have to get your mares back, make your herd happy again
>Have to fix everything
---
>You are Barney, a fluffy pony
>You are walking with your herd through a forest; no one is speaking, except for Ugly, the meanie fluffy your herd is following
>Your Smarty Friend says that Ugly will show you where meanie Twig took your mares; everyone was happy about getting their special friends back, but now they're getting worried about dealing with Twig's meanie herd
>The Smarty says that Twig's herd is small and weak, that your herd will give them biggest owwies and take the mares back; you're not so sure: if the meanie herd is weak, how did they take your mares?
>You feel very worried: your herd is so small now, what if Twig's herd is bigger now? You could lose all your friends, you could get biggest owwies!
>The Smarty stops moving, causing the rest of the herd to stop; Ugly keeps moving forward for awhile until he realizes no one is following him
>While the Smarty looks around the trees for something, you glance at Slugger: he's your herd's best Toughie, he even managed to keep the raiders from taking his special friend; maybe you could stay close to him so the meanie fluffies can't hurt you?
>Slugger notices you looking at you and glares angrily, causing you to back away and look elsewhere; right, Slugger hasn't liked you since you gave special huggies to his special friend, Sweetie; maybe staying near him wouldn't be such a good idea
>Besides, Slugger might try to run off if the meanie herd is too strong; you left Sweetie behind at the dummy safe place
>Greenie got very upset when the Smarty said everyone was going to get the mares back, said she wouldn't take the babbehs where they could get owwies
>You've never seen the Smarty get so mad at Greenie before: he smacked her nose and called her a dummy, he said that without mummas, the babbehs would get tummy-owwies and go big sleepies
>It was only after Greenie started crying that Smarty told her to give the babbehs to Sweetie, since she was the only soon-mumma left
>You felt bad leaving them behind: one of the foals was your all-black ex-babbeh, Licorice
>The Smarty stops looking around and tells everyone to start moving again; Ugly looks confused but resumes leading, still babbling about what he's going to do after you give his herd owwies
"-den gib Twig mouf huggies, den speshal huggies again, den speshal huggies again, den-"
>You don't like Ugly
>It's not just that he's not pretty or that he's dirty; he acts like special huggies are the only thing in the world: he doesn't care about the mare he has them with or the babbehs he'll make, all he wants is the good feel, not caring about what makes special huggies so special
>Just like you used to
>You stare sadly at the ground as you continue following the herd
>You acted just like Ugly: you didn't care that Peach was so upset and scaredy about the babbehs, you just wanted to play and have special hugs with her
>Raindrop says that its the Smarty's fault bad things keep happening to the herd; that if the Smarty was really smart, the herd would be happy, safe, and clean
>You never said anything, but you know the truth: it's your fault
>You had not-special special huggies with Lady, and then everything went bad
>You lost your special friend, your herd lost its land; you lost two litters of babbehs, and your herd lost all its mares
>All because you didn't love Peach enough
>You look up, eyes stinging with angry sad-wawas
>Somewhere in this forest, a herd of meanie fluffies has your ex-special friend and ex-babbehs
>And you're going to get them back