Sunny Gardens: Poison Pill

By the time night had fallen on the day of their birth, they were already beginning to speak, broken, squeaky bursts of 'wuv' and 'huggies'.  Your first instinct was to stay overnight, but the new parents assured you they were okay.

A couple of days later, something happened that you weren't warned about: Berry named them.  The blue foal became Blue, and the yellow foal became Yellow.  Okay, so she wouldn't score many points for creativity, but you've never known a fluffy mother that named their kids before.

Blue is a feisty little colt, already stumbling around and chanting his name.  Over and over, you watch as he expends his energy, then falls down in a clump near his mother to sleep.  Yellow, on the other hand, is a sleepy, quiet foal, content to remain near her parents during her waking moments.  You noted to Sarah over the phone that Yellow's coloration seemed familiar, and now you know why: that pony show is on, and she looks exactly like that one pegasus.  In fact, she seems to act just like her, too.

For her part, Berry is as content as you've seen her.  She spends all her time playing and cooing and talking to her foals.  Lightning is seeing to them when Berry rests, carefully using his legs to put them on her belly so they can suckle when she's asleep.

The next time the phone rings, however, the other side of this whole venture snapped you out of your good mood.  For the next two hours, you field calls from potential buyers, wanting to know the colors of the foals.  The only interruption to this parade is the arrival of your sister.  Since you're in the middle of a call, she just waves and walks over to the pen.

The foals, of course, go over to greet her.

“Pway?” Yellow asks quietly.  Blue is a bit more direct.

“Pway Bwue!  Pway Bwue!”

“No wou', Bwue!” Berry scolds him.

“Pway!”

A grumpy Berry waddles over and pokes him with her nose before looking up at your sister.  “Sowwy Sawah, Bwue wuv pway.”

“I see that,” she smirks.  She reaches down and picks up Yellow, who begins to wheeze with fright, her wings fluttering slowly.

“Pwease mumma?” she says, barely audible from your position at the desk.

“Calm down, I'm just looking at you.”

“Pwease mumma...”

“No cwy, Yewwa!  Sawah fwiend, wuv babehs!”

“Pwease mumma,” Yellow sniffles again, despite clinging to Sarah's hand.  She puts her back into the pen about the same time you're finished talking to the buyer.

“Christ, I thought he'd never shut up.”

“What did he offer?”

“$800 for Blue, and $1,500 for Yellow...uh, by the way, Berry named them.”

Sarah looks down at the pink alicorn and shrugs lightly.  “I figured she would, Walter mentioned them doing that sort of thing.”

“You forgot to tell me.  It just makes things even...weirder.”

Blue tries to play with Yellow, but she has none of it and retreats behind her father.  Berry giggles at their antics, but Lightning detects that something is off and looks up at Sarah.

“Sawah...okay?”

“Hell of a profit margin on these things,” she mumbles, walking abruptly over to you.  “How are you getting along with them?”

“Oh, I'm not really doing much at all,” you reply, pulling on your watch cap.  “I just feed them and give them water, and they take care of the parenting themselves.  It's amazing to see how competent they are.”

Sarah nods idly.  “If it weren't for the fluff and the shape, I'd say they weren't even fluffy ponies at all.”

You blink at her when she says that.  She sits down on the edge of the desk, looking over at the pen.

“What do you think, Lucy?”

“Huh?  What do you mean?”

“About this little...idea of mine.”

You cast your gaze over to the pen as well, where Lightning is showing Yellow how to use the litterbox.

“Goo' poopies,” the tiny foal repeats slowly.

“I already told you.  They're so much like little people.  It's really awkward.”

A few very quiet moments pass, so quiet that Berry looks back at the both of you and asks what's going on.  You just wave at her to reassure her that everything is okay, and she goes back to playing with Blue.

“I think it only hit me when they had to...you know.  With that runt.”

Your smile runs away in an instant.  “Yeah...”

“I think I'm beginning to see your point.  You can talk to these things.  They have feelings.”

“All fluffy ponies have feelings, Sarah.”

She folds her arms.  “No, regular ones have reactions.”

You open your mouth to disagree, but decide not to push this particular point of the conversation.  “What do you think we should do, then?”

“There is product to sell, and I intend to sell it.”

You frown powerfully.  Sarah glances back at you; as she does, the corner of her lip curls up.  “I didn't say I was going to make any more product, though.”

You nod at her.  “What about Berry?”

She hears her name and looks back again, trying to balance the motion of her turn against keeping her hungry foals secure on her belly.  “Wucy caww Bewwy?”

“No, Berry, we're just talking about you, don't worry.”

“Okay!” she chirps, tumbling onto her back and hugging Lightning as he wanders over.

“To answer your question, I'm not sure,” Sarah says, her eyes becoming rather chilly.  “I'm beginning to like the idea about as much as you do, but I promised foals, and I have to deliver them.”

“That'll break her heart!” you whisper harshly.

“It can't be helped now.”

You fold your arms and make your best grumpy face, looking over at the happy family.  You're glad Sarah finally agrees with you, but miffed that she can't fix this.  You're beginning to get attached to...wait a second.

“Can't I buy them?” you blurt out.

“What would you do with them?  They scare regular fluffies.”

Now you're probably pouting, but you don't care.  “I could run an alicorn shelter...anything so they can stay together.  They don't deserve losing their babies, even if it is for the last time.”  Thinking of such a scene makes you a little sniffly, so you rummage in the tall drawer for tissues.  As you wipe your cheek, you suddenly remember something.

“You never explained that blood to me.”

Sarah jumps a little when you speak.  “What blood?”

“You know, a couple of weeks ago.  What happened?”

“Tiffany happened.”

“She hurt you?!” you yelp, standing up.  Berry and Lightning are terrified at your tone, and hide their crying babies.

“Sit down, she didn't hurt me.”

It takes a few minutes for the alicorn family to calm down and lose their focus on you before you're willing to speak again.  “Then what?”

“Remember that alicorn I gave her?”

You swallow hard, not even wishing to think what happened to that poor thing.  “Yes.”

“Have you ever heard a fluffy pony beg for death?”

You feel a bit lightheaded, and take off your watch cap.  “Yes, when they were hurt very badly.”

“I heard a perfectly healthy one ask for it,” Sarah sighs, turning around more to face you.

You stare at her blankly.  “...what did Tiffany do?”

“Who knows.  She beat the hell out of her while I was there.  That's probably where the blood came from.”

“Why didn't you stop her?” you hiss, trying not to attract any attention from the fluffy family.

“Insane chick with a bat?  No thanks.  Anyway...” Sarah trails off, looking a little sheepish.  “I'm regretting it now.  I just want to wrap this up as cleanly as possible.”

There is another awkward silence, filled only by the quiet sounds of Lightning and Berry playing with the red ball while their foals rest in the blankets.

“I'd better be getting back,” Sarah says abruptly, standing up.

“Um...right.  See you later, then?”

“Right.”

You watch as she walks out, a tiny smile returning to your face.

“Progress!” you say lowly to yourself.

The phone rings shortly afterward.  The rest of your day is split between talking to potential buyers and seeing after your fuzzy charges, although you eventually get so sick of the former that you begin referring them to Sarah.  When the sun sets, you begin folding the huge quilt back into a square so the family can sleep together overnight.

“Be good fluffies while I'm gone, okay?”

“Be goo'!  Wuv babehs an' gif nummies an' huggies!” Berry chirps.

Lightning doesn't reply, but you're too busy dealing with the unwieldy blanket to notice at first.  Only when he waddles away from, looking toward the front of the store, do you start to pay him any mind.

“What's wrong, Lightning?”

“New fwiend?” he asks randomly.

Oh, there must be someone outside; he tends to say that when people walk past.  “No, Lightning, just someone passing by.”

“Fwiend comin'.  Hewwo new fwiend!”

By this time, your whole upper body is covered in blanket, and you can't see what's going on.  “Sorry, I'm about to close up...if you're here about the alicorns, could you come back tomorrow?” you say, muffled by the fabric.

“Heh...I won't be long.”

You drop the quilt outright and look up.  Across from you, looking down at the alicorns, is Tiffany.

“New fwiend fo' Wightnin' an' Bewwy?” he asks, leaning up on the mesh side.  Berry, currently feeding her brood, can do little more than wave.

“Wook, babehs!  New fwiend!”

“Pway!” Blue demands, with his mouth full of nipple.  Yellow is too busy eating to even look back.

She reaches down and tousles Lightning's mane for a second before turning her attention to the foals.  “Aren't they just...precious.”

While her voice might be smooth and gentle, even you can tell that she seems mad about something.  She takes a few slow steps to close the distance between herself and Berry.

“Can I play with your babies?”

“Babehs nummies now, no can pway,” Berry replies with a smile. She notices that you are uneasy and blinks.  “Wucy okay?”

Tiffany ignores Berry and scoops Yellow right off of her belly fluff, cradling her in her left hand.  Yellow protests with squeaks and chirps and calls of 'hewp!'

“New fwiend, pwease gif babeh.  Babeh no wike high pwace,” Lightning says, walking over to her.

“Mumma...” Yellow whines, hugging Tiffany's hand despite her fear.

“Wh-what are you doing here?” you finally manage to say.

Tiffany ignores you too, gazing quietly at Yellow as she cries.  The foal is so afraid, she begins to piss herself, but your cousin hardly seems to notice.

“Babeh no mean make peepee on new fwiend!” Bewwy explains frantically.  “Gif babeh, cwean babeh, make betta!  Sowwy!”

“Pwease mumma,” Yellow wheezes with terror.

“No huwt babeh,” Lightning blurts out, realizing the mood has drastically shifted.  “New fwiend nice, no huwt.  Mumma and Wightnin' wuv babeh, pwease gif?  No wan' babeh haf owwies.  Babeh goo', new fwiend can pway wif babeh if gif!”

A smile creeps across her face as Lightning begins to bargain.  After a few seconds, she sets the sobbing Yellow down on Berry's stomach again.

“Fank you fwiend!” she babbles happily.  “New fwiend nice, wuv new fwiend!  Gif huggies when babehs sweepin'!”

Tiffany walks past you to your desk, snatches a sheet of paper out of the printer, and gets a pen from the cup on top.  She scribbles something down on it and then holds it out to you; you only take it after an awkward moment.  It has two phone numbers on it.

“Call me when they're ready to wean.”

Berry hears that word and begins to freak out.  “Nuuuuu!  Bewwy wan' haf babehs!  Wuv babehs!  No take babehs!  Pwease no take!”  The foals on her belly, jostled by her movements, begin to wail and screech.  Lightning rushes over to try and calm her down, but Tiffany beats him there.

“If I take the babies...you can go with me.  How does that sound?”

“Bewwy...go wif babehs?  No take babehs 'gain?” she asks hesitantly.

“Yep.  You can be a happy little family, and I'll be your mommy.”

“No!  Tiffany is bad!  She...she gives owwies!” you yell.

“Nuuuuu!  No huwt babehs!” Berry wails.  Tiffany glares at you icily.
“I'm not the one that wants to take your babies away,” she says, looking down at the parents.

“I don't want to either!”

Berry and Lightning, confused, look between the both of you.

“No suwe,” the latter says, trying to calm down the terrified children.

“Just keep me in mind, Luce...besides, if they go with me...” she says, trailing off and coming to a stop beside you.  With a smile that makes your blood freeze, she whispers the end of her sentence.

“...at least they'll die together.”