Listen to Smarty 14

>You are Listen, a Smarty Friend
"Emma am Mint speshal fwiend!"
>And right now, you're trying to not deal with that
>Mint, a white earth stallion with a green mane, blows a raspberry at Emma, a light blue earth mare with a yellow mane
"Nu! Mint am Anna speshal fwiend! Dummy Emma gu way!"
>Anna, a blue earth mare with an orange mane, looks up from her nearby grazing spot and rolls her eyes
"Anna nu am Mint speshal fwiend. Dummy Mint be Sissy speshal fwiend, weabe Anna awone."
>And so on and so forth, just like always: Emma wants Mint, Mint wants Anna, and Anna doesn't want anyone; since Twig's meanie herd got them both pregnant a couple of bright times ago, they've been fighting more and more
"Mint nu wan dummy wight blue mawe! Wan pwetty bwue mawe, wan be Emma speshal fwiend!"
"Emma am wight bwue mawe."
"Weawwy?"
"Dummy."
"Nu tawk 'bout Emma speshal fwiend dat way!"
>The fact that Mint can't keep their names straight just makes it that much more sad
>Trying to tune out their dummy argument, you shift a little in your spot as you scan the horizon, trying not to disturb Heartstrings, who is sleeping next to you, or her babbehs, currently napping on your back; your herd is currently grazing in an open field in between the long black thing and a lake, which means you have to be extra diligent in watching for munstas
>There is a large group of bushes on the other side of the long black thing which would be good for hiding in, but besides your fear of metal munstas, they also are far too close to a large hooman house which part of the long black thing breaks off and heads towards; you can see a few more houses in the distance, though they are very spread out
>The sight is quite disheartening, you've travelled so far from the city and the forest, but you still keep running into hooman land and the long black thing seems to stretch on forever
>You look at your herd, spread out across the grass: most of the mares are busily eating, preparing for their future babbehs, while the stallions are split between filling their own stomachs and stuffing extra food into their special friends; most of the trauma from meanie herd has started to fade as excitement over the idea of new babbehs
>The large number of soon-mummas has kept Greenie very busy, making sure they're all feeling good and eating enough; she's so busy with the soon-mummas that she's had to get Roxanne and Lady to watch over Sweetie and Princess, both of whom have gotten too big to move
"Pwincess wan' sketties!"
"Buh speshal fwiend, nu hab sketties."
>Princess wiggles her legs angrily at a fearful looking Sky, trying to smack him but far too bloated to move
"Why Sky su dummy! Pwincess nee' bes' nummies fo' bes babbehs! Dummy speshal fwiend gif sketties!"
>Sky shuffles off, searching the grass for the mythical sketties; you shake your head, Princess has been meaner then ever since she swelled up, though she only takes her bad attitude out on Sky and her new attendant
>Speaking of whom, you spy Lady a little ways away, talking to Rover
"Pwease, Wobew, Wady nu wan' be ahtendunt. Gif Wobew speshal huggies if be Pwincess ahtendunt instehd."
>Rover just giggles, boops Lady on the nose softly, and runs off, his special friend Blackie in hot pursuit
"Yuu it!"
"DUMMY WADY CUM CWEAN PWINCESS POOPIES!"
>Lady sighs and sadly waddles towards Princess; you feel a bit bad for her, but Princess has gotten too big for Sky to move and take care of on his own, Lady's just going to have to deal with it until the babbehs are born
>You idly nibble on some grass in front of you, the thought of more babbehs fills you with dread, you've been moving so slow ever because of two mummas and their babbehs, having to be so careful making sure they get enough food and rest; will you be able to take care of more than you can count?
>You notice Barney grazing with his foals, excitedly teaching his babbehs how to eat grass for the first time: at least you won't have to worry about finding their momma extra food to keep them fed
>You still can't help but worry, though: once the soon-mummas who received bad hugs become mummas, you won't have enough stallions and attendants to keep moving at a good pace; you'll be slow and might not find the end of the long black thing before the  Cold White time, and then...
>You shudder at the thought: you can't keep the herd moving that long, can't be out in the open when the leaves all fall off and the wind becomes so cold; have to find somewhere safe before the soon-mummas give birth, gather food to last through the Cold White time; then you can take the remaining herd-
"SMAWTY FWIEND!"
>You are snapped out of your thought process by the sound of Moss yelling; you look up to see the excited mare running full speed at you, with bits of green nummies sticking out her grey fluff
>She manages to get within a couple of feet of you before tripping, sliding across the ground the remaining distance, eliciting a small "owwies" from her; the noise wakes the napping foals on your back, causing you to glower at the clumsy mare
"Moss, nu be so woud! Heawtswings an' babbehs nee' sweepies!"
>Moss slaps her front hooves to her mouth, giving a terrified look at the still sleeping Heartstrings; she then whispers softly to you
"Sowwy Smawty Fwiend, Moss nu mean wake babbehs. Moss jus' wan gib Smawty an' Heawtstwings pwetty cwoba nummies Moss foun'."
>You sigh a little as you shift the wailing foals off your back and into your forelegs, trying to calm them with soft huggies
"Moss guud fwiend tu Heawtstwings, buh nee' wemembah be quiet. Smawty mek sure Heawtswtings eat guud cwoba nummies, Moss gu eat now."
>Moss happily shakes the clovers out of her fluff and gathers them in a small pile in front of you and Heartstrings
"Hewe nummies, Heawtstwings. Moss hope Heawtstwings feew betta suun."
>You watch Moss go bounding off, probably off to find more nummies to share; she's a good fluffy, even if she sometimes causes you a bit of grief
>You try to quiet the babbehs, but to no avail; they're too upset and want their momma
>Heartstrings begins to stir next to you
"…Babbehs? …babbehs… nee' milkies?… Mumma… mumma gib…"
>Heartstrings tries to stand, but her legs don't seem to want to work; You stand up and roll Heartstrings on her side, eliciting small whines from her, then gently place her foals on her teats
>The babbehs hungrily suckle their mother's milk, causing her obvious pain; Heartstring tries to stay quiet, but a few painful moans escape her lips
>You push the clover pile closer to Heartstrings' face with your nose
"Moss being Heawtstwings guud nummies, shuwd eat now."
"…Tank *owwies* yuu… Smawty *owwies*…. Fwiend…"
>You watch as Heartstrings weakly cranes her neck and begins slowly nibbling on the clovers
>She's not getting any better
>Ever since the almost Scaredy Fit, Heartstrings has been in near constant pain: she can't move, can barely stay awake, and even the slightest touch causes her great discomfort
>You'd ask Peach or Purple to share their milk, but they need as much as possible for their own foals and are beginning to run dry as their babbehs have gotten bigger; you might be able to convince Sweetie or Princess to share if their litters are small, but until then, Heartstrings has no choice but to try and bare the pain
>After eating their fill, the babbehs begin chirping again, desiring the warm safety of their momma's hugs; Heartstrings slowly tries to wrap her legs around her tiny foals
>Suddenly, the yellow filly begins wailing: Heartstrings has accidentally touched her bad leg; Heartstrings quickly releases the foals, causing them to drop on the grass and begin wailing again
>Heartstrings begins crying
"*hu hu* Mumma sowwy… babbehs *hu huu* Mumma… su sowwy….*hu hu huu*"
>You can't put if off any longer; you've tried waiting, hoping that everything would get better, but it's only causing the momma and the babbeh more pain
>You have to be a Smarty
"Heawtstwings, Smawty mek babbeh nu hab owwies no mo'."
>Heartstrings begins sobbing harder and tries to grab both her foals; you gently pick the yellow filly up by the scruff of her neck, eliciting terrified chirps from both her and her sister
>You slowly walk away from Heartstrings, leaving her to sadly hug her remaining foal; you spy Greenie from across the field, who looks sadly at you
>You nod and the two of you begin heading away from the rest of the herd, preparing to do what is necessary
---
>You are Listen, a fluffy babbeh
>You live in the alley with your momma, your sissy Look, and your herd, who are all good fluffies
>Right now, you're wandering around your herd's safe place, looking for something to chew on; your teeth are coming in, which Momma says means you're becoming a big fluffy
>You're excited about being a big fluffy and eating big fluffy nummies, but right now your mouth hurts sooo baaaaddd
>Look got mad a you when you tried to chew on her tail, calling you a meanie fluffy, so now you're looking for something else to chew on, preferably something less whiny
>Searching up and down the alley, you see a shiny circle behind the big icky nummie can; Momma always told you never to go past the icky nummie can, but you're almost a big fluffy now, surely it's okay!
>You squeeze behind the can and look at the pretty shiny: it's very round and flat, with a picture of weird looking creature on it
>You pick it up with your mouth and begin chewing on it: it's very hard and tastes funny, but it eases the pain in your mouth, so you keep gnawing on it
>As you keep biting on the round shiny, you notice some movement beyond the can; you peek your head out to see what it is
>The large red body of the Smarty Friend passes by you, his short pink mane looking as messy as ever, carrying something yellow in his mouth; behind him waddles your pink and brown friend, Slugger, who struggles to keep up with the Smarty's pace
>Not sure if you should come out, it seems ok for Slugger to go out past the icky nummie can so you might not get in trouble, but Slugger is bigger then you and you really don't want the Smarty to be mad at you, he's super scary when he yells at fluffies
>The Smarty places the yellow thing on the ground, causing it to begin chirping: it's a babbeh!
>Slugger goes to give the upset foal huggies, like a good bab- big fluffy, but the Smarty puts his hoof in the way, stopping Slugger from reaching the poor babbeh
>The Smarty looks down at Slugger, a stern expression on his face
"Huggies nu hewp dis babbeh. Babbeh hab inside-owwies, nu dwink miwk, spit up boo-boo juice."
>You feel your brow furrow at the confusing statement: owwies that huggies can't help? How can that be?
>Slugger seems to share your disbelief
"Buh huggies fix evewyting!"
>The Smarty shakes his head
"Huggies nu fix owwies. Huggies mek saddies fwom owwies gu way, buh nu can fix owwies."
>This causes you to stop teething and frown: you know the Smarty is the smartest fluffy ever, but what he's saying just feels off; everyone knows huggies make everything better, how can such a smart fluffy say something so obvious is wrong?
"Buh if huggies nu fix, den how Swugga fix babbeh's owwies?
"Widdle owwies geh betta if fwuffies jus' eat guud nummies an' geh wossa sweepies, buh for big owwies wike babbeh's inside-owwies, onwy Smawty can fix."
"Why can onwy Smawty fix big owwies?"
>The Smarty shifts his gaze away from Slugger and back towards the babbeh
"Because onwy Smawty smawt enuff tu du wat need tu. Wemembah, Swugga:"
>The Smarty lifts his hoof high
"A Smawty mus' be cwuew."
>The Smarty slams his giant hoof on the babbeh, resulting in a sickening crunch and a spurt of boo-boo juice
>You scream and dash back towards the safe place; you don't care if the Smarty notices you, you just want to get away from that awful fluffy as fast as you possibly can
>You dash straight for the safety of your momma's fluff, burying yourself as deep as you can in her warm embrace; when she asks about what has gotten you so upset, all you can do is sob incoherently, unable to put into words the terrible scene you just witnessed
>As your eyes pour sad wa-was into your momma's soft fluff, the Smarty's terrible words still echo in your ears
>A Smarty must be cruel
---
>You are Listen, a Smarty Friend
>In a patch of grass a good deal away from the herd, you and Greenie both stare at Heartstring's yellow foal, currently being held gently in Greenie's front leggies
>The little unicorn babbeh stares at you while gurgling happily at you, her little leggies spread out as far as they can, like she's trying to hug the whole world; her bad back leg is kept close to her body, if anything it looks worse then when she was born
>You sigh
"Shuld hab dun dis befo' babbeh open eyes."
>Greenie looks at you, her pretty orange eyes seem so sad
"Smawty, pwease nu gib babbeh owwies. Babbeh guud babbeh, jus' nee' nummies an' sweepies"
>You shake your head
"Babbeh nu ge' bettah, owwies tuu big. Nee' gib babbeh owwies now, ow babbeh hab biggest owwies an' big sweepies. Gweenie nuu Smawty hab tu."
>Greenie lowers her gaze towards the babbeh, who continues to babble nonsense without a care in the world
"Gweenie nuu, buh stiww nu wan'."
>You press your forehead against Greenie's, trying to be reassuring
"Gweenie nee' be tuffy, ow nu can hewp babbeh."
>Greenie's had babbehs before, babbehs who got very big owwies that made them have big sleepies; she knows you're right, but accepting it never comes easy to her
>She takes a deep breath and hugs the babbeh tightly, almost smothering the babbeh's head in her fluff while leaving it's back legs dangling freely
>You wrap your teeth around the foal's bad leg; she squirms from the pain, but Greenie's hug keeps her from moving to much
>You bite down
>The foal's shrieks of pain are muffled by Greenie's fluff; the awful taste of boo-boo juice floods your mouth, but you ignore it and begin licking the babbeh's stump, trying to stop it from leaking too much  boo-boo juice
>After several licks, the icky red wa-wa finally stops flowing; you're relieved to hear the babbeh sobbing, having not lost enough boo-boo juice to cause big sleep
>The babbeh won't be happy for a while, and may be scared of you and Greenie since she saw you both before the owwies, but at least her leg won't cause her any more owwies; you don't know if she'll be able to walk with only three leggies, but you know from experience she'd never get the chance with a leg that bad
>Need to get the-
>Your ear twitches
>You stop moving and look around: you can hear a faint noise, it's not very loud and sounds like it's coming from far away, but you can't see whatever is making it
>It seems familiar, though, but you can't quite-
>You hear it again and your eyes go wide
>You look up
"AWW FWUFFIES GE' TU BUSHIES! NOW!!!"
---
>You are Blackie, a feral fluffy pony
>You've been having a lot of fun this bright time: you've gotten to play with your special friend Rover a lot and that's the best thing ever
>But now the Smarty is yelling at everyone, which means fun time is over; fluffies who don't listen to the Smarty get called bad fluffies, and bad fluffies don't can't sleep in the fluffpile or get huggies
>You start running towards the bushes; you'll have to cross the long, black thing, which is scary, but as long as you're with Rover…
>Huh, where's Rover?
>You stop running and look around, trying to find your special friend: Rover's really fun and nice, but he gets confused and forgets things a lot; you have to watch out for him so that the Smarty doesn't get mad at him too much
>You spy Rover over by Heartstrings, helping the Smarty push the poor mumma towards the bushes; it makes you happy to see that Rover is being such a good fluffy, but it looks like pushing Heartstrings is hurting her, which keeps making Rover stop and try to hug her instead
>You start to run over to go help: the Smarty looks like he's getting more and more angry with Rover, not seeming to appreciate your special friend's help; you'd better get over there and help before Rover becomes a bad fluffy
>Your back explodes in pain
>Screaming at the top of your lungs, you feel yourself make scaredy poopies; you can't even open your eyes, it hurts so bad
>The rest of you feels weird, though, strangely light…
>You slowly open your eyes and are stunned
>You're flying
>For your entire life, you've accepted that you'd never fly, but here you are flying!
>It's so exciting, you almost forget about the pain in your back; it must be from your wingies working so hard to keep you flying
>Such good wingies, you'd give them huggies if you could reach them
>You look down at the ground, which keeps getting farther away: you see something small and blue running after you
>Looking closer, you realize that it's Rover! He's chasing after you, but his wingies still don't work
"Dun wowwy, Wobew, Bwackie fwy down tu yuu! Wingies, pwease take Bwackie bak tu speshal fwiend."
>Despite asking as nice as you can, your wingies keep taking you farther and farther away from Rover
"Nuu, wan gu down! Pwease wingies, nu be meanies, nu wan fwy nu mo', wan be wiff Wobew!"
>The awful wingies just keep taking you higher and farther away, you can't even see Rover anymore; you've always wanted to fly, and now that you can it's taken everything you loved away from you
>You begin to cry
---
>You are Listen again
>You are currently sitting in your herd's fluffpile, underneath the bushes across from the long black thing; the glowy sky ball has begun to head home, the orange and red sky peaking through the leaves above you
>It's unsafe to rest so close to a hooman home, but with birdy-munstas out there you dare not try moving the herd
>On your right lies Heartstrings, your other herd mates being careful not to touch her; she is quietly sobbing, partly from the pain from her inside-owwies, partly from sadness about her babbeh
>Curled in her embrace are her two foals: the yellow babbeh is still very weak and miserable, but the pain in her leg seems to be gone; the brown pegasus cuddles her sister and mother, trying hug away all their problems
>Clinging to your left is Rover, having finally fallen to sleep: you were barely able to catch him after the birdy-munsta took off with Blackie; he was so distraught as you dragged him back to the safety of bushes
"Pwease cum bak, speshal fwiend! Wobew nu can wemembew… nu smawt enuff…"
>You've always known Rover is dumb, that his memory is poor, that Blackie would constantly remind him of what he should be doing so you wouldn't get mad at him; but you didn't know that Rover understood that
"Pwease, fwiend, Wobew nu wan fowge' speshal fwiend…"
>You feel Rover stir next to you; he looks up at you with a confused look on his face, the fluff around his eyes still stained with tears
"Fwiend, why Wobew face wet?"
>Reaching out with your front hoof, you gently rub Rover's head and give him a weak smile
"It otay, Wobew jus' hab bad dweam. Gu bak tu sweep."
>As Rover settles back into the pile, you stare off into the distance, down the long, winding black thing; you can see dark clouds off in the horizon, and you can hear the faint rumble of the clouds fighting
>When you were a foal, you didn't understand the Meanie Friend: he was always so mean and nasty to everyone, you never understood why he couldn't be nice and kind like the rest of the herd
>After becoming Smarty Friend yourself, you feel like you understand him better now
>A Smarty must be cruel, so that the herd can survive
>Because the world is far crueler