- > You are Poppy, a light red Pegasus with a black nose.
- > And you have the best special friend ever. A handsome Unicorn stallion named Winter, who’s white with a grey mane.
- > He’s the smarty friend of the herd, and you all live happily in The Rink.
- > Tonight, you are taking some of the fluffies out to the Nummie place to get foodies.
- > Winter is staying in The Rink, though. He has to do smarty things.
- > You don’t know what smarty things are. But they must be important.
- > Maybe tonight you’ll find some of those flat things that taste a bit like sketties!
- > That would make you and the herd happy! They love those!
- > Winter would love it too!
- > This is going to be the best night ever, you can just feel it!
- ----------
- > You are Maroon, the dark red unicorn smarty with a dark red mane
- > and you feel a little better. The feeling has come back to your leg. Most of it at least.
- > It feels tingly when you stand on it too hard.
- > You’re still mad. The throbbing head-hurties haven’t gone away completely.
- > Stompy disposed of your babies.
- > Though…part of you didn’t want him to.
- > Currently, your whole herd is in The Home with you. You just came back from drinking from Little River and eating grassies in Big Field.
- > Tonight, you’re all going to The Rink.
- > They roll around, chatter, and play.
- > That stops now.
- > You hop on a small box, raise your left front hoof. It hurts, but you don’t cry. Real smarties never cry.
- > “Hewd!” you shout. They all turn to you, silent. A few foals are being hushed by their mummas.
- > “Yoo awe aww guud fwuffies!” you begin. You wait a moment. Their faces light up at the praise.
- > “aww guud fwuffies shouwd hav foodies and wawm tings! Yoo aww shouwd hav dem too!”
- > “but fwuffies in da Wink, dey bad fwuffies! Dey hav foodies and wawm tings, but dey take dem fwom us! Dey hav sketties and no shawe wit us!”
- > Every fluffy is paying close attention now, thinking of stolen sketties, you believe.
- > “without foodies, sketties and soft tings, hewd no wive troo snow-time! Foaws sweep fowevew beside sad fwuffy mummas! Stwong stawwions become weak! Pwetty mawes wose fwuff! No cowts, no fiwwies, no hewd!”
- > You stop talking for a moment. You can see that they are all angry or scared for their babies.
- > Good.
- > “…and no fwends!”
- > They all gasp, some cry.
- > “If yoo wan fwends, guud babbehs, guud nummies, and wawm pwace fow snow-time, we must giv Wink hewd biggest owwies! Make evewy wingie and eawthie sweep fowevew! Den Mawoon pwomise, hewd be safe fwom munstas and happy!”
- > There is a stomp. And another. And yet another. Soon, the whole herd, from the biggest stallion to the smallest foal is stomping their hoofs.
- > “evewy cowt, stawwion, and mawe wit no babbehs must giv biggest owwies! Wemembew da wules! No wingies, no eawthies! FOW DA HERD!”
- > “DA HEWD!” they echo. The stomping sounds just like the head-hurties.
- > You’ll have bad head-hurties again before the night is over.
- > And The Rink
- ----------
- > You are Sparks, and you are worried.
- > You’re currently following Maroon with the majority of the herd- those who are old enough and don’t have babies.
- > What worries you the most is that Cuddles has to come along too.
- > You don’t like that. You don’t want her to get owwies.
- > You also don’t want owwies, you don’t want give them either.
- > But you know you have to, you have to stay and protect her, Sunny, Brownie and Scout.
- > You promised Thor. So, you have to be brave.
- > Cheeks hurt a little. You wonder why, but soon realize the reason.
- > You’re puffing them out. You hadn’t realized it. This makes you less scared- you’re being brave.
- > Cuddles nuzzles your neck a little as you both walk.
- > “Spawks wook bwave and handsum!”
- > This causes your cheeks to burn a little.
- > You nuzzle her back.
- > You idly wonder if the fluffies in The Rink are really bad fluffies. You’ve never met any, you think.
- > But if what Maroon says is true, they’re mean and won’t share.
- > But Maroon also doesn’t share with wingies or earthies.
- > This confuses you a little. It doesn’t seem right.
- > You shake your head a little. You’ll think about it later.
- > You just have to make sure to keep her safe.
- ----------
- > You are Stompy, and you’re stomping.
- > You’re stomping hard. You’re really excited!
- > Soon, you’ll get to stomp like you’ve never stomped before!
- > You’ll stomp the wingies and earthies of The Rink!
- > Maybe even a few Unicorns when Maroon isn’t looking.
- > The herd approaches the ditch across from The Rink. Maroon stops.
- > “down hewe!” he shouts, pointing his hoof downward.
- > You and the rest of the herd scramble down into the ditch.
- > Maroon soon follows.
- > He climbs up the side opposite The Rink, and peeks over.
- > All the fluffies bump against one another, some stopping to give hugs to scared herd members.
- > You buck a few that get too close to you.
- > “dey coming wit nummies!” Maroon hisses down.
- > There is light chattering from the herd, but Maroon silences them with a “Shh!”
- > You don’t care about the nummies that much. You just want to stomp!
- > “when Mawoon say so, we get dem. We give dem all owwies…”
- > He peers back over for a moment
- > “make dem sweep fowevew… he says, grinning.
- > That disappoints you a little. Maybe later you can give them biggest owwies and make them sleep forever.
- > You can hardly wait!
- ----------
- > You are Maroon, and you see them. A red wingie mare with a black spot on her nose leads them. One Unicorn. Some earthies, a few more wingies.
- > One earthie is carrying a small box in his mouth, the kind that contain brown sweet things.
- > A wingie has a shiny, rustling thing. You know it contains chippies.
- > You lick your lips. You like chippies.
- > And two earthies are balancing a flat skettie-thing on their backs!
- > Your smile broadens, even as the head-hurties get more intense.
- > Just as you begin to taste boo-boo juice, you call to your herd:
- > “Get dem! GET DEM!”
- > They scramble up over the ditch, and across the metal-munsta path, following you.
- > The Rink fluffies are going to go through the shiny metal box thing- one of the two entrances into The Rink.
- > They won’t get there.
- > “wat dat?” an earthie says, turning to face you.
- > He screams, and the rest of his party screams.
- > Your herd screams too, but not from fear.
- > They smash into The Rink fluffies, causing big owwies.
- > Nummies scatter everywhere as your herd goes about bucking, biting and butting.
- > “nuu! Why huwt Daisy!?” one cries.
- > “No bite speciaw pwace!” another wails
- > “STOMP! STOMP! STOMP!” a familiar voice happily shouts.
- > Boo-boo juice gushes from your nose as you bite one wingie by the ear and hold fast.
- > You realize it’s their leader.
- > “Stop huwties!”
- > You hit her in the face with your left front hoof.
- > It hurts her, but also hurts you, sending a sharp bolt of pain up your leg.
- > You let go, gasping.
- > She falls to the ground and buries her face in the ground
- > “Owwies!”
- > You look around.
- > Most of The Rink fluffies are sleeping forever, some have such big owwies they can’t move, and only cry. The mares are getting bad special hugs from Jelly and a few other stallions. They cry and protest, but the stallions ignore them.
- > Some of the herd members eat the fallen nummies, cooing and giggling.
- > Stompy ,his hoofs stained with boo-boo juice, is smiling broadly. You know he’s happy.
- > You walk towards the wingie mare, who is now being hugged by the one unicorn among them, a light brown stallion
- > “Yoo, pointy fwend” you say to him. He looks at you.
- > “Wat yoo cawwed?”
- > “Cookie” he replies, then hugs the wingie tighter. “pwease no huwt Cookie ow Poppy.”
- > You smile “why no huwt Poppy? She speciaw fwend?”
- > “Cuz...” he sniffles “cuz Poppy speciaw fwend of smawty Wintew.”
- > The wingie’s eyes go wide when he says this
- > You think about this for a moment.
- > A plan forms.
- > “Hewd!” you call. “No wun huwt Cookie ow Poppy!”
- > You look at Cookie and the wingie “…not yet.”
- > You will keep the wingie here for now. Cookie will go inside and tell Winter to come out or you’ll hurt the wingie, then his whole herd.
- > You’ll hurt Winter either way.
- > And his herd either way.
- > But if Winter sleeps forever first, everything will be easier. No smarty to tell them what to do.
- > You will also get Stompy to go to the otherside of The Rink, near the doors with the hole in it. They won’t escape.
- > The head hurties subside, but your leg still hurts.
- > Doesn’t matter.
- > You’re such a smart fluffy.