Pony-Pet Playdate Campout

by Never2muchpinkie

Chapter 2: Pinkie and Gummy

Pinkie Pie picked up Gummy and held him close to her. “I know what all of you are thinking. 'It’s Pinkie Pie. OF COURSE she can’t just have a NORMAL pet, like a cat or a dog. She would have to have an alligator. Wacky, wild Pinkie Pie has to have a pet just as wacky and wild as she is.' But it’s not like that at all. Gummy is the only pet I would ever want… because he needs me.”

All of them stared at her. Her mane had deflated slightly, showing just how serious it was. Ever Rainbow Dash was interested. “So… what happened?” she asked in a quiet voice.

“It was a few years ago. It was after I had moved in with the Cakes and started working at Sugarcube Corner. I saw a flier for an exotic animal show. It promised normally dangerous animals as harmless and calm as kittens. Ones you could play with just like a mouse or a bunny. Naturally this caught my attention. I took the day off from work and headed out, eager and ready to go."

***

“La la la la la!” Pinkie Pie bounced along, looking at the big tent. Paying for a ticket she got in line with the rest, hopping impatiently as she waited her turn. The line in front of her slowly dwindled until she was the next one in.

Finally, after what felt an eternity, it was her turn. She walked past the flap, seeing a variety of animals: Lions, tigers, alligators, leopards, jaguars, and several others. Each of them were small, like baby versions of themselves. All of them were separated by type, but the enclosures had a small fence for the kids to pet them and play with them.

True to their word the animals were unnaturally calm and quiet. As she played with a small tiger she heard one of the employees talking. “…yes, it’s quite simple, actually. With the right training from an early age and a little bit of medication all of these animals can slowly be domesticated into pony homes. They’ll make good guard animals. Think how a thief would feel if he looked into your home and saw a lion guarding it. He’d turn right around and think twice before attempting it.”

Pinkie went up to the red pony who was talking. “We can take these animals home?” she asked excitedly.

The pony laughed. “No, not yet. They still need more training to counter their natural predator instincts. I’d say after another year or so they’ll be well trained and ready for adoptions.

“So I guess you’re enjoying the animals?”

“Yes, sir!” she replied with a hop. “I’ve never been so close to animals like these.”

“I’m glad you’re having a good time.”

He left and began talking with more patrons, and Pinkie explored more of the animals. She went up to the alligator pen, seeing a couple of them in a pond. One of them seemed awfully tiny and was sitting by itself. It caught her attention because of that. She went up to it and said, “Hello.”

It looked up at her, becoming still. It suddenly jumped at her, its mouth opening wide as he chomped on her. She let out a scream at first, but it didn’t hurt a bit, and quickly enough she was laughing at the tickly feeling. She fell to the ground, giggling like mad as it kept “attacking” her. “Oh, you’re just a ball of fun. I wish I could take YOU home.” With a little bit of effort she pulled the alligator off of her with a “pop.” She gave it an odd look, seeing that it had no teeth. It kept attempting to get her head in its mouth.

The gator suddenly vanished from her hooves. The pony from before gave a nervous laugh. “Um… this one isn’t quite ready yet. He’s still a little aggressive.”

“But he’s just playing, right?”

The pony hesitated, then said with a shrug, “Sure, kid. Whatever you say. He’s pretty stubborn. We haven’t been able to train this out of him yet.”

“It’s a good thing he doesn’t have teeth, or that might have really hurt.”

“That’s exactly the point.”

“I’ve never seen an alligator without teeth before. Is he just young?”

A questioning look came to his face, then he brightened up and said in an overly happy voice, “Yeah! Yeah! That’s it.”

She saw the gator shaking in the pony’s hooves. She only got a look at his face for a second before the pony took him away. It looked… frightened. Though Pinkie played with the other animals for a few minutes more she couldn’t get the gator’s expression out of her mind. None of the other animals acted like that.

After her ten minutes were up she left the tent. She was about to leave for home, but once more the gator came to her mind. She saw the employee area a short distance away in another tent. She was good with animals. Maybe if she asked nicely she could play with the gator for a little while so it wouldn’t be so afraid.

She walked in, seeing a bundle of cages that were mostly empty. She guessed that was because most of the animals were on display in the other tent. Off to the side she heard a group of voices talking. She began walking towards them, large boxes blocking her from view.

Peering through a gap between two boxes she saw five ponies sitting around a table playing cards. There was a sudden cracking sound, then a squeak of pain, and she gasped as she saw the pony she had been talking with before whipping the gator.

“Easy, now!” said one of the other ponies. “We want him on display again in the next few days. We don’t want to leave any marks or they'll get suspicious."

“Tch! Whatever!” Throwing the whip down he picked the gator up, and it was shaking harder than before. It tried to nibble his face. The pony just laughed, flicking him on the nose. “We’re going to tame you, little gator, if it’s the last thing I do. You’re not a threat anymore, so you better get used to your position. Soon enough you’ll be in a new home and then I won’t have to deal with you anymore.”

Pinkie saw one of the ponies, blue with a yellow mane, shaking slightly. “Enough! Just throw him in his cage already!”

Another one of the men rolled his eyes. “Are you still on about that? The boss is a cheapskate. What else do you want us to tell you?”

“That’s easy for you to say! You’re not the one who had to do it! You didn’t have to… to…”

“I didn’t see you complaining when the boss handed you a fat bag of bits to keep silent about it.”

He looked down at the ground, guilt shining on his face. “You’re right. I… I’ll just have to work quicker next time. I’d rather not do it at all.”

“Hey, that’s the risk you take when you’re dealing with dangerous animals. That one is an experiment. It makes them a lot safer to interact with others when they’ve been deteethed.”

***

“DETEETHED?” all five of her friends responded in horror.

Tears began coming down Pinkie’s eyes. “Yes. Didn’t you ever think it was odd that an alligator, a carnivore who normally eats meat and hunts, was toothless?”

Twilight recalled her first meeting with Gummy, and she remembered how scared she had been to see him in Pinkie’s bathtub.

Fluttershy was also crying. She couldn’t stand the thought of that kind of abuse being done to any animal. “W-why? Why would they do that?”

“All they cared about was money. They were abusing all the animals in their care to snuff out their natural predator instincts, and dosing them up with medication to keep them near sedated so they’d be relaxed and calm. They’d train the animals and then sell them off. If the animals stayed docile then it was a success. If they began getting rowdy then the customers could bring them back for more training… at a 'reasonable fee,' of course, which basically meant just beating the tar out of them until they learned to behave.

"If the animal began acting up a second time they would just say that the customer obviously wasn’t taking their instructions seriously enough and deem them irresponsible to have such a dangerous animal under their care and take it back.

"Somewhere along the way they decided it would be a lot safer for them to take away the things that made them the most dangerous to see if it would be more effective. Gummy was their experiment. They put him to sleep and ripped out his teeth one by one. While they were working the stuff wore off, and Gummy woke up with two teeth still in his mouth. Instead of giving him more stuff to knock him out again their boss decided it wasn’t worth the money to waste the medicine on him. So they were ordered to continue! WHILE HE WAS WIDE AWAKE FOR IT!”

“UGH!” Unconsciously they all put a hoof to their mouths at the thought.

“It was all part of their sick plan,” Pinkie said angrily. Her hair poofed straight up as she shook with rage. “I’ll never forgive them for it! NEVER!”

It was quiet for a short while, none of them having the courage to ask, but finally Applejack said, “So… what happened next?”

Pinkie shook her head, shaking as tears came down her eyes. Her mane had deflated now. She didn’t want to remember anymore. She didn’t need Gummy reliving his past too, not after she had worked so hard to free him from that horrible place.

“Huh?” She felt something poking her. She looked down and saw Gummy poking her with his snout, a balloon string in his mouth. Despite herself it made her smile, and she took it from him. “Thank you, Gummy.” He crawled up onto the crook of her arm, looking into her eyes. He blinked a few times. “Are you sure?” Gummy blinked again. “Well… alright… if you say its okay.”

Taking a deep breath Pinkie stared into the fire. “I really wanted to confront them right then and there. I was so mad and upset and frustrated I almost did. The only thing that stopped me was my worry for Gummy. If they knew that I knew about what they had done they might have hurt him or thrown him away to get rid of the evidence. So I left, going to get some help. I got the mayor, bringing her back to the tent full of animals.”

***

“STOOOOOOOOP!” Pinkie yelled, causing everyone to turn to her. Pointing an accusing hoof to the red-coated pony she said, “I know all about your terrible scheme! Abusing and torturing animals, ripping the teeth out of poor alligators, scamming ponies out of their hard earned bits.”

A hush went through the crowd, and all eyes were on the employees, to see how they would respond. The red pony at first began to sweat, looking nervous, but then he suddenly recovered. Adopting a cool attitude he said, “And just where did you hear such a thing, little girl?”

“I heard it all! I heard everything you said to your friends in there.”

“Oh?” With a smirk he said, “Can you prove it?”

“Huh?”

“I said, 'Can… you… prove it?' I could say that I heard you talking about eating one of these animals for dinner. Does that automatically make it true? An accusation without any proof to support it won’t hold up in any court. That poor alligator simply has a birth defect. He’s very stunted, and he’s not going to grow. His teeth just simply never developed. The poor thing.”

Reaching into his saddle bag he pulled out several papers. “I have here several documents from the Equestrian Society for Exotic Animals as well as medical documents stating that all these animals are in good health. If there was such an issue it would have been brought up long ago.

"Whatever you thought you heard is complete nonsense. You just have an overactive imagination. Go back to your daydreams and let us get back to our work, will you?”

Pinkie gulped. Everyone was giving her dirty looks now. Even the mayor didn’t look to be on her side. She had hoped that by causing a commotion in public it might spark them to admit their guilt, but he had turned it back around on her. She DIDN’T have any proof of what she was saying. She pictured the little gator in her mind, shivering and shaking. She couldn’t just abandon it to these heartless monsters. Tears came down her eyes. She didn’t know what to do.

“She’s not lying!”

All heads turned to the voice, and Pinkie saw the same blue coated pony from before. “Everything she’s saying is the truth!”

The red coated pony glared at him. “Shut up, Blue Diamond!”

“No, Sugar Crystal! I’m done! I’m done with the lies and deceit and the guilt! I won’t take it anymore. All of these animals ARE being abused. Those 'official documents' are all faked by a master forger.”

Loud mumbling went throughout the crowd, and Sugar Crystal nervously looked around. Mayor Mare looked at her attendants and said in an official voice, “Until the complete truth of this matter is known I am ordering this place shut down for investigation. I want all of the employees here locked up for questioning.”

“Yes, ma’am!” they responded.

***

“Over the course of the next few days it was discovered that almost all of the employees there were criminals with records simply seeking to make dishonest gain. All of the animals were examined by Ponyville veterinarian’s and it was shown that they were all being abused. The records of good health were indeed faked. Papers discovered on the individuals and in the tents showed that they had no good intentions in doing this. If any ponies got hurt it was seen as an acceptable risk.” She glared into the fire, her stomach burning in rage. “It all makes me feel sick even now. Almost all of them were arrested for a good long time, and good riddance to them.”

“Almost all of them?” asked Rarity with a huff. “Why 'almost?' From what you’re saying the likes of them ALL deserved to be put in the same situations they put the animals through."

“The only one who got off lightly was Blue Diamond. He asked to speak with me before his sentencing. Since he was the one who stood up and admitted his guilt in front of everybody, and helped me when no one believed me, I was willing to be more lenient with him.”

***

Pinkie Pie walked into a small room. Sitting at a table was Blue Diamond. “Thanks for coming to see me.”

“I should be thanking you. If you hadn’t spoke up when you did I would have been seen as just a crazy liar.”

“No. Thanks should go to you and you alone. I never should have gotten mixed up in all this nonsense.” Looking down at the table he wiped some tears from his eyes. “I was desperate. I was so desperate and really needed a lot of money in a hurry. So that was why… that was why I got mixed up in criminal activities like this.”

Pinkie wondered if she had been wrong about him. “So this was only about you?”

“No! Not at all! I don’t care about myself!” He looked up, meeting her eyes. “It’s my sister. She’s a pegasus, and she was badly wounded in a crash last month. A stray bolt of lightning clipped her wing in a storm, sending her smashing into the ground. She’s unconscious in Ponyville Hospital right now. I just really wanted to help pay for her medical care since the two of us are poor.”

Pinkie’s eyes softened. Putting a hoof on his she said, “Do you really think that’s what your sister would want for you?”

“Hmm?”

“If your sister cares for you as much as you care for her do you really think she’d want you to become a criminal to save her life?”

Blue Diamond winced at the question. “No,” he said painfully. “No, I don’t think she would.”

“It’ll be okay. You’re a hero to me.”

“A HERO? After what I did?”

“Yes,” Pinkie said as she nodded. “If only bad ponies ever worked there those guys might have gotten away with everything for a long time. It’s because of you coming clean and feeling guilty that the two of us were able to stop all of them.”

“I… I guess you’re right.” Letting out a sigh he sat back in his seat so far it was almost tipping over. Looking up at the ceiling he said, “I’m sorry, sister. Your brother is a fool. I promise… I’ll try to help you out the right way from now on.”

“Good!”

***

“Blue Diamond got a very light sentence thanks to me, and we even managed to get some strings pulled to provide assistance for his sister to stay in the hospital. I thought everything was over, but there was one last loose end to tie up.

“The animals that had been captured were released back into the wild. All except for one. Gummy was, of course, that one. They said it was too risky for him to be set free because he would be incapable of defending himself or hunting for food without any teeth.” Tears began coming down Pinkie’s eyes again. Even though she knew that Gummy was okay now she couldn’t help but think back to the powerlessness she felt back then. Sniffing, her voice cracking, she said, “They were gonna put him down! They wanted to kill him for his own good!

“I wouldn’t have it! Gummy had just been living his gator life before those monster ponies abducted him and mutilated him. What had GUMMY done wrong? Why did he deserve to be punished more than they did, when he had done nothing wrong?” Hugging Gummy to her she broke down crying for a little bit.

Fluttershy got up and sat down next to her, putting a hoof around her as Pinkie put her head on her neck and let out her pain.

When she calmed down a little Pinkie pulled back, wiping away her tears. “I’m sorry, you guys. It’s just a touchy subject for me.”

“I understand,” said Fluttershy, wiping away a few tears herself. “I love animals too, and that would have been devastating to me as well. So what happened? Gummy is obviously alive and well, so how did you get to keep him?”

Pinkie took a few deep breaths to settle herself and said, “I offered to take him in. I promised to give him a loving home and always treat him well. It wasn’t about wanting an exotic animal, or about anything that I wanted, but it was about Gummy. He had suffered enough by having his teeth ripped out. Did he have to lose his life too?

“They were reluctant. They didn’t think Gummy would be able to handle the transition. They offered me a year. They said if I could show I had trained him properly to adjust to living in a pony society instead of in the wild they wouldn’t put him down. I took the offer.

“That was the roughest year of my life. He may not have any teeth, but it took a lot of prodding and crying and begging on my part to get Mr. and Mrs. Cake to agree to let me keep Gummy in the house. Every day I spent with him was a challenge. Every time I walked into my room he pounced on me, trying to take me down. It took months before he finally began to trust me.

"After the harrowing experience of the teeth yanking he was very aggressive against other ponies. Even without teeth he still has claws. I wound up with tons of scratches the first two months before I found my patience to let him come to me.

“Time seemed to race by slowly, but so quickly at the same time. All the time I wasn’t working at Sugarcube Corner or helping out ponies around town I dedicated to Gummy. Little by little, bit by bit, I gradually wormed my way into his heart. He stopped scratching me. He would sleep with me at night. When I was sad he would come up to me and comfort me. I know Gummy isn’t very animated like some of the rest of your pets, but he’s still overcoming the trauma they forced on him.

“At the end of the year I presented a fully reformed Gummy. He could feed on cupcakes and non-solid foods, he was in a safe place full of love where he could be his gator self without worrying about being hurt, and he had someone who would protect him no matter what. Now when he 'bites' me it isn’t out of fear or revenge, but because he loves me and wants to play with me.”

A warm smile came to her face, tears coming down her eyes. “And I love him too. They were satisfied that Gummy would be safe and content with me, and I was officially given permission to keep him with me for life. That was one of the happiest days of my life. I saved his life, and stopped him from being punished for something he didn’t even do. He’s the best pet ever!”

All of her friends were smiling back at her, glad that the story had a happy ending and Pinkie was happy again.

“That was a great story, Pinkie,” said Twilight. “Maybe Rainbow Dash will agree when she stops crying and answers.”

“W-what?” Rainbow said quickly, wiping her face. “I… I wasn’t crying! I just… just got some dust in my eye!” Speaking in an overly bright tone she said, “Okay, okay! So we got the heartwarmer and the tearjerker. Who’s next? How about you, Fluttershy? How did you get Angel? I mean, you have a ton of bunnies already. What makes him so special?”

“Oh!” Fluttershy looked down at her little bunny, and he looked back up at her. She rubbed his ear, making him thump his foot. “Angel is special because he saved my life. That’s why he got his name: because he’s my guardian angel.”

Comments

[Beta Bookworm]

Awwwww Poor Gummy :(

[OmniFox]

Angel couldn't even get a girlfriend?

[Fire Spirit]

Aww i always loved Gummy the best out of all the pets.

[Dustin Lange]

That was a really great story!
It reminds me of the way I found my dog.

The family that I got him from was not a good one. They kept him, as well as his seven brothers and sisters, locked up in a shed outside. They gave them no love, almost no food and water, and they never cleaned up the fecal matter.

When I saw this, I took the smallest, weakest one home. And, with a little bit of luck... I was able to find the rest of them homes.

[Never2muchpinkie]

4908705 Glad you enjoyed it! Fluttershy and Angel is gonna be intense, scary, and kinda sad. I'm trying to use a different theme/genre for each story. A/W was a little sad but uplifting, and about overcoming her past, P/G was about cruelty and teaching an abused animal that not every one is gonna treat you terribly.

Fluttershy and Angel is a darker one. It starts out kinda amusing. Because Fluttershy can understand animal talk I also get to have Angel "talk" to her, so thats another new thing I can add. Let's just say that things end up in the Everfree Forest and only get darker from there. Bring some tissues.

BTW did you read the Pound and Pumpkin chapter yet? You were so happy that I was including Luna I was expecting you to comment on how awesome she was.

[Crimsion Ink]

Wow....You didn't tell me you did a gummy story too!!!!!!!!!!!
Mine is really bad compared to yours, but it is my first story.
Its seems like i'm missing something. I like your idea, its not
uniquie, but special. Love the rainbow crying bit.

CI