A New Beginning
Chapter 4: The Monster!
Taking a long drag of his cigar the Dandyman admired his yard. It had been a week now since Lemon and her herd had started working on his property, they had made short work of the front yard and had gotten half way done with the backyard. Today though the Dandyman had them working on the front once more as it had grown a little and now it just needed a little maintenance.
At first the fluffies were shy and reserved around him, the exception being Lemon who seemed to warm up quite quickly. Perhaps she sensed that he wasnât going to harm her or the herd. Regardless, Lemon and the fluffies were hard workers; they would arrive early in the morning at sunrise. They would greet him and he would greet them, then they would get to work. They usually didnât bother him and kept to themselves. The fluffies would work until around two in the evening before gathering up the wooden sleds filled with grass for the herd and begin heading home.
Lemon and her team of seven fluffies four toughy and three worker fluffs were hard workers. They didnât whine about how hard it was nor how dirty they got, well except Berry at first but after one or two sorry hoofs from Lemon the pink mare quickly stopped her complaining. The Dandyman suspected that Berry might have been a pampered house fluffy at one point. Each day as the fluffies left, the Dandyman would secretly follow after them, returning to his old line of work. Moving swiftly and quietly he stalked them from behind. At first it was primarily to see how big Lemonâs herd was, and to his surprise it was rather large.
After watching them for the past week, the Dandyman managed to assess its size and culture. The herd had Lemon as the leader and three sub-leader fluffies who were her council. He was surprised to find out there was a council of fluffies to aid her. The oldest was called Bright Moon, an old grey earth pony. The next was a white fluffalo, rare fluffies especially around here, called Rex. The last a young light tan earth pony named Apple and seemed to be Lemonâs best friend.
After the smarty and her council were the toughies, the herd had a staggering eighteen toughy fluffies to look after it. Then were the workers there was twenty worker fluffies who helped to gather food, build nests and dig poop pits or cover old ones up. The poop pits were always dug far away from the herd. Then there was six nurse mares who helped the soon to be mothers and current mothers. Any foals without parents the nurse mares fed until they were weaned off milk. There was three fluffies who seemed to be teaching the young foals who could talk and see. Lastly there were the mothers, there were five current mothers with young chirpy foals and four soon to be mothers. As for foals there was close to thirty foals seventeen talking foals and thirteen chirpy foals. All up it was quite a sizeable herd of close to ninety fluffies and still growing.
The herd seemed to be one big family, taking care of each other. Each fluffy was equal and given proper shares of food. No fluffy was made to eat shit, unless they were really bad. The bad coloured fluffies and alicorns werenât tormented or bullied. There was no spoiled foal and all mothers were told to love their babies equally.
He had seen one mother trying to ignore a foal because it was bad colours, a piss yellow, she refused to feed the poor thing. In return she got a sorry hoof from Lemon and was punished by getting thrown into the shit pit for a day while a nurse mare looked after the foals. The mother didnât change her attitude, still saying the baby was a poopy baby, a bad baby and needed to die. She was then dragged out of the herd by the toughies screaming for her bestest baby. The toughies tossed her down a hill where she rolled and screamed. She had tried to return to the herd the next day, attacking the nurse mare who had her foals, wanting to give forever sleepies to the bad poopy baby in the process. The six nurse mares didnât take too kindly to that, beating her black and blue. The toughies then threw her out again, this time with four broken legs. She was later eaten by magpies. The bitchy mareâs foals were given to a surrogate to raise.
During his little stalker trips, the Dandyman discovered that Lemon was incredibly witty. She had devised a safe path back home, using it to avoid predators and other nasty creatures. They had even been attacked by a rather nasty young eastern brown, but Lemon and her toughies had made short work of the vicious serpent.
Lemon and her toughies had run circles around it moving quickly so it couldnât lock onto them. While distracted the alicorn sisters quickly dashed in and used their horns to gouge out its eyes. Once blinded theyâd fooled the snake into biting into a tree. From there Rock and Bark would bite into the snakeâs tongue pulling to rip it out. Afterwards it was only a matter of time before the fluffies stomped it to death by using their tiny hooves to smash it against the tree it had lodged its fangs into. Due to the harsh environment and hard earth the fluffies hooves werenât as soft as typically fluffies, they were significantly harder.
As for much larger creatures like wild pigs, Lemon would sniff them out and hide with her herd, waiting for them to pass. If they couldnât avoid them Lemon would act as a distraction. She was fast, able to run away luring the predators away, lose them and return to the herd. However on two separate occasions a predator had gotten extremely close but the Dandyman took care of it. A much larger eastern brown had slithered up behind the herd only for a dagger to pierce its skull.
The second time a stampede of wild pigs were bearing down on the herd, only to be diverted with a little illusion. The Dandyman couldnât have his little workers getting hurt. Other than those two occasions the fluffies were surprisingly skilled at staying alive, having adapted to survive in the harsh and dangerous conditions of the Australian outback.
Sitting on his front patio leaning back in a comfy recliner the Dandyman admired his yard. The house itself took up a large block and was built on the ground with four steps up to a fenced patio. The house itself was in disrepair and needed a lot of tender love and care, but thatâs where a simple but useful mending spell came to hand. With a wave of a hand the house could begin to repair itself. However the spell did have limitations and he had to repair every part of the house bit by little bit, he also needed to ensure he had materials on hand to fill the gaps.
At the moment he was taking a little break, smoking his cigar, cuban, and relaxing. His void like hues looked over the large grounds that were his own and he couldnât help but smile. How long had he been on the road? Travelling from place to place in his old world, never settling down. Life had been hectic to say the least. From taking the odd private job to hunting down monsters, retrieving goods or the odd escort job to make cash, life was never restful. Sure every now and then he had the chance to rest, taking a little break between jobs but never did he have an actual place to call home. Not like now. The Russel Glen farmstead might be a fixer upper, but it was his fixer upper.
Now life was a little easier with the little herd of fluffies that had taken up work on the property. The small group of eight had now expanded.
This morning Lemon had turned up with a few more fluffies, it seemed he had gained their trust. The council member known as Rex had shown up in attendance with two other toughies. One was a maroon unicorn mare named Maroon and the other was a zebra patterned earth stallion of all things named Polkadot. Apparently the stallion had been purchased by a little girl who thought it was funny to call him Polkadot. Sadly while on vacation in Australia from America with her family, they got eaten by crocodiles, apparently the family got too close to the water wanting to pat the reptiles, despite warnings. Pokadot had somehow made it out alive and was taken in by Lemon.
In addition to the two new toughies the number of worker fluffies had doubled from three to six. The new fluffies was another strange mix, a sparkling green bowl mare named Pickle, a brown pegasus micro fluffy stallion of all things called Tiny and lastly a slightly older beige earthie stallion named Benny. Benny had also been a house fluffy until a flood some time ago hit, wiping out his home and drowning his owners. Benny thought he would die but luckily Lemonâs mother Lime had found him, pulling him from the water to safety. Lime surprisingly from what the Dandyman gathered was a rare fluffy capable of swimming, having learned it from her mother Lilly. A skill that had been taught to the herd and passed down for generations.
The traveller suspected Lemonâs grandmother Lilly must have had an owner who taught her, it wasnât a skill a typical feral fluffy would learn. But then again perhaps it was just a natural process of fluffy evolution, whatever that may be.
âMistah Dwandymwan hewp fwuffies!â A tiny voice shouted drawing the traveller from his musings. Looking down he saw that the fluffy called Water had climbed his way up the steps. The little blue fluff was shaking violently, tears pouring from his tiny but giant round brown eyes.
âWhatâs wrong little fluff?â Getting up the Dandyman reached down, plucking the little earthie from the patio and raised him high.
âPwease nice mistah fwuffies need hewp, bwig munstah!â cried the little pony as he grabbed the hand of his human friend and hugged tightly. A tiny hoof pointed out towards the yard. Looking out the Dandyman began to move as he spotted the commotion. By the edge of the fence to his front yard a large goanna had made its way across the boundary line.
The giant lizard towered over the fiercely shaking form of Lemon. The herd smarty was glaring up at the lizard as she stood in front of Twig. The small earth pony was quivering on the ground, blood pooling from his back where a deep gash mark could be seen. One of the lizardâs front claws was stained with blood. The massive lizard stared down at its meal, its eyes hungrily watching the two fluffies.
âMunstah nu huwrt Twig! Wemon nu wet u! Gu way or ewse be sowwy wen tuffies com!â Lemon shouted back as she stood her ground. The other toughies were approaching quickly with Rex in the lead. The goanna hissed and raised its right front claw swinging it down at Lemon who continued to maintain her position.
However the strike never came. A thorn whip shot out from the Dandymanâs right hand and wrapped around the offending claw. With a tug the goanna was pulled towards him, spinning on heels the Dandyman tossed the goanna back out over the boundary line where it crashed into the hard earth with a thud. The lizard scurried to its feet and hissed, it wasnât discouraged.
Arriving by the fluffies, the caster eyed the goanna as the lizard hissed, the thorn whip had disappeared. Now that he had gotten much closer the Dandyman could see its true size, he couldnât help but give an impressed whistle. The goanna was a good two and a half metres long, a rather impressive size.
âI doubt you can understand me, but wonât you kindly leave good lizard?â The Dandyman spoke with a smile, his voice oozing with charm as a strange shimmer reflected in his black eyes. The beady eyes of the monitor lizard shimmered back and the Goanna suddenly stopped hissing. The reptile turned and started stalking away leaving the property, disappearing into the outback.
âNice mistah pwease hewp Twig, spiww boo-boo juice. Nu wan wet gu fowebah sweepies!â begged Lemon as she lost her tough visage and threw herself at the Dandymanâs right leg, clutching it tightly.
Crouching down the Dandyman sat Water on the ground and gently picked up the injured Twig.
âNow, now little fluff everything is going to be fine.â The travelerâs voice was soothing and seemed to calm the small fluffy down. A hand gingerly rubbed against the injured ponies back as he whimpered from the pain.
âHu hu fwuffy ha wowstest huwties. Twig nu wan gu fowebah sweepies. Wuv hewd.â The tiny little fluff cried in the Dandymanâs hands, his brown fur had gone several shades darker.
âNow little fluff youâll be okay this I promise.â Soothed the Dandyman as a thumb gently rubbed the fluffies head making him coo.
As if the humanâs words were true, Twig blinked and the pain was gone. Twig slowly began to stand up in the Dandymanâs hand, the pain in his back was gone as if it had never been there.
âWowstest huwties nu moar.â Twig looked up at the human with tears in his eyes before hugging the manâs thumb with his tiny fluffy body.
âFwuffy hab biggest heawt happies! Dwandymwan hewp fwuffy!â Twig nuzzled into the thumb he was hugging and cooed.
âTwig bettah?â The other fluffies said as they had long gathered around the human they worked for. The Dandyman lowered Twig back to the ground letting him jump down. The wound on his back was gone, having healed up but he had clearly been hurt as his fur was still stained and a part was missing from where the claw had struck.
âNow why donât you all help Twig clean himself. Let him rest for the remainder of the day, heâs had a harrowing experience.â The Dandyman turned and made his way back to the patio ignoring the cries of thank youâs from the fluffies. He was merely taking care of an employee as the employer, it wouldnât do to let them die. He didnât know it but having taken care of the so-called âmonsterâ and stopping Twig from going âforever sleepiesâ had earned the Dandyman their trust more so than ever before.
If Iâm too descriptive or lengthy with my text I apologise, but itâs how I like to write. I still hope the story is at least a little entertaining.
I decided this time to do a little colour coding for the speech of the fluffies as well.
Next chapter will most likely be again from Lemonâs view.
List of known Fluffies in Lemonâs Herd
Herd Smarty: Lemon
Council: Bright Moon (Old Earthie), Rex (Fluffalo), Apple (Young Earthie)
Toughies: Rock (Unicorn Stallion, Broken Horn), Bark (Brown Pegasus Stallion), Blue Alicorn Sisterâs Willow and Rose, Maroon (Unicorn Mare), Polkadot (Zerba Striped Earthie Stallion)
Worker Fluffies: Water (Blue Earthie Stallion), Berry (Pink Earthie Mare - possible Bitch?), Twig (Small Brown Earthie Stallion), Pickle (Green Bowl Earthie Mare), Tiny (Brown Pegasus Micro Fluffy Stallion), Benny (Old Beige Earthie Stallion)