Bathory settled into life with Ariadne comfortably. She had the disposition to enjoy the curious, constant babble of a walkie-talkie babbeh and took him everywhere with her! A simple piece of jersey cloth had him snuggled up to her chest when they went out for groceries, allowing him to watch the world go by with the cosy, comforting presence of his human-mummah’s heartbeat and her beautiful smell.
She was a work from home accountant and when she had to buckle down and crunch some numbers, Bathory liked to lay at her feet or up on his bed at desk height so he could watch what she was doing. Her coworkers liked to see him when they had video calls and he was quiet and polite when they spoke for many forevers about boring things. He didn’t worry so much about it, content to listen, lay down and keep his weight off his legs.
Weaning went well, as Ariadne researched decent food for Fluffies and found that it was cheaper and easier to blend oats and vegetables and fruit for her little guy rather than kibble with a needlessly long list of ingredients. She didn’t trust like that. Softened oats with milk, leafy greens and sweet fruits had Bathory eating with gusto and he grew rapidly, though Ariadne noticed how much he asked to be carried. He winced a lot when he needed to trot along on the floor after her, but tried his best to hide it… until one night, he woke with a start.
Alongside Ariadne’s double bed was Bathory’s co-sleeping crib. It had sides high enough to make sure he couldn’t roll out and that Ariadne couldn’t roll in, but they could still be together. He was growing into it rapidly, as she’d sized it to an adult Fluffy Pony but he didn’t seem to move much in his sleep to begin with.
At three in the morning, Bathory’s eyes shot wide open. His head was pounding, his whole body throbbed with an agony he’d never felt before and it all radiated out from his legs. With a deep inhale, he screamed.
“SCREEEEEEEEEEEE!! MUMMAH! HEWP! HEWP BAFFWEE!” He begged, shocking Ariadne awake.
“Holy shit! Bathory, what’s wrong?” She gasped and reached over to stroke his tummy, but the second her fingers connected, every nerve was on fire.
“SCREEEEEEEEEEE!! WHY HUWT? WHY MUMMAH HUWT BAFFWEE?” He hollered at the top of his little lungs, devolving into sobbing as Ariadne turned the bedside lamp on and watched in horror as her beloved Fluffy, so soft-spoken and sweet, seized and shat himself completely involuntarily.
“Just breathe, baby. Big, slow breaths,” she said, trying to stay calm for the hyperventilating little creature as he devolved into peeping like a chirpie, trying his absolute best to breathe. “Stay there, big breaths, mommy will be back.”
She clambered up from the bed to get some wet wipes and returned to carefully clean up the scaredy-pain-poopies without touching Bathory. She fumbled her phone to find the vet’s out of hours emergency line and called them.
“My Fluffy just woke up screaming, it hurts him when I touch him. Can we come in now, or is there something I can give him to calm him down? … I see. … Alright. Thank you.”
Ariadne put the phone down and pulled on a hoodie, then went to get a carrier.
“This isn’t a sorry-box, baby. You haven’t been bad. This box will keep you safe and still as possible while we go in the car and see the vet. They’re going to help you with your hurties. But first, mommy has to move you. I’m not trying to hurt you, but it will probably hurt. We’re going to get it to stop as soon as we can, but you need to know that I love you and don’t want you to hurt. Do you understand?”
It was a lot of words for Bathory to focus on, but it helped him breathe. He tried to nod but it just hurt more, so he cheeped in lieu of talking.
“Good boy, Bathory. Mommy loves you so much. Get ready.”
She took hold of the sheet around his mattress pad and slid it over the bed and up the lip of the carrying box. Bathory screeched as he bumped over it, but once the mesh front closed and Ariadne picked the box up, he could feel as if he were moving… without being jostled around too much. He huu-huu-ed as they went down in the lift and were let out by the night shift security guard, then was secured into the car. Ariadne put the radio on, but turned it down just enough for Bathory to hear but not be too much while they drove to the vet.
——
The small practise was in a strip of offices on street level underneath a large hotel. A 24-hour convenience store stood open next door, while a gym laid dormant on the other side. Ariadne carried Bathory to the vet’s door as carefully as possible and buzzed the intercom— the door opened automatically for her and she winced under the sudden fluorescent lights.
“Good morning, ma’am. Is this Bathory?” The secretary asked, a young woman with dark circles under her eyes and blonde hair scraped up in a bun. She looked ready to clock off, or like Ariadne had interrupted her nap.
Ariadne nodded.
“Alright, the vet is waiting for you. Down the hall and to your left.”
She bowed her head in thanks and carried the whimpering Fluffy down to an open door.
The vet was an older gentleman that she’d seen before, when Bathory needed his vaccinations. He was pale, probably from doing the night shifts, with white hair receding back over his head and a kindly demeanour about him. He helped to lift the carrier up onto his table and peered into the carrier.
“My… this little man’s been through the wars, hasn’t he?” Doctor Fields chuckled softly as bloodshot eyes spun to look at him. Bathory whimpered and wagged his tail once, a fwoomp into the sheet. “I’m going to have to examine you and it’s going to be a bit uncomfortable, Bathory.”
“Yus, Doctow Feewds,” Bathory croaked out as Ariadne folded her arms and watched.
“Does the light hurt your eyes?”
“Yus.”
“Does your head hurt?”
“Yus. Aww ober.”
“And the rest of your body?”
“Aww ob it. Fwom weggies.”
He was being so brave. Ariadne’s heart welled in her chest for her companion creature. Even if he was ‘only’ a biotoy, he looked so miserable, his pain so real.
“From your legs? From the hooves or from the bend?”
“Fwom bendies tu hoofsies, den fwom bendies to tummy an’ rest,” Bathory managed to explain. “Weggies hurt… awways.”
“He’s been walking oddly. Asks me to carry him a lot,” Ariadne finally piped up and rubbed her lower lip with her thumb. “Very slow. Flinches when I touch them, then he woke up screaming.”
Doctor Fields looked closely at Bathory and how he hadn’t moved a muscle.
“Hmm. I’m going to move you now,” he warned, but it didn’t stop Bathory from screaming bloody murder. Ariadne covered her mouth with her hand, hiding the worried line of her mouth as Doctor Fields shushed the colt in his softest voice. “There you go. You were very brave. I can give you a little something for the pain, to help make this easier. There will be a little pinch, then you may feel a bit dizzy but the pain should start to subside.”
The painkillers were already mixed and in a syringe, ready to go at the side of the table. Doctor Fields gave Bathory a careful jab in the scruff and set the Fluffy off screeching and sobbing again, but it slowly subsided as his breathing calmed.
“Good boy. Such a good boy,” Doctor Fields praised. Bathory’s eyes struggled to stay open as the foal’s system was flooded with a light painkiller, formulated specially for weanlings. After a few minutes of preparing some tools, he nodded to Ariadne to go ahead— she’d hung around her pet, unsure what to do and with the vet’s approval, gently stroked Bathory’s ear. Instead of howling, he burbled and blearily opened his eye to look up at his mommy.
Coo…
That was better. She ventured further to stroke his head and he leaned back into the touch, eye falling closed.
“It’ll probably help if you comfort him,” the vet said, returning with his stethoscope. He tested Bathory’s spine with his finger and earned a burble, finally able to listen to his breathing. It was a little ragged, probably from the screaming, but he noted that he wasn’t filling his lungs completely for a Fluffy or his size. He listened to his chest, heartbeat finally slowing under sedation.
The legs, though…
“I’m going to have a look at your legs now,” he warned the spacey colt. Sure enough, he stirred when the vet felt down his tender, aching leggies and burbled in protest when he palpated his hoof and looked at the joint. Carefully, he straightened it fully, then bent the knee, then started to bend it the wrong way. Sure enough, it hyper-extended far beyond what it should have. He tested each leg and it was the same.
“Bathory here is lame. He is severely hypermobile in all of his legs, Miss Dimitrou. His hypersensitivity… it could be many things, but his sudden onset of musculoskeletal pain in the night suggests a severe flare of fibromyalgia. I’ve observed cases of it in dogs before and while it is yet to be widely studied in Fluffy Ponies, it is one possibility. I will need to run bloods and some scans on Bathory to get to the bottom of this, but if he is this young and already suffering so badly, it doesn’t look good,” Doctor Fields explained. “He’ll require medication and constant care.”
Ariadne nodded.
“No wonder he always wanted to be carried, if his legs were always going the wrong way,” she murmured, still stroking Bathory’s velvety ear. His mane was only just starting to come in. He was still a baby. “What can we do for him?”
“Well, the tendons in his legs will degrade. As you know, Fluffy Ponies are not entirely comprised of horse DNA, but enough of it to be predisposed to issues with lameness and easily broken legs. Bathory said his knees were the source of the pain… it may be drastic, but removal of his limbs could be some manner of solution. He is still very young and may adapt to amputation if his legs have always hurt. He was very well engaged with us in his previous appointments, he clearly adores you. Some amputee Fluffies cope better when the procedure is done young, or has a clear reason to them. Medical conditions do make sense to Fluffies,” he continued. “I’ve treated Fluffies that were born without legs who find ways to move around. If there is a will, there is a way.”
Ariadne didn’t know what to do. Her brow furrowed deep as she rubbed Bathory’s slowly rising and falling tummy— he was finally able to sleep.
“I… I think I should ask him. If he’s been keeping this from me, then I want to know why. How long it’s happened for,” she said. “He’s been amazing. He prefers to lay down with me as I work, he always wants to be carried or in a sling against me… and he walks so slowly, Doctor. He should have a say in what happens to him.”
Doctor Fields smiled at Ariadne, then down at Bathory. He had some syringes lined up for taking blood samples and other instruments.
“Very well. We’ll keep him here to monitor him overnight. I’ll make sure the morning staff call you as soon as they know anything,” he replied.
Ariadne turned away for a moment and rummaged around under her hoodie. Without removing it, she whipped off her t-shirt and tucked it alongside Bathory.
“So he has something familiar,” she said and the vet chuckled.
“Of course. I hope you get some rest, Miss Dimitrou.”
“And you, Doctor. Thank you.”
——
Ariadne swung into the convenience store to get some snacks and some smokes. She needed one after that scare, but as she sat in the car, she was lost in thought.
Making him a Pillowfluff for his own good… is it really that bad?
He sounded like he was being murdered. It really was that bad. Doctor Fields was a respected vet and was the best in Fluffy care in the city, with as little to do with Hasbio and FluffMart as possible. She’d gone to him with her mother’s dogs before. All her friends went to the clinic he worked from. So he wasn’t saying it just for some kind of sick kink, right?
Shit. She needed to look into how to care for Pillowfluffs. They were notorious for being miserable, despondent creatures with very little to live for and the amount she’d just paid for a lame Fluffy… shit.
“Shit. Shit, shit, shit.”
Her hands shook so hard that she couldn’t spark up.
She could give him a good life. It didn’t make her love him any less. The short time they’d spent together had been blissful, she couldn’t have asked for a pet to be better behaved, snugglier, more loving. His personality was so sweet and loving, he didn’t demand anything from her, loved to cuddle on her lap and look at story books… even loved to say hello to her colleagues.
Like hell was she going to take him back to the breeder. Nor was she going to let him suffer on. No, she needed to talk to her Fluffy seriously and work out what to do.
Together.
——
Bathory’s eyes opened several hours later, bleary, with a dull headache and a dry mouth. He wasn’t in his bed, but he could smell his mummah… and the cleaning chemicals of the vet. That was right! Mummah brought him to the vet, because he’d had the worstest leggie-owwies he’d ever had in his life.
There was a safe water bottle on the wall of the Fluff-kennel he was in, close enough so he just had to stretch his neck a bit to get at it. His leggies were sore and throbbing, but not as badly as they were before. It had felt like he was dying!
He looked around himself and he was laid on some simple absorbent paper layered over foam panels, then… mummah’s shirt! That’s what smelled like her! He buried his face in it and rubbed his muzzle on it adoringly, able to smell her perfume and her natural body scent, feel the softness of repeatedly-washed cotton until it was smooth.
Big tears welled up in his eyes. He missed mummah so much! Bathory wanted nothing more than to give her a big huggie, but the ache in his legs made something as joyful as a hug feel worrisome.
Huuuuu…
Bathory took another deep sniff of the shirt and closed his eyes.
Mummah… be here soon?
——
Fuck, these Pillowfluffers were a bunch of nut jobs.
Ariadne scrolled down the biggest forums on her personal laptop, mind utterly blown by some of the bizarre thinking on display.
Pillowfluffs are happy fluffs? What the fuck?
Did they just keep repeating that until they believed it? Here were people cutting the legs off of healthy Fluffies for… fun? While part of her thought that was pretty metal, the rational part saw some seriously fucking depressed loaves of fluff that looked dead behind the eyes despite smiling for the camera. Regardless of how weirded out she was, Ariadne made an account and posted a new thread on the husbandry forums.
xXLABYRIxNTHOTXx posted:
hi everybody
my fluffy has hypermobile joints and suspected fibromyalgia diagnosed by my trusted vet. he woke up screaming last night in pain and needed an emergency appt where the vet suggested quadruple amputation.
he is only about a month or two old with his mane just coming in. should we try meds first or go for pillowing? hes avoided using his legs as much as poss so far.
let me know your thoughts
ty
Immediately, there were replies.
sooner the better. pillowed mine at that age and shes living her best life : )
WOW A VET WHO SPEAKS SENSE XD WHATS NEXT? FLUFFY POPE? XDDDDD
what is his diet? is he neutered yet?
yes yes yes do it do it do it stumpies make everything better!!!
Maybe a forum for disabled Fluffies would be better, instead of chasers.
The thought was cut off by her phone ringing. The vet had processed Bathory’s bloods and scans and had news for her.
“Miss Dimitrou? Bathory is awake and ready to see you. I did a cursory DNA test after seeing his x-rays and… this is some of the worst inbreeding I have ever seen in Fluffies. It suggests a very close familial bond between his parents, which has affected his growth and development,” explained the morning shift vet. “Doctor Fields explained everything to me. His leg bones and kneecaps are deformed and riddled with bone spurs, shredding the tendons as they go. Your Fluffy will never be able to walk properly and will have issues with pain whether we remove his limbs or not. He will require medication for his nervous system to stop it from sending so many erroneous signals and painkillers, if his nerves are indeed as malformed as we expect. His life expectancy is shorter than an average Fluffy. I… I understand this is a lot to take in.”
Ariadne felt numb.
“I understand. He is my companion, I will pay for his medication. When can surgery be done?” She asked, opening the calendar on her computer.
“We have an open slot this afternoon. Doctor Fields mentioned that you wanted to speak with your Fluffy before any decision was made. Shall I pencil you in?”
“Yes, please. I’ll be down shortly.”
“Thank you, Miss Dimitrou. We’ll see you then.”
Ariadne hung up the phone and leant back in her chair to stare at the ceiling.
Shit.
She stood up and went to her bedroom, where several plush toys sat on a shelf above the headboard. Each of them was a favourite of hers, but Bathory needed it more than her— while many Fluffies appreciated a ‘huggy-friend’, perhaps a cuddle-friend or snuggle-friend would help him. Standing on her bed, Ariadne felt each one for the best texture and picked out a wolf with silky fur and velveteen ears. It was plump, soft and she gave it a spritz of her perfume, then held it under her armpit for a moment to scent it properly. She stuffed it down the front of her sports bra, then stepped down to select a picture book to read to Bathory, their Fluffy-sling and something for her to drink.
She stuffed everything into her handbag and left for the vet’s.
——
Ariadne arrived just as it began to rain. She hurried into the clinic before she was soaked through and made it just in time. The receptionist was waiting for her and had someone come to take her to see her pet right away.
“Mumm-ee?? Mummah!?” Bathory chirped before she could see him. A little black snout pressed through the thin bars of his enclosure and his nostrils flared.
“Hey, baby! Are you feeling better?” Ariadne chuckled, as the vet tech removed Bathory from his enclosure and put him (gently) into his owner’s arms. They hugged and she kissed between his ears, right on the new growth of a stark white mane.
“Yus, mummah. A wittow bit,” Bathory wagged his tail, but she could tell he was putting on a brave face.
“You never told me your leggies hurt you so much, Bathory. Did you not want me to worry?”
Bathory nodded, ashamed.
“Sowwy, mummah… Baffwee su happies, didn’t feew huwties so bad. An’… huu… Mistew Jools, huuuu huu,” the colt finally admitted. “Mistew Jools teww Baff-oh-wee tu nu say, ow’ he gib foweber-sweepies!” He sobbed into Ariadne’s chest, stretching his aching legs around her. “Weggies huwt, bu’ Mistew Jools huwt more.”
What the fuck…?
“You’re safe with me, Bathory. The doctor, he said your leggies are very sick. It’s not your fault, darling. You haven’t done anything wrong. But your leggies hurt you a lot. One thing we can do… is take your leggies away, so they don’t hurt any more,” Ariadne tried to explain. “It is a big change. You will rely on me even more, but the doctor says you can learn to walk different ways with no leggies, if that stops hurting you. Have your leggies ever not hurt?”
Bathory winced as he sucked on his hoof. Something compelled him to seek the comfort of sucking, but had nothing else for it. He shook his head at his owner’s question.
“Do you want your leggies?”
Bathory shook his head even harder.
“Do… you want to try life without them?”
He nodded.
Ariadne swallowed.
“Alright. I have a little something to help you,” Ariadne said as she braced Bathory with one hand and reached into her handbag with the other. She pulled out the plush wolf and tucked it next to Bathory. “This is your Puppy. He’s going to be your snuggy-friend. You can make a little fluffpile with him since he’s soft and warm and you can suck on him instead of your hoofsie.”
“Ohhh! Pwuppy!! Su soff’! Fank’oo, mummah!” Bathory squealed and wagged his tail, as he explored his new stuffy friend with his muzzle and mouth.
“We can have your leggies off today. Would you like that?”
“Y-yes, pwease mummah. Nu wan’ huwties any more,” Bathory sniffled as he nuzzled into Ariadne and his Puppy. She held him for a long while, until the vet tech gently told them it was time for her to leave, so that Bathory could be prepped for surgery.
“I’ll be right here when it’s done,” she told the sore little Fluffy as she kissed his head again and gently put him back in his enclosure with his stuffy-friend and her shirt.
“Wub ‘oo, mummah!”
“I love you too, Bathory.”
Very productive today, this story has been fresh on my mind! Wanted to give a shout out to the intense Pillowfluff fanatics on Pillowfluff dot com from @Transcendenz ’s Pillowfluff series. That was really the inspiration to get me going thinking about medically-required amputations and how Fluffies relate to their bio programming versus their bodies.
Stay tuned for more and thank you all for your feedback and thoughts so far!
