Bravery Required!
The fluffmart door slammed open, startling both the receptionist and the stock as a man strode in. He was tall with a physique that wouldn’t look out of place on a Dragon Ball Z character, carrying the straightened back and purposeful steps of a man on a mission. “I need the bravest fluffy you have in stock!”
The receptionist, not well versed in abstract fluffy traits like bravery, just made a sweeping motion for the fluffy pens and within seconds the customer was looking down at a pen filled with foals. “Who among you is bravest?”
“Babbeh am bwave!” yelled a red colt, waving his hoof and proudly puffing out his chest. “Am gon be toughy, su am bwavest!”
“Is that so?” The man’s eyes bore through the red fluff. “Are you brave enough to traverse the dark?”
The colt hesitated just a smidge, then nodded. The man narrowed his eyes, which in turn made the red foal defensive. “Am bwave enuff! Nu am scawed of dawkies!”
“Are you brave enough to battle monsters? Even at the risk of your own health?”
“Uh… dat… Yus!”
“Even if the monsters may rip off your limbs?” the man insisted, clearly not satisfied with such a hesitant ‘yes’. “If it will tear your eyes out, destroy your tongue and tail, and cut apart your very insides will you still stand and fight?”
By the end of that sentence, the red colt had completely deflated. He looked like he was going to cry. “U… uu… y-yus…?”
“Dummeh!” huffed another foal, this one green. “Nu wisten tu wed babbeh! Wed babbeh got scawed of own poopies jus’ a few bwight-times ago!”
“N-Nu!” cried the red foal. “Wiaw! Nu am scawedy babbeh, am bwave!”
“Wies!”
“Gween babbeh got scawed by poopies tuu,” a brown foal pointed out cautiously. “Gween thought poopie babbeh was weaw poopies an’ cwied when babbeh moved.”
Green balked, and quickly an argument broke out between the three foals. The man crossed his arms, brow furrowed - none of the three were brave enough. Buying any of them would have been a disaster.
“Pss! Hey, mistah!” a filly called from the next pen over, waving a hoof in an awkward attempt to be sneaky. “Ovew hewe!”
Leaving the trio to their bickering, the man strode over to the filly and looked down at her. “Are you the brave fluffy I seek?”
“Nu.” The filly shook her head. “Babbeh am scawedy-fwuffy. But, babbeh bwuddah am bwave!” She pointed further into the pen, where a marine blue colt lay dozing. “Babbeh am awways scawed of dawkie-times, but bwuddah pwotect! Nu wet any munstahs huwt babbeh evew, su am weawwy supew bwave!”
That was promising. Reaching into the pen, the man scooped out the blue colt and held him up, studying his sleep-drunk stirring. “So you are brave, are you?”
“Uu…?” the colt mumbled, rubbing at his eyes. “Nyu daddeh …?”
“You, little fluffy. Your sister said you’re not scared of the dark. Are you?”
“Nu,” replied the fluffy with a shake of his sleepy head. “Sissy am scawed su babbeh nu can be, wanna pwotec…”
“Even if there’s monsters? Even if they would rip out your eyes and legs and twist your little neck off?”
“Nu, nu,” the foal shook his head again, “sissy wud get those huwties if babbeh nu pwotec, su wan pwotec fowevew.”
The man lit up. “Perfect! You’re coming home with me, little hero.” He promptly brought the marine blue foal to the counter as the little filly waved the two off, happy to have helped her brave brother find a home.
Hero was worried. Sure, it was easy to say he wasn’t afraid of monsters or hurties, but… In reality, he’d never faced either! He’d been scared of the dark when he was really little and had just opened his eyes, but when his little sissy - the last to open her eyes - got scared and crying just from being alone or in the dark, he knew that someone had to be brave for her sake. And as her big first-eyes-open brother, that duty had fallen to Hero.
The dark was just empty, he’d realized. He could huff and puff his cheeks at it and if any shadow made a scary movement, he could chase it off. But what if he met a real monster? One that he couldn’t chase off, that would rip him apart?
Of course, he’d try to fight it in theory… If he didn’t, then the monster might rip his beloved sissy apart, right? But he was still worried. Being carried home in the arms of his new big strong daddy, having been dressed in a pretty red cape and a shiny headband, he didn’t know what would meet him. Maybe he was being brought to fight for real and get hurt really bad and then he’d get returned to the fluffmart, with all his eyes and limbs having been eaten by a terrible monster.
“Suzy!” his new daddy called as they entered Hero’s new home, and the fluffy squirmed a little as he was held hidden from this Suzy’s view. “I’ve brought you a new guardian.”
A guardian? All of a sudden Hero was whipped into the open, brought face to face with -
Oh, this was a small girl! The tiniest mummah he’d ever seen! She was so small and all tucked up in a blanket, with soft round features that made him think of his sissy. “A fluffy!” she gasped and held her hands out, Hero gently placed in them and then hugged close. His worries melted away in an instant and he hugged his new human sissy tight, snuggling up to her warm embrace.
“The very bravest one they had,” daddy grinned. “You’re safe now. Those monsters in your closet won’t stand a chance!”
