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When E-054 remembered the Nice Wady who had come and taken out the Huwty Toobs from her body and Milkie Pwaces, she remembered the fragrance of honey perfume and the word ‘fweedom’.
They’d been told that was what they were receiving, and what they deserved. Fweedom. And while E-054 and the others were quite happy at the idea of getting this present at first, the longer they waited for the Nice Wady to return, the hungrier they became.
That the woman was not going to return soon was a difficult concept to grasp. That was all they knew. Hoomins came by every now and again with Nummies. This was how things worked.
Another mare who was a Soon-Mummah had laid down in the grass of the field, not too far from the fence where they’d been abandoned, and gave a sullen huuu.
“Nice Wady nu come back, neba hab nummies again! Huuu huu-- Nee nummies, Tummeh babbehs nu have miwkies!” She despaired, wet lashed and runny nosed.
E-054 watched her lay on her side, looking painfully swollen as stubby legs kicked in a fit of pique. Some of the others began to latch onto this sadness, and a panic started to grip the small group.
“Nu nummies? Wady nu come back?” Said one, horrified.
“But nee nummies! Hab tummeh huwties!” Complained another.
It put a strange feeling in her, down deep. A bit like the unhappiness she felt when they took a Huwty Toob out and then replaced it with another, the pointy thing on the end always felt sharp going in. Whenever she knew it was coming, she’d feel a great sense of apprehension and dread, and her body would tense up too much.
E-054 began to feel something forming, in her fluff-filled and relatively poor excuse for a brain, that perhaps ‘fweedom’ wasn’t actually a present. Not like Toysies or Housies or Nummies were nice things that Fluffies needed. Maybe ‘fweedom’ was actually a Sowwy thing.
Maybe it was a punishment for bad Fluffies.
“But am gud fwuffy? Nu bite huwty toobs out. Fwuffy dwink bad wawa and bad nummies wike hoomin say fo Studdy…” Not that she had ever known what exactly a Studdy was either, but she understood it to be very important. She was helping. She was a good Fluffy.
“Ou Dummeh. Dis mo Studdy.” Announced U-012, sounding more sure than he felt. “Dey make Fwuffy do spewshul Studdy gamesies. Am gud Fwuffy, pway gud, Hoomin gib sketties.”
“Sketties?” The Soon-Mummah perked up, hopefully blinking her glassed eyes. “Nice Wady comin’ wib Sketties fo Soon-Mummah?”
“Stay hewe, wait fo Wady. When Studdy game ovah, gib Sketties to aw fuwffies,” he promised, holding his head higher as some of the others were soothed.
“Ou so smawt,” came some praise from another, but E-054 was not so sure.
She had never played any games for Sketties. In fact, she had never had Sketties before, but she realised only now that she already knew what Sketties meant. Now, the absence of them freshly implanted in her mind filled her with sadness. She wanted the Wady to come back with Sketties very, very badly. Looking around, it seemed the others now felt the same.
But U-012 was different from them. He was a lovely pink colour with a purple mane, but from his forehead sprouted a small horn. It glinted in the sun, and though not actually terribly sharp looking, it reminded E-054 for the sharp things on the ends of the Huwty Toobs.
She did not trust U-012.
And, she could smell something sweet on the air. Turning her head up, she sniffed at the breeze, and wandered a little from the fence-line.
“Whewe ou go?” The unicorn questioned, earnestly confused.
“Am go find Nice Wady! Pwetty smew wike Nice Wady obah dewe!”
“Dummeh gon nu hab sketties if ou go walkies!”
E-054 kept on into the grasses, “Am pway wooky game. Ou pway stay game.”
U-012 was having a great deal of difficulty accepting this, but several other Fluffies were already moving to follow the other. But he did not move, and neither did the Soon-Mummah. They were determined to have Sketties. Perhaps this was because they knew how delicious Sketties were, while the others only had an idea of them.
“Dummeh mawe,” The unicorn sighed, feeling sorry for her and the others, “Nu gon hab Sketties. Mo fo bestest fwuffies, and Soon-Mummah hab gud miwkies for tummeh-babbehs.”
“Ou is gud fwen to Soon-Mummah,” the swollen mare stared his way with appreciative eyes, “Mo den dem fwens. Ou am… Speshul fwen.”
“Bestest speshul fwen,” he agreed, and sat with her to wait for the Studdy Game to be over.
Further down in the meadow, the others looked for the Nice Wady. Cooing and looking behind rocks, they though she might be hiding. Maybe if they found her, they would get nummies. Hopefully Sketties! They could all smell that sweet scent now, and it was getting stronger.
Soon enough, they’d stumble upon some Honeysuckle flowers, and a small excitement broke out.
“Dis pwetty smeww! Am found Nice Wady!” E-054 was overjoyed and a great relief lingered for a moment before she realised, “… Nice Wady? Nu hewe? Am found ou! Nu hidey nu mo?”
But alas, she did not come out.
“Huuuu huuu, wan sketties nao!” A yellow Fluffy behind her slumped to sit and wail, “Nu wan tummeh huwties nu mo!”
E-054 felt very confused, unsure of what to do now. The others were looking even sadder than before. She felt very sad and empty too, and not just because of hunger. This didn’t seem like a Studdy Game, anymore.
The Nice Wady wasn’t coming back. Maybe nobody would come again, and that meant no Sketties and no Nummies either.
But the flowers they had found did smell very pretty. So pretty, in fact, that E-054 realised it smelled tasty. It wasn’t like any nummies she had ever seen, but perhaps there were other types of nummies? Maybe these were the ‘fweedoms’ that the Nice Wady had been talking about.
With a blink and a tentative nibble, she took a Honeysuckle into her mouth and delicately chewed at the petals and nectar. It tasted a bit like it smelled. Sweet. One of the other fluffies watched her do this, and before she could even give her verdict, that one had eaten a flower too. And another.
“Nummies hewe!” Gasped the yellow one, shocked and relieved at this revelation. “Am hab such heawt happies!”
“Pwetty smeww nummies fo tummeh! Fwuffies am otay! Nu wait fo nummies!”
A small rejoicing, and then the feasting began. Many flowers were consumed, with dewey nectar, dozens of white and yellow flowers happily chewed under a pleasant morning sun. They ate and ate their fill, until they had huddled into a small pile of full tummies, and it seemed that everything would be okay now. It was a good time.
It was a bright time.
So very unlike the evening, when the sun went away and the cold began to creep across the field. The fluffies watched as the darkness dragged wearily across the sky, lazily napping or playing amongst themselves until then. They did not understand why the Bright Ball had gone, and it was much harder to see now.
Some wondered if the Nice Wady only appeared when things were dark like this, such as Soon-Mummah. She and U-012 had not had any Nummies at all, having stayed dutifully by their fence, and the prospect of Sketties was becoming a desperate one.
“Nu wike Studdy Game,” she complained to him, snivelling as she felt her foals jostling uncomfortably within her. “Wan Sketties nao… Nu can wait nu mo…”
U-012 spotted a shadow and sat up straighter as a wave of vindication hit him.
“Nice Wady? Is game obah? Ou bwing Sketties fo gud fwuffy an speshul fwen?”
But he did not remember the Nice Wady being so short. She didn’t walk on fours like a fluffy, and she smelled sweet instead of musky. She didn’t have tipped ears or the subtle glint of moonlit eyes, both of which now fixed dangerously upon them. That was no Fluffy, and it was no Hoomin.
“Nu Nice Wady,” U-012 tilted his head. “Who is ou? Nyu fwen?”
Soon-Mummah rolled some to try and see better, squinting at this new shape. Unfortuately, that was about the time it came bolting towards her. A swift contraction of her fragile innards tightened her up, an uncomfortable and disturbed gurgling that threatened to expel wastes at force. Something she only knew to describe as Scawdy Poopies as the jaws of a fox came down upon her in the dark.
"SCREEEEEEE-- WOWSTEST HUWTIES–!!"
“SCAWY MUNSTAH!!” The unicorn nearly toppled back over himself, a spray of urine defensively sputtering as he twisted to get away. “NU HUWT GUD FWUFFY!! ONWY WAN SKETTIES! NU WIKE DIS STUDDY GAME!!”
“HEWP, SPESHUL FWEN-- MUNSTAH G-GON HUWT— SCREE!! TUMMEH BAB–”
The mare’s pleas were choked short by the vicious clamping of teeth at her neck, sinking into her throat as stubby hooves jerked and kicked. Pinned down into the dirt with a smearing bloom of blood, furred tail obscured her further as the fox tore at fluff and flesh alike. U-012 had gone running behind a fence post to hide, but poked his head out again with some horror.
This Scawy Munstah of the Dark Time had come and did not want to be fwens. It wanted to huwt the Soon-Mummah, and he could not understand why. He wanted to help but he did not know how, he was paralysed by the shock of it all. His Speshul Fwen only made a few more gurgled noises, wet sounding and gasped, and he couldn’t make out what she was saying. He didn’t know how to help. He didn’t want to have Wowstest Huwties too.
A sickeningly moist snap sounded, like a twig under a hoof, and in the dim moonlight he saw a limb pulled free from the Soon-Mummah, who was now very still. There was a funny smell in the air, now. Familiar somehow, but he thought maybe it was all the dark stuff leaking out of her. The Munstah had stolen one of her Weggies, pulling it free with its teeth. He’d gone back in for soft underbelly and the Unicorn shook as he witnessed what came next, urine dribbling down his legs and onto the grass below.
Soft and fluff were bitten into, rended by savagery, and strange things were pulled from inside. He watched on, frozen in place, as paws came down and fluids gushed out, unborn foals forced out of the Soon-Mummah and snapped at. The slow tearing of a head from tiny body came with a series of wet crunches as skull was crushed between teeth.
U-012 finally realised what he was seeing.
To the Munstah, it was Fluffies who were Nummies.
When morning came, much of the mare had been hauled away, though some gruesome remains were left behind. It was an unfortunate collection, bits of foal and some intestines and such, along with the parted leg and a sizable stain from the gore against the earth.
The other Fluffies from the field had wandered back towards the fence when the Bright Ball had returned, hoping that the Soon-Mummah and the Unicorn would finally join them if they were told about the good smelling Nummies they’d found.
Instead, they found only U-012, distraught even though he appeared to have won his Sketties after all.
“Wan Sketties too!” The other Fluffies rushed in closer, not wanting to miss out.
“Whewe Soon-Mummah?” E-054 stepped closer, too, looking around.
“M-munstah… Munstah came an–” He sniffled in between chewing, the fur around his mouth red. “Gib Soon-Mummah sweepies. Nu wake up again… Even wib wowstest huwties. Foweba sweepies, wike tummeh-babbeh…”
His gaze drifted then to the hairless and half torn body of what would have been a foal soon enough, and E-054 felt that tight feeling again. The other Fluffies could sense it too, despite the promise of Sketties.
“Nu smeww pwetty hewe…” Murmured one.
“Smeww… Scawdy poopies?” E-054’s nostrils flared, and now they looked to U-012 again.
Fresh tears had begun to fall.
“Nu wan keep eating tummy-sketties fro speshul fwen, h-huuu,” He lamented, far more humble now that he was at the horrific mercy of his programmed impulses. “Nu can stawp… nee Sketties… huu huuu…”
“Nu Sketties… ou am Munstah! Ou am eat Soon-Mummah!” E-054 reared back now, as did the others.
“Pointy munstah! Scawy! Bad Fwuffy!”
“No am Nummies! Munstah Fwuffy! Gib Sowwies to Bad Munstah Fwuffy!”
A pained squeal broke loose as the others beared down now, their hoofsies driving into his soft body to bruise and break skin. “Nu Huwt Fwuffy-- Nu am Munstah, Pwease–!”
But the others would not stop. Again, and again, they came down on him, cracking rib and bone, stamping hard to crush him as he screamed and begged and pleaded with them. It was only when he could not cry any more, and when his breath was a faint wheeze and there was red stuff coming from his eyes and his nose, his ears, his poopie-pwace, that they stopped.
This red stuff was like the stain where Soon-Mummah once was. Then, the wheezing stopped, and his twitching limbs stilled as eyelids drooped.
E-054 thought it looked like he was sleeping, and it made sense of what he’d said.
“Take foweba sweepies, Munstah Fwuffy,” She lowered her head, “Munstahs who huwt Fwuffies and Fwens get Sowwies Hoofsies.”
Just like the Hoomins gave Sowwies to Bad Fluffies.
The others agreed.