“Can Cwobah wait mowe minnits?” Clover pleaded, shuffling his hooves anxiously on the passenger seat.
“No bud.” You sighed. “Time’s up, we godda go in.” The two of you had been sitting in the parking lot of the fluffy daycare for nearly an hour now. You had arrived early, anticipating Clover needing time to be ready, but every time you said it was time to go in he would beg you for a little longer.
“Buh-”
“No buts. Either you’re going in or you’re not.” You stared him down. “You want to work on this, right?”
“… Yus.” He didn’t look at you, staring at his hooves.
“And you want your babies to feel loved, right?”
“Yus.”
“Then you need to go in.”
“Buh what if fwuffies mean?!”
You sighed. “Cash promised they would be nice. You trust mister Cash, don’t you?”
“…yus…”
“And no one has to know you have wings until you’re ready.” You had bought a fluffy sized shirt for him to wear, it was yellow with a clover design on the back and glittery text that read “LUCKY”. Most importantly, it did not have the wing slits that shirts meant for pegasus and alicorns did. “You don’t even have to take it off at all.”
“… Otay.” His voice shook as he said it.
“That’s my boy.” You tucked him under your arm as he trembled and started in. “If anything bad happens the nice people will call me and I’ll come get you right away.”
Clover nodded silently as you entered the building.
“Hi!” A pink shirted woman behind the intake desk called out. “Do you have a reservation? We’re all full today sadly.”
“Yeah, we do.” You set the shaking alicorn down on the counter. “I called yesterday, this is Clover.”
“Oh! Yes, Clover! I was worried you decided not to come!” She smiled down at him. “You’re a very brave fluffy. You’re going to be in Carter’s group, he’s very nice! I promise he won’t let anything bad happen to you.”
Clover looked up at you, still shaking. You wrapped him up in a hug. “These are nice people buddy. And nice fluffies. You don’t need to worry.” He clung to your arms as you set him back down. “I’ll be back at 3, okay?”
Clover hesitated, then gave you an uncertain nod.
“We’ll call you if there’s any issues, but it will be just fine. C’mon Clover! Let’s get you checked in.”
You drove home really hoping that Clover would have a good time. Cash promised you that place was super alicorn friendly, and they were quite happy to help over the phone. Still, it only took one bad fluffy for everything to go wrong.
Parking in your driveway, you sighed, leaning back in your seat. One fluffy problem was being dealt with, hopefully. That only left the wanna-be smarty in your garage. You gritted your teeth. You were going to try to reason with him one last time. If that didn’t work… You had another, less pleasant option that would.
You pulled up the garage door, its squeaking bearings waking up Sunshine.
“WET SMAWTY OWT!”
“SHUT UP!” You snapped at him, getting a momentary silence. “I’m going to give you one last chance. ONE!” He glared at you, cheeks puffed, from the filthy crate you trapped him in. You held up a can of dollar store spaghetti, and his eyes followed it. “If you can ask me nicely, I will give this to you.”
“Gib!”
You sighed. “That’s not nice.”
“GIB NUMMIES!” He slammed his hooves into the side of the crate.
“Alright, I tried.” You set the unopened can down in front of the crate. Sunshine stretched his hooves out to try to reach it. You walked inside, ignoring his screaming demands. You didn’t like what you were about to do. It was a drastic option, but if Sunshine wasn’t going to be himself again what other options did you have?
From the fridge you grabbed a juice box. Lilacs favorite, white grape. You pulled the straw off and broke the seal on the top. Grabbing Bluebells medicine, you pulled up a full syringe of the purple liquid and squirted it in. You really wish it didn’t come to this. You gave the box a good shake, and went back into the garage.
The nice lady carried you down a very colorful hallway, stroking your mane. “You’re gonna be just fine, Clover. I promise, we only have nice fluffies here.” She stopped in front of a blue door, knocking on it lightly. “This is the blue room, where we keep the nicest and friendliest fluffies we have!”
A pink shirted mister opened the door. “Hello! Are you Clover?”
“…Yus…” You muttered.
“I’m Mister Carter, I really like your shirt!”
“…Tankoo…”
Mister Carter laughed. “You’re a very polite fluffy! I think we’re gonna be good friends. Let’s get you introduced.”
The nice lady handed you to Mister Carter and he carried you into the room, closing the door behind him. Your eyes widened as you looked over the giant playroom.
The walls were painted a pretty blue with fluffy clouds, the bottom section of the walls were black and a few fluffies were drawing pictures in bright colors on it. There were more toys than you had ever seen in your life, balls and huggy friends and blocks and things you didn’t even know the name of! In one corner was a giant litterbox with ramps leading up to it, and in the other was a mountain of brightly colored shapes that fluffies were climbing around. At the very top was a smooth squiggly yellow thing, and a purple fluffy pushed herself off from the top, giggling and fluttering her wings as she slid to the bottom where she landed in a pile of pillows. There were as many fluffies here as there were in your daddeh’s herd!
Mister Carter set you down on a table in the enclosed entrance area. “Now, we need to go over a few rules, okay? Not that I think you’re going to be a bad fluffy, but we all have to follow the rules to have a good time. There’s no hitting, biting, or sorry hoofsies, okay? No jumping off any of the climbing stuff unless you call me over first. No calling fluffies mean names. Say please and thank you, and make sure you’re sharing the toys. Most importantly there are no special huggies here, even if someone asks. You got all that.”
“Yus mistah.”
“Great! You ready to be introduced?”
“Uhm…” You stared at your hooves. “…Nu suwe.”
Mister Carter crouched down. “Your daddy told me all about what’s going on. I’ll tell everyone you’re a unicorn, and they’ll believe me. I promise everything will be just fine.”
“…Otay.”
“You’re very brave, but if you need some space you can come tell me and I’ll let you hang out in here for a bit, okay?” You nodded. He picked you up and opened the gate to the play room. “Hey fluffies! We have a new friend!”
All at once the other fluffies stopped what they were doing and began to babble excitedly.
“This unicorn is Clover! He’s a little shy so let’s give him some space, okay? Do we have any volunteers to be his buddy today?”
Every hoof in the room shot into the air, and Mister Carter surveyed the room, thinking. “How about… Belle!”
The purple mare at the foot of the slide cheered and ran up to Mister Carter. “Hewwo Cwobah! Be nyu fwend?”
“Be nice to him, and show him around.” He set you down in front of her. “Alright, back to playing!”
“H-hewwo…” You stammered.
“Nu be scawed!” She held out her hooves. “Nee huggies?”
“N-n-nu!” What if she could feel your wings?
“…Oh.” Belle lowered her hooves, dejected.
“Clover promised his daddeh that he would keep his nice shirt clean. He’s not trying to be mean.” Mister Carter introjected.
“…Yus! Shiwt am… spechow!” You gave her what you hoped was a convincing smile.
“OOOOOhhhh. Otay!” Belle beamed back at you. “Mummah hab spechow shiwt too! It fwuffy tho, mummah say it caww Fuww Cowt! Yu spechow shiwt am nice!”
“… Tankoo.”
“Cwobah wike cowwow?” She asked, pointing with her hoof at the black wall.
“Nu kno. Nebah cowwow befow.”
Belle gasped like you just said you didn’t know what sketti was. “Cowwow am bestest! Cum!!” She darted off, wings buzzing. You followed after her, trying your best to stay positive. Your daddeh promised that this would help you mend things with Lilac, and you wanted that more than anything.
Sunshine was gnawing on the slats of the crate, still trying to get at the can of sketti.
“You thirsty?”
“Yus. Bwing bestest smawty wawa an sketties!” He demanded, still reaching for the sketti.
“I got juice for you.” You held out the straw to him and he bit down and drank greedily. You continued talking as he did. “Do you know why I tried so hard to talk you out of this?”
Sunshine spat out the straw, juice box emptied. “Cuz dummeh wan hewd fo own. Dummeh hate smawty.”
You sighed. “No, sunshine. Smarties that aren’t unicorns go forever sleepies.”
Sunshine stared at you, brow furrowed. “…Wha?”
“Yeah. They just… die. Have you ever seen a smarty that wasn’t a unicorn?”
You could see the gears turning in his head. “… Dummeh wying.”
“No, Sunshine. It’s true. That’s why I brought you this juice, I wanted you to have one more nice thing before you died.”
Sunshine’s eyes darted wildly around the room. You watched him go through all the stages of grief, emotions flashing across his face. Finally he whispered. “Smawty gun go foebah sweepies?”
You patted his mane, seeing his eyelids start to droop. “Yeah. I’m really sorry, I tried to talk you out of it.”
Sunshine began to stagger around the crate, breath heavy and slow. “Buh… nu… wan… hewp… buh… nu…” He keeled over to the side, hooves twitching.
“Bye, Sunshine. I’ll miss you.” You patted his side. His hooves twitched one last time and then he lay still, breathing slow, shallow breaths.
You started a timer on your phone. “See you in a few hours, buddy.” You stood and brushed off your pants, and went back inside to grab an old MP3 player and a speaker. Setting them up on either side of him, you started playing a track titled “owwieland.wav”. The sounds of fluffy screams and pleading rang out, echoing around the garage. Every few seconds a deep modulated voice would say “one last chance!”
You had done some online research and found a dosage of the fluffy painkiller that would knock him out but not kill him. Hopefully. The site was… not for people that wanted good things for fluffies. The kind of place you were sure Dave frequented. But, they knew how to make a fluffy suffer, and that was more or less your goal.
You’d see how he felt about being a smarty after his nap.
You held the purple chalk in your hooves carefully, putting the finishing touches on your masterpiece. Coloring was very fun, Belle was right! You put the last stroke of chalk on and stood back to admire it.
“Am pweety wingie fwuffy!” Belle chirped, and you nodded in agreement.
“Am spechow fwend.” You hoped you could do her justice. Her mane was a little paler than the only purple chalk available, but it was close enough.
Belle gasped. “Cwobah hab spechow fwend?!”
You nodded again. “Spechow fwend am Wiwac.”
“Am spechow fwend pwetty?”
“Yus! Am pwettiest fwuffy ebah!”
Belle sighed wistfully. “Mummah say Bewwe hab spechow fwend soon, say habta find wite fwuffy. Den Bewwe be mummah.” She looked up at the drawing again. “Cwobah hab babbehs?”
“…Nu.” Not a lie. But also not the truth.
“Cwobah hab pwetty babbehs wen time. Bewwe knu it!” She smiled warmly at you, and you returned the smile. She was right, there was no way that a fluffy as beautiful as Lilac could have anything but the most beautiful babies.
“Can fwuffy pweeze hab chawk?” A dark blue stallion asked you, reaching for the purple. You handed it over, and Belle skipped up next to you. You liked Belle! She was nice! You hadn’t met a lot of nice fluffies. Maybe Daddeh was right about these fluffies.
“Wan cwimb?” She pointed with a hoof at the colorful climbing structure.
“Suwe!” You raced over, leading the way.
You are Sunshine, and you are in hell.
Literal hell. Or as you know it, The Bad Place, where bad fluffies go. All around you were the screams and cries of fluffies suffering, wailing, distorted and twisted in ways that filled you with terror. You tried to scream along with them, but you didn’t have a mouth. You couldn’t see anything, because you didn’t have see places. You didn’t have anything at all.
Bad fluffies didn’t get to have anything.
You regretted everything. You didn’t want to be a smarty anymore. You thought it would give you nice things, like it did for your old smarty. It wasn’t worth this. Not at all. You wished you could go back, do things better this time.
“OnE lAsT ChAnCe!” A horrible voice boomed through the wall of fluffy suffering.
Another chance? You wanted another chance! You silently begged with the monster to let you take the chance, let you try again. You would be a good fluffy this time! You promised!
You slowly lowered Sunshine into the small hole you dug in your front flower bed. Did you have any intention of actually burying him? No. This was just thematic, to ensure that he didn’t figure out your ruse.
“Nhhg…” He moaned, twitching his hooves.
You poured a small shovel of dirt atop him, carefully avoiding his face.
“Nuuu…” He whined. You dropped to your knees, leaning down to look him over.
“… Sunshine?”
“Pwease… nu…” His hoof weakly reached up to you.
“Sunshine!” You pulled him out of the hole and hugged him tightly. “Oh, Sunshine, I thought you were dead!”
“Am… awibe…” he mumbled into your chest.
“Oh I’m so glad to hear.” You held him out at arms length. “But how, I thought you were a smarty?”
“Nu… Wan…” His voice caught in his throat, a small sob escaped him.
You hugged him tightly again. “You must not have really been a smarty at all. Oh, I’m so glad.” You stood, kicking dirt into the hole. “Let’s get you inside, buddy. We’ll talk when you’re feeling better.”
“Cwobah am up soooo high!!” You cheered, standing atop the climbing structure. It felt like being up in the sky, you were even higher than you were being carried by Mister Carter! Belle stood next to you, stretching her wings.
“Cwobah am suuuuu guud at cwimbin!”
“Tankoo! Am fun!” You smiled at her. Having another friend was nice. Strange, and kinda scary, but nice!
“Wet’s gu down swide!” She pointed at the yellow structure next to you. “Cwobah can gu fiwst!”
You stepped up to the yellow slide, setting your hooves on the smooth plastic. It didn’t seem so scary from the bottom but from the top… it was terrifying. You looked back at Belle, who smiled widely. She wasn’t scared. So you didn’t need to be either.
You took a deep breath and launched yourself off the top, leaping into the air. Almost immediately you put together that you were not meant to jump from the top of the slide, hearing Belle gasp behind you. Your hooves slammed into the smooth plastic, bucking under you and sending you tumbling head over tail down the slide. You bounced off the side of the first bend, flying into the air and landing with a splat on the padded floor.
“CWOBAH!” You could just barely hear Belle over the many worried fluffy voices around you.
You slowly got your hooves under you, shaking the dizzy feeling from your head. You felt a little banged up, but no major injuries. Your hooves felt kinda wet though. You had landed right in the middle of a hoof-painting activity, the bright paint covered most of your body.
“Am sowwy…” You mumbled to the gathered fluffies, trying to peel their ruined creations off you.
“You good, Clover?” Mister Carter called.
“Am otay! Nu huwties!” You replied.
You looked up to see Belle go down the slide and very quickly rush over to you. “Cwobah nee huggies?”
“Nu…” You gestured to the sticky paint coating your front. “Am yiiky.”
“Spechow shiwt! Nu!” Belle cried. “Bewwe knu wa du!” Before you could say anything she had grabbed the front of it and was pulling it off you.
“Wah! Nu!!” You tried to pull back, but the shirt just slid over your head. “Nu take shiwt!” Belle just continued to pull, you heard Mister Carter yelling as it slid up over your wings. “Pwease!!!”
With a final tug, the shirt pulled your leggies out from under you, and Belle fell back on her haunches. “Bewwe cwean shiwt! Mummah say if nu wash wite away it make stain!” She sprinted off to the water bowl while you huddled in the paint mess, hooves over your head.
You could feel the angry stares of the others burning into your fluff. They could see you for what you were. They knew you were a monster. It was only a matter of time until Belle noticed, and then she would hate you for lying to her.
“Cmere.” You felt Mister Carter’s hands slide under you, lifting you into the air. You peeked between your hooves at the fluffies staring but… they didn’t look mad. They looked worried. “Belle!” Mister Carter snapped.
“Eeh! Bewwe washie!” She cried. He leaned down and picked her up from where she was dunking your shirt in the water bowl.
“We do not take things from other fluffies without asking.” He said sternly.
“Buh… Nu wan shiwt to get stain…”
“Belle…” He glared at her. She shrunk down in his arms, ears flattening onto her head.
With a sniffle, Belle turned to you. “Bewwe sowwy. Nu thinkie, nu shud hab take.”
You stared at her, unsure what to say.
“Cwobah… am mad?” She asked, a worried look on her face.
Mister Carter sighed. “Let’s get you two cleaned up, and then we can talk.” He carried the two of you into the entrance and set you down on the table. You stood, shaking, staring forward and waiting for Belle to notice your deformity. Fluffies weren’t meant to have both wings and a horn. She would notice, and then she would attack you like every other fluffy did. You prepared yourself for it, lucky that your fall from the slide didn’t give you any broken bones. It was easier to suffer a beating when you didn’t have anything broken inside. Hopefully Mister Carter would stop her when she did, but-
“Cwobah hab pwetty wingies!!!” Belle gasped.
You spun to face her, shocked.
“Wingies suuuuu many cowwah!! Bewwe nu eben knu Cwobah hab wingies!!!”
“It’s just the paint, Belle.” Mister Carter started to wipe you with a damp cloth, easily washing away the pain smears.
“Ohhhh…” she looked down at her hooves, embarrassed. “Wingies stiww am pwetty.”
“Buh… Cwobah am munstah…” You started.
“Cwobah nu am munstah?” Belle replied, confused. “Cwobah am fwuffy.”
“Some fluffies call wingie-pointie friends monsters, it’s a very mean thing to do.” Mister Carter explained.
“It AM meanie ting!” Belle stomped her hoof on the table. “Dat am nu nice! Cwobah am bestest fwend!”
“…Weawy?”
“Yus! And Bewwe gib sowwy hoofsies-” another sharp look from Mister Carter cut her off, and she corrected herself. “Bewwe teww nice mistah dat fwuffies awe bein meanies.”
“That’s right. No fluffies are monsters. No matter what parts they have.” Mister Carter finished wiping you off and ruffled your mane before moving on to cleaning Belle.
You felt tears begin to form at the corners of your eyes.
“Nu cwy!” Belle pushed past Mister Carter and hugged you tightly. You sobbed into her shoulder, returning her hug. “Bewwe wub bestest fwend Cwobah!”
“… Tankoo…” You mumbled.
Belle released you and gave you a warm smile. “Cwobah wan pway tag? Aww wingie fwuffies Bewwe knu wub tag!”
Before you could reply, Mister Carter interjected, “When I’m done cleaning you off. You got paint on him again.”
Belle giggled. “Sowwy! Nu mean tu!”