some practice/speculative evolution for a not-too distant future after the release of fluffies, where a subspecies of feral has been discovered thriving in woodlands and grasslands, sometimes near, and other times completely isolated, from urban areas. these “campbell fluffies”, named after their discoverer, have diverged from their biotoy ancestors in notable ways.
coarser fur: while long fur is appealing to humans and good in the cold, campbell fluffies seem to have evolved a coarser, denser coat that serves better to regulate body temperature, deter pests, and maintain hygiene
out-turned ears: ears have begun rotating further outwards, perhaps to better detect predators or identify herd mates from further away. they’ve also grown longer.
longer limbs: campbell fluffies have been noticed to be notably faster than factory fluffies (well, fast for a fluffy), perhaps due to their elongated limbs and shorter fur which reduces drag on the underbrush.
tougher hooves: better adapted to the floors outside of a safe room, campbell fluffies have hoof pads almost an inch thick, and seems to grow stiff fairly quickly. still not much use in a fight.
shorter tails: a shorter tail means a harder tail to grab, and also helps with reducing infection and sores from feces. aside: campbell fluffies seem to poop less, perhaps due to their diet, but the smell is… unbearable. like forgetting to clean your litter box sitting in the hot sun for three days unbearable.
muted tones: the alleles governing fluffy colors are highly mutable, but finding neon or unnatural campbell fluffy colors is so far completely unseen. instead, muted earth tones are dominant, with browns, tans, greens, and much higher occurrence of patterned coats than in normal fluffies.
non-earthies rare: almost all campbell fluffies are earthies. its unclear if campbell fluffies kill non-earthy foals, or if they simply don’t appear because their horns and wings offer no advantage for the invested energy in development.
tight-knit herds: campbell fluffies are almost never seen in units smaller than 3 or 4 fluffies. typical roles still emerge: smarties, toughies, special friends, though smarties are generally more community-minded, and roles can shift if a competing male or female challenges the smarty. intra-herd fatalities are extremely rare.
behavioral changes: campbell fluffies are wary of humans, and extremely wary of domestic fluffies. they rarely emerge during the day in urban areas, but are active in the wild. their speech seems more limited, perhaps due to lack of exposure to humans, and nurse mares have been spotted teaching foals to speak, as well as learn about the nature around them (which berries are good, which smells are bad, etc).
they can still be domesticated, but their automatic trust and love of humans has dimmed. herds compete with predation through their improved awareness and speed, and their rancid “sorry poopies”. their diet is omnivorous, herds having even been seen chasing off scavengers to secure carcasses for themselves.
Now this would be a perfect work fluff for me. I like the detail and the info you have on them. Makes them feel a little more real.
Given how badly brown foals are often treated, earthy tones that are better for camouflage ironically may hurt a fluffy’s survival.
@mutagen Really love the lore and worldbuilding you did on this! Reminds me of some of the effort @MossyFluff puts into his content. I love lore that explores how ferals would develop further in the wild, and hope that I can explore stories like this in future!
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Au contraire, I think, and assuming that brightly coloured fluffies and their herds are easy prey for predators, I can see the natural coloured fluffies slowly winning out and becoming the main stay among feral populations in the wild. It became the basis for one of my first stories on the booru.
Fucken buful
So, this is the result of rapid breeding plus natural selection over a good number of years I assume? Highly iterative refinement 
yep, tossing in a bit of added genetic instability to make things interesting too
Fail fast, fail often. I’m told it works wonders for all sorts of things.
Love the little illustration of “non earthies rare” in the bottom right corner. Super delightful and funny - and clear!
Question: fear of water still a thing? Or were they able to figure out how to successfully navigate its usage?
Re: Speech. Would they perhaps start coming up with their own ways to communicate things given the lack of human vocabulary? Maybe not words but grunts, squeaks, whatever? I could see some things going from “honey badger” to a concise sound.
I do quite like the Campbells.
All this to say, it’ll be more of a challenge to see all the ways these things can express fear and suffering?
G r o o v y.
Can’t wait to feed them their own skunk shit.
I’d say the fear of water is still there, though maybe more as a dislike. Since their coat is pretty dense, it takes a long time to dry, which can kill when it’s cold. Irrational fears of puddles, small streams, or rain is mostly gone though.
Language is interesting because I always thought it was weird for fluffies to just suddenly be able to talk, even though it takes humans a long time to get there. With no humans around to expose fluffies to language early on, it makes more sense for fluffies to take an active role in teaching it. I think fluffy dialects and accents are inevitable, yeah. Maybe just simple sounds like you said!
That’d make sense. Syllables waste time, and you need a certain level of volume to be heard and understood. A chirp, a warble, and other things might be better understood quickly and quietly. I’d see that as an asset.
The continued water aversion makes sense. Feral cats still aren’t crazy about it and they’re pretty successful.
My mother would say “Get’em something to eat! Boy, you’re skinny!”
From what I know, the more biotoy headcanons of fluffies just have fluffies speaking automatically at some stage, like this picture by AIDS here. This would make sense if fluffies were a type of replicant, aka what I call the biotoy canons, but I feel it would be out of place with the other canons that have more animalistic/natural approach to fluffies. Another simple explanation some people use is “programming”, but my own problem with this explanation is the fact that you can’t just program a language into DNA.
I do love the idea of adult fluffies taking an active role in teaching fluffspeak to their foals. One approach I had was that fluffspeak itself, due to some of its rules and regulations, could be considered a constructed language. Thus, one idea I had was that Fluffspeak originated from Hasbio itself, and early researchers taught fluffspeak to the early generations of fluffies. Then, whether it is the fabled PETA break-in, or domestics just ending up becoming feral, fluffspeak starts proliferating in the wild as ferals start eking out an existence independent of human contact. Also, and going back to the idea of adults teaching foals their language, I also have been writing about adult fluffies being used to teach foals in a daycare the fluffspeak language, along with the presence of a human teacher.
I do love the tweaked traits and behavioral patterns for this breed. It invokes the shift from rabbit to a hare. Sleek (as a fluffy can get).
I wonder why they are so wary of Domestic fluffies, even more so than humans? And can they breed with domestics still? Would their offspring resemble a domestic or a Campbell?