The noise of the bus was especially grating to Morgan today, the sound of people chatting on their phones, playing videos without headphones, coughing, and a myriad of other unpleasant noises all coalescing into a migraine for her. She really wished she hadn’t forgot her headphones today. To distract herself, she peered down at the slumbering fluffy pony currently taking up residence in her favorite mug. The poor blue thing had a mangled left front leg, a result of being stuck in a crack on the sidewalk. He had been all alone, and in such distress that she didn’t even try and get anything information out of him. He had continued sobbing, but the motion of the bus and pain seemed to have put him out. She took her phone out and dialed a contact labeled ‘Mom.’ It rang a couple of times before a voice on the other end answered.
“Hey sweetie, everything all right?” The voice on the other end of the line sounded tired and worried.
“Not really. I could use some help. I found a fluffy foal with a messed up leg all alone. Would you be able to come by my place and help out with him?”
“Another stray?” There is a pause and Morgan could feel the annoyance on the other end of the call. “Yes I can help. I’ll be there in an hour.”
“Thanks Mom, love you.” She ended the call and sighed, leaning her head back and waiting for her stop.
Thirty minutes later, Morgan arrives at her apartment building. Trudging up the stairs, she can already smell the stench of weed coming from her apartment. Fucking Mandy. Morgan unlocked the door and stepped inside, kicking the door closed. A woman with long blond hair was sitting on the couch, taking a rip of a bong, wearing a revealing, tight dress.
“You’re home early.”
Morgan huffed and set the box down on the kitchen table. “Yeah, got fired. Been a hell of a day. Hey, just letting you know, we have a new pet.”
Mandy set the bong down and went over to Morgan. “Are you kidding me Morg? A fluffy pony? Aren’t you a little old for that shit?”
“Too old for helping animals? No, I’m not.” Morgan could feel her face flush red as her temper rose, her nerves already on edge from the day.
“Whatever. If that thing shits on any of my stuff, I’ll throw it out the window.” Mandy wrinkled her nose at the smell. The foal had shit in its sleep all in the coffee cup, caking its fluff in the drying feces.
Morgan just shook her head and gently picked the cup up and took it to the kitchen sink. Mandy went to finish getting ready, leaving Morgan to her task. Morgan can’t help but cringe at the stench coming from her cup. She should have put him in the plant, at least it would have fertilized it. She ran the water to warm it up and then gently lifted the poor thing, careful of his leg. It looked awful. She could see part of the bone pressing up against the skin. She gently moved the short fluff away, and saw horrific bruising. She gently put him under the water, grabbing a bottle of fluffy shampoo from under the counter from when she had her old fluffy. She began to massage his body, soaping up his body and working the dried crap out of the fluff. Luckily he was still young, so the fluff wasn’t as dense as it could be.
Blue had spent the entire ride home half sleeping, half waking. Strange, abstract dreams flowing through his feverish brain. The pain was unbearable, but faded with his half sleep. When he had coherent thoughts, they were of his brother, and for the worry for him and mourning his two siblings that had died. They hadn’t been mean like Pink, and he would miss them too. Suddenly, his dreams turned to drowning, falling into a crack in the sidewalk fully, being swept away by the current.
His eyes flew open, bugging out of his head in panic, pupils dilated from fear. Tears instantly formed in his purple eyes, as he felt his fluff dampening. He jerked hard, thrashing, causing debilitating pain to flair from his injured leg.
“OWIES! CHEEP CHEEP ! NU WAN WAWA! OWIES! PEEEEEEEEEP!” He kept screaming and thrashing, his vision tunneling. His mind could no longer take the pain, and he passed back out to sweet blackness.
Morgan felt tears sting her eyes as he woke up screaming, but didn’t stop scrubbing, and was relieved when he passed back out. Once he was clean and dried, she set him on a towel on the counter and went to her bedroom. She stripped out of her work clothes, now covered in shit. She heard a knock at her door and Mandy’s voice.
“I’m headed out, don’t wait up Morg.”
“Okay, make good choices tonight.” Morgan called back, glad she would be out of the apartment till tomorrow most likely. After putting on a t-shirt and jean shorts, she went to her closet and rummaged around until she found what she had been looking for. A shallow box, made of plastic, with a built in litter tray and milk bottle. The bottom was made of a soft, removable material that was machine washable. She also dug out a clean but used foal bed, a few blankets, and a small Bluetooth speaker. She hooked up the speaker to charge it, and brought the rest into the kitchen. She set it down and gently picked up the blue foal, setting him down on the small bed and putting the blanket over him. As she finished up, there was a light knock on the door and Morgan answers it, finding her mother standing there.
Her mother looked very similar to Morgan, her face more lined, less freckles, and shorter hair that was the same deep red speckled with grey. She was wearing green scrubs and a tired expression. Morgan felt a pang of guilt, knowing that she had a long day at her clinic.
“Hey Mom, thanks for coming.”
Her mother stepped inside and sighed. “Of course, I can’t be mad that you love helping animals like I do.” She gave her daughter a warm smile and followed her into the kitchen. She looked at the sleeping foal and gently moved the blanket to look at his leg. “You will probably not want to be here for this. I would hate for him to associate you with pain.”
Morgan nodded, already grabbing her purse. “Yeah, I figured. I need to go get formula and kibble for him anyways. The stuff I have is all expired, I just didn’t want to leave him alone. Can I borrow your car?”
Her mother handed her the keys and after a warning not to mess it up, Morgan was cruising towards the local Fluffmart in her mother’s Infiniti.
Morgan was not a big fan of Fluffmart. They did little in the way of helping fluffies. In fact, they treated them like product rather than animals. Though that is how most people saw them she supposed. She had gotten a lot of crap in high school for her love for the creatures, but she hadn’t let it get to her…too much.
She pushed open the door to the store as a tall man with long brown hair and arms full of bags was stepping up. He caught the door and held it for her. Damn he was cute, shame she is on a mission. He smiled at her, and she smiled back, enjoying a positive interaction, however brief, on this shithole of a day. Turning away from the man, she headed inside. The sound of all the fluffies trying to get her attention from the left side of the store grated on her ears. ‘Damn it, forgot my headphones again.’ Ignoring it as best she could, she headed for the aisles of supplies. She grabbed litter and food, including formula, and as an after thought, a stuffed pink pig that squeaked when squeezed, or hugged. She headed for the counter to pay, eyeing the gangly lad at the checkout with distaste.
Tracy Langford, Morgan’s mother, finished washing her hands and proceeded to sanitize them. With that done, she donned a pair of blue latex gloves and proceeded to where the blue foal slumbered. She was also wearing a surgical mask and a hair net. Tracy was a bonified veterinarian, but lately she had been seeing more and more fluffies, thus she was very familiar with their quirks. One such quirk being that they recognized people and other fluffies by scent first, then by sight. Their eye sight was terrible though, so they mainly looked for face shape and hair color. If she had to amputate the leg, which she assumed she would, it would have to be without anesthetic. Vets were not allowed to operate on feral fluffies, an ordinance put in place to help cull the feral population, and this little one didn’t seem like he had time for the process of Morgan getting him chipped and papers drawn up.
She lifted the small creature off the bed, causing him to stir and whimper in his sleep, but not wake. She set him on the kitchen counter, which had also been sanitized, and began examining the leg. Without an xray, she couldn’t be sure, but it seemed like he had a compound fracture and internal bleeding in the leg. Even if she was at her clinic, she probably wouldn’t be able to save the leg. He needed to lose it. Poor thing, he didn’t deserve it. She grabbed her tools that were set out beside her. A razor, cotton swabs, iodine bottle, scalpel, stitch thread, and a needle. She wet the razor and gently shaved the leg, being as gentle as she could, but still causing the blue foal to whimper and squirm. Once the leg was bare, she sanitized it and spread iodine where the cut would be preformed, and then began to cut.
Blue’s dreams had become more clear, but no less horrific. First he was stuck in the crack again, except it turned into a mouth and began to eat him as he was carried away by it. Then he was with his family, and Mummah and Pink sissie were pulling on his leg, making it move and hurt, trying to take it away from him! Then he saw his brown brother, all alone and scared, wondering where he was…
“SCREEEEEEEEEEEE!” The foal yelled as he felt something cut into his injured leg. He tried to thrash and escape, but something was holding him down as it took away his leggie! “CHEEP! PEEP! NU TAKE WEGGIE FWOM BABBEH! AM GUD BABBEH, NEE WEGGIE FOW HUGGIES AN…” The blackness took him once again, and there were no dreams this time, only pain and the void.
Morgan pushes into the apartment, carrying the bags from Fluffmart. She saw her mother on the couch, reading something on her phone. Tracy looked up as her daughter walked in and put the phone away.
“Get everything you need?”
“Yeah I got everything, how is the patient?” Morgan could hear the worry in her own voice, hoping for the best but fearing the worst.
“I think he is going to pull through, but I had to take his leg. There was no saving it, especially not here.”
Morgan nodded, giving her a hug. “Thank you, you know how much I appreciate this.”
“I know honey. I need to get home now though, long day ahead of me. I left some antibiotics on the table, he needs 3.5 milliliters twice a day. Give him some children’s pain medicine as needed, but half of what it recommends. He will more than likely be fine with walking, being so young will help with that. He will be upset when he wakes up, but you were always good at getting through to these creatures. Call me if you need me, okay?”
“I will, love you Mom.”
“Love you too sweatheart.” Tracy closed the door behind her as she left.
Morgan went over to the foal pen, looking at the little blue fluffy. The sight of the amputation was angry and red, but had been well done she thought, not that she really knew what she was talking about. She picked him up gently in the pen and brought it into her room. She set it on the bed and got out the stuffed pig, figuring he will need some comfort when he woke. She gently began to stroke his back, but with enough force to hopefully rouse him. Luckily, she had already thought of a name for him as well.
Blue wasn’t aware of anything other than the heavy, aching pain in his leg. That is, until he felt a wonderful feeling on his back, a stroking motion that helped him forget about the pain a bit. He felt his little fluffy brain kickstart itself back to waking, and with it the pain only got worse despite the pets.
His purple eyes opened, and saw the red fluffed human that had saved him from the meanie floor monster. She was…right! She was his new mummah!
“Peep! Mummah…babbeh hab wostes huwties…nee huggies…an miwkies…” He waggled his leggies up to her to pick him up…wait…where was his other leggie? His favorite leggie! Well, they were all his favorite, but still! “Huu huu…wew babbeh’s weggie? Chirp …babbeh nee weggie…” Snot and tears ran down his face, darkening the short fluff there.
With a beautiful voice, his mummah calmed him. “There there, your leggie was hurt, and got lost. It isn’t your fault at all, but it had to happen so you would get better.” She gave him the most gentle, bestest uppies ever, and gave him a warm hug. The hug sent shivers down his body, and he was almost able to forget the pain in his stump.
“Sniff…chirp… babbeh nu am bad fow wose weggie mummah?” He sniffled and buried his head in mummah’s warm body, slowly, slowly calming down.
“You are not a bad baby, and hey, would you like a new name?” Mummah’s voice was so pretty, and…wait…new name?!
“Nyu namsie fow babbeh?”
“Yes, how about…Cobalt?”
Cobalt’s eyes widened, a little smile gracing his face for the first time since mummah had found him. “Cobawt wub nyu namsie! Tank 'ou bestest mummah! Cobawt wub mummah?” He threw his one foreleg against her, giving the best hug he could. He fult his tummy rumble and he looked up at mummah. “Chirp! Babbeh hab tummeh huwties, hab miwkies fow Cobawt?”
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