Alex made it through the winter relatively unscathed, aside from a few days of hunger towards the end when she made the choice to conserve the food Chestnut had stockpiled during her pregnancy. Briefly she considered finding where she had dragged Chestnut’s body to and taking a bite for sustenance, but that idea was quickly ignored when she gagged at the thought of putting that poopie Fluffy into her mouth.
Thankfully the cold-times didn’t last all that long and before Alex knew it, she was able to walk outside without the fear of freezing to death. As much as she hated Chestnut for forcing her to have poopie babbehs, she had come to love her new home, it was well-hidden, safe from the elements, and aside from the slight stench of dead foals was very warm and comfortable. The only problem being that it was lonely, she’d spent three months by herself and the solitude nearly killed her more than the hunger. She was missing something… friends perhaps?
No, not friends. Subjects, lesser Fluffies to rule over, and Alex knew she wasn’t going to find any here.
Reluctantly, Alex left her new home and set off, hoping that she could find some dummehs soon and bring them back here, where she could live her proper life as a rightful Smarty.
It took Alex two days to find anyone else.
Not for lack of trying, admittedly most herds would still be hiding, using up the last of the supplies waiting for the hot-times to get into a good swing. But Alex’s problem was focus, every time she found a scent trail worth picking up on, she’d follow it for a bit before picking up another trial and follow that one instead, starting the process all over again.
Not that Alex knew that, she always considered her last idea to be her best one since she was clearly so smart.
Eventually she came across a small herd of about six Fluffies, a Smarty Friend, three toughie stallions and two mares, neither of them pregnant but given the warmer weather Alex figured they would be soon. It was a pity, threatening a soon-mummah would’ve made the smarty friend give up his title that much easier, but he looked pretty weak, all loving and caring to his special-friend, all Alex had to do was get to him first before his Toughies could stop her and the rest would be easy.
As she took her first steps out of her hiding place, there was a sudden burst of noise, shouting and… barking. The herd heard it too, they all looked around in a panic, trying to see where the monsters were coming from, they all realised too late that the monsters were everywhere.
Five human men, three of them with loud, angry dogs, surrounded the herd in their little den, making escape impossible. The toughies surrounded the mares, making a circle to keep them safe whilst the Smarty friend stood out from the others, putting his life first for the safety of his herd. Alex tried to stay hidden, but as the dogs got closer and the circle of humans got tighter, she had to run out and join the others. If anything the new Fluffy shocked the herd more than the humans did.
“Nyu fwiend?” The Smarty asked. “Who dese hoomins?”
Alex spat at him. “Smawty nu am yuw fwiend, Fwuffy am nyu Smawty nyo, dis am Smawty’s hewd.”
The Smarty Friend looked at Alex confused, then at the humans, then back at Alex. “Wha?”
“Smawty say…”
“You ain’t saying shit little lady.”
One of the human gripped Alex by the scruff of her neck and lifted her up, she shit herself in fear.
“Eek, bad upsies. Wet Smawty gu nyo.”
The man laughed. “Oh I don’t think so. Hey Gus, I think we just stopped a coup.”
The other human, Gus, walked over while the other three men examined the herd. Gus looked Alex over and chuckled. “Well I’ll be damned Pete, I was wondering if we miscounted, never seen a female Smarty before.”
“You get them occasionally, usually if the mother’s been a real cunt. You got a family nearby you little shit?”
“Hmmph, Fwuffy nu am shit. Fwuffy am bestesh Smawty, mummah fink dummeh bwudda am bestesh babbeh, nu knyo dat Fwuffy am. Wun way fwom mummah, git own hewd, be bestesh mummah eba.”
Pete looked over at Gus. “See what I mean.”
Gus nodded. “Indeed, right little hellgremlin you got there.”
At that moment, one of the other men joined Pete and Gus. “I’ve checked the herd out, the mares are decent stock so I’ll take them, plus their mates, one of the toughies and the smarty, it’ll make the transition easier before I let my stallions loose of them. The rest of the Toughies are yours Pete.”
“Thanks Vinny. Say, you want dibs on this one as well, genuine Smarty mare.”
Vincent pulled a disgusted face. “Smarty mare? Fuck that, Smarty stallions are bad enough but the mares are even worse, maybe if she was a decent colour but that drab grey won’t sell. Nah man, she’s all yours.”
Pete smiled cruelly at Alex. “I was hoping you’d say that, I was thinking of making this bitch into a prize to knock her down a peg or two, been a while since the boys had some stress relief.”
As the humans laughed and started to make the leave, Alex pondered about what they had said about her.
And what the Fluff did they mean by making her a ‘prize’.
“Ladies and gentleman, are you ready for the main event?”
Alex peered out of her cage, she could see very little but the little she could make out was a lot for a Fluffy to take in. She was on a table, set between a mob of humans, mostly men, all crowded in a circle around a pit, all of them cheering and shouting.
Alex had been stuck here for roughly two weeks now, and she hated it. Her initial demands to be taken seriously as the rightful Smarty were met with beatings and isolation, eventually she learned to curb her demands though they still flared up from time to time.
She’d been in the tree-place ever since she was caught, her captors sleeping in, what she had heard them call, a tent, and cooking food on a very small campfire. From what she could tell, this wasn’t normal for them but they couldn’t be ‘in the city’, whatever that was.
Her two new daddies were Mister Pete and Mister Gus, though neither of them liked to be called ‘daddeh’ and refused to answer any Fluffy who called them that. Mister Pete was the one she saw most, he dealt with all the Fluffies personally, Alex could hear them but aside from the occasional health-check she hadn’t been able to leave her cage to see any of her new herd-mates since she arrived. From what she’d been able to make out, Mister Pete’s herd was mostly stallions and mostly toughies, she would often catch him making his stallions fight each other and calling it ‘training’, any stallion who refused to train was sent to Mister Gus.
Mister Gus was mean, where Mister Pete would have moments of pride and comfort to the Fluffies who listened to him, Mister Gus just liked to hurt any Fluffy who got too close to him, Alex could still hear the Toughies she was caught with crying about the violent methods Mister Gus use to take away their special-lumps. Sometimes she’d see a fluffy go with Mister Gus to his tent, then never see that Fluffy again.
Alex would sometimes push her luck with Mister Pete to see how much she could get away with, but she never dared try that with Mister Gus.
Back in the pit, Pete looked around at the cheering crowd and asked them again.
“I said, are you READY?”
Another cheer, louder this time, Alex was frightened bt the noise, but curious as to why the humans were so excited.
Pete smiled and kept up his showman act. “Alright then, in the red corner, weighing in a 8 kilos and 57 grams, BLUDGER!”
Alex peered over through the crowd to the corner Pete was pointing at, she could see a dark blue earthie stallion with a purple mane and a bevy of cuts and bruises around his face. His owner slapping him in the face to get the adrenaline pumping.
“And in the blue corner, coming in at 9 kilos and 29 grams, STRYKER!”
Alex looked over to the other corner, seeing Mister Gus kneeling beside a black unicorn with a silver mane, from her vantage Alex could see Mister Gus put a pointy-hurty into Stryker, it seemed to make him even agrier if that was possible.
She knew Stryker, she’d seen him training with the other stallions when Mister Peter wanted them to fight. And he was a good fighter, REALLY good, handsome too despite some war-wounds, Alex almost considered him as a new special-friend until she watched him beat another stallion to death.
Now she was wondering how to get him onto her side for protection.
Bludger and Stryker met in the middle of the pit as their owners left, both Fluffies trained not to start until Pete said so, Pete positioned himself at the ladder for a quick exit and smirked at the two snarling Fluffies.
“FIGHT!”
As Pete ran up the ladder to the viewing grounds, Bludger and Stryker tore into each other, almost instantly the two of them were reared up, their front hoofs knocking against each other as they both fought for the upperhand. Bludger got the first proper hit in with a heavy slam onto Stryker’s right eye, Stryker snarled at his opponent and chomped down on Bludger’s right arm. Bludger shook and twisted trying to get Stryker off him, when that didn’t work he yanked his arm down, allowing him to bite down and tear off part of Stryker’s left ear.
The cry of pain that Stryker let out was barely audible over the cheers and the jeers of the crowd, clearly some weren’t happy with Stryker’s performance. Alex looked over at Mister Pete, surprisingly he didn’t look too worried.
With Stryker still reeling from his torn ear, Bludger chuckled and lifted his front hoofs, ready to smash down on Stryker’s face. Only Stryker rolled out of the way at the last moment, causing Bludger to stomp down onto the ground, the sudden hard stop sent a shockwave through his body and Bludger crumbled, holding onto his leg and screaming.
“AHHH! Wowstesh weggie huwtie, meanie Stwyka nu wet Bwudga gib…”
Bludger was cut off with a hard kick to the face from Stryker, he never had time to recover as Stryker pummelled him over and over until there was nothing left of Bludger’s face but a red stain.
The crowd cheered, Stryker had won.
There was a few moments of chatting between the humans, Alex saw several piece of green paper go to Mister Pete until slowly but surely, the crowd dispersed, leaving just Pete, Gus, and Bludger’s owner.
“How damn.” Bludger’s owner laughed. “You weren’t kidding, what the hell you put in that stuff.”
“Family secret.” Gus said with a wink. “But it gets the job done.”
“Damn right it does, little bastard basically curb-stomped Bludger there.”
Pete passed some green paper to Bludger’s owner. “You sure you’re ok losing Bludger Mike, I know he was a good fighter for you.”
“Yeah, WAS. Lost a few too many rounds in the training lately, he was getting old. Would’ve kept him around to train the new blood until he decided to beat my prize breeding mare while she was pregnant with another stallion’s foals. Thought that cause he got the fuck her a few times when he was champion that made them an item, killing him outright would’ve been too good, he needed the embarrassment of losing.”
Pete smiled and turned to Gus. “Grab Ripper would you. Little gift for Mike here, as a sign of good faith.”
Mike laughed as Gus went to grab Ripper. “Pete that’s mighty kind of you, but you don’t have to give out any stock for me.”
“No no, I insist. Ripper is Stryker’s brother, not as hardy but with good training you could make something of him. Come back in a couple months and we’ll sell it as a family reunion, a grudge match. Split the profits and both of us are still looking at a solid payday.”
Gus returned with the cage holding Ripper, like Stryker he was a black unicorn although his mane was white instead of silver, and Alex could see a crazed twitch in his eye. Mike took Ripper’s cage, shook Pete and Gus’ hands, then left, completely ignoring Bludger’s bloodied corpse in the pit.
With everyone not gone, Pete grabbed Stryker and picked him up. “Good boy Stryker, you did exactly what we needed you to do.”
“Stwyka du gud?”
“You did VERY good, in fact you did so good, we’re gonna give you a little prize.”
“Pwize? Wha pwize?”
“This one.”
Alex suddenly realised that Pete was coming straight for her cage, she felt uncharacteristically scared and could only watch as Pete opened her cage door and threw Stryker inside.
“Have fun.” Pete cackled as he locked the cage door and left the two Fluffies alone.
The two of them stared at each other, the only sound being Stryker’s panting breath, eventually it was him that broke the silence.
“Mawe am Pwize?”
Alex took a beat to register what Stryker had said, once she understood it, she scowled at him.
“Fwuffy namesie nu am Pwize, Fwuffy am Smawty, am bestesh Smawty awound an yu gun…”
Stryker didn’t have time to listen to her, he knocked her down as she was rambling and quickly mounted her, Alex was in such shock at the disrespect that she didn’t even register the bad huggies until the relatively quick ‘gud feews’ was over. Stryker then rolled over and fell asleep, snoring loudly as his nu-nu huice leaked out of her.
Alex wanted to smother him there and then, make him pay for treating her like a common poopie, she was the bestesh Smarty ever, why did no one recognise that? But she chose to leave him, knowing Mister Pete’s reaction would not be worth it.
Instead, she’d kill the foals once they were born, that would show him.
The foals never came.
A few days later and Stryker won another fight, getting a chance to enf Alex again, surely killing her tummeh-babbehs. Alex did find it odd she hadn’t gotten the mummah feeling, but then she barely felt anything for Chestnut’s foals so maybe this was a similar case.
Still though, she knew Stryker would win again, and he would enf her again, she needed to think fast to stop the risk of getting pregnant, she couldn’t lead a herd when she was a soon-mummah.
Not that she was leading a herd right now, but she knew she would be soon, she could feel it.
Surprisingly her inspiration came during a training period when two Toughies, a purple earthie called Evan and a yellow unicorn called Pierce, finished their fight with Evan knocking Pierce down and trying to mount him.
“NUU! Nu am mawe, nu wan enfies.”
“Ev-ann nu cawe, wan gud-feews.”
“HUUUUUU!!! POOPIE PWACE HUWTIES! NU WIKE.”
“Enf, enf, enf, enf, enf en… WAHHHH!”
Mister Gus yanked Evan out and away from Pierce, leaving the yellow unicorn a sobbing mess on the ground.
“What the fuck was that?”
“Ev-ann win fight, git gud-feews.”
“NOT FROM ANOTHER FIGHTER YOU FUCKING HALF-WIT! Christ I’ll need to double-check the formula for next time. Until then, you’re going to the sorry-tent.”
“NU, Ev-ann am sowwy, nu mean tu be bad Fwuffy, pwease mistah Gus, nu take Ev-ann tu sowwy-tent.”
His pleas went unheard as Mister Gus took him inside the tent, never to be seen again.
Alex looked down at the weeping Pierce, a small trickle of blood dripping from his torn asshole, and she got an idea.
When Stryker predictably won his next fight, Alex was ready for him. Pete threw the two of them in the cage together again and left to go for a drink. Stryker readied himself for more good-feels, but Alex took a slower approach, sidling up to him and rubbing her body along his.
“Wha Pwize duin?”
She let that one slide as she purred. “Smawty been waitin fow speciaw-fwiend, weady tu hab bestesh enfies?”
“Pwize nu am Stwyka’s speciaw-fwiend, Mistah Pete says Tuffie snu git speciaw-fwiends.”
Alex tittered. “Siwwy Stwyka, Mistah Pete onwy say dat su udda Tuffies nu git jeh-wous. Wai yu fink he keep puttin Smawty an Stwyka togetha fow enfies? Yu am bestesh Tuffie, an Smawty am bestesh Smawty, onwy make sense fow Fwuffies tu be speciaw-fwiends.”
Stryker pondered Alex’s words, he could see no fault in them. “Su, Pwize AM Stwyka’s speciaw-fwiend.”
Alex bit her tongue at another mention of her non-name and smiled as sweetly as she could manage. “Dat wight.”
“Den… wai du speciaw-fwiend nu hab babbehs yet? Hab enfies wiv yu befowe.”
Alex faked a sniffled and turned away. “Speciaw-fwiend gib tummeh-babbehs foweba sweepies, speciaw-huggies am bad fow tummeh-babbehs.”
“NU! Stwyka am bad Fwuffy, wowstesh daddeh eba.”
Alex quickly turned back and cuddled into him. “It ok speciaw-fwiend, Smawty happy tu wose tummeh-babbehs. If hab dew hewe, Mistah Pete an Mistah Gus take dem away, Fwuffies neba git see babbehs.”
Stryker gasped. “Mistah Gus am big meanie, gib Stwyka pointy-huwties befow fights, nu wan him huwt babbehs. Nu gib enfies tu Pwize.”
Alex smirked, she’d managed to avoid another pregnancy, now all she needed was to give Stryker a reason to keep coming back to her.
“Fank yu speciaw-fwiend, bu Smawty knyo yu need enfies, need hab gud-feews ow hab wump huwties. Smawty fink yu need twy poopie-pwace enfies.”
“Poopie pwace? Dat nu sownd pwetty.”
“Nu, it gud, gib gud feews wike speciaw-pwace, onwy nu babbeh tu wowwy bout. Twy it.”
Alex quickly presented herself to Stryker, hoping that his damaged brain and horniness would win out over logic. After a moment, they did and Stryker mounted her, pushing up higher until her felt her poopie-place and pushed in.
Alex was not prepared for the sharp pain, even wore than when Chestnut tore open her special-place. She grit her teeth and put on a fake smile through her tears.
“Feew su gud speciaw-fwiend, Fwuffy wub dis.”
“Enf, enf, feew stwange, enf, enf, bu gud, enf, enf.”
Alex hated every moment of it, but she saw no other way of keeping herself babbeh free until she could find a way out of here. Once Stryker finished, once again on a short fuse, she freed herself from his grasp and cuddled into him.
“Coo, fank yu fow… gud feews speciaw-fwiend. Fwuffy wub yu.”
“Stwyka wub speciaw-fwiend tuu, wiked poopie-pwace enfies. Bu wan hab babbehs wiv speciaw-fwiend soon.”
“Wai tiww Fwuffies wun way, need find way out of hewe fiwst. Yu wet Smawty handew dat, untiww den, jus keep fighting.”
Stryker grinned and hugged her again, Alex seethed and wished for him to be killed in the pits before he became a problem.
Over the next few weeks, this became a routine, Stryker would win a fight, get thrown into Alex’s cage, enf her poopie-place, then Alex would whisper sweet nothing into his ear about the good babbehs they would have once they were free.
But freedom never came, and as time went on Stryker was getting more and more frustrated that they were still stuck with Mister Pete and Mister Gus, Alex tried to keep him calm but she was afraid that the promise of a family was unleashing a monster she couldn’t control.
To her surprise, that monster was what gave them their chance to escape.
During his latest fight, Stryker got the upperhand on his opponent by ramming his horn into the stallion’s throat. The move was certainly a controversial one but most declared Stryker the winner.
Most did not include the other stallions owner.
Pete took the victorious Stryker over to his usual place in Alex’s cage, but just as he opened the door, he heard the cry of anger behind him.
“OI! The fuck was that about?”
Pete rolled his eyes, placed Stryker down beside the open cage and turned round. “What was what Richard? Stryker won the fight, fair and square.”
“Fair my dick, he used his horn, that’s cheating.”
“It’s not cheating for a Fluffy to use a natural advantage, just like how earthies are tougher and Pegasi faster.”
“You know fucking well it’s an unwritten rule, we all train the unicorns not to use their horns.”
“An unwritten rule isn’t a rule then, so it’s not cheating.”
As the two men continued arguing, Alex crept out of her open cage and whispered to Stryker.
“Nyo time tu weave, whiwe Mistah Pete nu wookin. Bu be qwa-et.”
Stryker nodded, finally happy to be escaping with his special-friend. The two of them slowly walked across the table, jumped down onto a chair, then off again onto the ground. Alex took one final look to make sure Mister Pete and Mister Gus were still distracted by the argument, before turning away and running into the tall-grass, Stryker right behind her.
“Heh heh, speciaw-fwiend am su smawt. Wun way fwom meanies, hab bestesh famiwy eba.”
“Nu yet dum… speciaw-fwiend, need git as faw fwom hewe as Fwuffies can. Nu wan Mistah Pete an Mistah Gus find us.”
“Stwyka undastan, wiww hewp find famiwy safe-pwace tu wive.”
As Alex ran off into the great unknown, she didn’t care where they ended up, anywhere was better than here.
Alex stirred in her sleep, her memories of her old herd, her first litter and her escape from the fighting pits had danced through her dreams. She didn’t know how long it had been since she fell asleep in her bed but when she opened her eyes it was dark except for a single lightbulb above her head.
It took her a moment to realise she wasn’t in her bed, and more importantly, she couldn’t move.
“Wha da…? Daddeh? DADDEH HEWP! AWEX AM STUCKIES!”
Alex was spread out on a table, all four of her legs tied down and damn near impossible to move, let alone escape. Try as she might, Alex wasn’t going anywhere, she started to worry about where she was, and what had happened to her daddy.
That worry turned to fear, when Jacob stepped out of the darkness, grinning at her.
“Hello Alex. I think it’s time we had a little talk.”
I probably could’ve gone longer with this, maybe even added another chapter about Alex and Stryker’s time together, but I wanted to get back to Jacob and Daniels story sooner and this chapter was already a lot longer than I planned.
Next chapter is the final one, it’s gonna be a surprise once you see where it’s going, but a lot of the groundwork has been laid out here so hopefully it won’t be too out of left-field.