Spend your lives in sin and misery
A dam with pink fur and a snow white mane lay on her belly in a cage so small she couldn’t stand or turn around. There was a food bowl refilled every few hours with nutrient-rich kibble in easy reach, and water came from a small trough. Her waste was taken away by an automatic flush funnel under her hindquarters.
The room had dozens of these cages, and to the casual observer it looked like a fluffy mill. A better designed one perhaps, but a mill none the less. Unlike a mill however, the mare would be released from the cage after she gave birth.
Freedom, but at a price; she would never see her foals, let alone nurse or hug them. Once born, they’d drop into a small basket that would be removed within minutes. All she would know of her offspring were their desperate calls to be cleaned and fed.
The first time the mare gave birth in the cage, she thrashed about madly trying to get to her foals.
‘Cheep cheep cheep!’
‘BABBEHS NEE MUMMAH!’ She bit and kicked at the steel walls, contorting her body trying to turn around. ‘WAI MEANIE WAWWS NU WET MUMMAH GU TU BABBEHS?!!? NEE GIV CWEANIES AN MIWKIES!!’
The walls didn’t relent, and moments later the babies were gone. 'NUUU! NU TAKE BABBEHS! DAY TUU WITTWE! TUU WITTWEHUHU!
She did the same thing the second time, and the third, trying and failing to get to her foals before they were taken away.
‘NUUHUHUHU BABBEHS! MUMMAH NU CAN WEACH YUUHUHUUHU!’
Now it was her 14th time in the cage, far more than a fluffy could count or even comprehend. All she did now was wait for the inevitable; the cramp in her belly, the fluid rushing down her backside, and the pain. She tried to remember the time before this living hell when she lived with her owner and her very first babies.
‘Huuu, Empwess miss yu mummah. Miss babbehs’ she moaned.
On this day the C-grade birthing room was almost empty; the rest of the batch had foaled, and now only two besides Empress were left. One was a feral in decent health that made the mistake of wandering onto the farm; she hadn’t stopped crying since she’d been put in the cage. Empress tried to block her out, and the other dam yelling at the feral to be quiet. There wasn’t much companionship here, just like the C-grade pens.
Empress did her best to remember her old life, holding onto the sights, smells and sounds her safe room. She thought about her owner, and the fun they shared. Most of all, Empress tried to remember her babies, the one memory she didn’t want to lose. Those blissful weeks of hugging and nursing her very own babies. Her beautiful, wonderful,
‘Babbehs. Ba-EEEE! BABBEHS CUMMIN! SCREEEE!’ The pain hit with the first powerful contraction of her belly; amniotic fluid flowed out of her body, followed by the first of her latest batch. ‘BIGGEST POOPIES!’ Had she still lived at home or one of the better parts of the farm there would be someone to help her through it, but the C-grade mares were on their own. ‘SCREEEEE!’
‘Shud up dummeh!!!’ The mare a few cages away yelled, totally unconcerned with Empress’s pain.
‘SCREEEE!’
‘Cheep cheep cheep’ the first foal emerged and tumbled into the cushioned basket; the newborn writhed about chirping madly, trying to summon its mother to clean and feed it. Soon it was joined by a second who did the same.
‘Babbehs! Babbehs!’ The newest mare cried in distress, her maternal instincts triggered by the newborns’ chirps. ‘Babbehs nee miwkies! BABBEHS NEE MIWKIES!’
‘SHUD UP DUMMEHS! SHUD UP SHUD UP!!!’
‘SCREEEEEE!’ Two more foals emerged in quick succession, joining their siblings in the basket; with no comfort forthcoming, they did what they could for each other, hugging one another despite the slippery fluid that coated them.
‘Scree haf haf eeeeee!’ Empress was close to exhaustion; with a final push, the last of her litter fell into the basket. Now came the worst part, listening to them. She hung her head, too tired to even cry; all she could do was wait for her babies to go away.
‘Huu… babbehs, mummah… mummah wub yu. Nu hav scawdies…’ she said, ‘Mummah am h-hewe…’ Offering them comfort was all she could do while she waited. It didn’t take long; less than 5 minutes later the door opened and in walked a woman in her 40s and a young man of 19.
‘Once the alarm goes off we have to collect the foals immediately,’ she said to the young man. The woman unhooked the basket and showed it to him. ‘Leave them like this for even 15 minutes, and they’re dead.’
‘Got it’ The young man said. ‘What about the…’
‘She can wait’ The woman interrupted him. ‘Processing these guys is the priority right now.’
The mare lay still while the humans took her babies away yet again. ‘Gudbai babbehs’ she said flatly, ‘mummah newa fowget yu…’ The door shut and she was left to deal with the aftermath on her own.
‘NUU! NU TAKE BABBEHS!’ The feral screamed, ‘BABBEHS NEE DEWE MUMMAH! BABBEHS’
‘SHUD UP DUMMEH OW WUBWEY GIV YU FOWEWA SWEEPIES! SHUD UP!!’ The other mare’s threat silenced the panicked feral, and the birthing room returned to a tense silence. Waiting for the humans to take her out of the cage, Empress slipped back to a memory of a happier time.
‘Mummah wub yu babbehs’ Empress cooed at the ruby red filly hugged to her chest, ‘wub yu suu much! Dwink wots of miwkies an gwow big an stwong an pwetty fow mummah!’ Two other foals, one white and one purple, drank from her teats, kneading the fleshy mounds with their stubby legs.
Empress’s brood was only hours old; despite the pain and the exhaustion of their birth, she stayed up fussing over her foals. Well, 3 of them. One foal, a green colt with a grey tail also lay near her teats.
‘Cheep cheep! Cheep cheep cheep!’ He was hungry and called for his mother to give him access to the milk which his brother and sister were monopolising, but Empress didn’t respond; maybe she was too focused on the red filly.
The door opened; ‘How are you doing Empress? Is everything ok?’
Empress turned to her owner; ‘Empwess am otay mummah, an su am babbehs!’
‘That’s good,’ the woman said, happy her fluffy had pulled through labour so well and that the foals were healthy. She crouched down to get a better look at the balls of colour. ‘Empress, honey.’
Empress looked up; ‘Huh?’
‘Your little green baby is hungry, do you know that?’
Empress looked down at the foal, trying to crawl up his brother in an attempt to get to the milk.
‘Empress, do you remember the rules?’ The woman said sternly.
‘Yes,’ Empress said slowly.
‘If you want to have babies, you have to take care of them. All of them.’
Empress put her red filly down and pulledthe white colt away from her teat, causing him to peep in protest. The green foal sensed the opening and latched on while Empress calmed his brother’s tantrum.
‘Better’ Empress’s owner stood. ‘I’ll bring you up some kibble in a bit, make sure your green baby gets his share.’
‘Otay mummah’ Empress said to her owner.
Katherine was chief of operations for Sunny-dale fluffy farm’s C-grade section; today she was running a new employee, Riley, through the ins and outs of her section the farm. She was explaining maintenance and cleaning for the massive stainless steel formula mixer when her work phone lit up with a birth alarm. Inwardly she cursed at her plan being thrown off, but at least she could get foal processing out of the way.
After collecting the foals, Katherine led Riley to the sorting room. Putting the basket on a bench, she pushed a button on the wall mounted control panel and a small sink filled with warm water.
‘First, we get all the muck off. Don’t try and pick them up with your fingers, do it like this,’ Katherine carefully ladled one of the foals into her gloved hand. It peeped in fear, taken away from the only comfort it had.
‘The golden rule is never put your hand in the water’ Katherine said, grabbing a washcloth and dunking it in the sink, ‘the foal will slip off and drown. The girl before you did that with an alicorn and got fired on the spot.’ Squeezing the excess water from the cloth, Katherine gently but quickly washed the amniotic fluid from the foal. ‘Next, take a dry cloth and pat them dry’ she took a dry towel and dried foal’s body. ‘Don’t press hard or rub them; let the towel do the work.’
The foal peeped and chirped, the barrage of new sensations terrifying the tiny creature. Katherine put the foal down on a large towel laid out on the bench. ‘Ok, now you try. Remember, ladle them out; yes just like that.’ Katherine watched the young man closely as he washed and driedd the second foal. ‘Good job, now do another. No, not the Pegasus; no offence, but I can’t risk you breaking the wings.’ Riley picked another earthie, washed and dried it just like Katherine instructed.
‘Excellent’ she said. ‘I’ll take care of these pegasi; you get the sorter.’
The sorter was a trained fluffy that lived in the sorting room; Riley picked the gelding out of the pen and popped him on the sorting bench next to the foals. ‘What now?’
‘Just let him do his job.’
The sorter sniffed and licked each foal; when he got to the third his face scrunched up like he’d eaten a lime. The gelding picked it up and placed it in a small dish. The foal peeped in fear, alarmed at the sudden movement. After he finished, the sorter sat down.
‘Deez am gud babbehs miss Kaffawin’ he cocked his head at the dish, ‘dat one am dummeh.’
‘Good job boy’ Katherine gave the gelding a scratch and put him back in his pen with a treat. After that she picked the foal out of the dish and showed it to Riley; ‘The sorter puts runts in the dish.’ The foal, a dark green filly, wriggled around in her hand grabbing at her finger, thinking it was it’s mother’s teat.
‘What’s wrong with it?’ Riley asked. The foal looked healthy to him.
‘Could be anything; gene disorder, missing stomach; its lungs seem fine, not that it matters.’
‘What do we do with it?’
Katherine laid the foal flat in her palm, placed her thumb under its chin and pushed the head up sharply. There was a soft wet pop, and the foal went limp. 'That. Even if they’re savable that’s not the business we’re in; a quick death’s the best we can give them.
Katherine dropped the runt in a bin, filled out the birth records then put the remaining foals in a clean basket and walked to the door that led to the foal nursing room. Upon opening the door she and Riley were met by the incessant chirping of dozens of foals, and the smell of their waste. Riley had to steal his nerves for a second before walking through the door, which made Katherine chuckle.
‘Sorry to spring this place on you so soon, but’
‘Shit happens?’ Riley said drying.
‘In here? A lot. If that mare waited another 2 hours, we’d be in here after the cleaner.’
The room was square shaped with 36 pens laid out in a grid. Each pen had a soft heated bed with an auto feeder near-by. Climate control and insulated walls kept the room at a steady 38 degrees C, and humidity hovered between 40 and 50%. They were perfect conditions for a newborn foal, not so much for human workers.
‘Once you’ve cleaned and sorted a batch you put them in here; try to find one with eight or less.’ Katherine explained.
‘Why does that matter?’ Riley asked, beads of sweat forming on his head.
‘Over crowed pens are harder to clean and the foals are more likely to die’ Katherine explained as she crouched and gently placed two foals near the auto feeder. Within seconds they were kneading the rubber teats. ‘By extension, never put a foal by itself; if they don’t have something to hug, they die.’
‘Why does that happen?’ Riley commented.
‘Who knows. But anyway, that’s all there is to processing newborns’ she said putting the last foals in another pen. 'Bobby’ll walk you through picking out ones ready for training later. Let’s get back to the mixing room.
While Katherine and Riley sorted her offspring, another worker came and pulled Empress from the cage. After cleaning and drying her the worker carried Empress from the birthing room to the pens.
Returned to her pen, Empress lay by a wall and curled into a ball. She didn’t look and didn’t try and talk to any of the dozen other mares. It was part grief, but also about survival; one reason a mare could end up in the C grade barn was violence, either towards other fluffies or humans. Empress made the mistake of trying to hug one such mare and earned a bloody nose and two missing teeth for her trouble. She was lucky though; this pen had seen two deaths in the past week.
Another fluffy walked within touching distance of Empress; she held her breath, bracing for a beating. This time she was lucky, the mare was only walking to the litter box; just because they were the bottom rung didn’t mean their minders didn’t bother with rules. A fluffy who made bad poopies or pee-pees was canned where she stood or stuffed in a sorry cage. It reduced even the toughest to chirps and peeps.
That was one thing Empress managed to avoid. A former house fluffy, using the litter box was second nature to her. Empress grew up with many rules, and she managed to follow them all. It was part of the reason her owner decided to let her have her babies.
The door to the safe room opened, and Empress looked up from her talking box; ‘Mummah!’ She ran up and hugged her owner’s leg.
‘Hello Empress’ the woman said scratching her fluffy on the head. ‘I’ve got something to tell you.’
‘Wat mummah?’ The fluffy had a secret hope, but she dared not mention it.
‘Since you’re a very good fluffy and follow all of mommy’s rules, I’ve decided to let you have babies.’
Empress sat silent for a moment; ‘Weawy?!? EEEE! TANK YU MUMMAH!!! EMPWESS AM BE MUMMAH!’ The mare screamed and ran around in joy, before being stopped by her owner.
‘Hold it Empress,’ the mare stopped and sat on her haunches. ‘I’m going to let you have babies, but you’re going to have new rules.’ The woman sat down and looked her fluffy in the eye; ‘The first rule; you have to take care of all of them, no matter what. Next rule, you have to teach them all to be good fluffies. Last rule, you’re not allowed to have a “best baby.” Do you understand?’
Yes mummah! Empwess undewstan! Empwess fowwow wuwes!’ The fluffy assured her owner.
‘Good. We’ll take you to a stud tomorrow.’
‘Tank yu mummah! Empwess su happies!’ The mare hugged her owner; ‘Gun hav bestest babbehs ewa an make mummah biggest happies! Biggest happies ewa!’
‘Biggest happies, biggest happies fow mummah…’
Another mare walked past her on the way to the litter box, welts on her back still raw from breaking the rule yesterday. The litter box rule was one of if not the only one that was regularly obeyed. Rules like no fighting on the other hand,
‘NU TOUCH BAWW DUMMEH!!!’ A cyan pegasus screamed, kicking at a forest green unicorn with a brown mane.
‘DAT WEDWOOD’S BAWW DUMMEH! YU GIV!’ The unicorn dodged and rushed forwards, aimed a swift (by fluffy standards) kick at the pegasus’s face that glanced off her cheek.
‘SCREEE!’ The pegasus fell, covering her face with her legs. Getting the opening she needed, the unicorn batted the ball away and ran, only to be tackled by a large cream colour earthie. Being larger, the earthie had the advantage and pressed it, bringing her legs down on one of the unicorn’s.
Crasnap
‘SCREEE WEGGIE!’ The unicorn curled into a ball trying to nurse her freshly broken leg while the earthie turned to face the pegasus barrelling towards her. Without hesitation, she reared up and brought her hoofs down on the pegasus’s neck.
Crasnap
There was no scream. There was no time. The pegasus was dead in less than a second. The death did nothing to stop another mare from trying her luck; the two grappled until the fight was broken up.
The staff removed all of them. The earthies were sent to the discipline room while the unicorn was on her way to have the broken leg amputated. In total the incident lasted less than half a minute; after it was over life in the pen returned to normal, the ball claimed by a dark grey unicorn.
Empress had watched the whole episode from behind her hoofs, scared that drawing attention to herself would mean getting dragged into the fight. After it died down, she stayed in place, continuing to ignore the mares around her. They returned the favour.
‘So how you finding it here so far?’ Bobby asked Riley as the two walked to the foal nursing room
‘Eh, better than where I was’ he answered.
‘Must have been nasty.’
‘It was just full of idiots,’ Riley said.
‘Hey we’ve all got to work in one of those places; at least you got yours early.’ Before Bobby opened the door he reached into his pocket and pulled out a small bottle; unscrewing the lid, he rubbed something under his nose and handed the bottle to Riley. ‘Put a bit of that on.’
Riley unscrewed the bottle; ‘Peppermint?’
‘Yeah, for the foal shit.’
‘Where’d you learn that?’
‘I was reading this old story called Swamps of Dagobah; ever heard of it? Well, I figure if peppermint can get you through that, it’ll get you through a room of foal shit.’ Riley nearly sneezed as the powerful scent filled his nose. ‘You good?’ Bobby asked. Riley nodded. ‘Let’s get to it.’ Bobby opened the door, and the noise, heat and stench of the room flowed over them. To Riley’s surprise, the peppermint oil seemed to be doing its job, if only because it was so overpowering.
Bobby led the way to the first pen; 9 foals of various colours, types and sizes were drinking from the auto feeder, hugging one another or sleeping. ‘We want foals that have opened their eyes. The quickest way to check is this;’ Bobby snapped his fingers above the pen. The foals chirped and peeped in alarm, some turning their heads in the vague direction of the noise.
One though, a red earthie filly drinking at the auto feeder, looked directly up at the noise, eyes wide open.
‘Bingo.’ Bobby carefully picked the foal out of the pen and placed her in one of the baskets Riley was carrying. The filly looked around in confusion at the two men and the basket. ‘Next one.’
‘Miwkies! Peep! Wan Miwkies!’ The red filly, not liking her new home one bit, tried to clamber up the side and get back to the pen.
‘Just ignore her’ Bobby told Riley, ‘we’re not paid to cheer them up. Alright, who’s ready here?’ Bobby snapped his fingers over the pen; inside the foals chirped and peeped in alarm, but none of them had their eyes open. ‘Nadda. We’ll check these guys tomorrow.’ They moved to the third pen where they found one foal ready to go.
‘Chirp! Chirp! D-Daddeh!’ Its joy turned to confusion and sadness when Bobby ignored it’s outstretched legs and put it in the basket with the filly. The men moved on. Pens 4 and 5 had one foal each ready to go while 6 and 7 had three and five respectively. From then each pen varied between zero and two. Along the way, Bobby showed Riley a few extra things.
‘You can tell a lot about a foal by how they are right now. Look at that one,’ Bobby pointed to a coffee coloured foal with a white tail nub.
‘It’s hugging another foal. Big deal.’
‘I know, but look at the way it’s hugging the other one.’
Riley looked closer; the coffee coloured foal seemed to be lying a bit on top of the blue one, almost like,
‘It’s trying to keep the blue one safe’ Bobby said, ‘fluffies like that are popular with people who have small kids. Then there’s the little fat one,’ Bobby pointed to a blue pegasus more than twice the size of the other foals. It sat drinking from the auto feeder, happily fluttering his wings every so often.
‘Jesus, he’s got fat rolls and everything’ Riley said, ‘what’s wrong with it?’
‘He’s got wicket anxiety problems.’
‘How can you tell?’ Riley asked.
‘These feeders have a mare scent so the foals can find them. Being near them keeps the little guy calm, so he drinks all the time and gets fat. Doesn’t help that the formula we use is fattier than normal milk. Anyway, watch this,’ Bobby gripped he foal behind the shoulders and pulled it away from the auto feeder.
'EEEEE! EEEEEE! EEEEEEEEEE! The foal wriggled madly to get away from whatever was holding it. Bobby let go, and the foal crawled back to the auto feeder. It fastened its mouth around a teat and drank like its life depended on it. If someone leaned close enough, they’d be able to hear the foal whimpering between gulps.
‘Damn thing might have a heart attack when we have to move him’ Bobby said. ‘Oh, here’s trouble,’ a white unicorn colt crawled up to the pegasus and muscled him away from the teat. The pegasus panicked but didn’t stop drinking until the unicorn threw it off.
‘EEEEEE! EEEEE!’ The Pegasus rolled around on the floor crying in panic. A few other foals nearby crawled towards the crying and formed a small pile around the fat foal. ‘Peep peep peep peep!’ It only helped a little.
‘That little nugget,’ Bobby pointy to the unicorn, ‘is smarty material. Wouldn’t be surprised if he ends up in the hole.’
‘What’s that?’
‘Monoxide chamber, for the worst of the worst. Alright enough extra circular, let’s get these bundles of joy to their new home.’ Bobby led the way out of the foal room, stopping at a bench with a hole in the middle. ‘One last step.’ Bobby grabbed a cold pack from a drawer, picked the same red filly still whining for milk and held her over the bin.
‘Huhu wan miwkieeee! Peep! Nuuu!’ Riley watched Bobby hold the cold pack to the filly’s hindquarters until Plurrthrpt a torrent of liquid shit poured from the filly into the bin. Once the stream stopped Bobby pulled a wet wipe from a dispenser, cleaned the foal and put her back in the basket where she curled into a ball.
‘Peep peep huhuhu nu wike! Peep!’
‘What was that?’ Riley asked, thankful the peppermint barrier was still working.
‘Cold pack evacuation’ Bobby explained as he grabbed a colt from the basket, ‘These guys aren’t toilet trained, and we don’t want them full when they go to the training pen’.
‘EEEE POOPIE!’
‘Don’t you squeeze them?’
‘No, that’s an urban myth. Never squeeze a foal to make it shit, not pretty.’
‘Do I even want to’
‘Burst stomach, prolapse, crushed ribs,’
‘Ok, I get the picture’ Riley held his hand up.
Bobby chuckled and finished the rest of the foals. With the batch ready, the men left the foal room and walked to the shared B and C grade training room. Rectangular with a central walkway, on either side was a row of 30 pens that could comfortably hold 18 foals and two trainers. At each end of the room were living spaces for the half-dozen guard fluffies. One, a pure grey earth gelding got up from his bed and greeted the men as they entered.
‘Hewwo Mistah Bobbeh’ The fluffy said politely.
‘Hey Grey, how’re things going in here?’
‘Otay fow nao Mistah Bobbeh’ the grey fluffy said. ‘Onwy one bad babbeh dis bwight time, an nu tuu bad.’
‘Good stuff. I’ll talk a little later ok? Gotta show the new guy how we do things around here.’
‘Otay Mistah Bobbeh.’ The grey fluffy walked back to his pen, the RFID chip in his collar automatically opening the gate for him.
‘He’s one of the guards, new one too’ Bobby told Riley as they walked down the walkway, dropping off foals to the minders as they went.
‘What do they do?’
‘If a weanling starts a ruckus, they break it up and dump the rule breaker in one of those buckets’ Bobby pointed to the red buckets in each pen, and the black one by the door. ‘Red ones are for minor offences, and black gets them sent to the hole.’ Bobby put two of the new foals into a pen and the attendant mares set about integrating them into their flock.
‘And that’s how we pick and place foals for training’ Bobby said. ‘Kath wants me to run you through some inventory control stuff so we’ll take care of that now. See you grey.’
‘Gudbai Mistah Bobbeh’ The guard said as the two men left the room.
‘Wub mummah! Snow giv huggies!’ Empress’s white earth colt hugged her foreleg. Not to be outdone, her red filly Ruby clambered onto her back.
‘Ruby wub mummah! Giv biggest huggies!’
‘Mummah wub yu tuu Wuby babbeh!’ Empress cooed, ‘Wub wittwe Wuby babbeh’s huggies!’
Elsewhere in the room Empress’s purple filly Jewel and her green colt Trinket were playing huggie tag; hearing the commotion at their bed Trinket abandoned the game and ran over to his mother.
‘Mummah! Twinket wub yu tuu!’ The green colt said, hoping for the same affection his siblings were getting.
‘Mummah knu Twinket babbeh’ Empress said without looking up.
‘Mummah! Mummah wook!’ The green foal sat awkwardly on his haunches and waved his forelegs about. ‘Wook! Twinket am dancie babbeh! Du pwetty dancies fow mummah!’
‘Dat am nice Twinket babbeh’ Empress said, still paying more attention to Snow and Ruby.
Trinket kept dancing for a few more seconds before collapsing onto his belly and his face with his legs. ‘Huu, peep…’
Empress’s owner walked in at that moment; ‘Hey guys how are today?’
‘Mummah mummah!’ Ruby looked up; ‘Wuby givin mummah bestest huggies!’
‘Snow wub mummah!’ The white colt said.
‘That’s great! Listen I was thinking…’ she stopped, noticing the green foal hiding behind his forelegs. ‘Trinket? Trinket what’s wrong?’ She picked up the little colt, ‘Are you ok?’
‘Huu’
‘What’s the matter Trinket?’
‘Huhuhu mummah nu wub Twinket!’ The little colt cried, ‘Nu giv huggies fow dancie babbeh huhuhu! Twinket am bad babbeh!’
'Trinket honey that isn’t true, 'she looked down at Empress, ‘your mommy loves you just as much as your brothers and sisters.’ She stroked Trinket’s back to calm him down and put him on the fluffy bed when he stopped crying. ‘Empress honey, I need to talk to you for one second. Alone.’
Empress was scared, but knew better than to disobey; ‘Otay mummah’ she lifted ruby off her back and put her on the bed with the other foals. ‘Nu wowwy babbehs, mummah be back soon.’ Empress followed her owner out of the safe room and down the hallway.
‘Empress, do mind explaining yourself?’ Empress’s owner asked. Empress, unused to such a harsh tone, took a moment to answer.
‘Ahhh’
‘Empress, Trinket was crying that you don’t love him. If you don’t have a good answer for that, I’ll get the sorry stick.’
'Nu mummah! Nu sowwie Stick! Empwess nu knu wai Twinket babbeh cwyin,
‘He was crying because you were ignoring him!’
‘Nu mummah, Empwess nu’
Empress’s owner bent down and twisted her ear; ‘Don’t you dare’ she hissed. ‘You know the rules; follow them, or your babies are going to new homes. Do you understand?’
Empress nodded with tears in her eyes.
‘Good.’ Her owner stood up and opened the door. ‘Back you go.’
Empress walked back into the safe room; Ruby had taken Trinket’s place in huggie tag with Jewel. As for Trinket, the colt was on the bed being hugged by his brother Snow. Empress walked over and picked him up. ‘Dawe dawe Twinket babbeh’ she said, ‘It am otay, mummah wub yu.’
‘BABBEHS! PWEASE TAKE MUMMAH TU BABBEHS!’
Empress looked up; one of the workers was carrying the feral who had been in the birthing room with her back to the pen.
‘BABBEHS NEE MUMMAH! NEE GIV CWEANIES AN MIWKIES!’
Empress remembered how she’d been like that long ago when she still felt, anything. The worker put the mare back, and she turned around and stood up.
‘PWEASE NICE MISTAH!’ The mare begged, ‘FWUFFY NU KNU WAT DU BUT PWOMISE BE GUD! PWEASE WET MUMMAH HAV BABBEHS!!!’ The human didn’t speak to the feral or even hit her; he just walked away. ‘NUUUHUHUHU!’ The mare collapsed and sobbed her heart out. ‘BABBEHS! MUMMAH’S WITTWE BABBEHS HUHUHU! WOWSTEST HEAWT HUWTIES!’
Empress watched a burgundy colour mare get up and walk over to the sobbing feral. Empress and the others waited in fear. When the burgundy mare was beside the crying feral, the distraught fluffy turned to hug her.
SMACK
‘SCREEE! WAI HUW’
SMACK SMACK
‘SCREEE! NU HUWT FWUFFY!’
The burgundy mare, called ‘Lovely’ by the staff, smacked feral in the face until she was on her back.
‘Shud up dummeh!’ Lovely Yelled, ‘Nu one cawe bout yuw babbehs! Ewey fwuffy hewe wose dewe babbehs, yu nu speciaw!!’
The feral silently cried as Lovely yelled in her face.
‘Dummeh shud up nao ow Wubwey giv yu wowstest stompies!’ The feral crawled to an empty area of the pen and cried to herself, tail curled around her body. Later, when the lights in the barn went out the feral was still quietly sobbing to herself; in all that time none of her pen mates offered any comfort.
After looking around, Empress slowly walked over to the feral and laid down next to her. After a few seconds, she felt the feral hug her close, and the two miserable fluffies drifted off to sleep.
‘Rise and shine fluff-balls!’ Empress hardly stirred as the lights were flipped on in the barn. Workers on the day shift did their inspections of the pens, checking for mares injured or killed during a late night fight, or more mundane things.
‘Well, what do we have here?’ Empress looked up and saw one of the workers standing over her and the feral. ‘Too lazy to walk to the litter box at night huh?’ The two fluffies were confused. Neither of them knew that behind them was a pile of shit left by a couple of mares who felt like taking their misery out on them.
They screeched in pain and terror as the worker picked them up by their scruffs and carried them down to the punishment room. The worker stuffed each in a cage even smaller than the birthing cages, the sorry cages.
‘NU! NU WAN SOWWIE BOX!’ The feral screamed as she was shoved in, ‘FWUFFY NU DU BAD POOPIES!’
‘Get in’ the worker shoved her in head first and slammed the cage door shut. He stuffed Empress in the cage next door and left the two to suffer for a while.
‘HUHUHU NU WIKE SMAWW BOX! TUU WITTWE! HEWP!’ The feral cried; each cage was tiny, cramped and dark.
Empress didn’t scream, but the tears flowed freely; the cage brought back memories that she’d rather forget.
‘So, up for weaning?’ Bobby asked Riley across the lunchroom table
‘What’s the difference between this and what we did last time?’ He asked.
‘Well for a start we have to take foals away from their actual mothers’ Bobby explained, ‘which is a bit trickier than just picking them out of a box.’
‘They don’t take the foals away when they’re born?’
‘No. B grade mares get to keep theirs, at least for a bit. I don’t get it, but that’s the way the old man wants to run the place.’ Bobby took a drink from his thermos, ‘Doesn’t bother me; his farm his rules.’
‘Anything special I need to know?’ Riley asked
‘Golden rule is don’t use force unless the mare resists’ Bobby said. ‘The foals are already in for a rough day, and management doesn’t want us making it worse if we can help it.’
‘Alright.’
‘We’ll probably just have you run the baskets down to the trainers anyway. Just watch me and the other guys work.’
After lunch, Bobby, Riley, and a dozen other workers made their way to the B grad nursing barn. The interior had seven rows of pens built back to back, for a total of 38 pens per row. Each pen was home to either a dam or a nursing mare. The pens with nursing mares had a counter on the gate, indicating how many days until the litter was to be weaned.
When Riley and the others entered the barn a cacophony of different sounds greeted them. There were the chirps and peeps of foals like the C grade nursing room, but also dozens of clashing off-key mummah songs.
*‘Mummah wub hew tawkie babbehs make nice tawkies fow mummah!’
‘Dwink miwkies dwink miwkies gwow up big an stwong!’
‘Huggies fow babbehs, huggies fow babbehs’*
‘What I wouldn’t give for some Pendulum right now’ Bobby said as he led Riley and a few other workers to their assigned row. ‘Just watch and learn okay?’ They walked up the row until they came to a pen who’s counter read zero. Inside a pegasus with copper orange fluff and a light red mane doted over a litter of five, giving a tongue bath to a unicorn with almost her exact colours. Two of its siblings feed while the remainder napped on the mare’s back.
‘Mummah wub hew cwean babbeh!’ The mare said bewteen licks
‘Babbeh wub wickies! Cheep!’ The foal cooed, hugging her mother’s leg
Bobby unlatched the pen door; the mare looked up at the sound, and her face dropped.
‘It’s time’ Bobby said calmly.
The mare looked back at her filly. Tears welled in her eyes, knowing full well she’d never see it or her other foals again. Slowly, the mare gathered her foals into one group in front of her, hugging each one last time. Bobby didn’t rush her, but kept one hand on his telescopic sorry stick just in case.
With her foals sitting in one place hugging and cooing at one another, the mare sat back and let Bobby put them into the basket by his side.
‘Wee upsies cheep! Upsies!’
‘Wub upsies! Wub!’
‘Babbeh fwyin! Wook mummah!’ A cream colour pegasus squeaked, wings buzzing. Inside the basket the foals babbled happily, excited by the sudden change in their daily routine.
‘Gu-gudbai babbehs.’ The happy sounds in the basket ceased. ‘M-mummah sniff newa fowget yu. Be, sob be gud.’ Their confusion and concern turned to outright panic as Bobby took the basket out of the pen.
‘Get them down to training’ Bobby said, handing the basket to Riley. The young man walked off; inside the panicked foals tried to clamber up the walls of the basket.
‘Nu! Peep! Wan mummah!’
‘Mummah! Mummah!
‘Good girl’ Bobby petted the mare as her tears flowed freely. ‘Now you know the rules’ Bobby pulled out a small can of pasta out of a punch on his belt, ‘good fluffies get rewards.‘ Bobby opened the can and emptied the pasta into the mare’s food bowl.
‘Tank yu nice Mistah’ she said softly. The mare ate her treat, though it did little to ease her pain.
In the rest of the room, the mummah songs and happy sounds of foals had died down, replaced by crying, feeble protests and the panicked shrieks of foals taken from their mothers.
‘NU TAKE BABBEHS! SCREEEE NU UPSIES!’ Bobby turned and watched as a mare get carried out by the scruff of her neck. ‘NUU! TAKE MUMMAH BACK TU BABBEHS!’
Let’s see how likes it down in C he thought, unlocking the next pen and stepping inside.
‘Pwease nice Mistah’ A teal mare with yellow mane pleaded, ‘nu take babbehs! Pwease! Day tuu wittwe! Nee miwkies an huggies, nee mummah!’ Her brood of 4 huddled close behind her curled tail.
‘Nu wan! Nu wan!’
‘Peep peep! Scawies!!’
‘Huhu mummah!’
Bobby sighed. Didn’t she’d learn her damn lesson after last time? He knelt down in front of her, hoping he could solve this with minimal drama.
‘Olive, can I ask you something?’ The mare was caught off guard and didn’t respond. ‘What happened the last time you didn’t let us take your babies?’ The mare started shaking. ‘Come on, what happened?’
‘H-hoomins take Owib tu meanie pwace wif m-meanie fwuffies…’
‘Yes, that’s right. And what happened there?’
‘Huuu mean fwuffies giv Owib stompies an…’
‘No Olive, what happened when you had babies there?’
‘H-hoomnies put Owib in sowwie box an nu wet, nu wet, huuuu’
‘What did they do?’
‘Nu wet Owib see babbehs huhuhuhu!’
‘That’s right Olive. Well, listen. Listen!’ The mare quieted down enough for Bobby to speak clearly; ‘If you don’t give me your babies, you’re going back to the meanie place. And you will stay there forever.’
The mare stared at Bobby as she comprehended what he said. ‘Fowewa?’ she said quietly.
‘Forever’ Bobby repeated. He waited to see if his warning would work, carefully moving his hand to his sorry stick in case it didn’t. After a few seconds though, Olive saw reason and uncurled herself, allowing Bobby to take her foals without a fight.
‘Nu! Wan be wif mummah!’
‘Nuuu! Mummah! Mummah!’
‘Mummah! Peep! Sabe babbeh!’ A dark yellow colt cried, holding on to Olive’s leg with all his strength.
‘Huhuhu nu can babbeh’ she cried as Bobby pulled the colt away and put him in the basket, ‘nu wan meanie pwace gain huhu.’ A worker carried the crying foals away, and Bobby gave Olive a can of pasta.
‘See, I knew you were a good fluffy.’ He left the mare to eat or cry, whichever, and walked to the next pen.
Riley found it easier than he expected to block out the foals as they cried and begged to be with their mummah. At the training room, he put one in each pen, vaguely remembering something about it not being a good idea to put family groups together.
‘Waan muummaaah huhuhuhuhu!!’ The copper unicorn cried as Riley put her in one of the pens. Within seconds an attendant mare came up.
‘Hewwo wittwe babbeh, dis am yuw nyu housie.’ She said, giving the unicorn a quick hug before taking her into the flock.
On his way out, Riley heard a squeal behind him; ‘Nu wan bad huggies!’ He put it out of his mind, but seconds later a flash of grey run past him. Riley recognised it as the guard fluffy he’d met on his first visit; he watched the fluffy run to the black bin by the door and drop something into it.
‘Hey grey’ he said to the fluffy as it walked back.
‘Hewwo Mistah Bobbeh fwend. Yu wan sumtin?’
‘What was that just then?’
‘Huh?’
‘That thing you put in the bin.’
‘Oh, dat’ Riley was taken aback by the way Grey’s expression darkened. ‘Dat was bad babbeh. He twied tu giv bad speciaw huggies tu oda babbeh, su Gwey put him in dah bwack bin. Day newa cum back fwom dewe.’
‘Ah ok. See you later.’
‘Otay. Gudbai Mistah Bobbeh fwend!’
As Riley passed the bin he looked inside; ‘Dummeh hoomin! Wet Smawty babbeh oud! Wan speciaw huggies!’ The red unicorn foal puffed his cheeks out at Riley. He just shook his head and left the room.
WACK WACK
‘SCREEEEE! PWEASE NU MOWE MUMMAH! EMPWESS SOWWIE!’
‘Sorry isn’t good enough Missy!’
In the basement away from the foals, Empress’s owner whacked away with her sorry stick; she was livid with anger at her fluffy for abandoning Trinket in the park’s maze. What the owner didn’t know, and what Empress failed to articulate, was that Ruby had led the Jewel and Snow away from the castle they were playing in. Empress herded them back, but when they returned to the castle Trinket was gone.
‘Twinket? Twinket babbeh whewe am yu? Cum on babbehs, hav fin Twinket babbeh!’ Empress dragged her foals around the maze in a vain attempt to find the missing colt. Ruby grumbled and complained the whole time. Only a short way into her search though, Empress was interrupted by her owner.
‘Come on Empress, it’s time to… Where is Trinket?!’
Empress tired to explain that she was trying to find her little colt, but Ruby spoke first.
‘Mummah and bestest babbehs weave Twinket in caswe!’
‘What do you mean you just left him behind? He’s your brother!’
‘Dummeh Twinket babbeh am tuu swow! Scree!’ Empress’s owner swatted the filly on the nose.
‘Don’t you dare talk about your brother like that Ruby! Empress, I thought we talked about this!’
Empress was terrified; she knew she was in deep shit, but her mind locked. Before anyone had the chance to speak, they heard a familiar voice; ‘Mummah mummah! Twinket am hewe!’
The fluffies and their owner turned and saw two fluffies, one dark blue the other forest green ran around a corner; riding on the blue mare was the missing Trinket. Her owner went to thank the blue mare, but in her panic Empress attacked her.
WACK
‘SCREEEE HUHUHU NU WOSE TWINKET! EMPWESS SOWWIE!’
‘I told you to look after them in the maze and what happened? You lost him!’
‘HUHUHUHU NU MEAN TUU! NU MEAN WOSE TWINKET BABBEH!’
Empress’s owner put the sorry stick down and pushed the sobbing mare into her sorry box. ‘You’re going to stay down here and think about what you’ve done. Actually, why don’t you think about what might have happened if that nice fluffy didn’t find Trinket for you?’
Her owner left Empress in the basement. Alone in the dark, her backside stinging from the sorry stick, all Empress could do was cry.
A few days had passed since Empress’s punishment. The foals felt the tension and couldn’t help but see the sadness in their mother’s face. For Ruby the bright red filly, there was only one to blame.
Ruby had never been close to Trinket; it showed in how she almost never joined in games with him and more tellingly the way she had been the one who led the other foals off at the park, leaving him behind. Seeing all the times her mother had gotten in trouble cemented in her mind that Trinket was the problem, the one who was making her mother sad. Her apathy towards him began to turn to hate.
Late one afternoon, nearly a week and a half after the park incident, Empress and her foals were in their safe room. The mare was having a nap along with Jewel and Ruby, while the colts played. Snow chased a ball around while Trinket stacked blocks on his own. Ruby though had something else planned. Carefully getting up from the bed, the filly stalked over to her green brother.
‘Dummeh poopie Twinket.’
Trinket looked away from his blocks; his sister stood a few inches from him, cheeks puffed out. ‘Wat yu wan?’ he asked annoyed at the interruption.
‘Wuby wan yu gu way dummeh.’ she spat. ‘Dummeh poopie Twinket awways make mummah saddies!’
‘Dat nu Twinket’s fauwt’ Trinket turned to face his sister ‘Mummah an meanie Sissie du bad tings!’
‘Dummeh! Poopie!’ Ruby continued. ‘Wai poopie Twinket nu gu way?! Wuby nu wub yu! Mummah nu wub yu!’ She saw her brother flinch and stepped forward. ‘Mummah newa wub yu; onwy mummah mummah wan yu hewe dummeh!’
‘Dat sniff d-dat nu twue…’ Trinket chocked out.
‘Dummeh poopie bwudda Twinket,’ Ruby teased, ‘dummeh ugwie babbeh!’
‘S-stahp…’ Trinket whimpered.
‘Dummeh dummeh poopie poopie’ Ruby stepped a little closer, nearly touching her brother. ‘Dummeh poopie ugwie Twinket, onwy gud fow poopies.’
‘S-st…’
Ruby was so wrapped up in her teasing and mocking, she failed to notice Trinket tensing up.
‘Dummeh dummeh poo-’
‘STAHP!’ Trinket swatted Ruby in the face, knocking the filly to the ground. Before she recovered from the shock, Trinket jumped on her, stamping and stomping his sister with all his strength. ‘NU CAWW TWINKET DUMMEH! NU AM POOPIES! HACHEW HACHEW!’
‘Bwudda nu!’ Snow ran towards the fight, desperate to pry his sibblings apart before things got worse. ‘Nu giv Wuby sissie sowwie hoofies! Babbehs gun get-’
‘SCREEEE! MUMMAH HEWP! SABE WUBY! SCREEEE!’
Empress, already starting to stir shot awake at the scream; consumed by fear for the life of her filly, Empress rushed blindly towards the fight, not taking the time to figure out what was happening.
‘So you remember that fat pegasus I showed you?’ Bobby asked Riley as they walked
‘Uh-huh, what about it?’
‘I was right about him having a heart attack when his turn came.’
‘Seriously?’
‘Yeah. Trevor told me that when he went to evacuate the little guy, he was dead.’ Bobby shrugged his shoulders. ‘Panic must have gotten to him. Might be for the best; he’d gotten so big he could hardly move.’
Riley shook his head. ‘Damn.’
‘They’re funny little things. Alright here it is, you’re posting for the next few weeks. Fair warning, Richie’s he’s not a bad guy to work with, but…’ Bobby was interrupted by the door opening; in the doorway stood a man in his 40s. ‘Well speak of the devil. How’s it going Rich?’
‘Good Bobby. So this is barn 3’s new helper’ he said turning to Riley.
‘Uh yeah,’ Riley said holding out his hand. Richie gave a firm handshake, then in a bad Scottish accent said;
‘Welcome to the rock.’
‘Yeah, Rich here communicates in movie quotes.’ Bobby said. ‘Well, good luck man.’
As Bobby turned to go Riley followed Richie into the barn; ‘You’re just in time’ Richie said, ‘we’re setting up fresh batch of dams.’
‘Oh goodie.’
‘Oh it’s not that bad’ Richie said. ‘Breeding’s a hands-off process. Well, for most of them anyway.’ Richie walked to a shelf full of pet carriers and handed a pair to Riley. After grabbing two for himself, the barn chief led the young man to the mare living quarters. In the dozen or so pens the mares went about their lives, keeping to themselves or living in mini herds.
‘So, one in each carrier and pick one from these pens here’ Richie pointed out a half dozen pens with blue tags on the gates. ‘Be careful; there’s a reason these mares are here.’ Richie led the way into one of the pens and put his carriers on the floor. Most of the mares ran to the far corners.
‘Nu wan meanie huggies huhu!’ came the cry. A few stood their ground.
‘Dummeh hoomin!’
‘Ooh, a volunteer’ Richie grabbed the mare by the scruff of the neck and shoved her into one of the carriers. Riley was amazed at the way he avoided the mare’s sorry poopies. ‘Ok sport, your turn. Try that one over there’ Richie pointed to a sunset-yellow mare with a red mane cowering by the wall, ‘she’ll be nice and easy.’
Riley copied what he saw, grabbing the mare by the scruff and holding her away from his body.
‘Huhu nu wan mowe bad huggies! Nu wan babbehs gain!!’ The mare sobbed as Riley bundled her into the carrier.
‘Good work’ Richie said as he grabbed another of the grouchy mares and stuffed her in his second carrier. ‘Go on don’t be shy fill that other carrier. Grab a smarty if you’re up to it.’ Riley ignored the suggestion and grabbed another cowering mare who did nothing but whimper. With the carriers filled Richie led the way to the barn’s mating section. The room had dozens of small pens running in lines, each big enough to hold two fluffies. Most were already occupied with either lone mares waiting for a mate, or two fluffies going at it.
Bring them over here’ Richie said walking to a line of 4 empty pens. They unloaded the mares and went back to get more.
The second trip brought them to pen no.6. Richie wasted no time grabbing two mares, a midnight blue earthie and the newly 3-legged unicorn. As for Riley, the first fluffy he collected was a bright pink unicorn he vaguely remembered from the birthing cages two weeks ago. She hardly struggled as he put her inside the carrier. With one filled Riley looked around for a second, and settled on a burgundy mare sitting quietly by the wall.
‘-the last place I worked at bred their mares over and over again. After a few cycles they give you nothing but dead, hey wait!’
Before Richie could finish his warning, Lovely spun around faster than Riley thought fluffies could move and raised her tail; he jumped back, but not fast enough. ‘Ah Jesus, fuck!’ He looked down; his upper body was clear, but his legs from the thigh down were covered.
‘Yeah, that little critter is Lovely’ Richie said coming over, ‘queen bitch of the barn. Loves pulling tricks like that, gotta pick her up with a catcher pole.’
‘Jesus, what the fuck is her problem?!’ Riley yelled stepping out of the pen, ‘Why the fuck didn’t you tell me?’
‘Sorry kid’ Richie threw a random mare into the pet carrier, ‘I thought someone would have mentioned her to you by now, she’s got quite the reputation.’ Richie looked at Lovely who glared back at him, daring the worker to do something. ‘Go get changed, plenty of spare coveralls out front. Meet me at the mating pens.
Richie managed to carry the four carriers to the mating pens and get the mares allocated. After a few minutes, Riley returned. ‘Alright, let’s cover mate matching.
He led Riley a pen where a dozen stallions waited, closely watched by two workers to stop them fighting or raping one another. ‘Grab any you please. Management’s more concerned with behaviour than colour, which suits me fine; the fewer spreadsheets, the better. Try and match unicorns and pegasi though,’ Richie added, ‘It’s hard to go broke trying to breed alicorns.’
Riley reach down and grabbed a brown unicorn by the scruff of the neck and was pulling him out when another stallion piped up; ‘Pwease nice Mistah! Nu take dat fwuffy, take fwuffy! Wan speciaw huggies an speciaw fweeee!’
‘If you insist’ Richie grabbed the young stallion by the scruff and carried him back to the pens where the mares waited. ‘There you go sport, enjoy’ Richie dumped the stallion unceremoniously into the pen which held Empress.
‘Gasp nyu speciaw fwend! Su pwetty!’
‘Huu pwease nu giv huwties’ Empress whined
‘Nu wowwy speciaw fwend! Fwuffy giv bestest speciaw huggies’ the stallion said as he mounted the timid mare. Enf enf enf enf
‘Whoa whoa don’t put that guy in with her’ Richie grabbed Riley’s arm, still holding the unicorn. ‘She’ll eat him alive’ he pointed to the pegasus puffing her cheeks out at them. ‘You have to match mares and stallions by temperament; she’ll be better for him’ Richie pointed to an earthie huddled in the corner.
‘Ok’ Riley put the stallion in the pen with the mare. After a few minutes, the two were mating robotically.
‘Mares like this one need to be matched with domineering stallions’ Richie said as he dumped another unicorn in with the defiant pegasus.
‘Yu giv fwuffy speciaw huggies nao dummeh mawe!’ The stallion yelled.
‘Make fwuffy dummeh!’ The mares retorted was met with hoof strikes. In short order, the stallion was on top of her.
Enf enf enf enf enf enf
‘So match by temperament huh?’ Riley asked.
‘That’s the main thing, yes’ Richie said.
As the two spoke, another worked walked by with a strange gun looking thing. ‘The hell is that for?’ Riley asked.
‘Oh, this?’ The worker held up the device, ‘we call it the love gun, use it on the mares we can’t mate with stallions.’
‘What do you mean?’ Riley asked.
‘Tell you what I mean; we got one mare called “Lovely,” queen bitch of-’
‘He’s met her’ Richie said, ‘fell for one of her tricks.’
‘Oh, shit, sorry to hear that man’ the worker said to Riley. ‘Anyway, her first time here we matched her with an honest to god smarty; absolute hell on legs that little shit was. I turn my back, and not even five seconds later I hear screaming.
‘I go back expecting to see this bastard taking chunks out of her; instead, it turns out she’s managed to castrate him. ’
‘Jesus’ Riley said.
‘Oh that’s not the half of it, love to tell you more but’ he shook the gun, ‘got a few like her that have a date with this thing.’ The worker left, leaving Riley slightly a gasp.
‘C grade barns are never boring’ Richie said.
‘Gud feews!’ came the cry from one of the pens.
‘Well, there’s one we can put back.’ Richie turned to the source of the noise and found it was the eager stallion from before. His job finished, the young stallion was trying to snuggle with Empress, oblivious to the fact she was curled as tight as she could.
‘Wub speciaw fwend’ he cooed, ‘gun hav bestest babbehs and-’
‘Keep dreaming.’ Richie plucked the stallion out of the pen.
‘NUU! NU TAKE FWUFFY! NEE BE WITH SPECIAW FWEND!’
‘Buddy, she hardly even talked to-’
‘WET FWUFFY GU OW GET SOWWIE POOPIES!’
‘Don’t do something you’ll regret’ Richie said, just in time for the stallion to spray shit at him.
‘WET FWUFFY BE WIF SPECIAW FWEND DUMMEH HOOMIN’ he screamed.
Richie held him up to his face. ‘Ok that’s it, you dun fucked up now!’ He turned to Riley. ‘Want to see how we keep stallions in line?’ Without waiting for Riley to respond, Richie walked out of the mating room. Not knowing what else to do, the young man followed him. A short walk later they were in a small room. One wall was lined with sorry cages, of few of which were occupied; there was also a bench with various retraining platforms and a few cabinets.
‘This is our discipline room.’ Richie walked over to the bench and strapped the stallion into a restraint rig.
‘Wet fwuffy see speciaw fwend’ he cried, ‘speciaw fwend nee fwuffy! Nee hewp babbehs!’
‘I’ll give you credit for wanting to be involved’ Richie said as he went to a cupboard, ‘but that isn’t how things work here.’
‘Wait is that a…? Dude, what the hell are you planning?’
‘Patience young grasshopper’ Richie set the gear down on the table. ‘Watch and learn.’ Richie spread a bit of gel on something that could only be a butt plug and-
‘SCREEE WAI HUWT POOPIE PWACE!?’
‘Now that we’re safe from more poopies,’ Richie opened a small jar and dipped a paint brush in it, ‘we apply the sorry paint.’
‘Sorry paint?’
‘Best discipline tool for unruly stallions out there. You can use Bengay or something like that, but ours is custom made’ Richie said as he brushed the gel over the stallion’s scrotum. ‘It’s stronger.’
‘How much stronger?’
‘Well, I wouldn’t want to use it’ Richie put down the brush and stepped back from the table. ‘Now, watch and learn.’
‘Wai hoomins put fwuffy in not sowwie box?’ The stallion whined. ‘Wai put cowd stickie wawa on speciaw wumps? Wai, wai speciaw wumps hav wawmies?’ It didn’t take long for the highly concentrated gel to take effect. ‘Nu wike speciaw wumps wawmies! Pwease fix! Nu wan speciaw wump wawmies!’
‘Wait for it.’
‘Speciaw wumps am tuu warmies! Tuu warmies! Hewp! HEWP! SCREEEEEE! BUWNIE HUWTIES! SCREEEEE! SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEE!’
‘Hahhahah, now that’s how you get a stallion back into line’ Richie yelled over the stallion.
‘How long is that shit going to last?’
‘SQUEEEEEEEEEE! REEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
‘Long enough; guarantee he one’t put one foot out of line after this. Hell, he might just get bumped up from here. Come one, let’s get out of here before we go deaf.’
‘SCREEE! HEWP MUMMAH!’
‘MUMMAH CUMIN BABBEH!’ Empress yelled running towards the fight; panicked and thinking the life of one of her babies was at stake, she charged at the thing on top of Ruby. ‘NU HUWT WUBY BABBEH MUNSTAH!’ Empress batted the creature hard, knocking it away from ruby. It tumbled and rolled a couple of feet away. Only then did Empress realise her mistake.
In shock from the impact, Trinket tried to stand up but stumbled. ‘Wai weggie nu wow-’ the colt’s mouth seized when he looked at his leg; a bloody bone peaked out, and the leg past the break dangled freely. ‘SCREEEEEE! REEEEE! WEGGIE HUWTIES! WOWSTEST HUWTIES! SCREEEE!’
‘Twinket babbeh nu!’ Empress rushed forward and scooped the screaming colt into her legs. ‘Mummah sowwie! Nu mean giv huwties! Giv huggies an make…’
‘SCREEEE! EEEEE! HUWTIES! WAI MUMMAH GIV WOWSTEST HUWTIES!!! SCREEE!!!’
‘MUMMAH SOWWIE! NU MEAN TUU! HUHU WAI HUGGIES NU WOWKIN?!’
‘What the hell is going on in here?’ Empress’s owner rushed in. ‘Empress what… oh my god TRINKET!’ The human grabbed the screaming colt from his mother. ‘Trinket! What happened?’
‘MUMMAH GIV TWINKET HUWTIES! WAI NU WUB BABBEH?!?! SCREEEEE!’
‘MUMMAH! MUMMAH PWEASE GIV TWINKET BABBEH TO EMPWESS!’ The owner looked at her fluffy, desperately pawing at her legs. ‘NU MEAN GIV HUWTIES! NEE GIV HUGGIES FOW BEEEEE!’ She kicked the fluffy away and left the safe room. ‘Cough haf nu mummah gasp! Nu take babbeh! Nee giv-’
SLAM
Every fluffy left in the safe room jumped at the sound; after recovering from the shock, Empress ran up and hammered at the door. ‘MUMMAH PWEASE! EMPWESS NU MEAN GIV TWINKET HUWTIES! PWEASE WET EMPWESS HEWP TWINKET BABBEH!’ The door opened and Empress rushed forward, only to be grabbed by the scruff of the neck and stuffed in a sorry box. ‘NU SOWWIE BOX! NEE HEWP TWINKET BABBEH!’ the mare cried as she was carried to the basement and left locked in darkness.
‘HUHUHU NU WEAVE EMPWESS HEWE! NEE HEWP BABBEH! NEE HEWP BABBEH!!!’
‘Mummah pwease! Empwess sowwie’ the mare cried as her owner carried the pet carrier down the street to the shelter. ‘Empwess nu mean huwt Twinket! Nu mean be bad mummah!’
‘It’s too late for that now’ the woman said coldly. ‘God knows I’ve given you too many chances already.’
‘Pwease mummah! Empwess be gud mummah! Pwomise! Pwomise!!!’
The owner stopped and lifted the box so she could see the mare; ‘You already promised to do that; you promised to take care of all your babies, but you didn’t.’ The owner fought to keep her rage in check. ‘You wouldn’t feed Trinket, you ignored him, left him behind in the park.’
‘Nu mummah-’
‘and you broke his leg!’ The owner yelled over the mare. ‘Do you know the vet couldn’t fix it? She had to take his leg off. How does that make you feel Empress?’
‘Huhuhu Empwess nu mean bweak Twinket babbeh’s-’
‘I don’t want to hear it Empress’ the owner said. ‘I should never have let you have babies.’ Her owner’s words hurt the mare. ‘Without a doubt that was the worst mistake I ever made with you.’
‘M-mummah…’
‘Sigh, why am I dragging this out.’ The owner walked the rest of the distance to the shelter. 5 minutes later she had washed her hands of Empress.
‘Uuuuuhuhuhuhuuuu! Empwess sowwie mummah! Pwease cum back huhuhu!’ Empress wailed from her small cage. ‘Wowstest heawt huwties!’
Days passed, and Empress had barely stoppedcrying. She watched the shelter workers and occasional potential adopter pass by her cage door; few acknowledged her, and she barely spoke to any of them. One day the mare was curled up in a ball when she heard someone just outside her cage.
‘This one looks good, add her to the shipment.’ Before Empress knew what was happening, a worker pulled her out of the cage and placed her in a large wooden box with two dozen other mares.
‘Wai hoomins put Wendy in boxie?’
‘Huuhuhu nu wike! Wan be with speciaw fwend!’
‘Pwease take back to babbehs Mistah! Day nee mummah!’
Empress joined the scrabble trying to get out. Moments later the lid closed over the top, and darkness enveloped them save for the small amount of light that came in through the air vents.
The journey to their new home took only an hour, but it felt like an eternity for the terrified fluffies. When at last they arrived at Sunny dale farms, they were taken straight to the C grade barn and assigned to their pens. Over the weeks some got lucky and earned a promotion to the B grade barns for their good behaviour and personalities. For Empress though, this would be her new and final home.
‘Huhuhuh nu wan sowwie housie nu mowe’
‘Pwease nu take babbehs gain! Soon-mummah jus wan one!’
‘Daddeh pwease cum back huhuhu! Ashwie pwomise newa giv sowwie poopies gain!’
‘SHUD UP DUMMEHS!’
Richie and Katherine walked down the row of restriction cages, checking the status of the batch. 2 weeks into their gestation they were all viably swollen; some were well on their way to being immobile, a legacy of their gene lines.
‘Looking good so far’ Katherine said, ‘these ladies are shaping up to be a good batch.’
‘Sure are,’ Richie commented. ‘We might just see some bonuses out of it.’
‘Well, we can always dream.’ Katherine and Richie walked past a cage where once again Empress lay on her belly, waiting for the inevitable. Around her the other mares sobbed and cried, begging to be let out or for their owners to save them.
Empress hung her head, tears flowing from her eyes.
‘Wan die.’