There are plenty of studies done over the behavior of fluffies both in domestic, and feral settings, both professionally, and by amateurs with a clipboard and a basement. Lesser documented and researched however, even in the three years it’s been since fluffies were released into nature, are the numerous subspecies of fluffies. There are very little in the way of how these things would thrive in wild environments, which is what led Doctor Wallace to create his terrarium.
It was a large, thick glassed tank with approximate dimensions of 30x32x16 inches. The bottom was filled with about five inches of soft dirt, deep enough for the plants to root, and the subjects to burrow if they felt it necessary. There were grasses and other plants scattered amongst the enclosure, including a genetically modified dwarf jellybean blueberry bush which was planted in the corner, it was manipulated to both increase it’s production of berries as well as have a smaller stature, allowing it to fit in the container.
Directly across the terrarium from the bush was a plastic, “stone cave”, reptile hide that had been purchased from a pet store, this would serve as the home for the subjects of the experiment. Nearby the cave was a “stone” plastic water dish, buried midway into the ground to give it a more natural aesthetic, the Doctor would refill once a day during the habitat’s “night cycle”.
To explain the “night cycle”; the lid of the terrarium had a light rigged to a dimmer switch and a timer, allowing the light to stay at a maximum brightness from between 7:45 AM and 7:45 PM. When it wasn’t between those times, the dimmer lowered the light to an ambient level, simulating moonlight.
Away in the opposite corner of the enclosure from where the nest was located, there was a rather large patch of ground, where instead of the soft dirt located everywhere else, there was instead a very loose, fine sand. And afixed to the top of the container, in every corner, was a small camera, capturing and recording every sound and sight that occurs in the tiny ecosystem.
Everything and everyone was in place, now it was time for the final step of the beginning of the event. Introduction of the subjects to the habitat.
This time, as one would likely have guessed, the victims were going to be “Variant Two” Microfluffies. (For those unfamiliar with what a “Variant Two” is, please refer to Doctor Wallace’s “Fluffy Observations” for more specifics about the breed). To explain them succinctly, they are the smaller of the two variations of microfluffies, being the breed commonly used in “nutrigel” habitats. They only grew to about an inch tall, and you never really saw any longer than an inch and a half. The foals were even smaller, specks of color that you could easily miss if not paying attention.
Most astonishing of all, was this breeds unique property of growing from birth to full development within only five weeks. Ordinarily this would obviously lead to a massive ecological disaster, but fortunately, this breed of fluffies does abysmally in the wild. For every six foals born in the wild, you’re lucky if two survive. Anything that could be considered somewhat dangerous to normal fluffy ponies, or even Variant One micros, is a lethal threat to Variant Twos. Therefore, with the exception of situations like building infestations, it is incredibly unlikely for there to a be place in the wild for these fluffies to thrive. But that doesn’t mean they aren’t raised extensively in captivity.
Doctor Wallace entered the room, taking the lid off of the enclosure and placing nine small, sleeping micros into the enclosure, nearby the cave structure. These fluffies were just on the cusp of adulthood, able to be eat solid food and breed, but not quite full sized yet, and had been raised in captivity, only ever having contact with humans briefly when they were named, and had their water and food bowls were refilled, and only the only other fluffies they had ever seen being their siblings and mother.
There were five colts, and four fillies. The first male was a unicorn with a light, rose pink coat, and bright magenta secondary colorations.
Followed by another unicorn with an obnoxious orange coat, like thrown up cheetos, and a dark grey, somewhat ashy secondary coloring.
Next was another colt, an earthie with a deep violet coat, that almost looks black until the light hits it, he has a bright yellow mane and tail.
Puke-green fluff adorned the next colt, another earthie, with a bright purple mane and tail, he looked a bit emaciated compared to the others the Doctor had received, and he made a mental note to call the provider and inquire about it, seeing as he was promised the highest quality- regardless of color.
The final colt was a shit-brown pegasus with a maroon mane, this one also appearing slightly thinner. This irritated Wallace even more, seeing how difficult it was to get reputable breeders for Variant Twos in his area.
He sighed and moved on to the fillies, starting with a chubby grey earth pony with a pretty black mane and tail, she must’ve been spoiled as a foal.
Next was an earth filly with a navy blue coat, and a yellow, nearly golden, secondary coloring.
Then came a neon green pegasus, with a sky blue mane.
And finally, the last filly, a unicorn with “gatorade glacier freeze” blue fluff, and an entirely white mane and tail.
It was 5 AM as he placed them all inside the enclosure, curled up within close proximities of each other. Doctor Wallace promptly closed the lid of the terrarium and sat down in front of the table, looking at his laptop monitor waiting for the first activity.
The lights had been on for about 45 minutes, it was 8:30 AM by the time the first fluffy began stirring from it’s slumber, opening it’s eyes, blinking the sleep away, slowly realizing that it isn’t in the cage it lived it’s entire life in so far.
“Wha-? Eep!! Whewe am Gummi??” The pink unicorn jumped up from his sleeping position, and backed away slowly while looking at his new fluffy friends. He walked around the area he woke up in, taking care not to stray too far from any of the fluffies. The others began to wake due to a mixture of Gummy walking around babbling to himself, and the bright light above them. Everyone had a similar reaction to their new environment as he did, before quickly calming down after noticing their new friends.
An hour goes by and every fluffy is now awake getting acquainted with each other, hugging and running and playing, it’s a perfect day for fluffies. It takes another 45 minutes for the little critters to notice the “cave” barely ten inches away from them.
“Fwends! Fwuffy fin’ new housie!! Wook!” Gummy shouted, turning to address his new friends as he proudly stood outside the miniature cave.
“Gummi find pwetty housie!! Fwends hav bestes’ sweepies nao!” A darker purple colt said, looking inside of the new nest with an excited expression.
The navy blue filly trotted up behind Gummy, also clearly amazed by their new home. “Wowie!! Gummi du gud! Am su smawt!!”
The rose pink unicorn smiled, happy to be receiving such kind words from his new friends. This was the best day of his young life so far! He didn’t even think about his mother and siblings from the breeding farm anymore.
Several hours later, it was close to noon now, and Gummy felt his belly rumble. He looked over at his new friends, who were similarly looking down at their stomachs and glancing around the little spot they’d been playing on.
“Gummi gu find nummies fow nyu fwends!” The unicorn triumphantly stated with a stamp of his front hoof, and turned around walking into the grass away from their home.
The brown pegasus jumped forward, running towards Gummy as fast as he could, “Nu wet Gummi gu awone! Fwuffy gu wook fowe nummies tuu!”
Reluctantly, so did the orange unicorn, who had his cheeks puffed up and was dragging his feet as he walked. “Fwuffy wiww gu tuu… nu wet Gummi steaw aww nummies…” Gummy and the other fluffies didn’t really like this fluffy, he was a little rougher when he played huggy tag than everyone else, knocking the fluffies to the ground a little too hard.
The three fluffies set out onto the arduous (two and a half feet) journey to find food, stopping to nibble grass occasionally, but not being quite satisfied. After a moment of walking Gummy stops and makes an excited squeak, and runs towards something.
“Gummi foun’ bewwy nummies!” He takes a large bite out of the blue berry sitting on the ground in front of him, with more on and within the bush in front of him. The brown pegasus excitedly began digging in as well. The orange unicorn however quickly looked left from right, and began formulating a plan in it’s tiny little brain.
He began running towards a seperate plant nearby the blueberry bush, and began chowing down on the small red berries, before quickly spitting them out.
“Blechh!! Yucky bewwies!! Ewie!! Nu taste gud!!” The orange colt loudly spat out all the berries, causing Gummy and the brown pegasus to look over at him and observe as he threw his little fit.
“Nu wike yucky wed bewwies!! Huuu!! Hav tummy an’ moufie hav huwties!!” The colt suddenly began groaning in pain, and seemed to have trouble standing.
Gummy stopped eating, and began to walk over to the orange fluffy, while the brown pegasus simply observed.
“Owange fwuffy ota-” PBRTTTT
Before Gummy even managed to take two steps, the orange colt erupted violently from it’s ass.
“EEEEEEE!!”
The orange colt had fallen onto it’s stomach as it sprayed feces violently, painting the nearby terrain. “SCREEEEURgk-” blarrffff
He was now firing out of both ends, profusely, much to the horror of the two colts watching this unfold. The poor fluffy rolled onto it’s side, leg kicking seemingly on it’s own, as bile heaved out of it’s mouth at slower and slower rates, before being reduced to just bubbles as the colt’s neck goes limp and he stops kicking.
Gummy and the brown colt walked over to the unmoving body and looked at it, tapped it, shook it, tried everything they could in an attempt to rouse it from a sleep it would never awake from. Eventually they turned around and helped pile blueberries onto each others fluff and began returning to their cave home.
They returned soon after, having only been gone twenty minutes, much to the excitement of their hungry friends. However the fluffies soon noticed that only two fluffies were there, when three had left.
“Whewe am owange fwuffy?” The puke-green colt asked, causing the brown pegasus to begin to break down into "hu"s.
Gummy stepped forward, voice trembling with heartbreak as he spoke.
“Huu… Owange-fwend eat wed bewwy nummy and hav wowstes’ tummy huwties!! Made sickie-wawas and bad poopies an’ nao nu mov anymowe!!” Tears were falling from his eyes and onto his fat little cheeks as he told the story.
He collapsed onto his belly and covered his eyes with his hooves.
“Uuuuhuhuhuhu!!! Wed bewwies giv fwuffy wowstes’ huwties!! Huhuuuu!! Am foweva sweepies!!!” The fluffies all began tearing up at the realization that one of their new friends was gone, regardless of whether he was little pushy when playing or not.
They all quickly gathered around the brown pegasus and Gummy and began giving hugs to one another, this went on for nearly ten minutes before the fluffies who hadn’t eaten yet began eating the blueberries brought by the other two. Afterwards, all the fluffies were exhausted by the extensive drama of the day and decided to go take naps inside their new housie.
They all curled into one large fluffpile around 2 PM, and fell asleep soon after, hoping to forget about the events of the day.
When he was sure they were all asleep, Doctor Wallace removed the lid to the exhibit and pulled the corpse out, and sprayed the feces and vomit with a water bottle in an attempt to soak it into the ground.
It was known already that Lily of the Valley berries were poisonous to fluffies, just like they were to effectively anyone else who ate them, but it was unexpected to have such an effect on Variant Twos, taking less than 140 seconds between consumption and a violent death.
The man also took note of how the fluffies definitively made sure to indicate what resulted in the death of the fluffy, letting the other fluffies know that the red berries are what resulted in the orange colt’s death.
Now the Doctor was really looking forward to seeing how these fluffies intend to adapt to the other points of interest within the habitat. Only time would tell how they would fare against what’s to come.
