Part Nine
Sometimes, people think that fluffies don’t have a life outside of their interactions with their owners. After all, why would a “bio-toy” need to do anything besides what its owner wanted. In truth, fluffies, even domestic ones, crave social interaction more than humans do, and when they can’t get it from their owners they spend time talking or playing with each other.
It was early in the morning, and the foals were playing with their blockies, each trying to create the highest stack. They were still quite small, so the biggest tower any of them could manage was three. Fluffies, however, are easily entertained by repeating the same game over and over, an intentional feature to prevent bored fluffies from causing mischief.
As they played, the foals talked quietly. Their parents were both asleep, but the foals were full of youthful energy, so they played and talked with each other while their parents, and their hoomin-mummah, slept. Sunbeam and Aqua were particularly interested in what Smokey had to say about the outside world, as they had never been outside. Although they often requested that Victor tell them stories about his life, he never did; his experiences were too painful to think about, let alone discuss.
Still, Smokey was a veritable font of knowledge about the outside world. Most of what he told the others merely frightened them; how could it be that a fluffy could be hungry for many forevers? Didn’t anyone give them nummies? Could it really get so cold that fluffies went forever-sleepies? Still, they persisted in asking questions, their curiosity overriding their sense of fear.
"Wy Smokey su smaww wen hoomin-mummah bwing 'ou tu safewoom?
“Owd hewd nu gib Smokey nummies. Caww Smokey poopie babbeh an’ make num poopies. Aww nummies fow gwown-up fwuffies and bestest babbies, nu nummies fow poopie babbeh.”
"Wut am poopie babbeh?
“Dummeh owd mummah say babbeh wif nu pwetty cowows am poopie babbeh, am onwy gud fow num poopies an’ gib wickie-cweanies .”
“Bestest babbeh? Bu’ aww babbehs am gud babbehs!”
"Owd hewd meanies. Nu wike Smokey, say gway fwuff am ugwy. Nu wike pointie-wingie babbehs, caww munstah babbehs. Nu wike babbehs who nu can wun, nu can pawy, caww dummeh babbehs. Owd hewd am wowstest fwuffies ebah!
Then, the words that would have been best left unspoken:
“Wut am bestest babbeh, den?”
“Owd hewd say bestest babbeh am pwettiest babbeh. Gib bestest nummies an’ aww da miwkies. Make Smokey num bestest babbeh poopies an’ gib sorry hoofsies if Smokey nu num.”
“Dat am stoopid. Smokey owd hewd am dummehs.” Aqua said, but internally she wondered. “Am Aqua bestest babbeh? Nu am wingie-pointie babbeh ow twee-weggie babbeh an’ haf pwetty cowows. Aqua deserbe bestest nummies fow be bestest babbeh?”
…
Today was another big day. Sam had been keeping careful track of the foal’s development, and recently they’d stopped complaining of “mouf-huwties,” which mean that they were done teething and were ready to begin eating solid food. This had been confirmed when Hope had confided that there would soon be no more milkies, so it was time for the foals to begin adjusting to solid food.
This called for a celebration, but unlike last time, Sam was going to make absolutely sure that there would be no problems. No, this time she was making the spaghetti from scratch, with only ingredients she knew were safe for the fluffies. She might not be the best at moving on, but she damn well intended to learn from her mistakes.
She walked down the aisles in the grocery store, looking for the best gluten-free pasta noodles she could find. Although fluffies could eat gluten, it tended to irritate their stomachs and Sam had no intention of making them sick. Normally, she’d have just gone with some normal, store-brand noodles, but this time she was making sure she got the best.
For a moment, she was tempted by the jars of pre-made pasta sauce. However, reading the labels she noticed that all of them contain parsley, an herb that was known to cause reproductive damage in developing female fluffies. While she wasn’t intending on breeding any of her fluffies, she didn’t want to be responsible for if Sunbeam or Aqua suffered from long-term hormonal issues as a result of the parsley. Homemade sauce it is, she thought.
Truth be told, it was nice to be out shopping for groceries again. In recent weeks she’d been too fixated on raising the fluffies and had mostly relied on delivery for her groceries, and she’d almost forgotten how soothing she found the neat, orderly shelves. It was a small thing, but she’d still missed it.
Regardless, it didn’t take long for her to finish shopping and begin heading home. Along the way she shivered, despite the warm air coming from the AC vents, as she saw numerous dead fluffies lying on the side of the roads. Since fluffies had first been released, their bodies had often piled up on the roads, resulting in snowplows being repurposed to clear them out of the way. Sam shuddered to think what could have happened to Hope and Knight if she hadn’t been home when they arrived.
As she walked in the front door, she was greeted as usual by Knight. At his request, she’d set up the saferoom gate so he could get in and out but the foals could not. During the day he’d often patrol the house, likely an old habit from his days of scavenging. But whenever she left, he’d always wait by the door for her to return so he could greet her. It warmed her heart.
Sam didn’t tell the fluffies that there were going to be sketties tonight. Normally, it was only given to them on sketti day, but today was special, since it was the first time the foals were going to have solid food. She wanted it to be a surprise, to make this as joyous an occasion as she could for them.
As she cooked, she let her mind wander. How long had it been since she’d had friends over? Too long, certainly, and she couldn’t think of a reason why. She’d been avoiding going out so she could keep and eye on the fluffies, but that reason didn’t stop friends from visiting. Perhaps she just hadn’t thought about it, had been too preoccupied with the fluffies. Still, she felt a twinge of guilt over spending so little time with her friends.
Soon, the noodles were boiling and the sauce was finished, and Sam sat down at the table. Pulling her phone from her pocket, she began to text Alice and Rebecca, asking if they’d be interested in coming over to her house to spend some time together and let Sam’s fluffies play with Snowball. She also sent an invite to MIkhael, but she knew he’d be too busy to come.
The timer she’d set to warn her that the noodles were finished went off, and she pulled the full-length noodle pot off the stove. Fluffies couldn’t really eat noodles well, despite their obsession with spaghetti, so it was best to cut some noodles short and let them cook longer, almost until they were mushy, to reduce the choking hazard. It could be a bit of a hassle to cook normal spaghetti and spaghetti for fluffies, which was why Sam normally only cooked it for her fluffies on sketties days. This time, however, the sauce smelled far too appetizing for her to refrain from having some herself.
After waiting for the noodles to cool, she dropped them into six bowls, two adult-sized and four for the foals, and covered them with a generous amount of the sauce. When these were brought to the saferoom, she was happy to hear cries of joy and expressions of pure happiness. The foals were barely able to contain their excitement, as this was their first time being able to try sketties.
After placing the last pair of bowls on the food mat, she walked back to the kitchen and prepared her own food. While she wouldn’t call it the ambrosia of the gods, it was definitely something she wouldn’t mind eating again. But she wasn’t a fluffy, so she couldn’t set her expectations that high. She was halfway through her second plate when she heard a cry of pain from the saferoom.
Dashing to the saferoom, she saw Hope, Knight, and the foals staring in horror at Aqua, who was standing over a bleeding Smokey. Although as an earthy he should have been stronger, too long spent malnourished had left him frail, and Aqua’s horn was particularly long and pointed. Smokey bled profusely from a wound in his back right thigh, and Aqua’s horn dripped blood.
Sam quickly reached for the medical kit she kept hanging on a hook by the saferoom door. It wasn’t uncommon for fluffies to accidentally get injured, especially when excited unicorns were running around without watching where they were going. The wound probably wasn’t too bad, but it was still best to treat it immediately.
Then she heard something she’d been desperately hoping to not hear from any of the foals.
“Aqua am bestest babbeh! Poopie babbeh gib Aqua sketties! Sketties nu am fow poopie babbeh!”
Part Eleven
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Nooooo! Aqua! NUUUUU!
huu huu huu
Time to discipline I suppose 
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Yeah, things aren’t looking up for her now.
Still, in this case I think it’s a lot less sad than for most “best babies”. Most of the time a foal is told they’re the best baby and are brainwashed into it, but in this case she decided on her own that she was the best. So while usually it feels like they’re being punished for something they were forced into, it’s different here.
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This won’t do at all.
It calls for a harsh punishment, as this wasn’t engrained into her by her mummah, she decided it herself and seriously hurt another foal, worse still an abused foal, and she knows it.
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I don’t remember ever reading of a fluffy becoming a bestest babby just from hearing the words and to turn violent so quickly. That’s fucking horrifying dude!
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Oh no
Aw fuck! 
Dammit everytime that word causing innocent foals go bonkers!
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I get the feeling that Aqua’s parents will not take kindly to that attitude considering how ill her father has been treated. It might even be enough to have them ask for her removal from the family should she not redeem herself after punishment.
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It looks like someone has volunteered themself to be the example and will now receive a horrible punishment in front of its peers to show the others what they should never do.
No. Bestest. Babbehs.
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Time to get Aqua thrown out
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The best gluten free noodles I’ve encountered are Great Value’s fusilli.
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To be honest, I have terrible taste when it comes to pasta. I usually just buy whatever’s cheapest, so I have no idea what brands of noodles are actually good or not.
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Not being able to have gluten severely limits the prospects on what one can have
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Fortunately, I can eat gluten with no problems. Sadly, my options for pasta are still really limited because I can’t have garlic, but you take what you can get.
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Noooooooo