Continuing the pattern of body swapping to ensure well restedness helped Johnson and director be an active and supportive father and owner. The next two weeks went by in a blur of chripy adorableness. Johnson intended to test if stimulating foals in the womb helped with their mental development as well but for now he was set on providing stimulus during their pre talking days. Johnson installed a series of wall shelves for the eyebot to perch on and act as a radio before he created playlists of classical music from holotapes he was able to copy from the institute to load into the eyebots memory. The eyebot was choosen for this task rather then a computer terminal as the adults could order it to cease music if necessary. He created a playlist for sleeping and for waking hours as some songs were far to stimulating to sleep through but had to set aside a few songs likely for when they were older as they would likely stimulate them to the point of poopinig.
Reading lessons were narrated with the foals in the room to give them lots of examples of words for them to develop their vocabulary off of and various levels of proficiencies from the age groups. Admittidly it would be when they’re older that they actually start putting two and two together on what words mean and they may simply use them in what they assume is the correct context. He made a note to create a dictionary on tape with the defininition of all words A to Z and to see how fluffies of various ages reacted to the stimuli with a very particular note to test it on very young foals. He was torn if he wanted to save this for personal experimentation or if he’d allow the instute to handle it for him.
However some clouds have a shit stained silver lining. Mango had finally taken things too far. They had been probing the limits of the rules and how the robots responded to them. Isaac was off handling an errand and the parents had not yet arrived. When feeding time came they moved Carmine and Amaranths food closer and layed atop their kibble bowls while eating their own. Their excuse? “Mango nu take uddah fwuffies foodies, mango am just waying down.” Nanny had unfortunatly accepted the excuse and returned to their observation.
Amaranth and Carmine had come back from their remote jobs to eat before
“Whewe am nummies?” Amaranth adds looking around as Mango began to slow his eating pace as he was near done and wanted to enjoy it more now.
“Dah wed findah am on dah case!” Carmine adds and after some examining and sloothing the discovery was made. “Tink dey undah bwuddah.” Carmine added pointing to the edge of the bowl hedging out from under their brothers bulk.
“Pwease gib nummies back bwuddah.” Amaranth sighed.
“Nu kno wha ou’ mean.” He added hemming and hawing while making exaggerated sounds of enjoyment.
“Cawmine tink ou’ do. Wuwe numbah fouw, no steawies.” The two glared at him as Nanny began to step towards the gathering.
“Nanny! Cawmine bweak wuwe numbah two!”
“Wha?” Carmine and Amaranth added confused, some of the other fluffies were arriving now.
“Please wait,” Nanny adds holding a hand up to the two. “explain.”
“Dey am no speaking powitewy to Mango. Making meanie ac-ac-acusations dat am steawing.”
“Dat am Dummeh!” The two exclaim.
“That is a warning to both of you. Your language will be reported.” The two were gob smacked and mango smirked as he finished the last bite of his food smugly.
“Wha am Mango doing?” Durum approaching his son.
“Just waying hewe and enjoying muh nummies.” Mango shrugged before pushing the bowl aside.
“You waying on dewe food.” He hesitated after seeing that nanny was enforcing rule two that mango was abusing so he could not use as much assertive language as he’d like here. “Move, Pwease…”
“Waying no am taking. Nu mangos fault if dey no can get to what am gibben to dem.” He adds with a satisfied exhale of air out his nose.
“Fine, daddeh hewp dem weach den.” Durum added annoyedly flexing his shoulders to activate his work prosthetics to begin reaching for Mango.
“Screee! HEWP NANNY, WUWE THWEE! WUWE THWEE! HUU-huu-huu…” The initial panic seemed sincere but the huu’d crying was quickly discernable as ‘fake’. Nanny sprang into action taking this was a threat due to Mangoes concern and caught the robotic hands and lifted Durum up by them and stepped away with him.
“Wha, Nu~ wait. Nu am huwties, am hewpies! Am gud fwuffy!” Durum protested as he was placed in one of a series of sorry boxes next to the litterbox area. Johnson had learned his lesson after the last phone booth incident.
“You will be released from time out in fifteen minutes. Please consider your appology to mango in that time.”
Everyone who was now on scene was equal parts confused and concerned. “Mango tink, wiww enjoy nap now. Unwess someone ewse wan bweak dah wuwes?”
“Oh fow skettie wands sake.” Isaac sighed before radioing the eyebot in the safe room. “Johnson, you are required at the tree…” the eybot adds. Isaac proceeded to attempt and calm the other fluffies and prevent them from putting their hooves in their mouth like Durum had and receiving punishement.
Finishing a chapter in his book on budhism having gone off into the weeds after researching various guides on meditation to help him maintain his domination of the mindspace he set a bookmark in it he closed the book. “Im on my way.” He replied to the eyebot standing up. “Daddy will be back soon.” He added exiting the house.
“What seems to be the issue?” Johnson added approaching the scene as Isaac broke rank to hover to meet him.
Isaac leaned in to whisper. “Mango am abuse Nanny’s wack of cwiticaw thinkies and pwetend uddah fwuffies am bweaking dah wuwes whiwe dey being meanie.”
Johnson sighed. ‘The first thing he does that im relatively impressed about and it’s evil.’ He thinks to himself. “Thank you for calling me. For what it’s worth, im sorry.” Johnson added putting his hand on Isaacs head.
“Wha’ daddeh mean?” Isaac added confusedly.
“Mango will probably lose body privledges, that means their body will be available for a fluffy that has earned them. I know it’s not an ideal body~” He adds gazing at the tubby orange stallion as he shifted his backside left and right scratching his bits on Amaranths kibble.
“Am bettah den no body. An can make it bettah wif a widdwe hawd wowk.” Isaac added enthusiastically.
“Good to hear. Please head to the garage.” Johnson added patting the robot and the two seperated. Johnsons shadow promptly engulfed mangos form.
“Pwease move, mango wan nice sunsies.” He grumbled from his nap while the other fluffies let amaranth and Carmine eat some of their food while they were waiting for the situation to resolve.
“Mango, mango, mango…” Johnson adds sternly and mango lets out a slight panic fart before rolling opening their eyes. “Please, don’t get up…” Johnson added squatting into place and pushing his hand onto mangos back before he can roll off.
“I must say mango, im actually impressed by your initiative for a change.” Johnson added with a smile.
“Wha am init~”
“Oh right, you don’t know that word cause you either skip lessons or don’t pay attention when we force you to attend. To be honest with how you’ve been behaving, this initiative of yours was the first thing I was proud of you for.” Johnson sighed.
“. . . Daddeh, no wub Mango?” Mango added concernedly for a moment.
“Oh mango, daddy could never not love you. But being proud of you is another matter entirely. You’ve squandered your good fortune of being my fluffy. You do little but eat, sleep and take advantage of my settlements amenities.”
“Mango gib enfie toy wots of speciaw huggies too.”
Johnson sighed. “The special huggy toy is an amenity, you’d know that word if you studied. You contribute nothing to the point of being a detriment to the settlment and herd while failing to improve yourself in any meaningful way.”
“So?” Mango adds shifting their face to the side sassily.
“Oh-ho? Don’t get brazen with me Mango. Nanny, take Durum out of the sorry box.” Nanny aknowledged and took the adult out.
“Tank’ou daddeh…” Durum added after approaching solemnly.
“It’s ok boy. Tell me, did you explain to mango and your foals about how Isaac lost his body privledges?”
Every fluffy there’s eyes became much more concerned. All but one.
“Dat am just stowy to keep duh-fwuffies fwom doing wah we wan.” Mango stopped himself from deliberatly saying dummeh but seemed not to believe the tale.
“Oh is that what you think? Well isaac has earned a body for being good and you, well… You’ve lost your priveledges for being bad… If anyone else thinks losing body privledges isnt a thing, remember this day and explain it better to the foals so they understand.” Johnson promptly picked up and squeeze out mango over the litterbox area who was about to give sorry or scaredy poopies.
“Nany, please dump that kibble in a bag for me and replace it with fresh kibble for the girls.”
“Owies! Pwease nu huwt Mango! Mango am gud smawty~” He added clapping his hooves over his mouth.
“And there. It. Is!” Johnson added tossing mango in the air excitidely as if exclaiming ‘And the truth will set you free!’. Catching mango under the arm pits so he was facing the director he stared. “I must say, you did well hiding it mango but daddy assumed as much for a while now.” He tusseled him side to side as he walked rolling his body left and right between his palms as he walked.
“Screee~ nu huwt smawty! Why nu can just be smawty! Just wan hab fun and good feews! Nu wan du dummeh hawd tingies!”
“That is Dukkah!” Johnson added hushing Smarty mangoe with a yell before opening the door to the garage. “Yours is the Vibhava-Tanha. Craving not to experience the world and painful feelings.” Fluffies in general tended to also be bound by Kama-tanha, craving for sense pleasures. And potentially Bhava-tanha seeking to continue the cycles of rebirth if you consider their obsession with propegation. Dukkha arises when we crave, the clinging and craving produces karma, which ties us to samsara, the round death and rebirth. “But I will help you.”
“Am weady daddeh.” Isaac added tucking in their legs docking into the robot bay.
“Good, be right with you.” Johnson added before strapping mango down to the table. Mango complained, pleaded and begged as Johnson approached the terminal and began to work. After a shut down and opening the chasis Johnson was finally able to remove the brain tank that acted as the robots CPU.
“Say hello to Isaac Mango.” He added setting down the jar in front of him.
“SCREEE! Tinkie pwace spose to be in fwuffy!”
“Yes they are. So im going to put Isaac in a fluffy.” Johnson smiled.
“Den, whewe mango go?”
Johnson blinked. “You are your fathers son aren’t you…” He sighed. “Your brain will be going in the tank and you’ll be forced to clean up and take care of my fluffies as punishment while you learn to be a better fluffy.”
“WHAT!?!” Mango was mid tirade as Johnson forced a sleeping treat down his gullet as he installed an IV for a transfusion drip that was one part ‘skito spit’ to two parts saline to pace it for their metabolism.
“Don’t worry mango, when you wake up you wont have to worry about pain.” As the calm overtook him he stammered out his last words.
“Dummeh~ dad..deee…” before commencing to snore.
“So Isaac, want me to change the colors before the transfer?”
“Dat am otay daddeh, wiww be intewesting expewience after nu feewies fow so wong.”
“That’s my boy.”
It took the next hour to successfully remove the brain, transfer it to a spare tank with ‘clean’ new fluid and then place Isaacs brain into the body and reattach everything.
“Hope I did this right, would hate to have to crack this open again.” Johnson chuckled eyeing that the seam of bone that had fused like a welding seam after applying a healing agent from the institute as he stopped the IV to wean him off the pain kill so he could awaken him. With a nod of approval the skin was put back into place and a liquid skin patch was pasted over the ring of shaved hair as the flesh knitted itself back together into a slightly thicker head band of skin. In time the fluff would regrow.
“Wakey wakey Isaac.” The eyes fluttered open, did a slight loop before coming to focus and center. “Good to see you. Please follow my finger with your eyes.” Isaac groaned but complied. “Good… Take your time and try and speak when you’re ready.”
“Ugh… Tinkie huwties… Ebything feew so heaby.”
“Well Mango is pretty heavy but the sluggishness is probably the medicine. You’ll probably want to go back on it for the rest of the day to ride out the worst of it.” Johnson added undoing the straps. “Flex your legs please and if you’re confident, please sit up.” You were amazed watching the results of a seemingly successful brain transplant. This required a report for the institute when you had the time. Isaac was now sitting after a sluggish start. Johnson tested the reflexes wih a slight tap of a pencil to make sure the reflexes were working. “Looking good. It might take you a week or so to get fully used to the body, take it slow and remember. That body is siblings with Amaranth and Carmine, so no trying to make them your special friends or special huggies.”
Isaac blinked as if thinking ‘they arent my sissies though,’ before the thought of how he would think about doing such a thing with a sibling. “Undewstood daddeh.”
“You may treat Daisy and Durum as your mother and join that family if you wish since they are the parents of that body in your stewardship. If you do not desire that, please make it known to them in a gentle but insistent manner that you are your own fluffy now.”
“Isaac undastand. Wiww hewp mangoes famiwy wiff heawt huwties obah meanie mango.”
“It’s never easy for parents to outlive their children, thanks Isaac.”
“NU TAWK BOU’ MANGO WIKE AM FOWEBAH SWEEPIES!” The brain tank echoed a sudden coherent jolt of sound.
“Well, looks like somebodies awake too.” Johnson smiles switching back on the IV painkiller for Isaac.
“Why woom am dawkies?”
“Because you’re just a thinky place in a jar. Honestly im tempted to leave you like this for awhile but that litterbox is only gonna keep building up if no one’s cleaning it.” Johnson smirks picking up the jar and moving it over to the robot body.
“Nu am gonna cwean dummie wittewbox. If bad poopies no make ebything nu smeww pwetty smawty mango would nu eben use it. Hmmph.” A couple of bubbles came out of the liquid.
“…Were you just trying to puff your cheeks?” Johnson laughed realizing the tank oxidation cycling was triggered by this. After clicking the tank into place. “This’ll take a minute.” He adds closing the shell and allowing the robot to accustom itself to the new cpu. He hits a few keys restricting the bot to only have access to its eyes and stalks until he releases the restriction.
“Huwties am nu so huwties nao… Tank ou, daddeh…” Isaac adds sluggishly with a smile flexing his legs, tilting their head and neck about, moving the tail.
“Do you want to be dyed like the robot hides?”
“Wan dye. Wan dye pwease.” Isaac added with a goofy laughy. “Dat soun funny.”
Thankfully you weren’t in the mood to take advantage of that poor choice of similar sounding words. “I think I can get the body color pretty easy. The mane might be tricky due to mango’s mane color… We may have to settle for a type of blonde.”
“Bwonde am type of yewwow wight?”
“Yes.” Johnson chuckled.
“Den it am finesies.” He added waving a hoof dismissivly and rolling onto their side accidentally because of it and giggling.
“Nu! Mango’s fwuff am pwetty! Nu change cowows!” Came a sudden cry from the machine behind him.
“Ah I see you’re working now. Thank you for reminding me, you haven’t earned this fluff.” Mango IS4C was confused at first as Johnson was attaching a hose to a faucet and turning on a hand held device that began to burble. Until suddenly a gout of steam.
Mango screeched in panic. “Nu can see!” the steam had fogged their lenses.
“Yep, those will fog up. Think about blinking and it should wipe itself.” Johnson adds while dissolving the simple glue he had used to anchor the hides onto the frame until he could scrape and pull them free one after another.
“Nu, nu take fwuff! Mango nu wook pwetty and be cold.”
“I hate to break it to you, but you’re as ugly outside as you are on the inside now and you wont be feeling much of anything.”
“Huuuu, daddeh am meanie…” The unit made a a snuffle noise despite not having snot.
“This is part of the punishment mango. Im doing this for your own good.”
“Daddeh aways say dat but feaw of huwties wiww onwy make somebody wowk just hawd enough not to get hassewed. Nao nu can eben gib huwties no mowe. Hmph.” Mango added as if to say ‘check mate’ only to realize he had sacrificed his queen for no reason as Johnson pressed a red button on the frame that zapped the brain with electric shock. “Screee!”
“You think I cant hurt a body I gave you? You’re a bigger fool then I thought. For a ‘smarty’ you are pretty dumb mango.” Johnson smirked. “As for the carrot. Im sure in time you’ll realize the ability to experience sensations again is the biggest incentive. Earning your fluff back will be a baseline reward but if you’re interested in anything in particular I’ll take your interests into consideration.”
“. . .If nu can feew.” The eyes opened dramatically. “Nu can hab, GUD FEEWS!” The eyes panickedly searched for genitals.
“Yep. No good feels until you get a body back. Well, not without some drugs anyway.”
“Isaac wike dose. Bestest gud feews ebah…” They suddenly realize they’re experiencing drugs again but with a body this time. “Neat…”
“Mango wan dwug’s den.” Oh god what have you done… “Gib dwugies nao!”
Johnson squinted and pressed the brain shock button again and held it in a little longer. “SCREEEeeeee~”
“If I decide to give you stims, it will be on my own whims.” That rhyme was not intentional and you weren’t about to continue it. “Work hard at your general job and try to apply yourself to learning in general and perhaps you’ll earn it. Information is also rewarded so keep your eyes and your ears open.”
“Mango undewstand, snitches get wiches.” Johnson rolled his eyes.
“Close enough.” Johnson hit a few buttons releasing the body to mangos control proper. “Get out there and get to work.”
The unit lifted off the dock and promptly hovered adjacent to johnson before stopping. “Nnnngh~”
Johnson could simply smirk. “You tried to hit me, didn’t you? Oh, that’s a bad Smarty Mango.” Johnson added pressing the button once again. “Bad smarty, go away.”
“Screeeee~eee” The robot shifted and surpressed mango. “Right away sir.” The robot added heading for the exit.
“Allright, lets get you cleaned up.” Johnson mounted the transfusion on a carrier and wheeled it along with one arm while carrying him in the other.
You spent the next hour giving Isaac some TLC. They’d earned it.
They were now freshly washed and dyed, save for the shaven circlet of skin.
Johnson brought the chill Isaac in mangos body back to the tree to rest. They would return later that evening to remove the transusion of sketo spit and saline and give them a simple tea painkiller for sleeping. The mood was fairly solemn when Johnson returned. It was obvious daisy and durum and their adult children were mourning that one of their family was a bad fluffy and lay in a hug pile around the recently fixed mango body.
But time heals most wounds and the family adapted and adopted Isaac as their new son/sibling over the next two weeks. Mango was nowhere near as efficient of a worker as Isaac and while at first they resisted Isaacs attempts at providing his perspective and advice they had started to learn to tolerate the taste of humble pie as it made their life less difficult.
The foals were now slightly ambulatory after opening their eyes and starting to speak. You had named them accordingly.
The black and white Huggie twins were all but inseparable, to the point that they would rush through feedings if they weren’t allowed to feed at the same time and touch one hoof to the others closest forehoof.
Yang the mono white unicorn was a very happy and outgoing foal. The extrovert but instead of adopting an introvert they were born with one. Their sister Yin, the mono black unicorn filly had a somewhat bleak personality in comparison and seemed content to be by themselves but preferred Yangs company to anyone elses. She would react though and acknowledge others that interacted with her. These two were the first to show signs of inheriting at least some of Directors courser abilities as their horns would sometimes glow when their horns touched while they were sleeping.
Paragon the mono white earthy colt was the next foal to show that some courser capabilities could be passed on via the fourth-generation synths. This was somewhat disheartening as emotional limitations were placed on most coursers because they were so over tuned and thus a potential danger to others / the institute to control otherwise. Director took particular care in mentoring Paragon because of this as with great power comes great responsibility.
Bodhi the mostly mono black filly with tiny white and caramel hearts dappled on their flank like some kind of mark of cuteness did not show obvious signs of courser influence early. They were very pleasant and seemed content and were very helpful at mellowing out her siblings if they were experiencing discomfort or pain. She loved most things and was very interested in learning.
Johnson and director had not pushed hard against sundaes desire to choose the name Shaun for the apricot toned earthy but they had managed a compromise by adding ‘junior’ to the name or simply calling him ‘junior’ for short or casual. Junior had grown a black mane and tail. They were a normal foal but johnson/director had to push themselves harder to get over that strange speed bump in his heart. This in turn caused Junior to desperately try and earn their fathers love. Gentleman found a kindred spirit in Junior and the two brothers often conspired on their plans to earn their fathers love and respect.
Dotty or Dot for short, was an alicorn with white body, mane and tail with black spots across these like a dalmatian. Save for the chest which was a large caramel colored heart. While sundae never verbally expressed a term like ‘bestest baby’ while you were around, you had a subtle suspicion that Dot was her favorite of this batch. Thankfully not in a way that seemed to leave the others feeling neglected, more in the sense that she saw herself in Dotty and wanted to mentor her because of it. Her neck/shoulder/chest floof was coming in well with a plunging V on the chest which made the heart pattern balloon. Thankfully she did not seem to be developing her mothers worse personality traits as she had a very big heart and was very friendly to fluffies of all types and colors and wanted to help them be beautiful just like her and sundae.
The caramel to orange toned Pegasus had grown a white tail and mane and was dubbed ‘creamsicle’. Like her namesake she could be both sweet and/or cold depending on her mood. Often preferring to show her love in ways that didn’t connect them to her, or simply denying or running away in embarrassment if confronted on them. Director and johnson loved to tease her because of this.
The brown earthy runt was named Teddy. They had very poofy fluff like his mothers mane but over most of their body. They were very soft and were beloved by most of the fluffies as a ‘huggie friend’ because of his small but soft nature. They were very active, probably in part by wanting to ‘keep up’ with the larger foals and fluffies. Most likely a random mutation but you’d probably test them for Courser capabilities.
Things had been too quiet lately… He would need to investigate the institute soon to ensure they weren’t up to something as he had only been checking in and voting remotely. ‘ Im surprised Zimmer hadn’t made a move yet to be honest.’ He thinks hoping he hadn’t just tempted fate right now.