“Im Back~” You say rounding the corner of the house on the short stint to the hollow tree. “Daddeh’s home!” The fluffies are excited, Durum and daisy get up but stop themselves from running to you while Phanes lays next to peach who is unable to move easily. Durum does a few circles of excitement though and daisy moves to the other side of Peach and lays down. The pile of ten recently fed and hugging snuggling foals begins to peep and chirp in excitement. A mild electronic ‘eep’ stood out from the smokey grey foal with the voice collar as it was likely having trouble understanding the ‘word’ trying to be pronounced.
“Daddeh, Peaches bwack fiwwy make wawkies widdwe eawiew.” Phanes added with a smile.
“Mummah so pwoud of wingy babbeh.” She adds smiling back to phanes as the two tilt their heads together.
‘Diabetes…’ You think stifling a burp.
“Well isn’t that something.” You add having the feeling they might open their eyes and give their first words soon before sitting down. “Hey smarty, bring me a hairbrush!”
“Whewe am smawty suppose to find a~” The Mr Handy esque robo brain mutters as it finds itself drifting in the direction of the houses as apparently the robot frame does have some idea. “hey no done compwaining at dummeh daddy yet!” The robot sputters in place for a moment, shakes like a car on bad gas before proceeding to the destination.
‘. . .Hmm, his impulses are strong enough to cause electronic feedback thus causing mechanical feedback… I’ll have to monitor this.’ You think to yourself.
The fluffies seemed excited at the prospect of getting a good hair brushing before bed. As you regaled them with some tastefully edited tales of your recent exploits you noticed the foals had mostly begun to wiggle attentively to face your voice. Six remained in the original cluster while three on the outer edge had crawled closer before settling in together. The Fake alicorn had staggered to its feet and had made it blindly to your legs where you proceeded to gently stroke its neck so It understood your presence. You then picked it up and transferred it to your lap as you continued your story. The story ended with the valiant hero returning their fellow fluffies to the institute safe place as smarty Isaac returned with a hairbrush in its tendrils as it settled down and stopped putting out exhaust.
“Can smawty get bwushies firwst?” The robot asked.
You did your best to repress a laugh and a shift of your lips that showed your amusement. “Sure.” You add turning to the robot with the foal in your lap as you picked up the brush. As you reach out with the brush you pause. “oh wait smarty. You have no fluff to brush, remember?” Smarties sensors look at itself before their eye stalks droop in a disappointed fashion. You felt a little sad for them.
“You know what, I might have something for that. Behave yourself till the others are done and we’ll see about getting you some fluff.”
“Weawwy!?~ ew… weally?” They add yelling at first before correcting their volume.
“Really really.” You add with a pat on the chasis before turning back to the other fluffies. The eye stalks half elevate as if slightly relieved but still sulking.
“Ok we’ll start with the adults since I’ll need to be very gentle with he foals.” You add with a smile gently lifting to deposit the fake black alicorn into the three foal pileup nearby. They gave a mild peep of longing before they were swarmed by the pile wanting to hug/help the nearby foal with its sadness. They were content, for now. You were tempted to start with peach but realized she might need some more personal care so you start with Daisy as a line formed of Daisy and Durum.
Daisies sandy coat was short and brushing it was fairly easy and more like sweeping off dust and debris but she seemed to enjoy it giving sparse giggles. “Bwushie tickwe.” Her mane had a few tangles but with a few sweet assurances and some skill you managed to get them out without too many “Ouchies.” The tail was pretty good save for a few poo particles.
“All done.” You add with a pat to Daisy. She flipped her mane as Durum stared slack jawed.
“Daisy am so pwetty…” She giggled and you could feel a certain tension here so you coughed. “Pwease excuse duwum~” He adds waddling off to visit his special toy to suppress his urge for relations as Daddy had said it was too soon for more foals.
“Guess you’re next Phanes.” You add as Daisy takes a spot on the other side of Peach so she isn’t lonely and the two chat. Phanes gets up and sits down. Phanes was pretty straight forward for the most part but you noticed he especially enjoyed getting his chest fluff brushed to a poofy fluff. His silver and gold mixed hair glistened in the sunset and you caught Peach staring. You wouldn’t be surprised if they told you they were together by tomorrow. “Dank ‘ou daddeh.” Phanes adds as you finish as Durum returns to the line.
You sigh as Durum sits down and you catch the mild whiff of spunk. You find out that Durum likes to be brushed harder than the others. You might look into making a stiffer brush for them, maybe one of those thick bristled detangler types with the little beads at the end… You absent mindedly think of such things and before you know it Durum’s autumn gold coat and red mane were brushed out save for his belly but you’d let that go today. Durum goes to cuddle with Daisy.
The foals went quickly and giggled and cooed happily from the brushing. You noticed you had to be very careful with the wings. Between bouts of giggles you paused as you turned the fake alicorn over and were about to brush down her chest and stomach fluff as their eyes started to flutter open. “Da- - Daddeh? Peep~ Wub Daddeh.” Your heart. . . In that moment of witnessing a first your mind switched to a slightly darker.
‘How could I have never considered all the firsts the institute had deprived me with shaun?’
Thankfully the childlike love of this creature was enough of a ray of sunshine to grasp on to pull himself out of this pit of dark thoughts that could have potentially lead him to destroying everything he had supported and built up… Even if he shouldn’t have.
You had missed most of the adult fluffies congratulations and beaming statements of pride in the darkness of your mind. You shook off the lingering haze with a breath of air. “Ok Peach, looks like you’ll need a little more then a brushing.” You add leaning forward and pulling her up and over before standing up. It was apparent that our fluffies had done their best to groom their new friend and had licked off the blood.
Phanes stood up nervously to follow. “Phanes, please stay. Daddy needs to talk with Peach.” You add as you walk away. Smarty Isaac follows at a distance waiting for their father to finish up their last fluffy to get what was promised.
“Ok Peach we need to discuss your future.”
“Wha daddeh mean?” She adds nervously.
“I’d like to help with your missing front legs and we have a couple of options. First, I could probably rig you a comfortable harness with some wheels so you can move around with just your back legs. You’d still need to adjust to life without front legs though.”
“Wou’ be nice to moob withou’ wubbin fwont on gwound…” She adds contemplatively.
“Im sure it would.” You add entering your garage to grab a few supplies. You began to strip your armor as you continued.
“The second option, I could give you some robotic legs.
However even if I tune them down, they’ll still be pretty strong for a fluffy. You’d need to be very careful with your foals and preferably wait till they’re almost adults before you hug them in honestly. The downside though is that you wont be able to feel from the arms except for a general recognition of touch, so hugs might not be fully what you remember.
Peach thought about this for a moment, it definitely sounded like a monkey paw wish to her. “Daddy, why take off ‘ou fwuff?” She pauses her thoughts curiously as you had finished putting up your armor and were now stripping your military fatigues.
“Cause I don’t want to get my clothes wet.” You add standing in your boxers and slip on a pair of sandals as you pick her up again with a foot stool and a bucket of supplied under the other arm.
Peach blinked confused, it didn’t look like it was gonna rain. “The last option… I could send you back to the institute with your foals and they could replace your front legs with real functioning replacements. If I do this, You’d have to stay there though.” This was probably only partially true as you imagine you could probably swing a set of replacements without having to forfeit his pet but he had needed to present the idea of her returning before she got too used to considering you her owner and this her home. “Can, Peach tink’ on dis?”
“Sure thing.” You add stopping at an archway as you set down the stool and bucket. You go to the side and start adjusting a few dials as you press a button and a mist begins to spray. You hold out your hand to the mist as you adjust the dial and then back as you get it from cold to hot to warm. “Time to get clean. You ready girl?”
“. . .Dat wawa?” She asked curiously.
“Yep, Its called mist.” As you say this you take off your sandals and push the stool forward with your foot and then sit down in the warm decontamination archway spray. She flinches at first but realizes it’s not as bad as she thought. You set her on your legs and proceed to gently massage her coat, mane, and tail and she coos a bit. You set her on a towel as you grab soap and suds up your pits and face, rinse off and shut off the archway before adjusting the dial back to normal.
You put the soap back in the bucket and step into your sandals as you towel yourself off. “Ok, I would like to trim your fluff so it grows back evenly.” You can immediately see her hesitation. “Is that ok?”
“Pwomise no huwt?” She adds with a hint of fear and reluctance.
“I promise I’ll do my very best not to hurt you.” You add cupping her chin and staring in her eyes in a reassuring manner.
“O’tay.” She snuffles a bit as you get to work trimming her fluff, mane and tail to even lengths with bits of occasional ‘miss fwuff’ commentary. After a few minutes you were done. You weren’t about to shave her to compensate for the cigarette burns, besides those might not grow hair again. But otherwise she was now short coat and mane with a cropped tail but it was no longer patchy from rips and snips of raiders. “I think it looks cute.” You add taking her back to the garage to show her in the mirror as you bag the cut hair in a rag…
“You’ve been so good you deserve a present. Would you like me to use your fluff for a pillow, or a stuffed toy?” You ask entering the garage and setting her on the bench to look at herself in the mirror as you take off your wet boxers and toss them in the hamper before putting on your fatigues. You didn’t notice her blush a bit as you hadn’t been paying attention to your positioning due to where you took off your clothes and she caught a bit of full frontal in the mirror.
“Mummah wou’ wike piwwow bu’ mummah ask fo’ stuffy fwiend so babbeh’s hab toy.” You smile a bit stepping over.
“Just for that, I’ll make sure to get a few more toys for everyone.” You add with a tussle of her short mane as you proceed to make a cloth horse shaped doll and stuffed it with a bit of potpourri that you surrounded in the mothers fluff. It might crunch occasionally but hopefully they’d like the smell. “Give it a wiff, let me know what you think?” You add presenting the doll.
She was careful at first but then jabbed her muzzle in. “So pwetty….” She added dreamily before giving a mild sneeze.
“So that’s a yes.” You chuckle. “Alright lets get you back so I can give smarty his turn.” You add eying the handy sitting in the shadows nearby waiting patiently. “Be right back smarty.” You say heading back to the tree. “Ok fluffies time to settle in, it’s almost dark time.” As you say this the streetlight turns on. After some short chatter and passing around the new stuffy toy for examination the fluffies eventually settle in to a fluff pile and relax.
You make your way back to Isaac and grab the fluffy hide off the work bench. “You good with wine red?” You ask showing the color. “It’s the only color I have on hand. If you want me to dye it you’ll need to wait for it to dry overnight.”
“Smawty o’tay with cowor.” It adds with a hint of disappointment it wasn’t closer to his shade of purple but wanted the instant gratification of having fluff rather then wait for better fluff.
You lay it over top and make some marks to know where to cut so that Isaac didn’t get jammed when the paneling slid down over smarties brain case. You then secure it in place with a bit of glue and create a flap in one piece due to an access panel. “There we go.”
“Nee’ mowe fwuff.” Smarty adds noticing that it didn’t have full coverage due to the size difference.
“Perhaps you’ll earn more by being good. Whose to say fluffs the only thing you can earn back by being a good fluffy.” You add putting an idea into smarties brain.
“Smawty get body back?” They add hopefully.
“Unfortunately, your body isn’t in good enough shape due to damage though we could probably use a few pieces. However, we can rebuild you. Perhaps even better then before. It’s all about equivalent exchange.” You add as you picture a future Flesh golem project.
