(Sorry for the hiatus. Had to take care of a large project. I’ve been working on pieces of the story concurrently but I’m having issues deciding how I want to set up the final confrontation, so while I hammer that out I’ll be putting out some character stuff to better set up the confrontation. I’ll be experimenting with different writing styles, but things will be more like previous entries when it comes to the big game. Thanks for sticking with this for so long and as always, feel free to leave your thoughts below.)
It’s time to remember again.
When you were little things were better. Your mother would feed you, shower you with praise, and your brothers and sisters would play with you for so long.
You remember your mother’s blue fluff. You loved riding in it.
You wish you could remember more. You wish you could remember your family better.
It was the worst day ever when you first met the barky monsters. You were off playing with Shadow so you didn’t see it yourself, but most of your herd was given forever sleepies. You don’t remember how many of you were left but it wasn’t a lot.
You didn’t even have a smarty after that. You didn’t even have any brothers or sisters after that. You only had your mother.
It didn’t stop. You would play, sometimes you would hear them, but most of the time you wouldn’t. More of you would be gone. Each time your mother would hide somewhere with you. She was so good at hiding. She would cover you. She didn’t cover you the last time though.
The last time she pushed you under a prickly bush. It hurt. Not as much as seeing… You can’t remember. You don’t know why you can’t remember. It’s like your thinkie place refuses to see it. Like the thought was covered in cold water.
You wandered many forevers with the rest. You’d become a big fluffy before the bright time when you met him.
“Silbamane.” He was big with white fluff and a gray mane. He was bigger than Shadow even though he was a horned fluffy. He was smart too. He was pretty except for some not pretty parts of him that didn’t grow fluff right.
He found you but it wasn’t just him. He was surrounded with other fluffies. Your see places were drawn to one of them.
“Lily.”
The name makes you feel so many happy feelings in your heart.
You were so sad though, when you saw them together it was like everything you weren’t was saying mean things to you. You saw her and you knew you’d never be able to have her or any fluffy like her if she had him.
That’s what you thought, but that was just you being silly. They weren’t special friends. Silbahmane was her daddy.
When he became your smarty you worked so hard to be a toughie. You weren’t strong but you had a horn so you could make sparks. You thought you could use them to chase away the bad barky munstahs. Silbahmane told you you were being a dummy. It hurt to hear. It hurt worse when he proved it.
The next time they attacked, you couldn’t bring yourself to face them. You ran. Silbamane and the other toughies all turned and gave them sorry poopies. It worked. The barky monsters ran.
You thought Slibamane would kick you out of the herd for being weak. He didn’t. He did something worse.
He was nice to you. Again, you felt that pointy monster feeling. You knew you were bad. You knew he should be treating you like you were bad. You knew that he was bad for not seeing it. That made him at least a little bit of a dummy, which was really bad for a smarty.
Shadow had agreed. “Ob cawse Siwbamane am dummeh. won’ eben wet Shadoh hab speshaw huggies.” This you knew was true. Silbamane never told you why. It was like he just hated Shadow. Again, this was a bad thing for a smarty to do. Shadow was strong. It was bad to make your strong fluffies sad.
Once, you saw Shadow get the worst hurties you’d ever seen a fluffy get. It wasn’t nice, you never understood why he’d do that.
But you were just being silly. Shadow had been your best friend since you were foals. He was good. He’d been your bestest toughie when you became the smarty. Of course, that meant that Silbamane was bad. It was silly that you argued with your thinkie place about it. Slibamane only seemed great. It was a lie.
That still didn’t make what you did right. It didn’t make it fair that you’d made Lily sad.
You don’t like to think about that time. You don’t like to think about why you started to really hate Silbamane. If you didn’t need to you wouldn’t.
You’d tried so many times to earn Lily’s love. You’d snuck her good nummies. You’d tried to show her how smart you were by stacking rocks. No matter what you did though, she would only stare at nothing. She wouldn’t even talk.
You didn’t understand. She was so pretty, why wouldn’t she ever say anything? All she ever did was walk, eat, drink, and poop.
Silbamane had said that she was sick. You refused to believe him. You refused to stop. You tried so many things to get any kind of love from her. Something that would fix her.
One day when you were dancing for her, a sad way to be you knew, you fell over. It was the worst fall you’d ever had. Your poopie place went over your head and the world turned the wrong way. You were grateful you’d already made poopies earlier or this would have been terrible. You still felt really silly though.
But a strange noise filled your hear places. It was a beautiful noise you knew before you even knew where it came from. Lily was giggling. It was wild and free. However beautiful you thought she’d been before this made her even more so.
Eventually she stopped and looked at you. You wish you could remember what she said but after that she became the way she is now. You loved her. You still love her…
It gave you the worst heart hurties when Silbamane told you that you couldn’t be her special friend. It made you very angry. It made you think you weren’t good or smart.
You don’t know why he wouldn’t let you be her special friend. No one else even seemed to want her but he still told you to pick someone else. You couldn’t, even if you had wanted to, your thinkie place and your heart would scream at you that you were being silly.
You didn’t listen to him. You spent so much time with her. You played with her. You taught her everything you could think of. You told her about your mother.
You were right. You were good. You knew it because one day Lily told you that she loved you. That meant you were right and Silbamane was wrong. That was true even if Lily was hard to have as a special friend.
You learned early that she was scared of special huggies. You didn’t push it. You were strong because you didn’t want to hurt her. You hate that you haven’t been that strong the last few forevers. At least things have gotten better in the human’s yard.
That was now. Right now you needed to remember the before times so that you wouldn’t lose any more memories. If you’d learned anything from Silbamane, it was that you needed to do this every day if you wanted to remember.
You focus again.
After many forevers… she told you she wanted to give you special huggies. You were so happy you got loud. You can’t remember what you said, you just knew you’d been too loud. Silbamane had heard you.
Silbamane stopped you. He got mad when Lily mentioned what you’d planned on doing. He told her to go back to the herd. You’d never been so mad in your life.
He told you that he’d give you forever sleepies if you tried again.
You hated him so much. You couldn’t think about anything else… But you remember him being very sad after he told you that. You remember him saying sorry to you. You wish you could remember what he said after that. It sounded kind, you remember. You were so close to listening to him.
Then something bad happened. Shadow crept up behind him and gave him the worst sorry hoofsies you’d ever seen. Silbamane fell hard on the pointy rocks.
Everything could have been fine from there but Shadow didn’t stop. He asked for your help and you… you… it would be a lie to say you can’t remember. You’ll always remember.
You hate it. You hate remembering it. It wasn’t fair. You know you have more good memories, but you can’t find them, and this meanie one won’t leave. You remember every kick. You remember how it felt.
But it stopped when Silbahmane did.
You were sure Shadow would be the new smarty. He told you to do it. You didn’t understand, but he said he didn’t want the other fluffies always watching him. He said you were smarter. He said you deserved it.
You aren’t as good as Silbamane. Everyday it feels like one of your toughies will do to you what you did to him. You have so much to lose.
You have Lily. You have babies on the way. It’s the only thing you’ve ever really wanted.
You’re a smarty though. You have to protect your herd. You want them to be happy. But, they need to listen to you. They have to respect you. You can’t be too nice. You have to keep yourself safe. It’s so much to think about. You get so wrapped up in it you forget to be nice to Lily. She deserves better. All of them do. You wish you were better. You wish you had been better.
You wish you hadn’t messed up when the barky monsters attacked. You wish you had done like Silbamane and given them all sorry poopies. You wish you had never tried your stupid horn magic. You wish you could get all your friends back.
You wish the human would find Shadow.
You wish you could give his stupid housie fluffy the sorriest hoovsies you could give and take everything.
You keep wishing.
—————
“You doin’ okay Candy?” Blake asked.
The mare below Blake had gone into labor that morning. Blake was doing his best to keep her calm.
Touching, he’d discovered was a bad Idea. Aside from sitting by and letting nature take its course there wasn’t a whole lot he could do.
The first foal was emerging. If it hadn’t been for occasional hunting and the internet Blake might have been grossed out. It also helped that by some miracle fluffy birth didn’t smell much worse than the normal scents excreted from fluffy yard herds.
Blake had set her up in a nice bed specifically designed for pregnant fluffies. It was similar to what they sold for dogs, having sides that were high enough to keep her foals encased and low enough for her to leave after the delivery. It was also wide enough to accommodate both her and her mate Leaf.
Blake had provided similar accommodations for the other 2 dams as well. He had several towels on stand by to clean up the foals and the mess that would result.
Still, Blake was a little out of his depth here. He’d watched an assortment of videos on animal birth along with the fluffy specific videos. The lack of blood and fluid was strange. As far as he knew it was unique to fluffies. The process was strangely consistent and minimalistic. He supposed that was a side-effect of their artificial creation.
Bubbles had protested Blake’s involvement originally. He insisted that him and his herd could take care of her. Blake informed him that he had all sorts of things that made it easier for mothers to have babies. To his surprise Bubbles relented shortly after.
Leaf seemed uncomfortable but relaxed after Blake offered all his gifts to Candy. He seemed to especially like the heating lamps Blake had placed over the box.
Candy had announced her “biggest poopies” while Blake was washing today’s section of the herd.
Blake had informed her that her babies were coming. The news was greeted with cheers of joy all around. Blake would have had a crowd around him if not for Leaf demanding most of them to go away. Blake had assisted by setting his camera up and projecting the birth on the outside TV. He’d intentionally left half the nest off screen.
Bubbles however was standing nearby, keeping an eye on the whole process. Blake wasn’t sure if it was out of curiosity or concern. Despite their familiarity, Bubbles was sporadically hostile to him after the incident with Lemon’s abduction. This was despite him seeming to buy that another human had done the deed.
Leaf for his part was perched on the small ramp leading to the outside lip of the bed where he could watch but wouldn’t be in the way. He looked anxious. Rightfully so, Blake had told him to guard the entrance from monsters. Hopefully it would keep him somewhat stationary, though his previous performance at night duty didn’t build confidence.
Candy strained beneath Blake. She was finally pushing something out. Not long after, the first foal was squirming in the towel. This foal… was the ugliest runt Blake had ever seen. (06 out of 100, off to a good start.) The gasps from the viewing audience didn’t help much either.
Blake quickly took to wiping it off with a lightly scented cloth as the forums had suggested. The cloth was dusted with a light mix that smelled and tasted good to fluffies. This wouldn’t trick their built in methods of detecting defective foals, but did improve their mood and chances of showing leniency.
Blake placed the foal in front of Candy, covering the video feed with his body.
Candy still rejected it. “Bad babeh…” She rasped weakly. Blake made no effort to stop her. It was probably for the best. This foal was clearly deformed on top of everything else.
Still, he set the foal down with a bottle he’d prepared. The foal suckled at it. None of the others, Leaf included would be able to tell the difference. He heard Candy groan again.
…Another brown foal. (15) This one was a much lighter shade but still, fluffies rarely had two same colored offspring. Looking back to the runt Blake could only guess that whatever mechanism chose traits in fluffies really screwed up on the first one.
Blake rubbed it down and handed it to Candy. She sniffed the foal, then looked at it lovingly as she cleaned it. (C18 out of 20) Blake wondered if the tolerance was caused by the awful quality of the first foal.
The second foal squeaked and chirped a few times. Candy moved it down to one of her teets and the foal nursed hungrily. It was a strangely mechanical process. There was something in the motion that almost looked practiced despite it being Candy’s first birthing.
Blake looked to Leaf. If he was disappointed with the colors he wasn’t showing it. Now he was dancing in place.
“Weaf am cum hewp mummah?” He asked Blake.
“It’s still dangerous buddy, just hold on a few more not-fohebahs. Just keep the meanie munstahs away like you’ve been doing.” Leaf nodded but continued to wiggle.
Blake had been proactive with both Leaf and Bubbles. He’d used his phone to show videos of excited stallions accidentally killing their children. He’d also shown videos of people assisting and making fluffy births easier.
It’d been selected as only the best propaganda in his favor of course. Not that Blake was intending to ruin any of these births. He could cull at his leisure and he needed the brownie points.
The next foal had it’s mother’s color. (19) Blake wondered if she would favor the foal but when he handed it off she simply repeated the process. (C16) It probably didn’t help that she was still trying to birth one more.
The final foal was puke green. (12) Blake washed this one off and presented it to her as well. She sniffed it but when she went to look at it she bucked at with her front hoof. (C2)
“Hab enough babehs, nu wan dummeh fwuffie. Wook wike dummeh poopie piwe fwuffie.” She said in a grim mutter. Blake felt his own face tense, but relaxed it.
“Wat wong?” Blake heard Leaf ask in a dark tone.
Leaf seemed unhappy about the rejection. He probably couldn’t hear her over the chatter from the other fluffies but he definitely saw the kick. He looked like he was about to step in and intervene. Blake grabbed both rejects and Leaf turned his attention to him.
Blake gave both a quick squeeze, bending their necks causing the life to go out of both. He presented them to the Leaf.
“I’m so sorry Leaf… They took fohebah sweepies before they could come out.”
Leaf stopped in stunned silence and sniffed at them. He sat down and reached out to hold them. Blake put them in his arms. After a moment his face twisted in grief.
“Dummeh babbehs…" Leaf said in a whimper. "Daddeh wan’ meechyu…” He was sobbing by the time he finished. He nuzzled the corpses. “Why babbehs take fohebah sweepies…? Huu huu…”
Blake felt a pinch of guilt. He’d reacted quickly to make sure that no fighting broke out, but he’d wasted two, well at least one good foal in his haste.
Leaf seemed completely unconcerned with their color. He himself was orange, which usually meant “good” to other fluffies, though there was a dullness to his coat. For all Blake knew this fluffy was some other fluffy’s reject.
Blake stroked his mane gently. “Happens sometimes. It’s nobody’s fault, you guys had a hard time out in the twee pwace. Hard times are bad for soon-mummahs an’ tummy babehs” Leaf gave a Blake a look that seemed to convey understanding.
“Go help your special friend. You have two beautiful babies. Be a good dad and help em out, I’ll make sure to put these babies somewhere nice.” Blake took the corpses from him and pointed toward Candy.
“Weaf wiww!” The fluffy said while stiffling another sob.
Without another word he was nuzzling up to Candy. Blake had intentionally left the food and water just out of reach for her. He’d been intending to instruct Leaf to bring it over as a way for him to feel like he’d helped but he seemed to have made the connection on his own as he dragged them closer.
He reached down and nuzzled his new children who were happily cooing at the sensation of affection and having freshly filled stomachs. Leaf brought them up to Candy’s face and two laid on either side of them.
Candy sung while Leaf nuzzled them.
Blake walked away from the couple. Bubbles stopped him before he got too far.
“Hoomin, babehs am otay? Candeh am otay?” He said while bopping at Blake’s pant leg.
“Two foals made it, two foals came out taking fohebah sweepies.”
disapproval etched into Bubble’s face. “Hoomin say hewp, dat nu souwn’ wike hewp!” There was betrayal in his voice.
“I’m not perfect Bubbles, and it doesn’t help that Candy wouldn’t let me bathe her. I tried to tell you all that bad smells make bad babehs. Besides….” Blake brought the corpses down to Bubble’s eyes. “Do you really care about two ugly poopie babehs?” Bubbles gave them an apprehensive look.
“Ba-babehs awe foh mummah, nu faiw foh ‘ou tu take.” There was an extremely conflicted look on his face. Something in his head was fighting with something else.
“Your herd had poopie fwuffies though. Pretty fluffies don’t like ugly ones.”
“Dat am… Mummahs nu wan’, Shadoh say. Candeh wan’ aww babehs maybe.”
“She didn’t want these.” Blake motioned over to her. “She wouldn’t be happily snuggling with her two other babehs and speshaw fwen if she wanted them. She’s not even sad.”
Bubbles watched the happy couple on the screen and another sour look came over his face.
Blake spoke again. “I need to put these fohebah sweepie babehs somewhere nice. They deserve that much right?”
That seemed to snap Bubbles out of whatever daze he was in.
“Otay… Wet poopie babehs sweep sumwhewe pwettie.”
“Yup.” Blake took the opportunity to leave. He was surprised when Bubbles didn’t call out to him. Usually, their conversations veered into information about Lemon, or more often, Shadow. Blake opened the door and headed straight for the fridge in the playroom. He put both foals in a baggie and stored them next to the other 3 corpses.
He closed the fridge and returned to the outside.
“Alright, still enough time to-“
“Biggest poopies!” The pregnant purple mare shouted. Blake sighed and ran to help her. She was much smaller than Candy had been. Blake assumed this meant that she’d be a smaller litter.
Blake was blanking on her name. “What’s your name sweetheart?”
“Am Gwape.” Blake felt his own shoulders slouch. He’d figured she’d have something a bit more… unique? Fluffy names were so repetitive when you left them to their own devices. Every heard had a Grape. Then again, his first wild herd had produced a Boris.
By the time Blake had gotten to her, the process was well under way.
The first foal squeezed out. Blake cleaned it and handed it to her mother. She licked it anyway. The foal matched her own fluff and bore a small horn. No wings though. (80)
She set it down to nurse. Letting her head rest on the ground she gave another push. The second and what seemed like the last foal emerged.
It was a white earthie. Blake passed it to her and she repeated the same action as before. (55) She rested on her side, while both foals suckled away. A tired smile crossed her face.
With the whole herd still distracted and the lack of attention, this second birth had gone much smoother.
“Wub babehs…” She said quietly as her eyes shut. Blake stood up and left her to it.
Four new babies for the herd. Seemed appropriate with the loss Lemon’s group. Blake wiped his own hands off and began placing the dirtied supplies from both fluffies in a bag. He looked to the camera over Candy. He’d regretted not capturing Grape’s birthing too.
Bubbles approached Blake once more.
“How am Gwape?”
“Good. Two beautiful healthy babies.” Bubble’s tale swayed approvingly even though there was still a tenseness to his posture.
“Hoomin hewp mummahs… Nu nee’ dummeh hoomin hewp. Bubbaws am can take cawe ob hawd.” Blake rolled his eyes. Had he really forgotten the conversation just minutes ago? “Nu nee’ hewp bu’ tank ‘ou.” Oh, this was gratitude. He’d just had to wrap it in the shreds of his slipping pride.
“Hey, you have a lot to take care of here. I can’t lead your herd, but I can help a few mothers.”
Bubbles relaxed a little. He actually sat down and let his body slouch a little. “Dat am twu… Hoomin stiww nu fin’ Shadoh ow Wemon mummah an’ babehs?”
“No, sorry.”
“Den wet hawd wook in housie ‘gain. Dey nu in yawd.”
“I already took Apple and you through the house, remember?” Blake had put the other fluffies in his car. He’d also thoroughly cleaned and sanitized the room that they’d all been in. It was frustrating that he still couldn’t get anything definitive on their senses. He had no idea if he even needed to bother.
“Miss Shadoh…” Bubbles was looking pretty crestfallen. His gaze fell on the herd again.
“Wet hawd gu pass da waww.” Bubbles tried.
“I can’t, the meanie hoomin who took Lemon might come back. I fixed the wall so he can’t get in here again, but I can’t keep him out of the rest of my land.”
“Smawty wand.” Bubbles corrected him.
“That stops at the wall until we do something about the bad hoomin munstah.” Blake replied.
Bubbles stared at the wall. The two sat in silence for a few moments as Blake finished packing up. Despite the baths Bubbles looked ragged. He’d always seemed on edge with his living arrangements, but he’d gotten worse without Shadow.
Lily seemed to keep him happy to an extent. He spent more time doting on her and bringing her food than bossing the others around.
Bubbles was good at the basic cup game, probably the best of the herd. The periodic games he’d played with Blake maintained his status with the others. It also helped that Blake was rigging victories in his favor at key moments. He was needing to do less of that now. Of course the cup game wasn’t everything.
The bridge Blake had placed in the yard was something of a weak point for Bubbles. Bubble’s preference for the cup game was mirrored in his distaste for the bridge. He wasn’t good at it, and occasionally he bad mouthed it. His two toughies didn’t like that the few times they’d heard it.
Bubbles was having a harder time placating those two and the herd itself was deferring more to Blake. Blake was making sure to heap praise on Bubbles to keep their relationship cordial and the smarty’s position intact. But the herd was starting to show him some real favor.
Blake reached over and scratched Bubble’s ears. He tensed but let Blake continue doing it.
“Hoomin…” Bubbles looked to Lily and then to Blake. His mouth opened, then closed. After a moment he seemed to relent on something. “Wiwy am scawed tu be mummah. Nee’ bestest nummies an’ wawm bwankie, an-“
“If I give her too many things, the other mothers might get jealous. Then, Candy or Grape might hurt her when you aren’t around.” Bubbles words caught in his throat. What he’d asked wasn’t what he really wanted from Blake but it appeared he couldn’t bring himself to ask whatever it was he wanted to ask.
His eyes gave it away. They drifted to the house. There was a vulnerability in his eyes.
“Ya know, if you could just stop being a smarty I could probably find you a nice house where you and Lily could raise your family in peace.”
Bubble’s face hardened and he shook Blake’s hand off his head. “Nu nee’ housie. Bubbews am smawtest fwuffie ebah! Nu nee’ hewp to keep bestest hawd safe an’ happeh.”
Blake sighed. “Yeah, I suppose so.”
“Bubbew am win housie fwom hoomin someday. Hewd wiww hab bestest hawt happies fohebah an ‘ou-“ Blake stared into the creature’s wavering gaze. “‘Ou… ‘ou stay an’ gib pwettie smewws and bestest nummies. Cwean foh hawd. Hewp mummahs hab bestest babehs… Bubbews nu wan hawd be sad if dummeh hoomin gu 'way.”
Blake processed his words quietly. After a moment he opened his mouth to speak.
“Guess we’ll see.” Blake stood up to return to the house.
“Hoomin!” Bubbles said behind him. “If Bubbews gu fohebah sweepies, fin’ nice hoomin foh Wiwy.” There was a crack in Bubble’s voice as he spoke.
Blake continued toward the house without giving Bubbles a reply. He crossed into the house and closed the door behind him.
