Papa returned to the herd, soaked in Romeo’s blood, shivering in fear and angry over his brother’s death. When he saw Mike’s decapitated corpse, he almost threw up.
“Wai am Fwuffies gu foweba sweepies?”
Alpha pointed in the direction of the farmhouse, the herd could just make it out in the distance.
“Hoomins am meanies, gib hewd wowstesh huwties. Fink did dey wand, dis am Smawty wand, nu gib up bestesh nummies.”
Alpha turned to Beta. “Git Tuffies weady, wen dawk-time come Fwuffies make move.”
“Am Smawty suwe dat gud pwan? Hoomins wan tu huwt Fwuffies, attak wikewy git mowe huwties.”
“Hoomins can hab bwight-wight distwaction, hewd hab own. Need smaww gwoup fow pwan.”
Papa immediately stepped forward. “Hoomins gib brudda foweba sweepies, am weady tu gib sowwy-hoofies.”
Alpha nodded. “Gud Fwuffy, git west, need yu in dawk-time. Bestesh Tuffie, teww udda Fwuffies pwan den hab Tuffies pwepawe, Smawty need hab tawk wiv mawes.”
Beta nodded and went off to find volunteers for Alpha’s plan, Alpha himself turned and approached the nursing station, where all the chirpy-babbehs were fed. Some of the mummah mares wanted to stay with their foals as long as possible but this set the herd back when jobs weren’t being properly maintained, to combat this he assigned three mares to feed the chirpies until they were weaned.
As he approached them he found Head-Nurse Sierra looking after Tango as she went into labour while her mate Quebec soothed her, the combination of her son’s death and the explosion had sent her into labour a few days earlier than planned.
Quebec licked his mate’s face. “Su pwoud speciaw-fwiend, gun hab bestesh babbehs.”
“Huuugghhhh. Babbehs gib wowstesh huwties in speciaw-pwace, jus wan dem come out, wan meet babbehs.”
Sierra positioned herself at Tango’s rear. “Am weady, wet babbehs come.”
Tango readied herself and let the first foal out of her special-place, Sierra took it in her mouth and placed it on a bed of leaves she’d set up, it was a light red earthie. She did the same with the next two, a dark orange earthie with a grey mane, and a brown earthie with a red mane.
Tango’s last two babies came out along with the amniotic sack, the first was another earthie, but it wasn’t moving, an unfortunate stillborn, the other was an Alicorn, not the first Sierra had seen from Tango and Quebec, likely one of them carried a recessive gene but Fluffies don’t understand genetics.
Sierra knew the rules regarding Alicorns, and she’d gotten very good at enforcing them, it wasn’t because they were monsters – Alpha was an Alicorn and he led the herd – but since they were slightly superior to regular Fluffies, Alpha didn’t want any contest for the throne.
So while the parents were cooing each other about their new litter, Sierra quickly flicked her hoof and broke the Alicorn’s neck, killing it instantly. She then distracted Tango with her three surviving foals.
“Mummah babbehs am hewe weady fow wickie-cweans.”
Tango happily took the foals and started licking them. “Nu taste pwetty, bu am gud babbehs, mummah wub yu su mush.”
Tango placed two of her foals to her teats and rocked the third in her arms as they fed, being one of the nurse-maids allowed her the chance to bond with her young this way. Across from her, the third nurse-mare uniform looked on at the babbehs feeding.
“Ooh, du mummah hab mowe babbehs tu feed, mummah wub babbehs.”
Sierra rolled her eyes, Uniform was a bit of a dimwit, not derped just dumb, despite having several litters of her own she could never remember which babies were hers, so she just assumed any foals were hers. Even though she’d just seen Tango give birth to this litter seconds ago.
“Nu, dese babbehs hab miwkies, Fwuffy gu bak tu westing.”
Uniformed blinked, before seeing more chirpies by her side and getting distracted by them.
While Sierra was distracted by Uniform, Quebec looked over at the two lumps left behind. “Wha dat?”
“Mummah hab twu no-wakie babbehs, gun take dem away so mummah nu hab heawt huwties.”
Before Quebec could argue, Sierra picked the dead foals up and carried them away, dropping them into the body pit. Alpha used this moment to get her alone, after Delta, Sierra was the most important mare in the herd, and had carried Alpha’s first litter before she picked Foxtrot to be her special-friend. He trusted her more than most.
“Hewwo nuwse-mawe.”
“Smawty? Wha du hewe?”
“Need tawk, fings hawd nyo.”
“Nuwse knyo, tuu many Fwuffies gu foweba sweepies.”
“Nu jus dat, hab wost wu nummie-keepas. Nummies at wisk of wunning out.”
“Bu dewe be wots of nummies, hewd gud fow whiwe.”
“Hewd am scawed, nu fink wight. Awways fink dewe be wots of nummies tiww nu nummies weft, need tu be cawefuw. Make suwe babbehs am fed pwopewy, put dem befowe udda Fwuffies if necessawy.”
“Smawty weawwy fink hewd am in danga?”
“Nu suwe, bu nu wan take wisks tiww hoomins deawt wiv.”
Sierra nodded, understanding what Alpha was saying.
“Nuwse undastan, wiww hewp Smawty.”
Alpha smiled and left her to her task, he still had to work out the plan for tonight.
If this worked, he would save his herd anymore heartache.
Jonathan was still laughing when he returned to the farmhouse, seeing Romeo blow up had sent him on a giggle-spree.
“Oh man, you guys should’ve seen it, the fat fuck blew up like a firework, it was hilarious.”
Herman was less impressed by the spectacle. “You know you might have told us you were using explosives, you could’ve set the whole place on fire.”
“Relax Uncle HAM, it was a chemical explosion, designed not to include any flames. And I made sure that no hot metal set your fields ablaze.”
“That’s not the point Jonathan. I know you’re putting a lot of effort into this whole ‘Fear’ plan of yours, but that was stepping over the line, now you’re just torturing the poor things.”
“You’re damn right I’m torturing them, these fucking creatures don’t understand anything other than strength, strongest fucker rules and I intend to show them how weak they are. If that means breaking them down then so fucking be it.”
Josef nervously spoke up. “John, I’m with Herman on this one. Right now it just feels like we’re wasting time when we can just go in there and beat them to death. Hell that sniper of yours could pick them off quite easily, we could be done with them all in 10 minutes.”
Herman nodded. “I even offered to lend you the combine to take out any stragglers, that should send a clear enough message.”
Jonathan shook his head in disgust. “I can’t believe this, my own family siding with those creatures over me.”
“We’re not ganging up on you John.” Josef pleaded with his brother. “We agree what the herd should die…”
“THEN LET ME KILL THE FUCKERS!”
“ENOUGH!” Herman boomed. “It’s getting late, we’re all wired up, let’s get some sleep, we’ll discuss our plans in the morning.”
“I don’t need to discuss anything.” Jonathan sneered as he walked past Josef and Herman towards the stairs. “I already have a plan.”
As night fell, Alpha’s plan was put into effect, Papa was joined by Victor, who was willing to put himself at risk since he was old enough not to fear forever sleepies anymore, and Quebec who volunteered to help protect his newborn foals.
As silently as Fluffies could manage, they stalked through the wheat fields towards the house, finding it easy in the dark thanks to Herman’s oil lamps.
“Fwuffies wememba pwan.” Papa asked his cohorts, both Quebec and Victor nodded.
Together the three of them ran up to the front door and started banging as hard as their little hoofs could manage. It was barely noticeable, but Jonathan had been on edge since he went to bed so he picked up the soft thumping fairly easily, though he couldn’t quite believe what he was hearing.
“No fucking way.”
Cautiously, Jonathan got out of bed, grabbed his pistol and made his way downstairs, the thumping was still soft but more pronounced as he got closer to the front door. Jonathan carefully looked out the front window, angling himself to see the door from the outside.
As impossible as it was for him to believe, there were three Fluffies blatantly knocking on the door, with seemingly no regard for their own safety.
“Fucking idiots.”
Jonathan cocked his pistol and charged out the back door, flanking the Fluffies from the side.
“The FUCK is going on here?”
The sudden loud voice took the three attackers by surprise, but Papa recovered quickly. “Dummeh hoomin hab sowwy-poopies.”
Papa spun round and fired a volley of shit in Jonathan’s direction, Quebec and Victor did the same, none of their attacks got close enough to hit Jonathan but the stench took him off-guard, allowing the Fluffies a chance to run.
“You fucking little…”
Jonathan haphazardly fired three into the field where the Fluffies ran, he heard one yelp but couldn’t see what he hit.
The sudden gunfire shocked Herman and Josef awake, both of them running downstairs to see what was going on.
“The fuck was that?” Herman asked, still not fully awake.
Jonathan went back inside, barging past his uncle as he did. “Shitrats with a death wish. Come on Joey, we’re going after them.”
“What? John it’s like 3 in the morning, we’ll never be able to see them.”
“Then you can carry this…” Jonathan tossed Josef a powerful torch. “…since you’re too scared to hold a gun anymore.”
Jonathan picked up his shotgun and a box of shells. “Let’s hunt some Fluffies.”
Knowing his brother was too angry to argue with, Josef threw on a pair of shoes and followed him outside, Herman stayed behind to man to fort.
“I got one of them with the pistol, not sure which though. Shine the light, see if you can find the blood.”
Josef turned on the torch and sure enough there was a stream of blood leading away from the farmhouse. The two brothers followed the trail until they found the victim; with his missing leg Victor had been too slow to run away and got caught in the side from Jonathan’s bullet, they could hear him struggling to breath as they got closer.
“Which one is it?” Josef asked.
Jonathan threw the shotgun onto his back and knelt down to examine the Fluffy. “Grey fluff and a missing leg, this one’s Victor.”
Despite knowing these humans were dangerous, Victor looked up at them smiling. “Fwuffy hab namsies?”
“Yeah, I guess you do.”
Jonathan pulled out his pistol and shot Victor in the head, killing him instantly. In the light of the torch, Josef was finally able to see Jonathan’s pistol for the first time.
“John? Why the hell do you have a Luger?”
“I told you, for self-protection.”
“No, you said you had a gun, you never said it was a fuckin Nazi gun. Christ John I thought you were over that supremacist bullshit, I thought you weren’t trying to be dad anymore.”
“Oh you’re one to talk Joey, you’re just as much dad as I am. You think you’re better than everyone else, you always have, the only difference between you and dad is that you don’t focus on the racial thing, you just look down on everyone with your fucking unearned god-complex.”
Jonathan stood up, holstered his pistol and brought the shotgun back round to his front. “Whatever you’re thinking about forget it, I have my reasons for the gun and I don’t need you judging me for them.”
Jonathan walked off deeper into the field, leaving Josef to run after hime.
“I’m not judging you John, none of us are. Me and Uncle HAM are just worried about you, we’re supposed to be working this together but half the time you’re off doing your own thing and not even telling us what the plan is. Neither of us knew you were using explosives until you set the bomb off.”
“I told you when I called I had some left-over bombs.”
“Yeah, but you never warned us you were using them, a little heads-up would’ve been nice”
“You want warned? Ok then, I have bombs, I’ve also brought a grenade launcher, a handheld flamethrower, a box of poison and I plan on using all of them before we’re through here. Anything else you wanna know Joey?”
“I want to know why you’ve brought all this gear for a Fluffy herd and don’t tell me it’s for variety, I don’t want to hear your bullshit lies anymore.”
“My bullshit lies are all you’re gonna get, I don’t have to tell you shit Joey. My plans are my own.”
Jonathan turned and walked away, leaving Josef still confused about his brother’s behaviour.
“What happened John? I thought we were getting past this shit, I’m trying to be your bother again.”
“You haven’t tried to be my brother in four years Joey, the only contact we had was when I called you and you made it very clear that every time you wanted nothing to do with me. Sorry if I’m still a little bitter about that.”
“You’ve changed John, me and Herman have both seen it. You’ve not been the same since…”
“Since when? Since my wife and son got blown up? Yeah something like that changes a man Joey, sorry I’m not who you want me to be.”
“John… I’m on your side.”
Jonathan seethed as he spotted movement to his right, he pointed for Josef to shine his torch towards the area.
“How can you be on my side Joey…?”
The torch lit up Quebec, catching him off-guard just long enough to shit himself in fear before Jonathan blew him away with the shotgun.
“…I’m not even on my side.”
“DUMMEH HOOMINS!”
The battle-cry of a desperate Fluffy came from behind them, the brothers turned just in time to see Papa charging at them.
“Take sowwy-hoofies.”
Papa began smacking Jonathan in the leg, his hoofs were a little harder than normal having lived as a feral all his life, but they were still Fluffy hoofs and still made barely no impact. Jonathan simply lifted Papa off the ground by his scruff.
“Bad upsies, nu wike.”
“Don’t give me that shit, what the hell do you think you’re doing? I’ve seen Fluffies with a deathwish before but you three take the fucking cake.”
“Heh, dummeh hoomin faww fow Smawty twick.”
Jonathan and Josef looked at each other, wondering what Papa meant.
“What trick?”
“Hoomins use bwite-wight as distwaction, gib Tuffie foweba sweepies. Smawty use Fwuffies as distwaction, gib hoomin foweba sweepies.”
Both brothers eyes went wide, they knew what Papa was hinting at.
“Herman.”
Looking out from his porch, Herman tried to make out his nephews in the field, he could still see the torchlight but it was pretty fair away by now. And he hadn’t heard anything else since the shotgun blast a few moments ago.
Suddenly Herman heard rustling from the field, he looked out to see a wounded Fluffy limping out of the wheat stalks, one of his front legs clearly damaged. Herman recognised the yellow fluff as Hotel from the board, Hotel looked up and saw Herman watching him.
“Pwease nice mistah, hewp Fwuffy, need wun away fwom meanie hewd.”
Herman knew he had to be careful, but his heart went out to the pathetic little guy and he ran over to help him.
“Hey there, it’s ok, what happened to you buddy?”
“Meanie big Fwuffy gib weggie wowstehs huwtie cause Fwuffy nu can fight gud. Nu am fighta, onwy wan be fwiends.”
With his focus on Hotel, Herman never saw Beta sneaking up behind him.
“Let’s get you inside little guy, we’ll see what we can do about that leg.”
“Fank yu nice mistah, Fwuffy su happy to hab hoomin fwiend who…”
Hotel suddenly jumped forward and bit into Herman’s hand, not enough to do damage but enough to make Herman jump back in shock, only to trip over Beta’s hardy body and land hard on his back. Not a bad fall for a younger man, but for the 60+ year old Herman, it was rough.
As he lay on the ground, Herman saw more movement from the fields, and out walked Alpha with six of his toughest Fluffies in tow, Alpha looked down on Herman as his toughie Indigo shoved his ass in Herman’s face.
“Take sowwy-poopies.”
Even for a Fluffy, Indigo’s shit blast was rancid, Herman had to turn away to keep from throwing up as it coated his entire head.
Alpha stepped up. “Puwpew Tuffie hab tummy-huwties, make wowstesh sowwy-poopies. Bu git Smawty point acwoss.”
Herman looked at Alpha, and he swore he saw the Smarty grinning at him.
“Smawty wememba yu, yu gib owd Smawty speciaw-fwiend foweba sweepies.”
Herman thought back to when the first herd approached him. “You’ll have to excuse me, I don’t remember you.”
“Owd Smawty dummeh, face hoomin like mowon. Nyu Smawty am cweva, hide in bwown gwassies, nu wet hoomin see him. Gib owd Smawty foweba sweepies fow be dummeh.”
“What the hell do you want?” The embaressment of being bested by a Fluffy was getting to Herman.
Again Alpha flashed a grin at him. “Smawty hab message fow dummeh hoomins. Dis am SMAWTY wand, nu hoomins. Weave Smawty wand nyo…”
Alpha raised his hoofs up over Herman’s face.
“…Ow gu foweba sweepies.”
Still its weird and I dont like where is this going if Herman did get seriously injured
