Indifference
By: Turboencabulator
The morning brought a breeze with it, one that tore right through to the inner warmth, robbing
it from the world. It was late into autumn, the leaves half gone from the world, and the skies
perpetually grey. Two little eyes and a fuzzy, twitching nose peeked out from a broken metal
grating on a ventilation duct, the dirty red fluff barely visible in the colorless day.
He was a feral, one of the few that were independent of a herd, because of his special friend,
resting within. He turned from the opening, his stomach growling quietly, and padded back to
the only warmth, the feed piping under a boiler in an old building. His special friend rested
there, plump with child and sleeping soundly.
The stallion, nicknamed Red by his mate, sat down heavily on the threadbare pillowcase with his
mate and sighed quietly, watching her. She was a lovely purple dam, a runaway from someone she
said was mean, and wouldnât let her have babies. She was called Peanut.
Red didnât want to have babies either, and tried to tell Peanut that babies were not good until
the warm times came back again, but she wouldnât have it. Soon she was with the mummah-feeling
in her tummy, and beside herself with joy. Peanut didnât understand, though, why asking the
wind to not be so cold, or asking the sky to be bright again didnât work. She had to be
reminded that there were no humans to bring them food or tuck them in, and the only light was
the dim, sickly yellow bulb that hung bare from the concrete ceiling.
Finding the boiler room had been the only thing that saved them, and Red knew this. The food
was meager but constant, if he worked hard enough, and even though Peanut said she was happy,
he would hear her mutter about the lack of âteebeeâ and her bestest toysies. Red never knew
what she meant, having grown up under the boardwalk, playing in the sand and getting plenty of
nummies from the human places even in the cold times. Then the humans in yellow showed up, and put all the fluffies in a big metal monster.
Then was the loud bang, and the whole monster rolled on its back, and some fluffies escaped,
running through the smoke and chaos in an unfamiliar city. Red sighed, still smelling the stink
of trapped, scared fluffies from his dreams of the night.
Peanut began to stir, and Red went to the nummie-pile, fishing out the least gone-bad food and
putting it in front of her. âMownin speciaw fwiend.â
Peanut opened her eyes, blinking, and smiled. âMownin, fankyu.â She said, and proceeded to dig
in. Red watched as she tried to focus her eyes, but failed. He thought she must still be
sleepy, and padded around, going down on his forelegsâ knees, gently putting his ear to her
tummy. She giggled, watching him.
Red listened, closing his eyes, hearing the little rhythms of many tummy babies. âDey su fast.â
He said, with a little grin. âBet dey gun be full of zoomies when dey get tu be wawkin-babbies.â
âDey awweady fuww of zbluub.â Peanut said, then made a little chuffing sound. âOf zoomies. Had
wots of siwwies, kept Peanut awake.â
Red watched Peanut finish her morning food, still pressed against her stomach. His eyes caught
on the shiny gold tag, hanging from a blue collar. He thought of her family, the humans seemed
to know everything, if a fluffy could only get them to answer. Red wouldnât bring it up though,
Peanut seemed to think all humans were dummies, and he couldnât convince her otherwise, despite what he had seen and heard.
They might know why she was having trouble with words, though. They might know why sometimes her eyes didnât work right, or she forgot where she was. They might know how to help her. She wouldnât go though, she said her daddy would be mad after he had said no babies.
She groaned, and Red sat up, leaning over. âSpecaiw fwiend? Yu otay?â
With a whimper she nodded, one eye starting to drift again. âAm toably. FleâŚfl⌠hablle?â
Red trotted over to the nummie pile, getting her more food. He grabbed some spare rags and
strips of cloth, packing them around her. âSpeciaw fwiend, yu west. Yu need moaw sweepies. Wed
gun get moaw nummies.â
Peanut made a sort of drunken happy sound, eating for a moment, then wiggling herself deep into
the rags and drifting into a hazy half sleep. Red didnât waste any time, once she was
comfortable. He stuck his head out from under the boiler supports, looking around the concrete
room carefully. Silently, he crept along the walls, and nosed the vent cover open, slipping in
and letting it settle back in place behind him.
He poked his nose back outside again, feeling the wind steal the warmth and burn his
nostrils. A bang from the boiler room made him freeze, and he turned around, looking back the
way he came down the short steel tunnel. He crept in and peered through the slats of the vent
cover.
Two humans were in the room, both stallions, rough looking.
âSal, what the fuck is that smell?â The shorter one asked, looking around. Red winced at the bad
word.
âDunno, but Iâd bet my remaining nut itâs a fucking fluffy.â The fatter one, Sal apparently,
said. Red could see his special friend under the boiler, getting up and backing deeper under
it. He didnât dare make a noise, but could only watch as Sal crouched down and looked under the
boiler. âYep itâs a fucking preggo one. Hang on.â
Sal got down and shimmied in, groping after Peanut. She screeched and attacked his creeping
hand, kicking and biting at it, screaming nonsense.
âDamn this oneâs got energy.â He said, then slapped Peanut open handed. She yelped, and Sal
caught her collar. After a struggle, she got the collar off and backed up against the corner
wall, shaking, her nose bleeding.
âFuck.â Sal said, wiggling back out with the collar. âSheâs back in that fucking nook the old
pump was in.â
The shorter one sighed. âDomestic?â
âYeah, ran away to get knocked up I bet. Huh, 106 Grove. Weird.â Sal said, tossing the collar
aside. âDoesnât matter, anyways. You kill the boiler, Iâll get the gas shut off. Sheâll either
move on or freeze.â
The two humans started talking about something called âfootballâ, which Red had heard of but
never understood. He could only stare at Peanut as she huu-huued and held her bleeding nose,
pressed into the tight little corner.
âSo what was weird?â The shorter one asked.
âWhat?â
â106 Grove.â
Red blinked, starting to listen more intently.
âEh I just know the place. Shitratâs family was next door to that place on Grove that wanted
purple siding and aqua shutters.â Sal said, with a shrug. âWeirdest property I ever flipped but
it made buck. Sheâs only ten minutes from home, too.â
After some more work, the humans left, shutting the door tightly. Red pushed his way out and
ran to Peanut, getting her wrapped up again. She was curled up on her side, shaking, her eyes
pointed in different directions and muttering nonsense.
âPeanut? Pwease, yu otay?â Red asked, whimpering. âPeanut, yu stay hewe, Wed gun go get hewp.â
After shoving all the food to where she could get it and getting as much of the cloth on her,
Red went and grabbed her collar, charging out the vent and into the cold, windy day. He
immediately shivered, but cantered on, looking around for a human.
One of the no-housie humans was smoking the happy leaf, and Red went near, keeping his
distance. He set the collar down and sat on his haunches.
âEscoose me, Mistew?â
âFuck off, craphorse, donât have any food.â The man said, pulling the old army coat closer around
himself.
âNu, Mistew, nu wan nummies, wan ask whewe wun-oh-sis gwove is?â
The homeless man looked up at Red, blinking confusion and weed smoke out of his eyes. âGrove
street is that way.â He said, pointing down the road.
âFank yu mistew!â Red said, snatching the collar up and charging off in the indicated
direction.
Red kept to the wall of the building, quickly slowing to a trot, shivering in the cold, he saw
the big apartment building come to a corner ahead and he stopped just short. Peeking around, he
saw no humans, and made his way to the road.
The metal monsters were sparse this time of day, and Red found his hustle to get across again,
crossing over into a neighborhood. He stopped to eat some of the sweet broad-grassies in front
of the neighborhoodâs welcoming sign, discretely took a dump in a bush, and then plodded on,
looking for the purple house.
He felt like he had walked all day, his hooves sore, when he saw the purple house. It was a few
housies down, and he looked at the weird writing engraved on the collar. 106.
Walking down the road, he looked at the weird shapes next to the doors, until he saw the same
three on the house.
It was a modest affair, a split-level home with an attached garage. There was a metal monster
in the drive, and a human stallion raking up leaves.
âEscoose me, mistew?â
The human turned, his slightly wrinkled face broad and weathered. âHuh. A polite fluffy. Seen
everything now.â
âIs dis Peanutâs housie?â
âNot anymore, the little bitch ran away when I said she couldnât have babies.â The man said,
turning back to his raking.
Red walked up in front of the human and put down Peanutâs collar, sitting down and watching.
The human paused, then crouched down and picked up the collar, turning it over. âWhere did you
get this?â He asked, vaguely curious.
âAm Peanutâs speciaw fwiend. She hab sickies, need hewp.â Red said, antsy. âPwease, nu know how
wong hab.â
The human tossed it in the garbage can. âTough shit, kid. She ran away.â
Red whinnied. This wasnât right, this was her daddy. âBut she huwt, pwease. Yu wub Peanut.â
âNo I donât.â He said, going back to raking. âShe was my daughterâs fluffy. A spoiled little
cunt that did nothing but complain she didnât have babies. I gave her a safe room, enough food
to keep her fat and happy, her own TV, and what did she do? She shat everywhere she could get,
gave my cat pinkeye, and ran away. Got her one that was properly trained and spayed now.â
âPwease. Wub Peanut.â
âJesus Christ you little retard, get off my lawn.â The man said, and cocked back his leg. The
brown leather shoe hurtling at him was the last thing Red saw before pain and darkness overtook
him.
It was dark when Red woke up, and bitter cold. He struggled upright, pulling himself out of a
hedge with many a wince and whimper. Peanutâs old housie was in front of him, and he watched as
a young girl carried a bright yellow mare in her arms, doting over her. The man was in a
comfortable chair, smiling at the two. He gave the mare a nummie of some kind, and the girl and
fluffy ran off out of the windowâs vision.
The man looked out the window, and his face turned hard as he saw Red. Red turned and walked
away, shaking against the cold.
Questions tumbled through his head as he made his way back, starting to chatter his teeth by
the time he crossed the road. A bus roared past and hit a puddle, the wave coming up over the
fluffy before he could react.
The ice-cold water hit him like a wall, and he fell on his side.
âSCREE COWD COWD COWD HUUUUHHHUUHHHâ He screeched, spasming on the sidewalk. He got up, shaking hard, and made his way down the long apartment building, chattering quietly.
The alleyway was empty, and he went back to the vent, pushing his way in, feeling weak. The
boiler room was quiet, and cold, the usual ticking of the pipes now gone.
The boiler wasnât warm anymore. Redâs muscles began to slowly give way, and he finished his
journey across the room dragging himself along. Peanut was ahead, in the dim light.
He came up and rubbed his cheek against hers. She was growing cold, on her side. Red began to
quietly sniffle and sob. âSpeciaw fwiend. Nu⌠nuuâŚâ
A quiet peep.
Redâs ears perked up and he managed to drag himself around just enough to see a single bright
red chirpy laying on Peanutâs thigh, a sibling hanging out of her special place, already gone.
Then Redâs limbs finally stopped working and he fell down completely, barely able to lift his
head. He watched the little red chirpy try and lift its head just enough to reach the nipple,
pawing weakly at the breast in front of its face.
In a few minutes, Red watched his only living child pass away, starving and freezing.
He soon followed, the cold abating for just a second. Red felt warm as the darkness took him.
