I have one, of course.
#014 - Fluffies Are Food
(of which “FluffiesAreFood’s Timeline” would be a derivative.)
Summary: Due to a series of historical events, fluffies have gone from beloved pets, to virulent pests, to livestock. Almost all fluffies are bred and raised for their meat. Raising fluffies for meat (“fluffherding”) is a common household practice in North America, but fluffies are also commercially farmed and slaughtered. Properly raised fluffy tastes like beef, pork, venison, or (in my headcanon) slighty sweet beef.
My timeline (roughly and feel free to adapt):
2000 - Hasbro releases the Fluffy Pony ™, a genetically engineered pet with colorful that somewhat resembles a tiny pony. The Fluffy Pony is born able to speak very rudimentary English. Popularity soars through the Christmas holiday and Hasbro can barely keep up with demand. Prices soar.
2002 - Hasbro releases Fluffy Pony 2.0 ™. Slightly modified from the first version, this one has a short breeding cycle and grows quickly for easier production. Hasbro is able to keep up with demand.
2008 - The mortgage-backed securities crisis leads tens of thousands of Americans to abandon their Fluffy Ponies (colloquially, “fluffies”) as well as their homes. Pathetic, abandoned fluffies are everywhere. They begin to form herds in green spaces to keep each other company. Without their official Hasbro Fluffy Food ™ acting as birth control they start to breed like rats.
Winter 2008 - The first hard freeze kills 95% of feral fluffies. The remaining 5% breed out of control.
2010 - The first megaherds (population over 1 million) appear, descended from herds of abandoned fluffies. They start to do serious environmental damage as they eat everything they can and shit everywhere.
2016 - Donald Trump is elected on a promise to eradicate the fluffy menace. He doesn’t.
2020 - Three gigaherds (population over 1 billion) appear, in the Ozarks, Kansas, and Northeast Georgia. Waterways in and downstream from the gigaherds are absolutely befouled. Nearly every city is home to a megaherd.
2021 - Most of Congress and Vice-President Pence are killed in a coup. President Trump declares martial law. Protests are put down with artillery. New Federal elections are promised “soon.”
2030 - President Trump dies; Second Civil War, World War Three, and the division of the United States into four successor states (Russian-controlled Eastern USA, Indian- and Chinese-allied Western USA, the white ethnostate Confederacy, and libertarian Texas), follow shortly thereafter. In the aftermath, starving Americans are forced to eat fluffies. Much to their surprise, fluffy meat is quite nutritious and tasty if raised and prepared right.
2040 - The last of the feral megaherds is domesticated. Nearly every fluffy is intended for meat production.
2060s - Russian economy peters out as nobody uses oil anymore. Western USA follows Chinese and Indian lead in building permanent orbital settlements. Fluffies, due to their small size and mass, become the only livestock mammals suitable for orbital habitats. NAFTA 2 reunites economies of Canada, EUSA, WUSA, Confederacy, Mexico and Texas.
2070s - Eastern USA undergoes liberalization as Russian support for the ruling Trump family disappears. North America produces and exports enough fluffy meat to feed 7.5 billion humans, or three-quarters of the human race. Permanent colonies on and orbiting the Moon include fluffy raising and slaughtering stations operated by Western USA.
July 4, 2076 - Eastern USA and Western USA reunite.
2080s - Chinese and Indians establish rival orbital colonies around Mars, with Americans along as a neutral third party. Americans might not have the technological and economic might of the Chinese and Indians, but they know how to raise fluffy meat in orbit, and that makes them indispensable partners, even if second-class.
Although I haven’t explored it yet, in my timeline, the 22nd Century is one of rapid colonization of the Solar System, mostly in the form of orbital habitats. Fluffies are the main source of meat protein, followed by chickens and lab-grown artificial meat.
