“Irae”
“Part 5, Imposition”
Author: It_that_watches
The fluffies huddled in the yard grew were beginning to grow aware, and slightly anxious at their predicament. They seemed to now understand the position that Twilight’s imposed serfdom had set upon them. They were free to graze on an overgrown lawn in a yard full of hiding places, their foals had time to play while they toiled away on whatever weird designs their petty tyrant had for them that day, and once she was satisfied with them, they were free to live their semi-sheltered lives.
Sure, they did not live the pampered lives of an indoor fluffy, but they had left their previous, much more terrifying existence behind them. Separated from them only by a foot high retaining wall of old logs.
The forest was still there, the “Scawy big twee pwace”, and its myriad terrors. Out there were monsters to be sure, but there were also treasures that any feral fluffy would stick their neck out for.
But they weren’t allowed to.
Twilight said that no-fluffy was allowed to leave the yard unless it was their job to go get things, and that the toughies, her “Knights” were to ensure that the rules were followed. So far, no fluffy had escaped, but that thought still crossed the mind of some fluffy from time to time, and they could never figure out why. They had it all here, didn’t they? What were they escaping? But every day the same state of things was reinforced.
You can’t come into the house.
You can’t leave the yard.
Twilight assured them that this was not the case when a fluffy brought up their worries during an open court.
“You aren’t trapped here, you’re just… You know, this is home now. Yeah, this is your home now, not the forest. The forest is big and scary, and it wants to eat you and your foals, it’ll keep you running scared until you take the forever sleep. It’s smaller in here sure, but it’s safe too. Think of it as your tiny freedom, that’s what I do.”
She looked away, not quite believing her own words at this point. She looked up at the big window above her off to the left, where she could see her sister looking down at her with an emotionless glare.
Twilight wondered for a moment what she was thinking, but as Celestia’s eyes panned over to the crowd of fluffies gathered before her sister’s motley throne, her expression made it perfectly clear what was on her mind.
Twilight reentered the house, mind buzzing with the inane, and often repeated questions she had been asked that day. Some of the fluffies had valid concerns, but most of their mewling was pointless drivel spurred on by personal disagreements.
Still, something was tearing at her mind.
The number of fluffies that she had started the experiment with had increased. She’d expected some of them to die, some to get lost, but from her last headcount, there were at least two new adults that she hadn’t accounted for- and her notes only recorded the basic identifying characteristics of each fluffy, not their names, so she didn’t know which ones were new.
And well, for that matter, where the hell they were coming from!
“Maybe I just miscounted them at first…” She began to think, though with dad sitting at the kitchen table it wouldn’t be out of line to get an expert opinion…
“Hey dad?”
He looked up from his laptop.
“Yeah pumpkin? What’s up?”
“Do you know how many… No, you weren’t here… Do you…” Another thought crossed her mind like a flash of brilliance, “Wait! How long does it take for a fluffy to grow up? Like from one of the hoof-sized ones to one of the full-sized ones? I thought there are more of them, but they might just be growing up.”
His response was not encouraging. “Have you checked the ones in the laundry room? It usually takes a couple months for the older designs, like most ferals, to reach full size. The newer ones coming out of the labs are made to grow slower, consumers like em’ more when they’re small and ‘cute’. I really don’t get the appeal.”
She turned to the living room, both to be with her little sister, and to do her musing on the comfort of the couch. She noticed Briar standing at the threshold of the room, looking furtively across the entryway towards her covered cat bed. She didn’t move.
Twilight looked to Celestia, whose gaze was locked on the wall like that of a predator, as if she could see Briar standing behind it and would attack the moment she dared show herself.
“Tia?”
Her trance broke, and she assumed a guarded stance.
“What do you want?” She barked, backpedaling as she saw the hurt expression on Twilight’s face, “Wait, I’m sorry. No, that… I mean, really like I want to know- Uhh…”
She froze up, pulling up her long mane to cover her face.
“Hey, maybe you can help me! I’ve been looking around outside and there are more fluffies than there used to be, and I’m trying to find a… uh…”
Twilight felt bad for Celestia, she’d been put into an induced sleep, into what was promised to be a short dream into year-and-some long nightmare, and for it she emerged an altered pony in more ways than one… She spoke differently, she was skittish, and she’d developed certain… biases.
“You could get rid of some of ‘em. Throw em’ ovar the wall inna the pond. The monsters hate water.”
Her eyes were glassy, like she hadn’t really woken up yet, though the opposite was true. Twilight knew that she hadn’t been sleeping.
Mossy and Muddy reported in a barely audible tone of voice that at night, Celestia had been lurking around the house. Briar said that it looked like she’d lost something and was searching for it. Whatever it was she was looking for though, she didn’t ever find it, and sat on the windowsill when the sun began to rise. Not leaving until her father came downstairs to collect her for breakfast.
Briar recounted the events of the night to Twilight, as were her standing orders. “Cewestia pony nu find what wooking fow, gif’ up when bwite time stawt. Cewestia pony wawtch bwite-sky baww aftaw dat. Wawtch diffewen’ tho, nu wike wen wooking at fwuffies, wook wike haf happies. Nu moaw haf saddies ow maddies in eyesies.”
Sheepishly she addended, “Bwiaw nu feew safe wen Cewestia pony wook at Bwiaw. Haf scawy eyesies, Bwiaw nu knu wha’ du. Nu knu wha’ say. Cewestia pony wook wike have su many scawdies in eyesies dat it make Bwiaw haf scawdies tu.”
Nobody was quite sure what to say to her, really. But it wasn’t like they weren’t going to try. That last part though, stuck with Twilight. So, she’s been up all night, and she’s terrified of something.
“Tia, those fluffies are part of Twily’s experiment. She’s using them to be a scientist. We aren’t going to get rid of them for no reason, but I’ll understand if you don’t want anything to do with them.” He looked up from whatever it was he had been typing, “But please don’t kill them. Unless you know, you really have to.” There was another short pause, wherein the clatter of keys could be heard in the otherwise silent kitchen, “Don’t kill the indoor ones. Leave that to me. If the inside fluffies are making you uncomfortable, let me know before you do anything… You know, unless you have to.”
Anyone who knew Tia, which is admittedly a very small list of people, would have expected the same answer, “Okay daddy.” And for the issue to be closed. This was not the case though.
Her voice rose with every sentence she belted out. “Daddy you weren’t there. I’ve seen what they do! I’ve seen how they can hurt us! I dun wanna give ‘em that chance! I won’ lettem! I’LL BREAK EM’ FIRST AFORE THEY CAN HURT US!”
She sprang from her seated position as Briar bolted down the back hallway holding back sobs, Twilight jaunted forward to stop her from pursuing as Matthew stood to do the same.
It’s not like she could catch Briar, even if she were trying her hardest. A fluffy couldn’t run very fast even when it believed it was being chased by a monster, but Celestia’s muscles had been left to atrophy for over a year. She fumbled jumping off the couch, stumbled to the ground on landing, and struggled to both catch her breath or even get back onto her feet.
She could feel her heart beating, like a war-drum in livid battle. Her vision narrowed into a blackened tunnel, to the point that all she could see was the evidence of the fluffy now in flight, her baleful gaze tracking her all the same even through opaque walls as she fled towards the laundry room. She felt the shaking of the ground beneath her as her concerned family approached, though their words were lost entirely to the dour ringing that was all she could hear.
Her waning mind struggled to comprehend all that was happening to it, as the soft ground of the thick carpet rushed up to meet her. Was she asleep? Was this another nightmare? It certainly felt like one! Celestia screamed out in anguished fury as her body tried in vain to follow her commands.
Though she could not hear her own voice, her piercing wail was absolutely heard by those around her. More a battlecry than an expression of pain, the fluffies gathered still under the patio from Twilight’s open court shouted cries of “Munstah!” as they fled from the sound.
The tiny mare’s adrenaline surged. She felt her father’s hands lift her up and began to see what looked to be squirming bolts of red lightning blooming toward the center of her vision. He pulled her in close, and at first she tried to protest, but quickly found her wings blocked by her blanket wreathed around her. Its cold embrace was a welcome security from the fear and hate that had wrapped itself around her little heart.
She was being carried upstairs. She could tell that she was being spoken to, but the ringing in her ears still dominated her ability to hear. She ignored it. Focusing all her remaining lucidity on preventing the darkness from closing in, she gritted her teeth and stared into her father’s shirt, counting the individual threads, examining the pattern and difference in colors between the strands.
Anything to stave off the looming specter of sleep.
There was a sudden bright light, and she cried out reflexively. She could hear her own voice, if not just barely.
“Dad…” She screamed with every ounce of her being, “Keep… keep me awake…”
“What was that? Are you alright, are you… Can you say that again, but a little louder? I need to check your vitals.”
“Dun let… me fall asleep… They’ll ged all of us… Twily let ‘em inna the house…”
“Asleep? No, sweetie… You… I don’t know what happened in your dreams, but they can’t hurt you now. All the devils in the world can’t get you now that you’re back here with us.”
“Fluffies are devils…” She looked up at him through teary bloodshot eyes. “They’re gonna eat me like when in my dreams… Twily’s not safe…”
“Dear, Twilight’s been talking with these fluffies for weeks now. She like their god now, they do whatever she says and don’t even ask why. She’s killed three already… that I know of anyway. And she’s perfectly safe around them, you could go outside with her, once you aren’t as afraid of th-”
Celestia interjected suddenly, “No! I’m not afraid*. I hate them daddy, they eat ponies.* I jus’ wanna pertect you an’ Twily from ‘em.”
Sweetie, they couldn’t eat you if they tried. They aren’t nightmares.” He paused to brush aside her aurora of a mane, “There, now I can see your beautiful smile, and the light of your lovely eyes.”
She couldn’t help but actually crack a real smile.
“Here, I tell you what. Twilight has one of ‘em chained to the ground for some reason, I have no idea why, she won’t tell me, but the other ones aren’t allowed near it. You can talk to that one. You’ll see in a couple minutes that you have noting to- No, you’ll see that they can’t hurt you. They are weak. Even weaker than the ones you used to know.”
He pulled her in close for a hug, having confirmed that she was in no danger and her heart was beginning to calm.
“Later though. Right now? Let’s just talk, it doesn’t matter about what. I just want to see you smile again, and hear you laugh.” He held her closer. “It’s been far too long.”
Twilight’s hoofsteps clacked emphatically on the hardwood of the kitchen, so much so that she didn’t hear Briar sheepishly reenter. She observed Twilight briefly before retreating into her plushy cavern, tired from a long night of being stalked by what seemed to her at first to be Twilight’s ghost.
“Where… Where, who, when, why and… how?” Twilight was lost in thoughts of her experiment, and of the appearance of multiple new fluffies in her kingdom. “They aren’t just growing up, they must be… showing up?”
She turned towards the door to the backyard. Looks like it’s time for some more interviews.
“Oh, look at that.” She thought as she passed, “Briar’s asleep, must be exhausted after all this…”
She stopped as the door opened, and the sounds of play could be heard.
“Dad’s got Tia though. She’ll be fine. She just needs time and love. Time and love.”
Twilight focused on her scientific objectives, unsure of if the answer was as important as it was, or she just wanted to push the thoughts of her terrified sister out of her mind.
“I couldn’t help if I tried.” She reasoned.
Yeah, that being her first thought on the issue sealed the reason. Still she pushed through. Twilight milled about the yard, gently stamping the cold hard earth as if it held the answers she were looking. Time was passing, but she hadn’t said a word to any of her subjects. Occasionally she would steal looks up at the mater bedroom window, only to see she was surrounded by her subjects, but still feeling so alone.
Until, to her surprise and joy, she wasn’t. Celestia and Matthew were looking down enwreathed by the sun on the second-floor patio. Matthew was cradling Tia in his arms, looking all around at the demesne that had sprung up from his untended lawn. Celestia’s calm, pink eyes looking directly down on her, so much fuller of life than she had been before, even at this great a distance their light felt so reassuring.
Whatever dad was doing, it looked to be working. She smiled and spread a wing to wave, sending sever nearby fluffies to yelp and run for cover, and Celestia returned the gestures.
She set about her work, eager to impress her little sister.
“Wai Pwincess Twiwight hav maddies at fwuffies?” Squeaked her nearby subjects as they exited the brush.
“Oh, hey there. I’m not mad. I have questions though. Do you know all the fluffies in my kingdom?”
The fluffies stepped further from their cover.
“Yus!” One replied, “Hab wotsa fwiends! Wub aww hewd!”
“Cool. Have you made any new friends lately? Like new fluffies?”
“Yus! Bewwy make wotsa fwiends!”
“Wow, that’s lucky, first try and I get a hit. Score!” She thought.
“So can you show me them?”
“Wha? Pwincess nu see wotsa fwiends?”
She spun around, half expecting to see fluffies gathering around her. She saw fluffies all around the yard, but none that were close enough to be considered “around”.
“What do you mean? No, I mean show me your new friends, go to them. Take me to them.”
“Otay!”
A bit bewildered, she followed the fluffies to a group playing in the shade of one of the great evergreens growing out of the garden in the center of the yard. But there was a problem… she recognized all of them. Most of them were the ones that she had designated “nobles” and “knights”.
Speaking of which, “What the hell are you all doing here?” she interjected.
“Dese nyu fwiends Pwincess! Nu use meanie wowds pwease…”
“No, I mean you should be patrolling. You’re supposed to be making sure nofluffy gets out.”
The thought struck her mind like a lightning bolt. Surely even they couldn’t be that stupid.
“Have you… Have you been letting fluffies in?”
The knights present before her answered.
“Nu?”
“Nu Pwincess.”
“Yus.”
She lowered her head to level with the final knight, who had began to tense up and avoid eye contact.
“Why, pray the fuck, would you do that? You are supposed to be GUARDING MY LAND!” She thwacked him in the head with her horn and continued, “What the fuck were you thinking? Did I tell you to let fluffies in?”
The other fluffies in the group had fled by this point, squealing about no-no words and Pwincess maddies, the only ones barely remaining her so called “knights” kept in place moreso by fear of what would happen if they lacked “discipline” whatever that is.
“P-p-p-pwincess Twiwight! Fwuffy wan say sumfink!”
Oh good! At least one of them remembers the protocol for speaking whilst being berated!
“What is it Sir Gummy?”
“P-pwincess owny say nu wet fwuffies out! Pwincess say wet fwuffies in wif foodies!”
“Well yeah, if they are a peasant out gathering! Do… Wait have you been turning fluffies away? Like sending them away because… They didn’t have food?”
All three replied at the same time, with varying degrees of enthusiasm.
“Yus.”
“Fluffies that you didn’t let out to get food?”
“Yus.”
“And that didn’t set off any alarm bells?”
“Wha’ am awawm bew-“
“Stop. Nevermind, you just… Ugh. How many? How many have you let in?”
The first knight looked down at the ground, straining its tiny brain, or trying to look nonchalant, it’s hard to tell with a fluffy.
The knight she’d admonished simply fell back onto his haunches and said that he “Nu can count su many!” causing Twilight’s stomach to drop, and her anger to build.
Sir Gummy, after a long moment of reflection said, “Fwee, Gummy fink. Wed daddeh, yewwow mummah, an’ wittow gween cowt.”
Her jaw began to hang open slightly, mostly at the absurdity of what was happening because of how she didn’t understand fluffies well enough when she gave them their original orders. Of course the fluffies would let them in, herds try to grow by any means, and fluffies tend to want to help other fluffies.
“Siw Gummy hab saddies wen haf to say ‘nu can cum if nu haf’ foodies’ so Siw Gummy teww fwuffies tu cum bak wif foodies su can wet in yawd!”
Twilight half laugh, half exhaled, fell back on her ass, and thought about what to do next.
“Well, first of all Sir Gummy, I applau- hmm… I… You were very clever to tell the outside fluffies to come back with food. That was very kind of you.”
He smiled weakly; his hopeful eyes no longer focused on the lawn below him. Twilight couldn’t let this end here, however.
“Well first of all, new rule, spread it around. If a new fluffy does show up, and brings food or… you know, something shiny, bring them to me and I’ll decide if they get to stay. As for the ones you already let in… I’ll have a chat with each of them.”
She looked up to the banister, hoping to see what Tia thought of her governance. She’d hoped that seeing fluffies mill around and be useless, and her big strong sister smack them back into line so easily, would put her mind at ease! They were up there still looking down at her and… and that’s when she started to regret her lack of preparation.
She opened a wing to block out the sun. It wasn’t enough.
She arched her back up and took steps towards the house, a clear signal to the knights that they were not needed here anymore, but it still wasn’t quite enough.
She strained her eyes to see, cursing herself for not having worn her glasses. It was just barely enough.
Tia leaned towards her over the railing, waving a forehoof with the barest of smiles on her face.
But it was there, and that was enough for her.
Now, it was time to have another little chat.
The lightbulb (that dad had installed for this express purpose) swayed side to side in the space between the heads of Twilight and her freshly detained quarry, the single source of illumination in the dark garage if you, you know, if you ignored the windows. Fluffies weren’t very good at seeing what wasn’t right in front of them though, so the effect was about the same.
“W-w-w-wai fwuffy hewe!? Toughies nu am nice! Nu wike! Scawy! Huhuhu…”
The yellow fluffy cried into its forehooves as it spoke, completely oblivious to Twilight’s presence.
“Nee babbehs… wai meany toughies take babbehs… am gud mummah… Mummah fin’ new housie, mummah tawk fow wet in hewd, wut fwuffy nu du wight? Nee babbehs… babbehs nu am saf’ wifout mummah…”
In reality, her foals were safer than they ever had been, placed inside the house with Mossy to look over them for the duration of the interrogation. They were warm, in a walled room, and watched over.
“Your babies are fine.”
The mare hiccupped in surprise; the attention paid to creating the drama of the situation lost on her. She looked around in a frenzy, somehow completely missing Twilight.
“Wha!? Whu fwuffy dewe?”
“I’m not a fluffy, I’m a pony. I’m your princess now.”
“Pwincess? Pwincess nee’ hewp fwuffy pwease! Nu can fin’ babbehs, meany toughies take babbehs fwom mummah! Babbeh’s am onwy wittow babbehs an’ nee’ mummah fow gwow big an’ stwong!”
The mare took a moment to look up at Twilight, the lightbulb having steadied somewhat between the two. Twilight considered flicking it to restore the effect, but decided it wasn’t worth the effort. The fluffy squinted and tried to make heads or tails of what she was seeing, or rather, having trouble seeing.
“Bwight sky baww too cwose, nu can see big fwuffy face. Whewe am fwuffy?”
“I’m not a fluffy.”
Twilight leaned down, forcing her face into the light.
“See? I’m not like you. I’m bigger, and stronger, and I know how to make fluffies useful. I brought you here to-“
“M-M-M-MUN-“
“I swear, that if you call me a monster, you will never see your babies again.”
“M-m-muu…”
The mare began to cry again, this time stifled and emotional rather than the “Huhuhu” precept than she had heard upon entering. She smiled. This one had a spark within it, but like any other fluffy they needed terror put inside their heart to kindle that spark into a flame. But like how she was letting the fluffies finish (most) of their sentences nowadays to keep their one-track minds from derailing, she’d learned more from her observations. Using hope as an accelerant, and looming tension as a long burning fuel. Through this method, she would forge within it a soul.
“What am I? If you guess right, I’ll bring your babies back to you. I’ll even let you live here if you cause no harm, and stay out of trouble…”
“M-m-mmm…” The mare clenced her teeth hard, combating her instinct for the sake of her children, “P-pawncisst?”
Twilight tilted her head up and smirked. Maybe she was getting through to them. Perhaps there was a codifiable way to beat the programming out of a fluffy. To beat a real life into one. “Just one thing though.”, she thought.
“Princess. It’s pronounced Princess.”
Almost instantly the fluffy began to blubber, a stream of tears cutting a damp valley through her unshorn face, “Nuuuu…” She cried, muffling the noise with her face to the ground and hooves scraping away at the top of her head. “Fwuffy nu am haf’ smawties nuf’ to sabe babbehs… Pwease nice muh-“
She caught herself just shy of the word.
“P-pwease gif fwuffy ‘nuver twy, miss babbehs su much…”
“Oh shit.” Twilight though, looking down at the mess she’d made, “I’d never meant to keep them from her, she did good enough! I’ll just go in and… No…”
She clapped a hoof against the cement floor, the sharp noise of the two hard surfaces stunning her captive audience as it echoed about the cave-like interior.
“Okay that’s fair enough, I am a kind and forgiving Princess after all… So again, what am I?”
“Y-yu am cawed… P-pwrinsess?”
“Yeah.” She sighed, “Yeah close enough.”
She opened the door to the backyard, causing the fluffy to cower from the sudden rush of light and wind.
“I’ll go get your babies.” She gave ample time for the yellow-on-yellow mare to get out ahead of her. “Follow me. Oh, and we use names here. It doesn’t sound like you have one, so your name is… Dandelion.”
She heard an excited gasp from behind her as she watched the fluffy literally dancing with joy over her shoulder.
“Wait here.”
Twilight returned in short time, trying her best to deliver the foals to her mothers back, but her instrument of infant delivery was a sand pail so perfect accuracy wasn’t exactly guaranteed.
“All accounted for.” Twilight did her best to emulate a happy giggle, “They look so happy to be back with their mummah!”
“Ahah… Just remember though, only good fluffies get to have nice things in my kingdom. If it turns out you’re a bad fluffy, we’re going to have to take them back.” She loomed above her as she stood to leave, speaking down from what must have seemed like so high above. “Find a fluffy that calls itself a noble, they can tell you what to do to be a good fluffy here. I just know you’ll do great. Buh-bye!”
Twilight pranced back towards the house, just dying to hear how her little sister had spent her day. As she opened the door to go inside, she caught a glimpse of Dandelion, looking wildly around the yard. As she closed it, her newest serf had just begun to trundle towards a gathering of fluffies deciding who had to do what work that day.
Delegation! Dad would be so proud of her!