Jaded Part 1
“SCREEEEEE!!! WAI HUWT FWUFFY!!”
Nico’s bicycle fell to the ground as he ran back to the source of the commotion. In a panic, he briefly thought he had run over a child, but he realized with a start that he was looking at a fluffy mare with yellow fur and a pink mane. He paused for a moment, but his panic was not completely abated. He’d never seen a fluffy in real life before. He’d heard of them, of course. Their poor reputation preceded them across the country. But here in the asshole of the state that is east Los Angeles, no ferals lasted long, and the cleverer of the bunch had learned to avoid these neighborhoods altogether. Nico got over his initial shock at this traumatizing first encounter and hurriedly approached the poor creature.
“MUMMAH HAF HUWTIES!! NEE HUGGIES!”
The mare screamed
Cringing, Nico saw that his bicycle wheel had cleanly bisected the creature at the waist. Blood pooled on the pavement and various guts of whose function he could only guess spilled across the hot asphalt. He briefly took mental note of the bag of chips in the middle of the street, just out of the fluffy’s reach. That must’ve been what she was walking out into the street for. The bag was empty but for some pitiful crumbs. Nico got closer, still unsure what to do.
“SMAWTY PWEASE HEWP MUMMAH! HUUHUU!”
She continued, frantically.
The mare’s front half pulled herself forward slightly, only causing a new wave of blood to pour forth as other organs plopped out onto the asphalt. She didn’t have long, and she was suffering. In a clearheaded moment of stalwart resolution, Nico lifted his foot over her head.
“PWEASE MUNSTAH PWEASE! MUMMAH NU WAN FOWEBAH SWEEPIES! SCREEEEEE!!!”
The mare pleaded, eyes fixated on the sole of his shoe.
Nico came to, and lowered his foot to the ground, away from her head. The mare kept her eyes, bulging in utter panic, still locked on his foot.
"SCREEEEEEEee—"
Nearly as quickly as it started, it was over. A chill ran through Nico’s body as he plunged into the cold depths of reflection on what he’d just witnessed.
What he just did.
He’d never killed anything in his life other than the odd spider or two in the bathtub, and here on his way home from work he had just killed this poor creature whose last moments were spent begging for life. Her last moments were of agony and fear. Fear of him. Tears stung as they worked their way to the surface of his eyes. But he wiped them away and bit back his sadness to think. She called herself “mummah” he thought. She’s a mother? He looked around nearby on the sidewalk and caught a brief glance of a colorful orange face with fearful blue eyes disappearing around a corner of an alley. He approached cautiously, trying not to alarm the poor things.
“Hello? ahem Hello??”
Nico asked, softly at first, before finding his voice and repeating still gently, but louder. Silence answered him. But listening carefully, he thought he heard the sounds of soft chirping, low muttering, and shuffling. He walked further into the alley, trying to make his footsteps audible, when, suddenly, another fluffy jumped from behind a dumpster next to a small alcove.
“Dummeh hooman munstah nu huwt gud fwuffies!”
The monochrome orange male fluffy, somewhat larger than the mare he’d just killed, stared blue eyed with resolute determination, cheeks puffed and hooves spread, between Nico and a small group of fluffies of varying colors and sizes in the nook of the alley. Mothers and fathers cowered over their children, trying to cover them with their bodies while quietly crying.
“I don’t want to hurt you”
Nico said, holding his hands up in a show of good will. The orange fluffy stomped his hoof in response.
“Meanie munstah mistah gib nummie findew fowebah sweepies! Smawty saw! GU ‘WAY!”
The fluffy said
“That was an accident and I’m very sorry. She said she was a momma, I just want to help her babies.”
Nico said, kneeling down without getting closer.
“Hewd nu nee’ dummeh meanie mistah hewp! GU ‘WAY!!!”
The fluffy repeated with more gusto, but betrayed by his body language as he shrank in response to Nico lowering himself to his level.
Nico peered over the fluffy at the various dirty, skinny, and anxious fluffies. Newborns with eyes still closed chirped and peeped with mouths opening and closing, begging for milk as their parents tried to calm them. Parents shook, peeing themselves as they stared at the giant new intruder of their cold concrete home. Despite their malnourished appearance, the volume of the pile of shit in the corner buzzing with flies was worthy of note. Nico silently wondered how long this group of fluffies survived in this urban hellscape. He knew they wouldn’t last long out here. Then he saw something that shocked and confused him.
Three foals, skinnier and dirtier than the rest were cowering amongst the stinking pile of turds. In the setting sun, he wouldn’t have even noticed them had it not been for the off-color shape among them. A very dull, almost greyish purple pegasus filly chirped and peeped louder than any other baby in the alcove. Next to her was a small, light brown earthie colt staring at Nico with soft brown eyes full of sadness, and another pegasus colt, larger than the others, black with a short dark brown mane covered his face with his hooves. They were the only foals in the alley not being protected by larger fluffies.
Nico walked past the orange fluffy, who followed his heels at a distance decidedly longer than one would ostensibly consider intimidating; but it continued to stamp its hooves and puff its cheeks.
“Why are they over here in this shit? Do these belong to the one outside?”
Nico turned and inquired to the orange smarty.
“Dey is poopie babbehs!”
The smarty clarified.
“They… what?”
“Dey poopie babbehs! Num hewd poopies!”
“What the fuck?”
Nico was confused.
He didn’t know exactly what this brazenly loud little guy was saying to him, but he understood “poopy”. After some thought, a sense of accountability or perhaps chivalry told Nico that these babies were his responsibility now. Whether or not they belonged to the mare he had killed, this herd was now one fluffy less and the others didn’t seem to care for these small foals. Nico scooped them up, starting with the purple filly, who bellowed out a series of frightened chirps in response to being touched and lifted.
“NU TOUCH POOPY BABBEHS DUMMEH HOOMAN! GIB SOWWY POOPIES!”
The smarty turned, ass pointing at Nico. Luckily he was slow enough for Nico to notice.
“Sorry wha- oh hell no.”
Nico’s foot kick out in the direction of the fluffy, slightly harder than he meant to. The fluffy flew several feet through the air, slamming into the wall. He let out a loud screech.
”SCREEEE!!! WAI HUWT SMAWTY ONWY WAN’ PWOTEC HEWD HUUHUU MEANIE HOOMAN NU HUWT SMAWTY NU HUWT HEWD HUUHUU”
This elicited a panic amongst the rest of the herd, making it so Nico couldn’t make out the soft, breathy screech of the black winged colt as he was lifted up, fingers closed around his sides. Nor did he notice the small horn nub on its head, as the brown earthie colt let out a much heartier scream as it ran away, but with minimal strength in its limbs and nowhere to run to, Nico easily caught it, shushing it softly.
”It’s ok little guys I’m not gonna hurt you. I’m gonna take care of you”
He said as gently he could above the din of panicked toddler screeches.
Turning around, Nico made his way back to his bicycle.
Back at his bike and away from the panic in the alleyway, Nico gently let them down into the plastic basket on the front handlebars. The black colt still scree’d softly while covering its face. The brown colt had stopped screaming, but it was shaking madly, still wary of the first human he had ever seen. The purple filly, though Nico had no way of knowing, was asleep with closed eyes, having expended much energy the little filly didn’t have from the frantic chirps before.
”Don’t worry guys. I’m not gonna hurt you. I’m taking you back to my house, ok? I’m gonna take care of you.”
He told them.
The alicorn said nothing but peeked out from under a hoof at the giant man who had hurt him. The brown colt was still wary. He didn’t have a full grasp on language yet, but he understood a few key words; and Nico’s demeanor suggested he was not in danger with him. At least not immediately. He continued to shake as he let out a few words:
”Hooman? Nyu daddeh?”
Nico smiled down at the little foal.
“Yeah.”
The filthy, dull purple filly squirmed and chirped as she felt the wind increase against her frail and poorly insulated body. She peeped and chirped and squirmed around the bottom of the basket as her eyes slowly opened and closed, blinking out the bleariness to take in the full visual majesty of the world around her for the very first time. As her vision adjusted, becoming sharper and clearer, the wonder of her new sense drowned out the hunger in her belly and she made out a face. A very big face! With light brown skin and curly dark not-fluff on his head. Little whiskers of wiry black hairs poked out of the man’s face, like his face just couldn’t grow all the fluff he was supposed to have. It wasn’t immediate, but some instinctual part of her recognized who this was. A caretaker. A wondrous and amazing person that she knew loved her more than anything in the world and she loved him even more than that! Her gaze broke to look at the moving city around her, it was confusing, and something wasn’t quite right with how everything looked. It made her dizzy and she couldn’t tell where things were completely. The new world she could see was vast and confusing, but she wasn’t scared, her daddy was here!
And that’ll be the end of the first part of my first story. Always welcome criticism, constructive or otherwise. Tell me what you thought, blah blah blah. You all know the drill.
I’m currently working on several projects and I wanted to finish all the drawings on my to-do list before I started this story, but I’m having health problems that, long story short, result in drawing being difficult. So I may or may not be focusing on writing over drawing. Anyway hope you all enjoy this series. There will be very little abuse, if any at all. This story is going to be both hugbox and sadbox but much more sadbox. Keep that in mind for the future of the story and I hope you enjoy. Thanks for reading.
I like it!