“Your new name is Cherry.” A young man named Jason, no older than 22 spoke to a red fluffy with a pink mane in a car. He had just arrived home from a nearby fluffmart with a young female pegasus foal.
“Nyu namsie is Chewwy… wub nyu namsie daddeh! Bestest daddeh ebew!” The young fluffy cooed affectionately.
“You’re gonna be a very good fluffy.” He smiled happily. "If you behave we’ll get you more toys, some yummy foods, and plenty of hugs and kisses.
“Chewwy be bestest babbeh! Make aww da odda babbehs jeawous ob Chewwy and hew daddeh!” Cherry chirped happily, dancing slightly in the young man’s hand. The young man got out of the car, holding the fluffy safely in his right hand, and fished the rest of the fluffy’s brand new things from the car. A few balls, blocks, water and food dishes, kibble, and a litter box, as well as a pretty expensive baby gate. The young man made his way, awkwardly with the heavy load, to the top floor of his apartment building in Soaringsville, a rapidly growing city in North America.
“It’s not much…” The young man said. He opened the door after much fiddling with the lock, and opened the door to a cramped apartment. The apartment entered into the kitchen directly from the hallway, which then transitioned to the living room. Neither room was filled much of anything. The kitchen was bare except for a few stray dishes that littered the sink. The living room had a couch that faced a TV, and directly opposite from the door, there was a large glass window that overlooked the city below. They were about twenty floors above the ground level. The new fluffy owner showed the foal his whole apartment. The foal chirped and peeped and clapped at everything in the house, even the large window.
“Fwuffy fwy one daysie out of da window! Den bwing back wots of babbehs and daddeh hewp dem aww!” The fluffy said excitedly.
“Aren’t you a little brave girl.” Jason said, scratching the scruff of her neck. She cooed and leaned into it. “Now let’s go show you my room and your new room.”
Jason turned to his left into a doorway that separated the kitchen and living room walls. Directly in front of him was his bathroom, and to his right, his bedroom. A window sat over the bed, bringing in a bit of natural sunlight, a computer sat in the corner on a desk, a queen mattress with no bedframe, and a closet filled with clothes. The bed was messy and unmade. He turned to his left and showed an identical room to his own, except there was no window, and nothing in it, a completely empty room.
“This is your safe room, Cherry. Nothing will hurt you in here.” Jason said. He set Cherry down gently as well as all the stuff he had been carrying. “Feel free to explore your space while I set everything up.”
“Wub spwow!” Cherry said excitedly. She hopped around, fluttering her wings rapidly as she did, exploring every nook and cranny. There wasn’t much to explore, but she was so happy and had such a short memory due to being so young, she explored the closet and each corner at least four times. While she explored, Jason set up the baby gate, one that drilled into the wall, and locked so not even the smarted fluffy or baby could open it. He put the toys on the ground, and set up the water and food bowls. Lastly, he set up the litter box in the closet. It looked a little sad, and very empty, but Cherry didn’t seem to mind.
“Wub woomsie daddeh! Am suuu happeh!” Cherry exclaimed. “Pway wif babbeh?”
“Yeah, I don’t have anything else to do today, so why not?” Jason said, smiling.
“Yayyy! Suuu happeh! Biggest heawt happies!” Cherry said.
For the next few hours the two of them played together. Jason would flick the small tennis sized ball to the wall, and Cherry would chase it, and boop it back to him. Then, they stacked blocks. Jason stacked the size that was made for Mares and Stallions, while Cherry tried her best to stack the set that was made for Foals. She got two stacked at most. She was still very happy she got one block to stay at all.
“Alright, Cherry, it’s getting a bit late, let’s give you some food and get off to bed, okay?” Jason stood up. Cherry stopped pushing her call and looked over to Jason.
“Otay daddeh!” Cherry chirped.
Jason left the safe room for a little bit of time and came back with a can of wet food for Cherry. Wet food for fluffies was just blended fruits and vegetables altered to taste like candies. Jason poured the contents into Cherry’s bowl and sat with her while she ate. She happily exclaimed that she loved the “nummy food” and “taste suu pwetty!”
The next few days were the same. Jason played with his new foal and fed her a lot. He had a few days off to do so, and was taking full advantage of them. Cherry was a very explorative baby, and would run around the apartment under the supervision of Jason. He loved watching her curiosity with the world, and would let her sniff everything and explore everything.
Days turned to months, Jason got a nightlight for his fluffy so it could sleep in the dark and not be too scared, and some more toys. The fluffy grew rapidly. For the next year, the two of them played daily, ate with each other daily, watched tv and snuggled. Jason loved Cherry and Cherry loved him.
Jason wasn’t the typical fluffy owner, he was a young man in his early twenties, most people around his age were partying, students who could barely afford to feed themselves, had a family to look after, or were a strange combination of all three. Not Jason. Jason didn’t do fantastic in high school, and didn’t have the grades to go to college, so Jason found a dead end job working manual labor for a couple of years before deciding to join the military. There, he deployed several times, and gained a “fun” little bit of PTSD. Being medically discharged, Jason returned to his home town, to find his parents had died. This threw him in a huge depression, which he couldn’t get out of. He continued his life as normal as he could after his time in the military, returning to his plumbing job.
Jason had read somewhere online that fluffies helped with depression and loneliness. After doing more research, Jason purchased Cherry, and it certainly helped his depression. At times his PTSD didn’t even affect him, nightmares seemed to vanish on the rare nights he snuggled with Cherry, and his happiness seemed to come to full fruition when he was spending his time with Cherry.
A year had passed since he got Cherry. They both celebrated her birthday, her favorite sketty and flavorings while Jason had his own plate. They watched Cherry’s favorite show on FluffTV, and snuggled. Cherry fell asleep on the couch happily, while Jason scrolled on his phone, less interested in FluffTV. An old friend from his high school was texting him, an old crush.
The next few months rolled by just as they had normally, but with a few days, Jason would come home late. He had started going on dates with Kylie. The two of them instantly hit it off, seemingly meant for each other. One night, Kylie was brought home by Jason.
“Hey Cherry!” Jason called out as he entered with Kylie. “I brought a friend home, we’re just gonna hang out together tonight!”
“Daddeh’s home!!” Cherry yelled and sprinted from her safe room to the kitchen.
“You… own a fluffy?” Kylie said, barely able to hide the disgust in her voice.
“Yeah, Cherry here saved my life.” Jason said, kneeling down and petting her.
“Right…” Kylie responded less enthusiastic.
“Let me feed Cherry really quick and we can eat and watch a movie.” Jason said, and they did just that. Cherry was locked in her safe room, not that she minded, and Kylie and Jason enjoyed a movie on the couch after a nice filling meal. Weeks of dating turned to months and Kylie was coming over more and more frequently, Cherry would try to talk to Kylie, but Kylie would either ignore her or tell her to leave, but only when Jason wasn’t around. Their relationship began to get more serious, and Kylie moved into the apartment with them. Luckily, Jason had such little stuff, he was able to squeeze Kylie into his room without taking away from Cherry’s space too much. Jason’s old military stuff was stuffed into boxes and put in the closet of the spare room. Cherry didn’t mind, she liked looking at the camo through the see through boxes.
One day, Jason said he would be home late due to work reasons. He was being interviewed after his regular shift for a promotion.
“In ya go, shitrat.” Kylie said, kicking Cherry softly into her safe room.
“Owie!” Cherry yelled. “Nu wike kickies mummeh…”
“I don’t care. Jason’s not going to be home for a while and I have company coming over. Stay in your room and keep quiet, you gross creature, or else I’ll drop you and tell Jason you tried to fly by jumping off the boxes in your room.” Kylie said, locking the baby gate, and closing the door as much as she could. She turned the light off in the safe room and went back into the living room.
A couple minutes later, Kylie was partying with three other women in the apartment. They were talking gossip, drinking, and laughing loudly. Cherry was in her safe room, huddled under a blanket.
“Nuu wike woud noises…” Cherry complained to herself. “Wowstest tummeh huwties…”
This continued for a few hours, the girls getting louder and louder, complaining about random things, until Kylie brought up Cherry.
“He has one of those gross things?!” A girl asked, disgusted.
“He does. He said it helps him with his PTSD or whatever. I think it’s a load of crap. He probably got it from some ex or his grandma or someone is embarrassed.” Kylie said. “Little brat is spoiled too.”
“Wow, who spoils a stupid shitrat?” Another girl asked.
“Girl, you should leave his ass! I dated a guy who owned a fluffy one time, and it did not end well! I swear he loved that thing more than me.” The third girl explained.
“Jason loves his stupid ‘Cherry’ more than he loves me.” Kylie said simply.
“Can we go see it?” The first girl asked.
“Sure, it’s not very impressive. Just a stupid pegasus.” Kylie said. She opened the door and turned the light on, not opening the baby gate. Cherry looked up from her bed, her tear stained cheeks glistening in the bedroom light.
“Mummeh comin’ tu gib Chewwy nummies?” The fluffy asked inbetween hiccups.
“Ewww, that things disgusting!” The second girl cried out.
“Look at it! It’s been crying!!” The third girl said, pointing and laughing.
“I remember I always wanted one as a girl… they’re so gross, I’m so glad I didn’t get one.” The first girl said.
“Yeah, she sure is gross.” Kylie said. “Is it bad I’ve thought about ripping its stupid wings off and feeding them to it?” The girls laughed and ignored Cherry’s pleas. They turned away from the baby gate, flipped the lights off, and closed the door as much as they could. Cherry just continued to cry in her bed, listening to everyone talk about her as if she was some monster.
Jason returned home, said hi to everyone, kissed Kylie, and went to go change. He joined them shortly after, sat on the couch, and starting talking with them. The girls didn’t bring up the fluffy, and the night went on as normal as ever. Jason asked if Kylie had fed Cherry, and Kylie lied, saying she had. At midnight, the girls left, Jason and Kylie made their way to their room, and Cherry cried herself to sleep that night, listening to loud noises that sounded like Enfing and her stomach growling.
Jason had earned his promotion, meaning he spent a little less time at home, and less time with Cherry. Slowly, Kylie was entrusted to be the sole feeder of Cherry, and would “forget” to give Cherry whole meals. Cherry began to lose weight and the litter box was changed less and less frequently, and Cherry started to get sad, and felt like she was being forgotten.
“Jason’s not gonna be home for another couple of hours.” Kylie said over the phone. Cherry chased a ball around the room as best she could on an empty stomach. She stopped and listened to the phone call. She promised she was going to catch meanie munstuh mummah being mean to her. Cherry didn’t know how she was going to do it, but she wanted to tell daddeh all about how mummah hated her and hasn’t been feeding her. Daddeh had been acting so saddies recently, doing nothing more than sleeping and watching teebee. Sometimes he would play with Cherry, but that was when he was drinking the buwnie wawa. Cherry got terrible heart saddies when she saw him like this, and wanted to do more to help. She didn’t know why he was so saddies, but she wanted to find out.
“Yeah, the stupid fluffy is here, but we could do something about that. Just come over…” Kylie paused. “No, we won’t get caught. Jason loves his job too much to come home early… good, I’ll see you soon.” Kylie put her phone away and continued watching tv. Cherry narrowed her eyes and continued playing, straining her eyes to listen to anything. Then, a few ball plays later, she heard a voice. But it wasn’t Jason’s, it was someone else’s.
“Hey babe.” The deep voice spoke.
“Hey.” Kylie said. “Come on, I’ve been waiting for hours!” Kylie said, pulling a strange man into daddeh’s nestie. Cherry decided today would be the day she’d be rebellious. She hated her meanie munstah mummeh. She wanted her old daddeh back, the one who would snuggle her and love her.
Cherry had been practicing. She pushed over her boxies full of daddeh’s grassy colored clothes, and climbed on top of them. She watched her mummeh and daddeh latch the baby gate closed lots of times. Opening it was easy, it either wasn’t properly latched, or Cherry was just that smart. Cherry liked to think it was the latter.
Cherry then sneakily hopped down onto carefully planted blankets, and pushed the boxes back. She left the room sneakily, and peaked into the cracked door in daddeh’s room. She saw munstah mummeh making enfies with someone other than daddeh! She had to tell daddeh, enfies were only for speshew fwends! She ran to the living room looking for anything. She climbed the step stool that daddeh left for her by the couch and onto the couch. She looked on the coffee table and saw mummeh’s black boxie thing that sometimes she heard her daddeh’s voice through. She made a dangerous leap onto the coffee table, and landed next to it. Thankfully due to her leather hoofs, and the loud noises in the nestie, no one heard her. She spend the better part of forever trying to figure out how to work the black boxie. But finally, miraculously, ended up calling her daddeh.
“Hey Kylie!” The cheery voice called from the other side. “I was just about to call you, but I got caught up in another call. What’s up?”
“Daddeh!” Cherry said quietly.
“Cherry? How did you call me??” Daddeh asked from the other side of the phone. “You’re so smart! I promise I’ll come home and play with you tonight.”
“Daddeh nee tu wisten to Chewwy! Meanie munstah mummeh hewe wit anoda fwen, meanie munstah not-daddeh! Chewwy suuu hungwy… miss daddeh. pwease com homsie daddeh!!” Cherry blabbered.
“What are you talking about? A not-daddy? She hasn’t been feeding you?! Dammit… is this a prank Kylie?” Daddeh asked.
“Nu teasies daddeh! Pwease! Chewwy wan-” Cherry screed as she was picked up by her tail.
“You stupid shitrat!” Kylie said, looking her in the eyes. “You’re supposed to be in your room! Looks like it’s sorry spanks for you!”
“Nuuu!! Daddeh sabe Chewwy!!” Cherry cried. Kylie looked down and saw the phone. She quickly hung up and looked from the fluffy to her lover.
“What did you say to Jason?!” The panicked Kylie asked.
“Nu teww! Wet Chewwy gu! Bad upsies!” Cherry pleaded.
“You stupid fucking horse!” Kylie said, throwing Cherry at the wall. “I’m gonna make you tell me!” Cherry cried out as she felt the immense pain of her ribs cracking in several places. Her vision blurred as she felt her tail get yanked again and she was thrown into the bathtub. Kylie turned on the water and plugged the hole, the tub slowly filled with water as Cherry fought the urge to make bad scardy poopies.
“You’ll tell me what you told Jason, or I’m going to fucking drown you, you stupid shit!” Kylie yelled.
“Nuu! Wawa am bad fow Chewwy!” Cherry fought against Kylie, but due to the lack of food and broken ribs, the attempt was even more feeble than a fully healthy fluffy. Kylie stuffed Cherry’s face into the water for a couple of seconds. Cherry felt the burning sensation of water being inhaled and cried out, squirming around more violently. She couldn’t hold it anymore. She made the worst scardy poopies and scary peepees. She felt so bad for daddeh. She was a bad fluffy. Her head was pulled out of the cold water violently.
“Ready to talk yet?” Kylie asked. Cherry coughed violently, and then threw up. Water and bile left her stomach as she looked up in defiance.
“Ou am meanie munstah! Ou am wowstest meanie ebah! Daddeh hatchu! Chewwy hatchu!!” Cherry yelled. Kylie laughed and punched Cherry in the face.
“Where the fuck is she?!” Jason yelled. Cherry heard the voice of her dad. And she’d never heard him this mad.
“Woah what the fuck?” The other not-daddeh said.
“Shut up you piece of shit and get out of my apartment!” Jason yelled. Kylie froze in place as the voice of her boyfriend echoed through the apartment. The guy stumbled out of the apartment, half naked as she threw his clothes in hastily.
“You.” Jason said flatly. “Where. Is. Cherry.”
“Wh-what are you talking about babe?” Kylie asked, standing up and walking out to him.
“Answer the question, Kylie.” Jason said.
“She’s taken care of, babe.” Kylie said, tears in her eyes.
“Grab your stuff and leave. I don’t want to see your fucking face anywhere around this place again. You’re a disgusting freak, cheating whore!” Jason yelled, tears flooding his eyes.
“Bu-but Jason I-” Kylie tried to plead with Jason.
“No fucking buts! You can’t explain away a naked man in here while you’re naked too! Now where is my fluffy?!” Jason screamed.
“D-daddeh…” Cherry coughed from the bath tub. Jason pushed Kylie out of the way and ran to the bath tub. He looked at the wrecked mess of his fluffy. The baby he’d raised from a foal. The animal who’d saved his life from himself. The one who gave him hope in a world full of darkness. She was half starved, bleeding from the mouth, snout, and a few of her teeth were missing. She was covered in bile, shit, and piss.
“They’re just toys…” Kylie said, fighting back her emotions. “I-I don’t know why you care-”
“You’re lucky I don’t treat you like you treated Cherry. Get the fuck out of my apartment right now before I rip your throat out!!!” Jason screamed. Cherry cried, seeing the state her dad was in. Kylie’s eyes widened, and she hurried as fast she could to pack her things. Jason didn’t even bother to watch her, he picked up Cherry gently, wrapped her in a dry towel, and left promptly to the nearest vet.
“Before you leave, leave the key on the counter. If you don’t, I will be pressing charges.” Jason said, looking at Kylie with pure hatred. They said nothing to each other since.
At the vet, they found that Cherry had a punctured lung, four broken ribs, five missing teeth, and a swollen lip. She had to be in a full body cast, have limited activity, and eat a special mass-gaining formula, hand fed from tube. Jason accepted this, paid top dollar, and left with Cherry.
After this day, Jason fell into a deep depression. Unable to save his beloved fluffy, being cheated on, and almost losing his fluffy, he blamed himself. He turned to heavily drinking, and wouldn’t let Cherry leave his side. When he was at work, he snuck Cherry with him, hiding her in tool bags or duffel bags when he worked in the office. Cherry loved this, spending more time with her owner, but saw him going down a dark path. Cherry being unable to play, Jason just drank until he passed out, Cherry sat in his arms. Cherry wanted the happy times back, where she would play with her owner, and see Jason be happy. Kylie before made him happy, and Cherry made him happy. Now Cherry made him sad. Cherry knew she was a bad fluffy from here on, she did something wrong when she called him on that fateful day.
Months later, Cherry was fully healed, and playing with a ball in her room. She pushed it around, thinking about her daddeh and how she could make him be happy again. She thought of Fluff teebee, and knew that all daddeh’s grew happy when babbehs were born. That’s it! She’d ask to be a soon mummah and have babbehs! She pranced over to her daddeh’s room, and stopped in the doorway. Her daddeh was in his bed, making not breathies.
Cherry is in a new home now. She was neutered shortly after being put back up for adoption, and she lives in a huge safe room with lots of new toys and the latest in fluffy comfort items. Sketty flavored kibbles, and other fluffies to run and play with. But Cherry wasn’t happy. She was never happy anymore after losing her daddeh. She only sat in her bed, sadly watching the rest of the fluffies play, thinking about her daddeh. She was indeed a bad fluffy. So bad her daddeh left her.
Jason has taken his own life shortly after finding out that his friend from the war took his own life. Jason wrote only a few words on in his note;
“I’m continuously proven that I’m unable to protect the people and things I love. Please take care of Cherry, I can’t risk losing her too… I was already so close before.”
Cherry cried in her bed. She missed her Daddeh.
Long one lol. I didn’t want to make this a two parter, so here you are! This was an idea I played with in my head after reading a few different stories, and I wanted to make this to bring awareness after losing a close friend of mine to suicide. It’s a weird way to cope, writing fluffy short stories, I know.
P.S. Please please please seek help if you are struggling! It’s not worth taking your life. There are always things and people that love you so much, and would be so much less without you. No matter how hard things get, there’s always a light at the end, and there’s always people willing to help.