“Judgement Day”
“Part 7, Interaction”
Author:It_that_watches
Chaos rippled through the colorful swarm, all ranks breaking as the forest air was pierced by screams of terror. Of the three toughies remaining with the main mass of the only two were in any position to oppose Twilight’s advance. The herd being up against a wall, the only way for them to flee was towards the house, away from the barrier. The toughies steeled themselves for an attack, and as their assailant broke into a gallop, they closed their eyes and returned the charge.
“TUFFY NU ‘FRWAID OF MUNSTA!”
“TUFFY SAF’ HEWD!”
Their spirited charge to protect all that they loved was met with laughter.
“Aww, you’re no fun, I just want to play!”
Twilight easily sailed over the toughies with only a light hop, her reflexively spreading wings striking awe in the hearts of the fuzzy onlookers. This awe quickly turned to terror as her hungry eyes panned towards them, and upon landing she made a sliding 90 degree turn towards them.
“So c’mon! PLAY WITH ME!”
Her first target was a mare with an orange coat that had stumbled in the initial scramble. Gliding like a ghost through the wet grass, she approached the downed fluffy with merciless glee, speaking in a heightened voice and mocking, enunciated, lisp.
“Ohw no’w! Fwuffy have a bad fawwl? Wemmie hewp yu up!”
The flailing fluffy had started to regain its footing when she intervened, pulling it up from the wet lawn by pinching and pulling her mane with her wings.
“Owwies! Bad upsies! Nu take fwuff!”
“I yam bewwy sowwy, onawy want tu hewlp noo fwrend…”
The fluffy had regained her footing and began to turn around, its urge to flee apparently overwhelmed by the prospect of gaining a new friend.
“Nu hab saddies! Fwuffy wub ged hewp up fwom- fwom…”
She stood paralyzed; eyes shackled to the terror before her. The space of turnabout was so close, that had Twilight not chosen to reel her head back a bit, their snouts would have been touching.
“Don’t mention it.”
As the orange fluffy fell over backwards she was graced with the sight of the monster bounding over her, wings fully spread as it leapt over her comparably tiny body. To little Marigold, the dark feathers blotted out the entire sky, and the very sun had been extinguished by her eminence. She curled up into a tight ball and wept.
Twilight wasted no time bounding from fluffy-to-fluffy terrorizing them with more than just her mere presence. When a pair of special friends tried to run into cover under the trampoline, she ran up between them and slammed them apart. Whenever a fluffy stumbled in their waddling excuse of a run, she capitalized on having suddenly immobile prey. Her laughter eclipsed the echoing discord of fluffy fear as she herded a group of three into one of the basement-window pits.
The slamming of a cheap plastic door was an indicator that some of the fluffy cretins were invading the sanctity of her playhouse. What a fantastic opportunity! It has a back door. She circled it quickly, barking about how the door was closed, and that the house must be empty. She listened for the sound of fluffies speaking reassuring one another that they were safe, and that the monster was gone. Then before they had a chance to get too secure, she stopped, and pushed her head through the fireplace façade in the back. Her horn’s glow cast their shadows onto the dark wall before them as they heard an unseen portal creaking open behind them.
“Hi there, sneaky fluffies.”
Their screams of fright were amplified by the plastic cavern, and as the fluffies slammed into solid walls in an attempt to escape she felt a stabbing pain in both her ears and forehead.
Twilight recoiled from a sudden pain.
Tensing her forehead to dull the aching in her ears and burning on her horn, she slowly circled back to the front of the tiny house, the smell of morning dew, fluffies, and their rancid discharge now beginning to mix with the scent of burning algae. It was almost enough to make her sick, but she had seen much worse before. The weathered red front door of the popped open to reveal one of the bereaved squatters and she vengefully kicked it closed with a back leg, eliciting a spray of blood and shriek to rival any other therein.
The emotion in the clearing was absolutely swirling, a riotous energy she hadn’t felt since that one time the maglocks at dad’s work failed and all the doors and gates opened at the same time.
“Dads only concern was making sure nobody made off with me.” She thought, smiling up at the sky as a freshly de-toothed fluffy wailed only a few feet away from her.
But what was this?
She had finally noticed that the toughies from the beginning of her chase were still pursuing her, though to a laughably poor degree. Their formation did nonetheless catch her eyes, as amongst them was the herd’s smarty. Turquoise coated with that generic teal mane, the same ugly blue unicorn she had seen waddle into the backyard like he owned the place.
He had her interest now, and she spoke aloud with notable reverence.
“Ho-ho!? You’re approaching me?”
“Wha dat mean stupit munsta!?” yapped Blaine, apparently not knowing what the word ‘approach’ meant, “Smawty Bwian nu give appwoach tu munstah!”
“I uh, don’t know what to say to that.” Twilight steamed, sounding more than a little irked, “You got the line wrong.”
“What am wine?”
He had stopped advancing on her, and Twilight had the liberty of taking up the role of aggressor.
“Dad told me it was from a storybook, something about words from a great man. Guess you wouldn’t know anything about people or culture though would you, you wild animal. What did you say your name was? Brain?”
His face screwed up with anger, and she laughed. Dad said these things were never meant to look angry, and this was definite proof.
“NU! NAMSIE IS BWAIN!”
“Of course, Brian, my mistake. I wanted to talk to y-”
She felt a heat spike ripple through her body as she was cut off.
“IT BWAIN, NOT BWIAN! AN HEWD FWUFFIES NU WISSEN TU YU!” He continued to fulminate, “Yu dummeh munstah fwuffy from owd bad pwace, yu bad wike yu daddeh, onwy wan hewt fwuffies.”
She wanted to charge him and make him pay for what he said, but she could see Matthew coming slowly out of the brush behind them… and he looked mad. Twilight had rarely seen him with such an expression of hate on his face, and to be honest, and it scared her. He held a single finger to his lips to indicate silence, and she ceased her advance.
Blain’s face curled into a shit eating grin as he took in her discomfort.
“DAT WIGHT!” He and his posse of toughies began taking tentative steps towards her, and she began to backpedal. The one toughie behind the smarty looked kinda checked out, his attention distracted by a passing bug or something. The two closer toughies though, those two of them looked at her the same way she had witnessed the toughies that appraised Twiggie before dragging him away did.
She didn’t like it.
“Yu daddeh am wowstes hooman-smawty-doctah. Bwain ‘membaw bad-doctah winstin twy sen’ Bwain tu fowebva-buwnies woom, but Bwain nu gu foweva-buwnies.” Twilight had heard fluffies laugh before, but not like he did. She expected spite, but he sounded pained. Matthew spun his wrist at her, the motion he used when he said things like “keep talking”.
The sounds of panic had begun die down. She could still hear the cries of the fluffies in the pit, and the one in her playhouse, but a quick glance around confirmed that others had their wary eyes on her.
She took another step back.
“How? Why?”
“Bwain nu teww yu nuffin. Yu jus teww munstah-doctaw.”
“Pshhh!” Twilight hissed, “I get it, you can’t tell me because you’re lying. You’re just a liar.”
“BWAINE NU AM WYAR! Bwain onwy wan’ keep hewd saf’. Yu dummeh daddeh teww nice wady doctaw gib foweva-buwnies tu bwaine whowe famiwy.” She could practically hear the venom in his voice. “Yu daddeh wook at nice doctaw an make hew giv Bwaine mummah an’ daddeh foweva-buwnies.”
Matthew mimed adjusting something on his chest. Twilight stammered as the distance between her and the toughies grew smaller. “W- E-ha… What? No. You…”
Matthew slowly dragged his finger across his shirt, compelling her to keep thinking. If dad wanted anything from a fluffy it was information, and if he were at work… “HIS ID!” She blurted out, confusing not only the smarty, but her dad as well.
“No, no, wait!”, She physically pointed at Matthew as she scrambled to her conclusion, “YOUR ID! YOUR NAME!”
He managed to hit the forest floor before the fluffies turned around and saw him. Sure they knew he went into the forest, but they didn’t yet know he was back.
Twilight realized her mistake and tried to pull back attention to herself.
“YOU DUMBASS, I’M TALKING TO YOU! YOUR ID!” She tried as hard as she could to remember everything about her visits to Hasbio.
“Fluffies at dads work don’t have names, they have numbers. Tell me your number or you’re still a lying little bitch!” Twilight though it strange that cursing caused all of the fluffies except this one to at least flinch. “I knew you were a liar. Nobody at the labs would have loved you. Nobody would have given you a name.”
She could see she was getting to him.
“So what was it?”
Twilight recalled the last number dad had talked about after work. “Was it one seven three? Was that your old name?”
“Wait, shit.” Twilight thought as the full context hit her, “That was just a channel for the TV.”
Blaine chuckled at her “Yu dummeh munstah-mawe, nu even haf’ numbah wight, Bwaine owd namsie Ateoh-Tentwelf. Doctah-mummeh teww nu namesie am Bwaine.”
“I don’t believe you. If you were at the labs your ‘doctor-mommy’ would have a name.”
Twilight lashed at an encroaching toughie with her horn. They were getting close.
“SHE DOESN’T HAVE ONE BECAUSE SHES NOT REAL!”
“DOCTAW HAWWIET AM WEAW! DOCTAW HAWWIET AM BESTEST MUMMAH AN SAF’ BWAINE! YU NU AM WEAW YU MUNSTAH! TUFFYS GIV FOWEVA SWEEPIES TU MUNSTAH!”
Blaine was scaresly finished screaming through his tears when both toughies jumped on her, and while she answered the charge as best she could, levelling down her head and ramming back. She felt her jaw impact hard on the soft, moss laden lawn. Twilight could feel the weight of this obese mutant rat in every muscle of her neck as she strained to raise her head. How was it this heavy? Her only consolation was that she heard a welcome voice among the shouting. Sure, the voice was still shouting, but it was her dad.
Every fluffy in the yard turned in surprise as the human they had so easily forgotten about, sprinted out of the treeline and raced past their leader before punting one of their biggest defenders off of the monster and into the sky.
She couldn’t make out all that had been said through the strain and screaming, but she was sure she heard the words “misshapen miscreation” as his foot made impact with her assailant.
Chaos erupted once more.
Turns out today was going to be a workday. Matthew spoke as quickly as he could while checking her over for wounds “Twilight, sweetie, I know this is important to you, and I promise that I’ll be back, but for now I need to grab that fluffy and you need to play with your new friends for a while.” He grabbed her by the chin and kissed her. “I love you, I’ll be close, scream if you need help.”
Before she could even collect herself, he had less than gently collected the smarty, and run into the garage. Dad always has to work. Even the forest fluffies make him go to work.
Her toughie assailants had disengaged, but she still found her musing interrupted by one of them. That is to say the other one, the daydreaming one that the smarty used as a transport, had approached her. This one had to have the heaviest coat of any fluffy she’d ever seen, thick and the same indigo color as her mane.
“Why bye-bye smawty nu wike big fwuffy?”
She responded by half-assedly opening her wings and flicking her head at him. “Boo.” A touch of blood splattered from her horn and onto his cheek, but he didn’t waver even slightly. He licked it off and asked again.
“Why bye-bye smawty nu wike big fwuffy?
Twilight was for the first time, concerned for a fluffy.
“Are you okay? I’m a monster, right? Pointy and wingie?”
He raised a hoof and said “Staw.” In that same dull monotone.
In return she heard the faintest, almost inaudible, peep.
“Wump speshaw fwen gu foweba sweep. Onwy weft babbeh am munstah babbeh. Babbeh Staw nu gib hewties tu fwuffies, so munstah fwuffy nu gib hewties, onwy gib scawdies.” He seemed to stare through her as he spoke. “Yu see babbeh Staw naow if nu gib babbeh hewties.”
With Matthew dragged away by work, the chaotic fire within her had been smothered, and the other fluffies had began to draw near. Twilight figured that they must have been emboldened by seeing her backing away from their leader, and now lying down to be at eye level one of their toughies she must have been brought to heel.
Their shouts did not reach her.
Perhaps they thought that they had won?
It didn’t matter.
Nestled in Lump’s absurd mane was a foal, the likes of which she’d never seen before. As far as she knew, alicorns were only made in the labs. Seeing one in the wild was something special.
“Wump!” Blurted out one of the braver fluffies, “Git munstah! Gif foweva sweepies!”
Both Lump and Twilight turned to face them.
Matthew ended the call and threw his phone onto the couch. There was another snake deep in Hasbio, and this one was under his direct supervision. He had ended people’s careers for less, and sometimes just because they were getting in the way of progress, but Dr. Harriet…
She’s been helping fluffies escape.
“I always wondered why she felt the need to personally escort garbage all the way down to the incinerator room. It made no sense, we had chutes down to the fire at every bio-cell block. We aren’t burning them for fun for god’s sake, the things are defective.”
His headache was beginning to return.
“Now I gotta set up a sting, and get evidence, and…”
He sighed heavily.
At least Twilight was having fun. From the look of it, she’s convinced one of the toughies to start gathering all of the fluffies under the balcony while she searches through the lawn for… something.”
“Mistaw Doctaw?” called a voice from the kitchen, “Muddy nu wan get hewties su nu ask, but…”
Muddy fidgeted as Matthew turned his gaze on him, and found himself unable to finish his sentence.
“Fwuffies nee’ nummies fow make miwkies fow babbehs.” Mossy asserted.
“Oh you do, don’t you. Well…”
He thought to himself. It was uncharacteristic of fluffies, especially ferals, to have not shit all over his carpets by now. Come to think of it, they all looked gaunt and sunken. Checking the litterbox revealed that they had only urinated since being brought in.
“When did you all last eat?”
“Fwuffies nu haf’ nummies in wotsa bwite-times.” Mossy admitted, head dropping, “Hewd nu shawe nummies wif’ dummeh fwuffies.”
“I see. Well, follow me then.” Matthew stated, moving towards the side door, “If you wander off, I’m not letting you back in though.”
While the fluffies taking care of the foals for Twilight were benefitting from his excursion outside, mowing his lawn for him, he was more interested in surveying the damage Twilight had caused, and well, assessing the state of the feral he had kicked. It didn’t look good, for the fluffy at least.
“Bwudda nu sweep! Nee’ giv’hewties tu munstah! Pwease Bwuddah hewp!”
The toughies that were attacking Twilight seemed to be related. The smaller of the two stood over the limp body of its fallen sibling. Matthew knelt down to assess it.
Its sibling protested with a squeal and cracking voice. “BAD MISTAH N-N-NU TAKE BWuDDAH!”
“Wow.” Matthew enthused, holding back the other feral with one arm, “It’s dead, but not from my kick…”
From the look of it the toughie had tried to ram Twilight with his horn, and she had tried to do the same to it. The difference of course being that a fluffy unicorn’s horn was a nubby skull protrusion measuring an inch, tops, and Twilight’s was a four-ish inch long spiraled bone-spike. This poor fucker wasn’t dragging her to the ground, he died instantly when he impaled his heart.
“Shit sucks yo.”
He turned to the bereaved fluffy trying desperately to awaken his rapidly cooling brother and tried to break the news to him.
“Hey chucklefuck, he’s dead. You can stay in the yard if you do what Twilight says, but I’m hurling this rotting wreck into the woods before it attracts the bone dogs.”
He evidently didn’t feel the need to try very hard.
But here came Twilight, smile on her face, and sandpail clamped between her wings.
“Hey sweetie, whatcha got there?”
“Leverage!” She exclaimed, presenting a stock of trapped souls.
“While the fluffies were busy running away from me, a bunch of the mares dropped their babies, and now if they want them back, they have to deal with me!” She beamed with pride, “Mossy told me that ‘good babies’ were the best thing that a fluffy could ever want, so I thought they might help me in my journey!”
Matthew held his arms out to embrace her with pride, and she leapt to be held. Their affirmations of affection were serenaded by the peeping payload hitting the ground and tipping over.
“I think I’m ready dad! I want you to be there to watch though. Please promise not to run off again?”
Matthew pulled her in for a close, tight hug. “I’m all yours, sweetie, just tell me-” He wiped the blood from her horn and inhaled, catching the faint scent of burning… something…
“Twilight, were you blinding fluffies with your magic?”
Matthew ran a thumb down one of the grooves of her horn, stripping a layer of blackened material.
“You’re gonna burn out all the ‘magic’ if you keep doing that. The whole ‘glowing horn’ thing was never fully realized.”
She slipped from his grasp and giggled uncomfortably. Trying not to make awkward eye contact as they both gathered the fallen foals.
“I know, I know… Sorry…”
Matthew placed a hand on her head.
“It’s fine sunshine, I just want you to be safe.”
She knew that the cells of her horn could glow bright, but she also knew that if she strobed it like she had the night before to many times, she could damage the glowing parts.
“I got excited.”
She fixed her eyes on the crowd as Lump made a beeline towards Mossy.
“You know each other?”
Neither of them answered Lump approached Mossy and fell on his side, shaking loose the peeping alicorn foal. Mossy recoiled when she saw it in the grass, and Lump responded by raising his hoof as if to strike her.
“Dummeh mawe gib gud-munstah-babbeh miwkies. Dummeh mawe hewt Staw, Wump gib dummy mawe foweba-sweepies.”
Mossy cowered under his intimidating, one and a half foot tall frame.
“Mossy stiww gif Staw miwkies! Nu hewties!” Muddy interjected.
Lump lowered his hoof.
“Gud. Wump nu knu if dummeh mawe fowget. Dummy mawe get foweba-sweepies if fowget.” Without skipping a beat, he turned to the remaining toughie and addressed him, “Bwuie gu wif’ Wump. Hewd nee’ tawkies bout’ stay in yawd.”
The other toughie, still crying from the death of his brother did not move at first, but after Lump threatened to hit him, he complied. Matthew slammed a four-prong gardening rake deep into the dead fluffy’s soft back and catapulted it into the trees where its skull exploded open on an evergreen’s proud trunk.
The lawn invaders had been assembled into an orderly congregation and stood confused and frightened before their terrorizer. The toughies they believed their last hope at fighting the monster were the ones that had gathered them, and now wouldn’t let them live. Before them high atop a plastic kids play-chair covered with a wool blanket (a royal throne), sat Twilight, and in the shade behind her looming with a bemused glare, Matthew.
“Dis am aww fwuffies Pwincess, Wump nu ged Wawwop ow Baxtaw. Nu find Gweeny an Baxtaw am foweba-sweepies.”
Twilight was continually amazed by Lump’s level of detachment. Of the toughies that arrived with the group, of which she assumed were friends of his, only one was left. Did he care? Were they really that callous about one another?
“Sp- Speshaw fwend Gweeny am gu foweva sweepies?” Croaked a tan mare before breaking out into muffled sobs.
“Hmm.” Twilight thought, “Lump is probably defective. Dad says the broken ones tend to act really strangely. I could ask what he thinks his deal is, but…”
“No.”
Matthew’s voice swept through the assembled fluffies like a bolt of lightning.
“He’s not dead yet, and while Twilight will be responsible for determining what happens to you and your ilk, I have already determined his fate. Now, Twilight, begin.”
Twilight cleared her throat and took a deep breath.
“Your Smarty is gone. He will not be coming back.”
For some reason, she had expected there to be an upheaval. Surely, they must hold at least some love for him, he was their leader after all. Though there was a group of three mares in the back that began tearing up and consoling one another, most of the herd didn’t seem fazed at all. Most of them just turned around to the back of the congregation to face Lump.
“Wha’ du nyu smawty Wump?”
“Fwuffies gon’ get new housie?”
“Fwuffy nu wan gu in scawy-twee-pwace ‘gain!”
Lump pointed to Twilight.
“Dat am hewd nyu smawty. Yu wissen tu pwincess munstah nao.”
The herd protested with all the vigor that caged fluffies could.
“NU! Nu wissen tu munstah!”
“Munstah hewt fwuffies!”
“Wha’ am wowd ‘pwincess’ mean?”
Twilight capitalized on the disarray by answering in a clear, overpowering voice.
“Princess is what you will be calling me. I am not a monster or a fluffy, I am a pony princess.”
The herd grew quieter.
Not a fluffy? Well, she was too big to be a fluffy, plus she had wings and a horn, which fluffies don’t have, so she might be telling the truth. What does a princess do though?
“To make things simple, I’m going to give you fluffies a decision. Either you can stay here and live in on my land or leave now. If you choose to stay, you must follow my rules, and if you don’t follow my rules, you will be punished. I’ll give you a moment to decide and say your goodbyes.”
The crowd began to murmur, and Twilight began to count them. It looked like she had a total of 24 fluffies to work with, not counting the pail of babies beside her. There might be more, especially colts and fillies that she couldn’t see in the crowd, but they would probably just be attached to their parents. One by one fluffies pushed their way through the crowd to ask Twilight questions, which she answered in a manner that benefitted her most.
A stallion approached her first, indignant at the circumstance.
“Fwuffy speshaw fwen nu wan weave wif fwuffy!”
“Looks like you don’t have a special friend anymore then.”
“Huuuhuu…”
A colt, probably just a weanling, slowly stepped closer to the pony easily 10 times his size.
“Fwuffy haf scawdies, nu knu wha’ du!”
“It’s all going to be alright little friend, after a few days this place will feel like your new home!”
“Nyu home? Fwuffy w-w-wan’ nyu home!”
The heavily pregnant mare in the front row squealed to draw attention to herself.
“Tummeh-babbehs nu am safe wif munstah fwuffy! Wan gu! Hewp soon-mummah!”
“If that’s really what you want, I can roll you down the back trail into the pond.”
The dam gasped. “NU! NU ROWW SOON-MUMMAH! WAWA BAD FOW FWUFFIES!”
A grey and brown mare, face stained with tears begged to Twilight.
“Mummah nu can fin’ babbehs… Wan babbeh’s back onwy wast babbeh gu foweva-sweepies fow try tu fwy wif’ nu wingies…”
“I could bring them back. I know where your babies are, but they said they want to stay.”
“Babbehs wan stay? Mummah wan stay tu! Nu wan be bad mummah nu mowe! Teww babbehs mummah sowwy an’ wan gif huggies an’ wuv an’ miwkies…”
Another mare pushed her out of the way.
“Mummah wose chiwpy-babbehs tu! Nu can fin’ in gwassies, but fwuffy stiww smeww an’ heaw babbehs cwose!”
“Babies are only for good fluffies. Your babies ran away and came to me, but I’ll tell them to go back to you if you make yourself useful.”
“Pwease babbehs come back tu mummah! Mummah am gud fwuffy! Mummah stay an’ babbehs pwease nu gu ‘way. Cum back tu mummah wittow cheepy-babbehs!”
More and more they asked her questions, and more and more she twisted their tiny minds against them. After about ten minutes of chattering, the herd had only one member that still wanted to leave.
“After all of this, why still leave? What could possibly be out there for-”
She saw the fluffy as the crowd parted and murmuring died down. It was the pink fluffy that had earlier hindered her attempts to move undetected during her night mission. She locked eyes with the dissident, violet daggers to dull grey rings.
“Oh, it’s you. You don’t get a choice.”
Her mouth curled into a disquieting grin as she narrowed her eyes.
Cruel possibilities fluttered back and forth within her mind.
“You don’t get to leave.”