Luke stared down at the two large crates that had delivered and placed in his living room with several large boxes near them. They were addressed from Jeremy and Seth who were doing some work in Cleveland. Attached was a note that read, “you owe both of us two weeks of paid vacation. I’m using mine to take care of Ellie here.” It was signed by Seth and had a picture of something that looked like a griffin in it. Whatever it was, both law enforcement and the company said he could keep it. Apparently there were a number of unreleased biotoys found there and Seth was going to look after that one to see if it would be fit for public release under Flufftech’s banner. There were already patents out on it, so it was technically already in existence when the laws making biotoy research a pain were introduced.
His thoughts were interrupted by soft huuhuuing coming from one of the crates. He decided to open it, despite his extreme desire to not add even more fluffies to his house. Inside were twenty canisters containing what he assumed to be foals at first. Then he saw the pamphlet with the words Micro Fluffies. They were all labeled as either male or female. The females were all alicorns and the males were a mix of different colors, types, and patterns. He cautiously removed a yellow alicorn mare with an orange mane from her container. Safely detaching the waste tubes without incident.
She stared at him and smiled, “hewwo nice mistah, am ‘ou nyu daddeh?” Her resemblance to his first fluffy, Sunshine, was uncanny. However, Luke wasn’t one to be suckered in by looks. The pegasus that he loved was long dead and was never coming back.
“No, but I will be taking care of you.”
“Oh, otay.” She looked quite down at that. Just like a normal fluffy, being spurred seemed to hurt them. He examined the container she came in and saw a birth date saying she was three months old. According to the pamphlet, that meant she was fully grown and ready to breed. It also said that males and females needed to be separated to prevent unwanted pregnancy, as keeping them from humping was harder than normal fluffies. There was also a note that said to set up the terrariums before opening the canisters, as micros were more fragile. He made a point to take a picture of her with the pamphlet and send it to Bob.
Luke sat the alicorn in a box big enough to hold it and opened the other two boxes. In one was a decently sized terrarium with a glass divider in the middle and a smaller one that was labeled as a Mummah box. Presumably, this was due to foals needing a safer space. Before doing anything else with the fluffies, he set up the main terrarium. It was a simple thing with a small litter box, food trough, and water bottle for each side. Included with each water bottle was a bottle of drops to add vitamin c to the water. They were designed with a deficiency to keep them from becoming a feral problem. They also had a ball, set of blocks, and some stuffy friends for each side. He filled the water, food, and litter then opened and sat the fluffies in their respective side one by one. Luke quickly noticed there wasn’t much room to run and play, so he made a note to find a bigger enclosure.
From what he saw, all of them were adults at breeding age, and from what he read, micros were developed to be an improvement on fluffies. Things like foal favoritism and the poor digestive tracts were corrected. There was also a much higher resistance to smarty syndrome, and it was actually possible to correct without extreme measures. The downside was, they required another fluffy as a companion. Similar to guinea pigs, they would enter a deep depression and die if left without a friend like themselves. The upside was that they didn’t need a special friend, just a micro friend. The pamphlet also stated that the gestation was only three week and that litters maxed out at five foals.
They were actually quite adorable to watch play. Then he saw a magenta unicorn stallion being an asshole. “Dis am smawties baww. ‘Ou g- SCREEEE! BAD UPSIES!” Luke picked the little jerk up and looked to all of the fluffies.
“Listen here, you will all share your toys and be nice. Smarties will not be tolerated in this house.” They all nodded. “Just so you know, humans don’t care how pretty you are or what parts you have when you act like this guy.” Luke tightened his grip a bit, which caused the smarty to cry in pain. “In fact, humans have a rule we must all follow, smarties have to go forever-sleepies or loose their legs.” The smarty began to whine and beg. “Now tell me fluffy, why do you think you’re better than the others?”
The unicorn tried to think of a reason with all his might. Luke swore he could see smoke pouring out of the tiny thing’s ears. “Fwuffy nu knu,” it says in a defeated tone. “Hewds nee’ a smawty, su fwuffy wan be smawty.”
“Well, you aren’t a good smarty friend if you are mean and selfish. Fluffies like that often lead their herds into places that give them the worstest owwies and forever-sleepies.” The fluffy gasps. “In fact, I’ve seen smarties do terrible things like hurting babies and soon-mummahs. Even giving forever-sleepies to tummy-babies by giving bad special huggies.”
The smarty was sobbing after hearing all the terrible things smarties have done. “Fwuffy sowwy, nu wan be smawty nu mowe. Huuhuuhuu.”
“Well ok, but you still need to be punished for being a meanie.” Luke pulled out a small sorry stick for micros and gave him five slaps on the but before setting him in a tiny sorry box. “Now think about what you’ve done and how you can make it up to your friends for being so mean.”
“Otay nice mistah,” the unicorn solemnly replied. Luke didn’t believe he was truly sorry or would change his ways, but simply killing him would be a waste at this point. Plus he hadn’t even done enough to be legally required to be euthanized or pillowed, and he wanted to see if smarty behavior could actually be fixed in micros.
Luke then noticed a second note from the company inside the box. After reading it, he saw that these micros were more than just a bragging gift from his peers. He was given permission to breed and sell them at the store he and Bob were opening. They were going to be a test bed before they hit general store shelves. All of the ones sold had to be sterilized to keep breeding to a minimum, and even with the complete dependency on humans to survive, the risk of them actually getting loose like the Hasbio breakout was too much of a risk to take. With two months until opening, there was plenty of time to get stock ready.
Without a moment’s hesitation, he grabbed five mares and five stallions. Telling them that they were to have special huggies to make babies. The mares, which included the yellow one from earlier, and the stallions were over joyed. Once Luke paired them, it took all of two minutes for them all to finish. Which was short, even by fluffy standards. After finishing, the stallions were placed back in the cage while the mares were put into the Mummah box. Neither group was happy about this and started to cry to see their special friends.
“Those weren’t your special friends.”
“Buh, dey gib fwuffy tummy-babies. Hab tu be speshaw fwen.” The yellow mare cried.
“Well they aren’t, and there isn’t enough room for all of you to live together in the mummah box.”
“Dat nu faiw!” This time is was a blue pegasus stallion whining. “Gib fuffy speshaw fwen back nao!” It stomped its hooves and puffed its cheeks. It really wasn’t fair, and Luke was thinking about having breeding pairs with their own cages, but this outburst couldn’t go unpunished. Luke snatched up the pegasus by the scruff of his neck. “Bad upsises!”
“NEVER DEMAND ANYTHING FROM ME!” Luke yelled at the stallion. “Normally I would simply give you a sorry sticking like the unicorn, but you have to be an example as you broke one of the biggest rules a fluffy can break.” Luke gives a slight pause. “Which makes you a very bad fluffy.” The fluffies all gasp and the pegasus started to cry.
“S-sowwy mistah.”
“Sorry won’t cut it.” He then exited the room with the micro fluffy and walked down into the basement. Luke strapped the fluffy down into a foal sized pillowing board, and then began setting down various sharp instruments a few inches from his face. This caused the micro to start panicking and struggling. Then Luke got down the fluffy’s real punishment, a can full of a special foam that people who cooked fluffies used before preparing them. Luke unstrapped the pegasus before lathering him up and setting him in an immobilizer for fifteen minutes.
A quick rinse with cold water and a towel dry later and the fluffy was completely bald. Even the feathers on his wings were gone. Luke held a mirror up and the fluffy screamed in terror. “WHEWE PWETTY FWUFF!”
“First off, don’t yell.” Luke flicked his snout, prompting a cry of “owwies” and some light crying. “Secondly, this is what happens to bad fluffies. Their fluff runs away when they get the special water poured on them.”
“W-wiww fwuff evah come back?” Tears were still streaming down his face.
Luke snickered in his head. This stuff was permanent. This fluffy would be bald and miserable until he died. Well unless Luke used the fluff regrowth serum, but that stuff was too expensive to waste on a fluffy that he had no emotional attachment to. “Only if you become a good fluffy. Until then, you will be cold and ugly.” The fluffy just kept sobbing as Luke carried him back to the terrarium. Luke set him down with the others and told them, “This is what happens to really bad fluffies. His fluff will only comeback when he becomes an exceptionally good fluffy.”
The results spoke for themselves. All the crying for special friends stopped when they had an example of what would happen if they did. After he was placed in the enclosure, his friends tried to console him. “It am otay fwen,” spoke a vibrant red alicorn stallion, “aww fwuffies make mistakes.”
“Buh fwuffy am ugwy nao,” he whined. “Jus’ wan tu hab famiwy.”
“Mos’ fwuffies nebah even git tu hab speshaw huggies ow babbehs. Mistah nebah say ‘ou nebah see babbehs.”
“That’s right. Those mare’s aren’t your special friends, but I never said you will never get to see your children. However, to be allowed to do that is something you all have to earn. That means you have to follow my rules.”
A gray earthie spoke up, “what am wuwes?”
“Well, one is always be nice to all fluffies regardless of their colors or what parts they do or don’t have. Also, never beg or demand anything, only bad fluffies do that. Always use the litter box to make good poopies and peepees, share your toys, all babies are good babies, and I am always right.” All the fluffies nodded in agreement. Most of these rules were ones they had before coming here. “And mummah’s are responsible for teaching these rules to their babies. Any time a baby breaks a rule, all it’s siblings and mother will get punished.” All of them agreed to this easily as well.
Luke then left the fluffies to their own devices. He had calls to make and alterations to make to the store layout.
[A side note: Luke’s Story and A Fresh New Hell will be combined into one series going forward. There will be a new name with this explanation at the start. Some chapters will focus on Luke, some on Bob, and some on side characters/fluffies. Also, everything I wrote takes place in the same universe, so if a name sounds similar, it is probably that character.]