Last part to:
Local businessman skips town, flees authorities
Harold Levens, franchisee of the local Fluffmart, has apparently skipped town in light of challenges with the IRS. Federal agents descended upon Mr. Leven’s home on Friday to find that the domicile had been emptied. Likewise, it seems product at his shop had been liquidated prior to his flight. Sources report that the lengthy process of uncovering hidden assets for recovery have begun.
-A news report
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Things in the fully automated fluffy facility had gone even further downhill. An almost impossibly rapid decline that presented one problem after another with the fluffies left alive to bear the consequences. Lighting was dim and large areas of the facility were left cast in elongated shadows by what little illumination there was. Happy posters showing fluffies having fun or being cute had been splattered with feces. Every toy in the place which the occupants were once forced to play with had been destroyed: There were stuffy-friends with their insides torn out, deflated balls, educational puzzles left scattered out on floors which were covered in bodily waste.
Power had been cut in the place awhile back and was now relying on a generator to function. One day the place had been drowned out in complete darkness, the fluffies squealing in fear and running to hide in whatever places they found to be safest. With a loud noise, the generator had kicked on and remained on since. Yet it didn’t give nearly enough power. Only what Mummah found fit for her babbehs had received anything, though she was different now too.
“YOUR MUMMAH AI SERVICE HAS BEEN TERMINATED FOR NON-PAYMENT. THIS IS A TRIAL VERSION.” This is what the bestest babbehs heard. That wasn’t mummah’s voice. It was an emotionless voice that really scared them. It was the first time any of them had heard anything like it. It caused a great amount of confusion.
“Mummah. Wut am wong wif Mummah? Nu am gud Mummah?” Starla asked her real mother, Velvet. The pink and white alicorn foal crowded against the warmth of the mare, scared to even look up at the screen. The ‘Mummah’ on the screen was the same fat purple one they knew but she didn’t act the same.
“Mummah dun know.” Velvet told her babbeh truthfully.
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The door keeping the poopies inside of the room which had once housed all the chirpies hadn’t opened for a long while. Even the red light designating it as closed had guttered out awhile ago. The bestest babbehs hadn’t been able to eat at all since the day mummah had changed.
“ATTENTION FLUFFIES: IT IS FEEDING TIME. PROCEED IN AN ORDERLY FASHION.” That’s what Mummah said each morning from one of her monitors that still worked. A few of them had gone out completely. From lack of power or the horrible quality standard of Hasbio consumer electronics was up to anyone’s guess, but there were far less chances of seeing Mummah around now.
Every fluffy here knew it was a big lie though. Mummah said it was feeding time and the first few times they’d run to the big plastic tubes on the wall in hopes of a meal yet there was nothing. Machinery which had one dispensed kibble ground together and made horrible noises as it attempted to give out food that didn’t even exist. No matter how much they begged or kicked at the tubes for something to be delivered it never was.
“Mummah! Babbeh nee’ nummies! She am gud babbeh!” Velvet had tried to bargain with one of the monitors at some point.
“PLEASE UPGRADE TO FULL VERSION FOR LOVE AND CARE.” Mummah told her. W…Wha? Mummah didn’t love them anymore? That caused quite the stir in the place. A group of fluffies circled together and began chattering excitedly to one another.
“Mummah nu wub fwuffies? Fwuffies nu wub mummah! Wowstest mummah!” This came from what was quickly becoming the self-appointed smarty of the group, a purple stallion with tufts of green hair named Eggplant. Turning around, he raised his tail and let loose a pitiful pile of poopies next to the closest monitor.
Buddy stepped forward to protest it. As Velvet’s special friend and Starla’s daddeh, it was on him to try and keep order!
“Mummah am mummah! Neba say nu tu mummah! She am bestest and gib nummies ‘n wubbies!” The stallion announced with a puff of his cheeks.
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That had been awhile ago though. How long was anyone’s guess. Days and nights blended in here and the only way to know a new morning had arrived was the chime that food was being delivered through the pipes. All of them were ignoring that sound now. It never came and only made them hurt more.
Starla whimpered and climbed onto her mother’s side. Both of them were curled up defensively in the light of a monitor. Before, the light had made Velvet scared. That Mummah was watching. That fear felt silly now since it seemed like the only thing keeping them safe. Those who had decided that Mummah was bad didn’t go into the light. Instead they shuffled around in the darkness and rummaged around for anything to eat. Fought. Cried. Velvet had heard babbehs being born in the darkness, too. Peeping and cheeping. They hadn’t been done away with from medicine but they didn’t last very long. What cute little sounds they made as they were born into the world turned into squeaking screams as something bad happened.
Mummah couldn’t see into the blackness of the room but those around the monitors were safe from the other fluffies as long as they stayed put. If there was any sign of danger where she could see, a vacuum munstah would appear out of the wall and ram into whatever fluffy was causing the trouble.
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“Hewwo widdew babbeh. Dun yew wan pway?” Asked a voice that was away from the safety of their light. Starla got up, tail wagging curiously. She was still a babbeh and didn’t know any better. Velvet tugged her back by the tail as she went scampering out to meet the voice. The filly became somewhat argumentative over it.
“Wan pway, mummah! Wan nummies! Dun wike dis!” She whined and begged. They had to stay here all the time. Eating…poopies. It was the only thing in the room. Buddy had learned that the hard time. Velvet had watched her special friend walk out into the darkness, squeal and give several rattles of his hooves, then never come back.
“Bad fwuffies am bad, babbeh! Nu weab mummah. Mummah nee’ babbeh.” If she lost Starla too, what else could she do? She didn’t want to think about leaving the light of the television monitor. Going out there and being one of them. They were munstahs now.
“PLEASE ENJOY YOUR DAILY SAMPLE OF FLUFFTV.” Mummah bellowed out from the television. Before things had gone bad, they had never watched FluffTV. Now it came on once a day and showed them wonderful things. Craning back to look at the screen, Velvet was transfixed by images and sounds of another world. A place that the fluffies here had never imagined. There were fluffies running around at the park! Green grass and appropriately sized play equipment. All sorts of nummies like skettis covered in sauce or sweetie treats that defied their imaginations. The creatures on FluffTV were so happy. They had clean places to live, More than that though? All of them had human mummah and daddehs. They were all so happy to be with them. Velvet wanted one too. More than anything she wanted to be with a human and have Starla at her side.
Once the program had ended, Mummah came back on the monitor. Staring down blankly at what little fluffies still had faith in her.
“AUXILIARY POWER AT 1%. RELEASING ALL LOCKS FOR A HUMANE RELEASE. PLEASE SEEK THE NEAREST HASBIO OWNED FACILITY.” That’s what Mummah said. The last thing she said. The AI avatar would simply disappear from the screen, though the monitor remained on. For just a moment, the green light flickered above the doorway leading to where the poopie’s had been imprisoned in. Sliding up neatly, the door finally came up after so long. Nummies. There were nummies in that room. Something else caught Velvet’s attention though. A door which had never opened before suddenly started to slide up. Light peeked up from beneath. Light…light! Light was safety. Tugging Starla along, she was led over to that crack of light. It flooded out against the floor. Felt so warm. Natural sunlight. Fresh air that blew in from outside, smelling so sweet. Outside! This was outside! Just like what the fluffies on teebee got to play in.
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The monitors all finally shut off, leaving the room once more cut away an even deeper darkness than before. Velvet was frightened at first yet the fluffies who had broken away to become munstahs weren’t even concerned with her. Rapid hoof-tapping let her know they had gone on over to the room where the poopies were. They were hungry after all.
“Mummah?” Starla asked curiously. Why weren’t they getting up to go over too?
“Dummeh poopie fwuffies am BESTEST nummies!” That was Eggplant. Even from another room, Velvet knew his voice from anyone else. He’d spent a lot of time taunting them and talking about how Mummah was bad. With a roiling growl of her belly, the mare almost got up to go in there too. Numming other fluffies wasn’t nice, even if Mummah had made them do it before. It was the only thing though. Before she could drag herself up though, there was screaming in the other room.
“Owwies! EEEEE! OWWWWW! HEWWWPPPP!” Came a voice from the other room. There was a great commotion going on. Sounds of fluffies crying or fighting.
“Dun num no-nos! DEY AM NUGGIE’S NO-NOS!” That was Nugget. One of the fluffies who had gone with Eggplant. What was going on in there? Why were they bestest babbehs getting huwties!?
Velvet eyed the crack that let the light in. It was so small. Yet even as dumb as she was, she knew something bad was going on in there. Trying to squeeze a hoof under the door, she couldn’t even manage that. No way to get outside where all the fluffies had fun and played all day long. Turning to Starla, she bent down and nuzzled her babbeh.
“Babbeh…nee’ weab.” That was very apparent. From the sounds in the room next door, things were getting worse by the moment. Ever since the door had opened, a heavy cloud of spores had drifted out from within. It wasn’t even the stench of poopies, peepees, and rot that they had all become accustomed to. The scent was strangely meaty.
“Nu! Mummah! Nu wan weab!” Starla was incredibly frightened. What was going on? Mummah couldn’t go with her. It was way too small for her! Yet Velvet continued to nudge and push at the filly with her nose and then finally with one hoof, cramming the fluffy up against the crack of the door. Tearfully, Starla got onto her belly and navigated her way out. Even for her it was a tight squeeze. Snagging against her back fur, the metal of the door didn’t seem to want to let her go. Her little wingies hurt too. Yet as she peered outside into sunlight which washed her eyes out in it’s far too powerful glow, the fluffy smelled the air. So pure. So clean. Sunlight kissing her fur and feeling like a snug blanket made her struggle out from under the door even faster.
Eyes adjusting to the outside world, Starla gasped. This breeding facility was outside of town next to a storage locker facility. Next to it was a scrubby field which was overgrown with all sorts of grass and wildflowers. It was so pretty. The sky, too! Looking up to the puffy white clouds and the pure blue expanse up above, the filly gave several amazed peeps. This was the world outside. Something none of the other fluffies had ever seen.
“Mummah, it su pwetty! It am bestest pwace! Wub outside! Mummah, pwease be wif Stawa and pway!” Even the ever-present hunger in her belly had been forgotten about. All she wanted to do was run through the fields with mummah and feel the grass tickle at her legs and to smell the flowers too.
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Velvet wanted nothing more to be out there with her babbeh. Nothing more in the world. Nosing at the door and sniffling, she listened as the sounds in the other room had begun to taper off. All the screaming and fighting had become nothing more than distant scared peeps that were tapering off too.
“Babbeh nee’ find nyu mummah ‘n daddeh. Hab bestest housie, ‘n skettis, ‘n toysies.” Just like the life all the fluffies on teebee had. She was a good babbeh and deserved all that. Velvet listened as her precious child sat next to the door.
“Hab scawdies, mummah.” Was all she came back with. Even though this world was big, new, bright, and exciting it was scary. Especially without her mummah.
The mare had scawdies too. Out from the room where she’d once preened over all the chirpies and later feasted on other fluffies had come the poopies. Horrible things which hardly resembled fluffies except for in body shape. All of their bodies had became completely covered in feces, the stuff slaked to the fur and rubbed into every crook and crevice except for the tiny slits where their eyes were. There were perhaps ten of them. Brown and black things which breathed with crooked rattling from their lungs. Velvet was hit more intensely with the heavy meat smell, eyes focusing on the darkness as they moved through it. Existing completely within a dungpile had covered the poopies in various fungi. Some were small and gray, poking out like little fingers from where their fur had been. Others were cuplike and orange, but more impressive of all were the mushrooms which had a soft green glow. It was almost hypnotic to see. One of the munstahs attempted to get up on Velvet, winced away from the light which peeked out through the crack in the door.
Watching the eyes in the darkness, she knew that something bad was going to happen. Just like what had happened to the bestest babbehs who had wandered into their room looking for a meal. Dipping her head down, Velvet whimpered a bit.
“Stawa am hab bestest babbehs, an’ nyu housie, daddeh ‘n mummah tu.” She told the foal outside the door. Starla rapped her hooves against it as if she could urge it to come up more and release her mummah.
“Wan housie wif mummah! Pwease mummah! Be wif babbeh!” Starla begged and attempted to butt her head against the door in desperation. There were only small sounds to indicate she was doing anything at all.
“Pwease, meanie fing! Wet Mummah out! Pwease?” When asking nicely didn’t work, she narrowed her eyes.
“Dummeh! WET MUMMAH OUT NAOW!” That didn’t work either. Plopping down on her ass and giving a frustrated chirp, she listened as her mummah started in once more.
“Weab naow, babbeh. Yew am bestest babbeh su yew wisten!” Velvet told her in her best scolding voice. Being a bestest babbeh was a big deal. When Mummah had controlled the facility, it was the closest to living a normal life. Standing up on her hind legs, Starla hugged the big metal door keeping her mother trapped inside.
“Wub yew, mummah. Gud babbeh am find bestest housie ‘fo mummah.” With that, and one last look at the door, Starla turned and began walking away. Into a world she’d never known and would have to try and figure out all by herself.
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Hours passed. The day was beginning to wind down, and the light which came out from under the door was shifting and becoming bleaker. Adjusting her body and scrunching back up against the door, she was helpless. Eyes which seemed distant were becoming closer. Breathing came from all around her, a choked and guttural rasping that pushed stinking heat up against her.
Why was this happening? She’d done everything Mummah had said. Had become a good fluffy. Was supposed to be a Bestest Babbeh. Looking to one of the monitors, just barely making out it’s shape in the darkness, she kept expecting the ever-guiding presence to pop back up. In no time there would be a vacuum munstah coming out of one of the walls to give these poopies wowstest huwties.
Tears dripped down from her eyes. Darkness was almost here. She’d been up on her hind legs for awhile now, hugging up against the tiny sliver of light that was her only protection. They had ached and then gone numb awhile ago. Giving a wobble, she looked back only slightly. The poopies were almost on her now. A few spatters of warm saliva hit her backside, making her squeal and send scaredy peepees trickling down to the floor.
Watching the last sliver of light disappear as the sun had finally dipped down, she felt teeth sink into her tail and rip her away from the door.
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