This is going to be my first story set away from the Josef Mongola series, it’ll still be set in the same universe so there might be some references – I can already guarantee there will be references – but this will be completely stand alone.
It’s also going to be my first completely Hugbox type story because I want to show people that I’m not a total bastard, so expect fun times, good humour and (spoiler warning) a happy ending.
Arthur Harrison was a busy man.
His work had allowed him to set up a home office so that he could do longer hours and not have to commute in anymore. It was rough at first, having to do 10+ hour days instead of his usual 8, plus he missed his work colleagues, but he knew this project they were working on could make the company millions, tens of millions if they got it in under the time-frame. So he persevered, working the longer and longer shifts trying to help management add another 0 to their bonuses.
Thankfully he wasn’t totally alone, he had Noelle with him.
Noelle was his Fluffy, and she was a damn good one at that, her fur was this wonderfully glossy red and green stripped pattern with small golden dots on the red fluff and a golden mane, her Pegasus wings were impressive enough to wow any and all who saw her. But best of all, she was friendly and well-mannered, as she should be, Arthur had paid a lot of money for her pedigree from Carter’s Creature Comforts so he expected her to be top of the line.
In his younger years, Arthur had raised show-ponies with his father, and since Fluffies were basically just tiny talking ponies he figured he’d try entering the shows again. Noelle had done pretty well in her divisions, but she was still a newcomer and was up against some tough veterans. Arthur had gone as far as he could with her, so he knew he needed to breed her soon and get some good foals out of her. But he was a patient man, and Noelle had been such a good Fluffy that he was waiting for her baby instinct to kick in, he knew that the better mood of the mother, the healthier the foals, which is why he never understood the whole ‘bad-enfie’ abuser thing, it just led to problems down the line.
Of course Arthur Harrison was a busy man, too busy to see that for the past week, Noelle had been taking her lunch out into the garden and placing it along the picket-fence, waiting each day to see if her visitor would arrive.
And each day he did.
“Speciaw-fwiend.” She cooed as he appeared from behind the bushes and trotted over to see her. He hadn’t had a name when they met so she’d taken to calling him Grey because of his lovely grey fur, even despite the dirt he would catch the sunlight and his black mane dazzled her.
Grey was a feral Alicorn, born in the wild and damn lucky to still be alive, he’d been passing Noelle’s house a few days ago and was struck by the beautiful mare playing with her ball in the garden. His natural instincts to mate kicked in and he initially tried to break in for special-huggies, but Noelle had explained that if she got pregnant without her daddy’s permission, it would mean bad-times for her and her young. So for the past week she’d been on her best behaviour, working even harder to impress her daddy and had been sharing what food she could sneak out with Grey so he didn’t starve.
Grey and Noelle nuzzled each other through the fence, both of them eager to finally run and play with each other properly. Noelle knew she loved Grey, and Grey had long ignored the pain in his lumps and found his heart jumping whenever he saw Noelle, maybe today would be their lucky day.
Noelle pushed some kibble out to Grey with her nose, he happily gobbled it up, his stomach starting to hurt from the long time between meals.
“Fank yu speciaw-fwiend, wub gud nummies.” He smiled at her.
“Hab gud newsies speciaw-fwiend, Noewwe gun ask daddeh if Gwey can be weaw speciaw-fwiend.”
Grey’s heart leapt in his chest. “Weawwy? Gwey hab foweba home an be wiv Noewwe?”
“Nu knyo fow twue yet, ask daddeh wen dun wiv wowkie fings. Noewwe been bestesh Fwuffy fow seben bwite-times, daddeh shouwd wet Noewwe hab speciaw-fwiend.”
“Seben? Dat SUU many, Noewwe am smawtesh Fwuffy eba. Gwey su pwoud of speciaw-fwiend.”
Noelle blushed and stuck a hoof out to stroke Grey’s fluff, he did the same to her, it was currently all the physical contact they could have but for the moment it made them happy.
Grey suddenly looked worried. “Noewwe? Wha if daddeh say Gwey nu can be speciaw-fwiend?”
“Daddeh nu wet Gwey be awone, if nu can be speciaw-fwiend den Noewwe teww daddeh tu hewp Gwey find nyu mummah ow daddeh.”
“Gwey wub Noewwe.”
“An Noewwe wub Gwey.”
The two lovers held each other a little longer before Noelle saw Arthur moving through the window, he was getting ready to take his break for the day.
“Noewwe ask daddeh soon, stay in safe-pwace tiww Noewwe come bak.”
“Ok, Gwey stay in wittew twee. Gud wuck.”
They nuzzled a final time and Noelle jogged back inside, finding Arthur just entering the kitchen.
“Hello Noelle, you’ve been outside for a while now, enjoying the sun.”
“Yehs daddeh, Noewwe wub ousside.”
“Well that’s good to hear. Daddy’s on a break from work now so if you want I could put some TV on for you.”
“Pwease daddeh, wub Tee-Bee.”
“Ok then, let’s get you sorted then I’ll come join you.”
Contrary to many owners, Arthur didn’t mind Fluff-TV, if anything he found the mind-numbing idiocy of it all to be the perfect relaxation from the stress of his job. He took Noelle through to the living room and turned on the TV just as ‘Dancie Babbehs’ was starting, almost instantly Noelle sat straight up and shook her hoofs in time to the music. Arthur chuckled at the sight and went back to the kitchen to make his lunch, he returned to find Noelle trying to stand up and keep dancing, but her round body made balancing a tricky act.
“Easy there girl, don’t overdo it, you’ll hurt yourself.”
Noelle paused for a moments, realised that her daddy was right, and sat back down again.
“Noewwe am big dancie-Fwuffy nyo.”
Arthur tussled her soft mane. “You sure are hun, you sure are.”
There were a few minutes of comfortable silence as Noelle danced to the songs and Arthur ate his lunch, Noelle was smarter than your average Fluffy and knew the best time to ask Arthur would be when his tummy-hurties were away. But she was still a Fluffy and Arthur quickly caught on to her wanting something when she kept looking back and staring at his sandwich.
“What’s wrong girl, you hungry? You keep eyeing my sandwich like you want a bite.”
“Wha? Oh, nu daddeh, Noewwe jus wan ask sumfing, an nu wan daddeh tu be mad.”
“Ask away, I promise I won’t get mad.”
“Weww, if it ok wib daddeh, can Noewwe hab a speciaw-fwiend pwease?”
There was a pause in the air as Arthue took in what Noelle had asked him, which melted away as a smile grew on his face.
“Of course you can hun, I’ve been waiting to hear you ask for a while now. Of course you can have a special-friend, we’ll even set up the house so you can have babies as well.”
Noelle gasped. “Babbehs? Wub babbehs, babbehs mak ebwyfing betta.”
“That they do. Tell you what, I’ll try and finish work early, then we can drive up to Carter’s and find you a suitable mate.”
Noelle’s heart dropped, she didn’t want another stallion to be her special-friend, she wanted Grey.
“Nu daddeh, Noewwe nu wan udda stawwion. Awweady hab speciaw-fwiend.”
That caught Arthur off-guard. “You do?”
“Uh-huh, fowwow Noewwe.”
With Noelle leading the way, singing a happy song to herself, Arthur followed her out into the garden, his mind already thinking about what this meant. She clearly wasn’t pregnant; else she’d be singing a ‘soon-mummah’ song. Unless she was barren, no, she’d be depressed if she’d had huggies and didn’t feel the babies, and judging by her happy singing, depression wasn’t an option.
Noelle took Arthur all the way to the other end of the garden where his picket fence was set up. Once there she called out.
“Gwey, daddeh wan meet yu.”
From the bushes, Arthur saw a dark grey Alicorn pop out and cautiously walk towards him. As soon as Grey was close enough, Noelle reached out and hugged him through the fence.
“See daddeh, dis Gwey, he Noewwe speciaw-fwiend, wub Gwey.”
Despite his nervousness, Grey melted at Noelle’s touch and purred slightly. Arthur was still trying to work out the particulars of it all.
“So you’re Noelle’s special-friend?”
Grey nodded. “Dat wight nice mistah, Gwey wub Noewwe.”
“Have the two of you had… special-huggies yet?”
“Nu, Noewwe say bad Fwuffies nu wisten tu daddehs. Nu huggies tiww yu wet Fwuffies.”
“I see. Do you have an owner Grey?”
“Nu mummah ow daddeh, Fwuffy nu hab name tiww Noewwe caww him Gwey, nyo hab bestesh name fwom bestesh speciaw-fwiend.”
Arthur looked over Grey, he was a feral which wasn’t great, if he wasn’t Noelle’s foals to be contest winners he needed a pedigree that could be followed. But saying that, Grey’s fur was quite nice to look at, even with the dirt, plus he was an Alicorn and that was money in the bank right there.
Plus the most important aspect, Noelle seemed to be in love with him, if Arthur tried to breed her with anyone else, the foals wouldn’t be as healthy.
He knelt down and looked both Fluffies in their eyes. “I’m going to make a deal with both of you, and I want you both to listen to me very carefully before you agree, are you listening?”
Both Fluffies nodded.
“I will let Grey inside the house to stay with us BUT…”
He had to shout loudly to interrupt the celebratory dance the Fluffies were about to burst into.
“…Grey will have to show that he can be an indoor Fluffy and behave appropriately. That means Noelle, that you have to make sure that you teach him to be polite, to use the litter-box properly, and not to demand anything from me. It also means that there will be no special-huggies until I say so, you are NOT Noelle’s special-friend yet, you are just a Fluffy trying to prove yourself. Do you both understand, if you do tell me what I just said.”
Noelle nodded. “Undastan daddeh, Noewwe teww Gwey how tu be gud Fwuffy?”
“An Gwey be gud Fwuffy so can be Noewwe’s speciaw-fwiend, nu am tiww nyu daddeh say.”
“Well done, that’s a good start for you both. I’ll give you both a month so you can work this out together. Noelle, a month is four lots of seven bright-times, plus two more, I know that sounds like a lot but it’s not as many as you think, I’ll keep you both right so you know how long you have left.”
“Noewwe knyo daddeh, fank yu fow wettin Gwey twy.”
“Well, you seem to like him and I’m not going to take that away from you.”
Arthur stood up and reached over the fence to pick Grey up, finally bringing him into the garden. As soon as his hoofs were on the ground he ran over to Noelle and hugged her, the two of them embraced for the first time in FOREVER, feeling their little hearts beat together in their chests.
Arthur smiled at the sight. “Ok, well I’ll let you away with that one cause I feel you were both waiting for that. Noelle, daddy’s got to go back to work now so you show Grey around the house, then afterwards I’ll cook you both some dinner.”
“Ok daddeh, Gwey fowwow Noewwe, show yu wound nyu home.”
As Arthur went back inside, Grey took a look around the garden of his new home, it was so beautiful, not as beautiful as his Noelle but the colourful flowers and neat grass did come very close. Noelle looked back, enjoying the sight of her soon-mate taking in the garden, Grey noticed her watching him and blushes.
“Sowwy speciaw-fwiend.”
“Nu wowwies, is pwetty gawden. Nyo fowwow Noewwe inswide.”
Grey fell in line behind Noelle and followed her inside, he had SO many bright-times to prove he was a good Fluffy, this was going to be easy.
Then he looked forward and his eyes caught sight of Noelle’s special-place right in front of him, and the pain in his lumps returned with a vengeance.
Maybe this wouldn’t be quite so easy after all.
