Part One: Nibbles
You let out a squeak as the grey fluffy bites your back leg. As you do, the little bit of foal that was your dinner drops from of your mouth. The grey fluffy pushes you out of the way and snaps up the tiny morsel and devours it before you can get up. Giggling, he runs to the other side of the burrow to his own meal.
Hot tears well up in your eyes from hunger and frustration. You call out, “Dummeh bwother!” before going scampering to your mamma. She, and daddy are nose deep in the carcass of a big white fluffy, split wide open and now covered in gore. Its cry of pain and terror still stuck on its face.
“Mamma, Mamma,” you whine, “Chompy took my nummies. Nibbles pwease haf m- CHIRP!” Mama’s head briefly darted out from her fluffy nummies to give you a quick nip on the ear.
“Dis mama’s nummies,” said the muffled voice, “Gafe you nummies.” Still crying you crawl back to your little bit of the burrow. You curl up and watch as your family eats with smacking lips and little crunches of bone.
When the white fluffy is striped of meat and organs, mama and daddy clean each other. They lick the sticky blood from each other’s faces as they settle into the nest. When Chompy finishes, he trots over and gets cleaned by mama too. You stay put because you’re still clean and brother would just bite you again if you tried to join them.
You lick the hurties on your leg. At tasting the blood, your tummy gets owies again. It feels like you always have tummy owies. At least since you stopped drinking mama’s miwkies.
Your brother started eating tasty nummies a few bright times before you did. He got really big, and stopped giving you friendly huggies. Instead he started giving you hurties, nipping at your little hoofies and pushing you away from mama when you tried to get miwky nummies.
Your mama decided you didn’t need miwkies anymore and started giving you tasty nummies. But sometimes the tasty nummies hurted your tummy and you made sickies. So you stopped eating those nummies, and your brother would eat them all up. But he started eating your good nummies too. The bigger he got the less you could keep the good nummies from him.
Hearing soft snoring from the fluff pile you get up. Slowly you walk back to where your nummies were stolen. Sniffing a bit you find a small pile of poopies. You quickly dig in the fresh earth beside it and uncover a tiny leg and some tummy sketties. The dirt sticks to the nummies, but you still eat as much as you can.
It was a trick you learned one day when your brother was being a meany. You had bad tummy owies and he tried to steal your nummies. When you said no, he snapped at you and you made scared poopies right on your nummies. Chompy scrunched up his nose and went away. You were hungry and still tried to eat the nummies, but they didn’t taste pretty.
When Chompy got his nummies he would drag them to his area and come back to take yours. You tried to eat all your nummies before he came back, but you would just get more tummy hurties. Then you hid them in your little burrow but he smelled them out. After he ate them he came back and gave you hurties for making him find them.
The next bright time you came up with a plan. When you got your nummies you quickly chewed them in half. You took some and put them in a little hole and covered it in dirt. Chompy came back and ate what you left. He started looking around for more. ‘Oh, no.’ you thought. ‘Chompy will give hurties for hiding food.’
Chompy started sniffing toward you and you released your bowels. It wasn’t much, because you hadn’t eaten for a while, but he stopped sniffing and went back to his own nummies. Later that night you snuck back and found your nummies. To your surprise they didn’t even smell ‘not pretty.’
Since then you’ve hidden your food in the same manner, burying some and marking it with your poopies. Each night staying awake until the other went sleepies. Tonight you finished off the nummies and started sniffing around the burrow. Your brother’s area didn’t smell pretty at all and even the small bones of the eaten foal had been crushed and licked clean.
You made your way to the white fluffy. All the big tasty bits had been eaten. But in the little corners and attached to the joints were tiny morsels. You started nibbling away at what remained. Nothing came close to a mouthful, but by the time you were done you had eaten more than you ever had.
Turning to leave you stop short. Standing just outside the exposed ribcage was Chompy smiling at you. Your heart sank, and you almost made sickies. This was mama and daddies nummies. Stealing from mama was bad. You tried to run but you were so full you could barley move.
Chompy blocked the entrance now, sniffing the air. He found a few little bits in the spine you couldn’t reach, and started eating them. He never looked away from you as he ate. Every time you make a move to leave he moves to block your path. “Pwease, bwother. wet Nibbles go.”
Hearing this Chompy swallows what he was eating, turns and runs back to your mama and daddy yelling, “Mamma, Daddieh. Nibbles take youw nummies! Nibbles is bad fwuffy!”
Wide eyed you try and run back to your borrow, try and hide. Your Mama is up and in front of you before you even make it half way. Her green fluff bristling as she sniffs you. “You take Mama’s nummies?” she says barring her sharp teeth.
Chompy runs up and pushes you over. “Chompy see Nibbles take mama’s nummies. Nibbles is bad babbieh. Bad babbiehs get hurties!” With that he chomps down on your ear. He isn’t just nipping, Chompy is biting down hard. You pull try and pull away, only succeeding when, with a final twist, Chompy cuts through and takes a chunk of your ear.
He is chewing the piece of ear as your mama looks over the both of you doing nothing. Mama doesn’t even care. Mama doesn’t care and Chompy is a meany who steals your food and nips at you, and ate mama’s food too. Chompy is bad baby too and needs to get hurties. And Mama isn’t DOING anything.
Chompy swallows. You watch as the piece of ear slides down his throat, and you want it back. For the first time in a long time you have good nummies in your tummy. First time in a long time you don’t feel sluggish, half starved and scared. You want your ear back.
You don’t make a noise as you propel yourself toward your brother. No chirps or calls for your mama to help. Startled, Chompy doesn’t move as you rush up and meet the lump sliding down his throat with your teeth. He does chirp in surprise as you remove a chunk of his flesh.
Angry, and bleeding, Chompy turns to chase you, but your not running. Instead you’ve darted back behind him and bite down hard on his back leg. The same place he bit you earlier today when he stole your food. You feel your teeth cut through a tuff stringy tendon.
When Chompy turns to get at you he puts his weight on the back leg and collapses. Rolling, he snaps at you, but you keep running around him. Each time he strikes you dart back just out of reach. Bleeding he starts to slow down, each attempt weaker than before.
Finally you bite onto his fat neck. Chompy lets out gasping cheeps and slowly goes limp. Your mama says something, but you don’t hear her over your rasping as you try and catch your breath, brother’s neck still in your jaws.
You feel something on your neck and you snap at it. A big hoof hits you and you roll across borrow floor. You look up panting as your mother comes over to you. The bloodlust over, you cower when Mama leans over and opens her jaws.
She starts cleaning the blood off your fluff. In between licking your face and ears she tells you you are a good Babbieh. Not used to the attention you tense up, but slowly relax as you remember how much you enjoyed being with mama.
All clean, you and your mama walk past the bleeding corpse of your brother and return to the main nest and curl up with daddieh. Full belly you fall asleep, warm and happy.
Part Two: Joining the Herd
Deep within an abandoned badger hole sleeps a Nibbles, smallish pink fluffy. Her dark pink tail twitches as her mama comes back to the nest. The mama fluffy’s mane and tail matches her daughter’s, but has a bright green coat of fluff. Her name is Eve.
Long ago Eve had a Human Mama. Eve’s Mama named her so, because Eve was “almost Christmas.” The woman chased Eve out of the house after she found Eve covered in blood and devouring another fluffy. It wasn’t Eve’s fault she was just hungry. The plump woman had only given Eve kibble and fruits that hurt Eve’s stomach. So when that fluffy ran into a wall and snapped it’s neck, Eve just took advantage of the situation.
That was many years ago, and Eve had been feral ever since. Now she needed to wake her foal. Licking Nibbles’ face she coed, “Nibbows, wake up.” The little pink fluffy stirred, but fell back asleep babbling about ‘tasty nummies.’ Eve tried again with a nip to Nibbles’ backside.
Nibbles chirped and jumped to her hooves. “Mowning Mammah,” Stretching her legs Nibbles asks, “Nibbows hungwy. Haf nummies?”
The little foals face fell when she heard, “No, babbeh, Mammah no haf nummies. Mammah an’ Daddeh an Nibbows need go get nummies. Mammah show how.”
Nibbles gasps, “Nibbows get nummies with Mammah an Daddeh? Nibbows get to hunt?” All smiles and giggles, the little foal dances around her mama’s hooves. With a few loving nips Eve directs Nibbles to the entrance of the burrow where a dark brown fluffy, with light green mane, stands.
The brown fluffy has no name, but Nibbles loves her daddeh and Eve loves her special friend. The brown fluffy scans the area looking for danger. Not seeing any he says a quick, ‘dis way,” and leads the little fluffy herd off into the park.
They trot pass the litter of bones and fluff that surround the burrow and head into the underbrush. They walk for a good half hour. Nibbles, not used to so much travel, gets tired quickly. Her complaints are cut short by her parents’ bites, and she pushes on.
They eventually come to rest in a little clearing filled with tall grasses softly rustling in the breeze. Nibbles is panting and lies down, but watches her parents intently. With noses pointed up the par scent the air for any traces of other fluffies.
All heads turn as they hear giggling coming from a grove of trees not too far away. Nibbles, fatigue now forgotten, follows her parents as they quietly make their way towards the noise.
Hidden among the trees is a bright green fluffy with blue mane, surrounded by ten foals of varying sizes. She plays with the foals, keeping them from straying too far, and letting the littlest ones drink her milk when the start making hungry chirping. “No cwy babbehs. Babbehs mammahs an Daddehs getting bestest nummies for hewd.”
This is a nurse fluffy, taking care of many of a large herd’s foals so they can cover more ground and find food. Just watching the fat green mare give huggies to the chubby foals makes Nibbles’ stomach growl and mouth water. She didn’t notice that she was creeping toward the foals until Eve stepped in front of her.
Eve pointed a hoof to one side of the grove. “No see mammah,” Nibbles said straining to see what her mama was showing her.
“Shh, Daddeh der.” Nibbles looked again, and finally noticed a slight movement. Brown was a few inches away from an orange foal staring intently at a stick in the ground. Across the clearing a teal foal tripped and started crying. When the green mare turn to hug the little foal, Brown darted forward and grabbed the orange foal by the neck and back into the tree line.
Brown carried the foal back to where Nibbles and Eve where watching. Brown placed the foal on the ground and gave it a little poke with his hoof. The Orange foal was still moving, wide eyed, and making gurgling noises in attempts to chirp. Brown stepped back and Eve gave Nibbles a nudge forward.
“Nummies?” Nibbles asked stepping toward the writhing creature. With a nod from Brown, Nibbles dove for the foal. Her sharp teeth cut into the foal’s soft belly. Blood pooled in Nibbles’ mouth and she felt the shudder of foal on her face.
It tasted amazing.
Long feeding on cold and sandy bits of meat, Nibbles’ first bite of foal made her ravenous. Tearing open the abdomen, she ate her way trough liver and intestines before getting to her meal’s still beating heart. As Nibbles clamped down on the pumping muscle the foal convulsed and made one last attempt to run away, hooves dancing in the air.
Eve and Brown watched as Nibbles consumed chunks of meat from the cooling body. The green mare still played with the remaining foals, completely unaware of her missing ward.
Nibbles slowed and finally stopped eating, belly full. She longed to fall asleep, but Eve encouraged her to get up and they went back to the clearing. Their offspring fed, Eve and Brown went to get their own food.
Foals are the best nummies, but they needed to silence the mare so she wouldn’t sound an alarm. It was easy to miss a foal in such a large group, but if many went missing she would panic, and gather them together and if she saw two strange fluffies in the middle of the clearing she would call out.
The plan was to sneak up and take her out quickly. Brown once again moved though the forest and came out the other side close to the mare. Nibbles jumped a bit when Eve let out a soft chirp. She wondered why Mama made a baby sound.
The green mare and many of the foals looked toward the sound. Brown started to creep out of the brush. Every time the green mare started to turn away Eve chirped to draw her attention. Nibbles looked back and forth between the green mare and her Mama and slowly caught on.
Eve chirped one more time and started into the clearing. The mare looked confused for a moment before a wave understanding washed across her face. Turning to call out, she came neck to face with Brown. Brown sunk his teeth in the side of her neck, and then twisted. Blood poured out from the severed vein, soaking the nurse fluffy’s green fluff and pooling onto the ground.
As the body fell, crushing one of the small foals, a cry came out from forest. The herd had returned just in time to see Brown kill the mare, and sent out its tuffy friends. Five massive earth fluffies erupted from the leaves, and charged brown.
Too late to run, Brown stood his ground. Puffing up as big as he could, Brown let out a hiss. Two of the tuffies stopped, but the bulk of the other three came down on him. They knocked him over and started stomping.
Brown bit hard on a one tuffy’s leg, breaking the fragile bone. The tuffy cried out, and fell. The two other tuffies went for Brown’s head. Abnormally large fluffy hooves fell repeatedly on Brown’s own fluffy skull, crushing brain and bone.
Nibbles looked on in fear, hot tears flooding her eyes as she watched her Daddeh take forever sleepies. She looked to Eve and saw her charge into the clearing. Panicked, and fearing she would see her mother die, Nibbles ran towards her mother.
In doing so Nibbles tripped over the foals that were huddling together in fear. She landed hard letting out a chirp. Confused and frightened Nibbles frantically started chirping and set the entire group into a panic.
Fluffy mamas ran to their foals over the protest of the herd’s Smarty. Eve was caught up in the confusion and made it to Nibbles the same time the mamas did. Sounds of Mamas and foals crying and hugging filled the clearing.
Eve scooped up Nibbles like she was still a baby and hugged her. Some mama’s were calling out for their foals, but not getting a response. The rest of the herd went looking, but gave up when they found the dead foal under the green mare, assuming the other was killed by brown.
The whole herd on edge, they asked the Smarty friend what to do. The Smarty stared off into the distance, like he did when making poopies, and thought hard. Finally he announced that the clearing wasn’t safe anymore and that they must leave the park. Any protests were stopped with a swift hoof to the nose.
The Smarty paused only to give Brown’s body sorry poopies before entering the center of the herd and heading out. Twenty some fluffies walked away from the carnage. The mares that lost their foals cried and the injured tuffy attempter to keep pace. Not one fluffy noticing a pink maned, green fluffy and her foal had joined them.
Part Three: Monster Babies
The trash bags make a soft whoosh and plop as they fall from the shoot onto the overflowing dumpster. Little eyes watch from long neglected shrubs behind the apartment building. They follow a bag as it starts to roll off the top of refuse heap. Slowly picking up momentum the bag slides off the edge of the dumpster and lands on the ground.
As soon as the bag touches asphalt the small herd runs quickly (by fluffy standards) to the hopeful bounty. The leader of this ragged group, a yellow unicorn smarty with orange mane, lowers his horn and charges the bag. He lets out a small cry as his sensitive horn pierces the plastic.
Dazed from the impact he steps back to let two other fluffies pull the bag open at the puncture. The herd’s last tuffy friend plunges into the exposed bag and starts to dig. Trash is strewn across the blacktop as he franticly pushes out as much as he can.
Far from the berries and mushrooms of the forest, the herd frantically sifts through the junk to find something edible. Today is a lucky day for the group as the landlords have just finished cleaning out the fridge of an evicted tenant. A half bag of wilted greens and some mushy apples quickly disappear into fluffy tummies.
Nibbles and Eve forage among the herd looking for nummies of their own. Because of their restricted diet, both have become thin and wiry. Unable to digest grasses and normal fluffy fare, their hope is for discarded meat. They pass along any unwanted food they find to be distributed to the dams.
Sore hooves push aside old dishcloths, a mustard bottle, and even an unopened box of cereal before happening across a soft package. Nibbles stops as she smells a faint scent over the overwhelming stench of the dumpster and trash around them. She is sure the pleasant aroma is coming form the bag. Whatever is inside smells wonderful.
Briefly, Nibbles tries to bite the package open. But, she finds the plastic to strong. She sets the curiosity down and stiffs it all over. Her nose searching for the point where the sent is strongest.
There, along a green line, two edges are separated. Nibbles focuses on that spot and starts chewing again. Slowly the package gives way and she gets her first taste. Salty and sweet the juices make her stomach growl. Frantic now, she finally pries it open enough to pull a long clump of pink and white marbled meat from the bag.
A look of euphoria as Nibbles takes her first bite of bacon. The one-pound package of maple bacon dwindles swiftly. She is just barley able to control herself long enough to get her mother’s attention via a subtle clicking of her teeth.
Eve abandons her search and comes over to the discovered treat. Faster than even nibbles, Eve consumes the remainder of the bacon. With a praise of, ‘good Nibbles find bestest nummies,” Eve continues her search and leaves Nibbles to lick the bag clean of salt and grease.
So engrossed is the forest herd that they do not see the newly arrived herd of city fluffies until the Smarty talks. All heads turn as the chubby grey unicorn speaks. “What dummeh hewd doing? These my nummies. Only Smawty hewd gets dis nummies.”
The forest smarty lowers his horn. “This am smawty hewd. Fwuffy am smawty. Smawty need nummies for soon mammahs. Dummeh Fwuffy go way.”
The yellow Smarty’s attitude changes drastically as city herd’s tuffies surround his forest herd. Knowing a lost cause when he sees it, the yellow Smarty calls for the herd to move out. Two tuffies block his path. The forest smarty shrinks back, “Pwease, no wan fight. Wet herd go.”
The grey smarty walks up to the yellow, “Dummeh fwuffy, Smawty say onwy smawty hewd eat nummies. Dummeh fwuffy eated nummies. Dummeh fwuffies join smawty herd.”
The yellow smarty hangs his head in defeat. He looks at his poor herd and says, “Otay. We pawt of smawty hewd now.” Then he collapses after the grey smarty smacks his muzzle. Dazed, the yellow former smarty looks up to see his tuffy friend being stomped by three city tuffies.
Yellow hears the cries of his herd as the grey smarty laughs and stomps on him. “Fwuffy is dummeh fwuffy. Onwy need giwl fwuffies. Gif fowevew sweepies to stawian dummies.” Yellow feels his ribs and his legs break before the pressure starts crushing in on his head. Every thump his vision darkens and he is alive no longer.
The city fluffies make short work of the other males in the herd, leaving the six female to huddle together in fear. Within the pile, Nibbles watches as the grey Smarty gets first dibs on the trash heap. After he finishes eating he walks over to Nibble’s group and sniffs them.
He selects a mare from the group and pulls her away. She is a young pegasus fluffy with a dark orange coat and bright lime green mane. “Why huwt fwuffy daddeh? Pwease no huwt fwuffy. Fwuffy am good fwuffy.” Grey ignores her babbling and mounts her. He starts thrusting and making enfing sounds. The orange mare starts crying, “No wan special huggies, no wan. Hu hu hu.”
Not long after, the grey has his good feels and climbs off the wimpering mare. The mare craws back to the group and they give her huggies to try and comfort her. Grey turns and addresses the group, “You pawt of smawty herd now. Smawty in chawge.” Grey walks away and the rest of his herd swarms the trash looking for nummies.”
As Nibbles and her new herd make her way to their safe place, she feels sad for the yellow smarty. He was actually a rather good leader. He made sure the dams got nummies, and he tried hard to keep his herd safe from monsters. He couldn’t have known the danger he tried escaping from in the forest tagged along for the ride.
They had made their way into the city, and misfortune just started happening. Entering a back alley on the first day they came nose to nose with a hungry dog. It took out a mamma and her foals before they could get away. Afterwards they stumbled into the backyard of a notorious abuser who grew berry bushes to lure in herds to trap and torture them.
If it wasn’t for a mislaid hose tripping him up on his way to the gate, they might have all perished instead of the four who just couldn’t make it out in time. After that the Smarty wanted to go back to the forest, but was so turned around he lead them deeper into the city.
Of course the problems of a shrinking herd still might have been limited, except they housed two cannibal fluffies within. Among other fluffies, Eve and Nibbles seemed perfectly at ease with the herd. They became more affectionate than normal fluffies, always there to give huggies and play. And because they didn’t eat normal food, they would give theirs away to become even more popular.
This of course worked out to their advantage because all the fluffies trusted them to take care of the young. Each night Eve and Nibbles would cuddle close to a mamma and baby. The rest of the fluff pile fast asleep they would take a foal or two off to a secluded corner and eat it.
They would then rejoin the pile on the opposite side and go to sleep. In the morning no fluffy suspected them of stealing the foals or even blame them for letting them leave. This of course only lasted until they ran out of foals and had to forage like the rest of them.
“Oh! Biggest poopies!”
One of the forest dams stopped walking, and started huffing and puffing. Eve came running over to help. That was another trick. With Eve being a helper fluffy she could select a few newborns just at birth when they were the most tender.
Some of the city fluffies pushed their way forward then started nudging the laboring fluffy onward. They barely made it to the little pump house before the first foal slid out. Eve carefully passed the foal to the mama to be cleaned. A second foal arrived, and then a third before the mamma could even put the first to tit. Eve took advantage and firmly pressed her jaws closed around the little neck just seconds after being born.
The mama finished cleaning the second foal before birthing the fourth, which was a runt. Even cannibal fluffies hate the smell of runts, so Eve begrudgingly took it in her jaws to dispose of it outside the safe place. Nibbles followed with freshly killed foal to meet outside and share it.
Hunger sated they came back inside and heard the new mamma crying. “Pwease! Pwease gif back babies. Need mamma’s miwkies. Need wu-ahh! Why huwt babies?!”
When they reached the mamma, one of her foals was lying dead. Crushed beneath the hooves of the grey smarty. The other chirping and making an attempt to crawl back to the warmth of its mother. “Dis no smarty baby. Dis dummeh fwuffy babies. Onwy Smawty babies awowwed in hewd.” With the last words spoke Grey gave the baby a few hard stomps.
The mama, too weak from labor to fight, pulled herself over to the little bodies. She sang to them as she scooped them up in her arms. Futilely trying to get them to wake and fix them with hugs.
A few nights pass and the memories of the previous herd are already fading in fluffy minds. The new herd is welcoming, but doesn’t yet trust Nibble or Eve to watch over their offspring. This has much to do with the smarties behavior of foal killing. They tended to keep their foals close to them and often hidden.
This made it a problem for Nibbles and Eve to find food. What little they get is from scavenging around the pump house. A few roaches here or their and one baby mouse that didn’t taste that great, is all Nibbles has had in the past few days.
So when the forest herd’s other soon mamma gave a soft cry, Nibbles was up instantly. The dam looked scared. She had been the Forest smarty’s special friend and was very worried that her foals would be crushed because of it.
Painfully the dam slunk away from the fluffpile and exited the safe place. Nibbles too dislodged from the pile of warm bodies and followed the mare into the cool night. The night sky ball was full and bright allowing her to track the dam’s movements. Nibbles watched as the fluffy made her way down an embankment and into a storm drain.
Nibbles followed, but stood outside so she wouldn’t be seen. Lying down in the long grasses she listened to the mare give birth. She was startled to hear the mama fluffy scream about a “monster baby.’ The new mamma’s scream was cut short by the arrival of the second foal. Then too a cry of ‘monster baby,’ could be heard within the pipe.
Curious, and maybe a little afraid herself, Nibbles wondered what monster babies were. She did jump as the new mama stumbled out of the drain. Nibbles thought for sure she would be attacked by the mare in defense of her foals, but she just ran past down to spillway. Cleary tired from labor, the mare didn’t make it far up the embankment before collapsing in a heap and breathing heavily.
The smell of birth was strong. And even though Nibbles might have been able to kill a weak adult fluffy on her own now, there were very certainly healthy smelling babies in the drain. Nibbles chose to follow the chirps of the newborn foals.
Her hunger and excitement drew a type of mama song from her. Oh course instead of the off key lullabies meant to comfort foals, Nibbles’ song expressed the joy of eating such tender babies.
‘Chewy chewy soft and gooey,
Cwunchy little bones,
Chiwpy nummies in my tummy,
Tasty wittle foaws.’
She easily found the newborns sitting abandoned in the soft muck. The chirped for their mammas milk and using what little strength they possessed to crawl in futile search. Nibbles leaned down close to examine them. They sure did smell like normal foals.
The foal closest to Nibbles, though eyes still closed, senses Nibbles’ warmth and struggled toward her. Desperate peeps and blind suckling was all it could manage. In the soft light from the entrance, Nibbles saw that it was a pointy baby. It’s little horn just a small nub on the forehead.
Nibbles gave it a lick. Just to see if it tasted like a normal baby. Yep. Nibbles started to salivate for her upcoming meal, but the foal had latched on to a few strands of fluff to try and suckle. Nibble pulled her head back to dislodge to foal. Having been scooted up she could now see a tiny set of wings on the foals back as well. So it was a wingy baby.
No, wait. It had a horn, it was a pointy baby. But it had wings, so it was a wingy baby. Nibbles little fluffy mind struggled to compute that it could be both. And like any fluffy, if something couldn’t be processed it was dangerous. It was a monster!
The small pinky fluffy jumped back in fear. Baby WAS a monster baby. Her hunger was the only thing that kept her from running like the mama did. Instead she sat and looked at the foal. It was now too weak to do anything but make the most pathetic of chirps. Nibbles decided that it probably wouldn’t hurt her.
Just to be safe she gave plenty of room to walk around it and check on the other foal. Sure enough, it too was a monster. Disheartened she went back to the first. Inching closer she went through her tests again.
‘Smell like Nummies, taste like nummies. Is pointy baby, is wingy baby, is one baby.’ Fluffy brain working overtime she came to a simple conclusion. Take a bite and see what happens.
Nibbles sunk her teeth into the soft flesh on its side. It made a little scream as she pulled a chunk of skin and meat off and scurried away. Safely away from the monster baby Nibbles chewed the soft meat and watched. The foal writhed in anguish, and didn’t attacker her. Swallowing the chunk she was now convinced the foal could be eaten, even if it was a monster.
Nibble ate the first foal with haste. Much of the sweet blood had absorbed into the ground and she was very hungry. She consumed it, crunching the soft bones and slurping down the entrails. She enjoyed the soft pop of the eyes before crushing its skull and lapping up the soft squishy brain.
She took her time with the second foal. Savoring every ounce of soft pink meat as she stripped it from the bones. Full and happy, Nibbles was too tired to leave the drain and make it back to the fluff pile that night.
Part Four: Eve and the Smarty
Things improved for Nibbles and Eve over time. It turned out the Grey Smarty leader brought in fluffy herds almost daily. After a week Eve had once again taken to the role of midwife. Nibbles was loved for her attention to the foals and her skill at finding nummies. This again thanks to the fact she couldn’t eat anything she found and would share them with the fluffies who couldn’t forage for food.
It helped that the day after she had eaten the monster babies is had rained vigorously. As the city directed the water away from the streets and tunnels, The drainpipe she slept in was now gushing with water. The spillway filled and washed away any trace of the mama that ended up dying from fright and exhaustion.
The pump station that was their safe place kicked into high gear, shaking the little building. The entire herd was screaming and making bad poopies. Nibbles took the opportunity to gather foals to keep them ‘safe’ from the scary noises. A few foals had already been crushed in the panic, so one extra missing foal didn’t make too much of a difference. The mamas of the surviving fluffies now trusted Nibbles enough to join their part of the fluffpile. Soon Nibbles had no fear of going hungry.
Today she was playing, chasing some laughing foals around, when the smarty came back to the safe place. He had another batch of fluffies in tow. Nibbles didn’t like the grey smarty and would try to avoid him at all costs. He had a habit of giving special huggies to any mare within reach when he wanted to enf. It didn’t matter who the mare was. Too young mares, mares with special friends, even his own offspring. Nibbles might eat fluffies, but what grey smarty did was wrong.
This herd he brought in was small and only had one mare with them. And she was clearly pregnant. Grey showed them the safe place and where bestest nummies were. Normally, grey displayed his dominance by having special huggies with a mare from the new herd. This time he couldn’t, because… wait. No. The grey smarty was mounting the dam.
Nibbles grew angry, and she wasn’t the only fluffy. Many of the herd started yelling and stomping their hooves. “Smawty stop! Fwuffy haf babies. No gif speciaw huggies!” After directing the tuffies to put an end to the upheaval, he tried climbing on top of the new fluffy once again.
Before he could start enfing Eve ran out of the herd and push the smarty off. Puffing out her cheeks Eve started biting at the smarty. The grey smarty, being somewhat bigger, managed to throw his attacker off and call for help. It took three tuffies to restrain Eve. Still she yelled, “Dummeh smawty, special huggies huwt babies.”
Tuffies held Eve down firmly to let the grey smarty get up. Puffing up he waddles over to the trapped cannibal. “Dummeh mawe no wet Smawty gif special huggies to fwuffy. Smawty gif dem to you!” Grey mounted and started into his enfing. Eve increased her struggles, but could do nothing. She couldn’t even lift her head to bite at him.
Nibbles found she was running towards them. She understood the anger her mama had felt over the dam. Not that Eve had cared for the wellbeing of the other mare. Eve was protecting a food source. Nibbles instead was compelled to save her mama. Family after all is important.
“Enf, enf, enf, ennnnnnaaaaaaaieeee!” Grey screamed as a set of teeth sank into his balls. Nibbles yanked and twisted, succeeding in dragging the hated smarty of Eve. With every quick turn Grey made to defend his fuzzy package he only succeeded in causing himself more pain.
He was too distracted to notice that his Tuffy friends looked on in horror, and had allowed Eve to free herself. Getting up she too attacked the smarty taking chunks of fluff with every bite. With a final bite and twist Nibbles disconnected the tissue. Grey lifted his head in a scream. Eve bit hard into the exposed neck, opening the vein. Blood poured from the wound in the smarty’s neck as he fell thrashing to the dirt.
Overcome with bloodlust the cannibal pair consumed chunks of the smarty as he was still bleeding out. Panting and bloody they finally looked to the herd. The wide-eyed fluffies had all moved away. Shit and piss covered the ground where they had been standing. Chants of ‘monster’ filled the pump house as panic spread. “Monsta fwuffies gif smawty foweva sweepies!”
Nibbles and Eve quickly realized the damage was done and they would never be allowed to stay with the herd. Already the parents tried hiding the foals from them and were guarded by tuffy friends. A few of these were yelling, “Monsta weave safe pwace ow Get biggest huwties!”
Nibbles and Eve backed away from the group, both trying to decide what to do. How could they escape? Where could they go? Why was it suddenly brighter in there?
“Jesus Christ, the stench!” Above the fluffies a man in a workman’s uniform stood in the doorway. “Jake, you better get the pails,” he called out, “There are way more than they said there’d be.”
Something came thudding down beside Nibbles and she moved to run. With a quick glance to her mother she stopped in her tracks. Eve’s skull had been split in two by a flat chunk of metal. From it a wooden staff led up to the hands of the man.
As Nibbles watched, the man lifted his killing tool from Eve’s corpse and swung it again. The blade whooshed over her head and slashed into the huddled herd. It cut through one warm body after the next, severing limbs and ending fluffies.
“WUN! IS HUMAN MONSTA!”
Fluffies started running everywhere within the little shack. Lacking direction and crossing paths they pushed each other out of the way knocking down mothers and trampling foals. A mother fluffy ran for the door and was decapitated with the next swing. Her body dropped and flung her two babies from her back. The chirping foals thudded softly into pink fluff. They were now huddled next to the still unmoving Nibbles as she stared at the bloody remains of Eve.
The foals climbing onto Nibbles’ back, seeking warmth and hugs, broke her trance. She looked up just in time to see a dozen fluffies running at her. Nibbles was up and moving as a white unicorn made it to her and ran past. The group had decided the best bet was to make a dash for the door.
Nibbles went along with them, foals still clinging to the fluff on her back. The man was now inside the pump house reaching for the fluffies that had cowered in the corners. With the door now clear, they ran outside. As the white unicorn in front made it past the doorframe a large boot swung in to connect with his face. The fluffy was lifted up with the force of the blown and thumped against the wall.
“Jesus Larry, you’re supposed to watch the door!” Nibbles and a light blue earthy ducked past the second man before he was able to block the door with a big yellow garbage tub. He then lunged forward and grabbed the blue fluffy’s tail. The blue fluff screamed as it was swung through the air and spiked into the bin.
“I’m going after a stray!” The second man called into the shack.
“No, Jake, get your ass to the other side. There’s the hole over there they’re getting out of.” The second man abandoned his pursuit and booked it around the building.
Nibbles ran toward the spillway and down the embankment in the other direction.
Frightened and confused she kept running along the now trickling stream until she found a cluster of bushes to hide in. Exhausted she layed down and the foals slid down from her back. The foals started to cry, “Is fwuffies safe? Wat happen to mamma? Fwuffy wan mamma.” Crying over her own mama, Nibbles hugged the foals to try and fix the bad feels.
Finally the foals stopped crying and started to play among the bushes. A bit longer and they came back to Nibbles. “Fwuffy hungwy. Nice fwuffy have miwky nummies?” Nibbles told them that she didn’t. “Nice fwuffy need nummies? Mama always eat nummies to make good miwkies,” one of the foals suggested.
Nibbles thought for a second. She did want nummies.
Jim the Breeder: Land of Hugs and Sketti takes place here
Part Five: Jim the Breeder
“Pwease tummy no gif Nibbles hurwties.” The pink fluffy took time to give her midsection a hug. She couldn’t remember the last time she had nummies. Such a long time ago she had escaped from the bad human monsters. She took her time following to fast running wawa out of the city and deep into the countryside.
She had fed on the washed up remains of animals, birds and fish. Nibbles didn’t think they were tasty, but they kept her tummy from complaining. Then she came to a forever wawa place and couldn’t go any farther. She walked for a long time before finally finding another fast wawa blocking her path and decided to follow it into the woods.
Nibbles had thought she found nummies once but a barky monster chased her from the place. She had been so scared that she kept running and lost the fast wawa. Now she wandered the forest unable to find even the most meager scrap of food.
Disheartened she kept walking in hopes of finding something. Even a bug would be okay, but she really wanted a tasty foal. Maybe bacon. Tasty bacon. Thinking about it made her tummy hurt again so she made herself stop that.
A breeze ruffled her fluff and she shivered. The sky wawa was coming and she didn’t have a nest. Nibbles decided she should look for somewhere to bed down when she caught a scent on the wind. Eagerly sniffed about. Could it be?
She followed the scent directly through the underbrush. If she looked for a path she might lose it. Huffing and puffing Nibble climbed up a steep hill, scrambling from bush to tree so she didn’t fall. She stopped short as she reached the top. Was that place where the smell was from?
A barn sat off in the distance. Fresh cut field lay between Nibbles and the building. Nibbles remembered that big clearings meant big danger for any animal. She had seen a flying monster swoop down and catch a big ear. She had made scared poopies when she saw that. Big ears were the fastest things ever, almost as fast as a metal monster. So if the flying monster could catch those, what chance did a fluffy have?
Nibbles stood for a short while choosing between danger and the relative safety of the forest. Hunger made the decisions for her. She had to try. Nibbles started out across the field keeping as low as possible. It was tough work for a fluffy to cover that distance, but she pushed on.
About three-fourths across the field a bright light flashed in the sky. Staring in wonder at the sky a load boom suddenly erupted few seconds later causing Nibbles to hide behind her hooves. If she had eaten in the last few days Nibbles would have made scared poopies for sure.
The steadying booms and flashes encouraged Nibbles to move on. Victory in the crossing was dulled as a chicken wire fence greeted her. The fence along the entire perimeter and did its job of keeping fluffies in and predators out.
Yet Nibbles was determined and didn’t want to try and test her luck running back across the field so she started to walk around it. As she got the edge she was hit by the now strong wind. Guarded by the barn she hadn’t noticed it until then. It cut deep and through her fluff like a blade of ice.
Chilled to the bone she continued on until the rain started. Having enough, the only thing she could do was curl into a ball and try to conserve her warmth the best she could.
Another flash and boom caused her to jump. A great crack and creaking followed. Staring into the wind and rain she watched as a large tree twisted and swayed. It looked to her as if the tree walked, moving back and force under the strain of the wind. Finally it gave way and toppled over. With a sickening crunch of branches Nibbles felt the ground rumble under her hooves as it smashed into the ground.
Nibbles stared at the fallen giant waiting for it to move, to get back up. Did it take forever sleepies? She didn’t know trees did that. Following the trunk she discovered it had falling across the fence. She could get over!
Taking her time she made her way across the crumpled chicken wire and into the barn. The smell of fluffies was distinct and mouthwatering. She could even hear them. Nibbles heart sunk once again when she discovered that there was still another fence that blocked her path.
So close and so hungry she debated whether or not to turn back. Outside the storm raged and poured water from the sky. Inside was at least dry. So Nibbles gathered some dry grasses from the surrounding pen and made a little nest for herself in a dry corner. Lulled by the sounds of fluffies she soon started to doze.
Jim tried not to destroy his gravel driveway as he sped back to his farm. Thirty minutes ago he was in town, enjoying dinner at the local diner when he got the news about the thunderhead coming in. It had seemed to spring up from nowhere and his farm was in the worst of it.
Granted he didn’t have to worry about his crops getting damaged. Although he was sure his garden would be in trouble if it got pelted with hail. No, he had more delicate work that needed his attention. He hadn’t gotten the chance to close up for the rain. After all fluffies and water do not mix.
Driving straight up the barn, the truck skidded to a halt on the wet grass. The instant he opened the door he was soaking wet. Rain fell in torrents as he ran inside the little white building. He immediately went to the computer and… System failure, fuck. He’d have to close the floor vents by hand.
Jim took a long pole from the cabinet and put on his boot covers before heading into the barn. As soon as he opened the door he knew something was wrong. Even before he’s eyes could adjust to lower light he could hear the rain inside the barn splashing into puddles.
The entire system was backed up. Liquidy shit covered the floor an inch deep. Further down he could see that part of a large tree had fallen into the roof. Throughout the barn he could hear the sound of crying fluffies.
God, Fucking, Damn it.
A quick check of the showroom showed that it was still dry. The smell however made Jim gag. The thunder and lighting must have caused every fluffy in there to shit themselves. Closing the door he rushed over to the wall. There were stacks of cages and boxes to transport fluffies in.
Normally he left them alone unless selling to a customer, but this was an emergency. Loading up a wheelbarrow he set off down the flooded path to the pen. Pat and Dewey sat hugging in the corner of their pen. Sodden and crying he shoved them both into one of the cages. The chubby yellow unicorn took up most of the space.
Jim swore as he got to the breeding pen. Bert’s cream-colored body sat motionless in the water next to his green colored breeding partner. Forest had been a fine producer and he hated to see he go. He left them there and went to the dam pen. All the fluffies were piled into a big straw nest. Tammy, the midwife fluffy looked exhausted.
Opening the gate Jim stepped inside and asked, “Tammy, are they okay?”
Tammy looked up at Jim and started to cry, “Tammy sowwy Jim Mista. Tammy no could pwess button. Bad wawa aw ova an Tammy scawd! No wan be bad fwuffy. Tammy sowwy.” Jim soothed her the best he could and asked her about the others again. Tammy sniffed and told him, “Soon mammas now mammas. Mammas now not mammas. Mammas have dummeh babies.”
Looking into the fluffpile Jim tried to remember which ones had foals and how many. The stress of the storm must have caused the dams to go into labor. Evie looked like she lost one, but Jean had all hers. A Black and light blue mare named Moony looked like she just had three in her new litter. They all looked healthy enough.
Jim then saw that Charm had hers early. The Rainbow maned unicorn’s foals looked tiny, even compared to the other newborns. The one drinking from her tit looked healthy and strong. The other she was hugging probably won’t make it. Jim could see the green foal had spit up milk on its fluff and it chirped softly, unable to hold down the needed nutrients. Even if it did survive he could never sell a malnourished foal and he couldn’t breed it. Total waste.
Regardless he started putting the fluffies into cages. He ignored the complaints of sorry boxes. Picking up Rose, a cream with pink mane, he noticed she was crying even more than the rest. Her backside had blood on it and Jim realized she too had given birth. She must have been two weeks out. No way they could have survived. A complete loss on that week.
Saving the new mammas and Tammy for last he put each into their own box and used his shirt to transport the delicate newborns. The last fluffy in, he brought them past the showroom and into the surgery. He left them in the cages and stacked them around the room before going back to get the others.
The second and first generation fluffies were a mess. Drowned fluffies dotted the floor. Any left alive were wailing as they mucked about in ‘no smew pwetty bad wawa.’ Here too dams had birthed or birthed early. Lucky mamas were able to keep their hungry newborns safely cradled in their back fluff. Others watched as their foals drowned or lost all body heat thanks to the cold water. Jim even saw one sad mare finish birthing directly into the cold dirty water.
By the end he didn’t care about keeping the pens separated. The murky water kept rising and more fluffies kept drowning. He threw as many fluffies he could into containers before unloading them in the white building. He was down to using paper bags when he finally saved the last living fluffy. (And, no, apparently a fluffy can’t fight its way out of a wet paper bag.)
Even without his kitchen being overrun by crying fluffies Jim didn’t have time to make himself a much-needed cup of coffee. Sloshing his way back into the flooded barn he made his way to the first vent. A string of dirty orange floats told him where it was. As quickly as he could he plunged to pole into the water feeling for the catch. When the pole connected he pulled up and closed the vent.
Jim made his way, vent to vent, closing each one until he got to the downed tree. Within the tangle of branches he could see the disconnected wires to the waste system. As much as Jim wanted to blame everything on the designer, he had to admit it was simply ill chance. He didn’t think that the tree had even been close enough to land near the barn.
A little cough caught his attention. Straining he could just make out a small pink fluffy within the tree limbs. Its eyes were closed and it was shivering. As he creped closer it heard him. Eyes opening in fear it tried to run. It lost it’s footing on the wet wood and slipped into the water. Jim quickly reached into the tangle of limbs and pulled the fluffy out.
The little pink fluffy sputtered and coughed in Jim’s arms. Jim gently pet some of the water from its fluff as he brought it to the waiting room with the other fluffies. He noticed that it was a rather thin little pegasus and worried that he missed it when he did his daily checks. Part of the ear was missing where he normally tagged the fluffies. It was possible she just wasn’t logged in.
He made a mental note to check it when he was done. Jim gently placed the mare into one of the only pens with space left open. The nursing fluffy inside simply picked up her foals and turned her back in the newcomer. Jim swore as he realized he would have to find the pole among the tree branches then headed out once more.
Exhausted Nibbles looked up from the place she had been sleeping. All around her were fluffies. That last thing she remembered was a scary monster grabbing her. Had it placed her here? Did it capture all these fluffies? Did, did it… what’s that?
Over the sounds of crying and complaining she heard an off key singing. It was a mamma song! Did that mean there were foals nearby? She sat up and looked around. She was in a cage, and another fluffy was with her. The other fluffy had it’s back turned and was moving something in front of her.
As Nibbles watched, the blue fluffy picked something up and rolled over on her other side. The fluffy, now facing Nibbles, placed a tiny yellow foal on her tit. “Babbeh need dwink miwkies hewe now.”
Nibble stared dumbfounded. Nummies so close. The foal looked like it had been born a short time ago. She thought of how soft the flesh would be and started to salivate. If only she could get the chance to…
A chirping came from the other side of the mama fluffy. “Oh, sowwy babbeh. Mama hewe,” the mama fluffy rolled over again to reach for the foal on the other side. The tiny yellow foal chirped as the nipple went out of reach. “Quiet babbeh, mamma just need to get udda babbeh.”
Nibble wanted to cry. Nummies right there. Dummy mama not even looking, but if she took the foal she couldn’t go anywhere. She could get the nummies, but couldn’t eat the nummies. Maybe if… fluff it.
As fast as fluffily possible she ran up the foal, took it in her jaws and walked back to the other side of the cage. Dummeh mama fluffy didn’t even check when Nibble silenced the desperate chirping. Nibbles tucked into her meal oblivious to the stares of the other fluffies in the cages around her.
The surrounding fluffies however looked on in horror. Any onlookers that still could, unleash scared poopies, adding much to the already terrible smell of the room. As the babble of voices trailed off the mama fluff heard the crunching of Nibbles’ meal. The fluffy mama placed her blue foal on her back fluff and waddled over to Nibbles. “Hewwo fwiend. Fwuffy hafe nummies? Mama need nummies to make miwkies fow babies.”
The blue fluffy hesitated feeling like she was forgetting something. Looking around her the mamma realized she was missing a foal. “Babbeh? Where babbeh? Nice fwuffy see mamma’s babbeh?” The unknowing fluffy asked as she tapped Nibbles with her hoof.
Nibbles, mid chew, jumped away from the touch to face the fluffy. Blood covered her face and a small leg hung from her mouth. “Dis Nibbles nummies,” she proclaimed and bits of fluff and flesh fell from her jaws.
“AAAEEEEIIIIIIIIiiiiiiiiiiii! Monsta fwuffy nom babbeh!” The blue fluffy mama screamed and back as far as she could away from the small pink pegasus. Desperately she searched for a way to escape. He last baby clung to her fluff and chirped loudly. Moment of silence broken, the other fluffies started panicking as well, trying to flee when still trapped in cages and boxes.
With food in her stomach Nibbles realized what she had done. There was no way she could get these fluffies to trust her again. They had seen her steal and eat a foal. If they caught her they would give her forever sleepies. Wait, they couldn’t get her. They were all in cages. The only fluffy that could get to her was the dummeh mamma.
Nibbles dropped the bit of foal and smiled. Puffing up her cheeks she lunged forward toward the mamma fluffy. The mamma screamed and pressed herself against the bars even more. The foal on her back slipped through the opening and fell on the floor with a soft thud before crying and chirping.
Giggling to herself Nibbles ate as she watched the mama fluffy try and reach her foal. Chubby legs stretched out but could only push the foal farther. Desperately the mama called to it, but the foal was too young and weak to push itself across the smooth tile.
The last vent closed Jim headed inside. The only thing left to do was wait for the rain to stop and call a plumbing service. At least he prevented any more sewage from being washed out of the tanks.
He’d need to make a bunch of calls to clients, insurance and the city tomorrow. He didn’t think the amount of shit that washed away was significant, but he better let the watershed know. Whatever, that’s tomorrow’s problem. He just wanted to sleep.
Opening the door he realized that it wasn’t going to be possible for a while. Every fluffy was screaming about a monster fluffy. It wasn’t difficult to tell which they thought was a monster, because they all were pressed far away from the fluffy as possible. It was the little pink one? Really?
“Shut up, all of you!” Jim bellowed over the cries and storm. It did quiet down except for the soft hue hueing of crying fluffies. That and a chirping coming from a little blue foal next to the ‘monster fluffy.’
Jim reached down picked the little thing off the floor. It started screeching. “Pwease Jim mista gif back babbeh. Babbeh need mamma,” the mother fluffy cried after her foal. Ignoring her he looked the screaming foal over and found that it had broken a leg. Shit, more loss. He was about to hand it back when he remembered his skettiland shtick.
“Sorry girl, you know foals go to the land of hugs and sketti. I need to take this one there right away. Didn’t you have a second one?” Jim asked as he looked into the cage. Blood was smeared all over and a few bits of foal remained. He looked at the mamma then at the pink mare. Blood still caked her face. “Did, did you really eat a foal?”
The pink fluffy looked panicked, “No, Nibbles am good fwuffy. Fwuffy no make foal nummies. Was dummeh mama.” Oh, very convincing. But still, interesting. Ignoring the plaintive wailing Jim put the foal lightly in his pocket, forgetting that he was still completely wet. He also picked up the pink fluffy.
“So your name is Nibbles then?” Jim asked, as he looked it in the eyes.
“Nibbles am Nibbles,” she replied with a bloody grin that revealed teeth too sharp for a normal fluffy. He’d have to look out for those. Jim stared at the mare’s green eyes and caught a glimmer of a gold spiral radiation from the pupil. He smiled. Maybe he wasn’t so far up shit creek. A real Cannibal fluffy.
Nibbles was confused. This human was being nice? He wasn’t upset about Nibbles eating a foal? It was all very odd, but at least she had eaten.
Now the human was carrying her someplace. That was a little scary but she really liked being this high up. It felt like she was flying. And she could see all the other fluffies in their pens from up here. So many tasty foals. Oh no, she was hungry again.
He took her into a little room and closed the door. There were so many strange bins and bowls here. She hoped he wouldn’t place her in the bowl with the wawa though, that looked scary. And hey, another human and he has another fluffy too. It looked familiar… “MAMA!” Nibbles waved and so did the other fluffy. No wait wrong color to be mama. But the other fluffy waved back.
The human spoke, “I guess you’ve never seen a mirror before, have you? That’s you.” He waved a hand and so did the person in the mirror. Weird. Nibbles waved again and the other fluffy did too. The mister set her down on the counter and she walked over to the other fluffy that was her.
The other fluffy looked thin and ragged. It’s fluff clumped together and caked in mud and poopies. It was missing part of its ear too. Nibbles lifted her hoof and touched the other fluffy’s in front of her. It was cold and felt really smooth. “How Nibbles ova dawe?”
“HA ha ha,” the human laughed really loud. Nibbles liked it. It made her giggle too. “No, Nibbles its a reflection. You are there and you can just see yourself in it. Watch.” With a click the whole world moved around Nibbles as the medicine cabinet door swung open. She felt dizzy and hid behind he hooves.
“NO wike!”
“Sorry, sorry Nibbles, I didn’t mean to scare you. I was just showing you how it worked.” The voice was gentle and she relaxed enough to look up. The mirror was still but at a different angle. She could see different parts of the room now. It almost made sense. Almost.
Before she could think it out He picked her up again and placed her in the biggest bowl of the room. She didn’t think she could get out if she tried and that made her worry a little. Then she heard the foal screech as the human took it from his pocket. Looking up she watched him as he placed it in the bowl with her.
She looked at the foal them back to the human. What did he want her to do? Was this a trick?
“Not hungry?” the man asked. Nibbles said she was. “Then go ahead,” he said gesturing to the foal. Nibbles was sure this was a trick. Deep in her bones it felt wrong to eat a foal in front of a person.
“Tell you what, Nibbles. If you eat this foal now I will let you eat as many as you want later. But if you would rather have sketties, you tell me and I will get them for you. The choice is yours. I won’t be upset which ever way you choose.”
All the foals she wanted? This must be a trick. But if it isn’t she could have nummies forever. She sat down and thought it over for a long time. Finally she went over to the foal and very gently took it by the neck. Watching for any reaction in the human she finally bit down, ending the chirps.
The human smiled, “That a girl.” His voice had no sign of disgust or anger. Nibbles relaxed and started slowly feasting on the foal. She took her time and enjoyed it. She looked up after a few mouthfuls and said, “Tank you fow da nummies mista.”
“Please,” he laughed, “call me Jim.”
Part Six: Fluffy Shelter featuring Jim the Breeder and Nibbles
Jim enjoyed the slight coolness in the air as he drove to the fluffy shelter. The wind came in thought the half open window surrounding him in a pleasant white noise. He was excited to make the trip despite the circumstances around it.
Some months ago a storm destroyed a good chunk of his barn and with it much of his stock of fluffies. With insurance and time he had rebuilt the facilities but replacing stock was difficult. Many of the local breeders had bought from him originally, making it difficult to find fluffies outside of his stock’s bloodline. And the top line breeders won’t sell their stock within his budget.
So Jim decided to cut his losses and start from scratch. This took time and a shit-ton of fluffies. So many fluffies. Despite their willingness to procreate, breeding quality fluffies took time and effort. Foaling death, accidents, dormant smarty traits, disease, depression, foal killing, stupidity, and rivalry all could end in the best fluffies getting snuffed out.
The best place to get fluffies was the fluffy shelter. Which he was almost passing.
“Shit!” Jim exclaimed and broke harder then he should have to get into the turn lane. The Cages in the back of the truck rattled and strained against their tie-downs. Beside Jim a little pink fluffy slide under the dashboard. “Sorry Nibbles.”
Nibbles let out a little huff as she walked back to her spot on the passenger side floor. Sniffing around a bit she found the piece of jerky Jim had given her at the beginning of the car ride, and renewed her efforts in chewing it. Jim couldn’t help but to think of a dog chewing on a rawhide bone.
Jim gave a wide birth to the oncoming garbage truck heading back to the main road. More than likely it had just finished dropping off it’s payload of yard refuse or kitchen scraps to the compose dump.
Years ago the city had taken strong and swift action against the flood of fluffy ponies infesting the city. No city wanted to end up like Cleveland. Because they weren’t the only city to do so and the equipment became very expensive and hard to obtain. So Jim’s city used what they had and enlisted the refuse collectors to round up stray fluffies.
They were too good at their job and picked up any untagged fluffy that wondered out of the yard. People’s pets wound up caught, shipped and wood chipped before the owner’s could even report them missing. A few lawsuits later and the city ordered that fluffies were to be checked for ID and held for 72 hours before disposal. They gave out grants to people willing to run fluffy shelters.
The smallish cinderblock building Jim was now parking in front of was one such shelter. The building was painted grey with a sign simply claiming the building as ‘Lipton County Fluffy Shelter.’ Jim briefly pondered if all architect students sit through a ‘shitty government building’ course in school, as he grabbed a collar from the glove box.
“Nibbles no wike cowwa,” she said as Jim placed it around the fluff of her neck.
“I know,” Jim said securing the buckle, “but if we’re off the farm you need to wear it or people might try and hurt you.” Jim got out of the truck and held the door open for the fluffy pegusus. Nibbles stepped down to the runner then jumped to the ground. Little wings fluttered before she landing with an fwump. Most fluffies couldn’t have made that leap without shitting themselves. One of the many reason Jim liked nibbles.
When Jim opened the door they were instantly bombarded with cries for ‘wuv’ and ‘huggies’ and ‘be new daddeh?” Jim was used to this. Not because of his fluffies, they knew better. But he did hear it every time he went unto any pet store.
People think stores train them to do it. Most stores don’t. Fluffies simply love humans. It’s hardwired in and takes a lot of fear to make them stop. The ferals that survive learn quickly that staying away from people is vital and teach their offspring. Well-kept store fluffies love people to the point of begging to be taken. They get sold and any fluffy paying attention starts begging too. It becomes standard and each new shipment learns the classic pleas.
The Shelter fluffies don’t all beg. Many are feral and still don’t trust humans, some were too stupid to learn, but the biggest reason is that they don’t have time to observe others being taken. Shelter fluffies have a short shelf life, way shorter than a store.
An average shelter holds fluffies for five days, but the lucky fluffies that come to this one get ten, sometime more. This is simply do to cost and holding capacity. The city pays x amount of dollars for holding x amount of fluffies. For most places it simply isn’t enough. Feed, caging, litter, shipping costs, workers and rent add up fast.
Shelter workarounds include underfeeding, understaffing, poor maintenance and operating over capacity. This leads to sick fluffies piled on top of each other. The condition of many shelter drives potential adopters away. This is worse for no kill shelters were fluffies starve and rot in there cages.
The benefit to this place was the compost dump. The area already smells so there is no major restriction about odor pollution. The land considerably cheaper for the same reason. Fine crushed woodchips make great fluffy cage lining and the discarded and ground plants make great feed. Both free from the compose yard. And because this was already an area for fluffy disposal, they just had to cart them over and drop them off. Then all waste from the fluffies went back into the compost yards.
Jim stood looking at the fluffies before he heard a woman call out to him from the back room. A few seconds later Kiya came out to greet him. Kiya was a short blonde woman dressed in jeans and button up blouse underneath a heavy apron. She had a few extra pounds but wore them well. With a smile she said, “Jim, you’re here, good. A new batch just showed up. Do you mind giving me a hand sorting?”
Smiling back Jim followed Kiya into the back room and grabbed an apron and gloves from the hooks by the door. Jim had helped out a few times now. In exchange Kiya gave him a deal on adoption costs and let him have first pick. Kiya did get some volunteers to help out once and a while, but she mostly did everything herself.
They walked through the back of the building that housed dozens of fluffies. Each cage held two or more fluffies, and was marked with colored ties with dates written on them. Fluffies found with ID chips or collars were separated back here along with nursing or pregnant mares. They exited out the back of the building via a large open garage door to the outdoor storage.
Much like his own barn the fluffies were kept in groups. A simple roof protected them from sun and rain. Hanging down was a light netting to prevent hawks and owls from making a meal of the fluffies. Since she didn’t need much more detail then what day they arrived, Kiya was able to keep more fluffies together in each pen. Again each pen was marked with a color tag with a hand written date.
Their destination was the sorting pen outside the main holding area. It was simple chicken wire fencing. Lightweight and it could be expanded or contracted to house more or less fluffies as needed. An extra bit of fencing and posts could be moved inside to shrink the interior and corral the population into the sorting chute.
They started as soon as they got there. Kiya opened the sorting chute and fluffies started to naturally file in looking for a way out of their cage. As they walked in a scanner beeped if it detected an implanted chip. Each fluffy was checked for injury and collar before being separated by gender. Confused babblings of “whawe fwuffy? Wet fwuffy go!” were emitted each time they grabbed a fluffy from the chute.
This was actually helpful, as most feral fluffies didn’t have names. Normally referring to themselves only as fluffy or smarty. If any fluffy referred to itself by name it would be asked a few questions. This usually came to a dead end because they all called their owners daddeh or mammah. Once Kiya found a fluffy named Robin that called his owner ‘masta Bwuce.’ Kaya said telling the fluffy it would be reunited with its owner made it brake down crying and go into a ‘wan die’ loop before she discovered the massive anal trauma. Some people, man.
Jim picked of a fluffy and it immediately shit itself, splashing filth on the fluffies in line and across the apron. It stated demanding Jim “Wet Smawty go, Smawty didin do nuffin.” Thankful for the apron, Jim separated him from the others. Smarties get the fast track and wind up being the only fluffies that get the minimum time. Unless someone claimed it, the little bastard only had seventy-two hours left to live.
When finished they had found one chipped fluffy that was registered as missing two days ago; three with collars; and five that had names. These were cleaned first and checked over to make sure they would be in good condition if they could be sent home.
The rest got bathed in mass. They would be sprayed down with a tick and flea killing shampoo that was dispensed from a hose hanging from the wall, then sprayed off and quickly dried with a towel before being placed in a pen. Despite the aprons, both Jim and Kiya were soaked by the end of it. As Kiya went to change her shirt in the bathroom Jim wrung his shirt out over the sink.
Nibbles watched the fluffies shaking themselves off after being put in their pens. She was bored, bored and hungry. She had wandered the whole shelter looking at all the new fluffies.
It wasn’t really fun as they were all on the other side of the cage. When they noticed her they asked if she wanted to play then went back to their friends when they realized the cage made it impossible. One fluffy asked to be let out, but she wasn’t allowed to open the pen without Jim’s permission.
She liked Jim. He would always give her the bestest nummies. He would give her hamburger and turkey and sometimes even bacon nummies. Most of the time he would give her fluffy nummies. There were always fluffy nummies now and Nibbles had eaten every day since she met Jim. Maybe Jim had nummies now?
Picking her way across the floor Nibbles tried to avoid the stinky puddles of water. The floor was really slippery so she had a tough time making to Jim without falling. She tapped on Jim’s leg to get his attention. When he looked down she asked, “Can Nibbles pwease have nummies?”
Jim taught Nibbles about please. He said it was magic. Nibbles didn’t know what magic was but if she figured it kept away hurties, because sometime she forgot Jim would give her nose owies. She didn’t like that and thought Jim was a meany when he did it, but he feed her and smarties would have given worse.
Jim reached down and picked her up, “Let’s see what we can find.” Nibbles loved upsies! She could see forever when Jim carried her. Kiya came out of the bathroom and Jim asked her, “Nibbles says she’s hungry, did you still want to watch?”
“Of coarse,” she said, “Does she need to be alone or anything? Some articles say that cannibal fluffies don’t eat if there are people around.”
“No, she’s pretty bold about it now, but I don’t want to scare any potential fluffies. They tend to remember another fluffy eating their foals.”
“Let’s see,” Kiya looked at a chart on the wall. “Everything in the storefront was here the last time so we should be good there.” Jim followed Kiya out front. Nibbles could get a better look at all the fluffies now. Cages of them all around the wall and in the middle was a big pen filled with foals.
“Do you see anything you like Nibbles?” Jim asked getting close to the foal pen.
Before She could decide Kiya chimed in, “If it’s easier you could just put her in with them.” Wait, in with all those nummies? Jim set Nibbles down in the pen with the foals. The foals swarmed her looking for huggies and some asking for miwkies.
Nibbles looked at the fluffy foals surrounding her, then at Kiya and finally at Jim. Nibbles wasn’t suppose to eat the foals in the pens, it was a rule. And she didn’t really like eating in front of people either; it felt a little scary. She always had the feeling the humans would be angry with her and give her hurties. But Jim gave a nod letting her know it was okay.
She still wasn’t sure she was comfortable with it then felt a foal trying to nurse. Nibbles jumped and looked back to see a disappointed foal start to cry over lost miwkies. Fuck no, I ain’t your mama. She walked back to the foal. A glimmer of hope appears in its eyes as Nibbles leaned toward it. She watched its hope disappear as she sunk her teeth into its neck.
Blood pumped into her mouth as she severed the artery. A quick jerk whipped the foal from the ground and snapped its neck. The foals around her screamed and shat themselves. They ran in a panic and slamming into the side of the cage before they realized it was there.
Fluffies screamed around the room yelling about monstas and needing to save their babbehs. Uncaring, Nibbles sat down and crunched away on the foal. She watched as the foals around her hugged each other and cried. One foal walked up to her and said, “Dummeh monsta bestest babbeh gif sowwy poopies,” then turn around and tried to spray shit on her.
Nibbles got out of the way and watched as the shit splattered the half eaten carcass. The foal turned around to face her and puffed up its cheeks when Nibbles walked up to it. Stamping its little hooves on the ground is called her a “dummeh monsta.”
It started screaming when Nibbles ripped off one it its puffed out cheeks. As it turned to run and Nibbles knocked it to the ground. Stepping firmly on the foal she took it front leg in her moth and ripped it off. The screams grew louder and she watches him struggle under her weight.
One by one she ripped of the foals legs before rolling it onto its back. The screams turned to panicked chirping as Nibbles opened up the foal’s belly and started eating it tummy sketties. Nibbles loved skitties.
Jim and Kiya watched as the pink pegesus eviscerated the foal. “Holy shit,” Kiya said staring at the scene in front of her. Jim chuckled and Kiya turned to him with an astonished look. “I’ve seen fluffies kill each other before, but never like that. I thought it would be some sort of awkward mauling, but she acted like a real predator.
With the exception of the eyes I wouldn’t have even guessed she was different until seeing this. I mean she’s been walking around the building like any other fluffy would. Better behaved, but I thought that was you doing.”
Jim leaned against the counter, “No, she was pretty good when I found her. Tougher than most fluffies too. If you put her into a pen with other fluffies she’ll normally blend right in. She’ll play and run around like a normal fluffy. That is unless she’s attacked or a stallion tries to mount her.”
“So does that mean you’ve tried to breed her?” Kiya asked arching her eyebrow.
“Yeh,” Jim replied in an exacerbated tone, “Lost a good stud on the first attempt. He made a move and she ripped the damn thing’s throat out. I’ll probably only get one chance to breed a cannibal fluffy so I’m not going to risk forcing anything. That’s the main reason I bring her along. Maybe she’ll see a fluffy she likes.”
Jim stood up and said, “I should get started on testing. Do you want her out of there?”
“Naw, let her enjoy herself.”
Jim went from pen to pen testing fluffies. He made a game out of it so the fluffies would pay attention. First he’d shuffle the fluffies to one side and put a divider in the pen. He told them that he’d give them some sweets if they did things correctly.
First he told them to touch a wall. The fluffies ran off to the edge of the pen, the ones that remained were put on the other side of the divider. He told them all they were good fluffies and come back. Those that didn’t joined the fluffies on the other side.
Grabbing a pack of flash cards Jim started quizzing them. Jim would hold up the cards and ask questions about the pictures on them. If a fluffy missed two out of five they were eliminated. Same if they showed any smarty behavior.
By the end of the testing he simply asked them if they were a good fluffy. If they said yes, as most did, he’d give them a sugar cube before handing them off the Kiya to get their shots. Once and a while a fluffy would break down crying saying he was a bad fluffy. Jim figured he wasn’t one to disagree and would fail them. No sense in getting a fluffy that could easily slip into a wan die loop.
Kiya walked out with the paperwork for all the fluffies as Jim was securing the cages filled with excited and terrified fluffies into the back of his truck. The little pink fluffy was watching her from the shade of the truck until Jim opened the passenger side door. Nibbles crawled out from underneath the truck to be lifted in.
“Don’t forget the papers,” Kiya said holding up the large envelope filled with documents.
Taking the papers Jim smiled, “You know I wouldn’t have left without saying goodbye.” His looked down to see a paper bag shaking slightly in Kiya’s other hand. “What’s that?”
“Oh this?” Kiya gave the bag a little shake and inducing a few chirps from within. “Just a little something for Nibbles. I took them off a Smarty’s bitch. They just ate so they should keep for a few hours.” Kiya reached in and placed the bag next to Nibbles who sniff at it.
“Hey, thanks.” Jim hesitated for a brief second before saying, “I wanted to ask you, would you like have dinner with me some time? Maybe next Friday?”
“I’d love to.” Kiya smiled. “I should be finished here by six.”
Jim’s smile broadened and gave a nod and said, “Alright, I’ll text you later with the details.” They said goodbye and Kaya went back inside as Jim drove off. Inside Kiya sighed; she still had more work to do.
She double-checked her records to confirm, but even with Jim taking a truckload of fluffies off her hands she was still over occupancy. She had a good amount of space for fluffies here but if she overextended herself it would just make it worse for everyone involved, including the fluffies.
Setting to work she grabbed an empty bin and a pair of clippers. She brought them to the showroom and started clipping the oldest tags form the cages. She didn’t like this part of the job, but if she didn’t do it she couldn’t maintain the business. Kiya removed the fluffies from the cages that didn’t have tags and placed them in the bin.
Some were sad to leave, other excited because they thought they were returning to the big pens in back. Kiya didn’t speak. She wasn’t going to lie to the little fluff balls and tell them everything was all right when she knew what was about to happen.
Kiya brought the bin outside away from the other fluffies to a little shack stood off by itself. One of the walls was cement; the others chain link fencing. Within the shack were a metal worktable, a hose, a grinder and an air compressor. She turned on the lights and the compressor as she walked in. The noise of the compressor scared the fluffies who all started to cry.
Once again wearing the gloves, apron and a full-face mask Kiya grabbed a fluffy from the bin and placed it on the table. With one hand she held the fluffy down. With the other she grabbed the small tool that was connected to the compressor. Placing the little device to the base of the fluffy’s neck, she pulled the trigger.
With a quick hiss of air and a pop, the fluffy lay motionless. Using the slaughter tool was the quickest, cheapest and least painful way to kill a fluffy. As long as it was done correctly. Kiya had to do this nearly every day so she had long become pro at it.
The limpness of the body confirmed the fluffy no longer contained life. Kiya lifted the fluffy to the grinder and turned it on. With slow and powerful gears the grinder tore into the dead flesh. When fully processed the fluffy would be little more than a mealy slime deposited in the slop bucket below.
Grabbing a second fluffy she repeated the process. Few recognized their fate even as fluffies were killed a few inches away. She tried not to let them see the bodies slowly grinding down beside them. Those that figured it out cried for help and tried to run. Kiya’s firm hold kept them in place and the tool silenced their pleas.
As Kiya waited the few minutes it took to process the last fluffy she started the clean up. After the last bit of fluffy fell into buckets she lidded it and set them out for collection. Returning she hosed out the grinder and cleaned and oiled all the parts she needed to before spraying clean everything in the shack.
Kiya cleaned and hung up the protective mask before locking up before heading back inside to start the task of cleaning our the fluffy cages. She placed buckets of new woodchips into a clean bin. Starting in the showroom she removed the trays from under the fluffy’s cages and scraped them into the empty bin. She refilled the trays with woodchips and put them back.
She spent a little more time cleaning the empty cages; wiping them down with cleaner and sanitizing them with spray. When finished she continued on the cages in the back room. Any foals that were weaned were taken from their mothers and placed into the foal bin up front. The mothers and any fluffies whose owners could not be found were put in with the general population.
Kiya then selected fluffies to bring to the front from the groups that surpassed the seventy-two hours. Getting a spot in the front gave fluffies a better chance of being adopted. This was a double edge sword because once a fluffy went up front it also became the next to be culled when new fluffies arrived. Unless they were a smarty and then they would go directly to the grinder.
Placing the fluffies in the show room cage, Kiya would break off a zip tie tag and write that day’s date on it with a sharpie. Looping the ban around the bar she would secure each tag before moving on.
Fluffy herds rearranged, Kiya hosed out the litter troughs that ran along the back of the pens. If she found any shit or piss outside of the troughs she would spray out the whole pen leaving the fluffies cold and wet for the night. Punishing the whole herd forced fluffies to keep each other in check.
That last task was feeding the fluffies. Grabbing the waste bin she rolled it out to the collection area. Here there were several bags of clipping from the local parks. She brought them in and started filling the food trough. She would just scoop handfuls into the pens after briefly checking to make sure there weren’t too many plants that could hurt the fluffies.
The waste guys were pretty good about finding the bags with grasses in them. Every once and a while the clippings would be tainted with chemical fertilizers or inedible plants and the fluffies would get sick. It didn’t matter for the general population but she had to make sure the fluffies on hold weren’t effected. For that reason alone all the newcomers and the fluffies in the backroom cages got kibble.
The hard work done for the day, Kiya finished some paperwork sitting up front. In typical fashion she hadn’t had a customer come in all day. People simply didn’t want to adopt fluffies. They wanted to buy a cute little foal and a promise that they were getting a better fluffy than the ones they found on the street.
Maybe there were better fluffies. Jim seemed to believe so. But the truth is people bought fluffies under the assumption that they’d be getting a talking dog or a little person to talk to. They’d pick them out and bring them home and play with them for a few days before they realized it wouldn’t develop a soul. Then they’d toss the fluffies out like trash and they would wind up here.
With a sigh Kiya grabbed a tablet from under the counter and browsed the internet for a few hours before closing the shelter for the night.
she’s my new favorite named fluffy
