A lone fluffy walked down an empty sidewalk. His collar said Liam but he knew better. That was an old name, a weak name chosen by his weak mama. He was smarty! He was stronger than Liam. Faster than Liam. More smartyerest than Liam. Everywhere he went others were jealous of how smarty he was. His mama was too dummy to know skettis were bestest nummies. She looked so mad as she complained. He didn’t care about the ants on the trees, new or old! Her rules were holding him back so he left. The herd he found was too dummy to have special huggies. Didn’t they know babies are the best thing ever? He didn’t care about their rays was but he was pissed! They had no reason to stop his special huggies! The bickered too much so he left. The humans in the housie he walked into were too dummy to know fluffies need housies. They were so upset when they weren’t even using the room he was in! He didn’t care what inter was supposed to mean but he could get a lot ruder. He stomped and puffed to scare them away but they just screamed more. They were too dummy to listen when he was yelling at them! He wasn’t a rat but he could give them a lot of shit. And he did. They were annoying to remove from his housie so he left. Everything he said to others was just common sense! Wasn’t there anyone smarty enough to just obey?
His answer came at the next alley he passed. Scrawled across the brickwork were big, dripping, blood red letters as tall as a fluffy could write them. They read “free skettis” and were underlined with an arrow pointing deeper into the dark alley. ‘That’s concerning.’ He thought. ‘But smarty choose to believe them because that’s what smarty wants.’ He turned into the alley and puffed up proudly to scare off the dark.
“Hewwo?” He called out loudly. He frowned. ‘Who wrote that sign, and why haven’t they brought me my skettis?’ The smell of skettis surged a bit. There was movement further into the shadows.
“Oh hewwo. Nu see yu come in. Yu nyu fwuffy?” He heard a fluffy voice ask. He stomped at the notion.
“Nu am jus’ fwuffy! Am smawty!” The shadowed fluffy’s head dipped with a stifled giggle.
“A smawty! Yu come fow enfies den?” This was a surprise. He had only hoped for skettis. Still nothing was stopping him from getting skettis after and he wasn’t one to look a gift fluffy in the mouth.
“Yes.” He declared happy that someone understood how things worked.
“Das gud! Hab su many babbehs waitin’.” ‘Babbehs?’ He thought shocked. ‘Smarty hoping for a mare. Maybe smarty can ask politely? Even so he could still get skettis.’ He walked closer. The smell of skettis grew overpowering until they soured. No real skettis smelled that strong. Another fouler odor could be smelled now.
“Why yu offewin’ babbehs?” He asked trying to be coy. The voice giggled.
“Mummah nu can hewp hew own babbehs siwwy. Speciawy nu da giwwie babbehs.” ‘Mummah? So a mare! Might get enfies after all.’
“Mummah wan’ enfies?” He asked. The mare froze stiff. To his shock she made sickie wawas at the thought.
“S-sowwy. Nu mean be wude. Jus’ fink babbehs am betta fit fow yu.” ‘Wha? Did she just mock the mighty rod of smarty?! That was the iron rod by which he ruled! He would show this dummy mare why she should respect the smarty and his rod!’ He marched in full of intent and nearly made sickie wawas himself. The scent of skettis was foul all around him but he didnt see any. The worse smell was more clear it was a putrid slimy smell like sun drying fish. The mare didn’t smell like a pretty mare, she smelled like decay and skettis.
“Mummah su happy yu wan’ babbeh. Wowwied nebah gonna find fwuffies ob dewe own.” She snuggled up to a small rock gingerly. He realized there were more rocks just like it all around. His mind raced at this weird mummah. She wasn’t a smarty like him! She was dummy! Very dummy! ‘Her babbehs are rocks? What the fluff kind of- ow!’ He looked to his haunches and saw a rock perch precariously on one hip. It-it bit him! A rock bit him!
“She wikes yu! Hab fun babbeh.” The demented mare spoke to the rock. He kicked and the bitey rock fell off. He backed away not liking this strange mare.
“Nu wan enfies nu mowe. Jus’ weabin’.” He said backing out slowly. She giggled.
“Oh, tuu wate fow dat. Yu see soon.” His fluff prickled and he turned tail and ran. Her cackles followed but mercifully the rest of the strange happenstance seemed behind him.
Smarty walked down the sidewalk. He needed to be more careful in the future. He looked back at the bitten leg and frowned at the dark purple splotch ruining his otherwise perfect light blue coat. It had been getting worse but it would heal in time. He was sure of it. He turned into the park. It had the most nummies by far even if it was just yucky grass. He saw a hot dog on a doily abandoned on the grass. He was delighted at his luck and having learned nothing set to it immediately. He had gotten only two bites when a soccer ball ploughed into him knocking him sideways.
“Built in bullseye baby!” A voice called over the hill. He flexed his leg curiously but it seemed to work just fine. Despite the tingling in the lower parts of his leg that usually meant he was hit really hard, there was no pain. He marched up to the humans in a huff.
“Watch whewe yu pwayin’.” He demanded. The wannabe sports star squatted down next to him to answer.
“I did. And I hit you just where I wanted to. I’ll be sure to hit harder next time.” ‘He’s a meanie!’ Smarty thought.
“Since yu no sowwy, get sowwy poopies.” His demeanor melted as he stood fast as he could but he couldn’t get away. Smarty pushed his weapon of choice but only let out a heinous fart. The human was stunned but laughed at getting away unshit. Smarty took the momentary distraction to run away. He grabbed the rest of the hot dog and ran off to find a nest. It took longer than he’d like to find a box and fall asleep. He dreamed of mama and his old housie. They were playing ball. He chased after it but it was hard to catch up with it. The grass seemed to move it away from him and held him back. It grew taller. It was like it was trying to trip him. He looked down at it and the black blades waved and wiggled far too much. He tried to bite it, to show it he was smarty but he felt every bite on himself. It grew taller. He could hear his mama screaming. He ran to her but the black grass wouldn’t let him reach her. It grew taller. He pushed and pressed through and found her. It wrapped tightly around her. It was choking her. It grew taller. The sky was hard to see with all the black wiggling above him. He tried to keep it away nipping and biting but it hurt so much. They wrapped around him holding him down. He tried to break them. He was smarty. Too smarty to be overpowered by grass. But there was so, so many grass.his struggling slowed as it grew hard to breathe. He opened his eyes and was alone in an alley. No mama, no housie, no ball, but no strangling hurties either. ‘It’s a new day.’ He thought. ‘I must be healing now.’ He looked to his haunch but it was dark as ever. He gently pulled at the translucent fluff looking at the bare skin beneath. It still bore the same pale color split with black tendrils moving just below the surface. They moved so little it was hard to see. A pulsating movement that seemed to make them just a little bit longer each time. He sighed but readied himself for the day. They’d go away and start healing soon. It couldn’t get much bigger.
Smarty limped down the sidewalk. It was hard enough moving around with three legs but at least most three legged fluffies didn’t have to deal with the added weight. He glared at the purple leg frozen stiff in the air. He tried walking around it not working but it was exhausting. He shifted his weight back onto it and it responded in its dumb random steps. He expected people to be dummy by now but his own leggy was a shock. They always listened to him! He shifted his parcel to make sure it didn’t hit the ground. Today was good. He’d found trash pizza. The crust was stale, the meat was dark, and the sauce was rancid but there were no hurties or meanies to take it from him. He went back to his box finding it thankfully intact. Some humans had drawn no-no sticks all over it and written mean things like “gay baby jail” and “only weak retards get in this box”, but they hadn’t stomped it flat. He sat down and tried to enjoy his pizza, but it was difficult. His neck had been itching for so long now. He tried to tell his leg to scratch but it didn’t move. Then he tried yelling.
“Weggie! Teww yu scwatchies! Now scwatchies!” It still didn’t move. Enraged he bit it hard. It curled reflexively but he didn’t care. The taste was awful and lingered in his mouth. “Now scwatchies!” He demanded. It lay back down and went still again. He softened slowly understanding orders didn’t work on everyone. “Pwease weggie? Smawty jus’ wan’ scwatchies. Su itchies.” Real tears welled up in his eyes as he begged for relief. Still it did not respond. He cried himself to sleep with his leg silent and still. Only when the bliss of sleep took him did it shake kicking him in the face again and again. He struggled all the night his leg refusing to let him sleep.
Smarty hobbled down the sidewalk stumbling as he went. He didn’t like being smarty anymore. He missed when he was just Liam and could focus on naptime and tv. The constant fear, pain, and ridicule were too much to bear. It was like all the world just wanted him to shut up. Even simple tasks like eating, once so simple, had become a constant fight of endurance and will. He fought once more as he turned up the driveway of a housie he passed and into their yard. His legs seemed to be scared as they cantered under him. Still he pressed on trying to get them to relax. He scanned the yard and appraised his findings. No sign of humans and many pretty flowers right next to the housie. All he had to do was walk another dozen feet and they would be his. With the very first step his legs counterstepped and tried to stop. It was powerful but he could keep going by brute force. They twisted and dug into the dirt trying to turn away. He gritted his teeth and kept going learning the complicated sidestep from repeated efforts. Even as they were dragged away they fought him and twisted him again. He was facing away from them but he was smarty enough to remember which way they went. He didn’t like walking backwards. It was hard and he had never had to fight for it. He tried to remember the right order for the motions but he couldn’t get them with any regularity. With every step backwards his evil purple legs were pulling him two steps forwards. His good legs tripped and the bad legs pulled him a few more steps forward and stopped. He looked around. All that effort to wind up right back where he started. Frustrated tears streaked down his cheeks as he took in awful green grass. Why were his naughty legs so against any food with flavor? Any meal worth living for? He ate his fill and left. His naughty legs gave no resistance in going away happy to be far from the house. He hated their smug satisfaction in the win. ‘How dare they decide what he could do? He was the smarty! They were nothing but dumb ugly legs!’ He bit into them to teach them a lesson and reared back in pain. He forgot about that new trick. He could feel them again. When he first realized that he was so happy. ‘I’m healing!’ He thought. ‘I’ll get my legs back and be a full smarty again!’ Try as he might he got nothing back. The legs took all and left only pain. The bite throbbed throughout his side as though he had been bitten in half. He didn’t know how but the pain seemed to linger when the naughty legs caused it. He found a relatively dry but dark alley to sleep in and thought about it. ‘Maybe if I sleep near the trashies a nice lady will rescue me. Someone like mama.’ He missed her more with every day that passed. He wondered if he had been too quick in leaving her. He tried to lay down by the trash but his naughty legs acted up again. They started moving deeper into the alley where it was dark. He tried to buck and stay where mama might see him but the bitey pain came back. His legs weakened and he was half dragged into the dark. His fear grew more and more as the light faded and he could only guess how far he’d gone by counting his steps. How he hated these legs. He whimpered in the dark as his legs finally folded down and lay still.
Liam was walked through the dark alley. He hadn’t seen the bright sidewalk in days. The meanie legs didn’t like it there. He just wanted a bowl of skettis and a warm lap to lay on. He would take a bowl of nasty punishment kibble and a sorry sticking if he could guarantee those days would come back. He stumbled trying to guess where his legs were taking him. They started and stopped seemingly at random and always on their own. Of all the abuse and punishment lobbed at him he hadn’t expected such a mutiny in his own leggies. Where once there were four powerful pillars holding up his glory and majesty, there were now three bent and twisted traitors with only one loyalist still holding out. Even then there was nothing he could do with it but follow where these traitors pushed him. Worse there was a terrible pain in his special place. It was as though something was pulling at it without touching it. ‘Where are they going?’ He wondered as his three spiteful enemies pushed further into the night. His nostrils flared at the scent of fluffy shit and he tried to push faster to help the traitors get away from here. Wrong again this was the exact moment they stopped and his neck stooped worryingly low. Even his head was getting hard to control only able to turn side by side. He tried to tilt his nose up away from it but that only made him stoop lower. The dark didn’t permit him to see what was around him but he felt a familiar feeling of fluff on his nose. ‘A corpse. Some dummy must have taken forever sleepies and made poopies here.’ He tried again to shove his nose away but the leggies were insistent. He knew exactly what they wanted. He could feel the hurties in his tummy. He knew how patient they would be if he kept fighting. More than he was. He bit down and tried not to think about the taste and the squirming bugs he could feel. ‘It’s just a bad meatball.’ he thought to spare himself. Such comforting lies were becoming more and more common. Calling himself fluffy instead of smarty. Asking for help when he could just take. Believing he could regain control. The legs carried him on deciding he had given them enough strength. He wished he’d bitten them off when he had the chance. They took him for a rare treat going out into the streetlights to cross the road. He had to blink back tears at how bright it was. They were swift as they shot straight across to the next alley. He even heard a voice talking as they passed. The legs normally kept him so far away. It sounded angelic. He relished its every note wishing he could have a mama again.
“Now catch up dear, We don’t want to be late for movie night.” It sang.
“M’gwegow sowwy mummah.” came a reply. Then Liam froze as the legs compensated for his limp limb and kept going. That wasn’t any human voice. He knew that voice. That was his human’s voice.
“Mummah?” he called his tongue half paralyzed from under-use. His legs quickened their pace. “Mummah! Mummah!!” He cried throwing his one leg under the others trying to trip himself. They jumped nimbly over them and broke into a trot. She didn’t react. He wasn’t loud enough! The darkness of the alley approached. ‘No! not now! not while she’s here!’ He pleaded to legs he knew would deny him if they could respond. “Mummah!” He screamed. He threw his leg onto the cruel edge of a wall and gripped it as best his soft hoof pads could. She turned around but she was so far away. His legs were already shaking him free of the brickworks corner. Against his better judgement he bit onto the uncaring stone desperate to stay. “Mm’mmh!” He hummed unable to use his jaw with it being the only thing holding him where she could find him. The legs twisted and jerked. There was so much pain but it would all be worth it if she could just see him. He stared as she turned around a few more times and seeing nothing walked on. ‘no.’ His devastated mind thought. “NUUUUUUUU!” He screamed to the night his legs tearing off into the dark and unknown. He sobbed as long as he was able and his uncaring legs carried him to to a new hiding spot. It was cramped confined and very dark. It seemed to love punishing him with whatever sorry box it could find. He tried to fall asleep as the pain in his special place grew worse and worse. He tried counting the tears he cried to get to sleep but it wasn’t fast enough. He let out a little yelp as the pain reached its final threshold. There was a sickening sound of tearing flesh and fur his skin gave out. As unimaginable as it was he couldn’t help but feel a little relief at the pain finally gave out. He looked behind him to see why it finally stopped and realized his special place had fallen off, torn away from him. ‘Sma-’ he started to argue but fell to the cold comfort of helplessness. ‘Liam no need that anymore. Leggies wouldn’t even let him use it.’ He tried to be rid of the upsetting flap of useless flesh and tore it away with one last painful rip. The pain was gone and that was all that mattered. He sent his last loyal hoof between his legs for some sense of closre on the matter not wanting to know what bloody gore was left of his emasculated frame. To his surprise it found purchase where there should be only raw bloody meat. He brought it back to his nose in horrified curiosity and gagged at a familiar scent of decay and skettis.
Liam woke to another night in the dark. It concerned him how close the dark wiggly things were getting to his face. He tried to convince his legs to join him but even his most stalwart supporter had given in. So little remained of what he could call a normal fluffy life. “Nu am mawe am stawwion.” he said to himself as strange ideas flew around his head. Snippets of deactivated bioengineered programming sprung to life trying to teach mummah songs and impart the importance of babies. He tried to think them away with little luck. He had been smarty once. He had the power to control the world. Now he couldn’t even keep these ugly black tendrils away from his head. He could feel them. Growing. Burrowing. Going deeper. How long he had he didn’t know. Before long they would give everything to her. She walked through the alley excited for what would come next. She wandered out to the rows of housies like where her mama used to live. If only she could see her she would hide from her. Smarty was wrong. She never should have stayed so long. She looked to the lawns of the housies and felt her tummy growling. She looked at all the long unkempt grass. It was tough and even sharp. She gazed disgusted at the soft pretty flowers. They looked so dangerous. She sighed and resigned herself to the rough green grass. It stuck in her throat and she choked a little at the feeling. It really tasted wonderful. She blinked at the thought. Did it taste wonderful? Yes. It really was wonderful wasn’t it. Perhaps not every meal had to be so bad. Still she wished she could be out in the dark time. The light was just so scary. She blinked again confused. ‘But it is dark time.’ Then she shook her head. ’ Dark wasn’t scary at all!’ She tried to go over her thoughts again but they fit together like she shouldn’t be scared. ‘but that makes no sense! It was the light that always made her feel scared. No! Not light! The light always made her feel exposed. Exposed? Was that right? She wasn’t sure she’d even heard the word before but it sounded… right. But then why had she been so sad the days before? Was she just being silly? She was so lost in her train of thought she didn’t even notice the other fluffy out after dark until he spoke to her.
“Hewwo. Nice mawe wan be fwiends? Fwiends awways shawe skettis!” The eager stallion blurted. Had Liam been paying attention she might suspect the true intent of her new false friend.
"Wha’? Wha’ mean mawe? Nu am stawwion, am mawe. The fluffy tilted his head confused.
"Das what fwuffy say… a-nee-way, Yu wan’ be fwiend? Shawe skettis?" He asked hopefully. Unfortunately his pleading fell on deaf ears. Liam sat stunned as the gears in her brain turned. 'Am mare? But am always been mare. Nu am stallion, am mare. Nu am stallion! Nu am stallion! Nu am stallion. Nu… am… stallion…? Am mare? am mare’ She swayed gently with the effort of trying to out-think herself.
“Nu am…” She muttered. The other fluffy waved a hoof trying to get some kind of response.
“Hewwo? Nyu fwiend…?” He asked trying to trick the mare into accepting.
“Huh? Yu wan sumfing? Speciaw fwiend?” Liam responded still out of it. The fluffy hadn’t expected such a reaction but saw no harm.
“…Suwe yu shawe skettis now?” Liam shook her head. ‘A mare. She really was a mare. as far as special friends go at least this one was ugly. She jumped in shock suddenly realizing how this fluffy looked. Why on earth had she said yes?’ There was a sudden taste of bile as sickie wawas fell from her mouth looking at this fluffy creature. ‘Not for her.’
“Sowwy, nu wan yu speciaw fwiend. Tuu ugwy.” The fluffy gasped in astonishment and stamped his hooves.
“Wook nu wan be yu smewwy speciaw fwiend tuu. Now gib skettis!” Liam was confused.
“What skettis?” The fluffy stood in shocked silence and screamed as he ran off hoping to never see this insane fluffy again.
Liam ventured on finding herself in a familiar place, following a familiar scent. She passed the faded sign seeing the dried blood. There was paint sprayed over it and a charred corpse nearby. ‘I never got to thank her.’ She thought. It really was a perfect nest. It was dark so it was safe, it was hidden where humans never looked so they couldn’t attack her, and it was wet so it wouldn’t dry out her babies. The thought surprised her. babies?She didn’t even have a special friend. But then she smelled them. The far wall untouched by the flame. She walked up to them and curious malevolent tentacles reached out to her. She turned around both fearful of what was to come and knowing precisely their intent. They slapped wetly against her feeling their way rather than relying on smell. ‘God they’re slimy! it feels amazing!’ The violating appendages found their mark and even she couldn’t deny the pain of their work. It was mercifully brief the unwanted sensation being shut down by her true master. She could still feel them wriggling away and even without the pain of knowing what was happening she still felt happy. 'No! This waswonderful. She should be happy, or happy, or happy. Anything butupset. She felt a bloated feeling as they completed their dark work. Waves of pleasure were forced over her as she squirmed from the feeling. 'This is going to happen again. I’ll have so many beautiful babies. More and more fluffies will get to feel all this. Tears flowed down Liam’s face for the last time. 'This was going to be an amazing experience. And there was nothing she could do to stop it.