The peony flower is seen as sacred to the feral fluffies and herds that have lived out there long enough to witness this plant in action, it is said that these flowers grow near fluffy nest frequently and are prettier than usual when growing in these places, the beliefs of the fluffies say that this plant must not be damaged or eaten in order to not be the target of its “wrath” and the oldest herds have even started to worship the flowers in hopes of receiving a blessing for their future generations.
Of course not every fluffy believes or cares enough about these superstitions and will eat the plant to show the herd how fake are all the stories of the old fluffies, of course these defying fluffies are young smarties that either take over a herd or are the ones with the right to lead for being part of the previous smarty’s bloodline, this action has all sort of reactions but from fluffies that have already seen this the only reaction is a look of sadness and pity towards the smarty.
What happens if the sacred peony is eaten by a foolish fluffy? The old ones say that the mother plant of the flower will give the herd a week to prepare “sacred soil” wich is the place where the smarty will be buried after the week passes, after a week the smarty will start to feel a piercing pain in the inside of the stomach, this is a sing that the ritual must start.
The ritual consist of a toughie pinning down the smarty and two old worshippers of the original plant crippling the smarty by dislocating it’s legs or directly breaking them, depending on how much they take the smarty might start to convulse uncontrollably and have twitchy eyes, when this starts the smarty must be buried alive in the “sacred soil” for the new peony to be born and grow from the smarty’s insides.
Once this is done the herd has to wait another week, the old ones say that if a young sprout comes from the place where the smarty was buried then the original peony has accepted their ritual and has granted them forgiveness.
If the ritual it’s not done in time or at all the original peony will wither away and a series of misfortunes will start happening, some old fluffies said that “Dah wowstes’ sickies ouw hewd has ebah had happen’ aftah we ignowed dah wose of ouw nest’s peony” and that herd is banned from ever returning to that nest by the beliefs of the older fluffies wich usually get the lead of the herd if there is no more bloodline of the previous smarty.
Other effects of the peony curse are infertility among mares, more stillborn or runt foals, scarce food and water and in cases of extreme disrespect a predator invasion that usually ends with the death of every fluffy except for the worshippers of the old peony, wich will end in another herd, they all believe that they are able to be alive and find another herd with the only purpose of not letting another peony die to a smarty’s arrogance.