Princess Celestia looks down upon her table, a stack of pancakes topped with chantilly and a fresh fruit smile greets her, she grasps her tea cup in her hooves and elegantly takes a sip of the cold orange juice within, she opens her mouth and a small fork carrying a piece of the confection enters her mouth.
“mmm Delicious, my compliments to the chef.” She says looking at her and her mother’s owner, knowing full well she was the one to personally cook it today, in response she gets a small smile, though Felicia does not look away from her notebook.
Celestia once again opens her mouth, and her caretaker, Jenny, carefully feeds her a slice of banana.
This goes on until the alicorn fluffy is done eating her fluffy sized breakfast.
“Thank you Jenny.” Celestia says before getting up from her stool and heading to the bathroom to clean her mouth, after all, it wouldn’t do for Princess Celestia to have bad breath would it?
“Delicious, my compliments to the chef.”
You smile at hearing that, not due to the empty and sarcastic compliment, but to the pride of having taught the little golem how to speak without that saccharine and embarrassing lisp. You remember your infancy and your own Princess Celestia, the grandmother of this third one, the last official Hasbio Alicorn to ever be delivered, just a week before the labs were officially closed for investigation.
You spent so much time with your little friend, you ended up, to quote your mother, catching her lisp and vocabulary.
It’s still embarrassing even after those 18 years.
But the by then only half a year old alicorn was more embarrassed than you ever could have been, she was the one who asked to be taught how to spekisies gud so nuh embawasies widwe mummah, and after a long year of training, she ended up learning indeed, even if she never got nearly as good as this one, but it was more than enough, first to make her a sensation amongst your friends, them their rich parents and them the whole fluffy market.
Yes, it was YOUR Princess Celestia that was in all the commercials, all the fluffyTV shows and official pageants. The Princess Celestia belonging to Hasbio Chief Scientist Officer’s granddaughter.
You loved her so much, and so you trained, or at least tried to, her daughters and granddaughters the same as her, yet only two celestias, the Second and Third Princess Celestias, where actually successful, many litters failled to produce an alicorn, many alicorns did not display the same dedication, fewer still where of the right coloration. You remember how they almost ended up prepping up a Twilight Sparkle to replace your Princess, even if they would have to paint her mane.
But luckily, those two where successful, and your little angel has a fluffy companion that will never cause her any embarrassment.
‘The little tike can do that by herself.’ You think, and you smile turns real.
“Thank you Jenny.” You hear before the impact of the golden plastic and rubber
fluffyshoes hitting the ground.
As soon as the current Princess Celestia leaves the room, you lift your head and look at the assistant. “Is everything checked for today?”
“Yes ma’am, the drivers are ready, the cleaning staff is here and your husband and daughter have already boarded the plane, though he has made a sudden change of plans to take a three hour layover so he can take miss Angela to see the Eiffel Tower.”
“Of course he did.” You say rubbing your temples. This was not nice, you two didn’t really have a schedule for today, but the delay would eat at your planned ‘alone time’ before you went to that stupid party his coworker invited you two to. “I guess we’ll change things somewhat, inform the daycare to take Celly and her siblings to the fluffy park before dusk, just don’t tell her anything about the delay and she’s not even going to notice.”
_
Guarded by armed security, constantly attended by an army of caretakers overseen by veterinarian doctors and catered by real chefs, one couldn’t even put their fluffies in any daycare of the club without a recommendation, no matter the amount of money they would be willing to pay.
Fluffies may have fallen out of the graces of the general public, but they were never intended for the masses, they are built to function as pets and friends for the children of the elite or surrogate children for the old and wealthy, for the doctors and bankers, the CEO’s and Politicians.
A well trained fluffy can express it’s thankfulness verbally in ways no dog or cat can, it does not go through rebellious teenager phases, it is always ready to give and receive affection, it takes it’s mummah and daddeh’s words as divine commands.
It is the perfect companion for the controlling or vain, the lonely or neglected. And as such, they still retain their intended place in high society.
_
It had come, the worst time of Celestia’s day: Speaking to the common fluffies of the daycare. Well, as ‘common’ as one can be there.
She relaxes. “Good mowning my wittwe fwuffies.” The fluff speak comes naturally. According to her mother, a fluffy never really gets used to talking right, Celestia would much rather continue speaking like she has trained to do, but even to the well trained fluffies of the club, the uncanny appearance of an alicorn added by the uncannyness of a fluffy speaking like a human would be too much, as she learned once.
It had driven her unicorn sister into a panic induced catatonic trance and left her with a phobia of the celestia variation that would reduce her to a terrified sobbing mess every time she saw one.
Even other alicorns reacted to it like a normal fluffy reacts to alicorns, at least before help and training to get used to it.
“Good mowning Pwincess Cewestia!” Greeted the chorus of fluffy voices as Celestia pranced as elegantly as fluffyly possible to her throne of cushions overlooking the play area.
As she laid down, the fluffies came to her through out the day so she could resolve their conflicts.
“Pwincess, Mawshemawow nut shawe stuffy-fwend” Said Sunflower.
Celestia sees Marshmallow is hugging the toy while in tears with her back to the corner. The pure white mare is pudgy even for a fluffy, she is owned by the elderly widow of a Judge, and Celestia knows what the problem is at a glance, so she turns to look at the petitioner.
“Mawshmawow just misses her mommy, twy giving huggies to fwuffy an not stuffy-fwend?”
“Thankyu Pwincess! Sunfwawer gonna give bestest huggies to sad fwuffy”
Celestia does not even need to watch the result, she goes on and asks the next one in line, and so she resolves the fluffies vapid disputes and complaints.
Celestia trully hates fluffies with all her little heart, they remind her of what she is.
Yes, she is a genius, an exemplar of restraint and elegance.
But the smartest fluffy is still a fluffy.
They are simple, they do the same thing all the time, “The same song and dance everyday.” she had heard Jenny say once.
No matter how much she trains, how long she studies, how much effort she spends, she will never be able to keep pace with her best friend.
Little Angela is the opposite of Celestia, she is unruly where Celestia is obedient, spoiled where Celestia seldom asks for anything and slobbish where Celestia is a neat freak.
She is the one thing Celestia loves above life itself.
When Celestia first saw Angela, she only thought of her as the way of staying with her own mother, “Learn to speak right and you get to be Angela’s friend and live here with me and your mom.” Felicia had said, that had been all the motivation you needed.
As time passed, Celestia and Angela became inseparable, Celestia would always try to keep Angela out of trouble, and when Angela was caught and punished, she always felt as she was being punished too, she’d ask to get the sorry-stick instead when Angela would get slapped in the butt, she followed Angela to the sorry-corner when the girl was put in time out, and would close her eyes whenever Angela did something naughty so she would not be lying when saying she didn’t see anything, she would even try to take the blame when possible.
Angela did not take this loyalty for granted, even if she did not care about cleanliness, she would aways brush the alicorns mane and tail. Even if she didn’t want to eat veggies, the fluffy would look at her with a sad face and guilt her into it.
She paid attention in class and did her homework only so she could play with Celestia and bring the fluffy on vacations.
But she is growing up, she has made friends in school, and would often get home too late to play with Celestia.
And soon, she would look at the alicorn as a memory of the past, an embarrassing one at that.
It happened with Grandma Celestia and your Mommie Celestia, so she said, even Felicia told you as much in one of the rare conversations you two had.
Celestia saw it happening sometimes, a fluffy that never shows up again, a new fluffy from the same owner or a fluffy that was passed to another owner, every time, the staff would do their best to take the fluffies minds out of it, Celestia and many of the other alicorns never forgot it.
_
You are smarty Hewion, your herd has to find nummies and a safe place, but all you find around is more and more buildings, and not even one grassy-nummie anywhere.
The no-smell-pretty-nummie-boxies are keeping you all feed, but a dozen adult fluffies and their foals are a conspicuous sight, and more than once have you had to run for meanie humins and munstas.
But things are about to change.
“Smawtie, smawtie, Cweamew find big grassie pwacie wid wotsa nummies fow hewd.” One of the sneakie-fluffies comes back to you, carrying red-nummies on a a stained muzzle.
“Weawy? Speshaw fwiend find gud nummies for soon mummah?” Asks the happy immobile mare, shaking her legs while looking at the berries her partner dropped in front of her.
You quickly run over and grab the red fruits in your mouth. “Smawtie Speshaw fween nee nummies fow make bestest milkies fow smawtie babbies, yuh geh nummies when hewd find nummie pwace.” You tell them matter-of-factly before going to drop the berries for your own speshaw fwiend while the scout and his mate look at you with tears in their eyes.
“Buh Smawtie, speshaw fwiend nu can make wawkies, am mummah soon, nee nummies.”
You grab some of the yellow-flower-nummies and put them near the pregnant mare. “Mawe has this nummies tiw sneakie fwiend show nummie pwace tu hewd, them come backsies to gibe wed nummies to dummie nu move mawe.”
_
The gated park used to be an abandoned lot in the middle of the city, it had been bought and renovated to be a natural sanctuary for the fluffies of the rich and middle class, beautiful well trimmed grass, plentiful edible berry bushes, a shallow artificial lake/pool of clean water coming only to half the legs of a fluffy at it’s most deep and gated by wooden fences that blocked the sight to keep fluffies from being stolen.
In the bottom of one of the planks,just behind a big trash can, a hole of rotted wood existed, normally it would not be noticed, as the rectangular metal box stayed in contact with the fence, but today, the garbage collector was in a hurry and left a gap big enough for a feral fluffy to pass through.
_
It was lunch time in the fluffy daycare, everyfluffy was sitting in rows, waiting for the staff to bring them their plates.
As always, they were served the official Hasbio Sketti recipe: fresh whole grain pasta mixed with vegetable spaghetti, tomato sauce with ground chuck and liver meatballs served with sweetened citrus fruit juice as desert.
While staff put down the plates, the fluffies waited nervously for the signal, only when every fluffy had a plate in front of it, did the chief of staff give the signal.
With two quick claps of her hands, every single fluffy quickly started eating the pasta plate, staining ther muzzles with red.
Every single fluffy exept Celestia, who has never been seen in the dining room.
_
Sometimes the fluffies would sleep in the daycare, for some reason or the other, they would all make a nice fluffypile as it’s the way of their kind, only this Celestia did not, in one of her rare requests, she asked for a separate room for herself, and so the staff ceded a spare storeroom for her, she would also eat there, with the help of her personal caretaker.
Jenny did not complain in sleeping there with Celestia when needed, in facf the sofa-bed they put there was more comfortable than her old matress by miles, and even if she had to provide her own food, her boss would pay her a generous bonus when she did, not that this would happen today.
It was time for her to hand feed her charge.
The food tray is brought in by Maria, who also brings Jenny her lunch too, the hispanic caretaker was one of the friendlier and considerate staff member, and would always remember to grab Jenny’s meal.
It was a truly astonishing thing, Celestia’s diet, only about two forkfuls of the pasta dish, twice as much boiled carrots and cauliflower, most frightening of all, filet mignon, a real steak, made out of real meat from a cow.
Jenny’s family had never been able to afford a real cut of bovine meat, she was lucky when she could eat ground beef burgers on her birthday, and here it was, the most prized of meats, being feed to a Fucking Fluffy.
She had nearly fainted the first time she saw it, she always thought the little princess just got more spaghetti than the othes, the truth was simply outrageous.
Celestia chewed with eyes closed, the tender meat melting on her fragile teeth.
Once more, it was time for her’s and Jenny’s little ritual.
It started simple enough, on Jenny’s first day, the alicorn easily noticing the look of despair on the girls face as she feed her.
“mmm I think I’ll finish eating the veggies before moving to the rest.” Celestia had said, her plan to earn the woman’s love already clear in her mind.
“mmm thank you Jenny, but I think there is not much space left on fluffy’s belly, can you please eat the rest of the food before giving me the pasta? Celestia is not supposed to eat the pasta before she is done, but fluffy still full from breakfast.” With luck, the woman would not be startled enough to let her switch to ‘fluffy’ pass.
Jenny indeed did not let the detail pass through her, she was trained to look out for the common ‘tell’ after all, but she could not understand WHY the damned fluffy would do that. She was warned that this alicorn was smarter than average, but was it really as devious as to ploy for her to b fired? But why would she even do it? Surely she could have just told the boss she didn’t like her and got her switched with another worker. Not like she volunteered for that particular position, it didn’t even pay extra!
‘Come on Jenny, it IS just a fluffy, just ask directly.’ Jenny thought.
“Celestia, why are you lying? Do you just want to eat the pasta first or…?”
Celestia look away and smiled, before saying with a sad voice and a downcast look, tears starting to formon her big eyes. “Celestia saw Jenny sad, wants you to try food too, Celestia don’t want to be mean, a good fluffy shares.”
Jenny is moved, her heart tightens, here she was thinking the spoiled princess would be just another self centered brat. “Princess, it’s okay, here, just forget it and eat some of the spaghetti.” But the alicorn keep her mouth closed, the effort was monumental, but she would not have been chosen as Princess Celestia if she could not pass a simple delayed reward test.
“If Jenny won’t eat, Celestia not hungry too.”
Jenny could not believe this was happening, if she failled to feed her charge, she would be told off and swapped any way, if there’s was spaghetti of all things left in the plate, she’d be on the streets faster than she could say ‘sketti’.
And so she ate.
Even if it was luckwarm, even if it was almost well done, it melted on her mouth and straight to her heart, while she was eating filet, Celestia noozled her, making cooing sounds.
Jenny realized she had tears on her face.
Every day the same would happen, the fluffy would refuse to eat half the meat, would refuse to eat the pasta before Jenny finished whatever was that days meat cut.
And after both had finished their meals, Celestia would fall asleep on Jenny’s lap as the young woman petted her mane, no choice but to accompany the fluffy in her nap time.
Celestia had a reason beyond kindness for doing it, Jenny was not the brightest human and she had a habit of saying things she shouldn’t really say to fluffies. Celestia had caught that from the months when Jenny was one of the common caretakers, when the old lady Edna was her personal caretaker still, and had specifically mentioned her as ‘the kind orange hair lady’ when asked about a substitute.
Her wounded stare at discovering Celestia special meal was a stroke of extremely good luck, one the Princess was quick to capitalize on.
Jenny was a trove of information, she told Celestia things the sheltered fluffy would never have imagined, things that would get Jenny blacklisted should it be discovered she had taught it to her and poisoned her mind.
Things like the status of the common fluffy, of special hugs, fluffy breeding and selling, the abuse, ferals, how bad colored fluffies where mistreated by their own kind, of snake food and meat grinders, the economy, how the majority of humans actually lived.
The only question Jenny never truly answered was “What is a fluffy?”
_
The herd followed one by one the lead of the scout, Creamer crawled bellow cars, cut paths in alleyways, and signaled for the others to wait for the vroom-vroom munstas to stop before crossing, that was the most dangerous time, when a fluffy moves alone they can be ignored, when the herd moves it draws unwanted attention.
_
Hellion looks at his surroundings beyond the hole in the planks, the former domestic is dumbstruck at the plentifulness of red nummies and nest spaces, it was a true fluffy paradise.
_
Celestia is surprised at being told she got time in the park just for and her siblings before Angela gets home. It could only be better if her mother was there as well.
They even allowed her to go in the padded safe car with the others, she liked her siblings and cousins even if they were fluffies, because at least she could talk right in their presence.
“Lunarius, how are things going with your special friend back home?” She asked her blue on dark blue brother.
“Nightmawe is soon mummah again, wast foaws had no awicowns, but aw wewe nice and behaved, even bwown cowt was adopted by nice wadie fwom coffee shop.”
The cocky stallion said, but you feel the relief in his statement, there was nothing worse to the elite alicorns than having one of their foals sold, adopted pedigree foals were all well cared for, their owners being granted club membership, many would even get to see their parents again, either at the daycare or in parties.
Celestia goes silent, for the first time of her life, the two years old mare wonders when she would have children of her own.
