You are an unnamed yellow and orange filly, and you lived in the most wonderful grassy place! Every morning when the bright ball turned on you would wake up your siblings so you could be the first to the nummy place, a large flat trough that would fill with the most delicious nummies every morning! Then normally you and your siblings would play with your toys in the soft not-nummie grass until you got tired. Your mummah and daddeh would sometimes join in! One time you even got to play huggie tag with Smarty Orange! He’s a big orange unicorn, and he’s been smarty for many forevers.
“Hewd gatha ‘wound toysie box!” Smarty Orange called out just after everyone had eaten. Your heart leapt into your chest, the last time Smarty Orange called everyone over was when it was time for the Namesie Trial! You watched another group of foals leave, hoping to get their names and come home with special friends! You hadn’t seen them since, the trial must take a long time!
The other fluffies in your herd made their way over, you quickly found your mummah and daddeh.
“Am it tiem fo’ twiaw?!” Your brown and blue sister asked, prancing up to your daddeh’s side.
“Tink su. Fwuffy babbehs am babbehs nu mowe, am big!” He replied.
You squealed with excitement, hugging her tightly. You were going to get a name! Your green and yellow brother wrapped his hooves around your other side, smiling widely.
“Today am ‘powtant day!” Smarty Orange said once the herd had gathered around him. “Today am day wen fiwwies become mawes and cowts become stawwions!”
“HOOWAY!” Cheered the herd, and you were practically vibrating with excitement.
“Wosie an’ Awthuw, bwing yu babbehs up!”
Your Daddeh grinned at you, scooting you forward with his nose. You scampered up to sit in front of Smarty Orange, your sister on one side and brother on the other.
“Dese babbehs am nu wongah babbehs.” Smarty Orange lifted his hoof above you. “Smarty say dey am weady fo’ Namesie Twiaw!”
“TWIAW! TWIAW!” the herd cheered behind you. You could hear daddeh chanting with them just behind you, but not your mummah.
Smarty Orange jumped off the toy box and started towards the far wall of the grassy place. You turned to your mummah to see her curled into your daddeh’s dark brown fluff, sniffling softly.
“What am wong, Mummah?” Your sister asked.
“Jus’… Gun miss babbehs…” Mummah mumbled, you strained to hear her over the happy shouts of her herd.
“Babbehs cum back!” You cried, wrapping your hooves around her. “Babbehs am be bwave an’ smawty an’-”
“An bwuddah pwotec!” Your brother interjected, joining in on the group hug.
Daddeh wrapped his hooves around all of you, squeezing tightly. “Wiww nu see babbehs again, wiww see gwown up fwuffies!”
“Babbehs cum hewe, it am tiem!” Smarty Orange called.
You gave your mummah a last kiss on the cheek. “Wiww be quickies, Mummah. Nu make yu wait wong.”
Mummah didn’t reply, continuing to sniffle into your daddeh’s shoulder. He unwrapped his hooves from your family and gave your brother a soft push towards Smarty Orange. “Gu maek Daddeh pwoud.”
You waved over your shoulder as you marched towards your destiny, making sure to catch the eye of one of the smaller foals of the herd. She grinned and waved back.
“Wen Smawty push button, doow open.” He explained, pointing to a big red circle on the blue wall. “Gu thwough, den Namesie Twiaw begin.”
His hoof pressed the red circle in, and a small part of the wall slid open. It was just large enough for you to step through if you ducked your head.
“Wet bwuddah gu fiwst.” Your brother said, pushing past you and ducking through the doorway. He was much taller than you and needed to crouch slightly to make it through. You nudged your sister forward, deciding to take up the rear in case you needed to protect from anything scary.
Once you were fully through the door there was a small grinding noise as it slid shut behind you, the cheers of your family cutting off and leaving you in a small, dimly lit tunnel that slowed down slightly.
“Whewe am?” Your sister asked.
“Nu knu, bu’ fowwow bwuddah.”
You slowly crept down the tunnel together for what felt like forever until it opened up into a larger, dark room. Your brother stopped in the center of the room, sniffing and looking around. You stuck close to your sister.
There was a loud click that made you jump, and three doorways lit up on the wall to your right.
“Enter the doorways, one fluffy in each door.” A loud voice said.
“Hewwo?” Your sister called into the darkness. “Babbehs am hewe tu get namesies!”
There was no reply from the strange voice.
Your brother trotted over to the doorway, sticking his head in and looking around. “Nu see dangew in-” there was a loud snap as a mesh door slammed shut behind him.
“BWUDDAH!” you cried, rushing to him. The holes in the mesh were too small for even your hoof to fit through.
“Good fluffy.” The strange voice said. “Now the rest of you.”
“Pwease gib bwuddah back!” You called to the strange voice. Your sister curled into a ball on the floor in the middle of the room, hooves over her eyes.
“Go into the doorway, be a good fluffy.” The voice said.
You chewed your lip for a moment, looking around for the source of the voice.
“Nu am huwt.” Your brother said, pushing his hoof against yours. “Maybe… am pawt of Twiaw?”
“… Otay, nice voicey….” You said, slowly stepping into the doorway next to your brother. There was more mesh between your little room and his, so you could still see him. Your door slammed shut as well, sending a shock of terror through your chest.
“Good fluffy.” The voice said again. “Now the brown one, go through the door.”
Your sister continued to tremble there on the floor, hooves over her head.
“Nu am huwty, sissy!” You called to her. “Am safe, am Twiaw!!”
You could hear her whimpering but not quite make out what she was saying.
“If you don’t go through the doorway, you’re a bad fluffy.” The voice said into the darkness.
“Nu be bad fwuffy, sissy!” Your brother cried. “Cum to doow!!”
But your sister didn’t move. You pressed yourself against the mesh. “Pwease, nice voicie, wet fwuffy out su can get sissy!”
The voice didn’t reply. For a very long forever you and your brother pleaded with your sister to come over, to be a good fluffy. You promised that nothing bad had happened to you. She didn’t even take her hooves of her face.
Suddenly the door next to you slammed shut without anything inside. The lights suddenly became very bright, and you could see many little doorways like yours all around the room, with mesh doors closed in front of them. A very large door opened, and a giant human with all black fluff came in. Your sister screeched and ran, trying to find the doorway you came from.
“Oh, come on…” the human growled, pulling a long stick out with a loop on the end. “Why do I always get the difficult ones?”
He extended the long stick, looping the end around your sister’s head and yanking her into the air.
“SISSY!” your brother cried. You watched in horror as her eyes bugged out of her head, her hooves pawed uselessly at the black cord tight around her neck.
The human pushed something on the wall and the door next to your little cage opened. He shoved your sister in, you rushed to her as the meanie stick released her neck.
“Sissy!” You tried to reach through the mesh to hug her, but it just wouldn’t give.
You heard the human leave, but you couldn’t look away from your sister. You could see her breathing, which soothed you slightly but she wasn’t moving otherwise.
“Am sissy Otay?!” Your brother asked.
“Nu knu…” you replied.
There was another loud noise, and the back wall of your little room lit up. You blinked, trying to get your eyes to adjust to the light. You could see more mesh separating you from a very well lit white room, with lots of shiny silver surfaces.
Another door opened and there was another human! A nice lady with her brown not-mane tied up behind her head. You immediately felt better, this nice lady would protect you from the meanie mister!
“Hm…” she made some scribbles on a pad of paper. “Good weight on the male, good temperament as well.”
“Hewwo, nice wady.” You greeted her, giving your best smile. “Am hab namsie nao?”
“Not yet. You still have to be tested.” She made a few more scribbles on the paper before looking up at you. “Are you a good fluffy?”
“Yus!” You replied.
“Only the best fluffies get names and special friends.” The nice lady said with no emotion in her voice.
“Den am bestest fwuffies!” Your brother said proudly.
“No.” The lady hooked her fingers in the mesh of your sister’s cage. “This one is a bad fluffy.”
Your sister whimpered quietly as the lady pulled her cage out, taking her across the room.
“Sissy am jus’ scawdie! Nu mean be bad!!” You called.
You couldn’t see what the nice lady was doing with her back to you, but your heard your sister yelp.
“Be guud fo’ nice wady, sissy!” Your brother yelled.
“Yus, nice wady am nicey to guud fwu-”
CA-CHUNK!
“SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!”
A loud noise cut you off, followed by your sister’s pained screech. You felt the scardie poopies land on the metal floor behind you as your hooves began to shake.
The lady lifted a shiny thing into the air.
CA-CHUNK! CA-CHUNK CA-CHUNK!
You didn’t like that noise. Whatever it was made your sister scream like nothing you’d ever heard. In the grassy place you grew up in no one ever had more than a bruise, only once had you seen boo-boo juice when your brother ran into the wall and banged his nose. Now you could see more than you every thought a fluffy contain splattered on the table.
“NU NU NU NU PWEASE!” she pleaded. “AM GUUD FW- GAK!” She made a loud choking noise and the lady stepped back from the table.
Your sister was a bloody mess, her limbs sitting in a small pile behind her. Her eyes were bloodshot with pain, but any expression of that was cut off by a large clear tube going into her mouth. You could see her trying to cough it up, but she made no progress. You begged your see places to look at something, anything else, but they were locked on your poor, limbless sister suffering on the table.
“Wai… Wai take sissy weggies?!” Your brother asked.
“Because she wasn’t a good fluffy. She doesn’t need them where she’s going.” The lady said casually, sweeping the legs off the counter and into a bin with one hand. “She’s going to eat and eat and eat through that tube until she’s nice and fat, and then we’ll take her apart to eat her liver.”
“Wha’…” You asked. What was a liver? Why did humans want hers?
“Us humans are going to eat her.” The lady said again. “And we eat lots and lots of bad fluffies.”
“Am… am guud fwuffy…?” Your brother asked quietly.
“You seem to be a very good fluffy so far. Not sure about your sister.” The lady pointed at you, and you shrank back. “But, if you prove that you’re a good fluffy you can go back to the grassy place you came from.”
“Fwuffies be guud!” Your brother replied. “How pwoobe?”
“Well, if you are a good fluffy you’ll get a name and a special friend. When you have babies they’ll come in here and if they’re not good babies…” she trailed off, looking at your sister, gagged and mutilated on the table. “We will eat them.”
“…Wai?” You asked, horrified. “Fwuffies am fo’ wub an’ huggies an’-”
“Because we can. That’s the trade off. You get to live a long, happy life with a name and a special friend, your babies come to us to get eaten.”
“Dat… dat am…” you didn’t have words for what that was.
“Den… fwuffy jus’ gu backsies?” Your brother asked. “Nu huwties fo’ guud fwuffy?”
“Mh-hm. With a name, and a pretty mare. All you have to do is let your babies come to us.”
You stared at him, horrified. “Bwuddah…”
“Am nu pwetty ting buh’… Wan bu guud fwuffy. Wan win twiaw.” He said. “Wiww du, nice wady.”
“Then you are a good fluffy!” The lady said, picking up the papers. “Your name will be Garland, and I’ll go grab your new friend in just a second.”
“Bwuddah!! Nu!! Dis nu am guud ting!! Nu wan babbehs tu hab huwties! Nu wan sissy to hab huwties!!” You tried to reason with him. “Bwuddah nu see sissy huwties?!”
“Gawwand…” He stared at the legless brown fluffy for a moment. “Gawwand see bad fwuffy. Nu cawe.” He turned away dismissively.
“And you, little girl, made bad poopies.” You jumped as the lady jabbed into your cage with her pen, sending you stumbling back into the feces. “That’s not what good fluffies do.”
“Bad fwuffy! Bad!” Your brother said as your cage was pulled out into the hurty room.
“Nu!! Am be guud!” You pleaded.
“Yeah, too late for that. Lucky for you, you get to keep your weggies.” she said in a mocking tone as you were dropped into a small cart. “Let me go get your new friend and you two can get to know each other.”
She left the room for a moment, returning with a cage containing orange and yellow filly, almost a perfect inverse of your colors. “This is Milly, she’s from a different Grassy Place than you.”
“Hewwo, pwetty mawe!” You felt like you were going to be sick at how excited he sounded. You watched the lady slot the cage in the slot you were in moments ago. She was replacing you, this new mare would go back to your herd, eat your nummies and play with your toys.
The lady tossed your sister roughly into the cart next to you, you tried to reach through the cage for her but the metal still wouldn’t yield to your shaking hooves. She pushed the cart out the door, and down a short hallway.
“Nice wady… fwuffy nu wan’ be nummies…” you said softly.
“Sucks for you.” the lady said, pushing the cart into a dark closet. “Nighty night!”
The door slammed shut behind you, and you yelped as you were plunged into true darkness. You could hear your sister struggling and grunting around the tube down her throat, and then a weird hissing noise. The air smelled weird, and suddenly you were so heavy…
“So the main pastures are in here, this is one way glass.” You are Daniel Turner, owner of Rainbow Acres Biotoy Production, giving a tour of the inner workings of your new fluffy feedlot. “As you can see, these fluffies live in complete bliss, with every of their needs met. They’re kept in herds that allow for natural behaviors, we carefully set up breeding pairs for both genetics and temperament to ensure everyone is happy. It’s the cutting edge of humane meat production, a life of luxury and one bad day.”
Down on the fake grass below you, a green stallion and an orange mare were making their introduction to their herd.
“How does the slaughter work then?” A woman in a sharp suit asked. “Do you cull the whole herd at once?”
“No, once the foals are grown the herd willingly releases them to us. We pick new breeders from those, and send the rest to finishing.”
“And what does finishing entail?” A balding man asked.
You waved dismissively. “Nothing too interesting I assure you. They get put in pens to eat as much as they can before slaughter. Think standard feedlots, but set up for fluffies. Better food, lots of friends, all those creature comforts.”
“Is that something we could see?”
“I tried, I really did.” You gave the man a sympathetic look. “The guys on the floor told me that the risk of product contamination is too high, if any of us happened to be carrying something like the flu it could destroy our whole stock.” You shook your head. “I tried to reason with them but that’s what I get for having such strict safety protocols.”
You let the investors watch the happy fluffies hug and play for a minute longer before continuing. “That’s our tour, though. I’ll lead you back-”
“Uhm, Mr. Turner?” a young man in pink coveralls leaned into the room. “Gabe said he wanted to talk to you.”
“Ah, duty calls!” You gave the group an apologetic smile. “Freddy here can take you back to the lobby, so sorry that I can’t see you out!”
You patted him on the shoulder as you turned down the hallway, letting the smile fall from your face. Fucking investors. It was never enough to show them the numbers, they always wanted to see how the sausage got made. Thankfully you had arranged for someone to come “interrupt” you if this fucking tour dragged on for too long. You stopped at a door marked FINISHING and put on a mask from the bin next to it before entering.
The din of the finishing floor was nearly deafening, as loud as any other factory. The only difference was the type of noise, rather than the clanks and whirrs of metal machinery it was the cries and whines of miserable fluffies. Row after row of tiny cages just large enough to house the Biotoy within them were stacked up to your shoulders, their heads sticking out of the front so they could eat from the trough of fluffy feed in front of them. That was all they got to do. They had no room to move, their cages were just large enough to fit a standing fluffy. You didn’t need to worry about litterboxes when the biotoys were immobile as their waste dropped onto a conveyor belt that fed it to the manure processing plant. On either side of the cage were plastic blinders to prevent any sort of interaction with the fluffies next to them, not that they could hear anything over the chorus of biotoy misery echoing around the room. The only activity they had to entertain themselves was eating, and eat they did. This setup had them at slaughter weight a full 20% faster than your competitors.
“Danny!” Gabriel Nuvares, Finishing Production Manager yelled over the noise as he waved you down.
“Thank you!” You replied, jogging over to him.
“Eh,” he waved you off. “Just remember this when you sign my bonus.”
You chuckled as he placed a cage containing a terrified yellow fluffy into a slot. You could see the creature’s lips moving but with so many voices overlapping you couldn’t make out what she was saying even if you cared. Gabe hooked up the feed pipe and a rush of brown and yellow mush spilled into the trough in front of her.
“Eat.” Gabe said firmly.
The fluffy stared at him, bottom lip trembling.
“Eat!” Gabe snapped, and the fluffy burst into tears. He rolled his eyes, pulling a thin black baton off his belt. “One last chance, EAT.”
The fluffy blubbered something through her tears. Gabe jabbed the baton through the bars of her cage and into her belly.
“SCREEEEEEE!” you could hear her scream over the noise, flinching at the volume.
“EAT!” Gabe yelled, pulling the prod back.
The fluffy shoved her muzzle into the mush, sucking it down as quickly as she could.
“Are they all this stupid?” You asked.
“Eh, most of them need at least one jab.” He replied, slapping the prod against his hand. “Did you get that surveillance system I sent you?”
“Too expensive.” You shook your head. “Cheaper to pay your boys to keep watch.”
“Ah. Understandable. Might want to bump the pay then, this is a shit job.”
“I’ll see what I can do. Is my side project set up yet?”
“First units went in today!” He jabbed the fluffy one more time, a muffled scream bubbling up from its slop. “Right this way!”
You followed him down the rows of miserable fluffies crying into their mush, pausing every once in a while to watch him jab one that wasn’t eating fast enough for his liking. It was easy to tell which fluffies were ready for “harvest”, the fat rolls of their neck would spill out through the bars of their cages.
“Here, we didn’t hear back from you for what you wanted this department called.” He opened an unlabeled door to a smaller room.
“Best to stay nameless for now. Not sure how my more… emotional investors feel.”
As the door clicked shut behind you the noise of fluffy voices was shut off with it. This room had nothing but small grunts and the low hum of machinery.
“These are the foal gras producers, as the boys on the floor have taken to calling them.” He slapped the side of one of the cages, causing a teary brown fluffy inside to jump.
“I saw the designs, were there any changes?” You looked the fluffy over, watching an oily liquid move slowly down the tube and into the fluffy’s stomach. It wiggled its still bloody stumps at you, as if you would save it from this place.
“Nope, but Tricia wants to talk to you about the waste removal system.”
“What’s wrong with it?”
“Well,” Gabe crossed his arms, tapping his foot lightly. “The high fat content of the feed is going to lead to more… liquid waste. The belts will get gummed up.”
“Hm.” You looked over the adapted set up, the usual feed trough replaced with a metal pipe to connect to the tube going into the fluffy. “I’ll look into it.”
“She said she found something called a Washroom, she seemed really excited about it.” Gabe chuckled darkly. “God knows what sort of hell would make her that excited.”
“Yeah, I’ll go talk to her about it. Thanks for the distraction.”
You left the room of legless, gagged fluffies, lost in thought. The fluffies in the finishing area were certainly not as happy as you made them out to be, but they looked good wrapped in plastic and sitting at the grocery store, so what did you care about their happiness? Your investors pretended they did because fluffy rights were in vogue, but you knew they didn’t lose sleep over what their money went towards. They wanted to be able to say they supported whatever would make them popular and right, and so making sure that you were able to put on a show of decency towards these creatures was enough.
You exited the finishing room, heading towards the corner office to see what Tricia wanted. Maybe this Washroom concept would have some merit.