Flynn poured out the breakfast kibble for the mares and their children while Jennifer and Martha looked over the schedule on the computer.
“So Martha, let’s get the bad news out of the way first. Any colts needing to be taken away today.”
Martha shook her head. “Nun dis bwite-time, bu Hawpa an Aw-wee hab babbehs dat awmosh big Fwuffies, need tu gu soon.”
Jennifer made a note about Harper and Ally’s son on the computer, all of the mares knew why their sons had to go but none of them enjoyed it, Jennifer could see Harper spent most of her time hugging her two boys, knowing what was going to happen soon.
“Ugh, I hate this. Alright, so what about the good news, who’s on for a meeting today?”
“Kane an Jan-it. Dey nu see eech uddain many bwite-times.”
Jennifer smiled, after the incident with their son Patrick, Kane and Janet’s relationship took a hit, while they bounced back the constant separation was harder on them than the other couples. They needed the time together.
Flynn returned the bag of kibble to the nearby closet and joined Jennifer at the desk. “So? What’s the plan?”
“Let the Fluffies feed for the moment, then grab a box for Janet and her kids, it’s visiting day.”
After breakfast was done, Flynn gathered Janet and her three daughters – all her sons were weaned and in isolation now, their visitation day would be later on – and carried them down to the stallion pens.
Janet couldn’t see anything other than the ceiling out of the open-top box, but she could hear so many stallions, the infected ones were screaming about enfies and forever sleepies which she hid her daughters from by covering their ears. But the majority of them were clean, they were all crying about their special-friends, about their babbehs, Janet even heard a couple of them crying ‘Wan die’.
It hurt Flynn to hear it as well, as much as it was for their own safety, Fluffies were a social creature, designed to have interactions with their human owners, or their mates and children. Being isolated in a small glass box for months upon end was killing them slowly. Flynn feared that even if they found a cure, the psychological damage might be too much for some of them.
But he couldn’t think about that now, his focus was on Janet and taking her to see Kane. After a short walk he found Kane’s pen, the Bay 45 stallions got slightly bigger pens as they were the only Fluffies that were guaranteed to have families, as such the pen was designed so that a pane of glass could be slotted in the middle, allowing for visitations without the risk of contact.
Even when he slid the pane in, Flynn considered taking it out just to allow the family to hug, he’d certainly be fired but it might be worth the risk. In the end, he played ball and dropped the pane into place.
Seeing the glass put into place got Kane very excited. “It Vis-et time?”
“It is Kane, I’ve got Janet and your daughters right here.”
Flynn lifted Janet out first and placed her into the bottom half of the now split pen. Her legs weren’t even on the ground before she raced over to the glass partition, pressing her body against it in a hug pose while Kane did the same on the other side. It wasn’t nearly enough, but they took what little they could get.
“Jan-it miss speciaw-fwiend, wan gib wub an huggies gain.”
“Kane miss speciaw-fwiend tuu, twust Woo-ish tu wet Fwuffies see famiwy gain soon.”
At the mention of family, Janet gasped an turned round just as Flynn put the last of her daughters into the pen.
“Babbehs, come say hewwo tu daddeh.”
“DADDEH!” The three fillies cheered and rushed over, hugging the glass like their mother had done, Kane wiped a tear from his eye at the gesture.
“Babbehs am su big nyo, an aww su pwetty. Daddeh hab biggesh heawt-happies tu see yu aww.”
None of the fillies had names yet, but they were all unique in their own way. Two of them were Alicorns, one with their mother’s peach fluff and their father’s silver mane, the other was a gradient blue and peach with a peach mane. The third daughter was a monochrome peach unicorn, but she has inherited Janet’s curly and glossy genes.
It was that peach Unicorn who stood up first and started dancing, shaking her arms and kicking her legs in a surprisingly elaborate routine for a Fluffy.
“Wook daddeh, am dancie babbeh fow yu.”
Her two sisters gazed on in sheer amazement. “Dancie babbeh, wub dancie sissy.”
Not being as stable on their feet, the two Alicorn fillies stayed seated as they waved their arms in time to the music in their heads. Janet and Kane smiled at their daughters as both of them places a hoof against the glass, hoping that one day their friend Lewis would find a way to stop this sickness, and bring them together again.
Elsewhere in The Farm, Alan and Katherine checked the feral pens for anyone that had seen Chilli and the others, so far luck hadn’t been on their side.
Alan approached another pen with an orange and white Pegasus inside. “Excuse me, did you see three Fluffies before you came here? A red and blue wingie-friend, a pink and purple pointy-friend and a green and orange wingie-pointy? They’ll all be… one hot-time and one cold-time old.”
The Pegasus shook his head. “Sowwy, Fwuffy nu wememba Fwuffies wike dat.”
“Ok, thanks for your time.”
Katherine rolled her eyes. “This is pointless Al, we’re never gonna find anything down here.”
“Yeah, but we knew that going in here.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean it’s quite clear why you and I have been given the shit detail, it is kinda our fault we’re in this mess.”
Katherine stopped dead in her tracks. “Hold on. Are you saying this is a punishment?”
“Sorta, I mean we do have a slight chance of helping, but I can’t blame Lewis for saddling us with this shit, we kinda deserve it.”
Katherine went to argue but stopped when she realised she couldn’t. As unfair as she might think it was, it was her and Alan’s actions that brought them to this situation, if he hadn’t sold her Spike then she wouldn’t have told Josef, if she hadn’t told Josef then he wouldn’t have threatened them with the Concentrated F.A.07… or maybe he would’ve, it was hard to tell what Josef’s mind was up to these days. Clearly he had the Concentrated batch ready tog o and had tested it against the cure and…
Oh shit.
Alan noticed Katherine had stopped moving, a horrified look on her face. “What is it?”
“I just realised. Even if we find the foals and Josef does give us the cure, the red bottle overrides it, he’ll still have the means to infect every Fluffy he can.”
“Shit, I never even thought of that. Basically we’re fucked either way.”
“Maybe not, I can go talk to Josef, see if I can reason with him.”
Alan couldn’t help but let out a snort-laugh. “Sorry Kat, but you’ve seen Josef, there’s no reasoning with that thing.”
“Maybe not, but I still have some tricks up my sleeves. Hopefully they’ll be enough.”
Before Alan could ask, Katherine turned tail and jogged away, her mind already thinking of how best to talk to Josef. Alan figured it wasn’t worth chasing up and turned back to his work, just as he got a call from Lewis.
“Hey Lou, perfect timing, just talking about you.”
“All good things I hope.”
“Not even in the slightest.”
“Funny, listen me and Danny have a lead, Moss had a mate before Spike lost him, a cream unicorn stallion called Flint.”
“Stallion? I though Moss was a boy.”
“He is.”
“Oh… OH, I see.”
“Yeah, Daniel brought him in a few days ago, should still be in The Farm amoung the new arrivals, it’s a long shot but we might be able to use him to track down Moss and the others.”
“It’s the longest shot I can think of, but it’s better than nothing, I’ll see what I can find.”
Putting his phone back in his pocket, Alan made his way towards the end of the Stallions pens where the newcomers were put in. The problem being that so many were coming in everyday that he didn’t know how far back to start looking, eventually he made the decision to wing it.
“FLINT? I’m looking for a Fluffy called Flint. Anyone here called Flint?”
He waited, it was difficult to hear anything over the crying and the shouting of the other Fluffies until…
“Hewe, Fwuffy am Fwint.”
A tiny little voice, barely audible over the other stallions, was shouting out from one of the pens. Alan dashed around trying to find him.
“Where are you? Keep shouting.”
“Hewe, down hewe.”
Alan looked down, and there he was, banging against the glass front of his pen, a cream coloured unicorn, just like Lewis said.
“Hey there, are you Flint?”
Flint nodded. “Uh-huh, wai nice mistah wan see Fwint?”
“Because I’m looking for a Fluffy, someone I think you know. You remember Moss?”
Flint’s eyes lit up. “MOSS! Dat am Fwint’s speciaw-fwiend, wub Moss su mush. Bu nu see him in su many fowebas, nu knyo if Moss am stiww speciaw-fwiend ow nu.”
“Well me and my friends are looking for him, Moss and his siblings are in trouble, we’re trying to help him. Can you still remember how Moss smells?”
Flint gasped. “Moss in twoubew? Fwint hewp, neba fowgit speciaw-fwiend nice smeww.”
Alan smiled and reached into the pen to pick Flint up. “You, my little friend, are going to be a hero.”
Flint gazed up at Alan, eyes bright with hope. Hope that he could find Moss again, and hope that he still remembered him.
Josef was watching Rufous and another infected stallion duke it out when he heard the doorbell ring. He didn’t want to turn away from the fight, the stallion had managed to fracture one of Rufous’ legs, but the red Alicorn had tripped the stallion onto his side and was now tearing into him with his horn.
But the doorbell kept ringing, so reluctantly Josef went upstairs, fully ready to shout at whoever was on the other side. His breath caught in his throat when he saw it was Katherine.
“Can I help you?” He said after a moment of silence.
“I’m here to talk Joe, can I come in?”
Josef paused for a moment before walking away, leaving the door open behind him, Katherine cautiously took a step forward, not sure what to expect. When she saw Josef entering the kitchen, she followed him further in, shutting the door behind her but leaving it unlocked, just in case.
“I didn’t think you’d want anything to do with me.” Josef called through, pouring himself a glass of water. “Considering how we left things off last time.”
“Last time you were a fucking monster, I didn’t want to hit you but I couldn’t let you hurt Spike anymore.”
Josef smirked and took a sip from his glass. “It wouldn’t have saved him, Cobalt was dead the moment I walked through that door. How is Spike by the way, must be a hell of a thing to kill your own father. Jonathan’s doing fine about it but then I guess he’s in the minority.
“Spike’s fine, he’s…”
Katherine paused, wondering how much to tell Josef, but then she realised that he would know if she was lying or holding back. They’d been too intimate with each other not to recognise every nuances of each other’s body language.
Which just scared Katherine more that she couldn’t read him at all.
“…He’s going to be a father, Lily’s expecting.”
She saw that cruel glint cross Josef’s face and felt her rage boil over.
“Joe I fucking swear, if you come anywhere near Lily or her family I will…”
“Relax Kat, I told Lily I wouldn’t hurt her and I intend to keep my word on that. I’m not gonna butcher her babies if that’s what you’re wondering. Can’t say the same about Spike but if you find me Crimson’s Kids then there won’t be an issue.”
“That’s actually why I’m here. I want to talk to you about the cure, and about the red bottle.”
Josef heard laughter to the side, he glanced over and saw The Crimson Vision rolling about, cackling away.
“Oooh, mummah am a smawt wun, she knyo wha daddeh gun du.”
Josef chuckled, knowing that Crimson was right He turned back to Katherine. “You want to know if I’ll use the red bottle or not once you have the cure, don’t you?”
“I wouldn’t put it passed you, Josef Mongola playing all the odds so he can still come out on top, that sounds like you.”
Crimson jumped to his feet and sneered at her. “Mummah am shittin on daddeh, wet’s shut hew da fuk up.”
Josef ignore him and put down the glass of water, taking a step closer to Katherine. “And what if you’re right? What if that’s been my plan the whole time, to fuck that self-righteous cunt over no matter what? You’re smart Kat, but if you thought coming here would change my mind, then you’re a fucking idiot.”
“And what about us Joe? Is there nothing left of us that you even want to try and salvage?”
“WHAT US? Kat, there is not US anymore, there can’t be. You’re clearly uncomfortable with how I conduct my business now, which by the way, makes you a massive fucking hypocrite cause you’ve done just as bad as me and worse. You can’t just start feeling guilty and think that absolves you of what you’ve done. And I, don’t fucking want anything to do with you anymore because you decided to put a bunch of fucking Fluffies before our relationship. No Kat, I don’t think there’s anything left of us to salvage, now kindly get the fuck out of my home.”
Josef stormed passed her, making his way to the basement, his hand grasped onto the door handle when…
“I’m pregnant.”
He stopped, his head turned to look at Katherine, his mind processing what she just said.
“I’m pregnant, I found out a few days ago, I’m still not sure what I want to do which is why I never said anything but… Josef I’m scared and confused and angry and I don’t know what to do anymore. I can’t make myself hate you even though you clearly fucking deserve it, but I can’t be with you if you’re a danger to yourself, to other and to our child. Please Josef, let’s start again, put all this virus shit behind us, we’ll give it to Lewis and you and me and our child can fuck off to anywhere else in the country and do as we please. We’ll… we’ll buy a little farmhouse, a place of our own where we can lure in as many goddamn Smarty pricks as you want, and we can do what we like to them. Please Joe I… I don’t want this to be how we end.”
Josef stared at her, his eyes dropped to her stomach, then back up to her face. And with the coldest, most monotone voice he could muster he said one word.
“So?”
Katherine’s heart dropped, she didn’t know what she expected, joy, rage, tears, anything at all. She wasn’t expecting nothing.
“Joe I…”
“You’re even dumber than I thought, trying to tell me you don’t know what to do. I know you Kat, and I know EXACTLY what you’re going to do with that little bastard, you’re going to keep it. If you were ever gonna to kill the damn thing, you would’ve done so without even telling me, which means you knew you were keeping it before you slapped me in the fucking face. You don’t NEED my help, you don’t WANT my help, you’re just so FUCKING desperate that you waited until the last possible moment to throw that in my face. Well it’s not going FUCKING WORK… FUCK THIS STUPID FUCKIN EYE!”
Katherine winced at Josef’s verbal assault as he clawed at his infected cornea, she could feel tears running down her face and she hated herself for thinking there was any chance of getting through to Josef. The man she loved was gone, she’d been a fucking idiot to think otherwise.
Or was she? As Josef stopped ripping his eyeball, fresh blood staining his cheek, he took several deep breaths and almost calmed down. Without looking up from the floor, he spoke in a low voice.
“If you get me all three of Crimson’s kids, I’ll give you the cure and the red bottle.”
Katherine was shocked. “Really?”
“Yes, but I want all three of them, alive, I don’t care how any of them died, whether it was your fault or an accident or if they were dead when you found them. If all three are alive then I’ll give you both solutions.”
“Joe, I don’t know what to…”
“Don’t say anything Kat, I’m not doing it for you. I’m doing it on the condition that you keep that fucking kid away from me, because I don’t care who it is, I don’t care what it is, I will hurt it and I will hurt you if either of you stop me from my work. Now fuck off before I change my mind.”
Knowing better than to push her luck, Katherine composed herself and headed for the door, she paused for a brief moment to say something, but thought better of it and left. Josef stood and watched as she left, feeling a strange sense of sadness at her parting.
A sadness, interrupted by a tiny voice behind him.
“See, Napoweon teww yu daddeh stiww wub mummah.”
Josef slowly pivoted around until he could see them, the Fluffy mare and the flea Fluffy he’d seen in the mirror the other day. Something about them seemed familiar, but he didn’t know where from.
The two of them seemed unaware of him looking at them as the mare spoke.
“Hipowita nu fink dat wub, fink dat daddeh feewin guiwtee bout being meanie.”
“Who the fuck are you?” Josef barked at the pair.
The two Fluffies stopped talking and turned to look at Josef, just as surprised as him, the flea leaned into the mare.
“Can daddeh see us?”
“Of course I can fucking see you, now who the fuck are you?”
“Am Napowean, dis am speciaw-fwiend Hipowita, an we hab heawt-huwties dat daddeh nu wememba us.”
The mare, Hipolyta, nodded. “Pway wots of fun games in daddeh basement, daddeh gib us so many dummehs tu huwt.”
“Games, what are you… YOU! You two stole my mail, I remember you now, but you both got away before I could do anything, I only had you in a dream, a fucking nightmare.”
Napoleon nodded. “Weawitee am ofen dis-a-poin-ting. Bu it weaw tu us, Napowean an Hipowita wub daddeh, nu matta wha.”
Josef heard growling beside him and looked down at Crimson, snarling at the pair. “Say da wowd daddeh, Crimson num da wittew kunt den fuk da mawe.”
Hipolyta rolled her eyes. “Twy it dummeh, Hipowita nu scawed of yu.”
“STOP IT!” Josef cried out. “I don’t know what the fuck is going on but I’m not gonna be part of it anymore.”
“Bu daddeh awweady pawt of it, dat why he see us.” Napoleon spoke as though it was so obvious. “Daddeh am feewin bad bout being meanie tu mummah Kat-A-Wine, see Napowean an Hipowita to tawk fwough bad feewins, be gud hoomin, be gud daddeh.”
Crimson scoffed. “Daddeh nu feew bad, daddeh nu need dat kunt, she wan hab babbeh on hew own, dat hew pwobwem. Daddeh got wots of sei-ence tu dum, wots of Fwuffies tu kiww.”
Hipolyta stepped forward. “Daddeh finkin bout Cwimson wen he huwt Wufus, he miss yu, he wub yu. Wan yu bak, feewin bad bout wha he du tu yu, finkin if he wan du dat tu Cwimson babbehs tuu.”
“Shut up.” Josef’s face was twitching, his infected eyes starting to pulse.
Hipolyta continued. “Yu fink daddeh howd bak on Wed Bottew if he nu wan use it? He confwicted, nu knyo wha du.”
“Shut up.”
“Daddeh finkin he wong bout Fwuffies, dat may-bee mummah Kat-A-Wine am wight, dat Fwuffies awe for huggies and wub an…”
“I SAID SHUT UP!”
Josef kicked the table Napoleon and Hipolyta were sitting on, they vanished before he hit it, shattering the thing to pieces. With his rage burning through him, Josef stormed into the kitchen and grabbed a butcher’s knife.
“You fucking want to see what I think of Fluffies?”
Taking the knife with him, Josef crashed his way down to the basement. Still in his pen, with his face smeared with the blood of his fallen rival, Rufous looked up at Josef happily.
“Daddeh wook, Wufus gib dummeh foweba sweepies, nu can Wufus…”
He said nothing else, Josef picked him up with one hand and plunged the knife into Rufous’ throat with the other, the little red Alicorn yelped in pain and looked at Josef with shock and horror as his blood poured out of his neck. With a final spurt of energy he reached out a hoof to touch his daddy’s arm, but it dropped just before he could reach, seconds later, Rufous died.
Josef lobbed the carcass at the wall. “YOU SEE! That’s what I think about Fluffies, THAT’S what the mean to me, absolutly fucking nothing and if you think…AHAHHAA!”
His infected eye surged again, worst than ever before, Josef dropped his knife and grabbed onto his skull, trying to stop it from splitting open.
“GAHAHAAHH!!! FUCKIN GET OUT! GET OUT, GET OUT, GET OUT!”
In a mad panic, Josef’s one good eye darted around the room until it locked onto a scalpel, one he’d left down here after a vivisection a few days ago. Not thinking properly, Josef grabbed the scalpel…
And plunged it into his infected eye.
“SSTTRRRREEEGGGAAAHHHAHAHAKKKKKKK!!!”
Fuelled by nothing but rage and adrenaline, Josef collapsed to his knees and carved through skin and muscle tissue, twisting the scalpel as sharply as he could to annihilate the constant fucking agony in his head. All he saw was red, all he felt was hate, whatever was left of Josef’s sanity snapped under the intense fucking torture.
Until he felt something come loose and he threw the scalpel away, the ruined remains of a sickly, pus-filled, bloodshot yellow eyeball still stuck to the point.
Josef keeled over and fell to the ground, his head bashing against the hard floor of the basement. From here, he could make out a blurry reflection in the metal base of one of his table, one half of his face was completely drenched in blood. In the reflection, Crimson stepped over and smiled at the sight.
“Dey fink daddeh am a bad guy. Nyo daddeh wook wike a fukin bad guy.”
Josef felt a smirk grow on his face, his mind swam with ideas on how to use his new found title, before his head dropped backward and he passed out on the hard concrete floor.
