Ah fluff, here we go again.
After the fall of the old site and the loss of my first and second part of the brown mare’s winter misadventures, I almost decided to call quits on the fandom, surely to the delight of many out here. However, seeing the quick rise from the ashes of the site, I started to think.
Well, while I rewrite those parts, I may aswell post the first part of something else I have been working on. It might be slightly darker than my usual, but I felt… inspired.
Hopefully those of you not too distraught by my decision to stay will like it.
“HMMMMMMMMPPHHH!”
The hammer slammed down on one of the pegasus’ hind legs, pulverizing the bone and practically bursting the limb open, splashing the plastic-covered garage wall. Once the screaming had died down, the only sounds that could be heard were whimpering and labored, ragged breaths coming from a hardwood table.
“Hmm hmm… pwms… n’mh…”
Through his taped mouth, the powder blue fluffy begged and cried for the hurties to stop coming. Why was he being punished so much? Why was the mean human towering above him smiling? How could he smile at a time like this? The poor animal couldn’t understand why he was being tortured. After all, how could he? His only sin had been to be unlucky enough to approach the wrong human, asking for food to bring back to his herd.
He was thus immediately grabbed and unceremoniously slammed into a dark sorry box, causing him to make scaredy poopies, which made the enclosure smell so not pretty. He had begged and begged, but to no avail, forced to stay in almost complete darkness until the human had brought him out onto a table, only to restrain his leggies with some mean shiny stuff that pulled at his fluff everytime he tried to break free. Worse still, his mouthie had also been closed with the same material.
Then, the meanie tools had come out to hurt him. The human had said they were friends, but the fluffy hadn’t found them friendly at all!
First, Mister Trimmy had eaten patches of his pretty blue fluff, making weird buzzing sounds like the angry striped buggie-monsters that sometimes hurt fluffies who got too close, scaring him even more! He ended up looking like a dummy, sicky fluffy and the human had made fun of him, giving him the worstest heart hurties!
Then, Mister Cutty had sliced the newly revealed pink parts underneath his fluff, making boo boo juice come out! The fluffy thought those were the worstest hurties ever, before the human poured some burny water on the wounds, thusly establishing a new record.
Then it had been Mister Hammer’s turn, which immediately caused the pegasus’ whole perception of “worst pain” to quite literally take a hit.
During all this, the only sound that had come from the human besides his cruel laughter, had been the same question.
“Just remember, if you want the “ouchies” to stop, just tell me where the rest of your herd is, ok?”
Now, even to a being so inherently naive (or stupid, depending on personal opinion) as a fluffy, the consequences of such an action were painfully obvious. Were he to spill the beans, his entire herd would suffer as much, if not more, than he was and it would all be his fault!
But he wanted the torture to stop. He couldn’t take the pain anymore. In his heart, he still hoped against hope that he would be able to convince his leggies to get up and run away, back to his friends and family, so that they could hug his hurties away. But the nagging, little voice in his thinkie place kept telling him he would take the longest sleepies here, far from his herd, surrounded not by love and huggies, but by pain and fear.
In his despair, the fluffy had thus begun to delude himself. Maybe, the pegasus thought, the mister only wanted to help his herd. Maybe he was hurting him because he had made him angry since he was being selfish and didn’t want the herd to have a new daddy. Maybe the blue animal’s psyche was subconsciously trying to come up with excuses to protect itself from the shame, guilt that he would feel upon confessing.
So it was, that upon raising the hammer once more, the human repeated his question.
“Mister Hammer says that if you tell me where the rest of your herd is, he will bring you to your friends. You sure you don’t want to help him find them?”
With desperation in his eyes, the fluffy looked up at the bloody tool.
Coco was getting impatient. The nummie finders had returned to the herd many forevers earlier. All except Bluerock. The powder blue pegasus hadn’t made its way back to the safe place yet, but the skyball was slowly but surely going down. Where could he be? From behind the rusty chainlink fence that surrounded the abandoned factory, she kept staring at the old, cracked road leading up to it through the woods. Nobody but fluffies and other wild animals ever used it, not since the place had been shut down many years before. Well, nobody except for a weird, old human who every so often would come over, open the big gate and walk through the compound.
When the herd had first stumbled upon this facility, they had been in dire need of a safe place. More than four and four fluffies and even more babies had been lost since their old housie had been destroyed by mean humans wearing bright orange not fluff using giant yellow metal monsters to bring it down. While most casualties had resulted from having to march in the summer heat or from marauding monsters snatching foals from their mothers while they were forced to sleep in the open, their cries and pleas losing themselves into the scary night, a few poor souls didn’t even make it out of the crumbling building.
So it was that upon finding a small hole in one of the walls of the guard’s post by the gate, the herd had finally managed to catch its breath. However, the following day a human had come, riding one of those two-legged metal monsters that usually made no noise. He had little to no fluff on its head and wrinkly skin. He moved slowly but his steps had weight beneath them. Upon spotting the fluffies, he had approached them, demanding to know how they had gotten in.
Coco had thus told the man their story, begging the human to allow them to stay.
It had taken some time, but in the end they were offered a deal. They would be allowed to live under the relative safety of the roofed parking near the gate. The man would even bring them some boxes to live in. However, they had to keep the entryway clean from poopies and other “nonsuch”, whatever that was. And, most importantly, they couldn’t go into the huge housie behind them, or the man said he would kick them out. It didn’t take a lot of convincing for Coco and her herd to agree.
The metal see-through wall kept them safe from monsters and grassies sprouted from many spots on the ground. The hole in the wall allowed the nummie finders to come and go as they pleased. At night, the biggest, toughie friends in the herd kept watch over it, ready to give any intruder the worstest sorry hoofies and poopies.
Knowing this, it wasn’t exactly a surprise to say that upon seeing a red metal monster coming right up the road, Coco’s heart skipped a beat. As the car got closer and closer, other herdmembers joined the dark brown unicorn by the gate.
Stepping out of the vehicle was a young man in his early twenties, wearing a brown, sleeveless leather jacket, jeans and combat boots. He moved to the passenger’s side and opened the door, before grabbing a bloodied, squirming form. The human then started walking towards the gate, before setting the thing down.
“BWUEWOCK!”
Coco and the others froze. Bluerock laid on the ground. Fluff patchy and bloodied, front leggies reduced to bloody stumps. One of his hind ones was basically flat. His mouth was open, but no words came from it, only a raspy wheeze. His unfocused eyes, red and watering were staring at his herd, begging for help… and something else.
Then, the human rose up and spoke. Had the unicorn not been dazed by the horrible sight in front of her, she might have realized the oozing false sweetness behind the man’s words.
“Hey fluffies, I found your friend! A monster hurt him, he needs love and hugs to get better! I tried to do it, but only fluffy huggies make everything good, save him!”
It took a few moments for Coco to realize that some fluffies had already begun running towards the hole in order to reach their wounded friend. A few more to know something was wrong. But only when the man revealed a wicked smile, did she realize just how much.
“BEWWY! SUNDWOP! AWWIE! NU! STOP!”
But it was too late. From behind his back, the man took out a black thing, aimed at the closest fluffy, and fired. For a split second, Coco could swear she saw something shine through the air. Berry, a reddish earthie with white mane and tail, went stiff and fell to the ground, violently shaking and foaming at the mouth, two shiny thingies sticking out of her haunch. Sundrop, a unicorn colt with orange fluff and brown mane realized he was in danger and turned to run, but it was too late. The human grabbed him by the scruff of his neck and lifted him up in the air, eliciting a “Bad upsies!” from the young fluffy, a stream of scaredy peepees escaping his body.
Allie, a black pegasus mare with a speckled grey mane, tried to give the human the worstest sorry hoofies she could muster in order to save the screaming unicorn, but to no avail. She was snatched in matter of seconds, before being thrown alongside Sundrop in a pet carrier and locked inside, crying for help that would never come.
As he picked up the sobbing blue pegasus and the now unconscious earthie, the man snickered and spoke.
“See buddy? I brought you to your friends, like I promised! Now, we can go home and play with them aswell! Doesn’t that sound nice?”
It was in that moment that Coco finally realized just what Bluerock’s eyes had been trying to express. Regret.
Once the pair was safely stashed in another box, the human moved back towards the quivering fluffies, causing them to immediately fall back. As he looked at the gate, the brown Smarty noticed the man’s gaze lingering on something that caused him to chuckle.
Then, setting his sight on the trembling animals, he spoke once more.
“Listen up, fuzzballs. I’ll be back in a few days. Choose two fluffies amongst your ranks that will come with me to… play. Understand?”
Trying (and failing) to put on a brave face, the scared unicorn confronted the man.
“M…Mun…Munstah hooman gu ‘way… fw…fwuffies nu wan’ gu wif 'ou!”
Some of the less scared fluffies joined her in a hesitant chorus of “Munstah gu’way!” “Me…Meanie hooman gib fwends back ow… ow get sowwie hoofsies!” and other similar lines.
The man simply smiled and, almost by magic, slowly opened the gate towards the herd, causing them to shriek, void their bowels and run for the safety of their nest.
All except Coco.
“My my, what a brave little fluffy we have here. Are you the Smarty around here?”
In truth, the brown unicorn was simply paralyzed by fear, only managing a weak nod in response to the looming human.
“Good, I will need someone smart, strong and brave for a simple task. Since you refused to obey me, you must be punished. Listen up. I will go home now, with your friends. I will come back every now and then. Make sure that every time I come here, you choose two fluffies, I don’t care if foal or adult, to give me. If you do, I will spare everyone else. If you don’t, I will kill every last one of you stinking shitrats. Painfully. Slowly. Got it?”
Coco felt sick to her stomach. She wanted to cry, run away, make scaredy poopies and sicky waters all at the same time, but she couldn’t. With a meek nod and an almost inaudible peep, the deal was struck.
The man closed the gate and showed it would again protect them from almost all mosters, before going to his car. As he walked away, he spoke one last time to the lone, wide eyed fluffy behind him.
“Oh, before I forget… try to run away from here and you WILL beg me to only do to you what I did to your blue friend. Know this. No matter where you go, I will find you and make you wish you had simply chosen two fluffies to hand over.”
As the car left with her friends, Coco’s trembling leggies finally gave out and she collapsed to the hard ground, the world spinning until all went dark.
