Approaching the research barn, Emrys passed through the razor-wire barricade, lowered the mechanical drawbridge and crossed the moat, raised the drawbridge from the far side, then approached squat, brutalist, two-story structure that was the research barn. He fished a plastic card from his pocket and swiped it against the card reader beside the door. Once it beeped and the lock disengaged, he stepped inside and into the mantrap beyond. Once the exterior door was closed and locked, he swiped his way through the inner door and entered the building proper. Given some of the research going on inside, several draconian precautions had been put in place to prevent the possibility of fluffy escapes. Emrys was particularly fond of the electrified HVAC ducts.
Just beyond the mantrap was a small open space and a corridor that led deeper into the building. One side of the entrance to the corridor was a set of stairs leading to the second story, where the psychological studies were performed. On the opposite side of the corridor were the stairs leading down to the basement where engineering students liked to test some of their creations from time to time. The corridor itself led to several research rooms. The doors lining the corridor opened to spaces roughly the size of a veterinary clinicâs exam room. They were all outfitted differently depending on the research project being conducted but most of them resembled, in some shape or form, a saferoom. There were plexiglass pens designed for one or more fluffies filled with bedding, toys, FluffTV access, and other distractions to keep a fluffy happy, more or less. The rooms on the main floor were reserved for pharmacological and biological studies. Those tended to have the highest turnover and needed easier access to disposal.
The research rooms were even more heavily automated than Emrysâ barn where things like food, water, and waste disposal were concerned. It was all centralized, allowing one person to easily manage everything. On top of that, the research rooms and the building in general were all heavily surveilled. The cold, electronic eyes and ears of multiple cameras and microphones observed the inhabitants of each room day and night, gathering data. When researchers needed to interact with the fluffies they were experimenting on, they did so via videoconferencing systems connected to each suite. Emrys was merely a set of hands. If they needed blood samples, he took them. If they needed him to administer drugs, he did so. Only a select few besides himself were allowed access to the building and when they did so, it was usually for more advanced procedures, surgeries, or special testing.
Rather than a paper chart, each research room had a tablet mounted to its door. The tablets displayed the vitals of the roomsâ occupants and their daily schedules by default, but could be used to pull up additional data. Most of the physiological data came from a tiny medical implant in each fluffy. The technology, thought Emrys, was undeniably cool. He walked down the corridor, pausing to check the status of each occupant.
Room One. Blue/Pink Stallion. Normal vitals. Study: Long-term side effects of enfie pheromones on foal development.
Orders: Observation only.
Room Two. Light Brown/Blue Stallion & Yellow/Red Mare. Normal vitals. Study: Increasing muscle density through enhanced formula.
Orders: Keep auto-feeder filled with enhanced formula B-219.
Room Three. Tan/Gray Colt. Increased heart rate. Study: Rapid resuscitation of fluffies suffering effects of poisoning or anaphylactic shock.
Orders: Feed a food item from approved âtoxicâ list once per week. When reaction has begun, dose with FLUFFCAN trial.
Room Four. Yellow/Violet Colt. Elevated Blood Pressure. Study: Treatment of dissociative identity disorder in fluffies.
Orders: See expanded list for prescription dosage and frequency. Remote therapy sessions.
Room Five. Brown/Green Colt. Normal vitals. Study: Treatment of enfie babbeh syndrome.
Orders: Administer injection of compound 3 once every 24 hours. Collect daily skin swabs for labwork. Introduce new colt friend weekly and observe results.
Room Six. White/Pink Mare & Indigo/Tan Stallion. Normal vitals - Normal vitals. Study: Termination of pregnancy in mares with induction of short-term infertility.
Orders: Give one tablet of âPlan Fâ to pregnant mare. Confirm termination within 30 minutes of dose. Introduce special friend. Monitor for successful impregnation.
Room Seven. Blue/Silver Stallion. Deceased. Study: Treatment of dementia in elder fluffies.
Orders: Slow-release dosage through water system. Refill weekly. Remote interaction.
Shit. 7 had died in the night. Emrys let himself in and looked down at the cold, stiff corpse of the fluffy formerly known as George. George had been an all right fluffy. Heâd lived a good, long life before being surrendered by his owners to the university in a last-ditch effort to treat his progressive dementia. Every time Emrys had come in to check on him, heâd think Emrys was one of his babbehs and scold him for âspwowinâ because gud babbehs didnât weab da safe woom. Poor old bugger.
âRest in peace, George,â Emrys said quietly as he picked up the fluffyâs lifeless body and brought him to the very rear of the building, where the main lab was. He carried George to a row of freezers and slid one open, setting him down on the cold surface before closing it up again. He spent a few minutes updating the trialâs status on the tablet before walking back to Room 7 and setting it into its holder on the door. Now that George was gone, theyâd need another elder fluffy suffering from dementia if they wanted to continue their trial. Emrys expected theyâd probably want him to ship the body or, at least, samples for a necropsy or analysis. Heâd have to wait and see.
Georgeâs passing made the work of cleaning up and prepping the room for reuse a lot slower and more somber. He was one of the good ones and Emrys found himself missing the old fluffy more than he thought he would. Heâd be sure to pour one out for old George later tonight and wish the elder a speedy journey to Skettiland. Emrys prepped rooms 8 and 9, then made his way back to the end of the building to check the contents of the newly arrived packages. Once he was in the lab, he opened the boxes and checked their contents. Each had a packet of paperwork, a USB key with additional study data and requirements, and the medications to be tested. One had a vaccination bottle and the other a bottle of tablets.
Emrys sat in the lab and reviewed the trial requirements. They didnât need specific fluffies or special enclosure considerations, which made his job easier. He didnât have to configure new enclosures and he was free to choose the candidates for the trial. He reviewed the dosage instructions for each. Nothing too out of the ordinary there, either. He put the drugs away in their respective rooms, uploaded the info on the drives to the tablets, then returned to the lab. He took a deep breath, then turned towards the far wall. There awaited an ominous set of double doors labelled âBedlamâ.
Bedlam was, as its name suggested, filled with the mentally ill. Its residents were fluffies that had either washed out of or completed the psychological experiments on the second floor. Many had been driven insane. Many more had smarty syndrome. Those that were neither were ferals that Emrys had captured encroaching on his property. He was glad for the soundproofing this room, in particular, had received. It was an absolute cacophony inside. The babbling, crying, screaming, moaning, and constant uproar was deafening and it only intensified when he entered the room. All the fluffies here knew him and they all feared and hated him. He paused at the door and took a pair of earplugs from the dispenser on the nearby wall, popping them in before he ventured deeper.
The roomâs walls were lined with cages. A steel wall separated each cage from its neighbor. The top and bottom of each cage consisted of wire mesh. Directly beneath the mesh of the cage bottom there was usually a plastic tray to catch any waste. The sliding doors were composed of plexiglass and sealed by way of keyed locks. A few cages had their plastic liners removed, allowing the occupant of a higher cage to shit over the fluffy in the one below. Emrys had started using the somewhat messy disciplinary method after heâd read about a shelter where the proprietors used the same method to punish the smarties in their care and feed their need for power. It was those cages he was interested in as they contained the most recalcitrant fluffies and those he was most eager to get rid of.
Stepping up to the smarty cages, Emrys selected one from the bottom, a black unicorn with a brown mane and tail that was the bestest babbeh of Carbon, the bitch mare he hated most from the psych floor. Predictably, it screamed at him while turning to try and give him sorry poopies, succeeding only in fouling the plexiglass and itself in the process moments before the smarty in the cage above the unicornâs shouted down at it then hosed it down with additional sorry poopies from above. Emrys sighed and slid the plastic tray back in place between the two cages before fishing out his keys. Before opening the cage, he slipped into an apron and a pair of heavy rubber gloves. He unlocked the door, slid it open, and pulled the unicorn out roughly by the scruff.
âDUMMEH EMWYS PUT SMAWTY DOWN NAO!â
âNot gonna happen.â
âGIBâŚâ
Emrys got right up in the unicornâs face cut him off by screaming back at him. âGIB EMWYS A WEASON TU ENF 'OU WIKE HE ENF 'OU MUMMAH, DUMMEH!â
The unicorn was stunned, but the blast of terrified shit heâd sprayed told Emrys that his screaming had the intended effect. His throat was a little sore, but it was worth it. The little prick didnât offer much in the way of resistance as Emrys strapped him into an immobilization board at a wash station and bathed him. There was a moment or two where it looked like he might have tried to muster some resistance but a sharp look from Emrys shut him down hard.
âHuu Huu Huu.â
Once the black unicorn he was cleaned, Emrys brought him to room 8. On the way in, he grabbed the roomâs tablet and paired it to the smartyâs implant. Within moments, the display reported the unicornâs elevated heartbeat, respiration, body temperature, and blood pressure. âWelcome to your new home, shitbag.â Emrys chuckled, dropping the unicorn into the plexiglass enclosure and sealing the top.
The little unicorn huffed and fumed, beating against the plexiglass with his hooves and shouting threats while Emrys opened a cabinet to retrieve both a pill bottle and a box of spaghetti flavored pill pockets from a cupboard. He started loading the pills into the pockets and dropping them into an auto-timed dispenser. Connecting the dispenser to the cage, he started the timer and released the first dose. The fuming smarty devoured it greedily and demanded more. Emrys ignored him and put the box and the bottle away in the cupboard, locking it. He left the room and returned the tablet to its holster. Done. Heâd check back later to see if the stuff was working. According to the trial writeup, the pills were supposed to solidify fluffy bowel movements and make them smell like citrus.
Ugh. The last time Emrys had seen a similar trial conducted, it resulted in a fluffy expelling a rooster tail of shit and blood from its anus for a solid two minutes before it died of exsanguination. Brutal. He silently hoped the same thing might happen to the black unicorn. Since he started the research barn project on his farm, there was plenty he had seen that he wished he could unsee. Things that had changed his entire outlook on fluffies and made him appreciate his own all the more. The things he had seen that unicorn do. The things he had helped make that unicorn do⌠Jesus.
Suppressing that train of thought, Emrys returned to Bedlam. He scanned the cages for another of his least-favorite fluffies. He found one in a deep green mare with a purple mane, a former feral who had raided his property and tried to kill Speed before Moon beat the shit out of her. She screamed and cried as he pulled her out, washed her off, and took her to Room 9. She was paired and then given an injection of the liquid from the vaccine bottle before being sealed up in her enclosure and left there. On the way out, Emrys checked the notes for the trial to remind himself of what she was in for. Hm. Opioid research. He laughed aloud when he realized heâd probably just given her the first hit of what was likely to become a long-term drug addiction. Junkie fluffies. What a time to be alive.
