Claire was torn. Her mother was taking her and her seven year old cousin Alice to FluffyCon tomorrow, the largest fluffy convention in North America, which was being held in their home city of Vancouver this year. Alice was really excited, and was already planning to dress her three fluffies in costumes for the event. Claire knew things would be difficult though. On the one hand, it would be great to see all the different fluffies, watch the competitions and find out all the latest things, but on the other hand, she knew that one reason for going was to find new owners for some of her fluffies.
Claire had bought two fluffies from a fluffystore, just a dozen weeks ago. Snowflake was an adorable white unicorn, with a beautiful blue mane. Tragically, she had been half crippled by a gang of feral fluffies when she and her sister Jelly had escaped the house one day. The ferals had blinded her in one eye, and broken one of her back legs so badly that it had to be amputated, and they had made Snowflake and Jelly pregnant in an horrific fluffy gang-bang.
Jelly, on the other hand had been nothing less than a smarty. Claire knew that now. Jelly had demanded treats, pooped everywhere, and bullied Snowflake awfully. It had all ended with Jelly breaking Snowflake’s other leg, so badly that it had to be amputated too. Snowflake now got around with wheel-leggies instead of back legs, and wore an eye-patch that made her look like a pirate. Jelly had gone to a shelter.
Then there were the babies. Cruel fate had seen all of Snowflake’s babies stillborn, but Jelly’s had survived. At first, Jelly had rejected a brown pegasus fluffy, so Snowflake adopted her, calling her Nutella. Later, Nutella started to grow a horn as well, making the other fluffies think she was a “munstah”, so Claire had given her a pointy party hat to cover the horn with, which seemed to work. In addition to Nutella, there was Strawberry, a red fluffy, bold and bullying like her mother, and Blueberry and Nana, blue and yellow fluffies that were timid and inseperable. Finally, there had been Red Conan, who had stabbed Claire with his horn, so was sent to the shelter with his mother. After Jelly and Conan were sent away, Snowflake had adopted the remaining babies, treating them like her own.
Now they needed new homes.
Claire’s mother had finally allowed Snowflake to keep Nutella, so that she wouldn’t be lonely once the other fluffies were gone. That still meant that Strawberry, Blueberry and Nana needed new mummahs and daddahs though, and Claire hadn’t had the heart to tell them yet. It was something she had to do. Sitting down with the fluffies the night before the convention, Claire finally summoned the courage to tell them the truth.
“Fluffies, sit down and listen to mummah for a moment,” Claire said, feeling her heart fluttering in her chest.
The fluffies stopped playing with their blockies and turned to face her.
“Wat am it mummah? Stowy tiem?” asked Blueberry.
“No,” Claire said quietly, “its not story time.”
“Is it tweaty time?” asked Strawberry, “Strawberry am gud fwuffy, wan sketties!”
“Ooooh! Sketties!” the other babies chirped with excitement.
“No, no its not sketties time. Not now.” Claire told them.
The fluffies replied with a whining “Oh!”, a sad “Otay mummah” and a smarty-like “Hummmmpf!” Claire didn’t even have to look to know that Strawberry was puffing out her cheeks. Only Snowflake knew the truth of what she was going to tell them, she she was looking on from a distance with a terrible sadness in the depths of her one remaining eye.
“No fluffies, its not story time, or treaty time, its… you’re all growing up, you’re not little babies now, you’re getting big…”
“Big an Stwong!” said Blueberry.
“Yes,” Claire said, feeling herself tear up, “Big and strong.”
Nutella noticed Claire was getting upset.
“Wat mattew mummah? Nu cwy, fwuffies giv bestest huggies!”
Claire was soon covered in a miniature fluff-pile, as the four baby fluffies all started to cuddle her. Nutella was first, then Blueberry and Nana, and finally Strawberry, not wanting to be left out.
“Oh I love you so much fluffies… but I can’t keep you all. My dad won’t let me,” Claire finally managed to tell them.
The fluffies kept hugging her for a moment, as she started to cry. Then they realised what she was saying.
“Mu-mummah?” Blueberry asked, “Wat mean, can’t keep?”
“It means… it means I need to find new mummahs and daddahs for you, for you Blueberry, and Nana, and Strawberry. Dad is only letting me keep Snowflake and Nutella.”
The fluffies were stunned, open mouthed with shock. Even their hugs seemed to lose their magic.
“Bu-but mummah, Bwuebewwy nu wan nyu mummah, Bwuebewwy wuv mummah-Cwaire… wan stay wiv mummah an giv huggies an wuv…”
“I’m sorry Blueberry, but we have to go to the fluffy convention tomorrow, and find new owners for you.”
Nana was the next to speak, and she immediately started to cry.
“Nu wan nyu mummah! Wan stay! Wan stay! Huu huu huu… huu huu huu…”
Claire felt awful as Blueberry and Nana started weeping pitifully, clinging on to each other as if they had been shipwrecked, which Claire supposed they had been, emotionally speaking.
“Why mummah-Cwaire nu wuv fwuffies nu mowe? Am gud fwuffies, an owny wittew babbehs… huu huu huu…” Blueberry cried.
“Oh I do love you, and you are good fluffies. If it was up to me I’d keep you all. But you’re not little babies now, you have grown so fast, and you need new homes to be happy in. The fluffy convention is run by the Hugbox Club, and all the people there will be really nice. We’ll find a nice new mummah or daddah for you all, you’ll see…”
“Nu wan nyu mummah!” Nana simply wailed.
Claire didn’t know what to do. Blueberry and Nana looked unconsolable, and seemed as though they could weep for hours. Snowflake was just looking at the floor sadly, having known this day would come for some time, but seemingly no more able to cope than Claire could. Nutella kept looking from her littermates to Claire and Snowflake, unsure what to do and looking terribly guilty at being the only fluffy allowed to stay with them. That left Strawberry, who was puffing out her cheeks.
“Da mummah-Cwaire am a Dummeh, Stoopid, Poopy mummah!” The angry fluffy practically growled, spitting out ever word in anger. “Stwawbewwy nu wuv mummah-Cwaire anyway. Stwawbewwy wiww wun away, to Skettiland, to be wiv WEAW mummah-Jewwy, and da Snake Daddah!”
Claire was shocked. She knew that Strawberry could be mean, but this kind of smarty-talk was just the sort of thing that Jelly used to say, before she had been sent to the shelter. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Strawberry was now saying that she wanted to find her real mother, and was still going on about this “Skettiland” and the “Snake Daddah” which she had ranted about on a Youtube video that Alice filmed, just a few days ago.
“An Stwawbewwy nu wuv ova fwuffies,” the smarty red fluffy continued, “Poo-tewwa am a dummeh-poopie-munstah fluffy! An Poo-fwake am a dummeh, two weggie cwippew fwuffy, wiv one see-pwace onwy! Stwawbewwy HATCHU! HATCHU! Stwawbewwy hope yu hav fowevew sweepies, jus wike da mummah-Cwaire stoopid Abbie bawky munstah!”
Claire was enraged. Strawberry had never said anything this horrible to her or the other fluffies before, and now she wanted them to die like her dog Abbie had done? Claire would not tolerate it. She had learned the hard way with Jelly that too much love and not enough discipline would spoil fluffies, and this kind of behaviour was totally unacceptable. She immediately grabbed Strawberry by the fluff of her belly, and carried her into the kitchen.
“Nuu! Bad upsies! Dummah-mummah put Stwawbewwy down ow get wowestest sowwy poopies!”
Claire quickly managed to get the fluffy over the kitchen sink, and just in time, as the dastardly red fluffy carried out her threat and released a torrent of sorry poopies. Fortunately, Claire directed them all into the sink, and all the fluffy achieved was pooping all over its back legs. Claire was nearly poop free. She dropped the fluffy into the sink and turned the faucet on full blast, drenching the fluffy in icy-cold water.
“OOoowies! Nu wike cowd wawa! Mummah! Stawp! Stawp!” the fluffy shrieked.
“You BAD fluffy! I’m sad that I have to give up Blueberry and Nana, but you are BAD. BAD!” Claire yelled at her.
“YU AM BAD! FWUFFY AM GUD!” cried the fluffy, running to the edge of the sink to escape the torrent of water.
Claire realised that cold water was not enough of a punishment, so she reached for the nearest sorry stick she could find, a plastic scrubbing brush for cleaning pots and pans, with hard plastic bristles, and started beating the horrible red monster with it.
“YOU. ARE. A. BAD. FLUFFY!” Claire yelled at it, beating it between every word. Her shouting was punctuated by the fluffies screams and yells, which eventually turned into tears and apologies.
“Nuuu! Mummah! Pwease! Fwuffy am sowwy! Pwease nu mowe huwties! Am sowweeeee!”
Eventually Claire stopped beating Strawberry, but was glad that this would be their last evening together. She grabbed it again, and held it under the cold water, rinsing off the rest of its poop. The fluffy didn’t complain any more, but hu-huued pitifully as she washed its fluff. Strawberry cried out “Nuuuuuuuu!” as she was dropped, unceremoniously, into the sorry box, with nothing but an old dish-towel to dry herself with and nest in for the night. Claire placed a heavy book on top of the box, and left the horrid crying fluffy to think about how bad it had been.
Claire let the other fluffies sleep in her bed that night. Blueberry and Nana were so inseparable that Nutella came up with a brilliant idea. Nutella suggested that Claire find a mummah who would adopt both Blueberry and Nana at the same time, so they would have company together, just like Nutella and Snowflake. Claire thought it was a great idea, and so did Snowflake. Nana and Blueberry were less sure, as they still wanted to stay with Claire. For some reason, they thought that she was sending them away for being bad fluffies, like Strawberry, but Claire told them this was not the case. She gave them treats and cuddled them, and promised they would not be separated.
Eventually they all fell asleep, and later Claire fell asleep too, cuddling the fluff-pile for the last time.
