The FluffyMart Connection
Story and art by Carpdime
It was near the end of a hard week for Becky Jones. Midterm exams were just around the corner and she had been studying furiously to maintain high grades for her veterinarian medicine degree.
Juggling full time studies, a part time job at the university cafeteria and her daily commitment to volunteer at the Valley Drive Fluffy Clinic, she could barely find time to spend with her beloved fluffy Ruby.
On her way home from work on Friday evening, her weary eyes noticed a new job advertisement from FluffyMart pinned on the dormitory noticeboard.
The Downtown FluffyMart Megastore is Hiring!
A household name in the fluffy pony industry, FluffyMart is looking for bright, young individuals to join our staff.
Great pay and working conditions.
Bonus staff discounts for employees that pass probation!
Ask our managers in store for details.
The bonus staff discount caught Becky’s attention. Ever since she signed up to the FluffyMart installment financing plan to pay for Ruby’s medicine, she had been looking for ways to earn some extra cash.
There was an hour left in the day before the downtown FluffyMart was closed for business. Becky rushed back to her dormitory and poured a plate of kibble for Ruby’s dinner before she made her way to the downtown FluffyMart. After several dead leads from the unhelpful staff at the FluffyMart helpdesk, Becky finally secured an audience with the hiring manager a few minutes before closing time.
“Show me your references and tell me what hours you can work.” The manager asked gruffly as he continued his work on the computer before him.
“I’ve worked half a year in food service at a cafeteria and I volunteer as an assistant at my local fluffy clinic.” She handed the manager a printout of her resume.
The manager looked away from the computer screen and sized up the young woman that was standing before him.
“Not bad.” He nodded to himself without reading a word of her resume, “You look just the right size for a job that recently became vacant.”
The manager stood up from his desk and walked over to an open locker. He reached inside and took out a cyan colored fluffy mascot head.
“The previous guy that did mascot duties started a week ago and quit just yesterday. He was a small guy, just about your height.” The manager sized up Becky again to make sure.
“This job that you have for me, is it eligible to receive the FluffyMart staff discount?” Becky asked nervously.
“Oh yeah of course.” The manager coughed, “But you have to pass a 2 week probation before the discount kicks in.” The manager smiled.
“I’ll take the job.” She replied without hesitation
“Great! You can start tomorrow. Remember to bring a water bottle or something. It gets really hot in the mascot costume.”
The manager turned back to his computer and continued his work as if she wasn’t even there.
“Ummm…don’t you need my name and details?”
The manager threw an application form at Becky before he went back to his frantic typing.
Early on the next morning, Becky was sitting alone in the FluffyMart staff change room, waiting to start her first day on the job.
Earlier on, the teenage assistant manager had sloppily shown Becky around the staff areas of the store as well as poorly describing the various procedures that supposedly kept the mega store running like clockwork.
Becky sighed quietly as she looked down at the cyan, fluffy mascot suit that she was now wearing.
She reminded herself that she had the inner strength to endure anything that could be thrown at her. It was a commitment and a responsibility that she promised to Ruby. Becky had made this promise when she adopted the sick fluffy which saved Ruby from the jaws of death.
Slipping the fluffy mascot head over her own head, the world around her disappeared into the darkness. The smell of plastic and dry sweat greeted her nose as her vision was reduced to a small, meshed ventilation window that was located at the mouth part of the fluffy costume.
Armed with a placard and a stack of promotional flyers, Becky performed her duty with enthusiasm as she cheerfully greeted the weekend customers.
Most of the customers ignored her. Some of the more polite customers would take a flyer before throwing it away at the nearest trash can. Every now and then, a few boorish individuals would hiss obscenities at Becky or would rudely slap away her hands as they muttered something about “shit-rats” under their breaths.
While the adults were generally harmless, it was the children that proved to be the most problematic. Wild, excitable kids would flock around her, trying to get their parents to take a photo with the FluffyMart mascot.
Screaming kids would hold onto her leg and not let go. The braver ones would tug at her suit and pull recklessly on her fluffy tail. With as much tact as possible, Becky would gently turn away the misbehaving children, sometimes using her placard as an improvised baton.
As the hours wore on, it became more and more difficult to maintain composure in the face of constant indifference and abuse.
Sometime in the late afternoon, the incident happened.
A mean looking kid who wasn’t getting his way, was looking to vent his anger. He had already thrown his mom’s thousand dollar smartphone on the ground but was not satisfied with how little attention he was getting.
Seeing a large, cyan, fluffy target before him, he charged like a bull towards Becky from behind.
The force of the impact itself wouldn’t have normally troubled Becky, but her fatigue and diverted attention caused her to be blindsided by the attack. Becky stumbled forward slowly at first, but the weight of her large mascot head caused her to lose balance quickly and she fell violently onto the ground.
The stack of flyers in her hands spilled everywhere as the kids around her screamed in terror as they fled from the fallen mascot.
In pain and lying helplessly on the cold concrete ground, she could hear the sounds of laughter mixed with the shocked gasps of gawking bystanders.
Becky tried to get up but the clumsiness of her fluffy suit prevented her from standing. The laughter and heckling continued, there was not a single helpful hand in sight.
Rolling on the ground unceremoniously, she finally found leverage from a nearby garbage can. Back on her feet, embarrassed and confused, she ran away from the crowd of customers milling about the entrance of the store and dove out of sight into an alleyway around the corner.
Saturday afternoon was a sacred shopping time for Amy Hastings and her darling fluffy, Princess Pinky. With Chanel, Jimmy Choo and Tiffany already done with, the last stop on their shopping spree was the downtown FluffyMart mega store. Amy had promised to buy Pinky any toy of her choice since Pinky had managed to land a single front flip during her fluffy acrobatics lessons earlier in the week.
Swiftly parking her red Ferrari in the parking lot of the giant FluffyMart, Amy lifted her darling pink fluffy from her seat and led her towards the entrance of the store.
“So Pinky, have you decided what toy you want to get?” Amy asked.
Pinky rocked her head left and right as she pondered.
“Pinky wan stuffy bear!” The pink fluffy replied after a few seconds of serious thought.
Amy smiled. “I think I saw one of those in the FluffyMart catalog the other day. We can buy a pretty pink ribbon to go with it.”
“Oh, tank yu mummah!” Pinky exclaimed with trained politeness.
As Amy led Pinky towards the entrance of FluffyMart, they walked past a dark alleyway next to the store.
The gentle sounds of sobbing was almost drowned out by the raucous crowd outside the FluffyMart. It was only Pinky’s keen sense of hearing that allowed her to notice the unusual sound that emanated from the shadows.
Pinky turned to the side and carefully peered into the alleyway.
Sitting on the dirty ground of the dark alleyway was a lone figure. A young woman with shoulder length brown hair and a face that was familiar to Pinky. She had met this young woman only a handful of times. Pinky was friends with a green fluffy named Avocado, a clever and playful fluffy who had a daddy who was friends with this young woman.
Pinky was not afraid to approach the young woman as she was kind and gentle to fluffies. As Pinky got closer to the young woman, she could see that the nice lady was crying. Upon noticing this, Pinky’s heart immediately sank in sympathy.
“Becky?” Pinky called out softly in her sweet voice.
Becky lifted her head and looked with surprise at the flawless pink fluffy that was now standing beside her. She quickly wiped the tears from her eyes, not wanting the pink fluffy to see her in such a state.
“Pinky! What are you doing here?”
Becky wiped the remaining tears in her eyes as she realized that Pinky’s owner might be nearby.
“Mummah take Pinky to FwuffyMawt. Mummah wiww buy Pinky a new stuffy fwiend.”
At that moment, the sounds of frantic footsteps could be heard before Amy dashed into the scene, short of breath and her face full of panic.
“Oh my God Pinky! I thought I had lost you!”
Amy reached down to pick up Pinky. It was only when she was bent down that she noticed Becky sitting on the ground dressed in a fluffy suit.
“Oh my.” Amy tried her best to not recoil in shock.
“Hello Amy.” Becky greeted quietly as she got back on her feet.
“Um, hello Becky.”
Amy ran her hands through Pinky’s soft fluff to make sure her princess was okay.
“Is everything all right Pinky?” Amy asked as she darted her eyes towards Becky.
“Pinky am otay mummah. But Becky…” Pinky thought carefully about her words before proceeding, “Can mummah pwease see if Becky is otay?” Pinky looked with concern at Becky.
“Yes um, okay princess…” Amy looked at Becky up and down, “I didn’t know you work here…”
“Yeah, well. I didn’t. Until today.”
Amy nodded awkwardly.
“Mummah, is Becky otay??” Pinky asked with insistence.
“Quiet now Pinky! You were a bad fluffy to run away from mummah! Didn’t I teach you to never lose sight of mummah? There are some bad people out there who may want to hurt you!”
“Mummah! Pinky nu am bad fwuffy! Pinky heaw Becky have saddies and wan to hewp Becky! Pinky nu wan Becky to hav saddies!” Pinky pleaded.
“It’s true Amy. Pinky is a good girl and was just concerned for me, please don’t get angry at her.” Becky said as she picked up the fluffy mascot head from the ground.
Amy looked at Becky and could see redness in her eyes. She looked around the grimy alleyway and gestured for Becky to follow her.
“Ugh, this place is so disgusting. Let’s get you out of here and get you cleaned up.”
Amy walked to a bench nearby and placed Pinky down. Becky followed slowly, limping with pain from the sprained ankle she received when she fell. Amy tried to support Becky half-heartedly, trying her utmost not to rub her white Armani jeans against Becky’s dusty, fluffy suit.
After helping Becky onto the bench, Amy bought a bottle of cold mineral water from a vending machine nearby.
Becky thanked the blonde woman and gulped down the refreshing drink to a background of awkward silence.
“So Becky.” Amy said stiffly, “I thought you worked at the university cafeteria, how come you are working here now?”
“I saw that FluffyMart was hiring and they were offering staff discounts as part of the benefits.”
“Oh is that right? That’s interesting.”
“Well, I don’t know if it’s that interesting, but it’ll definitely help me pay off Ruby’s medicine that little bit quicker.”
“I see…So, Ruby is your fluffy?”
“Wuby am Becky’s fwuffy mummah! Avocado tell Pinky dat Wuby am vewy nice fwuffy!” Pinky confirmed earnestly.
Becky smiled at Pinky’s assessment of Ruby.
“Well how do you know Ruby is a nice fluffy if you never met her?” Amy questioned her fluffy.
“Pinky know mummah. Avocado told Pinky! An awso…Becky am nice wady, den Wuby must also be nice fwuffy.”
“That’s a lot of inference and supposition for a little fluffy like yourself don’t you think?” Amy said sternly.
Pinky dipped her head sheepishly and leaned shyly against Amy’s arm.
“Your fluffy, Ruby, is she sick?” Amy asked as she wrapped her arms around Pinky.
“She was quite sick a short while ago. But since I adopted her from the clinic I volunteer at, I’ve started her on a course of medication that has really turned things around." Becky replied cheerfully.
“Oh that’s great to hear. I still remember when my first fluffy became gravely ill when I was small.” Amy cast her eyes to the ground. Her face turned dour and her eyes almost began to water, “That was shortly before I got Princess here…” Amy lovingly patted Pinky’s shiny, purple mane.
“It sounds like you have a lot of experience taking care of fluffies.” Becky said.
“Oh I do. I just adore fluffy ponies. Especially my little princess here.” Amy tickled Pinky behind her ears and the fluffy giggled cutely with delight.
“I’m very careful with Pinky’s health and wellbeing. She gets quarterly check ups from my trusted fluffy vet, Dr. Lambert who is a close family friend.”
Becky looked at the crowd of rude shoppers that were coming and going from the storefront of the faceless FluffyMart corporation.
“Amy…I don’t suppose that Dr. Lambert would be looking to take on a paid intern?” Becky asked.
“Dr. Lambert is always looking for good people and she would pay good money for the right candidate. But she’s very serious about her work and only trusts those that she knows well.”
“Doktor Wambert am very nice wady!” Pinky added, “Doktor teach Pinky how to be healthy fwuffy. Fwuffy nee runnies and num healthy nummies, nu watch teebee aww day an nu num too many sweet nummies.”
“That right princess!” Amy smiled.
Amy turned to Becky and spoke quietly, “Pinky’s got a bit of a sweet tooth so I indulge her with a little dessert every night. But I make sure that she gets her regular exercise and checkup to maintain her physical peak. I can’t bear the thought of losing another fluffy too early again…” Amy’s voice trailed off with a hint of heartbreak.
“I know exactly what you mean Amy.” Becky said with heartfelt honesty.
For a brief second, Amy looked into Becky’s steady eyes and could suddenly understand everything about her. The impulsive moment of empathetic connection compelled Amy to give a business card to Becky.
“Here.” Amy said as she handed over the card, “Go give Dr. Lambert a call on Monday. Tell her that Amy Hastings recommends you for that intern role that she’s been looking to fill. I’ll give her a call beforehand to provide an introduction. Just SlapChat me your resume as soon as you get home today.”
Becky’s eyes lit up, “Consider it done!”
Amy stood up from the bench and turned towards the FluffyMart.
“Pinky, let’s go get you that stuffy friend that mummah promised you!”
“Yay! Wets go mummah! Bye Becky! Pinky miss yu! Say hewwo to Wuby fow Pinky!” The pink fluffy continually waved her front hooves at Becky as she was carried away toward the store.
“Thanks Amy.” Becky called out as Amy and Pinky joined the crowd pushing their way into the store.
Amy nodded, “Good luck Becky.” She replied plainly.
The blonde woman turned her attention back to her little princess, shielding her from the careless crowd.
Emboldened by the encounter, Becky took a final sip of water before putting her fluffy head back on. Taking the placard in her hand, she likewise marched bravely back to the FluffyMart storefront to face the feral throng.
END
- This story occurs sometime after Part 4 of Ruby’s story. The intention was to explore a different character dynamic and to expand on specific aspects of what the FluffyMart shopping and working experience would be like.
Ruby’s new life Part 4 - New friends and a new home (author: Carpdime)