“Gunna cach-oo!” Sunshine squealed, galloping through the soft green grass. Ahead of her ran her brightly colored foals, laughing and chirping happily. She spread her wings and flew forward, scooping her wiggling foals into a hug as she glided over the pasture.
“Am fastest mummah ebah! Mummah awways catch babbehs!”
Sunshine’s eyes cracked open. She didn’t see the grass or the many colors of her foals, instead she saw a crusty food bowl and a pillow-safe water bottle. The same sight she saw every morning.
Her bottom lip started to quiver. There was never a grassy pasture. She had no beautiful foals. She had no legs to chase or wings to fly, just ugly scarred stumps where limbs should be. She lay in the same hard sided bed in her mummah’s living room she always did. The litterbox behind her was full, the plastic cover kept the smell from filling the room but Sunshine could feel the filth sticking to her bright yellow fluff and pretty white tail.
A sob escaped her lips before she could stop herself. Sunshine immediately bit her lip as she flinched back, waiting for her punishment.
“Pillowfluffs are HAPPY!” the memory screamed inside her head, her old daddeh striking her with his stinging sorry stick. “If you’re not fucking HAPPY then no one will fucking want you!!”
Sunshine didn’t want to be unwanted. Sunshine plastered a smile onto her face, twisted her sobs into something like a choked chuckle. Sunshine was a happy fluffy, staring out into the still room. She had to be.
Most fluffy care guides recommend putting fluffies to bed rather early, usually somewhere around 6 pm. This usually leads to fluffies waking up well before their owners, something Hasbio accounted for. Fluffies are programmed to spend their mornings engaging in quiet play, hugging soft toys or coloring and, if they have fluffy friends engaging in social grooming. This means by the time their owners are feeding them and leaving for work or school a fluffy is ready to nap through most of the day and be ready and energized to play when their owners return.
Sunshine stared straight forward at the blank TV. She could hear the light sounds of bird song but it was still too dark for her to see anything out the window. Not that she wanted to, the still frosted grass made her sad she couldn’t run through it and the pretty birds reminded her of the pink stumps where her wings should be.
Pillowfluffs are happy, so Sunshine shouldn’t look at things that make her sad. She shouldn’t think about things that made her sad, like back in the shelter when she had her legs. When she was with her mummah and siblings. Her siblings got adopted one by one, leaving just her and her fluffy mummah. They left together with her old daddeh, and he-
Sunshine gasped as a tear hit her cheek. No, she was a happy fluffy! She wiped it away as best she could, rubbing her face against the corner of her bed.
“Itchies…” she muttered. Yeah, an itch. She was just itchy. Not sad. Sunshine was a happy fluffy.
Almost two hours later Sunshine heard Mummah’s alarm going off, one of her favorite noises. Sunshine’s tail wagged against the sides of her litterbox while she listened to Mummah get up, shower, and finally leave her bedroom.
“Mownin’ Mummah!” She chirped.
“Good Morning Sunshine!”
Sunshine gave her owner a big grin as she came around the corner to give her a scritch between the ears.
“Mummah hab guud sweepies?”
“I did! I hope you did too!”
Sunshine felt the muscles in her cheeks start to droop and forced them back up. “Sunshine hab bestest sweepy pitchas!”
“That’s good! Let me get you your breakfast!”
Sunshine held her smile as her mummah took her crusty food bowl and half filled it with high fiber pillowfluff kibble. Sunshine forced herself to look excited for it as it was set down in front of her, taking a large mouthful of the flavorless chunks and chewing them as fast as she could. Once the sharp, dry mass had been swallowed she lifted her head, “Tank’oo Mummah!”
“That’s a good girl.” Mummah ruffled her mane. Sunshine leaned into it, one of the few things she really enjoyed.
“Mummah has to work late tonight, okay? We’ll have sketti for dinner when I’m home.”
“Otay mummah! So esided!!”
Mummah chuckled, patting her head again. “That’s why I keep you around, happy girl!”
Sunshine held her tight smile as Mummah rifled through the couch for the remote. “I’ll get your shows going, be a good girl while I’m gone!”
Mummah leaned down to kiss Sunshine on the head before hurrying out the front door.
“-and that’s how you do the leggies dance!” the TV said, fluffies of all colors and types waving their legs in the air as repetitive pop music played. “Let’s see it again!”
“Huu…” Sunshine rested her chin on her food bowl, watching fluffies enjoy what she never could again.
When the song ended the DANCIE TIME! logo was pulled across the screen by two flying pegasus. “Don’t go away, up next is the Good Poopies song!”
Sunshine sobbed quietly into her kibble bowl. She missed her leggies. She missed her wingies. She missed being able to make good poopies that didn’t cover her in filth. She missed good nummies, and huggies, and friends, and playing, and-
“I’m Meyer Michaels, founder of Michaels Happy Pillowfluffs!”
Sunshine’s breath caught in her throat at the sight of her old Daddeh.
The commercial continued as the man explained how his rescued pillowfluffs were treated well, Sunshine could only see him holding her amputated mother by the neck.
“You had all better PAY ATTENTION.”
He held her out, Sunshine could see the tears matting down her cheek fluff from your cage near the floor.
“THIS,” he shook her aggressively, “is NOT a happy fluffy.”
His fingers tightened around her throat, the mare wriggled her stumps as her airways were cut off.
“This bitch got RETURNED! Do any of you stupid fucks know why??”
A few fluffies tried to answer him but were cut off by the sound of him slamming Sunshine’s mother into one of the kennel stacks.
“She couldn’t be fucking happy! So she got RETURNED!”
Sunshine bit her lip to avoid wailing.
“Returns get their money back and THAT’S ALL YOU’RE GOOD FOR!” He grabbed her by the tail and hoisted her over his head. “This is what will happen if any of you get RETURNED!”
Sunshine saw her mother fall to the concrete in front of her kennel.
She saw her lift her head, blood gushing from her now crooked nose and notice her daughter.
She saw her mother open her mouth to speak.
She saw her mother’s skull shatter as her old daddeh’s boot slammed into her.
She saw the blood spray into her foot and water bowl.
She saw the gore drip from his boot as he lifted it to strike again.
She saw the burnt orange fluff twitch as the boot sailed down.
she saw she saw she saw she saw she saw
“-think you’ll be a good home for one of our friends here, give us a call!” her old daddeh continued. “If your fluffy isn’t the right fit we’ll take them back and give you a full refund! That’s the Happy Pillowfluff Guarantee!”
In his arms wasn’t the bloody corpse of her mummah, but a smiling green fluffy he called Verne. Sunshine had never seen him without a wide smile on his face, even when he slept. She’d seen him struggle to eat and realized that his daddeh had done something to him to keep him smiling, something permanent.
Even when he sobbed alone on his shelf he held a tight smile. Even when he was beaten with the sorry stick for missing the litterbox or making a mess of his kibble or just being there while his tormentor was in a bad mood, he smiled. Even when his face was bloody and swollen, he smiled.
“Our pillowfluffs are happy fluffs! Give us a call to meet some of our available friends!”
Sunshine’s cheeks hurt as she watched the rest of the commercial, various smiling legless fluffies available for adoption with their fees below them. Sunshine wasn’t paying attention to that. Sunshine was making sure she was a happy fluffy. Sunshine was hoping her wide grin would hide the wet tear tracks on her cheeks.
