The Journey - Story by Hornlarry with Animated Art by RQ (Booru ID 40927)

“How wong tiww Wucy get dewe daddah?” the grey pegasus fluffy asked, yet again.

“I told you Lucy, it’s going to be a long time. A very long time.” said the man on the touch screen.

Lucy pressed her hooves up against the glass, inadvertently triggering fluffy friendly menus, offering food, games or fluff TV.

“But Wucy am wonewy… wan daddah… wan huggies…”

“I’m sorry Lucy, I can’t be there to hug you,” the man sighed, “How about you give your stuffy friend a hug instead?”

“Otay daddah,” Lucy said, finding her stuffed bear, strapped into the seat next to hers, and squeezing it tightly to her chest.

“Do you have enough food? Can you work the screen OK?” the man asked.

“Yes daddah, Wucy can get kibbew, an wawa… Can Wucy have Sketties?” she asked, the enthusiasm in her voice being obvious.

“Sorry Lucy, Sketties are only once a week. It gives you something to look forward to.”

“Otay daddah,” the fluffy sighed.


“Daddah! How wong?” the fluffy asked again. Her constant questioning seemed to be exhausting even her, so her question had been reduced to a simple “how long?”

Lucy sat and waited. For some reason, Daddah was taking longer and longer to answer her. Even if she cried and begged. Eventually, his face on the magic picture screen started moving again, and she heard his words.

“Lucy, we’ve been through this,” the man said, with a hardened patience in his voice. “It will take a LONG TIME. Why don’t you try watching some fluff-TV? You can access it by touching the GREEN circle on the touch-screen. The GREEN CIRCLE.”

“Wucy nu WAN watch Fluff-TV! Wan daddah! Wan huggies! Wan Sketties! Wan get dewe aweady!”

But once again, Daddah was silent.


“Daddah? Pwease tawk to fwuffy… Fwuffy am wonewy… Fwuffy need huggies… Am sowwee dat asked fow sketties… fwuffy wiww be gud. Pweeeease daddah?”

The touch screen stayed silent, the frozen image of her beloved daddah’s face was unmoving and unmoved by her sadness.

“Why nu tawk to fwuffy? Nu wuv fwuffy nu mowe? Huu huu huu… huu huu huu…”

Lucy pressed the button to dispense some more kibble, then sat down to eat it with her stuffy friend. Hugging him under one hoof, she cried herself to sleep.


“DADDAH!” Lucy yelled furiously. “Why taek so wong to tawk to fwuffy! Ansa naow ow get sowwy poopies and wowstest owwies!”

Lucy puffed out her cheeks, and threw her stuffy friend at the silent touch-screen.

“Why nu say nuffink daddah?!? Why taek so wong? How wong tiww get dewe daddah? HOW WONG?!?”

Still, the screen was silent.

“DADDAH!” the fluffy roared with incandescent fury. In a blind rage, she started to smash her hooves against the screen, but it was made from synthetic sapphire, and wouldn’t have broken even if she’d had a hammer to hit it with. Giving up on the hoofies, she turned, lifted her tail, and sprayed horrendous liquid shit all over the screen.

Lucy turned around, and watched as her crap pooled all over the silent, unmoving face of her daddah.

“HOW WONG?”


[20 minutes later]

“Lucy, DO NOT POOP ON THE MONITOR,” the man said, in a firm but calm voice. It will get in the air and clog up the air-filters…"

“Daddah!” Lucy cried, jumping up and placing her hooves on the screen, desperately trying to hug him. Just as she did every time, she tried to talk to him, but just as he did more and more now, he continued, talking over her, as if he could not hear what she was saying.

“Daddah! Am sowwy 'bout da sowwy poopies! Wucy nu mean it, jus wan huggies? An wan know how wong?”

“…it takes a lot longer for me to reply because of the time delay, you’re messages are delayed too…”

“How WONG daddah?”

“…its still going to be a long time,” the moving image of the man continued, “but you are more than half way there. You are a very famous fluffy now Lucy…”

“HOW WONG DADDAH?!? HOW WONG?!?”

“…you’ve flown further than any pegasus ever. Further than any human even. I know you don’t understand this, but Mars is very far away…”

“HOW WONG?!?”

“…you’re half way there now, so it will only be another nine months. Try to snuggle Mr Bear, and watch some fluff-TV. The air filters can clean the poop, but only a little bit, so make sure you poop in the vacuum litterbox. Bye bye Lucy, daddah loves you.”

Lucy ran out of rage. “Wuv yu too daddah,” she cried, before settling back down in despair.


Ever since Lucy was chosen for her special adventure, it had been dark tiem outside. Looking out of her window, she saw the stars whirling around, just like Daddah said they would. If she stayed in the round-spinning room, she would stick to the floor, and walk around in a circle, even on the ceiling. At first this had been amazing to her, walking around, and looking up, to see Mr Bear strapped into the co-pilot seat, above her, but not falling down. Even better was the middle room, where Lucy could fly. At first, she would spend hours in there every day, flapping her wingies and flying. Daddah said the real flying was the rocket-ship, and that the middle room was just “Zewo Gwavity”, but Lucy knew that the real flying was when she flapped her wingies in the middle room.

Things had changed during the journey. For one thing, she was completely sick of kibble. Her weekly sketties were the only thing that kept her hopes up. She had no idea how long another “nine months” was. The air filters did indeed clean up some of the poop, and the vacuum litterbox cleaned up even more, scary though it was to use. In spite of this, she had occasional accidents, and more frequently, tantrums which led to sorry pooping. By now, there were brown stains all over the walls, and Lucy’s fluff was matted and stained, despite her best attempts at giving herself licky cleanies. Chunks of poop would float around in the middle room, until an air filter sucked them through its grating. One or two of the air filters were completely blocked with dried poopies now.

Hugging Mr Bear, Lucy just wanted to see her daddah again. Even flying, and getting sketties every week wasn’t worth the terrible, soul-crushing loneliness she felt inside. Worstest heart hurties described it at first, but now she just felt empty.

“Huu huu huu… Fwuffy wiww nevew get to Maws… Huu huu huu…”


“Good Evening America, and what a night it is tonight. Just a few minutes ago, NASA recieved confirmation that Lucy the Pegasus has safely landed on Mars, making her the first creature to reach the Red Planet, and paving the way for a manned mission to the planet. As soon as NASA releases them, we are expecting pictures, with a 24 minute delay from Mars. Here, in the studio tonight, we have Doctor Lance Goldberg, director of the fluffy astronaut programme, good evening Dr Goldberg.”

“Good evening Paul.”

“Dr Goldberg, its cost 560 billion dollars to put a fluffy on Mars, is that really a good use of tax payers money, given the national debt is now approaching ninety trillion?”

“It think it is Paul, and let me tell you why. Ever since I was a small boy, I’ve looked up at the sky and wondered…”


Red.

It was red outside.

And windy. Lots of red dusty wind.

Lucy looked out of the window. Mars looked very boring.

She pressed her hooves up against the touch screen, and it came to life with a message. Strangely, the not-fluff on daddah’s face that he had been growing had all disappeared, and he was wearing his old glasses.

“Lucy! If you’re getting this message, it means that you actually made it to Mars! Congratulations, you are a world famous fluffy now!”

Lucy had eventually learned that daddah would not stop to listen to her, so she kept quiet and watched the rest of his message.

“I’m very happy you made it, although it does mean I owe Matt about a thousand dollars,” daddah laughed to himself. “Frankly Lucy, we were never really sure you would make it. This whole mission was much more of a tech demo, to prove the ship could get there, and keep you alive. If you’re watching this, it means it worked.”

Lucy hugged Mr Bear closer, continuing to listen to her daddah. She thought he would be there to hug her when she got to Mars, that was what he had promised.

“Well, there, er… there’s no nice way of saying this Lucy, but, er… We had enough food, water, fuel and air for a return mission, but then congress cut our funding a year before blast-off, so we had to make cuts and… its a one-way mission Lucy. You can’t come home. You’re stuck on Mars.”

Lucy blinked.

“I know we said we were going to film you, but we weren’t sure you’d make it, so we’ve had your twin sister Lucinda in a simulator for several months, and we’re going to film her in a ‘Mars’ TV studio, to broadcast to all our funders and kids. We’re calling her Luci now, isn’t that great? I’m sorry Lucy, but people would have been devastated if you’d died, and would be even more devastated to learn that you’re stranded there.”

“Stwanded?” Lucy asked, disbelievingly. In the background, she saw her twin sister pegasus, Lucinda, putting on a fluffy sized space-suit, and bouncing around on red sand-dunes, telling the camera how happy she was. “Wuci am on Maws!”

“Anyway,” Daddah’s message continued. “To celebrate, the skettie machine will give you all the rest of the sketties! That ought to last you a few days. There’s plenty of air and water too, enough to last a year or so with the recycling. The plutonium will last for millions of years so warmth and light should be OK. You’ve got about a month’s worth of kibble left, if you ate it at the rate we expected. Anyway, the computer is programmed to dispense it all in one go, so you’ll see how much food you have left. Or eat it all in one go if you like. Enjoy the rest of your life Lucy. Daddah loves you.”

Daddah’s face disappeared from the screen. The food dispenser wirred, releasing all the rest of the kibble. Three tiny pieces of kibble fell into Lucy’s food bowl. Lucy had been comfort eating for several months, and had eaten more than the team had predicted. The skettie machine whirred too, releasing a small dollop of sketties, smaller than her weekly treat.

Lucy blinked again.

“Nu can gu home? Wucy am stwanded?”

The screen remained silent.

“Nuuuuuuuuuuuuu!” Lucy screamed.

But millions of miles away from the Earth, in the midst of a martian sand storm, no one can hear a fluffy cry.

40927 - animated animation audio author_hornlarry explicit mars nigger psychological_abuse sadbox shit shit_everywhere sorry_poopies sound space starvation suffering the_journey


Link to Index of Hornlarry Stories

67 Likes

What a novel concept, I loved this story especially the apathy from her owner. I only wish this was abuse so she could be forced to suffer the consequences of her comfort eating and sowwy-poopies

I look forward to reading more of your work!

14 Likes

Well… At least she won’t last much longer, so soon she won’t have to be alone.

6 Likes

Fucking hell this is a brilliant story, very deftly told

4 Likes

I found the art by @RQ that she did for this story. She did a brilliant job of portraying it and somehow got some sound and voice acting embedded in the image. I can’t quite remember how to hear the sounds though. Maybe she can explain.

3 Likes

in space no one can hear you poop

4 Likes

Thanks for asking! This particular image doesn’t seem to have the audio (if it did, simply opening it as a ZIP file would reveal it), but I did have a flash version of the scene with audio. Since Flash is kaput, I’ll need to convert it to a video. I’ll put that on my to-do list and post it to Fluffycommunity when I get it done.

4 Likes

Yay! Your audio was awesome :grin:

2 Likes

See, this is why you gotta send smarter animals. Like a monkey, or a rat.

It’s very similar to the dogs and chimps we’ve sent into space, how tragic. I love this story, but I think that its kinda ridiculous that a mission to Mars carrying what is essentially an animal would even have a planned way of returning her home. When the Soviets sent the first dog into space, they knew it would die in orbit. Would the general public really be fooled by a film set designed to look like Mars? They’d also want to see Lucy when she got back from her mission, since returning a living creature safely from a round trip space mission to another world would be a huge accomplishment in and of itself.