Chapter 16
Adam was rushing down the hall to the foal examination room. He had a Code C. He’d never dealt with a Code C before, but he knew what it meant. A cannibal foal. Due to the laws and other legal things Adam wasn’t paid enough to know or care about, The Mill couldn’t breed cannibal fluffies, but they were allowed to sell any born. It was a pretty rare occurrence, and the foal’s parentage would be investigated to see if the parents produced any other cannibals.
He arrived in the room. It was just past the regular foal room, but just as warm. It looked like a kid’s doctor office to keep them as calm as possible. The little one was shaking on the padded table, likely shaken by the doctor’s reaction…who had a bleeding hand. “He already bites?” Adam asked, somewhat surprised.
The doctor shrugged. “His teeth are coming in. It looks like they mature quicker than regular foals.
Adam looked over the foal. He was lime green with a crimson mane. Normally not the most attractive color, but he had dark green spots like leaves. That must have been what saved him. He looked at the eyes, which had recently opened. They were an odd yellowish color with swirls. The telltale sign of a cannibal. That, and the blood on the padded table he was hesitantly licking. “Is his examination done, at least?” Adam asked.
The doctor rolled his eyes. “Why yes, I’m fine. Thank you, Adam.” He said sarcastically. “No. I start at the head.”
Adam winced. “Er, sorry doc.” He said, realizing it was a bit rude. He helped with the examination, both men grabbing a pair of sterile gardening like gloves for when they had a rare case or a biter. Even if they were foals, getting a repeated pinch from the strong ones.
The foal was sobbing and shaking. “Huuuhuuu…odda fwuffies su meanie…wun way fwom fwuffy…” he was trying to wiggle away. “Nu wike! Nu wike! Wan fwiends!”
Adam saw this wasn’t going well. “Don’t worry, little guy. We’re gonna take you to a place with some new friends. They won’t be afraid of you.” Adam was truthful about that. There were only two other cannibal foals, three with this guy. Only one adult they were allowed to keep as a caretaker only. No breeding for any reason. They’d tried a regular fluffy as a nurse mare at first…but that didn’t go so well when the foals got hungry in the middle of the night.
Adam lifted the foal carefully, but let his back legs dangle so the doc could finish his examination. It was always awkward to have to examine the foal’s gentiles. Any fluffy, really. They made a big fuss about it. Adam had asked, and the scientists thought it was due to them being a toy and keep kids from grabbing at them. Or the sick minded from abusing them.
“Nuu! Nu tuch nu-nus!” The foal flailed his back legs.
“We have to to make sure you’re healthy.” Adam told him. “If you’re sick and we don’t know, your no-no stick and special lumps might just fall off.” A blatant lie, but it always made the foals and fluffies more cooperative. The foal let out an arc of scaredy peepeees…which unfortunately arced right in the face of the doctor.
Adam choked back a laugh. “….sorry doc.” Was all he could say.
The doctor cleaned off his face, and sighed after. “I can say I’m used to it…but you never get used to a mentally deficient creature pissing on you.” He shook his head. “I wanted to be a pediatrician, you know. Now I’m finding I would rather work with adults. At least they speak properly.”
“You wanna deal with the teen slang? Being lit and shade?” Adam asked, knowing he was just as out of touch, despite not even being thirty yet.
“Ugh. Don’t remind me. My daughter just turned twelve. When she talks to her friends, I can barely understand what they’re saying.” The doctor sighed. “They’ve begun something called ‘fanfics’ and talk about their ‘Ohteepee’ or whatever that is…” he shook his head. “Okay, this foal is done. Take him to his new friends.” He said, waving them off.
“Alright, lets get going.” Adam said. He and other employees were trained to not use any term of endearment for them. No ‘little guy’ or ‘sweetheart’. The foal would take it as a name, and they couldn’t have that. If they named one fluffy, they had to name all of them, or the foals would lord it over each other. They couldn’t possibly keep track of the name for each fluffy. So nobody got names. Even the breeders, though they took their numbers as names.
He walked down to the special ward. His next task was here, so it was lucky for him. He shouldered open the doors, holding the still shaken foal. It must have been hard for him, to wake and find he was incredibly different than other fluffies. Adam made it to the room, which always smelled faintly of meat and blood; the cannibal fluff’s meal. The other foals were a little older than the foal, but young enough to befriend him. One was a male, the other a female with what looked like a diaper. It was more like a fluffy chastity belt. The male was a unicorn, sparkling blue with a black mane. The female was a lovely purple color and pink mane, but she was a curly haired foal. They would be top sellers if it weren’t for them being cannibals. They’d still be sold for a lot of money to collectors. They always loved cannibals, whether they were pretty or not. The nurse mare was an alicorn cannibal, jet black with a grey mane.
Adam knelt down, placing the patterned fluffy on the ground. “This is your new friend. He just found out he’s like you two, so be nice, okay?” He knew the little one would get sympathy, at least by the nurse mare. Luckily he saw the female roll a ball over. The ball was a rubber one, meant for teething puppies. It had a bit of damage, but was holding up well. “Nyu fwiend pway baww?” She asked.
The new foal looked shocked. “F…fiwwy wan pway?” He asked, looking shocked. Tears welled up in his eyes, and he hugged the filly, sobbing with happiness.
Adam left at that heartwarming scene as the colt and nurse mare went to wrap the new colt in in a hug. The job had its perks at times…
Now…the alicorns. Specifically the micro alicorns. The normal population was okay with alicorns, as the foals grew up alongside them. They normally took cues from the nurse mares, who were chosen partly on being okay with alicorns. If any foals were nervous, the nurse mares set them straight. One the perks from buying from The Mill was the guarantee of their fluffies being alicorn friendly.
The micros…they couldn’t make the same claim. They were like a little colony of their own, and they were hard to punish without killing. It was just easier to bred those with a good temperament, and have a camera pointed at those who weren’t so someone could step in immediately when they gave birth. Due to this, the alicorns were separated. One too many incidents of foal stomping. All Alicorns were kept, coloring aside. They were trying to increase the population, after all. It was sorting time for them, and Adam took the gloves off, and took a magnifying glass. Yeah, the eyesight of some employees weren’t the best, so the company had a surprisingly cheap solution. Micros were already small, foals even more so. He stepped into the alicorn foal room. Some of the best nurse mare micros were here. Not pretty enough or retried from breeding. They were the size of hamsters, the foals even smaller, about the length of a finger from tip to second knuckle. Adam smiled a little. The micros were cute. Not enough to make him want to own one, but cute little things with their high pitched chirps and peeps. The little fluff piles looked like multicolored cotton balls. Luckily he didn’t have to disturb those. They were the youngest ones that still had their eyes closed.
The adolescents ready to be sorted were coming up to him, asking him to play. “I can’t right now. You guys are being sorted.”
“Sowted?” A silver one asked, then peeped as he fell on his behind.
Adam nodded. “You foals are growing into bigger foals. Almost adults. We put colts and stallions together. Fillies and mares go together too.”
“Buh…wha bout sissy?” He asked, looking at his curly maned sister with worry.
Adam was ready for this. They told this to the micros for a reason. He pulled out a bit of the mesh. “You can still see and talk to her. This is all that’s between you.” He said. It was thin enough to see through, but thick enough to prevent enfing. It was like a soft version of a window screen. He held it between the siblings, who were satisfied they could still see each other.
Adam began the sorting. It was just a clear shallow caddy with two pockets. The microfluffies could still see each other. He started with the pair he knew to be male and female, but then he had to use the magnifying glass.
He had the caddy on the table, and would use one hand to grab a foal gently. He turned them over, and used the other hand with the magnifying glass to take a look at them. If he didn’t see a…ugh…no-no stick or balls, it was presumed female. He sorted them rather quickly, hearing no protests. This was due to a special trick: pretending to be stroking their bellies with his thumb. He’d part their fur and be able to tell. Sometimes it took two or three parts, but it got the job done without protests. It was funny to see how they got better treatment, just for being considerably less annoying, and less able to cause trouble. It took a short time to sort them, and he double checked by asking the nurse mares if there were any other big fluffies ready to go to big fluffy school. He knew to use encouraging language for them, to make the fluffies think this was a good thing. Adam was fairly sure the microfluff nurse mares were trustworthy.
He took them to the graduated room. It was essentially a giant hamster cage. An aquarium tank fitted with all sorts of tunnels, sand, a litter box, even little wheels for them if they so wished. The floor was padded with tissues, and all sorts of primary colors. A child’s dream…or a fluffy’s dream. The other side was the mirror image, only separated by the mesh that cut all the way through. It was firmly attached to the walls and floors. It only took one mature male or female sneaking over to the other side to have an infestation. Each microfluff was carefully placed into their enclosure. Many had little peeps in surprise, and explored with toddling steps. They seemed satisfied. Adam was sure to point them to where their new litterbox was, where their food was, and where their water was. After all, one could never assume just how dumb a fluffy was, even if they were alicorns. Adam liked o think they had some modicum of intelligence, but stock had been lost over lesser mistakes. A few minutes of watching to ensure the alicorns were safe and settled, and Adam left.
The next thing he had to do…he purposely saved this one for later today. Of of the punishment smarties had gotten it his thick little skull that he was in charge, and started demanding things of the handlers. This happened occasionally, but this one had tried to stage a rebellion, and they covered half a room in poop. Many had been punished, several terminated…they needed the leader to be made an example of. He needed to make the fluffy beg and cry before termination. Not many liked this job, so they had punishment on a rotation. There were a few abusers, they couldn’t weed out all of them, but they tried to keep them out of punishment duty. They went too far, and often killed a fluffy they were only supposed to punish.
He went into the smarty room, where the walls of plexiglass were made higher, and the population noticeably thinned. Many of the weaker members were huuhuuing and there was an air of fear among them. “So….you got it in your tiny little heads to start a rebellion, hm? Have you forgotten who feeds you? Who cares for you? You can’t get out of this pen. Even if you made humans stop coming all that would happen is you starve to death and fight amongst yourselves.” Adam hoped that got through to some of the actually smarter ones. But he still had to make an example. He went over to the sorry box. It was more of a torture box. Small enough for the fluffy to feel claustrophobic, along with rough walls and a ceiling for fluff to snag on. On the floor there were raised bumps and blunted points to make the crouched position even more painful. It was recommended to leave a fluffy in for thirty minutes. This fluffy had a stay of at least an hour. It didn’t matter, since the fluffy was going to die. Adam donned some clean gardening gloves, opened the container, and yanked the smarty out by the forehead fluff, able to feel the small blunted horn against his hand.
“EEEEE! Bad upsies!” The smarty claimed, wiggling his legs. “Owies! Wet smawty gu, dummeh hoomin!” It cried.
Adam scowled. “It looks like you haven’t learned anything at all.” He said. He walked over to the second table, which was used for medical examinations, punishment, demonstrations on foals. This time…it would be used as a stage for punishment and death. Adam dropped the fluffy from a careful height. One that would hurt the fluffy, but was likely to not break its legs.
“SCREEEE! WAI HUWT SMAWTY?” The fluffy tried to demand. He sniffled in pain, his legs unbroken, but one was dislocated.
“I hurt you because you are the WORST fluffy. You are so bad you’re going to go forever sleeps.” Adam said sternly, his face schooled into a harsh expression.
“N-NUUU! SMAWTY NU GU FOWEVA SWEEPIES!” The fluffy tried to run away, but Adam grabbed onto his shit stained tail. He was immensely glad he had gloves on.
“Stupid f*cking fluffy.” He said with an eye roll. Adam wasn’t one to swear normally, but it made all the fluffies in the room wince at the ‘bad wowdsies’ the human used. Adam yanked the fluffy off the ground, just an inch or so, and let it fall again. He did this a few times like a demented fluffy Yo-yo with a very short string. He felt the tail bone break on his fourth drop.
“SCREEEE! TAIW OWIEES!” The smarty screamed, flailing his three limbs.
“Well, I guess this is useless now.” Adam said and chopped off the tail without a second thought. Well, that wasn’t entirely true. He gave a lot of thought to what to do on his way over. He had some main points he wanted to cover.
“NUUU! PWETTY TAIW!” He cried.
“Oh? You think you’re pretty?” Adam asked, tilting his head. Oh, he knew what to do. He went over to the cordless razor charging by the wall. Usually used for punishments or shaving off matted fur. This time it was a full on shaving. Adam held the fluffy down as he pitifully moaned about his pretty fur being shaved off. Adam made sure to occasionally jiggle the dislocated leg to make him scream in pain. Some of the fur was purposely propelled to the smarty pen. “This can be all of you. We have enough people to shave all of you and make you all ugly, bald fluffies.” Adam threatened this…but it was unlikely. They likely would only have to hire a few extra bodies just as fluffy shavers…but then they’d also have to turn up the temperature to keep them warm enough to not die from hypothermia.
In a matter of minutes, the fluffy was bald, with some nicks and cuts from where he’d squirmed and Adam cut him with the razor. He didn’t feel good doing this and decided he should end this soon.
He took the razor and cut across the fluffy’s throat, letting him bleed out as he held the fluffy upside down from his leg. When the gurgling stopped, he tossed the fluffy into the biohazard bin. “Let that be a lesson. To all of you. Humans are the real smarties. We’re stronger, smarter, faster. We’re better than you shitrats in every way.” Adam growled, then left.
Ugh. He didn’t feel good about that. He didn’t exactly enjoy murdering fluffies or torturing them for that matter. He just wanted to get on with his job with cool indifference. What he needed now…was to go to seasonal foals.
Calling them ‘seasonal’ was a bit of a stretch, really. They were foals that happened to match the season so they were put up more in the front. They were all still pretty, but Adam couldn’t help but not like the sales tactic. It felt too much like adopting a fluffy for how cool it looked or how cute it was while the holidays were around.
He sighed and stepped into the back room. He took the enclosure out. The foals were mostly brown, but had vibrance in them. They were autumnal colors. One was even a soft caramel brown with red markings. The one around his neck looked like a scarf….if one squinted. There was a deep brown one that had red and yellow markings towards its back end like a turkey. Adam found them a bit dull, but it was just after the turkey eating holiday…so now Yulemas, Christmas, and all other such colors were in. He put the seasonal foals in a cart back. “You guys are going to go back to your friends.” He claimed when the foals asked where they were going. Truthfully Adam knew they were unlikely to be adopted. Not unless there were collectors who wanted them, or better yet, they’d be introduced back into the breeding pool.
The ones going in…there were green, red, gold, silver. All sorts of colors and glittering. They were mostly sparkly, and had been raised on Christmas songs so they could sort of sing them. Mostly they latched onto the chorus…and that was probably the best they could hope for. There were some peppermint striped fluffies and a red one with a white mane and tail. It had little black hooves and some black around the waist to look like a crude imitation of Santa Claus. The only one that looked somewhat appealing to Adam was the peppermint one. Even then…it wasn’t even close to an angora fluffy. Those were his all time favorites. Speaking of which…he had to go pick out a sibling for Pablo.
He made his way to the angora pens, looking for what he wanted. He knew he wanted natural colors again…and he was thinking black and white. He looked over the somewhat technicolor group, picking out his mark. This little angora had some nice long fur, due for a trim, but she was bouncing happily. She seemed to be a little preoccupied with grooming, but that was no problem. Adam made his way over and melt down. The angora fluffy jumped a bit as she noticed Adam in her peripheral vision when she turned to lick more. She eeped, her tongue out in a blep.
“Hey there, little fluffy.” He said to her softly.
“Hewwo, nice mista.” She told Adam, tilting her head.
“I’ve been looking for a pretty black and white fluffy like you. I have a pretty angora fluff at home who needs a sibling.” He pet her gently, hearing her coo as she leaned into his touch.
“Yus! Fwuffy wuv nyu daddeh! Wan bwudda!” She hopped up and down, then tried to jump into Adam’s arms. He happily picked her up. A new fluffy had its home with him.