“Hey little guy, are you all alone?” Berry lifted his head to be confronted by the largest pair of milkie places he had seen on a human or fluffy, black calligraphic script scrawled across the woman’s clavicles. “Nyu fwiend?”
The purplish-red earthie rose from his nestie, a rotting microwave box stuffed with old newspapers he had painstakingly dragged in from all over the alleyway. The human tapped her black tipped finger against a similarly colored pair of lips. “Hmmmm, I already have enough friends…”
Berry couldn’t believe his hearie places. How could anyone have enough friends? He had had to resort to calling even the trashie places friends! He justified that they were his friends since they always had nummies for him, but they really sucked at huggies. But to hear this pretty human had more than enough friends? What could she want with him then?
The stallion felt his heart jump a little. “Pwetty wady be nyu mummah?”
He fully expected to be confronted by a kick from the strange woman’s large, clunky boot. It was the response the question usually elicited from the humans who chanced past his alleyway. Instead, she smiled from behind her finger. “That sounds like a great plan! I’d love to take such a handsome little man home with me!” She punctuated the last sentence by pinching Berry’s cheek and giving it a soft wiggle. He felt himself beginning to tear up from the pain of her sharp nails pinching his cheek, but more importantly from joy. This was a dream come true for the forest born feral. He had moved to the city just to try and find a human who would take him in, only to encounter rejection at every turn. By now he had basically given up hope for a life outside the small, dingy alley he lived in.
The pony wrapped its arms around the woman’s leg, his tears and snot slick against the knee high Doc Marten’s. “Wub mummah! Wub ou’ su much…” the woman smiled back, pearly teeth peeking from behind black lips.
Oddly, he could smell the scent of nearly a dozen other fluffies. He looked up at the woman quizzically. “Mummah aweady hab’ fwuffies?” She nodded back happily. “Yep! And we all play together in a big safe room! With blockies, and balls! And tonight, all of us are going to sleep together in a big fluffpile!”
Berry eagerly followed the woman out to a van which idled on the small, desolate street. His smile vanished upon her swinging open the van to reveal walls covered in rusty kennels, screaming fluffies of all kinds begging to be let out of the sorry boxes. As he turned to run he felt the woman’s hand grip his scruff and haul him into the van, quickly bundling him into a free cage. The woman exited the back and slammed the doors shut, walking back up front to hop into the passenger seat.
“That’s sixteen right?” The hulking 7 foot muscle bound man crushed into the drivers seat turned to look at his passenger as she took a hit off a vape pen, blowing a cloud of tangerine scented smoke out the window. “Yep. That’s quota for the show.”
The man shifted the car into drive and took off down the alley, punching the venue into Apple Maps as the woman scrolled through her phone, both ignoring the muffled pleas from behind the particle board separating the cab from the cargo. The other two teams should be returning soon as well, and the concert still had a while before it started. That left plenty of time to rinse the filth out of the ferals before the show started.
——————-
Berry was terrified, squealing in fear and pain as he thrashed in his prison, nicking his hoofpads on the sharp rusty wires and pulling tufts of fur out when it caught between the bars of the cage. He had been betrayed. This was why his small herd stuck to the forest, the smarty of the herd had told them stories of the munstahs who go around wearing the faces of humans.
He felt his mane go damp as a fluffy above him began to trickle scaredy peepees, the urine stinging the myriad of cuts on his hoofpads. Tears formed in the corners of the stallions eyes, tears of sadness, indignation, embarrassment. He felt him lose control of his own peepees, his odd position forcing him to soak his belly fluff. Then he was sent lurching forwards as the metal munstah came to a stop. He heard the front doors of the van open and close, and then watched as the back doors swung open to a set of bright lights blasting in as the young woman and her giant counterpart slid the set of cages far enough forward for the waiting forklift to comfortably seat its prongs into the appropriate cut outs. The woman smiled as she passed the terrified biotoys, waving cheerfully as she walked off.
The man signed off the delivery forms, his thick hands barely able to hold the pen. The loading dock manager nodded. “Alright, we will get these guys washed and delivered to the SafeRoom within the hour.” The man nodded back, handing back the clipboard and going to the onsite hose to rinse out the back of the vehicle.
Berry also found himself on the end of that very hose, the entire kennel setup being hosed down by an acne ridden teen wearing a set of rubber waders. Every time he would spray a fluffy with the cold water it would promptly release a geyser of scaredy poopies on its neighbors, a rancid cycle that only ended once every fluffy had their bowels emptied, their coats thoroughly rinsed, and were soaked to the bone. The teen had taken special care to make sure no fluffy drowned, though some came very close.
Afterwards, the herd was brought to a small enclosed area that had large industrial fans set up in a circle around some patio heaters, both devices cranked up to max power. The experience was pleasant at first, but as the heat penetrated the wet fluff and began to evaporate the water, Berry felt like he was cooking in his own fluff. He felt faint, then collapsed as the teen walked in and shut down the heaters, leaving the herd to slowly airdry in the fans.
——————-
Berry woke up in a saferoom. He didn’t know why he knew it was a safe room, he just… knew. Maybe it was the soft colors on the walls, a stark difference from the usual grime streaked grey walls of the alley. Maybe it was the rubberized floor foam, that just felt… right, against the hooves of a feral who wandered the sharp asphalt in search of food each day. He didn’t know why, but he knew. He felt himself relax for the first time in a long while.
Then he heard an audience trickle in. People began to snicker and laugh at the fluffies in their little saferoom, looking down from the seemingly bottomless ceiling, as hundreds began to filter in for the performance.
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“ARE WE READY TO PUT THE FEAR OF MAN INTO SOME SHITRATS!”
The lead guitarist of the No-No-Stickmen held his fist high above his head and screamed, the audience returning his cry with thunderous cheers. The venue was a special one, a large U-shaped bend that ended at the stage, with a large indent in between that was occupied by a small, padded rubber room. The multicolored occupants of that room screamed in terror as the audience looked down at them with scorn and malice. The audience did not show any violence, that would only ruin the fun. The violence would come later.
The band launched into the first song.
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Berry felt the roaring of the crowd through his whole body, the vibrations rattling his head, tremors shaking his heart. Then, a voice blared through his thoughts, through his fear and panic.
“FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK”
The volume combined with the bad words were like a concussive blast to both his body and psyche. He scrambled and ran around in panic, desperately trying to avoid the words that felt like hot iron on his ears.
“SHITTY SHITTY SHITTY SHITTY SHIT RATS”
He saw the other fluffies attempting to form a defensive fluffpile, heads towards the center. He scrambled to join them, being covered quickly by other fluffies. The muffling helped, but the vibrations still rocked through the pile like a wave. Then, it went silent. There was a faint cheering crowd. Unable to handle the stifling hot and wet conditions of the fluffpile, Berry pulled himself out. His ears were ringing, a ringing that resonated through his whole body. He looked up and saw that monster woman, the one who lied to him, on stage. She waved to the crowd and struck a pose, a strange red orange blockie in her hand. The crowd cheered.
“It’s BLOCKIES TIME EVERYONE!”
Blockies? Berry had heard of blockies from a feral run-away he met. They had sounded like fun, but his hope for playtime was crushed as the first blockie, thrown by the monster fake mummah, crashed through the body of the fluffy next to him. He screamed, his voice near silent against the ringing in his ears as he scrambled to evade the incoming rain of bricks that tore the fluffpile to shreds. He watched as two bricks collided above a fluffy, a shard instantly lobotomizing the pegasus before its head was entirely caved in. He could feel his chest burn as he hyperventilated, running into a corner.
“TIME FOR BALLLLLLLLLLLSSSSSSSSS!”
Half of the audience giggled or laughed, while the other cheered. She aimed a strange device down into the saferoom pit.
A pink unicorn, already limping from a brick related injury, screamed as a paintball tore a chunk from his thigh, splattering blood and paint across his flank. Berry began to run around the safe room once again, panicking as a blue Pegasus’ spine exploded, a paintball ripping through bone and flesh, sending the gory grit into his eyes. “Oopsies! The young woman feigned surprise. “I must have accidentally frozen a couple of these.”
The band launched into their next song as the rain of paintballs died down. The lead singer began to scream, whipping his head back and forth as the fluffies began to shriek in pain once more. Berry cowered in place. They seemed to target the fluffies when they grouped up, so it was best to just hunker down and wait.
“FLUFFIES ARE FOR HURTIES AND PAIN!” Berry inaudibly gasped. That wasn’t true! “Fwuffy am for’ huggies and wub!” He tried to scream, unable to even hear him think it, let alone speak it.
“FLUFFIES ARE SO FUCKING DUMB” Berry began to retch, his empty stomach only able to supply bile as he spat on the rubber floor mat. The sheer volume of the concert was tearing him to pieces, let alone what was being done to his mind. He was entirely deaf at this point, but the voices were so loud he could still hear them through the vibrations of his skull.
————————————
Steinar smiled at his audience, pulling a small package out from his pocket. “Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to thank you all for coming out here tonight to support us and the cancer fund, at this time please take your ear plugs and insert them into your ears. Those of the crowd with heart or lung conditions, might want to clear out. Or not, you all signed the waiver, and it’s not like any of us will be able to hear for a week anyways!” He popped in a pair of buds as most in the audience did the same. He played a riff on his guitar, a modified Stratocaster decoratively covered in black fluffy bones that hung off the end in a long tangled chain.
He gave a thumbs up to a stage hand who nodded and pulled a lever, the walls of the safe room below opening to reveal massive speakers.
————————————-
Berry watched in panic and confusion as the walls opened up to reveal the odd textured panels. Even with nothing plugged in, the mains hum still caused the air to thrum. The pony’s vision began to blur, his eyes rattling in their sockets as the volume was increased. The lead singer took a deep breath, and screamed.
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH”
The scream was deep and guttural, shaking the fluffy so hard vessels in his eye ruptured, and his vision ran red. He couldn’t breathe, his chest felt like it was melting like hot lead as his organs began to liquefy. He fell to his side, gasping, trying to fill the ruptured sacs that lined his lungs, to no avail. Blood steadily streamed out of his nosie, hearing places, mouthie, seeing places, even his special place and poopie place began to gush forth booboo juice. He tried to flail but his muscles had begun to degrade as the sound waves tore him to pieces under his skin. His last moments were agony as he felt his nervous system degrade, nothingness creeping up his hoofsies, then leggies, then through his tummy then up his neck and then…
Nothing.
————————————————
Mindy smiled as she watched the custodial staff pile up the fluffy sacks of viscera that once were fluffies. They heaped them into the center of the “Saferoom”, prepared for a bucket loader to come through and clear them up later. Tonight’s show had gone off without a hitch, many people picking up a CD or souvenir sorry stick that was decorated to look like the lead singers custom Stratocaster. She walked down off the stage and to the pile the custodian had just finished, giving him a cheerful wave as he walked away.
Mindy plopped herself down next to the pile. She picked up one of the corpses, a reddish purple earthie. His face was horrific, his bloody eyes fixed on some unseen distant point, his swollen tongue lolled out to the side, bloated and purple, bloody tears and snot carved channels down his soft damp face fluff, clotting into a grisly mask. Mindy smiled and kissed him on the forehead, her lips sinking into the shattered skull a bit, but leaving a good smear of lipstick. “Are we enjoying the fluffpile?” She smiled, unable to hear herself over the ringing. Mindy wasn’t worried, it usually went away pretty quickly.
She giggled, leaning back into the bloody pile, promptly soaking her skirt and top with quickly congealing blood. She took a selfie in the pile, sending it to the band manager to add to the social accounts. She couldn’t wait for the next concert.
