Omelas was a paradise.
An area of repurposed farmland, suited to fit 20 Fluffy families with room to spare, it was a veritable Eden for Fluffy kind. They were kept protected by a strong and sturdy picket fence around their perimeter, they never went hungry thanks to the delicious and filling kibble they were given, plus hand-made sketti on Sundays, they never got bored with more toys and games for them to play with than any of them could even imagine counting to, and best of all, they were allowed to have as many babies as they want, even cold-time babies who were kept safe in their warm and comforting homes.
And all of this thanks to one man, one kind and generous man with money to burn and a desire to fulfil. The Fluffies never knew his real name, most just called him ‘daddeh’, but some of the older Fluffies called him Mr. E.
Mr E had only a few rules for letting everyone stay in Omelas, the first rule was simple, don’t be mean. All disagreements had to be brought to Mr. E as an independent adjudicator, and all enfies must be with a consenting special-friend, the older Fluffies told tales of the meanies who refused to follow the rules at first, but through Mr. E’s guiding hand the Fluffies learnt to play together and make sure none of them took their home for granted.
The second and most important rule in Mr E’s garden, was that once a babbehs became a big Fluffy, they weren’t allowed to have babbehs of their own until Mr. E took them all to The Basement.
Today was the day for the latest visit to The Basement, and for young mares Emma and Sally, both couldn’t wait.
“Wook Em-ah, Ob-sid-ee-en am wooking at yu gain.”
Emma turned around to see the very strong and very handsome young black stallion Obsidian checking her out. She had noticed the attention that the other stallions had been given her since she started giving off the mare scent a couple days ago, but Obsidian seemed to have taken the most interest in her, and she had to admit, she liked how he looked at her.
Emma turned back, giggling away with Sally. “Stop siwwy, Em-ah am em-ba-wessed.”
“Wai? Cos handsome stawwion wan make yu his speciaw-fwiend?”
“SAWWY!”
“Wha, it twue.”
“Yeh bu…”
Sally could see a tinge of red underneath her best friends green Fluff, she enjoyed teasing Emma about Obsidian’s attention but it was clear that after today the two of them would be partnered up. Sally herself wasn’t as set-in-stone as her friend, but she had her share of potential suitors, having noticed looks from Blaze the orange Pegasus, Holden the red and black stripped Alicorn, as well as Crystal the ice-white unicorn mare.
The two friends stopped giggling once Emma’s mother Hannah stepped over to them. “Am yu twu weady fow Bays-mint twip?”
Emma nodded. “Yeh mummah, nu can wait tiww Daddeh say dat Em-ah an Sawwy am big Fwuffies nyo.”
“Mummah am su pwoud of babbeh.”
There was a momentary flash of worry on Hannah’s face, short-lived, but lasting long enough for Sally to notice.
“Wha wong Han-ah, wai hab sadies? Am sunfing wong wiv Bays-mint?”
“Wai Sawwy ask?”
“Sawwy mummah nu say wha in Bays-mint, bu she had wowwies tuu. Wha am su scawy?”
“Fwuffies nu awwowed tu tawkies bout it, dat am fow Mistah E. Babbehs need see fow sewf.”
Emma and Sally were both left even more confused by Hannah’s unhelpful words, but before they could ask her anymore questions, the back-door opened.
And Mister E stepped outside.
Mr E was an old man, not ancient, but there were tufts of grey in his long beard, and his wrinkly bald head made him look even older. He was only ever seen wearing long flowing robes, most of the time white but occasionally yellow or green, always bright colours. And there was always a smile on his face, sometimes wide, sometimes tired, but always smiling.
“Hello my darlings.” His voice was soft, almost poetic in its cadence. “Are we all ready for the trip today?”
Emma, Sally and all the other Fluffies coming of age today rushed forward.
“Fwuffies weady daddeh.” Obsidian bellowed out. “Wan be big Fwuffies an hab speciaw-fwiends an famiwies.”
He looked over at Emma and winked, sending the green mare into another giggling fit.
Mr E smiled at them all. “I’m glad to hear that, come along into the basket now, and we’ll get started.”
Mr E placed a large woven basket onto the grass, one by one all the Fluffies reaching adulthood climbed inside, there was about 15 of them for this run, sometimes there was less, often more, Mr E cared not for numbers, just that they all learnt the lesson he was about to teach them.
“Hold on tight everyone, we’re going inside now. Wave goodbye to everyone, you’ll see them all again shortly.”
The basket Fluffies turned around and waved goodbye to their families, waving goodbye to being foals, and finally saying hello to being fully-grown Fluffies. Emma chuckled at the smiling faces of all her friends and family, but she stopped when she saw Sally’s smile starting to fade.
“Wha wong Sawwy?”
“Sawwy jus hab wowwies is aww. Mummah an Em-ah’s mummah wook su scawdies, Sawwy jus nu feew gud bout dis.”
“Pfft, yu am oba-finkies.” Blaze chuckled out. “Daddeh neba du aneefing bad tu Fwuffies.”
“She awwowed tu be scawdies, dummeh.” Crystal spat at the orange idiot. “It ok Sawwy, dewe am nuffin wong wiv daddeh, bu if yu stiww am scawdies, den Cwystah hewe fow hewp.”
Sally smiled at Crystal but stay quiet, Emma could see the lingering worry still on her face.
Mr E reached the basement door and flicked the light-switch on before opening the door. “Now hold still everyone, the basement is much darker than the rest of the house because there are no windows to let the sun-shine in. There will be light from the light-bulbs, but it might be darker than you’re used to. But don’t worry, so long as you’re with me, nothing bad will happen to you.”
The Fluffies all huddled closer together as the dim light of the basement filled their overactive imagination with fear an anxiety about what was lurking in every shadow. There was shivering and soft crying, but all of them felt safe in Mr E’s hands.
Eventually they reached the bottom of the stairs, and Mr E turned to take them into a side-room, inside were two table, one was empty, while the other held a large, cubed object hidden under a black sheet. Mr E placed the basket of Fluffies onto the empty table and stepped over to the cubed object.
“Can everyone see me? I don’t want any of you to leave the basket, just make sure you can all see me.”
With the basket being large enough, the Fluffies were able to position themselves along the edge with the larger ones finding room at the back to see over.
“Fwuffies can see daddeh.”
“Good. Now then, are you all happy here, at Omelas?”
The Fluffies all looked at each other, confused by the question. “Yeh daddeh, Fwuffies wub Omewas.” Holden piped up.
“I’m glad to hear that. Now, does anyone here know what balance is?”
There was a long silence before Crystal put up her hoof. “Bawance am wen twu fings am bov da same weight.”
“Right you are Crystal, however in this instance I’m not talking about weight, I’m talking about goodness. You all agree that Omelas is a very good place, right?”
The Fluffies all nodded, confused about where this was going.
“Well…” Mr E continued. “…In order for this place to be as good as it is, there needs to be an equal amount of badness, otherwise the whole world is put out of sync. Too much badness is horrible, but too much goodness and you’ll never know how good things are because you won’t know what the badness is like.”
“Dat… make sense.” Obsidian pondered out loud, the other Fluffies agreed in turn.
“I’m glad you agree. Now nothing bad is going to happen to any of you today, that’s not what I brought you here for. I brought you all here because I want you all to be aware of the cost of living here, and who it is that pays that price.”
And with a swift tug, Mr E pulled the black sheet off of the cubed object, and every Fluffy in the basement screamed.
Under the sheet was a glass box, and inside the bow was a babbeh, or rather what remained of one. All of it’s Fluff was gone, pulled violently out judging by the skin tears and bleeding along it’s back, it was missing both of its eyes and one of its ears, both its back legs were broken so badly that the bones were sticking out of the skin, it’s front left leg was gone completely and it’s front right leg had been fayed down to the bone. What little teeth it did have were crooked and broken, indicating that the poor thing had been smacked hard in the face before its teeth had the chance to come in properly, and the few parts of it that weren’t stained with blood had dried shit marks caked into its shivering flesh.
It was the scariest fucking thing any of them had ever seen.
“DADDEH!” Emma screeched. “WHA HAPPEN TU BABBEH, WHU GIB BABBEH WOWSTESH HUWTIES!?”
“I did.”
As if flicking a switch, every Fluffy in the basket stopped screaming and looked over at Mr E.
“Wa… wai daddeh huwt babbeh?”
“I told you, in order for Omelas to be as good as it is, there needs to be an equal amount of bad. Now I’m condensed all of that bad into this one foal so that nobody else gets hurt, I could set him free but that would mean something would have to change for everyone else, that might mean less food, less toys, less babbehs, and let’s be honest here, given the state of him, it’s not likely he’ll survive long outside of here anyway.”
Most of the Fluffies looked away shamefully, knowing that Mr E was right, even if they wanted to help the foal, he wasn’t likely to live for much longer anyway. Only Sally kept her eyes straight at the foal, tears welling at the horrific sight in front of her.
“Wiww babbeh gu foweba sweepies?”
“Eventually, yes.”
“Wha happen den?”
“Once this foal is gone I’ll take another, I won’t tell you when and I won’t tell you who from, in fact I’ll take them during the birth so you won’t even notice they’re gone, but there must always be one foal in here to take all the badness in favour of everyone else having a happy life.”
Mr E covered the glass box and stepped in front of the basket. “This is the cost of living here, all of your parents know of this, and they have decided to live here all the same, they made the choice to stay even knowing that cost. And now, I give you all that same choice, you are all free to stay here, you will still get the same amount of food and toys, still be allowed to have as big a family as you would like, but you now all know what the cost of that comfort is and that it may one day be the fate of your own foals without you ever knowing. Or you can leave, if the price is too high for you then I will take you to the gate, I will give you a day’s worth of food and I will bid you farewell, but you may never return to Omelas, you may never see your friends or family ever again. I’ll give you all a moment to think about it.”
Mr E turned around and picked up the glass box, carrying it out of the room and away from the Fluffies eyes. Several moments of silence passed by before Blaze spoke up.
“Fwuffies aww am stayin wight?”
Crystal scowled at him. “Wha make yu fink yu tawkies fow aww Fwuffies?”
“Cos Bwaze am wight, it am howwibew fing bu it onwy wun babbeh, wun babbeh git huwties su udda Fwuffies can hab biggesh heawt-happies. Dat am ok wiv Bwaze.”
Obsidian nodded. “Ob-sid-ee-en agwee, nu wike it, bu if dis am wha Daddeh say Fwuffies need tu wive hewe, Ob-sid-ee-en can wive wiv dat.”
Slowly but surely, a murmur of agreement spread across the basket, even Emma found herself seeing the upside to the whole thing. The vote seemed to be unanimous until it reached Sally.
“Nu.”
Emma turned to her friend, shocked at how final the tone of her voice was. “Sawwy? Wha bestesh fwiend mean nu?”
Sally shook her head in disgust. “Dis nu am wight, nu-wun, babbeh ow nu, nu-wun shouwd hab huwties wike DAT, jus su Fwuffies can hab happies.”
“Bu Sawwy.” The desperation in Emma’s voice grew more than she expected. “It onwy wun babbeh, betta wun babbeh hab huwties dan aww babbehs.”
“Aww babbehs am gud babbeh, nun need tu hab huwties.”
“Sawwy nu can gu, fink of yuw mummah, fink of yuw fwiends. Yu weawwy gun weave dem aww?”
“If dey knyo bout babbeh an stiww wan be hewe, maybe it betta Sawwy gu way.”
A stunned silence filled the room, but no-one spoke up to agree or argue with her. A few moments later, Mr E returned.
“Well then, have you all made your decisions?”
The Fluffies all silently nodded.
“And have any of you chosen to leave?”
Sally looked around the basket, nobody else would look her in the eye, she took a deep sigh and stepped forward. “Sawwy nu wan stay, nu can be hewe an knyo babbeh habben wowstesh huwties.”
“That’s your choice to make, you do understand what this means of course.”
Sally nodded. “Nu cna see mummah ow fwiends gain. Sawwy knyo, hab biggehs heawt-huwtie, bu nu can stay hewe.”
“Very well. Anyone else chosen to leave.”
An awkward silence filled the room, Sally could see that everyone agreed with her, that what the foal was being subjected too was horrendous, but nobody was brave enough to face the wild unknown with her… until a white hoof stepped forward.
“Cwystah wan gu tuu, nu wike Omewas nu mowe.”
“If that is your wish Crystal then I shall honour it. I’ll take you all back upstairs, Sally and Crystal you can say goodbye to your families while I prepare your parting gift.”
Sally and Crystal nodded and Mr E picked the basket up to carry it upstairs. The return trip was a lot more silent than the first one.
The mood was tense as the basket was returned to the garden, the younger Fluffies, oblivious to the true horrors of The Basement, kept playing, but the adults who knew all too well what their children had just seen all gathered together to welcome the basket back. There was a lot of crying as the now officially adult Fluffies returned, most of fear for what they had just seen, some from the older Fluffies out of shame.
Sally’s mother Lapis cried hardest of all.
“NUUUUHUUUUUU, WAI BABBEH WAN GU? WAI BABBEH NU WUB MUMMAH NU MOWE?”
“Sawwy du wub mummah, bu nu wan be hewe nu mowe. Sawwy awways wub yu, bu dis…”
Sally’s father, Jasper, stepped forward and hugged his mate. “Daddeh nu wike wha babbeh choosie, bu daddeh undastan wai, jus wan babbeh be safe ousside.”
“Fank yu daddeh.”
Sally gave both of her parents a big hug and went over to join Crystal by the gate, Emma rushed over to intercept her best friend.
“Sawwy pwease, nu need du dis.”
“Dis am wha Sawwy choosie Em-ah, am sowwy bu need du dis.”
“Am dewe nuffin dat yu wna stay fow? Nu yuw famiwy, nu yuw fwiends?”
Sally paused for a moment before stepping forward and hugging Emma.
“Em-ah make choosies tu stay, Em-ah awwowed du dat. Sawwy make choosie tug u, Sawwy awwowed tu du dat tuu.”
Sally released the hug and smiled at her best friend, tears welling in her eyes. “Em-ah be gud mummah hewe.”
She let Emma go just as Mister E returned, a small bag of kibble for both Sally an Crystal. He tied one each onto their backs before opening the gate for them.
“Are you both ready, have you said your goodbyes?”
Sally and Crystal took one final look back before turning to Mr E and nodding.
“Fwuffies am weady.”
Mr E smiled and stepped to the side, allowing them both safe passage out of Omelas. The two mares walked slowly at first, but as they got closer to the gate, their pace quickened until they were on the other side of the fence without even realising it.
It wasn’t until the gate closed that they noticed how far they’d gone.
Sally took one last look back, peeking at Emma through the slits in the fence and smiling sadly at her, before she turned back, stepped closer to Crystal and ventured off into the great unknown. Emma wept for the loss of her best friend, crying even as Hannah and Obsidian tried to hug her better.
“It ok speciaw-fwiend.” Obsidian tried to sooth his newly announced mate. “Fwuffies be safe hewe, make nyu fwiends.”
“Ob-sid-ee-en wight Em-ah, gu hab west, fings be betta soon.”
Hannah stepped back as Obsidian led Emma over to their new sleeping spot to let her rest, neither Emma nor Obsidian catching the first and only lie Hannah had ever told her daughter.
For Hannah knew all too well what Emma was about to go through, having been through it herself in the time since her visit to The Basement. Worry would turn into complacency, more-so once her first letter came in, but that complacency would eventually turn into unease, questioning if she made the right choice by staying here.
Without fail, Hannah had seen every Fluffy who chose to stay question that decision at least once, the only ones who walked with any conviction, were the ones who walked away from Omelas.
Because at the end of it all, with all the food and rest and play and love they had to share, Omelas was a paradise.
WAS a paradise.
