“Soot come hewe! Nu wisten tu dummeh bad nu-twue smawty!” the yellow stallion shouted, stamping his hoof as the near grown colt edged his way over to to other side of the pen. “Bwu smawty am dummeh wit dummeh poopeh hewd. Twy teww guud smawty wat du!”
“Soot wike bwu smawty betta dan owd smawty! Wawwock am guud to bwudda! Say bwudda nu nee num poopies nu mowe!” The moment the dark blue unicorn was close enough behind him, the colt’s confidence shot up, and he dared to face the older feral and stamp his hooves. “Bwudda am guud fwuffy! Am good bwudda to Soot!”
“Poopeh babbeh am poopiess! If Soot gu wit poopeh babbeh an poopeh hewd, den am poopies tu!
“Aww babbehs am guud babbeh, can gwo tu guud fwuffies,” Warlock corrected, nudging his way in front of the colt with a comforting shoulder nudge. Behind them the skinny brown colt was wedged between Willow and Druid, who were both steadily preening his coat into a state as tidy as their own. “‘Ou awe bad smawty, bad fwuffy. Dis am Wawwock’s hewd, an’ Wawwock’s hewds safe…Wawwocks hewds pwace. Aww fwuffies nee’ fowwow wuwes an’ be guud fwuffies, ow hoomin wady gib… ow hoomin wady nu am happies.”
“Nu cawe ‘bout dummeh hoomin! Smawty du wat wan, an’ wiww gib dummeh hewd an’ dummeh hoomin aww wowstest huwties an’ ma’ gib speciew fwiends back!” the yellow smarty continued, as Warlock glanced at the fence, winced, and took a step defensively back to his herd and family.
“An’ babbehs! Mak’ meanie, dummeh hoomin gib bestest babbeh back tu!” Aster shrieked, waddling away from her crying pile of remaining babies without a single look back. “Astew nu wan dummeh, meanie, babbeh steawin’ smawty! Wan guud, smawty smawty!”
“Gu wook afta ‘ou udda babbehs, Astew. ‘Ou knuw wat hoomin say if ‘ou nu am guud mummah.” Warlock warned carefully, still edging back to his brother and the two mares with his own foals. The two earth stallion tougies were puffing their cheeks at him from behind their smarty, but the blue unicorn wasn’t even looking at them. “Wawwock wiww…”the belligerent trio took another blustering step forward, and the former domestic sighed heavily. “Nebamin’. Wawwock twied.”
“You did, admirably, my little Warlock.” Shadow said from the fence with a broad smirk. “And guess what? It’s a fulfill our little bargain day. First choice?” The dark blue unicorn shuddered at her tone, dropping his head as he looked anywhere but her face or the other fluffies. The three larger fluffies at her heels all leaned forward eagerly, those disturbing fangs bared, and he shivered harder, his tail tucking back as his ears flattened.
After a long period of almost haunted silence, he answered, still not looking up. “Yewwow nyu smawty am fiwst pick,” he near whispered, lifting a hoof to point directly at the combative unicorn.
“An excellent choice.” She pushed that long ponytail back over her shoulder as she pulled the gate open. “You heard him, kiddos. Fetch. That one only.” With a snap of her fingers, all three demonfluffs bolted into the pen, straight at the yellow fluffy.
The largest of them, a bandage wrapped wing still bound to her thickening side, was still first to reach him, heavy forehooves slamming down to shatter one of his legs. As the smarty shrieked and his broken leg collapsed under him, the boys caught up with them, grabbing mouthfuls of matted mane and tail and hauling back towards the gate. The toughies had fallen back in confusion, staring at each other wild eyed as their leader was steadily dragged out of the pen.
Warlock gingerly stepped forward again, carefully and quietly urging the sole remaining mare of the yellow smarty’s herd and the near full grown colt at her side into the fragile safety and comfort of his own herd. Aster was still on the other side of the run, her hoof stamping indignance slowly fading as her presumed new champion had devolved into squeals and futile struggles. At a nudge from their mate as he rejoined them, the green mares took the few waddling steps over to Aster’s squalling litter, gently encouraging the unsteadily walking two week old foals over to the piles their own chirping babies were in.
As the trio of alicorns delivered the writhing unicorn to Shadow’s feet with proud smiles and happily swishing tails, the pouting blue earthie mare finally noticed that her lesser, remaining babies had stopped their unending calls and cries for her. Her head snapped around fast enough Shadow almost thought she’d given herself whiplash, and her cheeks puffed as soon as she realized her babies were in another mare’s grass nest being comforted. “Dose Astew babbehs! Nee’ Astew huggies an’ miwkies! Nu udda mummahs!” she whined, stamping a hoof as she started her ponderous, self-righteous way back to retrieve her foals. “Astew bestest mummah,
an’ eben nu bestest babbehs awe stiww-”
Warlock met Shadow’s eyes again as she held up a finger, then a second pointedly, visibly gritting his flat teeth before he lifted his hoof again, pointing at Aster. “Wawwock secon’ pick am Astew. ‘Ou nu bestest mummah, Astew. Ou’ bad mummah, an’ hewd an’ babbehs nu nee’ ‘ou. Aww babbehs aww guud an bestest.” The moment he was certain Shadow had accepted his choice with a broad grin, he turned away again, leaning into the others as Druid pulled him into a hug.
“That wasn’t that hard, was it?” Shadow asked, her smile fading a little at the sight of Warlock’s shaking back. “Good boys. Good girl, Aurora. Go fetch her for me now.” She pinned the struggling, still sobbing yellow smarty under her sneaker, favoring the golden alicorn now anxiously leaning into her leg with a diffident head pat before she snapped her fingers again to send them back out.
This time, Rook reached the target first, ears flicking before he circled her, snapping at her legs like a somewhat clumsy herding dog. Aster shrieked as loudly at that as the smarty had when Aurora had shattered his leg, waddling away from him at her top speed. It didn’t take long for Glory to catch the drift of the game, and he lunged at her other side, driving her further away from the other fluffies in the pen. “Hu… hu… Scawy munstas! Nu wan be nummed! Nu huwt Astew, munsta fwuffies, Astew am mummah! Babbehs nee’ mummah, nee’- screeee” Aurora snapped at her as well, nipping just hard enough at the padded rump to pull a scream and a short lived burst of speed from the fat mare. Between the three of them, they had Aster moving out of the gate with all the alacrity of a geriatric basset hound.
The other fluffies looked at Warlock burying his face in his brother’s fluff, back at Aster hu-huing her way out of the pen, and slowly made their own decisions about the situations. The brown and black colts pressed in, hugging the blue unicorn as tightly as Druid was until he nuzzled fondly at their manes as well. Willow was right behind them, hugging Druid and Warlock both. Grape and Rose both coo-ed at their mate, curled around their foals and the older additions near him. Larkspur and Hazard looked between the cluster of fluffies at the barrel shelter, and ducked their heads, curling into each other and looking anywhere but outside the gate. The newest mare hesitated longer, leaning from one front hoof to the other before she nudged her colt closer to the growing fluff pile, grooming the adolescent fluffy as steadily and intently as if he was still as small as the chirpies underneath the mummahs.
The toughies made up their minds an entirely different way, running after the herded off pair in a belated charge, one brought to a sudden halt by the chainlink gate slammed in their face. “Nah. You two can stay in there a little longer. Maybe I’ll come by again in a day or so and see if Warlock wants you off his hooves. Or who knows, you might somehow manage to ingratiate yourself to the point you won’t be his first choices. Unlikely, but it could happen.”
Aster was still waddling at top speed- which was ponderous and slow, even by fluffy standards. “Damn. I thought most of that was just the pregnancy balloon, but you’re just that damn fat, aren’t you? How long were you abusing the whole soon-mummah shit to get enough food for that?” The blue mare puffed her cheeks, staring up at the human with a deeply offended look, only to have the rubbered tip of a sneaker tap her nose the moment she opened her mouth. “Don’t want to hear it, don’t care. Just means more for them to eat.”
The yellow smarty had regained a little presence, struggling back up on his three intact legs the moment Shadow had lifted her foot off his back to deal with the mare. “Dis nu… Smawty wiww…hu…” He considered the three alicorns still encircling the other fluffy, any protest or boast fading in the face of the myriad bone shards piercing up through his bloodmatted fluff. With nothing but a continuing set of whimpers and hu-hu-ing, he backed away from the smirking human and the preoccupied demonfluffs, his underside and tail already soaked in piss. His limping progress was slow, but still not as slow as Aster’s new futile attempts to get away from her tormentors.
Shadow glanced after him as he made for the far side of the yard, snorting contemptuously and leaning back against the fence. “Come on, kiddos. Faster we get this done, faster you can go in and go back to watching Flufftv. If I get this edited fast enough, I’ll read another chapter before bed.”
All three of her fluffies perked up at that, tails swishing eagerly before they lunged in almost simultaneously. Rook’s teeth sank into the blue fluffed hocks, tearing deep and wrenching a desperate scream from her throat. The throat Glory sank his own fangs into, clamped tight enough the scree was broken off into a frantic gurgle. Aurora went low as Aster’s struggles weakened, snapping and tearing at the soft, rounded belly to spill entrails out onto the grass.
Midway into burying her muzzle in the gore, the golden alicorn stopped dead, flattening her ears and taking several steps back. Glory released his own grip a moment later, taking a single step back and plopping back on his hindquarters to regard the third member of the Pack with a far more assured, almost amused expression.
Rook tightened his grip on the hock, his ears coming up as he looked between the other two. With a satisfied huff, he straightened, throwing his weight back as hard as he could to drag the deadweight of the chubby mare back to Shadow’s feet. “Mummah bestest and stwongest ob Pack. Mummah wan nummies fiwst?” Shadow’s eyebrows nearly hit her hairline, her hand over her mouth without managing to conceal the smirk.
“Really? I… That’s a very sweet offer, kiddos. But I’m good, really. You have fun. Just don’t forget the other one,” she laughed, stepping back just in time to keep the blood from getting on her shoes.
Rook swished his tail as he nodded without a trace of surprise, waiting for her to finish stepping back before he shoved his own nose into the tear in the belly. Almost ceremoniously, he ripped out a single large mouthful and gulped it down before he sat back and nodded at the other two. Without a word, they glanced at each other and joined him, each taking their own bites of the viscera. Between the three of them, all of what seemed the choicer bits of innard were soon devoured. Abandoning the rest of the fluff covered meat without a second thought, the Pack turned blood smeared muzzles and narrowed eyes on the stallion still limping for the far side of the yard.
The yellow smarty had made it past the plastic tunnels and was struggling towards the massive plastic castle and the fence beyond. His breathing had gone ragged, even his sobbing broken in between his desperate attempts to keep pulling enough air into his aching lungs. His broken leg was too shattered to even keep lifted off the ground, and he dragged it after him as he fought to keep moving forward. Every other step it would catch on an odd lump of dirt or thicker tuft of grass, and his breath- far too short for a real scream- would whistle harder in his throat. His head as well nearly dragged the grass, his stumbling progress forward seeming entirely blind.
When the shadows loomed over him, he still tried to quicken his pace. The terror fueled adrenaline managed to drive him back into a clumsy imitation of a trot that lasted nearly a yard before he collapsed face first into the dirt, puking uncontrollably over his front legs.
“Wook’s Pack nu eben touchies ‘ou yet. Nu faiw.” The charcoal alicorn huffed in aggravation, circling the collapsed, exhausted unicorn impatiently. Aurora joined him, kicking at the remains of the leg she had broken with all the enthusiasm of a small child kicking a rock. The yellow smarty just wheezed in the weakest screee, promptly aspirating his own vomit in the process. He lapsed into frantic coughs that became weaker and weaker, his hooves pawing at his muzzle and throat. The shallow flutter of his chest stuttered to a stop, and his head dropped limply back down. “Weawwy? Dat aww it taked?”
Rook leaned in, whuffling at the fluffies nose as if seeking a trace of breath or life. Aurora leaned in as well, and he growled softly the moment she pressed too closely into his space. She flinched at the sound, pulling back out of his immediate reach, as her ears dropped back and her tail tucked back underneath her. Despite that there was a much less appeasing look in her eyes as she looked between her brother and the fluffy he was studying. “Wook happy dat Aurora’s Pack am Wook’s now?” she muttered,just loudly enough his ears twitched and his attention flicked up to her.
He favored her with a brief baring of teeth, his own ears shifting as he placed how far back Glory and Shadow were. “Dat why Auwowa stupi’ dummeh. Wook’s Pack am awways Wook’s Pack.” Rook kept his eyes on her for another long moment, lip curled up over his fangs and wings slowly flaring out wider.
Much like she had at the other carcass, she stepped back from the fluffy, posture drooping back submissive as possible as she watched her brother. Glory brushed against her as he caught up, sniffing at the corpse just as Rook had before sneezing and stepping back. “Nu smeww pwetty. Gwowy nu wan. Wook get Mummah Shado’ hewp?”
Rook tapped experimentally at the corpse’s head and muzzle, his wings ruffling. “Otay. Wook nu wan num sickie wawa fwuff eidaw.” He stalked back around the tunnels back towards their human, still muttering things that sound a lot like “nu faiw” and “stupi’ bwok’n nummie fwuffy nu wet Pack hab any funsies.” Glory arched a wing over Aurora’s slumped back, leaning over to nibble diffidently at the base of her mane. Her posture eased at the gesture, and she stretched out, preening the the base of his nearest wing.
“You guys are spoiled. There are hundreds of predators out there that wouldn’t give a f- flip about the sh- stuff this thing is covered in.” Shadow remarked, but she was already dragging the hose over to rinse the worst of the vomit, piss and loose shit the corpse was marinating in off into the grass. “Well, finicky means easier to keep you clean and healthy, but still. I’ll make a note in the extra files Bill asked for, try to work out the line between instinct and socialization.” The moment it was clean, the three of them ripped into the yellow fluffed belly as eagerly as they had Aster’s, Rook again taking the first bite and dragging his choice of the entrails off as the other two took their own shares.
“Can take bestest nummie bits fow Fo’fia?” Glory asked, nudging part of the liver and what could have been a nibbled chunk of heart into a pile and looking up at Shadow expectantly. Rook paused mid bite as his brother spoke, hesitantly picking up an unidentifiable lump and dropping it on the pile before finishing up the rest of his share. Aurora froze as both the boys glanced at her, her teeth still buried in the leg she was twisting off the carcass. Ears flattening, she added it to their collection before slinking back guiltily to stare at the corpse wistfully with her head on her hooves.
Shadow watched her with an almost amusedly speculative expression, finally shrugging. “Sure. I’m sure Foxfire would love you bringing her some food. I’ll take what’s left and get it portioned out for dinner tonight with your mince. Sounds good?” With two enthusiastic agreements and one subdued nod, Shadow shooed the lot of them back inside with their prizes.
Two gutted carcasses were dumped onto the tarp waiting on the table, and she turned her attention back to the pen of fluffies pretending the play-yard side of their fence wasn’t there. “The babies all settled in with new mommas?” she asked pleasantly as she shut the gate behind her again, as most of the fluffies edged back as far from her as they could.
Rose and Grape shivered, leaning tighter together with their chirpies tucked along their teats and the whimpering two- week olds Aster had left hugged between their forelegs. “Nu take babbehs, pwease…” Rose whispered, burying her face in her sister’s fluff as Grape shut her eyes and sobbed softly.
“Babbehs awe aww guud now, nice wady…” Warlock answered,ducking his head as he stepped forward. Shadow cleared her throat, and he whined slightly. “Miss Shado’” he corrected himself, and her smile softened. “Wose an’ Gwape guud mummahs, awways guud mummahs.”
“Well, that’s good to hear. All these foals deserve good mothers. Even Aster’s. I’m sure you lot are doing fine.” One of the toughies made a frantic run at her leg, slamming both front hooves down as hard as he could on her jean clad shin. With a resigned sigh, she grabbed for a handful of mane and scruff, holding him out at arms’ length.
“Nu! Bad upsies! Put tuffy Gween down! Gun gib wowstest- scree!” she shook him firmly without letting her grasp slacken, and liquid shit sprayed harmlessly down onto the grass below him. When his immediate struggle for freedom ceased, she tossed him at the empty side of the pen. He landed with a thump that crunched ever so faintly, his brief screech turning into frantic sobs and whines about why his “weggie nu wowk? Wowstest weggie huwties!” The other former toughie scrambled to his side, the attempts at hugging the leg caught under him in the fall only increasing the volume of the crying.
“Landed a little worse than I meant, “ she murmured, shrugging indifferently. “Not what I came in here for. You picked fluffies for me, so you’ve earned yourself a reward for the day, Warlock.” She strolled past the huddled fluffies, ignoring the way
Larkspur was hiding behind the barrel shelter and sucking on his own hoof. “Your little herd got a fair bit bigger this week, or it will when those babies get older. So…” She reached over and unlatched the gate between this pen and the second outdoor run behind it. “More space for you. There’s a second shelter, more water bowls, and another trough I’ll fill with kibble in the morning.”
Warlock carefully skirted past her, staring in amazement at the new vista opened to them. “Wawwock am… Tank ‘ou, miss Shado’, fow mowe safepwace fow hewd. Am bewy…”
“Yeah. You’re welcome. I’ve got things I need to get done today.” She headed back through the first pen, momentarily interrupted by Druid hesitantly wrapping his legs around her ankle in a hug. “Yes?”
“Dwuid wan say tanks fow gifties mowe safepwace tu! Nestie nu big ‘nough fow aww soon- mummah an’ mummahs an’ babbehs, bu’ now hab muches mowe woom! Wiwwow hab nestie fow babbehs wen come now, nu nee’ be cowdies ow wetties. Miss Shado’ am nice, weawwy.” Shadow rubbed a hand over her eyes, sighing heavily again, but did reach down to pat lightly at the dark green fluffy’s head.
“You’re a good fluffy, Druid. Go look after Willow.” She picked her way back out of the pen, looking back to find an extremely wary Warlock staring after her. “Who knows, maybe I’ll get you to the point your herd starts singing and making pictures of stones in the wall. Or just banning asking questions about other fluffies, that’ll likely come first.” She latched the gate behind her again, sparing one last look at the whining earthie in the corner. “Eh, he’ll probably make the night. I’ll get a pair for the freezer tomorrow.”
First Chapter- The Pack- because what we need is more fluffies bred to eat other fluffies. (1) by :Shadowfox
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