Shadow yawned again, seeming far less amused by her surroundings than usual as she leaned over the low chainlink fence. “Warlock, you might want to move- oh, fuck it. Half of you aren’t as clean as you could be anyway.” She grabbed the coiled hose off the wall, rubbing her eyes again as she peered blearily at the mass of fluffies in the pen. Her hand was already on the sprayer trigger when she sighed heavily, gave the fluffies a long look, and turned the pressure down to a lower setting.
As she was fiddling with the setting, the massive bronze stallion bolted out of one of the barrels, racing for the other side of the pen, causing her to sigh and heft the hose consideringly before putting it at the second lowest setting. Her hand was on the faucet when the siren song of pregnant fluffy mares everywhere reached her. “Ah, fuck.”
She slung the hose back over the hook and turned back to the pen, to find the eyesore of an orange mare that’s been clinging to that one pegasus who keeps avoiding being eaten in active labor. “Well, looks like you get a little bit of a delay on bath time, kiddos. I’m not enough of a bitch to hose down a mare mid birth. Even today.” She flicks the gate for a moment and lets herself in, keeping a bit of distance when she notices how much more panicked the mare is at her presence. The bruise reddened noses Hazard and her lavender Pegasus mate both sport do make her tilt her head a bit. “Hey, Warlock, did Larkspur tick you off again?”
The blue unicorn stepped out of the nest where his own mates and foals curled, still mostly asleep. He glanced between the human and back at the other barrel the feral smarty had fled to with the striped designer following him before shaking his head. Barely audible over Hazard’s distress, the striped stallion with the tear tracks staining his face asked “Swowd? Wah did ‘ou du?”
“N- n- nuffin’ “ could be heard stuttered out at the volume of barely a whisper.
“ ‘Ou am wowst at tewwin’ nu twuffs den bad babbehs, Swowd” the smaller stallion retorted softly, just the tip of his nose sticking into the barrel.
The tiny brown and green pegasus roused slightly, tapping a hoof along the striped side. “Tigah, nu do dat, Twig se wha’ ‘ou tinkin’”
Shadow glanced over at the large fluffies flight into the far barrel with the striped designer, weary suspicion flicking over her face. “Warlock, are either of those two problems?”
The deep blue unicorn shook his head again, a little less sympathy than usual in his face as he glanced back at Larkspur and Hazard. “Nu, Miss Shado’, Swowd an’ Tigah nu pwobw’m,” he answered swiftly, taking half a step between the new fluffies and the blue haired human.
“My wrapped toes and Rook’s broken wing might indicate otherwise, but sure. I’ll take your word on that.” Her distraction was evident as more and more tiny newborns were carefully cleaned off and tucked along Hazard’s belly as she started humming at them, and Shadow whistled. “That’s what? Eight foals? Not bad, Hazard. Most of them are halfway decent pastel shades, as well. I was afraid they’d take after you, but these? Some of these might even make it into the sale pen as weanlings.”
There was a louder commotion in the back of the pen, a terrified squeal, and Shadow cursed again. “It’s always something. Larkspur, help your special friend move the babies over to one of the shelters so they aren’t in the way when I start hosing everyone else down. I don’t think a cold water spraydown is good for chirpies.”
Larkspur blew an annoyed razzberry at her back, but joined his exhausted mate anyways. A pile of soft apricot, purple shaded, and pale green chirpies were given a cursory feeding and loaded up into her neon orange fluff before they got moving. As they carefully waddled off, there was a tiny, frightened chorus of peeping from a tuft of grass behind them, and both parents paused for a moment. With a single glance back at the tiny brown and dull green foals left behind and at each other, they made their way over to the more sheltered corner Shadow had directed.
It didn’t take long for a cinnamon colored mare to raise her head out of the clustered orchard herd fluffies. “Babbehs?” she asked, carefully sniffing along until she reached the pair of foals in the grass. “Nyu- mummah, dewe awe stiww…” Hazard looked up again at the call, huffing as she and Larkspur tucked closer around the six foals they had kept. With an indignant huff, she snagged both of them, carrying them to another of the huddled mares from her own herd. “Hazawd am bad mummah. Wiww teww swowd," she muttered. “Wiww teww dis hewd bwu smawty, tu!”
The screamer at the far side of the pen was a pink unicorn mare with a red mane, shrieking as what looked like a beige and lilac earthy was… Chewing her back leg open. “Huh. the fluff vet books mentioned cannibals, but I never thought…” The jagged toothed mare glanced up at her with crazed, almost spiral eyes but kept gnawing, balanced on three legs with a foreleg tucked gingerly under her. “Yeah, hold that thought, I’ll be back with a crate. Even if I don’t know what to do with you, Katy and Bill are going to want samples and tests.”
All the fluffies in the pen were looking at the still feeding crazed mare as Shadow left, a range of expressions on their faces. Some were horrified, others fearful or hiding their faces, while the bronze smarty himself stepped out of the barrel to shrug indifferently. At his side, the striped stallion who had been teasing the smarty looked at the carnage, eyes going wide, then started giggling almost uncontrollably, much to the pegasus’s evident confusion.
“Swowd, wa ‘ou du tu da nyu enfi toy?” Twig asked with a resigned sigh.
“Cwaz mawe came wit, an nu num nummies, su wet mawe num bad enfi toys.” Sword answered, a response that made the striped stallion grin even wider.
Shadow returned with a wire crate, half crouching near the wild eyed mare and her still screaming meal. “Alright, there. You can keep eating this, but I’m going to take you inside where I can deal with your hurt leg. And there will be all the fluffy meat you can eat, okay?” She shoved the pink mare into the crate first, and the cannibal hesitantly followed. The door was latched behind her, and Shadow heaved the crate up to survey the rest of the pen. “Anyone else with bad owies go sit by the gate. I’ll be back with more crates so I can take you inside and see if I can get you fixed up.”
A cyan mare hesitantly limped her way to the gate, shivering nervously, just as many tear tracks staining her cheek fluff as the designer’s. Shadow gets back and sets another crate open in front of her. “Your color has even more potential than some of my choices. In the crate, and I’ll take you to the exam room with the weird mare and the grey stallion Rook chewed open.” Halfway into shuffling her way into the crate, the mare’s eyes went wide, an actual bit of hope lighting her face.
“Metaw? Wataw am gun see wewe speciaw fweind Metaw am?”
“Really? Well, that works out splendidly then,” Shadow murmured, a little more humor in her voice than there had been. “I’ll be sure to put your cage right next to his.”
“Alright. Injured keepers are in the exam room where Katy can help me deal with them. Momma and new babies are out of the way. You guys get to learn what it feels like to be clean.” She hit the faucet and aimed a spray of water two steps over a mist at the cluster of fluffies, slowly soaking them. In the back next to the cinnamon mare, a few of the other mares huddled protectively over something, crying quietly.
One of the big earthies with the demeanor of toughies looks up breathing in the mist serenely. The others are shuddering under the cold water, but seem far more concerned with the bronze stallion, who is shaking violently with wide, terrified eyes fixed on the end of the hose. It didn’t take long for him to break, bolting as far away as the pen confines would let him.
An indifferent Shadow keeps the hose running, turning it up when the first setting wasn’t enough to get everything out of their fluff. "That is a lot of muck and rocks. I have no idea how that could have been comfortable. Eh, lets have a decent look at you lot.” She tilted the hose a little further away, studying the sodden but clean fluff pile in front of her. “Well, you’re big, at any rate,” Shadow mused as she looked over the big russet stallion leaning into the water, and winced when she saw his solidly derped eyes. "Not really what I’m looking for , though.’ Her gaze passed over the brown and green pegasus without any real notice, settling on the striped stallion. "You look even better clean and not screaming frantically. So you, maybe that pretty little grey flirt over there, and I’ll give the cinnamon over there a shot as well. I can always cull out later if I have to. " She surveys the chosen fluffies with a somewhat pleased expression, before turning the hose more solidly on the biggest stallion in the pen. “And Asher told me to keep you on hand until we hear back, so you’ll be coming in as well. The rest of you can stay here until I see how many spaces I have left.”
Tiger perked up again as Sword trembled under the constant stream of water. “Swowed am vewy scawedies ob wawa, diw am gonna be fun,” he chuckled softly, watching the other fluffy with the fond mockery of a long time friend.
“Oh, really? Good to know. Hey, big guy? That dark grey fluffy you were beating on? Mine. I don’t like having my shit messed with. Not thrilled about the broken toe either- but how are your ribs doing?” She kicked the sprayer up a few more notches, aiming it straight at Sword’s face. “Stupid as it seems to take shit out on a fluffy- I’m feeling petty, and I don’t like you.”
He bolts in blind panic, shrieking incoherently and head butting into a number of other fluffies and obstacles in his path, a trail of new filth behind him.
Shadow laughs a bit brittlely and chases him with the hose for a few moments longer before she turns the hose off. "Yeah. Not so fucking invincible now are…’ she paused, as if hearing herself, and sighed heavily. “Fuck today and whatever Norn foretold it. Alright. Stripes, you there with the flower, the cinnamon brown, and the jackass that needs another bath already. Line up by the gate, follow nicely to the kennel, and I’ll dish all of you out spaghetti. Make me go get more crates…I’m having a bad day, don’t push me.”
As she surveyed the rest of the assembled fluffies with the air of someone desperately trying for a calm and composed, she missed when the blind terrified rampage turned back her way. Right until nearly twenty five pounds of muscle slammed headlong into her shin. A scattering of titters and giggles comes from the rest of the pen, and Shadow swears, clearly losing her battle to keep hre temper.
“Oh, you fucking little…” She lashed out with her foot again- the one with the wrapped toes inside her sneaker. A long noise like a boiling kettle later, she limped back to the gate, picking up the hose again as she slammed it open. "Right. You, you, you, and You, go. There. Now. " She pointed at the glass door back into the building. “Or-” she cranked the sprayer up to the highest setting. "Katy was telling me this fun story about how hard the water pressure needs to be to peel fluff off your skins. I’m almost at the point I want to test that theory.”
Both of the mares and Tiger slunk hurriedly where she had indicated, falling dead silent. At her feet, the smarty still sprawled, the unsteady rise and fall of his chest the only sign her kick hadn’t killed him. With any number of new curses, she grabbed him by his soaking wet scruff, dragging him inside with the others.
First Chapter- The Pack- because what we need is more fluffies bred to eat other fluffies. (1) by :Shadowfox
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