You are the responsible breeder. You are a breeder who maintains the fine balance of catering to your more loving customers and also your more hateful customers with your trade of fluffy pony breeding. But you’ve been having some trouble lately. One of your beautiful breeding mares, Sunbeam, has been delivering less than optimal foals for you.
Sunbeam was bought from another breeder at a fluffy pony fair, at a fairly decent price. Her sunshine yellow fluff was radiant and her matching orange mane glistened. But even when matched with your best studs. You didn’t see results at all from her foals. It’s not her fault. You don’t blame your studs or your dams. It’s just that sometimes fluffy pony genetics can be a bitch.
And it wasn’t even atrocious shades of brown and green that normally characterise bad foals. Just dull, listless shades of orange, red and yellow with dark colored manes of the same colors. Just recently she had a small litter of four. Not awful, but just painfully mediocre. You love them all the same but those kind of foals don’t pay the bills.
And this was her third litter of mediocre foals. One burnt red filly pegasus with a dark orange mane, one chocolate brown earthy colt with a dull orange mane, one a dull orange earthy colt with a yellow mane and one bright yellow pegasus filly with a brown mane. None offensive like the browns and greens. But none top selling material either.
After that third litter being a bust. A less scrupulous mill would call her a “Shit Factory” and send her off to be “Milkbagged”,having her legs torn off, shooting her up with hormones and being set against a wall to feed foals, forever. But you don’t have the heart for that. But you also don’t have the cash to keep her fed and rested in your store any more when you need to make way for a new broodmare who could sire a better selling litter of foals.
You wonder how on earth you are going to sell those foals at just a month old. You usually have them on sale at two months as foals are still in the learning stage at one month and the more trained they are. The less reason for returns if the fluffy turns bratty due to improper training.
Then it hits you. Some customers have been asking if they can buy some foals at one month old. What better way to do it and prevent returns by having a trained mare look after them and teach them the ropes. It’s one way to make the money back on Sunbeam and you will surely net a sale. Plus Sunbeam’s such an even tempered and gentle fluffy that she’ll easily find a home to settle into with her foals.
But first, you have to break the bad news to Sunbeam. As expected, she immediately starts crying and hugging her foals.
“Buh Sunbeawm wub daddeh and fwiends. Nu wan weave daddeh!”
“Its OK Sunbeam. I’ll give you lots of time with your friends to say goodbye tomorrow morning and I promise you will find a good new owner. And you were such a good fluffy that you can have spaghetti tonight as a treat”.
Sunbeam sniffs “Otay daddeh. Sunbeawm wuv yu wots. Sunbeawm wiw’ miss daddeh”
So once the store closes. You begin to set up a temporary pen. Some bedding. A litterbox, two toys. And most importantly you write out a sign for the top of the pen
“The Mummah Special. Mare + Four Foals for $100”
The next morning you let Sunbeam say her goodbyes at the breeding mares pen with lots of hugs and tears before you transfer her, and her foals to the temporary pen you made for her.
“Now Sunbeam. Be nice to all the people coming in. One of them might be your new owner”
“Otay. Sunbeawm an’ babbehs be gud fwuffies!” Sunbeam beams back to you as her foals start to play with the new toys in the pen.
The doorbell rings with your first customer of the day and immediately your face drops
“Ah, hello hello again my friend” the well dressed man smiles his sinister smile to you
Oh, it’s Patrice. Well his real name is Patrick, but you know his real name from the registration documents. He’s a self proclaimed “gourmet chef” specializing in fluffy meat. Why people want fluffy meat specially prepared is beyond you. But he buys a decent mare nearly every month for one of his “special meals”.
The first time he bought from you, he said was doing “Cooking with a fluffy” for social media channels. But when you went and checked, it turned out he was cooking with the fluffy, with your beautiful mare as his stuffed roast mare with orange sauce. You don’t check social media channels for your fluffy ponies any more.
His eyes immediately dart over to the special display where you have Sunbeam and her foals set up. “Such a radiant fluffy. And such cute little foals. I can’t believe you are selling such wonders today!”
Sunbeam giggles as her foals all look for hugs from the sharp dressed man (At least, sharp dressed for a fluffy store)
“Babbeh be gud fow nice mistah!”, “Huggies!” and “Fwuffies gud fwuffies!” the foals bleat out excitedly
“These sumptuous morsels and the main course! All in one package, I love it” he exclaims to you. “Patrice, please quiet down. You know the rules about talking in front of the fluffies” you whisper. “Of course, of course” he gestures, zipping his mouth. “I think I shall take these off your hands”. You groan internally. First customer of the day and it had to be someone looking to cook and eat one of the mares you raised along with its foals.
“Ah, but I have a problem. I am awaiting a bank transfer later today from snapgram. I can only offer you half the price. But I can guarantee you I’ll have the money for you later on” Patrice gestures to his wallet
“No deposits, Patrice. They are an all up front purchase. If you come back later and they are still here. Then you can have them” you retort. You’ve had problems with abusers putting down payments and making excuses when they break their bio-toys too quickly not to pay the rest they owe.
“Of course, Of course. I understand. I can assure you I will have the money later for you. I would hate to see these morsels slip out of my hand” Patrice replies. He licked his lips after the final sentence, putting you on edge a bit.
You don’t bias yourself towards any customers. But it would suck to see Sunbeam go out as a four course meal instead of a full life considering how long you spent with her and how she was such a good fluffy pony for you. You aren’t exactly big on selling her but space is limited in your breeding pens. Time to see if you can sell her on to someone who loves her, instead of wanting to cook her.
The customer reaction is a bit muted at first. Sunbeam’s radiant personality clearly shows on her foals, despite their muted colors.
Unfortunately, the customers are not as receptive as you hoped
“Ohh, she’s adorable and so are the foals. I just can’t spare the space for all five of them” one customer remarked.
“Those foal colors aren’t ghastly. But they aren’t the most inspiring colors in the world for my daughter.” a man muses.
“Five fluffies? They are cute but they’d eat me out of house and home. I don’t have the money to feed them” a woman balks at the offer.
“Well, I could throw out the foals. She’s such a good color. But that would be a waste and depress her” a man opines
Even with the novelty of having just weaning foals, no one seems to take up the offer. Looks like Sunbeam is going to be tonight’s main course.
Just as the clock strikes ten to five. A woman walks in the store. She is slightly nervous. You see her looking around, trying to. Finally she introduces herself
“Hi I’m looking for a few fluffies to take home”
“Ah, you came to the right place” you smile back, trying to relax her.
The woman is wearing a plaid shirt, jeans and thick rimmed glasses. Doesn’t look like outward abuser material, though you’d be surprised.
Her eyes darted over to the “Mummah Special” pen. “Is that a new mother you are selling?”
“Yes and her foals are only a month old. Perfect if you want to experience raising foals for yourself”
The woman walks over to the pen with you. Sunbeam introduces her to her foals and talks with the woman as you smile with pride.
“Oh they are all such dears and she’s perfect. It’s just $100 for all of them?”
You confirm the price to her and a wide smile appears on her face.
“I think I’ll take them all. They will have a wonderful new home”
Your heart beams that maybe, just maybe you have saved Sunbeam and her foals from being a lavishly prepared dinner. After signing her name on the fluffy owner register. You do your standard pre-sale check on all the fluffies to make sure they are all in good health. You give one final hug to a happy, teary Sunbeam and wish her the best “Be a good fluffy for me” before she is placed with the foals into the temporary travel box.
You place them in their carry boxes and wave them goodbye as the woman exits. Only two minutes later does Patrice enter, shopping bags in hand, likely with extra ingredients.
“Sorry Patrice, you missed the boat” you shrug as the next breeder replacement for Sunbeam runs through your mind
“Ugh, fine. Give me the fattest mare you got. I have a rotisserie with their name on it ‘’ Patrice huffs as he sauntered over to the adult mare pen.
Fuck. Can’t save them all.
After walking two blocks. The woman reached her van. She needed a bit of distance just to be careful. After opening the back of the van. She opened the box containing Sunbeam and her foals
“Hewwo Nyu mummah. Sunbeawm and babbehs gun be best fwuffies fow mummah! When nyu housie?”
“Cute box. Your foals won’t be needing it any more” the woman as she pulls the foals out and into a steel travel cage.
“Babbehs!” Sunbeam exclaims as the foals are grabbed out of the box. “Dey too widdle! Stiww need mummah!”
The foals immediately cry out different variations of “Need mummah!” as they are separated into the cage. Once all secured. The woman slams the back of the van door shut, ignoring Sunbeam’s pleas.
The van, reading “Sunny Vale Fluffy Farm” quickly pulls out and takes off to its next destination
“Are you sure you want to surrender these foals? You know we’re having a crowding issue at the moment. We have about ten perfectly polite and well tempered ferals due for euthanasia today alone because the overcrowding is so bad” the shelter worker said
The woman sighed “I’d rather give them a chance here than outside, especially since they can’t fend for themselves. Just these colors are so mediocre, I can’t justify keeping them myself for the business”.
A chorus of “Whewe mummah!”, “Babbeh scawed!” and “Mumma ouwtsiwde in metaw munsta!”
The shelter worker picks each squirming foal up. “Seems like they are showing signs of trauma. They think the mother is inside a vehicle?”
“Well I couldn’t find a body. These dear foals were just near the path when I found them. The mother probably got hit and carried away by a truck or a bus grille”
“Oh, well that’s quite common with some accidents. Drivers just don’t stop if they think they hit a fluffy”. The shelter worker sighs as they adjust their glasses. “We can take them and try give them two weeks, but if they are traumatized, I don’t see them lasting long enough that we just end up euthanizing them”
“Well at least we can both say we tried our best for them”
As she walked out and got in her van. The woman smiled. The ruse had all played out perfectly. She got a capable breeding mare and also got rid of the four turds without any tracing back to where they came from.
“Whewe babbehs? Pwease nice wady bwing back babbehs!” Sunbeam cried out
“Oh don’t worry. Your foals are nice and safe for the next week. Too bad you won’t be seeing them again” the woman smirked as the van pulled out again, heading to its final destination
A man holds the box containing a distraught Sunbeam after pulling it out of the van and remarks “I still can’t believe you didn’t just snap the foals necks and throw them in the trash, Amy”
Amy smiled: “Better I didn’t snap them Regan. Bio-waste Littering laws are an absolute pest and you know some busy body would try to track me back. Plus that breeder didn’t need to know another operation is buying his designer mares”
After placing Sunbeam’s box on a table, Regan sighed “I see your point. But you just spent a bunch of this month’s budget on a designer mare that’s potentially a shit factory”
The man pulls out the mare and readies the piercing gun with the tag on it
“OWWIES! PWEASE NU HUWT SUNBEAWM” the fluffy mewls as the tag pierces into the top of her ear leaving a red tag emblazoned “B-33” in black.
Amy rolls her eyes at the fluffy’s tears before explaining.
“You know we do things differently around here. We don’t kill the mares, we kill the stallions. If a stud is a shit factory we just snap their neck after three bad litters. Much easier to find new stallions than mares. With mares, you can just keep on going till they are used up. Especially with this quality breeding mare. Much easier to find rare colorations that way. Plus you can just snatch feral mares to milkbag instead of using up valuable breeder mares too.”
Sunbeam shivered as the man roughly pulled her up off the table and stuffed into a cage in the wall. She huuued and cried the whole time.
Amy snickered “That breeder didn’t have the patience to get a good litter. Their loss is our gain. Just throw whatever foals she has to the milkbags and breed her again every month.”
The woman grabbed an envelope and produced a breeding chart for her new breeder. She looked directly in Sunbeam’s eyes and with a cold glare. “Get A-172 ready. He’s got a nice cream colored coat and a good record. We’re going to start breeding this mare in the next hour.”
“Nuuuuu! Sunbeawm nu wike! Pwease, jus’ wan’ babbehs back! Sunbeawm be gud fwuffy!” the fluffy cried out in the cage but it was no use.
“You are now mare B-33 and you will do what we tell you to. Get used to it, shitrat” Regan sneers at her as he slams the cage door shut.
B-33 cried in her small cage as she awaited her new fate to constantly bearing foals for the rest of her fluffy life. She wouldn’t be heard above the other mares surrounding her crying in unison.
