The mall. An all but dead industry, the days of dozens of shopping options in one super sized building having lost to the ease and laziness the internet and delivery drones provided. Only a scant few stores still operated inside the Sunrise mall, being directly next to a highway on/off ramp it was still popular as a quick stop and go style operation. popular among truckers and road trippers as a 24hr bathroom break, burger or emergency cup of coffee stop. the county was currently deciding to either tare it down of convert it fully into a trucker rest stop and gas station. for ease of access all operating business’s were in the front of the mall by main doors, a coffee/doughnut place, two take out joints, a liquor store and small convenience store, leaving the rest empty. the rest was lit with the bare minimum emergency lighting and slight disrepair was evident, including the load bays shuttered doors, one had a hole rusted though the bottom corner of one. this had allowed a vast number of randoms herds to find their way in many taking up residence in any door-less store kiosk that wasn’t already occupied. This of course led to the formation of several herd factions that fought for food, nesting material or just expanding their territory. And where were the humans in all this? A simple makeshift wall kept the front separate from the rest of the mall leaving them oblivious to what went on behind it.
In a discount shoe outlet on the second floor a blue earthy with white mane watched over his small herd of ten, all mated pairs including his own special friend. it was once bigger but a raid from the herd in the neighboring toy store for what little food they had left resulting in the deaths of two couples and most their foals, all for a lousy grocery bag full of dried leaves. their last bag of died leaves. it wasn’t fare, he was the bestest, the smarty, the leader, it was his herds nummies and he was gonna get it back. Waiting till his rival herd had gone sleepies for the night and went in through the back areas that connected all the stores. they slept on a pile of plush animals directly under one of the few still running lights in the ceiling, the blue smarty stood with all the other males over them revenge was going to be sweet but first, the food. After a few minutes of scrounging around they found the plastic bags. Empty. They had eaten all of it in one bright time and now all the mummahs slept soundly surrounded by the babbehs with bellies full of milk and more waiting for them tomorrow. Enraged the blue smarty ordered the others to surround the herd and he stood over his rival smarty, a green and yellow maned unicorn sleeping on an old pile of teddy bears. Rearing back his hooves as high as he could the others followed his lead and they struck, bring his hooves down on the other smarty’s head. The green uni woke to the sudden pain then felt flat blunt teeth bite down onto his ear pulling him from the pile and onto the hard linoleum floor then the hoofies started again. the other bit off wingies and tails and stomped and pulled, taking out their anger on their enemies. when they finished only the terrified mares and their foals remained trembling and shitting in the nest of toys. the males stood there panting heavily their mouths and fore hooves caked in blood and brains then they all heard the rumbling in the stallions stomachs. none of them had eaten anything since the night before when this herd had stolen their food and killed their friends and they had fat, walky babbehs. In that moment they moved in an unspoken unanimous decision and grabbed the closest foal they could biting down hard as they could. The soft bones crunched easily while the foals shrieked and peeped for their mothers to save them. Once they had nummed down three or four foals each they felt sated enough but the smarty scarfed down three more to himself.
-git da baggie an put da babbehs in. Ou stupeh mawes move now! we go back to nestie now.- The blue smarty ordered.
the other stallions gathered the remaining dozen or so foals and were dragged in front of the mare as an incentive to follow the stallions who pushed them to the other nest.
-Speciaw fwend back wiff nummies?- Beamed a yellow and pink maned mare at the sight of the smarty’s return.
-Nu. da nummies awe gone. find new nummies.- Dropping the bag. -Hewe.- lifting one side of the bag with his teeth.
-Wuh? Babbehs? Dis nu am nummies. Siwwy smawty dees awe–
the smarty stomped down on the bag over and over making sure to get every one then lifted the bottom of the bag pouring the foals bloody ruined bodies out to the mare’s horror. the foals mothers saw it all and their collective faces dropped in mind shattering shock and could hear every sicking pop, crunch and squeak in the dead silence before the wailing started.
-Num dem. make miwkies fow babbehs.
-B-bab…Buh babbehs… num da …nu!
-Dem bad babbehs an bad mummahs fwom bad hewd dat took ouw nummies! bad fwuffies num ouw nummies an now miwkie pwaces fuww wiff ouw miwkies!
the smarty turned to the other stallions who surrounded the eight frightened trembling mares and joined in in pinning the mares down and ripping off their back legs. the few that tried to run were quickly cut off by the other mares who were pissed that their own foals were now starving and had no milkies to give them. once the bleeding stopped the mares were propped up against a wall and the other mares started to bring their foals to suckle.
-Mummahs num dah bad babbehs an make mowe miwkies fow babbehs.- The smarty ordered. -Dems wand am smawties wand now! an next bwight times we take mowe!
the mares tentatively ate the pile of broken foals having not quite reached that level of desperate hunger yet. a few took this as an opportunity to rid themselves of their poopy and monster babbehs, kicking them into the pile and stomping them into a semi-living pulp. while the mares ate the stallions under the smarty’s orders starting bringing in any clean or least bloody stuffed toys they could find from the other store.
the next morning…
the makeshift wall that separated the front end of the mall from the rest was little more than some drywall panels propped up with 2x4’s, it slid over at one side as two men walked through. one in a suit and tie under his winter jacket the other in workman’s clothes and a hardhat, what they saw was pure fluffy chaos. dozens of herds of fluffies in an all out territory war. both floors had countless fluffies brutally kicking, biting and violating each other in one way shape or form.
“Jesus, that smell!” Complained the man in the suit.
“We’re gonna need to call an exterminator before we start renovating this place.”
By that afternoon Jake had arrived with Stalker in tow, the battle had died down just before noon, the area was littered with dead or wounded fluffies, crying weakly for huggies. walking through the mall he looked inside the store lots seeing even more fluffies inside licking their wounds while the victors of the battles asserted their newfound dominance over the survivors forcibly assimilated into their own herds. over and over he heard the same rant, “This am smawty’s wand now!” or “Ou am smawty’s hewd now.”, down every other lot, after one lap he took out his phone.
“…Hey Hun. I’m gonna need you to call the heavy rental guys and we’re gonna need the following…”
The next day the blue earthy smarty stood over his herd an a platform of small cardboard boxes stacked up into a staircase like tower of only three steps. he sported a slashed out left eye from the previous days battle, he had taken over two other herds with his surround and kill the other smarty in his sleep tactics. the last, a green unicorn, had fought back and managed to escape, abandoning his herd to its new smarty giving him his new scar as a parting gift at the cost of both his ears. The blue earthy climbed down from his pedestal throne to inspect the haul from the lat battle, discarded disposable grocery bags were everywhere in this mall and were an easy choice for carrying dried grass and leaves or whatever other food they could scrounge up before the snow came. in the span of two darky times he had gone from nothing to eight bags of dried leaves and grass two full of green apples from a nearby tree outside and one full of takeout scraps from the front stores overfilled dumpsters. as a sign of dominance with each other smarty he defeated he would pillow their special friend and keep as his own side mare and non others.
-Next dawkie time we sneaky to hewd in nummy pwace.- He addressed his group of tuffies he had collected as muscle. -dems hab da most nummies ov aww. nummies to wast to gween wawm times gain. go sweepy now an we wakie whi—
the sound of steel shutters thundering outside caught them off guard and went to investigate when the loud beeping started. they watched from the doorway as a large steel dumpster bin was backed into the mall’s showroom floor. After it was unloaded Jake backed the portable grinder trailer in while Mark, bill and Shannon rolled in collapsible construction grade trash chutes and carried them up to the second floor affixing them to the railing. Jake attached the other ends to the dumpster then fetched the snow shovels and push brooms from the back of his truck, letting stalker out as well. First order of business the dead and wounded, handing out the shovels and brooms and started scooping the ones littered about in plain sight closer to the bin and chutes and tossing them in. Any fluffy near a doorway was quick to get out of sight less they be scooped up and tossed down the chute as well, each body slid down with enough speed to hit the opposite side of the trash bin. if they weren’t hurt before they were now. The blue smarty gathered his herd and like before the stallions thirty strong, marching out in force, cheeks puffed out and stood before Mark holding a bloody shit covered snow shovel.
-Dis am smawty’s wand weave now o git wowstest sowwy hoofies an wowstest sowwy poopies an wowstest bad enfies!- The smarty ordered stamping a hoof with each threat.
Mark smirked at the threats, shook a little of the mess off his shovel then raised it over his head as the stallions turned around ready to fire and he brought it down hitting several fluffies directly behind the smarty. the rest fired their payload out of fright and shock hitting the smarty and Mark’s rubber hip waders who with out skipping a beat kept on whacking away. the cacophony of screams growing with every dull metallic clang as Mark decimated the entire herd as the smarty watched in horror with his one good eye. he watched as all the power he had gathered was flattened and scooped up five or six at a time, walked to the nearest chute and flung them in. the smarty could do nothing but shit himself and run for it, scrambling over the broken bodies of his shattered army back to the nest where the mares and foals hid nervously. hiding himself behind as many mares as he could the sound of pained screes and pleads followed by the scraping of the shovel on the floor, over and over and over till.
“Where’d ya go you little blue fuck? all your boys are dead an its your turn, saved you for last.” dragging the shovel over the floor to add a little more fear to the atmosphere.
following a fluffy fear fueled trail was easy for even the most inept hunter, just follow the constant trail of piss and shit and sooner rather than later you’ll find it. the trail led right into the shoe store to the nest of mares cowering on a pile of dirty stuffed toys, the trail led around it to the back.
“Oh so brave. heh. some smarty you are. whelp, I did say you’d be last.” Raising the shovel.
The smarty could only cower hiding his face under his leggies while his special friend pleaded and urged him to something and save them from the human monster. the sound of metal clanging over lumpy bodies screeching out with every strike and now his mate was shaking him with both hooves screaming in his ear when it was cut off by a loud (CLONK) right next to his head. this was enough to finally get him up and running again out the back door while Mark shoveled the mares and foals broken bodies out the door as Bill walked by with a push broom sweeping them away. Rounding the corner the blue smarty ran past the old pet food store that was gonna be his next raid target and when he reached the door after that he was blindsided by the ear-less smarty. he was knocked down with a bleeding shoulder wound from the green uni’s horn before he could even finish saying “Owwies” both his right leggies were stomped on and broken.
-SCREEEEEEEEE! Why hewt smawty? HU HU HU!
-Shaddup stewpeh dummeh! Dummeh tink dummeh am smawty?
the green unicorn lunged at him biting off both his ears then stomping on his head a few good times to take the fight out of him.
-Dummeh feew wike smawty nao? Huh? Smawty nu hewe ou.- Kicking the torn ears back to the blue smawty. -Dummeh feew wike smawty nao?- Knocking him face down and mounting him.
-NU! Nu am mawe! Nu wa–SREEEEE! poopie pwace haf owwies! Hu hu huuuu!
-ENF! ENF! ENF!
-HU HU OWWIEHEHEHEHEEEEES!
Mark let out a loud sharp whistle and seconds later the sound of hard toenails on tiled floors came racing up the dead escalator steps and to his side, Stalker panted eager to please as always.
“Good boy. Now, fetch!” Pointing out the back door.
Taking off, Stalker didn’t know where to go as the entire mall reeked of the assorted stenches that came with fluffies but when he looked left he spotted a green unicorn running off and a bleeding blue earthy on the floor. Going for the easy target Stalker bit down on the blue smarty’s muzzle, lifting him up by the face and trotting back to Mark with his prize.
“Good boy! Drop it. good.” Taking the crying smarty from the dog. “Looks like someone got to you before the dog did.” Scooping him up with the shovel. “Time to join the rest of your herd down the chute.” Walking out the door with the last shovelful for this store.
-Hu hu huu… pwease nice mistuh… nu mowe hewties… fwuffy nu wan be smawty nu mowe…
without a word Mark tossed the shovelful of fluffies into the bright orange industrial canvas chute, the smarty tumbling as he hit every support ring that held the chute open. spiraling out the other end he hit the far side of the dumpster wall on his broken side making them obviously worse with more joining every few seconds, like a green ear-less unicorn landing just inches from him. Shannon was in the dumpster knee deep in fluffies with a vacuum hose in hand that led to a industrial size fluff-buster leftover from the Glenville high job. the blue smarty just happened to be picked next, she picked him up at the base of the tail and jamming the hose into his ass hard and fast to really get it in there. she kept going till the blue smarty felt like his tongue was going to get sucked out as well then was handed off to Jake over the side of the dumpster who deposited him in the grinder. His green rival was not far behind him and when the ground chuck that was them the grinder extruded into the box, taped shut and left outside in the snow to freeze.
“Hey dad, I found one with a cutie mark!” Mark shouted from the top floor. “It’s a blue filly with a yellow birthday cake on her ass.”
“Get a carrier, sounds like a keeper for a trail run.”
