Claire walked home from school the long way.
Winter was in the air, and Claire could feel the icy Canadian wind chilling her to the bone. Her breath shone in front of her as she wandered through the park where she used to play with her dog Abigail. Those had been happier times.
Claire had thought that keeping fluffies would bring her happiness back again. For a while, it had, but then the selfishness started, and she learned about abusers. Then, their lives had been turned upside down with the knowledge that Alice had been the little baby, saved by fluffies in Seattle seven years ago. PETA, the media circus, and then him.
Claire still couldn’t believe he had won.
She stopped at a park bench, and sat down to stare across the lake, which was just beginning to freeze. Soon it would be totally frozen. Thick enough to ice skate on. But for now, the frigid waters were simply home to torpid fishes, wondering where the summer had gone. Something about the change of seasons affected Claire every year. It was as though she had a different self; one that lived in the summer, and another in the winter. Every Springtime, the winter Claire fell asleep, and every fall, she woke up again, letting the Summer Claire hibernate.
Claire felt as if she were waking up, but she wasn’t sure from what. Everything seemed like a nightmare.
“Nuuu! Babbehs!” Claire heard a fluffy mother scream.
Looking over her shoulder, she saw a group of teenage boys tormenting a pink pegasus mother, throwing her foals between one another while she desperately chased them and begged them to stop. Their casual callousness made Claire’s stomach clench, but steeled something within her. Their cruelty was wrong, and Claire knew she had to stop it.
“Hey! Hey you! You assholes! Stop that now!”
Claire found herself yelling and cursing at the boys, and sprinting across the park. Before she knew it, she was on them, and had punched the biggest teen straight in the nose, spilling his blood down his face. Her sudden violence shocked them into silence for a moment, but suddenly Claire realised she was picking a fight with three teenage boys, all a couple of years older than her.
“Wh-what the fuck!” the bloody nosed teen yelled at her.
“Fuck me! You broke his nose you bitch!” cursed another, while the third just stared and gawped.
“Put those foals down! Put them DOWN!” Claire practically screamed. Reaching for the lime green foal that the bloody nosed boy had, Claire tried to take it from him, only for him to snatch it away from her.
“You broke my fucking nose you cunt!” he shouted at her, spraying droplets of blood in the icy air, “For a fucking fluffy? What the fuck?”
“You a hugboxer bitch?” asked the other boy, leering at her as she tried to rescue a yellow foal from his hands.
“Yeah? Are you a fluffy fucker?” the third boy sneered.
Claire gritted her teeth and raked her fingernails down the side of his face. Her fury was so intense that she would have gladly blinded him. She kept clawing at him, so ferociously that he dropped the pale blue fluffy foal he was holding into the long grass at his feet. He stumbled backwards for a moment, before finding his footing. Then he pushed her back, hard. Claire fell over, hurting her ankle badly as she twisted to the ground.
“Fucking psycho bitch!” He yelled at her.
The other two boys tried to taunt her, throwing foals between them, trying to pay piggy-in-the-middle, as they had done with the fluffy mummah, who was still crying and begging deliriously, but Claire was no fool. She simply got back up, and ran at the bloody nosed boy kicking him hard in the shins.
“Arhh!” he yelled in pain, looking at her in disbelief, “You fucking cunt! You don’t give up do you?” If you want the fluffies so bad, why don’t you go get them?"
Claire’s eyes widened in fear as she saw him bring back his arm, before throwing the lime green baby foal deep far into the middle of the icy waters of the lake.
“Babbehs!” the fluffy mother screamed.
Claire’s heart squeezed inside her chest. She turned to beg the boys to stop, but the second of them simply laughed and pitched his fluffy foal into the lake as well.
“Babbehs! Babbehs!” the fluffy mother wailed.
“Haha!” bloody-nose laughed, the two smears of crimson running down his throat making him look truly monstrous. “You fluffy foals are dead now slut! How do you like that?”
Claire nearly burst into tears, but instead, she fumbled in her pocket and pulled out her cellphone. Pressing her thumb to it, she activated the attack alarm. Immediately it started an ear piercing high pitched siren, as well as sending a text with her GPS location to the police department.
“What the fuck?” bloody-nose cried in confusion, “You attacked US you bitch!”
“Yeah,” said Claire, “The cops are really going to believe that aren’t they?”
“Fuck! Sam, lets get out of here!” the third boy yelled. They quickly turned and fled.
“Go tell your mom you got beat up by a girl!” Claire screamed at them as they fled.
On the floor in the long grass, the pink pegasus fluffy mummah was covering her ears with her hooves and wailing.
“Huu huu huu… make scawy noise stawp!”
Claire pressed her thumb to the sapphire to cancel the alarm. The police would be on their way anyway, and would probably call her any second now. Claire looked at the fluffy mummah, who was cuddling the single foal which had escaped.
“Hewp!” she heard a tiny voice scream from the lake. Turning around, she could just about see a tiny yellow foal, floating in the lake, desperately clinging to a piece of ice. It was screaming, and chirping, and struggling to grasp the slippery ice that was the only thing preventing it from drowning.
“PWEEASE nice wady! Sabe fwuffy babbeh!” the pink pegasus begged, with tears streaming down her face.
Somehow, Claire found herself wading out into the icy water. Some sane part of her consciousness knew it was a very stupid idea. The cold hit her like a freight train, biting her to the bone instantly. She waded out until the water hit her crotch, then her belly, before she realised how foolish she was being.
The fluffy was a good forty feet away, and swimming would be dangerous.
“Hewp!” the baby cried, “Hewp!”
And then, it slipped off of its icy island, and quickly drowned.
Claire started to cry. She pulled herself, slowly, out of the frigid waters, and made her way back to the fluffy mother and foal. Her tears were releasing everything that had happened. The abusers. The protest. PETA. The media. Everything with her cousin. All the bad people, and everything that was wrong with the world.
Claire cried and cried, until her shivering was so intense that she could cry no longer.
The pink pegasus waddled up to her and hugged her as best she could.
“Fank yu fow sabe fwuffy mummah and wastest babbeh,” the fluffy said, as the pale blue foal started to hug her too. Claire cried and shivered for another minute or so, before two police skidded to a halt on their mountain bikes.
“Hey?” One of them asked, his breath steaming as he gasped for air, “Are you OK?”
Claire was taken home by the police, who promised to drop off the fluffy mother and baby at a nearby shelter. At first they had wanted to take her to the hospital, but she had begged them just to take her home instead. Eventually, they had relented, and got a patrol car to pick her up. She was shaken, but not hurt, apart from her ankle. Her phone was ruined by the water though.
The policeman in the car had said she’d done a good job trying to save the fluffies from the boys, and asked her if she wanted to press charges because they had pushed her over. Claire didn’t tell him about punching and kicking and scratching them, but somehow she felt he knew what had really happened. He said they could be charged with animal cruelty, but Claire said she didn’t think it was worth it. The cop had replied with, “We could charge them with animal cruelty though. We’re not America. Yet.”
Claire had just wanted it all to be over though, and was relieved when they pulled up at her house.
“She’ll be ok,” the policeman had told her mom, “She just needs a hot bath, and a hug.”
Because hugs make everything better.
The hot bath did help, and slowly, Claire’s emotional pain throbbed down into her ankle, which was pretty swollen. Claire’s mom said she would take her to the doctors first thing next morning, but that it didn’t look broken. She fixed Claire a hot chocolate and put marshmallows on the top of it. Then, she put Snowflake and Nutella in Claire’s bed, which made the fluffies very happy.
“Mummah-Cwaire!” Nutella squeaked, “the Cwaire-Mummah have towd us that yu did save a fluffy mummah and babbehs fwom meanie boys!”
“Yes,” Claire said, limping into her bed. The fresh cotton sheets felt cool on her hot skin, and soothed the pain in her ankle. “They were horrible, but I saved the mummah and her lastest baby.”
“Jus wike Snowfwake and Snowfwake wastest babbeh?” asked Snowflake, snuggling up with Claire.
“Yes,” Claire said sadly, “I suppose so.”
“Snowfwake WUV mummah Cwaire,” Snowflake told her, “Snowfwake wastest babbeh Nutewwa wuv mummah-Cwaire too.”
“Yes, Nutewwa wuv mummah-Cwaire vewy vewy muchwy,” agreed Nutella.
“Oh you silly fluffies. I love you,” Claire told them, starting to cry again. But this time, they were the kind of tears one sheds when beings are compassionate to one another, rather than the pain escaping from her.
Claire cuddled her last two fluffies, and soon fell into a deep, deep sleep.
Claire dreamt about the icy wastelands between Canada and the US. In her dream, there was a herd of enormous fluffies, led by a sad but noble fluffy. They were walking through the snow, to some caves that they had found, which were stocked with food and dried grass. The herd was going to sleep away the winter. With them was a skinny brown feral, and a red Unicorn, with one half of his face all burned away…
…Later she saw fluffies dancing, joyful when their dances were successful, but terrified at the slightest mistake. One of the fluffies turned to look at her, wondering how she could see her dancing, as if Claire were an intruder where she had no right to be…
…Then she saw a small blue fluffy, missing one of its front legs. “Weggy…” it huued into the uncaring night. “Wan weggy back…”
…The scene faded to blackness. But within the blackness, something moved. It was a green fluffy, with a brown mane and tail. Claire recognised the fluffy. It was Humphrey, one of Alice’s fluffies that was always kind and gentle with the younger fluffs.
“Hewwo,” he said simply, looking up at Claire. Claire felt she was floating, but was strangely unable to move. She tried to speak, but no words came out. She felt she was trying to express something for which there were no words. Something from deep within her soul that ached to escape, like a butterfly in a crysalis.
“Why mummah-Cwaire in Humpfwee dweam?” the fluffy asked her. Claire tried to shake her head, to tell the fluffy that this was her dream, but again she could not move.
“Wook mummah,” Humphrey told her, “Wook at da howns.”
Claire could see Nutella, snuggled up against her, with her mother Snowflake on the other side. Both of their horns were glowing, a faint iridescence, like the afterimage from staring at the sun. Now yellow, now purple, a blotch of light in front of her eyes, bleeding out from another reality.
“If you want the fluffies so bad, go and get them!” the bloody-nosed bully yelled, pitching the screaming baby into the icy death of the lake. His face sneering, turning into something demonic. It was Quimby’s face, laughing, laughing at her. Laughing at them all.
“Nu… wook at da HOWNS mummah-Cwaire.” Humphrey told her.
Claire saw fluffies sleeping. In saferooms and bedrooms, on kitchen floors and in forgotten kennels. She saw them in alleyways and shelters, and in breeding farms, overcrowded and suffering. Every horn was glowing, just faintly, but it was there. The Alicorns shone brighter than most, and even the Earthies and Pegasi shone from within. A faint blotch of light where their horns would be, had they had them. From the centre of their foreheads as they slept and dreamt, the glow merged every fluffies dream together.
Claire saw a bonfire. Men and women were dancing around it, drinking and laughing in the winter’s night. Claire looked into the flames, and saw fluffy skulls and bones, glowing white hot in the intense heat. A single fluffy was hiding in the forest, too scared to move, too sad to look away. Hundreds of fluffies must have died in the fires. Claire saw the sparks and embers racing upwards into the night, into eternity amongst the stars. She wondered what would happen to the fluffy souls. Above the clouds, above the moon. Would they run and play there? Or was it nothing but cold blackness? Forever.
Claire found herself in a grey place. Grey was everywhere, all around her. She was vaguely aware of other beings nearby, lost and wandering, so close, and yet so far away from her. She tried to call out, but the silence still gripped her. Eventually she saw a shape forming in the grey mists. It was a pegasus fluffy, but instead of feathered wings, it had the wings of a bat. Half of its fluff was burned away. In spite of its horrific appearance, it smiled, and looked at her kindly.
“Dis am nu pwace for hoomin-mummahs,” the fluffy told her gently, “Am hoomin-mummah wost?”
Yes, Claire wanted to say, to tell the fluffy she had been lost for years, ever since her dog had died. Ever since her childhood and innocence had died with it.
“Mewcuwy wiww take mummah home. Hoomin mummah nu bewong in skettiwand.”
“She does!” Claire heard a girl cry, “Its the only safe place!”
Claire saw an image of a crying blonde girl, about the same age as her. The girl’s face looked scarred with a years old burn and her eyes were strangely grey. Claire knew that the girl was blind. Somehow, she thought she recognised her.
“Dat nu am weaw,” the fluffy told her, “Dat just am sleepy time pictuwes. Dat nu happen yet.”
Claire followed the fluffy as it flew down through the starry night. Her heart ached to hug the crying girl, but the fluffy insisted they leave her behind. Soon Claire was struggling to keep up. The fluffy flew so fast. Down from the grey place, through the darkness and the stars, back past the bonfires. Back past the caves of hibernating fluffies. It led her back to Vancouver, lit up in the night like a jewel. It led her back to her room, back to her fluffies and their glowing horns. Back to her bed. Back to her body, linked to her soul with a silver cord.
“Dewe,” the fluffy said simply, “Mummah am back again. Twy not to get wost again.”
And with that, he turned and flew away, back into the swirling grey mists.
Claire lay in her bed. Aware that she was dreaming, but in her dream, she was laying in her bed. Her lucidity was an awareness that had always been with her, but had been buried under everything else. Claire wondered what she could do with it. She couldn’t move, and couldn’t speak. For a moment, it felt as though something was crushing her, making it hard to breathe. Claire almost panicked, but managed to remain calm, realising that she could breathe, but barely needed to.
Claire tried to change her dream. She tried to remember her dog, Abigail, the golden retriever that had protected her since she was a baby. Soon she was running and playing with her dog in the park by the lake, in an eternal summertime fashioned within her own dream. A safe place, where Abigail could always live. Claire found herself laughing, joyful, free of the suffering of the world.
“Haha!” cried Humphrey, “Humpfwee wub Bawky munstah fwiend!”
Claire laughed and ran and played with the dog and the fluffy. How are you in my dream? She wanted to ask the fluffy, somehow aware that he too was in this strange place she had invented.
“Fwuffy nu know!” the green fluffy laughed, somehow aware of her thoughts, even though she had said nothing.
Claire saw a silver cord trailing from the fluffy’s heart. She followed the cord, wondering where it would lead to. It lead past a storehouse of memories, pictures, movies, half-forgotten fragments. But they were not Humphrey’s memories, they were… Alice’s. Claire saw birthdays, and presents, and fluffies met for the first time. She saw her parents - No, Alice’s parents arguing. She saw Quimby on TV laughing. She saw a pair of feral fluffies looking down at her in an alleyway, in the middle of a thunderstorm.
Claire found herself floating in the air above Alice’s bed. Alice and her fluffies were snuggled up in bed, illuminated by a night light. The silver cord had led her here, linking the dream Humphrey to his real body. Though none of Alice’s fluffies was a unicorn, all of them had the faint glow on their foreheads, where horns would be if they had them.
Claire looked closer.
Alice had the glow as well, and her glow shone brighter than any Claire had seen.
Next Story in the Jellyverse Saga - The Truth About Fluffies - Part 05 - The Nightmare
