Tulip was brimming with excitement, ever since she could first crawl she wanted to see everything the world had to offer, now she could do just that and help her herd at the same time. She had the perfect plan: use her innate skills of being a ‘splorin-babbeh’ to quickly find the best home possible and then return to the herd before they even notice she had left. It would be an amazing surprise that was sure to impress her brothers, the smarty, and even the ‘bestest-nummie-findah’. After all she was good at finding nummies so finding shelter should be a piece of cake.
First she checked the alleyways, there were plenty of cardboard boxes strewn about, which made Tulip wonder where all these boxes came from in the first place. It was like people were leaving large empty boxes in alleyways specifically so ferals had a place to live. However, Tulip’s herd needed something better than a cardboard box to live, after all they already had one. She then checked around trashcans and dumpsters but those areas didn’t provided an easy way in or out, Tulip and the tan mare would usually tip over trashcans or collect off the top of overflowing dumpsters so they didn’t get stuck inside them. Tulip considered the cracks and holes in the walls of surrounding buildings, but none of the holes were big enough to house a full grown fluffy.
This task was turning out to be a bit more difficult than Tulip had anticipated, but she refused to go back to the nest without anything to show. So after an internal pep-talk to get her spirits back up she went out onto the sidewalk in her ever expanding search. There was a sea of people walking along the sidewalk and cars zooming past on the street. Tulip jumped a little as each car drove past, Spike was no longer scared of passing cars due to the smarty’s teachings and experience, but Tulip and Berry still had fears pertaining to cars mostly stemming from the unpleasant drive that brought them to the city.
With quivering knees Tulip carefully walked beside the building’s walls to get out of the foot traffic and became still as a statue whenever a car went by. This anxious back and forth dance caused Tulip to move ten times slower than the average fluffy but she was making progress little-by-little. Occasionally she would try to call out to the people walking along the sidewalk to ask if they knew about any good homes for fluffies to live, but after noticing that a fluffy was asking the questions most people would just keep walking.
The little pegasus passed the old motel, countless buildings, shops, stores, and apartments before arriving at an empty lot. The lot had recently been demolished as the weeds hadn’t started cropping up in all the nooks and crannies yet. Tulip’s hooves were sore from all the walking and her legs were ready to give out so she entered the vacant lot and laid down beside a dirty blanket in a small shaded area caused by an overhang from one of the adjacent buildings. It wasn’t an ideal napping spot as the concrete was hard and uncomfortable but at least she wouldn’t get the sun in her eyes.
“Huu… Why nu can find nyu nestie? Tuwip am gud nummie-findah, why nu am gud nestie-findah?! Huuhuu…”
While lamenting her lack of skill in finding shelter she was startled as the blanket she was leaning on began to move. A grungy older man in old loose fitting clothes sat up and rubbed his eyes, he focused on the orange ball of fluff to see who had woken him from his nap.
“And I just got to sleep too… Oh… a fluffy. Of course it’s a fluffy can’t sit down for two seconds without one of you things cuddling up to me. Well, it beats getting harassed by government regulations or pompous $%##$@.”
Tulip’s instincts kicked in with the utterance of profanity and caused her to ignore her current situation to gasp, “NU! Nu say dat! dat am bad meanie-wowd!”
The man chuckled to himself seeing how a simple word caused the little fluffy to flip out, “Haha, you fluffies are fun to talk with, it’s always so easy to push your buttons.”
“Wha nice mistah mean? Tuwip nu hab buttons, am fwuffy.”
Tulip’s simple mindset got another good laugh out of the man before he noticed that she had said her name, ferals didn’t give each other names.
“You called yourself Tulip, you a domestic runaway or something?”
“Wha am du-du-mes-tic? Tuwip am fwuffy!”
The man sighed realizing that he would have to use simple terms if he wanted to get any sort of conversation going.
“What I mean is… Do you have a human daddy or mommy?”
Tulip hopped up ready to answer the question as if she were in the middle of a gameshow, “Oh! Oh! Tuwip hab bestest daddeh evah! Bu’… nu knu whewe daddeh am… Tuwip miss daddeh…”
The man realized he had opened a can of worms and gently stroked her back, “I’m sorry Tulip, I didn’t mean to make you sad. Can I make it up to you somehow?”
Tulip sniffled a bit, that’s when she realized: this was it, the perfect opportunity to find a home, after all humans knew everything!
“Tuwip nee’ find nyu nestie fo’ hewd! Du nice mistah knu whewe tu find nyu nestie fo’ fwuffies?”
This was intriguing to the old man, this little filly was part of a herd. Most ‘herds’ tended to be run by incompetent, egotistical, and especially stupid fluffies calling themselves ‘smarties’, but this herd was using a scout to find a new home. Granted it was a baby but any sort of planning at all was impressive for most fluffies. The man tried to think of somewhere a herd could nest safely, none came to mind so he recommended a fluffy’s best bet at survival.
“I don’t know of any nesting spots, but there is a fluffy shelter and daycare that way.”
He pointed through the empty lot towards another alleyway, “Just keep going straight down that way and take a left when you reach the park, you should be able to see the building’s sign it stands out a lot. They take fluffies in off the streets and make sure they get homes so you should have no problem getting in.”
Tulip was ecstatic! Sure it wasn’t a conventional nest, but this was even better! Tulip ran up and gave the man the biggest hug should could with her stubby little legs.
“Tank yu nice mistah! Tuwip wuv yu!”
The man stroked the little pegasus’ mane one last time before she waddled away, “You stay safe out there!”
Tulip was reinvigorated, she had a destination now and she was determined to reach it! Through the alleyways and sidewalks, Tulip kept on her straight path to a new home. Eventually she arrived at the park, a sheet of green grass and trees with red and orange leaves stood proudly within the immense concrete jungle. It had been over a week since Tulip had seen so much greenery, a very large chuck of her short young life. She was enraptured by it and reminded of the backyard of her old house that she would spend hours exploring (even though there was nothing to see but grass). She forgot about her mission to find the shelter as the thought was replaced with the simple desire to relive the days when she was happiest.
The grass was soft and cool compared to the endless concrete she had been forced to walk on for over a week. The air was clean and refreshing, a small breeze could be felt, and the trees provided plenty of shade. This was paradise, at least that was what Tulip thought to herself before a loud bark brought her back to reality. Tulip had been daydreaming to herself as she walked deeper into the park. She was so preoccupied with her fantasy that she didn’t notice she was walking right towards a large intimidating dog. Being faced with a dangerous beast she collected her self and calculated what the best course of action would be, the answer was obvious: “EEEEEEE! Scawy bawkie-munstah!”