Hey y’all been a while since I posted, life has been having its way with me. Roommate got shot through the legs by a friend of the neighbor’s only after moving in so he can’t drive semis or stand for long periods so I’ve had to support the both of us, making my free time very limited. We finally got approved for EBT (Food Stamps) so I have a lot less on my shoulders now so I’ll probably be writing some more.
Also anyone who has ever said getting welfare is easy is straight up lying to you.
Leaving that behind I love tying my work as a Natural Restoration Specialist together with the fiction of fluffies. This is somewhat along those lines, I hope you enjoy it!
The Wetlands
Wetland areas are beautiful.
Wetland areas are death.
Whether a swamp or marsh, bog or fen, they are sites of decomposition. Anaerobic microbes gestate in dark mud making slow but steady work of any organics that find themselves in that low lying area. Insect life blossoms in the stagnant waters with larger creatures only on the periphery. They know better, they know wetlands are death.
There is one exception of course, animals that aren’t animals, the artificial curse, fluffy ponies.
…
“Daddeh, aw we dewe yet?”
“Nuu gweengwass, dun ask again”
“Daddeh… when wiww we git dewe?
“Soon Oakwy, nee’ fin nestie in good hidey pwace”
“Speciou fwiend! Da stumpy ova dewe!”
A fluffy family moves into a swamp to escape the terrors of the proper forest. Feral herds and woodland creatures alike make it hard for a family on their own. What they fail to understand is there is a reason the swamp is so empty. The family had little choice, they ran away from the herd they were in and the smarty seemed intent on tracking them.
Vine was a darker green earthy, his special friend was Clover, a brighter green unicorn. Both of them had gray manes of roughly the same hue. They were considered ugly by their herd and received near constant harassment, they found they only had each other. When Clover had her foals, Vine knew the smarty would at the very least kill the children, probably worse. They left that night, not knowing where to go but knowing they couldn’t stay.
It has been a couple weeks on the road, taking shelter wherever it presented itself and gathering any food they found. The foals, a light green pegasus colt named Greeengrass, a dark red unicorn filly named Rose, and a Brown unicorn named Oakley, quickly began to talk and walk after opening their eyes. The manes started growing in as well, with Greengrass getting a dark green mane, Rose getting a dark brown mane, and Oakley growing in a light gray mane.
With the foals growing up fast they were able to cover a lot of ground. Their old herd lost their trail long ago but they had no way of knowing that, in the family’s mind they were being pursued to the ends of the earth.
They had entered a low lying area when clover noticed the hollowed-out stump, perched on a peninsula jutting out into stagnant water. The peninsula had wild rye and milkweeds growing all over it, to the family it looked ideal.
“Dis am gweat nestie-pwace!”, Vine proclaimed as he trotted up to the ancient oak stump.
“Speciou friend! Suuuuu happiest fow bestest nestie!”
“Taww gwassies su big”, Oakley gazed at the tall ryegrass with awe.
“Gwassies am not bery green…”
“Dats why ou named GWEENgwass!”, Rose exclaimed, chuckling to herself.
It seemed the family had finally gotten lucky. No traces of other fluffies or even any kind of monsters they would see in the old forest. The ground was soft and lush with moss and low-lying scrub grasses and the partially submerged trees provided shade and some protection from the rain. It would appear to be an ideal spot for a new fluffy family to settle down in.
“Cwoba wub dis pwace! Su many fwowas an gwassies, an pwetty buggies!”
Rose was prancing around on the soft ground.
“Teeeheeehheeee! Bouncy-bouncy”
“Wat sissy doin?”
“Bouncy-jumpies! Wook Oakwey! Su many bouncies!”
Oakley started trotting about, getting a feel for the ground.
“Waaaaaaa? Dis am su weiwd…”
Oakley began to bounce around with his sister, Greengrass joined in and all of them were prancing around the big stump, their mother watching from inside as she ate grasses, ready to produce the best milk for her offspring. This would be the last meal that they would be on milk, the foals’ teeth had mostly come in and it was time for big-nummies.
“Dis pwace am pwetty… But Cwoba am even pwettier”
Clover blushed at her partner’s flattering. She remembered why they fell in love, other than having no other options. He was a compassionate husband, responsible father, and braver than anyone she has ever met.
“Awwwww, Bine my wub. Am onwy pwetty becaush ou am su bwave and stwong.”
The two of them nuzzled close and watched their children bounce around on the peninsula.
That night the foals were given their final milk meal. Oakley had already started eating grass and declined the sweet milk, he liked the more earthy flavor of the ryegrass and sedges. Rose and Greengrass drank up their milk, both of them enjoying it but were ready to start being more of a “big-fwuffie”.
The family curled up in the interior of the stump, it’s rotting wood making for decent insulation. The family thought themselves finally safe, happy in their new abode. But the rain was coming, and that would change everything.
Vine awoke early in the morning to the first droplets of the downpour. He had seen rain before so he didn’t feel the need to take action. What Vine was unaware of was drainage, or rather what wetlands do for their surroundings. The rest of the family woke up slowly as the rain came down in earnest, feeling cozy in the still dry tree stump. Only one of the fluffs was feeling uneasy, Oakley.
Oakley has spent the previous day learning all he could about this new strange landscape and had noticed that the ground in some spots had been so wet stepping there caused water to come up through the moss and form puddles at his hooves. He also noticed the plushy texture of the soil like his siblings, but the “bouncy-gwound” was not a source of joy for him but worry. They had traveled so long and through so many places, how did they not encounter this weird dirt before? Oakley watched the rain in terror as the moss around the tree stump became fully saturated, causing runoff of water down the gentle slope and into the nearby pool of water. Wasn’t the ground supposed to suck the water up? Something was wrong.
“We nu safe hewe”
“Wa Oakwey say? Dis am gweat pwace! Nu kno wa’ ou thinkin’. Cwoba never hab as gud a nestie!”
“Wai bwudda say day? Nufing wong abou’ dis pwace, hab nestie and su many nummies!”
“Oakwey jus’ scawed”
His family was convinced nothing was wrong.
“Gun gu see somefin’”
Oakley waddled out of the stump and over to the area him and his siblings were playing yesterday.
There was no more soil, just soft mud that seemed to want to pull Oakley down into its macabre embrace. He felt the mud encase itself around his hooves and almost got stuck trying to get out. The writing was on the wall in Oakley’s mind, they were trapped and the water would eventually get into the stump.
Sure enough only about an hour after the rain had started the nest had begun to take on water.
“Bad wawa! Gu way from good mummah Cwoba!”
“Mummah da nestie hab too much wawa!”
Oakley’s family emerged from the stump, now out in the rain, and scouted around for more suitable spots. The tree canopy shielded most of the rain from them, but that was the least of their worries now. They saw Oakley perched on top of a root flare of a large, gnarled tree. He was safe up there but the rest were doomed. He looked at them with sullen eyes.
“I twied to teww ou’, sowwy…”
“Wa babbeh tawkin abou-”
Vine was cut short by the realization that he was stuck in the mud. He tried to reposition himself but that only got him more stuck and his weight was slowly bringing him down the slope towards the much expanded pool of water. The rest were fairing no better, Clover weighed as much as Vine but didn’t have the same muscle mass. She was up to her belly in mud and was slowly sliding with her mate towards the water.
“WUN BABBEHS! GU! GU!”, Vine shouted
“An weave mummah and daddeh to da wawa!”, Rose retorted.
“Mummah and daddeh wub ou’bewy much. Wiww always wub ou’, eben in skettiwand. NAO GU! SABE OUSEWBES”
Heeding their mother’s last words as their parents fell into the murky water and disappeared under the surface.
“We gu sissy!”, Greengrass pulled on his sister’s mane and dragged her away from the slope of the peninsula. Rose was crying but managed to pull herself together and began galloping towards the root flare where Oakley had found refuge.
“Awmosh dere!”, Greengrass gasped.
“Jus a little fuwth-”
Greengrass’s hoof hit a low spot that had filled with water, the silty mud clamped down on his leg and pulled it downward. Greengrass was now half-submerged and sinking fast.
“Hewp! HEWP GREENGWASS!
“HOWD ON BWUDDA!”, Rose bolted up to him and tugged on his mane but it did nothing. Looking down at her brother,mud was almost reaching his mouth.
“Sowwy bwudda”
She adjusted her footing and continued on and would have made it if not for a certain arachnid.
A fishing spider was wrapped around a small tree near the scene and placed its sets of eyes on Rose, who was about to pass the tree.
It came as a surprise to both Oakley and Rose when it descended and jammed its fangs into her.
“SCRRREEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeee…”
In an instant she lay still and silent. The spiders eyes locked with Oakley and they stared each other down. The spider sulked away with the body of Rose, probably not out of a respect for Oakley, but to simply enjoy a meal alone.
Oakley sat on the root flare and thought to himself as the rain came down,
What now?
Oakley will return (when I have time to write something)