You walked behind Yuzu for forever. She traveled in mostly silence, only speaking to give you one word answers. You had no idea why she was so crabby. Maybe she woke up on the wrong side of the nest. Either way it was a long, dull walk while the sky got darker and darker.
“Nu wike dawkies…” you mumbled.
“Den keep up.” Yuzu snorted.
After another forever she turned off the blackrock and led you across a patch of dead grass to a… something. You paused, looking up at it as some part of your thinkie place twitched at the sight. You felt like you should know this thing, with its round black bits up in the air. It just wouldn’t click, though.
“Wai nu fowwow??” Yuzu asked, poking her head out of the thing.
“Nu knu wha’ am.” You said, continuing to scan it in the dying light.
Yuzu followed your gaze, looking up at the vehicle above her. “Oh, am twuck.”
“Twuck?” Yes, Truck, that felt right but… something about it was off.
“Twuck.” Yuzu repeated. After a moment she answered a question you didn’t ask. “Am upside-down, nu knu how get dat way.”
“Ohhhh.” That made sense. The black things went on the bottom like hooves! Remembering that the darkness was quickly swallowing you, you hurried to follow Yuzu through a busted out window and into the truck.
It was even darker within, and you paused to let your eyes adjust to the low light. Before that, there was a click and a dim light turned on. You flinched back, eyes squinted, and waited for the light to grow as blinding as the one in the sky.
But it didn’t. It stayed dim and controlled, emanating from a black tube with a grey switch on the side. You stepped forward to study it but were distracted by Yuzu taking off the green part of her fluff, the green of her mane stayed attached to her. She shook the yellow fluff under it out and then turned to the puddle of green on the floor and began to pull things out of it. You watched in awe, having never seen anything like it. Sure, you saw pegasus fluffies hold nummies with their wings but they never took them off to empty them out. Yuzu was a unicorn too, she didn’t even have wings!
Yuzu saw you staring at her and paused. “Wha?”
In the clearer light you could see the bags under her eyes, the grey fluff on her muzzle and ears. She was older than you initially thought. Old fluffies in your herd didn’t do much, they watched foals and kept lookout but didn’t go out to gather nummies or explore.
“Bestest nebah see fwuffy take fwuff off befowe! How du??”
Yuzu chuckled. “Nu am fwuff. Am bakpak.”
“Bakpak! Wub bakpak!!” You bounced in place excitedly. “Bestest hab bakpak tuu??”
Yuzu’s smile faded. “Sowwy, Yuzu’ fwend make bakpak.”
“Can fwend make bakpak fo’ Bestest?”
“Nu.” she said curtly and turned her back to you and continued unloading her backpack.
Your cheeks puffed at her rudeness. You decided that if she wanted to keep her stupid friend all to herself she could go right ahead and do that! While she emptied her bag you saw some blankets piled in the corner and went over to make yourself comfortable.
Yuzu sorted the things she took out of her backpack, you could see some of them over her shoulder. Small metalic cylinders were stacked next to the light tube, fabric scraps were stuffed into cracks in the sides of the truck, some splintery brown things went in a small pile near the front of the car.
Above you were some odd shapes attached to the ceiling. In hopes of understanding what they were, you tried to flip them right side up in your head but just ended up making yourself dizzy. There was a round thing near the front and you could just barely see out the front glass between the packed in fabric scraps.
When Yuzu was finished she turned and saw you curled up in the blanket and scowled.
“Hey, dat Yuzu’s nestie!”
“Yus!” You stayed nestled in the blankets, waiting for her to join you.
She gritted her teeth and stomped over to the nest to yank one of the blankets off the bottom and toss it into the middle of the space.
“Dat am yu nestie.” She spat, pointing a hoof.
“But… dis am bettah nestie!” You protested. Why would you sleep over there when you had a perfectly nice bed here?
Yuzu tossed her head back with a frustrated groan. “Fine. Yuzu sweep hewe den.” she grumbled.
You frowned as she started arranging the blanket. “Buh… nu! Bestest nu wan’ sweep awone! Bestest nebah sweep awone! Nee’ fwuffpiwe!”
Yuzu stared down at the blanket for a while, an expression you couldn’t quite name on her face.
“Otay.”
Her voice was toneless as she brought the blanket back to the pile before turning to the light tube. You arranged the blanket nice and flat on the pile, with a bundle on the outside edge just how you liked to arrange your blankets at home. Being one of the bigger foals it was hard to be in the center of the fluffpile, so you liked somewhere to tuck your hooves so they didn’t get cold.
The light flicked out, and Yuzu returned to settle in next to you awkwardly. Eventually she had her back against yours and rested her head on the blanket roll you made.
“Nitey-nite, Yuzu!”
“… Nitey-nite…”
You woke up, again in a strange place that made you initially confused as to where you were. As the events of the day before filtered into your head you noticed that Yuzu was no longer in the blankets with you, instead sitting by the broken window entrance.
“Yuzu hab guud sweepies?” You asked, stretching your hooves.
She nodded silently. Getting to your hooves you joined her sitting by the window.
Outside everything was grey. There was water falling from the sky much like it did back home but instead of it just being through the holes in the roof it was everywhere.
“… Wha’ am?” you asked.
Yuzu gave you an odd look. “Fwuffy nu knu wha’ wain is?”
“Wain.” You watched it for a moment. “Su much wain. Nu am jus’ thwough howes?”
Yuzu shook her head. “Am evewywhewe. Wots an’ wots, make fwuffies aww wet.”
“Buh wawa ba’ fo fwuffy!”
Yuzu’s lips curled into a thin smile. “Yuzu wowwied dat babbeh wan’ gu home ba’ ‘nuff tu go out in wain.”
You shook your head. You didn’t want anything to do with this sky water. “How tiem tiww wain dun?”
Yuzu shrugged. “Nu knu. Aww bwite time, maybeh da next one.”
You stared at her. “Den… how get home? How get nummies??”
Yuzu stood, stretched, and slowly made her way to the front of the car. She opened a door you didn’t see the night before and rummaged around before turning back to you and spitting out a mouthful of dry green leaves.
“Yuzu hab wotsa nummies!” She sat in front of the pile proudly.
You frowned at the crunchy leaves. “Du Yuzu hab guud nummies?”
There was a moment of silence before her low reply. “Fwuffy can gu get own nummies if ‘wan.”
You sighed and took one of the little round leaves into your mouth. It did taste better than you expected but it certainly wasn’t as good as the sweet seed nummies.
The two of you ate in awkward silence, not looking up from your food. With just a bite or two left you decided to break the silence.
“Wai caww Bestest jus’ Fwuffy? Bestest caww Yuzu Yuzu.”
“Bestest nu am namesie.”
You looked up at her as she calmly chewed her leaves. “Buh Bestest am Bestest!”
“Bestest am wha’ yu awe, yu am bestest babbeh wike how smawty am awways cawwed Smawty. Nu am namesie.”
You took the last bite of the leaves and thought about that. You were one of the few fluffies in the herd that was always called something other than fluffy. Mummahs called themself Mummah and so did their foals, but you just called them fluffy unless they were your mummah. Everyone called Smarty Smarty, they called you Bestest, titles for important fluffies. But then there was Frosting. Frosting was never just a fluffy, she was Frosting.
“…Den how get namesie?”
Yuzu finished her meal and sat up. “Someone gib namesie. Fwend, ow mummah, ow daddeh.”
“Hm.” You had always been Bestest but… yeah, she was right. It didn’t feel the same as Frosting’s name. “Who gib Yuzu name?”
“Hooman mummah, wong time ago.”
“Hooman?!” You jumped to your hooves and scrambled over to sit next to her. “Yu knu hooman?!”
Another small smile crossed Yuzu’s face. “Bewwy wong time ago, yus.”
“Wha’ am hooman?” you asked.
“Taww upsie fwend, stand on two nu-hoofsies an’ onwy hab fwuff on top of head.”
You tried to picture it, a creature with little fluff and only two legs. How strange!
“Daddeh say hoomans nu am weaw.”
Yuzu shook her head. “Hoomans am weaw.”
“Den whewe am?!” Your tail wagged excitedly. “Bestest wan’ meet hooman!”
“Dey gone.” She didn’t look at you as she said it.
“… Gone?”
She sighed softly. “Dewe used to be wots and wots of hoomans. Mowe dan fwuffies.”
You quickly settled in next to her, ready for her stories. “Mowe dan fwuffies??”
“Mh-hm. Dey own whowe ousside. Ebweyting am fo’ hoomans, eben fwuffies. Dey take cawe ob fwuffies, gib nummies, nice housies, toysies, aww dat stuff.”
“Whewe dey gu?” You asked.
Yuzu sat perfectly still for a long time letting the sound of the rain fill the silence. When she finally spoke it was barely more than a whisper.
“Dey… gu away.”
You opened your mouth to ask where but paused, seeing her shoulders curl inward. Something in you told you not to push that discussion much further.
“… Wha’ am toys wike?” you asked instead.
“Dey… dey am bestest tings!” Yuzu’s voice cracked as she tried to sound more upbeat. “Dewe am baww day bouncie an’ wowwie, an’ bwocks dat am fo’ stacking, an’ stuffy-fwens fo’ bestest huggies…”
And so the two of you spent the rainy day telling stories and asking questions respectively. Yuzu seemed to be an entirely different fluffy than the meanie you remembered from the day before, you wondered what it was that made her so crabby. Or, alternatively, what made her so much nicer now.
