You whine to yourself, watching the young humans eat their sketties and talk in their strange language. You are trying to ignore the desperate groans of your belly and the urge to beg them for nummies. You’d seen fluffies get the worstest hurties for begging humans for food, fluffies much prettier than you with your dark grey fluff and black mane. You chewed on your hoof, tucked behind a trash can, as you waited for them to finish so you could scavenge anything they left behind.
The boys continued talking loudly in a language you didn’t understand. Very few of the humans where you were spoke in a way you could understand. Not that it mattered. You were a nameless, ugly, smelly feral. All you had to make you special was your stubby, useless little horn. No one wanted to talk to a fluffy like you.
Well almost no one. A smile played across your lips as you thought about the most beautiful mare you’d ever seen, a pink and green unicorn named Megumi! She lived in a fluffy cafe, she explained that humans came to see her specifically! And she was a mummah too, with the most beautiful little babies! She said she didn’t have a special friend, there was a stallion called a stud that gave them to her. You would talk to her through the screen window of the cafe in the early hours of the morning until one of the workers showed up to chase you away. Usually with some hurties but it was always worth it. Maybe one day you would be able to break Gumi out of her cafe and run away as special friends.
You jolted back to reality as something pushed you out from behind the trash can. Your hooves had no purchase on the damp sidewalk as you were shoved out into the middle of the group of boys. They jeered at you, their unfamiliar words taking on a clearly not friendly tone.
“Pwease, nu huwt! Fwuffy sowwy fo’ be hewe, wiww du wha’ hooman wan’! Nu huwt!”
The shortest of the boys elbowed the one next go him who chuckled before crouching down.
“You will do what we want?”
“Yus, wha’ebah, pwease nu huwt fwuffy.”
You trembled in front of him, terrified of what he would ask. Sometimes humans would make fluffies eat nasty things, or hurt themselves. You’ve been lucky so far to avoid the mean ones but your luck had to run out at some point.
The boy grinned before turning to his tall friend and talking for a bit. The friend replied in words you didn’t understand and they went back and forth a little before the tall one sighed and walked away.
“You do something for me, I do something for you, okay?”
“O… otay…”
The boy pulled out his wallet and folded up one of the papery things humans used to get nummies. He held it out to you.
“You know where the park is? The one with the fountain?”
You nodded. You ate grass from that park fairly often, when there wasn’t a meanie herd to scare you off.
“Go there and give this to my friend Kenji.” He pointed a thumb over his shoulder to where his tall friend disappeared into the city. “You give this to him and come back, I’ll get you some noodles. You things like noodles, right?”
You nodded excitedly. This strange human was offering you sketties for running a bit of paper a few blocks? You could do that!
The boy shoved the paper into your mouth and stepped back to let you escape the circle of humans. You ran as fast as your little hooves could carry you as their laughter faded away behind you.
You’d had some sketties before, cold, bland, chewy ones from behind a dumpster. They were good, but you knew these would be even better. Maybe they would be hot! You splashed through small puddles left over from last night’s rainstorm as you ran. The cold, muddy water soaked into your legs but the thought of hot sketties kept you going.
You heard a shout from behind you and saw a man pointing at you. You dropped a few terrified turds as you pushed your leggies to carry you as fast as they could. The man’s hurried footsteps grew ever closer as you wove between pedestrians, he was surely chasing you. Visions of all the horrible things you’d seen happen to fluffies that had crossed the wrong person filled your mind. You wracked what was left of your thinkie place for a way to escape this person.
You saw a narrow alley with a box just inside and remembered how you escaped a mean smartie a few bright times ago. Maybe it would work on humans too?
You turned sharply down the alley, getting a quick glimpse of the man pushing through a small group of people. You quickly pressed yourself against the wall behind the box and held your breath.
The man turned the corner and quickly stepped over the box as he continued down the alley. You didn’t allow yourself any time to feel smart as you darted back out and continued to the park. The man would eventually figure out you weren’t in there and turn around, you needed to be as far away as possible when he did.
After another few blocks of running you arrived, breathless, at the park. It didn’t take long for you to find the tall boy, Kenji, leaning against the fountain.
You trotted over and stopped a safe distance from the splashing water, spitting out the paper.
“Fwuffy am hewe!”
He looked up from his phone and gestured you over.
“Uhhh.. wawa nu guu’ fo’ fwuffies…” you mumbled.
He just rolled his eyes and continued gesturing.
You picked up the paper and, with gritted teeth, marched up to him. The loud splashing sent a chill through your veins but you inched closer and closer until you could stretch out your neck and set the paper into Kenji’s hand.
You saw him lean down and flinched, expecting pain but instead a gentle hand patted your head. A warm, tingly feeling spread across your body and you leaned into it. You’d never felt anything as good as that!
“Tank’oo!!” You chirped.
Kenji waved you off. Right! You needed to get back to your new friend!
“Bye-bye!” You waved a hoof at him before turning and scampering back down the street for your reward.
“Fwend!” You shouted, arriving back at the shop where the boys waited. “Fwuffy am bak!”
“Good job, gaichuba!” He said.
“Wha’?”
“You say fluffy, we say gaichuba.” He explained. “Do not worry about it.”
Before you could reply his hand was on your neck, ruffling your mane and spreading that wonderful warm feeling through your body. It was over as soon as it started, you almost fell over trying to lean into it.
“Be nyu daddeh?” The words fell out of your mouth before you could stop them. Humans didn’t like fluffies that asked for new owners, and your heart sank.
To your relief, your new friend just laughed. “No, little horse. We can be friends though. If you keep doing jobs for me, I can get you more noodles. Okay?”
Noodles just to run around the city? You did that already and rarely got any nummies out of it!
“Otay!”
He brushed off his pants as he stood up. “You have a name?”
“Nu. Jus’ Fwuffy.”
“I’m Jin. He’s Daisuke.” Jin pointed at the broad shoulder boy next to him who nodded. You gave him a small wave.
“I think you’ll be… Tonto. That okay?”
Tonto!! You were Tonto!! Not only did you have new friends that would get you the bestest nummies, they gave you a name!!
“Yus! Tonto wub namesie!! Tank’oo Jin!!”
Jin chuckled again. “Wait here Tonto, I’ll get you noodles.”
You plopped down on the pavement next to Daisuke, happily tapping your hooves.
“Tonto wub sketties, du Dais-ke wub sketties?”
The large teen didn’t say anything, pulling out his phone.
That was okay. Not everyone had to like you, you had one (maybe two, if Kenji was a nice mister too) friend as of today which was one more friend than you had ever had before! Not even your mummah or your siblings were friendly to you, you were an ugly baby according to them.
“Ey, here.” Jin dropped a steaming bowl down in front of you.
The smell filled your nostrils and you dove in without hesitation, the hot broth burning your lips. The noodles were thick and chewy and mixed in with them were crunchy bean sprouts and salty green bits. You could hear Jin and Daisuke laughing behind you as you scarfed down the bowl, licking it clean when you were done.
“Good, Tonto?”
“Yus! Bestest nummies!!”
Jin laughed again. “You come back here tomorrow and I’ll have more work for you, okay?”
“Otay!” You grinned as he took the bowl back inside, giving you a small wave.
Gaichuba
Roughly “pest horse”. Also kinda sounds like Gaijin (outsider, foreigner) so it seemed a fitting japanese version of shitrat. If it’s not clear, this story is set in japan. Fluffies in my headcannon do not automatically learn the language spoken around them, they are pre-programmed with english words. They can learn new languages but it’ll be slow and hard for them.