The brown foal barely noticed its surroundings between the sudden strike to its nose and the brief terror of falling into the shallow hole. The ants on the other hand, noticed the presence of the wriggling intruder in the nest very quickly.
It started slowly, a few worker ants coming up and sniffing at the foal and taking in the sweet scent of the powder clinging to its fluff.
Fluffy milk itself was very sweet, and the cheap dehydrated powder Nestor had used was positively laden with sugar because of that.
When some of the ants started trying to crawl on the foal to get a better whiff of it however, the foal freaked out at their presence and started frantically swatting at the ants trying to crawl on it.
“EEEEE! MUN’STAHS! NU WIKE! NU WIKE!
Which was its real mistake, because the moment it started crushing the garden ants, they started releasing distress pheromones. And in response to that, the ants started biting.
“SCREEE! OWW’IES! NU AM NUM-SCREEEEE!
He watched the foal flail against the dirt as the ants tore at its sugar covered fluff, desperately trying to pull away from the ants and crawl out of the hole, only to run up against the invisible barrier of the lunch kit lid that would drop it back down.
Nestor watched this process repeat for about five minutes before he grew bored and elected to leave the foal with the ants for a while. After all, there were other presents to open.
When he was finished stowing the crumpled wrapping paper and ribbons in his backpack, he laid his three presents out on the ground in front of him, slowly taking it in. His uncle was always very generous with him and his brother, but this… this was something different.
The thin pack wrapped in butcher paper contained a set of small colored cylinders which Nestor initially though were crayons, but was surprised to learn that they were actually fluffy mutagen injectors in kid safe capsules.
The pack contained around forty of them, as well as a detailed booklet on their usage, with the effects of each injection ranging from as simple as changing the fluffies fur colors or causing their hair to fall out to as complex completely rewiring brain chemistry.
There was a mixing guide included as well, with a few additional had scribbled notes in the margins from uncle Eddy.
The second pack, a shoebox sized box containing an incredibly heavy plastic case that contained a solid three pounds worth of small steel-colored beads about the size of #12 shot. Nestor knew about these things; they were his brother’s favorite toy, Build-a-Bitz.
They were tiny robots that synchronised to your neural link that could link together and form sculptures, tiny robot creatures, simple and complex machines and all manner of other things.
The only limit was the creativity of the person making them. Nestor grinned at the though of what he could do with those.
The final package he decided to tuck away in his pack, he could open that one later once the neural soft for that one finished downloading. Sheesh that file was huge.
Looking around for a moment, Nestor spotted the perfect spot. A small patch of mostly dry and sandy beach right near the edge of the pond, near a mossy fallen log and a small patch of slate stones with a wide view of the treeline.
He picked up the alicorn and returned it to the box before lifting the whole box up and moving it over to the new spot, causing the fluffies inside to roll around and bump against the walls of the box as he went.
He retrieved his other gifts and laid them down on the other side of the log, retrieved his backpack and cleaned up any remaining mess by the spot he originally settled. Then he returned to the small hole with the brown earthy in it.
Moving the stones and pulling the plastic cover off of the hole was easy enough, despite needing to shake a few idle ants off of the case and give it a brief wash in the pond, the fluffy on the other hand was a wriggling mess and took a few attempts before he got a good hold.
He managed to brush off the lions share of the ants who, to his satisfaction, had managed to pull out most of the fluffies thin body hair and left the creature a patchy mess of pinkish skin and patches of dark brown fluff.
He could see welts beginning to bloom on almost every piece of exposed skin.
“Peep… huu huuu… peep… ow’wies… chirp, chirp… wan… hic, mum’mah… peep!”
Nestor took the foal to the ponds edge and gave it a quick dunk in the shallow water, causing the remaining ants to detach and begin paddling toward the shore. The brown foal panicked the moment it hit the water.
“Cough, cough! HEWP! WA’WA BA! HEWP BAB’BEH! Cough!”
After shaking the foal partially dry, he marched back to where he’d left the box and unceremoniously dumped the patchy brown creature back into its square, smirking as it smacked its head on the rim before landing in a heap at the bottom.
Picking up the cylinder of Build-a-Bitz Nestor emptied the entire contents onto the sand and flared the menu in his neural link, just in time to see the download bar for the Build-a-Bitz hit 100%.
He had some preparations to make, but this was gonna be fun.
