The manager had collected Cupcake’s remaining foals into a box. None of them were happy, and voiced this energetically.
“Dummeh hooman! Bwing back mummah NAO!” Warmy shouted, puffing her cheeks and buzzing her wings uselessly. The excitement and terror of the situation had gotten the better of this smarty, and she had abandoned her cunning and reason (what little of it a fluffy had) in exchange for mindless shouting.
“Pweez, nice missy,” Blueberry pleaded, “pweez put babbehs back in nestie fo’ mummah tu find! Babbehs nee’ mummah! If babbehs nu in nestie den mummah nu find!” a few tiny tears dripped down his face at the prospect. He’d never been without his mummah, without her safe guardianship, without her soothing songs and hugs. He was not only frightened, but felt deep loneliness, despite his siblings’ presence.
Wiggle was ‘attacking’ the side of the box with his hooves and head, peeping and huffing as he went. In his mind, this box was as much an enemy as the human carrying it- but Wiggle was not a smart fluffy, and didn’t quite get that the box couldn’t feel pain. Or that he was too weak to even damage it. Really, he was only succeeding in hurting himself.
On the opposite side of the box was Uglyface, barely conscious and still clinging to the sponge. He kept his good eye firmly on the manager’s face, barely blinking. Underneath the pain of his injuries and infections, and even the fear of he and his siblings’ situation, he felt an odd calmness.
He dared to hope: maybe… the hurties were over now?
The manager entered the training floor, which was a huge hall with several large pens, each one for different levels of behavior. There were also separate pens for the specialty products to be trained as well.
“Now,” the manager began, “you’re all going to begin your training to get a new human mommy or daddy-”
“Nu wan’ stoopit hooman mummah!” Warmy spat back. Wiggle continued his barrage against the box wall, while Blueberry simply cried more, and Uglyface stared.
The manager sighed. The blue unicorn might sell, maybe the green earthie too, with some training. The yellow pegasus and the damaged brown earthie, though…
She gently picked up Blueberry and placed him down in the ‘good behaviour’ pen. He stood and leaned up against the wall in protest, “pweez wady! Nee’ mummah!” he whined, standing on his hind legs with his fore-hooves up.
“Don’t worry, little guy, there’s lots of other fluffy friends for you to cuddle and love here- look behind you!”
As she said, there were lots of other fluffies in the pen, and some had already wandered over, “nyu fwend? nu make saddies! Wan pway an’ huggies?” they chimed.
There was but one employee at this pen. The only training these fluffies really needed was some basic manners and instruction following. He walked over to the manager and Blueberry, “just this one?”
“Would’ve had four if the breeder hadn’t damaged them,” she tilted the box forward some for the employee to see the others inside.
“So we’re down another breeder?”
“Until next week at least, yeah. Hopefully the foal-in-a-can line will offset some of the loss. I’ll get back to you later,”
She then walked off towards the nearby ‘bad behavior’ pen, and casually dumped Wiggle in.
He hit the floor with an “oof” before he quickly turned and started shouting- “why gif fwuffy huwties! Nu wike!”
Several of the other fluffies in the pen approached almost immediately, “nu make bad shouties, nyu fwend! Yu git sowwy stick!” Their warnings came too late as one of many the employees in the pen had already arrived, swatter in hand.
The ‘bad behavior’ fluffies needed training to suppress their destructive tendencies. Pain association was the primary method: a swat from the ‘sorry stick’ usually sorted them fast. When they behaved well, they were rewarded with a few strokes on the back or even a hug. They would also receive anti-relapse training alongside the manners and house-knowledge training, too.
Finally, the manager came to the ‘special training’ pen. This was where fluffies that were so exceptionally badly behaved that they couldn’t really be trained for normal sale were trained instead as an accessory product.
Warmy was roughly plucked from the box and dropped into the pen. Immediately on landing, she held her rear up and tried to defecate onto the manager. She succeeded in only squirting the wall of the enclosure.
“You know, acting like that isn’t going to make things better for you, smarty,”
Warmy turned defiantly, “dummeh poopie hooman! Wawmy am bestes’ smawtes’ babbeh! Gon’ find way out an’ find mummah den gif yu biiiiiiiiig huwties!”
The manager laughed and walked away.
Warmy mumbled some more threats to herself as she looked around the pen. There were… 10 other fluffies here, she counted, all different colors and all stallions. They were spread around the pen, some talking, some just lying, a two were even fighting. There didn’t seem to be any toys or nests in the pen- though there was a large but shallow litterbox.
There was also one human in the pen. She was wearing a mask and very thick gloves- and was staring right at Warmy, “one more friend joins us!” she cackled as she approached the yellow pegasus.
She towered over Warmy for a second, who felt fear for the first time in her life. Her smarty-tendencies barely overpowered the fear, though, and she puffed her cheeks and flapped her tiny wings, “dummeh hooman! Gif Wawmy back tu mummah NAO!”
The human reached down and had Warmy pinned to the floor before she had time to react, “you think that you’re a ‘smart’ fluffy, don’t you? Well, those who end up in this pen are no longer fluffies anymore; they are tools. What kind of tool, you ask? Whatever our customers want or need. You’ll learn this quick… you know, we have an order for a litterpal that I think you would be perfect for…”
Warmy thrashed her little legs, but they only slid uselessly against the floor, “dummeh hooman, yu gif Wawmy huwties! Nu gif! Huwties bad fo’ Wawmy!”
The human pressed down harder, restricting Warmy’s breathing somewhat and stopping her whines, “first, I need to teach you that you will no longer get what you want. You don’t deserve it… You arrived just in time for dinner, which I think will be a good place to start,” she picked up Warmy and transported her over to the other fluffies, “now, why don’t you try to make some friends while I get everyone’s food, hmmm?”
As the human released her grip and stepped out of the pen, Warmy huffed and breathed deep. She’d never been given hurties before- and the humans had always been so kind!
She stood and stretched, and out of the corner of her eye spied a red unicorn with a crimson mane and tail nearby who lying on his stomach and watching her intently. She turned quickly to catch him out, but he continued to stare anyway, “What yu wan’ dummeh?” she ‘greeted’.
“Yu am weawwy pweddy mawe! Smeww pwetty tuu! Wan’ be bestes’ fwends?” he said in a droopy voice.
Warmy raised her eyebrow at him. He was handsome enough, she thought. She liked his red colors, but she didn’t want any best friends right now: she had to escape and find mummah, “nu wan’ be bestes’ fwends,” she said, dismissing him with a wave of her hoof.
She started thinking about finding her way out, nu toysies means nu bwockies, su nu cwimbie towahs… wittahbawks tu smaww fo’ cwimbies tuu…
“Pweddy mawe wan jus’ be fwends den?” the red unicorn interrupted.
Warmy gave him a side glance. Maybe he would leave her alone if she gave him what he wanted? It always worked with Wiggle and Blueberry, “otay den, we am fwen-”
“Yay! Wuv pweddy nyu fwend!” the stallion sat back and held his arms up in celebration, “am Buubuu! Am da toughes’ fwuffy! Can wift wotsa bwockies!”
His claims gave Warmy an idea. If he could lift lots of blockies, then perhaps he could also lift her and a few other fluffies up, too? Nu bwockies dun’ mean nu cwimbies… the voice in her head said slyly.
“Am Wawmy! Am smawty!”
“Oooooo~ wub smawt an’ pweddy Wawmy!”
She batted her eyelashes at the unicorn, playing him along, “Wan hewp pwetty Wawmy du cwimbie game?”
The red unicorn perked up, “wiww du anyfing fo’ pweddy mawe!”
He alone would not be enough to make a tower out of. She’d need to convince at least… three more fluffies to make a tall enough stack to get out of the enclosure, she thought, “Nee’ mo’ fwends fo’ pway, otay? An we du pway at sweepie time,” Booboo mindlessly nodded his head at
every word.
Yu am toughie, Buubuu, bu’ yu am’ big dummeh tuu.… the head-voice crowed.
Before they could continue, the human returned with a small cart in tow and the sweet smell of sketti wafted gently through the air. Warmy’s stomach told her to let the escape plan wait until after eating, and even the voice went silent.
“Is dat skeddi smeww!?” the Booboo shouted in excitement.
The other fluffies had started to gather below the human, “alright idiots, come and get your dinner!” she said, producing a plate of steaming sketti… inside of a wire-mesh metal cage.
She plopped it on the floor as Warmy and Booboo arrived. Several fluffies started scratching at the cage, some trying to stick their tongues through. None of them could reach the treasure within.
“Hooman- fwuffy nu can git skettis!” one fluffy shouted.
“Meanie skettis! Come to moufie-pwace nao!” another called.
The human laughed, “only good fluffies can get through the cage and eat the sketti. I guess none of you are good fluffies…”
All of the fluffies protested this.
They were a motley collection of ‘bestes’ babbehs’, ‘smawties’, and ‘toughies’- as far as they were concerned they were all good fluffies. The best fluffies, even!
“Well, if you can’t have sketti, I also have something else for you here… something for bad fluffies…” the human said, setting down a trough full to the brim with a bitter, brown slop that, at least to the fluffies, looked and smelled like poopies.
In reality, it was just water-soaked oats with brown food dye and a few bitterants that had been sprayed with something that smelled.
They could smell its stench strongly, and all looked horrified by the very idea that they would have to eat “poopies”.
“Remember: if you’re a good fluffy you’ll be able to get the sketti. If you’re bad you’ll have to eat the poopies!” the human said, stepping out of the pen.
