“Mustard! Cloudy! Are you to ready to go?” Dee Dee called to her fluffies.
“Fwuffies commin’, mummah!” Mustard called back. He lifted Cloudy on to his back, and started trotting out of the room.
“Papwika suwe nu wan’ go stowe wif Deh Deh?”, Mustard asked his mate.
“Nu fwank 'ou, Mustand. Papwika sweepy, gon nappies.” She replied.
Mustard walked over to her, nuzzled against her, and turned so Cloudy could do the same. Then he continued his way out of the safe room and to Dee Dee’s care. It was store trip day! Mustard and Cloudy loved going to the store. New people. New sights. New smells. Nothing better, except new babies and new fluffies coming to Little Miracles.
Paprika was very sleepy that day. She wasn’t entirely sure why, but she thought it might have to do with how many new babies she’d been caring for lately. “Wots of babbahs mean wots of workies. Papwika need sum rewaksashun.” Papriaka curled up in the fluffy bed, and dozed off.
A few new volunteers had started at the shelter that morning. Dee Dee was out getting supplies while they were taking out trash through the rear door, and loading it in to the dumpster behind the shelter. One of the volunteers grabbed a chair from inside and used it to hold the door open.
“Hey man, remember Dee Dee’s rule about keeping doors open?” Rory, the first volunteer asked?
“Psh, we’re going in and out constantly. No insane feral is going to get past us and and start stomping babies or shitting all over the place.”, Scott, the other volunteer replied.
A loud thumping woke up the blue unicorn sleeping behind the dumpster. He timidly walked around the side and saw two humans carring bags of possible-nummies out of the big building, and tossing them in to the dumpster. The feral fluffy had been living behind the dumpster for a few weeks. It was a good life. The building threw away good nummies for him to eat. He was curious what was inside, but the door was always closed. Looking around, he saw the humans had left the door open. The feral considered. If they humans were throwing away nummies as good as he’d been eating, they probably kept the best nummies inside for themselves. He had to get in there and find out.
The fluffy noticed the humans were stacking the bags of nummies next to his big hidey box. He had an idea. While the humans were inside the building, he big down on one of the nummie bags and pulled. Soon, he’d torn a hole in the bag, and nummies and not-nummies were spilling everywhere. The fluffy then went to hide under the thing holding the door.
“Oh crap! Scott, help me with this! One of the trash bags tore and the shit is going everywhere. Dee Dee will can us if we get litter all over the rescue.” Scott ran to help Rory collect the trash and get the bags in the dumpster. While the humans were distracted, the fluffy rushed inside the building as fast as his hooves could carry him.
The blue fluffy was amazed! This whole building smelled like fluffies. He could even hear them in the rooms that he walked by. But the barriers at the base of each door stopped him getting in and investigating. He continued to mosey down the halls until he smelled something amazing. He followed his nose to the end of the hall and entered the rescue’s kitchen.
Coming from the small nummies bin, the blue feral fluffy could smell, well, magic. He pushed against the container until it tipped over and spilled across the floor was that most sacred of nummies.
"Sketties! He said aloud. Though he’d never had them before, that smell, that apppearce. He knew sketties when he saw them. The feral fluffy devoured the floor-sketties until he was near bursting.
After finishing his meal, the feral decided to explore more. He moseyed through the halls until he go to a big room with a big desk. He wandered to the middle of the floor and looked around in amazement. There’s were open rooms, no barriers, full of toysies. There were TVs on the wall, showing happy fluffies singing and dancing. Then it hit him. Poopies. He’d been woken up with a start, had just gorged himself, and had been wandering for what felt like forever. Well, it was time for poopies. The feral stallion looked for a good place to do his poopies, and decided that the middle of the room was as good as any. One squat and satisfied sigh later, and he was off to explore some more.
The fluffy came by one of the rooms that looked like the others, but there was no barricade at the bottom. The fluffy made his way in when he saw something amazing. It was a mare! She was a poopie mare, but that was OK. The stallion hadn’t had any enfies for a long time, and this mare was here and he wanted enfies.
The stallion walked up behind the poopie mare and realized she was sleeping. “Weww, wiww hab enfies wif nu compwaints.” He started the mount the mare from behind.
Paprika felt something shift atop her. “Mustawd, am dat 'ou?” Then she felt something else. “Mustawd! So wigowous!”
Dee Dee unlocked the front door and let Mustard and Paprika in ahead of her. They trotted past and Mustard stopped in the middle of the floor. “Deh Deh! Bad poopies!”
Dee Dee looked down at the floor where Mustard was pointing with his hoof. "Ugh, those new volunteers must have lost track of a fluffy and let it shit on the floor. I’ll find them and make them clean this up. You two head to your safe room and I’ll take care of this.
Mustard nodded at Dee Dee and started towards his room. As he got closer, he swore he could hear a weird noise.
“Enf! Enf! Enf! Enf!”
Mustard thought the noise was coming from his family’s safe room!
“Enf! Enf! Enf!”
Musturd was running now. He got to the doorway, and was dumbstruck by what he saw. A blue stalling was giving enfies to his mare!
“STAWP GIB ENFIES! PAPWIKA WUB MUSTAWD! NU WUB DUMMEH STAWWION!”
Cloudy, still riding on his back, hopped off to let Mustard defend his mate.
Paprika heard Mustard bellow and looked back. That wasn’t Mustard doing the enfies! “NU! NU WAN ENFIES!” she wailed. “MUSTAWD! HEWP PAPWIKA!”
Mustard charged the stalling at full speed.
“ENF ENF ENF! FEEW GUD!” the stallion cried before Mustard rammed him at full speed.
Dee Dee came running to the room and saw Mustard giving the most brutal sorry-hoofsies she’d ever seen. Paprika was weeping and curled in a ball in her bed. Cloudy was giving her huggies to make the hurties go away.
Dee Dee pulled Mustard off the blue fluffy he was hammering in to, and picked the stranger up off the ground by his scruff. “Bad upsies!” he cried.
“Who” she said, “are you?”. Her eyes narrowed as she held him in front of her face.
The fluffy wrigled in her grip. “Nu wike bad upsies! Put fwuffy down! Onwy want nummies an’ enfies! Poopie mawe gib gud enfies.”
Dee Dee’s eyes went wide. Her blood ran cold. “What… what did you do the Paprika?” Her grip on his scruff tightened further.
“SCREEE!” ONWY GIB GUD ENFIES! NU HUWTIES MAWE!", the blue feral sobbed.
Dee Dee was seeing red. This piece of shit had… violated one of her best friends. Too angry to think straight, she took the stallion to the med bay and dumped him in a sorry box. He could wait. He wasn’t going anywhere. Paprika came first.
Dee Dee returned to her crying fluffy, and gently stroked her back.
“Papwika sowwy Mustawd. Papwika fink Mustawd wan enfies wif Papwika. Din’ knu! Din’ knu!”
Mustard was facing towards Paprika, the side of his muzzled pressed against hers. “Mustawd nu hate Papwika. Mustawd wub Papwika. Mustawd onwy wan’ hewp heawt huwties.”, he replied.
Paprika continued to cry until she fell asleep, the guilt of betraying her mate finally exhausting her completely. Mustard snuggled up against her, and cloudy did the same on her other side.
Dee Dee found Rory and Scott putting the last of the trash bags in the dumpster, walking past the propped open door. The two turned with a start as she kicked the chair over. She was absolutely furious.
“Both of you. My office. NOW!” She turned back inside the building, stomped down the hall, and sat behind her office desk.
Rory and Scott meekly followed and sat down opposite her.
“What did I tell you about propping doors?”, Dee Dee asked.
“Um… not to?” Scott replied in a low voice.
“You’re fucking right, not to!”, she snapped back.
“But Dee Dee, we were right by the the door the entire time! What’s the big deal?”, Rory asked.
“The big deal”, Dee Dee growled, “is that your ignoring of the rules let a feral get inside, shit on my floor and assault Paprika!”
Rory and Scott looked at each other. “No way, we were right by the door the entire time. No way anything to past us!”, Rory retorted.
“Uh… dude. We were focused on picking up the trash after that bag ripped for a good few minutes. Maybe something snuck past us while were looking away.”, Scott said to Rory.
“Well, I mean was she actually hurt?”, Rory asked. Dee Dee looked at him appaled. Scott moved his chair about six inches further away from Rory.
“No, Rory. She’s not injured any more than being fucked by a stranger in your sleep would do to anybody.”, Dee Dee shot back.
“Well, I… uh…”, Rory stammered.
“Save it, Rory. You are done. Put your key on the desk. Leave. Don’t come back.” Dee Dee was glaring at him. Rory took the key off his keyring and ashemedly left the room.
“Scott, you have about 15 seconds to convince me I shoudln’t walk you, too. The only reason I haven’t is because I think you are slightly less of a piece of shit than Rory. Talk fast.”
Scott took a deep breath. “Dee Dee, you do what you think is right. I reminded Rory about keeping the door closed, he convinced me otherwise. That’s on me for not telling him no.”
Dee Dee’s demenor softend a little at the open admission of fault. But only a little.
“If you decide to let me stay, I can promise that I will be the most vigilent person you’ve ever hired. I adore Paprika and her little family, and I’m sick to my stomache that she was attacked. Real question though, is she OK?”
Dee Dee let out a deep sigh, and the rage subsided from her. “Physically, she’s fine. The stallion didn’t actually harm her. He got his 'enfies” and Mustard sent him flying. Mentally? I don’t know. She seems more broken up that she ‘betrayed’ Mustard than some random fluffy violated her in her sleep." Dee Dee rubbed her temples.
“I can’t say I’m entirely surprised by her reaction.” Scott replied. “Fluffies don’t think the same way we do. They are hard wired to accept affection, even if we perceive that affection is bad. As hard as it is as humans to think otherwise, the assault is the least of Paprika’s worries. She’s absolutely going to be more concerned about Mustard, Cloudy, and you than she is about herself.”
Dee Dee was feeling notably less pissed. At least at the volunteer in front of her. Scott was right. Fluffies didn’t think like humans. Paprika loved Mustard, Cloudy, herself, and the babies she nursed. Paprika seemed to always be happiest when caring for others. And fluffies really did seem hard wired to breed, sort of regardless of circumstances. “And she said she thought Mustard had returned and was giving her ‘wub and speciawl huggies’, so I can see why she think she’s at some kind of fault.” Dee Dee sighed.
Scott nodded to Dee Dee. “The most important thing right now is to to make sure she understands that she did nothing wrong. Spend as much time as you can with her, reassure her, and just make sure she feels safe.”
Dee Dee shook the last of her fury as Scott out of her head. “Ok, you have officially talked your way out of not getting shitcanned. There’s a blue stallion sex offender in a sorry box in the medical bay. Ensure that he remains safe, and away from any other fluffies.”, Dee Dee said.
“Yes, ma’am.”, Scott replied. “So, uh, no punishment for him?”
“Oh, justice is coming. Believe you me. I hired you to help with IT right? Triple check that abuser forums are blocked here. I want to make sure I can’t get any ideas.”, Dee Dee replied.
They parted company. Scott to verify network settings and Dee Dee to check in on Paprika.
Paprika was awake again, and Mustard and Cloudberry were still giving her their bestest huggies. “Hey girl”, Dee Dee said, “How’re you doing?”
Paprika looked up at Dee Dee, and then away in shame. Dee Dee rushed down to her side. “Paprika, I need you to look at me. Look me right in the eyes!”
Paprika was startled by Dee Dee’s intesity, but she complied. Dee Dee continued. “I know your heart hurts right now. I know you think you did something wrong. You didn’t. You hear me? You did nothing wrong. I still love you. Mustard still loves you. Cloudberry still loves you!” Cloudy and Mustard chimed in together, “Wub mummah!” “Wub Papwika!”
Paprika managed a small fluffy-smile. “Papwika wiww hab heawt happies 'gain?” “Yes, Paprika. You will be happy again. Because we’re family, and we’re here to take care of you and make sure you are happy.”
Dee Dee left the blue stallion to the volunteers for the next two weeks while she spent as much time as she could with Paprika, Mustard, and Cloudberry. Fluffies aren’t very bright, but being hardwired to love and make others happy, she returned to normal pretty quickly. However, it also became apparently that the little blue bastard’s enfies had done more than just ‘feew gud’. Paprika was pregnat.
“Papwika soon-mummah! Papwika hab biggest heawt happies!” She was rocking on her elarged belly and softly singing the mummah song to herself.
Dee Dee was concerned. “Paprika, do you want to get rid of these babies? That bad fluffy made them with you, not Mustard. I can take them out if you want.”
Paprika looked at Dee Dee first with puzzlement, then horror. “Nu! Nu huwt babbehs!” Mustard chimed in as well. “Deh Deh! Pwease nu take tummeh-babbehs!” Cloudy too “Cwoudy wub tummeh-bwuddahs and tummeh-sistahs!” Dee Dee was perplexed. "So, you all want the babies to be born? Even though they aren’t Mustard’s babies?
Paprika nodded at Dee Dee, almost an uncanny gesture from a fluffy. “Aww babbehs am gud babbehs. Nu mattew, Papwika wub babbehs.” “Mustawd wub Papwika, an’ babbehs am Papwika tummeh babbehs. Babbehs am gud Papwika tummeh-babbehs.”
Dee Dee was at a loss for words. They simply didn’t care. All that mattered to them was that there were babies that needed to be cared for on the way. She was touched by the kindness of her fluffy family.
“Ok, then I expect you will all care for these babies just like all the other babies you have helped raise.” Dee Dee told them. “And I have something I need to do, too.”
Dee Dee was finally ready to confront the blue stallion. She made her way to the med bay, calling for the medical intern Nikki.
"What’s up boss lady?”, Nikkia asked.
“The little blue sex predator. I’m ready to deal with him.”, Dee Dee said coldly.
“Uh… should I get a mop or something?”, Nikki asked.
“No, I’m not going to brutally murder him. I mean, I’d love to.” she said, loudly, directly over the blue feral’s sorry box. “But I’m not going to. Honestly, I have a way worse fate in mind.”
“Boss, you know you can be a really scary lady for somebody who raises fluffies for a living.”, Nikki stated flatly.
“Boss bitch for a reason. Goalpost, gatekeep, girlboss, and all that. Anyways, here’s my idea.” And Dee Dee explained her plan to Nikki.
An hour later, the blue feral stallion was waking up on the table. Something felt… different. Missing. Like he’d lost a part of himself. He looked around in confusion.
“Welcome back.” Dee Dee said to the feral. “Don’t get up on my account. You can’t, really. You are currently strapped to that table.”
The stallion looked back on himself. He was on a small platform with his belly exposed and his legs strapped to either side of him.
“Fwuffy feew stwange. Nu feew gud.”
Nikki was standing next to Dee Dee now. “That would be the anesthatic wearing off. Sorry, the ‘sweep juice’ we gave you.”
Dee Dee spoke again, “Now, my plan was to turn you in to some kind of lumpy confetti, but a very important friend of mine reminded me what’s important. So, you get to live.”
The stallion was getting excited, though he still felt strange.
“But that doesn’t mean you get to just walk away free. You had to pay for your crimes.”, Dee Dee was eye level with the stallion now.
Dee Dee held up something small, blue, and fuzzy in front the the stallion’s face. “Recognize these?”, she asked.
“Fwuffy nu unnastan’…”
“These”, Dee Dee said, while Nikki unstrapped the fluffy and set him on his rump, “are your ‘speciaw wumps’.”
The stallion looked down between his hind legs as he sat. Then he gasped in horror. “NU! NU! MEAN WADY GIB FWUFFY SPECIAWL WUMPS BACK! NEED SPECIAW WUMPS FO’ ENFIES!”
Dee Dee reached out and wrapped her hand around the fluffy’s face, closing his jaw. She was milimeters away from him and staring him straight in the eyes.
“You. Will. Never. Have. Enfies. Again!” she told him.
The blue stallion began weeping. “Fwuffy need special wumps… fwuffy wan’ gib enfied fo’ special fwiend… hu hu hu…”
After the stobbing stopped, Dee Dee addressed the stallion again. “I’m keeping these. You don’t deserve them. But I will give you something.”
The feral fluffy looked up at her, tears running down his muzzle.
“I’m going to give you a name!” Dee Dee said, suddenly excited.
“Fwuffy… fwuffy get namsies?”, the feral stammered between his sobs.
“Yes! Your new name is Registered Offender. Can you say that?”
“Registewed 'fwender!” The fluffy said. He was starting to get excited now. He had a name! Was he going to get a home now, too? Nummies?
“Yes. So, any humans you meet, you tell them your name is Registered Offender, and you traded your special lumps for that name.”, Dee Dee said. And with that, she grabbed the feral by his scruff, carried him out the back door, careful to close it behind her, and dropped him in the wood behind the dumpster.
She looked down at him. “If I ever see you again, I will grind you in to fluffy-burger. LEAVE!” She bellowed.
The fluffy took off in to the woods as fast as it could, his sobs echoing between the trees.
Another two weeks later, and Paprika was ready to give birth. The cry ran through the clinic, “BIGGES POOPIES!” Dee Dee and Nikki rushed to the safe room.
“OK Nikkie, like we discussed. You take him, and I’ll help her deliver the foals.”
“Got it boss lady. Come on Mustard. I know you want to be here for this, but I need you.”, Nikki told the worried stallion huddled up to his mate.
“Mustawd nu hewp wif babbehs?”
Dee Dee gave him a head pat. “Not this time bud. But I promise, you’ll be back here before you know it. And I’ll be here to help deliver the babies.”
“Mustawd wiww go wif Nikki.” The medical intern picked the stallion up from the floord and carried him to the bed bay. She set him on the table and, out of nowhere, gave him a shot. “Ouchies!”, cryed Mustard. But in a few moments, he was out cold. Nikki began prepping him for surgery.
By the time the foals were delivered, four of them, Nikki was carrying a very groggy Mustard back from surgery. She carefully set him next to Paprika while she gave likey-cleanies to the new babies.
“Good work Paprika, four beautiful babies!”, Dee Dee said as she patted Paprika.
Paprika had delivered a very healthy litter: A yellow unicorn, who was surprisingly chunky for a new born, a female pegasus in a shade of blue specific enough to make Dee Dee wince, and two earthies, with unusual mottled fluff patterns. One was a female, predeominantly purple with pink mottling, and the other was a male, predemonantly pink with purple mottling.
Mustard was coming around. “Papwika hab pwetty babies! Smeww gud!” Dee Dee gave Mustard some scratches as well. “Hey bud, I’ve got great news. These are your babies, too.”
“Mustawd nu unnastan’. Mustawd nu hab special wumps nu mowe.”, the stallion replied, confused.
“Check again, my man”, Nikki said.
Mustard, standing on all four, looked under his belly to his ‘special place’.
“Speciaw wumps! Mustawd hab special wumps again!” Then he grew concerned. “Ded Deh. Mustawd am yewwow, wight?”
“Yes, Mustard, you are yellow”, Dee Dee replied.
“Mustawd special wumps am bwue. Mustawd am comfoosed.”
Nikki started giggling like an idiot. Dee Dee rolled her eyes at her and turned back to Mustard. “Well, Mustard, that stallion who… well that bad stallion was very sorry for what he did. And he wanted Mustard to be the daddy. So he gave his special lumps to you so you could be their daddy for real.”
“Weawwy?! Mustawd hab biggest heawt happies! Mustawd am daddeh 'gain! Papwika heaw? Mustawd am daddeh!”
Paprika was beaming at her mate. They had their own litter again, having thought they’d never do so again after Mustard had lost his ‘special lumps’.
Nikki whispered to Dee Dee, “Fluffy genetics are like humanities biggest prank on mother nature. You can mix and match body parts like they were children’s toys. Those things should work on him like they were his own once things fully heal up.”
“I’m glad you were able to get them attached so quickly. And yes, I know the parentage here is all kinds of messed up, but I wanted them to be happy. And if they can start breeding again, all the better. And hey, I gave that little monster blue balls forever, so that Mustard could have himself some blue balls.”
Nikki started cracking up again, this time having to leave the room before she rolled on her side and squashed somebody.
Within a few weeks, Mustard’s new ‘special lumps’ colored matched the rest of him, and it was like they were never gone. Dee Dee noticed he was definitely walking taller.
Paprika and Mustard raised the babies from chirpy newborns to talkie babies, loving them as much as they had loved any other foals they cared for.
The male yellow unicorn was named Butterball. He went from an unusually fat newborn to an impressively fat talky baby. But despite his bulk, he was incredibly active, and Nikki swore that he was healthy. Just very chunky. He was friendly and always ready to play. He was also especially tough, not just for a unicorn, but for a fluffy in general. He had a tendency to be carried away by his bulk and crash in to things. He’d walk it off, dazed but laughing.
The blue female pegasus was named Eiffel, because a particular earworm song was stuck in Dee Dee’s head and the blue coloring had her singing “da bu dee da bu dai” every time she looked over. Dee Dee reckoned better to have a nuisance song affiliate with the foal than the awful fluffy that had sired her. Eiffel was a gentle fluffy, with a tendency towards nervousness. Dee Dee’s heart went out to the little foal, and she made sure that she got extra hugs.
The mottled ‘twins’ were named Kazoo for the male, and Theremin for the female. Dee Dee was still on a music kick after naming Eiffel, and decided that a part of unusual fluffies should be named for unusual instruments. The twins were inseparable, to the point that when Dee Dee listed them for adoption, she specified they could only be adopted as a pair. They were also very talkative fluffies. They moment they reached talky baby status, they had to be instructed in kind, but very firm terms that shutting up was a virtue in a fluffy. But when they got started, it was like one brain with two mouths.
This was a difficult story to approach. Writing a story with a happy ended based on a premise of sexual assault presented a unique writing challenge. Delving in to the mind of fluffies, and realizing they have a very different worldview than humans, I believe, let to a satisfactory conclusion. Fluffies are arguably genetically programmed to love and forgive, and Paprika in particular in an especially loving character. Gal-with-Pastels presented me with a story concept outside anything I have tackled before, and I honestly wasn’t sure I could. Heck, I’m honestly not sure how I did, so any feedback on it will be extremely welcome.
At some point I will likely revisit the foals. I think they each have some story potential, and Butterball was a specifically requested inclusion as part of the story. I’m not sure where I’ll go with them, but when I do, I’ll be sure to share with everybody here.