“NUUUU! BABBEHS NU AM NUMMIES!!! NU AM NUMMIES!!”
The mare desperately tried to make it clear that foals were not food, all in vain as Raymond kept eating foal after foal. Eventually, the mare attracted the attention of some mill guards, going over to investigate the ruckus. The mare froze in place as she heard them walking over, immediately running for cover as they came into view.
“Where the hell’s that screeching coming from…?”
“I don’t know, but when I find that little shit I am smashing it against the fucking ground, I’ll tell you that.”
“I’ll join you on tha-…”
One of the guards froze as they saw Raymond, watching him eat foals without a care in the world. They looked back at their partner, signaling them to come over and see what they were seeing. Luckily, Raymond didn’t notice them yet.
“Holy shit…”
“What the hell do we do about this??”
“We can’t just leave him here, what if he finds the hole we’ve been due for a fix?”
“Alright, alright… let’s just get in there. You come in from the right, I come in from the left…”
“Got it.”
They snuck up on Raymond, silent yet quick on their advances. Things were going fine for them until Raymond bagged up the remaining foals in his shirt, stood up, and looked over to the mill, seeing the guards, all of them froze in an almost cartoonish manner. They stared at each other until Raymond bolted away, the guards gave chase, they weren’t about to get in trouble for not catching a possible leech in the business.
Raymond jumped over rocks and roots, ducking under branches and low-hanging fruit, the guards barreled through all of it like unstoppable bears. The foals in Raymond’s shirt peeped and chirped in distress, some falling out of it and either dying from the impact or landing on a soft spot on the ground and getting picked up by the guards as they went along.
In a state of panic, once he reached a point where the trees were too much for one to run in a straight line through, he bit down on the outer edge of his shirt to keep it bagged and latched onto a tree, quickly climbing it and jumping from tree to tree. The chase was now a lot slower, the strix slowing down to a jog, Raymond grew more exhausted, but he was much too stubborn to give up. He wheezed as he slowed to a mere crawl, trying to hold on to the tree.
“Come on, dude, you’re struggling… just give it up.”
“Yeah, make it easier for all of us, alright? We won’t hurt you, we just want to know why you were so close to the mill…”
They got closer to Raymond, ready to knock him down from the trees and grab him. Raymond looked at both of the guards, his breathing was quick, he was preparing for a last ditch effort to shake them off his tail. He let go of his shirt and let all the foals fall, the guards now distracted as they tried to catch all of them before they could possibly fall to their deaths.
Raymond made a run for it, only to slip and fall to the ground after clearing a few feet. One of the guards approached him, one arm grabbing him by his neck, and the other one by his wrists.
Great… back to square one.
“Got ‘im.”
“Heh, finally… You got him in that safe-hold stuff? What are you? A dork?”
“Yeah, I don’t want to risk a bite, humans can be desperate little shits, just like lizards… Especially ones like this, he kept running even if his body didn’t want to, he’s obviously been through some strix.”
Raymond looked at both of the guards as he was restrained, he sighed warily… this might be the last time he’ll be free. He just wanted to live freely, that was apparently too much to ask for in this world though. He went limp, as any flicker of hope he had died out completely, catching the guards’ attention.
“Hm? Hey, don’t you get all soft on us, we’ll probably use you to keep the broodmares in line.”
Raymond looked up at the guard that restrained him, furrowing a brow in curiosity. The guard chuckled at him, now turning him upright.
“Yeah, you’ll keep ‘em in line… You’ll get food and water whenever you want, we’ll even let you break the new additions.”
Raymond’s eye gleamed with interest, whenever he wanted? Seemed like a stretch, maybe even too good to be true, but he clearly didn’t have a choice in the matter, seeing how he’s being handled like some kind of wild animal.
“Damn… Only five, wait, how many did this guy eat and drop??”
“… Oh no.”
“Oh… oh, god damn it! He already snuck in! He was eating our fucking paychecks!!”
They cursed and growled, now trying to get at Raymond. The guard who had him restrained pulled him away, not wanting his co-worker to hurt this possible upgrade to the facility.
“Woah! Woah! Woah! Calm down! He’ll pay the losses with what he’s got in store for us, he could threaten the broodmares into giving up their foals quickly now… Like how that sounds?”
“No!! It’ll take months to recover from this, this mill is for high grade fluffies! What? You think he’ll have the same kinda pep for the whole period of time he’s gonna be in the mill?!”
“Uh, yeah, we can actually afford to feed him, unlike those shittier mills that wind up having those escaped human cases… Y’know, the ones that hide and pick away at the already low yield of the mill. Now shut up and go look for the fluffy we probably missed chasing down hare man over here.”
“Scoff, fine…”
Raymond was very confused at the squabbling going on before him, sheepishly looking aside as to avoid eavesdropping on the chat between the two. He looked around, everything was green, everything was ni-
“Hey! Buddy! Got a name?”
His train of thought crashed, looking up at the strix and then looking down at the ground. Well, he did have a name… trying to tell them would be another thing. He just understood English, he had long forgotten how to speak and write it.
“Can he even talk?”
“Shhh! You’re making him nervous!”
“Oh, kiss my ass… I’m leaving.”
The guard with the foals walked ahead, leaving the other one alone with Raymond. Raymond’s captor sighed, shaking their head.
“It’s alright, buddy, you can tell us when we get back.”
The other guard followed behind the other, keeping an eye out for any surviving foals that might’ve slipped under their noses.
Raymond felt awkward, weren’t they going to kill him or turn him into a punching bag? Feeding him is just going to be a loss… he suddenly lost any appetite he had, fearful of what they’d do if they found out he was a big eater.
“Hmm… You look like a Matt, yeah, that’s your name now. Sticks like an egg to an unbuttered pan. The name’s Walter, seeing how I technically know your name now, it’d be rude of me to leave you without my name.”
Okay… Walter definitely didn’t fit the strix that manhandled him, at least his name was nice, but did it fit? No. Raymond looked back to the ground, looking back at Walter.
“Hm? You wanna go down? Nah, sorry, buddy. You could run away for all I know… or can you? No wait, you could bite ‘n’ scratch me! Almost forgot that, nice try though, almost got yourself a nice ticket to freedom express.”
Walter shook Raymond as he chuckled, almost in a mocking manner. Raymond let out a heavy sigh.
Oh boy, this again.
Walter eventually reached his co-worker, who was now in possession of the mare that hid away from them.
“NUU! BAD UPSIES!! P-pwease! Nice munstah mistah, wet fwuffy go! Nu wan be with now munstah hoomin!!”
Both guards cocked a brow, looking over to Raymond. The last thing they expected was that a a fluffy would use the term now for someone that seemed to be a complete stranger to them.
”What the…”
They both watched as the fluffy squirmed in the guard’s grip, desperately thrashing whenever Walter got Raymond closer to her. Walter looked over to his co-worker, who watched on with great confusion.
“O… kay. This’ll be a woozy to explain to everyone.”
“Do we neut-“
“Definitely not, unlike these midget pony abominations, humans have a little something called self-control.”
“Thank god… let’s just bring ‘em in now. Everyone will probably flip.”
Walter’s co-worker turned his head and pointed to the mill, keeping the chirpy foals in his arms as they went into the mill.
~~~
“Okay, so you’re telling me that this… human, snuck into our mill and proceeded to eat and kill about seven hundred fifty dollars worth of high-grade foals. Is that correct?”
“U-uh, yes, sir… Phillip gathered the survivors.“
“Sigh. And this little money-eater will help us how exactly? He’ll just eat away at our earnings…”
“We threaten the broodmares with him, if he eats foals then he wouldn’t mind hurting any of the adults when they don’t want to cooperate.”
“… Hm… Alright, I need some time to think about it, you’re dismissed. Take that little weasel to Betsy in the meantime, she hasn’t been busy lately, she’ll love the company.”
Raymond was now back in a muzzle, forced to wear mittens as a measure to prevent any scratching. He… actually, it wasn’t so bad.
‘Look at you, big guy… back with strix and-… huh??’
Raymond wasn’t really paying attention to Carter, feeling the mittens on his hands was rather soothing, they were very soft.
Raymond was then lead through the mill and into the security room, where Betsy sat in front of dozens of monitors, drinking tea and looking pretty grouchy.
“Hey, Betz, you got a pet bed lying around in here? You’re gonna need it.”
Walter pushed Raymond in. Betsy looked over and sighed, putting a hand up to her forehead and resting her head on it.
“Do I really have to?”
“Boss told me to, says you haven’t been busy lately. But hey, if anything, Matt won’t give you much trouble, just give him a chance.”
“Ugh, fine…”
Raymond was still not used to his new name, and it was as clear as day, he didn’t respond to it at all unless he was handled. Walter had left him with Betsy, Betsy wasn’t so mean, she just didn’t like doing much compared to the other mill workers.
She sipped tea from her mug, watching fluffies cry, eat, and sleep the days away. Raymond snuck a peek, trying to find the mare he was so familiar with.
“Hey! Ask next time, will ya?!”
Betsy jumped as Raymond climbed onto her desk and grabbed onto a monitor, looking at it and seeing a sad, green mare with a brown mane, ‘huu-huu’-ing the day away. Next to her, the pen was empty, until Phillip dragged the mare Raymond knew so well into it. She was sobbing, cowering in a corner as the brute of a guard left her with kibble and water.
Raymond tried grabbing her through the screen, fruitlessly trying again and again before Betsy grabbed him and set him down on the floor.
“She’s a baby-maker now, she ain’t getting outta there… tea?”
She offered Raymond what was left of her drink, letting him grab the mug and inspect it.
“Nobody needs to know about this… maybe you’ll be a good boy and won’t even need this stupid thing.”
Raymond now found himself getting his muzzle taken off, he was left surprised, making Betsy chuckle as she tapped the mug in his hands.
“Go on, drink up, I’m not drinking that anymore, I’ll wash the mug later.”
Raymond sipped some tea, not finding it tasty in the slightest but liking it enough to drink it like water, he finished what was left in one go. He then took out the tea bag, curiously watching it drip, before putting it in his mouth.
Betsy looked over from her monitors to check on Raymond. Her eyes widening in shock as she saw him trying to swallow the whole tea bag.
“Nooo! No no no… Don’t do that, not a good idea.”
She pulled the tea bag out of Raymond’s mouth and threw it away, patting him on the head before going back to watching the monitors with a sheer amount of focus.
Raymond looked around the security room before a mill worker came in and dragged Raymond out into the array of pens just outside the room. He was taken to a yellow pegasus’ pen, she was forced to watch as the worker handed Raymond some foals from her litter.
“NUUU! MUMMAH SAB BABBEHS!!”
Her hooves smacked the glass as Raymond looked at the foals with great interest, he got ready to squeeze and eat a foal before the mare cracked.
“MUMMAH WET MUNSTAH MISTAH TAKE BABBEHS!! PWEASE NU HUWT, AM ONWY WITTWE BABBEHS!“
“That’s my girl, alright, your first job here is done. Go to Betsy and she’ll get you something nice…”
They dismissed Raymond, taking the foals from him, failing to notice that Raymond didn’t have his muzzle on. Raymond scurried over to the security room as fast as he could, before anyone else saw him without his muzzle on.
“First job, eh? Not bad… although she’s pretty easy to persuade most of the time, she got really stubborn today. Jack’ll have to figure out why sometime later.”
She chuckled, watching Raymond rub his mittened hands together as to feel that soft fabric against his hands some more.
“I’ll give you something for that trouble on my lunch break, alright? How’s that sound?”
She offered, smiling as Raymond nodded enthusiastically.
(( This one was longer than planned. Actually, this brings up a question I have for anyone that reads these stories of mine. Would y’all like short story parts or long story parts? ))