“Huuuhuuuu, pwease mummah, nu mowe huwties.”
“I’m so sorry baby, but just a little more and it’ll all be over.”
Nova tensed up as Victoria pressed the third and final thumb-tack into his hoof, the solid metal point easily pushing through the soft leather of Nova’s front left foot, irritating nerves and slicing muscles as it was pushed through with practically no resistance.
Save for the hoof’s owner trying to rip his leg out from Victoria’s grasp.
Victoria pressed the thumb-tack all the way into Nova’s hoof until it was nothing more than a metal stud on his limb, three metallic bump designed for nothing more than pain and misery. Tentatively he pressed his hoof down, then immediately pulled it back when the pressure pressed the pins against nerve-endings and other sensitive areas of his hoof’s muscle structure.
Briefly Nova started to wonder why he’d even gone through with this, what could be worth this much agony… and then Victoria softly petted his mane and all thoughts left his head.
“You’re such a brave boy, mummy’s so proud.”
Like putty, he melted in her hands, the love and pride of his mummah was enough to drown out the pain, at least for a little while.
Victoria then reached behind her and pulled out the reason for all of Nova’s pain, a toy car that he’d bought and paid for with his hurties. And considering how cheap and plasticy it was, she had definitely overcharged him. But it had four wheels and it moved, that was enough for him.
“Here you go baby, your own toy car.”
“Noba’s own vwoom-vwoom? Yay, fank yu mummah.”
In his excitement to play with his new toy, Nova accidentally pressed down on his hoof with the pins, causing him to jump back up like he’d been shocked.
“Owwies, mummah, how wong du Noba need to hab pointy-huwties in weggie?”
“Hmm, well that is a pretty expensive car… but you do have three of them, I think an hour should do it.”
“Umm… mummah, how wong am how-wah?”
Victoria looked at the clock on the wall, it was a smiling black cat with a white face and a hand that waved in time to the tick-tock sound, simple but the Fluffies seemed to like it. It was near enough bang-on 4pm.
“Don’t worry baby, mummy will keep you right. Now you be a good boy and play with your new toy, mummy has to do some chores but we’ll play together after dinner, ok?”
Nova didn’t bother to hide his disappointment. “Ok mummah.”
Victoria left the room and smirked, she had no chores to do today and she had no plans to do anything else. Instead she made her way to the living room and threw on the TV, ready to catch up with The Bache-Fluff.
It was the trashiest of trash TV but Victoria had to admit a certain level of glee at watching six mares, all impregnated by the same stallion, start blaming the other mares for stealing their man.
Up in his room, Nova carefully pushed his car around with his non-pinned hoof. He giggled as it rolled about, never in a straight line thanks to a slightly bent axle, but he didn’t seem to care, or even notice for that matter.
After some time rolling the car around, Nova looked up at the cat clock, had he been able to read, he would’ve seen it was 5:15, but that meant nothing to him. So instead he kept playing, at one point he got the bright idea to stack his blockies and have his car roll into them, but once again his excitement got the better of him and pressing the wooden block against his pinned hoof sent another shock of shredded nerve endings through his body.
“Huu, Noba wan pointy-huwties tug u way. How-wah am wongest foweba EBA!”
Had Nova been smart enough, he might have been able to make the distinction that it was his own mother that was causing him so much pain, but Nova was a Fluffy, and even smart Fluffies are fucking stupid. The consistent pain in his hoof was one thing, and the joy he got from the new car toy given to him by his loving mother was another, and never the two shall cross.
Victoria knew this, Victoria had planned this, which is why when she came back into the room at a little after half 6, she didn’t even pretend she was late, she had been gone exactly one hour, like she had said.
“Hey baby, how are you enjoying you’re new toy.”
“Vwoom-vwoom, am su much funsies mummah, fank yu.”
“Anything for my little guy. Now that’s time so I think we should get those pins out of you, would you like that?”
Nova nodded. “Pwease mummah, nu wike pointy-huwties, nu can make gud bwockies.”
“Ok, let me take them out for you. This will still hurt a little bit, so why don’t we put on Fluff-TV to keep your mind off the hurties.”
Nova nodded again and turned to the TV screen as Victoria turned it on and took his hoof. Very slowly she gripped the edges of one of the thumb-tacks and slip it out of Nova’s hoof. She could see him wince a little bit, but she was actually trying to be careful here, after-all, she needed Nova to have his attention elsewhere for the next stage of her plan.
Because the totally random and not at all carefully chosen programming she had put on was a showing of ‘Special Steps: A Guide To Being Special Friend’, a programme designed to show Fluffies the Dos and Don’ts of a relationship but more often than not just made them yearn to have a special-friend of their own.
Nova was so enticed by the idea of having a pretty mare by his side that he didn’t even feel Victoria pull the second pin out of his hoof.
“Mummah, mummah! Can Noba hab speciaw-fwiend pwease?”
Victoria looked up at the screen, pretending to catch what was playing for the first time. “Oh I… well I suppose you have been here alone for most days while mummy’s at work. I suppose we could try and work out a second Fluffy, sure, ok, we’ll get you a friend to play with.”
“YAY, fank yu bestesh mummah.”
“Of course baby, now would you like a boy or a girl Flu…”
“Giww, giww. Noba wan pwettiesh speciaw-fwiend fow huggies an wub.”
“Now hold on there Nova, we still need to pay for your new friend, and a girl Fluffy is going to cost a lot more than a boy Fluffy. Don’t you want to know the prices first?”
Nova gulped, suddenly remembering the last pin still stuck in his hoof. “Wha… wha du Noba hab tu pay fow nyu fwiend mummah?”
Victoria reached over and stroked Nova’s back, a sad and serious look on her face. “I won’t lie to you baby, both prices are expensive, and both will hurt a lot so feel free to say no if you can’t afford it. But I’m thinking, for a boy Fluffy friend, you’ll need to lose your tail.”
“WHA? NU TAIW!”
With horror, Nova looked back at his tail, it was decent as fair as Fluffy tails went, long whisp of white hair blew softly in the air, it wasn’t his most important feature but it worked with everything else to create a pretty picture.
“Nu wan wose taiw, wha am huwtie pwice fow giww speciaw-fwiend?”
“Ooh I’m afraid that one is even worse, the price for a girl friend is… you have to lose your name.”
“…Wha?”
“Your name, you’ll lost it. You will no longer be called Nova, but you’ll have a different name that I shall pick for you.”
“Bu… Fwuffy am Noba, awways been Noba. Wike Noba namesies, wike big bwite-wight in da sky.”
“You’re right, it is a very nice name, but if you want to have a girlfriend, you’ll need to use it for payment.”
Nova hemmed and hawed for a few moments, weighing up both options, once again his feeble mind not comprehending the effects of losing his name, and instead focussed on the instant pain of losing his tail and wanting to do everything he could to avoid that.
“Noba wan mawe speciaw-fwiend mummah, wiww gib namesie fow wub.”
Victoria’s smile was almost pure sadism, but Fluffies didn’t understand the enjoyment of inflicting pain so Nova assumed the smile was genuine.
“Oh baby you’ve made the right choice, I’ll take you to the store some day and we’ll get you a new friend. But first, we’ll give you a new name.”
“Am it gun be nice namesie mummah?” Noba sked, his tail shaking with excitement.
“That depends, what do you think of… Reek?”
Nova’s face dropped. “Nu wike dat namesie.”
Victoria’s face also dropped. “Oh… oh ok, I understand, I mean you’re right, it’s not as nice as Nova, but I thought it was a nice name, and it’s a name I gave you so I thought it meant something. But if you don’t want it, then I guess you can stay Nova, but we’ll have to find something else to pay for a girl Fluffy with, one of your legs, an eye, your special-lumps?”
Nova’s eyes went wide and he quickly wrapped his hoofs around Victoria’s leg. “Nu mummah, nu take speciaw-wumps, Noba be Week nyo, it am gud namesie.”
“Really? You mean it?”
Nova nodded. “Fwuffy wub it.”
Victoria ignored his lie and giggled. “Oh Reek I’m so happy to hear that, I promise we’ll find you the best girlfriend ever.”
She gave the newly named Reek a hug and a kiss on the forehead before putting her attention back to the final pin in his hoof. As she started to tug it out, she looked up at Reek and smiled.
“Hey baby, what’s your name?”
Without thinking, Reek smiled back and piped up. “Noba!”
Victoria’s smile dropped and she looked almost angrily at him, with a slight tilt of the thumb-tack, she pressed it against a nerve rather than pulling it out.
“Owwie, mummah, wai huwt Noba?”
“Because that’s not your name, your name is Reek, and I need you take that seriously.”
“Oh… am sowwy mummah, Week knyo nyu namesie am Week.”
Victoria tiled the pin against a nerve-ending again. “NO! No, you’re name is Reek, say it properly.”
“Bu… namesie am Week.”
“NO! Not ‘Week’, Rrrrrreek, say it properly.”
“Bu Noba am sayin…. bu Week am… bu Nob…”
Victoria scowled at him and pushed the pin deeper into his hoof, the new angle sliced through entirely new nerves and muscles.
“HUUUUU!!! Mummah pwease, nu gib mowe huwties.”
Victoria bit the inside of her cheek until tears were welling in her eyes. “Then say your properly Reek, I thought you loved mummy, how can you say you love mummy if you can’t even say the name mummy gave you.”
“NU! Du wub mummah, mowe dan aneefing, wook! Wwwee…. Wwweeee… wwwrrrrhhhheee….”
Victoria used one hand to wipe away her crocodile tears. “You’re a bad Fluffy Reek, you lied to mummy, you don’t love mummy at all. You’re just a big meanie who doesn’t want the nice name mummy gave you.”
Reek started hyperventilating as he felt his mother’s love melting out of his grasp. “Wwweeeeeek…. Wwwrrrrrrrrrrhhhhhheeeee…. www, huuhuuuuuuuhuuuuuuu, wwwrrrrrrrrrreeee….
With a furious grasp on the pin, Victoria twisted it out of Reek’s hoof, taking a small chunk of flesh along with it.
“….SSSSSSHHHHHHRRRRRRREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEKKKKKK!!!”
Reek howled as part of his body was violently torn from him, he tried to suckle his hoof to take away the pain but his saliva just made the missing skin sting all the more. He began to cry out of fear and confusion, until he felt Victoria pick him up and softly cradle him in her arms.
“Good boy Reek, you said your name properly, I knew you really loved mummy. And mummy loves her perfect little Reek too, oh you deserve to have the best of special-friend, yes you do.”
For a brief moment, Reek wondered about all of this, if the agonising pain in his hoof and the humiliation and emotional chaos of losing his name meant anything to what was going on around him.
But then Victoria tickled his belly, and all that mattered was he still had his mother’s love. Everything else soon forgotten about.
I’ll be busy over the next week so I wanted to give a quick second chapter to this story to tide you all over while I’m away. Plus this means when we return we can get started on the meat of the story proper.
And fair warning, it’s going to get worse from here on out. It can always be worse.