Ryan sighs quietly into his pillow as his phone alarm now blares the same generic pop song he hears on the radio every day on the drive to his shitty 9-5. Another day he had to wake up, go to work, then come home to his tiny seafoam-green studio apartment he could barely afford. Another day he wakes up wondering if this is the day he finally snaps. Another day that-
BZZ-BZZ - BZZ-BZZ
Ryan’s head subtly shifts as he wiggles his phone free from under his pillow before begrudgingly holding to his face to read the incoming text. The bright blue number flashing over the notification was that of his manager, something that only filled him with even more desperation for escape.
The first message he recieved that day. One informing him that, due to budget cuts and a major accounting error, his branch was being pruned from the company tree. As such, his services starting today will no longer be required.
Ryan doesn’t even flinch. He simply sighs in defeat, tucks his phone away, and lays his head gently back down on his pillow. Guess that means he has some time off. Something he’d worry about after he wakes up later in the day. What’s the point of getting up at this point, anyway?
That question was answered in the form of an e-mail Ryan received only an hour later. An e-mail alerting him that, as a parting gift, the company had given him a hefty severance package. A permanent recommendation for any other job at any other company in his field, and a LARGE lump-sum to keep him afloat until he could find employment again.
Though not enough to make him a super rich man, it was more than enough to keep him comfortable for the foreseeable future.
Even all the zeros now lining his savings account didn’t give him the motivation to rise from his bed though. While it soothed his stress about rent, it didn’t motivate him to do anything but continue to sleep. At least if he was asleep, he wouldn’t have to…worry… about…
…
Sleep slowly becomes an impossibility as the realization of the situation slowly begins to dawn on Ryan. Jobless. Empty. Freedom…? Then there’s the money. Enough of it to stay comfortable for the long run. The heat is literally boiling this apartment. Okay, might as well start with some home improvement. Ryan needs something to do with his newly acquired free time anyway.
A few hours and a silly shopping montage later, Ryan is sitting back at home enjoying take-out pizza on his freshly cleaned futon, sitting in front of his new TV and enjoying the breeze put out by his new A/C unit. Ryan allows himself to relax and fall into a deep nap as his tv blares into the studio.
Ryan awakens hours after dark, his apartment freezing from the running air conditioner, TV having turned itself off, and fruit flies now swarming around his leftover pizza dinner. His eyes flutter as he checks his phone, the screen brightness burning them momentarily before adjusting just enough to read out the time.
“What the fu… How is it almost 4 in the morning?”
Ryan pinches the bridge of his nose for a moment before swatting aimlessly at the flies now buzzing around his apartment. He slowly leans up, stopping only for a moment to sigh into his hands before grabbing the box of old pizza and walking out the door to the dumpster out back.
Yes, he could have thrown it away in his kitchen. That wouldn’t get rid of the flies though. Better to rid himself of it outside. It was a quiet, beautiful night. Everyone was asleep, the air was
warm and comfortable. It felt good to stretch his legs a bit after such a long nap.
-chirp!-
“peep!!”
-chirp!-
Ryan suddenly stops dead in his tracks. He had heard this kind of sound only in videos he had found online from time to time. It was almost spooky hearing it in real life.
chirp! -chirp-
Yup. Too loud to be a bird, and too squeaky to be a child. Definitely a fluffy foal. Exact same sound from the videos, no mistaking it.
Thank god it wasn’t a child. That would be super fucking creepy.
Ryan sighs, setting the pizza box down on the ground and laying belly-down on top of it before casting his gaze over the immediate area around him. Fluffy ponies aren’t a normal thing in his neighborhood and the local hell-spawn aren’t normally too kind to stray animals that wonder to close.
There. Right beneath the dumpster, clinging to… What looks to be a dirty towel? Ryan quietly lays down on his stomach, blindly reaching under the dumpster just far enough to get his hand around something solid. With a gentle grip, he quickly pulls the towel wrapped foal into his chest before getting his first good look at it.
A mint-green foal, no older than a week if he had to guess. The poor thing passed out, evident by it’s sad little slumbering noises. Ryan can’t leave this poor creature outside though. It’s gonna need care or else… Terrible things.
This was 1 month ago. The time is now, and the story can begin
Ryan’s phone buzzes as his 6:30AM alarm rings off his phone. He didn’t have anything important to do that day, just wanted to make sure he didn’t waste his morning sleeping in like he normally does. Not having a job really killed any motivation he had to wake up any earlier than 12 in the afternoon, and by then half of his day was already gone.
He sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose in irritation as he slowly rises to his feet and groggily walks out of his bedroom to the shower. A gentle sobbing could be heard from the utility closet located next to his bedroom. A closet because it was too small to be used as anything more than just storage space. Utility because it was quite a bit larger than your average hallway storage space. Cleaned and emptied out, it made the perfect little safe room for-
“huuhuu-”
-chirp- -chirp-
“D-D-Daddeh!”
-chir-CHIIIIIRP-CHIRP-
Ryan’s head softly rings out as the tiny high-pitched crying pierces his eardrums. It had only been a month. A month since he had rescued an orphaned foal. How did he know it was orphaned? Well, about a week after finding it, his neighbors began talking about a lone mare going door-to-door looking for it’s “onwy chiwpie-babbeh”. Sure enough, Kenny two-doors-down took the opportunity to test his new .22-
It’s totally an orphan. It’s never going to know it’s an orphan. So let’s keep this in the groove, hey? Smooth moves, like smooth little babies…
“Daddeh!! huu-”
-chirp- -chirp-
“-huuhuu! Miwkies! Dawkie!”
-CHIRP- -CHIRP- -CHIRP-
Ryan’s eyes shoot open, still bloodshot from his lack of sleep. It had only been a month since he’d taken in this foal. Even now, just around a week since it’s opened it’s eyes and a few days since it had started forming it’s first coherent words.
But the chirping.
The GOD. DAMN. CHIRPING.
Ryan’s ears, for whatever reason, are insanely sensitive to the exact decibels and frequencies that are put out by this fluffy foal specifically. Watching videos of other foals chirping online he’d be fine, but this one… This one was different for some reason. It had the pain of an incredibly high ringing mixed with the sensation of metal fork fingernails on porcelain chalkboards.
Ryan doesn’t say a word as he quickly grabs a towel hanging from a hook in the hallway and rushes into the bathroom, shutting the door behind him and effectively drowning out the cries of the distressed foal. He looks up at a shelf of powdered foal formula neatly sorted into a small collection of tiny baby-bottles lined up and organized on a shelf behind his bathroom door.
This was the same motion he had been through for the last month. Knowing that this foal will need milk every morning, and that he needed a reason to get up and shower, it was easier to simply use the warm water from the shower to mix the prepared bottle of powdered formula so he could feed the foal right after getting out. Two stones with one bird, or something.
Dawkies. Scawdies. Hungies. The bright thingie above you goes out again, plummeting the area around you into darkness once more. You’re scared. You’re Hungry. Where was Daddeh? Your tummeh makes more scary growling noises, causing you to peep in fright! The soft not-fluff around you slowly grows warm and damp. A burning feeling and a terrible smell slowly begin floating into your see and smell places! You try to waddle away on your tiny shakie hoofies from the burning feeling but only make it about a foot when a sudden loud BANG causes you to jump in fear, causing you to reflexively defecate all over your nub of a tail and the soft not-fluff below your tiny hoofies.
Slowly, a feeling deep inside of you begins to swell.
It’s a feeling you’re not familiar with, but you know it isn’t good. It feels like a gnawing inside you. It aches. It… Hurts… Hurties. A concept that confuses you, but something that you know about deep inside your little head. Your tummeh is giving you hurties! You’re afraid of the hurties! Where was Daddeh? You need to find him! You need milkies and huggies!
“Daddeh!”
-chirp!-
“Miwkies! huuhuu! Huwties!”
-chirp! Chirp!-
“Huggies! huuhuu-”
Ryan sighs the moment he twists the shower head off. The only thing he could hear now was the sound of the sloshing formula bottle as he shook it, and the saddened cries of his little foal being muffled through two closed doors. Even with the drop in volume, it still almost stung Ryan’s ears as he quickly threw on a pair of sweats as he prepared to leave the minor safety of the bathroom and enter the threshold of his closet.
He hadn’t even made it two steps out of the bathroom before a tiny, very off-putting scent begins to envelope him. A smell he had become all to familiar with, and one he had grown somewhat immune to. Fluffy urine and… Shit. Fantastic.
Ryan carefully opens the door, making sure the foal is within eye-sight before carefully stepping inside and shutting the door behind him.
“Hey little filly, relax. Daddy’s here. You hungry? Let’s get you some breakfast, asap!”
“Daddeh!! huuhuu- Dawkies!!” chirp! “Scawy!! huuhuu- Hungies!” CHIIIRP!
Ryan’s hands almost reflexively cling to the sides of his head. He stops himself just as his hands twitch, making sure to not spill the formula he had just mixed. He quickly scoops up the foal with a gentle motion, positioning her on her back with her belly facing up. She peeps in surprise, and urinates in Ryan’s palm. He doesn’t say a word as he quickly shoves the nipple of the bottle into the sobbing foals gob, squeezing it to send a rush of formula shooting from the tip into the foals tiny throat.
She doesn’t even sputter as she quickly sucks the rubber nipple for all it’s worth, using her tiny little hooves to violently beat and kneed around the nipple of the bottle as she greedily sucks in the sweet milkie ambrosia.
Ryan sits there, ignoring the smell of the fluffy waste around him in the not-so-confined space as he watches the foal feed. She needed a name. What name would suit this tiny creature though?
Hmm…
Honestly…
…Why does it matter? Who cares? She’s probably still too young to even register what a name is. It’s not like she’s going to remember anything right now besides Ryan feeding her, shitting, and crying?
Ryan sighs, his entire body growing stiff and ridged as the depressing silence fills the area around him within the hallway closet.
“You do need a name, little miss filly. I doubt you can even really understand me enough right now to care. I’m just not sure…”
He pauses as his chest begins to tighten. His face begins to suck in slightly as he can feel a wave a sadness and tears wash over him. He quietly sniffles, using his shoulder to wipe a few tears from his cheeks before composing himself once again.
“Your name… Honestly… It’s whatever, Little Fluff. I’m not TOO concerned about-”
A… Pretty… Name! Daddeh just gave you the prettiest name ever! Not only was he finally giving you the bestes milkies for your tummy hurties, but he’s just given you the prettiest name ever! You have to thank him! You stop sucking daddeh’s milkie-place just long enough to let out-
CHIRP! “Wub!” chirp! “Namsies! Wub!” Peep! “Daddeh!” CHIRPCHIIIRP! “W…w…Wit…Tew… F-f-fwuff!” PEEP!
“God. Damn. It.”
