"Fluffy Research" 4/?

"Fluffy Research"

4/?

>You are Dylan, a freelance researcher, mid 20’s, brown hair, lazy attitude and you’re a complete nerd.

>You just got hired by the WWF to study a new type of “animal” that's becoming a problem worldwide.

>They call it a "Fluffy pony"

>you’ve never heard of such a thing and took the case out of curiosity.

>Man was that a stupid idea, you had no idea working with them would be this hard.

 

>You look at your clock, it’s been about an hour since the make shift Fluffy trial earlier, the herd has now calmed down and gone back to whatever they were doing before.

>The skeptical fluffy mare is still hugging her foals tightly, not letting them out of her sight at all.

>There is however one difference though, one of the other mares, the yellow unicorn with the pink mane walked up to the skeptical mother about 15min ago and started comforting her.

>This is a rather interesting occurrence, your original though was that none of the fluffies in the herd knew or played a lot with the skeptical mare, it seems you were wrong.

>You also learned something new and very special this last hour, it so turns out that the smarty friend is actually a mare.

>You noticed this when some of the stallions started sniffing her behind lightly, the sniffs were quickly replied to with a light kick.

>This is also a new development; the smarty friends you’ve read about were all male.

>You think about how this might affect the herd’s internal politics, if the smarty’s a mare, power through “special hugs” isn’t a very likely option, she’d get pregnant and in turn a problem for the herd.

Power most probably doesn’t work 100% either; she’s a Pegasus mare after all.

Pegasus fluffies are more fragile than the rest of their kind and the herd has a good portion of grown male earth ponies or unicorns, they’d be able to take the seat as smarty friend with ease.

 

>No, there has to be a special reason to why she’s the leader… But what is it? So far you’ve learned that she’s smart and fair to the herd, treats them as equals and doesn’t get more than the rest.

Maybe that’s it… Maybe the fact that she actually leads them well and doesn’t get them into trouble makes them choose her as their leader… It’s a possibility after all.

>You write these thoughts down in your journal.

>Looking up from your notes you quickly notice that the herd is now sitting in a circle around their smarty friend, odd, why would they do that?

>You tune up the microphone and listen in;

>”Hewd wisten tu smawty, bwown time hewe. Dis mean white time come soon, dis nuu gud fo fwuffies.

White time bad, make fwuffies take fowewah sweep. Cawe guu find fo dis time, cawe keep hewd safe.

Bu cawe nu gif hwed nummies in white time, onwy gif wa-was, dis nu good.

Hwed nee find and bwing nummies back to cawe fo dis time:” The smarty speaks with what you think is a concerned tone.

>Dang, they actually know the seasons to some extent… Still though, any food they  bring into the cave now will turn bad and do more harm than good during winter.

>”Smawty silly! White time nu come dis time, fwuffy suwe of dis!” A mauve stallion speaks out while puffing his chest fluff, trying to make the other fluffies believe him. It doesn’t work…

>He’s quickly pecked on the nose by the smarty and pushed out of the circle crying by the others.

>”Dummy fwuffy! Cowd time come!” Two fluffies scold him while he sits there crying lightly.

>”Hewd gu fin nummies now! Mummahs and big fwuffies stay, yu nuu good at dis. Nee feed babbhes so dey grow big.” The smarty commands, the herd do as told and walk out of the cave and start bringing berries and such into the cave and store it by the water.

>Their idea isn’t bad, food is scarce during winter, but they apparently know nothing about mold or expiration dates…

>Can’t be expected of them either, the little things weren’t meant to live out in the wild without an owner, but it happened and now they’re stuck here.

>You might have to help them during the winter, got to keep a small stack of oats ready just in case.

>You sit there looking at the herd for a few hours, they just keep on bringing food into the cave for winter while the mares feed their young and the dams just lie there, speaking to their unborn children.

>Hmm, you haven’t looked at the dams yet, maybe they’ve got some special marks too?

>Gently getting off the chair you go and check up on your special fluffies first. They stopped playing when you walked over and looked at them.

>”Wha mista want? Fwuffies do sometin bad? Fwuffies do sometin goo’?” The stallion asks you, clearly worried about what you’re going to do.

>”Oh no, you haven’t done anything bad, I just wanted to see how you were doing is all.”

>”I hope you’ve obeyed my rules? Even the no special hugs one?” You reply.

>The fluffy just nods before he starts playing with his blocks again, clearly ignoring you now that he knows you’re not mad at him.

>You walk over and sit down by the window overlooking the dams, they haven’t moved much or done anything since you left your other post.

>Eager to listen in, you turn on the microphone and start listening in on their conversation.

>”Yu good babbhes, yu best babbhes in cawe, nu fwuffy betta dan you” One of the dams sing to its stomach, she’s a light blue Pegasus with a vivid red mane.

>”Yu good babbhes, come to mummah soon, mummah gif huggies and wots of wove!”  The second one coo’s its stomach. She’s a dull brown earth pony with a black mane.

>The third one just lies there, trying her best to rub her belly, she’s strangely quiet.

>On top of that, she’s a Pegasus too. Her fluff is a bright red and her mane is Easter yellow.

>The fourth dam looks weird. She’s smaller than the rest, despite being just as pregnant from what you can see.

>You also spot under all her gray fluff that she’s missing her rear hooves… She just lies there, gently whispering to her belly as tears periodically roll down her cheeks.

>”Yuu guu’ babbhes. Nu be wike mummah, nu be bad babbhes, bad babbhes nu guu’ fo hewd, wike mummah”

>You just look at her with a odd face, she was born a runt? And despite this handicap and her lost legs she’s now going to be a mother? This herd puzzles you more and more, why would they let a runt become a mother at grown age? She’s way smaller than the rest and you wonder if being a runt is something she might pass on to her foals…

>You got to find a way to help her out somehow, she just won’t be able to handle all her foals when they’re born, she most probably won’t produce enough milk for them.

>Despite her pleads to her own stomach, her foals will die in the end, quite the tragic though.

>You’ll have to keep a close eye on her and her foal’s progress; runts are never looked at during tests.

>They’re smaller, drink more milk than their siblings and often die along with their siblings because they drink all the milk. This might be the reason most herds just shove them away to die, it’s better to kill one runt than to lose all the mothers foals.

>Looking at your watch, you quickly notice it’s well past eight P.M.

> A ham sandwich sounds good tonight, you quickly walk into the kitchen and whip-up the sandwich before you go and sit down to watch your “own” fluffies play around in their pen.

>You just sit there looking at them as it hits you harder than two particles in the Large Hadron Collider; you’ve got three “robot” mares at your disposal!

>”Fluffies, could I speak to plum for a minute?” You gently ask the playing fluffies before you.

>”otay mista pwum tawk.” Plum says as she walks over to you.

>Gently picking her up, you walk with her into the Kitchen and speak up;

>”Ghostbusters” Plum freezes up at the word.

>”Your new objective is to join the herd in the cave and be a good helper and friend to the grey small mare missing her back hooves, if need be, help her feed her foals by producing milk for them.

>”Ghostbusters” You say at the end, giving her the objective.

>”otay mista, pwum weady to hewp gwey mawe in hewd. Wet pwum out to hewp.” Plum replies with a determined face.

>”Okay Plum, I’ll let you outside now you tell her as you walk over to the back door with plum and gently walk outside, it’s chilly outside tonight.

>You walk around the cave and stop just before you reach the entrance, there you put plum down and wish her the best of luck before you walk back inside.

>Once inside you quickly run back to your main looking post and sit down, awaiting plums arrival at the cave entrance, this will be quite the test of the herd’s openness to strange new fluffies.

>You hope they’ll respond kindly… Don’t want them shunning Plum or even trying to hurt her in any way.