- "Fluffy Research"
- 6/?
- >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 are currently sitting in your chair, looking at the monitors displaying a heart wrenching scene.
- >The monitors are showing Plum hugging the gray mare tightly while the mare cries her heart out, soaking Plum’s
- fluff with her tears.
- >The newborn foals are gently sucking at their teats, Plum helping the Runt and the grey mare helping her other
- two.
- >At random intervals, the mare gently hugs the dead body of her fourth, stillborn foal while crying ever so
- lightly.
- >The grey mare gave birth about an hour ago, but she still hasn’t gotten over the loss of her fourth foal, you
- doubt she’ll ever get over it.
- >She spent her whole pregnancy begging everything and everyone she knew for healthy living foals, this wish didn’t
- come true, she tried her very best, but in the end nature came and took one foal away.
- >You try your best not to cry at the scene, but it’s pointless, despite your best efforts, a few tears stream down
- your cheek.
- >Your thoughts are cut short when you notice that the other mares in the herd are looking at one of the healthy
- foals.
- >It’s the third one, a light bluish earth fluffy with a vibrant red mane, but to your surprise, the mares aren’t
- looking at the foals back, they’ve turned it around and are looking at its genitalia and teats.
- >Puzzled, you zoom in and watch; the mares poke the skin around the area where the foal’s undeveloped teats should
- be.
- >The silence is broken when a mare suddenly exclaims; “dis specia mummah!”
- >The other mares around her seem to agree to this, looking at each other and bopping their heads.
- >You just sit there looking like a Picasso painting, face a complete mess.
- >What the heck is a “special mother?” What strange alien thing might it be? The mares don’t seem scared or angry so
- it can’t be anything bad.
- >Before you can think any further, the smarty friend walks up to the mares and takes a look as well, she reaches
- the same conclusion.
- >Not getting any answer from the herd, you turn to your own mini herd and ask them; “Leroy, what’s a special
- mummah?”
- >Leeroy perks up as you mention his name and looks at you with a bright smile, he then speaks up with a cheerful
- tone; “Speciaw mummah is spciaw mummah siwwy daddeh!”
- >”I know what it’s called Leeroy, I want to know what makes her special? What makes her different from any other
- mother?” You reply with a stoic undertone.
- >”Wha make mummah speciaw? Speciaw mummah be guu fo hewd. Speciaw mummah haf fouw miwk tingies. Speciaw mummah guu
- mummah wit wots o babbhes!” Leeroy cheerfully explains to the best of his ability.
- >After processing his speech everything clicks into place like a 50000 piece Ravensberger puzzle.
- >The mares are special because they’re born with four teats!
- > Wait; hold on, did Leeroy just count to four?
- >So that’s what they call the old breeder mares, most people thought those genes died out after a couple of
- generations as large litters suckling a lot of milk wasn’t good for any herd.
- >You quickly scribble this down and go back to the herd; they’ve scattered off, the excitement most probably wore
- off, or the Smarty told them to leave.
- >The only fluffies left are the smarty, Plum, the mare and the foals.
- >From what you can tell, the smarty said something special while you were talking to Leeroy, because now the grey
- mare is hugging her dead foal tighter than before, mumbling something to it, after a while the mare gently puts the
- foal down in front of the smarty.
- >The smarty picks it up gently in her mouth and slowly walks out of the cave, curious; you change cameras and watch
- her.
- >A she comes out of the cave, she steers hard left and walks over to a small cluster of bushes a good bit away from
- the cave, not wasting any time, she walks inside
- >You can’t see what she’s doing in there at all, but it doesn’t take her long to finish, four minutes later you see
- her walking back to the cave.
- >Curious, you put the cameras on record and walk outside; the weather is actually quite nice today.
- >You gently sneak your way over to the bushes, doing your very best to avoid detection by the herd, once there you
- peek inside.
- >At first glance, you don’t see anything, but then you notice it. Under one of the bushes, there’s a small pile of
- what appears to be leaves.
- >You gently lift the leaves and look under them, there you see the foal lying on its side, all cleaned up and
- pretty. It looks like it’s sleeping, but alas, it never got to see the world.
- >Not wanting to disturb or damage anything, you snap a few pictures with your camera before placing the leaves onto
- of the foal again.
- >Satisfied with the result, you sneak back into your part of the “cave” again, your mind lost in thought.
- >You’ll have to look into this sometime, but right now you have a herd to study.
- >The herd hasn’t done much since you left; the smarty from what you can tell went inside and hugged the mother to
- let her know everything would be okay soon.
- >The rest of the herd is doing what fluffies do; some are playing, others are drinking water and some are sleeping
- in small fluffpiles.
- >The heated floor idea was brilliant.
- >The smarty friend gently stops hugging the grey mare after a short while and takes her leave and walks over to
- some of the other fluffies in the herd.
- >Looking over your notes you notice something, you haven’t really named any of the fluffies in the herd and writing
- “Purple smarty friend” is getting kind of tiresome.
- >Looking at the herd, you quickly find a name for the smarty; “Purple”
- >the grey mare is a tad harder though, but you manage to find her a name in the end; Aurora
- >the rest of the herd doesn’t really need names, as you aren’t focusing on them yet.
- >Content with the names, you sit back and watch plum and Aurora tend to the three foals gently suckling on their
- teats.
- >The Time ahead for Aurora will be tough at best, fall is here and the foals won’t mature for another 4-5 months,
- meaning that they might end up dying before spring.
- >The other dams in the herd will have it even tougher though, they haven’t popped yet and from what you can see and
- tell when it comes to food, you wouldn’t count on foals born during winter to survive.
- >This is most probably the reason a lot of feral herds up north disappear or shrink during winter; the mare’s
- maternal instinct is just too great.
- >They try all they can year around to make more “babbhes”, it might work during spring and summer, but that’s
- because food is available, during winter snow covers a lot of the area up north.
- >This will result in the mares wasting energy on having foals, feeding them and keeping them warm during the
- coldest parts of winter.
- >From what you’ve read in the notes available from researchers and exterminators, the mares are the problem during
- winter, they get foals, run out of food, try their best to keep themselves and the foals alive, but end up dying
- heartbroken over their dead foals, all alone out in the cold somewhere.
- >There is no need to worry for this herd though, if things go out of hand, you’ll just have to help feed them
- secretly through the winter months.
- >Nothing is going to kill members of this herd, weather or foe; you’ll make sure they all stay safe.
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