“Trying to express your rage: you must use your fists
Personality dissolves in a red and raging mist!”
-Gwar, “The Apes of Wrath”
 
“Knowledge speaks
But wisdom listens.”
Jimi Hendrix
 
 
 
> You are Sparks.
> You are following Scruffy through the human home- he crawled into the hole after you.
> “Fowwow Scwuffy. Dis way to Peppewmint.”
> It’s a little dark in this Shack.
> You don’t like it.
> You’re about to start making sparks with your horn, until you hear Scruffy.
> “In dat woom.”
> He stops and points his hoof at a room down the way. It’s white, all white.
> He continues his slow trot and you follow him.
> “Smawty? Spawks is hewe.” He says as he nears the room.
> There is silence.
> “SMAWTY, SPAWKS IS HEWE!” he yells.
> This time, a voice of a mare answers.
> “Otay. Yoo and Spawks come.”
> You both walk into the White Room. It’s dusty, and smells abit like water that has gone bad.
> It reminds you of the Water Room and the Poopie Room in The Rink, what with all the strange, big things in it. Like the ‘toilet’ thing and the ‘sink’ thing, as well as one big, white thing that you don’t recognize.
> There, in the corner, by the toilet, is a light green unicorn mare with a white mane. She has a long, soft thing draped over her back.
> Some of her fluff is graying, and as she smiles at you, you see that she is missing some teeth. She is also missing her right ear- only a small little bit remains, ragged and not pretty looking.
> She must be a really old mare.
> “hewwo Spawks.” She says. “Me Peppewmint.”
> “hewwo Peppewmint.” You reply, smiling back.
> “Siwky towd Peppewmint aww ‘bout yoo. Yoo guud fwuffy.”
> “Tank yoo, Peppewmint.”
> “Come, sit by Peppewmint. Yoo too, Scwuffy.” She says.
> You slowly trot over, and plop down by Peppermint. Scruffy sits beside you.
> “Peppewmint know aww about yoo, and Cuddwes…” She continues.
> She looks directly into your eyes. “…and Tor.”
> You swallow, remembering your now forever-sleeping friend.
> “But Peppewmint nu know too much about dis…’Mawoon’, othew den
 he a big meanie.”
> “Yus. Biggest meanie.”
> “Siwky towd Peppewmint dat Mawoon is bad fow fwuffies who nu hav hown. Towd Peppewmint about da bad speciaw huggies, da biggest owwies. Peppewmint now wan Spawks teww aww Spawks knows ‘bout Mawoon and Mawoon’s hewd.”
> You take a deep breath and close your eyes.
> Images flood your mind: from Flappy, poor Flappy, being stomped by Stompy, to the horrible Hurty Place and Slave Room.
> To when you made Jelly sleep forever, and the Mumma you comforted in her last moments.
> “Otay. Spawks teww. But pwease, nee’ huggies if Spawks teww.”
 
----------
 
> You are Dewy, the yellow Pegasus smarty with a white mane.
> And you have terrible hurties.
> Your leggies don’t work anymore, you taste booboo juice and you can see only through one of your eyes.
> Your teeth have been broken from your mouth.
> You lay in a mix of your own peepee, poopies and booboo juice, upon the hard, grey ground of this place that some fluffies call The Home, where Human Monsters used to live.
> “pwease…pwease nu mowe huwt…”
> Why did this happen?
> All you wanted was to live here with your small herd, close to Big Field, safe from Human monsters, Metal monsters, Dog monsters and all monsters.
> You didn’t think some monsters could be fluffies.
> You open your one peeper.
> You instantly make sickies when you see your other peeper, laying across from you.
> The monster bit it out.
> The Stompy monster.
> “Dese hoofs was made fow stompin…”
> You think it’s singing. You can’t be sure.
> Until you see it’s hoof come down on your peeper, squishing it flat.
> It makes a horrible, wet, splatty sound that reminds of you when your special friend had tummy sickies and made really bad poopies.
> “And dat’s jus wat dey do…”
> It lowers its head down, bringing you face-to-face with something that makes every bad dream you ever had seem like happy, warm, greentime naps.
> You think it smiles, but it’s hard to tell: it has no lower lip. Its upper lip curls upward, exposing teeth, more teeth than any happy smile should have.
> You can’t stop looking at its one milky white peeper.
> “Wun of dese days, dese hoofs awe gunna stomp aww ovew yoo!”
> You close your eye, and begin to whimper.
> The last thing you feel is the top of your head caving in, and your other eye popping out, never to see again.
> The sound that follows you into darkness, however, is not a sound you make.
> It is a sound much like a sort of high-pitched gurgling.
> The laugh of a monster.
 
----------
 
> You are Atlas.
> And you thought that moving away from The Rink and into The Home, where it is closer to Dark Forest would be a good thing.
> You didn’t expect there to be a small herd living here.
> You did, however, expect Stompy to do what he always wanted to do. What he always talked about.
> What he loves.
> And you never, ever wish to see that ever again.
> You’ve seen, and even took part in, giving owwies in the Owwie ring.
> And you’ve seen slaves brought into the Rink and made to have horrible hurties.
> Nothing like this.
> Stompy and a few other fluffies set upon the small herd in a way that reminded you of the time when you saw lots of Feather monsters making nummies of a forever sleeping Deer monster.
> You watched as Stompy broke all of the smarty’s leggies, stomped out his teeth and bit out one of his peepers, singing as he did so.
> Booboo juice is everywhere.
> Stompy rolls around in it, before getting up.
> “Yah! Dis is wat Stompy wikes best!” he yells. “ Stompy nu stomp fow soooo wong! Ezcuse Stompy a moment…time fow da Happy Dance!”
> He bobs on his right leggies, then his left, moving his head and tail from side to side as he does so.
> He stops suddenly, head turned to one side.
> “hey…HEY! Yoo nu giv speciaw huggies to mawe! Dat mawe is fow stompin’!”
> You turn your head away.
> Tonight, you’ll sit by the edge of Little River, hoping that one of your friends comes looking for you.
> You need to tell them all about this herd.
> And what Maroon is planning.
 
----------
 
> You are Princess, the purple unicorn filly with a red mane.
> You love your Dada, Maroon. And you always will.
> But that doesn’t mean you have to like what he says.
> He told you not to have special huggies, that you were too little for them, even if your peepee place does feel funny and tingly.
> Dada is being a poopy-head about it.
> You’re pretty like Mumma, and all the colts love you, so why not have special hugs?
> When all the stallions and mares went out to have lots and lots of special hugs, he made you and Prince stay with all the other colts and fillies in the Sleepy Room.
> Well, you’ll show him.
> You’re going to have special hugs, and that’s that!
> When Dada wasn’t around, you snuck around to the Slave Room.
> All you need to do is get one of those poor slaves to give you special hugs.
> And when you’re done, you’ll say that special hugs were bad.
> Dada will never know.
> You simply went up to the Ash Horns guarding the entrance to the Slave Room and told them Dada wanted to see them.
> They left. They’re all such dummies.
> You found one stallion, a red Earthie with a pink mane, and said you would show him how to get away if he gave you special hugs. You made sure to find one that still had his special lumps and still smelled okay.
> He agreed.
> Wow, Earthies really ARE big dummies!
> He followed out of the Slave Room and over to the Water Room.
> “Otay fwend, um…wat yoo name again?” you asked him.
> “Vawentine.”
> You turn around and shove your peepee place into his face.
> “get to wowk, and yoo nu hav to be in Wink anymo’! Pwincess pwomise.”
> He hesitates a moment.
> “wat? Yoo nu tink Pwincess is pwetty?”
> “Pwincess pwetty.”
> “Den giv Pwincess da naughty miwk!”
> He gets on top of you, and you grin to yourself.
> This will be the best day ever!
 
----------
 
> You are Maroon, best smarty of best herd.
> And you’re walking to the Slave Room with the two Ash Horns that came to you.
> They had said that Princess told them that you wanted to see them.
> You are confused and a little angry.
> You’ve told every Ash Horn who has been chosen to stand guard to stay there until you or another Ash Horn says it’s alright to leave.
> “Enf, Enf, Enf”.
> At first, you don’t pay attention to the sound of special hugs.
> You don’t expect any of the dummy slaves to have run away- they’re too scared to do that.
> But you still can’t understand why Princess would tell-
> “DADA! HEWP!”
> You whip to the side, and instantly your head begins to throb.
> A dummy earthie is on top of Princess, thrusting.
> “MEANIE EAWTHIE GIV PWINCESS BAD SPECIAW HUGGIES!”
> “wha?” the Earthie seems to says, but you can’t quite hear him.
> “HUWT SOOO BAD! PWEASE NU MOWE HUWT!”
> A red mist, the color of fresh hurty water, seeps into your vision.
> The tastes of booboo juice fills your mouth.
> And its smell lingers in your nose.
> Is...
> Is Princess calling you ‘Maroon’?
> Why does she sound like-
> You’re on top of the earthie now. Your front hoofs are pushing down on his neck.
> His tongue hangs out and he seems to be saying something, but you can’t hear him.
> All you hear, and feel, is throbbing in your head.
> Your left leggie starts to tingle and hurt.
> You bite the dummy earthie’s tongue, which flaps and moves around like a Fish monster that jumped out of the water.
> You pull, and pull, and bite down harder.
> The taste of booboo juice is overpowering.
> But his tongue doesn’t come out. So you spit a glob of spit and booboo juice into his stupid, dumb earthie face, before biting his right peeper.
> A chunk of it comes out in your mouth, and you turn your head and spit it out before stomping on the earthie’s neck again.
> Doing so sends a wave of pain up your left leggie.
> It now looks like he’s crying booboo juice.
> You step off of him. He lays on his back, thrashing about in his hurties.
> “Bite it! Bite it! Bite it!”
> Who’s saying that!?
> You look at his happy thing, stupid, dirty, dumb earthie happy thing that filled up Princess with yucky, horrible naughty milk!
> You bite down on them hard- and pull.
> It comes off, and you spit it out. He’ll never use it again.
> The earthie flops to his side and curls inwards on itself, as if he’s trying to keep warm in a fluffpile.
> His front leggies reach for where his happy thing was.
> “Yay!”
> You yell at whoever is talking to shut up, but you can’t find the correct words. Instead you roar.
> Then you plunge your horn into the back of the earthie. He stiffens and uncurls.
> You plunge your sharpened horn into him again and again, each time with more force, more anger.
> Booboo juice seeps out in a large puddle beneath you and the earthie. You slip in it a little, as you continue making holes where there were once none.
> You make one hole big enough that you can see his inside at his tummy ickies.
> You pull out a large, spaghetti-like part of the stuff before spitting it out, leaving it in the puddle of hurty water.
> “It’s Coco! It’s Coco! It’s Coco!”
> You try to yell at whoever is talking to keep quiet or get big owwies. But you don’t know how.
> Your left leggie is tingling and throbbing, almost as bad as your head.
> You plunge your horn into the back of the earthie’s head.
> You don’t know when he stopped moving.
> Breathing hard, you turn away.
> Both Ash Horns and Princess are looking at you. They all look afraid.
> A shiver goes up your back, and you begin to shake.
> You try to walk towards them, but sharp pain shoots through your left leggie.
> You stumble forward and fall.
> You try to speak, but instead you make mouth sickies.
> The throbbing in your head is unbearable.
> You struggle to get up, but you only make peepee and poopies trying.
> “Da…Dada?” you hear Princess say.
> You try to speak, but you can’t stop shaking.
> “Pwinsusss…”
> As soon as the shaking stops, you crawl away from the mess you’ve made and sleep.
> You don’t wake up until next Brighttime.
 
----------
 
> You are Peppermint.
> You are sitting with Scruffy and Kali, thinking about everything Sparks had told you.
> Currently, Sparks is in another one of The Shacks, probably with Silky and Cuddles.
> You don’t hear any singing as the Sun goes sleepy, and you don’t hear the sound of Kazoo and her toy, so they it must be storytime instead of songtime.
> “Scwuffy, yoo need find Atwas. He wiww know wat’s going on.” You begin. Scruffy just listens.
> He’s a good fluffy.
> “If Mawoon wan giv biggest owwies to hewd, we need fwends.”
> You look at him. “As soon as yoo know wat happen to Atwas, teww Peppewmint.”
> You shuffle out from under your blankie, and stretch.
> First your back leggies.
> “Maybe Fwuffytown wiww hewp.” He says.
> “Maybe, but Pwescious is gweedy smawty. She may nu wan hewp.” Kali says, her cheeks puffing a bit.
> “Da Aesiw?” Scruffy asks as you stretch your front leggies.
> “Maybe.” Kali says.
> You crane your neck from side to side. Your horn glows a little. It always does that when you stretch.
> “Bawdew wiww wan hewp if he meets Siwky. Bawdew’s bwudda was Tor.” Scruffy continues.
> “But Aesiw hewd is smaww.” Kali replies.
> “Why not both hewds?” you say as you stretch out your wings and sigh.
> They’re both silent for a moment before Kali says “Dat a guud idea! Peppewmint is best smawty!”
> “Yah!” Scruffy cheers. “Smawty Peppewmint is smawt!”
> You stop stretching and smile. “Smawty Peppewmint is tiwed, owd mawe. Wan sweepies now.”
> “Can…can Kawi sweep wit Peppewmint?” Kali asks, her eyes full of hope.
> “Scwuffy too! Scwuffy wuv smawty!”
> “Otay. Guud fwuffies sweep wit Peppewmint. Come to bwankie. It wawm.”
> All three of you lay on the blankie, you in the middle, Kali on your left and Scruffy on your right.
> You lay your wings over their backs, having them act as blankies of their own.
> They snore soon afterwards. Even before you start to drift into sleepies
> “Peppewmint wuv yoo both. Yoo guud fwuffies.”
> You close your peepers, letting their snores and the wind be your lullaby.