> You are Maroon. The dark red Unicorn smarty of the Best Herd.
> And you watch the Owwie Ring. It’s one of your favorite things to do!
> Currently, there are a lot of herd members in the Owwie Ring.  Four…and another four…you think, at least.
> No. Three. Four and three.
> That’s…six? Maybe a little more?
> You can’t count that high.
> Eitherway, it’s a great sight! Currently they’re all fighting over a really pretty white mare with a black mane named Juno.
> They kick, buck and bite. Horns spark. Screams of pain, growls of anger and taunting laughter fill the air. Other fluffies are also watching with you, including Princess, who also loves the Owwie Ring.
> She nuzzles your neck as she watches. You nuzzle back.
> “Who yoo tink gun win?” you ask her.
> A stallion screams as he is bitten in one of his peepers: “OWWIES!”
> She points her little hoof at the biter “Dat wun!”
> You look. You know that stallion. He’s a new herd member. He’s orange with a red mane.
> He’s doing well in the Owwie Ring. He yells, bucks, kicks and bites hard. He bares his booboo juice-stained teeth at his opponents. One cowers, the others advance.
> He doesn’t waste time: he charges them.
> You like him. He reminds you of you, way back then…
 
----------
 
> You never figured out how long you laid next to Mumma, crying.
> You cried yourself to sleep, but this is all you know.
> When you awoke, you were surrounded by other fluffies. All Unicorn fluffies.
> They were all chattering.
> “Mawe hav owwies?” one said. “mawe sweeping fowevew.” Was a reply. “Cowt hav owwies? Wan huggies?”
> There were a small number of them. Six, you think.
> Among them were two friends that would eventually come to be in your herd: Jelly and Tangles.
> And a third: Sunny.
> A pure brown stallion named Hamlet, who was smarty.
> The last two you could never forget: One pure black stallion, and one grey and white mare.
> The black one’s name was ‘Sooty’, the grey and white mare was his special friend, ‘Cotton’.
> You remember Cotton hugging you. You hugged back, and cried. “Mawoon wan Mumma!!!”.
> “Cotton sowwy. Mumma sweep fowevew. Dun cwy. Cotton and Sooty take cawe of wittwe Mawoon.”
> They took you away from that place. You were scared at first, but Cotton and Sooty made you feel safe again.
> You never forgot Mumma.
> Time passed, and you began to slowly feel better. Happy,even.
> You drank some milkies from Cotton a few times.
> “Yoo wemind Cotton of ouw babbeh: Cwimson.” Sooty had told you. “Cwimson got biggest owwies fwom dog-munsta when he went ‘way fwom da fwuffpiwe.”
> You always slept close to both of them. You never knew your dada, but you think Sooty would’ve been a good dada.
> It took a long time for you to talk about Mumma. About Navy. You missed them both so much.
> “we sowwy dummy eawthie and bad wingies be bad fwuffies.” Cotton said.
> Sooty just nuzzled your neck.
> In this small herd, there were no Earthies or Wingies. And that was fine.
> You remember in Coco’s herd, Earthies would always make dumb choices- making poopies in the open where monsters could see, drinking water too fast and always hurting others when they played- they were too big and dumb to know how strong they were.
> And Wingies were always mean, always calling you slow because they could run fast. Once you tried to catch one while playing and it made poopies on you and laughed, calling you a “Swow poopie-head.”. You ran to Mumma and cried, and she cleaned you.
>You got faster with time, but you still had your face pooped on.
>And you hated their wings. They were strange looking and felt funny in the fluffpile.
> But in this herd, no one was dumb, and no one was mean, because they were all Unicorns like you. You liked that.
> Sometimes your herd would encounter other herds. When this happened, usually small fights broke out and you gave owwies.
> It was from these fights that you learned that the wings of Wingies broke easily. It was funny- Wingies would always be so proud of their wings, and they would get so sad when you’d break them.
> After one such fight, both Sooty and Cotton slept forever- a Wingie bit one of Sooty’s peepers and it turned a funny colour, and Cotton got so many owwies that she had owwies on the inside: she kept leaking booboo juice.
> They were laying there, motionless and cold in the fluff pile. This was the first time you felt deep saddies since you joined your new herd.
> A few days later, Hamlet said that you all had to find a herd to join.
> This made you feel uneasy. What if there were Earthies and Wingies?
> It didn’t take long before you did find a herd. You met them when the sun was still shining, in a small clearing next to a stretch of metal-monster path.
> There were a few Unicorns in that herd, but many were Wingies and Earthies.
> Hamlet and the smarty, a purple Unicorn with a white mane named Theo, babbled and talked: Hamlet was trying to convince Theo to let you all join his herd.
> You didn’t pay much attention, because you couldn’t take your eyes or mind off of one of the other herd’s members.
> Dusty.
> It was at this time you truly felt the throbbing pain in your head.
> “Mawoon hav owwies?” Sunny asked.
> You looked at her and soon realized your sniffer was leaking booboo juice. You didn’t answer, instead you turned your attention back to the other herd.
> A plan formed.
> “We hav mawe and guud fwuffies.” Hamlet says.
> “but we hav too many fwuffies an not enough gwassies.” Theo replies.
> You speak up, despite the throbbing in your head.
> “Hamwet and Theo stoopid!”
> They both look at you.
> “Hamwet and Theo nu know dat too many eawthies and wingies in hewd. Dat too many fwuffies!”
> Hamlet snorts “Mawoon stoopid, not smawty.”
> “Mawoon is smawty now! Hamwet be quiet ow get biggest owwies!”
> Hamlet was surprised: no other fluffy had challenged him before. Theo just watched, confused.
> Hamlet puffed his cheeks out, you did the same.
> He tried to buck you, but when he reared up, you bite his neck and wrestled him to the ground.
> He squirmed and sobbed, but you held on, biting harder and harder, despite your head hurties.
> You tasted booboo juice soon and Hamlet slept forever. What a dummy fluffy he was. You then turned your attention to Theo.
> “Theo next if nu go ‘way!” you declared. Booboo juice dripping from your sniffer and lips.
> Theo then puffed his cheeks out and stamped his hoofs. “nu! Theo nu scawed!”
> “Theo stoopid!” you yelled and charged him. You remember bucking him to the ground, kicking his special lumps and biting one of his ears off. You must’ve stepped on his neck until he slept forever, as that’s the next thing you remember.
> Every moment of owwies and saddies in your life came back to you at this point. You stared at the other herd. Most of them looked scared, some hugged each other. Some made fear peepees
> Every Earthie was Coco.
> Every Wingie was Dusty, despite that Dusty himself was there.
> Every one of them was bad. *Are* bad.
> “Mawoon smawty now!” you roared, flecks of booboo juice flying from your mouth. You stomped one hoof. “aww unicowns come hewe by Mawoon!”
> The other herd’s Unicorns obeyed you, though some were nervous and still afraid.
> The Wingies and Earthies stayed where they were, babbling to each other, looking at you and your herd, confusion and fear in their eyes.
> You turned to your herd. More than six now. You didn’t know how many.
> A realization dawned on you: both Hamlet and Theo were bad smarties because they didn’t know how to give owwies and were stupid.
> You, however, knew nothing but owwies ever since Navy was taken away.
> You couldn’t allow your herd members to be weak or stupid.
> “Aww unicown fwuffies awe guud fwuffies!” You began. “And guud fwuffies giv owwies when smawty says!”
> “If you wan be in Mawoon’s hewd, you hav to be unicown, and hav to giv owwies!”
> You looked each and every one of them in their eyes. Some were scared, others were paying complete attention.
> “Mawoon is smawty, so…”
> You turned towards the other herd, and stared at Dusty. After a deep breath, you made a decision, one that you have stuck by ever since:
> “MAWOON SAY GIV DESE DUMB EAWTHIES AND WEAK WINGIES BIGGEST OWWIES!”
> You bolted towards Dusty and tackled him. The throbbing in your head was all you could hear.
> You bit, you bucked, you stomped. Dusty’s mouth was moving but no sound came out. At one point, after you bucked him so hard in the nose it began to leak booboo juice, he seemed to be crying.
> You couldn’t hear it, but you knew it.
> You didn’t stop. You kicked each of his leggies as hard as you could until he couldn’t run.
> “YOO CAWW ME FIWWY!?” you remember trying to say. “NOW YOO FIWWY!”
> You bit off his no-nos, held them in your mouth, and spat them in his face. Images of Mumma flooded your aching head as you did so.
> You bit tufts of fluff from his body, stomped on his belly, and bit out his peepers. You kept on giving him owwies until the throbbing in your head subsided.
> When it did, only them did you look around.
> Booboo juice stained the clearing, soft sobs of sadness and pain could be heard here and there. Many fluffies, some Unicorns, but mostly Earthies and Wingies, were strewn about like the leafies at Falltime.
> You couldn’t help but smile at the scene. You realized that Unicorns were the best fluffies: the other herd had more fluffies than your herd, and you still gave all of them biggest owwies.
> *chirp* “Mumma!” *chirp*
> You turned around. A baby? No. Three.
> One Wingie, two Earthies.
> You trotted up to them, and looked down at them.
> Sunny, Tangles, Jelly and a few other Unicorns you didn’t know gathered around you.
> Just looking at the mewling, pathetic little babies made the throbbing return.
> “Dun wet Wingie and Eawthies babies gwow up. Dey jus become stoopid and weak.”
> You said this while you were thinking it.
> You whole herd was silent as you crushed each of the small, stupid, weak little things one by one.
> You have been smarty ever since.
> Every fluffy that comes into your herd must give owwies, and must be a Unicorn.
> Every single Wingie and Earthie you find must be given biggest owwies.
> In time, you found Stompy. He has been a good fluffy. Mostly. You learned about The Home from a herd with a few old fluffies.
> Soon after, Thor joined from Dark Forest.
> And though Snowtime came and many of your herd members slept forever, only the best fluffies remained.
> The ones who mattered.
 
----------
> The orange and red stallion stands in the Owwie Ring, his last opponent begging for the owwies to stop.
> Only he is standing. He gets to have Juno.
> “Dat’s enough!” you yell, and all the cheering fluffies quiet down.
> You approach the stallion.
> “Yoo giv big owwies. Wat yoo cawwed?” you ask him.
> He looks at you, breathing heavy. “Atwas” he says.
> You smile. Princess comes up beside you. “Atwas weawwy stwong!” she says excitedly.
> Indeed. Atlas is strong.
> “Atwas has won! Juno now speciaw fwend of Atwas!” you announce. The fluffies cheer again. Huggies are exchanged with Atlas and other fluffies.
> Except those who have big owwies. The two that are sleeping forever get dragged off to the Hurty Place to go stinky.
> As you give Atlas a hug, you ask him: “Atwas wan be Ash Hown?”
 
----------
 
> You are Atlas, the orange Unicorn with a red mane.
> Currently special friend to Juno and Ash Horn.
> And, despite appearances, not part of Best Herd.
> No. You are part of Dark Forest Herd.
> You didn’t want to be an Ash Horn at first, but when you saw how they get to talk a lot to Maroon, you decided to enter the Owwie Ring in hopes Maroon took notice of you.
> Peppermint sent you to see if the stories that Silky told her and your herd were true.
> They are. Maroon is a bad fluffy.
> Soon, you hope, you will be sent to The Home. That’s where Maroon sends some fluffies, mostly Ash Horns.
> And Stompy.
> Peppermint is having Scruffy watch The Home.
> Silky cried for nights and nights after she came to Dark Forest. She is happier now.
> You remember that Scruffy wanted to give her special hugs, but she cried and said she didn’t want special hugs. So he stopped.
> That’s the rule in Peppermint’s herd.
> But this herd is scary and bad.
> You just hope that you will be sent to The Home. The less time you spend in The Rink, the happier of a fluffy you will be.