A Monster in Paradise - 1

ThreeRoadsDiverged, March 11, 2015; 16:05 / FB 30520
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A Monster in Paradise
Part 1


Deep in an otherwise unremarkable forest lived a rather unusual fluffy family. In truth, many fluffy ponies lived - and still live - in this forest, but they are largely inconsequential to our tale.

This forest is a veritable Garden of Eden for fluffykind: Food is abundant, deep water is scarce, and the local predators have little interest in creatures that are noisy, more fluff than meat, and prone to spontaneous defecation. Even the few humans that ever bother to visit are, at worst, ambivalent towards fluffies. The only significant dangers these fluffies face are winters, which have proven effective enough at keeping their population in check, and their own accident-prone nature.

The family we will be concerning ourselves with lived in relative isolation from their fellow equines. Specifically, they lived in a small clearing bisected by a shallow stream. Next to the stream was an old tree stump, the rather spacious hollow beneath it serving as both sleeping quarters and shelter from the environment, when necessary. The parents were rather unremarkable; The mother was a green unicorn and the father was a red earth fluffy. Both were as close to monochromatic as your garden-variety fluffy can be, their mane and tail fluff simply being a darker shade of their rather bright body fluff. What makes this family unusual is not the parents, however, but the foals.

Or rather, the foal. Their only foal. As most of you are no doubt aware, fluffy ponies are typically born in litters. This foal was no exception: Rather than being a rare single birth, all of this foal's littermates were stillborn.

Truth be told, stillborn litters were an uncomfortably common occurrence for this couple. They had tried time and time again to bear children, and the vast majority never took their first breath. The few that survived to their birth were typically extreme runts and defects, the kind of foals that stand little chance at survival without human aid. Any viable foals they did manage to have were born under unfavorable conditions, most often winter. The end result was that any foals who escaped this mare's womb alive managed to expire within twenty-four hours.

If Fate has a sense of humor, it is a very dark one. After countless attempts, the mated pair finally bore fruit: A single colt, whose pure white tail complemented his cyan fluff, horn, and wings. Yes, you heard me correctly: A horn and wings. Their first proper child was an alicorn, the breed most fluffies misclassify as "monsters".

Fate has a dark sense of humor indeed.

Fortunately for the colt, his parents' desire for children, amplified by their innumerable failures, was strong enough to override their natural fear of alicorns. They were not blind to what their offspring was, of course, and so stole away in the dark of night - guided by the glow of the mare's horn - to search for a new home away from a society that would never accept their only child. They have been living under their stump by the stream ever since.

For two weeks the family lived in absolute bliss. The mare and stallion were ecstatic to finally have a foal that survived his first night, while the colt himself, to put it simply, was spoiled rotten.

With no neighbors, no other children and no real responsibilities, the new parents were able to devote their entirety to their child. Any request the foal made was met without hesitation; Hugs, milk, songs, baths, games, rides, naps, and more were but a word or gesture away. This isn't to say that the colt was rude, but then he had no need to be rude when he was never denied anything.

Unfortunately, this family's problems ran deeper than merely wanting for nothing. These parents were so glad they could finally raise a child that they forgot to actually raise their child. Discipline was the farthest thing from their mind; The young alicorn could do almost anything and his parents would allow it. They failed to teach him any important life lessons, either. The fluffy couple was in no rush to see their only foal grow up, and so neglected to teach him the skills he would need as an adult.

Nowhere was this more apparent than the foal's lack of toilet training, and not just because of the lack of toilets. Sooner or later, most fluffies learn to keep their waste in one spot if they don't want to wallow in their own filth. This colt, however, never learned that lesson. His parents always licked clean any urine or feces he got on them or himself, teaching him quite the opposite: That he could do his business wherever he wanted and if it needed to be cleaned, his parents would do it.

Now, while a pampered foal might face, or cause, many challenges, this alone does not warrant our attention. Even an alicorn accepted by its parents, while unusual, would likely get no more than a brief acknowledgement. However, Fate has a dark sense of humor, and it finds fluffy ponies particularly amusing. This colt's birth would mark a change in the family's luck with foals, and not one for the better.

~~~~~~~


For two weeks the family lived in absolute bliss.

The colt's first week of life was fairly uneventful. With no siblings to compete against, he gorged himself on his mother's milk whenever the slightest twinge of hunger struck. If he wanted a hug, all he needed to do was lift his forelegs towards the first parent he saw. If he ever felt alone, he would chirp as loudly as his tiny lungs allowed until the parent mere inches outside his range of vision comforted him. If sleep ever overtook him, the attending parent would lay down next to him and blanket him with their tail to keep him warm. The only outward sign that something was amiss was the foal's excess body fat, although this was hardly surprising. In addition to his gluttonous diet, fluffy milk is designed to be fattening to compensate for the thin layer of fluff on most young foals.

It was during the second week, when the foal's speech and motor skills were more developed, that an outside observer could pinpoint the root of the family's problems. If the colt ever wanted something, one or both parents would stop whatever they were doing to comply. Even such essentials as eating, sleeping, and relieving themselves seemed secondary to these two fluffies. By all accounts it was the alicorn that was the head of the family, not his parents.

The day the colt's world was turned upside-down began like any other. A ray of morning light crept into the family's den. The foal, younger and more energetic than his parents, was the first to wake up. He climbed out of the soft, warm valley created by his parents' sleeping forms and spent a few seconds running about the den - the colt's newfound mobility had partially offset his feeding habits - before realizing he was the only one up and about. He briefly considered letting his parents sleep a little while longer, but a growling stomach changed his mind for him.

"Peep! Mummah! Daddeh! It bwight time now! Peep! Fwuffehs nee' wakies!" The cheerful alicorn bounced between light and shadow, chirping with glee at another day in paradise.

Both fluffies blinked mindlessly for a moment as their inhibited brains made the transition from dreams to reality. Once they had their wits about them, however, their thoughts instantly turned to their colt, who had sat back on his haunches and was lifting his forelegs up towards his father. The stallion picked up his only son and gave him a hug, then held him by his mother's face so they could nuzzle.

"Wub Mummah... Wub Daddeh..." The colt would have been content with this alone, but another growl reminded him of more pressing matters. "Peep! Nee' miwkies!"

The mare rolled onto her side so her mate could place their foal on her teat. As the colt suckled, the stallion stretched his legs and left their nest to answer nature's call. The mare let out a mighty yawn, by fluffy standards, before singing to their child:

Mommy woves babies, Daddy woves babies.
Babies be bestest babies fowevah.
Babies get huggies, babies get miwkies,
babies get wove an' biggest happies.

Had the foal been paying more attention to the lyrics, perhaps the ensuing tragedy could have been avoided. However, he was too preoccupied enjoying the sweet ambrosia that was his mother's milk to know anything more than that his mother was singing to him. And that he had just soiled himself.

The stallion returned well before the colt had finished his breakfast. With that business attended to, the stallion rolled his mate out the tree stump's largest opening so they could graze. The colt, meanwhile, was entertaining himself by running as best he could through the tall grass. When exhaustion finally caught up with him, which was often, he would stop to chat with random "friends" such as a ladybug or a particularly odd-shaped rock.

While the parents feed and the foal tries to converse with a caterpillar, let us take a moment to confirm what many of you no doubt suspect: The mare was pregnant again.

Perhaps it is human greed that should be blamed for many of the problems fluffy ponies cause. After all, what better marketing technique is there than a pet that wants, no, that begs to be adopted? The best way to go about this is to give fluffies a strong desire, if not an outright need, for a family. For most fluffies, simply having a human mother or father is enough. However, adoption is not always an option, in which case what can a fluffy do to satisfy its built-in desire for a family? Why, create one of its own, of course! However, one foal is rarely enough to fulfill a fluffy's need for a family, even for parents - or perhaps, especially for parents - with as many stillborns as these two fluffies.

This family, however, would face problems that few other fluffies encountered. When Hasbio designed fluffy ponies, they wanted to be able to observe their "product" from an early stage, determining which foals were marketable and which were a waste of resources. As fluffies were never meant to breed outside of controlled conditions, what harm was there if the foals were born slightly prematurely? As a result, fluffy pregnancies last a mere two weeks while most foals cannot be safely weaned until three weeks of age at the youngest. For most fluffies this is a non-issue, as the parents are content with the children they already have and feel no urge to bring more into the world until the current litter has begun weaning. It should come as no surprise, however, that this foal-starved couple began work on their next litter shortly after the alicorn's birth.

It is also worth noting that fluffy ponies are a highly social species, even more so that their creators. There are few things fluffies enjoy more than time spent with friends - except, perhaps, time spent with family - and they are always eager to befriend anyone they encounter, be they human, fluffy, animal, or inanimate. "Love" seems to be the default state of mind for these tiny equines. No doubt this was intentional, helping fluffies fulfill their role as domestic companions. Unfortunately, this serves as a double-edged sword: Having their offers of friendship and love ignored or rebuked, even if it is only perceived on their end, can have a far greater impact on a fluffy's psyche than most forms of discipline.

More specific to our story, however, bio-programming can only go so far. While fluffies have a strong desire for friends and a predisposition towards love, social interactions still take some trial and error to master. Perhaps this is why Hasbio allowed fluffies to breed naturally and placed foals into litters: So the young ponies could learn how to be good friends, with authority figures nearby to keep them in line when they misbehave. Or perhaps it was simply more economical than test tubes and single births. Either way, Fate had denied this colt any fellow fluffies beyond his overly-doting parents, in effect robbing him of the skills he would need when his siblings arrived.

Returning to our fluffy family, their morning was spent doing what comes naturally to fluffies: Playing. And, as with everything else in this family, their games revolved around the foal.

The stallion spent time playing "huggie tag" with his son and giving the colt rides on his back, the alicorn's wings flapping rapidly in an imitation of flight (and his unmentionables wetting his father's fluff). The immobilized mare played peek-a-boo with the colt and sang him to sleep for his mid-morning nap. Together the family used smooth stones from the stream as substitutes for blocks, stacking them as best they could. When the mare needed to be rolled away and relieve herself, the colt passed the time by splashing in water that barely came up to his portly belly (and prompted another round of urination).

The moment that shattered the alicorn's utopia came in the early afternoon, shortly after his lunch. The family had returned to the cool shade of their stump, the stallion raising and lowering his son repeatedly. The foal giggled as his wings buzzed. "Hee hee hee! Upsies! Peep! Behbeh wub upsies! Hee hee hee!"

The mother simply smiled and hummed as she watched the scene before her, up until she felt a sharp pain in her groin. A less experienced mare would mistake this pain for unusually large feces. This mare, however, was very experienced.

"BABIES COMIN'!!!"