Alleyway Fluffies

Alleyway Fluffies

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Warning:  This story contains no no abuse or violence, but a stark reality.  Viewer discretion is advised.


In the big cities, and I mean the biggest cities of the U.S, many fluffy herds manage to eke out a living.
People call them a lot of different things, but no matter where you are, the government gives them the same official name.
Alleyway herds.
And there is one rule all alleyway fluffies must follow.
It's a simple one, but critically important.

Never, EVER be caught by the humans.

All smarty friends of the alleyways know this.
They teach it to every member in their herd.
Clever fluffies catch on and keep clear of humans whenever they can.
The others die.
Die, or are taken away as the human scoops them up into bags, nets, or with their bare hands and walks away.
Often to shelters where they're at least fed and warm, but the fluffies don't know that.
Not even the smartest fluffy knows, to them being taken by a human means being gone for good.
Some forget the rule, like mothers or fathers who foolishly let their children play where humans can find them.

Then, they are gone.

The herd has to stop distraught parents from giving chase however they can, even if it means smothering them.
They forgot the rule, and going after their lost child puts not only their lives at risk, but the herds as well.
In their grief they didn't realize or couldn't accept their children were gone.
Gone the moment it was picked up.
And the herd can't risk itself to go after a few foals or a wayward friend, no matter how much it hurts.
It's sad when foals or friends are taken away, but the herd has to survive.
Best to forget all about those fluffies, they never come back.

Life in the maze of side streets, condemned buildings, pathways, spaces between structures and various crevices is both dangerous and varied.
They alleyways are wide-ranging, twisting, winding and forever changing.
Humans put things there only to take them away later.
The pattern (garbage day, backdoor deliveries to buisnesses etc.) is too much for a fluffy to understand, but there's opportunity in this frequent movement.
Food can appear suddenly where there was none moments before.
Shelter and places to hide could be just around the corner.
But so could any number of things, its different every day.
Those who try to leave, try to find a new home away from the humans and filth and predators face something even more terrifying and lethal.

The roads.

There isn't a single mile of road in any major city of the eastern United States without some brightly colored fluff caked to it.
Fluffies are adept at picking the worst possible time to try and cross them, their bodies and piles of shed fluff clogging gutters everywhere is a testament to that.
And some face miles of walking to escape their concrete prison, without even knowing which way to go.

Only desperate fluffies take the drastic step of walking the roads.
Those cast out from their herds for the most serious transgressions, or fear of the many things that prey upon them be it rat or dog or cat.

Them, and the ones driven mad.

Fluffies were designed to love and be loved in return, those who don't find that kind of connection and are isolated from their kin won't last long mentally.
The rest have come to fear the open roads through personal experience or stories told by smarties and parents to foals.

So they stay.
Stay in an environment not conductive to a fluffies well being.
Having no where else to go they scratch out whatever meager existence conditions allow.
Alleyway herds are small, no more than forty fluffies and rarely that many.
Twenty is a more common number, but the herds themselves are ever changing too.
Merging, splitting, finding new homes, losing old ones to other herds, members disappearing around the corner, never to return.
Disease.
Birth.
Predators.
Raids.
Getting lost, or worst of all.
Getting found.

Alleyway fluffies must be ever cautious, staying together and rapid reproduction is their only chance for survival.
Mares are often the target of raids from other herds, or foals if they can be convinced their new family is better.
A little violence is usually enough to make any young fluffy have a change of heart.
If it doesn't a lot of violence is used, but for a different purpose.
Better to kill a foal who refuses to step in line than give it back and make the a different herd one member stronger.
Fluffies who are best friends as foals may be fighting viciously over a fallen garbage can some day.
It's all for the herd.
Loyalty born of desperation, hunger and fear of being alone.

Alone.

The worst case scenario for a fluffy.
Conceived to hold cute little conversations, dance and play clumsily, be silly and feel wonderful to hug; that's the extent of a fluffy ponies abilities.
And that's why they need numbers to accomplish anything, survival included.
Other fluffies usually aren't that hard to find in the alleys, but are rarely friendly to strangers.
The old behavior, fluffies meeting each other and saying things like "fwiend? pway? gif huggies?" is little more than vague memories for the alleyway fluffy.
They have to learn much as foals, about friend or foe, about hiding and staying quiet.
There are no adult alleyway fluffies who haven't learned these lessons.

You were alone for days, it's amazing you didn't go mad.
Too scared to leave the safety of the space under a dumpster, yet too frantic for fluffy company to stay.
Luckily, hugs came to you.
A mare and her foals had been cautiously searching for a place to hide from monsters.
She was the most welcome, most beautiful fluffy you'd ever laid eyes on.
Back then her babies were still drinking milk and riding her back, now they eat solid food and will be full grown in another month.
That's a lot of mouths to feed, food you have to find for them, her, and yourself.
That's your job.
You're their daddy now.
What's more, she bore you a litter who are close to weaning and is again large with another.
She can't walk or help you gather food.
It's much harder finding enough for every mouth.
But considering the alternative...
Your family is what keeps you going.

And you have to keep going.
They all depend on you.
Your special friend, the foals, your babies and the ones that are yet to be born.
Food, food is what's most important now.
Ignore the fear that makes your blood run cold.
Ignore the horrible sounds that echo throughout the alleyways you live in.
Ignore the pain in your right front leg and chest, there has to be food nearby.

Up ahead is a small group of fluffies, two adults and some foals.
None say hi or ask to play, they all keep a careful watch as you pass.
The days of asking random fluffies for hugs and playing are long gone.
Before you lived here, that was the natural thing to do.
But you've learned quickly, if you hadn't, you'd be dead like so many others.
Fluffies that never got to taste spaghetti, or know what it felt like to have a human stroke your fluff.

Mommy and Daddy were the nice humans you lived with in the before days.
That's how you remember things, before becoming an alleyway fluffy and after.
Most of the happy memories come from the before time.
They fed you, kept you warm, played games and gave lots of hugs.
But when they said you couldn't have special friends, couldn't have babies, everything changed.
You didn't understand the biological urges pumping through you, only that you needed to find a special friend and give her hugs from behind.
With the scent of every mare within half a mile fueling your desire, a decision was made.
Special hugs were more important than mommy and daddy.
So one day you waddled off when mommy brought you to the park, she was talking to her black box with the pretty lights, making it easy to shuffle down a close by alley and disappear.
You didn't know it at the time, but choosing to walk away would change your life forever.
There would be no mommy and daddy, no hugs, no yummy nummies, no warm house.
You weren't a pet anymore.

You were an alleyway fluffy.

Free to do as you please.
Free to find a special friend and have babies.
Free to spend days without food, having the worst tummy owwies you've ever had.
Free to have meanie fluffies steal the food you found and give you hurties.
Free to dream of the days spent laying on your daddy's lap while he stroked your back.
And free to remember what happiness was like.

Still, despite your hardships and a crash course in fluffy survival it hasn't been ALL bad.
You have a special friend now, and a growing family!
A family that needs a lot of food to keep going.
That's another freedom you've discovered.
If you don't find enough food you're free to watch your babies get smaller, weaker, and eventually die.
All while they beg mommy for the milk she doesn't have because you didn't provide for her.

So you push on, sniffing at everything that could be edible, pawing at the big black bags humans leave out when the giant green metal boxes are full.
Like the one you've just come across, and it's already open!
You give a quick look both ways before waddling in fast as you can, time is super important!
The horrible smells that'd have pushed you back two months ago barely even register as your head plunges in, hauling out everything with even a hint of good tastes.

Success!

You know this food, it's flat and has lots of different flavors to it.
The red runny part reminds you so much of spaghetti... it's a great food you've found.
It'll help your special friend make milk and the older foals will have full tummies tonight!

"Pwease, pwease gif nummies?  Tummeh soooooo huwties!"

Two other fluffies, both pegasus and dark colors you don't know the names of.
Your ears flatten out a bit, you'd hoped to drag out even more food but being interrupted changes things.

"Dis nummies fo' speciawl fwiend an' babbehs.  Yu fin' own nummies in dere." You motion with your horn towards the trash bag and lift up your mostly intact slice of pizza, ready to find the two turns that'll take you back to your family.

"Buh tummehs haf wowstest owwies!  Dat weal good nummies, pwease gif nummies!"

"Pwease, nu haf nummies fo' wong time, pwease gif."

They're approaching slowly but staying low and non threatening.
It could be they're new to the alleyways.
But they're also filthy and smell even worse than the bag you got this food from.
You don't like it.
Picking up the food you waddle around them and back the way you came while mumbling about the bag and pointing at it again with your horn.

They both make their move, charging and trying to steal what you've found for your family!
The first one lunges with his mouth open, looking to grab your tail and slow you down.
It's a bad idea, your back left leg lashes out and catches him right on the tip of his nose.

*Thwack*  "Owwie!  Why huwt fwuffy?"

That's stopped him but his friend is almost beside you now, reaching with her mouth for one side of the food.
She's quick and is only inches from what's yours, the sheer size of it is cumbersome enough to slow your waddle considerably.
When she's just inches away, you turn your head and jerk it hard as you can to the left, letting go of your precious cargo for just a second.

*squelch*!

"GAAHHHHHHH!!!  OWWWIEEEEE!!!  OWWWIEEEEEE!!!  WAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!"

Your horn penetrates her large, glassy blue eye with all the force a fluffy neck can muster.
The sound is sickening, but you know she'll stop chasing you now, that's all that matters.
Far behind she shrieks and thrashes around on the ground, clutching at the draining socket with both front hooves while wailing in agony.
You don't even look back.
It's been over two months of learning alleyway fluffy life the hard way.
Those two wanted to take food from your babies mouths, maybe even hurt you.
They got what they deserved.
Bad fluffies, they were bad fluffies.
That's what you keep telling yourself as the tears threaten to come.

Your family is all that matters, it's what you left your warm and happy human home for.
Instinct drove you to the alleyways looking for a mate, and instinct drives you to protect food and family with all your strength.

It's a clumsy shuffle back home, past the small family huddled behind two garbage cans.
This time they give you an entirely new look, but still not a friendly one.
They want what you've got, but you don't even slow down or acknowledge them.
That stallion would try to take the food if you had, just like you would if the situation were reversed.
The families survival, that's all you're concerned with.

You're pounced upon.
Foals and babies alike are giving hugs all over when you finally return home under the dumpster.
The hugs are warm and welcome, even though their faces are streaked with tears.
The older foals quickly break away and dig in.
It's okay, they hadn't eaten since the last time it was light.
Your mate greets you from where she lay on her side, unable to move from having babies inside.
She's so large her tummy even touches the dumpster above her, this might be a big litter.
You have three foals who are hungrily devouring the pizza you'd brought back and three babies, two who are suckling and the last...
Where is the little grey one?

"Whea gwey babbeh?"  You ask your special friend, noticing the tears pooling beneath her head.

"Wat munsta come, big wat munsta come an'... an'... babbeh...huuuuuu hu hu..."

You drag your aching body over and sit, wrapping your hooves around her head as she cries into your belly fluff.
Another baby gone.
Two of four.
It's like being stabbed in the chest with a freezing cold unicorn horn.
While the foals eat and babies suckle, the two of you hold onto each other and cry once again.

The first baby you lost, a yellow pegasus, had strayed out from under the dumpster for just a moment.
A cat monster had it before you could blink.
You charged, yelling and trying to jab it with your horn.
But it easily avoided you and slashed your right front leg as the clumsy attempt at rescue failed.
Then it hopped on top of your dumpster home, forcing the whole family to listen to your babies cries for help and hugs, followed by screams of pain and agony until a sharp, jarring shriek.
Then silence.
A few moments later the cat monster was back down, dropped the limp, yellow body and turned to fish out another snack.
You'd put yourself between it and your special friend, knowing this was probably your last moment.

But a sudden loud clack noise frightened the monster, it darted right past your makeshift home when a piece of the wall behind it opened up and two humans emerged.

Instead of rushing out to see if your baby was okay, you did what your special friend always said.
Never go near the humans.
Despite your past with mommy and daddy she had convinced you of what would happen, now they frightened you more than just about anything else.
You obeyed the rules and stayed hidden.

"9 to 1, it was a fuckin' slaughter... ugh is that... was that a fluffy?"

"Yep.  Looks like a cat, or maybe a seagull got it.  Either way it's picked pretty clean, just toss it in with the garbage."

"Lovely."

They set something down right beside your home, it smelled quite tasty whatever it was.
There was a very loud squeak from above and the new things were lifted up and out of sight.
The foals and babies all clung to their mother and cried, but one screamed at the sound before you could hush her.

"Hear that?"

"Just the fluffies living under the dumpster, ignore them and they'll ignore you."

"All right.  I guess it was one of theirs, poor thing."

"Happens all the time out here.  Don't try to feed them, they don't trust humans and the boss doesn't want them begging at the back door all day anyway."

When they went away you limped out, sniffing the ground where your baby had been dropped.
Only a few spots of blood and scent betrayed that he had ever been there at all.
You'll never know if the baby was all right or not, those humans took him away.
The rules were broken, and your baby was gone.
You did your best to follow them but the cat monster had rules of it's own.

On that day you all cried until it was dark time, just like you'll cry now for the grey unicorn baby that looked so much like you....
But he's gone, like the little yellow one.
And you have to keep going.
No matter how much it hurts, all fluffies have to keep going.
The foals have devoured half the slice of pizza you brought back, both babies are nestled in their mothers fluff and sleeping, and now it's her turn to feed.
It's enough for you both, at least for now.
Tomorrow would be a new day with new challenges, new things in the alleyways and hopefully, new reasons to smile.
You could really use a few more of those.

As for tonight, you'll be too busy crying for the little grey baby, the one that looked so much like you... back when you lived in warm, safe house with good food and loving humans.
Back when you were happy.

End