A Life to Die For

Ceron, March 21, 2018; 08:08 / FB 50460
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A Life to Die For
By: Ceron

Your name is Ford. You were named after the metal munstah that your father defeated long ago in his greatest accomplishment as a leader. You live in the desert, and you always have. You were born here, and you'll probably die here too. That's just the way life is in the desert. Right now, you're out with a few members of the herd to try and find pointy plants so you guys will have water for the upcoming bright times. Right now, the sky is a dark hazy purple, and the sun is almost asleep for the night as the moon peeks over the horizon. The sands below you are a sea of dark hues that would feel almost psychedelic to a normal human. But you aren't a normal human, you're a fluffy, a desert fluffy to be exact about it.

"Awight, next gwoup, go." You hear the dull tones of your leader beckoning you and your friends to cross the black river of stone ahead of you.

Without a word, you and 3 other fluffies quickly jump up onto the wide, sun baked highway and begin sprinting across, watching for munstahs in both directions. Although you feel a small vibration coming through the asphalt underfoot, it's a hot minute before you see the munstah appear from the haze in the distance. All 20 of the fluffies in the area wait quietly for the beast to pass.

"Awight, next gwoup, go."

As another set of fluffies repeats the process you just went through, one of your group mates spots something.

"Fowd, obew dere." Quaker points to a wavy shape off to the right. You and your group trot over to it and you're relieved to find a large green plant, covered in painful spines standing up high in the heat.

"Gwit, gu tell Camew we found wawa pwant." You bark to the mangy blue fluffy on your left. Without a word she grunts and heads off in the direction you came from.

"Otay, wets get tu wowk."

With that, you and the two remaining fluffies begin clamping your teeth on the many spines of the plant and do your best to twist them off. It's slow going, but it's made a bit easier when Grit shows back up with a second group of 4 fluffies to help out. Once you've ripped off most of the spines, your mouths are bloodied, but none of you complain as you begin tearing out chunks of cactus and spitting them back into a pile on an old dirty piece of cloth. Once enough of the plant has been harvested, you and a fluffy from the other group take the ends of the cloth in your mouths and begin dragging it back to the main herd.

Upon your return, your leader comes to greet you. Camel is a sandy brown fluffy with a neon purple mane, and he's older than any other fluffy in your herd.

"Tank ou Fowd, take dat back to hewd home an gib tu soon mummahs fiwst, den mummahs." He speaks, with his usual tired gratitude.

As you continue dragging the cloth, you come upon a large rocky outcropping, made of sandstone and a few sparse brambles. Brushing those aside, you reveal a short, wide hole leading downwards into the tunnels below. You have to duck going in, and trek quietly through the darkness for a bit before the cave opens up into a large hollow, with cracks of light shining through the many cluttered boulders that make up the roof of the structure. The floor of the area is littered with old rags and plastic sheets, coating the earth in a colorful carpet of garbage. Branching off of the main room are 4 to 5 tunnels, some opening into other visibly large rooms, and some leading downwards into dark caves.

The middle section contains a welcoming sight, as you see a multicolored mess of mothers and foals playing in the center. Their cheerful giggling is audible from your position and a few stop and look up at you when you arrive. You and the other fluffy unceremoniously dump your cargo near the edge of the room, and you hear a smattering of "Tank ou"s from the satisfied mares. You grab a few pieces of plant and bring it over to one of the branch rooms. Looking inside you see the bloated and bright figures of the soon mummahs, all resting up after a hard days work of being pregnant and nothing else.

"Hewe, wawa pwants. Make suwe da biggest soon mummahs get it fiwst." You shout over the constant din of blathering around you. A few of the more mobile mares begin rolling the fattest ones over to the pile you created as you turn and head out.

You volunteer to stay in the hollow while you leader goes back out to scavenge, someone needs to help with the mummahs and foals after all. The rest of the night is uneventful for you, with the other fluffies forming a large fluffpile and promptly falling asleep. You're keeping watch over them, watching for any signs of trouble, when the scavengers arrive, back from their relatively successful mission.

Camel approaches you as the other newly arrived fluffies join the pile one by one.

"Camew can keep watch nao, ou can join fwuffpiwe if ou want." He speaks, clearly weary, but concerned for you.

"Nu, Fowd wiww stay up and watch hewd. Camew need sweep mowe den Fowd." You respond, not taking your eyes off the entrance to the hollow.

Camel sounds like he wants to protest, and he sticks around for a moment too long, before sighing and heading off to join the pile.

You exit through the hollows entrance tunnel and make a few short hops to the large flat rock that overlooks the shifting sea of sand beneath you. The pale moonlight illuminates the nocturnal world to your eyes as you watch the world pass until the morning light.

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Your name is Ford. You don't know what you were named after because you're just a babbeh and aren't able to understand stuff like that yet. The only things you DO understand is that you are a babbeh, you love milkies, and you love Dust, your mummah. Mummah Dust is the bestest mummah in the whole world and you know this because it is true. Right now, mummah Dust is showing you how to make good poopies in the poopies cave.

"Otay babbeh, nao make poopies in da poopies piwe." She points over to a large, foul smelling pile in the corner.

You walk over to the pile and turn around, before a few droplets of watery feces fly out of your end and coat the existing mound. You turn towards Dust and beam up at her, looking for recognition of your obviously spectacular achievement.

"Gud babbeh! Make bestest poopies EBEW!" She shouts excitedly. You feel your heart leap with her praise and the both of you jump around as she calls you a "gud babbeh!" and you cheep with joy.

"Gud babbeh can get bestest nummies!" She walks out of the cave and heads towards the decent sized pile of food in the center of the burrow. It's mostly full of dry grass with the occasional spiky green plant or slightly rancid burger. Dust takes some of the grass along with a small chunk of fast food and wolfs it down in a heartbeat, as though she had been starving.

"Dun wowwy babbeh, wiww hab miwkies fow ou weal soon."

You cheep in acknowledgement and wander off to let her do her thing. As you walk over to a stray tumbleweed, you hear noise coming from the entrance tunnel. You run up to the dusty trail leading in and bounce with anticipation. You see a flash of purple in the darkness and Camel comes striding out from the tunnel, dusty but looking as stoic as always.

"Daddeh!" You chirp happily as he spots you. He runs over and scoops you up into a great big hug, squeezing you a little bit but you're too happy to care. You love hugs almost as much as miwkies. Not as much. But almost.

"Babbeh made bestest poopies fow mummah." You turn your head and see Dust trotting over, licking her lips as she finishes the last of the garbage. She nuzzles up to Camel and they let out a satisfied coo.

"Gud babbeh! Ou awe gunna be stwongest hewd weader ebew!" Camel bends down and whispers to you, making sure your mummah can't hear. Mummah doesn't like the idea of you being a herd leader, she thinks it's too dangerous, but the thought excites you, and your daddeh is all too happy to fuel that fantasy.

You cheep with a tone that you think is masculine, but comes off as pretty pathetic. Camel doesn't seem to notice though as he is too preoccupied with the food that he brought back for the herd. He has some plants and a bit of hoomin trash and he begins passing it around to the mothers and mares. You look up to Camel so much because of how much he cares for your herd and mummah. He's the strongest fluffy you've ever seen and he protects you and your herd every day. You don't know where you would be without him leading the herd. He's looking a bit sad right now though, you wonder why?

You walk over towards him and Crag, the big gray fluffy he is talking to, to try and listen in on the conversation.

"How many fwuffies did it take?" Camel asks, trying to be quiet but not noticing you.

"Bawky munstah took Fwito and Pwingles, an awso took aww da twashies dey found." He replies, his voice grave.

Camel is quiet for a moment, and he stares at the ground, his face wrinkled in concern.

"Wai hab bawky munstahs been taking fwuffy nummies? Dis am da thiwd time dis big moon."

"Nu know Camew, maybe bawky munstahs nu find nummies?"

"Dey weft fwuffies awone befowe." Camel responds.

"Maybe dey nu can find nummies NAO." Crag says, putting emphasis on the last word.

"Fwuffies nu can find nummies eithew." Your father contemplates, "An now hewd nu hab enuff fwuffies to get nummies for odda fwuffies."

"Maybe hewd need tu gu way, find somewhewe ewse to wive." Crag suggests, the solemnity in his voice not lost on you.

"Cowd time is comin soon. Hewd wiww take fowevew sweepies if dey twy to gu way duwing cowd time. Just, need tu find mowe nummies." Camel replies, clearly unsure of himself. "Wight, gu wook fow nummies again, nee mowe fow da mummahs."

Crag walks off towards the pile of fluffies who are playing near the dwindling nummies pile, and Camel huffs, before slowly walking off towards the mummah cave, looking more downtrodden than you're used to seeing him.

You don't know what to think about all this, honestly trying to piece it all together makes your head swim, but you can somewhat understand what is going on, and you know that something needs to be done about it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You didn't notice the sun coming up, you usually don't. You were too focused on scanning the horizon to notice something as trivial as the sun. You have a duty, and if you get distracted by every little wonder of nature, you wouldn't be a very good protector now would you? You hear hoofsteps coming up behind you, and not turning around, you recognize the heavy footfalls as belonging to Grit, one of your herd mates and the closest thing you have to a friend.

"Fowd, it am fine, da bwight baww is up, come back to da howwow." She says kindly, trying to relieve you from your long vigil.

"Nu, am fine out hewe." You respond curtly.

You can see her demeanor drop a bit in the corner of your vision before sturdying up. She walks into your line of sight, taking up your field of view and causing you to recoil.

"Fowd, gu inside. Da hewd needs ou in dewe not out hewe." She lectures, posturing over you.

You grumble your protests but realize that there's no winning this fight. You turn around to go back inside when you hear a deafening roar echo across the empty landscape. You whip back around and see a large, smoking mass of red smashed against a boulder a ways from your lookout.

You're worried that your herd may be under attack, you have to get out there and defend them!

"GU, GET CAMEW!" You shout towards Grit who is standing stunned as you run out towards the heap, not knowing what awaits you but knowing that you need to find out before it has a chance to hurt the herd.

As you skid to a halt, you struggle to take in the sight before you.

A huge slag of metal, burning and broken sits dashed against a massive rock, flames spewing from what you recognize as the torn up face of a metal munstah. Walking around the wreckage, you see a figure hanging out the left side of the munstah, a female hoomin with bright blonde hair, still all poofed up and pristine, but also on fire. She doesn't seem to mind much though as you can tell she checked out pretty quick. Some chunks of flesh are dangling off of her torso, and you see her arm is bent almost completely backwards. Though the front of the munstah is destroyed, the back of it seems to be mostly intact, although the sides of the munstah have been torn off, and you can see the now destroyed interior.

There isn't much in there, only a few smelly bottles half broken, with what little contents were left inside now spilling out onto the thin carpet. You're pretty sure nothing here is a threat at least so you're set at ease, but as you peek your head inside the munstah, you see a weird looking box stuck between the front and back seats, suspended above the floor. You don't actually know what the box is, but the words "Sorry box" pop into your head when you look at it. You walk up to the "Sorry Box," careful to avoid the broken glass scattered all over the inside of the munstah. Sniffing the box, you find a weird grate facing downwards with some weird hoomin thing on it. Coming through the gaps is a weird red fluff that looks kinda familiar. In fact, it kinda looks like...

Oh shit that's another fluffy.

"Hewwo?" You tap the grate "Is fwuffy otay?"

There's no response, but you see the fluff stir a little so at least they're alive.

"Dun wowwy, Fowd am gonna hewp ou!" You shout confidently. You inspect the weird little box on the grate, trying to figure out if it's keeping the fluffy locked inside somehow. You prod and poke at it, until you get fed up with your lack of progress and just try to bite the shit out of it. Surprisingly that works, and a red mass of fur tumbles out of the box and lands on top of the broken glass with a wet "Splat!"

Oh whoops. You manage to get a better look at the fluffy now, and you can see that it's a soggy mare. You guess she must've gotten some of the stuff from those bottles on her when she crashed. You prod her a bit with your nose in a bid to wake her up, and it's with horror you see the color of her parted fluff is a snowy white. So that's blood then. F_ck.

"Fowd, wat am going on?" You hear Camel shout from outside overlayed by the running of other fluffies skidding to a halt outside the wreckage.

"Dewe am fwuffy wif huwties! Hewp Fowd cawwy back!" You respond with some urgency.

As you shoulder under her, you can feel light, ragged breathing, so at least she's still alive but probably not for too much longer. Given how red stained her fluff is she probably lost a lot of boo boo juice, more than you'd think is healthy. As Camel jumps into the structure and helps you lift her up, you're worried, more than you have been in a while. You don't know why you feel so strongly about it, but you really really hope she'll be ok.

Once you're back at camp, the mummahs make a nest for the hurt mare and although a few of the mummahs try to give her huggies to make her better, Camel and a some of the older fluffies shoo them away. They've been around long enough to know just how ineffective hugs really are; they aren't great at healing injuries, but they know a lot more than your standard fluffy would. During the next few forevers you go out and fetch a lot of water and whatever else you can find in the wasteland. You bring back some thrown out nummies, a couple of empty soda cups, and you even manage to find some colorful not fluff, like what the humans have. You give them to the mummahs who help to feed her and make the nest a bit more colorful, although it gets stained red pretty quickly. You're worried, although again that's a bit of a weird feeling for you. You think you just feel bad for her, it seems like she lost her hoomin mummah in that crash and you can kinda relate to that.

Night comes, and although she's still alive, her breathing is very ragged. She's stopped bleeding at least, it seems to have scabbed over pretty fast, and now you can see her white fluff underneath after she was cleaned off by her caretakers. The only white you see regularly are in the clouds and metal munstahs that race through the desert, but this mares fluff was brighter and cleaner than either of those. Although it did get dusty pretty damn quick, so it was mostly a light brown right now like the rest of the hollow. Her mane also seemed to be the same color white, although the blood she had been left in stained the tips so her mane became a dark crimson near the ends, and it was the same for her tail. She looks completely unlike any other fluffy you've seen in the desert, and you find yourself looking at her for quite a while before one of the attending mares shoos you away. You go to sleep that night thinking about her still, Grit offered to watch over the herd tonight and you trust her enough to let her. She's one of the few fluffies you do.

The next morning you wake up pretty early, and go check on the injured mare. She's actually looking much better now, her breathing is more smooth and she seems peaceful unlike her state last night. You don't want to wake her, so you head out of the hollow, where Grit is staring out tiredly at the wasteland.

She looks over towards you "Goo mowning Fowd. Can ou watch su Gwit can get sweepies?" She asks you, the weariness palpable in her voice.

"Gu inside an get sweepies." You respond, nudging her off of her perch and staring out at the rising sun.

She nods gratefully and drags herself down the tunnel as you look over the landscape. The sun is just now peeking up over the horizon and you see the air around it getting hazy. A few lizards come out onto the dusty red rocks dotting your view and spread out, the chill of the night being quickly replaced by the searing desert heat. A few stray metal munstahs speed through the edge of your vision as the sky grows a bright, then dull red, the leftover chill that had been haunting you turned to a steady warmth on your back. Although that same heat would soon become unbearable to a fluffy, it felt nice for now, and you drank in the surprisingly clean air.

You wait outside, watching the desert, until the sun gets too hot, and the rock you're sitting on starts burning your rump, forcing you back in. Upon entering, you see a small crowd of fluffies has gathered around where the injured mare had made her nest. Trotting over, you see the mare sitting up, looking noticeably confused, her bright green eyes scanning the hollow, frightened. Suddenly Camel appears near the front of the group.

"Gu away, wet fwuffy west. Nee tu gu dig howes anyways." He addresses the crowd, who quickly disperse, not wanting to anger their naturally calm leader.

"Hewwo, fwuffys name am Camew." He cheerfully turns to her.

"F-fwuffy am cawwed Mawia." She responds timidly, her programming forcing her to reply even when she is too scared to speak of her own volition.

"Um" She starts "Whewe am Mawias mummah? Nee tu fin mummah an gu tu da pwetty city!"

Uh oh, that's probably the question Camel was hoping she wouldn't ask.

He looks down for a moment, "Mawia mummah took fowevew sweepies fwom da metal munstah. Am su sowwy, nu couwd sabe hew."

She stares at him in shock, seemingly trying to process what she just heard. It starts with the twitching of her tail, then it spreads to a quivering in her lip. Her eyes start to tear up as she stands and begins slowly backing away, cowering.

"Nu... nu... nu..." She repeats this line many times, quietly, growing louder. As the first of her tears hit the ground she begins wailing, and charges past Camel, pushing him down. She races past you even as you yell at her to stop, but your words fall on deaf ears as she runs out of the hollow.

You quickly chase after her, knowing that an inexperienced fluffy has no chance of survival alone in the desert. When you reach the top of the tunnel, you quickly scan your surroundings, looking for any trace of her. You can hear a faint crying and so you sprint off in the direction of it, and you recognize early on that this is the same route you used to get to the site of the crash. With a growing feeling of fear, the crashed munstah comes into view, and with it comes a sight you'd rather not see.

Maria is scurrying frantically around the dry body of her mummah, shouting at her to wake up and open her eyes. She tries nudging her head, but the corpse only flops lazily back down into the dust, undeterred by her efforts. With more and more tears obscuring her vision, she begins trying to pull her mummah out by the ends of her not fluff, only succeeding in tearing a piece off, sending her tumbling backwards into the dirt clutching a piece of red stained cloth. You watch all this in silence, not knowing what to say to her. Eventually, she tires out and begins softly shoving her mummah with battered, torn up hooves while silent tears stain her dusty fluff. A while passes, you don't know how long its been when you make your way down next to her and put your hooves around her in a hug. She flinches but is otherwise unresponsive, as you stay there, helping in the only way you know how.

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The desert is cold at night, a fact you're only just learning now. Your thin, patchy fluff isn't doesn't keep you anywhere near as warm as your mummah does, but you try your best to push those thoughts out of your head. You know that you aren't supposed to be outside of the hollow without your mummah, but you felt an extreme sense of duty when you heard your father talking about how difficult it was becoming to find nummies. You can't just sit around drinking miwkies while the rest of your herd starves! That's not what a herd leader would do; that's not what your father would do. That's why you're out here now, in the cold desert night, searching for anything you can bring back to help your herd.

"Suuuu c-cowdies" You chatter through your teeth to nobody in particular.

You're by the "Woad" now, as your father called it, and you can't see anything that you manage to identify as actual food. You can see various items scattered around, some of them recognizable as pieces of not fluff like those that line your nests, and some not as recognizable like the weird small box that tastes like dirt when you licked it. You've picked up a few things so far, like some pieces of shiny paper, several chunks of a weird gooey substance you found stuck to the road, and one really neat looking shiny brown circle with a human on it. You tried talking to him, but he didn't answer you so you figure he must be sleeping or something. You keep putting all your findings into a small pile, but the desert winds constantly try and take it away forcing you to chase after it.

After a while of this, you're extremely tired and decide that you've probably found something useful by now! You shove your pile into the stinky box that tasted like dirt and begin slowly dragging it back to the hollow, having to stop every few feet and spit to get rid of the taste. You feel like you've been dragging your pile forever now when you look around you and realize that you don't recognize a single thing around you. You were sure this was the way you came from the hollow, but your confidence in your memory falters as you frantically survey the landscape.

You quickly become aware of all the things you hadn't noticed when you were focused on your task. You start to see the shadows dancing behind the rocks, you hear the mournful howling of the wind, and you feel the oppressive darkness that surrounds you.

"Huu huu, nu wike dawkies." You whimper, your need to vocalize distress conflicting with you desire to stay quiet.

You keep pushing onwards, as that's the only way you can think to know, your fear now building causing your heart to beat audibly in your chest.

"Pwese munstahs, nu huwt Fowd, dawkies nu huwt Fowd." You continue to repeat, hoping it will somehow change the fate you're certain you've been sentenced to.

After a few more forevers, you've finally lost all hope. You have no clue where you are, you're scared out of your mind, and you tried eating one of the shiny papers out of fear only to find yourself barely able to choke it down before vomiting it back directly afterwards. You've failed miserably, as a herd leader, and as a desert fluffy. You're nothing like your father. You know for sure that if he was here right now, he would scare all the darkies away and bring you back home along with a bunch of good nummies you weren't able to find. He would carry you triumphantly on his back into the sunset, and everything would be perfect.

You're getting lost in your fantasy now, and you're only snapped out of it when you hear 2 very distinct sounds that set off 2 very different emotions.

The first thing you hear is a voice, not just any voice, but your mummahs voice! She's shouting at you and you can see her now, framed against the moon atop an outcropping of boulders. Your heart lights up because you're saved! Surely mummah will be able to help you get back home, and just the thought of returning to normal, everything going back to the way it was makes you tear up uncontrollably. That's when you hear the second sound.

It sounds, almost like... growling.

Oh poopies.

Whatever instincts you may have had in this situation do not trigger in time, as a large, mangy barky munstahs lunges at you, snarling.

"EEEP! SCAWY!" You shout as you defecate all over the ground behind you.

"NUUUUUUUUUUU BABBEH!" You hear mummah scream as she charges down the hill, also leaving a trail of feces behind her.

You feel it as the munstahs teeth sink into your back, and you can feel each one of them cut like a dagger through your underdeveloped muscles and soft skin.

It takes you a second to register the pain.







"SsssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssCCCCRRRRRRREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE"



"NUUUUU BABBEH! NU HUWT BABBEH!" Dust continues shrieking down at the wildly sprinting coyote who clearly didn't expect her meal to make this much noise.

You continue to wail, your throat tearing and becoming hoarse as the pain sears and spikes through you over and over again, jabbing and jabbing and jabbing you until you can no longer process the sheer agony of it all.

Your blood drips in a sporadic trail behind you, leaving a clear map for Dust straight towards you.

The last thing you see before the red in your vision overwhelms you completely is Dust barrelling after you, but getting further, and further, and further, and further away.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You stayed out by the crash for a while, just silently hugging, embracing the momentary comfort. Eventually though, you told Maria that it was dangerous to stay still for so long out here.

*Sniff* "Wai am dat? Nu see any mu-munstahs." She chokes out, clearly still a bit messy from her crying.

"Da wingie munstahs wike to eat foweva sweepies fwuffies, but wiww sometimes num regulaw sweepies fwuffies tu. If we wook wike foweva sweepies fwuffies, dey may twy tu num us tu."

Her eyes grow wide at that and she looks above. Sure enough, you can see large, black shapes lazily circling overhead.

"NU! Mawia nu wan be nummed by wingie munstah!"

You nod "Den we need tu get back tu da hollow." You begin walking back the way you both came.

Maria hesitates by her mummah, looking down at her one more time, before she trots off after you. You're both quiet walking, but looking at her face, you can see that she is significantly more calm than she was earlier, and you find yourself relieved by that. You shake your head a bit, that's a weird thing for you to feel. You guess it must be because you can sort of relate to her situation. That must be it.

You get back to the hollow, having her enter the tunnel first which ends up being a bit weird, as you try desperately to look anywhere but straight ahead.

Upon entering the main area, you hear a shout of surprise and Grit runs up to you.

"Whewe wewe ou?! Ou jus wan away an... an... nu could find ou an..." She trails off, clearly worried but the strange look you give her seems to make her go quiet, and she seems even more timid when she notices Maria next to you. "Ou, found da odda fwuffy. Otay, Camew wans tu see ou den."

She takes the opportunity to walk away, only stealing a quick backwards glance in your direction before running off into the cave systems.

"TeeHee she am a siwwy fwuffy." Maria comments, to which you unintentionally nod in agreement, more confused than anything. Whatever, you guess this isn't the time to worry about what's up with Grit.

"Su whewe am Camew?" Maria asks, snapping you out of your thoughts. You grunt at point your head towards a slightly smaller hole in the wall, walking over with Maria trailing closely behind you.

Entering into the hole, you see Camel rising from his nest, seemingly just having woken up. He looks at the two of you wearily before he registers the both of you.

"Ou found Mawia!"

"She was out by da cwashie. Wanted tu see hew mummah."

"Am sowwy fow wunnin away, was jus scawdies. Am gud fwuffy!" Maria adds in, making sure Camel is fully aware of her good fluffy status.

"Wight," He sighs "Dat am fine, bu ou need tu be caweful in da desewt. Wots of munstahs out dewe dat want to num fwuffies. Nu shouwd gu out awone. Besides, ou stiww hab huwties an nu shouwd be moving awound."

You tense up for a second and glare at him. He notices but quickly looks away.

"It am otay, Fowd pwotected hew fwom da munstahs." You butt in coldly. He doesn't meet your eyes.

"Dat am gud. Tank ou Fowd." He says this authoritatively, but you can hear something behind his words. You continue to stare at him, puffing your chest up just the littlest bit.

Maria can clearly tell something is up, but she's quite confused as to what, looking between you and Camel in confusion. She speaks to break the awkward silence.

"Su, Mawia nu hab mummah ow housie anymowe, *huu*, can fwuffy stay with Camews hewd?"

"Yus, dat am gud." He quickly replies, glad to change the topic. "Ask Gwit tu show ou awound, nee to tawk tu Fowd."

She looks as though she wants to say something, but decides against it and exits the hole. You hear calling for Grit outside, probably unclear as to who that even is. Camel looks up at you.

"Fowd," He starts, looking up at your icy glare and flinching before starting up again "Fowd, da wast nummie seawching pawty saw da wattwey munstah by da woad. Camew tink it am coming aftew fwuffies because nu can fin nummies in da cowd times. Pwease wook fow it when ou am down dere."

"Fine." You'll need to watch out for that. They may not look like much, but one bite from them is more than enough to kill any fluffy in a few hours.

"Otay, tanks. Nu wan Fo-, Nu wan hewd to get huwties."

Sensing he's done, you exit his hidey hole. The center of the hollow is pretty packed with activity right now. The sun is starting to go down so all the fluffies who have been digging tunnels all day came up with scratched and battered hooves to eat from the large nummies pile in the center of the area. A few fluffies have sat down with some human garbage and are babbling to each other. A few of the mummahs are off eating on their own, singing lullabies to their foals as they begin to nurse, and the soon mummahs are rolled over to the pile, talking about "Bestest nummies for bestest tummeh babbehs." Marias shockingly white fluff stands out pretty clearly from the sea of dusty, dingy looking fluffies, and you walk over to her while Grit is explaining the concept of tunnelling to her. Grit is the first to notice you.

"Hewwo Fowd, wan tu get nummies?" She asks, which is strange because she's never really asked before.

"Otay, Mawia wan get nummies wif Fowd and Gwit?" You don't want to leave her out after all.

Grits face noticeably shifts as she looks over at Maria, who seems to be completely oblivious to the completely uninterested stare she's getting from the other mare.

"Wouwd wub tu get nummies wif bestest fwiendsies!" She gasps, already including Grit into her circle of best friends.

Grit looks less than pleased by this, and you wonder why but push the thought aside again as you inspect the nummies pile.

There's some pointy plant bits, and you take a few for the wawa, alongside some colorful looking human trashies that you think you can probably eat. You even see a lizard poking out of the bottom of the pile which is a real treat as those things are super hard to catch, although you don't really think they taste all that great.

Grit picks out a bag of some kind of long, orange, crunchy thing and digs in, and Maria looks around a bit as if she can't find something.

"Um, Fowd, wewe am da fwuffy nummies? Onwy see twashies." From the tone of her voice it sounds like she may have already guessed the answer.

"Dis am da desewt. Twashies awe nummies." You reply curtly before tucking into a dirt covered burger.

"Wight, twashie nummies..." She looks at the nummies pile with apprehension before carefully selecting a few pointy plants and a bag of fries.

The night passes and Grit volunteers for the night watch again, despite Camels concerns that she would be too tired. You encouraged her to take it, as you always encourage capable fluffies to help out the herd. Camel still protested, but she went anyways, leaving him somewhat exasperated. You had to explain the concept of a fluffpile to Maria; she had always just slept in the bed her mummah gave her, but she caught on pretty quick, cuddling up next to you near the center of the pile, the heat of the fluffies around you making it a very cozy spot. You felt really happy, sitting like that. You don't if that's good or not. You like to think that it is.

Maria stays in the hollow over the next couple bright times, as the mummahs tell you she is still too hurt to go out into the desert and she needs to sleep for now. You spend your days gathering food and water like usual, taking night watch whenever Grit is too tired to do so. Although the mummahs told Maria to rest, she doesn't seem to be a very good listener as she plays around with some of the larger foals and explores the hollow some on her own. You got really worried one night when you came back to find her missing, and ended up unintentionally joining a game of hidey seekies she had been playing with some fillys. You wanted to be mad when you found out but you were more relieved than anything. Besides the other mummahs were mad enough, yelling at her to go get more rest as she sulked back off to her nest.

After a bit, Maria starts looking much better than she had when she got to the hollow. Her injuries have all but vanished and she's running around like any other fluffy, much to the continued exasperation of the mares. Her fluff still has the strange red patterns near the end, with crimson tips fading in from her cloud like mane, but you decide that you like it that way. She seems to be adapting pretty quickly to life in the desert, and you're glad to see it, so you decide that next bright time, you're going to take her out of the hollow and show her how to be a proper desert fluffy.

You come into Marias nest before the bright ball comes up and find her still peacefully asleep. You nudge her with your front hooves, causing her to stir but not wake. You nudge her a little harder and she lightly swats you on the nose, before turning over and continuing her snooze. Getting a little frustrated, you boop her on the nose, which causes her to shout in surprise.

"SHHHHHHHH! Nu wake mummahs!" You whisper frantically, knowing firsthand how bad it could be to wake up grumpy fluffy mummahs.

"Owwies, wai hit Mawia?" She accuses, also whispering but not quite as quietly.

"Sowwy but ou nu was wakies, Fowd am gunna show ou how to be a desewt fwuffy." Her groggy eyes perk up a bit at that notion.

"Otay otay, wiww fowwow Fowd, bu pwease gu swow, am stiww su sweepies."

With that, you turn and trot out of her little alcove, knowing that all good desert fluffies need to be ready to wake up at a moments notice in case of intruders. She follows a few seconds later, a bit grumpy, but otherwise fine.

You tell her to go down one of the working tunnels, and although she's a bit reluctant, you manage to coax her down. Once you enter, you begin to explain how tunnelling works in the hollow and how you use the tunnels for food storage and extra living room. She didn't seem to like being down there, but most fluffies don't so you can't exactly blame her. After that, you bring her up to the watching post where you find a very tired, and somewhat annoyed Grit keeping watch of the land. You explain to Maria that the main point of having a watcher fluffy is to make sure no barky munstahs or rattley munstahs get into the nest.

"Mawia knu bawky munstahs, dewe was a scawy bawky munstah by Mawias owd housie." She pauses for a second, looking past you before her gaze refocuses "But wat am wattwey munstah?"

"Dummeh," Grit scoffs "Wattwey munstahs awe wong, scawy nu weggie munstahs dat try tu num fwuffies and make woud wattwey noisies. Twy to get into da howwow an num foaws duwing da cowd times."

Maria looks a tad offended at being called a dummeh but ignores it "Oh dat am sound wike a vewy scawy munstah, tank ou Gwit fow keep safesies!"

Grit shoots her a look before huffing out a "Wewcome" and jumping down from her rock. She glares at you as she passes, then she dives back down the entrance and disappearing from sight.

You have no idea what's gotten into her, she's never acted so, strange, before.

"Mawia nu wike Gwit, Gwit am a meanie fwuffy." Maria directs your attention back towards herself.

"Nu Gwit am a gud fwuffy, jus nu feew gud wight nao." You defend, not wanting bad blood between your herd.

Maria eyes you skeptically before asking if she can jump up on the lookout rock. You help push her up as her smaller frame has a hard time reaching the ledges you and Grit usually use to climb. Once she's up there, she looks across the morning desert with clear awe in her eyes.

"Waoooooo, su pwettty. Mawia can see da whowe desewt up hewe!" You smile as she squeals like an excited foal, remembering how happy you were the first time you came up onto the rock with Camel. Your mother was there too.

Your smile fades, "Come on Mawia, nee tu show ou how to find nummies." You shout, interrupting her moment.

She sulks for a second before jumping down, with you using your back to help break her fall. You bring her down to the roadside, and the metal munstahs are in full force today as their muggy stench mingles with the crisp desert air. Maria covers her nose.

"Nu wike metal munstahs, awe smewwy."

"Am smewwy, but gib fwuffies nummies if fwuffies wait wong enuff."

Again, she is skeptical but her concerns are forgotten when a weird red and yellow triangle flies out of a passing munstahs belly, landing a few feet away from you.

Maria runs over and immediately digs in.

"MMMM, su yummy, dese am bestest nummies!" She turns towards you with a mouthful of red sauce dripping down her chin.

"NU! Nu nummies fow onwy fwuffy!" She is startled by you yelling at her and drops the food, further covering it in dust. Her eyes tear up.

"*Sniff* am sowwy Fowd, nu mean tu... Mawia nu knu dat.... Huuuu huuuu..." She begins sobbing, scared by your outburst. Maybe you were a bit rough.

"Nu haf saddies, yu nu knu, bu aww da nummies haf tu gu back to da hewd su evewy fwuffy can hab nummies. Mummahs an odda fwuffies need nummies tu." You bop her on the nose lightly just to drive the point home.

Her watery eyes seem to convey sincerity, although her watering mouth tells you that you may need to teach this lesson a few more times before it really sticks. You stay out there for a long time, having fun collecting weird roadside objects. You have to remind Maria a few times not to eat food right away, but relent a bit when you find a bag of fries spread out all over the desert floor, sharing a quick meal together. By the time you're happy with the food you've collected, it's beginning to get dark. Maria seems pretty uncomfortable in the dark so you try to get back before it gets too late. You aren't the most successful, and the last leg of your trip is illuminated only by the pale bright ball above you, casting some scarce light on the familiar landscape. Maria shivers behind you, still dragging her food but at an excruciatingly slow rate.

"Mawia, huwwy up, need tu get back tu nestie befowe any bad munstahs see fwuffies." You try and urge her forwards but she's clearly too frightened to listen to you.

You sigh and just keep moving onwards, as it's the only thing you're really capable of at this point.

Your ears perk up. You hear movement, something is nearby. You don't mention anything and just keep moving, but the noise doesn't go away, meaning that you're being followed. You can't see anything around you, but you can hear a distinct quiet hissing, like steam on a stove, and you know the implication of that.

"Mawia, need tu gu, NAO! Fowd tink dewe am a wattwey munstah fowwowing fwuffies." You whisper through clenched teeth, not wanting to speak loudly and potentially provoke the beast.

That makes Maria perk up and you see her eyes grow wide with fear. She looks as though she's about to start shouting or screaming, but you hiss at her to make her stay quiet. She shushes up, and you drop the food you had been carrying while you both begin slowly and deliberately moving. You don't want to move too fast, as you think that would cause the creature to attack. You carry on like that for a while, in tense, silence, aware that the monster is out there, somewhere just out of site. The hissing will grow louder, and then quieter, but it doesn't go away, and you keep becoming more and more worried for Maria's safety.

The sounds have been getting louder for a while now, it's stopped fluctuating like before. Maria is beginning to get hysterical, as her breathing becomes far heavier and her pupils shrink to tiny dots in a sea of white. You're terrified too, but you have to stay strong for her. She has to be ok, you'll protect her. You have to.

The hissing has grown to its loudest point and you're trying to figure out if there is a way to make it chase after you so Maria can escape. It's your job to protect her, no matter what. It's then that you see a figure on the horizon, framed against the moonlight, perched on the rock right outside the hollow.

"PWEASE! HEWP FWUFFIES! DEWE AM A WATTWEY MUNSTAH GU GET CAMEW!" You scream, not caring about staying quiet when safety is in your sights. You're sure the fluffy sitting on the lookout rock heard you, they'll go get Camel and he'll fix all of this. He'll fix everything. All they have to do is go and get him.

So why aren't they moving?

"PWEASE SABE MAWIA AN FOWD! PWEASE HEWP!" The fluffy still doesn't move, and Maria begins crying and shouting as well, trying to get the attention of the fluffy at the top of the rock. They look down, as though they're trying to look away, and you realize that they're actively ignoring you.

No, no, no no no nononononononononononononoNO!

Safety is so close please don't let this happen! Don't let this happen to her!

"PWEASE HEWP, PWEASE WOOK AT FWUFFYS!" But the figure turns away even more, and you can't make out who it is, but you can see a flash of blue shining in the moonlight.

It's then you notice, the hissing has gone completely silent.

"MAWIA WUN!" You scream, but it's too late as a large, intimidating creature lunges out from underneath a dusty looking boulder and sinks its massive fangs into Marias shoulder.

"SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

"NU! MUNSTAH NU GIB HUWTIES!"

You charge at the monster, but it rushes away from you, dragging Maria who is now squealing with agony. You take one last frantic glance towards the fluffy sitting on the rock, framed against the moonlight as they look down at you with feelings neither of you are capable of understanding...

and then you run after it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You wake up on cold, sticky stone, scared and confused. The last thing you remember is mummah Dust running after you as you were being taken away by the Barky munstah. Oh right.

With that memory, you notice the pain in your torso as you identify the sticky pool below you as boo boo juice. Your back feels icy cold as wind whips through the small cave you seem to be in. Your body is torn and battered, but the freezing temperature turns the sharp stabbing pain into a dull aching sensation. You look around, hoping to see mummah Dust, or daddeh Camel, or, or, anyone. You don't see anyone.

What you do see is movement near the darker back of the cave.

"Hewwo? Nice munstah, p-pwease hewp babbeh?" You ask hoping that maybe whatever is back there is friendly. It's not.

The barky monster stalks out of the darkness, eyeing you while walking past. You try and stay as quiet as possible but let out a small *peep* of fear. The monster heads towards the front of the cave, and you can see the pale bright ball outside, shining in from above and stretching its beams onto your shivering form. You begin to hear other strange sounds, and look back over towards the monster, only to feel a shock of horror upon seeing 2 other monsters in the cave with you.

They're smaller than the one that attacked you, and seem to be largely uninterested in their surroundings, opting instead to fight amongst themselves in a way that you almost identify as playing, but your little fluffy brain just can't quite understand. The bigger monster growls at them briefly, which seems to snap them both to attention. You notice that all three of them are very skinny and your few functioning brain cells manage to connect the dots on why you're actually here.

"NUUUU NU EAT FWUFFEH, AM ONWY WITTWE BABBEH!" You scream, much to the shock of the mother who jumps, turns around, and snarls at you viciously.

You start quietly *huu huu*-ing to yourself, understanding now that you're nothing more than a pile of nummies to them.

"Pwease nice munstah, babbeh nu am nummies, babbehs awe fow wuv and hugs!" You continue to plead, much to the complete indifference of the larger animal.

Once she has the two smaller monsters sitting, she walks back over in your direction. You begin crying more and try to scurry away on your aching legs, but she has you by the scruff before you can get more than a few inches. You scream, kick, and cry as much as your body allows you too, but the extreme difference in strength means that the mother barely even notices it. She places you down on the cave floor and you stop your thrashing, thinking maybe the she is letting you go.

Your train of thought changes quickly when you see the aggressive poses of the two smaller monsters, and notice that the larger one is now blocking the exit.

"NUUUUUUUUUUUU FWUFFY NU AM NUMMIES!" You shriek, and begin spraying feces in a form of misguided self defense. The shit hits one of the smaller creatures who recoils in disgust as the other jumps out of the way.

You start trying to drag yourself away but the monster not covered in fecal matter pounces on you, holding down your weak body with it's paws as you struggle. It looks to the bigger monster for approval, and she blinks slowly before the small monster turns back towards you and opens its jaws.

You were supposed to be the strong herd leader who would stamp out danger and protect your friends. You would grow up to be as strong as your father. What happened, you were supposed to be brave and powerful, but now you're weak and afraid. Was it all a deception? You stare into the maw of the abyss and a lie stares back at you.

You close your eyes










Something warm splashes onto your face.

Something warm, and... smelly.

Your eyes snap open and you see that the creature holding you down has pulled away, now covered in sorry poopies. You're confused but then you see a fluffy standing behind, rear facing the monsters with cheeks puffed out.

"MUNSTAH NU HUWT BABBEHS! AWE FOW HUGGIES AN WUB!" Dust shouts at the barky munstah, having unleashed her ultimate attack to save you.

"MUMMAH!" You scream and begin thrashing harder than ever trying to reach her.

The shit you've been covered in acts as a kind of lubricant, allowing you to slip out of the munstahs grasp and run over to your mother. Her beaming face is the most welcoming and comforting sight you've ever seen as you run towards her outstretched, stubby legs.

Then, a brown flash and she's gone.

"Mummah?" You chirp not understanding where she went.

"SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!"

You whip your head around and see the large barky munstah with mummah Dust dangling from her mouth. Your eyes widen in horror as the vitriolic face of the monster tightens and you see her jaw clench around Dust whose eyes bulge out and her bloated tongue sprays blood as she screeches.

"MUMMAH DUST NUUUUUUUUU! DUMMEH MUNSTAH WET MUMMAH DUST GU OW GIB WOWSTEST HUWTIES!" The tears are getting all over as you threaten the much larger creature, filling your mouth with a hot and salty taste when the tears fall in.

You try and run over to Dust, but your leg gives out from either injury or exhaustion as you collapse to the floor.

"WEGGIE PWEASE WOWK! NEE TU SAB MUMMAH DUST! PWE-EA-EASE!!!" Your leg doesn't listen to you as you feel the rest of your muscles begin to spasm wildly.

The monster is shaking the fluffy around like a ragdoll, her blood flying everywhere, hitting you on the snout and covering the walls as she continues her cacophony of suffering.

You watch in horrific silence, ashamed at your own inability to act.

The moonlight streaming in from the mouth of the cave is cut off, and the gruesome scene loses illumination.

You look over and what you see fills you with an indescribable level of hope.

It's Camel. Your Daddeh! Your leader! HE'S COME TO SAVE YOU AND MUMMAH DUST!

Camel bounds into the cave, cheeks puffed and lip quivering. "S-Stupi munstah, wet fwuffy gu ow get wowstest f-fowevew sweepies!" He announces, scraping his soft hooves against the ground.

The monster looks up from her slaughter, muzzle covered in blood. Dust flops to the floor, wheezing and trying desperately to get her eyes to focus on anything at all. The monster slowly stalks over to Camel, who quickly notices the size difference between the two. His stance falters for a second, before he reaffirms his ground and puffs his cheeks out even more.

"GONNA GIB YOU SOWWIEST POOPIES!" He wails, turning around.

The barky munstah is unfazed, and simply uses her large paw to knock him aside. The wind is knocked out of him and he leaves a trail of shit in his flight to the cave wall. He hits it with a *thud* as he falls limply to the ground.

What?

What just happened.

You don't understand.

Camel is stronger than anyone right? That's what you were told.

Why hasn't he gotten up to stop her.

No, please, get up

You're the strongest fluffy ever, how could you lose to this monster

Don't you even care that your special friend is dying

get up

get up

get up



GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP GET UP

You want to scream but you've lost your voice. You stare in agony as the monster walks back towards Dust, teeth bared, blood dripping.

Movement.

You turn around again and see Camel, slowly, painfully, standing up.

"N-Nu huwt s-s-speciaw fwiend" He spits out, struggling to maintain consciousness.

The monster looks back towards him. Eyes glinting and full of hate. Then, wheezing.

Dust's sides jerk up and down as her torn innards fail her. You hear something within her haggard breaths.

"pwease s-speciaw f-fwiend, sabe ba-*gag* babbeh..."

What is she saying, why is she telling him to save you? She's the one who needs saving!

You look over to Camel who stares at Dust with shock in his large cartoonish eyes. Then he looks at you.

NO YOU NEED TO SAVE HER!

Camel springs into action, ignoring his screaming muscles. He races towards you as fast as he is able, and snatches you up by your scruff. You begin shouting at him to save you mummah but he ignores you. The monster lunges at him but he ducks underneath its bite, and exits the damp, muggy cave into the cold, crisp desert night.

You hear awful snarling and howling, but it the sounds get quieter.

You look back, and see Dust laying on the ground, her ragged breathing growing fainter and harder to see as Camel continues tearing through the desert. The monster looks out the front of the cave, you make eye contact with it.

And you scream.

You scream louder than you ever have. Louder than when you got lost down a tunnel, louder than the time you hit your head on wall of the hollow, louder than when you were attacked by the monster not too long ago. You thrash and scream and wail into the endless expanse of night, the only one around to hear you being the one person taking you further and further away.

And you hate him for it. Your blood boils and your teeth grind because he didn't save her.

HE COULDN'T SAVE HER!

You begin screaming directly at him. "HATECHU! HATECHU CAMEW! OU AM WOWSTEST FWUFFY EBEW MUNSTAH DADDEH! FOWD HATECHU!"

You begin to feel more hot, salty tears dripping from his face as your pure malice and vitriol is laid bare for him to see.

You will never be like him; you will never be WEAK like him.

You will be strong, you will be a leader, and you will save everyone.

You will save, everyone.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The frigid desert winds whip sand against your face as you chase after Maria, your heart thumping with every footfall. The creature made a clear trail in the sand which helps a lot, but you have no idea how far behind it you are, and every step you take is another step further away from safety. You're trying to focus on just following, but every now and then, more intrusive thoughts force their way into your head. Mental images of Maria, already dead when you get to her.

You push those thoughts away and redouble your efforts.

Eventually, you reach the end of the trail, and looking around, you see a few scraggly bushes covering up a part of the land. You quietly sneak around until you can see underneath and sure enough, Maria is lying in the center of them. Your breath quickens as you watch her, and it steadies as you see her sides rhythmically rising and falling. You still have time then, but not much seeing as the monster has just come into view. It's positioned itself behind Marias head, and you watch in disgust as its jaw opens up, and keeps opening up, getting larger and larger until it's almost as large as Marias body. You can tell what it's about to do, but it takes a second of being frozen with shock before you jump into action, running at maximum fluffy speed.

"NU HUWT MAWIA!" The monster looks up from its meal, clearly caught off guard by your presence.

You reach the creature and before it has any time to react, and lift your front hooves up into the air before bring them down onto its back with all the force you can possibly muster. It retches as you do, before rapidly composing itself. Your attack was enough to stun the monster, not enough to actually damage it, but stunning it was all you needed. You run over to Maria and see that she's actually conscious again, albeit only just.

"Huu huu, tank ou fow sabing fwom da munstah! Was su scawdies." She trembles, having trouble forming words as she quivers frightfully.

The wound she sustained isn't actually bleeding too bad, it looks like the bite didn't go too deep. But that's the least of your worries now as you hear a rattling noise from behind you. Turning around you see the monster has gotten back up and now has its fangs bared, spitting at you. You and Maria start slowly backing away from it when the creature does something odd.

The monster begins to slowly slither backwards, apparently considering you enough of a nuisance to make a retreat. It has its fangs still bared and it is still hissing but it's moving away from you, being threatening as a defense rather than as an intimidation tactic. You stand in the middle of the bushes, in the middle of the night, and you're conflicted.

You want to leave, you want to go back with Maria and have everything be ok, have this be nothing more than a bad memory. You don't want to leave Maria.

but that would be running away

You could be happy, everything would be ok

running is for the weak, you are not weak

You can go back and eventually become the strong leader you've always wanted to be

a strong leader doesn't run away. that's what he did and he was weak

But you're not weak.

you are not weak

You have to save her

you will save her

You have to save everyone
You have to save everyone

"Mawia, wun away, Fowd wiww gib dis munstah da wowstest huwties eber!" She looks back at you as she has begun to turn and run.

"Nu, Fowd come wun wit Mawia, wattwey munstah am going away!" She shouts, not understanding.

"NU! Am tu dangewous, wiww jus huwt Mawia again, hab to gib munstah foweber sweepies." You exclaim, turning back to face the beast.

"Wuh, nu! Can wun way, Fowd pwease nu try and fight munstah, ou wiww get wowstest huwties!" She turns back towards you, her voice wavering as she realizes how serious you are about this.

"HAB TO GIB IT FOWEBER SWEEPIES TU SABE MAWIA!" You stomp your hooves, frustrated that she won't just let you save her.

Her eyes are watering up again and she begins sniffling as you refuse to listen to her.
"Fowd pwease! Mawia nu can get back tu hewd awone, nu knu how. Wiww take foweber sweepies awone."

"JUS WUN AWAY AN WET FOWD SABE OU FWOM DA MUNSTAH!" She's crying now, because she can't understand why you're acting this way.

"nu, pwease, nu wan wose Fowd tu. Pwease wun way, nu wiww suwvive awone. Mawia wub ou, nu wan ou to take foweber sweepies." She's collapsed now, sitting and weeping in the dirt.

stupid mare, can't she see you're trying to save her

You're doing this for her, why doesn't she understand that

she wants you to run like a weakling, like him

You will not run, you will never run, you are going to save her even if he couldn't.

"DUMMEH MAWE, GU AWAY! FOWD HATECHU!" You whip your head around and scream at her, your voice dripping with malice.

She stops crying and flinches as she is taken aback by your words. Maria stares, with a mixture of pain and shock, before her face twists into a hurt expression, and tears stream from her eyes. She picks herself up and she runs. She looks back at you as she sprints away, the anguish visible on her face even from this distance. You feel a twinge in your heart, one that you don't want to acknowledge, and you push it deep down inside as you turn back to face the insurmountable horror before you.

The monster has lowered its head with its fangs still out, its body now slowly coiling up. The tail of the creature is shaking like crazy and you feel no fear. You feel no fear whatsoever upon seeing the monster, because you know that this is how it was meant to be. This is the purpose of your life, to protect, to save. So you feel no fear, and you feel no regret as the monster lunges and sinks its fangs into your neck sending you crumpling to the ground.

You don't feel anything as you lose control of your body.

You don't feel anything as you watch yourself being slowly engulfed by the monsters jaws.

You don't feel anything as your heart gives out while you're halfway down its throat.

You don't feel any regret at all, because you finally saved her.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Your name is Maria, and you have the worst heart hurties you've ever had.

You're running right now, you don't know where to but you know you need to run. You don't go for very long though, you're too much of a wreck to get that far. After running for what feels like forever, you trip and fall face first into the dust.

"Huuu huuuuu *sniffle* Mawia am aww awone, am aww awone, am sowwy fow being dummeh but nu wan be awone." You whisper to yourself, trying to wrap your head around why Ford would react like he did. You pick yourself up and keep moving.

A stab of pain shoots through you as you chirp in surprise, stumbling again but catching yourself. You look over and remember the wound you received when you were attacked, your heart hurties had somewhat distracted you from the actual hurties you already had. You tenderly lick the bite marks a few times, and then continue onwards, the pain somewhat numbed by the icy chill blowing through your fluff.

It's much later now, and the sun has slowly begun to crest over the horizon. You're so tired, more tired than you've ever been. You can barely think straight as your mind is nothing but a haze of misery and confusion, with the sunrise being a piercing, blinding headache for your weary eyes. You have no clue where you are, and no idea where you need to be going. You'd love to find your herd, but they're far off in some other direction and right now you just need to keep moving. You can't stop moving, stopping is death. You don't want to die.

Your head is filled with feelings, awful feelings of betrayal and loss that wrack your tiny body with grief. You can't understand, why did he leave you to die?

You keep moving, the thoughts of going forward being the only thing keeping you sane.

You keep going and going and going and going. It's midday now, the sun beats relentlessly above you, roasting your tired form in awful dry winds. You feel so hot and your lips are so dry, your tongue is warm and bloated; Your teeth feel slimy, gritty, and your head feels like it's being squeezed. You need water, there is no water to be found. Your stomach growls, sending another sharp pain through you; you stumble and your bad leg gives out, sending you tumbling to the ground. You can no longer cry, you ran out of tears when the sun was coming up. Now you're laying there, alone, being baked alive by the natural oven that is the desert wastes.

Your mind runs through so many thoughts at once that you cannot get a handle on them and they feel like a series of flashing pictures rather than your own ideas. You see the monster, the herd, the hollow, Ford, the sunrise, your mummah and so many things you don't have time to comprehend before they vanish from your head.

You hear a long, screeching noise, and you tilt your head upwards, squinting at the relentless sun. Plastered against the backdrop of the empty sky are shadowy figures, circling lazily, high above you. You remember them, the wingie munstahs Ford warned you about, the ones who ate dead fluffies. You don't have the energy to care anymore, you wish you did. You can't move, you can barely think, the monsters above foretell your fate, and you are painfully, woefully alone. Why even try anymore, there's nothing left to go back to. You've lost everything you ever had, and as you close your eyes with a sense of finality you hate yourself for this fact.

Light shines through your closed eyelids, not granting you any comfort even in your final moments. You let out a long breath and you let go.
















and then the light stops shining.












but you don't feel dead?

In fact, you feel, colder?

You slowly, excruciatingly open your eyes, and see the shadow of a massive figure towering over you.

"Oh my goodness, what a pretty little thing you are!" You hear a high pitched voice as you recognize the sight before you as the legs of a human.

You look up to see a human lady with jet black hair wearing shiny bright red not fluff leaning over you, shading you with her body. Joy flows through you as you realize you've been given one last chance.

You slowly part your parched lips "p-p-pwease n-nice wady, hewp M-Mawia." It took all your energy just to say that, and you flop your head back down as you finish.

"Oh you poor thing! Here, have a sip of this." She lowers something to your lips and you begin gulping without a second thought. The water is heavenly, better than anything you've ever tasted. You feel a tangible sense of energy and life flowing back into you.

"Tank o-ou nice wady, Mawia nu c-c-can fin hewd. Pwease hewp Mawia." You stammer, still struggling a bit to speak through your awful condition.

She looks you over "Funny, you don't really look like a feral. Well I'll tell you what we'll do instead of that, how about I take you home and be your new mummah! How does that sound, Maria?" She squeals in delight, looking at you expectantly.

You want to find your herd, you hope against all hope that Ford may have somehow survived and made his way back, and even if he didn't you had friends there. But you also understand that this human may be your only chance at survival and whatever latent programming is still left in you urges you into taking her offer.

"Be n-new mummah? Tank ou su much nice wady, Mawia w-wub o-ou."

"Good! My name is Chrisandra but just call me mummah. Now let's get you cleaned up, you're absolutely filthy."

You close your eyes again as she lifts you into her arms, the feeling of warmth and safety provided being very welcome as you go limp from exhaustion. She places you inside a metal munstah, you're too tired to feel scared by the noises it makes starting up. She quickly wraps you in a spare blanket and lets you sit next to her on the seat with cool air blowing from the vents. You're eating snacks she pulled out of a pocket in the munstah and you feel so happy to have a full belly and remember what it's like to not be thirsty. You stare out the window at the desert, rapidly passing by you, feeling sad, knowing you have to leave all your friends behind. You pass by a set of bushes, and you see a rattley monster, fat, and laying out in the warm desert sun. You don't notice the tear until it drips off your chin onto the soft fuzz of the blanket wrapping you tightly.

"Now Maria, don't strain yourself, you need to rest right now, ok? Listen to mummah dearie." Your new mummah tells you, keeping her eyes on the road.

"Sowwy mummah, was jus tinking." You lean down from the window and rest your head on the seat.

"AH HA! Oh poor Maria, don't strain yourself there, fluffies aren't known for thinking you know." She laughs with a tone that makes you feel just a bit sadder.

You close your eyes again, as you speed away from the desert, safe and comfortable.

As you drift to sleep, many thoughts run through your head. You decide that you don't like this desert. It's a place of pain for you, a place of sorrow and suffering.

It's a land that takes and takes until you have nothing left to give and then it swallows you whole. There is nothing in the wasteland that should matter, nothing that should hold any value.

But against all the odds, you found something out there, out in those wastelands.

You found a life worth living for.

And then you fell asleep.