The End (Head canon)

>Reading through fluffy pony stories.
>Notice a trend, nearly all feral stories, and many abuse ones feature a surplus of abandoned buildings, and people living in homes far too grand for their perceived income.
>Consider a future, with Fluffy ponies....
>Release date: Roughly contemporary era.
>People are normal, unaffected.
>Fluffy ponies are purchased from HasBio, taken to homes.
>Some are adored and played with and loved.
>Some die tragically in accidents.
>Some are abused and neglected.
>But life is fairly normal, and Fluffy ponies are too expensive to treat indiscriminately, and there's no breeding yet, so no foals available to the public.
---
>The PETA incedent: Only a few months after shelf release date.
>The released stock are largely pregnant and breeder mares, with a handful of males.
>Stores still sell Fluffies, but for the first time they face serious competition from bootlegged / stolen fluffies.
>Some breeders "escape" / are released into the wild by PETA, or by general fuckup. Most likely PETA.
>Some of the escaped fluffies are snatched up by greedy idiots looking to make money selling the bred foals.
>"Fluffy Mills" start here. How rapidly Fluffies breed is discovered.
>The cost of a new fluffy is still relatively high, but begins sliding downwards quickly, as the market becomes saturated with breeders.
>Still, Fluffies are expensive, and some people make a good profit off of selling them.
---
>Stable Hugbox World: A few years after the first breeding mill opens.
>Ferals become an uncommon, but familiar sight in areas near the initial "Incident" areas.
>Fluffy Pony Shelters begin opening, taking in strays and giving them food and shelter.
>Most people have owned a fluffy pony at some point.
>Breeders start rapidly loosing profits, as competition becomes steep. Many breeders just dump their studs / mares back into the wild to get rid of them.
>further away from the initial outbreak point, feral fluffy herds are very rare.
>Some people react negatively to them, and will abuse, mistreat, or outright kill a fluffy pony.
>Most people just treat them like ordinary animals.
>Life goes on, getting a fluffy pony is somewhere between getting a dog from a shelter, and getting a pet mouse from a feeder bin.
---
>Pre-Fluffageddon: A decade or more after stable hugbox.
>Feral fluffy ponies are common sights nearly everywhere.
>Shelters are overcrowded.
>Breeders, the few that remain, have to provide some kind of special quality to their fluffies, like "our fluffies never cry", or "Our fluffies are all amputated" in order to turn a profit.
>First fluffy home invasions occur, where a feral herd enters a human home.
>First fluffy extermination jobs begin shortly after.
>People are beginning to feel the strain of dealing with fluffies constantly, and abuse becomes much more common.
>Right now, it's just fluffy abuse.
>People start experimenting liberally on fluffies, often with entirely predictable results.
>Some become "addicted" to abusing fluffy ponies.
>First overly-elaborate means of fluffy torture begin showing up.
>Life becomes interrupted by fluffy ponies, getting a fluffy is so easy it can be done accidentally.
---
>Abuse World: At most five years after pre-fluffageddon
>Can't walk outside without seeing, smelling, or hearing a fluffy pony.
>Herds are common, Superherds are becoming uncommon but acknowledged sights throughout rural areas.
>Abuse is rife.
>The last fluffy pony breeder closed it's doors with a Molotov cocktail.
>Extermination is a common profession.
>Children born during this period witness their parents create regular bloodbaths, viciously killing things that sound a lot like small children.
>If something loves you, brutally murder it.
>If you think that kind of message won't fuck you up...
>Human population actually notes an abnormal birthing drop, as people both become lifelong bachelors / spinsters with their pet / abused / neglected / gallery of killed fluffies becomes much more common.
>Accidental deaths spike, as using large numbers of home-built torture devices occasionally backfire, fluffies spread fires, people ignore obvious warning signs to go eliminate fluffies, etc.
>Feral herds in some places actually outnumber the collected human population.
>Crops begin taking serious hits from fluffy pony-related incidents, including a few farmers who actually just plowed their combine harvesters through a field of immature crops just to get at a fluffy pony herd.
>And Yet, Fluffy Ponies continue to live on...
---
>Post-Fluffy-Apocalypse: 25 years after abuse world.
>The number of infants surviving from birth to age 5 is not statistically significant.
>Short reason: At some point they annoyed their parents so much, that they just killed them, which is clearly an acceptable solution to their problems. They then disposed of the corpse mixed in with the fluffy pony corpses in the trash.
>Society is collapsing, people don't ask questions.
>Fluffy related infrastructure damage is crippling governments and local economies.
>Crime is rampant, particularly property crimes and arson.
>Fluffy pony involvement is often an accepted excuse.
>After the death of a preceding generation left many homes unoccupied, property prices were sent into a nosedive, allowing the surviving generations to "move up in the world".
>But few marry or even have serious relationships, since love is just another damn thing that reminds people of fluffy ponies.
>Centuries pass.
>Population continues to decline until the human race is no longer viable as a species.
>Humanity dies out, it's final act one of cruelty.
>Fluffy ponies continue to live on, now able to freely evolve devoid of the pressures of humanity.
>A meek, language-capable herbivorous species that is poorly adapted to survive compared to it's predators.
>...
>Evolution takes it's course, adaptations occur. Mutations propagate in ways they were never permitted to before.
>intentionally installed frailties are overcome, populations plateau, dip, and balance.
>Nature is, in all things, resurgent.