The Crossing

JohnDoe, August 8, 2019; 11:32 / FB 54597
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>It was the hottest day of summer when the herd began its journey into the city.
>The herd slowly made its way through the forest towards the street - the smarty up front, the toughies behind him,
the stallions behind them, and the mares and foals in the back.
>With one eye and a scarred head as intelligent as a fluffy could get, the smarty stopped and surveyed the surroundings,
and the toughies immediately stopped with him, causing those in the back to bump into each other.
>Ignoring the weak cries of those behind him, the old fluffy pondered.
>It looked like the more they walked, the less trees there were.
>That meant humans.
>He and his herd had seen them in the forest before - their bafflingly large metal monsters and nauseating loud sharp sticks
tearing their home apart.
>Many of his herd have fallen to the humans and their "wogging jobs", and many of his herd had been former 'pets' to their
human daddies and mommies; most of them unwilling to divulge even a fraction of the horrors they had witnessed.
>Yet here he was leading his herd right into their rocky nest, solely to put himself and them at their mercy.
>Why? Because the forest has become too dangerous for his herd.
>The furry monsters have become more and more numerous as the humans pushed deeper into the forest. Every day more and more
of his herd fall prey to them, to the point that it has taken only a week for half of the herd to be destroyed.
>He tried counting the members of his herd once, but he could only count up to 15.
>So he decided to stop at 15, and then restart on the fluffy nearest to the one he stopped on last time.
>He counted to 15 exactly 3 times, and to 4 once.
>Yesterday when he counted his herd, he could only count to 15 twice, and to 2 once.
>His herd was dying.
>So as dangerous as the humans in their concrete nest were, he figured that eventually the forest would be even
more dangerous.
>Thus he casts his hope on those humans that aren't bad. Like the daddy he had before he had his monster daddy.
-
>After what seemed to him to be eternity, they at last reached the clearing. The place he remembered when he first
lead them to the forest, all those bright times ago.
>It was very hot here. The bright sun beated down upon him and his herd like fire. He turned and looked upon his herd,
ignoring the long trail of shit they had left in their path.
>The toughies were doing fine it seemed - they were either okay, or too proud to admit they were tired.
>The stallions were a mixed bag; some of them were panting heavily, while others were silent in their exhaustion.
>The mares however...
>All of them were either sobbing lightly, or on the verge of collapsing. The foals were doing much, much worse.
>His old heart wrenched when he saw a few foals on the backs of the mothers who had their eyes squeezed shut,
no longer breathing. The mothers hadn't even noticed yet.
>"Hewd wiw stop hewe. Wait fow bwight baw to go 'way some. Eat gwassies and find dawk pwace to wait in."
>A few of the fluffies sighed in relief at the idea of getting out of the hot sun, and a few mares practically
collapsed on the spot, panting wildly, the dead foals falling off their backs.
-
>"Wonny..." one of his oldest toughies, a purple coated blue maned stallion by the name of 'Hawwy' (Harry) approached him.
>"What fwend?" Ronny grunted as he teared some of the grass from the ground, enjoying his time in the shade away
from the hellish sun.
>"Hewd have babbehs in fo'evew sweepies... Some mummahs and daddehs, too. It too hawt! Bwight baw no go 'way. Wonny
wait fo' dawk time to take hewd out of fowest?"
>He swallowed his grass and gave him a sad look, his one good eye beginning to swell from the pollen.
>"Nu. Dawk time when big doggies come out. Eat hewd. Have tu go soon."
>Harry processed this for a moment, before nodding. "Otay... But what about big bwack wock?"
>Ah yes, who could forget.
>The big black rock.
>He lost many of his herd when he crossed it into the forest, as though the black rock was the guard of the grass lands.
>He didn't know if he would be able to make it across this time. He had grown weaker as time went on. And his herd...
>"We have ta go ovew it. No othew way."
-
>At last, the sun was now on the horizon, and he gathered his herd together.
>It was still very hot by fluffy standards, but it was atleast barely tolereable at this point. The mares were
standing out of the shade and panting less heavily than before.
>Some of the mares and stallions were still crying at the loss of their foals. And probably would continue to do so,
even as they crossed the black rock.
>Unless the fear overtook the sadness.
>"We cwose to hooman wocky nest." he announced "but we have tu go thwoo bwack wock."
>Some of the fluffies who were crying immediately ceased; their eyes filling with terror.
>They remembered the black rock.
>"B-but... Bwack wock... Fast munstahs thewe... Gib wowstest huwties wike befo'!" one of the stallions in the back
said loudly.
>"Wonny- smawty know. But nu way. Have tu go thwoo neeway. Stay cwose and it be otay; smawty pwomise."
>He was lying to them. It would not be okay. He knew that a lot of them were going to die.
>But it was the only way. Either they all die, or some of them do.
>Such is the life of a herd.
-
>At last they reached it.
>The black rock.
>It was nearly dark time now - and that meant there was not going to be much time before the dawk time munstahs came.
>But unbeknownst to him, it also meant less of the fast monsters.
>"Otay... Hewd have tu huwwy befo' dawk time munstahs come, and fast munstahs come. Fowwow smawty."
>Some of the fluffies in the herd began to piss and shit themselves in fear and anticipation, leading to a few
of the foals old enough to walk behind their mothers being suffocated by shit.
>A few of them babbled about "scawy bwack wock..." and "meanie fast munstahs... gib speciaw fwend fo'ebba sweepies
wast time."
>No matter.
>It had to be done.
>Ronny put a tentative hook onto the black rock, squeezing his eye shut.
>After waiting for a second or so and realizing that yes - he was still alive, he got a little braver and took another
step forward, and another, and another, until he was a fraction of the way past it; his toughies close behind him.
>Seeing the progress made by their leader and the strongest, the herd quickly gained momentum and were closely
following.
>Except for the older foals who were walking. They were a little ways away from their mothers.
>"Mummah! Wait fo' babbeh!" one cried out, causing confusion among the mothers who didn't know where their babies were.
>Ronny glanced back and saw a lot of the mothers stalling, waiting for the foals to catch up, and it was at that moment
that his worst fear was realized.
>"BWIGHT FAST MUNSTAH!" one of them screamed, immediately causing those that did not void their bowels on the side
of the road to do so on it.
>Panic began to spread among his herd, as all cohesion was lost.
>The mares turned and hauled ass to the walky foals, trampling a few of them in the process and leaving them
a broken bloody mess on the road.
>Others ran *down* the road in opposite directions.
>Ronny began shouting; trying to restore order among the herd, but it was too late. The fast monster was upon them.
>It plowed through atleast 6 fluffies, smearing their corpses deep into the asphalt as they screamed in pain
before entering oblivion.
>"Nuuuu! Speciew fwiend!"
>"MUMMAH! PWEASE NU FOWEVER SWEEPIES!"
>"Meanie fast munstah! Why huwt mawe!"
>"WUN! MUNSTAH GIB HUWTIES!"
>Ronny survived - the fast monster drove straight over him and the few of his toughies who stuck close beside him
throughout the ordeal.
>"Huwwy - make hewd get togethew!" he commanded his toughies, who quickly began efforts to restore order.
>"STAHP! MUNSTAH GONE!"
>"NU MOWE!"
>It helped... Kind of.
>The panicking fluffies began to settle a little, until all was calm(ish).
>The mothers who lost babies were inconsolable as they laid next to their trampled young, and Ronny immediately
knew that they would not make it across.
>Some of the herd were mourning those that had been smashed by the fast monster, wrapping their hooves around
whatever gore they could find, as if it would make the gore reanimate into their lost friends.
>"It ovew. Fast munstah gone, but mowe wiw come! Have to huwwy! We amowst thewe!" Ronny shouted, spurring
at least half of the remaining herd into action.
>The sobbing mothers of course stayed next to their dead foals, and a lot of the living foals did as well,
their empathy causing emotional overload.
>The edge of the black rock grew closer and closer, and it looked like those who stuck beside him would make it until...
>A deep gutteral growl was heard in the bushes directly infront of the road.
>"Nu..." Ronny stopped in his tracks, causing a few fluffies who weren't paying attention to keep going, mindlessly
babbling about how "hooman gib sketties in hooman nesties!"
>A large, dark wolf slowly arose from the bush.
>Behind him, two more.
>Their sharp teeth barred; saliva dripping from their mouths, and their eyes filled with hunger.
>"NU! TUWN BACK!"
>The wolves quickly pounced onto the fluffies closest to the road - tearing feverishly into the closet fluffies they
could reach, who screamed and cried in agony.
>One of the younger toughies puffed his cheeks and charged; before quickly being lazily batted away by one of the wolves.
>Once again chaos spread among the herd, as the wolves finished with the initial victims and moved onto the next ones.
>And then the next ones. And then the ones after that. And after that.
>Then something worse happened.
>In the distance - he could see the bright lights of yet another fast monster, quickly approaching.
>"HUWWY! WUN! FAST MUNSTAH!!" He shouted and ran as fast as his little fluffy legs could take him to the edge of the road.
>Only five of his herd followed, two of them toughies, two of them stallions, and one mare.
>Atlast he and those that followed were off the black rock, and he turned to look upon the scene.
>The fast monster roared, causing the wolves to quickly jump off the black rock and into the place the herd had crossed
from, and then they ran off into the darkness.
>The fast monster passed as quickly as it came, plowing through the last few fluffies who weren't maimed,
leaving just the five of them.
>Tears welled in his eye and the fluffies' next him at what remained.
>Red trails of boo boo juice constrasting with the black rock; mothers and daddies torn in half with their tummy spaghetti
littered all over the place; broken bodies of the babies still huddled tightly in the scruffs of their mothers.
>There were some of them still barely alive, moaning and gurgling; drowning in their blood.
>"Hewd... Wonnie su sowwy..." He collapsed to the ground, the dam in his eye breaking causing a flood of tears to
trail down his matted fluff.
>"Wonnie am wowstest smawty... Babbehs and mummahs... Fwends..."
>The five remaining fluffies tried to console him, tried to hug him and tell him it would all be okay, but he pushed
them away.
>"Go 'way... Wonnie nu am smawty nu mowe. Nu have hewd."
>Their hearts were broken, seeing the once proud and strong elder who had lead them through so much hard times
now a sobbing mess on the dirted floor of the forest.
>But there was nothing that could be done.
>They stared on in silence as the last moans of pain from the black rock ended, until the only sound left was the
leaves and bushes rustling in the wind, and the light crying of Ronny.
>The older of the two toughies stood a little taller, and finally broke the trance the other four were in.
>"Fowwow me. Toughie wiw be smawty. Take to hooman wock nestie."
>The four snapped to attention, exchanging glances with each other, before giving the fluffy equivelant of a shrug
and following his lead.
>Ronny continued sobbing, listening as the crunching leaves of those left alive grew fainter and fainter, until
he was left alone.
>Such is the life of a herd.