Daddy loves you, Blue

I’ve always wondered if dad changed his last name at a point in his life to copy Kiss’s co-founder, Gene Simmons. Probably, but my grandparents died before my mother gave birth to me, so I never found out, got another slap from my old man though for asking.

Before going off buying my fluffy an absurd amount of wallet-thinners, I scurried down to the basement area of the apartment. I unlocked my storage, rummaged through some boxes and dug out two Kiss LP:s.

An acquaintance that owned one of the only remaining record stores still in Little Rock, begged me in the past to let him buy these off me when we were just talking about old vinyls in general. I never thought much of it back then other than I didn’t want to get rid of some kickass records.

“It’s strange how something so small and helpless can change a person in a heartbeat,” I said to myself as I put the lock back on the storage. My biggest concern now was to make sure she got everything she need. “And that’ll take some sacrifices,” I mumbled to myself.

Leaving the area, I walked the across the blocks for about twenty minutes until I came across the record store.

I believed that Percy, the guy ‘owning’ and working in the record store lied about being just a normal dude with interest in classic rock. I bet his parents were loaded actually, how else could you afford running a music store without going into the reds every month? Just a hunch though since he never made it transparent, and frankly I didn’t care if he was secretly rich.

The door played cringe-worthy guitar solo when I entered. I groaned inaudibly. Even I thought it was a bit nerdy, as I greeted Percy where he stood behind the red mahogany counter. Everywhere in the store, a music collector’s dream neatly adorned the shelves and tables. If you were looking for classical rock, you had come to the right place, but you don’t really care for in real life music, do ya?

Percy smiled, flashing a set of bleached teeth. Yeah, ‘normal’ dude my ass. “Good day, Percival,” I said, as I knew the usual reaction.

Indeed, Percy’s smiled turned upside down and he frowned slightly. “Dude, seriously. Every freaking time, did I upset you in an earlier life time for you to be teasing me like this?” He crossed his arms.

“You’re not intimidating in the slightest, Percy.” He sighed and returned to his previous posture.

“Whatever man, now what can I do for my oh-so-called friend that has come to grace my presence in my humble store?”

“I,” I said solemnly, “have come to offer you a deal, Perc, I believe you know what.” I brandished the two Kiss vinyls I ‘stealthily’ carried under my arms, “these are, hmm—?”

Percy’s whites went as wide as a five-year old’s during Christmas morning. “Those are,” he started to say, then he rubbed his eyes in disbelief and looked again, “are those the South African Kiss LP’s you told me about?” Funny, I think I saw him drooling a bit.

“No, they’re freaking One Direction albums you dolt, of course it’s the fucking Kiss vinyls.” I think we both shivered visibly a little me mentioning that horrifying boyband.

Percy recovered first. “So, erm, I take it that you’re not just here to taunt me with them, right?” He looked a little nervous to be honest, I could spot the childlike light in his eyes as they were transfixed on the records. “It would be a very cruel thing to do, you know?”

“I am not here to disappoint you, Percy, in fact these little babies need a good, new home, think you could provide them with that?” I moved them from side to side, Percy’s head following their movement, hungrily. Finally he snapped out of it as I cleared my throat.

“Huh? Y-yeah man, I’ll gladly take them off your back,” he started reaching for the vinyls, but I pulled back in time, making him whine a bit in dejection.

“They are yours, Percy, for a price.” I stated.

He assumed a business-like attitude  “O-of course, dear friend, how silly of me to think you would relinquish these old vinyls for free. Well then, how much are we talking?”

I smirked as I had compared prices on different sites earlier in the month. “One hundred and fifty each, my friend.” Noted I could probably have gotten more selling them on ebay, but there’s always the risk of people backing out, and I needed the money. Percival contemplated for a moment, he knew as well, but chose not to voice it.

“Wait here,” he said after a little while. Granted, I waited, albeit impatiently for him to return. Soon he got back with some papers and a small bundle of money. “Got to sign some paper works whenever the store makes a big purchase. I rolled my eyes at his stretching of the word ‘big’.

I skimmed it over, making sure it was in order before I signed. He gave me my copy, the three hundred dollars and I handed over the vinyls.

“Well, the boring part’s over,” he said and placed the papers beneath the counter, “now, sate my curiosity, if you will. What made you change your mind?”

“Nothing special, man, I just needed some extra cash, that’s all.” Percy looked at me quizzically for a moment, then his lips curled up in a smile again.

“Nothing special, huh?”

Oh, for fuck’s sake. I deadpanned at him for the obvious remark he tried to make. “No, I haven’t got a girlfriend all of a sudden, idiot.” I sighed. “Anyway, afraid I can’t stay and chat, but I have to bounce.”

“Gonna splurge on your not-girlfriend?” he said and laughed.

“Goodbye, Percival,” I said to my ‘dear’ acquaintance.

“Hah, see you later, man.”

I cursed a bit as I opened the door, the familiar sound playing, I stopped, turned and looked at him. “And freaking disable that thing, you nerd.”

My footsteps were accompanied by Percy’s annoying laughter. Fucking Percy.

I quickly tucked the money in my jacket, I didn’t expect to get mugged in broad daylight, but you never know whom might feel a little extra frisky every now and then. On the way I asked for direction to the Fluffy specialty store, ending up having to take a detour due to asking the wrong person, however soon I stood before the establishment, ‘Fluffy Friends’. Its sign looking like a lawnmower went loose on some unexpected people in a crowded area, colours everywhere.

I hesitantly walked in, and got greeted by probably one of the most siliconed-stuffed blonde teenaged girl Little Rock ever had the tormented pleasure to make acquaintance. I swear, they had a life of their own.

“Hello, and welcome to Fluffy Friends! My name’s Jessie, call me ‘Jay’ for short, you know, because it’s easy and I like to say YAY, a lot! Like now, yay! Like, all my friends calls me ‘Jay’ instead of Jesse, so that they can say, ‘Hey, Jay’! Oh that rhymed!”

o.O.o

One specific mare’s tail twitched back and forth and she looked up from the counter in the store she was working. She got a suspecting look on her face as her eyes darted from side to side, trying to figure out what caused the anomaly.

    “Dooooozy,” she said quietly, earning a nervous look from the grey earth pony in front of her.

o.O.o

I tried tuning her faster-than-ludicrous-speed voice out while almost avoiding the allure of her jiggling gazongas. Gah, urge to kill rises, but also, breasts… Sadly, I failed.

“Anyway, that’s enough about me, what can I do for you, sir?” Apparently her jargong had ended and she breathed heavily. Damn, how long was I out?

“E-erm, well, uh, ‘Jay’, I’m here because I need some things for my new fluffy I adopted.”

“Oh, of course, sir. I mean, why else would you be here, am I right, hahahaha!” She got closer and patted my back, harder than I expected. Jesus, girl, what are your parents feeding you?

“Now, what exactly are you looking for?” She said cheerily.

“Oh, actually a little bit of everything, this is my first one.”

Her lips extended into another big grin. “That’s great! The first one is always special. Well then, let me guide you through the necessities that’ll you need. What gender, and how old is it?”

“Oh Blue Cloud’s a girl, and uh,” I thought for a moment, I didn’t know exactly, however I remembered that I still carried the receipt from the store in my jacket. I pulled it out and examined it. “according to this she’s about a week old.”

“A week? Is the filly’s mother still nursing her?” she asked.

I looked back at her. “Uh, no? I bought her from a pet store yesterday evening, it was only her in a small cardboard box.”

Jesse, or ‘Jay’ went through a different set of facial expressions ranging from confused, and what looked like anger, finally she settled on acceptance with a sigh. “Wow, yeah that’s against protocol, no fluffies under three weeks are allowed to be sold without their mother, I’m surprised that the owner got the sell the foals at all, hmm, must have been what you call a ‘private’ transaction.”

I was a bit amazed, the bubbly girl was gone and had been replaced by a calm professional. I felt that familiar coldness inside though, in my head I knew that Blue Cloud got separated from her mother too early, and that I should have filed a complaint against Peter, but yesterday felt so far away now. Also, would I not be able to keep Blue, perhaps?

“Um, I’m sorry, miss Jessie. I just wanted to bring Blue out of there quickly, it was late and I’m not sure what the owner might have done to her if I hadn’t bought her.” Especially since Peter called her a useless ‘shitstain’, she might have ended up as snake food, or worse.

Jessie took some calm breaths before looking at me. “Alright, I get you, I won’t mention your part in this, however, when we’re done, I want you to stay and give me the address and of the shop, okay?”

“Yes,” I said, “will do.” She proceeded to ask me some more questions, regarding diet and vaccinations. After examining the papers, we found out that Blue never got her shots, well no surprise, due to her age. Jessie gave me the location of a good veterinarian, and told me to go there in a week’s time.

About thirty minutes later, I left the boutique with a wide arrangement of foal formula - the nutritious kind - foal kibble, two litter boxes, a foldable, padded play-pen, Fluffy-shampoo, toys, a ‘sorry box’, and countless other stuff. I must have blown over a hundred dollars, easily. Closer to hundred and eighty five apparently after I looked at the receipt, Jessie issued me a membership card though - since I splurged ridiculously - earning me a small discount.

Jessie returned to her bubbly self as she waved goodbye, and said that she would love it if Blue visited someday. I promised that I’d return in the future.

The way back melted into nothing more than my eagerness to get home my apartment and my new roommate, that I nearly stepped on the thing clutching to my leg near an alley. I stopped abruptly and looked down.

“Pwease nice mistah, gif nummies to mummah? Nee make miwkies fow babbehs” A yellow fluffy pegasus said as she looked at me with her huge, green eyes.

Huh, a stray? That’s odd, generally they’d stick to the parks, I thought. I heard the chirping coming from the clutches of her furry coat, true enough, an assortment of little foals nestled close to her and peeped hungrily.

I sighed. Even if I gave them food, there was no guarantee they’d survive long enough to make it elsewhere, but, I wasn’t so cruel that I could deny them something to eat either.

“Okay, little one, I will give you some nummies.”

“Weawwy?” she said happily. I nodded to her and took out some soft, foal kibble from one of the bags. We went into the alleyway, it stunk a bit, but the garbageman already emptied it out. I poked a hole in the bag poured some out for the mare in a discarded pizza box. She ate the kibble, while praising me for being so nice. It was quite heartwrenching.

After eating all of it, she looked up to me. “Um, maywbe, nice mistah be fwuffies new daddeh?” I suspected as much.

I shook my head. “I’m sorry little missy, but I have a fluffy already, and I can’t afford to feed any more.”

She looked quite dejected as she sighed. “Dat otay, fank you fow good nummies.”

“You’re very welcome, take care of yourself and your babies, okay?”

“Fwuffy am bestest mummah, awways take goo cawe ow babbehs.”

“I know you will, sweetheart. Goodbye.” I waved at the mare as her small stature vanished as I left the alley.

Now, no more stops, back to Blue, I thought as I picked up the pace. Five minutes later I turned the key to my apartment door and went inside.

Already I heard Blue Cloud chirping loudly, I dropped everything on the floor and hurried over. In some mysterious way, she turned laying on her back and now her small hooves flailed uselessly in the air. A tiny pool of urine and feces adorning her rump as she squeaked for aid.

I gently picked her up in my palm and cooed at her, trying to settle her cries for help. I think she recognized my voice because it didn’t take long until she calmed down and started sucking on my finger.

“I’m lucky I’m young, Blue, or else I might have thought you were trying to kill me by giving me a heart attack.” She gurgled and continued nursing on my finger in response. “Guess it’s time for another bottle then. I got a surprise for you though, sweetheart.”

I cuddled with her a bit until I set her down again against Mr. Bunny, she cried weakly, but daddy had to make some nummies so I left her in her little box.

Some simple instructions later, Blue Cloud nursed on a healthy bottle of foal formula, sweetened with vanilla. Sure must have tasted good, because she emptied it rather fast for being so small.

“Okay, Blue. Now that you’re a full baby, time to make you a less smelly one as well.” I tapped up a bath in the sink, carefully poured water and rubbed it into her fur, used a drop of no-tear shampoo, washed again, and dried her. Voila, little stinky became all clean and well. Not that she felt any better about it, poor girl. Seems that fluffies really do hate water.

The bath tuckered the little one out, as her newly dried body doozed off in my embrace, foals sure slept a lot when they were this small. Well, it gave me the time to set up Blue’s pen and organize the foal food. One of the items I got simulated a mother fluffy’s warmth, it was merely a glorified electric blanket, but Jessie praised its effectiveness, so I bought it.

I plugged it in and put Blue Cloud, the terry cloth and her new friend Mr. Bunny on top of it, and after a little while I could hear soft cooing followed by Blue snuggling deeper into the cloth.

“Wuw.”

I had to do a doubletake as I rose up, I thought I heard Blue saying something, but after staring at her for a minute all I got was chirps. I scratched my chin in confusion, however soon my stomach reminded me that I forgot to feed it today. This was punctuated by a rude gargle, god, my belly could be such a dick sometimes, well, not literally.

I couldn’t be arsed to gather the effort to cook, so I just put some cheese and butter in between two slices of bread, while I normally would fry some bacon and eggs. So maybe I wasn’t the most healthy guy, but I never saw the point in cooking elaborate meals and eating them alone either. Also, I liked bacon.

The rest of the day I occupied myself with putting together the play pen, assorting all the necessary items, and of course feeding and cuddling with Blue.

When evening came, I took a look at myself in the bathroom mirror, my black hair was getting quite ragged, so I opted for a quick shower and a shave. Blue Cloud had been recently fed and slept serenely in her new nest.

After drying myself, I plopped down on the sofa and opened my laptop, I browsed some channels on Youtube, for entertainment but mostly for more information on how other owners managed their fluffies. Sadly, most of them involved playing mean, but not necessary cruel jokes on their pets.

Before closing my computer, I decided that I should probably write down some notes regarding Blue Cloud, heck, why not start a diary, oh,  and a photo album! Yeah sounded like a great idea, then I could show her when she’s older. “Well, let’s start with a diary entry first, I guess,” I said out loud. “Alright, day two: Today I’ve discovered…”