Fluffy Ponies

Fluffy Ponies are a fictional race of Ponies created by the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic fanbase. They are mostly materialized in the form of greentext stories where the protagonist, who is usually a human male, ends up owning one or more. In most stories, the pony will perish from mistreatment or an accident, usually drowning. Of these, there seems to be one that is somewhat known. Her name is Fluffle Puff, created by Mixermike622 (a.k.a. Fluffy) and is pictured below.

Origin
Fluffy ponies started as art on 4chan's Comics & Cartoons (/co/) board, and soon grew into short stories. The art was originally by Mixermike622.

Physical description
In common portrayals, fluffy ponies stand out from normal ponies by their smaller size and thicker fur. They are depicted in many different ways; the variety being their size, which can vary from a few inches to as much as four feet, and their thickness of fur, which can vary from leaving the neck exposed to as much as the only parts visible being the ends of the hooves and the face. How they are portrayed is up to the author's or artist's discretion.

Behavior
Fluffy ponies are explained as having been bred for maximum cuteness and fluffiness; in gaining that, they lose most of their intelligence, putting most fluffy ponies at the mental level of an infant or toddler. When given dialogue, fluffy ponies typically have oversimplified, fragmented speech patterns, very similar to those of a small child.

They also possess childlike motor-skills, meaning most fluffy ponies in greentext stories tend toward clumsiness and poor coordination; their underdeveloped mental abilities also result in poor recall and reasoning, meaning fluffy ponies are not always aware of the consequences of their actions, which increases their mortality rate drastically. As such, they usually perish in unforeseen and silly ways, the most common of which is by drowning.

Similar to young children; they are known from some stories to be very selfish creatures and will potentially betray thousands of their own kind if it means they don't so much as fall over and get a bruise on their nose.

House-trained fluffy ponies
House-trained fluffy ponies are characterized as essentially a cross between a common house pet and a small child. They act similarly to common house pets in the sense that they are treated the same in terms of nourishment, exercise, and mentality, while they are similar to small children in terms of speech.

Usually in stories, they are obtained from adoption centers, which in turn obtained them from breeding farms, and both most often have poor living conditions for the fluffy ponies.

In some stories, fluffy ponies as house pets coexist not only with humans, but with normal, more intelligent ponies as well. In these stories, the normal ponies can either be actual Equestrian ponies transported to Earth, or house pets for the humans. In either case, the normal ponies are significantly smarter and less prone to dying. These stories often have the fluffy ponies being treated as "second-class citizens" in comparison to the non-fluffy ponies.

Feral fluffy ponies
Feral fluffy ponies are essentially the wild version of house-trained fluffy ponies. They are known from several stories to be more adaptable to the outside environment than their counterparts who reside in houses. They are also almost always known to travel in groups of around ten or more, which are led by a fluffy pony with rare leadership qualities. These leader ponies are usually described as "smarty friends" by the other herd members.

The herd is mostly lured into a false sense of security as fluffy ponies are known from fictional descriptions to have poor offensive or defensive capabilities. This means that if the herd in a greentext were to come under attack or face danger, they would usually puff their cheeks out and berate the danger with insults. If the attacking force were to perish, a section of the herd the remainder would 'hide in plain sight' and cover their eyes with their hooves; the mentality being that if they can't see the attacking force; it does not exist and will not attempt to harm them.

From the majority of greentexts about feral fluffy ponies, ferals originated from house-trained fluffy ponies that escaped from breeding farms, adoption centers, houses or were originally strays from urban areas that found their way into non-urban environments. Over time, they were able to adapt to the environment and more were originating from the offspring that these strays produced.

Reproduction is important to the feral herd as it provides a stable source of replenishment for any of the herd members that may have perished. Because of this, pregnant mares are usually guarded by the strongest members of the herd, but are immobile because they have swollen up for pregnancy and so must be rolled around with the herd, as is often shown in the greentexts.

The dung of feral fluffy ponies is prized by humans in greentext stories as an extremely potent fertilizer; the grass eaten by the herd grows back quickly after they poop on it. Several humans, mostly farmers and gardeners, have taken advantage of this in the less violent greentexts by allowing feral fluffy ponies to poop on their crops in exchange for either food for the fluffy ponies or nothing at all.

Reproduction
With the diverse range of stories, methods of reproduction can vary.
 * The fluffy pony is asexual and 'explodes' into its offspring. Young are able at birth.
 * The fluffy pony is sexual, with the male pony dying shortly after conception. The female lives on and delivers three-to-twelve young naturally. Young are helpless at birth.
 * The fluffy pony is sexual, with the male pony continuing to live on after conception. The female lives on and delivers three-to-twelve young naturally with or without the company of the male. Young are helpless at birth.
 * The fluffy pony is sexual, with the male pony dying shortly after conception. The female lives on for around one week before 'exploding' into its offspring, dying. Young are able at birth. This is the most common method.
 * Two fluffy ponies merge to become a new and independent fluffy pony.
 * Rarely, a fluffy pony may be shredded to make thousands of new fluffy ponies.

Stories
The trend has become to write stories about an imagined everyday life with a fluffy pony. While these stories where orignally very short, some have branched out to be much longer. Other stories pull ideas and literary elements from stories and movies like Cast Away or The Sixth Sense. The content of the stories is mostly user controlled and there are no strict guidelines to writing them, which means the quality can vary widely. Newer stories began the trend of feral fluffy ponies.