About

Fluffy Ponies refer to a unique type of pony created by fans of the animated television series My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. Fluffy Ponies are typically depicted as regular ponies from the show, only with large quantities of hair on their bodies. The trend, which began in early 2012, has created numerous fan art recreations online and is also often featured in Greentext Stories using references to the show.

Origin

The first fluffy pony was created by DeviantArt^[1] user Mixermike622 on January 3rd, 2012, under the title "FLUFFLE PUFF," which received over 154,000 views and 5,000 favorites in nine years (seen below).

Spread

Fluffle Puff

Fluffle Puff is the name given to Mixermike622's original version of a fluffy pony, based off the title given to the file. Fluffle Puff has generated a large amount of fan art dedicated to her since her creation. The model used for Fluffle Puff is commonly used as a base in other fluffy pony artworks (examples shown below).

Mixermike622 has also accepted the spread of his character and has given it multiple appearances in his Tumblr blog, Dan vs. Friendship is Magic, from which it also spread to other Tumblr blogs (examples seen below).^[2] He also released a flash game for the character on February 29th, 2012.^[3]

Mixermike622's Response To Creating The Trend

On April 12th, 2012, Mixermike622, who incidentally kicked off the trend, replied to an inquiry about how he initiated fluffy ponies where he stated that he originally created the image to make a silly representation of himself and had no intention of starting a trend (seen below).

Greentext Stories

A prominent use of fluffy pony is through Greentext Stories in threads on sites like 4chan and ponychan.^[4] These stories often contain some questionable content, but SFW versions can also be found. Many of these stories have been posted on the MLP:FiM imageboard on Ponibooru (example shown below).^[5] After Ponibooru was shut down, the fluffy-pony-based website Fluffybooru was created in late 2012 to host such images.

Abuse and Hugbox

The fluffy pony community is divided into two: Abuse and Hugbox. Abusers are people who often write stories or draw pictures of fluffy ponies being tortured and often killed by being attacked by humans, being attacked by animals, burning to death with fire or acid, getting cut in half, drowning, etc. These abusers often attack fluffy ponies because of their low intelligence, bratty and childlike personality, physical weakness, destruction of harvest and perceived overpopulation within the fandom. Fluffy ponies can often die from their own stupidity, such as falling off a cliff when attempting to fly, getting run over by a car because they thought it was a friend, eating bad foods and other various scenarios.

Some abusers often abuse fluffy ponies as if they were clearing out a vermin infestation, while others abuse them for bad deeds such as defecating at the wrong place (known as "bad poopies") or a mare killing their own baby because of being born a runt (known as "bad babbeh"). Abusers consist of the majority of the site Fluffybooru with Ginger_Fig, Mwike and deathproofpony being the most notable examples.

Hugboxers are on the separate end of the fluffy pony fandom. Hugboxers are people who often write stories or draw pictures of fluffy ponies being loved by humans, putting them in wholesome and safe situations, while sometimes using them in comedic scenarios. In a hugbox story or picture, fluffy ponies will often play with balls or blocks, spend time with other fluffies or humans, and most notably, eat spaghetti (known as "sketties"). These hugboxers often protect fluffy ponies because of their cute and childish nature and want to counter the frequent cycle of abuse. Hugbox content often gets less reception than abuse content on Fluffybooru. Hugboxers consist of the minority on Fluffybooru with Aichi, Waggytail and Marcusmaximus being the most notable examples.

Headcanons and Fluffy Language

Ever since the stories and pictures were posted, users began to develop their own headcanons surrounding the lifestyle of a fluffy pony. The most common headcanons include:

Fluffy ponies were created in a lab by the company Hasbro in the near future (later 2010s). The first fluffy ponies were created when scientists spliced DNA from animals such as miniature horses, dogs, cats, birds and human babies. Their main goal was to create the perfect domestic companion due to the popularity of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. However, before they were perfected, the animal rights group, PETA broke into the company's headquarters and released the fluffy ponies into the wild. According to the fandom, this became an issue because fluffies are sexually active and can get pregnant 99 percent of the time they mate (known as "special huggies"), thus increasing the population from 1,000 to tens of thousands within a few months. Because they were man-made, users often classify fluffy ponies as bio-toys instead of actual animals.

Within the fandom, fluffy pregnancy occurs for three weeks to an entire month. Mares will give birth to one to five foals. After the birth, the foals will chirp as if they were a bird. The mare will then lick the afterbirth and smell the baby to decide if it's a good baby or a bad baby. If the foal has a bad smell, a birth defect or an alicorn, the mare will declare the baby as a "bad babbeh" and will either kill it or abandon it. Alicorns are viewed as monsters to most fluffy ponies due to the fact that they have both a horn and wings.

Upon birth, fluffy ponies will nurse by drinking milk from their mother's breast which is produced during the pregnancy. However, the mare will need to eat food, most notably spaghetti, in order to produce the milk. Fluffy ponies will open their eyes three days after birth, walk a week after and begin to talk in two weeks with "mummah" and "wuv" being their first words. It takes three weeks to a month for a fluffy pony to be weaned and have its teeth grow.

The main issue with fluffy ponies living in the city or the environment is herds. Within the fandom, herds consist of five to 200 fluffy ponies and consist of "smarty," "toughies," mares and foals. The most hated fluffy pony is a smarty due to their bratty behavior. Smarties, usually male unicorns, are the leaders of a herd and are tasked with finding safe places, food and water, as well as mate with the females to increase the herd. Smarties will often lead a herd to a house's front yard and tell the homeowner to leave because it's their land and they will get "biggest owwies" or "sorry poopies" if they refuse to leave. Toughies are the bodyguard of the smarty and will often observe mares when they are pregnant.

Fluffies can also be domestic meaning that they were born in a shelter for sale or were raised in a house where they are housebroken. In a shelter or a fluffy mill, fluffy ponies will be taken away from their mother either after birth or after they are weaned so they can be sold. The mares, on the other hand, are tasked with getting pregnant from a shelter stallion days after the birth of a litter or are used as a "milkbag" in which they are tied up to tubes, have their legs (and sometimes tongues) cut off, and can only be used to milk foals. Some people will have their fluffy ponies go through a quadruple leg amputation to prevent it from running away. In order to discipline fluffies, owners will use a baton called a "sorry stick" and will hit a fluffy for misbehaving or will place a fluffy in a container called the "sorry box." Fluffy ponies' price will vary based on breed (alicorn are the most expensive while earth ponies are the cheapest), color and behavior. If a fluffy pony is not sold in a certain amount of time, it will be euthanized in order to control the population.

Fluffy Ponies Speak

Fluffy ponies speak in a lisp and mispronounce the letter l. Some fluffy pony terminology that was developed by the Fluffybooru community include:

• Daddeh – Daddy
• Mummah – Mommy
• Babbeh – Baby
• Good Babbeh – Healthy baby
• Bad Babbeh – Runt
• Horny Babbeh – Unicorn
• Wingy Babbeh – Pegasus
• Munsta Babbeh – Alicorn
• Dummeh Babbeh – Deformed baby
• Almost Mummah – Pregnant fluffy pony
• Big Poppies! – Labor/Water break
• Special Huggies – Sex
• Big Owwies – Injury
• Wowstest Owwies – Severe Injury
• Fowevew Sweepies – Death
• Boo Boo Juice – Blood
• Sketties – Spaghetti
• Wawa – Water

Various Examples

External References