An old rabbit lay slumbering, the hot mid-afternoon sun warming the skin beneath his fur.
He was comfortable. It had been some time since he'd last been able to honestly say that. His bones and joints just didn't seem to want to grant him peace these days. At least, not often.
Still... he was comfortable now, and now was all that mattered. He'd learned to appreciate that long ago.
"How are you feeling, Angel-bunny?" a mellifluous voice spoke, as warm and soft as the summer breeze that tickled his ears.
She'd managed to sneak up on him again... she'd been doing that a lot lately, though she said she didn't mean to. Fluttershy had always been preternaturally quiet. Perhaps because of her innate desire to go unnoticed by the very same ponies she often sought for comfort and refuge. He'd never understood that, but then, his mom was a litany of contradictions. It was part of who she was, as much as his inability to admit that he was finally going deaf was a part of him.
The older rabbits always said that hearing is the first thing to go. Kind of ironic, if one thought about it.
Fluttershy repeated her question, having noticed the far-off look on his face.
Nodding slowly, he turned to snuggle further into the fur at the base of her neck. She lay there with him, smiling happily and humming. The grass seemed to hum with her.
It had been a long time since they'd sat together like this. He couldn't help but wonder why.
"Do you remember?" She stared off into the trees of the nearby forest. The Everfree meant a lot of things to a lot of creatures. For most that lived outside of it, it represented fear.
For him... it represented memories. One in particular.
Angel stopped himself and nodded. He'd almost done it again... stupid.
A tinkling giggle came from above him as Fluttershy leaned down to whisper in his ear, "My little Angel came to save me that day."
Silently, he laughed with her. In many ways it was a painful memory, but he cherished it nonetheless. He remembered... it had all started with a run through the forest.
"Little bunny, wait!"
Trees and bushes shot past him in a blur, roots and rocks reaching out to him as if trying to catch at his fur. They could never quite manage it, though. This was his patch of forest. He knew every stick, rock, and tree like the back of his paw. A kit he may still be, but in this place he was king.
Something flit by overhead, its shadow passing beneath him as it raced to cut him off. He knew this game. A hawk had tried the same thing on him not too long ago.
Swerving, he shot beneath a nearby root, its tree notorious amongst the flying creatures that shared his territory for its thick crown of thorny, slender branches. They knew better than to try to fly through it, as the hawk had learned the hard way. A pink and yellow pegasus was now learning the same lesson as thorns and branches caught at the impossibly delicate wings that somehow held her aloft.
"Ouch! Ow ow ow ow oof!" the exclamation preceded a muffled thud as she hit the soft earth and compost of the forest floor.
Grinning back at the pony, he figured he'd get one last word in edgewise and stuck his tongue out for a celebratory raspberry... and promptly tumbled face first into a thorn bush.
Great...
Somehow, he'd managed to end up upside down, his limbs tangled in the vines of the tough little bush. He tried to pull away, but thorns dug past his fur and into his skin, drawing blood. With a sigh and a mental facepaw, he admitted the obvious: He was stuck.
"Oh! Oh my!"
He heard the sickeningly sweet voice that had chased him through these woods approach, accompanied by the hesitant hoofsteps of the pony behind it.
"Are you okay, little bunny? I'm sorry... I didn't mean to startle you..."
Gaping, he stared at her. Had she chased him through the forest for an hour just to apologize? She hadn't even startled him! She'd gotten on his nerves after insisting he finish the carrot she'd been trying to shove down his throat because he was 'all skin and bones'! Skin and bones!? One doesn't survive in this forest by being fat!
His stomach rumbled and he stopped himself. Getting furious was a fruitless exercise, it's not like she could read his mind. And, at this point, a little help wouldn't go unappreciated... especially when the alternative was starving to death in a thorn bush.
"Hold on for one moment. I'll get you out of there." her soft, breathy voice came from nearby, and he could suddenly see a pair of yellow hooves tearing away at the vines that held him captive. Thorns dug into them with the same abandon as when they'd dug into his own paws. Still, if that pony had one positive thing going for her, it was her tenacity. She kept digging away even as the skin above her hooves bled freely from dozens of scratches.
Could she not feel that?
Finally, the last of the vines were torn away and he dropped to the ground, landing on the back of his head. Ow.
"Oh, I'm sorry!" She reached forward and cradled him in her forelegs, checking his neck and paws for injuries.
Swatting her hooves away, he pointed angrily at her own scratches.
She looked down and winced, apparently just now feeling the sting, "I... hadn't noticed. I'll be okay..."
This time his facepaw wasn't mental. He sighed as he set about to look for some leaves to wrap around the wounds.
"Oh, no, it's okay! Really! I have some ointment and bandages back at my cottage. I'll just fly us back and we'll both be right as rain." she exclaimed and spread her wings, trying to emphasize her point, but winced deeply as the left one didn't fully extend. "Oh, dear..."
He came back to her, paws filled with long, soft leaves that he set down at her hooves, and tapped his foot impatiently.
"Well... if you say so... but please hurry. It looks like it might rain soon." she said as she glanced up at a bruised sky.
Weather in the Everfree forest was chaotic and unpredictable. Yesterday it had been so hot that he'd been forced to jump in the stream to cool off. Fortunately, the alligators had been too overheated to be tempted by small prey. The day before that it had hailed.
Now the sky was roiling with menacing clouds, as if deep in the throes of a thunderstorm. Yet, not a single raindrop fell. Only a steady breeze filled with the scent of ozone gave truth to its nature.
With a grunt, he finished tying the last of the leaves around her hooves, some of them already staining dark. Those thorns had been very sharp.
The pegasus pony looked down at him, a little, knowing smile plastered to her face as she leaned down to try to nuzzle him in thanks. Exasperated, he pushed her head away before turning to hop off. He didn't need any more carrots shoved down his throat, thank you.
"Umm... excuse me, but you wouldn't happen to know the way back?" She gave him a lost, sad-eyed look when she saw him start to leave.
His stomach growled again. Louder, this time. Maybe one carrot wouldn't be so bad.
Making a disgusted noise, he pointedly ignored how quickly the smile returned to her face after he waved at her to follow him.
"It's nice to meet you... I'm Fluttershy. What's your name?"
The fact that he couldn't physically answer her notwithstanding, that was one question he dearly wished he knew the answer to. Along with where the hay his parents had gone off to all those month ago. No... that line of thinking never ended well. He just needed to keep hopping and hope there was some food at the end of it. Just like he'd been doing.
He got about five feet before the sky split open.
A brilliant flash of light cut through the air, lancing down from the clouds above to some unfortunate tree nearby. A moment later, a deep, resounding crack broke the silence, deafening him and forcing his ears back unto his skull. For a while, all he could see and hear were the purple outline of the lightning bolt and muffled ringing.
He looked back to see the pony curled up on the ground and shivering. Frowning, he tapped at her hesitantly, then more urgently when a pungent odor wafted past his nose. It was something no creature ever hoped to smell. To do so meant, at best, the destruction of their territory or, at worst, death. It was the sickly-sweet smell of living wood... burning. A wildfire.
Fluttershy stood suddenly, her nostrils flaring as the acrid scent reached her too.
Smoke quickly began to rise in thick plumes from upwind, riding the steady breeze down to scrape at the lungs of the unlikely pair.
It quickly billowed thicker, and he swore he could already feel the heat of the approaching blaze. There was a wide river between them and the edge of the forest in the direction they were traveling... if he could reach it, he'd be safe. He turned to dash away when he heard Fluttershy cough.
"Oh... my..." she squeaked, one wing stiffly clamped to her side, the other hanging loosely. The smoke at her eye-level was already too thick for her to see properly, leaving her gingerly stumbling around on injured hooves.
He would have burned to death if not for those hooves.
One short cry of frustration later, he was gripping the front of her soft pink mane, pulling her head down near to the ground and away from the smoke.
"Thank you..." she croaked.
Already, he could feel his own throat constricting. A sharp, bitter taste assaulted his mouth, which was so dry he couldn't summon the moisture to spit.
Frantically pulling at her forelocks, he guided her as fast as he could toward their mutual salvation. At first, they made some headway, but he could feel the very air around them getting hotter and hotter as the fire approached, fast as the breeze that urged it on.
A manticore ran past, completely ignoring the two helpless herbivores as it made for the safety of the river.
Every bird within miles had fled the deadly smoke, so the only noises he could hear were the occasional dying struggles of another animal, the ominous crackling of wood heating quickly enough to burst, and the trees shifting with that damned breeze.
Fluttershy's coughing was becoming wet and insistent. He contemplated leaving her... but, for some reason, the thought stuck in his craw.
Suppressing his own cough, he looking around and spotted a ditch nearby, just deep enough to provide a break from the smoke that was slowly killing them. He pulled her towards it as she let out another wheezing bout of hacking and they both tumbled down it into a pile of mulch.
The yellow pony lay there, breathing despondently but gaining some strength from the relatively clean air. They wouldn't be able to stay for long.
"I'm sorry..." her cracking voice broke the silence.
At his raised eyebrow, she continued, "It's my fault," Tears dripped from her eyes, but evaporated before they could make it to the end of her matted fur, "if I hadn't tried to chase you... if I'd only..."
Groaning, he patted her snout and shook his head.
"You're just a baby..." she burbled, "you shouldn't even be out here! You should be warm and safe in a den with your family, not-..."
He wondered why she paused, then startled when she leaned forward and touched her nose to his cheek. It came away wet. Was he crying? That couldn't be right...
Back in the direction they'd come from, a deafening crash announced the fiery death of yet another tree close by. Too close. Once again, he shoved himself up unto his tired paws, pulling the crying pony's head up to signal for her to do the same.
After a quiet sigh and much effort, Fluttershy stumbled to her hooves, her leafy bandages already starting to come off from the unexpected march and dry air. She started to say something, but he covered her mouth with his paw and, after a moment, she nodded. She had to know she'd only hurt her throat trying to talk now.
They resumed their silent flight through the burning forest, the heat and sounds of trees burning and falling always at their heels. They pressed on, and he tried to keep away the terror of the doubts that crept into his brain as he guided his charge through the maze of the Everfree by her mane. Of all the ways he thought he might die, burning was not one he'd given serious thought to. He assumed it would be painful.
"You need a name..."
The wheezing cough of the pony beside him startled him from his reverie.
She turned away from his efforts to cover her mouth, stubbornly refusing to save her breath, "everypony needs a name. Otherwise, how will your friends say hello, or get your attention?"
This again? He didn't need a name. He wondered why anyone did. He'd done just fine without parents or a name... right? Maybe they'd given him one before they disappeared? He couldn't remember. He could hardly remember anything about them anymore. And all that stupid smoke was starting to make his eyes tear up again.
"How about... Bun-Bun?"
He glared at her.
"Too cutesy, huh?"
He nodded.
"Yeah... that sounds like something Pinkie Pie would call you." She paused to think and suppress yet another bout of coughing, "Maybe... Thumper?"
Did she think he was a woodpecker? Sighing in exasperation, he turned to face the path they were on, urging her to try to go a little faster. She stopped talking, needing the extra air to keep up with the heightened pace.
He was starting to feel lightheaded... the heat was unbearable now and the forest had taken on a distinctly orange tinge around them. His own breathing had evened out, though. Somehow, he didn't feel so afraid anymore. At least, not for himself.
The trees around them thinned and he could hear the sound of rushing water, of safety, just down the hill. They'd made it! The river was right there! The sight of blue just beyond the trees spurred him on, but his forward momentum was halted as the pink hair in his paws was nearly yanked from his grip.
Fluttershy had tripped on something. She lay on the ground, eyes closed and breathing shallowly. Unevenly.
No no no no no! He told her not to talk!
Rushing back to her, he tried and failed to lift her head once again to signal for her to stand up. Her eyes fluttered open for a moment, but then closed as she expelled a raspy groan.
He could see the fire now, flitting from branch to branch along the dry crowns of the trees like some evil, burning swarm. It seemed alive... a predator that had scented weakness in its prey, rushing in for a meal that would only briefly sate its hunger.
Taking locks of her mane in both front paws, he pulled. Relentless as the fire that pursued him, he pulled. His feet dug into hard, cracked earth. His scratched paws bled anew from the strain.
She budged.
Fluttershy, awoken either by the urgency of his efforts or by the pain of his yanking on her mane, began to crawl. With his help, she inched forward, helped along by gravity and ever so slowly gaining momentum. He fell over backwards as first one, then both forelocks came off in clumps in his paws. The pain caused her to pause in her efforts and, just like that, they came to a stop.
He lay there for a moment, looking up at a sky completely free of trees, feeling the sand of the shoreline beneath his back. The fire raged a dozen feet away, foiled by a lack of fuel.
They'd made it... somehow.
He laughed, then cried, then laughed again. Finally, he stood up and tottered over to the slumbering pony, her beautiful yellow fur covered in the same scratches and soot that surely covered his. Bonelessly, he slumped against her neck and patted the side of her face.
"Angel..."
The soft word, almost unheard, startled him. Was she still on that? He laughed again, his eyes drooping. There was absolutely no way he would ever let her call him that. Later on, he'd sit her down and they'd discuss a suitably cool name for him. Something with hawk in it, maybe.
Angel closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep.
The two of them lay on the hill until well after dark, enjoying the unimpeded view of the sunset and, eventually, the moonrise.
A soft sigh caught his attention. Fluttershy had fallen asleep again, her long, luxurious mane cascading down around him as she snuggled closer in the briskness of the early evening.
It had been many happy, wonderful years since that near death in the forest. It was a bittersweet memory for Angel... his whiskers twitched at the irony of it. His close brush with death had given him a new life.
More than worth it.
He knew she'd be sad when he was gone. Rabbits had never been as long-lived as ponies, and as the years rolled by he'd been forced to watch as Fluttershy took over more and more of the household chores he used to perform. His gourmet salad was still the best for miles, though.
She would still occasionally ask if he remembered anything about his family. Perhaps she felt guilty, never having been able to give him the same love she thought his mother could have. He laughed at the thought. This pony had more love in one strand of hair than a whole warren of rabbits.
The wonderful creature that lay next to him was his family now.
She was his mom.
His... angel.
END
