~~[dialogue taken directly from the movie: read Lennie’s lines in John Malkovich’s voice]~~
~~[So it won’t pass moderation if it’s not different enough from the movie. Stupid copyright laws. But still read Lennie’s lines in John Malkovich’s voice in the style of the movie]~~
[You know what, screw it, deal with the video link. Don't blame the mods. Turn the video off after the shot. This isn't even my best work, it was just thrown down to get 4K words... not worth the effort, honestly. Maybe you'll enjoy it, I don't know.]
/x/x/x/
“Sister, we can’t just stand idly by and let this happen.”
“You’re right... but he’ll be the first of his kind.”
“Not the first, Celestia... but he’ll be the first in a long, long while, that much is true.”
“Can we expect our ponies to accept him, to accept an outsider?”
“They accepted me... and I had threatened their lives. This man has done nothing wrong to them. The only harm he caused anyone was because of his physical strength and mental weakness... But I do believe that will not be an issue here.”
“...very well then. I trust your judgment, Luna... I will handle the transference before I raise the sun. Your duties have been fulfilled for the night: you may rest.”
“Thank you, sister...” she moved to leave. She hesitated for a moment- just one moment- before exiting fully.
/x/x/x/
Sunlight crept over floorboards. It eventually hit a basket. It slid over the basket’s edge and began illuminating a red-and-white checkered blanket. Afterwards it shone upon rabbit’s feet, then moved up rabbit legs and a rabbit torso, before shining directly into rabbit eyes.
Angel snapped his eyes opened, then immediately regretted this decision as he rubbed his now-closed eyelids with his fists. Rudely awakened, the rabbit turned over in his basket to sleep for a few extra minutes. Then immediately dropped that plan when he remembered what today was.
Picnic!
Angel hopped out of bed- no pun intended- and pulled the blanket out of its nest. He rolled it up into a ball, or at least as ball-shaped as he could manage, and set it near his master’s hoofboard. He climbed the bedpost to check that she was still asleep.
She was.
He watched for a few moments before sliding back down. He hopped over to the basket and lifted it over his head. It wasn’t a particularly heavy basket, it was just well-constructed. The weave was tied in such a way that didn’t depend on bulk of material, but on the strength of knots. It wouldn’t be heavy until it was full of food, and even then, Angel could lift it for a few seconds at a time. Of course, the fact that it was mostly lettuce and alfalfa is an attributing factor to that, but the rabbit wasn’t much for weighing masses, or math in general.
After getting to the bottom of the stairs, Angel set the basket down on the floor before wiping the sweat from his brow. Either that or he was still tired... do rabbits even sweat? Never mind, he’s moving now. He pushed the basket across the floor to the kitchen. Once this task was complete, he turned around and fell against the basket, panting slightly. After a few moments of this, he stood back up and hopped towards the pantry.
Reaching in, Angel pulled out a bag of feed. He dragged it over towards the mouse holes. Upon arrival, he started to fill up their feed bowls. After this was done, he dragged the bag around the room and filled the bowls of the larger rodents. Satisfied with the work, he pulled the bag back to the pantry and slid it back in.
Dusting off his... Hands? ... Angel looked back towards the basket. Still empty. He hopped to the counter’s base before starting to climb up the drawers. Once he was on the countertop, he navigated the food-and-medicine-covered space on his way to the breadbox. Upon opening it, he pulled out the loaf of bread inside, and moved it to the cutting board. After picking up the bread knife-
“Angel Bunny.”
He slowly set it back down.
Uh-oh...
“Are you snacking before breakfast time again?”
Quickly, he faced his master. She was halfway to The Stare, despite having to have just woken up (evident by her not-yet-brushed mane). Angel offered one moment to twitch his eye before he started motioning his... Hands? ... back and forth.
Not what it looks like!
He pointed down at the ground to the basket repeatedly. The pegasus turned her head down wards to follow.
“What about the basket?” she asked.
Angel facepalmed... facepaw-ed... and hopped across the counter to the calendar. He pointed at today, as the pegasus approached.
“...Cranberry harvest, five PM.” she turned to her pet with a blank look on her face. “Angel, I don’t understand. Do you want cranberries?”
He looked at the calendar. Nothing was written for the day except to be at Sweet Apple in the afternoon. He allowed himself another eye twitch before shimmying down the counter’s corner to the floor. Once there, he hopped over to the cabinet beneath the sink. Upon opening it, he pulled out the blanket enough to see it.
It was a checkerboard print, of white, red, and a slightly darker red. A picnic blanket. He pointed at the blanket, then the calendar, then the basket, and then finally the bread. She followed his pointing for a moment before facehoofing.
“Oh, the picnic...” she removed her hoof and looked back to the rabbit. “Sorry Angel, I forgot that it was today.” she moved her head down to his level. “Please don’t be mad?”
Angel patted her cheek and smiled before turning around and climbing the counter to the bread. After reaching the top, he picked up the bread knife and started to cut slices.
“Are you sure you can handle that by yourself?” she asked cautiously. “Because I can get that for you, you know. You don’t have to do any work-”
Angel held out a hand (paw, whatever) to silence her. He patted his chest, then gave her the rabbit equivalent of a thumbs-up, before returning to his work.
“Um... okay. You do that, and I’ll feed the mice.”
Angel stopped cutting and turned around. They locked eyes. Angel looked down to the bowls and back up again. The pegasus followed suit, and the second time, she noticed that the bowls were already full. He returned to the cutting.
“Oh...” she said softly. “I must have done it last night.”
Angel hesitated for a moment before making the final cut on the slice, but shrugged it off. It wasn’t a big deal for her to think she did it last night. He didn’t do it to be recognized for it, he did it because he wanted to save her a few minutes, so they could go on the picnic sooner.
“In that case, I’ll take care of the birds.” With her wing, she grabbed the piece of bread Angel had just cut. “For the duckies,” she explained.
Angel resisted the urge to sigh. The ducks liked bread, yes, but they ate seed just like the other birds. They could go into town and get bread from Bon Bon, who was always out there on her break. Plus, he just finished cutting that slice.
This thinking was immediately followed by a pang of guilt, as a memory of earlier days. He could vividly remember demanding his salad done a certain way, and then upon being suggested a compromise, he slapped her across the face. He thought nothing of it at the time, but in the present day, he regretted it, and partially blamed himself for the Iron Will fiasco.
He waved away that thinking with a shake of his head. He’d apologized for it already, and she had forgiven him. Realizing he had spent the last minute daydreaming, he jumped back into cutting the bread with gusto. By the time his master returned, he had cut enough bread for three sandwiches: one for her, one for him, and one for her to eat half of and then give him the rest.
“Are you done with the bread?” she asked, surprised. “Wow, you’re fast.” the surprise faded to worry. “But, you should be more careful. You could hurt yourself! And I don’t want that to happen at all.”
Angel nodded, put the bread knife away, and pushed the unsliced bread back into the breadbox. He hopped across the counter to the mish-mash of vegetables strewn across open counter space. Digging through, he found some alfalfa and dandelion greens for her, and some lettuce, tomato, cucumber for himself, and some carrots for the both of them.
He took the food they would use and set it aside, for setting into the basket later. After this task was complete, he shimmied back down the counter again, and headed over to the basket. He dragged it over to the cabinet under the sink, and put the blanket inside of it. After this was done, he pulled the basket under where the bread was.
He climbed back up the counter, and dropped the bread into the basket. After shimmying down yet again, he pushed the bread over to the side. He then pushed the basket over to the counter space underneath the vegetables. Thus began an arduous process that involved multiple trips up and down the counter, that ended with Angel panting as he set the last carrot in the basket, leaving just enough room for a tea set. He sat down with his back to the counter for a minute to take a breather.
The minute turned into two.
Two minutes turned into three.
Three minutes turned into however long it was until Angel was woken up.
“...gel... ny... ngel... unny... Angel Bunny? Are you awake?”
His eyes snapped open for the second time that day. However, instead of horrible blinding pain (literally), this awakening had a more pleasant sight. Much more. She had brushed her mane, so it looked more thick and full. She had washed the sleep out of her eyes, and looked to be ready for the day.
Angel blanked out for a minute, before shaking his head rapidly. He jumped up and saluted. She giggled a bit at this display. He thought she looked cute when she was giggling. This thought caused a blush to rise, so he quickly turned his head. To examine the basket. Yeah.
The tea set was in place. After the pegasus tied the blanket together, she picked up the basket with her mouth. Angel hopped onto her foreleg, climbed up, and pulled himself on top of her mane. With this, they left to find a nice place.
Angel was positive that it was going to be a good day.
/x/x/x/
“Rainbow Dash!”
“Gyaah!”
Rainbow shook her head upon being so rudely awakened. After getting her bearings back, she searched the immediate vicinity for the cause. The orange cause.
“Applejack?” she asked. “What is it, I’m trying to take a nap here!”
“What day is it today?”
Rainbow was struck dumb by this question. What in the hoof does the day matter?
“Umm...” she thought about it for a moment. “Tuesday?” she asked. “No wait... Wednesday?” Rainbow always had a hectic start-and-stop schedule when it wasn’t the weekend due to her work. For all she knew, it could’ve been Thursday.
“Ah don’t mean the day of the week,” Applejack sighed. She would have to tell her bluntly. “It’s cranberry season now. It needs to rain today, or else we’re gonna lose the crop, and we ain’t gonna have cranberries for the year!”
Rainbow blinked. She remembered Applejack telling her to remember to make it rain tomorrow yesterday. She remembered Applejack telling her to remember to make it rain in two days two days ago. And so on for the past week. And she remembered promising each time that she would remember. But she didn’t.
“Heh heh...” she chuckled nervously. “...oops?”
Rainbow jumped into the air and started hovering. “I’ll get right on that AJ. Sorry!”
“It’s still morning, Dash.” Applejack replied. “Ah didn’t figure you’d be up in time anyways.”
“Yeah... say, what day is it today anyways?”
“Friday.”
“Yes!” she exclaimed. “Alright; cranberries, then freedom!” and with that, she zoomed off.
Applejack waited a moment for the inevitable-
“Where are they again?”
/x/x/x/
“Applebloom?”
“What is it, Sweetie Belle?”
“If you guys are apple farmers, then why are you farming cranberries?”
The farmer laughed. “We ain’t just apple farmers, Belle. We’re just famous for our apples. We do other fruits and vegetables too, you know. Remember the grape juice?”
“Oh, yeah...”
/x/x/x/
Derpy Hooves heard knocking on the door. Right on schedule.
“Good morning, Applejack.”
“Hey there, Mrs Hooves,” the earth pony responded. “Mind if Ah come in?”
The pegasus nodded. “Of course you can. But please-”
“Ah know,” she said as she wiped her hooves on the ‘Welcome’ mat. As she stepped inside, she could smell cleaning... fluids.
“I’m assuming this is about the muffins?”
“Same as every year,” she said. “And Ah’m assuming it’s the same deal?”
Derpy nodded. “Yes, your family gets half of the cut. They are your berries after all.”
“Nuh-uh, no fast ones. We get a third, Ah accept no more.”
“We don’t need that much money, Applejack,” she said. “We get enough from the under-the-table preorders.”
“Well, they ain’t under the table if y’all tell me about ‘em.”
Derpy shrugged. “You do the same with Zap Apple Jam.”
Applejack smiled and looked down to the ground. Upon looking back up, she said “Point taken. Anyways, Ah’m assuming you’ll have a third of the cut ready for us... next Friday?”
Derpy nodded. “If not earlier than that.”
“Ah don’t doubt it’s possible...” they sat in companionable silence for a minute. “Well, Ah figure it’s time for me to get goin’. It’s nice seein’ you, Mrs Hooves.”
“It’s nice seeing you, too, Applejack.”
They headed to the door, and Applejack let herself out.
Not five minutes later, there was more knocking on the door.
Derpy headed to the door again. She could tell by the energy behind it that her visitor was none other than Pinkie Pie.
“Hey, D!” she exclaimed upon seeing her friend.
“Hi, Pinkie,” Derpy replied. “Here to preorder this year’s batch?”
“Yuparooni!” Pinkie exclaimed. “Here,” she pulled out a bag of bits from her saddlebag. “Mr Cake’s got your down payment right here for the first 12 dozen.” she then pulled out another bag of bits. Pinkie began to whisper, “And here’s mine for the next 3 dozen. But don’t tell anypony!”
Derpy smiled as she took the bags with her wings. “Your secret’s safe with me. Anything else?”
Pinkie looked up and stroked an imaginary beard with her hoof. After a minute of this, she stopped and said, “Nope, can’t think of anything else.”
Derpy nodded. “Have a nice day, Pinkie.”
“I always do. And you, too!” she replied, before heading back to sugarcube corner. Derpy closed the door before heading into the kitchen. She did some mental calculations, and pulled out 24 bits. She then emptied the rest of the big bag’s contents into a glass jar on the mantel.
Exactly two minutes later, there was even more knocking on the door.
Derpy headed back down the stairs yet again to answer the door. Yet again.
“Pinkie, did you forg- oh, hi Rainbow Dash!”
“Sup Derpy.”
“What brings you around here?” she asked, motioning her guest inside.
Rainbow, however, waved off the gesture. “Sorry, can’t stay long. I gotta go take care of the berries. Anyways,” she pulled a bag out of her wing. “I got dibs on the first twelve.”
Derpy smiled apologetically. “I’m sorry,” she said. “Just five minutes ago, Pinkie came in and-”
“Oh.” Rainbow sighed. “Then number sixteen, right?”
Derpy nodded. “Of course.” she gratefully accepted the money. “Will you need any help with the rain?” (beat) “Good one, right, Dash?”
“Yeah, almost got me there. But anyways, I got Cloudchaser and Thunderlane to come help, so I won’t be alone...” her voiced quieted. “...That is, if they stop trying to make out every five seconds.”
Derpy rolled her eyes. Well, one of them. “Young love, what can you do?”
“Yeah...” Dash said. “Well, I’ll see you around. See ya, Derpy.”
“Goodbye, Rainbow.”
They exchanged light smiles before Dash turns around and heads towards the cranberry field.
Derpy closed the door. She went into the kitchen and emptied the bag onto the counter. There were 24 bits inside. She counted out 8, then took the other 16 and dropped them in the jar.
The jar was labeled “DD’s College Fund”.
/x/x/x/
Angel was positive it would be a terrible day.
The moment Fluttershy set the basket down on the ground- they had picked a hill in the meadow, with a tree at the top for shade. In one direction, they could see for several hundred yards to the lake. In the other, they could see for several hundred yards to the cranberry field. There were flowers everywhere, as far as the eye could see, up until the forest. Anyways, it was a great picnic spot, right? So the moment Fluttershy set the basket down... it started raining.
GOSH MOTHER BUCKING DARN IT ALL TO TARTARUS!
That’s more or less what Angel thought to himself, right before he became positive that today would be a terrible day.
“...oh...” Fluttershy muttered. “I forgot that was today...” She looked down to her bunny. “I’m really sorry, Angel...” she apologized. “We’re gonna have to reschedule our picnic now.”
Angel hung his head in disappointment. For just a moment. Then, he shrugged it off. He turned to his master and made an “Oh well” motion with his arms before climbing back up onto her mane.
Since the town was closer than the cottage, Fluttershy started heading for Ponyville. However, she found that the rain was getting heavier the closer she walked.
“Fluttershy!?” a voice called.
She looked up upon being addressed. She looked all around her, but couldn’t find the source of the voice. Eventually she turned her head around and asked, “Angel?”
He pointed up, and she followed. It was Rainbow Dash, and two other pegasi.
“Fluttershy!” Rainbow Dash called. “What are you doing out here?”
“Rainbow, we were on a picnic, but I forgot what today was!”
Dash stopped in midair for a moment. “Yeah, me too.” she shook it off. “Anyways, you should probably cut through the woods, because there’s no rain in there!”
“Through the woods!?” Fluttershy exclaimed. “I can’t go through the woods! Who knows what monsters are in there!?”
Rainbow rolled her eyes and looked up at the other two pegasi. “Thunderlane, CC, keep those clouds in line for a second!” she descended to Fluttershy’s level and landed on the ground. “Look,” she said. “The scariest things in those woods are manticores and cockatrices, and I’m pretty sure you can handle those.”
“But Rainbow,” she countered. “What if there’s a manticore AND a cockatrice at the same time? What would I do then?”
A magenta eye twitched. “Fluttershy. It’s a couple hundred feet. You’ll be fine. Or you can stay in this rain and catch a cold, and not be able to feed your animals.”
I can feed the animals... Angel’s silent statement catches no attention from the non-psychic ponies.
“I think...” Fluttershy considered Rainbow’s implication. “I think I’ll chance the woods!”
“All right then!” Rainbow Dash flew back up. She started yelling, “You guys seriously can’t stop doing that for five minutes?”
“Come on, Angel,” Fluttershy said as she started heading to the woods. “We’re taking a shortcut.”
But, I can’t take care of her if she’s sick...
Fluttershy galloped the last few yards and broke into cover. The rain seemingly instantly stopped. She could still hear it behind her, could still see it through the gaps in the trees, but couldn’t feel it. The trees offered a thick enough canopy to keep the rain out.
Angel started to wring the water out of her mane, bit by bit. However, after about a minute of this, he realized it was fruitless. Instead, he climbed up to the top of his master’s head to see where they were going.
Maybe this day can’t be that bad, right? The blanket’s waterproof, so the food’s still fine. And there are other places to picnic: the cranberry field is only in one place, after all. So unless some strange, supernatural wonder occurs, maybe we can get this day back on tr- what the buck is that?
Fluttershy gasped as she came across a creek. There was... something over there. Something living. Her gasping caused her mouth to open, letting the basket fall. However she didn’t notice this as she galloped over to the... thing.
Angel had let go in awe. ... Okay, actually, he let go because he was making inappropriate hand gestures to the sky, cursing the universe. But tell Fluttershy that it was awe.
She was currently examining the... thing... from a closer viewpoint. It was breathing, she could see that. It was wearing some strange blue fabric, and a hat the likes of which Fluttershy had never seen before. Carefully, she inched around to her right, closer to the creek.
What she assumed to be the head looked not dissimilar to a primate’s. Small eyes, somewhat pointed nose separate from the mouth. However, they differed in that the mouth was a completely foreign shape to her, and this creature’s body was for the most part devoid of hair, except on the head... which had some dried blood on it.
Fluttershy looked all around her. There was nothing else. Except for Angel, who was standing guard on the picnic basket. She looked back at the creature. It just looked so... strange, so different. She didn’t even know what gender it was, or if it even had genders.
She further examined to make sure it wasn’t dangerous. No spikes, no claws, no fangs as far as she could tell, no obvious tentacles, not even a tail. Of course, the parasprites looked harmless- cute, even- and look how that turned out. However, the parasprites were magical, artificial creations of Discord: this looked like a mammal. A furless mammal, but a mammal nonetheless.
Fluttershy debated in her head whether to leave it and never look back, to go get Twilight or Zecora or somepony else to bring to it, or to bring it to them. She didn’t want to leave it: this is the Everfree Forest after all. So that ruled out two options, leaving ‘bring it to them’. She looked at the creature to estimate its weight: maybe a hundred kilograms.
Give or take.
“Angel Bunny, I don’t suppose you can wait here for me to go get somepony to help me move it, can you?”
He inwardly sighed, but nodded and started pulling the basket towards the creature.
He watched as his master trotted towards Ponyville. He watched until she disappeared through the thicket. He watched for a minute afterwards. He stopped watching when his stomach reminded him that he hadn’t eaten that day.
Guess there’s no picnic today... he thought to himself. Oh well.
He untied the blanket and started to make himself a sandwich. He was putting his vegetables into a piece of bread when he heard groaning.
If his fur was brown, he’d have turned white. But it’s not, so he didn’t. Although his heart rate did jump up about 60 beats per minute.
Angel quickly spun around to see the creature getting up. It looked confused for a second, and started looking all around the clearing.
“G... George?” it asked.
Angel couldn’t tell by the voice what gender it was. But he could tell that it was worried.
“George? Where are you, George?”
It got down on what Angel assumed to be his knees and took off its hat. Angel could see a round patch of dried blood on its forehead.
“...George?”
It stayed there for a moment. Angel wasn’t quite sure what to make of it. However, when it noticed the picnic basket, Angel froze in fear.
“Is that a...” it peered into the basket, until it exclaimed, “Rabbit!”
Angel audibly gulped.
/x/x/x/
Author's Note
I'm going to be naming the chapters after songs by the band Of Mice And Men. I've listened to enough of them to know I don't like them, but I figure it'd be a nice touch. If you do like them, though, well, good for you.
This is a little plot bunny (yes, pun totally intended) I had blowing around. Since I have writer's block for Only On The Surface, I thought I'd put this out to show you that I am a) still alive, and b) still writing. But it was a pain in the plot to publish this.