Hatebunny

Water – all around, black water. Clear, crystal black. Somewhere up there, I imagine the sun. But it is not known down here.

I’m floating. But it’s not cold. I can’t feel it. It’s…

Nothing. I feel nothing. I am nothing.

I’m alone. I’m safe.

Let this moment be eternal.

But he did feel something. The waters moved, a current pushed and lifted him, unwilling, towards the half-sensed light. He fought against it furiously, with rising panic, but the more he struggled, the more he returned to himself. Eventually he broke the surface into sensibility. Somehow, he was out of the tree, sitting on the ground and staring vacantly at the spongy dirt. Its fusty odour, rich with leaf mould, filled his nostrils and he continued gazing aimlessly at each black granule and warm, summer-dappled shadow, even as he heard Fluttershy upbraiding the squirrels. Angel’s mind drifted still, unable to connect. It had nothing to do with him.

“…and how dare you?” he heard Fluttershy seethe. “We come here to help you and you torment poor little Angel bunny? As soon as he-” she hesitated, glancing over at his unresponsive face “-wakes up, you’re going to apologize!”

That’s me, Angel thought, she’s talking about me. With great effort he slowly looked up, seeing the shamefaced squirrels cowering under the pegasus’s potent wrath. He remembered, and shuddered. The tree.

Fluttershy, mid-lecture, nevertheless noticed Angel’s return. She rushed over, all concern. “Oh, Angel-wangel!” she cried, scooping him up and starting to babble with relief. “You’re back! I was so worried, we got you out, and there was some blood but it didn’t look too bad-” Angel, still sensitive after being yanked from his tranquil solipsism, tried to struggle free, but Fluttershy was too overcome to notice, “-but you wouldn’t talk, I couldn’t get you to answer, and so I was worried maybe your head-” his now-frantic thrashing finally freed him from her embrace and Angel stood apart, breathing heavily, ears flat against his skull and eyes wide-staring. He could not stand to be touched. Not now.

“Angel, what’s wrong?” Fluttershy asked, frowning and moving towards him. Angel backed away and shook his head, but she reached out blindly. “It’s alright now! Come to mommy…”

Mommy…

Fluttershy’s hooves began to wrap around his torso.

He bit.

In the instant before Fluttershy yelped and drew back, a part of Angel’s mind wondered at the smooth hardness which resisted his strong teeth. Inasmuch as he’d expected anything – the action had been entirely instinctive – he’d expected fur. I must have got her hoof, he thought. But it was so smooth, almost slick…

Angel looked up and saw Fluttershy, recoiled with open mouth and wide eyes, staring at him in shock. The squirrels wore similar expressions. Realizing what he’d done, he sagged and moved plaintively towards Fluttershy, but it was her turn to shy away. She ran past him, and Angel could see the tears beginning to well up in her eyes. He tried to grab her as she ran past, to apologize.

“Leave me alone!” she shouted, shaking him off roughly and flashing him a fierce glare. Angel stood, dumbfounded, long after she’d gone and the squirrels had skulked off to their newly-cleaned nests. Fluttershy’s final expression stayed frozen in his mind’s eye long afterwards.

The tears and the tree-filtered light had suffused her normally soft, blue eyes with hard, green-sparkling anger.