She shot upright in her bed. Something wasn’t right. The clock on the wall across from her showed that it had just turned eight o’clock. It was Easter morning – she shouldn’t be waking up at eight o’clock. Sure, she had to get up earlier than most to tend to her animals – as she did every morning – but not at eight o’clock. Not on Easter morning.
Something had woken her up.
She heard it again; a cry forcing it’s way through her window and into her eardrums.
It was coming from the direction of the Everfree Forest.
Hesitantly – and slightly groggily – she lifted the duvet covers, slid out of bed and gingerly made her way over to the window. Gazing out of it, she saw something unlike anything she’d ever seen, or anything she could’ve imagined.
Bunnies.
Bunnies everywhere.
They were hopping out of the darkness of the forest, each hop slow and deliberate. Their faces were seemingly devoid of any emotion whatsoever; they were blank. Expressionless, as if they had just seen something so shocking or disturbing that their brains had shut down, leaving their bodies to run on autopilot. Their eyes, however, glowed with a redness that radiated evil, terrifying the pony watching far more than any colour should rightfully be able to.
Another noise. It was behind her this time. Spinning her head around to locate its source, she found herself viewing the door to her bedroom slowly open, revealing her pet bunny Angel sitting just on the other side of the threshold.
His eyes and face were exact replicas of those possessed by the bunnies leaving the forest.
Looking up at her, he slowly lifted his paw until it was pointing straight at her.
They stared at each other for several moments. The pegasus looked deep into the eyes of her pet and close friend, searching for something; for anything. In the end, all she found were two empty eyes staring right back at her, coloured with an eerie red glow.
She couldn’t take it anymore. Giving a short scream, she shoved the window open and leapt out of it, gliding down to the ground below. As the ground kissed her feet, she noticed something previously unseen before.
Slowly being illuminated by the rising sun were large Easter eggs, scattered all across the ground. As the pegasus all around at them, the sudden ominous sound of cracking could be heard as the eggs began opening. From inside the broken shells, a horde of zombie bunnies began emerging in waves, joining the living bunnies in their slow march out of the forest.
A march that was heading in the direction of Ponyville.
Just as she was about to run screaming towards the town, another figure emerged from the forest – one much larger than any bunny. Stepping into the raising sunlight, black and white stripes and golden jewellery identified this new creature as the forest-dwelling zebra, Zecora.
Ordinarily, the pegasus would’ve been overjoyed to see the zebra, considering the situation she found herself in. Zecora always had a cure of some sort for any problems that had arisen in the past, so it would be justified to think she would have a solution to the bunny crisis. However, the maniacal-looking grin the zebra held implied that even if she did have a way of halting the bunny march and releasing whatever hold was upon them, she probably wouldn’t be interested in carrying it out.
The bunnies were getting closer, but the pegasus was paralysed on the spot with fear, staring at the usually kind and helpful zebra standing at the edge of the forest.
The two equines locked eyes, and Zecora spoke.
“Easter was a zebra holiday! Now it’s been Equestrian long enough and we’re taking it back today!”
The cackling laughter that followed this apparent fact finally drove the petrified pegasus into fleeing. Forgetting her wings in her panic, she turned tail and ran straight towards Ponyville, screaming and dodging more cracking Easter eggs as she went.
The town seemed completely deserted. Not a single pony was present on the streets or in the marketplace. At first, the pegasus assumed they were simply all still asleep at home, but the lack of answers as she frantically banged on each door while screaming her head off suggested a more sinister reason to be the cause of their absence.
A quick glance behind her informed the pegasus that the bunnies were just starting to move into Ponyville proper, crossing the bridge that led into it from the outskirts or simply traversing the river itself, disappearing as they submerged themselves on one side and reappearing on the other as they exited the water, completely unscathed and unchanged aside from being sopping wet.
Resigning from her attempts at finding someone who opens their door, the yellow pony turned her attention and direction towards the most notable structure in town – the library and home of her friend Twilight Sparkle, one of the most – if not the most – intelligent ponies in Equestria. It was her great hope that Twilight would not be as absent as the rest of the town appeared to be and would be able to help somehow, be it with a spell, a plan or just some piece of knowledge from a book that might give an indication as to what exactly was going on.
She had no such luck. Though the unicorn was present in her tree home – the pegasus spotted the her lying in bed as she hovered outside the window when no one answered the door – she refused to be roused from her slumber, as did her dragon assistant Spike. No matter how hard the winged pony tapped on the window or politely screamed calls of alarm into it, the unicorn within only shifted slightly in her sleep, her back always facing towards the equine outside her window. Spike didn’t move at all, his body content to continue sleeping like a log.
The same situation was true for two of the pegasus’ other friends – Applejack and Rarity. Neither answered their doors or the tapping of their windows, and both had their backs to the distraught pony as they slept through her pleading.
Her friend Pinkie Pie was nowhere to be seen. From what the yellow pony could see, the party pony’s bedroom was neat and tidy, her bed empty. Her pet gummy was missing too.
The bunnies were closing in on the centre of town as the desperate pegasus flew away from Sugarcube Corner, a blanket of furry critters dotting the ground below. There was one last destination she had left to try.
Soaring over the town as fast as possible, the pink-maned pony came to the doorstep of the cloud structure that was the home of her friend Rainbow Dash. Again, there was no answer at the door, but the side effect of living in the clouds was a lack of proper windows. Instead, the structure just held holes in the wall to let light in.
Charging into the building and racing up to the bedroom, the yellow pegasus discovered her friend, like the others, asleep in her bed. However, after some nudging and shouting in her ear, the cyan pegasus stirred and drowsily turned her head towards her friend, squinting at her from behind heavy eyelids.
“Rainbow Dash! You have to help! Zecora has turned evil and sent evil bunnies into Ponyville and they’re swarming around the town and no one else will wake up and I don’t know what to do! I don’t…”
There was a pause as Rainbow slowly blinked before replying. “Bunnies?”
The yellow pony nodded rapidly.
“Bunnies are your department, I don’t know anything about them,” said Rainbow, returning to her previous sleeping position.
“You’re on your own Fluttershy.”
