"Here you go, Angel." Fluttershy placed a giant carrot in front of him, "It's your reward for a job well done."
Angel went up to the carrot, sniffing to check if it was good. After making sure there was nothing wrong, he grabbed it and tentatively took a bite.
Fluttershy smiled at the sight, marveling at how fast he had grown. The bunny never used to eat anything given to him unless it followed an exact recipe. Of course, Angel was still inherently picky about his food choices, but had gotten better at accepting foods he didn't like.
She turned away from her pet, going around the room to tend to her other animal friends. They all sat in a circle, eagerly waiting for their meals. Squirrels, bunnies and beavers alike were perched in front of their bowls, chatting with each other as they waited for their caretaker to come and serve them.
Harry the bear sat to the left, just outside the circle to provide the other animals with more space. He had a very large bowl, which he was using as a hat before Fluttershy came by with his bag of nuts.
"Now now Harry, what did I say about playing with the bowls?"
Harry removed the dish from his head, gazing at her with an apologetic look.
"Oh, it's okay. Just remember to try not to break things, alright?" She poured some of the nuts into his bowl, adding a sizeable amount of fruits and berries to the side.
After she was done giving them all their lunches, she decided to check on Angel. He was done eating the carrot, laying on the floor and letting out an audible belch as he patted his round stomach. Fluttershy leaned over him, "Thank you for looking after our friends while I was gone. I know I was only out for a short while, but I still appreciate it."
He gave her a thumbs up.
Fluttershy turned to the rest of the animals, raising her voice so they could hear what she had to say. "I'll be going out again, so behave yourselves! And please make sure to put your dishes in the kitchen when you're done." They all nodded their heads, waving goodbye to her.
She hovered over to her scarf, wrapping it around her neck to protect herself from the cold. She slipped on her winter boots, and rested her saddlebags on her back. Just as she was about to open the door, she looked at Angel. "If anypony comes by, tell them I'm just dropping off some books at Twilight's."
Angel got off the floor, standing on his feet as he gave her a salute.
She smiled once more, before closing the door.
Rainbow Dash flew through the sky, not letting the chilly winds hinder her journey. She was just at Twilight's castle, requesting for the new Daring Do issue that had come out the week before. Apparently somepony had already taken it, because she directed her to Fluttershy's place to pick it up.
Rainbow hadn't known Fluttershy to be the biggest fan of the series, but shrugged as she took off toward the cottage. Wonderbolt duties had prevented her from spending too much time with reading, but now nothing was going to get in the way of her favourite pastime.
She attempted to go faster despite the frigid temperatures. She didn't have anything like a scarf or hat on. She relied on the warmth she got from flying to protect her, which wasn't working much at all.
As she was nearing her friend's cottage, she slowed down to land in front of the tiny bridge. She ran up to the entrance, knocking on the door as she shivered in her hooves.
"C'mon, c'mon..." She impatiently muttered, fidgeting from the cold. Luckily, she didn't have to wait long.
Angel opened the door, which went unnoticed by Rainbow Dash as she darted into the cottage, immediately relaxing due to the house's heat. She sat on the floor, relishing in the comfort of being away from the outside chill.
After she had warmed up, she looked up to be greeted by the sight of all the animals staring at her.
"Oh, uh... Hi guys." Rainbow sheepishly rubbed the back of her head, realizing that she had just burst into the home uninvited. Her ears detected the repetitive tapping of Angel's foot. Looking down, she saw the bunny glaring up at her, arms crossed with a frown.
"Hello to you too, Angel Bunny." She snarled. She found the rabbit's name to be quite ironic, considering his rather unangelic-like behaviour.
Ignoring Angel's incessant thumping, she turned toward the rest of the animals. "Do any of you know where Fluttershy is?"
Some of them answered with a simple shrug.
Rainbow turned back around, "Hm... Maybe I'll just chill here 'till she gets back." Just as she was about to sit back down, she felt something yank down on her mane.
"Ow! What the hay was that for?!" She pulled Angel off from her, glaring at the bunny. He just rolled his eyes, hopping back down and proceeding to try and tell her where Fluttershy was at.
Putting on his 'Fluttershy' face, he attempted to demonstrate the act of leaving, pretending to put on an imaginary scarf and boots. He opened an invisible door, walking out into the cold which he showed by shivering and wrapping his arms around his body.
Rainbow watched this all with a confused face, "Uh, yeah. I already know she left. That's why I'm waiting for her to get back!"
Angel facepalmed, before trying again. This time, he made sure to draw an outline of a book, putting it in his sack and walking out the door with it.
"A sack? You mean she brought the book with her?!"
Angel grinned, satisfied with his little game of charades. He nodded his head.
"Oh you've got to be kidding me!" Rainbow groaned. If she had just came a little bit earlier, Fluttershy would've still been here.
She considered her options. Glancing towards the door, she wondered if she could dash her way around town and try to locate where Fluttershy was, but she trembled violently at the thought of going outside again with no protective gear.
"Okay, I'll leave soon. I just gotta borrow some stuff from Fluttershy, like a scarf or hat. I'll give it back to her real soon." She said out loud, making her way up the stairs to look for some clothing. Angel followed her, just to make sure she wasn't up to no good.
Rainbow opened one of the closets, shuffling through it to look for a scarf. So far, she wasn't finding anything.
As she was looking, she noticed a rather heavy looking box sitting at the very top compartment. Figuring she might find a scarf or two in there, she hovered over and began wiggling the box out of its place.
"It's in here pretty good..." She grumbled as she struggled to move it. The box was almost at the very edge of the compartment, so she yanked it out, successfully retrieving it.
Unfortunately for Dash, she had musjudged the box's initial weight. Not being prepared for the sudden burden, she ended up dropping the box straight down on the floor, trapping her hooves underneath the mass.
"OUCH!"
The pain shot through her entire body as panic surged through her. She tried to pull her hooves away from the box, but was unable to. She started growing more panicked as she saw a red liquid seeping into the bottom of the cardboard box, and a pair of white bunny ears sticking out beside her hooves...
"ANGEL?!" Realizing what had just happened, she tried harder to pull the box off, this time with the pure incentive to save Fluttershy's pet. She had no idea what was in the box, but it was enough to weigh her down for several seconds. Finally, she managed to lift the box high enough to be able to see the damage done to him.
The resulting scene was terrible. Angel lay face down, his arms and legs strewn about. His limbs were bent unnaturally in several places, and blood leaked out of the broken joints. But most horrifying of all, was the injury inflicted upon his head. His skull was visibly crushed at the back, cuts and gashes displayed all over the dent. It would be a miracle if he didn't have brain damage, speaking from the viewpoint of survival, that is.
Rainbow gathered all of her strength to fling the box off of him, sending it crashing into the wall behind her. It was at this moment that she heard the door open from downstairs.
"I'm home, my friends!" The voice of Fluttershy rang throughout the home. "Angel, where are you?"
It took all she had not to let out a squeak, lest she be heard. She nervously looked around for an escape route, momentarily forgetting about the searing pain coming from her hooves. Purposely directing her gaze away from Angel's mangled body, she ran into many of the rooms, not finding any windows.
"Angel?" All her rummaging around had caught Fluttershy's attention, and she grew more agitated as she heard hoofsteps approaching the stairs. She flew into Fluttershy's room, mentally smacking herself for not going there sooner. A window was right in the center of the wall, and all she would have to do was lift it open.
She opened the window just as Fluttershy reached the top of the stairs. Rainbow quickly flew away from the cottage, pretending not to hear her friend's anguished screams from behind her.
Rainbow didn't know how long she had been flying for. All she wanted to do was to get away from the scene of the crime as fast as possible. She ignored the nearly painful pull of the winter air, persevering through the strong gusts of wind that threatened to make her slow down. Even as her wings felt like giving up, and snow made its way into her eyes, she kept going and wiped away the water with her still hurting hooves.
The physical torment of speeding so quickly in sub-zero temperatures was sure to affect her later, but the pure adrenaline was enough to keep her going. The image of a bloodied and battered Angel was still fresh in her mind.
She didn't dare look back. What if Fluttershy was chasing after her? She imagined her friend, with a look of pure hatred and betrayal on her features as she shot straight toward Rainbow Dash. The terrifying picture only served to add to her panic and paranoia.
Blindly following the general direction of where her house was, she finally made it to her cloud home at what must've been a record speed. She burst through the soft door, not caring if winter made it's way inside. She tumbled into her living room, only stopped by the harder cloud walls.
She finally paused her frantic flight, letting her wings fall back to her sides as she succumbed to the exhaustion. She collapsed onto her couch and huddled into herself, clutching a pillow to her chest.
The pillow was unexpectedly soothing to her hooves, so she kept stroking it until the fabric had worn away significantly. The stuffing inside felt even nicer.
Finally feeling like she had regained the ability to breath properly again, she sat up and threw the ruined pillow in the air, letting out a scream as all the feathers flew around her. "AAHHHHHHH!-" She muffled herself with the couch, stuffing her face in between the two cushions.
She stayed like that for a while, letting out screams that dwindled with each passing second. Stopping when her voice began to hurt, she looked up to spot Tank staring at her from across the room.
Immediately, she swooped over to pick him up and took him with her up the stairs. She went through the entrance to her room, unceremoniously crashing onto her bed. Tank bounced next to her.
She suddenly grabbed the tortoise by the sides, words flying out of her mouth. "TANK! Oh no, what do I DO?!" Her voice cracked at the last syllable, "I, I did something HORRIBLE!"
She continued to clutch Tank, holding him close to her as she started crying. In response, Tank held up a leg to her face, as if telling her to calm down. He hoped she would understand as he slowly patted her cheek.
Getting the message, she held him back so they could properly see one another. Dash had fresh streams of tears running down her face. "T-Tank...?"
The tortoise gave her a gentle smile.
Rainbow sniffed, "Oh, Tank. I know you're worried about me, but I'm f-fine..." She nearly began sobbing again, and she had to tightly shut her eyes to keep her emotions in check.
When she saw him give her a knowing look, she sighed. "Okay, I'm not fine. But..." She gazed into his eyes, contemplating whether she should tell him or not. Her mind drifted to the accident, and she realized something. Angel was Fluttershy's pet. If she told her own pet how she crushed another's, how would that make him feel?
An overwhelming sense of shame came over her, and she felt disgusting. Placing Tank down on the ground as if she didn't want to get him infected, she sent him the most remorseful apology she could muster. "Sorry Tank, but I can't tell you. I just wanna be alone right now..." She turned away from him, trying to ignore the pangs of guilt that kept stabbing through her heart.
Tank stayed for a little longer, waiting to see if she would need him. She kept to herself though, so he decided to leave her. The tortoise gave her back a concerned look, before climbing down the stairs.
Fluttershy didn't waste any time in rushing to where Angel was. She wanted to turn away from the grotesque sight, but she couldn't. Not when her beloved pet was suffering like this.
She tried futilely to calm her rapid breathing, gently turning him over so she could see the injuries done to the front. She nearly started heaving when she saw Angel's crushed face. Freshly inflicted cuts littered his face in the most brutal scene she had ever seen, even with her extensive time spent caring for wounded animals.
The rest of his body looked like it had been relentlessly torn apart by some outside force, but she wasn't thinking about what happned to him. She noticed one of his eyes completely encased in red, possibly permanently damaged. His other eye, however, was relatively alright as it stared up at her...
"Angel! You're alive?!" She wanted to embrace him, before realizing that it would only crush him more. Instead, she picked him up and brought him downstairs to her other animals, most of whom were gathered at the bottom.
They had heard Fluttershy's screams and were alarmed, hoping nothing had happened. But when they saw Angel, they began making worried noises that only grew louder as some of them wondered if he was dead. Fluttershy didn't think to gather order in the room at first, as she too was panicking quite a bit.
She kept glancing at Angel, never directly looking at him as she felt like she could drop him out of shock at any minute. She was at a loss for what to do, before she realized that the room was in total dissorder. Figuring that she would need some help, she yelled for them to all stop.
It took a while for all of them to actually end their freakouts, but once they saw the urgent look in their caretaker's eyes and the careful but firm way she held onto her pet, they stopped fidgeting.
Fluttershy had to take a deep breath to be able to speak properly, "Okay, I know it looks very, very bad right now," She took another shaky breath, "But I need every creature here to calm down. He'll be alright once he's patched up..." Even she wasn't sure of herself at the moment, but it was important for at least her animals to feel relieved.
She recalled seeing the bunny's dented head, and winced. It was impossible for her to do this alone. "I need to take him to the vet's, so please, please stay put for the time being." All the animals looked at one another with uncertainty, but Fluttershy didn't have any more time to waste. She had to get help right away.
She brought a scarf for Angel, but nothing else as she went out the door and tore through the winter winds.
