The warren was too quiet. Part of that because the damp dirt walls seemed to soak up every sound, but Angel had expected to have to avoid more bunnies. It put him on edge that while he knew the layout of the warren – well enough to avoid their sleeping dens, at the very least – he had nothing to go on regarding their schedules; combined with the sound-suppressing damp, it took a lot of his concentration to have any confidence that he wouldn’t run into a bunny any time he turned a corner.
Years ago, when he left, they had been in the midst of a civil war between the four major factions. Admittedly, it was a war that he’d tried his hardest to start and through no small amount of backstabbing, he’d made it happen.
By the time he’d found the first group of awake bunnies, he had started to think that maybe the war was over.
Dozens of bunnies sat in the den, all on the receiving end of what Angel knew would be a very boring nighttime lecture. In his time at Fluttershy’s cottage, he’d all but forgotten about the limitation most bunnies had: they couldn’t read, and Fluttershy was the only pony he could communicate with because talking with animals was her special power. What little Angel could hear suggested that it was a lecture on the Whitetail Warren government structure.
Bunnies had to pass everything on orally. To the best of Angel’s memory, some of the listening bunnies would be dedicated to their single topic and would work to integrate new knowledge and pass it on to the next couple of generations before they died. The other bunnies would listen to lectures in several topics that they needed to know to perform their assigned jobs and then they would perform those jobs until they died.
Angel listened to the lecture for a couple of minutes before he resumed snooping about the tunnel network. What he’d heard hadn’t comforted him; it wasn’t much, but the concept of a tetrumvirate suggested that the four factions had united. If any of the old leaders had survived, Angel figured he would be Public Enemy Number One. He decided to take extra care to avoid making noise or running into any stray bunnies.
A lone picture of Fluttershy sat in the den. Next to it sat a small pony camera and a couple of Fluttershy’s notes that had gone missing over the last few days. Time stopped for Angel.
The warren’s possession of those items suggested that they knew that she could communicate with critters and had plans to exploit it somehow. Fluttershy could be in danger.
Angel had to get back and warn her.
No, he had to get back and warn Constance. Fluttershy would never understand. Fluttershy could never understand how any of her cute, fluffy charges might pose a threat to her. Constance could arrange for Fluttershy’s protection and Fluttershy would never need to know.
Angel hopped into the den and picked up the picture. His evidence. In it, Fluttershy had simply been looking at a calendar, apparently unaware of the camera. He turned around and—
There were two brawlers blocking his way out. Large bunnies with large muscles for the purpose of imposing order. Either they had set a trap or he had accidentally tipped them off.
Either way, he had to make it out of the warren if he was going to protect Fluttershy.
Angel swung the picture at the first brawler; he’d learned from Fluttershy that papercuts were serious. It took him a couple of attempts, but he managed to draw blood from one of their ears. Angel took what satisfaction he could from that and put on an evil grin; that cut would be stinging for hours. Both brawlers were a little more wary after that, and it only took them one step back before Angel darted through the opening as fast as he could manage.
Many of the larger tunnels hadn’t changed since he had left, so Angel stuck to those. They also offered the space to jump around the bunnies that tried to stop him. Before long, he could tell that many of the bunnies had been alerted to his presence and he could hear a lot of shouting behind him. Something he had picked up since he had left, however, was his hobby of parkour. He held the picture of Fluttershy tightly as he darted through the tunnels with almost half-again as much speed as the bunnies in pursuit and at least twice as much grace.
Unfortunately, he couldn’t outrun their shouts of alarm. When he broke out to the surface, more bunnies from the region were already converging. Before long, there wouldn’t be any openings to dart through. Angel started in the general direction of Ponyville as fast as he could. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed several bunnies running in other directions, presumably to spread the alarm.
Getting out of the Whitetail Woods was going to be tricky, if not outright dangerous, at the rate things were going.
After a few minutes of adrenaline-fueled running, he noticed a familiar brown lump ambling across a ridge before him. As he drew nearer, he waved the picture around and shouted to get the lump’s attention. As he’d expected, he had to get right on top of Harry before the bear noticed him. Angel latched on to Harry’s coat and started telling him that if he looked a little farther back he would see a lot of bunnies and every single one of them wanted to hurt them and probably Fluttershy too because he stole the picture from them and that meant they had it in the first place. Harry was a bit slow, sometimes, but he perked up when he heard that Fluttershy was in danger.
Angel closed his eyes and tried not to imagine the angry white horde of bunnies that probably wanted to kill him now. Moreso if they had figured out how much of a role he had played in their recent civil war. He felt Harry turning under him, and then Harry reared and and roared. It was an adequate roar: primal and full of malice. It gave Angel the confidence to take a peek; if he had the opportunity to see a hundred evil bunnies terrified that they would be torn asunder if they got too close, he didn’t want to miss it.
Harry dropped down to all fours, roared again, and started charging the mass of bunnies. Angel positioned himself atop Harry a little better and started yelling obscenities at the terrified bunnies who scattered like, well, terrified bunnies. Angel felt a little better after that, and he thanked Harry for his help. Then he asked Harry why he was even in the Whitetail Woods in the first place.
Harry explained that his family had just had a big family reunion and he’d gotten to see his brother for the first time in a couple of years. Angel tried not to listen to closely about Harry’s family politics, but he could tell Harry had been rambling on about who had what house and all the gossip that they had swapped for some time while he ambled through the woods.
When Angel heard a lull in the monologue, he asked Harry if he was going back to Ponyville soon. Harry replied that he had been planning to stay in the Whitetail area a little longer to enjoy the scenery, but that wasn’t as important as Fluttershy’s safety was, so he’d take Angel home.
Constance wasn’t happy to have been woken at such a late hour, but when Harry was doing the knocking it was impossible to ignore, especially since the birdhouse wouldn’t hold up to a second round. Angel showed her the picture of Fluttershy and explained where he’d gotten it shortly before a horde of a thousand bunnies had tried to disembowel him. Constance started to express her doubt but Harry nodded enthusiastically and said that it was true, and that he had to scare them off by trying to eat some of them.
Constance thought about it for a moment before she asked Harry if he would be willing to support Angel’s story publicly. Harry said that he would.
Constance said that she’d call in a few favors in the morning and that she would make sure there were a couple of hawks keeping an eye out for Fluttershy whenever she left home. She warned Angel that there wasn’t too much she could do unless a committee was formed and they all agreed to authorize further action. Even for Fluttershy, it was a bit of a long shot.
Angel thanked her and let her go back to sleep.
Fluttershy probably wouldn’t have condoned the interception and interrogation of bunnies, but Fluttershy’s safety was a lot more important than her approval. He had started to form his suspicions about how everything would play out; most of what he suspected would bring her to tears. He had decided that she didn’t need to learn about any of it.
After the birds had been surveying the Ponyville region for a week, Constance and Angel had put together a small map of what appeared to be nearby bunny messenger routes. Less than a day later, they had hawks deployed with orders to intercept and retrieve bunnies on those routes.
Angel did his best to interact with the critters of the cottage in his normal manner. It was hard to fully distract himself from waiting for a bird messenger to tell him they’d captured their first bunny. He heard that the squirrels’ Economic Independence Consortium had recently unveiled potential plans for putting a Bank of Acorn in the vicinity of Fluttershy’s cottage, promising that the construction jobs would be a big boost to the local economy and that the bank would have lasting benefits itself. Angel knew that Fluttershy wouldn’t mind the extra squirrel traffic in the slightest, but it pained him again that Fluttershy wouldn’t understand that cute critters weren’t necessarily good. Squirrels were admittedly handy when it came to gathering resources or trading around services – really, whenever their “economy” ideas could be applied – but they were definitely greedy.
Angel brought it up when he saw Constance next; both of them were trying to pass the time. Constance joked that the squirrels would probably jump at the opportunity to fund a war. Angel filed away the idea for later, and asked if she knew if the special committee had decided on anything. Constance replied that she they had barely started formally discussing anything, but she was friends with enough of them that she might be able to get new evidence to be considered even if it was obtained through questionable means.
Another day passed before the hawks caught the first bunny. Angel and Constance met them at the entrance to the cottage tunnel network as close to the Everfree Forest as the tunnels went. Far from other critters’ disapproving eyes or ears. The hawks deposited the slightly bloodied bunny on the ground in front of them and took off again.
Angel took the prisoner to a den just inside the tunnels and started to ask questions. He asked what the bunny’s message or purpose was. What the Whitetail Warren was planning to do to Fluttershy. What had happened after the civil war. Where could they find other bunny messengers or scouts. The prisoner refused to answer any of them and stuck his tongue out at Angel.
Angel said that was a mistake. He told Constance to keep an eye on the prisoner for just a second while he stepped into the tunnel. He’d asked Phoebe to follow behind in case he needed her, so he called out for her. When she slinked into view a moment later, he told her that he couldn’t promise her a meal but that things were starting to look that way.
Phoebe followed him into the den and gave the prisoner bunny an appraising look. The bunny had only a moment to wear its expression of discomfort before Phoebe pounced. Constance jumped back in surprise. Phoebe had the bunny’s neck pinned by her teeth and said it would be wise to answer Angel’s questions but she wouldn’t mind too much if it didn’t. The bunny started yelling that the Whitetail Warren had big plans and they wouldn’t learn about them until they were already doomed. In the middle of the bunny’s explanation that nobunny would ever break and tell them what they wanted to know, Angel signaled Phoebe to bite down. Constance grimaced at that; Angel just glared at the limp bunny.
Constance asked Angel what they were going to do if the bunny was right. Angel told Phoebe to enjoy her meal but to make sure there was enough left – their ears, perhaps – for the next bunny to recognize. He told Constance that they should keep intercepting runners or scouts or whatever they could find and eventually one of them would break.