The rising Sun peeked over the horizon and shed its light upon the six creatures still asleep at their campsite. They had all agreed that there was no need to bring any tents. The weather was so warm and absolutely lovely that they could rest in their sleeping bags under the stars.
As the new day dawned above, movement could be seen within Yona's sleeping bag. All night, Angel Bunny had been trying his hardest to peel himself off the underside of the yak's cloven hoof. Being stomped over and over and over during the duration of the long hike had gotten him quite flat against the hoof. After so many hours, however, Angel had finally freed himself, and was able to carefully crawl out of Yona's sleeping bag. The yak rolled over in her sleep and snored loudly in the bunny's face. Angel gagged at the yak's breath, and quickly crawled away from her, coughing a few times as he laid on the ground.
Angel laid still a moment to catch his breath, then slowly got up to his feet and stretched his back out a bit. At the height of his stretch, his spine gave a click, and a look of blissful relief crossed Angel's face. The bunny then reached behind him and fluffed his tail out a bit, then he smiled and nodded, and went to take a step forward.
Whoosh!
Angel's ears were suddenly seized by a yellow eagle talon, and the bunny was hoisted up into the air. Angel was then turned so that he could see the creature who had grabbed him.
Gallus smiled as he looked the bunny up and down. Angel's coughing from earlier had woken him up, first to the blue griffon's annoyance, but then to his delight.
"Alright, I'd say that you're just the right size for breakfast," Gallus said, grinning with a hungry look in his eyes.
Angel let out a soft scream as the griffon lifted the bunny up higher. Then Gallus tilted his head back and opened up his beak, and held the bunny right over his wide open mouth. Angel flailed around wildly, and ended up kicking Gallus in the lower beak, causing Gallu's beak to snap shut with loud sharp clack. The griffon to let out a loud squawk of pain from the vibrations that ran through his beak and face, dropping the bunny to the ground in the process.
"OWW! Why you-!?" Gallus began as he rubbed his beak.
Silverstream suddenly sat up quickly said, "What!? What is it!? What's going on!?"
Yona sleepily rubbed her eyes and said, "Why griffon wake everycreature up?"
Smolder, not at all pleased by being woken up, growled as she sat up as well, saying, "My thoughts exactly, Yona."
Ocellus, ever the observant one, took a good look at the surroundings and said, "Where did that bunny come from?"
Silverstream tilted her head and drawled out, "Awwww! So cute!"
Sandbar looked at the bunny in surprise and said, "Hang on. . . That's Angel! He's Professor Fluttershy's bunny!"
"Uh-oh," Smolder muttered.
The other five creatures all got out of their sleeping bags and gathered together near the bunny and griffon. Angel finished dusting himself off, then he shot Gallus a rather dirty look.
"Hmmph!" Gallus replied.
Ocellus looked at Angel and said, "Very strange. I wonder what Professor Fluttershy's bunny is doing all the way out here?"
Sandbar shrugged and said, "Too bad Professor Fluttershy isn't here. She could just ask him for us."
Gallus rolled his eyes and said grumpily, "Well she ain't here, so I guess we'll never know."
Angel blinked at this, then slowly turned to Gallus, smirking an evil smirk as he did so. Then Angel turned back to others, wearing a innocent look on his face, and cupped his right paw against the base of his right ear.
Ocellus looked curiously at the bunny and said slowly, "Sounds like. . .?"
Silverstream gasped and clapped her talons giddily, "Ohmigosh! Charades! I LOVE Charades!"
Angel smiled broadly and nodded at the changeling and hippogriff.
Silverstream smiled and nodded back, and said eagerly, "Okay, okay! Sounds like . . .what?"
Angel put on a frown and began sniffling, and he ran his paws down his cheeks under both of his eyes.
Ocellus nodded and said, "Sounds like cry. . .Hmmm . . .Fly?"
"High? Thigh? Sigh?" Silverstream guessed wildly.
"Try?" Sandbar offered.
Angel pointed to Sandbar and nodded.
"Okay," Sandbar said, "What's next?"
Angel held up two digits on his right paw.
Smolder raised an eyebrow and asked, "Two? Two what?"
Angel shook his head, and he cupped his paw against the base of his ear again.
"Sounds like two?" Smolder said as she tapped her foot, "You mean like, 'try to', or would that be 'tried to'?"
Angel hopped up and excitedly at Smolder's second guess.
"Okay. . ." Smolder said as she stood with one claw on her hip, "So, tried to what?"
Angel opened his mouth wide and pretended to chomp on something, pausing occasionally to lick his lips or swallow.
"Ooh, ooh! Yona knows this one! Eat!" the yak cried out proudly.
Angel smiled at Yona and nodded.
"Okay then," Ocellus said, "So, tried to eat. . .what?"
Angel made his eyes as big as he could, put on the saddest face he could muster, and timidly pointed at himself.
Silverstream gasped in horror and exclaimed, "Somecreature tried to eat you, Angel!?"
Angel nodded his head sadly.
Silverstream frowned in righteous fury and said, "That's terrible! That's awful! What kind of horrible, terrible, heartless, evil monster would do such a thing!"
In the corner of his eye, Angel could see that Gallus was fidgeting and beginning to sweat. Angel considered simply pointing at him, but the mischievously devious part of him decided it would be more fun to drag it out a bit longer. So, instead, Angel cupped his paw against the base of his ear again, and then played an air guitar for a bit before pretending to flip a switch up.
Smolder looked at Angel in utter confusion and said, "Sounds like. . . guitar switch? Huh?"
Angel frowned impatiently and shook his head, and he want back to playing his air guitar, putting emphasis in harshly strumming the strings.
Yona's brow furrowed in thought as she said, "Does bunny mean. . .music? Song? Noise?"
Sandbar rubbed his chin with his right forehoof and said, "It looks like he's. . .riffing that guitar-."
Angel smiled and pointed at Sandbar, nodding his head up and down quickly.
Sandbar's eyes lit up, "Oh, riff! Sounds like riff!"
Angel nodded, and he started to mime flipping a switch up over and over.
The light left Sandbar's eyes as he said awkwardly, "Yeah, I don't know what he's doing now. Sorry."
"Hmmm," Ocellus said, "I wonder what he's turning on by-."
Angel let out an excited squeak and pointed at Ocellus.
The changeling blinked and said, "What did I say?"
"On?" Sandbar guessed.
Angel jumped up into the air and backflipped in delight.
Silverstream gasped and happily briefly took to the air as well. "On! On! Sounds like 'riff on'! We got it!"
Angel turned to Gallus and snickered. The blue griffon's tail was between his legs, and he was nervously digging his talons into the ground. Clearly Gallus wanted to be anywhere but where he was right now.
Angel folded his arms and smiled with his eyes closed, standing with self righteous smugness.
"Okay, okay, let's see. Sounds like 'riff on'. Hmmm," the hippogriff said as she hovered in midair, then she snapped her claws and said, "I've got it! Chevron!"
Angel opened his eyes as his smile fell flat.
Smolder stared at Silverstream and asked, "What's a chevron?"
"Oh, it's a mark that hippogriffs in the navy wear on their uniforms," Silverstream explained, "They help show what their rank is or how long they've served. Auntie Novo told me a lot about the hippogriff navy and royal guard."
". . .I don't think a chevron can eat bunny," Smolder said in a flat tone with a deadpanned expression.
Silverstream blinked her eyes, then blushed as she landed back down on the ground. "Oh yeah. Sorry."
Ocellus scratched the side of her head with her forehoof and said, "Hmmm. . .sounds like 'riff on.' 'Riff on.' Hmmmm. . ."
"Chiffon?" Sandbar suggested.
"Okay, what's that?" Smolder said, now sounding annoyed.
"It's a type of cake," Sandbar replied.
Yona laughed and said, "Silly Sandbar! Chiffon isn't cake! Chiffon is dress!"
During all this, Angel's mouth was hanging open as he stared at the five youn creatures in disbelief. Then he slowly turned to look at Gallus, who now had a comical grin on his beak. Eager to get rid of that grin, Angel grunted and pointed furiously at the griffon. But when he turned back to the five creatures, he saw that they were no longer looking his way and were now focused on each other as they engaged in a focused discussion.
"Actually," Ocellus interjected, "The word chiffon can be used to describe either a type of cake or a type of dressmaking fabric."
"Whatever!" Smolder shouted, "Neither of them could eat a bunny!"
"They could if Discord brought them to life," Sandbar suggested.
Yona shuddered and said, "Yona no like Discord! Discord sent monsters after Yona!"
Silverstream gulped nervously and said, "That sure sounds creepy. An evil cake monster that eats you. Or an evil dress that swallows you when you dry to put it on! Scary!"
Angel thumped his right foot harder and faster to try and get the other creatures attention as he continued to furiously point at Gallus. The griffon could tell that his luck was going to run out pretty soon, so with quick thinking, he recalled the time he visited Sweet Apple Acres and turned around so that the bunny was right behind him. Then, after taking a deep breath and steeling himself, Gallus bucked with his right hind leg with all his might, and the blue lion paw struck Angel dead center and sent him flying and spinning up and over the trees and into the forest.
When the bunny's screams had faded away and the bunny himself was out of sight, Gallus breathed out to calm himself, then turned to his friends, still deep in their discussion of cakes, dresses, and words with multiple meanings, and he said, "Hey, he's gone!"
Everycreature stopped talking and looked at the spot where Angel was a moment ago.
"Where'd he go?" Ocellus asked.
Gallus shrugged, "I don't know. We were all so busy talking, I guess he gave up trying to talk to us and decided to head home on his own."
Silverstream looked worried, and she said, "Oh dear! He's all alone! We should try to find him and bring him back to Fluttershy!"
Gallus shook his head and waved a talon carelessly. "Forget it," he said, "That bunny is no wimp. He can take care of himself."
"But-," Silverstream began, only to be interrupted by Smolder.
"Gallus is right," the orange dragon said, "Spike told me all about that little rodent. He's a jerk. Not to mention tough and totally not a pushover. He probably beat up whoever or whatever tried to eat him and is just trying to get sympathy and free food from us. If even half of what Spike told me about that bunny is true, then he'll make it back home safe with no problem. Trust me."
Silverstream scratched her beak and said, "Well. . . ." Then she perked up and said with a smile, "Okay!"