“All the world will be your enemy, prince with a thousand enemies. If they catch you, they will kill you. But first, they must catch you.
digger
listener
runner
Prince with a swift warning. Be cunning, and full of tricks and your people will never be destroyed.”
-Watership Down, Richard Adams. Frith’s blessing.
Snapdragon looked out among the vast fields that lay before him. They were too open for a rabbit, and he could see hawks in the distance. The sky grew dark and a rabbit appeared in the distance. The rabbit came closer and stood in front of him. Snapdragon bowed instantly.
“Snapdragon, Captain of Efrafa Owslar.” The rabbit began. As he spoke, the sun and the moon began to merge together and looking as if it were coming closer to the earth. The moon transformed into a black rabbit with red glowing eyes. Snapdragon shivered in the grass. “You’re under arrest for mutiny against your chief, and abandoning your comrades.”
When Snapdragon looked up, he was in a warren and surrounded by rabbits, looking at him with disdain. A large rabbit would an injured eye stood on a pedestal with the rabbit from the field and the black one from the moon.
“Captain Snapdragon of the hind-quarter mark, you are accused of helping the outsiders and killing your general. How do you plead?” The large rabbit with the injured eye asked.
“G-General Woundwort, c-counsel.” Snapdragon whimpered. He gazed upon the rabbit he’d met in the field. “El-ahrairah my lord save me.” He begged. The rabbit simply shook his head and the black one jumped forward, swallowing him whole.
Snapdragon bolted awake with a scream. He panted and looked around for the general or the black rabbit. Fluttershy squeaked and dropped the bowl of water she’d been holding in her mouth, causing the water to splash everywhere and soak Angel who was standing next to her. Snapdragon whirled on her, popping a few vertebrae in his back. He went to lunge at her, claws and teeth ready for the kill but stopped when he realized she wasn’t an enemy. Fluttershy had cringed, and he felt bad for scaring her.
“I’m sorry.” He said quickly as he stepped back into the bed she’d put him in.
“Oh it’s alright.” Fluttershy said softly and picked the bowl up. “I’ll get you some more water.” She added and left.
“Frith above...” Snapdragon panted as he thought about the dream. He turned and looked at Angel, who was nibbling on a carrot. “Your name is Angel?” He asked, but the rabbit didn’t speak. It put Snapdragon on edge a little. Was he mute or perhaps just unfriendly? Fluttershy came back with a fresh bowl of water and a box on her back.
“There you go.” She said cheerfully as she set the bowl down. Snapdragon took a few grateful licks of the water, stopped, looked around then licked again. He repeated this process until he drank his fill.
As he drank, Fluttershy stepped beside him and began to take his bandages off. She frowned at the scars, but one in particular caught her eye - the one on his right back thigh. It was three distinct scratch marks that were outlined by an obvious dog bite. She let out a sad whimper and started bandaging the wounds that needed attention.
“It’s to show when I can be above ground and which rank I belong to.” Snapdragon suddenly explained. Fluttershy’s ears lowered.
“Someone has to tell you when you can stay above ground?” She asked.
“It’s how Efrafa works...worked.” Snapdragon said and stood up. He saw her confusion and sighed before explaining. “Efrafa was the name of my warren. My chief rabbit, General Woundwort, ruled with an iron claw and was ultimately the reason for our destruction.”
Fluttershy sat down beside him and smiled again. “Do you want to talk about it?” She asked, seeming genuinely interested. Snapdragon squirmed and licked his paw before running it along his uninjured ear.
He shook his fur out and sat up, clearing his throat.
“I suppose I should start from the beginning.” He said, and several other rabbits came forward to listen to the story. “A long time ago, Efrafa was a barren wasteland with a few sickly rabbits huddling in shallow burrows. Elil hunted us- ”
“What’s Elil?” Fluttershy interrupted. “Oh! I’m sorry.” Snapdragon smiled.
“Elil means enemies. Anything that kills and eats rabbits is Elil, like a fox or a hawk or a cat.” Snapdragon explained, then continued. “Elil stalked our warren and were slowly picking us off one by one. I was just a kitten back then, but I remember the night of the Homba-thats a fox-and the sound of my mother’s squeal of pain.” He paused and shivered a little. “I walked in on the Homba that had come into the burrow and bit it’s ear. It yelped and tossed me aside, then ran with my mother in it’s jaws. General Woundwort had seen this and began training me. He brought our warren out of destruction. He taught us how to stand watch and build burrows that kept the rain out and were warm even in the dead of winter. He built our Owslar from the ground up, starting with me and two other rabbits that were in the warren. Campion and Vervain. Oh an Owslar is like a group of garden raiders, guards sentries and fighters.”
He paused again then sat up. He cleared his throat and flicked his ears looking around instinctively for Elil. He turned back and began again. “Anyway, the General got drunk with power and managed to make our living conditions worse. He took our freedom, told us when we could be above ground, when we could eat. He packed our does into impossible living quarters, like a human does with hutch rabbits.”
“It got to the point where the does would stop giving birth and their bodies would consume the kittens. The General created a council to deal with law breakers and runners who wanted to leave. One day a doe requested an expedition to start a new warren and they sent her back to her burrow, then a rabbit nearly as black as the Black Rabbit himself tried to run. The council had his ears and body ripped to shreds. Shortly after, a few rabbits from the nearby hills came and tried to free some of our does and bucks, but the general was too power hungry, and instead wanted to wipe them out. We fought forever it seemed. The General ran us ragged and may died in battles or from exhaustion. Finally, the enemy- I mean... the other warren, won the battle with a cunning trick. That was yesterday. I was injured in the battle and somehow came to be here.”
Snapdragon finished and looked up at Fluttershy, who seemed horrified. She was holding a hoof over her mouth and tears were welling up in her eyes. Snapdragon was touched by her concern and a light glow filled him as she talked.
“Oh my. That’s just awful.” She said and started crying.
“We’re finally free.” Snapdragon said. “Captain Campion will lead the warren to prosperity.”
“I do have one question.” Fluttershy said. “What is a human?”
Snapdragon blinked, it hadn’t occurred to him that this land ruled by ponies had never seen a human before. It was a difficult thing to try and explain it to her.
“They’re creatures that walk on their hind legs all the time and live in large warrens above ground, like this one.” He gestured to her cabin. “They’re Elil.”
“Well, there are no humans here so you’ll be safe from them at least.” Fluttershy said and patted him on the head with a gentle hoof. She perked up suddenly. “Oh, if you’re feeling better we can go out and meet my friends!”
“I’d appreciate that Fluttershy.” Snapdragon said. He’d spent the better part of the night trying to say her name properly and finally managed it. He stood up and winced as his leg hurt, but he didn’t let it hold him back long and he limped after Fluttershy.
As he walked out, he looked back and saw that Angel was glaring at him and flicking his ears. The glare made him shiver. What could that rabbit possibly be thinking? He had General Woundworts dark cold eyes and he feared for not only his life but Fluttershy’s as well. He tried to put the thought out of his head and enjoyed the walk with Fluttershy. He walked alongside her and looked around the human-like town. He gasped and thumped the ground as he heard a dog barking. When he realized he had no one to warn he stopped. Fluttershy giggled and nudged him along, letting him know he was okay. They came up to the dog, who barked at him, then wagged its tail. He growled, as some rabbits do when cornered, and spread his claws, ready to fight if needed.
“Howdy Fluttershy.” A voice said. Another pony walked up this time, except this one looked like a normal horse aside from the orange colors and marking on her side. They looked like apples and it made Snapdragon hungry. He had thought, at first, only Fluttershy had the butterfly shaped markings and decided it was just part of being a pegasus. Now that he saw this other pony sporting them, he couldn't hold back his natural rabbit curiosity.
“What in Frith’s name are those marks?” He asked, pointing a paw at the marks. The new pony neighed and jumped back, her hat flying off her blonde mane.
“What in Equestria! He talked!” She yelled. Fluttershy giggled, then nudged Snapdragon closer to her.
“Go on, introduce yourself.” Fluttershy urged. Snapdragon cleared his throat.
“My name is Snapdragon.” He said.
“Well ain’t that an interestin’ name.” The pony said. “I’m Applejack and this here’s Winona.” She said and pointed to the dog, who barked a hello.
“A pleasure.” Snapdragon said, though he was still weary of the dog.
“Um.. Snapdragon.” Fluttershy began timidly. “You said a funny word when you asked about Applejack’s cutie mark. What was it?”
“Cutie mark?” Snapdragon asked, the word felt funny on his tongue. “And I said Frith.” He added quickly.
“What’s a Frith?” Applejack asked.
“What’s a Cutie Mark?” Snapdragon retaliated. Applejack laughed a little.
“Fair ‘nuff sugar cube.” Applejack said.
“A cutie mark signifies your special talent.” Fluttershy began.
“Like my apples represent that I’m meant to work on an apple farm.” Applejack chimed in.
“And my butterflies represent that I’m meant to work and communicate to animals.” Fluttershy added. Snapdragon gave them a blank stare.
“Maybe after you meet our friends and find out what they do you’ll understand.” Applejack said.
Snapdragon was confused, but he figured he’d have to follow anyway. He stumbled a little as he tried to follow the two ponies and fell over. Fluttershy turned and frowned.
“Are you okay?” She asked gently.
“Just... just a bit tired.” He panted. His leg felt like it was on fire and his ear bled a little.
“Pinkie’s shop ain’t far, y’all can rest there.” Applejack said.
Applejack went to pick the young captain up, but he growled at her, as rabbits will often do when they’re cornered or fending off another suitor. She stepped back and let him hop on his own to the decorative, colorful building of Sugar Cube Corner.