Chapter 3
As the water flowed over Bab's fur she thought about the recent events that have fallen upon her. It was unfortunate for her to have fallen into such a predicament just by getting lost in a forest. As far as she knew, this hasn't happened to anypony before.
The filly turned bunny was a bit depressed by the recent situations that have befallen her. She wondered if she would ever see her family again or even Manehatten. Granted, she loved Ponyville far better than the big city, but it's where she grew up so it held a lot of significance for her.
After some more thought, Babs decided that she wanted to put some soap on her. She looked at the sink counter but couldn't see a bottle of soap anywhere.
"Owlicious?"
"Yes dear."
"Can you help me find some soap I can use?"
"Of course."
Owlicious then opened the bathroom door and flew onto a shelf near the shower head. There he found a small bottle of soap and lowered it down to her.
"Thanks."
"No problem."
He then flew out of the doorway a little wetter than he had been before entering.
Bab's then applied the soap to her paw and lathered her fur, scrubbing as fiercely as she could. Now covered in suds and bubbles, she rinsed herself once more. After washing her entire body, she turned off the water and shook her fur vigorously to let drops of water fly off her fur and to the sides of the bath tub. She wasn't completely dry so she used a small wash cloth to dry off the remaining parts of herself.
"Are you done Babs?" Owlicious asked her when she exited the bathroom.
"Yes, I feel a lot better now."
Owlicious smiled and said, "that's good to hear. It's getting a bit late, why don't you go to sleep while I search for some more information."
Babs was about to protests but when she opened her mouth a yawn came out.
"Maybe you're right," she said as her eyes became unusually heavy.
"There's a small basket that Twilight put out for you back downstairs. I'll lead you to it."
As Owlicious lead the way, Babs became slower and more sluggish by the second. When they finally reached the table that had the basket on it, Babs had no energy left to climb it.
"Do you think you can get it for me?"
Owlicious saw how tired she was and said, "Sure, this will only take a moment."
He flew up to the table and brought down the basket with ease. Once inside Babs threw the covers over herself and fell asleep.
The owl watched as her breathing slowed down, and she began to snore.
Poor thing, the night owl thought to himself. A kid shouldn't be thrust out of her comfort zone at such an age. With the flap of his wings, Owlicious flew through the open window of the library and headed straight towards the Everfree Forest to research the mysterious blue flower.
When Babs woke up in the morning she felt refreshed. As she hopped out of the basket her stomach rumbled. I should get something to eat, she thought to herself.
She found Twilight's fridge and searched for carrots. She managed to find one and began to munch on it as she searched for her owl friend.
Bab's found him sleeping next to a book that was titled "Plants of The Everfree Forest”.
She shook him awake, took a bite of her carrot, and after a few bites said, "eh, what's up doc?"
"Real funny," Owlicious said unamused by Babs attempt at having fun.
"Did you manage to find anything about the flower?"
“I may have found something, but just to be sure I'm going to do a bit more research. In the mean time you must learn how to act like a bunny.”
The green eyed bunny had forgotten all about the conversation she had with him earlier. Once remembering the conversation her demeanor changed.
"Do I have to?" she asked with a pout.
"You do if you don't want the other animals thinking you're weird for not having the simplest bunny instincts. Plus, you barely know how to jump like a bunny, how do you expect to get away from predators?"
"You talk as if I'll be living my whole life as a bunny."
"No, of course you won't, but what'll you do if a hawk or eagle swooped down and grabbed you. How will you react then."
"Good point," Babs then sighed, "Fine, let's get this over with."
Owlicious smiled, "good, I knew you'd be able to see things my way. Before we go however I need some food, I'm quite famished."
After Owlicious ate a bowl of sunflower seeds, they made their way to Fluttershy's cottage to look for Angel.
They found him lounging beneath a tree taking a nap.
"Can you move out of the way?" he said without opening his eyes, "I'm trying to relax."
Owlicious cleared his throat making Angel open his eyes.
"Well if it isn't my old friend Owlicious, and the newcomer Bobo."
"The name's Babs," she said with a scowl.
"Babs, Bobo, pretty much the same thing. So what brings you two here?"
"Angel this may be hard to believe, but Babs was originally a pony."
Owlicious let the information sink in for a minute before he continued.
"For some unexplained reason she turned into a bunny. As I conduct research into this I need you to train Babs to act like a bunny. Do you think you can do it?"
Angel said nothing for a moment before laughing. He laughed so hard that his entire body began to turn a shade of blue from the lack of oxygen.
Bab's and Owlicious looked at each other for a moment before letting Angel finish. The bunny laughed for a couple minutes before finally being able to talk again.
"So let me get this straight, you want me to spend my valuable time helping her?"
"Yes, is that a problem?"
"Yes, I have better things to do than take care of a bunny that'd probably wouldn't last a day with me."
"Angel, you owe me one remember?" He said as he whispered into his ear something Babs couldn't hear.
He then sighed and said, "you drive a hard bargain owl, I'll give you that."
"I'll be back later, take care Babs, Angel."
As Owlicious flew away, Babs couldn't help but ask Angel what her owl friend had said to make him agree.
"So... What did he say to make you agree?" she said with a smirk.
"That's none of your business, and you won't be smirking after I'm through with you. Now come on." He said as he lead her back into Ponyville.
Angel climbed up the first house he saw and waited for Bab’s to follow. Bab’s couldn’t see how Angel made his way up there, but she wasn't gonna fail something as simple as jumping. She jumped onto the windowsill, steadying herself before taking another jump to the top of the window. She then leaped onto the gutter and pulled herself onto it making the last jump to the roof easy.
"What are we doing on the roof?" Babs asked as she saw many of the ponies below going about their daily life.
"I want to see how agile you are," he said simply.
"Well what do I do?"
"Just wait a couple of minutes."
After a couple of minutes of waiting, Babs became fed up.
"This is pointless, we're not doing anything but standing around. When are we going to get to-"
The sound of an eagle screeching cut her off.
"There he is," Angel said as he began to stretch.
"Your first test is to escape from this eagle alive. I hope you're quick on your feet because this guy is relentless."
Babs couldn't believe what she was hearing.
"Go!"Angel shouted as he ran and hopped from roof to roof.
Babs stood there in shock for a while before her bunny instincts kicked in as the eagle drew closer.
"I got to get away from him," she said as she tried to run away from the predator.
The eagle dived toward her and narrowly missed her when Bab’s jumped to the next roof. Her landing was rough however, making her roll on the hard tiles of the roof.
She quickly picked herself off the ground and started running again. The next time the eagle dived toward her she was able to predict the right moment to do a backflip over it on her next jump. Unfortunately for her she didn’t calculate the distance and jumping power she needed making her almost miss the jump and nearly fell of the building. She was able to grab the ledge of the roof, and pull herself up to continue going.
This eagle was relentless in obtaining its meal. It spent a couple of hours chasing Babs without a break or a short rest. Eventually she was able to give it the slip but even when she was able to hide in a cart full of hay, the eagle kept on searching for her.
She peered out of the hay when she heard the screams of the eagle dwindle until she could barely hear it.
“So you’ve finally decided to come out of hiding?” Angel asked her from the top of a roof nearby.
“What are you talking about?” Babs asked him angrily.
“Well, the point of this was to test how agile you were and obviously you’re not very agile considering the fact you had to lose him by hiding.”
“I almost died!” She shouted angrily.
“That’s no excuse. I told you, you wouldn’t last a day with me. None can handle my training regime and usually get eaten by that eagle that just flew off. You’re one of the lucky ones.”
Babs looked at him with a mixture and shock and anger. The fact that he had done this multiple times and seemed to hold no regret for it made her want to puke.
“Just tell Owlicious that he came to the wrong bunny to train you. Trust me, you don’t want my help. Catch you later.” He turned around and headed towards the direction of Fluttershy’s cottage.
Babs turned towards the direction of the library, but before she could continue walking, her body’s exhaustion caught up with her. She took in huge gulps of breath as she leaned on the side of a building trying to regain her strength. None came back to her however and her body only seemed to be getting weaker by the minute.
Maybe a small rest will help me feel better, she thought as she closed her eyes. Its only for a couple of minutes, then I’ll head towards the library.