“That wasn’t a very nice thing to do, Angel,” a soft voice said.
Angel Bunny rolled his eyes as he sat on the table, his back leaning against the large red apple. In front of him was Fluttershy, sitting on one of the chairs around the table.
The pegasus sighed, closing her eyes. “...But then again, I would probably do the same if something scary was standing in front of the door.”
A kettle started to whistle. A white hand, protected by a thick washcloth, grabbed the handle and carried the kettle from the fire and was gingerly placed by the sink. One white hand became two, and they grabbed a large cooking pot and placed it on the fire.
Smiling, Fluttershy gently walked towards the sink to prepare some tea. “Thank you, dear,” she said to the thin, well-dressed bipedal creature.
Said creature now wore a simple green dress, with white and yellow laces here and there, a golden bow on the back, and some flowing laces by the shoulders.
...So it wasn’t really a simple dress, but a certain marshmallow pon claimed otherwise.
Snow White gave a rosy smile at the pegasus before returning her focus on her task. Grabbing a dipper inside a pail, she dipped it deeper to get some water, poured the cool liquid inside the pot, and repeated two more times. “Now what should we have for lunch today, Fluttershy?” she asked as she opened a cupboard, looking at the contents inside.
“Hm...” Fluttershy hummed in thought as she busied herself with tea. When she was done, she flew to her cupboards and took two cups. “What do we have?” she asked as she flew back to the table.
“Hm...” Snow White hummed, eyeing the small amounts of vegetables inside the cupboard. “I think we have just enough for a vegetable soup. But we won’t have anything for supper later.” She looked back at the pegasus, who was setting up the table for tea. “Is that alright?”
Fluttershy smiled at her and nodded. “Yes, it’s fine.” She took her seat. “We should go to the market later before sundown to buy food.”
Snow White nodded as she grabbed two carrots and a cabbage from the cupboards. “That is a good idea. Shall I bring two baskets this time?”
“If it’s not too much trouble.”
“Oh, Fluttershy, you worry to much.” She shakes her head. “It’s no trouble at all.” Her gaze then traveled to the red apple lying on the very middle of the table. “So what are you going to do with the apple?”
Angel and Fluttershy looked at the fruit in question.
The pegasus placed a hoof on her chin as she thought about it. “Hm... Well... Maybe we can eat it over tea while we wait for the soup?”
Snow White smiled and nodded. “That sounds like a good idea.” She returned her attention to the meal she was preparing.
After a few minutes of washing, peeling and cutting the vegetables, Snow White dropped them inside the pot with boiling water. Covering the pot, she then turned around and joined Fluttershy by the table.
Taking a seat across the pegasus, she delicately grabbed the teacup’s handle and took a delicate sip of tea. “Mmm...” she mmm’ed with a rosy smile. Her gaze then fell on the apple, already sliced by the pegasus and were on a small plate.
Angel Bunny, after placing the knife back on the sink, hopped down to the floor and hopped back up the table, ignoring the pegasus’ words to be careful. He took an apple slice with a hungry smile. Opening his cute mouth wide, he took a bite—
The apple smelled...weird. Pulling the almost-bitten apple slice out of his mouth, he put it on his nose and took a deeeeeep sniff.
It smelled like an apple. Heck, it smelled like a juicy apple, but there’s something in its...smell. Angel couldn’t put a paw on what it was.
Snow White chuckled, watching how cute the rabbit was. Fluttershy smiled as well.
With a nonchalant shrug, he opened his mouth wide, threw the apple slice in, and chewed noisily and juicily.
“Aww, how cute,” Snow White aww’ed as she picked up a slice.
Fluttershy nodded and giggled. “That’s our Angel Bunny.”
The rabbit threw both of them a glare.
Snow White chuckled some more before taking a small bite on the apple slice. As she chewed, she noticed how quiet the cottage was. She wanted to ask about it, but it wasn’t polite to talk while one’s mouth is full, or when one’s eating.
Angel grabbed another slice, and Fluttershy took her first one. The rabbit opened his mouth wide...and froze in place. His eyes suddenly went wide as his pupils shrank to dots, and then...
...the apple slice dropped to the table, as well as the rabbit himself.
Fluttershy was about to eat her slice when her ears twitched to the soft thud her bunny made. “Angel?” she called.
“What’s wrong with...” Snow White asked, but words suddenly felt too strange to say as her vision started swirling.
“Snow? Snow White?”
Thud!
“Snow!”
As Fluttershy rushed to the fallen maiden’s side, outside the kitchen, an old-looking, scary-looking, black-dressed creature spied the goings-on through the window. Stifling her mad cackle of victory, she spun around and rushed towards the Everfree Forest, running past an exiting zebra.
Animals started poking their heads out from their hiding place. Seeing the ugly creature rushing towards the forest, they quickly ran inside the cottage to see what was going on.
A humming zebra gave a startled yelp of surprise as a black blur ran past her. Looking over her shoulder, she arched an eyebrow, wondering what it was. “A strange creature as dark as the night, I wonder why it rushed in and away from sight?” She shook her head and returned her gaze on the cottage up ahead. A small smile appeared on her muzzle as she resumed her trot. That smile soon turned into a concerned frown. “Strange that Fluttershy’s animal friends look distressed. I wonder what’s causing their—”
The cottage’s door burst open, and a yellow, crying pegasus flew towards town as fast as she could.
“...unrest?”