It all began in the morning. Fluttershy was happily feeding her animal friends. She had worms for the birds (yuck), acorns for the squirrels, and carrots for Angel of course. Angel got only the best, as he was Fluttershy’s favorite.
As Fluttershy was about to feed the rest of the bunnies that lived in her yard, she noticed that one of them was limping. Naturally, she rushed to go and help it. After bandaging the poor bunny, Fluttershy went back to her work.
Later on in the day, Fluttershy realized she had to run to the market for some more medical supplies. On the way there, she noticed some strange bunnies hopping around. They seemed hurt, but when Fluttershy approached them, they ran away. More than a little disturbed, Fluttershy tried to go on with her task. When she came back home, fresh supplies in her saddlebag, she found three more injured bunnies. Suspicious now, Fluttershy bandaged the bunnies and then herded all the animals into her house to keep them safe. Then she set off for Twilight’s house, because Twilight was the smartest pony she knew.
Even near Twilight’s house she saw strange rabbits sneaking about, running away as Fluttershy approached. Now that it had happened twice, Fluttershy was really anxious to get to the bottom of it.
Fluttershy tried to be calm as she knocked on Twilight’s door but all she could think about were those poor limping bunnies. Fortunately, Twilight came to the door quickly.
“Hello Fluttershy. What a pleasant surprise. Do come in.” Twilight led the way into her house.
“Is something the matter, Fluttershy?” Twilight asked on noticing Fluttershy’s expression. Fluttershy nodded, and told Twilight about the number of injured bunnies she had treated in such a short amount of time.
“That does sound strange.” Twilight remarked, heading to her bookshelves and searching for something that might help.
“I’m really worried about these strange bunnies, Twilight. I think they have something to do with my injured bunnies. They look horrible too, like nopony takes care of them.”
“Describe these bunnies.” Twilight replied, still facing her bookshelf. She began pulling books down in her nature section. Caring for Your Sick or Injured Bunny? No, that wasn’t it. Adventures in Bunny-Sitting? Not that either.
“Well,” Fluttershy began, watching Twilight levitate books off the shelf and into two neat piles on the floor; one for books that wouldn’t help, and one for books that might help.
“Their fur is very scraggly and scarred and they’re definitely afraid of me. I tried approaching one that looked hurt and it ran away from me.”
“They sound like they might just be from the Everfree Forest. Nothing suspicious about that.” Twilight said, not taking her eyes off her work. She sounded more convinced as she kept pulling books down and examining them thoroughly.
“I wouldn’t worry about it, Fluttershy.” Twilight finished vaguely. “But I still want to see these strange bunnies.”
With that, Twilight closed the book she was looking at and set it on the pile with the useless books. Fluttershy stood up and lead the way back out the door and began looking for the strange bunnies.
“There were some right out here when I first arrived. They must have left.” Fluttershy pointed at the shrubbery around Twilight’s house. Twilight took a closer look, noting the bunny droppings and places in the grass where multiple little mouths had nibbled.
“They were definitely here, though.” Twilight said, turning back to Fluttershy. “Where else did you see the bunnies?”
“Well, I saw a few in the market when I went out to buy supplies.”
“I see.” Twilight said, calculating. The marketplace was a strange place for bunnies as it would be easy for them to be stepped on. Whoever these strange bunnies were, they weren’t native or they would know better.
Fluttershy and Twilight set off for the marketplace, paying careful attention to the countryside on the way. Once there, the only creatures they saw were ponies, and none of them seemed to be worried about a bunch of strange bunnies. Perhaps they didn’t know. If they did notice, they wouldn’t have cared much. No. Caring about such things was for ponies like Fluttershy and Twilight.
“I guess they’re not here, Twilight. I’m sorry to have wasted your time.” Fluttershy said in her soft voice.
“Not so fast, Fluttershy. I have a sneaking suspicion about this whole thing and I’m going to get to the bottom of it. Where did you say you first saw these bunnies?”
“On the way to the market, in the park. But Twilight, I’m sure this is nothing. I’m just overreacting to a few newcomers. I’m sure they’ll come around…” Fluttershy trailed off when she realized Twilight was not listening. She was focused on something behind Fluttershy. Curious, Fluttershy looked behind her to see what was occupying her friend’s attention for so long.
It was a band of bunnies with ragged fur. They all had certain scars set into their bodies in a formulaic sort of way. Some even had the same scar as another. As soon as they noticed Twilight staring at them, they all froze. One of them, who seemed like the leader, stood up taller than the rest and approached the front of the group to glare at Twilight with beady eyes that appeared to have seen horrors that Equestria had never dreamed of. Suddenly, the bunny bared its teeth and charged the two ponies. Fluttershy screamed and cowered behind Twilight, who, unsurprisingly, had been prepared. She quickly made a shield around her and her friend that Shining Armor would have been proud of. The bunnies, even all attacking at once, could not penetrate the dense shield.
“Twilight, why are they attacking us?” Fluttershy asked, the fear in her voice more than noticeable.
“Because,” Twilight said, not breaking her gaze with the leader of the bunnies, whose claws were drumming uselessly on her shield. “these rabbits are from Efrafa, and they’re on a Wide Patrol.”
Holy Hell, this is one of if not the coolest crossover idea that I've seen yet. I freaking love Watership Down! Your formatting is a little clunky at times (changing paragraphs even when the same character is speaking). Also, how would Twilight know about Efrafa? From the book?
Okay, this is going straight on my too-read list! I've read watership down. I know that bunnies are not cute. I try to tell people, and they often don't believe me. But I know.
Edit: Okay, actually turns out this was quite short so I did read it. Not much happening yet, but I fear for Futtershy's innocent world view after this.
Eeeeee! Finally!
I love Watership Down. one of the best books ever!
Hell-to-the-fucking-yes.
732107 She reads so much, I figure she eventually found Watership Down and read it.
I.FUCKING.LOVE.YOU.
>> Alphaetus_Prime
Quite.
732260
Hmm...Seems legit. But it takes a little bit of the story´s suspense. In the end, it felt a little bit rushed.
I also found one mistake near the end. 'Fluttershy screamed and cowered behind Twilight...'
'cover' is written with 'v' instead of 'w'.
Otherwise, I haven´t found anything.
And, after my analyzing reaction, now my emotional reaction:
OH MY GOD!!!
A Watership Down-cross-over!!!
I always loved this story! I usually don´t like cross-overs, but this is one of the few exceptions.
Now, there only has to be a Bambi-cross-over and my world would be perfect...
YesYesYesYesYesYesYes. I bucking LOVE Watership Down, and this sounds like a perfect crossover. The pacing was a bit fast and (like GingerNutGin said), the formatting could use a little work. Obviously this is just the first chapter, so we'll wait and see how it goes. No matter what, this is a pretty cool-ass concept. You get a like and fave, good sir.
732582 Well, that's what I'm letting you believe now. Maybe Twilight has...experience with these Efrafan rabbits...
And I don't believe I missed that mistake! Thank you!
And as for Bambi, that doesn't sound too hard and I might just do something with that one day when I have writer's block...I assume you're referring to the book version.
732608
The book version of Bambi? That would be perfect!
Though and granted, I never got the chance to read it, because I never found an exemplar...
I would do a cross-over of this kind on my own, but I´m too busy with my other stories and, in addition, I haven´t any idea yet how one could involve him into the Equestrian universe in a logical way...
Anyway, back to the story: I´m looking forward for the next chapter.
I loved Watership Down as a kid. To bad they canceled it though. Insta Fav and Like
I loved Watership Down as a kid. To bad they canceled it though. Insta Fav and Like
732723 I forgot to mention, that yes Watership Down did have a cartoon series that was bassed of the books. I neve read the books myself but I have seen the show.
734047 The movie and books are comepletely different from the series. The good thing about the series is it showed some things that were in the book but not the movie. However, it changed the name of my favorite doe Hyzenthlay to Primrose. What the hay?
734063 On the topic of books, have you read the wing trilogy? (Silverwing, Sunwing and Firewing)
734151 In the middle of Sunwing!
734163 It's nice to see another reader on this sight. So far I've red Inkspell, the wing triligy, all seven harry potter books, all 12 darren shan Circue du freak books, all (I think it's 10 but I might be wrong) Darren Shan The Deamonta books. Also I still have a full library of books in my room, I also read Romio and Juliet, Mcbeth, and The Divine Comedy (Dante's Inferno).
734184 I read a couple of those, not Inkspell, Cique du freak, Darren Shan The Deamonta, or Macbeth, but the others.
WEll...Uh...The idea is interesting (I've read watership down and I really admire it). But as aforementioned, you really need to work on formatting...Don't rush the story onto the net, read through it twice and check if grammar/format is good. Sentence structure could use some work too. You also need to explain a few things.. How did Efrafan bunnies get into Equestria and how does Twilight knows about them? ...All good crossovers need to explain how the characters...crossed over...If not in first chapter, second chapter...
735321 Speaking of which...that is second chapter. Just wait.
OMG I just read the title XD can't WAIT to read!!!
734163
I remember watching the Silverwing cartoon on Toon Disney back in 05.
Anyways, great job on this crossover so far.
I've only seen the original Watership Down movie. Tell me, will you be using elements from both the book, the movie, and the series?
Also, since you're doing a MLP crossover with Watership Down, do one with The Plague Dogs next! I still have that movie!
751105 I'm planning to only use stuff from the book (or books, if I can find anything in Tales that works in the story) I'm probably not going to include anything on the series unless it appeared in the book.
OOH! Plague Dogs! We'll see about that...
732723 I just figured out a way to do Bambi last night. It will come as soon as it can.
I love the Watership Down books, they are amazing. I think the idea for this story is really good. To those people asking how Twilight knew about Efrafa, just wait for the next chapter. Patience. Also, was the rabbit in charge of the wide patrol Woundwort, or a Captain?
By the way, I was also really annoyed at the Hyzenthlay/Primrose thing. Ugh.
751730
Who is the rabbit? Those are the first words of chapter two...
755018
I do not see this chapter two of which you speak.
755304 Oh, it's not there yet. But maybe I might as well put it up. The only reason I haven't is because it's kind of a disappointment next to the first one. Plus I'm waiting for an idea for chapter three. I kind of knnow where I want this to go, but I'm not sure how to get there.
Well Fluttershy and Twilight meet Hazel and Fiver-kun? =3
I love those two characters! x3