Chapter Text
“Hoppy?”
Hoppy stirred from the soft voice calling her name. But her head still dropped back onto the pillow.
“C’mon, sleepyhead. You can’t be in bed all day today.”
The soft pokes to her body caused the little bunny to whine with annoyance. Tugging her blanket further towards herself, she mumbled something along the lines of “five more minutes”.
A soft sigh,
“Alright. You asked for it, Carrot.”
Not soon after, Hoppy let out a startled squeal when she was grabbed by some unknown force, along with her blanket. But instead of being met by some ferocious monster or even being eaten whole, she was cuddled and kissed in the face to irrefutable submission by her caretaker.
“Crafty! Stop! I’m awake!” She managed to beg while the cuddle monster squeezed the laughter out of her.
CraftyCorn finally eased her hold on the bunny, girl but didn’t let go completely, “Okay, if you say so.” She said with slight disappointment in her tone.
Hoppy got a good look at her unicorn caretaker and noticed that today she was wearing a new kind of dress. It had a nice mix of yellow and pink that went down to her knees and a green ribbon around her waist.
“Is someting happening today?”
Whenever Crafty is that well dressed and is in a way brighter mood than a normal day. That usually meant that there was something big planned today.
Crafty finally let go of Hoppy and placed her back on the bed, standing up to grab something from nearby.
“I should’ve known you would forget about Easter today.” Her voice carried a bit of levity with it, as if her not knowing made it a lot better.
Hoppy's head tilted at that, muttering the E word in confusion. Her mind then sparked to life, the details suddenly reigniting in her head as she remembered the unicorn did indeed tell her about this celebration at some point.
“Oh yeah! Now I remember!”
Crafty smiled at that, turning back to the bunny with her hooves behind her back. “That’s great! Now could you tell me, in your own words, what you can remember about Easter?”
Hoppy slightly deflated at that. She was never really good at these types of questions but Crafty always encouraged them saying that they can help her out in the future. So, she always gave her best shot.
“Well, it’s a day… to celebrate something. Oh and! then there's something about these colourful eggs, where everyone needs to… collect them...”
Crafty nodded at Hoppy's every word. Not particularly because everything she was saying was correct, but more so happy that her bunny was trying to answer instead of just giving up. When Hoppy finally hit word block, she went silent, looking at Crafty for approval.
“Very good.” She said with genuine praise. She lowered herself on her knee, nearly leveling with the girl. Her hooves have not moved from her back. “But I think there's one little detail you forgot.”
“Really?”
“Mh-hm.” Confirmed the unicorn, “And it’s kind of important… Can you tell me who is responsible for hiding all those colourful eggs?”
Hoppy tensed a little. She tried very hard to remember, but struggled to spark her mind as before. Seeing her very nervous, Crafty decided to help out.
“He’s very fluffy.” Hoppy made a very serious thinking face.
“He has a big head, but a very tiny nose.” Hoppy rubbed her own nose in concentration.
“He also has very strong legs and can be quite stompy sometimes.” Hoppy started unknowingly tapping her own foot slightly.
“And…” Crafty dragged out. “...Has very big ears!” She finished, extending one of her arms to ruffle one of Hoppy's ears for emphasis.
Hoppy pulled her ear back gently, still in a bit of stupor. But as she held her ear in thought. She gasped.
“IT’S A BUNNY!”
“It IS a Bunny!” Crafty proclaimed. Smiling brightly at her bunny’s excitement for getting the question right. Before she continued, “And… there’s a little something that you can help me out with.”
Hoppy’s little hops slowed as she looked at the unicorn in confusion once more.
“You see, nobody has ever had the chance to see the real Easter Bunny. So, many had to play the role of him for the celebration to happen. And that kind of became a tradition of its own during the holiday. This. Is where you come in.”
Her smile was kind and was meant to be reassuring. Hoppy was curious, but a little worried. She could tell that Crafty was planning something, but the quiet implications that she was setting up filled her with dread.
That’s when she noticed Crafty was hiding her hooves.
“C-Crafty? What’s happening?”
The unicorn’s smile brightened. With a quick turnaround, she presented the secret item with a proud; “Ta-da!”
The item in question was (what else?), a neatly designed dress, with a fitting enough Easter theme. It was bright baby blue, that went down to the knees and had shoulder straps sewed to the fabric. A green wave shape went around the bottom trim as if imitating grass and complimenting it was white fluff shapes around the top like clouds.
But the crime against all bunny kind was the front pocket that was displayed right on the chest, and inside was a large pink ribbon that knew its purpose very well.
Hoppy didn't even have words to say, so Crafty spoke for her.
“I made it myself.” She spoke with pride, “I had some trouble with the colours, and then sowing everything took some effort. But I like it! Don’t you?”
Hoppy shook herself awake, looked at Crafty, back at the dress, back at Crafty, then realized exactly what she wanted to do.
“Absolutely not!” She exclaimed, pushing herself back away from the dress as if it was radiated.
Crafty, for her part, didn't look too surprised, nor was upset. Already expecting this kind of reaction from the young girl.
She leaned down, making sure she wasn't too intimidating for her charge with what she was proposing.
“Hoppy. I know how you don’t like dresses or ribbons. But I promise that it’s just for today, I really need an Easter Bunny today and you’re the only one that can provide it.”
“No! I don want to! And you caht make me!” Hoppy squealed out, throwing the blanket over herself and turning away, huffing angrily as if she was betrayed by her own caretaker.
Crafty stayed quiet for a short bit, a soft outward breath was heard from her, she really didn't want Hoppy to think she was disappointed in her, just slightly deflated.
Gently placing the dress aside, but near enough to see, Crafty sat on the edge of the bed. Hoppy's little blanket hideaway shuffled, before going quiet.
“You know, I was really looking forward to today.” Crafty started, “I was just imagining how much fun you would have, knowing that there's a day celebrating cute little bunnies like you.”
“Iamnotcute” Hoppy mumbled silently.
“There’s no reason to hate being cute.” Crafty comforted, “And that’s why I made the dress look like that. I wanted you to look positively adorable today and without any reason to feel embarrassed.”
The blanket shuffled again.
“But I guess somebody wants to be a grumpy bunny today and not have any fun.” Crafty sighed a little louder, her disappointment being way more playful than condescending. “I had so many plans for us today. Little games we could play, colour somethings together, and eat SO much chocolate.”
The blanket suddenly raised a little at that last thing. A curious little face poking out as she turned her head.
“Really?”
Crafty smiled, turning to look fully at the bunny. “And not just chocolate. I had also prepared carrot juice, strawberry buns, some more tasty treats, and even those hay burgers you love SO much.”
Hoppy, now out of her blanket hold, was now listening at full attention, sparkly eyed and slightly drooly at the thought of everything proposed to her. However, her attention was drawn back to the dress that she hated so much.
The idea of wearing something like that brought so much annoyance and anger to her and she wanted nothing more than to refuse it outright. But hearing how much Crafty had planned out and how excited she sounded about this whole thing. She was conflicted.
This silence contemplating continued for a little while. Crafty waiting patiently for Hoppy to answer, while the bunny hesitated to think of something that she would like. After another minute, Crafty picked up the dress and began moving out of the room.
“Oh well. Guess we'll have to do something else since we're not celebrating Easter today.”
Her movements were deliberately slow, because she wasn’t upset, just giving her Carrot one last chance to wear the specially designed outfit for her. But she didn’t manage to even get near the door before she felt a tug on her dress.
Looking down, she saw Hoppy gripping the helm of the dress. Her face went red with fluster and she turned to hide it by being distracted with something on the floor. A soft mumble was heard from the little bunny and Crafty had to lower herself to hear what was said.
“Illwerit.”
“Sorry Hoppy. I haven't quite learnt your Mumbo-Jumbo language yet.”
Hoppy became even more red by that comment.
“I'll… Wear your dress.”
Crafty gasped in happiness, “Really? You will?! Are you sure? You know you don't have to, if you don't want to.”
Hoppy's foot tapped against the floor nervously, “I don’t… But... it will make you happy.”
Crafty felt her heart melting, as she scooped her little Carrot into snuggle hug, “You Silly Bunny, I would never force you to do something you don't like.”
Hoppy questioned internally if it even was worth sacrificing her dignity for this. But then she felt the ground leave her as she was lifted high by Crafty’s hooves.
“But, thank you for being brave for me.” She said nuzzling the bunny nose-to-nose. “It really means a lot.”
Hoppy giggled as she pushed Crafty’s face away from her, before the two began moving again to the kitchen to begin breakfast and their first Easter together.
Yeah, maybe it is worth it.