horse telling the rabbit how to become "real:"
"when a child loves you for a long, long time — not just to play with — but really loves you, then you become real."
"can you hurt something else, when you become real?"
"can you take someone else's real," he asked, "or are you stuck having to get it brand-new each time on your own?" the skin horse looked at the rabbit then.
"what i mean is," the rabbit said carefully, and his voice was a crawling black thing across the floor, "if something else was already real, could you take it from them, and keep it for yourself?"
"the rabbit" is a dark, delicious joy: 