SaddlesoapOpera was given the prompt, which is the story's cover image, and was asked to write this first chapter.
Sheeting rain poured down the windows and obscured the view beyond them, isolating the rural cottage so completely that it might as well have been at the bottom of the sea.
Fluttershy huddled next to her modest hearth, wrapped in a patchwork quilt and surrounded by birds and small animals wriggling to get a larger share of the warmth. As gloomy as the scheduled weather made the afternoon, Fluttershy was content to be warm and dry and safe, surrounded by her grateful charges.
She was half-asleep when a knock at her front door broke through the white noise of the rainstorm.
It was a heavy, scraping sound, less like the rapping of a hoof and more like a great weight heaved against the door and sliding downward.
Fluttershy squirmed out of her quilt and got to her hooves; the animals scattered in dismay.
“H-Hello…?” she asked tentatively.
The only reply was a second scrape lower down the door.
Fluttershy swallowed and then trotted over to the door.
“Is… is somepony there?”
No answer came.
She took one more step toward the door and then pressed her ear to the painted wood.
A gentle male voice on the other side of the door spoke up over the hiss of the rain:
“Young one, fair one, willst thou let me in? The rain, the rain! It soaks me to the skin.”
Fluttershy frowned; despite the stranger’s soft tone, some nameless worry made the back of her neck prickle.
“U-Um, I would,” she said in reply, “b-but it’s just that I have a lot of animals in here. I… I’m not sure I have room for another Pony.”
“Kind one, sweet one,” answered the voice, “thou and I know well… thy cottage’s warm floor is as clear as a bell.”
Before Fluttershy could respond, a small chime rang out.
It was a soft sound, but it hummed past the door and tingled in the Pegasus’s bones nonetheless, spreading numbing warmth in its wake. Fluttershy’s eyes widened and then dimmed, her eyelids drooping. All around her, animals curled up and fell asleep. She sighed giddily and leaned against the door for support as her knees grew weak.
“Young one, fair one, willst thou let me in?” asked the stranger once more.
Fluttershy nodded, and muttered: “The rain, the rain… it soaks you to the skin…”
She opened the door.
Something hulking but swift raced past her, bringing with it a rush of wind that blew out some of the candles in the cozy living room.
Fluttershy stumbled backward, falling down on her rump.
The creature had a dusky brown hide topped by a sharp, spiky mane that looked more like tall grass than hair, and it stood on paws with sharp, hooked talons. A small bronze bell hung from a cord around its neck. The dark thing loomed half-again Fluttershy’s height, staring down at her with piercing green eyes that seemed to glow in the sudden gloom. It spoke again, its tone still soft and purring:
“Shy one, mild one, canst thou make a meal? The more I stand and wait, the hungrier I feel!”
Fluttershy stared up into the thing’s emerald eyes, squinting to focus as she swayed drunkenly.
“Um, all right,” she said, “I have some bread, and daisies, some carrots…”
The creature shook its long-muzzled head.
“Plump thing, ripe thing,” it said, its voice now a low and menacing growl, “friend to every beast… THOU shalt make a satisfying feast!”
The creature’s long muzzle spread open impossibly wide, revealing a lashing tongue and a vast array of razor-sharp fangs.
Fluttershy looked into the gaping maw and tilted her head. “Oh,” she said absently. “Okay…”
She trotted forward.
“TOKA, PEPO! TOKA!”
The shout echoed over the storm, and brought with it the sound of galloping hooves.
An instant later, a grey-and-white striped mare wearing golden bangles on her leg and a tall, carved-wood ceremonial mask on her face skidded into the room, followed by a thin-legged brown female equine with shining violet eyes, a pair of spiraled antlers spreading back from her brow, a Cutie Mark made up of crossed zig-zagging lines, and several colourful sashes wrapped around her lean frame.
The sudden arrivals broke Fluttershy out of her reverie; she took one look at the beast before her and then shrieked in terror.
The creature closed its enormous mouth, turned to face the pair, and grunted in irritation. It gently flicked the bell around its neck with a claw.
The same humming chime rang out once more, but this time its echoes fell flat.
The striped mare lightly tapped her mask and waved a front hoof in an ah-ah-ah gesture.
The creature scowled, inhaled, and unleashed a deafening roar.
The other female’s antlers ignited with a smoky lilac radiance, and a magicked stone-tipped spear hovered into view.
The striped mare nodded in approval.
“Demon, your hunter has come far in chasing you,” she said. “But now you will surrender, or she will run you through!”
The creature’s only answer was a snarling lunge for the magic-user.
The beast and the hunter both tumbled out into the rain, but only the hunter rose; her spear was lodged deep in the creature’s broad chest.
Back inside the cottage, the striped mare removed her mask and then trotted over to the trembling Pegasus.
Fluttershy gasped and jerked out of her cringe as she caught a glimpse of the mare.
“Zecora! It’s you!”
The Zebra smiled. “I’m sorry that our visit was so scary, Fluttershy. But without us, this could well have been the day you die!”
Fluttershy squeaked. “Wh-what was that m-monster?”
Zecora turned and looked out the door; outside, the hunter kept her distance as the beast’s carcass dissolved in the rain like so much sugar-glass.
“It was a deadly spirit – a creature of the wood. It charmed you with its bell, and planned to eat you where you stood!”
Fluttershy’s lower lip quivered. “Oh, my! How awful!”
“Yes – it’s good the fight is over, but there is more work ahead. Evil can still linger, even when it’s dead.”
She trotted outside, stopping on the opposite side of the beast’s melting remains from the hunter.
The hunter nodded at the large tree not far from the cottage.
“Usipoziba ufa…”
Zecora frowned, but then nodded. “… utajenga ukuta.”
The hunter approached the tree; she magicked up a small pouch from among her sashes.
Zecora trotted over to stand next to her. She hung her head, and softly said:
“Great Old Tree, though we wish you well, we can leave no place for this taint to dwell.”
The hunter lashed out with the pouch, and a fine powder dusted the tree’s trunk.
As the bluish dust blended with the rain, it began to eat away the tree’s bark, and then the soft wood beneath it.
Meanwhile, Fluttershy had crept out into the rain, curious in spite of herself about her friend and the newcomer’s actions. Her eyes widened as the old tree creaked, groaned, and began to fall. She yelped in surprise as the tree crashed down, and she leaped backward without thinking.
Her rear right hoof skidded on the noxious puddle the decaying creature had left behind, making her stagger and almost fall before she righted herself.
Zecora and the hunter turned at the sound of Fluttershy’s cry.
“Stay back, my friend!” shouted Zecora. “The taint will stay until the rains wash it away!”
Fluttershy surreptitiously scraped her gooey hoof clean on the grass and then nodded nervously.
When the old tree had been completely corroded, Zecora and the hunter followed Fluttershy back inside the cottage.
“Um, if you don’t mind my asking,” said Fluttershy, “why did you kill my tree? Was it because of the monster?”
Zecora nodded. “Yes. Shujaa chased it far and wide – the tree gave it a place to hide.”
“B-But, your friend…” Fluttershy gulped. “… killed it, didn’t she?”
“She did, but don’t you know, my friend? Death is not always the end.”
“Oh,” replied Fluttershy, somewhat at a loss.
The hunter, Shujaa, watched the exchange in silence.
“Again, I’m sorry for the row,” continued Zecora, “but we should be going now. The hunt has been a fearsome test, and we both could use a rest.”
“Well, all right, then,” said Fluttershy. “Thanks again for saving me.”
The Zebra and her companion trotted back out into the rain, headed toward Zecora’s home in the Everfree Forest.
Fluttershy closed the door behind them, and then yawned; with the tension of the moment gone, fatigue piled on her like stone saddlebags.
She toweled off in the bathroom and then trotted up to her bedroom. She collapsed on the bed without even shifting the quilt. She was softly snoring in moments.
As Fluttershy slept, the tiny, thorn-like tooth embedded in her right hind fetlock silently burrowed deeper, painlessly sinking past her yellow hide.
She shivered in her sleep, her legs twitching as if galloping. Her eyes remained closed, but fear pinched her features. She clenched her whole body – her eyes squeezed tightly shut and her teeth grinding – and then she fell still and silent, sleeping as peacefully as a newborn foal.
Fluttershy half-smiled and sighed contentedly in her sleep as green, grassy shoots grew up among the strands of her mane…