A pair of turquoise eyes fluttered open, followed by a beaming smile.
"Mmmmmmmm...!" Fluttershy stretched beneath the covers of her bed, undulating her spine like a cat as she popped every stiff joint into tingly wakefulness. "Heeeeeee—good morning, happy little cottage!"
The mare sat straight up, tossing a perfect mane of silken pink threads. Kicking the duvet off, she glided to the window, then opened the pane to a bright, sunny dawn rising over the verdant hillsides of Equestria.
"Good morning, pretty little songbirds!" Fluttershy cooed.
Almost immediately, a cardinal, a blue jay, and a nightingale hovered down to the second story window side. Fluttershy leaned out the frame, nuzzling each tweeting thing with fuzzy yellow cheeks. She giggled, her ears full of their melodic mirth.
With a dance and a twirl, Fluttershy happily trounced down the stairs. She did a little pirouette and slid to a jubilant stop in the center of the foyer. "Good morning, all my animal friends!"
Several furry creatures stirred from a drowsy cuddle pile in the corner of the cottage. A family of mice, a pair of geese, three raccoons, four ferrets, and a grizzly bear all looked up, rubbed their eyes, and waved their paws-and-claws at Fluttershy.
"Heeheehee!" Teeth glinting, Fluttershy ballet-stepped across the room, pausing to rub noses and chins with each of the yawning critters. That accomplished, she slid across a length of tile and ended up next to her sink and pantry. "Good morning, kitchen full of delectable morning treats!"
This—more than anything else—finally woke up the last of the slumbering denizens of Fluttershy's humble abode. Squirrels, doves, iguanas, and deer came flouncing out of every niche and cubbyhole. The animals flocked around Fluttershy, eagerly following her feather-light hoofsteps as she grabbed bag after bag of feed and poured into the food dishes lined up against the far wall.
"La la la laaaaaaa!" Fluttershy filled the air with harmony while she filled the dishes with grub. The vigorous munching of her furry friends added percussion to her angelic vocals. "A dream is a wish that your destiny makes complete in the heart of your happy hopessss!" She grabbed a broom from the corner and alternated between sweeping the floor and dancing gracefully. "Hmmm-hmmmm-hmmmm! Bom bom bommm-bom bommmm!" She paused to lean forward, nuzzling a white little fuzzball standing at the end of the kitchen table. "Good morning, Angelllll!"
Angel stomped his tail angrily against the wood. With a frown, the feisty little thing pointed past his incisors and into his empty throat.
"In just a little bit!" Fluttershy winked. "Be patient, my little cotton-tailed cherub!" Fluttershy handed the broom to her smiling grizzly bear friend while a pair of pigeons lowered a bucket in their grasp. "Why thank you!" Fluttershy filled the bucket with water, then began mopping up the tile floor. She whistled to herself, occasionally giggling between bridges of random songs. Then—once she reached a dark mahogany closet door at the shadowed end of her cottage—she paused to bow before a framed portrait of curiously purple, bubbling molasses. "And good morning to you, Metamorphic Morning Star of the Blood Promised Age!"
Another pirouette, and Fluttershy ended up back in the kitchen. She placed the mop away and began polishing the bucket clean. By now, most of the animals had finished with their morning meal. They flocked around her, nuzzling her legs and trilling anxiously.
"Heeheehee! Why, aren't you the excited bunch!" Fluttershy grinned. "Ready to start the day?"
The air filled with chirps, squeaks, and growls.
"Hehe!" Fluttershy grinned even harder. "Ready to stave off a thousand years of burning tribulation?"
Oinks. Moos. Quacks and snake rattles.
"Then someone had better grab the carrotttttt!"
Two mongooses were the first to comply. They scampered between the legs of the bigger creatures and came back, shoving a bucket of carrots with their noses.
Meanwhile, three swans flew across the cottage to retrieve an ornamental white gown and a crimson red hood.
"Awwwwwwww..." Fluttershy's cheeks turned rosy. "Where would I be without such helpful friends as you?" She winked, then grabbed a carrot from the bucket. "Okay, Angel!" Fluttershy paused by the kitchen table so that an excited little furball could hop on her back. "It's now or never!"
With a flick of her tail, she trotted towards the far end of the cottage. A gaggle of furry animals followed closely behind, forming a veritable wall of fuzz and claws.
"Hum-de-dum..." Fluttershy approached the dark mahogany door.
She lifted a metal crossbar, undid three padlocks, turned a latch-key, and spun a bank vault valve. With a purgatorial groan, the thick framed door yawned open, revealing a calcified alter lined with candles. Within the center of the elaborate bone marrow shrine was a dais, atop of which stood a gigantic glass jar full of gurgling purple goo awash with lidless eyeballs.
A bear handed Fluttershy a lit match from behind.
"Oh, why thank you, Mr. Lumpkins!" Fluttershy winked before lighting each candle.
As soon as the wicks caught ablaze, every eyeball within the jar spun towards Fluttershy. A dull bass hum emanated from the indigo ooze within the glass container.
"Hello! Did you miss me?" Fluttershy tittered. "It won't be long now!" She waved at the swans. "Okay now, my little darlings!"
The birds stopped flapping their wings. As they lowered, Fluttershy grasped the gown from them and sang over her shoulder. "Oh Angelllll!"
With antsy paws, he hopped onto the edge of the altar. Fluttershy lowered the ornamental white cloth over his ears and head, fitting each of his furry little forelimbs through the gold-embossed sleeves. All the while, he anxiously drooled after the carrot in her grasp. At last, Fluttershy hoofed it to him, and he laid back on a plate made of rib cages, gnawing happily at the dry vegetable.
"Alright, then, is everybody ready?" Fluttershy grinned.
She was answered by a bevy of meows, woofs, and brays.
"Heeee! Okay then!" Fluttershy took a breath, then donned the blood crimson hood. A turtle handed her a book bound in petrified horse skin. She opened the tome in one hoof and grasped a bowl full of powder in the other. "Ah-Ah-Ahem..." A pair of turquoise eyes narrowed to form hideous slits through the translucent veil of magenta sackcloth. "...on this Tepid T'chatakran Morning of the Forsaken Month of Skullfall, we offer unto the Immortal Lord Smooze—the thrice betrayed deity of righteous foalscreams—this penitent pony prayer through blood sacrifice of virgin innocence."
She turned the bowl over, dumping flakes of powder liberally over Angel's ears, body, and gown. The little half-rodent continued chewing on his carrot in ignorant bliss.
"With the sanctified bone meal of your fallen enemies," Fluttershy continued, "I hereby christen this morsel that we've dressed for the void, in preparation for a baptism of fire that will rekindle the unborn vessel that will then carry your spirit of vengeance into a bleeding morrow, and finally end the years of tribulation that have so foolishly warded off your unholy return!"
SCHIIIING! A duck unsheathed a serrated dagger etched with horse skulls and handed it to Fluttershy.
The mare took it while reading off the hymnal pages of the leatherbound tome. "Eh'grud-threenkt dhum razz-nak'haan havada cep'l-kuuhm! 'May all who live and die by the senses be burned alive by the rapture of Lord Smooze's Second Dripping!'" She dipped the tip of the blade into each candle, heating it up. The room glittered with bloodlight as several hellish runes flickered to life across the knife's finely-tempered demonsteel. "Ah'kazna-thraan hakal mruud thul faz'namaat!" Teeth barred, Fluttershy placed the book down and leaned directly over Angel with the blade raised, the glowing tip aimed down towards his soft bunny belly. "'By the ghastly grace of the Metamorphic Morning Star, I spill this virgin blood—'"
Angel's incisors chewed and gnawed on the vegetable.
Fluttershy blinked through the veil. Clearing her throat, she repeated, "I spill this virgin blood..."
Angel's ears twitched. His little nose wriggled.
"I... I spill..." Fluttershy shivered. The runes dimmed across the knife's blade as her grip faltered. "I... I..."
Angel gulped some tender morsels down. His beady eyes darted up at her, happy and glistening.
A breathy moan limped out of Fluttershy's throat. "Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh..." She slumped back with a sigh. Dropping her knife, she removed her sackcloth red hood and smiled. "You adorable little fuzzy butt." She leaned in to nuzzle the rabbit's cheek, giggling from the stroke of his whiskers. "I'm going to sacrifice you to the Dark Lord of Death and Damnation one of these daaaaaays..."
Angel nuzzled her back, squeaked cheerfully, then finished the rest of his carrot.
Fluttershy scooped him up, removed his silk white gown for an afternoon wash, then sat with him on her reading seat across the cottage. Warm ways of sunlight bathed her and the animals gathering around to lounge at her side.
"So, since we're up so early, who's for story time?" Fluttershy asked.
The fuzzy family of animals chirped and growled, nodding agreeably.
"Very well, then!" Fluttershy smiled as Angel nestled himself beneath her wingfeathers. "Ah-ahem... this is a classic little tale about how the entrails of the unjustly defeated elder gods became sentient and were then gifted with omniscient vision from the all-seeing dark lords of the nether realm!"