After twelve days at Shadowbolt Academy, Zest finally began to feel like she had the basics down.
She technically knew the art of pottery, even how to make bricks! Her first pot wasn’t exactly ‘good’ but it could hold water.
Of course, she still moved about as fast as she could have dragged herself across the ground before.
Zest still couldn’t make a fire without matches or a lighter, but she was getting better all the same. She knew the differences between every different type of fire now. Sugarcoat taught her how to make and then light charcoal. That was the preferred type of fire for ghosts to eat.
No longer able to rely on fast food and frozen meals, Zest was finally learning to ‘cook’ for the first time on top of that. The flavor of the heat changed depending on what you burned. Even different types of wood had a different taste to them.
After years of obliviously walking past all these trees, Zest finally learned the names of each different type of pine in the area. She knew which ones were hardwood and which were softwood. She knew which ones could be made into charcoal and which were better for pine tar.
Zest could even identify a few herbs and knew how to dry them out.
As for her progress in aura control?
At the moment, Sugarcoat was out. The boss had gone to Maple Hill to pick some new magazines and newspapers out of the recycling bins, leaving Zest on the edge of her aura. This made the first major change readily apparent. Zest could sense how far away Sugarcoat was now, could tell Sugarcoat was on the way back home.
She could also feel the location of every orb on the school grounds, though if a bunch were together she still couldn’t make individuals out. Zest had yet to complete the test Sugarcoat laid out for her, but she was already getting close.
Deciding to make one more attempt before Sugarcoat returned, Zest brought a few orbs to her. She stopped one right in front of her face and ‘told’ it to sit still. That was simple, but the more complex the task the harder it was to make them do it right.
Next, she grabbed two orbs at once and put them on either side of the first one. ‘Follow the center orb’ was an easy enough command. Then Zest only had to control the first orb directly.
She guided them up to the roof easily enough, though her form wasn’t exactly good. She understood now why ‘a straight line’ was part of it, as the side orbs wobbled about as they went. Because they were ‘following’, the orbs tended to stay in a V-formation as well.
She finally got them all the way up, until the roof access door came into sight. She’d never gotten this close without messing up before!
“Yes! Yes!” Zest’s face lit up. “I’m actually doing it!”
But then she got too happy. The orbs broke rank to orbit around her just as the roof access door came into sight.
“What?! No!” Zest stomped her hoof in the air at the orbs. “You guys really are dumb as rocks! We were right there!”
Then they all flew off.
At least she had some sense of what was going on now. As Sugarcoat promised, they didn’t simply ‘like’ happy ponies. Instead, Zest now saw them more like fishing lures bobbing up and down with waves in the aura. When Zest got angry, the waves moved away from her. When she was happy, they moved towards her. And they brought the orbs with them.
That really was all the once-mysterious phenomenon had to it.
So to do this, Zest either needed to feel nothing the whole way through or keep her emotions from causing ripples. That latter one was what Sugarcoat wanted her to learn. That, as it turned out, was the ‘hard’ part of this task.
Sugarcoat found her soon after that, carrying an extra-thick newspaper with her up to the roof. Zest zipped after it as fast as she could. She’d been waiting for this!
“Sunday paper!” Zest held up the thick paper. “My obituary wasn’t in the last one, so it’s gotta be here!”
She flipped through it until she found the obituaries and pulled that section out. Then she hovered her hoof along the page until she got to her own
“There it is!” She smiled wide.
Lemon Zest. Age 19. U. F. Pink. January 12th, 1319 – April 4th, 1338.
“Welp!” Zest threw the section behind her without another glance. “At least they got my birthday right.”
Zest fell onto her back, floating in the air, looking up at the sky.
Everypony else had a short bio written about them by somepony. Apparently, Zest didn’t have a single pony that cared enough to write the stupid paragraph for her. Not like she accomplished anything in life. They might as well have swapped the U and F.
Then she felt something and rolled over onto her side. She remembered a more conflicting power she’d awakened now. Using her aura so much made her less oblivious to the sense and now she could almost feel Sugarcoat’s emotions.
Though the specter more typically felt little, Zest could feel a certain concern directed at her now. A sort of protective instinct, the kind you might have towards a foal, was the most typical emotion Sugarcoat had towards Zest. That or annoyance (again, the type usually reserved for foals). It did feel nice to be wrapped in such a secure feeling all the time but…
That was right! Sugarcoat would feel her getting upset even from the other room! It was so embarrassing! And now Sugarcoat cold be feeling her embarrassment too!
Sugarcoat lifted the obituaries and read through them herself.
“I thought you said you had no family,” said Sugarcoat. “You can’t be too surprised.”
“I know. I still don’t like seeing my life summed up as ‘U. F.’ And I did have a one or two… maybe not friends, but advanced acquaintances.”
Sugarcoat frowned and dropped the paper, giving up her search to Zest’s relief.
“Hm.” Sugarcoat watched her silently with that cold, analytical look. “Well, I’m you’re advanced acquaintance. I would have written something in your obituary if I knew no one else would.”
“Really?” Zest rushed towards her, nearly pressing their muzzles together. “What would you have written?”
“Neh.” Sugarcoat frowned on one side, turned her head a folded her forelegs. A twinge of annoyance came from her. She thought to herself, tapping her shoulder. “I suppose that you’re energetic. And overly optimistic. And you like to sing.”
“Wow!” Zest rushed over to hug her. “You really do know me! After just a week, you know me better than anyone else! Thanks!”
Zest buried her face in Sugarcoat’s chest and sobbed. Sugarcoat didn’t quite smile, but she did stop frowning and patted Zest on the back.
The best part of this was that Zest could actually feel the affection beaming off of Sugarcoat towards her. Maybe ‘beaming’ was a bit of an overstatement, but she could feel a little affection! From Sugarcoat that was a lot.
Sugarcoat had to be feeling a flood from Zest in return.
“I’m curious what you’d write about me.” Sugarcoat glanced down.
“That you’re really smart!” Zest looked up at her. “And serious I guess.”
“I see.” Sugarcoat rubbed her nose, then finally pushed Zest away. “Thank you. Hm.”
Sugarcoat drifted to the ledge of the roof and look out towards the forest. Wanting to stay close to her friend, Zest followed her along, pressed hard against Sugarcoat’s side.
“I’m curious.” Sugarcoat pointed to the rough road that led to Maple Hill. “Do you feel that? Something’s coming towards us.”
Zest squinted and immediately realized she was using the wrong sense.
Something approached them from the direction of Maple Hill.
Zest couldn’t possibly ignore it, but with her new senses, it took a moment to work out what it was. The purple anti-glow of fire created a hazy bubble through which only shadows could be seen.
A long shadow cast itself off from the center of the light.
But the largest signal was the scent of it. She could hardly smell such a tiny amount of fire from this far away, but the irresistible scent of body heat filled the air. She didn’t smell a squirrel this time, either. She smelled a pony.
Somepony carrying a lantern, she decided. The longest shadow had to be the pony in question.
“It seems we have a visitor.” Sugarcoat leaned over the top of the roof. “But do you feel his aura?”
“His aura?” Zest shook her head. “I thought only ghosts had auras.”
“Ghosts and dippers.”
“Sorry. You lost me. I have no idea what a ‘dipper’ is.”
“A psychic, I mean. We call them dippers because they only dip their hooves into death instead of going all the way as we did.” Sugarcoat dipped her hooves down into the roof. “Psychic powers and ghost magic are strongly related, potentially even the same thing.”
Zest wondered why anypony would be coming here alone. They’d already passed the warning sign. If they knew there was a specter here and came alone, they had to be dangerous! If he had psychic powers, he might even be here to kill them or chase them out of their home!
“Well?” Zest jabbed an elbow at Sugarcoat. “You promised you’d protect me if I became your servant. So go protect!”
“From a foal?” Sugarcoat asked.
“Huh?”
Zest squinted, but that shadow looked massive. Zest sniffed again. It smelled like a pony, but that was it.
“You can tell that?” Zest asked.
“You’ll learn the difference in time.”
“Why is a little colt out here alone?”
“We get this sometimes. Kids come to the haunted house to prove how brave they are.”
“Yeah, that sounds like something that would happen.” Zest sighed miserably. At least it wasn’t some slayer come to chase them out of their home. “So we can just go to sleep until they go away, right?”
“It’ll be better to give the colt a good scare,” Sugarcoat suggested. “I’ll suck out some of his body heat.”
“Huh?” Zest floated away from Sugarcoat. “Come on! A little kid? I get we’re horrible monsters, but can’t we have a little dignity?”
“It’s for his own good.” Sugarcoat flicked her hoof down towards the intruder. “A traumatic incident when you’re young knocks the stupid out of you. That kid will keep doing dangerous things until something happens to him. I’m sure you’d still be alive if you’d ever stuck a coin in a power outlet as a foal.”
“Gee. Thanks.”
It kinda made sense. But was it just an excuse?
Living ponies smelled beyond delicious. Zest knew sucking out their body heat would be the greatest pleasure imaginable. Her new body screamed at her to just accept the excuse and be thankful for the meal.
“Besides,” Sugarcoat added, “if we don’t touch any of them, kids will come here too often. I can control myself in my current state but what if we’re seriously hungry when one shows up? This will reduce the chance one of them gets seriously hurt in the long run.”
Two excuses, huh?
Zest couldn’t hold out against her new instincts and two excuses. Really, she just wished it could be her doing the eating. The pony part of her mind saw it as a win if one of her buddies got the treat, at least.
“Oh, alright.” Zest gave in.
The two of them moved down and waited on the second floor for the colt to enter. Zest kept her head poking down from the ceiling as she watched him push the door open.
In the fog of the lantern, Zest could tell he was a colt and a pegasus. She could even make out his pink mane and grey fur. His mane was unusually long for a colt, and he styled it so that it hung down and over his left eye at all times.
The colt put down the lantern and stepped forward, trying to make himself look as big as possible.
“My name is Rind Heart!” He stood firm, but his voice and body shook. “I know there’s a specter here! I-I can feel your presence! So come out. I’m not afraid!”
Zest didn’t need any aura sensing to tell that was a lie.
The two ghosts nodded at each other and sprang into action.
Sugarcoat came at him from the front and sucked out a tiny amount of his heat, yet still enough to leave him shivering. Zest swooped in from the side and blew out his lantern.
“Rawr!” Zest got up close and roared at him.
With the light gone, Zest could see the kid perfectly now. What she saw made her falter. As he stumbled back, his mane fell out of place and she could see his left eye was missing, a scare covering most of that half of his face.
Even worse, his left wing was gone too! Whatever took them left his muzzle crooked as well as scars along the left side of his body.
Then Zest remembered that he was psychic and there was only one way to get such powers. Maybe she shouldn’t feel too bad for him after all. He got the luck Zest had been after.
In total darkness and with icicles forming against his muzzle, the colt backed up until he stood right next to the open exit. They just had to chase him away and everything would be fine!
“Oh no! The door is wide open!” Zest pointed to it. “Quick! Or he’ll get away!”
The colt turned his eye to the door, then gulped and looked back at Zest.
“If he escapes, we won’t be able to do all kinds of horrible things to him!” Zest moved her hoof over to Rind. “You know? The really, really bad stuff we planned to do to the next colt we found? But oh no, he’s getting away!”
He wasn’t remotely getting away. He stood there, teeth chattering and tears streaming down his cheeks.
At last, he summoned all his courage. He closed his eye and shook away his tears.
“N-no! I won’t run!” Even trembling from cold and fear, with his tears forming icicles, Rind Heart stepped forward to face the specter. “Y-you gotta stop sending your ghost to terrorize us!”
He kept his stern eye on Sugarcoat a moment longer, but half-faltered in the end.
“Um. Please?” Rind bowed his head to Sugarcoat. “Thank you.”
Zest and Sugarcoat shared a look.
“Well he did ask nicely,” said Zest. “But what’s this about you sending your ghosts after him? I thought I was your only ghost. Have you been cheating on me?”
Sugarcoat sighed away the joke.
“Alright, I guess I have to talk to you.” Sugarcoat moved forward. “But I won’t commend you for your bravery. It isn’t good to have such courage at your age. If things had been just slightly different, you'd be dead right now. Do you understand?”
“The adults are too scared of you to come here and say anything!” Rind Heart stood firm. “S-so if no one else will then I’ll do it myself!”
“I see.” Sugarcoat looked down at him, a little less judgmental now. “And what is this about ghosts terrorizing you? My only servant is Zest here and she only terrorizes me with puns.”
“Vassal,” Zest hissed through her teeth.
“My vassal Zest.”
“No. You have a, um. What was it called?” Rind took a moment to remember the name of the thing. “A wraith! It’s been causing all kinds of problems and all the other kids are scared to go out at night! Well, I guess we’re not, but the grown-ups won’t let us. Everypony hates being stuck on curfew like this, and all the adults are worried. So, um, please stop?”
“A wraith?” Sugarcoat rubbed her chin.
Wraiths were common enough that even Zest knew about them. Those were a type of lesser ghost. Unlike orbs, a wraith could harm somepony.
They appeared vaguely like ponies, but their forms twisted and elongated to make them look closer to dogs. To add to the effect, they possessed icicle-like claws and fangs. They couldn’t talk and were incredibly aggressive.
Still, it shouldn’t be too hard to chase one off if you had access to any magic at all. In terms of danger, they were maybe one step up from a bear. Zest found it odd a town would be fearful of one like this. You could just call pest control on something like that.
She glanced at Sugarcoat. Unless, of course, the wraith was the pet of an incredibly dangerous specter. That must have been the explanation.
“I don’t own any wraiths,” said Sugarcoat.
“I know you control the undead.” Rind opened his wing. “So you have to be the one who sent it!”
“I don’t control every wraith in the entire world,” Sugarcoat pointed out. “Let alone all of the undead.”
“Uh.” Rind’s wing dropped back down as if he’d just realized that himself.
“Still.” Sugarcoat put her hoof on the bridge of her glasses and shook her head. “I suppose this is my problem. Ponies will unfairly assume I’m sending it to harass them, even if that’s not the case. It is a tacit implication that I’ll keep other ghosts out of this territory besides.”
Rind’s ears perked back up and he dared to take a step forward.
“You’ll get rid of it?” Rind smiled. “Oh! That was a lot easier than I thought it’d be. I guess maybe you aren’t that evil, then.”
“Yes. I’ll get rid of it. This will be good practice for you, besides.” Sugarcoat turned to Zest. “A wraith is the next step up from an orb. You should be able to force your will on it.”
“What?! I gotta do it?!” Zest flew at Sugarcoat, clutching her chest. “We had a deal! You’re supposed to take care of the dangerous stuff!”
“Wraiths are no longer dangerous to you.” Sugarcoat gave her pigtails a flick and turned north. “But I will come along, nonetheless. If you do manage to get in trouble, I’ll come rescue you.”
“Well thanks.” Zest sighed. She’d hoped to do more hiding behind her leader. “So what? I go up there and tell it to get lost?”
“You tell it to come back home with us. We keep wraiths as pets. They’re our version of dogs. It’ll be useful to have one around. Once inside my aura, it won’t bother the ponies of Maple Hill any longer.”
“Pets? Didn’t they used to be ponies?”
“’Used to’ is the right phrase. They aren’t the pony they were in life. They can’t even be considered ponies. They have more in common with a reanimated skeleton,” said Sugarcoat. “Having a pet wraith will be useful. We should aim to collect a few eventually.”
“I suppose.” Zest shrugged. It still felt weird.
Rind listened to this conversation with his nose scrunched, bordering on a cringe. He must have agreed with Zest.
“You seriously keep something like that as a pet?” He asked Sugarcoat.
“You don’t understand because you’re not a ghost,” said Sugarcoat.
“I guess this is close enough to vanquishing you all,” Rind muttered.
“You really shouldn’t even be going after a wraith at age even, kiddo.” Zest tried to smile as brightly at him. “Let alone a specter, okay?”
“I’m way stronger than I look,” Rind warned Zest. “If it was me against every other kid in school, I’d win!”
“Heh! I’m sure.”
He just puffed his cheeks out. He didn’t want to be condescended too, but he only managed to look adorable.
It still wasn’t enough to get rid of the urge to freeze his blood.
“Well, I want to go with you.” Rind turned to Sugarcoat. “I need to make sure you actually do it.”
“No,” Sugarcoat shot down the idea right away. “You need to stay away from us as much as possible. If you really want, you can wait for me at the entrance of town, and I’ll show you the captured wraith on the way back.”
Rind thought for a moment, then nodded.
All together, they went down the road leading to Maple Hill. Parts of it were mostly intact, but others had been so eaten away by weeds you could lose sight of the whole thing for a few meters. Along the way, they passed signs warning ponies that danger waited for them down this road.
Approaching the town did fill Zest with a certain dread. For one, she’d gotten so used to her cozy darkness. She already missed all the orbs and frost and approaching the light made her feel as though she was entering inhospitable terrain.
Then there was that itching feeling. It got worse the closer to the town she came. Now that she ate animals, that craving was more manageable, but it never truly went away.
Rind kept his eye on Zest the whole way.
“Did you die from getting struck by lightning?” Rind asked her.
Was it that obvious?
“Yeah!” Zest smiled down at him. “I used to be a lightning rod repair pony. I was working on the biggest lightning rod in Manehattan and got struck twelve times in a row.”
“Wow! Really?” Rind swallowed the story without hesitation.
As the first building came into sight, Sugarcoat floated high above the other two.
“I can feel the wraith now,” said Sugarcoat. “It’s to the northeast. A bit further away than I expected. Try to sense it as we get closer.”
Zest nodded and focused on trying to feel changes in Sugarcoat’s territory. She’d gotten good enough to tell where all the orbs within a few hundred meters were. The wraith had to be further away, but then it was bigger.
She doubted she would have noticed without Sugarcoat telling her where to look, but she could sense a disturbance to the northeast. She wouldn’t have even guessed it was a ghost, but she knew something was causing slight waves to form in the aura.
Rind, too, stepped forward and squinted towards the northeast.
“You wait there.” Sugarcoat pointed to the town.
Rind made a frustrated grunt, but nodded and sat down next to the warning sign. He watched them with a curious look as they veered off to the right but didn’t follow.
Instead of going through town, they skirted around the edges. Zest smelt all sorts of tasty things inside Maple Hill, besides the ponies that was, but sadly couldn’t go inside to get at any of them.
They took only a brief detour for Sugarcoat to show the location of the paper recycling receptacle she got all of those journals and newspapers from. Zest also learned of the location of a small book lending box and a few places to scrounge around for scrap metals and parts.
She supposed technically none of this was stealing. Though digging through all this stuff still felt undignified.
As they rounded the corner to the northeastern edge of Maple Hill, Zest finally felt the presence with enough certainty to know it was a ghost. She even would have guessed this thing to be a wraith.
It felt angry!
Zest didn’t even know what anger felt like until then, not really. Sugarcoat, she decided, never rose above annoyed. But now she felt rumbling waves on the aether. They came towards her. They found her. Then that anger and hatred focused itself squarely on Zest.
She knew the wraith was coming before she saw it and braced herself. Then, from the woods, came the ghost, howling as it rushed towards her.
The wraith did look far more like a dog than a pony, to the point Zest would have believed it had come from a dog. Its body was far too lean to be a pony, its muzzle too long, its eyes too narrow, and its legs too slender. At the end of each of its legs were claws made of ice and fang-like icicles filled its mouth.
The whole thing appeared in the same soft, translucent, blue color that the orbs had. Indeed, that book claimed every lesser ghost had the same coloration – the other colors reserved for high ghosts.
It growled when it saw Sugarcoat and dug its claws into the ground. It kept its eyes on Sugarcoat, some survival instinct barely repressing its urge to lunge.
Zest shuddered as she looked at the thing. All it felt was hatred towards everything. She felt its well pushing hate right at her, but it wasn’t personal, it hated everything. Wraiths, she realized just then, weren’t even animals, but miserable, broken things.
“Good,” said Sugarcoat. “Your empathy will be enough to overwhelm it.”
“Should we really keep it as a pet?” Zest asked. “I feel bad for it! Do they really feel nothing but anger? Then we should maybe put it down?”
“You’re equinizing it.” Sugarcoat shook her head. “Foolish. The emotions it has are the semblance of anger a dog might have. You merely interpret it as pony-like anger.”
“But even still–”
“It can feel other things besides anger, but only through a high ghost like you,” said Sugarcoat. “If you want to help it, you need to force your will on it.”
This was it! The real-world test of her aura control. She tried to focus on it, connect with it. That only made it charge.
Zest could move a bit faster now, but not as fast as this thing!
The wraith lunged at her and swiped its claws as Zest fell backward. Though the wraith’s pounce didn’t reach her, the icicles that formed its claws ejected themselves and tore through her foreleg.
“Ouch!” Zest looked down at her foreleg.
It’d actually ripped! The wound didn’t bleed, but the slash did leave deep empty gashes. Already, Zest could tell the wound would heal, though. Small strands of ethereal string danced around the edges of the scar. It began to slowly fill itself back in, as though her body was sowing itself back together.
“I didn’t think physical objects could hit me!” Zest complained.
The wraith answered her by pouncing again. Its claws hard already reformed but now it went to bite down at her neck!
Sugarcoat made a slapping motion at the air. A psychokinetic force shattered all the ice surrounding the wraith and sent it reeling.
She did it with such boredom too. Her new boss really was on a level far above either of them!
“The ice formed from ghosts is enchanted,” she explained. “Weapons with strong enough enchantments, made of ice or otherwise, can hit you. Remember that when encountering ghosts in the future.”
Zest rubbed her wound, doubtful it accomplished anything. At least she knew Sugarcoat would keep her from getting hit anymore. She could focus on attack now.
Zest narrowed her eyes and pressed her aura against the wraith, the same way she’d push an orb away. Unlike an orb, the wraith actually pushed back. Zest felt a sudden tinge of frustration as the lesser ghost snarled at her. She pushed harder and more aggressively, but soon found the two of them had approximately equal strength.
The line where their two auras met budge by mere centimeters in any direction.
“Wrong,” Sugarcoat chastised her. “At best, you can only get it to retreat with aggression. Try showing it your empathy again.”
“Be empathetic to this stupid thing?!” Zest growled through her teeth. She hated that wraith so much! If it wouldn’t submit to her, she’d kill it! But how?!
“How disgraceful.” Sugarcoat sighed. “Don’t you see you’re letting it influence your aura? It should be the other way around. Stop being pathetic.”
Pathetic?! Zest clenched her teeth and trembled with rage.
“No!” Zest winced and put her hooves over her headphones. “Dang it! You’re right! I gotta–!”
Sugarcoat showed her how to protect herself from other auras too. She drew her aura in close around herself and took deep breaths.
The rate at which she calmed herself was… surprising. She felt none of the anger that overwhelmed her a moment ago.
The wraith had yet to calm down and lunged at her. This time, Zest tried the opposite approach as Sugarcoat suggested and opened her forelegs wide.
The lesser ghost bit down on her shoulder and Zest winced with pain. It hurt, but she still wrapped her legs around her attacker in a hug. She could empathize with it now. She felt its anger just a moment ago. She could hardly imagine how terrible being cloaked in loathing at all times must be.
And she could offer it something better.
She felt the wraith tremble and its aura falter. Only then did she try pushing her own aura back on it once more. This time there was no resistance. It allowed her empathy to flow into it and all that malice drifted away.
She put her hoof on the back of the wraith’s head and stroked it. It looked back up at her with its animalistic eyes. That anger was gone now, replaced by the affection Zest had for what she saw increasingly as a dog.
That sense of affection mirrored one another until Zest smiled and hugged the little guy! It flicked its muzzle up at her and Zest realized it was trying to nuzzle her now. She laughed and nuzzled it back.
Heck, she even decided it was cute!
“Acceptable,” Sugarcoat said, though she hardly sounded ecstatic.
“Aw! Look, he likes me!” Zest had to pull her head back to get away from his nuzzling.
“Him? Wraiths don’t have genders,” Sugarcoat pointed out.
“Yeah, but come on!” Zest had to pull her head back as the wraith continued to nuzzle her. “I get to name him, right? Oh! How about Sparky? Cause like I’m–”
“I get the joke. You can name it whatever. Let’s go.” Then Sugarcoat floated off without hesitation.
Zest didn’t need to tell Sparky to come with her, he seemed desperate to be by her side. She supposed she’d cling to the first thing to ever give her happiness too. Already, she decided Sparky having some tiny spark of intelligence would make him even easier to control than an orb. Any small suggestion was obeyed without her needing to guide him.
On her first try, Zest got Sparky to circle around her once.
“Will Sparky go back to being angry if I stop using my aura on him?” Zest asked
“A lesser ghost will slowly begin to resonate with your aura and emotions,” said Sugarcoat. “It will begin to emulate you and your will in time. That is to say, it will have your dopey, upbeat attitude eventually.”
“Uh. Thanks?”
Sugarcoat continued onward.
“You know, that was a lot easier than I expected it to be!” Zest beamed and her wraith came close. Like orbs, it was attracted to happiness. She wondered if getting upset would cause it to go hide somewhere.
“I told you, wraiths aren’t particularly dangerous,” said Sugarcoat. “Honestly, I’m surprised the town was so afraid of the thing. I suppose they were all too intimidated about going up against me.”
“It’s kinda weird that they would even assume that much, huh?” Zest suggested. “Cause like, if you wanted to terrorize the town, why would you send a single wraith to do it?”
“It’s either that or you,” said Sugarcoat. “Frankly, you’d be terrible at terrorization.”
“Guh! You got me!”
Zest shook her head and followed Sugarcoat back towards the road. Something about all this still didn’t sit right with her, but the mission was over so it hardly mattered now.
They soon left Maple Hill behind them and the road to Shadowbolt Academy appeared. However, when they got near the sign, they found a familiar face waiting for them.
Rind sat in the middle of the road, looking none too pleased. When he saw the two ghosts he stood up, unfurled his wing, and met them with a glare.
Zest stopped on the spot, unsure of what he had to be upset about.
“We got rid of the wraith,” said Sugarcoat. “You have no reason to be here any longer. Go home.”
“No, you didn’t!” Rind pointed up towards the one hill near Maple Hill. “I can sense danger. A-and the wraith is still over there!”
“The wraith is right here.” Zest pointed to her new pet. “We’re taking it back home where it won’t bother you again.
“I don’t feel the presence of any other ghosts nearby,” said Sugarcoat.
Rind’s accusing hoof faltered and lowered.
“Huh? But that’s not the wraith.” His ears began to droop.
Before anypony could ask what he meant by that, exactly, the danger made itself known. A patch of brush on top of the hill wilted and died and from it came crawling a figure about the size of a pony.
In fact, it was a pony– one covered in a full set of mail. A blue cape covered its back. Small pieces of silver and gold jewelry adorned its attire. On its head, it wore a full helm with a twisted face carved into the front. Where the eyes should have been were two enormous holes through which nothing but black could be seen.
Though it may have looked almost regal, besides the eyes, the creature all but slithered about. It crouched so low to the ground that it dragged its belly against the earth as it moved. For now, it crept forward slowly, raising its forelegs much too high as it dragged itself towards them, head twitching about.
The unnatural movement of something so close to a pony made Zest shudder and move back. Anypony would instinctually know not to get near this thing. Knowing what it was would only redouble that resolve.
Though on one level, Zest understood Rind’s mistake now.
“Kid.” Sugarcoat moved forward, putting herself between the wight and the other two. “Did you mean to say there was a wight terrorizing your town?”
Rind silently mouthed that word before clearing his throat.
“Oh! Are wraiths and wights two different things?” Rind kept his head down.
“Yes!”
“Oops.”