Richard rose from his coffin, sitting up to behold his room. There was someone there. It had been quite some time since he awoke to that sensation. Had a hunter come for him? He turned to the left to behold the intruder, who proved smaller and had too many legs to be a proper vampire hunter. "Orange Peel."
Orange dipped his head. "As you say, master. I've been busy!"
Busy? "You look satisfied. Tell me, what have you been busy with?" A smirk overtook his refined features. "Did a cherry tree blossom overnight?"
Orange rose up. "I may be a pony, master." He put a hoof at his chest. "But I take my position seriously, master."
Richard raised a brow. He had never heard such words uttered by Lilly. "Truly now?" He rotated to a standing position and stepped clear of his coffin. "Very well. I will put aside my skepticism. Astound me with your deeds."
Orange brightened. Being given the chance, it made him feel good on some visceral level he couldn't put a hoof on. It was as if he were truly meant to please Richard. "To begin, any master of your calibre deserves a place that at least attempts to equal his perfection." Orange gestured to the castle as a whole in a slow wave. "I've tasked the others with a thorough cleaning of the premises. While they were doing that, I had the traps inspected."
Richard frowned sharply. "Do you know the start of how traps function, mathematician?"
Orange shook his head. "N-no sir, but Sunrise does, so I tasked him with repairing, oiling, and making sure they were ready to deal out a quick and painful death to anyone so bold as to intrude on you, master."
"Sunrise?" What an appalling name for any servant of his.
"One of the two newest, master." Orange smiled up at his master. "Sunrise and Sunset." He glanced away a moment. "I-I have decided to take on more responsibility, for you, master."
"What matter of 'responsibility' do you speak of, pony?" Richard raised a brow. "You've intrigued me so far. Continue."
Orange's wings spread as if to carry him away if things went poorly. "I know ponies are not your... ideal, master. I've taken it on myself to be at the head of them, so you can order me, and I'll coordinate them, master."
Richard silently and slowly crossed his arms, regarding Orange in a tense moment that dragged uncomfortably long. "Very... very clever... And here I thought you ponies only cared where your next fruit came from." He let out a deep booming laugh, thunder booming outside. "You're barely a night changed, and already you have such lofty ambitions! Dracula would have taken you by the head." He extended his hands and curled his fingers in a deadly grip of the air. "He would have turned it around so you could look at your tail while facing forward."
Orange swallowed audibly, sweating right through his fur in buckets. "Y-you aren't pleased, master?"
Richard drew an almost-silent breath before a fanged smile was displayed. "It has been some years since I had enough servants to consider such a hierarchy. You have ambition, and drive... I can respect that. Yes, if you were a vampire, I would be worried." He raised a brow. "But you're not, are you?"
Orange raised a hoof. "Um, I think I may be, master. A vampire bat... pony?"
"A vampony..." Richard shook his head. "You are a pony. The specifics hardly matter. You are loyal. For that, I will let you be my master of the house." He reached and put a hand on Orange's head between his fuzzy ears. "Do not fail me."
Orange felt relief flood through his system and smiled as wide as he could. "I won't, master! I won't!"
"See that you don't." He strode past Orange to his balcony and looked down. "Is that them?"
Orange trotted out quickly and looked down to see Sunrise and Sunset wrestling with one another in the courtyard like a pair of happy dogs. They nipped and vied for domination with one another, but they were clearly having a good time with it. "Oh yes! That's them." He pointed at one. "Sunrise, and the other is Sunset."
Richard gave a faint nod. "The larger one is the man, correct?"
Orange tensed, unsure if he should even mention the gender bendering that had occurred. "The larger one is the stallion, yes, and the smaller one is the mare." There, truthful. Why bother the master with such trivial bits of knowledge?
"They're both larger than you."
Orange looked down at them, having never compared himself to the other ponies. He was smaller than them, it was true. He wasn't very large as a human either, he dimly recalled, but despite it all... "I'm still in charge of them." He only realized what he said after he said it and went stiff with fear.
"Well said." He flicked one of Orange's tufted ears. "Their physical size means little if they bow to your will. Just remember that you bow to mine." His eyes raised, looking out past the walls of the castle. "So soon? We only just arrived."
Arrived? Orange looked up to see the fog was still heavy and unyielding. "Is this normal, master?"
Richard made an expansive sweep into the impenetrable fog. "It means the castle is moving to another time and place. We should arrive shortly."
As if bidden by his words, the fog suddenly fell, rolling out from the roots of the castle, but unveiling the world beyond. They were not in any isolated place. There was a city around them with huge towering buildings, strange noises, displeasing smells... It was incalculably huge.
None of them understood it, but they had arrived in a modern metropolis.