Horn And Wings

by Nameless Narrator

Hidden: A Spooky Ghost

From caring comes courage.

---

Blazing Light was having trouble ignoring a tall and armored earthpony threatening him despite his friends holding him and pulling him up a rather long staircase. Their plan was pretty simple - pull him up, put his bags full of coal on his back, push him down the stairs. Alive or not, when he dropped down he'd still be just a low-rank servant whose word wouldn't mean anything against an honorable guard.

The preparations were ready and the leader pushed Blazing down. There was a chance of him surviving the long staircase but it was slim enough for the thugs' plan to work. Thankfully, one of Blazing's first bounces broke his neck so he didn't feel the pain of rolling into the darkness.

Nopony bothered investigating the accident too much. After all, stone steps got fairly slippery at night during this time of the year.

---

The house I bought is nothing special. From the outside it looks like many of the surrounding ones - two stories, two windows facing the street in each one. Aside from the drawn curtains in each one this place doesn't radiate any evil aura or anything. Well, the night is coming and according to the rumors that's when the real fun begins here.

The key unlocking the door doesn't summon infernal hordes of Tartarus but something familiar does tingle my nose when I enter. The place smells of disuse, there's dust floating in the air and I can also smell something which I still can't place. I could go in and begin searching all the rooms but I've learned to trust my instincts so I just keep standing still, listening and sniffing around.

The sound of two ponies talking from one of the neighboring houses doesn't bother me. The silence inside here shouldn't bother me as well but the little things I've heard today make me involuntarily shiver. To stop my nerves from taking over I take a deep breath and stomp a bit on the cracked floorboards. A quiet 'thump' from upstairs makes me freeze again.

Silence.

If I discount the supernatural possibilities a sound like that would mean that there's somepony up there and, more importantly, they have good enough hearing to know I stopped moving... or they just froze up after hearing me stomp loudly. There's also the possibility that my stomping inside this rickety structure just caused something to fall upstairs.

There's only one set of stairs leading up at the end of the entrance hall so I don't waste time with checking what looks like a living room through the left door and a kitchen through the right one. The last door down here seems to lead to the bathroom.

The stairs are apparently in the middle of the house because a T section when I'm up leads me to an empty storeroom and the bedroom on the other side. I open the bedroom door and the smell suddenly becomes clear.

Sweat, stale air, unwashed coat. Memories of Blaze's old apartment make me smile as I step in and begin looking around. The place where he thought he found peace and stability for quite a while. My smile turns inwards when what happened thanks to me forces itself to be remembered as well. I sigh.

Something in the back of my head is still screaming at me though. Sweat, stale air, scarcely washed coat, the remnants of somepony staying in one room for too long day after day.

Daily...

I turn around just in time when the door of a small closet slams open and I spot a grey blur lunging itself at me. Unfortunately for my assailant, it is as Blaze would say - when there's an enemy charging in a straight line you've got more than enough time to thank Celestia, kick his sorry flank and learn a new language. Purely on reflex I balance on my hind legs, bend down and then push up against the charging enemy which makes him swing over my head and get slammed to the ground at the end of the happy half-circle of pain.

Correction - her.

The coughing and groaning creature lying on her back is a female batpony with light grey coat, brown mane and yellow eyes. The long, thin fangs reveal that she indeed is a blood-drinker or a vampire as the superstitious villagers kept on saying. She's also very skinny and it's easy to spot her ribs almost showing even in the gloom of the room.

I jump on her and show her a little surprise improvement I had a blacksmith friend make to my combat horseshoes. The other batpony begins squirming when she notices the blade that slides from my hoof and touches her neck. Fighting fair has never been my strongest side.

"Who are you?" I growl threateningly.

"Get out, this place is mine!" she says sullenly but not too loudly.

"Wrong answer," I punch her with my non-deadly hoof.

"Mine! Mine!" she tries to bite the hoof holding her down.

My next blow isn't just to get her attention like the one before.

"Stop squirming, you runt!"

"KEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE"

She spits out blood and opens her mouth again. Before I can remove my hoof from her neck I suddenly feel like my head exploded and jump backwards. My legs fail me, my head is spinning and I literally can't hear anything other than the high-pitched screaming.

Thankfully, another blur of grey is still enough when dazed for my reflexes to kick in and punch up with both hooves. My curiosity gets the better of me though and I pull the blade in my horseshoe back before doing so. The cracking noise does a lot to make me sick even more than I felt after her screech but a quick shake of my hooves is enough to see that it's not my bones that are broken.

She, on the other hoof, rammed her head with full weight of her body behind it into two pieces of steel and I'm sure she's regretting it more than enough now. Stunned and on her back, the other batpony is easy prey and I straddle her again.

"KEE-"

*whoosh*

The sound of the blade sliding out again makes her stop and just keep sniffing blood. I don't think I'd be able to take another screech so I pry open her mouth and slide the blade inside.

"One more attempt at ANYTHING and you'll have another breathing hole."

Her eyes go wide and she begins shaking all over. When the yellow pinpricks stop darting from side to side looking for an escape route she nods carefully not to cut herself. I pull the blade back but keep my other front leg on her neck.

"You win. Take the closet. Don't kill me!" she blurts out.

"Elaborate."

"Ela-what?"

"Who are you? What are you doing here? Start with that."

"I'm Doom Star-"

I've almost forgotten the stupid naming habits of those traditionalists, especially among blood-drinkers. Soul Eater, Dark Impaler, Bonecrusher and other wannabe scary names always ran in those families which was never really helping those batponies who didn't want to sound like total plotholes. NO, Choking Darkness doesn't count!

"-I live here."

"Why?"

"I won this place. Got it from the ponies who lived here. Made them leave."

"You chased away the previous inhabitants?"

"Yes!" she smiles victoriously.

The smile fades when I narrow my eyes.

"You attacked ponies who bought this place?" I raise my hoof again.

"No. I ran around at night. They got scared. They left."

"Well, I own this place now."

"I know. You're good. I'll leave. Don't hurt me."

"Keep talking!"

"Your... eyes are pretty?"

I sigh. The starved half-wild batpony squirming tearfully under me obviously isn't overly dangerous but a little caution is advisable.

"You live in the closet?"

"Yes. Closet is cool. Shady, warm, can hang there easily."

Heh, sleeping while hanging upside down. I've never been a fan personally. This place is fairly big though...

"Why don't you sleep in this bedroom?"

"Too high, leg slipped once, dropped while sleeping."

I hide the blade completely and let her breathe freely again, waiting for her next move. When she just keeps looking at me completely paralyzed I pull out one bagel from the bakery and offer it to her. Blood-drinkers have no problem eating normal food, all they need is to get some fresh blood from time to time. She looks at the still warm pastry.

"Hungry?" I ask.

She doesn't answer but slurps back a string of drool from her cheek and snatches the food from my hooves. I stand back up and watch her devour it. When she's done she gets up as well and tenses like a spring obviously thinking about attacking me again. In the end she just lowers her head and begins slinking to the window.

"You know what?" I decide my final action, "You can stay in the closet if you promise not to try and drain me at night."

Her ears perk up when she works through it.

"But you'll have to take a bath."

"HISSSSSSSSSSSS."

"Too bad. My house, my rules."

"HISSSSSSSSS."

I reach back to my bag.

"You can have half of my last bagel."

"HISSSSS- I'll be good."

---

The knocking on my door this soon surprises me. I've been checking the house for safety hazards and outside of the floors there didn't seem to be anything serious. Not seeing any orange glow of torches or hearing angry chanting of villagers holding pitchforks I decide to open.

"Good evening, Darky," says Bright Eye.

"Heya, doc. What brings ya here?"

"I just wanted to see whether or not some tentacled monstrosity ate you and turned you into a copy of itself."

"It did and since you've so foalishly came here you're gonna get a tentacle party all over your everything."

The doctor blushes.

"Ahem, sooooo about the house?"

"All sorted, including the spooky ghost."

"Really?"

"Yep. Turns out there's a different batpony living in the closet here. She's a blood-drinker which explains the rumors. Unless of course she's completely innocent and there really is an eldrich abomination somewhere around."

"What did you do with her?"

"She was so starved that I just gave her a bagel which knocked her out cold and she's sleeping now. I had to persuade her to behave a bit before that though."

His eyes dart to my horseshoes.

"I would ask you about your past but I'm scared you'll persuade me as well."

"I have better ways of working with handsome hunks like yourself," I show how long my tongue is as I lick my lips playfully.

"Stop, I'm blushing," the doc grins nervously.

"Wanna come in?"

"Eeeh. I actually wanted to ask where you were staying tonight."

"I'm done with staying at the hotel so I guess I'll just find some half-clean blankets and a mattress."

"In this cold? As a friend I would like to invite you to stay at my place, at least for the evening."

"Awwww. No nighttime fun?"

"I am an experienced divorcee so young ladies like you don't hold sway over me."

"Ooooh, a challenge."

"Stop it."

"Fiiiine. What are ya carrying anyway?" I ask, looking at the bigger bag on the doctor's back.

"I borrowed some books on amnesia from princess Twilight."

"A hard-working bachelor, wow. You've succeeded in luring me into your den which means I'm yours tonight."

"All you're getting is something to drink and semi-decent cooking."

"Only if there's gonna be a semi-decent dessert. Let's go."

I lock the door and get ready for an evening of teasing poor Bright Eye.

Comments

[Dragonslayer Ornstein]

THATS WHY WE CALL YE BRIGHTT EYES. BRIGHT EYES- Criken

[Anonymous Critic]

Vampires suck... 'nuff said.

[Nameless Narrator]

9235192
Considering Chokey's addiction, sucking is inevitable.

[ChakatRedstripe]

Always wondered if there was different kinds of bat ponies. As someone pointed out about the show, the fang length varies quiet abit

[Nameless Narrator]

10643717
The show did a great job at keeping some things incredibly vague which left the fandom with space to improvise.
Of course, in reality it likely was just a bunch of animation errors.
10643668
I wouldn't celebrate so early. The ending of this one starts what pretty much turns into the main big storyline.