TALES FOR NIGHTMARE NIGHT! A collection to read AFTER the lights are out!

by De Writer

The TAIL of the Ghost

He awoke to the almost feathery sensation of tail hairs flirting softly across his face. Again. The soft, sweet voice of the young mare offered, “Up, Old Warrior! It is time for us to battle another night away!”

Opening one eye, the Old Warrior beheld two things. One, the young mare was right. The sun was setting. Time for him to get up and fry a few hay twists for breakfast.

The other was a bit more awkward to see. The young mare herself. Other than the fact that her mane and tail were darker than the fur that covered the rest of her, there was simply not much to be seen. Her outlines were slightly hazy and he could see the wall mount with his old battle honors and medals right through her.

Years ago, needing to reduce the size of a peacetime army, Master Sargent Warrin had been mustered out for his age and infirmity. Some Infirmity. True, he was missing the tip joint of his right wing. That had failed to slow him down any. Only dumb headquarters brass saw it as an infirmity.

When mustered out, Master Sargent Warrin had got from his forward post in the forest to Fort Everfree Edge faster than the overweight but “fit” pegasus Lieutenant that had delivered his Orders. The scene that followed had got “insolence” added to his mustering out Orders.

All that he had done, after all, was point out to Base Commander Morrgripe that the UNFIT pony that they were mustering out could out run, out fly and carry a heavier battle pack in the air or on foot than ANY officer in the Fort. That might have been bad enough, but the 950 golden bits that he had won while proving it, including a bet from the BC, had earned him the insolent tag.

Then the Prance border heated up a few years later. For the fourth time! They tried to get him to sign a forced reenlistment.

He had taken great pleasure in rubbing the Infirmity Muster Out in their faces! At that time he was employed flying express post for Princess Luna’s Royal Road Commission. AND had racked up SIX commendations for his swift deliveries!

He was smiling as he looked up at his second wall mount. The commendations for swift post and two of Luna’s Crescents for gallantry in dealing with deadly civil emergencies were in it.

The sweet little mare poked her head through the wall near the stove where he was seasoning his frying hay twists with assorted dried flower tops.

With not a care in the world, she walked on into the kitchen, hooves about 10 cm above the floor. “Smells lovely, Old Warrior. I wish that I could eat some along with you. That is something that I miss a lot.

“Until you came, ponies that stayed here at this old chateau were afraid of me. I just saw you smiling. Was it remembering your Insolence or was it the Fast Post Service that you were remembering?”

He looked up and offered her a small plate of his seasoned hay twist. “It was a little of all three things, Sweetie. The third being you, of course. Mostly you.

“Here, this plate is yours for now. If you cannot eat what I cooked for you, at least you can smell it and share breakfast with me that way.”

Her eyes twinkling, the little mare, Sweetie, sat. On the air. And sniffed appreciatively. He poured her a small cup of the strong Rom black tea that he favored. She smelled that too, a blissfully happy expression on her face.

He watched in fascination as she reached out a hoof and the day’s mail appeared in the same ghostly form as herself. When she took back her hoof, all of his day’s mail was solidly there on the table. She seemed to be pleased at his expression.

He sorted his mail and made a sour expression when he opened one with the Army Retirement Board seal on it. He brightened considerably at the contents of a different envelope It bore the seal of Chancery Court of Princess Luna’s Royal Road Commission.

“I have to go down to Everfree Town, Sweetie. I wish that you could come with me. I enjoy your company.”

She smiled like a conjurer doing a clever slight of hoof trick. “I can. I have followed you to your garden that is in the glen. Because it was daylight, you could not see me but I was there. I am hard to see in bright lamplight too. That does not stop me from seeing you, only you from seeing me.”

“I thought that you were haunting this chateau.”

“I was. Then you came. You were not afraid of me. You even started waking at sunset and spending the night awake, just so that you could see me and talk to me.

“It took some time for me to learn how to talk to you so that you could hear me. Nobody else can hear me at all. I love being able to talk to you. The stories that you tell me of your adventures are endlessly fascinating. I especially like the one about your meeting Princess Luna on the Prance frontier.”

The ex Master Sargent Warrin grinned! “You learned how to move real things and that led you to writing too! I must say that I admire your determination. I would have loved to have you in a platoon of mine!

“Now, let’s go to Equesrian National Bank and try to settle this business!”

Sweetie smiled happily, “I love going out with you! What is Equestrian National Bank?”

Bemused, the old warrior paused in the doorway and looked over at Sweetie, who was simply strolling through the wall of the chateau. There was no porch under her but she did not seem to notice that.

He mused, “Forgot how long ago you died, Sweetie. A bank is a business that takes money from many ponies and then loans it out to businesses, farms and home buyers. They make money off of the loans and then share some of what they make with the ponies they got the money from.

“Usually, everypony sort of wins. While they hold my money, they keep track of how much I have and add on my share of what they earn with it.”

Sweetie had no wings but she easily kept pace with him, seeming to trot along like a pegasus on a well made cloud. Except, of course, there was no cloud!

With a luminous smile she explained, “I have managed to change from haunting the chateau to haunting YOU! That means that I HAVE to stay close! That makes it easy to keep up. The magic of haunting and all of that.”

He flew with happy strokes of powerful wings. She trotted ahead and flirted her ghostly tail in his face sometimes! It made him get a goofy smile on his face every time that she did it. He spiraled down to the Equestrian National Bank and walked in.

He requested a meeting with Mister Horshiz, the branch Vice President of Operations. Instead of having to wait, Mister Horshiz, a really sour gray maned red pony, demanded, “There you are, Warrin! Why are you six days late on the rent for the Royalmont Chateau? You owe us 1500 golden bits plus six days of penalties!”

Warrin looked askance at him. “Not possible. I was PURCHASING the chateau from Princess Luna, who owned it. There is a title deed transfer that my agent told me has been delayed. My making the purchase was the Princess’ idea.”

“I have the DEED right here!”

Horshiz held out a blue scrolled edge document. Warrin’s battle trained reflexes snatched it faster that Horshiz could pull it back. His eyebrows rose at what he saw.

In a saccharine voice he asked, “Where is the original? This is a Chancery Copy and it has been altered. The Royal Seal is a copy, not an original, as required by Crowns Law.”

“That is a trivial detail! Pay the past due rent and penalties or be evicted at once!” Horshiz demanded.

Sweetie’s voice caught Warrin’s attention. “Keep him talking love of mine. I see some very interesting things in this file on his desk!”

Warrin grinned like a shark seeing a helpless swimmer. “When Princess Luna’s personal property deed was so severely delayed in transfer, I wrote to her.”

He held up his envelope with the seal of the Royal Road Chancery Court on it. He read, “Dear Master Sargent (Ret.) Warrin: It is with great pleasure that I enclose your latest Royal Road Fast Post Commendation for assistance in the recent Dappleton Grist Mill dam failure.

“In spite of your Retirement from our Postal Service, your heroic over flight in thunderstorm weather and precise damage assessments made all of the difference for some hundreds of our subjects.

“In response to your request for an audit of the title problem concerning the Royalmont Chateau, I have disturbing news. The Title Deed was sent to the Everfree Town branch of Equestrian National Bank to have the deed transfer to you notarized and the transfer registered.

“Celestia and I jointly agreed, after the Dappleton disaster, to gift the Chateau to you for your many services to our Realm. Along with the deed, all needful fees and a full refund of all the monies that you have paid were sent to the Bank.

“The deed, fees and refund were directly stolen. A Royal Audit has shown other irregularities concerning your accounts at the Everfree EQNB. Among these, your retirement payments from both Our Army and the Royal Road Post System have subverted. The direct golden transfers on the Royal Treasury are being made to Everfree EQNB. They are issuing DRAFTS, which they fail to pay until thirty days have passed, giving them unlawful access to the use of your honorable retirement funds.

“The whole scheme has been directly traced to General Morrgripe of Fort Everfree, who appears to have a grudge against you concerning how your took your Muster Out. Something about losing a bet.

“I may add that due to My personal friendship, stemming from your heroic shielding of my person with your body during a surprise attack by Prance forces, it was my request that you be kept in our Royal Armored Pegassi. However, in the end, such decisions do properly belong to the Base Commander. Then Colonel Morrgripe ordered you Mustered Out.

“I will never forget that you lost your right wing tip when protecting me during the Third Prance Incursion.

“Both General Morrgripe and Branch Vice President Horshiz have been summoned to Our Royal Court to answer charges Under Our Royal Wing, concerning the theft of My personal property and gift. They must also face the subversion of our Royal Retirement System.

“Please find enclosed a fully transferred Title Deed formally Sealed by both my sister Celestia and I. This Deed supersedes any previous documents and is already Registered in all of the appropriate Courts of Law.

“I remain your loyal friend, Princess Luna.”

While Warrin was reading, he noticed with amusement that he could, just barely, see Sweetie. She was laying her hoof on documents from the file on Horshiz’s desk. Like when she picked up his mail at home, the documents faded slowly away while Sweetie grinned.

For his ears alone, she said, “We called them Sharing Associations when I was alive. Losing needed documents is still a favorite ploy, I see. He is losing some that he will wish that he still had!”

Warrin grinned even more widely. He held up his copy of the Chateau’s deed. “You are effectively dead, except that you will be working on the Royal Roads! This one is ALREADY registered by the direct order of BOTH Princesses.

“I was coming to let you know that both the payment by draft and the Deed issues had been taken care of. I was going to let you off the hook on all of this and shaft General Morrgripe, whom I do detest.

“Unfortunately, you just had to try to extort a rent from me for a property that I own outright as a Royal gift.”

Sweetie strolled through Horshiz’s desk and laid her hoof just above Warrin’s lap. A number of documents faded into existence in his lap.

She hugged him, which felt like being surrounded by the softest of feathers.

Whispering in Warrin’s ear, she said, “Come, my love, let us go to our home and leave this pony to his fate.”

Agreeing, Warrin stood, folding the documents into his shoulder pouch. He turned to the stunned Horshiz, “I would love to see you try to claim either rent or eviction. The first thing that the court will do is look to see who owns the property. The Registry will show that it is ME. That will make you prima facie guilty of fraud. You know it, too.

“A pleasant evening to you.”

He stopped by the Police Station and delivered the documents that Sweetie had purloined. He explained, “These are part of the evidence in a case Under the Royal Wing.”

He produced his letter from Princess Luna. The desk pony checked his Wants, Warrants, and Summonses file to confirm the Royal Summons and took the documents, saying, “I will see to getting these forwarded to the Royal Road Chancery Court.” Shaking his head in disbelief he added, “Stealing from Princess Luna? Not a wise thing to do!”

Warrin’s flight home to the Chateau was in no way hindered by Sweetie getting in front of him and flirting her tail in his face from time to time.

~THE END~