The Pony Loa

by Leila Drake

Chapter 2: Haunted House

"Have you heard? The Omnivore bought the Haunted House!" The tale went through the Empire like a wildfire.

It had started when Blueprint had signed the contract to tear down a house on the edge of the city. She had not expected that there would be such a ruckus about it. Once she asked her assistant, a dedicated draftspony called Fine Line, she was told that the one who had bought the property was not your usual client.

The house had been on the list for decades. Nopony had wanted it, not even the poorest, because there were tales of it being haunted. It was a silly notion and Blueprint insisted on putting the property on the open list every year. Once, she had gone there by herself and found nothing odd about it. Granted, it was small and it was very old, predating the time of crystal houses. Most of the roof tiles were gone and the walls crumbled. The wind howled through the ruins and it smelled of black powder and sulphur - but, as far as she could tell, the foundation was perfectly fine thanks to good ol' earth pony craftsponyship. And finally somepony had bought it.

He had an unusual name - Darren Houndslayer - maybe he was a griffin? - and his mouthwriting looked weird, too, but that aside, his credentials checked out. He had a job at a local shop, insurance and even a commendation from the Princess of Friendship, Her Highness Twilight Sparkle herself. So Blueprint had thought nothing of it when she had made an appointment with him.

After sending the letter, it had taken only two days and Mr Houndslayer stood on the dootmat of her office, knocking against the glass panel of her door. His shadow was huge. Blueprint opened the door and discovered that her client was neither a pony nor a griffin but, as he told her, a human. He had been looking for a good bargain for a while and the Haunted House turned out to be just what he wanted. It was small, it was remote and there was so little left of the original house that tearing it down would not be much of a problem. Darren was surprisingly easy to talk to: He was polite, precise and he knew what he was doing. When Blueprint asked him about the Omnivore, Darren laughed and explained that he ate a lot and a salespony at the market had eventually given him the nickname. All in all, Blueprint was exceptionally happy with the deal.

---

The following weeks, while stonemasons and workers tore down the old house and partially renewed the foundation, Blueprint and Fine Line spent the time making floor plans of a new house that would stand in the exact same spot. There was no basement but Darren said he did not need one. He also wanted to build the house by himself but Blueprint managed to convince him otherwise.

"It's much easier with help and in the end you wouldn't have saved that much money," she said. "Trust me, I know a guy. He can bring his crew and you'll be done in less than a month. Your house is so small anyway... Are you sure you don't want to add another room? Two rooms and a bathroom: that's tiny!"

But Darren shook his head. "It's all I need," he said and that was it. But he had agreed to add a veranda.

The guy and his crew turned out to be three ponies. They arrived on the site with a wagon so large that Darren wondered if his house would even match the wagon's size.

"We're gonna sleep on site," the contractor, a unicorn mare called Safety Line, said with a toothy grin. "Much faster that way. We only need to drive back twice, to get the wood, bricks, mortar and all - and then we can get started right away."

Darren borrowed a small tent and bought food for three weeks. He used up all of his summer vacation to build the house. The knight had never created anything so big. Back on Azeroth, Darren had to help build the occasional temporary camp or rampart but that had been it. This was very different, especially since it would be his place.

After Darren had begrudgingly left the Valiant Prince Inn, Cadence and Shining Armor had offered him a room in the Crystal Castle. He had felt uncomfortable with accepting such charity and rented a room in another inn instead. While he spent the days working and the evenings training Eclipse, Darren had the nights and weekends to himself but the new room was so small that he preferred to go out most of the time. He took long walks, tested his magical abilities on the lake and talked to his friends in Ponyville, using the enchanted mirror Jonathan had given him. He also met with Sunburst once in a while, mainly to talk about magic, a subject they both enjoyed. All of the money that did not go into food or accomodations, he saved for the big project.

He had left it all behind when he started building, paying his landlady for a full month in advance. Thankfully, the three-headed crew knew how to have fun: They had brought cards, a ball, cider and a guitar.

Safety and her two workers were good company. During their time in the evenings, Darren found out that she had a big family in the city and loved going to the movies, a relatively new invention that was apparently a modern form of theatre. Right Angle, who was an artist with everything stone-related, preferred watching buckball games while his cousin was a carpenter and a tabletop games nerd. They bugged Darren for stories about himself until he gave in and told them about his adventures with Twilight and his fight against King Sombra. From that day on, he had their unwavering admiration - whether he wanted it or not.

After two weeks, they went to the city and returned with food, paint and newspapers. The newspapers were the most interesting thing for Darren. He needed them to practice his reading. The translation spell was once again wearing off and even though he managed to speak Equestrian with only a weak accent, his writing was, to put it nicely, sub-par. Safety Line laughed good-heartedly as she watched him catching up on months-old news. Once he was done with an issue she snatched it away and used it to protect the tiles and wooden boards while they painted the house's interior in a neutral white. Darren worked with them as if they were paying him for it instead of vice versa. He whistled through his teeth while he worked; dipping the paint roller into the bucket and applying paint to walls turned out to be exhausting yet oddly satisfying. Drops of paint dripped onto headlines such as, "Where is the Changeling now - and who is he?" and, "New Leadership in the Dragon Lands" while Darren wondered where he should put the couch once he had one.

Finally, the last wall was dry and the last kitchen cabinet assembled. Now the first thing Darren needed to get was a bed. And a table and chairs. Maybe boxes would do the trick until he could make the time to buy proper furniture.

On the final day, precisely twenty days since the first brick, Darren lit a fire in his new fireplace and invited the workers to stay and celebrate. He managed to make a decent soup, along with a large salad, and they admired their own work, sitting on the ground as if on a picnic. There was something surreal to it; the lack of furniture created echoes when they talked.

Right Angle opened the last cider barrel and poured everyone a mug. Darren stood up and grinned.

"Thank you, everyone, for this beautiful house," he said. "Without you, well, I don't know if I could have done it at all." The ponies chuckled. "And even though everybody else thinks I built on the foundation of a haunted house..." Another laugh. "... I am looking forward to calling it home. Cheers."

"To the Haunted House!" Right Angle called and the other two ponies repeated, "To the Haunted House!"

---

"This is your place? Wow - it's... small."

"Thanks?" Darren snorted and shook his head at Eclipse's comment. "It's all I need," he repeated the same thing he had once said to the architect. "Come on in." He stepped aside to let his guests in. One by one, they entered the now fully functional living room and looked around with wide eyes. Nobody except for Safety Line and her crew had yet seen the interior of Darren's house.

The house was divided into two rooms; a living room and a bedroom. A third door led to a small bathroom. Wooden beams that supported the ceiling and the roof above it divided the living room into two sections. While one half was occupied by a functional kitchen and a dining table, the other half was dominated by the fireplace, a couch and two chairs. The only carpet in the room was rolled up and leaned against a closet that stood next to the door. Eclipse had an idea what might be hidden inside the closet and grinned.

"Aw, this is so cozy!" Feather Rush gasped with something of a happy sigh. "I didn't picture it like this," she admitted with a sideways glance at Darren.

Darren raised an eyebrow and put his hands on his hips.

"How so?" he asked curiously.

The earth pony waved her hoof around, pointing at the couch that was covered with a soft blanket, the plants and the wooden sculptures on the windowsills. A softly crackling fire in the fireplace and the chirping birds from outside underlined her gesture.

"I..., to be honest, I always thought your home would be something along the lines of a guard's quarters," she muttered, feeling embarrassed as soon as she had spoken the words.

"You built all of this yourself?" White Alloy ran his hoof over the edge of the fireplace.

"With the tremendous help of three ponies," Darren told the unicorn. "Twenty days. It went well." The statement was simple but the pride in his voice betrayed Darren's feelings.

"I'll say." White grinned and looked out the window. "What a view."

"We're in the middle of nowhere!" Peridot declared. "We took a carriage to get here and I had to sit backwards!"

"I'm sorry to hear that," said Darren with a chuckle. He opened a cupboard and pulled out some glasses.

"At least she got to sit at all," Levinia sighed. The ghost appeared in mid-air next to Eclipse. Her long transparent mane floated around her in an elegant arc as she rotated slowly to face Darren. "Since I didn't know where your house is I had to keep floating along the carriage and they. Were. So. Slow." She ran her hoof down her muzzle and rolled her eyes.

Darren did his best not to grin. Since he was the only one in the building who could see or hear Levinia it would have been odd if he answered to her comment. He began pouring orange and apple juice into the glasses.

"Well, now we're here and I must say it was worth it," said White. "I can see the city from here. And the fields and forest and everything." He stepped away from the windows and took a glass into his magic. "But how the hay are you planning on getting to work on time, Darren? That's easily gotta be fifteen miles!"

Darren wordlessly pointed at the rolled-up carpet.

"Oh, right," White laughed. "Your trusty mount! Feather told me she helped you to get a license..."

There was a knock at the door and everyone inctinctively turned their heads. Darren went there to open it.

Detective Indigo Blaze and Sunburst stood on the veranda. From afar, he could see another guard approaching. It was Abrasive Paper, a colleague of Feather's, and a teenaged colt that Darren would have bet his runeblade was Abrasive's son because he was the spitting image of him; blue-coated and with brown hair.

"Hi!" Blaze and Sunburst both bumped Darren's fist with their hooves. Sunburst heaved a rectangular sack from his back and opened it. "I got you something," he stated the obvious and used his magic to withdraw a box from the sack.

Darren took the box into his hands and tilted it until he could find a label. It was a bookshelf. He would not have expected that - the box was not all too big.

Sunburst pointed at the label.

"I hope it fits your taste," he said, pushing the glasses on his muzzle up. "You can paint it or oil it, doesn't matter. And there is a tool inside for a quick assembly."

"Huh. Thank you. That's a surprise." Darren lifted the box and put it into a corner of the kitchen to open it later. "Come in!"

Now the living room was getting seriously crowded. Thankful for the good weather, Darren opened the large windows on the far side. Abrasive Paper and his son entered the house and looked around.

"Thanks for the invite," said the guard. "And congrats on the new home." He stretched out a hoof and shoved his own housewarming gift into Darren's hands. It was a potted plant. Darren instantly thought of his photo album and the picture of Jonathan in front of his shop. He was still slightly angry at himself for not asking Twilight about her schedule before sending out the invitations. She was a busy pony, he should have expected that she and her friends from Ponyville would not be able to come.

Abrasive Paper pointed at his son who was standing around awkwardly, looking for familiar faces.

"Still Waters, my second son," said Abrasive. "And, by the way, my friends call me Abs. Yo, Deep, introduce yourself properly."

The colt shuffled over to Darren and looked up to the significantly taller human.

"H-hi," he said. "Nice to meet you. And thank you for the invitation." He gave Darren a shy smirk.

"Welcome," said Darren, then pointed at the drinks and a small buffet he had prepared. "Help yourselves."

---

At first, Darren had been worried that his guests would feel awkward around each other but it turned out that was not an issue. Since two of them were colleagues of Feather's, they quickly found topics to talk about - besides the obvious one which was Darren's new home.

After Sombra's outbreak at Abs's home, the former king had disappeared without a trace, something that had kept the City and the Royal Guard on edge for months. Abs's apartment was now fixed, Blaze had to pull an all-nighter now and then, which explained the rings under his eyes. White, who was a Goldsmith, not a guard, began interviewing Darren on his inspiration for the wooden sculptures on the window ledge.

Still Waters, or "Deep" as Abs called him, joined the two siblings playing outside. Feather cast the occasional look outside the window to make sure they were entertained while she heaped spoons of salad onto her plate. At first, they ran around the house playing Catch, then, they sat down on the meadow and talked.

Levinia floated around Eclipse as a wisp, so slowly that Darren suspected she was still bored. He remembered telling Eclipse about her.

---

It had been after their fourth lesson. Exhausted and exhilerated, Eclipse stood in the kitchen and drank a milkshake. Darren had explained to him that drinking was an easy way to replenish his magical resources. Even though Eclipse tended to overexert himself, he grew to love his favourite drink, strawberry milkshakes, even more than he already had. Levinia had been with them for the entire time, watching as Eclipse and Darren circled each other and deflected each other's beams of shadow magic. Eventually, she cleared her throat and waved both hooves around, as if to say, "Get on with it, you promised!"

With a sigh, Darren asked Eclipse to sit down.

"Listen, kid, I've got something to confess," he said.

"Y-yeah? What's going on? Was I that bad?" Eclipse's ears folded back. "I know that last lightning bolt was badly aimed. I meant to hit your sword, not the potato barrel..." He pushed his empty glass away.

"It's not that." Darren shook his head. He took a deep breath. "I - When you were still untrained, I asked someone to look after you while I'm not there."

"Errr... okay?"

"She followed you around - though I'm sure she looked away when it was appropriate," Darren amended quickly.

Eclipse laughed.

"I'm pretty sure I would have noticed," he giggled. "You had me there for a second."

"No, she she really was there," said Darren. "Her name is Levinia, and - she is a ghost."

Eclipse snorted and held a hoof on front of his muzzle as he tried to suppress a snicker. He tried to get serious when he saw Darren's face. His left wing twitched a little.

"All right, so can I see her?" he asked, raising his eyebrows.

"No. But would it be alright if she keeps watching you? Just as a precaution, in case you need help."

"Errr... sure!" Eclipse jumped off his chair. "Look, Darren, thanks for telling me but I got a load of homework. Thanks for the lesson, by the way!"

Eclipse had not really believed Darren, that much had been apparent. Levinia, slightly sulky, kept following Eclipse around but Darren noticed that she tended to disappear while he was there. Thankfully, the matter was resolved later on but Eclipse explained that he could only see her when he was using his magic.

---

While Darren wandered outside to watch the children playing, Feather joined his side and sighed.

"I'm glad they're getting along," she said. "I didn't know Abs would bring his colt. They meet sometimes for this game he made up."

Darren shook his head. "It's fine," he said. "After his encounter with Sombra, I bet Still Waters did not talk much to other ponies his age."

"True," said Abs who suddenly appeared behind Feather. She gasped and jumped with surprise. "Sorry. Didn't mean to startle you."

Feather laughed, relieved, and patted his shoulder. She went back inside to look for her husband.

"How're you holding up?" Darren asked the guard. "I heard that Sombra dealt quite a bit of damage to the city."

Abs sighed. "We do our best to fix it up. This is my first free weekend in a month."

"Hm." Darren crossed his arms and leaned against the window frame. He opened his mouth to ask how long Abs could stay when the voices of the foals rose.

"Yes, he is!" Eclipse said loudly, standing up. "He's my teacher, I should know!"

"Come on," said Still Waters angrily, "You can't honestly believe that! There are no knights in the Empire!"

"Not today anyway," said Peridot, her voice so quiet that Darren hardly understood what she was saying.

"There's no way that Darren is a knight - I mean, he is -" Still Waters's ears folded back when he noticed they had an audience. "Sorry," he muttered, his cheeks turning deep red.

Darren cleared his throat and raised an eyebrow. Now Eclipse was blushing, too.

There was movement behind Darren, and he stepped aside to let White through.

"What's this about?" he demanded. "Eclipse?"

Eclipse dug at the ground with his hoof.

"Nothing..." he muttered, avoiding the gaze of his father.

"Eclipse lied to me," said Still Waters, pointing an accusing hoof at the younger colt. "That's bad, you know."

"Is that true?" White asked, a hint of sharpness in his voice.

"No, it's not," said Eclipse, stomping his hoof. "Darren is a knight. Aren't you?" With pleading eyes, he looked at Darren who tried to keep himself from heaving an exasperated sigh. No matter the planet, children tended to start squabbles like this once in a while, discussing whether one of them was telling the truth or just making something up, based on a story they had heard or a book they had read. It was a classic. The only way to end this, of course, was to confront them with his own version of the truth.

"In a way, you're both right," Darren said diplomatically. "I used to be a knight."

"Hah!" Eclipse pointed a triumphant hoof at Still Waters who crossed his forelegs and grumbled under his breath.

"But I don't fight anymore," Darren amended. "I can still do magic, though." He scratched his chin. "Does that answer your question?" he asked with a friendly smile.

Eclipse nodded but Still Waters huffed.

"You're just saying that to stop our fighting," he snarked. "It's a typical adult tactic."

Darren snorted.

"I can prove it," he said with a smirk.

"Do you have to?" Feather muttered with a sigh.

"Trust me," said Darren, "this will settle the matter. And entertain them." He beckoned the foals to come into the house and went over to the closet in his tiny hall. Opening it, Darren saw in the corner of his eye that Blaze, Abs and Sunburst had stopped talking and watched him, curious what he would show Still Waters. "Step back a little, please," said Darren. He took his scabbard from a hook inside the closet and quickly shut the doors again, hiding his Saronite plate armour.

Darren went outside to get a little more space - with so many guests, his house was just too crowded, he had not thought of that when he had planned the layout - and the curious ponies followed him. White and Feather exchanged a look and Peridot giggled. They knew what was going to happen. Darren grabbed the hilt of his two-handed sword and unsheathed it. The serrated blade scraped at the scabbard as he pulled it out, giving off a sound that could only be described as sharp. White mist rose from the sword, like breath from a pony's mouth in a cold winter's night.

Still Waters gasped, completely mesmerized by the sight of the dangerous-looking weapon. Abs chuckled to himself while Blaze, who had also seen the sword before, just smirked. Holding the heavy blade with both hands, Darren grinned and shrugged, as if to say, "I told you so."

"Your sword!" Sunburst exclaimed, his eyes lighting up with excitement. "What is it made of anyway? It doesn't look like steel, it's too blue for that. And what do those runes mean? I've never seen symbols just like them!" He pointed at the blue runes that were engraved along the ragged blade.

Darren sheathed the sword and slung the scabbard's belt over his shoulder. How detailed should his answers be? While Feather and White knew that this was the blade he had used to carve his bloody path through Lordaeron, everyone else was blissfully unaware of its history. He decided to go with some basic facts. But had he not mentioned something or other about the sword to Sunburst a while ago? Maybe the stallion had forgotten.

"The blade is forged from Saronite, an ore that can only be found on the northern continent of my homeworld," Darren said. "It's much lighter that steel and once it is tempered it cannot be reforged... The runes are magical and grant the bearer of the sword certain... abilities," he added vaguely. "But enough of that. Let's go inside and have some cake, shall we?"

Still Waters bit his lower lip, apparently he still needed to digest the information that his host owned a sword as long as his father's polearm.

"Woohoo, cake!" Now Darren knew he had the foals on his side.

Levinia heaved a longing sigh which Darren ignored.

Suddenly, the wind which had been a slight breeze up to this moment picked up. Everybody's hair fluttered around in the unexpected squall and Peridot squeaked, trying to keep her mane down with a hoof.

"Now, please, let's go back inside!" Feather urged her children. Eclipse giggled and turned his head to face the direction the wind was coming from. He spread his little wings.

"Hey, look, Mom, I can almost fly!" he said.

"Eclipse, honey, come on," Feather called.

Darren chuckled and tapped Eclipse on the shoulder.

The wind became even stronger. It almost felt like a storm but the weird thing about it was that the sky was still clear. Somewhere in the back of Darren's mind an alarm bell went off.

"Hurry up, buddy," he told Eclipse and gently pushed the excited colt in the direction of his house.

"But, Darren -"

"No arguments," Darren said sternly and that made Eclipse sober up.

"Alright, I'm going. I just thought that -"

The storm, growing louder with every second, drowned the rest of his sentence. Now it twisted and turned and, at the center of the unearthly current, the air rippled and glittered.

"Whoa!" Eclipse shrieked, grabbing Darren's leg as he almost got pulled into the pocket storm. "Darren!"

Darren slung his arm around the scared colt, picked him up and ran. He risked a look back at the phenomenon and saw with horror that there was a hole. The fabric of space had been ruptured and he was only a few feet away from it.

"Shit!"

"Eclipse!" Feather screamed in shock, covering her mouth with a hoof.

"Darren!" Another terrified scream made his blood run cold. It had come from behind. The female voice had an echo - it was Levinia.

"Watch out!" Darren shouted as he saw that the pegasus ghost was dangerously close to the portal. "Get away from there!"

"I can't, it's pulling me in!" Levinia squealed, waggling her legs around and flapping her wings in a futile attempt to get some distance between herself and the swirling current of wind, lightning and magic. Darren watched helplessly as his dead friend was pulled closer and closer to the portal. Without thinking, he stretched out his hand and jumped over to her, grabbing her leg.

"Huh?" squeaked Eclipse, wriggling around in his other arm. "Darren, there's nothing there, please run! Run, run, run!"

Grunting with effort, Darren pulled at Levinia's foreleg. She frantically flapped her aethereal wings.

"Gotcha!" Darren huffed and dug his feet into the grass. "Agh!" The more he strained, the more he realized that he was slipping closer to the current. His eyes widened as he realized that he was now also beyond the event horizon of the damned thing.

"Uh-oh," he stated quietly.

Then it happened; with a jolt, Darren, Eclipse and Levinia were sucked into the portal. The swirling current collapsed almost instantly. The winds died down and an eerie silence fell on the meadow behind Darren's house.

Feather stared at the empty spot where her son had just been.

"White," she whispered, panting heavily. Then, she shouted at the top of her voice, "White! Help!"