"Darkness. Darkness is only how it could be described."
Somewhere within a dark and dank dungeon bound in prismatic chains was a prisoner whom could only be described as blackish-purple with a bat-like face, brooch with a long red tie coming down off of it, cape when spread out resembled a bat's wings, skeleton like arms and claws, and a whispy ghost tail that was somehow bound by the chains. The prisoner spoke with what seemed to be a transvylneighan accent to an unicorn "interrogator" whom was sitting on a wooden chair behind a similar table and charged with learning where the prisoner came from.
"Darkness? That is what it was like before you came here to Equestria?"
The prisoner somberly nodded, cooperating out of the fact he was defeated not once but twice and the chains proved it, restricting his power to escape.
"Ves. It was darkness. My consciousness drifting but then there was a light. Not a horrendous light that would send beings like me retreating back to the shadows. It was brighter than vere I was and but it velt like the night. I crawled vor it and ven I came to, I vas all alone vithin a forest. It's canopy only parting just enough to show the night sky and it vas all I could see for a time. My body was heavy, I could barely lift a claw. Consciousness vaded vin and out and all I could do was wait for my veak body to recover. Eventually I could force myself upright, slowly to prevent passing out again. I could remember at that time was my own name but I could remember nothing else."
The scratch of a quill pen going over paper could only be heard to break the silence as the unicorn wrote down the prisoner's account. Briefly reading over everything taken into account so far, the unicorn facehoofed as he realized he didn't have the prisoner's name written down. Rather than give the prisoner the idea that he was an idiot and forgetful, he asked the prisoner, "For the record, could you restate your name and 'title?'" The prisoner sighed, raising his head up to eye level at the unicorn and which his yellow eyes somewhat unnerved the unicorn.
"My name is Antasma. King of Bats."
******
Several months prior to Antasma's imprisonment...
******
The King of Bats could only move slow as he aimlessly wandered the forest he found himself within. He did not know where he was, how he got there, why his body felt so heavy that he just wanted to go ahead and fall down to lose consciousness again to recover. But that had to wait given his current situation. Shelter was needed to be relatively safe from what predators may lurk in the forest and he was in no condition to fight. Eventually he found a cave and could not sense any sort of presence inside and so he entered the cave and went deep inside away from the entrance. The cave did not have any trace of any beast that may have been making its home in there which eased Antasma's mind. Briefly turning upside down he latched onto the overhead of the cave and wrapped his arms around him, hanging just like a bat and closing his eyes to rest. He needed the rest and it was going to be a long night before that would happen.
When Antasma woke up, his gaze settled upon the cave opening and saw that night was still fallen on the world which made him wonder exactly how long he had been asleep. Stretching out his arms and turning right side up his body was not as heavy as it was before he rested. Granted he still felt fatigued but compared to earlier, it was a noticeable improvement. Venturing outside of the cave he sought refuge in, the night was still long with the moon full to cast an eerie glow down upon the trees. Slowly he floated through the trees, slowly looking about as he fruitlessly tried to get some sense of his bearings which gradually agitated him. Then he sensed something new, something tugging at him like instinct and he turned his gaze to his right. Something in his mind was telling him that something was worth going in that direction and without any other leads or reasonable objections, he complied with the urge and went straight ahead.
The sensation proved to be very helpful. Not only was he free from the forests but he now found himself upon the outskirts of village of sorts. The building designs reminded him of an age past but he couldn't put a claw on it but his attention was brought to quaint little cottage that was well outside of the village. The sensation was pulling him that direction and he went to investigate the cottage. Getting closer he could observe small buildings which housed creatures he never even seen before, save for the bats he saw hanging asleep in a tree.
Turning his attention up to the upper part of the cottage, he slowly floated up to the window and peered inside. What he saw perplexed him. A canary yellow equine with a pink tossled and bedheaded mane was tossing and turning underneath the covers and fear was quite clear on the equine's face. "This is vat I vas brought to? A sleeping creature?" Antasma quietly muttered to himself and perplexed. His attention was so fixed on the equine that it wasn't until a tingling sound was made above his head that he looked up and found himself staring into a rift, "Vat the...?" He only blinked at the rift of inverted prismatic colors before curiousity got the better of him and entered through, the rift promptly closing after he had gone through.
Going from one end to another he now found himself in the same spot he was just mere moments except now it was day. "Vat was the point in that? I'm in the same place except the sun is out." Antasma grumbled in annoyance as he observed the landscape up until a voice cried out in a loud scream that was clearly female in tone which brought him to his senses and saw the very same canary yellow equine from earlier but noticed the wings and three pink butterflies on her flank. "Vat? She has vings?"
Not much thought could be processed as a pack of wolves made of wood were chasing at the equine. The wolves had cornered the equine whom was close to becoming a whimpering mess and barely even speaking that Antasma had to strain his ears to hear, "Somepony... anypony... h-h-h-help..."
Antasma only watched as the wolves slowly closed in as if savoring the moment before the kill and that was when he had enough of the display. Unconsciously and with a flick of his wrist, his claws held a transparent multicolor orb that he threw at the first wolf that was about to pounce onto the pegasus. The wolf yipped before becoming disassembled into smaller pieces of wood which made the other wolves look for the source of the attack then Antasma floated down between the pegasus and the rest of the pack, "We vill have none of that now." The timber wolves growled at the new threat and regarded Antasma cautiously, sizing him up. Flicking his wrists again, Antasma produced two more of the same orbs and with an outward stretch of his arms he sent the orbs flying straight to rest of the pack and blasted them to pieces. Antasma just watched he made short work of the timber wolves. Dusting his claws he turned to look at the pegasus so see her cowering before him.
He went down to her and she tried to scramble backwards but couldn't go anywhere as her back was to her cottage, "D-d-d-don't hurt me!" She cried out in fear.
"Why vould I hurt you? I just saved you from vose vings," Antasma replied.
The pegasus slightly moved one of her forelegs from her face only to see the timber wolves starting to reassemble themselves into one, "EEP!" She cried out again and cowered once more with her face covered and eyes shut.
"Vat is the matter?" Antasma asked then heard creaking wood behind him, "... That can't be good," was all Antasma said before he was snapped up in the jaws of the big timber wolf, being shaken around in it's maw like a ragdoll. Antasma grunted, his very slim and wispy form preventing him from being hurt but his cape was caught in the timber wolf's teeth and he only had one claw free of it's maw and all he could think was that he looked like a stick in the wolf's mouth. He stared at it's face and tried to summon more orbs to send at the wolf's eyes but couldn't concentrate for a full size one and ended up shooting smaller ones at the wolf.
The wolf yipped in surprise, temporarily blinded and it's jaw going slack enough that Antasma's body darkened to black before poofing into smoke. Antasma's body split up into several smaller forms like bats and flew out of the wolf's maw before it could snap down on the now smaller threats. The bats circled around the wolf then dove down around it's body, biting at the vines on the wolf's body holding it together and biting through that the wolf started to fall apart again without anything holding it together. The wolf realized what was going on and started retreating, Antasma pulling himself together and reforming into his full form. "And that is how you do it."
Floating back down to the ground, the pegasus had slowly gotten up and timidly walking over to him, "Um... excuse me...?" She quietly said and Antasma turned around and saw the canary pegasus looking up at him, looking a tiny less afraid but still trying to hide behind her mane, "Yes?" Antasma replied. "W-w-what are you?" The pegasus quietly asked and Antasma looked like he was about to answer but then held a claw up to his lips as he pondered his reply, "... I have no idea."
Inside of the pegasus's cottage, Antasma was invited inside by her whom he now knew her name as Fluttershy. He was "seated" on a couch with a cup of tea that Fluttershy provided and he quietly sipped it while Fluttershy was still being shy around him but couldn't help but at least be friendly considering he saved her. "So your name is Antasma and you look very similar to a bat but... you're not a bat," She started off quietly. Antasma nodded, sipping his tea.
"You don't remember where you are from but when you woke up you were somewhere in the Everfree Forest and found your way here." Antasma nodded again, swallowing the tea.
"That is correct, Fluttershy. All that I can remember is my name, where I was, and little to nothing else seemingly important." Fluttershy quietly drank from her own tea before continuing.
"Oh goodness. You poor thing not knowing where you are from. I think Twilight could help you. If anything you have a transvylneighan accent so maybe you're from there? I know I can't believe everything my books say but in some of them set in that place, it says that there are a lot of bats and vamponies and other things."
Antasma leaned back in the couch, looking into his cup as he was almost finished with it and tried to remember anything at all but kept on drawing blanks. "I do not know but I vank you for your hospitality Fluttershy. But I vink it's time I take my leave." He set the tea cup back onto the saucer and looked at her, "I mean it. Vank you."
Fluttershy smiled slightly but then the scene around Antasma froze, leaving him perplexed. He looked around then there was a low rumble that gradually grew louder and peering out a window he could see the land fading away into white nothingness. His yellow eyes grew wide as he began to panic before the same rift of inverted color opened up above him. Taking quick notice of it, he went straight through before the deteriorating the scene caught him with it.
The rift opened up and spat Antasma out on the other side inside of the cottage and closed after expelling him. He looked around in surprise, "Vat was happening? That rift opened and allowed me to escape but vere vas I?"
He heard a yawn from behind and turning around he saw Fluttershy apparently waking up from her bed with a white bunny hopping up and down beside her to wake her up, "Oh my goodness Angel, I had such the strangest dream." She rubbed her eyes while Angel impaitiently tried to get Fluttershy's attention, "I was cornered by timber wolves then this black and purple creature named Antasma came out of nowhere and sent those wolves back home then I invited him into my cottage and talked to him to find out what he was then... I woke up." She looked at Angel and smiled at him before finally noticing his expression, "What's wrong Angel bunny?" Angel pointed to his left and then Fluttershy looked at where he was pointing then visably froze, looking at Antasma, "That... wasn't a dream?" Antasma could only stare back before answering.
"Vell... Vis got varkward..."
Author's Note
I was playing Mario and Luigi: Dream Team and beat Antasma for the last time and I couldn't help but let my mind wander of what happened to Antasma after the fact. I'm certain a few people have seen a flow chart of cause and effect for video games of what if scenarios if something in particular did or did not happen and this is one of those. I like to think that a being such as Antasma isn't just got to poof and vanish away forever and that there may be some lingering essence of him that goes somewhere. Add that in with my brony mind, we get this story that was born.
This concept was similarly inspired by LordSirvant's, "The Equestrian Wind Mage." Check out his crossovers, they are awesome if you're a Legend of Zelda fan.
As always, I ask for comments for improvement. I want to know what I did wrong, how I can make this better, etc. Especially since I'm trying to work with Antasma's Transylvania esque accent so comments on how to better his accent would be very, very appreciated.
