Attached description by the author:

*The tired vampire pony tried to wake up from his deep sleep, the many years of his semi-alive state working on him and causing him the excruciating tiredness that almost forced him to stay in bed…. Well… bed would be sort of a misnomer… considering how it was a coffin the object he slept on, the piece of furniture he found the most comfortable resting in, which was fairly amusing and ironic, seeing as when he went to sleep he basically died till next day, and nothing in this Celestia’s green lovely fluffy Equestria could even get close to waking him up, almost like a lifeless body.

He slowly opened his eyes, looking around in the limited space the casket offered, trying to get into a better position to inspect his extremely restricted surroundings. To his relief, there wasn’t any blue small plane pony invading his personal space and becoming a cuddle partner underneath or next to him… He still didn’t know how, or why, she snuck up past everyone else and found herself like a plushie-like hostage plone in Dark’s bed from time to time. And even despite the aforementioned vampire kicked her out, telling her to not do that again, she came back in, like asking for trouble. It was something pretty harmless and non-threatening (Perhaps a reason why the vampire pony didn’t ‘mind’ her when he was asleep, otherwise he would defend himself from an attacker), but it still confused and surprised Dark every two days or so.

Fully waking up, he pushed one of the heavy wooden ‘lids’ on top outwards, like if it was a tank hatch, feeling glad that this wasn’t like some coffins with clasps on the outside that would lock him up… then again he was likely strong enough to brute force through the wooden coffin and break free, to not mention that the anger of being locked down would provide him a critical adrenaline boost, but he didn’t want to cause unnecessary harm to the bunk he slept in… or… more like… the bunk he hibernated through the day before waking up at a random hour in nighttime to drink somepony’s blood.

He got into a sitting position, finishing to get the second lid off and towards the side, held by a hinge connecting it to the casket’s frame. Sweet Bun had given him this coffin as a gift, which had a cushy white lining on the inside that was… rather comfortable… although he internally preferred his older abode that had a singular lid and wasn’t so flashy and… modern… he wasn’t one for the intricacies of contemporary lifestyle, and he was never one that sought for comfort either… to not mention the pure white ‘interior’ got dirty easily by his hooves or anything else… white is notoriously hard to keep clean

Exiting the casket, he closed the lid again, and looked around. His sharp-ended slit pupils scanned the surroundings like a radar, picking up everything and anything in the pitch black darkness of the room. He had boarded the windows and put newspaper in their surface so the light wouldn’t dare enter the realms of his dark temple of doom… all while making sure he wouldn’t make holes in the walls or windowframe, or the Countess owner of this manor would be pretty pissed about the sudden refurbishing of his room with somewhat permanent changes. Not noticing anything unusual, he walked towards the doors, placing his underhoof on it and rotating the knob, getting temporarily blinded by the light of the exterior corridor. He let out a silent curse as he had to adjust to the natural brightness ponies loved, and walked through the isolated halls of the building. Internally, he wondered what to do, meticulously strategizing his moves and what he’d try tonight; years of experience in the art of stalking and spying others had made him the perfect vampire, and he knew very well all the factors that he could control and adjust for a successful hunt.

But his thoughts of sucking somepony’s blood (In a vaguely harmful way. They can generate more blood later anyways, not like they’d die for just taking a bit) were rudely interrupted by a plane pony with blue fluffy luxurious coat and a soft, messy white mane, to not mention the turbojets on the sides of her body. Her cyan eyes beamed at Dark’s presence like if he was the Princess of the Sun himself… and with a closer inspection, the vampony noticed a smaller figure on top of Azure’s head; another cute little plone, this one with white fluffiness and red/blue/black markings along his body, complimented with a black mane with a blue stripe and red tips. He was shrunken down on top of Azure’s head, with a relatively techy-looking collar tightly held onto his neck, and a small leash hanging from it… he seemed vaguely annoyed, or mildly irritated even…

“Mr. Dark!” Azure said, smiling as he treated the batpony with utter politeness, as expected from the duo. Bashful, upon noticing who Azure was talking with, quickly changed his expression and smiled, waving back at him from his diminutive size on top of Azure’s head. There weren’t too many things that would be able to bring a smile to this ancient bloodsucker’s face, but these two were something unique; cute, caring, kind, willing to help, yet also with their fair share of issues, namely depression and anxiety. The blue pony was the one most prone to feel these random periods of sadness and tiredness, while the white one, currently a tenth of his original size, dealing with his worrisome mind that forced him to live in repeat every embarrassing or mean moment he has ever lived, and comparing these to current situations to undermine his confidence.

The most outgoing of the dynamic duo, and the one who wasn’t currently turned into an itty bitty adorable height, continued before Dark could have a chance at replying back “Mr. Dark… Um… it is fine if you accompany us? We have something to show you! It’s really cool!” She said, smiling, Bashful just limited himself to smiling from his position, not saying anything, which promptly was followed by the harsh, raspy voice of the vampony, almost like the one of Equestria’s supervillains…. “Yeah… do I even want to know?” He said, pointing a hoof to the smaller plone. The alluded Bashy just crossed his arms and pouted, looking aside “I don’t want to talk about it”… but of course, her adorable ‘sister’ decided to interject into the conversation between these two beings with her own tidbit of knowledge “Haha, yeah Dust and him were playing and Dust put him that collar that cancels his size magic, then shrunk him down… and well he kinda realized he was going late for a guard shift with Tempest and left him like that…”. The one on top of the fluffy white mane stomped onto the softness, yelling in his diminutive voice “I said I don’t want to talk about it! Azureeeee”

Dark couldn’t help but internally facehoof, and despite that, he kept himself regal enough to not facehoof externally, even though he was one himself to showcase very clearly and vividly how he felt about certain things. “Alright… well, what you, and your wee companion wanted to inform me of?” He asked, some of his relatively archaic terms still being used… although to be fair he had done quite a good job at adapting himself to the new ponyese language. Azure smiled cutely, almost bobbing from excitement, something rather unusual on her, as she spoke softly. “It’s something you may like, and I wanna see you happy” She added, showing her total innocence, her desire to make such a creature (For some, he was a really chill dude) happy and with a smile on his face. Dark couldn’t help but let out a half smile himself, one that wasn’t too much of a smile but more like “Ah shit here we go again” in a good way, as he shrugged and followed suit. “Okay then. Can I know atleast?”
……………………..

Both the small blue plone, with the even smaller plane pony on top of her mane, walked alongside the tall, brooding and terrifying vampire pony, as he walked down the stairs, his eyes, with bags for days, scrutinizing around, unable to spot in the cornucopia of various objects around what they were trying to show him. “Lass… where exactly you’re trying to take me to?” He asked with mild uncertainty. He didn’t want to sound like he was tired of her but at the same time he probably would need to focus on his hunting, given the time it was. “It’s just a bit close! In the garden.” Now that was a subtle hint, one that the vampony focused on… why she’d bring him outside to Sweet Bun’s garden?.. If she wanted to show him something she drew, which was his main guess, she really wouldn’t need to drag him outside. His black hooves changed the terrain, from the ceramic, patterned tile floor of the back room, to the grassy, earthly soil, stepping on the slightly tall grass as he kept looking around… Nothing other than the fence in front of him, several dozen meters away, almost like a park one, creating a perimeter.

“Well… what did you-“ Dark was going to ask, his heavy voice breaking the silent air, before he was rudely interrupted by the plone, a big brown cardboard box being shoved onto his way and forcing the king of darkness to retreat a few steps. “Here! Open this box” She was pretty vague with her instruction, only providing him the object she needed help with, not the contents on the inside. The confusion in Dark’s visage increased even further… did she really walk him around the mansion just to have him open a box? Well to be fair the mansion was pretty big, hence why he walked so much, but still… just a box?.

“Lass… lad…” He said, in a tired tone, his eyebags prominent, before Azure started to perform kitty eyes on him “Pleaseeeee…. Pleasee dooo it…” She said, almost like begging, looking up towards him from her smaller height. She was already smaller than regular ponies, and Dark was one massive son of a beach, so she ended up being basically Dark’s pet due to the size difference. Bashful, meanwhile, also did a pretty effective kitty stare himself, pretty much imploring. With a heavy sigh, and a knowing glance, the vampire pony knew he really couldn’t do anything else but open the box. He inspected it first though, not wanting to open an explosive (Given the plones, it was a possibility); it was really big… actually he was surprised Azure could carry this… and with such a low effort to shove it onto his gray snout. “…Okay kiddo. I’ll open it” He said…. Only to be found by a rather bulletproof duct tape coating, to the point it felt like it was taped all over 7 times in a row just to spite the boss. He fidgeted a bit with his hooves, before using the more practical solution and stabbing the taped opening with one of his fangs, ripping to shreds the package exterior with his sharp teeth… Soon enough the tape was cut enough for it to open through both top lids, and when he did.

“Huh…” He muttered under his breath… he was… shocked… and confused in a superlative degree.. He didn’t knew what was going on, or if this was even Azure’s package… Did this little mischievous filly steal someone else’s delivery? She seemed like the kind to buy life-sized plushies of his friends… not… this… “Why is there a spangenhelm here?” He asked with a flat, toneless voice, like if he couldn’t even begin to comprehend just why that was there… He picked it gingerly with his forehooves, getting into a more comfortable position as he posed his fluffy rump onto the grass… It looked genuine… almost like if it was straight out of the ages where it was used… but there was… why it was so clean? So well kept? Rummaging further through the box, he found another thing that he didn’t expect; chain mail armor…. It was a short sleeved t-shirt made of small rings connected to eachother, also known as maille…. And he had no idea what the hell was that doing there, or why Azure had to access to it.

He put it aside, before his eye caught the shimmer of something underneath the polystyrene, illuminated by the shining moonlight high above over their heads, and the stars that, despite not being as close and as bright as Princess Luna’s celestial body was, tried their best to provide a faint illumination over the ponyland. It was… “Why is there an Oakshott?… Oakshott… XIIa? If my eyes don’t deceive me? Lass you have a lot of explaining to-“ He was going to ask, maybe reprimand her, imagining she just stole this or found it randomly and decided to bring it home, which wouldn’t be the first time, but again he was interrupted, this time by two voices, the first one of Bashful, on top of her mane, watching everything and how he reacted, the second one of the bomber plone, both screaming at the top of his lungs “HAPPY B-“ then stopping short… It was midnight… and Dark wouldn’t probably appreciate two screaming plones acknowledging him when his main motto is stealth… “Happy birthday!~” They said in a more natural volume, as Azure reached forward and hugged the vampire pony, almost having Bashful drop due to the sudde movement and loss of balance, the gray blue eyed one with cute little fangs unable to react to the quick reflexes of a cat hybrid with turbojet engines. In an instant the plane pony was embracing her short arms around his midsection, rubbing her cheek and snout onto his chest fluff, just like cats did to show affection to someone.

Dark couldn’t help but… just stare at the kitten hybrid as they kept on snuggling onto his fur… He honestly had forgotten about his birthday, not being something he wanted to give much importance to, neither wanting people to give importance to, but deep down… deep, very deep inside the inanimate and somewhat dead heart of the vampire pony, he felt a warm feeling… seeing Azure so happy and wanting to make him happy too in his birthday. “Yes, they are uh… Oak’s Shot… and Milan… And yeah that’s a Spagghetihelm!” Mamma mia… she failed in every attempt to speak the true words, giving the aforementioned objects to Dark so he’d try them. He slowly put on the maille, figuring why the hell not, and both the happy duo were waiting for it anyways, he didn’t want to just ruin the surprise and refuse to accept these gifts, possibly breaking their soft heart. While he did, Azure kept being the professional yapper she was “I heard once you said you liked these the most, and then you told me, and I know you usually draw medieval warriors and the like, and well I just wanted to do this for you. Do you like it?” She added… which made Dark introspect a little, trying to remember the past… Maybe he told her at some point when showing off his art skills and teaching her how to draw. “Well… this is… definitely unexpected” He said, looking at the helmet, and donning it on, his head fitting perfectly onto it, almost like if it was finely designed for him by a master armorer. “Oh… it looks so good on you!” The plane pony complimented, before she picked the sword. Dark made a mental note of the fact she was holding it by the edge and pretty sharp looking part, but she didn’t seem to mind or get hurt… God these two hybrids are a mystery on how they work externally and internally. “Here, have this too”. She said. The gray vampire couldn’t help but slowly take the sword off his sheath, standing up, surveying the sword, and, while Azure was kneeled, doing a quick swipe frontally, knowing very well how to use his entire body to propel such a heavy sharp piece of metal towards his intended target…

“Ohhhhhhhhh, you’re so good!… And well, I know you wouldn’t usually find a use for this… I think… but I wanted to give you something meaningful…” She added, smiling, before Dark realized… How the hell did she even pay for this? “Lass, how did you get this?” He asked, curious and imagining that it was through some not so legal means. Azure avoided the question faster than she avoids AIM-9s as she dismissed it with a hoof wave “Oh don’t worry about it. I’m sure you like this very much. Does it feel comfy?”. Dark furrowed his eyes towards her, before shrugging and imagining at this rate it was better for him to not know about whatever shenanigans she did to obtain this for him… to not mention he knew it would probably make him feel bad the effort she did to get all this. Giving her a soft smile, the dreaded cute fang smile only reserved for specific situations and so far only 4 ponies having the pleasure to even witness such an event rarer than the Halley comet, he said. “…Thank you…..”, before putting one of his forehooves on her cheeks, initially going for headpats but realizing Bashy was right there and knowing that if he would’ve gone forth with that, the interceptor plone probably wouldn’t like his personal space invaded and finding himself stuck between. Instead, he petted his cheeks softly, to which the catplone leaned his head to and purred softly, replying in a timid whisper as she blushed “Glad… to hear I made you happy”

Yay, I managed to work this on the deadline… well I hope… this was something that I wanted to do for one friend that has always been there for me, even when others have been unavailable. Someone that talks and comforts me while at the same time drawing and focusing on the intrinsic and mysterious aspects of his work I shall never know of, someone that was always there for me, and guided me through my art pathway, someone that is fierce and protective with those he cares the most.

He’s one of my best friends, and someone I value dearly, someone that I can trust in, and heck, he’s even done gift arts for me, something that means a lot for me. He’s a bit of a brick wall when it comes to people comforting him or helping him feel better, so I just hope that with this little adorable drawing I did of his OC, related to something he likes doing, I can hopefully cheer him up and… who knows… maybe forget about all the issues life has for a few minutes… I’d love that.

Just know that I drew this to make my best friend happy, because he’s been supportive to me all this time I’ve met him, and I’d like to do the same. I know he’d much rather prefer to help others than receiving help, and honestly I do kinda understand his point of view since I share similar thoughts… but… someone has to care for the one who cares for others, right?…*