A thunderstorm was raging around Manehatten and in a large very posh mansion on a hill Stuffy Moneybag laid in his bed. he was a aged pony of some 87 years and his mane and tail had long since faded to a gray color. his coat was now a dull red as opposed to its once robust cherry color. He had finished yelling at his in home nurse and telling her why she was terrible at her job and that if she didnt shape up she would be fired and replaced. Moneybags had gone through 47 nurses in the past week and no pony wanted anything to do with the stingy old pony. He was most known for his scrooge like tendancy to hold onto his money and push away anyone who dared ask, even once shoving over a homeless filly and calling her a "shamless no good piece of trash who would be doing the world a favor if she killed herself." There was even a rumor he once had a marefriend but left her the moment she got pregnant as he was not about to "have some freeloading waste of time foal" running around his mansion and expecting to inherit his massive fortune. Thunder cracked and lighting flashed, most of the servants having gone to bed, save for one butler who had somehow drawn the short straw and was to stay awake and do any stupid or mediocre task the old snob wished to demand without so much as a thank you. Stuffy coughed, a long and hacking cough and called out "SERVANT! SERVANT! GET YOUR LAZY ASS IN HERE!" the butler, who was outside the door sighed and entered the room, contemplating smothering the old pony with one of his pegasus feather stuffed pillows and just dealing with the consquences. However he did have a family and decided it was better if his foals had a father who was there as opposed to one who was in prison. He made his way to the bedside, where Stuffy coughed up spittle onto him "get me some water and be quick or you're fired!" the butler nodded and went to get some water, bringing it back for Stuffy, but not before having spat in the glass. Stuffy took a few swallows and then flung the glass at him "ITS TOO WARM! CAN"T EVEN GET WATER RIGHT?!?! GET OUT!" the bulter nodded and retreated far enough away to be within yelling distance from the door. Stuffy flopped back down on his bed and looked out at the storm "fucking weather ponies making it storm, I'll be seeing about buying the whole squad and firing them in the morning. maybe have their wings clipped just because." The machines around his bed beeped and he grumbled as in spite of the fact they were top of the line, they still made noise. He had fired the doctor who brought them in but kept the machines and no one had come to take them as they were afraid he would buy the hospital and shut it down just because. Stuffy leaned back and tugged up his 4 million thread count feather stuffed comforter as a cold breeze seemed to blow in and the temperature in the room dropped. Out of the corner of his eye he noticed a dark shape moving toward the bed and grumbled "i didnt call for you. go away or you are fired." The figured continued to approach and stopped by the bedside. Stuffy turned to yell at the bulter that he was fired without pay but the words died in his throat as the pony by his bed was not his butler, in fact it was somepony he had never seen. The pony before him was a pale purple, a dark cloak covered his body and his mane was indigo with a silver stripe going off center. His chartreuse eyes peered at Stuffy and he grunted "who the hell are you and just what do you want?" Stuffys eyes fell on something floating near the unicorn that was staring at him and his eyes grew wide as he saw it was a scythe. Stuffy let out a cough "its NOT my time to die at all. Let me live and I will pay you a vast amount." the unicorn raised a eyebrow and shook his head "I have no need for your money. Why would I?" Stuffy grunts a little "you may THINK you dont need my money but i know the stories, ponies bribing you for more time added to their lives, how much hmm?" the unicorn stares at him without passion "clearly you do not understand how things work. for that to happen others would have to perish." Stuffy lays back and stares at the top of his four poster bed "Then take it from somepony who is worthless, somepony who doesnt matter at all, like a stupid orphan, wastes of space that they are, taking up space and using up money that could be spent for those that matter." the unicorns eyes narrow and the butt of the scythe raps the ground rather hard "you would sacrifice a innocent just for your own greed?" Stuffy lets out a gurgling laugh "oh please as if they matter at all." The unicorns horn ignites with purple magic and he growls "I am Espirito, the reaper of the dead and i have never been more revolted with a mortal in all my years of doing this. you will not be getting any more years." Stuffy growls a little "i have money and power, you HAVE to do as i say!" Espirito narrows his eyes "I am dead. i have to do nothing." He raised his scythe up but Stuffy sat upright "BUTLER! COME HERE! BUTLER!" Espirito looks at him without any mercy "your butler is not here to help you. in fact most of your staff want to kill you." Stuffy coughs "They wouldnt dare. they know what would happen if they did!" Espirito stares at the greedy old pony and turns away. a few coins fly past his head and clatter to the floor "then you will take me to a better place. if i give you money you HAVE to take me there." Lightning flashes and stuffy gasps, grabbing at his heart as the skin over Espiritos head vanished to be replaced by a skull on neckbones. Espirito turned and strode right over to Stuffy, staring into his eyes and even into his very soul "No i do not have to take you to a better place but instead i will send you to the damnation that you deserve!" his scythe swung down, piercing the old stallions chest and even his very heart. Stuffy gasped out and attempted to grab at the scythe as it came back out, ripping out his very soul, a shriveled and blackened looking thing. Stuffy fell back onto the bed, his hoof clutching at his chest, the machines around his bed reading 0 on all levels. Espirito stared at the black and shriveled spirit and it screeched at him "PUT ME BACK! YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO...." he cut it off by swinging the scythe and slicing the soul in two, causing it to shiver and then disapate into nothing. He stared at the corpse for a while and then turned to leave "rich as you were, you died alone. no one will grieve for you, no one will care that you died. Hellfire is far too good for somepony like you." He rapped the butt of his scythe on the floor of the mansion and it began to age slowly but at a steady rate and Espirito nodded to himself "that will do." He vanished from the room, leaving only the cooling body of Stuffy Moneybag. Out in the hall, before the sun had risen the butler woke up and gasped "oh shit oh shit im so fired..." he snuck up to the room and heard nothing, not even a single snore. he pushed the door open with a creak and made his way to the bedside "Master Moneybag?" his eyes turned to the machines still hooked up the corpse, all showing a single flat line. The butler stared at them and then looked at the shriveled old pony "he's dead?" his eyes brightened up some "he's dead. He is truely and really dead" He rushed to a phone to make a call with a huge smile on his face.
Stuffy Moneybag was buried in a carved marble masoleum but his wealth was distributed to the poor, something that would have made the old pony very VERY mad, but he was dead so no one cared. The mansion was abandoned and within a few years looked as if it had been abandoned for centuries, the result of the curse Espirito had placed on it. The marble masoluem also fell into a state of dirt and decay, but no one ever came to visit the place and clean it up. It was as Espirito had said, the old pony spent his life collecting money and pushing people away and the result? nopony cared when he was gone. no one had attended his funeral, not even the priest. instead his wine cellar was raided and a party had been thrown. No pony ever went back to the mansion, but they say that on a dark night if the moon is just right, you can see a ghost wandering the halls, a ghost without a friend, lost to this world and the next because of his greed in life.
