When he Comes Knocking

by Waxworks


I see you

Pinkie Pie slammed the mug of coffee down on the counter and stood up to pace again. Mr. Cake was up with her, looking exhausted on a stool. Mrs. Cake had gone to take care of the foals, who had been woken by Pinkie’s antics. They’d stopped crying, but Mrs. Cake hadn’t returned. She’d probably fallen asleep again. Mr. Cake was jealous.

“Pinkie, I don’t know what to tell you. We didn’t see anything when we came in. I’m telling you, it was just a nightmare.”

“No! I’ve had nightmares. They go away when you giggle at them. This thing tore away the bedding. There’s still holes in it, even!” She picked up the sheet off the floor. There were slits in it where Mr. Mean’s horseshoe had sliced.

Mr. Cake shook his head sadly. “Look, I don’t know what to tell you, Pinkie. I didn’t see it, or him, and nopony has come out of the closet or out from under your bed. Are you sure you didn’t just tear it?”

“With what? I don’t take knives to bed! I did that once, and I cut myself really bad. Knives aren’t good pets.”

Mr. Cake sighed. “No, I imagine not.”

“No. There’s somepony being a creepy and a meanie and he even calls himself a meanie, and he’s scaring ponies, even attacking them!” She shook the sheet at Mr. Cake. “Are you sure you don’t know a Mr. Mean?”

Mr. Cake yawned. “Very sure, Pinkie.”

“Well, he was in my room, under my bed, and we never saw him come in or leave. That means he’s a unicorn because he was doing scary magic. If there’s anypony I know that knows magic, it’s Twilight.”

“Are you going to go talk to her at this hour?”

“Yes. This is a matter of laughs or… not laughs. I can’t let a Mr. Meanie run loose like that!”

“Can I go back to bed, then?”

“I don’t know how you can sleep at a time like this, but yes.” Pinkie Pie picked up the sheet and tossed it on her back, then pranced out of the room. The moment she left Mr. Cake let out a sigh of relief and laid his head on the counter. He was asleep in an instant.

Pinkie Pie hadn’t made it very far down the road when she heard a knocking sound from a nearby shop, like somepony was tapping on glass. She looked and there, behind the window, was a face with dark eyes filled with stars and a smiling mouth full of sharp, glittering naillike teeth.

Pinkie trotted over and glared at the pony. His long mane was limp around his head and his jacket was loose-fitting on his gaunt frame. She looked down at his horseshoes and saw the wicked hooks that had torn her bedding.

“You!” she said accusingly. “What the hay is your problem! I like a prank as much as the next pony, but you went too far! You ruined my mattress and my favorite blanket!”

“The most scared that you’ve ever been, you’ll know the name of Mr. Mean,” he said.

“Mr. Mean, yeah. You’re a jerk! A big, stinky jerk! Mr. Meanie-pants is more like it!”

Mr. Mean just raised a hoof and knocked on the window. His horseshoe tapped on the glass, making a distinctive clacking sound. Then, the knock came from the front door of the shop he was in. Then it came from the house across the street, and the building next door, and then Sugarcube corner. He knocked, knocked, knocked until every building nearby was knocking. He smiled at her, his glittering nail-teeth sparkled in the moonlight. Then he disappeared in smoky darkness.

“How are you doing that? Hey… hey! Get back here!”

The darkness around her thickened. She hadn’t brought lantern, instead deciding to rely on streetlights and the glow of Twilight’s castle to guide her, but Twilight’s castle disappeared in the miasma and the streetlamps became muted in the strange darkness. Pinkie laughed nervously. Although this was unnatural and creepy, she was holding physical evidence that this thing could hurt her.

She was scared.

“Hello?”

A knocking came from somewhere in the darkness. This time it echoed, passing down the darkened street and down to the other hidden end. She heard it come from the shop right next to her and she jumped in panic. She raced from her current streetlamp to the next. The knock followed.

Knock. Knock.

Knock. Knock.

Knock. Knock.

Pinkie ran from lamp to lamp, trying to keep her destination clear in her mind. Mr. Mean was trying to scare her, and although he was doing a pretty good job, she needed to get to Twilight and ask her about whatever magic he was using so she could find him and get rid of him.

Pinkie tried to remember if she was headed in the right direction. She couldn’t see anything besides the next streetlamp, and the more time that passed, the deeper the darkness got. The lamplight would be gone soon, and then she would be in the dark. In the dark with Mr. mean. Pinkie shivered.

Pinkie felt something cold touch her back. The sheet she was carrying was hooked on something and disappeared. She felt a stinging sensation but didn’t look back. She ran from lamp to lamp, hurrying down what she hoped was the street. She barely noticed when the road underhoof went from cobbles to dirt. She ran, and kept running.

Knock. Knock. Knock. Knock… knock… knock…

Knock. Knock. Knock.

When a knock came at the front door, Fluttershy panicked. At first she hid under the couch, but then remembered that the thing named Mr. Mean had been under her bed, and she thought he might appear there, so she skittered out of there and jumped onto the kitchen counter. A knife fell to the floor, clattering loudly, making her jump again. She yelped and hovered near the ceiling, hiding from whatever was elsewhere.

Knock knock knock.

“Who is it!” she screeched.

The deep, gravelly voice of Mr. Mean came from all the dark corners of the house at once, filling the room and making all the animals scurry about in fright.

“You know who it is. It’s me. I’m your friend. Won’t you please let me in? It’s time for the end.”

Angel jumped to the front door and pulled open the handle. He slammed the door open and hopped in front, fists at the ready.

Outside her door, Fluttershy saw a long path leading toward Ponyville. It was interspersed with streetlights, though there were far fewer than this on the road leading from her cottage to Ponyville. Fluttershy shook her head and flew higher into one of the corner in the kitchen, nearer to the light.

“No, no, no! Go away! You can’t come in! Go awayyyyy!” She covered her face with her hooves, sobbing from fright. Angel peered out the door, looking for Mr. Mean. When he saw nothing, he slammed the door and hopped back to the kitchen.

Knock. Knock. Knock.

A window rattled. Fluttershy kept her eyes shut, but she heard a voice calling out in the darkness. Pinkie Pie’s voice.

“Hello? Twilight? Is anypony there? Bon Bon? Lyra? Am I near your house? I thought I should have been there by now. There weren’t this many streetlamps in Ponyville before.”

“Pinkie Pie?” Fluttershy removed her hooves from her eyes and peeked out.

Outside the window, in the unnatural pitch blackness, Pinkie Pie was running past her house, dashing from lamp to lamp. Occasionally she would stop in the darkness, but only for a moment, feeling for something familiar.

Fluttershy flew closer to the window and shouted. “Pinkie! It’s me! Come this way!”

“Come closer please, your friend can’t hear. You’d need to be just a little more near.” Mr. Mean’s laugh filled the house from all corners again. It was more like choking, but the intent was clear.

Fluttershy didn’t come closer. She floated away, and Angel jumped near to slam the window shut. Mr. Mean laughed even harder.

“You’d abandon your friend to old Mr. Mean? Such despicable ponies I’ve never quite seen!”

“You let her go!” Fluttershy demanded.

“To make such demands in the face of true fright, are you sure you won’t come, come into the night? Your friend is there waiting, she’s still all alone. Won’t you be the one who’ll guide her back home?”

A knocking came from every single window on the bottom floor. They each showed Pinkie Pie running through the darkness, all from different angles. A knocking was chasing her in each one. It was quiet at the moment, but it was constant and insistent, harrying Pinkie in her run as she dashed from light to light. She looked exhausted. Her eyes were drooping and her mane was limp. She was panting hard, tail dragging on the ground behind her.

“Just… a little bit further. Twilight’s castle is surely… just past this next lamp,” Pinkie panted.

“Where is she going? Why are you keeping her there?”

“I’m doing nothing. I started it, but she continues it. She thinks I’ll stop her from reaching it, but I won’t, she will.”

“So… if I go in there, I can get her out?”

Mr. Mean’s face appeared in the corner of one of the windows. His limp hair framed his dark, starry eyes that seemed to stare at the entire room at once. His teeth scraped against each other, clicking nastily. He reached inside Fluttershy’s cottage with a hoof. Angel hopped over and punched it, and he drew it back, letting the hooks rest on the windowsill.

“I’ve made the rules, now play the game. I’m hoping you won’t make it lame.”

“I… don’t know what that means.”

“There’s rules, girl, I know them well. But you must work to make me tell. There’s some who know it, know the spell. But who are they? They’ll ring a bell.”

Fluttershy groaned and grabbed her head in her hooves. She looked out at Pinkie Pie, running alone in the darkness. She wanted to go to her, but if this was magic, it wasn’t good magic. Something would happen to her.

Still…

Fluttershy leaned down to Angel and whispered in his ear. She looked up at Mr. Mean, leaning on the windowsill grinning down at her. She pulled Angel away from the window and continued whispering. He shook his head vehemently.

“Angel, please!”

He shook his head again and jumped at the window.

He landed outside the cottage. The image of Pinkie Pie was gone, and he was just sitting on the grass outside the cottage. The animals on her farm were milling about or sleeping, as was their wont. Angel jumped back inside, and Mr. Mean laughed.

“My game’s for ponies, not for you. Animals are useless, true.”

“Angel, you can’t. Please?” She wrung her hooves. “You’re fast, I know you can do it!”

Angel stamped a foot and shook his head. Fluttershy made a face at him, then flew at the window. Angel jumped and grabbed on to her hoof, squeaking in protest. Mr. Mean’s face grinned toothily below, and then everything went dark as she closed her eyes.

Angel fell to the grass. Fluttershy was gone. He huffed angrily and jumped back inside, then stared at the window. There was no more impenetrable darkness, no sign of Fluttershy or Pinkie Pie, and No Mr. Mean. Just a quiet knocking that faded quickly away. Angel wasted no further time and raced off toward Ponyville. Help was needed, and if he couldn’t help Fluttershy, he’d find somepony who could.