Rainbow Dash flew down to Twilight’s castle at full speed. She tore through one of the windows and zipped through the hallways, frantically calling for the other mare.
“Twilight! Something strange is in my house! I think it’s magic! Twilight! Twilight?” she shouted as she flew down the crystal passages.
She found Twilight working in her library. She had a bubble of magic extended around herself and Spike, who was clutching her hind leg. She was staring fixedly at her books. Rainbow flew up to her and knocked on the bubble. Spike screamed in surprise.
“Oh! Rainbow Dash, it’s just you,” Spike said.
Twilight looked up from her book. Rainbow couldn’t see what it was about, but she could guess. “Hello, Rainbow. If you really are Rainbow Dash.” She squinted at Rainbow and looked back at her book. She put her hooves together and clapped, then laughed. It was stilted, and forced, but she tried. Rainbow just looked at her funny.
“What… are you doing, Twi?”
“The only mention I found of Mr. Mean was in an old children’s book. It’s a poem about Mr. Mean, and how foals are supposed to get rid of him.”
“Wait, you know Mr. Mean?”
Twilight glanced back at her. “I’m going to guess you saw him too.”
“Yeah! He was in my house, living in my closet and under my bed! Why do you know him?”
“He was here, too. He didn’t really say what he wanted, but he was knocking on all the doors and kept trying to scare me. He almost got Spike.”
“What does he want?”
Twilight looked back at the book. There was a picture of a closet with sharp teeth in the gap the door made. “To ‘play’, apparently.”
“To play? Seriously? Are we talking about actual play, or are we talking about violent play like the dragons do?”
“I don’t know. The foals in the story clap their hooves and laugh, and Mr. Mean leaves. That’s the end.”
“Geeze. That’s pretty dark for a foal’s book. Who wrote it?”
“That’s the thing; I don’t know. The name is just the initials ‘A.J.’, and there’s no further information on the author. Not even where they live. The book was published several years ago, but it wasn’t very popular. For hopefully obvious reasons. I’ve been trying to determine if the book is magical in any way, and some poor, unsuspecting filly read it and caused this, but it doesn’t seem to be. The only other idea is that it’s an incantation of sorts, but why now, and not before, when it first became public?”
“Twi, I have no idea on any of that, but can you get rid of him?”
“I’m trying to figure out how to do that, yes. Thank you for paying attention, Rainbow.”
“Geeze, sorry.”
Twilight pressed a hoof against her forehead and sighed. “Sorry. I’m sorry. I’m very frustrated, and awfully tired. I don’t want to sleep for fear that he’ll come back, and if you saw it, that means somepony else might be seeing it, and I don’t know what to do about that. Ponies could be dying for all I know.”
“He’s got a lot of teeth, yeah.”
“To remove him I’d have to find the source, and the author may or may not be the cause. Still, we only know one A.J., though I’d never have assumed her to be a pony that would want to cause such suffering. Still, I guess it can’t hurt to check it out. I’ve got no better leads. Are you coming?” She looked up at Rainbow.
“To see AJ?”
“The only AJ we know, yes. I tried to find Mr. Mean with magic, but it’s like he doesn’t exist, so I need to find the source and put a stop to it.”
“Heck yeah, I’m coming! Stopping a ghost sounds awesome.”
“This isn’t ‘awesome’, Rainbow Dash, this is terrible.”
“Yeah, yeah.”
Twilight picked up Spike and put him on her back. He held on tight and they walked out of the crystal castle. When they got out onto the road leading away, they sped up, trotting toward Sweet Apple Acres. They had only made it halfway when Twilight spied something off in the distance flashing among the houses of Ponyville.
She stopped. “Is that… Pinkie Pie?”
Rainbow turned to look. Sure enough, it was Pinkie Pie, not her usually hoppy and happy self, with Rarity limping beside her, and Fluttershy, head bowed in fright, following close behind them.
“Pinkie Pie!” Twilight yelled.
Just as quickly as they had appeared, they disappeared. There was no house for them to disappear behind, they were just there one second, then gone the next, as if they had never been there.
“Pinkie! Fluttershy! Rarity! What are they doing out this late at night?”
“I bet I know,” Twilight said with a grim look.
“We need to help them!” Rainbow shouted, and raced off toward the houses.
“Rainbow, wait!” Twilight grabbed her by the tail with her magic, halting her speedy advance. Twilight moved closer and shook her head. “It’s a trick.”
“You don’t know that!”
“It’s the middle of the night, and our three friends just happen to walk through town while we’re investigating a monster who just happened to have recently attacked us in our beds? It’s a trick.”
“But what if it isn’t a trick?”
“They didn’t hear us yelling, Rainbow. They aren’t really there!”
“But Rarity’s hurt! Her leg looks broken!”
“We can’t help them if we get caught, Rainbow. Our best chance is to find the source of this and get rid of it. We need to talk to Applejack.”
Twilight turned to follow the road down to Sweet Apple Acres. Rainbow Dash turned to follow her for just a moment, then turned back to look at the three who were skulking through the darkness. They would move from one pool of light to the next, Rarity’s horn light leading them along through the shadows. They were wary, checking in all directions for any sign of whatever was hiding out there. Rarity’s light was weak, and she was being bustled along by the other two. She was in pain, and Fluttershy was clearly scared out of her wits, but they were moving, albeit slowly.
“Wait!” Rainbow said to Twilight. “You don’t need me, I can help them.”
“Rainbow, please. If you get caught that’s just one extra pony I have to save. And what if it’s just a trick to catch you, then what? You get eaten?”
“If it’s not a trick, I get to help them fight off Mr. Mean. They need somepony like me. If it isn’t a trick, then I get caught, and I fight him alone, but I’m not leaving them! You’re the egghead, you can do this without me.” She zipped off toward town, heading straight for the three frightened ponies in the darkness.”
“Rainbow, wait, stop!” Twilight shouted, but it was too late. Rainbow Dash disappeared into Ponyville. Despite heading straight for the three, Twilight lost sight of her before she made it. She disappeared without a trace. Twilight could only hope she was alright. She turned away and hurried to find Applejack.