Rainbow Dash found herself in bed.
It wasn’t her bed, but it had large, comfortable covers and soft pillows. The bed was in the center of the room she was in, there was a large closet, a large armoire against a wall, a dresser, and a door set into a corner next to the closet. It was dark, but not pitch-black, there was light coming from somewhere, but she wasn’t sure where, as there was no window and no lamp. She pulled the covers off herself and was about to hop out of the bed when a knock came at the door.
“Uh, hello?”
“The most scared that you’ve ever been, you’ll know the name of Mr. Mean.”
“Uh, yeah. I already know your name. You’ve been saying it a lot.”
“It’s time to play a game, little pony. Do you enjoy hide and seek?”
“Uh… I guess?”
“Then come find me.”
“What? No way! You’re just gonna bite me or cut me or something!” But there was no answer. Mr. Mean said nothing, and there was silence in the room as Rainbow Dash sat on the edge of the bed. She waited a moment before she dangled her hooves off the edge of the bed. She was expecting him to reach out and grab her, but nothing happened. He was sincerely waiting for her to come play Hide and Seek with him. She hopped off the bed and hovered in the air next to it, looking around.
For a pony like Mr. Mean, there were many places he could have hidden, but did she even want to play this game with him? If she found him and he got the jump on her, she didn’t know if she could beat him. She had to play it safe. To that end, she did nothing. She’d wait for Twilight.
She wasn’t sure how much time had passed, but Rainbow thought she was winning. A knocking sound came from the armoire, but she ignored it. It got louder and louder as time went by, becoming more insistent. Finally, after a long time, the armoire opened a crack and a dark, starry eye looked out at her.
“Do you refuse to play with me? Thou lied ‘bout hospitality?’
“I didn’t lie,” Rainbow said. “I said I’d come in, not play any games.”
“By accepting and entering we made a pact. You play, I enjoy. That’s the truth, that’s a fact.” His teeth glittered in the crack, visibly gnashing within the cracked door.
“I didn’t agree to play.”
“All through the night, and all through the day. We would play, we would play, we would play, we would play.”
“I didn’t agree to that.”
“Oh…” the door slammed shut and he knocked on the inside of the armoire, then a knocking came from under the bed. “…but you did. Now come, my little pony. Let’s play a game. Instead of hide and seek, why not a game of… survival. You tested my patience, now I’ll test yours. It’s only fair, isn’t it?” His hooked horseshoe crept out from under the bed and reached up. It hooked the bedspread and tugged, gently at first, then more insistently, pulling the blankets and sheets off.
Rainbow Dash hovered in mid-air, watching the hoof. She wasn’t too worried. He couldn’t reach her as she hovered about the floor and the bed. She was safe from him and she could survive just by staying as high up as possible. She watched as the blankets and sheets ripped and were pulled under the bed, leaving the bare mattress.
“You can’t hide. This is a game of survival. What kind of host would I be if I did not make you work for your victory?”
The hoof reached out from under the bed again. It stretch up and onto the mattress, then stretched up and up and up, growing in length as it reached up to the ceiling after her, hook gleaming in the dim light.
“Woah!” Rainbow yelped as she dodged to the side. The hoof followed her, growing in length as it followed her around the room, wobbling as it followed her. She tried to get away from it, but it kept growing, chasing her around. She didn’t want to touch it, but as it got closer and followed her into the corner near the dresser, she had to reach out and punch it.
Their hooves clanged together, but it just came back. She zipped out past it, but it followed. She went around in circles, but it just twisted after her. She finally gave up, dove down, and kicked it in the middle. She heard a snap and a groan, and the hoof pulled back under the bed.
“Hah! That’s what you get!”
“Fair’s fair in our games, little pony. Do not dish out what you do not wish to take.”
“You can’t scare me! You can’t catch me, either!”
Rainbow felt white hot pain as something gashed her on the back. She fluttered erratically in place as she pulled away, lurching through the air away from the hoof that had caught her. She spun around to look and saw that in addition to his hoof coming from under the bed, Mr. Mean had his other hoof coming from out of the closet. A strip of blue fur dripping blood hung from one of the hooks on his other horseshoe.
“What the hay?”
“You get it now, little Rainbow Pony? I am playing this game, and you will take part, or you will die.”
Rainbow put a hoof to her torn flank. She could feel blood trickling down her leg and dripping to the floor. When she looked down she could see a tongue flip out from underneath the bed and lap at it. She shivered, both from pain and from disgust.
“Fine! You’re under the bed!”
“How do you know? You can’t be certain. Why don’t you come down and throw open the curtain. See for yourself, trust naught but your eyes. There’s only one answer, one truth ‘neath disguise.”
“I know because I saw your tongue and your hoof come from under there!”
“Come down, come down, come down, come down,” Mr. Mean repeated. His hooves waved in the air, not coming any closer to her, but swinging back and forth in the air. Rainbow put her hooves to her ears.
“Come down, come down, come down, come down, come down, come down!”
She squeezed her hooves on her ears but she couldn’t block out the awful scraping of his voice on her eardrums. One of his hooves swung out at her, but she dodged lightly to the side. The other one swung at her and she kicked it away. She felt another painful scrape on her other flank, and turned to see a third hoof, coming out of the dresser. It had only grazed her, but it was groping in her direction as well.
“Come down! Come down! Come down! Come down! Come down!” Mr. Mean began shouting. His booming voice filled the tiny room, and more forehooves came out of the armoire, the door to the room, and the bedside table. One even came out from under the mattress and from behind a picture of a farm on the wall!
“Alright!” Rainbow Dash shouted. The hooves all stopped swaying. “I’ll come down and find you!”
Instantly, all of the hooves disappeared in dark smoke. Mr. Mean’s chuckling laugh came from nowhere in particular.
“Good. See you soon.”
Rainbow Dash looked around the room. All the previously opened doors and drawers had slammed shut with the disappearance of Mr. Mean’s hooves. She was still bleeding, but she was no longer being molested by eight hooves at once. She slowly lowered herself through the air toward the bed. It was where the first hoof had come from as well as his tongue, so it was her best bet of finding Mr. Mean.
As she got closer, she started feeling a little less confident about coming down as she had been. His hooves had reached her all the way up near the ceiling, but was she really going to put her face up next to the darkness under the bed and check? The closer she got, and the closer she looked, the more apprehensive she became. She was actually getting scared!
She landed on the floor. Her hooves were on solid ground, but the wounds on her flank made her treat her hind hooves gently. She looked down at the crack under the bed and swallowed. She slowly lowered herself, body tense and ready to jump away at the last second, but she ever so slowly bent over the peeked under the bed.
Darkness was all that greeted her. Despite her fear nothing jumped out at her or leapt onto her or dragged her underneath. Nothing grabbed her or cut her or bit her. Nothing happened at all. She felt a sense of relief, but also building fear. Where was he really?
“Now you get it. You understand. This is my home, this gloaming land. We play my games here, play them all. Until the morn comes, or you fall.”
A knock came from the nearby dresser. Rainbow jumped and whipped her head around to look at it. She knew what he expected of her, but she really didn’t want to open it. When was he going to slash her, and when was he going to leave her alone? How long was he willing to put up with her playing the game, and when he grew tired of her, then what?
She stood in silent thought for a moment until she felt something nick her ankle. She jumped to the side and saw Mr. Mean’s hooked horseshoe cut prick her on the leg. She jumped to attention and raced over to the dresser. She threw open the drawer so hard it fell out and to the floor.
There was nothing inside except dirty clothes, rumpled and soiled.
A knock came from the armoire. Rainbow, scared and simultaneously annoyed, ran over and pulled open the door. If he was going to play like this, she was going to have to just put up with it. He didn’t want her dead, he just wanted to keep playing his awful game.
Mr. Mean met her at the armoire’s doors. His limp hair, starry eyes, and nail-like teeth grinned at her from inside.
“Peek-a-boo! I see you!” He reached out, hooked his horseshoes into her flesh and yanked her into the closet. Rainbow screamed and his mouth opened wide, pointed teeth growing huge as she was dragged closer. She pulled on his grip, wings flapping frantically, but his limbs were strong. She fell into the armoire and the doors slammed shut. The only sound her muffled screams.
Twilight trotted back toward ponyville with Applejack in tow. They arrived, Applejack looking haggard and Twilight looking intense. The town was empty, and there was no impenetrable darkness to be seen. There were no signs of Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, or Rainbow Dash. All was quiet, and lonely, but the solemn loneliness that comes from a sleeping town in the middle of the night. Silence reigned.
Twilight and Applejack walked through town hunting for some sign of the others. “I saw them here when I was coming out to visit you. Rainbow Dash decided to be a hero and went in the darkness after them. I don’t know why it’s gone,” Twilight said.
“He’s got somepony. He doesn’t need to hunt anymore.”
“Then where are the others? Why aren’t they here?”
“They went elsewhere. Probably somewhere they think is safe. It ain’t, though.”
“Inside, you mean?”
Applejack nodded and pointed at Twilight’s castle. The great double doors at the front were open, easily seen from their position so far away.
“Ah, well. That makes my search a little easier. Come on, Applejack. We need you to help clap and laugh.”
“Ah don’t think it’s safe to go back in there, Twahlight. The others don’t know how to play his game. They won’t come out of this alright. And when they don’t, he’s gonna be mad.”
“Then that’s why we have to clap and laugh extra hard, okay? I need you there.” Twilight gave Applejack a tug on her loose mane. Applejack yelped and followed, rubbing her scalp.
Twilight peeked in the doors of the castle when they got to the doors. Inside there was nothing but the empty hallway, but on the floor was a trail of blood. It dripped in a neat line, leading all the way in, headed to the magic map.
“Looks like they’re in here, alright. They’ve made themselves at home, I hope. Somepony was bleeding.”
“Probably Fluttershy. Mr. Mean would have a heyday terrorizin’ her.”
“We’ll find out when we find them. Come on.”
“Twilight, I don’t like this. Something feels like a trap,” Spike said.
“Of course it’s a trap. And we’re going to walk into it. When we do, we’ll clap our hooves and laugh.” She looked back at Applejack. “That’s how we get rid of him, right?”
“Sure, but if he’s angry, ah don’t know what he’ll do.”
“Then are there any other rules we should know about for his little game?”
“None. If ah truly created him, that’s the only one. The other was specific to me and my family. Anything else is uncharted territory.”
“Hmmm… I don’t like that, but that’ll do. Come on.”
They walked down the halls. The only sound was their hooves on the crystal floor. There was no knock on any door, no guttural laughter, no gravelly rhyming, and no clapping or laughing. Just silence, until the faint sound of breathing could be heard as they approached the magic map. Twilight entered the room, horn light shining in the darkness, and suddenly Rarity’s voice broke the silence.
“Twilight, is that really you?” Rarity’s head poked out from behind a tapestry. A yellow hoof came out and pulled her back in.
“It’s not her! It’s a trick, Rarity, please! Don’t give us away!”
Twilight laughed softly and trotted closer. “It’s me, guys. I brought Applejack. She’s going to help us with Mr. Mean. It’s… something she’s an expert on.”
“Oh, Applejack, thank Celestia you’re here. This Mr. Mean business has been simply awful. I’ll probably scar!” Rarity stepped out from behind the tapestry and presented her wound for the others to look at.
“Aw, damn, sugarcube. I’m real sorry that happened.”
“Applejack! Language!”
Applejack sighed. “I’m damn sorry that happened to y’all,” she said. “Sugarcube.”
The others stared at her. Pinkie Pie gave an awkward giggle from behind the tapestry.
“Come on out, Pinkie Pie,” Twilight said. “How did you guys get here? It looked like you were in some… darkness or something.”
“Oh, darling, we were! But Rainbow Dash agreed to some game with Mr. Mean. After that, we walked for a while until we heard screaming, then we found ourselves outside the castle. I… hesitate to say, but I don’t think it was good screaming. Rainbow Dash is probably not having a good time. Please tell me you know a way to get her back. We came to look for a book on it but… well… here we are.”
“No, unfortunately I only had one book on Mr. Mean, and it was one Applejack wrote. We need to clap our hooves and laugh real loud, then he’ll go away.”
“So we giggle and the ghostly?” Pinkie Pie said, her smile perking up.
“Yes, exactly. We need to giggle and the ghostly,” Twilight said. “The trouble is, we need to find him.” She turned to Applejack. “Applejack? How do we find Mr. Mean.”
Applejack shook her head. “You can’t find him, he finds you. We can only wait in bed and hope he picks us to terrorize tonight. He won’t be comin’ for me because we’re done, but he’ll come for anypony else if Rainbow’s failed his game. Ah don’t know what’ll happen to her, but we can only hope that driving him off saves her. Ah got nothin’ more than that.”
“Then I guess we try to sleep.”
“Sleep? At a time like this?” Rarity said, aghast.
“We don’t know how else to hunt for Mr. Mean, Rarity,” Twilight said. “We could walk around all of Ponyville, but unless he wants to be found, he won’t be. If he’s busy playing a game with Rainbow, we’ll have to wait for him to come to us, and that means we need to be a good target.”
“I just don’t think I can sleep at a time like this, nor with this much pain.”
“You can leave the rest of it to us, Rarity. We just need one of us to find him.”
“Just remember y’all; clap your hooves and laugh real loud when he finds you,” Applejack warned.
“Exactly. Now come on, Rarity. Let’s get you some better bandages. Everypony else, find a bed and try to sleep. We need to get Rainbow Dash back out of… wherever.”
“Th’ gloaming,” Applejack said.
“What?”
“His home is the gloaming.”
Twilight pursed her lips. “Gloaming? Twilight? That doesn’t make me feel particularly comfortable, Applejack. How does that help us?”
“Sorry, just thought y’might like t’ know. Sorry. Ah’m real tired.”
Twilight gave Appplejack a pitying look. “I know. It’s okay. We’ll get this Mr. Mean taken care of and send him off back to this ‘gloaming’. I don’t know how we’ll get Rainbow back, but the first thing we have to do is make sure nopony else falls prey to him.”
The others all nodded and they retired slowly to their rooms. Twilight took Rarity to the bathroom and got her bandaged up with a first-aid kit. Spike was happy to help, fussing over her like a mother hen, but Twilight had to fix his poor bandaging job. Rarity helped to make sure it all looked good, and when they were done, Rarity retired to bed as well.
Spike and Twilight followed suit once they were sure everypony else was in bed. Spike took his basket and blanket and set himself up outside Rarity’s room, despite his fears. Twilight crawled into her bed and lay back, closing her eyes. Whenever Mr. Mean was going to show up, she was going to be ready. She lay back, and she waited.
There was no sound.
The ticking of a grandfather clock echoed down the halls, but despite the otherwise silent castle, there was no knocking on any doors. At least, none that Twilight could hear. She waited, though, patient and as calm as she could manage while she listened for Mr. Mean.