Fluttershy hadn’t fallen asleep when the knock came to her door. She ignored it and hoped it would target somepony else, but the knocking traveled from the door to her room, to the closet. It came again and she still ignored it. Knock. Knock. It traveled under her bed, shaking it with its insistent pounding when she finally remembered what she was supposed to be doing. She clapped her hooves, quietly at first, then more insistently, but her voice was stuck in her throat. She breathed a wheezing gasp, but didn’t manage to laugh.
“You’re trying hard, I’m proud of you. It seems you know just what to do. But Applejack told you the rest? Unless you laugh, this bed’s my nest.”
“Hhhhhhhhah…” Fluttershy gasped out.
“Oh, what was that? What did I hear? A laugh somewhere behind that fear? Please try again, I want to know, if you’ll stay or if you’ll go.”
Fluttershy saw his hooked hoof crawl up the side of the bed, and what little she’d mustered choked in her throat. She couldn’t bring it up no matter how hard she tried, and the more scared she got, the less able she was.
“Oh, poor Fluttershy. She can’t make a sound. Too scared. What do you think, Rainbow Dash?” A rainbow mane popped up next to the bed. It was Rainbow Dash’s hair, but nothing else. Fluttershy heard her voice, but it sounded off.
“I think Fluttershy’s a little chicken-weed! Too scared to do anything good! Too scared to even laugh! Too scared to even scream for help! Too scared—” Rainbow Dash’s head, severed from its body, popped up next to the bed, jaw clattering up and down. “—to save herself!”
Fluttershy screamed as darkness enveloped her.
Down the hall, Pinkie Pie heard the noise and jumped out of bed. She went to the door and reached out for the handle, but didn’t open it. She’d been told to wait in bed, but Fluttershy needed help, and by Celestia, Pinkie would be the one to help! She opened the door, and darkness met her. Two starry eyes were in the darkness, staring out at her.
“Oh… hello.”
“You didn’t even let me knock. How rude.”
Pinkie sat down on her haunches and clapped her hooves together. “Hah! Hah! Hah!”
Immediately, the eyes fell over and Mr. Mean groaned, like he’d been shot in the chest. “Oh! You’ve hurt me! Your laughter caused me pain! What shall I do when clouds are gone? Will I never see the rain?”
Pinkie looked at him curiously but clapped her hooves again. “Hah! Hah! Hah!”
Mr. Mean fell over, tumbling past Pinkie Pie into the room, clutching at the floor with the hooks on his horseshoes. His mane and coat were whipped by invisible wind, unfelt by Pinkie. He scrabbled at the floor as the darkness threatened to suck him in.
Pinkie just kept laughing and clapping her hooves, watching him to make sure he was properly disappearing. When he didn’t go anywhere, just sat there with the wind whipping at him, her laughter started to falter. It wasn’t until he looked over at her and smiled with his nail teeth that she realized something was wrong.
“Hah… ha?” Pinkie chuckled out, half-heartedly.
“You realize now that the game’s had a change. With Applejack gone, o’er the town I can range.” He pulled himself up, the invisible wind gone. His limp hair covered his face with only his starry eyes and shining teeth visible. He reached out slowly for Pinkie with one hoof, his wicked horseshoe glinting. “Now come to the dark, we can play there for sure. We’ll have fun, I can promise, for darkness is pure.” Pinkie backed away, but his hoof extended, stretching to follow her as she shuffled away into the room.
“You need to stop! This isn’t fun!”
“What’s fun for the goose can be fun for the gander, unless, ‘course, the fellow cannot even stand her.” He smiled, twisting the stretched hoof through the air to follow her. “Are you saying you can’t stand me, Pinkie Pie?”
She shook her head, awkwardly laughing as she clapped her hooves in desperation. “I really can’t! This isn’t fun! I don’t like this and I don’t like you!”
“I’m hurt and offended! Maybe if I were to show you!” His hoof whipped around the room, growing and twisting, it twined around her, wrapping her up in a tight and terrible grip. He walked into the darkness outside the door, dragging her with him. She could only choke and gasp for air in his tight grip before she disappeared into it with him.
Rarity heard a knock and immediately clapped her hooves and laughed. She winced as her broken hoof felt a twinge during her clap, but she forced herself to continue.
“Haha! Haha! Haha! Take that, you mangy beast and get gone!”
When she stopped, there was silence for a while until she laid down and tried to relax, then the knock came again. She clapped her hooves and laughed.
“Haha! Haha! Haha! I’m not doing this, so clear off! The game is over!”
The knocking became louder and moved into her closet. The door cracked open and a familiar pink maned draped out of it.
“Flutter…shy?” Rarity asked hesitantly.
“Oh, it’s her, alright, but not quite the same. Her laughter was weak and her clapping so tame. I took her to my place, where we’ve had some fun. The poor girl’s lonely, don’t you want to come?”
“I certainly do not!” Rarity said vehemently. “I clapped, I laughed. Now go, and give Fluttershy back!”
The mane in the closet fell to the floor with a heavy thud, then was dragged back into the dark. The knocking went from her closet to under her bed, and Rarity felt it shake.
“What are you doing! Stop this at once!”
“You got away once, but never again. I played a small game, but it got boring then. Come with me my dear, to my home, where I live! I’ve so many present to you for to give!”
Her bed shook, rattled, then tilted up. She clung to the bedding, but the steeper it got, the harder it was to hold on, especially with a broken hoof. Under the foot of the bed was a deep, dark hole, yawning and waiting for her. She clung on for dear life, but her one hoof wasn’t enough. As the blankets and sheets went down, Rarity went with them, falling into it with a plaintive cry.
Mr. Mean laughed.
Twilight waited in bed, awake, and aware with her hooves close together, ready to clap. When the knock came, almost instantly after she heard the first one, she was clapping and laughing. But the knock was insistent. It wasn’t just two this time, it was a pounding, repeated knocking.
“Twilight, help!” Spike yelled from outside.
Wary of a trick, Twilight opened the door from a distance with her magic. She watched as Spike was sucked into darkness, then immediately replaced by Mr. Mean. His ragged coat looked oily and wet, the same with his mane as it hung off his head. His horseshoes, hooked and wicked, looked darker than normal and he left hoofprints on the floor. Wet hoofprints.
“Hello, Twilight,” Mr. Mean said.
Twilight clapped and laughed. When she saw it did no good, she stopped, then lit her horn and stood on her bed. “The game’s different. What have you done with Spike, and Rainbow Dash?”
“Killed them. Rainbow is bad at games. Spike is… probably hurt, but not dead.”
“Give them back!” She fired a beam of light at Mr. Mean, but it struck him and spread off, doing nothing.
“That’s not how the game works, sorry, old bean. You can’t win with magic, not ‘gainst Mr. Mean. The rules are set, and the players are clear. Until at the end, your vict’rie’s not near.”
“Then what are the rules? How does the game work?”
“I set it all up with a friend, someone close. But once she joined in, well… the game became gross. By jumping in with you, she ruined it all. By helping, she lost, them’s the rules. You fall.”
“No,” Twilight said as horror crossed her face.
“Yeeeeeeees.” Mr. Mean grew in size, filling the room. Twilight put up a shield, but it was no use against Mr. Mean. She was gone.
Applejack sat in her room with her head in her hooves. Her mind was filled with terrible thoughts and she couldn’t get rid of them. The only one that brought her any comfort was the one that was repeated time and time again: My family is safe.
Mr. Mean had cornered her with her honesty. She was a terrible liar. Mr. Mean knew that from their time together, and she knew as soon as Twilight showed up at her door that the game was over. She hadn’t expected Twilight to have a copy of her book. She hadn’t ever gone to the library and looked for it. In hindsight, she should have, but it was all over now. She’d lost.
But at least her family was safe.
That was the important part, right?
A polite knock came at the door to her room in the crystal castle. She didn’t say anything, but it opened and Mr. Mean came out. He swaggered up to the bedside, looking oily. He didn’t smile.
“You played the game, you lost, it’s true. But what else can I possibly do? Your family’s safe, and so are you. But now the game is finally through.”
“Just go. At least let me sleep. You can do that much for me.”
He backed away, nodding. The closet door opened by itself and he bowed as he slipped inside. She turned to look at him, catching his eye, and he finally smiled his wicked, sparkling smile.
“The most scared that they’ve ever been, they know the name of Mr. Mean.” He laughed, and as the closet door closed and the fading knock left the room, his laugh echoing in the halls was all that was left for Applejack, alone in the castle.