Candles solemnly glowed among the books, illuminating the circle of ponies that sat still in the middle of the room. There were six of these ponies, five of them silent, one of them whispering hollow threads of horror. Each pony sat in their place, some of them shivering, all of them wide-eyed. The pony that told the story was Applejack, the farm pony. She moved her hooves about as she told the story, weaving her tale in the cold air of the night. It was Nightmare Night, and all the children had gone home after a long night of receiving free treats.
"And then, she slowly pushes open the door..." whispered Applejack, her mouth turning up at the corners as she saw all the other ponies lean in closer and open their eyes wider.
"When all of a sudden..."
Each pony leaned in closer, their ears perked up to the fullest extent, their undivided attention focused on Applejack.
"A hand grabs her from behind!"
Each pony has a different reaction. Some of them change their expression from anxiety and apprehensiveness to shock, while the others simply lean back into an upright position and blink once, bringing a hoof up to their mouth. Applejack continues the story, which tells of the fate of the pony. She doesn't make it out of the story alive. Instead, the hand belongs to that of a ghost, who takes the soul of the pony and leaves, eternally trapping the soul of the pony in a jar. A jar of souls.
As Applejack finishes her story, all the ponies are obviously scared beyond their desire. Nopony talks, they all sit in silence, the last words of the story lingering in the air.
"And she was never seen again..."
After a few moments of silence and recovery, Twilight spoke up.
"I think it's about time that we got some sleep."
The other ponies agreed, nodding their heads but still remaining silent. Each pony found their designated area for sleeping and laid down, the candles still burning.
"Okay, I'll blow out the candles now," said Twilight.
"Wait."
Twilight turned and saw Fluttershy holding out a hoof.
"I'm scared," she said, still shivering in fear. Obviously Applejack's story had gotten to her, and she had been frozen in place during its diction, not allowing her to flee and take cover. The words still ringed in her head, producing vivid images. Fluttershy's eyes were as wide as dinner plates, and her wings were tucked into her sides, a sign of fear. She quivered slowly as Twilight backed away from the candle, unsure of whether to blow it out.
Applejack tucked herself in just fine, knowing that the story was simply an false old tale that had been passed down in her family for years.
"Calm down Fluttershy, it's just a story," she said. However, Fluttershy's paranoia of being swept away by a ghost stayed strong, and she refused to go to bed in fear that the ghost would swipe her soul when she couldn't defend herself. After a few minutes of trying to persuade Fluttershy the story was not true, Pinkie Pie decided she would step up and tell a funny story, to wash off the feelings that the scary story had left lingering in the air.
Once more, the candle still burning in the darkness, the ponies gathered in the center of the library, but this time all eyes were trained upon Pinkie Pie.
"Once upon a time there was a pretty pink pony who lived in Ponyville..." started Pinkie Pie. Her jovial voice was in stark contrast to that of Applejack's, and the story was not told in a whisper but in a loud, whimsical voice that seemed to make the candle glow brighter.
As Pinkie Pie spun her tale about the humorous misadventures of this pink pony, modeled after herself, the storm outside picked up as the rain fell harder and the boom of thunder were closer together in time.
Just as Pinkie Pie was reaching the climax of her comical tale, all the ponies laughing along and smiling, she stopped telling the story and her smile flipped. She gave the door a hard, grave stare. All the other ponies looked at her in confusion. The story had been stopped so abruptly, and now the room was void of the laughter that had previously filled it. The only sound was the rain outside and Pinkie Pie's heavy breaths.
Her mouth started to quiver. It was as if she wished to yell something but couldn't. All the ponies refused to look at whatever Pinkie Pie was staring at due to the fear that gripped their hearts, even though Pinkie Pie was simply staring at the door. Her breaths were slow and controlled, deep and quiet.
There came a noise, shifting the air of the room, causing all the ponies to break their stare off of Pinkie Pie and straight to the source. Every single pony was looking at the door now. The knob had been turned.
"Oh no," said Pinkie gravely.
The other ponies turned to her, all of them wide-eyed and too afraid to breath.
The doorknob turned a little more. All the ponies were frozen by place, their muscles locked by fear.
"IT'S... IT'S..." Pinkie screamed. The candle blew out as if by magic. The room was pitch black.
The door exploded open, swinging around and slamming into the wall next to it.
"THE GRAPIST!" yelled the pony that entered. The ponies all broke their frozen state and, in panic, galloped away from the stallion. They could barely see, and bumped into many objects around the library.
The stallion, wearing a costume of grapes, grabbed Pinkie Pie's head as she tried to run away. He parted her jaw using magic and produced a cup of grapes out of nowhere. He then dumped the entire cup of grapes into Pinkie's mouth. He then grabbed Rarity and did the same, but this time he also stuck a grape to the tip of her horn. When he got to Rainbow Dash, he jumped over her and drenched her in grape juice as he passed over her.
"I'M GOING TO GRAPE YOU," yelled the grapist. He grabbed Twilight and graped her in the mouth. Then he went over to Fluttershy, who was cowering underneath a sheet, and sneaked up behind her, and then graped her from behind by throwing a bucket of grapes over her, startling her and causing her to bolt from underneath the sheet.
"I AM THE GRAPIST, AND THIS IS MY DOMAIN!" yelled the grapist. From his sides sprouted wings made of grapes, which he used to fly out of the library. He smashed a hole through the roof, grapes falling to the ground as he made his way into the night sky.
Grapes were everywhere, all over the ponies. Grape juice and grapes covered the floor and all the books.
Twilight and her friends all lay motionless.
"I KNEW IT!" yelled Pinkie Pie.
It was never spoken of again.
Except all the time.
And Celestia heard about it.
So she invited the grapist over.
And he graped her.
The End.
