//-------------------------------------------------------// A Lethal Puzzle -by PuzzlingInsanity- //-------------------------------------------------------// //-------------------------------------------------------// Puzzling's Present //-------------------------------------------------------// Puzzling's Present At that moment, an orange unicorn with a broken horn trotted through Ponyville. Her green mane and tail were streaked with crimson. Her deep orchid eyes showed no sign of remorse. And she carried something big in her bloody saddlebags. She smiled to herself and saw Carousel Boutique. "Rarity's gonna LOVE the gift I made!" She cantered up to the door, but it was locked. The orange pony felt hurt. Why wasn't her only friend letting her inside? Did Rarity hate her now? Was it her fault? Tears forming in her eyes, she called out, "Rarity? Please open up." Rarity heard the voice and ushered Sweetie Belle upstairs before unlocking the door. She cooed, "Puzzling! It's been ages, darling!" "I made you a present, Rarity," Puzzling Insanity smiled, her left eye twitching slightly. "Please tell me that you're covered in red paint." "I think that's what it is," Puzzling said, "I asked everypony I tried to talk to, but they just screamed before falling asleep." "Oh, dear," Rarity muttered to herself, then turned back to the orange unicorn. "Whatever did you make, dear?" "While I was at the house with a bunch of weird ponies, a nice old mare came in and taught me how to sew! Close your eyes." Rarity closed her eyes as a squishy sound filled her ears. Something wet and somewhat smelly was draped onto her. "Oh, did you make me a dress?" "Yep," Puzzling laughed, "go look in a mirror!" The ivory unicorn turned to the mirror and screamed in horror. What was draped onto her was a macabre dress... stitched up from several pony pelts... so many cutie marks on it... the smell of freshly killed ponies was enough to make Rarity want to vomit. And why were there bloody feathers on it? "Oh, my goodness!" "Do you like it?" "Wh-what did you use for material?!" "You remember those ponies I visited that fell asleep?" "So... you're covered in... blood?!" "Oh, that's what it is," Puzzling Insanity smiled, finally learning what the red mystery liquid was. Rarity immediately looked at the dress, then back to the orange pony... and she fainted right there, on the floor of the boutique. "Oh, no," the orange unicorn gasped, tears welling up, "did I hurt Rarity?" A white Persian cat sashayed over and meowed softly, looking up at the unicorn. Opalescence had taken a liking to the strange mare in her home. "Such a cute kitty," Puzzling said, "you would have liked the dress, right? I went through a lot to make it." Sweetie Belle came downstairs and caught sight of the orange unicorn with the broken horn. Her green eyes went wide as she let out a scream. //-------------------------------------------------------// How to Exact Revenge //-------------------------------------------------------// How to Exact Revenge Earlier that day, Puzzling Insanity had decided to pay a visit to her former tormentors. She asked a gray pegasus for a lift to Cloudsdale. The wall-eyed pony smiled and flew her up to Rainbow Dash's cloud home. Rainbow Dash looked at the orange unicorn and laughed, "I haven't seen you in years, you freak!" Puzzling frowned. Her muzzle scrunched up in anger, she turned around and kicked with her hind legs. Dash flew backwards, blood rushing from her now broken nose and jaw. She looked up at Puzzling and began to cry. She saw the knife in the unicorn's hoof and screamed until she tore her vocal cords. "Here's what you get, you big bully!" Puzzling Insanity shouted as she peeled the blue pelt off the pegasus. She laughed and placed the pelt in her saddlebag before jumping down and somehow landing safely. She looked over and found Sweet Apple Acres. Applejack sipped on some freshly squeezed apple juice as she relaxed. "Ah reckon Ah should get back to buckin'." "Hello... Applejack." "Oh, uh, hey, partner," the orange earth pony replied, "long tahm, no see." "You tripped me in the schoolyard every day!" Puzzling yelled, bucking Applejack into a tree. "Whoa, what's gotcha all mad?" "You tripped me every day... and you didn't even apologize!" the orange unicorn screamed, peeling Applejack's skin off as if she were an apple from a tree. Placing it into her saddlebag, she smiled as Applejack bled to death. "Two down, six to go." Pinkie Pie jumped through town until she was stopped by an orange hoof to the face. She shouted, "What was that for?!" Puzzling Insanity scowled and said calmly, "You never invited me to your parties." She brandished a knife and let out a war cry. "NO!" Pinkie yelled as the orange mare skinned her alive before she bled out on the pavement. Twilight Sparkle heard a knock at her library door. "Spike, can you get the door?" "Sure, Twilight," Spike said cheerfully. When he opened the door and saw a blood-covered, orange unicorn with a broken horn, he gulped. "Um, Twilight? There's a bloody mare here at the door. What do I--" With a sickening crack, Puzzling Insanity snapped the baby dragon's neck like a twig and called out, "Twilight! Come out and play!" The purple unicorn walked into the foyer and screamed. Horrified, she cried, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?!" "I escaped because I wanted to pay a visit to my old bullies." Tears formed in Twilight's eyes as she was pinned down and skinned alive. She gurgled out, "I'm sorry..." The orange pony smiled deviously and left without a word, closing the door behind her. She headed for the flower shop. "Hello, ladies. I'm back!" The three mares screamed as the orange unicorn fired a blast of magic at them and tore their skins off. "Now to visit that griffin." She ran into Gilda. Gilda wasn't too happy. She looked at the unicorn and growled, "What do you want, dweeb?!" "If you can't say anything nice..." Puzzling calmly scolded, brandishing her bloody knife, "you shouldn't say anything at all." "You annoying little--" Puzzling Insanity shoved the knife into the griffin's beak and began cutting into the strip of flesh inside. Each motion of the blade produced a disgusting squish as the tongue was sliced out of the bloody beak. The strip of meat finally fell onto the floor with a splat. The orange mare nonchalantly added, "This is what you get for calling everypony names." Gilda gurgled loudly as her beak filled with warm, red blood. Feathers were plucked one by one in a torturous show of revenge. She screamed and died on the floor. Lyra looked into the mirror and saw a bloody mare standing behind her and draping barbed wire over her neck. "Hi, Lyra. I made you a necklace," Puzzling smiled, looping the wire and pulling the ends. Lyra Heartstrings choked loudly as the barbed wire tore into her neck. Her choking quickly changed to gurgling as blood trickled from her mouth, nose, and neck. "Let me tighten it a little more!" The orange pony gave one last tug, and the pale teal unicorn's head was severed from her body with the sick sounds of flesh and muscle tearing as her neck cracked loudly. Puzzling stuck her tongue out and sampled the resulting fountain of blood. "Eww! This fruit punch tastes like metal!" //-------------------------------------------------------// Calming Down //-------------------------------------------------------// Calming Down After her rampage was over, she took her materials and sat under a tree in the schoolyard. Taking a needle and thread, the orange mare lovingly stitched up a dress from her freshly-killed tormentors' pelts and feathers. "Rarity's gonna love this dress!" Puzzling smiled as she put the finishing touch on her macabre creation: a smiley face in blood. She placed it in her saddlebag and trotted over to Carousel Boutique, not caring about her heinous crimes. She felt better after her homicidal tantrum, and the orange mare smiled even more as she approached her childhood friend's house. //-------------------------------------------------------// Rarity's Freaky Friend //-------------------------------------------------------// Rarity's Freaky Friend Rarity peeked through her curtains at Carousel Boutique. She held Sweetie Belle close as the locked the door and barred the windows. "Rarity?" "Yes, Sweetie Belle?" "Why are you locking up?" "Well," the older unicorn explained, "do you remember Miss Cheerilee explaining what to do when a madpony comes to Ponyville?" "Yeah, why?" "A madmare has escaped from the Ponyville Asylum. The sad part is... I know her." "Really?" Sweetie Belle asked, her voice a whisper. "Yes, really," Rarity whispered, "her name is Puzzling Insanity. She was always... umm... different." "Like Derpy Hooves?" "Y-you could say that, yes," the big sister continued, "she was... socially challenged. She always preferred to play alone. Now, everypony else besides Derpy and Fluttershy made fun of her because she was different. She'd always run to me for comfort and guidance. And then one day... she snapped. She walked right up to a filly who was especially cruel to her, and... right in front of everypony... bucked her into a wall and stabbed her with her horn. Puzzling tried to get the bully off of her, but her horn ended up breaking off in the other filly's chest. Miss Cheerilee called the police, and the poor little filly was arrested and sent away to the Ponyville Asylum. But somehow... she's escaped. How anypony can use magic with a broken horn is beyond me, but those doors can only be unlocked from the outside... unless magic is used. She was the last unicorn to be sent to the Asylum because of this." "So, your friend escaped?" "I was the only friend she had," Rarity sighed, brushing a tear from her eye, "and I can't help but feel somewhat responsible for her imprisonment. I could have stopped them from pushing her over the edge." "We have a filly like that at school," Sweetie Belle informed Rarity, "and she seems just fine. Miss Cheerilee spent a whole day explaining why the filly is the way she is. She called it 'autism'." "I never thought of it like that," the royal-maned pony said, "I always thought she was just shy. We didn't have a term for it back then. Not many ponies had it." "But was the madmare your friend, too?" "Yes. I feel bad for not standing up to them." "At least you tried to make her happy." "Yes... I guess I did."