Chapter One: School's Out! For a temporarily reason.

Cheerilee watch as the students filed out of her classroom. Lessons were done for the day and she had to clean up the room. As much as she love teaching all the little fillies in Ponyville, it was tiring. After she finish cleaning the classroom, she was going home and spending about an hour tending her garden. Then she was going to grab some wine and read one of her favorite stories.

She was picking up some brushes when she heard the front door of the school room open. She look over to see the entrance was empty, with the door swinging slightly.

“Huh, must have been the wind or something.” Cheerilee said, walking over to the door and starting to close it when she heard the wooden floorboards creak behind her. She turn around just to see a baseball bat swing right into her face. With a sickening crack, Cheerilee fell to the floor and black out.
* * *

Cheerilee awoke to the sound of something dripping right beside her head. She open her eyes to see she was strap to some kind of chair with several chains wrap around her legs and a lock dangling right in front of her. She struggle against her chains but only found a little slack in them. She look to see she was in some kind of basement that was dimly lit, with random object lining the walls. The items range from sling shots, dominoes, books, and bowling balls. She heard the dripping noise again, and look up to see a large cauldron with something steaming out of it.

She would continue to look at it when she heard a new noise coming from the other side of the room. It was the squeaking wheel in a despite need of oil and a few second she saw what was causing it. Wheeling up from the darkness, was a puppet shape like a pony riding a tricycle. The puppet was dress in a black robe and had a white mask. It mouth started to open and a voice ring out.

“Hello Cheerilee.” It respond, it voice deep and disturbing. “I like to make some entertainment. You spend your whole life testing fillies and now, you are about to take a test that will determent if you get to…” This would continue if the puppet mouth didn’t fall off and the voice went distorted. Cheerilee look around as it continue to garble and make weird noise. Finally, Cheerilee decided to speak out about the deface puppet.

“Hello!?!” She called out. “I think the puppet is broken.” She heard a stumbling of some pony above, then she heard a heavy door open and close follow by footsteps coming down a serials of stairs. She saw a pony enter from behind the puppet from a door that blended in the darkness. The pony was dress exactly like the puppet but didn’t have a mouth piece. The strange pony had its back to Cheerilee and was messing with the puppet.

“Come on, you stupid piece of fertilizer.” The strange pony mutter, in the same voice as the puppet. Cheerilee lean as far as she could to see that it had pick up the mouth piece and was trying to shove it back it place.

“You need help with that?” She asked. The strange pony wave a hoof over its shoulder.

“No, no. I got this.” It said gruffly. With a small click, the mouth piece was put back in place. But instead of a voice, it just made some whining noise. She watch as the strange pony shook the puppet in angry and with an angry growl, smack it with side of its front leg. The puppet had at this point decided to bite down hard on the leg and latch on. With a painful yelp, Cheerilee watch the strange pony started darting back and forth, slamming the puppet against the floor in a poor attempt to get it off. The strange pony finally rip it off and threw across the room.

“Alright, let’s try this again.” The strange pony said. “I’m the fame killer known as the Puzzler and I’m going putting you through a trial. If you want to survive the giant cauldron of boiling water, you must find the key.” The Puzzler walk over to be front of Cheerilee. ‘But in order to find the key, you must look deep within your…” He was cut off by a loud snap and he jolted in shock. Cheerilee look to see that the puppet he threw earlier had landed a little closer to where he was standing. The mouth piece kept opening and closing, acting like a way to crawl.

It had once again mange to snap onto the Puzzler again, this time on his back leg. He once again went back to running back and forth as he tried to rid himself off the wayward puppet. Cheerilee watch in complete shock as he fight against the object, swearing and screaming in pain. He finally rip off it and smash it against the floor until it lie in broken pile. Breathing heavily, the Puzzler turn around to face Cheerilee, who was now looking a little confuse.

“As I was saying.” The Puzzler said, taking deep breath in-between words in an effort to keep what little dignity he had left. “You must look deep in yourself to find the key…”

“You made me swallow the key, didn’t you?” Cheerilee said in a matter of fact kind of way.

“What? How did you… I mean, no.” He answered.

“That is the easy riddle I ever heard.” Cheerilee said, starting to get annoyed. “How am I supposed to get it out if I’m chain up like this?” She struggle against the chains again to prove her point.

“If you let me finish.” Puzzler growled. “You can get out of every chain but the ones wrapping you around to the chair. But as soon as you escape those chains, you will activate the trap.” He pointed to the ground and Cheerilee look to see a set of dominoes leading to the wall. She look up the wall to see it lead to a mouse trap. “Once it hit that mouse trap, it will cause a chain reaction that will eventually knock over the cauldron. Do you have what it take to survive or will you just become another wash up teacher?”

“That pun was terrible.” Cheerilee pointed out. Puzzler slam a hoof to the ground.

“This is not how this work.” He shouted. “You are supposed to screaming in fear!”

“You kind of lost the whole fear angle after you got into a fight with your puppet.” Cheerilee said, pointing to the remaining pile of the puppet.

“Well, I still have you in a trap.” He pointed out. “Let see how brave you are when the water boils your fur right off!”

“Speaking about this trap.” Cheerilee said, ignoring the Puzzler anger tone. “Don’t you think this is a little too complicated? I mean, what if something goes wrong?”

“Nothing will go wrong!” Puzzler shouted. “I plan this perfectly. Now are you going to try to escape or am I going to have to start it on my own?” Cheerilee sighed and started to remove the chains on her front legs. Just like the Puzzler said, the dominoes started to fall and hit the mouse trap. It fired a marble in the air and hit one of the bowling ball on the wall, causing it to start rolling to some books that were stack just like dominoes. But unlike the dominoes before, as soon as the bowling ball hit the book, the book fell sideways and off the shelf. Cheerilee and the Puzzler look at where the book fell.

“Not going to say I told you so.” Cheerilee said. “But…”
* * *

After the fifth attempt, the chain reaction was finally reaching the cauldron. Cheerilee wasn’t even trying to escape at this point, she just look up as she watch the cauldron starting to tip over.

“Yes!” Puzzler shouted as the water fall. “Feel the burn of your failure.” With an insane laughter bellowing out, the water splash down on Cheerilee with a thunderous splash. He kept on laughing until he notice that something was missing. The screams of pain from Cheerilee. He look to see that Cheerilee was now soak to the bone and looking annoyed.

“Why are you not screaming in pain and writhing in agony?” He asked, walking over to the now dripping pony.

“By chance, did you have anything to, oh I don’t know, keep the water hot?” Cheerilee asked, spitting out some water that drip into her mouth. The Puzzler put a hoof in the puddle of the water to only feel it to be lukewarm at best.

“Well, okay. The water didn’t work but I still have you chain to the chair. I’ll just boil some more water. I’ll be right back.” He ran out the door and Cheerilee just sighed. Letting the water soak in some more and then, due to the wet fur, was able to slip out of the remaining chains. She got out of the chair and shook her fur dry. She turn to the door to see that the Puzzler was walking back inside.

“I forgot to grab the…” The Puzzler stop short and two stare for a second at each other. “How did you get out!?!” He shouted and charge at her. At that moment, the cauldron roll off the platform it was on and landed right on The Puzzler’s head, almost like a helmet. With his view blinded, all Cheerilee had to do was step to the side. The Puzzler slip on the puddle of water and went sliding into the back wall with a thunderous crash. The wall shook and several of the items that was used for trap fell right on top of the cauldron and in turn hitting him. With a series of gong like sounds, a bowling ball and several books landed in session.

Cheerilee look at the fallen Puzzler and then decided to just walk away. She had enough of this insanity and when she gets home, she going to drink some much wine that she hope not remembering passing the key.
* * *

Muffin’s diary. First entry.

Well, to say the test didn’t go as I plan would be an understatement. Not only did Cheerilee escape unharmed, (with maybe a little stomach problem.) but I receive a couple of bite wounds, a gash on my head form where the cauldron fell and a couple of bumps. I also crack the puzzler’s mask but that the least of my worries.

I had to move everything quickly or I might have been caught. Although the cops around here are not the brightest bunch but I can’t leave anything to chance. But this at least taught me two important lesson. One, no more dolls. They’re creepy and keep breaking down. Two, less complicated. The trap kept breaking down and took too long to dump the water, causing me some embarrassment. But at least no pony will know all the details. The good news is that the voice potion work like a charm.

Author's Note

First attempt didn't go well for a our wayward killer. At least there no way this could get more embarrassing for her, Right?