Most of the next day passed uneventfully. Pound didn't have work today, so he sat at home trying to keep his inner demons at bay. They almost resurfaced at one point, but he was rescued by his sister returning home from the bakery. Setting the day's mail on the counter as she entered, she levitated one envelope over to Pound.

"You got mail today," she said, as if the envelope Pound was now holding wasn't evidence enough of that.

Pound felt a frog lodge itself down his throat upon noticing who'd sent the letter. It was from Warden Cellblock.

He hesitated for a long moment before starting to open the envelope. Inside was a note from the warden and a sheet of paper that seemed to contain a word search puzzle written out by hoof. The latter of the two objects seemed cryptic for the moment, so he instead turned his attention towards the warden's note.

Mr. Pound,

I am so sorry to bother you again so soon after your unpleasant visit here at the Breadbox.

However, the inmate you interviewed has requested I send you this message along with the included paper. It seems to be some kind of word search puzzle, but it seems harmless enough. I'm not sure how she wrote it out. We searched her cell for writing utensils, but found nothing. In hindsight, she probably had Locket write it for her. Either way, I hope you are feeling better after a good night's rest.

Also, the inmate claims to have scheduled another interview with you for the same time next week. I will have to approve it, of course, but I am not strictly against allowing this to occur. I must, however, suggest caution moving forward. If this information is true, please make an appointment to meet with me later this week. I look forward to seeing you again.

Sincerely,

Warden Cellblock

The breath caught in his throat again as he learned that this puzzle had been seemingly written by Pinkie herself.

"Same time next week?" he muttered, echoing the words that had plagued his thoughts for the past 24 hours. "Yeah, right. As if."

He turned his full attention to the strange scrawled-out word puzzle. It seemed to have the same puzzle on both sides, but the letters were erratically spaced, making it somewhat difficult to tell what line certain letters belonged in. Some letters were also capitalized, seemingly at random. It was simply titled "I". Taking a pencil in his wing, he set to work finding all of the words he could. The spacing of the puzzle still made no sense, but at least the words he was finding were real terms.

Fourth

plAnT

FluFFernutter

Wall

KirIn

Break

He stared at the word search for another solid ten minutes, but couldn't find any other words within the chaotic mess. As he worked, he'd written each word on a page in his notepad. No matter how long he went through the words, though, he couldn't seem to place any meaning behind it.

He picked up the demented puzzle in his wings, lifting it into the air and flipping it around just to make sure he wasn't missing anything.

"Huh. I guess Pinkie wanted me to have fun?" he said to himself, not really convinced at all.

Something caught his eye as he turned the sheet once again. If held up to the light, he could see the pencil marks he'd made faintly through the sheet. What caught his eye was that one of the circles, due to the awkward spacing of the letters on the page, had combined letters that weren't even in the same lines to spell out the word "thought."

Quickly, he flipped it back to the side he'd solved and went over his markings again, this time with black marker. As expected, the marker bled through the paper, allowing him to easily see it on the other side. Upon flipping the paper yet again, he was startled to find that each of the circles contained a word or two.

"Celestia's good graces," he muttered to himself. "That weird spacing was on purpose."

He wrote down the secret words that had been revealed to him in his notepad and tried to create a message with them.

Wanted To

Thought

You

Why I

Know

Left

He pieced together a few partial sentences from it, but there was still something missing. He looked over the paper again. A lightbulb seemed to go off as his gaze fixed on the title of the puzzle. I. Just a single letter.

"Or a single word," he said, adding the word I to the list. Upon unscrambling the complete message, his heart skipped a beat.

Just to confirm what his eyes were telling him, he read it aloud.

"I thought," he found himself saying, "you wanted to know why I left."

Drat. Pinkie had given him a puzzle. Something she knew he couldn't resist. And she'd used it to play him like a fiddle. She'd sent the only message that she knew would get him back there. He had to know. She knew he had to know.

He was stuck pondering his life choices as he contacted the Breadbox and scheduled an appointment with Warden Cellblock.

'Same time next week?' echoed Pinkie's voice in his head.

"Oh, shut up," he replied.

Author's Note

I sincerely hope my description of how the puzzle was solved made sense to all of you. I'm not 100% certain I explained it effectively.

I hope you're enjoying the story! If you are (or even if you aren't), let me know why in the comments!