Across the orchard from the house of the Apples, there was a new building. It was nine metres long and six wide, and completely plain white on the outside, with no windows and just the one door in the middle of a wall. Without the slanted roof, which had no overhang, it would have been the most boring exterior of any structure in the world.

“This is the new prison?” Rainbow Dash said.

“Yep,” Applejack said. “There have been a lot of fangirls spahin’ on Big Mac lately, so maybe we can catch some and teach ‘em each a lesson. Mostly Twahlaht’s gonna use it, though.”

She opened the front door, revealing a hallway two metres wide leading to the other end of the building. The inside was just as plain and white, with the four cells on each side of the hall having doors made entirely of laminated glass. They went inside a cell.

“So you have the sink/toilet unit over there, a pillow, and if you look above the door, you’ll see there’s a curtain.”

“I don’t see any... I don’t know... ventilation.”

“Near the corner. There.”

“Oh. That looks pretty small.”

“Eh. They said it was okay.”

Later that morning, Applejack got a phonecall.

“He—”

“Do you have six of the cells free?” Twilight said.

“It was just finished last naht, we don’t have anypony.”

“Great. I’ll bring them in tomorrow.”

The next day, Applejack had a door to answer. Twilight and three other ponies were levitating six unconscious ponies.

“Where are the keys?” Twilight said.

“Ah’ll get ‘em.” She went upstairs and came back with a keyring in her mouth.

“Thanks.” Twilight took the keyring and her crew headed to the prison. They put the victims in and left, including Twilight, because it would be a few hours before they woke up and she might as well do something.

An orange pegasus woke up in her cell and saw, in addition to the standard things, a cardboard box sealed with packing tape, with “DO NOT OPEN” written on it in marker. After adjusting to the fact that she was alive after seeing Twilight and then suddenly losing consciousness, she shook the cube fifteen centimetres to a side, and there was definitely something firm in it, but that was all she could get. She looked in the cell across from her, which had a pony who wasn’t awake yet, and lied down with her pillow.

Twilight came in and, one by one, took a good look at her prisoners as they nervously looked at her in silence. She was levitating a steak knife, and after seeing them all, she went in each of the cells to cut the tape. “You can all open your boxes now,” she said. They all did, revealing a piece of cardboard with a five-by-twelve grid printed on it and a set of cheap, easily snappable white plastic pentominoes. “I think it’s obvious what you’re doing. So get to work!”

“All Ah’m sayin’,” Applejack said to Big Mac as they watched a hoofball match, “Is that Ah thought the episode was gonna be about me, since the fancy thing is where Ah live and all, instead ah Twahlaht getting to do her little game show again. Ah mean, sure, Ah may not have anythin’ to actually do, but... we’re gonna have sex after this, they could show that.”

“You never mentioned that.”

She hugged him. “You don’t wanna have sex?”

“Yesterday—”

“Ah know we had sex three tahmes yesterday, so what? You’re a strong, sports-watchin’ stallion and you don’t even wanna have sex.”

“I don’t try to be—”

“Ah know, Ah’m just really horny raht now. And Ah’m gonna make you horny and we’re gonna have—” She extended her leg out at the television as Big Mac rolled his eyes. “—What the fuck was that?”

“He isn’t giving anything this game.”

“Ah know, it’s fuckin’ ridiculous. Anyway, you wanna fuck?”

“No.”

“Well, Ah’ll make ya.”

“I got it!” the fifth pony said. Twilight came over and looked in the cell. “That’s it! We have just one pony left.” She turned around. “And you know what I do with ponies that are one left.” She opened the door, opened the curtain, and stepped in, and looked into the wide, pleading eyes of the pony on the floor with her half-completed puzzle. “Any last words?”

“Killing me won’t accomplish anything.”

“Neither does anything that’s fun.” She snapped the pony’s neck and brought her outside. Everyone waited and made shrugs at each other, and after a few minutes she returned. One by one, she opened up the cells to take the puzzles back, then turned around as she went back through the doorway. “I’ll see you in a couple days, you can talk or whatever. You’ll get your first food tomorrow.”

A different orange pegasus woke up and saw two apples, a two-litre bottle of water, and a small slip of paper in the middle of the room. With nothing else to do, she read the note. “This is your sustenance for the next twenty-four hours,” she muttered to herself, “Take it when you will.” She lied faceup on the floor, then looked to the side a bit because she was looking directly at a light tube. “Come on, you aren’t that hungry. Why would you be? You haven’t been doing anything.” She looked into the opposite cell and saw two apple cores and an empty bottle. “You’re stronger than her. You won’t take in anything until you have visual hallucinations.”

Big Mac was sat calmly at his computer reading news and trying to ignore Applejack cuddling him. This happened once every couple of weeks on average.

“Can Ah at least suck you? Come on.” She got off the chair and got on her back knees. “Ah’m supposed to be the dominant one, whah do you always make me do this? Ah feel lahke Twahlaht over here.”

It had been two days since the puzzle, judging by the small amount of light the front door failed to block and how many times the lights in the ceiling had been turned on and off. Like everyone else, a purple unicorn with a dark blue mane and a cutie mark of several six-pointed stars was waiting for Twilight to come and get the next execution over with already. They talked, they waited, night fell and the lights came on, and they all quickly lost hope for the day. That was when Twilight came in. She had in her magic a plastic bag, a paper plate with a slice of pizza with peppers, and five index cards which had all the letters of the English alphabet bar Z paired with a different shape, many of which were a rotation of one of the others. She opened each of the cells to collect the day’s apple cores and bottles and give them each a card, and she spoke right after she closed the last door.

“I think it’s obvious what you’ll be doing in a few hours. The first to finish gets this slice of pizza, and the last one left gets killed. I’ll see you later tonight.”

“Come on,” Applejack said. “Who else am Ah gonna have sex with?” Someone knocked the front door, and she went down to get it. “Hey, Rainbow Dash.”

“Can we fuck?”

“Ah’ve been trahin’ to get Big Mac interested for hours, so Ah guess you’re what Ah have.”

“I’m ‘what you have’? I’m your fucking girlfriend.”

“If that’s how you feel, then we don’t have to do anything.”

“I’ll shut up.”

“Before they become twenty per cent deader, let’s learn a little more about our contestants. In the rear right cell, we have Mandarin Zest. What do you have to say for yourself?”

“I have two foals—” said the orange-furred, orange-maned, and orange-eyed pegasus.

“Nopony cares about your foals. Here in the mid-rear left cell is Nightfall. Tell the world about yourself in case you live.”

Having prepared something in case this were to happen, the purple unicorn spoke very confidently and clearly. “Yep, my name’s Nightfall, I’m a sixteen-year-old student, and my favourite hobby is killing ponies with lightning rays when they cut me off on the pavement.”

“Sounds exciting. Across from her, we have Blackie.”

This victim had a black body except for the fur around her hooves being white, a Rainbow Dash cut white mane, and a black tail that became white near the end. “Mraaau.”

“In the mid-front left cell is Orange Sorbet. What’s interesting about you?”

“I’m thirty-two, from Vota, I’m a carpenter, and I was once foalnapped by Twilight Sparkle and forced to solve puzzles quickly or be killed.”

“Sounds exciting. And in the mid-front right cell, we have Rock.”

The Octavia-coloured stallion had an unkempt mane that went down to his knees, an unkempt tail that went down to his hooves, and enough unkempt facial hair to make a blanket. “Rock mathematician. Rock know what Scroll Lock do!”

“Excellent. Now I’ll take your cards away, give you a new one and a pencil, and the last one left to not write the decoded message on the opposite side and show me dies.”

“Ah get a scene?” Apple Bloom said. “Ah’m just makin’ a draw’n’ to show Sweetie Belle how untalented she is at everythin’ she loves.”

“Everypony else is sitting around or having sex,” camerapony #4 said.

“Well, so am Ah.”

Despite being multiple sentences, the message was presented as a continuous stream of words with only spaces to punctuate them. It also had all instances of the six traditional vowel letters deleted, and as the first sentence explained, the missing elements had to be added in in the answer.

“Let’s see how each of our prisoners are doing. Mandarin Zest, you look pretty nervous.”

“Because I could die.”

“I see. Nightfall, you look inexplicably calm.”

“Yeah, I got this. I’ve always been good at these sort of things.”

“Blackie, you look... a bit lost.”

“It’s fuckin’ hard, yo.”

“Orange Sorbet?”

“I can feel myself getting angry.”

“And Rock.”

Rock made a soft grunt.

Applejack came into the prison. “Ah’m takin’ over this episode.”

“What do you mean?”

“This was supposed to be mahne and you took it from me.”

“It was for whoever wanted to do something with the new building.”

“You know it was for me. And Ah’m gonna take it.”

“How?”

“Ah challenge you to a wrestlin’ match.”

“What kind?”

“What kahnd?”

“Yeah. There are so many different codes of wrestling. Freestyle, sumo, all the rulesets in the Atoulian genre—”

“Ah dunno, just... pin you to the ground until you give up.”

“Well, I’ll just pretend you’re Rainbow Dash. Then I’ll never give up.”

“Why would—” Nightfall said.

“It’s complicated. Anyway, I wouldn’t give up.”

“Then we’ll do a count.”

“Well, then we need another pony.”

“We’ll get a camerapony to do it. Come on.” They went outside. “Get the other down to all of their knees for ten seconds, sound good?”

“Yeah.”

“Let’s go.”

Applejack jumped at Twilight, but Twilight stopped her in midair with her magic and shoved her into the ground.

“Hey, you can’t do that.”

“You didn’t say magic wasn’t allowed.”

“Fahne, you can have this one.” Twilight released her and she got up. “Say, whah didn’t you torture me when you had a legitimate reason? Ah know you wanna do that.”

“My girlfriend wouldn’t take too well to any torturing of you.”

“Ah see. Well, Ah’ll see you... Ah dunno.”

“Keep yourself warm.”

Nightfall opened her curtain. “Is this it?”

“That is... it.” She got the pizza from the end of the hall and briefly opened the door to give it to her, taking the card as well. “Enjoy your continuing awareness.”

It was hard for Twilight to tell time where she was, but it definitely took a while before the next pony. “Twilight!” Mandarin Zest said as the opened her curtain.

She came over. “Let’s see... mm-hmm... okay, you’re good.” She took the card.

“Just one more round and I’ll be out of here, right?”

“Maybe. Maybe it’s three. Or zero. You’ll find out if you last that long. If you haven’t already.”

“Twilight, over here!”

“Huh?” She went to Orange Sorbet. “You think you got it?”

“Yeah.”

“All right, let’s see. That’s good, that’s good, that’s....” She gave the card back. “Keep trying.”

For the past fifteen minutes, Twilight had been sitting against the back wall with a plate of chips, eating the crispy ones very slowly, when she got another call. She put the plate down and went back to Orange Sorbet’s cell.

“Let’s see if you got it right this time. That over twelve... carry the one... yep.”

She sighed and spread out her legs. “Thank Faust.”

She went back to her chips. “These are sort of greasy, by the way, and there’s, like, way too much salt. So you aren’t all missing out on much.”

“Twilight,” Rock said. She came over. “Rock think Rock finish puzzle.”

She looked over the card. “This is right.”

“Rock happy.”

She went to Blackie, opened up the door, and slid the curtain open. “You know what it’s time for.”

“The twist that only the first pony dies?”

Blackie’s heart suddenly seized. “Nope.” She turned around and looked at all the remaining ponies. “Well, that’s that round. I’ll see you all sometime between tomorrow and a week from now.”

Three days and six apples later, with a pony, a constantly closed door, and just enough air circulation to breathe comfortably in each of the cells, it was a very hot afternoon for them when Twilight came in. After everyone lost their shocked looks, she spoke. “Your final challenge is simple: divide seventy-seven by forty-seven. You’ll each get a piece of paper and a pencil, and after two hours, you’ll each give me your final, decimal, answer. Furthest away will die, the rest I’ll release.” She gave out the supplies and started a stopwatch. “Go.”

After two hours, she collected the papers. The last one she took was Rock’s, which had a giant “1.many” circled.

“Rock? I thought you were a mathematician.”

“Rock mean say math magician. Rock know party tricks.”

“Well, whatever the case, I have to kill you.”

She tore his legs off, eliciting some very deep yet loud screaming, and closed the door. She went and opened Mandarin Zest’s door. “You can go now,” she said, and the former prisoner happily ran off without a word. This happened with the other two as well, then she herself went outside and closed the door, leaving Rock to bleed to death. Next Chapter: Chapter 67: True Feelings Estimated time remaining: 12 Hours, 27 Minutes