On the corner of an abandoned street, a grey stallion with a goatee and dressed in a tuxedo waited. He fiddled with the briefcase hanging around his neck and glanced from side to the side. A single flicking lamppost hung above him as he checked his watch and tapped it with a hoof.

"Where is he?" he grumbled. He clutched the briefcase tighter as he glanced down the alleyway roads. A gust of wind flew by, ruffling his collar. "Why do I even put up with this?"

A series of hoofsteps echoed from behind him. He turned to see a lone figure whose face was covered by a mask. Pieces of red fur stuck out through his cloak while matching eyes could still be seen.

"It's about time you got here!" the grumpy stallion shouted while he tapped his hooves. "Well, here you go. Try to get it back to me as soon as possible."

The masked figure simply nodded.

"Perfect." The grey stallion stomped forward and thrust the briefcase into the figure's hooves. "Here's the stuff. Enjoy."

The masked figure grunted as he caught the package. After he pushed it open, a lone manuscript lay inside. Setting aside the briefcase, he shuffled through the freshly printed pages. With a sigh, he placed the papers back into the case and clicked the locking mechanism.

"Looks like everything is in order so I'll just leave you alone now." The balding stallion turned and started trotted down the opposite alleyway. I hope he doesn't notice. At least not until I get out of here. As he walked a few feet, he heard footsteps echoing from behind him. He stopped and faced the masked figure again. "Something wrong?"

Only a few feet away, the figure extended a hoof at him. "I've told you about this several times already. When are you going to learn?"

"I don't know what you mean. Looks perfect to me," the elderly stallion said, wiping his brow. Crap! How did he find it so fast?

The masked pony took a step forward. "Why do you do this to me?" He reached forward and grabbed the old stallion's goatee. "I swear you're doing it on purpose." The cloaked figure pulled him closer while glaring daggers at him.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," the stallion said as his eyes darted back and forth, grinning as wide as he could.

The cloaked figure narrowed his eyes, and leaned forward. "Hmm..." Satisfied with his inspection, he released his grip on the grey stallion. "Just don't let it happen again."

"Sure." The grey stallion swivelled around on his hoof and trotted away once more. The sound of hoofsteps started resonating from behind him. Gradually, he increased his pace, becoming a canter, and finally into a gallop. The faster he went, the faster the frequency of the hoofsteps behind him. Sweat poured down the stallion's face as he broke into a sprint. "I'm sorry, I won't do it again. Just leave me alone!"

Cutting a corner, he did his best to gain as much distance as possible between him and the masked figure, trying to ignore the burning in his sides as he pushed himself, forcing through the pain. He wasn't as young as he used to be, his balding head was proof of that. Adrenaline rushed through his veins, providing him with a burst of youthful energy. His heart thumped in his chest and his heart pounded, but he couldn’t slow down. If he did, he would be done for. He was sure of it. Ducking underneath an arc, he gasped for breath. Even with the adrenaline, if he didn’t take a break soon, he was going to collapse.

Seeing an upcoming banister, he prepared himself as he passed by, and kicked against it as he ran past, using it as a springboard to boost his momentum. A bridge sat close by, if he could just reach it, he'd be home free. He took a risk and turned around to see how far he had gotten, but the masked figure was still nipping at his heels. If anything, it seemed like the figure was actually gaining ground on him. I can make it; I just have to reach the bridge! With a final burst of energy, he propelled himself forward.

He placed one hoof on the edge and waved the other one at the masked figure. "So long, sucker!" The grey stallion closed his eyes and leaped off the bridge towards the safety of water. As he fell downwards, the last thing he saw was the shadow descending upon him before everything went black.

---

He awoke in total darkness, his eyes covered by a blindfold. His head pounded and he felt woozy. From what he could tell, he was sitting on a chair. He tried to speak but his mouth had also been gagged. In vain, he tried to move his hooves but they had been tied down as well.

"Mmmphf? Mumpf! Mumpf!" Struggling to free himself, he squirmed around in a frenzy but it was no use. The restraints remained tight.

"Welcome to the world of the living, Vanner," said a voice. "Unfortunately, you won't be able to escape." The voice sounded familiar.

"Mmmpf?"

"You might be wondering what you're doing here. Don't worry, you'll find out soon enough."

Vanner strained his ears, only to hear the sound of a hoof tapping a solid surface. He leaned forward to try and identify the sound. Pain shot through his hind leg as a solid object smashed into it.

"Mmmaphhhhhhhhhhh!" he tried to scream.

The mysterious voice droned on, "I've been trying to teach you the rules for how many months now? I'm getting a little tired of your constant mistakes. For every mistake I tell you to fix, two more pop up in its place. This is unacceptable."

Vanner grunted as he tried to hold back the tears. His hind leg throbbed, unable to do anything except hang uselessly from the chair he was sitting on.

"You're not listening!" shouted the voice. "Pay attention!"

A whooshing sound whizzed near Vanner's ears. Suddenly, his other hind leg exploded with pain, as the solid object met it with a sickening crunch. He tried to think about why this was happening but the only thing that remained in his mind was the agony.

"How many times must I tell you? Stop putting alliteration in your writing. I swear you're doing that on purpose." The voice became louder and louder as it went on. "Your spelling is atrocious and you always tell when showing would work better. Learn better grammar! And your puns, good Celestia, put me down now!”

Vanner couldn't do anything but whimper, the pain from his legs shattering any concentration he had left. Distracted by the pain, his head hung limply to the side. He tried to move them, but they didn't respond. They throbbed and were starting to feel swollen.

"I see that we're not getting anywhere. I guess the only way to get you to follow the rules is to teach you a lesson." Vanner felt the blindfold being removed from his forehead. As it fell away, he finally saw who his captor was. It was a red pony wearing a horned mask, also known as Cassius, the reviewer of his stories.

Vanner looked around and noticed that he was in a completely white room. Even the doors and boarded-up windows were white. There were two doors and one window, and as far as he could tell, he was sitting in the center. Besides the chair, the room was completely empty.

"Ah, guess we won't need this either." Cassius reached forward and removed the ball gag as well.

"Why... why are you doing this?" Vanner managed to whisper.

"My oh my, this is worse than I thought. I already went over this." Cassius leaned forward, his mouth blowing in Vanner's face. "If the only way you're going to learn is pain, then so be it." Suddenly, he joked a hoof into Vanner's broken leg.

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!"

"Oh yes, so delicious. I take pleasure in your pain." Cassius called for another pony waiting behind him. "Get a clean container for Vanner's eyes, Uma."

"Hehe. Sure, Cassius." The greyish blue earth pony turned and walked into the backroom.

"Now then. Let's see if you can remember this. The next time you give me a story that you want me to review, you're going to double-check and make sure that it's not horribly misspelled or has alliteration in it. Is that clear?"

Vanner stared into his eyes and nodded.

"Good." Cassius lifted a hoof into the air and held it directly in front of Vanner's eyes. "Now stay still..."

"What are you going to—"

In an instant, Cassius’s hoof shot forward and penetrated Vanner’s eye. With the graze of an elephant, he mercilessly ripped the eyeball from their still living socket. Blinding pain roared through Vanner. He struggled to stay conscious as every pain receptor screamed at him. Then with a tug, Cassius extracted his eye.

“See, that wasn’t so bad, was it?”

The last thing Vanner felt was the scathing pain before he plunged into darkness.

---

Cassius cleaned his hoof with a rag and gently tossed it into a bowl of water.

"Is he going to be alright?" Uma asked, pointing at the trembling body of Vanner's.

"Eh, he'll live." Grabbing the container that Uma had brought, Cassius scooped up the eye and plopped it inside. "Maybe now he'll learn to stop giving me stories with alliteration in it." Humming a small tune, Cassius walked over to one of the two doors and opened it. Inside was a plethora of jars, all filled with various body parts and labeled accordingly.

"Let's see... that takes care of Vanner, so all I need to contact next is..." After he placed the newest addition to the collection, he moved his hoof along the labels, trying to remember who was left. "A piece of Corejo's lung, Flashgen's liver, a piece of MalevolentSpoon's brain, Dublio’s spleen, Kurbz's kidney, a piece of Gametes' stomach—"

The sound of the doorbell bellowed through the room. Cassius sighed and closed the closet door. "Always with the interruptions." Hitting a small button, he spoke into what appeared to be an intercom. "Be right there." Turning to Uma, he said, "Watch Vanner for now. Make sure he doesn't try anything."

Moving through the remaining door of the room, Cassius started climbing a flight of stairs.As he made his way through the house, he couldn't help but hum a small tune and ponder about all of the various writers he had helped. The majority had been ungrateful or too stupid to catch on. Most never even bothered to thank him. Since they lacked the ability to follow rules of ettiquette, Cassius had no choice but to put them down. The world was a better place without them anyway. For those, they weren't even worth keeping a piece of them around, so he used them for his experiments. But there had been a select few that managed to catch his eye. Very rarely, there had been a few writers that had pleased Cassius. For them, he kept a piece of them as a memento. He tried to keep them around but they tended to freak out and try to escape. However, Cassius knew better. Good writers were hard to find after all.

With a push of his hoof, Cassius opened his front door and grinned, his eyes full of malice. A tan pony stood in his doorway, dressed in a policeman's unicorn, and had his hoof extended out.

"Good evening, my name is Demetrius," he said.

"Charmed."

"Apologies for the interruption. It's just that there's been a string of missing ponies recently and we wanted to tell everypony to be careful and stay indoors whenever possible," Demetrius explained.

"That's reasonable."

"Anyway, that's—” Demetrius paused and looked past Cassius.

“Something wrong, Officer?”

Demetrius shook his head and rubbed it with his hoof. "No, I just thought I saw something, that's all." He turned to leave. "Well, you have a pleasant day n—"

A scream erupted from the inside of the room, startling both of the ponies.

"What was that?" Demetrius asked, pushing Cassius aside.

Curses, forgot to re-gag him. Cassius tapped his forehead with a hoof. "It was just my television. I forgot to turn it off."

"Oh... alright then." Demetrius turned to leave when something caught the corner of his eye. He leaned forward, and noticed a far-off table, which held something shiny and red. "Hey, wait a second."

"Wait, don't—"

It was too late. Demetrius trotted forward and stared closer on the table. On it was: a jar of containing what appeared to be pickles, a bloodied knife, and a small notepad. The blood from the knife dripped to the ground, which led to the backroom.

"Freeze!" Demetrius shouted, pulling a gun from his pocket.

Cassius was dumbfounded. Apparently he had forgotten to take care of the evidence. Stay calm. This isn't a problem.

Demetrius pointed his gun at Cassius. "What's that?"

"Why, it's strawberry jam. Would you like some?"

The police officer wasn't sure how to react. He squinted at Cassius for a few seconds before finally making a decision. Inching towards the table, he scraped off a piece of the red substance and tasted it. "Bleech! This isn't strawberry jam at all. This tastes... this tastes like blood!" He took a step forward. "What are you trying to pull?"

"I'm not trying to pull anything. Just stay calm and rational and I'll show you that this is all just a big misunderstanding."

Demetrius raised an eyebrow. "I don't believe you."

The door slammed from behind them, startling Demetrius as Uma came from within. "Cassius, we have a problem. We... oh hello there." Uma was covered in blood, with wounds running up and down his legs. It looked like he had been in a struggle.

Demetrius rounded on the newcomer. "Don't move!"

Using the distraction, Cassius grabbed the knife hidden in his hoof strap and flung it towards Demetrius. It plunged into his shoulder, causing him to drop the gun in pain. "Argh!" he screamed. Cassius dashed forward and kicked the gun away before delivering a karate chop to the back of Demetrius's head. He went down like a sack of potatos.

"Thank you for that timely interruption, Uma. Now what were you saying?" Cassius said as he closed the front door.

"Vanner... he managed to get free and attack me, so I fought back and now he's..." Uma slid a hoof across his throat and made a guttural noise.

"Ah, a pity." Cassius shrugged. "It happens." Walking over to the front door, he picked up Demetrius and started carrying him downstairs. "Help me with him. We can't afford to let him warn anypony."

"Sure thing, Cassius."

---

Beneath the house was a door to the dungeon. Cassius knocked on the door and said, “Hey Filler, dinner time.” He kicked the door open and dumped the bodies of Vanner and Demetrius inside. “Enjoy!” Just like that, he shut the door and left the two ponies with the creature that dwelled within.

Demetrius groaned and sat up, rubbing his head. “Ugh, why am I?” Wincing, he looked at his shoulder, which had started stabbing over. “Right.” He clamored onto his hooves and looked around. It was dark and he saw nothing except darkness and the body of a grey stallion that lay next to him.

“What the?!” he yelled, startled by the body. Upon a closer look, all four legs were bound up by rope, the forelegs hanging limp from their owner. Blood leaked from one of his eye sockets and there was a large gash in the middle of his head. A bit of brain stuck through his fur. At the sight, Demetrius couldn’t help but feel nauseous. Turning to the side, he couldn’t help but lose his lunch all over the floor.

He gasped for breath as he leaned against the nearby door. After several seconds of heaving, he tried the door and found it locked. He threw himself against it, but it didn’t budge. "How could you do this, y-you... monster!" He pounded his hoof against the door, but it was no use. “Ahhhh!” he screamed in frustration.

“Now, now. No need for such a fuss,” said a voice from the corner in the room.

“Who was that?” Demetrius whirled around, but couldn’t see anything in the dark room. Suddenly, a massive shadow moved from the corner. It was a hairy beast, wearing a monocle and a hawaiian shirt. Upon a closer look, he realized it was a bear. “You can talk?”

“Of course, my good chap. I’m not wild, you know?”

Demetrius’ jaw dropped at the sight before him. Not only was this a huge, hulking beast, he was actually civil enough to talk. “I don’t understand. How did you learn English?”

“Well, that’s not quite important right now, is it?”

“What do you mean?” Demetrius asked, tilting his head.

“You see, I’m quite famished and you seemed to be the only source of nourishment at the moment.”

“Wait, but I—”

Without another word, the bear lunged forward and swallowed Demetrius whole. Letting out a belch, he picked his teeth with a claw. “Oh my, that was quite delicious. The living taste ever so much more delicious.” He whirled towards the remaining body on the floor. “Vanner? What a shame, he was a good chap.” Walking forward, Filler bent over and grabbed the remaining body. With a flick of his paw, he threw Vanner’s body into the air and gobbled him as well. “Mhmm, delicious. Now where’s desert?”

---

Cassius clapped his hooves together as he looked through the jars of organs once more. Placing a hoof around a jar labelled “Snarkle’s heart,” he sighed. “Such a shame. Vanner shall be missed.”

Uma walked besides Cassius and placed a hoof on his shoulder. “Don’t worry Cassius, there’s always more reviewers in the sea.”

Cassius gently flicked the hoof off his shoulder. “That may be true but it’s hard finding good ponies these days that actually follow the rules. I swear if I see another writer pandering to the audience, I’m going to turn him into a sock.”

Flipping a switch in the back of the closet, it rotated to show a stuffed pony, forever frozen through the art of taxidermy.  “ColdinGardez was the best writer I could ask for. It’s a shame about what happened.” He sighed and closed the closet door before turning around.

“There, there. I’m sure you’ll find somepony someday that will make you happy again.” Uma jumped in front of Cassius and smiled at him. “Speaking of which, I found somepony else that may interest you. Hehe.” Uma leaned forward. “His name is Pascoite...”