"No... I didn't"

"Save them..."

"Why?..."

"Help me..."

"What did you do!?..."

"Monster..."

Hunter's Office

6:21 a.m.

Canterlot, Grey Quarter

I hate waking up in the mornings. I was never really the type of pony to wake up so early. Usually I got up in the afternoon, stupid train just had to leave this early. I got all the basic stuff I needed during my stay in Ponyville. I got my ticket and left my office for Celestia knows how long. I keep having that same dream again. It's hard to sleep sometimes. Sometimes I stay up for hours because I can't go to sleep because of those dreams.

The train ride.... was uneventful. Being an Earth pony I liked to actually walk instead of taking trains or flying, I hate flying... a lot. I have an extreme sense of vertigo that I never recovered from. Every time I get on a chariot or every time I go somewhere high up, I’d just freeze up. I can’t even tell you how many times I screwed up at the royal guard by getting on top of roof tops to chase down criminals. Especially wearing that armor, it’s not exactly meant for maneuverability like that.

Within the hour the train finally stopped at our destination.

“Current stop Ponyville!” yelled the conductor. I headed out and decided to head towards the town square. I didn't want to waste any time by getting sidetracked.

I've never been to Ponyville honestly, all I know is that it's supposed to be a peaceful town that rarely has any trouble. “The epitome of harmony” I'd hear all the time from random citizens in Canterlot. I never believed them there's no such thing as a truly peaceful place. Despite what many other races think, Equestria has just as many problems as any other kingdom, we're just better at hiding it, that's all.

Marketplace

9:42 a.m.

Ponyville

I got lost during my walk, all these buildings look the same. It actually reminded me of my old hometown. Now I wasn't actually born in Canterlot so I'm not a city boy. I came from an old town far to the east called Rust. Now Rust was a small farm and mining community, and by small I mean you can't find it on any maps of Equestria. It's a really obscure town full of farmers and miners trying to find rare minerals and stuff. I used to help my parents with daily chores and all, but I never found the life interesting. I wanted adventure, you know like finding secret's not known to the rest of the citizens. I would investigate caves and explore the forest's around the town. It's actually how I got my cutie mark, I just went around and solved little mysteries like finding lost pets or items of importance. When I was of age I finally left Rust, I write to my family from time to time.

As I walked I took note of a few interesting building's that actually caught my eye. The first was a giant looking tree that had a sign that said "Golden Oak Library", I'd probably head there when I have some downtime. The second building was a shop that had all sorts of candy related items on it, the sign said "Sugarcube Corner", despite my somewhat serious attitude I love chocolate, I could honestly eat a mountain of the stuff. Finally I saw a building that looked like a carousel to which the shop was ironically named "Carousel Boutique". These places seemed interesting enough that I could hopefully find something worthwhile in them.

After walking around aimlessly for about 2 hours I decided to ask a local for directions to the town square, I found a pony who gave me the directions to the square.

Crime Scene

11:50 a.m.

Ponyville, Town Square

Upon reaching the square I was greeted by a member of the royal guard.

“You must be detective Hunter,” I nodded and followed him to the crime scene. The crime scene was packed with ponies trying to get a closer look and asking questions about what happened. Guards were stationed around the perimeter to prevent them from passing through.

I was met with the coroner named Dr. Seeker, an old looking unicorn with a silver mane and light blue coat, Grey eyes and an eye for the cutie mark.

“Detective Hunter pleasure to meet you,” Dr. Seeker shook my hoof.

“So what have you found out so far doctor?”

“Multiple stab wounds, marks on the neck and on the front and back legs. Victim seemed to have been strangled by the neck with a strong rope, and the legs seemed to have been severely burned. After which the stab wounds came next,”

“Damn, what a way to go,” getting tortured and then getting that many stab wounds, wouldn't wish that upon my worst enemy.

“There's also one thing I found weird,”

“How so doc?”

“Look here, these stab wounds are extremely clean. Normally knife wounds are messy and are placed indiscriminately, but these look like the killer knew exactly where to strike,”

“So that would mean the killer has surgical experience?” I really didn't like the look of this scene.

“Yes, these are professionally well done and the killer made sure he was careful in handling the body with extreme care. Not only that, but the body was also well preserved. After death it seems The Gift Maker had made sure the body would be clean and somehow preserved it to keep it from decomposing. Whoever this pony is, they are extremely intelligent,” Dr. Seeker added.

“Which explains the gift wrap, he wanted his “present” factory new,” This was probably on a whole new level of sick. Never in Equestria's history has a murder of this level been seen.

“Do we know the name of the victim here?”

“Let me see, I believe her name was a Ms. Roseluck, she ran a local flower shop here in Ponyville. Her last known acquaintance is a Ms. Daisy. I would suggest talking to her first after you've finished examining the body. When you're done I'll take the victim to Ponyville Medical Center and see if I can find out anymore information,”

“Alright, thanks doc,” Dr. Seeker nodded and went to consult some guards that were close to a tent nearby, probably the doc's temporary setup to examine the body out here.

I went over to the body and placed my hoof on the sheet covering the corpse.

"Alright, let's see what we've got here..."

Author's Note

Well it seems that this crappy story is finally getting updated. Took forever because of college and stuff. So yeah comment, like, dislike, tell me what I screwed up and how I can make it better. Also be sure to yell at me for killing Roseluck, I would yell at me too since she's one of my favorite background characters in the show. Also a big thank you to the awesome Grazy Pillowmare for helping me out with this story so far. Be sure to check them out. Because their stuff is way better than mine haha :)