One By One

It was beautiful, busy, and almost perfect day in the humble town of Ponyville, everypony had somewhere to be and they were all happy with this, even Dr. Hooves and his assistant, Derpy Hooves, had a destination they were going to in the Everfree Forest.

The Everfree wasn't the most pleasant place to be if you were the average, non-thrill-seeking pony, the dark, creepy, atmosphere, the feeling of being watched, the random red eyes popping up every now and then, the creepy animal sounds, the infinite circles, the tall trees that seemed to touch the sky, and the feeling of being followed with every step you take.

"Um... Doctor," Derpy began, trotting behind the doctor. "Where are we going exactly?"

"We need to get the proper tools for my next project!" the tan stallion exclaimed. "This time it shall work!"

"Oh..." Derpy said, looking down at her hooves and stopping in her tracks.

"What's the matter, Derpy?" Dr. Hooves asked, stopping and turning to his assistant. "You don't think it will work?"

"It's not that..." Derpy answered, kicking the ground beneath her softly. "Do you remember what happened to Rose last time you did a project like this?"

Dr. Hooves looked at the ground, shamefully, it still hurt to hear her name. "Yes, Derpy..."

About a week ago, Dr. Hooves had a glorious idea for a teleporter, but, like most of his plans, it fell through, but, this time, one of his assistants, Rose, got trapped in between the door of the teleporter, her upper torso and head inside, while the other half was inside it. She screamed, but the doctor couldn't hear her through the soundproof glass. In a moment neglectfulness and exhaustion, he pressed the transporter button, causing Rose's upper half to transport, while the other stayed behind, blood and vital organs spewing out of it. Rose didn't die instantly though, it was slow and painful, leaving her on the floor of the machine, sobbing and wailing in agony, eventually taking in her final, shaky breath.

The doctor blamed himself ever since then, rightfully so, he should've hadn't let his lack of sleep and load of ambition and determination get in the way of the safety of his friend and partner. This caused him to go through a deep depression because of this travesty, Derpy as well. For months they had stopped working on anything so they could properly grieve over such a horrid loss. Even though the grieving was over, the gray mare was still a bit weary of the situation. It's no surprise though, seeing how she didn't want anything else to happen to them, whether it was death or just a simple scratch.

Dr. Hooves walked over to Derpy and placed a hoof on her shoulder. "I can promise you Derpy, that will not happen again. I rpomised myself that I would never ever let myself be that neglectful ever again."

Derpy looked up at the doctor, smiled, and nodded.

She was still very thankful for Dr. Hooves, even though his inventions did lead to a few problems, the doctor got her out of a rut a few years back when she was bullied because of her "disability". Taking her in was just the start of a beautiful, powerful comradeship. Finally, after years of rejection and harassment, she had found someone who would respect and accept her no matter how much of a "freak of nature" she was, after all, the doctor could be considered a freak of nature.

The two ponies got up and started to walk towards their destination, this time, side-by-side.

As Dr. Hooves went on one of his many ramblings, Derpy's mind was elsewhere, thinking about various things, mostly muffins, wonderful, delicious, muffins, oh how good they would taste at this very moment, or any moment for that matter.

Derpy snapped out of her thoughts when she heard her name being called, not from the doctor, but from a voice that was very unfamiliar to her. However, the voice was still somewhat soothing and gentle, yet, somewhat playful.

Like almost anypony would, she quietly trotted towards a nearby ditch where the voice was coming from, it would be rude to ignore somepony who was calling her. Dr. Hooves continued his long-winded rant, too much into his thoughts to notice that his friend and current assistant had trotted off elsewhere.

"That would be glorious! Don't you think so, Derpy?" the doctor asked, looking towards where Derpy was originally walking. "Derpy?"

Dr. Hooves looked all around him, but there was not a single sign of Derpy.

"Where could that mare wandered off to?" Dr. Hooves asked himself, scratching his head.

Suddenly, the tan stallion heard a loud, female scream that sounded ridiculously familiar.

"Derpy?!" the doctor exclaimed, galloping as fast as he could towards the blood curdling scream.

Dr. Hooves's eyes widened. "Derpy?!"

In front of him, laid a gray mare, soaking in blood from a stab wound in her abdomen.

"Derpy!" Dr. Hooves cried, running to Derpy's side. "Please... No..."

Dr. Hooves laid the side of his head on her chest, looking for a heartbeat, it was faint, but it was there.

Quickly, Dr. Hooves flung Derpy over his back and ran towards the nearest hospital, soon bursting through the door.

"Help!" cried Dr. Hooves, still carrying a gray bloody mare upon his back. "Somepony help me!"

The stallion galloped through the white hospital building, searching for anypony who could help him.

"Somepony stabbed my companion! Please help her!" he cried once again.

Finally getting some attention, three nurses and a doctor approached him with a stretcher in their hooves. They then grabbed the wounded mare and placed her gently on the gurney, afterwards, rushing her into a nearby surgical room, leaving the sobbing stallion outside of the room.

"Celestia... please help her..."

...

"Rainbow Dash?" Twilight questioned her cyan pegasus friend's presence. "Why are delivering you the mail?"

Princess Twilight Sparkle had been patiently waiting for her mail on the top of her castle home, expecting Derpy, but, instead, was in the presence of her friend Rainbow Dash.

"Oh... Right..." Rainbow Dash somewhat answered. "It's all in this letter."

Twilight Sparkle raised her eyebrow. "You read my mail?"

"Sorry," Rainbow Dashed scratched the back of her neck, trying to avoid eye contact with the purple alicorn. "I couldn't help myself."

With that, the rainbow-maned pegasus flew away, with a look of distress upon her face.

"Hmm?" Twilight thought to herself, but then shrugged off, considering it has been a stressful week.

Twilight Sparkle sighed, recognizing the royal seal on the letter.

"Why couldn't Princess Celestia just use Spike as a messaging system like normal?"

Twilight suddenly remembered that Spike went on a small vacation with a few relatives, finally realizing how pointless it would be if Celestia did use Spike's mail system.

Twilight opened the letter and pulled out the piece of white paper with her unicorn magic, holding her breath, in fear of what was yet to come.

"Dear Princess Twilight Sparkle,

As you may have heard, we have had an incident with a pegasus named Derpy. She passed away from a deep puncture wound through her abdomen at about three-thirty in the afternoon.

With this great tragedy, there will also be an investigation of this travesty, whether it was a murder or an accident is still unknown, but is most likely a heinous crime of malice or pride. Because of this, I shall make it your responsibility to keep the rumors quiet until the investigation is over.

You will investigate along with the police officers, trust me, they will need all the help they can get, they haven't dealt with a  murder in years. I have faith in and trust you with this responsibility!

Your teacher,

Princess Celestia"

Twilight Sparkle placed the letter down with her unicorn magic and sighed once again.

How could such a heinous crime happen in such a picture perfect place such as Ponyville?

...

Rarity was in her boutique, trying to finish up a dress that Colgate had ordered a few days ago, being the busy mare that Rarity was, she hadn't been able to get to it until the last minute. It was such a gorgeous design as well, a white gown with red and blue trim and layers.

"Almost done..." Rarity said to herself, pulling up a needle from the fabric she was sewing. "I just need to-"

"Rarity!" Sweetie Belle called, making Rarity jump. "I need you!"

"Ouch!" Rarity exclaimed, pricking her hoof. "Ugh! This better be important!"

"What is it?!" Rarity asked, rushing into Sweetie Belle's room. "SWEETIE BELLE!"

Standing in front of her, was the small filly, her face scratched up and bloody.

"WHAT HAPPENED?!" Rarity screamed at the top of her lungs, while rushing over to her sister.

"I-I really don't know. Somepony just charged me and scratched me!" Sweetie Belle sobbed, clinging onto her sister. "It nearly scared me to death! Literally!"

"Wait here..." Rarity said quietly, letting go of her sister and grabbing a pair of scissors that was on the nearby nightstand.

Sweetie Belle sat down on her bed, shaking rapidly.

Rarity quietly sneaked around, looking for anything suspicious throughout her boutique, but nothing popped out at her.

Rarity sighed and put the scissors on the nearby table, turning her back to it as she started to walk back to her little sister's room, until she felt a sharp pain on the back of her neck and a warm, thick fluid running down her neck.

Rarity let out a short, loud shout before she fell to the hard, purple floor, she was helpless. "No, please..."

Her assaulter kicked her face, breaking her nose, causing another cry to elicit from Rarity's lips.

After this, Rarity felt a sharp, long pain as if somepony was carving a big "X" where her cutie mark is, as if they were trying to take away their talent and identity.

The white unicorn began to slowly black out, the last thing she heard, was two sets of galloping hooves, one heavier than the other. One set, the heavier one, was galloping away from her, while the other was galloping towards her body.