Chapters 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.
Sweetie Belle sat in a chair with a police officer across from her, only a gray table between them, Sweetie Belle was consistently staring at the ground, trying to process recent events.
Sweetie Belle wished that these emotional and physical scars would go away, as if they never happened, but, unlike the physical scars, the emotional scars couldn't be stitched up by a doctor.
Because of the reason for the emotional scars, Sweetie Belle was taken to the police station to be questioned, Sweetie hated this, she felt as if she was being treated like a criminal!
"So, um..." the officer paused and gave a quick glance examined a clipboard. "Sweetie Belle."
Sweetie Belle looked up at the police officer, giving him her attention.
The police officer was a fit white pony with a gray mane and tail that looked as if it had no tangles at all.
"Can you tell me what transpired to you and your sister?" the officer asked.
"Something came into my room and scratched my face, so my sister tried to find the thing that did it..." Sweetie paused, sniffling back her tears. "Then... I waited for her to come, but... but..."
Sweetie Belle commenced to sob, unable to finish her sentence.
"It's okay, Sweetie Belle," the white stallion verbalized, attempting to comfort the sobbing filly. "We can stop if you need to."
"No..." Sweetie Belle retaliated, sniffing up the rest of her tears. "I can do this."
The officer nodded, this was always the most difficult part of his job.
"I heard a familiar scream so I ran down to see if Rarity was in trouble and if I could help... I was too late..." Sweetie Belle paused again, waiting for a replication.
"Did you see the pony that assailed her?" the gray-maned-pony asked.
"Not really, no." Sweetie answered. "I'm sorry I couldn't help more."
"It's okay, Sweetie Belle, you can leave now," the officer said, as Sweetie Belle left the room.
The officer placed his face in his hooves in frustration. He then looked down at the clipboard again, this time, optically canvass the malefaction scene pictures of Infrequency's dead corpse.
When he did this, he descried a kindred attribute between Derpy's case and Infrequency's case: the "X" on their cutie marks.
...
Rainbow Dash flew over the infamous, creepy Everfree Forest, endeavoring to clear her head, along with endeavoring not to cry.
She had lost one of her best friends, not to mention one of her co-workers!
Yesterday was a very difficult day to stay strong, but Rainbow Dash had a record for not crying and she didn't plan on breaking it now, even if Rarity and Derpy died.
Flying was a good way to keep these bad thoughts away for Rainbow Dash, just looking down at the beautiful scenery, feeling the wind against her wings, and the feeling of being free made her feel better already.
"Dashie..." an unfamiliar voice called.
The voice snapped Rainbow Dash out of her thoughts.
"Huh?" Rainbow Dash asked, ceasing in her tracks and turning her head in every possible direction. "Who's there?!"
"Dashie..."
Rainbow Dash flew down into the Everfree, following the voice, landing almost seconds after.
"Hello?!" Rainbow called. "If this is some joke, it's not funny at all!"
If Rainbow said she wasn't scared she would be lying, the Everfree wasn't a pleasant place at all, even for a thrill-seeker like Rainbow Dash. Then again, Rainbow Dash's way of thrill-seeking was doing different tricks that only an "expert" could do. Rainbow Dash never signed up for creepy places such as the Everfree Forest.
"Dashie!"
That was the last thing that the cyan pegasus heard before the attacker kicked her onto a tree.
Rainbow gave a shout in pain, but the pain wasn't enough to kill her or knocked he down. She got back up and charged whoever kicked her, but before she reached the attacker, he flew up and dodged Rainbow Dash, making her hit another tree.
Rainbow Dash felt as if she was being assaulted by millions of pegasai, whoever this guy was, he was fast, way too fast.
"Get back here!" Rainbow shouted, flying up to the attacker, but he must of left her, thinking she died. "What the heck?!"
Before she could fly away, though, the assailant kicked her down to the ground, her falling face first.
Rainbow Dash screamed at the top of her lungs, hoping that somepony, anypony, would hear her and come to her rescue, but it was all for naught.
CRUNCH!
Rainbow Dash, the infamous cyan, rainbow-maned, pegasus fell to her death.
...
Zecora trotted blissfully throughout the Everfree, on her way home from a shop that sold a gamut of various ingredients for potions, the perfect place for crafty zebras like Zecora.
Unlike most ponies, Zecora loved the Everfree and she loved getting out of the hustle and bustle of Ponyville to come to her peaceful cottage home in the Everfree. Though, Zecora would admit, it does get a little creepy at times.
Even with this fact, Zecora would have never expected to stumble upon the dead body of cyan pegasus with a rainbow mane.
Zecora gasped and dropped all of her ingredients onto the ground and ran towards the pegasus.
"Rainbow Dash?!" Zecora gasped, holding back her gag reflex as she examined the dead, bloody pegasus. "What has caused you to have this immense gash?!"
Zecora, reluctantly, turned Rainbow Dash to her back and saw, not only the pointy rock that had penetrated Rainbow's torso and all the blood, but her intestine had fallen out as well, covering the rock and ground.
Squish.
Maggots and other scavenger insects had already endeavored to take Rainbow's corpse as a buffet and their new home.
The zebra stepped back from Rainbow's body and held back her lunch once again, trying to breathe through he mouth to avoid the retched stench.
"I must go to the police!" Zecora exclaimed, bolting to the most proximate police station, hoping that she wasn't too late to find the criminal who do such a thing to the innocent pegasus.
"Another one, eh?" one police officer asked.
The two officers stood over the mangled and bloody Rainbow Dash, who died a few hours ago, the maggots and other scavengers went away for now.
One officer, Officer Lucky, was a light green pegasus with blue eyes, an Irish green mane and tail, and a three-leafed-clover as his cutie mark. The other officer, Officer Butch, was a dark brown earth pony, with tan eyes, a black mane, and a golden police badge as his cutie mark.
"Yup," the other officer, Butch, answered. "Once again, it has the carved-in 'X' on her cutie mark."
"We have a serial killer on the loose, don't we?" Officer Lucky asked with a sigh.
"I'm afraid so, my friend," the dark brown earthpony answered, placing a comforting hoof on the discouraged pegasus's shoulder.
"I'm here!" Twilight Sparkle cried, running towards the two officers.
Oh no...
Officer Butch had called up Princess Twilight Sparkle without thinking about who the cyan pegasus was. This would be one of those moments he would regret later. Why hadn't he thought of this sooner?
When Twilight Sparkle reached them, the officers took off their hats and bowed their heads, Twilight looked at them, confused.
"What's the matter?" Twilight Sparkles asked.
The officers stepped aside reluctantly to reveal the very familiar cyan pegasus's corpse.
Twilight's eyes widened in horror and in shock. "No..."
Twilight Sparkle slowly started to walk to her friend's corpse. "Please... No..."
Twilight tried to fling herself to her dead friend but Officer Lucy and Butch held her back as she screamed her best friend's name.
"RAINBOW!" Twilight cried, tears flooding from her eyes. "NO! NO! NO!"
This couldn't be happening, there is no way that her best friend is dead, she just talked to her yesterday!
The purple alicorn stopped struggling and fell to the ground, covering her face as she cried, the officers let go of her, bowing their heads in grief, not only for the cyan pegasus, but for the princess's sorrow as well, one would call this sympathy. This was the moment that the green pegasus began to regret calling up the princess.
Twilight had lost two of her best friends and one of her acquaintances in only two days, this was too much even for the purple alicorn. She'd rather just face all of the villains she faced before and fight them by herself then experience this grief, no, this agonizing pain she felt right now.
"I'm sorry for your loss, princess," the green sympathetic pegasus said, his head still bowed.
The princess stood up shakily, wiping the tears from her eyes. "It's alright."
Twilight Sparkle looked at the two officers with a vengeful look in her purple eyes. "Because whoever this pony is, we are going to catch them, and we are going to make them wish they was never ever born."
...
On the Apple Farm, Applejack was the only one home due to Big Macintosh and Applebloom being away with Granny Smith on some family business in Appleloosa, something about somepony getting married. Applejack was not fond of the sappy lovey-dovey stuff, never was, never will be, so she just told Big Mac to congratulate the lucky mare and colt for her, problem solved.
Applejack kicked an apple tree with her back hooves making all the apples fall conveniently fall into the baskets that were below the big apple tree.
After this, Applejack set her hooves back down on the ground and wiped the sweat from her brow.
"Hoo-whee!" Applejack exclaimed. "Nothing like some nice hard work to calm one's emotions down."
A stray tear fell down Applejack's cheek, as she suddenly recalled the recent events, this made her collapse, falling back on her rear end, as more tears began to flood down her cheeks, huh, so much for just crying on the inside.
Applejack, after a long time of holding it all in, had finally gotten the time to let it all out, she gave a short shout at nothing in particular and let her tears fall, some reaching the ground.
"Rainbow Dash!" the orange earthpony cried. "Rarity! No! Please come back!"
Applejack hiccuped as she remembered all the memories she had with those two mares, competitions, baking cupcakes, throwing parties, everything, every precious memory that held a special place in her memory, now was haunting her as if they weren't good times, but terrible regrets.
She sniffled as she got back up on all fours, wiping her tears off her face with her right hoof, blinking away her final tear. "Enough crying, AJ, back to work.
Applejack put the baskets in the nearby cart along with the rest of baskets of apples, she then got in the front of it, put the cart strap on, and trotting to the barn.
Applejack started humming to herself as she unhooked herself from the cart and began to remove the baskets from the cart into the barn, she did this until she heard a twig snap.
"Hm? Who's there?" Applejack asked, alarmed.
When no one answered, Applejack shrugged and continued humming and unloading baskets of apples.
Strangely though, Applejack felt as if she was being watched she turned her head to the and then to the left... nothing but some hay on the ground where a pitchfork sat up.
Applejack looked behind her, this time, she flinched a bit at the bright light, but then her eyes slightly adjusted more and saw a silhouette of a stallion.
"Big Mac?" the orange earthpony asked. "Are ya back already?"
The stallion then held something that was barely recognizable as a shadow, until Applejack's eyes adjusted to the bright sun. To her horror, it was the pitchfork that stood beside her originally, this time this stallion had it aimed at her.
Before the pitchfork was thrown, Applejack immediately recognized the stallion. "Wait a second... You're Pinkie-Pie-!
Applejack was interrupted by the pitchfork that had punctured her throat, making her fall to the barn floor.
"Ack!" Applejack yelled, choking on her own blood, as it seeped down the corners of her mouth.
Her world slowly went black, as she got a final look at her and, most likely, her dead friends' killer.
Twilight Sparkle sat her desk, her mane and tail frayed from stress, going through all the documented evidence for these horrendous murders that seem to occur in some form of fashion that even the genius Twilight Sparkle couldn't quite figure out.
Aside from the infamous "X" on the victims' cutiemarks, there seemed to be another pattern, but the only victim who broke up that pattern is the murder of Ditzy Hooves, also known as Derpy Hooves.
Twilight Sparkle had noticed that the serial killer was going after all the Elements of Harmony, but why would the killer kill Ditzy Doo? She wasn't an Element, she was just a simple mail mare who loved muffins, she was the picture of innocent, why would anypony want to kill her?
Then again, why would anypony want to kill somepony, that's just insane!
What's the motive of this? Fear? Dominance? Revenge?
"Wait a second," Twilight thought out loud. "If the killer is after the Elements of Harmony, that means..."
Twilight gasped at the thought, she did not want to say it, but, deep down, she knew it was true.
Twilight's voice shook in fear in what she was about to say. "The k-killer is after me, too."
Knock! Knock!
"Huh?" Twilight Sparkle snapped out of her state of shock, got up, and opened the door.
"Princess Twilight Sparkle?" The grey pegasus officer asked, sadness in his eyes.
"Yes," Twilight answered, oblivious. "What's the matter officer?"
"Please, just take this envelope," the officer said, bluntly, taking out an envelope out of his shirt pocket, and placing it in Twilight Sparkle's hooves. "You have a nice day, Miss. Sparkle."
With a tip of a hat, the officer left Twilight's palace.
Twilight Sparkle shut the door behind her and went back to her desk, with the envelope in her hand.
Reluctantly, Twilight ripped opened the envelope, planning for the worst, placed its contents on her desk, and began reading one of the few documents.
Though she planned for the worst, Twilight Sparkle wasn't prepared on what she was reading. Those documents were details and evidence on the most recent murder: Applejack Apple.
"No..." Twilight Sparkle denied, restraining her tears. "This can't be... I just saw her the other day."
Denial.
Twilight Sparkle, with shaky hooves, went tore through all the written documents until she saw the horrific picture of the corpse of of her beloved friend, with a pitchfork stabbed into her neck with blood coming out of the wound but also out of her neck, it was obvious that the unfortunate mare suffered greatly.
Twilight Sparkle put down that picture and went to the other picture behind it. Apparently, Applejack saw the killer and, with her remaining strength, tried to write the killer's name, but, try as Twilight might, the writing wasn't readable at all, it looked like chicken scratch, Applejack never had the best hoofwriting anyway.
Of course, the next picture was a picture of Applejack's cutiemark, a huge "X" shaped gash on it, typical and expected.
Twilight Sparkle threw down the picture, with a stressed-out grunt, frustrated at this entire case, the killer, the lack of evidence, and just everything.
"I hate this!" she cried, slamming her hoof on the desk. "I hate this killer! I hate these events! I hate have to figure the murder of my own friends! I hate everything !
Anger.
Twilight leaned on her desk, her front hooves covering her face, she wanted this to be over, she wanted everypony and everything to just go away, but, most of all, she just wanted her best friends back, and she would do anything just to do that.
"Please, Celestia!" she whimpered. "I'll do anything! Please just erase the past and give them back!"
Bargaining.
Though, there is no such "good magic" spell that could resurrect the dead, this made the whole grieving process worse.
Twilight Sparkle couldn't hold the tears back any long, the tears fell, and they fell with out ceasing, Twilight let out an agony-filled cry, finally letting go what she had been holding back, her tears falling on the pictures and documents just below her face.
Why were there ponies out there who do such things? Why were there ponies who love to cause pain and suffering to other ponies, don't they know how it feels? Don't they know what they are doing?
Depression.
Finally, after a few moments of wailing, she wiped her tears away, got off her rump and out off her desk, and went out the door. She knew what she wanted to do, she had gave in and accepted her fate, along with her element.
She was going to do it, she was going to take control of her own fate, she was going to go to the nearest cliff, do what the killer wanted her to do, she was going to jump off, and fall to her gruesome death.
She was the only who could control her destiny and she wasn't going to let just anypony take control of it without her consent. It was her life not anypony else, right?
Acceptance, bitter acceptance.
...
Twilight Sparkle stood on top of a tall cliff, standing in front of a huge body of water, Twilight was actually surprised to find this area just beyond the Everfree Forest.
Twilight Sparkle had been out there for what felt like an eternity, trying to coax herself to just take that leap and end it all, literally, but with every encouragement, she would psyche herself out, as pathetic as it sounds.
"Okay, Twilight," she encouraged herself. "It's simple, you just have to jump and it all will be over. I... I will be free from everything."
Twilight jumped in place and still couldn't do it, she constantly psyched herself out, and just could not do it, but, right when she was about to give she felt a sharp pain in the back of her neck, Twilight gasped in shock, but then fell to the ground dead.
The killer smirked and kicked Twilight Sparkle down the cliff, after, of course, carving his signature "X" on Twilight's cutiemark.
