The Return of Doctor Whooves

Ponyville: Now

Rainbow walking down the snowy streets sighed to herself. It was Hearts and Hooves day, on a Sunday at that, a day she was supposed to be relaxing with her marefriend cuddled up on a bed and perhaps making out and then progressing to having passionate mind-blowing sex and yet here she was, all alone solving a case of murder. And a very odd murder at that. It was strange really. Foals and fillies all over Equestria, and probably beyond it had been playing the Bloody Mary game for centuries and not one of them had been murdered until now. Bloody Mary was just a myth, a shadowy story told at slumber parties just for fun for crying out loud! But as Rainbow had been finding out as of late, myths had a horrible habit of coming true.

"We're up the weirdness creek without a paddle. And possssibly a hole in the bottom of the boat." Rainbow mused to herself. "Maybe it's a case of if you believe in the impossible, the impossible will happen. It's all a matter of perspective, after all."

Rainbow shook her head, no it couldn't have been that! Believing in something just didn't make it come to life! It was simply impossible!

She remembered the Doctor telling her about an adventure with the Slendermane that had taken place back when he was in his previous incarnation, the one with the sticky uppy mane style and the suit, the nice one, not that Celestia-Be-Damned tweed one he wore nowadays, and that face and freewheeling personality that made you just fall head over hooves for him. Tartarus, if she hadn't been nursing a crush on Twilight at the time and knew Celestia had her sights set on him, she'd had gone after him herself! At the time, Ponyville was in a web of fear. They all knew the myth of the Slendermane, it had gone back for a very long time, but nopony ever took much stock in the myth. Sure, there were jokes about not going into Whitetail Woods on certain nights when the moon was right and children did trot into that forest at times and never came back, but Whitetail Woods also happened to be filled with creatures that came out only at night and did love their meat. At about that time, there came a scream from the area that was used as an outdoor recreation center. Rainbow unfurled her powerful wings and took off in that direction...

Whitetail Woods: With the Tenth Doctor and Derpy Hooves...

"I... I just don't know what went wrong! She was in my sights one minute, and the next she was gone and that... Thing was in front of me!" Derpy whimpered out as the twosome trotted through the dark and misty forest. The Doctor put a hoof on her shoulder in an attempt to comfort her.

"Hey, everyon-Sorry, everypony makes mistakes. Still getting used to all these new words and terminology." The Doctor admitted, while getting mental images of Twilight and Shining both shouting the correct word usage at him every time he got it wrong. He groaned, it just gave him a headache. "Anyways, the point is, you couldn't have known that Dinky would have gotten lost in the forest and taken by that thing... if he even exists."

Derpy gave him a glare, which was an impressive feat indeed given her cross eyed state.

"Of course he exists! I saw him with my own two eyes!" Derpy shouted, quite shocked that the Doctor was even suggesting she was delusional. How could she be, that thing looked as real as anything could ever look!

"And how do you know what you saw was real? It's entirely possible that you were drugged and what you saw was what somepony wanted you to think them to see. For all I know, there's something more going... on... here." The Doctor replied, remembering the Sherlock episode The Hounds of Baskerville and how the "Hound" was just something else disguised as a big black dog using a powerful combination of fear, suggestion, and hallucinogenic drugs before his speech slowed down as he spotted something scrawled on a tree not too far from him and ran towards it with Derpy shouting after him.

"Doctor, wait!" She yelled and found the Time Lord closely studying a tree with a crude picture of the Slendermane scratched on it and the words "Beware! Turn back now!" below that.

"Okay... Interesting. Seems we've been given a warning. Always love an ominous warning. Wants me to keep going further!" The Doctor said cheerfully. Derpy didn't share his demeanor. With a nervous look back at the tree, she followed after the Time Lord. The Doctor took notice of her nervousness once more and gave her a reassuring glance.

"Don't worry, we'll find your daughter. Pinkie Promise." The Doctor stated, and did the sacred motions for the Promise, even if he knew in his heart there was a VERY good possibility he couldn't uphold that promise. And what happened when you broke a Pinkie Promise?

"Break one of those, and you'll lose a friend foreeeeevvverr!"

The Doctor groaned at even thinking of Pinkie. How she defied reality was beyond even him.

"Pinkie Promise." Derpy replied, although she didn't sound as confident as the Doctor, who'd just gotten an idea.

"Hey, I know what we can do! Singing songs often helps distract one from the problem at hand! Giggle at the ghosties, as Pinkie once put it." The Doctor said, and Derpy smiled. She knew the Doctor had a point. And so the Doctor began to sing a song he'd heard once, and was quite relevant to the situation at hand.

"If you ever go back into the Wooley Swamp son you better not go at night

There's things out there in the middle of them Wooley woods

That'd make a strong man die from fright

There's things that crawl and things that fly

And things that creep around on the ground

And they say the ghost of Lucias Clay gets up and it walks around." The Doctor sung, and Derpy gave him a look.

"Not. Helping." Derpy growled out, and The Doctor was sent into another flashback.

"Sorry, was I being rude again?"

The Doctor chuckled at the memory, and the memory of Donna Noble. Oh, how he'd love to meet her again.

"Oi! No stupid Martian is gonna stop me from getting married. To hell with you!"

"I'm... I'm not... I'm not - I'm not from Mars."

"What's so funny?" Derpy asked and the Doctor smiled.

"Sorry, lost in thought for a second. It happens. Anyone ever tell you how scatterbrained I am?" The Doctor asked before shrugging. "Ah well, never mind. Still got a monster to find and a filly to save! Brave heart, Ms. Hooves. Brave heart!" The Doctor continued with a cheerful smile. Stand resolute, that's what Winston had told him once. That phrase never felt so right till this very moment. But as bad luck would have it, (And the Doctor was quite well officiated with bad luck) the Doctor found himself looking up at a pony, yet it couldn't possibly be one, what with it's pure white head, no eyes or mouth to speak of and just the barest trace of a nose and it's Alicorn sized form. It wore a pure black immaculately pressed suit and tie and somehow, despite it having no face, it stared down the Doctor and seemed to peer right into his very soul.

"Well, look at that. Didn't take as long as I thought." The Doctor commented before realizing the obvious problem and letting out a small "Oh."

"Run?" Derpy asked.

"Yes, that." The Doctor responded with a nod and so they did what the Doctor did best. Run like Hell.

Ponyville: Now:

Rainbow had flown to the source of the screaming, a public bathroom near the outdoor recreation center's Hoofball court. When she got there, she swallowed and winced, holding back her gag reflex if only barely. Just like Twist, there was the body of a teenage pegasus stallion, yellow with a red mane lying in front of her, eyes turned to solid soup.

"Lemme guess, he said Bloody Mary three times in front of a mirror in the dark on a dare?" Rainbow asked, and the two stallion's friends, the picture of high school jocks with their jackets and perfectly kept mane and muscles perfect for playing sports nodded in unison.

"Celestia above... We told him to do it as a joke! We didn't mean nothing by it, honest!" One of them said, and from the way he spoke and the general shocked demeanor of him, Rainbow could tell at once he was telling the truth.

"Well, you did and now look what happened." Rainbow growled, in no mood for this, as her Hearts and Hooves day was already ruined enough as it is with Twilight becoming a shut-in and one murder already having happened. "Alright you idiots, what's this dude's name?"

"M-Magic Winds." The other of the two jocks stuttered out.

"Okay, good. Now, I have to go talk to Magic's parents and tell them EXACTLY why their son is dead, and you two are coming with me." Rainbow snarled, in a tone that left no room for argument.

A half hour later... The Winds Family Home

"H-He was so young..." Magic's mother, Tail Winds sobbed out. She was an older mare, with glasses and a red mane and an orange coat of fur. There she sat, sobbing on the couch with her husband trying to comfort her. All around the room, were pictures of Magic and his family smiling happily.

"He was just about to make Team Captain!" Tail sobbed and here, the two jocks shared a guilty look.

"If it's okay with you, can I go and have a search around Magic's room? See if there was any reason somepony might have wanted to kill him?" Rainbow asked, and although Tail sobbed again at the word "Kill" she nodded and pointed to the stairwell that led to Magic's room. Inside, it was decorated with pictures of famous Hoofball teams and trophies his team had won. There was also a portrait of Magic and a mare, white with a green mane on his bedside table. Rainbow then noticed something, a box that was just peeking out under the bed, hidden away just enough not to be seen unless you were looking for something out of the ordinary.

"Hmm, bet this is probably where he keeps his porn stash, and although I'm always in the mood for that, I really want a lead here." Rainbow mused to herself and dragged out the small wooden box and opened it. Inside was not porn, but a pregnancy test. Rainbow's eyes widened when she saw what it read.

"Huh, looks like Magic boinked his marefriend a little too hard. Gotta be careful these days. Celestia above... I really hate to break it to his marefriend that her child's going to grow up without a father." Rainbow mused to herself, a tear slipping from her eye and she wiped it away. "Okay, this is interesting, but I don't think it relates to the case. There's just gotta be something I'm missing here..."

Rainbow knew there was only one thing to do, and although she shuddered at the thought, it was time to do that most horrible of horrible things... Research.

"I really hate today."

Whitetail Woods: With the Tenth Doctor and Derpy Hooves...

Run! Doctor, run!" Derpy screamed in fear as she flapped her wings as hard as she could, with the Doctor running along aside her as fast as his little Earth Pony legs could carry him.

"Oh, trust me, I'm running, in this situation it's kinda impossible not to run is it?" The Doctor snapped back sarcastically. He looked back behind him, and to his surprise the Slendermane was keeping up with them, one minute he was behind one tree and the next, behind another! It was almost like he could...

"Teleport! I hate teleporters! That's cheating! I hate those as well!" The Doctor mused to himself and the Ninth commented in his head "Don't we cheat at times as well?" in a dry tone of voice, crossing his arms and smirking in amusement.

The Doctor didn't bother to dignify him with a response. Meanwhile, the Slendermane kept getting closer and closer, until right then he was in front of the Doctor and Derpy, and grabbed them with his shadowy tendrils and lifted them up in the air, and then in a hissing guttural tone of voice that shocked both of them, as neither the Doctor nor Derpy knew he could even speak, given he had no mouth and all, he said "Get out of my forest."

And then he turned to look at Derpy.

"You don't deserve to be her parent, not after what you did."

Derpy's expression was a mixture of confusion and bewilderment. What had she done? What had she done to deserve the Slendermane to call her an unfitting parent? But before she could ponder that question any further, there was a bright flash of white blinding light and both ponies found themselves in the Hooves household.

"Ugh, have I ever mentioned how I hate teleporters?" The Doctor muttered as he picked himself up off the ground and dusted himself off with his hooves.

"Dinky... DINKY!" Derpy wailed. "That... That monster has h-her, and I'm never getting her back!"

The Doctor laid a hoof on her shoulder and looked at her firmly even as Derpy blubbered to herself.

"Don't worry, that little thing the Slendermane just pulled, scare tactic. If he knew what I was capable of, he wouldn't be so smug. I'm going back in there, and I'm going to get your daughter back. That's a Pinkie Promise, and you never break those." The Doctor said with conviction in his tone, but all the while he went over the Slendermane's words to Derpy in his head. There was something more going on here then just kidnapping, and he needed to find out exactly what...