Orchid had woken up a bit earlier than usual today. With a bright smile and a big stretch, she sat up from her bed and yawned. The sun was not yet up to greet her, but it was slowly rising over the hills in the far distance. The faint sound of crickets could still be heard as her senses became fully aware.

"Hm, it's still quite dark. I suppose I shouldn't go to the market until later." She quietly mentioned to herself. With that, she hopped out of bed and trotted towards the door of her bedroom before she paused, blinked, and looked behind her. Whenever she blinked, her left eye, which was completely black, would never close completely. Some had tried to ask about it, but they never got a reason.

"Sorry, didn't mean to." She said to seemingly no one before exiting her room and into the main hall. Her house was rather large, basically a smallmansion. Orchid quietly hummed a little tune as she walked downstairs, the rest of the house being dark and quiet, say for the sound of hooves and her little song. The oddly cheerful pony soon made it to the kitchen. She examined what it was she'd need to get from the market that day, and in the middle of said analysis, she perked up and her ear twitched. After a few seconds of stiffness and silence, she nodded and smiled again.

"You got it!" Orchid declared with such confidence, all she had to do now, was wait for the sun to rise so that the shops in the nearby town would open. In the meantime, she looked around to see what she could do for the morning. Perhaps reorganize something? Or maybe just clean up the room? Regardless, she'd find something to do soon.

After some time, the sun had finally rose. Orchid had added to her list, grabbed a basket, and now had a pouch of bits to bring with her to the market. She locked the door after she had stepped out of the house and began following the "path" outside of the property gate. It was quite worn away, but Orchid could still follow it perfectly. She hummed as she passed under the dark trees and listened to the sounds of the forest.

Despite the fact Orchid was a unicorn, she never used magic for anything. No one exactly took note of it, and those few who did just thought she was taking a break from using magic. Orchid smiled when she eventually saw the clearing and saw Ponyville through the last of the branches in the canopy. It was still a decent distance away, but it was at least in view.

Orchid's smile remained as she entered the town and looked around. Everything seemed "Normal". The usual town hustle and bustle was going on as it did every time Orchid had come in to do her shopping. Daisy and her friends were selling beautiful and colorful flowers, the little ones were making their way to school, the usual strangers were passing by.

However, a sudden change in the normal occurred. A loud scream from down the street made everyone stop in their tracks. Orchid perked up and her ear twitched as she turned towards where the shriek came from.

In the nearby distance, a pony had discovered a stallion who was, upon viewing and closer examination, dead. It was hard to describe accurately, but many ponies who saw the gruesome sight and weren't screaming or possibly going mad, said it looked like he was drained of all blood and then thrown in the desert to dry. It was horrifying apparently. Orchid however, as well as just a few other ponies avoided the scene all together while a crowd began to gather around the building the stallion was found in.

His name was Golden Flash. He had a gold yellow coat, long midnight black hair, and at least HAD a charming smile and attitude. It's said his eyes shimmered like bits. And though he was a Pegasus, he lived on the ground and had quite a lot of mixed reputations depending on who you asked. However, he wasn't viewed as shady according to the majority who knew him. His features that once received swoons and admiration, had now been lost. A few ponies had already begun to spread out and search for help. While a few looked for help from Mayor Mare, the rest of the crowd who had run off, began banging against the door of the golden oaks library like their lives depended on them getting inside.

Twilight Sparkle had been catching up on one of her favorite books once again. It was quite nice to take a day off and read a story she adored, especially since, Spike was with Rarity while she went gem hunting for a new line of clothing. However, her peace and quiet was interrupted by the loud banging and panicked yells from the new crowd at her door. While she did sense the urgency, she couldn't help but be just a little annoyed since she WAS interrupted in the middle of reading. Twilight used her magic to place a bookmark on the page she had stopped on before she got up and made her way to the front door, steering clear of the direct front as a small handful of ponies toppled on top of each other when the door opened.

"Woah- Everypony! Settle down! What is going on with you?" She asked while helping the ponies up. As expected, everyone began talking at once and she couldn't hear a thing. "ONE AT A TIME!" She yelled over the crowd. Eventually the group had quieted down, but they still were clearly on edge. "Now, you," she gestured to a pony near the front and center of the crowd. "What's all this panic about?"

"A-A pony is dead! A-And it sure as Celestia isn't from a normal cause!" the mare stuttered as she spoke. Twilight's eyes widened at the thought. A murder? But- crimes like that hadn't happened in so long from what she heard! Worried, and realizing she could get the news to someone who would be much more helpful in this situation, Twilight decided to investigate and confirm if this was true. And if it was, get a note to Celestia. With that in mind, Twilight grew a more serious expression and demanded to be brought to the scene, grabbing a scroll and quill to alert the princess as she was quickly led back to the house where the first scream emerged.

Orchid thanked the shopkeeper of the vegetable stand. Her basket now full of fruit, a few vegetables, and some supplies. Her pouch was now hanging onto the side of the basket, only filled with two remaining bits. She began to hum again as she trotted away with a light bounce in her step before she suddenly stopped. She soon kept moving, but she was silent, her smile had faded, and her gaze was... off. After a couple moments of almost robotic movements, Orchid smiled and giggled. With that, she had made her way out of town. Ignoring the crowd still at that house or the groups of ponies running back with the Mayor and Twilight. Soon enough, Orchid was on her way back to the path in the nearby forest that led to her home.

Mayor Mare began to work on crowd control while Twilight made her way into the house to examine what happened. She immediately regretted it as a wave of nausea hit her like a bunch of bricks. She put a hoof over her mouth, dropped her scroll and quill, and dashed back out to the side of the house just in time for her breakfast to resurface. The body inside was horrifying. Golden's coat was dull and close to gray, his eyes were rolled back, and his face was stretched into a terrifying scream of pure fear. His body in general looked like he was nothing but skin and bones, rough and dry. Truly a disgusting sight for all of them, but this also raised plenty of questions. How did this happen? Who did this? And probably the biggest question on everyone's mind, why?

Twilight soon had stopped losing her recent meal and took a minute to catch her breath and wait for the burning pain in her throat to die down. She didn't reply to any questions from the crowd and just breathed heavily as she clutched her side with one hoof as the other held her up. Hundreds, if not thousands of questions filled her mind as she tried to get rid of the vision of the body from her mind. The mayor even tried to talk to her, but Twilight didn't respond until minutes after. Once Twilight finally felt calm enough and was able to tolerate the pain, she took a deep breath, wiped her mouth, and turned to the Mayor.

"I'll alert Princess Celestia immediately. Keep everyone else away from the body and keep it blocked until she arrives." Mayor Mare nodded and continued to help keep everyone at bay while Twilight quickly got to writing a letter to the princess. However, she found it rather difficult to figure out what to say for some reason. Perhaps it's just HOW she was supposed to write it? I mean, how exactly do you tell the princess, or just about anyone, that you just saw probably the most disturbing death scenes in your entire life?

Twilight tried a few times to sound professional with the situation but soon she finally decided too just be blunt.
"Dear Princess Celestia,
~~There has been a rather disturbing occurrence in Ponyville and~~
~~Something horrible has happened and~~
We require your immediate assistance in Ponyville. Something Terrible has happened; I'll explain when you get here. We await your arrival.
-Twilight Sparkle"

Ignoring her usual signature, Twilight just needed to send it now... Shit, Spike was with Rarity. Well, at least they were away from this scene, if Spike saw any of this he'd probably be traumatized to the point where he couldn't sleep. In no time at all she remembered where Spike had gone and raced towards the outskirts of town. Rarity was almost finished with her gem collecting with Spike when she saw Twilight speeding towards them."

"Twilight?" Rarity turned towards her and smiled as her friend slowed to a stop. Out of breath and out of shape, Twilight was panting as she glanced around for Spike. Hearing Rarity say her name, Spike peaked out from the hole he had dug and hopped out once he saw Twilight.

"Twilight, what are you doing here? Jeez how far did you run?" He helped steady her as she looked like she was about to collapse. Still not able to really speak at the moment, she held the note out to spike with her magic. He got the hint and nodded before grabbing the letter, taking a deep breath, and sending it off to Princess Celestia.

"Is everything alright darling? I don't think you've ever been in such a rush to send the Princess a letter. Or at least not in a good while." She pursed her lips for a minute as she recalled what happened when she was late to send the princess a friendship letter... Twilight shook her head and finally caught her breath.

"Something really bad has happened. I need you to either bring Spike to the library or just keep him with you at the boutique for a while... But stay away from the crowd in town. Trust me, it would be best if you didn't see what was there." Twilight sounded serious, and they could tell she was being honest. Rarity nodded to her friend's request and looked at her wagon of gems, it was pretty full, surely the rest could wait if she needed more later.

"I suppose we have enough for today. I'll bring Spike back to the boutique. You just be careful too, Twilight." Rarity ushered Spike to follow her. He looked concerned but instead of asking, just hugged Twilight, reminded her to be safe, and then proceeded towards the boutique aside Rarity. Twilight nodded and took a deep breath before trying to teleport closer to town in order to make it back before Princess Celestia arrived. Once back with the Mayor, she paced nervously while awaiting her mentor's arrival, however she didn't think much would be found out about this crime for a short while... And that made her worry. She tried to calm herself down. She just had to wait for the princess and then they could get to work on figuring out what happened.

Orchid finally saw her home in the distance, she hummed a little melody as she trotted to the front door. She set down her basket, reached under the doormat, and lifted the key with her mouth and unlocked it before slipping the key back under the mat and heading inside.

"I wonder what happened in town today." She thought out loud while setting the basket on the kitchen counter. She went quiet for a moment and looked behind her before a slight frown appeared on her face. "Well, you don't have to sound so rude about it, I was just curious." With that, she turned back to her basket and began putting her groceries away. All while being completely oblivious to the grim scene back in Ponyville. The house was silent except for the movements she made.

Once she finally finished putting everything away, Orchid moved over to her couch and hopped on before sighing and flopping onto her stomach. She felt tired for some reason, perhaps a little nap wouldn't hurt. I mean, she got her chore done for the day, may as well rest before having some more fun around the house later on. Using her mouth, she pulled a pillow closer to her and got more comfortable after resting her head on it. Within seconds her eye closed while the other remained halfway open. Orchid let out a yawn before letting sleep overtake her.

Author's Note

this is my very first fanfiction- and it includes an insert with my own OC. I hope you end up enjoying it and want to learn more about her and see more of the story. Also, sorry this part was kind of short- I was just testing the waters a bit with this.