55 Days

55 Days

DAY 2

I had a bad night's sleep. I sent a letter to Princess Celestia to confirm this was not just a practical joke, though the only other time was long ago in criminology class, long ago. I woke up, just sitting there motionless on the bed. I saw a scroll on the ground. A few seconds passed.

After I finally realized what that was, I quickly scrambled over to the scroll, and read it as fast as I could.

"Hal,

It seems there are forces at work that not even I cam contain. I do not know what is happening, but if you think somepony is the killer, you have my permission to kill.

Yours,

Celestia"

This... is not good.

HOTEL ROOM, DAY 2, 10:51 AM

I am pacing around my room. I cannot think of my next step. How am I to track down a killer who leaves no trace? The place where it happened is missing, the victim's body, missing, the witnesses' memories, missing.

My thinking was interrupted by the appearance of a scroll coming from thin air and falling to the floor.

Another message? I picked it up and read it:

"Hal,

I was informed that Spike and two others have gone missing as well. The only ones who have forgotten are the residents of ponyville, we still have copies of birth records for them all here. I'm sending some men to do a daily head count. We'll know if anypony else disappears. I'm also arranging for you to move your base of operations to Cloudsdale; this way you don't forget about anypony.

Yours,

Celestia"

I started packing immediately, eager to not be a victim.

CLOUDSDALE CAFE, DAY 2, 6:01 PM

I'm not hungry. I'm just... Demoralized. My only hope is that there's some sort of pattern to these killings. I looked at the victims details again and again, there's no similarities. I should assume there is a pattern... In hopes that there is one. It seems that such a pattern wasn't going to be included in census data. It must be personal.

There's a pattern, and I'll find it! I have to... For the sake of all of us.