The air in the Guard Headquarters was so tense that it practically shoved Bloodhound out. Something she was sure that the guards within would have preferred.
Bloodhound was sure that Merrilight was just as nervous. She was just hiding it behind a cocky grin and a bouncy skip in her step. That must be it. Sticking her tongue out at the guards is just a coping mechanism.
Shining Armor took a deep breath through his nose, then rounded on them so quickly that Merrilight bumped into him. "Ground rules!" He growled sternly. "Everypony here is to treat each other respectfully. You, Merrilight, are gonna stop prancing around like you won the lottery. And you—!" He actually glared at the other assembled guards. "—are gonna stop trying to make a laser grid with your eyes. I know we don't like the Watch, but they're on our side."
Bloodhound was quickly coming to like Shining. He was certainly smarter than the average bugbear, as well as the average guard.
"That being said…'' Shining turned back to Merrilight. "I am in charge here. As long as you're working under me, you do things by the book. If you want to do things by the Watch's book, you need to get to work on writing it. Until that happens, you follow the exact same rules that my guards do. Am I clear?"
Merrilight's grin vanished into a glare just as fierce as Shining's. Bloodhound could have sworn she saw the sparks of clashing swords between the two of them. "Crystal," she spat.
"Good." If Shining was bothered by her expression, he didn't show it. "Then let's stop our pissing contest, and get to work catching a killer."
He turned away. "Sergeant!"
Starfish came galloping down the hall, and saluted. She looked like she hadn't slept in days. Her eyes were red and bloodshot, and nothing about her had been groomed. "Sir!"
He led them into a conference room, containing a very long table and several chairs.
"How did you get one of these!?" Merrilight demanded. "I've been trying to get a long table for months!"
"Budget increase," Shining replied. "Now. All of us are going to share every single thing we know, with no restraint. Who wants to go first?"
No one volunteered. They all just sat there in silence.
Bloodhound's ears pinned. "I-I will!" She said, licking her lips nervously.
Merrilight gave her a mildly betrayed look.
"Don't look at me like that!" Bloodhound actually surprised herself with the force of that snap. "I'm not doing this for you. I'm doing this for Mum!"
Merrilight flinched. "Sorry…"
"Fireball, you mean?" Shining asked, confused.
Bloodhound was taken aback. "What!? No! Bamboo Sprout! The first victim!"
Shining paused for what felt like an eternity. "Your mother is one of the victims? Sergeant, you didn't tell me about this. She is way too close to this case. There's no way I'm letting—!"
It happened again. The same strange feeling she'd had when she confronted Lace in the bathroom. Just like then, she moved without noticing, and was suddenly in Shining's face. "Will you shut it!? Princess Celestia knows about my connection to the case. Yes, I very badly want to catch whomever murdered my mum. But I should say it's quite impossible to not want a murderer caught!"
Shining met her glare with an unreadable expression. Slowly, Bloodhound calmed down, and looked down at her hooves. "...Sorry."
Shining sighed, rubbing his head in frustration. "First off, never talk like that to a superior officer ever again. I'll let it go this time, since Princess Celestia supposedly knows about all this. But I will be checking to make sure that's true. For now…" He settled back into his chair. "Tell me everything you know."
Bloodhound did her best. She told him everything that she could recall, starting at the very beginning. Everything she could recall from the night of the murder, and the later investigation of her home. After that, she moved onto the second crime scene, in Matchstick's house. She explained how she had discovered the possibility of somepony else being present. Finally, she explained what little she'd been able to learn from the restaurant, including the witness statements she'd collected.
It was… odd. She wasn't used to being the center of attention for so long. When she was finished, she had to take a puff from her inhaler to recover from speaking so much.
To her surprise, when she looked back at them, both Shining and Starfish had taken fairly detailed notes. They'd even recorded her rather detailed comparison to preying mantis mating rituals in her description of Spiderweb's innocence.
"There is a detail that stands out to me," Shining said, speaking slowly, as if considering his words carefully. "On the night of the first murder… you were with Bamboo Sprout. You said you saw something odd in the mirror, right?"
Bloodhound nodded. "I think it was a silhouette of a pony, but I didn't see it for long enough to know who it was."
Shining and Starfish shared a look, and a nod. Shining turned back to the Watchmares. "What you saw might be more telling than you think." He pressed an intercom button on the table. "Cold Case. Get in here. Bring the restaurant readings that you showed me last night."
After a few minutes, Cold Case arrived. Her ice-blue mane had a really bad case of bed-head. "Here." She dropped a file on the table.
"Tell them what you told me," Shining ordered.
"Seriously!?" Cold snapped. "You have a copy of the file, and you know what it says. Why'd you interrupt my nap when you can do it yourself?"
Shining just waited patiently.
Eventually, Cold surrendered. "Ugh. I hate when I actually have to work. Fine. Our victims are Coin Shortage, and her husband, Penny Pincher, the Grand Treasurer and budget manager of Equestria. Both dead by a stab wound to a primary artery. The interesting part, that Shinypants wants me to tell you, is that I had a specialist scan the steam hoods at the restaurant. The ones that were on the victims' table. She found a weird enchantment lingering on both of them."
"An enchantment?" Bloodhound said, surprised.
"Assuming that was a question, and not an echo, yeah. It's a weird cocktail of different spells. But she caught traces of Mirabel's Magic Mirror, and another spell she couldn't identify right away. She said she'd get back to me."
Everyone but Shining stared at her blankly.
"Apparently I have to give you a magic lesson, too." Cold Case rolled her eyes. "Mirabel's Magic Mirror lets the caster travel and look around through mirrors. They can see through any reflective surface in the same building, but look like a shadow in the reflection during it."
"It was cast on the steam hoods?" Bloodhound asked.
Cold Case shrugged. "It's more likely that the killer cast it on a reflective surface somewhere else, and traveled to them. Whatever the other enchantment is, it's probably how they managed to attack from within the mirror, since we didn't find the actual knife that they used. Before you ask, it was almost definitely a standard kitchen knife. Probably snagged from the restaurant."
"Thanks, Cold," Shining said with a smile. "Before you go, any update on the purple powder?"
"Yeah, actually," Cold replied. "Took some doing, but I eventually found out that it's basically an alchemical catalyst. When it comes in contact with certain stuff, it produces other stuff. In this case, literal fire and purple slime coming from stomach acid. But again, there wasn't any trace of the actual stuff inside him. In all my little experiments, there was still a trace of the powder left." She paused. "I uh… also went back and looked at Bamboo Sprout's file, and did some tests. I was able to replicate the burns in her stomach and esophagus with scorpider venom."
Bloodhound flinched, but steeled herself.
"But all the retests I did on her samples still came back negative for any trace of it," Cold finished quickly. "My guess, the killer is using reflective surfaces to replicate deadly effects on the victims with a secondary spell. Given both stab wounds were completely identical, I'd wager they did the same thing here."
Shining nodded thoughtfully. "Great job! I appreciate it. Dismissed."
"I'll diss your miss…" Cold muttered as she left.
As the door closed, Bloodhound's mane was standing on even more ends than usual. She could feel goosebumps building under her coat. "So… you're saying that the shape I saw was actually the killer, inside the mirror, looking out at us."
"More than likely," Shining confirmed.
"It also brings up the question of what these poisons are even for," Merrilight pointed out. “If the killer could just cast whatever spell they want, which the mysterious second enchantment seems to imply they did, then why use the effects of poisons and stabbings, which clearly show their murderous actions? Why not just make them have a heart attack?"
"It raises a lot of questions, but at least we have some answers," Starfish said with a shrug.
"And I want more of those," Shining agreed. "I'm going to have the common parties from the first and third crime scenes brought in for questioning. While I do that, I want you two to canvas all of the crime scenes again. Find something we can use."
"I'll take Matchstick Manor," Bloodhound said. "I have a few questions for his wife."
"I'll go back to the restaurant, then," Merrilight agreed. "Didn't get to do much the first time, thanks to somepony."
"Actually…" Starfish said, with some clear hesitation. "I'd like to go with Bloodhound. I want to make sure there weren't any witnesses that we missed."
"Good idea!" Shining said, standing up. "Constable Bloodhound would probably know her own home better anyway. So she can do that second."
He took a deep breath. "Alright everypony. This kind of killer hasn't been around for a long time. It's our job to ensure they're not around for long. Dismissed!"
Bloodhound was actually feeling kind of excited. For the first time, it really felt like they had a leg up on the killer. Soon enough, she had left her fear behind, and was actually hyping herself up by going through what she had to do in her head. First I'll talk to Spiderweb about that security system. Then I'll see if I can find which mirror the killer used.
The carriage ferrying Bloodhound and Starfish pulled to a stop. The rows of identical houses still had an eerie feeling to them, but Bloodhound paid them no mind. She strode confidently out of the carriage, head held high, and tripped over the curb, falling on her face.
Starfish got out behind her, looking down. "You're not marching in a parade. Watch where you're going."
Bloodhound blew her mane out of her face. At least, she tried to. Her crimson curls were too heavy for a simple puff of air to move. So she picked herself up and forcibly shoved it back into position, before putting her Watch hat back on.
Then they continued up the walkway and rang the doorbell like nothing had happened.
Spiderweb answered the door, and immediately blanched upon seeing Starfish. Bloodhound peeked around just before she could slam the door in their faces. "Wait! It's me! We talked at Bucky's earlier."
The door stopped an inch from being shut, and cracked only a little wider. "Oh. It's you. You can come in, but she can't! Not after how badly she scared me."
"That's fine," Starfish said with a nonplussed shrug. "I'm mainly here to interview witnesses."
Spiderweb stared at her. "Really? Not even an apology?"
Starfish blinked, actually looking surprised. "For what?"
"For accusing me of murder!" Spiderweb snapped.
"I was doing my job," Starfish defended with a disapproving frown.
"Maybe you should go interview those witnesses!" Bloodhound said quickly. Before you get us run out of the property. "She isn't really a suspect anymore, is she? Which means your superiors would probably be rather cross with you for treating her poorly."
The threat of career harm was enough to cow Starfish. "Right… well, I'm sorry. Dunno how to say it better."
Spiderweb's glare softened a little. "Fine. Just go."
"Right. Before I go," Starfish fished through her armor, pulled out a very well-cut blue gem in a gold broach, and gave it to Bloodhound. The gold part was etched with a ring of arcane symbols. "That'll check anything you touch it to for an enchantment," she informed. "I'll be going house to house, so chase me down the minute you find anything."
"Oooh! Neato! Thank you!" Bloodhound tucked the gem into her mane, before following Spiderweb inside.
"Thank you for your time, madam," Bloodhound said earnestly. "Do you mind if I ask you a few questions, then conduct my search?"
Spiderweb let out a breath she'd been holding since they'd shown up. "Yes. Right. Sorry. I just… haven't quite recovered from that interrogation."
"Of course," Bloodhound replied sympathetically.
The smells of the murder had faded a little, but Bloodhound could still pick them up. It was enough to turn her stomach.
Spiderweb provided tea and tiny sandwiches, which helped a little. They sat down together at the kitchen table.
"So, earlier today you mentioned that you had a security system that would stop intruders from teleporting in or out," Bloodhound began, producing a notepad, and pen from her mane, and holding the pen in the corner of her mouth, so she could still speak. "How does it work?"
Spiderweb nibbled on a sandwich. "It's an ambient enchantment. Kind of hard to explain to a non-magus, but the gist is that trying to teleport in or out will result in a nasty headache, or a small explosion, if the caster is using a spellbook or talisman."
Bloodhound wrote that down exactly as she'd said it. "Could the enchantment have been undone?"
Spiderweb shook her head vehemently. "No. If it was, an alarm would go off."
Bloodhound wrote that down. "Right! Perfect! I think I know how they got in, but I'll need you to stick around while I search, in case I have questions."
"What are you looking for?" Spiderweb asked.
"A reflective surface, with a view of your husband at his time of death," Bloodhound explained. "We think his killer used a special spell to inflict his injuries on him through a mirror."
Spiderweb stayed downstairs as Bloodhound searched, giving her a respectful amount of space.
Bloodhound sniffed around everywhere, just to be safe. The smells were faded a little, but not enough to hide from her trusty sniffer! The bad burned smell had been toned down greatly by cleaning products, so she could easily focus on other ones.
She was feeling really good. It was almost like a sugar rush. She was enjoying this! Her nerves had faded into the background, and her mind was focused solely on searching for evidence. It reminded her a bit of looking for bug nests. Admittedly, it helped that she hadn't come across a currently present dead body, and wasn't expecting to.
She found the spot in the upstairs bedroom where she'd first smelled the third party. It was the obvious spot to look for the enchantment, since it was the only place she knew for sure that the intruder stood.
Again, the smell had faded, but it was still there. Bloodhound couldn't place it, but the perfume smelled so familiar. She could have sworn she'd smelled it recently. This has never happened before. Why can't I remember this smell?
As she examined the room, she happened to glance out the bedroom window. She was on the second floor, and could see straight across to the bedroom window of the house next door. So could the dark red stallion who was staring at her, unblinking.
Hm. A creepy moment, or an opportunity?
Bloodhound opened the window. "Excuse me!" She called. "Do you stare into this bedroom often?"
The stallion quirked his head, face expressionless. He said nothing.
"Erm, right. The way I worded that is kind of incriminating if you do. Let me rephrase that. Were you staring into this bedroom at the time of the murder that occurred in this house?"
The stallion quirked his head in the other direction, like a confused dog. But he nodded.
"Fantastic!" Bloodhound cheered. "Did you see anything suspicious while you were looking?"
The stallion looked like he suddenly understood something, his ears pinned with a deeply sad frown, and shook his head.
Bloodhound frowned back. "Are you able to speak?"
He shook his head again.
"Ah." She deflated again. "Well thank you for your time. If you remember anything strange, take it to the Canterlot Watch Headquarters."
The stallion slowly nodded, and closed his curtains. Bloodhound felt bad for him for some reason. He didn't panic when caught like a peeping tom would. It was almost like he'd been waiting for something he expected.
Nevertheless, she had work to do. Bloodhound produced the gem amulet magic detector thing from her mane, and looked it over to try and figure out how to use it.
When she aimed the sharp point of the gem at the mirror, she was nearly blinded by the bright, red light that abruptly erupted from the amulet.
Spiderweb, who had come up to investigate the sudden flash, shielded her eyes. "Does that mean it found something?"
"I think so!" Bloodhound said, mildly panicked as she tried to extinguish the light. Aiming the amulet away was enough to stop it. "Well, at least now I know what to expect. So if I'm understanding how the spell works correctly, there must have been some kind of mirror down in the basement too, with a view of Matchstick. Do you have anything like that?"
"Not really," Spiderweb replied, nibbling on one of her hooves thoughtfully. "It gets kind of dirty down there. I don't know how Sticky could have used it as a workspace, when he cleaned it so little. The entire place was always caked with dust. Even his bloody desk!" She cut herself off, blushing sheepishly. "Sorry."
But her words had triggered Bloodhound's memory. Something she'd seen on her first search didn't match up with what Spiderweb had just said.
She galloped downstairs. Her departure was so sudden that Spiderweb struggled to keep up.
Downstairs had been cleaned even more thoroughly than the rest of the house. Spiderweb must really have been trying to erase the memory of that night.
But when Bloodhound aimed the magic detector at Matchstick's desk, red returned to that room. That bit of internal monologue would have been more poetic if he had been stabbed or something, but Bloodhound was still proud of it. I should write a book.
Spiderweb was again forced to shield her eyes as she came downstairs. "Did you find it?" She asked hesitantly.
"I did!" Bloodhound said excitedly. "This desk was clean as a fumblebee queen when I searched it! The killer must have used the reflection on the desk as a mirror to see him through!"
She dug into her mane, looking for something to take pictures. After pulling out her inhaler, a magnifying glass, and her Watch top hat which had gotten lost in her curls, she found a small camera. Bloodhound got the gem going in both places, and snapped photos of them. "Thank you so much for your help! I need to go find Starfish, so I can go test the other crime scenes!"
Bloodhound was out the front door so fast that she barely heard Spiderweb's reply of "You're welcome."
She was back a moment later. "I forgot. I had more questions. Sorry. I got excited."
Spiderweb chuckled a little. "Don't worry. I know the feeling of getting caught up in the moment."
"Firstly, who is the red stallion next door?" Bloodhound asked. "He was staring."
"That's Cherry Sunrise," Spiderweb replied. "He was friends with my husband. Don't mind him. The poor thing is a shut-in, but my husband would chat with him through the window. Since Sticky died, I think he's probably trying to become friends with me too."
Bloodhound jotted that down in her notebook. "Right. Next, did you have any visitors around the time of the murder?"
"A couple," she admitted. "The delivery pony with that purple powder. Then the night before, there was a repair pony here to fix our toaster."
Straight from the horse's mouth, and into the notebook. "Right. Just one more question. It's about your husband's ledger," Bloodhound explained.
Any joviality Spiderweb had in her vanished. "Oh?"
"I'm aware of what the names in it mean," Bloodhound assured. "But what I want to know is: how were the names written in invisible ink different? Yours was one of those."
Spiderweb sat down, thunking the back of her head against the wall. "Get out."
"Excuse m—"
"I said get out!"
Bloodhound found herself shoved out the front door. "...I suppose I'll ask somepony else on the list," she muttered to herself. "Anywho, I'd better go see how Starfish is doing.
Starfish was not doing well.
When Bloodhound found her, she looked completely exhausted. Her ears sagged, and she was drooling slightly on the thick manilla envelope in her teeth.
“There you are!” Bloodhound said excitedly. “I just got done with the search. I think I–”
Starfish held up a hoof, turning back to spit the envelope into her saddlebag. “I just got done listening to an old lady talk about every little thing she saw her neighbors doing while she spied on them, complete with photo evidence. You can tell me at lunch. We're going on break."
Bloodhound was going to object, but her stomach objected to her objection. Her hunger was an objective fact. "Sounds like a plan!"
Starfish was kind enough to pay for Bloodhound's meal at a local sandwich shop, after Bloodhound opened her bit purse to release only a single leopard moth.
Once she'd recaptured Leonard, Bloodhound ordered a sandwich with grilled mushrooms and onions, and an exotic cheese from Switcherland, which was filled with holes. So unique!
Starfish stared at her as she spent a minute or so just inhaling the scent of her sandwich. "That sniffer of yours sure is impressive, ain't it?"
Bloodhound extracted her muzzle from the mound of umami that made her call for mommy. "Mmmm. The nose knows." She took a bite. "Mmmmhmhmhmhmhm!"
Starfish settled on a barley, lettuce, and tomato. "So, tell me what you found."
Bloodhound brought her up to speed on her search, and the encounter with the odd stallion.
Starfish nodded slowly throughout her story. When Bloodhound was done, the guardsmare let out a sigh. "I'm so tired of this case. I really hope we just find somepony singing a villain song soon. At least we've got a chance of that, once the suspects are brought in for interviews."
"How did your canvasing the neighborhood go?" Bloodhound asked.
"Most of the neighbors said the same thing as always. They heard him yell out, but nothing else." She grimaced. "Then there was an old lady named…" She glanced at some writing on her hoof. "...something that got smudged. Anyway, apparently she's been photographing everypony who visits any of her neighbors within view for the past decade or so. That envelope? Full of film strips. All the pictures she ever took of the visitors to Matchstick and Spiderweb's house. It's going to take hours to have them developed and examined. Not to mention imagining the creepy old lady behind the camera the whole time."
The restaurant door dinged. Merrilight came in, assisted by a yellow mare in a familiar uniform, from the restaurant the most recent murders had occured in.
The waitress helped Merrilight sit down. Merri's head thumped to the table, looking despondent. "I think she exhausted herself," the waitress explained. "She was rushing about the restaurant, working herself into a lather. She must have searched every inch and questioned every employee at least ten times. She collapsed, and my manager wanted me to help her go home, but she wanted to come here."
"Thank you," Starfish said. "We've got her."
The mare left, and Starfish raised a hoof. "Can I get a cup of coffee over here?"
Once Merrilight had been caffeinated, she looked less dead outside, but about the same inside. "I just don't get it!" She snapped, loudly enough to make Bloodhound jump. "I find evidence, and it just leads nowhere! No matter how much I find on the how, it never points back to the who."
"What did you find?" Bloodhound asked.
"Three metal cloches had been enchanted with the same spell cocktail of Mirabel's Magic Mirror, and an unknown spell," Merrilight explained. "Both that were in front of the victims, and one that was on a random table. I asked the staff, and none of them remember who sat there. I had Captain Shinypants send some guards to question other guests who were there, and they've yet to come back. I jumped for joy when I found this in the restaurant's fuse box."
She pulled a plastic bag out of her hat. Inside was a strange device. It was a metal square with a symbol engraved on it, and a little copper antenna.
"Is that a spell rune?" Starfish asked in surprise.
Merri nodded, still not happy. "It's for Preppy's Power Pop."
"What's a spell rune?" Bloodhound asked. "Sorry. Never learned much about the spell part of magic, unless it mutates bugs."
"Basically, something similar to that little amulet I gave you to detect magic," Starfish explained. "But instead of using its spell under a certain condition like other artifacts, a rune will activate when whomever made and charged it draws it again somewhere else. Think of it like dynamite and a plunger detonator."
"In this case, the spell caused a power surge, causing the blackout," Merri finished. "But guess what? I go looking for the activation rune, and search the restaurant top to bottom. Nothing. For all we know, it could be drawn on a napkin that's already been tossed in a furnace. We're back at square one."
Bloodhound's ears pinned. "Well, not exactly. Maybe after the interviews with the suspects and the other guests at the restaurant, we'll have something to go on. Who are we bringing in?"
"Coin Flip, Aphrodite DeHeart, and Golden Lace," Starfish replied. "They were common elements of two of the crimes, and we have reason to believe some of them had connections to Count Matchstick."
Bloodhound frowned. "Golden Lace was with me. In the bathroom." She said nothing about what they'd been discussing. "Her horn never lit up. The other two just… don't seem the type."
"Means nothing if she used a spell rune or a spellbook," Starfish replied.
"And this killer isn't exactly a mustache twirler with a maiden tied to a railroad," Merri agreed. "They must be good at hiding in plain sight."
"She," Bloodhound corrected. "Remember, we know the killer is a mare from Matchstick's last words."
"That's true," Merri admitted.
Bloodhound perked up. "I have an idea! Maybe after the interviews, the three of us can put our heads together, and write down every objective fact we know about the case and the killer. It could help us find some inspiration."
That actually got a smile out of both Starfish and Merri. "That could work," Starfish agreed.
"The interviews are tomorrow. Maybe we could meet up at your place," Merri said to Bloodhound. "We can search the place together, then sit down to brainstorm."
"I'll be there after my shift," Starfish said. "I need to get these photos developed."
"I can help with that," Merri offered. "My mother was a photographer."
Merri's stomach growled loudly. She blushed hard. "Er… maybe we should have lunch first."
Starfish chuckled. "Order what you want. I got it, just to get you out of the dumps."
With nothing to do but wait until tomorrow, Bloodhound went home.
Fireball was asleep on the couch, a book on washing machine repair open in front of her, with an open notebook on the coffee table. The notes within seemed competent at first, but quickly descended into despaired confusion and confused despair.
Bloodhound left her there. Fireball was an impossibly heavy sleeper. There was no point trying to wake her up.
Despite the short day, her head felt like a kicked hornets' nest. I need to relax…
A lightbulb went off in her head, which probably should have made her stress headache worse. She picked up the wine bottle she'd been gifted. She wasn't much of a drinker, but surely a glass would help soothe her nerves. Hm. Someone re-corked it. I need a bottle opener.
She set the bottle down, went downstairs to the kitchen. Something felt… off, all of a sudden. She felt watched.
Bloodhound looked around timidly, but didn't see anything out of the ordinary. Still, she rushed down to the kitchen as quickly as she could, grabbed a corkscrew, and rushed back up to her room so quickly that she ran into the door without opening it.
Shaking her head, she paused to listen. There was no noise within her room at first.
Then she heard a sudden scuttle of legs. Rudy. The lazy bug never moved that quickly. I need to run! I should get Mother! Maybe she… can…
Bloodhound took a deep breath. The strange feeling in her gut returned. This time it boiled over into more of her. Her cheeks turned pink. Her lips pursed. Her teeth clenched.
That was the moment she knew that the feeling in her gut meant she was about to do something stupid.
Bloodhound opened the door.
The killer's shadowy shape stood in the reflection of her refrigerator's silver metal. She got a much closer look at them this time, but they had no distinguishing features to tell her who they were. Just a shadow of a mare, without a face. It was facing Bloodhound. She couldn't tell for sure, but somehow she knew it was staring into her eyes, as she was staring into its lack thereof.
Bloodhound's knees shook. She felt like she was standing in front of a train barreling down on her, but that feeling in her gut… it made her almost feel like a train herself.
It took Bloodhound a moment to find her voice. "You killed Bamboo Sprout?" Her voice trembled, some type of emotion barely restrained, but she didn't know what.
The mare nodded. No hesitation, no shaking. Just a simple, matter-of-fact confirmation.
"Ah." It came out almost like a sob. She could feel tears at the corners of her eyes. "And you're here for me?"
She nodded again.
That quelled the feeling in her gut, and the train turned back into a pony. She fled back into the upstairs hall.
Bloodhound's chest was heaving. The shadow appeared in the glass of a picture frame so suddenly that Bloodhound actually fell over in her scramble to reverse her momentum.
She tried for the stairs. The shadow appeared in the freshly-polished wood. When she galloped past it, it appeared in the marble tiles on the floor. Bloodhound slipped on them, barely recovering enough to go into the garage.
Her lungs felt like they were full of angry fire ants. She tucked herself behind the black carriage, out of view of the glass windows, and fumbled to get her inhaler out of her mane.
The glass above her shattered, showering her in glass shards. Bloodhound yelped, dropping the inhaler before she could use it. She was forced to rush blindly back into the house, and up the stairs. Without thinking, she burst into a random room, hoping for a hiding spot.
Instead, she found a dreadfully familiar mirror.
The dressing room.
Bloodhound fell to her knees. Her lungs were locking up. Burning.
In the mirror, she saw the shadow mare appear in the doorway behind her.
Just like the night Sprout died.
She'd have laughed at the irony if she could find the air.
The corners of Bloodhound's vision started to blacken.
She tried to stand, but her knees buckled.
No more running.
As her eyes closed, Bloodhound feebly lifted a hoof towards the mirror, as if begging for mercy.
The mare in the mirror offered none.
But Bloodhound hadn't expected any.
With her last bit of strength, Bloodhound pitched the corkscrew she'd held onto as hard as she could.
The mirror shattered as the metal struck it. The mare inside vanished.
Even she hadn't expected herself to do that.
The act gave her a burst of adrenaline. Her vision cleared a little, and her eyes opened. Her lungs didn't though.
Bloodhound managed to make her way out into the hall. She tumbled down the stairs. Pain erupted in her right front leg.
She soldiered on.
The door fell open as she made it into the garage.
Miraculously, her inhaler sat in plain view on the ground. Bloodhound crawled towards it.
Shaking hooves lifted the plastic lifesaver to her lips. She took a puff, and breathed in as much as she could. It felt like she'd inhaled nails.
She took another puff, and inhaled. It hurt a little less. Recovery, or numbness?
Bloodhound collapsed, her back against the door.
Slowly, her airways began to open back up.
Bloodhound was alive, but she was not well.
She had just encountered the one who had stolen one of her most beloved family members from her. She had come face-to-faceless-blank-slate with the biggest shadow over her life.
And she'd been able to do nothing but run away and suffocate.
Bloodhound had felt useless many times in her life. She'd felt like she just couldn't handle what life was throwing at her. Over the last few days, she'd gained a little confidence. But there, seated on the cold, stone floor of the garage, she truly felt like she'd hit rock bottom.
This life wasn't for her. She wasn't built for it. She was a humble bug scientist, pursuing a murderess who had the best minds of Canterlot chasing their tails. She was a moth chasing after the same light that had ended a moth before her.
Not knowing what else to do, Bloodhound curled into a ball, and started softly sobbing.