Eye of the Beholder

by Jake The Army Guy

Chapter One: The Abandoned One

The air inside the tiny bathroom was muggy and thick. Narrow beams of sunlight did their best to add warmth to the light from the cold fluorescent bulb above the mirror, still dripping with condensation from the extended shower. The light from the small window, still cracked from a freak storm the previous year, diffused into a soft haze in the steam-filled room. A slate grey hoof squeaked across the mirror, the cleared glass reflecting a tired pegasus with a jet black mane plastered against his skull. Barely visible bags hung beneath otherwise bright sapphire eyes. His wings splayed out to either side, shaking water from their feathers absently as he regarded himself.

You look like crap, Vinny.

Detective Vincenza Gusto heaved a deep sigh. He'd been letting his appearance slip lately, he knew, but he just couldn't muster up the energy to change it. Some part of him probably felt he deserved a disheveled look. Or maybe he was just tired.

Shaking the dreary thoughts from his head, he grabbed a towel from the nearby rack and vigorously dried his mane. He hoped the scrape of the rough towel would clear the last remnants of sleep that the shower had left. Now dry, a twitch of his broad flight muscles flicked the towel back onto the drying rack.

The soft, high-quality cloudcrete felt good under his hooves as he crossed the living room towards the kitchen.  The decently spacious apartment—decent for an MPD paycheck, anyway—was decorated with an eye for utilitarianism rather than aesthetics. A faux-leather couch sat along the western wall before a plate-glass coffee table that was cluttered with old fishing magazines and newspapers from around the city. A large set of shelves on the opposite wall displayed commendations, photos, and other important memories from his time in the city. A wisp of a smile passed across his chiseled features as he passed in front of the wall of memories. His eyes brightened just a hair until he remembered why he was up so early.

His first day off in he didn't know how long, a day for catching up on some much needed sleep, maybe a few hours volunteering down at the shelter, and it had been cut off before it could even begin. His emergency police radio had crackled to life, bearing the worst sort of news. There had been another killing, and Gusto knew he wasn't going to be getting any rest until it was solved.

After a spartan breakfast of a banana and a bottle of water, Gusto trudged to the doorway and donned his black mesh vest bearing the logo of the Manehatten Police Department. He ran through his usual mental checklist: he flicked his polished gold detective badge, ensuring that it was properly affixed to his right breast pocket. Then he gave a quick pat to his left foreleg pouch, the heavy weight within giving him the grim satisfaction that his telescoping baton was inside. Finally, he clicked on the hoof-held radio sitting in his left breast pocket, turning the dial until it locked onto the police band with a squelching whine. He popped the earpiece in and clicked the call button. “Dispatch, Badge Three-Four-Seven coming back on the net.”

A few seconds of static. “Copy that, Three-Four-Seven. Stand by for traffic from scene.”

Gusto rolled his eyes as he reached for the doorknob. “Well, that didn’t take long."

He had to squint away from the bright morning sun as he locked the door behind him. With a brief flitter of his wings he hopped off the walkway, his hooves only making a soft noise as he landed on the large cloud that held the complex aloft. Nearly three city blocks worth of apartments, condos, and townhomes hung just above the outskirts of Manehatten city lines. Gusto trotted through the expansive courtyard, offering only a nod to the several residents who greeted him.

"Hey, Mr. Gusto!" came a tiny voice from behind him. A griffon chick and an auburn pegasus filly were running towards him.

Despite his mood, Gusto smiled at them. "Hi, Franny! Good morning, Rose."

The filly's cheeks erupted, and she began digging at the cloud beneath her. "H-hey, Vinny."

"Careful with the digging, Rose,” the griffon teased. “Wouldn't want to fall to your death in front of your boyfriend, would you?"

"Sh-Shut up, Franziska!" Rose reached over to shove the griffon.

The griffon shoved her back. "I told you not to call me that!"

"Hey, hey, play nice! Shouldn't you two be in school right now?" he asked, still walking towards the edge of the cloud.

"Nuh-uh," the chick said. "It's some Diamond Dog holiday, High Alpha... er, somethin' or other."

"Oh, I see." Gusto reached over to muss the filly's peach-colored mane. "Important enough to get a day off, just not enough to remember the name, cutie?"

Rose grumbled and eased out from beneath his hoof, her cheeks flaming. "Knock it off, ya jerk!"

"Hey, language!" he said through a smirk, standing just a bit straighter than before.

She pouted up at him. "What, you gonna arrest me?"

"Worse. I'll tell your mother."

The filly stiffened, and the griffon laughed at her before looking up at Gusto hopefully. "So, are ya gonna come by the Center tonight? We need to know what happens to Daring Do!"

"Yeah!" the filly joined in. "Does she get away with the Prince's gem?"

Gusto opened his mouth, but a loud squelch cut him off. "Three-Four-Seven, traffic coming through."

He sighed. "I think I'm going to be at work late tonight, girls." They groaned in disappointment, and Gusto shook his head. "Sorry. You two behave yourselves. Don't burn the cloud down."

The chick gasped. "Could... could that even happen?"

"With you two? You'd find a way." He winked, earning a titter from the filly, then walked out of the courtyard. "This is Three-Four-Seven, send it."

“Three-Four-Seven, this is Uni Four-Oh on scene. Are you, uh... you on your way?”

Gusto frowned; the cop on the other end sounded harried. “Be there in ten. Why?”

The radio keyed several times, as if the officer on the other end was reluctant to speak. “Copy, we have a, uh... a situation.”

Gusto scoffed. He stepped out of his apartment building, easing shut the gate behind him. “Situation? Mind being a bit more specific?”

“Well...” A moment of static, and then another voice came through the speaker, this one nasal and indignant.

“Haven’t you ever heard of freedom of the press?! I’m a Hooflitzer Prize winning journalist! The ponies have a right to know, you mother b—”

Gusto sighed deeply. “Slick Back?”

Several more moments of hissing static. “Got it in one, Three-Four-Seven.”

“Copy.” Gusto walked towards the edge of the cloud that held his complex. “Gonna be one of those days,” he muttered, and stepped off the edge.

Gusto allowed himself to plummet for several long seconds, letting the screaming wind drive the last bit of sleep from his mind. Finally, he opened his eyes and slowly eased his wings out from his side. The strain made him wince just a bit, but after a few moments his flight leveled off and he was gliding above the cityscape.

The mid-morning sun bathed the high-rises and skyscrapers in warm orange light, its heat quickly eating away at whatever pre-dawn coolness remained. Gusto looked down, noting his position. Maredisan Square Garden was just below him, putting him just to the east of Midtown. Angling his wings slightly, he began a slow bank to the west. Gusto could hear the sounds of the city over the steady beat of his wings, individual sounds blurred together by volume and altitude. A thousand bleating horns of carriages stuck in traffic made a shrill counterpoint to the coo and flutter of pigeons being shooed from their roosts by joggers and cyclists in Central Park.

Finally, his keen eyes spotted his goal: a dome of shimmering magic surrounding an alley. The dome was a low powered reflective field designed to keep snooping eyes at bay. The surrounding block had been cordoned off by police tape, and uniformed MPD officers could be seen patrolling the perimeter. Several police carriages and one large paddy wagon—crime scene techs setting up shop, most likely—were parked in the middle of the street. Off to one side, a rusted trash barge sat abandoned save for a an earth pony sitting on the fender. He was naked except for a bandage around his ankle. A unicorn in uniform was talking to him, scribbling onto a notepad that floated in the air beside him. A large, beefy Minotaur stood on the opposite side of the barge, being interviewed by a trembling earth pony officer.

A few ponies stood idly by on the other side of the tape, most likely just curious about the commotion, though when Gusto saw a particular unicorn with a pad and pen in the crowd a deep sigh escaped him. He could recognize that stark yellow coat, cowlicked brown mane and floating notepad and quill anywhere.

Emitting a low groan, Gusto angled his wings toward the small gathering. He was already dreading the headache that was sure to come if he had to convince the unicorn to leave.

His hooves touched the ground with a clink of his standard-issue horseshoes. As he approached the scene the young unicorn who had been interviewing the garbage pony walked up to him. “Detective Gusto.”

Gusto nodded and held out his hoof. “Silver, nice to see you again. How’s the wife?”

Silver bumped Gusto’s hoof. “Good. Doc says she’s about two weeks from popping. Heh, she told me that once the foal comes, we’ll—”

"Detective Gusto!” The reporter had finally noticed Gusto and was stomping towards him. “Finally, an actual professional and not some Gestapo goose stepper!" His voice was low and throaty, carrying an air of smug entitlement that never failed to ruffle Gusto's feathers.

"Slick Back," Gusto said with a nod to the two officers, who shot him the faintest of appreciative smiles.  "Still trying to tame that mane, I see."

The unicorn self-consciously patted down the jarring cowlick jutting from atop his head. "So, Detective, is it true? Have you discovered another body?"

Gusto flicked an ear at him. "No comment." He turned toward the unicorn officer, whose horn was glowing brightly. "How are you holding up?"

"Fine, Detective. Got the shield up as soon as I got here, but I'll be glad when I can lower it."

Slick Back piped back up. "Ah, that's not a denial!"

"How did you even hear about this so soon, Slick Back?" Gusto said, glaring at the scrawny unicorn. "You haven't been listening in on the police band again, have you?"

"I will not reveal my sources. And anyway, you have bigger fish to fry, Detective! The first actual serial killer in over a hundred years? Mutilated bodies, thrown out like trash in the heart of Equestria’s largest city?”

“You always this dramatic, Slick, or only when you smell a book deal?”

Slick gave a haughty snort. "My, quite a blasé attitude coming from the lead detective on the most heinous crime in the past century!"

Gusto froze mid-step. He slowly turned to see the smug grin on Slick's face. "Just what is that supposed to mean?"

"Oh, come on, Vinny." Slick seemed to take a great deal of pleasure in the way Gusto twitched at the sound of his nickname. "This is the City of a Thousand Lights! Fraud, a little robbery, the occasional assault or domestic violence are the crime du jour in this town. But even the most violent beating is a far cry from serial murder, wouldn't you say?"

"I wouldn’t say anything to you, Slick," Gusto said through clenched teeth.

"Oh, and I'm sure the ponies would just love to know the police care so little about their well-being that they won’t even give the top reporter in the city the time of day."

“Slick Back, stop it!” The unicorn jumped as Gusto rounded on him.“You know damn well you don't give two bucks about 'the ponies' well-being outside of your chances at a Hooflitzer!"

"A second Hooflitzer, thank you," he corrected. "And I'll have you know I care deeply for the safety of my readers!"

Gusto shook his head and growled, then locked eyes with the unicorn. "Listen to me closely, Slick." He spoke slowly, powerfully. "Every other paper in the city is waiting for the official statement, and you need to do the same. Let us do our jobs, and wait for the press conference.”

Slick Back blinked several times, then hung his head. “Okay, okay. Still, come on, Vinny! You gotta give me something!”

“Slick!” Gusto held his gaze, his eyes hard as stone. “Go. Home!”

Slick Back blinked several more times, then sighed. “All right, all right,” he mumbled before turning tail.

As the unicorn ambled off, Silver patted Gusto on the back. “Jeez, Vinny, you gotta teach me that trick some time!”

Gusto winced slightly, rubbing his forehead. “Eh, I have a lot of experience with parasites like that. They’re like dogs, you just have to show dominance."

Silver laughed, but his smile looked forced. "Still, you know he, uh..." He shuffled his hooves a bit. "He has a point, Vin."

"Don’t you start, too. Now, bring me up to speed,” he said, ushering Silver towards the alley.

“Okay, Sanitation called it in at six-thirty this morning.” He paused to lift the crime scene tape, letting Gusto step under. “The barge was making its rounds this morning when the workers found the body in the dumping zone between these two apartment buildings.” He gestured to the looming brick structures towering over them.

"How are they holding up?"

"Eh, the one, an earth pony named Pipe Wrench, twisted his ankle trying to get out from under, but other than that he's doing as well as can be expected after... well, you know."

Gusto nodded in grim agreement. The two rounded the mouth of the alley and Gusto felt the tickle of magic as they crossed the barrier. "What about the body? She in the same kind of shape as the others?"

Silver averted his eyes. "I don't know. I, uh... I ain't looked at it yet."

Gusto fixed him with a glare. "And why n—"

A loud retch was Gusto's only warning before a young earth pony officer nearly barreled him over and leaned a hoof against the brick wall, coughing violently. Gusto leaped back just as a wave of sick spewed from the pony's mouth accompanied by another heaving groan.

Gusto said nothing, offering only a few reassuring pats on the pony's back while staying far enough away to avoid any cast off. The pony convulsed a few more times, muttering several oaths to the Princesses, then stood up on quivering legs and wiped away a thin stream of yellowish bile from his mouth. "S-sorry, Detective. I, I-I just... I never seen..."

"Hey, hey, don't sweat it, kid." Gusto ran a easy hoof over the pony's back. "It's not something you see every day. Tell you what, you see that bodega across the way?" He gestured across the street, and the young officer nodded. "Here's what I want you to do. Go over there, get yourself some water, then go canvas the block, see if somepony saw anything, okay?"

The pony shot Gusto a shaky smile, ran the back of his hoof across his mouth again and nodded. "Yeah, yeah, sure thing, Detective."

"Vinny," he said with a tiny grin. "Now, get going."

"Yes, sir." With that, the young earth pony ambled away, spitting a bit more bile as he walked.

Gusto pointed a hoof to the alley, and he and Silver walked in. The building on the right was the same ruddy color of countless others in the city, with lighter patches showing where efforts to remove graffiti had cleaned off some of the ever-present grime. Rusty fire escapes lined the entire side of the building like metal ivy climbing towards the top. The left structure was identical save for one area: a large rectangle marked off with red that would usually be piled high with trash.

The smell of the urban jungle—a heady aroma of industry, hot pavement, burnt rubber, and the faintly pungent sting of manacurrents that ran beneath the concrete—filled him with every breath, but there was something new today. Just noticeable above the faint smell of garbage and brick was a sickly sweet stench, slightly metallic in his nostrils and on his tongue. Taking a deep breath, he approached the white sheet laid atop a pony-shaped lump.

Throughout the alley, several ponies were milling about. A crime scene tech was taking pictures of something, and another was gingerly folding a large plastic sheet that was stained with blood. "That what the body was wrapped up in?"

 Silver answered with an uneasy nod as they approached the body. A unicorn was slowly feeding power into four hoof-sized crystals surrounding the body. Gusto stepped next to him, ducking under the thin beam of magic. "We almost ready?"

"A few more minutes, Detective."

Gusto nodded and knelt down next to the sheet, Silver hovering over his shoulder. “We have an ID yet?”

Silver shook his head. "Horn spiral pattern hasn't gotten a result yet, but that could be the system being slow."

Gusto reached a hoof to the sheet, gingerly lifting it to peek underneath. A small pang hit his chest. The unicorn was broken and bruised, her once pristine coat marred by abrasions and bloodstains. Tiny bumps and ridges could be seen along her chest, hinting at the damage hiding beneath.

Behind him, Gusto could hear Silver swallow his gorge. "Jeez, somepony worked her over good."

"Just like the others," Gusto muttered. Adjusting himself on the ground, he moved his hoof to lift the remainder of the sheet, revealing the mare's head. She was a unicorn, like the second victim had been. Her fiery red mane was in tatters. He noted all of that distantly, his eyes drawn to her face and...

"Oh... oh, goddess, Vinny.”

"Keep it together, Officer." Gusto didn't spare a glance back at him, though he could hear Silver's heaving breaths, and he understood why. All the damage to the poor mare’s body was nothing compared to her eyes: they had been shredded, leaving a pulpy mess inside a pair of ragged, gaping holes. Just like all the others...

“She... she looks like my kid sister."

“Officer Silvermane, knock it off.”

Silver Silver took a rough step back from the body, his breathing deep and slow and very tightly controlled. "Think... think she's a runaway?"

Gusto's eyes narrowed. "Not likely. Take a look at her hooves." He pointed towards the mare's well-kept hooves, though he knew that Silver was most likely looking at anything but the body. "Walls are smooth, not a single crack, and," he leaned down further to inspect the underside, "her frog is bleached. Hooficure like that costs money, and you don't spend that much on your looks if you don't know when your next meal's coming."

"How do you know all that?"

"You're not the only pony with a little sister."

Silver gulped. "Well, you never talk about, about your... jeez, Vinny. How can you be so... so, casual with this?"

"I'm not."

"You're acting like this happens every day! Why ain’t you—”

"Why aren't I what? Tell me, what would you like me to do? Scream, cry, run around shouting 'Dear Celestia, were all gonna die?' What would that accomplish?" Gusto cast an icy glare over his shoulder. "I'll tell you what: nothing. Best way we can honor her is to catch the son of a goat who did this, and the best way to do that is to stay calm."

“But... but—”

Gusto heaved a sigh and gently laid the sheet back onto the mare, then rose to his hooves. “Look, Silver, you think I like this? I like looking at young ponies torn up? No, but we’re police officers. When bad things happen, ponies look to us. We start panicking, they start panicking. It’s our job to be strong for them, got it?”

Silver took a few more deep breaths, then looked back to Gusto. “Y-yeah, you’re... you’re right, Vinny. Sorry, I—”

Gusto's ears twitched, the hairs on the back of his neck rising as the crackle of electricity sounded through the alley. "All right, transit's ready, Detective."

Gusto turned to look at the unicorn tech standing next to the largest crystal. "The fields set properly? I don't want any foreign magic contaminating the body this time."

"I got it, Detective. Everything is nominal."

"Nominal, right. Okay. Silver, you ride with the body. Tell Doc Vlad I want the autopsy done yesterday. Trace, toxicology, the works, got it?" Silver nodded. "And check with Missing Ponies; see if somepony matching her description has been reported."

Silver gulped and stepped closer to the body."Yeah, you got it, Vinny. Oh, here." He tossed his notepad to Gusto, who caught it with his wing and nodded.

Gusto sniffed; the air was tinged with the scent of ozone, the crystals filling with a deep, azure glow. There was a low buzz in his ears, and he would swear that he could see the damn things vibrating. He took a few more steps back from the body, the magic in the air tickling his spine a bit.

"Alright, everypony step back." The unicorn tech's brow creased, and the dim glow of his horn blazed to life. Everypony in the alley backed away from the scene. Streams of mana flowed between each crystal, forming a webbed dome over the body and the shaking Officer Silver.

Gusto squinted against the harsh light from the tech's horn, grimacing at the twinge in his spine from the buildup of unicorn magic. Then, with a surprisingly quiet pop and a blinding flash of light, the body, crystals, and officer were gone. Gusto blinked hard and shook the blind spots from his vision. "Alright, everypony. Back to work."

The crowd dissipated. Gusto turned back to the empty alley, his practiced eyes scrolling across every surface as he performed a painfully slow scan. Years of investigating had taught him that every detail, no matter how small, could make or break a case. Still, he mused, this was unlike anything the city had seen in years.

Gusto let out a long sigh and closed his eyes, clearing his mind. Several deep breaths later, he opened them back into a determined glare and looked around. The alley was as nondescript as one could ever think of: red brick walls on both sides, flat pavement ground, and ending in a dead end. He walked slowly towards the far end, nimbly stepping around a tech staring intently at some spot on the wall. Gusto stepped up the the wall and laid a hoof on it, feeling the rough, coarse texture running across the frog of his hoof. The building it was attached to was only three stories high, as opposed to the probably six or more of the apartment buildings that flanked him. Flipping out Silver's notepad, he saw that it was a corner store, at least he thought it said that; for a unicorn, Silver had terrible penmanship.

He put the notepad back in his pocket and turned around. The mouth of the alley was the only logical entry point, and it was open to the street and surrounded on all sides by apartments. Somepony must have seen something. There had to be dozens of families in each building, there was no way—

Gusto's tail twitched. His blue eyes narrowed a bit, and he took yet another slow scan of the alley. Only two techs remained, the others apparently having completed whatever task they had been assigned. In the middle of the alley, a chalk outline of a unicorn stood out against the red paint of the trash dumping area. A single puddle of blood, smeared apparently from when the body fell out of the plastic, lay in the middle.

Gusto walked over and knelt down next to it. Several bloody hoofprints stained the ground from when the garbage pony had slipped, but beyond that, the alley was surprisingly...

Clean.

Gusto stood back up and marched toward the mouth of the alley. Looking left and right, his eyes locked on his target. "Excuse me, Mister, erm," he flicked back the cover of Silver's notepad, "Mister Wrench."

The blue stallion  looked up at him from the fender he sat on. "Uh, yes sir?"

"I'm Detective Gusto." He reached out a hoof, which the earth pony bumped in kind. "I'm the lead detective on this case. How are you holding up?"

"Uh, alright, I guess." His voice was breathy. Gusto could see the minor twitches under his skin and the still wide pupils in his eyes; obviously, he was anything but 'alright.'

Still, Gusto pressed on. "I know you've been through this a hundred times, but you think you could walk me through how you discovered the body?"

Pipe's ears flicked hard at the word 'body.' "Uh, sure-sure. Well, my shift started at four this morning. Me, Lunk, and Mickey got to the yard—"

"Skip to the body, if you please, sir?"

The earth pony nodded. "We had just passed Maresian street, on our way back up to Ninth Avenue, when we stopped." He chuckled mirthlessly. "If only that light bulb hadn't flickered on..."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, we had almost passed the alley, since I didn't see anything in the zone, but right before we rode past the light above it turned on and I saw... well, you know. At first I didn’t notice anything odd, but then I... I saw the blood. And when I pulled on the plastic...” A deep shudder ran through his bulky frame.

"I see," Gusto murmured, eyes in the notepad instead of the pony. "Tell me, what did you do after you found it?"

"After it," Pipe shuddered yet again, "well, after I found it, I ran back to the barge and we radioed in to you guys."

"Uh-huh. You didn't continue your route?" Pipe shook his head. "You didn't do anything else besides radio it in? Didn't touch anything, move anything?"

"No, sir," he said with a resolute shake of his head. "You couldn'ta paid me to go back in that alley!"

"Right, right." Gusto folded the notepad back up and finally looked up at Pipe. "Alright, Mister Wrench, thanks for all your help. Once the EMTs finish looking you over, you're free to go.” His eyes made a quick scan over Pipe’s body. “I’m sorry, but we have to keep the overalls. Evidence and all that.”

Pipe blew out a breath. “Keep them, please. I don’t never want to see them again.”

Gusto nodded. “Just make sure you stay somewhere we can reach you if we need to, alright?"

Pipe offered a shaky nod. "Sure thing, Officer."

"Detective." Gusto gave the stallion one more reassuring pat, then turned back to the now calming crime scene, but his eyes went further. He looked towards the building on the right of the alley. Several ponies had gathered on the stoop, all trying to see something, anything, about what was going on. He couldn't hear, but he could see the residents murmuring to each other. Gusto looked up, and at least one window on every floor had a someone gazing down on the organized chaos below. Turning his head to the left, the other apartment was exactly the same.

His eyes narrowing, Gusto turned back towards the alley. "Hey, you!" A uniformed earth pony who had been talking to the large Minotaur looked up at Gusto. "Yeah, you. Come here." The officer nodded and followed Gusto back into the alley.

The last tech had finished his work, leaving Gusto and the other officer alone in the alley. Gusto came to a stop right next to the chalk outline and turned back to face the other pony, but his eyes continued to flick around the ground. "Okay, tell me, Officer, uh..."

"Deep Ridge, sir."

"Right, Officer Ridge. Tell me, what don't you see?"

Ridge arched his eyebrow, then turned to perform his own scan of the alley. "Well, uh... there's a scuff on the ground near the mouth—"

"No, no," Gusto cut him off. "Not what do you see, what don't you see." The officer blinked several times, and Gusto rolled his eyes at the blank stare he gave him. "Come on, think. What should be in this alley that isn't?"

"Um... I, uh..."

"Trash!" Gusto gestured to the walls. "Both of these buildings are full of ponies, and the last pick up was..."

After several seconds of silence, Officer Ridge finally got the hint and fumbled around to pull out his notepad. "Um, Thursday morning."

Gusto fixed him with a mild smirk. "Exactly! An entire weekend in the middle of summer with two buildings full of families? There should be a mountain of garbage here, but look," he did a slow spin, pointing at the ground be earth him, "not even a stain in the ground!"

The officer gave a very hesitant nod. "Um, o... kay, so what?"

Gusto furrowed his brow. "Wait right here." Gusto hurried out of the alley. Back in the street, he looked back and forth, scanning the sidewalks and the street, before finally landing on the adjacent alley. Gusto pushed his way past the ponies mulling about heading towards the alley, though his eyes were on the street; the perfectly clean street. Not even a dropped banana peel...

His steps increased as he approached the mouth of the other alley, and the pungent aroma of spoiled milk and other foul smells slammed into his nostrils. Despite the stench, Gusto couldn't hide a triumphant grin as he slowed to a stop in front of a staggering mountain of refuse. He turned and hurried back to the mouth, looking at the two buildings flanking him: a townhome and the bodega he directed the sick officer to before. His smile grew a hair wider.

Turning his head, he shouted back at the group of ponies loading evidence in the back of a large paddy wagon. "Hey, squints!" Several ponies glared at him from the use of the derogatory nickname, but it didn't faze him. "Any of you got that, uh..." he twirled a hoof, "Sparkler... detection doohickey?"

A painfully thin unicorn with a purple mane plastered to his head with way too much gel scowled at him. "You mean the Sparkle Thaumatic Detector?"

"Yeah, that. Bring that over here," he said before darting back into the alley. He stood back in front of the pile, estimating it to be just a hair taller than him. Way too much for a brownstone and a bodega...

The tech finally joined him in the alley carrying a long tubular device with a glowing crystal at the end and blinking lights affixed along the shaft, attached to a large pack in his back by a thick hose. "You called, my lord?" the frail unicorn seethed, obviously struggling to bear the heavy equipment.

Gusto chose to ignore his snark, and the shaking of his knees. "Yeah. I want a good scan of this entire pile. Look for anything unusual."

"Unusual," his leg buckled briefly under the strain, "about the pile of trash? Care t... to be more specific, Detective?"

Gusto shook his head. "No, just anything that sticks out. Also run it over the street between here and the crime scene."

The unicorn growled at him and trudged up to the immense trash pile. The large pack he wore began to whine and hiss as he fiddled with several knobs on the wand. With a tiny crack of electricity, the gem flickered to life, casting pale yellow light on the garbage.

For the next several minutes, the scrawny tech waved the oversized wand back and forth over the trash pile, drawing a slow, lazy serpentine from top to bottom. Gusto's left ear flicked impatiently; the whine of the device was irritatingly loud in the confines of the alley, and he could swear he saw the tiniest smug grin in the tech as he moved the wand at a glacial pace.

Finally, the narrow beam of magic had run over every inch of the pile, and the tech moved to scan the ground. As he moved towards the mouth of the alley—again, at a pace that would make a sloth seem hyperactive—his pointy nose wrinkled, as if only just now noticing the stench of the fetid waste, and his oversized ears fell flat against his head. "Come on, you stupid..." He gave a few light slaps to the device, which emitted a series of wonky tones at the abuse.

"What? What's wrong?"

She the tech turned to look at Gusto, his face no longer bore slight disdain, but confusion. "Well, Detective, the device picked up a heavy layer or residual thaumatic radiation over the trash pile, one consistent with active magic, but it's not picking up anything on the ground around it."

It was Gusto's turn to grin smugly. "Come with me," he said, turning to trot back to the alley where officer Ridge still stood.

Once the tech panted and struggled his way over, Gusto pointed towards the red outline of the waste dumping area. "Now here."

With a grunt, the tech began the process again. Several minutes later, he frowned. "Same thing here, Detective. Huge residue in the pile, but nothing in the street."

Gusto slammed his hoof on the ground. "Ha! Yahtzee!" When the tech just blinked, Gusto rolled his eyes. "Come on, neither of you see it? Look, no garbage over here," he moved back to the mouth of the alley and pointed a wing across the street, "and a mountain of garbage over there! Not only that, but take a look at the ground. Not one stain, not so much as a drop, you could eat off this street!"

The tech and Officer Ridge shared a confused glance. Ridge cleared his throat. "Which means..."

"Which means the killer moved the trash from here to there!"

"Um... why?"

Gusto shrugged. "I don't know, but the better question is how. This guy moved a huge pile of trash across the street without dropping so much as a coffee ground, and did it quick enough that nopony in two apartment complexes saw him do it. Either he's the single most talented creature in Equestria, or..."

The tech's eyes brightened. "Displacement magic!"

"So, what, like teleporting?" Ridge asked.

"No, no, teleportation refers to moving oneself through space. This would more be spatial displacement." For the first time that day, the tech smiled at Gusto. "And only unicorns can do that."

"Exactly!" Gusto stamped his hoof again. "Officer Ridge, we now know we're looking for a unicorn!"

Ridge smiled, but quickly frowned again. "Uh, sir, ain't there, like, a few hundred thousand unicorns in Manehatten?"

Gusto didn't look discouraged. "Well, a hundred thousand down from two million is a hay of a lot better odds th—"

 Gusto's radio suddenly crackled to life. "Badge Three-Four-Seven, this is Uni Four-Oh, over."

Gusto keyed his headset. "Three-Four-Seven, send it."

"Yeah, you, uh, you on your way to the station yet? Over."

"No, why? Over."

A few seconds of static hiss. "Uh, we have a bit of a, a situation in the morgue, over."

Gusto rolled his eyes. "What now, Silver?"

Silence for a moment. "You better just get down here, Vinny. Uni Four-Oh, out."

Gusto clicked off his radio with a loud sigh. He trudged past the groaning tech waving the large device over the garbage and stepped out of the alley, flaring his wings.

It was definitely gonna be one of those days.