Detective Rarity Chronicles Pt. I - Bad Blood

by RarestRarity1779

Intermission 2 (OPTIONAL)

The moon had set high in the sky and the hundreds, perhaps thousands of candlelit street lamps flickered dimly in the moonlight. It was at that point of night where activity seems to all but cease and it appears that the only sentient beings out and about are public servants, the occasional weary traveler, and, of course, murderers and detectives.

Near the very heart of downtown at the Central Police Station, small groups of police officers huddled around the exterior of the building. Some smoked cigars and cigarettes, others drank cups of coffee or glass bottles of sarsaparilla or cola, and some talked with each other while others merely stood silent and wrote in their notebooks. Somewhere, in either the closest or the furthest of distances, dependent upon whom you asked, a scream pierced the air. Almost every officer cocked their ears and heads and listened intently, but only some ran off at full gallop in the direction of the screams, while others simply shook their heads, muttered comments such as “Damned Griffons” and carried on about their business. A few that ran to investigate would return only moments later with bored and uninterested looks upon their faces while some others lingered behind in search of a victim or a perpetrator. They had hoped for a little bit of action on a small night, or at least an interesting story to tell, but instead only found themselves with a few more pages of paperwork.

Meanwhile, deep in the bowels of the police headquarters, things were not going as typically as they were on the surface nor as they usually would be in the otherwise neat and clean records room. Mere moments before Rarity had cast a powerful organizational spell, boxes lay shifted out of place, teetering on the edges of their shelves; papers and curious financial records sat in unorganized piles, and somewhere hidden in the midst of it all was a sleeping dragon. Rarity took one final look at her handy work and shuffled absentmindedly through the last box full of financial records that she and Spike, though largely herself, had spent the last six hours scanning over. Once she saw that everything was back in its rightful place she lifted the box up onto a shelf with her magic and pushed it uniform with the other boxes that flanked it on the left and right. A yawn escaped her mouth and she carefully, gently scooped the tiny dragon up and laid him across her back so that she could leave. After she ascended the stairs slowly and tiredly, she heaved a sigh of relief when a stocky officer, the watch commander, wished her a good night, pulled the door open for her, and ushered her out into the night where she got that first breath of fresh air that she had been longing for since she had initially gone inside six hours ago.

She descended the three stone steps in front and crossed the few groups of police officers that had been standing there. Some smiled and nodded to her, “Goodnight detective,” while others merely nodded in her direction or shot a glance at her. As she trudged on, she returned their wishes appropriately and afterwards eventually strayed further and further from the relative safety of the police station. She could see the lights of her apartment building twinkling in the near-distance as it towered over some buildings and was itself dwarfed by others. But what she did not notice is that somewhere amidst the shadows of all those dark buildings, very near herself, a cloaked figure followed her silently, intently. As she crossed crosswalks and turned corners, the dark figure followed her every move but took the greatest of care so as not to step into the light or make even the slightest sound. The figure acted as a shadow and moved as a shadow, completely unnoticed by the famed detective’s unparalleled senses. Even when Rarity approached the well-lit and secured front door of her building, the figure was able to stay completely engulfed in the silence of the shadows, where it stood waiting and watching intently for a time. Rarity would eventually ascend the stairs, enter into her apartment, and fall into a much needed deep sleep like her coldblooded companion had, but one wonders if she would have been rested so peacefully if she had only known of her secret stalker.