Ponies trotting around the outside and inside of my apartment building. Securing the scene. Barriers up on both ends of the sidewalk, stopping civilians from seeing, or tampering with, the evidence. They made me sit in an ambulance with a blanket around my shoulders. Silver finishes his statement to the police then trots over to me.

"They're going to look at the servalance tapes. And the M.E. said he's sending the box to Canterlot morgue, the morgue with the corpse. Hopefully to be a match." Silver informs me.

"The keep putting this blanket on me, why do they keep putting this blanket on me!?" I ask him, with a tinge of anger in my voice.

"You're in shock."

"I'm not in shock!" I persist to Silver. "I need to go to the morgue and check the corpse. And yell at that M.E. for not cleaning the bones out of the body." I tell him, standing up and taking the blanket off with my right wing.

"You're going now? It's like, eleven. Are you crazy?" He asks me, standing by my side.

"I'm not crazy" i inform him "I'm in shock." I say, throwing the blanket on him.

I walk up to the Canterlot morgue, taking in the smell of midnight freshness, preparing myself for the smell of rotting flesh I'm going to have to endure. The morgue looks like an old police station, standing next to the RCIS headquarters. Inhaling a second deep breath, exhaling, I walk into the building. Silver didn't want to come, it being so late. I look around the reception area. It's bland, no decorations, no chairs, no waiting tables. Just an empty room with an empty clerks desk at the far end. I make my way over, flash my badge to the clerk, he nods, and I walk through. I make it to the fun part of the building, starting with plastic swinging doors big enough to push a gurney through. Making way past those doors is a freezing room, I shiver, looking around. The whole left wall nothing but roll out freezers for the corpses stored here. In the center of the room, is a row of three medical tables, two inch walls on the edges of the tables, to catch blood and lead it to a drain at the edge of the table.

"Knock knock!" I yell, immediately regretting it, feeling my partner's Idiocracy finely rubbing off on me after working with him for six years.

"I'm coming! I'm coming!" I hear a male voice respond from behind another door directly in front of me, on the other side of the room. A couple seconds after, the doors swing open, and a yellow Colt walks through. He's wearing a mask over his muzzle, and a white lab coat. Due to said coat, I am unable to see his Cutie Mark.

"Mr. Shade, I presume?" I ask, walking towards him.

"Please, call me Alex. And, let me guess. Celestia's head hippologist, Andreah Reigns?" He says walking over to The table closest to him.

"You guessed it. Has the flank meat arrived yet?" I inquire, going to the opposite side of the table.

"Not yet. But, you want to look at the corpse again?" His horn lighting up yellow as he asks that. He opens the door with his magic as soon as he hears me agree. The freezer door opens with a hiss, and the tray rolls out. He picks up the tray and levitates it over to the table in front of us. He sets it down and I'm looking at the taunting message I saw just yesterday. I slip on gloves over my front Hooves and delicately feel the carvings. They're deep, all the way. Meaning that the perp wasn't scared to do this.

"I dunt think that this was his first killing." I say to Alex.

"What makes you think that?" He asks.

"Look at the way these carvings are. They're deep, no hesitation marks at all. Showing they weren't scared to do this." I tell him. This might not be my field of knowing, but I sure as hell know that much. Then, from behind me I hear wheels squeek and push through the plastic doors. I turn and see a green apple coloured mare push a gurney with a cardboard box on it.

"Yes yes!!" I shout with Glee. "Put it here." I say turning around to another table. The mare does so. I thank her and open the box. I see the slabs of meat I saw only a couple of hours earlier. Alex levitates the unmarked one from the box and setting it in place on the mare on the table. It fit, he replaced it in the box and levitates the other slab. With my help, he flips the mare over. He attempts to refit the flank.

"It's too big, it won't fit. Wait, it seems there's something imbedded in the flesh." I watch him take a scalpel and cut into the meat side of the flank. Using his magic, he removes a bloody, trifolded note paper. He hoofs it to me.

"For you, I assume." He says. I grab it and unfold it, written very sloppily is the words: 'you took EVERYTHING from me now I'm going to take EVERYTHING from you'. Under all that is a photo of me walking next to my partner.

"Send it to the lab, examine everything for DNA that could be left by the killer."

I sit in my Canterlot office at headquarters. Silver in the client chair.

"Aside from getting those items tested, I'm stumped on what to do next." I tell him.
I made a mistake making the client chair one with wheels.

"Well." Silver says, rolling the chair my way, stopping next to me. "How 'bout a date? Hmmm? Your stressed, and I've got the bits. Just name the restaurant." He says, like it's a normal, everyday thing to say. I'll admit, I've had a sneaking attraction to Silver Colt for about a year. I've tried to keep it platonic, due to the fact that he's my law inforcement partner. But, I guess I'll let it slip this ONE time.

"This one time." I tell him.

"WHOOOOO!!" he shouts, holding both hooves in the air rolling his chair across my office.

"But, as you said, I choose where we eat." I interject before he accedently breaks something. He turns the chair to face me. .

"Of course madam." He tries to act proper. Which is completely broken by his goofy smile.

I get up and grab my stuff.

"Well, I'll see you tomorrow, mister." I say, and walk over to the door. He opens it for me, I thank him and he nods. As soon as I exit he closes the door and shouts a really loud 'YEAAAH!" I just roll my eyes and smile.

Author's Note

Oooooh, getting toasty in here!