Old Amethyst

Renaultar turned to Blue, leaning in toward her in a confrontational manner. "...How did YOU get here? How do i even know its you? Why should i trust you? You could be one of those...ghosts!"

Blue looked down at herself "Do I look like a ghost?" Points to the dead mare "Does she look like one? " She turned back around, catching her breath. "I heard there were machine parts in the mine. I'm not paying a junk man outrageous prices for outdated machinery!" And turns back to him. "The better question is, what are you doing here you ten inch thick guard?"

"I'm here on a 'missing persons' investigation. I even told you that I would be out of town a few days. And I don't think I should believe your even here. For all i know next time i put my back to you you'll stab me, or maybe that killer will come and kill you so i can feel guilty about that too!" He slammed his hooves into the ground before wiping his eyes.

Blue frowned. Kindness was getting nowhere. It was time to prod again in a different way, one that she knew would either make him come to his senses, or utterly break the poor guard. So she smacked Renaultar hard over his helmeted head and angrily pressed her forehead against his, staring him down as she launched into one of her famous tirades. "Celestia dammit Renaultar, you can doubt your stallionhood all you like, that's your personal business, but I'll be DAMNED if you're going to doubt my existence! Yeah, you told me you were going out of town for a few days but you didn't say for how long, where exactly you were going, or what your interest was in an abandoned town in the mountains! I thought your superiors just slapped you with a crap job to get you out of their hair so they could enjoy their Neighponese foal prostitutes in peace! Now shut your damn mouth and stop worrying! I've got enough brains for the both of us, which isn't saying much since a rock farm bumpkin could easily half his mind between you. And what makes you think something as ridiculous as a shadow is going to slit my throat? Do you not know me well enough, boy? In the years you've been bailing my ass out of trouble? I break a few legs and ribs, and what do those two bit crooks on the street do to me, eh? They're lucky to wind me!"

At the end of her rant, she pulled back and smacked him again. "Dammit boy, what's wrong with you?"

Renaultar took the first smack on the head like his mother had been threatened, but as Blue's words weighed in, he began to show doubt. His anger and certainty began to crumble, and by the time Blue had smacked him again, he was outright despairing.

Renaultar felt himself shaking in place, ashamed and afraid. "Blue...I....I don't know...I just don't know..." He looked to the dead mare not too far away and fell to his knees, trying to hold himself together. "I can't....I almost...." He wiped his eye, refusing to let anything flow freely from it.