---------Crime In Canterlot: Discovery---------[/b]
I exhaled smoke from my mouth, watching it curl around the falling snow flakes. The ice crystals danced around the smoke, seeming to avoid it as dispersed into the frigid night.
I took one last drag of my “Galloping Red Pony” cigarette and spat the butt on to the ground. Normally in Canterlot one could get a fine for littering, but in the South Quarter, where all the bars and sultry adult themed entertainment centers were, nopony cared about litter. I turned on my heel and made eye contact with the bouncer, he nodded and pushed the door open with his hoof.
Beats from inside Club eQuest enveloped me as I wiped my hooves at the entrance, soon I felt myself shaking my mane to the beat. Dj Griff was spinning discs tonight and he apparently knew how to put on a good show. I assumed my normal position at the bar and ordered a drink.
“Vodka Diet” I heard myself say over the music.
Jake “The Snake”, the bartender nodded his head and swiftly went off to prepare my cocktail. I took this chance to glance around the heavily populated club and equally as packed bar. It wasn’t until I did a double take across the entire club again that I noticed the pony sitting right next to me. Her orange mane stuck out against the neon blue/green lights now coming from the Dj booth.
She wasn’t wearing any clothes which either meant one of two things. She was not adequately prepared to be at such a club, or that she was out searching for some sexy colt flank. I assumed it was the later.
She must have noticed my wandering eyes for as I was admiring her cutie mark she turned in her chair, hiding it. As I brought my gaze back up to hers I noticed she was now facing me.
“See something you like?” She said, seemingly testing the waters.
‘Oh yeah’ I thought to myself, ‘I am so in, this is too easy.’
“Because I don’t go for colts so concerned with their looks that they go on diets. So keep looking, sugar.”
‘Shit’
I looked down to my drink that just arrived and the diet cola can that was still sitting next to it.
“Oh, that!” I let a chuckle escape my lips that probably sounded more like a cough than anything.
“I just really enjoy the way that the diet soda nullifies the taste, but not the bite of the vodka!”
I could almost hear her roll her eyes at that.
“My name is Clop, by the way!” I moved a little closer so that she could hear me. “Clop Home” I said as I stuck out my hoof.
“Carrot Top.” the mare stated in an uninterested voice. She stuck out her hoof to lightly bump mine and then moved to her drink. She brought the blood red drink up to her lips and took a sip. After setting it back down she directed her attention back to me.
“So Clop, what do you do?”
I grinned and flashed my teeth.
“Why I am a builder! I mainly focus on houses, hence my last name, it has run in my family for generations!” I said.
She nodded and eyed me up and down.
“Dressed a little high fashioned for a construction worker, don’t you think?”
My smile faltered a bit but I came back.
“Maybe so, but a colt can look classy can’t he?” my smile was full on again. “I see you didn't bother yourself with any clothing tonight, not that you need any.”
I met her eyes and suggestively let my gaze wander down her body, from her defined chest, over her toned muscular shoulders, down to her flank where a bushel of carrots graced her well formed thighs. I met her grass green eyes again and took a sip of my drink.
She rolled her eyes again and finished her drink, got up from the chair and stuck out her hoof.
“Well mister Clop, it was...interesting to meet you I guess. I best get going.”
That caught me off guard.
“Oh come now Carrot Top” I said as I took her hoof in mine and sat her back down at the chair. “Luna’s moon is still young in the sky and the last time I checked this alcohol won’t drink itself!”
She sat back down in her chair and the club music stopped as Dj Griff finished his set. Idle chatter replaced the sound of the beat as the Dj packed up his equipment.
I turned to Jake the bartender again and put in an order for another vodka diet and a vodka cranberry, heavy on the cranberry and cubed. He nodded his head and went back to mixing drinks.
“How did you know I was drinking a vodka cranberry?” Carrot Top said.
I flushed a little, I knew better than that.
“Lucky guess?!” I tried.
The orange maned pony was not having that, and gave me a look daring me to continue.
“I actually am rather perceptive” I admitted. “ When you introduced yourself I could smell the cranberry on your breath, and nothing really mixes well with cranberry juice except for vodka. Extra cranberry juice this time, I could tell that you didn’t really like the last one by the face you made after each sip, the vodka was pretty strong wasn’t it?”
She slowly nodded her head as Jake delivered us our drinks. Carrot Top wrapped her hoof around hers and looked into it, watching the remnants of the sugar cube dissolve.
“Not to mention by the time you finished your drink it was mostly ice anyway, so I figured you could use a little something sweet in there to seal the deal. Go ahead, try it.”
I motioned to her glass with my own while putting it up to my lips. She took a reserved sip, and then another one.
“Wow” she said with the first hint of emotion she had displayed all night. “You are good.”
She actually cracked a smile now. “Mister Clop, are you sure that you are not some secret lady killer who woos innocent filly’s by giving them alcohol they will actually enjoy?”
I grinned at her participation in our conversation and lightly scoffed, “You assume too much! However, there may be more than meets the eye with me Miss Carrot Top.”
She took another sip of her drink and moved her chair a little closer to mine. The next Dj started playing.
“So in my foalishness, I’m afraid I have been so rude as to forget to ask what it is that you do, Miss Carrot Top?”
She started to speak but was cut off by a large feathery creature barging in between her and myself.
“’Scuse me! I just need a drink!”
Dj Griff looked at me then to the bartender. After ordering a drink he turned back to me. In a garish voice he asked “wanna support the Dj? How about buying me a drink!”
He let out a laugh that sounded like a grunt and a squawk all at once.
“Well actually” I started, feeling my posture lengthen as the griffin that was nearly double my size bore down on me. “ I was just having a lovely chat and you interrupted it. So if you’d be so kind...”
Dj Griff turned around and laid eyes on Carrot Top.
“Well well! Not very often we get an earth pony up here in Canterlot! How about you come to my digs after tonight and I’ll show you a little personal Canterlot magic!” He let out another laugh, this one was a little more carnal.
“I’ll pass actually.” Carrot Top replayed sternly.
“Oh babe, that’s no way to treat a famous celebrity such as myself! Hell, I practically keep this bar running!”
Being a frequenter at this bar, I knew that wasn’t true. He’d never performed here in his life.
“LIke I care what happens to this bar...” Carrot Top glared daggers at the winged creature.
I got up from my seat and walked around the griffin to stand next to Carrot Top. Standing next to her, I stared up into the griffins face, which was now a full pony heights above my own.
“I believe that what the lady is trying to say, is sit on my horn and spin. Buck-o.”
The griffin didn’t take kindly to not being treated kindly. Go figure.
“Oh! So you want to stand up for your lady friend here?! The only thing that would come of me sitting on your horn would be your obituary! I would crush you like a foal!” He opened his beak in a wide smile.
“Oh, no contest here” I said, “I’m sure I would be crushed under you, did you need to get a heavy load sign to come here? Or are you really just hiding seven other griffins under your feathers?”
His smile dissolved, replaced by sheer anger.
“What did you say?! I’ll have you know that I work out three times a day and I could beat you to a pulp you little twerp!”
I grabbed Carrot Tops hoof and guided her down from her chair.
“Come on, lets go somewhere with less of....this” I said gesturing to the griffin.
Carrot Top and I started making our way to the door. Adrenaline circulated through my veins as I turned back and said “Oh, and don’t follow us, or I’ll break your beak” With that, I eyed the bar, the exit, the position of him and the people around us and slowly turned my back to him.
As expected, my first warning came from Carrot Top.
“Ahh! Lookout!” She screamed.
I was ready, which is good because it all happened in a heartbeat. With one muscular flap of his wings the griffin Dj lunged at me. I turned to my side, towards the bar and grabbed an empty stool with my mouth. Spinning to my right, I flung it at the feathery missile of a creature. He blocked it with a bottle of liquor he had picked up in his claws, shattering it and resulting in alcohol spilling over my nice clothes.
I just bought these...
The griffin swept down at me with the bottle remnants and I felt a hot pain in my side. Just a little scratch, I thought. I kicked the bottle out of his hand, and dodged a winged swipe.
I took the small welcome mat from the entrance of the club in my mouth and flung it at his face. It tasted like muddy hooves.
While he attempted to brush it away and regain his composure I ran to his side grabbing his wing between my teeth. I leapt onto his back and jerked my head in the opposite direction, effectively dislocating his wing. With a sickening crunch I drove my hoof into the griffins back, dropping him to the floor.
Grabbing his head between my hooves I bashed it into the floor knocking him out and holding true to my word, breaking his beak. Walking off of the griffins back and towards the door I turned to the bartender.
“I’ll pay my tab later.”
The truth was that I couldn’t afford to pay for my tab now, but I know an exit when I see one.
Carrot Top was already outside and walking away from the club. With a little added trot in my step I was able to catch up to her.
“Hey! Where are you headed?” I said with a small smile.
“I’m going home. You colts and your need for fighting disgust me.”
“Oh, come on! It was just a little bit of fun!” I let out a light chuckle as if to prove my point. “Where is home anyway?” I asked curiously.
“What ever it was, it was disgusting” she paused, “on main street.” She said back without looking me in the eyes.
That was what I needed to know. She wasn’t from around here, and she wasn’t going home right now.
“Okay, so how about this. We take a cab and drop you off at your hotel, then I’ll leave you alone and you don’t need to worry about me and my disgusting actions ever again.”
She brought her head up and looked me in the eyes. “How did you...”
I cut her off mid sentence “Because, Carrot Top, main street is in the complete other direction.”
“So, judging from your muscular neck and shoulders I would say that you have spent some time in the fields, picking carrots I would assume. Your accent hints that you’re from Ponyville, and you’re around twenty-five years old.”
I stopped, to see if I was hitting my marks. Seeing no signs of protest I continued.
“You’re at a hotel and not staying with any friends or family so you’re not here visiting somepony. You’re not dressed to the teeth so you don’t appear to be here on business. You didn’t like the taste of alcohol which begs the question why were you even out for drinks all by yourself in an unknown city?”
She stared at me, face as blank as a foals flank.
“Your melancholy demeanor and the fact that you were drinking alone point to a painful experience in your recent past. The way you held yourself with confidence in front of the griffin suggests that it wasn’t a romantic experience, which means it was the loss of a loved one. You seem too young to have lost both parents. Which brings us back to if you had just lost one parent you would be staying with the other. No, your parents are alive and well in Ponyville still I am guessing.”
I pressed on, wanting to get to the bottom of her story.
“This was a loss of a friend, a close friend. Someone that warrants an extended stay in a city you’re not familiar with, at a five start hotel on main street none the less. Forgive me but I suspect that even a hard working carrot family cannot afford to send their little girl to a five star hotel for an entire week, so I would assume that your room is being paid for by somepony rich. “
I looked at her in the eyes, I could see her look of intrigue, disgust, and the formation of tears brimming on her eyes at the mention of her recent loss. I was on the right track.
“Judging by the recent passings in Canterlot I would say that the royal family is paying for your stay here at a five star hotel. Meaning, in conclusion, that you are here because you are one of the few close friends of the late Josey Hoofington.”
Carrot Top stared at me with tear filled eyes and a questioning look. I was used to getting the questioning look by now. It was common in my job.
“Anything else?” She demanded.
“Oh, I almost forgot. Your favorite food isn’t really carrots.”
“Who are you?!” She finally asked, desperation and irritation dripping in her voice.
“I told you!” I defended myself. Clop Home! Builder of all things...homey?
“But...who are you really?”
I sighed. I’m a pretty bad liar. Which can be bad in my line of work.
“Homes. Sherclop Homes at your service miss Carrot Top.” I said while looking up into her eyes. “And I believe I need to have a few questions with you regarding the murder of Josey Hoofington.”