I landed on my haunches with a loud thump as the door slammed behind me.
“Ouu...” I groaned as I stood up and reached with a hoof to my hurting rear. I looked back at the brass plaque and yelled. ”That’s sexual harassment!”
The door sprang open and the unicorn buck with the grayish golden coat flew head first into the hallway. The menacing frame of captain Grimmfeathers hovered above me and I took a step backwards from his glare. He leaned towards me with a grimace of anger on his face. I meeped weakly.
“PLAY. NICE.” He growled and slammed the door behind himself. I could hear him mumbling to himself something about shitty ponies, insubordination and the benefits of executing someone for talking back to a supreme officer in the old days. I guess being simply thrown out of his office wasn’t that bad after fifteen minutes of shouting and cursing at each other...
I eyed the stallion. My, goddesses preserve me, “partner” was still lying on the floor, staring gloomily on the opposite wall. He muttered something under his breath. I growled at him. “What was that?”
He looked at me from the corner of his golden eye. ”Go to Manehattan they said. It will be fun they said.”
I rolled my eyes. ”Follow me.”
I hoped over him and began to walk back to my office but looked back after a few steps. He didn’t move from the spot. I stopped and frowned. ”Didn’t you hear what I said?”
His red iris rested upon me. ”I’m not deaf”
“So come on, I don’t have the whole...”
“No.”
He’d thrown me of. ”Pardon what?”
He was once again staring at the wall in front of him. ”I’m not going anywhere.” He mumbled. ”The floor’s comfy and I had a bad morning. First a mare gave me a slating for no reason, afterwards I got lost and finally I got into an argument with my new boss.” He pouted. ”I’m staying where I am.”
I looked at him speechless as my right eye began to twitch. I wanted to scream and even drag him by force if I had to, but I put a hoof to my temple. Take a deep breath Pinkamena, think about your social skills, you can do it... I sighed and sat next to him. He eyed me flatly. I tried to smile.
“I know we had a bad start but we’re supposed to work together, so we should make the best out of it.” I reached a hoof towards him. ”Hello, I’m detective Pinkamena Diane Pie.”
He smiled faintly, sat up and shook my hoof. ”Detective Sour Note. But as I said earlier you can call me Joker.”
“Good detective Note, come on I’ll show you my office.” Conventions fulfilled I began to stand up and turn as I said it.
He’d risen to his legs and grinned. “Can I call you Pinkie?”
I spun around and found myself muzzle to muzzle (actually I had to look a little bit upwards, as he was a few centimeters higher than me) and growled. ”Don’t you ever. Never ever call me PINKIE.”
He stared me in the eyes and his grin broadened even further. ”You know, you’re kinda cute when...”
He didn’t get to finish the sentence as I cut his legs from under him in a quick spin. He fell to the ground and I put a hoof on his horn while leaning towards his face. “Did you learn your lesson?”
“Y-yes?” He stammered slightly confused.
“And that would be?” I asked clinically.
“That I... um...” I added a little bit of pressure upon his horn. ”That my opinions are irrelevant and that I shouldn’t compliment you!”
I rolled my eyes at the latter and straightened up. ”Good. Shall we?” I asked with a smile.
He sighted and smiled. ”Yeah, sure.”
He stood up and fell by my side as I walked down the corridor. I eyed him from the side. There was a little smile on his muzzle as he looked around. Suddenly he turned towards me.
“Sooo... You’re middle name is Diane?” He asked cheerfully.
I gave him a deadpan look.“Yes, and?”
He glanced into an open office.”That’s quite an uncommon name.”
I shrugged.”So is Pinkamena.”
The little smile slightly crept towards his ears as he cocked his head. ”Family tradition?”
“You could call it that way.” I answered vaguely while opening the door. He trotted inside right after me and hung his sand colored overcoat on the rag beside mine with his magic. I waved my hoof not looking at him. ”Take a seat wherever you want.”
“You aren’t a tidy pony, aren’t you?” He whistled while looking at my work desk. I shot him a glare and he waved a hoof apologetically. ”Believe me I don’t mind that. It’s way cleaner than my former office.” He scratched his chin. ”And place and life and...”
The buck was certainly irritating... I forced a smile to fob him off. “I think I get what you... Hey!” I shouted as he grabbed my photos with a white magic aura.
He smiled as he looked at them. ”Are those your sisters? Their coats and manes are maybe earth colored but there’s a strong similarity of the features and the bone structures of your faces. If yes, then this would surely be your mother! She has the same...” He stopped as I jumped towards him. I torn the pictures from his magic field and put them back on the desk.
“Don’t touch my things without asking.” I said quietly, eyeing him somberly.
He run a hoof through his mane looking at me sheepishly. ”Sorry I traced of a little bit. I simply always asked myself how it would feel to have siblings.”
I cocked my head. ”Only child?”
He shrugged and cracked a smile. “I grew up in a orphanage so I can’t tell.”
That put me off. He certainly said something similar in the subway when I asked him about his eyes, but I didn’t pay him that much attention anyway... I also couldn’t tell if his smile was honest or forced. After a few moments of silence I asked the obvious. “You grew up in an orphanage in Trottingham?”
His smile brightened. “Was it the accent that betrayed me?”That side of him again...
“That and your weird sense of humor.”
He laughed. ”So you do have one on your own. I was already afraid I would have to work with a machine.”
I rolled my eyes. ”Don’t get used to it. How come you ended up in Canterlot?”
He shrugged. ”I wasn’t that bad at school and somehow qualified for a long term scholarship. There wasn’t anything holding me in Trottingham so I stayed in the capital after I finished my studies.”
I was a little bit impressed. But just a little.
“Hm... Let me guess...” I eyed him while cogitating. ”If you were able to study in Canterlot you surely qualified for the Starswirl Program of the Luna Foundation, but I bet they’ve chosen you for the Clover.”
“You would win that one.” He nodded approvingly. ”How did you know?”
I shrugged. “You seem quite free spirited. They like that about their candidates.”
He laughed at my answer and gave me a sly smile. ”From your knowledge about the programs I take you were also a participant?”
It was my turn to smile slyly. I watched as Sour Note cocked his head while looking at me with a frown. He sighed and shook his head. ”My first guess would be the Starswirl, because you seem so uptight that it hurts.” A menacing glare was my only answer to this statement. ”But witnessing your tantrum with the captain and the small details of your behaviour I think you would also fit in the Clover. But on the other hoof...”
“What details?” My question cut of the unicorns monologue.
He blinked a few times and seemed a little bit insecure. ”You know... For example the chaos in your office or the way you talk or walk...”
“What’s with the way I walk?” My voice was emotionless.
“E... You don’t walk like the control freak you seem to be.”
I looked at him flatly.
“Goddesses preserve me... You walk strong on your legs, almost with joy or pride. Like if you were saying ‘just look at me I’m the best’ or something.”
There was an odd silence after that. I eyed him with a surprised, if not disbelieving look. I didn’t know how to react to such a statement. Was it a complement? A taunt? Another stupid pickup line like in the subway? Or was he simply honest?
Before I could even think of an answer to this I felt a twitch in my right ear and the hair standing up on my neck. I looked at the unicorn buck. ”To your left”
“To my left? What are you... Whatthefuck!” He screamed and fell on his right side at a dull poof sound and the appearance of a dark mass that followed after it. The shadows whirled for a second and instantly formed themselves into the shape of a pony. An onlooker could think the lead coated mare with a midnight blue mane was a pegasus if it weren’t for the leather wings and emerald eyes with cat-like slit pupils. She wore a set of purple guard armour with a blue gem on her breast. The mare stretched her wings and looked at me with a smile. She moved her lips but the only thing that left her muzzle was a sequence of barely hearable chirps.
I smiled at her. “Hi Vesper I’m also glad to see you but we have guest.” I waved towards the unicorn buck on the floor.
Sour Note was eyeing the bat-pony with a shock. ”What... How... You’re a bat-pony?”
Vesper smiled at him and chirped another sequence.
He looked at her with a deadpanned look. ”Sorry but I can’t understand.”
I giggled at the surprised look on the bat-pony’s face and her hectic fiddling with the blue gem of her armour. ”She said that...” I began but was cut off shortly.
“HELLO! MY NAME IS VESPER EVE! I’M...” She stopped and put a hoof to her lips as she saw us holding our hooves to our ears with pained expressions. There followed another hectic fiddling and she smiled sheepishly with her ears drooped. ”Sorry... I sometimes have problems with adjusting the enchantments of my armour... Are you guys ok?”
“Don’t worry I got used to that.” I waved a hoof at her although I could still hear little bells in my head...
The stallion was looking at Vesper with amazement. ”You’re a bat-pony?
“That’s what I am.” She said cheerfully.
“A real bat-pony?”
She looked at me from the corner of her eye and smiled nervously. ”Yes... That’s what I said.”
“Simply fascinating!” Again, there was this glee in his voice. ”I worked in Canterlot for a few years but I never met any bat-ponies in person!”
Vesper smiled proudly. “Yes, our kin in the capital are mostly the exclusive guards of her Royal Highness Princess Luna and seldom leave the castle but here... Yikes!” She jerked as he caught her wings in his magic field.
“Fascinating!” He exclaimed while stretching her wing. ”The skin is so elastic and the bones are way more flexible than those of pegasi wings, which surely gives you a greater manoeuvrability in the air. And the tufts on your ears.” He moved in front of her, almost bumping his nose in her face. ”There surely helpful when you’re using echolocation and...”
Vesper disappeared in a cloud of darkness. Sour Note blinked a few times and grinned maniacally. ”She can teleport!”
“We call it shadow jump...” Said a voice from behind me. I looked back and noticed she was using me to shield herself from the crazy stallion.
I eyed the unicorn with a menacing glare. ”Stop creeping out every mare you come along.”
“Oh no... It was just weird.” She said a little bit embarrassed, but a perk of her ears, a slight wave with the hoof and a movement of her wings said the contrary.
I made a hoof movement on the floor to which she smiled and told, while eyeing the buck. ”Please excuse my new partner, he’s just weird.”
Her eyes lit up and she gave Sour Note an interested look. ”You’re D’s new partner?”
Sour Note looked at me smiling slyly. ”So you do have a nickname?”
I rolled my eyes. ”D.’s the name my friends call me.”
He grinned. “It suits you.”
I frowned and Vesper cocked her head. The Stallion smiled at her. ”Where are my manners! I’m Sour Note, but you can call me Joker. I used to work as a detective in Canterlot but now I’m here in the great city of Manehattan.” He exaggerated the last part in an almost theatrical way.
Vesper giggled as I frowned even more. ”Nice to meet you Joker. I’m Vesper Eve, an officer of the MCG and, as you already noticed, a bat-pony.”
He smiled sheepishly while driving a hoof trough his mane. ”Oh... Sorry for my antics earlier.”
Vesper gave me a sly look and made a few hoof and wing movements that I interpreted as something like “You’re lucky, he's a looker.”
I glared at her and made the gesture for “Shut up.”
The lead coated mare continued to tease me while the stallion watched our silent argument cocking his head. ”Is that some sort of secret language?”
Vesper smiled at him. ”It’s called tulpar. My people use it when they can’t talk vocally.”
He pointed a hoof at me. ”And how comes that you know it?”
I shrugged. ”I used to work during the graveyard shift for two or three months. My colleagues where a bunch of earth pony machos with a whimsy unicorn mare, and a wing of lunar freaks.” I smiled at Vesper. ”Short story: I spent most of my time with Vesper and her squad mates and they taught it to me. Although it's a bit complicated to express yourself properly without wings.”
He watched us in amazement. ”This is awesome.”
Me and Vesper looked at each other and the flyer giggled. ”Yes, I guess you can say so.”
The armoured mare perked up. ”I almost forgot! Dr. Green Teal wanted to tell you that he finished his report for the file of your last case.”
I rolled my eyes with a smile. ”He knows we have computers and internet, doesn’t he?”
The bat-pony shrugged. ”You know how he is.”
I stood up and looked at the unicorn. ”Come on we will fetch some files from a friend of mine.”
He shrugged. “Sure why not.”
“I’ll get on my way.” Vesper hugged me and gave a wave with a wing towards Sour Note. ”It was nice to make your acquaintance.” And in a poof of shadows she was gone.
He smiled towards me. “An interesting gal.”
I trotted towards the door. ”And you totally creeped her out.”
His ears drooped but I smiled towards him as I left the office. ”But you were right.”
One of his ears perked up. ”About what?”
I gave him a sly grin. ”I qualified for both scholarship programs.”
“And you’ve chosen...?”
“Both and now come on!” I trotted down the corridor towards the elevators, smiling to myself at the sight of his surprised muzzle.