Octavia's friend was clearly upset but it seemed impolite to intrude on her affairs if she wasn't willing to talk about it. I didn't know what she needed a knife for, but decided that it probably wasn't for a violent purpose. That was good – the local neighborhood already had enough of that. Millie seemed emotional, but not unstable.
After giving her the knife, I cast my eyes around the room while I polished the bar. The fashion show was beginning. While I held no specific animosity towards Fleur de Lis, she was not a pony I would associate with by choice. My job is to keep things running smoothly, whether that required hosting, food preparation, maintenance, or security. Her shows interrupted the normal operation of the club.
Truthfully, shaking things up on occasion might not be a bad thing. I had accepted Octavia’s offer of a job in Manehattan for a change of scenery from Canterlot. That’s pretty much all I’d gotten – a different city skyline to look at. The customers seemed the same. The music style hadn’t changed much. Crime in the local neighborhood might have actually been worse.
Still, I’m an optimist. The Metronome was on the way up. The fresh coat of paint Millie had applied looked good, and I knew Octavia had her sights set on greater things.
Speaking of Millie, she returned the knife after haphazardly trimming her mane. I’m sure there had to be a good reason for a mare to do something like that, but I decided that it was none of my business.
A habit of politely keeping my nose out of things had taken me far in life. Sometimes I wished I was more confrontational, though. Maybe I would have ended up doing something more interesting than hosting a jazz club. I was good at it and somewhat content, but not entirely satisfied.
Maybe I could do something about that. My focus for a long time had been centered entirely on my work. Since moving to Manehattan it had begun to shift outwards a little. After all, I live to serve. There were a lot of ponies out there who needed help.
Very ... interesting.
I say the killer is that one guy that Gilda was training last chapter
I'm putting in my guess that Iridium is the killer.
EDIT: I did not spell his name wrong, nope. I spelled it correctly the whole time. Nothing to see here.
2531469
Is that his name? I always just think of him as "Radioactive Pony," because his name sounds like a radioactive isotope (and possibly is one-- I'm not really known for my knowledge of nuclear materials). Never actually remembered his real name. >_>
I sorta doubt that he'd be the serial killer that Luna (or at least, that night guard/pony impersonating a night guard) wants stopped. He definitely is up to something, though. I mean, he doesn't seem like the type for whom "There were a lot of ponies out there who needed help" is referring to their experiences volunteering at the local soup kitchen. At best, he's working with Luna/night guard/pony impersonating night guard (or possibly IS the pony impersonating a night guard) to try and stop the serial killer. At worst, he's this Miller who Millie just met and is raining down vigilante justice. I don't think that actually being a serial killer can be construed as helping ponies, though-- not in a mind that's sane enough to blend in with normal society, at any rate.
My money is still on Comb. Or Fluttershy. Because she just has "I am a sociopathic serial killer" written all over her.
2531469 The POV of this chapter? Only if the "serial killer" is an overly enthusiastic vigilante. But then, we haven't heard much details that I recall about the victims.
2531469>>2531759 "Iridium" I named him after a famous jazz club in New York City.
2531768
Classy.
Also, I now feel somewhat better, because iridium isotopes are used as a source of gamma radiation (among other things), which means I was totally sorta a little bit right in my random assumptions. Yay for small triumphs!
2531795 It's also the most corrosion-resistant metal in the world. A blend of platinum and iridium is considered to be one of the best alloys to make stuff out of if you want it to last forever.
2531812
Hrm. Good to know. If Iridium was a cop, I'd ask if he was supposed to be incorruptible or something, but I can't think of any way his namesake would be relevant to life as a bartender/assistant, so I'll just file that information away for future use. >_>
2531766
the closest thing to a solid fact we've been given on that front is that the victims may or may not all be criminals. it's anypony's guess.
2531766 Yeah, now that you say that real/fake lunar guard sounds much more likely. I'm just making a wild guess here because the author said one of the POV characters might be the killer.
Supposedly all the victims were criminals or had ties to them so I was thinking vigilante justice is exactly what's going on.
2531812
DiamondsPlatinum-Iridium alloys are forever.img829.imageshack.us/img829/826/platiri.jpg
A girl's best friend, non?
2533211 Yep. If I'm not mistaken, that's a picture of the kilogram. The kilogram. The one that they measure to make sure all other kilograms are exactly a kilogram.
2533294
Yup, it's the kilogram prototype.
I think it's hilarious, frankly. "This weighs a kilogram because it weighs a kilogram. Everything that weighs a kilogram weighs the same as this. OR ELSE." You'd think the scientists would wise up and do to the kilogram what they did to the meter (which also used to be defined by a bar of platinum-iridium); a meter is currently defined based on the speed of light in a vacuum, and before that it was based on the atomic spectrum of krypton. Surely the definition of a kilogram could be achieved similarly? Base it on a specific number of atoms of some element, or something.
(Hell, before they made the kilogram prototype, the gram was defined as the mass of a cubic centimeter of water at 4 Celsius, making a kilogram equal to a liter of water. The kilogram prototype actually weighs more than that. )
Edit: Looks like they're planning to redefine the kilogram in terms of the Planck constant next year.
2533326 God, I love nerdy high-level discussions. I should do a blog about that or something.
2533326
I personally find the way they forced the speed of light to be an arbitrary number of meters annoying.
I'd prefer it if they did the adjustment the other way around in order to make the system more universally applicable.
As it stands now the meter is essentially an arbitrary distance that fits nicely between two human hands that has been eventually set to be an arbitrary division of a proper universal constant.
well maybe people will come to their senses in another 100 years.
2536693
Eh? It was the other way around. The meter was defined long before the speed of light was discovered. Now, the meter is defined in terms of the speed of light in a vacuum and the second (which means if the duration of a second changes, the length of the meter changes).
2538124
I am more stating that it fits better with the intent of the metric system to be based on the universal constants of the universe and adjust back that the numbers that fit into things such as planck constant and the speed of light be whole values rather then have such a messy quantity of meters derived from the speed of light.
And to put this in perspective, I'm in the process of training myself to think more intuitively in kelvin then the arbitrary sea level pressure based celsius or even worse imperial measure for temperature that I can never spell correctly.
There I am again, facing the age-old dilemma of reading an incomplete fic. On one hand, Miller certainly left me curious enough to check out the sequel. On the other hand, there're few things I detest more than coming to an abrupt end of a good story, waiting days, weeks or even months to finish it...
...Oh, to hell with it! Here I come, Millie!
*One hour later*
OH COME ON! You can't possibly interrupt the story here! Now I'm gonna have to favorite it to check for the updates. By the way, my money is on Ice - while he seems a little too obvious a target, I still think he has the greatest chance to prove to be the fake Miller. Especially if you keep in mind that Miller was a pegasus stallion, so if anypony can steal his identity, it's Ice. (Fun fact: in Miller, I used to think Ice isn't an OC, but the tiny-winged pegasus yelling "YEEAAH" from Hurricane Fluttershy.)
2546416
Sorry it had to be done!
Hmm... My bets are on Ice being the killer. Not only is saying that you're going to ice someone a way to mean you're going to kill them, but he just seems... killer-y.
2550058
He was the lead detective from the last story, though. It doesn't make sense for him to be going vigilante.
My bet is Iridium.
2552680
Do the words "crooked cop" mean anything to you?
2552991
He wasn't crooked in Miller, though.
2554733
Who's to say that nothing happened between the two stories?
2554832
I suppose something could have happened. I like Ice and don't want him to be the villain, though. Also, does anyone know what color/type of pony Iridium is? I can't seem to find that anywhere.
2554844 I left Iridium's appearance up to the imagineation. If it helps, I sort of picture him like the waiter in the restaurant in Ponyville.
2558409 I didn't say that, Jeff did. I have connections with a lot of humans. Although I don't think you can call Jeff the killer 'human'. I have my brother to thank for those connections. Even if he is retarded piece of crap.
Polly: Hey!
Oh I am sorry. Even if SHE is retarded piece of crap.