Note Pad sat down next to Derpy on a nearby park bench, writing in a new page in his note pad.
Assignment: Scarlet Letter's Missing Son
Leads: (?)
Points of Interest: Teenage angst, divorce
Description: brown pony, with a brown mane and ruby eyes. Spiked mane style. He likes food. Mostly junk food and pastries and snacks...
He clicked his pen and turned to Derpy. "I think I should talk to the mother again, ask if there are any relatives he could have run off to."
Derpy wasn't paying attention. She was instead watching as the ducks waddled around in front of her, her crossed eyes following their movements. Her nose was scrunched.
"...Derpy...?" asked Note Pad.
She looked up. "Huh?"
"Nevermind," he sighed.
Derpy went back to the ducks. There were also ponies in this park, aimlessly walking around, talking, or playing. In the distance, she spotted a lovely pegasus couple relaxing together. She also recognized Spike the Dragon and his little friends, and smiled, remembering an incident involving a coffee-maker and how much of a fuss that caused.
Note Pad stood up.
"We're leaving," he said.
"Huh?" said Derpy, "But it's so nice here."
"We aren't getting paid to watch ducks, Derpy, we're paid to solve cases. That's your job, and that's my job."
"We can't take a break?" asked Derpy.
"We can relax when we find that mare's missing son," said Note.
Derpy looked down, but then smiled.
"Alright," she said.
"We're just asking if there are any family members he could have run off to, okay?" said Note Pad.
"Yeah," said Derpy.
Note Pad knocked on the mare's front door, remembering the address as part of the information she had given him, prior to the case. The same light-brown mare opened the door.
"Is there a problem? You can't find my son?" asked Scarlet, nervously.
"We need to know if there's anyone in the family he could have run off to," said Note.
"Well he certainly isn't with his good-for-nothing father," said Scarlet, bitterly.
Ah yes, thought Note, They divorced, he remembered.
Before Note Pad could ask another question, Derpy interrupted.
"Hey! You're Scarlet Letter!" she said with excitement, "I read almost all of your romance novels!"
Scarlet's expression turned from one of scorn to one of good spirits. "Always happy to meet one of my fans!"
"Can I have your autograph!?" asked Derpy, "You are so cool! Especially when you wrote Sleepless in Pegasopolis!"
Derpy let out a typical fangirl scream (or screech),and grinned ear to ear.
Scarlet laughed. "Not so loud, please! I'm only staying in Ponyville for a short while."
"I stayed up all night reading your newest book, and I have to say you really didn't pull any punches with the raunchiness!" said Derpy with a blush, "Very sexy stuff!"
Note Pad fought back the uncontrollable urge to facehoof.
Scarlet Letter took out a pen. "Where do I sign?"
"SIGN MY FACE!" yelled Derpy.
Scarlet was used to having that yelled at her, so she simply wrote SL extravagantly on Derpy's forehead, even adding "To my number one fan~!"
"Now you have a whole sentence on your forehead..." said Note Pad in disbelief, "You have a SENTENCE on your FOREHEAD...!"
Scarlet Letter clicked her pen and smiled at her handiwork. "There you go!"
Derpy fangirl-screamed again. "Thankyouthankyouthankyou!"
"Don't mention it," said Scarlet, smiling. She turned to Note Pad, "What did you want to ask...?"
"Is there anyone your son could be staying with?" asked Note Pad.
"Perhaps my brother in Canterlot," she said, "His uncle."
Note Pad scribbled that into his notebook.
"Alright, we'll keep in touch," he said, "Come on Derpy."
Derpy eagerly hugged Scarlet, "Thanks again for the autograph!"
"Anytime," said Scarlet, "Good luck on the investigation. Let me know if you need anything."
Note Pad and Derpy made it to the train station heading towards Canterlot. They looked over the short group of ponies who were also heading there.
"It's gonna be a long while before we get there," said Note.
Derpy reached into her hat and pulled out a romance novel, written by Scarlet Letter.
"I have something to keep me occupied," she said grinning.
Note Pad rolled his eyes behind his glasses. "Of course you do."
The train pulled off and began moving, slowly accelerating while Derpy and Note Pad sat together. Without meaning to, Note Pad closed his eyes and softly snored, falling asleep.
Derpy looked up from staring at her saucy book cover. "He fell asleep already?"
She huffed and sat there, looking around and finding no one else in this cabin.
I'll just let him sleep, she thought, I had no idea he was so tired.
She smiled, opened up her book, and began reading through where she had left off.