Tattered sleepily walked into town hall after having Lavender Mist all but drag her out of bed. It was way too early to be up, and the only thing keeping her awake was the fact she had a huge problem to deal with.
"Ms. Wing, welcome back," Megan said from the information desk. Tattered did a double take at being called Ms. Wing instead of being addressed as some variation of her name, even her human name. "Ms. Rivers is expecting you. Number Crunch is being held at the far end of the hall and has crystal ponies watching her. I'm unsure of Ms. Blessing's status since it was just reported that the clinic building collapsed, but no one seems to have been hurt."
All thought of why Megan was addressing her so strangely went out if her head as Tattered's ears flattened and wings began to quiver. "The clinic collapsed?! How?"
Megan shook her head. "I don't know. Ponies reported a huge magic surge and then an earthquake. Ms. Donahue has already gone out to check for more information."
Ms. Donahue would be the dark furred pegasus named Joy that Tattered had hired on as part of the Enclave. She had some serious attitude problems, and was a blatant Shimmerist, but she was thorough with her work. She could be trusted to get all the facts about what happened.
"No pony was inside when it happened?" Tattered asked.
"They all were seen exiting the building before it collapsed, though some were carried out. I just got this information and haven't even gotten to tell Melissa...I mean Ms. Rivers yet," Megan explained. The slip let Tattered know that whatever this was with the names Megan was doing it on purpose.
Tattered nodded, "Let me know when more information comes in. I want to know everypony is alright. I had friends there...and you don't have to refer to us all by last names. I'm your sister, not some random pony you've never met before."
"Just trying to be professional when on the job, ma'am. I take my job very seriously," Megan asserted with a hint of annoyance.
Tattered briefly closed her eyes, wishing she could just go back to sleep. She just wanted to know that Rudra and Dan were alright and here was Megan with some sort of bug up her butt playing cold professional. She wasn't in the mood for this right now.
She took a deep breath and decided she'd play along with this. "We can discuss this more at home later on, Ms. Rutledge. Send Joy straight to me when she gets back, or if any other information comes in...and find some pony to track down Tonya and have them insist she come here. I need to have a long talk with her ASAP."
"Yes, Ms. Wing," Megan said as she went back to typing something.
Tattered flew over on top of the desk, startling her sister and looked Megan in the eyes. "Seriously, Megan, what the hell is up with treating me like I'm not even your sister?"
Megan glanced around then brought her head close to Tattered's. "Number Crunch is my new employer's friend. I've got nothing against you, Tat, but I need to distance myself from you in public or Sunset Blessing might decide she'd rather not have the sister of the pony in charge of arresting Number Crunch working for her. It's a good position, I don't want to lose it over something like that."
"Do you know anything about this whole thing with Number Crunch and Tonya?" Tattered asked.
Megan shook her head looking annoyed at the question. "Of course I don't. I've been on the job just today. If I did know anything about a crime I'd tell you. I didn't even know Tonya was involved until you just said something. You should do a better job at keeping your mouth shut about things until it's time to talk about them. Now let me work."
Okay, Megan had a point. Though Megan didn't know about her biggest blub on the day...hopefully. Her loud mouth had gotten her into trouble badly today, and she was dreading when Phobia got around to discuplining her for it. She didn't even know how many ponies now knew something was up with Phobia because of her. Best to get better disciplined about what she blurted out for anypony to hear.
"Alright, just let me know when when anypony arrives with word about anything," Tattered said as she flew down from the desk with a few short flaps.
"Of course, Ms Wing," Megan said as she went back to business mode, then looked over at her with a slightly kinder look in her eyes. "And good to see you can fly again."
Tattered gave her a brief smile. "Thank you, Ms. Rutledge."
She walked down the hall and into her office and found Melissa with her head down on the desk. She could tell her friend was awake and that she had been heard entering. Tattered took the seat opposite Melissa and tapped a hoof on the desk lightly.
"You know, you said I'd get my own office," Melissa mumbled without looking up. "Not having my own office is one of a dozen different reasons I seriously have considered walking out in this job today."
Tattered sighed and slumped where she sat. "Here's another one, the clinic just collapsed and I haven't heard confirmation that Dan is okay yet."
Melissa's head shot up and then she stood to her feet and slapped her hands down in the table. "What do you mean the clinic collapsed and you don't know if Dan is okay?" Melissa pointed towards the wall. "Why aren't you beating your little pony wings to fly over there and find out?"
Tattered looked at the outstretched arm. "For starters, you're pointing in the completely wrong direction. As for why I'm not flying over there right now, the reason why is because my little pony wings are still gaining their strength back and I'm not supposed to overexert them by flying more than a few feet and I have to keep low to the ground in case they suddenly cramp up. I'll find out information faster by sitting here and waiting for a report because I'm sure somepony will be coming here with a full report."
Melissa lowered her arm and sat down. "Oh."
Tattered decided it was better just to move on to why she was awake, focusing on work was a good distraction. "What's going on with Tonya? Lavender had Alex wake me up and she went on for a while and since I was only half awake I only caught half of it."
"Tonya apparently used mind magic to convince Number Crunch to kill Swift Strike," Melissa said as she poked at the keyboard of the computer. "At least that was what she claimed. I went to question Number Crunch about it and she claims she did it, that it was self defense, and she isn't answering any questions till her lawyer gets here."
"And have you ordered Tonya brought in for questioning? Who's out looking for her?" Tattered asked.
"No one right now, but..."
Tattered's mouth fell open. "No one? Why no one?"
"Well, no official charges were filed against Shadow Dancer..."
Tattered slammed a hoof on the desk. "Melissa! Shadow Dancer convincing a bunch of humans to believe in something people don't like is not the same as Tonya convincing a pony to do murder! And we still have Shadow Dancer under lock and key with crystal ponies watching him all the same. Why would you let Tonya walk around free?"
Melissa put her face into her hands and started crying. "I don't know what I'm doing, okay? I'm not qualified for this job. Not even a full day on the job and I'm fucking everything up."
Tattered's anger evaporated as she looked at her crying friend. "Melissa... I'm sorry for yelling. You'll get better and learn. You screwed up, but it isn't anything that we can't deal with. I'll just have somepony bring Tonya in and we can hold her until...some things happen, and we'll go from there after that."
"We aren't even official law enforcement," Melissa mumbled.
"Tomorrow, if things go through right, I will be," Tattered said. She hoped everything went smoothly and no hiccups happened. "In the meantime we need to do what makes sense to do so we aren't questioned about it later."
"And we don't even have a body to confirm it happened. Crazy as it sounds, even with a confession we kind of have to have proof it happened, don't we?" Melissa continued.
Tattered grimmaced. That body, or what was left of it, was ashes out in the middle of the closest lake right now. When she had made the decision not to pursue this after the feds had pressured her about it she had the body disposed of as best she could. There would be no body. If Number Crunch tried to take anypony to where she had initially disposed of it she was going to be in for a big surprise.
"Even without a body there is still ways of prosecuting," Tattered finally said. "I did some reading up on the subject. There just has to be enough evidence that the crime happened, enough to convince a jury."
"What kind of evidence?" Melissa asked.
"Um, let's see. Bits of Number Crunch's fur or mane at the crime scene would be an example," Tattered offered up.
Tattered knew that wasn't likely to happen. Those woods were going to be cleared tomorrow, completely removing all evidence of any type of struggle or either pony having been there. Number could confess till she turned even bluer in the face than she already was, if there was no evidence there was no conviction or charge to be made.
And since she wouldn't be an official officer of the law till tomorrow there was a high likelihood that she wouldn't be able to stop those woods from being cleared in time. Number and Tonya were both going to walk free. Number knew those woods were coming down too and that the lawyer couldn't even talk to them till tomorrow. Maybe she was expecting the body to come up, since that would have definitely been found while clearing the woods, but there was no body.
"Right now we don't have a crime scene though, and we won't have one till Number Crunch talks to us," Melissa said with frustration, not knowing that Tattered had already thought all that through and more.
"We'll see what..." Tattered was cut off by a knock at the office door. "Come in, the door is unlocked."
To the suprise of both the Broken Ones the door opened to reveal Tonya, being flanked by Wild Growth of all ponies. Both of them looked like they were feeling like crap.
"I'm guessing you're going to want to talk to me," Tonya said in a low voice with her head bowed. Tattered did a quick visual check for Tonya's medallion, and was relieved to see her wearing it.
"As a matter of fact, yes," Tattered said as cool as she could. She tried to keep aggression bout of her voice. What Tonya had done disgusted her. When she had just heard about it she could put that disgust to the back of her mind, but seeing the pegasus in person pushed that disgust to the front.
"And I need to let everypony know that I destroyed the clinic," Wild said in a voice that said that she was trying to be brave but was trying to resist bolting away. Wild shook herself then pointed a hoof at Tonya. "I lost my temper at her and my magic split the place like an egg. I'm here to take responsibility for my actions and face whatever consequences that come from them."
"Did everypony..." Tattered began.
"Sunset made sure everypony got out safely. Your friend is safe, everypony is safe. Nopony got hurt," Tonya answered before Tattered could finish the question.
"Oh, thank God," Melissa said with relief.
Tattered relaxed as well at hearing that everypony was safe. Now she had to figure out what to do with these two. She could hold them here in town hall, but she really didn't have the crystal ponies to spare to watch them.
In Wild Growth's case she had no idea how to hold her. She'd asked Garnet Cut how strong Wild was earlier today out of curiosity, since reading that kind of thing was part of his talent. Garnet had gone wide eyed and said that it might take fifty ponies like Wild Growth to equal the magic of Twilight Sparkle. Tattered had thought that wasn't that impressive, until Garnet had told her how many average ponies it would take to equal the magic of the alicorn. Wild Growth might be a mouse compared to Twilight Sparkle, but the average pony was a microbe on the back of a flea living on the mouse in that case. There weren't enough crystal ponies in town to hold Wild Growth, she had more power than every other pony in town combined.
"Tonya, I want you to stay here and I will have some questions for you. After that you will be held here until we can confirm some things," Tattered said as she looked first at the pegasus. She then looked at the demigod earth pony. "Wild, I don't have any way of holding you that you can't escape with ease. I have to trust you to just stay where I can find you. I'm going to question you after I'm done with Tonya and then I'll be having you go to your home and stay there until we figure out if any criminal charges are going to come of this and what they are."
Both ponies nodded their acceptance to her. She was the only pony in the room that knew how this would play out. Tonya would face whatever justice the Dreamwardens laid down, but that would be all. She might not survive the Dreamwardens justice anyway. Number Crunch would walk free due to lack of evidence to charge or convict her of murder, despite her confession. Wild Growth would likely have to pay for a new clinic because there was no prision on Earth that could hold her against her will.
The motions for everything would have to be done though. It made Tattered feel small and helpless knowing how powerless she was to do anything more.