Melissa woke up on her sleeping mat and yawned. Dan was still cuddled up close to her fast asleep, with a wing draped over his head. He still hadn't found her dreams last night. She knew he had said it would take him a while to do, but it was still disappointing.
She gently got up, careful not to disturb him. Her clothes stank from being worn for several days straight, but she had no alternatives to change into. There wasn't much time to go looking for clothes either with the work schedule that she had taken on. It was embarrassing; ponies likely smelled her and humans probably thought she looked unprofessional. Something really needed to be done so she could at least have a single change of clothes and could rotate washing the sets.
Nothing was happening with that this second though. Right now she needed to just go wash herself and get something to eat, then off to work again.
The two of them didn't have much for privacy here. They were housed in a large gym that had a large amount of other humans and a few ponies. No one really seemed to care that they were cuddled up close together when sleeping. There were plenty of humans and ponies here that did that, mainly parents and their children--or foals depending on whether it was the parent or the child who was a pony--but there were a few other mixed couples about, as well as a few partials with fully pony partners.
Most actually assumed she was a partial due to her eyes. She had been considering what to do about that. Her options ranged from just sucking it up and letting them assume she was a partial, investing in some dark sunglasses, investing more in contacts that would hide her eye color, or just correcting them every single time. At the moment only the first and last options were viable because of lack of money. It was just a matter of which would stress her more.
She didn't even know why getting called a partial upset her so much. In a way it was true, she was only mostly human, which meant still partially pony. The fact that she had mostly human instincts and sense of self was her best guess. Not being acknowledged as human made her sense of self cry out in protest, much as it had cried out in protest when her full ponydom hadn't been acknowledged as a pony. She didn't want to have this kind of thing bother her, but her brain was wired to make it bother her. Things would have been so much easier if they could have healed her as a pony, at least she was all one thing as a pony and hadn't felt like she had some part of her stuck as human.
A call to her psychiatrist was probably something she should add to her list of things to do. Between this, feelings of inadequacy, and PTSD involving fire she probably needed one.
She went to the women's locker rooms, stripped her clothes off and took a shower. She wished she had some shampoo or soap, but those hadn't been supplied. Clean towels were supplied though, and she made sure to dry off thoroughly before redressing.
Next up was the cafeteria next door. It was getting to be lunch time, and that meant waiting in line. She felt a little relief when she had a partial both in front of her and behind her. Partials could be talkative just like ponies, but they never bothered to comment or flinch away from her eyes. She in turn had no problem with seeing tails, pastel colored hair, or pony ears on the partials. Those things were actually nice to see because she could get a better read on their emotions by noticing the movement of ears or twitches of tails.
They'd probably all be rehumanizing soon, and she actually felt a little sad about that. There was nothing physically wrong with many of them, though there were some that clearly had less comfortable bodies than others. She wouldn't have minded ending up in the state of some of the better off ones, just as advanced as the ears--still having pony ears would be nice.
She really needed to go see the psychiatrist.
After getting her food she sat and ate with a partial couple. Seats were at a premium in the cafeteria so you inevitably were going to end up sitting with someone, whether you liked it or not. The alternative being like Dan and just scaring everyone away from you. They were pretty far along in their transformation, and after they found out she was rehumanized she spent a while telling them what she could about what she went through, given that she slept through most of it. The rehumanization clinic was supposed to be opening any day now in town, and these two would be standing in line right away for it. She didn't blame them. They looked very uncomfortable, and she knew a thing or two about being physically uncomfortable.
With her meal done she left the for work. Across the street from the school and YMCA there was construction equipment parked and a table set out on the side of the road. They were recruiting for construction jobs, promising sign on bonuses payable after the first week. They didn't care who or what you were as long as you were willing and able to work. In the distance she could hear construction going on.
She'd actually woken up once during the night to the sounds of the equipment coming in. Dan had been awake and listening as well and had explained that it had been going on all through the night. She laid back down while he lay still curled up at her side, his ears high and listening.
A brisk jog to get to work might have been nice, just to get her energized for the day. The streets were still far to packed with ponies though. Instead she went off on as brisk a walk as she could imagine, carefully weaving her way through the ponies that she now towered over. She glanced up at roofs of buildings as she passed them by and noticed no night ponies about. Most had likely gone to bed already, and the remainder were almost certainly getting ready to go. Tattered was going to be eager to get off work for sure.
When she reached town hall it was abuzz with activity. Far more humans than usual were going in and out, all dressed in construction worker garb. There were still plenty of ponies going about as well. When she reached the front doors she stopped and raised an eyebrow at a request to buy pony crap by the pound, and additional paper had been taped on emphasizing pony crap only. The prices weren't worthwhile for a single pony to bring their own crap in, but if some enterprising pony decided to take up gathering it they might make a decent penny. She wasn't the only one bemused by the sign either; several ponies sat discussing it nearby, and she could hear them trying to do the math on when it became worth their time.
She entered into the lobby and saw lots of activity. Number Crunch was free from her room and arguing with a man in one corner--her lawyer maybe? Tonya was also free from her room and talking with a human couple by a bench with Sunset Blessing sitting close by listening. Humans and ponies alike went in and out of the doors for the main meeting hall, and Megan was sitting at the desk with not one but two ponies helping manage giving information and field phone calls.
All the milling about that the residents of Riverview had been doing for the last week had come to an abrupt end and the energy in the air was electrifying.
She decided the best course of action was just go to the office and get briefed by Tattered in what was going on rather than try to figure it out for herself.
She hurried over to the appropriate hall and noticed several normally closed offices for town council members were now open with town council members meeting with primarily construction workers. There were papers and permits being signed in large stacks, and lots of the offices had town council members doubled up in them helping get it all done.
Once she reached the office she hurried in without so much as knocking. Tattered was lazily tapping away at the computer with a pen in her mouth just as she typically was. It was a small bubble of normality in the sea of chaos that was going on right outside the door.
"I take it I'm going to need a lot explained to me before you go," Melissa said without any greeting.
Tattered set the pen down and Melissa noticed then that Tattered was wearing a badge around her neck. Tattered Wing was now officially chief of police in the newly christened Riverview Police Department.
"Not as much as you might think, but still a fair amount," Tattered said. "Pull up a seat and we'll start going over things."
Melissa did as she was instructed as Tattered clicked the mouse for the computer. A moment later the printer came to life and started printing.
Tattered lifted the paper up slightly with a hoof to make sure it was printing properly and turned to Melissa. "First up, if you haven't noticed I'm all legal now. What I'm printing right now are fifty copies of contracts for police officers. One of which is for you and another for Dan. I'll try to get in early tonight so we can sit down and figure out who is going to round out our force. Fifty officers at twenty-five thousand a year each is all we have been afforded for the moment. I'll fight for pay raises later, and don't want to pay them even less to fit more officers in the budget, but that's what we have for the time being. We have an additional budget for supplies and equipment on top of that, and we've been promised our own building is being built and it's utilities will be paid by the city."
"Fifty for a city of a hundred thousand is going to be a stretch," Melissa said mournfully.
Tattered nodded in agreement. "The town council is used to having no police force at all, so in their minds their giving us a large amount to work with. We'll have to sit down in meetings with them and explain why that isn't logistically going to work out. This is a massive paradigm shift for them so we'll have to be as patient as we can with them."
"And the other two towns? Was there any police force between them?" Melissa asked, though she had a feeling she knew the answer.
Tattered shook her head. "Nope, and in a week they'll be folded into Riverview as one big happy family. We're the entirety of the police force."
"Anything else in regards to that I should know about right now?" Melissa asked.
Tattered sat and pursed her lips as she considered. "I'm planning on promoting about six supervisor officers to serve under the three of us. I want to have two day ponies, two night ponies, and two humans in those roles. I heard about you telling ponies to call you Broken Two and like the idea. If I'm Broken One, and you and Dan are Broken Two and Broken Three, then these six would be collectively Broken Four if we are using this as ranks. They'd deal with most day to day supervision and the three of us would hold more administrative roles above them."
"Does that mean shorter work days and days off?" Melissa asked with a hopeful smile.
Tattered smiled back. "Eight hour workdays with two scheduled days off a week for you and Dan. I'll pull ten hour workdays with two days off, but I'm not complaining about it at all."
Alright, that gave her free time and some time to actually learn what she was supposed to be doing. This job sounded much better now.
Tattered frowned and her ears flattened. "Now to discuss some things you won't be so happy about. Number Crunch and Tonya are walking free. I've already released them."
Melissa's eyes narrowed. "What? Why?"
Tattered shook her head. "There's no evidence to link them to the crime whatsoever. They can confess to anything, but unless there is some evidence it actually happened they can't be found guilty of anything."
Melissa blinked her eyes in confusion. "What about helping Swift Strike escape? We clearly have evidence that happened."
The night pony glanced over to the matching air vent to the one Swift Strike had used. "We had no authority to hold him at the time so he technically didn't escape. Therefore there can't be a charge." Tattered took a deep breath before continuing. "And this part stays between us, but the government doesn't want us to pursue it. They consider it damaging to the welfare of the city for us to do so."
Melissa grit her teeth briefly. "We just ignore a serious crime happened then? That's not right!"
"I feel the same way, but this is out of our control. I'm not happy about it either, but this is the way it's going to be in this case," Tattered shook her head in frustration. "The entire situation was rotten in any case. Whether we pursued this or didn't we would end up screwing over innocent people's lives. We end up screwing over less this way. It's the lesser of two evils, and the decision was made above our heads anyway."
Melissa tried to think of a good retort to that, but her mind was pulling a blank. It took her several seconds to latch on to anything that seemed to critical to be unaddressed.
"What about Tonya's claims that she forced Number to commit murder? She can still do that kind of thing if it's true, and we're just letting her walk?" She demanded.
Tattered frowned then clicked on something on the computer. The night pony briefly looked up at the clock. After that she hopped down from her seat and gestured to the computer. "Something is being done about that. If you want to know a little more about it read this email I got from Director Baker right before you walked in."
She gave Tattered a curious look and then got up and walked around to the other side of the desk.
Tattered Wing,
PR has given me permission to send a representative to observe the matter involving SD occurring tomorrow in the DR and give me a report. PR preferred a pony or a partial I could trust, but I was curious if Melissa Rivers would be interested in filling that role. Her insights as a rehumanized night pony could be invaluable in giving a more accurate interpretation of what she witnesses. Please inquire if she is interested and then email me back. If I don't receive a response back in the next hour I will check with her in person; I prefer not to further disrupt my schedule if possible though.
She stared at the email and re-read it a few times before speaking up. "What in the world is this talking about? Public relations for what? What's DR and SD stand for?"
Tattered looked uncomfortable. "PR doesn't stand for public relations. As for what this is all about, you said you wanted in on night pony secrets? Well, here's your chance to get in on night pony secrets, compliments of PR."
She looked back at the screen then back to Tattered. "I guess that explains the why me part of it if they think me formally being a night pony might give me insights, but what am I witnessing and what's DR or SD?"
Tattered gave her a flat look. "I can't really talk about it, night pony secrets. You can probably figure out all those abbreviations if you think about them enough. I feel a little upset that I'm getting emails from a human about this, but it's almost certainly my fault. I can say that if you accept you can get in on a pretty big night pony secret tomorrow and then we can talk about it after."
Melissa felt a strange hope build up. "And I'll be able to talk about this with Dan after too?"
Tattered gave a short laugh. "Both Dan and I should actually be there, every night pony that can be roped into being there will be there. You can probably talk to any night pony you want about it after. I don't know what kinds of restrictions they'll place on you talking to others about this will be, but I'll personally get on their flanks about making sure you can talk to us about it--no matter what they do to me for it."
"What do you mean what they'll do to you?" Melissa asked as she creased her brow.
Tattered shook her head sadly. "The rules are rough. You'll see tomorrow if you agree to this."
Melissa bent down and looked at Tattered closely. "Do you think I should do this? I don't even know what I'm agreeing to do."
"I don't like keeping secrets from my best friends," Tattered said in a sad voice. "And you and Dan are more than just friends to me. We were there together when we were beaten to near death. We had our friends we all cared about die right in front of us. There are things that happen that you can't walk away the same from, and we all went through them together. I don't want you feeling pushed away because of some stupid rules you missed getting by one day."
Melissa turned to the computer and re-read the email again, trying to puzzle out the meanings of the the abbreviations. She then got to typing out a reply saying that it was her replying and that she was agreeing to do it, even though she had no idea what she was agreeing to.