//------------------------------// // C18 - Developments // Story: Trapped In Canterlot // by TartarusFire //------------------------------// "Hmm. I probably shouldn’t wake her up." His nurse was out cold, spilling drool onto the wooden armrest of her chair. He levitated Caedes off of the table and rolled her metal post back over to her bed. He walked back and stared at Nurse-Name-On-The-Tip-Of-My-Tongue. "Eh, I’m close enough to the ward anyway, what the heck." He picked her up carefully and placed her down on the bed beside Caedes. Tucking them both in, he left in silence. A whumph and a skitter of hooves clattered into the medical bay. Laceration cursed the noise, if his nurse had woken up, she’d be very cross. "Cross? Woo! Red Cross, I remember now!" A very angry groan rummaged around the sheets and gave up, releasing a sigh of whenever she was needed she’d come. "Poo, I woke her. Who’s there?" He paced down the small operation room to the hallway where gray feathers and a pony’s snoot poked out. "Sir?" The snoot ducked for cover, and the feathers receded. Some shuffling came from the corner and Fast Bag stepped out. "I’ve got identification to deliver to the Medical Bay, sir." His wing ruffled the saddlebags open, and pulled out a thick, white envelope. "Here you go!" He left, intent on returning to his post in the public records office of the castle. "Well, that’s the fastest paperwork has ever come here." *** "Ah yes, good to be back to the old grind." Celestia smiled and inwardly grimaced at the terrible smell in the musky office. "Except for this smell. Is this place never cleaned? I swear I left those papers in that exact spot the last time I was in here, months ago." Raven was still following her Princess around, clearly with nothing better to do since the schedule was effectively wiped for two and a half hours. "No, Princess. You specifically stated for no maids to clean out your study if you were not in here with them." "Err. That’s because of this.. reason. Hmm. Just let them air it out and keep a guard posted by it, so no pony can enter then. This musk is starting to get to me." Of course it would not have been a problem if the floor and part of the bottom of the walls were not covered in plush, velvet carpeting. Celestia sat, pulling out papers from a drawer with a cloud of dust motes visible in a ray of light from the window. "I learned this very well from my student, Twilight. If she were here right now, she’d try to make three lists per list, so if anyone asks, I made three lists, okay Raven?" Celestia’s face was all business, so Raven automatically agreed. "Good. Now then, who was involved in the whole event of the conflict?" "Squad N9 with other squads notified on lookout while they were posted in the city. Two guards who directly confronted the mare at first were wounded and now reside in the infirmary. The rest of the squad is on lockdown in a detention cell." The quill scribbled and scratched. "Seems a bit harsh, but protocol exists for a reason.. Okay. Now are the areas it occurred at contained?" "Yes, ma’am. The alleys and homes have been commandeered and quarantined from the public for the most part. The main road in the east district was allowed to be unobstructed as the chase only led through that portion without mass damage." More motions came from the quill. "Got it. Now, I’m going to tell you what we’re going to do, or me alone; you can come if you wish since you pretty much are free until eleven thirty." Her secretary nodded. "We are going to visit and oversee each of these areas and directly find out what the investigation is turning up, since bureaucracy is counterproductive. After that, we will visit the wounded, and congratulate them on their heroic duty." She stood, folding the paper and motioning for Raven to hold onto it. *** "So are we going to be let out?" The caption stared the interrogator down like a ravenous wolf ready to strike. The significantly smaller stallion eased back into the opposite chair, feeling less than intimidated. "Unfortunately no. I came to explain that you will be let out after the crime scene has been resolved or you have been granted early freedom by the Princess. By all means we should be able to let you go, especially since you reported it well. Buuuut, you can have a booby prize for now." A mare, yellowish with a brown mane walked in with five or more carts hooked together, double stacked with food. White Hoof smirked. "I think it’s a pretty good booby prize at least. You don’t get to eat like this unless you’re Celestia or in the hospital ward." "Dude. We should be asleep by now. It would be about one a.m. for you day ponies; the only reason we can’t sleep is because the boys back there are nervous wrecks." He softened. "Looks like the food’s good. I’ll probably fall asleep with some pancakes..." *** Laceration had waited awhile for these papers. It was uncommon for him to be excited at a name, but he was rather enthralled by the mystery of the little pony that had spawned this nightmare of chaos.. The flap on the envelope was slowly peeled back, his OCD preventing him from ripping it jaggedly. Laceration grabbed the top paper and— "Good heavens!" The paper was a shock, even though he had encountered similar papers before. "What’s this? The table of contents says there’re over thirty pages. How many do you really need?" He trailed off, reading down the list. Most of the initial pages were reference pages leading to other stacks of documents of similar natures to determine prior residents while the actual documents enclosed contained housing statements, the deed, and most importantly the home census. Forgoing his organizational tendencies, Laceration pulled the entire stack out, pulling the last three pages described as the home census – one page per pony. Unknown to him, he glanced over the first two papers, the married couple of a missing guard and the attempted murderess. "Here it is: age 4 at the time of the last census. Caedes G?"