The Sun Sets

Night Scales continues to listen in to the conversation...

Dodger:
With your newly added gear, you return the way you came. You notice that there's only one guard outside the house next door now, the other two, including Swallowtail- must have left. Returning along, you pass by the house where the Pegasi accosted you, but there's no sign of them. You enter the Central district again, with no real direction where else to go.

Scales:
"So despite this town being under martial law, we're now in the old west? Lawlessness is to go unpunished because it's not prudent to prosecute right now?" "Inspector, please. This isn't going to get us anywhere. We-" your listening is interrupted as a worried looking nurse rushes by. She ducks her head into a room down the hall, and after a moment, a Unicorn rushes out, and he follows her downstairs. "...and there will be consequences. I assure you we wont allow the town to tear itself apart. We just need two days of cooperation. I am ASKING you, Inspector. The Mayor has agreed, I just need your support. And then, when we're done we will stay and help you pick up the pieces and return this town to normal. In fact... yes, we have a few of our own investigating a break in in the Outskirts. They're looking for any signs of contamination, but they are proceeding with a normal criminal investigation as well. We are trying to help." "...Fine. Vandalism, small time stuff? We'll drop that for now. But anything big, I'm keeping my best people in reserve." "Fair enough Inspector. That's all I can ask." There is some shuffling, it sounds like someone is approaching the door.

Scales casually moves away from the door and leans on a wall out of immediate sight...

The door opens, and Inspector Clueso walks out, turning and walking the opposite direction- he doesn't see you. But apparently he's the only one. "Is there something you need, miss?" A voice calls out from inside the room. You are completely out of sight, no way she could have seen you, but there's no one else in sight.

Scales moves out of her spot and into a position where she can see the source of the voice in the room. "I was just gonna give the Inspector an update on something that went down, but that's a nice little trick you got there."

"So I am not anymore? Ho, that- ho..." Bells lies back on the bed, staring at the ceiling as she tries to wrap her mind around the fact that she was, is no longer, pregnant.

Scales:
There is an agitated looking Pegasus Mare, clearly a Guard officer, watching you from the desk. "Yes, it is. If you we're going to tell him something, any reason you let him just walk away? Or were you just interested in eavesdropping, and decided to wait around for the next private conversation?"

Bells:
The Doctor looks remarkably uncomfortable speaking about this. "Yeah, it... it was kind of a nasty surprise for us when we found out, too." A few seconds pass. "Uh, also, there was also a complication with the Anesthesia we gave you. Not only did you have a bad reaction to it, it apparently failed to numb the pain- and you woke up during the operation. You probably remember some of that. We don't know for certain why it didn't work as well as it usually. Did... did you have any questions? It was plenty detailed. I can't imagine this is too easy for you."

The doctor blinks. "Oh," he coughs and gives a weak, embarassed smile. "Sorry, your accent, I didn't even realize... Well a complication means that something happened, that the surgery wasn't as easy as we thought it would be. Surprise problem, I guess. Aaaand Anesthesia is the medicine we give you to put you to sleep, so you don't feel anything when we're operating. The complication, then, was that the normal anesthesia didn't work for you the way we expected." His awkward grin continues through impromptu language lesson, but fades once he's done. "This... are you sure you don't have any questions. This seems like something that would be rather traumatic. You're ok?"

The Doctor gives you a look you can't quite place. "So... you didn't even realize it was possible you were pregnant? That would mean... well I don't want to guess at what that means, but I would think that would be even more upsetting then if you had a partner and just didn't realize... I'm not any expert on pregnancy. The nurse estimated... 8 weeks, give or take? The "foal" wasn't very far along, if you get my meaning."

---

According to the internet, horse gestation is 11 months with the first stage ending at roughly 14 weeks, at which time the foal is fully formed.

He's very clearly disconcerted with your apparent lack of emotion. "Yeah. Uh, stay here for a little longer. I'll go find your Bat Pony friend and she can come help you around."

"Oh, yeah, that makes sense, then. Do you know where she would have went?"

"Alright then. Wait here, I'll see if I can find her." He turns and exits the room, leaving you alone again.

---

So now we have an issue in that Bells' and Scales' timelines are about an hour apart, which means unless Scales is just hanging out at the Lieutenant's office for an hour, the guy can't just walk up and find her there right now. We need to play out her hour.

"Yes I am, and I'm a little busy, Detective."

Scales raises an eyebrow. "Well, I'll be on my way then. You have a good day lieutenant." With that, Scales moves away from the room and towards the Inspector (or, at least, where he was heading)...

Down the hall there are three rooms; a janitorial closet, and archival storage room, and another office, where the nurse went to get the Unicorn earlier. There's also some stairs, and yu didn't see if he entered a room or went downstairs.

Scales quickly checks the archival storage room...

The room is actually bigger then you would think when compared to the office next to it. It takes a minute of weaving in between shelves, but you finally come across the Inspector, reading a document. He doesn't notice you.

Scales takes a glance at what document the Inspector is reading...

(Perception Check: 13 (Roll) + 18 (Skill) = 31)

The document seems to be relatively new, and is wrinkled, like it had been balled up and crammed somewhere. From your vantage point it looks like an invoice of some kind, and you can make out "Neighagara Falls Lumberyard" printed on it. There's a bunch of numbers, and one of the items on the invoice says "Liv. Mtn. For. Prospect". Whatever else it says on there, the Inspector is clearly not happy about it.