She didn’t need to look up to know it was about to rain. The Manehattan air was even heavier than usual, and the moonlight was blocked from view. She sighed as a few raindrops landed on her nose, and Applejack knew she wouldn’t make it back to the castle before the clouds opened up.
As she focused on weaving through the crowded sidewalk, she grumbled to herself that she was here in the first place. She always felt out of place in cities. She belonged in open orchards, not condensed streets. She grumbled that Apple Fritter had kept her there for far too long.
She wasn’t truly complaining, as in she didn’t regret coming up this weekend. Uncle Orange had been in a carriage when it suddenly flipped. He was fine, other than a lot of broken bones, but every branch of the family sent at least one pony up to check in. Normally Big Mac would have gone, but Pink Lady got sick, and Applejack couldn’t let him leave his daughter back home. So while he and Applebloom watched over the farm, she hopped on the next train up.
Through her own pushing and the other ponies’ pushing, she realized she had been shoved into an alleyway. She paused, waiting for a gap to jump back into the craziness. What she thought was a gap was actually a foal tumbling into the same alleyway.
It was a small Pegasus filly, maybe five years old. Her coat was grayish, and her mane a light brown with pink and purple streaks. She was currently rubbing a scrape on her foreleg, and Applejack could see a few more.
She wouldn’t have paid much more attention to the filly except for the fact that she stayed in the alley. She expected the filly to freak out and try to run back to her parents, or for somepony to walk in after her, but no one came.
“Are you lost?” she asked her. The filly jumped at the sound of her voice. Fear filled her turquoise eyes, and Applejack saw the fur around them had fresh tear streaks. The filly tried to shake her head ‘no’.
“It’s okay, sugarcube,” she assured her, softening her voice. The filly shook her head in a ‘yes’ this time. “Where were you going?”
“I don’t know,” the filly squeaked out. Her voice was light and free from Manehattan’s dialect. ‘They don’t tell me. They’re afraid I’ll screw it up.’
“What about where you’re staying?” she asked, processing that last sentence.
“I don’t remember,” the filly looked down at her hooves. ‘It was a big hotel. It has seashell patterns everywhere. I’m sorry.”
Applejack didn’t know what to do about that. If there had been a place name she could have asked for directions or hailed a cab. She didn’t want to leave this filly alone, and the rain was really starting now.
“Tell you what,” she began. “I saw a police station a block back. How about we go back there and they can look for your parents?”
“Not there!” she exclaimed. “Papa said to never go to the police for anything! I’m in enough trouble already!”
“Now why would he tell you something like that?” Applejack asked. “Police are supposed to help ponies. Come on, I’ll take you down there and they’ll have you back with them before morning!”
“O-okay,” the filly said hesitantly. “May-maybe I heard him wrong when he said that. I’m always misunderstanding him.” Applejack couldn’t help but be suspicious at that statement.
As the rain fell harder they made their way back through the crowd. She kept a close eye on the filly, feeling like she’d walk off at her first chance. It was slow going, as the filly couldn’t push through, but they were making it.
“I never did ask your name,” she said to the filly.
“St-Starlight,” she answered.
“I’m Applejack,” she replied.
“That name sounds familiar,” Starlight whispered.
Applejack said nothing as she turned up the stairs of the police station. In the lights of the station lobby, she got a better look at the filly. Starlight’s coat was white, not gray like she first thought. He mane was incredibly shiny, almost like a Crystal Pony’s. The scrape on her foreleg was more prominent, as were a few more scrapes and bruises, some looking a few weeks old. She was trembling, both from the cold rain and some underlying fear of police stations.
“Excuse me, sir?” Applejack asked the burgundy stallion behind the desk. He looked up from his paperwork, annoyed. However, he changed his attitude when he saw who he was talking to.
“Hey, ‘Nigma! Get over here!” he shouted over his shoulder. “This is Enigma, she’ll help you with whatever you need.”
“Thanks,” Applejack grinned begrudgingly.
She didn’t want special treatment. She was actually surprised the stallion recognized her at all. Sure, she’d helped save the world a few times, but it’s not like she was well known. If it were any of her friends that would have made sense; Twilight was a Princess, which is hard to miss, Rarity is a top designer now, and Rainbow earned a spot as a Wonderbolt. Pinkie Pie got famous, or rather infamous, when she teamed up with Discord and Cheese Sandwich to make literally the biggest and wildest party anypony’s ever known. Even Fluttershy still has ponies recognizing her from her short time as a model. But Applejack was just a farmer.
She snapped out of her annoyance when the Unicorn mare came up to her. She was an apple blossom color, with a mane matching Applejack’s own coat, and rectangular glasses in front of big brown eyes. She led them to a room off to the side room.
“I’m Detective Enigma,” the mare introduced herself after she closed the door. "You can call me Enigma, if you please."
“I’m Applejack,” she replied.
“I noticed!” Enigma bounced. “We might not see you if we passed on the street, but anypony can tell when they’re talking to one of the Elements of Harmony!” Applejack decided not to reply that the actual Elements were currently in a tree.
“Sorry to bother you, but I’m here about this one,” she brought the conversation back and nudged Starlight forward.
“What’s your name?” Enigma asked her, lowering herself to the filly’s height.
“She’s Starlight,” Applejack answered for her when Starlight shied away. “And she’s a bit lost. I found her about a block northward, and she says they’re at a hotel with seashells.”
“That’s simple enough!” she grinned. “I’m pretty sure that’s my cousin Sea Swirl’s hotel, ‘the Dolphin’. It’s right by the museum.”
“That’s it!” Starlight suddenly burst out. “They love staying by museums and art galleries and fancy places!”
Her voice slid to a halt, and she sat down and stared at the floor again. She mumbled something about speaking out of turn. Applejack and Enigma looked at one another with a questioning glance before continuing.
“Starlight, it’s alright,” Enigma told her. “We can find your parents. I will need their names and descriptions though. Is that okay?”
“Okay,” she nodded, barely looking up. “My Papa is named Locksmith. He’s a blue Crystal Pony. Mama is a gray Unicorn named Lighthoof..”
“Great!” Enigma exclaimed. “We’ll have you back with them soon! And Starlight, your leg is a little scratched. I’ll get you a first aid kid so Miss Applejack can patch you up. Be right back.”
She was lying. Applejack wasn’t sure how, but she always knew when sompony lied to her. Maybe it was part of being the Element of Honesty. She didn’t pester her about it when she came back with the med kit.
Starlight looked tired. It made sense once Applejack checked the clock. She was going through the kit and inspecting the damage on Starlight when the filly began crying.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
“I-I did the wrong thing,” she whispered. “Papa said not to tell ponies about them, but I just want to go back to them. I didn’t want to get in more trouble.”
“It’ll be fine,” she assured her, beginning work on the scrape from earlier. “Did you get all these scrapes and bruises walking around?”
“No,” she answered. Applejack knew it wasn’t from today, some bruises were old. “I’m a bit stupid, so I mess up a lot.”
“How do you mess up?” She knew what answer to expect. She found really old and newer rope burns around her legs and wing joints. It’s surprising how hidden these were if you didn’t look close.
“I forget things,” Starlight said. “Or I mishear instructions. We travel a lot and I sometimes leave things in the hotel room when we check out. One time I got really sick and we had to spend more time in the same city instead of moving away.”
“Where do y’all live?” she continued, applying a little bit of an ointment to the burns.
“Nowhere,” she answered.
“What about school?”
“Mama teaches me what I need to know. I can read and do some math. And we go to a lot of museums so I learn history and stuff. We saw this really pretty garden in Canterlot last month and the caretaker told me about how flowers grow. And before that we went to an art gallery in Baltimare and-“ She stopped and looked down again.
“And what?” Applejack asked.
“You wanted me to continue?” Starlight asked. “You frowned. When Mama does that while I talk she’s a sentence away from telling me to shut up.”
“I was frowning at this,” she gently ran her hoof over a scar on her ear. “I’d love to hear what you’ve done.”
“You don’t find me annoying?”
“You’re doing fine.”
“Really?” As tired as she looked, the filly’s eyes lit up as she began speaking at a million miles an hour. “Because we were in Phillydelphia before that, and I saw this couple in the park and the stallion proposed to this really pretty mare and she was crying and smiling and everypony in the park clapped for them! It’s my second favorite day!”
“What’s your favorite day?” she asked.
“It was a couple years ago so I don’t remember exactly what happened,” she said, “but I remember it was a really bad day after a week of really bad days, and then everything was suddenly super happy and bright! I didn’t stop smiling until we left the city!”
“Miss Applejack?” Enigma had stuck her head in the door. “Can I talk to you for a minute?”
“I’ll be right back,” she assured the filly as she stepped out.
“You sure?” Starlight wondered
“I promise,” she grinned.
“It’ll only be a couple minutes!” Enigma agreed.
“I need to talk to you too,” Applejack said once the door was closed. “Why were you lying?”
“What do you mean?” Enigma didn’t have that good of a pokerface.
“When you said you’d get her back tonight you lied,” Applejack held back the feeling of wanting to interrogate the mare. “What’s going on?”
“This is, well, you can’t tell anyone,” she began. “The names Locksmith and Brighthoof have been in police records for over one thousand years.”
“Run that by me again?”
“More specifically, they were in the records from the Crystal Empire. They were thieves for years and hadn’t been caught, but the last couple years they’ve been back again. We’ve been working on the assumption that they got trapped in the Empire when it disappeared. Truthfully, it’s been a pain in my flank working on this; we have records of interviews and some evidence, ‘but everypony who knows anything is long dead and buried.
“It could be a coincidence, but the idea that they’re here has the station worked into a frenzy wondering what they’ll take. I mean last month they took a rare wildflower, and before that it was a painting.”
“Was the wildflower in a garden in Canterlot?” Applejack wondered. “And the painting in Baltimare?”
“Yeah, actually,” Enigma answered, going over the case in her head.
“And before that was Phillydelphia? What was there?”
“It was the third largest fire ruby,” she replied. “Why?”
“Because Starlight said they were in a Canterlot garden last month,” she explained. “And an art gallery in Baltimare, and she had started telling me about her time in Phillydelphia when you came back. I’m pretty sure you have your thieves.”
“Now we just wait.” Enigma sighed. “Poor Starlight though.”
“Well it might be good in a way,” she said carefully. “You noticed some of those scrapes and bruises? I found more, along with a scar from a ripped ear and rope burns on her legs and wing joints. And they way she talks about how she’ll get in trouble, well, even if you weren’t arresting them I’d suggest something.”
“I’m looking into it, but that’s another battle entirely,” she sighed.
“What’ll happen to her?” Applejack wondered.
“Normally I’d look for a next of kin to take her,” she sighed again, “but the three of them were in the Crystal Empire, so any immediate relatives are dead, and I can’t really drop her with a cousin that’s thirty six times removed or something. She’ll probably end up in a foster care system.”
“Oh,” she whispered.
Enigma offered to bring her dinner and alert the guards to why she wouldn’t come back to the castle soon. Applejack walked back into the room to see Starlight fast asleep. She looked so tiny curled up on the chair like that.
Applejack couldn’t stop thinking about her, and about the fostercare. Back when her own parents died and Granny Smith was still going to be in the hospital for a few weeks, the authorities put her and her siblings in a foster home until another family member could come pick them up. Even though they were only there for a few days, it was terrible.
She shuddered when she remembered the, for lack of a better word, horror stories from Scootaloo’s time in the foster care system. She bounced from place to place for years before Redheart adopted her, but most were the same. There is a reason that girl didn’t fly until she was an adult.
“Are they here yet?” Starlight mumbled, trying to open her eyes.
“Not yet,” Applejack told her. She’d tell her about what would happen when morning came. “You can go back to sleep.”
“I’m wide awake,” she yawned. “We were talking about my best day, remember?”
“I remember,” she chuckled.
“I just,” she tried to say, “I remember it was bright and colorful and happy. I remember the feeling all around me. You know, Miss Applejack? You kind of remind me of it. Don’t know why but you do.”
She mumbled something about wiggling rainbows while she drifted off again. Applejack realized she was yawning too. She tried to think this all through logically, but the most illogical decision kept coming back.
She got up and went out to find Enigma. She had a bag of sandwiches in her magic in one spell and was putting on her arresting gear with another. As Applejack watched her clip the hoofcuffs onto the belt, she finally had to ask.
“How many hoops do you think I’d have to go through to adopt her?”