Maretropolis

At the sound of her morning alarm, Applejack silenced it. Then she sprang out of bed and whipped on her uniform. She washed, brushed, and rinsed. Then she put on her bulletproof vest, pinned on her badge (briefly shining it one more time after she did so), and strapped on her belt. She was ready to protect and serve! She grabbed her keys and glanced at the spray can of Dragon Repellant sitting on the table, then walked out, leaving it behind.

But after a moment, she reopened the door, reached back into the room, and grabbed it—just in case.

Applejack left her apartment and headed toward the Maretropolis Police Department for her first day on the job. The MPD had a whole city block to itself. The building occupied most of it and there was a C-shaped parking lot on the rest of it for their vehicles. There were black-and-white squad cars, practically brand new, as well as unmarked detective cars of various colors, a crime scene van, and a SWAT truck, all slotted in at angles. The building itself was made of glazed tan brick. It had a flat roof and a massive badge hung above the front entrance, with a long marble lintel crisply engraved: City of Maretropolis Police Headquarters.

Applejack walked up to the revolving door of the big and tall building. She pushed on it and it sucked against the rubber seals.

Her eyes widened as she entered the chaotic lobby. Big burly cops pushed criminals through, to the holding cells, as people rushed around in every direction.

“Come on!” one of the perpetrators shouted. “He pulled his knife first!”

Applejack dodged a few husky officers before finally making her way to the reception desk. A giggly, friendly-looking girl in uniform with raspberry hair and blue eyes sat behind it, munching on a piece of cake.

“Mmm, mmm, mmm, mmm, mmm!” she moaned.

Applejack smiled at her as she approached.

“Excuse me. Hi,” she interrupted the friendly officer’s eating.

“O-M-Goodness! They really did hire you!” she said as she put down her cake and held out her hand for Applejack to shake.

She smiled as she spoke, not just with her mouth, but her eyes too. And her eyes, even though they were blue, were like a welcome blast of sunshine on a rotten afternoon.

“Welcome to the MPD. I’m Officer Pie. What’s buzzin’, cousin?”

Applejack winced.

“You probably didn’t know this, but if we were family, close family, we could call each other ‘cousin’, but if you do it, and we’re not, it’s a little...”

The pink-haired officer gasped.

“I am so sorry! Me, Pinkamena Diane Pie, the girl everyone writes off as a hyperactive, cake-loving airhead stereotyping you. Oh...”

“Oh, it’s okay. Uh, you’ve got a little something in your hair,”

Pinkie reached up and removed a small cupcake from one of her curly locks.

“Oh! There you went, you little dickens!” she said to the cupcake before she joyfully crammed it into her mouth. “Mmm.”

“I should get to roll call,” Applejack said. “Which way...?”

“Oh, Bullpen’s over there to the left,” Pinkie said, her mouth still full of cupcake.

“Great. Thank you!” Applejack said as she hurried off.

“Aw, that poor girl’s gonna get eaten alive,” Pinkie said, watching her go.

Applejack walked down a corridor and into a large open-plan squad room. It was full of noise and men and women in uniform. Most had mugs of coffee, and many were reading the bulletins, making notes, and/or cleaning their weapons.

Some were young, some were old, some were neat, some were a mess. It was easy enough to pick out the new hires from the veterans. A real mixed bunch. But most of them were human, and it was easy to see the friction between them and the hybrids.

Applejack was well aware of the commotion that Mayor Blueblood’s Inclusion Initiative had caused... particularly in the MPD. Unit cohesion had been disrupted, and professionalism had been compromised. Us and them. But old or new, human or hybrid, they were all punctual.

She passed two hybrid officers that were arm wrestling while the others were getting ready to head out for the day. Many of them towered over her, but she didn’t mind.

She took her seat and extended her hand to a gigantic officer whose name badge read McHale. He was big as well as tall, not fat, but athletic, with only a little stubble on his chin, arms like those of a longshoreman (not as big as Bulk Biceps’, but close), and the tiny metal stripes that stuck through the fabric on both peaks of his shirt collar indicated that he was a Sergeant.

One of the veterans.

“Howdy. Officer Smith,” she introduced herself. “Ya ready to make the world a better place?”

McHale snorted and reluctantly gave her fist a bump, nearly knocking her off her chair.

“Ten-hut!” one of the officers, whose name badge read McRae, shouted.

The Police Chief, a gruff Minotaur hybrid named Iron Will, entered the room. He was wearing blue flannel pants and a blue short-sleeve shirt, open neck, no tie. He looked like he had been a cop since birth. Maybe even since the moment of his conception. Like it was in his blood, his DNA.

Everyone instantly fell in line and started stomping on the floor.

“Hut! Hut! Hut!” they all chanted.

“All right. All right! Everybody sit,” said Iron Will.

They stopped chanting and sat down.

“I’ve got three items on the docket,” he began. “First... we need to acknowledge the Buffalo in the room.”

He nodded toward one of the lady officers. She was short, thin, dark, and lovely. Just like her ancestors who had roamed the Plains before her.

“Little Strongheart,” the Chief said. “Happy birthday.”

She blushed as the other officers clapped and hooted, congratulating her.

“Number two. There are some new recruits with us that I should probably introduce, but I’m not going to because, like Clark Stable in Gone with the Wind, ‘frankly, I don’t give a damn,’”

All the officers, even Applejack, snickered as Iron Will moved toward a map on the wall behind him.

“Finally,” he said, gesturing to the pushpin-covered map, “we have fourteen Missing Persons cases, people. Fourteen! Most of them hybrids, ranging from two known members of the Dragon Mafia to a 52-year-old retired factory worker. This is more than we’ve ever had, and City Hall is right up my butt to find every single one of them. This is priority number one. So, assignments!”

Iron Will started barking out names as he handed out case files.

“Officers Hayes, Flankmeyer, Delgado: your teams take missing persons from the Everfree District. Sergeant McHale, Sergeant O’Hara, Officers Lopes and Wolfram: your teams take Celestia Square. Officers McRae, Davidson, Strongheart: Dragontown. And finally... Officer Smith.”

Applejack sat up straight. She’d been waiting anxiously for this moment.

Her very first case.

“Parking Duty,” he said. “Dismissed!”

“Parking duty?” she repeated quietly.

She hurried after Iron Will.

“Chief!”

Iron Will turned around.

“Chief Iron Will? Sir, you said there were 14 Missing Person cases,”

“So?”

“So, I can handle one. You probably forgot, but I was top of my class at the Academy,”

“Didn’t forget. Just don’t care,”

“Sir, I’m not just some token officer,”

“Well, then writing a hundred tickets in a day should be no trouble for you,” he said as he walked out, slamming the door behind him.

Applejack stamped her foot in anger.

“A hundred tickets. I’m not gonna write 100 tickets. I’m gonna write 200 tickets!” She turned toward the closed door and added, “Before noon!”