The silence of the foals

Luster was walking down Dragon Town’s main street. By her sides, almost all of the buildings were less than five floors tall. Many had their windows broken and there were wooden planks on their doors. Also, the amount of ponies was a couple or one of them around every thirty legs of distance.

Since she entered that area of Fillydelphia, Luster stopped before everypony she found and offered an opportunity: Silver bits for information about the serial killer. After the ponies there told her information, she would give them a single silver bit.

“Watcha train station and de inn dat’s in front of it”, one of them said.

“De gurnment here is involved. Lemme splain. Dis is a wartime. Perhaps Filly wants to be independent and dis is de way to lure outsiders away”, another said.

“If de killer was after us, I bet de mayoress would do sumdin’. Anyways, if it’s daylight, watch de touristic places”, the last one of them said.

Then, Luster proceeded further into the neighbourhood, walking in the middle of the street. She reached an intersection and stopped. She looked both west and east. The buildings and decorations there were similar to the ones on the street Luster had passed by: matte orange walls adorned with yellow dracon language characters.

She went to the center of the intersection. She was on top of the sewer metallic cover.She opened her wings and stretched them. With her telekinesis, she opened one of her saddlebags and took out the light blue cloth. She took her glasses off and started to wipe them.

Suddenly, the sewer cover was moving, trying to go up against the weight of Luster. She jumped away from the cover, dropping her glasses and the cloth on the floor.

With no weight against it anymore, the cover was opened. Luster was watching from a few legs away. A unicorn wearing black overalls and rainboots came out but freezed when he noticed Luster.

“Who in Celestia’s name are you?!” Luster inquired, hitting the floor with a hoof. With her telekinesis, she had grabbed the cloth and her glasses from the floor. Her nostrils flared and she had her eyes wide open.

Slowly, the unicorn moved away from the sewer hole. He stopped when he was a leg away from it. He was in front of Luster. She looked at his brown eyes. He was slowly breathing. He cleared his throat. “I’m from maintenance”. Brown bangs covered parts of his face. His straight mane was long enough that it reached his shoulders.
“Oh, really?” Luster started to walk in circles around the unicorn. “So, what’s your name?” As she walked, he followed her with his eyes and was turning his body towards her.

“Neighel Mareson”, he answered. Luster stopped walking around and turned her body towards him. “Is Neighel a common name around here?” She snorted. “Cause it’s not the first time I’ve heard it”.

Neighel shrugged. His light blue coat seemed to absorb the sunlight, instead of shine against it. Luster narrowed her eyes, scanning him from head to hoof. “So Neighel…” Her eyes fell on his. “First of all, why did you get out of this hole in this abandoned part of town?”

Neighel looked up at the sky. Then he lowered his head towards Luster. “It’s de closest exit dat leads to de Rearing Terminal Market. I’d like to haff lunch”.

“Huh?” Luster frowned. She raised her left forehoof and looked at the watch around it. It struck ten to two. She lowered her hoof and looked back at Neighl. “Hasn’t lunchtime ended for workers almost an hour ago?”

Neighel snorted. “It’s like if you weren’t an outsider”. He was pawing the paved floor with his covered hoof.

“What are you talking about?” Luster left her mouth semi-open, looking him in the eye.

Neighel lowered his head. “I don’t trust outsiders”. He looked forward to Luster. “May I leave now?”

Luster stood in silence for a few seconds; her eyes were locked with Neighel’s. “You are free to go”, she said. Neighel turned south and started to get away from Luster.

Luster stood where she was, and with her telekinesis she properly covered the sewer hole a few legs away from her.

She inhaled and took flight, heading south-west. She had flown over the Rearing Terminal Market and was about to reach the City Stall.When she got there she landed near the steps that led to the doors. She looked up at the doors and saw two unicorns guarding them. One of the guards was the same one who had been escorting the mayoress.

She went up the steps and approached the doors. She exchanged glances with the guards. “Hello, sires, must I wait until two o’clock to enter?”

One of the guards shook his head. “Dat was only yesterday's measure , commissar. You are free to pass”. With his magic he pushed one of the doors of the City Stall. “Thanks!” Luster said with a smile. She crossed the threshold. The door was closed behind her.

With her eyes, Luster scanned the inside of the City Stall. In the waiting room, to the south-west of the building, there were many pillows; although most of them were unoccupied by ponies. In the background of the room there were stall-tables with ponies working on papers or speaking with ponies on the other side of them.

Luster walked across the room towards one of the cubicles. The pony in there looked up from her papers and opened her eyes wide. “Co-commissar?!”

Luster smiled and nodded once. “Indeed”. She approached the table but stopped before the pillow. “I need a registry of names of the alive ponizens of this city”.

The pony batted her eyes quickly for a second. “I’m afraid I’m going to need de mayoress’s permission to enter de archive”.

Luster sighed. She spread her majestic wings and stretched them. She looked the pony in the eye. “Do you perhaps know somepony called Neighel? Neighel Mareson?” She brought the tips of her wings to her temples. She closed her eyes and massaged them.

“Of course, I know him, commissar. He’s an alderpony after all”, the pony said.

Luster opened her eyes wide and retracted her wings. “He’s a what?!”