Seventy-Two days until the Summer Sun Celebration
“Hello Ponies. Welcome back to the Canterlot News Network. As always, I’m your host Air Waves.” The familiar greeting felt good for the veteran reporter each and every time she said it. It wasn’t just her calling card, to her it was a sign of quality, that even after almost two decades of service she was with the most prestigious news network in Equestria.
With a confident grin, the light blue pegasus brushed her cobalt and white mane from her face and behind her headphones. Today’s story was a doozy, and she was relishing in being the first one to break it. Late last night, a folder had been dropped off at her apartment with documents that could turn all of Equestria on its side. She had contacted everyone she knew in the palace and had corroborated almost everything in the file.
It wasn’t just any old bombshell, this was a bunker buster that would level Mount Canter.
“Today I have the privilege of breaking a story that is a shocking revelation of what our government has been doing.” Air Waves flipped the folder open and rustled the papers audibly until she found the one she was looking for. It was a copy, she could tell, but it said everything she needed. “Project Carrier. A secret operation carried out by our very government to spy on its citizenry, courtesy of the Department of Equestrian Intelligence. ‘Project Carrier’ involves highjacking the magical sensors in post offices that detect dangerous materials to scan every piece of mail, read it, and send everything back to the Department of Equestrian Intelligence. The government is reading everything you write and using that to detect ‘possible corruption or probable criminality’.”
Air Waves let the words hang for a few seconds, letting the masses soak in the possibilities. It was heavy, she knew that much. It could be used for so much bad, it was ripe for abuse and the ponies deserved to know this.
“What happens when they decide somepony is a threat? Somepony is corrupt or might do something wrong? Will they follow the correct protocols, make them face justice through all of the proper channels? Of course not, because then they would have to reveal how they got all of their evidence. This is how ponies disappear, this is how justice and the rule of law die; secrets and spies.”
Air took a deep breath as the telltale beep came from her headphones, letting her know that they had just went to commercial. With a deep sigh, the seasoned pegasus killed her microphone and took off her headphones. Her producer had told her how dangerous this was to put out there, how much the government would be on her flank and just how much trouble she would be in. It was a risk she was willing to take, she had even told them that she would take the heat for not submitting their broadcast schedule copy to the communications board in the palace. Everything would be on her shoulders with this, no one else’s.
And as long as there were secrets in Canterlot, as long as they deserved to be exposed, Air Waves would be there to expose them to the people of Canterlot, she would be there to shed light on whatever shadows where dirty deeds were being dealt with.
“We’re coming back.” The voice of the pony in the booth came over the dinky speakers in the small and cramped studio. Air Waves leaned forwards in her seat and put her headphones back on and prepared to hit her mic. “Wait, hold on….I can’t seem to get a stable connection...it’s out.” The voice was half frustrated and half worried. Since the booth job was practically a revolving door, she would advise him to be more worried than anything.
A sharp and impatient knocking came at the studio door. One that sent the fur along Air’s spine on end. She had locked the door for a very good reason, so if someone was knocking…
“Canterlot Royal Guard! Open up or we’re breaking this door down!” That deep, masculine voice was the last thing she wanted to hear, but the top thing she was expecting after her report.
In an instant, the pegasus was out of her seat and on the other side of the small studio, standing over an empty metal trashcan, a lit candle that she had prepared in one wing and the file in the other. Whatever brave soul that had gotten this to her couldn’t be jeopardized. If any hint of their magic, or saliva, or feather dust was on this, it couldn’t get into the hooves of the guard. They would be crucified, maybe literally, by Galea.
She closed her eyes and brought the two objects closer and closer together until she head the file catch light, once the heat licked the tips of her feathers, she dropped the now burning bundle into the trashcan with a dull thump, shreds of burning paper flying up into the air.
The sound of a powerful spell charging up from the other side of the door rang across the room, the dull hum of horns building power. It all discharged at once, the door practically disintegrating from the raw power output and causing Air Waves to bring a wing up to shield her eyes.
As soon as the heat from the spell dissipated, an intense chill came over the room. Air Waves felt it in her very soul, that familiar biting cold. It wasn’t just fear, a certain pony exuded that freezing aura.
“Ms. Waves, I am very disappointed.” The smoke cleared slightly and revealed a petite baby blue mare with a graying mane and the harshest set of gray eyes that could pierce stone. Captain Galea herself.
Air Waves had faced this mare before, in multiple interviews where they had sparred verbally and usually came to a stalemate or a humiliating defeat for one of them in the papers the next day. Those moments, where they were sitting across from each other, playing chess with their words and wits, had never scared the pegasus. This time, it was different, it was physical.
“I was doing my job, reporting what was g-” Magic formed around her muzzle, solidifying into ice and leaving only her nostrils unobstructed. Futily, Air Waves tried to scratch away the ice, but found it too resilient.
Galea moved ahead of her contingent of guards, the unicorn seemingly towering over everyone else in the room despite her much smaller stature. She walked until her muzzle was just inches away from Air’s and sneered.
“I don’t care what you say, what you did, or if you say it was given legally to you, you will give me a name. I do not care how long it takes, I will throw you into a cell and you will rot until you give me a name.” There was fury and truth in those words, undeniable truth. Even if Air Waves knew who gave her the file, which she didn’t, Galea was going to make her talk...and it wasn’t going to be pleasant.
Instead of showing her fear, Air Waves stood defiant and glared back at Galea. She wasn’t going to be bullied, she wasn’t going to let anypony get away with what the Captain and her ilk were doing, she couldn’t. It was her job as a member of the free press to expose this.
“Prep her for transport, we’re taking her to the mines.”