//------------------------------// // Amethyst Star Runs an Errand // Story: Amethyst Star Isn't Prepared For This // by MagicS //------------------------------// With a pull of a lever the printing press came down and smashed the ink into the front page of the group of newspapers arrayed on the press, creating the front page news of the day. And with a lift of that same lever the press reset and automatically shuffled off that group of papers to another part of the presses where they could get their next pages done while another group of newspapers slid into place, ready for Amethyst Star to pull the lever again and print their front pages. She had done this several hundred times by now. Working at the largest newspaper company in the city was an insight into just how many people lived here and how many papers were needed to serve them all. At this point she would’ve had enough for every pony in Ponyville and then some. But for the City of Opportunity she wasn’t even remotely close to being done with her work even though there were several other newspapers fighting for customers and their share of the city. The amount of newspapers in circulation was simply staggering and new ones were printed everyday. As far as her recent work went this was by far the most monotonous thing Amethyst Star had done. She had gotten bored of it almost immediately but kept going along anyways, her recent failures and their causes weighing heavily on her mind. If something else happened to change up the routine she would gladly go for it but for now she was just going to let things be. If that meant pulling a lever and nothing else for the next few hours then so be it. But as if in response to her thoughts the door to this newspaper producing warehouse was thrown open and a stallion wearing a fedora and holding some crumpled up piece of paper ran inside at full speed, straight past Amethyst Star and her press to the office of the Editor-in-Chief. She had no idea what that was about and just shrugged while continuing her work but in another minute she was about to find out. “What?!” She heard the distinctive yell of the Editor-in-Chief, a pony she had only met once briefly earlier today as he was yelling at someone else about the poor and boring quality of the news in the city lately. Immediately both the Chief and the other stallion ran out of his office and started looking around. The other ponies and workers in the building all paused what they were doing to see just what was up. “Who here can we spare?” The other stallion asked the chief. “Needs to be someone who you can just replace. Can’t be doing a complicated job,” the Chief’s round eyes searched over the others in the building. Right before coming to a stop on Amethyst Star. His face lit up behind his bushy mustache and he grabbed the other stallion, pulling him to Amethyst Star. “You! Temp!” Amethyst Star pointed a hoof to her face, raising an eyebrow at the chief and his companion. “Me?” “Yes, you! Can you run a very important errand for us? Are you fast?” He asked her. There was no internal debate. “Yes! I’m both of those things… er, I mean, yes I can run your errand and I’m fast.” The fedora wearing pony didn’t seem convinced but the Chief was a different story. “Splendid! I just got the news that an important witness to a big crime has been freed up to give her first interview to the press! Whichever paper reaches her first is going to be able to be the first one to break the story. I need you to travel to her home and interview her right now! She’s infirm and unfortunately can’t leave on her own to speak to us on our own terms so we have to send somebody to her.” Amethyst Star grinned, not only was this going to be a fun change of pace from pulling her lever but getting to hear about a big crime sounded really interesting too. Maybe it would even be the kind of thing that would lead her to a big adventure in this city like she wanted? “Awesome, I’ll take care of it no problem!” Amethyst Star saluted the two ponies. The Chief smiled back at her and took the paper from the other stallion, giving it to her. “Excellent, truly excellent. There are directions on here and I’ve scribbled some questions to ask her on the back. Now hurry up! This is just the kind of story we need right now.” “You can count on me!” The unicorn grabbed the paper and gave it a quick glance to see what direction she needed to be headed in before stuffing it in her saddlebag. “I’ll be back in a jiffy with that interview.” Amethyst Star surprisingly did not get lost but she wasn’t making her way through the streets as fast as she would have liked. The reason for this being how cluttered and maze-like the streets were in the first place and the large amount of cityfolk constantly walking or running down them. It was a madhouse here at all times with citizens from every walk of life and species going up and down the streets with no consideration for who else was going where. So Amethyst Star had to fight her way through everybody and try not to get carried away by the crowd while also making sure she stayed on the right path in a city she was barely familiar with. She ran from a sidestreet into a wider one that was lined with all sorts of open stalls and poor ponies holding boxes of cheap trinkets that tried to foist them onto anybody passing by. Not a pleasant scene but Amethyst Star didn’t have the time to sympathize with them. She darted in-between all of the sellers and beggars as she made her way to her still far-off destination. Hopefully there weren’t any pickpockets or others that would try to accost her in this not so good part of the city. Things were still crowded at every turn and corner but progress was being made. This part of the city was mostly a bunch of small buildings cloistered together and made out of whatever was available, there was nothing like the huge office building or even things like parks or other recreational areas. Likely no one had the money or care to put them in. “Slum” might have been the most accurate word for where she was right now, at least she was just passing through. She broke from another crowd of ponies trying to sell her stuff to emerge into a slightly more open road that led into a nicer part of the city dominated by yellow mud and dirt buildings with a distinct desert look to them. As always Amethyst Star was surprised by the variety of styles in this city. The road to them though was bisected by tram tracks that ran perpendicular through it and currently a very long tram was holding up all of the pedestrians trying to cross the street. The boom barriers were lowered to make sure nobody walked out onto the tracks until the tram was completely through. Amethyst Star could only sigh. She had to wait too. If she was a pegasus or had the magical talent to teleport she could get around this obstacle but since she didn’t all she could do was stand with the other impatient ponies and creatures right at the edge of the tracks and grumble while the tram went by. Car after car of the tram passed in front of her face as she impatiently rocked back and forth on her hooves. “Come on already...” She frowned as she thought of how much time she was wasting here. Looking down the tracks showed that the tram was at least almost all the way past them though, she’d only be stuck here for a minute longer before the bars lifted and she could continue on. “Got someplace to be?” Amethyst Star’s ears perked up at the question, turning her head to the left to see a violet stallion with a bright yellow mane smiling at her. He was carrying a brown backpack and had a camera dangling around his neck. “Yeah, got a job that I need to do actually,” she replied to him. “Kind of on a timer so I really wish this tram could move faster.” “I know what you mean,” he grimaced. “There’s somewhere I really need to be right now too. What is it that you’re doing?” “Well I’m working for The Opportunity Inquirer right now. The Chief just got the news that some witness to a big crime was open for an interview so he sent me out to interview her. Gotta get there as fast as possible to make sure I’m the first one to talk with her,” Amethyst Star grinned. While she explained that the stallion’s smile slowly morphed into a much more thoughtful expression. The last car of the tram also passed right by and the boom barriers began to lift. “Really?” He said, rubbing his temple. “That’s actually quite the coincidence.” Amethyst Star raised an eyebrow at him. “Why’s that?” “Oh it’s just that I’m a reporter for The Daily Yeller and I was asked to do the same thing,” he answered, staring off down the street. “Oh,” Amethyst Star nodded and turned her head to look with him right as the barrier lifted and they could start getting across without any trouble. It was only then that the importance of his words reached her. “Wait. What?” While she was still processing what he had told her, the reporter wheeled around the moment the barrier was no longer obstructing the two of them and kicked her hard in the shin. “Better luck next time, that story’s mine!” He sneered at her and ran off full speed down the street. “Ow!” Amethyst Star jumped up in pain and yelped. Falling to the ground and grasping her leg she glared at the reporter as he ran to their shared goal of the interviewee and left her behind. “Get back here you jerk!” She angrily shook her hoof at him, to no avail. Amethyst Star rubbed the sore spot and got up as quickly as she could, wincing a bit from the pain she began to hobble after him, still doing her best to make it to the witness. That reporter had a solid lead on her now though so she’d really have to figure out a way to make up for lost time. Was it possible to take a shortcut? It was certainly risky. Even as she got back to her normal speed she knew that unless they had to stop for a tram or something again there was no way she’d be able to catch up to him if they were running the same route. She had to think of something else. She looked up at the buildings around her, just like most other parts of the city all the buildings were pretty close together if not outright touching. Her eyes were drawn to their misshapen and uneven roofs that created far from a decent running path “Hmm, is that really my best bet?” She bit her lip. “And how to get up there?” That question answered itself when she saw a large yak and a zebra walking side by side right in front of a store with a metal awning over its door. Amethyst Star gulped at the sudden inspiration that popped into her head. “This may be my worst idea yet.” The unicorn quickly ran to the two pedestrians and jumped up on the zebra’s back, using it as a stepping-stone to jump up onto the yak’s back and then using that to jump up onto the awning of the store. While her recently used living stairs protested and yelled at her she took another jump from the awning to clamber onto the roof, just barely being able to reach her hooves up to the edge of the roof and pull the rest of her body over. Amethyst Star rolled onto her belly and breathed a sigh of relief, wiping the sweat from her brow. “Whew, that actually worked!” Picking herself up she started running from rooftop to rooftop. It may not have been a perfect straightaway and there may have been times when she needed to find a vent or windowsill or fire escape to climb on to make it onto another roof but she felt it was still faster than pushing her way through the crowds on the streets down below. She kept an eye on the streets too to make sure she was still going the right way, wouldn’t do to get lost or stuck up on some roof. While she was running across them and checking out the street below she also soon saw a familiar pony up ahead. The reporter was shoving through everybody else as he frantically ran to the goal line as if Amethyst Star was hot on his heels, even though he obviously didn’t know she was up on the roof gaining and spying on him. “I am going to love to see the look on your face when I beat you,” Amethyst Star sneered at the reporter down there. Amethyst Star pulled the piece of paper out of her bag that had the directions and questions written on it to see how close she was. They were coming up on the witnesses house shortly. She’d need to book it, the witness lived in an apartment complex for the elderly and it was around the corner to the right of the intersection after the next. It would be a larger building for sure and the race didn’t end just when they got to it, they’d be fighting all the way to her front door. Of course she planned to be beating her opponent long before then in the first place. Up ahead there was a big four-way intersection in the streets, she’d have to jump down from the roofs there and start using the street again so if she wasn’t ahead of the reporter at that point she’d probably never catch up. The directions told her she wouldn’t be able to see the building until they turned down that second intersection. Amethyst Star could see her last roof coming up so she looked down at the reporter again, the two of them were pretty much neck and neck. She saw a cart of hay bales on the street right in front of the last building and another great idea popped into her head. With a smirk, Amethyst Star pushed herself to run even faster and just as she reached the edge of her last roof she leaped off it towards the cart, with her rival reporter passing the hay at the same time. She landed on top of the hay and without stumbling jumped again, right onto the back of the reporter who kicked her only minutes before. “Hurk!” He wheezed as she tackled him to the ground, the two of them rolling together halfway into the intersection. “Hey!” “Just paying you back!” Amethyst Star teased as she stepped on him again and ran off, looking back and blowing a raspberry at the reporter as he struggled to pick himself up. “Why you little-” Amethyst Star didn’t bother to pay attention to him anymore, she kept running and running to the interview. And she felt great. Not only was she going to get that interview, and be the first one to do it, but she overcame an annoying obstacle on the way and proved her greatness. This was just the kind of thing she wanted. This is why she came to this city, she knew it. She could feel it. This was her big moment. She slid as she reached the corner of the next intersection, making the turn and barreling towards the apartment complex now up ahead. A two-story building with a red shingle roof and one main entrance. She’d run inside and find the right room, then things would be over. “Yes, I’ve got this!” Amethyst Star declared. “Wrong!” The yell behind her came suddenly and Amethyst Star found herself tackled to the ground in front of the apartments. With a pained grunt she looked up to see the reporter scrambling off her and attempting to make it to the front door first. A quick yank of his tail caused him to trip flat on his face though. “Hah!” Amethyst Star laughed and tried to make it past him but he grabbed her backlegs to hold her. The two ponies continued to struggle and fight with each other as they very slowly both made progress towards the apartment complex. A large crowd had gathered to watch them the whole way, moving with them, and wondering just for what reason they were doing this. Neither reporter nor temp worker was willing to give up and let the other one get that first interview. They didn’t throw any punches at each other since they didn’t want to get in serious trouble but any sort of tripping or tail-pulling was just fine by them. “You started this, let me have the interview you jerk!” Amethyst Star pulled on his camera’s strap. “No way, this is my job!” He grabbed a chunk of her mane and pulled on it just the same as her. “Argh!” The both of them screeched at the other. And while they were doing that a large green dragon flew from overhead, its shadow momentarily casting over both of them before he landed right in front of the apartment complex. Amethyst Star and the reporter both paused their fight, watching as a zebra holding a briefcase embossed with “City Herald” hopped off the dragon’s back. “Thanks Brim,” the zebra said to the dragon. “Without you I don’t think I would have ever gotten to this interview so fast.” The dragon wordlessly nodded in acknowledgment and flapped his strong wings, taking back to the skies while the zebra reporter walked into the apartment complex. Amethyst Star and her enemy stared at the door to the complex in silent rage that they had just both lost. Untying themselves, the two ponies stood up and gave one last mean look to each other as they too walked into the apartment complex. Inquirer and Yeller both behind on the latest big scoop now. Meanwhile the Herald was about to see a big jump in sales and subscriptions.