//------------------------------//
// Scene 1 
// Story: Equestrian Underground 
// by Krysto 
//------------------------------//

“Going live in 3, 2...”
“Greeting Equestria, this is your EU reporter Reel Quick reporting to you from Ponyville! As per usual my fellow seekers of the truth I'm on another epic search for some Equestria's darker and more closely guarded secrets. Stay posted with me or any of the other Equestrian Underground reporters for updates and excitement! - alright cut there, Flash; that should do for an introduction.”
A mottled gray unicorn with a deep blue mane peeked out from behind a small tripod camera, his face a picture of uncertainty.
“You sure about this Quick? For an epic quest locale, Ponyville feels kinda tame don't you think?”
His reporting partner broke free from his picture-perfect pose and smile and stared back with mock disbelief.
“Hark, do I sense doubt in your voice young grasshopper?”
“Oh quit it Quick, you and I both know you can do better than this. Seriously, you've been going nowhere but downhill since your last story.”
Quick's smile faded from its usual confident beam.
“Hey look, you know me and my intuition. I'm usually right- or at least mostly right” he corrected “ but this time I'm more than certain I'm on to something juicy. Come on, pack up your camera and we'll talk about this over lunch in town.”
Flash grumbled inaudibly as he enveloped the camera and its tripod in a soft white light. The assembly gently floated upwards and folded down into a small box that would leave any pony unfamiliar with this cameraman astounded and perhaps leave a few jaws hanging.
Flash slid the case into a leather pouch slung over his back and set off with a quick trot to catch up with Quick who had already taken a head start, admiring the quaint-ness of Ponyville's small-town charm. Ponyville was nothing like the big city of Manehattan where the small, brown unicorn had grown up. Everything there was so busy and fast paced that the place was riddled with secrets and mysteries to be uncovered. It was a small schoolyard dare to investigate a “haunted house” at the corner that led Quick to his future career of reporting. Not only was the house not haunted, but the old stallion who lived their prior to its being boarded up had left behind an old diary full of equestrian tales and myths. From that day forward, Quick had devoted his life to finding out the truth at all costs, which led him to a job at Equestrian Underground, a reporting agency infamous for its secrecy. EU sent reporters across Equestria to dig up secrets and fact-or-fiction myths that float around the less-explored regions of the country.
As the duo  trekked deeper into Ponyville, the fields and farms clustered together and gathered into houses and apartments, stalls and stores of every variety. Ponies on their daily routes and routines bustled to and fro, buying fruits and necessities to go about their daily lives. From Quick's perspective, they were innocent bystanders, but his instincts reminded him that amongst the crowd could be any number of ponies out to prevent him from uncovering whatever it was he felt was hidden here. Quick was no stranger to mortal peril, but something about Ponyville's utter peacefulness unsettled him. This just didn't seem like the kind of place to be out to get him, which only worried him more since he was absolutely certain it was.
Quick and Flash made their way through the crowd and arrived at a small cobblestone patio littered with garden furniture and umbrellas. A suburban cafe, home of cheap food and high prices; possibly  one of the few things more hated by Quick than “doubters” and his imagined autograph hounds (of which none really existed, but as far as he was concerned, they did and he hated them nonetheless).
“Do we have to eat here Flash? You know how I feel about cafes, especially ones so out in the open” Quick moaned.
“Oh quit it with your paranoia Quick, a friend of mine recommended this place, how bad can it be? After all, it's probably better than whatever fast food you had in mind. Come to think of it, I don't even think they have fast food out here.”
“Alright Flash, but this time the bill is on you, got it?”
“Gee, how generous of you, giving all that bill to me for free. With what we get paid for this, it's a miracle we can even eat in the first place, let alone travel.”
A gussied up waiter strolled out and handed them a pair of menus.
“My don't they think they're fancy today” Quick said mockingly, looking over his shoulder to see if the waiter was still watching him.
“Well, at least some of these sandwiches sound good, and look, they aren't nearly as expensive as you, yet again, assumed them to be. Guess the next 'fancy' meal is on you then, Quick.”
Quick had zoned out, his attention drawn away by the dozens of ponies, all chatting to each other about private matters, forming an incessant buzz of speech over the soft thrumming of hooves on pavement.
“How many of them do you think there are, Flash?”
“Did you hear a word I said? Wait, how many of what?”
“Conspirators, spies, agents, you know, ponies who will inevitably turn out to be dead set on stopping us from finding the truth.”
Flash  let out a deep sigh.
“Not again with this, Quick. Not everypony is out to get you. This town isn't full of shadowy figures looking to silence you. You have to stop with all these conspiracy theories.”
Quick suddenly snapped back to reality and took on a much more serious tone.
“Now I'm only going to say this once, Flash. In our line of work there is a distinct pecking order of reporters. You have the muckrakers, then there's the monster hunters, the freak finders, the conspiracy theorists, and then there's us. We're the people who deal in cold, hard fact. We look for going-ons that evade the public eye, secret activities and hidden motives that drive our society.”
“I don't see what separates that from conspiracy theorists” Flash retorted.
“The difference is, those crackpots deal in theories and theories only. I deal in facts, Flash.
“Facts? You mean like that secret clan of seaponies hiding in the Las Pegasus sewers trying to flood the city?” he replied sarcastically.
“Okay, okay, so they weren't plotting to reclaim the overworld like I thought they were, but you at least owe me some credit for finding them in the first place.”
“Face it, Quick, your talents are probably better off being focused somewhere more productive. Just look at all the other stuff the reporters have brought in since; there's records of giant sea monsters, 1-headed hydras, reverse-stoning cockatrices- furthermore, Twilight Sparkle learned to time travel, Pinkie Pie can predict the future and Lyra Heartstrings has a gateway to a pocket dimension in her rear.”
“Flash, you Mane Six fanpony, only one of those things has actually been proven to be scientifically accurate, and unless you want Lyra carrying your spare film rolls, I suggest you stick with the only pony to generate real results: me.”
Flash shuddered at the thought but then burst out laughing,
“Even if I wanted to Quick, Lyra's off on her own EU 'adventure' hunting for proof of 'humans', so I guess she'd fall in your 'monster hunter' category, or at least with the 'freak finders', and even she's gotten proof of more mythical creatures than anypony else.”
“Look, Flash, I need this just as much as you do. If we can't deliver a good story back, we're out of a job- or at least you are. Boss said that if I failed one more time my options were to either pack out or join the expedition to find the mythical giant Cockatrice in the Everfree Forest and I prefer taking jobs that aren't guaranteed to end in either failure or my inability to move ever again.”
Flash was suddenly sobered at the thought. He had failed out of every photography job he had ever taken, even though it was supposedly his “special talent”. He had been forced to resort to taking up filmography, viewed by his family as the lowest of art forms.
“Alright, but what do you have in mind? What could possibly be of such secrecy and intrigue to bring you here?”
Quick looked him straight in the eyes and with the most serious expression he could muster he said one word
“Applejack”
Flash burst out laughing again.
“And you called me the Mane Six fanpony! What, do you intend to find out if she really runs a farm of talking animals?”
“I'm serious Flash.”
Flash stopped laughing.
“Dear Celestia, you really are serious about this aren't you?”