//------------------------------// // Training // Story: The Journalist // by redspark //------------------------------// Chapter 3 Training In the day lower Canterlot wasn´t as scary as it had seemed to Nimble Hoof. She slowly walked beside Silent Mane as he guided her through the streets and alleys. It was curious how she thought of being scared. Yes, there were some nasty-looking ponies around and there were many who stared at her curiously, but she felt confident for some strange reason. She looked at Silent Mane and sighed. He had been walking for a long time now, and she felt he was making unnecessary turns and going the wrong way. But still she kept quiet. She didn´t wanted to anger him. After all, he was her last hope to get a story. She had begun writing about lower Canterlot in the last night. She had organized all the details she had gotten and now had a list of prepared questions, which she intended to ask at the right time, so as not to bother Silent Mane. Silent Mane had not said a word after meeting her in the morning. He seemed a little stressed, but Nimble Hoof didn´t cared. She was going to get a great story! Silent Mane stopped and pointed at a brown, decayed wooden door of a small building that had most of its windows covered with wood. He walked and knocked the door. “Here we are.” He said, he then turned to Nimble. “Remember, these are not ponies you know anything about. Be careful with every single word you say and don´t speak unless you are asked to. Do please refrain from asking questions unless He lets you.” She nodded. The door opened. Silent Mane stepped forward with Nimble Hoof right behind. Nimble noticed that the room in which they entered there was no light from the outside. Instead, it was lighted by many candles. The darkness inside didn´t let her make out anything of the room, except that it was as uncared as the outside of the building. The door closed and the light became dimmer, now that the door´s light was shut. She now looked at the ponies standing with them. There were four: Two earth ponies, a pegasus and a unicorn. The four of them looked at her with a blank face. She gulped. “So she´s the one, Silent Mane. Why? I thought she would look a little less… well, you know, canterlotian.” Said the unicorn. He was a little bit old, perhaps twice the age of Nimble. He was completely blue, coat and mane, except for his eyes, which were red, and he had a golden laurel as a Cutie mark. “Really, that is what you brought us?” Silent Mane shrugged. “What did you expected? She´s a journalist who wants to write a good story. I offered her my help, after all.” The unicorn shook his head. One of the earth ponies, a grey stallion with a grey and black mane, maroon eyes, and a rock as Cutie mark, approached her. All the ponies stared at her. The stallion walked around her for some time. Finally she stopped and looked her in the eyes. He smiled. “I am Grey Stone, although I am called around here as Invisible Mane.” Nimble Hoof smiled at him. The stallion turned then to the unicorn. “She is in good physical state, although she obviously has never made any real exercise. I think she looks promising, though.” The unicorn nodded. Nimble Hoof stared at Grey Stone as he walked to his position beside the unicorn. The other earth pony, a brown stallion with a light brown mane, green eyes, and a map as Cutie mark only stared at her. The Pegasus seemed to not want to say anything, so the unicorn spoke again. “Well, if you so want to join us and get your ´stories´, then so be it. I have nothing against it, as long as you are helpful in some way. Silent Mane will teach you all he knows about going around here, and soon you will be renamed.” He saw Nimble Hoof´s confused face. “We rename the new ones, so that they are not recognized by our enemies. It is a simple thing, we only see what you´re good at and from there we find a good name. If you end up being famous, your nickname can change, though, like Silent Mane. He used to be Roof Jumper.” At that the ponies smiled faintly and Silent Mane seemed to be slightly uncomfortable. “But well, that is of no concern at all.” He smiled at her. “May your practice begin, young lady, and remember, you are no longer in the Canterlot you know. You are in a battlefield, where you can be taken down without knowing what hit you. You need to be alert, or else you won´t last long in here.” He looked at the Pegasus. “Sun Seeker, you will see that no one disturbs them while they work, and also go check the vault. I didn´t had any time this morning to check it myself.” The pegasus mare nodded and went to another room fast. The other ponies simply went on their own ways around the house, leaving Silent Mane, the unicorn and Nimble Hoof alone. Nimble Hoof relaxed a little. “I´ll be off to some important business, you make sure there is no trouble, Silent Mane.” He instructed. “And also, don´t let Metal Mane get close to her. She probably is a target to him.” And then he was out of the building. Silent Mane looked at Nimble Hoof. She smiled faintly, but it was clear she was nervous. Silent Mane sighed and gestured Nimble Hoof to follow him. “Come on, we better get started.” He said as he walked outside. Nimble Hoof followed him close behind. The stallion walked to the back of the building and into a small courtyard. He looked up. “Here is your first task.” He pointed at the top of the roof. “You must get there, to the roof, in less than one minute.” He climbed on a box. “Your time is already running.” Nimble Hoof stared at him for a second until she moved out of the initial shock of the task. She looked up and scanned the courtyard for a place to climb. He saw some boxes and cracks along the walls. She walked there and thought for a moment. She looked at Silent Mane, who was staring at her. He smiled amusedly. Nimble Hoof looked up and gulped. It was a long way to the roof. She climbed the boxes and began using the cracks for support. The fear she had on her head was for the cracks to break more, and that would mean to fall a long way down. “Don´t look down” she thought. The bad thing was that she looked down. She was already halfway up, and it was pretty high. She quickly closed her eyes and hung dearly to the wall. “Your minute´s almost up!” she heard Silent Mane say. Nimble Hoof opened her eyes and began ascending again. She placed hoof after hoof, carefully so as not to risk falling. Finally she arrived at the roof. She struggled one last time and finally laid down gasping for air. She opened her eyes and screamed in surprise, seeing Silent Mane over her. “How did you got here so fast?! I didn´t heard you going up or anything!” She exclaimed, touching her chest with a hoof, feeling her heart hammering because of the surprise. Silent Mane smiled. “They don´t call me Silent Mane for anything, Nimble Hoof.” He looked down and then back at her. “You took three minutes. If you were escaping another pony more experienced you would have been caught. Even a police pony would have caught you.” he said. Nimble Hoof lowered her ears. “But for being the first time, not bad. I remember my first time climbing a wall. I was but a tiny filly. It took me two whole minutes.” He smiled at her playfully. Nimble Hoof shrugged. “But well, let´s get going to the next thing.” He walked to the edge of the building. Nimble Hoof followed him and looked down. Silent Mane smiled and jumped to the other building. He turned and looked at her. “Your turn.” She looked down and felt the same feeling of vertigo as last night. She gulped again and prepared to jump. She went back a few steps and ran. She jumped automatically and landed softly without any sound. She smiled at how she had done, differently than last night when she had barely crossed. She looked at Silent Mane. He was smiling a little and then he nodded. “Good jump.” She lifted her head proudly. “But still, obviously you are not used to being chased on rooftops. You need to know to run in rooftops, because when you are chased, you need to found your ground. Mine is in the roofs. If you know how to move here, no one will ever catch you and you will have the advantage, even if a fight starts.” He looked at the sun, which was already going down. “You will hold the advantage on the most difficult ground.” He looked at her. “Keep that in mind.” Nimble Hoof nodded. Silent Mane then walked to another side of the building. “Now go down.” Nimble Hoof this time felt dizzy. Go down… Not something she wanted to do. Silent Mane looked at her. “Look at me and try to copy my moves. Maybe that way it´ll be easier.” He technically jumped down. Nimble Hoof looked down and saw Silent Mane clinging to a metal bar that protruded from the building. He then jumped back and did a cartwheel in the air before landing softly on the ground. Nimble Hoof squeaked after seeing that. She was definitely not going down that way. She looked around. The other building had levels on each floor with could work as supports. She looked then at the building she was in. There were also metal supports. She only needed to be really good at balancing herself… and jumping. She jumped to the first level of the other building, barely managing to catch it. She then rested some seconds after jumping to the other building, clinging to the metal bar Silent Hoof had used and the she jumped to the next level of the other building. She then landed softly in the floor. Silent Mane nodded smiling. “Now that was something. Not many ponies can do that on their first time. I´m sure even experienced ones cannot do it that way. Very good method by the way.” Nimble Hoof smiled shyly. “And now we should be getting back. It will be night soon, and the others will want to do something. Maybe take something from other ponyhood.” He walked to the building he had leaded her in to meet his ponyhood. She followed. “What do you mean by take?” she asked. Silent Mane looked at her. “I mean to literally take it.” She lowered her head a little. “You mean, like… like stealing?” He opened the door. “If you want to see it in that way, yes.” He walked in. Nimble Hoof entered behind him… Nimble presented to the Ponyhood Nimble learning to run in rooftops