//------------------------------// // All is well... Almost // Story: The Journalist // by redspark //------------------------------// Chapter 17 All is well... Almost “…and that´s when I arrived at the cells, and you know the rest.” Nimble Hoof finished explaining what had happened while they were at the cell. The ponies where pretty amazed by how she had been able to defeat so many foes when she had never really learned fighting or anything. Silent was the first to brake the awkward silence. “I am glad we are all alright, and when you said that Sunny was alright I really felt glad.” He looked at Hightip. “But now, what do we do? Shadow Pony will not let us escape like this.” Hightip nodded. “I know. He has more agents around, and the second he can get us again, he will. We need to get a new hiding place. This one is no longer safe.” He looked at each pony once before continuing. “Any ideas?” Deepsqueak spoke first. “I know of a place near the border of Lower Canterlot that is not known except by me. It´s small, but I think it will work.” Hightip nodded. He looked at the unicorn that had just joined them, whose name was High Mane. Apparently, he had been once a known pony in the shadows, but after something he made that made him look disgraceful they stopped thinking of him and was reduced to a simple guard. He then joined Shadow Pony, but now he had joined them because Shadow lacked Honor, or so he said. Honor, to him, was the most important thing in Lower Canterlot. “Highmane, does Shadow knows of such location?” Hightip asked. The grey unicorn looked up, thinking, then nodded. “Yes, he does.” He stared at Hightip with his black eyes, which made Hightip feel a little uneasy, but still he knew that pony would cause no harm. “How does he know about it?” Deepsqueak asked angrily. High Mane shook his head. “I don´t know, he just does.” He then saw the angry expression on his face. “I mean, he knows pretty much everything about Lower Canterlot, you´d need to go to…” He stopped. Hightip smiled. “I like that idea.” Silent shook his head. “Really Hightip, really? He just came, and now your trusting him so much!?” He said. High Mane looked back, trying to evade Silent´s stare. Hightip looked at Silent Mane silently. He cleared his throat. “Silent, you´ll learn to trust my judgment, or else you know what happens when you get too rebellious.” Deepsqueak and Grey Stone looked troubled at that. Silent simply looked shocked a little, then returned to a neutral stare. “Sorry.” He said between teeth as he walked to a corner of the room, watching them withing the shadows. Nimble saw the whole scene surprised. What had Hightip meant with… She shook her head. She was going to ask him later, but this was not the moment to do it. After all, relocation was serious. They needed to think of a good place, a place none of them would expect… “Mmm…” she muttered. “I think I have a place where we can go.” Everypony looked at her. She felt slightly pressured, but she had begun to get used to be seen by them all. “There are some buildings in Canterlot on sale. I know the owner of one that is perfect for a base, only that it is…” She stopped. They would never agree to that. They had been living in Lower Canterlot forever! “Only that it is what, Miss Hoof?” Hightip asked. Nimble looked at him. “It´s in Upper Canterlot, Hightip.” Silent shook his head. Grey Stone and Deepsqueak looked at each other, expressionless. Hightip kept staring at her. He then looked down for a couple of minutes, in which none of them spoke or said anything. They were some pretty tense minutes. Silent stared at them with angry eyes, and Nimble could swear he was looking only at Hightip. The blue unicorn cleared his throat. He looked around, once at each pony. “I´ve reached a decision on the matter.” Everypony raised their ears. Hightip waited still for some more seconds. “We will do what Nimble said.” Silent groaned again and the turned to look away. Hightip ignored him. “So tell me Miss Hoof, where is that place you say?” He asked her. Nimble smiled. “It is close to my flat. It is a small building, but big enough to hold everypony in, and safe also. Day… emmm, Shadow Pony will never guess you are staying there.” She said, correcting herself fast. Nopony seemed to notice. Hightip nodded. “Alright everypony, pack up, we will be leaving right now.” Nimble was about to say they needed to actually buy the building first when Hightip stopped her. “Yes Miss Hoof, I know we need to buy it but we cannot stay here anymore. It is not safe, and I am sure even our dear Silent will agree on that.” A groan from the corner was heard. “Told you.” He said smiling as he walked to a room where Nimble supposed he slept. Yes, even then she had not been in all the headquarters of the ponyhood. There were forbidden areas, and Hightip´s room was one of them. Nopony was allowed inside, except Sun Seeker. A faint thought went into her mind. Sun Seeker spoke of Hightip with respect, but there was something else when she spoke of him. Something she had not really thought of before. Then she remembered how worried Hightip had been when he had thought she had died. Maybe there was something else between them… But what? Silent finally moved. Nimble looked around and saw that everypony was gone, wither packing everything or checking around the building one last time. Silent walked to her. “I think it´s not a good idea.” Nimble opened her mouth to speak. “But...” He said, stopping her. “It is the best idea nevertheless.” Nimble closed her mouth. It was the second time in a row somepony had stopped her from talking. She smiled. “Well… thanks, I guess.” Silent smiled. “I better go check on my stuff and see if Deepsqueak isn´t trying to hide something from me.” He turned and walked to one of the doors, opening it. “He just loves me getting mad at him for that.” Nimble chuckled. He began closing the door. “You should help packing Sunny´s things, now that she´s not here right now.” He said rapidly closing the door, leaving her alone. Nimble looked at the door that led into where Sun Seeker slept. She walked slowly and opened the door. She had never entered into her room. It was something she had never really thought of doing, and she also felt it could be disrupting her privacy. She had entered the rest of the group´s rooms (also, excluding Hightip´s). She expected to see the same, but what she saw really wasn´t was she expected. First, it was slightly smaller, but that didn´t really surprised Nimble. What she didn´t expected to see where pictures on a small table. The table was pretty small, but even for its size ti could have a lot of pictures over it. She walked slowly towards the pictures and looked at them. There had to be at least twenty pictures. Almost all of them had Sun Seeker on them, except for some pictures where a pair of ponies, a yellow Pegasus and a white mare, appeared mostly laughing. Nimble picked up a picture where she saw Sun Seeker as a very young filly laughing as the Pegasus scratched playfully her mane and the mare laughed at the two of them. That picture brought a smile to Nimble´s mind. Then her smile dropped. She remembered the story Sun Seeker had told her about her parent´s death. She looked again at the laughing pair. Those probably where her parents. She placed the picture back into its place and was about to turn around when she noticed at the back a small newspaper cut. She looked at it and then took it. It was covered in dust, which meant it had not been moved in a long time. She looked at the title letters. “Chariot falls off a cliff on the way out of Canterlot, killing two if its three passengers and the driver. Only a little filly survives” Nimble kept reading. “Last Tuesday a chariot transporting the illustrious pair of famous designer Ballantine Rose and her mate, Light Ray, fell off a small cliff after making a sudden turn trying to evade a turn in the road after it went out of control. What has been known is that the two were leaving Canterlot after, supposedly, their reputations where ruined and a gossip had begun about them separating. The pair, along with their young five year old Filly named Sun Seeker, left Canterlot early in the morning with an unknown destination. Right after getting out of Canterlot the drivers ran out of control for some strange reason and, trying to make a turn to evade a long fall from a cliff, tumbled off the road. Only the young filly survived surprisingly, with no harm at all. It is said that the mother wrapped herself over the filly and absorbed the crash, protecting the filly but costing her her own life. Light Ray also died, but not instantly. When the rescuers arrived it was too late, but apparently the Pegasus had managed to take the young filly out of the chariot before passing out. The filly is right now being given into custody of her uncle, the owner of Watcher co. and brother of Ballantine Rose, Time Keeper.” Nimble finished reading and placed the newspaper back in the table, shock in her face. She remembered that crash. It had been all over the news for days, but… It had just been barely eleven years ago… That meant Sun Seeker was sixteen years old. Nimble stared blankly as she digested that information. That meant Nimble was still very young, very, very young, but… Why hadn´t it appeared in the news when she had disappeared (or ran away) from her uncle, which happened to be Time Keeper, who Nimble knew was the owner of the most important company of Canterlot, Watcher co. Surely that should have been very important news… She was still looking at the pictures when she heard Hightip speak from behind. “Surprising, isn´t it.” He said. Nimble turned around surprised. She looked at the pictures, then back at him. “Hightip… I…” Hightip rose his hoof, stopping Nimble. ´Ugh, third time´ Nimble thought. “I know what you were supposed to be doing. Don´t worry, I won´t get mad at you for checking her pictures…” He walked to Nimble and looked at the pictures also. “You see, I told her if she wanted to get rid of this pictures, but she didn´t wanted to. They were her last memories from her parents. I´m sure that seeing them pains her deeply, but also that it gives her courage.” He looked at Nimble. “She´s… Sun Seeker is sixteen years old.” Nimble said, awe in her voice. “How? She looks older…” Nimble smiled slightly. “One´s life decides how fast you grow up. I´m afraid that Sunny…” He stopped for several seconds. “Sun Seeker´s life had been very hard. She has needed to grow up faster than most.” Nimble nodded. She then remembered another question. “But… Why did she ran away from her uncle? I mean, she told me she hated living with him, but why that, instead of staying with probably one of the most powerful ponies in Canterlot?” The old unicorn nodded. “Yes, why would she?” He picked up a picture, although Nimble couldn´t see what was on it. “She had it all except… except love. She didn´t wanted anything but someone that could care for her. She ran away, and what did that uncle of hers did? Nothing. I found her lost and scared, not knowing what to do. A Filly, seven years old…” He looked with a curious face at the picture. “I´d never before considered having a family, and I hadn´t even made my ponyhood. I thought I would never need to worry about a filly of my own. Then she came. He placed the picture back into the table. “It´s something difficult to explain, Miss Hoof, and surprisingly, you’re the first one that has ever figured this out, and the only one I´ve ever spoke about this.” He turned around and wlaked out of the room. “Make sure you pack all the pictures and…” He looked back at her again. “Get rid of that newspaper.” He walked out of the room. Nimble looked for some seconds at the door, then she slowly looked at the picture Hightip had taken. In the picture Nimble saw Sun Seeker smiling, and a younger-looking Hightip also smiling, but on a way Nimble had never seen the old blue Pegasus smile before. Nimble smiled at that as she took out a bag from below the bed and began packing all the pictures, making sure the newspaper was left behind… Nimble Looking at Sun Seeker´s Pictures Hightip and Sun Seeker´s picture