The Journalist

by redspark

Trust and Betrayal

Serena walked cautiously through the streets of Canterlot, trying in vain not to be squashed by the swarming mass of ponies that walked through the city in the middle of the day. She saw Nimble´s flat finally after some minutes of trying to find her home. She walked to the door and rang the bell. She waited for a minute and still nothing happened. She rang again and a second later Nimble opened the door.

“Serena!” She said smiling apologetically. “I´m sorry! I was a little distracted writing. What brings you here?”

Serena smiled. “Oh, it´s no problem, don´t worry.” She looked around. “But for what I´m here, it better be spoken privately.” Nimble nodded and moved aside to let the orange unicorn pass. Serena entered and Nimble closed the door.

“Just go upstairs, I´m right behind you.” Nimble said. Serena nodded and walked up. She arrived at a rather disorganized room.

“Sorry for the disaster, but I am writing a long story this time, and I kind of forgot to take care of cleaning. Care for a small sup of tea?”

Serena smiled. “Don´t worry about it. Yes, please.” She looked around. The only clear space was the table with the writing machine, end even that one was covered in papers. She chuckled at the thought of Nimble writing with the typical hat writers in newspapers used to wear…

“And here´s your tea.” Nimble said, passing her a little cup.

“Thanks.” She said, seating on the only cleared part of the sofa. Nimble sat on top of some papers, obviously didn´t caring much about them.

“So, why did you come?” Nimble asked casually.

Serena took some tea. “I, mmm… well.” She shifted uncomfortably. “I wanted to talk to you about the recent, err, events.” Nimble nodded slowly, her smile remaining but Serena could see she began getting a little uncomfortable. “I mean, I know you must not feel comfortable talking about it, but, well… I already know who those ponies are, and that you obviously had a problem.” She peeked to the writing machine. “Which I presume is what you´re writing right now.”

Nimble nodded. “Yes, you´re right.” She felt slightly more comfortable now, knowing she could trust Serena. In fact, only Serena and her parents knew about the ponyhood living in Upper Canterlot. “What do you want to know?”

Serena seemed surprised by the sudden trust. “You are really trusting me that much?”

Nimble nodded. “Yes, why shouldn´t I? I trust you Serena, you are my friend after all.”

Serena nodded slowly as a thought passed through her mind. ´If only she knew…´ Serena thought.

“Well, first, why did suddenly you arrive with a very injured Pegasus and go without any explanation?”

Nimble sighed. “The headquarters of my ponyhood got attacked and she ended up hurt. I found her in there half awake.” She tried to shake of the memory of Sun Seeker in the floor, clutching her stomach.

“Oh… alright.” Serena said. “And also, why did all the, err… What was it? O, right, why did all the ponyhood came to my café to retrieve the injured Pegasus? I thought they never left Canterlot.”

´Alright…´ Nimble thought. ´This is it. If I tell her this, she will know everything but… Do I really trust her? I mean, she could let her words slip giving wrong information to the wrong pony.´

But also, Nimble knew that Serena had many contacts throughout Canterlot, and she would be very useful too… Now she sounded like Hightip, thinking about useful and expendable… She shook her head slightly.

“Look Serena, what I´m about to tell you, you mustn’t tell anypony, understood?” The orange mare nodded.

“Alright, you see…”

* * * *

Serena walked slowly beside Nimble to one of the buildings she knew had just been bought not long time ago. She hadn´t really thought about that, but now that she knew that the ponyhood where Nimble belonged had bought it. That made her curious.

She saw Nimble open the door and gesturing her to go inside. Serena entered.

The entrance of the building was pretty dark, but it was obvious that since the purchase of the building the ponyhood had begun to fix everything inside. There was a chandelier on the floor, obviously about to get pulled up into the ceiling to give light. She was too distracted seeing her surrounding that she didn´t noticed the ponies watching her. She finally saw them.

Hightip walked to Nimble and the newcomer.

“Nimble, who is she?” he asked.

“She´s Serena. She´s the one that took care of Sun Seeker when she got hurt last time.”

Hightip suddenly seemed to recognize her. “Oh, right. Nice to see you again Miss.” Serena nodded a little sheepishly. “Now, why did you brought her?”

“Well, she helped Sun Seeker and she came to my flat to have some questions answered. She had offered herself as a contact in Upper Canterlot.” Nimble said.

Hightip nodded. “And in what would she be of service?”

Serena entered the conversation. “Mmm, well, sir… If I may, I know some pretty powerful ponies in Upper Canterlot that could help you sometimes I contact them. I can help you a lot while you settle yourselves here.” Hightip nodded again.

“Well… I see.” He walked to Silent Mane slowly. “I´d like to speak privately with Silent, and then I´ll tell if we accept your help.” Everypony left the room, leaving Hightip and Silent alone.

Serena waited along with Nimble impatiently. She needed to know if she was going to be accepted to help, because if she wasn´t, her job was just going to become even more difficult…

Finally they heard Hightip say to come back into the room.

The ponyhood assembled back in the room. Nimble noticed that Highmane, the new unicorn, wasn´t with them. ´Now, where might he be?´ She thought.

Hightip cleared his throat. “Serena, right?” the orange mare nodded. “Okay, perfect. We decided to accept your help. If it is how you say, you sill prove very useful to us. Thanks for your service. Now Miss Hoof, you can take her back to her house.

Nimble was slightly disturbed by the speed and the way in which Hightip had decided in Serena´s help. She shook her head as she helped Serena outside…

* * * *

Serena looked out of the window to see Nimble leaving her café in the direction of her house. She kept looking until she was sure Nimble was gone. She then walked to her mirror and stared at it for a couple of seconds. She saw that her hair was fine then she nodded to herself.

She stopped looking at the mirror and went to another room with her bed. She laid down for some minutes, lost in thought. What was she supposed to do now? The plan had worked, so she was supposed to report?

After some more minutes she stood up and walked to the café, which she had placed in closed. She took a cloak and walked outside. It was becoming night, which made her feel slightly uncomfortable. Walking at night was something she strongly disliked.

She walked slowly, not looking at anything but her hooves. After some minutes she accidentally bumped against a stallion.

“O Celestia! Sorry sir, my fault.” She gasped when she saw who had been the pony she had crashed against.

“Sir!” She said to her boss, a white unicorn with a red, yellow striped mane, glasses and a pocket watch cutie mark. The stallion kept a cold and neutral expression.

The stallion gestured Serena to follow him. Serena did so. Still, she felt this was kind of awkward… He boss never did something unexpected, like, for example, happen to run into Serena and then without a word make her follow him.

Still, who was she to question the famous Time Keeper, owner of Watcher co., the biggest company in Canterlot and almost Equestria?

Time Keeper opened a door to a small building and led her inside. Serena walked slowly and carefully, trying not to show any expression just like Time Keeper. So far she had been able to, except right after the initial shock of seeing Time Keeper run into her.

“Sir, if I may ask, what is this about?” The white unicorn kept walking ignoring Serena.

“Sir?”

“Serena, if you know what´s best fo you, you´ll keep silent for the moment, I´m thinking.” Serena almost grinned at the sudden snap from her boss. She stopped talking; only following.

Finally, after walking through a very long and dark hallway, Time Keeper went inside a door and turned towards Serena.

“Now, here we can talk.” He finally said.

Serena gulped. Why on such a horrid place.

“I´ll ask some questions about what happened while in that… ponyhood, right? Then you´ll tell me if they accepted your help, yes? And finally I´ll tell you what you´ll do next after you tell me everything. You have five minutes to tell me everything.”

Serena gulped again. If there was one thing he hated of his boss, it was his always tight schedule and time counting. He seemed to take even a second as precious as the princess jewel´s. It was something she disliked about him, but still, he was her boss.

She told him all that Nimble had told her and finally the reaction of the ponyhood at her coming. Then she finished telling him that they now trusted her completely. The unicorn kept all the time staring at his watch. He nodded.

“Alright. Now, you´ll keep on bringing me information about them, yes? And you will work with them in truth, which means that you will help them if they need your assistance. You need to get trusted more by them.” He closed his watch and looked at Serena. “Now, for our last thing of this briefing, I´ll need you to also investigate about this… Shadow character, he seems interesting. Make sure you also get reports about him. The more I know about both of those, the better I can see…” he kept talking, only that his voice had become barely a whisper. Serena knew he was now thinking to himself.

“Then I´ll be off, sir.” She said.

The white unicorn didn´t said or did anything at that. He just kept moving his mouth slightly, once or twice looking at his watch. Serena knew that he was going to remain like that for some time, so she left the room, leaving he boss alone…