The Journalist

by redspark

Crystal Glasses and Hollow Smiles

“…really, I must say it is a very beautiful Little town, if you want peace and quiet.” Purple Velvet finished saying as they approached the immense mansion of the multimillionaire Business pony Time Keeper. It was a magnificent sight to watch; a huge entryway arch that led into a big front garden that had a big walkway that guided towards the main entrance. There were pillars in the front of the house, decorating it and giving it a curious feeling. The front yard was full of tables and tents full of high-class ponies, all guests to the party.

Silent gulped as he say all of the last. He was terrible in big crowds, even though Nimble had helped him while in upper Canterlot, but high-class ponies was another matter. He was terrified deep inside.

In contrast, even though Nimble was slightly worried she was more enthusiastic into meeting those ponies. She saw that as an opportunity to make herself noticed in the Canterlot elite. She managed to spot a couple of important ponies, the most recognizable of all of them being Time Keeper himself.

He was wearing a white suit, with a white, elegant cloak. He was greeting the guests as they arrived. She felt slightly worried that he would recognize her, or know she wasn´t really an invited guest, but she tried to calm down, trying to hear Purple Velvet keep on talking about a small town two hours away from Canterlot called Ponyville, were she had gone in a trip to relax. Nimble wondered what was relaxing for a pony that spent all her life in expensive restaurants and parties.

Counselor, Purple Velvet´s husband, was a greyish blue earth pony, taller tan normal and had a combed mane. His cutie mark was a piece of parchment. He stood tall beside all of the three ponies. He was a pretty interesting pony, who was pretty different form her wife. He was pretty silent most of the time, except for making a small remark of the talk. Nimble had liked the pony´s way of handling things, especially when they told them the reason they needed their passes to the party.

It had taken some time for Nimble to finally convince Silent that telling Purple about the real reasons they needed to go to that party. Nimble trusted that mare, even though she could be a pretty bothersome pain in the head sometimes. She knew that Purple Velvet adored her, and convincing her to help them on a “Mission” would be pretty simple. Silent finally agreed, thinking himself that it would be good to have help if something went wrong, even though he wasn´t sure how they could help if something did went wrong.

The four ponies arrived at the gate of the house´s gardens. A tall, light blue earth pony stood there, looking intimidating at the ponies entering.

“Invitation?” He asked, raising his hoof to receive it. The four ponies gave their invitations and the pony waved his hoof, inviting them to enter. “Welcome.”

Counselor nodded and walked inside the gate. The rest followed. Immediately they were received by Time Keeper himself.

“Oh! Counselor, how good you managed to come. He said, giving a smile. Even though three of the four ponies saw it as a pretty real smile, Silent knew better. It was fake. He wasn´t really smiling, but forcing a smile, and a pretty convincing one. He was surprised he had even managed to notice it.

“Mr. Keeper, how could I refuse to such a great invitation.” Counselor responded. “I am honored.”

Keeper looked at Purple Velvet. “Oh, and Miss Velvet, you came also.” Velvet smiled. “And who might these two be? I remembered you asked for an extra pair of invitations, but you didn´t said for who?”

Purple smiled. “He´s my cousin from Manhattan, Oakbranch, and she´s his fiancé, Crystal Sea.” She said, using the cover story they had prepared. Knowing what was the cover story didn´t helped in stopping the two into blushing as she said the word fiancé.

“Oh, fiancé then.” Time said, looking straight at Nimble, then at Silent. “Congratulations. You got yourself a fine mare there, Oakbranch, isn´t it? I wish you a happy life then. I suppose you know who I am already, but let me present formally. My name is Time Keeper, owner of Watcher co. and all its affiliated companies. I have a small branch in Manehattan, though I need some more time to get it to grow. There is a lot of other fellow companies making it difficult.” Both Silent and Nimble blushed again.

“Pleased to meet you Mr. Keeper.” Silent said, trying to sound like a high-class pony. He guessed he did it fine, because nopony seemed to notice anything strange on his voice.

“Pleasure is mine, now, please enjoy the party…” And he went to greet other newcomers. The four ponies walked towards the tables inside the party tents.

Purple Velvet then went around, greeting everypony the came across and that happened to have the misfortune into walking into Purple Velvet. Everypony seemed to try to evade the meeting with the extremely talking purple pony, but none managed. It took them a complete hour of introductions before they finally managed to sit down on a table. Silent and Nimble now knew every single Upper Canterlot elite pony that lived. It had been pretty tiring, but Nimble had enjoyed meeting them, it being a great opportunity to know the high society. She couldn´t talk about her being a writer, and even less the writer and journalist Nimble Hoof.

She had at first been worried that a pony she had have an audience with would be there and could recognize her, but luckily there was none or had simply just forgotten about her. Almost…

“Hey Purple Velvet!” came a squeaky voice from behind. “I didn´t knew you were coming.”

The four ponies looked in the direction of the new voice. Walking at them was a yellow earth pony with a rather notorious (and pretty awkward) mane style. Nimble smiled as she had done to everypony they had met. Purple simply seemed to be out for the first at a loss of words.

“Tinkle, what are you doing here?!” She said more concerned than happy, in difference from the mare walking at them.

“Well, you know. My husband is pretty important.”

“But I thought he didn´t brought you to any of his parties.” Purple said. Nimble wondered why she was being suddenly so… mean with the newcomer.

“Oh, he decided that…”and she saw Nimble. “OMYGOSHOMYGOSHOMYGOSH!” She said, running out of breath. “Nimble…” Immediately Purple stopped her mouth with her hoof, looking around to make sure nopony had noticed. Luckily, none had.

“Alright, I´ll let your mouth speak if you promise you won´t shout that again.” The yellow mare nodded confusedly. Purple let her mouth free.

“Why?” was the first thing she asked.

“Because they are on an undercover mission, and you almost blew it up!” Purple Velvet said angrily.

The yellow mare nodded. “I see.” She looked at Nimble and Silent. “Well, nice meeting you, and if possible we might see each other later.” She said, and leaving as soon as she finished. Silent and Nimble noticed they were both holding their breaths and both let it out at the same time.

“Well, that was close.” Silent said finally.

Purple nodded. “Yes.”

Counselor nodded and smiled. “I´ll go to talk with some friends. Good luck you two.” And he was off also. Purple Velvet saw her husband go inside a group of ponies, who immediately received him with warm nods and smiles.

“Alright; this is getting boring now.” Silent said after ten minutes. Nimble was now playing with her glass, not knowing what to do. Purple was out for some drinks and Silent was leaning on his chair. “When will something good happens on this parties?”

Nimble shrugged, not sure. She was also pretty bored now. She was staring at the glass when she saw a reflection on it of a pony standing behind her. She looked up and then back. A white unicorn mare with a purple mane and blue eyes with pretty elegant eyelashes. Her cutie mark was three blue diamonds. Nimble stared at the new mare.

“Sorry, can I sit here? It appears all the rest of the tables are full.” Nimble looked around and saw that was true.

“Sure.” She said.

“Perfect!” The white unicorn said. She sat down. “Let me introduce myself. My name is Rarity, fashion designer from Ponyville.”

Nimble smiled. “My name is Crystal Sea, and this is Oakbranch.” Silent smiled.

“What a sweet name darling.” Rarity said. “I´ve never heard of that name ever before. “You´re not from Canterlot, are you? Sorry for the rude question, I´m just slightly intrigued.”

Nimble chuckled. “Don´t worry. No, we are not. We came from Manehattan for a small trip.”

At the mention of Manehattan, the mare´s eyes shined for a split of second, then she shook her head. “Wow, the great city. I´ve gone there a couple of times, but I had a pretty horrendous experience while on a fashion competition, it is a hard place to live.” She said.

Silent nodded. “It sure is.”

Purpled Velvet returned. “Hello!” she said at Rarity. “I am Purple Velvet.” She sat down. “I´ve never seen you before… No, wait! I remember. Rarity, isn´t it, the fashionista form Ponyville!”

Rarity smiled and nodded. “Yes. I see you recognized me. Not many ponies do, at least not after a few months of being away from Canterlot anyway.”

Purple Velvet nodded. “I wanted to talk to you about a dress I would like for a special occasion, but I´ve never been able to reach you.”

Rarity´s eyes lit up immediately. “Oh! You want one darling, wonderful! I can help, don´t worry…” She then began to talk with Purple Velvet about the new styles she was making, and some things about diamonds and glitter… Stuff Nimble nor Silent knew about. They decided they´ve had enough at the same time.

Silent stood up. “If you excuse us, we will go around and take a small stroll. My legs need some stretching.” Nimble smiled and stood up also. Rarity and Purple nodded, but kept on with their talk. The two ponies walked away.

After they were finally away from all the noise of talking, they stopped.

“When do you think Hightip will call on us?” Nimble asked. Silent shrugged.

“When he needs backup I suppose.”

Nimble nodded and looked around. The garden was pretty beautiful, even if it was of a rather bad unicorn. She then looked at the party.

“You know, I never thought that a party like this one would be so boring. I remember that not less than a year ago I would have loved so much to come to one, now I´m not sure I like it.” Nimble said.

Silent chuckled. “Yes, I don’t like it either. Too much talking, no fun, and also there´s a lot of tension between some ponies.”

“What do you mean?”

Silent shrugged again. “Well, you see; Time Keeper was the first one I noticed. His smiled was fake. He was not really enjoying at all greeting al those ponies, and his smiled told it. It was a pretty convincing one, I´m sure nopony noticed it except me.” Nimble nodded. “And, there were some others that while greeting us or other ponies around seemed hostile, even if their words seemed formal and educated.” He laughed. “I can even believe this ambient can be as dangerous as Lower Canterlot itself.”

Nimble laughed too. “I´m sure it can.”

Silent stopped laughing after some seconds. “I think we should get on back to the party. Here we won´t know if the rest need our help.”

Nimble nodded. “Yeah.”

Both ponies smiled at each other and walked slowly back at the party, only that this time they were walking closer than they normally did…