The Journalist

by redspark

A New Mission to the Shadows...

Chapter 8
A Mission to the Shadows…

Nimble Hoof had been publishing her stories for almost a month now. Her life had suddenly changed, being more active at night for her new "job". Her new ponyhood was very active now. Since they were technically famous in Canterlot, there where at least two stories expected per week, they needed to be active a lot.

Nimble Hoof had become famous in two personalities. Since she passed as Agile Mane on her stories so no one suspected she was actually the one in the stories, mainly for safety to herself, and also she was Nimble Hoof, writer and Journalist of "The Daily Hoof". Her two personalities had become really famous, so that there where lines of ponies out of The Daily Hoof's main building to get an autograph of her.

Since she lived mostly on the night, writing and "working" with the ponyhood, she didn't had any real problems with trying to hide much when going to Lower Canterlot, since all the ponies lived in day mostly.

She had at first tried to hide herself when moving through the streets, but now since she had learned to go through the rooftops she no longer cared for anyone following since she had become very good at running there.

Only once had she been followed. She had been going on the streets when she felt like if she was being followed. She turned around many times, but nothing happened. She was about to keep walking when a shadow passed in front of her. She didn't waited to see what was it but ran fast and climbed a building. She saw that a cloaked pony was following her. She ran through the rooftops swiftly, noticing that the cloaked pony had difficulty following her. Not after much time she had lost the pony. Since then she always looked around for trouble and never walked in the streets.

She had begun to prefer her life as Agile Mane more than Nimble Hoof in some ways, except the part that Agile Mane was enemy of many ponyhoods, and personal enemy of that one named Shadow Pony.

She had asked after the occurrence of their meeting with that mysterious pony about him. Who was him, and why had they tried to kill him? Hightip had told her that he was a legend in Lower Canterlot, and a threat to them. They had tried to get rid of him as soon as they heard he was back. She had then asked what did they mean by being back, and Silent Mane had told her that Shadow Pony had been gone for a long time. He said he was much younger when he disappeared suddenly. All ponies had been relieved about him gone, and after some time he had become only a legend.

"He's terrible news", one of the earth ponies, named Deepsqueak, said to her when they explained it all. "With him back, our allied ponyhoods will simply abandon us. We will be alone against him."

While they explained about alliances and things like that, she had already taken out her notebook. By now the other ponies had grown used to her taking her notebook. They didn't really cared at all.

She had dedicated a whole article just to explain about how Lower Canterlot worked. Her boss had been really happy when she brought it to him. In fact, her boss had not gotten angry with her for a long time. Her stories where making the newspaper shine in a way it had never shone before. She was greeted to wherever she went in the building, and even some readers in the streets managed to recognize her. She had received some petitions to meet her from high class ponies which read her stories, which she had most of them not accepted. It was tiresome being famous.

* * * *

"Please!" said the purple mare after several tries. Her friend, the yellow one, smiled mischievously as she shook her head once more.

"But you know how much I'd like to! Who will you take instead?" she asked, her ears dropping. The yellow mare kept silent as she took a small sip of her coffee.

They had been talking of a lot of things, but when they began to talk about the Lower Canterlot article, an unexpected thing had happened. The yellow mare had told her about a pair of passes she had gotten to go to a public interview with none other than Nimble Hoof the author of the stories. The purple had been so amazed that she had asked the yellow take her. The yellow had said she was taking other pony, and the purple had gotten pretty sad at such an opportunity missed.

"Please!" she begged again, but the yellow mare remained decided. The purple stood up angrily. "Then don't take me, I'll find my own way."

"Now it happens that I have to take you or else you get angry!? I can take whichever I desire, and your anger won't change my mind!" both mares stood up.

"Whatever!" the purple one said, turning around and walking away. The Yellow imitated her and both went away on their own. The waiter noticed then leaving.

"Wait! You need to pay!" he said as he hurried after them.

* * * *

"Are you sure sun Seeker? This is a very risky plan." Hightip said. She nodded.

"If what you want is to be respected above that Shadow Pony guy that is our way. I planned it carefully, nothing should go wrong." she said, decidedly.

Silent Mane intervened. "I agree with Hightip. We cannot risk ourselves that much..." Hightip smiled and nodded. "... But I also agree with Sunny" he added, using Sun Seeker's surname. "I mean, we need to stand above Shadow Pony, or else our allies will join him and abandon us. We alone cannot stand against then all." Hightip had stopped smiling and looked grim. Sun Seeker nodded.

"If I may intervene..." Deepsqueak said "...I think we need to prove the other ponyhoods what we are capable of. If we appear scared to that one pony as the rest of the ponyhoods are, they are surely going to abandon us."

The other earth pony, named Grey Stone, nodded in agreement. His knife wound caused by the Shadow Pony had cured and he was already going on missions with the rest of the ponyhood.

Everyone looked at Nimble Hoof, who had remained silent throughout the explanations and seemed to shrink at being the main attention. She gulped and said "I believe we would he risking our lives, direly, but I also believe it is necessary. Sometime ponies need to take risks to get something important done, to achieve their goals." She looked at Hightip "believe me; I know what it is to take high risks for a goal."

Silent Mane smiled at her and nodded. Sun Seeker also smiled. Hightip nodded. "Alright. Then it’s decided. We will do it, Sun Seeker." he turned to the rest "and I hope we are not risking our lives as I believe we are."

After that, everyone began ti prepare. As the first time Nimble Hoof had gone with then, everyone took what they thought necessary; although this time she noticed that Deepsqueak was taking a knife with him. She felt a little strange seeing that. Even after all the supposedly "bad" things they had done, none had been really what you called badly. They only normally took from other ponyhoods, and never really hurt anypony, less kill one. The knife made her feel again strange, like the first time she had arrived.

Only one time had the ponyhood attempted to actually kill a pony, and it had been the first time Nimble Hoof had gone out with them. She had never really mentioned it, except for Silent Mane. He was a really cute pony when you got to know him. He taught her everything he knew, and in exchange she took him to fancy parts of Canterlot to go to rich restaurants. He had begun to enjoy going to those, but he never admitted it to anyone. He wanted to look tough, and going to fancy restaurants was not a good thing for his image.

Nimble Hoof only prepared lightly, not carrying anything else apart from her notebook and pen. She had a newly invented system to write while on a mission. She tended to stay behind the rest if she there was a fight or a talk. She mainly wrote what was going on not with much detail, but keeping in mind who did what. If there was no fight, she normally helped to find the items they were looking for, due to her keen sight and her swift yet soundless steps. Normally sue was in with Silent Mane. Sun Seeker remained outside, relaying instructions through Hightip, who was or on top of the building or with the rest. Deepsqueak and Grey Stone normally helped as backup should something turn out wrong. They had not joined them in the last missions due to their recovery, but now they were going with them.

They all went on their own, but their destination was the same: Tue Shadow Headquarters. In the same building her first mission had happened...

"Only once had she been followed by a cloaked pony..."