The answer to Vinyl’s question came in form of a very precisely thrown biscuit.
The DJ turned towards Octavia who gave her a look one could only describe as frosty.
“I was joking.” Vinyl replied dryly.
“What’s going on?” Octavia turned her attention towards the new arrivals while wiping the last remnants of the tea away from her lips with a napkin.
“We’re hiding.” Lyra informed and cast a last glance out the window. “Seems like nopony saw us.”
“Hiding from whom?” Vinyl shook her head at Lyra’s outfit only briefly wondering if Octavia might be willing to put something like that on. She would have to carefully ask that question at a later time.
“Don’t tell me it’s Bon Bon.” Octavia’s own gears in her head had been turning at an alarming speed and had come up with a not so nice speculation.
“Bon Bon actually sent Fleur to me.” Lyra informed the pair and began taking off the first sock.
“Is it your birthday?” Vinyl received another biscuit to the head for that quip, which she ignored and kept watching the striptease going on in her own home.
“I’m hiding from the paparazzi.” Fleur replied and only hesitantly left her position from behind the door.
Octavia and Vinyl’s ears flattened at the same time at that piece of information. They had been relatively lucky in the past and had only briefly brushed with the tabloids. Octavia’s rather sudden and public coming out had caused a bit of a stir for a couple of weeks. It had died down rather quickly as it became apparent that neither Vinyl or Octavia had any intentions of becoming widely known celebrities. As such there wasn’t much demand to know their every step and things had normalized for them rather quickly.
“Where are they?” Vinyl asked the pair beside the front door.
“Still in Bon Bon’s shop I hope.” Lyra removed the last piece of clothing and carefully bunched it up to a ball which then was put on the couch in the living room. “She’ll hold them off for a while. Figured that we would hide out here until they leave.”
“I hate to throw a wrench into your idea, but I doubt they will just leave.” Octavia looked from one pony to another.
“If we hide Fleur they might give up.” Lyra shrugged.
“They never give up.” Fleur lamented and felt the stress returning tenfold. Somehow she never could catch a break.
“They’ll start looking for her.” Vinyl began after a moment of thought. “They aren’t stupid and you can bet they will start looking around the places where her friends live.” Vinyl waved her hoof around to encompass their home.
“You are right.” Fleur was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. “I’m so sorry I dragged you all into this.”
“It’s ok.” Octavia stood up from her chair and trotted over to the distraught mare to give her a comforting hug. “We are glad to help you out.”
“Ok, so she can’t stay here either.” Lyra tapped her forehead to start up the thinking process. “Where else could we hide her?”
“What about the Princess Castle?” Vinyl suggested and cleaned up the tea and pieces of biscuit stuck to her face with a few napkins.
“Canterlot is a bit too far away.” Lyra dismissed the idea with the wave of her hoof.
“I meant Twilight.”
“Oh….yeah. I forgot about her.”
“Do you think she would take me in?” Fleur had only very briefly met Twilight Sparkle and that had been before her ascension.
“Of course she will.” Lyra nodded once. “She is the Princess of Friendship after all.”
“So….how do we get Fleur there?” Octavia highlighted the next problem on their list.
“We make a run for it?” Vinyl suggestion was met with the shaking of three heads.
“We are too close to them right now.” Lyra nodded back towards Bon Bon’s shop. “We would have to go across the street and they might see us.”
“How about a disguise?” Octavia’s idea was met with the nodding of three heads.
“Do you have anything that will fit her?” Lyra was right that the tall thin model was out of Octavia and Vinyl’s sizes. If need be they could just cover her up in some sheets and try to pass her off as a ghost.
“Heh…I have something that might fit.” Vinyl gave her friends a crooked smile and left the room to go into the basement.
Moments later Vinyl returned with a large box in her magical grasp. Raised eyebrows greeted her as she turned to the waiting ponies.
“What? It’s the box I use to transport my deck. It’s clean and sturdy enough for Fleur.” Vinyl tapped the box with a hoof.
“You want to stuff me into a box and then…?” Fleur eyed her new possible mode of being incognito wearily.
“Then we carry you over to Twilight’s place. Easy.”
“There has to be a better way.” Octavia tried to think of something better, but came up blank for the moment.
“No….this might work.” Fleur stepped up to the box to inspect it a bit closer. If she got down on her rump she would fit easily inside.
“Then we have a plan.” Vinyl beamed at a still skeptical looking Octavia.
“If Fleur is ok with it….” The cellist finally agreed and shrugged.
“Let get going then.” Lyra nudged Fleur to get into the box with a hoof. “Time is wasting and we don’t want to be caught in the open. Bon Bon can only hold them off for so long until they start looking elsewhere.”
Without another word the equestrian supermodel got into the box. Vinyl closed it up and used a bit of string to keep it shut, then she turned to Lyra.
“You open the door and help me levitate it on Octavia.” Vinyl instructed and readied her own levitation spell.
“On to me?” Octavia eyed the box once more. There wasn’t really any doubt that Octavia was the strongest of the currently present mares. Earthpony genes and years of lugging heavy musical equipment around made her the logical choice. “Oh well.” Ocatvia shrugged. “Pass me a blanket, please.”
“Here.” Vinyl passed her the required item that in foresight had already brought along. “You’ll only have to carry half the box. I’ll take the other half.” There was no way Vinyl would let her beloved carry the entire weight as little as there was considering Fleur’s thin figure.
Luck was on their side as they levitated the box containing a supermodel on to the two mare’s backs as the street outside was momentarily deserted. The ride wouldn’t be comfy, but it gave her a sliver of a chance to escape the reporters unnoticed. Slowly the transport got moving, Lyra darting ahead and running up to her house.
With her outfit from earlier bunched up to a ball in her magical grasp she measured the distance to the window that they had jumped from. She had hastily written a note and stuffed it between the socks letting Bon Bon know where they were going. Lyra couldn’t resist hoof-pumping as she managed to throw her garments through the open window on her first try. Then she hurried to catch up to the unorthodox transportation mode for a model.
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Scoop left the sweet shop in a foul mood.
The mare inside was stubborn as a mule and refused even knowing Fleur De Lis. Scoop knew she was lying, but couldn’t prove it right now. Seeing that there wasn’t any point in trying to persuade the shop owner from letting them have a bit of a snoop around upstairs she decided to get a breath of fresh air and see if something noteworthy was to be seen from outside.
The first thing she noted was Slandermane standing at the end of the street watching the commotion in the sweet shop from afar. It puzzled her at first that he was standing so far away and not here with the rest of them. Then it dawned on her that maybe Fleur wasn’t even in the shop after all and that he knew something she didn’t.
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Slandermane watched the others reporters trying to force their way into the little sweet shop. Perhaps it was instinct that he thought there would not be any interesting story to be found there. That or a possible dislike of sweets that kept him far away from the shop.
“Want me to scare them?” Spooky Noodles grinned evilly. “Or do you want me to take some pictures?”
Slandermane’s assistant held up his grubby little camera. It may have possibly seen some better days long ago, but at the moment it was a wonder it actually was still functional. The term functional was something up for debate as any pictures the camera took were nothing but a blurry mess most of the time. Only with a lot of imagination could one identify what was supposed to be shown.
And that was its greatest feature and a very powerful tool for Slandermane. Ponies had very active imaginations and would see the strangest things in blurry photographs. All he had to do was give them a little push into the direction he wished. In combination with one of his articles blurry splotches turned into ponies engaged in frivolous behavior with whipped cream, two badgers and an umbrella. Readers would swear that is what they saw there when in reality it had been merely a shot of rocks piled up on the beach.
There was immense power there and it was his alone to wield. For a brief moment it seemed as if Slandermane would set his little minion loose to take pictures. Then something caught the corner of his eye. Three mares walking at a brisk pace a street away. Two of them carrying a large box on their backs, while the third kept glancing about nervously.
Without saying a word he slowly turned into the direction they were heading and saw that they seemingly were going to the castle. Spooky Noodles seemed slightly crestfallen that he would not have the opportunity just yet to scare somepony and followed Slandermane as he slowly moved towards the castle.
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“Quick Shot!” Scoop turned her head towards the shop but kept her eyes glued on the retreating figures of Slandermane and his assistant. “Get your flank OUT HERE!”
A loud crash was heard from inside the shop and the commotion from inside died down instantly. Then the front door nearly was torn from its hinges as the entire bunch of reporters was shoved outside by the now rather furious shop owner.
“You can’t treat the press this way!” A stallion cried out as he hit the dirt.
“YOU!” The shop owner thrust a hoof towards the reporters now sprawled over the ground in front of her shop. “You have no right to complain! You just broke part of my shop and no doubt ate some of my merchandise while I wasn’t looking! I have the right mind to call the guards and file a complaint for vandalism and theft!”
Wisely the reporters kept quiet and just watched as the mare slammed the door shut and locked it up with more than one lock judging by the sound. Scoop found her partner lying in the dirt and shamelessly staring at the mare lying on her back and facing away from him with her legs sprawled out to her sides. Out of reflex he took a picture and only barely managed to avoid the resulting kick to his face.
“What the hay do you think you are doing?!” Rapid Flash quickly got to her hooves and was ready to aim her next kick more thoroughly.
“Sorry.” Quick Shot moved behind Scoop to avoid any potentially painful attacks. “That was just a case of premature photographication.”
He paid no attention to the torrent of rather colorful insults hurled at him by the other photographer and let himself get dragged to the side by Scoop.
“Heh….that’ll get me a few bits if I pass it on to my cousin Money.” Quick Shot grinned at the possibility of making some bits on the side.
“Concentrate on the task at hoof!” Scoop lightly jabbed her hoof in his side. “Something is going on over there.”
Quick Shot looked in the direction she was pointing and saw Slandermane and his cohort slowly walk away. “You think they know something we don’t?”
“I bet they do. Come on.” Scoop trotted after the pair with her partner in tow.
Back in front of the shop all reporters gradually got up from the ground and dusted themselves off. Of course they noticed Scoop and Quick Shot trotting away. Not letting a potential chance for a good story pass by they followed them, sensing that any potential gossip was not to be found at this sweet shop.
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“Can you manage?” Octavia gave Vinyl a sideways glance.
“Yeah, no problem.” Vinyl spoke with a grunt punctuating her sentence. Heavy lugging was not her area of expertise and she was happy that they had arrived at the castle. “Just get the door open please.”
Lyra did as instructed and opened the large doors leading in to the castle of Ponyville’s own princess. The immediate hallway behind the doors was empty. A small sign informed any guests that the library was straight ahead. Once the doors had been closed by Lyra behind them Vinyl let out a sigh of relief and readied her magic. Together with the mint green unicorn they lift the box off their backs and set it carefully on the ground.
Fleur carefully peeked out of the box and when she saw that the coast was clear she left the confines of her mode of transportation.
“I can’t thank you enough.” Fleur stretched to relieve some tension in her long limbs from being folded up under her.
“Glad we could help.” Octavia was entirely unfazed from lugging Fleur halfway across Ponyville, unlike her marefriend who took the moment to rub her aching back.
“Let’s find out where Twilight is and ask her for help.” Lyra led the way deeper into the castle. Vinyl frowned at the now empty box and decided to take it along and not just leave it there. This time she used her magic and found it much more comfortable.
The castle seemed empty. Not a sound could be heard, which made sense as it also functioned as Ponyville’s library after the original one had been blasted into oblivion. Twilight would no doubt be reading something herself or doing princess-y things that didn’t make much sound.
A light could be seen at the end of the hallway and with no other ideas the quartet moved towards it. As they entered the room with the light on they were more than just surprised at the decorations everywhere.
Streamers, balloons, a buffet table full of snacks from Sugar Cube Corner and an assortment of various party games could only mean one thing. With nothing more than a whisper did three mares utter one name in unison.
“Pinkie Pie.”
Fleur just looked from one mare to the next unsure of what was going on. Her confusion deepened as she found herself suddenly looking at a very pink pony with a very wide smile. How she had appeared in the otherwise deserted room was a mystery. The encounter took a very hoofs-on approach as Fleur suddenly found herself in the grasp of a very powerful hug.
“Surprise!” Pinkie Pie cheered and hopped once using her hind legs and taking Fleur along for the ride.
“Pinkie!” A new voice came from the adjoining room they were in. “Put her down!”
Fleur was released instantly at the command by Rarity and took a moment to take a step away from the exuberant pink pony. “What is going on?”
“Fleur!” Rarity came trotting further into the room towards the model. The rest of her close circle of friends also came into the room, but stayed near the door. “Why did you leave so suddenly? I was beginning to worry after I couldn’t find you in the spa.”
“I had to leave.” Fleur answered, but did not want to explain in greater detail while others were present.
“I was talking to Twilight if she could maybe help me find you, but then Pinkie Pie said you would come here.” Rarity looked over to the still bouncing partypony.
“She did?” Fleur eyed the mentioned pony with curiosity. “But how could she know?”
“My Pinkie-Sense of course!” Pinkie explained. Rarity and her friends seemed to accept that answer, but it only raised more for Fleur.
“Pinkie-Sense?” Fleur took another step away from the strange pony.
“It’s a shame you arrived in the box.” Pinkie stopped her bouncing for a moment. “I have spent a lot of time setting up my newest nifty little gadget.”
From seemingly nowhere Pinkie Pie pulled a little box in front of her. A large red button was the only thing noteworthy about the otherwise black box.
Without explaining what it was for Pinkie pressed it.