Scoop froze in mid-gallop as her eyes locked on to the two ponies in the middle of the road.
Her sudden stop caused the majority of ponies behind her to barrel into her. As they crashed into a pile voice were raised at the sudden obstacle. All of them went quiet as they too saw the pair of ponies standing in the road.
“Holy hay!” Quick Shot struggled to ready his camera from his prone position on the floor.
The two ponies turned around and ran. Reporters quickly struggled to get back on their hooves. Fleur was one thing, but being presented by something that raunchy in this quaint little town shifted their priorities.
Scoop held her photographer back when he tried running after the fleeing pair. He gave her a perplexed look and tried to go around his partner.
“It’s a trap!” Scoop barked at him. She had to raise her voice to get through the noise being produced by numerous hooves trampling on the ground. In turn a few other reporters had heard her too and stopped their movement towards the scandalous pair running away.
“But did you see what that mare was wearing?” Quick Shot lamented.
“I got a nose for these kind of things!” Scoop answered and watched half of the reporters bolt down the road.
“But…but…socks! And a lacy saddle!”
“It is just a diversion.” Scoop looked around and cursed under her breath. She had lost sight of Fleur being transported by that pegasus. It suddenly dawned on her that it might also have just been a trick. “They are giving us plenty of distractions to draw us away from Fleur.”
“You sure about that?” Quick Shot remained skeptical.
“Her friends are very resourceful it seems.” Scoop rubbed her chin with a hoof in thought. “I bet that the pair just then were two of her friends. I also have my doubts if the Fleur we have been chasing was the correct one.”
“What now?” The photographer sighed and gave up his efforts to run after the distraction. He knew Scoop well enough to follow her lead and be rewarded with possibly better pictures. Although it would have to be something very spectacular to beat what he had just seen.
“There isn’t a train leaving for another six hours.” Scoop turned around on the spot to see what else was going on. “I bet they are hiding Fleur someplace in Ponyville.”
“The castle?”
“No. Dirt Sheet made pretty clear that we have the right to enter it and the Princess didn’t object.” Scoop was momentarily at a loss of where to go. “We best check the places where no reporters are at the moment. Come on.”
Quick shot obediently followed his partner. A moment later the rest of the left over reporters followed them as well.
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Unseen by anypony Applejack led Fleur through Ponyville.
They had agreed to take a slower route to insure that they wouldn’t get separated. Being invisible felt strange to both of them. Looking down and not seeing one’s own body was scary.
Applejack held a scarf in her mouth and occasionally waved it about to make it appear as if it was blowing in the wind. The absence of any wind made it highly suspicious, but until now they had not encountered another pony.
“Ya still with me?” Applejack asked with a whisper.
“Yes.” Fleur’s answer startled Applejack as she seemed to be right beside her.
For a tiny moment Applejack let go of the scarf and it would have to be just this moment when a breeze went through the street. The scarf now actually being moved by the wind drifted away from the invisible mares.
“Darn it! Ah let go of it!” Applejack informed the model somewhere beside her. “Quick! Don’t let it get away!”
Applejack jumped to catch the scarf. Fleur did the same and both of them found out the hard way that they had aimed for the same spot.
Fleur having the advantage of longer legs reached the scarf first and pinned it to the ground with a hoof. Applejack wasn’t able to react in any way and slammed hard into the models side. Out of reflex Fleur readied a spell meant for self-defense. The result was rather unexpected. Twilight had mentioned not to cast any spells otherwise it might disrupt her illusion. Quickly Fleur let the magic she had summoned for her spell dissipate, but the damage had already been done.
“Ah can see your head.” Applejack stated after recovering from the initial shock of seeing a disembodied head floating in front of her.
“I can see your body.” Fleur replied and scrunched up her face at the sight.
“Mah body?” Applejack seemingly looked down and the backwards to check. Fleur had to guess as all she could see was Applejack’s neck bending one way then the other. “What about mah head?”
“It’s still invisible.” Fleur checked her own body and found it still to be absent.
“Oh, fer cryin’ out loud.” Applejack quickly scanned the area and let out a sigh of relief that they were still alone. “Can ya do the spell that Twilight used?”
“I have no knowledge of spells of that kind, sorry.” Fleur’s magical abilities were rather limited she would reluctantly admit if asked. For a model it was not necessary to have a vast amount of spells at her disposal.
“Ok, ok. Lemme think.” Applejack sat down. Fleur looked away as looking at the decapitated farmpony gave her the creeps.
Applejack considered moving back towards the castle, but there was an awful lot of empty space surrounding it. The chances of them being spotted were very high. Combined with the fact that she didn’t know where Rainbow Dash currently was distracting the reporters made that option out of the question. The way to Sweet Apple Acres wasn’t too far away.
“Ah know!” Applejack trotted over and took the scarf in her hooves. “We’ll use this.”
“How?” Fleur looked at the scarf. It was far too small to hide them or even cover up part of them.
“We’ll wear it.” Applejack wrapped it around her invisible head. “See?”
“No….I don’t.”
“We take this scarf and wrap it around our heads.” Applejack explained and held it towards Fleur. “Ya will have ta be my head. Yer taller than me and can rest yer head on mine…. ”
Fleur understood and nodded. It would look strange, but at a casual glance nopony would notice anything wrong. The model stepped next to the farmpony and rested her chin on top of Applejack’s head. Using the scarf they tied it together. Fleur rearranged some of her mane to try and cover up the hole visible from the front.
“Ok then.” Applejack blew a strand from Fleur’s mane out of her eyes. “Ah can’t really see well so ya will have ta keep an eye out fer anythin’ in out way.”
“Which way do we go?” Fleur asked and then got moving in the direction Applejack’s hoof pointed.
Walking side by side wasn’t easy and it was made even more difficult by not being able to see Fleur’s legs. Slowly they moved towards their original destination, appearing to other ponies had they been looking like a drunken pony with a questionable fashion sense.
__________________________________________________________________
Rainbow Dash circled slowly in the middle of a large crossing.
For some reason the reporters had stopped following them. Her first thought had been that she had been too fast and had decided to wait a moment. After waiting for two minutes no reporter showed up and Rainbow Dash assumed that they had fallen for Lyra’s plan and were now following them.
It was a good thing that they had done so, because Rainbow Dash was beginning to tire out. She wouldn’t admit it to anypony, but flying around for an extended period of time with a pony in her grasp wasn’t easy.
The only pony she rather frequently took out for flying had been Scootaloo and she would usually be on the adult pagasus’ back. Carrying a pony with her hooves was difficult, especially an adult pony like Pinkie Pie who also seemed to weigh considerably more than she appeared to.
Briefly scanning the area Rainbow spotted a bush they could use as a hiding spot for her to have a little break. After landing unseen inside the bush the pegasus just let herself drop on top of Pinkie Pie knowing that the party pony wouldn’t mind carrying her weight for a moment. Sweaty and tried Rainbow Dash let her wings hang limply down and resting on Pinkie’s sides.
Slightly paranoid that they had been spotted Rainbow stuck her head out the top of the bush. Pinkie did the same and pressed her head against the side of Rainbow’s. Cheek to cheek they observed the surrounding area and found it void of anypony.
“Good.” Rainbow breathed a sigh of relief and retracted her head back into the bush. Pinkie kept pressing her cheek against Rainbow’s. “Uh…Pinkie? Do you mind?”
Rainbow Dash tried pulling away from Pinkie, but the pink pony just remained where she was.
“I can’t, sorry.” Pinkie answered.
“What do you mean?” Rainbow tried pulling her head further away. As that led to no results she wanted to use a hoof to push the pink pony’s head away. At least that was her plan, but she found it impossible to move her front legs to release the grip she was still holding on with. “What did you do?”
“I didn’t do anything.” Pinkie explained. “It was Spike.”
“Spike? What?”
“He didn’t cover me with flour.” Pinkie explained calmly. “He used powdered sugar instead. I think we are stuck.”
“You are kidding me right?” Rainbow Dash was far from calm. To her horror she found out that Pinkie Pie was correct with her statement. The combination of Rainbow’s sweating and Pinkie’s sugarcoating had glued them together. Try as she might the Pegasus found it impossible to move. “This is some kind of joke right?”
“Afraid not.” Pinkie giggled. “It seems to be quite the sticky situation.”
“No puns!” Rainbow Dash found the situation out of her hooves. Not moving was unpleasant, but the possibility of being caught was worse. “We have to do something.”
“It’s only sugar. We just need some water.” Pinkie suggested.
“There are no rainclouds here today.” Even if there had been rainclouds above them it would have been impossible to reach them as Rainbow’s wings were also glued to Pinkie’s side.
“It is only sugar. We can eat it.” Pinkie proceeded to start licking the side of her cheek where Rainbow was stuck.
“Cut it out!” Rainbow Dash protested as Pinkie’s freakishly long tongue wiped over her face for a moment. “I am not letting myself get licked free by you or anypony. Besides….it would take too long.”
Rainbow Dash contemplated their location in Ponyville. The river or the lake was too far away. A well was relatively close by, but they would have to walk across the marketplace. By this time most ponies would have closed their stalls, but a restaurant nearby would be able to spot them easily. The only other option was going back to the castle.
“We’ll go to the castle!” Rainbow Dash said after making up her mind. “We can cut through a few narrow alleyways and avoid being seen.”
“We could just ask somepony for help here.” Pinkie suggested.
“No… we are not going to involve other ponies in this.” Rainbow Dash dismissed Pinkie’s suggestion by shaking her head and Pinkie’s along with her. “And want Twilight to see what Spike has done. Then she might not object too much when I glue him to the ceiling.”
“So….how do we get there?” Pinkie’s question was a good one. With Rainbow Dash immobilized it would have to be up to Pinkie to get them there.
“Can you walk?” Rainbow asked. Pinkie tried to move her legs, but Rainbow’s own legs were positioned such that walking properly was out of the question.
“I don’t think so.” Pinkie replied after trying to move her limbs. “I won’t be able to hop, skip or jump either.”
“Great….just great.”
“I can shuffle a bit.” Pinkie said after a moment of silence.
“Better than nothing.” It was their only chance at mobility. “Ok then. Get shuffling Pinkie!”