Hold the Press

by Bunnybooze79

Chapter 11

“I am not going on stage like this!” Bon Bon sat down and crossed her forelegs to indicate she wouldn’t be moving from her spot.

“Why not?” Octavia turned to face the mare.

“I look like a badly wrapped sweet.” Bon Bon huffed. “A fat badly wrapped sweet!”

“Nonsense!” Octavia could not see the resemblance. “You look fantastic!”

Bon Bon merely grunted at the compliment. The poofy dress that Rarity had picked out for Bon Bon wasn’t her style. Then again practically no style was Bon Bon’s style as far as she was concerned.

“I’m not going out there.”

The noise from the assembled and no doubt impatient ponies could clearly be heard behind the thick curtains.

“It's all of them looking at you, isn’t it?” Fluttershy quietly asked. Bon Bon didn’t answer and remained frozen in protest. “I understand. I just pretend I am walking over a meadow and all of the ponies are woodland critters. That always helps me.”

Bon Bon once grunted in response once more.

“Ok, places ladies, places.” Rarity came trotting behind the curtain and froze at the sight before her. “Oh, heavens no! You cannot possibly wear that! You look ridiculous!”

Bon Bon was about to retort with a rather harsh comeback, thinking it had been the fashionista’s way to get revenge on her by belittling her in front of others. As she turned to the fashionista Bon Bon realized that Rarity was in fact addressing Octavia.

“Why?” The cellist was confused.

“You mixed up the outfits didn’t you?” Rarity asked and used her magic to remove the hat Octavia had been wearing.

“Uhm…yes? “ Octavia shrugged. “I thought we were just supposed to wear something we liked.”

“No, no, dear.” Rarity levitated the original hat over and placed in on top of the cellist’s head. “They are all color-coordinated. Mixing them up ruins the effect.”

“Oh, sorry.” Octavia was pretty much clueless about the finer points to dressing in style.

“No worries. Just keep to one outfit at a time.” Rarity turned to the other two mares dressed and waiting. Or in the case of Bon Bon dressed and looking grumpy.

“You two look perfect.” Rarity beamed at the pair.

“Seriously?” Bon Bon raised an eyebrow. “You really mean that?”

“Why yes I do.” Rarity only now registered the facial expression of the sweetmaker. “What is wrong?”

“Bon Bon is having second thoughts about going out there.” Fluttershy informed her friend.

“But why, dear?” Rarity trotted up to the sitting mare and checked her dress to see if anything was out of order.

“I am going to look like a huge fat sweet!” Bon Bon huffed once more.

“Says who?” Rarity was genuinely taken aback that somepony would think so. “You look perfect! The colors really compliment your coat and mane. Nopony in their right mind could possibly think negatively about you.”

“You really mean that?” Bon Bon remained skeptical.

“Of course!” Rarity beamed at the earthpony. “You will wow them, of that I am sure.”

Time was slowly beginning to run out on them and the reporters were beginning to grow restless. Rarity was well aware of it and ushered her three models towards the curtain. Bon Bon reluctantly complied for now. She was still convinced that it would all have some kind of negative repercussions for her later, but if it would buy Fleur some time it was just something she would have to face.

On Rarity’s signal Fluttershy walked on stage. Of the three she had the most experience in being on stage during a fashion show. Octavia and Bon Bon watched through a gap in the curtain. Fluttershy did her job well enough to spurn the reporters on to take a few pictures. In her mind she was doing exactly that what she had advised Bon Bon to do earlier and imagined herself being alone in a grass field with a bunch of bunnies watching her. It made the entire thing more bearable.

Octavia enjoyed the little show a lot. She naturally knew the piece of classical music Rarity had chosen as background music and lightly swayed along with the melody. Once Fluttershy was back the cellist confidently strode out on stage. Unlike the Pegasus before, Octavia actually liked being on stage and the attention focused on her. With maybe a bit too much of a bounce in her steps she reached the end of the stage. With a grin she made a little twirl to show off the dress and bowed. Behind the stage Rarity snorted briefly at the behavior of the mare. It was highly unprofessional, but that was to be expected by somepony doing this for the very first time.

Then came Bon Bon’s turn. With slightly rigid steps she walked on stage once Octavia was back. With a herculean effort she turned her grumpy frown into an obviously plastic fake smile. No twirls, no bows and no chance of her giving the reporters a genuine smile. Yet it seemed as if that was exactly what they wanted to see as the flashlights flared up from numerous pictures being taken of her. With a bad feeling about all of it she headed back towards the curtain, ready to switch dresses and do it all over again.

__________________________________________________________________________

“Shuffle harder!” Rainbow Dash urged Pinkie Pie on.

“I am doing my best!” Pinkie replied slightly out of breath. “It’s not like I’m shuffling every day!”

Their way of getting around was not what one would call efficient. Pinkie did her best to shuffle as fast as she could, but they were travelling at half a trot maximum. Another problem was that Pinkie left a very obvious trail behind her in the dirt. If anypony was curious enough to follow it they would find something very strange indeed. Rainbow Dash was not too happy to let that happen, especially with a bunch of nosy reporters all about.

“Faster Pinkie, faster!” Rainbow urged her friend on.

“I’m going as fast as I…whoa!”

Pinkie tripped by shuffling straight into a pothole. With a simultaneous “Oof!” both of them landed on their side in the middle of the road. They had managed to traverse over the first road unseen and then through an alleyway. Now it seemed as if their journey had ended.

“Stupid pothole!” Pinkie voiced her frustration.

“Please tell me you can get back up.” Rainbow Dash asked with worry evident in her voice.

“I…urrgh…am…gnnrr…trying.” Pinkie tried rocking back and forth in some kind of effort to get her hooves underneath her. After a few minutes it proved to be fruitless and she gave up. “I can’t get back up.”

“What do we do now?” Rainbow Dash was out of ideas.

“What to give the licking another try?” Pinkie asked.

“That’s the last resort!” Rainbow Dash could just about see the headlines if they ever were caught in the middle of the road licking sugar off each other’s coats. “Try something else first!”

The sound of hooves on the ground making their way slowly towards them made them freeze solid. There was no way that whoever was approaching could not see them. The sound of steps stopped after a moment and Rainbow Dash with Pinkie craned their heads back to see who it was.

Berry Punch stood a few trots away from the fallen pair and just stared at them. Then she blinked a few times and hiccupped once.

“Could you maybe give us a hoof here?” Rainbow Dash asked from her prone position.

“Get a *hic* room you two.” Berry Punch replied and proceeded on her way past the pair on the ground.

“Why would we need a room?” Pinkie asked after a brief moment of quiet contemplation.

Rainbow chose not to answer that question and tried using her brain to come up with some kind of genius plan to get out of their current predicament. As was to be expected she came up with nothing. She was just about to give in to her fate to be discovered by the press and her life turned into a joke when another voice spoke up. To Rainbow Dash it sounded like an angelic chorus sent by Celestia herself.

“Do you need any help?” A voice asked from above.

“Derpy!” Rainbow Dash would have jumped for joy if she could have. “Yes! Please! We really need some help here!”

“Sure thing.” Derpy landed beside them and circled around them once. “Uhm…what should I do?”

“First just get us up on Pinkie’s hooves again.” Rainbow did not want to spend another second lying in the street.

“Ok.” Derpy carefully slid her front hooves under Rainbow’s side.

Her job as Ponyville’s mailmare required her to deliver all kinds of packages around town. Some of them were rather heavy and thus over time the grey pegasus had developed a fair bit of strength. With ease she propped the stuck pair up now sitting on their rump. Derpy trotted behind them to lift Pinkie up on her hindlegs.

Rainbow breathed a sigh of relief at being upright again. Now there was only one last thing Derpy had to take care of.

“Thank you so much!” Rainbow Dash felt like hugging the mare. “Now please fetch a few clouds to make us a raincloud or even better get a bucket of water.”

“I…uh…can’t” Derpy replied after a moment.

“Why not?” Rainbow Dash understood that Derpy might have other places to be right now, but this was urgent. She would gladly make up to the mailmare by personally going wherever it was she needed to be and take the blame for the delay.

“I seem to be stuck.”

Derpy’s explanation made Rainbow’s ears twitch. Part of her knew what had happened, but another part had to ask to make sure.

“Why?”

“I put my forelegs around you and now seem to be stuck on Pinkie’s flanks.” Derpy answered slightly confused from her odd position. Her head was now resting on halfway up Rainbow’s back and her forelegs remained glued around Pinkie’s lower area.

“Great….”

“I am covered in sugar.” Pinkie explained noticing that Rainbow Dash was currently not in the mood for any explanations.

“Why would you do that?”

“It’s a long story.” Pinkie stopped herself from telling the mailmare the entire story. “Do you think you can lick us free? It’s only sugar.”

“Enough with the licking already!” Rainbow Dash was losing her patience. “Can you somehow get us to Twilight’s castle?”

Derpy nodded or at least tried to and tightened her grip around Pinkie. Flying would be difficult but not impossible for her. Luckily the castle reasonably close and it would only take a couple of minutes. She slid a bit further back and flapped her wings with all her strength. Slowly they gained a bit of height until only Pinkie’s front hooves were still on the ground. Abruptly they dropped back to the ground as Derpy burst out laughing.

“What the… why are you laughing?” Rainbow Dash did not find the situation the least bit amusing.

“Sorry….aaaahahahaha…it’s…haha…your…tails!” Derpy kept giggling madly. The sound infected Pinkie who also giggled along. “They…haha…are…tickling my belly! Hahaha!”

“Oh, dear Celestia….” Rainbow Dash desperately wanted to facehoof as hard as possible. Hard enough to knock herself out and not have to be in this situation any longer. “Can you please try and help us somehow.”

Derpy tried pulling herself together and managed to hover enough to lift Pinkie’s back legs off the ground. Further was out of the question while being tortured and Derpy told them so between laughs.

“I think I can hop a bit.” Pinkie said and did just that.

It was a miniscule hop, just barely enough for her to leave the ground. The movement made their tails rub even more against the mailmare’s belly elicting even more laughter.

“Please, please let this work.” Rainbow sent a small prayer to whatever hopefully benevolent cosmic entities might be listening. “Let’s go….down that alleyway!”

Slowly and with a lot of laughter the trio made their way towards Twilight’s castle.

__________________________________________________________________________

Lyra’s plan had worked….more or less.

The lyrist took a quick glance over her shoulder and saw the reporters still hot on their tails. The problem now was to get rid of them again and that was going to be difficult.

Her initial plan had been to simply outrun them after a while. Judging by the labored breath of Vinyl running at Lyra’s side the chances of getting the DJ to run any faster were impossible. Her tank was already running on empty and it was only going to be a matter of time until she collapsed in the middle of the road.

Lyra tried to think of any other way to lose the reporters. A quick glance over to Vinyl momentarily halted her trail of thoughts.

“Vinyl….your face is melting.”

“My what?” Vinyl barely managed to utter those two words. By this point the only thing keeping her going was the fear of what would happen should she be caught. Making headlines this way was not something she had ever planned to do.

The generous helping of flour used by Lyra to cover up Vinyl’s beetroot red head had mixed with the sweat that had been building up. The result was a doughy substance clinging in lumps to Vinyl’s face. Her mane and tail were also nothing more than a lumpy mess in the meantime. In part her red face could be seen and the effect was rather scary. It gave Lyra an idea.

“We’ll cut through the restaurant!” Lyra altered her course to take the direct route there. “Grab a bottle of ketchup!”

Vinyl didn’t have any breath left over to object or ask why. All she could do was to try and keep up with the masked lyrist.

__________________________________________________________________________

“It ain’t much further.” Applejack whispered to Fleur. “Jus’ down the road and then a left towards mah farm.”

“Ok.” Fleur whispered back and tried her best to not trip Applejack.

The relatively long trip had not been easy. They kept nearly tripping over Fleur’s invisible legs and had received a few very curious looks by some ponies out and about. Mercifully none of them had been reporters.

“Have you tried some kind of conditioner?” Fleur quietly. For the last fifteen minutes she had been resting her head on the farmpony’s. The thick blonde now invisible mane could have required some attention the model thought.

“Now don’t ya start too.” Applejack rolled her eyes out of reflex. “It’s bad enough Rarity keeps goin’ on about it.”

“Sorry. I didn’t mean to offend you.” Fleur hastily apologized. “It just that your mane is lovely and I think you should maybe care for it more.”

“Ah do take care of mah mane!” Applejack found it exhausting that everypony kept thinking she didn’t care about her appearance. “If yer out on the field the entire day yer mane wouldn’t look so nice either.”

“Applejack?”

The all too familiar voice of Applebloom cut through the discussion going on.

“What happened to your mane?” Sweetie Belle chimed in.

“And what’s with the scarf?” The third voice belonged to Scootaloo.

The crusaders had been out trying to find a way of gaining their cutie marks. As predicted their efforts had been fruitless once again. Now they had been on their way back to their clubhouse and of course just had to come across Applejack trying to get Fleur to the farm.

Startled Applejack turned her head towards the voices behind her. Fleur didn’t have a chance to react properly and tripped over the farmpony’s leg. Without much style the model crashed to the floor, the scarf not being able to hold her weight.

To the crusaders it looked like Applejack had just literally lost her head and commented on it with three loud shrieks of terror.

“IT’S THE HEADLESS HORSE!” Scootaloo suddenly found herself face to invisible face of a long forgotten nightmare.

“IT’S TAKEN MY SISTER!” Applebloom shrieked with eyes wide as saucers.

“AND IT’S DECAPITATED FLEUR!” Sweetie Belle shrieked the loudest of them all.

With furious buzzing of little orange wings the trio took off. Scootaloo on her scooter had been pulling her friends along in the little red cart. Now with fear fueling her abilities all that was left was a cloud of dust as the fillies made their way back to the safety of their clubhouse.

“NO! WAIT!” Applejacks cry fell on deaf ears. “Oh, hayballs!”

“What now?” Fleur said with slight panic in her voice as she stood up again.

“After them! Quick before ponies see us!”

Applejack bolted down the street chasing the crusaders. Fleur easily kept up as they raced towards Sweet Apple Acres. Any thought about disguising themselves had been thrown out the window for now.

_________________________________________________________________________

“I knew it!” Scoop grinned wide. Their efforts to find some clue about Fleur’s whereabouts had been fruitless. Then the shrieks of three fillies had been very clearly heard echoing along the streets of Ponyville. “They were trying to smuggle her out! Come on!”

Scoop ran towards the source of the terrified yells. Her more or less loyal photographer followed her immediately along with the few other reporters that had not been distracted by any of the diversions.

It only took them a couple of minutes to stumble across some tracks in the road. By the looks of it something on wheels had raced by and was followed by two ponies. Sensing that she was on to something Scoop decided to follow the tracks leading out of town.

Comments

[dracone]

“It all of them looking at you isn’t it?”

I think you meant to say "It's all of them looking at you, isn't it?"

I suggest you look through your posted works to see if you can spot some of your errors, you might also want to look into getting a proofreader.

[zyr1987]

“Have to tried some kind of conditioner?”

To should be you, I assume