Hold the Press

by Bunnybooze79

Chapter 3

Ponyville.

The model village for peace and tranquility.

At least that was Fleur’s first impression as she anxiously watched the village grow closer from the window of her compartment. She felt something that she had not felt for a very long time. She felt at ease. The train ride had been pleasant, apart from the conductor to check her ticket nopony had bothered her.

She still wore her disguise from the station just to make sure it would stay that way a little longer. The ruse they had used in Canterlot had seemingly worked. Not a single reporter was to be seen, something that felt like heaven to Fleur.

As the train came to a screeching stop she couldn’t help but smile at the prospect of finally having some time to relax. With a bounce she exited the train and looked around.

Fancy Pants had been here before and had gushed over the quaint little town. He had signed a contract with Rarity to distribute her clothing line in Canterlot. Her previous partner, Hoity Toity, had not been honest with her and tried to maximize his own profits at her expense. Fancy Pants would not do something like that and Rarity happily signed her new line over to him. He had mentioned a lot of pink ponies all over the town when he was here and had laughed. It had been unfortunate that Fleur had been modeling in Manehatten at the time and couldn’t join him. But now she was here and decided to take it as easy as possible for the next week.

None of the ponies entering and exiting the train seemed to recognize her save for one. With a wide beaming smile and perfectly styled mane her host for her time in Ponyville came trotting over to her.

“Fleur, darling!” Rarity beamed her widest smile possible. “So good to see you again!”

“It’s been too long!” Fleur exchanged a quick hug with the white unicorn.

Fleur normally did not get along with fashion designers all that well. To shallow or too self obsessed about themselves were attributes that seemed to be common amongst them. While it was true that Rarity might appear that way at first glance as well, it soon became apparent that there was much more to the mare than met the eye.

It intrigued Fleur and she found she might have something in common with the fashionista. Perhaps they would have time to see what it was while she was here. Previous encounters had left little time to talk about things not revolving around the world of fashion.

“Welcome to Ponyville!” Rarity turned towards the town behind her and encompassed the view with a wave of her hoof. “I do think you will find it quite charming.”

“I know I will.” Fleur sighed happily. It had only been a few minutes, but not a single paparazzi was to be seen. It was almost too good to be true.

“As per your request I have booked you the finest room that Ponyville’s hotel has to offer.” Rarity explained and cast an inquisitive look behind Fleur. “Where is your luggage?”

“I don’t have any.” Fleur explained. “I didn’t think that I would need any dresses.”

“And you won’t.” Rarity’s eyes lit up. “I’ll take care of everything, don’t you worry.”

Rarity led the way into town pointing out a few buildings and shops here and there. They quickened their pace as they passed a bakery called Sugar Cube Corner, but Rarity wouldn’t say why they did so.

All in all Fleur liked what she saw. There was a sense of serenity to be found here that was painfully missing from other towns she had visited. Then again all places she had been to previously had only been large cities. Perhaps the calm tranquility was the norm for little villages and towns. Fleur decided she would have to test her theory at some point in the future.

Their tour briefly took them past Carousel Boutique. Rarity explained they would return here later. The twinkle in the fashionista’s eyes went unnoticed by Fleur who watched a pegasus mailmare delivering the mail. The mailmare turned and saw Fleur watching her. Then the grey mare waved happily and flew off to drop off the next bit of mail. Fleur returned the wave enjoying the fact that she was treated thus far like any other pony would.

The two mares turned into Ponyville’s market in town square. Fleur held her breath at the sight of so many ponies. There was no doubt in her mind that there would be at least one pony there that would recognize her. Her face was plastered on a lot of products being sold all over Equestria after all.

As they passed a stall where cherries were for sale, Fleur could see the pony behind the counter watch and indeed recognize her. Apart from giving her a big smile nothing else happened. No sudden request for taking a picture or getting something signed. It was a huge relief to Fleur as the same scenario repeated itself a few more times with some other ponies. What she didn’t know was that the citizens of Ponyville had experienced a lot more noteworthy things in the past and the appearance of a top model was something almost normal to them. Parasprites, rampaging Ursa Minors and chaotic deities had left an impression on the town's inhabitants.

Fleur decided to test the citizens a bit more and removed her disguise. Apart from a few more ponies noticing her nothing happened. She could have jumped out of joy, but did not do so in case that might stir up some commotion.

Finally the tour ended with them turning towards a large building near the center of town.

“I took the liberty to make some reservations for us.” Rarity beamed her smile as they trotted towards Ponyville’s spa. “After that long train ride I am sure you could do with something to relax you.”

“Sounds good to me.” Fleur didn’t mention that the train ride was not the thing she needed relaxation from. The prospect of a nice spa treatment washed away the last bit of tension left in her body. No doubt she would be nothing more than a pony-shaped blob of jelly once they left the spa. And that was something that Fleur could be very content with.

______________________________________________________________

About three hours later a train pulled into Ponyville’s station.

As the doors slid open the cramped occupants virtually exploded onto the platform. Each one of them immediately on the lookout for Fleur De Lis. Unsure of where to go first the reporters began checking and readying their equipment.

Scoop snorted with disdain at her competition. While a lot of them had been fooled by Fleur and had followed her double to Las Pegasus, a good two dozen or more had not been fooled and had followed Scoop to Ponyville.

She had hoped it would be a nice relaxed affair here in this tiny little town. Take a few compromising pictures of Fleur doing something, anything, and then spin some juicy tale about it. Now she would have to work fast and try to get the good stuff before any of the others.

Her mood soured further when she spotted two figures exiting the very last compartment of the train.

“Oh, buck me.” Scoop hissed and stomped a hoof on the floor.

“Here? In front of all the others?” Quick Shot gave Scoop what he thought was a charming grin. It just seemed slimy to her.

“Look over there.” Scoop nodded towards the two stallions standing a good deal away from the other reporters. “It’s Slandermane and his little freak Spooky Noodles.”

“Guess you were right about your hunch then.” Quick Shot observed the odd stallions for a moment.

Slandermane had earned his name as a joke. His absence of a mane and the fact that no other pony had excelled in the field of slandering other ponies was combined and Slandermane was born. His real name was a bit of a mystery and long forgotten as he had adopted the joke name and turned it into his signature.

Nopony dared to call him by that name face to face. Too great was their fear of him retaliating with a slanderous article that could forever shame and humiliate the pony it was written about. Of course all of it was utter nonsense and outright lies, but his talent at spinning the tale was incredibly believable. So much so that some of the rumors he had spread were still widely believed by some of Equestria’s citizens. The most notorious of them being the one about Princess Celestia’s obsession with bananas even though the fruit ranked very low on her personal scale of deliciousness. That was another thing Slandermane was infamous for. Where other tabloid reporters had at least a very sketchy sense of boundaries and very few lines they would not cross, Slandermane knew no such borders and mercilessly pursued his pony of interest until a juicy story was found and modified to his tastes.

His strange companion was equally infamous amongst ponies. Spooky Noodles had, despite his rather silly name, caused many ponies to only whisper his name in conversation. He had an uncanny talent to turn up in the most unexpected locations and scared ponies by jumping up and scaring them. The fact that he seemed to enjoy ponies curled up on the floor out of terror further alienated him from regular society.

Despite or maybe because of their oddball personalities the articles they wrote had a very large amount of readers. Them being here in Ponyville solidified Scoop’s suspicion that something noteworthy was brewing in this tiny town and she was determined to be the first to get that story.

“Come on.” Scoop whispered to her photographer and briskly began trotting away from the station.

Of course the other reporters caught wind of it immediately and followed them. Slandermane and his compatriot watched the mass of reporters leave. Very slowly Slandermane followed them at his own pace with Spooky Noodles chuckling madly in anticipation.

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“It is simply the most exquisite shade of ocean blue you have ever seen.” Rarity let out a little giggle.

Fleur did not share the emotion and rather rolled her eyes. As Rarity was already wrapped in seaweed with an eye-mask covering her eyes and currently was in the process of having a mud bath she did not see Fleur’s gesture.

Fleur knew that Rarity meant well. She had not written that she wanted to avoid anything related to fashion. So naturally the fashionista had assumed that Fleur would of course just love to try a few of her designs and help her with her new line. The prospect of having to spend the next few days modeling dresses made her wince silently.

As one of the spa ponies approached her to start applying the seaweed she politely held out a hoof to stop them. The spa itself had been a very pleasant and surprising event. To find a spa with that much care and expertise in a village roughly in nowhere was unexpected. It was slightly marred by Rarity’s continuous expressions about fashion related things. Fleur excused herself and said she needed to use the bathroom.

Instead of going in the direction she was told Fleur only felt the need to get outside and take a breath of fresh air. It was in her own interest to tell Rarity that she had no intentions of trying on dozens or hundreds of dresses. It was supposed to be her vacation and she was sure Rarity would understand. She would promise the fashionista to make up for it some other time, but for now she just wanted some time void of any stress.

That particular bubble burst almost instantly as she exited the spa.

“There she is!”

Fleur froze for a moment thinking her mind was playing tricks on her. Very slowly she turned her head towards the direction of the sound. She let out a strangled yelp as she saw the large bunch of reporters scrambling over each other to get to Fleur first. The very same bunch she had thought she had lost in Canterlot. Obviously her plan had not worked, but there wasn’t any time to think about what had gone wrong. All that mattered now was to get away from them.

Fleur turned around and ran.

Comments

[Backlash91]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCBASt507WA

this song started playing in my head the moment Fluer turned and ran.

[MidnightFMare]

Spooky noodles = creepy pasta?

Clever writer