Hold the Press

by Bunnybooze79

Chapter 8

Five minutes passed with the assembled ponies within the castle arguing after Twilight explained what had happened.

Rarity just watched the ponies around and tried to think of some way to help Fleur who at this time kept requesting a triple helping of chocolate fudge ice cream. She could not let her friend gorge herself on delicious sugar laden treats and potentially risk the press writing terrible things about her if they found out. The fashionista felt partly responsible for the model’s current predicament.

Had Fleur let her know that she wanted to remain incognito then she would have at least tried to hold Pinkie Pie back. Now there was a huge mess on her hooves and it would possibly get even worse once the reporters entered the castle.

“We could hide her upstairs in my private quarters.” Twilight suggested.

“Yeah, that will go down without any kind of consequences.” Lyra rolled her eyes. “I can just about see the headlines now already. Topmodel remains for a week in Princess private area. You don’t even want to see the mental image in my head of the picture they will put together.”

“Oh..uhm…” Twilight feverishly thought of something else she could do. Her knowledge was limited when it came to things related to the press. “If there was more time I am sure to find something in one of my books.”

“Well, time is not what we have right now.” Lyra glared at Twilight. “Thanks, your highness.”

“I’m sorry, ok?” Twilight met the lyrist’s glare. “I just wasn’t prepared for dealing with them.”

“It’s ok, Twi.” Applejack felt the need to stand by her friend. “We jus’ need some more time for ya ta find somethin’ useful in one of yer books.”

“We could try and sneak her out again.” Octavia left her post beside the box where Fleur was hiding and joined in the conversation.

“And then?” Lyra turned to the cellist. “We are running out of places to hide her. Besides, that isn’t really relaxing for her either.”

“They can’t enter a home without permission.” Octavia still tried to offer suggestions. “We can have her hide in one of our homes.”

“For a week?” Lyra shook her head. “It would be like prison. She couldn’t leave because then they would be on her like flies on sh…”

“What if we just make them leave?” Octavia cut Lyra off quickly. “A spell or something.”

“They would just return later.” Lyra again shook her head. “Most likely with an army of lawyers to sue us for using a spell on them.”

Rarity took note of every single word being said. Like fabric and thread she used for making dresses the suggestions flowed together in her mind and she came up with a possible solution.

“I-Deeee-Aaaaa!” Rarity called out and gained the attention of everypony around. Even Pinkie stopped her constant sobbing to listen. “What about we just give them what they want?”

“Whoa!” Lyra took a step towards the fashionista. “I am not throwing her to them!”

“No, that is not what I meant.” Rarity held up a hoof to stop Lyra’s protest. “They are reporters so why don’t we just give them another story?”

“About what?” Twilight asked for the rest of the ponies.

“Some of them are bound to be interested in the fashion side of Fleur. So we’ll just give them a fashion show and then they will have their story at least.” Rarity explained.

“What about the rest of them?” Lyra thrust a hoof towards the front door. “Not all of them are here because Fleur dresses nicely. Some of them aren’t interested in that.”

“I have a solution for that as well.” Rarity beamed. “We’ll just hide Fleur in a large enough private property.”

“Where?” Lyra looked from one pony to the other. “All our homes are rather small.”

“Sweet Apple Acres of course.” Rarity nodded to a rather surprised looking Applejack. “It is by far the largest private property in all of Ponyville. Even though it is slightly…”

“Uncouth?” Applejack raised an eyebrow as she cut off the fashionista.

“I was going to say that Sweet Apple Acres is slightly far away from all the busy and bustling center of Ponyville.”

“Nice save.” Applejack grinned and tipped her hat to Rarity.

“Of course that might just be the thing Fleur could do with.” Rarity trotted over to the box where the model still was hiding but also listening very intently.

“Well the farm is plenty big enough for another pony.” Applejack had mulled it over in her mind for a moment. “Mah family sure won’t have nothin’ against havin’ a guest for a while. Hay, ya even get the rare opportunity ta try some fresh made cider.”

“What do you say, Fleur?” Rarity gently tapped the side of the box.

For the longest moment Fleur didn’t speak or react. The model had effectively given up any hope of finding some peace and quiet. Now she was given another small piece and she tried pulling herself back together. Thoughts about ice cream were cast aside as she clambered back out of the box.

“I like that idea.” Fleur responded and stood up. Her mane was out of shape and tears had left tracks on her face, but a small hopeful smile had formed on her lips.

“Marvelous!” Rarity turned to her friends.

“That just leaves the problem of getting Fleur there, but I already have an idea.” Rarity faced Twilight. “Do you know how to recreate the spell Discord had used to elongate the legs from Fluttershy’s bunnies?”

“Er…not exactly.” Twilight shook her head. “Why do you ask?”

“We’ll have to work together to get Fleur away from here and to the farm.” Rarity looked at each pony in turn. “So I propose we give the reporters something to chase.”

Rarity turned to the still crestfallen Pinkie Pie and laid a hoof on her shoulder.

“I was thinking we could make them think that Pinkie Pie here is Fleur.” Rarity carefully ran a hoof through Pinkie’s now flat hair. “With a bit of hairspray I can easily fix Pinkie’s mane into Fleur’s style.”

“I see.” Twilight nodded as she understood what the fashionista had planned. “To bring Pinkie to Fleur’s height we would have to elongate her legs.”

Twilight rubbed her chin in thought. While she surely could learn the spell needed, time was running out. She went through some of the spells at her disposal and came up with an idea.

“How about an illusion spell?” Twilight measured up Pinkie and Fleur for a moment. “I could cast an illusion spell to make it seem as if she had Fleur’s long legs.”

“How would that look?” Rarity was curious to see the result.

Twilight shrugged and readied the spell. One flash of bright purple light later Pinkie seemed to be unchanged and still standing on her regular legs.

“The floor is disrupting the spell. She needs to be off the ground.” Twilight explained and readied a levitation spell.

“Got ya.” Rainbow Dash took action before Twilight could finish the spell and grabbed the pink pony with her legs wrapped around her body. A few flaps of her wings and she hovered a good portion above the ground with Pinkie in her grip.

The effect was slightly disturbing to say the least. While Pinkie now did indeed have legs as long as Fleur’s, the rest of her body was still in her regular proportions.

“That’s reaaaaally strange.” Vinyl watched her friend move her illusionary long legs.

“Hmmm….” Rarity felt she could work with what she had presented with. “Could you turn Pinkie into Fleur with the same spell?”

“I could, but in order to keep the spell running I would have to remain close to them as neither are unicorns that could keep it running on their own.” Twilight pointed to the hovering pair of ponies.

“That is of course unfortunate.” Rarity would have to improvise somehow. “What about smaller illusions? Would you have to remain at their side to keep them up?”

“No, but it would fizzle out after a while.” Twilight informed her friend. “The simpler the spell is, the easier it is to keep running.”

“Good.” Rarity nodded. It seemed as if she would have to give Pinkie Pie a more thorough makeover. She turned to the still hovering pink pony. “Pinkie…”

“Yes?” Pinkie still seemed upset at ruining Fleur’s vacation.

“Do you want to help us?” Rarity had to ask just to make sure. “It would involve you getting a more extensive makeover.”

“Of course!” Pinkie nodded quickly. She would just about do anything to get the other upset pony to smile properly again.

“It does involve flour.” Rarity warned. Pinkie just merely stated she was used to being covered in flour from her babysitting times. “Spike! Please fetch a bag of flour for me.”

The dragon saluted and ran off towards the kitchen. Rarity turned back to Twilight.

“Do you think you can give Pinkie Pie a horn?” She asked the Princess.

“That should be simple enough.” Twilight cast another spell and soon Pinkie found herself having a long slender horn protruding from her forehead. Reflexively she tried to touch it and her hoof just went through the illusion. “Anything else?”

“Yes….in a moment.” Rarity turned to the others again to further elaborate her plan. “We’ll need to distract the reporters, so my idea is to have Rainbow Dash make an escape with Pinkie Pie, but slow enough that they can follow you. Lead them past my boutique so that I can give them a show. I’ll need some time to set things up so lead them around for a while.”

“No problem.” Rainbow let Pinkie back down again. “I can do that easily.”

“And I’ll need some help in putting on the show.” Rarity cast her eye over the others. “I will be needing the help from Octavia, Fluttershy and Bon Bon.”

“Me?” Bon Bon had just been listening to the plan in silence. Now she seemed to be needed for some kind of fashion show of all things. The overly self conscious mare looked around to see if it had been a mere misunderstanding. “You want me to help with your show?”

“Yes, indeed.” Rarity nodded and gave the mare a friendly smile. “The others will be needed elsewhere.”

“Ok.” Bon Bon briefly locked eyes with Fleur who gave her a pleading look. In order to help her friend she would participate somehow, maybe by taking care of the lighting or music. “I will help.”

“Good.” Rarity turned to Lyra and Vinyl. “Could you two maybe arrange some kind of musical enthrallment that might distract the reporters?”

“Easily.” Vinyl just shrugged, but Lyra shook her head.

“They won’t fall for a little bit of music.” Lyra had agreed with the fashionista’s plan up until this point. She knew that the reporters would need something a little more noteworthy than loud music and had come up with her own plan. “I have a better idea to distract some of them, but I’ll need Vinyl’s help.”

“It doesn’t involve heavy carrying does it?” Vinyl gave Lyra a sideways look.

“Nothing of the kind.” Lyra replied with a lopsided grin. Vinyl didn’t like that grin one bit, but without any other options on such short notice just agreed to help Lyra.

“That just leaves getting Fleur to Sweet Apple Acres.” Rarity turned to Applejack. “And it is up to you to get her there without being seen.”

“Hmm…” Applejack knew Ponyville like the back of her hoof and was the best candidate to get the model there unseen. “That’ll be mighty difficult with Rainbow an’ Pinkie flying all over the place.”

“Perhaps Twilight might offer some assistance?” Rarity looked at the pony in question. “Do you think you could make them invisible?”

“That should work.” Twilight nodded without having to think about it for long. “I can link my spell to Fleur’s own magic and it should last them long enough to reach the farm, but you will have to leave your hat.”

“Awww…”

Spike returned with a large brown paper sack and put it down beside Pinkie Pie. Rarity rubbed her front hooves together with anticipation.

“We have a plan so let’s get started.” Rarity immediately grabbed a can of hairspray from her saddlebags in the corner along with a hairbrush. As she began to work on Pinkie Pie, Twilight addressed Applejack and Fleur.

“Please stand next to each other.” Twilight asked and waited for the tall model to move beside the farmpony. “I will cast the invisibility spell on you now and link it with your magic. You must remain close to each other, otherwise the spell might break. Oh and don’t cast any magic of your own for the time being. That might also disrupt my spell.”

Fleur nodded and held her reflexive magical defense in check as she felt Twilight’s spell being cast on her. It seemed to her as if nothing happened, but then after a moment her vision became a tiny bit darker. Fleur held up a hoof to see what was going on, but found herself staring at nothing. Only when her hoof made contact with her nose did she know that the spell had worked as intended.

“This is sorta freaky.” Applejack said unseen by anypony. “Uhm…how do we not get separated?”

“Use this scarf.” Rarity levitated a blue scarf over to the area where she assumed Applejack was. A moment later the scarf was plucked from her grasp by invisible hooves.

“Good idea. Ah’ll hold it in my mouth and you jus’ follow it, ok?” Applejack waved the scarf around for a moment. She made it look like the delicate light scarf was being blown around by the wind.

“Got it.” Fleur confirmed the plan and felt excitement building up inside her. Perhaps not all was lost after all and she could find some refuge amongst Ponyville’s apple orchards.

“Hmm…this is as good as it gets I’m afraid.” Rarity took a step back from Pinkie Pie. Even in the flat form her mane was incredibly stubborn to take on the shape Rarity was trying to make. With a lot of hairspray she did manage to wrestle it into a shape resembling Fleur’s manestyle. Now all that was left was to coat the partypony in flour to emulate Fleur’s natural white coat. “Close your eyes, Pinkie.”

She did as ordered and Rarity simply dumped the flour all over the formerly and now white partypony. Rarity shook Pinkie’s mane and tail using her magic to shake some of the flour out, but leaving enough in to make it resemble Fleur’s colors.

“Wait, this isn’t….” Pinkie began to object, but was interrupted as somepony banged loudly on the front door.

“No time!” Rarity stepped away from Pinkie Pie and let Rainbow Dash grab her again. “As they say in the business: It’s showtime!”