//------------------------------// // Chapter 4 - Help From an Unlikely Source // Story: Ponyville Runaways // by Splash Surfer 216 //------------------------------// Over in the middle of Ponyville, in her home at the Golden Oak Library protected by a shield spell and with the windowshades drawn, Twilight Sparkle was busy upstairs, studying one of her books on magic. Celestia's personal protege was feeling very relaxed, for this was a moment of time that she had so needed. Ever since Gabby Gums wrote an article on her, something about her being another Canterlot snob, all she needed was some time alone to herself, and especially to keep anymore schoolponies from the Foal Free Press from bothering her for another story. At that moment, Spike, her young dragon assistant came climbing up the stairs with another book clutched in one clawed hand. "Here's that other book you wanted, Twilight." he said, replacing the old, melting candle that was slowly burning out. "Thank you, Spike." the unicorn warmly said. "It certainly feels good to finally be able to read something that isn't slanderous gossip." "Agreed." Just then, from outside there came what sounded to be an almost warped, knocking sound. Now who could be knocking at this time of day? Twilight wondered. "Spike, go look outside and see who that is." "It better not be those fillies again..." groaned Spike. Both he and Twilight were still feeling a little sour from how the Crusaders had written that humiliating article. As Spike grabbed a broom, ready to head out and smack the currently unwanted guests, he headed towards the door, threw it open and stormed outside. "I thought I told you three to get...!" before Spike could finish his sentence, he took another look at the ponies outside, they weren't the Crusaders. It was Applejack and Rarity, knocking frantically on the forcefield, almost as if it was an emergency. "Twilight, it's Applejack and Rarity! They're acting kind of weird." Twilight smiled, knowing that she could trust two of her friends to visit and lowered the shield down and Spike hurried downstairs, to open the door. The two mares came bursting through the doorway, accidentally knocking Spike into a bookcase that emptied some of it's contents all over him. When Twilight got downstairs to greet her friends, the joy at what seemed such a pleasant surprise turned into shock and concern when she saw that both Applejack and Rarity were sobbing hysterically, and hyperventilating! "Sweet Celestia! AJ! Rarity! What's going on?" asked the lavender unicorn, "What happened?!" "Apple Bloom.... gossip column... Granny Smith... Gabby Gums... gone... horrible..." Applejack spluttered, she would not stop crying, so it was hard to make out only a few words of what she was saying. Thinking quickly, Twilight brought over a paper bag and levitated over to her friend to calm her hyperventilating. Within moments, the cowpony was slightly calmer, but she still continue to blubber. "Now, tell me what's going on? You both look like somepony just died!" "Or like you found a bit and lost a gemstone!" Spike added, rubbing his head and getting back onto his feet after being bowled over into the bookcase. "It's Apple Bloom..." sniffed AJ. "She's gone missing! Ah' can't find her anywhere!" "And Sweetie Belle's missing as well!" added Rarity, sobbing. Twilight gasped. "That's crazy! Are you sure you looked everywhere?" "We searched all over Ponyvile, we even searched the schoolhouse and their clubhouse, and they weren't there!" "All Ah' know is that Apple Bloom is gone!" said Applejack. "Where could she be?" With that, the two mares collapsed into tears again, which almost started flooding the entire first floor of the library. Pulling out an umbrella hat to keep from getting drenched with tears, Twilight finally stepped forward to try and calm them down. "Alright, every pony calm down. I'm sure they couldn't have gone far." she assured . "We'll need to let Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie know what's going on. You two head over to Sugarcube Corner, and Spike and I will head over to Fluttershy's cottage." With their mission clear, the ponies split up to gather the rest of their friends. A few moments later, five out of six of the ponies, including Big Macintosh and Spike, were having a meeting inside the library to discuss the situation at hand. It did take awhile to get Fluttershy out of her cottage, because after what had been going on that day, she had been bawling her eyes out like there was no tomorrow. It took a lot of comforting words to console her, and she finally stopped crying and agreed to come along when she heard that the Crusaders had gone missing. Pinkie Pie wasn't that hard, on the other hoof. She was so upset, she didn't feeling like talking to any pony, and neither did she nor her employers, the Cakes, feel like baking anything, so they had closed up shop for the day, but when she too found out that the fillies had gone missing, she too agreed to help out. "The only one we haven't talked to yet is Rainbow Dash." said Rarity. "And I doubt that she'll want to listen to us." Just then, who should come bursting through the window in a panic, but Rainbow Dash herself. "Guys! Guys! We've got a problem! Scootaloo's run away!" she yelled. "We know, Dashie." Applejack sniffled, trying to wipe the tears from her eyes. "Apple Bloom an' Sweetie Belle are missing too!" "I honestly wouldn't blame them for running away." the sky blue pegasus sighed remorsefully. "Why would you say that, Rainbow Dash?" asked Twilight. "They came by yesterday, asking for another story, and I got a raincloud and poured water all over them, before they could even explain..." "Why?" Fluttershy asked in her usually quiet voice. "That was... really mean of you! Sorry..." "I know! I know! I just got so mad that I don't know what I was thinking, I especially didn't think that I brought this on myself for asking for one story in the first place!" "You're not the only one with regrets, darling." said Rarity, sniffling. "We all played a part in this." "What are you all talking about?" Twilight, glanced over at everypony in the room. "It's my fault, Twi." Big Mac sighed, lowering his head in shame. "Ya see, Ah' yelled at them yesterday afternoon an’ AJ here, just refused ta talk ta them." "I yelled at them too.." said Rainbow Dash. "So did I..." said Spike, his ear flaps drooping with regret. "Oh dear, I do wish I hadn't cried so much..." Fluttershy sighed, sadly. "I got mad at my own little sister for something I basically told her was okay," said Rarity. "And I didn't set a good example when she looked through my diary after I looked through her bag..." "We were all a bunch of meanie-bo-beanies, to those fillies..." sniffed Pinkie Pie, her hair starting to deflate as it it usually did whenever she was sad. "What about you Twilight?" asked Fluttershy. Twilight remembered, that she also refused to talk to them and outright shunned them by putting up that forcefield of hers and how Spike had snapped at them to get lost. "I should've just talked with them..." the unicorn sighed in regret. "But right now, the real issue here, is that we need to find them before something bad happens!" Just then, there was another knock on the door. "Ugh! Now what?" asked Rainbow Dash. "I'll go see who's there." Twilight stood up. Now who could that be? she wondered. Upon unlocking the door, the lilac unicorn came face to face with the strangest figures she had ever seen. Standing before them, were the strange figures of a tall brown unicorn stallion, a slightly small light magenta unicorn mare, and an young earth pony stallion. The tallest one, dressed in a small trench coat with a noticeable white shirt and black suit tie, and on his head, a fedora hat with a sign that read "Press" on it. The mare's mane was stylized in a bobcut, and she had a noticeable cutie mark with a blot of ink squirting from a pen. The earth pony had a rather scrawny-looking appearance and was carrying on his back, a wagon containing a typewriter and other supplies. Twilight was unnerved by the appearance of these characters. "I'm terribly sorry, sir," she said. "But if you've come to borrow a book, you're out of luck. I've just closed up for the rest of the afternoon." "Oh, my apologies..." the tall unicorn chuckled, in a rather warm and friendly sounding tone. "I've forgotten my manners. Allow me to introduce myself, the name's Scoop, Big Scoop, and this is my fiancé, Ink Press, and over there is our assistant, Click Typer." "Greetings..." the unicorn mare, Ink Press said, holding out her hoof for a hoof shake. "H-hello..." Click Typer stuttered, he was kind of struggling to pull that wagon, due to how much was packed in there. "Wait a minute..." said Twilight, eyeing the tall unicorn meticulously. To her, he seemed familiar. "Did you say your name was 'Big Scoop'?" "I believe I did, ma'am." Big Scoop replied. "As in The 'Big Scoop'?" asked Rarity, stepping forward to also take a look. "The ace investigative reporter for the 'Canterlot Chronicle', Canterlot's best selling newspaper and the most widely known throughout Equestria?" "Well, Canterlot's ONLY newspaper." Ink Press laughed. "It really is you!" said Spike excitedly, "Twilight and I used to read that newspaper all the time back in Canterlot. Of course, I was more in it for the funnies section." "So what brings you all to Ponyville?" asked Fluttershy. "Well, business over in Canterlot has been running low all week, and there haven't been that many newsworthy stories to find lately, so the chief sent us out to Ponyville to find some sort of event worthy of writing about." explained Big Scoop. "We were just about to give up and go back, when we overheard some commotion going on around here, and..." "Wait, you were spying on us?" asked Rainbow Dash, rather weirded out. "We're investigators, sweetheart." said Ink Press, glaring assertively at the pegasus. "It's our job to snoop around..." "Fair point." "Anyways, we think we might be able to help you." said Big Scoop. "Would you like that?" "You came at such perfect timing, Big Scoop. Please, come in." Twilight smiled as she let the three ponies inside. "Now what seems to be the trouble?" the stallion asked. "It's our little sister an' her friends." said Big Mac. "They've run away from home an' we've looked all over fer them! It's driven mah poor other sister an’ her friends ta tears!" “Oh my...” "Oh dear," said Ink Press, sympathetically. “What a shame... that’s too bad...” “How awful!” Click Typer nodded. "All Ah' know," Applejack said, starting to go into a panic once more. "Is that she could be lost, cold, hungry, itchy, stuffed up, an' needin' ta go ta t’ bathroom! She can't survive out there in t’ cold cruel world!" "And after what happened earlier," sobbed Rarity. "I might never see my little sister ever again! NEVER! EVER!" "Alright, now, take it easy, miss." said Big Scoop. "We're professionals and we'll do whatever it takes to help you find them, isn't that right, my dear?" "Yes," said Ink Press. "We can't stand to see family and friends be torn apart like this, dry those eyes." The unicorn mare then levitated over two handkerchiefs for both Applejack and Rarity to blow into and clean their faces. While she was comforting the grief stricken ponies, Big Scoop took Click aside to talk. "Send a message back to the chief." he whispered. "Tell him that we think we found a story that will knock his horseshoes off." "Yes, sir." The scrawny earth pony nodded, and immediately set to work to send a telegram back to the Canterlot Chronicle. Big Scoop then sat the four ponies that were close to the crusaders down for questioning. Ink Press stood beside him, writing down notes. "Now, what are the fillies' names?" "Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo..." they answered one by one. "Now for Apple Bloom," asked Ink Press. "Do you spell it out as all one word like 'Applebloom' or is it two separate words?" "Two separate words." said Big Mac. "When did you notice they were missing?" asked Big Scoop. "Ah' noticed when Big Mac an' Ah went upstairs ta her room ta talk with her, an' all of her things were missing, including her framed photo of our late Ma and Pa." "I found the same thing when I went to check on Sweetie Belle!" said Rarity. "I found Scootaloo's goodbye letter to her parents, on my doorstep," Rainbow Dash said. "With a picture of me and her all crossed out with a big red X." "Have the fillies ever run away from home before?" Big Scoop asked. "Oh no, not ever!" replied Rarity. "Sweetie Belle would never go off and worry her family like that!" "Apple Bloom wouldn't dare leave Sweet Apple Acres, let alone Ponyville," said AJ. "Also, do you happen to have any recent photos of the fillies?" "We'll need to make copies of those for posterity and identification purposes." explained Ink Press. "Ah have one." said Applejack, taking out one photo from underneath her hat. "Here's one of Sweetie Belle." said Rarity, out of her bag. "Here's that one of Scootaloo and me," said Rainbow Dash, handing over the photograph. "I tried to wipe off as much of that marker as I could." "And finally it all comes down to this," began Big Scoop, laying out and turning on a small tape recorder attached to a microphone. "While Ink Press and Click over here write down notes, I want you all to tell me how this all started," It was then that one by one, each of the ponies told their side of the story, with Applejack and Rarity, trying to choke back the tears as they testified, Pinkie Pie's story was a little bit exaggerated, but that didn't matter. Most of the story, was realistic, starting from how the Crusaders joined their school paper in hopes of getting cutie marks in journalism, to the paper getting into the hooves of the older ponies, to the newfound short lived popularity of Gabby Gums, to the stories becoming more hurtful to each pony that started being targeted, to Rarity finding out Sweetie Belle and her friends were behind the whole thing, which led to the shunning, and physical and verbal abuse that the Crusaders unfairly received from their friends and family, who ironically enjoyed the stories, save for Twilight until they were targeted. Big Scoop and his fiancé each looked at each other in disbelief and somewhat shock at the testimonies the ponies gave out until they had finally finished with how they found out that the Crusaders had run away. "Tell us Scoop, sir." said Big Mac. "Were we really that hard on them?" "I don't blame most of you for being mad even if you brought this on yourself by asking for more stories and enjoying them in the first place." Big Scoop said, understanding of the situation. "What you all did was wrong and in Miss Dash's case, uncalled for, but what's done is done." said Ink Press. "Now the real question is," said Fluttershy. "What do we do now?" "Ah'll tell you what we're all gonna do!" said Applejack. "We gotta inform everypony in Ponyville of what's goin' on!" "Indeed, Applejack." said Big Scoop. "I personally believe that there is more to this entire story than meets the eye. And one of the keys to unlocking the truth is to spread awareness of the issue at hand." "Spike and I will go to town hall and inform Mayor Mare of what's going on and call for an emergency town meeting." said Twilight. "That's a good idea, Miss Sparkle," Click agreed. The others nodded in agreement, and with that, Twilight and Spike left the library, and headed to town hall to inform Mayor Mare of the situation. Everypony was in hope that if they could figure this mystery out, they would be able to bring the Crusaders home and everything would go back to normal. Little did anypony know, but earlier that morning at about dawn, deep down in the basement of the Ponyville Schoolhouse, the editor in chief, Diamond Tiara had just entered with an impatient look on her face. Nopony had heard from the Crusaders since they left to find more stories at their chief's demand. "That's it. Gabby Gums is out of time." she said, turning to a small bluish gray colt, covered in ink from the printing press, and handing him a set of three photos. "Run these instead. I want this paper on every street corner in Ponyville!" "Yes ma'am!" said Shady Daze, as he headed over to the ink press to begin work. As the ink press spluttered and splashed ink everywhere, the newly printed newspaper came out nice and clean as could be. The pink earth pony filly trotted over to the end of the press and slowly and careful as not to get a paper cut, took one newspaper and started reading it, laughing to herself rather proudly. "Featherweight, come over here, boy." she called over to the scrawny looking, buck toothed, pegasus with a camera around his neck, who came trotting over at the command. "Is something wrong, Miss Tiara?" he asked. "Nothing at all," said his boss. "I just want to thank you for finding all these great pictures for great stories this past week. You've really outdone yourself, especially on these ones." Featherweight squeezed in to get a better look at the pictures that he took, now printed in the newspaper. They were pictures, which would be rather amusing to somepony who was lucky enough to get a hold of them, of the Crusaders. One was of Scootaloo struggling to get out of the mud while being teased by the bystanding birds gathered around, the second was of Sweetie Belle, wearing what appeared to be the most funniest looking peacock-esque outfit, that looked very uncomfortable and embarrassing judging by the face on the filly wearing it, but none was more embarrassing than that of a photo of Apple Bloom and Granny Smith showing her granddaughter a picture of her as a foal, with a diaper stuck on her head. As Diamond continued to laugh at the embarrassing photos, Featherweight on the other hand, was starting to feel unsure. Earlier he too had laughed to himself while Diamond was threatening to print the embarrassing photos of the Crusaders if they refused to write another story, but now after some thought about what had happened when they had last entered the basement workshop for the Foal Free Press, he was starting to wonder if things were indeed going too far. "Now, Feathers," said his chief. "You're free to go for now. But I still want you be very alert with your camera today, for we need some brand new juicy photos for brand new juicy stories!" "Yeah.." the pegasus colt laughed nervously. "Uh... about that, chief... that's kinda what I wanted to talk to you about. Now I've been thinking..." "Well, that's dangerous..." chuckled Diamond Tiara. "I've been thinking that maybe we should... scrap the whole Gabby Gums concept and write about something else? I... I heard that the foals' sports teams around Ponyville and Cloudsdale, especially at the Junior Speedsters Flight School, are getting popular this time of year..." Diamond stared at her lead photographer for a moment or two before she burst out laughing hysterically, as if he had just told the funniest joke in Equestria. "That... that's really funny... Feathers..." she laughed, before slowly calming down and realizing that Featherweight wasn't laughing too. "What are you trying to say?!" she then demanded. "Well, it was fun for a while, and everypony started liking the stories and asking for more, but now there's some that are getting really hurt by the stories, For example, I followed the Crusaders around yesterday and saw them over by Miss Fluttershy's house, and she looked like she was crying really hard! Maybe we should heed their advice before things get really ugly!" "Feathers, I'm going to remind you what I already told those blank flanks earlier. I don't give a million flying feathers or fat flanks about feelings! If they don't like them, then why did everypony enjoy reading it in the first place? Miss Cheerliee made me in charge and as such, I all I want is for this newspaper to succeed, and I'm making sure that Gabby Gums sticks around and if it meant I had to put those fillies in their place, so be it! Gabby Gums is the ice cube in my drink of success, and no pony is telling me otherwise!" "I'm.. I'm sorry chief." Featherweight said, his voice with a small tone of reluctance. "But I have to agree with them, I don't think what we're doing is right anymore." At that statement, Diamond Tiara laughed even harder than before, and then with a stern, and very authoritive look on her face, leaned in really close to the pegasus. Shady Daze nearby, slowly back away and ducked behind the press, afraid of what was going to happen as the chief began to rip into Featherweight really hard. "What?! Am I hearing correctly? You don't think I'm right? WHO said your job was to think, FEATHERBRAINS?!" "But.. but... I just thought..." "Just use this vast reserve of brain power to consider THIS for a moment." Diamond snarled. "Now, if it wasn't for me, YOU wouldn't be working on the Foal Free Press like your sister, Namby Pamby did! And as a matter of fact, my scrawny little friend, you would've been stuck working the ink press a long time ago with Shady Daze over there, so you can just SHUT your mouth and get out there and get me more juicy photos, ASAP!" Now Featherweight was frightened. Most of the other young ponies knew that it was best to not get on Diamond Tiara's bad side and he was this close to doing so, but he managed to gain a small sense of bravery and glaring back at her finally said indignantly, "And what if I don't?" The pink, rich filly thought for a moment before giving a sinister looking smile as if she had an idea. "Well, Featherweight... I'm glad you asked." And with that, she trotted over to her desk and pulled out from the drawers, a folder and opened it up to find a group of photos inside. "You see, about last summer, I went with my bestie, Silver Spoon, to catch a premiere showing of The Swan Pony at the cinema, and we took pictures at the event. And when me and her were looking through our photos, we found this strange little occurrence we didn't notice before until just recently." She then pushed the photos towards Featherweight and said, "Now take a good look at these photos and look up in the right hoof corner behind me, and tell me, do you recognize the colt in that picture?" Featherweight studied the photograph carefully, and was shocked by what he saw. The colt in the picture sneaking into a room with two other colts had a brown mane, a light yellowish gray coat, big brown eyes, and... two small buck teeth... The colt was him... "That... that..." he stammered out, completely flabbergasted. "That's right, Feathers. And aren't those your friends Rumble and Button Mash, too? And it looks like you're all about to sneak into, my word, an R-rated movie!" Diamond tsk tsked. "Now what do you think your sister and your parents would say if they saw you and your friends sneaking off to see an R-rated movie at your age?" "T-that's not me!" Featherweight said, trying to cover his mistake up. "That could be any scrawny looking pegasus colt! My parents and sister will never believe you!" Diamond laughed yet again. "Well now, I wouldn't say that, my little friend. This situation happened to work perfectly over at Silver's house, just ask her little brother, Chocolate Cigar! Now you wouldn't want to end up like him and those incompetent blank flanks, now would you?" Featherweight felt himself shrink in fear, he was now caught between a rock and a hard place. If he refused to find more photos, or tried to even expose what was going on, Diamond would certainly print those enlarged photos. He'd be a laughingstock, and he'd be in very big trouble if his parents found out he snuck into a rated R movie while underage. Defeated, all he could was take a huge gulp and say, "No, ma'am..." "Good boy!" Diamond Tiara said, patting him on the back. "Now get out there and find me some new pictures by tomorrow or it looks like we'll have another story for Gabby Gums by tomorrow!" Without another word, Featherweight trotted slowly out of the basement and back upstairs, exiting the schoolhouse. Diamond then turned around to face the group of young fillies and colts staring at her, dumbfounded and completely in shock from her outburst. "What are you all staring at?!" she growled. "We're done for today, now get out! Out!" The group of foals quickly ran out of the basement as fast they could, in fear. Shady Daze was the last out and tried to carry as many newspapers as he could to finish his task. Diamond was left to her own devices and gathered her things, and grabbed the embarrassing photos of the Crusaders and Featherweight, and stuffed them in her bag. I love my job... she thought to herself, as she exited the schoolhouse and headed back home to her mansion.