While Shining Armor was busy taking care of Cheerilee, Star Shine was taking care of Feather Quill. Or at least on his way to. As he looked around while passing through the town he saw that he was getting more stares and strange looks than he had gotten when visiting Rarity. It seemed like some ponies really were believing the wrong side of the story. He sighed and picked up the pace, eager to try and get this all sorted out and show them that not everything was how they thought it was. Eventually he did the same thing he had done before and simply took off into the air and flew to Feather Quill’s instead of just running there. It also put less of a strain on his body and he was beginning to get a little tired. Star Shine found his way to Feather Quill’s house and knocked on the door politely. He was very well aware of how he had left the house the last time. Hopefully Feather Quill would hear him out a little. Feather Quill opened the door and as soon as he saw who it was slammed it again. Star Shine’s best smile had been wasted and his hopes had been more than a little dashed. It didn’t help when he heard the door click as it was locked to keep him out.
“Hear me out, please!” Star Shine pleaded to the closed door.
“Why should I? The last time you were here you threatened me! You’re lucky I’m letting it slide!” came a slightly muffled reply from inside the house.
“I wanna know why you printed that story about Scootaloo!” Star Shine called back. There was silence for a few moments and then Star Shine heard the locks click again and the door creaked open a little. Feather Quill poked his head out a little.
“What article on Scootaloo?” Feather Quill asked quietly. He certainly seemed very confused.
“The story that you printed about Scootaloo. It was supposedly written by Gabby Gums. I want to know why you did it. No self respecting journalist would print such a thing.” Star Shine replied. Feather Quill looked more offended than confused now.
“Gabby gums? That trashy gossip column? I assure you no such thing would find it’s way into my paper! I made sure my boy took it out when he took over his school paper. I don’t know why he put it back in but it would never make it’s way into a professional paper like mine.” Feather Quill said indignantly. Now it was Star Shine’s turn to be confused.
“Have...have you even read today’s paper?” Star Shine asked. Feather Quill looked more indignant than before.
“Read? Of course I read it! I’m the Editor in Chief. It’s my job to read everything and approve everything that’s going to go in there and I sure didn’t see no Gabby Gums article and I’d never approve such a piece of trash anyway.” Feather Quill replied. Star Shine was made aware of two things very quickly. One was that Feather Quill had absolutely no idea what he was talking about and the other was that they were attracting even more attention than before thanks to all the yelling.
“Listen, we’re attracting a lot of attention here. Can I come in and talk about this? It seems like somepony slipped something into your paper without you realising it. You need to see what was done.” Star Shine said. He disappeared before Feather Quill could actually answer and returned a second later with a copy of the paper he had borrowed from the first pony who would let him borrow a copy.
“If there’s really something like that in there then I guess we do need to have a chat.” Feather Quill said once Star Shine had stopped moving. He reluctantly stepped aside and allowed Star Shine to enter his house once more. “I wish that nice guard Diamond Tiara has was still here but I guess he follows her everywhere.” Feather Quill said under his breath. Star Shine still caught what he said as he passed him.
“He doesn’t anymore.” Star Shine said, causing Feather Quill to look up at him. “That guard, he quit. He’s sat at the library right now.” Star Shine explained in response to the look Feather Quill was giving him.
“What? Why’d he do that? He was attached to that girl and it wasn’t just because he was guarding her.” Feather Quill said as they entered the living room.
“To be honest I actually have no idea. He seems to know Diamond Tiara did this but we don’t know anything for sure yet. I’ll have to ask him about it when I get back.” Star Shine replied. When he thought about it he realised that all the indications Firefly had given did point to him quitting over what Diamond Tiara had done, and the knowledge it was Diamond Tiara who had done it. If he was willing to lie about seeing Diamond Tiara in Rainbow Dash’s house then he certainly had a lot of faith in her and wouldn’t assume she had done anything wrong. Star Shine smiled as he realised the implications; They might have irrefutable proof.
“Did what? You still haven’t really said what brought you here besides some outlandish claim I printed something terrible.” Feather Quill asked. He was still quite confused by the sudden visit. The only thing Star Shine really had was the one thing he actually needed at least. He had Feather quill’s interest. Star Shine placed the paper down on the table and opened it up to the necessary page.
“Just read that, and tell me why it’s there in the first place.” Star Shine said, tapping the article with his hoof. Feather Quill was more confused than before but did as he was asked. He responded to the article a little different from everypony else Star Shine had showed it to. There was some anger and disgust in there but mostly he was yet ever more confused.
“This...I never approved this! I’ve never seen this before! Such a thing would never EVER make it’s way into my paper.” Feather Quill said, almost offended that the article existed. “This is slander! Libel! In my name!” he shouted, waving his forelegs in the air. He was being far more animated than Star Shine thought he had any right to be. “This...this could ruin me.” Feather Quill said quietly, sinking into his chair and calming down.
“It could go bad for you yeah, but right now it’s definitely going bad for Scootaloo. Is there anything you can do? Any idea how it got there?” Star Shine pleaded. Feather Quill thought it over.
“Well the damage has been done I’m afraid. I can’t take back what happened. For what it’s worth I’m sorry. I know I said those terrible things about her but I would never go this far. I would never let something like this happen. I could print a retraction and say it never should have happened but we’d have to deliver them and I don’t even know what I’d put.” Feather Quill said. Star Shine’s hopes were a little dashed but his mind was working hard trying to think of something Feather Quill could say. Anything that might be able to help. The other question he had asked was still hanging in the air. “As for how it got there...there’s only one way that could have happened. After everything gets approved by me it goes to the press to be printed. The only way this could have gotten in there is a pony on the press putting it in themselves.” Feather Quill explained.
“Who was working the press when this got printed?” Star Shine asked. He felt he already knew the answer. He hoped he was right.
“This would have been printed yesterday in preparation for today. Ponyville is a pretty small place so we only need one pony on the press and the pony on the press yesterday was...Diamond Tiara.” Feather Quill said, slowing down as he realised what he was saying. “That’s why she was here yesterday. She sometimes does some work for me. My boy was telling me what a hard worker she was. Oh I can’t believe she’d do something like this.” he added.
“Seems there’s a lot about her you wouldn’t believe.” Star Shine replied. They had it. They had some pretty undeniable proof that Diamond Tiara had been the one to print the article. Star Shine believed Feather Quill when he said that he had no idea it was published in the first place. There was still the more pressing matter of damage control, which was another reason that he had decided to visit Feather Quill. “You mind saying what you told me in a court if it comes to it?” Star Shine asked. He wasn’t really sure how far all of this was going to go. It always helped to be sure.
“Oh yes definitely. She’ll be lucky if I don’t sue her for this, never mind if you don’t.” Feather Quill replied. Star Shine chuckled a little at the thought of Diamond Tiara finally getting something she deserved.
“There’s one more thing.” Star Shine said. Feather Quill raised an eyebrow at him. “The damage is done, that’s pretty hard to deny, but is there anyway to control it? Is there really nothing we can do?” he asked desperately. There had to be something.
“As I said I can print a retraction but most of the town has already seen the story. The most I could say is to deny any involvement I had. While I plan to do that, it would only really help me and not really help Scootaloo much. Unless you can think of anything you want to put on there then there isn’t much. All we can at this point is provide the truth.”
“I don’t think she’d be comfortable with that.” Star Shine replied sadly. “Is it possible to claim that all of this is a bunch of lies?” Star Shine asked. He felt there was no way Scootaloo would allow something like her life story to be published for the world to see. Not again.
“It’s possible. A lot of ponies would probably believe it too. But you’re smart. You know that won’t help anything, don’t you? You tried to get her to tell me yesterday but she wouldn’t. Heck if she had talked to me yesterday this probably wouldn’t have happened.” Feather Quill replied. It was a harsh truth but it was a truth nonetheless. In a way Scootaloo had missed the chance to prevent all this. “We can certainly discredit Diamond Tiara and when everything is out I’ll be on top of it, but that’s more long term. Even if we discredit her ponies are going to know what she said as truth. They’ll hate Diamond Tiara for what she did, they’ll feel sorry for Scootaloo for what Diamond Tiara did to her, but they’ll still believe Diamond Tiara. They’ll still treat Scootaloo differently. The only way to control that is to control what they believe and to do that we need the full truth.” Feather Quill was pretty much voicing all of Star Shine’s inner concerns at this point.
“I’ll be back soon. I’ll be as quick as I can. Don’t print the retraction until I get back.” Star Shine said, getting up out of his seat and heading for the door.
“Where are you going?” Feather Quill asked.
“I gotta go talk to Scootaloo about this. I’d tell you her life story any day of the week if I thought it’d help but I don’t want to do it without her permission, or without letting her have the chance to do it.” Star Shine replied. Feather Quill watched him leave and take off at speed, presumably in the direction of wherever Scootaloo was.