Berries and Brushes

by TaviTurnip

Chapter 2

"Vait!"

Casually trotting through the central streets of Ponyville after a day that had been something of a failure in her eyes, an older mare with a recognizably glamorous and pale mane turned to her crew, speaking with her usual assertive attitude. This simple command, however, had surprised everypony around her, and all the mares and stallions had turned to face the older pony, eyeing her curiously.

"Vait just a moment," she repeated, looking around to make sure everypony was, in fact, waiting a moment, before turning back the way she'd started.

"What is it?" a younger stallion asked, scrunching his nose a little bit beneath his black mane, following the mare's line of sight down the street. For all intents, the street was no different from any street in Ponyville, and the stallion couldn't see anything out of the ordinary. At the bottom of the street, there was a simple two-floored red house. In front of it, two younger ponies happened by, laughing kindly about something or other between them.

"Zat mare," the pale-maned pony expressed, pointing a front hoof. "I, Phooto Finish, see a future for zat girl. In de homes oof every pony in every city, her face, viz a great smile oon it."

As the rest of the group looked in the same direction, none of them were quite certain whether their eyesight was working right. At the end of the street, there were only two possible ponies that Photo Finish could have been talking about, and neither seemed remarkable in the slightest. On the left, a youthful earth pony with a pink coat hopped along. On the right, a more reserved unicorn walked beside, with a blue coat and a peculiarly dual-coloured mane.

"One of those two?" another colt asked, voicing the question he was sure everypony had on their minds. "Do you mean the bouncy one?"

"No no no," Photo Finish shook her head, with little regard to how nopony else could see what she was seeing. "You vill see, everypony, vhat a star she vill become, vonce she is beneath ze lights und ze camera!"

Her crew looked around toward each other, hoping at least one pony in the group had a clue, but it was fruitless. Realizing that they all had the same confused look on their faces, they resigned to just following Photo Finish wherever her whims were about to take her. Like always.

"Oh, don't be like zat," Photo Finish frowned beneath her glasses, watching those around her. Gesturing with one hoof toward the cameramen, she then stabbed her hoof down the street a second time, toward the mares walking by. "Come now," she declared, beginning to trot off in the same direction. At this point, everypony else knew what was coming next, of course.

"Ve go!"

~~~

"How's it been going for you this week, Berry? Is everything alright?"

Berry Punch and Golden Harvest had found their way to the Ponyville market, where lots of shops and stalls were still open for business even as the sun marked its final half hour in the sky. Golden had already found everything she needed, and the two of them were now poking around for one last item on Berry's list.

"Everything's alright," the purple-coated mare said, without turning to face her friend as she continued to scan the stalls for what she needed. "I've got four days of devoted work a week now, including Mondays with you, and all my bills are paid up to this month. I have no debts and no dues at all right now."

"That's really good to hear," Golden nodded, not particularly thinking about the fact that the other girl wasn't looking to see the gesture. "But what about you yourself? You're not too tired from the work, are you? The summer sun has been really hot these past few days..."

"I'm fine!" Berry insisted, a little more fiercely than she had intended. "I mean, really, I'm fine," she said, lowering the volume. "The only time that's really a concern is today, and Applejack is great about keeping me in good shape when we work. I don't know how she manages to work the land every day without even breaking a sweat."

"The Apple family is kind of crazy like that," the yellow pony chuckled, pointing one hoof toward a stall not far away and gesturing for her friend to follow. "I'm glad to hear it, though. You've... overworked yourself many times before. I've been really worried about you at times, girl."

"I know, Gi," Berry said quietly, needing no reminder of the not-so-distant past. "For a long while, nothing seemed to really go my way... But things are looking up now, right?"

A few moments of silence passed, and Golden Harvest took the time to reflect upon her friend's past to herself. It didn't take long before somewhat dark pictures poured into her imagination, far more clearly than she would have wanted. The mare remembered a little too well, the memories of Berry all alone on the Ponyville streets, covered in mud and rainwater...

"... Yeah," Golden finally replied, shaking her head frantically and trying to get herself back on track. "Yeah, Berry, everything seems fine, at least if you say it is..."

But, as she looked around, Golden noticed Berry wasn't there. Hearing a shout from not too far, the orange-maned pony realized she'd been left behind. Spotting her friend at the same shop she'd pointed out a couple minutes before, Golden cantered over, catching up to the other mare just as she was putting two thin bottles into her saddlebag, pulling the cover over and clasping it shut.

"Whoa," Berry exclaimed, seeing her friend in a hurried state. "Did you run a lap while I wasn't looking, Gi?" she asked, visually fatigued herself as she put a hoof to her own forehead.

"No, I'm okay," Golden replied, grinning a bit sheepishly at what she'd done. "What about you? Suddenly you look like you ran the whole marathon."

"I'm alright. I got everything, now, so I'm all... done..."

Almost too fast, Berry stopped her sentence, putting the same hoof up to her face and yawning quite loudly. As she went to take a step forward, her front legs wobbled beneath her, and it if hadn't been for the forethought of the other girl, Berry would have fallen flat onto the stone path below.

"'All done' is right, girl!" Golden shook her head with a sigh and a smile, holding Berry up by one leg. "Let's get you home already. I think you've done enough work today."

"Uuu," the berry mare groaned, shaking her own head and standing upright again. "Thanks, Gigi. I guess maybe I really did work too much, haha..."

"I guess maybe," Golden echoed, holding her one leg around Berry and turning toward the direction of the house. "Come on now, silly. You have a nice bed waiting for you at your house."

~~~

"Hey, w-wait a minute..."

A few days had passed, and one young mare found herself in a place and position much different than she was used to -- and much different than she felt she was comfortable with.

In the center of a studio in Manehattan, Minuette stood uncomfortably as no less than thirteen ponies pampered her, shoved make-up onto her face, flashed cameras, or stood back with their hoof on their face going "hmm" and "haa" in what she was certain was very forced contemplation. The poor blue-coated unicorn wasn't so sure this was what she'd first signed up for.

"Miss Photo Finish... ?" she asked weakly, turning to face the fashion photographer standing at the side of the room, who at present was making much the same contemplative gestures. "W-when will we get to the actual photo shoot?"

Walking over to the cluster of ponies and dispersing them with just one wave of her hoof, Photo Finish reached out and gently stroked the blue and white mane of her new rising star.

"Dear Minuette," she said, her voice brimming with confidence and assertion. "I, Phooto Finish, vill ensure dat you are a great star. Your face vill be seen insite every house in Equestria, in all de cities. Posters und boards everyvhere vill display your beauty!"

"But... me?" Minuette asked innocently, despite having heard this many times already -- and of course, despite having willingly traveled all the way to Manehattan to be in the studio she was in now. "Are you really sure? I can't see why I'd be fashion material; I'm just a simple pony..."

"No no no," Photo said, shaking her head. "You misunterstant me. You are not meant for de fashion world, but for soomething else entirely."

With a furthered look of confusion, Minuette scrunched her face up a little. Seeing this, the photographer grinned, as her eyes shone with sparkles nopony could see behind her glasses anyways. "Even zough you are not meant for de fashion world, I, Phooto Finish, and you, Minuette, ve vill still make..."

There was a very brief pause, before the unicorn girl rolled her eyes with something of a sorrowful frown, already knowing full-well where this was going.

"'De magicks.'"

At that moment, the back door to the studio room opened, and a tall and handsome brown stallion appeared at the entrance. His face was squared and chiseled almost too perfectly, and his black mane -- not too long, and not too short -- shone with complete brilliance. He strutted into the studio, looking around at his surroundings and seeing the two mares near the center of the room.

"Mr. Brush," Photo Finish named the new guest, turning and facing him excitedly. "This mare here, she is de one. Come, look!"

As she realized that this handsome stallion was now the most important pony in the room, Minuette shrunk back a little, moreso still when everypony started to gather around her again.

"Young miss," Handy Brush addressed the girl, looking her over once and immediately realizing why Photo Finish had brought her out here. "Is this... your natural mane colour?"

Not really understanding the question, Minuette put on a somewhat shy smile, blushing from way too much attention and nodding to the speaker wordlessly. To her further confusion -- and considerable discomfort -- this response caused the pony in front of her to smile even more broadly.

"You're perfect," Brush exclaimed, turning back to Photo Finish and nodding to her. "You know what we'll need, Miss Finish," he said, a series of unspoken words following between himself and the other celebrity. "I'll leave it in your capable hooves."

As suddenly as he'd appeared, Handy Brush turned and left the studio, his hoofsteps leaving the room in silence until the door was shut quietly behind him. As Minuette let her vision crawl back from the door to the middle of the room, she realized as she saw all the cameras and make-up draw near that she was going to be at the studio for quite a while longer...

"Meep..."