Slice of Velvet and Pear

by David Silver

57 - Foal Free Press - Part Three

The paper was a big hit the next day. Snips and Snails, stuck together? What a headline. Not a pony could resist the humorous sight of it. The rundown of how it happened worked as well, gaining the crusaders some praise and acclaim, to their mutual delight.

A pity such a chance thing was hard to replicate... Even if Snips and Snails were happy to get stuck together again if it meant more time in the lime light. This was mostly Snip's idea, it's said.

Page three had Spike's comic corner! Not on the second half, but occupying the entire third page. Spike's eyes were alight, gaping at all the real estate he'd taken up. "Wow..." He waves the paper at Diamond excitedly. "Was there a mistake? I thought I was just the second half."

Diamond rolled a hoof in the air. "Expect that to shrink. A debut splash, if you will. I'm using what I could of what you gave me. By the way." She shoved some papers at him. "The edits. I did new comics today. I want classics, ready to go, tomorrow. We'll see how it's resonating with the readers."

Spike hugged the papers to himself, both the edits and the actual paper. "You got it! Um... any words yet?"

Diamond reached out to poke him right on the nose. "Right now, ponies are giggling at the front page. It takes time for them to work to the third page. To your benefit, nothing super exciting on the second page. Let them get to it, huh? Besides, we got class."

"Right!" They were at school and all. "So, uh, little thing?"

Diamond cocked a brow at that. "What's that?"

"I know a lot of this stuff." He waved vaguely at the books that decorated the school walls. "Moon was kind of a bottomless pit of books. It was hard not to read. Do you--"

Diamond covered his mouth with a hoof. "You learn a lot in school, and not all about what's in those books. Just think about all you've learned about your fellow ponies. You didn't learn that from a book, now did you?" She leaned in, nose an inch from his. "You got a girlfriend. You didn't get her from a book, now did you?"

"N-no, guess not." He scratched at his cheek gently. "So... I'm not here for Cheerilee?"

"Sure you are." She pushed him back a few inches. "She's teaching you to have responsibilities, and to be somewhere on time, and consistent. All good things to learn. She's not teaching you much book stuff. You got that down. Be happy. Most of the foals in here are working to learn that part and the rest. Now, since you're such a brainiac, I'll be bothering you for help with what I get stuck on."

"With pleasure. Um... Either of you."

Diamond paused a moment, but caught up quickly. "Exactly. Now let's sit down like good little foals, hm?"

So they did just that, being good little foals for another day of school. Afterwards, Spike hurried to a typewriter and got to jamming out his classics, working with the edited notes on his previous entry for classic comics. "So... and..."

"Letter!" Derpy handed a letter to Diamond Tiara with a smile and walled eyes, as was her way.

"Thank you." Diamond took the letter and placed it on her desk. "Nothing outgoing."

"Okay!" Derpy took off in a soar, only bumping into something once on her way out. She was in good form.

Diamond sliced open the letter as she hopped into her chair. "Let's see...." Inside was not one letter, but several, combined. Fan letters of the day. "Ha Ha..." She put a paper down. "Oh my Celestia..." She put the next down. "Did they get free?" She paused, and quickly write on a new paper that they did, in fact, get free.

"Oh. Spike."

Spike looked up from his typing. "Yeah?"

"One for you." Diamond waved the paper at him.

Spike finished his sentence and ran over to snatch the paper. "Really?!"

Hello Spike!

I thought I was alone, but reading your words made me feel like I found a friend that likes what I like in comics. I'll be double-triple sure to try out the ones you mentioned! Oh, you said you were doing classics tomorrow. Tell me you'll be doing Starpony and the Last Guardians! Oh, wow, that one really takes me back! I can't wait to see what you write!

A loyal reader,

It had a foal's hoofprint stamped below that. "Aw." Spike hugged the letter close. "I reached somepony."

Diamond leaned in over her impressive desk. "Soak it in, then put that in tomorrow's article. Can you finish that before we leave?"

"On it!" He rushed back to his typewriter and jammed at it even faster than he had been, mind filled with the imagined sights of that excited little foal. "I have a fan!"

With great pride, he slapped down the finished article on Diamond's desk, along with a picture. "That's the front of the comic this is about."

"Starpony and the Last Guardians, huh?" Diamond clearly had never read it. "Let's give this a looksie..." She began reading critically, making a few marks as she went. "This is... how it should work, by the way. Let's get this out the door!" She pushed the article back at Spike. "Fix those."

"Fixing!" He hurried away, clacking on his typewriter. "So, like it?"

"Never read it. I can only assume you know what you're talking about." She leaned on her hooves, propping up her chin. "But most of the grammar was solid. Fix those, and we should be fine. Thank you for not going over the word count. I've had to yell at a few ponies for going over or under."

Spike swallowed nervously. "Oh, um, thanks!" Maybe he hadn't been watching that too closely. He didn't question his luck, typing out the revised copy and getting it back to Diamond in a flash. "So it'll be out tomorrow?"

She read over it quickly, looking for obvious errors. "Yeah... Yeah, we're good." She offered a hoof for him to slap against. "Good job, Spike. Now, let' see what those crusaders have cooked up. It'd be nice if they had another headliner."

She hopped down and and trotted in a light jog towards the exit with Spike trailing behind her. They emerged from the school to see the crusaders miserably slumped in defeat.

Apple Bloom spotted them coming and sat up sharply. "O-oh! Hey... Diamond..." She worried her hooves fitfully. "Fancy seeing you here..." The others heard her and joined in fretting at Diamond's presence.

Diamond waved it off. "Can it. You don't have the headline. It's written all over your faces. Alright." She turned for the schoolhouse. "Get the test results on the front," she shouted at it, getting a muted agreement from within. "Hmmph, going to have to shuffle things around. Thankfully..." She threw an arm around Spike, there to do so to. "Somecreature went and showed me I had to do that sometimes. On his first article. I swear, Spike, such a pain." She nuzzled into his neck despite her complaints. "There, pressure's off. Not expecting anything tomorrow."

She watched them deflate, no longer held up with the worry of the deadline. "Tell me what you have found."

Sweetie raised a hoof. "Sugarcube Corner's doing a buy two, get one free sale on muffins for the next two days."

Diamond tapped at her chin. "Not very punchy. But... But! Actually..." She turned to Spike. "What if we had some ads?"

"Ads? Ads for what? Why?"

Diamond poked him in his belly, an easy target. "Silly. If we have ads, we have funding, which frees up resources. It also takes up page space." She wheeled on Sweetie. "Sweetie! Get over to Sugarcube and see if they won't pay for ad space, about their sale, about anything else going on with them." Her eyes turned to the others. "Keep your eyes out for news, but, for today, think about who else to ask. Let's get some ads going."

Apple Bloom waved a hoof excitedly. "Applejack may want to post somethin'!" She hopped to her hooves and raced away to find out.

That left Scootaloo. "Um..." She frowned with thought. "I'll... ask... Rainbow Dash!"

Diamond let them all flee. "Not sure Rainbow Dash wants to buy ad space... But eh, maybe?" She shrugged, looking quite uncertain that path would lead anywhere. For now, we should advertise our ads." She thumped against Spike gently, on the way back inside. "The paper can announce it has room."

"Ooo, let me!" Spike raced ahead of her, returning to his trusty typewriter. "Um, how many words?"

"No more than a hundred. Keep it short and right to the point." Diamond hopped into her chair to resume control of the newsroom. "Give them this number." She quoted a phone number to him. "They can call that."

"You got it!" He got to busily typing.

Support the youth of Ponyville and get your service, store, or event in front of the eyes of

Spike looked up. "How many readers do we have?"

"Great question." She twirled around in her chair, grabbing a folder from a filing cabinet. "We can never be entirely sure, but we do have subscription counts." She read off a number. "Closest we got."

It'd have to do. He resumed his work.

hundreds of ponies! Your advertisement could be here instead of this. Imagine, and think of the good you'll be doing, for yourself and the paper.

He included the phone number to call and hurried it to Diamond. "Like that?"

"Like... that." She took the paper and held it up. "Yeah... right at the bottom of the first."

"The first?" His eyes widened. "Really?"

"I want as many ponies as possible to see it, so yes, first."

Spike staggered back. "I'm a headliner!"

"It... doesn't..." But Spike was racing away, giggling. "Work like that. Spike..." Diamond rolled her eyes. "Silly thing." She called for other ponies, working on the layout of the paper to get what they had arranged to fit properly for the printing. "Good job, everypony. They'll love it." She swatted ponies on the shoulders and met hooves with hooves as they closed up the office.

She flopped back in her chair with a heavy sigh. "This is a lot of work..." But it felt like... good work. She was in charge, and she wasn't messing it up... It was hard, but... "I can do this..."

---

The next morning, the one angrily slapping down the paper was not Diamond Tiara. It was Cheerilee, glaring at Diamond Tiara. "What is this?"

"It's the Foal Free Press?" Diamond pinned her ears back, knowing the sound of an angry adult when she heard it. "Is something wrong?"

Cheerilee tapped at the very bottom of the first page. "This. The Foal Free Press is a free newspaper. No bits are supposed to be involved!"

"S-sure, but if we... I'm not charging for the paper!" Diamond tried to return the glare, but Cheerilee was pretty good at winning a glare-off with a student. "With a few more bits, we can do a lot more..."

Cheerilee sighed gently. "I'd say to put your bits where your mouth is, but your mother is already one of our top sponsors... Diamond, this newspaper is designed to be a way for foals to try their hooves at media, not to be involved with economy."

"But they are involved," huffed out Diamond. "You can't have media without economy. No bits, nothing happens. Just 'cause you're financing us to start doesn't mean it's not happening!"

Cheerilee put a hoof on Diamond's snout, silencing her. "Maybe I picked the wrong pony for this."

Diamond's eyes welled with tears that refused to be held back for even a moment. "N-no... Cheerilee... Please."

"It's the Foal Free Press." Cheerilee took the paper in her mouth. "It's right in the name, Diamond. You're fired, sorry." She walked away, leaving Diamond to deflate and hide her face in shamefully furious tears.

Author's Note:

Well, that escalated quickly. Poor Diamond. She isn't the antagonist in this cycle, but it isn't smooth sailing either.

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Comments

[SolarisLunaris]

Diamond was doing good here. I know its the foal FREE press but firing her for making a mistake? yeah sorry that just doesn't sit right with me, I honestly just want to slap Cherrilee. I am sort of hoping someone does something to get Diamond back as editor

[redmar]

Ads do indeed not belong in a school newspaper. Cheerilee made the right decision since this is the best way for Diamond to learn.

[TheGJ90]

You know, in the episode this is based on, Cheerliee really should have caught on to Diamond's behavior (which helped to create Gabby Gums) and fired her for it.

I feel like this scene is a response to that.

[Amethyst Dragonfly]

The subscriptions to the paper may drop if Spike had more than one fan, since I can't imagine Spike wanting to continue to work for the newspaper after Diamond is fired from it.

[Booster Spice]

Theres a subtle difference between news, notices and adverts?

After all, Donations are donations, especially if notice was made of a sale on at the local bakery that wasnt funded by said bakery?

[Tangent]

Aww! But Diamond was doing a great job as an Editor-in-Chief!

And getting fired over such a small mistake too, when she was doing every other part of the job so well. I mean, I do understand where Miss Cheeriee is coming from, but this is going to feel very harsh from Diamond's perspective. And possibly unfair from the perspective of the other foals as well, considering that Diamond was otherwise doing her best to be a good Editor without alienating anypony. The next student to take the job might not do nearly as well. It's also possible that the other foals currently working on the paper will choose to drop the project out of protest. Not necessarily, it's just a possibility.

I feel that Miss Cheerilee kind of overreacted by actually firing Diamond Tiarra on her first mistake instead of just giving her a warning, but there may have been other factors involved. For example, we (the readers) don't really know what Diamond Tiarra and Silver Spoon were like prior to Diamond and Spike becoming a couple. If they were anything like their canon counterparts, then it's entirely possible that Miss Cheerilee had already given her warnings for prior incidents of abuse of power while in charge of a school project, and thus felt justified in nipping this one in the bud before it became an issue.

Or, as Redmar has pointed out, Cheerilee may simply be giving Diamond a life lesson at a point where it will do the most good for the least harm. Although, once again, firing her for the first mistake instead of addressing the problem and issuing a warning may end up backfiring on Cheerilee and teaching the foals (and not just Diamond Tiarra) the wrong lesson.

Also, had Miss Cheerilee at any point actually stated the rule against paid advertising or provided a list of rules in general for the Foal Free Press? She might have, but if so, it had occurred off panel from the point of view of the readers. If such a list of guidelines or rules actually exists for the Foal Free Press in setting, it may be a good idea to at least mention them in passing sometime in the next chapter or so, even if it's just Diamond realizing that she had somehow missed or had otherwise forgotten that particular rule among all the other job related details of the Editor-in-Chief position.

If I remember right, Featherweight is next in line for the Editor-in-Chief position for some reason. He apparently does a well enough job, as we don't really hear about any further trouble with the Foal Free Press for the remainder of the show, but then again, we don't really know how long he kept the job either.

[Hobbestc]

11618242
Sure they do.

During any given year there are over 14 million enrolled high school students in the United States. Advertising in high school newspapers connects advertisers with the coveted and hard to reach teen audience in an uncluttered environment. School news papers are written by and for teens making them a credible advertising platform; everyone reads them! The student newspaper is part of the school’s curriculum and lifeblood, not an intrusion. Advertisers are able to choose their target audience by community type, demography or ZIP code

[Reese]

...Yeah, unless there's some crucial bit of information I'm not remembering the readers being provided with, such as Cheerilee providing some list of rules earlier which Diamond was ignoring, I think Cheerilee's pretty firmly in the wrong here. Depending on the particulars, this might even cross over into being outright abusive, or at least that's what it's feeling like. I'm interested to see how this continues to develop...

11618352
11618470
These give me a thought, though: Diamond has just been fired from this newspaper, which seems to have been going well, popular with staff and readers. The reason for her dismissal seems rather unfair. Spike, at least, is likely to quit with her, and he may not be the only one. And Diamond's mother has been one of the Foal Free Press's top sponsors, apparently... but is Diamond's family more likely to agree with Cheerilee, or with Diamond here? Put all that together, and it looks rather like the labor, capital, coordination, and market might all be available to simply start another newspaper. A youth newspaper doesn't have to be run by the school, after all; it could be independent.

[Baree]

Yeah, this makes no sense and is OOC for Cheerilee. Clearly she didn't explain to DT there were no ads. That's her responsibility and it's her failure. Not DT's.

[howard035]

Poor Diamond. I suspect this will cause a considerable conflict between Cheerilee and Spoiled Rich.