//------------------------------//
// Making Plans 
// Story: Unforgettable 
// by Trick Question 
//------------------------------//

Princess Twilight Sparkle stared down at the throng of onlookers. She wore neither her crown, nor clothing, nor any other other royal embellishments, but informally-nude was how she preferred to be recognized. Twilight did, however, have a makeshift yellow bandana currently blocking her forehead from view. In front of the castle door were thousands of long strips of fabric in a large box, delivered by Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy less than a minute ago.

Twilight scanned the crowd. There were hundreds of ponies present, and around one-third of them were actively shouting questions at the castle's announcement balcony—even before she and Spike had stepped out onto it. The sound was so loud and muddled, she could only make out the occasional question every now and then:

"What is this thing on my head?"

"What in Equestria is going on?"

"Does this mean I'm going to die? Please say no!"

"Help! HELP! HEEELLLP!"

Twilight Sparkle cleared her throat into a microphone Spike had hoofed her, and the cacophony slowly dropped. "Citizens of Ponyville! Please, remain calm. Today we face an important and unique challenge, and I need you to be strong of heart," said Twilight in her best Royal Canterlot Voice, which still wasn't very loud. Fortunately, the microphone and balcony speakers made up the difference. "I'm going to ask you all to gather up everypony you can, including tourists and visitors, and form a line outside of Town Hall. We'll be taking actions there that will end up saving some of your lives."

"What does this foal thing mean?" shouted Cranky Doodle Donkey, angrily pointing at his forehead with a hoof.

"Oh! Oh! What actions are we taking?" shouted Pinkie Pie from the middle of the crowd, wearing her own headband.

"Pinkie Pie? How did you get out there?" asked Twilight. "I thought you were waiting downstairs!"

"I am! Technically, outside is downstairs," she argued.

Twilight rolled her eyes, and the little dragon behind her groaned. "To answer the relevant question, you don't need to worry about the dates. After our initial round of work is completed, I'll be casting a special spell that will remove your memories of any specific dates you've seen. Until that time, just try not to look at anypony else's forehead," she said. "Thanks to Rarity, there are thousands of strips of fabric of all sizes at the front door for you to wear. This way, nopony else needs to see whatever happens to be on your forehead. These are intended for family members as well, so please take some for anypony you know who isn't present today. Fluttershy and Pinkie counted them and there are at least six thousand, which should be more than enough for all of Ponyville."

Twilight paused and scanned the crowd, estimating the number of ponies with toggling dates. For the moment, she still had their full attention. "We're going to need teamwork to get through this today, and I'm counting on each of you every bit as much as you are doubtlessly counting on me and my friends. We'll be joining you at Town Hall within a half hour to begin organizing the work."

"Should we bring the twins and close up shop while we're out?" Mr. Cake called out. Twilight didn't see his wife with him, which made sense.

"Yes, that would be best. We'll handle the infants first because they're unlikely to enjoy being stuck in line for what may be several hours. Anypony, regardless of age, will need to take part in what we'll be doing at Town Hall. Hopefully we can get this done quickly, efficiently, and in an orderly manner. Thank you all for understanding that I wouldn't ask this of you if it weren't of paramount importance. I'll explain more about what we're doing once the problem has resolved, which should be in about twenty-four hours, but suffice to say this is something nopony will want to miss out on." Twilight stepped back inside her castle as questions began to rise, and Spike shut the door behind them both.

"Wow. We're really in it this time, Twilight. What's the plan?" asked Spike. He followed her downstairs as she regrouped with Starlight Glimmer and the two pegasi.

"It's relatively simple. We need to do the same thing for everypony else that we did with Rarity and Rainbow Dash," said Twilight. "We'll line all of Ponyville up and check each date, one by one. If they toggle, we'll try to handle them right there and then. If that doesn't work, or if they don't toggle, but their date is prematurely young, we'll put them aside into groups to handle later. Given the decent life expectancy curve today, most ponies should be fine with the dates they already have."

"If we count whatever the hay Spike's forehead is doing, half of us were togglers," said Starlight Glimmer. "This might end up taking a long time. Too long, even. We only have about twenty-three hours left, so we might need to power through this with coffee and extra volunteers. We can probably take shifts screening ponies. Twilight and I should write up some instructions, and the rest of you can come to us if they don't cover some particular case."

"Um, I don't really enjoy thinking about it, but we do come into danger more frequently than most ponies," said Fluttershy. "Maybe only Rarity's 'toggling' should count. Rainbow and Twilight's dates might have been, um..."

"Hero-related?" asked Spike. Fluttershy nodded and grimaced.

"Good point," said Rainbow Dash, showing off with a wing flex. "Leaving out everypony standing here except Fluttershy, that makes what, one in three? That's, like, more than a thousand ponies. Unless my math is way off."

Starlight Glimmer shook her head. "No, your math is right... one in three would be a little fewer than two thousand citizens. It could be manageable if we can handle the togglers as quickly as we did for you two and Rarity, but that's still a very rough estimate, and we won't know more until we start screening. Without Rarity or Applejack to help, there's only six of us. Unless we decide to bring somepony else in on the details, we might end up with a scaling problem."

"I didn't see too many togglers in the crowd. Definitely fewer than one in four," said Twilight. "But even if I'm right, we could still top a thousand. If we need assistance, we have a lot of options, at least. Definitely Mayor Mare."

"Um, I think she has a cold this weekend, Twilight," said Fluttershy, frowning. "We'll probably have to go to her house just to handle her."

"Okay, then maybe Sparkler—that's Amethyst Star's nickname, if you don't know her. She's a great organizer. I can think of a few others too, but let's assess the scope of the situation in pony before we start recruiting," said Twilight. "I'd rather not spread details about what the dates mean if there's any way we can clamp down on it now. Ideally, nopony will figure it out, and clearing everypony's memories of the specific dates they saw will put things back to normal."

Rainbow Dash snorted. "Pfft. Good luck with that," she countered. "Few ponies are anywhere near the magnitude of egghead of you two magical mares, but if Applejack can figure it out—er, no offense to her, I just mean she's, like, relatively normal—then a lot of ponies in town probably already know what's going on."

Pinkie Pie entered the castle through the main door. "Party's over outside," she said, and pronked over to the discussion, carrying several extra strips of fabric with the tip of her mane. One was Spike-sized.

"Do I have to wear this?" said Spike, tying the green swatch around his head anyway. "It's not like my weird line says anything."

"I don't think we want to spook anypony, Spike," said Fluttershy, petting his head. "It's for the best."

"Hay there Pinkie. So, we have to find some way to organize the entire town, apparently," said Rainbow Dash, tying a yellow strip around her forehead. "Any ideas might be helpful, even the crazy stuff you usually come up with."

"Ooh! I know everypony in Ponyville. I could make a list," said Pinkie Pie.

"Wait. You know more than five thousand ponies, personally?" asked Starlight, the disbelief etched into her muzzle.

"She does," said Twilight, with a chuckle. "By heart, even. Including birthdays and favorite gifts."

"And if I do forget something, I have a file on everypony in the basement that lists all their public and private information, including their worst fears!" said Pinkie Pie, with a bright smile. "You should see your file, Starlight! It's like, thiiiiiiiis thick." Pinkie motioned with her hooves unreasonably far apart.

"Really? Really?" said Starlight, looking around from pony to dragon to pony. "And nopony here is concerned by this?"

"You get used to it," said Spike. "Sort of."

"Pinkie Pie is a good friend, Starlight. You can trust her," said Fluttershy, with a gentle smile and a leg around the magenta-colored horse.

"Hay, I just thought of something! If our deaths are fated, doesn't that mean we can do anything we want?" asked Rainbow Dash. "Like, doesn't this date on my forehead mean I can light myself on fire right now and run around and not die? Because that would be totally awesome."

Starlight shook her head. "No, Rainbow, it doesn't work that way—and please remind me to discuss this with Applejack and Rarity later," she said. "Sure, you might not die, but you could be in a coma for decades, or worse. We need to be just as careful about safety now as we were prior to learning about our 'deathdays', everypony."

"Starlight Glimmer is exactly right," said Twilight. "Anyway, Pinkie Pie's bizarre knowledge of the town should be a boon here. It makes sense to have her keep track of the crowd's progress. Rainbow Dash, could you and Pinkie start rounding up everypony?"

"Dang. I was kinda looking forward to lighting myself on fire," said Dash. "But yeah, we need to get moving. You and Starlight can make instructions or whatever while the rest of us get stuff set up. I'm sure AJ and Rarity will join us soon. They may have their own things to deal with, but they're no slouches when it comes to hard work."

"Agreed. Now, does anypony else have anything important they need to handle before we begin?" asked Twilight.

"My animals should be able to take care of themselves for the day. I already made arrangements just—" said Fluttershy, stopping short with a loud gasp. "Oh my gosh! What if the date thing is happening to them, too? I... I don't think I'd want to know..." Her eyes began to water.

"It's okay Shy," said Dash, hugging Fluttershy close. "They don't know how to read, right? We'll just... keep you away from animals for today, I guess."

"Well, why don't we just figure out if this thing affects semi-sapient beasts now?" said Starlight. "As far as we know, the spell should only affect people."

Fluttershy sniffed, and a little bluejay flew in from outside. She held up her hoof, and he lit upon it. "Oh, my. Mister Jay here doesn't seem to have a date," she said, and whispered to the bird. "What's that?" she asked, as he made little whistling and chirping sounds.

"What did he say?" asked Twilight Sparkle.

Fluttershy smiled. "Whew. It looks like it isn't affecting any of the animals, not even the pigs. Only people."

"Presumably, that still includes sheep and cattle," said Starlight. "And most of those citizens are under Applejack's direct care. She might need longer than we thought."

"I'm sure she'll be as quick as she can," said Twilight. Then she put on a serious face. "Okay, let's head out, everypony. Pinkie, bring the box of remaining fabric with you. We're going to need it."

"Here we go," said Spike, jogging forward toward the castle entrance as the herd began to trot alongside him.