//------------------------------// // The Perfect Plan // Story: Best Friends for Life // by SuperWriter2329 //------------------------------// Lyra and Bon Bon were on their way to Twilight’s castle once again. This time however, it was on a more completely different agenda as they knew who the true culprit is. When Bon Bon was informed of the pony responsible for her predicament, she was completely shocked when it was the pony she also knew all too well. Now, it has been a full week since the incident that had transpired at Sweet Apple Acres. She heard that Applejack got injured trying to fight Amethyst, but luckily it was not that severe as it was a minor cut on her left foreleg. Still though, she would not have expected such a pony she believed enough to be her best friend to betray her like this. She and Amethyst had known each other ever since Bon Bon moved to Ponyville after the agency she worked for in Canterlot got shut down. However, she had to keep her identity a secret, yet she had known about it even though she was not around at that time. This is exactly what Bon Bon is thinking about while she and her girlfriend are on their way to the Castle of Friendship. If she wasn’t around when they were talking about her double life, that means… When she saw Bon Bon suddenly stopped, Lyra asked, “Bonnie, what’s wrong? What was on your mind right now?” “Lyra, remember back during Cranky and Matilda’s wedding night when we talked about my double life?” Bon Bon asked. “Yeah, what about it?” “Maybe Amethyst spied on us while we were talking about it and we didn’t know she was there!” Lyra was a bit stunned upon hearing that sentence. Amethyst was there and she didn’t know about it?! “Oh, that’s how she knew about your secret identity! But, where was she at that time?” Lyra asked. “She’s probably spying on us while we were talking about it. Now, come on, let’s get to the castle. Everypony’s probably waiting for us,” Bon Bon said, galloping towards the direction of the castle. Lyra just shook her head and smiled before following her girlfriend. Meanwhile, inside the Castle of Friendship’s throne room, Twilight and her friends, sans Spike, are now talking about their collective plan. Applejack was there as well, despite her small injury from her fight with Amethyst. However, she has been healing pretty well from doing minimal work at the farm, but her foreleg is still bandaged, so it’s a wonder she was able to get to the castle without anypony’s help. Applejack has informed her family members about what had happened last week when Amethyst tried to attack her. Of course, she had expected an angry feedback from Granny Smith. Her siblings seem angered as well, but nonetheless happy that she is mostly unharmed. So do her friends, for that matter. While they were still briefing about the plan, Spike burst into the throne room, panting along the way. He then said, “Twilight, the girls are here. Should I told them to get inside?” “One moment,” Twilight said. Turning to her friends, she asked, “So, do you girls know what we are supposed to do?” With a nod from her friends, she turned back to Spike, saying, “Okay Spike, you can bring them in.” The young dragon nodded and ran back towards the huge doors of the room, gesturing for somepony to get inside. A second later, Lyra and Bon Bon emerged into the room, this time with a different kind of air hanging around the area. “Hello, darlings. How are you girls doing today?” Rarity asked the new incomers. “Doing fine, thanks for asking,” Lyra answered. Her girlfriend then suddenly nudged her side, prompting her to say something else. Rolling her eyes, she continued, “Well, we actually have something else to say before we start.” “Really? What is it then?” the princess asked next. A few minutes later, Lyra finally finished talking about the conversation she and Bon Bon had earlier on their way to the castle. Everypony else that was present was speechless upon hearing Lyra’s story. It was Rainbow Dash who soon broke the silence when she said, “Okay, I know eavesdropping is bad, but listening in on somepony’s secret is just plain wrong, coming from me.” “Huh, you and Ah both. Ah wonder if that’s how Amethyst came to know about Bon Bon bein’ a secret agent and all,” Applejack agreed. “Okay then. Now that we got that out of the way, we can finally get down to business. For Lyra and Bon Bon, we had a plan to lure Amethyst into forcing her to tell the truth weather or not she is the one who was jealous of watching you two together that she decided to get rid of one of you after knowing about your secret,” Twilight explained to the two lovebirds, mostly on Bon Bon. “Okay, so what’s the plan then?” the mint unicorn asked. “Basically, I need you two to go to Amethyst’s house just for a simple chat between friends, but I want you to bring up the topic about Bon Bon’s current predicament and relocation that was supposed to happen in the next two weeks. From what I gathered from Rarity and Pinkie Pie, she gets flustered when such topic came up to the point she was sweating profusely,” the lavender alicorn explained. “Okay, sounds easy enough. What happens then?” Bon Bon asked next. “In the meantime, my friends and I will set up a trap around her house. Don’t worry, I will use a soundproof barrier spell as well as an invisibility spell around the perimeter of her house so she wouldn’t suspect anything. I will also make it look like she saw nothing when she decided to check outside, but you two will. Anyways, about the whole setting up traps around her house thing, it would only happen should she choose to exit her house if you provoke her hard enough with the topic I asked you to come up in the conversation. “We need to set up a few traps for good measure if one of them fails or doesn’t work. Applejack, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie will set up traps at the front of the house while Rarity, Fluttershy and I handle the back. We even agreed to do different traps based on our specialties, right girls?” Twilight asked to her group of friends. “Ah made a lotta traps mahself, but my most successful trap by my account would be the hole in the ground trap. Rainbow and Ah would work together on diggin’ up a hole big enough but not deep enough ta get her trapped forever. Ah know cause it happened ta me once,” Applejack exclaimed with a shudder on her body. “I would get my party cannon like always and modify it into a booby trap when she would get near it. I’m gonna put a net, complete with a hook on each corner so that she can’t escape. How I would get it to trigger is a seeecreeet,” Pinkie explained her plan, earning an eye roll from everypony present from Pinkie’s over the top antiques. “Anyways, I will help Fluttershy on getting her animals to work together as a team to get dear Amethyst cornered so that she could not make her escape. It took her a while to convince her to do it, but she agreed nonetheless. Is that right, Fluttershy?” Rarity explained, asking the question to the shy pegasus. “Um, yes. I really don’t want my animals to be allowed in such a state, but I’ll do it for you girls and I really wanted you to feel safe with each other as company,” Fluttershy said with a small smile on her face. “As for me, I’ll just do a simple binding spell if she managed to break free of Fluttershy’s animal barricade. I’ll even modify it a bit to ensure that the more she tried to wiggle out of the spell, the more the spell binds her body together so that she could do nothing but squirm in place,” the princess explained her part of the plan. As she and Bon Bon listened to the plan, Lyra can’t help but smile wider then ever because the plan seems foolproof enough that Amethyst would be too late to notice it happen right underneath her nose. “Anyways, earlier today, I managed to get in contact with Princess Celestia about the events that had transpired in Ponyville for the past three weeks. I was expecting a reply from her soon enough.” As if on cue, a flash of light appeared above them before a scroll containing Princess Celestia’s insignia materialized in front of Twilight. “Ah, perfect timing.” “Ooh, a letter from Princess Celestia? What's it say? What's it say?” the party pony asked repeatedly. With a chuckle, the other princess reads the letter out loud. Dear Twilight Sparkle, In your recent letter to me, I was told of such an unfortunate event that has transpired in Ponyville for the past three weeks. I still would not believe a fellow citizen in Equestria would do such things for trying to get rid of somepony in order to be that pony’s other girlfriend. You also mention the pony responsible for committing such an act. From the descriptions of the pony, I find it really hard to believe that she is also a Ponyvillian and that she is becoming jealous of Lyra and Bon Bon spending their lives together as girlfriends. Anyways, you also requested two of my guards for the process of trapping dear Amethyst into making her admitting her mistake. Since you also said in your letter that you only have two weeks left before poor Bon Bon is relocated, I wholeheartedly approved of your request. Two of my best guards should be arriving shortly after you receive this letter. If you have time, send my regards to Lyra and Bon Bon. Tell them that I sympathize them for such calamity to happen to them. I hope that you are able to capture Amethyst really soon for committing a terrible crime. Your fellow princess, Princess Celestia After Twilight finished reading the letter, everyone was silent for the entire time Twilight read that letter. Seconds later, it was Rainbow again who broke the silence. “So, now we got some royal guards in on this as well? Nice!” “Well, Ah gotta say that if all of our traps fail, havin’ the guards at standby would be a fine last minute ditch if ya’ll ask me,” Applejack said. “Yippie, with all the help we got, we will definitely have any means of getting Amethyst to surrender. I really hate somepony who has decided to just ruin other ponies’ life,” Pinkie agreed. “Yes Pinkie, and I think the guards should be here any second now. Spike, could you go and check if they have arrived? If they did, tell them to come to the throne room. I will be waiting for them here,” the princess told her number one assistant, who has been quiet the entire time. “Okay, Twi. I’ll be back in a sec,” Spike said before disappearing from the throne room. Minutes later, Spike came back with the two guards that Celestia sent to her. One was an earth pony mare with pale gray fur, a cobalt blue mane and tail and beautiful amber eyes. The other was a pegasus stallion with white fur, also with a blue mane and tail but a shade darker and gleaming blue eyes. Both of their cutie marks were hidden underneath all of the armor the two currently wore on their bodies. Twilight got up from her seat at the Cutie Map and trotted towards the two guards with a smile on her face. She stopped in front of them and the mare said, “Good evening, Princess Twilight! I’m Captain Diorite and this is my partner, Chert. It is a pleasure and an honor to temporarily serve you in order to bring justice to an innocent life.” “Diorite and Chert, huh? Are you two related or something?” the princess asked upon realizing that the two names are actually rock types. The earth pony guard, now identified as Diorite, answered, “Yes, we are, your highness. In fact, we are cousins, right Chert?” The pegasus, Chert, then said, “Indeed we are. May we see who is the distressed pony we are to bring justice to?” “Sure thing. One second,” Twilight said, turning back to gesture Lyra and Bon Bon to come over to greet the two guardsponies. They stopped beside her and introduced them directly. “Fellas, this is Lyra,” Twilight said, pointing at the unicorn with her hoof, “and this is Bon Bon,” Twilight continued, now pointing at the other earth pony present. “They have officially became girlfriends for the past five weeks, but due to certain unfortunate events, one of them has to be relocated when her cover as a secret agent has been unintentionally compromised. “However, we now know who the pony responsible for the attempt of Bon Bon’s relocation; a unicorn mare by the name of Amethyst Star. She made a terrible mistake last week by trying to attack my friend Applejack right at her own house at Sweet Apple Acres. However, she did get a lucky hit on her when she used a kitchen knife to hit her left foreleg, causing it to be rendered useless for a while,” the lavender bookworm continued before stopping as Diorite raised a hoof. “Pardon me your highness, but where do we have a role in capturing this Amethyst?” “Good question there. I was just getting to that. So, here’s the plan I have in mind…” “...and that’s when you two come along. Chert, I need you to place this inhibitor ring,” Twilight said, showing a ring that was specified to stop any unicorn’s magical flow, “on top of Amethyst’s horn. This way, she won’t be able to use her magic to defend herself.” The white pegasus saluted, saying, “Sure thing, Princess Twilight! I will not fail you!” He then took the ring and placed it somewhere in his armor. “As for you, Diorite, how good are you at tying stuff up with ropes?” Twilight asked the other cousin. “Well, I have been practising on my own and I think I can tie up something really nice and tight. Why do you ask?” “Perfect, because you will help Applejack, who was also good with ropes, to tie up Amethyst once the inhibitor ring has been placed. Got that?” “Hmm, this is a huge task for me, but I will do my best, Princess!” “Excellent! Now, do you two have anymore questions before we call this a day?” the princess addressed the two guards before Diorite raised her hoof again. “Well, this may sound absurd but, since we will be staying with you for a while, is it okay if we have a place to stay?” Twilight chuckled, knowing that this question will come up. Still, she calmly said, “Do not worry, I have two spare guest rooms prepared for your arrival. I will have Spike escort you to your rooms, if you’d like.” “Sure thing, Princess! Also, if you haven’t noticed, your highness, this castle of yours is bigger on the inside rather than the outside.” The lavender alicorn chuckled again. “Yeah, I noticed,” she said. She then turned to Spike, saying, “Spike, could you please bring these two to their guest rooms for a rest?” Spike, who was having a conversation with the other girls, turned his head around when he heard his name getting called. “Oh, sure thing, Twilight!” he said, getting off his small seat and heading towards the other group of ponies. “Come on! Please follow me to your rooms.” The earth pony guard nodded. “Sure thing. Spike, was it? We will follow you soon,” she said before addressing Twilight one last time. “Princess, we will not fail to do our respective duties! Just one last question. When will you initiate the plan?” “Next week. That means you will have one whole week to prepare for the upcoming fight. If you need practice, I had Applejack and Rarity to help you with it.” “Sure thing, Princess. We will need all the training we can get, which will start tomorrow, I presume?” Chert asked. Twilight nodded. “In that case, we will take our leave now. Come now, cousin, let’s get a rest. We have a long week ahead of us,” the pegasus told his earth pony cousin. “Sure thing, let’s. Lead the way, Spike!” The young dragon nodded before exiting the throne room with Diorite and Chert in tow. “Okay, that’s all everypony. Remember the plan and stay safe! Dismissed!” the princess ordered before her friends, including Lyra and Bon Bon, departed from the throne room to go about on their daily lives. Lyra and Bon Bon had decided to get some lunch at Sugar Cube Corner, so they followed Pinkie towards the sweet shop after asking her to let them follow her there. Once they arrive, they asked for the usual before Pinkie went to the kitchen to prepare lunch. While they wait for their order, Bon Bon asked her girlfriend, “Lyra, are you sure that Twilight’s plan will work?” “Well, I don’t see any flaws in it. If there were any, I’m sure she would notice,” Lyra replied. “Hopefully you’re right. I mean, Amethyst definitely won’t know what hit her next week, now that we got some royal guards on our side.” “I know, right? Also, who would have thought that two ponies from the same bloodline work side by side as guards like… like… uh, do you know their names, Bonnie?” the unicorn stuttered. “Who, Diorite and Chert?” the earth pony answered. “Yes, them! Who’d have thought about it, right?” “Well, what about Cloud Chaser and Flitter? They are on the weather team and they are sisters, no less.” Lyra blanked out for a while before saying, “Oh yeah, I nearly forgot about those two. Guess the world was a lot smaller than you think, huh?” Bon Bon chuckled. “Yeah, it probably is.” She then snuggled next to her girlfriend, resting her head on Lyra’s shoulder. That didn’t last long, however, because Pinkie finally came back with their order. “Hey Lyra and Bon Bon, here’s your order! Say, do you mind if I sit with you? There aren’t a lot of ponies today,” the party pony requested. The two lovebirds glanced briefly before Lyra said, “Sure Pinkie, you can sit here with us.” “Yay! Hold on, I’ll be right back!” the hyperactive pony said before disappearing and reappearing in less than a second, with a plate of sandwiches on her head when she came back. “Oh Pinkie, never change,” was all Lyra said before the three ate their meals happily.