//------------------------------// // Plan C: The Takedown! // Story: Based on a True Story // by Shrinky Frod //------------------------------// “All right, so I miscalculated the time it would take for the salad to be finished on a busy night,” Twilight muttered, scribbling on a chalkboard frantically as she prepared her next plan to get the three of them inside. “And they probably won’t let you anywhere near the door again tonight. We did technically show up for our reservation,” Rainbow Dash pointed out. “So, palace kitchen? Or maybe some other place that’s not so stuck up?” “I’m going to get us in there, Rainbow,” Twilight grumbled, reaching up absently to smooth out her mane, leaving a streak of chalk in it. “I told you already, I’m not letting them say that you two are any less important than any other Very Special Someponies!” Rainbow groaned and facehoofed. Fluttershy patted her on the shoulder gently before stepping forward herself. “Uhm… Twilight?” She asked gently. “Just carry the two… no, that’ll never work, Rarity would kill me if I couldn’t get the tapioca out of my dress….” “Twilight?” Fluttershy repeated, a little louder this time. “Maybe if we built a large wooden badger…?” “Oh, that could be cute,” Fluttershy mused, looking at Twilight’s rough sketches and cocking her head. Rainbow facehoofed again. “Twilight!” She said sharply, reaching over and shaking her egghead’s shoulder. “Fluttershy had something she wanted to tell you.” “Oh, I’m sorry,” Twilight said sheepishly, folding her ears back. “I’m just so distracted with trying to figure out a way into the restaurant.” “Well… about that, Twilight… we know you care about us. And we know you want to make tonight perfect, but… uhm….” Fluttershy trailed off, hiding behind her mane as she saw Twilight’s ear twitching, her pupils shrinking down. “It’s just that… don’t you think that maybe you’re going a little overboard?” “Overboard? Overboard?!?” Twilight demanded, grabbing Fluttershy by the shoulders. “Overboard would be pre-empting the holiday by declaring it Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy Day! Overboard would be a parade from Canterlot to Ponyville! All I’m trying to do is have a romantic date, a perfectly normal, dead-center of the statistical bell curve dinner and a movie with my marefriends!” Her lips spread into a manic grin as her left eye twitched. “And they’re trying to tell me that our relationship, our love, doesn’t matter as much because it’s inconvenient to them!” “But Twilight,” Rainbow sighed. Twilight continued on, spinning back towards her chalkboard as she ranted. She gripped a stick of chalk firmly in her magic, returning to her scribbling with wild, slashing strokes. “Look at this! All of this! Everything I’ve done, I’ve done for the two of you! Everything I’m going to do, I’m doing for you! Both of you! Not one or the other, because I’m not playing favorites, and I’m not going to let them make me!” “B-but Twilight, please!” Fluttershy pleaded softly, cringing back. “Don’t you appreciate that, Fluttershy? Don’t you, Rainbow?” Twilight raved, whirling back towards them, the rictus grin across her face the living picture of madness. “Don’t you both see? This is all for us! All to have the perfect Hearts and Hooves Day, just the three of us, me and the two best, most important, most wonderful marefriends in all of Equestria!” Fluttershy stepped back with a nervous whimper, stepping behind Rainbow Dash. The bolder pegasus stepped forward with determination clear in her eyes. She sat down in front of Twilight, reaching up to hold her mad marefriend’s shoulders. “Twi, calm down, you’re scaring Fluttershy. Besides, you’re supposed to be enjoying tonight too! You don’t need to be trying this hard.” She softened her voice, turning Twilight around to face the chalkboard again. “I think some of those formulas are weather calculus, and I am not letting you drop a tornado into Canterlot just to get into a restaurant. You need to relax… tonight’s supposed to be about how much we all love each other, right?” “But… but… I do love you! Both of you! I’m not going to let them make me choose between you!” The Princess protested. “So don’t.” Rainbow gestured with a wing for Fluttershy to come up with them. “You don’t have to choose, and you don’t have to do all of this,” she added, pointing at the chalkboard, “to convince us that you love us.” “We already know that,” Fluttershy agreed, nervously joining Rainbow in trying to calm down their marefriend. “Don’t have to… of course!” Twilight shouted, leaping forward out of Rainbow’s hooves. “I’ve been doing this all wrong!” Rainbow and Fluttershy both let out relieved sighs, relaxing as Twilight frantically wiped the board clean. “I don’t need a complicated plan to get us inside, I don’t need any of that!” Twilight grinned. “Right,” Rainbow nodded, “so let’s just go back to the castle and –“ “I just need a sleep spell, and we can walk in right past them all!” Twilight took off down the street at a gallop, her new course decided. Rainbow blinked twice, three times as she processed what Twilight had just said. “Wait, what?” She asked the chalkboard, now blank except for a scribbled drawing of an alicorn zapping a bullseye on the side of an earth pony. “Time to panic!” Fluttershy grabbed Rainbow’s hoof and started flying after Twilight. The two pegasi rushed along, quickly catching up with Twilight’s sprint along the cobblestones of Canterlot. As Twilight reached the open street, her legs stiffened and wings spread in shock. Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash quickly saw why, screeching to a mid-air halt just behind and above Twilight. Across the street, in front of La Romanetique, Stuffed Shirt was just stepping out of the restaurant. He paused to slide the placard marking the establishment as “Open” over so that it now read “Closed,” and locked the door behind him. Whistling to himself, he put the key into his apron, and turned to see the three mares. “Ah, Princess Twilight, I am glad to see you,” he smiled. “I wanted to let you know that I’ve spoken with the management, as well as the chef. I explained what happened tonight, though I left out certain… unsavory details best kept between ourselves, and they have said that I may offer to reschedule your reservations for tomorrow, so long as you agree to stay out of the kitchen. I hope this makes up for the abrupt change in your plans, though since you didn’t attempt to get back inside after that little teleportation mishap, I presume that you made other arrangements. I do hope that you will accept the invitation; had you made your arrangements for any other night, we’d have taken you quite happily.” “Closed?” Twilight mumbled, staring past Stuffed Shirt at the sign behind him. “Beg pardon?” “She meant to say ‘close call,’” Rainbow grinned nervously. “Thanks, we’ll have our people call your people, we’ll do lunch!” “We won’t be open until suppertime tomorrow, I’m afraid.” “Supper works great!” Rainbow nodded. “If you’ll excuse us?” She asked hopefully, watching Twilight’s folded-back ears for any sign of a dangerous twitch or stray hair. “Of course,” Stuffed Shirt yawned. “Oh, forgive me. It’s quite late, and I must be getting home. I hope you enjoyed Hearts and Hooves Day!” He bowed politely to the Princess and her marefriends, then stood and started trotting down the empty streets. “They’re… closed?” Twilight repeated. “It’s okay, Twilight,” Fluttershy promised. “You did spend an awful lot of time on that last plan, and –“ “But that means… dinner’s cancelled. And the show’s over… and it’s too late to visit the gardens… and… and….” Twilight hung her head, her plans for the evening crumbling around her. “And I’ve ruined everything,” she murmured. “I’m… I’m so sorry, girls.” “It’s okay, Twi,” Rainbow agreed. “You heard him, we’ll get a do-over tomorrow, right?” “But it’s not Hearts and Hooves Day tomorrow.” Twilight stood up quietly and heaved a deep sigh. “I’m the worst marefriend ever.” “Twilight, that’s not fair!” Fluttershy frowned. Rainbow reached out with a hoof to stop her, and landed next to Twilight. She leaned over and nuzzled the alicorn, wiping away a few tears. “Then it’s a good thing you’ve got the two best, most wonderful, most awesome marefriends in Equestria to help you make up for it, isn’t it?” Rainbow asked her, going on as Twilight started to open her mouth. “That was one of those rhetorical questions. Meet me in Ponyville in an hour, Princess. It’s time for Plan Z!” “Plan Z?” Twilight asked, cocking her head and looking over at Rainbow. “But I didn’t come up with a Plan Z.” “No, but we did!” Rainbow grinned. With that, she spread her wings and zoomed off into the night sky, a rainbow trail behind her as she sped towards her home. “What’s… what’s Plan Z?” Twilight asked, turning to Fluttershy. Fluttershy giggled and smiled, landing next to Twilight herself and nuzzling her gently. “It’s a surprise, Twilight. Come on, let’s go back to the castle and get a chariot home. I don’t really feel like flying all the way myself.” Wrapping a wing over Twilight’s back supportively, Fluttershy started leading her back to the castle, deflecting any questions from her increasingly curious partner.