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Schemes2,185 words

Schemes

Author's Note:

I found this unpublished chapter in my google drive and figure even if I'm not gonna finish the story (which I may considering there's maybe 4 chapters left) I should at least post what I do have.

And yes, this is part of me leaving the site and fandom (which I technically did 2 years ago). I just don't like loose ends.

Schemes

~~~~~~~~~~

A Happy Accident

By ScriptScrolls

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Caramel paused. “No... But I could hear her screams... Sh-she was begging me to st-stop...” A deep nausea filled his stomach, and he had to fight the urge to throw up.

Braeburn shook his head. “Ah’m sorry about this nightmare of yers, Caramel, but ah can’t believe, even for a second, that it has any chance of coming true--eclipse or not!”

“Well, I don’t plan on finding out.” With that, Caramel began trotting towards the Acres, leaving his friend quite befuddled.

“Damn,” Braeburn sighed as he turned towards the library. “Twilight’s in for quite a ride.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The town librarian hummed merrily to herself as her eyes scanned the open book before her. She rarely had such an opportunity to relax, but with Winter Wrap-Up now out of the way, she could finally make some progress with the newest Daring Do novel. The dynamic adventurer had just escaped the clutches of the Hoovitos, a group of belligerent natives who had not taken lightly to their sacred burial grounds being disturbed.

“Haypenny! We’re leaving, now!” Doo yelled as she flew over the hill and towards her assistant. The distracted unicorn perked her ears and looked in the voice’s direction. A dark mass of angry buffalo was stampeding impressively close behind the airborne archeologist.

“I’ll start the truck!” she hollered back over the deep rumble of heavy hooffalls.

“No time! Brace yourself!”

“Brace for wha-OOF!” Haypenny exclaimed as the wind was knocked out of her. Before she could even inhale, Daring banked to the right and began a steep climb.

“Hold on!” she yelled, a good piece of advice for the wingless unicorn.

“D-D-Daring!” Haypenny gasped as she finally recovered use of her lungs. “Put me back on the ground!”

Arrows bean whizzing past the duo, filling their ears with sharp hissing noises. “I don’t think you want to go down there. You’re not scared of heights are you?”

Haypenny shook her head insistently, but as the earth dropped farther and farther from her hooves, she took note of a deep ache in her stomach and started nodding. “Uh-huh.”

“Don’t worry, we’ll be back on the ground in no time,” Doo said reassuringly.

“Twilight?” came the voice of a distant baby dragon.

“Yes, Spike?” she said back.

“Can I have some bits to go get lunch?” he asked, walking down the bedroom steps.

“There’s food in the house, Spike.”

“I know, but I haven’t eaten out in a while. Swee-I mean Snips and Snails said they’d be eating lunch at Sugarcube about noon. I don’t wanna be late.”

Twilight smirked and chuckled quietly. “Here, Spike,” she said, holding out some coins, “just make sure you behave yourself.”

“Thanks,” he responded with a smile before pausing to look at the money. “... Twilight, there’s more than enough here for two meals.”

“Make sure you pay for her meal to. I won’t have my charge not paying for his date as well.” Twilight’s smug smile almost reached her eyes, and Spike’s cheeks went scarlet.

“I--no, it’s--how did you--?”

“Relax, Spike, and go have fun, just remember what I said about behaving yourself” Twilight lectured, poking her hoof in the air at him. The dragon’s face seemed to redden by the minute as he stared intently at the library’s floor. “And don’t worry,” she reassured him, “I won’t tell Rarity.”

Spike grumbled and quickly made his way to the door and out of the building, ears literally emitting smoke. As the door slammed behind him, Twilight couldn’t help but sigh. ‘They grow up so fast.’

She turned her attention back to the open book in front of her. After an uneventful half hour flight which the author wisely chose to omit from the text, the heroine and her assistant found themselves in a humble western town, not much more than an outpost on the frontier.

“Um... Haypenny, you can let go now,” Daring said to the pony wrapped around her neck.

“Is it over?” the unicorn asked nervously, her eyes still squinted in fear.

“Yeah, it’s over. I’m actually standing on the ground.”

Haypenny tentatively opened her eyes to verify her companion’s statement. Behind the adventurer’s head were a few small wooden buildings with ponies standing out front, doing nothing out of the ordinary.

Well, nothing out of the ordinary besides glancing curiously at the unicorn draped around some pegasus’ neck. Haypenny smiled sheepishly and released her hold on Daring, allowing her hooves to finally touch solid ground.

“Much better,” she said quietly to nopony in particular.

A stallion in a dark brown vest and stetson approached the two mares. His light gold coat provided little contrast to the amber-like hue of his mane. His irises, however, shone a deep and bright green, a color which would seem out of place but managed to complete the stallion’s image perfectly. Haypenny suddenly found herself fidgeting and attempting in vain to keep her eyes concentrated elsewhere. If the approaching pony noticed, he didn’t make any indication of it.

“Howdy, y’all and welcome to Farpoint! Reckon’ you folks are a long ways from home, so I’m sure you’d like to be shown somewhere to eat, huh?” The two ponies nodded enthusiastically, stomachs suddenly enticed by the mention of sustenance. “Well I wouldn’t recommend that there establishment,” he said pointing a hoof to the nearby saloon. “Not unless y’all are particular fond of bad grub and worse company. The Wheezing Dragon is a mighty good joint, though. Mare runnin’ it is a real honest pony an’ don’t tolerate no nonsense from troublemakers, believe you me.”

“Thanks for the advice, uh...?” Daring said, attempting to recall the stranger’s name.

“Oh, pardon me ma’m, I musta forgot my manners; my name is Clemens. I run a citrus farm o’er yonder. And may I be so bold as to ask your ladies’ names?”

“I’m Daring, Daring Doo: adventurer extraordinaire,” the pegasus said with a slight flare of her wings. “But you’ve probably heard of me already.”

“Sorry, can’t right say I have, but pleasure to meet yah regardless. And who might this pretty, young mare be?” Clemens asked, smiling towards the unicorn.

“I-uh-m-my name is H-haypenny,” she said, her face reddening under the handsome stallion’s gaze. “I’m j-just her assistant.”

“Pleasure to meet your acquaintance, Miss Haypenny.”

The shy mare’s blush became only more pronounced. “I-it’s just Haypenny,” she said in a barely audible voice.

KNOCK KNOCK!

Twilight jumped out of her seat, gasping for air.

“Y’all alright in there? Hope I didn’t give yah a fright,” came the soothing southern voice only an Apple could behold.

“N-no, not at all,” Twilight insisted, still heaving for oxygen as her heart rate slowly descended. “Please, come in.” The door clicked open to reveal an expected guest. “Braeburn, good. Go ahead and take a seat; Rarity’s still not back yet.”

“Figured,” Braeburn said with a sigh. “Do you want to be filled in now or when Rarity gets here?”

Twilight’s cheeks reddened significantly. Unfortunately for her, the most brilliant minds will often find innuendos in the most innocent of phrases when their minds are so oriented... And with Braeburn here, her mind was most definitely so oriented. Relevant images made her sweat nervously and breathe heavier. Scientifically speaking, he was a prime specimen. Broad haunches, a strong set of core muscles, and a fairly toned rear made him an ideal--

“Twilight?”

Twilight snapped back to reality. “Wait!” she said, far more forcefully than she had meant to. “--We should... wait for Rarity so we all can be on the same page.

Braeburn nodded and began browsing the cocktail table. It was covered in books of all kinds, most of which had titles that made his head spin. Synergetics in the Arcane Arts, Magic and Metaphysics: Brilliant Concoction or Blatant Catastrophe?, and a rather large tome named Divine Enchantments, Volume 8. What caught his attention, however, was the book in Twilight’s hooves. Not only could he actually understand the title, but he had read the book on the train ride to ponyville.

He stood up from the armchair and made his way over to the couch where Twilight was sitting. The mare was so enveloped in her book she didn’t notice a thing. Braeburn leaned in slightly to see where she was in the book, touching his shoulders to Twilight’s in the process.

She could feel the firmness and heat of muscle as soon as he made contact. She tried her best to ignore it, but every second he stayed there completely tore her attention from the book.

Braeburn noticed she hadn’t turned the page since he entered and came to the conclusion he must be distracting her.

“Sorry... Just wonderin’ wher’ y’are.”

“You’ve read it?”

“Hell yeah! Those books are darn impossible tah put down, especially that one! Man, that Haypenny sure is sumthin’! She’s quicker than silver.”

Upon hearing that, Twilight nearly choked. When imagining the story, she always cast Rainbow as Daring Do, Discord as the nefarious mercenary Fo Hire, and... herself as Haypenny.

“Y-yeah she’s... really... something,” she managed, struggling for words.

Braeburn realized his mistake, or at least thought so. “Oh, my apologies Twilight... You’re far, far smarter than she is.”

As it was the latter, Twilight became even further troubled, but did her best to hide it continue reading.

“Oh hey, Rarity’s back!” Braeburn announced as he watched her walk up the path.

Twilight sighed and went to fetch the door. Rarity appeared a bit alarmed that it had been opened before she had knocked, but decided not to question.

“My oh my, do I have a story for you two!” she exclaimed as she rushed to the armchair.

“Same here,” said Twilight and Braeburn in unison, eliciting a slight blush from the two of them.

“Ladies first,” Braeburn followed, gesturing to the two of them. Twilight gestured in Rarity’s direction and they began recounting the findings of their research... in as general a way as possible to avoid exposing and secrets.

The three of them sat silently for a while, wondering how best to approach the situation. Rarity was the first to speak up.

“I’m fairly certain we’re all thinking along the same lines, but nobody wants to say it... As much as we love Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy and Caramel are in love with eachother. Nothing Dash does will change the way Fluttershy feels about her; she’s just not ‘batting for that team’ as it were.”

“I agree,” said Twilight in a solemn voice. “As much as I sympathize with her, Rainbow is in a no-win scenario. It’s better that she accepts Fluttershy isn’t into mares as quickly as possible.”

“Well shoot, what are we gonna do ‘bout Caramel, then? He’s done convinced himself he’s gonna do something horrible ‘cause of all that eclipse nonsense. No way is he gonna get in a room alone with her, let alone get closer to her.”

“Wait,” Rarity said, the gears turning in her head. She glanced to the two ponies sitting cozily on the couch beside her. “I have an idea...”

“Obviously Fluttershy, as her name suggests, would prefer to be with Caramel alone. From what you’ve told us, Braeburn, Caramel seems unready for the relationship to be that serious? Apologies, but the description you gave was vague.

“The solution to this is... a double-date! We’ll have them go on a date with another new couple, so they will be far more at ease. Caramel won’t feel that the relationship is moving too fast, and there will be enough privacy to keep Fluttershy from... well, being Fluttershy.”

“That’s great, Rarity!” Twilight applauded. “But who will they gon on the date with?”

Rarity paused as a disturbingly wide grin spread across her face. “Why you two of course!”

“What?!” the two said in unison, completely blind-sided by Rarity’s twist.

“It’s perfect. This way they can get closer but won’t have to be alone! Ooh, I truly am a genius! Watch out Twilight; I may be up for your job soon.”

Twilight’s only response was to put a hoof to her face.

“Listen, Twi’... if you don’t want--” Braeburn began.

“Nononono!” she responded in a desperate attempt to keep him from completing his sentence. “It’s actually--erm--a good idea... We should start making the preparations!”

Both Twilight and Braeburn did their best to keep blushing in check, but Rarity’s eye is keener than most.

‘I knew it!’ she thought excitedly. ‘I am so good at this!’

“Fantastic,” she said aloud, “we’ll get this set in stone and tell them about it by tomorrow. Remember to inform them that not going is not an option.”

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