Operation: D-Dusk

by CrackedInkWell

Chapter 2: Drastic Action

Everypony was still in mild shock at the idea as Bubble Berry sat there smiling as wide as ever, looking at them like he had just told the best joke ever. Elusive was the first one to speak after a scary amount of silence. “Berry, sweetie, we aren’t going to compromise love just because we don’t get any quality time with our friend.”

“Guys, hear me out first!” Bubble Berry whined, bouncing onto the table. “What other idea do we have? I mean, sure, we could try to pull away time from Solaris and stuuuuff, but Dusky wouldn’t like that! He would get angry with his friends!

“Psst, that’s us!” he whispered to nopony in particular, but still loud enough for everypony to hear him. “He would know that it was us aaaaand we don’t wanna upset Dusky. We’ll make the two of them mad at each other until they don’t WANT to be each other’s special someponies! Besides, they’re both immortal. Who wants to be in a relationship forever? Sure, you’d have the attachment, but in the long run, it would make it SOOOOO much harder to say goodbye. We are Dusky’s friends, and we should be there to help him whether he wants it or not!”

Everypony sat in silence while Bubble still stood on the map, totally unfazed by his outburst. After another scarily long pause, Rainbow finally spoke up. “You know, as mental as that sounds, Berry sure does put a good spin on ruining our friend’s life.”

“Rainbow!” Elusive shot daggers at Rainbow Blitz. “You simply cannot be seriously considering the act of defying love! What is wrong with you two?!”

“‘Sides,” Applejack folded his forelegs, “Ah thought you liked the idea of those two bein’ a couple, Berry.”

“I do,” he replied. “Believe me, Dusky and Solaris are one of the cuuuutest couples that I’ve ever seen! And I’m happy that they’re happy, but this is certainly not making any of us happy. As much as I don’t like the idea myself, I reckon it’s the only way we can get our friend back. As my super fantastical Berry-licious mumma Berry said,” Berry walked off the table and behind one of the chairs, reappearing with a black-and-white bonnet, “‘Extremes are not to be used lightly, Berry. For the only times when thou canst use extremes art during times of great distress when it benefits everypony.’” He walked behind another chair and reappeared with the bonnet suddenly gone. “As far as I can see, this is one of those times when we have to use extreme measures. Besides, I don’t think we have much of a choice here.”

“I don’t know…” Butterscotch put a hoof over his mouth out of fear of being interrupted, however, his friends paid attention this time. Sinking in his seat he managed to have his say “What if Dusk finds out? Won’t he be furious that we were the ones to have him and Solaris stop loving each other?”

“Not if it’s for his own benefit Scotch,” Berry hopped on the table. “We have to do this, to save our friendship and a possible divorce down the road. It is for his own good ”

“But they’re not married,” Rainbow pointed it out.

“Hey, it doesn't hurt to think ahead,” he said as he reached into his tail and pulled out a green army helmet.

“Berry, no! Put the helmet down! Rainbow, don’t encourage him! Butterscotch is right. We aren’t going to compromise our friendship, Dusk Shine’s FIRST relationship, and risk a prison sentence from the Solar Prince of Equestria! This is simply outrageous!” Elusive shouted.

“Ah dunno Lucy, Dusk has been spending a lot less time wit’ all of us. Shucks, this is the first time Ah’ve seen ‘im in nearly a week. If he won’t listen to us, this might be th’ next best thing.” Applejack argued.

“Fine, fine! Seeing as you two are bent on ruining our best friend’s relationship, we shall put it a vote. Whoever has the most hooves wins, Berry!” Elusive shouted, getting up onto the table himself as he addressed the remaining three seated ponies and dragoness. “Everypony NOT in favor of abandoning our friend, ruining his life, and risking a JAIL sentence, place your hooves in the air.”

Butterscotch meagerly rose his hoof. Elusive’s shot up soon after, but as he looked around, nopony else raised their’s.

“Everypony in favor of my super funtabulous plan to get our friend back, whack that hoof in the air!” Berry smiled as he threw his hoof up first, closely followed by Blitz which provoked a growl from Elusive. Elusive and Berry both looked at Applejack, who nervously put his hoof up.

“Fantastic! That settles it then!” Berry exclaimed.

“No, wait!” Elusive shouted. “We haven’t asked what Spines thinks! Who do you side with, Spines?” The GOOD side, or Berry’s train wreck of a plan?”

The dragoness hummed in thought nervously. “You know, we haven’t exactly heard what Berry’s plan is yet. So Berry, how exactly do you plan on doing this anyway?”

“I’m glad you asked!” The pink pony adjusted his helmet and suddenly began impersonating a general. “Alright, you sugar-coated maggots! This is how Operation D-Dusk is going to go down! The first thing we need are volunteers who will get up close and personal to the couple in order to sabotage them. If we’re gonna do this, we have to do it at near point-blank range so that when things go wrong, it’ll look like Dusk or Solaris did it. What we need are two of us to act like a couple to go on a double date with Dusky and Sunbutt so they can execute the mission. The rest of us will observe and assist at a distance, searching for various ways to ruin the relationship and to relay that information to our fake gay couple. If we keep it up, and we make sure that our volunteers don’t get caught, we should have them broken up in less than a week.” He turned to his friends. “So then, if any of you have the guts to take on the role of a cutsie-wootsie couple, then please make yourselves known.”

Applejack immediately threw his hoof up. “Ah’d be willin’ ta be with Elusive. Just cause he’s, y’know… a bit feminine and it would make sense ta’ be a couple annnnd…” He slowly lowered his hoof and blushed a bit.

Elusive looked away clearly uninterested. “But before ANY of this, we must hear from Spines. SPINES! Think about your decision!” he growled.

“Uhhhhhh,” Spines sat there for a good twenty seconds making that noise. “Um… so, yeah, I… I think Bubble Berry has a point. I… I want Dusk back. I miss him so much.” Spines sighed and looked down. In that instant, Applejack shot over to Elusive.

“Great, then it’s settled! We’re all goin’ with the plan. Lucy here and Ah will be the… fake,” Applejack’s voice broke for a moment, “couple. Meanwhile, Y'all will do your plan thingy, double date and such.” Applejack smiled trying to win everypony’s favor.

The white unicorn facehoofed with a groan. “Alright, fine!” He looked up to Applejack. “Even if we’re serious about doing this, there’s another problem.”

“Whaddya mean?”

“Well for starters, how are we going to explain to Dusk that we’ve spontaneously become a couple? We can’t make it seem like a ‘love-at-first-sight’ kind of thing, or he’d be sure to suspect something.”

Applejack thought for a moment. “Maybe… we had a long-time crush for a while. One that we’ve been keepin’ secret for a couple o’ years or so…”

Spines leaned back in her seat. “I don’t know… Even to me, that sounds a bit alibi-y.”

“Well… maybe -- and this is just a bit of hypothesizin’ here -- one of us was deeply in love with th’ other, but was so scared to admit it that he never told anypony. But one day, he invited the other outta Sweet Apple Acres and under the pretty, pristine sunset, managed ta finally convey his feelings. The other was hesitant, but he leaned in with a soft kiss, all their worries fading away. The two made it work, regardless of all the challenges…” Applejack got slightly lost in his speech as everypony looked at him with tilted heads.

Berry scratched his chin. “Hmmm, it sounds like you just made that up on the spot, but with a bit of revision we can make it believable!”

Applejack suddenly started sweating. “Maybe we should rehearse it! Jus’ in case.”

“Everypony stop!” Blitz shouted. “These are all stupid details! We gotta work on the bigger picture, and not AJ’s… kinda specific fantasy.” Applejack blushed profusely and sat back down in his seat. “No, we gotta plan this thing out, but not in Dusk’s own damn castle! I say we meet somewhere he can’t overhear us. We can plan properly then!”

Berry hummed as he rubbed his chin. “He’s right. It’s getting late and we still have plenty of time to make this foolproof. And we do need a new place to plan it all…” He paced around for a moment before suddenly perking up. “I’ve got it! You guys know of my super partially-secret party cave? That place has everything we could ever need to accomplish this. I say that tomorrow after breakfast, we all meet there to flesh this plan out.”

Everypony looked at one another. “That’ll work,” Applejack nodded.

“Yeah, tomorrow sounds fine.” Rainbow started flapping his wings until he was in the air. “Now if you guys’ll excuse me, I’ve got some make up practice to do before I head off to bed.”

“Hehe, makeup practice,” Bubble whispered to himself.

“I better get home myself,” Butterscotch excused himself. “Angelina is probably furious that I’ve been gone for so long.”

“So should I.” Elusive stood. “Silver Belle still needs to be taken care of before getting him to bed. I’m hoping the boutique is still in one piece.”

“The boutique is on the way to the Acres! Ah’ll walk with Lucy! That is, if’n ya don’t mind?” Applejack gave a pleading smile.

Elusive rolled his eyes a bit. “Come on lover colt, let’s go.”

With the last two gone, that left Spines with Bubble Berry. Berry looked around before pulling a tape recorder out of his mane. He pressed a red button and whispered in a conspiratorial tone. “Note to self: update Applejack’s relationship status from certainty to questionable.”

_*_

“Order, order! I now call the first gathering of gentlecolts fighting the loss of their B.P.F.F.F.L. (Best Pony Friends Forever For Life) who need a much better name to order!” Bubble Berry shouted over the low murmuring of chatting coming from the circle of stallions surrounding a makeshift table, made up of broken chair legs and a round piece of cardboard.

“Joining our committee we have Princess Lucy and Princess AJ, which will be codenames for our fake relationship. We also have with us Private Rainbow Blitz and Corporal Butterscotch, Lady Spines, and Grand Chancellor King of Parties Bubble Berry!”

Elusive sat on a milk crate, forehooves crossed as he grumbled. “I don’t see why we have to be princesses. This name thing is just silly.”

Applejack quickly threw his hoof up in panic. “On the contrary, Ah like the names for uh… distinguishin’ who’s who in this here operation.”

“Then why am I a private while scaredy Scotch over there is a corporal?!” Rainbow Blitz exclaimed, also unhappy with the titles given.

Bubble Berry sighed in annoyance as if everypony understood his thinking like it was just written in a chalkboard… which it was. Gesturing to said board, there was a list of names and the roles they played in the operation. “Because! You all have important jobs! The titles are just for reference, sillies!”

Spine put her feet up on the cardboard table. “Okay, so you’ve gotten us all here. Do you have some kind of idea what we’re doing? What’s the plan?”

“Ah, I’m glad you asked, Lady Spines.” Berry smiled as he spun around to the board. “Obviously, our main goal is to get Dusky to break up with Sunbutt. If we succeed, things will be all sunshine and rainbows, but if we get caught, we’ll most likely be thrown in jail, Dusk will tell us we’re no longer his friends and have us moved to some dungeon in the middle of the woods for a thousand years. Of course, nopony wants that! So after spending aaaaall night working on every way to have them break up, I believe I’ve come to the ultimate super-duper plan to get our bestie back!”

He pulled a long stick from out of his mane and smacked the board. “There are three main phases to this plan that need to work.” He tapped next to a picture of Elusive and AJ. “Phase one: Lucy and AJ will go up to Dusk and confess their ultimate love for each other right in front of him. And you gotta make it SUPER CUTESY and adorable, so no joking around here! Then, when the cute levels are at a maximum, one of you should suggest going with a double date with him and Solaris.”

Berry then tapped next to a crude drawing of four ponies at a table with another four ponies hiding behind a bush. “Phase two: while they’re on their date, Private Blitzy, Corporal Scotch, Lady Spines, and I will observe you guys at a distance. Our job is to constantly look for ways to get Dusky and Sunbutt mad at each other. We’ll communicate to you two using these.” Berry then pulled a yellow brick with a silver antenna out of his tail. “We’ll give you guys some ideas on how to ruin everything and when. One of you will probably distract them while the other set everything up. Now, this stage is really important in that it’s the riskiest and the part where we’ll most likely be caught. But if everything goes juuuust right…” He tapped the third drawing of Dusk and Solaris with scowls on their faces. “They should get so mad at one another that they don’t ever want to be an adorable couple ever again. From there, we’ll comfort Dusky as much as we can and before you know it, everything will be back to normal!” He then turned back around to his friends. “So, any questions?”

Everypony in the room put their hooves in the air. Sighting overdramatically, Berry looked around the room. “Surely a plan that simple would be easy to understand. With that in mind, keep your hooves up if you still have any questions.” All their hooves stayed in the air. Berry facehoofed. “Hooves down if it’s about the double date.” Applejack’s hoof slowly sunk down, followed by Spine’s. “Hooves down if the question is about the names.” Butterscotch’s hoof fell eventually followed by Blitz’s, leaving Elusive’s the only one left. “Elusive, you have a super duper question?”

“Yes, I do. Have you considered the detriments to the plan succeeding? Dusk would no doubt be distraught for days on end, perhaps weeks, disconnecting with his friends and having things be awkward between him and Solaris. Have you considered any of this, Berry?” Elusive smiled smugly, thinking he had everypony on board.

Fate and the laws of the universe, however, had other ideas. “I have. Of course, Dusk would become depressed afterward, but this isn’t the first time I’ve come across a pony that has become heartbroken. Remember back when your Princess Perfect didn’t turn out to be who you thought she would be back at the Gala and you became sooo sad that you locked yourself away for days crying about how Bluebelle was such a huuuuge meanie? I left you alone for a few days, and then I came right back and cheered you up.”

Elusive was speechless for a moment. “W-Well yes, but--”

“Besides, everything I’ve thought of is in this cave.” He hopped over to a filing cabinet. “I’ve already got a party plan for nearly every scenario for you guys, from Blitz becoming a Wonderbolt to AJ coming out of the closet, so basically everything! And yes, I did include a scenario in case one of you guys becomes heartbroken, too. So don’t you worry your little head!” Berry leaned against the filing cabinet, tapping a hoof against it. “I’ve got it aaaaaaall covered.”

The white unicorn cursed under his breath.

“Of course,” Berry continued as he made his way back to the table, “the only major problem as far as I can see is when to do this. We don’t know when the next date for Dusk and Solaris is going to--” Before he could finish his sentence, Spines burped out a scroll. “Well nevermind then.”

Everypony turned to the dragoness as she unrolled the scroll. “Solaris is asking to have Dusk over for dinner next Friday in Ponyville, so it looks like we’ve got plenty of time.”

“Homework!” Bubble shouted. “Princesses, you need to get into character and talk to Dusky about when you’re having this cutesy double date. Private, Corporal, and M’Lady, you’ll be in here once a day for however long you think you can manage to help me set up the ‘make-Solaris-and-Dusk-break-up-inators’. You’ll also have to learn how to use them. Everypony, are we ready to ruin our friend’s only relationship?!”

Berry could sense he was losing his crowd as uncertain murmurs rose between them. “Who is ready to get out friend back?!” He tried again, getting a few uncertain yesses. Applejack moved closer to Elusive who was still grumbling under his breath. Feeling the farmpony brush up against him, he had a thought.

Elusive leaned in close to Applejack and quietly whispered, “Meet me at my boutique as soon as the meeting’s over. Nopony can see you.” Applejack nodded slightly and the party cave once again had all of its occupants scheming the demise of Dusk’s relationship.

Comments

[livinthelife]

Berry? You are a terrible horse. It seems like the crux of the problem is your inability to go without a twenty-four hour keeper (something your distaff counterpart seems to do without just fine. Not sure why possession of a phallus would make you too stupid to live.), not Dusk's love life. Seriously, think of Solaris. He's been dutifully ruling you all justly and wisely for literally millennia and the first time he's able to be happy and loved you all want to destroy it because it inconveniences you? Y'all should be ashamed of yourselves.

[Fallen Knight]

“No, we gotta plan this thing out, but not in Dusk’s own damn castle! I saw we meet somewhere he can’t overhear us. We can plan properly then!”

say

One problem with Berrys plan is that while Bluebelle was to Elusive just a "idea", making a messy break up for Dusk and Solaris with each blaming the other certainly wont get things back to "normal" and Elusive doesn't have to deal with Bluebelle ever again unlike Dusk with Solaris. You would think Elusive would get something like that. :P