Ch. 12: The Planning Stage
The halls of Canterlot High are bustling with activity; sounds of students conversing fills the air and bodies are packed into the main foyer like sardines in a can. The time is 7:50, ten minutes before the first block begins. Flash squeezes his way through the crowd, trying to avoid stepping on toes or accidentally knocking someone over. He was hoping to get here earlier but a surplus of delivery trucks on their way to CHS were clogging the roads. A certain cross-eyed member of the prom planning committee forgot to spread out the delivery dates for the necessary materials and accidentally had them all delivered on the same day. The result is a drastic up-tick in traffic and the majority of the supplies being delivered sooner than they needed to be.
Flash pushes his way towards the hallway entrance where the sardine pack ends. He pushes one arm between two students, then the other, and pulls the rest of himself out of the cluster. However, he doesn’t regain his footing after popping through and stumbles forward into Twilight. The two collide and fall to the ground, sending a slew of papers and books to the floor. Even Twilight’s glasses fall off. Twilight shakes her head and tries to make out who ran into her, but all she can see is a blur of electric blue.
“Flash, is that you?” Twilight asks. Flash grabs her glass off the floor and gives them to her. She sees the embarrassed boy on the floor with her, sheepishly smiling. “Let me guess, you got trapped in that sardine can called a foyer didn’t you?”
Flash nods in response. “Yeah, I was hoping to avoid the crowd this morning,” he says, “but my route from home was jammed with delivery trucks.”
“Seems Pinkie forgot to tell Derpy to spread out the delivery dates,” Twilight says with a sigh as she begins picking up the mess around them. Flash also begins picking up the loose items.
One by one, books, papers, and binders are picked up and returned to their respective owners. Flash picks up a large and heavy binder, his curiosity peaks at what’s written on the cover. “What is this?” he asks Twilight. She turns around to face him and sees what he’s holding, her eyes widen in distress. The front of the binder has a piece of printer paper inside the cover with “Operation Planner” printed out in big bold letters and Arial font.
Flash begins to open the binder but before he can see what’s inside, Twilight snatches it away from him and hugs it tight to her chest. She quickly tries to think of a lie. “It’s, um, myyyyy senior project!” Twilight blurts out. “Yes, it’s my senior project for AP Physics, I mean Biology, I mean Chemistry!”
Flash is a little confused and taken back by her actions, his brain tries to wrap around what just happened. “Wait a minute, I thought you already took Chemistry?” he asks. “When you were at Crystal Prep?”
Twilight scrambles through her mind to recoup her lie. “I’m taking it again, for fun!” Twilight is so nervous now that her voice is well beyond acceptable tones for an indoor setting. A few students walk by giving weird side looks but then move on when they see it’s Twilight panicking again.
Flash quizzically stares at her for a brief second before he shrugs and says, “Well I guess that makes sense.” He briefly looks at his watch and realizes it’s 7:53. “Ah crud,” he exclaims and begins to gather up what’s left of his things on the floor. “I gotta go, I’m supposed to meet Mr. Turner.” Once all his materials are gathered, he dashes down the hall, shouting back to Twilight, “I’ll see you later!” Twilight waves goodbye to him as he runs.
Twilight pulls her binder away from her chest, gets a good look at it and lets out a sigh of relief. “That was a close one,” she says to herself.
“What was?” Pinkie Pie jumps up from behind Twilight, giving her quite a startle and causing her to drop the binder again. She turns around and gives Pinkie a stern look, but she just looks back with her cheery smile.
Rarity, Sunset Shimmer, Applejack, and Fluttershy sit at their usual table for lunch. While they wait for the rest of the gang, they ponder over a notebook in front of Rarity. “Are you certain something like that will work?” Rarity asks Applejack.
“Eh, not entirely,” Applejack responds. “Big Mac really needed our parents' tree in order to seal the deal. I don’t suppose you have something like that, Sunset?”
“Two massive trees intertwined together, symbolizing unity despite a long-standing family feud,” Sunset answers in a sarcastic tone, “I may have to double-check my apartment size.”
“Scratch that off the list then,” Rarity says as she scribbles out the listed item. The list she holds contains ideas for the gang’s operation to get Sunset and Flash back together. Roughly twenty items have been scribbled out, leaving only two items left to revisit this afternoon. The girls try to press their brains for other possibilities to explore.
“Well I’m spent,” Fluttershy admits, “I don’t think I have any more ideas to share.”
“My thoughts are the same,” Applejack says. “What have we got so far?”
Rarity reads off the two items that weren't scribbled out. “We have the duck pond and prom itself, both in my opinion are long shots but are also the most feasible. It’s not a lot but it might be enough to get a conversation started this afternoon.” With that said, Rarity closes the notebook, sets it aside, and proceeds to eat her lunch, as do the rest of the girls.
“I’m not sure I’m satisfied with either of those options,” Sunset says rubbing her temple. “Revisiting that duck pond wouldn’t be appropriate, especially since it hasn’t been a week since the incident yet. As for prom, it seems the more plausible scenario but unless it’s executed perfectly, it could make that night awkward for everyone.”
“Well, do you have any more ideas to share?” Rarity asks.
Sunset lets out a defeatist sigh and leans back in her chair. “I don’t,” she says.
“Sunset,” Fluttershy says, “did Princess Twilight have any advice on what to do when you went to visit her?”
“As far as planning goes, not really,” says Sunset. “It was really more of a confidence booster if anything.”
Applejack takes a big bite into a green apple. “Ya sure that’s all she gave ya?” she says while she chews. Rarity gives her a scornful look for her bad manners.
“Pretty much,” Sunset admits. “Our meeting might have pushed me to finally face my fears but she didn’t really offer much in the way of solutions.”
Suddenly a large thud lands on the table, causing the four girls to jump in their seats. They look over at the source and see Twilight standing behind her seat and over a large binder, the operations planner she dropped this morning. Their eyes glance between Twilight and the binder, bewildered by the size of it.
“Oh, my,” Fluttershy says, “Twilight, what is that?”
“This is the solution to our problem!” Twilight declares, shooting her hands into the air.
“Good heavens Twilight, when did you put this together? It’s enormous!” Rarity exclaims, gawking at the sheer thickness of the binder.
“I’ve been working on this all night,” she eagerly answers. “I just couldn’t wait until this afternoon to start scheming. Here, take a look!” Twilight pushes the binder towards the girls. Her body tenses up with excitement.
Sunset turns the binder so they can all see and opens it up. The plan includes a day by day layout, including today, and ending with prom on Friday. It includes schedules, roles, maps, objectives, and fallbacks. It is designed with the planning expertise of a modern military. As the girls flip through it, they are more impressed with each passing page. When they reach the end, they all look at Twilight.
“Golly Twi,” Applejack says, “it seems you thought of everything in this book.”
“Yeah, it’s hard to believe that you came up with this just last night,” says Sunset.
“I know,” says Twilight, “my mind was racing with scenarios and ideas after our fitting yesterday. I ran the numbers and considered every possible factor, I believe that this plan, if we follow it to the letter, could work on getting Sunset and Flash back together.”
The girls exchange looks with each other. “I know we’re supposed to have our meeting this afternoon,” Fluttershy speaks up. “But I think Twilight’s plan is our best option. Though I’m sure something will happen that’s not covered...”
“Try to be optimistic, darling,” says Rarity, “Anyway I agree that there's no point in planning what’s already been planned.”
“They say no plan survives contact with the enemy,” says Applejack, “But I reckon this’ll last long as it needs to.”
“Nooot sure about the war metaphors,” says Sunset, “But the rest looks good.”
“Then it’s settled,” says Rarity, “Twilight dear, put your plan into action.”
“Wait a minute, what about Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash?” Fluttershy interrupts. “Shouldn’t they be included in this decision?”
“I already shared my plan with Pinkie Pie this morning,” says Twilight, “and she also thought that we should use my plan. As for Rainbow, I was hoping she would be here with the rest of the group so I could share it with everyone.”
“Speaking of which, where are those two? They’re usually here by now,” says Sunset.
“They’re still in Ms. Cheerilee’s classroom,” Twilight says in a slightly annoyed tone. “They’re spending their lunch period cleaning up after an incident involving bubble gum and silly string.” The other four girls exchange looks of confusion, each wondering if they should continue down this rabbit hole.
“I think I can handle telling Rainbow about our decision; we share shop for our fourth block,” says Applejack. “It shouldn’t be too hard to convince her to go along.”
“Well then, now that it seems we will all be in agreement,” says Rarity, “Twilight, what is the first step of your master plan?”
Twilight pushes her glasses up, grabs the book, and flips the pages to the first objective of the plan. “Our first priority is ‘codeword: amending fences.’ Sunset,” Twilight says, grabbing Sunset Shimmer’s full attention, “in order for this plan to work, you need to apologize to Flash for what happened last Friday. Now I know you’re probably not looking forward to doing this, so I prepared some lines for you to say--”
“I’ll do it,” Sunset says eagerly, interrupting Twilight. The entire table stares at Sunset, surprised with her confidence. She recognizes their gazes and begins to speak, “I get that you are expecting me to be hesitant but I can’t afford to be. The only way I’m going to get over my fear of myself, or my past self, is facing it head-on. He has PE during fourth block, I can meet him right outside the track and soccer field.”
“That’s actually what I have written in here,” says Twilight. “Soarin is going to make sure you two meet, just in case Mr. Doodle keeps us in class after the bell rings. Once we get over this hurdle, we can still meet at Sugar Cube Corner and go over the rest of the operation.”
“Sounds like a plan,” says Applejack.
The bell signalling the end of lunch rings. The girls quickly finish their meals and make their way towards the exit of the cafeteria. After they depart on their separate ways, Sunset begins to ponder about this afternoon. Alright, I have three hours to think of a proper apology to the boy whose heart I broke a second time. No pressure. “Uggh,” she groans out loud, resting her head on a nearby locker, “This is going to make Celestia’s Enchanted Herbology class seem like magic kindergarten.” Muffins walks by and looks at her curiously, then pats her back reassuringly.
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I'm glad to see this story updating once more. Looking forward to seeing how it all turns out, especially now that Sunset's made up her mind about her previous hangups with Flash!
Was wondering when this would come back. And from the looks of it, you no longer need a proofreader either
What a surprise! A good one too. This is gold as always. Can't wait for phase one! <3
Great to see you back with us.
A Twilight plan huh? Why do I feel it's over complicated and have three dozen checklists?
10269685
It's wouldn't be a Twilight plan without unnecessary overcomplication.
Hope the next chapter won't take long
I absolutely love this Story! I'm glad you're returning to it! Maybe have a chapter or two dedicated to SoarinDash vs. SoarinJack?
10272120
Possibly, if I'm able to fit it into the story without breaking the flow.
10272172
You could always use that as the basis of a spin-off series
10268983
Heh heh... actually I'm still proofreading. There is a lot less to do now though.
I thought it was actual muffins that was walking by until I realized it was Derpy.
My God and I thought Applejack sucked at lying she is really really bad at it
Thanks Derpy.