The Best Laid Plans
As things go in Ponyville, it had been an unusual day. Now most anywhere else in Equestria, and probably outside of it too, a day like the one I had been having would seem quite normal. Laid back even.
To be fair, the day had started off pretty good. Again, by Ponyville standards. The sun came up on time, and without any extra wobbles or swerves either. The sky was the correct shade of blue, no rogue thunderstorms had escaped from the Everfree, and the streets were clear of rampaging Ursa Majors. I was prepped and out the door by nine, and still no magical explosions, light shows, or localized gravitational inversions could be found around either Princess Twilight’s castle or her school.
Like I said, things were off on the right hoof. But at the same time, they weren’t quite right either.
You see, my marefriend works two jobs, and when she’s not making candies, she’s out of town doing, well, special tasks for the princesses. One of the first things she taught me – besides how to shape a proper truffle – was to pay more attention to my surroundings. ‘Situational awareness,’ she had called it. Really, it was about paying attention to the little details of any situation, rather than focusing only on trying to spot one giant flashing red light.
And as I strolled through the streets of Ponyville, reviewing the day so far in my head, I was seeing a lot of little things that worried me.
First of all, there was Sugarcube Corner. I had a bowl of oats with cream and a bit of cinnamon before I left home, but I was still a bit peckish. So I stopped by for a pastry and a coffee… and to place an order for a small Crystal Forest cake, which is my marefriend's favorite dessert. Our tenth anniversary was coming up on Saturday, and I wanted to make it a really special evening for the both of us. Partly because ten years is a milestone year, and partly because of the small velvet-covered box that was securely tucked away inside my mane.
Well, the bakery was open, but the cases were empty. “Empty? At nine in the morning?”
If this had been a Sunday I could understand, but a Tuesday? That was weird. Mrs. Cake couldn’t apologize enough though; said she had gotten so wrapped up with a huge catering order that she totally forgot to prep anything else for the day’s customers. Even worse though, whatever this super secret catering order was, it was going to eat through her entire ingredient stock, and it’d take her at least a week to restock the things needed to make pretty much anything, including Crystal Forest cake.
So no cake then. Great. At least I got a free coffee out of the deal, I thought as I walked back outside.
Next stop was across town to Vinyl and Octavia’s place. When I knocked on the door of the quaint two-bedroom flat they shared, I was expecting Octavia to answer. It was still only ten after all, and everypony knew Vinyl was a day sleeper. So you can imagine my surprise when the DJ herself answered the door instead. I’m not sure which piece of news was weirder – that Octavia was taking a day trip to Appleloosa with Bulk Biceps, or that Vinyl couldn’t create a mixtape record for me because she was tied up creating one for Big Mac.
Big Mac, requesting a mixtape? I’d never even seen him step hoof on a dance floor, save for the occasional line dancing classes him and his sister would hold. The hairs on my withers were beginning to stand on end. Secret cake orders and unlikely mixtapes just didn’t add up. Something was brewing, I just wasn’t sure what yet.
“Well,” I muttered as I began to head back toward the center of town, “Bon always said that two details can be a coincidence, but three’s definitely a pattern, so strike two so far…”
I rounded the corner between Quills and Sofas and the new bistro and stopped dead in my tracks. “Yeah, that’s strike three.”
The entire square was engulfed in chaos. Ponies were running in every direction, scrambling into shops, flying up into trees, or hiding behind whatever cover they could find. All of them trying to escape the small army of what appeared to be sentient apples that were chasing after them.
I watched Noteworthy race by with a very animated red delicious apple that was hot on his hooves. He nearly bowled over Cherry Fizzy and Cherry Berry, who were doing their best to ward off a trio of apples that were trying to surround them. Another scream, this one from across the way, where Roseluck was scrambling to save her flowers from the encroaching fiends.
“Just another day in Ponyville, right?”
“Ah!” I nearly jumped out of my fur at the unexpected voice.
“Bonnie?” I stumbled back a bit and had to shift my weight to regain balance. Thankfully, I could still feel the box nestled against the back of my neck. “W-what are you doing here?”
“Well, I was heading toward Vinyl’s place, but–” she grabbed my hoof and pulled us both against the side of the building to avoid two more fleeing ponies.. “–I think I’ll wait this out first.”
“Vinyl, you say?” I had to raise my voice over the growing cacophony nearby. “I was just there a little while ago. She’s all booked for the week with a mixtape project for Big Mac.”
“Big Mac wants a mixtape?” she said. “That’s… unusual.”
“I know, right?” I replied. “The one time I need some music mixed, she’s busy.”
I looked at Bon and paused. For some reason she was blushing as red as the apples that just sprinted past us while yelling some kind of gibberish at a fleeing Grand Pear. “Bon?”
“Oh, n-nothing. Nothing at all! It’s just…” she scuffed a hoof across the ground. “Funny how we were both going there for the same thing.”
“Great minds and all, right, dear?” I smiled at her
“Same wavelength and all,” she answered, returning my smile.
That gave me pause. BonBon was right. The two of us are on the same wavelength more often than not, and clearly we had both gone to the same place today for pretty similar reasons. I wonder if we’re both…
“Say, you didn’t happen to go by Sugarcube Corner, did you?”
“Um, yeah…” BonBon’s face was beginning to blush again already. “First thing this morning. Was going to get a bite to eat on my way to the market, but—”
“They were out of everything.” I finished her sentence.
“That’s right!” BonBon stepped a bit closer. “They had some huge special order to work on, so they didn’t have time to bake anything else.”
“Including White Chocolate Raspberry Cake,” I added, trying very hard to repress a grin.
“Yes, that t— What?” BonBon almost reared back in shock. “How’d you know that, Lyra?”
I stepped up to her and brushed a hoof through her mane. “Because you never eat sweets for breakfast, so the only reason you’d go to the bakery that early in the day is to place an advance order without me around. Because White Chocolate Raspberry is my favorite cake, and I know that if you went out of your way to order a cake it’d be that one. And—” I leaned in and pecked her on the lips “—it’s exactly the type of thing I’d do a few days before a big anniversary dinner with the mare I loved.”
She leaned in and kissed me back, then drew me into a hug. “Aww, you’re too sweet to me, Strings.” I smiled into her mane at the use of her pet name for me.
“I could say the same about you, Bonnie.”
“What in the blazes is going on?!”
We both turned back to the square, which was now a disaster zone of overturned carts, broken tables and chairs, and crushed food and produce. In the midst of it all stood a very irate Mrs. Cake, and a very confused Spike.
“Discord!” the young dragon yelled. A moment later, Chaos itself appeared next to them, seated in a tall red chair and reading a newspaper.
“Are you seeing what I’m seeing?” I asked while watching the three of them launch straight into an argument.
“Yep, sure am,” came BonBon’s reply. I felt her hoof come to rest across my withers. “Though really, when does anything go according to plan around here anymore?”
We stood there and watched Discord argue with Mrs. Cake and Spike while manic apples continued to run around like babbling chickens, chasing ponies in circles around the nearby fountain. As BonBon’s words floated in the back of my mind, and my thoughts turned to the decade we had spent in this crazy town, it didn’t take me long to realize what I needed to do next.
“True, but I think we both know that sometimes not adhering to the plan works out pretty well in the long run...” I turned to face her, and everything else faded away. The chaos might as well have been a hundred miles away just then. My eyes were focused only on her.
She returned my stare, her eyes questioning for a moment. “Lyra?”
I reached up and took her hoof in mine. “I hadn’t planned on moving to Ponyville, much less staying longer than absolutely necessary, yet here I am. I hadn’t planned on making many friends here, yet there you were. And I certainly hadn’t planned on finding love way out here…” I raised her hoof up and gave it a chaste kiss. “...yet here we are.”
“Strings… I—” She stopped to blink back a few tears. That’s all the time I needed.
She opened her eyes and gasped. “Oh my!”
“BonBon.” I lifted the lid on the small velvet box and held it up to her, the simple blue gemstone the same color as her mane shining in the mid-morning sun. “Will you marry me?”
Her mouth hung open for a few seconds, and I could almost hear the gears in her head trying to unjam themselves. Finally, her eyes lit up and that smile I loved so much beamed across her face.
“Funny you should ask that—” She reached into her mane and pulled out a small velvet box of her own. “I was about to ask you the same thing.”
My heart would have leapt out of my chest if it could right then. The glow in her eyes was matched only by the sparkle in the white and green gemstone ring that she was holding.
“Yes! Yes, of course, Bonnie!”
I grabbed both of the rings in my magic and held them close as we lunged for each other’s embrace. We parted only when air became a necessity.
“You were planning on Saturday, weren’t you?” I teased.
“Sounds like I wasn’t the only one, either,” she teased back, laying her head into my shoulder. I smiled as I felt the tip of her tail wrap around my own. “Too bad nothing else we had in mind was going to work out.”
I smiled as I watched Discord teleport all of the apples away with the snap of a claw, leaving the square in silence. “Eh, it’s alright…” I leaned in and kissed her on the cheek.
“That we didn’t plan for this makes it all the better.”