Tommy left to go home early in the morning of the day of Wilbur's plan. It was a cold morning but the summer sun had just started to evaporate the dew leaving a humid mist in Tommy's wake as he walked up the half-finished highway and towards the forests leading into the Dream SMP. Tubbo also stirred early, having had trouble sleeping the nights prior he decided to make use of his time and try to get work done. He donned his apron, cleaned the friers and started his shift. It didn't matter, as no patrons even strolled past, but Tubbo forgot to flip the closed sign to open. Surely there was more to his job than this? Tubbo was Big Q's prize coworker and, almost out of spite, Tubbo felt he had something to prove. If not to Quackity then to Ranboo.
Ranboo hadn't slept. He went for a walk, toeing the outskirts of the city and visiting the Las Nevadas rendition of the Eiffel Tower. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't seem to switch his brain on, it was as if the morning humidity had permeated his skull and every one of his thoughts simply disappeared into the fog as soon as they were made.
Wilbur awoke with a spring in his step.
Under the lake by the burger van, just below the sandstone holding up the topsoil sat Wilbur's contraption, currently un-primed. The wires were redirected from the TNT to a simple redstone lamp. Wilbur lay, belly down on the stone floor, gently pressing onto the trigger and releasing it, satisfied that the lamp illuminated upon doing so. A smile grew wider across his face as he repeated this quietly to himself again and again. Boner the horse had been moved, now tied up in this cavern, dehydrated and hungry. Wilbur had more important things on his mind.
Constructed on one side of this cavern was a glass viewing bay, just out of range of the TNT blast and accessible from Wilbur and Tommy's HQ where the redstone had been programmed. This platform, behind the reinforced glass with Wilbur sat next to him, was where Quackity was to watch his horse die.
As Wilbur started to stand up, the trapdoor hatch to the viewing platform swung open scattering natural light into the otherwise dimly lit cave. Wilbur squinted into the morning sun as Ranboo began to descend the ladder.
"Ranboo!" Wilbur cheered "You ready for the big day? I know you're not much of a fan of horse viscera so you don't have to sit in the viewing bay during detonation. Look, I made you a little trap door here;" he gestured up to another trapdoor on the ceiling of the TNT room "when the explosion has occurred you're welcome to come join us down here to see Big Q's reaction. You won't want to miss that. There's a ladder to the viewing platform here."
"I don't want to use that trapdoor." Ranboo replied, bags under his eyes and a tired croak in his voice. "I swore to never enter that section of the cave. There's too much TNT."
"Well, by the time you use it, Ranboo I hope the TNT has already left the room" Wilbur chuckled into a cough. "If you won't use the second trapdoor I'll just remove it. No biggy."
The viewing bay was adorned with decorations, a sign that read 'Thank you! Happy day!' was scrawled in a childlike font just next to a fake exit door. An equally childlike painting hung on the wall depicting Wilbur and Quackity as stick figures, Wilbur on a #1 podium and Quackity sat on the #3 podium with a storm cloud over his head. Ranboo is drawn in slightly more detail holding a big thumbs up on the #2 podium.
"Is there anything I can get for you, Wilbur?" Ranboo asked with a flat tone.
"Oh, Ranbus! A lemonade and first edition Wilburger!" Wilbur replied, he looked down and saw his hands covered in dirt and soot from the cave walls "I'll come up with you to wash my hands. Afterwards we should go and get Big Q, it's his big day after all!"
Ranboo nodded and exited the viewing bay via the trapdoor. Wilbur switched off the lights and followed him.
Quackity quietly sat in his office listening to the methodic ticking of the grandfather clock by the door. His work already finished by 8am he slowly sipped on a brandy and reclined his chair as far back as he could go without spilling it. With a sigh and a push of his feet he managed to glide his seat over to his window and began scanning the horizon. The sand on the hill seemed to dance as the heat bounced off of it. Quackity maneuvered his desk fan to his trajectory and yawned. There was nothing to do. If there was another person in his room he would've tried harder to contain his excitement as Wilbur crested the Las Nevadas boundary.
