//------------------------------// // Chapter 2 - Introductions // Story: Lukas: A New Generation // by MyAwesomePony //------------------------------// As Sunny and I zoomed down to Maretime Bay as it's called, I decided I would gather some more information as to what the future was like, that was, if I was actually somehow in the future. No, that has to be what had happened to me, it's not like I was in another alternate universe, what other universe would be inhabited with talking colorful equines. "Hey Sunny." I said, getting her attention. "Yeah?" Sunny replied, not even looking at me as she was too focused on skating. "What's the future like?" I asked. Sunny's smile soon faded as it dawned on her what I had asked, as if she knew something that I didn't. "Oh, well it's not great." Sunny replied sadly. "You see, all the Earth ponies, unicorns and Pegasi have separated." "What!?" I exclaimed, obviously not expecting that response. "But don't worry." She assured me. "My plan is going to fix that." "Are you sure?" I asked. "Surer than sure." She replied. At that point, we had finally arrived at the entrance of Maretime Bay, and the first thing that I noticed when I took a look around the town, was that it was way bigger than Ponyville. I even saw a small tram going through the town. "Here we are, Maretime Bay." Sunny announced proudly. "Whoa." That was all I could say. But as I took a closer look, I quickly noticed that every single pony living here was Earth ponies, no unicorns, no Pegasi, not even any other creatures I could see besides birds. I was confused at first, but I then remembered what Sunny had explained to me earlier, and it all made sense. The Earth ponies, unicorns and Pegasi had, for some reason, separated from one another, whether they wanted to or not is something I didn't know at the moment. Eventually, a few nearby ponies started noticing my presence in the village, I was expecting all of them to scream as loud as they could and run around the town like a group of unleashed wild animals, but instead, the ponies around me just looked at me curiously, as I saw a few ponies whispering to one another. It was then I noticed a banner nearby. "Canterlogic" I read out the name on the banner. "What's that?" Sunny's face lit up, as if she had just remembered something. "Oh, I almost forgot, it's the annual presentation at Canterlogic. Come on, Lukas, we don't want to be late." I then jumped on her back as she sped off again. At some point, Sunny passed by a smoothie shop, stopped in front of a smoothie cart and attached it to herself, before she continued on her way. "Oh, you deliver smoothies?" I assumed. "Yep, and I'm proud of it." Sunny replied confidently. As Sunny delivered smoothies to ponies sitting at tables, I then heard the sound of hooves running coming from behind me. I turned around to see another Earth pony, angrily chasing after us, although it looked like he was mostly chasing after Sunny. This pony appeared to be a stallion, he had a red colored coat, a blonde mane and a wavy blonde tail. He also wore a belt with what looked like a police badge on it around his body. When he noticed me, he suddenly stopped chasing us as he gasped loudly. I was about to ask Sunny who that was, when she suddenly skidded to a halt as I looked at the building we had stopped in front of and saw a statue of a pair of pink glasses on the top of it. I assumed that this was Canterlogic. "Phew, it looks like it hasn't started yet." Sunny said with relief as I followed her to the entrance. "So Lukas, what do you think of Maretime Bay so far?" "Aha! There you are, Sunny. Just the pony I was expecting." Just before I could respond to Sunny's question, we were suddenly stopped by another stallion, who had just popped out from behind a banner. He was a yellow colored stallion who had various white markings - white socks on his legs, a white belly, and a white blaze. He had a short, aqua green mane and an average length tail and light brown eyebrows. Hearing the faint sound of chirping and pinching, I looked down to see that this stallion was accompanied by three small animals. One of them was a crab while the other two were white birds with aqua green wings, one of the birds was wearing a tin can on its head. "Whoa!" The stallion exclaimed, looking at me with wide eyes. "What are you supposed to be?" "Calm down, Sheriff Hitch." Sunny assured the stallion, who I now knew was named Hitch. "This is Lukas, he supposedly came from the past." "The past?!" Hitch exclaimed in disbelief. I nodded to confirm. "Well, that explains it." Just then, Sunny addressed the small animals that Hitch was accompanied by. "I see you brought the whole squad along again." The two birds squeaked while giving a small salute as the crab just pinched its claws in a seemingly happy way. "What is it with me and critters? I'm like a magnet to them." Hitch sighed, before lowering his head down to the animals' level. "Guys, come on. Give Hitch a little space." As if on command, the birds and the crab took a small step back, frustrating Hitch. I was shocked. "Wait, you can talk to animals?" I asked. "Of course I can, you half naked monkey." Hitch replied. "Actually, I'm a human." I corrected him. "Eh, close enough." Hitch said while waving his hoof dismissively. "So, what's up?" Sunny asked, getting Hitch's attention. "Oh, please. Like you don't know." Hitch said as he raised his eyebrows suspiciously. "Today is the annual presentation at Canterlogic." He explained, pointing towards the banner he had come from earlier. "Hey, Lukas and I are heading there right now." Sunny said as she was about to go up towards the entrance, but was quickly stopped when Hitch put his hoof in front of her. "Uh, no, you're not. Listen, I know that you have come up with some harebrained scheme to sabotage it, and if you think I'm just gonna let you walk in there-" "Hey, Hitch..." Sunny said in a sing song voice, the smoothie cart detaching from her. "No." Hitch replied blankly, as if Sunny was planning something that he didn't want to happen. "Come on." Sunny encouraged as I looked on in confusion, wondering where Sunny was going. "Good morning, Sheriff Hitch." A mare called out as her and another mare walked by. Hitch turned towards the two mares with a smile. "Morning, Mayflower, Dahlia." He chuckled, before he looked at Sunny with a stern expression. "Sunny, I'm on duty." He whispered loudly. There was a brief moment of silence between the two ponies as Sunny waved her hoof in front of Hitch's face, as he groaned, before they proceeded to do some type of secret handshake. "Up high, down low, hitch it to a post! Flip it sunny-side up and on a piece of toast!" They sang in unison, I even noticed that the birds were doing the same thing. Honestly, I found their secret handshake to be really cute, they must've been friends for a really long time. At that moment, the same red stallion that was chasing us earlier approached us, he seemed to be out of breath and was wheezing. "I did what you asked for, Hitch. She never left my side, not even once." He managed to say. "Oh, hey, Sprout. You okay?" Sunny asked. "You seem kinda wheezy." "That's Deputy Sprout to you." Sprout corrected her. "Anyways, Sprout. I'd like you to meet Lukas." Sunny then gestured over to me. "Wait a minute." Sprout exclaimed. "You're that creature I saw riding on Sunny's back. "Yeah, that's me." I replied. "I'm actually a human." "Well, human!" Sprout said angrily, before getting in my face. "You better not try any funny business on me!" "Noted." I said, before Sunny started to approach the entrance of Canterlogic. "Come on, Lukas." Sunny called out as I followed, but we didn't get very far, because we were stopped by Hitch once again. "Hey! W-Wait up! I'm not finished! Sunny!" I heard him exclaim as he ran up in front of the orange pony, quickly followed by his animal companions. "Sunny, we both know how this goes. Every year you try to sneak in, and every year I stop you." "Look, you have nothing to worry about." Sunny said reassuringly. "I'll just go into the factory, deliver my smoothies-" "Uh-uh!" Sprout interjected, getting in front of Sunny also. "You can't even step a hoof in there! My mom had you banned!" "Banned!?" I exclaimed, wondering what she did to result in her being banned. "But I..." Sunny tried to protest, but was interrupted by Hitch. "I'm asking you as your friend, Sunny, not as sheriff. Just please try not to pull any stunts today." He said gently. "Okay, okay. I'll try." Sunny replied, seemingly coming to terms with him. "Thank you. Now, give your delivery to Sprout and go home." Hitch demanded. He was then distracted by a nearby pony who had dropped a paper ball on the ground, which seemed to get on his nerves. "Hey, hey! That's a violation of Code 33!" Hitch yelled out as he chased after the pony with the three animals following after him. Sprout, who was now attached to the smoothie cart, decided to tease us. "Buh-bye." He said, before he laughed and made his way towards the building entrance. "Sunny, you're not really going home, are you?" I asked, remembering that she had told me she had some sort of plan. Instead of responding, Sunny just looked back at the building with a smug grin on her face, telling me exactly what she was thinking. To Be Continued...