//------------------------------// // Chapter 3 - Presentation Disaster // Story: Lukas: A New Generation // by MyAwesomePony //------------------------------// In the Canterlogic factory, I saw ponies of all sizes and colors going about the establishment, some of them were workers as seen by their ties and collars, while others were ponies who had come for the annual presentation that was apparently going on. In fact, the ponies were so focused on preparing for the presentation, that only a few ponies seem to take notice of me, the ponies that did notice me would just give me an unsure glance, before going back to what they were doing, at least it was better than them screaming for their lives. As I continued wandering aimlessly around, I then heard a small gasp of surprise, I looked down to see a small filly looking up at me with wide eyes, not saying anything. I was just about to introduce myself, when suddenly, a nearby mare, who I assumed was the filly's mother, pulled him closer to her in a protective way. "Don't get too close to that, sweetie." The mare said cautiously. "It could be just as dangerous as unicorns and Pegasi." The filly and his mother then walked away, while the mother gave me a judgmental glance. "So what's this plan of yours, Sunny?" I asked, but I didn't get a response from the pony. "Sunny?" I turned around, only to find out that Sunny was nowhere to be seen. I examined the surroundings in confusion, where did Sunny wander off to? She was just behind me a moment ago, so how could she have disappeared without alerting me of anything? I then shrugged it off, assuming that Sunny had just gone off to put her supposed plan into action. After walking around the factory some more, I eventually saw Hitch and Sprout nearby, they seemed to be talking to each other, so I decided to approach them to figure out what their conversation was about. "You know what, Sprout? I think I finally got through to Sunny." Hitch said with certainty. "Oh, he has no idea." I thought to myself with a smug smile. At that moment, the whole room went dark as everyone fell silent. I then saw a crowd of ponies all gathering around the stage. Suddenly, I heard a pony on a speaker system as he seemed to be announcing the beginning of the presentation. "It's the moment you've all been waiting for. As the founder of Canterlogic, she's been keeping us safe and stylish for the last twenty moons. Please go wild for the one and only... Phyllis Cloverleaf!" The crowd soon erupted into cheers as a mare, seemingly the one in charge of this presentation, rushed onto the stage while a spotlight shone on her. The mare in question had a light peach pink coat, slightly lighter fetlocks, reddish hooves, and pale blue eyes. Her eyebrows, tail, and mane were all golden blonde, the latter of which consisted of large curls bundled atop her head. She wore hot pink glasses with eyelash silhouettes attached via silver screws, as well as a pearl necklace and earrings. She had a subtle lavender eye shadow and also wears a brown lanyard with her ID tag on it. "Thank you! Thank you! Oh, hey, how are ya? Thank you so much." Phyllis said, before beginning her speech. "We here at Canterlogic are so thrilled to create perfect products that protect ponies like you... from ponies like that!" She then pointed a sharp hoof towards two posters nearby, while the crowd booed, I took a look at what the posters displayed. One of them displayed a white silhouette of an Earth pony looking up at an evil looking silhouette of a Pegasus with red eyes, the other poster depicted another white Earth pony silhouette, but this time looking up at three unicorn silhouettes with red eyes and sharp horns. Phyllis then continued. "And, like I always say, "To be scared is..." "...to be prepared!" The crowd finished. "Oh, I love it! That's right!" Phyllis exclaimed. "So, let's start the show!" Suddenly, music started to play that sounded like it was from a fashion show as a spotlight focused on a nearby pony who was wearing what looked like a tin hat with a red antenna on it, I heard camera clicks as the crowd began taking pictures as the pony began making her way down the stage, while striking a few poses. "Up first, we have Sugar Moonlight looking absolutely stunning in our high-tech Anti-Mind-Reading Hat. All those psychic unicorns out there are gonna be out of luck when you wear this little number." Phyllis announced. The pony started walking back and another pony entered the stage that looked like it was wearing binoculars on his eyes, they were pointed up at the sky, which I thought was a major flaw. "Now let's welcome Sparkle Chaser in his Pega-Periscope Goggles, the easy way to keep your eye on the sky!" But because this pony's vision was restricted to just the sky, he ended up falling off the stage and landing on the ground with a thud. "Oh! It's all part of the show!" Phyllis chuckled nervously. The last pony to come on stage had some kind of box attached to his body. "Next up, the Earth Pony Balloon Escape Pack!" Phyllis announced. The pony then pulled on a string, thus causing a bunch of balloons to come out from inside the box, and soon enough, the pony floated away while striking a dramatic pose, but he quickly realized his mistake as he suddenly flailed around and yelling for help as he all of a sudden floated right out an open window. "Yikes. That's gonna be a lot of paperwork." I heard Hitch say, the fact that he was worried about that, and not the fact that the pony could potentially get hurt really made me wonder what kind of sheriff he really was. "We take great care here at Canterlogic to ensure the safety of you, our loyal customers." Phyllis said kindly. The crowd then let out an audible "Awww" as I just rolled my eyes. "Now please stand back." Phyllis instructed as the crowd did just that. "This product testing demonstration is fully automated." The stage lit up to reveal a crash dummy that resembled a pony standing on a podium behind a wall of glass, but suddenly, Sunny jumped up behind the dummy and pushed it out of the way, she was now wearing a fake unicorn horn with cardboard wings on her back. The crowd gasped upon seeing this, I even saw Sprout do a spit take while he was drinking a smoothie. Sunny then pulled out a sign with a unicorn horn at the top, Pegasus wings in the middle and a horseshoe at the bottom, which I assumed was to represent all the three pony kind reuniting. "Earth ponies of Maretime Bay! Fear is not your friend! But the unicorns and Pegasi can be! Let's extend the hoof of friendship!" Sunny's inspiring speech was soon interrupted when her hooves suddenly went through an open part of the podium, before quickly coming back up to reveal four steel boots where her hooves were, with the exception of one hoof that she was using to hold up the sign. "That is not what I meant." Sunny said while looking down. "Turn it off! Turn it off! Turn it off!" Phyllis repeated through gritted teeth, before addressing the audience with a nervous laugh. "So... Now you can prevent an aerial abduction with a set of our new Anti-Pega-Lift Boots!" As if on cue, a part of the ceiling opened as a pony robot descended from above and snatched off Sunny's cardboard wings via a claw, while a similar looking robot snatched off Sunny's fake unicorn horn. Sunny tried to stop it by hitting it with her sign, but another pony robot ended up taking her sign as it, along with the other one, went back up into the ceiling. All the while, Sunny was trying to protest. "Hey! Gimme that back!" She shouted out, before the sign dropped on her head. "Ow!" "Sunny." Hitch groaned as he promptly made his way towards the stage while Sprout continued to drink his smoothie without a care in the world. At that moment, a claw came down and picked up Sunny as the podium she was standing on suddenly turned upside down to reveal a grey square with a red x on it. "Uh, e-e-everypony, take a look at our Unicorn Entrapment Device!" Phyllis continued. Sunny was then given a yellow helmet with a yellow unicorn horn protruding out of it, then the claw dropped Sunny as she landed on the grey square with the red x on it, and the next thing I knew, she was soon encased in a metal box with a siren blaring. I looked over and saw Hitch running towards two other ponies, who seemed to be the ones controlling the presentation. "Toots! Sweets! Shut her down! Sheriff's orders!" "We're trying!" Toots replied as him and Sweets frantically tried to follow the sheriff's demand. "Fully automated" means it has to go through the whole cycle!" Sweets explained. As the madness continued to unfold, I was just standing there, unsure of what to do. But as I was thinking of how to intervene, the metal box that trapped Sunny then went away, but Sunny wasn't off the hook for long as a pair of metal wings were attached to her back and the metal square took a sharp turn towards the right wall as a section of it opened to reveal some kind of catapult filled with a green substance. "Oh, no." Sunny said as her ears drooped low. Sunny was then whisked off into the air while the catapult began firing the green substances at Sunny, she flew in circles at a rather fast pace. green slime splattered all over the walls and some of it even ended up on Sunny. Despite her predicament, Sunny was still going about her speech. "Peace with Pegasi! Unity with unicorns!" "Uh, a-a-and this is the Splat-a-pult!" Phyllis stuttered. "CEASE FIRE!" Sunny yelled, before some green slime hit her in the face as the crowd cringed. It was at that point where I knew I had to do something, because the worker ponies sure as heck weren't going to do anything to resolve this issue. Acting quick, I ran up on the stage where Hitch and the two worker ponies were, and sure enough, I saw a plug plugged into an outlet, which I assumed was plugged into the controls. So knowing that, I picked up the cord and pulled on it as hard as I could, until eventually, it was unplugged. The machinery soon started powering down as the catapult stopped spinning and Sunny was dropped as she slid on the floor of the stage, down the runway, and in front of the crowd, who let out an audible gasp. "You okay, Sunny?" I asked as I walked up to her, but I received no response. "Sunny?" Ignoring me, Sunny decided to address the crowd properly. "Aren't you tired of being scared all the time? The truth is we're not in danger. It's all a lie. We don't need any of this Canterlogic junk." "Oh, we don't, do we? How do you suggest that we defend ourselves? With hugs and cupcakes?" Phyllis mocked as the crowd laughed. "Just imagine if you had a friend who could fly." Sunny said. "Or a friend who could-" "Fry your brains with a single horn zap?" Phyllis interrupted Sunny in the middle of her sentence. "Or swoop down and snatch you away?" As the crowd gasped again, I needed to think of something to say, something that would convince these ponies that they have nothing to worry about. "That's not true." I spoke out. "Unicorns and Pegasi aren't like that at all." "Spare me your nonsense, strange creature." Phyllis scoffed. This got me really mad, I approached her angrily. "No, you spare me your nonsense, you're over here spreading false information about ponies, and I've pretty much had it up to here with that!" "You don't scare me." Phyllis then turned over to Hitch. "Sheriff, do your job." "All right, Sunny. Let's go." Hitch said sternly. However, Sunny still persisted. "No! Everypony needs to hear this! Everything you believe about Pegasi and unicorns is wrong! They used to be our friends and can be again!" "Yeah." I added. "I'm friends with unicorns and Pegasi, they're nothing to be scared about." "Hey, we don't need any of them around here!" A pony from the crowd called out. With that, the crowd began booing and throwing out rude remarks at us. Sunny looked at the crowd with pure disappointment etched on her face. "Come on, let's go. Show's over, guys." Hitch said as he motioned for us to follow him. Knowing that we were unable to convince everyone, Sunny and I followed Hitch off the stage, Sunny had her head low in distraught as I couldn't help but feel sorry for her. "It's quite sad, really. Now, where were we?" Phyllis giggled nervously. "God, how much I want to slap her right now." I thought angrily to myself.