Toots quickly trotted down the main street of Maretime Bay, not wanting the distraught Sunny to get too far ahead. The early dinner rush began to crowd the streets as the second shift for most of the town's businesses began to let out. Normally, most of the hoof traffic would be coming down from the Canterlogic campus.
Clearly, that was no longer the case. Nopony came down the main thoroughfare, and only a single pony stood facing the main entrance, completely alone up on the hill.
One Sunny Starscout.
Toots made his way through the crowd, and quietly walked up to the mare, who merely stood and stared half-dumbfounded at the empty factory in front of her.
"Sunny..." Toots began, standing next to her.
The mare looked at him incredulously for a second.
"Toots, this... This isn't what I wanted," Sunny told him.
"I know, Sunny. This isn't your fault. This can be laid 100% at the hooves of Phyllis Cloverleaf. Hitch's speech was sensible, but the fact is, Phyllis went through so much of our surplus, that Canterlogic would be so deep in the red by the time Zephyr Heights even thought about moving any production over here. Could we have stayed open longer? Yes, but for what purpose? Without all these stupid traps, it would just be a waste of money and electricity. I truly feel it's going to be some time before this building has a purpose again. The fact is that Canterlogic wasn't going to be able to afford to replace the lighthouse with all the money Phyllis spent building that monstrosity. Construction would start, get about halfway done, then the factory would most likely run out of money, and the employees would have to be let go and have absolutely zero support. I knew that's not what you would want. So I closed it right now, and had the magistrate sign it over to you. That way, the rest of the surplus can go to all the affected employees for that much longer while they figure out what to do."
Sunny swallowed some tears as she struggled to keep herself composed, and Toots continued.
"This way, you'll be able to sell it to fund a rebuild of the lighthouse, or if you want to end up using the building somehow, that's fine too, and nopony expects you to know what to do with it right away," the interim CEO told her.
Toots took a step closer to Sunny and offered her the folder once again.
"You can't really refuse, Sunny, it's legally yours in the town's books already. If not from me, all you'll get is a visit from a magistrate telling you the same thing." Toots told her. "And I truly believe that Canterlogic, or whatever it ends up being in the future, has never been in better hooves."
Sunny took a deep breath, and accepted the folder from Toots.
Toots' explanation didn't make her feel much better, but she kept the folder tucked securely underneath her right leg while she silently turned and headed back down into town, wondering what tomorrow would hold, and wanting nothing more than the last of her friends to get back here and just be here with her.