//------------------------------// // The Presentation // Story: Every Year I Stop You // by Lets Do This //------------------------------// "Today's the day, Dad! I actually have a plan this time. Wish me luck!" Adjusting the picture of herself and her father, Sunny shut the door, strapped on her inlines, and set off. Down the Point and around into Maretime Bay, at top speed, a pony on a mission. For the past year, she'd toned it down, reeled it in. She'd managed to find a job delivering smoothies for Natural Flavors, who ran the smoothie stand on Shore Street. And she'd worked hard on fitting in and getting ponies to like her, or at least stop frowning in her direction as she swept by. Well, enough of the restraint, she told herself. Today, everything changes. Today, the gloves come off... Today was the Annual Presentation at Canterlogic. Take number two, and time to put her plan into action. As she skated through town on her delivery route, with the smoothie-cart rattling along behind her, she put up stickers of smiling pegasi and unicorns. She drew hearts on the posters of the dark, menacing pony. She made balloon animals and smiled at fillies and colts, getting them to smile back at her, unsure why they were doing it but eager to join in. She let out all the pent-up excitement, all the way through town. Today she was going to make a difference. Today she was getting in. And everything would change, she was sure of it. Eager and excited, she rolled up to the front walkway of the Canterlogic factory, smoothie-cart in tow. And was quickly confronted by Hitch, appearing from behind the sign at the base of the walkway. "Aha! There you are, Sunny. Just the pony I was expecting." "Morning, Sheriff Hitch." Then she smiled past him. "I see you brought the whole squad along again." Hitch glanced at the two seagulls and shore-crab escorting him. He groaned. "What is it with me and critters? I'm like a magnet to them. Guys, c'mon. Give Hitch a little space!" The seagulls and crab stepped back smartly. Nearly an entire inch. "So?" said Sunny breezily. "What's up?" "Oh, please," Hitch retorted, "like you don't know? Today is the Annual Presentation at Canterlogic --" "Hey, I'm headed there right now!" "Uhh, no you're not! Listen, I know you've come up with some hare-brained scheme to sabotage it. And if you think I'm just gonna let you walk in there..." "Hey, Hiiiittchh..." she said, playfully. "No." "C'monnnn!" "Good Morning, Sheriff Hitch!" "'Morning Mayflower! Dahlia!" Hitch nodded to the passing mares. Then he turned back to Sunny. He scowled fiercely, refusing to be drawn into whatever she had in mind. "Sunny, I'm on duty." She waggled a hoof in the air. And even with the skate on, Hitch recognized it. The old club hoof-shake. Which they hadn't done for moons. And thinking that, Hitch realized he was being exactly the kind of gloomy, by-the-books pony he'd always worried about. And she was calling him out on it. Well, I did ask her to, he told himself. And he gave in: Up high, down low, Hitch it to a post, Flip it sunny side up, And on a piece of toast! And even as Hitch said it, he had to admit it did make him feel better. It was just like old times, when they were little. He kept her out of trouble, while she, well... kept him honest. He'd missed that. Missed having a friend like her. Unlike some ponies I might mention... As he thought that, he heard an exhausted, gasping sound coming from behind him and turned to see Sprout himself, trudging up to lean against the placard. "I did what you asked for, Hitch. She never left my sight. Not even once." "Oh, hey, Sprout!" Sunny said. "You okay? You seem kinda wheezy." The red colt managed to pull himself together enough to look affronted. "That's Deputy Sprout to you." Sunny started to turn away, towards the path, and Hitch quickly got in front of her. "Hey, wait up! I'm not finished! 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," she said. "I'll just go into the factory... deliver my smoothies..." "Nuh-uh!" Sprout shouted. "You can't set a hoof in there! My mom had you banned!" "But I..." "I'm asking as your friend, Sunny," Hitch said, and meant it. "Not as Sheriff. Just... please try not to pull any stunts today?" "Okay, okay!" she said. "I'll try..." "Thank you. Now, give your delivery to Sprout, and go home." Then Hitch was distracted by a pony nearby casually tossing aside a candy-wrapper. He rushed off, quoting regulation numbers, with the critter brigade hurrying along behind him. Sunny grinned at that. And turned... ... to find Deputy Sprout smirking at her. "Buh-bye..." He snickered triumphantly. Sunny rolled her eyes and turned away, leaving Sprout to tug her smoothie-cart up the path and into the factory. Which... was the plan all along. Sunny smirked at how easily she'd pulled it off. Hitch was mollified and not watching her closely. And if Sprout didn't actually drink all the smoothies himself and end up in a sugar-induced coma somewhere, he'd at least be kept busy trucking them around the factory. Long enough for Sunny to casually stroll round to the side entrance, where neither the Sheriff nor his Deputy were on duty now. And hoping against hope Sprout was only exaggerating, as usual, about her being banned. The workpony who was stationed by the side door looked up in surprise when she coasted up to it. "Oh! Hey, Sunny." "Hey, Pipe Wrench!" Sunny beamed sheepishly. "Look, I was in a bit of a rush this morning. So I asked Sprout to take my smoothie cart around in the factory?" "Oh yeah," the workpony nodded. "I did see him walkin' by with it." "Yeah. Unfortunately," Sunny went on, "he hasn't brought the cart back yet. And I'm done with my other rounds." "That Sprout..." The workpony shook his head. "He might be Deputy, but he's not the brightest bulb in the box, you know what I'm sayin'?" Tempting as that was, Sunny let it go. Eyes on the prize, she reminded herself. "It's just that, well... Natural Flavors will be ticked if I show up without the cart. He's gonna need it for the afternoon crowd, after the presentation. Would it be okay if I just popped inside, found Sprout, and got the cart back?" Sunny gritted her teeth. It was make or break now. "Pleeeease?" The workpony looked doubtful. Then grinned. "Sure. Go on in." He waved a hoof. "Don't tell nobody I let ya." "My lips are sealed," she assured him, and skated on past. And as she navigated the corridors beyond, she resisted the temptation to burst into song. I'm in, she thought. Now, to pick up my cache of supplies, and we're ready to rumble... She felt briefly guilty for deceiving Hitch. Then she shrugged resignedly. At least I didn't have to flat-out lie to him about it. I said I'd try... ------------------------------ It was much later, that afternoon. After the debacle at the factory. After the panic in town. After the showdown in which Sunny blatantly defied Hitch's authority as Sheriff, then ran away from justice... Geez, Hitch thought to himself. Was there actually anything utterly crazy that didn't happen today? Hitch was standing in front of the lighthouse on North Star Point, staring in disbelief at a distant hilltop over which the road out of town curved and dipped away. Watching Sunny gallop away into the distance, accompanied by the blue-haired, freakishly blasé unicorn, who had somehow managed to throw the entire town into chaos just by showing up. As he watched, the two disappeared from sight. And even with his anger at Sunny for breaking her word, for deceiving him, for harboring a fugitive, for giving aid and comfort to the enemy, for... Hitch brought himself to a halt. Sunny was right. That's Brisk Bronco talking. Even given all of that, Hitch's heart sank at the sight. It felt like... like he was losing her. Losing Sunny, the one real friend that he had in the entire town. Hitch had never understood the way she thought. He constantly found himself at a loss facing her brilliantly anarchistic approach to pretty much any problem. She broke every rule, turned things upside down, seemed to delight in the chaos she caused. And she always, always left him grinding his teeth, trying not to shout at her to make her see sense. Yet despite all that... he just couldn't stand the thought of losing her. What would I do, Sunny, he thought sadly, if you never came back? Who would I be without you? The thought jogged a memory, of the one time he and Sunny had been on anything approaching a date. It was ice cream, at the food cart by the railing on Shore Street. They were celebrating Sunny landing the smoothie delivery job from Natural Flavors, the one employer in town still willing to give her a chance. Sunny had apologized to Hitch for being so harsh with him. And she actually apologized too for trying to sneak into the first annual Canterlogic presentation. "You were right," she admitted. "I really should do things differently. Just marching in through the front gate like that, without any kind of plan, that was really dumb, huh?" "Yeah... it sorta was," Hitch cautiously agreed. "If you're gonna pull something like that you gotta be smoother, more subtle. Never let 'em see you coming..." "Like Brisk Bronco?" Hitch stared at her, warily. But she was smiling, in that wonderfully friendly way. Almost as if she was apologizing for making fun of Bronco, too. Hitch finally nodded. "Yeah, like him. But you know, Sunny, truth be told, if you ever really went totally legit, I might actually regret it." "Huh?" "Every year, you try to sneak into someplace. And every year, I stop you. It's gotten to be a tradition with us. And I think the reason I keep letting you off, instead of locking you up and throwing the book at you, like I ought to do," he added warningly, "is because everypony else is so... so... law abiding." Hitch shrugged. "Without somepony like you around, breaking the rules all the time, what would my job be? Chasing after litterbugs and hoping for better?" Sunny smirked, mischievously. "So you're saying... we're perfect for each other?" Hitch huffed. "More like we deserve each other." Then he nodded soberly. "But yeah, if someday I finally brought it all to an end... by locking you up, or worse than that, by just standing by and letting you run wild... then where would I be after that? What would I do next? I'm the Sheriff, Sunny! I am the law around here. And how can I be the law, really... without somepony like you breaking it all the time?" Sunny nodded. "And why would I keep doing it -- breaking the law, I mean? If I didn't have a friend like you trying so hard to stop me? You're right, Hitch, we do deserve each other. You keep me going. You keep me from giving up." Hitch shook his head. "This is just not fair. It's easy to keep ponies in line when you don't know them personally. It's a lot harder when it's somepony you know so well. A friend you've known and liked ever since you were little. But I don't get to choose, do I? Around here, I am the law. So this one's on me -- at least, so sayeth Sheriff Bronco." Sunny smiled, amused at how serious he was taking it. Then she held up a hoof, waggling it. And Hitch smiled thankfully. And did the hoof-shake with her: Up high, down low, Hitch it to a post, Flip it sunny side up, And on a piece of toast! It helped, same as it always did. The same as she always did. That was the reason he kept visiting the lighthouse. And, Hitch decided, his thoughts coming back to the present, that's why I'm not going to let it end like this. I'm going to go after her. Bring her back personally, to face the full force of the law. Because I'm not just the Sheriff. I'm also... ... her very best friend. And she deserved no less from him. The End My Little Pony: A New Generation, its characters and indicia are the property of Hasbro. No infringement is intended. This story is a work of fan fiction, written by fans for fans of the series.