You Spin me Right Round
The CanterLogic Factory loomed in front of me, with its large central glass tower being the most prominent and notable feature from the ground. I was aware that the airy front and large amounts of glass was meant to produce a feeling of lightness and airy interiors, but I still couldn't help but feel it looked like a villain's lair when the villain was trying too hard to disguise his (or her) base of operations. Still, I knew what I had to do in order to keep things moving.
Sure enough, just as clockwork, Hitch emerged from behind a sign. "Aha! There you are, Sunny!"
I smiled as nicely as I could. How long had he been standing behind that sign? "Good morning, Sheriff Hitch. I see you brought the entire squad with you."
Truth be told I couldn't remember the exact wording of the entire conversation, but I knew the gist of the exchange and decided to follow along that instead.
Hitch sighed, as if annoyed. "I have no idea why these guys follow me around. It's like I'm some sort of magnet to them." He glanced to me. "As for you? What do you want?"
"I rather assumed my portable smoothie cart would be a bit of a clue," I replied, indicating behind me. Hitch seemed to have gone off the script as well, which was interesting.
"Good thing for you I know exactly how this is gonna be done," Hitch said. "I'll take the cart in for you, sell the smoothies before the show, then pay you back. That way we avoid the usual shambles."
"Shambles?" I asked. "Sheriff Hitch, you wouldn't be accusing me of being a regular lawbreaker, would you?"
"We know exactly how this works, Sunny. I go and watch the show, you disrupt it, then I lead you out and drop you off at home with a caution. But not this year, because I planned ahead."
Just then, Sprout arrived. Based on his physical appearance and breathing, he was worn out by what at most was three minutes of exercise. "I... didn't.... let... her... out of... my... sight!" he wheezed, desperately trying not to look a fool in front of Hitch. It wasn't working, sadly.
I glanced back. "You need some water? You don't look great."
"I'll... be... fine," he replied, even though he clearly wasn't.
Hitch snorted. "I heard her, Sprout. Sunny doesn't exactly have the quietest of singing voices. You know, if you didn't have this rocky relationship with the law I'd probably hire you as a deputy as well, considering your stamina." He then turned away. "Well, time to get security arrangements up and running."
I started to move forward before Sprout blocked my way. "Nope. I'll take that, not you. Can't have you subjecting the townsfolk to your yearly dose of craziness, can we?"
So not only did the characters hear each other singing, which presumably means they also hear the backing music, they seemed to know my moves. Granted, Sunny was a regular nuisance around here, but that wasn't exactly at the top of my list of priorities right now. "Hey! Be careful with it! Those took a while to make!"
Hitch and Sprout were now well out of earshot, but this presented me with an opportunity. I snuck along the side of the building and found a drainage duct I could squeeze down. It was a bit tight, but then again I reckoned I could keep moving.
Turns out going down the duct wasn't the best of ideas. The duct connected directly to the waste disposal room, meaning that partway down I had picked up the smell of seaweed. Presumably this is why Izzy was amazed I didn't smell of fish later in the film- without a chance to wash between the two incidents Sunny must have smelled absolutely horrendous. Getting down the duct was a little harder than I'd thought, as it narrowed briefly along, which was annoying to say the least.
Still, I made it out the other end and eventually found myself in the hazardous materials room. Inside were some objects marked radioactive. I will admit I wasn't in a mood to wipe my brow or sweat rust, so I grabbed a nearby hazmat suit to blend in. After that, it was a case of following the other ponies down the corridor. This was all very exciting. It felt as though I was in a spy movie, trying to recover the top secret documents from the villain's lair before I got caught. I finally arrived in the pit room below the presentation. I could here it going on upstairs, complete with Phyllis spouting her discriminatory rhetoric.
I ditched the suit, grabbed my things, and then stepped onto the elevator platform in preparation for the next section of the presentation. "Here goes nothing," I said. "Time to show them the truth."
The platform raised into position, and true to form the ponies watching looked annoyed. "How did she get in there?" Phyllis demanded. "Who is responsible for this outrageous display of incompetence?"
"Ponies of Maretime Bay!" I shouted, trying to be heard through the glass. "I know the future, and we must be ready for it! I know what will happen, and I can prove the future!"
It could see Hitch rolling his eyes. Although his words were inaudible from this range, it was probably some sort of remark of frustration.
"I can show you this. In a few moments, this platform will flip over and add boots to my hooves, and after that a grabber will drop from the left and take my sign."
And sure enough, both of these things came to pass, complete with the helmet being added. Damn, this thing was seriously uncomfortable. Then again, it was designed to be worn by a crash test dummy. "As you can see, both of those things happened, and were perfectly predicted! You have to beWHOA!"
The grabber for the flight demonstration had activated ahead of schedule, and shortly after the wing components were added it began the automated operations sequence. The world began to revolve, rather like I had eaten too much cheese, and the ponies out there were frantically trying to switch the equipment off.
Then the splatapaults opened up. If you've ever been shot with a paintball, you'll have a good idea of those splattering all over me felt like. Eventually the grabber was detached, and I smashed through the glass before landing flat on my face.
"Now you know," I gasped, severely winded. "You have to-"
"Take her to an asylum," Phyllis interrupted. "Your unity nonsense was bad enough, but knowing the future? You'll go the way of your father if you're not careful. Take her away, Hitch."
Hitch helped me to my hooves. "Let's go, Sunny," he said, as he led me away. As this happened, Phyllis continued her speech.
"That is what the mind of a pony poisoned by unicorn and pegasus propaganda looks like. Do you want to end up like her?"
Later on, I'd been dropped off at the location of my smoothie shack. Hitch was not sympathetic to my plight. "What is wrong with you?" he asked, bluntly. "Why do you find following the rules so hard? And do you need to see a doctor?"
"Because the rules and laws of Maretime Bay are wrong," I replied flatly. "We all used to be friends, and we will be again. I know what's coming, and you'd be wise to listen to me!"
"I don't make the laws, I simply enforce them," Hitch said. "Take your complaint up with Congress, not me. On the topic of laws, care to guess how many you broke?"
"No, but I imagine you'll tell me each and every one."
"We'd be here for the rest of the day if we did. It's that many! It's my duty to protect everypony, and I can't keep playing favourites forever."
"You just said everypony. That includes unicorns and pegasi!"
"You know what I mean." Hitch stopped, and decided to change his tone. "Those old stories of the Guardians of Harmony, the books, the TV show? It's all made up. None of it really happened. They were a series of stories written to appeal to little foals. This is the real world, and it's time to grow up. I'm the last friend you have in this town. Do you really want to lose me too?"
I shook my head. "No."
Hitch nodded. "I'll see you later, Sunny."
As he trotted away I sat on a bench to mope. None of it had worked. And with no clue where I was in the story I had no idea how many more years of this I would endure. Sunny's life really wasn't the paradise I had imagined it to be. She really was born in the wrong century.
And having nopony to guide her- erm, me- made it all the more difficult. "I wish you were here, dad."
Suddenly, there was a loud commotion from my left, and I trotted towards the town entrance and saw ponies running in fear. I thought I knew what was coming next.
Sure enough, the crowd of running ponies intensified, and I was knocked to the floor. As I tried to get up, my eyes widened.
It was Izzy! Izzy had arrived!
Her eyes seemed to recognise me, and her next words caught me completely off guard.
"Hi, Sunny. Long time no see!"
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New chapter, folks!
11559501
New chapter, BTW.
cool chapter mate
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Thanks!
Your about to find out.
I could see Hitch rolling his eyes.*
That's gotta hurt.
https://m.I'd so slap her if I was there right now cause Sunny was telling the truth, nor was she poisoned!
Wait, how does she know her name already!?!
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1. That she will.
2. Corrected.
3. I can assure you now it is pretty painful. And that's speaking from experience.
4 and 5. Phyllis doesn't know any better. She's been raised in this sort of mindset, and presumably had the same views drilled into her by her parents. To quote the film Mississippi Burning, "hatred isn't natural. It's taught."
6. You'll have to read Rebirth of Magic: Izzytastic to find out!
Hey there. Thanks again for going to the effort to share the exchanges, characterizations and future chapter set-up. Looks like we got our first (admittedly subtle) clue that Hitch has ended up sharing a body with a human as well (going "off-script") as well as the acknowledgement that the singing WAS heard by others and the explanation to how Sunny was able to sneak in (another clue that the transported humans are sharing the memories of the ponies they're in the role of [which is probably a big help in keeping them at least mostly "in-character" in public]). The slight "Groundhog Day" Shout Out was also enjoyable, as was the catch-up with "Izzy's" story.
REALLY looking forward to more of this.
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Part of the challenge of writing this series is what to leave the same and what to leave out. With Sunny, this was a little less challenging given the townsfolk already regard her as insane, and as such will attribute any oddities in her behaviour to that.