It was GOOD to be the Emperor.
Sprout could confirm that much. The giant mech and personalized bobbleheads aside, it was beyond nice to have every pony in town listen to him for a change. Especially since they weren't paying attention to Hitch, who was conveniently out of the way chasing after Sunny and her obviously misguided attempt at uniting all three races of ponies together.
It had been so GOOD. He'd gotten a chance to lead the random musical numbers that erupted around town, and all the smoothies he could drink! And then, the bobbleheads. He'd had big plans for those, oh yes. The way the townsponies had been eating out of his hoof, he stood to make a bundle of bits off the licensing fees alone.
And then, because of course it did, Sunny had to ruin everything, with her Friends, and her Magic, and, Suddenly, everything he'd known all his life was completely and utterly wrong, so wrong it glowed in the dark. Unicorns didn't have laser horns, laser tongues, or even laser anything, and the Pegasi were too enamored with flight to be a threat to anypony. As a matter of fact, a trio of pegasi visitors to Maretime Bay had been instrumental in rescuing the crew of a fishing boat that had been caught in one of the storms that frequently sprung up over the bay in the autumn. In fact, one of them had managed to break the storm up, with nobody as surprised as the pegasus who'd managed it.
If he'd been being honest with himself, Sprout could live without being Emperor. The perks were nice, to be sure. But they came with a lot of responsibility, and that he could have done without. After a brief, constitutional crisis, Maretime Bay abolished the office of Emperor and Hitch was reinstated as Sheriff, and Sprout, having by the smallest of margins, Not Started A War, took his place back as Deputy.
That was fine. All Sprout had ever wanted was to protect his Town, His Neighbors, and His Mommy.
But what was unbearable, what was really the hardest part, was that everypony in town just...Forgave him. They'd moved on, as if nothing had happened, and Sunny and Hitch had just...let him be their friend. Like he hadn't just tried to lead everyone he'd ever cared about into a costly and unnecessary war. Like he might have let himself get carried away with his own power. Oh, they were right, and showed him that. But they didn't judge him for being wrong.
And everypony else in Maretime Bay had followed their lead! None of them- privately, or publicly- came to him with words of rage or hate, or who didn't give him any less respect than he'd held before his Imperial Ambitions came to light.
And what's worse was there wasn't anypony he could talk to about it. Mommy didn't want to Listen to him, she just wanted to bake him cookies, which, admittedly, were nice, but it didn't help. Going to Hitch or Sunny was right out of the question. Hitch had a preternatural ability to choose the right thing, and Sunny...well, Sprout was pretty sure that she wouldn't let him hear the end of their foalhood games and beliefs. Or Mommy's run of defensive fashions, which, after the first half hour unicorn or pegasus visitors to Maretime Bay, turned out to be Ludicrously Unnecessary.
Which was why, Sprout reflected, a third of the way through his fifth of Calvados, he'd found himself on the cliffs above Maretime Bay, in the shadow of the lighthouse wreckage, in front of a humble gravestone, retelling all of that to the departed father of the pony who had set it all in motion.
"...So, Mr Argyle, that's where I'm at...Your daughter's started to bring everypony back together." Sprout snorted, gazing out at the horizon, the setting sun casting shadows against the cliff, and the sea and sky blending together. "I...I guess I wanted to say I'm sorry for not paying more attention to you...you know. Back when you were around."
He turned to look back at the grave, which sat, as graves do, silent. A breeze blew in off the ocean, ruffling his mane as he took another swig of the potent liquor, working his courage up to what he had started to realize was inevitable.
"I...I tried to do right, by everypony in town. You and Sunny always told me it was misguided, and...maybe I should have listened. In hindsight, what you guys talked about makes a lot more sense." Sprout sighed, his head hanging in shame, the breeze intensifying. "I just...gah, what's the use. I didn't listen to you when you were alive, it's not like you can listen to me while you're dead."
Sprout kicked a pebble off the edge of the cliff, and contemplated it as it fell, the splash of it landing lost in the waves pounding on the cliff far below. "Looking back on it, I'm not sure what I could have done differently, knowing what I did then. Sunny was lucky, growing up with you for a Dad. You were always supportive, of her, Hitch...and me. Thanks, by the way, for that. I never knew my real Dad, and you were probably the closest thing I had to one...I'm rambling...sorry."
He sat back on his haunches, and took another swig of the calvados. "I don't know what to do with myself, Mister Argyle. I could have expected it if everypony in town turned on me...and who could blame them! Their forgiveness...I don't know what to do with it..." He shook his head, then looked back to the grave, and then at the cliff beyond. "...Maybe I should just...just go...Maretime Bay's better off without me in it, anyway."
Sprout stood, resolved for what he needed to do. He drained the last of the bottle, somewhat unsteadier on his hooves as he was a few minutes before, and then wove his way closer to the edge of the cliff. He debated tossing the empty bottle off the edge of the cliff first, but on further consideration, decided to leave it at the edge of the cliff, where somepony would be able to find it. Hitch would appreciate that, making it easier for somepony to pick up the litter.
"See you, Mister Argyle. Thanks for everything."
Sprout stood for a long minute, his eyes closed, the evening breeze full in his face, the smell of salt spray filling his nostrils. He'd always, guiltily, wondered what it'd be like, to fly. Well, this would be kinda like that. All he'd have to do would be to put one hoof forward, and lean just a little-
"Wow, it's pretty up here!" The voice- female, dulcet, and awestruck-was right at his shoulder. Sprout hadn't heard her hoofsteps in the wind, and her arrival had shocked him, scrambling his thoughts. He jolted, almost doing what he'd tried to work up the courage to for the last hour by accident. Instead, he whirled on her, his wits scrambled, and said, in his most natural tone of voice:
"GAH! How long have you been there?!"
"Sorry! I'm sorry, I didn't mean to startle you!" Her voice was beautiful, and she had features to match, delicate and wearing an expression of concern on them. Her lavender coat glistened with the care of proper upkeep, and there was something in her mane and tail, an intriguing aroma of mango and ginger. "I was just passing by when I saw you down here and thought I'd see what you were looking at." She ruffled her wings slightly, settling them on her-
Her Wings...
"You're a pegasus..." Was all he had the wits to say, as his mind noted further details. The way her wings blended with her body. The fact that, unless pegasi were drastically different from earth ponies, she was of an age with him. And that he smelled strongly of booze, though he hoped and prayed to whatever deity that would answer that the sea breeze was keeping that last odor out of the nose of the young mare.
"Well, that would explain these wings. I'm Pip. What's your name?"
For a split second, Sprout considered giving a fake name, but discarded that almost as fast. He had never been a particularly good liar in the best of circumstances. "Name's Sprout."
"Oh! It's you!" Pip's beautiful expression shifted to one of recognition. "I didn't recognize you without your cloak. From back when the-"
"Lighthouse got destroyed, yeah, I remember." Sprout snorted, disappointed in himself more than anything, that he'd hoped this was a pony who hadn't been a party to his epic foul up. "I'll see you around, Pip." He picked up the empty bottle and started to rise.
"Wait! Please don't go!" Pip's voice was plaintive, and halted him in his tracks. He looked back over his shoulder at her. "Sunny and Hitch told me about you."
"Yeah, I'll bet they did. Probably said I was a raving, incompetent, lazy, xenophobic lunatic, huh?"
"No, actually." Pip shook her head. "While we were traveling, Sunny and Hitch both said they admired your drive. And your commitment to your ideals. It carried weight with them." She sat at the edge of the cliff, and patted the ground next to her with a hoof. "Could you just stay with me for a minute? I could use someone to talk to." She smiled at him, then, which did awfully funny things to his knees that he couldn't entirely blame on the calvados. "I promise I won't kick you off the cliff."
To his amazement, Sprout found himself sitting at the edge next to her. "Sunny told me about you, too," He said, as he did so. "She wasn't kidding about your voice, for what it's worth. Said you gave up a lot in Zephyr Heights to help out her & Hitch."
Pip sighed, blowing part of her mane out of her face. "Yeah, well...it turned out it wasn't all that much to begin with."
"How do you mean? From what Hitch told me, you're a princess. That's something."
"I was a princess. And even then, all I did was keep the other pegasi distracted from the fact they couldn't fly. I was just a showpony, a shiny object for Mother to wave in front of the citizenry. And it worked, too. I had hundreds of thousands of Pipsqueaks, waiting for me to say something about my newest song, or a fragrance that I was endorsing." She used her hoof to push another pebble off the edge of the cliff. "Doesn't matter much now. Zephyr Heights adopted a Constitutional Republic about a week after everyone started to fly, and that put me out of the Shiny Object job. I have a few fans, still, but for most of them, it's too fresh of a reminder about the role I played in my mother's reign."
Pip's voice became more and more dejected as she spoke, her head hanging lower. Sprout nodded at that. "That must have been pretty bad."
She nodded. "At first, yes. But I can't blame them for it. It's just that..." She waved a frustrated hoof at the ocean. "All this time, ever since I could remember, I thought what I was doing gave hope to my fans. Gave them a reason to think that they were better than themselves. That I was helping. In the end...All I was doing was propping up something corrupt. Do you have any idea what that's like?"
"More than you can realize." Sprout did something he hadn't done for the last few weeks. He smiled, though his was a rueful example of the species. "At least you used Hope to help your fans. All I did was play off of everypony in town's fears. Hope's better in the long run." He hung his head a bit, and so missed her gaze turning to him. Almost under his breath, he added "I haven't had hope for myself for a long time."
"Don't say that!" Sprout looked back over at Pip, her eyes shining in the evening light and her expression earnest. "You might not have been right, in the long run, but you're still a talented pony! And suppose that there had been a threat to Maretime Bay. Your actions would have kept everypony in town safe. That counts for something."
"Maybe you're right." Sprout didn't quite believe it, but if she was going to give him the benefit of the doubt, who was he to argue. "Fact of the matter is, I was wrong, and I'm having a hard time living with it."
Pip nodded, this time sporting a rueful smile of her own. "Same here." She cocked her head to one side, considering a new thought. "Say. I've been flying for a few hours now and I'm starving. Do you know anyplace in town that has good food?"
Sprout nodded, eager. "Oh yeah, check out Pomodoro's. He's got pizza and pasta that'll blow your horseshoes off. Right on the corner of Mane & Ocean."
Pip's expression was that of a mare who had countless patience which was, nonetheless, being somewhat tried. "I don't suppose you'd care to show me where it is? I haven't the best sense of direction."
"Oh." Sprout let that idea circulate in his booze addled consciousness for a second, and then the thought occurred to him. "Oh!" He rose to his hooves, making sure the empty bottle was tucked into his saddlebags. "Sure! Just...just give me a second, ok?" He turned and trotted back to the grave, skidding to a halt and brushing some leaves off the headstone. "Thanks again for listening, Mister Argyle. You were a big help."
And with that, Sprout returned to Pip, and led her back down the path towards Maretime Bay.
Unnoticed behind them, the evening breeze stilled to a calm as the sun properly set, casting the town into shades of proper twilight.
Author's Note
Welp, this one off is the first I got for Gen 5. Lots of lore to unpack in the new movie, and hopefully they do it justice.