A Sprout to a Better Path

by soniana-draws

Rating: everyone
Tags: Alternate Universe, My Little Pony: A New Generation, Sunny Starscout, Mane 5, Phyllis Cloverleaf, Comedy, Hitch Trailblazer, Adventure, Sprout
Length: 14058

Hitch drags Sprout along on the adventure [A New Gen canon divergence - Sprout redemption]

"Look at me, I'm Hitch. Everypony loves me, I've got a perfect mane, shredded abs and think my paid-off mortgage gives me the right to drag my deputy to chase after the crazy mare he already told me to arrest too many times to count. Bleh." Sprout murmured, kicking any small rock that got on his path in frustration.

The entire herd of bunnies that had gathered around the taller stallion suddenly cheered at his heroic speech and Sprout groaned.

(or: the movie if Hitch managed to drag Sprout along on the adventure)

[Cover art by me ]
[Now has a Playlist!I ]

Published 2022-05-10 21:40:00 UTC
Last updated 2024-02-14 03:22:32 UTC

1. 'We' means you and me

Author's Note

Heyy, I'm a pegasister now.

This one story is a take of what if Hitch actually considered 'wait am I really gonna leave this guy in charge' before chasing after Sunny in the movie, and all the events that would unfold from that. So ye, the start of a Sprout redemption arc AU

Last note and I'll shut up: I love both Sprout and Hitch, but we saw their relationship was complicated and I reflected that here. This is them before the character development, so Hitch is shown having zero expectations of Sprout after witnessing him avoiding his job too many times, and a Sprout bitter for being seen as useless no matter what he did by everyone including his friend.

1. 'We' means you and me

"I told her. I told her. No more favors. No more bailing her out. She gave me no choice. No choice!" Hitch ranted as he walked around the station. First breaking into Cantelorgic and now freeing a unicorn, while looking right into his eyes! Sunny had gone completely insane.

"All right. We need to arrest her and bring her back to face the full force of the law."

"Question," Sprout said, more focused on the pizza slice on his hooves than on everything the sheriff has just said, "when you say 'we', you mean...?"

"You and I." Hitch frowned. Sprout better not be…

"Uh, I... I'd love to, but, um," Aand here he went again. "I just gotta... clean up my workspace, get my papers in order, and, um…"

Hitch deadpanned at all the littering Sprout just did. Again. In front of his face. Just to get away.

Yeah, maybe it wouldn't be bad to go solo on this one…

Actually, no. Leaving Sprout in charge? The pony who ran away from missions whenever he could? The one who couldn't do even the simplest of tasks like rescuing a kitty from a tree? The one and only reason his office had litter around 24/7? Hitch would return to the bay in pieces!

"You know what? I think you're right. This one's a job for Hitch and Hitch only." The sheriff turned around, flipping his mane and shooting a grin to a mirror at the other side of the room. Hey there handsome.

"Besides, I've been going too soft on you lately."

"You have?" Sprout sounded genuinely shocked.

Yep, he already revoked Sunny's, it was time to do the same for Sprout's childhood friend privileges as well.

"Today's the day you'll handle a mission on your own while I'm out. Keep everypony calm, maintain the peace, be a pillar of strength."

Hitch kept himself from rolling his eyes at the mere idea. He could already imagine the deputy hiding under his desk the whole time.

He started walking towards the door, not noticing Sprout's hopeful grin behind him. "They'll need it more than ever now, a unicorn in town? They must be terrified, the entirety of Maretime Bay will run right into you for answers, screaming and at the verge of turning against each other the moment they hear anything they don't like. We don't even know if they'll listen in the first place, they might jump right into rioting! Oof, I'm tired just from imagining it."

Hitch looked back a bit, a smirk forming on his face at seeing Sprout's eyes growing wide by the second. Got him.

"U-um-"

"Luckily I won't be dealing with that. Catching Sunny? Piece of cake, like a little vacation. I'll probably have time to take a nap over a nice meadow before coming back here." Hitch was grinning more out of amusement than confidence by now. His hoof reached for the knob. "Well, enough rambling. Good luck Sprout! Don't let a war happen while I'm gone."

"Wait, wait, wait! I-I'll go, I-" In his attempt to get the sheriff's attention, Sprout ran head-first into the unmoving door. His whine barely lasted a second before he got up to look at Hitch with pleading eyes(and tears of pain). "I-I mean, Sunny's with a unicorn, you'll need help! And-and what's a sheriff without his deputy, eh?"

Sprout grinned way too widely, Hitch gave him a look. Commenting on how poor of a job he did as a deputy enough to consider a solo mission was temptful, but Hitch wasn't in the mood for arguing(never was), so he limited himself to softly push the door open with his front hoof in silence.

"Alright deputy, to our shared dance with danger!" Hitch yelled heroically, pointing to the dark horizon.

"Uh...Ye- yeah!" Sprout mimicked the pose, but his heroic voice came out quivery.

And with that Hitch ran off, only to realize a few steps after that Sprout wasn't galloping right beside him. He turned around to catch the red pony switching between walking and eating from the pizza box over his back.

"What? It's still warm." Sprout said, mouth full and his muzzle covered in cheese.

Hitch sighed. Both Sprout and Sunny were going to drive him insane as well.

-

If Sprout had to pinpoint the exact moment he realized following Hitch had been a bad idea, that would be when he ran out of pizza. From then on, the red pony spend the rest of the trip complaining about this and that, whining of the weather, sore legs or anything that bothered him, and mostly begging Hitch to please just go back home.

The sheriff remained stoic through all of it.

Yeah, Hitch did say a few words of encouragement at first, but these ended evolving to frowns and rolling eyes after a while. Soon enough, Sprout didn't take long(ish) to notice the sheriff's lack of answers started around the time a pair of cotton flowers ended up stuck on his ears. Sprout glared. The typical so far.

Speaking about pizza, Sprout also regretted eating the whole box when they had to get to the top of that mountain. Hitch had always been in better shape than him, so while the yellow stallion was able to climb flawlessly, Sprout was left behind with only a few 'C'mon Sprout, track's running cold!' as help.

Hitch arrived to the top with bunnies receiving him lovingly with kisses; Sprout barely getting his sore body over the finally plain surface and at the verge of losing his lungs.

"Can- can we-" the deputy coughed out, having to inhale and exhale a few times to catch his breath, "take a, uf…break , please?"

"Litter! I mean, a clue." Completely ignoring Sprout's pleas(again), Hitch removed the cotton from his ears and walked over to inspect a branch. "Hmmm... Unicorn hair."

Sprout lifted himself from the dusty floor to narrow his eyes at the other pony, now monologuing about the crime scene and licking a feather. Hitch always got so weird when he was in the zone.

The red pony took this as a sign to bad mouth him in peace.

"Look at me, I'm Hitch. Everypony loves me, I've got a perfect mane, shredded abs and think my paid-off mortgage gives me the right to drag my deputy to chase after the crazy mare he already told me to arrest too many times to count. Bleh." Sprout murmured, kicking any small rock that got on his path in frustration.

The entire herd of bunnies that had gathered around the taller stallion suddenly cheered at his heroic speech and Sprout groaned.

"Oh! and I always got critters following me around~" Sprout grinned forcedly and battled his eyelashes. "Tch, I can do that."

Looking around, Sprout quickly spotted a a few leaves on the ground and pulled from them, sucessfully guessing it was a carrot. He walked over a big bunny away from the crowd and waved the vegetable in front of its face.

Sprout didn't notice it wasn't a bunny until he started poking it to get a reaction. Whatever it was, it had really pointy fangs and tried to chomp his hoof away. A yelp erupted from the deputy's throat and he was quick to run towards Hitch for help.

"The past matters not! It's justice- Sprout what the-? Woah!" Was all the sheriff could say before he promptly fell to the ground as a screaming pony threw itself over his back.

Both ponies groaned. Hitch didn't bother to conceal his glare, but it wasn't anything new to Sprout. The bunnies suddenly jumping and gesturing with their ears for them to turn around were more worthy of their attention.

Arching a brow at what could be so interesting for the critters, Sprout felt his blood run cold as clouds opened to reveal a golden city behind them.

His fear suddenly stopped at noticing the big screens, where mugshots of both Sunny and that blue-haired unicorn shined bright. Sprout would have laughed at seeing them exactly where they should be if it wasn't for his need to get away from a place filled with pegasus as soon as possible.

"Welp, looks like they are ahead of us. Home it is!" Sprout tried walking away, but Hitch, without taking his gaze off the screens, held him back by his sash.

"Sprout, prepare your best pegasus impression. It's time for a round of play pretend," the sheriff said with a smirk.

"Huh?!"

2. High up

Author's Note

We start with a few divergences here.

I once saw a fic where Sprout and Pipp became besties and thought the idea was pretty funny lol but I genuinely didn't realize how much these two have in common until I started writing this. Both are rich momma's boy/girl, kinda spoiled, may come as passive aggressive sometimes and were victim of Sunny's antics in some way. Also Sprout's seems to like styling his mane, Pipp's a hairdresser, I can see them getting along after the initial disagreement

Obviously one is way nicer than the other but this is before character development does its thing ;)

2. High up

It was always the same. Hitch just loved doing things the difficult way, he just needed to drag Sprout with him every time. They could be relaxing at the station and let Sunny be someone else's problem right now but nooo. 'Let's infiltrate the castle' Hitch said, 'It'll be so easy' he said, as if they haven't been surrounded by deatly pegasus the whole time!

Though Sprout insisted he wasn't a coward, that he was just following his mommy's best advice (to be scared is to be prepared!), he was unable to follow the sheriff through the city relaxed at all. To the softest brush of a wing, the ones from his own costume half of the time, Sprout would jump and hold onto Hitch for dear life. A thing which clearly irritated the yellow stallion, but wasn't enough to free Sprout from searching for Sunny between the crowd of that concert.

Anger, and the thought of finally getting her behind the bars and have her make smoothies for him as payback, motivated him enough to actually find her behind those curtains. It went bad. There were screams, chasing around and soon enough, pegasus went rampant at finding out earth ponies were there.

Sunny and the rest escaped. And Sprout? Was left behind on his own.

All he had gotten from the mission was that crystal he picked up. Not that he needed it, but it seemed important for the mares, and it gave some sense of revenge to have it on his hooves.

Now hidden in one of the many rooms of the castle, Sprout was finally able to release his exasperation in a loud groan.

"Stupid moustache, stupid wings and stupid Hitch!" The pony threw his costume against the wall with force. The fake moustache and wings, made too big and bothersome in size in an attempt to make them look cooler than Hitch's, lied mockingly intact on the floor.

This was the last straw for Sprout. He did one of his usual Sprout pouts, only feeling worse at knowing how far he was from his mommy's comforting hooves. Could this day get any worse?

"Stop right there, you crystal thief!"

For what felt like the tenth time in the past two hours, Sprout screamed and jumped to get away, landing noisily on a table and flipping it over in the process. After a moment of rubbing his throbbing head, he peeked behind the furniture to see who had just given him a heart attack.

His mouth fell agape. It was that pink pegasus that was singing and flying around gracefully when they arrived. A princess too the news said; an impressive combination that actually got Sprout staring at the show longer than necessary, through no one would catch him saying it out loud. Not with her having wings.

Wait... Wings. Pegasus. Danger!

"Oh feathers, you okay?" Her previous frown shifted to a worried expression at the incident, through Sprout wasn't dumb enough to fall for it.

"No, you stop right there or I'll er-" He looked around, quickly picking the fallen crystal from the floor to hold it high in the air. "Or I'lI shatter this magical pegasus artifact!"

The fluffy-winged pony blinked, then gave a soft 'heh' as if he had just told a joke.

"Um, no. It's a jewel, from my mom's. The queen by the way, a big deal. Holds no value for you earth ponies so mayybe give it back?" She got closer, paying no mind to the threat made and instead taking a scolding tone. "Just how many of you guys are here? Are you planning an invasion? Why on my show's day?!"

Sprout instinctively got away with the crystal on his hoof, starting a silent chasing game around the table. It was his turn to fake a laugh.

"We don't want anything to do with a pegasus' show!" he exclaimed, smirking a bit when this got the other pony to gasp, ''sheriff and I just came to retrieve the fugitive of Sunny and go. None of your business, princess, so mayybe go fly away somewhere else?"

This touched a sore spot. Again there was a scowl on her face, but something else could be sensed behind as she yelled and stomped her hooves on the ground with each word.

"We can't fly! We never could! I- I…"

Her voice broke at the end, struggling not to quiver until it could no longer hold back a sob. Face contorted, ears flattening against her head, she suddenly sat down at being unable to hold her own weight. Her hooves covered her face, but it was obvious tears were flowing beneath them now.

"My pipsqueaks, my show, our kingdom. And my sister just- she- What are we going to do now?"

For a few minutes, the sound of her crying filled the otherwise silent room. Sprout stayed still in his place the whole time, ears flat against his head and lips drawn on a thin line at how awkward the situation was. Contrary to his mom, comforting people wasn't really his thing. For Sprout this just felt like being left in charge of a crying foal who couldn't find his mom (but without Hitch being there to take care of it moments later a seeing Sprout just ignored it).

Surrounded by the dark of that big living room, Sprout didn't have much else to do but look at the city outside the wide window. Pegasus were screaming, sirens could be heard from miles away and rioting may happen any moment. It was pure chaos, the only thing Sunny brought wherever she went.

That fact in specific revolved something inside Sprout's stomach. The familiarity of seeing that mare ruin his mother's presentation every year over something stupid. Of seeing her free that unicorn and involving him in this whole thing.

It was because of her that Sprout ended up accidentally kicking that machine in the middle of the chase too. How was he supposed to know pegasus needed it because they couldn't fly? Wasn't it easier to just tell the unicorn to brainwash everyone and be done with whatever their plan was?

Yeah, Sprout was not at fault for the pony now crying in front of him. There was no reason he should be lifting his hoof towards her, no reason to feel bad or tell her she wasn't the only victim of Sunny's antics.

At noticing himself doing exactly that, the earth pony frowned and forced the hoof to stay on the ground. She was a pegasus, what was he thinking pitying her?

Suddenly, after a last sniff, the singer spoke up, a fire of determination igniting in her bloodshot eyes

"You will escort me, keep me safe while we are out," She said, getting up and wiping off make-up stained tears from her face, "and once we find them, I'll have a stern talk with each one of them."

Ugh, not another 'we'.

"And why should I do that?" Sprout arched a brow.

"Well, I'm a royal, you protect ponys…" She emphasized the last part by pointing at the badge.

Sprout blinked, looked down at his sash, "but I'm a deputy."

"See? We are a duo!" She suddenly singsang and flapped her wings softly, as if the cherry attitude would hide her break down from a second ago. She walked over a wall and started tapping the tiles one by one.

"Obviously I'd prefer one of my guards, but I don't think anyone with wings would be happy to see me right now." The softest sniff escaped her. "Aand considering how not one but three of you infiltrated inside the castle, I can see earth ponies are more capable than stereotypes let on."

"Wait, what stereotypes?"

Sprout's frown dissipated when suddenly a secret door opened on the wall. The pegasus gave out a hoof, still expecting the crystal to be returned.

Sprout simply stared at her. Years wearing that badge and his tasks had always been small things; rescuing kitties or picking litter, with time going to even simpler tasks as he kept failing to do those as perfectly perfect as Hitch. The only help other ponies saw in the bay's deputy was to know the localisation of the sheriff. Sprout was never considered for something this important.

Yet here it was in front of him, a chance served on a silver tray for him. One to remind himself he was capable of doing his job, that he could be as good as Hitch.

"Also I saw Mr. Steal-your-spotlight leave with the rest so…" the pegasus commented awkwardly, sensing his silence as him still needing to be convinced.

So with all that, Sprout did something he never thought he would do: give something back without a fight, follow a pegasus and laugh along with them.

"Pff, you saw that?"

3. Hoofing across daisy fields

Author's Note

Happy Make Your Mark premiere everyone! Sorry this chapter took so long, college makes it hard to write in peace. But I saw all the support this story got and I'm super thankful and I'm really motivated to continue it :') love you all

Based on what we saw in the movie, I don't imagine Sprout as one to snap at Hitch(his boss) just like that. But our red boy did go through a lot both before and during this fic so…ye, his patience's reaching a limit.

We'll see more of Sprout interactions with all the girls in future chapters too. Got a lot planned with that but I'm mostly focusing on him with Sunny and Hitch rn. Fixing childhood friendships and all that.

Next chapter is important and I want to do it as perfect as I can so I hope you can be patient 🙏🏻

3. Hoofing across daisy fields

Sprout began the escorting mission on a pretty high note. He was motivated and with the confidence to show how his months of training hadn't been in vain.

However, this wasn't like chasing Sunny around Maretime Bay in the slightest. This place was unknown to him, pegasi in a bad mood could be around the corner in the literal sense this time, and though the prospect of watching over someone important sounded cool, the earth pony had quickly realized that meant no one would protect him if something happened.

Being scared didn't make Sprout feel prepared at all in this situation.

The princess, Pipp Petals as she had presented herself(along with other titles Sprout couldn't remember), didn't seem to notice his discomfort nor clumsiness due to it, too focused on asking every five minutes if her glare looked 'glaring enough'.

The familiar narcissism was comforting in a way, like being with Hitch less the sighs everytime Sprout flinched or tripped over. Something Sprout would say was preferable if it wasn't for her not being of good use as a pony-shield.

…

Wow. First thinking a pegasus company was enjoyable, and then missing the feeling of safety the yellow stallion naturally gave. Being around unicorns and pegasi for so long really was driving him insane.

"Somepony seriously needs to explain why this thing was so important that you had to ruin my whole show over it!" Pipp's voice suddenly snapped Sprout off his thoughts, making him realize they had actually found the other ponies.

"Trust me. It was," a white pegasus, Pipp's sister probably, answered calmly.

"You left me hanging there! In the spotlight! Now everypony knows we can't fly."

"Speaking of being left hanging," Sprout interrupted, glaring at one particular pony at the other side of the alley, "thank you, Hitch!"

"Sprout!" The sheriff's demeanor perked up, as if his name hadn't just been hissed out with hatred.

"Don't you 'Sprout!' me!" Sprout stomped a hoof once he reached the stallion. "I could've been eaten alive back there!"

For once, Sprout didn't hold himself back from yelling at his superior, and for once, Hitch looked taken aback. This sudden courage didn't last long when the deputy noticed Sunny and that unicorn there as well. Sprout stepped back when the latter waved at him "And why are they still free?!"

"Hey, plant boy!" A sudden voice made Sprout turn his head. It was the white pegasus', who was still trying to calm down Pipp, "I know we all had a bad day but can you keep it down a little, please?"

The deputy actually went quiet. Not because he wanted to, but because the comprehensive softness in her tone took him off guard.

He looked up at the flowerpot he had been using as a helmet, hence the nickname, and was about to throw it away until he noticed it had a plant growing there. He left it delicately on the floor and huffed instead.

The royal sisters' exchange was brief. Bringing back magic this, the crystal that, ending with Pipp rolling her eyes and deciding to help everyone leave. Wise, for being a pegasus.

"What? Wait! You can't just... But I'm a sheriff!" Hitch whined when everypony started to leave, "and just where are you going?!"

Stopping his walk, Sprout turned his head to look at Hitch with an expression of utter boredom.

Was this it? Had Sprout finally gone insane? Knowing he was willingly choosing to follow two pegasus, a unicorn and the earth pony who started it all, then maybe, a few screws may have gone loose inside his head.

But it had been Hitch the one to drag him to a pointless mission, it was him who left him behind the whole time(and would keep doing so as always). At least those mares were sane enough to want to leave.

Sprout had a poison to pick and the decision was obvious.

"Following Sunny against my better judgement. What we came here to do, 'sheriff'." Sprout forced a grin, but it was obvious by his narrowed eyes that there was not a hint of friendliness behind it.

As the deputy walked away, he took Hitch's shocked face as the only joy he got to feel in the whole day.

-

The decision of following the mares ended on yet-another long trip. They were far from Zephyr Heights now, thankfully, passing by a nice meadow full of daisies, clear skies and a big pink tree perfect to sleep under.

The reward he was promised. Sprout could've enjoyed it if it wasn't for the tiny, minor, insignificant fact that they completely skipped over the main point of Hitch's mission.

Sunny, the pony they were supposed to arrest, was all free and dandy directing the group to who knows where. And they were allowing it.

She just- This whole thing! Giving back magic to the enemy, betraying her own kind. It had Sprout baffled. She had always been annoying with her 'all the ponies are friends' thing, but he never expected her to go farther than giving silly speeches, than being a nuisance but not doing any damage at the end of the day.

It actually made him prefer to go back to her breaking into Canterlogic. Her stubbornness sure ended up having an effect on ponies one way or another, he had to give her that.

"How about you use that map to lead us home instead, hm?" The red pony quickened his steps to walk besides Sunny. First words he directed to her the whole trip and they went straight to the point, unlike Hitch.

Sunny shook her head, a smile plastered on her face. "That would totally ignore the point of the mission."

"Exactly! There's no point, there's no mission! We are not foals anymore for you or us to keep up with your deliriums."

"But we should keep up with Canterlogic's?"

"Uh, at least that has proof,'' Sprout's tone was patronizing, but he couldn't keep himself from gritting his teeth. She wasn't, he won't allow her to go there.

"I mean it, Sprout. They haven't had magic in years." The mare gestured at the other ponies."How could any of your mom products do something against what isn't there?"

This. This was the part Sprout hated about arguing with her. Her smile; relaxed, confident in her words, that wall she had built over the years. Reasoning with her had always been a lost cause, but she at least argued back in the past or reacted in some way. Now the bicker was always so unilateral it wasn't even fun to do.

Her father's and his mom's relationship ended passing down to them in that sense.

"It's deputy Sprout for you and leave my mommy. Out. Of. This!" The deputy hissed out, almost yelled as his hoof stomped on the ground with each word.

"Sprout."

Both earth ponies looked back. Hitch was no longer complaining with Pipp about the situation(as if he wasn't the one keeping them there), but was now following them. Sprout arched a brow.

Since foals Hitch had never been one to interfere in their bicker, he either waited patiently for them to be over with it or tried offering solutions to make both happy like the goody-two-shoes he was. Judging by his expression now, thoughtful and carefully picking his words, this didn't seem to be the exception.

"May I have a minute with Sunny?" The sheriff ended up settling for.

"What? I'm just putting her in her place, it's what we came here to do!" Sprout snapped back, already tired that the stallion kept contradicting himself, "what did you make me deputy for if I can't do these things?"

…He wasn't supposed to ask that. He was never supposed to ask that.

The silence was crushing enough for Sprout to lower his ears. Sunny grimaced and looked away, more aware of the situation than Sprout expected, and Hitch, though remaining stoic, did let something slip in the way his frown twitched so subtly. What expression the sheriff was holding back, Sprout didn't want to know. He didn't want to hear an answer at all.

"These things are the sheriff's job." Hitch's tone was professional. Not a hint of hate, but neither a sign of him talking to a friend.

That didn't stung. Those words, how neither of them looked back as Sprout was left behind, how no matter how much he glared they never would care enough to do so, none of that stung at all. Sprout didn't care.

In fact, he cared so little, it took him a moment to look up from the grass to notice the unicorn walking beside him, also hanging her head low to have a better look at him.

"Ah! Wha- What do you want?" The deputy only flinched and stepped back this time, way out of energy to run away at this point. Not like he could do much against a unicorn without his mom's tech anyways.

"Oh, sorry." The horned mare straightened, stepping back as well to walk beside him. "Just noticed your sparkle's not looking that bright, that's all."

The unicorn, Missy was it?, was the same height if not a little taller than him, which only made her more intimidating. Sprout didn't trust her smile eother. Yeah, she may have no magic to brainwash him but…she could still pick his eye off with that horn!

"My…my what now?" Sprout asked.

"You know, your feelings!" She hopped a little and turned around, now talking to him face-to-face while walking backwards. "It was a bit dull in the bay. And in Zephyr Heights. Oh, and now too."

Sprout stared completely baffled, his brows stuck between frowning or not. Was she trying to be comforting? No, she was smiling, probably getting a kick out of seeing him down. Unicorn behaviour at its finest.

Before Sprout could tell her to buzz off however, Hitch interrupted by accusing unicorns of liking shiny things. The deputy took it as his chance to walk away from the situation altogether.

Unicorns were a lot of things. Mind-readers, sadistic, bloodthitsy creatures and scary to no end, but not dumb. So when Sprout heard Missy say something about the badge and an unhealthy power dynamic, he was left wondering just how right she could be about his 'sparkle' being dull.

4. By the fire

Author's Note

New chapter ayy

I'm…not really content with how this turned out, but I didn't really want to be stuck on this chapter for too long either so it is what it is.

Originally I planned for this chapter to be where Sprout had THE character development moment, but just before I started writing I had a way better idea and decided to save that for later. This is now…more of a first step

I think the new direction works way better for Sprout's character and doesn't interfere with the campfire scene being Hitch's big moment in the movie. I'm excited to reach that part of the story!

Next chapter is pretty simple in terms of plot but besides college now I'm busy preparing a story for a g5 writing contest. As you can guess, again I'll take time to update this. In the meantime hope you can enjoy this chapter and that story soon ^^

4. By the fire

Earth was a familiar thing for Sprout.

It was related to his name, part of his cutie mark, the kind of pony he was; he saw it every time he fell over and now, after the way he embarrassed himself back at the bridge, earth was there to greet him once again.

Hearing laughter from the mares not far away didn't help. Felt mocking even when it wasn't because of him, and only made him curl up further over the dusty surface.

Sprout just had to open his mouth when Sunny was telling each one of them what they would obtain from this mission to avoid any fighting, he thought interrupting her to exclaim proudly he would earn the respect of the citizens would make him look cool somehow. Sunny blinking and answering with an 'I...was going to say you would get smoothies and pizza after this, but that can happen too' showed that no, none of that was even close to cool.

Not content with that, the earth mare also pointed out how Sprout didn't know the way back home when he tried to leave. Not to bother him he knew, just her thinking she was being of help. She wasn't. Never was.

The worst thing was that Sprout would've been content just with the pizza and smoothies.

"Deputy, I'm in need of more wood for the fire." Hitch's voice suddenly reached his ears uninvited. Again he was giving orders, acting as if he hadn't looked at his deputy like he had said the stupidest thing in the world back there.

"Isn't that the sheriff's job?" Sprout didn't bother to turn around, hoping his mocking tone was enough to deliver the message. If he was forced to be there the least he could do was be a nuisance for the rest.

There was silence, followed by wood dropping and someone sitting down not far from him.

"Okay, what's with you today?" Hitch asked, hoofs already on the task of setting up a bonfire.

"Tch, like you care."

"Huh? Of course I care, what are you talking abo-"

"No, Hitch, you don't." Dust flew up as Sprout stomped a hoof on the ground to sit up and face the sheriff. "It's always like this, you want to take care of every little problem and I have to follow you around and get the short end of the stick. Look at everything we had to go through for those-! Those…"

Sprout made weird gestures with his hoofs in his look for a fitting word, but could find none as Hitch interrupted him.

"Sprout you- solving problems is our job. I can't just leave you lazing around all day while I do all the work." Torn between being offended or baffled at the other's words, Hitch avoided eye contact by picking up a stick to attempt to make a fire. "This is not training camp."

The last was said in a murmur, but Sprout still heard it. A wave of unwanted memories came to his mind and he had to squeeze his eyes shut to keep them out.

When he was able to open them again, the scowl on his face was deeper than ever. This wasn't about himself. He wasn't going to let it be.

"You might as well, it's not like you or anyone in town needs me. Whenever there's a problem it's always 'but where's Hitch, Sprout?', 'the sheriff should handle it, Sprout', 'let me do my job, Sprout'."

The words burned as the red pony let them out, tone mocking but his memories vivid. "Don't think I don't know if I stayed behind it would be as if the station was empty for everyone. Because you don't get what it is to be second place. You don't have to struggle to get what you want. You are the perfect sheriff. You. Never. Fail."

Just like how the deputy had dreamed of doing before, Sprout had gotten up, finally was able to face Hitch, tell him off until his voice could no more. But the success was brief. Because at no moment was there yelling from his part, no glaring or even the smallest frown in his face.

Sprout's eyes throbbed. A symptom from fighting back the glasiness threatening to appear in his eyes, and just then he realized it wasn't anger what had been lying behind those thoughts all this time.

The red pony body returned to its previous position. Lying on the ground, giving his back to the sheriff as if that could avoid anything. Sprout's gaze landed on the mark on his flank. "I'm not like you, Hitch."

For a moment not a single noise was heard. Just the girls gathering wood, them whispering here and there, and the movement from Sprout as he curled up away from the cold and everything around. Even the fire, so important for the sheriff a moment ago, seemed to have been forgotten.

"...Why did you want to become sheriff, Sprout?" Hitch's voice was hesitant to break the silence, but determined to know nonetheless.

One of Sprout's ears twitched. He turned around to lie on his stomach, ready to give his grand answer-

Only for his mind to stay blank.

He...knew he had wanted it all his life. As the son of one of the richest and most respectable ponies in Maritime Bay, as someone popular(or so he thought) in his foal years for that reason, he was born to be at the top of the food chain. It didn't matter if he never got more than 'you tried' ribbons in everything he did, it didn't matter he wasn't as cool as his mom yet. It would all come together one day. Because Sprout's fate was that badge.

But then came the day he got his cutie mark, a plain purple beet with leaves at the top. The permanent reminder that his special thing was something that spent most of his life buried underground.

'It means you are destined to grow, just like mine!' his mom had told him. Another hope Sprout grabbed onto, another one that failed him when training camp came along. More bad grades, more last places, and the worst of all: the badge ending on his best friend's sash right in front of his eyes.

It just hit him so suddenly back then. How much Hitch had changed. How at some point the nerd, the rule-loving teacher's pet of the class who had always followed him around, had become the perfect sheriff Sprout had always achieved to be. Sunny too, though not as present in Sprout's life by then, showed up more mature on the day of Hitch's graduation; still overly optimistic, still delusional, but more taking on her dad's calmness and more clever answers when told she was wrong. Everypony around had grown up, everypony was already moving on to a new chapter.

And Sprout felt like he was the only seed left unchanged in the garden.

His mom's and Hitch's influence ended up earning him a spot as a deputy, sure. He had a badge, not as cool, not as shiny, but a badge nonetheless, sure. But continuous mistakes were no longer met with consolation prizes out in the real world: Ponies overlooked him, motivation became harder to find as nothing worked out, and at some moment even the one friend who had always been at his side…also started to roll his eyes at him.

So, why did Sprout want to be sheriff? The reasons were plenty. Make his mom proud, get all the respect she and Hitch had, be at the top like he was fated to…

To get to grow as well.

After opening and closing his mouth a few times to no avail, the deputy settled for the less personal option. "To keep everypony in line, duh. It's what sheriffs do, isn't it?"

After a moment of staring, realizing that alone was the answer, Hitch spoke up. "Well, yeah, and also protecting ponies, maintain the peace, being there to help when needed...Like your mom's job in a way."

That last sentence got different reactions from either side. While Sprout cringed at how on the nose that was, Hitch fell quiet as if he had just said something that didn't make as much sense as expected. Sprout chose to ignore the way the sheriff glanced at the other ponies.

"That's what the job has always been about for me at least." Hitch shook his head, then sighed. "It wasn't easy, you know? Not just to get where I am, but now as well. Keeping the group together between you and Sunny's fights when foals was already quite a task, now it's a whole town!"

"I do my best to do my job while trying to be a good friend but…" Hitch said this while looking at Sprout, but at some moment, his gaze had slowly drifted towards his other foalhood friend, "it seems that's a thing I keep failing at."

Now it was Sprout's turn to stare. Hitch's expression was pensive, but in a sad, nostalgic way. Truly after all this time, after all the trouble she caused and both he and Hitch's infinite complaints, out of the two it was the sheriff who never gave up on her.

'Opposite to me' Sprout could've thought, but he knew that wasn't true. Hitch had been the first to cheer him on his dream when foals, and the one to always give motivational speeches when days on training camp seemed hard to get through. Deep down, Sprout suspected that attitude extended to allowing his deputy to eat in working hours, turning a blind eye to his littering…plain and simple, just keeping the dead weight around.

With that in mind, the only complaint Sprout could really hold to was the condescending attitude. But even that didn't feel right, because just now Sprout realized, despite his gaze being on Sunny, Hitch's failure at being a bad friend was referring to the both of them. He was recognizing his mistake, and on that Hitch had always been genuine.

Guilt slowly creeped to Sprout's features. Why? He wasn't quite sure. Maybe it was because of how easy it had been to talk things out all this time, or how it felt like Hitch being the only one to confess he was wrong didn't feel as earning.

Not that Sprout thought he had a reason to apologize. Yeah he…may have complicated missions a few times. Just a few. Barely. But he always had logical reasons to justify that each time.

Still, without a single clue of what he was about to say to the other colt, Sprout opened his mouth. "I…"

"You guys need a moment?" Zipp, Pipp's sister, suddenly called for them from her spot over the bonfire. Unlike Hitch's poor attempt, theirs was alive and ablazing with warmth. "Some back up perhaps, sherriff?"

This killed the atmosphere in an instant. Hitch answered that 'no, thank you, he had this', only to fail miserably at creating even one flame, while Sprout simply turned around to curl up again. Not out of shame, this time he really was freezing.

It was Sunny who walked towards them. Towards Hitch rather, who finally seemed to consider what Sprout had been claiming the whole trip: that it would be better to go back to Maretime Bay, that this whole magic thing was insane.

But Sunny was Sunny, and just with a few words she got the sheriff to fall for her plan.

"You can come too, Sprout," She suddenly said, "never too late to start anew?"

This got Sprout to look back.

For a moment they were foals again. There had been a fight over unicorns and pegasi history, Sunny had come for Hitch to play, and every single time it looked like that would be the end of playtime in the lighthouse for Sprout, Sunny would call for him as well. Despite their weekly bickering, despite being both too stubborn to ever agree, she always had it in her to leave all that behind at the end of the day.

Sprout couldn't ever relate.

Or maybe at some moment he did. It had been long since the three of them hung out like old times. Sprout couldn't pinpoint the exact time and reason things just…changed. Was it him who decided he should have nothing to do with an earth pony obsessed with the enemy? Or her who had enough of Sprout saying she was wrong? His mom insisting on not wanting him to get brainwashed with weird ideas didn't help, that was for sure.

Which Sprout, by his many secret visits to the lighthouse, knew wouldn't ever happen. The place was filled to the top with the stuff, but offering unicorn cupcakes and letting them play with those 'guardians of friendship' dolls was as far as Mr Starshine went to show those ideas to he and Hitch. Sunny on the other hoof…

Well, she was so annoying with it you just got used to it. It became background noise after a while. Nowadays it was her bothering his mom and leaving propaganda around that Sprout had to clean what really got on his nerves.

And now this magic thing. Yeah, Sunny didn't say she was happy to have him there, it was just another tactic to make him change his beliefs of ponies who had wings and horns. To everyone there Sprout was irrelevant otherwise, as always.

But he was firm, stoic as a rock. Hanging out with any of these lunatics won't change a thing for him.

To make his point clear, Sprout lied down again. While Sunny left with no insistence, a doubtful Hitch stood in his place.

"Just so you know, I'm glad you came along, buddy. Even if I'm not good at showing it." His tone was apologetic, waiting for an answer of some sorts.

When Sprout gave none, he sighed and left as well.

The following minutes of abandonment didn't leave Sprout quiet on his misery. He didn't care enough to pry on what the others were talking about, but still he heard a thing or two. The reason that unicorn came(again, Sunny's fault), speeches about 'doing their part' and Hitch deciding he was on board with this whole madness as well.

Sprout wasn't even surprised.

Not as angry either, that was surprising.

It was when the deputy turned around to find everyone cheering just for going to a dumb forest that he felt the need to gag at the chessiness. With his snout now frozen however, all he managed to do was let out a loud sneeze.

"Ugh, dude, c'mon! You're gonna freeze to death at this ra-" Zipp's shouting came to a halt when Sunny lifted a hoof.

"Yeah, it would be bad if we had to use magic to bring a certain pony here instead," Sunny said this out loud and with a smirk on her face.

This was successful in getting Sprout in front of the fire in an instant. "Ooh no, if someone's gonna make me end up surrounded by deathly creatures that's gonna be me!"

Then he sat down, momentarily enjoying the warmth until he realized: 1) in his prideful need to sit anywhere but beside either Hitch or Sunny, he ended up between a unicorn and a pink pegasus; 2) Zipp was holding back her laugh at the fact that-

"...wait a second, you mares don't have any magic!"

"Wouldn't be so sure, the magic of friendship worked just fine now." Sunny winked, and still as dumb as the joke was, it got everyone around to laugh.

Sprout just rolled his eyes and focused on defrosting his hoofs. Dirty tactics. Typical of Sunny.

It wasn't long after that everypony was lying down, fire gone so darkness would surround them, and that faint, whispered small talk as little by little ponies around fell asleep.

It reminded Sprout of the nights camping with the scouts. But now besides of Hitch and Sunny, there were ponies with wings and horns around; and instead of discussing what shapes the stars created, the small talk was about magic.

Sprout looked up at the bright lights in the sky. Suddenly, as he heard Sunny and Izzy whispering what they would do with magic back, his mind got filled with cages, rays and wings taking ponies away, and never being able to see these stars again.

He lied down, squeezed his eyes. He tried to think about how his kind had won that battle years ago, how they were strong, how they had his mom's technology now.

'How could any of your mom's products do something against what isn't there?' Sunny's voice echoed in his mind, and Sprout frowned worried.

What were they doing?

5. Choosing harmony (End)

✧ ━━━ Chapter 5 - Helping the enemy ━━━ ✧

After the camp scene, everyone wakes up super early to go to Briddlewood. Sprout hates every minute of it, but doesn't have any option but to follow them.

On the way he bickers with Zipp, who accidentally messed up his mane with her wings when she woke up. She doesn't seem to take him seriously, but Pipp takes his side, saying taking care of their mane in the morning is important.

This calms things down and the three of them end up sharing stories about life as the heirs of important ponies. Zipp and Pipp talk about being princesses, and Sprout about inheriting Maretime Bay’s most important factory from his mom in the future. Sprout finds himself…relating to them, and so is less afraid the more he talks to the two pegasi.

He notices Sunny smiling and whispering to Hitch when he sees the scene, and Sprout glares at her.

He ignores that, everything that's happening. At no moment he let go of his grudge. Why would he? Sure, Pipp and Zipp aren't so bad, but the pegasi in Zephyr Heights sure were eager to arrest any earth pony they saw there.

Pegasi and unicorns are evil and Sunny is delusional as she has always been.

Talking about delusional, Sprout feels as the only sane pony there when everypony has that musical number at Izzy's home.

Sprout stays apart. The song is too corny, but he does join in in a duo when Hitch starts singing about how dangerous the other races are. For a moment Sprout has fun.

…and then Hitch gives up to take Sunny's side again. The enemy’s side.

Once the musical ends, Pipp helps Sprout fix his hair. It looks good until he has to wear a fake horn with an insufferable amount of glitter over it. Izzy’s courtesy. Bleh

When they arrive at Bridlewood, Sprout is relieved but also disappointed to see the terrifying unicorns from his favorite action movies are…not action movie worthy at all. They barely move!

He mentions out loud he expected better since Izzy left quite an impression on Maretime Bay…or anywhere she went really. It wasn’t a compliment, but Izzy smiles and takes it as one.

Then in the tea shop Sunny just has to risk everything by, guess what? Betting the crystal Sprout risked his life for!

…without even knowing what it was for, but still!

Any other day that would’ve been good for Sprout, it would mean they could leave. But after yesterday- after barely sleeping thinking about their plan to return magic, and his own plan against it…

Unicorns having the two crystals who would return magic to Equestria is no good, it’s just not.

So when Sunny is losing in that dance competition, Sprout talks to her, tells her that if they really want to win, they should use a pony who actually knows how to dance, and that pony isn’t Sunny. Sunny completely ignores the insult, surprised by Sprout of all ponies wanting to help.

She’s moved, she smiles in a way that says ‘so you’re on our side’, and Sprout has to interrupt her before she can say anything corny. He ignores the awful feeling at the pit of his stomach at knowing she’s once again having way too much fate in him.

Sprout suggests Pipp for the dance off, because who else dances like a popstar there? Not Hitch that’s for sure.

They win and Sprout finds himself celebrating with the rest.

But then he remembers. He had a plan, he had thought about this plan all night, all morning.

So while everypony is distracted, Sprout steals Sunny's bag and throws the two crystals in there.

The other being discovered as non-unicorns, and Sunny staring at the deputy in shock as he stands at the door, is the last thing Sprout sees before he leaves the shop in a rush with the crystals.

✧ ━━━ Chapter 6 - Right all along ━━━ ✧

Sprout runs away, he just runs. If there's a chance, even minimal, of those crystals returning magic, he can't allow it. It's too dangerous, and

he seems to be the only pony to understand that.

His escape goes well until he stumbles onto a pony, no- pegasus- the pegasus queen.

The rest catches up to him then. Sprout is trapped, has nowhere to hide.

He decides against it anyway. He's tired of hiding behind the others who keep running face first into danger, he’s done following them around while they ignore the obvious.

Sunny and Hitch try to calm him down, but Sprout doesn't have it. He says everything he had been thinking so far. How the pegasi and unicorns attacked as soon as they saw them, how the queen and princesses lied to their people, how earth ponies get nothing from this whole ‘returning magic’ thing. He reminds them of the stories of war, and how Sunny is so convinced over a bedtime story his dad made up. He tells her that no one cares, no one ever cared.

The last part, maybe the mention of his dad, gets Sunny to flinch. After years of smiles that brushed anything Sprout said away, it’s weird to see her react to Sprout’s words. She’s quiet, but clearly looks hurt.

It's Hitch who steps up for her. He’s frowning, making that one face of disappointed boss he always makes shen he and Sprout work side by side.

But right after yelling Sprout's name, Hitch’s gaze softens. He calmly asks his deputy to please return the crystals, saying he’s asking ‘as a friend’.

For a moment, Sprout hesitates, but decides against it at the end. He couldn’t be friends with traitors. Not as the son of Phyllis Cloverleaf, the pony who has done so much to protect earth ponies from danger all these past moons.

The triumph is short lived as Alphabittle takes the chrystals away by force. Sprout can just watch as Sunny puts both crystals together. And then…

Nothing.

Nothing happens. And Sprout smiles. He laughs even. Doesn't care about the ponies who glare around him. He never cared about the mission to begin with because he knew it was all useless junk.

He finally gets to see Sunny leaving all that behind and calm down for once. That Sprout, that his mom was right.

Once he calms his own laughter, Sprout finally notices the mood around him.

It’s…depressing. Really depressing.

Sprout watches Sunny leave in silence. Hitch says goodbye to the mares they met on that trip. He spares no glance to Sprout as he leaves the forest.

And for some reason, Sprout does not follow them right away. He stays still in that place he had been wanting to leave so bad less than an hour ago.

It’s not until Pipp softly calls his name in a question that he reacts. Something heavy sets on the pit of his stomach. Sprout looks back. The three no-earth mares are looking at him. Sprout wonders why- how they can even spare a glance at him after all the awful things he had just said about them.

Sprout opens his mouth. He wants to say something, but is not sure what.

At the end, he just stutters and leaves.

Sprout had been right all along, he had won.

But…What did he win exactly?

✧ ━━━ Chapter 7 - We have a mayor? ━━━ ✧

The way home is quiet. Awfully quiet.

They arrive at the lighthouse. A place Sprout liked to visit a lot when he was a foal, despite his mom telling him not to countless times.

It was a good place to play. And Mr Starshine…was a bit out there with his ideas, just like Sunny, but he had always been nothing but nice to them.

The memory of the awful things he had said about him in Bridlewood comes to his mind, and Sprout has to shake his head to keep those thoughts away.

He looks up. From afar he observes as Hitch tries to comfort Sunny. It had always been that way when it was the three of them. Sprout was never good at the comforting thing friends did.

And as awful as Sprout was at telling how other ponies felt, even he knew Sunny wouldn't want Sprout near her now.

Sunny leaves and Hitch walks away, both in defeat. By instinct Sprout follows his boss. He reflects about the trip on the way back, the talks in the fire and what happened in Bridlewood. He doesn't like what comes to his head, nor the awkward silence, so he tries to joke with Hitch. Something about everything being back to normal at least.

There's no mercy in Hitch’s glare.

Sprout gulps at the familiarity of that. It was the kind of look Sprout would get when he didn’t do things as perfectly as Hitch, or everytime Hitch had given him a chance and Sprout just screwed it up somehow.

Sprout kicked a small rock on the way. Yep, everything back to normal.

When they arrive at the town’s square, it’s completely empty. There are cameras everywhere. The only pony they find are Sweets and Toots, who run to them as soon as they see them. Both are wearing Unicorn Anti-Mind-Reading hats.

They completely ignore Hitch when he asks what's going on. They only look at Sprout.

"Sprout Cloverleaf, your presence is required in Canterlogic’s factory immediately.” Sweets informs.

“Mayor’s orders.” Toots adds.

"Wait, we have a mayor?" Hitch asks, completely dumbfounded. Again, he’s ignored.

✧ ━━━ Chapter 8 - The grand Speech ━━━ ✧

Indeed, Maretime Bay has a mayor now. Her name? Phyllis Cloverleaf.

Sprout's mom.

Sprout is led to her factory to talk to her, alone. Hitch is not allowed near the facilities anymore nor to talk to anypony there. Something about the ‘Official Cloverleaf act’ is all the other ponies answer.

Phyllis greets his son with a tight hug and overwhelms him with questions, one after the other without leaving room for him to open his mouth. Phyllis is wearing a hot pink suit and a golden badge over it.

At the end he only manages to excuse his disappearance saying ‘he left a note’.

Phyllis holds said note up. A small paper with barely readable hoof-writing she had found over his son’s desk in the sheriff’s office.

‘Going on mission, b rght bak.’, one could read…if they narrowed their eyes.

Phyllis is not content, comments on how Sprout and Hitch picked the worst time to leave. She asks what they even did out there, and just when Sprout is about to go all show-off about how he took part in stopping magic from returning, he bites his tongue to stay quiet.

For that he’d have to tell her he spent time with unicorns and pegasi and went to how-many dangerous places, and that’s…not a good idea. His mom already made a scandal multiple times whenever he even mentioned anything about Sunny’s stories.

Sprout ends up blaming Hitch for deciding to go after Sunny, who had escaped town. On purpose he omits anything about pegasi and unicorns. Sprout simply followed the lead he says. The whole time it had been like that after all.

This makes Phyllis roll her eyes, who reveals that, for that exact reason, Hitch is not sheriff anymore. Not after leaving everypony helpless at the worst time.

This surprises Sprout. His mom never hated Hitch, she had always respected him and had fate in his job as sheriff. Though more than once Sprout ranted about Hitch not being that good at his job, Sprout’s mom never agreed with that really, just comforted Sprout telling him he was a great deputy in her eyes(Sprout always suspected that was just to make him feel better and not genuinely believing that). Just once or twice Phyllis had disagreed with Hitch, and it only was for being too soft on Sunny.

But well, Maretime Bay needed somepony after a unicorn showed up to cause chaos there, and without Hitch, it was Phyllis who the citizens looked for.

‘She had to make decisions,’ Phyllis explains, ‘make them work on methods to stop unicorns in case they returned.’

Sprout asks if she’s planning to attack the unicorns, maybe even pegasi. Phyllis is shocked by his question, and explains that despite building everything, even a giant robot, it's actually all just a hoax to keep everypony calm. ‘Earth ponies never attack, just keep their guards up’, she says.

Sprout nods, remembering how unicorn and pegasi attacked them as soon as they found out there were earth ponies there. But…didn’t they do the same to Izzy when she arrived at Maretime Bay? Not to mention out of the three tribes, only earth ponies had technology made specially to attack the others.

Technology which…didn’t really work, since there has never been magic to protect themselves from in the first place.

Sprout finds himself asking his mom if all the Canterlogic products were a hoax too, and she nervously changes the subject. She gives Sprout a silver badge, one Sprout recognizes as Hitch’s badge, and tells him he's the new sheriff now, her right-hoof.

Sprout is baffled.

For some reason, he doesn’t find himself celebrating, instead wondering what her mom did with Hitch if Sprout has his badge now. Before he can ask though, Phillys tells Sprout to accompany him. She wants her son to be with her on the stage as she gives her grand speech.

Once on the stage, Phyllis is calm while she talks behind the podium, already used to presenting herself and her products for so many moons. She has a motherly vibe even when it’s obvious she has the whole town under her control. No pony seems to mind. They see her as a light in the middle of the horrors of knowing pegasi and unicorns could attack them.

That’s it until Sunny and Hitch(who besides having been removed off his badge, is fine) arrive. Everypony calms down when the two say they don't need to fight, even Phyllis looks relieved to know they dont have magic and there would be no war...until she begins wondering out loud.

She’s not trying to scare everypony, but genuinely wonders a few things. How do they know there's no magic really? Yeah they meet a few non lethal pegasus and unicorns, but what about the rest of them? What about everything the history books said? Not everything they have known their whole lives could be just a lie…

A discussion begins with Phyllis telling how Hitch left Maretime Bay alone and set in panic for days after a unicorn showed up, all to chase after Sunny. She says the citizens couldn’t just let that slide. Sunny helped an enemy escape too. Phyllis even comments on how it looked like Sunny and her father would do anything to stop being an earth pony.

She says this not out of malice but believing everything. Deep down she can't quite blame Sunny, she was raised by a pony like Argyle after all. Argyle never understood the danger like Phyllis did.

The ponies around start whispering and exchanging looks at the things Phyllis says. Little by little, they all put their anti-mind reading hats back on.

Sunny and Hitch look at Sprout, who all this time kept quiet as he always did whenever his mom spoke. It's obvious they want his help, for Sprout to back them up on what he saw about pegasi and unicorns. Sprout would usually take his mom’s side right away, but now for the first time in his life he…he doubts her words.

Sprout thinks of his talk with the princesses, the way Izzy was so naive yet she noticed he was upset and was the only to acknowledge that while the rest focused on the mission, the camping night; how despite facing angry unicorns and pegasi in both Zephyr Heights and Briddlewood, there had not been mind control nor zapping lasers nor kidnapping from flying savage creatures.

For Sprout, nls knowing things were not like history books said their whole lives…it suddenly made his mom’s logic, the town’s logic, his own logic until this point, feel too extreme.

Sprout couldn’t believe he was agreeing with Sunny on that after so many years.

Phillys arches a brow, asking Sprout what they meant. Sprout awkwardly confesses that he did end up following Hich and Sunny to where unicorns and pegasi lived and that, yeah, the other ponies were kind of aggressive and chased after them but…

Sprout can’t say anything else before Phyllis makes a scandal over finding out his son got dragged to such a place, to meet ‘such dangerous creatures’. Phyllis takes it so personal she hears no more reasoning, directly riding the giant robot shaped like her, and goes with the rest of earth ponies to keep guard outside Maretime Bay.

Sunny and Hitch give Sprout a last look of disappointment and betrayal before chasing after her. Sprout lowers his ears.

✧ ━━━ Chapter 9 - We can choose love ━━━ ✧

Sprout chases after his mom’s robot too.

He's not sure why. He's not even sure what he's doing. He just feels he has to talk with his mom. He's the only one she would listen to now, Sprout thinks.

Whatever she’s planning, for once Sprout doesn’t blindly trust his mom’s decision.

When he arrives outside Maretime Bay, Sprout spots Izzy, Pipp and Zipp there along with other pegasi and unicorns. Queen Haven and Alphabittle are trying to negotiate with Phyllis inside the robot, but with her being too far away, plus some poor choice of words, lead her to believe the other races are there to cause trouble.

When Sunny and the rest go to the lighthouse, Phyllis follows them with the robot, struggling to handle it and accidentally causing chaos with the anti-pegasi and anti-unicorn weapons on the way.

Again, Sprout is scared, but he forces himself to follow her. He already dealt with days of walking face-first into danger by following Sunny and threat to an unknown fate and being chased around by pegasi and unicorns. Plus many, many glares thrown his way. And here he is in one piece!

Sprout can deal with his own mom.

He hopes he can.

He has to. After so many mistakes as a deputy and friend, it felt like this was his last chance to do things right for once.

He chases after the robot. Hitch, who is climbing over the machine with Zipp and trying to stop it while struggling to communicate with Phyllis, asks Sprout what he thinks he’s doing.

"Uh, my mom is directing a giant robot towards our friend's house, what do you think I'm doing?! Trying to stop her!” Sprout yells.

Sprout finds himself surprised to call Sunny a friend again after many years, so are Hitch and Zipp to see he’s willing to help. Zipp cheers him on, and Hitch…surprisingly seems to have gotten fate on Sprout from somewhere deep inside his soul, maybe knowing Sprout more than anypony could calm Phyllis now.

Hitch, Sprout and Zipp exchange nods before Sprout tries, as he can with his lack of stamina, to run besides the robot. He tries to call for his mom’s attention, but Phyllis tells him to ‘leave the adults to deal with this’. Phyllis genuinely thinks she’ll avoid war by stopping magic from coming back.

And, oh boy, was Sprout insane now. He stands on her way, right between the lighthouse and the giant robot coming his way. And for the first time in his life, he talks back to his mom, yells about how he's not a colt anymore and can have beliefs on his own. He has them now, and he thinks she’s going too far.

In an attempt to avoid her son, the robot crashes against the lighthouse. It all falls down, but luckily no one gets hurt.

After discovering the crystals didn’t work, Sunny gives her speech about how it was never about the crystals. It was the ponies who had to decide if they wanted to stay separated by fear and distrust, or choose love, choose friendship.

Phyllis, noticing what she had done and that even her own son shakes his head at her when she tries to check on him, is ashamed and stays behind.

So its sprout who dares to put back the last piece of Sunny and Argyle’s broken frame. He smiles, awkwardly at Sunny, a tiny tiny bit of apology for everything on his expression. Not that he’s ready to give a proper one yet, but it’s a start.

Sunny smiles at him, content with that. A 'finally you came around’ kind of smile, not meaning to be mocking but…glad she was right to have hope in him.

Then everything calms down. Every kind of pony is talking and fixing the mess around Maretime Bay. Sprout is talking things out with his mom. He decides the best way for her to apology, is to talk with the other leaders. To his logic, they are all old which meant they would all get along just fine.

Against her suggestions to not do that, Sprout presents Phyllis to Alphabittle and Queen Haven, and it’s…awkward of course. It doesn't help that Sprout doesn't even remember their names, so he simply presents them as ‘the queen who lied to her kingdom their whole lives’ and ‘the sore loser unicorn who tried to beat them up’. To Sprout’s eyes, explaining their mistakes out loud would help make his mom’s actions less bad.

A weird tactic, but it kind of settles everypony on the same ground. It was true they all committed huge mistakes during the adventure.

Sprout leaves her mom to socialize, and Phyllis apologizes to Alphabittle and Queen Haven for what happened. They three end up relating over being in charge of other ponies and end up getting along like Sprout hoped.

Hitch calls for Sprout when he spots his deputy in the crowd. He gets close to Sprout, a proud smile on his face, and offers his friend his deputy badge back. Sprout didn't even notice he had lost it during the robot chase. Sprout notices he still has the sheriff badge on his own sash too.

Sprout doesn’t find himself really caring about either badges. Not after all the action that day. He doesn't want to think about work or his career path now. He gives Hitch his sheriff badge back and doesn’t pick up the deputy badge, muttering something about talking about it later before Sunny and the rest wave at them.

Sprout hesitates, but Hitch nudges him to go with them, saying they are all friends. Sprout sees Sunny with her magical wings and horn and comments on ‘how that looks fits her’. That was a thing Sprout had said about Sunny’s alicorn costume as an insult when they were foals, but it wasn’t anymore. It was…more of a compliment.

It did make sense for her to have a magical horns and wings, as ridiculous at that sounds coming from Sprout of all ponies

Sunny chuckles and gives him a ‘thanks, your look fits you too’, referring to Sprout being covered in mud after the robot chase. To this Sprout rolls his eyes, hides his laugh.

Noticing his hidden laugh, Izzy comments on how Sprout's sparkle is bright again, that it’s green and that maybe that has to do with Sprout’s cutie mark. It was a vegetable after all, plants were green.

Sprout is left thoughtful about that comment for a moment before the rest are about to do their ‘hoof to heart’ thing. They look at Sprout, waiting for Sprout to join. Sprout is awkward for a moment, not really being too into corny friendship stuff like special hoof shakes and all, but he does end up joining anyways, pretending he doesn’t like it when in reality..he does.

As different as they are, he does like the new direction Marime Bay seems to be about to take., Sprout is not one to like changes.

✧ ━━━ EPILOGUE - Life in harmony is not that bad ━━━ ✧

The group is gathered in a picnic outside the lighthouse. The new lighthouse…kind of. It's still under construction.

They are discussing what they’ve been up to since unicorns, pegasi and earth ponies began living in harmony, and their future plans in that new life. It’s Sprout’s turn to talk.

Sprout comments on how he has been dropping on and off to the lighthouse, whenever any of the ponies from the group finds him around Maretime Bay and drags him to hang out with them, or a couple times when Sprout would drop something there that his mom wanted to give to Sunny. Phyllis chose to be in charge of directing the reconstruction of the lighthouse after she accidentally destroyed it, so Sprout ends up visiting because of that as well. Funny how now he’s forced to go there when as a foal she forced him to not go near the place at all.

Sprout is hesitant at first. He has always appreciated his alone time, but he does enjoy hanging out with Sunny, Hitch and the rest. He has never been never afraid to be rude and leave a meeting if he was bored. This was not the case. It was like old times but with some additions, that being Izzy and the princesses.

Some days Sprout drops by the lighthouse with vegetables from his own garden too. He had left his job as deputy, to 'take a break from all the action'. Something temporal he said, but with each passing day he found himself not wanting to return to being under Hitch’s shadow nor do all the hard work a pony in charge of the security of town had to do.

Instead of the deputy sash, Sprout now wears one with a green bandana around his chest. A gift from Pipp. She said he’ll look ‘more fashionable with something that matches the color of his eyes’. And honestly? She was right. Sprout didn’t notice the blue color of his deputy sash didn’t match with him at all until then.

Now that he was no longer deputy, Sprout ended up using his free time to laze around at first, but got bored quickly and ended up picking up his old hobby of taking care of his mom’s garden, since he still lives with her. It was nice having his own patch of vegetables and such. He hadn’t done that since he was a foal, not after he got his cutie mark and got angry it was a beet and not something related to being a sheriff.

It felt nice to return to his roots, gardening is fun and Sprout is good at it. He likes being good at something and he’s not ashamed to be cocky about how good of a gardener he is.

Hitch is…a bit overworked now without a deputy. Not that Sprout did a lot when he worked at that, but actually Sprout laziness did use to save Hitch’s time before in a way. Sprout used to be in charge of deciding which smaller missions were worth it and of dealing with ponies who went to complain when Hitch was not around, both of which Sprout used to discard out of not wanting to take care of them. Now that Sprout isn’t around, Hitch wants to take care of every little thing and that, plus the pegasi and unicorn being around now, clearly leaves Hitch with no energy most days.

It is sorta funny to finally see Hitch not being as perfect of a sheriff as Sprout believed he was. And Sprout felt noticed when one time Hitch mentioned he missed the company and pizza night during his longer shifts.

Just for that last thing Sprout sometimes stops by the office to chat or share fries with Hitch. Zipp tends to join them too since she likes to hang out and bother the two of them.

Besides that, Sprout also goes job hunting once in a while. He knows he’ll take over his mom’s factory in the future, whatever they decided to do with it now that anti-pegasi and anti-unicorn technology is not necessary, but in the meantime Sprout wants to explore other options. He has a lot of free time in his hooves and wants to figure out what to do with his life.

He either gets bored and or screws up at most jobs though, so it becomes a running joke with Sunny and the rest that Sprout will have a different job every time they see him.

Currently he's a pizza delivery pony. It’s the job Sprout enjoys the most so far, mostly because he gets to eat all the pizza he wants. He has heard ponies say he seems in a better mood lately, and maybe that’s true, but Sprout is still Sprout. He wants to be recognized as the best at something and have the chance to be the boss someday and in someplace, however that gets to happen. Also he’s still grumpy and too blunt giving his point of view compared to Sunny and the rest whenever they hang out. He has to. The group is way too positive and sometimes they get delusional with everything being sugar and rainbows suddenly just because there’s magic when Sprout knows there’ll be problems.

For example, Sprout thinks it’s unfair earth ponies have no magic at all. Or how things are just so…so different with pegasi flying around or unicorns making things float around. Maretime Bay’s Day is coming up soon and Sprout is sure it’s going to be a disaster with all these changes.

Still though, slowly very slowly, Sprout is changing. Sprout is considering apologizing to Sunny for all the mess even, but that…that will take him time, Sprout is not one to apologize. For now, he just treats Sunny nicely, gifts her vegetables for her cooking, eats the unicorn cupcakes she makes(he had always wanted to try them) and in general, does get along way better with her than he used to when they were foals.

Sunny seems happy with all that so far. So do Hitch, Izzy, Pipp and Zipp whenever he hangs out with them.

And Sprout? He’s pretty happy as well, though no one will catch him saying that out loud.

For now, he enjoys the picnic and wonders what the future will await for all of them. He has the feeling adventures won’t end anytime soon for him, to his disgrace(or luck?)

✧ ━━━The end━━━ ✧

[Sketches made by me aka @soniana_draws on instagram and twitter]

Author's Note

As you just saw, it's been more than a year. I decided to finish this fic, but not the convencional way. I enjoy writing, but I'm too busy with other matters in life and writing fanfiction is too time consuming for what I'm capable of.

Still, this fic received a lot of support when I posted it and I'm thankful for that :) It made me really happy to see all those comments. So the least I could do is tell y'all what the plans were. Take this as a summary of the rest of the story. Better late than ever, huh? Not that the canon did much with Sprout after the movie so here’s this for anypony who still likes the red boi.

The end :) thanks to…the maybe two people who still waited for an update, even after so long. I still love the movie a lot and am REALLY really sad the show didn’t do much with Sprout after it. There was a lot of potential which the writers didn’t explore sadly. To all the fellow Sprout fans out there, hope this helps a little to heal that wound even if it’s not about TYT and MYM.

About these chapters of the fic, I just want to say that I’m happy with how I re-wrote the movie events. Enough change to give Sprout development but without getting too in the way of the plot.

Phyllis takes the role as antagonist, but I made her more of an ‘antagonist who thinks she’s doing the right thing’ and not a ‘brat going mad with power’ like Sprout. I tried to reflect that in how we see bits of her reasoning here and there. Hitch left the town alone, everypony looked up to Phyllis, she was forced to take the role of leader.

As for Sprout helping with the mission, I just added some bits so he wouldn’t be useless in the story lol Him suggesting Pipp for the dance off for example(and so giving Pipp something to do bc I love her but poor girl didn’t get much to do in the movie).

Also originally Sprout was going to have his big ‘actually pegasi and unicorns aren’t so bad’ moment in the campfire, but that was Hitch’s moment, so I ended up changing it to a whole mini-arc of Sprout betraying the rest by stealing the crystals and saying mean things to the group later in Bridlewood. It seems fitting for me that even if Sprout sees things are not as he used to think, he’s still stubborn and doesn’t change right away. I see him as one that often ends up committing mistakes before he learns.

This change in the fic led to his big moment being when Sprout faced his mom and then helped fix Sunny’s and Argyle face. It just seemed perfect for his big moment to be at the end, for him to be the last one to understand his views were wrong. That his mom was not as perfect as he used to think and to silently apologize to Sunny in that scene.

Figuring out Sprout’s epilogue for this AU was tricky and I considered many things. Originally I considered him becoming roomies with Hitch, so he would stop living with his mom and slowly become independent but…let’s be honest, after being on Hitch’s shadow for so long I think Sprout wouldn’t want to live on the station and less deal with Sparky everyday later(though some fun shenanigans could ensue with the idea of Sprout babysitting at least), plus they won’t match as roomates akfkg Not before Sprout got some proper development at least, but who knows? Just like Misty moves in with the girls later in the show, Sprout could move away from his mom’s house…at some moment, wherever that would be Hitch’s station or his own home.

About the ‘many jobs’ thing, I based it on those fake leaked storyboards where Sprout was a pizza delivery boy. Since back when the movie premiered the fandom was crazy with ideas trying to figure out what would be his role later in the show…I decided to apply exactly that to Sprout here at the end. I imagine Sprout’s role forward after this fic as him trying to figure out what he wants to do with himself(all the things mentioned in the epilogue basically), and now he knows stepping out of his comfort zone is the way to do that so…jobs, jobs, jobs. Him deciding to do things on his own is a huge step.

NOW about if Sprout becomes part of the mane 5 in this AU…that’s up to the reader. I like to think he would add grumpiness and blunt honesty to the group dynamic, which would be a fun contrast against the rainbows and sunshine attitude they have. But if people just want to see him as somepony who hangs out with the group sometimes without being part of the adventures, that's cool too. Maybe he’s part of the group while Misty joins in later and those two get to talk about how they both committed huge mistakes. Maybe he’s just a secondary character who appears often. The possibilities are endless!

Well, that’s all. Can’t thank you guys enough for reading this story even if it’s not perfect. Hope to see more cool stuff from G5 in the future, and for Sprout to have more screentime(a girl can dream).

Love u guys, hoof to heart!