Sunny decided to pay a visit to Sprout. She didn’t really know why, considering his past malice against her. He’d been brutal, always bullying her for her beliefs when they were foals and shifting that into his work as a deputy. She’d always snorted at the idea of Hitch hiring him to take up the position when their former deputy, Badge Mane, had retired. Badge had been deputy for years and was always kind to everypony, even Sunny. In fact, he had shared in her father’s dream of unity among the pony kinds. But, when the time came, Badge hung up his namesake for good. After Argyle’s death, the only pony in Maretime Bay who even bothered to show up at his funeral…was the recently retired Badge. Sunny took great comfort in her friendship with the old police officer, and she often went to him for advice after her father’s passing.
Unfortunately for her, Badge had also passed, and now she was left with Sprout. This red stallion’s fiery personality matched his fur color, and he’d let anypony know it. Sunny wanted so desperately for them to return to the friendship they had when they were foals. Now that pony unity had been achieved, perhaps Sprout could finally see the error of his ways. This was what she hoped as she trotted up the path towards Sprout’s place of residence. It was just after her talk with Pipp, and she hoped that this one would be a lot smoother. She couldn’t help but notice, as she trotted along, that the path was overgrown with weeds. The gardens around the front of the house were the same way, and the building itself was falling apart. Sprout’s home had always been rather sparsely kept up simply due to the stallion’s work as an officer. Now that he had no job, it appeared that he’d just given up. It broke Sunny’s heart to see things like this, for, despite his bullying, she still cared deeply for Sprout.
Adjusting her ever present saddlebag, she offered a small knock on the door. She heard a great amount of thudding and sharp exclamations from inside before the portal swung open. There stood Sprout, only he wasn’t quite himself. His mane was extremely unkempt and his fur was matted, sticking out in various places like thorns on a rose bush. His eyelids drooped and the bags gathered underneath spoke to a lack of sleep. Bloodshot veins pushed their way through his corneas. He wore a dark cloak over the majority of his body which, much to Sunny’s surprise, contained the medals from his self-imposed time as “emperor of Maretime Bay.” It seemed as if the stallion was holding onto some shred of the pony he once was. His ambition had always driven him…or rather, his mother’s ambition. Yet, he’d always had some kind of desperate need to be in control. Now, she was hoping he’d let that go and fall into friendship’s warm embrace.
“Oh, Sunny…it’s you,” Sprout grumbled.
“Yes, it’s me,” Sunny replied, “and I’m here on a friendly mission.”
“Oh, goody,” Sprout responded, voice dripping with sarcasm, “I suppose you want me to form a drum circle with you and your new friends.”
“No,” Sunny responded as Sprout turned and led her inside, “I’m just here…to…”
She stopped short. The amount of broken furniture and busted glass on the floor was enough to make her heart skip a beat. A musty smell coated everything. Physical dirt was piled in layers surrounding what had once been a couch. The television set had a massive hole in it and the table it sat on was missing a leg. Turning towards the kitchen, she noticed a pile of dirty dishes thickened by weeks of simply sitting there. She didn’t need to ask Sprout how his life was, for his habitation confirmed it. Simply put, Sprout was living in dire conditions made all the more worse by his refusal to let go of the past.
“…to what?” Sprout asked, finishing Sunny’s earlier remark and pricking his ears in both annoyance and curiosity.
“…to invite you on our trip!” Sunny said with all the excitement she could muster. Unfortunately, after seeing the rather hellish conditions Sprout was living in, her happiness level had been snuffed considerably.
“Oh, you mean that pointless voyage with those unicorns and pegasi?” Sprout asked.
Sunny forced herself to remain calm. “Yes, I do. But it’s not pointless.”
“Anything done with anypony outside of our own kind is pointless,” Sprout muttered, “I mean, just look at what they’ve done to our town!”
“They’ve made it better by introducing elements of their own culture!” Sunny said, defending her friends.
“There’s magic shops and flight schools all around Maretime Bay now!” Sprout complained. “I can’t even get to my favorite pizza place because it’s surrounded by those DAD BLASTED UNICORNS!”
Once again, Sunny forced herself to remain calm. The only way her mission would be successful would be by showing Sprout what a true friend was. “Look, Sprout. I don’t know why you’re continuing to cling to things that we’ve proven to be false, but the invitation is still open. I know that our fathers were found together…perhaps we might find answers as to the truth of their deaths.”
“I know what happened!” Sprout thundered. “Those unicorns killed him, and I’ll lay you odds that a pegasi was involved in it as well! I don’t need some fancy expedition to tell me that, even if it’s being funded by my mother! Canter Logic used to be a corporation that made Earth Ponies proud…now it’s being used to send all pony kinds on wild goose chases to solve mysteries that have already been solved!”
For a third time, Sunny had to force her nerves back into place. “Phyllis has been very generous with her bits and has helped us to enact this journey. Sprout…why can’t you see what she has? Why can’t you see that the unicorns and pegasi mean us no harm?”
“You might have brainwashed Mommy, but you can’t do it to me!” Sprout roared. “I don’t trust those newcomers at all, and you’d be wise to keep a sharp eye on them too. I can’t believe that somepony would just blindly trust somepony else so easily! But, then again, you were always that pony, weren’t you, Sunny? Somepony who’d lay life and hoof on the line for somepony else, even if that somepony wanted to hurt them. Such idiocy…”
This time, Sunny couldn’t keep herself calm. “Idiocy?! It’s called friendship, Sprout! Everypony in Maretime Bay has turned to it! Everypony…except you. Here you live in a broken down hovel with dirt on the floor while ponies out there are concerned for you! Yes, despite the fact that you tried to kill us all with a giant robot, we still care for you. Sprout, you and I have been friends since foalhood. Why…why can’t you see what our friendship means?!”
“Friends?! We’re not friends, Sunny!” Sprout erupted. “Friendship is for weak minded fools like you!”
“Oh, and I suppose that this is better?” Sunny asked, pointing a hoof at the surroundings. After seeing Sprout’s face fall, she continued softly. “Sprout…we care for you, and this journey could answer a lot of questions. If you’d only learn to detach from the past and live in the present.”
“Sorry, Sunny,” Sprout said, “but I know what they did to my father. There’s nothing you, or anypony else, can say that will convince me otherwise.”
“Alright,” Sunny said as she turned to leave, “but even so, I will do my best to prove that our fathers were not killed by unicorns or pegasi.”
“Good luck with that,” Sprout growled as Sunny shut the door behind her.