All Sunny, Hitch and Lukas could do was watch in horror as the ponies of Maretime Bay marched up towards the entrance of Canterlogic, where they appeared to be a podium. They didn't quite know what to think about all this, even the two birds and crab that had accompanied Hitch earlier were wearing anti-mind reading hats, whoever was behind this, they must've been really persuasive in order to do all of this within two days.
"The Stallion-in-Chief!" Sweets called out in an authoritative voice while she blew bubble gum.
Suddenly, drums began to play as two ponies trotted in while they were carrying something on a throne, or more specifically, somepony, and that somepony was none other than...
"Sprout!" Sunny and Hitch both exclaimed in unison, but Lukas didn't look that surprised
"I knew it." He said quietly.
Sprout then jumped down from the throne he was being carried on and in front of the aforementioned podium, but it seemed to be too tall for him as when he jumped down, he wasn't seen at all.
"Step!" He groaned in a frustrated voice.
"Oh, right!" Sweets said, remembering what she had to do. She then carried Sprout's step and cranked it up so that he could be seen. He then began his speech
"Citizens of Maretime—!" Sprout was suddenly cut off as a banner on it from above covered him up. There was a moment of silence as the crowd didn't say a single word. Eventually, Sprout was able to free himself from the banner as he adjusted his sunglasses. "Can we try that again?"
"Sprout! What are you doing?" Hitch asked as the two little birds and crab took off their mind reading hats once they had heard Hitch's voice.
"Awwww. Little Sheriff Hitchy came trotting back. Waaaah." Sprout mocked in a baby voice. "Just in time to see me do what you couldn't – attack our enemies!" The feedback from the microphone whined as Sprout cringed a little bit by the sound.
"Ugh." Hitch groaned, having also been affected by the feedback."Wait, wait, no, Sprout, listen to me. Listen to me. The Pegasi and unicorns can be our friends. There's no need to be afraid of them."
"And besides, the unicorns don't even have any magic." Lukas added.
"What?" Phyllis asked herself in shock.
"No magic? Hah! That's even better!" Sprout remarked while he let out a manipulative laugh.
"But we can bring magic back! Bring friendship back!" Sunny addressed the crowd.
"So, we don't have to fight?" Sparkle Chaser asked. "That's a relief."
One by one, all of the ponies stared taking off their anti-mind reading hats, happy that they didn't have to resort to fighting, but unfortunately, Sprout was able to convince them otherwise.
"W-Wait, what! Whoa, whoa, whoa! Don't listen! They've been brainwashed!"
"Excuse me?" Lukas asked in astonishment.
"You'll all be next if we don't end this now!" Sprout went on as everyone slowly put their anti-mind reading hats back on.
Sprout then let out another manipulative laugh as he pressed a button on his podium and almost instantly, the ground beneath Lukas began to rise up, causing Lukas to stumble backwards and land on his back. Everyone watched in awe at what was coming out of the ground and even Phyllis looked shocked.
"Say hello... to Sprouticus Maximus!"
The crowd gasped as everyone took a good look at what appeared to be a robot who looked like Sprout, the same color scheme and everything.
"Maybe this is a bit too much, dear!" Phyllis called out, but her plead fell on deaf ears as Sprout quickly got inside.
"Troops! On to Bridlewood!" He declared as he started the engine and blew the horn.
"We have to warn them." Sunny thought as her, Hitch and Lukas ran off as fast as they could to do just that. But Sprout weren't going to let them get away that easily as he quickly gave chase to them.
Lukas was falling behind, his legs were sore from falling over earlier and even though it strained him, he didn't want to get crunched up by Sprout's machine, so he continued to run and he didn't turn back. But just when he was about to catch up to Hitch and Sunny, he suddenly tripped over something, he looked back and saw it was a skateboard.
"Lukas, come on!" Sunny encouraged.
"I can't, my leg's sore!" Lukas called back.
Suddenly, Sprouticus Maximus turned the corner, so Sunny quickly ran up towards Lukas.
"Sunny, what are you doing?" Hitch asked frantically, but didn't get a reply.
Sunny went up to Lukas, picked him up and put him on her back and ran up to Hitch just as Sprout's machine crunched up the skateboard.
The trio promptly made their way to the outskirts of Maretime Bay, Sprout's machine was far behind them, so they decided to catch a small break.
"Lukas, you okay?" Hitch asked worriedly as Sunny let him off her back
"Yeah, I'm fine, Hitch." Lukas assured him, before he turned over to Sunny. "Thanks for saving me, Sunny."
"What are friends for?" Sunny asked, out of breath.
"Sunny!" A voice suddenly called out, everyone looked over to see Izzy, Pipp and Zipp galloping straight towards them.
"Wait, what are you guys doing here?" Lukas asked.
"We don't care what anypony says!" Izzy replied.
"Yeah! We just want to stay friends!" Zipp added.
"Pipp! Zipp!" Another voice called out. It was Queen Haven, she was running with Cloudpuff, Alphabittle, the unicorns from Bridlewood and the Pegasus guards. " I know you're upset, darlings, my sweet little darlings, but it's time to go home now."
"Izzy Moonbow, you're gonna get us all jinxed!" Alphabittle cut in, getting straight to the point. "Come back to Bridlewood!"
Queen Haven looked at Alphabittle with a disapproving face. "Excuse me! Do you see my mouth still moving? That means I'm still a-talking!"
"We don't have time for this right now!" Lukas exclaimed, putting an end to their argument.
"Yeah." Sunny agreed. "You're all in danger!"
"I'm sorry, what?" Queen Haven asked.
Suddenly, before anyone could say anything else, Sprout's machine came through the bushes in the distance and came to a halt in front of everyone, causing a big cloud of dust to form, when the dust cleared, the pony army marched right beside the machine as Toots gasped in surprise when he saw who were in front of them.
"Would you look at this? Sprout asked rhetorically. "Our enemies delivered themselves to us!" He said with a grin.
"No, no, no, we're not here to fight, Mr. Big Robot Pony." Queen Haven stuttered.
"I do not accept your surrender!" Sprout replied, before looking over. "Load the Splat-a-pults!"
But one of the ponies was too scared to do anything, so she ran off and another one followed her, much to Sprout's frustration.
"Why do I have to do everything myself?!" He groaned to himself as he pulled on a lever, causing the cruncher in the front of his machine to extend out.
"We have to stop that thing!" Zipp declared.
"But how?" Izzy asked.
"With magic!" Sunny realized, before quickly running over to Queen Haven and Alphabittle. "Quick! I need your crystals!"
Without another thought, the two of them gave Sunny their separate crystals as she put them both in her saddlebag. "There's a third crystal!" She exclaimed "Follow me!" Sunny then ran off towards the lighthouse, followed by everyone else.
"What?" Hitch asked himself.
"Don't question it, Hitch!" Lukas answered as him and Hitch ran off after the others.
"Oh, no, you don't!" Sprout cried out as he quickly averted the machine over towards the lighthouse, Hitch noticed this.
"I've gotta rein that thing in!" He exclaimed as he darted in the opposite direction.
"I've got your back, Hitch!" Zipp said as he followed after him.
"Count me in!" Lukas added as he followed them both as they jumped under the bottom of Sprouticus Maximus.