Legends Never Die

by bookhorse125

Alone

Sprout forced himself to keep going. Maretime Bay was so close… And Sunny was counting on him. He had a mission to do, and he wasn’t going to let her down.

Though he would never admit it, Sprout had secretly had a crush on Sunny since they were foals. Of course he didn’t show it - his mother would be very disappointed to hear that he had a crush on Argyle Starshine’s overly optimistic daughter. But she was just so hopeful and faithful and really, truly believed that all three pony kinds could be friends, even though everypony - including Sprout - gave her such a hard time about it.

He hated his choices now more than ever. It was because of him that ponykind almost went to war only a few weeks ago, and it was because of him that they might go to war again. His actions had left that seed of mistrust and fear that Sunny was now working so hard to dislodge; Sunny and her friends. Izzy, Zipp, Pipp… and Hitch.

Sprout shook himself. He could not, would not, think about Hitch. It was much too painful.

His aching hooves finally managed to drag him to the crest of the hill, and he looked down on the quaint earth pony town with nostalgia. Seemed like only yesterday that he had been here, leaving on a quest to go find remnants of ancient Equestria… probably because it was just yesterday. Now it felt so long ago.

Behind him, Toots sighed contentedly. “I don’t know about you, but I am looking forward to taking a break from walking all over the world. Perhaps a smoothie. Anypony up for a smoothie run?”

“Sounds perfect,” Sweets agreed, frustratingly blowing her sweaty bangs out of her face. “And maybe a hoof massage. I feel like I can’t take another step.”

Sprout looked back at the two Canterlogic employees with a strange feeling inside. He remembered how he had become emperor of Maretime Bay, and it had been him ordering Toots and Sweets and everypony else around everywhere. Despite how awful he felt about it now, it had been sort of elating to have everypony listen to him, to look to him for guidance on what to do. He only wished he hadn’t led them so wrong, so that they might trust him like that again.

Focus on the mission, he told himself. Don’t let it end up like last time. He took a deep breath and started down the hill, Toots and Sweets behind him.

There was a strange feeling in the air that Sprout began to sense as he trotted by the cliff where Sunny’s lighthouse was under construction… or had been, at least. It looked abandoned, and more than that, what little was built looked vandalized with cruel messages provoking Sunny and her idiotic mission to bring ponykind together. Sprout winced at the sight. He would never forget that it was him who had destroyed the lighthouse in the first place… and that Sunny had forgiven him for it. That perhaps hurt most of all.

Once the trio got into town, Sprout finally figured out what it was: it was the same feeling that the town had gotten when he had almost taken them into battle. He had never really noticed it, but it was there. It felt different on the opposite side of the conflict, he thought.

“Where is everypony?” Toots asked nervously, taking in the empty streets and closed stores. A loud bang made them all jump, echoing from the Canterlogic factory.

“I think I have an idea,” Sweets said, no more confident than Toots. “And it doesn’t mean anything good.”

Sprout had an idea, too, and he wasn’t sure he would be able to go through with this. Taking a deep breath, he thought of Sunny, and how hard she had worked to make her dream a reality. He couldn’t let her down. So he kept going.

The factory was brimming with ponies, all working on one thing: a massive vehicle in the center, towering over all the ponies. They worked vigorously, whether it was putting the machine together or mass producing the anti-mind-reading hats and splat-a-pults and earth pony balloon escape packs (why they thought that was a good idea, Sprout wasn’t sure, but they were scared enough to do the craziest things).

“What is going on here?” he demanded, and it came out harsher than he meant it to. All the earth ponies skidded to a halt and turned to look at him. Sprout felt the heat rising in his cheeks, hoping that the others couldn’t tell.

“We’re preparing to attack the unicorns and pegasi!” an earth pony cried, and the others yelled in agreement.

“We’re going to do what we should have done long ago!” another called out.

“They’ve had it coming for years!” yet another screeched.

A pony climbed on top of the machine and said in a carrying voice, “Now that magic’s unstable, we hold the advantage! We don’t need magic to fight, yes? This is our chance!”

“We won’t have to live in fear anymore!” the earth ponies cheered. “We won’t have to worry about having our brains fried or being eaten by pegasi! We don’t need magic, so why should they get all the good stuff? We’re just as strong as they are! We’re stronger!”

With each word, the mob grew louder and louder, and Sprout winced with each accusation. It all sounded so familiar to what he’d said…

“Listen to me!” he shouted, desperate now. He scrambled on Canterlogic’s stage, Toots and Sweets behind him. “We don’t have to be scared anymore! I know things are crazy right now, but the unicorns and pegasi can be our friends. They don’t have magic because some ponies don’t believe that we can be friends and are driving us apart! But we don’t have to be like that. We can bring magic back, bring friendship back. But this… this is only going to make things worse! You don’t have to fight, you need to make peace - that’s how we fixed everything before!”

“Only because you were so bad at leading us that you allowed a group of other ponies to stop you!” a pony yelled, and Sprout winced; he’d struck a sore spot.

“Look, I admit that what I did was wrong, and there is no good reason that I can think of as to why you should forgive me, but this goes beyond just me, it goes beyond just us! If we don’t at least try to fix things, then how will they ever get better? War is not the answer, friendship is, and-”

“Aw, bravo, you sound just like Sunny,” came a voice that Sprout never thought he’d hear say those words.

“M-Mom?”

Phyllis Cloverleaf stepped out of the crowd, followed by an earth pony that Sprout had never seen before. He had a blue coat the color of taffy and fluffy pink hair that looked like cotton candy. The other earth ponies looked at Phyllis with such trust and respect that it made Sprout angry. It wasn’t like she was completely blameless either, but it didn’t matter to them. She taught them about how awful the other tribes were for years, and now that they believed it again, they looked to her.

“I never thought I’d see the day when my own son would be advocating for unity and friendship with other tribes and all that garbage that Argyle went on and on and on about,” Phyllis said conversationally, she and her companion stepping onto the stage next to Sprout. “But here we are.”

The new earth pony stepped forward, looking Sprout up and down. “Unicorn brainwashing. The effects are obvious.” He turned to the crowd. “You see? This is what will happen if you don’t fight back - you’ll end up like this fellow here!”

“Hey!” Sprout protested defensively, but Candy Floss didn’t hear him.

“It is time for us to fight, my earth pony brethren, and we will not surrender! We will not stop until we have shown the unicorns and the pegasi who really are in charge!”

The roar that rose up was almost enough to shake the building, and it was certainly enough to jar Sprout’s bones. He opened his mouth to speak again, but Candy Floss wasn’t done - not by a long shot.

“Anything you may have seen or heard of prior to this about how we can all be friends and sing together by a campfire was all fake, just a stunt to make us gullible! Ponykind never lost their magic - they were just hiding it from us, waiting for the moment to strike. They seek to make us weak, my friends. But we are not weak, are we, my fellow ponies? No, we are strong, and we deserve much more than to be the punch line of a massive joke. This is the earth pony revolution! We’ll put those other tribes in their place! Let’s see them fry our brains and swoop down on us when we take away their magic!”

Earth ponies cheered themselves hoarse and quickly moved back to their jobs. Toots and Sweets now looked torn, battling years of fear and paranoia with what they’d seen in the past few weeks, which they were now being told was all a lie.

“Guys-” Sprout started, but Phyllis interrupted.

“Toots, Sweets, what are you doing, milling around? Get back to work!” The two earth ponies gave Sprout a look that said a thousand words before scrambling away. Phyllis sighed contentedly and turned to her son.

“You see, sugarcube? We don’t need those other ponies. We have all this because we are smart, we are strong, and we have me to thank for it. Well, and Candy Floss, too, partially. I mean, he did get us back on the right track. I just hope we’ll be able to cure you of that horrid unicorn’s brainwashing.” She tossuled Sprout’s mane and kissed him on the cheek.

“Mom, where did you even find that pony?” Sprout demanded, pulling away.

“He was kind enough to rescue me from the horrid unicorns and pegasi who had kidnapped me, sugarcube! They were just trying to weaken us, see, so they captured me so that we couldn’t defend ourselves. But Candy Floss saved me and erased all doubt in my mind that all other ponies are horrid beasts who need to be destroyed.” She said the story with such ease that Sprout knew it must be fake.

“Mom, I’m sorry, but I feel like I’m not the brainwashed one - you are.” Sprout looked around quickly before pulling his mother aside. “Look, I know it’s going to sound hard to believe, but you know Sunny Starscout? Yeah, she made friends will all three pony tribes, and they brought back magic, and everypony began to get along… until something happened, and everything started collapsing, so we went on a quest to prove that all ponies could be friends, but then everything was escalating too fast and we have to stop everypony from going to war now before I… before somepony does something they’ll regret.”

Phyllis looked at him strangely. “Sugarcube, are you alright? You look a little pale… Why don’t you go back home, take the day off, get some rest. That unicorn must have done something awful to you. We’ll set out in the morning, okay? I don’t want you to miss this.”

Sprout opened his mouth to argue, then realized that this was exactly the opening he needed. “Okay, Mommy. Now that you mention it, I have been feeling a little queasy… Those darn unicorns, right?” He turned and walked out of the factory, making a big show of acting like he was going to throw up with every step.

Once he got home, he arranged some pillows under a blanket to make it look like he was lying there. Satisfied, he opened the front door, peeked out to see if anypony was watching, and snuck down the street until he was out of the town. After he was sure that nopony could possibly be watching him, he took off running. All thoughts of hoof massages and smoothies had abandoned him, replaced by a grim determination, and a new mission. He had to get to Sunny. Sunny would know what to do. She could save the day like she always did.

But some part of Sprout told him that he would have to do this alone. And that part terrified him more than anything.

Author's Note:

I wanted Sprout's speeches to have similarities to Sunny's speeches to show that he's been actually secretly paying attention over the years...

Constructive criticism is appreciated. Thank you for reading!

Comments

[Yoshifan30]

“We won’t have to live in fear anymore!” the earth ponies cheered. “We won’t have to worry about having our brains fried or being eaten by pegasi! We don’t need magic, so why should they get all the good stuff? We’re just as strong as they are! We’re stronger!”

You know whoever made that idea is an idiot and basically a racist thoughts

[Yoshifan30]

“I never thought I’d see the day when my own son would be advocating for unity and friendship with other tribes and all that garbage that Argyle went on and on and on about,” Phyllis said conversationally, she and her companion stepping onto the stage next to Sprout. “But here we are.”

Okay apparently not only Sunny's Friends got the memory erase but also the other three ponies Alphabittle heaven and Phyllis got their memories taken away as well you know I'm starting to hate that memory erase

[Yoshifan30]

So meanwhile it looks like sprouts and the other two ponies finally made it home to Maretime Bay but unfortunately things got really bad the Earth Ponies are designing the anti helmet add weaponize Everything To Face Off the Pegasus and the unicorns and Sprouts tried his best to convince them like what Sunny did but unfortunately they didn't listen and it looks like his mother Phyllis which unfortunately she got her memories wiped out thinking that Sprouts was crazy and apparently that pony candy floss was there as well and basically poisoning everybody's mine but Sprouts had to make his escape to find sunny and her friends before it's too late because right now things are getting really bad now well I guess we'll find out next time

[bookhorse125]

Holy cow, this is in Featured! Thanks, guys!

[Teraunce]

Ok so Sprout is going to be the hidden 6th member of the new Mane 6?

[StarzGecko]

I wish I see more Sprout X Sunny. That sounds more sweet after reading this chapter