A Sprout to a Better Path

by soniana-draws

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 ;)

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?"

Comments

[SuperPinkBrony12]

Never thought about Pipp and Sprout before. But you're right, they do have a lot in common.

[Comickook]

Again, very good work on the dialogue and characterizations. And, yeah, didn't think of how many similarities Sprout and Pipp had until you mentioned them in your author's notes, but it DOES make sense. And, yeah, Sprout's mixture of frustration and curiosity definitely makes sense after the stuff Pipp said.

Definitely looking forward to more of this.

[Yoshifan30]

So you kind of skip over the part when everything went horribly wrong at the concert and sunny and the others got the crystal well they thought they did now Sprout has it and it looks like pipp found him and she was pretty emotional knowing that her life is ruined after they found out that the Royals cannot fly either and it looks like she wanted him to help her which Sprout never thought a pegasus ask for help so it looks like he's being dragged into the mess and I had to admit you've got a good point they actually have in common with each other and they can actually be friends in the long run I wonder what else is going to happen with Sprouts along guess we'll find out next time

[littleman001]

Aww! Sprout is coming out of his shell already. Nice!

[Lord of edge]

Great job and the story mate can't wait for chapter 3

[StarzGecko]

Actually… that makes sense for Pipp and Sprout to be close friends. Surprise we haven’t seen a ship fic of them yet either.