With his first patrol of the morning done, Sprout trotted back into the MPD precinct, and checked the complaint box, finding it empty, before going back to his desk and sipped at his soda, which he had pulled from the mini fridge under his desk before he made a quick stride down the coastal highway.
He had to give Hitch credit; for the insane panic that the town had been in after the unicorn's sudden appearance, his reassuring speech has done wonders to calm things down. Sprout had been asked a couple of times on his first patrol where the sheriff was, and he explained that he was escorting the unicorn back to where she had come from, along with Sunny Starscout. They seemed to accept this, and went on with their day. For his part, Sprout was glad that he was so far able to carry the banner without Hitch here, at least for the time being.
The double doors to the precinct opened, and in walked Phyllis Cloverleaf, Sprout's mom and head of CanterLogic.
"Good morning, sugarcube. How are things going today?" She asked with a smile.
"Not too bad, for the start of a solo run, how are things going for the factory?" Sprout asked in return.
"Solo? Hitch isn't here?"
The stallion shook his head.
"He and Sunny took that unicorn out of town, I'm guessing back to wherever she came from."
The factory director looked almost bewildered at those words.
"He just let the unicorn leave?" Phyllis asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Yeah, I mean, why wouldn't he? She answered all of our questions, and aside from the panic, she didn't really do anything wrong. No brains melted or read, as far as I could tell. He did a great job of calming everyone down before he and Sunny left with her last night, that's for sure."
"Yeah, and calming everyone down is sure to increase sales, right?" Phyllis replied.
Sprout detected the more-than-a-hint of sarcasm coming from his mother's tongue.
"Mom, what's the big deal? You already sold plenty after everything calmed down last night."
"Yes, and the important thing is that we keep selling, so we can keep improving our products, and keep making new ones. Sugar cube, if the ponies of Maretime Bay aren't scared of pegasi and unicorns, then they don't want to be prepared. And if they don't want to be prepared, then they aren't demanding CanterLogic products to protect them. Do you get what I'm saying?"
"Uh... Huh?" Sprout answered, really unsure of what else to say at the moment. Honestly, he wasn't quite sure what his mom meant. If ponies didn't need to be kept safe and stylish, then surely CanterLogic would be able to shift gears to just stylish, right?
"I'm glad that he can keep things calm, but I'm not sure if it's such a good idea for the town sheriff to go trotting off to see an invading unicorn home! Don't you think so, sweetheart?"
"I mean, that's what I'm here for, mom. To fill in for him so he can take time off, or attend to something out of town," Sprout countered, although he can't remember the last time Hitch actually left town, even on vacation. Last time he did, he came back covered in furry, fuzzy woodland creatures."
"And you're doing a terrific job, so far, Sprouty-kins. Keep up the good work, and maybe we'll be looking at Maretime Bay's new sheriff, eh?"
Sprout's eyes widened in shock. She wasn't seriously suggesting... Usurping Hitch's badge, was she?
"Being sheriff is all you talked about when you were younger, wasn't it? I'll let you think on that. I've got to get back to the factory, sugar cube. Keep up the good work!"
With that, Phyllis Cloverleaf turned on her hooves, and pushed the doors to the precinct open, and trotted back outside, flooding the center of the office area with sunlight for a few precious seconds, and this pushed Sprout out of his chair to raise the blinds on the door, letting in the late morning sun.
Ok this is certainly interesting so far so it looks like everything was quiet and Sprout is basically just keeping an eye on the town until Phyllis showed up asking how has he been doing and hitch is not here and somehow she always talks about how her invention about the anti pegasus and unicorn won't be selling I don't know what is she planning on but I don't like it and it looks like Sprout is starting to have a little suspicious about the way she said I wonder what's going to happen next guess we'll find out next time
To be honest I thought she would be a huge problematic since she always antagonizing sunny and her father so I thought she would be the villain I mean she could have if she thinks about selling those anti-unicorns and Pegasus
Looks promising already. Keep 'em coming.
Phyllis, stop Lady Macbething your son!
I'm liking the idea of where this alternate take on the movie's events could go, more and more... definitely very interested to see how this will play out!
Me going into the chapter: "Aw, only 600-700 words again?"
Me coming out of the chapter: "I take it back. For such a small chapter, this did a lot."
Wow, she was not subtle at all, was she?
Final note: I can't tell if there was any symbolism in Sprout opening the blinds at the end, or if your stories are big on symbolism to begin with, but I like that you didn't delve too deep into Sprout's thoughts at the end. There was his shock at Phyllis' suggestion at taking the sheriff position for himself, and then Phyllis tempting him by saying he'd wanted it since childhood, but nothing after that. Kept things vague, I like that.
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I remember that in the movie concept art, Sprout's truck was modeled after Phyllis, instead of himself.
Makes me wonder if she was going to be the villain at some point, or if he just was that big of a mommy's colt and they dialed it back just a liiitle bit.
Phyllis is going to steer Sprout in the same direction as in the movie. This can't go well.
I'm not sure I like pondering what you're pondering, Phyllis.
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I hope it’s neither. And if Sprout does build the Maximus, it’s in response to a potential misconception from one of the other tribes where Sprout decides some sort of defense is needed. I think this story requires a little more out of the box thinking where Sprout is being pulled two different directions morally. I don’t want to see Phyllis just become a villain either. Their ideals need to be tested to the point where it takes a mother and son “battle” both verbally and maybe mecha vs mecha if necessary.
Or you can make something that won't involve protecting yourselves over your fellow tribes!
I do wish Phyllis played a bigger villain role in the film or at least be more in the film. Also, they could have used her more for the TYT or MYM series since CanterLogic would be in trouble from not able to sell their old tech that was used to scare off the other tribes that don’t work at all or do they?
This is a nice alternative take so far