Sometimes in our lives, we all have pain, we all have sorrow
“Are you sure about this Hitch?” Sunny asked, her tone unsure and her wings folded against her side in uncertainty. “Yes, I get it, he’s your friend or he was but…”
“You never gave up on your dreams,” Hitch said pointedly, and at this Sunny acknowledged his point with a nod. “So I’m not giving up on mine. Yes, he was my friend, and maybe he could still be.”
“J-Just be careful,” Sunny stammered. “I’m just worried about you Hitch, I know he was your friend but he was never a nice pony. He was a bully, to me and to you.”
A part of her worried that Hitch was only viewing things through rose-tinted glasses.
Hitch paused, reaching for the doorknob but not fully grasping it. “I’m… aware.”
Memories flooded in, of times when he really should have stepped in or corrected Sprout. Instead, he’d stood by and did nothing. Preferred to keep the peace between his friends, never challenging the status quo.
Sunny had suffered in silence for years, practically an outcast by the town. He hadn’t helped. He could have listened more to her, tried to help her. Tried to change ponies' views bit by bit.
Instead, he did nothing. Hitch knew he’d been a terrible friend to her, but he’d also been a terrible friend to Sprout. He was a bully and a jerk and yeah sure he’d temporarily gone mad with power. But all of that had been a cry for help in a way, because nopony had ever thought to say to him: “Maybe you don’t have to be this way.”
And so he opened the door.
“So, come to gloat?” Sprout asked in his nasally, somewhat foalish tone. “You’ve got everything you ever wanted back, you’re Sheriff again. Ponies look up to you and they respect you.”
“They could have respected you too…” Hitch said quietly, his childhood friend in a cell in front of him. It was something he hated looking at, but the stallion had to pay for his crimes.
“What was that?” Sprout asked his tone one of a childish demand. The way it’d been his whole life, practically. “I’m not sure I heard you.”
“I said they could have respected you too!” Hitch said, nearly raising his voice to a shout.
Sprout opened his mouth, but no sounds came out. He appeared genuinely shocked.
“They could have… well, you heard what I said,” Hitch said, nervously walking back and forth in front of the jail cell door, his hooves clopping against the floor nervously. “Honestly, it’s really my fault, a lot of it.”
“Your fault?” Sprout laughed bitterly, disbelievingly. “So you would have handed over your badge just like that, because you think I wasn’t getting the respect I deserved.”
“That’s not it, Sprout. That’s not it at all,” Hitch replied, sitting down next to him, bars between the two. He with a sigh, shook his head sadly not quite able to meet Sprout’s eyes. A flicker of guilt flashed in his amber orbs. “You don’t understand.”
“What? What don’t I understand?” Sprout asked, grabbing the bars and shaking them slightly resembling a child crying about why they couldn’t have the latest toy.
“I should have stepped in at one point or another, I’m sorry for that Sprout,” Hitch continued. “We were friends, and friends should help friends. I didn’t pay any attention to you when I should have.”
“No, you didn’t,” Sprout said, looking away.
“No, I didn’t, but sit down and be quiet,” Hitch said, a flash of anger in his eyes now. They softened and turned sad again shortly thereafter. “You were my friend, but you weren’t Sunny’s. No matter how much else I wanted to pretend otherwise.”
“Oh, so that’s what this is,” Sprout mocked. “You’re just mad because I never even considered Sunny’s feelings! That maybe unicorns and pegasi could get along with Earth Ponies!”
“And now they are, so maybe her theories aren’t so baseless after all,” Hitch said, clopping his hoof against the floor and a faint glow was left behind. Warm magic rushed through the air, smelling of green grass and freshly picked pumpkins. “I should have supported her.”
“I thought this was about me,” Sprout asked, confused.
“It still is,” Hitch said. “I should have stepped in, when your views got too much. But I didn’t. I was too happy to keep the peace.”
“So you would have broken off our friendship just for her?” Sprout accused. “I mean, I’m not surprised, I’ve always figured you had a thing for her. So maybe you two could be crazy together huh?”
Hitch flinched a little, yeah he carried a bit of a torch for Sunny. He knew she’d never return his feelings, he’d caught her eyes wandering to a mare or two’s posteriors. Just lingering a little too long on their flanks. He knew that just by the way her eyes lit up around Izzy, that there was more than friendship on her mind even if she hadn’t quite put a name to it yet.
“That’s the thing though, she isn’t so crazy is she?” Hitch was swift to point out, with a chuckle. “And I should have seen it sooner, supported her. Even if that meant telling you off. It’s not like anyone else ever did.”
“I’m… sorry?” Sprout asked, still confused.
“Friendship goes two ways Sprout, Sunny for the longest time believed you’d come around. I should have helped her, stepped in and said ‘maybe she’s right’,” Hitch said, sounding like he was criticizing himself now. “Instead I stood by. Your mother, well forgive me, but it’s not just her fault you turned out how you did.”
“My mommy raised me right!” Sprout said. “She said I was a great pony!”
“And you could be, but Sprout… You’re still stuck in the past, you refuse to see the forest for the trees,” Hitch said. “Look outside, ponies of all races gallop together now.”
And for once, Sprout said nothing as he seemed to consider the situation and he watched a unicorn and an Earth Pony walk past, lost in conversation.
“I… I suppose you’re right, but why drag my mommy into this?” Sprout finally said after a few moments of silence. “She’s always right, she can’t be wrong… can she?”
“Parents don’t always have the right answer,” Hitch gently reminded. “Look around, can your mommy be right about unicorns brainwashing others?”
A part of Sprout rose up, in defense of his mother. He wanted to ask if maybe they were brainwashing others even now. But the logical part of him won out. “No… No, I guess she isn’t, and I guess she isn’t right about everything.”
“Was that so hard?” Hitch asked, sounding far more smug than he honestly meant to.
“It’s just… I thought the world of her, and just the possibility that she’s wrong… Hitch, she’s my mommy and my mommy isn’t supposed to be wrong. She’s supposed to know everything!” Sprout said, sounding near tears. Indeed, his lip was quivering a little and his eyes were sparkling.
Hitch sighed again, a part of him feeling like he was going in circles here. “Nobody’s right all the time, Sprout. Take me, even I was wrong about Sunny. A part of me wanted to believe her, but…”
“But what?” Sprout pressed.
“But I didn’t. Like I said, I wanted to keep the peace. Because…” here Hitch bit back a bitter laugh. “Because that’s what a Sheriff's supposed to do right?”
“You didn’t want to challenge authority,” Sprout tried to reassure. “You didn’t want to lose your job.”
“Well maybe I should have!” Hitch shouted, making his former friend take a few steps back in shock. “Because I’m a friend first and foremost! All of those stories Argyle told us, you remember them?”
“About the magic of friendship?” Sprout remembered. “I… I remember, even if only vaguely. I thought he was just a crazy old stallion, that someone had dropped him on his head or something.”
“Yeah, something like that…” Hitch said, his eyes shining with tears. “Barely anyone turned out to the funeral, you remember? Just me, you and your mom out of respect. I’ve never seen Sunny look so lost and alone.”
One of the memories he’d keep to his grave was his best friend, looking like she didn’t know where to go next. Her dad had been her whole world, one of the only ones to even think that maybe ponies, all kinds of ponies were supposed to live together.
And what did they get for their troubles? Years of mockery and scorn, sniggers behind their back when ponies thought they weren’t listening.
“I should have stood by her, we should have stood by her,” Hitch said. “She needed friends and we’d all listened to Argyle’s stories. Some of us… more than most.”
It was obvious who he meant.
“Instead, well….” here Hitch sighed again. “I’m amazed Sunny didn’t leave Maretime Bay the first chance she got, like everypony thought she was crazy.”
“Not anymore,” Sprout tried to say.
“Not anymore no,” Hitch agreed. “But for years, YEARS Sprout! For years we all thought she was just trying to channel her grief in her own way, and just dug our hooves in deeper. Maybe we should have listened. I’m a bad friend Sprout.”
“No worse than I was,” Sprout said. “Maybe you’re right, maybe we both should have listened a bit closer.”
He paused, and quickly backtracked.
“No, there’s no maybes about it is there? I know you’re right, I was just too caught up in my own stupidity to even consider that possibility,” Sprout said. “I was too caught up in trying to impress my mommy, prove that I was a worthy heir to her empire.”
“For all the good that the empire's worth now,” Hitch said, and Sprout nodded in sad agreement.
“For all the good it’s worth now,” Sprout said before laughing. “I’m amazed at how naive we were. How were catapults and tripwires and plates and traps going to catch unicorns, if they had magic?”
There was a long silence as both just took it all in, of things not said and things they could have said or did.
“Hitch? Am… Am I a good pony?” Sprout finally asked, his voice shaky.
“No, you’re not,” Hitch said and the candy-apple stallion deflated a little.
“That’s what I thought,” Sprout admitted, pawing at the ground with a hoof.
“But, with a bit of time and a bit of effort, maybe you could be a great one,” Hitch said as well. “There’s a place for everyone in Maretime Bay, Sprout. Everyone deserves a second chance.”
“E-Even me?” Sprout asked before laughing. “You’re having me on Sheriff, I mean look at where I am now. Look at what landed me here.”
He gestured with a hoof to his surroundings, the sun now dipping low and shining faint orange light into his cell.
“I took over this town, Hitch,” Sprout said, wrapping his legs around the bars and gripping them tightly. “I nearly got us all enveloped in a race war! Now now I know I’m not the brightest stallion, but even I’ve got enough self-awareness to realize maybe I should be in here.”
“Maybe, but as I said, nobody’s perfect. Nobody’s right 100% of the time,” Hitch said with a shrug of his shoulders. “We’re all still learning and growing, that’s all. A few years ago, I would have thought all of this was too crazy to be true, I went along with a lot of it. More than I should have.”
“Yeah, except, again, you didn’t lead a town into a race war,” Sprout pointed out, stamping his hoof for emphasis. “Everyone in Maretime, well everyone except Sunny believed unicorns were out to brainwash us and pegasi steal our souls to fly. I was the only one just to take it far enough and build a mecha to fight them.”
Sprout just turned and headed for the corner of his cell, sitting in the shadows.
“I’m an idiot and I deserve to be in here for my idiocy,” Sprout said, waving him off with a hoof. “Just… go.”
“No,” Hitch said.
“Go, Hitch. Go off to your friends and your crush and just leave me in here to rot,” Sprout said. “I don’t have a place in the new world, my opinions are too old-fashioned. I-I’m too old-fashioned.”
“NOW THAT’S ENOUGH!” Hitch shouted, finally raising his voice. Sprout flinched and Hitch sighed. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have shouted. But we’re going around in circles, Sprout. You’ve made mistakes, and you’re clearly wanting to atone for them. Now that’s enough for me.”
“You’re making a mistake, you know that right?” Sprout said as the stallion opened the cell door with a creak sound.
“No, I think I’m helping a friend,” Hitch said, sitting down beside the door. “Now I’m not going to move until you come out, okay?”
Sprout knew how stubborn he was, and that Hitch would definitely stay there until he decided to come out.
He took it one step at a time, his hooves slowly clopping against the floor before one reached out and took Hitch’s own.
“You were always my favorite deputy, Sprout,” Hitch said.
“I was your only deputy, doofus,” Sprout said. “I’m still not sure any of this is right, that you’re not making a mistake taking a second chance on me.”
“Yeah, well, there have been worse things, then you I mean,” Hitch said. “Remember the old stories? About Starlight and about Discord and about even Princess Twilight’s assumed wife, Fizzle?”
“I didn’t pay attention to half of those, you know,” Sprout pointed out. “I didn’t care, I always thought they were unicorn propaganda.”
But he watched as again, foals and fillies of three different races ran by and he watched as Sunny flew in the sky above leading a pink pegasus on a merry chase.
He remembered the stories that Argyle used to tell, and then Sprout realized that if those stories were true…
“So, tell me again sometime about Discord, a-apparently he was this freak of nature right? This goblin, this demon,” Sprout stuttered. “Controlled all of the forces of darkness and of chaos.”
“Trust me Sprout, you’ll have plenty of time to learn about every one of those stories,” Hitch said as he gestured to his right with a nod of the head.
Sunny had landed nearby, and golden wings of pure magic tucked themselves against her side. Sprout wasn’t completely stupid, he knew exactly what Hitch wanted him to do.
A hoof stepped forwards before he even knew what he was doing, and then another this time more hesitantly.
“So, you’re taking a chance on me huh? Sounds like a Hell of a gamble,” Sprout said, remembering a time long ago when laughter filled the streets, three ponies chasing each other all wanting to be someone.
Sunny had achieved her dreams, and Hitch his. So what did he want to do? Honestly, Sprout really didn’t know, but he could guess the first steps to whatever it was started here.
“Hey, Sunny?” he asked, approaching her. “We need to talk…”
fin