|
“ | Actually, what if you're all right? The unicorns could come back. They could even bring the pegasi. We are all in danger! Now is not the time to be complacent. We should do something! | „ |
~ Sprout Cloverleaf to the panicked earth ponies outside the sheriff's office. |
“ | Mommy? Was I a good sheriff? | „ |
~ Sprout Cloverleaf to his mother only for him to be tricked into seeing a flying dog as a way to avoid any awkwardness. Also his last line in the film. |
Sprout Cloverleaf is the main antagonist of the 2021 Netflix/eOne animated movie My Little Pony: A New Generation and its 2022 video game spinoff My Little Pony: A Maretime Bay Adventure. He is also a minor character in My Little Pony: Make Your Mark and the 2022 comics of My Little Pony.
He, alongside his former close friend Hitch Trailblazer, served as the sheriff of Maretime Bay, serving and protecting the residents, but also keeping away both unicorns and pegasi from entering the city. He is also the son of Phyllis Cloverleaf, who is the founder of Canterlogic in Maretime Bay and the former childhood friend turned enemy of both Sunny Starscout and Hitch Trailblazer.
In A New Generation, he was voiced by Ken Jeong, who also plays as Mr. Greene in Norm of the North, Leslie Chow in The Hangover, Dr. Yap in Bob's Burgers, King Argotron in Role Models, Ben Chang in Community, and Neil Lyman in Furry Vengeance. His singing voice was provided by Alan Schmuckler. In A Maretime Bay Adventure and Make Your Mark, he is voiced by Josh Graham.
Personality[]
Sprout comes off as an insecure and cowardly individual who is brash and abrasive, having a habit of bullying and bragging. He is also charismatic and persuasive to the ponies of Maretime Bay. Like other ponies, he has possessed extreme bigotry towards the unicorns and pegasi, viewing them as sinister. However, he took his bigotry too far unlike the others as it proved to be his downfall. He also loves his mother deeply, and was shown to be very spoiled whenever it came to his mother favoring him. Despite caring for his mother, he even shows no care or remorse for his fellow Earth ponies (except for Sunny and Hitch) and treated them like they were pawns in his plans, showing more of his selfishness.
Despite his insecurities, he comes close to being truly wicked when he almost put Sunny and her friends in grave danger while he is trying to stop them from both unleashing magic and letting the earth ponies, unicorn, and pegasi reunite, which led to the destruction of Sunny's home. Though after his defeat, it was implied that he would have regretted his actions and would have redeemed himself off-screen.
Regardless of whatever developments took place, though, Sprout never changed from being a whiny and stubborn man-child, as well as a pushover for his mother. He never learns from his mistakes, and he only cares about himself and somehow pleasing his mother.
In Make Your Mark, he is shown to still be a bit stubborn about what property is still his, making him acting ungrateful to the Mane Five after they got rid of the winged rats from the abandoned Canterlot building and converted it into Canterlove Studios. Despite this, he later joins with other ponies in helping the Mane Five defeat Queen Opaline in the two-part finale "Roots of All Evil".
Sprout remains the same in the game, but he is shown to have redeemed himself in the end.
Biography[]
Past[]
Sprout was born to a mare named Phyllis Cloverleaf, who is the owner of Canterlogic. Growing up into a colt, Sprout has developed an arrogant attitude. He then became best friends with Hitch Trailblazer, and even played together at the beach once. Due to his arrogant nature, Sprout didn't let the fillies join in on their fun, which cause Hitch to left them and play with her instead and got himself a cutie mark as result, much to Sprout and his friend's dismay.
My Little Pony: A New Generation[]
In his childhood, Sprout was first seen playing with carved figurines of the Mane Six with Sunny Starscout and Hitch Trailblazer. While he and Hitch were taught to fear and despise other pony races, Sunny believed in the possibility of friendship between the three pony races and dreamed of befriending a pegasus and a unicorn one day. He and Hitch later left Sunny's home.
As he grows up, Sprout becomes a deputy sheriff of Maretime Bay. One day, he was seen spying on Sunny to prevent her from reaching the Canterlogic Building. After her attempt was foiled thanks to Hitch and Sprout's interventions, Sunny eventually sneaks past them into the building. During the presentation, he and Hitch witness Sunny's attempt to convince other ponies that pegasi and unicorns can be friends.
Suddenly, when an unicorn named Izzy Moonbow comes to Maretime Bay, Sprout is seen being afraid of her along with the other earth ponies. After Sunny releases Izzy from a unicorn strapping device, Sprout cowardly gets himself trapped inside the device so he wouldn't come to the lighthouse with Hitch. When he and Hitch arrived to arrest Sunny, Sprout cowardly runs away when Izzy makes a distraction that allows her and Sunny to easily sneak away from them.
Later at the Maretime Bay police station, Hitch leaves Sprout in charge to keep the citizens safe while he goes after Sunny and Izzy. When a jealous Sprout complains about how Hitch became a loved and respected figure, his mother Phyllis embraces his new position as the temporary sheriff. Enjoying his position, Sprout convinces the earth ponies to use fear and paranoia for his self-purposes, with singing the song "Danger, Danger".
At the Canterlogic factory, Sprout, now called himself an "emperor", oversees the workers building a large machine so he could use it to carry out an ethnic cleansing against the pegasi and the unicorns. He also ordered them to continued with the project instead of letting them taking a break. Despite his mother's effort of having him take it easy, he is still determined to continue with the project.
In the afternoon, Sunny and Hitch returned but discover that Sprout taken over Maretime Bay and has prepared to wage a war on the other pony races. Sunny and Hitch try to reason with the earth ponies, as even Hitch now knows that he was wrong about unicorns and pegasi and tells them they can really be friends and says they're just as harmless as they are because they have no magic, much to Phyllis's surprise. But Sprout still didn't care that they're defenseless and still wants to attack them. He then uses his massive tank that can be used against the pegasi and unicorns called "Sprouticus Maximus" and chases Sunny and Hitch. Before the duo could warn everypony else, Sprouticus Maximus appears to endanger everypony present.
When Sunny and her friends try to unite the three crystals, Sprout tries to prevent them from succeeding at it by ramming his tank to the side of the lighthouse. When Phyllis tries to stop her son from descending into madness, but Sprout ambitiously and determinedly refused to until she jumps off in front of the machine, leading to him accidentally destroying both the lighthouse and Sprouticus Maximus in the process, but survives. However, Sprout is then seen listening to Sunny saying that the three pony races themselves can bring everything back by reuniting. He later witnesses Sunny turn into an Alicorn and the magic being brought back in Equestria.
At the end of the movie, Sprout asks his mother if he was a good sheriff, only for him to be tricked into seeing a flying dog. After she walks away as to avoid answering his question, he was last seen sulking in dismay. it was not mentioned in the film whether he was forgiven or imprisoned, although in the Make Your Mark episode "Top Remodel", he mentions that they "agreed to let it pass".
My Little Pony: Make Your Mark[]
Chapter 2[]
In "Growing Pains", Sprout is doing community service ever since the events of A New Generation, and like most of the Earth Ponies in Maretime Bay, he is not used to having all that magic. Unfortunately, he still has not changed his arrogant and petty ways as he bragged about his magic. After causing a plant to grow a large berry the size of a pony, it began rolling away. This makes the ponies believe that the Magic is out of control.
As Hitch puts the Earth Pony magic on hold from Maretime Bay, everything goes haywire. from the trees changing colors randomly, and vines growing out of proportions. Hitch discovers that the cause was the buildup of Earth Pony magic, and allows the Earth Ponies, Sprout included, to use their magic once again.
At the end, Sprout accidentally causes a bigger berry to roll down the hill, allowing Hitch to grow a tree in order to block it, only to get splattered in glitter goop.
Sprout has a cameo in the episode "The Traditional Unicorn Sleep-Over", while Sparky was running away from Izzy.
Chapter 3[]
Sprout is seen in the beginning of the special My Little Pony: Winter Wishday, putting up a wreath and other Winter Wishes decorations with the rest of the ponies of Maretime Bay.
Chapter 4[]
In "Top Remodel", Sprout discovers that the Mane Five are went to abandoned Canterlogic factory that her family has closed down and follow them inside to make sure that they will not mess anything up. Along with the Mane Five, he also got scared whenever he heard something creepy lurking inside the building. After discovering that Sprout was inside with them, Hitch and Pipp wasn't really happy of seeing him following his actions during the events of the movie. However, they discovered that the factory is infested with winged rats and tried many ways to get rid of them, but only for Sprout to leave both Hitch and Pipp to deal with them later on. After the winged rats are gone and the factory is converted into Canterlove Studios, Sprout claims that it is still his and his mother's property instead of showing gratitude towards the Mane Five, proving he still never changed his petty and immature ways at all.
Chapter 5[]
Sprout makes a non-speaking cameo in "Mane Smelody" where he is one of the ponies at Pipp's Mane Melody where he tries her new "Potions by Pipp" line and do the "Mane Smelody Challenge" and in "Nightmare on Mane Street" where he was among the ponies who enter the Mane Five's "Crystal Frighthouse" as he litters the cup at the Crystal Brighthouse.
Chapter 6[]
In the two-part episode "Roots of All Evil", Sprout was seen panicking along with everypony in Maretime Bay. After the Mane Six and the dragons arrived at Maretime Bay, he was seen hearing Misty's encouragment speech to everypony. While Sunny and her friends return to Crystal Brighthouse, he and everypony were gathered together in front of Together Tree under Hitch's directions until Opaline controls the tree to steal their cutie marks, especially his own. Later, he and everypony of Maretime Bay were gathered at the Together Tree to channel their unity and magic of friendship here to defeat Opaline and reclaimed their stolen cutie marks from her.
My Little Pony: Tell Your Tale[]
So far, Sprout has not appeared in the series. However, his crimes and actions would be remembered as a criminal and a tyrant after his true colors and intentions were revealed throughout the Maretime Bay, making him infamous and living in shame and disgrace as result of this. He also received a wanted poster in front of the Maretime Bay police station noticeboard, indicating he is outlawed (and maybe not living in Maretime Bay).
My Little Pony (2022 comics)[]
Issue #6[]
Sprout is only seen on the B Cover of the comic book, showing Sprout as a colt in a messy bedroom with green army ponies and toys everywhere.
Issue #7[]
Sprout makes his official comic debut in this issue. He appears with his mother, Phyllis, as he tries to do his former deputy duties during the annual harvest, but to no avail as nopony is listening to him. He later gets splashed on with mud, during a Tug of War that Sunny is participating in. Later on, Sprout acknowledges to Hitch's friends, that he didn't help him out when he was splashed on with mud. In the end, Sprout helps out with Hitch's DJ show as he tries rushing the others with their decorating.
My Little Pony: The Mane Event[]
Sprout makes his appearance in the one-shot comic "The Mane Event", in the second story. However, just like Tell Your Tale, he once again makes an appearance on a wanted poster at the Maretime Bay Police Station noticeboard.
My Little Pony: A Maretime Bay Adventure[]
Sprout returns as the main villain of the game. He gives Sunny the task of talking to witnesses to determine who vandalized the billboards in Maretime Bay. After talking to witnesses and getting descriptions that implicate Izzy and Zipp, Sunny finds three witnesses who give a description that matches Pipp, though it's revealed the pony was wearing fake wings and trying to frame her. It is discovered that Sprout was vandalizing the billboards and framing Sunny's friends because he's still uncomfortable with Pegasi and Unicorns living in Maretime Bay. In the end, Sprout is forgiven.
Trivia[]
- Sprout is the first villain in the G5 My Little Pony. It is possible, however, that he is actually the first present villain in the series as the 5th generation takes place in the same universe as the 4th generation with Equestria now having more modern technology from that of the Friendship is Magic series.
- Even though Sprout is the main antagonist of the film, he is not entirely evil. Once he's made the Sheriff of Maretime Bay, the power quickly goes to his head. He also buys into his mother's propaganda hook, line, and sinker, believing that every kind of pony except earth ponies is going to take over the town. During the first half of the movie, he's a petulant thug and at worst a nuisance to the heroes. Then Hitch makes the mistake of leaving him in charge of Maretime Bay in his absence, and he swiftly declares himself emperor, constructs a giant robot, and nearly kills Sunny.
- Sprout is one of the few earth pony villains in the My Little Pony franchise, and the only earth pony villain from the fifth generation of the franchise.
- Many fans believed that Sprout's mother, Phyllis Cloverleaf, was the main antagonist of the film at first for her treatment of outcast ponies and Sunny at first. However, she later became responsible for Sprout becoming the real main antagonist, after he becomes the dictator of Maretime Bay and the final challenge for our heroes to face to reunite the pony tribes and return magic to Equestria. The difference is that Phyllis was doing it for what's best for other ponies, while her son Sprout took his prejudice too far by waging a war against pegasi and unicorns and trying to carry out an ethnic cleaning against them. Phyllis, regretting her actions and having a change of heart, puts herself in front of Sprout and his war machine in a desperate attempt to stop her son's madness. Sprout managed to move the machine out of the way to save his mother, but didn't stop it in time for the machine to not destroy Sunny's home.
- However, unlike her son, Phyllis was never evil to begin with, and she lacked any and all villainous traits.
- He serves as a dark counterpart to Hitch Trailblazer as both are sheriffs of the Maretime Bay who patrolled the Maretime Bay, being arrogant over their job and even had a hatred over two pony races, but the difference is that Hitch is very hardworking and brave, took his job seriously and is very brave in doing that while Sprout is very cowardly and foolish, failed to do his job and doesn't do much to help the latter. Thanks to Sunny's beliefs, Hitch managed to overcome his hatred over Pegasi and unicorns and joined on her quest of bringing ponies back together, while Sprout took his hatred too far, tried to take over Maretime Bay and prepared to wage war against Pegasi and unicorns despite realize the error of his ways. He can represent what Hitch would've become if he never overcome his fear and paranoia nor get over with his hatred towards Pegasi and unicorns if it weren't for Sunny.
- Plus his actions showed everypony that enemies are not judged by race, they're judged by the reckless choices they make as he showed that Earth ponies, Pegasi and unicorns can be enemies with the same species too when he becomes enemies with his former friends Sunny and Hitch who are earth ponies like him. This even proves himself as a real threat either. He also serves as what they could've become if they let their fear and hatred consume them.
- His full name Sprout Cloverleaf only shown in the end of the credits in the game My Little Pony: A Maretime Bay Adventure.
External Links[]
- Sprout Cloverleaf on the G5 My Little Pony Wiki
- Sprout on the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Wiki