“So, you said this was supposed to… protect us from unicorns?”

Although Sprout couldn’t see the lack of belief on Hitch’s face, he could certainly hear it in his voice. And, although Hitch couldn’t see the roll of Sprout’s eyes, the smaller red stallion made sure to make it clear with a loud scoff.

“Uh, duh.” Sprout scoffed again, loudly, as he crossed his arms across his chest. “You just strap one of these bad boys on one of their heads, turn it on, and it makes them like, super totally obedient to you!”

The ‘bad boy’ in question was a helmet that rested on Sprout’s head, covering his eyes with a thick screen. A veritable mess of metal and technology with dangerous looking wires wrapped haphazardly around it and plugged into odd ports around the room, it was clear this was a prototype far from its surely sleek final form.

And yet, that didn’t stop Sprout from wearing it with a cocky smirk pointed where he assumed Hitch was standing. He had full faith in his mother’s tech, so he felt he had nothing to worry about.

Hitch took a step forward, knocking on the sturdy metal helmet to a resounding sound that made Sprout jump. “Yeah sure. But how are we going to get it on them when they do show up? It’s not like they’re gonna put them on themselves.”

Sprout waved a hand dismissively, his smirk only growing more cocky and punchable. “The helmet launcher is still in development. But we’re basically gonna shoot the helmets at the unicorns and they’re gonna lock on. Then when they try and take ‘em off,” Sprout placed his hands on the helmet to demonstrate, pulling on it ineffectually as if it were indeed locked on his head, “The safety feature is gonna trigger and-”

A telltale click made both stallions freeze. The helmet began to whurr loudly and the screen visor blocking Sprout’s vision flickered to life. And then the light in the room dimmed as a jolt of electricity struck Sprout right between his eyes, unfocusing his eyes to stare directly at the spiral on the screen ahead of him.

“Dumb ponies obey.”

“You are submissive to Superior Earth Ponies.”

“Allen, please add subliminal.”

“Dumb, drooling, distracted dumbass.”

As Sprout’s jaw went slack at the flashing words on the screen, a dumb moan escaping along with a strand of drool, Hitch could only shake his head.

Maybe he could keep his friend like this for bit. At least until he’s learned his lesson.