//------------------------------// // Silver lining // Story: Sunny Knight: a Pony's Tale // by TheothersideofSunny968 //------------------------------// After Rainbow landed, she quickly ran over to her friends, who were still in Twilight's protective magical barrier. But once Twilight saw that the tornado was gone, she dropped the barrier, but also felt terribly light headed. She would have passed out if Applejack and Rarity weren't there to catch her. It was a lot of strain on the poor alicorn. But Twilight was able to stand after a moment taking slow and easy breaths. She felt a little light headed still, but able to stand. Not long after Twilight's barrier fell did Fluttershy, Alister and the others return with the animals they protected . The yellow mare frantically looked around, asking every pony if they had seen her precious little white bunny, Angel. It's then that Pinkie pointed Fluttershy out to the overturned cart about 25 yards from where the barrier was. Her heart sank as she few as fast as she could over to cart. She and a few others flipped the cart over only to find Sunny clenching Angel in his hooves, and the bunny holding onto him with all his might. When they both saw the light of day and the clear image of the other ponies from town looking at them, try quickly pushed each other away, crossed their arms, and turned the other cheek up at each other. the ponies laughed and Fluttershy went immediately and began hugging and kissing her precious pet. He gave her a bit of a fight, pretending that it was no big deal, but he eventually gave in to the soft spoken Pegasus, and returns the affection. Sunny just looked back at them and smirks as he tipped his hat. Applejack bolted over to him, ta making the yellow stallion to the ground. Landing on top of him with her hooves on his chest as she glared at him, slight tears gathered at the very corners of her eyes. "Don't you ever let me catchin' yah do that again! Do yah Hear me!!!" Applejack had a look on her face that screamed angry, relieved and scared all at the same time. "What would Ah have done if somethin happened to ya?! Ya dang brave fool!" "Well, ugh..." Sunny didn't really know how to respond. But he really didn't have to think too hard. Before he could say anything, Applejack pulled him in for another hug, the tears Applejack caught back for a while now have way and ran down the sides of her cheeks and onto the chest shoulder of the yellow stallion. Who was embracing her. "There she is!" A stallion cried out front he crowd with glee as he pointed to a Rainbow Dash as she landed. "She saved the town! Three cheers for Rainbow Dash!" "NO!" Rainbow quickly silenced the town before it even had a change to cheer. She smiled as she motioned to all her friends. "We all did it! My friends, the other pegusi, everypony!" "Rainbow dash is right!" Twilight stepped forward, putting a hoof on her friend and smiling at her. "We did this together! Three cheers for us all!" The crowd all cheered for themselves, for each other, for every pony. They all had banned together and saved each other ! But before long, Lightning Dust and her team had landed near the towns ponies. Lighting Dust with a triumphant look on her face as she held her head high with pride, but her team members couldn't help but hold their heads in shame as guilt filled their hearts. "Good job in fixing the 'little' problem, Rainbow Dash" Lightning began. "But we all know that if that hadn't happen, my team still would have won. So I guess we'll go strait to Canterlot with-" There was a loud click, and the turning of small Metallic parts, as Lighting Dust looked down and to her back to find we hooves and wings were in chains! "Lightning Dust" a white pegasus stallion, with a yellow mane stood before her and her team, who were now also in chains. The stallion glared at the confused Lightning dust as he lifted a scroll up and began to read from it. "You are here by under arrest for the following; 10 counts of destruction of both public and private property, 6 counts of dodging royal guards, endangering the lives of countless ponies and reckless behavior that has resulted in such counts. You and your 'team' will be taken to Canterlot, alright. But to stand trial for your crimes." A bat pony mare smirked as she nudged the two other team members along into a large royal cart. After the white royal guard with the yellow mane pushed Lighting into the cart and slammed the door, Lightning looked out the barred window at the crowd. Her eyes fueled by fire of her hate for a very specific rainbow maned mare. As the bat pony mare signaled for the other Royal guards to take them away, Cloud skipper and her then were approached by Alister. Even though the regal unicorn guard never liked to show much emotion, he couldn't help but smile at his friends, glad that they were safe. It was only after seeing The grey coat of Alister's that Sunny began to panic. "Where's Thunder lane ?!?!" The yellow stallion with a Stetson hat called out. -Ponyville town hospital a few days later- Thunder Lane had been on some heavy pain medication most of his time there. It had been a few days since he had been discovered with Flitter in the remains of a house not long after Lightning Dust and her crew had been carted away. He had been asleep since. It was around noon when he began to wake up. Nurse Red Heart had heard his rustling, and upon seeing him finally awaken, called for the doctor to come in. "Well well, mister gallant hero" the doctor gave Thunder a smile. "Looks like you made it out of that mess in one piece. Almost every piece is broke, but all still together." "W-w-what about..." Thunder's throat was extremely dry, but he pushed himself to speak her name. "Flitter?" "Oh yes. She was in here a few days ago. Insisted on sharing a room with her 'hero'" the doctor told Thunder Lane as Nurse Red Heart checked the machines and took note of Thunder's readings. "But she got to leave after two days. She won't be able to fly for a while, but sooner then you, I'm afraid." It was then that Thunder Lane realized he was in a full body cast. Just about everything on him was held together in a specific position to help his many broken bones heal correctly. Before Thunder could talk more, a very familiar yellow stallion accompanied by a small group of mares and one baby dragon followed suit. "Well looks who's awake. Mister 'saves the girl.'" Sunny walked up to the stallion and gave his a soft punch on the shoulder and an easy smile. "You got guts!" "He's a wonderbolt cadet on 'my' team" Rainbow Dash added. "Of course he has guts!." Thunder then got a slight since of pride as Twilight and her friends filled him in about everything that happened after the tornado broke up. Lightning Dunst and her 'team' were taken to Canterlot and were put in prison for what they had done and were waiting to stand trial. It was discovered that Lightning Dust had caused the one of the obstacle tornados to go off course, wanting to distract Rainbow and her team. Apparently, her and her 'team' had pulled similar stunts in Fillydelfia, Manehatren, and cloudsdale which is how they had won. They didn't cause as much damage in the other places as much as Ponyville, but still enough to put themselves on the Royal guards most wanted list. The ponies in town had begun to rebuild thanks to the financial help from Canterlot, and the combined efforts of every pony avalable. There were only a few ponies who received even minor wounds from the tornado Lightning caused, and Thunder Lane had gotten the brunt of it. Thunder Lane had just finished several gulps of water that Fluttershy was more then glad to help him drink, given his current status of being in a full cast and unable to move his neck or hooves, when he took a deep breath and looked to the group. "But what about Flitter?" "I'm right here" the light purple mare with a light blue mane mane and tail spoke up. She had on the biggest smile as she walked over to Thunder Lane with both of her wings now in full casts. "And I'll be here with you to make sure you have a full recovery." "I-I-I" even though his face was covered by a cast, Sunny was willing to bet that Thunder Lane's face was bright red, lucky for him, it was hidden under his head cast. "Oh, everypony" Twilight gathered her friends collective attention. "We should probably get back to work. There's still a lot of clean up left." As the girls, Spike and Sunny began to leave the room, knowing just why they were 'really' leaving, Sunny shot Thunder Lane a wink on his way out. Knowing that, although it wasn't the plan he had originally talked to his friend about, it did work out for him in the end. Now his buddy was going to get a lot of personal time with the girl he liked, and he didn't have to life an awkward hoof to get it. -on a train back to Canterlot- Alister sat at the window seat looking out at the scenery of the forest area surrounding the train, disappointed by his fruitless venture. Hit thoughts of his depressing failure were, once again, interrupted by one of his closed friends. "Quit your sulking!" Midnight Blossom nagged at the Unicorn. "So nothing happened, big deal! Isn't that good?" "Midnight's right, Alister" Cloud skipper added. "We've been around the crash site for weeks, and still the only thing we did was bring in that deranged mare, Lightning Dust, help a few civilians with local disputes, and enjoy the fresh country air." "Do you remember that escapade we had with that mare who was haunting the opera house in Manehatten about 6 months back?" Alister asked his comrades, never tearing his gaze from the window. "You mean the one we investigated, turned nothing up, then about a month after a mare came forward and admired to being the phantom?" Cloud skipper asked, not really seeing the relevancy. "Yeah, why?" The unicorn closed his eyes and rubbed the bad Ed his muzzle with his left hoof. "I have a feeling that 'this ghost' isn't going to be so kind when it turns up again." "I thought you said we're looking for a unicorn? A real pony this time?" Midnight asked, her annoyance subtly subsiding. Alister put his hoof down and looked solemnly at his companions and he clarified his worries. "What we are dealing with is more then just 'a unicorn'. Sombra himself was more then just 'a unicorn.' He was strong enough to rival the princesses. But weather this new entity 'is' or 'is not' Sombra, I have no idea. And that's what worries me...." "It was inside of the meteor...." Cloud skipper began to think out loud. "A meteor that circled Equestria's skies for almost 1000 years...." "Well whatever it is" Midnight Blossom spoke up. "We can't do anything about it now, chill and wait. Something that big and bad is bound to turn up eventually. Besides, worse come to worse, Princess Twilight and her friends will deal with it. Thy did the first time Sombra came back. " No matter how Alister played it out in his mind, he knew that Midnight's words were true. It just bothered him to be so useless in such a situation. He enrolled into the Canterlot royal army, spent countless nights studying and practicing magic, all to help the princesses. Now he was 'chilling' while one was in danger and he could do nothing to help...