//------------------------------//
//   Stars down, Sun up 
// Story: Sunny Knight: a Pony's Tale 
// by TheothersideofSunny968 
//------------------------------//

-Twilight's castle-

Twilight had been up earlier then normal, doing quite a bit of research to help out princess Celestia and Princess Luna. It was rare that she was called upon for assistance that required her talent for magical research, especially from her mentor and her sister. But apparently this was an urgent matter.

Celestia had written her the other night, telling the newest alicorn princess about a venture she had shared with her sister in the dream realm, and what they came across with King Sombra. Although Celestia was leaning that it might have been the real king Sombra returning from the shadows, Luna felt unconvinced. Luna had seen many things in the dream realm, both freighting and wonderful. And Sombra was one figure she had seen in the nightmares of many crystal ponies.

Twilight remembered Celestia telling her how Luna had spent almost an entire month's worth of work just dealing with the nightmares of the crystal ponies after the Crystal Empire returned. Twilight felt bad for Luna, but worse for the crystal ponies. To think, one day their king went mad with power and put them in chains. Forcing them to work agains their will in the crystal mins.

Twilight yawned at that notion, then levitated a cup of tea over to her. The warm liquid's sweet scent quickly filled Twilight's mistrals with a rejuvenating sensation. The sensation was doubled as she took small little sips of it, making sure not to burn her tongue. After a few sips, Twilight released a small breath and went back to work.

"Dream spells aren't my forte, but I can't give up" The purple alicorn told herself as she set her cup gently down and cracked open a new book. This one she had received with quite a few others from Cadence and Shinning Armor from the archives of the Crystal Empire. They knew Twilight would treasure them, the books themselves being from one thousand years or later ago. 

As Twilight skimmed the book at her top speed, feeling rejuvenated by a since of duty and the caffein from her tea. She stumbled upon something interesting. It was a spell that was based around the manipulation of... Pony sized wooden marionettes. After carefully reading the couple of pages dedicated to the art of puppet manipulation that was specifically made for the wooden figures, Twilight turned and looked to the giant box Rarity had dropped off for Sunny.

She had reconstructed a duplicate of an artifact from the Crystal Empire, a giant pony sized wooden puppet. "That explains what that was for... But to do that would take a great amount of control and focus..."

For a moment, Twilight thought about opening Rairty's gift to Sunny and trying the spell out herself. The idea of such a spell, one she'd never tried before or even heard of, made the princess of friendship gitty. Just like when she was a foal and it was Hearths Warming day morning, or the first day of school! But Twilight paused and regained her composure. "Get ahold of yourself, Twilight..."

She then levitates a book mark over to her and placed it on the first page of the book that talked about the puppet manipulation spell. "I'll show Sunny tomorrow when we meet up for his study session..."

That notion made her turn and look at the clock. It was still really early. Earlier then even Applejack woke up. In her excitement she had decided to forgo most of her needed sleep in hopes of finding an answer for the princesses. But as she yawned and rubbed her eyes, she felt her body fighting heavily against the work of the tea. She knew she wouldn't be able to concentrate or work half as well if she sacrificed so much sleep. With a heavy heart, she closed the book she had been reading, blew out the candles she had on her table, and made her way to bed for some well deserved sleep, feeling now she could actually rest.

-Sweet Apple acres-

Sunny had found it very hard to sleep that night. The words of those jerks from the club still echoing in his ears, brining his blood to a boil yet again. After about an hour or two of tossing and turning in his bed, he gave up and decided to do something to take his mind off of those 3 jerks. He looked over at the stack of books Twilight had sent him home with, and guessed now was as good of time as any. He had fallen behind with his reading, beening busy with so much work on the farm, deliveries, backing, and the adventures around town and making friends, he shamefully admits to have neglected his studies.

'If I'm ever going to get strong enough to protect the Apple family and their home, I have to work harder!' Sunny admitted to himself. With that he walked over to the stack of books, turned on a small lamp, cracked a book open and began to read. He had just grabbed the top book on the stack and began to read the title out loud.

"The elements of harmony...." The name sounded childish. He thew it aside and grabbed another book. "I need to learn offensive and defensive spells. Not how to balance out my soul, or whatever-"

Before he could continue his sentence, the book, "The Elements of Harmony; and then some" flew back and landed in front of him, open to the first page. In any other volume of 'The Elements of Harmony, a reference guide', the first page would just be dedicated to the title of the book and the author, maybe even the publish date. But with this edition, the addition to the title made it clear that there was more to this book then the others. And on this page, it proved just that. All over the inside cover and the fort page were quotes in Orange, purple, blue, yellow, pink, and all colors of the rainbow. 

This peaked the interest of the yellow stallion and he quickly skimmed over the multicolor words. The quotes didn't make much since, so he pressed forward, seeking an explanation. The first part of the book played out like a children's story book, telling a story of two alicorn sisters who were in charge of raising and lowering the sun and moon. Sunny realized this must have been the tale of princess Celestia and Luna. He had hears some of the story from Applejack, but didn't know the full story. It shocked and hurt him some how when he read  of Luna's transformation into 'Nightmare Moon', but he read on, something from the story caught his attention. The 'elements of harmony'.

After the first part, the children's story part, the rest of the book... Well, was rather odd. It read like many summary parts of a book (or television) series. The first chapters being a story of ... "Twilight Sparkle?!"

As Sunny read on, he found himself lost within the book, engulfed in the tale of a unicorn mare and her friends coming together and overcoming the odds, finding power within themselves and their strongest virtues, and vanquishing the darkness that overtook Princess Luna. "... From this moment on, the unicorn, Twilight Sparkle will study the magic of friendship, and report back to me from her new home, in Ponyville...."

Something sparked inside of Sunny. A beam of light that seemed to make his heart rise and a feeling he had never known had begun to take him over. He was wide awake and couldn't stop. He had to keep reading! The next chapter was titled 'the ticket master'...

As the night pressed on, Sunny became more and more fascinated with the book, and was complexly enthralled with it. Could it all have been true?! Twilight, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Fluttershy, Applejack and Spike? Everypony?! Could this all have been true?! All of these adventures they shared, the elements of harmony, the villains they faced, could they really have done all of this?!

At the end of each chapter seemed to be a note to princess Celestia from either Twilight or one of her friends about a lesson they learned from the days adventure. And as Sunny finished each chapter and read the letter section to the Princess, his heart exploded, again and again and again! Each lesson they learned seemed to bring them all closer together. They learned and seemed to grow as individuals as well as a group. It was.... Magical! 

"I have to find out if all of this is true!!!" Sunny said to himself, now bouncing around the room like a mad pony. Just then the farm rooster crowded, signaling for the day of work to begin. "Oh my gosh! I'm late!"

Sunny then flew out of the room, making sure to grab his Stetson hat, and made a mad dash down the stairs to meet the others for their day of work, but keeping in mind to ask them about the 'elements of harmony' and all of their possible adventures Applejack and her friends have had!