//------------------------------// // Weaving Lies // Story: Sunny Knight: a Pony's Tale // by TheothersideofSunny968 //------------------------------// -Twilight's castle, 30 minutes earlier- "There's no way this is going to work" Thunder Lane complained as he began painting his already dark coat black. "Trust me Thunder, this will work" Sunny said as he prepped a large fan that he rigged an ice cube tray up to. "And it will be the greatest prank Ponyville has ever seen!" "I don't know, Dude" Thunder finished paining most of his body, say for his face, which he planned to cover with a mask, and his hind legs that he was sitting on. "I doubt the girls will get scared by this. I mean, they took on the evil Queen Chrysalis, Discord, King Sombra, Tirek, and lots of other freaky and scary things. Will one ghost really work on them?" "BWA HA HA HA HA!!!" Big Mac gave his best evil laugh into the megaphone Sunny provided. When he did, Sunny and Thunder Lane both jumped nearly out of their skin! Once the two friends realized it was just Big Mac testing his equipment, they both shot him piercing glares. To which, the big red stallion just chuckled and smiled. "Ok... Maybe we can pull this off" Thunder said as he calmed himself down and started applying the glow in the dark paint, painting bones on his now black body. "Of course we can pull this off" Sunny said as he moved to help Thunder finish paining the bones onto his body. But to himself he whispered "... All I need is about a good five to ten minutes. Just to find those books..." "Huh? What did you say?" Thunder paused and asked as he spat his paintbrush out of his mouth. Sunny then realized what he had said and quickly thought up a believable lie. "Ugh, I said was... We should give them about five to ten minute and... Enjoy reading a book?" Thunder and Big Mac both paused and shot questioning looks at Sunny, causing the yellow unicorn to grow more and more nervous, thinking he might have just blown his own cover with his big mouth. "Dude..." Thunder began to say, then put his mask on. "You've been hanging around Twilight so much you're starting to think like her." "Eh'yep" Bug Mac agreed as he began to smash ice with his hooves, into tiny chunks, and then into flakes. "Reading books to give them five to ten minutes?" Thunder continued to say as the paint on his body began to dry. "If we give them time before we make our move, we should ease drop! You know, find out what the girls say during these things. You know, about what boys they think are cute in town, embarrassing secrets they share, you know, juicy stuff!" Sunny realized his two pals had not actually heard what he had said and began to relax. "O-of course! S-silly me! Read! At a time like this?! Twilight must be rubbing off on me. He he he..." After setting everything up, Sunny, Big Mac, and Thunder Lane all ascended a staircase that lead to a balcony overlooking the room Twilight and her friends were having the party at. Once they reached the balcony, the trio of stallions were sure to remain out of sight until the time was right. "Ok, you two stay here" Sunny began to explain the plan again. "I'll go down and kill the lights. I know a spell to null the glow of those crystals. When I do that, count to thirty, then Thunder, sneak up behind on of the girls, and freak them out. But do it subtly at first. The longer and more drawn out it is, the more scared the girls will be." "You got it!" Thunder nodded with a confident grin. "I've been watching horror movies since I was a colt, I know how to do creepy suspense." "Good!" Sunny replied, glad that Thunder could perform his part naturally. He then turned his attention to Big Mac. "I need you to wait until Thunder is revealed. No doubt Twilight will use her magic to shed some light on the situation. When she does, give us your best evil, insane pony, laugh." Big Mac smiled and took in a breath, ready to release a mind blowing chuckle into his megaphone to show he could do it. But luckily, Sunny and Thunder both put a hoof to his mouth, thus, stopping the big red farm pony from ruining their hidden position. When they removed their hooves, Big Mac simply smiled at them and scratched the back of his head. "And when that happens, I'll start the wind and ice" Sunny pointed to the fan he had teleported into the room when the girls weren't looking. "Ok, let's do this guys!" "Yeah! Let's do this!" Thunder put his hoof between them, which was quickly overlapped by Sunny's own hoof. "Eh'yep!" Big Mac added as he tossed his hoof into the pile. As they broke off and Sunny began to trail down the staircase, he paused and gave his two partners in crime one last wave of good luck. After they waved back, the two stallions stood in position, ready to play their parts. As Sunny stood outside the door to the meeting room where the party was taking place, he quickly looked around, making sure no pony would see what he did next. The yellow stallion then took off his Stetson hat and pulled from the slit inside of its him a small lavender bag. The same one he had in his room back in the Crystal Empire. He had reluctantly emptied the contents of it in a small cave not far from the Apple farm's boarders, but deep enough into the Everfree Forest that more then likely no pony would stumble upon his personal treasures. If anypony did, his cover and secrets would be blown. But he had to take the risk. There was no other way to sneak the books away other then with the help of the bag that never filled up or change in mass. There was also no other way to sneak in and hide his second tool from his cohorts. As Sunny opened the lavender bag, in a magical gust of wind, a pony sized puppet popped out, almost just like the one that had gone rouge several months back. "I wonder how Twilight would feel if she knew I was the one who developed and wrote those spells to control these things" Sunny said as he looked the puppet over. "Well, hopefully, she'll never know..." Sunny then cast the 'bring-to-life' spell on it. Unlike with a book, a scrub brush, or even a push snow shovel, the puppets took a while to warm up. The magic needed to flow into their movable parts, wake up to the fact that they are very, very moble. While it did that, Sunny stuffed the bag back into the hem of his Stetson hat and crept into the room, taking his position by the fan. He didn't have to wait long for the girls to calm down from their arguing and begin relaxing with a small game of Truth or dare. "There you go Thunder Lane" Sunny said silently to him self with a chuckle. "Doesn't get much juicier then that." As the game was just getting interesting, it being Applejack's turn, Sunny heard the clicking if the puppet in the hallway, and decided it was time to kill the lights. He wished that he could hear what the girls were talking about, but from where he was it all sounded muffled. Regardless, he began to cast the spell, hoping nopony would see his magical green aura. After finishing the spell to kill the lights. He paused and heard the girls all scream, then laughed a little to himself. "If this wasn't a ploy to my real plan, I would so enjoy this more" Sunny said with a smile, then his heart dropped. He saw from across the room, the puppet he had brought to life was wondering the halls! Without a moment's hesitation, Sunny cast a quick spell to shut all the doors and windows at once! He didn't plan for that to add to the fright effect, but it did, to his advantage. The yellow unicorn took an easy breath, and waited for his other two cohorts. The moments seemed to pass very slowly as Twilight began to cast her illumination spell. He almost thought that Thunder wasn't going to show, but when Twilight started to panic about somepony with their hoof on her shoulder, he knew that had to be his Pegasus friend. As Sunny peaked out from behind his table to see what was going on, Twilight had just turned to come face to face with Thunder Lane in his ghost costume. Sunny waited until the painted Pegasus was high in the sky and Big Mac let loose his evil laughter to turn on his icy fan. As everything started to really get rolling, Sunny decided it was now or never. He quickly teleported himself out of the room and back into the hallway. There was no time to lose. He had to get to the library and find those books! If Twilight ever deciphered them, she might stumble upon who he really is. Even if she had the good intentions of aiding Score, Hoops, and Dumb-Bell, it wasn't worth the risk.Besides, Sunny made the mess, and he could clean it up. He just needed time to read the books himself and decipher the incepted code. If anypony had a chance at cracking his father's code, it was him. It didn't take the yellow unicorn log to find the catle's library. It was kept down the hall from the group's main meeting room. Some room where they had a magical map, or something. Sunny had never been in there, but had heard stories from the girls about it. As he reached the entrance to the library, the yellow stallion stopped and looked around to make sure that he wasn't being watched. Taking a deep breath, Sunny pushed the doors open and walked inside. Spike had gone through half of his comic books, really enjoying the ones Shinning Armor got him for his birthday. He had always gotten along with Twilight's BBBFF. It was actually Shinning who had gotten Spike hooked on comics, back when he was just a young(er) dragon. But as Spike went to take another clawfull of his gems, he quickly found that he had eaten the entire bowlful already! Luckily Twilight now kept a hardy supply in the kitchen. She had told him not to go crazy with them, but he figured if she and the girls pigging out on cupcakes, he could at least have a small, teeny-weeny bowlful more of gems. The little purple and green dragon hopped out of his bed and began casually strolling down the hall towards the kitchen, when something caught his eye. He hid behind one of the hall's pillars and peered out across the way. One thing he had on Twilight was his eyesight in the dark. Twilight explained something about how dragon's eyes see better in the dark as opposed to pony eyes. Which worked in the little dragon's favor at this specific moment. Spike watched as somepony paused before pushing their way into the library, and quickly shut the door behind them. The way they had looked around made Spike very nervous. Almost like the pony might be up to no good. Spike tried to ease his mind on the subject by thinking 'Maybe the girls were playing hide and seek?' But Spike shook off his fears and decided it was up to him to check out any and all possible dangers. Besides, it could also be Rarity and the girls are on a scavenger hunt. "He he. Spike and Rarity, kissing in the library. I like the sound of that..." The baby dragon then made his move. He cautiously advanced down the hallway, jumping from pillar to pillar, doing his best to stay out of sight. Once he reached the library, Spike cautiously pushed the doors open, not wanting to catch the pony's attention. Luckily the castle was still new enough that the doors slid open with little to no noise. But as Spike caught glimpse of the pony inside, his hopes of a romantic run-in with the fair Rarity were crushed. It was just Sunny. It looked to Spike that the yellow stallion had just made a late night book run. With a heavy sigh, the purple dragon was about to just head to the kitchen to grab his desired gems when something frightening caught his attention. The baby dragon's eyes went wide with fear, growing to the size of dinner plates. At the end of the hallway was the wooden monstrosity that he had hoped he had seen the last of during the last Nightmare night celebration. It was the giant pony puppet Sunny and Twilight had been working on that Rarity remade for them! It was back, and somehow snuck into the castle! It's glowing red eyes seemed to home in on the small dragon. As the puppet repositioned itself, ready to charge at him, Spike found he couldn't move his legs! They felt like someone had replaced them with lead bricks! The puppet then broke out into a full on charge! Gaining more and more speed, quickly closing the gap between it and Spike! Slapping himself in the face and freeing himself from his own paralyzingly shock, Spike jumped into the library and shut the door behind him just in time for the puppet to collide with the door. Spike paused for several moments while he listened through the door. There was a short pause, followed by the jumbling of wood and metal, then the sound of wooden hooves as they seemed to grow more wand more distant. Once Spike could no longer hear the sound of the puppet's wooden hooves, he let out a held breath and began to relax. The baby dragon didn't get much of a chance to relax though. Before his very eyes, it appeared that a small tornado had found its way into the library! It wasn't strong enough to pull the books off of their shelves, but it did send various papers flying all around the room. Spike moved to get a closer look and was shocked by what he saw at its epicenter. It looked like Sunny had created it and was tossing some of Twilight's books into it! "What are you doing?!" Spike jumped it of his bidding spot without thinking. "SPIKE?!" Sunny was taken off guard by the sudden appearance of Twilight's number one assistant. "W-what are you doing here?!" "What am I doing here? What are you doing here? And what is 'that' doing here?!" Spike shouted over the whirling wind as he pointed to the small tornado. Sunny walked over to the small tornado and threw into the tornado rest of Sombra's books. Once he did, the books just swirls around a bit before shrinking and falling into the bag, which Sunny closed immediately, sealing the tornado. As the papers that were flying threw the air a moment ago began to float down to the ground, Sunny turned to the little purple dragon, who's eyes were wide with confusion as his jaw remained dropped for a moment. Sunny wasn't quite sure what to say to the little assistant of Twilight's. "What. Was. That?" Spike broke the silence, not sounding angry or upset at the situation. He sounded more confused then anything. 'A lie! A believable lie!' Sunny thought to himself. As he looked around the library, he saw a picture of Twilight's brother hanging up on the wall next to the Mystery fiction section of the library. That sparked up a quick story in Sunny's head that he might be able to use. Sunny fake sighed and put his hooves up. "You caught me, Spike. I had a feeling Twilight's number one assistant would be quick enough to see right through me..." "Huh?" Was Spike's only response before Sunny continued. "I'm actually a Royal guard, sent here from Canterlot" Sunny began to weave his lie. "I was sent here by Princess Celestia to keep an eye on Twilight." "Wait." Spike said while she shook his head free of his slight confusion. "Why wouldn't the princess just send royal guards announced? And what about you losing your memory?" "I was sent in secret because her highness, Princess Celestia, didn't want anypony to know about royal guards stationed at Twilight's castle. It's supposed to be a symbol of friendship and trust, well, how trusting and welcoming would it be if scary guards were posted at the front door?" "Guess that makes since..." Spike said while he ran the idea through his head. "As for my memory, it actually was wiped by, ugh,.... S-Sombra! Yeah! That's it! I was on my way here when I ran into King Sombra!" Sunny saved himself quick. "Wow! It really was Sombra?!" Spike was overwhelmed. "Is that why he followed you to Sweet Apple acres?!" "Exactly!" Sunny went along with it. "He wanted to finish the job, but I guess he thought it was enough to just wipe my memory and leave me thinking I was a farm pony." "Wow! That's so cool!" Spike was falling for it. "He he, ya know, I faced the evil King Sombra once, too!" This is where Sunny's recollection of the elements of harmony was going to come in handy, as well as his newly found silver tongue. "So I have heard! The brave and noble dragon, Spike the great, had leaped from the highest point in the Crystal Empire's castle to deliver first hand, the key to the crystal pony's salvation!" Spike rubbed his claws against his chest and let out a yawn as he stretched. "Yep! All in a day's work for a noble dragon." "Oh, don't sell yourself short, Spike" Sunny said, egging the young dragon on more. "Why, I bet you could even be a knight of Canterlot one of these days." "R-really?! Me?! A Knight?! A 'Dragon' knight?!" Spike was practically bouncing off the walls. "You really think so?! Oh! That would be so cool!" "Oh, I could defiantly see it." Sunny said then leaned in and whispered. "But I need your help. I've been ordered to bring these books back to Canterlot for further study, and need you to keep it a secret, just between you and me ok? From one Knight to another." "Y-yeah! Sure!" Spike said immediately, then paused. "Wait... Twilight said she was going to use those books to find a cure for those three guys in the hospital. Can't you just wait to get them until after that?" "NO!" Sunny blurted out louder then he originally meant to. He cleared his throat and awkwardly laughed. "I mean, I need to get them there immediately. Ugh... I-i left a book for Twilight in her room, one that might have the spell. B-but the rest have to go ASAP." "Why?" Spike asked the hardest question for an adult to answer a child. "Well, Ugh, because the sooner we get these books to Canterlot, the safer Twilight will be!" Sunny began to lie again. "These books have a curse on them!" "Just like the door!" Spike gasped. "Exactly! But worse!" Sunny began to explain. "The books can corrupt somepony gradually. At first, it makes them a little grumpy, then really mean, and soon, they've become a new evil tyrant!" "Oh no!" Spike's mind was reeling with horrible images of an evil Twilight. "Y-you have to get those books out of here!" "I will, Spike" Sunny said as he began to relax, knowing the little dragon was believing him. "But remember Spike, you can't tell anypony about me being here. You can't even mention it to the princesses! If you do, my cover will be blown! And I'll have to leave!" Spike straitened his back, puffed out his chest, and saluted Sunny. "You can count on me, ugh... Wait, so what's your real name then?" "Oh, it's actually Sunny" Sunny smiled simply at the baby dragon. "Sunny Knight." "Really?" Spike said as he relaxed his back a little. "That's your real name?" "What's wrong with it?" Sunny asked, thinking he really liked his name. "Nothing, it's just odd that your last name was 'Knight' and you became a knight" Spike explained his thoughts. "Well, it kinda runs in the family, on my father's side" Sunny said, actually telling the truth on that one. "Still it-" Spike was about to go on and ask about his first name, then something bursts into the room! It was the pony puppet form earlier, only, it's eyes had turned green! It stated at the baby dragon and yellow stallion for a while before pouncing at them, clicking it's mouth rapidly as it did! Luckily Sunny and Spike both dodged. The small magical, lavender bag flipped over to Spike, while Sunny had jumped in the opposite direction. Sunny noted this and came up with a really risky idea, but one that might gain the little dragon's trust and help to keep his secret. Sunny jumped up started waving his hooves to catch the attention of the puppet. It had stopped momentarily to look at itself in a mirror, but quickly turned its attention to the yellow stallion. Sunny quickly told Spike "hold onto that bag. Keep it safe. I'll come back for it tomorrow. But whatever you do, don't let Twilight know you have them, or about me, ok?" Spike noded nervously, but swallowed and did his best io appear brave as he half saluted "You can can count on me!" "Good! Now when I get this thing out of there, head back to your room and stay there until Twilight or somepony comes to get you, ok?" Sunny said as his eyes darted from the approaching pony puppet to the baby dragon. "No problem!" Spike said as he grabbed the bag and held it tightly to his chest. "Good! Wish me luck, future knight!" Sunny then tackled the puppet as it jumped into the air! When they landed, Sunny put one hoof up and under into the puppet's chest, kicking it off of him, allowing the yellow stallion a chance to get up and out from under it. As Sunny stabilized himself, he made his way to the library door and began taunting the puppet once more. Luckily the puppet fell for it and began chasing Sunny again. Once the coast was clear, Spike made a B-line for his room, with the lavender bag still in his claws. Sunny lead the puppet down the hall, screaming as loud as he could to both appear in distress and to catch everypony's attention. That was the original plan. Sunny had remembered that he was the one to develop the pony puppet spells, but he had never had one go rogue before. Now both have! What happened to them? He knew one went mad because of Timberwolve's spirit or what not. But this one too? Luckily it didn't take the girls or Thunder Lane and Big Mac long before they broke out of the meeting room and stepped in to 'save' Sunny. Once they all circled the pony puppet, though, it stopped dead in its tracks, clicked it's mouth for a few moments, then broke trough a window and leaped out it to freedom. Only freedom was several stories high, and it fell to the ground, hard. The rest of the group watched as its pieces came back together, reforming a pony puppet from its broken pieces, and ran off into the darkness.