"No! No! No! No! No! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO!" Twilight repeated over and over to herself as she zoomed from one end of the messed up library to another. All the clutter from the previous night was still very present. The purple alicorn's precious library had books and papers everywhere, with tables and chairs also overturned from the struggle with the pony puppet. This bothered Twilight Sparkle quite a bit, but not more then when she realized that the books she was supposed to be deciphering were now missing!
"How can this be?! THEY WERE RIGHT HERE!" Twilight continued to panic as she motioned where the table used to be that held Sombra's books. "Where could they have gone?!"
Sunny was present during her rant, having come over early 'to help Twilight decipher Sombra's books', but in reality, he just had to play his part, as well as keep an eye on Spike. The baby dragon stood nervously next to Sunny, feet shifting, breathing heavy, and gulping. All desperate attempts to keep himself calm as the pony he was closest too and knew all his life, stood before him panicking. The purple and green dragon's heart began to beat faster and faster with the guilt he held began to eat away at him.
"Here Twilight!" Sunny said as he moved closer to her, trying to help both her and Spike relax a bit. "Why don't we help you look?"
"Y-yeah!" Spike said, his words shaking worse then his knees. "They could be here somewhere. They have to be here, right! No way they would be anywhere else! No sir! They are defiantly here!"
Twilight began to take deep breaths to calm herself down. After a moment, Twilight began doing the deep breathing exercises that Cadence had showed her. The breathing tequnique had come in very handy since the purple alicorn became a princess. And after a few deep breaths, the princess of friendship was ready to face the situation once more. This time, with a clear head.
"Ok. Sunny, if you'll help me, we'll move the tables and chairs back into place" Twilight's gaze turned from Sunny to Spike. "Spike, would you mind cleaning up some of these papers and books? We'll have to look through all of this mess to find them. But first we need to get this place
Cleaned up. If we work together, I know we can do it."
"N-no problem! I'll hop right on it!" Spike said as he dove right in to grabbing the loose papers off the ground.
'Hopefully this will help him calm down' Sunny thought as he wrapped his green magical aura around a table and began to move it back into place. 'If he talks, my cover is blown!'
Sunny tried his best to shake the idea from his mind as he refocused on helping Twilight fix up the room. After a few hours of picking up papers, reorganizing books, sweeping up dust and dirt, re-reorganizing books, sorting the various loose papers, and re-re-reorganizing the books, Twilight, Sunny, and Spike all stood back and admired the fruits of their hard work. Twilight beamed with pride as her library looked even better then before! Sunny and Spike on the other hand were exhausted, both mentally and physically from all the extra work Twilight had them do.
"Why did we have to reorganize the entire library so much?" Sunny whispered to the little dragon.
"That's just Twilight" Spike replied. "She loves organizing and reorganizing her books. We're lucky she stopped after only three times."
"You know guys" Twilight said as she tilted her head while looking at the library. "I think I prefer the Equestrian history section over by the Geographical findings section, rather then by the Magical History section."
"You know what? I just remembered I was going to, ugh, help Big Mac and Applejack repainted the barn! I guess I'll see you tomorrow!" Sunny said as he jumped up and dashed out of the room before Twilight could rope him into reorganizing the library for the forth time!
Spike began to panic as well, mostly because he still had the lavender bag that held Sombra's books. It made the little dragon very nervous to keep such things near him that could corrupt him or even Twilight. "Oh! Ugh, I should go make us some lunch!"
"Good idea Spike, I'll get us started" Twilight commented as she began levitating various books off their shelves and began another reorganizing session.
Spike hurried out of the room to catch Sunny before he left. The little dragon didn't have to go far, the yellow stallion was waiting at the end of the hall for him. Spike almost passed right by him before Sunny spoke up.
"Spike!" Sunny called out, making sure to keep his voice sharply above a whisper. "Spike, over here!"
The little purple and green dragon put the breaks on and turned right around. "Oh good! I thought you had left."
"I wanted to stay behind and get those books from you" Sunny said honestly.
"Right!" Spike then pulled out the small lavender bag and handed it over to Sunny who appeared very relieved to have them in his possession. It was then that something finally set in with the little dragon. "I feel.... Kinda bad. You know, for lying to Twilight. I know it's for her better good... But I really just want to come clean to her. Be honest about you and the books."
Sunny gulped as he tucked the lavender bag safely away into the rim of his Stetson hat. That was one thing he was afraid of; Spike feeling guilty and blabbing to Twilight. He had to regain control of the situation... But how... Then an idea can to mind! Sunny smiled as he held his head up high and looked at the small dragon.
"It is a noble thing you've done, Spike" Sunny started to say. "And as a reward, how about I show you where I put all of my Royal guard equipment? You know, armor, swords, and the like? I've collected pieces from all over Equestria, rare ones too. Maybe we can see if one could fit you. I'm sure I could adjust one to your size and build."
The little dragon's mood shifted immediately, his scales standing arrest up with enthusiasm and excitement. "REALLY?! THAT WOULD BE SO COOL!"
Sunny put a hoof to his lips, bringing it to Spike's attention as to how loud he was. But Sunny kept his cool and smiled back. "I'm glad you think so. I'm going to go deal with these books, why don't you go see if Twilight needs anything, and I'll meet you over by the edge of the apple farm, ok? Some time around 3pm?"
"Sure! Yeah! We should be done by then!" Spike said, his body now shaking with excitement. "Oh! This is soooo cooool! I'm going to look awesome in my own dragon style armor!"
Sunny waited until the little dragon was out of sight before he released his held breath and began to relax. "Ugh.... Its getting harder and harder to keep this a secret..."
On his walk through town, Sunny began to think about what gave him the idea to do that for Spike. It was almost as if he was... He was copying something he remembered. Halfway through town, the yellow unicorn looked over at a small group of ponies and realized just where he got the idea to calm Spike down.
Off to the side Sunny caught the sight of a family of four, with the mother carrying her daughter on her back, and the father carried their son on his. The family was smiling and laughing about something, or maybe nothing really at all. The rest of the world became a blur as Sunny's vision zoomed in on the stallion and his son. Their detailed began to change until the stallion's form was that of King Sombra, and the colt that dawned his back was a younger version of Sunny....
-many years ago, in the Crystal Empire-
"Oh wow!" Sunny said as he hopped off his father's back and bolted inside the room his father carried him to. "It's so huge!"
King Sombra only chuckled as he walked inside after his son. "Yes it is, isn't it. I wanted to make sure I had a room big enough for any and every treasured item I brought back from my journeys. That way, I'd have a way to remember all I had learned and all I had met."
The little yellow colt took in all what his father was saying but his eyes kept darting from one thing to another. The walls of the entire room were heavily decorated with rare and intriguing items. "That's really cool dad. But can't you just, you know, remember them on your own? Do you really need stuff like this?"
"When you get old, Sunny, your memory begins to fade. I could keep a journal" Sombra began to say as he walked over to the wall Sunny was examining. "But it helps to sometimes hold something in your hooves. Like this one!"
Sombra cast a green magical aura around an odd looking ball. It was white with red laces stitch work all around it. Sombra looked at it, then playfully tossed it up for Sunny to catch. Sunny panicked slightly and reached out with his hooves to grab the ball, almost dropping it, but was able to put his hooves around it.
"Ugh... What is this?" Sunny asked his father as he turned the odd looking ball around in his hooves. It was small and hard, not like the rubber balls his class mates and he were used to playing with.
"A few years before you were born, I aided your mother and a very powerful friend of hers, names Star-Swirl the bearded" Sombra began to say. "They began work dealing with a magical mirror that acted as a portal to other worlds. One world they visited had a game they called 'base ball'. And this was one a new friend your mother made gave to her."
"WOW! That's sooo cool!" Sunny's intreat in the ball increased ten full.
"You know what's cooler?" King Sombra said with a smirk, catching his son's attention. "Your mother played the game with them in their world, and helped them win some regional tournament."
"Wow! Mom's so cool!" Sunny said bouncing up and down.
Sombra looked back to the wall and picked another item off the wall. "Say, Sunny. Didn't you say you wanted to be a Royal guard when you grew up?"
The little yellow colt with a messy mop of orange mane calmed down with the sobering comment. As Sunny put the white and red ball back in its place in the wall, he hung his head. "Yeah... I did..."
Sombra immediately noticed the tone in his son's voice. "Something the matter, Sunny? Did you have a change of heart?"
"It... It's not that..." The yellow cold mumbled. "It's just... All the other ponies in my class are stronger, faster, better with magic and everything. I just don't know if I'm good enough to be a royal guard."
"My son, you remind me so much of myself when I was your age" Sombra said as he gently placed his old helmet on his son's head. "To be honest, you're better then I was with magic at your age."
"Really?!" Sunny was surprised. "But you're so powerful! You can do anything!"
His son's generous words cause the king to chuckle lightly. "Well thank you, but I'm not all powerful."
"Is mom?" Sunny asked immediately, tilting his head.
This caused the king to scratch the back of his neck, which is something he often did when he didn't know quite how to answer a question. Then as if the scratching summoned it to his mind, the king had the answer for his curious son. "Next time you see her, why don't you ask her yourself? It will really make her day."
"Ok!" The little yellow colt shuffled the helmet around in his head, but it was maybe about four sizes or more too big. He gave up after a moment and sighed as it slumped forward and covered his entire muzzle.
This made his father chuckle lightly again as he moved a hoof to tip the helmet back, allowing him to see his son's face. "But getting back to what I was saying. You shouldn't let the way you are now influence what you want to do. If you work hard, and never give up, there's nothing you can't do."
Sunny smiled up at his dad, tipping the helmet back with his hoof. "You mean I could be even as strong and powerful as you?!"
"I think you could be even more powerful then me" Sombra replied. "But you have a lot to learn before that day. Including what you should use that power for."
This confused the little yellow colt. "Use it for? Can't I use it for whatever I want?"
"A good ruler is one who uses his power for good, to help others, not just himself" Somnra said, his tone more stern. But he managed to crack a smile at his son to lighten the mood. "But you'll learn that in time. Now, how would you like me to show you a few of your father's favorite weapons? Collected from the land of dragons!"
"Would I!!!" Sunny said, bouncing up, the helmet flying off his head.
Sunny was snapped back to the present when somepony put their hoof on him and called out his name. "Sunny... Sunny, are you ok?"
The yellow unicorn was snapped back to the present, over 1000 years after that took place. Sunny jerked his head around to come face to face with his good friend, Octavia. The grey earth pony looked at him with slightly concerned, purple eyes. "Oh, ugh, hey Octavia! What brings you here?"
His musically talented friend stepped back and looked him over. "What brings me into town? Or what brought me over to you? I came here to pick a few things up for dinner tonight. But I walked over here because you looked like a statue just starting off into space.... Is everything alright?"
Sunny sighed and rubbed the base of his muzzle with his hoof. "Y-yeah... I'm fine just... Just taking a trip down memory lane."
"Is that why you were crying?" Octavia asked.
A little confused by her question, Sunny put a hoof up to his eye and realized that he actually had been crying. He began to wonder how long he had actually been standing there. He looked up at the clock near the town square and realized he only had about an hour before he was going to meet Spike! "I have to go!"
Before he could answer her, Sunny took off down the road but yelled back at Octavia "don't worry! I'll be fine! Thank you for being concerned, though!"
The grey musician pony just watched as her newest friend bolted down the road like a bolt of lightning. When he was out of sight, Octavia just sighed, shook her head and thought to herself 'why do I always make friends with the weird ponies?'
Sunny had made it back to the cave in the Everfree Forest, near the other side of the farm's farthest field, and had enough time to straiten things up. He was sure to hide any and all pictures or proof that he was from the Crystal Empire. He didn't know the difference between the two armor styles of the Canterlot Royal guard and the Crystal army. Well, at least how they are now. They were gold and cobolt steel 1000 years ago. Hopefully things hadn't changed. When he was organizing, Sunny noticed he had a set of all. But still, his favorite was a black set of armor. He couldn't remember where he had gotten it. But something, a small voice in the back of his mind, told him that that was a special suit of armor, and his favorite.
Heading back to the farm, Sunny arrived just moments before Spike could be seen coming up from the road to Ponyville. Spike seamed eager to see Sunny's secret Royal guard stash. Sunny made him swear not to reveal the location to anypony, or to tell anypony about him. The little purple and green dragon pinkie-promised that he wouldn't. With that, the yellow unicorn felt more at ease leading him to the cave. Sunny had taken precautions to hide it, such as a giant bolder he placed at its entrance and some moss he covered the bolder with to make it appear to have been there for a while. Moving the moss and bolder aside, Sunny presented the cave to the little dragon.
"Wow...." Spike sad as he walked inside. Sunny had also taken the liberty to line up several glowing crystals along the cave's walls, much like his old room. The glow from the stones made all the weapons and armor glisten. But something else caught the attention of the young dragn. "That's awesome! You have 'the Dark Detective' #1?!"
Sunny approached what the young dragon had pulled off the wall. It was an old comic his father had given him when he was into comic book super heroes. To be honest, it wasn't his favorite. The Dark Detective didn't even have super powers. He was just some earth pony who used his wits to solve crimes, wore a dark outfit, and hide in the shadows to out smart and out maneuver the bad guys. But still, he kept the comic as a reminder of his father.
"You, ugh, want that instead of a suit of armor?" Sunny asked curiously.
"Well..." Spike nervously scratched the back of his head.
But Sunny only smiled at the young dragon. "You know, we would need the help of a black smith to get you your own suit of armor. And who knows? You might go through a growth spurt by the time you complete Royal guard training."
"R-right" Spike said with an emerging smile as he looked at the yellow stallion.
"And to be honest, I don't really care much for 'the Dark Detective'" Sunny admitted as he rolled a hoof around at the name.
"B-but are you sure?! It's, like, super duper rare! And it looks almost brand new! And it's a first edition!" Spike went on, pointing out the details of the comic.
"I think it's in better hooves with you" Sunny replied. "And if I find any more, I'll send them your way."
"R-really?! Wow! Thanks Sunny! You're the best!" The little dragon said before running up and giving Sunny a hug.
This caught the unicorn off guard. The setting seamed familiar. But it had been so long since Sunny shared a hug with anypony in front of his own spoils of war. And for the next hour or so, Sunny relaxed as Spike told him all about his favorite comic books and about the heroes inside of them, including the time he and the girls got trapped in one themselves. Sunny was half listeneing, and half lost in blissful relaxation.
'Maybe things will turn out ok from here on out, what's the worst that could happen?' The yellow unicorn thought.
-Twilights Castle-
Twilight was feeling slightly relaxed now that the mess in the library had been picked up. Even though the books she had brought back from the Crystal Empire had gone missing, she was relieved to remember there was one she had in the meeting room where the girls had their slumber party. That one had escaped the chaos that the pony puppet brought.
"Ok, let's get started..." Twilight said as she began working, comparing the odd letters of the book with several different languages that Equeatria housed.
Twilight paused after several moments to take a deep breath and let her mind unwind. She thought about Sunny and how he seemed too eager to help her with this. "I shouldn't bother him. He's helped me out a lot already. Besides, one book between us? It might be easier for me to just work on this alone."