Sunny Knight: a Pony's Tale

by TheothersideofSunny968

Friendship 101 with Discord

Sunny could hardly remember anything that happened yesterday. From what Apple Bloom told him at breakfast, he had gone out for a walk to get some air, then came back feeling worse then when he left, walked right up to his room and went to bed. Apparently the yellow stallion slept until the next morning, only barley waking up to hear the roosters crowing.

"Ah'm real sorry, everypony" Sunny sighed as he forced himself to eat part of the large breakfast Granny had made for him. "Ah'll work twice as hard today at make up for it."

"Oh, don't you worry 'bout that" Granny said as she plopped some more hay bacon on Sunny's plate. "Now eat up!"

"Yeah! It ain't everyday Granny makes this big of ah breakfast!" Apple Bloom cheered as she took a big spoonful of scrambled eggs, having mixed it with her hash browns.

"Eh'nope!" Big Mac commented as he began to dig into a large pile of pancakes.

Looking around at the spread on the table, Sunny did notice that there was a lot more food today for some odd reason. Granted, from what Sunny could recall, the Apples always had large breakfasts to help fuel them for the long hard day of labor. But he had never seen a breakfast this large for just another day of work.

"What's the occasion, Granny?" Sunny turned to the elderly mare who grabbed herself another bran muffin and began spreading melting butter on the top.

"Eh? Occasion? Ah' don't know what ya mean?" Granny replied, pretending to be hard at hearing.

Half smelling and rolling his eyes, Sunny had grown wise to the elderly pony's mannerisms. She was pretending to not know something alright. As he continued to eat, Sunny thought about what could smell today special. Then it hit him like a ton of bricks!

"Is Applejack coming back today!?" Sunny asked as he nibbled on some hay bacon, wishing he had been introduced to such a wonderful breakfast item 1000 years ago.

"Eh'yep" Big Mac replied, his small smile growing a fraction bigger.

"Which reminds me..." Granny said as she swallowed a bite of her muffin. "Ya'll have some chores ta' get done before she gets back. Eat up, yer gunna need it!"

Now understanding why Granny was feeding them all so well, Sunny felt more inclined to dig in and consume as much as he can. He wanted everything to be ready for when Applejack returned. Which meant he needed all the energy he could muster! Little did the yellow unicorn know that Granny, Big Mac and Apple Bloom had something else planned along side getting the chores done.

After breakfast, Sunny started to carry his dirty dishes over to the sink when Granny stopped him. "Hold it there, Sunny. Ah got them dishes. Here's yer honey-ta-do list..."

The elderly green pony then handed Sunny a list of chores he needed to do. Skimming over the paper, Sunny's pupils shrank as his eyes read over the list once, then a second time to make sure what he read was correct. "All of this?! We need ya get ah'll this done today?!"

"Eh'nope" Big Mac replied as he put his own dishes in the sink.

"Oh thank Celestia..." Sunny exhaled in relief.

"That's just 'your' chore list, Sunny" Granny instructed the yellow unicorn. "We got our own chores ta' take care of."

"Yep! And ya better hurry! Ah hear Applejack'll be back 'round sundown!" Apples Bloom added, a refrained smile on her little muzzle as she helped herself to another glass of orange juice.

"Shoot! Ah better kick it inta high gear!" Sunny said as he dashed as fast as he could out the door, starting with the chores involving the barn.

Apple Bloom waited for Sunny to be far from ear shot, and clearly hard at work in the barn before giving her grandmother and older brother the signal. "Th' eagle is occupied! Let's get started, ya'll!"

"Ah'right! Ah'll get started with them treats and th' cake" Granny nodded. "You two go out and round up his friends! Then meet me back here so we can begin decorating."

"Roger" Big Mac said with a salute.

"Will do!" Apple Bloom added, then giggled. "Smart idea keepin' Sunny busy while we get things ready for his birthday, Granny."

"Ain't th' first time ah' done it, neither" Granny snickered to herself. "Yep, yer granny's got some smooth moves."

"But what will you do if he notices his friends all missing or acting weird around town?" An odd and familiar voice echoed in the kitchen. A voice that ran a chill up everypony's backs, and made their warm and happy atmosphere freeze. As everypony looked around for the deviant that the voice belonged to, a pair of yellow and red eyes appeared on Apple Bloom's glass of orange juice.

"EEK!" Apple Bloom shrieked as she dropped her glass, freaked out by the eyes starring back at her.

Before the glass hit the ground and shattered, a bear like paw caught it mid air, and raised it up to a being made up of mismatched pieces of animals and creatures from all around Equestria. The Draquis, who's eyes were in Apple Bloom's glass, reached in and pulled the eyes out, simply smacking them back onto his face, then proceeded to drink the orange juice. "Ah, nothing like a glass of OJ to start off the day! And what a day we have planned!"

But when Discord turned back to look at the Apple family, he was met by their hard glares and dissatisfied looks.

"What? Did I catch you at a bad time?" The master of Chaos asked in a rather innocent tone that had no effect on the cautious Apple family.

"What are ya doin' here, ya old trouble maker?!" Granny spat out, holding a whisk out to him, pointing it at the draquis like it was a sword.

Discord just chuckled to himself. "Easy there, Granny, no need to try and exterminate me. I just want to help."

"Since when do 'you' wanna help anypony?" Apple Bloom asked, her defenses up as she and her brother stood protectively with their grandmother.

"Sunny is a friend of Fluttershy's, right?" Discord asked, a sly smile crept into his face.

"Ugh, yeah?" Apple Bloom shockingly replied, caught off guard by the question.

"Well, Fluttershy happens to be my 'best' friend" Discord snapped his fingers and several oranges hopped out of the fruit basket on the table, sprouting wings, flew up to his glass, split themselves in half, and proceeded to squeeze their contents into the glass, slowly refilling it. "That makes Sunny 'my' friend too, by association."

"Eh, maybe?" Big Mac started to relax his tensed muscles, but his eyes were still locked in the mischief maker.

"And friends help one another" Discord continued as he removed his paw from the glass, leaving it floating in the air while the oranges continued to refill it, then proceeded to throw their squeezed dry bodies into the trash.

"Ah suppose..." Granny half agreed, lowering her whisk, wondering what Discord was up to.

"Then it's decided!" The draquis raised his inconsistent claws into the air with great bravado. "I'll help to distract Sunny so he has no idea what's going on while you three get things set up here! Then when the girls come back, we'll have the greatest birthday Sunny's ever had!"

As Discord made the declaration, he forced all three of the Apple family members present into a group hug by extending his mismatched arms around them and pulling them all together. As they all struggled to break away from the draquis' hug, Apple Bloom noticed the glass now filled with freshly squeezed orange juice, and caught it just as Discord's chaos magic released it.

"Nice catch AB!" Discord commented then pet her with the tip of his tail that turned into a hand like appendage. "Nothing better then fresh squeezed!"

(Enter mlp fim opening)

"Ok... let's see..." Sunny began talking to himself as he often did when he worked alone. "Sweep up old hey from barn floor and replace with new hey, check. Oil wheels on the carts, check. Now time to get the eggs from the chicken coop to finish loading up the cart and take that to Sugar Cube Corner to trade for sugar. Ok, if I keep up this pace, I should barely finish on time."

Just as Sunny levitated the empty egg crates onto the cart, ready to harvest the load from the hen house, he noticed something rattle around in one of the crates. Thinking something must have been left in there, Sunny placed it gently down on the ground and slowly opened it, hoping it was one of Apple Bloom's toys rather then an egg or some thing that could have expired and gone bad. As the crate's lid slowly slid open, a jack in the box like head popped out of the crest, sending Sunny flying onto his back, his heart nearly popping out of his chest.

"Hey there pal!" Discord said as his head and body changed back to normal with a snap of his fingers. He then disappeared in a small flash of light only to reappear behind the yellow unicorn, then proceeded to pull him into an atomic nuggie. "How has my old pal been? Did you miss me?!"

Teleporting out of Discord's grasp, Sunny reappeared a few feet away, his body on high alert, cautious of this new creature that he was sure he'd never met before. As his green eyes locked onto the mixed up looking being before him, Sunny was able to gather his thoughts and asked the most basic of questions. "w-who are you?... what are you ?"

Clenching his chest and acting emotionally hurt, Discord began to wobble left and right. "Ouch, ow... I'm hurt Sunny. We used to know each other so well."

This caught the yellow unicorn's attention, causing him to raise a brow. "What do you mean? I don't think I could forget someth-, er, somepony like yourself."

With his left claw arm raised over to cover his eyes with his forearm to further play it up that he was emotionally hurt, Discord peaked around his arm and down at the yellow unicorn, a half smile cracked on his face. "Oh, I'm so sorry. I used to call you Soleggiato, prince Soleggiato Cavaliere. Or at least, that's what I called you 1000 years ago.

"Would you prefer I call you that gain?" Discord's position changed and now he floated carelessly in the air, a sly and tenacious grin on his muzzle, his eyes now narrowed on the yellow pony.

Horror spread across Sunny's face as panic spread throughout his entire body, draining all the blood from his head, making him feel like he was about to pass out. Just as he felt like he was about to hit the ground, Discord snapped his fingers, causing a bucket of water to magically appear out of thin air. Sunny noticed this, but still was too much in shock to put two and two together until a wave of cold water splashed in his face, shocking the yellow unicorn out of it. With cold water now soaking him to the bone, Sunny was shaken from his paralyzingly fear.

"H-how do you know that name?!" Taking only a moment to think about it, Sunny knew it was useless to play dumb.

"Like I said" Discord continued with a confident smug spread across his face. "I knew you from 1000 years ago, back when you stood by your daddy's side, ruling over the Crystal Empire. Well, before he went crazy and sealed you away in stone."

"Watch your tongue!" Sunny snapped, anger building up inside, his eyes narrowed at the trixter. "I won't have you speaking of father like that!"

"Chill out, Soleggiato " Discord continued to play his same tune as he floated around in the air, enjoying the sight of Sunny getting steamed. "Like I said, we're good pals, I mean you no harm. If I did, do you think I'd get all of these for you?"

With his paws behind his head, showing how relaxed the draquis was, Discord snapped fingers that his tail made. In a flash, thousands of newspapers of several different newspaper companies appeared above Sunny. Before the yellow unicorn could get out of the way, the large mountain of newspapers landed on top of him, burying the former prince under a tone of paper and inc. While Sunny struggled to get out of the pile Discord snapped his fingers again, this time, a small prize grabbing claw appeared over the pile of papers along with a joy stick that floated in mid air in front of the draquis himself. After the master of chaos stood up from his relaxed position, cracked his knuckles and neck, he grabbed the joy stick and began to control the claw. Moving it forwards, backwards, then once to each side, he then hit the big red button on the joy stick and sent the claw down into the pile of newspapers. A moment or two after submerging into the large pile of newsprint, the claw began to rise, with Sunny in its grasp. The former prince looked at Discord, absolutely unamused by his cartoon antics.

"Oh look! I still got it!" Discord said as the claw released Sunny, dropping him into the pile of papers. "I wonder what else I could grab. I got one more play."

As Discord sent the claw back into the sea of papers, about to pull out who knows what else, Sunny noticed the headlines of the papers. He picked several different ones up and began reading them out loud. " 'Black Knight menace still at large', 'Black Knight still escapes royal guards', 'Princess Twilight now offering reward for information on Black Knight'?!"

"Yep!" Discord said as he continued to maneuver the claw. "You've become quite infamous, Prince Soleggiato. You really had to break old Shinning's leg, didn't you?"

"I did what I had to do." Painstricken, Sunny threw the papery he was holding away and slid off the pile of papers. Shaking out the last drops of water from his hat, Sunny looked back at Discord. "What is it you want, ugh...."

"Discord" the master of chaos said as the prize grabbing claw pulled up a giant stuffed plush toy that closely resembled Fluttershy. When the claw dropped the stuffed toy, Discord caught it in his paws and pulled it into a tight hug. With another snap of a hand his tail made, the mountain of newspapers disappeared. "The name's Discord, master of chaos, bringer of laughs and good times-"

"I remember reading about you now!" Sunny interrupted, his eyes narrowing on the floating Draquis before him. "You're the guy who Applejack and the others faced back when Twilight was a unicorn. You tried to turn Pronyville into the chaos capital of the world, then you were supposedly reformed by Fluttershy, but then ended up betraying them for that Tirek guy."

"Well! Excuse a guy for making a mistake" now really upset, or at least appearing to, Discord turned his head away from Sunny as he crossed his arms. "You aren't very good at making friends if this is how you start things off. And after everything I did for you to help keep your little secret."

Relaxing a bit, Sunny raised a brow at the draquis. "You? Help me? By doing what?"

Sighing heavily, Discord turned back around and looked annoyingly at the unicorn. "For starters, I rounded up every newspaper in Canterlot for the last week and replaced them with fake ones, not easy to do on one cup of coffee in the morning, ya know. And I've even kept all word about 'the Black Knight' from reaching either of the princesses. So you're welcome!"

Now fully relaxed and a bit confused, Sunny fought to keep his guard up with the powerful magical troublemaker around. He still didn't fully trust this 'old pal'. "Ok, ugh, thank you. Not to look a gift horse in the mouth, but why would you help me? What do you get out of it?"

"Oh Sunny, I just want to help a friend" Discord's sour mood appeared to have vanished as he disappeared from where he was only to reappear beside Sunny on his shoulder, no bigger then the unicorn's pet ferret. "After all, we go way, way back. Why, I remember you when you were just a foal."

That didn't make Sunny feel any more at ease, but he didn't want to push things further. From what he read about the master of chaos, he loved to mess with ponies. And his true identity isn't something Sunny wanted to play around with. To keep his identity and past a secret, he better just take it for what it was. "Well, ugh, thank ya for th' help, pal."

"Oh any time, buddy" Discord's smile cracked even wider as he disappeared again and reappeared in the air again. "I'd love to stay and 'hang out' as friends do, but I can see you're busy. But before I go, I need a favor from you."

"What's that?" Sunny knew it was too good to be true. He knew Discord had to have something up his sleeve.

"I need to barrow your 'Black Knight' suit of armor" he said with a deviant grin. "Just for a little bit."

"No way!" Sunny wouldn't have Discord, the master of Chaos, messing with his most valuable suit of armor. "Do you even know what makes it special?"

"Oh I know, trust me..." Discord replied stills deviant smile plastered on his muzzle. "But I need to barrow that suit of armor 'because' it's so special. I was going to use it to lure away unwanted attention. I'll have ponies think 'the Black Knight' is somewhere like the foal mountains, sailing off to some distant island, or something like that. Something to have ponies thing 'the Black Knight' is far far away. That is, unless you want the royal guards, or more likely, the Crystal guards, to come and take you away from your cozy, little farm, with you loving Apple family."

The thought hadn't occurred to Sunny before. He knew he had to do what he did back at the Crystal Empire, and he knows that ponies would be looking for him, but would the search really lead them to Ponyville?! What if they discovered his cave!? They wouldn't just find out 'he' was the Black Knight, but they would learn who he really was! Who his father was! Who knows what they would think then! Fear was beginning to fill the unicorn's mind, fear of loss, fear of being found out, he began to hear and see the eyes of so many ponies who blamed him for their suffering once more. He knew what he had to do to keep it all away and to keep the life he was living and the ponies he cared about.

"Alright" Sunny reluctantly said after a long moment of thinking it over, realizing just what kind of a bind he truly was in. "You can barrow the armor, but I want it back today, no scratches or dents!"

"You and I both know that that armor can't be damaged so easily" Discord said, then snapped his fingers, making the black suit of armor appear out of nowhere in a quick flash of light.

Shocked that Discord could do that, Sunny almost stumbled over his words. "Hey! How did you do that?! Could you have done that this whole time?"

"But of course!" Discord's grin grew to a mischievous and proud smile. "I'm Discord! The Master of chaos! I could bend all reality!"

"Then why didn't you just take the armor and do what you said you would do in the first place?!" Sunny snapped, feeling like they could have skipped this whole conversation and he would have one less worry to keep him up at night.

"My dear boy, that would be rude" Discord grasped as he put a claw in front of his mouth, pretending to be flabbergasted by the very notion. "What kind of friend would I be if I just took your things without asking?"

"Well..." he had Sunny with that one. "I guess ... a pretty poor one."

"Thank you, I thought so too" Discord said as he pulled a lavender balloon out of nowhere and began blowing it up. Once it was fully inflated, the balloon appeared to be a long one like the ones Pinkie Pie would use to make fun party hats or balloon animals. With a slight of hand, Discord twisted and pulled the balloon into the shape of a pony about Sunny's size, then marked on it with a green marker to give it eyes and a frown. Snapping his fingers once more, the Black Knight armor disappeared only to reappear on the balloon pony. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have some work to do. I'll be back in a sec!"

Sunny was afraid to blink and miss the draquis disappearing with his most precious armor and the balloon pony wearing it. Still finding the whole situation very confusing and stressful, Sunny thought it best to just go about his chores. That's when it hit him. That would help take his mind off his worries. It always did.

"Crowing Roosters! Ah have ya get these chores done before Applejack gets back!" Jumping up a foot off the ground, Suny hopped back into his speedy chore routine, leaving all worry of 'the Black Knight' behind.

After loading up the eggs, Sunny made his way into town to deliver them to Sugar Cube Corner to make the trade for sugar. It was odd though. When Sunny arrived it seemed like everypony in the place was avoiding eye contact and snickering. Something felt... off. Like everypony was looking at him, but no pony was saying anything. Maybe he was just being paranoid, letting what Discord told him get the better of him. No. No something was defiantly off. But Sunny couldn't tell what.

'Did Discord say something?' the yellow unicorn thought, his heart rate began to increase with his paranoia. But he shook it off as he reached the front desk. After Mr. Cake signed off on the delivery, a smile large and present on his own muzzle, Sunny just had to ask, feeling something was defiantly up.

"Is everything alright, Mr.Cake?" Sunny asked with a brow raised at the other yellow stallion.

"Oh, ugh, everything is fine, Sunny" the tall co-owner of Sugar Cube Corner said, now trying to hold back his smile. "Why do you ask?"

"Well, everypony seems..." Sunny then turned and looked at everypony in the shop, who, while The yellow unicorn had his back turned were looking at him, but pretended to be doing some thing else when he turned back around. "... ugh... never mind. Well, happy baking Mr.Cake. Give mah' regards ta th' misses."

"Will do, Sunny" the tall, yellow earth-pony said with a smile and a wave. "See you later!"

After walking outside the bakery, Sunny then pulled the list of chores out from underneath his hat and began going over it in his head. But something felt off. He looked up from his list and felt a pair of eyes weighing down on him. Looking quickly over his shoulder, Sunny saw one of the ponies that was dining in Sugar Cube Corner now watching him from one of the shops's windows.

When the pony realized he caught Sunny's attention, he panicked for a moment, then nervously smiled and waved at him. Sunny could have sworn he heard somepony mutter 'did he see you?'

Shaking his head clear, the yellow farm pony just thought it best to move on to the next chore. It was almost lunch time and he was barely half way done with his chores. He wanted to get them all done before Applejack's train arrived around sundown. But as the unicorn hitched himself up to the cart and began pulling it back to Sweet Apple Acres, a familiar gurgling sound filled Sunny's ears.

"Did ah really work off that large breakfast?" The yellow unicorn asked himself. "Well, ah'm sure the other's are already breaking fer lunch. Guess it's high time ah be doing the same. Can't work on an empty stomach."

"Quite right about that" a familiar and mischievous voice replied as a near by tree grew a pair of red and yellow eyes, teamed up with a mouth that had one fang sticking out. One of the tree's branches pulled an apple from itself and offered it to Sunny. "Here! An apple a day keeps the doctor away. Although, since the Doctor is your friend, I don't know if you want to do that."

The sudden image made Sunny jump a little, but the unicorn quickly realized who it was as the Draquis seemed to pull himself out of the tree, taking a bite out of the apple he offered to Sunny. Taking a few deep breaths to calm himself down, Sunny glared at the reformed troublemaker. "What are you doing here? Are you done with my... you know what?"

"What? The armor of the 'Black Knight'?" Discord blankly asked, smiling as he did, knowing he caused Sunny to panic speaking so openly about it.

"Hey! Keep it down!" Sunny tried to shush the master of chaos, then nervously looked around, hoping nopony heard him.

"Relax, nonpony's around" Discord commented as he snapped his fingers, making the balloon wearing the black armor appear again. "Would you like me to put this back for you, pal?"

His heart sank when he saw his Black Knight armor just standing there, in the middle of town for everypony to see! Thinking quickly while trying to cover it up, Sunny stretched his body out over the armor clad balloon pony and glared at Discord. "Yes! Get it out of here! Put it back where you found it!"

"No need to get so snappy, buddy, relax..." Discord told him as he snapped his fingers, sending the armor and balloon back to Sunny's cave of personal artifacts. "Now that the trail for the Black Knight is leading guards into the middle of the ocean, I doubt anypony will come looking for you here."

Releasing a heald breath, Sunny thought for a moment as he looked at the unsymmetrical creature made of mixed up parts. He felt kinda bad for snapping and scratched the back of his head, tipping his hat slightly. With another sigh, and shooting Discord a smile, Sunny then held out a hoof to the draquis. "Thank you, Discord. I really appreciate it."

Looking at the former prince's jester, the trouble maker hesitated, but reached out and took the hoof shake, shaking the yellow hoof with his eagle like claw. A deviant smile shot across the master of chaos's face as he then teleported him and Sunny away from town to Twilight's castle, far away from Sweet Apple Acres where Sunny's chores were needing to be completed.

At first, Sunny didn't know what happened. But as his mind cleared and he got a better look at his surroundings, the yellow stallion quickly realized where he was. Knowing Twilight and the others were still in the Crystal Empire, or at the very least on the train heading back here, Sunny felt more relaxed knowing he could speak a little more openly.

"Discord! What is the meaning of this?! Why would you bring me here?" Sunny asked as he yelled down one of the halls he was in, his voice stronger then normal, more authority present in his tone. "I have chores to get done before Applejack-"

Before he could complete his sentence, a large painting appeared before the yellow stallion, one he had not seen in over 1000 years. The very presence of it stopped the former prince in his tracks and almost brought a tear to his eye. It was the painting he and his father had done of them 1000 years ago, before Sunny ever became a Crystal guard. He had dawned a simple blue cloak, much like his father's, around his head was a bold silver band with a single emerald embedded in the center. His father was wearing a cloak just slightly darker then Sunny's, and upon his own brow he wore a darker silver band with a ember colored stone, a very rare gem in the Crystal Empire. Both seemed to modestly smile at the painter as he captured the image of the father and son.

"What a lovely painting" Discord commented as he appeared next to Sunny, who was still focused on the painting. In a flash, Discord reappeared wearing a skin tight black body suit, a beret hung off one side of his head with his goat like horn poking through it, and a pair of wide purple sunglasses hanging over his yellow and red eyes. As he stroked his goatee, the master of chaos pretended to critique the painting. "Simple, much like most portraits. But you really feel the father son love, no?"

Sunny remained silent for a moment before hanging his head low, then turning his head slightly in Discord's direction. "...Why would you bring this here?"

"You know you're problem, Soleggiato?" Discord asked, snapping his fingers, making his previous attire vanish, leaving him once again without cloths. "You may have 'friends' but you don't know anything of the 'magic of friendship.' Don't worry, it wasn't until recent that 'I' myself discovered it.

"A thousand years ago, give or take a few years, I swore to your mother that I would teach you" Discord explained as he snapped his fingers, this time, a dress shirt, wrinkled red tie, a pair of glasses, and a button up jacket appeared floating in the air. The trouble maker started casually dressing himself into the new outfit as he continued to explain. "It's taken 'me' this long to fully learn about 'friendship' but I will not wait one moment longer to teach you what I learned."

"Discord, if you haven't noticed, I've made a lot of 'friends' in town already" Sunny started to say as he pulled the small lavender bag out of his Stetson hat, ready to suck the portrait into it.

But before Sunny could add the portrait to his collection of secret items, the lavender bag sprouted legs as ran off as fast as a little bag with legs could, down the hall. Lunging after it, Sunny found himself floating in mid air before he could grab the runaway bag. Discord then levitated the prince up to him, now fully dressed like a collage professor. As the draquis looked down at himself, he asked Sunny "should I really wear this? I mean, it seems so... what's the word? Stereotypical?"

Sunny assumed the master of chaos was referring to the cloths, rolled his eyes and answered in an annoyed, sharp tone "no. It looks ridiculous."

"I thought so too!" Discord agreed with the yellow unicorn, and with a snap of his fingers, turned the wrinkly tie into a green bow tie. "Much better! Now, let's cover our bases first-"

"I don't have time for your 'little lesson'!" Sunny snapped, more then just s little aggravated with the draquis. "I have a tone of chores to do after I grab my bag and get this painting out of here before anypony sees it!"

"I wouldn't worry too much about your chores, dear prince" Discord said with an amused and forced frown. "You have bigger issues. You're still making 'fake' friends. After 1000 years, you would think that you'd learn the difference between 'fakes' and the real thing. Especially after that horrid birthday you had when you were young. But not to worry, professor Discord is here to learn you a thing or two."

"My friends are not fake!" Sunny snapped at the master of chaos while he still floated helplessly in the air, now fighting to get down.

"Oh? Then let's put it to the test!" Discord said, heavily amused. "If you and your idea on 'friendship' pass the test, I'll help you get your chores done in no time, and clear all of this out of Twilight's castle."

"Ok" Sunny nodded, still annoyed. But as he was levitated back down, a thought hit him. "Wait, what do you mean 'all of this'!?"

"Why, the items from your father's study" Discord replied as he snapped his fingers, causing another ripe, juicy apple to appear out of nowhere. "You know, paintings, journal entries, keep sales. All things that could easily connect you to being Sombra's son."

"WHAT?!?!" Sunny was outraged to hear this and started to charge his magical aura into his unicorn horn. Sunny knew he didn't have all his magical strength back yet, but the sheer outrage gave him the gusto he needed to try.

But before Sunny could cast any kind of a spell, Discord reappeared in overalls and a baseball cap put on backwards, while he chewed on some bubble gum. Before Sunny could do anything, the reality bending draquis twisted off Sunny's horn, looked at it, and pooped it in his pocket before telling the yellow unicorn "I'll fix that up for ya in ah jiffy!"

Jumping at the mocking trickster, Sunny landed flat on the floor, face planting on the hard surface. Looking up as he heard Discord's chuckling echoing off the castle walls, Sunny was growing more and more agitated with the master of chaos. "Come out! Show yourself!"

"I would have thought you'd take my study plan a little more seriously" Discord's voice echoed again, but he was completely out of sight. "I made that book for you specifically so you could study up and learn what 'real' friends are like. But it seems that you haven't soaked it all in yet. That's ok! This test will show you how much you actually know, and show where you need to improve before the finals."

"Wait, 'you' sent me that book, 'The elements of harmony; a reference guide '?" Sunny asked, starting to piece a few things together.

"I wanted to get you up to speed with everypony else. So much had happened while you were gone" Discord replied as an image of him appeared in a stained glass window. "Besides, what better way to learn about 'friendship' then by learning from the elements of harmony, the greatest group of friends in all of Equestria! Although, despite being in love with the one who represented Honesty, you couldn't be more of a lier!"

"I'm not a lier!" Sunny stomped his front hoof, grinding his teeth in annoyance. "Enough of this! Why are you doing this?! What is the point?!"

Disappearing from the stained glass window, Discord then reappeared as a statue on a pedestal about ten feet away, in a relaxed pose next to a dancing mare figure. "Like I told you before. I'm going to teach you about friendship."

"I already know about 'friendship'" the yellow stallion said as he galloped up to the statue. "I made 'real' friends, who 'I' care about and know they care about 'me'."

"Do they?" Discord asked, then disappeared again only to reappear in another stained glass window, this one of Applejack, Twilight, and the others using the elements of harmony. "Then why do you keep so many secrets from them? Do friends keep other friends in the dark?"

"A pony is allowed to keep secrets, you know" Sunny replied, casually walking up to the stained glass window where Discord was. His eyes then were drawn to the image of Applejack, who as he knew, symbolized the element of 'honesty'. "Besides... of any of them knew who I really was..."

"Would they still want to be your friend?" Without Sunny noticing, Discord slipped away from the portrait and now stood behind the yellow unicorn.

"No. No they wouldn't" Sunny reluctantly answered, but answered honestly what he thought, sighing and looking down and away, desperately trying. To hide his own muzzle.

"Looks like you're starting step 1 now of my lesson on 'friendship 101'! " Discord replied, teleporting now several feet down the hallway. "You're openly honest with yourself about how you feel, now let's see what else we can squeeze out of you!"

Jerking his head in Discord's direction, Sunny bolted after the Draquis. "I'm done with you're games Discord!"

"Good! Because this isn't a game!" Discord's voice rang off the walls again as Sunny ran after him. The trickster seemed to be floating just out of Sunny's reach. "Now, lesson 1 is obviously Honesty, going off of our lesson plan. It's you must be honest with yourself. If you aren't honest with yourself, how could you be honest with anypony else?

"So, you are the son of one of Twilight's mightiest foes, King Sombra, correct? Your real name being Prince Soleggiato Cavalier?" Discord was now holding a clipboard, going over a checklist of things. Without looking up, he pointed with his pencil another portrait of Sunny and his father. "You may want to grab that."

Realizing how horrible it would be if Twilight, Spike, or anypony else saw that, Sunny grabbed the portrait and carried it with him in his mouth. But as he started to walk, the cart that he used to carry the eggs into town appeared, slightly smaller to fit through the hallway, it latched itself onto him. Discord didn't need to say it, Sunny already knew it was his handy work that made it appear. Tossing the protracted carefully into the cart, Sunny continued to chase Discord. "You already know the answer to that!"

"I do, so it should be easy to answer since we both know it to be the truth" Discord replied, this time looking up at the frustrated yellow stallion. "Also, if you lie, you're legs will shrink. I was going to make your nose grow, but that's boring. This way, you'll have to tell the truth if you want to get all this done along with all your chores, by the time the girls get back!

"Now next question" Discord continued. "Not long after you took the potion Zecorra gave you, did you realize you were the prince. But you chose to keep it a secret, why?"

"I told you that already!" Sunny continued to chaise after the draquis, pausing to grab a bust of his father and him that magically appeared on a near by pedestal, adding it to the growing pile. "Yes! I chose to keep it a secret! I bairly knew who I was, and wanted to find out for myself!"

"But after you ran into your father in the castle of the two pony sisters..." Discord continued while snapping his fingers, causing more and more paintings and busts of Sunny and his father to appear in the hallway. "You chose to keep him a secret because you were afraid of everypony finding out who you were?"

"No, you're wrong on that one!" Sunny stopped gathering the items and turned to Discord. Remembering the image of his father, how weak he appeared hurt Sunny to have to remember. "I didn't... I wanted him to get better. I don't want anypony to hurt him."

"After what he did?" Discord raised a brow to Sunny. "After he enslaved the Crystal ponies? After he sealed you away? After he sealed away the Crystal Empire? You know he cast that spell on you on purpose. He wanted you to seal you with your greatest fears."

"And how would you know this?!" Sunny's anger was beginning to build up. "You don't know anything about my father!"

"It's a good thing I have your horn" Disocrd smirky commented. "Otherwise you might hit me with what you did with those three hooligans. What were their names again? Score, Hoops and Dumb-Bell?"

Hearing their names caused Sunny's anger to subside almost immediately as more regret filled his heart.

"Accidents happen, Sunny" Disocrd continued to say as he slowly floated down the hallway, forcing Sunny to chase after him, now pulling an almost full cart. "But you know, if you had told Twilight about yours, you could have spared those three so many days of pain and suffering.

"But you wanted to keep your little secret and the fact that you used dark magic just like dear old dad. So you let them continue to suffer!" Discord snapped his fingers again, this time pulling several paintings and sculptures of Sombra and Sunny from the walls and adding them to the cart "Isn't that right?"

The cart was becoming harder and harder to pull now. If Sunny hadn't been working in a farm this whole time, he would never have been able to pull it. But thanks to plowing the fields and all the other strenuous work he's done, his muscles have almost doubled in strength from how he was 1000 years ago. "I... it's not just that! I wanted to fix...my own mistake!"

"Mistake?" Discord repeated the word, playing with it. "Was trashing Twilight's library a 'mistake'? Or did you do it on purpose, using a pony puppet you had spare to run wild and trash the place, while using your 'friends' and the so called 'prank' as a distraction?

"Further more" Discord continued, his fingers snapping, this time adding busts of Big Mac, Thunderlane, And one of each of the main six as well as Spike to the pile. "You even lied to poor Spiky-wiky, convincing him you were 'saving Twilight from possible dark magic' and told him he could be a 'dragon knight' for aiding you! Something you don't have the power or authority to grant, despite still being a prince."

"I'm not a prince anymore!" Sunny continued to struggle with the load, now only moving inches at a time towards the floating trickster. The unicorn felt his legs wabble, out of fear of growing shorter, Sunny spat out "yes! Yes! I lied to Spike too! I knew he could never become a knight! But I told him he could so he would keep his mouth shut about me stealing the books from Twilight! I knew if he spilled the beans, Twilight would investigate and find out the truth! I got him to lie to her!

"Tisk, Tisk, Tisk" Discord stoped advancing as he looked over his notes. "With all of this built up against you, you'll never learn to make friends until you master my 6 step program. But it seems the hardest one is half over. No, more like one quarter over. But with my help, you're well on your way to making 'real' friends very so-"

"Shut up!" Sunny finally snapped, gathering the last of his strength, glaring up at Discord. "Applejack, Big Mac, Thunderlane, Octavia, Doctor, Derpy, Twilight, Fluttershy and Pinkie are all my best friends! It doesn't matter who I was in the past! What matters is who I am to them!"

"Oh?" Discord began to play at him again. "So, you think they would still accept you for 'who you are to them' if they knew you were the son of king Som-"

"I'm more then just his son!" Sunny interrupted again, his eyes now demanding Discord's attention. "I am a Sunny Knight, my friends and family just call me Sunny. When I need to dawn my black armor, I become the Black Knight. Prince Soleggiato is in the past. But right now, from here in out, I'm Sunny. The unicorn who works and lives at Sweet Apple Acres, who likes going out and hanging out with my wide array of friends, occasionally making new ones on the cooky adventures I fall into, but at the end of the day, have a home and a family to go back to!

"This is who I choose to be!" Sunny paused to take a breath, then looked at the mountain of things gathered in the cart behind him, then sighed. "No matter the burden I must carry. I like who I am 'now'. I want to just be 'Sunny'."

"Well we've made great progress!" Discord cheered as he blew into a kazoo ad tossed confetti all over Sunny. "Congratulations! Don't you feel better for talking about it! I know I do!"

"Will you just help me get this stuff out of Twilight's castle before she and the others get back?!" Sunny snapped at Discord as he brushed the flakes of glitter and paper out of his mane.

"Oh, don't worry about that!" Discord snapped his fingers, and in a flash, he and Sunny were in the map room of Twilight's castle. Looking over at the map table, Sunny noticed the map that usually presented a transparent image of Equestria, instead had a miniaturized version of Twilight's castle, complete with a tiny cart filled with tiny paintings and busts like the one he was just pulling. It all didn't come together until Sunny noticed the almost microscopic lavender bag that was still running around like a mouse in a maze.

"We... were in there the whole time?!" Sunny was partly relieved, but mostly angry with the draquis.

"But of course! You wouldn't have confessed otherwise!" Discord replied, snapping his fingers to teleport the small walking lavender bag out of the mini castle maze and placed it safely back in Sunny's hat. "Well, I guess I could, but I wasn't the only one who needed to hear it."

Although Discord was nuttier then Granny's hearth's warming fruit cake, Sunny gathered that there was some thin line of reason to his madness. And something about what he just said made Sunny nervous. It wasn't until somepony coughed and caught his attention did Sunny realize they weren't the only two in the room. That the whole display wasn't just for Discord's 'lesson in friendship'.

The room fell so quiet when Sunny turned around and saw them standing there, that you could hear a pin drop. His purples shrunk to a size never seen on pony eyes as he looked over and noticed Twilight Sparkle, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and Spike the dragon all standing there, looking at him with hard and questioning eyes. It was almost as if the nightmare he had been running away from was just coming true. The yellow stallion couldn't speak, as was afraid to even breath or move a muscle. His world had just cracked, and if he even so niches as sneezed, it would all fall to pieces.

"Just to clarify" Discord playfully nudged Sunny. "Yes, they all saw and heard everything. Now while you guys work things out, I'll be the good friend I am, and finish that pesky chore list for you. Be back in a flash, or before Applejack even gets home!"

As Discord pulled Sunny's chore list out from underneath the stallion's hat and vanished, the entire room froze over once more. The only slight movement in the room were Spike's shaking fists and the tears gathering at the corners of his eyes. It could have easily been mistaken for an oil painting the way everypony refused to move.

Just just as she's always done, Twilight made the fist push. Taking a step forward, followed soon by her friends and number one assistant. The purple alicorn's voice was soft as an avalanche and came as quickly as thunder, with eyes that struck fear into Sunny's heart as she glared sharply at him. "I think you have some explaining to do."