Sunny Knight: a Pony's Tale

by TheothersideofSunny968

Stormy Thunder

Today the sun was shinning high in the sky, the weather was clear, and the Ponyville school yard was alive with the hustle and bustle of students eager to show off their science fair project. Just like the years before, the annual school science fair had come around, where students could show off their projects and what they learned from doing them.

"Thanks again for helping me with my project, Sunny" Button Mash said as he finished setting up the sign for his project. 'Growing Crystals !'

"No problem, Button. It was really fun" Sunny admitted. He never had such a thing back when he was in school. But science had come along way since w was in school 1000 plus years ago.

Button Mash's mom had to go out of town for the week to aid a sick relative. So not only was Button crashing at the Apple farm, but he also needed an older pony to help with his science fair project. Looking around at the other students, one could clearly see their adult pony aids. Scootaloo with her mini-roller coaster explaining g-force aided by Rainbow Dash, Apple Bloom had shown how different elements of environment effect plant growth with the help of her older sister, Applejack, even Snips and Snails had help from Snips's mom with their project, explaining what worked best to get gum out of one's mane and the chemical reaction involving it. But there were some little ponies who's actual relatives couldn't make it or help, like Sweetie Bell and Diamond Tiara, who received aid from a close relative like figure. Sweetie showed how music effects sleep with the help of Fluttershy, and Diamond Tiara got help from her butler, Ralph, on the chemical changes of gold and silver with different polishes and cleaners. All in all, taking a step back, Sunny was very impressed with how much school has changed and knowledge has grown. He himself was looking forward to going the around and seeing the different projects before the judging.

"Ugh oh..." Button Mash commented, his ears falling flat against his head as he looked strait ahead across the crowd.

"What is it, Button? Do we need more tape?" Sunny asked, then tried to look in the same direction the little brown earth pony was. Narrowing his sight, the yellow unicorn caught sight of another familiar foal. "Is that Rumble?"

Setting up a stand alone was Button Mash's best pal in all of Ponyville, Rumble, a little grey Pegasus who hasn't yet earned a cutie mark, but didn't really need it to enjoy his fun filled life in Ponyville. But what Sunny noticed was off was the poor little pony was setting up his project all alone. The board for his project looked like it was thrown together at the last moment, with scratches, scribbles and tame in odd places trying to explain the project. What was worse was the 'project' itself. From what Rumble's board said, it was supposed to be a volcano that used baking soda and vinegar to explain a chemical reaction between the two house hold items. However, the 'volcano' looked a little... well... like a cow pie. An almost flat brown mass with a hole in the middle.

"I had a feeling this would happen" Button admitted with a heavy sigh.

"Why? What happened, Button?" Sunny asked, genuinely concerned for the little grey Pegasus.

"His big brother was supposed to be helping him all week with his project" Button started explaining. "But lately, Thunderlane's been too busy to lend a hoof. I'm willing to bet that Rumble did that all last night when he knew Thunderlane wouldn't help him at all."

'I need to have a talk with Thunderlane about this' was Sunny's initial response. Then he noticed Cheerrilee walking over toward's Rumble's stand with a clipboard in hoof. "Let's get over there."

"Right" Button agreed and followed quickly behind the yellow unicorn.

"Wow, ugh... interesting display, Rumble" Cherrilee commented through a forced smile. "Ugh... So this is a 'working' model?"

"Yeah..." Rumble replied with very little to no enthusiasm in his voice.

Just as Sunny and Button Mash reached the display, Rumble had grabbed a glass of vinegar, and poured some into the mouth of the volcano. Everypony paused and watched, expecting the volcano to erupt with bright pink 'lava', like most of the volcano projects did. But after several moments of patient waiting, the rather flat looking volcano jus oozed with pink foamy bubbles out the sides.

"Well... that was unexpected. But sometimes that happens in science-" miss Cherrilee started to say, trying to still sound optimistic for the little pony.

"IT SUCKS!" Rumble snapped, glaring at the ground, tears gathering at the corners of his eyes. "This project is stupid! Science is stupid! School is stupid!"

The little grey Pegasus began yelling as he grabbed his project and tossed it onto the ground before stomping on it as hard as he could, smashing it to bits! Everypony in the fair had turned their attention to the little grey Pegasus throwing his tantrum. Before anypony could stop him, Rumble dashed off, pushing his way past his fellow students and their parents in his desperate attempt to get as far away as possible.

After Rumble ran off, Sunny approached a shaken Cherrelee, the poor teacher not really knowing what to do. "That wasn't exactly a normal reaction... was it?"

"I'm afraid not" the school teacher replied as she shook her head. "Sunny, you're friends with his brother, Thunderlane, right? I hate to ask you, but could you talk to him about Rumble?"

"Ah planned to, miss Cherrelee" Sunny said as she straitened his Stetson hat. "Ya'll can count on me."

( https://youtu.be/SJMizrTFiFo)

After a quick visit to Twilight's castle, and making a request for some magical aid, Sunny then found himself floating up towards the city in the sky, Cloudsdale in a rented hot air balloon. Ponies in town had told Sunny that Thunderlane and Flitter were on a date up at Cloudsdale. Sunny hated to crash their fun, but this was important. As the hot air balloon slowly rose from the ground up, Sunny grew more and more nervous. Dragons he could deal with. An army of barbarian ponies on the charge, no problem. But two things he couldn't deal with; Spiders and heights. But this was for a friend. And if there's one thing the yellow unicorn knew, it was a pony should always go out of his/her way to help a friend. Even if it meant facing one of your greatest fears, like falling from miles and miles above the ground.

After arriving at the edge of the floating cloud city, Sunny nervously set a hoof on the ground made of cloud. He half expected his hoof to fall right through. But to his surprise, Sunny's hoof felt like it was pressing down on solid ground, not fluffy cloud. After testing it a bit more, Sunny finally hopped onto the cloud. He turned around and tipped the pony running the hot air balloon ride, asked her to stick around for a bit, then ran off to find his friend.

Dashing and zooming all around Cloudsdale, Sunny hurried to try and find his Pegasus friend as fast as possible, not just because Twilight said the walking-on-clouds-spell would only last for a few hours, but because it really bothered Sunny to see Rumble that upset and angry. The yellow unicorn remembered when he was frustrated with 'his' school work, all he needed was a little reassurance and help from his father and he could do anything he set his mind to.

'If there's anypony who can help Rumble, it's Thinderlane' Sunny thought to himself as he continued to run around town.

As the yellow Stetson wearing pony ran past Cloudsdale's movie theater, his ears picked up the sound of two very familiar voices. Sunny put on the breaks so suddenly he tore up some of the cloud ground. Looking back over his shoulder, Sunny was relieved that his ears weren't deceiving him. Walking out of the theater were Thunderlane and Flitter!

"Thunderlane!" Sunny called out as he dashed over to his friend. "There you are! I've been looking all over for you!"

Both pegusi were a little shocked to see Sunny around their home town, especially since Thunderlane told Flitter about Sunny's fear of heights.

"Sunny? What's up? I mean, other then you being 'here' I mean" Thunderlane joked as he held out a hoof for a hoof bump.

Sunny bumped his own hoof to Thunderlane's extended one as quickly as he could while catching his breath. "You need... to come... with me... it's about... about Rumble..."

"Oh my! Did something happen to him?!" Flitter nervously asked.

"Wait, let me guess, he's causing trouble, again?" Thunderlane put his hoof down, his light hearted expression faded from his muzzle.

"Yeah, there was some trouble at the science fair, and-" Sunny started to explain, only to be cut off by his winged pal.

"UGH! I don't know what I'm going to do with him!" Thunderlane spat out, his expression now flaring with annoyed anger.

"Has this been happenin' ah lot?" Sunny asked, now breathing regularly.

"For the past month or so he's been running around causing trouble" Thunderlane admitted, Flitter nudging him lightly on the side to help her Special somepony keep calm. It helped, and Thunderlane went back to explaining the situation to Sunny. "I've heard from ponies all around town that he's been getting into trouble, but every time I try and sit him down, he doesn't say a word. I don't know what to do, man. I mean, he's my little bro, but I can't figure out what's eatin' him."

Sitting there and thinking for a moment, Sunny started to unsuringly suggest "why don't 'I' try and talk to him for you?"

"You would do that, bro?!" Thunderlane's light hearted expression quickly returned with a hint of excited relief. "That would really help me out! If 'you' could talk to him, I know you'd get through! Besides, Flitter and I were just about to grab some lunch. Last thing I want to do is leave her hanging' while I go and try and get through to him."

"Ugh... maybe you should go, Thunder" Flitter said almost under her breath.

Thunderlane must have heard her though. "Nah! Sunny's got this! He helps Ponies out all the time! Right Sunny?!"

Before Sunny could agree or disagree, Thunderlane put a wing around Flitter and started to direct her down the street to a near by diner. Sighing slightly, Sunny retreated back to the hot air balloon that gently floated him back down to the nice, safe ground below. All the while, Sunny began thinking of how his father would approach him when Sunny himself had a problem like this.

After arriving at the ground, Sunny walked back into town, heading towards the house that he knew belonged to Thunderlane. After knocking on the front door, Sunny was then greeted by the foal he was hoping to talk to.

Rumble looked up at Sunny with a mad, but more upset glare. "What is it Sunny? My brother isn't home."

"I know" Sunny admitted. "I actually came here to talk to you, if that's ok?"

"Sure. Whatever..." Rumble rolled his eyes and opened the door the rest of the way.

Walking inside, Sunny couldn't help but notice something was off. There was a pile of dishes built up in the sink, the garbage can was overflowing, and it looked like very little tidying up had been done in quite a while.

"Has Thunderlane been ah little too busy ta get his chores done?" Sunny lightly asked, not wanting to be rude.

"Yeah, he's been a little too busy to do anything else other then obsess over his girlfriend" there was a sharpness in Rumble's voice when he said the last word.

Sunny watched as Rumble opened the fridge, looked at the expectation date on a jug of milk, cringe at the fact that it was over a week past the date, then grab a dirty glass from the sink. As Rumble started to wash it out as best he could before filling it with water from the tap, Sunny put a hoof on his.

"Why don't ya come back ta sweet apple Acres and we talk about what's been goin' on?" Sunny suggested, feeling like he might throw up if he saw anypony drink from the still dirty glass.

"Fine" Rumble said as he tossed the glass back in the sink.

Ponyville Spa

"Ah don't know what ta do, Rares..." Applejack admitted as she and her girlier friend sat in the relaxing, steaming sauna. "Sunny's been spendin' ah whole lot of time talkin' an hangin' 'round Twilight. She's mah friend, but... but ah don't wanna lose Sunny ta her."

"Trust me darling, I don't think you have anything to worry about with Twilight" Rarity commented as she stretched out a little bit, enjoying the pore clearing steam. "But you 'do' have something to worry about. I know you, ugh, have a hard time when dealing with stallions."

"Is this 'bout that one Hearts and Hooves dance, 'gain?" Applejack asked flatly.

"Not to kick a horse when it's down" Rarity replied. "But Caramel wasn't the same after you bucked him into that pile of hay."

"That's different!" Applejack snapped. "We were just friends! 'Sides, ifin' that ever happened ta Sunny, he'd just laugh it off. Like th' time ah rolled ah barrel over ta him and he couldn' catch it ta stop it. He ended up rolling on top ah it all the' way inta th' barn! We sure had ah hoot then!"

Rarity watched as Applejack's worry seemed to melt away as she went on about having to clean up the mess in the barn. Even if she did have more work to do from one of Sunny's goof ups, the yellow unicorn made Applejack happy. And Rarity was not about to let Applejack's happiness slip through we hooves!

"Alright, Applejack, its time to set things into motion" Rarity declared, readjusting the towel she had wrapped around her head.

"What do ya mean, Rares?" Applejack asked, slightly confused by the fasionista's bold statement.

"What I mean, is we're going to get Sunny to confess his love for you before the Gala, and you two will attend and have your first, really magical, super glamorous, unforgettable first dance as special someponies!" Rarity didn't know it, but her voice had steadily climbed to almost yelling. When she realized how loud she had actually become, the white unicorn blushed a little and sat back down in her seat.

"That sounds really wonderful Rares, but how do ah do that?" Applejack asked, questioning her friend on the means to get to that goal.

"First thing's first" Rarity started to say as she sat back down and began to relax on the bench again. "From what you told me, Sunny already told you quite a bit, say for his past. That shows he trusts you. You two seem to know each other fairly well, but other then working on the farm, what else do you two do together?"

"Ugh... well we... we... oh shoot! That's bout all we do is work on th' farm, cook, clean, and relax at th' farm" Applejack realized.

"Then we need to get you two to spend some time away from the farm, or doing something other then work" the white unicorn mare instructed Applejack. "Otherwise all he's going to think of you is somepony he works and lives with! Like a sister!"

Fear stuck Applejack to the core with that thought. "What do ah do, Rarity?! Help me!"

"Not to worry, darling" Rarity put a calming hoof on her friend. "Although Twilight is the famous avid reader, I pride myself on knowing almost every romance novel offered in town. I'll help you come up with full proof ideas on how to win your stallion over. Let's brainstorm some ideas while we get a well over do back massage..."

Heading back to the farm, Applejack's head was slightly spinning with everything she and Rarity came up with to spend more time with the yellow unicorn. But now the orange farm mare was more confident then ever that she could win Sunny's heart. Walking down the dirt road, Applejack was surprised to see Rumble playing tag with Apple Bloom and the girls. But she didn't think much about it since they all seemed to be having fun. As Applejack neared the farm house, she was shaken by one pony who appeared to not be having fun.

Sunny was gazing out into the orchard, once again, deep in thought. Looking at him when he was like this, Applejack would almost not recognize him. He looked so much older, official, colder almost. Like a castle wall. What bothered the farm mare the most about when Sunny got like this was the look in his eyes. Those bright emerald green eyes, normally so full of life, looked like they were gazing out into an oncoming storm. It was worse when the topic of his father came up. But from what Applejack could tell, things weren't quite 'that' bad.

"Everythin' ok, Sugarcube?" Applejack asked as she sat next to the yellow unicorn.

"Applejack, have ya ever had a Special somepony?" Sunny plainly asked, turning his head slightly over to Applejack.

Applejack was taken back by the question, not really knowing how to answer. "What?! Ugh, w-well, ah, ah've had one er two... kinda, why?"

"Well... it's Thunderlane" Sunny finally said, turning his whole body to face Applejack. "Ah went ta talk ta him 'bout his little brother actin' up at school, but he was on ah date, so ah offered ta talk ta Rumble mahself. Come ta find out th' little fella's been havin' ah hard time with his school work, not just with his science project. And his brother who used ta help him ain't doin' it no more."

"Really?" Applejack began to relax as she took a seat next to Sunny. "Why's he been leavin' him high and dry?"

"Ah think ah know why, but that ain't the only thing he's been neglectin'" Sunny continued, readjusting his hat.

"What else has been goin' on, partner. Don't leave me guessin'" Applejack said, sounding more and more concerned.

"Well... ah don't know how much of this is true, but from what Rumble's told me, Thunder's not only been letting his house hold chores go undone, leavin' piles of dirty dishes piled up, layers of dust in everything, and bags of trash ta gather in th' corner, but he's been callin' off a lot from work."

"That ain't good..." Applejack commented, growing more and more concerned.

"That still ain't th' worst of it" Sunny added, his worry starting to come to a full boil. "Rumble said that Thunder's even gone and 'quit' th' Wonderbolts academy!"

"Quit th' achedemy?! But why?" Applejack was shocked to hear this and hoped Rainbow wasn't napping in a near by tree to ease drop.

"From what ah gathered, and from what Rumble's said, Thunder's been spendin' all his free time either with Flitter or tryin' ta set up fun an' excitin' dates" Sunny said with a sigh as he dropped his head, his worry pot now taken off the burner. "That's why ah asked ya 'bout havin' ah special somepony. Ah can't remember mah Ma, so ah don't remember what ah relationship between mah Ma and Pa was like. Are all relationships like that? Should ah just keep mah yap shut? Or should ah go talk ta Thunder? An what would ah say?... ah just don't know Applejack..."

Sunny was surprised to feel Applejack's dominant hoof land on top of his. Looking from the ground to her hoof, he then trailed all the way up her leg until his emerald green eyes met hers. Applejack just shot him a small smile, and for some unknown reason, that simple smile seemed to take all the worry off of the yellow unicorn, making him feel like everything would be alright.

"Ah think ya should have ah word with yer friend" Applejack broke the standing silence. "Ya can't tell ah full grown pony what ta do with their' life, but ya can let em' know when ya feel like something ain't right. That's what ah 'true' friend would do."

Taking her words in, the light that normally filled Sunny up, and gave him a faint shine returned along with it a new sense of strength and direction. He pulled his hoof out from under Applejack's and embraced her with a big, warm, loving hug. "Thanks, Applejack. Ah'm sure lucky ta have somepony like you in mah life."

Releasing her from his hug, Sunny ran as fast as he could down the dirt road, kicking up a cloud of dust behind him as he ran faster then he ever had before, leaving Applejack on the farm house porch to calm her fast beating heart. A huge smile plastered all across her face as she repeated Sunny's words over and over in her head.

Racing through town, Sunny quickly looked all round, asking th everypony once again if they had seen Thunderlane. After about ten minutes or so of searching, Sunny was surprised to see Thunderlane and Flitter through a window, sharing a tall milkshake togeather at Sugar Cube corner.

As the couple drank their milk shake down about half way, Sunny burst trough the front doors and stood there in a battle ready position as if he was ready for a showdown. "Thunderlane, ah need ta have ah word with ya."

Shocked to see his friend there taking such an battle ready stance in such a normally calm environment (or what could be described as 'calm' with somepony like Pinkie working there), Thunderlane froze for a moment before Flitter broke free from her own frozen position and nudged her boyfriend with her wing.

"Ugh, y-yeah, sure" Thunder said hesitating a little as he got up from the table and followed his unicorn friend outside. Once he was certain they were out of ear shot,Thunder looked to his friend appearing slightly confused and annoyed. "What's this about, dude? If you can't tell, I'm on a date."

"Ah talk with yer brother 'bout how you've been acting and what ya'll have been up to recently and Ah'm concerned" Sunny started to say.

"Whoah, dude, whatever my little bro had to say, I'm sure he was just blowing things out of proportion. You know kids" Thunderlane immediately went on the defensive without hearing what Sunny had to say.

"Then ah want ta hear it from you" Sunny put his hoof down. "Ah saw yer house, it was ah mess. Rumble couldn't even get ah glass of water 'couse every glass was filthy. He then tells me ya been spendin' all yer time out and 'bout in these 'dates' and settin' 'em up and what not. Even calling in form work ta do so."

"He's exaggerating" Thunderlane's tone grew increasingly heavy as his brows sank, narrowing his eyes at Sunny. "Besides, its not really any of 'your' business what I do with my life anyway. It's 'my' house and 'my' job. What does it matter to you how 'I' deal with it?"

"It matters to me when my friend quits the Wonderbolts Achademy and gives up on his dreams of being a Wonderbolt!" Sunny couldn't keep his composure any longer. He lost his country accent and seemed to stand towering over Thunderlane, speaking with great authority. "I watched you practice and train to just get in there! We spent days just talking about how wonderful it will be for you to fly with the greats and how you were going to be one of them! Now you just go and throw it all away?!"

Thunderlane had never seen this side of Sunny before. Sure, he had seen and heard Sunny speak without the accent, but now he was... it's like he was somepony else entirely. But Thunder managed to gain his footing and speak. "I... I originally wanted to just join to meet girls, ya know? All that came after..."

"But am I wrong?" Sunny continued to speak demanding respect with every word. "Did you not have those dreams? Those goals? Did you not work that hard to reach them? And now you're not only throwing 'your' life away, you're pushing everypony aside just for Flitter!

"I know she's important to you, trust me, I know" Sunny's tone softened as he put a hoof on his friend. "But there are other ponies in your life who want to be a part of your life. Like me, Big Mac, and your brother. When's the last time we all hung out as a group? Just chillin' and talking?"

Thunderlane's head hung a little, he found it hard to look Sunny in the eye. "It's been... kinda a while..."

"I didn't want to press the matter because I knew you were with somepony important to you, and I knew when you came down off of cloud 9, eventually, we would hang out again. But Rumble needed you, he still does." Sunny looked down and forced Thunder to look him in the eye. "Rumble looks up to you, and needs you to be a positive roll model. There's no doubt in my mind that you can do this, but you need to find a balance between time with your girlfriend and the other aspects of your life."

"Is all that true, Thundy?" Flitter's light voice sprang up from behind the dark grey Pegasus.

Looking up, Sunny and Thunderlane saw Flitter standing maybe three yards from them, a shocked look on her face.

"...Yeah... it's all true... " Thunderlane sighed before raising his head. "I'm sorry Flitter. I just.... I've never had a special somepony like you. Somepony who's smart, funny, pretty, cute, and makes me happy to be around, and... and I guess I just didn't want to lose you..."

Flitter casually walked over and nudged Thunderlane playfully on the side. "You won't lose me because you have to do some chores or go to work. I do those things too, silly. Maybe we can even do them together. One day I'll help you with your chores, the next day you help me with mine, and if you ask nicely and apologize to Rumble, maybe, just maybe, I'll be nice and help you two with his science project."

Thunderlane's smile returned as he looked up at his marefriend and gave her a big hug, his wings wrap it around her. "Thanks Flitter... I'm happy to have you in my life."

Glitter in turn lasted her head on his chest and smiled back. "I'm happy to have you in mine. But let's get things in order ok?"

"Yeah, I better go find Rumble and be a good big brother" Thunder said as he broke the hug and unwrapped his wings from around Flitter.

"I'll go talk to Spitfire and see if I can re-enroll you in the achademy" Flitter said as she hopped up into the air. And with one last wave, flew off towards the Wonderbolt's academy.

As the light purple Pegasus mare disappeared out of sight, Thunder released a heavy sigh before turning to Sunny. "Hey man... thanks. I'm sorry I was such a jerk."

"No worries, partner" Sunny answered with a smile, his accent returning.

"You're a real friend" Thudner said as he offered a hoof to Sunny.

"Takes one ta know one" The yellow unicorn replied as he met Thunder's hoof with his own for a hoof bump.

"Maybe I'll settle the score and pull your backside out of a bad situation some time" Thunderlane added before stretching, ready to take off and find his brother.

"Friendship ain't 'bout keepin' score" Sunny noted, still smiling. "It's 'bout bein' there whenever ah friend needs ya."

"True that" Thunderlane nodded in agreement as he flew off to find Rumble.

The sun was setting on the farm when Sunny returned, walking up the same familiar dirt road he left on hours ago. Applejack and Apple Bloom had dinner just about ready when he walked into the farm house with a big smile on his muzzle.

"Get everythin' sorted out, sugarcube?" Applejack asked as she looked over and shot the yellow unicorn a half smile.

"'Yep" Sunny said as he went over to the sink to wash his hooves. "Sorry ah got back so late. Ah'll get th' dishes tanight."

"Normally Ah'm let ya do that 'cause it was yer night ta cook" Applejack started to say playfully. "But ah guess ah could give ya ah hoof with those dishes, ifin' ya don't mind."

Taking in the whole picture, Sunny couldn't help but feel greatful and happy that, despite everything he's gone through and everything threatening to destroy his peaceful life, right now, everything is alright. All that mattered was this family he became apart of, and the wonderful mare who's eyes he quickly became lost in. 'I'm glad ta have you in mah life, Applejack. More then ya might know.' "Mighty thanks, partner."

Author's Note:

Hey guys, sorry it's taken a little while to get some new stuff up, thank you for your patience. Had this one plannned for quite a while, hope you enjoyed this one and the next ones to come!