Sunny Knight: a Pony's Tale

by TheothersideofSunny968

Soleggiato on Trial

Late one night, Cadence was once again woken up by another nightmare of her dear, loving husband being attacked by the fiendish stallion known only as 'the Black Knight'. It had been a while since the incident at the Crystal Fair, but the haunting memory of the event grows worse by the day. Looking over at the sleeping white stallion beside her, a small smile grow on her muzzle and she begins to relax. Shinning Armor was sound asleep, snoring lightly as he mumbled about some dream he was having.

'At least he's not having any problems' Cadence thought to herself as she hoped out of bed, put on her robe and begins her short journey down the hallway to the kitchen. True, Cadence could have just asked a guard to fetch her a drink, but the walk over would help her calm her nerves.

About half way to the kitchen, though, the princess of love noticed somepony else was up as well. She paused, waiting to see who was with her there in the dark so late at night. From where we stood, Cadence could make out the familiar form belonging to the eldest member of the Crystal Empire staff, Pappy.

Sighing in relief, Cadence was about to walk away when she noticed Pappy carton with him a rather large container of pine wax and a rag.

'Ok, either Pappy is going to do some late night waxing or he thinks he is and might start a fire' Cadence thought to herself before following behind the elderly stallion.

But something didn't feel right.

Cadence watched the elderly stallion as he walked down a hallway that nopony ever went down. Even she and Shinning Armor stayed away from it for some odd reason. She almost forgot it was even there to tell the truth. But for some reason, Pappy seemed to know his way around it even in the dark. Why was Pappy so familiar with it?

Pushing open a large pair of dark purple crystal doors, the elderly stallion dragged the wax and the rag into the room, ready to get to work. Cadence stopped just short of the door and peered inside, she couldn't see anything at first, the room was pitch black. But after Pappy lit a few candles, Cadence was shocked to see what was actually hidden in those shadows.

The elderly stallion went right to work, pulling out a feather duster to get the layers of dust off before he used the wax to touch up the wooden frame of the giant picture before him. The prostrate was one that used to hang in the front entry way, to show how kind and welcome the masters of the castle were, but after the initial fall of the empire, Pappy thought to hide it away before somepony destroyed it.

"Now with th' return of th' young prince, ah'm sure Cadence and Shinning Armor won' mind th' portrait goin' back up" Pappy thought he was speaking to himself. "Maybe right in th' west wing, right next ta Princess Amore's portrait."

Stepping forward, Cadence decided she had remained in the dark long enough. As she stepped forward, Princess Cadence spoke to Pappy with great assertiveness in her tone, her eyes fixated on the portrait. "What is the meaning of this?"

The elderly stallion looked up at the princess, but couldn't understand the reasoning for being so upset. "Eh? Oh! Young princess! Ah'm sorry, did Ah wake ya up? Ah was just wantin' ta get this old
Painting fixed up looking like new, so when th' young prince comes back, he can see we took great care of-"

"And what, may I ask, is the prince's name?" Cadence said, her eyes still glued to the painting as if her hard gaze could burn trough it.

"Well, funny thing" Pappy started to say as he rubbed his chin. "Th' young prince went bah many ah names. Th' ponies, dragons, griffins, an' other beasts alike all had their own name fer him."

"Was one of them 'the Black Knight'?" Cadence asked, her voice sharper then any sword or dagger in the armory.

"Well yes" Pappy answered hosnsetly, remembering back to the day the young prince acquired said armor. "Ah remember it like it was yesterday, he got that black armor and -"

"So that's it" Cadence snapped, lining up the pieces to a puzzle. "Why he was so angry the first time he came here. And all the times he showed up as the Black Knight and his coat was a different color, he wanted to remain hidden. The whole reason why he attacked Shinning in the first place... Sunny is King Sombra's son!

"We'll rally the guards and head to Ponyville at once" Cadence said to herself. "We'll find him and bring him back here to the Empire to pay for his crimes to both the thrown, and for what he did to Shinning."

Realizing just how angry Cadence was and just 'who' she actually was anger at, Pappy gulped as his eyes moved from the pink alicorn to the painting and back.

"Princess, wait! Ah don't think ya fully understand!" Pappy raced to try and stop Cadence as she rushed out of the room.

In his hurry to catch Cadence, Pappy accidentally knocked over a candle. The candle rolled around in the ground and illuminated the painting Pappy was about to work on. The painting of King Sombra and Prince Soleggiato that they had made on Father's Day, over 1000 years ago...

(https://youtu.be/SJMizrTFiFo)

After completing another friendship mission in Canterlot, Pinkie Pie and Rarity began walking back to Twilight's castle to report their mission and it's details to their purple alicorn friend. It was a mission that not only tested their ability to help others, but how to play off of eachother's strengths. Each mission, when it called upon somepony in specific, had a reason for it, even if it didn't make sense at the time.

"I suppose the map just knows what it's doing" Rarity commented to her pink friend as she bounce beside the fasionista. "And it is rather interesting to see how it all plays out, which is probably why Twilight enjoys documenting everything."

"You can say that again" Pinkie commented as she continue to bounce down the road leading to the castle. "I mean, it's all works out so well, it's like we live in a cartoon or something meant to teach others to work together and learn about friendship, or something."

Raising a brow, Rarity looked questioningly her friend before letting out a light chuckle. "Oh Pinkie! You come up with the oddest ideas, it's just so refreshing."

"Thanks! I do my best!" Pinkie squeaked before pushing the front door to Twilight's castle open allowing her prim and proper friend to enter first.

"Thank you darling" Rarity said before stepping in.

As Pinkie followed quickly behind, the two went strait for the map room, guessing that would be where Twilight would be. Along the way, though, the two overheard Twilight's voice and followed it to the library, another place they were equally likely to find their book loving friend. But she wasn't alone.

Another voice could be heard from within the library, a familiar voice to both Pinkie and Rarity. A stallion's voice. At that exact moment, through the magical means that allows Pinkie to predict various events, Pinkie's entire body began to tremble, indicating a doozy of something was going to soon happen. Unaware of it though, Rarity focused on peering through the crack in the library doors to try and eavesdrop on their conversation.

"... And is it true you once saved a town's young lord from from his evil uncle and befriended a yeti?! Like a 'real' yeti?" Twilight asked, a huge smile on her muzzle as her eyes darted from Sunny to her book and back.

"Who? Brass Hoof and Charles?" Sunny asked as he began skimmming another book Twilight brought back with we from Canterlot. "Yeah. They were really good folks, and Charles knew how ta brew one heck of ah cup of tea."

"And I couldn't find much documentation on it, say for a few mentions of it here and there" Twilight now levitated several books that were all opened to various pages. "But here, here, and here state that you used to meet semi-annually with the griffins! Is that true?!"

"Weeeeell" Sunny thought back to the past, then shot Twilight a small smile. "One Griffin in specific, th' king's younger cousin and ah had ah bit of ah history. See, he challenged the Black Knight ta combat one day, but th' fight dragged on for three days and nights. After we both passed out from lack of sleep or nourishment, we both were taken to th' same hospital, and even funnier, shared them same room! We got inta talkin' and found we weren't so different...."

Remembering that Griffin brought something else to Sunny's mind, causing his smile to vanish.

Twilight noticed this immediately. She closed the books and set them down gently before approaching Sunny and putting a hoof on his shoulder. "Are you ok?"

Forcing a smile and shrugging, Sunny forced the words out of his mouth. "Ah just remembered, that Griffin, Razor Claw, he asked me at our last meetin' if ah would be his best stallion at his weddin'... 1000 years ago..."

Shock and surprise hit both Rarity and Twilight. But Twilight was able to gather herself and tried to comfort Sunny while Rarity began to wonder what secrets exactly Sunny was hiding. But before Rarity could walk in and demand to know what was going on, Pinkie quickly grabbed her, with one hoof around the white unicorn's mouth and one around her torso, and pulled her into a nearby closet, just as several ponies began to march up to the library doors.

"I'm sure he'd understand, given what happened to you..." Twilight started to say, trying her best to comfort the down trotted yellow unicorn. "Friends forgive friends."

"I didn't have friends back then, Twilight" Sunny said looking to the purple alicorn. But before he could say anything further, the two were interrupted by the library doors bursting open. Standing there were Shinning Armor and Princess Cadence, both with the angriest expressions on their muzzles.

"Shinning? Cadence?" Twilight said surprised, taking a few steps closer to her brother and sister-in-law. "I wasn't expecting you for another few weeks."

"What ah wonderful surprise" Sunny said with a forced smile. Noticing the tension in the atmosphere, Sunny thought it best to leave Twilight with her family to work out whatever was wrong and head back to the farm. "Well don't mind me, ah should probably be getting back ta th' farm. Granny could probably use some help with her-"

"You aren't going anywhere!" Shinning Armor stomped his hoof as he glared at the yellow unicorn, stopping Sunny in his tracks.

Both Twilight and Sunny tensed up as Shinning's Hoof stomp echoed though the entire castle, silencing any and all other sounds. The silence was quickly filled by the sound of pounding hooves and shuffling armor as a dozen or so Crystal guards filed into the library, surrounding Sunny and Twilight, making sure to block any and all exits.

Taking a step forward, Cadence's hard gaze shot directly at Sunny. "Prince Soleggiato Cavalere, also known as 'the Black Knight', and son of the evil king Sombra, ...."

As Cadence began her speech, Sunny and Twilight both felt their hearts sink, knowing the jig was up. At the same time, the hidden Rarity and Pinkie Pie were shocked by the entire sight. Rarity almost fainted when she heard the truth about Sunny, but forced herself to stay conscious.

"... you are here by under arrest for crimes against the Empire, conspiring with a criminal, as well as being responsible for an attack on a member of the royal family" Cadence narrowed her almost flaming eyes on Sunny, the rage that had been building up easily mirrored that of her husband's own anger, who stepped forward to stand next to his wife. Both of their eyes burning into Sunny as Cadence asked "How do you plead?"

Twilight began to panic as her eyes darted from Cadence and Shinning Armor and Sunny, and back. Her mind was hastily trying to think of a possible solution out of the situation. 'Maybe I can tell them that he's under my jurisdiction? That I already gave him a fair trial and sentence? Maybe I could try and reason with them?... although looking at them, I doubt they would listen... oh! What do I do?! What would Princess Celestia do?'

"I'll plead guilty to at least one of those crimes and come quietly" Sunny said, Shocking not only Twilight, the hidden Pinkie and Rarity, but also all the Crystal guards who had accompanied the princess and prince. "I'll come quietly under one condition."

"You don't get 'condition'" Shinning Armor spat.

"'One' condition" Sunny repeated himself, his voice and facial expression hard and unmoving like mountain stone. "I won't put up a fight so long as my arrest, transport back to the Empire, trial, and imprisonment are all kept secret, say for all the ponies here."

"And what makes you think you get to ask for such treatment?" Cadence asked, her anger giving slight way to her curiosity.

"This can go one of two ways" Sunny simply said. "Either no pony knows about any of this, or everypony will find out about a huge battle that will take place in the castle of Friendship."

"Ha! We outnumber you 14 to 1!" Shinning Armor began to mock the yellow unicorn. "What makes you think you can take all of us?"

Looking around at the various guards, Sunny's stone expression remained the same. "You now have a choice, Prince Shinning Armor, Princess Cadence. A choice that can outline what kind of rulers you two are. Will you start a fight to wave victory over a foe at the cost of you're guard's well being? Or will you seek out a peaceful solution through a peaceful compromise."

Sunny's speech shocked half the ponies listening. For a moment, the anger that had grown inside Shinning Armor and Cadence had flickered. The guards that surrounded Sunny seemed to refrain from smiling, but were happy that the whole ordeal might not lead to violence. Even Twilight was amazed by Sunny's bold statement. But despite her awe for the yellow unicorn's diplomatic solution, she still needed to find away to get him out of this. But how?!

"Twilight" Sunny caught the purple alicorn's attention. "I need you to do me a favor too... but as a friend."

"Ugh, sure" Twilight answered, part of her mind still looking for a way out of this. "What do you need?"

"If I go with them peacefully, will you give a letter to Applejack?" Sunny started to say. As he spoke, Twilight could see tears in far edges of his eyes, that the former prince fought desperately against as he spoke. "I'll write a letter explaining that I had to go away, and deal with some 'family' related matters. Not entirely lying. And I'll write and sign it, Applejack knows my hoofwriting-"

"SIGN IT!" Twilight jumped up for joy having just realized a way out of the situation! A solution that would keep Sunny right there in Ponyville.

"Ugh... yes? Applejack will know it's -" Sunny started to say only to be grabbed around the shoulders by Twilight as she pulled his muzzle slider to her own. She looked at him with wide eyes and a almost frightening smile as she shook him.

"No! No! Don't you get it?!" Twilight started to say as she now hovered slightly in the air, wearing a wide smile as she looked to her older brother. "Shinning Armor! Did you or didn't you sign a waver before the jousting tournament? One that included a section about injuries sustained during the tournament?"

"Er, well..." Shinning was caught off guard and unable to see what Twilight was getting at.

"Actually, yes he did" An elderly stallion warbled out from behind the crowd of armored stallion's, carrying several pages of legal documents in his good hoof, holding them out to Twilight "Your majesty, ah believe ya might need these."

"Thank you, Pappy" Twilight said as she took the papers and began her speech. "What I hold in my hooves, ladies and gentlecolts, as you all can plainly see, are the official wavers for the jousting competition in the Crystal Empire. And at the designated areas, stating that the participants knew the dangers and were ok with the risk, are the signatures of my brother, Prince Shinning Armor, and Sunny, who chose to participate under another official name, 'the Black Knight'.

"Aaaaaand if I turn to page three of this official document" Twilight continued her statement. "You'll see there is a section on damage received during the event. Ehem... it reads 'anypony who sustains an injury during the match, is responsible for their own safety. By entering a competition involving actual weapons, a pony takes his/her safety into their own hooves. Also, anypony found cheating or conducting any manner of foul play will here by be banned from any and all competitions at the Crystal Fair..."

Twilight read the last part with a slight cringe, but turned to her yellow friend only to see he was smiling back at her with grateful eyes.

"So as you can see" Twilight landed and passed the legal documents back to Pappy, who held tightly into them. "In conclusion, my friend, Sunny Knight, Prince Soleggiato, 'the Black Knight' or whatever you want to call him, is not guilty of any threats against the crown, only of being a poor sport."

The yellow unicorn's shoulders slumped a little at Twilight's last statement. "Gee... thanks Twilight."

Shinning didn't know what to think as he just stared at Twilight in disbelief. Why had she helped the son of king Sombra?! The stallion who purposefully crippled her brother for weeks!

"Well I think that about ties up all the lose ends" Sunny started to say, somewhat refraining from a smile as he took a few steps closer. "I didn't aid my
Father in the enslavement of the Crystal Empire back then, and I've seen him once since that time... you have nothing to fear from him. He couldn't take over the Empire if he wanted to..."

"And we're just supposed to believe you?" Cadence snapped at Sunny.

The former prince stomped his hoof on the ground lightly. "Twilight has a spell cast on this room that prevents anypony from lying while they're here. Ask her yourself."

Cadence turned to Twilight, raising a brow. Twilight in turn nodded with a slight, but sure, smile. Things were turning from awkward and fearful to horribly distasteful. Looking from Twilight to Shinning Armor and reading their expressions, Cadence could see the whole thing was starting to create a rift between the two.

But before anypony could say anything else, Spike ran into the room, a panicked look on his face as he called out for Twilight. Catching everypony off guard, they all now focused on the baby dragon who was also a legendary hero of the Crystal Empire.

"What is it, Spike?" Twilight asked, walking over to her number one assistant.

Once he caught his breath, Spike looked from Twilight to Sunny, completely ignoring the guards, Cadence and Shinning. "You two... need... to come... quick!"

Twilight turned to Sunny and nodded. Both began to follow Spike as fast as they could out of the library, only to be quickly followed by the Crystal guards, then by Shinning Armor and Cadence. The scenery seemed to blur as the group moved faster and faster down the hall until they reached the front doors, only to be stopped dead in their tracks by somepony nopony was expecting. Everypony gazed at the guest, wide eyed as he stood there, tall and regale, starring back at the others with his green colored eyes. Standing at the front doors to the castle of friendship was none other then Sunny's father. King Sombra!

He wore no armor, no clothing of any sort. His mane was slickly pulled back, not flowing like wild smoke, and his smile was small and refined, rather then a sharp toothed grin. It was a Sombra most ponies forgot about. All except the one who could never forget about him.

His son.

The first pony to break the stillness was Sunny, who took several steps forward and looked onto the grey unicorn before him. It had been over 1000 years since Sunny last saw his father like this. His heart was a maelstrom of emotion, and Sunny was unable to pick one out of the mess to act on.

Seeing this, the king smiled. "It's good to see you too, my son... let's go. We've
caused enough trouble to these ponies."

It was then that the guards actually moved and raised their swords and spears, pointing them at the king.

"King Sombra!" Cadence stepped forward, followed by her husband. "You are under arrest! For crimes against the Empire and conspiring against the rulers of Equestria! How do you-"

But before anypony could say anything further, Sunny flipped around, raised his back two hooves, and with all his might, bucked but father in the chest! Sending the grey unicorn flying! When Sombra hit the front doors, he cried out in pain as he passed out.

"Sunny! Why would you-" Twilight started to ask, but watched as the yellow unicorn walked over and picked the stallion up by his mane.

Slowly, the image of the former king of the Crystal Empire began to fade and gave way to the creature's true form. A changeling. The king who showed up was merely a changeling in disguise.

"... First she pretended to be my mother, now my father?! How long is that insect going to pull at my heart strings?!" Sunny hissed under his breath before letting the out cold changeling fall to the floor.

Just then, a loud buzzing sound began to echo through the castle walls as shifting shadows moved over the outside of the castle windows. Then, window by window shattered, glass flying through the air, as Twilight's castle was invaded by changeling after changeling. A whole swarm! All of their burning red eyes fixated on one pony. Sunny.

"Cobalt!" Sunny called out to one of the guards. The guard in question stepped forward and saluted him. As Sunny turned around and shot him a rage filled look, he began to bark orders. "Protect the princesses and prince! Formation Delta. Don't let anypony out of your sight! Not for a moment!"

"Sir?" Cobolt hesitated, not knowing what to do.

"Who are you to order around 'our' guards?" Shinning stepped forward.

"Shinning Armor, stand down!" Sunny ordered him, his attention now on Twilight's brother. "As your senior officer, and previous captain of the Crystal Empire, I order you to protect your sister and wife. Or would you rather go play with giant bugs?"

As Sunny started for the front doors, all the changelings attention returned to him, clicking and hissing filled the air as the yellow unicorn opened the front door.

"Sunny! What are you doing?!" Twilight called out to her friend.

Sunny paused and looked back, shooting Twilight a cocky grin. "They want me, they can have me. Their Queen's gone too far this time. I won't remain silent."

Before anypony could stop him, Sunny ran trough the front doors and as far away from the castle as he could, all the changeling following him. All the ones who had broken Into the castle all flew out like a swarm of bees, after the yellow unicorn. The guards had already taken the defensive stance Sunny ordered them to, and were giving 100% of their attention to remaining on high alert.

"We can't just sit around here!" Twilight tried to reason with the guards as she teleported out from their protective stance. "Sunny needs us!"

"Why do you want to help him so much, Twilight?" Cadence asked, looking over at the youngest alicorn.

"Because... because he's my friend" Twilight told her sister-in-law. "And not just that, I've seen him do so much good. He's helped ponies all over Equestria! Not just here in Ponyville! And never once did he ask for anything in return, except for his identity to remain a secret!"

"Yeah, I wonder why..." Shinning rolled his eyes.

"I know it's asking a lot" Twilight turned to her brother, Sister-in-law, and the rest of the guards. "But I can't do this alone, and neither can Sunny. Shinning... please... I need your help, BBBFF."

After hearing the nickname his little sister gave him so many years ago, Shinning's anger seemed to vanish. With a sigh, the prince of the Crystal Empire turned to his wife, wondering what she thought. Cadence took a moment to think about the situation, but her thoughts were interrupted by a shriveled little hoof.

Looking down Cadence saw Pappy looking up at her, a worried look on his muzzle. "Princess... please... you promised to keep the young prince safe. He acts tuff, but he still is only one pony. Help him... please..."

Remembering back to that night that Cadence said she would help 'the young prince' she knew now that the 'young prince' Pappy asked for was none other then Sunny. With a small sigh, Cadence looked back to her husband, smiled and nodded. Shinning Armor then cast a spell to summon his purple captains armor, put it on, and struck a fighting pose.

"Alright men! Let's go save Sunny!" Shinning called out, the guards cheered and stomped their hooves.

Author's Note:

Wow! I've been waiting soooo long to get this chapter up! And believe it or not, I actually had to go over and delete and re-write it 7 times to get it the way I wanted it. At one point I was going to have Discord show up and, well, be Discord and slip the truth out of Sunny and Twilight about why Sunny broke Shinning Armor's leg. Another time I wanted Sunny to be fleeced to admit it. Then another time Pappy would come out and say it. But ultimately decided to just put that on the back seat for a chapter or two.

Another thing was Shinning and Cadence's quick change of heart. Looking back on the show and comics, I realized, unlike humans, ponies tend to forgive or put aside their differences rather easily.