Sunny Knight: a Pony's Tale

by TheothersideofSunny968

Meet the Doctors

Doctor and Derpy just stared at the door for a moment, unsure if they should answer it, just speak through the door, or pretend that they weren't home. Looking over at the monitor, Doctor cringed at the fact that it was black. Either the power to the TARDIS was low and surviving off it's backup power, or something was interfering with it.

"Are you going to come out?" The elderly voice called out again. "We may have time machines, but we don't have all the time in the universe."

"What's taking them so long?" A secondary voice asked, this one also sounding elderly and male in tone.

"Perhaps we should offer them some jelly beans" a third voice ran in, this one male as well, but sounding slightly younger.

"For Pete sakes! We don't have time to play around!" An even older voice then the first two spoke up, sounding more gruff then the others. His voice was followed by several loud knocks. "Come on out Doctor, and any companions he may have! We need to get things underway!"

"We have jelly beans and love to share!" The third voice spoke up again.

"I don't know if we should-" Doctor spoke in a quiet tone to Derpy while staring at the door. But as he turned to face her, Doctor quickly realized she was gone! Knowing there was only one way in or out of the TARDIS, Doctor looked to the door to see Derpy opening it with a huge smile on her muzzle.

"I'd love some jelly beans, mister!" The grey mare sad with a wide smile.

Standing at the TARDIS's front door where four stallions, all varying in ages by a decade or two it seemed.

"See? Sincerity is rewarded" a stallion commented as a stepped into the TARDIS. He was an odd looking stallion to say the least. Atop his head he wore some sort of hat over a large amount of messy, curly dark brown hair. Around his cream colored body was a large brown trench coat, but what surprised Doctor Whooves the most was an extremely long scarf that strongly resembled one he wore to Cranky and Matilda's wedding. The stallion in question just smiled and offered a paper bag out to Derpy. "Have a few, I find they calm them nerves."

"Thanks mister!" Derpy said as he dug her hoof into the bag, grabbing as many as she could with one hoof.

Three more stallions walked inside, but rather then be amazed at the TARDIS and how it defied all laws of time and space, not just by being a time machine, but also being bigger on the inside then the outside, they simply looked around until their eyes fell open the box's owner. When they found him, three of the four smiled, the eldest looking one just sighed and walked over to him.

"We don't have time to lay around like a foal on the weekend" the scruff stallion huffed, grabbing Doctor by his front right leg and lifting him up to his hooves. This elderly stallion had many wrinkles, specifically under his eyes. Most of his face was covered up by short muzzle hair that formed a small mustache goatee. His clothes seemed ragged and burned, almost as if they had seen battle, and not the good end of one. But his eyes were what really shook Doctor Whooves. Looking into them, Doctor saw so much pain, so much sorrow. "Come on then! Quit lying about."

"There's no need to be so rough with the lad, WAR" one of the other elderly stallions said with a slight chuckle as he stepped further into the TARDIS. "We may be on a time limit, but let's not lose our manners over it. I'm sure he'll come along willingly once we tell him who we are. He is a curious one, after all."

After releasing Doctor Whooves from his grip, the stallion known as 'WAR' shook his head and walked over to rejoin the group. "We don't have the time for luxuries such as 'manners', ONE. We need to get going. My dimension is in the middle of a war! I know yours is at peace now, but-"

"But time doesn't pass here the same it does where we come from" the final stallion standing at the front door to the TARDIS spoke up. He appeared to be dressed in very formal wear, with a light green coat of fur showing through at the hooves and on his face, with a thick whitish-grey, curly mane on top of his head. Unlike ONE, he appeared to be less relaxed, but not quite as uptight as WAR. "But let's get a move on. I do have things I need to tend to."

"Wait just one moment!" Doctor Whooves finally asked as his head darted from one stallion to the next, a small part of his mind thinking that he had seen them somewhere before. "Who in Celestia's name are you gentlecolts?!"

"Come with us and we'll explain everything" the unnamed one wearing a scarf said as WAR, ONE, and the formally dressed one stepped out of the TARDIS.

Derpy turned to Doctor and smiled, remains of jelly bean in her teeth when she shot him a carefree smile. "I like that one with the candy. Should we go after them?"

Thinking about it for a quick second, Doctor nodded and began to walk through the TARDIS's doors. Something was defiantly going on. Something big. And he wanted to know what. As Doctor stepped out of his TARDIS and looked around, he wasn't fully surprised that they had landed somewhere not of Equestria. He and Derpy had visited other planets before. Seen while planets made of ice, magma, even diamond! But something was off about this place.

The TARDIS appeared to have landed on some asteroid deep in outer space. The asteroid had a rocky trail leading to another asteroid where it appeared other ponies have gathered. The group of four stallions began to rejoin them walking safely on the trail. As Doctor and Derpy began to follow suite, Derpy's wondering eyes couldn't help but notice something peculiar. She was about to say something when the poor mare tripped over her own hooves and fell. But rather then falling off the asteroid trail, the grey mare began to float in the air!

"Wheeeee!" Derpy began to scream out as she began spinning around in circles, doing cart wheels and spins without using her wings! "Doctor you should try this!"

"Derpy?! Get down from there! It's dangerous!" Doctor called out as he began running after his friend and traveling companion.

"Oh, no worries!" Another stallion sitting in a white chair called out from the circle of ponies. This one wasn't one of the four who Doctor had met previously. This one had on a white suit and Sunday hat. His coat was a light green, and his mane was thin, short and black. Unlike the others, this one appeared rather portly, but around the same age as the one wearing the scarf. Doctor noticed on his cane, both sides of his shirt's collar and ontop of his hat were red question marks. "The gravity here is just very weak, but not so weak that she'll fly away. She'll be joining us fairly soon. In the mean time, care for some tea?"

Pausing for a moment, Doctor began looking around at all the ponies, each of them appeared radically different, but there was something similar about them all, something Doctor couldn't quite point out. It was something that appeared to be staring him right in the face. As the time lord began to grow more frustrated with his confusion, his best friend fell on top of him, landing with her backside on his back. While Doctor fell to the ground, his lungs pushing out the rest of the air they held, Derpy happily sat there unaware that she had once again, used Doctor to cushion her fall.

"Doctor? Where are you?" Derpy asked as she nervously looked around.

"Down... here..." a faint voice called from below.

As she looked down, Derpy smiled as she found her best friend was just safely resting on the ground, as she often found Doctor doing. But he must have been bad at resting, every time she found him like that, he always appeared tired, slightly red, and out of breath. "Doctor, you won't believe it! There are more blue boxes!"

As he was helped to his hooves, Doctor began dusting himself off then looked to his friend. "What do you...."

But Doctor didn't need to finish asking his question. Ignoring all the ponies who had gathered on the asteroid, Doctor's jaw dropped when he saw what stood just slightly behind each of them. A TARDIS. Or rather 10 of them! Ten TARDISes! But how was that possible?!

"Looks like almost everypony is here" a slightly younger stallion spoke up. Younger and slightly more edgy in appearance with the others, this stallion had his mane cut short, his coat appeared to be a rougher navy blue, and rather then a suit, this stallion wore a leather jacket.

"Yes, it appears so" ONE spoke again, clearing his throat. "We were expecting maybe one or two more, but they may come in a little later."

"We should get started" WAR chinned in. "We can bring the others up to speed later."

"Alright, this second meeting of the Doctors has thus come to order" ONE declared, smiling at everypony around.

"Meeting... of doctors?" Doctor Whooves repeated ONE's words, still confused.

"Let me explain" the leather jacket wearing stallion spoke up. "I'm sure a smart fellow like yourself understands the 'muti-verse theory'."

"The theory that multiple universes exist where some differences separate one from the other? Like the result of choosing one thing over the other?" Doctor Whooves replied, almost repeating word for word what he read in a text book he borrowed from Twilight.

"Exactly, well. Well, sort of" the blue stallion continued. "There are an infinite amount of possibilities for universes. One where I put sugar in my tea, one where I didn't, one where I put sugar and cream, and so on and so on.

"Well, we are all especially 'you'" the rough blue stallion continued. "Or 'you' are 'us' whichever way you like it. It really doesn't matter. The point is, the time lines are in trouble. And it's our job, as Time Lords, to fix it."

"The time lines?! Up to us? Why us?... and... and..." Doctor Whooves felt light headed and was about to fall flat on his back side when a pair of hooves held him up.

Looking over his shoulder, Doctor followed the hooves holding him up a pair of front legs leading to a face that seemed slightly familiar but different. His muzzle was gifted with a rather large chin, smaller eyes, and a mane that seemed to budge forward and to the left. But the most interesting thing about his muzzle was his small but child like smile. It slightly reminded Doctor of Derpy with her rather innocent approach to things.

"Got cha" the stallion said as he helped Doctor Whooves steady himself.

"Ah, ELEVEN! I'm glad you could make it!" The scarf wearing one cheered.

"Glad to be here, FOUR" ELEVEN replied, still smiling as he seemed to wiggle over to the scarf wearing FOUR. "Still got some custard flavored jelly beans?"

"Picked some more up, just for you" FOUR smiled as he pulled a smaller paper bag out of another pocket and tossed them to ELEVEN.

"Did I ever tell you that really long scarfs are cool?" ELEVEN caught the bag and took a seat next to Doctor Whooves and Derpy. After having a few of the jelly beans himself, ELEVEN noticed Derpy eyeing his bag of candy and offered her some.

"So let me get this strait...." Doctor Whooves began taking deep breaths. "You all... are different versions of me?"

"Fascinating, isn't it?" ONE chuckled again.

"And the names? ONE? FOUR? ELEVEN?" Doctor asked, noticing it couldn't have anything to do with their age, FOUR looked younger then ONE but older then ELEVEN.

"It's just the order in which we arrived here in this pocket universe" FOUR answered this time. "Otherwise we'd all just be called 'Doctor', 'Doctor Whooves', 'Profeccor Whooves' and all the like. That could get quite confusing. I was the fourth to arrive in 'my' TARDIS, so that makes me FOUR."

"I'm NINE" the blue stallion in the leather jacket spoke up, shooting Doctor a half smile and a nod.

"I'm THREE" the well dressed stallion with the curly white mane and green coat from before spoke up.

"I'm SEVEN, pleasure to meet you" the other well dressed portly pony spoke up, appearing more cheerful then both NINE and THREE.

"I'm TWO" a light turquoise colored pony with a thin black mane called out next. He wore what appeared to be a dress shirt hidden beneath a tailed jacket and a pair of plaid dress pants. And Doctor wasn't 100% sure, but he swore he saw some sort of flute like instrument in the pocket of his jacket.

"I'm FIVE, it's a pleasure" another well dressed stallion in a cream colored suit spoke up. Unlike the rest of the Doctors, FIVE appeared to be the youngest. His mane was golden in color, which complemented his light orange coat and brought out the gold accents on his suit.

"I'm who they call SIX" a slightly older stallion then FIVE, but younger then FOUR, introduced himself. His outfit, unlike the rest of the Doctors, wasn't much of a dress suit. Well, at least not one Doctor Whooves had ever seen. It appeared to be made up of all different kind of materials patched together. Like SEVEN he had question marks on the flaps of his shirt collar. But what Doctor found most odd about SIX was the piece of celery that was pinned to his jacket. Noticing this, SIX smiled and patted the vegetable. "Half of us have a rare condition that we can't have some pain killers, it's poison to us. So I like to keep a stock of celery on me. It's the only cure for the poisoning, you know."

"Interesting..." Doctor noted then continued to look around the room.

"I'm EIGHT" a thinner looking stallion smiled and nodded to Doctor. His long curly mane bounced slightly as he nodded. His coat was a slightly bleached shade of maroon, but not quite red.

"And im sure you pieces together that I'm called 'WAR', what with these colts calling it out every two seconds" the scruffiest, least civil stallion spoke up, his eyes weighing on Doctor. "As for why I'm called that instead of a number, that's not important right now."

"And you, my dear boy, are now TEN" ONE stated as he smiled over at Doctor Whooves.

"And of course, that makes me ELEVEN" the stallion who caught TEN earlier and was now sharing custard jelly beans with Derpy smiled and waved his hoof. Doctor took a second look at ELEVEN, noticing the only differences between him and the rather cheerful ELEVEN appeared to be some slightly different facial structures, a different mane style, and a tone or two difference in their coats. "So, I take it we all weren't brought here in our Big Blue boxes just to play a game of hoof ball? But if we are, I just got this lovely new ball from the Sontarans. They thought it was some immortal doomsday weapon, but it turned out to be the galaxies' most indestructible rubber ball!"

Raising a brow at ELEVEN, the Doctor Whooves that at this meeting and amongst the other Doctors will be known as TEN, couldn't help but think this Doctor was a bit... off his rocker. But looking from him to Derpy, 'she' seemed to trust him. So TEN figured he should give him a chance.

"How I wish that were the case. But I'm afraid we have a more urgent matter to attend to " ONE declared, stomping his hoof to gather everypony's attention. "Now the last time we met, or rather five of us, we were gathered by the same individual, know as Star-Swirl the bearded, to prevent a collapse of multiple universes. Now even more of us are summoned to do the same. But this time it's far worse then collapsing universes, I'm afraid."

"This time, we have a matter more close to the rest of us then the previous one..." ONE nodded, signaling FIVE and NINE to go ahead and bring something in. The something appeared to be a large ball, like a crystal ball that could be found in the possession of a carnival fortune teller. Once the orb was gently placed in the center of the group, random images began to swirl around inside, unable to focus on one individual picture. "A certain ancient threat, one that all the universes share, is storing, trying to break free. And it threatens to engulf all of existence."

Placing his hoof on the orb, NINE looked to the group, his sly expression turned forlorn. "In my universe, unless something is changed, the world of Equestria falls to darkness..."

The orb, reading NINE's touch, begins to focus itself on images relating to him and his world. Shifting shadows appear all around the orb. Faint lights like burneing red coals appear every now and again, but disappear once their owners lose interest. But nothing else could be seen. No sun nor moon, no sky or earth. No life of any kind other then the creatures. Just darkness.

"... I was the only one to escape..." NINE said, his voice a little shaken as he is haunted by the memories of the screaming ponies as the creatures of darkness captured them.

"I'm... in so sorry..." TEN spoke up, his eyes glued to NINE, seeing the pain and loss in his face, TEN didn't think 'that's how I would look if 'I' lost it all', but more 'he's lost everypony. All his friends, family, his home.... what pain is sown into his eyes.'

"You're lucky" WAR spoke up, earning the glare from every other Doctor as well as Derpy in the room.

"Lucky?" NINE repeated the word as if it was a curse. "You think I'm 'lucky'?! Lucky to have everything I've ever known swallowed up by darkness?! By those monsters?!"

"You're lucky in the since that they didn't have much of a fight" WAR snapped back, narrowing his eyes on NINE. "I've suffered a worse loss then that. Yes, you lost it all, but so have I..."

Pausing to gather his thoughts and stroke his small goatee, summoning haunting memories of his past to him, from the farthest reaches of his mind. "The ponies of 'my' Equestria were well advanced in technology, combining it with magic much like how we acquired our individual TARDISes...But nothing could stop those monsters, those shadow beasts.

"Once they were freed, my ponies fought hard with no fear. It almost looked like they could win, but then 'HE' showed up! That vile prince theirs! Casting an eclipse to give them power! Strengthening the shadows!... we never stood a chance even with fearless hearts..."

"Hold up one moment" TEN spoke up. "Who are these 'monsters' you all are speaking of?"

Taking a deep breath and focusing his thoughts on the moment he had come face to face with one, NINE used the Crystal orb to reveal to TEN and ELEVEN the enemy they too would soon face. The darkness on the orb swirls around and collected, taking form of what looked to be a very tall pony, but as the image cleared, a monsterous creature was revealed. It's body appeared to be made of smoke, its teeth stood at the far edge of it's mouth, twisted wings resided on it's back, and glowing red eyes hid in the back of it's sunken eye sockets. The Beast on the orb screamed a horrible cry as it arched to it's back legs.

"These" NINE stared at the beast that stole everything from him. "These are the Umbrum."

"Umbrum..." Doctor repeated the word. "A friend of mine told me a tale his father told him in his youth about the Umbrum. I thought it was just some old pony's tale. Something to inspire courage in foals to not be afraid of the dark."

"I'm afraid they are very real" FOUR stated as he popped a few jelly beans into his own mouth, then offered some to NINE, who happily took a few. "ONE, TWO, THREE, FIVE and myself were lucky to save our universes all at once."

"Some of us even avoided confrontation all together from working with various companions and friends" SEVEN stated, nodding to SIX and EIGHT.

"But unfortunately for WAR and I" NINE tore his eyes off of TEN and looked back to the orb that started to change once more. The Umbrum image smiled maliciously as it held in it's hooves what appeared to be the world that Equestria resides on.the umbrum opened it's vile mouth, and with one large bite, swallowed it whole. "We weren't so lucky..."

"Which is why we gathered here" ONE spoke again, collecting everypony's attention. "We need to prevent what happened in NINE and WAR's universes from reoccurring in yours."

"Wait, but can't you guys just travel back in time and stop those creepy ponies from eating the world?" Derpy spoke up, not fully understanding the imagery presented, but still making a very valid point.

"Such innocent thoughts" WAR stated, shaking his head. "Fixed points in time cannot be changed. Some things about the past are meant to happen, even if we do go back and change a thing or two, what was meant to be, was meant to be."

"WAR here tried to take on the prince alone" FOUR spoke up. "Using the most powerful technology he had at his disposal."

"But that did no good, did it?" NINE huffed. "You just angered the prince's mother. Then fire rained from the skies as the umbrum continued their attack."

"If I had done nothing, the prince would still have cast the world into darkness!" WAR shot up, stomping his hooves. "He's the worst of them all! That horrid prince of theirs! Tricking the ponies of Equestria then using them as slaves! Why, if I had another chance-!"

"Who is the prince?" TEN interrupted, hoping to prevent a fight. "Sunny never mentioned a prince Umbrum."

"Sunny?" ONE said under his breath, raising a brow at TEN.

"A good friend of mine" Doctor said with a smile. "We've been on quite a few adventures together now. From camping, birthday parties, to discovering monsters and freeing an entire world from the clutches of a mad pony bent on concurring the galaxy."

"Let me guess, Davros?" SEVEN spoke up with a light chuckle, several other doctors also laughed lightly.

Raising a brow, TEN turned his focus on SEVEN. "Yes... how did you know?"

"Oh, we've all had the unpleasant experience of dealing with him and his 'Daleks'" TWO spoke up this time. "He keeps trying to make them better each time we see him, but there's only so much one can do to a tin can, a whisk, and a plunger."

"Yes, quite" ONE nodded as TWO chuckled to himself.

"I still think it's funny that he thinks we can 'regenerate'" FOUR admitted with a laugh. "Something about changing our muzzles, ages and what not. Poor fellow's been cooped up in the lab for too long."

"If that were the only thing wrong with him" TEN stated, thinking how Davros appeared to be half machine himself, even with a creepy big blue eye in the middle of his head.

"I just feel bad for the pones trapped inside those things" EIGHT spoke up for the first time this entire meeting.

"Don't worry, dear boy" ONE sighed as he looked to the orb at the center of the room. "One day we'll find a way to free them."

A force of unknown origins compelled TEN to step forward and touch the orb, concentrating hard on the adventure he, Soleggiato and Derpy just had. "Maybe 'we' already did."

Images of the planet Skaro appeared on the orb. Pictures of the Thals, the wild jungle, of Derpy saving the filly, of the celebratory party, of Prim Rose. Then an image flashed of Prince Soleggiato, somehow capturing the full attention from everypony in the room. But TEN remained focused on the adventure. ShowIng everypony Soleggiato fighting valently to free the Kelads, how Doctor and Derpy pushed and were able to free them from their Dalek suits, as one final image from before Soleggiato was taken. A memory that caused the orb to glow gold;

"Everypony matters, Doctor, not just the ones you see everyday, or the ones you live next door to. But everypony. I would think somepony such as yourself would know that, given your profession....You'd know 'they' were in more need then the Empire, and you'd never stop until everypony were safe. Because everypony matters..."

The fire in the prince's eyes showed not only passion for his cause, but a burning desire to protect and defend. Something that sparked something deep inside TEN, inside Doctor Whooves.

"Truly inspiriting words" WAR was the first to speak up, but a hint of bitterness lingered in his tone. "But that's all they are. Words. And we need action. As Time Lords, we are given the responsibility to uphold the balance of time and space. This, Sunny, as you call him, you can not trust him."

Taking his hoof off of the orb, TEN looked to all the other doctors and began to speak from the heart. "I don't know about the rest of you, but almost all my life I've been alone. I was different then the other ponies I grew up with. Where they all wanted to be magicians, princesses, knight, things that involved Magic, I chose another path. One of science. My odd ideas and calculating abilities left me alone, most ponies thought I was just too weird, say for my best friend Derpy. But outside us I thought friends were pointless. Then this pony, Soleggiato Cavelere, or Sunny Knight as he calls himself later, showed me the strength of friendship and taught me that everypony is important. I learned not to shut others out, and that I don't have to just rely on myself to get things done. I have friends to rely on. And I will do just that. And we will save our world."

"You're making a mistake" WAR said, narrowing his eyes on the image of Soleggiato on the orb. "He's the son of King Sombra, he cannot be trusted!"

"And what was he to you, WAR?" TEN snapped. "Was he a friend? An enemy? What was he to you before all that happened? Did you even bother to get to know him? To know that he likes telling scary stories? Or he likes sharing snacks with friends? Or that his favorite type of ice cream is strawberry? And that he always likes sprinkles on it? Did you know he goes out of his way to help everypony he can? That he struggles to do jobs meant for ponies twice his size, but he never gives up? And not only is able to get it done, but when he is though, he looks back on his work with a smile on his face. Pleased and contempt with an honest day's job?!"

WAR remained silent but never took his eyes off of TEN.

"Without him I would never have been able to bring my TARDIS to life" TEN continued to speak, Derpy and the other Doctors watched in awe of his loyalty, devotion and admiration to his friend. "I traveled back in time to stop his father from casting that spell and sealing Sunny away for 1000 years, but I guess it wasn't meant to be. A fixed point. And I've seen the possible future of Equestria, my universe. It's a desolate place filled with the statues of it's inhabitants who tried to defend it, including Sunny!

"But we will not let this come to pass!" TEN stomped his hoof down as hard as he could. "I believe in our friends, I believe in myself, and I believe in Sunny!"

There was a long pause as TEN looked WAR in the eye. But slowly a riot of hoof stomps began to break out as the other Doctors began applauding TEN, ONE, NINE and ELEVEN stomped the hardest, or so it seemed.

"Brilliant speech!" ELEVEN complemented TEN as he jumped up and began to slink away. "This all has been very interesting, but I think I know now what I need to do. So until we meet again, GERONIMO!"

With that, every doctor say for TEN watched as ELEVEN hopped back into his own TARDIS and started it up. The big blue box began to make it's usual whooshing noise as it began to disappear.

Once it was a half way gone, TEN and Derpy slipped away inside their own TARDIS without anypony noticing. Once ELEVEN was fully gone, TEN stuck his was out of the TARDIS and smiled at the rest of the Doctors. "I guess it's time to save the world! Allons-y!"

With that final farewell, Doctor shut the front door and ran over to the control panel. After inputting the coordinates to bring them home, he smiled over at Derpy, a new shine in his eyes as he told her "Hold on tight!"

As TEN's TARDIS began to make it's whooshing noise and began to vanish, the image of Sunny on the Apple farm appeared on the orb. He was playing some sort of game with Applejack, Big Mac, and Apple Bloom while Granny watched from the porch. WAR could hardly believe such a wonderful world existed and thought he might enjoy a trip there one of these days.

Author's Note:

The inspiration I got for this one wasn't drawn from the Doctor Who special 'Day of the Doctor'. After that my mind began to race with possibilities.

Tying this in with the multiverse theory, I made it so basically every Doctor Whooves has some connection with the Umbrum, but not every Doctor has met Soleggiato.

I plan to have a few parallel world Sunny's meet at one point, and even 'our' Sunny possibly change the course of one's life.

Let's just see how things play out.