Sunny Knight: a Pony's Tale

by TheothersideofSunny968

Body of smoke, Heart of gold

"Alright everypony, let's get started" Twilight Sparkle promptly said as she sat on her thrown in the castle of friendship, all her friends sitting in their respective seats, say for Applejack who hadn't arrived yet. "I spoke with Princess Luna about the recent waves of riots and raids, and it seems to be following a pattern starting at Los Pegasus, and heading steadily back and forth around Equestria leading eventually to Canterlot. If the pattern continues as is, the night of the Gala there will be trouble right at Canterlot.

"We have strong reason to believe that..." Twilight looked up at all of her friends as she spoke after pointing out the various places on the map. All of her friends present were paying close attention, well, all except for a certain white unicorn. "Is something the matter, Rarity?"

"I do say, there 'is' something very wrong!" The fashionista stood up, obviously very upset by something. When all her friend's attention were on her, Rarity started her rant. "Why was 'I' the last of us to find out about Sunny?! How long have you all known?! And why, prey tell, did you keep me in the dark?!"

"You actually aren't the last to find out" Twilight started to explain.

But before the alicorn princess could exaggerate, Rarity pieced something together that she didn't even think about before. "My gosh! Applejack doesn't know, does she?!"

"Nopony else knows, besides us" Rainbow Dash said with a small sigh. Although she had come to accept Sunny for who he was, and didn't have much of a problem with him anymore, she still felt bad for keeping her friends in the dark.

"Sunny was, well, afraid what ponies would do or think of him if they knew" Fluttershy spoke up, knowing how the yellow unicorn felt.

"We never meant to leave you or Applejack out, Rarity" Twilight tried to throw in, desperate to douse the fire. "We just wanted Sunny to be able to tell you both on his own terms."

The anger melted away from Rarity's face as she began thinking of their farming, freckled friend. "Poor Applejack... she has no idea who she's in love with."

"Wait, WHAT?!" Rainbow Dash's mood changed to shock and surprise. "She's in LOVE with him?!"

"Well Duuuuuhhhh!" Pinkie giggled as she pulled out a glass of milk from seemingly no where to help enjoy the cookies she was pulling out of her mane. "I could have told you that after he came back from the Crystal Empire! They're always making those eyes at each other! Have you ever tried the cookies they baked togearher?! You can taste the love in them!"

Rainbow Dash paused and narrowed her eyes on her pink friend. "...I'm not going to try one if the only ones you have are in your mane-"

Interrupting the meeting's already derailed conversation, Spike burst through the double doors, pupils the size of pin heads and out of breath. All the girls turned to him, but before anypony could ask what was the matter, Spike looked over at Twilight and spoke in a raspy voice "Applejack! Help! Now! Front doors!"

"Let's go girls!" Twilight shot up out of her seat and flew out of the room, quickly followed by her friends who also took the call to action, afraid that something terrible might have happened to their friend.

Moving as fast as their hooves and wings could carry them, Twilight, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and Fluttershy (who was carrying Spike on her back) raced through the castle, desperate to make it to the room just before the front doors. When they finally arrived, they couldn't believe their eyes.

Laying on the ground in some sort of bed made of blankets and a few pillows, was none other then their friend Applejack. Her eyes now closed, but they remained red and green still beneath her eye lids. She continued to toss and turn in her sleep-like state, her body broken out in a cold sweat. As she tossed and turned, the orange mare seemed to be mumbling something under her breath, but no pony could make it out. As frightening as that was, it still wasn't as horrifying as the thing that stood over her.

Covered beneath a black cloak, there was somepony or something about two or three times the height of even Big Mac. It kept it's face hidden, but a black miasma and tendrils appeared to peak out just where the cloak ended. Unfortunately for the creature, it's cloak appeared to be made for a pony of regular size, so it had to resort to hunching over in order to keep most of itself hidden. But the real reason for it's hunched position was to not take it's eyes off of Applejack. The more it watched, the brighter and larger purple flames seemed to appear from it's eyes, revealing more and more of it's hideous face.

"Get away from her!" Twilight bellowed as she, Rainbow Dash and Rarity jumped at it, trying to scare it away from her.

The creature staggered a bit, but was able to keep his footing. With a sigh, the creature turned his head and started to leave, whispering just one thing, in a deep, almost haunting voice that sounded slightly familiar to everypony there. "Please... help her..."

With that, the creature burst through the front doors of the castle, slamming them behind it. Immediately Rainbow flung the door open, but all she saw was the regular scenery, no sign or trace of the creature anywhere. With no monster to fight, Rainbow returned to see if there was anything she could do to help her ill friend.

Twilight was looking Applejack over, trying to figure out what was wrong with her while Fluttershy and Rarity left to gather some medical supplies from the east wing. Meanwhile, Pinkie's mane seemed to have deflated as she stared out the window, appearing more concerned with what was outside then what was going on with Applejack. When Rarity and Fluttershy had returned and rejoined the rest of the group, they realized that the medical supplies may not have been needed.

Taking a defensive stance with her legs stretched and locked, Twilight began to focus her magic in her horn, but this time, as magic gathered at her horn, small flames began to flare out the far corners of her eyes. Black and purple bubbles began to form at the alicorn's horn as she focused on the spell needed to free Applejack. Twilight quickly recognized Applejack being in the same state that Hoops and the others were in after Sunny accidentally cursed them, so luckily Twilight had experience casting the spell and successfully breaking the curse.

As Twilight shot a purple blast of magic at Applejack, the farm pony's body tensed up and shook lightly. But after the curse was broken and Twilight stopped the flow of dark magic, eyes and horn returning to normal, Applejack remained asleep.

"Is... is she going to be ok?" Rainbow Dahs asked as she took a step closer towards her freckles friend.

"The spell is broken" Twilight replied, feeling a little light headed herself. Fluttershy and Rarity on either side of her, stabilizing their friend. "She should wake up here in a bit... but what was that 'THING'?"

"I don't know, but whatever it is, it's gounna pay!" Rainbow Dash jumped up, ready to dart out and search all of Ponyville and beyond if she had to.

"I don't think it did this to her on purpose, whatever it was" Fluttershy spoke up, catching everypony's attention.

"What makes you say that, Darling?" Rarity asked before anypony else had the chance.

"Well... I mean, if it did, why would it bring her here?" Fluttershy stated, half hiding behind her mane.

All the girls paused and looked at Applejack who seemed to be in a dreamless sleep, no longer in any kind of pain.

"I suppose..." Twilight started to say when she suddenly realized something. "WAIT! This happened before!"

"It did?" Rainbow stepped forward. "When did...oh!"

"What?! Don't leave me out of the loop" Rarity chimed in. "When did this happen?!"

"Oh! I think you mean that one time during winter wrap up! Or just a few days before!" Pinkie popped in. "Right! Hoops, Dumb-bell, and Score all were left at Fluttershy's door step left in an even worse condition then Applejack! And for months we couldn't figure out how to help them then..."

Usually Pinkie's banter and rambling has no breaks, but as she managed to catch up with her mouth, her heart sank, and she knew the answer to what had done that to her (very distant) cousin.

Twilight paused and looked over at her sleeping friend, ready to continue Pinkie's sentence. "...Then Sunny came forward and admitted he lost control of his emotions. He cursed them out of anger... he couldn't figure out a counter curse, so he gave me the material and I cast the spell and set those three free... Sunny knew who could cast the counter curse..."

"W-well that doesn't mean 'he' did this!" Pinkie jumped in.

"I doubt Sunny would ever do anything to hurt Applejack" Rarity added. "Even if he 'is' the son of that horrible, King Sombra."

"But did you see him?" Rainbow Dash butted in. "Something happened to him again! Like when he took that monster bracelet from me! I bet Discord had something to do with it! He took the bracelet and-"

"Did Somepony say 'my' name?" A familiar voice echoed through Twilight's castle as the owner popped up in an arm chair that floated above everypony, Discord was dressed in an evening robe, a pipe blowing chocolate bubbles in his mouth, a pair of reading glasses rested on his muzzle, and an unfamiliar book in his mismatched claws. As he looked over everypony, he took special notice in Applejack. "Oh, I see... so he's finally awakened 'those' powers. Only took him 1000 years."

"What do you know about this Discord?" Twilight put her hoof down.

"You didn't have anything to do with this, did you, Discord?" Fluttershy tried an easier approach, one that she knew would melt Discord's heart as she looked up at his with her sad, big blue eyes.

The sight of her did melt his heart, and pushed away any mind games he wanted to play with Twilight and the others. With a sigh and a snap of his fingers, Discord's outfit, the chair, and the book all disappeared. He floated down and avoided eye contact with his best friend for the longest time as he explained. "I had nothing to do with this... but... I did know that something like 'this' would eventually happen."

"Where's the monster bracelet?! If you put it on Sunny again, I'm gunna-!" Rainbow Dash jumped at Discord, ready to sock him right in his messed up muzzle.

"Oh? You mean, this monster bracket?" Discord smugly asked as he snapped his fingers and made the same cursed item appear out of nowhere, floating in the palm of his paw. "If you think his transformation was of my or this lovely trinket's doing, I'm afraid you're sadly mistaken."

"Then... what happened to Sunny? How-" Twilight started to say when Discord's bird like claw raised a finger and put it to her mouth, silencing the alicorn.

"Perhaps who could answer better is the one who cast the curse, who brought Applejack to you, and who is currently running away with no place to go... well... maybe almost no place to go." Discord said with a smug look on his muzzle.

As Twilight looked into Disocrd's taunting and mischievous red and yellow eyes, a thought popped into her head. Something Sunny told her back when he confessed everything to her on his trial. Turning to her friends, Twilight spoke with commanding authority. "Girls, I think I know where to find him. We need to get to the castle of the two pony sisters!"

"Can we leave Applejack all on her own?" Rarity asked as she turned to her still sleeping friend. "I mean, she will wake up eventually and wonder where everypony was and why he's in the castle."

"I'll stay and keep an eye on her!" Spike offered as he straitened his back, puffed out his chest, and stiffened his muscles to look more intimidating and official.

"Oh, what a brave dragon you are, Spike" Rarity gave Spike a kiss on his forehead, making the baby dragon break his pose and almost melt into a puddle as hearts formed in his eyes.

"That settles it" Twilight said as she and her friends were about to leave.

"One more thing, Twilight!" Discord popped up beside the princess of friendship, holding up a poster. "You may want to attend this."

Taking the poster in her hoof, Twilight read the cation out loud. "Dreamer's delight Circus?... where all your dreams come true and never end... showing first in Ponyville after Sundown?"

The poster appeared to be an image of a stage with a smiling clown on one side balancing act on a ball, a pony juggling bowling pins on the other, and at the center was a tall grey stallion. The stallion hid the top half of his muzzle with a twisted looking tip hat, but one thing that was easily seen was his sharp toothy smile that seemed to stretch farther up his head then normal.

"That's Charming Knightmare!" Twilight cried out, catching the attention of everypony once again, except Rarity, who was beginning to really feel out of the loop.

"He isn't here, yet" Discord explained. "But the show is tonight. So you best find Sunny and get everything sorted out by sundown. You may want to crash the show before that 'dastardly villain' does whatever he plans to do. And you know it isn't good."

Not enjoying the fact that she was on such a crunched time limit, Twilight sighed and looked back to her friends, trying to appear as confident as ever. "Looks like we have a lot of work to do. Let's get going girls. First we find Sunny."

"Then we kick Charming Knightmare's flank!" Rainbow Dash said as she punched her open hoof, a battle ready expression on her muzzle.

"Will somepony PLEASE tell me who this 'Charming' fellow is?!" Rarity was getting more and more annoyed at how very little she was kept up on.

"I'll explain on the way!" Pinkie jumped up beside her fashion obsessed friend. "There's a lot we need to bring our up to speed on! Not to worry! Ol'Pinkie's gunna learn ya it all!"

As the girls ran as fast as they could, through Ponyville and into the Everfree forest, Discord sat and watched from afar. Loving how well played out all of this was. Almost as if somepony were pulling all the strings.

Rushing into town, the Apple Family and Pappy began asking everypony if they'd seen Applejack or Sunny, fearing the worst. At one point, Pappy disappeared out of the Apple's eyes, but he family of farmers kept their search going.

"Whoah! Whoah Big Mac!" Thunderlane put his hooves up to motion his friend to calm down. "Take this story back a few steps. What happened?"

"It's like ah said!" Big Mac repeated himself, trying to keep his cool. "We all woke up and found Sunny's room trashed and neither he or Applejack were around! We need ta find them!"

"Are you sure they didn't go off somewhere? Like, together?" Thunderlane suggested then made a few
Kissing motions, that were interrupted when Octavia smacked him upside the head.

The cello player had met Thunderlane for a quick brunch to discuss her and her group playing at the Wonderbolt's ball.

"This is serious, Thunderlane" Octavia stated, party from the saverity of the situation, as well as from jealousy over Applejack. "Our friends could be in danger. We need to go looking for them."

"Ah wouldn' worry none 'bout Applejack" Pappy said as he stepped out of a dark alleyway. He noticed some freshly baked bread at Thunderlane and Octavia's table, smiled, and helped himself to it. After a few chew, he noticed everypony was waiting for him to continue. He swallowed most of his bite, then the elderly stallion took a drink of Thunderlane's orange juice and continued. "Ah saw them girls all run into th' Everfree forest. Ah think ah saw her with 'em. Proabably on some sort ah 'friendship mission' or what not. Ah hear they do a lot of that."

"Well, that figures" Big Mac sighed in relief. "So AJ's safe."

"But what about Sunny?" Octavia asked, just as everypony was beginning to relax. "Was he with them?"

"Ah'm 'fraid not" the elderly stallion replied, taking another bite of bread. "But ah wouldn't worry yer pretty little head 'bout it. If there's ah group of ponies ya can trust ta get th' job done, it's them. Ah'm sure they'll find Sunny an' set this whole mess strait. After all, they are the ponies who represent the elements of harmony. They've saved Equestria so many times before. Eh'yep. Just them six little ponies and ah baby dragon..."

Pappy began mumbling to himself as he casually took the entire basket of bread from the table and the rest of Thinderlane's orange juice and slowly made his way back tot he apple farm.

"I guess he's right" Thunderlane broke the silence, his eyes falling to the table.

"Ah reckon so..." Big Mac cratchex the back d his leg with his other leg, looking at the ground.

"Maybe we should just go back to what we were doing and let the professionals do what they do" Octavia stated, looking back at the paperwork she had brought.

And as fast as three ponies were about to embark on a quest to aid a friend, the three of them returned to their daily routine, as if nothing were wrong....

Racing though the woods as fast as his new body could travel, Sunny, now made of smoke and shadow, seemed to just fly thought he brush and trees of the wild forest, as if just running in an open field. His smoke like body just moved around and past all obstacles that would have stopped a physical body. His body now powered by fear and sorrow pushed him to go faster then he ever had before.

As he traveled though the dangerous forest, the umbrum that was formerly the yellow unicorn, passed by many strange and unusual creatures. Hydra, giant snakes, alligators with scales of rock, giant spiders, half gorilla half owl creatures, Manticores, giant pony eating plants, and at one point an out of place brown earth-pony with one of his hooves wrapped up in chains. But every creature that looked at Sunny seemed to back off, frightened by the very presence of him, as if he himself embodied everything they feared. Sunny did his best to just push their frightened eyes from his mind as he pressed on, reaching out to the only place he found he could escape to. Not his cave, not the Crystal Empire, not his aunt Radiant's out of the way home in the arctic tundra, but someplace few ponies would dare to look. For some reason, that place really felt like home to the yellow stallion.

A certain room in the castle of the two pony sisters. The same room Sunny had found his father in not so long ago, the room 'he' himself retreated to after the fight over Alister, and now, the room was calling to him, as if somepony were there waiting for him. Somepony who would outstretch her wings and hold him tight, telling him that the monsters would never get him. In a normal state, Sunny could have pieced it all together, but his mind wasn't in a rational state. Everything was foggy and unclear. All he knew was where it was safe for him there.

Reaching the rope bridge that would lead across to the run down castle, Sunny started to hover over it, his smoked body able to just roll over the wooden planks. But something else caught his eye.

Looking down into the gorge, Sunny's gaze caught sight of something glowing deep in the mist. Something as bright as a falling star. In a rational mind, Sunny might have approached it with caution, but in his current state he was more like a foal, curious and irrational, eager to satisfy his desires. Drawn to the glimmer, Sunny's smoky body fazed though the wooden boards and down into the mist. The white mist that normally filled the gorge seemed to engulf him as he ventured deeper into it, searching for the glimmering source.

Just as the last of Sunny's shadowy body disappeared into the mist surrounding the castle's moat, five mares of different colors and tribes reached the edge of the forest and the beginning of the rope bridge.

"He's got to be in there!" Twilight told her group of friends. "Lets cross slowly, and search every inch of the castle!"

"We don't have time to look anywhere else if we do that" Rarity chimed in. "Not if we expect to get back to town before that horrible 'Charming Knightmare' puts on his show."

"Then we need to make the most of our time" Twilight continued to say as she, Fluttersy and Rainbow flew across, allowing Rarity and Pinkie to take the bridge. "I'll search the catacombs. I have it all mentally mapped out. Rainbow, you'll look in the towers. Fluttershy, you and Rarity can..."

As the girls planned their search, their words muffled and hidden from Sunny by the mist, the umbrum like creature made his way through the sound and sight repelling magical mist, the only thing giving him direction was the glimmering light. Sunny seemed to float for hours until he reached the edge of the castle's cliff, where a cave was hidden on the far side, safely tucked away from anypony just casually wandering around.

Without fear, Sunny stepped into the glowing cave, his foal like curiosity peaking as the light dimmed slightly and revealed its source. A Crystal like tree with several branches and identifying smaller crystals attached to them!

"The tree of harmony..." Sunny stated as he yawned, feeling extremely tired all of a sudden. Despite the bright glowing light emanating from the tree, Sunny felt the strongest need to rest.

Having no strength to climb back to the top of the gorge, Sunny decided this was a good enough place to take a small nap. Feeling a small sense of peace and more relaxed then he had been in a long time, Sunny's smoke like body fell to the ground. And as the stallion began to drift off into slumber, a branch on the tree of harmony began to glow. One that had an orange apple shaped gem on it. It's light began to pour over Sunny, reverting his body to it's previous state. Now, a unicorn once more, a smile returned to Sunny's muzzle as he was able to return to a pleasant dream he enjoyed having. One of him and Applejack sitting in a checkerboard blanket on that same grassy hill at the farm. Maybe this time he'll have the courage to tell her how he really feels...

Back at the castle of friendship, Spike watched over Applejack while re-reading one of his favorite comics, looking between it and her ever half page or so. But the orange mare appeared to be sleeping very soundly, experiencing a dream she had grown rather fond of. It was like the dreams she had before, where she and Sunny were on the farm, on a specific hill at the edge of the orchard, sprawled out over a checkerboard blanket, just looking into each other's eyes....

Near the edge of the Everfree forest, a swirling purple portal opened up, made of dark magic and shadow, with something big emerging from it. The creature stood on four hooves that shook the ground with every step that he took. Stretching his bulging red muscles and waving his now grown horns to the sky, the creature roared as he felt free from his prison. Tirek had regained 15% of his full power, and a healthy and stronger body, thanks to the aid of King Sombra. To keep it, all he would have to do is deliver his brat to the shadow king himself. Easy enough. Then the centaur would have his revenge on those who imprisoned him. Starting with that annoying alicorn, Twilight Sparkle!