Sunny Knight: a Pony's Tale

by TheothersideofSunny968

Dragon Lord VS Black Knight!

“YOU HEARD ME! GET OUT, AND NEVER COME BACK!” Dragon Lord Torch bellowed as he smashed some near by boulders with his balled up fists.

Taking a deep breath to compose himself, Sunny looked up at Torch with a cool composure. “Well it’s good to see you to, Tiny Torch.”

After hearing the nick name that no pony or dragon had dared called him in his entire rein, the still current Dragon Lord began to grow furious. “HOW DARE YOU! YOU DISAPPEAR FOR 1000 WINTERS, THEN SHOW UP HERE, INSULTING ME?!”

“Take it easy, Torch” Sunny raised his hooves to show he meant no harm. “I come in peace. And I would have come sooner but-“

“I WILL HEAR NO EXCUSES!” Torch bellowed with a mighty roar. “For abandoning dragon kind and ignoring our pleads, you are here by stripped of your total of ‘Black Knight’ as well as your armor, given to you by the great Garganda!”

“Torch, If you’ll just listen-“ Sunny tried to reach out to his old friend, desperation thick in his voice.

“I DON’T CARE WHAT YOUR EXCUSE IS! YOU WILL-“ Torch’s anger began to rise, bringing with it flames from the corners of his mouth and flares from his nostrils. Signs that Sunny only heard about from other dragons. They were tell-tale signs that a dragon was almost to a primal rage and the only way to prevent it was to give them what they wanted and to back off. And for a dragon as strong and large as Torch now was, it could be dangerous for all the dragons who remained behind, even if Sunny would ultimately be protected by his armor from any and all harm Torch would try and do.

Reluctantly, Sunny took a step back and began to remove his armor, complying with Torch’s orders to keep him calm.

“Wait just one moment...” a dragon stepped out of the crowd. Sunny quickly realized it was Torch’s father, the precious Dragon Lord, Garnet.

“What do you want, old one?” Torch’s tone was still sharp, but the anger was subsiding.

“Upon taking the thrown, you were promised to never revoke a previous Dragon Lord’s order” Garnet began to speak. “That includes ‘my’ order for the Black Knight.”

Narrowing his eyes on his father, Torch growled “Do you even ‘remember’ what your exact order was?”

“I remember enough” Garnet snapped back at his son.

“‘I’ am the Dragon Lord now!” Torch’s wing spread across the sky as he stood up on his hind legs, easily overpowering his father as well as every dragon present. “‘My’ word is law!”

Thinking quickly, Sunny remembered something Spike reminded him of not long ago when they were taking about the Timberwolves, something Sunny couldn’t believe he almost forgot, something that would always serve as a bargaining chip with dragons.

Looking from Torch to an off shore island not far from them, Sunny stepped forward and called out “I challenge you to a duel of Honor!”

Instantly Torch and his father stopped their bickering, and every dragon in the crowd paused then began whispering amongst themselves.

Moving past his father to get as close to Sunny as possible, possibly to intimidate the little yellow unicorn, Torch move in close enough to where Sunny could feel the fiery heat off his dragon breath. “‘A challenge of honor’? As in ‘you’ battling against ‘me’ in an arena?”

Without hesitation, despite the sudden realization of their size difference, Sunny spoke loudly and clearly not only for Torch to hear, but every other dragon as well. “If you win, I’ll step down as Black Knight and turn my armor over to you.”

Pulling back away from Sunny, Torch scratched his chin, eyes still on the little pony. “And what if ‘you’ win? Which you won’t, but if you were to, what would you want?”

Taking a deep breath and removing his face plate, Sunny looked Torch in the eye and calmly told him “I want you to sit down with me for thirty minutes and talk to me. Hear what I have to say. Let me explain myself and why I was gone for so long.”

Anger built up in Torch’s belly as he blew out flames from his nostrils once more. He knew he had to accept the challenge, it was about honor, despite the conditions. After calming himself, realizing there would be no way for Sunny to win, Torch stood up on his hind legs and announced to all present “There will be a battle to decide the fate of the Black Knight! All who wish to view, head to our battle arena island!

“The entire battle should take... oh two seconds!” Torch chuckled, the noticed no dragon’s else was laughing with him and ordered them “Laugh!”

The other dragons began laughing, following the Dragon Lord’s orders.

“Your majesty!” A small group of medium sized dragons called out to Torch, catching him right as he was about to jump into the air and take off for the island. The group of five dragons, who were larger then most of the contestants who left for the flame-cano but smaller then Torch and the ones who remained. All members of the group held in their claws either and instrument or microphones.

Looking back at the group of dragons, Torch’s annoyed expression remained unchanged as he spoke to them. “Yes? What do you lot want?”

One of the dragon’s with a microphone and slightly longer head scales stepped forward. “We wish to play a, Ugh, a-a ballad! Yes! A ballad during your fight against the armored knight!”

Torch paused for a moment, looking like he was thinking about it, but the idea wasn’t really clicking with him. The leader of the group had to think fast.

“You know, it would make the battle more epic” the medium sized dragon started, forcing a confident smile. “We got the perfect song, really fast pace, and it sings about dragons ruling over the land...”

That hooked the current Dragon Lord. “Really? Yes! I want you to sing and play Hard a ballad of a dragon’s rule! These are the ‘Dragon Lands’! Let the Black Knight know where he stands!”

With that, Torch extended his wings and took to the skies, heading towards the island where he and Sunny would do battle before the remaining dragons. As the band of medium sized dragons gathered their gear, Sunny noticed they were struggling to carry it all and offered to lend a hoof. The group was appreciative and accepted his help. To reach the island themselves, the group travled over on the back of another large dragon who was a fan of the band.

Once on the battle arena island, as the band began to set up and other dragons began to file in, getting their seats for the event, Sunny removed his armor and began stretching. If there was one thing he remembered from basic guard training, it was the hard lesson of always stretching before a long battle. Nothing is worse then having to fight an enemy with cramping legs or sides bound in armor. Torch watched Sunny stretch, his hard gaze looking over the stallion with a burning hatred and curiously studying him.

‘1000 Years... And he hasn’t aged a day’ Torch thought. Part of him ‘did’ want to hear Sunny out, if nothing else, then to find out the secret to his longevity. But something else burned hotter in his heart. Anger.

Once done stretching, Sunny dawned his Black Knight armor once again and faced Torch ready for battle, his own emerald eyes locking with Torch’s reptilian yellow ones.

Garnet, who remained mostly silent, had stepped forward. “This is a battle of honor. The two will fight until the other concedes, or is knocked out cold. The stakes are set. Should the Black Knight win-“

“Which he won’t” Torch spoke some what under his breath.

“-Then Torch will have to sit and listen to him for 30 minuets. But should Torch win, the Black Knight will turn over his armor to the Dragon Lord, and renounce his title and power.” Garnet ignored his son and finished his statement. Looking between the two contestants, the former Dragon Lord stepped back to a safe point and blew a burst of fire from his mouth, indicating the battle to begin!

Right at that point, a song began to play from the band, who Sunny learned was calling themselves ‘Dagonforce’.

(https://youtu.be/02q8kPJn_e4)

Torch wasted no time and smacked his mighty claw down on the black armor wearing unicorn. To almost anypony else, that would seem to have been an win instantly for Torch. Unlucky for the still current Dragon Lord, Sunny’s armor protects him from such attacks from dragons. With the giant dragon’s palm still crushing down on him, Sunny thought quickly and cast the spell that enhanced his body’s muscles and speed. He knew it was a very risky move, not only would it leave the unicorn with a great deal of fatigue after the spell wears off, but while it’s active Sunny can’t cast any other spell! But it was a risk he had to take, the pony’s own natural strength wasn’t enough to take Torch on right now.

After his green magical aria finished spreading over his body, Sunny began to lift Torch’s palm as if it were a bundle of hay!

“What’s this?!” Torch called out then began to apply more pressure to his palm, trying to squish the armor clad pony.

Before the pressure became too much, Sunny shot out from under Torch’s palm, jumped several times to put some distance between him and the giant dragon, then paused to catch his breath.
But the unicorn didn’t have long to relax, as soon as he stopped moving, Torch took a deep breath, then released a maelstrom of flames at him!

Unable to teleport, Sunny kept dashing away, his skips now enhanced by the spell he cast, allowed him to dash from one point to twenty yards away in a flash, just barely escaping the dragon’s flames! Teleporting would have been faster and less predictable, but unlike Twilight or half the other unicorn guards, Sunny wasn’t as quick in the draw when it came to teleporting, even if he could cast the spell.

Quickly noticing Sunny’s pattern of movement, Torch smacked his claw down, making a wall to stop the unicorn from running away, then began gathering more air for another burst of fire! His plan to stop Sunny backfired, though, as the armor clad pony reached the dragon’s lowered arm. Without missing a beat, Sunny hopped onto the giant dragon’s claw and began to travel up the enormous arm, aiming for the dragon’s head!

Panicking slightly, Torch tried to swipe Sunny off of him with his other claw while half chocking on the flames he had in his mouth! Thinking he had the large dragon right where he wanted him, Sunny began to charge, then with a leap of faith, spun around, ready to deliver a back hoof side kick! But right as the armored pony leaped into the air, a smirk broke across Torch’s face.

The giant dragon smiled as he jerked his head to the side, thinking quickly, using the large tusk like horn on the side of his head. Torch smacked Sunny away from him mid air, and sent him hurdling towards the edge of the arena! As the armored stallion landed with a hard ‘crunch’, the yellow pony felt a shock wave of pain erupt through his entire body! As he gasped for air, it was then that he realized that the armor only protected him from what a ‘dragon’ could do. When he hit the ground, he was hit with a shock wave from the ‘ground’ not Torch’s own blow! Getting up, Sunny’s spell wore off, the magical green aura that coated his body had dissipated.

Noticing the stallion wobbling to his hooves, struggling to stand up strait, Torch’s smile grew. “Awwww, what’s the matter? Am I playing too rough for you? Big bad Black Knight?”

Not wanting to take his trash talk, Sunny just chuckled with the reply “Are you kidding? I’m just getting started!”

This of course was a lie. If Sunny’s spell hadn’t been in effect when he was thrown to the ground, he’s have ended up in the hospital. If he was lucky.

“Good! I’ll kick it up a notch, just for you!” Torch chuckled as he slammed both fists into the ground.

Sunny watched as the dragon took an offensive type stance, his wings out stretched to the sky as he began breathing in as much air as his lungs could hold. Not knowing what to expect, Sunny could only watch as the air began to spark to life! Flames began to flicker in mid air as it appeared that Torch was living up to his name and igniting the very oxygen around them! It was becoming hard to breath, but Sunny forces himself to watch as Torch finished gathering all the air his body could hold. As the Dragon Lord held his breath for a moment, shutting his jaws, he fixated his sight on where Sunny stood, not wanting to miss his target.

With one mighty motion, Torch fling open his jaws and shot out a blast of concentrated fire unlike anything Sunny had ever seen! It was true the armor protected Sunny from dragon fire, but this fire still turned the black armor bright red! The flames themselves that Torch was blasting like a hydro water pump at Sunny were light blue and dark blue in color rather then the light orange and yellow Sunny was used to. The flames seemed endless and engulfed Sunny to a point where he couldn’t see! If he had not dug his hooves into the ground when he did, the armored pony would have been blasted off the island! Even as he stood, holding his breath, waiting for the flames to end, Sunny struggled to keep his hooves on the ground!

Moments seem to pass slowly, seconds dragging into hours. When Sunny felt lightheaded and weak due to lack of oxygen, and was about to pass out, the flames ended. Finnaly able to take a deep breath, Sunny was too focused on gathering as much air as he could to notice Torch wasn’t going wait for him. The Dragon Lord lunged at Sunny, hovering just above the ground, and swooped him up in his claws before shooting up into the sky!

Once airborne, Sunny felt helpless as Torch continued to carry him higher and higher, above the clouds and far above where Sunny felt comfortable. The yellow unicorn had a fear of heights, and this horrible sight would surely be added to his mental log of worst nightmares. As they reached far above where most pegasus would fly, Torch squeezed the armored stallion in his claw, and with all his might, threw him down towards where the stadium was! Every dragon below watched as a black meteor fell to the earth below, and landed at the heart of the stadium, deepening the crater by at least another three feet and adding another small indent with a radius of twelve feet.

Every dragon present tore their eyes from the fallen pony towards Torch as he gradually descended, flapping his wings lightly to land with gentle ease. Once his claws touched the ground, his gaze looked over at the crater with the smoking pile of black mass at it’s epicenter.

“Have you had enough, Black Knight?” The large dragon called out, his voice still booming with overpowering authority.

But no response came from the creator.

All dragons were silent for a good long moment, all waiting for the Black Knight to reply to Torch’s question. But nothing came. Whether out of concern or curiosity, Torch took a few steps towards the crater and looked inside. His eyes wondered over the sight before him for several long moments, unable to piece together what it was he was looking at. It wasn’t until the suit’s helmet fell off, revealing it to be empty that Torch realized his victory was prematurely celebrated.

The smoldering pile at the epicenter of the crater was nothing more then the empty suit of Black armor!

A whistling sound rang in Torch’s right ear, causing the large dragon to twist his head suddenly to find it’s source. To his surprise, Sunny was just hanging out on his shoulder, a Stetson hat resting his head. “It sure is gunna take ah hoot of a lot of polish and elbow grease ta get that armor shinnin’ again.”

“Why you!” Torch growled and swiped at Sunny on his shoulder.

Reacting quickly, Sunny jumped over to Torch’s left side, then flung a rope around Torch’s left tusk like horn without him seeing. When the giant dragon tried to grab Sunny on his left, Sunny jumped back over to the right and flung the other side of the rope around Torch’s other horn, creating a make shift reign.

Once the reign was tight around Torch’s horns, Sunny slid down to the middle of Torch’s neck, where he knew the dragon wouldn’t be able to reach. Kicking the dragon’s side neck with his heels, Sunny yelled out to him “I got a new game we can play! How about rodeo!”

Tugging on the rope, Sunny forced Torch’s head down, bringing the Dragon Lord to his claws and knees. Dragons began to whisper in the crowd, causing Torch’s heart to begin racing and his blood pressure to raise. ‘This is not how I want to be remembered! I was going to be the greatest Dragon Lord ever to exist! Not this puny pony’s tamed beast!’

Growing more and more angery, Torch began trying to fling Sunny off by thrusting and shaking violently. Despite the violent jerks, Sunny was amazingly able to hold on through it all! After a moment of that, Torch got down on all fours, spread his wings and began jumping around, kicking and thrashing as best he could to try and get Sunny off him. The yellow unicorn held on still, even with one hoof while his other held his Stetson hat to his head.

“Yeeeee haaaaawwww!” Sunny cried out, starting to actually have fun. He was super glad he took Applejack up on those bull riding lessons. He thought he would use them if he ever came across that gang of Bulls Applejack told him about, the Cattle Rustler gang. Sunny would never have thought that he’d us his newly acquired bull ridding skills on a dragon more then ten times his size!

Growing more and more frustrated, Torch decide the best way to rid himself of his unwanted passenger was to take to the sky!

With a single beat of his wings, Torch kicked off the ground and began flying as fast as he could into the sky, climbing higher and higher. But then he suddenly changed direction! Against his will, Torch turned right, then left. The Dragon Lord had no idea why he was doing that until he remembered just how Sunny was staying on. The yellow unicorn was using the ropes he had ties to Torch’s horns to direct and force the giant dragon to go where ‘he’ willed it! After several more sharp turns and moves, Sunny forced Torch to land. Everydragon in the stands looked to the sky where Torch was being forced to weave around like a mad dragon. Looking up, Torch was at first shocked then furious at what he saw.

The whole time they were up there, Sunny had been directing him to cut and shape the clouds above into two symbols. One looked like his own cutie mark of a half eclipsed sun, and the other was a crudely done set of three apples.

“Not bad for our first air show, eh Torch?” Sunny chuckled as he pet the giant dragon on the back of his neck.

At his absolute end, Torch quickly cut both ends of the ropes that Sunny had tied to his horns, grabbed the end he had cut on his right side, and pulled Sunny off in one quick motion.

The yellow unicorn hung on the hope half sheepishly starring back at Torch’s unamused reptilian eyes. “So.... wanna call it quits and we have that talk now?”

“Talk?! TALK?!” Torch began to bellow at Sunny. “WHY WOULD I EVER WANT TO TALK TO THE LIKES OF YOU?!”

Ignoring the dragon’s obvious anger, Sunny began to answer his rhetorical question. “I just wanted to explain ‘what’ I haven’t been around for the past 1000 years, and why-“

“I COULD CARE LESS!” Torch snapped, his booming yell nearly blowing Sunny’s hat right off his head. “The fact is you neglected your duties and abandoned the dragons when they needed you the most! I can’t take away your ‘title’ of ‘Black Knight’, But I refuse to let you having anything over us Dragons!

“A puny pony who can’t even keep his own word has no right to tell a dragon what to do!” Torch dropped Sunny and the rope he was holding onto.

Getting up and dusting himself off, Sunny flared back at Torch as he straitened his Stetson hat. “Well, It sure is good ta know where ya stand! Yes, ah was gone fer darn over 1000 years, but ya ain’t even gunna be considerate enough ta hear me out? Ya ever think somethin’ might have happed ta me? Did it ever once go through your mind that I was in trouble?”

As Sunny’s accent became lost again, and a fire began to burn in his eyes, Torch’s own anger began to subside deep within, despite his stone like exterior remaining unmoved.

“I could care less about the troubles of some ‘pony’ “ Torch shot out flat and emotionlessly.

That was the final straw. Sunny not only looked dumbfounded but hurt beyond reason. “‘Some pony? ‘SOME PONY’?! I visited you all the time! We played together! I helped your train for combat and to control fire! We joked and laughed and talked about the future! We were going to help our species work together for a better future!”

“A FUTURE TOU WEREN’T THERE TO HELP BUILD!” Torch’s anger caught a small flame, but it wasn’t anything compared to Sunny’s.

The yellow unicorn began to draw from deep within him a voice that not only commanded authority, but shook the rocks below and the clouds above! “A FUTURE I WAS ROBBED OF! BUT YOU DON’T EVEN CARE ENOUGH TO LISTEN, DO YOU?! YOU ARROGANT, THICK-HEADED, BLOW HEART!

“If you want that armor soooo badly that you would throw away our friendship for it, then take it! It’s yours!” Forcing himself to use magic again, Sunny levitated the Black Knight armor from
The creator and dropped it at Torch’s claws.

Huffing at Sunny’s statement and notion with the armor, Torch just shot a hard look at Sunny. “Don’t act like we were ‘friends’ back then, Sunny. You told me yourself you ‘didn’t have friends.’”

“Your right” Sunny commented as he began to walk away. The next part he whispered as he continued to walk away, not knowing or caring who was able to hear him speak under his breath. “You were like a brother to me...”

As Sunny walked passed the former Dragon Lord, Garnet, he bowed and tipped his hat to say goodbye. Garnet returned the bow with a claw over his chest and a slight head bow, as was dragon custom. Walking further past, Sunny gave achknowlagment to the band, Dragonforce, for playing such an awesome song. They then gave him one of their business cards and told him they do parties as well. He gave them a small smile, and tipped his hat to them as well. Never looking back, Sunny left the Dragon Lands, his armor, and Torch behind...

“Is he gunna be ok?” Apple Bloom asked her sister in a hushed tone, both of them watching Sunny from the kitchen window.

The yellow unicorn offered to go out and chop some fire wood, hardly saying a word over the past few days, since his return from the Dragon Lands.

“I’m sure he will, Apple Bloom... he just needs some time...” Applejack tried to sound sure in what she told her little sister, but even ‘she’ wasn’t nearly as confident as she was pretending to be.

As Sunny started to load up the chopped logs, ready to take them to the side of the barn to stack them up till they were needed, a small, familiar voice rang out from the distance. Before he could react, a certain mail mare tackled Sunny to the ground.

“Hey Sunny!” Derpy smiled as she looked over and saw her normally cheerful friend.

“Hey Derpy... hard at work I see” Sunny tried to kick up the sound of his tone, at least for Derpy.

“You bet! Got this package in this morning, and boy is it heavy!” Derpy started to say before pushing the large brown package over to Sunny. “But when I saw it was for you, I just had to make it priority!”

“This morning?” Sunny sounded a little confused. “It’s after two.

“Yeah... it took me a little while getting it here” Derpy smiled awkwardly. “I’m probably going to have a lot of work to do when I get back, but I just had to be the one to deliver this to you!”

Looking at the package, Sunny was slightly confused as to who might have actually sent it. A letter was attached;

‘Black Knight,

This belongs to you. We might need your help in the future.

-Ember, the new Dragon Lord

PS don’t mind my dad, he can be a little hot headed sometimes.’

After finishing the letter, Sunny looked to the package and began to peal the paper off. Once the package had been completely opened, Sunny and Derpy looked inside. The two ponies were shocked to see Sunny’s Black Knight armor, shinning like new with the sun’s rays reflecting off it.

Author's Note:

Notes: I’ve been wanting to use Dragonforce and their music in my fic, and I have a feeling that I’m not quite done with them yet. The song ‘Where Dragon’s Rule’ by Dragonforce was perfect for this fight, and I can’t wait for ten to come back. They are my all time favorite band!

I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter