Sunny Knight: a Pony's Tale

by TheothersideofSunny968

Mother of Shadows

"Please, your majesty, forgive me!" Snowstorm fell over on his haunches then his back, crawling backwards in a desperate attempt to put space between him and King Sombra, but never being foolish enough to actually turn his back to the enraged king.

After crashing the Grand Galloping Gala and retrieving a fake corner stone, Sombra angrily returned to his new stronghold to construct the next phase of his plan. Only to later be informed, by one of his guards who returned, that Snowstirm got away by dropping a chandelier on Sunny!

"Forgive you!? FORGIVE YOU!?!?" Sombra began to roar, his anger boiling over. " I have you two simple orders! 1) keep the ponies in the gala busy, including the princesses. And 2) keep an eye on that insane changeling friend of yours! And you failed at both!"

Stomping his hooves down onto the ground, causing several sharp dark Crystals to form behind Snowstorm, prevent him from scurrying away. Realizing he was trapped, Snowstorm looked upon King Somnra with fear filled eyes, now knowing first hoof what the king's enemies saw. The overwhelming sence of fear caused the former guard to shake in his black armor. Lookinh down at thebcolt, Sombra knew Snowstorm had screwed up, and the colt was very sorry for his failure. Under other circumstances, King Somnra would have let Snowstorm go with just some minor tormenting. But there was one other thing that Snowstorm did during the Gala attack that he needed to pay for. One thing that Sombra could not forgive.

Just as Sombra was about to execute a spell to wipe Snowstorm's memory clean, leaving him a drooling fool that he would then dump at the nearest town, a certain voice called out to the shadow king, stopping Sombra in his tracks. "We may still have use for him…"

Sombra and the frantic Snowstorm turned and saw the silhouette of a tall, feminine unicorn. She appeared to be just as tall as Princess Celestia, and had Sombra not already known who she was, he would have mistaken her for his traitorous love. Stepping into the light, more of her detail was revealed. Her coat was dark grey like Sombra's, horn though, was like a jagged red crystal, eyes red and reptilian like, her mane was long and flowing black with a few streaks of light and dark grey. Upon her head, the mare wore what appeared to be a crown of dark red crystals who's light was pulsing. Her stride was elegant yet powerful, as if she ruled the world.

"What 'use' did you have in mind, mother?" Sombra calmly asked, pulling back his anger.

Before Snowstorm could repeat the king's words in his head, his world was blinded in a flash of green light. He didn't know what happened, but all of a sudden he was back at his home in Canterlot! In his old room that he grew up in! Looking down at himself, he realized he was a foal again! Or… was he still a foal and all that about becoming a royal guard, the attack on Garganda, forced to run a prison, and King Sombra been just a bad dream?… it must have. The memory he had of King Sombra and everything seemed to be fading like a bad dream, and something important popped into his head. Today was a special day! It was the day he graduated from the young guard! He had been lined up to graduate today from the young guard academy and in two months he would be taking the test to join princess celestia's school for gifted unicorns!

Hopping out of bed, Snowstorm ran out of his room and made it half way down the stairs before he paused, hearing the disappointed tone of his father's voice, making the colt Snowstorm freeze in place.

"I know I should be proud of him for graduating, but his scores are third from the bottom in his class" Snowstorm's father was talking with his mother. "How can we expect him to do well in Celestia's school with grades like that?"

"He didn't have bad grades, dear" Snowstorm's mother tried to explain to his father. "The other colts were just really smart."

"Maybe it would be best if we put him in a regular school" Snowstorm's father suggested. "Celestia's school for gifted unicorns would be too much for him to handle."

"I know he will do well, just like you did" Snowstorm's mother continued to insist and believe in her son.

"He might.… I better see a great deal of determination in him before enrollment starts. I will not have him make a mockery of our family's name by trying to be something he isn't." Snowstorm's father stomped his hoof, conflicted with feelings of worry and pride.

Snowstorm calmly and quietly walked back up stairs and without making even so much as a creak, shut his bedroom door. Once it was shut, Snowstorm let out a huge sigh, hung his head, and walked slowly back to his bed. 'I knew it… father thinks I'm a failure... he thinks I'll just sully his good image…'

Pausing infront of the mirror, Snowstorm took a good hard look at himself, stopped panicking and worrying, burying those doubtful emotions beneath several feet of concrete in his heart, and took control of his fears.

"I'm not just going to pass my classes" Snowstorm told himself as he looked over at his helmet that lay on his dresser. Levitating it up, Snowstorm slowly lowered the black helmet and mask over his head, his voice becoming more and more metallic as he did. "I will be the best unicorn guard equestria has ever seen and-"

"-serve our kind with pride, and without failure…" a secondary voice echoed in the background without Snowstorm realizong it.

Behind him in the mirror was a faint outline of a tall unicorn mare, eyes glowing green with flames of purple burning at the far corners of them. She continued to whisper into the cult's ear as he repeated the words over and over to himself while gazing at his own reflection. Over, and over, and over again…

Outside the cult's mind, Sombra watched his mother work her dark magic, eyes locked with Snowstorm's. They had been that way but for a short few moments. When his mother was finished, she simply closed her eyes and turned around to her son. "He is now completly loyal to you. He won't recognize his family, any friends he had, or acknowledge any personal feelings. He is 100% a solider, and will answer your every command."

Snowstorm stood up strait and saluted King Sombra.

A little taken back by her work, Sombra asked his mother "What did you do to him?"

The tall unicorn mare chuckled lightly, narrowing her sharp reptilian eyes on her son and answered with a confident tone "You have much to learn, but I can show you how to make perfect soldiers, and you have more then enough guinea pigs practice on…"

As the two left talked amongst themselves, another being lurked in the shadow. The old stallion, Pappy, looked down at them from a crevice in the ceiling, eyes straining to observe, ears struggling to hear them. He got the gist of what happened and didn't like it.

"Gunna have ta change plans ah little…" the old colt told himself before pulling something fuzzy out if his coat pocket. "Gunna need ta rely more on you this time, little buddy…"

The ferret looked up at him, yawned, scratched himself, then went back to sleep.

Author's Note:

Things start to make sense as more and more pieces connect.

Keep reading to understand all that is going on behind the scenes...