Sunny Knight: a Pony's Tale

by TheothersideofSunny968

Eternal Nightverse

"Mirror mirror on the wall, who is the most powerful ruler of all?" Nightmare Moon asked as she approached the magical mirror she had hung up on her wall, her reptilian like eyes confidently gazed upon it with a feeling of triumph.

The image of Nightmare Moon's own deflection in the mirror swirled, and a new form came into focus, and an image of a yellow unicorn stallion's head appeared. He had an orange mop of a mane, his emerald colored eyes barely opened to a slit and he kept his gaze on the ground as he had previously been ordered to. "Your highness, your grace, you who rules the night, who has overthrown your sister, and have removed all possible threats to your reign, 'you' yourself remain the most powerful ruler in all Eauestria. You have no equal, in both power and territory. No pony would dare challenge you…"

Nightmare Moon chuckled and threw her head back, enjoying the words coming from the yellow unicorn's mouth. "Yes! Yes! All true!"

Shortly after Nightmare Moon returned from her 1000 year imprisonment, She quickly overpowered her sister, Princess Celestia, and imprisoned 'her' in the moon just as Celestia had done to HER 1000 years ago. It filled the dark alicorn with great delight to do so, and spread her night across all Equestria. Her eternal night had begun and will never end! Ponies were reluctant at first to her forceful rule, but quickly realized resistance was futile, and soon fell into place through force.

Her sister may have abandoned their castle in the Everfree forest and left it to ruins, but Nightmare Moon returned and revived it to its former glory and better. Still, Nightmare Moon was suprised to find her dear nephew wandering around Ponyville, the town just outside her castle. He was confused and lacked memory of anything, including who he was and where he came from. This was a delicious opertunity that Nightmare Moon had to take advantage of. She offered to revive his lost memory if he swore complete loyalty to her. Sunny was reluctant at first, but after some persuading, the dark alicorn was able to sway him. It didnt take Sunny long to regret making such a deal with the dark princess.

By swearing his loyalty to her, Sunny soon sound himself imprisoned in a magical mirror that acted as a portal to what Nightmare Moon described as a 'pocket dimension'. Apparently when Star-Swirl the bearded was working with magical mirrors, he made some that could capture creatures and imprison them. Sunny never knew much of what the old wizard worked on or what he had planned to use the imprisoning mirrors for, but surely the purpose was for a more noble cause then this. Another part to Sunny's swearing loyalty was a curse that forced him to tell the truth no matter what, and in return it gave him insight over all Equestria. He could see the towns, the mountains, every mare, stallion and colt. Sunny had become a tool for Nightmare Moon to keep an eye on all of her subjects, prevent anypony from causing trouble for her, and a way to keep everypony in line. With Sunny's help, she's already stopped several coups before they really got started. As such, the most spirited ponies have fallen in line and now work for her, less they end up in the dungeons.

As Nightmare Moon was about to leave and let Sunny return to she shadows of his mirror prison, he called out to her. "Your majesty, may I ask you something?"

Nightmare Moon, just about to head back to her thrown room, paused, and looked back with a slightly annoyed look on her muzzle. "What is it, mirror?"

It stung to think that that was all Sunny was to her, a mirror, an item to own and throw away. He knew they weren't close before, bus surely there was some understanding that he was a pony, a living, sentian creature. Ignoring the pain of her words, Sunny pressed forward with his question. "Now that you have complete control over all Equestria, your enemies sealed away in either stone… or worse… what will you do now?"

A smirk crept across Nightmare Moon's muzzle and she turned around fully to face Sunny. "What's the matter, mirror? Feeling lonely in there? Want somepony for company? I'd send my sister to you, but you'll have to wait at least a thousand years! Maybe then I'll be gracious enough to stick her in there with you! Or maybe not, I haven't decided yet."

Knowing now who his mother was, Sunny's heart sank as he looked away from Nightmare Moon to the moon in her night sky. An image of a horned mare lay across the surface of it, for now the princess of the sun lay trapped there, as Nightmare Moon had before her. Pushing his feelings back down again, Sunny got more to the point. "What I mean is, now what will you do? Nopony or creature of any kind can or would dare to stand against you, you have the greatest army Equestria has ever seen, with the greatest wealth any kingdom of any kind could ever hope for…"

Nightmare Moon was pleased to hear this, but she could tell there was more Sunny was trying to tell her. "Yes, yes, now make your point."

Taking a deep breath, Sunny ignored his aunt's rule and made eye contact with her, trying to find the humanity in her, the kindness, any sign of caring in her gaze. "But you are lonely and unhappy. How do you plan to deal with that?"

"Lonely? Unhappy? How dare you!? I am Nightmare Moon! Ruler of all Eauestria! Everypony and creature bows before me, trembles with fear and respects me!" The angered alicorn hissed.

"They bow and tremble with fear, but not respect" Sunny stated, being unable to lie. "But that isn't what you wanted. You wanted everypony to love you and enjoy your night as much as you did, given the hard work you put into it and keeping an eye on their dreams. Now you are the princess of Equestria, standing where your sister stood, all alone. And for 1000 years at the least. Unfortunately, you will know what she felt."

"WHAT SHE FELT!?" Nightmare Moon stood up on her back legs, then slammed down with her front hooves, her flowing mane almost a blaze with anger as she glared at the mirror. "Did anypony care about how 'I' felt!? How it felt to be betrayed by my own sister!? My own flesh and blood sealed me away!? After I was cast out by her, she ignored me when I needed her!? Why would I care how SHE felt!?"

"She wept for you" Sunny stated, keeping his tone flat, catching Nightmare Moon off guard a little. "She knew she had made a mistake in ignoring your feelings and drove you to becoming Nightmare Moon, and felt 1000 years worth of guilt and lonelyness for it. And if it makes you feel any better, I know how you feel."

"Bah! You don't know of what you speak, you're just a silly mirror" Nightmare Moon spat, more then done with listening to Sunny, and began to angrily walk away.

"My aunt sealed me in a mirror and turned me into a tool, when all I wanted was her friendship, and to find out about myself" Sunny continued to speak, stopping Nightmare Moon in her tracks, but the dark alicorn didn't look back at the mirror. "So, I do know the pain and betrail you felt-"

Before Sunny could say any more, Nightmare Moon, standing up as strait as she could walked over to him, raised one hoof, and hit the edge of his mirror as hard as she could. A long crack spread out across Sunny's mirror prison, sending spikes of pain shooting through him, causing him great pain unlike anything he's ever felt before.

"Know this, mirror" Nightmare Moon moved in closer, narrowing her eyes on the image of the yellow unicorn. "I can always get a new magical mirror. If I don't want you around, all I have to do is break your mirror, and you'll be trapped in your darkness forever. Nopony will be able to ever find you. And you'll be forgotten, again. So, if I were you, I'd keep my questions to myself, got it?"

Taking several painful breaths, Sunny kept his gaze to the floor, away from Nightmare Moon, tears in his eyes and answered "Yes… your majasty… I understand…"

"I'm not your aunt, and I never was" Nightmare added, spitting at the mirror once more. "You have no more family. And when my sister returns in 1000 years, I'll have a spell to seal her permanently in the moon."

As Nightmare Moon pulled herself away from an almost crying mirror, she whispered under her breath "there can be only one princess of Equestria, and that shall be me…"

Several hours later, Sunny still felt the pain of the crack shooting through his body, but something popped up in his field of vision. A glimmer of hope. In his mind, he could see another alicorn princess. Not Princess Cadence who lay next to Sunny's father in the bottom of the gorge as statues, nor his mother, but another, smaller, purple alicorn princess accompanied by a small, purple, baby dragon. There was something special about them. Neither were anywhere near as strong as Nigbtmare Moon, but there was a strength about them that gave Sunny hope. But if he told Nightmare Moon about it, surely the alicorn… Twilight Sparkle was her name… would meet a similar fate, or worse, then his own. There was only one thing to do.

Going up as close as he could to the mirror that linked the pocket dimension he was trapped in to Equeatria, Sunny turned about face, raised his back legs, and began kicking as hard as he could. Bucking the mirror with all his might. He Bucked again. And again. If Twilight wss to have any chanc of succeeding in her quest, Nightmare Moon could not be allowed the vision she had by using him! Sunny knew what he had to do. He had to destroy his own mirror. This caught the attention of the guards. One rushed off to get Nightmare Moon, the other tried their best to stabilize the mirror. Moments later, after Sunny delivered several more kicks, creating cracks all over the mirror, Nightmare Moon appeared before him.

"What is the meaning of this!?" The dark alicorn demanded the truth from the mirror.

Sunny had no choise but to oblige and tell her the truth, but not nessisarily. "I can't stand living like this! I refuse to be just an object to you! You're worse then your sister ever could be! So I quit!"

With one final buck, Sunny shattered the mirror, which caused such a great pain to shoot through his entire body, forcing the yellow unicorn to pass out, floating in a world without light, without ground, without up or down. Forever out of anypony's reach.

On the other side where Equestria was, Nightmare Moon stood looking at a broken mirror, at a loss for words for a good long moment. She would have hesitated longer, but her guards still stood behind her, and she knew she needed to show no weakness. She turned around and addressed one of the guards. "Have this mess cleaned up, throw out the pieces, smash them into smaller pieces, and make sure nopony could put it back togeather again. Do I make myself clear!?"

The guards nervohsly nodded and began gathering the pieces, afraid to anger Nightmare Moon and further.

Sunny had no idea what Twilight Sparkle was doing or if she was able to defeat Nightmare Moon, or what her whole purpose was for being in the dangerous Everfree forest. All he knew was he was tired. Really tired. He now was lost to time and space, and thus had all the time he could want to sleep. In sleep, he hoped, he would forget all about this. It was better when he didn't remember who he was. It was better when he didn't know his family…

Once again, but for the first time, the darkness around Sunny shifted and changed. The flow of time was once again altered. Like somepony rewinding a clock, for a third time, let's hope the next time, the clock is set right. Only this time, a darkness lingered in the yellow stallion's heart. A darkness that defeated many warriors, crumbled empires, and brought rulers to their knees. The darkness was a loss of hope…