Sunny Knight: a Pony's Tale

by TheothersideofSunny968

Tapping into inner rage

"I still can hardly believe it" Celestia repeated herself herself her son.

"Believe it, mom" Sunny beamed as he held up what looked to be a small piece of concrete. For a moment Sunny was overwhelmed with joy, the final piece of Discords shattered stone body had been located! Now they can put him back together!… but there was a sacrifice. One that struck Sunny to his core.

When Sunny arrived at the Vetrinarian's office in Ponyville, as instructed by the Baba Ya Ga sisters. He was shocked to see a very, very cold Crackers the ferret there, currled up in an electric heating blanket. The poor guy had traveled far, before arriving in Ponyville in an ice cream cake train car. No pony knows when or how he got on there, but when they saw his collar, they immediatly took him to the town Vetrinarian for care. After Sunny spoke with the vet,, who reasured Sunny several times that Crackers would indeed be alright, Sunny noticed a small package tied securely around the little ferret.

Removing it from his pet, Sunny noticed a letter with his aunt Radiant Hope's hoof writing;

'Sunny, I trust you know what to do with this.

Darkness approaches. Stay true to who you are.

-Radiant Hope'

Sunny read the note over in his head several times, and each time it left a worse feeling in the pit of the yellow unicorn's stomach. Something was wrong, he just knew it. Pappy wrote that he would be borrowing Crackers and would take care of him, but why would Aunt Radiant be sending him back Crackers? Where was Pappy? And why didn't Radiant Hope's just deliver Crackers herself? Where was she? Why did she feel the need to send Crackers all on his own? Sunny's father had the missing piece to Discord, so how did Radiant get it away from him? Something was off, and it left a not in Sunny's gut. But Sunmy knew what he had to do at that moment.

"Go ahead and place the piece you have on the pile, Sunny" Celestia told her son as the two reached the spot in the garden where Discord's crumbled stone body lay. Celestia had sentries guarding it at all times, she wished there was more she could have done for her old friend, but the spell had to be performed at the same spot where the statue crumbled.

After Sunny placed the stone tooth piece ontop of the pile, Celestia focused her magic and coated the debris in a golden magical aura. The pieces began to levitate, and slowly reorganize into a familiar shape until they formed a statue in the image of Discord once more. In a mater of moments, the pieces settled into place, cracks disappearing as if it had never shattered in the first place. But he was still just a grey statue.

Sunny turned and looked to his mother with slight concern before Sunny hears a small chipping sound, and flung his gaze back to the statue, worried that it might be breaking into pieces again. A feeling of reliefe washed over Sunny when he saw the master of chaos pealing a layer of grey off him as if he were a snake or a lizard shedding it's skin.

"Discord? Are you alright?" Celestia asked, her tone a little hesitant.

The master of chaos shook violently like a dog that just got out of a bath, freeing himself from the rest of the grey pieces of skin. Once he looked like his old self, the master of chaos struck a pose and declared "I'm back! I'm back and ready to teach that stallion of yours a little manners! Maybe a few days in the chaos zone having tea with come cosmic beings will do just the trick!"

Discord snapped his fingers before anypony could stop him…. But nothing happneed.

Everypony fell silent, eyes heavy on Discord. The draconaquis paused, looked back at Celestia and Sunny, chuckled nervously, then tried snapping his fingers again. And again. And again. And again. But nothing happened. Nothing at all.

"Th-this has never happneed to me before!" Discord's shaky voice made Sunny and his mother nervous.

"Ah don't understand" Sunny looked Discord over. "We had all th' pieces. What went wrong? Was he ah pile of pieces for too long?"

Celestia narrowed her eyes, her mind reeling with every possibility. "I don't know. We'll need to get you to a doctor, maybe even a magical examiner, Discord. But other then your lack of magic, how do you feel?"

The shaken draconaquis looked his body over a few times, bending and twising in ways that only he could, before looking back at Celestia. "I think I'm fine, you know, other then having no magic… ugh, this isn't good Celestia. What is a master of chaos without his magic!? How could I bring joy to every creature I come across!? Perform great acts of entertainment for the reader to enjoy!? Mimic famous actors or referance things that needs will Google later!?"

Sunny raised a brow at Discord, half of the stuff he said normally didn't make a lick of sence, but he didn't say anything given Discord's current state. The draconaquis could be delirious and spouting nonsense.

"We'll figure out what's going on. Lets get you inside" Celestia offered her back for Discord to lean on, Sunny quickly changed into his Celestial form and took to Discord's other side.

The master of chaos was a little taken back by Sunny's sudden transformation, but shook it off, mumbling under his breath "guess there are a few things I'll need to be filled in on."

The two tall ponies holding Discord up, lead the powerless Master of chaos out of the hedge maze, steadily making their journey to the castle to get him the medical attention he needs.

Sombra glared at Radiant Hope, who was at the moment, frozen in a large crystal. Her form was solidified in a position that made her seem like she was simply floating in the water, possibly having a bad dream, given the pained look on her face. But Sombra knew she didn't have bad dreams about herself. No. She had bad dreams about those she cared about. About her friends from the Crystal Empire, about the princesses, about Sunny, and possibly, about him.

"You need not concern yourself with her" Sombra's mother's voice hissed as she took to his side. The form of princess Amore may have been standing there, but a dark miasma blanketed her, seemed to pour out of her eyes, nose, mouth, and coat her in a sickly smog. The tall unicorn's eyes glowed a sickly white color as she looked upon her son.

"I know she'll be fine in there-" Sombra started to state, but was interrupted.

"You shouldn't care about somepony who betrayed you" his mother snapped, interrupting him, her tone never reaching above a level of annoyance. "My son, I would have thought that you, of all creatures, would see by now that no pony can be trusted…"

As Mourning Cloak, still using Amore and her puppet for the time being, moved her marionette around in the darkness, she began to weave a spell in her misty form that was now secretly cloaking her son. "My son, ponies have proven time and time again to be untrust worthy, to you, to me, to our kind.

"Celestia tried to betray you, sealing you away in the ice of the tundra. Your son betrayed you, taking his mother's side, no doubt concocting a way to defeat you as we speak. Radiante Hope conspired with your father to steal the piece of Discord and returning it to give Celestia and your son an edge on you." As she spoke, more and more brown mist began to pour from her mouth.

"You took care of Discord, though. Casting that spell on it so he can't use magic if his body was ever reformed." Sombra stated, his eyes following the puppet Amore.

"I did that as a precotion" Mourning stated with a slight hiss. "You are cunning and smart, my son. You get that from me. But you are too trusting, to soft hearted. Like your father. He was weak. He let the ponies manipulate him. He grew ashamed of what he was, and forced himself into that shell of a form. But no matter how much he may try, he, you, myself, we are the things ponies fear the most. Fear itself! We should be proud of that. And never let others tell us what we are."

Her words made sence to Sombra. The shadow king stood and listened to them as they seemed to repeat in his head over and over. He never payed attention to the thin streams of brown mist that were making their way into his ears. The more Sombra repeated his mother's words in his head, the more they made sence, and Mourning Cloak could see it.

"We can't trust anypony" Sombra stated as a new fierceness shifted his eyes. He then looked out to the door, just beyond the room they were in, where the most loyal of his pony guards were. "When we are done, we'll let our family feed on those ones. It will be a good appetizer for them."

"Now you're thinking of your family" Amore's hooves patted Sombra on his back.

'Family…' the word ran in Sombra's head, clearing some of the mind numbing mist. A change in Sombra's hard gaze occurred as he tore his eyes from the door, his mind traveling to a small farm in a town far away from him, where he guessed his son was working hard. "But… what about Sunny? He's half umbrum, and my son…"

Shocked and annoyed by the connection Sombra kept with his son, Mourning took in a deep breath and decided it was time to have a motherly talk with her son.

"Do you not see what he is doing to you? He has chosen the ponies over you!" She began hard but softened her tone, knowing she couldn't force her son to take in her words as she did with his father. No, she needed to be more elegant about it. "He tried to stop you from releasing our family 1000 years ago. He has since stood in your way of trying to release them, time and time again, always choosing to side with ponies. Choosing his mother who neglected and disowned him, over his own father who did everything he could for him… do you even have a son?"

The last statment seemed to ring in Sombra's mind the most. As if it were the sound a brass bell was being rung in his ears, over and over and over.

"He chose his mother over you" Mourning hissed again, her brown mist filling into Sombra's ears directly from her mouth as she whispered into his ears. "His friends over you. Even your treacherous father over you. He's put you on the back burner, put everypony, literally every pony in the world, before you. And after everything you did for him. You were practically his best friend… but now he sees you as only an enemy…"

Images flashed of Sunny fighting Sombra, but not memories, more like clipped older memories pieced togearher with recent ones, merging them into thoughts of the upcoming battle against Sunny. Only this time, it seems Sunny isn't afraid to fight Sombra. Images flashed in Sombra's mind of Sunny stricking him down and sealing him away, again, for another 1000 years, in the ice, only to walk away and have a victory party with all the other ponies.

Was this his fate? Was this what was waiting for him if Sombra faced his son once again?

"He's turned his back on you…" Mourning's voice ran in Sombra's head like small silver bells. "He's no son of yours… he belongs to Celestia… to the ponies… he cares nothing for you, or for our family…"

'He's happier with them' Sombra thought. A numbing, yet painful thought. Then, slowly, a bubbling anger began to fill the shadow King's heart as he stood up on his hind legs and stomped his front hooves into the ground! "He wants ponies! He can have them! And suffer their fate with them! He is no son of mine!"

The last sentence began ringing loudly in Sombra's head again, with each gong the statment seemed more and more true to him. Seeing this, Mourning Cloak smirked in the shadow of her puppet, knowing soon this would all be over, and her Empire would rane Supreme, and shadows will cover the world. But something would need to happen to that annoying little sun spot. And she knew just what to do….

Author's Note:

I know I said before I wanted to start ending these groups of chapters on high notes, but... this on just needed to end the way it did

Also, the name for Sunny's grandmother/Sombra's mother (Mourning Cloak) my wife actually gave me, it's a type of brown winged butterfly. I wanted to go with something dark without 'Shadow' or 'Darkness' in it or another language saying it.

Hope you guys liked this group of chapters! I'm still kicking this into overdrive! Wanna get this done either before the Gen 5 movie airs or the end of the year.

But don't worry, j have other writing projects for Sunny when this fic ends!