Sunny Knight: a Pony's Tale

by TheothersideofSunny968

Through the Looking Glass

It had started off as an average day on the farm; the Apples all woke up before the rooster crowed, hopped out of their respective beds, cleaned themselves up a bit, then went right to work in the orchard while Granny made them breakfast. It was a hot and dry day, though. And about half an hour into the harvest, Sunny went back to the farm house to get the three Apple siblings some water.

As he entered the farm house, though, Sunny senced something was very, very off. A cold chill ran up his spine. Looking around, Sunny knew there was something in the farm house that didn't belong there, but he couldn't put his hoof on it.

"I'm upstairs…" a feminine voice called out to Sunny, one he didn't recognize, but one that made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up and every muscle in his body tense.

Curious and concerned, Sunny kept his eyes wide open and his guard up, as he cautiously walked up the stairs to where he heard the voice coming from. It suprised him to find the voice had come from his own bedroom. Pausing at the door frame, Sunny peeked around the corner and inside his room. Inside was a rather tall, elegant unicorn, with a pink-cream colored coat, and a flowing and curly pink mane that turned blue near the begining of the curly ends.

"Pardon my rudness, miss, but who are you? And what are you doing in my room?" Sunny asked, his accent not present as he was cautious and preparing himself for a possible attack.

The mare turned to Sunny and smiled, her green eyes glowed as they locked onto where Sunny hid behind the wall, and she shot him a small smile. Not the kind of smile that one would have when being genuinely happy, like seeing a friend or greeting a family member, but more like one a cat would have on its face as it cornered a mouse and was going to play with it for a while, knowing the mouse couldn't get away. Sunny was glad he chose to be cautious and stayed out of his room and behind the edge of the door, instead of doing the polite thing and walking inside.

"Don't you know who I am?" As the mare spoke, Sunny felt the air in the room grow colder, making it almost harder to breath. "Forgive me. I am Princess Amore. Former ruler of the Crystal Empire. And I'm looking for King Sombra. Have you seen him?"

This caught Sunny off guard. He had heard tales of Princess Amore from his father… but she had gone missing over 1000 years ago. Looking the mare up and down, she did look like the images on the tapestries that hung in the halls at the Crystal Empire castle, but how was this possible?

Letting his guard down, Sunny stepped into his room, ready to ask some quesgions. But as soon as the yellow unciorn stepped into his room, the door slammed shut behind him, and Sunny knew he made a mistake. A strong magical force, stronger then any he had felt before levitated him up and began squeezing.

"You discussing little thing!" Amore hissed, her facial features altered slightly as a brown smoke poured out of her mouth and the corners of her eyes. "Such an abomination doesn't deserve to exist! To think my son raised you, disgusts me! Such a waste of his precious time! But now it's time to take out the trash."

Amore levitated a tall mirror, similar to the one Celestia gave to Sunny, over to her. Unlike the one Sunny had, that had a boarder that was while and purple similar to the structures in Canterlot, this one was black with red crystals embedded into it, making it appear very menacing. Before Sunny could react and cast a teleportation spell, he was thrown into the mirror by the strong magical force of Princess Amore. Immediatly after Sunny passed threw the magical mirror, Amore levitated the mirror into the air, and using all the brute strength of her magical force, crushed the mirror into the tiniest little ball of black rubble. Even going so far as to crush the mirror shards into sand sized pieces.

With a vile smile and wicked chuckle, feeling victorious in her doings, Mourning Cloak still possessing Amore's body, looked down at her work, pleased that she just removed a rather annoying obstival from the picture. "No more little mongral around to trouble my son with worry full thoughts. But just to be safe, let's take care of those 'friends' of his as well…"

Sunny had been tumbling around in a blinging light and multicolor tunnel for quite some time before his unwanted ride ended abruptly, and he fell to the floor. His body hurt all over, but his warrior instinct kicked in, and he got to his hooves and looked around. Breathing heavily, Sunny recognized the room he was in as one of the storage rooms in the Crystal Empire. Doing a double take, Sunny made sure that nopony or creature was around, then jumped away from the magical mirror behind him, worried that whatever that creature was pretending to be princess Amore would soon follow. After a moment, Sunny cautiously tapped at the magical mirror. His heart sank as his hoof just seemed to touch the surface of a regular mirror, rather then a magical portal that would have sucked his hoof right into.

'This isn't good he thought as he cautiously made his way across the storage room to the door leading outside. 'If I can just get to Cadence and Shinning Armor, maybe they can use some sort of spell to get me home! They have that wizard living in the castle now, right? What's his name, Sunblast or something…'

Opening the door and stepping out of the storage room, Sunny turned around and came muzzle to muzzle with somepony he didn't expect to see.

"Applejack!?" Sunny had a mixture of emotions as his fiancé was standing right infront of him. But he pushed his questioning feeling aside and immediatly pulled the orange mare into a hug. "Oh thank mom, yer OK!"

Relief fed into fear as Sunny broke the hug and looked Applejack up and down, checking her for wounds of any kine. "Did that witch hurt you! I swear, Ah'll-ah'll…"

But Sunny noticed something different about Applejack as he looked her over once again. She was wearing some sort of crystal guard armor, her mane was braided rather then tied near the end with a red ribbon, and her expression seemed dull and emotionless. Releasing her from his grasp, Sunny looked Applejack over, sencing something was wrong.

"Are you ok, Sir?" Applejack asked in a rather dulled tone, her eyes had lidded showing little to no emotion. "You're acting a little odd."

"Applejack, you… you feelin' ok?" Sunny asked, putting a hoof to her forhead. No, she wasn't running a temperature.

"Sir, as much as I would like to play around, you are needed in the King's throan room. He requested your presence." Applejack stated, her expression and tone very flat, almost devoid of all emotion.

Not knowing what to do, but sencing something was still off, Sunny straitended himself up and told Applejack. "Alright, take me to the Throan room."

"As you wish, sir" Applejack flatly replied in a way that would make Maud look like Pinkie Pie. As Applejack lead Sunny down the hallway that Sunny knew led to the throan room, he studied his surroundings and took note that alot of the decorations were… not quite right.

Tapestries that normally hung around the castle were the same, but there were a few that appeared very different. Images of a unicorn in black armor appeared more then a hoof full of few times, appearing to be fighting dragons, Griffins, yaks, and many more armies, mostly by himself. Then there were Crystal statues of guards all around, all of them armed with Crystal guard armor and real metal weapons, and Sunny swore they were watching him.

Several thoughts ran through Sunny's mind as he took everything in. Too many to home in on. He could spend days, maybe even weeks trying to piece everything togeather, but decided it would just be best if he went with the flow. Answers would soon present themselves.

After a few moments, both the armor clad Applejack and Sunny appeared at the doors of the throan room. Applejack suprised Sunny by saluting him and asking "will there be anything else, sir?"

Not wanting to raise suspicion, Sunny simply held his head high and told the Applejackinfront of him "that will be all. Ugh, return to your post."

"Yes, sir" Applejack replied as she turned 90 degrees, stepped to the left, and staired forward. Apparently her post was the throan room. Sunny hoped she didn't notice that he didnt know that.

Wanting answers as to what was going on, Sunny pushed the doors to the throan room open and stepped through, believing he knew the only unicorn king who could be behind this, and maybe, Sunny could get some answers and hopefully help home. Stepping through the doors to the throan room, Sunny wandered in like a moth to a flame, his eyes darting all around the room, amazed and shocked by what he saw. All around the throan room were tall sheets of dark green crystal with several smaller squared of images on each of them. Almost like a large movie screen projecting the contents of several tiny television sets. The images displayed appeared to be from all around Equestria, but the cities and towns seemed… wrong… it heavily reminded Sunny of the alternate time lines he dealt with before, where things weren't quite right. There was an area that looked like Canterlot, but there was no castle, just a large tower similar to the Crystal Empire. The same was with Manehatten, and Appleoosa, and even Ponyville. Although, from the screen Sunny was looking at, Sunny saw the name of the small town was called Appleville. He thought that maybe he was slooking at the wrong town, but he saw Big Mac and Granny walk across the screen with a barrel of apples to sell. They both looked so sad, it made Sunny's own heart ache to see them like that. All of the screens circled the room, and the actual 'throan' appeared at the center of the room. The throan was different then before, being made now of dark crystals, not unlike the ones his father was able to make. Becouse of that it took Sunny a moment to realize that atop the throan was somepony clad in black armor almost identical to the color of the throan itself. The pony in quesgion sat in his seat and watched all the screens, the large dark crystal throan turning with ease left to right, right to left, making sure to show the one who sat on the throan all the screens.

"Who are you!?" The voice of the pony who sat atop the throan was deep, sounding just like a metallic version of his fathe's voice. Deep and angry.

"My name is Sunny, Sunny Knight" the yellow unicorn answered, his tone becoming more stern as he took hold of the situation, not wanting to let this black armor clad ruler hold him with fear. "I have a few quesgions for you."

"Interesting…" The balck armored unicorn stated in a deep voice as he put a hoof to his helmet and pressed a few buttons. The reflective lenses on the helmet flashed green, then yellow, then red. Sunny didn't know it, but each color change the unicorn's black helmet made was a different filter that could show the true form of several shape changing creatures of this world or a few others. When the helmet wearing unicorn only saw Sunny as what he appeared to be, he was half convinced that he was actually in his natural form. As the black armored unicorn studdied Sunny, Sunny studdied him as well. It was impossible to tell what the unicorn was actually feeling, his mask hid every inch of his muzzle, and made his voice echo and alter to negate any and all emotion. Sunny had grown fond of science fiction comics, and this pony who was conpletly covered in armor reminded him of a half pony half robot villain in one he read.

The black armored unciorn then turned to one of the large screens, and gave an order. "Take a look inside the storage room. I want a visual."

Sunny looked away from the black armored unicorn to the screen had been talking to. It was showing an image of the hallway he and Applejack just walked through, to the black armored unciorn who had stepped down from his throan. But now the image was moving down the hall, back where they came from, Sunny recognized all the decor he questioned that had the dark armored unciorn's image on it.

Now that the black armored unicorn was closer to Sunny, he could see that the black armor of this pony wasn't merely thick metal for protection, ot had very intricate parts that Sunny couldn't begin to understand their workings, much like the odd color changing helmets lences. The armor looked like it was made of dark metal, but hand a flowing silk like cloak. Every personal feature of the pony was hidden away under the black armor, not even a single hair was exposed. Reflective lenses on his helmet prevented showing any signs of the wearers eyes, and instead refected the world in their owners lences. Atop the helmet clad head was a jagged crown made of a slightly darker crystal then his armor. While Sunny studied the armored king before him, the armored king studdied the images on the screen infront of him thst started in the hall.

The screen had changed from the hall to a live feed of the storage room Sunny was in just moments before being intercepted by Applejack. Studying the details of the room, the armored king found something that wasn't there before. The armor clad unicorn's voice boomed but kept its flat tone "There! That mirror. Take it to Sparkle. And be careful."

After giving the order, the armored king turned back to Sunny and looked down at him with his emotionless masked muzzle. "Is THAT how you got here? A magical mirror?"

"Yes" Sunny answered as he stood up and straitened his stetson hat. "Tell me, where is Cadence and Shinning Armor? I need to talk to them."

"Cadence and Shinning Armor…." the dark armored unciorn repeated the names before turning to look to his screens once more. Sunny couldn't tell if the dark armored unciorn was looking for Cadence and Shinning on the screens or if he was possibly gathering his thoughts. "Tell me, who are these ponies to you? Cadence and Shinning Armor? Acquaintances of some kind."

"Family, actually" Sunny stated firmly. "Cadence is my cousin, amd Shinning's her husband. And THEY rule the Crystal Empire where I come from-"

Two images appeared on the screen infront of Sunny and the black armor wearing unicorn. There was Shinning Armor, in grey and gold armor, appearing to be leading a group of troops through the streets of Canterlot, a smile on his muzzle as he lead other guards, also clad in similar armor. Another image flashed next to it of a park Sunny recognized as also being in Canterlot. Cadence was there, playing with her daughter, Flurry Heart, in a sand box. They appeared to be OK, but something was off about the both of them. It took Sunny a moment of squinting at the image, but when he realized it, his jaw nearly hit the floor. But both of them were pegasi, not alicorns!

"So THOSE ponies are some how related to you?" The metallic voice asked.

The armored unicorn's words fell upon deaf ears as Sunnys eyes then started to dart from one image to another, all the screens were of this world, all had places Sunny Kind a recognized, but all were slightly different. In one image, Sunny saw the Wonderbolts Academy, but their uniforms were white with blue and read designs instead of blue with yellow, there appeared to be an electric fence around the Everfree forest to keep.ponies out and the creatures that called it home in, and the Friendship express train looked more sleek, grayish white in color, and moved faster then a shooting star! None of this was how he remembered it. What had happened?

"You look shocked" the dark armored unicorn stated again as he walked over to and sat down at a long, white table. He motioned for Sunny to take the seat next to him. "I'm going to go out on a limb here and say you aren't from my world. Which means you were sent here via that magical mirror. This actually isn't my first time dealing with incidents like this. Now. Sit. Let us talk. I will answer all your quesgions. And you will answer mine."

Stomping his hoof, Sunny snapped at the black armored unicorn. "I don't have time for this! There is some evil witch back at the farm! If I don't do something, she-!"

But the black armored unicorn raised a hoof to silance Sunny. "Be calm. I don't have a way to send you back to your world, just yet. But I had every intention of sending you back to where you belong as soon as possible. Look…"

The armored unicorns horn glowed green as one specific image on the screen seemed to grow. The image appeared to be some sort of laboratory, and working at the table near the magical mirror that Sunny came through, ruffling through various books, was a very familiar…unicorn?

"Ms.Sparkle" the black armor wearing unicorn cast a spell to project his voice through the Crystal golem stationed in the laboratory that was observing Twilight as she worked. The sudden voice shocked Twilight and made her jump nearly out of her lab coat.

The purple unicorn turned and faced the Crystal Golem, read justing a pair of square glasses on her muzzle before flashing a smile at the Golems direction. "Y-yes, your majasty?"

"You received a magical mirror a few moments ago. It was used as a portal into our world. Have you found a way to reopen it?" The King asked flatly.

"I-I believe the mirror on the other side might have been destroyed, your majasty. I'm breaking down the magical frequency right now, though. I should be able to lock onto the exact universe it was linked too within the hour." Twilight happily reported but her happy expression wavered. "But… it might be a little longer before I can establish a connection to a proper reflective surface to link the universes."

"If there is anypony who can get this done, it's you. You were my brightest pupil. " The black armored unicorn complemented Twilight Sparkle, but through the helmet it was hard to tell if he was being sarcastic or sincere.

The Twilight on the screen smiled and nodded her head. "Thank you, your majasty! That means alot to me! I'll have this mirror fixed for your friend in no time."

The green screen changed to a scenery of the ocean and went mute. Several groups of ponies could be seen enjoying their day at the beach.

"So… you are a Soleggiato from an alternate universe" the armored unicorn stated in his deep and almost emotionless voice as he turned to fully face Sunny, his reflective eye lences mirroring a rounded image of Sunny. "Allow me to introduce myself; I am the Supreme King of Equestria. I, alone, have concured and brought peace and unity to MY Equestrian Empire."

Sunny had taken the seat offered to him, next to the Supreme King, his green eyes looking the Supreme King up and down. While the Supreme King and Sunny had been occupied with communicating with Twilight, several servents brought out trays of food, plates, napkins, silverware, and drinks. As Sunny began to relax and think his odd circumstances and options over in head, Sunny noticed that he was the only one eating. The food appeared very similar to the dishes back home that would be served for guests meeting with Sunny's mother and aunt. Cob salad, fruit cut into various shapes, small sandwich bites, and several other rate and rich tasting treats, but one thing that caught Sunny's attention was a plate of Apple Fritters. He knew it was more of a desert or breakfast item, but that was one of the first things Sunny grabbed and put onto his plate.

Up until the moment Sunny took the Apple Fritter, the Supreme King's attention had been drifting back to his green screens, since it would be rude to ask Sunny quesgions while he ate. But when Sunny picked up the fritter, it caught the attention of the Supreme King and held it there for a long moment before the Supreme King turned his attention back to the screens, allowing Sunny to eat and relax.

"I'm not so much 'joining you for dinner' as I am just eating your food while you spy on everypony" Sunny noted as he took a bite of his salad.

"I don't trust that somecreature might try and slip something into my food. I've caught them doing so before" the Supreme King noted. "So I make mixtures of vitamins and nutrients and hydrating liquids that are fed through my helmet."

The Supreme King presented a large cup with a curly straw, then inserted the curly straw into his helmet and began drinking the substance down.

"Sounds… scrupsious" Sunny forced a smile.

"It is efficient" the Supreme King stated before looking back to the screens. "And unfortunately, my eyes are required all around Equesteia…"

"Is that really nessisary?"Sunny asked, then looked to the many screens. How tiring it must get to keep such constant visuals on all part of Equestria. Across the various screens ponies appeared happy but anypony who glanced at the golems seemed very, very nervous. This bothered Sunny a bit.

"It is what is needed to keep the peace in my world" the Supreme King stated.

"Mind if I ask what you are so afraid of?" Sunny whipped his mouth with a napkin.

"Those with power have always been feared" the Supreme King casually replied, tearing his attention away from the screens to stair at Sunny with his mirrored lenses. "Tell me, who rules in YOUR Equestria?"

"Well, there are several rulers" Sunny stated, thinking about it. "Princess Cadence, my cousin, rules the Crystal Empire where I am from with her husband, Shinning Armor. King Aspen, king of the deer, rules the Deer in the Everfree forest-"

"Do you have a Princess Celestia where you are from" the Supreme King interrupted Sunny.

"…yes" Sunny cautiously answered. He couldn't hear emotion in the Supreme Kings tone, but he did feel something. Some kind of emotion, no matter how unreadable it would have been to anypony else, Sunny senced it.

"And a King Sombra?" The Supreme King asked, still putting out some kind of unreadable emotion.

"Yes…" Sunny kept his eyes on the Supreme King, waiting for a reaction, but the mask and reflective lenses of his face plate made it hard to gage his actual reactions.

"Tell me, how do they fair?" The Supreme King questioned Sunny, more emotion being put out now then before, yet, Sunny still couldn't tell if it was anger, fear, love, or some other emotion. But the feeling was strong.

Taking a breath and thinking how to explain the situation, Sunny started at the begining. Explaining that they were both his parents where he was from, how his father and mother had to keep the secret of who his mother was, of his father fell from grace, and the 1000 year slumber Sunny had taken. The Supreme King remained more focused on Sunny then on anything on the screens. Especially when Sunny started telling the Supreme King about when he arrived in a small town called Ponyville, how he made friends, how his friends and him became Guardians of Harmony, about meeting his mother again after 1000 years, about his father and trying to release the umbrum, then finishing his story off with how he proposed to Applejack. HIS Applejack. The one who he became so close to and became a part of her family.

The Supreme King remained silent, lost in thought as his hooves remained crossed infront of him, his breathing becoming deeper but slower, as if he were trying to keep himself calm.

After several moments, Sunny finally spoke up. "… do you have a Sunny Knight here?"

The quesgion pulled the Supreme King from his thoughts as he replied with a quesgion. "A who?"

"Er, I guess ya might also call him Soleggiato Cavalere" Sunny wasn't used to hearing his birth name now or days, much less say it outloud.

"I do. He serves as Captain of the guard. Very loyal. He keeps the peace amungst the other ponies" The Supreme King stated then chuckled a little. "But he also secretly underminee the position of the Supreme King and had lead no less then three hundred revolutions against the Supreme King's rule."

Hearing this all made Sunny's head spin a little. "Wait, WHAT!?"

"Do not be so suprised" the Supreme King stated. "You and I both know Sunny, as you call him, is popular with ponies. He can make fair weather friends easily, get them to grow into trusting comrads, earn the trust of anypony he runs into. He is perfect for the position he is in. To be honest, he's the only one I can trust."

"But you are misserable" Sunny stated.

"Excuse me?" The Supreme King's anger flared for a moment.

"You heard me" Sunny locked eyes with the reflective lenses of the Supreme King's helmet. "You're miserable. And I think I know why."

The Supreme King still harbored a flicker of anger in his heart, but sat back and gave Sunny his full attention as he told the yellow unciorn "go on. This might amuse me."

Taking a deep breath, Sunny started "You thought YOUR Celestia was going to betray you, somehow you defeated her, maybe locking her away in the moon or something, but you chose NOT to release the Umbrum locked away below, and now have succeeded in ruling all Equestria.

"But now you are lonely" Sunny continued, his tone less sharp and more forlorn. "You miss your long lost love. You hate the fact that you are distant from your son, Soleggiato, who wants to liberate Equestria from your rule and give the ponies of Equeatia their freedom back. And the only way you cope with all this and keep your emotions in check are by hiding behind an emotionless mask and keeping yourself busy with surveillance duty, letting most ponies be governed by other ponies of lesser status then royals such as mayors."

The Supreme King had patiently sat back and listened to all Sunny had to say, intrigued that he pieced togeather what he did. "Well, I must say, your accusation was an interesting one. But you got a few things wrong.

"I didn't imprison MY Princess Celestia in the moon. I actually keep her very close by…" the Supreme King waved a hoof, causing an image to enlarge on one of the green screens. A panoramic view of what Sunny recognized as the large room beneith the Crystal Empire dungeon. Lining around the room were more Crystal golems, but what they all were looking at in the center of the room sent chills down Sunny's spine and made him sick to his stomach.

In the center of the room stood Princess Celestia, turned to stone, with some sort of ring around her horn and shackles around her wings, wearing a saddened expression of betrayal on her muzzle as stone tears trailed down from her eyes. Next to her was her sister, Princess Luna, also a statue, but her expression seemed more fear sticken then saddened. Accompanying them were the stone bodies of Tirek, what appeared to be a gargoyle, Discord, Chysalis with many changelings around her, as well as a few large dragons and a flock of Griffons. But what shocked Sunny almost as much as seeing his mother turned to stone was the last statue he saw. It was one of his father, King Sombra, a rage filled face painted across his muzzle as he arched his back and looked behind him with sharpened teeth bared.

"Wait… that doesn't make any sence" Sunny looked from the image of King Sombra on the screen to the Supreme King sitting next to him. "How can you be THERE but… here?"

The Supreme King chuckled lightly, his metallic voice sounding dark and eery as it bounced off his helmet. "I see. You thought I was King Sombra. Makes sence. The black armor. Crown made from dark crystal. But I'm not him…"

The Supreme King's horn glowed its green magical aura once more as parts of his helmet became unclipped, unfastened and unlocked. Smoke flew out of his helmet as the Supreme King took his helmet off, causing Sunny's jaw to drop. Underneath the black helmet was the head of a yellow colored unicorn with a well brushed mane that was kept short to appear more official and fit inside the Supreme King's helmet. Once he opened his eyes and locked his green eyes with Sunny's, the Supreme King cracked a smile as he looked at a face so similar to his own. "I'm not our father. I'm you."