Sunny Knight: a Pony's Tale

by TheothersideofSunny968

Meet the Parents

"What is going on!?" Sunny yelled as he was flung across the large circular room, gravity seeming to pull him back and forth as the TARDIS bounced around space and time.

9 was holding onto the TARDIS's control panel as if their lives depended on it, which it might. "There's a reason we don't travel through alternate dimensions! It gets rocky!"

"Can't you just call on that friend of yours! The cranky old, burping guy in the lab coat!" Sunny suggested as he grabbed onto a pillar and held on with all his might as he felt the TARDIS flip upside down.

"He never answers our calls!" 9 answered as he flipped a few more switched and pulled a leaver. "Besides, I got some good news!"

Before Sunny could ask what the good news was, the entire TARDIS shook like crazy, and Sunny was flung off his safe pillar and landed on the control panel, hitting some buttons that at the moment didn't do anything.

"It looks like we arrived at our destination" 9 stated as he pulled himself up off the ground underneath the control panel, looking at the monitor. "Yep! We arrived in your right universe! And it looks like we landed just outside your Ponyville, too!"

"Really!?" After everything Sunny had seen, he almost screamed with joy to be back in good old Ponyville.

Sunny was so happy and excited to be home, Sunny didnt stick around to see what 9 was looking at on the TARDIS'Scontrol panel, and 9 was so busy double checking their location he didn't notice Sunny exiting the TARDIS.

Opening the front door to the large blue box, Sunny was happily greeted by the warm rays of the familiar sun. Looking down the road, Sunny verified himself that this did look like HIS Ponyville, and the sign at the edge of the road looked just like the Ponyville sign that was posted outside HIS Ponyville. But something was off. It looked brand new.

"Hmmmm, somepony gave it ah fresh coat of paint" Sunny thought outloud, happy just to be there. He was a little leery, and wanted to check things out for himself. He poked his head back into the TARDIS, and told 9 "I'm gunna check out the town, make sure everything's alright, ok?"

The time lord had his hooves full trying to do repairs to his TARDIS, that had sustained quite a bit of damage during their interdimentional trip. 9 thought this Sunny was a nice fellow, but he would really like some quiet time to his TARDIS. "Yeah, sure, have fun. Don't destroy anything, look both ways before crossing the street, and all that!"

Rolling his eyes, Sunny wondered what the other Doctor Whooves were like. This one was really sarcastic but seemed more personable, where the Doctor Whooves who was Sunny's friend and a fellow Guardian seemed more task orientated, tone very flat and needed to try hard to be personable.

Leaving 9 and HIS TARDIS behind, Sunny straitened his stetson hat, and happily trotted down the dirt road leading into Ponyville. As he trotted, Sunny took note of his surroundings, making sure every detail was exactly as it was supposed to be. He became skeptical that this was his own Ponyville when he saw some small rocks that lay in the middle of the road, but assumed some foal probably was playing with them. He took a deep breath and continued down the road, only to be stopped suddenly when he came across a mother duck leading her ducklings across the same road. Sunny paused and narrowed his eyes on the duck and ducklings, wondering if he had ever seen them around Ponyville before. Shaking his head clear of suspicion, Sunny proceeded into Ponyville. When he arrived, he noticed he ended up in the middle of the market. A sea of tents and stands were set up so folks could sell their goods and supplies. It happened once a week, every Saturday. 'Was it Saturday', Sunny thought.

'Was today the day Applejack and I were going to make the guest list for the wedding? Or is that tomorrow?… maybe today IS tomorrow! Or maybe this is an alternate universe where the Ponyville market takes place on Friday instead of Saturday! Or maybe this is an alternate universe where the Market happens every day! Or every day except Saturday! And ponies walk around with boots on their heads! Or where they were cloths all the time and no cloths on special occasions! Maybe this universe is ruled by Derpy and Muffin day is a national holiday!' The endless possibilities began to make poor Sunnys head spin.

"You ok there, partner?" A soft, feminine voice called out to Sunny from a stand.

Sunny felt dizzy and wabbled around before the owner of that soft voice walked over, grabbed him using gentle but firm force, and sat him down at a seat next to her stand. While Sunny was trying to get his head to stop spinning, the owner of the stand grabbed a cup of water and offered it to him.

"Here, drink up" she told him in a non aggressive, slightly assertive tone.

Without thinking, Sunny took the glass and began to drink slowly, not wanting to choke on the water. After downing the water, Sunny placed the empty glass on the stand and looked up at the mare "Thank you, miss…"

The mare had a light peach colored coat, with a fluffy orange mane that made Sunny think of Pinkie Pie, turquoise colored eyes, and what appeared to be a cutie mark of a jar of preserves or something similar. She smiled warmly at him and told him in a sweet tone "Shoot, ain't no biggie. But you sure you're OK? Ya looked like ya just saw a ten headed, pokadotted donkey."

This caused Sunny to lightly chuckle as he readjusted his stetson. "Nah, nothin' like that. But ah got ah quesgion for you. Are you by any chance related to Pinkie Pie?"

This earned a raised brow from the mare. "Can't say I am. Why? Is she an Apple?"

"Well…" Sunny remembered a story Applejack told him about how she and Pinkie traveled with her brother, sister and Granny to see Goldie Delicious and find out if Pinkie is actually related. "It was never confirmed, but we all just go with it."

"Hey! Your hat! Are you an Apple too!" The mare pulled down Sunny's stetson, covering his eyes and hidding his face for a moment. A small smile grew on Sunny's face as he just sat there in the dark, waiting for the mare to realize she moved the hat to cover his face. After a moment of silance, the mare realized what she did and moved Sunny's stetson out of his face. "Oh! He he. I'm sorry. I can be a bit of a goof sometimes."

"No worries, miss" Sunny chucked as he readjusted his stetson back into its proper place on his head.

"Well howdy there, partner" a cheerful, masculine voice arose from behind Sunny. At first, Sunny thought the voice came from his friend Big Macintosh. It sounded very similar, but when Sunny turned around to greet his friend, he was shocked to see somepony else. This stallion looked very similar to Big Mac in build, mane style and even cutie mark. But this stallion had a yellow colored goat, bright red mane and tail, green eyes, and freckles on his muzzle. His cutiemark was also a large green apple, but it was an apple cut in half with a star at the center. If Sunny didn't know better, he'd say they could have been brothers. The upbeat stallion walked up to the mare and kissed her on the forhead, ignoring Sunny for a second "making friends as usual, Buttercup?"

The mare chuckled a little as she looked deeply into the stallion's eyes "Oh, you know me, Bright Mac. Making friends wherever I go. But I think this fella is related to you."

"Really? Well, howdy partner" Bright Mac said as he extended a hoof to Sunny. Only, when Bright Mac turned around, the yellow stetson wearing unicorn just seemed to vanish, leaving behind a small cloud of dust, kicked up from hooves that were moving as fast as they could. Both Bright Mac and Buttercup looked at eachother with bewildered expressions before going back to what they were doing before.

Back inside 9's TARDIS, the Doctor Whooves given the title of '9' was working hard to bring his TARDIS back online before any of the other Doctors hear about this. Yes, he was helping out somepony who didn't belong in HIS dimension, but some of the other Doctors can be… well, old fuddy duddies, as 9 would like to call them. While in the process of reconnecting some wires, a screaming noise caused 9 to shoot up, hit his head on the underside of the TARDIS control panel, then angrily crawl out to see what all the fuss was about.

When 9 slid out from where he was working, he saw the Sunny he was traveling with, breathing heavily and sweating like he had just run a marathon. 9 spoke with a type of catty annoyance in his tone when he asked Sunny "have a fun run around town? Or were you being chased by a swarm of bug bears?"

The sarcasm in 9's tone was completly over looked when Sunny struggled with his words "DOCTOR! BRIGHT MAC! BUTTERCUP! PARENTS! APPLES! HERE! NOW! PAST!"

There were quite a few of the Doctors who could speak multiple languages, and 9 happened to be very fluent in panic. Getting up to his hooves, 9 began to repeat what Sunny had said in a more clear way. "Are you trying to say 'we have traveled to the right place, only, in the past, where the parents of Applejack, Big Mac and Apple Bloom, naming Bright Mac and Pear Butter, are currently around, living their lives?'"

Taking several deep breaths, Sunny nodded and a smile began to grow on his muzzle as a train of thought started to pull out of Sunny's mental station, carrying with it Bright possibilities. If he was in the past, he might be able to change a small something to make for a better future.

Recognizing the smile from bad past experiences, 9's expression turned grim, his tone hard and blunt. "Don't even think about it."

Sunny's train of though hit a slight bunp, causing the entire thing to stop in its tracks. "what do you-"

But 9 cut him off. "I know what you were thinking, and you can't do that. As a general time rule, we can't meddle in the affairs of the past, and for good reason. And if what 10 said at the meeting about you and your experience with Starlight Glimmer was true, you know full well what trouble can come from meddling in the past."

"But this is different!" Sunny pleaded, desperatly wanting 9 to understand and agree with him. "I don't want to hurt anypony! I want to make something right! What's so wrong with that?"

Pushing air from his nostrils in an attempt to keep his cool, and failing, 9 lowered his brow as he locked eyes with Sunny. "All you Sunnys think you know what's best. So tell me, what do you think will happen if you DO happen to save them from their fate? If their fate wasn't already a fixed point in time, what did you plan to do?"

"I was going to make sure whatever took them away from their family doesn't happen" Sunny stood up strait and explained his simple plan of action. "Is there anything wrong with that?"

"Ok, let me explain things so you can understand." 9 started off, his voice sharpening. "If what happens to Bright Mac and Buttercup isn't a fixed point in time, which it is, but we'll pretend it isn't. And let's say you save them from their grim fate, do you know how many things will change?"

Taking a moment to think about it, Sunny thought how different life on the farm would have been if Applejack's parents were around. "Well… I guess it would be more cramped in the farm house."

"Yes" 9 nodded, but cooled off as he began to explain further. "But also, let's just say, and this is one possibility amung a million others, that Applejack's parents were there when she and her siblings were growing up, they all wouldn't work as hard. Big Mac would never respect the authority of his sister, and become not only become more protective over Applejack, but probably wouldn't let any stallion, aka, YOU, near her. Apple Bloom wouldn't have tried all those dangerous things in an attempt to get her cutie mark becouse her parents might have stopped her, and thus her friends might never have been friends becouse Sweetiebell and Scootaloo would feel a calling they would need to answer. With her parents around, Applejack may never have left the farm and recieved her cutie mark from the sonic rainboom along with her friends. That last one alone would have set forth a whole slew of events that would domino into Applejack never becoming the element of Honesty, and Nightmare Moon might have conquered Equestria! Going back to that cramped room, do you think Goldie Delicious would have sent away for help with the farm which would inevitably brought you to the Apple family, if Bright Mac and Buttercup were there to help? For all we know, if Bright Mac and Pear Butter were there, Goldie might have sent you to a rock farm.

"I'm sorry, but things are the way thet are for a reason" 9 continued as he saw that he had just doused Sunny's inner fire, leaving him in a state of emotional shock. "But all of that would never have happened becouse their fate is a fixed point in time. Some things that effect the future in such a way are pillars in time and space. Same as you couldn't go back in your time line and stop your father from ever turning to the dark side, or stop your mother from imprisoning your aunt in the moon. Those things have happened and effected too much to change. I'm sorry."

Sunny's legs gave in as he fell to the ground, a far too familiar weight returning to him. A weight that he first earned as a prince over 1000 years ago. Where he was given a position of power, and could do something to help others, but there were heavy consequences to his actions. In the end, he would have to sit back and watch as things played out without helping. It's one of the things he HATED about being a prince.

Tears started to form in the corners of his eyes as Sunny sniffles a little, his eyes falling away from 9 to the floor of the TARDIS. "I just…I want to make things right… it's not fair."

9 looked down at Sunny, suddenly feeling guilty about his anger just a moment ago. Pushing his own emotions and thoughts aside, 9 thought carefully about what to say to Sunny next. But nothing came to mind. Time travaling has a way of showing you the bigger picture of things, like the stability of all of time and space, but it also robs you of the little things in life that make life worth living. Like how to value life itself. It's not easy when you could time travel from when a pony is born to their final day in the mater of a minute or two. Looking at Sunny again and seeing how much he cared and how sensitive he could be about two ponies he never met, touched 9, and he wished there was something he could do.

Taking a few deep breaths to calm himself down, Sunny looked up at 9 and knew they had an understanding. Defeated, Sunny just sunk to the ground, his back up against a support beam inside the TARDIS and just simply spoke what was on his mind. "The Apples are so wonderful… they always stick together, support one anothe. They fight sometimes, but they always make up. Becouse thats what a family is supposed to do. They aren't supposed to be perfect. No pony is. But they are strong and caring. They took me in when I didn't even know who I was. When things got bad, they helped me. They made me a part of their family. They treat everypony with kindness and understanding, even those who don't deserve it. They go out of their way to help folks all the time… so why… why is it when I have a chance to help them, to give them back what once was their, rightfully theirs, their parents, I can't… I can't give them their parents back… why…"

In all his years of time traveling, hopping from one part of time and space to another, of witnessing catastrophes, of preventing bigger ones, of helping some individuals and stopping others from wrong doings, there wasn't a moment that 9 hasn't stopped to think about all the times where he COULDN'T save somepony. There were more then a few times when he was forced to sit back and let something happen, only becouse if he stepped in, time itself could unravel or worse. There was always a worse. You could stop a potted plant from falling and landing on somepony's head, only for that pony to have an entire tree fall on them. Fixed points in time aren't always sure to happen a certain way, especially if somepony meddles with the time line. But what is meant to happen, will happen.

Taking a deep breath, 9 walked over, and sat next to Sunny, his voice full of sorrow as he spoke softly to the yellow unicorn. "I'm sorry… I know how much it would mean to your Apple family if you could bring their parents back to them. But this is just as it was meant to be. You can't stop it, no matter how hard you try. Some things are inevitable. And I hate it too."

Taking another deep breath and releasing it, Sunny asked a rather simple quesgion "what should I do now?"

9 tossed the quesgion around in his head, then, as usual, spoke what came to his mind. "You could take a little advantage of the situation and get to know your future inlaws."

The thought made Sunny almost chuckle. "Oh, yeah, right. What do you want me to say? Just go up to them 'Hey! You both don't really know me, but I'm going to come along one day and ask your daughter, who may or may not be born already, to marry me. And I just want to get to know you here and now before you're gone forever'?"

"Well not in that harsh of tone, and maybe dial back a little bit of that honesty, as hard as it may be, and yeah! Go for it!" 9's enthusiasm was some what spontaneous and a total 180 from how he was a moment ago.

"Well… I can't change the past by interacting with them, right?" Sunny asked 9.

"Nothing so long as you don't try and change anything" 9 explained. "Just go and have a fun time. Maybe help them around the farm, talk, maybe save the town or something. Fixing the TARDIS might take a few days-"

"A FEW DAYS!?" Sunny grabbed 9 by his shoulders. "We don't have a few days! We have to get back as soon as possible! Applejack and the family could be in danger! My friends could be in danger! ALL OF EQUESTRIA COULD BE IN DANGER!"

9 put his hoof over Sunny's mouth and pushed him away, then calmly released Sunny's hooves from his shoulders. "Sunny. The TARDIS is a 'Time Machine.' We can go back, or rather, ahead in time to just a little after you were pushed threw the mirror. Easier then if the Supreme King had found a way back back you himself."

Taking a few deep breaths, Sunny began to relax. When he felt calm enough, he stood up, shook him self loose a little, then looked back at 9. "You're sure I won't change the future at all just by hanging out with them, right?"

"10 and me do it all the time" 9 stated with a wide grin. "Now go! Go hang out with your in-laws. Jut don't let them know anything about the future. No reason to cause them to panic."

'Yeah' Sunny thought to himself. 'WHY bother to worry them if their fates can't be changed.'

Watching Sunny trot at a moderate speed down the road back to Ponyville, 9 chuckled lightly to himself. He could have the TARDIS fixed in just a few hours, but this was a once in a life time opertunity for Sunny, no point in wasting it.