Sunny Knight: a Pony's Tale

by TheothersideofSunny968

Sunny's True, True Friends

"If I take the 3…and divide it… decide it by 12… I should get…" Doctor Whooves, also known to some of his other friends as 10, was still in his workshop when a loud whooping scratching noise echoed in his house. It sounded like the TARDIS, but it wasn't HIS TARDIS. HIS TARDIS was collecting dust in the corner, having not been used all day. Doctor Whooves was so focused on his equations, so driven to solve the equation that would allow safe interdimentional travel, that he completly missed the Doctor Whooves who was also knows to HIS friends as 9, and was oblivious to the yellow unicorn trying to get his attention.

'He's in some sort of trance' Sunny thought after his third failed attempt to try and break Doctor away from his equations on the chalk boards that surounding him. Sunny had tried yelling at Doctor Whooves with the royal Canterlot voice, standing infront to him waving his front hooves like he was on fire, and even offered Doctor his favorite snack of hazelnut tea and lordhoof cookies. But nothing. Nothing broke the intellectual earth pony from his seemingly endless quest to find, ugh, whatever it was he was trying to find. Curious, Sunny stepped back and took a good look at the calk boards to try and see what his friend was trying to work through. All the numbers seemed to mesh togeather at one point, becoming a mess of numbers that crossed over eachother. It was hard for Sunny to figure out where one line of numbers ended and another began. But that gave him an idea.

While Doctor continued scribbling on one Chalk board, Sunny erased the entire contents of one chalk board and went right to work on writing something else in its place.

"Then I take the .004… and plug it into…hmmm" Doctor thought he would have to take the answer from the previous equation and plug it in for a substitute for a variable in another previous equation, but something was off. Where an equation should have been was an unsolved tick-tack-toe game. The sudden appearance didn't break Doctor's consideration. In his current state mind, Doctor somehow rationalized that the game was part of the equation. There was only one of two moves to make, and whenever Doctor played, he always chose 'O's. He placed an 'O' in the center of the game and crozzes a line connecting the 'O's from top left to bottom right. He then proceeded to the next side of the board where a crossword was crudely drawn out as if in a hurry.

Doctor Whooves scratched his chin as he narrowed his eyes on the puzzle. "Hmmmm… a ten letter word that could be described as Magic… hmmm… 4th letter is 'E' and ends in a 'P'… AH! It's 'Friendship'!"

After scribbling in the word, Doctor Whooves then followed an arrow drawn at the end of the word that trailed across several recently erased chalk boards to one that ended up being just on the other side of the wordsearch. At the end of the long arrow was a fill in the blank puzzle with only a few letters left.

' y_ur fr__nds m_ght b_ _n tr__bl_ _nd n__d y__r h_lp!'

In the word bank were only three vowels so it was easy for Doctor Whooves to guess what the message might be, and Sunny stood by, watching, hoping that THIS snapped him out of his trance.

"I'm going to say… 'O', 'I', and 'E'" Doctor said half smug. He may be a science and physics genius, but that didn't mean he was any good at guessing at a few word games. Doctor took a few tried, but managed to put all the letters in their proper places.

By the end of it, Sunny tapped his hoof on the message it spelled out. Doctor narrowed his eyes and repeated the message, mumbling it to himself. "Hmmmm…your friends might be in trouble and need your help!…GREAT HOUR GLASS!"

Doctor started panicking as he bounced back and forth, pushing his chalk boards out of his way, looking out the window half expecting the sky to be falling.

Sunny wrapped his earth pony friend in his green magical aura and floated him in the air for a second before levitating him over so they could speak face to face. "I'm glad you snapped out of it, Doctor, but we might have a bigger problem."

Rubbing the sides of his head with his hooves, Doctor winced and teared up, not remembering blinking all day. Had he been at it all day? What day was it? Doctor didn't even remember how all this madness started with the chalk boards. All he remembered was some equation, or was it a number? And somepony's voice. A mare's voice, whispering in his ear. It wasn't Derpy. It didn't sound like anypony he knew… who was it?

"Doctor, I need you to focus" Sunny stomped his hoof to catch his friend's attention.

"Y-yes! I'm sorry" Doctor pushed the thoughts out of his head for the moment and gave Sunny his undevided attention. "What's going on!? Who's in danger!?"

"I don't know for sure" Sunny lowered Doctor Whooves, and freed him from his magical aura. Sunny then dashed over to the front door and flung it open. "But I have a very bad feeling. I'll fill you in on the way, but we need to move fast…"

The Ponyville Post office was silent and still. Everypony who had been there today either was helped or left the office out of fear. More then half of the ponies who were 'helped' were pretty much told they couldn't be helped and told to leave by the only mail mare, Derpy. Weather it was becouse the Ponyville post office didn't have the stamps they wanted, or the posy office wouldn't ship something without the proper postaging, or pony had the audacity to ask for a speedy delivery last minute. The ponies who had the proper postage, didn't want holiday stamps that were out of season and just had something to be delivered with more then enough time to spare, were handled coldly.

Derpy Hooves, who once greeted every customer of the post office with a warm smile and an offer of a muffin, now shot daggers from her opposite direction eyes, hissed at them from clenched teeth, and kept things fast going and brief. It's true her new pace got all her work done in less then an hour, but she was misserable. She had aggressively stood up against ponies who were ganging up on her, but she couldn't help feeling like she was in the wrong some how.

The front door to the post office rang, letting Derpy know that sompony else entered the building. Her first reaction had her jump to her hooves, ready to strike, but she hesitated a little, feeling ashamed of her new train of thought. She sighed and recited her usual speech, but with much less enthusiasm "Welcome to the Ponyville Post Office, My name is Derpy, how may I…"

Deepy had almost finished her entire speech when she bothered to look up at the pony who actually entered the post office. Doctor Whooves stood there, looking around at the post office curiously before turning his attention to Derpy "seems like an oddly slow day… Are you alright Derpy?"

He was the straw that broke the mules back. Even when things got bad, really bad, Derpy knew Doctor would come into her world and help make it right. Seeing him was like seeing her knight in shinning armor, only this time, she felt like SHE was the bad guy in this pony tale. Derpy fell to her hooves and started crying out loud, trying desperately to whipe away her tears. "Oh Doctor…. I'm so… so sorry!"

Confused as to what Derpy could be sorry about, Doctor hesitated only for a second, then realized his body was moving on its own and took to her side, comforting the weeping Derpy, holding her in a hug with her head on his chest.

"There there, Derpy…" Doctor cooed while petting Derpy, running his hoof down her mane while his other hoof continued to hold her in the hug. "Why don't you tell me what happened."

After several sniffles, Doctor looked around for a tissue, but there were none. Without hesitation, Doctor undid his own tie and offered it to Derpy in lue of a handkerchief. Derpy looked from the tie to Doctor, who gave a reassuring nod. Derpy then blew into the tie, and wiped away her tears.

After a few more deep breaths, Derpy mustered the strength to speak. "It was awful, Doctor… I don't know what came over me. One minute, Everypony was pushing, yelling and mad at me, like every day, then the next thing I knew, I was yelling back! I was the one being pushy, snappy, and mean! I don't know why I did that, but ponies stopped being mad and did what I told them… but… it felt wrong…"

"Its alright Derpy" Doctor took the soiled tie from her and promptly flung it into the nearest waste bin, where it landed with a gross slap. Doctor met Derpy's gaze with understanding eyes as he told her "Your job is stressful, and not everypony who comes in here knows how to talk to you."

"Its like they're speaking another language" Derpy admitted. "I don't even know why anypony wants Hearths Warming stamps right now, that's almost a year away!"

"Ponies can be wierd" Doctor admitted, chuckling to himself how ironic it was that a pony who travels to other planets in time and space in a big blue box, dealing with all kinds of aliens and anomalies, made THAT statment referring to ponies who just live everyday lives. "But the important thing is that YOU keep being YOU Derpy. You're a special mare. And although most ponies don't see that, and they get frustrated becouse they don't understand you, it doesn't mean that either of you are wrong. It's just a little miss communication."

"So it's like… apples trying to talk to strawberries?" Derpy asked, trying to make sence of what Doctor Whooves was saying.

"That's right" Doctor understood what Derpy meant. Both apples and strawberries were fruit, sweet and most of the time red, and although they didn't talk, the fruit have different tastes to them. "But you know what they both taste good in?"

A glow returned to Derpy as a wide smile spread across her muzzle. "MUFFINS! I know what I have to do, Doctor!"

After getting up and kissing Doctor on the cheek, Derpy raced to the back of the post office where the break room was, grabbed all the nessisary ingredients out of the cabbords and fridge and went right to work. Doctor, on the other hoof, just stood still in shock, his face bright red as he tried to process that Derpy kissed him. He didn't know exactly why, but his heart was pounding hard, his hooves were sweaty, and for once, his calculating brain couldn't even fathom the recepe for tapioca pudding.

When he came back down from cloud 9, Doctor called out to Derpy "Hey, Derpy! I need to go check on our other friends! Will you be ok for a bit?"

"No problem, Sweetie! I have alot of muffins to bake! Tell everypony I said hi!" Derpy felt light as a feather and as good as gold. She knew what she had to do to make it up to the ponies of Ponyville for her bad attitude.

Doctor took a few steps out of the post office before he paused and muttered to himself "Did she just call me 'Sweetie'?…"

Not knowing what this meant for their dynamic as friends and time traveling partners, and why his heart started pounding like crazy again, Doctor took a few deep breaths and told himself "One thing at a time. Derpy is better. Sunny's checking on Octavia… guess I'll check on Thunderlane, ugh…"

Although Doctor had reconciled with the grey pegasus in the past, that still didn't mean that they saw eye to eye. The two were as opposite as oil and water, and rarely mixed. This was going to be a tough one.

When Sunny reached the house Octavia shared with a pony named Vynal Scratch, Vynal answered the door and presented Sunny with a flyer for Octavia's music school. The odd white mare didn't say a word to Sunny and only pointed to the part of the poster that had the address of the school on it. Sunny ended up back tracking into town, running as fast as he could. According to the poster, Octavia should be only be about 18 minutes into her first lesson. Not wanting to burst in if nothing is wrong, Sunny peered in through the window. His hope disappeared when Sunny saw that his musically gifted friend was not doing well.

Octavia stood nervously at her podium, flipping through a book, trying to find something, anything, she wasn't really sure she knew what she was looking for, but she had to do something! Meanwhile, all the students of the classroom appeared to be talking so loudly it almost sounded like a conflicting day in royal Court, say for the wadded up paper balls flying rough the air that just barely missed a paper airplain soaring just above the student's heads. Octavia was overwhelmed and had lost control and it wss eating her up.

Sencing the fear in her, Sunny was able to tap into the umbrum part of his bloodline and found what was bothering her. 'Where is Big Mac with the instruments!? I'm going to lose my school before it got a chance to take off! I'm going to have to sell half my house to pay back the parents! I'm going to end up on the street!'

Without hesitation, Sunny teleported inside the school, catching everypony's attention, silencing all the talkative fillies and colts. The paper airplane floaded over and landed on Sunny's hat. He had to stop himself from laughing as he took it off and approached Octavia, speaking to her in a hushed tone so the students wouldn't hear. "What's going on, Octavia?"

The grey mare had to take a deep breath to steady her nerves before whispering back to Sunny "Big Mac was supposed to deliver the instruments and music sheets from Canterlot to the school hours ago. I stuck around and waited, but he never showed and I had to open the doors and prayed that he would show up at any moment. The students are restless, and I'm going to lose my school!"

The whole while, Octavia's voice began to grow louder and louder, But Sunny motioned for her to breath amd relax. As she did, Sunny made a suggestion. "Want me to help?"

"Please…" Octavia released a heavy breath, her body becoming less tense, feeling at ease that Sunny was here to help. If anypony could help make this mess right, it was him. Well, him or Princess Twilight. But honetly, Octavia was glad it was Sunny who had come to her rescue.

"Ok, I just need you to trust me" Sunny told Octavia, who simply nodded, relaxing a bit. Sunny then turned to the classroom of foals, who had started up talking in a low murmur. "Hello class! My name is Sunny."

"Hello Mr. Sunny" all the foals all said in unison.

Being called 'Mr. Sunny' made Sunny laugh a little. "Please, just call me Sunny. So, we have ourselves ah little situation. Seems ah friend of ours who was deliverin' yer school supplies didn't show up on time."

The foals all looked shocked, with a few of them talking amongst themselves in a hushed tone.

"Here's what we're gunna do for today" Sunny suggested loud enough to catch their attention. "Ya can't play any instruments, but Ah'm sure ya all have some story ta share as to why yer all wanting to learn from mah good friend, Octavia, here. Why don't ya'll move yer chairs into ah circle, and ya'll can take turns telling what inspired ya ta pick up an instrument, and why your specific one."

The foals all smiled and spoke positively about this solution, and went right to work moving their chairs into somewhat of a circle.

Octavia looked up at Sunny with a great full expression, appearing more relaxed. "Thank you… thank you so much… Are you going to go check on Big Mac? I'm ashamed to admit it, but I never thought that he might be in trouble."

"No worries" Sunny shot Octavia a half smile. "Ah'll find him. Ah was just gunna go check on Thunderlane and Doctor really fast, first."

"I'd go with you, but for the next… 37 minutes, I'm in charge of these kids" Octavia felt a little ashamed about not being able to drop everything and rush to her friend's aid.

"Don't you fret nothin'" Sunny told Octavia as he straitended his stetson hat. "Ah'll make sure Big Mac's alright. By next class, you'll have yer school supplies."

Sunny then teleported out of the classroom and left Octavia in charge once again. Taking another deep breath, Octavia took an empty seat in the circle and addressed her class. "Alright students, rocky start, but all things happen for a reason. Now, let's find out WHY we want to play. Let's start with… Liza Doolots. Care to share your story?"

A little light blue unicorn filly with a purple mane who sat across from Octavia in the circle was suprised to be called upon. The filly gulped and started to share her story in a slightly shaky voice. "Well, ugh, I guess I wanted to try and get my cutie mark by plating an instrument. My big sister plays in a band…"

Sunny was shocked to see Doctor had arrived on the scene just before he did and was already attempting to talk with Thunderlane. Sunny was not shocked by the fact that Doctor seemed to not be getting through to Thunderlane at all and seemed to be growing more and more frustrated with the grey pegasus. Stepping back, Sunny took in the scene. Inside Thunderlane's house, Thundeelane himself was in the kitchen, cooking something while Doctor Whooves attempting to talk to him, which didn't seem to be going very well. Thunderlane's expression was deadpan and completly lacking of any emotion. Off in the next room, Rumble, Thunderlane's younger brother, hid his muzzle in a comic book with a large box of Apple chips next to him, popping one in right after he finished swallowing the previous one. Taking a deep breath, Sunny thought it best to regroup with Doctor and see what he found out.

After seeing Sunny signaling him, Doctor left Thunderlane to his cooking and went to report to Sunny. In a slightly hushed tone, Doctor told Sunny "it seems like Yhunderlane and his brother are fighting, but I've never seen either of them act like this. I think I prefer the loud, obnoxious Thunderlane who never keeps his mouth shut, to this. They haven't spoken to eachother at all since I've been here. Maybe not all day. And neither will tell me what happened."

Nodding a little, Sunny thought about the best way to deal with this situation. An idea popped into his head and he whispered his plan in Doctor's ear. Doctor rubbed his chin, running the plan over in his head. When Doctor came to the conclusion that Sunny's plan might work, he proceeded back to the kitchen where Thunderlane was busy cooking. Sunny himself went to go sit next to Rumble, who looked up at Sunny for a moment, then went back to reading and eating.

"Those good?" Sunny asked Rumble, motioning to the chips.

After a long moment, Sunny wasn't sure that Rumble was going to answer. When he did, it was in a low murmur. "They're OK… better then starving."

"Been there, done that…" Sunny remembered the horrible apocalyptic universe of Equestria he had visited. The thought sent a shiver down his spine. He then peeked over at the comic Rumble was reading, it was a Dark Detective comic! "Hey! I remember that one! It's where the Dark Detective and Humdrum get captured by Frost Bite, right?"

Pulling another chip from the box, Rumble was about to take a bite, but stopped and looked over at Sunny with a numbed expression. "Yeah, what's it to you?"

"Well, I don't think your big brother told you this, but Spike and I got sucked into a magical comic and were in that very issue playing out the story. He was Humdrum and I was the Dark Detective." Sunny sounded a little dramatic when he said the character's names to add theatrics to his story.

Rumble turned away right after a pained expression broke out across his muzzle. "Guess that's something else that slipped Thunderlane's mind."

Rumble went back to eating apple chips and focusing on his comic.

"Wanna tell old Sunny what happened?" Sunny asked, his tone softened to seem comforting.

Rumble sighed, but didn't look at Sunny, he kept his muzzle in his comic as he spoke. "Thunderlane said he made me a lunch, but when I looked, he didn't. I was late to school becouse I stopped to pick up a lunch. The only lunch I could buy was a spinach salad. I hate spinach. But I got it anyway hoping I could trade with someone else. But no one wanted it. I forced myself to eat half of it, then threw the other half away. When I got home, I wasn't going to say anything about the lunch. Thunderlane was in a bad mood. So I just started doing my homework. He asked me how lunch was, and I told him it was good. He hasn't said anything to me since. He's just been acting moody.

That sounded completly out of character for Thunderlane. Thunderlane was always one to speak his mind on something that bothered him. Sunny hoped Doctor was having better luck then he was.

"For the love of Physics! Will you stop stiring that pot and just say something!" Doctor Whoove's voice was growing louder and louder, coated thickly with annoyance and anger. Doctor had been trying to get Thunderlane to open up, but all he's done since Doctor came into the kitchen was stir the same pot of chili, slowly, eyes locked on the substance. "Ugh! The one time I want you to open that hole you call a mouth and speak, you do just the opposite!"

Part of Doctor Whooves wanted to just take the pot of chili and toss it out the window, but he stopped himself before he acted irrationally. Taking a beep breath to calm himself, Doctor tried to think what Derpy would do. She was good with these kinds of situations. The kind of situations that called for kindness. Or even Sunny would be better suited for this. He and Thunderlane were close.

"Doctor" Thunderlane spoke up finally, which pulled Doctor Whooves immexiatly out of his thoughts and had him running to Thunderlane. The grey pegasus's voice lacked any energy at all, which was very out of character for Thunderlane.

"Yes, Thunderlane" Doctor tried to speak in the most monotone voice he could so as not to push Thunderlane back into his emotional hole or send him yelling in a fit of anger.

"Can you pass me the cumin" Thunderlane pointed with his hoof to the spice rack on the other side of the kitchen.

Doctor smacked his forhead with his hoof, annoyed and frustrated, but he did walked over to the spice rack and grabbed the desired spice. After handing it to Thunderlane, Doctor thought for a moment about what else to say to Thunderlane, when the stallion actually spoke up.

"I don't know what to do, Doc." Thunderlane spoke softly while stiring the chili. "This morning, I found Rumble's lunch that I made for him smashed into my Wonderbolts show flight suite. I've told him about my special practices all this week where I need that special suit. He was upset earlier that the lunch I made for him wasn't what he wanted, but I'm not rolling in the bits, Doc. I try my best to take care of him, and thought I was doing good. I don't want to think my little bro did that, but, what else can I think?"

After hearing this, Doctor began to relax, stood up strait and put a hoof on Thunderlane's shoulder. "Did you talk to him about it?"

Thunderlane's almost glossed over eyes met Doctor's calm blue eyes. "Well, no… but I don't wanna accuse him of something and have him mad at me. I'm under alot of stress, Doc. Between caring for my little bro, making sure to make time for Flutter, my job, and Wonderbots training, I barely have time at the end of the day to do most chores around the house."

"If you don't say anything, you'll stay this mopey until something happenes." Doctor made a very good point. "Besides, he's your brother. I've seen the way you two destroy the town on a daily basis with your sports or whatever it is you two do. He might be mad for a little bit, but he'll get over it."

That statment made Thunderlane chuckle, he knew exactly what Doctor was referring to. "We break one of your windows and you make it sound like we're worse then Discord."

"Atleast Discord left my windows alone" Doctor noted firmly before cracking a smile. "So. What do you say? Will you talk to your brother?"

"Yeah, I guess so" Thunderlane ran his hoof over his Mohawk, appearing a little unsure. "I just… I kinda don't know how to bring it up without sounding like I'm accusing him."

"You don't have to" Rumble emerged from around the corner of the entryway leading into Thunderlane's kitchen, Sunny standing right behind him. Rumble walked up to his big brother and began telling his part of the story.

Thunderlane heard every word of what Rumble said, then followed up with his side. If the two had shared their stories in anger, they would have been at each other's throats, calling the other a lier, or worse. But the way things were set up, they each were able to look at eachother with clear heads and see that the other's story was honest and genuine. After realizing that the other wasn't to blame for their own misfortunes, Thunderlane smiled and offered Rumble a hoofbump to show he wasn't upset at him. Rumble, on the other hoof, felt it was more appropriate to jump at his older brother with a tackling hug. The two laughed as Sunny and Doctor watched them roll around and play fight.

"I'm really glad you two made up, but we still have a problem" Sunny's expression turned serious, catching everypony's attention. "Big Mac is still unaccounted for. We need to find him and make sure he's ok."

"Find big red, got cha" Thunderlane jumped to his hooves before turning to his little brother and asking him "Mind keeping an eye on the chili? It still needs some time to simmer."

Rumble smiled as he straitened his back, put on a stern expression and saluted his big brother. "You can count on me!"

The trio of Sunny, Doctor Whooves and Thunderlane left the house and Rumble behind, making their way to the edge of town, searching for their possible friend in need.

The mud some how still remained wet and slippery, preventing Big Mac from leaving or retrieving his cart and the music supplies from the mud. Not that the big red farm pony was planning on getting up any time soon. The echoing caws and black silhouettes of the crows above filled Big Mac's mind and drowned out everything else, leaving Big Mac in a fetal position like he had never been before. Broken. The crows looked down on Big Mac with burning red eyes. Millions of red, beady little eyes. The stuff of nightmares. And when the nasty birds weren't glaring down at him from their branches that circled around, they were lightly flying to a new perch where they found a better position to resume their hard stares and cawing at Big Mac. The poor earth-pony just sat in the cold, merky mud, eyes glazed over as he became more lost in thought, his hopeful ambitions swallowed up and cawed out by the crows.

'The crows aren't the problem…' Big Mac told himself as the world seemed to grow darker around him. 'The real problem… ah ain't good enough…

'Sunny chose me to be his second in command. Ta look after things if he ain't around… but ah can't even help mahself.' Big Mac sighed, head sinking lower. 'Ah never had ah problem ah couldn't handle. Well, maybe one or two
.. but ah had friends and family ta help me out… as Big ah fella as I am, ah should have been able ta nip this in the butt. Delivering ah cart full of stuff for ah friend. Ah couldn't even manage that… what ah useless friend ah turned out to be…'

Off into he distance, still enjoying the scene she painted with Big Mac, was the possessed princess Amore. A wicked wide smile spread across her muzzle as she savored the sight of the Guardian of Laughter, now reduced to a self loathing, sorry sunken sack of muddy lump.

'Oh this is too precious!' She chuckled silently to herself. Umbrum, like Mourning Cloak herself, could only feed on fear and rage, not sadness and self loathing, so she was not feeding for sustenance from Big Mac, but rather enjoying the fruits of her work. All laughter, real laughter, had left the entire forest area, replaced by haunting cawing of crows. 'The spell on the crows should last another hour or so. I think its time I set out and start work on breaking that Princess Twilight and her friends as well.'

Right as Amore was about to leave with a teleportation spell, something struck a nerve. It wasn't a song or a cheerful melody. No. It was something that she remembered from primal times. Something that struck her like lightning at her very core, and set her on edge. She couldn't see anything beyond the forest, but it was out there. She could FEEL it! It was close!

"You need help there, pal?" A familiar voice overpowered the cawing of the crows.

Looking up with a numbed expression, Big Mac was shocked to see a certain yellow unicorn in a stetson hat smiling down at him with a half cocked smile. "Sunny? What are you doing here? Ain't ya supposed ta be with Applejack workin' on weddin' stuff?"

"It's ah long story" Sunny cleared his throat, then became aware of the annoying cawing crows. Sunny looked over his shoulder at the crows, then back at his friend. "Hold on just one moment…"

Sunny moved to stand at the epicenter of the clearing in the forest where the crows seemed to have gathered. Taking in a deep breath, Sunny channeled some of his magic into his throat, tapping into a trait passed down from his mother to him, and used the royal Canterlot voice to declare to the crows above "GET OUT OF HERE! GO ON! SHOO!"

The shock wave of magic broke the spell Mourning Cloak had put on the birds to have them harass Big Mac, and returned them to their natural statE. Half of them flew off in a group to find some food and the other half of them flew back to their nests away from Sunny and Big Mac. After hearing Sunny's royal Canterlot voice, Thunderlane and Doctor Whooves appeared shortly after the last of the crows left.

Doctor quickly assessed the situation and began making a rope out of jungle vines. He shot a smile at Sunny while made the make shift rope. "Remind you of Scaro?"

"'Yep" Sunny smiled back before returning his attention to Big Mac. "Are ya hurt, Big Mac?"

"Just mah pride" Big Mac sulked, finding himself unable to make eye contact with Sunny.

"We'll have you up here in a sec" Sunny called out as Doctor finished his vine rope. They tossed it down to Big Mac, who was impressed by Doctor's hoof work with the vines. Big Mac grabbed ahold of the rope and Doctor teaming up with Sunny, began pulling up their large earthpony friend from the muddy pit.

Thinking of what HE could do, Thunderlane thought quickly and shot up into the sky, grabbed a small rain cloud, and dragged it back down to his friends. About the time he returned, Sunny and Doctor Whooves had succeeded in pulling Big Mac out of the mud. Thunderlane then placed the rain cloud over Big Mac and started Stomping ontop of it, causing a slight downpour on the red earth pony. After about a minute of rain, Thunderlane kicked the cloud away and began hitting Big Mac with a large gust of wind to dry him off. By the end of it, Big Mac looked like a large red bottle brush with his hair sticking out like crazy.

Sunny, Thunderlane, and Doctor all did their best to hold back their laughter, but coudn't hold it for long. The trio of stallions burst into tears, all laughing at Big Mac and his new frizzy body. Big Mac, on the other hoof, didn't find it so funny. He straited out his coat and mane and pushed pased Sunny and the others, promptly displaying his distaste for their laughter.

Thunderlane and Doctor looked to eachother, then to Sunny, wondering if they had done wrong by laughing at their friend. Sunny knew they didn't mean anything by it, and thought it would be best if he went to go talk with Big Mac while Thunderlane and Doctor started gathering up the cart and instruments.

Following after Big Mac, Sunny called out to him. "Big Mac! Wait up!"

"Why!? So ya'll can laugh at me again?" Big Mac spat the words at Sunny without looking in his direction.

Galloping up beside Big Mac, Sunny tried to look him in the eye, but the red stallion looked away from him as he pressed forward, trying to put as much space between him and the others as possible.

But Sunny was not having any of that. Teleporting infront of Big Mac, Sunny stood his ground, made Big Mac look him in the eye, and nearly growled at him "Talk to me. Now."

A little taken back by the sudden fierceness of his friend, Big Mac stopped and nearly fell back on his hindquarters. The quick change in Sunny's eyes shocked Big Mac enough to get him to stop and think about what he was doing. Big Mac hung his head as he spoke, unable to bear the shame and look Sunny in the eye. "Ah failed…"

"What do you mean?" Sunny asked I'm a more relaxing tone as lowered his own head, trying to meet Big Mac on his level.

"Ah mean, ah… ah couldn't even help ah friend of mine by dragging ah cart from one point to another. Somethin' simple. Somethin' ah should have been able ta do in mah sleep. But ah couldn't even do that…" The deep, dark feeling returned to Big Mac, making his heart feel as though it were falling into a deep chasm.

A hoof landed on Big Mac's shoulder, causing him to look up. Sunny looked at Big Mac with understanding eyes. "We all fail at one point or another, Big Mac. No pony is perfect. Sometimes we fail to do the simplest things; like moving stuff from one point to another, fail to listen to somepony who needs us, failing to take a second look at a situation and it sometimes blows up in our muzzles. But the important thing is we get back up and make it right."

"It's too late" Big Mac insisted, tearing his gaze away from Sunny. "Ah let Octavia down."

"Don't worry about Octavia, she's fine" Sunny tried to reasure his friend. "Ah stopped by there before coming here. She'll be good for today. But we should get these supplies to her by the end of th' day, so she has them for her next class."

This still didn't lift Big Mac's spirits. "How can ya ever trust me ta be second in command if ah can't handle this?… Maybe Doctor would be ah better second in command for ya. Or Thunderlane."

"Doctor doesn't always know how to lead others, and Thunderlane works well on a team, but ain't sure on how ta giving proper orders." Sunny started to explain. "Ah trust you ta look after th' hurd in mah absence becouse ya know how ta lead, ta pull back, take ah good hard look at ah situation, and ta keep others safe. Don't let today ruin faith in yourself."

Sunny could see his words were barely seeping into Big Mac.

"Ah believe in you" Sunny put a hoof on Big Mac's shoulder again. "Th' others have faith in you too. Ya just need ta show them what yer made of. And no better time then right now. Pick yerself up and get ta work."

The little pep talk was just what Big Mac needed. He didn't feel 100% better about himself, but it was a start that he needed.

Getting up off the ground, Big Mac turned around and galloped back to where Thunderlane and Doctor Whooves were trying to get the cart and instruments out of the mud. Big Mac did a sliding jump back into the mud, landing on all fours, then began gathering the muddy instruments and sheet music onto the cart.

"Doctor, toss me the rope!" Big Mac ordered.

"You got it!" Doctor cocked a half smile and tossed his vine rope down to Big Mac.

After wrapping it securely around the base of the back side of the cart, Big Mac tossed the rope up to Thunderlane. "Run that end around that tree branch, an' when ah say let go, you let go. Got it?"

"Yes sir!" Thunderlane saluted and followed Big Mac's instructions.

"Now you three up there, pull the rope, and don't let go!" Big Mac ordered.

The trio of Sunny, Thunderlane and Doctor Whooves all pulled the rope with all their might, lifing the back end of the cart out of the mud. When it was a good foot or two off the ground, Big Mac turned about face and bucked the back end of the cart with all his might. The cart flung up and out of the muddy area, but was still suspended by the vine rope. "NOW! LET GO!"

As the cart came into full swing up the muddy hill, Sunny and the others released their grip on the rope suspending the cart. For a moment, the cart filled with muddy musical school suppiles was airbord. The momentum from Big Mac's buck and the angle from being raised from behind was enough to get the whole cart out of the mud.

When the cart landed on the side of the road fully out of the mud, everypony was silent for a moment out of slight disbelief. But when they realized that Big Mac's plan was truely successful, Sunny, Thunderlane and Doctor all cheered and stomped their hooves, cheering for Big Mac, his plan and their victory over the difficult situation.

The cheering was broken, though, when a large blob of mud hit Sunny in the muzzle. Everypony turned and looked down at Big Mac, still in the mud with a wide grin on his muzzle. "Looks like you got mud on yer face!"

Thunderlane and Doctor turned to look at Sunny before bursting into laughter.

Sunny joined in the laughing for a moment before scrapping the mud off his muzzle and throwing it at Thunderlane, who dodged it at the last moment. The mud that missed him then landed in the face of Doctor Whooves, who continued to laugh as he whipped it off his own muzzle. Teaming up with Sunny, Doctor tacked Thunderlane before he could fly away, and all three landed in the mud with Big Mac. They didn't know why, but they couldn't control themselves as they began making mud pies to throw at eachother, tacked one eachother into the mud, and enjoyed just horsing around. This lasted what must have been an hour before they all climbed out of the mud pit and began their long walk home.

Along the way, Thunderlane gave them all another rain cloud shower and dry. All their coats, manes and tails puffed up and made them all looked like puff balls. They proceeded to laughed at eachother and themselves once again, their laughs echoing and spreading through the entire forest surounding them.

"Boy, after a day like today, I needed a good laugh" Thunderlane stated as he brushed down his frizzy coat with his hooves.

"I couldn't agree more" Doctor concured, doing the same, and reaching for his tie that wasn't there. He remembered he gave it to Derpy for a tissue then threw it away. He shrugged and told himself he needed to remember to grab one of his back up ties.

"You guys had ah rough day too?" Big Mac asked as he straitened out his mane.

"It's ah long story" Sunny smiled and shook his head as he finished straitening out his own mane and putting his stetson hat securely back on. "Ah'll fill everypony in once we get back ta town."

Sunny and Thunderlane held the cart up and allowed Big Mac and Doctor to repair it using some sticky tree sap, Doctor's vine rope, and some chunks of wood they collected. When the cart was in decent enough condition to move,, the four stallions started their journey back to Ponyville, ready to put this day behind them, but looking forward to laughing at the story they'll tell of it.

Meanwhile, not far off, the possessed Princess Amore grind her perfect teeth, more then agitated. "Not only did those fools come togeather after I spent so much time and effort breaking them all apart, but that mongral is back! How in the dark shadows did he get back here!? I destroyed the mirror! He should have been gone for good! Ugh… No matter… I have bigger fish to fry…"

Pushing her own rage and anger down deeper, Mourning Cloak used a teleportation spell to take her back to the dark hideaway.

Little did Mourning Cloak herself know that deep down in the body she possessed, Princess Amoure was silently celebrating the victory of Sunny and his friends.

Author's Note:

Notes: sorry these chapters took so long to write guys. I kept writing and revising, and in the middle of it I got sick and tried to write and edit, which was not a good idea, not alot of it made sense. Anywho, I hope you all liked them!

Also, I wanted to say this here rather then in the actual story; during the last part where Sunny and the guys came to Big Mac's rescue, yes, Sunny could have used magic to lift the cart out of the mud and repair it himself. He's lifted heavier things and repaired worse then a broken, muddy cart. But Sunny wanted to let Big Mac call the shots and prove himself to be a leader. Just like princess Celestia with letting Twilight handke Big time villains, Sunny wanted to let Big Mac handle some problems and prove to himself that he could.

Guess Sunny is more like his mother then I thought.

I'll try and have three more chapters posted by the begining of next month guys! My goal is still to finish the whole thing by the end of the year, and I'm not going to cut corners. I want it to be grand. Wish me luck!