Sunny Knight: a Pony's Tale

by TheothersideofSunny968

Raging Storm

Snowstorm entered and kneeled before King Sombra and Princess Amore, who had been talking but had silenced their conversation upon his arrival. "Your majasty, you have summoned me?"

"Yeeesss" King Sombra hissed, his cold voice sent a chill down Snowstorm's back. The unicorn guard who served King Sombra so faithfully never felt this way before, swearing the temperature in the room dropped the moment King Sombra spoke. Snowstorm was frozen in place, afraid to move until his master instructed him to do so. But King Sombra just took a few steps towards Snowstorm, stopping about two feet infront of him. Snowstorm's eyes still locked to the ground, now Peering at King Sombra's hooves as the shadow King spoke. "I have an important mission for you. One you absolutely cannot fail."

Gulping, Snowstorm hesitated to ask, and kept his head down as he remained in his kneeling stance.

Before Snowstorm could ask, Sombra answered, his voice like distant thunder. "You are to eliminate Sunny Knight. By any means nessisary."

Aware that this unicorn, the son of Princess Celestia, had been a thorn in King Sombra's side for so long, messing up his plans to release the Umbrum, Snowstorm could understand why the King would want him out of the way, but there was a lingering suspicion that something was wrong. Snowstorm could have sworn that this Sunny Knight, was some how related to King Sombra. He could have sworn that King Sombra told him in the past to leave Sunny Knight alone when the opurtunity to strike him down was possible. Had something changed? Or did Snowstorm imagine it all?

Snowstorm gathered enough courage to turn his head and look slightly up, only for his gaze to be caught by the sharp eyes of Princess Amore glaring at him. Her eyes seemed to fill Snowstorm with even more fear then Sombra's presence. Making his insides run cold.

"Go. Do as I command. And don't return a failure." Sombra growled at Snowstorm, reminding him who was in charge.

"Yes, my King. It will be done" Snowstorm pushed all other thoughts, other then his most recent order, out of his mind. Memories of Sunny being King Sombra's son and King Sombra forbidding him to attack Sunny must have just been part of a bad dream Snowstorm forgot about.

Mourning Cloak watched as Snowstorm, the unicorn guard who still barely had a purpose in their plans ran off to do his final duty. When Snowstorm was gone, sencing his fearfilled heart was far enough away, she spoke though Princess Amore's mouth, to her son. "I hope you aren't worried about him."

"Worried about a pony?" Sombra's harsh tone had never been more cutthroat, almost surprising her. "Why? When it's THEIR kind's fault OUR kind is trapped. Imprisoned. All ponies are good for is food. Their fear is great sustenance."

Mourning Cloak forced a smile on Amore's muzzle, despite the possesed princess still resisting. Caring more about the work she had done on her own son's mind and heart, Mourning Cloak pushed the resisting Amore problem to the back of her mind. It's true, Sombra's heart had taken a while to reconstruct and fool. But Mourning Cloak had succeeded in using her dark magic to twist his mind and heart to believe that Sunny Knight was not his son at all, nor that Princess Celestia ever really loved him. The pain of Celestia's betrail was left as that of a friend. Friendship was dead to Sombra, and any chance that he cared about ponies along with it.

'Nopony will stand in our way now' Mourning Cloak thought with a sinister snicker. 'Game time is over. It's time to free the Umbrum!'

Sunny had been experiencing rather lazy morning at Sweet Apple Acres. Well, as lazy as one can have. To most ponies, a lazy morning could be sleeping in till almost noon, eating breakfast at lunch time, and either relaxing at home on their couch with a good book or catching some rays. But not to anypony who worked on a farm. For the Apples a 'lazy morning' consisted of waking up just shortly after the roosters crowed and lacking the energy to jump out of bed and get right to work. This was the kind of day Sunny was having. Just as he was able to drag his hooves into the kitchen to grab a glass of orange juice, he saw Applejack stepping out the front door. But she had time enough to reel off some important information to him.

"Morning, sugar cube" She smiled at him and used her usual greetings. "Sorry, but ah gotta run, Twilight called an emergency meeting. Don't know 'bout what, but from the letter it was really important. Granny took Apple Bloom and her friends to Appaloosa for ah carnival this morning on the train, and Big Mac went ta visit his marefriend Sugar Belle. Ah left ya ah list of chores and some breakfast on the table. List shouldn't take ya too long. And ah'll have Spike sent ya ah scroll if the meeting turns inta ah adventure, ok? Love ya!" Applejack locked lips with Sunny for a long, hard kiss that ended with a smack. Applejack released a now fully awake Sunny, and dashed out the door. The yellow unicorn was free to enjoy his breakfast and the empty house.

Sitting down at the table, Sunny smiled at the breakfast his fiance left him. A bowl of cinnamon oatmeal with apple slices, his desired glass of orange juice, a warm muffin with a square of butter melting on it, an orange already peeled, and a small tack of pancakes. "She's too good for me somtimes."

Sitting down and taking a bite out of the pancakes, Sunny grabbed the list and began reading what was on there to do. Applejack wasn't wrong, it was a relatively short and easy list. He could get it done before lunch if he took his time.

Before he could lay the list of chores down, Sunny felt something hard hit him from behind, nailing the center of his back! Everything had happened so fast, as if it all had been done in one swift motion. As a hard blow landed between Sunny's shoulder blades, something wrapped itself around his horn. Sunny suddenly felt like he lost half his energy before he hit the ground. The blow sent Sunny flying through the air, flipping the table over, spilling his breakfast everywhere. Sunny landed with a thud into the wall of the Apple Family kitchen, where a few framed pictures fell off the wall and landed with a crash, sending broken glass everywhere. Scrambling to sit up, but fighting a sudden tiredness, Sunny flipped around, used the overturned table as a shield, and peeked over at the attacker. Standing in the kitchen was a unicorn clad in black armor of a style Sunny had only seen once, back at the Gala. It was one of his father's followers, this one Sunny remembered his father had to call off.

"Snowstorm" Sunny called out, the unicorn jerked his head over to where Sunny's head was slightly visible over the table. Snowstorm's eyes were hidden behind the blue plastic visor of his scifi style helmet, but Sunny could feel his eyes narrow on him. "Awful rude ta interupt ah fella while he's eating, ain't it?"

"Make all the jokes you want" Snowstorm's voice appeared deeper and more metallic then it did at the gala. "With that magical inhibitor ring on, you have no magic. No changing into your larger or umbrum forms either."

'Somepony's done his research' Sunny mentally complemented his opponent, not wanting to feed Snowstorm's ego. But he had more then a few tricks up his sleeve himself, incase something like this happened. He was just lucky nopony was home who could get hurt. Although clean up would be a hassle.

Snowstorm kept his eyes glued to the faint outline of Sunny hidding behind the wooden table. Everything up till now had been carefully calculated. He had read all the reports Sombra's spies had made about this 'Sunny Knight' character. Snowstorm knew he had relinquished his Black Knight armor recently, leaving him without armor he could easily summon with magic. He knew about Sunny's larger form that boosted his magical abilities, as well as his ability to turn into a terrifying umbrum. Unlike Lightning Dust and her team of Shadowbolts, who rushed in and got their flanks handed to them, Snowstorm knew one had to wait and strike swiftly and precisely. He cut off Sunny's unicorn magic before he could even think of casting a spell. Without magic, Sunny was as good as defeated. There was nothing a unicorn could do without their magic. And the only way to get that inhibitor ring off was if the one who put it on also took it off. With most inhibitor rings, anypony or creature could take the ring off. But this one was a special kind that only the top royal guards were allowed to use. Snowstorm had a few in his possession from his old days in Canterlot, and knew they would come in handy one of these days.

"It's over" Snowstorm stated, his helmet making him sound more like a machine from a horror film then a pony, which he preferred. Straitening up and pulling out a thin sword, Snowstorm cast a spell to turn the blade red hot so it could cut through almost anything, a trick he often liked to use. "The king has ordered your destruction. Let's make this quick."

"Pops that angery at me, eh?" Sunny spoke up.

Snowstorm knew him talking was only to delay the inevitable. He took several steps carefully towards the table Sunny was hidding behind and readied his red hot glowing sword. "King Sombra has had enough of your meddling. And so have I!"

With a mighty swing, Snowstorm cut right through the table, at the exact point where Sunny was hidding. Only when the smoke and ash from the burning table cleared, there was no sign of Snowstorm's target.

"Hey tin head!" Sunny called out from the other room, smiling back at Snowstorm. "Try and catch me!"

Snowstorm teleported right where Sunny had been standing, not wanting to waste time running and letting Sunny have the lead on him. Only Sunny expected this, and with all the force expected from somepony who worked all day on a farm bucking trees, Sunny bucked Snowstorm in the chest with his two powerful back legs. Snowstorm lost his grip on his sword, the air pushed from his lungs, as well as his concentration on the spell that kept it glowing red hot. It was his turn to go flying through the air. A moment after hitting the ground, before Snowstorm could catch his breath, Sunny had grabbed some rope and hogtied Snowstorm faster then the armored pony could figure out which direction was up.

When Snowstorm was able to catch his breath, he struggled for a moment against his bods, then remembered he could use magic. It didn't take the former unicorn guard long to use his magic to cut through the rope bonds. Jumping to his hooves, Snowstorm looked around for his sword. In the moment Snowstorm had been winded, he had lost control of his sword, it had flown out of the kitchen entirely and landed right in the center of the Apple family's couch. It must have still been red hot when it landed becouse it had burned a hole through the couch to the solid wood floor below and cooled, practically seeling it. The polyester appolstry of the couch even melted to the sword. Snowstorm grabbed hold of his sword again and cast the red hot spell again, making the sword once again glow. But this time, the couch caught fire! The flames began to grow and spread until it covered the entire couch, the flames reflecting off Snowstorm's black armor making his expressionless muzzle look even more terrifying then it already was.

"No more games" Snowstorm stated firmly as he looked around the farm house, eyes hunting for his quarry.

Snowstorm didn't have to look for long. When he turned around, something hard hit him in the head, making his entire head shake, his helmet ringing like a bell. The force behind it had been great enough for Snowstorm to lose focus again and drop his sword. The spell that kept it lit once again flickered out. When a unicorn can't even think strait, all spells they are consintraiting on end. The no longer burning sword fell to the ground as Snowstorm jumped out of the way and ripped his helmet off. After tossing his helmet aside, he saw Sunny standing there with a large fire extinguisher, putting out the blazing pile of wood and polyester appolstery that was once a couch.

"You hit me with a fire extinguisher!?" Snowstorm was appalled, but his head was still ringing and he knew his best chances of beating Sunny in a fight was to use magic. The fact that Sunny had kept on par with him thus far had been through cheep tricks.

"Ya really had ta set th' couch on fire? This has been in th' family fer fifty years!" Sunny sounded annoyed, but he never dropped his accent, showing he didn't feel too far out of control of the situation.

Once the ringing in his head stopped, Snowstorm had decided enough with the sword, that perhaps a shield would be a better bet. Snowstorm let Sunny put the fire completly out to allow himself time to recover as much as possible. When Sunny had put out the last flickering flame, Snowstorm rushed him, catching the yellow unciorn off guard, took the extinguisher from him, punched Sunny in the stomach, then cast his shield bubble spell around Sunny, making sure to not allow anything else Sunny could use as a weapon or tool to be in the shield with him.

Trapped in a floating red bubble of Magic, Sunny looked all around for a possible weak spot, hoping that Snowstorm wasn't able to fully concentrate on the spell, and would still be suffering from the recent blow he took. Unfortunately for Sunny, the spell looked like it had been done perfectly. Sunny startes to feel slightly defeated, then turned to Snowstorm, who was smiling triumphantly at his catch. "Well, ya caught me partner, now what? Gunna take me ta mah dear old dad?"

"I don't know who your 'dear, old, dad' is" Snowstorm chuckled to himself, his red eyes blazing. "But I'll he sure to send what's left of you to him…"

Snowstorm's still glowing red horn began to glow even brighter as he cast a secondary spell ontop of the shield spell. Sunny didn't have to wait too long to figure out what kind of spell Snowstorm was casting, becouse he felt the part of the shield around him began to shrink. That wasn't good. Snowstorm was going to try and crush him!

"Squirm all you like" Snowstorm baited as he focused to keep control of his spell. It's alot of strain to keep a spell up and add a second spell ontop of it, for most unicorns. "Your tale ends here."

The bubble was shrinking rapidly, and soon Sunny wouldn't have room to move a hoof. He didn't know for certain if the inhibitor ring really prevented him from using his umbrum form and powers or not, but he didn't want to take that risk. He couldn't use magic and he didn't have any tools but his own four hooves, so he did the only thing he could think to do. Sunny struggled to break free by punching the edges of the bubble as hard as he could with his front two hooves. It had no effect on the stability of the shrinking barrier, Sunny's hoof bouncing off like he had just hit the wall made of rubber. Sunny didn't see that hitting the barrier actually was putting a strain on Snowstorm. With every hit, Snowstorm had to refocus his energy as if HE were the one actually taking the hit. What Sunny did notice, however, was the barrier was floating just a few inches above the ground and seemed to move a little with every punch. The barrier bubble was almost constricting him now to a point where he almost couldn't move! He had to think fast or there wouldn't wouldn't enough of him to fit into a match box! Positioning himself at just the right angle, Sunny mustered all the strength he had left and bucked with all his might. Snowstorm realized too late what Sunny had done when his own barrier collided with his helmetless head, sending him flying back off his hooves for a few seconds. The shield spell had been canceled when Snowstorm was struck, freeing Sunny. Sunny didn't know all the details of Snowstorm's orders, but he knew then that Snwowstorm meant serious buisness. Like blowing up the Golden Oaks library serious. Sunny also knew that the only way to get that inhibitor ring off him was with Snowstorm's own hooves. If Snowstorm decided he couldn't win the battle, he might try and teleport away. If he did that, Sunny would be cut off from any and all magic!

Little did Sunny know that Snowstorm wasn't only planning on leaving, but he wouldn't allow Sunny to walk away either. After getting half way up to his hooves, Driven by a burning need to forfill his mission and please King Sombra, Snowstorm tried to cast another barrier spell, but was tackled hard enough by Sunny to send them both flying out the front door to the farm house. The two unciorns faught on the ground, kicking and punching wherever they could, looking more like a pair of colts in a schoolyard skirmish then two experienced royal guards in a battle for their lives. The two tumbled around the patio of the farm house for a while before rolling down the front steps and into the gravel.

Snowstorm managed to get at an angle to where he could kick Sunny off him. With his back hooves between them, Snowstorm managed to kick Sunny off him. The yellow unciorn landed with a loud thud in the dirt road, the wind being slightly knocked out of him. Little did Sunny know that Snowstorm had just been keeping him busy while HE had been letting his mind settle, needing a clear, consintraited mind to cast more spells. Now Snowstorm would be able to cast a number of spells and finish Sunny off for good. But which spell to try and wipe out his opponent with, Snowstorm wondered.

He didn't have too long to ponder. Sunny was back on his hooves and charging right at him, his horn lowered and taking aim at it's owner. Snowstorm knew Sunny couldn't cast a spell with that on, but he also knew that that ring wouldn't break under just any kind of pressure. Sunny was using his cursed item as an asset. Last minute Snowstorm dodged Sunny's lundge, junping safely aside. Snowstorm realized last minute that Sunny had never intended to lunge at him with that ring wearing horn of his, but instead wanted to get in close with Snowstorm to deliver a third buck attack!

Sunny had stopped just about six inches away from Snowstorm when he leaned forward on his front hooves, arched both of his back legs and before Snowstorm could move out of the way, Bucked again with all his might. The blow landed contact and sent Snowstorm flying though the air until he landed with a wet plop! Looking over his shoulder, Sunny saw Snowstorm had landed in the pig pen, now covered from horn to hoof in mud. Not wanting him to let him escape escape, Sunny ran up to the now broken fence of the pig pen and leaped onto the muddy mess that was Snowstorm.

The two unicorns continued to punch and kick eachother, even bitting at one point or another, until Snowstorm wiggled out his right hoof and landed a hard punch to the side of Sunny's head, making the yellow unicorn see stars for a moment and forget what it was he was doing. Taking advantage of Sunny's confusion, Snowstorm decided to return one of the bucks Sunny had given him, landing a hard blow to Sunny in his chest, sending HIM flying this time, out of the muddy pen and rolling in the dirt back to the farm.

Snowstorm used a quick spell to clean himself off, wanting to appear presentable when he defeated the biggest thorn in his King's side, when he was hit with a flow of cold running water. Putting his hooves infront of his muzzle and narrowing his eyes out to the source of the fridge watery attack, Snowstorm saw a damp Sunny with a garden hose in his hooves, set to full blast. Annoyed Snowstorm focused enough to teleport out of Sunny's range of fire and reappeared behind his assailant. Sunny didn't expect him to do that or for him to deliver a blow to the back of his head. Sunny fell forward, but rolled to avoid injury and put distance between him and Snowstorm. The blows to the head were starting to get to him, Sunny could feel it. The ringing in his ears was telling him he needed to end this fight fast some how.

But before Sunny could think up a plan, Snowstorm cast another spell, breaking up the hard dirt pathway infront of the farm house into giant chunks of hard gravel, condensing them into even harder, and sharpened debris, and set them on fire with his red magical aura. Not giving Sunny a second to catch his breath, Snowstorm sent his fire rocks hurdaling at Sunny with enough force to really do some damage. Sunny tried to dodge them as best he could, but but cut off from any magic by the inhibitor ring, Sunny was feeling the fight was wearing him down. The flames from the missles grazed parts of him, singeing his fur. One had barely missed the top of his head. Never before today was he so glad to have forgotten his stetson hat upstairs. It would have been burned to a crisp if it had been at the top of his head.

With every missed shot, Snowstorm became more and more frustrated. But then a thought occurred to him. 'He's slowing down, his body is tired. His mind must be exhausted too. For a unicorn to not be able to cast spells is as frustrating as a pegasus with their wings bound! I know just how to finish him off!'

Levitating several new clumps of dirt into the air, Snowstorm didn't bother lighting them on fire as he sent each one, one right after another, shooting right at Sunny. Needing to be even quicker on his hooves, Sunny mustered more of his energy to bounce side to side, flip, land and roll out of the way of the hurtling earth being shot at him. Sunny REALLY wished he had gotten the chance to finish his breakfast, he was running low on energy. Sunny knew his movements were slowing down, less power were in his punches he delivered to Snowstorm a moment ago. But he had very little time to think as several large clumps of earth seemed to squeeze togeather and formed a massive clump and shot right at Sunny! The yellow unicorn wished that he could have teleported away, it was going to be hard to get away from the mass charging at him.

Running away as fast as his exhausted legs could carry him, Sunny had a sinking feeling when he saw the shadow of the dirt mass getting closer and darker that he might not be able to outrun it, and put his hooves into overdrive. But it was hopeless, and the large chunk of earth smashed and crumbled ontop of Sunny.

The pile of dirt the mass left a small hill as tall as a trackerz with no physical sign of Sunny. Snowstorm paused. And for a moment, everything was still. Then, there came a subtle shaking from one of the pile's edges. Little bits of dirt and rock began to move. Then, a small mound, almost like a gopher hole popped out of the pile or dirt and rocks, with Sunny's own head sticking out of it in lieu of a small furry rodent. Coughing up bits of dirt, Sunny shook his head in a feebal attempt to get the dirt out of his eyes. He just prayed Snowstorm didn't run off, planning to hide somewhere until Sunny's father had a chance to inact his devious plans. To Sunny's suprise, Snowstorm appeared right infront of him, only to send a chill down Sunny's back and a sinking feeling to his gut.

A pair of red and green eyes looked down at Sunny from Snowstorm's head, a chuckle coming from him as the former unicorn guard looked down at his captured hunt, purple flames flickering at the far corners of his eyes. "This is it! I'll break your mind! Then turn you to stone and toss you in the Ghastly gorge! You'll break into a thousand pieces! No pony would even bother to look for you there! Your pieces will glittered away slowly with the stream, and you'll never be put togeather again! Have fun with oblivion!"

Sunny struggled under the earth, trying desperately to drain his body of the rest of its energy, but it was no use. No magic, no energy, and no friends to help him. Things were looking very grim. Looking back at Snowstorm's cheeky muzzle as dark magic began to brew in the form of black and purple bubbles around Snowstorm's horn, Sunny did the only thing he could.

He stritened up and locked eyes with Snowstorm, and told him the honest truth. "I'm not afraid of you."

This caught Snowstorm off guard. Anypony else could try and make this their last ditch effort to save themselves, or even try and plea to him. But not this pony, not Sunny. Snowstorm saw the resolve in the unicorn's eyes. There was a deep, realness to it, that he had only seen in two other ponies before. One, the king he served when he informed him about his plan to release the imprisoned Umbrum, and the other… the other was Princess Celestia herself. Faced with difficult decisions, when Princess Celestia had made up her mind, even if she didn't want to do it, she made the hard decisions and stuck by them. In the face of danger, Sunny still embodies the essence and strength of his parents.

Unfortunatly for Snowstorm, the spell he had been charging up till then was at full power, and with no direction as to where to go, it coated him in a bubbling black and purple aura. A moment after then spell was finished, the Dark magic seeming to blow away, Snowstorm was left in a fetal position on the ground, trembling as he called out his father's name and mumbled how sorry he was.

"What a disappointment" Snowstorm's father sneered, too disgusted to even look at his son. "You can't do ANYTHING right, can you!?"

"Father, please, it was an accident" Snowstorm had reverted to the age of a colt just barely younger then Applebloom. "It won't happen again! I promise!"

"You said that the last time. And the time before that." Snowstorm's father's voice seemed to double as another one of him appeared, walking just a few steps behind the first. Both of them circling Snowstorm, never meeting his gaze.

"You can't even deal with one, magic stripped, farm pony" a third father appeared and joined the line.

"You had one job, and you failed" a fourth appeared and followed behind that one.

"You were a disappointment as a son" a fifth one joined the group.

"A disappointment as a royal guard" a sixth appeared and added.

"You turned your back on Eauestria to join some evil king" a seventh one popped into existence.

"And you even failed him, time and time again" an eighth one joined the group.

"You are just no use to anyone" a ninth version of Snowstorm's father stated, now closing a circle around Snowstorm.

"Disappointment"

"No use to anypony"

"Disgrace"

"No son of mine"

"FAILURE!"

"DISAPOINTMENT!"

"DISGRACE!"

"Wow, ah wonder if all folks have th' same fears" a different voice spoke up from the sea of Snowstorm fathers. The elderly stallions all seemed to vanish as Sunny came walking up casually as if he were walking through a garden.

The young Snowstorm took a few deep breaths and began to relax, wiping tears from his eyes. "Wh-what are you doing here?"

"Well… ta be honest, ah kinda felt bad for ya" Sunny twirled around and took a seat next to Snowstorm, not asking why he was a young colt.

"I don't need anypony to feel sorry for me" the young colt looked away from Sunny, grumbling angrily.

"Ya know, you and ah ain't so different" Sunny stated, taking a good hard look around, the darkened area seemed so familiar.

"What do you mean by that?" Snowstorm asked, still sounding gruff but a glimmer of curiosity flickered.

"Well, when ah faught mah dad 1000 years ago and lost, he cast th' same spell on me and sealed me away." Sunny began to explain. "You seemed ta be bothered most by what yer own pa thinks of you. Me, ah was haunted bah all th' ponies ah failed ta protect back in th' Crystal Empire. It took me over 1000 years ta figure out what ah needed ta make th' nightmares go away."

"What did you need?" Snowstorm no longer seemed annoyed and had grown quite curious.

"Ah needed friendship" Sunny gave the honest but very cheesy answer. "See, ah never made friends when ah was prince at th' Crystal Empire. And ah always felt like ah had ta do everything ah could ta keep ponies safe or ah was ah failure. When mah dad used that spell on me, ah was faced with that very fear. Th' fear that ah was ah failure, that ponies were sufferin' 'couse of me."

Sunny's words began to clear something up in Snowstorm's mind. Something that had been coving up the truth. Sunny REALLY is Sombra's son! But Snowstorm didn't interupt Sunny. A part of him wanted the yellow unicorn to continue. "How did friendship change that? You still were responsible for them."

Taking a deep breath, Sunny locked eyes with Snowstorm, maintaining his relaxed tone. "True. And ah held it against mahself when ah remembered what had happened. But it was all thanks ta mah friends that ah was able to push past th' fear of mah failure an' focus on what was really important. Ya can't focus too much on what ya failed at. Focus more on what needs ta be done IF ya fail. And don't think 'bout that till ya actually fail. Becouse of mah friends, ah learned th' ponies you meet could easily become friends, too, if ya take th' time an' get ta know them. And when ya make friends, ya get this feelin' that ya want ta do whatever you could ta protect them. An' real friends will do the same for you. When ya stand togeather, yer stronger then ya are apart."

Slowly, as Sunny's words sank into Snowstorm's head, the grey unicorn guard began to grow older and older, until he reached his right age. If Sunny or Snowstorm noticed the subtle change, they didn't achknowlage it.

"I don't mean to quesgion you on your story. But what does that have to do with me? Obviously my problem is my father…" Snowstorm admitted, slightly embarrassed. "I could make friends, easily. If I wanted to."

"The problem you have that ah had is the same" Sunny said without skipping a beat. "Yer trying hard ta be somepony ya ain't and yer not happy 'bout it. Ah tried mah hardest ta be th' prince ah thought everypony wanted me ta be. Ah was misserable and no pony ever got close ta me. If ah had just been mahself, ah could have made real friends an' ah would have realized THEY would never have blamed me fer what happened and knew ah did mah best. Maybe YOU should be honest with yer father 'bout how you feel."

Thinking about it, Snowstorm gulped and tore his eyes away from Sunny then muttered something under his breath.

"What ya say there, partner?" Sunny asked, unbale to hear what Snowsrorm was mumbling.

"I said…." was all Snowstorm said clearly before mumbling more.

"Ah'm sorry ah-" Sunny started to say before Snowstorm screamed at him.

"I WANT TO BE A TEACHER!!!" Snowstorm screamed outloud his deepest darkest secret before turning to Sunny. "I always wanted to be a teacher! Maybe even teach at Princess Celestia's school for gifted unicorns! Maybe coach a sports team, too! But I want to teach basics of magic, advanced magic, history of magic, horse feathers, I'd be happy teaching math! But… but my father only seemed to care about the royal guard. His time in the royal guard, his friends in the royal guard, the newest recruited in the royal guard… it seemed like the only way I could get my father's attention was to become a royal guard.

"You should have seen how his muzzle lit up when he heard I was accepted into the royal guard" Snowstorm remembered the subtle smile his father had, which was the most emotion he showed in the longest time. The smile faded from Snowstorm just as quickly as it arrived. "How disappointed do you think he would be if he found out all I wanted to do in life was be a teacher?"

"Ya want the honest, hard truth?" Sunny flatly asked Snowstorm, who half nodded. "Ya care too much what others think of ya. Ah had that problem too. Life's much easier if ya only worry 'bout what makes ya happy, an what's the right thing ta do, 'stead of what ya think other people want from ya. Ya can't please everypony, but ya can do what makes ya happy. Ya might find that others are happy with ya if yer happy."

It was alot for Snowstorm to think over on his own time, but one thing was for sure, he knew what he had been doing it till then, all he had done for King Sombra, was wrong. Looking at Sunny, Snowstorm's envious feelings he had towards him and Sombra, seemed so childish and misplaced now.

"I'm sorry, Sunny" Snowstorm spoke in a mellowed tone, defeated and relieved. "I made such a mess of things. I want to make things right. But I don't know how."

"Ya took th' first step already, partner" Sunny flashed a half smile and tipped his stetson hat. "Ya admitted ya done wrong, and ya want ta do right. Now ya just need ta wake up."

"Wake up?" Snowstorm repeated the last two words before the dark world around him flashed white, and Snowstorm found himself jumping up, awake and startled, breathing heavily, feeling like he just fell 1000 feet.

"Yer awake, good" Sunny was standing next to Snowstorm, smiling down at him. Snowstorm noticed the inhibitor ring was off Sunny's horn, guessing he must have put Snowstorm's limp hooves togeather while he was out cold and pulled it off. Sunny then offered Snowstorm a sandwich "Here. Yer gunna need yer strength."

"For what?" Snowstorm asked as he willingly took the sandwich, realizing just how hungry he became.

"Fer fixing that" Sunny motioned to the half destroyed farm house behind them.

"… that's the next step, isn't it?" Snowstorm sheepishly asked.

"Eh'yep" Sunny answered as he plopped a tool box next to some lumber beside Snowstorm. "You and I are gunna fix it. Then yer gunna appologize ta Applejack and the rest of th' family fer th' mess ya made."

"Sunny!!!" Applejack's voice echoed through the orchard like a violent wind, sending a chill down Sunny's back.

At first, Sunny thought she had seen the destruction on the farm and the house, and was worried something bad had happened. Granted, something bad did happen, but he was there, appearing fine. As Applejack ran down the dirt road, her expression didn't change when she saw him. There was something worse bothering her. Worse then half her home being destroyed.

When she reached him, Sunny's accent was absent in his speech as he looked her in the eye and asked "what happened?"

Terror was thick in Applejack's shaky voice as she spoke the words "Cadence! Shinning Armor! Flurry heart!"

Sunny heart sank as fear began to fill him. It was his turn to sound shaky "What about them!? What happened are they ok!?"

Applejack cried out loud "They're missing!"

Author's Note:

I tried to get ahold of my friend who lent me his oc, Snowstorm, to get his opinion on what I would have Snowstorm secretly wanting to be rather then a guard, but he hasn't been active in a while, so I went with a teacher. I hope he doesn't mind.