Sunny Knight: a Pony's Tale

by TheothersideofSunny968

The Talent Show part 1

Twilight nervously paced back and forth as she went over the new line up for the talent show, again and again, double, triple, and quadruple checking that the ponies for the acts were presently backstage and getting ready to perform.

"You ok, Twilight?" Spike asked as he appeared right behind the distracted alicorn princess, causing her to nearly jump out of her fur.

"O-oh it's just you Spike" Twilight commented as she began her deep breathing exersizes, in an attempt to calm herself down. "How's Rarity doing?"

"She's resting now" the little dragon reported. "From what the doctor said, if she gets bed rest and plenty of fluids, she should be fine in a day or two. I wanted to stop by really fast to see how things were going."

"Well, we found some replacements for the acts, but...." Twilight began to flip through the pages on her clip board again, nervously checking the line up for a fifth time.

"Hey, it'll be ok, Twilight" Spike reassured her, putting a claw on her shoulder.

Twilight looked to her number one assistant and smiled. Spike was always there for her to help keep things together. "Thanks Spike. You're right. We've done all we can, and if something happens, we'll work with it."

"Yeah, that's always worked out for us before" Spike said as he peaked through the curtains at the crowd. It looked like all of Ponyville and then some had turned out for the show. "Wow, full house."

The judges sat at a small table in the front; Rainbow Dash was at the far left, Mayor Mare was at the center, and the surprise guest from Canterlot, Hoity Toity, was at the far right. Part of the reason for the large crowd was due to Hoity's appearance. When ponies in Canterlot heard he would be here tonight, they felt 'they just simply had to be here'. Which was good. That meant more to buy baked goods and adopt pets (hopefully).

Twilight turned her attention away from the slit in the curtain that she peaked through to the ponies in the back. She cleared her throat and caught the performer's attention. "Ok everypony, it's just about time to start. Places everypony!" She then turned to a certain grey mare who held up a cello. "Are you ready, Octavia?"

"Of course, Twilight" she said with a smirk. "But any news on Sunny?"

"Not yet" the worry returned to Twilight's mind. Thinking back now, maybe Sunny only said he had a back up act ready because he felt pressured and was scrambling to get one ready. "B-but I'm sure he'll be here. At least by the time he needs to perform."

"Oh... That's a shame" Octavia commented as he picked up the heavy instrument with ease. "I had hoped that he would catch my act. Maybe I'll have to give him a private show later."

With that, Twilight walked through the curtains and onto the front part of the stage, leaving her worries back stage. As the lights landed in her, she smiled and cleared her throat. The chatter in the crowd began to die down as she spoke. "Thank you everypony, for coming to our fundraising talent show. We hope you enjoy some of the best entertainment that Ponyville has to offer. Between the acts, please feel free to visit our bake sale and our pet adoption center. The whole reason for the talent show today is to help some of our furry friends find new, loving homes. Now, without further delay, please enjoy the musical works of Equestria's best celloist, miss Octavia!"

The curtains began to part as Twilight stepped aside to allow the view of the grey, earth pony, mare. The lights dimmed down as a piano played in the background. Octavia peaked open her eyes but for a moment to look out into the crowd, hoping to see a certain yellow stallion. But he was no where to be found. Atleast, not as far as se could see. After taking a deep breath, Octavia began to play a song from the heart.

(http://youtu.be/jKZFh8Tv1sc))

As Octavia finished her song, the crowd erupted into a sea of applause and cheers. The musical earth pony smiled and bowed elegantly to them, but a real frown remained hidden behind a forced smile. As the curtains closed and Octavia made her way back stage to put her cello back in its case, she caught a glimpse of her best friend and roommate, Vynal Scratch, causing her to give an honest half smile.

"Enjoy the show, Vynal?" Octavia asked approaching her friend. To which the white unicorn mare with an electric blue mane smiled and nodded, never speaking a word. But instead held out two things for her best friend.

One was a box of chocolates, Vynal knew which ones Octavia really liked. As Octavia took the box from her mute friend and opened it, she found that several of the delicious chocolates had already been removed from their wrapping and eaten. She raised a brow at Vynal who blushed slightly and gave her an awkward smile that said 'don't be mad at me, they were coconut anyway. Well... Some of them were.'

Octavia then pulled her attention away from the chocolates and started at the second gift. A single rose with a small tag on it. A bit romantic for Vynal's taste. Curious, Octavia flipped the tag over and read the note;

'Great job, Octavia. I'm glad I could finally hear you play. Can't wait for your next concert.

-Sunny'

It brought a tear to the Octavia's eye to know that her friend really was there. From the moment they had met at Cranky's party, she knew he was a kind stallion, and one she could become good friends with. Now she knew that he would not let her down, no matter what. Even if he didn't appear to be out in the crowd, he was. She needed to have more faith in him. She won't soon forget that.

The crowd chatted for a bit, talking about how Octavia's act went while the judges talked amongst themselves and took down a score for her. This was a competition, and they still had to give the acts a score, no matter how wonderful the opening act was. Moments later, after a short break to allow ponies to get some refreshments and use the restroom, Twilight appeared on stage again, smiling at the crowd.

"This next act I really want you to put your hooves together for. They came in at the last moment and offered to fill in when one of our acts couldn't make it. So give a big, Ponyville thank you to Derpy and Doctor Hooves!"

As Twilight stepped aside and the curtain slowly pulled back to reveal The grey pegusus with the wall-eyes stare sitting on a stool, the crowd gasped and whispered nervously amongst themselves. Although Derpy wasn't a bad pony, she was heavily connected to two things. One being her love of muffins, and the second being her connection to most of the town's repair problems. Although the sweet mare never means to, she has been known to break a pillar or two, crash into something while delivering mail (often enough the wrong mail to the wrong house), some how lighting cereal on fire, or accidentally causing a lighting cloud to form from a regular white puffy one when she decided to bounce on it, causing it to shoot out bolts of lightning or rain.

Derpy gulped as she stared out into the crowd, tears beginning to form in the corners of her eyes. She didn't need to hear what everypony said to say to know what they were talking about. But at the last moment, a familiar stallion appeared out of the corner of her right eye, pulling behind him a table with a bottle of bubbles.

"Doctor?" Derpy asked with a slight sniffle.

"You know what to do, Derpy" Doctor Whooves said as he positioned the table right beside the grey mare. He shot her a smile, readjusted his tie and told her "I'll be right here to do my part. Just do what you do best. Trust me. You'll be brilliant."

With the Doctor's reassured confidence, Derpy faced the crowd again, this time with dry eyes and her usual innocent smile. She looked back at the table the Doctor brought, noticed the open bottle of bubbles and bubble wand, and knew exactly what to do. She dipped the wand in the bubble container and swiveled it around for a brief moment. Then, after she pulled the wand out of the soapy substance and held it close to her lips, she gently blew.

Normally a pony could maybe get 2-10 bubbles max out of a wand coated in such bubble soap, but Derpy was special. And not in the way ponies normally thought of her, either. As she gently blew into the wand, a seemingly endless flow of bubbles flew from it, shooting into the crowd. Enough bubbles to cover the darkening sky. Light gently reflected off of the bubbles as they spread over the crowd. Ponies who had whispered their criticisms about the grey mare had been long since silenced. From the stage, it seemed that the entire crowd had been coated in a sea of bubbles. Even the judges were in awe at the sight.

Just when ponies thought that was it, they saw a flash of light. On stage, Doctor Whooves had brought a machine into view. It was a large box, about the size of one of Derpy's basket of muffins, with several buttons on top of it, two light bulbs on the side, and a small but focused lens on the front. As the Doctor pressed a button on the machine, a small laser light hit one of Derpy's bubbles. The bubble flashed red and blue, then refracted the light to several other bubbles that in turn, also flashed with red and blue light. The sea of bubbles became part of a large laser light show!

As Derpy began to blow more bubbles, the Doctor changed the color combinations of his machine and altered the colors of the bubbles. If the crowd and judges weren't amazed before, they sure were now. The bibles began to change from one solid color at a time to a shifting, bubbling rainbow. Filly's and colts played and running around them, as if it was their own personal rainbow playground. The adults watched, feeling as though they had soared high into the sky and were between a fluffy white cloud and a rainbow themselves. As the last of the bubbles popped, and Doctor Whooves powered down his machine, the crowd roared into applause. When the curtain closed and Derpy and the Doctor gathered their things allowing for the next part of the show to set up, Twilight approached them.

"That was amazing, you two!" She complemented the odd couple. "Thank you again for helping us out."

"No problem, Twilight, it was our pleasure" Doctor Whooves said as he moved his laser light machine out of the way.

"Yeah! It was fun!" Derpy said as she flung her hooves into the air, expressing her enthusiasm.

As she did, she caught her hoof on one of the ropes attached to the stage curtain. Before Twilight or the Doctor could untie her hoof, Derpy tried to wiggle it free, then gave it one good tug. But when she did, she pulled loose the pulley and rope that held the curtains in place and closed. Causing the curtains on the front stage to fall and the next act to be prematurely revealed.

Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon were half way through setting up their magic act, which involved hiding Diamond Tiara's poor elderly butler out of sight to provide the 'magical' effects without anypony noticing. Such as a cage of doves that would fly out behind Diamond Tiara's cape when she signaled, pushing a white bunny up through a hole in Silver Spoon's hat, as well as anything else the girls needed. But as the crowd gasped at the sight of the filly's preparation for their act, any and all 'magic' in their tricks had thus been revealed. Angry and flustered, Diamond Tiara threw down her magician's hat and wand and stomped off stage, quickly fallowed by her best friend. Dealing with damage control, Twilight quickly levitated the curtains back up while several of the stage crew ponies tied it all back into place.

Twilight faced the crowd and gave an awkward chuckle and smile. "Well, ugh.... That was entertaining. Please give us one movement to, ugh, collect ourselves. Please feel free to visit the bake sale and the adoption stands."

With that, Twilight zoomed to the left of the stage, hoping to figure something out. As she reached the far end of the stage, she caught the sight of Diamond Tiara yelling at Derpy.

"... Our act is ruined, and it's all your fault! You clumsy, goofy looking-!" Diamond spat, her face red from obvious embarrassment.

"I-I didn't mean to-" Derpy began, but Doctor Whooves stepped in.

"It was an honest accident" he began. "Besides, your 'act' wasn't set up properly. Ponies would have seen your butler helping you from the crowd."

"What would you know about 'magic'?" Silver spoon stepped in. "You smell like old celery!"

"How is that relevant?!" Doctor Whooves was getting annoyed and losing his temper fast as his voice rose.

"I like celery" Derpy said with a smile.

"Ok everypony, we need to calm down" Twilight interrupted. "Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon going out there and doing their magic act now would be a bad idea. Do you two have anything else you can do?"

As the three older ponies turned their attention to Diamond Tiara and her best friend, the little pink filly turned her nose up and huffed. "We didn't plan to have our act ruined before it began. So 'NO'. We don't have a back up plan."

"What me to go on early, Sugar Cube?" Applejack offered, trotting up to the group after hearing the commotion. "That'll give ya some time ta figure things out."

"Or I could offer a hoof" a stallion spoke, stepping out from the shadows. No pony recognize recognized the grey stallion with the dark green mane, well, except for Derpy, who smiled at her old friend.

Sent from my iPhone

Author's Note:

Credit for 'Octavia'; made by Eileen Montgomery, as a parody of 'Titanium' by David Guetta

Credit for 'Apples to the core' video that was used goes to Doomwyte, who originally uploaded the video