Sunny Knight: a Pony's Tale

by TheothersideofSunny968

Fireworks and Fallen Shadows

Sunny and the Apple family had returned to Sweet Apple Acres about four days ago, after spending Hearths Warming with Pinkie's family. Pinkie herself planned to stay with her family on the farm until after the New Years. She felt she didn't visit often enough, and it would be a while before Maud would get time off of school again for them all to be together. Applejack offered to the Pies some of the apple cider they had stored for the New Years party, but the Pies apparently had their own celebratory traditions, and humbly declined. Applejack knew that Rainbow Dash would be overjoyed. Sunny also found he also heavily enjoyed the sweet taste of the apple based beverage.

Sunny was more then happy to help Granny and Apple Bloom in the kitchen while Applejack and Big Mac set up an eating area in one of the fields. He actually wanted to help Applejack, but she told him that they could handle it.

"Besides, ah like the way th' pies taste when ya make them, Sugar cube." The orange farm mare told Sunny as she shot him a wink, then she stepped out of the kitchen and made her way over to the barn for he supplies with her older brother.

Granny laughed a little as Sunny's face turned as red as Big Mac's. "Yep, regular Apple to th' core!"

The complement made Sunny smile down at Granny who went back to mixing ingredients in a bowl. But just as Sunny took his eyes off of her, something else caught his attention, something lurking just at the far corner of his peripheral. He shot his head around to face the direction the movement came from, but he made the mistake to blink. In that split second, whatever was lurking in the shadows was gone. He knew he saw somepony or something. But whoever or whatever it was, it had vanished.

"Ya ok, Sunny?" Apple Bloom asked, her face covered with blotches of flour.

The yellow stallion shook his head lightly, clearing the thoughts and images from his mind, then smiled down at the little yellow filly. "I'm sure as sugar, Apple Bloom. Now, let's get back to those pies! Gatta have em' ready by tonight!"

"That's the spirit!" Granny smiles at Sunny. "We have plenty more to to after th' pies! Apple turnovers, apple fritters, an' more!"

The yellow unicorn flexed a little then shot Granny a confident smirk. "Mighty tall order, but ah' know we can do it."

"You bet!" Apple Bloom cheered as she began working harder and faster, becoming more and more coated in flower and batter.

"Sssssuuuuunnnnnyyyyyyy...." A weak voice called out, slithering it's wait into the yellow unicorn's ear.

Sunny's head then jerked up and looked around again. The voice didn't sound like Granny or Appel Bloom. It sounded masculine, but faded and weak. His heart was racing and he didn't know why, but something about that voice, the image lurking just outside of his field of vision, it all was was frightening him more then it possibly should. But why? Luckily Granny and Apple Bloom we're too focused to notice the stallion's panic. He shook it off once again and went right back to work.

That night, Twilight and the rest of Applejack's friends, minus Pinkie, along with the cutie mark crusaders, and even Thunder Lane and Flitter, had gathered with Applejack, Sunny and the rest of the Apple family up on a hill at the far end of the orchard, facing the mountain that Canterlot itself rested on. Everypony enjoyed the food and drinks that were provided while casually making conversation. But when the fire works started, everypony went silent as their gaze turned to the sky.

Like flowers of fire and light, the fireworks shot up and burst into the sky in the most beautiful colors. Some, Twilight commented, resembles exploding super novas. She went on to explain what ingredients made the colors different for each firework different, but was quickly silenced by Rainbow, who simply put a hoof to the purple alicorn's mouth. Twilight didn't take offense to it, and took it as a hint to just sit back and enjoy the show.

Halfway into the show, a cold chill ran up Sunny's back, thinning the air, and making the stallion gasp, feeling short of breath. Something then caught his eye again. He looked around and saw a pair of green, glowing orbs in a thick and dark part of the orchard. But again, as he looked over, the presence vanished. As if to confirm, a bright yellow firework light up almost all of the night sky up ahead, illuminating the shadowy part of the orchard. Sunny shook his head again and sighed. Nothing was there except the apple trees.

'I need more sleep' Sunny said as he drew his attention back to night sky as a few more fire works shot up and illuminated it. 'Maybe I should take that potion Zecora gave me. It is about time I remembered, anyway. I've been putting it off for far too long.'

Sunny then looked over at Applejack who's pupils grew as another fire work exploded, lighting up the sky this time with a bright red color. Sunny smiled as he readjusted his Stetson. 'I know now, no matter what, I won't lose them. Even if I do have family far far away, I'll still stay here, where I belong.'

While Sunny turned his gaze back to the fireworks show, the dark image reappeared again. Eyes glowing green with determination, fueled by the same purple fire that has burned for over 1000 years. The shadow watched as the yellow unicorn sat amongst the farm pony family and their friends. He had remained hidden in the shadows, waiting, waiting, waiting for his time to strike. And he felt the time to act was near. He would not miss this fruitful opportunity....

After the fireworks ended, and everypony decided to call it a night and head back to their respective homes, Sunny was more then happy to use a spell to help with the clean up. Although he hadn't mastered the spell to cast on the dishes to clean themselves, he was able to levitate all the dishes, left overs, and table cloths, back into the kitchen and have them safely put where they belonged. The dishes went neatly and gently into the sink, the food wrapped and put in the refrigerator, and the table cloths and blankets floated gently into the dirty laundry. As the yellow stallion picked up a sponge to begin cleaning the dishes, Appeljack put a hoof on his shoulder.

"Those can wait till tomorrow" She told the yellow stallion. "Get some rest. Ya worked hard today."

Sunny was about to put up a fight, believing that it wouldn't take long to get the dishes washed, but as he opened his mouth to say so, a mighty yawn escaped. Sunny then realized just how tired he actually was. Working all day then using that much magic must have really taken it out of him. His emerald eyes looked into Applejack's, he smiled, shrugged, and nodded. "Ok, ok. You win. But don't wake up early and do them for me tomorrow, ok?"

"If ah do, I'll have ya help me work on the snow plows" Applejack said. "Sound fair?"

"Deal" Sunny said as he tipped his hat to her. "Good night Applejack."

" 'night Sunny" She said as he shot him a small grin, watching him ascend the stairs and rabble into his room, thinking that he works too hard. But at the same time, she admired him for that. Not only that, he worked hard while keeping a smile on his face.

As Sunny put his Stetson on one of the bedposts on his bed, where he normally hung it, his eyes drifted over to the potion that Zecora gave him. It had been sitting on his desk collecting dust this whole time, half forgotten about. But Sunny was ready? He wasn't afraid to find out about his past anymore. With a deep breath, he levitated the bottle over to him, blew the thin layer of dust off of it, popped the top off, and took two large swigs. It tasted awful! Like old sweat socks mixed with warm lemon juice! Right as Sunny begun to think that maybe waiting this long made the potion go stale or even bad, the world around him began to spin. His thoughts became blurred, gravity began to increase and his muscles went numb as he passed out, safely landing on the bed. The bottle that still had more then half of the potion in it had fallen and shattered on the wood floor. Every drop of the potion that wasn't drunken by Sunny had now been absorbed into the floor....

-within the dream-

Sunny's world was black at first. He was floating around, unable to make out which direction was even up or down. Then some light burst into his world, and he broke out into a gallop, wanting nothing more then to reach the light. As he began to pick up speed, he felt something was weighing him down. Still moving towards the light, he shot a glance back and found he was wearing a suit of armor! Not like the gold ones he had seen the Canterlot royal guards wearing, but something that looked similar. The Armor was silver and heavy, making clanking sounds as he moved faster and faster towards the light. The light grew slowly larger and larger until it stared him right in the face. Bursting through what felt like the exit to an endless dark tunnel, Sunny found himself in a foreign land.

He paused for a moment, not really sure of what he was doing there. Then it hit him. He was in a dream! That's right! This place must have been some part of his memory. His past. Maybe he grew up here. Maybe this place was his home. But as he took a better looks around, he had hoped that it really wasn't.

The land was dead, rocky and dry. Buildings stood, but were dull and seemed to just blend into the dry and rocky terrain. The most horrifying thing about the place was some dark tour that stood in the heart of this horrible place. No. It was too big to just be a tower. It was a castle! One made of dark red and black crystals, sharp and jagged, threatening to all who stood before it. Lamp posts that stood all around the town were all lite with a terrible purple and green flame that seemed to give off no neat, only dim light. Sunny wished to examine the fire further, but found his hooves had a mind of their own, and began to rush him through this ghost town.

As he made his way deeper and deeper into the town, his heart sank when he saw all the plant life, bushes trees and even flowers, had all died and dried up, leaving black sticks in their place. Carts and concession stands, much like the ones in the Ponyville market, lay broken and empty in the dirt ground. He slowly continued through town, taking in the horror of it all, as he made his was to the dark castle. That was when he heard them.

Rattling chains filled the air as Sunny made his way closer to the castle. Before him must have been the all the ponies in the entire town! All in chains, their coats as dull and deprived of life as if a reflection of the town itself. Some were pulling large carts of gems, no, of crystals, while others appeared to be excavating at a dog site close to the base of the castle.

"What is going on here?" Sunny asked himself in a low tone, not really sure of what else to do. Had something come and imprisoned these poor ponies? Was there a hostile invasion and take over? Where were the princesses, Celestia and Luna ? Shouldn't they be doing something about this? Or even Applejack and her friends? Haven't they dealt with something like-

"It's him!" A mare in chains called out, catching the attention of surrounding ponies who were in chains.

"It is!" Another called out, smiles and faces filled with hope began to break out in the sea of enslaved ponies. "It's the Captain!"

"Captain Sunny Knight!" A stallion cheered, stomping his chained hooves.

"Help us, please!" Another mare begged as she dropped her pick ax.

"You're our only hope!" A second stallion pleaded as he stopped pulling a cart full of crystals as he desperately looked to the armor clad yellow unicorn.

Sunny was at a loss for words, but outside his control his lips began to move and speak on their own. "I'll get to the bottom of this! Hold on. I'll speak to the king!"

Sunny was amazed at how strong and commanding his voice was. He sounded completely different then he normally did. And 'king'? He didn't know a 'king'. And wait! Did somepony just call him 'captain'? As in a royal guard 'captain'? Before he could brood more in all of this, his hooves began to move on their own again. This time, leading him up to the dark crystal castle. He had no idea what was going on, but he had a feeling that he was going to find out.

-the dream realm-

It seemed to be an average night of work for Princess Luna as she soared across the Dream realm. The occasional nightmare or two slipped through, and she aided the pony in concurring their fear, no matter how big or small it seemed. Just as she was about to land in another nightmare belonging to some filly with a rather irrational fear of earth worms, something else caught her eye.

It was Sombra's dream bubble! The concrete shell that seemed to coat it was breaking away in tiny shards! The electric barrier that would shock and repelled even her was dissipating as well! Luna was torn. She knew her duty was to aid ponies in their nights rest, and to help them work through their problems, but Sombra was a threat to the peace of all Equestria, and needed to be stopped. If she could peer into his dream, undetected, maybe, just maybe she could find a clue as to his whereabouts.

Reluctantly, Luna turned away from the little filly's dream and moved into Sombra's now open dream bubble. As Luna entered the dream, she came face to face with the all too familiar setting. It was the Crystal empire, 1000 years ago. The day she and her sister Celestia defeated Sombra and sealed him away, but with him, the empire and the crystal ponies as well.

"Of course he would dream of this..." Luna said to herself as she soared across the town, her heart sinking as she saw the ponies of the Crystal Empire once again in chains. "What madness...."

Sunny then made his way to the center of the castle, in front of him stood a long and winding staircase. Before Sunny could object, his hooves began dragging him up the stairs, pushing to go faster and faster. Despite all the hard work he did on the farm, Sunny suddenly found the armor to be quite heavy for him, but he was able to numb the exhaustion by pushing it out of his thoughts. A million questions were still running through his head as he made his way steadily up the staircase. Before he could think to answer any of them, he reached the top, where a shadowy figure stood. One that sent a chill up the yellow stallion's back and made his blood run cold.

"There you are, Sunny" a horrid and heavy voice slithered into Sunny's ears. "I was beginning to think you weren't going to show up...." There, with his back still to Sunny, stood a stallion. Not a dragon. Not a horrible monster. Just a stallion. But some part of Sunny felt that a dragon or horrific monster would have put him more at ease then this. The stallion's body was covered in a red royal cloak, a midnight black mane covered his head, flowing like black fire.

"Who are you?! What have you done with the king?" Sunny called out to the stallion, the words escaping his lips again. It was then Sunny realized he had no control over his actions or words. That this was all a part of the 'dream' or 'memory'!

"Why, I'm hurt, you don't recognize me?" As the stallion turned around, Sunny's heart sank, but this time, it felt like it had been split in two. Fear and sorrow filled Sunny as glowing red and green eyes burned him at his very core. The power that emitted from them shook the yellow unicorn. He had never faced something like that before. At least, not in 1000 years. He was afraid, but at the same time, he was .... Hurt. It was without a doubt that this was the infamous King Sombra. The one he read about in the book about Applejack's adventures! But... But what was going on?!

"King... Sombra?...." The name escaped Sunny's lips with a great deal of confusion.

"Come here" he called out, a smile made of razor sharp teeth broke out on the dark stallion's face as he looked down on the empire. "Look at my beautiful empire."

Going with the flow, Sunny made his way over to the king, his heart racing now as fear began to build up with ever step he took, getting closer and closer to the shadow king. As Sunny made his way over, he had begun to remove his armor, piece by piece. Until he had removed it all and finally stood by King Sombra's side, peering over at the kingdom Sunny now realized must have been the Crystal empire. The sight of the crystal ponies in chains, the dead land, the once beautiful kingdom now a worn down rock, made even the delicious apple pie in Sunny's stomach churn. "What... What have you done?"

"I have taken what is mine!" Sombra called out, purple flames emerging from his glowing red and green eyes. "This is the way my empire is to be run! With my loyal guards by my side, and my crystal slaves working day and night to serve me!"

Sunny stumbled away from the platform and shook his head. "No! No! This isn't right!"

Sombra's eyes weighed heavily on Sunny. "I want you by my side. Your potential and skill in the unicorn arts could help to expand the empire! Think of it!" His words tried to sway Sunny. "All of Equestria could bow before us! No pony could stop us!"

That struck a nerve with Sunny, and his sickness quickly burned into rage, but the yellow farm stallion had no idea why. "And what of the Princesses in Canterlot?"

Sombra chuckled. "I have a special spot in the Dungeon just for them. I thought about turning them to stone, but I want them to see me in all my glory when I rule all of Equeatria!"

As the dark tyrant chuckled to himself at his premature victory, Sunny unknowingly cast a spell 'he' didn't even know he knew. In a flash of green light, three figures appeared, ones Sunny recognized instantly! They were life sized pony puppets! Three different kinds too! The ones to his side appeared to be modeled after a unicorn and a pegusus pony, but the one directly in front of him was an earth pony, one that looked just like the one Rarity had made for him! Again going with the flow, Sunny began to cast a spell, but this one he knew. It was the puppet manipulation spell that he and Twilight practiced for a short time together! As Sunny cast the spell, all three puppets jerked to life, clicking and shaking. He was controlling all three puppets at once! But the awe was cut short.

Sombra looked down at them with disgust, the fire in his eyes growing as he turned his attention to the yellow unicorn who summoned them. "What is this?"

"I'm not going to let you do that. This is your one and only chance, Sombra. Stop this madness. Change things back to the way they were. Free the 'citizens' and the royal guards. If you end this now, we can go back to the way thing were." Sunny swallowed his rage, anger and outrage giving way to empathy and kindness, then looked into the king's eyes one last time, pleading for him to stop. But... Why?

Was Sunny really this loyal of a guard that he felt such comparison, such devotion to the king? Was this who Sunny really was?... No. Sunny could feel it. There was something else going on here...

For a moment, it seemed like King Sombra was considering the idea. But he quickly stood up on his hind legs then slammed his front ones down, materializing dark jagged crystals from the ground. They shot up like flames themselves and struck at Sunny. Thinking fast, Sunny used the manipulation spell on the puppets to move them in front of him. The one that took the most damage was the earth pony puppet, having been skewered by several dark crystals. As Sombra's crystals sank into it, they started to grew and expanded, destroying the puppet from the inside out. The other two, the unicorn and the pegusus, seemed fine, give or take a few scratches.

"You think a few 'toys' can stop me?! ME!!!" The mad king chuckled, his eyes now fully engulfed in green light, a black and purple bubbling magic aura began to coat his sharpened horn.
With a flick of his own horn, Sunny sent the remaining puppets out for attack! On the right side, the pegusus took to the sky, the feathers on its wings began to thin and sharpen to knives! While the unicorn charged, the tip of its horn twisted and popped off, becoming a log metal cord with a three pronged claw at the end! Together the puppets charged. But the bravado was in vein!
With one mighty blast of dark magic, Sombra blinded Sunny and sent him and his 'toys' flying. The puppets were impaired to the tower's walls with sharp black crystals, just like their earth pony brother. Sunny, however, only received minimal damage from the blast. After a moment, the yellow unicorn opened his eyes and looked up, only like to be greeted by the shadow king and his dominating gaze.
"Play time is over" the king spoke again as he calmly walked closer to Sunny. "I think you need to be taught a lesson!" The king declared. Before Sunny could cast a protective spell over himself, Sombra blasted a curse that blinded the young unicorn. It was a curse that the king had become quite fond of. One that showed a pony their worst fears. The nightmares of one's heart. Sunny's pulse kicked into overdrive as his world once again turned black. Only this time, his heart, his fears left him with new nightmares...

It was then that Luna, not the memory of Luna, but the actual Luna investigating the dream, had perched herself atop a jagged tower of the Crystal Empire, she was able to view something she hadn't in the past. It was Sunny! The Sunny Knight! The stallion she had seen grow up from a colt, and climb the ranks of the Crystal Empire royal guard! The one others call a genius! The Legendary Black Knight! A jack of many trades!

The Lunar princess's eyes went wide in horror as she saw him fighting with King Sombra! It was bad enough to see the empire in this condition once more, but too know that Sunny had to fight Sombra? Luna's heart cried out for the poor stallion. Sunny had called out some of his ace cards, his pony puppets. Luna was sure Celestia still kept some in Canterlot's archives, but she had not seen them in action in over 1000 years! 'So this is what happened 1000 years ago. Is this what Sombra dreams about?'

She sighed heavily. 'This will be hard to report to our sister, but Celestia deserves to know what happened on this day. The day Sunny Knight was wiped from the face of Equestria....'

And as if on cue, there was a large flash of purple light, cause by the shadow king himself. Luna averted her gaze for the moment, and when she looked again, the last thing she saw was Sombra, standing over Sunny. And with one mighty blast, not only wiping out Sunny.... But the dream entirely. It cased the dream in complete darkness. Where the only thing Luna could hear was the sound of Sombra's sick laughter echoing in the emptiness.

Sunny didn't know what to do. Darkness surrounded him with the only things keeping him company being the most frightening images he could think of. Ponies he didn't know we're blaming him for their suffering, their pain. What made matters worse was when the images of the unfamiliar ponies shifted and became his friends. The entire Apple family, Twilight, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Octavia, Thunder Lane, Flitter, even Cranky, Matilda and Steve Magnum were there.

"I can't believe you did this to us" Twilight sneered at the yellow unicorn.

"I thought we were your friends" Fluttershy cringed, eyes full of tears.

"I knew we should have never trusted you!" Rainbow dash snapped.

Pinkie couldn't bring herself to say anything, just stick her young out and glared at Sunny.

"To think I let you meet my parents!" Rarity huffed, then turned away from him.

"I thought we were friends, bro" Thunder winced at Sunny, then turned his back on him as Flitter comforted her Special Some Pony, then shot a hate filled glance over her shoulder at Sunny.

"Yer just rotten to the core!" Granny said, glaring at him.

"Eh'yep" Big Mac backed her up, narrowing his eyes in disgust at Sunny.

"Yer just no good!" Apple Bloom exploded, tears in the corners of her eyes.

"Ah thought we could be family..." Applejack's words stung the most, hitting Sunny right where he felt the surest and safest. "But ah was wrong. Ah was wrong about you Sunny... Yer just as terrible as him! Yer gunna grow up and be just like him! A monster!"

Sunny began to panic, finding it hard to form words. "A-A-Applejack, w-why would you say that?! I-it's m-m-me! Sunny!"

"We know who you are" Limestone Pie appeared. Her cold and hard gaze intensified then full and se turned him around.

As Sunny was flipped around, his eyes locked on an image that haunted him since he arrived in Ponyville, he lurked in every shadow, he watched Sunny while he slept, and waited in the darkness for his time to strike. Made of shifting shadows like black fire, eyes burning red and green, teeth like white knives, and a chuckle that could strike fear in all of Equestria, was the former ruler of the Crystal Empire. The Shadow king himself smiled as he spoke words that would burn in Sunny's mind. "Hello, my son!"

Comments

[MeltWithClarity]

Oh goodness things just got real! XD

[Magical plane]

7645663
I know right