Sunny Knight: a Pony's Tale

by TheothersideofSunny968

Oncoming Storm

-Top of the Misty Mountains, present day-

A strong wind was blowing hard today, more so then annoyed day, howling all throughout the impenetrable prison that stood atop the Misty mountains. The Stallion in charge stood atop the tallest wall to the 'Iron Lock Prison', looking out onto the snowy white scenery before him. He was a unicorn who's coat as dark as coal, mane as grey as the metal walls that made up most of the prison. His name was Snowstorm, ironic that his life would lead him to being a guard at such a post. He watched with his one good eye the armored carriage make its way steadily up the snowy mountain side. The earth pony guards pulling it had to be specially equipped with horseshoes that had thick spikes at the bottom to pierce the ground, allowing them to gain traction in their hoof steps. The guards who brought the new inmates to the Iron Lock maximum facility prison had to wear specific things for their safety in the harsh Misty Mountain terrain. Other then the specially crafted horseshoes, they also had bright red uniforms that were well insulated to protect them from the harsh storms that naturally burdened the mountain tops. Over their muzzles were thick scarfs and special goggles that allowed them to see through the storm. And finally a small survival kit was always strapped to their back. There have been instances where the Royal guards had fallen from the cliff side, and would need medical attention immediately. Why go through all this trouble for a prison, you ask? What would be the purpose of such a place that was so dangerous and difficult to get to? Because no pony has ever escaped. And if they ever managed to slip out of the extremely secure fortress like prison, the harsh, naturally occurring phenomenon that is the all year round winter would stop them in their tracks. As terrable and frightening as the inside of the prison was, and as deviant and vile the inmates were, it still beat freezing less then a mile away from the prison wall.

Looking up into the sky, Snowstorm thought about the rumors that spread amongst the inmates. About the ancient spirits that supposedly haunted the mountain. The spirits that pledged the 3 pony tribes in olden times. The Windigos. He sighed and shook his head. Yes, it would make since that such beings could create the harsh winter environment. But his job was not to speculate rumors. His job was to follow orders. And his orders told him to watch over the Iron Heart Prison. And that's exactly what he planned to do.

As the armored carriage arrived at the front gates of the fortress like prison, the two guards posted at the gates proceeded with their quick check of the underside of the carriage. Once they were done, the carriage and the guards pulling it passes on through the gates. The front gates were made of a special type of iron, one that could withstand the freezing temperatures of the mountains as well as a possible attack. As the doors slowly creaked open, Snowstorm teleported from his post at the top of the wall and reappeared in front of the inner gates, ready to greet the new arrivals. Another stallion with a clipboard stood ready to check off the new inmates.

"Lt. Surgical" Snowstorm addressed his right hoof stallion with a salute. Surgical Scalpel returned the salute, barely outing a fraction of heart into it as his CO did as he slightly looked up from his clipboard. Surgical Scalpel has been posted at Iron Lock for a few years now, but that hasn't changed his opinion of the place. He was a white earth pony with a light grey mane that hung partly in front of his large glasses, and partly tied back in a ponytail behind his head. Although he had Royal guard training, his talent and skills were more in the medical field. Sometimes Snowstorm thought he just took the position here for the possible opportunity to experiment and run tests on the inmates without the princesses constantly observing his... Methods. Part of the reason Surgical Scalple was forced to relocate were due to his... Experiments, if you could call them that. Not bad enough to land him actually 'in' prison. But bad enough to put him away from the general public where he might accidentally do some real harm. Surgical was waiting eagerly for the operating to continue his experiments and further his 'research'. Of course, Snowstorm. wasn't going to let that happen. He kept a watchful eye on not only the inmates, but the guards he didn't 100% trust. Which included his own right hoof pony, Surgical.

"Sir" Surgical said as he double checked the notes he made on today's new arrivals. Surgical pushed up his large glasses up with one hoof as he sighed heavily, already board with his dull day. "Looks like just two stallions today. Twins. But they don't seem like too much of a threat."

"What are their crimes?" Snowstorm cut right to the chase wondering if they were the twins he had heard about that were troubling he west.

"It's honestly a joke" Surgical said as he shook his head, making his grey banes flop from one side to side. "Says here that they are repeated offenders of various cash scams that result in numerous court trials. My guess, they either caught the princesses on a bad day, or these poor ponies bothered somepony the princesses were really fond of."

"Regardless" Snowstorm snapped, taking his job very seriously, unlike his partner. "They will continue to be treated just like ever other inmate here."

"Roger that..." Surgical motioned for the two guards to go ahead and open the carriage doors.

While the two guards unlocked the series of locks on the carriage, the earth pony guards who had been pulling the carriage were unhooked from the metal carriage and lead into the warm Royal guard barracks to rest and refuel for the trip back down the mountain. After the 12 locks surrounding the cast iron door to the carriage were unlocked, the door was pulled open. The metal carriage had been made so when the one door was shut and locked it was pitch black inside. One way to prevent the prisoners from trying to escape, as well as begin their punishment was to cut them of from the light of Celestia's sun.

"Alright, come on out you two!" Surgical called out as he tapped the carriage door with his clipboard, obviously in another one of his annoyed moods. "Brothers Flim and Flam. Report now or we'll force you out!"

A moment after Surgical's threat, Snowstorm watched as two, lengthy, yellow, unicorn stallions dressed in matching stripped shirts and hats emerged. Snowstorm had recognized them from a previous scam he saw them pulling a year or so ago, selling apple cider at a fraction of the price. But he and a few guards had shut it down after several ponies got sick off of the stuff. Snowstorm was shocked to see how the two looked now compared to that day.

The color was almost completely drained from their bodies, making them look more like a sick cream color rather then yellow. Their names had gone from red and white to almost completely bleached white and thinned out, making them look like old stallions. But that was the least that bothered Snowstorm, what really caught his attention were their eyes. Their eyes seemed to glow slightly green. And were their irises always red? Snowstorm could have sworn their eyes were blue or green. He shook it off the began his speech.

"Welcome to Iron Lock maximum security prison!" The black unicorn guard started to firmly yell at the two stallions before him as he began to pace in front of them as if addressing a line of ponies. "Since you are here, that means you screwed up. Badly! Not badly enough to land your sorry flanks in Tartarus! But you might as well be there! Here you have no chance of escape, no big friendly 3 headed hound to snap at you and keep you in line, and no monsters to play nice with. No! We aren't that easy going here! You are here to be reformed and to be taught a lesson! And maybe, just maybe, in the next 1000 years you will get out of here. Until then, you will obey the guards, and do as you are told! Is that understood?!"

The Flim Flam brothers didn't answer. They only starred off in a dazed state, minds as foggy as the storm around them.

"Well, looks like you broke them already!" Scalpel jokes, earning him a hard glance from his one eyes unicorn CO.

Snowstorm then turned his attention back to the two dazed unicorns, but something else caught his eye. A shadow shifted in the dark interior of the carriage. It was only for a second, but Snowstorm could have sworn that he saw something move. His long and drawn out pause brought some concern to Scalpel.

"Sir?...." Scalpel cleared his throat. "Captain Snowstorm, Sir. Is everything ok?"

"Lt. Scalpel" Snowstorm said flatly as his eyes remained locked on the darkness inside the carriage. "You said there were only 2 prisoners, right?"

"Yes sir" Scalpel double checked his paperwork, wondering if there was a possible mistake. But only the two were scheduled to arrive. He turned to his CO, still concerned, then to the carriage itself. "Something wrong, Sir?"

"Flashlight!" Snowstorm demanded, eyes still locked on the darkness.

One of the guards who unlocked the door tossed him a emergency flashlight from his kit. Snowstorm caught it his magical aura, turned it on, and pointed it inside the carriage. "I'm going to check it out. Cover me."

Scalpel did as Snowstorm told him and readied himself for a possible attack, with the two other guards readying themselves as well. With the flashlight in his aura, Snowstorm entered the carriage, ready for a fight from a possible stowaway. As he set hoof inside the carriage, he realized just how cold and quiet it was. He had never had to enter the carriage before. Most of the time when the door opens, the ponies are more then happy to exit the darkness. A pony could really break in here. No light. No sound. No heat. But what bothered him the most was there was no pony in there at the time. He scanned the carriage top to bottom, checking and double checking every corner of it, but nothing.

After searching the whole carriage top to bottom, twice, he gave up and was about to chock it up to him seeing things. Just as he was about to turn around, his flashlight died, casting him into darkness with only the faint light beaming in from the door way to illuminate the exit. He shook it off as he started to exit the carriage. But as he did, a small flare caught his eye. He paused and looked back at the far end of the carriage again. He could see two very faint glowing lights.

By this time, the guards and Surgical who were still waiting outside were beginning to grow both restless and nervous. "Is everything alright in there, Snow?"

"Everything is fine Lt. Surgical...." Snowstorm replied, but kept moving, slowly, toward the faint glowing light that was surrounded by the natural occurring darkness of the carriage. He hit the flashlight once more in an attempt to bring it back to life, but the thing was long since gone. When Snowstorm retuned his gaze to the faint green lights, he almost fell over his own hooves. The faint glowing lights had opened and become a pair of green glowing eyes! Rolling around to stair at him were red hot, fiery irises. Purple flames emerged from the far corners of the eyes as the glow from them seemed to intensify! Snowstorm was about to run back out of the carriage and sound an alarm when the carriage's only opening disappeared, casting the coal colored unicorn into a world of darkness!

As Snowstorm began to panic, he remembered his training. He calmed his breath, closed his eyes and began to focus on the world around him. Even if his enemy was the Shadow King Sombra that he had been warned about, he was not going to give into fear. He was stronger then that. He was better then that. Snowstorm began to calm himself, gather himself for a possible fight, the world around him began to change. The black emptiness gave way to a world he recognized. One he thought he would never in his life see again. It was the outpost of the west wall of Canterlot castle!

He had been stationed there years ago not long after he became a Captain. The west wall faced the cliff side, so mostly pegusus guards were posted there. During his training, Snowstorm had found that he could command pegasus guards easily from a high enough distance. Combined his keen eyes, quick thinking and brilliant battle strategies, this was the perfect area for him, despite not being a pony who could fly himself. Flying all around the cliffs at the base of the mountain, just below the wall were members of the Wonderbolts, pegusus guards, and trainees alike. All of which followed his orders. They all looked to him, respected him. At least... They used to.

Snowstorm could remember that horrible day as if it were in braved in his very memory. A day he could never forget no matter how hard he tried. As he thought back to that day, all his best and most trusted fliers gathered at the cliff side, ready to receive his orders. It was then that Snowstorm tried his best to move. To stop himself from turning around and facing them as they stood at attention, ready for him to give the orders for a special secret mission. He even tried to hold his lips closed as he faced the eager soldiers that blindly followed his orders all those years ago. But he couldn't stop or change the past. His body moved and acted with a life of its own, all he could do was sit and watch.

"Are you ponies ready?!" He called out to them as he hopped off the edge of the castle wall and landed in front of their line. He began walking up and down the line of ponies standing at attention, as he continued to speak. "This is a top secret mission. Not even Captain Shinning Armor knows about this. But if we succeed, our victory will go down in history. But it is dangerous. And someponies might get hurt. Badly hurt. But we do this not for fame, not for ourselves, but for Equestria!"

The group of Pegusus guards cheered and stomped their hooves. After a few moments they began to quieted down, then Snowstorm spoke again.

"Our objective is to infiltrate the dragon's lair in the far north east of the continent. It is there he had made his home, and it is there that he holds some of the strongest magical items that the dragons stole from us in the last great Dragon war. The dragons can't use magic, but refuse to return the items to us. The dragons know that if we ponies had those items in our hooves, that we could overpower them easily, despite their fire breathing, steel like scales, and swift flying. I don't want you all thinking that these items will be used to start another war. If anything else threatens the peace in Equeatria, we need to protect not only the innocent, but our princesses as well, and not fully rely on them as a last resort." Snowstorm paused and looked back at the group who remained at attention and fully focused on his words.

"You all are the best, of the best flying warriors that Equestria has to offer! Those of you who wish to join me, be ready to take flight. Those of you who are hesitant, stay here. I don't want anypony to go into battle today with doubt in their minds. Do I make myself clear?!"

The image of the area Snowstorm was present in shifted and immediately went right to the battle. He knew he and the others would have to take on and outsmart a dragon to get to the magical items. But he never knew the dragon in question was the magical beast of legend, Garganda!

Garganda was a dragon to be reckoned with. It literally stood half as tall as the mountain Canterlot was seated on. With scales black as brimstone, eyes burning red and yellow, with horns atop his head that could tear an airship right out of the sky with a single jerk of his head, arms and legs that could demolish strongholds with single swoops, and a tail that could clear a mountainside into a flatland. It was said he guarded Tartarus before Cerberus, and was forced to leave it, having grown too large to remain at his post. That he himself could wipe out all of Equeatria if he wished.

It was then, that Snowstorm took shelter behind his chariot as he held a hoof to one of his eyes. It had been badly injured as he and the others tried desperately to fight off the behemoth. Not ten minute ago was he being pulled by some of his soldiers into battle in the once gold and white chariot. It had been a true masterpiece. Now the war chariot lay in broken bits, and served only as a shelter for Snowstorm to crawl under and hide. He peaked out from behind the broken wood and gazed in horror at the image before him. It was not a dragon, but the picture he painted that frightened the black unicorn the most. All around Garganda, Snowstorm's loyal followers fought hopelessly against the giant dragon. Their attacks and weapons did nothing to his thick hide. Some even attempted to just go for the treasure while the others distracted the leviathan, but even that was futile. The beast's enormous foot guarded the treasure, but try as they might, the dragon wouldn't budge. Even worse, he barely even needed to move during this whole battle and more then half of Snowstorm's soldiers had fallen. He couldn't believe what he saw through his one good eye. He watches as Pegasus after Pegasus fell. They were so badly hurt they might never be able to walk again, let alone fly.

"It's all your fault!" Snowstorm turned around and had come face to face with his father. The area around him had changed once more. Now he stood in the thrown room, his body badly beaten and bandaged up, but he could feel the sharp pain with every breath he took. Snowstorm's father was a retired unicorn guard, who Snowstorm looked quite a deal like. As his father shot his son a hard look, the young captain put a hoof to his injured eye to find that it had been bandaged up. He knew he would never be able to see with that eye again.

Snowstorm's father cleared his throat, restin Snow's attention away from his own injury, and began to speak again. Other ponies of the room, the princesses, the other captains, even his own family were present for this hearing. "You went out on your own accord, dragging those innocent ponies with you, and for what?! To be beaten by the most dangerous dragon in Equestria in a meaningless fight?! To land every one of them, except the one who fled for help, in the hospital?!"

Snowstorm reluctantly stood and looked his father in the eye. "With something that dangerous just at the edge of our home, what makes you think we are safe?! If we had managed to get those items that it has locked away, we could-"

"Those 'items' you saught out" Princess Celestia spoke in a cool but angered tone as she looked down at him from her thrown. "Are nothing more then legend. An old pony's tale. And what's worse, you believed it so much you would not only risk the welfare of your own soldiers, but risk starting another war! We made it through the last war thanks to a miracle. But that miracle won't help us a second time!"

Celestia's words were harsh and full of anger for the last part, they stung Snowstorm, but he didn't waver. He looked everypony in the eye when he spoke cooly and calmly, as his name suggested. "I did what I did for Equestria, our kingdom, and pony kind. I regret nothing..."

His father sneered at him and turned his back to Snowstorm as he walked over to Snowstorm's mother and younger brother. He paused halfway and looked to the princesses. "You may do as you see fit with him, your highnesses. He is no son of mine. And will no longer be treated as such. He is a stranger. And I will not lend my hoof to a stranger."

It was then that the world grew black as Snowstorm fell to his knees, tears breaking through the flood gates and falling to the floor. 'I was just trying to help... I... I just wanted to be the knight you always said I could be... I wanted to keep everypony.... Keep everypony safe.... Why father.... Why ?!'

"You are worthless!" His father's voice echoed in his head again, a transparent image of the elderly stallion's face reappeared before Snowstorm, plastered with anger and disgust.

"It was a mistake thinking you could be a royal guard!" A second transparent image of his father appeared to Snowstorm's left.

"You are no longer my son!" A third appeared to Snowstorm's right.

More and more images of his father appeared and would not only yell their harsh and cold thoughts and feelings for Snowstorm, but they would repeat it.

They all kept screaming for what felt like hours! They wouldn't stop no matter how much Snowstorm pleaded, apologized and begged. Even when Snowstorm fell to the ground in a fetal position, shaking like a leaf, the yelling continued. Never in all his life had Snowstorm felt so weak, so beaten, so helpless.

"Snowstorm...." A deep voice echoed over his father's yelling, catching the black stallion's attention. As Snowstorm looked up a bright purple light flickered in the darkness above the angery, ghost like figures of his father. Although the sound of his father's multiple voices cutting him down still filled his ears, the deep echoing voice seemed to reach in past them. "Snowstorm, do you want time to take away the pain?... To silence that which fills your heart with fear?..."

"Yes! Yes please!" Snowstorm began to beg the voice, screaming into the sky in an attempt to speak over his father's many shouts. "I'm so sorry! Please! Take the pain away!"

"As you wish!" The voice bellowed as an eye opened in the purple light, a green eye with a red iris. It cast a purple flame around Snowstorm that burned away all the images of his father, silencing them, numbing any pain or feeling, leaving Snowstorm a shell, tired and weak. Just the perfect shell needed. Before Snowstorm could get a second glance of the eye that saved him, once again, he found himself in a world of darkness....

Surgical was now getting really worried. Snowstorm had been in there far too long for just a second look. And he could have sworn that he saw Snowstorm about to leave the carriage just a moment ago. As Surgical was about to send the two guards in after their captain, Snowstorm's hoof emerged, pulling himself out of the dark contents of the pitch black carriage. Surgical watched at the coal colored unicorn stepped into the light.

"Snow..." Surgical sole weakly. "Are.... Are you ok?"

Snowstorm then shot his head up and locked eyes with surgical, sending a chill down the medical earth pony's back. The eyes that locked with his did not belong to his captain. They looked... Wrong. Not only did they now match in color and clarity, as if Snowstorm's dead eye suddenly came back to life, but it was like they didn't even belong to him. Snowstorm acted as if nothing was wrong. Surgical watched and made note of every movement Snowstorm made, it all seemed to match up with his previous actions and reactions. Even so, Surgical wanted to keep a closer eye on the black unicorn. Snowstorm held his head up high and glanced over the two guards and Surgical.

"What are you three just standing there for?!" His voice was deeper then normal but it was still his voice. He narrowed his eyes on the zombified Flim and Flam. "Get this trash into a cell, now!"

As the two guards began to escort the twin unicorns to their new cell, Surgical was about to fallow them to do the physical for them, when Snowstorm's hoof landed on his shoulder" Not you" Snow said narrowing his red and green eyes at his second in command. "I need to speak with you in my office. Now."

Author's Note:

The OC, 'Snowstorm', is actually one created by a good pal of mine, James Harris jr., thanks for always being supportive!

Also, for all my other friends who's OCs I like and admire, if I don't put your OC in the fic it's nothing against you. It's really like finding actors to fit the bill for a movie. Ok? Not wanting to hurt anyone's feelings out there.

Also note, I kinda based Surgical Scalpel after both Franken Stein from Soul Eater and Kanuto from Naruto. Not sure what side he's on yet, but we'll see.