Sunny Knight: a Pony's Tale

by TheothersideofSunny968

To the Past, to Save the Future

"Are you sure you don't want to come along?" Doctor asked Sunny once more as he watched the yellow stallion gather up the books from the shelf. "It could be quite the adventure."

"Maybe some other time, Doctor" Sunny said as he finished packing the books into his saddle bag. "But right now, I have something I need to set right. You two go on. I'll catch the next one, ok?"

"We'll bring you back a souvenir!" Derpy said with a smile on her face as she stuck her head out of the time machine.

"We most certainly will not!" Doctor said, the smile fading from Derpy's face. He sighed and continued to explain. "If we remove something from the past and bring it to the present, that will cause wholes in time and space. Which could result in worse things then what Discord could even bring about."

"Pictures?" Derpy said with a smile, seeming slightly optimistic.

Doctor smiled and nodded, earning a cheer from the grey pegusus mare. "Just so long as it's from within the time machine."

"I hope there isn't a glare!" Derpy said as she began to move a tone of film and extra cameras into the time machine.

"Again, I can't thank you enough for helping me bring my dreams to life." Doctor said as he put a hoof on Sunny's shoulder. "If there's anything I can one day do in return, please, let me know."

But sadly, the only thing that Sunny would want from the past is to change his and his father's future. To stop him from falling into darkness. As Doctor said, that could do more harm then good. Who knows, if that happened, maybe Applejack and her friends, maybe the Princesses themselves, could become evil instead. Shaking the thought from his head, Sunny returned the smile to Doctor. "Just go out there and live the dream, my friend. Go and see all of what you want to see. Ok?"

"You can bet your hat I will!" Doctor said as he waved goodbye to his new friend once more and shut the door to the time machine. As it began to make the whooshing noise again, Sunny watched as it began to turn invisible and disappear in a gust of wind. After a moment, the wind died down and the big box time machine was gone.

"Huh, so that's what it looks like from the outside..." Sunny said as he smiled once more and was about to leave Doctor's house behind, heading back to his secret cave to decode those spells so he could cure the three pegusi in the hospital.

Back inside the time machine, Doctor Whooves began flipping through his history books, opening them to the pages he had placed tabs in for when he actually got the time machine up and running. He didn't need the pages for references on dates or places where the events occurred, more along the lines of he had them marked to prove or disprove questionable material within the books themselves. Whether or not the unicorns really did live as prestigiously as they portrayed in the paintings or to a painfully lesser degree then their defendants wish to admit. What was the real fall of the ancient city of Trot? And possibly where the ancient Treasures of Trottingham are located after the great earthquake!

"Oh! Oh! Doctor!" Derpy said as she untangled herself from several ribbons worth of undeveloped film. "I was wondering if... Maybe we could... Go and see when the first muffins were made?"

Doctor looked up from his books to his best friend and smiled. She had stuck by him no matter what, the least he could do is indulge her in their second trip being one of her choice. After all, what is his great machine meant for other then making dreams come true?

"Of course we can" Doctor said as he got up from his books that had been sprawled out across the floor, stepping over them rather then picking them up, and made his way to the control panel in the center of the time machine. Turning a few dials and flipping a few switches, Doctor set corse for the designated time. As the time machine began to make it's whooshing noise, Doctor began to list of facts that he hoped Derpy would find interesting and enlightening.

"Now according to what I've read" Doctor began. "Muffins were created about a hundred years or so before the great truce between the three tribes, by a mare named Muffet and her son Cake Pop. The product was actually a mistake when they made a thicker batter for cupcakes. The product was an odd result for the time, but turned out to be something they thought they could work with. Cupcakes were far too sweet for breakfast, and too many made ponies sick when they worked the fields. But these new cupcakes settled well with the farm ponies as they worked. And thus, mother and son came up with the name 'Muffin' for their new product."

"Wow! That's so cool you know all of that , Doctor!" Derpy said as she looked out the window to view what would become an ancient bakery in an earth pony village. "I wish I could go out and taste one of the very first muffins!"

"I wish you could, but-" Doctor started to explain the possible and many dangers of time travel, even what the littlest thing like eating a muffin could do to the future, but before he could, their smooth ride through space and time began to rock back and forth heavily! The time machine's swooshing began to grow louder and harder, as if it was scraping against the flow of time itself!

"DOCTOR!" Derpy called out as she tried to hold onto the sides of the time machine with all her might. "WHAT IS GOING ON?!"

"IM NOT ENTIRELY SURE!" Doctor yelled as he held tightly into the control panel. "IT APPEARS OUR DESTINATION HAS BEEN REDIRECTED! HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE?!"

But before Doctor could begin to examine the control panel of the time machine further, it stopped and landed hard. The two ponies who felt like they were being spun around had fallen to the ground with great force. After trying to gather themselves enough to stand, Doctor wobbled over to one of the Windows to the time machine box and peer outside, only to become further confused and lightly worried.

"What is it Doctor?" Derpy asked as she blew her mane out of her crooked eyes and joined him in looking out onto wherever and whenever they landed.

"I'm not sure, Derpy" Doctor openly admitted, then walked over to the control panel. Looking over the setting he had placed, he was shocked by what he saw. "According to this, it's a few years from the day we left... But... How is that possible?"

Before he could delve further into any sort of explanation or theory, there came a knocking at the door. Both Derpy and Doctor froze for a moment. The world outside looked frightening, and possibly haunted. Despite the possible immediate danger, Doctor still refused to mess with the time line, and that included letting a stranger into his time machine. Still, Doctor's curious and scientific side had to find out more. What had happened to Ponyville, or possibly even all of Equestria?

Walking over to the door, Doctor peaked trough the glass above it and spoke through the door. "Who goes there?"

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you, Doctor" an older stallion's voice spoke. Standing at the front door of the time machine appeared somepony in a warn out cloak with stars and waxing moons on it. His face was hidden by the hood of the cloak, but a log white beard poked out from within the dark veil. "I need to come in. I'm afraid we don't have much time. At Least not here. I'll explain everything. But I need you to trust me."

"Why should I trust you?" Doctor asked. "For all I know, you could be somepony like Tirek in disguise, planing to use my time machine for evil purposes!"

It was then that the cloaked figure pulled the hood off of his head and placed his signature wizards hat, with bells dangling from it, in its place. As the elderly stallion straitened his hat, he looked back at Doctor from the other side of the window and gruffly asked. "Can I come in now? We really don't have much time. They are coming."

Hesitating for a moment to think of the risks, Doctor ran over to the control panel, knocking his previously open books off to the side and hit the unlock button, allowing the front door to swing open. When it did, the elderly wizard rushed inside and shut the doors behind him before instructing Doctor "take us to time coordinates 880412, now!"

Without question, Doctor moves over to another section of the control panel where such numbers could be imputed, broken down, and calculated. While the time machine was working the numbers, there came a terrable whaling noise, quickly fallowed by the sound of hoof scratches all around the time machine. The wizard kept his back to to front door in an attempt to hold it shut. Although already locked, the elderly stallion knew it wouldn't be enough to keep 'them' out. As the scratching and howling became worse and pairs of red glowing eyes appearing on the other side of every window of the time machine, the time machine once again began to make its signature whooshing noise as it began to travel once more through time. Once emerged in the time stream and leaving the dark world and the horrific inhabitants behind. The old wizard exhaled a held breath and slid down to the floor.

"That was close..." He said as he began to fan himself with his hat, causing the bells to jingle with every motion.

"Hi there!" Derpy said as she smiled at the funny looking old pony. "My name is Derpy!"

The wizard smiled at the mare's innocent introduction, it being a long time since he's had the pleasure of such common courtesies. "Hello again, miss Derpy. Or, I suppose, this is 'your' first time meeting 'me'."

"Explain exactly what is going on here, immediately!" Doctor demanded as he walked over to the old pony. "Who are you? What were those things? Where did we just escape from? And how do you know us?"

Taking another deep breath, the older unicorn stood up, cracked his back, then placed his jingling hat back atop of his head. "As always, Doctor, it is a pleasure. As much as I wish I could go over every detail with you, I'm afraid we won't be here in the time flow for very much longer. The coordinates are set to drop me off just five seconds after we left. Which means we have about 5 minutes, give or take, for me to tell you what it is you need to know.

"I am Star-Swirl the bearded" the elderly unicorn's voice became more formal and commanding then just a moment ago. "And I was sent here by you, Doctor, to give you two things. First, this..." The wizard pulled from his cloak a small blue notebook that slightly resembles the time machine.

"What is this?" Doctor asked as he opened the book and began to read its contents.

"They are all the instructions to working your TARDIS" Star-Swirl continued. "That's the name you eventually gave your time machine. Also, you'll need to paint it that shade of blue. I believe you left yourself the instructions on where to get the paint for that."

"Wait just a moment, mister-so-called-Star-Swirl" Doctor closed the book and shook his head, eyes closed, trying to wrap his mind around everything that is happening. "I, Doctor Whooves, wrote this? And gave it to you, to give to me? Knowing I would some how find you? In the future? When you disappeared long ago in the past?"

"Yes" Star-Swirl continued. "Trust me, you'll figure it out. Just get a chalk board. A really big chalk board. Now, the second this is a warning. You need to find some time to read your book, then go to the last page's coordinates. If you don't... You saw what came of Equeatria back there..."

"That was Equeatria?!" Derpy gasped, putting her hooves up to her mouth. "What happened to it? Where was the sun? The moon?!"

Star-Swirl sighed heavily as tears began to swell at the corners of his eyes. "The same as what happened to everypony, every dragon, every creature of our world... They turned to stone."

"Oh no!" Derpy felt sick with the thought of everypony she knew being turned to stone, let alone the sun, moon, and everything else.

"That's impossible!" Doctor explained, sounding outraged by the older pony's statements. "Who could ever turn the sun and moon into stone? Further more, if everything in our world were turned to stone, what were those things attacking my time machine?"

"They were the cause of it all..." Star-Swirl explained, eyes locking with Doctor. "And weather you accept it as fact or not, why don't you try and live in it. Or worse, live with it."

"What happened?" Derpy interrupted the two conflicting stallions with her pure hearted question, concern heavy in her voice.

"My dear child..." Star-Swirl's expression softened. "It is too horrable to speak of. Just know that the fate of Equeatria lies with you two. Only you two can find the prince and save us all."

"Prince?" Derpy asked, tilting her head slightly to the side.

"Don't you mean a princess?" Doctor asked. "Like Princess Celestia, Princess Luna-"

"No" Star-Swirl interrupted the scientist once more. "The prince you will need to find is in the time at the back of your book. Find him, and help him."

The time machine once again began to make its whooshing noise to signal that they were landing at some point in time and space.

"I'm sorry" Star-Swirl said, hanging his head low. "I wish I could have more time to prepare you. But you have all you need in there, and here." Star-Swirl motioned to the book in Doctor's hooves and to Derpy by his side.

"What? But I still don't understand" Doctor said as the time machine landed hard again on the ground, knocking him and Derpy back over. As he stumbled to get to his hooves, he saw Star-Swirl tip his hat to him as he opened the door.

"I wish you the very best of luck, Doctor. You are now begin your journey as a 'Time Lord'. Don't let it go to your head..." With that, Star-Swirl hopped out of the time machine and landed back in the hard ground of solid stone. Once outside the time machine, the doors shut on their own and it began to fade away, leaving only the echo of its signature whooshing behind. Leaving Star-Swirl the bearded all alone in a world of darkness and stone.

The old wizard stood there, alone and in the dark. Just him, his tattered cloak, and his hat with bells on it. As he had told Doctor and Derpy, there was no more Sun nor moon. No more stars in the sky. And as he looked around onto what once was called Equestria, he sighed, tears falling from his eyes. "I failed you... All of you..."

Star-Swild spoke to himself as he took a few steps forward. With no sun, the old stallion wandered around in darkness. Up until then, the old being had remained still, waiting for the time traveler to find him. If Star-Swirl were to move or make noise, they would find him. But it was no mere coincidence that the Tardis time machine landed in that time, in that place. The ancient magician decided he had played it safe long enough, and it was time we shared his friend's fate of it meant possibly sparing them from this horrible future. But in doing so, revealed his location to those monsters.

The wizard's body began to grow in length, his front hooves shifted into two pairs of claws. The left one resembling a bird like claw, the right was a bear's arm and paw. His unicorn horn began to shrink into nothing as his face grew out longer, with two horns popping out of his head. One that similar to a goat's, the other a deer's antler. The two clear white and blue orbs that were his eyes turned yellow and red, differing in size. His once long beard that rivaled the size of his own body had shrunk to a smaller patch. Now nearly four times his original hight, standing on his two back legs, also a mismatched pair just like the rest of him, was the form he had taken over 1000 years ago. The day he stopped being the well renown and highly respected wizard known as Star-Swirl the bearded, and became Discord, the master of Chaos.

The Draquis used what was left of his magic to pull from a non-existing pocket on his left side, a single light bulb from earlier when he had the idea to summon that earth pony time traveler and his companion. It would have been impossible for anypony else to pull off what he did, but being the master of chaos and able to since strong magical disturbances, it was easy for him to know when Doctor Whooves created his TARDIS. Discord wrote up lies in a book that the time traveler would have believed, and set it all up perfectly. Now it was just a matter of having faith. Discord then raised the light bulb up over his had and pulled the chain on it, bringing the bulb to life.

The air, or what was left of it in the world that once held Equeatria, began to stir as the sound of clicking hooves on stone echoed as the only sound left. 'They' were coming. 'They' knew where to go. 'They' knew there had been no light in the world for years. And 'they' knew how to extinguish the light.

Discord knew his time was up. His last card was played. Putting all his hope in a small clawfull of ponies might have sounded ridiculous to him before. But now it was his only hope. He dragged his feet across the stony ground, passing by statues of all kinds. Ponies, gryffjns, dragons, beasts from the Everfree Forest, even gargoyles and centaurs were amongst them. But even they weren't enough to defeat 'them'.

Discord knew 'they' were close. The air always became thinner when 'they' were close. The end was near. But it was done. As he arrived at his final resting place, he held his lightbulb up high, high enough to illuminate all the statues he had gathered over the years in darkness. There were the Princesses Celestia and Luna, they had been the first to become stone. Next to them were Cadence, Shunning Armor were placed with their little bundle of joy, little princess Flurry Heart. Next to them were Fluttershy and Rarity. Oh how Discord morned over Fluttershy. But try as he might, he couldn't free her from her stone form. Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie joined their friends soon after. And despite all her magical knowlageful, Twilight fell to the stone curse as well. Her newest pupal, Starlight Glimmer, a once trouble maker and reformed pony, much like Discord, had tried to avenger and free her teacher and friend. But like her teacher, fell short and joined her as a statue. Surprising to Discord, the last of the Elements of Harmony to fall was Applejack. She had sacrificed herself self to save Sunny when 'They' turned on him. And keeping her company was none other then the yellow stallion himself, the prince who started the whole mess. Sunny Knight, the son of King Sombra.

"I'm so sorry..." Discord said as he put a paw on the stone prince's back. "If only I had known... If only I was more open minded..."

'They' had arrived. 'They' surrounded the mourning Draquis, stealing all the light the light bulb had, turning it also into stone. Once it did, the stone light bulb fell and shattered, leaving Discord without any magic, in a world without light, without order or chaos, all alone. Alone with 'them'.

"I'm ready...." Discord said as he struck a proud and noble pose, unlike the last two times he was turned into stone. This time, he would at least be with friends.

Not really needing his permission, 'they' began to swirl around him like a shadow filled gale. Slowly, from the bottoms of his feet, raising up his legs and body, and stretching to his head, the former master of chaos began to change from flesh, scale, and fur to stone. The last thing he saw was a dark grey pony's face. One with red and green eyes, with purple flames waving at the far corners of them. It was the last sight anypony ever saw, before the world went black....

Comments

[Wolven5]

Whoa...