Sunny Knight: a Pony's Tale

by TheothersideofSunny968

More Unanswered Quesgions

The 'Black Knight', as Garganda just declaimed him, was ignoring Twilight and her friends and focused souly on the giant dragon before him. "It has been a log time, Garganda. You look well."

"As. Do. You. Old. Friend." The mighty dragon replied, but was didn't have time for pleasantries. "I. Must. Destroy. The. Crystal. Empire."

"I can't let you do that" the Black Knight replied, his voice strained and gruff, echoing off his helmet's mask piece. "Under the authority of the Dragon Lord, I order you to-"

"The. Dragon. Lord. Does. Not. Order. Me." Garganda interrupted, his reptilian like eyes narrowing on the Black Knight. "You. Know. Better."

The black knight sighed and took a a deep breath before looking back at Garganda. "Old friend, will you please trust me? Any danger that will come, these girls will face and concur. They have taken on evil before and succeeded. Saving all of Equestria many times over."

"No." Garganda repeated. "I. Too. Know. Of. Princess. Twilight. And. Her. Friends. They. Alone. Will. Not. Be. Enough. To. Face. The. Darkness."

"Then I will join them" the Black Knight stated without hesitation, flaring with gusto. "Together we will stop this darkness."

Garganda narrowed his giant eyes on the Black Knight, studying him, judging him as he had 1000 years ago when the pony first came to him for the magical armor. Garganda is blessed with many gifts; size, strength, and a seemingly ageless body, but one that very few know of is his insight. The power very few dragons ever had. The ability to feel the inner workings of another's heart.

"Had. You. Asked. Me. 1000. Years. Ago. Black. Knight. I. Would. Have. Denied. Your. Request. But. You. Have. Changed." Garganda smiled, having seen the change in the black armor wearing pony. A change he had hoping for since the two first met. "I. Will. Grant. You. That. But. Remember. Should. The. Shadows. Break. Free. It. Will. Be. On. Your. Head. As. Well. As. On. Theirs. No. Mistakes. And. This. Time. The. Nightmare. Won't. End. After. 968. Years."

The Black Knight snapped back without thinking "it was 1000 years."

The giant black dragon smiled and nodded. "It. Is. Good. To. See. You. Again. Knight. You. Should. Go. See. Tourch. I. Think. He. Missed. You.-"

"Wait! Hold up!" Growing impatient Rainbow Dash flew up between the Black Knight and Garganda. "What is going on here?! And who are you?"

The Black Knight narrowed his eyes on Rainbow, wanting to keep his identity, simply answered "An ally."

"I. Must. Go. I. Tire." Garganda told the ponies in his claws, before looking into the group of guards, Cadence, and Shinning Armor. "Let. It. Come. To. Pass. That. The. Fate. Of. Our. Worlds. Rest. With. These. Ponies. In. My. Claws. As. Well. As. Those. Who. Ally. Themselves. With. Them. The. Darkness. Is. Coming."

With that, Garganda slowly lowered his claws to the ground, allowing the ponies he was holding to hop off and safely land on the ground. Once his claws were free, the mighty Garganda waved to the Black Knight before beginning his long walk back west. He could have flown and been there in a few moments, but all around him would have been blown away. Besides, he needed to walk and stretch his legs after standing still for so long.

Tearing their attention away from Garganda, Twilight and the rest turned to the Black Knight, hoping to get some answers. But rather then engage with the girls, he appeared to be kicking around snow.

Twilight was the first to approach him. "Excuse me, ugh, Mr. Black Knight? I have a few, well, more then a few questions to ask you. And since we're going to be working together, it might be a good idea to get everypony in the same page."

The Black Knight ignored Twilight for a moment as he pulled out three crystals from his cloak and dropped them in the snow, carefully placing them in precise points on a circle he had drawn. As the black knight moved his hoof over to where he had dropped a green crystal, he raised his head and locked eyes with Twilight. "We need to work together. But my secrets are my own. Until next time, princess..."

Before anypony could say anything, the Black Knight crushed the green crystal. In a flash, the Black Knight had vanished! Leaving behind only a broken circle and the two remaining crystals that had turned purple. Twilight looked around frantically, a million more questions bubbling in her head.

'Who was that guy? Where did he come from? Was he some royal guard from Canterlot? Did princess Celestia or Luna send him? How did he know Garganda? And what was that he just did?!' Twilight turned her attention back to the crystals and levitated them up to her face. They seemed rather dull as to when he first dropped them, but Twilight could possibly do some research on them and maybe find something.

"Who was that guy?!" Rainbow Dash asked as she and he rest of Twilight's friends rejoined her.

"I don't know" Twilight answered, turning to her friends. "But we can assume he's on our side. To save the Crystal Empire, at least. But we need to find out what 'darkness' Garganda was trying to destroy there in the first place.

"Let's get with Cadence and Shinning Armor and try and figure this out" Twilight suggested as she put the dark purple crystals away and began walking over to her brother and sister in law.

"Can we talk back at the Empire?" Rarity asked, teeth. Whining to chatter. "T-the storm's coming back. A-and it's u-unlady l-l-like for one's teeth to chatter."

"Oh! And we can have some hot chocolate!" Pinkie Pie suggested, bouncing up as down, ignoring the cold all around her. "With whipped cream, chocolate shavings, oh! And a cherry on top!"

"That sounds really nice" Fluttershy commented, feeling he cold wind hit her.

As the girls rejoined Candence and Shinning Armor to head back to the Crystal Empire, miles and miles away, the teleportation spell the Black Knight had set had gone wrong...

About two or three miles away, with the snow storm returned and the train tracks once again were covered in a blanket of it, a bright green flash appeared, carrying with it the image of a pony in black armor. The stallion fell hard onto the tracks. The train had passed by that exact spot about 30 seconds ago and had left to make it to the Crystal Empire train station only five minutes behind schedule.

Struggling to get to his hooves and throwing off his helmet to help him catch his breath, Sunny quickly realized that no pony had attempted to use that method of teleportation onto a moving train before. Now he knew why. Still, it did manage to get him away from Twilight with all her questions, as well as Applejack and the others. He didn't want to risk them finding out about him.

Looking around, Sunny could see the Crystal Empire wasn't far, maybe a half hour trot from where he was. 'If I keep my armor on it should insulate me.'

He then turned and tried to levitate his helmet back to him. Only the magical aura around the helmet disappeared just as quickly as it appeared. 'Darn. My magic still hasn't returned.'

"Lose something?" A mare's voice, soft yet stern, called out to Sunny.
The yellow armored stallion turned quickly to see a mare cloaked in a large brown cloak, a pair of black visors like Shinning Armor's over her eyes and a blue scarf with the Crystal empire's symbol embroidered on it. The cloak she wore didn't cover her legs, which revealed her body's color to be a slightly dark shade of purple. Her horn turned blue with her magical aura as she levitated Sunny's helmet back to him. "Come with me. We need to talk.."

Before Sunny could answer, the mysterious mare began walking away from the Empire and off towards what looked like a steep hill. Sunny wasn't really sure who this mare was, but something deep inside was telling him to follow her. Without a second thought, Sunny found his feet moving without him ordering too.

-the Crystal Empire Castle, dining hall-

After the Cadence, Shinning Armor, Twilight and her friends all returned to the Crystal Empire, they went strait for the castle's dining hall. Everypony was starving from the ride as well as all the action that went on with Garganda. Although they needed to go over the details and discuss what had happened, but nopony can work on an empty stomach, to that, even Twilight would agree that brain food was required. But that didn't stop her from talking about it at dinner.

"So now we have two mysteries on our hooves" Twilight said after swallowing a bite of carrot. "What 'Darkness' Garganda was talking about and who this 'Black Knight' guy is."

"I've never heard of any 'Black Knight'" Shinning Armor commented as he took a huge bite of an apple.

"Neither have I" Cadence added, then took a sip of her crystal Berry juice before taking another bite of her salad.

"Did anypony notice how friendly Garganda was with that Black Knight fellow" Rarity noted levitating a picture of the juice over and refilling her glass.

"Yeah, and he also mentioned something about being gone, for like, 900 years or something?" Rainbow Dash said as she waved a croissant around before bitting into it.

"968 years, Dashie!" Pinkie corrected as she added whipped cream to her own croissant, showering sprinkles ontop of it, then topping it with a cherry before extending her mouth and eating it all in one bite.

Fluttershy sat next to her nibbling on her own salad as she watched Pinkie with wide and amazed eyes.

"Well whoever he was, ah think it's ah safe bet ta say he's on our side" Applejack commented before taking a bite of her own apple, thinking how the apples grown in the empire had a crisper taste and would have to save the seeds to plant some back at the farm.

"I don't know" Rainbow Dash said with cheeks full of the rest of her flaky treat. After swallowing, the cyan colored mare added to her previous statement. "Guy shows up in a black suit of armor, starts barking orders, then takes off."

"But, um, he did say that he would work with us, right?" Fluttershy finally spoke up.

"Putting the Knight aside, I think we need to focus on this 'Darkness'" Cadence pushed to redirect the topic of the conversation. "If the Black Knight shows up again, either as a friend or an enemy, we can deal with him then."

"Well said" Twilight commented while levitating a book in front of her. "Now, of all the books on ancient and powerful dragons I had in the library, only this one ever spoke of a 'Garganda'."

"Books at the table again, Twily?" Shining said with Crystal Berry jelly smeared across his face.

Twilight blushed, remembering how that was a pet peeve of their mother's when Twilight was little. After clearing her throat, Twilight flipped to a page she marked as began to read her hi-lighted notes. "Well, its said that there are four beings of legend that guard the four corners of the world. The other names are encrypted, but the one I could decipher was the guardian of the west, 'Garganda'."

"Wow, so these guys are, like, super strong or something?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"The feller cleared ahway ah snowstorm with just his wings, remember?" Applejack raised a brow at her Pegasus friend.

"And, in like, 2 seconds flat!" Pinkie commented, bouncing in we seat. "That's five times faster then you Dashie!"

"Yeah, well, if I was a giant dragon like him, I bet I would only need, like .2 seconds then!" Rainbow went on the defensive, puffing her lower lip up.

"Getting back to the book" Twilight tried to reel her friends back in. "These guardians have been in charge of the world since before time was even recorded, back when ponies still painted on cave walls!"

"Wow, and I thought Celestia and Luna were old..." Shining Commented as he whipped his mouth clear of food.

"I'm telling them you said that" Cadence playfully nudged her husband, her and a few of the girls giggling.

"Buuuut" Twilight once again reeled them all back to the topic at hoof. "None of the four legendarily being have ever been documented doing anything. The other three have even yet to be seen. Garganda made himself present when Star-Swirl the bearded discovered him napping in the west mountains."

"West mountains?" Pinkie repeated. "But most of the stuff west of here is flatland."

"Ugh..." Twilight skimmed the book more closely. "Apparently he 'was' the west mountains. And now that he awoke from his nap, that's where the great west fields reside."

"Now that's a nap!" Rainbow smirked as she picked up some grapes, tossing a few into the air, and thatching them in her mouth.

"So it's also safe to say he doesn't have a personal grudge against the Empire" Rarity sad, dabbing her clean mouth with her napkin.

"But that only means this 'Darkness' does" Cadence added

"And this 'Darkness' is coming for the Crystal Empire" Twilight's tone became forlorn. "There's only one pony I can think of who Garganda could possibly be talking about."

"Sombra" Shinning Armor and Cadence said simultaneously, their expressions firmly concerned at the thought of the Empire's former king.

"Ugh! Now I really wish that crazy puppet hadn't attacked the library!" Twilight said rubbing her temples.

"Puppet?" Cadence asked. "What puppet?"

"It was this thing that princess Celestia sent from Canterlot" Twilight began to say. "Only its, ugh, possessed you could say, by the angry Timberwolf spirits."

"Gatta admit, th' Timberwolf sightin's have gone down quite ah bit since that Halloween" Applejack threw out there, slightly defending Sunny's actions that lead up to the puppet's possession.

"Ugh, creepy!" Shinning shivered at the thought of such a toy coming to life. His childhood nightmares were filled with dolls and toys coming to life and scaring him. Which helped Twilight out after he scared her with toy rubber snakes. All Twilight had to do was wake Shinning up by placing Smarty Pants at the foot of his bed, starring in his direction, and talk in a creepy voice.

"I'll have double the guards for the next month or so while we try and figure this out" Cadence told Twilight and her friends. "Just in case it is Sombra behind all of this. We know he'll come for the Crystal Heart."

"Is anypony needing to get back to Ponyville for anything soon? Or can you guys stay here for a while?" Twilight turned and asked her friends, not wanting to jump the gun and answer for them.

"Eh, I needed time off of work, anyway" Rainbow said as she popped another grape back in her mouth.

" I could use this time to study the fashions of the Empire!" Rarity said with glee. "Maybe even pick up some new materials! Oh! And the fabric here can't be found anywhere else!"

"I'm free!" Pinkie said, bouncing up and down again. "It will be like a week long slumber party! I hope we have enough whipped cream!"

"Um... I-I might need to head back to set the animals up and find a house sitter" Fluttershy spoke up, worried how her animal friends would survive without her.

"Ah could head back with ya" Applejack exclaimed. "Ah need ta, ugh, check up in th' farm as let th' family know Ah'll be gawn fer ah while."

"You mean a certain somepony?" Rarity whispered over to Applejack, a sly smile on her face.

Applejack Blushed as she looked away, slightly smiling. "Yeah... kinda that too..."

"Then it's settled" Cadence smiled. "I'll have rooms set up for you all. We really appreciate all you guys have done."

"It's our pleasure, Cadence" Twilight smiled and nodded.

"Hey! This means you guys can come up the Crystal Fair tomorrow!" Shinning Armor almost jumped right out d his seat. "And better yet! You all can see yours truly in the jousting competition!"

"You're jousting?!" Rainbow asked, excited about another competition that she was now planning to enter. "Can I join in?"

"Sure, but I got to warn ya, I've been practicing for months" Shinning Armor began to boast. "No guard in all the empire has bested me yet!"

"Guess that means I'll be taking you down" Rainbow Dash shot the prince a confident smirk.

"I'd love to see that!" Shining admitted, claiming he hasn't had a real challenge in years.

"So, I'm willing to guess my brother's been going off the deep end with this jousting thing?" Twilight whispered over to Cadence, half smiling.

Cadence seemed unamused as her dulled look spoke for miles. "He's been obsessed with it for the past two months. It's all he ever talks about now or days!"

"I'm sure it'll pass once the fair's over" Twilight tried to reassure her poor sister in law.

"I sure hope so" Cadence said as she started with her breathing exercises.