//------------------------------// // Dusk and Dawn // Story: Legends Never Die: The Search For Sunny // by bookhorse125 //------------------------------// Sunny hadn’t seen the mysterious pony in her dreams ever since that day when he told her the message, and she repeated it to herself under her breath at night, when Tirek, Permafrost, and Sour Lavender were asleep: “They have been lied to. Deceived. They do not know the truth, and they will fight for a lie. Tell them the truth, Sparkle. Tell them the truth and befriend them… or everything you built will fall.” She growled frustratedly to herself. “What does that mean?” Some of the message was clear - somepony had obviously been tricked, convinced that a lie was the truth. But who was it? What was the lie they had been told? What was the truth? Who was deceiving them? And somehow she was supposed to tell… whoever it was the truth, and befriend them, or it was basically the end of the world. He had said that “everything you built will fall”, which she could only take to mean that, if she did not succeed, friendship would fail with her. The kind of friendship that she had worked so hard for - that her father, that her ancestors had worked so hard for. She refused to let that happen. But how was she supposed to tell these ponies the truth when she didn’t know the truth herself… and couldn’t even get out of here? “He called me ‘Sparkle’,” she said to herself as she paced around her little prison, as far as her chains would allow her to go, and as quietly as possible. One night, she had been pacing, her chains clanking not exactly loud, but Tirek came down and shouted at her that, if she couldn’t be quiet, then he would bolt her hooves to the floor. “He knows who I am… or, at least, who my ancestor was. But… how?” She paused to look at her reflection in the water. From what she had seen of Twilight Sparkle, the legendary alicorn and Sunny herself shared no physical resemblance. Whereas her ancestor was lavender with a dark purple mane streaked with a brighter violet and pink, her eyes a deep purple, and her wings and horn solid and definitely not gold. Sunny did have some purple-ish accents in her mane, but nothing close to what Twilight must have had. Maybe it was her wing? Maybe whoever that pony was had associated being an alicorn with being related to Twilight Sparkle. She was probably one of the most famous alicorns there was… had anypony remembered her. Now, the most famous alicorn was probably Sunny herself. But that pony clearly didn’t know her name - he just called her ‘Sparkle’. So he was living somewhere that was excluded enough that nopony made it there to tell him of recent events. Where would a pony live where he couldn’t hear the reasons for why magic returned, disappeared, and then reappeared, all within the span of a few weeks? Wait… Something in her mind randomly connected. Izzy had said that Sunny’s sparkle was lavender. Twilight Sparkle was lavender. Was that a coincidence? Pure chance? Or was it fate? Some kind of magical connection? Perhaps it wasn’t a physical appearance - perhaps it was something else. Something Sunny couldn’t see, but he could. He had seemed like he saw other things that most ponies couldn’t see. He was clearly a messenger, though - she doubted he knew many of the answers to the questions that she longed to ask him. Speaking of questions she wanted to ask him, she had to add “How did you know I was a Sparkle?” to her ever-growing list, alongside “Who are you?”, “Who’s being deceived?”, “How do I befriend them?”, “What’s the truth that I’m supposed to tell them?”, and many others. “Okay. Calm down, Sunny,” she commanded herself. “Think it through.” She paced restlessly as she thought hard. “They have been lied to. Think. Who would go around lying to ponies? Oh, of course, the villains!” She gasped as another idea came to her. “They’ve been talking about ‘other creatures’ - it’s not ponies that are being lied to, it’s them! Creatures like - like Midge! And the other creatures in the Everfree Forest!” Now very pleased with herself, Sunny moved on to the next puzzling part of the message. “They will fight for a lie. Well, that’s unsettling. So, obviously the Legion of Doom has convinced them of something untrue, something they will fight for. What would it be?” Her thoughts wandered to Permafrost and Sour Lavender. “Of course! They’ve probably been convinced that ponies want them gone, or that they’ve forgotten completely - which is true, in a way, but that is not our fault - or that they’re going to… fight them. So these creatures should attack the ponies first! Yes! That’s it! They’ll aid Chrysalis, Tirek, and Cozy Glow’s conquest of Equestria, and then they’ll manipulate them into giving them their kingdoms, and they’ll rule the whole world!” She was happy to have figured it out, but the concept that creatures she hadn’t even met - creatures she didn’t even know - were preparing to attack her home. “Moving on. Tell them the truth and befriend them. Easier said than done, if it’s true that they hate ponies… and since I can’t leave this place without getting my mind taken over.” Sunny was honestly amazed she had been able to keep the mysterious pony with a message for her to literally go against everything they were doing for so long. But for a while, she had been feeling the presence in her mind of the other villains growing fainter, and not because she was getting better at putting up mental walls to protect herself. It was as if they were… losing interest in her. Slowly and unintentionally letting her go. She didn’t dare to hope, though. If she exploited that, they would surely notice and rein her back in. “Still don’t know how I’m going to get out of here… if at all.” She frowned. “Maybe it’ll be all mental communication? Like in their dreams? Somehow, that seems less likely and more likely at the same time.” Sunny sighed and took a deep breath, feeling her exhaustion catch up with her. A huge yawn escaped her mouth, and she decided to give into the overwhelming feeling - maybe she would see the mysterious pony in her dreams again. She curled up on the stone and closed her eyes. However, instead of falling into a dream like she usually did the moment she fell asleep, she opened her eyes to find herself back in the starry realm, her wings and horn out, their normal golden color. And a little ways away from her sat the mystery pony - she was sure it was him, he had the same pale necklace around his neck - sitting very still, with the crystal charm clasped between his hooves, his forehead creased in concentration. “Hello?” Sunny tentatively asked, taking a step forward. His eyes popped open, and when they landed on her, he gasped and sprang to his feet. “It worked! It actually worked! I didn’t think it would!” Sunny was reminded of her attempt to reach her friends through their dreams, and smiled at the bittersweet memory - how she missed them. She would give just about anything in the world to be with them right now. “I have so many questions,” she said instead, taking another step towards him. “Okay, first of all, who-” He put up a hoof to stop her. “As much as I would love to talk all night, time is of the essence,” he said, reaching behind him to pull out a scrap of paper. “I’ve been told to give this to you - you’ll know what to do with it. At least, that’s the hope.” He smiled sheepishly. “And - also I have another message for you.” He cleared his throat. “You are free. They have been distracted, and therefore have loosened their grip on you, though it isn’t completely gone.” Sunny took the scrap of paper from him, confused. “Wait! What does that mean? When will I see you again? Can you answer at least one of my questions? Who are you?” The only thing she heard as the dream rapidly faded around her was, “We will meet again soon, Sparkle.” She gasped, sitting bolt upright. Still in her hoof was the tiny scrap of paper that the mystery night pony had given her in her dream - so it was real. She unfolded it, wondering what could possibly be so important. It was a spell - a spell for unlocking any lock that hadn’t been specially enchanted to resist this one specific spell. You are free. For the time being, anyway. Stars only knew when Cozy Glow would be back in her head. Sunny took a deep breath. She had a mission now - a quest she must embark on. But she could not risk endangering her friends - and from what she had heard, they would soon have quite enough on their plates. The Legion of Doom was always talking about a ‘him’ who would be reeking havoc up north - and she didn’t have to be a genius to guess that this new pony would be targeting the Crystal Empire. Flurry’s home. Sunny hoped she could find a way to warn her friends - from the way the villains talked, this new threat was a force to be reckoned with. This is not the time to hesitate, she told herself. If you’re going to do it, do it now. She reached down inside her and pulled the alicorn magic from inside her, feeling the usual warmth spreading from her heart to the tips of her hooves. Taking another look at the scrap of paper to make sure she had this right, she sighed and lit up her horn, whispering, “Aperta.” Something in the lock mechanism clicked, and her chains fell off her hooves. Sunny’s breath caught in her throat - there was no going back now. She would probably get caught and have her mind invaded and everything would be for nothing and she would have failed and this was a mistake and she should stay here and- Calm down. Deep breaths. Just do what Dad would do. And right now, he would get out of here. She stood up - it felt so strange to do it with hooves that weren’t held down by chains! - and shakily stepped away from them. She looked around and decided that nopony would notice she was gone for a while - at least, that was the hope. So there wasn’t any harm in snooping around a little bit to see what these villains were planning, right? Besides, she thought to herself, I want my journals back. The Legion of Doom had confiscated both her father’s journal and the Journal of Friendship when Sunny had first arrived, and she was not leaving until she had retrieved them. Who knows? They might be useful in the days ahead. Of course, there were stone pathways that slanted up and out of the cave, but Sunny had already figured out that those lead to bedrooms and other less-interesting parts of the cave. So she headed, instead, to their meeting room, three stone chairs surrounding a stone table, the crevices in the walls filled with books, a few torches lay silent in their brackets, and a wooden chest stood by the wall. The Journal of Friendship was sitting on the table, open to a passage about - Sunny paused before she scooped it up, scanning the page. Hm. King Sombra. He was that evil shadow pony who had tried to take over the Crystal Empire and enslave its citizens, if she remembered correctly. A chill ran down her back as she realized that this must be the distraction that the villains were planning to draw Equestria’s attention away from the Legion of Doom. She wished she could tell her friends - especially Flurry Heart, she deserved to know more than anypony - but if her hunch was correct, they would know themselves soon enough. And maybe it would be worth something to play by the villains’ plan for a while - her friends would deal with Sombra like Sunny knew they could, and she would sneak around disabling the Legion of Doom’s potential allies against the ponies, convincing them to switch sides. She had to try, at least. And she had to find that mysterious dream pony. Sunny slid the Journal of Friendship into her bag and scanned the room, trying to decide where her father’s journal could be. She spotted the chest by the wall and trotted over to it, feeling that it would be as good a place as any. Sunny pushed open the lid and rummaged around inside, careful to put everything back as she had found it. Her spirits plummeted as she realized that her father’s journal was not in there. Where was it? Sunny took one more look at the room, narrowing her eyes at every detail, when something caught her eye. One of the torches - it had a faint line on the stone around it. Like it could be pulled out of the wall. Lighting up her horn, Sunny surrounded the dark torch with golden light and gently eased it out of the wall, wincing at the grinding noise of stone against stone. There, in the hollow behind it, lay her father’s journal. Sunny’s face lit up, and she grabbed it, holding it protectively to her chest as she replaced the torch. Then she put it in her bag with the Journal of Friendship and ran back into the main chamber, facing the yawning opening that served as an exit from her prison. “Let’s get out of here,” she whispered. Even as her wings and horn faded, the hope that was building in her chest never wavered as she dashed away into the night.