It was a wonderful, sunny new day in Ponyville. Speaking of the word sunny, a light yellow Pegasus with purple hair was clearing clouds above the serene little town. She had her mane styled in honor of her old friend Cloud Kicker, who died of a fiery explosion in the cloud-making factory. The mare's eyelids drooped halfway in grief. She knew she could have done something. She was there. She was one of only seven survivors.
Exhaling a sigh, she went back to work. It was not long until after she dissolved a particularly large and annoying cloud she heard her name being called.
"Sunny Rays?"
She recognized the Western pony's accent. Sunny let her wings fold back until gravity took her down. Right when her head was about to smack against the grassy ground, her wings whisked open and she flew slowly with her back facing the ground, as if she was doing synchronized swimming. Hovering, she faced the orange freckle-faced pony with a grin on her face. "Hi!"
"Hey Sunny, can ah ask ya a big fav'r?"
"Sure." Sunny winced inwardly at her failure to say more than one syllable in a sentence.
"Twilight's here, an' she's helpin' out at the apple farm. Ah need you to step in an' buck apples with 'er."
Sunny let the real disappointment show on her face without any hesitation.
"Now, ah now you an' Twi aren't friends, but th' least you could do would be to help 'er."
Sunny rolled her eyes. "No, the least I could do would be nothing."
Applejack let her eyes shut in amusement and giggled, showing off her pearly whites. "Thanks, Sunny." She raced off towards the clock tower. It hit Sunny why Applejack wanted her to help Twilight. She wanted the two to be friends. Sunny pouted, snorting through her nose in defiance. Like that would ever happen.
Sunny trotted over to Sweet Apple Acres, home of the ponies' most common dietary food. Sunny Rays didn't understand. She ate meat and the occasional fruit. Steak. Turkey. Chicken. You name it. She was genuinely surprised everypony hadn't morphed into rabbits by now. Many of the ponies had tried to snap Sunny out of her meat loving sensation, thinking it was just some sort of phase. Of course, it didn't work. Rainbow Dash had to slap her once as she caught her staring hungrily at Scootaloo.
Interrupting her own thoughts with a shake of the head, she spied the annoying purple unicorn struggling to kick the tree trunk. She succeeded, after a few measly bucks. An excited expression of no other came across the lavender bookworm, only to be replaced by sheer pain as an endless array of apples fell, one by one, bopping Twilight on the head. Sunny hoped one of the tangy red fruits would be strapping enough to crush the unicorn's skull, but no dice. Twilight turned around suddenly, noticing Sunny Rays watching her with her hoof covering her mouth in a snickering sort of way. Sunny immediately attempted to hide her act, pretending her pick her teeth. "Guess I forgot to floss this morning, eh?" Sunny said to go along with her fake grooming. Twilight made her glare squeeze until it was nothing more than a squint.
Sunny's eyes darted everywhere awkwardly, trying to take all attention off of her. She spotted a fly buzzing around one of the apple-filled baskets that Twilight had around her back.
"Sweet Cadance, look out! It's a, uh, bee!" Sunny exclaimed, whipping up a hoof to point. She zipped past Twilight and hid behind one of the trees that didn't have failed-to-catch apples encircling it.
Twilight, fully convinced a yellow jacket was ready at any second to prick its little venomous stinger into her flesh, leaped up into the air and screamed, letting the basket of apples fly off her back and land on the ground with a thud. She ran away, hooves scrabbling the pebble-ridden ground, into the barn and slammed the door shut. She had an encounter with bees before, and it wasn't pretty. She grimaced as she remembered the sticky plasters mummifying her. She was almost—almost—thankful for Sunny Rays letting her know when she saw her, which she assumed, after learning Internet shorthand on Wikiponia, was ROTFLMAOing.
Twilight angrily stomped out of the shelter, eye twitching. Sunny Rays, upon realization that Twilight knew of her lying, muttered, "...Uh oh..."
This was not going to end well.
Sunny walked confidently out of the farmland with a few scratches. Her opponent was lying unconscious in a small pool of blood with a black eye and broken hoof. Sunny guessed that she had finally learned that nopony—nopony—can get away without a fight, at least not when Sunny Rays was there.
While she was trotting gently, she thought of her daughter, Spring Dancer. She was a nice pink Earth pony (despite both her parents being Pegasi) that had green hair with curls at the end. Her arrogance transitioned to despair as she thought of Fluttershy. Sunny stopped walking and kicked stones on the street with a single forehoof. Fluttershy had divorced her two years ago, finally figuring out Sunny thought violence was the answer. Sunny was currently single, but she knew three ponies who had crushes on her—Rainbow Dash, Trixie, and Applejack. Sunny decided she would ask Applejack to go for a relaxing walk with her in the forest, which would be the perfect place to ask if she'd like to go to a restaurant or something later. Sunny smiled as she remembered the adorable freckle-faced mare. Yes, that's exactly what she'd do.
She started to walk again, a visible bounce in her step as she wondered what time she should ask Applejack. Three o'clock sounded fairly reasonable.
Sunny Rays was out the door the time the clock reached 2:59. Zooming over to Sweet Apple Acres, she nearly bowled Rainbow Dash over, who for some reason was standing in the middle of the sidewalk. "Oh, hey, Rainbow." Sunny mumbled. Rainbow Dash looked mad. Sunny took this lack of response as an offense for no apology. "Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to—"
"Do you know anything about Twilight and Sweet Apple Acres?" Rainbow interrupted her.
Sunny's eyes cast downward in worry. She had forgotten about that. What was Applejack going to think?
She'd think Sunny was a complete and utter (buy some apples), that's what.
Sunny shoved Rainbow Dash out of the way and ran to the apple farmland. When she arrived there and clopped over to Applejack's side, two paramedics were lifting Twilight, now conscious, onto a stretcher. When her blood-blurry vision cleared, Twilight's furious violet eyes seemed to stare forever into her soul as if she was trying to ideologically send Sunny to the underground.
Sunny turned away from Applejack and started towards the exit, tears streaking her face. Why was violence always the answer for her? It always just gets her into trouble.
She flew into an alley of the closest two buildings and wept. Applejack would never forgive her now. Nopony would.
A shadow obscured her. The clouds must be piling up over the sun.
But as she looked up, she met the beautiful emerald eyes of Applejack.
"I...I'm..."
"Shh." Applejack silenced her with a hoof over her mouth.
"It's gonna be all right, sugarcube. Twilight's gon' be okay."
Sunny Rays smiled at the news. Then she remembered:
"Um, do you, want, to talk a walk with, uh, me?"
Applejack's face lit up like a Christmas tree. "Darn tootin' ah would!"
