Chapters Chapter 0: Setting Up Shop
Sunny was just halfway walking from Canterlot to Ponyville when sun was just barely starting to peak its head over the mountains. This makes day two of walking. He'd take the train, but he wanted to save as many bits as possible so he could at least afford a place to live in Ponyville that would double as his business. All this walking was boring, and it made him doze off into his mind. It made him wonder what he was doing, why he was here, and not at home in Canterlot. It was on that one fateful day, which forced him to make this decision.
He was up at home, tending to the royal gardens when he saw smoke rising in the air. "Oh, no... I hope nopony is hurt." He said to himself. He was worrying that there might be a fire. He was worrying even more that his parents might be involved in it somehow. You see, Sunny Day never really was all that popular. He's never had any friends down there in Canterlot, only acquaintances. That made his parents really the only people in the world he really cared about. Losing them would mean losing everything. So overworked from worrying, he hurried and finished his duties and ran over to his parents house as fast as his hooves could take him. When he was just about a block away from their house, Sunny saw two stretchers being carried away to hospital by some stallions in white coats. His stomach dropped. With new-found adrenaline he sped the rest of the way to his parent’s home. There was nothing left but a charred mess and half of a wall.
After the shock of the loss, and the funeral of his parents, he discovered that it was possible that the fire was purposely caused on his house. So Sunny decided that it was time to find out who did it. He figured the easiest way to do it would be to start up some sort of hired investigator type business and let the arsonist come to him. He obviously didn't have the bits to start it up in Canterlot, so Sunny decided to move somewhere small, like Ponyville. After letting his employer know of his moving and leaving the job, Sunny set off on his way to a new home with a wagon full of his possessions.
It was about midday when Sunny finally reached Ponyville. It seemed like a nice enough town, ponies walking around everywhere, saying hello to each other as they pass by. He even saw some foals running around playing with a ball. After a bit of walking around and talking with some people, he finally found an old run-down building to settle in. After carefully laying out everything he bought and setting some things up like his bedroom and the main office, he was ready to just fall asleep instantly and rest off that long journey he took here. Just as he was about to lay down, there was a knock on his door. "Who in the world could that be?" Sunny mumbled to himself.
He opened the door and before him stood a pink filly with a very fluffy looking mane and tail. She seemed to have three balloons as her cutie mark. "Hi there! I'm Pinkie Pie! Are you the new pony who I heard was moving in?" Sunny looked at her for a moment before answering. She seemed extremely hyper and energetic.
"Ah, yes that's me. My name is Sunny Day." Sunny bluntly stated. He was tired, after all. She seemed to jump up in excitement just from hearing his name.
"OH! Wonderful! I hope you have a great time here and I hope we can be good friends!" She was smiling all over the place; Sunny couldn't help but smile himself, even after all that happened.
"Me too Pinkie. But if you excuse me, I need to sleep. I'm really exhausted from the trip here." He was hoping he wasn't being too rude about it.
"Okay, I understand. I'll be going now, see you tomorrow! Bye!" Sunny waved to Pinkie as he closed his door and made his way to his bed. It's time for a nap.
The sun shone through the window in Sunny's room. "Ugh...time to wake up." He grumbled as he stood up and got ready for the day. He walked downstairs and looked around for a bit, getting used to his new home. He went into his kitchen to go and make his breakfast. He was starving because he hasn't eaten since he left from Canterlot. That's when he realized something drastically important he had forgotten. He has absolutely no food whatsoever. Sunny facehooved, "Geez I'm so retarded..." He thought to himself. It seems like today is going to be an eating out day. Sunny opened his front door and walked outside. The breeze felt really nice when it went through his mane. It was the perfect morning, well, it would be if he didn't have to use his limited extra bits to go and eat something at a restaurant.
After a bit of walking Sunny sees a place with the name "Hay 'n Stuff." It looks fairly cheap so he goes inside and gets about three bits from his money pouch. He goes up to a counter and an orange colt with a blue mane approaches him from the other side. "My name is Pickles. What can I do for you?" He seemed like a laid back kind of pony, but he also seemed somewhat serious at the same time.
"Well hi Pickles. I'm about to become your most frequent customer, so how about a hay sandwich?" Sunny tried to make a joke of his little situation. It seemed to work on Pickles because he chuckled a little.
"My most frequent customer, eh? Well, then I better learn your name before I go get that sandwich, what is it?" It was amusing how this guy thought that Sunny's joke was amusing despite it's lameness.
"Yeah, I'm Sunny Day." Sunny chuckled at his own awkwardness.
"Alright then Sunny, one hay sandwich coming right up!" Pickles went through a side door and vanished from behind the counter.
Sunny sat down at the nearest open table and began to wait for his food to arrive. The clock ticked on for a bit before he saw the familiar colt set the sandwich on the table. "Hey, is it alright if I sit with you? I'm on break right now." Pickles was smiling at Sunny almost like Pinkie Pie was, just without all the excitement behind it.
"Uh, yeah, go ahead." Sunny gestured toward the seat across from him,
"So are you new around here?" Pickles questioned. "I haven't seen your face before today."
"Yeah, I just moved in yesterday. I walked all the way here from Canterlot so I was tired, and I guess I still am." Sunny tilted his head to the side, just to emphasize the tiredness.
"Oh, so I see. So what did you mean by 'most frequent customer,' eh?" Pickles raised an eye quizzically at Sunny.
"Ah, yes. Well, I didn't bring any food when I moved in. I don't have the bits to really go buy the groceries I need to make any for myself, so I decided to eat out for awhile until I have the money to support myself." Sunny felt a little stupid admitting that to someone he just barely met, but what's said is said. Pickles laughed so hard he nearly fell over.
"Wow! That sure was a dumb move on your part!" He gasped out in between laughing fits. After he was done Pickles said, "Alright, it was nice meeting you, but I have to get back to work. Talk to you later!" Pickles got up and Sunny waved goodbye at him as he returned to work. Sunny finished his sandwich and left the building.
Sunny was on just about to walk into his house when he was stopped by a questioning voice. "Oh my! This isn't where you LIVE is it?" Sunny turned around to see a white unicorn with a purple mane and tail. She had diamonds as a cutie mark.
"Uhm... Yeah, it is." He replied. The filly gasped,
"How dreadful! I must help you redecorate this tomorrow. Tell you what, I'll be here tomorrow with my things, and you help me help you make this place look absolutely wonderful! Maybe then you could have someone nice and proper like me over." She nudged Sunny's side playfully. Before Sunny had time to tell her it was fine and that he could do it himself, she started to leave. "Oh by the way, my name is Rarity! I'll see you tomorrow!" Sunny was confused.
"What exactly just happened...?" He said to himself while scratching his head. Sunny went inside and laid down on the couch for a moment.
Sunny is now starting to adjust and make a few friends down here in Ponyville. He started to feel more and more at home, like he belonged here more than he did at his old one. After a while of just lying there thinking about what's happened, Sunny Day got up and decided it's time to explore Ponyville and remember where everything is. Sunny spent about 2 hours looking around when he saw the library again, and he saw Pickles walking towards. Pickles saw him, too, and waved at Sunny to come over. Sunny complied and trotted over to Pickles. "Hey Sunny! How's it going?" Sunny and Pickles brohoofed each other when they got close.
"Pretty good I guess. What are you up to Pickles?" Sunny was surprised at himself. Pickles and he were talking to one another like best friends, but they've only known each other for less than a day.
"Oh, I was just paying Twilight Sparkle a visit. I could introduce you to her if you like." Sunny thought about it for a moment.
"Yeah, sure, that would be fine." Why not?
"Alright then, come with me." Pickles beckoned towards the library.
Upon entering the library he saw what every library should have; stacks upon stacks of books! After a little more looking around he saw a purple unicorn with multicolored blue, pink, and purple mane and tail. Sunny assumed that this was Twilight Sparkle. Although, right next to her was a baby dragon! Sunny has never seen a baby dragon up close before. It appears that both Twilight and the dragon are shelving books and reorganizing them. "Hey Twilight, need any help?" Pickles asks.
"Yes, can you go put that book over there?" She points to a book sitting on the floor then at an empty slot on a faraway shelf. Pickles nods and does what he's told. Twilight looks behind her and sees Sunny Day sitting there. "Who's this, Pickles?" She keeps staring at Sunny questioningly.
"Oh, he's new in town. I met him today at work. Poor guy can't afford enough groceries to feed himself at the moment. His name is Sunny Day. Sunny, this is Twilight Sparkle." Pickles points at Sunny and then to Twilight. Sunny speaks up,
"Pleased to meet you." Twilight nods and asks the two colts if they could help her and her baby dragon reorganize all these books. They agree and spend the next thirty minutes or so helping out wherever needed in the library. Just as they were heading out, the unicorn Rarity came barging in.
"Oh, hello you!" She was looking at Sunny. "I remember you from that disaster you call a house. What was your name?"
"Hello Miss…uh…Rarity was it? My name is Sunny Day." Rarity blushed.
"So formal! Anyway, I have important business with Twilight, so bye for now you two!" Rarity passed on by Sunny and Pickles and started to talk about dresses or something like that.
"So why are you so poor right now, Sunny?" Pickles asked.
"Well, I just barely switched jobs. I was going to officially open my new hired investigations business tomorrow, after Rarity helps me redecorate the place apparently." Pickles suddenly had a cheeky smile on his face.
"Ooooh, I get it... You and Rarity-" Pickles was quickly cut off by Sunny.
"Don't say anything! I saw how you were looking at Twilight, man..." Pickles looked embarrassed. With that the two ponies departed their separate ways. Tomorrow, Sunny will officially start his new life here in Ponyville.
Well, today was the day Sunny Investigations officially opened up for business after the renovations that Rarity was going to help Sunny with. Sunny had just returned from a visit to "Hay 'N Stuff" when he saw Rarity walking up to his door with an extremely large suitcase on rollers. From what he could see sticking out of the bag was some ribbons and other frilly things. Sunny made a mental note to handle all future decorating by himself. He ran up to catch Rarity before she went up to the door and stopped in front of her. "Hello Rarity! Ready to help out?" Sunny said while he opened the door.
"As ready as I'll ever be. I just couldn't fit everything I wanted into this ONE empty bag I had! So I'm sorry if we can't get everything perfect." Sunny cringed as she finished her statement.
"Yeah... that's a shame." He said sarcastically. Surprisingly, Rarity didn't seem to pick up on his lack of enthusiasm on her being the decorator.
Rarity quickly set down her humongous bag of things, and began to open it up and sort of few things around. Inside from what he could see we more ribbons, some wood, a hammer, nails, paint cans (consisting of Sunny's mane and coat colors plus a few others), and some markers. It seemed like there was a whole bunch more, but he wasn't all that curious as to what it was. The two ponies sat down next to the bag of things and began to plan what the main office room they were sitting in would look like. Once that had been decided and sketched they headed into the other rooms and began planning for those as well. Everything seemed to be going well, despite constant objections from Sunny about the frilly decorating. Rarity insisted that it "gave everything more flair" so he just rolled with it. After all the sketching was done, the two realized that them alone could never get the work finished very soon. "Ah, I know just the stallion who can help us! Just hold on a few minutes dear, and I'll go get him." Sunny nodded and Rarity walked outside and closed the door behind her with a loud thud.
Soon Rarity returned with a large red earth pony with yellow hair. "This is Big Macintosh, he's going to be helping us work on your soon-to-be wonderful house!" Big Mac paused for a moment and then added to Rarity's statement,
"Eeyup." A stallion of many words stood before Sunny this fine day.
So, the work began on Sunny's house. At first nothing seemed to be changing at all because they were just making a few minor repairs to everything, but once they cracked out the paints and the... er... ribbons, things began to look a whole lot different. The main office was now painted a nice orange and yellow and the desk that was there followed suit. His living room was a nice deep blue and so on so forth. The whole house really seemed to show off Sunny's personality. After a couple more hours of hard labor and tea breaks with Rarity, the three finally finished the last room and began to marvel at the work they've done. They have completely transformed this dump of a place to a very nice looking and professional area. "Oh thank you so much Rarity and Big Macintosh! I really like what we've done." Sunny was pretty pleased with himself.
"Eeyup. I had better get going. Things to do." The poet of a pony briefly nodded his head and then left the building.
"Uhm... Rarity. Can I ask for one more thing you can help me with?" He tried to put on his best puppy dog face to avoid being told no. Rarity laughed at him.
"Ah, yes, sure. What is it dear?" Asked Rarity. Sunny then asked her if she could help him put up the Sunny Investigations sign he made last night. She agreed and was able the lift the sign with ease onto the top of the building. It was official now, Sunny Investigations was ready to start taking cases. Now Sunny just needed a way to spread the word. He figured Pickles' restaurant might be able to provide a nice little advertising if he just placed a couple fliers there. Sunny waved goodbye to Rarity and began to work on his new idea. After they were finished, the fliers were actually pretty nice looking. On them read, "S.I.A. Sunny Investigations Agency," and then the contact information.
With a new bounce in his stride, Sunny trotted over to Hay 'N Stuff and asked Pickles if it was alright to place these fliers around here. He says yes so Sunny begins place them on the walls and on a few tables before placing one right outside the front door. Now it's time to wait. Sunny waved goodbye to Pickles and walked back home. He sat there at the main desk waiting for someone in need to come through the front door. Eventually, after about an hour he realized no one was going to come in. So he was about to leave and catch a movie when the door busted open with a frantic rainbow-haired Pegasus followed by Rarity. "Rainbow Dash, this is Sunny day, Sunny, this is Rainbow Dash." Rarity gestured at each of them as she said aloud their name. Rainbow Dash immediately rushed up to the desk.
"You have to help me! Please! You have to help me find him!" She was so frantic, it was almost hard to understand her. Sunny had to try and get her to settle down.
"Wait up a second, calm down. I need to find who?" Sunny day tried to make his voice as soothing as possible in hopes it would help Rainbow Dash calm.
"It's Thunder Clap... he's been ponynapped. I'm not sure by who, but I know someone has taken him. He'd never back down from a challenge against me." It worked, she was able to talk much more clearer now.
"Okay. What does he look like, and where was he last you heard from him?" Sunny was starting to get excited, and you could hear it in his voice. His first case is finally here!
"Well, he's a black Pegasus and he has a rainbow colored mane like mine. I last saw him heading to the Everfree Forest near the south side. He promised that later today we would have a race, and that the winner buys cake, but he's gone and I can't find him anywhere!"
"Alright, don't worry, I'll find Thunder! I'm so confident in finding him, you don't have to pay me anything until he's right in front of your eyes!" Sunny Day struck a pose like an old action movie hero, it was quite hilarious. He immediately ran out of his office and began heading towards the Everfree Forest. He'd track down Thunder Clap for sure. Perhaps he's just lost inside or something? From what Sunny has heard of the forest from ponies talking, it IS really easy to get lost. As Sunny approached the south entrance of the forest, he heard hoofsteps behind him. Before he could turn around, Sunny heard a loud thud and then he hit the ground. Everything started to slowly fade to black.
Sunny wasn't sure exactly what happened. All he could remember was hitting the ground before everything faded away, but he was sure something hit him. He was awake now, but hadn't opened his eyes yet in fear that someone might see him wake up. As he was thinking to himself, he could hear two ponies talking. One voice was deep and almost sounded like the guy swallowed some serious amounts of sandpaper. The other sounded like someone with a slight case of down syndrome.
"Who's this?" The deep voice commanded.
"He was a guy who's probably looking for Thunder." The other one replied meekly.
"Probably?" The deep voice seemed to mock the other one.
"Well, he was hanging around where we grabbed Thunder 'n stuff..." Immediately after the other voice finished, Sunny heard the sound of a loud smack to the face.
"YOU IDIOT! You don't even know if he was onto us but you went and created more problems for us to deal with!" Sunny could hear the other pony hit the floor. The deep-voiced one must have hit him hard. Sunny thought to himself for a moment to assess the situation at hand.
Me, a problem to deal with? I guess they're the ones who captured Thunder Clap, seeing as how the downy-pony said it. I guess he jumped the gun and took me as someone who was hunting them down, even though I really was. Maybe if I play my cards right I could find an opening to get Thunder Clap and try to get out of here. Sunny decided it was time to wake up. He blinked his eyes open and did his best to appear as if he had just barely got himself together. "Uhg... What's going on? Where am I?" Sunny blinked a bit more just for added effect.
"Shit, you're awake. Do you know why you're here, kid?" It was the deep-voiced pony. He was a red stallion who's mane and tail resembled flame, and to top it off, his cutie mark was a skull.
"Erm... No, not really? Who are you guys?" Even Sunny didn't believe his own voice right now, but he hoped that the thugs would buy his playing dumb.
"We're the infamous gang leaders of the Flame Gang! Don Honcho and me, Dirk!" The downy-pony said excitedly. He was light blue in coat color, and his mane was orange and his cutie mark was a campfire. It had just now come to Sunny's attention that both of them were Unicorns, and he took a educated guess and decided that they could use flame magic.
HIM? A gang leader? That's almost laughable. Sunny thought while stifling a chuckle.
"Dammit Dirk! What are you doing? Now we HAVE to kill him." Sunny swallowed hard, these guys were going to kill him. "You better hope this guy has no close friends or family that'll come looking for him down here." Don said as he began to open the cage. Sunny immediately took this opportunity and kicked Don Honcho in the face and bolted for the door that was near the cage. He was able to escape and close the door before the two could react.
"Ack! He's getting away! C'MON DIRK, WE NEED TO GET HIM!" There was so much rage in Don's voice that it almost felt like an object in the air. Sunny saw the the lock on the door was on his side so he hurried and locked it before continuing to run down the immense hallway that was in front of him. There were so many doors and other hallways in this strange looking house. Sunny just took random guesses and ran around the halls like an idiot.
"I think he went this way! Come on men!" This was a new voice, it looks like there are more of them after him. Sunny immediately charged himself into the closest door causing it to burst open. Sunny quickly closed it behind himself and locked it. He had to hide from these guys. Or at least find a way out of this place without them getting a hold of him. All Sunny could do now was wait until they looked somewhere else.
"So... Thunder Clap..." Don Honcho paced in front the cell that held Thunder Clap. "Did you tell anyone about our arrangement? Because a yellow Earth Pony showed up around the spot we arranged to meet. We had to capture him." Thunder snorted.
"No. I didn't tell anyone, I swear." Thunder Clap shot a serious look at Don.
"Well isn't that interesting, you lying. I thought we had a deal, you helped us train my minions into elite soldiers like you did for the war without telling a single soul, and we wouldn't hurt HER." Saying that caused Thunder to jump up and hit the bars of the cage as hard as he could.
"YOU WOULDN'T DARE! YOU BASTARD!" Don laughed.
"Watch me. Now if you excuse me, I have to help everyone deal with a certain, 'problem' that has arisen." Thunder laid back down and began to cry softly to himself. How could I let her get hurt and live with myself? There has to be something I can do... Right then, Sunny burst into the room and slammed the door behind him.
"Hey! You must be Thunder Clap! Rainbow Dash asked me to come find you." Sunny was reaching for a key when Thunder Clap stood up and began to yell at him.
"You idiot! DO YOU REALIZE WHAT YOU'VE DONE?!? They're going to hurt Rainbow Dash now! They think I asked for help!" Thunder was furious.
"Really...? They're going to hurt her because they thought you asked for somepony's help? Ah... Well then that means I'm gonna have to beat the ever loving hell out of them doesn't it?" Thunder took a step back in shock.
Beat them? Obviously this pony had no idea what he was getting into. But oddly, it seemed like he would be able to somehow. Maybe it was just the way he said it, but it appears this pony is one hundred percent confident that he can do it. Thunder nodded and waited for Sunny to open up the cage. The two took a couple steps toward the door before they heard voices coming this way.
"Well, it looks like we're gonna have to make a run for it and try to find the exit." Sunny smiled at Thunder Clap, trying to reassure him. Even though it looked like he was confident, Sunny was scared for his life. He really didn't think that they will make it out alive, but he was going to die trying. Sunny threw the door open and began running in a random direction and Thunder followed. The thugs heard them and immediately began charging after them.
"GET BACK HERE! HE'S GOT THUNDER!" Sunny was beginning to get tired of running. He wouldn't be able to keep this on for much longer. Just when Sunny was about to turn a corner, a flame rose out of the ground and stopped him and Thunder in their tracks. When they turned around to face their executors Don Honcho was standing at the front of the pack with his horn glowing. Don began laughing.
"Aw... Poor Thunder, it looks like you and your little friend here won't be able to save Rainbow." He charged up and backhoofed Sunny Day into the wall extremely hard. Blood shot out of Sunny's mouth upon collision with the wall and he hit the ground, still barely conscious. Sunny wobbled back up to his hooves.
"I'm not gonna... go down... that easily." It was obvious Sunny was hurt. IT would be a miracle if he didn't suffer any severe head trauma from that hit. This caused Don to break into a huge fit of laughter.
"You honestly think a couple kids like you can defeat me? Even if one of you is already experienced in combat, it still makes no difference!" Don made a fireball at the tip of his horn and launched it at Sunny, who was struck and fell down again. It didn't light him up, but it severely burned off some of his flesh. Sunny didn't move after that. "Now for you turn, Thunder. Then when I'm through with you, I'm gonna do the same to Rainbow Dash." Don started approaching Thunder when a voice called out from behind them,
"HEY! DON HONCHO! WHY DON'T YOU DEAL WITH SOMEONE A BIT MORE YOUR STYLE?!?"
Chapter 4: Power of the Sun Shared
Don Honcho turned away from the wounded Sunny Day and peered behind him. Before him lies his his unconscious henchmen and a pony standing on top of them. Sunny was viewing the exact same scene, but he couldn't react let alone even see it clearly. But he could tell who it was standing on the knocked out ponies by the color of his coat and mane. Pickles? he thought, He's not wearing his usual hat... He's a unicorn? What? It was true, Pickles normally donned a fast food cap on his head, so it would be impossible to see his horn normally. Once Don Honcho viewed this scene he started to back away in pure terror. Thunder Clap looked upon the orange unicorn with confusion.
"I-It's F-Flame Burst!" Don cried as he tried to push himself through a door, but to no avail. Pickles began approaching Don Honcho slowly, one step at a time, visibly stomping on the head of any pony underneath.
"You should know I don't go by that name anymore." Pickles snorted. "So is this what we've come to? Picking on the helpless wasn't our style when I was in command." This confused Sunny greatly.
Flame Burst? He led the Flame gang before Don Honcho and Dirk? So... many.. ques- Sunny's vision faded and he was now fully unconscious there on the ground.
"But! They just, we, uh, needed from them..." Don was tripping over his words. It was very clear that he was absolutely terrified of Pickles. Pickles yelled while charging a large ball of flame at the tip of his horn.
"EXCUSES!" He let the charged blast land on Don and it sent him straight through the door he had been trying to open. Thunder heard bones snap as Don flew through. There was going to be no getting up from that. Pickles walked up to Sunny. "Hey. Are you alright? Sunny?" He looked up at Thunder and the pony shook his head. Pickles got down and checked Sunny's pulse. He was alive, but very faintly, and judging by the dent in the wall there might be some serious injuries on him. "You!" He yelled at Thunder. "Grab Sunny and let's get out of here." Thunder obeyed and lifted Sunny onto his back. Pickles knew his way around so he was able to navigate the twisted hallways and eventually reach a large door.
"Is this the exit?" Thunder asked.
"Not for you, hahaha!" A voice called out. Pickles started spinning around, looking for the source of the voice.
"Who's there?!" He yelled in confusion. The voice that spoke seemed to be coming from nowhere.
"Well, if it isn't the legendary Flame Burst. You don't look so tough to me." The voice laughed again maniacally. Pickled stomped as hard as he could.
"Show yourself!" Pickles demanded. This only seemed to draw yet another laugh from the voice.
"If you insist..." A figure started to appear in the center of the room. After it fully formed, Thunder recognized it as Dirk. Something was off though, Dirk wasn't talking in his normal voice. Actually, his eyes changed as well, they were red instead of yellow. Dirk bellowed,
"Greetings! I am Dirk, the true leader of the Flame Gang. I've always wanted to test my abilities on you, Flame Burst. I've always wanted to prove that I'm stronger than the gang's strongest leader!" Dirk immediately shot some kind of flame laser at Pickles, who wasn't fast enough to evade the attack completely and got struck on his hoof.
"AHG!" Yelled Pickles as he landed on his hurt hoof. Damn! Now I won't be able to move as quickly. Pickles then charged his own flame and shot it at Dirk. Dirk formed a cloak of flame around himself and absorbed the attack. Then he released his cloak, sending the flame everywhere. Thunder grabbed Sunny and took cover, but Pickles wasn't as lucky. He got directly hit by the flame, but he was still standing. "Ha! I've taken harder hits than... just that..." Pickles voice was starting to waver.
"Aw... are you hurt Flame Burst? I thought you were the strongest flame using unicorn to ever walk Equestria?" Dirk said coyly. "Prepare yourself for my final strike!" Dirk laughed as he charged a massive ball of flame on the tip of his horn. All Pickles could do was try and form a cloak around himself, like Dirk did earlier, because he was too hurt to be able to move much.
Sunny's eyes opened, he was staring straight a staircase of clouds. He looked down and noticed he was standing on a cloud himself. "What? That makes no sense... how am I on a cloud?" Confused, Sunny began to walk up the stairs because they seemed like the only place to go.
Thunder yelled at Pickles, "OH NO! He's stopped breathing, I don't think he'll make it much longer!" Pickles winced in physical and emotional pain. Dirk fired his newly charged shot at Pickles, it collided with his cloak and it was crashing against it, the cloak was able to survive the hit, but the fire ball was still trying to charge through it.
"Try CPR! Hurry! I don't think I can hold this up much longer!"
Sunny reached the top of the cloudy stairs and looked ahead of him. There was another cloud up ahead, and on it stood a beautiful Alicorn with a blue, green, and pink mane and tail. He recognized this as Princess Celestia and bowed his head. "Why are you bowing at a time like this, my little pony?" She spoke calmly. Sunny stood up immediately, remembering what was going on. "Your friends are in trouble." Sunny looked mortified.
"I know! I have to help them! But how, I'm up here for some reason... wait, am I dead?" Celestia laughed at his question.
"Oh my, not yet. I've simply called you here to give you a second chance to save you and your friends." Sunny was confused, not sure what she meant by a second chance. "I'm going to grant you a small power of the sun itself. I want you to use it to defeat your foe."
"A power of the sun? How am I supposed to use it, I'm not a Unicorn. I'm not even a Pegasus! Why would I get such power or even be able to use it?" Sunny replied, confused.
"Trust me, you will know when the time comes." Celestia's horn shined as she flew towards Sunny. She touched him with her horn and everything slowly became white.
Sunny jumped up to his feet. "Sunny! You'r-" Thunder was quickly cut off by Sunny running over to go save Pickles. The cloak around Pickles was beginning to fade while the flame ball showed no sign of weakening. Sunny knew what he had to do, he wasn't sure how he knew, but he just did. He yelled at the top of his lungs as he dashed toward Dirk,
"SUN BEAM! " Sunny felt strange as light enveloped his body into some sort of blast. He raced forward and struck into Dirk. Dirk went careening across the room and slammed into a pillar. To Pickles, it looks like a bright light just flew through and completely annihilated Dirk. Colliding with the pillar broke Dirk's concentration causing the fireball to disappear instantly after impact and Sunny returned to his normal self and stood next to Dirk. Pickles lowered his cloak and limped over to where the two ponies were. Dirk was out cold, but not dead. "We should get some guards to take him to the dungeon in Canterlot. It would be wrong to kill him in this state." Pickles picked up Dirk and they began to walk back towards Ponyville with Thunder.
"So, what did you do back there? I thought Earth Ponies couldn't use any kind of magic?" Asked Thunder Clap.
"I'm not exactly sure... It just sorta happened, you know? I'm not sure how to explain it other then that." Sunny thought it best not to disclose his vision for now.
"You were so powerful, you were able to bring Dirk down in one hit!" Pickles exclaimed. He seemed more calm and back to his ditzy self now that they were out of trouble.
"I guess... but I still don't know how I was even able to do that." Pickles did an exaggerated shrug.
"Well, it doesn't matter now. What matters is that we got Thunder Clap back." Sunny nodded as they stepped into Ponyville.
Once they started approaching the S.I.A building they were stopped by Rarity. "Oh my, you all look absolutely awful!" She said. "But at least Pickles was able to save you like I asked. You see, when you didn't come back for awhile, I asked Pickles if he could try and find you guys and save you if you got into trouble. It certainly seems like you needed saving. Thank you Pickles!"
"Don't thank me, Rarity. I wasn't the one who did the saving. It Sunny who saved us from HIM." Stated Pickles as he tossed Dirk into the dirt.
"Really? Then I guess that makes you the hero, Sunny. And do you know what heroes get?" She asked.
"Uhm... A reward?" He wasn't quite sure what Rarity was talking about.
"Exactly! Here's your reward!" Rarity approached Sunny and kissed him right on the cheek. Sunny blushed really hard. "Now if you excuse me, I'm going to find someone for you who can escort that pony to Canterlot.
"Ooooooh, looks like we have a player in the house." Pickles said coyly.
"Shut up, man." Sunny turned away from the laughing unicorn. Sunny started thinking to himself, What happened back there? How was I able to do that?
The trio entered S.I.A and saw a worried Rainbow Dash immediately light up and squee as she saw Thunder. She rushed over and gave Thunder a hug. "You're back! I was so wor-" She cleared her throat and backed off. "I mean, what happened to you! You missed our race!" She was blushing so hard it was almost impossible not to laugh, but they were able to keep cool about her reaction.
"I was just involved in some bad business... that's all." He replied. Sunny now spoke up,
"I hate to ruin the moment, but I'm going to have to ask you for 50 bits for implying my service." He didn't like being a jerk, but he needed the money.
"Oh, right." Rainbow reached into her saddle bag and was able to pull out 50 bits and she placed them on the table. "There you go."
"Thank you. Now you two be safe!" Sunny waved as Thunder Clap and Rainbow Dash walked out of the building.
"Well, I should probably go watch Dirk while Rarity gets someone to help. Then I gotta go check on my restaurant. Bye for now!"
"Bye!" Sunny smiled. It seemed like everything was so peaceful... for now.
Chapter 5: Abandoned Past
Pickles and Sunny were lounging around in the S.I.A main office absolutely bored out of their minds. Pickles' restaurant was closed for the day and business was really slow for Sunny. The only thing they've had to do all day was find a lost cat which really was at the owner's house in the first place. Well, all this nothing to do got Sunny thinking about something he heard in the Flame Gang's mansion a week ago. What exactly was with Don Honcho calling Pickles "Flame Burst?" So he decided to try his luck and ask Pickles about it. "Hey, Pickles?" Sunny was a bit nervous of how Pickles would react to the question. "What exactly was Don Honcho talking about you being called 'Flame Burst' and stuff?" Pickles' face immediately seized up in anger and sadness at the exact same time. All the memories of old times began rushing to him at once for some reason.
---(ACTIVATE FLASHBACK MODE!)---
"ALRIGHT GUYS!" Flame Burst yelled at the room full of cheering unicorns. "Tonight was just a small victory in this turf war! You can bet your flanks that there will be many more to come! Now, let me brief you guys on our next attack." Flame turned behind him and yelled at the foal who was standing off to the side. "Don! Go get the turf map!" The young Don Honcho left and shortly returned with a large map that clearly marks out 3 different gangs' territories. Don carefully placed the map on a pedestal where everyone in the room could see it. "Alright, you see that small bit to the north of us? That used to be part of White Noise's territory, now its ours thanks to tonight. What I want to do now is wipe out the rest of their turf in a huge surprise attack. What we're going to do is hurry through the Black Riders' home in the Everfree Forest and hit up White Noise from the side unexpectedly. They'll never see it coming!" This caused another cheer from the crowd, praising their leader. "Now everyone get ready! Tomorrow is when we'll head out. For now, I want Gatling Gun and Jim Shot to follow me." Flame walked off to his private room.
Gatling and Jim were Flame's right hand men, he would trust those two with everything he had to live for if he had to. Gatling Gun was an extremely large-built colt who had incomparably hoof-to-hoof strength, while Jim was a little on the small side, but Don Honcho sneaked into the room and hid behind a small corner table to listen to the colts speak. Flame was the first to speak up, "Alright, I have jobs for you two." Flame let the plan run through his again one more time before he spoke again. "Jim, I'm going to need you to plan the best route and attack strategy to where we can cause the most damage to the White Noise. Gatling, you're going to lead the guys into the attack. You'll have to hit them with everything you have in order to really make this effective." Gatling and Jim nodded, but Jim had his doubts about how this plan was going to work out.
"Um, sir, may I say something?" Jim said, unsure if he will be punished for making his doubts known.
"What is it?" Flame raised an eyebrow.
"Well... What if they have something set up for us? I'm not so sure that we will be able to take them by surprise." Flame took a step towards Jim and make Jim flinch. He was prepared to get struck.
"Yes... well, me too actually. I'm just going to bank on the fact that they don't see us coming. If they do, well... Let's just say that there will be many unmarked graves to be made. We have to do this or White Noise will come at us and kill us all indefinitely." Jim nodded and Gatling just stood silent. "Alright, it's time to rest up. Good night, guys." The two colts left Flame to his thoughts.
Now, Don Honcho heard this whole conversation and was surprised at Flame's attitude toward this. Like something was forcing him to make this attack. Don made a silent promise to himself to get so strong that no one could stop him or force him to do anything. Don was able to leave silently without Flame overhearing him. "Damn... I hope we're able to make it tomorrow. If we don't... Who knows what White Noise will do to Ponyville?" Flame slowly left the room and went to sleep in one the available beds.
It was the morning, the ponies were all lined up and ready to march through the Everfree Forest. Flame Burst and Gatling Gun led the front of the makeshift army. "ALRIGHT STALLIONS! LET US MOVE THROUGH AND DEFEAT WHITE NOISE!" The crowd cheered as they began galloping through the forest. Almost immediately as they entered the forest Flame felt as if something was really wrong, almost like something was following them. He was right. As they were in the middle of Everfree Forest they were jumped by a group of Black Rider and White noise gang members. All over was the meaningless bloodshed. Before their very eyes Don and Flame saw everyone they knew and loved slaughtered in the midst of battle. After the first five minutes, Flame saw Gatling get thrown into a tree. The image of the splattering gore were burned into his mind as his best friend collided with the tree. Jim's poor mauled body was shortly to follow, along with most of the crew who didn't retreat from the battle. Flame knew it was his fault, he was the one who brought them into this, he was the one who came up with the plan. That made him responsible for all their deaths. Flame had no problems getting rid of the ambush, and Don was able to run away. After everything was cleared, Flame stood in the battlefield, looking at all the dead ponies that lay before him. Before he was able to honor them, he heard more ponies headed his way, so He booked it out of the forest as fast as he could, the blood stained all over his coat and mane. Even after he got out, he kept running, running away from the damage he had caused, all the lives he helped take. He tried to tell himself that it was all a part of the business, but he still couldn't help feel like leaving. So that's what he did, he kept on running until he collapsed from exhaustion in the middle of Ponyville.
It was then he met Twilight, she saw the condition he was in and took him into her Library and offered him a temporary place to stay. When he was asked his name, he went under the falsity of Pickles the cook, seeing as how that was his talent he could pull that off extremely well. He also faked Amnesia, claiming to have no memories of what happened before he was in Ponyville. With this, Flame completely abandoned his old memories and tried to begin new ones in Ponyville with his new name and restaurant.
---(END FLASHBACK MODE)---
"I'm sorry to burst your bubble Sunny," Pickles said with a fake laugh, "But I don't really know what you're talking about. I don't have any idea of what happened to before I came here to Ponyville, so I wouldn't be able to tell you the answer to that. Sunny lifted an eyebrow.
But back at the mansion, he mentioned of when he was in charge. I guess he doesn't want to talk about it then, I won't push him. Sunny smiled, "Alright then. I guess you don't know then. Well, I think I'm going to go take a nap, nothing else really seems to be happening today. Talk to you later, Pickles." Sunny yawned and left the room. Pickles sighed, he was glad that Sunny seemed to buy his excuse. Reliving all those bad memories reminded Pickles of something, the White Noise. They have plans to take over Ponyville, and he was certain that they were going to try sometime soon after all this waiting.
This was going to be a very large problem. Pickles found it extremely hard to be able to give away White Noise's plans while still retaining his little facade about memory loss. If it really had to come to it, though, he'd "remember" and tell everyone, but he hoped he could find someway to let people know. That's when it struck him, he'd use White Noise's cover-up business against them. Pickles hurried off to prepare things for the "investigation" that was going to take place at the club tonight.
Sunny was just lounging around on his couch waiting for something to do. Everyone seemed really busy today, but nothing is happening for him. Oh well... he thought. I guess that's just one of the downs of this job. Suddenly, Sunny heard the familiar ring of bells as the front door was open, he jumped up to his hooves and dashed into the main office grinning like an idiot. He opened the door and to his disappointment see Pickles waiting at the counter. Sunny's grin faded a little as he approached Pickles. It wasn't a job, but it was company at least. "Hey Pickles, what are you doing here, I thought your restaurant was packed today?" Sunny raised an eyebrow.
"Yeah, I found somepony to cover for me while I come here." Pickles looked like he ran all the way here. Something bad must've happened to him. "Listen, this is kind of important. I hear that there's a lot of kidnappings happening at this club DJ-PON3 usually plays at, except the kidnappings only happening when she's not laying the tracks." Sunny cleared his throat.
"So, you came to me for a case?" Pickles nodded. "Well, then I guess I'll be searching out this place tonight. Do you know who's playing?" Pickles levitated a small rolled up poster and handed it over to Sunny. He unfolded it and took a look.
"FREE ADMISSION TONIGHT ONLY! WH1T3'S BEST LINEUPS!" Sunny looked it over for a moment, checking the date and address.
"Are you sure it's only when DJ-PON3 isn't playing?" Pickles nodded again. "I guess I'm going to go partying tonight. If you can, could you watch things over here when I'm gone tonight?" Pickles thought for a second.
"Yeah, I guess I could. I might not be able too though if I keep getting so many hungry ponies today. I trust you'll stop by for something to eat before you head out?" Sunny was the one to nod this time. Pickles said goodbye and went back to see how Thunder was doing keeping ponies happy.
"Okay! Looks like I'm finally getting another real job!" Sunny exclaimed to himself. It was only a couple of hours before dinner, and then it was on to the club!
Sunny grabbed his special investigator's badge and put on a snazzy pair of sunglasses before heading out for dinner. The walk seemed to be taking far to long for him. He was getting so excited about going to go do this. Why am I getting excited, exactly? He thought. I'm going to go investigate a serious crime and I'm at the edge of giggling like a little foal? He shrugged it off as just being passionate about what he does. Sunny opened up the doors to "Hay 'N Stuff" and walked up to the counter. Everything was surprisingly empty now. It must've been some sort of lunch rush when it was packed or something. "Hey, Pickles. Give me something random, don't really care what it is as long as it's good."
"I'll give you we got left, Sunny. Everypony almost ate me completely out of supplies, ha ha!" Pickles went into the door behind the counter while Sunny took a seat at his usual table. It wasn't too long before a hay sandwich was brought out and put in front of him. Pickles sat down across from Sunny as he always does and spoke up. "Are you ready to go to that club tonight?" Pickles had a worried tone in his voice.
"Yeah, as ready as I'll ever be. Although I'm not sure what to expect, I've never gone to a club before." Pickles looked at him questioningly, but Sunny responded before he could say anything. "I've never had a reason to before. I never had much friends nor did I want to make some." Pickles gave an awkward sounding laugh.
"Oh, okay. Well, once you're done with that, you should head out before they close things up. I'd go with you, but I gotta clean this place and buy and make some food for tomorrow. Good luck, Sunny." Pickles got up and walked back into the back room. "Whew," he said. He hoped the plan would fall into place like he wanted, or this was going to get really difficult really fast. Sunny finished his sandwich fairly quickly and announced his leaving before exiting out of the mostly empty restaurant. It's time to go partying.
Sunny passed by the scary looking bouncer after showing the badge to him. As long as he had that badge, he could snoop around wherever he wanted to see if anything suspicious was going on. As soon as he entered the main room of the club, there was a bass drop that Sunny could feel in his chest. It was an interesting experience to say the least, he didn't think it ever got that loud in a club. He wished he could start dancing along with the nice assortment of beats, but he had a job to do. Sunny flashed his badge at another burly bouncer and went to check around in the equipment room for clues.
A large guardpony approached the DJ, who was taking a break from the crowd while his track played. "Uh... Mr. Love, sir. I have something to tell you." The DJ sighed.
"Please, I'm working right now. Call me WH1T3." Love flipped his black mane and put on a stylish pair of blue sunglasses. "What is it?" Love was a white Pegasus with a black mane and flowing tail. To most standards, he was a rather handsome stallion. Which was good, seeing as how his talent was making mares fall in love with him. Using music to make that happened was he strong point. The large pony cleared his throat and did his best to whisper to Love over the blaring music.
"There seems to be an investigator snooping around and I thought you might want to know." Love took off his sunglasses as his eyes widened.
"WHAT?!? You don't think somepony snitched do you? You know what, don't answer that. I just want you to tighten the guards up a bit. I wanna know everywhere this pony goes and what he does there, got it? Just let me know what happens after this is all over." The guard nodded and went off. "Now if you excuse me, I've got some mares to score." Love laughed as he went back up to the scratch table and changed records. All his female fans were jumping up in excitement as he flipped his mane.
There seemed to be nothing in the equipment room, just some spare speakers and some records. Sunny looked around and noticed that there were a whole lot more security placed around the room. Maybe a fight broke out while he was in there? Sunny shrugged it off and looked around some more. Everything was looking normal except for one thing, there was a single door where four guards were placed. Something told him he was not going to be able to get in there. But after he looked a bit more he noticed the bathroom was right next to there. He started to walk up there hoping that the walls would be thin enough to be able to hear something if anything. The security ponies just stared blankly as Sunny passed them and went into the bathroom, which was surprisingly empty. Sunny closed the door behind him and immediately ran up to the far wall to see if he could hear anything. What he got was even better, there was a small peephole in the wall and voices could be faintly heard coming from it. What luck! Sunny pressed his ear to the wall and looked into the hole as best as he could from that angle.
"Everything is coming along fine. DJ Love Icon's popularity is growing to a point where we could use his followers as an advantage."
"I'm glad he leaves the thinking to us, he realizes that he's just a pretty face."
"Yes, that's all good. But he's still in charge."
"Not for long. Word is, is that he's going a little soft. Got a little thing for a mare in this town, he does."
"Ah, that'll be perfect to hold over him."
"Looks like taking over Ponyville will be pretty easy. I wish we could've started sooner."
Sunny backed away from the wall, that was all he needed to hear. They're going to take over Ponyville! Sunny was just going to have to confront this Love guy and see if he can reach a peaceful solution first. If that fails maybe now would be a good time to remember how to use that sun power like he did on Dirk. Sunny hoped for a peaceful conclusion. He used his badge to be able to get backstage. Sunny assumed that Love was WH1T3 seeing as how they referred to him as the DJ in that room. Sunny walked into the backstage and saw Love at the scratch table laying a new track for everyone to listen to. When the song started playing, Love turned around to see Sunny standing there with a serious look on his face, holding his badge. Love gulped and walked slowly over to Sunny. "Are you Love Icon?" Sunny asked.
"Well, everyone here refers to me as WH1T3 but yeah, I'm Love."
"So what exactly are you doing?" Love laughed.
"Well I'm DJing of course! I'm pretty popular these days. Especially with the mares." Love gave a cheeky grin.
"Well, I was told some illegal activity may have been happening here, and, or, has already happened." Love swallowed hard and lifted up his sunglasses.
"Listen, what happened between me and her was an accident! I thought we weren't going to say anything about it!" Sunny looked confused.
"What exactly are you saying? You're not trying to take over Ponyville?" Love started to nervously laugh.
"Of course not! Well, yeah, maybe. But only popularity wise. I wanna be the premiere DJ like Vinyl Scratch is. So are you saying that you're not here about that... thing... that happened?" Sunny was starting to feel really embarrassed, but he wasn't totally convinced of what Love was saying being true. "Listen," he said. "Let me put in a fairly long dubstep song, and we talk about this over a little drink in the back.
Love poured Sunny a glass of punch because he didn't want any alcohol and began to explain the situation. Turns out that he's pretty serious about when he says taking over Ponyville he meant popularity wise, and that he was no way doing anything illegal. The "kidnappings" were him taking mares he likes home for some... fun. Which was of their own free will, of course. The ponies talking in the back room were his manager type ponies and they help him get new gigs and expand. Everything about this was pretty normal and explained everything pretty well.
Maybe Pickles was just being weird. Sunny thought as he left the club. He could've swore though that something strange was going on there, though.
"Well then, that worked pretty well."
"They have no idea what's coming."
"This is going to go just perfectly, and it's all thanks to Love."
Chapter 7: Just a Pretty Face
It was the middle of the night when Sunny awoke to something; a shrill crash sounding in the main office. He groggily stood up and looked around for a moment, deciding whether or not the sound was just in his head. After a few moments the sound of a door busting down told Sunny the answer to that question. What's going on? Am I getting robbed? he thought to himself. He had to go see what was going on so he sneaked slowly downstairs to the living room. Before he reached the bottom of the stairs he saw the shadowy figures of three ponies as it was too dark to make them out more than that. Two of them seemed quite large while the one who seemed to be leading them around was a little smaller. Despite everything Sunny's common sense was telling him, he had to get closer to see who these three were. Going as slowly as he could and trying not to get close the the three who seemed to be rummaging through his house, he started to hear them talk as he started to be able to make them out. Two of them seemed to be bouncers from the club where WH1T3 was playing. The other one seemed to be some kind of white-maned unicorn in a fancy suit. The voice he was able to make out first seemed to be one of the bouncers,
"What exactly are we doing here?" The first bouncer stood in front of the unicorn in the suit with a scowl on his face. The suited pony was quick to respond and shove the larger one aside with his magic at the same time.
"I thought I explained this to you earlier. Somepony here...knows a bit too much. He needs to be dealt with and they sent us to do it." He turned around to look at the stairs where Sunny came from and pointed with his hoof. "There, go up there. He's probably upstairs... Did I stutter or something, GO!" Sunny gulped.
Well then. Seems like I actually WAS onto something after all, but now it seems like it's going to get me killed. WONDERFUL. Sunny inched his way towards the nearest window trying not to be found in the darkness. The chances of him being found were quite high seeing as how he was pretty brightly colored, but the two big guys didn't seem to notice him surprisingly.
Sunny was at the window, but now how does he open it without attracting attention? The suited pony was still down here even if the two big ones were upstairs. Sunny barely touched his hoof on the window and it made a rather loud "tink" sound. The suited pony looked over at Sunny and started yelling, "YOU TWO IDIOTS! He's down here! Hurry, get him!" Well, it looks like sneaking time is over. Sunny had no time to open the window and just launched himself through it. The window shattered under his force and some of the shards stuck into his coat and other pierced his skin. Granted the probably wasn't the smartest thing to do, it was the only thing he could think of at the moment. Sunny immediately picked himself up a began running away from his house, trying to make his way to the town hall or at least somewhere really public. They wouldn't dare touch him if other ponies were around was his reason for doing so. Sunny was too slow though, before he could get too far out he felt magic grip his hooves and lift him upside-down into the air. "Ha ha. Did you really think you could outrun me? I'm a UNICORN, I could've just done this right when I saw you. I just wanted to watch you squirm first." The suited pony laughed maniacally before dropping Sunny on his head and picking him up again. "It seems you've come across some important information, and I'm going to make sure you don't tell anyone else. I'm going to shut you up, PERMANENTLY!" Sunny was dropped on his head for a second time and everything started to get blurry. If he wasn't knocked out from constant head trauma, he'll certainly go out with all the blood rushing to his head due to being upside-down and all.
"What's going on here, Ax?" This new voice startled the startled the strange pony and he dropped Sunny and released the magic. The third shock still wasn't enough to knock Sunny out, but it was enough to prevent him from being able to stand back up on his hooves. He looked to where this new voice came from and surprisingly, it was Love Icon standing there, looking upon the scene. "What are you doing with Sunny, Ax?" Sunny realized that Ax must be referring to the pony in the suit and he looked over at him. Ax started to stammer for a moment thinking of a way to explain this before regaining his composure and clearing his throat.
"I'm sorry it's had to come to this, Love." Ax said. "But I'm afraid you're going to have to come with me." Love took a few steps back and responded,
"I'm not going anywhere with you! Tell me what's going on!" Ax simply shook his head and levitated Love into the air. The last thing Sunny saw was Love being hurled toward him. As everything went black, he thought,
I am REALLY tired of getting knocked out...
Love slowly opened his eyes and gaze on what lay ahead of him. There were two ponies in suits which he recognized as Ax and Bass. Between them was curtain, obviously hiding something from him. Love tried to get up only to realize that he's tied to the ground with his legs bound together as well. There was no getting out of this by himself. He spoke up, "Ax? Bass? What's going on? Where's Sunny? More importantly, where am I?" The two didn't respond at all. "I'm telling you to tell me right now! I can promise you I won't continue to work for you if you're going to start doing things like this!" Bass stepped forward, his dark shades seemed be covering his entire face.
"We were afraid you'd say something like that. But never worry, we've come prepared for that. And as for Sunny? We took care of him, he's gone now." Ax cleared his throat.
"Alright. You WILL keep working for us. We need you to keep doing your thing so we can use your popularity to take over Ponyville." Love laughed.
"Like hell I will! What makes you think I'd help you do something like that of my own free will? I'm a good guy!" This made Ax and Bass both laugh a strangely creepy laugh. Then they spoke in unison,
"Oh, we didn't think you would of your own free will. That's why we brought THIS!" Ax used his magic to levitate the curtain aside to reveal a purple-eyed unicorn tied up in the same fashion as Love, but gagged as well. She was unconscious, but alive thankfully. After a bit of looking, Love couldn't believe it. It was the one mare he truly loved. None other than Vinyl Scratch, tied up in front of him. Love couldn't form a sentence, he was too struck by what lay before him. "Now, you keep doing what you've been doing, and she won't get hurt. Got it?" Love slowly nodded. There has to be a way out of this.
Sunny opened his eyes, slowly getting up. There was blood trickling from his mouth and his right eye nearly gouged out, but there was no way he was going to die just yet, not without a fight.
Chapter 8: Desperate Times
Sunny was struggling to stay conscious, they really had given him quite a beating. Just remembering it caused his wounds to start searing again.
Sunny was bound to a chair, unable to do anything other then look around the room. Some kind of drug was keeping him in a state of paralysis probably. Ax and Bass stood before him. They were saying something, but Sunny couldn't figure out what it was. After a few more minutes of Ax and Bass droning on about something, they soon realized that Sunny couldn't understand a thing and just decided to get on with it. Bass walked over to the seat Sunny was in and pounded his front hooves into the defenseless pony's face. He repeated this about three more times before Sunny started spitting up blood. He was trying to comprehend why the two were doing this, but he was presumably drugged too much to remember anything at all. So he just sat there, dumbfounded as to why the torture proceeded.
This time it was Ax's turn to do something. He used his magic to levitate a small knife into the air, letting it sit there for a moment. Ax began to slowly wave the knife in front of Sunny's face before having it forcefully thrust into his stomach. He started to twist the knife around as Sunny squirmed and screamed in agony. Ax pulled the knife out and started to slash the knife all over Sunny, leaving his entire body covered in bloody cuts. Bass the picked up a small fire-poker of sorts and put the end into a fire that Sunny didn't notice was going. After letting it sit in the fire for a while, Ax lifted it from Bass' hooves and aimed the poker at Sunny. Ax let the burning hot end of the poker scrape all over Sunny, burning off fur and flesh. Before thrusting it at his eye.
Right before the poker hit his eye was when he blacked out. Now that Sunny was awake again, he realized what was going on. They planned to kill him for overhearing their little conversation about taking over Ponyville, but something let him live. He wasn't sure if it was either the pair's stupidity, or just pure dumb luck he survived, but that didn't matter now. Sunny just accepted the fact that he was still breathing and that he needed to go get help. Using basic knowledge, Sunny grabbed some red pieces of cloth scattered around the torture room and fashioned them together tightly as a vest and cape to hopefully stop the bleeding in some areas. Sunny limped towards the door and pressed his ear against it, listening for anyone who might be nearby. Nothing could be heard from this side so Sunny slowly opened the door and checked around. The door he had just opened led to the outside world. It seemed the door served as some sort of back entrance into the building, so it was pretty convenient for Sunny. Okay, I need to go find Pickles, he can help. I just need to get there before I bleed out... Sunny's vision was already starting to blur. Things were getting bad and fast.
Sunny was going as fast as he could in his state to find Pickles' restaurant and get him to use his flame magic to be able to subdue the two who put him in this condition. Even though it wasn't very far until he got to his destination, every step he took pained him so he had to take a very slow yet hurried pace at the same time. Sunny was eventually able to see the building from his current standpoint and was able to use some new found adrenaline to push himself to go a little faster towards it. Once in front he banged his good (If you could call it that.) hoof against the door several times in a frantic manner. Pickles made his way towards the door, and wondered who could possibly be trying to get in at this hour. He pushed the door open and instinctively mentioned that the restaurant was closed. Then he looked at Sunny and flipped a nerve. "Oh Celestia! What in the hell happened to you?!?" He quickly put his hoof around Sunny and brought him inside and place him on a chair. Sunny slowly attempted to speak, his speech slurred from loss of blood.
"W-well, it's ah loong stohry... Bhut the p-point is...is that yoou need to...go...to the club. Ax...Bass. They're...Gonna-" Sunny passed out onto the floor, his head making a loud sound as it came in contact with the ground.
"Oh no." Pickles murmured to himself. Images of all his friends being killed by the White Noise leaders in such a brutal manner started going through his mind. There was no way in hell that he was going to let another pony be taken from him by those monsters. Everything they did was extremely underhanded and brutal, even for criminals. They have no regard for a pony's life at all and will take it if they think the sound of the spewing blood will be amusing. "Don't worry, Sunny. I won't let this go without punishment." He said thinking that somehow Sunny might be able to hear him. So with that, Pickles fled the house and began to run to the Library. He needed to inform Twilight of the state Sunny was in and have her get him to a hospital while he went to the club to get a hold of Ax and Bass.
Pickles busted down the door to the Library and began yelling for Twilight. Eventually she came groggily down into the room Pickles was in. She yawned, "What is it Pickles, did something bad happen?" she asked.
"Yes something bad happened, REALLY BAD. Somepony hurt Sunny Day really bad. I need to go find those ponies who did it, but I need you to go bring Sunny to a doctor. He's down at Hay 'N Stuff unconscious on the floor. Please hurry!" Before Twilight could say anything, Pickles ran out. Spike came into the room shortly after,
"What's going on? I heard a lot of yelling?" he asked while stretching.
"I need to go do something, Spike. Can you watch the library for me while I'm gone?" She looked at spike with an extremely serious look on her face.
"Yeah, of course. When will you be back?" Spike stretched his small reptilian arms again.
"I don't know, just make sure nothing happens to the library." and with That she left and galloped towards Pickles' restaurant. Pickles didn't really explain a whole lot about what was going on, but he sounded dead serious about Sunny's condition. So she figured that she really needed to hurry over there.
After she got there, she realized she was right about hurrying. Sunny was lying there in a small pool of blood and it seemed like there wasn't a single uninjured part on his entire body. Twilight quickly bent down and checked for a pulse and to see if he was breathing. The pulse was faint, and the breathing was short, but he was still alive for now. She mustered together as much strength as she could to teleport her and Sunny as quickly as she could to the hospital. She was able to get there in a couple of minutes after constant teleporting and she was really exhausted from using that spell so many times in a row. The nurse at the desk saw Sunny and gasped. She called for a few of the hospital staff and they came in with a stretcher to pick up Sunny in, they immediately brought him to emergency room. Twilight just stood there in the waiting room catching her breath when one of the doctors showed up and caught her attention. He cleared his throat and began talking to Twilight, "Excuse me miss, but what exactly happened to that pony?" She just stared at him for a short while before answering.
"I don't know. I found him like this and brought him here as quick as I could." The doctor accepted this statement for now and quickly followed the other hospital staff into the E.R.
"Now," Ax began explaining to Love in a demanding tone of voice, "this is what's going to happen. In a few days from now, you're going to be in a double DJ charity event. You'll be working with none other than Miss Vinyl Scratch herself. Of course this will bring in almost the entire populace of Ponyville. Once your halfway through your set, we'll come in and hold up everyone inside. With everyone inside as hostage, we'll demand to take over Ponyville and it'll be simple as that. If the Mayor doesn't comply we'll just start massacring everypony inside, one by one." Ax laughed his usual, demented laugh. "Once that's all said and done I'll let you leave and take Vinyl with you, sound fair?" All Love could do was nod. There really was nothing he could do at this point to stop any of this from happening. "Good! Now, I'll just get started on making the fliers."
When Ax left the room, Bass stopped him and asked him something, "Are you really going to just let him live like that?" Ax chuckled.
"Of course not, we'll just kill him like the rest, given the chance." Both started chuckling this time and started again on their way to what they planned to do.
Pickles stood in front of the club finally and found the door locked. He had to bust in and find Ax and Bass. It really didn't matter at this point if he was breaking and entering, because something told him that he was running out of time, and fast.
