- "Before we go, I just . . . I just want you guys to know that I love you. And I don't regret anything that's happened. I'm not mad about the fake prophecy or the Talons stealing us, because without all of that, I wouldn't have grown up with you, and you're more important to me than anything. You're my brothers and sisters. You're my real family. So it was worth it, no matter what."
- — Sunny to the other dragonets of destiny in The Brightest Night.
Template:Infobox CharacterTemplate:SpoilerToP Sunny is a female SandWing-NightWing hybrid, with tawny golden scales, and bright gray-green eyes[1], described to be the color of moss. She appears to look more like a SandWing, with a mostly NightWing build, and unlike most SandWings, she does not have a deadly venomous tail barb. Sunny is a dragonet of destiny, and the main protagonist of The Brightest Night. Viper was her intended replacement for the false prophecy. During The Brightest Night, Sunny found the Eye of Onyx and gave it to Thorn, leader of the Outclaws, making her mother the new SandWing queen and making herself the SandWing princess. She is also a teacher at Jade Mountain Academy and is one of the school founders. Sunny's father is Stonemover, who is an animus.
Appearance
Sunny lacks a poisonous barbed tail, a powerful and important physical feature of the SandWings and one of their criticl natural weapons. She also has gray-green eyes and tawny-golden scales, unlike other SandWings who usually have pale, sandy-colored scales, and obsidian-black eyes. This is because her father was a NightWing (and an animus), making Sunny a half-SandWing, half-NightWing hybrid. Even so, she still radiates heat from her scales and has the instincts of her tribe, such as a dislike of water, as shown in The Lost Heir and The Hidden Kingdom, a small appetite, and a liking for very bright sunlight and warmth, and sand, like a normal SandWing. Unlike most SandWings, Sunny has the scale pattern, leg and foot shape, snout, and jaw of a NightWing, along with spikes near her tail, and a frill along her neck and back. She even has the classic NightWing teardrop scales running down her sides.
Biography
Pre-Series
A SandWing named Dune, a former Outclaw, stole Sunny's egg from Thorn after Thorn had buried Sunny's egg in the sand near the Scorpion Den. Thorn took this as a sign of betrayal and had been searching for him, hoping to punish him. However, it appears that the two SandWings were once close friends, as Thorn mentions discussing names for her egg with him. It seems that she liked the name "Sunny," since that is what Dune named her. This could mean that Dune still respected, cared about, or was even loyal to Thorn.
The Dragonet Prophecy
Sunny was brought as an egg to the cave by Dune, a guardian and a member of the Talons of Peace. Dune claimed he found her egg alone and hidden in the sand, hence the line from the prophecy "And hidden alone from the rival queens, the SandWing egg awaits unseen". She is said to be the last hatched, and upon hatching, she was revealed to have neither a venomous barb on her tail nor pale scales as a normal SandWing should have, leading to the assumption she was taken from the sand earlier than the right time, but this was proven to be false.
While under the mountain, Sunny is first seen when the dragonets were acting out the death of Queen Oasis, her taking the role of Queen Oasis. Clay and Tsunami decide not to tell her about their thoughts of escape, saying she was "absolutely terrible at keeping secrets."[2] During her captivity by the guardians, Kestrel, Webs, and Dune, she was the only one that never complained about her life. She was also subject to exclusion from secrets because, by accident, she tipped off Dune that the dragonets were planning on building a tall rock tower to climb on so they could look through the sky hole when they were younger.
Later on, Morrowseer, the deliverer of the prophecy, came to the cave to evaluate them. Upon attacking Tsunami, the little SandWing bit on to the end of Morrowseer's tail to defend Tsunami. When Glory was deemed an unsuitable substitute for the SkyWing egg, she was the most unsure of the situation. Eventually, Clay left to save them, and Sunny aided in freeing Tsunami, who had been chained up so she could not interfere with the plot to kill Glory, as the guardians knew she would fight for Glory's life. However, due to Clay and Tsunami's actions, they were all captured by Queen Scarlet.
During their spell in the Sky Kingdom, Sunny was kept separate in a cage that was hung over the feasting hall. When Peril told Clay where Sunny was, Peril claimed she was just fine and was eating like a queen. She was also making friends with all the SkyWing guards, which Peril found disgusting and unnatural. This really shows just how nice and optimistic Sunny can be.
Sunny was intended as a gift to Burn, because of her oddities. (Burn likes to stuff mutated dragons or animals and put them on display) She was subject to Clay befriending Peril, due to her isolation, and was not present during any of the fights, only to reappear after Peril burned through the bars of her cage. She was thrown off by Tsunami and Glory's trick to get Clay to apologize for what he'd said, wondering why they would do "such a nasty, ugly thing." Sunny traveled with them towards the Mud Kingdom in the search for Clay's parents, and also left with the group to find Tsunami's mother, Queen Coral.
The Lost Heir
Sunny was with the other dragonets while searching for Queen Coral. She was the first to hear the wingbeats of a passing SkyWing patrol and followed Starflight into the trees. When Tsunami attacked a SkyWing soldier, fearing he'd seen Sunny just before she reached her hiding place, Sunny was upset and horrified at what the SeaWing dragonet had done, and following this was jumpy and nervous around her. They spent the night in a cave, and the next morning when they were headed to the Summer Palace, Sunny and Clay were the only ones blindfolded. Clay didn't mind, but she hated it as it was slimy and wet, though she didn't complain either. Sunny rode on Starflight's back in the tunnel.
At the palace, she stayed with the other dragonets, excluding Tsunami. When Tsunami was suddenly attacked by Whirlpool in the entrance to the Summer Palace, Queen Coral insisted on checking on Auklet and the other unhatched dragonet's egg, but finding that the unhatched dragonet's egg was already broken. Tsunami was brave enough to attempt to take care of Auklet's egg and while then she went back to the Summer Palace to see her friends. Tsunami was deeply unimpressed by the way Clay was chained to a ball and all the other dragonets were sitting on him so they were out of the water. Sunny was seated at the very top.
After the cave flooded and Tsunami arrived with Auklet's egg, she asked Sunny to keep it warm, which she did though she was clearly a little nervous after Starflight pointed out the assassin might come after her. Sunny showed that by this time she was no longer upset with Tsunami by nodding vigorously when Clay said she should stay with them in the cave, expressing delight when Tsunami asked her to keep the egg warm, and later leaning against her the way she used to.
When they first met Blister, Sunny was frowning at her. After Tsunami revealed that Kestrel was dead, Sunny was distraught and extremely upset, but happy that at least Webs was still alive. She was also unhappy about Whirlpool's accidental death at Anemone's talons.
The Hidden Kingdom
Sunny traveled with the other dragonets and Webs through the swamps of the Mud Kingdom. She was the first to disappear when the RainWings shot the dragonets with sleep darts, and was found soon after by Glory and Starflight, trapped and asleep in a net with Clay, Tsunami, and Webs. Later on, she was shown to be very fond of Silver, Glory's pet sloth, though Silver was more fond of Glory than her.
When the dragonets went to the Kingdom of Sand via the NightWing animus tunnel, Sunny seemed to be right at home. After Blaze came to meet the dragonets, she remarked that she thought Sunny would be 'prettier'; Sunny asked her how to heal a SandWing's venom, and Blaze carelessly told her about the healing cactus juice, from the Bright Sting cactus, which was supposed to be a Sandwing secret. Once the dragonets got back to the tunnel, Sunny went to retrieve a cactus arm for Webs, but had trouble breaking one off due to her size; Glory remarked that it looked like she was "trying to tango with a cactus". Sunny did not participate in Glory's rescue from the NightWings, but watched the queen competition with Tsunami. Sunny was much more encouraging than Tsunami.
The Dark Secret
Sunny was a very major character due to Starflight thinking about her throughout the book, and he finally told her he loved her, which surprised her. She said she loved Starflight back, but only like a brother. She told Starflight to kick some NightWings for her and free the captive RainWings. Starflight also became close friends with Fatespeaker, and later Fatespeaker fell for Starflight, and vice-versa.
Sunny soon met Starflight when they escaped from the Night Kingdom and Sunny also met Fatespeaker. Fatespeaker and Sunny were really friendly with each other, making Starflight twitch with guilt.
When the volcano was about to erupt, Morrowseer was the last one to show up at the portal to the Rainforest Kingdom, and told the dragonets that the prophecy was a fraud. Sunny at first forced herself not to believe him, because she believed that it truly was her and her friends' destiny to stop the war. When she realized he was telling the truth, she furiously ran back through the portal, crying the whole way. Starflight thought he had never seen her so upset. Morrowseer tried to follow her, but Starflight, Fatespeaker, Tsunami, Clay, and Glory got in his way.
At the very end of the book, Starflight thought he felt her scales pressing against his before he was hit by a sleeping dart, though he was blinded and could not see her. This may have been Fatespeaker though, because Starflight thought that it sounded like the NightWing dragonet.
The Brightest Night
Sunny ran out of the portal from Morrowseer, upset the prophecy wasn't real and that her life was a lie. When she emerged, she watched as Clay and Starflight had arrived, and saw that Starflight had been badly burned. When the NightWings panicked, Sunny jumped forward, trying to get through, when Preyhunter, Fierceteeth, and Strongwings grabbed her and pulled her back into the foliage of the rainforest.
They planned on using Sunny for trade so they can steal the rainforest from Queen Glory. Sunny tried to stop their plans by making herself look useless, however, this plan didn't work, due to their possession of the Obsidian Mirror. While the NightWings discussed which SandWing princess to auction Sunny off to, Sunny bit Fierceteeth on the vulnerable spot on her tail, and took off through the rainforest. Thinking she can solve the problem all by herself, Sunny followed the NightWings. When they took a rest stop, Sunny was able to steal their Obsidian Mirror and also managing to creep them out by writing with dark red mud that was thick and a blood-like color: 'TURN BACK. YOU FLY TOWARDS YOUR DEATH'. She then continued to follow the NightWings to the Scorpion Den.
The NightWings take many more stops during their journey, due to their lack of good health and stamina. When they finally get to the Scorpion Den, she meets Six-Claws and Thorn, and discovers that Thorn is her mother. However, after a short reunion, Thorn is forced to answer a call for help, and Sunny is left with Qibli and Six-Claws. When she awakes later that night, she and Six-Claws head outside of her mother's tent, only to be stopped by Addax, who threatens to kill his hostage, Ostrich, Six-Claws' daughter, if Sunny doesn't come with him to Burn. After finding out that Addax is doing this to get his imprisoned family back, Sunny agrees to go with him in exchange for Ostrich.
While imprisoned in Burn's stronghold, she meets Smolder, Burn's brother and ally, who takes her to the weirdling tower for her imprisonment. In there she meets Smolder's pet scavenger, Flower, as well as ex-Queen Scarlet. The Outclaws later rescue Sunny, and Peril helps Thorn, then releases Scarlet. Thorn demands to see a stuffed NightWing, and tells Sunny she is half NightWing. Sunny then leaves her mother to go back to the rainforest.
Along the way, a storm forces her to take refuge in the caves on Jade Mountain, where she meets her father, Stonemover, and ends up telling him that she is his daughter. The next morning, Sunny returns to the rainforest and is reunited with her friends. She comes up with a plan to end the war and everyone agrees to it.
After Tsunami and Sunny send a message to Blister through the Talons of Peace, she and Clay then send a message through the MudWings in their dreams to Burn. They also get word to Blaze via the dreamvisitor Sunny receives from Holler and Fluffy, the scavengers.
When the three SandWing princesses gather at Burn's stronghold, Blister's 'gift' to Burn, two dragonbite vipers, one of which kills Burn and attacks Clay. Peril burns out the venom, saving Clay's life, though leaving him scarred.
While Blister and Blaze are fighting, Sunny finds the Eye of Onyx, with Flower's help, located inside of Queen Oasis' skull, and passes it to Thorn. Enraged, Blister snatches the Eye of Onyx from Thorn, but it shocks her to death on contact, where she bursts into a pile of black dust. Sunny pronounces Thorn queen, and the main plot comes to an end.
A month later, it is stated that Starflight has learned to fly blind with the help of Tamarin, and that he and Sunny had discussed their relationship back in the rainforest. Sunny had told him that she didn't love him like Fatespeaker did, which he reluctantly accepted. They, along with the rest of the dragonets, she discusses plans for an inter-tribal school on Jade Mountain.
Moon Rising
In Moon Rising, she seemed to be the same Sunny we knew in the first arc, as well as feeling really terrible after the fire that killed Bigtail and Carnelian at Jade Mountain Academy. She was also the first of the older dragonets to find out about Moon's powers. She is shown to have some doubts about being a teacher wondering if "anyone would take me seriously as the boss of anything".
Escaping Peril
Sunny was part of the group that welcomed Queen Ruby when she arrived to collect Carnelian's body. She defended Peril against accusations that she had, in fact, killed the young SkyWing, not the fire. After Scarlet hurled "Glory's" decapitated head at the group, Clay had to carry Sunny down from their previous perch to a rock shelf. There, Sunny sobbed so hard she didn't notice Peril landing in front of her. When they discovered the head was fake, Sunny was overjoyed. Later that night, she is mentioned to be dreamvisiting Glory so Kinkajou could be taken back to the Rainforest Kingdom from the town of Possibility.
Talons of Power
Sunny is heard having a conversation with Tsunami, which is overheard by Turtle. They were talking about how Queen Thorn lost some prisoners (most likely Fierceteeth and Strongwings). As Turtle listens to them, he doesn't notice them walking closer to him until the last second. When they see Turtle, they are surprised to see him back at Jade Mountain, stating that they were worried about Jade Winglet. Then Turtle warns Sunny and Tsunami that Darkstalker is coming. Sunny says something briefly about Darkstalker, talking about how Fierceteeth and Strongwings said something about Darkstalker when she was following them, trying to stop them from hurting her friends. Then she goes after Mightyclaws, so he doesn't tell the school about Darkstalker.
Later, she comes out to the landing area with Clay to protect the NightWings that attacked Darkstalker. Darkstalker then points at her and says rainbows. Darkstalker also says that Sunny is related to him. After some talk, Sunny goes back inside. The next day, she heads up the tunnel with a squirrel for Darkstalker. Moon tells her someone is trying to kill Stonemover and she flies to this cave with the others. She is sad at Stonemover´s near death and starts sobbing. Then, she jumps on him to pin his talon when Darkstalker frees him from the stone. After Stonemover is re-fossilized, Sunny hugs him, not caring about the blood. She is astonished when they find out Flame was the attempted killer. She asks him why he did it, and why his reason would matter. She also says they have to tell Queen Ruby what he did and that they didn´t have anywhere to lock him up for the time being. When all of the drama is over, she slips away into the tunnels.
Personality
Sunny, as her name implies, has a very bright, optimistic personality, and always sees the positive side of everyone and everything, although that sometimes makes her seem unintelligent. This has caused her to question herself, as she often sympathizes with her captors despite knowing their intentions for her.
She was content with her lot in life and was the only dragonet that was convinced their guardians were doing the right thing, and had no desire to escape. Sunny had no fear to defend her friends, as she attacked Morrowseer when he tried to measure up Tsunami's worth, and pounced on Riptide when he tried to kill Clay. Even though she is small, she can attack with sheer ferocity and determination.
She also has a tendency to talk a lot, and even though she means well, the other dragonets know better than to tell her secrets until the time is right. For example, once she accidentally tipped off Dune about a secret plan to peer out of the skyhole.
She is a strong believer in fate and signs. To her, everything happens for a reason, such as how she kept believing in the prophecy even after Morrowseer told the dragonets it was fake. Sunny also values peace. In The Hidden Kingdom, Sunny had mentioned that she liked the "RainWing way" of challenges, a friendly contest.
She is also shown to be annoyed and frustrated by how everyone thinks she's just a sweet little dragonet and not much else, and is willing to put her life in danger to prove otherwise. She debated getting mad at Tsunami having said "You basically are a cute furry thing." In The Brightest Night, her vexation towards this even causes her to choose to follow Fierceteeth, Strongwings, and Preyhunter, the three NightWings whose clutches she had just escaped, as opposed to joining her friends back in the rainforest.
She has a love of cute things such as sloths and scavengers.
Relationships
Starflight
Sunny is one of the only dragonets who doesn't mind Starflight's lectures, whereas the others are usually annoyed by them. In The Dark Secret, Starflight confessed his love for Sunny, but Sunny only loves him as a brother. The two still remain close friends.
Fatespeaker
Towards the end of The Dark Secret, when Starflight and Fatespeaker brought Flame to the rainforest, Sunny approached the NightWing and told her she liked the bracelet-like pattern of silver scales on her foreleg. Fatespeaker responded by saying she liked the way Sunny looked, and that all the SandWings she'd met before were 'sort of pale and dusty-looking'. They became good friends the first time they met. As quoted from Glory;"As strangely adorable as you two are, I need you to either go away and discover your twin souls somewhere else, or focus on battle planning with me." Sunny encouraged Starflight to be with her. Occasionally, Sunny felt a bit of jealousy to how Fatespeaker acted around Starflight, but it wasn't major.
Clay
Sunny has been shown to care about Clay. She confides in him often. She also seems to rely on him to fix problems she can't solve on her own. Starflight claims that Sunny trusts Clay the most, however, given a choice, most of the dragonets would choose Clay over themselves in difficult situations. Sunny said at the end of The Brightest Night that she didn't think anyone deserved Clay.
Tsunami
Sunny is often annoyed that Tsunami thinks of her as just as a silly, naive younger sister. However, she knows that Tsunami cares about her, and looks up to her as a sister figure.
Glory
Like Tsunami, Glory mostly thinks Sunny as a naive younger sister. However, Glory was very concerned about Sunny when she left the Rainforest Kingdom and seemed very determined to have her back. She also showed affection to Sunny (which Sunny states is very rare) when she got back.
Queen Thorn
Sunny seemed very attached to her mother Thorn when they met. Thorn also thinks a lot of Sunny and doesn't want her to be injured and attempts to save her when she was kept captive by Smolder. They are both very close. Sunny thinks she is the only dragonet of destiny lucky enough to have 2 parents, or know both of them.
Stonemover
Stonemover, Sunny's father, lives under Jade Mountain and is an animus dragon. Sunny possibly might be upset about having him as a father due to her difference from a normal SandWing. She finds his pessimistic attitude annoying and thought he sighed too much.
Quotes
"Right. Here I go, la, la, la, Queen Oasis of the SandWings. I'm so very important and, uh - royal - and stuff." - during a history reenactment game with the other dragonets of destiny
"To be fair, the Talons were just keeping us safe."
"Stop! They'll hurt you!" -To Dune
"EVEN Sunny? What's that supposed to mean? I'm brave! I'm brave all the time!"
"Glory! You have a cute furry thing! Can I hold it, please, please?" -To Glory
"We're dragons, not caterpillars. We can do things differently if we choose to."
"That's a big secret to have kept for so long."-Her responding to Moon confessing her telepathic powers to her
"Frog-faced blobs of camel spit?" - Sunny to Tsunami, offering an insult to call the other dragonets.
"I know, it's alright, though; I don't mind. It's just the way I hatched." -Her confessing to Thorn.
"I think it's brilliant. I think you're brilliant. I think it's the best idea in the world." - To Starflight
"There was more to his story. There's more to everyone's story if you bother to find out what it is." -Her speculating on her kidnapper, Addax
"I'm sorry I wasn't here to take care of you." -To Starflight
"Your parents were feeling very creative." -To Six-Claws about his name
"This is a suicide mission. Suicide or Genocide, those are your two outcomes. Clay, we can't let this happen." -To Clay about the planned attack on the IceWings.
"How could she have killed Glory? Glory's amazing and indestructible and has magical death spit plus Deathbringer and a whole army of RainWings who would die for her!"-What Sunny thinks about Ex-Queen Scarlet's trick
"It's not optimism, it's faith.There's a reason we're here. What we do today is part of it,but there's more, too, and we have to survive to make it all happen."-To Starflight, before they rescue the RainWings
Trivia
- Sunny has a sharpened sense of hearing and smell, from her SandWing and NightWing side, respectively.
- She is the princess of the SandWings, which despite her protest that she was nothing like Blaze, contradictory makes her a little more like Blaze.
- She has developed a fighting technique similar to pressure points, where she stabs her harmless tail into her opponent's back, causing her victim to stiffen. She also rolls up into a spiky ball and bites on the vulnerable part of the tail. This has proven to be very effective.
- Her tongue is not colored black, but a reddish shade, which might be an error or one of her hybrid traits, like her scale color and lack of tail barb.
- Sunny's snout and scale pattern is similar to a NightWings', as seen on the cover of The Brightest Night.
- Sunny was believed to be the only known official hybrid character until it was revealed in Winter Turning that Darkstalker is half IceWing, and his sister, Whiteout.
- She is the only dragonet out of the original five to not have any biological siblings.
- Thorn's pet name for her while she was still in the egg was Beetle, and she is the only known dragon besides Moonwatcher (Moon), Princess Snowfox (Fox) and Magnificent (Maggie) that has a nickname.
- Sunny is named after Sunshine, Tui T. Sutherland's pet dog.
- She is a confirmed distant descendant of Whiteout and Darkstalker
- Sunny is one of two hybrids alive during the current arc's timeline, one of three hybrids alive across all series and one of five hybrids mentiond.
- She was technically Queen of the SandWings for a few minutes as she was holding the Eye of Onyx
- She is distantly related to the IceWing royal family.
- She has Whiteout's eyes, as said by Darkstalker
- She is Qibli's adopted sister.
- She sometimes lets herself cry for the deceased guardians, Kestrel and Dune.
Gallery
(click here to view the gallery)