Now Appearing All This Week - Nightmare and the Apocalypse
Week 8 - Filli Vanilli -or- Now Appearing All This Week — Nightmare and the Apocalypse!
Princess Luna has returned! And she’s putting the band back together.
Banished a thousand years ago for trying to cover the world in eternal darkness, Nightmare Moon has returned to shake the foundations of Equestria. No stodgy old stallion with a hearing aid is safe, no nubile young filly with a bedroom full of Caneighdian colt-band posters will be untouched as the greatest Punk Rock Band of All Times returns to Canterlot for the concert of the millenia. Give it up, fillies and gentlecolts, for the Goddess of the Electric Guitar, the Mare of Metal, our beloved Princess of Power, the one, the only…
PRINCESS LUNA!
[Rock][And][Roll]
EqD prompt: A new singing group has taken over Canterlot! Unfortunately one of their members is causing all sorts of trouble!
Week 8 - Filli Vanilli
-or-
Now Appearing All This Week — Nightmare and the Apocalypse!
Streams of rainbow light cascaded through the Elements of Harmony and their bearers, swirling together in a mighty blast of magic that surrounded Nightmare Moon. Light filled the entire ancient throne room as the blast resonated, shaking dust out of the rafters and vibrating the floor as if a giant guitar string that stretched from Equestria to the Moon had been plucked rather violently.
Then there was nothing.
The silent crumbling throne room remained, with six unconscious fillies just beginning to stir awake in the radiant beam of light that poured in through the broken windows. The banished Princess Celestia appeared in a flash of sunlight, greeted with immeasurable joy by her student, before the two of them turned to regard the unmoving blue figure where Nightmare Moon had been standing.
“Now if only another would allow the magic of friendship into their heart as well. Princess Luna!” The blue figure jolted in reaction, turning to regard her sister with bloodshot eyes. Princess Celestia continued with a soft smile, “It has been a thousand years since I have seen you like this. Time to put our differences behind us. We were meant to rule together, little sister.”
“Sister?” asked Twilight Sparkle.
“Yes, sister,” said the blue figure, rising to her hooves and spreading her wings in a long stretch. “Once we ruled all of Equestria, together. But my sister became soft, her power lessening as the years wore on. She lost what made us both great. Isn’t that right, Celestia?”
Princess Celestia stepped backwards, sweeping Twilight Sparkle behind her with one wing. “B-but, the Elements of Harmony! They cleansed you of your dark powers!”
“I need no dark powers to rule, Celestia,” bellowed Luna as she rose into the air, an aura of malevolence surrounding her and whipping the wind into a fury. “We shall return to Canterlot, and all of Equestria will see just why you banished me to the moon for a thousand years! Beware, Celestia, for Nightmare shall live again!”
The ancient throne room resounded to a deafening crack of lightning, and when the air cleared, Princess Luna was gone, leaving only the smell of scorched stone and a resounding echo to show she had ever been there. Twilight Sparkle rushed to her mentor, the one who had trained her for the last decade and who she trusted more than a mother. Celestia’s face was pale and her vibrant mane fell limply against her back as she gasped for air, her eyes looking out the window at where Canterlot stood proudly against the mountains.
“Princess Celestia, what’s wrong? What’s happening? Is Princess Luna going to destroy Equestria in eternal darkness?”
“It’s worse than that, Twilight,” gasped Celestia. “She’s getting the band back together.”
(MetalLuna by Gonzahermeg, used with permission)
The quiet shop filled with dusty items of questionable lineage resided in a peaceful neighborhood of Canterlot, at least most of the time, and it took an individual with a powerful sense of need to locate it, let alone gather the willpower to go inside. On the mismatched shelves were items that had not seen the light of day in years, mixed in with cheap imitations from Neighpon and the Philipponies. Only a true individual with a sincere need would be able to tell the difference, and when the cloaked pony pointed to the plastic object on the wall, Weigh Pon felt the glow of an exceptional commission fill his withered and almost unused heart.
“Yes, ma’am, that’s Eclipse, the legendary axe of Nightmare Moon, complete with the crack in the side from when she used it to break the stage and destroy the concert hall in Fillydelphia, just a week before she was banished. Would you be interested in me getting it down for a closer look?”
Azure magic wrapped around the shopkeeper’s neck, and Princess Luna smashed him backwards through three shelves before snarling, “No, worm! You will produce my beloved instrument now, not that piece of putrid trash adorning the walls of your very flammable shop!”
“Luna!” he squeaked. “Almost didn’t recognize you there in that cloak. We’ve got it in the vault! If I could just get you to put me down for a minute…”
Moments later, the Princess of the Night caressed the smooth obsidian of a Stratuscaster sixteen-string electric guitar, running her hooves over the nearly immaterial strings which responded to her touch with an acidic hiss. The iridescent surface of the instrument seemed almost translucent as if it had been formed from a piece of the night itself, with the glitter of little golden sparks deep within moving silently in little swirls as the princess turned it over and examined it.
“There is a nick.” One royal hoof pointed at a tiny notch in the stone neck that glinted in the store lighting. “But other than that minor issue, we believe our instrument has been well protected. Will there be a storage charge?”
Weigh Pon hesitated, weighing the probability of a profit against the rage of an angered goddess. “We do have expenses, Your Highness. After your long banishment, do you still have funds?”
Luna slung the instrument and ran her hoof up and down the fretboard, making a low howl of tortured souls fill the shop even without an amplifier. “We are half of the rulership of Equestria, and as such, control half of the funds in the government.”
“Wonderful,” beamed Weigh Pon. “We’ll take a check.”
♫ * ♫ * ♫
The bored earth pony at the desk popped her gum twice before looking up at the cloaked pony who had just entered the law office. “Welcome to Blandishment, Grogar, Paradox and Smooze, attorneys at law. How might I help you?”
“Inform Mister Grogar that his Princess of the Night hath arrived.” Luna threw back the hood of her cloak to let her star-strewn mane flow across the immaculate carpet while she looked down at the receptionist.
“I’m sorry, but Mister Grogar is currently unavailable. I can set you up with an appointment with Mister Paradox if you like.” She flipped through the appointment book and ran a hoof down the page. “How does two o’clock last Wednesday sound?”
Five minutes later…
“I’m so sorry, My Princess,” rumbled Grogar, Daemon Prince of Rams, Scourge of the Dark Secrets, and Junior Partner in the Law Firm, as he deftly poured Luna a cup of bubbling hot coffee, black, one lump of sugar, no arsenic. “Good help is so hard to find these days.” He glanced out the door where the fire department ponies were still putting out the cubicle and added, “Would you like a scone? The Missus makes them with just a pinch of brimstone, for flavoring.”
“I came here not for scones,” growled Luna, gulping down the coffee in one swallow and smashing the cup on the floor. “Nightmare shall return ere this next night, and all must be prepared! Art thou ready to resume thy rightful place?”
“Do you need me to go over the contract for the concert hall, My Princess?” Grogar sipped once from his cup and added a little more venom to cut down on the acidity of the coffee. “Those lawyers think they are so clever, slipping in little damage disclaimers like the one from Fillydelphia.”
“Remind me not of their foul betrayal,” snarled Luna, her eyes burning white-hot with rage. “The roof was scarcely scorched, and ‘twas their own fault for making the flooring out of such frail materials. They should have been scourged for their impertinence, not awarded damages. Yea, I do indeed command thee to examine our contract for such trifles, but what I seek from you is not your legal expertise, but something far more valuable.”
Grogar paused, one hoary hoof holding the coffee pot over his rapidly-dissolving cup. “You don’t mean…”
“Yea, foul beast. Unchain the passion within your heart and once again release the keys of thy infernal instrument, so that Nightmare might have its keyboard player when we go forth to shake the foundations of this city.”
“Yes!” bellowed the Daemon Ram of (untranslatable word meaning keyboard in Infernal), ripping the top off his desk and flinging it out the window. The monstrous contraption that he pulled out from the ruins of the desk was red with the rusty blood of uncounted enemies, staining the ragged blades and spikes that adorned every inch of surface not occupied by the yellowing keys which ran up and down the spine like ribs. His hooves danced over the keys, drawing the moaning of unclean spirits to raise to a screaming howl before dropping into a bass rumble that shook the building. With an embarrassed glance at Luna, he said, “Sorry. I’m a little rusty.”
“Thou hast time. We play the night after next. It’s reserved tonight.”
“What! I wish to unleash hellfire and destruction tonight! Why do we delay with our epic return concert? We should sweep this imposter from the stage and stain the walls with his blood. What is the name of the wretch that defies our destiny?”
“Justin Timberwolf.”
Grogar paused and brushed a few specks of dried blood off his keyboard. “Well. I suppose I could use one more night to practice.
♫ * ♫ * ♫
The Royal Statue Garden was a beautiful place of singing birds and fluttering butterflies flitting from bountiful bush to flowerbed, a little piece of tranquility in the huge Canterlot castle. It had been gifted with the most insightful statues in the country, imported flowers from far beyond the borders of ponydom, and gentle sculpted paths that wended from statue to statue in a manner designed to allow the observer the maximum time to absorb the beauty of the place.
Which is why elementary schools from all over Equestria sent hordes of unwashed fillies and colts with inadequate supervision to run rampant through the place every day, screaming at each other and sticking gum under the benches and statue plinths.
One statue in the garden was not the product of a talented sculptor, and that statue now had an observer who used a word many of the little fillies and colts would have been happy to repeat, to their parents dismay.
“Oh, well. Discord could never hold a beat anyway. Now where am I going to find another drummer on this short notice?”
“You had only to ask.” A tall dark mare slipped out from behind Discord’s statue and smiled at Luna, two pair of drumstick sticking through the holes in her legs. “I’ve always admired your work, Princess. I’ve got all of your albums, including the bootleg of the Messaponia concert where you created two new constellations with the fireworks. I’ll do anything you ask, including putting off my inevitable conquest of all of Equestria, if you’ll just let me be in your band. And, can I get your autograph?”
♫ * ♫ * ♫
It was rumored that Vinyl Scratch was stone cold deaf, and was only able to read lips. Anypony who spent any amount of time around her would probably agree, if they also did not recognize her expert skill at being able to tease the smallest of melodic lines out of a sample and turn it into something magical, even while standing directly in front of a speaker capable of liquefying bones. Today, she was testing out her newest sound system in the bunker-like building in back of her store, with three-foot thick concrete walls and orchidium-engraved enchantments keeping the sound to a mere rumbling for the neighbors, much like a neverending low-grade earthquake.
“We have come to purchase an amplification system.” The wall of solid sound coming out of the speakers had not been disrupted, but more like it had been totally ignored by the powerful voice of the alicorn standing by her shoulder. Vinyl grinned and flipped the enormous magical breaker which powered down the bright blue wall-sized speaker and left only a wisp of smoke floating behind as the powerful arc was cut off.
“Loony, baby! You’re looking good! I told you to take a few days off before you snapped under the pressure, and it seems you took my advice to heart. That coat is just glowing.” The white unicorn pushed her glasses up on her forehead, propping them up on two small reddish horns. “You still have a good eye for the wubs. This baby is able to crank up to a petawatt of pure magical power with a dynamic range from mosquito killing to earthquake.”
“Let me guess, Scratch,” said Luna dryly. “It goes to eleven.”
“Oh, that’s so neighties, Princess.” One white hoof rested on a knob marked in neat black lines from one, all the way up to a red-barred area with an infinity symbol, which she promptly rotated the knob all the way to, and then one notch beyond. “Listen to this, babe.”
* * *
The city of Canterlot is embedded into the granite core of the mountain range with slabs of unbreakable stone underlying every building and tower, which means it has a geological stability comparable to the proverbial immobile object. The wave of concussive energy that swept through the city cracked windows, made fountains spray wildly, and caused several newly-arrived pegasi to turn tail and return to Cloudsdale for a stable place to live. There was a great deal of discussion about the unscheduled earthquake, whether it was a taste of things to come, or a fluke occurrence, but one thing they all agreed on.
It made a sound like, “Wub!”
* * *
Princess Luna emerged from a pile of powdered concrete, topped lightly with a dusting of formerly enchanted metal. It took several tries at blowing her nose and a good shaking of her mane before she could address the grinning pony to her side, who seemed to have lost her glasses somewhere in the deamonstration.
“We like it. Does it come in black?”
♫ * ♫ * ♫
There was a reason Princess Luna had saved this trip for last. The sterile halls reflected her hoofsteps back in long echoes that died out in the distance, as much as anything could ever die in this place of the damned. She passed through another door with only the smallest shudder passing her flanks at the sound of scratching ahead. The noise grew, the quiet rat-like noise of doomed spirits, chained to their tasks until the time of their punishment was over and they would be released to their just reward. She pushed aside one last door, passing into a room with only a single living being inside, although that status was a point of contention.
“May I help you, Princess?” The bull-headed creature seated behind a plain oak desk rose to his hooves and gestured to a hard chair nearby, pausing to look at the rest of the inhabitants of the room, each seated behind an identical desk. Dozens of eyeless skeletal skulls regarded Tirek the Necromancer, Auditor for the Equestrian Department of Revenue, turned to look at Princess Luna, then returned to their work, dry quills scratching down their sheets of figures as they checked numbers and bits against tax returns. One skeleton remained looking for just a moment too long as Tireck’s dry voice snapped out, “Needlepoint, your sentence still has three years to go.” The cold gaze of the necromancer turned to the Princess of the Night as he continued, “Tax evaders. She thought selling some doilies and kerchiefs without filling out form ETI-17b would save her a few bits for retirement. Foolish mortal.”
“We shall not waste your valuable time. Nightmare shall rise again the night after next. Your services are needed.”
The bull leaned against his desk with a creaking of overstressed oak. “Have you filled out the correct governmental forms for the proper dispersion of the revenue generated from ticket sales, as well as albums, t-shirts, and other such items?”
“No.”
Tirek’s eyes narrowed to mere slits. “You expect me to complete all the paperwork and free my saxaphone from Tartarus in a mere thirty-six hours?”
“Yes.”
The desk gave little popping noises as seams began to split under the weight of Tirek’s bulk as he leaned forward even further. “Do I have to work with that capering chaotic idiot on the drums?”
“No. I hired a temp.”
“Good,” he snorted, sitting back in his chair and pulling a stack of papers out from the desk. “As long as it isn’t that fanfilly, Chrysalis.”
♫ * ♫ * ♫
“Fillies and Gentlecolts, welcome to the Canterlot Amphitheatre, home of the greatest concert in your lifetime!” The cloaked mare center stage faced the thousands of screaming ponies in the audience and waited for the noise to die down, only to have the volume double as the house lights illuminated the band behind her. A low drum roll began as Luna rose from the stage, hovering over the crowd as she took a breath and—
“Stop!” Spotlights stabbed down at where the crowd was parting around six young mares, striding through the crowd dressed in white silks and satin. Twilight Sparkle was the first to vault up onto the stage, a golden electric guitar across her back and a wireless microphone sticking out just to one side of her firm jaw, but the rest of the Elements of Harmony followed with their instruments. “Princess Luna, I challenge you to a Battle of the Bands!”
The crowd went wild, screaming, “Battle! Battle!” repeatedly until Luna slowly descended back to the stage and held one hoof up for silence.
“Foolish mortal. You dare challenge your Princess? By what right do you face me?”
Twilight did not say a word, but walked over to the amplifier and plugged in her golden guitar with a deep thrum that shook the stage. Raising the instrument in her magic, she posed her hooves over the strings and began to play with such speed and skill that Luna took a step backwards despite herself. Chords and notes flew, ramping up and down the scales and around so quickly as to be almost one long burst of pure music, bringing the crowd to their feet in a stomping and whistling frenzy that lasted several minutes after she came to a halt, panting for breath and dropping a smoking guitar pick on the stage.
“Not bad,” chuckled Princess Luna once the applause had died down. “For a child. But you face no mere mortal tonight, Student of the Sun. For I am Luna, Mistress of the Moon, and Goddess of the Guitar! Behold, the power of Eclipse!” She brandished the obsidian guitar in her magic, the translucent surface seeming to suck in all the light that touched it and bending more to its direction. Raising one hoof above the strings, she paused as another voice rang out through the colosseum.
“No!” A thunderbolt of light plunged down from the night sky, exploding in a burst of brilliance that blinded the concertgoers until, blinking furiously, they could see the shining form of Princess Celestia with a wing over her student, protecting her from Princess Luna.
“Well, well. If it isn’t my dear sister,” crooned Luna, lowering Eclipse to her side. “Have you come to try and purge me of my darkness yet again.”
“Nay, sister. The Elements of Harmony have proved useless against your inner nature, so I am left with but one option.” Light began to cascade off of the solar alicorn as a thread of pure brightness lanced into the sky from her horn.
Luna was the first to fall back, pulling out a set of sunglasses as she stared at her sister. “Y-you’re really going to do it?”
“No, Princess,” called Twilight, stumbling forward only to be pulled back by her friends. “You love the Neighties! Sunny and Mare! Stevie Neigh Vaughn! Elvis Przewalski!”
The light flared into incandescence, with a tiny speck of pure brilliance forming at the top of the column of light. “Remember me as I was, Twilight,” said Celestia, the light building to a blinding crescendo as the speck far in the sky began to descend, slowly at first, but gaining speed with every second.
“Take me with you!” screamed Twilight. “I’ll change! I’ll even… put a safety pin in my ear, provided it’s sterilized properly.”
The speck of light was descending faster and faster, building to a burst of radiance that exploded across the crowd as the speck landed—
—in Celestia’s hooves.
The blazing light faded but did not vanish, as the form of Celestia had changed dramatically. Silks of the purest white covered her torso, with the glitter of thousands of diamonds reflecting the burning white object she held in a gentle embrace, almost as if she were holding a small foal.
“Zenith,” gasped Twilight. “The Axe of Justice, lost forever when Nightmare Moon attacked.” Threads of absolute light connected tuning knobs to the body, making little rainbows dance through the awestruck crowd with even the smallest motion, while a glitter of pearls and sapphires traced across every knob and plate, even tinting the crystalline whammy bar with hints of pale blue and glitters of light.
Princess Celestia turned to her stunned sister with a smile. “Shall we?”
“Truely,” said Luna, taking a step forward and embracing her bigger sister. “It has been far too long since we ruled over our ponies, and tonight shall only seem like it lasts forever.”
“And tomorrow?” asked Celestia, tucking a bit of Luna’s mane back into its spiked hairbow.
“Tomorrow we plan our world tour, dear sister.” Turning to smile out at the crowd as the Elements of Harmony took their places in the band, Luna added, “Celly, if you would do the honors?”
“Nay, dear sister,” said Celestia, stepping up besides her sister and plugging in her guitar. “We were meant to rule together. Let us introduce this concert as we have done so many years ago. Only with less burning.” Stepping forward as sisters, Celestia and Luna each extended a hoof up into the sky and bellowed
CANTERLOT! ART THOU READY TO ROCK?!
Stats
Page generated in 0.02 seconds
Total duration
956 users online
145,519 hits today, 1,872,792 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
Wha- bu- if it's untranslatable, then how-- dammit, Pinkie!
That. Was. Awesome!
Metallica sucks!
/runs away shouting "New Wave and Techno forever!!!!!"
Oh... my...God! That was epically METAL!!! Look out, Brutal Legend, here come the ponies!
3974042 Glad to know ya fixed it.
And a friend who's friends with Sergio Aragonés?! That is awesome.
I know him best from his contributions to Mad Magazine. Love his art.
Typo:
- Given the context, I'm not sure if you not sure if you meant this to be demonstration or daemonstration.
3974331 Daemonstration. Fixed it. Yes, if I'm going for the obscure word pun, I should check my spelling. Thanks.
3972432 Thank you, thank you. They'll be here all week.
3972262 Yeah, I didn't look at that while typing, but I think I'll keep it.
3972482 If nothing else, I'm looking forward to EqG2 just to hear the music. I was tempted to expand this out to a full battle of the bands, but the darned Real World caught me.
Awsome!
Whenever we have a story with that shop I always flash to this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_pqnsKWlpc
And I could seem Pumpernickel or Green Grass finding the place while looking for a gift for their marefriends
Battles of the band concepts always make me think of this old scene from Reboot
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYrKYETorM8
So very metal. I love that her bad is made out of the old villains, that Vinyl is a demon, the daemonstration pun, all if it.
Eheheheh, I like it.
What we really need is art for this, from someone who's good at drawing high-energy stuff. That is... COMPLETELY not my talent.
Of course, now you've ruined all of us for the upcoming "Rainbow Rocks (except without any actual Rock but copious amounts of generic teen pop instead)", because next to this, it'll look like the pathetic fizz of a wet firecracker.
A truly excellent story, but can Nightmare really compare to the great changeling musicians, Bug Marley, Bug Dillon, and The Beetles? Or the earth pony band formed entirely from former rock farmers, The Rolling Stones? Or the northern Thestral band, Dexy's Midnight Flyers? Or Fancy Pant's personal band, Led Airship? Or Cart Morrison? Or the sea pony religious group, Blue Oyster Cult? I can do this all day! I only regret that I can't think of a bad pun for Pink Floyd and The Who.
4515417 Pinkie Pie and the Windigoes
https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=lyrics+bridgit+the+midgit&&view=detail&mid=8F698F5C49ACA248330C8F698F5C49ACA248330C&&FORM=VRDGAR
4515417
Pink Floyd= PInkamena Void
And you missed CCR. I mean... CCR! C'mon!!!