The Nightmare Knights Become A Band

by SwordTune

Verse 40

Not all of the Nightmare Knights’ concerts in Cloudsdale had blown-out stages and endless crowds. Throughout the month the band moved from one venue to another. Not all were properly within Cloudsdale. The jewel of the pegasi was a flying city and migrated with the turning of the season, so while new faces came and went, so too did the landscape below.
Poppin had set up small concerts with public music houses and heavy metal clubs in the villages that waited along Cloudsdale’s route. They were true small towns, just barely more than quaint collections of cottages. With no space or money for teleportation pads, the band carried their own equipment.
Nothing about the clubs seemed to impress Svengallop, who made it a point to mention the venue’s size or accommodations, at least until Lightning Dust wondered if he was trying to compensate for something. But Luna found them charming. The small experience was exactly how she imagined her music career going. Large concerts were exhilarating, but on a music club’s low stage, she could reach her hoof out to the fans and even talk to them over drinks afterwards.
From week to week, either in the sky or flying down to the towns, the Nightmare Knights worked tirelessly. Perhaps tireless was not accurate. They were exhausted by the end of the time in Cloudsale. But with each performance, they seemed to find their energy.
“It’s the music,” Starlight said after one performance. The “power” in power metal was there in the name for a reason.
“Nah,” Lightning disagreed, “it’s the sound of the fans.” She played her hardest, knowing that if the beat was off, a hundred ears would be there to catch it.
Tempest had a simpler answer when asked. “Playing the guitar is fun.”
Whatever their reasons, the exhaustion came with the fun, and none of them would give up the former if it meant losing the latter. So, though Luna was leading at their helm, they each resolved to do their best for their final performance in Cloudsdale. Starlight swallowed her worries. Rainbow Falls, the end of their tour, was next, and a strong finish would be her parting gift to Luna.
In a scarcely known heavy metal music club, called “The Workshop” even though ponies hardly knew of it, the Nightmare Knights played:

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“That was so awesome!”
Rainbow Dash waited outside the club after the Knights cleaned themselves up and packed their equipment and costumes.
“Is this going to be a normal thing with you two?” Svengallop whispered to Lightning as they waved to her. “You can give her a backstage pass, you know.”
“No,” Lightning hissed. “She’s been acting like we’re friends ever since I had some drink with her and the Wonderbolts. Ten bits says she’s just trying to embarrass me or something.”
Svengallop smirked. “Oh. In that case, I can give her a backstage pass.”
Lightning’s nostrils flared, but she kept silent as Rainbow slung a hoof around her. “Probably just another day’s work for you though, huh pal?”
“What are you doing here?” Lightning dropped her sour face and put on a smile for Rainbow. “It’s a school night.”
“Soarin’s giving a guest lecture tomorrow for my class,” she answered. “So I get the day off.”
“You still have to write the midterm exam for your students,” Starlight pointed out.
Rainbow dodged behind Lightning Dust. “Yeah, but we have two weeks until midterms. I can come up with those writing prompts in ten minutes flat!”
“Please don’t.”
“Don’t worry, Starlight, I’m here on business, I swear!”
She walked with the Knights along Neighagra Avenue, the only main road that connected the sparse cottages and hamlets to call a village. Every pony always imagined the waterfalls, but the river that cut through the northern grassland and fed the falls was just as scenic. Street lamps formed shimmering reflections in the water, wisps of light that wildly danced and taunted those on land.
“I seriously think you could do it,” Rainbow Dash told Lightning Dust. “The students would love to hear your story.”
“In your dreams,” Lightning replied. “I’m not good with kids.”
“Really? They seemed to like you when you were a Washout doing tricks through death contraptions.”
Lightning covered her face and trotted ahead of the rest. “For the love of the night, don’t bring that up.”
“I think it’s a great idea,” Tempest said. That caught Lightning’s ear. She expected Svengallop to say something and put her in a deeper hole, that or Starlight, who probably would have backed Rainbow Dash up just to be a good Headmare.
Lightning turned back to Tempest. “Why?”
Tempest flicked a glance over to Starlight. “Just thought I might like to stop by that school one day, say a few things. We can go together. And Svengallop—”
“Nope.” The earth pony rejected her offer.
“—refuses to go through character development.” Tempest finished. “Come on Dusty, it’ll be fun.”
“Dusty?” Lightning scrunched her nose at the nickname. “I don’t remember agreeing to that. Should I start calling you Fizzle?”
Tempest laughed. “Only if you feel like dying.”
“Woah, easy there,” Rainbow started to interject, but the Knight barely acknowledged the remark. They carried on trotting as if nothing was wrong. Tempest and Lightning talked back and forth and insulted each other just as much as they talked seriously.
“Why does it matter if I don’t go?” Lightning Dust eventually asked.
Tempest frowned. “Because I think you can do it. Because the worst thing you’ve done is create dangerous workplaces. And because if some pony like you can’t face a class of student and say she’s changed for the better, then what in Equestria am I going to say to them?”
Lightning opened her mouth to reply, but instead, she slowed her trot to a halt. The rest of the band did the same, listening closely.
“Hold up a minute. I never said I can’t do it,” Lightning replied. “I just don’t want to. But if you’re going to be so mopey about it, I guess I could.” She turned to Rainbow. “Looks like you win again, Dashie.”
“Yeah, though not how I imagined,” she replied, looking over to Starlight and Luna. “Honestly, the way you all talk, I can’t believe you’re friends.”
Luna shrugged. “We make it work.”

The Cloudsdale post office was a marvel. In any other town, the post office would be closed for the night. But in the city of pegasi, hundreds of mail couriers from all corners of Equestria carried parcels, letters, and packages back and forth. Hundreds of moving parts from every city, town, village, or farm, worked together, connected only by post officers. She understood mail could sometimes be lost in the piles and paper, but it was a miracle the system could work at all.
Luna waited off to the side of the line while the clerk searched the storeroom for any letters for her. Namely, from her sister. The other Nightmare Knights had returned to the hotel, all except for Starlight. Luna appreciated the company. There was no telling what Celestia was thinking, what she might have written. And after a month, Luna was feeling concerned she had not heard a peep or sound from her.
“What if she hates me now,” she whispered to herself. “My letter was harsh, perhaps more than it needed to be. I was angry. Plus, she started it! But I don’t want us to be on bad terms. I just want my own life.”
Starlight smiled. “And how has it been, so far?”
Luna sounded off a light, airy laugh, one filled with simple glee. “It has been wonderful. The band is everything I’ve wanted and more. A year ago when I was starting my retirement with Celestia, I couldn’t have imagined so many fans liking the things in our songs.”
“A year ago I was terrified of heavy metal. The thought of my friends knowing what I like back then was too embarrassing.” Starlight laughed. “I had skulls in my bedroom and wore black makeup around the house.”
Luna snorted, suppressing a much louder laugh. “Apologies,” she struggled, “even now, it’s hard to imagine you going so far.”
“I wonder where we are now, in the music world.”
“Svengallop says we’re still small-time, compared to the ponies at the top.”
Starlight waved the thought away. “Nah, he’s such a pessimist. We gotta be in the top ten, at least.”
“Eh,” Luna cringed, “even I must say, that’s pushing it.”
The clerk returned from the storeroom with a single letter between the feathers of her wing. “Yep, here it is, Princess. Sorry for the wait, it got lost in our sorting pile because the address isn’t written properly.”
Starlight raised a brow and then checked Luna’s reaction, but she didn’t even flinch at her old title.
“Sounds like my sister,” Luna smirked, looking at the envelope. “Used magic letters for so long, you can’t even send a single letter, huh Sis?” She thanked the clerk and left.
Starlight followed. “You’re not going to say anything?”
“I realized it’s too hard to undo a thousand years of reputation,” Luna said. “One of these days ponies might stop calling me ‘Princess.’ If not today, maybe tomorrow.” Without warning, she paused under a street lamp, the lightbulb softly crackling from the thunder cloud locked within its glass confines, and peel open the letter.
“You’re reading it now?” Starlight turned away.
“It’s a nice night for reading. And I don’t mind if you see. This would not be the first time you’ve been involved with Celestia and me.”
“True,” Starlight tentatively said. “Still feels weird.”
Luna let the letter slip from her hoof before Starlight could even turn back. “Woah!” The page flew past her as a gust of wind passed by, though Starlight managed to trap it within a field of magic. “Still got the moves,” she lauded herself. “Would’ve been pretty bad if— oh.”
Starlight stared in disbelief. The letter was a single line.
Please don’t talk to me, Luna. —Signed, Celestia
“Heh,” Luna chuckled, rubbing her eyes. “Guess she is mad. I don’t know what I expected.”
“This can’t be it.” Starlight flipped the page over, trying to search for more. “I mean, even if she’s upset, this is taking it too far! Bet she wouldn’t say this to your face, you should go find her.”
Luna did not answer immediately. She sat down on the street, though it felt no different from weightlessly floating in a cloud. “I have the Nightmare Knights. And Poppin. And more fans than I thought possible. I’m happy like this.”
“Luna,” Starlight gently reached out a hoof.
“I should be happy like this,” Luna wiped her face. “This is what I asked for, isn’t it? I have my life, and all it cost was my sister.”
Starlight wobbled on her hooves, deciding between hugging her or backing up for some space. “I don’t know what to say.”
“I suppose this is what I should have expected after my letter. No point dwelling on what cannot be altered.” Luna chuckled in spite of herself. “I can only do what I can.”
“And what is that?”
Luna stood up back up, her eyes still slightly puggy but otherwise unchanged. “That depends on you. Right now, all I can do is ask for your help.”
“Anything,” Starlight stood stiff, the determination on her face worn like a badge.
“That mirror in Friendship Castle, it still works, does it not? There’s an alternate dimension I’d like to visit.”