The Nightmare Knights Become A Band

by SwordTune

Verse 27

Luna flew over the palace. Though Shining’s barrier was up, a mass of dragons and yaks and ponies were fighting the shadows outside. Fire was enough to hold back the smaller shadows, but she could see many dragons being carried into the palace, injured. They would not hold out for long.

“Luna?” she heard Tempest call out. “What are you doing here?”

Behind her, Starlight was busy roping two shadows together, attaching them to an enchanted hot air balloon that lifted them away indefinitely. Lightning Dust blitz through the air, crashing into, and through, any of the shadows that tried to knock down the dragons fighting below.

“Did you stop it yet?” Lightning said, fly beside Luna. “Because we can’t-- agh!”

A shadow of a giant spider with bat wings lunged at Lightning Dust. But it was small and vaporized immediately just from Luna’s glare.

“They’re targeting the palace,” Luna told her, “I had to come, or they’d overwhelm you.”

“In that case,” Lightning pointed to a black cloud approaching the palace, “I could use the help taking care of their air support. Starlight and Tempest seem to have it controlled on the ground.”

“Yeah!” Tempest yelled at a shadow the shape of a dragon’s head, and only the head, tried biting at her. “Totally got this. Don’t worry!” The shadow dispersed from a burst of magic, quickly reforming to strike again.

“They will have to make do,” Luna said. The cloud approaching was no storm. Snow and wind did not descend, only more shadows.

---

“I gotta get back out there!” Smolder flailed her arms and legs against the ground, clawing for freedom.

“No!” Svengallop snapped, pulling her tail harder. “I made a promise to Luna. Besides, your friends are here. Isn’t that what you want?”

He pulled her to the dining hall where dozens of ponies and yaks were searching through the crowd for their friends and family. The kitchens provided warm water and hot towels to help ease those in shock, or juice and biscuits for the children.

In the corner of the hall, Smolder’s friends waited together, waiting quietly. When they saw her, their eyes lit up. Yona was the first to rush the young dragon, picking her up on her helmet.

“Yona saw Smolder breathe fire on big bad monster,” she said. “It looked so cool!”

Silverstream snatched her up in one big hug. “I was all like ‘Wagh!’ when that big shadow came to get me, but you were like ‘Rawr!’ with your fire and stuff.”

“Aw, thanks guys,” Smolder squeezed her way out of Silverstream’s suffocating hug. “But there are others fighting those things right now. I can’t sit here and watch.”

“Starlight told us not to come here for a reason,” Ocellus said, “maybe she knew something like this could happen. I think you should stay here and let them figure it out.”

Smolder turned around. “I can’t walk away from this fight.”

Svengallop wanted to think of something to say, but it felt awkward being the adult in a group of kids when he didn’t know a single one of them. But from out of the corner of his eye, he spotted a couple of crystal ponies staring at them.

Six different creatures, all together as friends it must have looked weird.

Weird enough for the pony to start walking up to them.

Svengallop shifted his eyes to the sign the pony had slung over his back. The letters CNP revealed themselves as the stallion walked closer.

“Excuse me,” the stallion injected himself, “are you actually arguing at a time like this?”

All the kids gave him a weird look.

“What’s it to you?” Smolder snarled.

“It’s my city, that’s what,” the stallion stomped his hoof, “and it was fine until freaks and weirdos started coming in here. Now the Crystal Heart doesn’t even work because of dragons like you.”

“What?” Ocellus flared her wings. “How dare you! My friend has been helping this city. What have you done?”

The stallion sputtered a scoff. “Helping? More like she’s hurting it. Fighting won’t stop beasts like that. The Crystal Heart is powered by love, something you wouldn’t understand, being a changeling and all.”

“Woah, okay,” Svengallop stepped in. “Let’s calm down that bull horn and talk with our inside voices, like adults. I thought the Crystal Empire’s biggest hero was a dragon. You’ve got that big honking statue of him, right?”

“Easy, pal. You’re not from here.” The stallion looked him up and down. “Don’t act like you know us. Spike was a real hero, raised by ponies. As long as they love the city, they’re fine by me. But dragons from the Dragonlands want to turn it into their home.”

“Are you serious right now?” Gallus burst past Svengallop and wrapped his talons around the pony’s neck. “Look outside! Is this some kind of joke, huh? You need to back off now because you are the problem. You!” He shoved the stallion so hard he fell back on his flank, snapping the sign on the fall.

“Pft,” the pony spat a loose feather stuck to his face. “Just you wait. After this is over, troublemakers are leaving the Crystal Empire. Better watch your behaviour then.” He picked up his sign and stood up, returning to his friends.

Svengallop looked around, thinking he’d have to deal with a curious crowd, but every pony he looked at broke eye contact with him immediately.

“What was that guy’s deal?” Sandbar asked.

Gallus huffed, his nostrils still seething from his sudden outburst. Svengallop could tell from the look on the student’s faces that his anger wasn’t normal. But, it scared off the stallion for the time being. That was enough for him.

“Alright, who wants to listen to some music--”

Smolder ran right at him, her face buried deep in her claws. The young dragon shoved him aside and kept running, through the crowd of other survivors. The other kids murmured, wondering if they needed to give their friend space or go after her.

Svengallop knew he had never been to a friendship school or whatever, but he had enough life experience to know that ponies, or any creature, did not run off if they wanted friends around them. Maybe that wasn’t something you learned from a book.

He checked on them, hoping they’d come to the right decision.

“You’re right, Ocellus,” Silverstream said. “We’re her friends and she needs us.”

A twitch came to Svengallop’s eye. These are your students, Starlight? He took a deep breath and knew what he had to do. It was the easiest way. He didn’t want to deal with even more grade-school drama.

“She’s probably taking it out on the shadows,” he said. A blatant lie. He did not see a dragon prepared to fight charging past him. “Let me handle this. I’ll reunite your little team or whatever. Luna asked me to, anyway.”

---

He followed her to the library section of the palace. In a time of crisis, reading was the last thing on creatures’ minds. The whole section was empty and silent, except for the soft sniffling of a dragon.

Svengallop checked between the bookshelves until he found Smolder in the fiction section of the library. Opened up around her were children’s stories, stories about castles and princesses and knights. Knights who slew dragons.

“Are you just trying to make yourself feel bad?” he asked, walking up behind her.

Smolder looked over her shoulder. “Go away.”

“Oh, believe me, I’d love to,” he tried to fake a haughty laugh, but he didn’t have it in him. “But, I figured if the rest of the Knights are fighting shadowy, monstery things, then this is the least I can do.”

Smolder wiped away her tears. “What, you’re going to give a speech about how everything will be alright?”

“Hell no.” Svengallop sat down. He pulled a CD and a disc player from the pocket of his jacket. It was on the small side for a player, but still bulky. “But I do have music. And I know that there will always be ponies who are selfish and annoying and get on your nerves. Just look at me!”

Smolder cracked a smile. “You don’t seem that bad.”

“You say that, but,” he couldn’t help but grin, “I, uh, ‘borrowed’ this disc off of Lightning Dust. Found it in her stuff while we were changing into our costumes.”

“You stole from your friend?”

“I never said I wasn’t a work in progress,” he muttered, popping the disc in. “The cover says it’s supposed to be some relaxing sounds.” The disc popped into the player and whirled up as a small stream of magic from a crystal activated the sounds stored inside the disc.

“Welcome. Wow, you look beautiful today. Has the day been stressful? I’m sure it has. But you pulled through it. Every pony loves a hard worker like that.”

The soft but supple baritone voice was coupled with a rhythmic tip-tapping noise, like a hoof scratching across a hardwood floor. Svengallop immediately hit the “stop” button on the player.

“I feel like I’ve crossed a line that can never be uncrossed,” he admitted.

“Lightning Dust definitely has… interesting tastes,” Smolder said.

Svengallop hastily removed the disc and reached into his pocket again. “Good thing I have my own CDs.” He swapped the discs.

Pop.

The disc slotted into place in the player. Pop.

“That’s a funny sound,” Svengallop took a closer look at the device. “Huh, it’s never done that before.”

Smolder tugged at his jacket. “I don’t think it’s us making that sound.” She pointed out a stained window to the raging storm outside. A black mass crawled along the wall of the palace, testing the windows.

Crack.

The monster screeched, shattering the glass to pieces, penetrating into the palace. Neither of them could hold back their screams.

“Go! Now!” Svengallop tried to rush to his hooves, but the books on the floor slid and tripped him up. His back hit the shelves and brought books tumbling down on him.

Smolder yanked up his leg. “Come on, dude! We gotta get out of here.”

The shadow sunk to the floor with spike-tipped legs, cracking through the crystal as it walked. Svengallop flopped backwards, scrambling away from the shadow, but his hooves kept slipping and tripping over the scattered books on the floor until he finally hit his CD player.

A guitar riff ripped through the air. Drums put out a steady beat.

And the shadow paused.

“What noise?” Its spiked leg tapped the player’s buttons, turning up the music louder and louder. The riffs seemed to ripple through its body.

“That thing can talk?” Smolder shouted in disbelief. Svengallop gave a shallow nod. He was more fixated on what his music player was doing. He pushed it across the floor, sliding until it reached below the shadow.

It jumped back, crashing against the shelves along the wall of the library. “Noise! We are your doom. Noise will not stop us.”

Smolder and Svengallop traded beady-eyed looks of amazement.

“No way,” Smolder smirked, walking up and grabbing the CD player. “You’re afraid of a little music?”

“Not music, noise! Once, our music was of screams and suffering. Noise will not stop us. We hunger for your doom.”

Smolder stared blankly at the shadow, “Okay, doomer.”

She put the CD player to its loudest and threw it into the jaws of the shadow. It recoiled instantly, jumping back in a fit of convulsions. It retreated back out the library, taking the whole it came through. They could see outside where Luna was fighting back a giant moth shadow while Starlight repaired a gaping wound in Shining’s barrier.

“Did you just feed my music player to a shadow monster?” Svengallop ran up to the breach in the library.

“Sorry,” Smolder rubbed her shoulder. “It was the first thing I could think of.”

Svengallop breathed. “No, no. It’s fine. No, it’s brilliant. Music is the greatest thing in the world, of course shadowy fragments of an ancient evil dark lord would hate it.”

“You think it’s enough to stop them?”

He smiled and combed his hoof over his frazzled curly mane. “Sweetheart, I didn’t get to the top of the music industry doing just ‘enough.’ We’re going to give those monsters the greatest concert they’ve ever seen!”

Comments

[Yoshifan30]

Wow those ponys are really mean I can't believe they say that to these kids Mostly it hurt smolder more and cry and Svengallop who was one of those jerks Even thinks that's went too far and he started to show his soft spot Even trying to Cheering up smolder kinda but that sweet And apparently the shadows do not like music looks like they found their weaknesses.

[Yoshifan30]

“ Pft ,” the pony spat a loose feather stuck to his face. “Just you wait. After this is over, troublemakers are leaving the Crystal Empire. Better watch your behaviour then.” He picked up his sign and stood up, returning to his friends.

This is probably any of the kids would do to a jerk like those guys 😠

[Yoshifan30]

Svengallop checked between the bookshelves until he found Smolder in the fiction section of the library. Opened up around her were children’s stories, stories about castles and princesses and knights. Knights who slew dragons.

Aww poor smolder She really took it very hard 😢

This is also what I was thinking when Smolder was reading the story book