• Published 20th May 2020
  • 1,012 Views, 192 Comments

The Nightmare Knights Become A Band - SwordTune



Frustrated with her sister's free spirit and new adventures, Luna resolves to find something new to live for, now that she is retired. The answer: A power metal band. And who better to join her on her quest than the Nightmare Knights?

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Special Chapter: What Happened in the Winter Nights?

“Students have gone home, papers are graded, and all the lesson plans have been reviewed.” Starlight whispered to herself, just to hear the good news for herself. She twirled around the Hearth’s Warming tree, erected in the main hall of the Castle of Friendship. “It is good to be home.”

The Hearth’s Warming Eve celebrations brought most of Ponyville to the steps of the castle. Rainbow Dash swerved above, helping pass fresh, hot cider to guests while taking a few cups for herself. Starlight originally wanted to have a small celebration and only invite friends, but it was hard to limit the guest list. Applejack had a huge family, Pinkie knew the Cakes, Rainbow Dash wanted her fan club to join in, and so on. In a town like Ponyville, total strangers could be linked together by just one or two connections through friends.

“So many ponies,” Svengallop arrived with a bag slung over his back. “How quaint. Remind me again how you talked me into coming here?”

Lightning Dust chortled above him. “You live alone in a studio apartment with no pony else to spend the holidays with. Kinda didn’t have a choice, my dude.”

He tossed up his nose with indignation. “I will have you know I have since moved out of there. I have a rather comfortable place in Fillydelphia, thank you very much.”

“Great,” Lightning rolled her eyes, “at least you can be comfortable while you’re alone.”

Starlight broke her attention away from the holiday cheer and joined her bandmates. “Are you two going to be like this all night?” she asked them, and they both gave a hearty nod in return. She rubbed her forehead. “It’s a Hearth’s Warming Eve. I don’t want any snide remarks or cynicism.”

Svengallop slumped his shoulders and flipped his curled mane. “I suppose I can keep my drama in check. But I had better get some good gifts in return.”

Starlight looked hopefully to Lightning Dust, who just deposited her sack of presents by the tree and scanned the hall. “Just keep the drinks flowing, that’s all I’m here for.”


Rainbow Dash scratched her head at the image in front of her. Starlight’s eager smile was comforting, but she still wasn’t sure about what the plan actually was.

“I reckon it’s a great idea,” Applejack interjected. “But I ain’t so sure I get what any of this actually is.”

“Thank Celestia!” Rainbow Dash gasped. “I thought I was the only one.”

The three of them sat around Twilight’s favourite reading room, surrounding a small contraption set out between them on a tea table. Starlight introduced the device, the gift idea, and the plans to prepare it all.

In hindsight, she should’ve gotten it ready sooner. But, since so many students at the School of Friendship were minors and lived outside of Ponyville, Starlight had been busy after finals week organizing chaperones and transport for every student who needed it.

“It’s called a CD. Short for crystal disk. Most music is recorded on—”

“I know what it is,” Rainbow Dash interrupted her, “but I think the better question would be why. Why would Twilight want to listen to a bunch of random sounds instead of music?”

“Because it’s hard to fall asleep to music sometimes,” Starlight said. “And I heard Luna talking to Lightning Dust about this once. Close-up, stereo-recorded sounds can be soothing, even outside of sleep. Like for meditation and de-stressing.”

The chance that it was a weird gift did come to Starlight. The gift was going to be an assortment of disks with multiple daily sounds, recorded by Twilight’s friends. From a small CD pouch, the idea was to let Twilight select the disk she wanted, and listen to a set of sounds themed after each of her friends.

The back and forth clitter clatter, of sewing machines, and the rough scratching of fabric, those would be from Rarity. The rush and swoosh of high-speed flying would be Rainbow Dash’s. And so on.

“Maybe I should’ve gone to Pinkie first. She’d know how to make a good Hearth’s Warming gift.”

“I don’t know,” Rainbow said cautiously. “I give her a fifty-fifty chance of not coming up with something totally insane.”

While the three of them thought more about how to make the perfect present for their friend far away, Svengallop and Lightning Dust could be heard wandering up from the party in the main hall.

“Starlight?” Lightning Dust yelled out. “You got any bottles of the good stuff? I wanna spike the punch bowl.”

Svengallop sounded close behind. “I don’t agree with that sentiment, but I do want a martini!”

Applejack and Rainbow looked at each othe, as if sharing the same uncomfortable feeling, as Starlight covered her ears. “This has to be a nightmare.”

“Was that who I think it is?” Applejack got up and leaned her head out the door. She spotted the two of them popping their heads into every room along the hallway.

The two of them did nothing to hide their intentions. “Do you think we should just raid the kitchen?” Lightning Dust’s voice passed through the rooms so loudly, Applejack wondered how no pony else heard her.

“Nah, Starlight probably wouldn’t make it that easy,” Svengallop said. “Plus, her pink friend’s here, she’d probably want to hide anything harder than a beer, just in case.”

“Y’all probably should quit while you’re ahead,” Applejack called their attention before they invaded another room.

Svengallop’s head swivelled around first, followed by Lightning Dust stepping back out of a cleaning supply closet.

“Oh, it’s you,” he said, turning his nose up. “Thought I smelled some countryside dirt, but I thought it was those three young tutors tracking mud all over the castle.”

Applejack stepped out and got in his face. He stood a slight bit taller than her, but his body was long and stringy compared to hers, so she didn’t hesitate to stare down the length of his muzzle.

“Gonna be smelling a lot more of that dirt after I kick you outta here, you puffed up pompous… parasite!”

“Ooh, ouch,” Svengallop put a hoof on his chest, feigning a gasp. “What a crippling insult! It’s a good thing I don’t actually care what you think.”

“Woah! Okay!” Starlight thumped her way out of the reading room. “How about we don’t fight in the nice castle Princess Twilight just gave to me, and instead we sit together in this warm and cosy room full of books and cushions and positive thoughts?”


Lightning Dust was sweating bullets as Starlight shared the idea for the present she wanted to give Twilight.

“Again, it sounds wonderful, sugar cube,” Applejack said, doing her best to ignore Svengallop, “but I don’t know if it’s something we can do. Reckon any sounds we make would be more disturbing than anything else.”

“Pfft.”

Svengallop covered his mouth with his hoof, clearly stifling a laugh that every pony could see.

“What’s the matter with him?” Rainbow asked.

“Nothing!” Lightning grabbed him by the neck, cranking her hoof across his face until he had no choice but to keep quiet. “He has nothing to say about it!”

“Alright…” Applejack said with a wide-eyed and concerned stare. “As I was saying, no pony wants to hear farm animals or hay shovelling. And what can Rainbow do? It’s winter, we’re all listening to rain once a week.”

Gah!” Svengallop choked, scrambling to get out of Lightning Dust’s grip. “Too tight! Jeez, are you trying to-ack!

Rainbow Dash ignored whatever the other two were doing. “And Fluttershy’s would probably sound silent.”

“But quiet whispers at the best!” Lightning Dust cried out.

Every pony stared at her. “What?”

Lightning Dust shrugged and leaned back into her cushiony seat. “Nothing, I didn’t say anything.”

In the heat of the moment, Svengallop slipped his thin neck from her grasp and slumped down to the floor. He spat and sputtered, catching his breath before blurting out the truth.

“You got the perfect pony for the job,” he chortled, pointing to Lightning Dust. “Find one of her CD’s and you’ll hear weird whispers or fake mane cutting sounds. Oh! Sometimes she even- oamf!

Lightning quieted him down with a pillow to his face. But the words once spoken, could not be unheard. Applejack’s face was twisted up in confusion, but it was Rainbow’s half-smirk that was really hard to stomach.

“It’s not like that!” Lightning insisted. “I don’t just listen to weird noises. Sometimes I just need to destress, and positive affirmations in a calm voice really help. That’s all. It’s perfectly normal to want to listen to something soothing.”

“Sure, whatever you say.” Rainbow Dash covered her mouth, holding back her laughter.

“Is he being serious?” Applejack eyed Svengallop with a deep stare as long as a country mile. “Y’all like listening to… mane cutting?” Now even Starlight was curious, leaning closer to her bandmate without saying a word.

“No,” Lightning buried her face in her hooves, “I’m not a weirdo! Mane cutting sounds just make you think of a barbershop. Don’t you like it when you’re getting your mane cut? It’s like having some pony whose whole purpose is to focus only on you.”

“Lightning,” Starlight put a hoof on her shoulder, “I don’t think Rainbow’s laughing because your hobbies are weird. She’d never do that, right?

It took just a glance for Rainbow to swallow her mischief. “No, never, ahem,” she coughed. “I was just… uh…”

“Surprised,” Applejack suggested. “Reckon it’s cause you always put up that mean attitude. Kinda funny, seeing a side that’s so different.”

Lightning Dust peaked out from the pillow, sullen-eyed and wary of all of them. “You’re just saying that so I’ll help with this gift thing that you’re doing, right?”

Starlight took a look back at her gift idea for Twilight, a set of crystal disks and a music player, sitting alone in the middle of the tea table. “Well, now that you mention it, there is something you can help us do. But I’d never try to manipulate you into it.”

“I knew it,” Lightning Dust sighed. “Well, spill. What is it?”


“Hahaha!” Svengallop cackled. “My vengeance is at hoof!”

Lightning Dust wriggled and writhed against Applejack’s knotwork, but it was a useless endeavour. The experienced farmer had spent her whole life mastering the lasso. Lightning Dust was caught.

“I’m telling Luna about this,” she growled to Starlight. “This is imprisonment. Help! I’m being held against my will!”

“Just relax, Lightning,” Rainbow Dash chortled.

“Plus, you need to be still for the spell to work,” Starlight said. “Even a good microphone doesn’t have the quality we need, so we’re going to have to make you listen to some sounds and then use the Sonus Memoria spell to copy the real sensation and store it on the CD. But if you move, I might end up copying some other memories.”

Lightning Dust eyed her with great suspicion. “What kind of other memories?”

“Only your deepest, darkest, and most sacred secrets,” Starlight answered frankly.

Svengallop produced a folded kerchief from his suit pocket and quickly tied it around Lightning’s eyes. “There, this way we won’t be put off by her glares.”

“Shut up. I’m going to punch you in the face once I’m out.”

“Quiet,” Starlight hushed every pony in the room. “I have the spell locked on her audial cortex.” Glowing softly, her horn formed a thin web around Lightning Dust’s ears, like two large earmuffs made from magic threads.

“Sound one,” Svengallop whispered into her ears. “Knife sharpening.”

Sshheeth, sshrriiithh. Sshheeth, sshrriiithh. Borrowing a whetstone and vegetable knife from the castle kitchen, Svengallop ran the length of the blade against the rough stone, carrying the blade closer and closer to her ear with each draw.

“Woah, hold on,” Lightning Dust whispered, “isn’t that a bit close? Don’t cut my ear off, okay? Svengallop?”

It persisted for about five minutes. During that time, he switched from side to side, sometimes even actually touching the tip of the knife against the soft fleshy skin at the base of her ear. Lightning Dust couldn’t help but shift and wriggle from the sounds, and the threat of a knife so close to her head. Eventually, she was the one who called for the next sound.

“You’re taking too long!” she barked at him. “Just move onto the next one already so we can get this over with.”

Applejack gave her head a pat. “See, sugarcube? You’re helping us already. We wouldn’t have known how long to use a sound for.”

Every pony, save for Svengallop who was eager to administer the next sound, stepped further back to avoid adding background noise to Lightning’s memory. He took a makeup brush and feathered it against her ears.

“If I were you, I’d try to keep quiet,” he whispered. “Wasn’t it Rainbow Dash the one who let you crash in her house? How embarrassing would it be if a friend who helped you when you were at your most desperate found how much you really enjoy this?”

“It’s not like that—” Lightning Dust stammered insistently.

And so it went on. For nearly twenty minutes she was forced to listen to books opening and closing, quills writing on exceptionally rough paper, Applejack eating a crispy apple, and meaningless whispers. With each one she struggled to hide the embarrassment of having other ponies make sounds in her ears. But more than that, she struggled to hide the fact that these random sounds were actually relaxing and therapeutic to her.

“A-are you done?” Lightning Dust exasperated gasp cut through the sound of Svengallop flipping through one of Twilight’s favourite books.

“Reckon so,” Applejack said. “I’m plumb out of ideas. How ‘bout you, Sven? You seem to be good at upsetting your friends. Got anything else for Lighting Dust?”

“You just will not drop it, will you?”

Applejack tipped her hat. “Nope.”

“Well, I’m out of ideas as well, so I guess you’re off the hook, Lightning.”

“Actually,” Starlight interjected as she stored Lightning’s memories onto the disk. She had a pair of headphones connected to a CD player to review the memories on the spot. “You were squirming and complaining so much for some of those recordings that they’re completely unusable. We’ll have to redo almost all of those.”

Lightning tensed against her bindings and thrashed her legs. “No, no! Sweet mother of Celestia, please, no!”


“Did you hear that?”

Gallus and Silverstream dropped small party gifts at the Hearth’s Warming tree and walked around the Castle of Friendship. On one end of the main hall, lined up from end to end of a long table, were trays of tiny fruit cakes, sugar cookies, and festive brownies oozing chocolate goo.

Silverstream tilted her head and listened for the sound Gallus mentioned. “No, it just sounds like a party to me.”

“I could’ve sworn I heard cries of desperation, like a lonely balloon slowly deflating into a void.”

Silverstream covered her beak, trying hard not to laugh with a mouth full of brownie fudge. “You come up with the funniest things. When we met, I never would have guessed you were a comedian. Life’s full of surprises that way, I suppose.”

“I think that’s just Pinkie Pie’s joke writing lessons rubbing off on me,” Gallus replied, but it was hard for him to conceal the big dumb grin on his face. But before they joined the rest of Ponyville for the party, he gently tugged Silverstream back by the wing.

She looked back at him. “Is something wrong?”

“N-no,” he stammered, “but are you sure you don’t want to head back to Mount Aris? Headmare Starlight might’ve extended our winter break, but this’ll be the second year you’ll miss the holidays at your home.”

The serious tone in his voice didn’t slow Silverstream down. “Sure, I miss home,” she rolled her eyes, looking around the castle, “but I like hanging out with you. Plus, Hearth’s Warming is pretty fun, too. My parents won’t mind if I go home after the holidays, and since we have a longer break, I’ll still get to spend time with my family.”

“I know, but the holidays are—”

Silverstream placed a talon on his head, and ruffled his feathers a little. “Don’t worry about it, ‘kay? Right here is where I want to be.”

Gallus’s beak hung slightly ajar while he tried to find the words for his feelings. After everything that happened in the Crystal Empire, their friends wanted to go home and share their stories. He was happy they had their adventure, happy enough that he was fine with going back to Griffonstone by himself. But this was so much better.

“Wait, I think I just heard it.” Silverstream tilted her ears up now to the sound. “It sounds more like a sad tomato being slowly juiced.”

Gallus stared at her. “I don’t even— what does that sound like?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know, but it’s coming from one of the reading rooms upstairs. Wanna check it out?”

They both flapped their wings and swooped up the stairs. Twilight had put a lot of reading rooms in the castle, but once they were away from the centre of the party, the screaming became clearer.

“I’m not doing it again!” a voice shouted out. “Let me go, damn it!”

Inside the furthest room they found their Headmare, and professors Applejack and Rainbow Dash, tightening the bonds around a yellow-maned pegasus. The struggle froze as the two kids looked on with more questions than there were answers.

“Hey, kids,” Starlight lightened the mood with a wheezing laugh. “W-when did you get here? I thought you went back home for the holidays.”

“We, uh, stopped by for the party,” Silverstream said, inspecting the pegasus a little closer. “Is that Lightning Dust?”

All the ponies traded silent faces. Rainbow Dash seemed to be struggling to contain a fit of laughter, while Applejack’s dumbfounded look had no answer for the question. It was finally Lightning Dust who spoke up.

“One word of this to any creature,” she hissed, “and I will find you.”

Gallus put an arm around Silverstream and gently pulled her away, backing off towards the stairs. “We’ll just be drinking some fruit punch,” he called out as they left. “Very quietly drinking.”

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