The Nightmare Knights Become A Band

by SwordTune

Verse 32

Dearest Sister, we write to you with a hopeful heart. You have wished us to express our joy earnestly. We thank you for that. We hope we have the correct understanding of what it means to be happy. But you have sent us no letters, and have taken to producing a play which slanders our good name. It is certainly true our understanding of joy does not align with yours, but your actions cross a line. We regard you as one of the false courtiers which we had become cautious of when we first acquired the trust and thrones of all Equestria. A Starswirl said, “Guard yourselves against ponies who come in the form of advisors but are raving fools.” Therefore you have also come with many good words and wanted to lead us astray from our songs and performances. You should not think that we are so foolish that we cannot distinguish our music from our reality.

The letter sat in Luna’s hoof, gathering droplets of faint drizzle as they waited for their passenger blimp to finish expanding with gas. Cloudsdale would be the site of the Knight’s next few concerts, as well as their ferry to Rainbow Falls for the Trader’s Exchange. And thus, the need for a blimp. The floating city moved across the skies, going wherever the change of weather needed to be the strongest. This year, it would be borrowing from the ample reserves from the Rainbow Falls in order to create the spring showers across Equestria.

Svengallop complained about having to move his own luggage as he pushed a wagon filled with heavy, overstuffed bags. Tempest followed behind him—more modestly packed—but still weighed down by two bags ready to burst. Starlight helped, levitating Tempest’s third piece of luggage along with her own. As attendants brought their bags to their cabins, a chill blew through the landing platform. Not a speck of blue could be spotted through the spectres of winter, the rolling clusters of grey giants blanketing the sky. Fortunately, the rain was so light it was barely stronger than a sinking fog.

“You were mumbling at that piece of paper ever since the train, Luna,” Lightning Dust nudged Luna tentatively as if checking to see if she was still alive. They rode together, gathering up their luggage and equipment, from Ponyville by train to Canterlot, one of the few cities with an airport and landing pads capable of accommodating large passenger blimps. And while Tempest and Svengallop were preoccupied with their travel preparations, like most non-pegasi who visited Cloudsdale, Lightning Dust stood by Luna.

“It’s a letter,” she explained, “I have been wanting to write to my sister since she seems intent on distancing herself from me after our last disagreement.”

“I thought you wanted distance. Isn’t this good?”

Luna wobbled her head, half a nod, half a refusing shake. “But we’re still sisters. I never set out to create this band to spite her. I want my own life, but I also want my sister to be proud of what I’m doing. How do ponies normally handle this, Lightning? How did you reconcile with Rainbow Dash?”

“Woah, hold on,” Lightning slowed her down, “I am not the right pony to ask for that. Talk to Tempest or Starlight, maybe. Me and Dashie aren’t good yet, and I don’t think we’ll ever be.”

“Truly? Starlight said you two got along well at her Hearth’s Warming party. She mentioned something about making Princess Twilight a present.”

“I—” Lightning Dust flustered and clutched her luggage tightly. “No, that wasn’t a good time. Please don’t mention it ever again.”

“Oh, okay.” Luna looked at her with great concern but left the topic alone.

“You should probably put that away, though.” Lightning Dust covered her eyes with one hoof and looked up to the sky. “The drizzle’s starting to come down a little harder. That letter’s going to get more than damp.”

She was right. Luna could see in the distance, although they were incredibly faint, the silhouettes of pegasi moving more clouds into place. The weather report said the day would hold only cloudy skies and light showers. But the dense and dark lumbering giants didn’t seem to agree. Suddenly, the blimp workers slowed the rhythm of their work down to a halt. They crowded around the conductor, speaking in closed circles as if ponies would not catch on.

“The weather should be manageable,” Luna muttered.

“I’m not a weather specialist, but it doesn’t look like light showers to me.”

Luna folded her letter and tucked it away in her saddlebag, focusing her attention back onto the trip ahead of her. “Weather reports are never wrong. Why are they changing their plans so suddenly?” She put up a barrier above their heads as an umbrella from the rain and rejoined the rest of the band. Starlight combined her magic with Luna’s, creating a larger shelter around themselves. Most of the other ponies waiting to board, in classic Canterlot fashion, opened their colourfully printed umbrellas and complained about the unexpected weather.

Though they were not alone. “Any reason why we’re not waiting in a warm and cosy cabin for take-off?” Svengallop drew his coat tighter around his body, covering up his neck. Though rain could not pass through their barrier, air could, and the cold winds that carried the clouds heralded the coming storm.

“There’s not going to be a take-off,” Starlight said, looking up at a sudden flash that lit up the grey sky. Seconds later, the rumbling of a thunderclap confirmed what everyone feared. “If it wasn’t getting in the way, the irony would be pretty funny. A storm from Cloudsdale stopping all the air traffic to Cloudsdale.”

“Well, you don’t see me laughing,” Svengallop huffed. “Why don’t you just teleport us there?”

“Are you crazy?” Starlight gawked. “I wouldn’t do it even if I knew where it was! Cloudsdale is a moving city. You’re more likely to teleport into thin air, thousands of meters above the ground.”

Luna searched the distant sky absentmindedly. “Plus, even if we knew where it was, Cloudsdale is especially dangerous. Enchanting every pony to walk on clouds wouldn’t help much if we teleported just below the city.”

“Whatever we do, can we find somewhere drier and warmer?” Tempest asked. “I can handle snow, snow is fun. Rain just sucks.”

They, along with everyone else waiting on the landing pads, fled the storm as the rain pounded harder on top of them. Once they had tied the blimps in place, even the workers retreated inside the airport with the rest of the passengers.

Luna noticed a changeling stepping out from the crowd of ponies and approaching the blimp conductor. The first words of the exchange were hard to hear, but she hushed her band and listened in for any ideas that might help them move along.

“I’m sorry, but we just got word from the pegasi,” the conductor explained cautiously, “they’re even going to turn it up to a hailstorm soon. We can’t fly under these conditions. So please, just calm down and head back inside the airport.”

“I need to be in Cloudsdale by tomorrow,” the changeling insisted. “There has to be some other flight, a sturdier blimp that can take the storm.”

“Ma’am, the best I can think of is asking for a refund on your ticket. I just conduct the blimps, and taking off is just not happening right now.”

The changeling grumbled and stomped around, thinking impatiently. Luna wondered what she could be considering, there weren’t any options beyond waiting for the storm to pass. But while she shamelessly eavesdropped, she also noticed the ponies around her. Unicorns levitated umbrellas, preparing to open them and brave the outside again as they exited for the streets. One by one, more ponies left. Unicorns were Canterlot’s largest demographic, but even earth ponies with no levitation to help with their luggage desperately dashed out the airport doors and through the rain.

“Where is every pony going?” Luna asked.

“Ma’am,” the conductor said as he directed the changeling to follow the crowd slowly leaving for the street. “My best guess is to try the train station. You can rent a carriage if you need help getting through the rain.”

“The station?” Tempest sneered. “Never heard of a flying train.”

Lightning Dust shrugged. “We could check it out, instead of waiting around doing nothing.”

---

A chrome and neon purple sign read “TELEPORTATION SERVICES” in bold, blue lettering while flashing an arrow towards a new extension of the Canterlot train station. Or rather, a renovated extension. Luna recalled it was once a fairly large cafe, though the space had since been stripped down and refurbished with two office long desks, each beside a small crystal platform that was slightly curved inward like a plate, or a very shallow bowl. A short line formed outside the glass doors, and looking inside, Luna could see creatures stepping onto one platform and vanishing, while others suddenly appeared on the other. The population of the customers was surprisingly varied. As expected, the largest group were ponies, but they probably didn’t make up half of all the customers. Yaks, hippogriffs, and the odd kirin here and there were eagerly waiting in line or appearing on the second platform.

Outside the room were a flat white screen and a crystal projector. It listed the names of cities, both within and without Equestria, accompanied with either a green or red alert that read “ready” and “teleporting” respectively. Starlight and Luna both looked at the sign curiously. There was Manehattan, Yakyakistan, the Crystal Empire, among others. Among those names, there was even Cloudsdale.

“How are they safely teleporting at this time of the year?” Starlight scratched her head. “Winter’s the busiest time for Cloudsdale. It moves more now than it does during the whole year.”

“Perhaps we can ask,” Luna said. “This is the first time I’ve heard of teleportation services. It is not an easily learned spell.”

Despite how quickly someone could be teleported, the platforms were only large enough for two or three ponies at the maximum. Most of the customers went one by one, which made the line go much slower than expected. Even so, the line shortened at a steady rate until they stood right up against the glass door.

“A flyer?” Tempest picked up a small square sheet of paper from a stack by the front door. Printed on the front was an image of a unicorn reading from a book and casting streams of magic from her horn. On the back, the words “travel the world” were written in bold letters.

“Join Equestria’s first and only travel company that operates on teleportation,” she read the finer description. “If you think you have the aptitude, head on over to our training centre in Canterlot to take your teleportation aptitude test. Who knows? One day, maybe you can be paid to travel the world.”

Starlight made a funny face at the flyer as Tempest read it. “A training centre for teleporting? It's hard, but it’s just one spell. If you’re going to get some training you might as well go to a school for magic.”

“Well, not every pony has that chance,” Tempest said. “Besides, aren’t you self-taught?”

“Yeah, but if they’re that good at magic, they wouldn’t need a training centre to learn how to teleport.”

“I can help the next customer.” At the front desk, a unicorn receptionist waved Luna and the other Knights into the room. She had a light green coat and a pastel-bluish mane. Though it didn’t seem like she worked on the teleportation platforms, she was smartly dressed in a suit and her mane was cut down until it was just above the height of her chin.

“Princess Luna!” She twitched, nearly jumping out of her seat as the Knights walked into the teleportation service. “Wow! I never thought I’d see a princess here. How can we help you?”

“My friends and I actually had some questions. We were wondering how it is that you’re able to teleport to Cloudsdale. During a storm in the middle of winter, the city should be nearly impossible to pinpoint with magic.”

“Well, I’d be happy to give any of our customers a quick run-down of our establishment.” She spun around on her swivel chair and gestured to another unicorn behind her to take the front desk. There were two long tables further back in the station, one faced the sending platform, the other faced the receiving. “We teleport all our customers safely and reliably using crystal pads like these. Not only are they sensitive to magic and help direct spells, but their exact positional data is recorded and copied to all our stations around the world.”

Starlight looked at the reception platform sceptically. “What happens when two stations want to send a pony to the same place at the same time? You could end up teleporting two ponies into each other.”

“That’s not a problem here,” the receptionist assured her. “Before a pony is teleported, every station has to send a request to the destination. We let them know when they’re free to do so.”

“How do you do that?”

“Well, I’m afraid that’s proprietary.” The receptionist deflected the question with a pearly-white smile. “But rest assured, the message gets there. Now, if you’d like, we can get all of you to Cloudsdale in a jiffy.”

Starlight gave Luna a look of distrust. “I’ve had my share of bad experiences when it comes to improper teleportation. I’m not so sure I trust this.”

“Teleportation is a very hard spell,” Luna agreed and addressed the receptionist. “I am in charge of my band, including their safety. You understand my position, surely.”

“Of course!” the mare exclaimed. “Don’t you worry your royal head. All unicorns who work as teleporters go through a rigorous crash course in the company’s patented teleportation spell. We use an improved version of the traditional spell, one that relies on knowing coordinate data of the destination instead of using vague or inaccurate mental images.”

“What?” Now Starlight was on the brink of fuming. “Coordinates are just numbers, they don’t mean anything. A teleportation spell needs some kind of mental tether.”

“That’s what makes our patent unique!” Her cheerful demeanour was like a bulwark against brash action. She didn’t even blink as Starlight leaned in closer as if to initiate an argument. “All our coordinates are recorded in a standardized system. That allows the spell to have a constant frame of reference for what all the numbers mean.”

“It seems safe, or else someone would have reported issues already.” Tempest put a hoof on Starlight’s shoulder. “The future is now, Starlight. No need to get worked up about it. This is just what it feels like to be old.”

“What? No,” Starlight protested. “I’m a few years younger than Twilight, I can’t be old.”

“She’s an alicorn, that doesn’t count,” Lightning Dust said. “Just look at Luna. A thousand years and she doesn’t a day over—”

“I don’t need that sentence finished,” Luna cut her off before turning her attention back to the receptionist, who seemed anxious to get their response. “We have a flight set for Cloudsdale, so our luggage is still on the blimp. Since you’re sure it’s safe, we’ll go get our bags and return for your services.”

The receptionist thanked them and wished them a dry trip back to the airport, where Luna spoke to the customer service representatives and got their flight cancelled. And she wasn’t the only one. As the band rolled their luggage through the airport, a line was forming at the customer service desk.

For the time being, most ponies seemed to trust the security of the blimp, even if it was delayed by the storm. But one day, perhaps, that would change as well. “What a time to be retired,” she mumbled to herself, wondering whether or not she would have gotten a chance to see the world-changing if she had stayed a princess.

Comments

[Yoshifan30]

“It seems safe, or else someone would have reported issues already.” Tempest put a hoof on Starlight’s shoulder. “The future is now, Starlight. No need to get worked up about it. This is just what it feels like to be old.”

“What? No,” Starlight protested. “I’m a few years younger than Twilight, I can’t be old.”

Ohhhh that's a huge burn fizzlepop lol 😆

[Yoshifan30]

It looks like Luna and Celestia are not in the best term right now I'm sure they'll figure out how to talk to each other properly without get each other's nerves but anyway it looks like the nightmare Knights are heading for a blimp unfortunately there's some weather problem and it looks like they're going to be a little delayed to get to their destination but they heard as a teleportation can transport to the destinations apparently sounds pretty interesting but of course Starlight and Luna are kind of worried about that because teleportation is not that easy and Luna wants to make sure that they all are safe well let's just hope this will work