The Nightmare Knights Become A Band

by SwordTune

Verse 4

Luna could sense the dreams circling Rainbow Dash’s house. There were two ponies, both deeply ambitious and fearless. No doubt the other was the friend Mrs Cake mentioned. She checked the height of the moon. Still far from its zenith, they weren’t asleep yet. But she needed to ask soon. The dream realm was tugging on their minds already.

A few minutes after ringing the doorbell, she met and greeted the young Wonderbolt.

“Luna? Wait, have I been dreaming?”

She clenched her jaws and seethed the frustration out. If she had one bit for very time ponies greeted her like that, she’d own half the royal treasury.

“No, you are very much awake. I came to ask a favour if you don’t mind.”

Rainbow shrugged, still shaking off the remnants of her dream. “Well, I’m not asleep yet. Shoot.”

As succinctly as she could, Luna explained her dreams of starting a band and what Mrs Cake had said about her guest. But, if her friend was tired from a long trip, she understood.

“She told Mrs Cake we’re friends?” Rainbow rubbed her eyes. “Not sure if I agree with that. There’s a lot of stuff between us, and not all of it’s awesome. I just felt bad for her, that’s why I let her stay, just for a few nights.”

“In that case, I would very much like to talk with her while I can,” Luna said, “I’d like to make as few trips as possible.”

Rainbow Dash shrugged. “Sure, I got no problem with that. I was about to turn in for the night but Lightning’s a bit more of a night owl than me.”

For a cloud house, the inside was surprisingly comfortable. The floors were tiles of compressed cloud, no different from stone in texture. Despite all her time as a princess, Luna realized she didn’t pay much attention to the weather industry.

“Quite the place,” Luna quietly admired as they passed a few bags in the foyer.

“Thanks, made the pillars myself out of spare weather clouds,” Rainbow accepted the praise. “Hey, yo Lightning Dust! You still awake?”

“How could I not be with you yapping like that?” The light blue, yellow maned mare stuck her head down the stairs.

Dash’s wings ruffled up, annoyed. “That’s a whole lot of gratitude for some pony who lends you a spare room.”

“You offered, I didn’t ask.” As she trotted down Luna could tell Lightning had just been in the shower. Warm vapours wafted through the whole house, and she couldn’t help but wonder how exactly a showed worked when living in a cloud. “I can do just fine on my own- Princess Luna?” The mare stopped in the middle of the stairs, halfway through wrapping a towel around her soaked mane.

“Just Luna,” she replied.

“Don’t know why, but she wanted to talk to you,” Rainbow Dash grumbled.

Lightning Dust sneered. “Guess she needs a pony who knows how to take risks, instead of goody-goody Wonderbolt.”

Dash scoffed and rolled her eyes. “That’s it, I’m going to bed. Every time I think you’re getting better, you somehow remind me that you can’t make a good decision to save your own skin.”

She shoved her way up the stairs, the compressed clouds surprisingly soft enough to keep her hoof steps from shaking through the whole house. Lightning Dust shot a dirty eye at her as she went, but broke it off as soon as she was out of sight.

“Neither of you appears to enjoy this arrangement,” Luna noted. “What keeps you here?”

“Other than Rainbow’s self-righteous sense of morality? I was the leader of the Washouts until she got in the way. I got a new recruit on our team to try a new stunt, but she ruined it. After that, the other Washouts turned on me and kicked me out for messing up.”

Luna furrowed her brow. “I heard the news from Princess Twilight. You endangered a child with a rocket if I remember correctly.”

“I didn’t make that kid do anything I wouldn’t have done myself,” Lightning defended. “Plus, I had two of the best fliers I know by my side. If something did go wrong, we knew how to handle it. Rainbow Dash completely hijacked our rhythm.”

“I see.” She walked over to the living room, where Rainbow had laid out an assortment of flight paths and stunt plans for future Wonderbolt shows. Boasting her accomplishments in front of Lightning Dust was surely to make the mare frustrated.

“So why come here?”

“Thought I’d start by making Dash feel bad, let her know that all she did was ruin my life.” Lightning Dust folded her wings tightly. “I guess it worked, ‘cause she offered me her spare room for a few nights.”

“Any other pony would take that as a blessing,” Luna said, “but it doesn’t like it the way you’re speaking.”

“Of course not!” She stomped her hoof. “She ruined my life and now she’s helping me. She thinks she can pity me when it’s her fault. I can’t stand it!”

Luna tilted her head. “Lightning Dust, do you want to know why I’m here?”

“Yeah, I’ve been wondering that.”

“I came looking for a drummer for a band. My band, specifically,” Luna said. “I want to perform music because it’s how I can move on from my own past. I have to accept that it happened, and accept that some part of me will always have that darkness. That’s how I will control my future.”

“Yeah, cool story. I’m not really getting how that applies to me.”

“Do you play music?” Luna asked.

Lightning Dust bobbed her head around. “Yeah, a little bit. The Washouts mostly used remixed music from other artists, but I was the one who added our own drum tracks over them. Just to give the performance a personal rhythm.”

“Then you’re already halfway there. I think music can do even more to help you, if you let it,” Luna continued. “I think you’re blaming Rainbow Dash because you can’t accept what happened. You started the Washouts because you accepted that you weren’t meant for the Wonderbolts. Now that it’s gone, the only thing left for you to accept is that you made a mistake.”

“I don’t need to accept that,” Lightning Dust stepped away towards the foyer, grabbing something out of the bags laying there. It was a pair of headphones, like the kind Luna saw on one of the ponies in Ponyville. She had the wire wrapped up around a tape player. “Good luck with you’re band, Luna, but I have a long day of flight practice tomorrow. I gotta keep my form up if I want a shot at the next Equestria Games.”

“You listen to music when you go to sleep?”

“Yeah, so?” Lightning Dust held her player a little closer. “Any good athlete knows she has to relax as much as she trains. Overworking just breaks you down.”

“Trust me, I know all about overworking,” Luna chuckled. “If you don’t mind, I’d like to know what kind of music a pony like you listens to. It’ll help to think about my audience when I’m writing my own songs.”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea. It’s late. I’m just going to turn in.” Lightning Dust quickly stuck the headphone jack into her tape player and started her music.

Well, not exactly music. Luna tilted her head at the tape playing device while Lightning Dust rummaged through her bag for a set of pyjamas. It seemed the point of the headphones were to direct the sound. So, Luna wondered, why in Equestria could she still hear the rain audio playing out of the device?

“Erm… Lightning Dust?” She tried telling her, but it seemed pointless. Something was definitely playing in those headphones. Luna walked out to the foyer and took a closer look. The headphones seemed fine, but when the problem became clear with a second pass of the tape player. The jack was not sticking fully into the player.

“What?” Lightning Dust leaned away from Luna’s staring.

Luna gently pulled the headphones down from her ears. “It seems even modern devices have their flaws.”

Lightning Dust’s gaze slowly turned in horror as she realized she could still hear her player, even without the headphones on. And in the rain sound, a gentle voice cut through the pitter-patter.

“Welcome back. I hope you have found a relaxing space,” a stallion’s voice whispered, followed by the sound of breath blowing on the microphone. “It’s time to forget about the other sounds in your life. We are the only ponies in this space. I am your voice, you are my ears. I need you. You are special. You are wanted.” The voice drifted away like pollen on a breeze, replaced by the sound of sand pouring.

Lightning Dust stood petrified while Luna listened on with the utmost curiosity. “This is normal for ponies to listen to?”

“Y-yes!” She slammed the stop button on the player and threw it back into her bags. “Rain can be calming, and the voice keeps it interesting. He talks about all kinds of stuff, so don’t assume.”

“I think I recognize the voice from ponies’ dreams. Ponies call him the ‘Affirmation Guru,’ right? I usually hear the tapes when I’m in lonely dreams.”

Lightning Dust gave no answer, but she couldn’t hide the redness of her face. “It’s not like that,” she mumbled.

“Huh?” Luna leaned in. “I couldn’t quite hear.”

“I said it’s not what you think!” Lightning Dust backed even further away. “He just has a very relaxing voice. It’s the perfect tool for recovering after a workout. I’m not the kind of pony who needs reminders like that. If there were any more relaxing sounds I’d listen to those instead!”

“Very well,” Luna conceded and stepped toward the door, “I would like to not have come here for nothing. You might be fine on your own, but as a favour to me, fly by the castle the day after tomorrow. The rest of the Nightmare Knights should be there by then.”

“Nightmare Knights?” Lightning raised a brow. “Isn’t that a bit… derivative?”

“If you can think of something better, swing by the castle.”

Comments

[Yoshifan30]

Ok I was not expecting Lightning Dust to be at rainbow dashes house but ok cool and she has some interesting way to listen to some music or whatever they called that but hey everyone listen to different stuff but I wonder she going to join in