The Nightmare Knights Become A Band

by SwordTune

Verse 6

“Power metal?” Octavia looked aghast at Luna’s request. “Vinyl, please, you bring your work home every night. I can tolerate it when it’s just dance music, but you’re going to drive me nuts if you accept Princess Luna’s offer.”

“If it’s space you’re worried about, you needn’t worry,” Luna assured. “My pension from the royal treasury is very substantial. I can afford a studio to keep all the equipment and recordings.”

Vinyl grinned eagerly. “Sounds good!” she seemed to say without even speaking.

“Well, concern for my tax money aside, that’s not the problem-” Octavia cut off as Vinyl Scratch signalled her roommate to talk privately. They seemed to have a special system of communication. Luna wasn’t sure if Vinyl actually spoke any words or not, but her hoof motions alone seemed expressive enough for Octavia to understand.

With Tempest arriving in the afternoon from the Crystal Empire, all that was left was some pony who knew how to operate sound equipment. Vinyl was a perfect choice, her stage moniker ‘DJ-PON3’ was popular among a lot of young Canterlot nobles. As a bonus, she wasn’t bad with the keyboard either and could do a lot to improve on the songs that were all jumbled up in Luna’s thoughts.

She couldn’t suppress forget about all of Cadence’s problems. Before she left the Crystal Empire, she warned her about the imprinted dark magic. She needed to know, but it only seemed to weigh the princess down even further. Luna knew she had no obligation to intervene, but she couldn’t help but feel her dreams were trivial compared to international relations.

It was another reason she remembered to come to this little house jutting from the Ponyville main road. Seeing two musician roommates bickering lightened Luna’s heart. Octavia’s concerns were definitely vital to her daily life. Just because it didn’t involve dragons and monsters didn’t make it any less important.

“Apologies, it’s just that Vinyl’s somewhat of a workaholic,” Octavia informed Luna. The remark brought an onslaught of flailing slaps from Vinyl in protest, but using her bow Octavia managed to keep her at bay. “She plays whatever she’s working on when she’s at home, and it can get very disturbing.”

Vinyl waved her hooves at Octavia. “It’s not your business,” she seemed to say. And she had a point. Roommates or not, Vinyl’s work was her own concern.

But Octavia disagreed. “It is my concern when you decide to ‘polish up’ your work at three o’clock in the morning.”

Vinyl shook her head. “It won’t be like that,” she meant.

“Oh yes it will,” Octavia challenged, gesturing with her hoof to the speakers and keyboards lying around on Vinyl’s side of the house. “Show me one time you’ve made anything remotely close to metal music. I know you can work twice as hard to do whatever Luna’s asking for, but I’m the one who has to pay for it with my sleep.”

“You know, lavender can-” Luna started.

Vinyl waved her hoof over her neck in a slicing motion, signalling with Luna to drop the advice. Octavia was clearly in no mood for it.

“Hmph,” Octavia sighed at Vinyl. “I can’t stop you if you really want to try this out, but at least give Luna another option. You and I both know that heavy metal isn’t your speciality.”

Vinyl waved Octavia’s complaint away. “I’m the best there is at this. Can you think of any pony who can help better than me?” There was a surprising amount of complexity to her gestures.

“A few names come to mind,” Octavia smirked.

“You know of some pony else who can help with audio mixing?” Luna asked.

“And more. If you’re thinking of making a real band and producing an album, you’ll want his help. Vinyl got his business card a while ago.”

Vinyl looked at Octavia with a concerned grimace. “Him? I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“You were my first choice,” Luna told Vinyl, “because frankly, I don’t know a lot of ponies in the music industry. But if there’s some pony who’d be better suited for this, I’d like your advice. I wouldn’t want to make you feel like you should perform with me just because I was a princess. There’s a lot I still don’t know about this stuff. ”

Octavia made the move to get the card when Vinyl hesitated. From a pile of old bills and receipts, she produced a small wallet filled with cards from realtors and banks. Among those, one card with dazzling borders printed on the front drew Luna’s eye.

“I heard he’s been in and out of the industry for a few years,” Octavia said.

Luna raised a brow. “But he’s still good?”

“So-so,” Vinyl motioned with a wobble of her hoof.

“He works as a producer and manager, mainly, but apparently he’s gotten into a lot of arguments with his past artists. He returned to making his own music because of it, but he’s nowhere near the level of the pop-idols he produced half a decade ago.”

“It’s a good thing I’m not looking for a pop-singer,” Luna mused as she read over the card. This “Svengallop” sounded familiar, but she couldn’t put her hoof on it. The address line read “Chicoltgo.” It was a detour, but even if he turned out to be a poor performer, he’d probably have the experience to put together a good album.

Vinyl patted Luna on the back with a bittersweet smile. “I’m still free if it doesn’t work out with that guy.” At least, that’s what Luna understood from Vinyl’s silent words.

---

Outside the castle, Luna found Lightning Dust circling the branches of the tree-like architecture. Starlight sat on the steps by the front entrance, tuning her guitar as Tempest Shadow watched carefully. Glitter Drops wasn’t anywhere to be seen, but Luna was sure she was somewhere in Ponyville. She seemed excited to get away from the Crystal Empire with Tempest.

“You really didn’t waste any time, did you?” Starlight waved her over once she was noticed. “Tempest’s basics are pretty solid, I’m just trying to help her play less stiffly. On the other hoof, Lightning Dust could stand to be a little less fluid with her drumming.”

“Hey!” Lightning Dust protested, “I didn’t hear any complaints from fans of the Washouts.”

“Would ponies seeing a stunt show care about an off-beat drum track?” Tempest challenged. Unable to provide a retort, the pegasus returned to her flying.

“I spoke to some pony in town I thought could help with the sound mixing once we’re done. She seemed eager to help, but pointed me in a better direction.” Luna showed Svengallop’s business card to the other mares.

“Never heard of him,” Tempest and Lightning Dust reacted simultaneously, while Starlight recognized the name with some hesitation.

“If that’s the same stallion I’m thinking of, then you might want to go back to the other pony,” she suggested. “Applejack and Twilight talked about him once over breakfast. Apparently, he was a lousy manager for Countess Coloratura, one of Applejack’s fillyhood friends.”

“What kind of name is ‘Countess Coloratura?’” Tempest asked.

“Psht,” Lightning stuck her landing with a wolfish grin at Tempest, “same kind of name as ‘Fizzlepop Berrytwist.’”

A spark of magic arced from Tempest’s broken horn into the ground. “Say that again and Luna’s going to be down a drummer.”

“Relax,” she buzzed her off, “I don’t even know if I’m going to stick around or not.”

“You could at least help with the first song,” Luna said.

The three mares looked at her. They wore a little bit of apprehension on their face. But more than that, they just seemed surprised. It was late afternoon. Given the train schedule, Tempest had only been here a few hours. The whole band hadn’t been together for even a day and Luna was already thing about playing a song.

“Aight,” Lightning Dust agreed. “I think I have enough raw talent, this won’t take long.”

“Except for the fact that Starlight’s only gone over a few chords with me,” Tempest said.

“Well, we don’t need too many. Working with C-sharp, G-sharp, and B gives us a good starting point. But why the rush?”

Luna put the business card away. “Svengallop’s past mistakes have been directly linked to music. And from what I was told, it doesn’t seem like he has recovered well. I want to test how good he is by helping us mix a single before thinking about an album.”

“Weeding out the weak, huh?” Tempest grinned. Lightning Dust noticed and elected to take a few steps back.

“Hopefully we won’t have to weed him out,” Luna said. “But let’s focus on getting a song together first.”

---

In the back of the castle, in a storage room too big for any single pony to fill, Starlight set up their drums and guitar amps. Purchasing what they didn’t have was easy. Microphones, power cords, and extra speakers were plenty in Ponyville’s shops, though a little pricey.

“How does a magical castle grown from the ground get electricity?” Tempest asked as she plugged her guitar in.

“Uh,” Starlight hesitated. It was one of the few times she stopped to question the building she was living in. “Well, it’s a tree. I think the crystals are photoelectric. The top branches must gather power from the sun and store it.”

“You learn something new every day,” Lightning Dust remarked. “What does photoelectric mean?”

The band continued that way into the night, passing side conversations while they built up their song bar by bar. Here and there, Tempest proved her time selecting propaganda music for the Storm King was not a total waste. Starlight’s heart was in the right place, but her chord selection mimicked other heavy metal songs too closely.

Tempest’s fresh perspective added complexity where needed and simplified parts with excessive riffs. Lightning Dust, too, learned quickly. As they built up their song, the drums turned from simple beat keeping to taking the forefront of the music at times. The back and forth was a rhythm she was familiar with from both the Wonderbolts and the Washouts.

“Are you sure about these lyrics?” Starlight asked once they had completed a complete rehearsal of the first complete draft.

“It won’t fit perfectly with some of the guitar notes, so I expect I’ll be changing the words a little bit.” Luna handed out a revised music score she had hastily written out. “But, I think it’s good enough to begin editing.”

“Think you might scare Svengallop off with this,” Tempest mentioned.

Lightning Dust nodded. “Ya think? Hehe, I wanna see that. He sounds like a tool.”

“We can judge that when we meet him,” Luna asserted, “for now, I’d like to go through it one more time. If we can be a little more synchronous, this draft could be good enough to sell.”

“Here we go again,” Lightning Dust said, propping up the sheet music on the stand in front of her. She counted down, “One, two, three, four!” and music hit the air:

“The nightmare comes,

To visit us,

The nightmare comes

For we all are...

Comments

[Yoshifan30]

Oh So you're making vinyl mute in this story ok cool And I guess Octavia knows how to communicate with her which is that's pretty awesome as well that's how much close they are

[Yoshifan30]

Vinyl looked at Octavia with a concerned grimace. “ Him? I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

Oh lord Do not tell me it's him Because I really hate that guy so much I know what vinyl is talking about But unfortunately It's gotta be him

[Yoshifan30]

“I spoke to some pony in town I thought could help with the sound mixing once we’re done. She seemed eager to help, but pointed me in a better direction.” Luna showed Svengallop’s business card to the other mares.

God dang it i know it Svengallop return again after the bs he pulled 😒

[Yoshifan30]

“If that’s the same stallion I’m thinking of, then you might want to go back to the other pony,” she suggested. “Applejack and Twilight talked about him once over breakfast. Apparently, he was a lousy manager for Countess Coloratura, one of Applejack’s fillyhood friends.”

oh trust me he nothing but trouble ever since season 5 god I can't stand him