• 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: Svengallop Hunts Them Down

“I can’t talk right now, Svengallop. Don’t you have somewhere else to be?”

Rainbow Dash trod through the school as fast as her hooves could take her. She would’ve galloped or flown out of there as soon as possible, but on account of a little accident a few weeks ago, which she still insisted was not her fault, Starlight had banned running and flying in the hallways.

Could the rules be bent just this once? She hoped so. Svengallop was relentless, following her from the school’s entrance through to the classrooms and teacher’s lounge.

“Yeah, on the road to Rainbow Falls, but I can’t find any of my band members, so you better cough up what you know.”

“That’s kind of not my problem,” Rainbow said as she swerved around two students frantically going over their notes as they walked to their next test. “I’m proctoring for Starlight right now. I don’t know where she went, she didn’t tell me anything, and I don’t know anything about the rest of your band either. Now leave me alone.”

She took one quick look down the hallway, making sure the way was clear, and then bolted through the air as fast as she could without blowing out the windows.

“That’s just great,” Svengallop said, pressing a hoof up to his temple, “now how the fuck am I going find them?”

“Svengallop?”

He jumped and whirled around, finding a young orange-scaled dragon standing behind him and clutching a binder full of papers.

“Oh hey... you,” he said.

“Smolder. You remember, right? From the—”

“Crystal Empire, yeah. By the way, Smolder, you wouldn’t happen to know where Starlight is, would you?”

Smolder shook her head. “Can’t help, sorry. I gotta get to my next test, but if you’re still looking for her when I’m done, I can help.”

“I’m perfectly capable on my own, thank you,” Svengallop said, waving her away. “You just do your friendship test or whatever.”

“Hey, unless you have the school memorized and wings to fly, I’m pretty sure you need me. But if you’re so sure, fine. See ya around.” She hurried past him to her next classroom.

If her own teachers and students didn’t know where she was, Svengallop realized he probably wasn’t going to find her. That was fine. She was usually late, anyway. He looked through a window, out to the Castle of Friendship overlooking Ponyville. Starlight might’ve been lost to him, but he knew for a fact Lightning Dust and Tempest were still around.


The words flashed boldly in the bright evening sun. Nights were getting shorter, but still, the arcade lights flashed their vibrant colours in the dimmed orange sun. Bakeries, nature trails, spas and saunas, Svengallop checked every corner of what scant attractions, if you could call them that, Ponyville offered. Worse still, he couldn’t shake his new tail.

Smolder caught up with him an hour ago when he was asking shop owners if they had seen Tempest or Lightning, or as he put it, an “edge-lord unicorn” or a “crazy pegasus.” He was thankful she cut the time in half by flying through the shops but wondered why she was still hanging around him.

“If we don’t find them here, can I still kick your ass at air hockey?” she asked, looking through the window at the games the arcade offered.

“I’m telling Starlight you said that.”

“Yeah, if you can find her.”

“You’re not even a little worried about where she might be?” he asked.

“Nope.” Smolder shook her head as they entered. “I’ve seen her banish Discord’s physical form, I’m sure she can handle her own problems. I’m more worried about you, dude. You look like you didn’t sleep well last night.”

“Worried about me?” Svengallop let off an exasperated sigh. “Look, kid, I know we almost died to shadow monsters or whatever, but I’ve never been good with kids. I won’t be a good friend, just saying.”

A blaring bell rang through the arcade as some colts hit the high score in one of the games. Big yellow letters lit up like stars over the arcade machine, reading out TEST YOUR BUCK followed by a small red score on the crystal screen below.

“Yeah, yeah, you’re a piece of shit or something like that, I’ve heard all about it from professor Applejack. Hey, do you think I can try that strength machine? Dragon’s don’t really kick like ponies, but I could give it a good punch.”

“I don’t think any pony’s going to stop you,” Svengallop commented before realizing he was getting sidetracked.

He watched silently in the sticky muck of the arcade, where drippings of cotton candy and other confections crept and crawled and clung onto joysticks and ticket dispensers, all the while warm air from the street outside crashed with the cool touch of air conditioning. He wanted to return to the spa, even if Tempest and Lightning Dust would never be found there.

And then came the ding-dong bells ringing in the air. Smolder gave an impressive hit on the buck strength game, but quit once it became clear that a kick from the hind legs of a pony was nothing to laugh at. She carried on without breaking her stride and began chucking tiny balls through a miniature buckball hoop. She scored dead-centre once. Then again. And again until a pile of tickets spewed out at her feet.

She gathered them up and played again, pulling another gilded coin from her coin pouch, a small little bag with a drawstring that circled the waist that would scarcely be noticed unless looked at directly. Kla-chink rolled the coin into the buckball machine, and Smolder resumed her raid of the machine’s supply of tickets.

Svengallop walked up beside her. “I’m pretty sure you’re not supposed to do it like that. It’s called buckball. I think you kick it.”

“Meh,” Smolder shrugged, “every creature has their own way of doing things.”

“Y-yeah, but that’s not the point of the game.” He looked at the growing bundle of tickets in her claws. “But I can’t deny the results.”

“You wanna try?” Smolder passed a ball to him. “You just have to yeet it as hard as you can.”

“No thanks, I don’t do… yeeting,” he said. “Besides, I still have a few ponies to find, remember?”

And then, with no warning or proper transition, Tempest and Rara entered the arcade. Svengallop stopped and stared, his silence grabbing Smolder’s attention for a moment.

“Huh, will you look at that,” she sneered at him. “Told you I could help.”

Hrrm…” Svengallop said, clenching his jaw. “Shut up. This doesn’t mean you were right.”


Svengallop dragged Tempest out of the arcade and planted her hoofs on the side of the road. “I have been searching for you all day. Where have you been?”

Tempest shrugged. “Well, Dropsy went back to the Crystal Empire to get stuff to trade at Rainbow Fall, so I’ve just been waiting for Starlight. She’s supposed to teleport us there, right?”

“Okay, well there are other things we could have done, like practising our opening song or tuning the guitars a little.”

“I tuned mine last week. Jeez, you need to relax, old man.”

“I am not— what the hell even is a ‘man?’”

“We heard some ponies saying it at the bowling alley,” Rara said, giggling along with Tempest. “Does it matter what it is? It fits you.”

“Har-har, guess that’s what I get for not teaching you how to respect your elders.” Svengallop looked away, raising his chin up at their indignity.

“Not like there’s much going here to respect,” Rara continued, waving him off.

Svengallop gasped. “How dare— after all that I’ve—” he flustered over his words before locking himself up in a grimace. “You know what? Fine.” He peered at Tempest. “It’s not like any pony,” he paused and looked at Smolder, “anyone listens to me anyways. Since we’re all waiting on Starlight, I’m just going to go find her instead.”

“What? Come on Sven!” Rara smiled and tugged at his hoof. “We’re just pulling your hoof. Look, Applejack asked me to help her pick up some extra school supplies Starlight stored in her castle, and while I was there, I saw that her mirror portal thing was turned on. Wherever she is, you’re not finding her.”

“I’ve been to other worlds,” he replied. “You don’t know me, you don’t know what I can do.”

“Uh-huh, like that time we were passing through Appleloosa and you said you knew how to fix a carriage wheel but you didn’t, you just didn’t want to go to a repair shop? Rara rolled her eyes. “I know exactly what you can do, Sven, you’re not fooling anyone.”

“Their service was twice the normal price, of course I didn’t want to go to them!” Svengallop defended himself. “Anyway, since when were you friends with Tempest?”

“Actually,” Tempest said, “she wanted to talk to you. She found me at the bar while she was trying to look for you.”

Svengallop glared at Rara. “You tried looking for me at a bar? How much do you think I drink?

“On a normal day or when a concert is coming up? Because those are two wildly different things for you.” Rara paused and then dropped her smirk. “Look, I’m not trying to dig up the past, okay? I found you, and you found Tempest. We all have what we want, now can we just talk? I’ll buy you a dirty martini if that makes it better.”

Svengallop seethed, tapping his hoof on the street and shaking his head with disbelief. “Can I at least get a bottle of cider on the side?”

Rara scoffed and laughed. “You just can’t help yourself, can you?”


None of them had seen Lightning Dust anywhere, and since the sun was beginning to give the sky over to the moon, Svengallop decided he should count his blessings that he even managed to run into Tempest. He admitted Ponyville was growing bigger than he expected, and it was getting harder to find every pony. Most of it was because of the school. The new businesses starting up—the arcade, restaurants, and party venues—were geared towards adventurous youths ready to explore the new freedom that came with studying away from home. He looked over his shoulder to Smolder, who was sharing a drink of cider with Tempest.

“So, you’re good with kids now?” Rara asked, passing him a bottle of cider while the bartender made his martini.

“As if,” Svengallop replied. “Kids are sticky, dirty, dumb little things. I don’t know why you care so much. Let them help themselves! I didn’t get ahead by waiting for someone to come and give me a pep-talk.”

“Okay, well before we get off-topic and I remember why we don’t work together anymore, I’m just going to say it. I wanted to talk about collaborating with Luna on a song.”

“Why talk to me about it?” Svengallop said as he put down his cider and carefully inspected the martini the bartender had placed before him. “I’m just the keyboard and sound guy. Poppin’s the manager.”

“Yeah, I tried getting a hold of her. Poppin is back in Manehattan handling sales for that new single you released, plus ticket sales for Rainbow Falls. Then there are the new plays coming out on Bridleway that she has to help out with. I don’t want to put another thing on her plate.”

“And so you come to me.”

“Oh, I’m fine with inconveniencing you,” Rara said, laughing. “That was basically my job for years as Coloratura, wasn’t it?”

“Eh, I’ve managed worse,” Svengallop shrugged. He took a sip of his drink and immediately scrunched up his face. “Ugh, this stallion does not know how to make a proper martini.”

“Free drink and you still complain?” Rara took the glass from him and sampled it just to prove him wrong. As soon as her lips touched the drink, she quickly put it back down. “What the hell? That’s way too salty. How much olive did he use?”

“So, that perfect mask of yours is gone, huh? Well, if you’re swearing again, that means I can finally enjoy myself.” Svengallop waved to the bartender. He waved to the bartender. “Two shots of whiskey for both of us, and keep the cider coming, okay?”

They needed two more bottles of cider to wash out the unbalanced taste of the martini before Rara could get back to business.

From the sound of things, it was clear to Svengallop that she was serious. A lot of the details had been planned already. The collaboration was going to be with her and one other band from Mount Aris. The goal was fusing the music styles of each band, mixing the Knights’ metal instrumentation with the tropical style and genre that was developing from the close contact between hippogriff and pony musicians.

And then there was the music video. Gone were the days of the radio star, apparently. According to Rara, fillies and colts in the Crystal Empire could watch music videos on crystalline screens.

“Music should be watched live, that’s what concerts are for,” Svengallop reacted when she explained the idea.

“You’re old, get used to it,” she teased him. “It’s called multimedia for a reason. Multiple media, like music and video. Sound and sight. It’s selling huge up north.”

“This isn’t another one of your charity projects is it? Because it kind of sounds like one.”

Rara cast a frown at him. “And what’s wrong with that?”

“Just wondering why you want the Knights to be a part of it. You’re perfectly capable of making music without help, and if any pony represents Equestrian music, it would be the number one pop-star of this generation. Why us?”

“Mostly it’s because of Luna and Starlight. AJ says a lot of good things about Starlight, and Luna’s a princess, so I’m pretty sure they’d both like to help out. And to answer your first question, it’s not a charity. More like a project. The world’s mixing up together, and I think some ponies are having a hard time not being at the centre of the world. If our music can help bring different cultures together, even just a little bit, shouldn’t we do it?”

Svengallop looked over his shoulder again. Tempest and Smolder were in a hoof wrestling contest, or rather hoof-and-claw wrestling. Nearly six months ago now, those two were in the Crystal Empire just trying to survive the onslaught of shadow beasts.

The chill of the winds that night was still fresh in his mind sometimes. Most didn’t like to think about Equestria’s dormant magics, the dark and mysterious powers locked away behind prisons of time, simply waiting to be released. And even when it was fixed, it wasn’t gone. Because the problem wasn’t the magic.

Svengallop looked at Smolder. The problem was the ponies who were so scared of dragons raining fire or griffons scamming for money that they couldn’t listen when perfectly normal kids just wanted to live in Equestria.

“Yeah, we should do something about it,” Svengallop finally said.

“So, you’ll talk to Luna about it?”

“No,” he shook his head, “but you can. If I remember correctly, there’s a funnel cake stall at the Rainbow Falls Trade Fair that you could never resist. Are you going this year?”

“Miss the fair? Not a chance. But is Luna going to have time?”

“I do everything for that princess anyway. Don’t get in a tizzy about it, Countess. I’ll make sure she has time.”

Rara smirked. “Thanks, Sven.”

“Yeah, don’t mention it, kid.”


They called it a night before they got too full on cider and whisky. Rara had her own work to do and needed to take a teleportation station back to Manehattan before they closed for the night, and it was never a good idea to be drunk during a teleport. Ponies, apparently, had been finding that out the hard way.

Tempest offered to walk Smolder back to the school, leaving the two of them as they passed by the Ponyville train station.

“Hey, Rara,” Svengallop placed a hoof on her shoulder, holding her back for a moment. “I, uh, guess I should probably thank you. I mean, the Knights aren’t doing too bad, but a collaboration would really put us up on the charts. So, thanks.”

“I’m not doing it to help your ratings,” she frowned. “Is that really what you took away from everything we talked about?”

“N-no, that’s not what I mean. I just… I think I’m trying to apologize. Even if I didn’t do anything wrong, I shouldn’t have made you feel like I was ignoring what you wanted.”

“Sweet Celestia, that wasn’t an apology, Sven!” Rara’s brows knitted closer together, a face he hadn’t seen since their last big argument. “You lied to me and went behind my back, that’s what you did wrong.”

“Shit, give me a break, you know I’m bad with this—”

She stomped her hoof down. “Just stop it. You don’t even know how much it took for me to talk to you today. Ever since I found out who you really are, I have spent way too much time and energy doing everything I can to forget about you. Do you get that? I hated you, Sven. Not just disliked. I hated you.”

He hung his head down, not out of surprise, but from confirmation. Of course she hated him. That’s how he joined the Knights in the first place, he was just another stray who dug his own grave. He looked at his hooves, imagining himself on stage, playing the keys next to Lightning Dust’s drums.

Lightning Dust. Even she made amends with her past. “Rivals for life” was such bullshit. Rainbow Dash was her best friend at this point. But where was he? Still on that stage, living for that stage, living for the lights and the crowds and the music. Because every pony cheered for the music. Who the hell else would cheer for him? No pony was waiting for him afterwards.

“I know,” he whispered.

“No, you don’t,” Rara laughed. “Because the only reason I can hate you so much is that I know you. And I know that sometimes when we were on tour, you’d strangle the backstage staff if it meant I’d get my favourite ice cream flavour. Or you’d stay up the whole night with me to work through a new song whenever I had writer’s block. Or you’d check every meal I ate so I’d never get another allergic reaction.”

She sighed and pressed her hoof to her head. “I don’t know what to think about you anymore, Sven. I left home to make my music career real, and for years you were the one who was always by my side. But what you were doing with all the lies just makes every good memory so bitter.”

And then, while wearing his good shirt too, Svengallop sat on the train station’s dirty, dusty, rickety wooden floor. Leaning against a supporting pillar, he looked out to the moon sailing its light across a clear spring sky.

“Oh look, it’s raining,” he said.

Rara raised a brow and followed his gaze. “It’s completely cloudless, Sven.”

He shook his head, and then wiped the water from his face. “No, it’s wet, see? That means it’s raining. It has to be.”

Rara blinked, trying to clear her eyes and make sure she was seeing clearly. It was as if the image before her was unbelievable. Absolutely inconceivable.

“Holy fucking shit, Sven,” she said in a gasping laugh. “Are you crying? Did I seriously make you cry?”

“Shut up, ‘kay? It’s not funny!”

“I’m sorry, I know.” Rara bit her tongue, her stifling giggles still managing to slip out. “I just never thought that you could actually feel emotions. Gosh, I didn’t realize you were a liar and a little bitch.”

He wiped his face and laughed. “Fuck you. What would that apple friend say if she heard you right now.”

“She’d probably kick your ass for turning me into some pony who swears.”

Svengallop smiled and stood back up. He almost hopped up with how light he was feeling. “Well, this probably isn’t the best time to mention it, but,” he pointed to the door to the teleportation services, “I’m pretty sure that unicorn’s about to lock up for the night.”

Rara’s eyes went wide and she whipped around so fast Svengallop swore he could hear her back crack. “Wait, no! Oh fuck, oh shit, please be open. Don’t leave me here with him!”

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