The Real Nightmare Knights

by Bigwig6666

Being A Hero Is For Chumps

“When I was a filly... I dreamed about being something greater than I was. When I let bitterness rule my heart and transform me into my deepest, darkest nightmare, I felt no ill will towards my sister. Instead, I cursed myself for my own stupidity and for allowing jealousy to dictate my actions, and I accepted my fate. I took it upon myself to atone for my mistakes, and through them, I learned to be a better princess, a better pony, and a better sister...”

The solitary grandfather clock in the corner of the small office space ticked loudly as a deafening silence descended upon those gathered.

Luna of Equestria, formerly princess, let her words hang in the air as she folded her hooves over her desk. She took deep, slow breaths, exhaling softly out of her nose.

In front of her, her four ‘employees’ and sorry looking associates stood, quietly and solemnly, not daring to say a single word. Their uniforms, once sleek and neat tan-coloured jumpsuits that signified what and who they were, were covered, simply drenched, in something which could only be described as goo, slime or even goop to the untrained eye. To those in the know, namely those present, it was in actual fact known as the dreaded gak--and source of the princess’s discontent.

The night blue alicorn suddenly slammed her hooves down on her desk, knocking a nearby picture off the wall and raised her voice at them. “So why in Tartarus, do you insist on making things difficult for me?!” she bellowed in her royal Canterlot voice, shaking the very room in which they stood and chilling them all to the bone.

Luna glowered at them all with a quiet fury she hadn’t felt in an age and lowered herself down back to her seat.

The devious changeling.

The magic eating centaur.

The unassuming monster.

And the unrelenting invader.

They were the Nightmare Knights. They were her most proud creations, and yet they did vex her unlike anything else, and often caused her a severe headache--and endless stacks of paperwork to fill out.

Commander Tempest Shadow, the appointed leader of the Nightmare Knights, held her head up high and looked the former princess in the eye. This wasn’t the first time she had been reprimanded by a superior, and it surely wouldn’t be the last, and so she didn’t let her feelings of resentment show. Her hooves squelched and squished as she readjusted herself, looking ahead calmly at nothing in particular. Remaining as stone faced as usual, she cleared her throat and began to speak.

“With respect, ma’am,” she said. “We got the job done, just like you asked.”

Luna pinched the bridge of her nose and exhaled a hot flush of air out her nostrils. “Yes, I understand that, but at what cost? Half of Canterlot is covered in the same gak you find yourselves drenched in!”

Behind the mauve coloured unicorn with a broken horn, her comrade in arms, the former changeling queen, Chrysalis, snorted derisively and looked at her fellow Knights, offering them a cheeky grin. “And I thought Twilight was ungrateful,” she muttered under her breath.

The Magic-Eater himself, Lord Tirek, and the filly Cozy Glow suppressed a smile back at her, knowing more reprimands would come, not only from the former princess, but from the leader of their company, whom of which they held a certain fear for--in spite of Luna’s wrath.

“Shut it!” Tempest barked, turning her head sharply to the right and fixing the changeling with a glare that could curdle milk.

Chrysalis clamped her jaw shut and made no further comment, choosing instead to look down at the ground as a glob of gak dripped out of her mane. Her membranous wings clung together in the sticky goo and rustled uncomfortably.

Beside her, Tirek picked off a bit of goo clinging to one of his forearms and grimaced. Beside him, Cozy Glow did something similar, extracting some of the slime out of her mane and flicked it onto the floor, panicking in silence for a moment when she realised she smeared it into the carpet before choosing to simply step over it and hope nopony saw her, looking around with wide eyes.

“We understand, ma’am,” Tempest continued, turning back to look at Luna. “But I repeat, we got the job done. That’s what you wanted, yes?”

Luna sighed and glowered at them all, the unicorn in particular. “You are correct, Commander, however, you will be assigned clean-up duty-”

“Aw, what?” Cozy murmured, quickly clamping a hoof over her mouth when Tempest shot her a look.

“Clean-up duty,” their boss repeated with a firmer voice. “And then, as I promised...” Luna looked at them all in turn and rubbed her temple. “Take a day off for personal development--but only--when Canterlot has been thoroughly cleaned. Am I clear, Knights?”

The Knights all snapped to attention. “Yes ma’am,” they chanted in unison.

“Good. Dismissed. I want to see those streets spotless.”

The former princess waved a hoof at them and bid them on their way. She stood and rose form her desk, turning to look out the window at the city. Canterlot always seemed much further away when she was in her royal chambers. Now she was simply a public servant, not quite a bureaucrat, but not quite anything else either, it seemed so much closer, and she herself seemed so much more involved than ever before.

And she loved it.

Her project was mad, nuts, some would say, and caused her no end of trouble, but she loved it all. Even her Nightmare Knights, as much as they irritated and annoyed her. Speaking of annoying, the glistening hoofprints left by them caught her eye, and caused her to sigh and half heartedly bring out a bucket and a set of sponges from under her desk.

She grumbled and grunted to herself as she began scrubbing and tidying up after them. When she saw some of the gak was smeared into the carpet and needed something stronger to come out, she pinched the bridge of her nose again and let loose a soft growl.

“Cozyyy...”

***

The streets of Canterlot were a mess. Even after several hours dragged by, very little progress had been made in cleaning it all up. A thin trail of slime coated the ground, and there were several globs of goo clinging to various walls, streetsigns and lamposts.

The Nightmare Knights worked hard and diligently, scrubbing at a corner of the main street to try and remove the slime from wherever they could.

“Boy, you sure told her, Commander,” Cozy Glow murmured as she used a small brush to scrub a lamppost, flitting around it with her small wings.

“Personally I would have given her a few more choice words,” grumbled Tirek, as he used his magic to bundle up large swaths of gak and engulf them in a fiery glow.

“Good thing you kept them to yourself, then, Tirek,” Tempest snapped as she used her hooves to scoop up as much slime as she could and dump it in one of the nearby waste disposal bins they had borrowed from the sanitation department of Equestria’s capital city. “Remember, you’re all on probation as far as Luna is aware.” She paused and wiped some sweat from her brow, taking care not to get any slime on her face.

Tirek pointed to a delicate looking mare sitting away from them, idly pawing at some of the slime in between her hooves, “What about her? Why does she get a free pass?”

Tempest narrowed her eyes. Her horn crackled to life, and a small zap of electricity fired out and hit the mare square in the flank, making her yelp and spin around “Ow! Hey, what gives?!” she cried, rubbing the sore spot on her rump.

“Chrysalis,” the commander warned, seeing through the shape shifter’s disguise as clear as day. “This is your mess we’re in, so it’s only fair for you to come and help us clean up. Remember, if you had just followed the plan, we wouldn’t even be here.”

The mare paused and curled her lip into a sneer. A shimmer of magic appeared around her, and Chrysalis pouted and hissed, baring her fangs for a moment at the commander. “It’s not fair at all. What’s the point in being a ‘good guy’ if you get punished with this peasant work for doing so?” she grumbled, stomping over to the rest of her comrades.

Tempest simply raised her eyebrows and gave the changeling a glare. Chrysalis stuck her tongue out and used her magic, to pick up pieces of goo and slam them down in the bucket, all while grumbling under her breath. The former queen grimaced and pinched her nose, recoiling as a glob of gak landed on her hoof.

“Ugh. Whoever said being a hero would be rewarding is a chump.”

“Hey, it’s not that bad, Chryssy,” Cozy optimistically said as she hovered nearby another lamppost, using the other end of her brush to scrape some gak off of it. “I mean sure it’s kinda gross doing this, but think of all the fun we’ve had recently. Doesn’t that beat being locked up in stone--or Tartarus?”

“Hnng, I suppose so, but there all these rules we have to follow...” Chrysalis grunted. “I used to be a queen you know-”

Tirek laughed out loud and in a pale imitation of her voice, he finished her sentence for her. “I used to have servants do all sorts for me, I was worshipped, and now I’m just a janitor.” He smirked and incinerated another patch of slime. “Oh boo hoo, hoo, keep working you verminous insect.”

“Who are you calling verminous insect, you simpering ape?!”

Tempest regarded them all and felt the corners of her mouth begin to twitch into a smile in spite of their circumstances and subsequent bickering. They were her crew, and as much as they argued and fought with each other, they were a dependable group, and the best at what they did in all of Equestria. Even if they did drench the city in ghost residue--they got the job done no matter what.

The commander would even go so far as to call her team a group of friends, despite not having known them for a very long time.

“Tell you what,” she said with a grin, ceasing their bickering for a moment “When we get done here, the first round’s on me when we get back to base. Deal?”

Cozy beamed up at her, while Tirek and Chrysalis raised their eyebrows in scepticism. “Gee, you mean it, Tempy?” Cozy asked.

“Don’t call me Tempy, Cozy,” Tempest grunted. “Or I’ll rescind my offer.”

“Aw come on, I give all of us a cute nickname! See, Chrysalis is Chryssy, Tirek is Terry, and you’re Tempy!” The filly pouted and wiped some sweat from her forehead and puffed her cheeks out. “C’mon... lighten up a bit.”

Chrysalis snorted and focused more on scrubbing than the conversation. “I hate being called Chryssy,” she muttered.

“And I also hate Terry,” Tirek retorted with a snort and a flex of his muscles. “What sort of nickname is Terry anyway? It’s the same length as my actual name.”

Cozy pouted again and crossed her hooves in a huff while she floated in the midst of them all. “You guys are no fun.”

Tempest whistled sharply as a small crowd of ponies began to watch them work. She nodded at her team, and they nodded back and fell silent, letting her do the thing.

The unicorn cleared her throat and addressed the growing crowd. “Fillies and gentlecolts,” she said, raising her voice to address them. “If you or your property as been damaged in any way due to any unnatural events as of late, please direct all complaints and inquiries to Director Luna’s office at the Canterlot Palace. Thank you.”

The ponies gathered gave her curious and fearful looks and scampered on ahead, choosing not to linger.

“Luna’s not going be very happy at that,” Chrysalis chuckled.

“Yeah well, what you gonna do?” Tempest muttered back with a coy grin. She sighed and tapped her hoof impatiently, her grin fading almost as quickly as it appeared. “At this rate our personal time will be over before it starts, hurry up!”

“Do you want to try and scrub this filth off with a brush?” the changeling fired back.

Tirek rolled his eyes as they devolved into another shouting match and continued using his magic to gather up bits of gak and compress it into balls, which he then promptly incinerated. The sound of trumpeting horns made him glance up, and spy a golden chariot with a familiar purple pony approaching them rapidly.

“Ahem,” he coughed, pointing at the chariot.

Tempest and Chrysalis removed each other from the other’s forehead and lowered their hooves before it came to blows as the chariot touched down. The commander barked some orders and their hooves moved rapidly as the yformed an orderly line.

“Make way for Princess Sparkle!” came a rousing call from a bellowing royal pegasus guard. “Say hey, it’s Princess Sparkle!”

Cozy rolled her eyes as they all formed an orderly line, standing shoulder to shoulder. “What, does she think she’s Princess Cameli of Ababwa or something?”

The commander cuffed the back of the filly’s head and saluted in a military fashion out of respect for her friend and monarch before standing to attention. Tempest was perhaps the only one of the Nightmare Knights that actually liked the Princess of Equestria, and didn’t bemoan and begrudge her presence whenever she made an appearance.

“Thank you, sirs,” the princess said to her guardsponies, stepping out of her chariot. She looked around at the copious amounts of gak still lining the streets and grimaced. “Sooo does somepony wanna fill me in?” she asked, glancing at Tempest for a brief moment.

The unicorn with a broken horn cleared her throat and bowed her head. “Just a clean-up operation, your highness,” she rigidly stated.

“Please Tempest, don’t be so formal,” Twilight laughed.

Tempest straightened herself up and smiled as the princess approached her. They clasped hooves in greeting and gave each other a small hug, causing the Knights behind the commander to wretch and pretend to barf. Twilight scowled at them and gave them all curt nods in turn.

“Chrysalis. Tirek. Cozy.”

“Princess,” they tersely replied back in unison with equally as curtly nods.

Twilight pulled back from Tempest and fluttered her wings for a moment. “So how’ve you been?” she asked.

Tempest shrugged. “Same old, same old, really,” she said nonchalantly. “Business is booming as they say.”

“I can see that. You’ve really got your hooves full, huh?” the princess chuckled, nodding at the slime strewn about the place. “Want some help?”

“Oh--oh! Yes please, Princess!” piped up an excited Cozy Glow, earning her a glare from Tempest and two hissed ‘shushes’ from Tirek and Chrysalis. “What? It’ll take us for-ev-er to clean all this up!” the young filly whined. “You’re all thinking it so I’ll just say it, if Princess Twilight can help why shouldn’t we accept?” She looked at the princess and turned her little ears down. “That is, if it’s not too much trouble.”

Twilight allowed herself to smile at the formerly villainous pegasus. Despite her misgivings about the situation she found it humorous that they were trying to clean up their mess. “I don’t mind at all. Tempest, What do you think?” she asked, addressing the commander.

The unicorn looked at her, then at the gak, at the sheer amount of slime they had to clean up, then at the Knights’ hopeful faces and with a heavy sigh, she shook her head.

“I’m sorry, Princess, we have our orders and we can’t afford any more shortcuts. Besides.” She glanced around at the crowd that had begun to gather again, ignoring her team’s deflated sighs of discontent and grumblings. “This is great free advertising.”

The princess blinked at her and nodded in silent approval. “Alright, Tempest. I can see you’re taking this ghost hunting business very seriously.”

Tempest nodded back, choosing not to correct her--as the Knights were more than simple ‘ghost hunters’.

“It is a serious business,” cut in Chrysalis with a disdainful look and a snort, not as tactful as Tempest was. “I’m sorry not everypony understands that, Princess,” she added with a sneer.

The commander slowly closed her eyes and braced herself for the verbal onslaught that was sure to follow, and made a mental note to give the insect some absurdly menial task as a punishment. Perhaps cleaning the drains of their home depot out with nothing but a toothbrush.

Twilight glanced at Chrysalis equally as disdainfully and scowled. Before she could say anything in retribution, a chill wind blew passed them all, making the Knights’ heads sharply turn and look around. Tempest cracked her neck and her horn began to spark and fizz. As her team looked back at her they all nodded together in understanding.

“Might want to step back, Princess...” she murmured quietly. “And tell your guards to not interfere.”

Twilight’s scowl of disapproval turned into a frown of confusion. “What? Why?”

To answer her, there was a shimmer in the air, and something, a creature from beyond the average mortal ken of existence, began to materialize before their very eyes, shocking and chilling Twilight to the bone.

“What is that?” she whispered.

A huge and rounded bulk, larger than a grizzly bear began to take shape. Its featureless face turned to them in an eerie stillness. A wide section of it suddenly wrenched open to reveal a lipless mouth that quivered and slavered with an intense and curious hunger. A mass of writhing, snake-like tentacles could be seen underneath it as its clumsy body heaved and pulsated, glistening like wet leather.

As the Knights dutifully formed a defensive line in front of the princess without a single word, Tempest grinned at her and winked, bemused by her befuddled and shocked expression.

“What we’re here for.”

The nameless monstrosity roared. Its wretched voice sounded like the scraping of metal chairs across a hard floor. Its body lumbered towards them, jaw open wide and fangs dripping with venomous intent, unaware of the pain that was the Nightmare Knights waiting for it.

Comments

[J1990R]

Who ya gonna call?

[Bronie312]

10494059
Ghostbusters!

[Yoshifan30]

10494070

[secury]

Interested where this is going.

"With respect, ma'am," she said calmly.

Missing comma.

[Bigwig6666]

10494166
Have a 'stash fer spottin' that one <3

10494092

10494070

10494059

I mean pretty much guys

[fanreader999999]

Hrm.

[DovahkiinMaster]

This is great. I mean, having a ghost hunting team composed of wild cards is pretty senseable. They all have different, specialized skills that form a great team. Plus, it forms a great friendship, making them less likely to be needed to put back in prison.

[Razzy]

They are best of friends. Or fiends.

[asdtroi8895]

Put this off for a while, but I'm glad I finally started reading. Very good start. Everyone felt in-character given their circumstances.

[Bigwig6666]

10844234
Hey, thanks I'm glad you enjoy it

[Doctor_Den]

Will the very first day of the formation of the team be shown? These moments are usually considered the most interesting.
"Four of us to clear the whole city of slime?" To do this will take a whole month, if not more.

[Bigwig6666]

10950130
Eventually yeah. Might even be sooner than I thought cos im having trouble with this new chapter lol. I've got something special planned anyway. Hours, days, weeks, months, the Knights get it done

[SwordTune]

Well, well, well, a fellow Nightmare Knights writer. Hello there.

[Bigwig6666]

11015299
c.tenor.com/QFSdaXEwtBAAAAAC/hello-there-general-kenobi.gif

Ah I see you are also a man of culture

[Lab 39]

11015350
I like that you are putting the readers straight into the deep end of the story.