The Archmage's Last Bow

by Rytex


The Stallion Who Laughs

The Archmage’s Last Bow
Chapter 07 - The Stallion Who Laughs

Unlike their journey to the Crystal Empire, they took a train back.  Twilight had been on more than her fair share of train rides, with many ups and downs, but out of all of them, this one was easily the worst one she’d gone on that she could remember.

The countryside zoomed by as they slowly ascended Mt. Canterhorn, looping around the mountain.  Twilight and Gleam were chatting rather amiably about things that had to do with Celestia’s school in their private compartment.  Train rides were dull as could be, after all, and they needed to find some way to pass the time.

“...and then our chemistry project decided that in front of the entire class was the perfect time to undergo a chemical reaction,” Twilight grinned, recalling the memory of her and Moondancer standing up in front of Professor Witty, both highly embarrassed, as they had melted a hole in their glass vial, and then a hole in the floor.

Gleam snorted.

“I didn’t know you could make arcane-charged acid with the regular school supplies,” she said, smirking.  “Or was it a special case because it was you?”

Twilight grinned sheepishly.  “It wasn’t.  Moondancer and I distilled the ingredients from stuff you could buy at the local store.  We got A’s, a stern lecture about the importance of safety, I got an extra-stern lecture from Princess Celestia about the importance of staying within the letter and spirit of a rule, and Shining got grounded because he was supposed to be the one making sure we were doing our homework that day.”

“But you were doing your homework that day,” Gleam pointed out.  “Why’d he get grounded?”

“Gleam, we stole some bits and snuck out to go to the store while he was supposed to be keeping an eye on us,” Twilight shook her head.  “He was too busy making ga-ga eyes at pictures of Cadance to even notice we’d been gone.”

A teenaged Shining Armor was most certainly doing a lot more than just staring at pictures of Cadance, but Twilight wasn’t about to ruin everyone’s day with that mental image.

Gleam snickered.  “Bet that was a fun conversation when your parents got home.”

Twilight grinned wryly.  “I can still hear Mom screaming at him.”

It wasn’t that it was a dull or boring trip that made it so awful.

Gleam shifted her gaze to her master, leaning against the window wall of their compartment, his eyes bloodshot, distant, glossy, and with bags under them.  His mane was more disheveled than usual, and he had a haunted, hollow look on his face as he continued to stare out of the train.

All of them knew he wasn’t watching anything that passed their window.

“We’re here if you want to talk about it,” Princess Twilight said, reaching over and giving his shoulder a squeeze.

Nova Shine didn’t respond.  It didn’t even seem to register that Twilight had squeezed his shoulder.

He hadn’t spoken a word since they had come down from the mountain.  Not to her, not to Gleam, not to Cadance or Shining, not even to Flurry.  He had seemed to completely ignore the three Crystal Guards in the infirmary and the offered thanks from Flash over the previous two nights of blissful sleep.

The only being that had managed to get Nova to do anything had been Flurry Heart, who had crawled up to her favorite future uncle while he had been sitting off on his own at dinner time despite their best efforts at trying to sit around him.  Nova had wordlessly reached down, hoisted her up, and held her, though the distant look never went away, no matter how much Flurry tried to get him to play with her.

“Are you mad at me for trying to peek into your dreams last night?” she asked quietly.

She had wanted to know just what it was that he had seen, both in his battle with Envy two days before, and his trial yesterday.  This was not the Nova she knew and loved, this lifeless husk who stared dead-eyed straight ahead of himself, deaf to the world around him.

“Mmh,” he grunted, giving her the tiniest shake of his head.

“Please, talk to us,” she pleaded.

His eyes briefly flicked over in their direction, but in short order, he was back to staring glassy-eyed straight ahead.

Gleam frowned as she stared at Nova, no doubt hearing from Harmonia’s voice in her head about it.  Twilight herself didn’t know what to do about the situation at all.  She’d never heard Harmonia’s whispers in her head before, though considering Nova’s own poor experiences with having Harmonia in his head, Twilight wasn’t sure she wanted to.  She much preferred keeping control over herself.

Mount Canterhorn fast approached as the train zoomed past the valley’s countryside.  They’d be there shortly, and then came the conversation with the Princesses about what it was they found.

Or more accurately, whatever Lord Star Swirl had shared with them.

He had gone back to Sombra’s lab to recover some things from it, but he had left in quite a hurry, not even pausing to say his farewells that evening.

Nova’s unresponsiveness didn’t end between then and their arrival at Grand Canterlot Station in Middle Canterlot.  When they stepped off the train, he seemed to lethargically follow them, his eyes completely unfocused.  It reminded Twilight of when they had discovered that he would travel back in time after acquiring the diaries of the previous Faithful Students and Night Apprentices, except Nova seemed to at least move out of the way of approaching creatures.

They quietly made their way to the Princesses’ house for what felt like the hundredth time in the last few weeks alone.  The Knightmares on duty, by the look of things. Knightmares Insularum and Starstep both snapped to attention as they approached.  Twilight was always quite impressed with the lone non-Thestral in the ranks of the Knightmares.  Starstep had come a long way from his earlier days of being a timid and unsure pegasus.  Now he stood shoulder-to-shoulder with his straight-laced comrade-in-arms, who was currently sporting a flower pot on his head.

Twilight opened her mouth as they approached.

“I know,” grunted Insularum.

“Uhh… you know what?”

“About the flower pot.”

“...okay?”

“Vaporum did it,” Starstep rolled his eyes.  “The old ‘prop it on a slightly-opened door’ trick.”

Twilight glanced back at Nova, feeling a strange sensation, and was relieved to see that he had a small smile on his face, though it wasn’t there for long.  Such a tiny smile, so great a lifted weight off her shoulders.  Baby steps, but he would soon be back to normal.

Leaving the two Knightmares to their guarding, the trio stepped into the house, heading for the familiar sitting room, where Princess Celestia and Princess Luna awaited them.

Luna was perched on the armchair reading a Daring Do book, the one involving Rainbow Dash and Quibble Pants at that convention a few months back, while Celestia held in her right hoof the very item that had caused them so much trouble both in the past and in the present.

The red gem of the Alicorn Amulet gleamed benignly in the sunlight, as though it were just decorative jewelry, and not an artifact that could grant great power and great instability on its wearer.  Twilight felt a shiver crawl up her spine at the sight of it.

“Have a seat,” Luna said, looking up from her book as they entered, and gesturing at the open sofa.  They did, Twilight and Gleam sitting on either side of a still-unresponsive Nova Shine.

Luna’s face fell at the sight of him.  “How long has he been like this?”

“Since he woke up from his Trial yesterday,” answered Gleam, her shoulders drooping.

“I see,” Luna nodded sagely.

“But everyone fails their first time!” Gleam pointed out.  “That’s what Huati said, anyway.”

Luna smiled wanly.  “Nova Shine hates failure.  Not simply making a mistake, but truly failing at something he believes he is expected to do.  And when he fails, he retreats.  This, of course, is magnified by the fact that the Trial showed Nova Shine exactly what Nova Shine needed to see, most likely something he will have to spend time coming to terms with.  It is okay to feel this way, apprentice mine,” she added, giving the Archmage a meaningful look.

“Easy for you to say,” mumbled Nova, his first words in hours.

“Perhaps,” Luna inclined her head, “However, you may not be aware of this, but I recently underwent the Trial myself some time ago.  It was just as arduous as the first time I underwent it so many centuries ago.”

“Why did you go through it?” Twilight asked.

Luna shook her head, a humorless smile crossing her face.  “Twilight, did you think I created the Tantabus for no reason?  I was tormented with visions of my weakness, of the lives I ruined, of everything the Nightmare did, and in my misguided desire to atone, I believed the Trial was pushing me to punish myself even further.  You and Nova both inspired me to let go of such a self-harming treatment, and only when I fully let go and accepted what had happened was I able to overcome the Trial.”

She turned her gaze back to Nova.  “The Trial has not ended, apprentice mine.  The Trial only ends when you give up, or when you conquer it.  It will be an uncomfortable process, but I have no doubt that you will emerge triumphant, and all the stronger for it.  You simply need to give yourself time, and make an effort.”

Nova grunted.  Twilight leaned into him reassuringly, and to her relief and delight, he leaned back.

“Now, about the recent happenings,” Luna turned her attention to the amulet in Celestia’s hoof.  “We shan’t keep you long, as Lord Star Swirl gave us a thorough report on what it is you all found, and we understand that you all could use time to rest and to recover.  However, we require some clarification.”

“What sort?” asked Twilight.

“How was the amulet acquired?  Lord Star Swirl says you had it in your possession when he arrived on the scene.”

“It was… given to us,” Nova croaked, still staring at the floor.  Twilight leaned into him a little bit harder.  He cleared his throat.  “When we found his lab, it was in a gift box from Envy.  When I attempted to scan it for any dangerous enchantments, it teleported us to that underground room.”

“Lord Star Swirl says that King Sombra has returned from the dead yet again,” Celestia said.  She didn’t seem worried, or even surprised by this.

“That’s correct,” Nova dipped his head.  “When… when Gleam and I were taken down there, this dark energy forced itself out of me and revived him.  I don’t know what that spell was, but I have some suspicions.  We also cannot discount the fact that there are other facilities like this scattered around Sombra’s former empire.”

“Agreed,” Celestia nodded slowly.  “The order will be drafted posthaste, and several squads of anti-mages will be deployed north at the earliest opportunity.  We will scour the Crystal Empire until we have removed every possible facility Sombra can use to continue reviving himself.”

“So…” Twilight mentally steeled herself as she prepared to drag the conversation toward the innocent-looking glowing red elephant in the room that was still sitting in Celestia’s hoof.  “What now?”

“What do you mean,” Celestia arched an eyebrow at her former pupil.

“We have the Alicorn Amulet now.  What next?”

“We don’t know,” Celestia shook her head.  “Lord Star Swirl said he had an urgent matter to look into, but would return shortly with more information, and a path forward.  He did, however, inform us that he is going to require your help with what he is looking into.”

“Does it have anything to do with this?” Nova asked, his horn lighting up, and a ghostly projection of a three-spiked black metal crown appeared in midair in front of all of them.  As it slowly spun to face her, the front of the crown was revealed to have three glowing gems socketed in place, one beneath each spike.

Celestia and Luna looked at each other for a moment, slight confusion on their faces.

“What is this?” Luna asked, sliding out of her chair and trotting over to examine it.  “Was this something found in Sombra’s laboratory?”

“I found a chart with this on it,” Gleam piped up.  “It had the Alicorn Amulet drawn on there, pointing to one of these sockets, with two other gems.  One was blue, and one was green.”

“Most likely a crown designed to channel the power of the three Gems of Being at once,” surmised Celestia, staring intently at the rotating image.  “If even half the stories about these gems are true, it would be a formidable weapon, to be sure.”

“Formidable?  Understating it,” Nova shook his head.  “If it harnesses the power of two more gems on par with the Alicorn Amulet, this thing is downright terrifying to even think about in Sombra’s hooves.  The Alicorn Amulet needs to be sealed away, permanently this time.”

“Agreed,” Celestia nodded.  “However, I do not believe this is the end of our troubles with it.  We will keep it locked away, but I have a sinking suspicion that Lord Star Swirl’s current plans have something to do with it.  I would prepare yourselves to have to deal with this amulet in the future.”

“Great…” sighed Nova, letting his head drop for a few seconds.  “Even more ‘fun’ in the run-up to our wedding and her coronation.  Can we ever just go a year without a major incident?”

“It does seem as though a number of troubling occurrences have chosen now of all times to rear their heads,” Celestia grimaced.  “Both the supernatural, and the mundane.  Lord Archmage, the House of Nobles is preparing to begin resuming sessions.”

“Oh for fuck’s sake,” Nova buried his head in his hooves.   “Trying to drag the rug out from under Twilight right before she gets all your power.”

“That was our belief as well,” Celestia nodded.  “Stall them for a few months longer, and then once Twilight is in charge, she will have all the necessary power delegated between herself and the other five Bearers to make the House of Nobles little more than a nuisance.  But it is imperative that you do not let the House seize more power for themselves in that time.”

“What’s wrong with the House of Nobles?” Gleam asked, glancing between Nova and Twilight.

“On paper?  Nothing,” Luna answered, returning to her seat.  “In practice?  They attempt to gain power for themselves and make themselves immune to our attempts to curtail them.  The House of Nobles exists as a necessary check on our power, but so too are we a check on theirs.  Several nobles, such as Lord Ignatius Bitsly or even Prince Blueblood, are out to further themselves at the expense of us… and the common citizenry as well.”

“Oh, yeah,” Gleam’s ears flattened.  “Dad said something about Bitsly undercutting him with a law a few months ago.”

“Yes,” Celestia scowled.  “Introduced a bill that, in short, forced us to go through ‘reputable’ construction and resource companies for the reconstruction of Canterlot Castle.  ‘Reputable’, of course, just so happened to only describe firms owned or operated by members of the Optimates of the House of Nobles, or their friends.  None of them belonged to common ponies.  But…” she shook her head, “political headaches can wait for another time.  For now, however, you have enough to be dealing with.”

“Take the time to rest, Nova,” Luna urged her former apprentice.  “Let yourself recover from these ordeals.”

“Oh yeah, speaking of recovery,” Nova asked, frowning as he recalled the memory, standing up as they prepared to leave, “do you two know anything about magical healing conditions”

“Magic healing conditions?  Explain,” Celestia said.  Twilight, however, noticed that Luna’s eyes had widened ever so slightly.

What do they know…?

“When we battled Sombra’s nuckelavees,” Nova recounted, frowning as he recalled the memory, “I got hit so hard I was sent skidding along the ground.  Got my side scratched up pretty badly.  But when Huati attempted to heal me, he didn’t find a single scratch.  It was like it wasn’t there.”

“You’re certain that you hurt yourself?” Luna pressed.  “You are completely sure that it wasn’t simply an overreaction?”

Nova snorted impatiently.  “Luna, I saw my blood on the snow.  I know I got gouged, but there was nothing there.”

Celestia and Luna looked at each either, and Twilight could sense the mood in the room suddenly shift.  It was as if everything had suddenly muted.

“We… were going to tell you about it, as a matter of fact,” Luna replied softly.  “You may not have noticed, but the bruise around your eye…”

“Yeah, when I hit the wall,” Nova replied, feeling around it.  “And it disappeared when I wasn't paying attention.”

“Yes,” Celestia replied, her voice low.  “We… we do know about such healing factors.”

“Ohhhh, I don’t like where this is going,” Nova muttered, a look of unease crossing his face.

“Perhaps you should sit down,” Luna gestured to the couch he had just stood up from.

Nova stared at the couch, then at her, with narrowing eyes, but he slowly did as he was told, taking a seat with no shortage of tension.

“You… of course remember the night of Nightfall?” Celestia asked, and Twilight was startled to hear no small amount of nervousness in her voice.

“Hard to forget,” Nova replied, crossing his forehooves.

“Have you noticed how much more powerful and capable you’ve gotten since then?”

Nova’s eyebrows twitched for a moment.

“Of… course, yes.  I’ve been training to become the Archmage.”

“Beyond that,” Celestia shook her head.  “Nova Shine, you used to be utterly incapable of understanding alchemistic magic.  Luna tells me of a three-week stint as her Night Apprentice where you struggled so hard to understand it but couldn’t wrap your head around it.  Not only are you fully capable now, you are very nearly on par with your own mother as a master at it!”

“Well, yeah,” Nova shrugged.  “Mom was a hell of a teacher.”

“In so short a time?” Luna asked, leaning forward.  “Going from not even understanding basic concepts to… well, to such proficiency in merely four years?”

Nova frowned, as did Twilight.  She herself had wondered about this.  Nova’s growth had been exceptional, but she had always chalked it up as being him finding his element and flourishing.  How else did one explain how quickly he took to some of the more advanced things Luna and Celestia were educating him in?

“Apply this insight to other fields of magic,” Celestia instructed, turning away.  “Teleportation used to be difficult, but now you are fully capable of teleporting miles away.”

“I mean, Twilight can too,” Nova tossed a hoof at his fiancee.

“I’m an alicorn, though,” Twilight’s frown deepened.  “My Source is far and away greater than any normal pony’s.  Hay, not even Star Swirl could match me in a contest of pure manatic reserve.  Normal unicorns have an upper limit on the amount of mana they can contain, even with a well-used and 100% efficient Source.”

“That is the heart of the problem, unfortunately,” Luna turned her head away completely.  “Nova is experiencing arcane oversaturation.  His Source is producing too much mana for his unicorn body to maintain.  The reason he is healing so quickly is that his body, needing to expend the excess, repurposes it and uses it to energize its cells to heal exponentially faster than normal.”

“But… Nova’s been using magic constantly over the last four years,” Twilight stroked her chin thoughtfully.  “If he’s been expending mana this whole time, and unicorn Sources have upper limits to capacity and efficiency, how is it possible that he could be oversaturated?  And for that matter, what does that have to do with both Nightfall, and how powerful and skilled he has been growing lately?”

“Everything,” Celestia trailed a hoof down her face, clenching her eyes shut for the briefest of moments.  Twilight felt an icy dagger start to pierce its way into her insides, a cold and unpleasant sensation that was telling her she wasn’t going to be happy with where this was going.

“That night, on the night of Nightfall, Harmonia took hold of you, did she not?” Luna asked.

“The Consciousness of Magic took control of me,” Nova tilted his head.  “Don’t know about Harmonia though.”

Gleam shifted nervously.

“Harmonia is the Consciousness of Magic,” Celestia smiled wanly.  “She is the Spirit of Harmony.  She is the Embodiment of all six aspects of the Elements.  And those she touches are not left unchanged.”

“Not unchanged how?” asked Gleam.  Twilight was alarmed to see that she looked a little pale all of a sudden.

“Well,” Celestia let out a long breath, choosing her words, “there are a grand total of four ponies that we have been able to personally observe the effects of Harmonia touching their lives.  Three of them are in this room.”

“Myself,” Twilight stated, “Princess Luna, who bore the Element of Magic before I did, and now Nova, right?”

“Correct,” Celestia dipped her head.  “The fourth pony is Lady Clover the Clever, who briefly was taken hold of by Harmonia to speak directly to Luna so very long ago.  However, her case is perhaps the one with the greatest analogue to the present, as she never ascended to become an alicorn.”

“She made it her life’s mission to try and surpass her master, Lord Star Swirl, as the most powerful unicorn alive.”  Luna turned to stare out the window.  “I believe she succeeded, in the end.  After being touched by Harmonia, her prowess dramatically increased almost immediately.  Had she lived longer, perhaps we could have seen just how much further she could have gone, but she died peacefully a mere two years after this.  Nevertheless,” she turned her gaze back to Nova, “she was very much like you.  She suddenly grew hypercompetent in all things magic-related from that point on.  As did I,” she added.

“Once upon a time, I was the far better spellcaster between the two of us.”  Celestia shrugged modestly.  “However, then we took up the Elements of Harmony.  Not long after that, it was Luna who was the stronger spellcaster, a title she has since reclaimed from me once again.  The Element of Magic changes the pony who wields it.  Twilight herself used to struggle in certain aspects of magic, and now she is, quite possibly, the most powerful out of all of us in this room.”

Twilight felt herself blush, and she smiled awkwardly.  “N-nonsense, Princess.  I can’t possibly be stronger than--”

“Twilight, just take the deserved praise,” Celestia shot back, giving her a look.  “The point is that any who have ever wielded the Element of Magic or been touched by Harmonia have gone on to be capable of wondrous things that no mere unicorn could ever be capable of.  Nova is the latest in this long line of ponies touched by Harmonia, and it is this gift which causes us such fear.”

“Fear?” Nova asked, mouth parting.

“Fear,” nodded Luna gravely.  “Harmonia’s touch blesses the arcane abilities of whomever receives it.  Their Source becomes deeper.  Their level of understanding becomes broader.  Their mana regeneration grows as well.  And it never stops.”

“Nova has had four years and a few months for this ability to take root in him,” Celestia continued, a shadow crossing her features.  “And now you bring me reports that he is healing himself in mere seconds and that even after difficult battles, while he is physically exhausted, his magical capacity is hardly drained.  If you have the proper eyes to see it, you can see that Nova Shine is positively overflowing with magical energy.  His body cannot physically contain all of it.  It has a limit.”

“And it means that there is so much magical energy in his body that it is having to burn off excess energy in any way possible.  Using it to heal wounds, heightening his senses, or sometimes just… radiating the energy away,” Luna said.

“But,” Celestia’s voice had gotten so low, Twilight had to nearly strain to hear it, “it will only get worse from here as time goes on.  Nova’s body will have so much magical energy it needs to dispose of that it will not be able to expend faster than it is replaced, and it will only continue to grow, that it will cross a threshold of no return.  The equine body can only contain so much, before…”

She broke off.

Twilight’s heart was hammering in her chest.  No, no this couldn’t mean what she thought it could mean.  This couldn’t!

Lune looked over at Nova, who was staring at the ground, breathing heavily, and eyes wide.

“Nova Shine… you’re dying.”

...

...

Twilight couldn’t even hear anything anymore.

There seemed to be this sort of muffled absence of noise that just pressed in on all sides.  Her breath hitched, and sank into the chair, feeling too weak to even keep herself upright.  Beside her, Bright Gleam’s mouth fell completely open, and she was staring between the princesses and Nova, as though she couldn’t believe her ears.

Twilight’s heart was plummeting, sinking deeper and deeper into what felt like a void.  It just fell… fell… fell...

No.  She hadn’t said that.  She couldn’t have said that.  There was no way.  No way!

But then, she felt the snarl begin to work its way across her face.  The plummeting stopped.  The numbness was gone.  In its place was fury.  Her strength returned, and she stood up, her eyes shining red and her mane and tail bursting to flames.  These flames, however, were not the usual red-orange-yellow.

Instead, they burned a deeper shade.  They burned blue, purple, black.  The sheer amount of heat and energy radiating off of her in that very moment disintegrated the carpet beneath her, made the very air around her thrum with energy.

“How long,” she growled, struggling to contain her rage and the pain that was clawing at her.  “How long have you known!?” she asked, stomping over to her former teacher, a mare that she had once placed on a pedestal, believed could never be guilty of any crime, only now to find that she… that she…

She turned her gaze to Luna, who was looking away from Twilight, sadness and shame etched across her own face.

“HOW LONG!?”

Before any of them could respond, however, the one reaction they never could have expected rang out.

Laughter.

Twilight looked behind her, to see that Nova had started giggling.  It was a soft sound, barely audible, and he was still staring down at the ground, face hidden from all of them.  But he was shaking as he laughed.

Before long, the laughter grew, until it was plain for them to hear.

A few moments later, the giggling turned into chuckling.  Then the chuckling became guffawing.  And in what felt like no time at all, Nova Shine had thrown his head back and was laughing uproariously, as though he had heard the funniest joke in the world.  He howled to the heavens, eyes clenched shut, loud enough that even the ponies of the Knightmare Brigade abandoned their posts and poked their heads in, wondering what the noise was.

Twilight felt the bottom drop out of her stomach again, a feeling all too common these days, as the fires of her mane and tail were snuffed and her normal colors returned.  What… what is happening?

She gave a glance over to Gleam, and Gleam’s expression looked equal parts just as confused and absolutely terrified.  She had no idea what she was watching, even as she inched away from her master.

But then Nova’s eyes opened.  His pupils had shrunken to being nearly pinpricks.  And then, as he did so, the laughter changed.

It was a subtle change, a background note in his laughter had shifted.  But that made it all the more haunting to her.

Tears started to stream.  The laughter was slowly shifting into outright sobbing.  Nova Shine, her Nova Shine, having been put through an emotional grinder over the last few weeks, was now finally, completely, broken.

“Nova, what--?” Luna tried to step forward and touch his shoulder, but Nova’s own hoof shot out and batted it away, faster than Twilight could even blink.  Luna yelped and clutched at the point of impact.  The sobbing was growing in intensity, now worse than even the laughter had been.

And then Twilight felt the sudden imbalance in the energy around him, a split second before it happened.

“Nova, don’t!” she cried out, but she was too late.  There was a bright flash of blue light and a loud BANG!

Twilight managed to throw up a shield in the nick of time, but the light from whatever spell he had cast was too great to see.  Around her, she could hear splintering wood and the shrieks of several ponies caught off guard, as well as Gleam letting out a pained “Oof!” as it sounded like she hit a wall.  She even heard the princesses throw up their own shields, but they hadn’t seemed to react quickly enough to escape unscathed.

It only lasted a few moments, but when she was finally able to see what had happened, the only ponies left in the room were herself, Gleam, and the two princesses.  The guards that had poked their heads in to see what was happening had been blasted out, leaving the room in ruins, and even worse still, all that remained in the epicenter of the destruction was a black archmage’s cloak.

Nova Shine was gone.


Their haunting eyes were watching his every move, as they always did.

Ten thousand years ago, this city had been their home.  They had lived and ruled from this jewel of a city, but in a short time, they were gone, reduced to being spirits frozen in time, forever above the empty city, forever trapped in this plane.

He could feel their pain every time he stepped hoof in this place.  He could feel the murderous gazes directed at him, even if he could not see them.  How dare someone in an inferior form tread in this place?  This was the home of Gods and Kings, not even the slaves from subservient species had been allowed into this holy location.

The beautiful white city.

The Apex of the World.

The Pinnacle.

Scala ad Caelum.

Elysium.

Now a mausoleum to the alicorn empire and its influence.  But even a mausoleum had its treasures.

He had come here many times before over the millennia.  He always needed to remember what had happened to his kind, to remember what it was that drove him.

Your torment will be ended, he thought to himself, thinking to the many who looked down on him with their fury, their pain, and their jealousy.  How dare a subservient step hoof here?  Has he come to gloat?  To revel in our pain?

He had worn many faces in his time, but surely they had to know him by now.  They had to know that although he wasn’t wearing the guise of an alicorn, he was one of them.  He had survived.  He had escaped the calamity and rescued his daughters, but at the cost of their mother.

His thoughts became pain in that memory, so he put it away.  He was not here to dwell on the past.  He was here to prepare for the future.

Harmonic Convergence was approaching.  The groundwork needed to be laid.

The Shadow-King believed that with the Crown of Life, he could control the world.  He believed that the Crown of Life was the key to allow him to take over the world.  What Sombra did not understand was that act with the crown upon your head, and so too would the crown act upon you.  Imperius had discovered that.  That poor, poor fool, in his desperation to avert the calamity...

Ars Arcanum shook his head, dispelling the memories yet again.  That was the unfortunate curse of those who had lived far too long.  Oftentimes it was hard to remember to live in the now, and not the before.  So many happier days, and so many sadder ones.  So many days of greater consequence, and so many days of rest and leisure.

Yet here they were, in the most pivotal time.  The planets were shifting into alignment, and in the brief window, those few moments when all the planets in the Celestine system aligned, that would be the window of opportunity.  So short a time, a few scant minutes, and if he failed, he would have to wait another ten thousand years before he could do it again.

Ars Arcanum’s gaze drifted downward, until he was looking down at the snow-covered ground.  To an outside observer, he was simply lost in thought and looking at the ground, but in truth, he was staring at where he knew the Crystal of Eternity was kept.

It’s not like he didn’t have all the time in the universe…

He strode through the familiar streets, making his way to the place where he knew he would find the relic he sought.  He had spent time playing with Imperius and Harmonia in that very alley, right there… he had broken a wing in the old days after falling off that building… he and Harmonia had begun their courtship in that very park.

Oh, what he wouldn’t give to return to days of yore!  What he would not sacrifice just to be reunited with his friends and loved ones!  To talk and jape with Imperius again, to have and to hold Harmonia again...  Yet it was not to be, for one was gone forever, and the other could no longer be with him.

Still, Ars Arcanum cast his eye southward toward the others that he longed to reveal himself to, when the time is right, perhaps I may be able to show myself.  They deserve that much.  They must know why this is all happening, and why it cannot be stopped.

Who would have thought, in those innocent days millennia ago, that the three of them would play such pivotal roles in the downfall of their race, and the rebuilding of everything that came after?

“I suppose,” he spoke to the empty air in the Old Tongue, to the spirits lingering just beyond the veil of sight, “I should have guessed that my fate would be tied to mine own creation,” he strode forward, entering the Imperial Vaults, an austere building standing in stark contrast to the magnificence of the structures around it.  Unlike the ostentatious buildings that his kin crafted, this building was practical.

It didn’t need to be showy.  What was kept within it was all the showiness it needed.  Not even the walls had any decor; they were simply crude flat expressionless surfaces with only vault doors or support pillars interrupting the monotony.

He passed vaults, some still sealed away with the treasures of ghosts locked away behind them, others empty and open, displaying their lack of contents to the world.  Rather like this city, he suppressed a smile.  Once so full of treasure, now a barren waste of what once was.

Finally, he arrived at the King’s Vault.

It was neither taller nor grander than any of the vaults around it.  It simply sat at the end of the hall, the vault every visitor had to see, to wonder just what lay behind its doors.  Ars had spent thousands of years working to undo the many enchantments that lay within the walls, and roughly three thousand years ago, he had finally succeeded in planting his own magical resonance as a valid entrance identification for the vault’s enchantments.

Despite the stasis placed upon this place, the magic within still flowed and functioned just as it had, and so when Ars Arcanum issued a stream of silver energy from his horn, which struck the direct center of the door.  From the point of contact, the magic seemed to split and spread in six directions, before shimmering like the seas themselves under the light of the sunset.  Each beam then glowed brighter and brighter, before the vault door was completely enveloped in their light.  Then, the light faded, revealing yet another ordinary vault.

Empty, save one thing.

There was a small pillar sitting in the center, nothing more than a plinth, expertly carved out of arcanostone, with orichalcum filigree decorating it in many intricate shapes and designs running up from base to top.  But sitting atop this plinth was nothing short of the most valuable treasure in the entire world.

It would not appear as such to the untrained eye, and even now, it held no true value on its own.  Nothing more than a circlet of blackened orichalcum, with two short curved spikes, one each on either side of a taller third central curved spike in the front and center of the crown.  Below each spike was a socket, the insides of which were lined with minuscule inscriptions and channels.

Ars felt a nostalgic half-smile, half-grimace cross his face.  He remembered shaping this.  He remembered the many failed attempts at getting it right, the botched letterings, the failed channelings, the bends, the scrapes…

But his final attempt had been his masterpiece.  It was a work so great in arcanosmithing, so magnificent in its execution, nothing would even approach it ever again.  It was a simple matter to create a simple socket and harness out of orichalcum to contain the energies of a Gem of Being.  It had been ruled as impossible to create an object that could contain and channel the power of all three of them at once.

He had done it anyway, as his king had asked.  He had created the Crown of Life.

Ars Arcanum stared at the crown for a long while, looking over that which he had forged over ten thousand years ago.  After so very long, everything was finally beginning to draw toward the end, and everything-- every plan, every deed, every life he touched, every word or whisper he had uttered-- would all be centered upon this humble orichalcum crown.

“It won’t be long now,” he whispered to the open air, to the dead who were listening to his every word.  “Only a few more months.”

His horn shone silver again, and the vault door closed with a flash of light, hiding the crown from the eyes of the world once again.

He turned around and began to march upward, out of the Imperial Vaults and back into the haunted city.  This would be his last visit until it was time.

For now, there was work to do.


Canterlot had not been in such a state of high alert since the Princesses had gone missing nearly four years ago.  At least, not in such a way that involved every guard available to be on a full hunt for a missing pony.  Every alleyway was searched, every crevice, nook, and cranny were scouted, and yet despite the city being combed over threefold, the Lord Archmage remained completely undetected.

The citizenry knew something was up.  It was hard not to, after all, what with the loud blast of magic coming from the Princess’ temporary house several hours before, coupled with aforementioned guards flying and marching to and fro.

Bright Gleam simply sat in the makeshift headquarters of the Royal Guard, little more than a barracks that hadn’t been completely destroyed in the Terrible Trio’s attack that had since been re-outfitted as a temporary military office, hearing the hustle and bustle around her, listening to the ponies chatter and exchange information, all while not actually paying attention to any of it.

The look on Master Nova Shine’s face… The despair in his laughter… The madness in his eyes.

She clenched her eyes shut and clutched her head in her hooves.  In just a few short days, everything she had ever thought about Princess Twilight, Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, and Master Nova Shine had been completely turned on its head.

Master Nova Shine was right all along when he said this was what “Don’t meet your heroes” meant.

Were they still Gleam’s heroes, though?

Master Nova Shine was dancing his way around every magical attack Envy could throw at him, his movements graceful and serene, as though he were only moving when necessary and precisely as much as needed, no more or less.  The orchestra of his magic drove Envy on the defensive until he had her pinned.

No matter what she thought of them, he had always been beaten down yet managed to clamber to his hooves and keep going.  And everything about his style of magic was everything she ever wanted to be as a mage.  Wise, powerful, and beautiful.

But right now, he was a danger to both himself and to others, and he was completely unaccounted for.

Three thestrals marched in, led by one wearing armor trimmed with silver she recognized as Knightmare Frigoris.

“Neighton, Trottingham, and the roads between have been surveyed, your highness,” Frigoris saluted, his voice as soft as ever.  “We spotted neither hide nor hair of him.  It is a possibility that he could be in the Everfree Forest, but we did not take the time to do a flyover.”

Standing over a table on which an entire detailed map of Equestria was arrayed, with her back to Frigoris, Gleam watched Princess Twilight deflate at the news.

“Thank you, Frigoris.  Do you need rest?” she asked, turning to give the thestral a look of concern.  “Knightmare Serenitatis?  Humorum?”

How did she tell them apart?  The thestrals looked identical in their armor--  No, wait, one of them was a mare.  It was hard to tell with the special thestral helmet, but she could see the rounded muzzle now.  How hadn’t she noticed that before?  It wasn’t hard to tell stallions and mares apart.

Stay on topic, Gleam.

“I cannot perform another high-speed flight, but I should be able to do more local patrolling, long as I’m under the clouds,” replied the stallion, his voice louder than Frigoris’, but equally calm.  “Storm’s rolling in, though.  We need to wrap this up.”

“We can’t,” Princess Twilight banged a hoof on the table in frustration.  “Even putting aside the fact that this is very personal for me, he is the Archmage, and he is very much not in his right mind.  He needs to be found and...  and neutralized,” she whispered.  “By any means necessary.”

“Wait,” Gleam leaped to her hooves.  “You mean killed?”

“What!?  No!” Princess Twilight gave her an aghast look.  “He just needs to be sedated until we can calm him down, and if that means force then we need to do something to get him away from populated areas.”

Another armored figure pushed his way past the Knightmares, looking exhausted but still very much on his hooves, followed by a mare wearing a skintight blue wingsuit, her fiery orange mane and tail poking out from holes in the top and back.

On any other day, Gleam would have utterly squealed at the mere sight of Wonderbolt Captain Spitfire so close, but given the circumstances, there was no doubt what she was there for.

“You sent, ma’am?” Spitfire saluted.

“Yes, thank you, captain,” Princess Twilight sighed.  “I need you to send every available Wonderbolt out in all directions.  We’re looking for the Archmage, he’s gone missing.”

“Already ahead of you,” Spitfire saluted again.  “Knightmare Starstep got word to us an hour ago, and I scrambled the Wonderbolts immediately.  Is the Aerial Navy gonna be involved too?  This is looking like an all-points bulletin.”

“Don’t think so, no,” Lieutenant Aegis shook his head.  “If anyone’s gonna find Nova, it’s not going to be the big, loud, bulky airships.  Are Princess Celestia and Princess Luna looking as well?”

Princess Twilight grit her teeth, and Gleam could swear she saw, in a fraction of a second, her mane start to glow purple again, but it was gone before she could confirm.  “No.  They are not part of this.  They will not be part of this.”

If the lieutenant had questions, he didn’t voice them, though he did purse his lips for just a moment.

“Where to next?” he asked, already turning tail, but looking back.

“To get some rest, lieutenant,” Princess Twilight replied with a sigh.

“Risking a court-martial, ma’am,” Lieutenant Aegis replied, with a sour expression, “but fuck that.  He needs to be found, and I’m not going to stop looking till he is.”

“Aegis,” Princess Twilight turned to give him a pleading look, “You’ve made the flight from Canterlot to Ponyville in record time, and you’re barely on your hooves.  If I have to magically sedate you as well, I will.  Go get some rest, let your wings recover, you can resume searching when you are ready, and not before.”

Lt. Aegis grit his teeth, but saluted, before trotting over to one of the beds that had been pushed against a wall and falling into it.  He didn’t fall asleep, but he did lay there, taking deep breaths and trying to alleviate the fatigue he must have been feeling.

“Where do we go from here?” asked Captain Spitfire, trotting over to the map Princess Twilight was looking over.  Gleam craned her neck to see the top of the table from her position sitting against the wall.  It was a map of their entire continent, stretching southward to Klugetown, and northward all the way until it faded into the Frozen Maw at the northernmost points of Yakyakistan, and every point of interest in the center of the map had red X’s marked over them.

“We broaden the search,” Princess Twilight jabbed with her hoof at several spots on the page.  “Here, here, and here.  Baltimare, Manehattan, and Vanhoover.  These are places Nova spent time at in his youth, maybe he’s at one of them.”

“There’s also the possibility,” added the male Knightmare again, “that he could have teleported out of Equestria entirely.  Perhaps the Crystal Empire?  The Dragonlands?  Griffonia?”

“I’m still waiting for my brother and sister-in-law to confirm whether he is or is not in the Empire, Dragon Lord Ember would have immediately let us know if he was in the Dragonlands, and I would have received the angry letter from King Gustaf if one of ours had teleported in,” Princess Twilight shook her head.  She turned toward her.  “What are you still doing here, Gleam?”

“I want to be here when he’s found,” she replied, getting to her hooves.  “He’s my master, after all.”

“That could be a very long time,” noted Lt. Aegis.  “Nova Shine is very good at hiding in unexpected places when he doesn’t want to be found.”

Princess Twilight shut her eyes and began muttering to herself.  “Think like Nova… think like Nova…

“Good luck with that,” the female Knightmare remarked, with a humorless smirk.  “If any of us knew what went through his head, half of his little blunders would never have happened during Archmage training.”

Knightmare Frigoris turned and gave her a quick shake of the head.  The mare tilted her head but shrugged.

“Just trying to ease the tension,” she remarked.

“Time and a place, Humorum,” replied Lt. Aegis, also shaking his head.

“Are you sure you don’t want to go stay with your parents?” Princess Twilight asked Gleam, returning to the map.  “There’s a large storm gathering.  If you’re gonna wait for us to find Nova, you could be here for several days.”

“I still want to,” she reaffirmed.  Harmonia seemed to be emanating approval.  “I just… have a feeling I will be needed.”

Princess Twilight stared at her for a long while, before nodding.

The door opened once more.  It was starting to rain outside now.  The three Knightmares turned and instantly knelt.  Princess Luna stepped into the room hesitantly, her eyes never leaving Princess Twilight’s form.

Princess Twilight stood up to her tallest height, drew in a sharp breath, and her mane began to glow purple yet again, this time it wasn’t a figment of Gleam’s imagination.

Get out,” she whispered, the sheer thunderous power of her voice rattling their bones despite how low in volume it was.

Princess Luna recoiled at once, but did not retreat.  “Please.  I am concerned for his well-being too--”

You don’t get to say that anymore,” Princess Twilight snarled.  Her coat lightened until it was pure white.  “You and your sister both.  You just can’t help yourselves, can you?  Playing a cosmic game with everyone’s lives, never caring for a second how they will be impacted?

“Twilight, please,” Princess Luna turned her head away in shame.  “Let me help.  He’s my apprentice, and he was touched by Harmonia because of my weakness.”

If that were a genuine concern, you would have told us about this the first moment you knew.  You didn’t.  And now you have cut short one more life because of your hubris and your lack of transparency.

The map disintegrated, forgotten by everyone except Gleam, its ashes scattering around the oven the barracks had become from Princess Twilight’s sheer power.

“Wait, what?” Lt. Aegis asked, getting to his hooves instantly.  “Whose life has been cut short?”

Princess Twilight just turned and stared at him.  Aegis’s mouth slowly dropped.

“...How?” he asked weakly.  “What… why?”

Because of her and her sister,” Princess Twilight replied simply, giving Luna a scathing look.  Princess Luna flinched again but still did not retreat.  “They thought it was prudent to hide the fact that he was slowly dying of arcane oversaturation from both of us until the signs became too great to pretend not to see, to require explanation.

Knightmare Frigoris stepped between both princesses.  “I am certain Mother and her sister had good reasons to--”

“Don’t give me that bullshit!” Lt. Aegis thundered, marching right up to Knightmare Frigoris and sticking his face right into his counterpart’s.  “You mean to tell me you think keeping information like this from anyone is a good idea!?  Even putting aside that my best friend is dying, you mean to tell me that you think it was smart that no one ever told him he was slowly becoming a walking bomb!?”

They are going nowhere, Harmonia observed within Gleam’s head.

“It’s like they don’t want to find him and just want to yell at each other,” Gleam whispered.

They are angry, and they are in pain.  They all love Nova Shine, and now this has driven a major wedge between them.

Gleam shook her head sadly.  “Do you know where he is?”

I do.

“You’re not going to tell me, are you?”

It is for Twilight Sparkle’s benefit that I do not.  Their relationship is strained due to the occurrences at the Crystal Empire, but the two of them together will bring out the best in each other.  To that end, Twilight Sparkle must find him without any help.

“But can she?”

“Can she what?”

Gleam blinked and looked up.

Princess Twilight was staring down at her, having abandoned her fiery mane.  Knightmare Frigoris and Lieutenant Aegis were now in a full shouting match while Captain Spitfire and the other two Knightmares stood by awkwardly.  Princess Luna, meanwhile, had fallen on her haunches and looked to be on the verge of tears as everything around them just continued to grow worse.  And behind her, outside, the rain was falling, the light of lightning was flashing, and the boom of thunder was crashing.

“Who were you talking to?” Princess Twilight asked, tilting her head.

“Harmonia,” Gleam sighed.  “She… knows where he is.”

“Where?” Princess Twilight grabbed her by the shoulders.  For a half-second, she was reminded of the moment of panic when Master Nova Shine had grabbed her this same way before all of this had started.  “Where is he?

“She won’t tell me,” Gleam shook her head.  “Says you’re supposed to find him on your own.”

Princess Twilight let out an exasperated groan.

“Seems like everyone wants to keep secrets today,” she shot a filthy look at Princess Luna, who had glanced up from her spot on the ground.  “How am I supposed to find him on my own!?  He’s always just so good at picking out the last place I would ever consider!”

Her own confidence in how well she knows her beloved is shattered, Harmonia noted.  Gleam could sense a note of melancholy in her voice.  Loved ones should never feel so lost as she does.

Princess Twilight sat down next to her and clutched at the back of her head.  “I’m trying to find him,” she whimpered.  “I’m trying to think like him, but I’m just coming up blank.  He’d know where to find me even without our earrings if I ever had a problem.  But every time I try to return the favor, he just can't be found.  He always always always chooses places I’d never look, right under my nose or something, because he knows how I think, but I can never think like him long enough to figure out where he would be.”

She let out a quiet moan that somehow was louder to Gleam than the shouting match that was still going on.  Captain Spitfire had left by this point, as had the other two Knightmares, while Frigoris and Aegis continued to scream at each other, and Princess Luna had been reduced to a crying mess on the ground.

The entire situation around her was something Gleam never thought she’d ever see in her lifetime.  Princess Celestia seemed to be staying out of things, Princess Luna crying, and Princess Twilight unsure of where to even go.  In a cruel, twisted way, it was almost hysterical that this was what everything had come to.

“...right under my nose.”  Princess Twilight suddenly raised her head, blinking and wiping away her tears, a sudden look of shock on her face.  “They can’t look above the clouds because of the storm.”

“Princess?”

Princess Twilight looked over at her, her eyes briefly flicking down to the navy-blue cape drawn around her shoulders.  “I think I know where he is now, and I’m gonna go look in the place I think he’s hiding.  Do you still want to be with me when we find him?”

“Yes ma’am,” Gleam nodded.

Princess Twilight took a deep breath.  “Then I hope you like hiking up mountains, Gleam.  We need to trek to the top of Mount Canterhorn.”

Gleam could feel a sudden surge of satisfaction from within her.  Harmonia, it seemed, was pleased, which could only mean that Princess Twilight was right.

Without waiting, Princess Twilight pushed herself to her hooves and strode right past the arguing soldiers and the crying Princess Luna, who briefly stopped to stare at them.

“Do you… do you know where he is?” she asked, her voice little more than a desperate whimper.

“I think so.  And we’re on our way to find him.  I don’t think it’s a good idea to come,” Princess Twilight replied, a hard edge to her voice.

“I… agree,” Princess Luna seemed to completely slump as she concurred.  “At the very least, I will continue to coordinate search efforts until you return.”

Princess Twilight said nothing.  With that, the two of them set off.  This barracks wasn’t far from the trail that led up the mountainside, so it took a few moments at most before they arrived at the dirt path leading up and around the peak.  Gleam had hiked this trail before with her mom and dad when they’d decided to have a little picnic further up, but they’d never gone all the way to the peak.

The mountain was considerably tall.  Not so high as to require acclimation for hikers, but not so short that it was a quick and easy trot to the top.  This hike would take them a few hours, and with the storm being so low to the ground, they would be slowed down by the wind and rain.  She trusted Princess Twilight to handle the lightning, at least.

But shortly after they began to climb, she began to notice something odd.  There were no lightning bolts.

The clouds would flash, the thunder would sound, but there was no bolt of lightning lancing downward from the storm to strike at the ground below.

“Does lightning strike upward?” she asked.

“It can,” Princess Twilight answered, her horn lighting up to create a shield around them which kept them dry and safe from lightning, though there was little to be done about the winds.  “But if it does, a bolt usually struck downward not far away.  Are you asking because lightning hasn’t struck downward at all?”

“Yeah, pretty much,” Gleam dipped her head.  “How did you know he’d be at the top of the mountain?”

Princess Twilight let out a sigh at this.

“When Nova is suffering, he flees to someplace he feels comfortable and thinks he won’t be found.  There are not very many places in Canterlot that he’d feel comfortable and unfindable.  I couldn’t think of any place in or around Canterlot he could be hiding, especially not with a blast of energy last powerful.  He would have had to teleport far away with that kind of blowback.”

“So you thought he’d teleported someplace like Ponyville or Neighton.”

“Pretty much,” Princess Twilight nodded.  “But when I made the connection that he could be hiding under my nose, I remembered the airship flight.”

“What about it?”  Gleam had been inside the whole time.  Being that high up wasn’t exactly something that kept her stomach settled.

“Nova jumped off the side to do some skydiving.  Even before that, he seemed… at home that high up.”  She paused for a moment, before clearing her throat and continuing.  “When he took a moment to skydive, there was a moment where I saw his face.”

Gleam watched as her features softened considerably, and her eyes grew misty.

“I have never seen Nova Shine look that… that serene doing anything.”

The tiniest of smiles formed on her face.

“He’s always been a Wind Elemental.  I should have expected it.  The sky is his home.”

The wall of clouds continued to grow ever closer the further up they climbed.  Eventually, after what felt like hours of climbing, they stood just below it.  Princess Twilight drew her in close and put a shield around both of them, to keep the air breathable, to keep the path visible, and most importantly…

A bolt of lightning flashed down.  Reflexively, Gleam threw up her hooves to defend herself, but Princess Twilight spun, graceful as a practiced art, the shield deflecting the bolt and sending it streaking into the mountainside, where it collided with a loud BANG, which the shield muted into more of a dull rumble.

“We’ll be safe, not blind, and most importantly, alive in here.”  She looked up toward the invisible peak.  “That wasn’t a normal bolt of lightning.  That was magical in origin.”

“It was too slow for normal lightning,” Gleam pointed out.

Princess Twilight smiled.  “Correct.  If it were real lightning, there would have been no time to react.  Which means…”  Her smile, small as it already was, fell entirely.  “We need to get to the top of the mountain as quickly as we can.”

With no other words, she stepped forward into the storm.  Gleam followed right behind her.  Her shield kept the clouds off of them, which kept them both from being drenched, and from being blinded by the clouds covering the ground entirely.

Onward they climbed, what little vegetation existing this high up vanishing once they crossed the tree line.  Not that there were any trees on this path to begin with, but she’d heard that was what it was called, or something like that.  But she supposed if trees grew on the mountain, they would have stopped too.

Focus, Gleam.

Now that there was no grass or plants of any kind, the ground was much harder, and it took more effort to climb.  They had to cut around boulders, switch back up several steep sections of stone, and even find other ways past obstacles in their path.

And all of this was accompanied by the storm raging around them, bolts of magical lightning blasting themselves everywhere.  Princess Twilight always deflected the ones that came after them, but with them being on such a precarious part of the peak, Gleam had to refrain from jumping too wildly.

Though in the event that she ever did, she had absolute faith that Princess Twilight would be able to rescue her.

“He’s close,” Princess Twilight whispered after what felt like days of hiking.

“How do you know?”

“I can feel him in the storm.  His rage.  His madness.  His despair--”  Her voice cut off, as she bit back a quiet sob.

It wasn’t much longer before she could finally see the night sky ahead of them as the clouds thinned.  The moon seemed to shine extra-bright, and without Canterlot’s light pollution, she could see the stars as clearly as she did in Ponyville.  Once they were fully freed of the storm’s confines, she could even see a bright and unmistakable blue glow coming from the top of the mountain.

But what was puzzling about it was that it switched from blue to green.  Then to red.  Now to yellow.  Suddenly, a wave of light blasted outward and washed over the clouds beneath them, which seemed to agitate the storm.  Multiple bolts of magical lightning blasted themselves upward toward the glow, but something strange sounded when they hit.

Music.

Princess Twilight’s mouth parted and her eyes softened considerably when the realization hit her as well.  They crept forward, approaching the peak of Mt. Canterhorn, a surprisingly-flat sort of table of rock, compared to the spires of other mountains.

As they both approached and peered over the edge, there he was.

He was floating in midair, suspended in a Lotus position and surrounded by streaking orbs of light that flew around him every which way, changing colors on a whim.  His expression was empty; he wasn’t angry, or sad, or even at peace.  He simply was.

Around him, the wind howled, a freezing gale that brought rain from the storm, but it only ever encircled him.  The water was never able to even douse his fur, before a wall of winds would deflect it away.

And as all of this went on, against the backdrop of the night sky, Gleam began to hear the music again.

It was a sad melody.  There were emphases on the strings instruments, and if she listened closely, she could perhaps hear voices.  What they were saying she couldn’t make out, but whatever it was they were saying was powerful.  The very air around them thrummed with energy, punctuated by the words, which bespoke melancholy.

All Gleam could do was stare, mouth agape.  This was her master.  A warrior.  An artist.  A genius.  He didn’t just cast magical spells.  Magic was his tool of expression.

On his worst day, Nova can sing in magic.

Beside her, Princess Twilight bowed her head, tears already forming.  Gleam wondered if she was thinking the same thing.

“It’s beautiful,” she whispered, before lifting her head and gazing at him.

Unsure of what to do, Gleam looked between the two of them, wondering who was going to make the first move.  Surely he must have sensed both of them, yet… why wasn’t he doing anything about it?

Were the lightning bolts that were coming at both of them earlier this evening even his?

Tentatively, she took a step forward, toward the impassable wall of winds.

“Gleam!” Princess Twilight hissed, grabbing her shoulder.

Paying her no mind, however, Gleam shrugged off her hoof and took another step forward.  The moment she did, Master Nova Shine’s eyes opened, and he stared at her through glowing blue-white light.

She stared back at him, completely unsure of what to do.

What do I do, Harmonia?

Have faith.

In what?

There was an almost amused feeling from within her.

In your master.

Gleam took another step forward.

Master Nova Shine’s horn blazed, and a bolt of magic struck right in front of her.  “WAH!” Gleam yelped, but she didn’t retreat.  Smoke rose from the burned ground, all while he continued to stare down at her through those glowing eyes.

Another step.

The winds intensified, but she was still able to keep her hoofing on the mountain, perilous and precarious though it was.

Another step.

Another blast of magic.  She could feel the spray of dust this time.

Another step.

A brilliant blue wall of magical energy appeared between them now.

Now what?

He told you of the time he made amends with his beloved, did he not?

So Harmonia wanted her to just step through then.

Gleam took a deep breath, lifted a hoof to the magical shield, and pushed against it.  Immediately, she stumbled through as though the shield weren’t even there, before righting herself and looking right back up at her master.

Master Nova Shine glared down at her, his eyes still blazing with light, but he didn’t move.  The two of them just stared at each other, while Princess Twilight waited nearby, her gaze switching frantically between the two of them.

After what felt like an eternity, the orbs of light slowly began to come to a halt, and the music faded.  Then, little bit by little bit, Nova Shine began to slowly float back to the ground.  A moment before he touched down, he uncurled his hooves and stood up straight just before he landed, all while his eyes never left hers.

Another step.

He did not move.

Another, and another.

Finally, she was eye to eye with him.  Still he stared at her through unblinking glowing eyes.  But now, she was where she needed to be.

She reached out, and she hugged him.

She could feel him stiffen at the contact, but she clung to him, holding as tight as she could.  After a long moment, as the wind continued to howl and lash out around them, she felt him relax.  Only a moment later, she could feel Princess Twilight embrace him as well, the two of them holding him to their shoulders.  After a moment, he sank to the ground, and she could feel him quivering.

“We’re here, Nova,” Princess Twilight whispered, and Gleam could feel her stroking at the back of his head.  “We’re here now.  It’s going to be alright.”

None of them believed it.

And then, as before, he began to cry, burying his head into their shoulders and sobbing, but no longer alone on this isolated peak, under the light of his mentor’s moon.

The End of Part I