//------------------------------//
// Love and Hate 
// Story: The Apprentice, the Student, and the Charlatan 
// by Rytex 
//------------------------------//


The Apprentice, the Student, and the Charlatan
Chapter 04 - Love and Hate


“BOO!”

“”Get off the stage!”

“YOU SUCK!”

A bottle whizzed over Trixie’s head only just missing it.  It probably would have broken her muzzle, if she hadn’t ducked under it just in the nick of time, but that didn't stop the warm liquid from spilling out and soiling her freshly-cleaned hat and cape.  Despite the different bits of debris being thrown at her, she had to take a moment to paw at her eyes.  For almost three days now, they had been burning from a lack of sleep constantly.

She couldn’t even do her sleight-of-hoof card tricks, some of the most basic tricks in her arsenal that she had to have done over a million times.

Trixie grit her teeth under her cap, trying desperately to not give into her anger.  Her temper was on a short fuse normally, and it had gotten even shorter without proper sleep.

SPLAT!

Trixie sputtered as the juice and pieces of a tomato dripped from her face.  It had been hurled with magic at such a velocity that she didn’t even have enough time to duck.

Keep it in control, keep it in control--

J̣̲̤ṳ͓̹̝̤̹s̪̳͇̥͔͙̠͠t͇̝͖̠ ͖̤̟̞͎̀g̖̬̺̮̗̦͘e͡t̷͙̲͖̹ ̟i̡̩͙̖͚̭t̬̯͍͚͚̬ ͉̲͚̖̠̘͓͝o̢u͉̩̫t̪͍͡ ͇͖͈̣̻̟̖o̤̗̲͕̣̪f͍̥̳̦̥̬͎̕ ͏͇̮̤ͅy͢o̠͍u̶͎̲r̯ ͚̮͕s̖̙̙̠̭̱̙y̦̬͡s̴̼̫̥͍̻͍t̘̙e̷͇̜̣͖m͝.̨̦͈ ̞͞ ͈͙͉Y̢͓͓̟͍̩o̤̦̘̩̫̪͎ú͚͈͔̜̬ ̴k̥̮͚̯̗͚̘ń̲̥̝͕̹̣͔ow̘͉̭̤̫̖̩͢ ̕i̜̰̗̭̦̻͕t̳͔̠̗̬͕̠’̥̬͞s͏͕̦̠ g̺̘̫̖̞̬o҉͇̯̼͉̣̪̖iͅn̕g̡̜͔ ̡̜t̝̩͘ͅo͉̻͎̬̞ ͕̻̭̲̞h̸͓̖ap͟p̨̪͔͍̞e̯͕̜̤̭n҉̯̺̬͈.̺͎̠̖̭̼

Keep it in control-- oh, buck it.

There was a loud bang, and everything around Trixie went white.  She could hear wood breaking and glass shattering, but she didn’t care.  It almost felt good, letting loose like this, just this once.

F̵̲̟e̮ḻ̥͚̝ͅͅţ̻̞ ͕g̳̭̲͍͖̻o̳̟o̥̝̤ͅd,̺̲͠ ̼͍̩͍̲̹ͅd̗̹i̩d̜͙̬͍͎̦n̹̬͢’t̷̠̩̳̯̙ ̠i̡t̩̦͍͖̞?

Trixie had to agree with the half of her brain that had suggested that.  It almost felt cathartic, looking around the room and seeing the wreckage.  Tables and chairs were wrecked, mugs and bottles lay shattered around the room, and several ponies were unconscious.  Those that weren’t were afraid to look at her.  Which gave her the perfect opportunity to make her grand exit.

Her mind, already operating on dregs of sleep, only thought of one place to go, which was in its most basic form, not here.  With a flash of soft pink light, she teleported, appearing just outside the tavern she had been performing in, right in an alley behind it.

Having never teleported with her own magic before, her stomach wasn’t ready to handle the sudden shift, and she retched, emptying it against the wall.

Keep it in control, keep it in control--

N̥̪͓̬̞o̤̘̟̫̻͝,̵ ͕̙̜̩̯͚̠́l̲e̥̯t͕̞͍̥͈̥ ͝i̯t ̨̲̦̦̠͙͕͉o͈̙̲u͏̝̹͈̭̲̫t̨.̛̱͓͔ ̤͇̮̜̣͘ͅͅ ̧̳̝̙͚̥Y͈̪̻̞͇͉̗o̻̮͈̖͇̜ͅų̮̜̗͔͙̗ ͠n̫̮͉e̬͘e҉͉̪d ̴̖i̯̠͖̙ț̰̞͉͈͍̺.̭̤͟

So she did.  Trixie slumped against the wall of the building and just let it out, breaking down and sobbing almost hysterically.

WHAT DID TRIXIE DO TO DESERVE THIS!? she screamed mentally.  WHEN WILL WHATEVER COSMIC FORCE THAT’S IN CONTROL OF THIS DECIDE THAT ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!?

She sat there sobbing against the wall for several minutes.  She didn’t know how long, nor did she care.  After she got tired of that, she stood back up, steadied herself for a moment, and just ran.  She didn’t know where she was going.  For the moment, the safest option seemed to be to just get out of Trottenham and go from there.  Even if she had to run all the way back to the Everfree Forest and camp out in one of the few safe places within its boundaries, she would do it.

Hell, she would even settle for working on that rock farm again, just to save up enough bits to cover a new wagon.

D̸̺̮̞o̸̯̻̭̣̺̞n̼’̣t͔̤͡ ̥͈̰̫̖͡y͍̘̲͔͜ọ͓̻̮͚̘u̦ ͖̙̯̭͈͇̦t͈h̬͍̜̲̱͚͢in̺͎͔̠͇k̰̼̲̟̠̕ ̵̬ͅT̷̬͖̠͖̖w͇̘̬̝̳͇i̴͇̳͈͕̗͉̖l̮͎̘͍͖̘̘i̬̝͚͞g̠̖̩̙̥̯h̶̺̜t͏̠͈̖͇̼̻ ̤̞̱̲̞̭S͎̲p̺̤̙a̻͚̯̯͓͠r̮̰k̭̣̙̘̠̫l̻̻e̷ ͠c͚͎̙͍ou҉̣̜̬̩̬l͟d͕̩̱̯̼̜̯ ̠͙͈̘h͉̜̩̙̖̕el͜p̨̩̭͓̝͔?̬̹̙́

Even as she ducked past a couple of street-going earth ponies, she agreed with the rational half of her brain.  If anypony could help her out of this predicament, since it would seem Princess Luna was content to just let her suffer, it was her old nemesis.

After all, they had parted on amicable terms, given their last two encounters.  Perhaps she would be willing to help.

Guess that settles it.  Looks like I’m heading back to Ponyville.  Again.


{T} {A} {T} {S} {A} {T} {C}


For the first time in recent memory, Nova slept like a rock.  He slept so well, it was almost a shame to crawl out of his bed that morning, aside from the fact that he had things to do, bits to make, and nightmares to prevent from happening again.  So crawl out of his bed he did, stumbling onto the floor of the Golden Oaks basement and climbing up the steps.

Once he made it to the top and opened the door, he wasn’t quite prepared for how late he’d slept.  Sunlight almost blasted its way into his eyes, making him cry out, stumble backwards, and fall all the way back down all the steps.

“Nova?” called Twilight’s voice from somewhere above him.

“I’m okay…” Nova groaned from the heap he found himself in back at the bottom.

“You don’t sound okay,” Twilight observed, looking down at him from the doorway, before taking a bite out of her morning sandwich.

“I’m fine, I’m fine, see?” Nova said, getting to his hooves, rubbing his eyes, and trotting back up the steps.  “All good.”

“You and me both,” Twilight replied, smiling warmly at him.  It was only then that Nova noticed her eyes weren’t puffy or bloodshot.  On the contrary, this was the first time in a while that she looked normal.

“You look radiant this morning,” he said, moving past her toward where a plate had been set out for him by Spike, who was already eating his own breakfast.  At Nova’s words, he rolled his eyes and made a fake gagging expression that Nova chose to ignore.  It was only a small, polite compliment and nothing more, though these small compliments always seemed to heat up Twilight’s cheeks.

“Thank-you,” she said, trotting behind him to her spot at the table.  “I don’t think it’s enough to balance my sleep schedule out again, but it’s a start.”

She sat down on her pouf and continued eating her sandwich, even as Nova inspected the toast, cheese, and various other things.

“Special occasion today?” he asked, noticing a much bigger variety than usual.

“No.  Just felt like a little treat, given the lack of nightmares,” answered Twilight, finishing her sandwich.

“I see,” said Nova, grabbing a slice of toast and using his magic to start buttering it.

“What all are you doing today?” she asked.

“Well,” Nova recalled the couple of things he was going to be doing today, “first I’ll be working with Ms. Cheerilee and Ms. Rarity.  Sweetie Belle’s just that close to being able to control her magic, and they thought I’d be a good teacher to help make it happen.  Then after that, Lyra Heartstrings apparently got her hooves on some sort of spell she wants me to cast.”

“That… doesn’t sound good,” Twilight commented.  “Be careful, won’t you?  She is one of the… err… ponies less-grounded-in-reality that live here.”

“I think I’ll be fine.  After all, I currently live with one of those,” Nova replied idly, somehow managing to keep a straight face.  “Seem to remember hearing about a time you panicked at the thought of not having a friendship report for the week.”

Spike snickered, and Twilight blushed from the memory.

“But after that,” he continued, “you wanted me to pick up that book on alchemical magical theory from my house, which I’ll have to do once my first two tasks are done.  Am I still good on rent, by the way?”

“You’ve got a week to pay for next month,” answered Twilight, though truth be told, she was thinking of doing away with it entirely, given that he practically worked it off in the library, reading and shelving in his offtime.

“Should have it all by tonight,” he assured her.

“How are you doing with your research into the nightmares?” she asked, causing Nova to pull his face into an ugly grimace.

“Not well,” he answered through gritted teeth.  “The books on archaeology mention only three ruined buildings in the forest that they mention, those being the Old Castle and this little watchtower to the north over by Trottingham that they’re not sure what it was for.  There’s this other building that was apparently a bank of some kind, so it doesn’t sound like our place.”

He sighed and started to massage the skin around his horn.

“Maybe it’s a lot deeper into the forest?  There are quite a few places that the archaeologists don’t seem to want to go.”

He massaged all the harder.

“I’m obviously missing something,” he said, voice growing quieter so he could talk to himself.  “But… what?  Is it in plain sight, or is it hidden?”

“You know, you could always ask the Princesses, or even pay a visit to some of the doctors at the Canterlot Museum of History--”

“No,” Nova answered flatly.  “To both suggestions.”

Twilight rolled her eyes at the response.  It had been expected, but still, she thought she might get him to open up to the idea the more she asked.  But then again, Nova had always been fairly blunt and stubborn.  During the mandatory “Welcome to Ponyville Party,” he had insisted on advertising his Magical Mercenary business, despite Twilight cautioning him that it probably wasn’t a good idea to do so at a Pinkie Pie party.  Major faux-pas to advertise business at a social gathering, after all.

Nova did it anyway, and Twilight was left to eat her words.  Pinkie didn’t have a problem with it, and Nova did receive his fair share of customers as a result.  In hindsight, when your job is magical handypony work, business depends on getting the word out, and considering everyone goes to a Pinkie Pie party...

“Though, speaking of the Princesses,” she continued, shaking off that memory as she was struck by a thought, “has Princess Luna assigned you anything while you’ve been here?”

“Nope,” said Nova, shaking his head as he finished the buttering he had interrupted.  “She knows I’m here, though.  Doesn’t seem to mind, really.  She’s told me I can ask her for help if I need to, but given that I asked her for help with the nightmares and she hasn’t done anything, I think I’ll pass.”

“But if the nightmares really are magically induced, she can’t do anything about them to begin with,” pointed out Twilight.

“It wasn’t that she couldn’t help,” Nova responded, “it was that she came off as though she didn’t want to.”

He finished his slices of toast, dabbed at his mouth with a napkin, and got up.

“Well, I think I’m going to get an early start to the day.  See you in a few of hours, then?”

“Have a good day,” Twilight said, picking up both of their plates and bringing them to the sink.

Nova opened the door to the library and was shocked to find a bedraggled pony sitting on the doormat.  And not just any pony.  This pony had a pale blue mane, even paler blue hair, purple eyes that were puffy and bloodshot, a cutie mark of a wand and a ribbon, and a purple star-spangled cape and wizard hat.

“Trixie?” he gasped.

Trixie blinked at the sight of him.

“Nova Shine?” she asked, surprised.

“Trixie?” came Twilight’s own surprised voice.

“Twilight!” Trixie exclaimed, looking past him.

“Twilight?” Nova repeated to himself.

“SPIKE!” shouted the drake from his spot at the table, looking quite irritated.

“What are you doing here?” Nova asked Trixie, scowling.

“Trixie could ask you the same question, Novus,” replied Trixie coolly.

“I live here, Lulamoon,” Nova responded just as coolly.  “What about you?  Pretty sure you don’t.”

“You live here?” Trixie repeated skeptically, an eyebrow arching.  “Strange, Trixie thought she lived here,” she jabbed a hoof in Twilight Sparkle’s direction.

“She does.  I pay rent,” Nova retorted.  “What about you?  You look homeless.”

“Trixie, is there something I can help you with?” Twilight asked, moving next to Nova and elbowing him out of the way.

“Yes, Twilight Sparkle,” Trixie said, before rubbing her eyes.  “Trixie hates to admit it but she… needs your help.”

Now it was Nova’s turn to blink stupidly.  He could hardly believe his ears.

“Wait wait wait,” he said, gently pushing himself next to Twilight.  “You’re actually admitting you need help?”

“Yes, you insufferable plebian, Trixie needs Twilight Sparkle’s help,” she snapped.  Now, however, Nova definitely noticed something off about Trixie’s demeanor.  She seemed almost defeated.  The Trixie he had known would never have shown it, which meant that something big had happened to her.

“Hang on,” Nova said, scrutinizing Trixie’s face.  “I know that look.”

He backed up, as did Twilight, allowing Trixie entry into the Golden Oaks.

“You’d better come inside, Trixie,” Nova said, as Trixie’s gaze shifted between the two of them.  “I’ve got a few questions I need to ask you.”

“Very well, Trixie will grace this library with her presence,” she said, hoisting her nose into the air and trotting in.  “What sort of questions?”

“Simple ones even you can answer,” Nova replied curtly, earning him a swat from Twilight’s tail.  “What’s causing you to lose all this sleep?”

“Trixie never said she was losing sleep,” Trixie answered.

“Oh please,” Nova scoffed.  “Twilight here’s been having a sleeping problem herself, lately.”

“What, are you a sleep doctor now?” Trixie asked, a smirk etching itself onto her face.

“No, but let’s just say I’ve got some expertise in the area and leave it at that,” Nova answered.  “Twilight has been having some serious nightmare problems that we’ve been trying to solve.”

“Well then, you will probably have to help Trixie,” she replied, “And Trixie assures you, she is none too pleased with this arrangement.”

“The feeling’s mutual,” Nova concurred.

“What’s up with you two?” asked Spike from the table, who had somehow managed to grab a bag of popcorn the moment he had heard Trixie at the door.  “Trixie didn’t act this way when she was around Twilight.”

“I think it should be obvious,” said Nova.  “We have history.”

“No shit,” said Spike, only to be smacked with a book by Twilight.

“Spike, you watch your language!” scolded Twilight.  “I don’t ever want to hear you say that again!”

“But Nova says it all the time!” whined Spike, rubbing the spot on his cheek that had been hit.  “How come he gets to!?”

“Nova is a grown stallion, though I wish he’d watch what he said around young and impressionable drakes,” Twilight added through grit teeth, glaring at Nova.

Nova and Trixie, however, appeared not to have seen nor heard what had happened.  Trixie was also glaring at Nova, but Nova was studying Trixie’s physical symptoms closely, a forced dispassionate expression on his face.

“Hmm....” Nova said as he continued to look Trixie over.  “Yes, you do seem to show a lot of the same symptoms as Twilight does when she’s dangerously low on sleep.  We’ll have to talk about what the nightmares are about later, because right now, I have work to do.  Be seeing you both.”

With that, he stride past Trixie and out the door, leaving Twilight, Trixie, and Spike on their own.

Spike’s look brightened as he realized the real show was about to start, and he even put on some red and blue 3D glasses he got from probably Pinkie Pie.

“So...” started Trixie conversationally, “how do you know Novus?”

“I’m Princess Celestia’s student,” Twilight said.

“Trixie knows that, but how do you know him?” Trixie repeated, a little flicker of irritation creeping into her voice.

“Well, isn’t it obvious?” Twilight asked, arching an eyebrow.  “If I’m Princess Celestia’s student, and he’s Luna’s apprentice, then it would make sense that we’d know each other and work together.”

“He’s what now?” Trixie asked.

“Wait,” Twilight said, confused.  “You… do know Nova’s the Night Apprentice, right?”

“The hell is a Night Apprentice?”

Twilight could only bury her face in her hooves after Trixie said that.  Right after she had gotten done chewing Spike out for it, Trixie gave him another one!

“He’s Princess Luna’s personal student,” she explained, choosing to just let it go for now.  “Like how I’m Princess Celestia’s, he’s Princess Luna’s.”

“Oh,” said Trixie, before giving a small smile.  “Well, it’s about time something good happened to him.”

“I… what?”

After the argument between them, this was the last thing Twilight had expected to hear from Trixie.

“But… hang on,” she said, brow furrowing.  “You two just… what was that argument, then, if you seemed to actually be positive about him getting something that you didn’t?”

Trixie snickered.

“Oh Twilight Sparkle,” she said in a patronizing sing-song sort of voice, “just because we argued like that doesn’t mean we hate each other.  Trixie and Nova go wayyyy back.”

“I could tell,” Twilight said, in deadpan irritation.

“Trixie and Nova were rivals in primary school,” Trixie continued, as if she couldn’t hear.  “Excepting you, Trixie does not think she ever had a more worthy rival.  It was… mostly friendly.”

“Mostly?”

“Before a certain incident,” Trixie explained, suddenly getting a bit more serious.  “Has Nova told you anything about it?”

“About what?” Twilight asked, feeling a bit lost.

“Obviously not,” Trixie said, shaking her head.  “If he has not told you, even Trixie doesn’t feel like it’s her place to say.  But let’s just say, Trixie unfairly benefitted from something Nova deserved.  It was not Trixie’s intention to do so, but the damage was done.  Trixie is not surprised he reacted so.”

“Actually, that makes sense,” Twilight said, thinking back to what she had learned from eavesdropping on him and her father.  How Nova seemed to completely, utterly despise this “him,” and how after several attempts to get him to tell her who “him” was, he finally said it was his father.

“The poor colt’s had a hard life, and this is coming from me, the mare who had to spend a whole year on a rock farm!”

“You have my pity,” said Twilight.  “Hang on, am I to take it that you actually… care about him a bit?”

“Trixie is the most caring pony you know, so it should come as no surprise to find out that Trixie does,” Trixie said, her muzzle rising into the air.

“That… I’m…”  Twilight was at a loss for words.  On one hoof, she very much wanted to tease Trixie about it, but she was sincerely touched at her rare display.

“A better question for you, Twilight Sparkle,” Trixie said, choosing to not let her finish, “is ‘How good was he?’”

Twilight blinked.

“I beg your pardon?”

“Oh come on!” Trixie exclaimed, smirking at her.  “You seem to be in better than usual mood this morning, Trixie saw the looks you were giving him… need Trixie go on?”

Twilight suddenly caught on to what she was implying, and her face immediately started to heat up.  Spike, however, looked between Trixie and Twilight, expecting an explanation.

“How good was Nova at what?” he asked.

“S-Spike, go do your chores,” Twilight said, wanting to just pull a book over her face and hide.

“Aww man,” said Spike, rolling his eyes, hopping down off his chair and walking off to grab the chore checklist..  “Right when the conversation was getting interesting.”

As soon as he was gone, Twilight covered her face with a hoof.  “We didn’t do that last night, Trixie,” she mumbled pathetically.

“Heh, you should see the look on your face,” Trixie chortled.  “Priceless!  But seriously, how strong is he in magic?”

“Strong,” Twilight said, waiting on the burning feeling in her cheeks to go away.  “He’s a lot better than he thinks he is.”

“Trixie doesn’t understand.  Care to elaborate?”

“He’s spent a lot of time learning with Princess Luna,” Twilight explained, removing her hoof.  “He is very proficient, but in his own words, he’s a lot better with theory than with the actual act.”

Trixie began to snicker.

“What!?” demanded Twilight indignantly.  “What’s so funny?”

“So you’re saying he knows what to do, but he has no idea how to do it?  Wow.  I’m surprised he lasted the whole night.”

“What are you talking abou-- Trixie!”


{T} {A} {T} {S} {A} {T} {C}


While Trixie tormented Twilight in the library, Nova wasn’t having a much better time.  His attempts to teach Sweetie Belle ended in near-disaster, and Lyra Heartstrings’ supposed anthropomorphization spell nearly caused one.

Sweetie Belle’s magical lessons had started off incredibly well.  Nova’d managed to get her picking things up in her telekinesis within minutes of beginning the lessons.  Sweetie began to start picking up other objects around the room as soon as she had gotten Nova’s little rock floating around.  However, to Rarity’s dismay, Sweetie began picking up several of her more fragile things.  This all led to a terrible ending, as the other two members of the Cutie Mark Crusaders burst into the shop, causing Sweetie to drop an expensive vase.  Nova wasn’t quick enough to catch it, and it shattered upon hitting the ground.

The CMC were out of there only a few seconds after they arrived, leaving Nova all alone to be yelled at by Rarity about how he should have been discouraging her from levitating fragile things, and so on.

By the end of the lecture, Nova was glad to be out of Carousel Boutique, but then Lyra attempted to make him cast a spell that was supposed to “anthropomorphize” her.

“Miss Heartstrings,” Nova said cautiously as he looked over the spell, “this spell does not look like a working spell.”

“Oh poppycock,” the mint-green mare said, rolling her eyes.  “I bought it from a store I trust in Canterlot!  Why would they sell me faulty merchandise?”

“You would be surprised,” Nova replied, “but it’s still a very faulty spell.  None of this even looks anything like transformative magic.”

“Just cast the damn spell!”

And against Nova’s better judgement, he did.  It took him two hours to piece Lyra’s house back together with his magic.

All the while, she kept thinking of newer and newer reasons that it had to be caster error while he diligently refrained from throwing her into the sky like he did the bounty hunting pegasus.

All in all, it hadn’t been a good morning for Nova.  He had, however, received all of his promised bits.  It had taken all of his charm to wrangle them out of Rarity, and with that in mind, he had asked for the bits up front from Lyra.  She had refused at first, but she did pay him in the end, and even after the failure of a spell she didn’t ask for them back, considering he was piecing her house together free of charge.

With his two jobs done and his money earned, Nova set to plodding his way up the road to Neighton, wishing plagues a both their houses.  It wasn’t a particularly nice thing to be thinking about, but Nova’s mind had long since taken the form of a purplish-blue-cloaked skeletal pony and it was saying in a curiously high-pitched voice, “I am not nice.”

The path to Neighton cut a little into the fringes of the Everfree Forest, and so trees were everywhere as the path wound its way around the magical woods.  None of them were quite as overgrown as the ones further into the forest were, making the trail appear much more welcoming.  It also provided some interesting scenery to look at when hiking.

Nova was about five minutes outside of Ponyville’s city limits when he rounded a corner. Directly ahead of him was another bend passing between a few trees, but just on the side of the path was a particularly unexpected sight.

Trixie Lulamoon was sitting up on one of its higher branches, snoozing peacefully.  As Nova grew closer, he detected a couple of binding spells holding her to the branch.

Chuckling at the sight, he walked under the tree and used a magical probe to poke her in the side.

“Wuzzappening?” she blearily said from up above, before shaking her head vigorously, causing her hat to fall down to the ground below, where Nova caught it.

“Oh, it’s you,” Trixie said from up above him.

“It’s me,” parrotted Nova, before smirking and putting the hat on himself.  “Hmm… I think I’d look good in a wizard’s hat.”

“Give me that,” she snapped, snatching it off of his head with magic.  Nova watched as she descended the tree, and had to admit, he was fairly impressed with the way she leapt down from branch to branch.  It looked like a practiced art.

“Impressive,” he commented as she landed on the ground.  “Where’d you learn to do that?”

“As Trixie spent more and more time alone on her own, she had to learn how to climb to high, hard-to-reach places so as to save her mana for her shows,” Trixie explained, moving to catch up to Nova as he continued his trot to Neighton.  “Over time, Trixie just got good at it.”

“I see,” Nova said.  “Any particular reason why you were up there?”

“Twilight kicked Trixie out of the library,” Trixie said tersely.  “Seemed to think Trixie’s teasing was going too far.  Trixie was only making light jokes at her expense.  Anyway, Trixie came to that tree because Trixie has been waiting for you.”

“Waiting for me?” asked Nova, cocking an eyebrow at her.

“Yes,” Trixie affirmed.  “Trixie… I have been wanting to talk to you.”

Nova almost did a double-take.  “Dropping the third-pony, are we?”

“It’s just a stage act,” Trixie said, rolling her eyes.  “Granted, it’s a stage act I do a lot even outside of performances and can regularly switch on and off, but it’s still just an act for the stage.  You don’t really think I’m that egotistical do you?”

“Uhh… do you want the honest answer, or the ‘make-you-feel-good’ answer?”

That earned him a shove.

“You haven’t changed a bit,” she observed dryly.  “Well, you do seem to have gotten a bit colder, but you’re still just as sarcastic as those days in magic primary.”

“Before you and your father ruined my life, you mean?” spat Nova, a harsh edge creeping in.  “Yeah, I haven’t changed a bit.”

“That’s… exactly what I wanted to talk to you about, actually.”

Aaaaaand the mental skeleton pony was back.  This time, it seemed like he had stuck Nova under the metaphorical thunderhead.  Nova grit his teeth, tendons in his neck bulged, and he sucked in a breath through his nose slowly.

“What’s there to talk about?” he asked in a low voice.  “You got your dad to bribe one of the officials to get you in instead of me.  End of story.”

“I had nothing to do with it!” Trixie retorted indignantly.  “I benefitted, but I said nothing to my father.  He did it on his own.  And I don’t think he even intended to replace you or anything.”

“Right,” replied Nova scathingly.  “That explains the whole history of the feud between our clans, eh?  Novuses and Lulamoons and their eternal rivalry, forever trying to see who’s the better name in magic?  Not to mention your constant desire to do better than me in school?”

Trixie opened her mouth to retort, but after a moment, she simply closed it.

“I am sorry for what happened, Nova,” she finally said after a moment’s silence.  “I promise, I had nothing to do with it.”

Nova wanted to call her a liar for it.  He wanted to ignore it, but the simple fact that her energy didn’t change in the slightest meant that she was telling the truth.  She really didn’t have anything to do with it.

Nova’s head drooped at the thought, leaving him feeling quite disappointed in himself.  He had heaped blame on her over the years, and only now was it clear it had been undeserved.  Her father?  Maybe, but her?  She deserved none of it.

He let out a long sigh.

“I’m sorry too, Trixie,” he admitted.  “All this time, I really thought you were the one behind it all.  But do you really understand how I felt when I found out that all my hopes and dreams were coming crashing down?”

What had started as a heartfelt apology had suddenly turned into an accusation, and Trixie winced at the sudden harshness in his voice.

“I got my cutie mark taking that test, Trixie.  In one glorious moment, I just knew that I loved reading and casting spells, and I passed the school’s entrance test.  It was my chance to really shine!  I could finally pursue what it was that made me special!  And in one moment, all of that was ripped from me, courtesy of your father, who couldn’t bear the thought of his darling little filly missing the cut by that much.”

“You want the truth of that, Nova?” asked Trixie, suddenly sounding bitter herself.  “I didn’t want to go to Celestia’s school.  I didn’t want to become a master of magic.  Magic helps me at my job, but I don’t want to cast the boring and practical spells.  My cutie mark is about being a showmare.  In the past, I saw that ponies loved celebrities who lorded it over them, and I tried to emulate them.  It got me nowhere, and it only made me miserable, and it may or may not have contributed to my little feud with Twilight.  But lately, I’ve realized that I enjoy making other ponies happy.”

She shook her head.

“In that moment, I knew what the right thing to do was.  And I didn’t do it because I wanted to make my father proud.  I knew it was the wrong decision, but it was too late.  So I intentionally bombed out.”

Nova let out a little scoff.  “You bombed out because you felt sorry for me?  That’s really it?”

“That’s it,” affirmed Trixie as they rounded another bend.  “Like I said, I didn’t want to go to Celestia’s school.”

“When I heard you had flunked out, I admit, I felt happy at your expense,” said Nova.  “Just felt like karma, you know?”

“I know the feeling.”

Nova didn’t bother challenging that statement.  Instead, he simply let it be and they continued on their way.  After Trixie had said that, he had no other choice but to believe her.  She had spoken no lies to him, as the energy of her body hadn’t budged even slightly, and Nova could easily tell if she was casting magic.

But Nova and Trixie, it seemed, had picked up right where they had left off in Canterlot after all this time.  Rivals, they may have been, but they were still friendly outside of said rivalry.  With the heavier stuff behind them and the past buried, the three-hour trot to Neighton seemed to fly by.  In what seemed like no time at all, the town came into view.

It didn’t take much longer for Nova to navigate through the town toward his house, greeting some of the ponies he passed who hadn’t seen him in a few months along the way.  But when he was inside, he wanted to take the time to relax a little before he felt like going and looking for the book.

Unfortunately, something felt off about the place.

Nova couldn’t quite place his hoof on it, but there was just a strange sort of feeling like there was something out of the ordinary going on.

“Something wrong?” asked Trixie as Nova began to look around.

“Yeah,” Nova said.  “Give me a moment.”

His search led him straight to his study, with Trixie right behind him, looking thoroughly nonplussed with regard to the situation.

“What’s going on?” she asked.

“Something’s… off,” Nova said, looking around the room.

“What do you mean something’s off?” Trixie asked.  “Everything seems alright to me.”

“No, it’s not that,” Nova said, rubbing the skin around his horn.  “It’s… my magical resonances.  They’re still around.”

“What do you mean by that?” asked Trixie.

“Oh, right, you don’t know,” Nova exclaimed, remembering that Trixie had never known him while he was able to sense magic.  “Basically, I can sense energy.  Very useful for detecting hidden spells and enchantments, as well as seeing if someone’s lying to me or not.”

“So it works as a lie detector?  I was wondering why you accepted what I said so fast,” commented Trixie, but Nova was already continuing.

“Magical resonances are supposed to wear off over time.  Strange that they’re all still here.”

He focused on several of the unseen resonances surrounding his books.  On further observation, they did have signs of being noticeably weaker than fresh resonances, the residue of spells cast on or around objects.

“Strange,” said Nova.  “I guess the simple fact that I cast magic on them to levitate them around so often in the past has kept them sustained until now.”

“What book is it you’re searching for?” Trixie asked.

“A book on alchemistic magical theory.  Only have one, and it’s bound in bright red.”

“This it?” asked Trixie, pulling one off of the shelf, before clumsily knocking several other books down.

“Be careful!” hissed Nova.  “I quite like my books.  And yes, that does appear to be it.”

With the book in his possession, he bent down to put the fallen books back in their place.  There were only four of them that had been knocked loose, and Nova quickly replaced three of them.  He was about to pick up the fourth when his eye caught a pair of words that immediately piqued his interest.

“--temple ruin--”

Immediately, he yanked the book off the ground, jumped into his favorite chair,and set to reading the preceding information.


{T} {A} {T} {S} {A} {T} {C}


“TWILIGHTIFOUNDITINTHISBOOK!” announced Nova, barging through the door of the library, blasting poor Spike, who had been standing behind it, back into a bookshelf.

Twilight, who had been watching from the kitchen, could just dumbly blink at the moment, before glancing at the clock he had coerced her into buying, which hung above the door he had just barged through..

“You’re an hour early,” she pointed out, a certain confusion and amazement behind her voice.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean,” she pointed at the clock, “I accounted for all six hours of the hike to and from Neighton round-trip, and this was assuming you didn’t stay at your house for longer than five minutes to look.  You’re back in Ponyville, and a six hour trip only took you five hours and five minutes.”

“Twilight, that doesn’t matter, look what--”

“It does matter,” she huffed.  “Did you teleport?  How could you have made it all the way there and back, using only 83% of the time it takes to get there and back?”

“I ran!” said Nova in exasperation.  “Can you not see or smell that I’m sweating up a storm, or that my legs are about to--”

He collapsed, sending both of the books he had kept stuck in his saddlebags sliding across the floor..

“...give out?” he groaned, before whimpering as his legs started to twitch uncontrollably.

“That doesn’t look good,” said Spike.

“Spike, go fetch me an Elixir of Energy from the medicine cabinet,” Twilight instructed, picking Nova up in her magic and trotting upstairs to lay him in her bed.  “You are a thick-headed stallion, you know that?”

“Ow,” he replied eloquently.

“You ran all the way here, and based on just how wild and jerky your legs appear to be, you used an Energy Transfer spell,” Twilight said, giving him a very stern glare.  “Do you have any idea how reckless it was to do that?”

“It’s important,” was his only reply.  His actual justification for why he sapped his body’s energy reserves just so he could run for an extra few minutes was because it was important.  Twilight wanted nothing more than to slap some sense into him, but she let him continue anyway.  “Found something you might like to see.  Oh, by the way, the alchemy book is the red one.”

“Thanks,” she said, as the two books floated up with magic  to where she was tending to him.  “So, this green one,” she said, indicating A Brief History of Equestria, 1st ed., “I assume this is where it’s found?”

“It is,” said Nova, nodding, before wincing as his legs gave a rather violent set of jerks.  “Turn to Page 394, start about half-way down the page.”

Twilight wordlessly complied, just as Spike came running up the steps, carrying with him a small vial of pink liquid.

“Thanks, Spike,” said Nova, taking the vial, popping off the cork, and downing it in a gulp.  As Twilight turned to the indicated spot, Nova could feel his legs heat up, before suddenly their jerking ceased, though they still felt very sore.

“What was that?” he asked aloud.

“Twilight makes those Elixirs of Energy whenever she wants to pull all-night study sessions,” said Spike.  “It energizes tired body parts.”

“Oh, nice,” said Nova.  “Probably shouldn’t get up, though.  Still hurts.”

“One elixir’s meant to restore energy to a moderately worn body part,” explained Twilight, now scanning the page for what Nova was trying to show her.  “You had four, and all of them were in fairly bad shape.  You’re lucky I happened to have several of them,” she scolded, glaring at him.  “If I hadn’t, you very well could have suffered much worse.”

“Aww, you really do care about me,” teased Nova.

Twilight’s cheeks went very red at this, and she raised the book up to cover her face.

“Where’s Trixie?” she asked.

“She’s coming,” said Nova.  “She wanted to stick around in Neighton for a bit before heading back.”

“Mmh,” grunted Twilight, before starting to read aloud.

“This brings us onto the topic of Everfree City, the original capital of Equestria, before modern-day Canterlot.  The city nowadays is nothing more than a crumbling ruin, and as far as archaeologists are aware, only four buildings from the old times still stand.  Naturally, the Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters, where Princess Celestia and Princess Luna ruled, is one of them.  However, the other three are much more ambiguous in nature.  There exists in the proximity of the Province of Brayton a tower, believed to have been used as a watchtower in case of attacks from King Sombra’s Empire to the north (See Chapter 28).  There’s also a building, about five miles to the southeast, that archaeologists believe to be an old barracks for the Royal Guard, based on a few artifacts found inside.

“Third, however, is probably the most mysterious ruin still standing, even more so than the Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters is.  The design of the place is nothing more than what appears to be a Pegasi-inspired temple ruin, but due to several magical traps placed on several large stone doors found inside, archaeologists have deemed the place unsafe and have abandoned all attempts to uncover the mysteries of what the building is for.  However, due to some very old documents that were obtained in 946 ANM by the Manehattan Institute of Magic, the name has been determined to be the Everfree Vaults.”

Twilight looked up from the book to see Nova looking quite pleased with himself.

“Your books are too within date,” he said, giving a smug smile.

“What are you talking about?” she asked.

“This is an older edition of the book than you have,” Nova explained, taking the book from Twilight and pointing to the copyright page, where the dates indicated the book was two edition behind and written some thirty years before.  “I looked through that book several times over the last month, and it isn’t in there.  Might want to consider stocking up on some of the older copies.”

Twilight couldn’t believe her ears.  Relevant information had actually been removed from a newer edition of a book!?  For the greater good of books everywhere, it was clear she needed to take a pilgrimage to wherever Random House Books was and teach the CEO a lesson in edition-changing.

Nova groaned again as his legs underwent a slight spasm, but to Twilight’s surprise, he actually swung himself off of the bed, retrieved his saddlebags, and started to hobble his way toward the door of the library.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

“Heading to catch a train,” he said.

“Why do you need to catch a train?”

“More research,” Nova answered, before diverting his course and instead heading for the basement.  “The Crystal Empire’s library’s over a thousand years old, after all.  If it doesn’t have any then-current information on Everfree City and those Vaults, I don’t know anywhere that will.”

“That… makes sense, actually,” Twilight said.  “But why now?  And are you just going to leave and head back to Neighton when you’re done?”

“Is that… disappointment I hear?” asked Nova, turning to give her a very odd look.

“N-no,” said Twilight, looking away.  Nova noticed a flare-up in her energy, but figured it was probably best not to pursue the topic.  Especially considering he had a good hour before the last train to the Crystal Empire left Ponyville.

“Do you even know if a train’s heading that way tonight?” Twilight asked.

“I ran by the station on my way here,” answered Nova.  “I’ve got an hour.  Figured I was going to board early and sleep on it.”

“A good idea.  Get a caboose seat.  They have beds,” advised Twilight.  “Also, if you’ll give me a second.  I’ll have Spike write a letter to my brother and sister-in-law.”

“Oh, that’s right!” exclaimed Nova.  “I had forgotten about that.  But why do you need to let them know?”

“Well, they are the Crystal Princess and Crystal Prince-Consort,” she replied dryly.  “Maybe they’ll be able to help.”

Nova paused, suddenly appreciating the fact that he had never actually expected to get this far in his little plan, and realizing just how little thought had gone into what he was going to do after he found any information regarding the Vaults.

“How much did you think this through?” asked Twilight, trying unsuccessfully to stifle a giggle at Nova’s expense.  His shortsightedness could just be so adorable at times.

“I don’t know, I didn’t think I’d actually get this far,” Nova admitted sheepishly.  “Story of my life, I suppose.”

Nova waited patiently on exhausted legs while Twilight scrawled a letter as quickly as she could.  After all, there was a lot of important information that had to be conveyed to Cadance and Shining Armor.  She had to convey everything.

And after everything was written down, she had to go over it three times to make sure there were no grammatical or content errors.

All while Nova sat by the door of the library, waiting as patiently as he could on legs that were going to give out any second now.

Finally, after everything was satisfactory, she had Spike send the letter off to the Crystal Empire, before heading down and getting another bottle of Elixir of Energy, and trotting over and leading Nova out of the library.

Everything was going smoothly, until Nova actually collapsed only a few paces outside of the library.

Twilight just rolled her eyes at the sight.  He was going to be okay, but the sheer extent of his stubbornness and stupidity could sometimes just baffle her.

“Just relax for a moment, okay?” she said, turning around to where Nova lay on the ground.

“Do wha?” mumbled Nova, before he was surrounded by a magenta aura and lifted off of the ground.  Twilight maneuvered him right around and set him straight down on her back, his limbs draped on either side of her barrell, and his head drooping somewhere ahead of her neck.

“You don’t have to do this, you know,” he mumbled as she simply started trotting as if there was nothing unusual about the situation.  “You could have just carried me with magic.”

“No can do,” Twilight refuted.  “The Elixir’s still in your system.  Mixing too much magic with potions can have dangerous side-effects.”

“Thanks,” he said weakly.

“It’s no problem,” she assured him.  It wasn’t technically a lie, but she really didn’t want to tell him that it would have been perfectly harmless to carry him with magic (seeing as how she had specifically brewed her potions to not have any unwanted effects when dealing with the arcane), and that she secretly just wanted him on her back.

The trip to the train station was silent after that.  Twilight was even so kind as to purchase his ticket for the ride, take him back to the bed, and tuck him in herself.  As soon as he was in the sheets, he was peacefully snoozing.  Once she was sure he was all settled, she returned to the steward and gave him the bottle of elixir.

“The stallion I was carrying?  Make sure he drinks this after he wakes up.”

The steward gave a polite nod and took the small vial from her.  “Can do, ma’am.  The white unicorn with the blue mane in the caboose, right?”

“That’s him,” she said.  “He’s heading for the Crystal Empire.”

“Right.  Have a good evening, ma’am,” the steward said as Twilight turned to leave.

And have a safe trip, Nova, she thought.


{T} {A} {T} {S} {A} {T} {C}


Sharp Eye knocked at the Ponyville mail station thirty minutes later, carrying an important letter in his saddlebags.  The town mailmare, one Ditzy “Derpy” Doo Muffins Hooves, a grey-coated, yellow-maned, wall-eyed pony that always seemed to find herself crashing into things on accident one day, but being completely normal the next, was the one who answered.

“Hello mister!” she greeted happily.  “Did you need mail to be delivered, or are you here to pick something up?”

“No, I’m just here to have something delivered.  Here,” he said, pulling out and proffering the letter in question.

Derpy took it, looked it over, and then dropped in the box labelled “Canterlot Postage.”

“It’ll be about three days before your letter will be delivered,” she explained.  “Tomorrow is when the next train to Canterlot is, and that’s when they’ll pick up the mail.  The day after, it’ll be sorted, and then after that, it’ll be delivered.  If this is very important, I suggest you just take the train tomorrow and tell whomever it is you want to meet this information in pony.”

“Thank-you miss, but I assure you, he’s expecting this letter on the day in question.  Plus, I’ve got somewhere I need to be off to in about thirty minutes.”

“Oh, well, okay,” said Derpy, smiling warmly.  “Thank-you for using the Equestrian Postal Service.  We’ll always make sure your package is moving in the general direction of the destination... most of the time.”

Sharp Eye nodded at her, turned around, and trotted away.  He had a train to catch.


{T} {A} {T} {S} {A} {T} {C}


Nova gave a very contented sigh as he exited the train.  The air was much chillier than Ponyville’s temperate climate, and he loved it already.  It was his first time to the Empire since its reappearance, which meant that while he definitely was going to work on trying to solve the mystery of the Vaults, nothing was stopping him from enjoying his little vacation.

He could already tell he was going to love it here.  Everything glimmered with the light of the crystals that made up the eponymous empire, the native ponies seemed quite friendly, and he had to admit, they were a lot easier on the eyes color-wise.  Their slightly muted tones didn’t seem as harsh to look at as the bright colors of regular ponies.

He had to admit, he hadn’t felt so relaxed and so energized in a long time.  His legs felt nice and rejuvenated after his sleep, and the elixir he had taken in the morning had certainly helped.

“Ah,” he sighed to himself happily as he exited the train.  “I think this week’s going to go by way too fast.”

“You’re telling me,” said a gruff, braytish voice from somewhere to his right.  Nova’s head snapped in said direction, bringing him face to face with a pegasus Peacekeeper, who was smiling quite broadly at him.

“Aegis?” Nova exclaimed.  “What are you doing here?”

“I’m on paid leave, actually,” Aegis replied.  “For the next seven days, I’m up here to let Shining Armor study my set of armor so he and the Crystal Empire generals can come up with a set of their own for their guards.  I get paid for some R’n’R.”

“Sounds like a hell of a plan,” Nova said.  “This’ll be great.  You and me on vacation at the same time.”

“Yes, well, don’t you have your own work to be doing?” he reminded him.  “Oh, and follow me, I’ll lead you to where you’ll be staying.”

He set off at a leisurely pace through the city, heading toward the center, where the magnificent Crystal Spire towered over everyone.  As they went, Nova couldn’t help but look left and right at the many different buildings.

And the strange fashion choices.  Was that a hat made out of three pieces of hay and a drinking straw?

Well, he had to admit, it does work.  Actually looks kinda nice on the crystal pony in question.

"So, how are you and your marefriend holding up?"

"SHE'S NOT MY MAREFRIEND!" Nova snapped.  Seriously, what was with people assuming that?

"Keep lying to yourself, Nova," said Aegis, chuckling to himself.  “But if you’ll look to your right, you’ll find one of the more surprising things about the empire,” he said, taking up the role of tour guide.  “They seem to have a serious thing for Twilight’s pet dragon.”

“He’s not a pet,” Nova reflexively corrected, even as he surveyed an in-progress statue of what was clearly Spike.  Nova made a note to stoke Spike’s ego a little bit about it when he got back.  “He’s her assistant.  And his name is Spike, by the way.”

“My mistake,” Aegis said, inclining his head sincerely.  “He always seemed to be little more than a servant whenever I saw him.”

“Well, from what I understand, she didn’t really appreciate him nearly as much when she lived in Canterlot, so for her, he… kinda was.”

Aegis grunted, before his golden eyes lit up.  “Speaking of, I hear you’re living in Ponyville now.”

“I thought I mentioned that in my last letter,” Nova said.

“I haven’t had time to decipher it,” Aegis replied.  “The letter’s incredibly long, and it takes me a good hour to decode these things.  Really, he’s not intercepting the mail.  I don’t see why you have to keep using that code.”

“Decipher, decode, and decrypt all mean different things, Aegis,” pointed out Nova.  “The correct one to use here would be ‘decrypt.’”

“Whatever the damn word is, it takes me too long to do it, so I haven’t yet.”

“Where are we going anyway?” Nova asked, as they passed by an inn.

“Crystal Spire,” said Aegis.  “Lucky bastard.  It was the Princess’ orders that you’re staying with them.”

“Great,” groaned Nova.  “Is there no way for me to stay at a normal inn?”

Aegis stopped dead in his tracks.  Nova didn’t notice, and ran right into him.

“You mean to tell me you would rather stay at a normal inn than at the Crystal bucking Spire?” Aegis asked incredulously.  “I mean, I know you declined Canterlot Castle a couple of months back, but this is--”

“Aegis, for once, this actually has nothing to do with my father,” Nova answered honestly, his mind already hearkening back to the five times he had met the sickeningly-sweet pink princess.  Four of which had been while he was still wandering, the last had been at their wedding.  “Well, it has a tiny bit to do with him, and only indirectly, but let’s just say that I’m not terribly fond of Cadenza and leave it at that, shall we?”

Aegis rolled his eyes, and resumed his trot.

“You are such an unbelievable sod, you know that?”

“And I’m also still successfully avoiding my father,” added Nova.

Aegis had no retort.  Or perhaps he simply chose not to.  In any case, they had arrived at the Crystal Spire, the magnificent structure which was built on four legs and towered over the city center.  Nova even cast a glance at the Crystal Heart, hovering in its little place between two spikes of crystal.  It was giving off a faint light, which pulsed similar to a heartbeat.

“This way,” said Aegis, leading him into one of the doors set on the inside of the legs around the structure, which opened to reveal a massive foyer, made out of gems and crystals as well, with many crystal sculptures and a plush purple carpet leading to a ceremonial set of stairs at the end.

This place has got to be worth more than every drop of my blood, thought Nova.

“This way,” said Aegis again, heading up the set of stairs, which split and turned back around the edge of the room, before leading into the main body of the spire itself.

Aegis led Nova up the stairs and into the main structure of the palace, a hall with many doors that led to many different rooms, the purposes of which Nova could only guess, before leading him into one of the side rooms close by.  Upon entry, Nova noticed that it appeared to be a war room, of sorts.  There were several crystal ponies wearing uniforms, and Prince-Consort Shining Armor stood at the head of the table with his wife close by, and all of them were surveying several documents that depicted sets of armor, which were spread around the table.

“This one has the elegance of our race, coupled with the practicality of the Equestrian armor,” one of them said, in a rich bass voice, indicating one set right before him.

“While I agree that it does focus on the elegance of the armor,” countered Shining, “as a soldier myself, I can say with confidence that it lacks satisfactory protection in several areas, such as the undercarriage.”

“General Zircon,” one of the ponies said, “the armor you’re advocating appears to focus more on emphasizing the beauty of our race, rather than on the protection of our ponies.”

“But we cannot just copy the Equestrian armor,” another general retorted.  “The only two here who could enchant it with the same spells as that armor would be our Prince and Princess, of course not accounting for any enchanters Princess Celestia would send to us.”

“Pardon the interruption,” announced Aegis, striding forward and indicating that Nova should follow, “but I am here to present Night Apprentice Nova Shine.”

Nova inclined his head politely, and stepped forward.

“Ah, good to see you again, Nova Shine,” said Shining, giving him a friendly smile.

“And you as well, Prince-Consort,” Nova replied.  “What’s all this?”

“As Aegis undoubtedly told you on the way here, we’re working on creating a set of armor for the Crystal Legion,” explained Shining.  “While they have fully integrated into Equestrian society, the crystal ponies have been moving to create a local guard, which will also serve as their segregated branch of the military, similar to the pegasi’s Dragoons, the earth ponies’ Groundshakers, and the Mystic Knights for the unicorns.  We’re currently working on devising a set of armor for them, that will feature cues from the standard Equestrian set.”

“Kinda like how Celestia and Luna both have their own set of guards?”

“Sort of,” said Shining, nodding.  “This will kinda be a mixture.  Basically, think of it like Princess Luna’s Nightmares, where they answer only to her, and they’re exclusively a division of Thestrals.”

He paused, before looking up at the ceiling and tapping his chin with a hoof.  “Though, if I recall, there’s this young pegasus who’s been trying to get into the Nightmares for the last couple of months now.”

“Hmm,” Nova said, trotting forward.  “I like this one.”

He pointed at a diagram of armor that featured a very spiky set.  There were several gems put into the armor that apparently featured certain enchantments, and considering the armor itself looked like a weapon in itself, a pony would simply have to put it on and charge straight at an enemy and…

...why was everyone glaring at him?

“Forgive him,” said Shining apologetically.  “He’s never been to the Crystal Empire before.”

“So, how did I just inadvertently insult everyone?” Nova asked hesitantly, noticing the less-than-happy expressions on everyone’s faces.

“The armor you selected, Sir Night Apprentice,” answered the first general, Zircon, “is that of the Imperial Legion, the forces of Sombra.”

Nova felt his insides go cold.

“Fear not, we understand, don’t we gentlecolts?” Zircon asked meaningfully, patting him on his upper foreleg and glancing around at his peers, who seemed to drop their glares.  “But do try to read some of the supplemental information next time, won’t you?” he indicated several descriptions featuring Sombra’s instructions, including referencing his own name.

Nova felt his face heat up this time.  Really, how could he have been so stupid?

“I’ll show him to his room, dear.  You can keep debating this,” said the one voice he really didn’t want to hear say that.

“Thanks, honey,” Shining said to his wife, giving her a chaste peck.  Nova let out a long-suffering sigh and trotted over to where Princess Cadance stood, waiting for him.  As he got near, she turned and began to trot a little ahead of him, leading him to the room he’d be staying in.

As they exited the meeting room through a backdoor, she instead allowed him to go ahead.  Nova sensed she was surveying him.  He, however, was determined to not speak unless spoken to.

“How have you been?” she asked, and Nova was pleased to hear a cautious note behind the question.

“Alright,” Nova answered.

“That’s good,” Cadance said.  “I was wondering how you had coped after the wedding.”

“Well enough,” Nova said.  “Did things normal ponies did.  Watched hoofball, worked some jobs, got magically-educated by one of the two diarchs of the land...”

He waved a hoof through the air.

“But of course, you already know all of this, don’t you.”

“Actually,” Cadance said, a wry smile splitting her face, “I did not.  I told you at the wedding about how I stopped watching you the day Princess Luna took you on as her student, didn’t I?”

Nova furrowed his brow as he tried to recall the conversation.  He didn’t remember too much about the goings-on before the wedding debacle, but nopony did, courtesy of the changelings.  After, however, Cadance had seemed to take a particular interest in his well-being.  The wedding-planner, whom he had only recently learned was Twilight, had been working overtime to make things go smoothly, and he had been spending as little time at the castle as possible.  This didn’t stop Cadance from visiting him in his hotel room to give her one of her lectures.

“I don’t remember.  I just remember you lecturing me, like you always do,” he admitted honestly.  “And let me guess, like you’re going to do now.”

“Do you truly believe I lecture you simply because I enjoy it?” Cadance asked quietly.

“No,” answered Nova.  “I think you lecture me because you just can’t let me live my own damn life.”

“I do want you to live your own life,” Cadance refuted.  “But I want you to live your own life free from the hatred you’ve kept in your heart for so long.  It’s not healthy to keep carrying that around, Nova!”

“You’re doing it again,” growled Nova.  “Every time we meet, you see fit to lecture me.  Can’t let an opportunity pass up, can you?” he accused.

They entered a stair room, where she began to lead him up several floors.  Nova relished the silence that continued for the next several moments, even though he knew Cadance was going to retort in some way.

“I just want what’s best for you,” she said quietly.

“Bullshit,” spat Nova.

“I do!” protested Cadance indignantly.  “Look Nova, you may not believe me when I say this, but you are really more than just a project to me.”

“Good to know,” Nova said.  “I’m not just a project.  I’m your grand master project to impress Celestia, is that it?”

“That’s not what I mean and you know it,” she snapped.  “I just… you’re like a little brother to me, you know that?  After all those years of keeping an eye on you, I started to care about you just as much as I do Twilight.”

“I’m like your little brother to you?” asked Nova skeptically.  “I’ve only met you all of five times.  Six, if you include right now.”

“Yes, actually,” Cadance admitted.  “We may only have met several times, but you’re forgetting I kept watch over you, even when we didn’t actually meet.”

Nova opened his mouth to respond, but for some reason, no words could come out.  After a moment of trotting with his mouth open and looking like a fool, he closed it.

“I’m touched, Cadenza,” he said.  “But if you’re thinking that admission will make me like you just like that--”

“I never expected it to,” Cadance interrupted him.  “And for goodness sake, Nova, for the sixth time, call me Cadance.”

“As you wish, Cadenza,” Nova said, bowing his head.  Cadance snorted, but bumped him with her flank.

“Hey!”

Cadance giggled, and after a moment, Nova grinned.  This was more like it.  No lecture, just him and her having a bit of harmless fun.  Why couldn’t they have done that any of the other times they met?

“Why can’t all our meetings be like this?” he wondered aloud.  “Why couldn’t we only have a bit of fun just one time?  Everything has to be a serious confrontation whenever we meet.”

“Unfortunately, you’re right,” Cadance sighed.  “You probably already know what I’m going to say right now, don’t you.”

“Oh, here we go,” Nova rolled his eyes, a harsh edge creeping into his voice.

“I don’t know what I can say that will drive the point across, Nova,” she said.  “It feels like I’ve said everything there is to say already.”

“Good.  That means you can stop now, and we can try to have a normal, non-serious conversation for once.”

“Nova, please, just hear me out--”

“NO, YOU HEAR ME OUT!” Nova shouted, not in the mood for this little game.  Cadance flinched, but Nova pressed the advantage.  “DO YOU REALLY THINK I’M JUST GOING TO LET TWELVE YEARS OF BEING IGNORED AND UNLOVED BE FORGIVEN, JUST LIKE THAT!?”

“No, I--”

“DO YOU THINK I’M GOING TO FORGET THE SEVEN YEARS THEY PUT ME THROUGH AFTER THAT!?” Nova continued.  “DO YOU KNOW WHAT KIND OF TORTURE I HAD TO GO THROUGH EVERY DAY BECAUSE I COULDN’T INDULGE MYSELF IN MY OWN SPECIAL TALENT!?”

“Nova, I know--”

“How can you ask me to forgive them, even after all of that!?” Nova demanded, letting up in his verbal assault for a moment.  “And not just them!  Tantalus too!  Do you know what he took from me!?  HE TOOK MY LIFE FROM ME!  MY HAPPINESS, MY FUTURE, MY…”

Nova trailed off, the memories of that fateful day still hurting, even after ten years.  It had been the single worst day of his life, and it had forever changed the path he was to tread.  He had gone from being a pony destined for greatness as one of the most promising spellcasters in the current age, to being a vagabond, performing odd jobs just to get by, unable to study magic the way he was supposed to.

All because of stupid family politics.

“Do you not wish for this pain to go away?” Cadance asked in a gentle voice.  “Your tirade made it quite clear it still pains you, even after all these years.  Do you not want it to go away?  Are you content to hold onto your anger and pain while it slowly destroys you?”

“I’m not forgiving them.  Never!” he snapped.

“I never asked you to, Nova, though I wish you would,” Cadance said.  “I have only hoped that you would learn to let go of your hate, to leave the past in the past, and to not let your experiences taint your relationships with other ponies.  The tighter you grip a thorn, the more it cuts into you, and the more you bleed.”

“Right,” Nova spat.  “Long story short, you want me to start loving ponies, is that it?  Because you and I both know love isn’t some magical force independent of our control.  I’m well aware of the magic revolving around it, and of the changelings’ ability to feed off of the emotion, but that’s all it is.  A bunch of chemicals in the body making you feel that way.”

Cadance sighed, her ears drooping.  Nova was always quite stubborn with that misguided belief of his.

“Well, with that out of the way,” she said delicately, “there was one other reason I chose to show you to your room.”

“And that would be?”

“Something concerning Twilight,” Cadance answered, her expression darkening.  “What I am about to tell you, I only tell you because I trust that you will not misuse this information.  Nova, I want you to promise me that you will never willingly use this information to cause her harm.  Can you do that?”

“Uh, why?” he asked.  “I don’t fancy shackling myself with promises.”

“Just do it,” Cadance instructed.  “It’s very important that you know of this.”

“Fine, fine,” Nova rolled his eyes again.  “On my honor, I promise not to willingly use this information in such a way that would cause Twilight any harm.  Satisfactory?”

“It is,” Cadance said.  They finally emerged onto the guest residence floor of the Crystal Spire.  The door opened to reveal a long hallway with several doors.  Cadance led Nova to one and opened it.  A very luxurious room was inside.  Nova gasped.  The bed was a large four-poster, with what had to be a cloud mattress.  The bathtub was carved from what appeared to be sapphire, and just about everything in the room in some way looked to be made of gems.

“And you’re letting me stay here?”

“I am,” Cadance said with a smile, but her expression turned serious again.  “Back to what I was talking about a moment ago.  Like I said, I trust you not to misuse this information unless you have no other choice.  And if you break that promise, my husband is ex-captain of the Royal Guard.  I trust I don’t need to go into details?”

Nova chose not to point out that he had evaded guards quite easily during the first two months of his life as a runaway.  “No, you don’t.”

“Very well.  Allow me to get straight to the point.”

She took a deep breath.

“Twilight has feelings for you.”

Nova blinked stupidly.

“Uh...” he said, showcasing his intellect and his ability to process large amounts of sensitive information quite easily.  “Run that by me again?”

“Twilight Sparkle, your temporary landlord and your fellow student of one of the diarchs, has feelings for you,” Cadance repeated.

Nova could only stare as he thought about that.  It… made sense, he had to give it that.  It explained why she was always blushing when he teased her, why she seemed a bit more bold when it was just the two of them…

“Any thoughts?” Cadance asked.

“Her loss,” Nova replied.

Cadance couldn’t believe what she had just heard.

“‘Her loss?’  What do you mean by that?” she asked indignantly.

“I can’t stop her from having feelings for me,” Nova explained irritably.  “But that doesn’t mean I have to return them.”

“Do you feel nothing at all for Twilight?”

“Are you trying to play matchmaker here?  It was funny when it was her dad, but now it’s actually getting kind of old.”

“Just answer the question.”

“Truthfully, I don’t know,” Nova replied.  “I can easily say we are good friends.  I’ll even say she’s my best friend.  But I wouldn’t go so far as to say we’re anywhere near a romantic relationship.  Her feelings are completely unrequited.”

Cadance sighed.  “I guess I expected as much from you,” she said, sounding quite disappointed.

“Why did you tell me this, then?” Nova asked.

“Because you deserved to know,” Cadance explained.  “Twilight told me about it in her letters.  She trusted me with the information, asking for advice on how to possibly court you.  This being said, I tell you this because I know you wouldn’t want to hurt her if you could help it.”

“Damn right I wouldn’t,” Nova concurred.  “She’s too good a friend.  And considering my own experiences with betrayal…”

“Yes, that’s what I thought.  In that case, it is good that you know this.  Now, I would suggest taking time to think about how you act around her.  If you truly don’t have any feelings for her, you would do well not to lead her on or to say something hasty and break her heart.”  She trotted back to the door.  “Remember what I said, and remember your promise.”

“Hey Cadance?” Nova asked, suddenly sounding thoughtful.

Cadance blinked.  He had actually used the name she wanted to go by?  “Yes, Nova?”

“I never thanked you, you know.  For paying for those classes in Manehattan.”

“You don’t have to,” she said.

“But I’d like to,” replied Nova.  “So, thanks.  You paying for those classes gave me the one good year in the midst of seven bad ones.”

Cadance smiled, and trotted over to give Nova a hug.

“You’re most welcome, LBBFF.”

“LB… what?”

“It’s just something Shiny and Twilight do,” Cadance explained.  “Little Sister Best Friend Forever, and Big Brother Best Friend Forever.  So, I figured I’d call you Little Brother Best Friend Forever.”

“Well, I don’t know about going that far…”

She smiled, and stuck a hoof into his mane to tousle it.  “Enjoy your vacation, and good luck on your research Nova,” she said, before trotting out of the room and shutting the door behind her, leaving Nova to unpack and begin the week of relaxation and research.


{T} {A} {T} {S} {A} {T} {C}


“Trixie demands that you lower the temperature of the library!  It is a burning 72 degrees in here!  Trixie demands that it be lowered to 68!”

“For goodness’ sake, Trixie, I just cast a cooling spell on the building!”

Spike’s claws met his face with a loud slapping sound.  Oh great.  Here we go again.

Ever since Nova had left on his little vacation, it had been non-stop bickering between Trixie and Twilight.  And over stupid little things, to boot.  Whether Trixie’s bed’s fitted sheet was on correctly, whose turn it was in the bathroom, whether or not the clock hanging above the library entrance was an hour fast (the only “won” argument, which went to Twilight), and clearly now, the temperature of the library.

Spike was used to Twilight Sparkle freakouts.  It was hard not to be used to them.  But the constant screaming was starting to get to him.  So he had invested some money into a “Grow Your Own Crystals” kit, complete with some dyes.  He didn’t know if they tasted any better or worse than gems, but he was going to try anyway.  And if they worked, then he could get himself a steady supply going for himself, without him having to rely on Rarity’s generosity.

Even if he really did enjoy the frequency at which her generosity saw fit to reward him.  And the amount of time he spent around her in general.

“It’s still too hot in here,” Trixie huffed from somewhere downstairs.  “Your magic isn’t working.  Let Trixie try it.”

“No!” Twilight shrieked.  “I don’t want you screwing up a spell that causes all of the books to receive permanent damage!”

“They’re just books,” Trixie stated.

“Some of them are priceless,” Twilight argued.  “I have several early editions of some of Star Swirl’s--”

“Blah blah blah, nothing you’re saying is fixing the heating problem,” Trixie interrupted.

Under normal circumstances, Spike would definitely be down on the ground floor, bucket of popcorn ready and happily munching away as Twilight’s and Trixie’s fireworks provided quality entertainment that put a Manehattan theatre to shame.  Unfortunately Twilight had sent him upstairs to reshelve the books when the first sign of an argument had arisen.

Apparently she had forgotten that only the day before had been Reshelving Day.

“I’m warning you right now, Twilight Sparkle, if you don’t cool this library off sooner, Trixie is going to start pulling these books off of the shelves, twenty by twenty, and just let them fall to the ground.”

“You wouldn’t dare!”

Well, crud, thought Spike.  After all, when had Trixie ever backed down from a challenge?

Sure enough, there came a great crashing noise from somewhere downstairs.

“PICK THOSE UP!” screamed Twilight.

“Or what?” asked Trixie.

“Honestly, if it weren’t for the fact that Nova was working on helping all of us with the nightmare problems, I’d toss you right out onto the streets.”

“Oh come now, Twilight,” Trixie replied scathingly.  “Let’s be honest here, shall we?  We both know you would never do something that you think he would disapprove of.”

“What are you talking about?” Twilight asked, in an unconvincing attempt at being aloof.

“Oh, don’t play coy with me,” Trixie said, and Spike was quite startled to hear a bit of glee in her voice.  “I saw the looks you gave him on that first day.  I saw you carry him on your back to the train station.  I even watched you tuck him in yourself with all the tender love and care in the world.”

“I don’t have any idea--”

“Oh quit lying, Twilight Sparkle,” Trixie interrupted.  “I can see it plain as day.  You clearly have feelings for Nova Shine.”

Spike blinked.  Twilight liked Nova?  Seriously?  He just couldn’t see it.  They argued over small things just as much as she did with Trixie.  Though maybe with not as much malice.  There seemed to be a bit of a more playful style of banter between them when they argued.

“S-so what if I do?” Twilight asked.

Spike blinked again.  Was it just him, or did Twilight seem to gain a bit of confidence after saying that?

“Hmm… how sweet,” Trixie said.  Spike could just imagine the sadistic glee that Trixie was exuding with that single line.  “Hmm… should I or shouldn’t I tell you…?”

“Tell me what?” asked Twilight suspiciously.

“Oh, nothing,” Trixie said tantalizingly.  “Just something he told me when we were on the road to Neighton a couple of days back.”

“What?” asked Twilight.  Spike already knew this couldn’t end well.  Not after the last few times Trixie and Twilight had attempted to talk civilly had devolved into pointless arguing.

I mean, for goodness sake, they even found a way to scream at each other about which bed he had make first on her first day.

“Well, first, just let me say, Twilight, I really think it’s quite sweet that you’ve got a crush on your dear, sweet roomie,” Trixie said, with her voice positively sagging with insincerity.  “But I just think you should really not waste your time with him.”

“Waste my time with him?” asked Twilight skeptically.  “What, don’t tell me you’re looking to try to court him too.”

“Oh hell no,” Trixie said.  “He wouldn’t have me.  Not after what happened in the past.  But I know Nova better than you and trust me, starbutt, you’d be wasting your time chasing after him.”

Spike could almost hear Trixie’s sadistic smile happening.

“Want to know what he told me?” she asked in a singsong voice.

“Doesn’t matter what I say, you’re gonna tell me anyway, aren’t you?” Twilight asked.

“Well, since you asked…” Trixie said, a tiny note of glee in her voice.  “He told me, and I quote, ‘I have no feelings for her.  Never have, never will.’”

You could have heard a pin drop.  Spike was stunned.  Had Trixie seriously just done that?  Knowing Twilight, it wasn’t what Trixie had said, but just the way she had done so that would set her off.

Sure enough there was a clatter of hooves up the steps, and a lavender blur shot right past him.

“Twili--” Spike started to say, but she dashed through the door to to the bedroom loft, slamming it behind her, and a moment later, a soft pink glow appeared for just an instant around the door.  And already, Spike could hear sobbing on the other side of it.

Spike’s mind immediately flew back to the time in which Twilight had magically sealed herself in the library after the Gabby Gums story had broken, and now she was having almost the same reaction to something far more personal.

And Spike was having none of it.

He stomped his way down to the library’s lobby, where Trixie sat, looking disoriented and quite confused.  Instead of saying anything, he just glared down at her and crossed his arms.

“What… just happened?” Trixie asked, sounding just as confused as she looked.

“That was low, even for you, Trixie,” Spike growled at her.

“Trixie doesn’t even know--”

Spike didn’t let her answer.  He stomped his way back upstairs.  His big sis needed his help.


{T} {A} {T} {S} {A} {T} {C}


Nova stepped off of the train feeling more relaxed, and more pleased with the progress that had been made than he had felt since the time these nightmares had started.  It had taken a while, but he had managed to find a bit of information on the Everfree Vaults.

And all of it was compiled and kept in a notebook, which was currently stuffed in his saddlebags.  As were a couple of trinkets he had picked up in the Empire, though one of them was sitting on his head.

The hat made of three pieces of hay and a drinking straw had grown on him.  Whoever had made it had definitely made it work.

The cool autumn air was a welcome change to the rather warm air it had been when he’d left.  Almost felt like he was back in the Crystal Empire.  The Running of the Leaves must have been around the corner, too.

“Winter is coming,” he said to himself with a smile.  He loved the winter.  He loved the cold, the snow, and the fact that it almost seemed like Luna was a bit happier compared to how she was in the summer.

That, and he liked the George R.R. Maretin line.

His good mood, however, was brought to a screeching halt as he entered the library and saw it in a state he had never thought he’d ever see in a home belonging to Twilight Sparkle.

Disorganization.

Books were on the floor, others were haphazardly stuck back on their shelves out of place, the horse-head statue had been left lying on the ground for whatever reason, and probably most telling of all, Spike and Twilight weren’t freaking out about it.

Come to think of it, Trixie was being awfully quiet, too.

Definitely something wrong.

But who better to tell what had happened than Spike?  Who just happened to walk down the steps, carrying a tray of half-eaten food toward the kitchen.  As he caught sight of Nova, they both stopped and stared at each other.  After a moment, Spike’s eyes narrowed.

“The heartbreaker returns,” he said in a low, slightly over-dramatic voice.

“Hey Spike,” replied Nova with a cautious wave.  “Uhh, what happened here?”

“Oh, so now you care about Twilight?” Spike asked, briskly walking into the kitchen to drop the tray off.

“I didn’t… what?”

He was lost.  Completely, utterly gone.  How had asking what had happened in the library suddenly translate to “I suddenly care about Twilight?”

“You said something that’s gotten Twilight locked in her room and crying,” Spike said, pointing an accusing claw at him.

“I… did?” Nova asked.  When had he ever said something like that?

Strike that, he could think of several teasing insults he had told her over the last two months, but when had he ever said something like that recently?

“Uh, what... did I say exactly?”

“Something about how you didn’t like her,” Spike said, scratching behind his head.  “Can’t remember exactly what.  Though, come to think of it, knowing Twilight, it probably wasn’t what was said, but the way Trixie said it.”

“Right,” Nova said, inwardly groaning.  This reeks of high school fake-drama.

But considering what he had found about Twilight over the week from Cadance, it was probably in his best interest to let her down gently anyway.

“Where is she?”

“Twilight?  In her room.  Why?” Spike asked, before narrowing his eyes again.  “You’re not going to go and make her feel worse, are you?”

“Far from it,” deadpanned Nova.

With that, he trotted up the steps toward the door to the loft.  As expected, he could feel the slight pulse of energy radiating off of the door.  Naturally, thought Nova.  Since he felt it was best to do this on her terms, he raised a hoof to the door and knocked four times.

For a moment, he stood there wondering if she was going to let him in.  Considering Spike had just exited with the food…

But after the moment passed, the magenta glow of her magic illuminated the door for a moment, and he felt the magic seal vanish, allowing him to open the door and step inside quite cautiously.

Well, this room looked a lot better.  It was still well-lit.  The only difference seemed to be that Twilight was curled on her bed, facing away from the door and looking utterly miserable.

“What is it now, Spike?”

It really surprised him to hear just how miserable she was with those five words alone.  It almost hurt him, just how bad she felt.  Even though he didn’t for her, he still felt very bad regarding the whole situation.

“Hey,” he said quietly.  “You doing alright?”

Instantly, he saw her tense up in her bed.  For a moment, he thought she was going to throw him out of her room.  But instead, her head whipped around, and an energy beam launched itself from her horn faster than he could react.  The beam connected with his ribs with the force of an Applejack kick, he was lifted off his hooves instantly, and he was thrown into the wall behind him, where his head collided with the wood, and he slid into a crumpled heap on the floor.

There was a clattering of hooves somewhere above him as his head pounded painfully.

“Sorry!  Sorry!” he heard Twilight cry.  All he could do was look up and give her a pained smile.

“It’s alright,” he lied.  And she knew it, too.

“No, it’s n-not alright!  I could have seriously h-hurt you!”

You might have.  “I’m fine, Twilight.  Really,” he said, getting to his hooves.  As he did so, he noticed the pounding in his head subsided somewhat.

It was only after he was back up that he noticed just how much of a mess she looked.  Her mane was completely unruly, her eyes were slightly puffy and bloodshot, and there were dried tearstreaks under them.

Nova took a deep breath, noting with satisfaction how the pain receded even more.  “It’s alright.  See?  Perfectly whole.”

His head pounded again, and he clapped a hoof to it and groaned.  Twilight rushed forward, but the feeling was gone as quickly as it had come.

“But, do try not to do that again, would you?  I feel like it might be just a bit detrimental to my health.”

That got a giggle out of her.

“I’m sorry,” she said again, but Nova shook his head.

“Twilight, you’re fine.  Don’t worry about it.”

“I attacked you, though!” she protested.  “I just… I don’t know,” she threw her hooves in the air.  “I just reacted.  It was stupid of me to do that.”

“Fine,” Nova said.  “If you want to blame yourself, then blame yourself, I won’t stop you.  But if you want to make it up to me, how about you tell me what got you in this state?”

She hesitated for a moment, but then swallowed and launched into an explanation.  She and Trixie had started off cordial at first, lasting only for about half the day before Trixie started making demands.  The second day, they both had much shorter tempers and argued about the tiniest things.

“A-and on the third day,” Twilight continued, her voice shaking somewhat, “W-we got into an argum-ment over something completely sil-,” she swallowed, “silly, and it just got out of h-hoof.  She turned it into… into…”

She broke off, bowing her head so he couldn’t see, but her cheeks had gone quite red under her fur.  Nova’s thoughts instantly hearkened back to his and Cadance’s first discussion.

“It’s fine,” Nova said quietly.  “You don’t have to tell me.  I already know.”

“Y-you do?” she asked, still not meeting his eye.

“I do,” he said, choosing not to tell her that Cadance was the one who had informed him unless she asked.  He reached a hoof under her chin and lifted it to where she was looking directly into his calm, assured, confident gaze.  “I told her nothing about our relationship.  I haven’t discussed it with anyone but Princess Cadance.”

Twilight went red again, but she just couldn’t stop staring at his eyes.

“Y-you spoke to Cadance?”

“I did,” Nova said.  “She wanted to know about how I felt about you.  Wanted to make sure I’d treat you right, no matter how that was.”

“I’m sorry,” she said again.  “You must think I’m just so silly after all of this.”

“Hardly!” he exclaimed, startling her into making eye contact again.  “You and I are both very logic-oriented.  We like facts, thought, and logic, but in the end, we’re both still ponies, and we both have feelings that can be hurt, just like anyone else.”

She gave him a watery smile, but said nothing after that, electing to simply paw at the ground for a few moments.  Nova decided to simply sit and enjoy the silence between them.  It wasn’t often that they could just sit and enjoy each other’s company.

“Was she… right?”

“Hm?” asked Nova, cocking an eyebrow.

“Was Trixie right?” Twilight repeated, sounding slightly afraid for the first time.  “When she said you felt nothing towards me, never have and never will?”

Nova glanced up at the ceiling while he considered how to phrase his response.

“I…” he started, pausing when he mentally cancelled out what he was going to say.  Probably not a good phrase.  He licked his lips.

“I…”

He sighed.

“I don’t know,” he confessed.  “I promise it isn’t a cop-out or something.  I just…” he ran a hoof through his mane as he fell on his butt.  “Recent events have pretty much forced me to start reexamining our relationship.”

“What recent events?” asked Twilight.

“For starters, that little show you made of putting me on your back when you could have simply carried me with magic,” Nova said.  “I examined the ingredients with a little know-how from my teacher, Twilight.”  He smirked.  “Seems you just wanted to carry me to the train.”

Twilight hid her face from view.

“But that wasn’t the only thing.  After I realized you had feelings for me, a lot became clearer.  And I had to start considering how I felt about you, because I don’t want to lead you on or enter into a relationship when I don’t actually have feelings for you, but at the same time, I don’t want to just shatter your heart into a million pieces.”

“Nova, did Cadance tell you I had feelings for you?” she asked.  “You don’t have to lie to me.  I know you’ve been pretty thick, even when I haven’t exactly hiding it over the last couple of weeks.”

Now it was Nova’s turn to blush slightly.

“Yes,” he admitted.  “Cadance told me.  Been spending the last few days relaxing, finding out information on the Everfree Vaults, and simply thinking about what’s to become of us.”

“What’s to become of us-us or just,” she waved a hoof through the air vaguely, “us?”

Nova snorted, and Twilight giggled at his reaction.

“Us-us, I think.  It’s not going to be the same after all of this.  Like I said, I don’t want to lie to you and lead you into a relationship I’m not sure if I want to be in one, but I don’t want to just break it to you bluntly if I don’t.”

“Just be honest with me,” Twilight interjected, feeling slightly irritated.  “It sounds like you’re trying to talk your way out of opening up about how you feel, whether it be what I want to hear or not.”

Nova gave her a flat look.

“I don’t just open up on command, Twilight,” he chided.  “Not after some of the things I’ve been through growing up.  I have been nothing but honest with you since I came in here.”

“Then why not?” she asked.  “I mean, what’s stopping you from going on a couple of dates with me?”

“I don’t--”

“The whole point of the first few dates is supposed to be about learning more about each other,” Twilight continued, interrupting him.  “If we go on these dates, and you still don’t think you want to enter into an actual relationship, alright then.  But it just feels to me like you don’t want to risk disrupting the status quo when it’s well beyond disrupted.”

“You’re right I don’t,” Nova said.  “I like what we had.  You were my best friend, and I don’t say that lightly.  Looking back on it, if there was some stage between best friends and actually dating, I’d place us about there, and I was happy with that.  But this whole thing has just… I don’t know,” he threw up his hooves.  “I don’t want to risk losing a friendship I like having when most of my friendships don’t end well, and given my history with love in general, I feel like the odds are ever out of my favor.”

He had let out more than he had wanted, but it was completely true.  In his attempt to try to keep himself closed off, he had accidentally opened up.  Just like on the day they had first met, in his attempt to keep from talking with her, he had ended up continuing conversation anyway.  What was it about her that could prompt her to do this to him?

She had nothing to say after that, choosing only to smile, trot over, and give him a hug.

“Can we not at least see where it goes?” she asked.

“I’ll make you a deal,” Nova said.  “If you’re willing to give me time, I’ll think about it.  If I can come up with a good reason why we shouldn’t do this, then no, I won’t at least see where it goes.  But if I can’t--”

“Your length of time is arbitrary and completely subjective,” pointed out Twilight indignantly.

“Twilight, if there’s anything you should know about me, you should know I’d never drag out something that’s been finished,” Nova answered.  “You have my word.  If I just can’t think of anything, you’ll be the first to know, and we’ll try a couple of dates out.”

That seemed to cheer her up immensely, but he continued.

“But this doesn’t mean it will continue past that.  If I don’t feel like our relationship would go anywhere, it’s off.  Got it?”

She nodded.  “I know.  I understand you might not have the same feelings for me.  But I still want to at least try.”

“I understand.”

Though if he were being honest with himself, he had no doubt this was going to end badly for Twilight no matter the outcome.  If he couldn’t find a good reason, he would date her a couple of times, but then it wouldn’t continue past that.  She would inevitably try to open doors in his history she had no business opening, and it would all just fall apart.

Perhaps that was his bad reason…?

No, that’s a very flimsy reason.

“Well, now that that’s taken care of, let’s go ahead and bring Trixie in,” Nova said.  Twilight’s earlier cheer vanished, and she grew noticeably more cold.  He paid it no mind, choosing instead to call Spike and have him get Trixie up there so he could share his findings.

After a moment of waiting, Trixie entered the room, and she immediately started apologizing.

“Look Sparkle, I don’t know what Trixie did, but Trixie is sorry for whatever it is that made you so angry at me.”

“Lies,” dismissed Twilight, coldly.  “I know you meant every word.”

“Trixie is, for once, actually sincere in her apologies,” the showmare replied.  “Trixie has no idea what made you so angry at me, but Trixie is actually sorry about it.”

“Wait a minute, wait a minute!” Nova interrupted, holding a hoof between them to forestall a response.  “Something’s not right.”

He stared at the ground, rubbing the skin around his horn.  Without warning, he looked right at Twilight.

“Did Trixie say whatever she did, and was it the reason you were in here crying the last few days?”

“Of course,” answered Twilight, sounding confused.  “What’s up?”

“Trixie,” Nova moved his hoof to point at her, “did you do anything that Twilight is accusing you of?”

“Of course not,” Trixie denied.  “Unless she is accusing Trixie of arguing over the temperature of the library--”

“No, no that can’t be right, then,” Nova muttered to himself.

He looked at Trixie.  “Deny it again,” he instructed.

“Trixie said nothing to intentionally insult or hurt Twilight Sparkle.”

“Nova, what’s going on?” asked Twilight, but Nova pointed to her.

“Accuse her,” he instructed.

“Uh, she flat out told me that you had no feelings for me in a blatant way to break my heart,” Twilight said, her cheeks going pink.

“That is impossible,” Nova said, looking quite flummoxed, “and yet here it is.”

“What’s impossible?” asked Twilight.

“You both are telling the truth.”

Trixie and Twilight both reacted how Nova expected them too:  by looking right at the other and accusing them of lying.  Nova rolled his eyes and interrupted them.

“Look, just because it came out that way doesn’t mean we have two conflicting realities here.  Maybe Trixie did say it, and at the same time, maybe Trixie legitimately doesn’t remember for some reason.  It raises a problem I don’t want to deal with right now, but one that I do want to look into later.  However,” he levitated his notebook out of his saddlebags, “we have something more important to talk about.  I know where the Vaults are.”

“Wait a minute, how could you tell if we were both telling the truth?” asked Twilight.

“My energy sensing,” he replied.  “When a pony lies, the body undergoes a slight reaction, one that my energy sensing can pick up on.  If they try to cover it with magic, I sense the magic.  It’s not infallible, but it’s incredibly difficult to fool.  Anyway--”

“How do you even know if these Everfree Vaults will help us?” asked Trixie.

“And why haven’t I heard too much about them?” asked Twilight.  “Surely if they were important enough to house an artifact that could be responsible for these nightmares, you’d think it’d warrant more than a passing mention in an old version of a history textbook.”

“It’s very troubling, I’ll give it that,” Nova admitted.  “Again, something to be researched at a later date.  Right now, more important things.”

“Oh, and to answer your question, Trixie,” Twilight cut him off coolly, “we don’t know if they can help us.  Nova just thinks it’s a good place to start looking for what’s causing the nightmares.”

“Twilight, please,” Nova said in a long-suffering voice.  Twilight tossed him an askance glance, but he ignored it.  “Anyway, I know where it’s at now, and while I don’t have a good grasp on the kind of traps that will be found inside, since it would seem these Vaults used to function as a banking center and thus they couldn’t reveal their security, I can say that it would seem there were many attempted break-ins, but all ended in failure.”

A map was pulled out of his saddlebags next, and laid flat on the ground in front of him.

“Now, as for where the Vaults are,” he said, smoothing out the creases with magic, “this map is current to within ten years.  Ponyville is here,” he indicated a small collection of brown squares near the southern edge of the map, “Neighton is here,” he indicated another collection a few inches away, “the Everfree Forest is the giant green splotch that takes up the left side of the map, the jagged line here,” he indicated a small line only just south of Neighton, “is Brayton’s border, and all the way up here,” he indicated another collection of squares north of the Everfree Forest, “is Trottingham.”

“So where are the Vaults?” asked Trixie.

“Right here,” said Nova, pointing to a black spot in the middle of Everfree, which almost blended into the green around it.  “You’ll notice it’s a lot closer to Trottingham than it is to Neighton or Ponyville, so if we’re going to explore these ruins, we’d probably need to lodge there, so as to not spend several hours hiking there and back from Ponyville.”

“So, how long do we have to prepare?” asked Twilight, failing to completely contain her excitement.  She had never been to Trottingham, and it was where the Cloppin Hoof stories in medieval Braytish literature were set.

“About a week or so to make reservations,” Nova said.  However, with that being said…”

He grinned.

“Pack your bags, ladies.  We’re going to Brayton!”