• Published 16th Nov 2012
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The Apprentice, the Student, and the Charlatan - Rytex



Twilight Sparkle meets a pony by the name of Nova Shine who occupies a position as Princess Luna's Night Apprentice. While fighting a shadowy enemy that wants them both dead, they also have to deal with something much worse than that: each other.

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Reconciliations

The Apprentice, the Student, and the Charlatan
Chapter 11 - Reconciliations

It had been the early part of the afternoon when Nova and his father had parted. Nova had gone straight home, cleaned himself up, and had started the trot to Ponyville at the earliest possible opportunity, wanting to get this done as soon as possible. But as he walked along the path southward, he slowed himself.

It really is a nice day, he had thought, observing the pleasant coolness, the orange, red, and brown leaves of late autumn on the few trees that still had them, and what few birds in the sky flying south. Might as well relish the walk.

That, and it would give him time to think about how best to make his peace with Twilight.

It wasn’t all that hard to piece together what he wanted to do, but he still needed a good way to ingratiate himself just enough so that he could go through with it. That didn’t take him too long to figure out either.

But still, it was a nice day.

He arrived in Ponyville in the mid-afternoon, just past four. A few stops at different stores took him a few minutes more, and in almost no time at all, he was once again on the way to the Golden Oaks library, but now with a basket full of food clutched in his mouth.

It didn’t take him long to arrive at the library. With a pang in his heart, he observed that the shield was still firmly stuck around it, walling him off from the outside.

How torn up is she about this? he thought, feeling a small twinge of pain inside of him at the thought of her still hurting this much from the events of a week ago.

Before he had a chance to consider that, however, he sensed five separate auras of energy in the vicinity. Five auras he recognized. And, as expected, they were closing in on his location.

And one of them was coming from the sky at lightning speed.

About two seconds before impact, Nova’s horn shone blue, and with a yelp of surprise, Rainbow Dash was plucked out of the sky, Nova’s magic having grabbed hold of her tail.

“H-hey! Lemme go!” Rainbow shouted, flailing in mid-air as he set his basket down, though part of the flailing was her trying to aim a punch or two at him. “Lemme go you sunuvabitch!”

“Kiss your mother with that mouth?” Nova asked, slowly pulling her away from him so that one of her punches didn’t nick him by accident.

“Well well,” came a drawl from behind him. The other four auras, no doubt Rarity, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and the speaker Applejack, had arrived. “If it ain’t the heartbreaker himself,” she observed.

“Good afternoon,” Nova inclined his head.

“Is it, though?” Rarity asked in a dangerously-low voice. “You’ve got some serious nerve to show up here, given what you did to poor Twilight.”

“And what did I do, exactly?” Nova asked, with an arched eyebrow, turning back to face them.

There they all were, and none of them were very happy to see him. Applejack was scowling at him, Rarity was giving him a rather cool stare, Rainbow was still flailing away, even Fluttershy was giving him a disapproving look! But Pinkie Pie just seemed completely unconcerned with what was going on. Rather, she simply had her usual happy-go-lucky grin on her face as she surveyed the scene around her.

“Put Rainbow down before she hurts herself,” Applejack sighed, with a roll of her eyes.

It was then that Nova noticed she was stretching herself forward, to within an inch of his right ear, and was trying to hit him again.

Nova inclined his head again, and Rainbow was gently allowed down to the ground. No sooner had she landed than she had tried to hit him again, but this time, it was Rarity’s magic that pulled her back.

“Lemme at him!” Rainbow protested, trying to scramble at him. Nova simply gave her a flat stare, not reacting in the slightest as Rarity pulled her back.

“You must have come back for some reason,” Rarity ignored her friend. “Give us one good reason why we shouldn’t turn you over to Applejack and Rainbow Dash this instant.”

“I didn’t do what you think I did,” Nova replied instantly. He wasn’t afraid of Dash and Applejack-- on the contrary, he knew he could take them without suffering any harm-- but he was here to make peace, not start a fight.

Rainbow snorted. “Oh gee, that makes it all better, doesn’t it? He says he didn’t do it. Welp, we’re done here. Come on, guys. He said it, and Twilight can’t confirm it for us, so it must be true!”

“Twilight can’t confirm it?” Nova asked, giving her a strange look. “None of you can get through that shield?”

“No!” Rainbow glared at him. “Whatever you did to her has caused her to completely lock herself away! None of us have seen her for the entire week!”

Nova felt a slight flare-up in her energy as she said this, which caused him to zero in on it.

“That’s… not the truth,” Nova stated, meeting her glare.

“Uh, yeah it is!” Rainbow doubled-down, her glare intensifying

“No, it’s not,” Nova shook his head. “I can sense lies, remember? Have you seen her?”

This got everyone looking at her, which caused Rainbow to suddenly cringe a bit.

“Uh… heh, yeah,” she answered uncertainly, her eyes flicking between them all as they gave her indignant looks.

“She let you in?” Applejack asked, surprised. “She ain’t let any of us in! Why, Ah’ve spent all o’ the last two days here, and not once has that shield gone down! Why didn’t you tell us?”

“Because… because…” she searched for an answer, before finally just sighing and confessing. “Because she’s… mad at us.”

That got a reaction of surprise out of all of them. Even Nova was startled by this. He could see Twilight being infuriated by Rarity, but all of them?

“Mad at us?” Rarity asked, sounding confused, and a bit hurt. “But… why?”

“Because of what happened on the date,” Nova answered, shaking his head. “I thought she’d only be mad at you, Rarity. Never did I think she’d be angry at everyone.”

“Not me,” Rainbow said. “She let me in a couple of days ago. She’s a mess, Nova. Wanted me to go spy on you and see what you looked like.

“I imagine I looked the textbook picture of cleanliness and contentment,” Nova replied dryly.

That, for whatever reason, got a small giggle out of Rainbow, thought she tried to fight it.

“No, you were plastered over that bar in Neighton. I saw you, don’t even try to deny it!”

“I was,” he admitted. “I woke up covered in mud the day after the date, and tried to get into the library, but I couldn’t. So, resigning myself to the fact that I had lost a friendship with my closest friend, I stumbled all the way back to Neighton and just fell into a barstool. And there I’ve been for the last week or so.”

Everyone was staring at him, no doubt trying to find even a grain of untruth. Well, everyone except Pinkie, who was still off in La-La Land.

“Applejack,” Nova met her firm gaze with his own. “You’re the Element of Honesty. You want to call me on this?”

Applejack’s eyes narrowed. It was a deathly stare, but one, he could sense, that was doing just what he suggested. She was trying to find a reason to call him out.

“Start talkin’,” she ordered.

“Alright,” Nova nodded. “Rarity, what did I do at your boutique when I came by a week ago?”

“You merely picked up those items I was holding on to for you,” Rarity answered, looking a bit confused now that she was part of the interrogation.

“Yes, I did,” Nova nodded. “What happened after? Do you know?”

“I… know nothing. You simply said your goodbye and left. I stayed at the Boutique all night watching Spike.”

“How we doing so far?” Nova looked over to Applejack, whose glare hadn’t wavered in the slightest.

“Nothin’ yet, but that don’t mean there’s nothin’ there at all.”

“True enough,” Nova nodded. “From here, the only ponies who could tell you anything about the remaining events of the night are myself and Twilight. Twilight, of course, is a bit indisposed,” he gestured at the shielded library, “but I can very well tell you what she saw.”

“I was wondering when were were gonna get to the ‘It’s not what you think’ part,” Dash interjected.

“I mean, it’s not,” Nova let out an impatient sniff. “Long story short, there’s a shadow being that’s been plaguing us with nightmares that pretended to be you,” he gestured at Rarity. “She attacked me on the way home from Carousel Boutique, hitting me with several spells to keep me unable to run away or do anything, then when Twilight came looking, she puppetted me into making appear I was in a compromising situation where it looked as though the two of us,” he inclined his head at Rarity, “were in some kind of secret affair.”

The five Bearers of Harmony just stared at him. Rarity looked as though she couldn’t believe her ears, Rainbow Dash was snarling and ready to tackle him, Applejack was just scrutinizing him, no doubt trying to find a hint of a lie, Fluttershy looked almost… pitying? She certainly seemed a lot less angry than the others.

Except Pinkie. She still seemed blissfully unconcerned.

“How preposterous,” Rarity finally said, scowling at him. “That sounds like a load of rubbish.”

“It’s not,” Nova stared Applejack down, even as she continued to stare at him all the more intensely. “We were both manipulated masterfully, and Twilight was made to see what would split us apart.”

For a long moment, no one moved or said anything. Nova and Applejack kept their eyes locked. It wasn’t a staring contest by any means, but Nova was determined to make her see.

“Pinkie?” Applejack finally asked.

“Yeah-huh?” Pinkie beamed.

“What’s your take?”

“He’s telling the truth,” Pinkie replied, giving Nova a quick grin that even gave off its own squeak.

“Your Pinkie Sense tell you that?” Rainbow asked, giving her a suspicious look.

“Well, normally when a pony lies around me, I get an itchy hoof and a sneezy snout, and my hoof’s not itchy, but my snout feels a bit--” she sneezed. Everyone stared at her for a moment, leading her to glance back at them like they were the weird ones. “Whaaaaaaat? Whenever I randomly sneeze, it means somepony’s talking about me somewhere far away.”

She put a hoof to her chin and appeared to think about it for a moment.

“I’m getting the weirdest feeling it was Maud and Limey. No, wait! Maybe it was Marble and Limey! Someone and Limey...”

“You don’t think he’s lying because your Pinkie Sense says he’s not?” Applejack steered her back on topic.

“Nope!” Pinkie chirped. “I also read ahead,” she said, before winking at the readers and whispering “Just wait till next chapter. It’s a doozy! I can’t believe Nova is actually--mmph!”

“That’s enough out of you,” Rarity rolled her eyes and clamped Pinkie’s mouth shut. “Though, honestly, your support of Nova is rather surprising.”

“You’re supposed to be on Twilight’s side!” protested Rainbow in exasperation. “She’s mad at Nova, so you have to be too!”

“If Pinkie vouches for him, I think I can trust him as well,” Fluttershy put forth, before recoiling as Rainbow Dash turned her rather furious glare toward her. “N-n-nova would never cheat on Twilight. It just doesn’t sound l-like him,” she squeaked, giving him a nervous glance.

“Ah have to agree,” Applejack gave him a curt nod. “He ain’t lyin’, far as Ah can tell. And truth be told, the idea that Nova would ever go behind Twilight’s back like that is really far-fetched. So, for what it’s worth,” she stepped forward and offered a hoof, “sorry for doubtin’ ya.”

“It’s no problem,” Nova shrugged, bumping it lightly. “You took Twilight’s side; it’s understandable. Which means now all I have to do is convince her, and then all is right.”

“You’re buying this!?” Rainbow was now gaping at Applejack.

“Rainbow Dash, if Applejack says he isn’t lying, then he isn’t lying,” Rarity stated with a sigh. “Not to mention, Pinkie Pie vouching for him, and even Fluttershy taking his side should be enough. Nova dear,” she gave Nova a dangerous look, “you’re on thin ice. Even if you didn’t do it, it’s taken you this long to try and fix the situation. If you make it worse, I will ensure you pay for it.”

“Ugh, fine!” Rainbow groaned, but floated on down to the ground. “What Rarity said,” she jabbed a hoof at him. “You make this worse, I’m dropping you off of Cloudsdale.”

“No pressure then,” Nova inclined his head. “May I?” he added, gesturing at the library. Applejack just gestured with her head and with her permission, Nova trotted over.

“Moment of truth,” he muttered to himself as he stepped closer to the large pink shield. Never once had he been able to pierce one of Twilight’s shields in training. Now, he was hoping he’d be able to step through without needing a single bit of magic to help him out.

With a deep breath, he raised a hoof and pressed it against the shield…

...only to stumble right through it as though it weren’t there. It almost felt like he was stepping through a sheet of cool water, but the moment he steadied himself and looked around, he felt an enormous amount of relief wash over him.

He was in!

“Alright, that’s the easy part,” he remarked, turning back to see all five of them (except Pinkie Pie, naturally) with jaws wide as can be.

“You stepped through her shield!” Rainbow exclaimed.

“I did?” Nova blinked, before taking a faux-look around. “Oh, so I did. Thank-you for your insight, Rainbow.”

“Har har,” Rainbow rolled her eyes. “How did you step through, though? I’ve never seen anypony get through one of Twilight’s shields! The shield was down when I came by, but it went right back up when I left and I couldn’t get back in!”

“She let me through,” Nova answered, feeling his insides quiver. Just because she had let him in didn’t mean he was making it out unscathed, or with what he wanted. “But we’ll see how long she lets me stay. Stick around for a bit, would you? Then you can beat me to a pulp when I step outside.”

With that, he opened the doors to the library and stepped inside, and at once, his senses were assaulted. Books were thrown everywhere, curtains were shut, no light was in the room… it looked like a crime scene rather than a living space.

With a small twinge of pain inside of him, Nova stepped into the Golden Oaks, the door slowly closing behind him. As it shut, the room was, once again, thrown into total darkness. But a quick spell from him later and all of the candles were lit, and the curtains were opened, allowing light to stream in, and allowing him to see all of the damage.

Books being thrown everywhere was the worst part of this room, he realized. The horse head statue had been thrown over, but appeared undamaged, the various knickknacks on top of the shelves and in the niches around the walls had been thrown everywhere…

...except one.

Nova’s eyes fell upon the strangely-colored flowers as he surveyed the room, and when he did, they were picked up in his magic and brought down. They weren’t actual flowers, he realized as they came close to him, but rather, marble imitations. And they were crafted in such a way that they formed a heart between them.

And one of them was colored with Twilight’s colors, and the other with his own.

When did she get this? he wondered, staring at the flowers and feeling small tears well up. But before he thought about it for long, he shook his head, conjured a vase, and stuck the marble sculpture inside, so that they looked like actual flowers.

And with that, he trotted up the stairs to the second floor, toward Twilight’s room. Predictably, the door was shut, but he could sense it wasn’t locked. And he could sense Twilight was in the room, up where her bed was.

As he trotted up, everything looked just as bad on the second floor. Books thrown, shelves emptied, chairs overturned… All of it just led Nova to let out a deep sigh and shake his head.

This really does need to be set right.

With that, he stepped up to the door that led to Twilight’s loft. On the other side, he could sense her, lying in her bed a few meters above the ground, and from the other side of the door, he could just hear the faintest of sniffles.

I can’t wait any longer. No dramatics.

With that, he pushed open the door.

Her room was everything the previous few had been, and then some. Books were still everywhere, her belongings had been tossed every which way, her bed covers had been thrown to the floor, and there, up in the bed perched in her niche amidst several shelves of books that had been carved into the walls, was Twilight Sparkle.

She was staring out of the window, her expression visible thanks to its reflection in the glass, and it was completely forlorn. Her eyes looked half-open, but didn’t appear to be puffy, meaning she probably hadn’t cried all that recently, though she had sniffled moments ago. Her coat was scuffed and dirty, her mane and tail were tangled and frazzled messes, and her demeanor had a noticeable slump to it. All in all, she looked worse than she had when he had come in to make his peace with her after the Crystal Empire trip.

But the moment he pushed open the door and stepped in, her ears swiveled back, and she turned to see the intruder, startled by the sudden noise.

Fora long moment, they stared at each other, with Nova feeling concerned for her wellbeing, but her own expression being several things, most notably disbelief.

He could almost hear the seconds ticking by as they stared each other down, neither one moving or making a sound. Nova could see the battle raging through her eyes, as though she couldn’t decide how to feel about him being there.

Until she settled on fury.

Her face shifted into the absolute angriest he had ever seen. If looks could kill, Nova would have needed at least a hundred extra lives just to make it through the first few seconds. And what’s more, he could see the heat start to radiate off of her, something made more apparent when the dampness of her bed seemed to vanish instantly and steam rose from the mattress.

“How did you get past my shield?” she asked, standing up and glaring at him. Her teeth were grit and bared, her eyes were narrowed, and the heat wasn’t abating. Nova could feel it from across the room.

“I stepped through it,” he answered, shrugging lightly.

“No, impossible,” Twilight growled, snarling at him. “My shield wouldn’t have let you just step right on in. How did you get through?

“I’m telling you, Twilight, all I did was step through it,” Nova replied, giving no physical reaction to her anger.

The heat intensified, and with a flash of light, she transformed into Flamelight.

“You LIAR!” she shouted. “Get out!”

“May I have a moment to say why I’m here?” Nova asked calmly, despite the waves of heat starting to make him sweat under his coat.

It appeared that was the wrong move.

“GET OUT!” she screamed. Her horn shone and a tongue of fire separated from her mane and lashed out at him at blinding speed.

Acting purely on instinct, Nova felt himself rear back, felt himself delve into his own magic, and felt a sudden rush of wind around him. Before he had a moment to think about what was happening, the fire Twilight had sent his way came to an abrupt halt right between his front hooves, caught in what appeared to be a strange, silvery orb.

It took Nova a moment to realize, he had caught Twilight’s flame in a ball of circling winds. Winds, he also realized, that had come from him.

And now that he had noticed it, he could feel his mane and tail rustle and flap about, as a sourceless and invisible wind blew around him.

For a long moment, he stared at the fire between his hooves, and then looked up to Twilight, who was staring at him with the same shock he was currently feeling. Gone were her flames; it seemed all she could do was stare.

As though his body were on autopilot, he felt himself slowly close his hooves together, the wind between them shrinking down and depriving the fire of its source, before it was finally snuffed out altogether.

Winds can help fire spread out of control, he remembered Twilight telling him of how wind and fire interacted, back when determining his elemental typing, but at the same time, wind can contain a fire.

It seemed Twilight was still having trouble deciding how to feel, but once again, she settled on anger. Rather than lash out with magic, this time she hopped down from her bed and stomped toward him, her face still a snarl.

Get. Out,” she hissed, her horn shining dangerously as she grew closer and closer.

Deciding that it was best to leave her be, Nova bowed his head in response, before backing out the door. As it shut in front of him, he swore he could hear Twilight begin to cry anew.

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

Luna found herself in an oddly-good mood all of a sudden. As she pranced her way through the halls of Canterlot castle, letter clutched in her magic and singing a song she was making up the lyrics of as she went, the guards couldn’t help but break composure to give her odd looks as she danced her way to Celestia’s room.

La-la-la, dancin’ around, na-na-na, letter in my ma-gic!”

A column of guards were marching their way down a hall as she turned a corner, so she did what any sane pony would do, and cast a spell to reverse gravity on herself, and danced her way across the ceiling.

Headin’ to my sisteeeeer’s room! So she can meet the princess of theeeeee moon!”

“Uhh, captain?” asked one of the guards.

“Private?” the sergeant turned his head to look back, not breaking stride.

“She does know those words don’t rhyme, right?” the private just watched as Luna skated across the ceiling above him.

“Private, the last time someone criticized Princess Luna’s singing, Princess Celestia had them cleaning toilets with a toothbrush. In their mouth, might I add.”

"But that was right after she returned," one of the privates pointed out. "Princess Celestia only did that to prevent Private Withers from psychologically damaging her sister."

"Yes, yes," Sgt. Shield Breaker sighed, pinching his nose. "Buck should have known better, but really, do any of you want to risk it?"

The group of guards let out a collective shudder at that, preferring to let the eccentric alicorn go about her business after that. No sooner had Luna slid across the ceiling past them than she leapt off of it, spinning a perfect triple-axel while righting her personal gravity, and landing perfectly on her hooves with nary a hint of a stumble.

“Huzzah! How many points do we receive!?” she asked, glancing over at the judge’s table… only to remember that she was in a hall in Canterlot Castle, not in the midst of the Equestria Games. With a nervous and embarrassed giggle, she continued on her way, throwing open the door to her sister’s room, where she was taking a three-hour break for the day to catch up on some reading.

“Sister!” she proclaimed, stepping into the room and vaulting onto Celestia’s rather large bed.

It never ceased to irritate Luna just how pink Celestia’s room was. The bed was pink. The walls were pink. The carpet was pink. The ceiling was pink. The curtains were pink. The Cadance sitting on the bed with her aunt was pink. The Shining Armor standing politely beside the bed was white. Even the pillows were pink.

The only breaks in the pink were the golden suns that were everywhere. A large sun on the ceiling, suns emblazoned on all of the pillows, a sun branded into the small pink wooden table Celestia had set up specifically for tea, suns on her pink-painted dresser, suns on the flanks of her sister, who was currently watching Luna make faces as she surveyed her sister’s room, even a sun on the cover of a book Celestia kept on her dresser, though that sun looked a bit strange, with a large portion of red on its lower-right side in addition to the gold.

“Hello auntie,” Cadance greeted her, waving a hoof despite being within a meter of where Luna had landed.

“Hello niece,” Luna smiled at her in return. “And hello to you too, Shining Armor. Is everything all clear in this sector, sir?” she added, giving the former captain a rather exaggerated salute.

Shining, unlike his wife (not to mention Luna), appeared to be in a very bad mood.

“Mmh,” grunted the grumpy guard.

“Forgive my husband,” Cadance threw said husband a look, “he’s just a little bit absolutely livid about what’s gone on in Ponyville for the last week or so.”

“Well, we bring the greatest news on that end,” Luna proffered the letter she was carrying in her magic to Celestia. “Ray says he and our dear Night Apprentice have finally made their amends, and Nova is currently either on his way to, or in, Ponyville to set things right between himself and Twilight Sparkle.”

At the mention of Nova’s name, the air grew noticeably colder. And not in the metaphorical sense, it did very literally get cold enough for Luna to notice that the metal in her chestpiece was starting to frost over.

Shining!” Cadance threw him another look.

“Sorry,” Shining replied, most distastefully. The chill vanished and the frost receded.

“You were made captain in no small part for your ability to not let your emotions affect the environment around you, Prince-Consort,” Celestia chided, though her tone suggested she was doing nothing more than offer casual advice. “I understand your anger at the stallion who shattered your sister’s heart, but this is hardly the time or place to let it show. Are we clear?”

“Yes ma’am,” Shining inclined his head.

“So, Ray and Nova have finally patched things up, then?” Celestia asked, taking Luna’s offered letter and giving it a read. As her eyes moved further and further down the page, a very proud smile crossed her features, before she handed the letter to Cadance. “Niece, your LBBFF has come quite a long way.”

“You said he was going to Ponyville,” Shining said, throwing the letter a filthy look. “What makes you think Twily is just going to let him talk to her?”

“There is no guarantee she will,” Celestia replied evenly, cutting off Luna’s decidedly more optimistic answer. “However, I am of the opinion that she might, at the very least, hear him out.”

“Hear him out for what?” Shining demanded, looking askance at Celestia. “You think my sister won’t know what happened?”

“What did happen?” Celestia asked in return. Luna knew that as much as she trusted Shining, Shining was treading on dangerous ground here.

Wisely, Shining fell silent at that, just content to glare at Princess Celestia in response. Celestia, however, didn’t seem remotely concerned.

“Regardless of what did or didn’t happen between them,” Celestia informed Shining, taking advantage of the former captain’s silence, “the fact of the matter is, their enemy is still seeking an opportunity to end their lives. Alone, they cannot hope to best her. Their only chance is together. Whether it is only temporary, or whether they repair things and come out all the stronger, Captain, if you do not wish to be present at your own sister’s funeral, I suggest you hope as much as we do that Nova succeeds.”

It wasn’t a threat by any stretch of the term, but damn did it feel like one. Shining could be as angry as he wanted at Nova, but all three of the alicorns in the room knew just how much the implications there-- even if they were far from implicit-- got to him.

“And besides,” Luna seized her moment, “even though we may be no shortage of biased in favor of our pupil, we have seen the both of their dreams, and explored both of their memories.” She gave Shining a significant look. “It was not Nova’s fault, nor was it Twilight’s. As our sister said, their enemy is waiting for an opportunity. This was her first attempt to drive a wedge between them, to split them apart so they would be easy prey. And it succeeded. Our best hope for the two of them is that they are able to at least return to being civil.”

Shining just turned his gaze out of the window, where down below, even as distant as Ponyville was, a faint pink bubble stood out among the collection of buildings, and sighed.

“I just hope you’re right."

"Cheer up, Shiny," Luna lightly jabbed her nephew-in-law's shoulder. "We have the highest of hopes for today, and we believe you should too. Come! Let us double the hopes!"

Yet despite her best efforts, the most she got out of Shining was slightly less of a glower.

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

Stupid!” Twilight whispered to herself, as she slammed a hoof onto her pillow. The fresh memory of Nova bowing his head and backing out seemed burned into her brain, and hadn’t left at all over the last several hours. Even though she had no way of telling just how long it had been, she was sure it had to have been at least three.

Only minutes before he had stepped in, she couldn’t seem to get her mind off of certain regrets. She didn’t hear him out, she attacked him without giving him a chance to speak up, that he and Rarity had such a rivalry that there was no chance something like that could happen, and Nova’s own experiences with betrayal.

All of that had gone out the window when he had entered, and she had seen his stupid, lying face again.

What had she been thinking? That he really hadn’t done all of the very things she saw with her own eyes? She was a mare of science. She had seen the imposter Cadance for who she was when no one else could tell, not even Princess Celestia. There wasn’t a snowball’s chance in the deepest parts of Tartarus that she could be wrong on this one...

...right?

She had tried sleeping, anything to get him off of her mind, but the downsides of crying into a pillow included that pillow being uncomfortably wet. Despite her firestorm having evaporated all of the tears in her bed, the crying done immediately after he left had only redampened everything. Not to mention, she was simply too angry and restless to properly settle down.

“Ugh,” she groaned, before swinging her legs out and plodding her way to the door. Maybe some food would do her some good. It had been more than a day since she had last eaten.

Passing by the books scattered on the ground, remnants of her attempts to pass the time that only resulted in her not being invested enough to even care, she made her way to the door of the library and pushed it open.

She was unprepared for the smell that hit her.

Everything smelled… clean. Yes, that was the word. There was the faint scent of pine in the air as it wafted in, but mixed in was the unmistakable smell of cooking food, something that instantly set her mouth to watering and triggered a rather loud growl from her stomach.

Unfortunately, there could be no doubt who was doing it. First he had gotten past her shield, and now he was refusing to leave? Couldn’t he take the hint?

As she slowly made her way downstairs, the smells grew more and more powerful, and Twilight began to feel the unmistakable cool feeling of freshly-washed wood under her hooves. He must have gotten the stairs recently with whatever he was doing.

As she walked past the second floor, she could see that indeed, everything had been cleaned to pristine condition from the last time she had been down here. Candles were lit, books were properly organized (despite several book series being arranged alphabetically rather than numerically), even fresh flowers had been placed in several pots around the room.

Twilight wasn’t sure whether to feel a bit grateful for cleaning up after her, or more than a bit furious that he was refusing to leave and thought this was a cheap way to buy his way back into her life.

But then she emerged into the ground hall room of the library.

The first thing she noticed was that there was a table set up with only a single chair, plate, and silverware there. Elsewhere, she noticed that again, books had been organized, everything smelled rather faintly of pine, and the library looked better than it had in the last few months.

But the one thing that drew her attention was the marble flowers that had been placed in a vase that stood where the horse-head statue normally went.

With a clenching feeling in her gut, Twilight stared at marble sculpture Shimmer Novus had made for her, with its blue and white, and navy blue and purple flowers growing around each other, before sprouting away and bending inward to form a heart,

In her rage that night, it was the one thing she had so desperately tried to throw across the room and break, but couldn’t bring herself to.

Now she wanted nothing more than to hurl them out the window.

But before she could, her magic already illuminating the vase with the flowers in it, her stomach let out another loud growl as a wave of the smell overpowered her.

Obviously, it was food. But it smelled… surprisingly good. And it had the unmistakable scent of her favorite Bitalian dish.

Her face sliding into a scowl, she released her magic on the vase and stomped her way to the kitchen door, which she shoved open rather forcefully.

Everything in here looked clean, too. There were no dishes in the sink, there was nothing sitting out from her last week even though she knew she had left things out.

And there he was.

Nova Shine was humming something to himself, which she later recognized as a piece from “Jupiter, Bringer of Jollity.” It was just so infuriating to see that he was still in a good mood, despite the yelling and fire-tossing she had done to him earlier. Even more obnoxiously, he had his back turned to her as he hoof-stirred something in a rather large pot that was simmering on her stove, as though he hadn’t a care in the world.

Whether he noticed her or not, though given his energy sensing he most likely did, he didn’t react. Instead, he simply brought a tiny spoon up from her drawer, dipped it in the pot, drew it up to his lips for a sip, savored it for a moment, and then started shutting everything down.

“I told you to leave,” she hissed as he magically pulled the pot off of stove and started carrying it over to a large nearby pot that was filled to the brim with fettuccine noodles, and dumped the contents of his own pot into it.

Nova simply grunted and set to scraping out the leftover alfredo sauce with his stirring spoon until every last drop had been extracted, before he carried it back to the sink to fill and soak.

Get. Out,” she demanded, her horn flaring to life again.

“In a moment,” Nova said in an even voice, as his horn shone and filled the sauce pot with water and soap. “I’m not finished yet.”

“You’ve done enough,” Twilight growled, her horn just itching to fire the spell that would hit Nova right in the back before he could even react. “Now get out of my library.”

“As soon as you’ve eaten,” her stomach growled again at the mention of that word, “and as soon as I’ve said my piece, I will leave and never bother you again.”

“You think you can just clean the library and make me dinner and just like that, we’re friends again!?” she demanded.

“No,” Nova inclined his head at her, though he refused to turn and meet her eye. “I thought that I could clean the apartment because of how messy it had gotten, and that I’d make you dinner, that you’d eat it, and that you wouldn’t die of hunger. As for us being friends again, well…” he brushed back his mane and still refused to meet her eye or even look in her general direction, “no guarantee of that, but I would at least like to get what I have to say off my chest.”

“And what makes you think I’m just going to sit here and listen to your excuses!?” she demanded, her mane once again bursting into flames as she stomped toward him, already getting pushed closer and closer to that edge she so desperately wanted to cross.

He deserved it, after what he did.

But before she could advance more than a few paces, wind issued from Nova, creating a light vortex around her, halting her in her path. She could have pressed forward, but she knew he would just remove the fire’s fuel again.

“Because I know you, Twilight,” he said. It wasn’t just a statement of fact; it was authoritative. It sounded partly as though he were stating something obvious, but also as if he were commanding her. “If there’s one thing I know you value above all others, it’s the search for truth and knowledge. And today, I offer both.”

She didn’t know what to say to that, but after a moment, she watched as Nova winced.

“That… that was a pretty bad line, let me try again,” he cleared his throat. “The long and short of it is, there’s no way you’ll believe me, or even listen to me, unless you know you can grill me all you want and know beyond the shadow of a doubt what the truth is. And so I’m offering to teach you a way to make that happen.”

Twilight snorted derisively, the fire fading.

“Right,” she sneered, “and I suppose you’re just generously offering something so you can make me think I’m seeing the truth, so you can lie to my face and get away with it, is that it?”

“It’s energy-sensing,” Nova replied simply. “The plan was to teach you how to sense energy, show you how it feels when someone tells a lie in front of you, and then let you grill me all you want.”

Her derisiveness vanished almost instantly. She wouldn’t deny, she had been hoping she had that ability. In general, it seemed like a very useful ability to have, but more importantly, he had a point. Based on what he said about energy sensing, it would be an effective way for her to interrogate him.

Her face slid into a frown.

“What’s the catch?”

“No catch,” Nova shrugged. “I teach you how to sense energy and how to use that to sense when a pony is lying. You use that to grill me to your heart’s content. And when I’m done, I promise, I’ll leave you alone if you still want me to.”

“‘If you still want me to,’” she snarled. “You sound awfully confident in yourself.”

“I know what you saw,” Nova said evenly, still not turning around to face her. “I also know what I experienced. You saw what you were meant to see, Twilight. But you won’t hear any of it until you know I can’t hide anything from you. So I’m offering you that transparency.”

With that, he finished shutting down her stovetop and magically carried the pot with the sauce and a large pot full of noodles toward a large bowl he had set up on a counter, and then mixed the two together. Once finished, he retrieved a bowl from her cabinet, with which he filled with pasta, and a fork.

Once he had both of those, he took them both out into the main room of the library and set them on the table he had set up, with her following him, still considering the offer.

He’s offering you a way to interrogate him. And he’s promising to leave when he’s done. When have you ever known Nova to go against his word?

When he went behind my back with Rarity.

Fair, but what could it hurt to see what he has to show?

He could be trying to hoodwink me. To trick me, or worm his way back into my good graces.

That’s not a good reason to not give this a try. That’s just a reason to be a bit suspicious when he does teach you.

It didn’t take much longer after that train of thought for Twilight to come to a decision.

“Fine,” she growled, still looking daggers at his back as he carried the large bowl of pasta and set it at the same table. “Let’s get this over with.”

“Very well,” Nova dipped his head, but rather than do something to teach her how to sense energy, he pointed with a hoof at the chair set at the table. “But first, you need to eat.”

“Why?” she asked, her growl becoming a bit more irritated. “I’m not hungry.”

She knew he’d sense the lie. She was prepared to fight him over this. But before he could call her out, her stomach let out a rather loud growl that she knew very well he could hear.

There was a second of silence, during which she was absolutely sure he was probably smirking. Celestia, how she wanted to wipe the stupid grin off of his stupid face!

“...fine,” she capitulated, sitting down, stabbing her fork into the pasta, and jamming it into her mouth. The sooner she was done, the quicker he’d be on his way out.

To her surprise, the pasta was actually as good as it smelled. But the last thing she wanted to do was give him the satisfaction of knowing that. Her bowl was emptied in only a few moments. But before she could take both her own bowl and the serving bowl back to her sink to be washed, her stomach let out another growl. Not quite as loud, but still loud enough.

“Eat as much as you’d like,” Nova said, from his position sitting on the stairs and reading a copy of Great Expectations. “I made plenty.”

Her face going red, she instead filled her bowl with more pasta and once again set to jamming it into her mouth, chewing no more than she needed to, and swallowing quickly.

She was halfway through her fourth bowl when she decided she was done. Finishing her bite, she practically threw the fork into it, shoved it back, and glared at Nova with her forelegs crossed.

“I’m done,” she said acidly.

“Alright,” Nova’s book shut, and she could see him nod to himself rather briefly before, rather than be replaced on her bookshelf, it was joined by nine other books, all floating down and stacking themselves neatly in front of him. “Go ahead and have a seat on the floor someplace.”

“Where?” she asked, trotting forward, only for him to turn his head and glance away.

“Wherever,” he shrugged. “You just need a bit of space around you.”

“How much sp--” she frowned as his refusal to look her way finally annoyed her enough. “Okay, why are you doing that!?

“Doing what?” Nova asked, sounding genuinely confused.

“You know exactly what!” she snapped, scowling. “Why are you constantly looking away!?”

“I just… don’t think I’ve earned that back yet,” Nova answered. Rather than his usual calm voice, it had gone low, almost like someone expressing… sorrow?

He’s just “sad” that I want to throw him out of the Golden Oaks, Twilight reasoned, glowering at him, before deciding to just do as she was asked. A pouf was taken from a pile of them, floated down to her chosen spot, and then practically slammed down onto the wooden floor, on which she plopped down, still fuming.

“Let’s get this over with,” she grumbled. “How long will this take?”

“Not very,” the books Nova had picked out were suddenly illuminated in a blue glow as he also took a seat on the floor. Once he was settled, they all flew up and started to orbit him at a lazy pace.

“So what do I do?”

“First thing’s first, have you ever sat in a Lotus Position before?”

“No.”

“Do you need me to--”

No.”

Nova held up his hooves. “I’m just trying to help you. You want this to end sooner, the least I can do is speed it along.”

Twilight assumed the Lotus position, crossing her lower legs, sitting up straight, and resting her forehooves on her lower knees.

“Now close your eyes, and start taking slow, deep breaths in through your nose, and out through your mouth.”

Twilight did, failing to contain a death glare before she did so, before all sight vanished.

“So how do I sense it?” she asked, brusque as usual.

“I’m going to start channeling my magic,” Nova explained, his tone as infuriatingly calm as ever. “I’ll be alternating between channeling magic at a high intensity for a moment, and low intensity the next. The idea is to kind of coax your… for want of a better term, ‘third-eye’ into opening up and having a look at what’s causing the weird fluxes.”

“And how long will that take?”

“For you? Probably just a few minutes,” Nova replied. “It took me about fifteen for my sensing to really kickstart. You’ll probably do it more quickly. All you need to do is keep breathing slowly, and try to feel everything you can around you. See if you can hone in on when I’m using my magic at high intensity. Are you ready?”

“Let’s just get this over with” Twilight spat, before shutting up and refusing to speak any more to him.

“Alright, here we go.”

True to his word, for the first few minutes, Twilight couldn’t feel anything. She just sat there, eyes resolutely clenched shut, and trying to sense everything that was going on around her without seeing it. More than once, she sat there simply wondering if Nova was doing this to make a fool of her.

But not long after she had first shut her eyes, she could feel it.

It was the strangest feeling. She could still hear everything around her, she was paying extra attention to her sense of touch around her, but now it was like… it was like seeing the faintest of lights start to illuminate her self-inflicted darkness.

Somewhere, in the distance, she could almost see something swirling around ahead of her, in the direction of Nova.

As she started to focus and pay more attention to that strange set of swirling stars, her darkness gave way to light. Blue light, more specifically. Where Nova was very obviously sitting, it appeared to be a blue nexus of energy, glowing in the darkness around it, and all around this blue nexus, several smaller collections of blue energy were orbiting it rather slowly.

Like planets orbiting a sun.

A moment later, the “planets” sped up, whirling around at a much faster pace, and with it, the energy they were giving off rose considerably. But the light wasn’t the main concern. There was that feeling, like someone was holding the tip of a quill just a few millimeters above her skin, and she knew it was there, but couldn’t really feel it. That maddening near itch of a sensation, except now, it was coming from the magic in front of her, which had grown even more in intensity..

The sudden surge of the sense they were giving off caused her to let out a small yelp and topple backward. As she fell, the same itch stayed in place, pointing in the exact same direction, despite the fact that she was now on her back.

Despite how irritating the sensation was, she couldn’t help but feel… strangely accomplished. She could do it now! It was clear she could sense energy! And now that she knew what it felt like, she could feel her awareness start to turn to other things around her, like the enchantments she had put on her cabinets to occasionally unstack and restack her plates and bowls to prevent them from collecting dust. She could also just barely feel the shield spell outside the Golden Oaks, too.

But beyond that, everything was dark.

“I… I can do it,” she whispered, feeling herself smile for just a moment at the realization…

...until she remembered who had taught her and why.

Her accomplished grin gave way to a frown as she looked over at Nova, who appeared to be in a sort of trance, the books were now orbiting him at various angles. Now he almost looked like the stereotypical picture of an atom for some reason. Was he doing it on purpose?

“Nova,” she barked, a little bit more harshly than she had originally intended, but as she was hardly trying to be gentle around him, she didn’t feel bad about it.

“Hm?”

The books stopped, and briefly, one of Nova’s ears swiveled into his direction.

“I got it,” Twilight announced, before sitting back down. “I hate to admit it, but I’m sure you taught me w-- yes, I can.

She had noticed he had suddenly taken to writing something down inside of her floor with his magic, probably testing to see if she actually could. It had been rather strange. She had felt that strange sensation, so she had clenched her eyes shut, only to find glowing blue letters beneath her.

The phrase in question was “Can Twilight Sparkle burst into flames?”

And it was now restructuring itself, a bit further away, to ask, “How many objects are in a baker’s dozen?”

“Thirteen,” Twilight answered, scowling. “You’ve proven your point.”

But a third question had appeared, now so far down, her sensing could barely see it. “Has anyone really been far even as decided to use even go want to do look more like?”

“Wh…?” Twilight mouthed, trying to decipher what the hell he was saying. “Has anyone really… Okay, Nova, what the hell is that supposed to mean?”

“Nothing,” Nova shrugged, though she could just hear the slight snicker in his voice. “Just a nonsense phrase I was using to see if you were telling the truth. You didn’t even notice I hid a fourth one underneath it, so I imagine it means you can’t quite see that far, but that’s fine. Your range will broaden with time.”

“What did the fourth one say?” she asked, glaring at him. Probably something just as stupid as the third one.

“It said ‘I’ve got a lovely bunch of coconuts’,” he answered.

At once, it felt like Nova’s energy… flared. That seemed to be the right word. His energy seemed to spike, and the nexus shivered ever so slightly.

Did this mean he was lying?

“Was… was that a lie?”

“It was!” Nova was evidently beaming at that. “You’ve figured out what me telling a lie feels like. The sentence underneath actually said ‘Can you read this?’ by the way.”

Despite knowing she was supposed to still be enraged by his very existence, Twilight couldn’t help but feel a bit amused and more than a little accomplished, just by this one act of learning how to sense energy.

Though now that she thought about it…

“So, if I can sense energy now,” she began, with a glance upward, “why can’t I sense the tree?”

“Pardon?” Nova leaned his swiveled ear a bit closer.

“The tree that the Golden Oaks is housed in,” she clarified, pointing upward, though she doubted he could see that. “The tree is alive. Living things give off energy. Shouldn’t I be able to sense it?”

“Good question,” Nova nodded. “You will, with enough time. Your third eye just opened. If your normal eyes were closed your whole life and you opened them now, you would be a bit overwhelmed by regular light, right? And then, over time, you’d start to see things normally, and then eventually start to see the smaller, fainter things as your eyes got used to it all. Well, same with energy sensing. You’re only going to see the overt now, but give it time, and give your new sense some attention, and you’ll eventually start to see the subtle, fainter magical energy that flows in the earth.”

“Wait, so this can only sense magical energy?” Twilight scowled. “I thought it could sense everything.”

“Not quite,” Nova admitted. “If we really wanted to get technical, if you really could sense every type of energy, you should see the potential energy stored in books high up on the shelf, or the reactions given off by the atoms in the air, or even the energy given off by your stomach as it digests the pasta I cooked for you. But no, this sense just picks up the magical energy around you. And you’d be surprised just how much of it is around you at any given time.”

“No, I don’t think I would,” Twilight refuted, now stalking toward Nova, who remained as calm as ever from his spot.

Nova didn’t seem to have anything to say to that, but as Twilight approached, he seemed to start as he realized something else.

“Hang on, hang on, before we get started,” Nova held up a hoof, before his horn shone. While on the surface, Twilight could see nothing, with her new ability to sense magical energy, she could see that he was hiding his energy behind a wall. Rather than appear like a glowing star, now it felt like a glowing blue sheet, hiding things behind it.

“That’s what it looks like when you cover up,” Nova explained. “You could see a shifting and swirling mass of energy before, and now all you can see is a wall, right? Feel free to call me out if it ever goes up.”

The blue sheet of magic vanished, and the nexus of energy was back.

“So, drill away.”

It was rather strange. Not a day ago, her mind had been buzzing with possibilities for ways Nova could have possibly not been the culprit. During all of her mental beat-herself-up sessions, she had lamented so many things she had overlooked in favor of being angry, blasting Nova, hitting him, and then galloping away like she did this past Saturday evening.

But now...

Now she was struggling to think of even one question to ask him.

Now that everything was right in front of her, now that she had the key to really get to the bottom of this all, it was like all of her preparation was gone. She didn’t even know where to start.

“Twilight?”

“Ugh,” Twilight fell backward, running both her hooves down her face as she came to rest belly-up. “I don’t know!”

“You don’t know…?” Nova asked, his head inclining just a bit. “You don’t know what?”

“Where to even begin!” Twilight answered, her voice getting even louder. “I have no feathering idea what to even start with!”

Nova seemed to flinch a little bit. “Wow. You really are mad. I don’t think I’ve ever heard you drop language like that before.”

“We’re here to get to the bottom of the incident last week!” she snapped, glaring at him from her spot on the ground. If she wasn’t careful, she had a feeling that glare would become her permanent expression. “Stay on feathering topic, and quit doing your best to peeve me!”

Nova flinched even harder that time. For a moment, it almost looked like he would turn to give her a concerned look, and he even did turn his head just a bit. However, he seemed to catch himself, and kept his gaze fixed perfectly forward.

Which only peeved her even more.

“Alright then,” he finally whispered, before clearing his throat and trying again. “Fine. I’ll just… just start at the beginning then. Tell it how I experienced it.”

“Oh, that’s how you’re going to do it,” Twilight suddenly sat up and jabbed a hoof at Nova, snarling. “You had someone modify your memory, is that it!?”

“No, I… what?

“You had someone go and modify your memory so that way you could tell me this story to your heart’s content, and believe you were telling the truth so I wouldn’t see the lie. I know what I saw, Nova!” She smiled to herself. It was all coming together. It still didn’t explain how he got past her shield, but at least now she knew what he was trying to do.

“Twilight, come on!” Nova facehoofed. “There’s only four ponies I know who are proficient enough and powerful enough to cast a memory modification spell. One of them is currently yelling at me, and the other three would never assist me in doing… whatever it is you think I’m doing.”

Twilight’s triumphant smile vanished instantly.

“You could have done it to yourself--”

“I have never cast a memory charm in my life,” he confessed, now sounding a bit exasperated by all of this. “And you know just as well as I do that it’s borderline impossible and incredibly dangerous to cast spells that mess with one’s own brain.”

...right. She had forgotten. It’s why he couldn’t cast a sleep spell on himself, nor could she on herself.

Gritting her teeth and adjusting herself on her pouf, she growled out, “Fine. Get on with it.”

Despite his earlier exasperation, Nova seemed rather unperturbed, all things considered. He took a deep breath to calm himself again, and then began reciting everything the same way he had when he was at Celestia’s School several weeks ago.

“So, the problems begin during the date itself. At Brayo, when you went to the restroom.”

When Rarity showed up in the middle of the date, Twilight recalled, feeling her jaw tighten.

“I lied to you,” he sighed, his head drooping. “That wasn’t Rarity. I know it looked like her, I know what you saw,” he added hastily, correctly guessing she was about to say something sarcastic about how the Rarity she saw wasn’t the Rarity she knew, “but… it wasn’t her. It was Envy.”

Suddenly, everything made sense.

“I see,” Twilight hissed icily. “How… convenient.”

“I know, I know,” Nova interjected before she could say anything else. “I get it. Seems like a good excuse, right? Well, you have energy sensing now. You can tell if I’m throwing this out there as a lie or as the truth, so I’ll say it again. It wasn’t Rarity that came and spoke to me. It was Envy. I know it was her because she rather explicitly gloated to me and her eyes and magical resonance were red.”

...of course he’d be telling the truth. Not even the slightest waver in his energy. So… so Envy had attempted to sabotage their date? Why? That seemed rather petty for someone who wanted to kill them. Unless…

Unless he talked himself into believing it all, she thought, snarling slightly at Nova’s back. How narcissistic, to think that Envy would hate him so much she’d try to disrupt his date.

“She wanted to get me off my game, she wanted me to be looking over my shoulder, and she wanted to be seen by you.”

Twilight’s eyes narrowed. This was all just too good. Nova must have spent hours talking himself into believing all of this. Hours, connecting every dot, crossing every t, dotting every i, he must have rehearsed this so well, it wasn’t even a lie to him anymore. At this point, she didn’t need to hear anything else. She had everything she needed.

Except...

“I didn’t do the smart thing that night,” Nova hung his head. “I should have called off the date, should have told you we needed to get back to the library, barricade up, and hunker down for the night. But I didn’t. I took you to the park. We saw the lights. And the lights blinded me when they were done.”

“Blinded you?” Twilight scoffed.

“You’re well aware that if an intense enough bit of magic happens nearby, it overwhelms my magic sense,” Nova lashed back. It seemed even Nova’s calm and patience tonight had their limits. “Hell, you used it against me during our duel. You know my energy sense can go blind for a bit if I’m around too intense of magic. Come on, Twilight. Now it seems like you couldn’t care less about the truth.”

He stood up, and Twilight could see the wind whirling around him again..

“Actually, yeah, I don’t think you do,” he continued, his voice going from annoyed to angry. “You’re probably trying to find reasons to discredit or completely disregard what it is I have to say, aren’t you? Maybe you think I had somepony hypnotize me into believing it, or you think I talked myself into it. Whatever the case, you haven’t been trying to find the truth. You either wanted confirmation that you were right, or you would find find some reason why you couldn’t be wrong.”

That stung. His accusation felt like it stabbed right through her, cutting right into her heart, and she felt a sudden twinge of pain in her gut.

Even if he was right, it still hurt.

“No biting remark sent back at me? Nothing to say? Does it hurt that I’m throwing that out?” he demanded. “Because I want you to know what happened after you struck me into the mud, Twilight!”

“I don’t…”

I ALMOST DIED THAT NIGHT!

The words seemed to echo in her ears after he yelled them. The winds whirling around him died down almost instantly. She could only gape at him.

He… he almost…

“If you think I’m making it up, that I’ve talked myself into it, then here!” he spat, his horn shining. "Since you won't listen, I'll use visual memories and show you!"

A strange black shape surrounded them. For a brief moment, her mind flashed back to the moment in the Vaults when she had been nearly suffocated, and she tensed up, but the darkness soon gave way to a rainy night scene.

There he was, meeting with Rarity at her boutique. This was what had happened that miserable night. He retrieved a parcel from her, just as he said he would, and then trotted away quite happily, only to get struck with a spell from a nearby alleyway. He was yanked in by a Rarity with red eyes, just like he said Envy had. This Rarity took the time to gloat to him, cast several spells on him, and stick him up against the wall while they waited.

While they waited for her to catch them in the act.

Sure enough, she came, minutes later. The real Nova was watching the same scene, his shoulders and neck squared and tensed, and if Twilight could see it, she was sure his face would be stony.

After that, she watched as he was forced to make it seem as though he were the one ravishing Rarity, before they were caught. And then she watched as he pursued her, trying desperately to tell her the truth, only to be stopped by Envy’s jinxes.

And with each successive revelation, it just felt as though the icy knife in her heart was twisting.

Finally, she watched herself blast him into a nearby building, then strike him down into the mud before she ran away crying.

And there Envy was, striding toward him. Nova was right. The red eyes made it unmistakable, despite the fact that she looked like Trixie. Maybe it was because she was controlling Trixie like before. But even so, no doubt about it, it was Envy, stomping toward the fallen Nova, with a silver knife held aloft in red magic.

She whispered something, the smile of someone about to achieve their goals on her face, before she raised the knife up and brought it down.

Only for a new aura to shield Nova and catch it before it could go even halfway toward him.

The new aura was Trixie’s. It had stopped the knife from taking Nova away from her once and for all.

He didn’t… I… she could only think, seeing the scene play out before her.

No matter what story she could concoct for why his energy sensing wasn’t showing him to be a liar, visual memories couldn’t be falsified by hypnosis, talking it into oneself, or any other method outside of magic. They were pure and direct representations of the memories stored away in the brain, without any embellishments unless tampered with. And as Nova had pointed out, the only ponies capable of that would never have done this so he could lie to her.

As Twilight felt the world reeling around her at the thought of what had almost befallen Nova, the scene around her vanished, the darkness giving way to the light of her library once again.

“You… you really didn’t…” her voice broke.

It was all gone. Her rage, her betrayal, everything that had her sitting morosely in her room for the last several days was gone.

Replacing it was guilt and despair.

He really didn’t… and he almost… I almost…

“I didn’t want to show that part to you,” Nova admitted in a small voice. He sounded just as torn up as she felt. “I didn’t want you to have to see that. But… you just weren’t allowing yourself to even entertain the idea that what you saw could be wrong. I just…’

He sighed and his head seemed to droop even lower.

“I’ll leave you alone forever now,” he finally sighed, his voice falling to barely above a whisper, before he stood up and started trotting toward the door.

For a long moment, Twilight could only stare blankly after him as he stepped closer and closer.

No… no, he’s bluffing… she thought stupidly, her mind still not quite processing everything she had just seen.

But when he was a mere couple of hoofsteps away, it finally seemed to click into place.

He really is going to leave for good!

And before he could reach out and open the door, a wall of magenta energy appeared on all sides, blocking him him.

“No!” she exclaimed, practically leaping to her hooves and dashing over. “No… just… please s-stay?”

Nova’s ears perked quite a bit at that, and his sunken shoulders and head seemed to straighten up.

“I just…” she felt the dam, which she was rather bracely holding back, start to crack. “L-last time…” she swallowed, “l-last time I was alone it w-was hell.”

Nova’s head drooped again.

“Twilight, I didn’t just come here to try and explain the truth away,” he admitted, falling back down onto his haunches. “I came back because… because I thought there was a chance you would listen. A small chance, but a chance all the same.

“And I was wrong.”

Twilight’s heart, already in such a fragile state after being hit so hard by the revelations of the last few moments, finally shattered, and she felt the tears start to stream down her cheeks.

It’s… it’s over...

“You didn’t,” he sounded bitter. Accusatory. “You would have preferred to be right than to find out that I didn’t do it.”

She finally felt her eyes come off of him. That was why he wouldn’t look at her. Not because he didn’t think he had earned it back like he said. He wouldn’t look at her because he hated her. How could he not? She hadn’t let him tell the truth. She hadn’t given him a chance to defend herself.

It was her fault he almost died.

“But I don’t care,” he whispered, standing up again. “I thought you were worth it. I thought you were worth taking that chance, in the hopes of salvaging us.”

Now he was just confirming it beyond a doubt. He thought she was worth it. Which meant he didn’t think she was worth it anymore.

“And that’s why I came. Because I believed the slim chance that you’d listen, that you’d hear me when I told you that I didn’t do it was better than the chance that you’d shut your ears and not hear a word of it.”

“You can stop now,” she finally let out, her voice barely louder than a whisper. “You did nothing wrong, I still threw you out and didn’t give you a chance to explain yourself. And even after it happened,” she stamped a hoof in disgust at herself, “I couldn’t stop loving you despite the pain, but now I’ve gone and thrown it all away!” she swallowed, feeling a pang of pain in her heart as that icy knife twisted all the more, “...I’ve lost you forever. I’m sorry.”

The spell vanished from around him.

“You deserve someone who will listen to you and give you the benefit of the doubt,” her voice was a little louder, but still no less hurt. “Somepony better than me,” she added.

“Wait, what?”

“Even despite your faults and flaws, I thought you were perfect for me,” she admitted, thinking back to the times he had managed to comfort her in the midst of self-blame for Trixie being taken over by Envy, to the time he was willing to sleep with her to comfort her after the nightmares, to the time he came right to her bedside and set everything straight after Trixie shattered her heart. “I should have known you were too good for me. You were everything I ever wanted. Kind, smart, funny, and honorable to a fault. I should have known you never would have done it, but I didn’t. And now it really is over, isn’t it? You came back to me to drop me completely, like I deserve. How could you like me after that?”

“Stop it!”

She felt something tweak her horn and she was suddenly jolted back to alertness. She hadn’t even noticed that Nova had been approaching her.

“Twilight, look at me.”

She did. Why was it so hard now, when it had been easy to glare at him before?

The look on his face was not one of anger, of hate, or disgust. The look on his face was pain. The same look she always imagined on her own face whenever she listened to him beat himself up for all of his perceived shortcomings.

“That. Is. Enough,” he said firmly, staring right into her eyes with his own. It was like the same moment months ago, when he had set everything straight. She felt the same fluttering in her belly, where the butterflies Cadance always talked about, were going haywire.

He sat down in front of her. Now they were across from each other, with Nova’s resolute, determined eyes staring right into Twilight’s distraught ones.

“Every word of what you just said was wrong, and then some.”

It wasn’t some suggestion. It was almost a command. An order. Every syllable had truth in it.

“Being all self-loathy is my job,” he couldn’t help but grin, just a bit. “It’s not a good look for you, Twi, so don’t.”

All she could do was stare at him as the phrase repeated in her head.

Every word of what you just said was wrong, and then some.

“I once beat myself up in the middle of what was supposed to be a romantic date between us,” Nova reminded her. “I sat there, tearing myself apart about how I was nothing special. I was mediocre. I was just some wanderer. I didn’t deserve anything I had gotten, and it was only given to me out of pity.”

He leaned in closer, to make sure she got the message.

“But then I met this pony, perhaps you know her,” the corners of his mouth turned upward in the faintest of smiles. “She had faith in me when I had no faith in myself. She gave me confidence in my magical ability when I had none. She showed me my moments of kindness when all I could ever focus on were my moments of weakness. She inspired-- and continues to inspire-- me to be the best stallion I can be when all I could do was wallow in self-loathing.”

She tried to look away, but he caught her chin with a hoof, his touch sending electric sparks flying through her.

“I came back for you, Twilight Sparkle, because despite everything I’ve ever done to show you why you are far and away more than I could ever hope to deserve, you kept coming back for me, and now I’m here to do the same for you.” He gazed into her eyes with even more intensity. He wanted her to hear the truth of it once again. “You once told me that heat helps air to rise, while its absence causes it to sink. Well,” he smirked humorlessly, “I hit my lowest point this past week, spending almost the entirety of it in a bar sobbing my eyes out.

“Without you, everything felt dimmer,” he continued, and all she could do was watch, her heart fluttering at his words, despite herself knowing she shouldn’t be. Knowing that she’d just drag him down. “But with a little help from my dad, he helped me realize the truth about why everything was so awful, and I had been too stubborn to acknowledge it.

“Like I said, your absence has caused me to hit my lowest point. But when I’m around you, you challenge me to be better, to be the best stallion I can. And despite everything I’ve done over the past several months, from yelling at you, to neglecting you, to closing myself off, you continued to stay with me time and again. That is why I’m here for you. That is why I love you.”

Nova finally fell silent, finally withdrew his hoof from her chin, and leaned back. But her head didn’t fall. All she could do was stare into his eyes, feeling as if… as if the impossible had happened.

He… he loves me?

The words continued to play through her head.

Until, without warning, she broke down, falling forward into his arms, and started to sob into his shoulder. And just like in Canterlot, those many long weeks ago, he embraced her, held her there while she cried, stroked her mane, and cradled her.

"It's alright, Twilight," he whispered into her ear, just like he had in Canterlot, a month and a half ago. "It's fine. It's alright."

And just like they had done that month and a half ago, his words seemed to calm her, to steady her, taking the burden off of her back. After several moments, she wasn't sobbing anymore, but she wasn't exactly in any hurry to move. It was perfect. She could lie here forever, just in his arms, the world around them not even mattering in the slightest.

She didn't know how long she was there, finally letting everything out after days of frustration and just letting Nova hold her, but time seemed to have lost its meaning.

“Wh-what did I d-do to deserve you?” she mumbled, feeling her eyes squeeze shut and a few extra tears leak out, an eternity later.

“I’m sure I’ll be asking myself the same question about you every time I break down,” Nova confessed, smiling nervously. "If it means more moments like this, though, it's worth it."

They sat there, with her in his arms, for several seconds more as she got the last of her sniffles out, before Nova lightly sat her up.

“I’m glad we’ve finally cleared the air and gotten several things out in the open,” he said, rubbing at his mane a bit sheepishly, “and really Twilight, I’d love nothing more than to hold you for the rest of the night, but there’s--”

What exactly there was, however, Twilight didn’t want to hear. Instead, she felt there had been enough waiting.

Without letting him finish, Twilight darted forward and kissed him.

It was as though fireworks had gone off. Bells were ringing, breezies were singing, the ultimate meaning of life had been made known to her, and for one beautiful moment, everything ceased to matter.

Like it had in Trottingham, just the mere feeling of his lips on hers sent pleasurable tingles down her spine, even if he was too surprised to react at the moment, but he soon melted into the kiss, pulling her close and holding her, just like a few minutes ago.


“...and then we can go and watch a movie tomorrow night,” Cadance suggested, reading the Canterlot newspaper in the Sparkles’ living room while she and Shining bounced date ideas around.

“Anything good on?” Shining grunted from his spot in his dad’s easy chair. Some things never changed, and one of those was how he would continue to steal his dad’s seat when he wasn’t home.

“There’s this new movie called Back to the Future that’s coming out,”Cadance scanned the page some more. “Looks interesting, has some great reviews, good matinee prices, and--”

She abruptly cut off, the newspaper falling from her hooves with a rather loud rustle. As it fell away, Shining looked over to his wife in confusion to find that she was staring straight ahead, her eyes unfocused, and her mouth parted slightly.

“Cadey?” he asked.

“Shining,” she whispered, a smile spreading slowly across her muzzle, “I think...”

“What’s going on?” Shining never really understood how Cadance could just get these random “disturbances in the Love Force” from time to time, but he had seen it enough to know when it had happened. It usually meant she was going to be in a good mood for the rest of the day…

...and it also usually meant they weren’t getting that much sleep that night.

“It was like… like months of romantic tension were finally resolved,” her grin was about as wide as Shining had ever seen. “Something wonderful has happened.”


She didn’t know how long it lasted. Was it only a few seconds? An hour? Had they been here a whole day? In any case, she finally broke away from him, resting her forehead against his, their horns almost rubbing against each other.

“About time,” she whispered to him.

“And no panic attack this time,” Nova couldn’t stop beaming. “Personal best.”

Twilight giggled, and then went in for another, but Nova caught her this time.

“Twilight, love,” she felt the butterflies yet again, “much as I’d love nothing more than to do this all night, there’s… others you need to see. And a shield that needs to come down.”

“Right,” she nodded. “I… it’s about time it came down. Before I do though,” a thought had occurred to her, “that package you went and got from Rarity on the date.”

“This one?” his horn shone blue and a small parcel wrapped in brown packing paper appeared.

“Can I see it?”

He nodded, letting the package float over to Twilight, who took it in her hooves and tore the wrapping paper off of it at once. Inside was a small black box. The first thing she noticed was that it was considerably larger than a ring box, but was still packaged the same way, with the felt cover and everything.

“Go on,” Nova encouraged. “Open it.”

She did just that, pulling open the lid.

There were two diamond necklaces inside. Both of them were nothing more than a simple pendant with a diamond set in the center, and a strong, silver chain set against the back.

One of the diamonds was glowing with a bright blue light. The other was empty, nothing more than a simple diamond.

She looked up and met his gaze, and suddenly he seemed… embarrassed?

“I uhh,” he rubbed at the back of his head, “I did some reading, and it turns out, you can store a resonance in a gem indefinitely. Doesn’t do anything practical, but… well,” his cheeks flushed a bit, “I thought… we could maybe wear the pendant with each other’s resonance inside? Carry a part of the other wherever we went?”

Twilight just stared at him, feeling like her heart was melting all the more.

“...seriously, what did I do?” she asked, practically yanking the blue pendant out of the box and putting it on with all haste.

“What did you do for what?” Nova asked.

“To deserve you,” her horn shone and the empty diamond was bathed in magenta light for a moment, before she let go of the magic. As the magenta aura vanished, the diamond now contained the glowing light with her resonance inside of it. The chain was pulled free by Nova’s magic, and only a few seconds later, they were both wearing the pendants with each others’ resonances.

No sooner had she seen him proudly put it on than she slid herself over to sit next to him, and then lay her head on his shoulder.

“The shield?” he reminded her, briefly meeting her head with his own.

“Oh, right.” There was no embarrassment, though. She simply lit up her horn and brought down the shield that had been up for far too long, finally allowing the ponies outside back into her life.

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

“Ugh, what are they even doing in there!?” Rainbow groaned as she just sat in a random corner of the stakeout house. It wasn’t her shift for observation duty anymore, fortunately.

She had actually been taken off of it, given that all she did when it was her turn with the binoculars was complain.

“Calm down, Rainbow Dash,” Rarity sighed patiently as she looked through them, trying to see into the library as best she could. There had been quite some concern when the insides of the ground floor went dark for a few moments, but everything was fine not long after. “We all care about Twilight, and we’re all patiently waiting. Have some faith in Nova, would you?”

“It’s not that I don’t,” Rainbow defended herself, “but who’s to say he hasn’t gone and made it worse? We all saw the light show in there when he first went in, and again a few minutes ago.”

“And there’s another one,” Rarity frowned as the light on the other side of the magenta bubble flashed briefly. Given that it made the magenta all the brighter, it was obviously Twilight’s magic. Nova’s blue had made the bubble appear purple momentarily. She looked back to the ponies in the room. “Something’s going on in there, girls. Be ready.”

“You’re awfully confident, Pinks,” Applejack observed from her little hammock. Pinkie was still just blissfully standing there, looking completely unconcerned with everything going on.

“I told you, I read ahead already,” Pinkie rolled her eyes. “Come on, Applejack, it was only half the chapter ago. Please keep up! Repeating things to pad chapter length is bad storytelling.”

Applejack just shook her head, no doubt dismissing Pinkie’s ramblings as a lost cause. She had seemed more annoyed by Pinkie than usual ever since they had harangued her into keeping an eye on Pinkie to keep the party planner from interrupting Nova’s and Twilight’s ill-fated date. Just what had Pinkie done to her?

Whatever she had, it could wait. For now, they had a more important task to do.

“Fluttershy, dear,” she asked, looking over at the butter-colored pegasus, who was currently minding her own business in a quiet corner, “do you know if Sharp Eye will be willing to join us? We’ll need sleep eventually.”

“He’s currently watching the house and animals while I’m here,” Fluttershy replied, though she glanced nervously in the direction of her cottage. “Though I suppose we could switch. I hope Angel Bunny isn’t being too mean to him… plus there’s the possibility that Discord could be hazing him for dating me…”

She frowned.

“Maybe we should switch places…”

Rarity decided to look into her binoculars again, but as she did, the shield around the library finally dispersed.

For the first time in days, the Golden Oaks was accessible.

“Girls! It’s down!” she called, already packing up the binoculars and her stakeout gear in her saddlebags.

“About time!” Rainbow shouted, already speeding out of the house as fast as her wings could carry her. Fluttershy also seemed to zip on out of there as fast as she could, no doubt so she could hug Twilight and then go and see her bounty-hunting beau.

“Ah’m inclined to agree with Rainbow,” Applejack let out a relieved sigh, before galloping after them. “Really is about dang time!”

“Wait for me! Wait for me!” Pinkie yelled, before pronking after them as fast as she could, humming to herself as she did.

When Rarity finally made it into the library, it turned out Rainbow had assumed the worst. She bad bolted in, slammed into Nova, and now had him pinned to the floor.

“ALRIGHT! WHAT DID YOU DO!?” she thundered, nose-to-nose with him and looking daggers into his eyes while, for the first time since they had seen him, he actually looked a bit frightened by the display.

“Umm… made amends with Twilight and am getting back together with her?” he squeaked.

“A LIKELY STORY!” Rainbow somehow pressed even closer to intimidate him,

“It’s not, Rainbow,” huffed Twilight, grabbing her by the tail with her teeth to yank him off. “Now if you would please,” she heaved and with a startling amount of strength, sent Rainbow flying off of Nova, “stay off of my coltfriend, I would very much appreciate it.”

“Coltfriend?” Rainbow’s face fell into one of shock as she stood up from where she had landed. “He brainwashed you, didn’t he!”

Twilight sighed patiently, “No Rainbow, he did not.”

“That’s just what you’d say if he had!” Rainbow pointed an accusatory hoof at Nova, who was still on the ground.

“Nova, lovey, are you alright?” Twilight trotted over and helped him to his hooves.

“That… please don’t call me ‘lovey’ again.” He made a face. “There’s just something… emasculating about being called that, and I don’t know why.”

“How about honey?” Twilight asked.

“No.”

“Dear?”

“No.”

“Darling?”

“That’s Rarity’s thing.”

“This is all well and good,” Rarity cut in, “and who am I to stand between true love, but Twilight, please, we’re all here to make sure. Are you quite alright dear?”

“Yes,” Twilight let out a relieved sigh. “I am now. I’m…” to Rarity’s horror, she started to paw at her eyes, even when it was quite clear she had done some crying minutes before, “I’m s-sorry, girls. I shouldn’t have sh-shut you out like that.”

“Twilight, come here,” Rarity ordered, her magic yanking Rainbow in line with them. Twilight approached hesitantly, and even so she glanced back at Nova, almost as if asking what he should do.

“Hey, don’t look at me, they’re your friends,” Nova replied, motioning that she should continue.

“You’re our friend too,” Rarity answered, giving him an indignant look, even as the five of them swept Twilight up into a group hug, though she winced as Pinkie’s strength squished the air out of her lungs. “Sure, you may not have an Element of Harmony to wield, but that does not make you any less of a friend of ours!”

“Agreed,” Applejack grinned at him from her spot in the hug.

Now, it was Nova’s turn to look surprised. Rarity couldn’t help but feel a bit of guilt for that. Had it not been clear that, despite their rivalry, they really were friends?

“Get in here Nova,” Rainbow waved him over.

Nova took a nervous step forward, and then another, before finally Rarity simply had enough of waiting for him and pulled him into the center, where both he and Twilight were at the center of the group hug.

“What would I do without you all?” wondered Twilight as they sat there in the tangle of bodies and limbs.

“I think you’d do quite well for yourself, darling,” Rarity answered firmly.

All too soon, the hug ended, and Nova and Twilight found themselves sitting together, surrounded by their five friends.

“Well, it is getting late, and Ah do have work to get done tomorrow,” Applejack stepped back. “G’night, y’all. Glad to have ya back, Twi, Nova.” She tipped her stetson to the both of them, and then stepped out.

“Also, I think I really do need to get back to my cottage,” Fluttershy backed away as well. “There’s no telling what Angel is doing to poor Sharpie.”

“He’s a big stallion, I’m sure he can take care of himself,” Nova was clearly resisting the urge to laugh at Mr. Sharp Eye’s nickname.

“Yeah, and I’m putting in a double-shift tomorrow at Sugarcube Corner. Gotta go!” Pinkie dashed, off, before skidding to a halt in front of the door. “Oh, wait!” She turned to stare at Nova ominously. “Next chapter. You,” she jabbed at him with a hoof.

“Me… what?” Nova blinked in confusion.

“See ya later,” Pinkie just said, before bouncing away again, leaving the remaining four of them watching her go in confusion.

“I will never understand that mare,” commented Rarity.

“Welp, I suppose I gotta go as well. You two better not do that to us again, you got that?” Rainbow gave them both threatening looks.

“Your concern is appreciated, Rainbow,” Twilight smiled gratefully at her.

With that, Rainbow flew out, but like Pinkie, she also stopped at the door. “You comin’ Rares?”

“Yes, I shall be along shortly,” Rarity assured her, before turning back to the newly-reunited couple. “I am afraid it is well past Sweetie Belle’s bed time, but before you go, I wanted to ask, should I bring Spike back tonight?”

“Not tonight,” answered Twilight rather quickly, leading to a confused look from both Rarity and Nova. “I just,” she shrunk a bit and her face went very red. “I… kinda just wanted to spend the night with… with Nova.”

“I see,” Rarity smiled knowingly.

“N-not like that!” Twilight protested, getting even more flustered, while Nova just sat there uselessly. “It’s too soon! Just… you know… us together.”

“As you say, Twilight,” her knowing smile deepened, though as she surveyed the poor state of Twilight’s hygiene, her nose wrinkled. “Though I suggest cleaning yourself up first. The point is, Spike for one more night.”

“Y-yes please,” Twilight nodded.

“But we do need him back tomorrow,” Nova cut in. “Train to Canterlot.”

“Hm?” Twilight glanced at him.

“I’ll explain later,” promised Nova, before looking back to Rarity. “That okay?”

“Sounds perfect. Very well, you two enjoy your night, and I shall see you with Spike tomorrow. Nova? A word, please.”

Nova trotted forward, leaving Twilight to sit back and wait patiently for him, without a hint of distrust, which Rarity thought was a testament to her faith in Nova now that he had set things right.

Even as he approached, Twilight even stood up and trotted off to give them just a bit of privacy. Just what had Nova done? It didn’t matter, she supposed. So long as they had their friend back, and he didn’t do anything sneaky, all was right.

“Now,” she said, giving him a serious look. “I think we both agree we should try to prevent what happened last time from happening again, agreed?”

“Agreed,” Nova nodded.

“That being said, I think it’s high time the two of us buried our hatchet,” she held out her hoof. “Do you agree?”

Nova gave her a funny look. “What hatchet?”

“Our rivalry, as it were,” she clarified, before trying again. “Look, Nova, as it piqued Twilight’s suspicions and culminated in this, I think it would be best if we decided to start again as friends, rather than prank each other over our mutual dislike. I care about Twilight too much to hold a grudge over a broken vase.”

“You… held a grudge about that?” Nova looked a combination of amused and indignant. “It wasn’t even my fault!”

“Whoever’s fault it was is no longer relevant,” she dismissed. “What say you we… try again ourselves?”

Nova shook his head. “Rarity, please. I never disliked you as a pony, and never held a grudge, even considering the, uhh,” he gulped, “the Dessert Incident. Frankly, I kind of enjoyed our banter and pranking. I don’t want it to end. I just think we should be careful not to lead Twilight to think anything else is going on. So no,” he pushed her hoof down, “I don’t think we should try again. I think there’s no sense in trying again, when there was nothing wrong in the first place.”

Rarity stared at him for a moment, before smiling and dipping her head. “Very well. In that case, I bid you two adieu, Nova. Treat her well, you understand?”

“Now and always,” Nova nodded.

With that, she trotted out, shutting the door behind him and meeting up with Rainbow Dash outside.

“Glad that’s all behind us,” Rarity remarked, before pausing. “Oh! I forgot!”

“Forgot what?” asked Dash.

“I forgot to ask when they want Spike brought over here!” Rarity dashed back to the door, but suddenly stopped when she saw something in one of the side windows.

Nova and Twilight were kissing rather passionately in the center of the library. And despite the unclean state of her mane, tail and coat, it looked as though there was no place Nova would rather be.

“...on second thought,” she smiled at the tender moment, “it can wait until tomorrow.”

“What’s going on in there?” Rainbow asked, before flying down to take a look. “...whoa.”

“Rainbow, it is rude to spy,” Rarity took hold of her tail and started pulling away despite her fighting. “I thought you hated this ‘sappy frou-frou romance stuff’ as you called it.”

“Yeah, but--!”

“No 'But’s, Rainbow,” chided Rarity, but smiling knowingly as she dragged her pegasus friend along. “Let’s let the happy couple have their privacy.”

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

Twilight took some time to clean herself up. When she stepped out, she seemed to have gone the extra mile and groomed herself as well. Her tail and mane were sleek and slightly damp, and her coat shone in the candlelight around the library.

Meanwhile, Nova had taken the time to repair everything, rather like he had done at Celestia’s school, following the food fight. In almost no time at all, the library was back in pristine condition, as though Twilight had never thrown anything to begin with. The horsehead statue was even replaced, as now the vase with the marble flowers was in Twilight’s bedroom, someplace within easy sight so she could see it whenever she woke up every morning.

“You smell nice,” Nova observed, noting the lavender scent now wafting through the library as she stepped out.

“Flattery will get you everywhere,” she smiled sweetly at him, something that made the jittering feeling in his gut return with a vengeance. It really was a nice change of pace, enjoying the jitters, rather than being concerned about them.

“Well, before we hit the hay, I do have something I need to do,” Nova said, suddenly remembering. “I need to send a letter to my dad. Gotta let him know we’ve patched things up and we’ll be in Canterlot in a few days to pick up the diaries. I don’t suppose you know of a way to send a letter up there that isn’t the postal service?”

“Why not just go get Spike from Rarity’s?” Twilight asked.

“Do you really want him to disrupt our first night alone together?” he asked, arching an eyebrow at her.

“Fair point,” Twilight giggled. “I have just the thing. Write your letter.”

Easier done than said. Nova’s horn shone and the parchment appeared out of thin air, with the ink already spreading across it. Twilight, meanwhile, had opened her bedroom window.

“Owliscious!” she called.

It didn’t take long for the owl to fly down and land on her hoof. The moment it did, though, it made sure to give Twilight a good peck on the forehead.

“Ow!” she yelped. “I get it, I get it, I shouldn’t have shooed you out when I was mad. Sorry!”

Owliscious seemed to accept her apology, because it gave her muzzle a light nip and that, before flapping over to Nova and doing the same. Nova just stared at him for a moment, before he offered a hoof to land on, which Owliscious took.

“So… I’m basically Harry Trottering this letter?” he asked, suddenly, grinning. “I’ve always wanted to do this.”

The letter was rolled up, tied shut with a ribbon, and then tied to the owl’s outstretched leg.

“Alright. So, please take this to Ray Novus, in Novus Manor up in Canterlot,” Nova recited slowly, so that Owliscious could catch the instructions.

Owliscious stared at him.

“Who?”

“My dad.”

“Who?”

“Up in Canterlot, Ray Novus.”

“Who?”

“He’s got this brown coat and black mane--”

“Nova, come on!” Twilight giggled from the bed. “He knows what you’re saying. I’m pretty sure he’s just messing with you.”

Owliscious just lightly nipped at Nova’s muzzle again, before taking off and flying outside. It didn’t take long before he vanished into the night sky, and with that, Twilight shut her window. As she did so, Nova’s magic began to snuff out the candles around the room, blanketing them in darkness, before he clambered up into the loft and into her bed, where at once she slid between his hooves, so that he’d be holding her while they slept. The scent of fresh lavender in her mane also assaulted his sense of smell, calming him even more than he already was.

“I love you, Nova,” he heard her mumble sleepily.

“I love you too,” he whispered back, feeling himself smile as he said it. “Now and always, my beautiful star.”

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

Leaves crunched under Trixie’s hooves as she was made to trot through the woods. The damp air was rather heavy-hanging today, almost to suffocating degrees, and the ground was rather muddy, no doubt due to not having dried up after last week’s rain.

Through it all, she trudged on, because it wasn’t like she had a choice.

You’re awfully quiet today, observed her captor. Trixie could just imagine her, lounging around in her brain in a hammock while she lazily forced her thrall to go hiking this far from the Old Castle, to do who knows what. You know, you’ve been rather quiet this whole week.

“When you’re almost made to kill a friend of yours,” Trixie growled, “and only just manage to stop it from happening, you don’t really feel in the mood for it.”

Aww, cheer up, Envy replied, and Trixie could just hear the wide, cheerful grin. Next time, I’m not gonna make you do it, or even be able to influence the event. Next time, he’s all mine, and you’re gonna get to watch. Though, here in a few days, we might go out of our way to rough him up a bit before that happens.

“Where are we even going?” Trixie asked, feeling as though she almost didn’t want to know the answer. They had set out earlier that afternoon, but now they had to be getting close to the edge.

We’re going to pay a visit to a friend of yours, I think, Envy’s voice replied in her head. You ruined my initial plan in Ponyville, but I’ve had a backup plan in mind for some time.

Trixie could remember every detail about that night. She remembered the rain; she remembered Envy making her trot around like a puppet, disguised as Rarity, to make Nova paranoid…

She remembered the broken look on Nova’s face as Envy raised the knife, ready to plunge it down.

And then she couldn’t take it any longer.

She didn’t know how, but she had somehow been able to try to wrench the knife away. And then, when she had successfully battled Envy to a standstill on that end, she had somehow banished the knife and cut Envy off from using her magic entirely.

She had paid for it; Envy didn’t let her fighting go unpunished. But she didn’t care. She wasn’t going to let Envy kill anyone, much less Nova and Twilight.

Almost there, Envy assured her, though Trixie would rather be locked in her dungeon again rather than be out here, potentially on her way to hurt somepony else.

“Who goes there!? I see the shape of a mare!” came a sharp call from somewhere around them, though in the dense foliage, it was impossible to tell from which angle.

Trixie froze, eyes darting wildly around. That was very obviously the zebra’s voice. Even though her tone had been a bit garbled by whatever zebra magic she was using, she’d know the rhyming anywhere.

But before she could shout into the woods for her to get away, that she was in danger, the bushes in front of her rustled and she stepped out, looking painted for war. She was wearing an intimidating mask that appeared to be made of grass, with golden marks around it, and a bridle styled the same was on her back, and she had a spear fastened to it and clutched in one of her front hooves.

“Trixie Lulamoon?” she asked, her face falling from a scowl into bewilderment, and her spear fell, just for a moment. “I did not expect to see you so soon. Are you quite well? I had heard that upon you, woe befell.”

Trixie tried, she desperately tried to force a word out, anything to tip Zecora off, but Envy held her still.

All the while, Zecora stared at her, but her puzzlement gave way to suspicion. After a moment, she leveled her spear at Trixie yet again.

“If you think you can ensnare me in a trap,” she snarled, now glancing around, trying to find some invisible enemy, “you should know that you are in for a scrap.”

To̲͉̮͕̣̺͡o͎̖̰̬̣̱͟ͅ ̖̮̺l̦̤̥̩̠̩͡a̮̕t̮̦͓̫̦e̞̘̘.̢̠̱̱͍̳͎̫

Before Trixie could shout a warning and before Zecora could even react, Trixie felt the most uncomfortable sensation, as though ice was sliding down each of her hooves. As she looked down in horror, she could see the shadows that were Envy slide along the ground and wrap themselves around Zecora’s legs.

Zecora started to react only an instant later, dropping her spear and trying to wrench herself away, but it was too late. Envy had her. The shadows continued to slide up Zecora, very quickly binding her muzzle so that she could not scream, all while Trixie could just watch, rooted to the spot.

And then the shadows started to converge upon her eyes. Zecora’s writhing redoubled, and even as Trixie watched, her eyes darkened until they were completely black, all while her head thrashed around, trying to throw the intangible enemy off of her.

Until, finally, Zecora seized up.

Trixie could only continue to stare, with a mixture of horror, revulsion, and some sick fascination as the zebra that had once helped Twilight defeat her, was assaulted in some unknown way by her captor. Every few seconds, Zecora’s body would twitch, be it one of her legs, her ears, or even eyelids, but she remained upright, stiff as a board, and staring straight ahead through blackened eyes the entire while.

Until, finally, at long last, her body toppled to the ground, and Envy’s shadows slid off of her and composed themselves into the shape of a unicorn mare. Her coat and mane were both silver, her cutie mark was a jewel, and her eyes, red as usual, were staring down at Zecora with a smug satisfaction in them.

Zecora, meanwhile, was still frozen on the ground, twitching every few moments.but with her eyes wide and pupils shrunken.

Trixie wanted to vomit at the sight of it.

“What… what did you do to her?” she asked, feeling the contents of her stomach prepare for an emergency exit.

“Eh, just went digging around in her head for a bit,” Envy shrugged, before scanning the woods before them, trying to locate something best known to her.

“Is… is she…?”

“Dead? Oh, no,” Trixie hated how she sounded almost disappointed by that. “She’s not dead. She’ll be a little twitchy for a few hours, but then she’ll just fall right asleep and forget this ever happened when she wakes up.”

But then she punctuated her statement by giving Zecora’s barrel a good kick.

“Stupid mental defenses,” she growled, glaring down at her fallen foe. “It would have been a lot more painless if you had known when you were outmatched.”

With a dismissive flick of her tail, she turned right back to staring into the forest, before her eyes seemed to alight on something, and she started cantering forward. She didn’t go far before a red magical leash suddenly appeared around Trixie’s neck and yanked her forward, forcing her to keep up.

“Whoa!” she yelped, before she was pulled into a canter as well.

It wasn’t long before they found themselves in another patch of the forest that looked exactly like every other patch of the forest, but there appeared to be a rather large, significant-looking tree, with a little deposit in its trunk.

“Here it is,” Envy breathed, positively shivering with anticipation. “It’s… it’s really right here!”

“What is?” Trixie asked.

“Oh, you’ll see,” Envy promised, before her horn shone red, and with a loud report, a beam shot from it to impact the hole in the tree’s trunk. A bright white shield had appeared where the beam impacted, but beneath Envy’s beam, it cracked rather easily, before it fell apart with a crystalline sound, as though glass were shattering.

“I guess I should have expected weak shielding and weak illusion work from a pony with such weak defenses,” Envy sighed, but went right back to her work, dispelling one more spell, which fell apart in a similar way.

Once it was gone, Envy reached inside with a hoof, and removed something that caused Trixie to fall on her haunches in shock, and for her gut to feel as though it had been punched with an iron-clad hoof.

Sitting in Envy’s hoof was a pendant, crafted out of darkened steel with the likeness of a unicorn’s head and outstretched wings, and set into its center was a large red jewel.

Envy had found and taken the Alicorn Amulet.

Author's Note:

So many payoffs. So many callbacks.

So. Many. More. Words! From 7k to 18k, holy crap, and this was only in about a month too, a lot faster turnaround.

Let me know what you thought of the new version of the chapter in the comments below.

Rytex out. Have a good day!