The Apprentice, the Student, and the Charlatan

by Rytex

The Conspiracy

The Apprentice, the Student, and the Charlatan
Chapter 14 - The Conspiracy

The Unicornia Palace Throne Room looked almost exactly the same as it would later look under the reign of Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. The throne was still the same, stretching tall into the air against a back that stood from floor to ceiling, but there was no pool of water beneath it. The floors were still reflective tile, the ceiling was still pink reflective tile, and it was interesting to see how little things would change.

However, unlike in his time, the stained-glass windows were not depictions of famous events, as they were in his own time (or more accurately, depictions of his marefriend’s many adventures). Instead, they were depictions of previous unicorn monarchs. A regal king with a red coat and a white mane brandished a flaming spear against a strange blue being with ram horns, yellow eyes, and a bell. A beautiful queen, with a light-green coat and a forest-green mane appeared to be dancing in a spring. A young white stallion lifted a glowing sword into the air against a demon, flanked by a bearded grey stallion and a curvy purple mare a few shades darker than Twilight, but with a black mare.

But the biggest window, behind the throne, was reserved for a mare that was the spitting image of Rarity in every way, except with a large golden crown upon her head, who was posing with her nose high in the air and a queenly smile on her muzzle, the literal picture of elegance and grace.

Nova was really enjoying just how familiar everything was in the room. He probably shouldn’t have been enjoying anything, given that four unicorn guards were aiming spears at his throat while he sat in a corner, and the captain was still angrily shouting at a new crowd of ponies outside.

“So, what do you guys do for fun?” he asked the guards as he leaned back against the wall.

The four guards, whose armor was also identical to the armor guards in his time would wear, uniformity enchantment and all, glanced at each other nervously.

“Come on, come on, I won’t bite,” he placed his front hooves behind his head in a relaxed position.

“I stab talkative detainees,” one of them grunted, jabbing toward his neck with the halberd in an attempt to make him flinch.

Nova did not flinch.

“Huh. Weird hobby, but you do you,” he shrugged, thoroughly uninterested in the prospect of a stallion who could end his life just by pushing his hooves maybe two inches forward. “I prefer pub-crawling, reading, magic, and reading about magic while pub-crawling.”

“Are we sure he’s the one who did it?” asked another one of the guards. “I feel like he wouldn’t hang around if he did. Seems like a really dumb idea.”

“Personally,” Nova remarked, “I like to think that if I orchestrated a Royal foalnapping, I wouldn’t turn up to the most secure and high-alert location in the entire city immediately after it happened.”

“Captain’s orders,” grunted Stabby McStabStab. Was he the one Nova had muted earlier? Maybe that’s why he was in such a bad mood. “He’s being indefinitely detained pending the investigation.”

Nova rolled his eyes.

“I can help, if he’d just let me.”

“Maybe that’s why you’re sticking around,” suggested Stabbity, glaring at him. “Foalnap her, then help us find her so your little Principality looks all nice and good for helping us find Her Royal Highness.”

“Could be,” Nova conceded, inclining his head. “Or-- and hear me out here--, I have an alibi that can be easily verified that I never left my inn room at the time of the supposed foalnapping. Oh, I know!” An idea really had just presented itself to him. “Maybe if you get Lady Clover to interrogate me with her energy-sensing, she can prove I’m telling the truth.”

The four guards all glanced at each other again, and Stabmeister’s spear even retracted a bit.

The double-doors to the throne room opened with that loud satisfying boom! he always appreciated, and in stepped both the captain and the mare in question.

Nova was completely unprepared for the little lurch his heart made in his gut when a mare who looked identical to Twilight stepped into the room, albeit with minor differences. Her eyes were still hard and cold, the same omnipresent frown from a few weeks ago was there, her mane was styled into a very tight bun, and when she glanced at Nova, he saw the briefest flash of recognition in her eyes, but none of the warmth and affection that Twilight’s eyes carried.

She also appeared to have been run ragged. Her eyes had bags under them, her mane had a few stray hairs sticking out, and her tail, normally something he suspected she carried tall and proud, was almost dragging on the ground behind her, due to the noticeable slump in her bearing.

At once, the four guards snapped to attention.

“Return to your posts,” the captain ordered “Lady Clover and I will handle it from here.”

“Sir,” the guards saluted, and with that, they marched out of the throne room, leaving Nova alone with the captain and Clover. The captain reached out and offered a hoof to him, which Nova took, allowing him to be helped to his hooves.

“Lady Clover assures me that you have no part in Princess Platinum’s foalnapping,” he said, and Nova was a little amused to hear a begrudging note in his voice. “However, in the name of certainty, I would like to confirm it. She can sense when one speaks lies. So tell me, Night Apprentice. Are you responsible for, or in any way culpable in, the disappearance of Princess Platinum?”

“I am not, as far as I’m aware, involved in, responsible for, or in any way at fault for the disappearance of Princess Platinum,” Nova recited, clearly and firmly, staring right into the Captain’s grey eyes.

The captain glanced sideways to Lady Clover, who nodded once.

“Very well,” the captain nodded as well. “My apologies for your rough treatment, Lord Night Apprentice.”

“I’m no lord,” Nova shrugged. “Just Princess Luna’s personal student. Frankly, I don’t get why everyone insists on calling me ‘Sir’ Night Apprentice either.”

“Your convenient arrival, coupled with her disappearance, made you a suspect in the incident, I’m sure you understand,” the captain continued as if he hadn’t heard Nova.

“I do,” Nova nodded. “No hard feelings, Cap.”

“I am sure you’re aware this means that negotiations are put on hold indefinitely,” Clover said, frowning. “Sergeant Pansy and Advisor Cookie both said that your issue was something urgent, but even so, you must understand that the current trouble is of paramount importance.”

“I am aware,” Nova inclined his head. “However, I don’t think that my issue and this one are unrelated, and I’m willing to aid in the investigation on behalf of the Principality of Equestria.”

The captain closed his eyes and let out a long, drawn-out breath through his nose. Clover glanced at him for the briefest of moments, but simply shook her head.

“I do not believe there is anything you could offer us that would help in the investigation, but when you say you do not believe the incidents are unrelated, how so?”

Nova set to pacing in the corner of the room they were in. “We were having a trade summit in Everfree yesterday when we discovered that two members, one from each delegation, were trying to obstruct the talks and delay the signing of our trade agreement.”

“Why?” the captain asked. “Why delay a trade agreement?”

“It was the first step in bringing all four separate factions of ponies together,” Nova answered, staring at the floor as he talked his way through things. “The trade agreement was originally going to be extended to the unicorns as well, because we would offer our wood and economic capacity in exchange for the food and farmers of the earth ponies, and the weather control of the pegasi, and your artisans and enchanters. A four-way trade agreement that gave us all everything we needed.”

“But why were they obstructing talks?” the captain asked again.

“Because,” Nova’s frown deepened, “they were working for someone who apparently had a vested interest in keeping us all divided. I don’t know why that being wants us divided, but he’s bought ponies in powerful positions, who are trying to keep us all separated for some reason.”

The captain and Clover shared a look.

“So you believe that Princess Platinum was foalnapped to prevent this?” Clover asked. Nova really had to admire how calm she was despite the fact that if she was anything like Twilight, she would be having a total panic attack right now. “Was this urgent matter the negotiations for including the unicorns?”

“No,” Nova shook his head. “The urgent matter was that we figure out who’s responsible and de-fang them. I traced a spell that they were using to communicate--”

“You… what?” Clover blinked.

“I traced a communication spell,” Nova repeated, giving her an odd look. “Its signal was pointing--”

“How?” she asked, giving him a confused look. “How did you trace this spell?”

“By sensing the magical signal being sent to it and trying to work back?” Nova replied. It really wasn’t that difficult to understand.

The captain frowned. “You sensed the magical signal? Like she or Lord Star Swirl do?”

“Yes...?” Nova replied, trailing off as he saw Clover’s eyes widen, and her mouth part.

“Explain yourself!” she exclaimed, suddenly angrier than Nova had ever seen even Twilight. Nova noticed that the air seemed noticeably chillier all of a sudden in the room, and even the captain had recoiled in surprise. Clover simply stalked forward and jabbed a hoof into his chest. “My master created the technique of sensing energy,” she hissed, her eyes blazing with a fire that Nova had never seen. Similar to Twilight, Nova also noticed that her mane seemed to be smoking, which told him she was teetering on the edge. “He only taught the technique to his students, only to us! This technique is secret, and yet you speak the truth about knowing it! How did you learn this technique!? Did you pilfer his research? Did you spy on him?”

“N-no!” Nova replied, trying to push her hoof down, but she slapped his own away. “In case you’ve forgotten, Princess Luna, my master, is one of his graduated students.”

Clover opened her mouth to reply, but instead of saying something, she simply closed her mouth, let out a long exhale, and retreated, before bowing politely but with a noticeable tension. At least her mane had stopped smoking now.

“My apologies, Sir Night Apprentice,” her voice was flat and emotionless. Nova was startled to see this sudden change in demeanor. It reminded him of.. well, himself. When he had yelled at Twilight in Trottingham, he had repressed himself for the rest of the day. Did she do something similar? “I had forgotten about your tutor, made an unfair assumption of you, and accused you of something unwarranted. I beg your forgiveness, and ask that you do not hold my outburst against me.”

“Clover, what--”

“Remember your courtesies, captain,” Clover snapped, not even looking at him.

“Uh, yes ma’am,” Captain Steelshod snapped to attention, though he looked thoroughly nonplussed.

Clover began to stalk out of the room, her expression forcibly blank, but Nova could see in her eyes that she was still furious, but now the question was, was it at him or herself? “Since it seems he can help us with the investigation, show him to the scene of Princess Platinum’s disappearance. I shall meet you there shortly.”

And with that, she exited the room, leaving Nova and the captain alone, staring after her in pure disbelief.

“What… was that?” Nova asked.

“I have never seen her react like that in all of my years of knowing her,” the captain replied, still staring at the door even well after it had closed. He cautiously took a couple of steps forward, as if he were nervous that she’d come bursting right in and start throwing fire at them both. However, as he neared the door, he turned and regarded Nova with a slightly distasteful look. “Well, you said you wanted to help, right?”

“Yeah,” Nova dipped his head, cantering forward to catch up.

“Follow me, then,” the captain turned tail and marched out, throwing open the doors and leading him through the castle. “Platinum disappeared last night shortly before midnight. Both guards on duty and the maid staff from that evening who were meant to attend to the princess have been detained and questioned, but as far as our interrogation methods go, none of them have admitted to the crime, none of them are lying as far as we know, and none of the guards have any idea. No one snuck into the room that they were aware of, the nighttime aerial sentries saw nothing despite having doubled the security around the castle for the last few weeks, and no one seems to have any idea how this could have happened.”

Nova admired how the captain, despite being obviously affected by the whole ordeal, was still forcing himself to remain calm. His neck muscles were still, his eyes were narrowed and intense, and his every line sounded as though he wanted to just yell. Yet he didn’t.

“Since it seems you believe you can sense energy,” the captain gave him a sideways glance, “we can put that to the test immediately. Lady Clover has not been up to Princess Platinum’s room yet, or else we would know what kind of foul magic was at play. So it would seem that the unenviable task of telling us what happened, or at least giving us a starting point, falls to you.”

What exactly had Nova done to make him so belligerent? Sure, he was a prime suspect in the foalnapping at first, but Clover believed he was innocent, which seemed to count for something. Was it the whole mouth-squishing thing? The whole thing was handled tactlessly by all sides, himself included, and he knew he’d have to do better.

Captain Steelshod led him all the way up to the tallest tower of the castle, the tower in which Luna’s and Celestia’s rooms in his own time were located, and the room in which Celestia and Luna had first told him of this story with Twilight shortly after Trottingham.

Princess Platinum’s room, it turned out, was Princess Luna’s room in his own time. While the decor was very different, with Luna preferring her subdued purples, darker blues, blacks, and muted silver to Platinum’s choice of white, bright silver, gold, garish purple, and bright blue, there was still a certain familiarity to the room that made him long for his own time when he first set eyes on it.

There was a magnificent four-poster bed situated at the far end, an ornate writing desk was pushed up against one of the walls, a large bookshelf filled with all sorts of novels took up another wall, a large purple rug covered the floor, A window above the writing desk let in a beam of sunlight, and purple crystals were everywhere.

But Nova only had a brief moment to dwell on the furniture before his senses attuned to just how many resonances were scattered around the room. To the naked eye, they were invisible, but to his sensing, nothing was hidden.

There had to be at least a dozen separate auras of energy left around. The most common one had to be Platinum, without a doubt, and he could sense the Captain’s own aura and Lady Clover’s in the mix too. This left the others.

Nova trotted over to the writing desk, reasoning that as this had happened recently, it would likely be one of the most saturated auras that belonged to the culprit.

But that was where everything went off the rails.

Nova started trying to sense beneath the surface, trying to see where some of the most suspicious auras were, only to find that Platinum’s bed was an absolute mess. Auras upon auras upon auras overlapped, no doubt the various resonances of the maid staff, not to mention Platinum herself. Any typical magic-sensor would have trouble here, considering the sheer amount of energy left over on the bed.

But there was one more aura. A familiar aura, but one he couldn’t quite put his hoof on where he’d felt it before, and it stood in stark contrast to the others, because not only did it stand out, but it seemed fresh. It felt… off. Unnatural. It was like a typical magical aura, but it seemed different. Nova didn’t know how to describe it well, but it was certainly different than normal pony magic.

“Okay,” he muttered to himself, since it seemed he had the culprit.. “Now… how did you get in here?”

That was when he noticed the second unusual thing about this aura. Normal resonances were left over from spells. They normally didn’t leave trails unless they were used to move an object from point A to point B. This resonance, however, left one, which meant that whatever magic they were using was likely something constant. There was a trail coming in through the window, a large resonance doing something to the bed, no doubt the action that foalnapped Princess Platinum, and then… going down through the floor?

“Find something?” asked the Captain, trotting up behind him.

“I… think so,” Nova replied, scrutinizing the bed. Why would the aura go down into the floor? “Here.”

With a quick spell, the many different auras in the room were illuminated for the both of them to see. The captain’s brow furrowed at the sight of it, but with a tiny nod, he began to survey the mish-mash of different colors of magic around the room. It was like being in a rainbow fog, honestly. The older auras were, thankfully. much more faded, but there was still an abundance of white-silver fog pervading the room.

Fortunately, the captain’s eyes were drawn almost immediately to a sickly-green aura that stood out compared to the gentler, less-saturated auras around them.

“This aura goes into the ground,” he observed, staring at the place where cloud met stone. “Why does the aura go into the ground? And…”

He blinked, his eyes following the aura over to the window, where there was a much larger cloud of it.

“...why is it continuous?” he muttered aloud.

“It is because our foalnapper is a changeling,” announced a new voice somewhere behind them. Nova whirled around in time to see Clover step into the room, carrying in her aura a familiar scrawny red-brown stallion who was radiating a constant aura of energy. The changeling from the previous night. Clover’s horn shone a soft pink, very different from Twilight’s color, and a beam of light washed over the changeling. A moment later, the disguise was dispelled, leaving a black insectoid equine sitting there, looking around at them with terrified pupil-less sky-blue eyes. Unlike changelings in his own time, however, Nova was surprised to see that this changeling didn’t have the holes riddling its carapace.

“You!” he barked at Nova, eyes bulging at the sight of him. “You sold me out!”

The captain gave Nova an inscrutable look, but Clover shook her head. “I detected it by sheer happenstance, as I simply passed it by in the hallway.” She tossed the stallion to the ground. “But this new revelation raises many interesting questions.” She fixed Nova with a pointed look. “You know this changeling?”

“First of all,” Nova frowned, “this changeling is a he, not an it. Second of all, he’s not our foalnapper, and if you don’t believe me, then compare this aura here,” he gestured at the green cloud, “to him. You’ll notice that although they have the same traits, like leaving a trail…” a shimmer of his horn illuminated a pink trail extending out of the hallway, no doubt Clover’s aura, and a blue aura, the same sky-blue color as his eyes, surrounded the changeling, “the auras are a different color.”

Clover and Steelshod stared at him for a long moment, before Clover grudgingly lowered the changeling to the ground.

“I… apologize,” she said, and to her credit, Nova did hear a note of genuine contrition. “In my haste to locate Princess Platinum, I jumped to the wrong conclusion when I walked past you in the castle hallways.”

“This is all well and good, but all we know now about this situation is that the foalnapper was a changeling,” Steelshod growled. “But why would the Changeling Kingdom want to foalnap Princess Platinum? Is this about our refusal to open diplomatic ties?”

“We didn’t foalnap her,” the changeling huffed. “Based on what I’m seeing, in addition to the knowledge I’ve gained from being here, my personal conclusion is that a changeling was forced to foalnap her. A changeling that, might I add, was foalnapped herself by you unicorns.”

“We have no changeling prisoners,” Steelshod responded, with a mixture of anger and confusion. “What are you talking about!?”

“I’m here to rescue a changeling that was foalnapped only a few days ago after we began our trek back to our hive,” the changeling stamped a hoof in frustration. “We know it was a unicorn.”

“We didn’t foalnap anyone,” Clover replied, now thoroughly perturbed by all of this. “It would have been a unicorn acting alone.”

“Well, isn’t that convenient,” snarled the changeling.

“I think there’s a simple yet horrifying explanation to all of this,” Nova frowned, as an idea suddenly presented itself to him.

“And that is?” asked Clover, raising an eyebrow. The changeling, too, looked over. It seemed to have cooled off toward him after Clover had absolved him of selling the changeling out, but given the current mood of the room, it was probably best not to anger him.

“You’re both correct.”

“How could we both be correct?” Clover asked, her curiosity outweighing her suspicions.

“A unicorn, acting separately from the Unicorn Kingdom, could have foalnapped this missing changeling and forced them, in turn, to foalnap Princess Platinum.” Nova shook his head. “And it fits with the reason I’m here in the first place. All of us are being played against each other by someone who has a vested interest in keeping us separated and causing conflict between our nations,” Nova frowned, making his point with grim finality. “Just like the pegasi and earth pony delegations were played against each other by advisors who made sure to flare up tensions between us all only yesterday.”

The changeling shuffled, glancing over at Clover and edging away from her. Captain Steelshod looked impassive, but Nova could see a spark of understanding in his eyes. Clover, meanwhile, grew stiff.

“Who?” she asked. “Who would want some kind of conflict between us?”

“I don’t know,” Nova shook his head, “but it makes sense given everything here. Someone paid two advisors, one in each of the courts of Puddinghead and Hurricane, to sabotage and delay trade talks between our nations. That same pony seems to be operating up here, and the moment I come up here to help you root it out, a changeling is used by these mysterious conspirators to foalnap Princess Platinum, with suspicion being cast upon me because I arrived on the night she happened to vanish. And even if I cleared my name by helping you all find out the truth, we would determine that a changeling foalnapped her. And you,” he turned to look at the changeling, “believe they foalnapped this changeling you’ve been sent to find?”

“Not them specifically, no,” the changeling shook his head. “They do speak the truth, and we are well aware of the likelihood of it being a rogue operation, but the Grey Monarch couldn’t just march an army up to the gates of Unicornia and demand to know who stole away his--”

He cut off, grimacing as he knew he’d said too much, but Nova already knew how this ended.

His daughter, he thought. THAT’s where I remember the aura from.

It had been a hectic day, but it was something he would never forget.

He had been fighting for his life, in an attempt to flee the city on the day of Captain Armor and Princess Cadance’s wedding. But talented though he was at using his environment, he hadn’t been taught any true combat spells, and he was quickly subdued and dragged before the Changeling Queen along with the other resistors.

To his complete surprise, rather than be cocooned like everyone else, the Queen had seemed startled by his presence, and had demanded he simply be tossed into a side room and kept watch over. He was only in there for a few minutes before the Love Bomb Cadenza and Shining fired off blasted them all away, but he would never forget the twisted, off sensation of the Queen’s magic.

It seemed decidedly less twisted here, upon further inspection. What had happened between now and then to cause it to change so?

“So, in conclusion,” Clover stated, her voice low, “Princess Platinum was foalnapped by a changeling, whom you believe was foalnapped and forced to commit this act,” the changeling nodded, “and you believe it was specifically to increase tensions between our nations, as well as to cast suspicion on yourself purely based on the timing,” she turned to look at Nova, who nodded. “In that case, to what end?”

“Why would they go for something this big?” Nova asked in return. “Why would they try to keep our nations all divided? Why wouldn’t they let even something as small as trade negotiations work out? Because they want to sow conflict between us, and not in the beneath-the-surface kind of way. I think whoever’s at the top of this scheme has a vested interest in a war between us, in the long run.”

Steelshod’s eyes widened, and Clover could only mouth the words “a war” in disbelief.

The changeling dipped his head. “Yes, that was the Grey Monarch’s conclusion. My mission was to extract my target with as much discretion as possible, and if I could not, then to send word that additional help was needed. A more direct approach was to be avoided at all costs. I was preparing to need to send for additional infiltrators when I was sent off on the task that resulted in me establishing contact with Nova Shine. If you are willing to pool resources, I would prefer to allow the three of you to handle things, but I can give you information on where you will most likely find Princess Platinum.”

Steelshod’s ears perked up. “Where?”

“The crystal caverns,” the changeling answered simply.

Nova felt the back of his neck prickle slightly. Yet another familiar sight, although he hadn’t seen it personally. If Chrysalis was being kept down there, it would certainly explain how she knew about the place, and her present-day attitude about it.

Clover blinked, seeming to not register. “Where is she likely being hidden?”

“The crystal caverns,” repeated the changeling. “You know, beneath the city?”

Steelshod and Clover exchanged confused looks. “There aren’t any crystal caverns beneath the city,” Clover replied, a note of uncertainty in her voice.

The changeling’s eyes seemed to narrow in confusion as well. “What are you talking about? Of course there are. Changelingkind have known about their existence for centuries. We’ve long been aware of this mountain and its contents before your migration.”

“We’ve had geological surveyors examine the mountain, and they said the mountain was solid,” Clover said again, now looking troubled. She had to sense what Nova did. The changeling was telling the truth, but so was she.

Two conflicting realities, but the caves did exist.

“Who was it that was responsible for surveying the mountain?” he asked. It would probably not do him any favors to reveal he knew about the caves. Maybe he could gain some insight and point them in the right direction this way instead. “Surely there was an overseer, right?”

“Silas Silverblood was,” Steelshod answered. Clover inhaled sharply, her ears perking up as well.

“Did Silas Silverblood suddenly gain a great deal of wealth not long after he established his residence?” Nova pressed.

“He was penniless before the migration, so it’s not like he had anywhere to go but up,” Steelshod replied, but he looked just as troubled as Clover now. “But… yeah, he’s one of our richest citizens. Runs a gem trading… business…” he trailed off, meeting Clover’s gaze again, but Clover shook her head.

“What does this prove?” she asked. “I do not wish to jump to any conclusions. Silas Silverblood is one of Princess Platinum’s most trusted advisors, and we wouldn’t do well to falsely accuse him of anything.”

“Except lie about the existence of these crystal caves,” Nova pointed out.now staring at the floor where the magic went down. And now that he knew what to look for, he could sense that it went straight down, like it was going right into the ground.

“Crystals are not gems, though,” Clover frowned. “He has been trading gems with which to do business, so unless there is a large deposit of gems nearby--”

Nova’s horn shone and he levitated over a small purple crystal bead, one of many scattered around decorating the room. Clover watched him with a curious expression as he shot a beam of energy into the crystal for a few moments, infusing it with energy. After a long moment, he ceased, and the crystal’s color changed from purple to blue, and seemed to shine with an internal light.

“Know what this is?” he asked, tossing the converted gem to Clover, who caught it in a hoof and stared down at it, brows knitting together.

“Did you turn it into a sapphire?” asked Steelshod, seeming genuinely interested in what he’d done.

“A ruby actually,” Nova replied. “If you infuse--”

“But it’s blue.”

“You can have blue rubies, captain, and we’re getting off-topic,” Nova shook his head, before pointing at the gem in Clover’s hoof. “The point is, if you infuse crystals with magical energy, they become gems. My guess is Lord Silverblood has been harvesting these crystals and having employees infuse them with energy, which he then sold en masse.”

“But why lie about the crystal caverns then?” asked the changeling. “I am eager to head to the caves, but the lilac one is correct. It would be best if we did not jump to any conclusions about who is responsible, because this must be snuffed out, and they cannot be offered any escape.”

“Corner the market, maybe?” Nova suggested, shrugging. “Saw the opportunity, lied about it to get sole control of the caves rather than have Princess Platinum and the Crown involved, and have an entire network of crystal caves all to himself.”

“But even so,” Steelshod frowned, “we don’t do much gem trading ourselves. Sure, Princess Platinum has bought a few, but has the Principality bought any large amounts of gems?”

Nova shook his head. “Not that I’m aware of. They’re common enough for us to find on our own.”

“The pegasi would have little use for them, and so would the earth ponies, so who else would want so many gems?” Clover pondered aloud.

“Dragons," Nova answered, “but they’re not exactly known for trading in bits.”

“There are other city-states and cultures around the land we have all made our home, but none have seen a sudden influx of gem wealth,” Clover’s frown deepened. She trotted over to the window and stared out, eyes narrowing at the horizon. “Perhaps a client across the sea…?”

She shook her head.

“In any case, this is all speculation at best. We need to find Platinum. You believe she is being held in these crystal caves, if they even exist?”

“I do, along with the changeling I am expected to recover,” the changeling inclined his head. “If you will permit me, I would like to speak with the Grey Monarch about this development.”

“You want to… speak with him?” Steelshod stared at him, blinking rapidly as he tried to process the request. “Isn’t your empire far to the south, across the Sandsea?”

“Such a poetic name for a desert,”: observed the changeling, with a small smile. “We call it the San Palomino, and our central hive is located there, yes. We have many hives, spread out across the continent. The Grey Monarch does reside at the one in the San Palomino desert, yes.”

“And you… want to go talk to him,” Steelshod said, sounding completely lost.

Clover, meanwhile, had practically galloped over to Princess Platinum’s desk and was hastily jotting down the words “SAN PALOMINO DESERT” onto a fragment of paper. Nova couldn’t help but grin. Ever the scholar, much like his own lilac mare.

“No, I already have communication implements here,” the changeling’s horn sparked, and a pair of sky-blue crystals appeared in front of him. “And I must speak to him alone. I would suggest planning how you plan to infiltrate and explore these caves. As I said, I do not plan on accompanying you directly. It cannot be known that a changeling infiltrator was in the city, or else the distrust your kind already has for us will only grow worse. Instead, I can aid the captain in positioning guards at every hidden exit from the underground complex, while our two strongest spellcasters enter through the cave’s main entrance.”

“What, announce our arrival with blasts and bangs?” Nova asked. In fairness, the direct approach had worked the previous night…

“No,” the changeling shook his head. “Stealth is a better option, since I cannot estimate how long it will take to ensure all positions are occupied. Although it is the cave’s main entrance, the complex has numerous more convenient entrances directly into the city, but hidden unless you know what to look for. I am aware of a few of them due to my infiltration, but there are bound to be more. Captain, I would suggest having your surveyors look for unknown tunnels underneath the city that lead down into the mountain. You can station platoons at the exits with orders to arrest on sight. As I said, I can point a few out.”

“And the main cave entrance is the long way in,” Nova dipped his head, now understanding the plan. “There will likely be watchers, especially if they are on high alert, but not as many as the ones keeping an eye on the tunnels into and out of the city. And given I took out a bunch of goons last night, they’re likely short-staffed.”

“Precisely,” the changeling nodded. “If you will excuse me, time is of the essence, and I must speak with my king.”

Nova nodded. “Of course." Clover and Steelshod still eyed the changeling suspiciously, but didn’t challenge him.

The changeling picked up his crystal shards and left the room, though Nova felt his aura retreat only to a room next door, and Nova felt the familiar scrying auras activate. He knew changeling magic was different from pony magic, but it was strange to see how similar at the same time.

“I don’t trust him,” Steelshod grunted, trotting over and leaning against the wall..

“I do,” Nova replied with a shrug. “He hasn’t lied, and even though he was in the group of thugs who attacked me yesterday, he didn’t attack me. And he sought us out, which is when Clover found him,” Nova gestured at the mare, who was now staring out the window, and a deep frown on her face.

“Fair enough,” Steelshod grunted again. He stood up straight, trotted forward, and jabbed a hoof into Nova’s chest. “This had better work, or else you will be partially responsible for everything that happens. Whatever that changeling does is on you. Got it?”

Nova nodded, meeting the captain’s intense glare with a cool, accepting one of his own. He completely understood what was at stake here, and even though everything worked out alright in the end in his own time, he still had to play his part perfectly.

“He needs to point out where the main cave entrance is for us,” Clover stepped between them, pushing Steelshod’s hoof down with her own, “but once he has, we must leave immediately. Captain, I would suggest you go and prepare your squadrons.”

The captain nodded, before his eyes shifted to Nova, and narrowed slightly.

“Are you sure you’ll be alright alone with him?”

“Your concern is noted, but unnecessary,” Clover scowled slightly, something that took Nova aback. She’d been reining in her emotions so well thus far… “I am apprenticed to Lord Star Swirl. There is no unicorn whom I need fear.”

While Nova had no doubt she believed it, he resisted the urge to point out that he had supposedly teleported over from Dream Valley not long ago. It would be best not to antagonize her right now, considering the current circumstances.

“Well then,” Nova cracked his neck. “I think I might know the entrance to this little cave. Shall we?”

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

“How did you know this was here?” Clover asked suspiciously as the pair of them surveyed the little cave entrance from a ledge up above it.

“I passed by it when doing my trot to Everfree a month ago,” he replied, half-honestly. Twilight had mentioned the cave to him as being the place where she and Cadenza had emerged from the cave complex, after their imprisonment down there by Chrysalis, and he’d taken the opportunity to give it a peek when trotting past. “Didn’t have a look in, but it’s the only cave I’m aware of on the mountain, and it’s in a pretty secluded spot."

Her brow twitched, and she frowned.

“That was not the full truth,” she stated, eyes narrowing. “What are you hiding?”

“Nothing you need to concern yourself with,” he replied bluntly. “It’s kinda complicated.”

Before she could mount a retort, he shut his eyes and began to feel below, paying as close attention to the darkness around him as he could. There was nothing in sight except for the lights of Unicornia’s populace further away. Below him was blackness. They were the only ones nearby.

“Follow me,” he said, sliding out of his hiding place and making for the cave entrance. “Light hooves, we don’t want to tip them off.”

“Understood,” Clover answered with a nod.

Silent as the night, the pair of them slipped into the cave. Almost immediately, it veered right, and the light began to fade, and soon after, they were shrouded in darkness.

“No lights,” he whispered. We don’t want them to know we’re coming.”

“Then how do you propose we proceed?”

“Energy sensing.” he answered, pulling up the hood of his cloak to hide the glow of his horn, shutting his eyes, and willing his magic forward. A wave of magic spread throughout the ground beneath him, invisible to the eyes, but highly visible to the pair of energy-sensing unicorns, perfectly mapping out the cave for them to proceed.

Clover’s eyebrows rose, but she said nothing.

With their way forward lit, they continued, following the cave as it twisted and turned. It did not take long before light began to appear in the distance.

“Watchers,” he whispered again. “Let me.”

She stopped, and he crept forward. Then, once he grew nearer to the source of light, which was just around a curve, his cloak’s invisibility enchantment activated. He continued forward, inching ever closer and making as little sound as he could, before he peeked around the corner.

The watchers, it turned out were further down the way. Nova could feel a pair of unicorns far in the distance, keeping an eye out his direction. The light source was some golden glowstone embedded in the wall.

Smart, he thought. If someone disables the light source, that tells them he’s coming. If they don’t, they leave a shadow. Invisibility was the only good way to thwart it.

He continued forward, edging toward a rocky outcropping, a glow of blue in the distance signalling the entrance to the crystal section of the caves.

Eventually, he arrived at their hidden guard station, where they had a large set of brass pipes laying at their hooves. It was hard to tell in the darkness, but one was a shade of blue with a blonde mane and a rather stubby horn, while the other was leaner, with brown skin and a green mane and tail. Both, however, seemed to once again be physically imposing rather than magically-inclined.

“Thought I saw movement,” one of them hissed. “Should we clang?”

“Boss won’t want a false alarm,” the other one replied. “Gotta be sure.”

“Yeah but the guards are comin’ ain’t they? Shouldn’t we do the safe thing?”

“Do ya want the boss mad?” the other one asked.

His partner gulped, but still looked grave. “No, but I’d rather him be mad than us all get caught.”

“You should listen to the guy,” Nova said, the invisibility deactivating.

Both of their eyes widened. Nova took the opportunity to get in a preemptive strike, swirling his cloak off, whipping it around the legs of one of the thugs, and yanking, sending the thug to the rocky ground.

The second was slow to react, but when he finally got his wits about him, he reached for the brass pipes, only for Nova to yank one away and transform it into a cardboard rod. He wasn’t sure if cardboard had been invented yet, but no time to dwell on it now. A quick concussive blast of magic sent the second unicorn staggering backward, disoriented.

The first guard got back to his hooves, but Nova swept the cape around, managed to cover the stallion’s face and tighten a hold around his neck, and began to choke the stallion. When he felt the stallion relax in his grasp, he held on for a moment longer, just to make sure, and then released.

The second guard had reoriented himself and was now charging. Nova dodged out of the way, but the guard was smarter than he thought. As he passed, the guard swept his tail around one of Nova’s legs and gave it a strong pull. Nova felt that hoof be dragged out from under him, and he fell to the ground.

Oh shit.

The second guard reared back, grabbing the remaining brass pipe, lifted it above his head, and prepared to send it crashing down onto his face--

---

“I don’t get hurt, you know,” Nova abruptly cut in.

“Wh-what?” Twilight blinked.

“The thug doesn’t hit me with the pipe,” Nova clarified. “Sorry, Spike was looking a little nervous.”

“I wasn’t nervous!” Spike protested, though now Twilight noticed, he did look a bit pale.

They both gave him skeptical looks.

“Maybe I was a little bit concerned,” he conceded, before adding, “but that’s not the same thing.”

“We can take a break if you want,” Nova took the opportunity to stand up and stretch, before wincing as he tweaked the wound in his back. “Could give Twilight an opportunity to patch me up a bit more.”

“No, you can tell us a little more if you want,” Spike replied, looking indignant that no one was believing him.

Nova shrugged and returned to his pouf. “Okay, so I was invisible, creeping up on the guards, when I--”

“We’re past that part,” Spike complained. Twilight rolled her eyes. Nova, meanwhile, made a show of looking exasperated.

“Oh,” he said, covering his face in his hooves. “Oh my goodness, I, uhh, I’m sorry. Beg your pardon.” He tapped his chin thoughtfully. “Alright, alright, let’s see here. I was fighting the thugs, one of them tripped me, he stood over me, ready to smash my face in, and then…”

---

There was a blast of soft pink light on the back of the thug’s head. His eyes unfocused, and down he went, the same pink light catching the brass pipe before it could clang on the ground.

“Are you alright?” asked Clover, stepping into view, looking concerned and offering him a hoof. He took it,and she pulled him to his hooves.

“Never better,” he chirped.

Clover stared at him.

“No, seriously.”

“Is there any reason you take this so casually?” She asked, scowling. “In case you have forgotten--”

“I’ve forgotten nothing,” Nova replied, rolling his eyes. “I like to stay relaxed in tense situations. Helps me think more clearly. I know better than most what happens when I get too emotional.”

“That I understand as well,” Clover replied.

“Oh, so that’s the reason for all the… well, you know,” Nova replied, smirking. They set off once again, the crystal caves now before them, in all of their haunting majesty.

“The what, exactly?” Clover asked, giving him a critical look.

“Well, you know,” he searched for the best way to describe it. “The coldness. The emotionally-distant air.”

“Oh,” she frowned. “It is… part of why I conduct myself so.”

“Only part?”

“The main reason is that I wish to be seen as undesirable,” she stated, trotting forward toward the crystals ahead of them. They came into view, casting a blue sheen over everything as their jagged surfaces covered the walls and floors.

“It is beautiful,” Clover whispered, staring at the cavern with a studious eye. Nova guessed that it was about as close to wondrous as she would ever reach. “In less-pressing circumstances, an opportunity to come down here and study these caverns would be very much welcome.”

“Ever the scholar,” Nova inclined his head. “Is that why you wish to be seen as undesirable?”

“No,” Clover replied, glancing back at him. “I wish to appear undesirable because I cannot abide any distractions.”

Nova snorted. “You think romance is a distraction?”

“Do you not?” she cast him a disappointed eye. “How could you not? Dividing my time chasing after fleeting emotional reactions instead of devoting it to the study of magic would mean that I have no chance of achieving my goal of becoming the most powerful unicorn in the entire world.”

“Aah,” Nova nodded. “You want to surpass your master, Lord Star Swirl.”

“I do,” she nodded. “I believe that by dedicating my life to the study of the arcane, and excluding everything but my duties, it is an achievable goal.”

"You’re missing out,” Nova shrugged.

Her disappointment deepened. “I thought better of you than this,” she admitted in a lower voice. “I thought you to be just as rational as I, barring your… eccentricities.”

“Oh, I would never put myself on your level,” he shrugged, and he hoped it was a modest one, but it felt a lot more like a humble-brag. “But the fact of the matter is, I used to think like you. Used to think it was a waste of time and that it would make me weaker.”

“And what happened?” she asked, raising an eyebrow.

“I fell in love,” he replied, smiling as thoughts of Twilight filled his head. “And, believe it or not, she made me better.”

“Who is this pony?” she asked, staring at him with a strange intensity. “How could she make you better? Did she teach you? Is she Princess Luna?”

Nova snorted. “That would raise all sorts of ethical questions, so no, it’s not Princess Luna. I can’t really say who it is, because it’s pretty complicated. But, well…” he shrugged again, “I’ll let my results speak for themselves. Trust me, I used to be a lot worse.”

She stared at him for a long moment as they trotted, before shaking her head.

“Nevertheless, I do not believe there is anypony I am compatible with. And those who desire me despite my best efforts I cannot say I would be interested in pursuing.”

“Who’s pursuing you?” Nova asked.

“Captain Steelshod,” Clover replied, with a tiny amount of distaste. “I consider him a friend, and we have an excellent working relationship, and I have known the Captain for several years. In that time, he has asked me if he could court me multiple times, and each time I have turned him down.” She paused. “What is your interest in who is pursuing me? Do you wish to pursue me as well?” her eyes narrowed.

“What if I do?” Nova asked, choosing not to answer. Somehow, he figured even if he answered truthfully, it wouldn't be completely truthful.

“I will admit, you are physically appealing,” she eyed him up with a critical gaze. Nova felt as if she were studying him more like an experiment than as a potential coltfriend. “You have demonstrated intelligence and an aptitude for magic. You are, perhaps, the most compatible male of any that I have met.”

“Oh yeah, keep talking sciency to me like that,” he replied, smirking.

She frowned. “And that is why I do not believe any courting could ever occur between us, to say nothing of our conflicting loyalties. You lack the seriousness and focus required to achieve great things. You would be yet another hindrance.”

She sped up slightly, getting ahead of him as they continued through the caves. Nova let her go, choosing instead to ponder what he had just learned about her.

I’m supposed to somehow convince her to fall in love with me? he thought, losing focus. I suppose… he smiled humorlessly, I suppose it’s going to be like convincing me from a few months ago to fall in love with Twilight. Lovely.

“How deep does this cave run?” Clover abruptly asked, turning to look at him.

“Not entirely sure,” Nova shrugged, “but I can find out. Why? Thinking of coming here on summer holiday to do that studying you wanted to do earlier?”

“How deep will we have to look to find Princess Platinum?” she replied, looking not the least bit entertained by his joke. Nova, meanwhile, picked up one of the brass pipes and stored it away in case he needed it with a brief flash of blue light.

“You’re extra dull today, you know that?” Nova replied, rolling his eyes again. “Look, it’s not hard to find out. See? I’m going to use a magic pulse to scan.”

“How will a magic pulse work?” she asked, frowning. “Similarly to how it did when we were walking in darkness a few moments ago?”

“Yeah, but crystal conducts magic really well, as I’m sure you know,” Nova replied, already closing his eyes and summoning one of his Source extensions. The orb of light floated in midair, circling Nova at a lazy pace, before suddenly flying downward into the ground. It glowed a bright blue light, and though Nova and Clover could not see it, they both felt as an invisible wave of magic shot off in the ground.

Clover’s eyes widened as she surely felt what Nova did. Even though it was so far away, the crystal beneath them reflected even the faintest reflection of the wave Nova had sent out. Within seconds, it was like they had a detailed map in their heads of everywhere in the caves.

It was like a minotaur’s hand, but instead of only five fingers, there were twelve. Currently, they stood at the end of one of the fingers. Two sets of these fingers were actually loops, one of which felt like it was at least three miles in diameter, but the other was only a few yards. The others were of varying lengths, and varying straightness. It wasn’t a labyrinth, but he was amazed that Twilight and Cadance had managed to find their way out alone.

At the end of another finger, Nova could also feel pony-made structures, far larger and more organized than the multitude of minecarts and such he detected at the moment.

---

“How did you know that would work?” Twilight abruptly asked.

Nova shrugged.

“I didn’t, but I remembered that bats did something similar involving sound to echolocate their surroundings. I don’t remember the exact train of thought, but I somehow recalled the bats in Applejack’s orchard,” he chuckled. “Figured since crystal was an excellent conductor of magic, it would let me map out the entire area. And it worked!”

“I’m going to have to remember that,” Twilight breathed, mind already buzzing with the possibilities.

“When are you gonna get to the good part?” Spike whined.

“What good part?” Nova asked, bemused.

“Where you fight this Silent Silverblade guy!”

“Silas Silverblood, Spike,” Nova corrected, though he inclined his head in Spike’s direction. “And it won’t be long. But this next part’s kind of important.”

---

But in addition to the structures Clover the Clever could feel in the far distance, there was something else…

“We’re going to take a detour,” Nova Shine opened his eyes, processing the new information, and dropping the casual attitude.

“What could be more important than rescuing the Princess?” Clover asked, seeming not to register his abrupt change in demeanor.

“Rescuing a different princess,” he replied, a shadow crossing his face. Gone was the lax, light-hearted Nova Shine from before. In its place was this new, serious Nova, who had clearly seen something.

He led Clover through the cave, with Clover practically cantering to keep up with him as he navigated the twisting passages of bright blue glassy crystal, ignoring the signs of an operation despite how much she wanted to stay and study them. He completely disregarded a different set of watchponies down a different hallway, seeming not to even care if they saw him.

In contrast, she’d teleported across the intersection just to be safe.

She could see his jaw clenched, his eyes hardened and set forward, and a slight flutter of his mane despite the complete lack of air movement down here underground.

Just what had he sensed that she couldn’t?

Finally, she heard voices.

There was a sound similar to the magic the changeling from before had used, a glow of sickly green light that reflected toward them through the crystal, but unlike the earlier changeling’s magic, this aura seemed… weak. The light wasn’t nearly as strong.

“You’re about 30 gems short today, bug,” growled someone on the other side.

Whoever “bug” was didn’t respond.

“Work faster.”

Bug didn’t respond again, but there was another bright glow, which sputtered, and finally went out.

“Give it to me,” the voice grunted. There was a shifting sound. A moment later, there was a whistling sound, and then a loud snap, followed by a scream of pain.

“...please… please stop! I'm trying!”

Clover’s eyes widened. That… that sounded like a foal!

There was a sudden rush of energy next to her. Her head snapped sideways to Nova Shine, only to find that he was gone, invisible and dashing like the wind toward the source of the noises, before vanishing out of her range of detection.

She poked her head around the corner to see three unicorn stallions standing in a semicircle around a quivering black being on the ground, who was whimpering. The stallion in the center of the group was holding a whip aloft in amber magic and gazing down at the shaking form with nothing short of loathing.

“Pathetic,” he spat, before rearing back with the whip again.

Something invisible caught it in midair, however. Clover couldn’t sense that far into the distance, but she knew it had to be Nova Shine.

“Big mistake,” came a furious hiss.

The three stallions turned around, surprised, just in time for the invisibility spell to fade, and Nova Shine to rear back and slam a hoof right into the left stallion’s face.

There was a crunch, the stallion cried out in pain, and he collapsed, holding his muzzle as he began to bleed profusely. Another quick kick knocked him out completely.

Without waiting, Nova Shine yanked the whip away, flipped the handle of it into his hoof, and cracked it against the right stallion’s side, causing the stallion to howl, before Nova reared around and bucked him in the face as well. There was another crunch, and he fell, unmoving.

The amber-aura'ed stallion finally reacted, grabbing a knife from somewhere she couldn’t see and lunging at Nova Shine. Nova Shine dodged backward, whipping the cord around the knife-holding hoof, and then, with a surprising moment of agility, flipped himself onto the stallion’s back, wrapping the whip around the stallion’s neck and pulling hard.

The stallion collapsed instantly, legs jerking, and he began to sputter as he tried desperately to escape Nova Shine’s grasp. They twisted, and she saw Nova's face.

There was a look of bloodlust in his eyes. She had never seen a pony look so murderous before, and he was actively strangling this stallion to death right in front of her!

“Stop!” she cried out, dashing forward.

Nova Shine seemed to snap out of it, looking up at her. The fury lessened almost instantly. He glanced down at the stallion, now completely unconscious, but still twitching, and Clover could see his hoof shaking, as though he didn’t want to let go.

But after a long moment, he did, letting the whip slacken in his grasp. At once, the stallion’s twitching stopped, and Nova Shine slid off of him.

The black being on the ground had shifted, revealing deep green hair on its head, chitin in place of a coat, and bleary green eyes, which were staring at both of them in abject fear. After a moment, Clover recognized her. She was the changeling princess from the delegation only a few days ago!

Those few days ago, the princess’ chitin had been a much sharper black, and her mane had been a brighter green, albeit still a deep forest-green shade. Now, however, her mane looked faded, and her chitin was almost grey. She appeared to be on death’s door.

She must be the one our infiltrator is here to rescue, Clover thought, eyes widening as horror crept over her.

Nova Shine looked down at the fallen changeling as well. It seemed to shrink back when his eyes fell on it, but Nova Shine’s gaze seemed to soften considerably at the sight of it.

He trotted over, kicking away the gems that lay around her, and knelt down. The changeling didn’t recoil. In fact, the fear seemed to lessen.

“They won’t hurt you again,” he promised, his voice low and soothing. It was gentle, as though a parent were assuring their foal that there were no night terrors. “You're safe now, little one. What's your name?”

The changeling stared at him, and then whispered something she couldn’t hear.

“Well, Chrysalis, my name is Nova Shine. My friend and I are here to rescue you and a friend. Will you let us help you?”

She said nothing, but Clover did notice that she seemed to relax just a fraction.

“...hungry…” she whimpered, curling up. “...so hungry…”

“Do you have any food that is safe for changelings to consume?” Clover asked, as Nova Shine stared down at the nymph with a curious expression, a strange mixture of dread and resolution.

“I do,” he replied softly, “but I don’t think you’re going to like it.”

“Why not?” she asked, seeming more curious than suspicious. “They feed on positive emotion, do they not? Perhaps recalling a pleasant memory will suffice.”

“...love,” sighed Chrysalis, eyes now fluttering as she struggled to keep them open.

“You’re right,” Nova Shine nodded, “which makes them the antithesis of Sirens, who feed on negative emotions. But to a changeling, love is the most powerful emotion and most filling emotion they feed on. And I have plenty to feed her.”

“Impossible,” Clover shook her head. “Love is no emotion. An emotion is a feeling like happiness or anger. Even putting aside the fact that love is a chemical reaction in the equine body, it does not fulfill that definition.”

Nova Shine ignored her objection, and instead leaned down and asked, “Can you transform?”

Chrysalis nodded weakly. “Who…?” she asked, staring up at him through eyes that almost looked unseeing. Nova Shine took a deep breath.

He pointed at Clover. “Her.”

Clover blinked. “Excuse me?”

Chrysalis’ eyes fell on her for a moment, and before Clover’s very eyes, Chrysalis was surrounded by a green flame, and when it faded, she found herself staring at… well, herself.

Chrysalis had mimicked her perfectly, apart from the mannerisms, as she was still doubled over and weak. Nevertheless, even her cutie mark was identical in appearance, a green three-leafed clover with a magenta six-pointed star inside of it.

Chrysalis’ head hung weakly, her borrowed mane hanging over her face. Nova Shine gently lifted her chin, bringing her eyes to his, even as Clover watched, equal parts unease and curiosity. His eyes, only a moment before still full of rage, had softened considerably and looked almost hungry as they stared into Chrysalis’, before he darted forward and kissed the imposter.

Clover stiffened. What is the meaning of this? she wondered, unsure what to make of what was happening before her eyes.

The kiss was hardly one that Clover would find in a particularly steamy story written by an overly-imaginative and fanciful writer, particularly of that genre, and yet…

Yet…

Even as Clover watched, The kiss that Nova Shine gave to the imposter seemed so… pure. It wasn’t long before he seemed to lose himself in it, pulling Chrysalis close. It was not intense, but it was tender and it clearly bespoke a genuine caring beneath the surface. The way Nova Shine held the imposter-her wasn’t as though she were some delicate instrument, or as a possession. He simply… held her. It was difficult to describe.

And, for a brief moment, Clover’s rational mind vanished, wondering for a moment what it would be like to be in the changeling’s place, to be held as such.

Finally, Nova Shine let go and pulled back. Almost immediately, he glanced over at Clover, with an expression of trepidation, yet all she could do was stare at the changeling. Chrysalis was gasping, but she held herself upright on the ground and looked far more attentive than she had been before. There was a brief flash of green fire around her, and the visage was gone, showing Chrysalis in her true form again.

The contrast could not have been more stark. Her mane, while not back to its full deep green, was certainly far closer and brighter than it had been before, her chitin was considerably darker, and she even staggered to her hooves, eyes far clearer than they had been moments ago.

Yet she still shook and took great shuddering breaths. She would live, but she was far from healthy.

“Are you angry?”

Clover jumped, head snapping back to Nova Shine, who was standing a bit away, and looking away from her. There was a curious expression on his face. Was that… longing? Sorrow?

“You… did what was required to save her,” Clover answered. She could not answer if she was angry. Not truthfully.

“But are you angry?” he asked again, his eyes glancing at her for only a moment before he looked elsewhere.

“Why would I be angry because you saved the life of another?”

“Damn it, you know why!” he snapped, giving her an annoyed look. “I told you, it was complicated. And I can’t imagine you would feel nothing at all about what I just did.”

“I… do not know,” she admitted, glancing over at the changeling. “I believe the expression is… I am still processing?”

Nova Shine nodded, a tense and jerky motion.

“Fair enough,” he replied in a soft voice.

“But I would like to speak about it later.”

“I figured,” he nodded again. “But like I said a minute ago, it’s pretty complicated.”

“I do not understand, but I shall take your word for it,” she said. She looked back at Chrysalis, who was now testing her wings, strange gossamer things that Clover wondered how they could even lift a fully-grown changeling at all, but she was astounded at her transformation from tiny creature on the verge of death to now almost looking like a child before bedtime.

Even as she watched, A blue aura surrounded Chrysalis, who “Eep!”ed as she was lifted off the ground, and was settled onto Nova Shine’s back. At once, Nova Shine began to trot forward, seeming more hasty than before. Clover vaguely wondered if he was now eager to reflect that momentary bloodlust onto Silas Silverblood.

She followed him in silence, still thinking about the last several moments in her head. Why had Nova Shine asked the changeling to turn into her? Did Nova Shine… love her? Impossible. They had only met a month ago. And Nova Shine struck her as a rational pony. Rational ponies such as her had no time for a distraction such as romance.

But… the changeling had clearly derived sustenance from him. There was no way around it, was there? Clearly, Chrysalis had benefited from the love energy she had consumed.

Perhaps… she thought, glancing at Nova Shine, whose eyes were set forward, determined not to look at her, ...perhaps I could… reconsider my opinions?

To what end, though? At the very least, reevaluating what love is was a start, but where would it end? Did it automatically mean she would become yet another empty-headed floozy chasing after handsome stallions for looks alone, such as Shimmer Silvermane? Would she be destined for heartbreak if she gave in, such as Summer Blossom, except in Clover’s case, used for her position or something similar?

And for that matter, she had interacted with Nova Shine exactly one time prior to today. How is it that he could develop such feelings over so short a time?

Study the possibilities later, she instructed herself with a tiny shake of her head. Princess Platinum is the immediate concern.

---

“Are you angry with me?” Nova asked, staring at Twilight with an odd expression on his face.

“Me?” Twilight asked, giving him a strange look. “Why?”

“I had her transform into Clover,” Nova replied simply.

“And you did it because she looked like me,” Twilight replied, smiling as she felt a strange warmth sprout within her at the thought. Nova still didn’t quite look convinced, so she stood up, trotted over, and gave him a firm kiss. Hopefully this would be the end of it.

“When’s the fight start?” Spike asked, thoroughly ruining the moment.

Nova let out an annoyed sniff, but Twilight pulled back and returned to her seat. In truth, she was just as anxious as Spike to hear how this played out, but there was always time for a tender moment in stories like these.

“Alright, you want the fight?” Nova asked. “Well, here’s how it goes.”

---

They stood at a crossroads. Ahead of them, Nova could see a tower of crude stone that led up toward where Unicornia was, meaning that was likely the direction in which he would find Silas Silverblood. Another pulse of magic confirmed that it seemed to be the case, far in the distance.

To his left, however, closer to the mountain wall, a much more crude construct was located, which Nova figured would be the holding cells, given how there were five or six of them that seemed relatively similar on the outside. Probably to interrogate or coerce any victims.

“Is the prison in that direction?” Nova asked Chrysalis, pointing in the direction of the crude shacks. The nymph was conscious, but she seemed to be teetering on the edge of sleep. Nova’s infusion of love hadn’t been nearly enough to fully feed her, but it had saved her for the next several hours. Still, she nodded tiredly.

“And this way, is that where the bad guy is?” he pointed toward the tower that led up into the ceiling. Chrysalis nodded again.

“Alright.” He turned his attention to Clover, already lifting Chrysalis off of his back and settling the nymph onto hers. “Take her and rescue Platinum. I’ll handle Silverblood. Keep her out of harm’s way at all costs.”

“Nova Shine,” she replied, her tone sounding… nervous? “I believe I should be the one who should confront Silverblood. I am Lord Star Swirl’s apprentice, I believe I would stand the best chance against him.”

“Princess Platinum likely wouldn’t trust me,” he shook his head. “You would be able to convince her you aren’t a changeling and she would put her faith in you more than she would me. Not to mention, I am Princess Luna’s student; I believe we both could take him.”

“You do not know Silas Silverblood,” she retorted, catching his tail with one of her hooves before he could trot away. “By all accounts, he is a skilled mage, despite never receiving true training. You know not what you will face.”

“It’s something I’ll have to risk,” Nova replied, stepping away. “Again, you have to be the one to rescue Platinum. We may be able to take him together, but I don’t think he’ll allow outside interference when it would put him at a disadvantage. Rescue Platinum, then come help.”

“Nova Shine, don’t be a fool!”

He stopped, alarmed. The unflappable, calculating Clover the Clover, suddenly scared?

“I’ll be fine,” he reassured her, with what he hoped was a pacifying smile. Based on the look on her face, however, it wasn’t.

However, he turned around and marched toward the building ahead.

A rough boxy structure eventually came into view, with a simple wooden door separating it from the outside. There were no windows, nor decorations of any kind. A number of smaller buildings lay around, and they seemed to be bunk shacks for the thugs that operated down here. Those would no doubt be completely dissected when this was all behind them. But right now, he had to visit a certain traitorous lord.

He had some frustrations he was itching to take out.

As the door opened, Nova took a moment to admire the surroundings of the room before he turned his attention to the unicorn calmly sitting at a writing desk before him.

The room had bookshelves everywhere, but only one was stuffed with writing of any kind. The rest remained completely bare, but perhaps they were here because of the expectation that they would have been filled later. Beyond the bookshelves, the floor was made of rough-hewn stone, with no rugs or carpentry of any kind to add a little flair to it. It was a dull room, in truth.

At the far end of the room was another door, though to where it went, Nova didn’t know.

Sitting at the writing desk, back to him, was a unicorn who seemed to be somewhere around his father’s age in the present. He was certainly middle-aged, and his coat was stony-grey. There were signs that it had once been the same matte silver as his daughter’s, but age had faded its matte sheen away. His mane was black and looked as though it had seen better days. It wasn’t a mess by any stretch, but it certainly seemed like it was more used to being well-groomed than it was at the moment.

A quill levitated next to him, held aloft by silver magic and dancing along the surface of a scroll. Every so often, he would turn to the side just enough as he neared the end of the scroll, and Nova could see a pair of spectacles sitting on his muzzle. Were it not for the events of the last few days, Nova would have mistaken him for a kindly elder gentlecolt.

“I have been looking forward to meeting you for some time, sir Night Apprentice,” he said, in a surprisingly smooth, deep voice. “You have caused quite a stir in your brief time here in this new land. Teleporting directly here from across the sea, ascending overnight to become Princess Luna’s personal confidante, and you even laid bare my daughter’s secrets for all to see when it came to her… activities.”

His cheeks distended slightly, perhaps a wry smile.

“I had considered perhaps reaching out to you. Shimmer, of course, attempted to ensnare you in her usual way, but it proved to have no effect.”

“I don’t particularly appreciate it,” Nova replied, with a scowl. “You don’t seem too put off for a stallion who’s had his whole underground operation overturned,” he observed.

“As I’m sure you will recall from yesterday, when you so rudely interrupted a meeting with my associates, my enterprise here in Unicornia was nearing its end already. All that was left was to tie up loose ends, something I have ensured will occur regardless of today’s events.”

Nova noticed something curious as he said that. There was a line of magic hidden in the wall that led upward. Not the aura of magic belonging to a pony who had dragged someone down from Unicornia, no. This was very clearly a link of some kind. But… to what?

As he mentally probed the line, he felt that it split off multiple times, in various directions before it vanished beyond his sensing range.

“Killing the princess,” Nova stated.

“Yes,” Silas Silverblood replied quietly. “You may believe that having Platinum foalnapped was an act of desperation. And, in a sense, you are correct. However…”

He smiled again, before setting his quill down and turning around to face Nova. His face was slightly wrinkled, and his eyes were as grey as his coat, and they had a frostiness in them Nova had seen only a few times before.

“In truth, sir Night Apprentice,” he stood up, shooting a beam of silver energy toward the door behind Nova, and to the one behind himself, sealing them both shut, “we were prepared for this eventuality. Forcing the bug to steal the princess away was merely a contingency. Especially once the infiltrator began to snoop around.”

At the mention of the changeling, Nova felt the back of his neck prickle. He knows…

Silverblood nodded. “Oh yes, I have been aware of his presence since he first took the place of my unfortunate underling. It was all part of my plan, you see. Princess Platinum would be assassinated, and during the search for a culprit, I would be prepared to give over a disguised changeling for the blame to be placed on.”

Now a wave of energy blasted outward, moulding itself to the walls of the room, trapping them both. There would be no escaping the battle.

But… why was there a tiny gap in the corner?

“And spurred by this discovery,” Nova continued, frowning as he contemplated both the situation and the gap, “a war against the changelings would be declared. A war which the unicorns have no hope of winning.”

“Not alone, no,” Silverblood shook his head. “Ponykind would band together in a last, desperate effort to repel the changeling invasion, of course, but they would never be as effective as if they were unified, no matter how much your little Principality attempted to sway them. And what will follow is a long, bloody, and exhausting war. A war that would severely weaken both sides.”

And suddenly, everything made sense. That last statement about a war that resulted in a pyrrhic victory at best for the victor only seemed like a pointless goal if those two parties were the only two parties on the island.

Yet they weren’t. There was one more power.

“Aaah,” Nova sighed, understanding flooding through him. “The last piece of the puzzle falls into place.”

Silverblood didn’t react, but he patiently waited, expecting Nova to continue. so Nova obliged him.

“How long have you been on King Sombra’s payroll?” he asked, cutting straight to the point. Time was, after all, of the essence, but if he could delay Silverblood until Steelshod and his guards arrived…

“I never said anything about being in the Shadow-King’s employ,” Silverblood frowned.

“You didn’t need to,” Nova shrugged. “If there were only two civilizations on this continent, then no one would benefit from an exhaustive war between its main combatants. But we’re not the only two on this continent, are we?” he asked, now starting to pace around the room. Silverblood mirrored his movements. They were like two lions, waiting on the other to pounce. “So what’s the rub here? You incite a war, flee north, and live the cushy life while ponykind and changelingkind wipe each other out, and then Sombra gets free rein over the entire continent, with no one left who can challenge him?”

Silverblood smiled again. Nova was starting to feel unnerved by just how calm he was, despite all of this being put together. It was starting to sound like Clover had a better assessment of Silverblood than Nova did. “How astute, and how gratifying to know that not even the pupil of Star Swirl himself could piece it all together. Only you, a meddlesome student of one of those equally-meddlesome alicorns,” he added, his smile turning sour.

“I try,” Nova put on an exaggerated smile and made a show of shrugging modestly. “I do enjoy a good weekend spent upending existential threats to Equestrian sovereignty. And in truth, I couldn’t even figure it all out until I was here talking to you. A genuinely-masterful plan, but not one, I think, that you concocted all on your own.”

“Not quite,” Silverblood inclined his head. “After all, it was King Sombra who informed me of the existence of these caves, and it was he who instructed me to turn two mighty civilizations against each other. The rest was up to me.”

“Magnificently done,” praised Nova, who then cracked his neck. “Of course, I can’t let you get away with it. Especially not the part where you enslaved a child,” he added, his voice becoming dangerous. “If there’s one thing out of everything you’re guilty of that I am going to make you suffer for, it’s that.”

“Of course,” repeated Silverblood, the sour smile now positively sneering. “You must see me brought to justice, ever the white knight you are. But tell me this, Night Apprentice. You are an intelligent stallion. If I believed there was any chance of defeat today, then surely I would not stay here to allow you to confront me. Surely if there was even the slightest possibility that all of my work would be undone, I would have cut my losses.”

“Oh, I have no doubt you are confident of winning, but I’ll take my chances,” Nova dismissed with a shake of his head. “But in the short time that I’ve known you, I also know you’re a narcissist.” The sneer vanished instantly, replaced by a scowl. “You wanted to gloat, to really make sure that one of us basked in the brilliance of a plan you did not even completely imagine. You didn’t merely want victory. You wanted to rub it in.”

Silverblood’s horn crackled with energy, but he wasn’t preparing to fire a spell. He was threatening to, but the battle had not begun yet.

“Choose your next words carefully, Night Apprentice,” Silverblood hissed, pawing at the ground.

“Or what?” Nova asked, arching an eyebrow. “You already plan to kill us all. What else do you have to threaten me with?”

Silverblood’s scowl deepened. “There is nothing left to discuss then, is there?”

“Don’t think so, no,” Nova replied, casually shaking his head. At a mental command, five orbs of light appeared and began to streak around him, his cape fluttering ever so slightly. “Well then, let’s not stand on ceremony any longer, shall we?”

The ghost of a smile touched Silverblood’s lips, but he replied by getting straight to the point. A lance of silver energy burst forth, and Nova was forced to throw up a shield immediately.

Fast, he noted. And strong. His confidence is well-placed.

Silverblood fired again, perhaps thinking he could break Nova’s shield, or maybe he was just testing Nova’s strength. In any case, Nova’s shield held firm.

Block, then counter.

Nova let his shield fall away, ducking under the beam and hurling one of the orbs of light at Silverblood, who calmly stepped sideways to avoid it. The orb then flew right back toward him, with the aim of bludgeoning Silverblood from behind, but Silverblood ducked under it too.

Can he sense energy too? No… only Star Swirl’s pupils were ever taught that, but… wasn’t Sombra one of them before his fall? Would he have taught Silverblood?

Testing his hypothesis, Nova distracted Silverblood with a pair of quick beams, before placing an Immobilization Trap close to Silverblood’s left side If Silverblood noticed, he didn’t react, but that was no guarantee that he couldn’t. Nova would have to keep it in mind.

Silverblood’s horn glowed, and as he watched, four Silverbloods seemed to walk forward from the first one, taking up positions around him. Nova noticed, however, that although they had a tiny amount of magic within them to sustain the illusion, only one was the real thing, and he had been one of the walkers.

“You think four illusory copies will be enough to fool me?” he asked the fake one that had stood still.

The Silverbloods all smirked. “If you cannot find the real me,” his voice rang from five mouths, “what hope do you have?”

“Surprisingly, more than you think,” Nova remarked, before each of his five orbs blasted outward, one at each copy. All five of them dodged in distinct ways, and all began to charge spells, but only the real one of them fired. Nova had no time to conjure a shield, but a flick of his left hoof flared his cloak and caught the blast directly, which was enough to deaden the spell.

“You seem to enjoy those beam spells,” he noted. “I don’t suppose you have anything less… basic?”

A stream of fire burst forth at that.

“That’s more like it,” Nova grinned as the winds within him issued forth, smothering the fire in midair.

Probably best not to use a spell that hasn’t been invented yet, he thought, knowing that a lot of practical combat spells were developed later on by either himself or Star Swirl. But… perhaps something flashy AND practical?

It would need time to prepare, time he would need to buy himself.

As he began to gather the energy within himself, the white orbs of light flew back to him, one of them flying upward to deflect another lash of fire sent his way. Nova mentally directed his Source extensions (note to self, he thought, think of better name) to begin firing off beams of energy left and right, at the very least to keep Silverblood distracted. Or better yet, to drive the unicorn into a corner.

Blasts began to rain down on the five Silverbloods, who all snarled, but only one threw up a shield. The others wavered and faded as the beams of light struck them. Eventually, Silas Silverblood realized he couldn’t stay hunkered down forever and began to wave his way in and around the beams firing at him.

A crystal appeared in his hoof with a flash of light, and he threw it at one of the extensions. Immediately, the extension seemed to be sucked inside the crystal. Nova flinched as he felt as though he had lost feeling in one of his limbs. Source extensions couldn’t just be conjured and reproduced as needed. Even the best spellcasters could only maintain so many.

Recalling his four remaining orbs back to him, Nova went on the defensive. Silverblood had seized on his opening and was now pushing Nova back away. But he made a crucial mistake. Silverblood stepped on the immobilization trap Nova had set earlier, and several tendrils of blue energy sprung up from the ground, snaking their way around Silverblood’s leg and holding him still.

“Tch!” Silverblood grit his teeth, conjuring a wall of ice between himself and Nova, before beginning to try to pull his leg free.

He can’t sense energy! Nova grinned.

Rather than try to blast through the icy wall, Nova turned his attention back to the gap in the containment spell Silverblood had placed earlier. Nova added onto the ice wall, spreading it completely around Silverblood as though he were hoping to trap the unicorn inside, but all he needed was a little time.

Sure enough, he felt the heat from Silverblood’s fire begin to melt the glacial walls he had conjured, but they would take him precious seconds to break through.

Nova now scrutinized that corner, noticing the tiniest possible thread of magic he could have sensed, a gossamer thread on a white surface. And it led outward. The containment had kept the gap to allow this thread, whatever it was, to continue uninterrupted.

That’s a trigger spell, he realized, feeling the delicate spellwork at the end, where the thread met the wall. It almost seems like a… a magical fuse, Nova scrunched his face. Silverblood was almost through, time was running out.

Maybe this was Silverblood’s assurance of victory. If the battle started going against him, light the fuse, bring the entire cave down around them? Whatever it was, it was probably best to cut it. Deciding not to take chances, he went ahead and filled in the gap in the wall with his own spell.

There was a shattering spell, and a wave of heat engulfed him, as Silverblood pierced through the icy wall, his hoof free of the immobilization, and looking annoyed, to say the least.

“Did you truly think it would be so easy to trap me?” he snarled.

“No,” Nova inclined his head, “but I wouldn’t have been opposed if it had been.”

Silverblood let out a yell, and went on an absolute berserk fury. He fired everything he could think of. He shot fire, hurled ice spikes, tried to crush Nova under the air itself, shot normal beams his way, even tried picking Nova up and throwing him around with his own magic.

Nova, in turn, found it almost trivial to keep himself safe. Even with his shield being battered, even while concentrating as he summoned energy to fire off his ace in the hole, Silverblood’s spells were direct, and thus easily countered. A swish of the cape here, a well-placed orb there, a counter-spell for good measure, even something as simple as stepping to the right.

Clover was right, he thought, grimly amused. He’s skilled, but he lacks… finesse.

Underneath this barrage of attacks, however, Nova began to lay the groundwork for his endgame. After each deflection, a new immobilization trap was placed, and he was making sure to stack them on top of each other. Silverblood had pulled one hoof out, but how would he handle his entire body?

After several moments spent firing everything he had, Silverblood’s assault ceased. The elderly unicorn looked far worse for the wear, sweating profusely, his mane singed, his legs shaking from the effort. He was exhausted. Finally, the time had come.

Summoning all of the energy he had set aside, Nova allowed it to surge forth, the mana taking shape within his horn, and firing off as a massive deluge of tiny white stars that flew up to the ceiling and hovered, waiting for each of its brethren to join it. Nova fired off these little stars for several seconds, each one joining its siblings near the ceiling, until it almost looked like the night sky on the most clear and cloudless night.

After nearly ten seconds, the fountain of stars ceased, leaving a great multitude hovering overhead.

“How…?” grunted Silverblood, eyes bulging in fury as his spell finished. “How can you be this strong!?”

He wasn’t as strong as Silverblood thought. Nova felt just as tired as Silverblood looked, but thanks to the conditioning he’d been good about continuing as the Night Apprentice, he still stood tall despite the fatigue.

I hate running, but at least it’s good for keeping me less tired than old ponies,he smirked.

“Fuck you,” Nova replied coolly. “That’s how.”

“Pretty lights,” Silverblood, observed, scowling. “I thought you were doing something practical. Is this all you have to offer?”

“Yes. And no.”

The stars began to descend, flying toward Silverblood at a relatively languid pace, but in a room as small as this one, Silverblood still only had a few fractions of a second to react, tops.

He hastily threw out a shield, but as the stars began to impact it, they exploded into small bursts of light, like sparklers, each with a crack of its own. Silverblood’s shield began to crack almost immediately, and after only a few moments, the shield shattered entirely.

“No!” he growled, leaping backward, but away from Nova’s trap stack. Couldn’t have that, could we?

The stream of stars changed direction and began to descend in a line, ensuring Silverblood stepped back exactly where Nova needed him to. Silverblood must have sensed this too, because he glanced toward where Nova had placed his traps, though he didn’t seem to look at any one spot in particular.

His snarl deepened and the shield returned, albeit much weaker than before. The stars descending continued to hammer away, but Silverblood charged, hoping to burst through the curtain. Nova, in response, dropped the entire lot of them, a deluge of white that completely shattered Silverblood’s shield once again. Though the fragments weren’t all that great for harming the opponent, they were excellent at wearing down an opponent’s defenses, albeit in a flashy, inefficient manner.

As the last of the stars vanished, Nova beheld Silverblood barely keeping himself upright on shaking legs, though he seemed to be trying to regain his strength.

Nova, however, didn’t allow it.

With a blast of magic and no shortage of cathartic satisfaction, Nova shot Silverblood right in the gut, sending him flying backward, right onto the trap stack he had created earlier. The moment he landed, coils of blue energy erupted from the ground and ensnaring every inch of Silverblood they could, even as he struggled to his hooves to fight against the restraints.

“Starfall,” Nova sighed, sucking in a deep breath and letting it out slowly. “A powerful, taxing spell, but in the right hooves, exactly what is needed to push a pony exactly where I want them to go, or to punish them if they don’t comply.”

Silverblood struggled against his bonds, but after a moment, he relaxed and even started chuckling.

“Well played, Night Apprentice,” he praised, shaking his head as much as his bonds would allow him to. “But I’m afraid the battle doesn’t end here.”

“It’s over, my lord,” Nova snarled, glaring at the unicorn who was currently completely ensnared from head to hoof by ropes of blue energy, including binding his horn so that he couldn’t cast any spells. “How do you think you can use magic in this state? You’ve lost.”

“This certainly isn’t ideal,” chuckled Silverblood, who did not seem to be particularly concerned with the fact that he was no longer mobile. “But I have contingencies.”

He raised a hoof as much as he could off the ground, only a few inches at most, and stamped it back down. At once, a silver blast of energy lanced upward from the ground. Nova ducked out of the way at the last second-- he’d channeled the spell through his hooves!--, but the spell streaked toward the corner of the trigger spell he had spotted before. He tried to throw up a shield to prevent the beam from hitting, but he was too late.

The spell splashed harmlessly against the wall.

Nova let out a breath he didn’t know he had been holding. His concern about the gap in the containment spell and the trigger hidden there had been well-justified, and his earlier dismantling had been just enough.

"Only the one contingency though?" Nova asked, with a shake of his head. "You think of yourself as some master strategist and planner, but all you do is ride the tail of other, greater ponies." Silverblood's eyes bulged, and Nova casually blocked a spell fired his way in rage. "You have raw magical talent, but you have none of the intellect or finesse that trained mages such as myself or Lady Clover have. It didn't matter who you faced, you would have been utterly demolished today, by myself, by Lady Clover, by Captain Steelshod, hell," he smirked, "even Platinum herself could do it if she wanted. No wonder you had to have her foalnapped. You're nothing but a let-down!"

After a moment, as Nova's words sank in, Silverblood roared again, and his horn began to pulse with energy.

“I'LL SHOW YOU!" his mane began to wave and flap at a high speed as the energy welled up within him. "I WILL NOT LOSE WHAT IT HAS TAKEN ME A LIFETIME TO GET!”

Unlike previous spells, this felt far more sinister, and Nova had a distinct feeling that he didn’t want to be anywhere near this spell when it hit. Purple and black energy began to pulse and spark off of his horn, and Nova’s bravado faded almost instantly.

Dark magic!?

He threw up a shield as quickly as he could, shortly before Silverblood fired the beam at him. There was a squealing sound, like a creature screaming in pain, and a jagged beam of black energy shot toward him at blazing speed. Nova redoubled the energy he put into his shield, but it was for naught. The spell went through the shield, shattering it. Nova cried out, reflexively trying to swing his cape around to deflect it, but he was too slow.

The beam hit Nova right in the chest. It felt as though a rod of molten iron had been stabbed into him, lighting up his insides and causing him to scream. But he felt the fire in his soul just as much as he felt it in his body. It was a spell that was tormenting even his spirit.

The touch of magic slipped away, and he was vaguely aware that Silverblood was no longer ensnared, and despite his awareness that he needed to do something, the pain was too great, and he collapsed.

There was an ear-splitting sound, a shriek of pain, and then an explosion. Nova, still reeling from the spell, looked up just in time to see Silverblood be thrown back from his position where he hit a bookshelf behind him with a crunch, and slid to the ground. Where his horn was, there was now a mess of blood spilling forth, and also blue-green ethereal energy seemed to be issuing from the hole as well.

Mana… Nova though, his mind suddenly sluggish and hazy, and he staggered to his hooves again. Why is his horn… bleeding mana?

He blinked, and suddenly he realized, his horn wasn’t bleeding mana. His horn was gone. Fragments of it lay scattered around the room, but the explosion a moment before had been Silverblood’s horn shattering.

Silverblood lay twitching on the ground. His eyes were open and wide, but empty. He was alive, that much was certain, but his expression was vacant, and he seemed dead to the world. Nearby, the crystal that he had captured Nova's Source extension in had shattered, and the white orb was floating next to the commander, waiting for orders. Nova tried to command it to vanish, and it did, but the effort suddenly caused the world to erupt in a barrage of colors and sounds.

A wave of sickness washed over Nova as the realization of everything that had happened over the last several seconds, and he vomited, before stumbling sideways, and trying to make it to the door. The world around him began to spin, only adding to his trouble.

Have… to… get… Clover...

It was only when he was about halfway there that he realized, no, the door he was going for was the wrong one. As the room spun around him, Nova heard someone shouting his name, but couldn’t seem to muster up the strength to look in their direction. One of his legs spasmed, and with a start, he suddenly realized he had crashed the ground, his limbs jerking horribly.

What… is… happening?

The door at the far end of the room flew open, and Steelshod stood there, at the head of a group of soldiers. For a moment he looked around the room in shock, then down at the twitching, bloody form of Silas Silverblood, and then to Nova.

He, too, shouted something and started running over, but it sounded muted to Nova’s ears. Before he could worry about what was being said, his vision swam, and he blacked out.

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

When Nova opened his eyes next, everything was a blur of color. It had that fuzzy sort of look, like gazing into a mirror after a warm shower, with the glass fogged up. He was aware of a white room, of white all around him with some breaks in the monotony, and he was lying on something soft. His hearing felt off too, now he thought about it. It was like having cotton wads stuck in his ears, only there was definitely nothing stuck there.

A mare said something to his right, and he snapped his head in her direction. There was an odd blob of lilac next to him. A very familiar shade of lilac at that.

“Twi...light?” he mumbled sleepily, before reaching a hoof and rubbing at his eyes. The room around him began to take shape. There were several beds around them, each with an end table, though none of the tables nor beds were occupied save for both of his. His end table had some medicine bottles on it, and sitting at it was none other than Twilight Sparkle.

No, Clover. It was Lady Clover. He was still in the past, he hadn’t suddenly returned to his normal time.

He shook his head vigorously, trying to clear out whatever nastiness was left in his head, but was met with only limited success. A hoof pressed firmly against his forehead, and he was pushed back into bed.

“...not… sick, Nov…”

“I’m sorry, what?” he asked, his horn glowing blue, and a cool feeling washing over his ears. There didn’t seem to be anything wrong with them according to his probing. What was wrong?

Clover frowned. She made a motion, slicing across her throat with a hoof, and he killed the magic he was casting. As soon as he had, her horn glowed a soft pink and a warm feeling washed over his inner ears. It lasted for a few seconds, but when it faded away, Nova could hear once again.

“Thanks,” he breathed, falling back against the mattress, with a soft flump! “Did I… black out?”

“You did,” Clover dipped her head, looking immensely relieved that he was now fully cognizant and responsive. “After Silverblood’s horn shattered, you vomited and passed out. Steelshod arrived only moments later through a tunnel passageway that he had his guards had found. Princess Platinum, Princess Chrysalis, and you were all brought back here safe and mostly unharmed,” she gave him a pointed look, “and Silverblood is being treated in the dungeons. It has only been two hours,” she sighed,” but it feels like it has been as many days.”

“I know the feeling,” he smiled humorlessly. “I guess we did it.”

Clover gave him an unreadable look, her expression still as hard as ever. “I guess we did,” she replied. “Princess Platinum has made a note of your aid rendered, and has asked me to inform you that she will be accepting any proposals to join in the trading agreement and future alliances with the Principality, though she made quite sure to note that the Unicorn Kingdom reserved the right to withdraw at any time, as well as to maintain its sovereignty.”

“Expected as much,” Nova nodded, before sitting up with a groan. “Finer details will need to be hammered out later, I guess. No real sense doing it here, when I’m confined to a hospital bed, though I suppose there are less-comfortable places...”

The tiniest of smiles graced Clover’s face at that, but it may as well have been like splitting granite. It was as though she were forcing herself to do so, made all the more clearer by the fact that it did not reach her eyes, which remained as hard and calculating as ever.

“Where’s Chrysalis?” he asked. He figured the nymph would be in here too, receiving treatment.

“The changeling is looking after her,” she answered, turning to look toward the room’s exit, beyond which they both could see ponies hurrying about their business now that the princess was back. Surely with the arrest of a high-profile lord, no doubt some of the other lords were looking to seize on the opportunity to further their own interests in the aftermath. It wasn’t something he was particularly concerned about.

“Is she alright?”

“She seems to be, but I confess I know nothing of changeling physiology. Once reunited with one of her own kind, she certainly seemed much more energetic.” Clover frowned, and glanced back at him. “Speaking of the foal--”

“Nymph.”

Her brow twitched. “I beg your pardon?”

“Changeling babies are grubs, their children and adolescents are nymphs,” he corrected. When he had a moment to process that he had just rudely interrupted and corrected Lady Clover, he shook his head stupidly. “Sorry, that was rude.”

“No, I… I appreciate the correction.” Now she was finding it difficult to meet his eye. “It is just… down in the crystal caves.”

Nova had a feeling he knew exactly where this was going, and he shifted uncomfortably in anticipation.

“You had the nymph transform into me,” she recalled, still not meeting his eyes, but to his astonishment, she began to go pink. “In order to feed it love energy so that it would not starve, you had the young princess mimic me.”

Now she finally looked at him directly, steely resolve in her eyes.

“I would know why.”

Nova felt an uncomfortable feeling in his spine, like ice trickling down his back. Oh, this is going to be a fun conversation.

“It’s complicated,” he answered, with as much of a noncommittal shrug as he could muster.

It was true, on the surface. How was he supposed to explain to her that he was secretly from over a thousand years in the future and would fall in love with a mare who looked exactly like her and acted, in a lot of ways, like he had before he’d met her?

“If you do not wish to tell me,” her eyes hardened slightly, “you need only say so.”

“Well, it is complicated,” Nova shrugged. “And it’s a long story--”

“We have no shortage of time.”

“I mean, it’s about twelve chapters and an interlude, and one of them is split into two parts--”

“If you do not wish to tell me, you need only say so,” she repeated, giving him a flat look. “As you may understand, this… issue,” she said the word a little more delicately than usual, “is considerably personal. So believe me, sir Night Apprentice, when I say that I will find out, and I would much rather hear it from you.”

“Understandable,” Nova replied, laying back in the bed. “If I may make a suggestion, then…”

One of her ears twitched at the word “suggestion,” and she tilted her head, eyes sparkling with curiosity. “What sort of suggestion?” she asked.

“There will need to be ambassadors between both the Kingdom and the Principality,” he answered, giving her what he hoped was a meaningful look. “The Kingdom’s ambassador would need to reside in Everfree, where he or she would be able to effectively help negotiate trade deals between our nations. I’m sure this ambassador would probably be in pretty close contact with the Night Apprentice, given the Night Apprentice is the one who’s been given the responsibility of hammering out treaties and such in the meantime.”

Clover studied him for a long time. Nova did not know what to make of her complete and total lack of a reaction to what he had suggested. She simply stared at him. And stared. And stared. And stared some more.

All he did was patiently wait, meeting her look head-on.

“I… shall keep it in mind,” she finally said, her voice soft, and finally, she looked away, the tiniest touch of pink coloring her cheeks.

Nova couldn’t help the small smile that crossed his face at that. They were very different, but there were plenty of similarities between Twilight and Clover beyond simply their looks.

There was a small clamor outside the infirmary, followed by Princess Platinum turning the corner and striding in, as graceful as ever and looking as though she hadn’t spent the last several hours in a prison cell within the mountain, while her guards behind her worked to keep a crowd of petitioning nobles from chasing after her. Clover immediately rose to her hooves.

Just as Cookie resembled Applejack, Pansy resembled Fluttershy, Puddinghead resembled Pinkie, Hurricane resembled Rainbow Dash, and Clover resembled Twilight, Princess Platinum was the spitting image of Rarity. Like Clover, they were identical in almost every way, with the exception of the cutie mark. In this case, the cutie mark was a large platinum crown with three spikes, and in each one was a blue diamond. A copy of that crown sat on her head, with the three spikes being mirrored in the back by three more, but aside from that crown, she wore mo other finery. Her mane and tail were also done in exactly the same style of curl as Rarity would wear in his own time.

Captain Steelshod also managed to squeeze his way through, and he looked completely, utterly exhausted. Clover seemed to have relaxed since they had come out of the caves now that Platinum was safely recovered, but the Captain was probably tasked with clearing out the rot from whomever else was part of this grand conspiracy. Nova certainly didn’t envy him at all.

The clamor got even louder as the guards were starting to get a little pushy. The captain turned back to them, his horn blazing silver, and roared “SHUT UP!”

With a report that sounded like a small explosion, he sent out a magical shockwave that blasted everyone away on the other side of his guards. The moment he did, he followed it up with some sort of sound barrier to prevent them from screaming after him. And following that, he stacked a pile of beds in front of the doorway.

Only once they were all safely barricaded inside of the room did the captain let out a sigh, trot over to the wall, and just slump down.

“Rough aftermath?” Nova asked, pitying the poor captain.

“Thou dost not know the half of it,” sighed Princess Platinum, brushing back her mane. She seemed to be handling her return with an almost-unnatural level of grace and serenity, as though it hadn’t happened at all. “It has been all of two hours, and the considerable hole in the hierarchy of nobles left by Silas Silverblood’s fall from grace has encouraged the nobles to begin immediately attempting to fill it themselves. Poor Captain Steelshod has been run ragged trying to arrest what is left of Silverblood’s retinue and keep the nobles off of Us so that We may recover from Our ordeal.”

Huh. She uses the Royal We and the old-timey pronouns too, observed Nova.

Clover stepped away from the chair she had been sitting on, but Platinum shook her head.

“No, no, dearest Clover. We may have had quite the ordeal, but it was thee who spent thine effort trying to rescue Us. Please sit down.”

Clover blushed a bit at the praise, but complied, albeit at a snail’s pace. Even when she was seated, she seemed ready to leap back to her hooves the moment she was required to.

“Now, We have come to thank thee properly, and personally, for thine aid,” she said to the both of them, with a tired smile. “Although we, the Unicorn Kingdom, have kept the Principality at an arm’s length, it would seem that this choice was folly on our part. If Clover has not told thee, we are going to make preparations to send an ambassador to Everfree, and to open diplomatic channels with the other two tribes as well.”

Her tired grin regained some life, and it turned a bit mischievous. “In addition, there’s something of a celebration planned tonight. Well, planned may be overstating it,” she amended with a roll of her eyes, “but the young changeling filly, Chrysalis, needs a proper emotional feeding, so the infiltrator who has been looking after is planning on inciting a bar party and having her feed off of everyone’s good cheer.”

“That’s… huh.”

“And, of course, there is the matter of returning her to her home,” the princess continued, glancing at the window.

“I’ll handle that,” said Nova, before sitting up, stretching, and sliding out of his bed with nary a wobble.

“Is that… wise?” asked Clover, watching him with disbelief. “Only two hours ago, you were hit with Dark Magic so powerful it rendered you unconscious. We do not even know what effects the spell has had on you beyond that!”

“Someone’s gotta travel with the changelings to make sure Sombra doesn’t send goons to try and finish the job,” he replied, trotting toward the window, opening it with his magic, and letting the breeze waft in. It felt nice on his fur after the events of the last several hours. “I’ll risk it. Better me than any of you, considering the current political environment. You’ll all be needed to ensure instability remains minimal.”

“How gallant, and how politically-insightful, sir Night Apprentice,” observed Platinum, with the tiniest hint of amusement in her voice. “Very well, We shall write to Princess Celestia, informing her of thy decision. Captain, couldst thou escort me out?”

“Ma’am,” the captain saluted, before pulling down the barricades and slipping out with the princess.

Clover rose as well after they had gone.

“I… must go and help her, now that you are awake.” Nova noticed she seemed a little disappointed by this fact all of a sudden.

Nova frowned. “That was a lie,” he noted.

Clover’s eyebrows twitched. Nova wondered if it still annoyed her that he knew how to sense energy too.

“I have been given the remainder of the day to use at my leisure,” she admitted, now choosing to stare out the window. “And… I do not know what to do. But I believe now I shall spend it in the castle’s library. Which, admittedly, I already spend my leisure time at to begin with.”

And then looked back at him, and she smiled.

It was small, and it was a wry smile at her own little joke, but it was, honest to Celestia, the first genuine smile he had seen from her.

There was no longer any doubt in his mind what he would see in her now. That smile, that simple tiny little smile, had a natural beauty to it that matched Twilight.

“Perhaps, I shall fetch you a book?” she asked, starting to trot toward the exit and glancing at him. The smile was gone, replaced by her usual demeanor, but he could still see a certain warmth in her eyes that hadn’t been there before.

“I’d like that,” he smiled at her. “Are you coming to the celebration tonight?”

She shook her head. “I am a respected official and lady-in-waiting. It would not be prudent--”

“Oh pish-posh,” Nova shook his head. “You need a night out. We’ll find out where that changeling is staging his party, and we’ll go have some fun. Sound like a plan?”

She stared at him for a long moment, and Nova wondered if she would say no.

But she nodded. “Very well. I suppose that I shall see you this evening, then.”

And with that, she was gone. Nova stared after her but then leaned back and rested his head against the pillow. He could use another nap.

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

Nova almost laughed at the look on Stout Brew’s face when a bunch of guardsponies showed up unannounced to his bar. He laughed considerably harder at the look on his face when Princess Platinum, Clover the Clever, and Captain Steelshod turned up. He laughed the hardest when Stout gave him a look that screamed “I want to punch you so hard right now”.

“Hey, just think of all the money you’re going to make,” he clapped the Germane Brew Brother on the back from his spot on the other side of the bar.

“Verdammt nochmal,” Stout muttered darkly, giving him a frigid look. “I vas lookink forvard to a slover nacht.”

“Language, my friend,” Nova replied, giving him an apologetic look. “Honestly, I thought it was just going to be a few of us. I didn’t think the entire damn unit was going to turn out.”

He glanced back where, apart from three other ponies, everyone was wearing armor, and several were crammed to each table, with the exception of the table where Princess Platinum in all of her finery, Clover, and the captain sat. Nova noticed Clover’s eyes dart away the moment he looked in her direction. The other two ponies, not wearing armor, were sitting in a corner, keeping to themselves, though one of them, colored black with a green mane, kept glancing at him through emerald green eyes.

Nova snorted. It was like Chrysalis wasn’t even trying to hide.

The changeling now looking after her had chosen to go with a burgundy coat, with bright blue eyes like his, three cuts on his right ear, and a white-gold forward-brushed mane and tail. The changeling gave him a pleased smile and silently toasted him with his mug, before taking a drink.

Dropping several extra bits on the bar, he headed back to the table where Clover, Platinum, and Steelshod were sitting, taking a seat next to the captain, across from Clover, who looked away again almost immediately.

“What a day,” Nova sighed, leaning against the wall he was next to.

“Agreed, sir Night Apprentice,” Platinum smiled sweetly at him. “Again, thank thee for thine assistance. Celestia and Luna have been sent a very glowing report of thine actions, and We have taken the liberty of informing them of thy decision to escort our changeling friends to their city to keep them safe.”

She ran a hoof through her purple mane, adjusting her crown and cape as well, and finally stood up.

“We are afraid We must retire,” she said, and Nova was startled to hear some weakness in her voice all of a sudden. “It would seem that the ordeal hath drained Us terribly.”

“I shall escort you back,” Clover stood up, motioning to help the princess to her hooves, but Platinum shook her head.

“Neigh, stay and enjoy thyself, Clover,” the princess shook her head. “Thou as well, captain. ‘Tis not often when occasions such as these cometh.”

She trotted over to a table of guards and motioned for a few of them to accompany her, which several did at once, forming up and escorting her out. Nova gave her one last bow of the head as she left.

Almost as soon as she left, a guard from the nearest table swung around to face them. A mare, by the shape of her muzzle, with a navy blue coat.

“Now that she’s gone, you lot up fer a drinkin’ game?” she asked in a thick Trottish accent, before grinning and throwing a roguish wink at Nova. “See who comes out on top, yeah?”

Nova could almost feel the temperature dropping in the room as he glanced over at Clover, who was staring at the guardsmare with an unreadable expression.

“I need to stay sober before I leave tomorrow,” Nova answered, shaking his head.

“I’m not allowed to get drunk,” the captain replied.

“How does one make a game out of drinking?” asked Clover, leaning across the table.

“Oh, simple! Ya just drink more’n the rest of us!” she gestured over at another table where the guards there were chugging in sync, stacking the mugs inside of each other, and grabbing the next available one. “No pausin’, no spillin’, and no regurgitatin’. Ya in?”

“So it is simply drinking more than everyone else?” Clover frowned. “I fail to see how that is a game.”

“Not exactly,” Nova shook his head. “It’s a test of alcohol tolerance. You drink too much, and…” he gestured back over at the earlier table, where one of the guards slumped over the bar, snoozing peacefully while his mates started cheering.

“And I lose,” Clover's frown deepened. “Perhaps I shall… make an attempt.”

“Is that a good idea?” Steelshod asked, though he didn’t make an effort to stop her as Clover got up and trotted over to the table where the guardsmare and three of her companions were setting mugs in the center.

“Princess Platinum ordered me to have fun,” Clover replied simply. “I might as well let my mane down.”

“This isn’t going to go well,” Steelshod muttered. Nova, however, caught a small flicker of magic from the mare, and he snorted. “What?” the captain asked, glancing over.

“You’ll see,” Nova whispered, just loud enough for the captain to hear.

Clover took her seat, was passed a mug, took a sniff, recoiled slightly at its bitter smell, but raised it to her lips all the same. The moment he liquid touched her tongue, her eyes bulged, though she did manage to swallow it.

“How do ponies drink this? It is so bitter!”

“We don’t drink it for the taste,” one of the guards replied, before raising his own mug and draining it, before setting it down and immediately being given another.

Clover glared at the mug, then at the mare who had flirted with Nova (halfway through her second mug already), before rearing it back and draining it immediately.

“Relish this moment, Night Apprentice,” said Steelshod, who looked to be on the verge of chortling. “You’ve just witnessed Clover the Clever’s introduction into the wonderful world of alcohol.”

“So how was cleanup?” Nova asked, tuning out the contest for the moment.

“Cleanup?” Steelshod cocked an eyebrow.

“Of the crystal caverns.”

“Oh.” There was a moment, and then the captain’s look shifted to one of pure unease and his ears flattened. “I… don’t know what to say,” his voice was soft. “How we could let such a large cavern escape our notice raises many questions. And when we rescued you and the princess, and the changeling foal--”

“Nymph.”

--and the changeling nymph,” he corrected, “we let a lot of Silverblood’s underlings escape because we had bigger priorities to worry about.” Explains how the Silverblood crime family survived to the present day, thought Nova grimly. “And what is more, we hauled Silverblood off to the castle dungeons, but the jailor tells me that all he does is stare at the wall.”

"What do you mean?” Nova asked.

“He only stares straight ahead, at the wall,” Steelshod looked pale. “I went down and saw it with my own eyes. His horn… it’s like someone scooped it out of his head. I mean, you probably know what losing a horn does to a unicorn,” he was growing queasy at the thought, “but I’ve never seen it like this. He looked… lifeless. A shell. Completely empty and unresponsive.” Nova felt a prickle at the nape of his neck as he imagined it. “And even though he was staring at the wall, I feel like he was staring right through it.”

Nova fell silent. Even the shouts and whoops of the bar around them seemed muted as he thought about this. With Silverblood in this state, it would be impossible to interrogate him. There was no question Sombra was behind it, but they would be unable to tell if Silverblood was truly the root of the corruption, or if he was simply part of a larger network, which had its tendrils in each of the smaller civilizations around them. Would the village of Vulcan be affected, where legendary hero Rockhoof resided? What of the villages south of the San Palomino, where Somnambula and Mage Meadowbrook resided?

“There’s also something else I need to talk to you about,” Steelshod added. The queasiness was gone, but there was a note of bitterness in its place.

“Oh?” Nova looked over.

Steelshod, with a resentful look on his face, pointed at Clover. She had finished four mugs now and was halfway through fifth. Nova noticed she seemed to be slightly tipsy, but nowhere near how the others seemed. The flirting mare was now on her sixth, but the others looked to be nearly finished. Even as he watched, one of them fell over sideways, to the uproarious delight of a small crowd of onlookers.

“She’s doing well,” Nova observed, before taking a drink from his own forgotten mug.

“What happened down in the caves between you two?” asked Steelshod. It was sharp, it was direct, and most importantly, Nova detected that it had a desperate edge underneath it. The captain was now staring at him directly, with an intensity he hadn’t seen in a long time from anyone.

“What is it to you?” he asked, far more calmly.

Steelshod drew in a slow, shaky breath, before blowing it out and looking away. “She spent every minute at your bedside. Before you both went down into those caves, she wouldn’t have even done that for Princess Platinum when there were more important things to be done.”

“I debriefed her on what she saw,” the captain continued, and Nova could hear the bitterness increase imperceptibly. “The only thing she did not answer was how it was that you managed to save the nymph’s life. I knew that changelings fed off of love energy, so I did not need to know, but I wanted to know who it was that the nymph had turned into.”

He turned to look Nova dead in the eyes. Nova could see the briefest shadow of pain before it was hidden away behind a glare.

“It was her, wasn’t it.”

Not a question, a confirmation.

When Nova did not answer, Steelshod’s jaw clenched, and he jerked his head away. “Sir Night Apprentice, I am going to be blunt. She has expressed an interest in journeying to Everfree to serve as the Unicorn ambassador to your lands. I will accompany her, but I will respect her desires and stand aside if she chooses to pursue you.”

He admired how Steelshod had managed to suppress the emotions that had to be affecting him as he said that.

“And I promise you this. If you do anything --anything!-- that breaks her heart,” he hissed, “I will ruin you.”

There weren’t many ponies that could threaten Nova in a way that he took seriously. Steelshod, in that moment, with all of the venom of his feelings and how Clover’s attraction to another must have affected them, Nova didn’t just take this threat seriously. Nova knew that Steelshod would do everything in his power to back up his promise.

Nova didn’t reply, choosing instead to watch the last stages of the drinking game, as it was now down to Clover and Flirty Mare, but Clover was continuing to drain mug after mug. Currently on her twelfth, whereas flirty mare was struggling to finish her eleventh.

“How is she doing that?” Steelshod asked.

“She suppressed her liver’s ability to metabolize the alcohol,” Nova answered. “Not wise long-term, because it’ll catch up to her, but great for the short term, winning drinking games like this.”

“Catch up to her?” asked the captain.

“She’s going to get plastered when her liver resumes normal metabolization.”

“Then I leave her in your care,” the captain slid out of his seat, and began to trot away. Before he made it to the door, he paused, and looked back. Even in the din, Nova could hear his words perfectly.

“Remember my promise, Nova Shine.”

And with that, he was gone, marching out into the night. Nova watched him go, feeling uneasy. There was so much to this story that Celestia and Luna hadn’t told him so long ago, and it was starting to dawn on him that although he knew the important bits, there were still so many threads that he was going to have to be mindful of going forward.

There was a loud thud, and Nova looked back over to Clover's table to see that she had emerged victorious, the last pony standing as Flirty had fallen sideways and spilled her mug all over herself. Clover finished her mug, before slamming down on the table to the cheers of everyone around her. Nova did a quick count of the mugs and arrived at fourteen.

I’m not going to envy you tomorrow orning, he thought with grim amusement.

“Does this mean that I win?” Clover asked, and Nova could hear a slight slur to her speech. Yes, the alcohol metabolizing, while slow, was still happening. He needed to get her to her room on the pronto.

“Nicely done,” Nova grinned, stepping up and moving next to her.

“At the end there,” she said, starting to breathe heavily, and Nova could see that underneath her coat, her face was starting to flush, “I shtarted feeling a tingle in my… in my hoovesh.”

Thick tongue. It’s really accelerating.

She seemed to notice, too, because her expression darkened. “I… do not think I like thish feeling… Everything’sh shpinning...”

“Let’s get you home,” he said, guiding her out of the bar, “because that little trick you pulled was pretty clever, but you’re about to get the full force of fourteen mugs of dark beer.”

“Aww,” she pouted, almost like a foal, “I wash jusht shtarting to have fun.”

They exited the bar, out into the night, where a wave of cool air washed over them after being in a cozy bar for the last several minutes. Nova sighed at the pleasant coolness.

“Heheheh.”

“What’s so funny?” he asked, glancing down at her.

“You shaid… you shaid my idea wash clever.”

“So I did.”

She grinned, before stumbling sideways, though she managed to right herself and stumble back until she was now leaning against him for support. “Clever, like my name!”

“Oh,” Nova replied, doing his best to support her weight, and fighting the urge to grimace as the smell of alcohol on her breath invaded his nose. “I didn’t notice.”

“You’re funny.”

She wasn’t just leaning against him anymore. Now she was getting hoofsy. She was practically draped over his back.

“Note to self,” he muttered,” “never let a lightweight drink alcohol again.”

“Aaawwwww, thanksh!” she cooed right in his ear. “Y’know, you’re pretty handshome yourshelf.”

“We’re not doing this tonight,” Nova batted a hoof away from his withers. “Not while you’re drunk.”

“But y’ did it-- hic-- did it in the cavesh with Chryshalish… hic ‘member?”

“Only too well,” Nova cringed as she bit his ear lobe. She was trying to suddenly be flirty, but a combination of drunkenness and never flirting before meant that she nearly tore his ear clean off when she tried. This was getting out of hoof. “Please let go of my ear.”

“Awww,” she pouted, but did as he asked. Unfortunately, she found other ways to occupy herself, as she managed to “accidentally” bump him on the shoulder with her hooves. A few moments later, she “accidentally” bumped his withers.

A moment later, his flanks, and he batted her away again. She came back a moment later right on his haunch.

“Hey!” he snapped. “Let go of my ass!”

“‘Kay.”

She then grabbed somewhere else.

“OI!” Nova jumped about a mile into the air, flailed around, and landed flat on his face as he swatted her hooves away from reaching for somewhere a little more private.

Clover erupted into another fit of giggles. Nova, meanwhile, scrambled back up, a touch embarrassed but mostly ticked off.

“Never again,” he muttered darkly. “Never. Again.”

It was a good thing they were close to Unicornia Palace. His torment was nearly at an end. Nova was just going to drop her in her room and seal the door behind him and then head back to the infirmary and barricade himself behind it as Steelshod had done earlier.

Fortunately, she didn’t try anything as they got back up to her room, though she couldn’t stop giggling. Unfortunately, she had thought ahead of him.

When they arrived ahead of her door, she shoved him in first, then locked the door behind her and sealed the room. Nova stumbled forward, even tumbling to the ground in the darkness of the room.

“Wha- HEY!”

He staggered to his hooves, and glared at her.

"Let me out."

“All mine now…” she purred, giving him what she evidently thought was a sexy look, though the effect was ruined by the swaying and the haziness in her eyes. If he could just delay her a little bit longer, she’d probably pass out soon.

“C’mon, Shiny, we’ve-- hic-- we’ve got all night…” Nova cringed again as he imagined Twilight saying this to her older brother in this exact tone of voice. It hadn’t occurred to him just how similar he and Shining Armor looked until that moment, although he was far weedier and didn’t have the same two-tone mane as Cadenza’s hubby. Not to mention the fetlocks. Twilight much preferred tidy fetlocks.

“No,” Nova replied flatly. “You are drunk, and I’m spoken for. We’re not doing this. Now let me out.”

“Nope!” she replied cheerfully, and with a sudden burst of magic, Nova was now in her bed, “you’re shleepin’ with me toniiiight~” she sang, revealing that unlike Twilight, she was rather tone-deaf. Or maybe that was just the alcohol.

“No, I’m not,” he scooted over toward the end of the bed, but a pair of hooves wrapped around his midsection and pulled him back.

Before he could protest, however, he was forced to dodge a purple blur in the darkness as Clover’s head darted down and managed to smooch the pillow his head was on.

Nova then attempted to teleport out of the bed, but Clover just teleported him right back in. At that point, Nova knew that it was ultimately futile to try and wriggle out. Drunk Clover was just going to hound him the entire night until he just gave in, and he needed rest before the long journey he had volunteered himself for.

“Okay,” he sighed. “I’ll make you a deal.”

“A deeeeeal?” she giggled.

“Yes,” Nova replied through grit teeth as she started nibbling at his ear again. “I’ll stop trying to escape and sleep here tonight. But,” he added sharply, which caused her to mercifully let go, “stop it. Stop flirting, stop trying to seduce me, it’s not working, and I already told you I’m rather happily spoken for.”

He could see her frown in the darkness. “But Chryshalish turned into meee…”

“Told you, it’s complicated” he responded, leaning back and staring up at the ceiling. This is the room we learned about… well, me, he realized. He could see the hearth, but the bookshelf was missing, as were the furniture and paint job, but those would come later. Now that his eyes had adjusted to the darkness, he could see that the room contained only an end table and a bed.

She must not have spent much time here in her daily routine.

“She’sh a lucky mare,” he heard her grumble, but finally, there was a soft flump, and he looked over to see that she had fallen into blissful slumber.

Thank-you, he prayed to whatever merciful deity had finally freed him from above. But he was a stallion of his word, so he lightly pushed her hooves off of him, curled up on the opposite side, and shut his eyes, but even as his consciousness slowly drifted away, he remained acutely aware of who it was that lay next to him the entire time.

---

“We didn’t,” Nova added, staring directly at her.

Twilight blinked, and she realized that she had been gripping the pouf beneath her rather tightly.

“Didn’t what?” asked Spike, looking between them. “What didn’t you do?”

“I’ll tell you when you’re older,” Twilight growled, feeling the same jealousy she’d felt that night almost two weeks ago well up inside her. “You really let another mare sleep in your bed?”

Nova’s ears flattened. “It’s not like I had much of a choice,” he retreated, sliding himself back on the floor a few inches.

She let out a long sigh, pawing at her eyes. Clearly, it was going to take some time to come to terms with the fact that her Nova Shine had come back having given a part of his heart to a different mare, one who looked exactly like her. Surely there was a good reason, and she knew it had to happen, but it was still not a pleasant realization to come to.

Suddenly, her tummy growled, and it was loud enough for everyone in the room to hear it.

“Hungry?” Nova asked, eyes glittering. “You must be, given you spent a lot of energy trying to keep me alive a few hours ago.”

“Should be asking you the same question,” she rolled her eyes. “Yes, I am, and we could use a break. What’s for dinner?”

“Well, I’m not even halfway through it. Are you sure this is the right time?”

“Good a time as any,” Twilight stood up. “And now I can’t stop thinking about food. Come on, you,” she smiled sweetly at him. “You need a proper welcome back.”

“I do want to finish the story tonight, though,” he said, though he got up and followed after her. “It’s a bit long, but we also had a late start.”

“How much longer is it?” she asked.

Nova pondered the question for a moment, rubbing around his horn and staring up at the ceiling, before he replied, “About thirty percent or so. Though I can skip some of the unremarkable stuff to cut down on time.”

“We’ll get as far as we can after dinner,” she assured him, letting him slide into line next to her as Spike jumped on his back. As he arrived at his side, she curled her hoof around his, and they left, off into Ponyville for some food and fun.

Author's Note:

Me, a few days ago to truesailorcomet. "Oh, good news, the word count won't be too much longer!"

About a week later, it's almost 7k higher. :/

Fortunately, the next chapter will be split into two (it was always my plan when doing these rewrites of the past arc). I'll try to release them on the same day, rather than split it up.

Lemme know what you guys think of the rewritten chapter.

Rytex out. Have a good day!

Comments

[Mighty C]

Without waiting, Nova Shine yanked the whip away, flipped the handle of it into his hand, and cracked it against the right stallion’s side, causing the stallion to howl, before Nova reared around and bucked him in the face as well. There was another crunch, and he fell, unmoving.

I’m sorry, ‘hand’? I didn’t know ponies had hands.