The Apprentice, the Student, and the Charlatan

by Rytex

The Final Night

The Apprentice, the Student, and the Charlatan
Chapter 17 - The Final Night

Sweat trickled up Nova’s face as he breathed in and out slowly, feeling the burning in his forehooves as he kept himself held upside-down with them alone. His horn wasn’t glowing, and yet a gentle sphere of air was wrapped around him, swirling and lightly tickling his fur. He couldn’t see anything with the blindfold covering his eyes, but he could feel everything around him as always.

“Yes, excellent,” Luna said from behind him. “Thine endurance is improving.”

It honestly wasn’t. He was just as tired as he always was at this point, but the only thing keeping him going right now was sheer willpower. After all, Nova just didn’t want today’s session to end. This was his last session.

Today was the final day.

Well, second-to-final, anyway. Second-to-final full day, that was. He had reached the last page of his future self’s journal, though he guessed now it was just his journal, and he had only one page left to fill in.

It had been a curious process. He hadn’t truly transcribed one journal to another– he had done his best to be genuine with his thoughts and feelings rather than rely on what his future self had written– but comparing the two, they were, naturally, identical.

But that all ended today. This was the final training session with Luna in this time. This was his final true day of peace, away from Envy, away from his problems in his own time. Tomorrow was the day. Tomorrow was the day Summer’s team completed the Castle of the Two Sisters, and thus it was the night on which Envy would reveal herself, and the day after that was the day he finally wenthome.

It also meant that, after months of avoiding it, he had to tell Clover and Summer the truth. He had run from it, he had enjoyed being with them for months. He had enjoyed his time with the captain. He had tolerated Shimmer Silvermane continuing to show up and hound him, though she had kept her distance ever since the incident at the bar.

“Focus, Our Apprentice,” Luna reminded him. “Thou cannot allow thy mind to wander.”

Nova returned his mind to the task at hoof. The wind around him redoubled. The burning in his forelegs was just as strong, if not stronger, than it had been moments before, yet he pressed on. It… it couldn’t be the final day. He didn’t want it to end.

I don’t want to go back, he realized.

The strength in his hooves vanished, and he tumbled to the ground, the windy magic dissipating around him harmlessly, doing little more than fluttering his teacher’s mane.

Luna smiled down at him, offering a hoof to help him get to his hooves.

“Thou didst much better that time, Nova Shine. Thou hast been improving dramatically, as of late.”

Nova took several seconds to collect his breath and let himself stew in that last realization, momentarily ignoring Luna’s offered hoof. I… I really don’t want to go back, do I, he thought, feeling his gut clench as he finally acknowledged something he had been trying not to for the past several months.

Finally, he reached out and took Luna’s offered hoof and let himself be helped up.

“Art thou alright, Our Apprentice? Art thou ready to end today’s session?”

Nova shook his head, staring blankly at a spot on the ground before him. “Just… lost in thoughts, I guess.”

Luna trotted around to stand in front of him. She had gained confidence in recent weeks, and she had finally started to radiate the authority and wisdom his own Luna from the present day had, but it was so strange seeing the younger, more excitable version of her carry herself the way his Luna would.

“We see,” she said, looking him up and down for several moments. Nova let her, knowing she was just making sure that he was physically well. She had also taken on some more motherly traits that she knew would serve her well in the future as of late.

“If We did not know better, We would assume that thou art trying to prolong today’s session,” she observed. “Is there a problem between thou and one of thy paramours?”

“I don’t have any paramours,” Nova replied.

“We taught thee many things, Our Apprentice,” she chided, but not in an angry or even disappointed way, “but We never taught thee to lie to Us.”

“I don’t,” he repeated more firmly.

Luna’s playful tone vanished, and she surveyed him even more closely. “In that case, we are done today.”

“We only just started!” Nova protested.

“And We can tell when thou art preoccupied, dearest,” Luna placed a hoof on his shoulder placatingly and looked directly into his eyes. “Thou knowest as much as anyone, a turbulent mind does not mix with magic. So, We recommend that thou takest the day off, that thou may come back with a clear mind.”

“Luna, I don’t want to go,” he snapped, brushing her hoof off.

“Nova Shine, do not make Us–”

“Luna,” Nova snapped, glaring at her. “I don’t want to go.”

There was a moment, where all they could do was stare at each other. Luna processed Nova’s uncharacteristic harshness, and Nova truly demanded to let himself have this final day. This impasse lasted for seconds that felt like hours before Luna finally sighed, her head drooping.

“We see,” she finally said softly. “So thou art leaving soon.”

Nova’s heart sank. He knew he was going to have to come clean to Celestia and Luna at some point, but he wasn’t sure whether it was going to be worse to tell them or for them to find out. Already it looked like the latter. The crushing disappointment, the reality of having to say goodbye forever…

Although, for Luna and Celestia, it wasn’t forever, was it? It was more like “see you later.” But for Steelshod? For Summer and Clover?

“We knew the day was coming,” Luna smiled sadly, stepping even closer, well within personal distance. “We did not know when, but We knew.”

“What gave it away?” he asked, falling into a sitting position by her hooves.

“We always knew thy tutelage would have to come to an end someday, but We did not expect it to be so soon after thou started.”

She sat down next to him as well, leaning over and resting her head against his. Nova let his rest against hers, just enjoying the moment, even though both of them knew, like all good things, it had to end sometime.

“Do you know why I’m leaving?” he asked softly.

“No,” she whispered. “‘Tis not our business. Thou hast thy reasons, and We knew that thou wouldst leave Everfree sooner rather than later. Nevertheless, the time thou spent with Us has been a gift, and We are truly grateful–”

“Lunaaaa,” Nova lightly pushed against her, “don’t think this is goodbye forever. It’s not, but…” he grimaced, “it is gonna be a while till we see each other again.”

Her warmth left his side as she scooted away to stare right at him, her eyes glimmering with hope despite her best efforts to make her gaze unreadable.

“Thou… thou wilt come back?”

Nova sighed, falling back against the grass and rubbing at his face.

“I can't.. tell you when. Not yet, anyway. You’ll find out soon, though. But I promise, Luna,” he swings himself back up to look her in the eyes. “We will see each other again. You can count on it.”

Her unreadable expression broke and she smiled, before scootching back over and leaning against him once again.

“Then…” She draped a wing around him, much smaller than the ones she would hug him with in his own time but no less warm. “Let us enjoy the last few days until then, apprentice mine.”

They did just that. But despite enjoying the moment, Nova could not help but dread how this would go to the ponies he would have to say his final goodbyes to.

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

The clearing in the apple orchard was as empty as ever. Nova was sitting in his little shack, cross-referencing the Playfair Cipher and his little encryption chart, slowly but surely jotting down his final thoughts and feelings in his final entry.

At first, it had been strange to see his own words before he would write them, but after the first entry, he had decided not to read the journal ahead of time and to simply fill it out as normal, only checking the journal of his future self to measure how much time he had left.

Now here he was, recording his last thoughts on the last page, back cover notwithstanding.

As he finished another sentence, he put his quill down for a moment, took a deep breath, then just looked up outside.

There was nothing particularly special about today. The sky was as blue as ever, the sun shone high in the sky, weather pegasi were pushing some rainclouds toward Earthponyville off on the other side of the forest, Pegasopolis was floating languidly near a mountain in the distance that he knew Twilight and her friends would later confront a dragon over a thousand years later. He could see Princess Platinum’s royal entourage slowly descending Mount Canterhorn’s main road, just as he had done almost a year and a half ago.

The day I met Clover and Summer.

It was an hour past midday. Where had the time gone?

Why is it that when you want a day to last forever, it’s over in an instant, but when you want a day to pass quickly, it drags on and on?

But… when this was all over, he would go back to Twilight. His Twilight. The Twilight he had hurt and ached over on first arriving. The Twilight who understood him in ways that Summer and Clover didn’t. He wanted to be with her again!

…right?

Nova groaned, burying his face in his hooves and finding every excuse not to fill in the last few sentences of his diary. When he filled in those last sentences, he was done, right? It just felt like finishing this task was acknowledging that it was time to go. One of his final few tasks still so far not done.

And yet he had never found the Mirror Pool, despite all of his searching. He had gone everywhere he could, and there wasn’t even a hint of a magical pool anywhere. It later occurred to him after he put the hunt for the Mirror Pool aside that it was more likely that the pool was a byproduct of the Everfree Forest’s wild magic, and thus it most likely wouldn’t even exist until after Luna’s banishment and the city fell into ruin.

His home fell into ruin.

“Thought I’d find you here.”

Nova jumped. He’d been so focused on everything that he’d stopped paying attention to his energy sensing. If he’d been paying attention, he’d have known Summer had been standing there watching him for the past several seconds.

Summer smirked. “Hah, Clover’s gonna get a kick out of this. She’s been dangling it above my head for months about how she managed to catch you off-guard, and now I’ve done it too.”

“Yeah, well,” Nova grumbled, looking back at the diaries, “been a little preoccupied.” With a long sigh, he finally picked up the quill and penned the last few sentences. With that done, he lightly blew on the ink to dry it faster, before promptly snapping the new diary shut with a strange sort of finality that left him feeling oddly morose.

“Wow, what’s eating you?” Summer asked, stepping forward and pressing herself into him. “We’re here for you, Nova. You know that right? Whatever’s bothering you, you can tell me and Clover.”

Nova couldn’t help the small smile.

“And here I thought you two made it a competition over me.”

Eh, maybe at first,” Summer shrugged, before leaning over and resting her head on top of his. “But we both eventually figured out that… well,” she smiled sheepishly, “you’re just… your heart’s too big for only one of us, isn’t it? After that, it was pretty easy to get along when we both realized we loved the same stallion.”

Nova felt his heart plummet. He never expected letting go to be this easy, but he also never expected to have to cut himself off from two mares, not to mention the captain.

“She’s been kinda quiet lately though,” Summer frowned, now gazing back toward Everfree. “Captain says there was a fight of some kind and she got hurt, and she won’t talk to me about it. Did anything happen between you?”

Nova groaned, letting his head fall to the table in front of him and clutching at the back with his hooves. Right. He had been so focused on his imminent departure that he had let that little incident slip from his mind. Clover had been rather distant with him lately.

“I’ll take that as a yes,” Summer noted dryly, before he felt her hug him tightly. “Hey, everything alright?”

“No,” he admitted bitterly. “I…”

He swallowed, before sitting up and avoiding her gaze.

“I have to leave, Summer.”

“Oh, are you heading back to the city?”

“Summer, no,” he shook his head, finally mustering enough strength to look her in the eyes. She seemed more confused than anything. “I’m leaving, Summer.”

“Leaving?” Summer looked confused. Nova chose not to elaborate. Then, when it finally clicked, the crushing look on her face was everything he didn’t want to see. She completely deflated, her mouth parting, and letting out a breath that sounded as though she had been punched in the lungs. Worst of all, she looked to be on the verge of tears.

“...but why?” she finally whispered.

“I can’t say,” Nova shook his head. “I know that probably makes it worse but… but it’s the truth.”

Summer could say nothing. All she could do was stare at him through eyes that were watering. Nova made a move to step forward, but she stepped away from him, shaking her head and turning away. His heart sank.

“I’m sorry,” was all he could say, a pathetic near whimper.

If there had been something to say, that was clearly the wrong thing. Summer let out a half-scoff, half-sob, turned tail, and sprinted off before he could stop or call after her. All he could do was numbly watch as her maroon tail disappeared into the trees, leaving him there to stare after her feeling gutted.

But…

Why did he feel so awful? It’s not like he had led her on, right?> He had tried to shut them down time and time again… hadn’t he?

If this was how Summer had reacted, then how would Clover?

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

Nova had never felt more alone surrounded by ponies he cared about before.

He’d spent the remainder of the day before in a daze, avoiding everyone who came looking for him. Which was, admittedly, not many ponies. But when he was a no-show at dinner, the captain had tried to visit, only for Nova to flatly send him away despite Steel’s protests. One bandage had been ripped off, but the largest and most painful one still remained, and he knew it had to happen by tonight.

So when he woke up today, a dull, cloudy day with a biting wind that was scheduled to vanish by midday and give way to a clear, beautiful evening, all he wanted to do was curl up, pull the covers over his head, and just skip.

However, as he lay there, finding every excuse not to climb out of bed this morning, rather than think of Clover, another mare entered his mind instead.

The faint but unmistakable scent of lavender, the mischievous smile she had whenever she was feeling particularly flirty, the back and forth they always had and the books he always rearranged…

For the first time in months, Nova felt the familiar heartache from the mare he had left behind. But with it, he felt the quiet relief that after one more day, he was going back to her, and that was enough to help him slide himself out of bed, dress himself up, and go about his daily business until now.

Alone in a crowd, surrounded by the other onlookers as they awaited the festivities that would come after this tiny little ceremony.

Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, Princess Platinum, General Hurricane, and Chancellor Puddinghead all sat up by the large double-doors to the castle keep, each holding a brick in their hooves, with a brick each lying in front of them, and Nova noticed a second sitting between Celestia and Luna as well. And leading up to these double doors was a brick walkway with eleven conveniently empty spots right at the doors themselves, one last little show of placing the final pieces.

“With these last bricks, construction of the Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters will officially be complete!” Celestia announced to the crowd at large, beaming as she did so. “A celebration has been prepared, a night of feasting and revelry for all to take part in, a great gathering of ponykind to foster harmony between all four of us! Once we have finished up, we shall throw open these doors, and all may come to the Great Hall to take part!”

The crowd were pleased to hear this, with a great thundering surge of stamping hooves and cheering. Nova, opposite to everyone else, felt himself shrink a little. Second by second, he was growing closer and closer to having to say goodbye to Clover.

A glint of red from somewhere off to the side caught his attention and he glanced up in time to see Shimmer Silvermane leering at him, a sickening smile sliding across her face. Nova didn’t even want to think about what she had in store for him tonight; he was determined to stay out of her way and just go about his business.

One more night and I’ll never have to deal with her again, he thought to himself.

Although…

Red eyes, red magic, the same overly flirty and creepy attitude… this can’t be a coincidence.

He returned his focus to the crowd, but his tormentor had vanished, leaving him to stare suspiciously at the many ponies who were unaware of this encounter. Nova felt a chill run up his spine.

It makes sense. Her father was in league with Sombra and knew dark magic. What could she have?

“...and thus We invite their personal ambassadors to come and place their bricks within the pathway!”

The crowd around him cheered, and Nova returned his attention up front just in time to watch as Pansy, Cookie, and Captain Steelshod strode forward to pick up the bricks before their superiors and place them in the empty spots on the incomplete pathway. Steelshod glanced over at Nova Shine as he looked up, giving a brief flick of his eyes over to Clover, who was very deliberately keeping her attention on the five rulers and off of her friends.

Nova replied with a shrug. He still had no idea why she was so distant with him. Steel’s brow twitched and he gave Nova a slightly suspicious look but returned to his place in the crowd.

“Next, we invite Summer Blossom, our overseer of construction,” continued Celestia. “Thanks to her efforts, the Castle has been completed well ahead of schedule.”

There was a smattering of polite applause as Summer stepped out of the crowd. Nova felt his gut clench at the sight of her, but she kept her gaze firmly away from his too. She walked up to the rulers, took the brick between Celestia and Luna, and placed it in one of the open spots, before turning and heading back into the crowd without giving him so much as a glance.

Nova wanted to reach out to her, to do something to get her attention, but knew he had to wait.

“Next, Our own Faithful Student, and Our sister’s Night Apprentice, Clover of Canterlot and Nova Shine!”

Nova and Clover both stepped forward, taking the bricks from before their respective teachers. She said not a word, only turning right around, placing her brick down, and trotting away before he could have an opportunity to do the same. As with Summer, he wanted nothing more than to ask what was wrong, but knew the moment would inevitably come.

Thus, he opted to place his brick right in the center, touching those of his friends all around it.

It was an oddly philosophical moment for him, but he couldn’t appreciate it for long. With his brick placed, he returned to the crowd as the Princesses bid the three Patriarchs place theirs, before eventually taking the time to place their own, central to the path and pushed right up against the threshold of their own castle.

It was over. The Castle of the Two Sisters was complete. The ponies cheered and celebrated and began to push forward as Celestia and Luna threw open the doors to the completed castle together.

But not Nova. He could only feel grim trepidation as he knew what the night had in store for him.

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

Down below, the party was in full swing, with the small orchestra playing lively numbers to keep the good mood contagious while the celebratory alcohol flowed. Poniess were starting to relax and let their manes down, so to speak, although in Princess Platinum’s case, it was literal. Puddinghead was entertaining some nearby delegates from all four of the different factions that had come together, but loud and raucous though their laughter was, it wasn’t loud enough to disrupt the party, nor quite to jolt Nova Shine from his thoughts as he took a small walk on the battlements of the castle to clear his head.

Nova had excused himself from the festivities to take an hour's break not long after Celestia and Luna had lowered the sun and raised the moon, and given what was supposed to happen tonight, or perhaps tomorrow morning, he had no intention of indulging himself on any alcohol between now and then.

“Finally, off and all by yourself.”

Nova turned back and was startled to see Summer Blossom standing in the doorway of the stairwell that led down to the courtyard. She hadn’t dressed for the occasion aside from a small glittering ruby necklace which went excellently with her mane. Not exactly the most formal of partywear, but then again, all he needed to do was wear a bright blue cloak. Nevertheless, there she was, leaning on the doorframe and watching him ponder his ponderations ponderously

“Cornering me while I’m alone?” he asked, failing to stop a small grin.

“Please don’t pretend like the last couple of days haven’t happened,” she replied, not even cracking a smile.

“I’m not. I’m just trying to ease the tension. You’re the one who’s been avoiding me after all,” he jabbed back. “Here to try and clear the air or something?”

Summer let out an irritated breath. “Something like that,” she growled. “How do we clear the air when you’ve been leading me and Clover on and have no intention of actually committing to us?”

“Clover knew, okay?” he snapped. “Knows. Whatever. Yeah, I like both of you. A lot. But I kept trying to tell both of you for months now that it was complicated and you wouldn’t listen, and both of you just kept coming after me even more.”

“We wanted to be with you!” Summer stamped a hoof, an exasperated, humorless smile flickering across her face for a moment. “All you had to do was tell us ‘No,’ and both of us would have backed off.”

She sighed, drooping her head and trotting up to him slowly.

“But… you’re right,” she admitted quietly. “I kept coming after you anyway. And I’m sorry for that. It’s just…”

She turned to look out over Everfree, the lights from magical lanterns, torches, and everything else illuminating the city in a beautiful way against the backdrop of the black forest.

“I guess… after everything, I just sort of latched onto you. Especially after Shimmer and all that,” she added with a sour look. “On that note, Platinum’s offered me my old job back, but with a hefty pay raise and a more cushy position.”

“Congrats,” Nova smiled at her. “You deserve it after your work here.”

“Yeah, well,” she shook her head, “I’ve got packing to do. Part of me didn’t even want to come at all tonight, but…”

She looked back to him with a sad smile, before stepping forward and kissing him, a light and brief one, and stepping back. It was chaste, a far cry from what he knew she wanted.

“I wanted to end things on a cordial note at the very least.”

Nova nodded. “You’re gonna go far, Summer. Take care of yourself.”

Summer laughed. “Nova, it’s me! If someone gives me trouble, I’ll just punch them in the face.”

With that, she turned away, heading toward the stairwell once again, giving a little wave as she went.

“Be seeing you, Nova.”

And with that, she was gone, stepping into the small tower and climbing back down out of the castle, and out of Nova’s life.

Even as he watched Summer trot out of the courtyard and back into the city, Nova felt himself let out a long, relieved sigh. Things could have ended much worse between them, but he hadn’t expected her to approach him to make sure both of them walked away with closure. Frankly, it was possibly the best outcome for both of them.

One burden came off his shoulders, but great as it was, it wasn’t the greatest. No, that one was still to come in the next few hours.

Letting out another shaky breath, Nova followed Summer down the stairwell and back out into the courtyard, but rather than follow her out of the castle, he went instead back indoors, back to the party, back to the high table, skirting the edges of a clearing in the crowd as several ponies danced a gavotte to some light chamber music (including Celestia dragging her flailing sister around the opening, much to everyone else’s amusement), all the way up to his spot, which he fell into with a light groan.

Clover glanced over at him, before returning her attention to the dancing ponies (and whatever Celestia and Luna were doing). Nova began eating food that had been delivered to him while he was out. Must have been recently delivered, given that it was still very warm. Or perhaps the plates were enchanted. He was going to miss dining like this. Fluffy potatoes, buttery bread, an excellent gravy... maybe he should stick around for the food alone.

And, of course, a bottle of Maneich Stout, delivered courtesy of Pale Brew from Earthponyville, Rich Brew from Everfree, and Stout Brew from Unicornia. To his surprise, Clover was drinking from a mug that looked and smelled like a pilsener.

“I thought you hated beer,” he commented, remembering all-too-clearly what had happened the first time she’d tried it.

“I have acquired a taste for pale ales and pilseners,” she replied, picking up the mug and surveying the liquid inside. “That mare that challenged me to the drinking contest told me that ponies do not drink beer for taste, and yet…”

She sniffed it, before taking a sip.

“Very wheaty and malty, I must say. And I believe there are hints of lemon and apple.”

“You are just full of surprises,” Nova shook his head, before popping open his own bottle and taking a swig. “I thought you’d avoid it after your drunken antics.”

Clover frowned, glaring at the mug. “I do not like the feeling of not being in control. However, in moderation, I find certain varieties of beer to be quite… delectable.”

Nova nodded knowingly. “Yeah. I prefer darker ones myself. More bitter, more hoppy. Usually richer in flavor and they can hide other things. Everyone’s got a palate for something.”

The gavotte ended, and the ponies in the center bowed to each other and separated, heading back into the crowd, while others around them stamped their approval. Celestia gave a very exaggerated mock bow to Luna, who was stabilizing herself after being swung around the entire enclosure, and Luna responded by haughtily turning her nose up and making a grand show of stomping back off to her seat at the high table a bit down the way from Nov, a seat right next to her sister’s. At first, Nova had wondered if Celestia was tormenting her sister again, but instead, they began laughing with each other as soon as Celestia sat down.

I guess everyone’s having some fun tonight.

A new song began, a light waltz this time. After the fun dance that was the gavotte, ponies partnered up again for something just a bit more romantic this time around. General Hurricane strutted right up to Princess Platinum and rather cockily held out a hoof, which the princess, giggling like a schoolfilly, was all too happy to accept.

Clover’s eyes, however, locked onto her friends, Cookie and Pansy, who were also making their way to the dancing space and beginning to waltz, and a tiny smile began to spread across her face. A genuine smile too.

“They have gotten engaged.”

“Oh?” Nova asked. “How can you tell?”

“They are hiding the earrings,” she said, pointing toward Pansy. On further scrutiny, Nova could see a tiny earring in the shape of Cookie’s cutie mark half-concealed by pansy’s mane, and when the waltz brought Cookie in closer proximity, he could see Pansy’s cutie mark on her ear too.

“Why hide them?” he asked.

Clover shrugged. “Perhaps they fear Puddinghead and Hurricane will react poorly.”

Nova watched them for a while, watched as Cookie took the lead and led Pansy around the open space, watched her wince every time Pansy accidentally stepped on her hooves, watched the two of them just own the space without a care in the world…

Then he stood up. Clover looked over curiously, and he held out a hoof.

“May I have this dance?” he asked.

Clover blinked for several moments, gaze switching between his eyes, his outstretched hoof, and the dance floor, before that same genuine smile reappeared and she took the offered hoof.

“You may,” she said, getting to her hooves and allowing him to lead her down.

“I wanna warn you,” he muttered to her as they approached the crowd, who were separating to let them in, “I’ve never danced before.”

“Then allow me to lead.”

They found an open spot, Clover took a position opposite him, stepped forward until they were nearly breast-to-breast, then used a tendril of magic to hook the brooch of his Night Apprentice cloak to hers, binding them together.

“Now follow my lead.”

It proved not to be so difficult to pick up. They would step, then move, then wait for a beat. Nova didn’t know much about dancing, but he knew plenty about music, so it wasn’t as difficult as he expected for him to catch on.

“When did you learn how to dance?” he asked quietly. “Doesn’t seem like a thing you’d know how to do.”

“As you said,” she grinned impishly. “I am full of surprises.”

Nova winced as she accidentally stepped on his hoof. She cringed.

“But I am not perfect. Princess Celestia only taught me how two weeks ago.”

“Only two weeks ago? Really?”

“She and I both decided that it was best I prepare myself in case someone asked me to dance. It would seem,” she smiled again, “that our preparation has paid off.”

They danced for a few moments more, Nova growing into it as time went on, before eventually Cookie and Pansay danced their way over, and in a startlingly smooth switch, Clover and Cookie spun around each other and took each other’s place with the other partner, and now Nova was moving to the music with Cookie while the other two stayed close by.

“So, when’s the wedding?” Cookie teased, taking the lead like Clover had.

“When’s yours?” Nova asked right back.

“A few months from now. We came to ask her if she’d be my Mare of Honor. We just haven’t gone public yet.”

“Oh. Well, I’ll get back to you on ours.”

“She’s getting antsy about it, I hope you know,” Cookie said, tilting her head toward Clover, who let out a tiny squeak as Pansy stepped on her hooves. “Won’t stop complaining about it in her letters.”

“That mare puts everything in her letters that she really shouldn’t,” he groused, looking over at her in time to see her trod on Pansy’s hooves this time.

“I think we’d better switch back before one of our partners breaks the other’s shins,” Cookie observed wryly.

“Agreed,” Nova nodded.

There was another switch, and things were back the way they should be. The music and the dancing continued, and no words were spoken, but Nova had never felt closer to Clover than he did in this moment. He could have stayed there forever.

But all too soon, this slice of heaven came to an end, and they had to go back to their seats.

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

Nova yawned.

It was approaching midnight now. The party was still in full swing, but he was starting to feel the fatigue. At their own place of honor at the high table, Platinum was laughing with Puddinghead and Hurricane at some joke he couldn’t hear. Pansy and Cookie had retreated for a short break and a moonlit walk after the dance, Steelshod was nowhere to be seen, Celestia and Luna kept bringing ponies of some import up to the high table to introduce to him, and all of this while Clover sat in her seat, eyes glossed over, staring down at the untouched plate of food in front of her with a deep frown on her face.

He nudged her. “Bit for your thoughts?”

Her frown deepened.

“I do not understand you,” she said softly. It was barely heard over the noise of the Great Hall, but their proximity made it impossible not to hear. “Every time I attempt to draw close to you, you pull away, and yet when I do nothing, you do things like… like that.”

“Like what?” he asked. “The dance?”

“Yes!” Clover huffed, pushing her plate away sharply. “The dance! Nova Shine, if you desire to pursue me, I am willing.” Nova’s heart ached to hear those words. “I have already told you, I… I truly do want to be with you. I have been attracted to you for quite some time, and yet despite knowing you are attracted to me, you keep stepping back. Why, Nova Shine?”

Nova opened his mouth to answer but paused. Was now the right time? Surrounded by so many?

She pressed on when he didn’t respond. “If you truly do not wish to be with me, all you need to do is say so and I shall respect your wishes. But I do wish to know. Why? Why would you keep yourself so close, and yet so far? Why lead me on?”

This wasn’t how he wanted to reveal this, but there didn’t seem like a better time or place. The noise of the party was the perfect cover, Celestia and Luna were off mingling, and it was just the two of them up here at the High Table.

Nova took a deep breath. It was now or never.

“Well, the truth is–”

The doors outside suddenly banged open, startling everyone in attendance including Nova, who bit off what he was about to say. A lone pony stood outside, wearing a leather barding with loose metal plates hanging around sensitive areas, each one painted purple and gold, the unicorn colors. They had a jet black cape draped across their back and a rather opulent black Prench-style cavalier hat on their head with a long white feather trailing behind it. With it being so far away, Nova couldn’t sense who this mysterious intruder was immediately, but as their presence became known to the general party attendees and the intruder began to step forward, the crowd began to make a path ahead of them.

A hush fell over the room, and Nova Shine sat up in his seat. Even the orchestra stopped playing. Down below, Celestia and Luna noticed what was going on and hastily made their way back to their places just as the intruder came to a spot just before the high table with all eyes on them. Despite the proximity, Nova still could not sense who it was, as it was just beyond his range.

Finally, once the entire room had fallen silent, the pony reached up with a hoof, took hold of the hat, and swept it downward in a low bow, and Nova’s eyebrows shot upward when he saw that it was none other than Captain Steelshod bowing there. Elsewhere in the room, Princess Platinum’s eyes narrowed, and just to his right, Clover had leaned forward.

“Good evening to everyone!” Steelshod announced, his voice projecting quite well in this massive open hall. “I am Steelshod, son of Iron Heart, captain of Her Highness Princess Platinum’s Unicorn Guard.”

He paused for dramatic effect, and Nova couldn’t help the small smile at how Steel was playing on the crowd’s anticipation and suspense. What’s he playing at?

The captain drew upright, then turned to look directly at him.

“Night Apprentice Nova Shine, I hereby formally challenge you to a Wizard’s Duel.”

Nova blinked. There was an outbreak of excited murmuring from the crowd and the smile slid off of his face. A Wizard's Duel? The only proper Wizard's Duel he had ever fought was the one against Twilight so many months ago.

Then another realization hit him.

He’s trapping me under the weight of the audience’s expectations, Nova thought to himself. Unless…

He stood up.

“Where, when, and for what would we be dueling?”

The excited murmurs grew louder as they realized he was leaning toward accepting.

The corners of Steelshod’s mouth twitched. Nova realized he had just taken the bait.

“Here, now, and not for what, but for whom.”

The realization hit him immediately. Oh no… He had taken the bait, and yes, he could certainly back down from the challenge, but…

Then he’d be known as the coward who wouldn’t fight for his mare.

“I challenge you, Night Apprentice Nova Shine, for the hoof of Lady Clover of Canterlot.”

Clover’s eyes bulged and her mouth fell open. Nova leaned forward, placing his hooves on the table. Clover opened her mouth to say something, but Nova held out a hoof to stall her. She glared at him, but he gave her a confident nod. Let me do this.

“I accept your challenge, Captain.”

The crowd exploded into cheers and began to clear a space. Clover’s fury was replaced by pure shock. Even as he stepped around the table, Clover could do nothing but gape after him. As he passed the table, he sent her what he hoped would be interpreted as a reassuring look, but she didn’t seem to react. Princess Celestia, however, gave him a tiny nod. She, too, looked displeased by this request.

Nova stepped into the clearing created by the crowd. Steelshod’s hat disappeared in a poof of light, and he and Nova both created a shield wall around their clearing as one.

“Name your limitation, Nova Shine,” Steelshod said, stepping back and watching him expectantly. The many times they had dueled, there hadn’t been any limitations, since they were nothing more than friendly sparring contests. For there to now be a formal Wizard’s Duel… what was Steel hoping he would ban?

This time, however, he hoped he was onto Steel’s game.

“I don’t need to limit you to defeat you,” he said bluntly. “We will duel unrestrained.”

Steelshod’s confident smile faltered for the tiniest of moments.

Good, Nova thought. He had finally acted in a way the captain hadn’t prepared for.

“Very well, I shan’t impose a restriction either.”

Nova smiled to himself. He had no choice, now. By coming across as confident enough not to impose a restriction, he had put it back on Steelshod. If Steel had imposed a restriction, any victory he took would always have that caveat, that he had a handicap and couldn’t win in a straight fight. Now, with no restrictions, everything was tilted Nova’s way.

The captain cracked his neck, as did Nova.

“Are you prepared?” Steel asked.

“I am.”

Steel’s smile grew, and they both stepped forward to bump hooves. But once they were in range, Nova seized his and pulled him forward so that they were breast-to-breast, and mouth-to-ear.

“She’s not some prize to be won, Captain,” Nova snapped. “Surely you must have thought about that? You really think she’s just going to accept you if you beat me? If you try to take her by force?”

“It’s not always about winning,” Steelshod fired back. “I thought you, more than anyone, would know that. Sometimes it’s just about being brave enough to face the dragon head-on.”

With that, he let go, pulled back, and marched back to his starting point. Nova stared after him for a moment, wondering just what Steel’s objective here was. Still, he had a duel to win. so he turned around, walked to his position, and turned back to face the captain.

“Whenever you’re ready,” he said.

“Steelshod nodded tensely.

“Begin.”

No one moved. No one said a word.

Nova Shine and Steelshod stared each other down for several long moments. Nova wasn’t sure whether he was doing it to try and suss out what Steelshod had planned, or to milk the nervous tension that had crept into the room and swept over the guests.

His orbs of light orbited him languidly, waiting for their master to command them. The firelight of the chandeliers and braziers reflected off the guards’ armor. The orchestra sat primed and ready, waiting for the battle to start. Nova and Steelshod, however, were taking long, slow breaths, each waiting for the other to initiate.

Nova decided it would be him. The orchestra began their song.

The purpose of any opening to any chess match is to develop one’s pieces to enact a player’s strategy down the line. Nova was no master (he was pretty sure his Elo was only just above the four-figure mark), but he knew that he wanted to lay the groundwork for how he planned to handle this duel early. And he needed Steelshod distracted so he couldn’t interfere.

Nova peppered Steel with a few small beams of energy, mere nuisances to someone like the Princess’ Captain of the Guard. Steelshod effortlessly sidestepped each one, making an exaggerated show of doing so. No doubt he was exhibiting his showponyship for the audience’s benefit. However, as he dodged, Nova Shine took the opportunity to bring forth several illusory copies of himself, remembering his battle against Silas Silverblood some months ago. As the Captain wasn’t able to sense energy, he had a feeling this was going to work well to his benefit.

Once Steel was safely on the other side, he surveyed the scene again and frowned.

“I knew it,” he growled, letting his voice carry. “Trickery and deception. Is that all you are capable of, Sir Night Apprentice? This is supposed to be a contest of skill, not subterfuge.”

“Captain, if you can’t tell the difference between the real Night Apprentice and literally thin air, then you don’t have the skill to tangle with the likes of me.”

“Proud words,” Steelshod shook his head in mock disappointment. “Very well. Let’s see if your bite is as good as your bark.”

Steel knew full well his bark was nothing compared to his bite, but Nova supposed they both knew that was for the audience to discover.

Steelshod attacked back, spicing things up with a wave of magic that erupted from his hooves as he stomped them into the ground. As Nova prepared to hop over it, and as his copies all performed a variety of dodges to avoid the wave, Steel swung his head around with magic blazing in his horn, and a blade of grey energy came streaking at him just high enough above the wave to make dodging particularly difficult.

“Clever,” Nova muttered, his five orbs arranging themselves in front of him and creating a layer of magical shielding in front of him that blocked the attack on two fronts. The copies were all erased as the blade struck them, fading into the air without a trace.

Alright, no more standing around, he thought to himself. The moment the spells were behind him, he leaped out from behind his shield and sprinted around the edge of the arena, sending one half of it sliding forward toward Steelshod while the other half remained in its current position. As he ran, the illusory copies returned, charging multiple directions to confuse Steel while he was preoccupied with blocking the projectile.

Steel swept his cape in front of him and swatted the offensive shield with a flick of his hoof, sending the shield spinning into the wall of their little enclosure, where it exploded in a shower of magical stars that winked out of existence. The audience members sounded their approval at this.

He’s learned a lot from me, Nova thought. The second shield lifted up and began to spin at a high speed, before also flinging itself at Steelshod. Steelshod created a shield of his own to neutralize it. Nova kept him distracted so he could get around to a good angle and fired off a jet of fire that Steelshod vaulted himself away from at top speed. Steel took the opportunity to blast a wave of ice behind him, catching the fire in its tracks and creating a small cloud of steam.

It didn’t need to be fire or ice, but fire always seemed to add an extra little bit of excitement to things.

Steelshod, it seemed, was hoping not to move as much as possible. He wanted to own the space around him and control his movement so as not to waste precious energy. Nova, by contrast, wasn’t afraid to run or to utilize the whole arena for his strategy. Steelshod was hoping to win through iron defenses and presumably, some trick up his sleeve he hadn’t yet revealed.

His five magical orbs returned to him and began to orbit him at a high speed, streaks of blue light dancing all around him,

“A lot of unnecessary movement and energy wasted,” Steelshod noted, frowning. “Typical of you. A lot of flash, but little of substance.”

“I’ve made you move,” Nova shrugged. “You seem to be trying to keep still. Suppose that’s something. Think you can just outlast me? That it?”

“That was an idea I’d had, yes,” Steelshod shrugged with a modest smile, “but then I got a better one.”

The metal plates in his getup detached themselves and were flung at Nova at high speeds, with only one shooting right at him and the others taking up angles to try and smash into him if he dodged in a given direction.

Nova grit his teeth as the plates battered into his shield the moment he threw it up to give himself some space. A forceful solution. To keep ramming his shield would tax him over time. But he could afford energy expenditure now to prolong the fight.

The plates were then drawn back and took up several positions around him. Nova watched them warily, wondering what Steel’s next move would be, only for Steel to fire a beam of energy at one, where it reflected off a plate, into his shield, then into another plate, then back into his shield.

Fucking… clever bastard, Nova had to bring a hoof up to his temples to try and massage a headache away that was growing from the more intense pounding his shield was taking. Steel was trying to keep him pinned so he could knock the shield down and take him out.

Nova leaped sideways, dropping the shield and allowing the beam to hit where he had been moments before. So Steel was counting on him turtling up now. Then the wise thing to do was not turtle up like he had been.

“And now I have you on the run,” Steel observed with a derisive shake of the head. “Can’t hide behind your shields, can’t get a hit in at me, how do you expect to fight?”

“Trying to talk me into submission?” Nova asked. Steel flung another metal plate at him, and he tried to catch it in his cape so he could use it as a physical shield of his own, but the effort was unsuccessful, resulting in him taking a knock to his side.

“Actually,” Steel smirked, “I thought I’d beat you into submission. Now watch closely.”

His horn shimmered once more, and a stream of tiny stars erupted out of his horn, flying out all over the arena.

A Starfall variation, Nova realize, frowning and jumping away to avoid one of the stars that drifted a little too close.

Snap!

Nova lurched sideways. He had failed to notice another one coming up behind him, and rather than let out a little fizzle that would sting and drain any shield he put up, it was a bit more explosive than that, releasing a small bombastic burst, one just powerful enough to make him stagger, which opened the door for more of them to come flying at him.

Nova desperately threw up another shield. It wasn’t going to last long at all, but at this point, he was out of options. Steel had really done his homework and had him pinned now. The stars began to rain on his shield, each one pounding it under another blast, and in short order, another barrage of beams was striking his shield as well. The headache he was suffering was increasing.

If Steel kept this assault up, it was over. He had weathered Nova’s initial storm beautifully and had completely turned it around.

Nova wasn’t completely out of ideas, but he knew that nothing he did would put him back on the front hoof unless he was able to wrest control of those armor plates from Steel. They were the key to all of this.

Even as the stars continued to pound away and the beams continued to chip away at his mana reserves, he still held fast. He just needed to gather his strength, and then it would be time for a desperate attack. If that failed, it was over. But if it succeeded…

“You’ve held on longer than I thought you would,” Steel said, stepping forward as Nova’s shield contracted. It was getting taxing to maintain a wide shield, but it was shrinking and shrinking with each second, and with it, his resolve. “But your energy reserves are nearly exhausted, and your focus is dwindling, Nova Shine. Submit.”

Nova let out a small bark of laughter. Hard to do past the headache, but he let it out all the same.

“You think my focus is dwindling?” he asked, failing to keep a slight gasp of exertion out of his voice as one of the metal plates whacked the shield again to add extra strain.

He sucked in a breath, steeling himself even as he labored to keep his shield up under the weight of Steel’s onslaught. Steel sensed something was amiss and tripled the assault. The beams ceased, but every single one of the armor plates now came flying at him in his shield even as Nova prepared to turn the tide.

“My focus is unparalleled!” Nova roared.

An explosion of blue magic blasted outward from him, coming too quick for Steel to adjust and sending him flying backward, unable to throw up his own shield out in time. The metal plates were blasted in every direction and clattered to the ground all around them.

As Steel lay stunned and trying to get to his hooves, Nova retook the initiative, creating a wall of ice to force Steelshod to move only one direction while he began to pelt his opponent with all manner of projectiles. Steelshod’s instincts were enough to help him recover and start blocking or deflecting the blasts Nova sent his way, but they were only a means to an end. Once he was sure he had Steel backpedaling, he resummoned his orbs and sent them out to harass Steel instead so he could focus on his true goal.

With a flick of his magic, the metal plates that lay scattered around their enclosure were captured and repurposed, and Nova Shine began to enact his endgame. With Steelshod on the back hoof, he wasn’t able to contest Nova’s capture of his plates, too busy as he was fighting off the short bursts of light Nova’s orbs were sending his way. In addition, several more illusory copies of himself began to gallop around the Captain, taking up positions in the enclosure. Finally, Nova ceased the assault, when everything was ready.

Despite the assault having paused, Steelshod looked around wildly, trying to determine where the attack would come from next, seemingly having overlooked the plates of armor he had lost. He twisted and turned, keeping his shield up at all times, looking thoroughly rattled.

Nova moved one of his clones into Steel’s blind spot, and Steel jumped the moment he noticed, scampering elsewhere. Another clone moved close and Steel dropped the shield to attack with a beam, causing the clone to fade. An orb closed in, and Steel dodged it, moving closer and closer to the center of the arena.

Finally, the orbs took up positions around and above Steel, who was now surrounded by Nova, his fake clones, his orbs, and the metal plates. The stage was set.

The orbs began to pepper him once more, now with more intensity. It was no longer time to distract and reposition him, it was time to finish the job. As the orbs pelted Steel again, Nova himself shot one last spell toward the closest metal plate. A beam of light struck the plate, before shooting off toward another, then another. Then it zipped up to link with an orb before flying toward another plate. Eventually, Nova had weaved himself a cage of light around Steelshot, and the moment the cage was complete, it began to tighten.

Steelshod knew the end was near. Nova could see the dismay in his eyes as he realized that he had been played and now the jig was up. Still, to his credit, Steelshod planted his feet and renewed his defense, trying to weather the storm. He also expanded the shield, catching the shrinking cage in its tracks and stopping its contraction.

“No…” he growled, just loud enough for him to hear, just loud enough to be heard over the audience, who were preparing to cheer for the inevitable victor. “No… I’ve worked… too… hard!”

“It’s over, Steel,” Nova said, with one final powerful yank of his spellwork. Steelshod’s shield shattered with a musical crystalline sound. The stallion flagged and fell over, and at once, the cage closed in, snaring him to the ground and holding him tight. The metal plates he had brought with him to be his weapons had turned into his binds, and now there was no escape. The fight was over.

But Steelshod did not submit.

He continued to struggle against his binds, even as Nova stepped toward him. His legs kicked, he shifted, and he tried to find some way to escape, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t do it.

“Don’t make me knock you out, Steel,” Nova warned him.

“I… won’t…!”

“You fought well,” Nova said sincerely, but readied the coup de grâce. “But you can’t fight your way out of this one. You risked it all and you lost. Bow out gracefully.”

Steelshod’s hooves kicked a few more times, before finally, Nova could see the defeat in his eyes, and Steelshod slumped against the ground.

“I submit,” he said, and Nova was startled to hear him choking back a sob as he said it.

At once, the bindings disappeared, the enclosure vanished in white light, the crowd exploded into cheers, and the orchestra seamlessly played a triumphant fanfare to celebrate the victor of the duel. Nova paid attention to none of it, simply watching as Steelshod got to his hooves, avoiding his eyes, his metal plates flying back to their sockets on his barding, and his hat reappearing in a flash of light, before being pulled low to hide the tears.

“Take care of her,” he finally said.

And then he was gone, walking out the double doors as the crowd parted for him. Nova watched him go, feeling conflicted. Even as the partygoers closed ranks and blocked his view, Nova could only stare after the black feather as it made its way out into the foyer and then out of sight entirely, wondering where Steeelshod was going to go now. What would he do now that he had truly lost his last roll of the dice?

Almost inexorably, he felt his gaze drawn behind him. He turned, suddenly becoming aware of the implications of his victory. Up at the High Table, Celestia was beaming down at him, looking quite giddy. Luna had her hooves pressed together in front of her muzzle and was staring at him quite intensely. And Clover…

The mare of the hour stood up from her seat next to Celestia and was staring down at him just as intensely as Luna, but with an unreadable expression on her face.

Nova felt his hooves move of their own accord, walking forward As he approached, she stepped around the table, and the crowd waited with held breath to see what the resolution to all of this would be.

“Lady Clover,” Nova said, stopping just short of her and feeling his throat go drier than the San Palomino. “As the victor of the duel, I humbly ask for your hoof.”

The room went completely silent. Everyone’s eyes were on them, and they both felt it. Clover looked terrified. Or rather, as terrified as he had ever seen her, her skin blanching beneath her coat despite her best attempt to maintain an unreadable facade.

“I…” she started, before breaking off and swallowing. You could hear a pin drop, and Nova was surprised no one could hear just how loud the thundering of his heart was. “I…”

She let out a shaky breath, then steeled herself, and stood tall.

“I would speak to you alone. Accompany me, Sir Night Apprentice.”

Then with an assured gait, she turned and strode out of a door at the back of the hall, leading to a stairwell that he knew led to the northern battlements. Nova let out a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding and moved to follow her. Before he exited however, even as hushed whispers broke out among the partygoers once again, he turned to look back at the crowd. Had Steelshod seen, despite his exit?

As he scanned the crowd, he couldn’t find the captain, but for the briefest of moments, his eyes met familiar red ones, and Shimmer Silvermane once again gave him a leer that sent a thrill up his spine.

He stepped through the door, shutting it behind him as quickly as he could, and almost instantly he heard the babble break out, muffled by the wall and even quieter than before, no doubt gossipping about what was about to happen on the battlements.

The climb of the stairs felt as though it took hours, but by the time he pushed his way out onto the battlements, it had also felt as if it had passed in the blink of an eye. His duel with Steelshod had left him blind to energy-sensing for the time being, but he didn’t need it to know who was waiting for him on the other side.

Clover sat next to one of the parapets, looking up at the night sky. Luna had outdone herself tonight, as the stars were clearer than ever he had seen them, and without a single cloud in the sky, nothing was preventing the soft white light of the moon from shining down and illuminating Clover, bathing her in a sort of angelic glow.

Nova felt his heart clench at the sight, and he remembered that night in Trottingham, under the Hearth’s Warming Tree, and again as he recalled Clover against the sunset at Unicornia.

But rather than reflect on it for much longer, he quietly approached her and sat down beside her, gazing out into the city. The chapel down below stood tall and proud, and beyond it, silhouetted against the night sky, was Lord Star Swirl’s tower, where brief flashes of light could be seen as he worked on something best known to him.

“I do not understand you.”

“I am a difficult pony to understand,” he admitted with a small shrug.

“Why did you accept his challenge?” she asked turning to glare. “After dancing away for so long, you finally jump at the chance when he proposes a challenge for my hoof in marriage? Why, Nova Shine?”

“Are you telling me this isn’t what you wanted?” he asked, cocking an eyebrow. “Would you rather the captain have won?”

“No,” she replied sourly. “I would rather that cockfight had not happened at all. Why did you not reject his challenge?”

“And leave him humiliated in front of everyone?” Nova asked, staring at her in disbelief. “He couldn’t beat me. We both knew it. The least I could do was humble him but still allow him to exit with some dignity. And the choice still lies with you, might I add.”

“Choice?”

“You think I was just going to come up here and demand you marry me because I beat him? You think he was going to do that?”

Her mouth parted before she snarled.

“He challenged you in front of a crowd for my hoof!”

“It was a spectacle!” he retorted. “I didn’t know either, not until we had that little conversation before the fight,” he added defensively as her snarl deepened, “but it wasn’t about winning the duel, Clover. It was about the duel itself. All he wanted to do was give me one last challenge, mage to mage, and after that, after he lost, that would be the end of it.”

She stared at him for a long while, before shaking her head and returning her gaze out into the city.

“You’re more angry at him challenging me than you are at me accepting the challenge,” he pointed out. “Why? Who’s more foolish? The fool, or the fool that follows him?”

“You are not a fool,” she whispered.

“By your logic, I encouraged him. What does that make me?”

“It makes you the victor despite his best efforts,” she answered, shaking her head again. “He challenged you in public. He placed the pressure on you to accept the challenge. But now his challenge has put an equal amount of pressure on me to accept the stakes because you won.” She turned to give him a small, grateful smile. “You fought him for me and you won.”

His heart was hammering in his chest again.

“And so…” she swallowed, before turning to look at him properly. “What if… what if I wish to accept?”

Nova’s breath hitched.

“What?” he asked, softly.

“I… accept,” Clover said, staring up into his eyes. “I accept the stakes of the duel, Nova Shine. I wish to marry you.”

She... she said yes.

She said yes!

He should have felt elated. He should have felt ready to leap into the sky, to cry out in joy. He should have been ready to dash down into the Great Hall to celebrate with the other partygoers!

But...

...why did he feel so empty?

“But I know that we cannot be together,” Clover finally continued, looking away, and he was startled to see tears gathering in the corner of her eyes.

“What… what do you mean?” he asked, now not even sure what to feel.

Clover actually laughed, a sad, humorless laugh as she threw her head back and wiped her tears.

“I know you have tried to hide it for so long, Nova Shine. So I shall not torment myself or you any further. I know that you will be returning to your own time. soon.”

The bottom dropped out of his stomach. She'd found out too!? Was there any pony in all of Equestria who hadn't figured out he was a time traveller!?

“H-how? How did you find out?”

She gave him a sad smile, before turning her head and pointing to her temple. Nova stared at it for a moment, not understanding.

“When you and I dueled some time ago, I was struck by your shield and I careened into a tree, if you recall. You reacted immediately to heal me, and the spell you used was one I had never seen the like of, nor could I comprehend it. I had always harbored suspicions about your mysterious past,” she admitted, with a wry smile, “but when I made that connection, that the spell you used had to be a spell that did not yet exist, every one of my suspicions fell into place.”

Nova sighed and returned his gaze out toward the city as she continued.

“How you could leave such a large crater in the side of Mount Canterhorn by merely teleporting, why Starfall came so easily to you, how you could sense energy when only two ponies alive knew the technique, and…”

A hoof reached out and grabbed hold of his, and he looked over to see that she was crying now, streaks of liquid light on her cheeks illuminated by the moon.

“...and Twilight Sparkle.”

Nova’s breath caught once again.

“I finally learned why it was so complicated,” she said, brushing the tears away once more. “Why the changeling princess became me, why you inadvertently called me Twilight multiple times. The only explanation that makes sense is that Twilight Sparkle resembles me and is your beloved in your own time.”

She let go of his hoof and turned away.

“I thought I understood you, but after tonight, I don’t and I never will.”

“Stop, Clover,” he said, reaching out and grasping her hoof now. She jumped, before turning to look back at him, still crying.

“I’m not so hard to understand,” he shook his head. “You’re right. About all of that and even more. But that’s not the end of it.”

“How can it not be the end of it?” she asked, a fearful tone in her voice. “What more could there be?”

“It’s so simple,” he shook his head and dragged a hoof down his face. “I love her, and I always will. But… but I fell in love with you too.”

Her mouth parted.

“A-and Summer too,” he continued, now starting to shed some tears of his own. “I w-was happy here, Clover! I was happy to be with both of you! And I didn’t want it to end, but I knew that it had to, and the longer I put off just cutting things off, the worse I knew it was going to get. But I couldn’t ask you to stop, Clover! I couldn't ask her to stop either! I couldn’t just put my hoof down and keep things from escalating, because I love you, damn it!”

He broke down, finally feeling the dam burst and the tears begin to flow. Clover slid herself closer and grabbed his hooves as both of them fought back the tears that were freely flowing now. Two ponies who loved each other dearly and knew they couldn’t be together.

“Tonight I just… when he challenged you,” he pressed on, “I just… couldn’t help myself. I wasn’t thinking, and now here we are because I decided to finally plant my hooves and fight for a mare I love.”

He didn’t have an opportunity to say anything else. His head was pulled up, and suddenly she was kissing him. It only took him half a moment to react, but he was kissing her back just as fiercely, just as passionately.

Time ceased to matter in that moment, all that mattered was the contact and the intimacy, but she pulled back and gave him a gaze as fierce and fiery as the kiss they had just shared.

“What if I don’t care?” she asked, brushing a hoof against his cheek. “What if I don’t care that we can’t be together!? What if we both just damn what you’re supposed to do? What could stop us?”

“Causality,” Nova answered, with the tiniest, saddest laugh. “If I stay, if I’m with you, then things don’t happen in my time that lead to me coming back. If I stay so we can be together, then in the future, I don’t exist and will never come back to begin with.”

Clover shook her head.

“How cruel is fate?” she whispered.

Then she was kissing him again, and despite his weak protests, his justifications, his reasons to pull away, he didn’t. All he could do was kiss her back. All he could do was cling desperately to her on this night, all he could do was hold fast to her knowing that the moment he let go, it was all over and she would be lost to him. He wanted to hold her forever and never part.

The door burst open.

Nova and Clover broke apart, and Nova knew the moment had come. He heard Clover gasp, and he turned to look upon the face of the one who would become his enemy.

And he felt his breath be driven from him as he looked into the doorway.

There, standing in its frame was Summer Blossom, her mouth parted, and a look of pure pain and betrayal written across her face.

Envy, Nova and Twilight’s great enemy, would be a mare he loved.

“Summer? I thought you–”

“You thought I had gone,” Summer interrupted her softly, but with a growing edge of barely-restrained fury. “You thought… you thought that because I had gone, you were now free to take him for yourself!”

“What?” Clover asked, blinking uncomprehendingly. “You believe I was trying to… to steal him from you?”

Summer ignored Clover completely and stalked right up to Nova, who was frozen under all of this. Why did it have to be her? Of every mare it could have been, why Summer!?

“You two-timing lying bastard!” She reared back a hoof to strike him, and Nova made no attempt to defend himself as she punched him squarely across the jaw. He barely felt it, not because it didn’t hurt, but because he knew he was in shock.

She tried to hit him again, but Clover caught her hoof this time in her magic, trying to get between them.

“Summer stop! I did not attempt to steal him from y–”

“SHUT THE FUCK UP!” Summer screeched, almost physically throwing Clover away from Nova. “YOU SHUT THE FUCK UP AND STAY OUT OF THIS, YOU WHORE! YOU BITCH!”

Clover stumbled sideways under the weight of her throw, managing to catch herself just before she hit the parapet. Once she righted herself, she attempted once again to come between them.

“Stop.”

Summer paused, her hoof reared back and ready to strike him again, and Clover stared at him in confusion, even when all he could do was choke back the emotion that he was feeling under this revelation.

“Clover,” he said hoarsely. “Go to your room and wait for me. Summer and I need to speak alone.”

Clover complied immediately, but she paused at the door to look back, as Summer glared furiously down at him, and all he could was avert his gaze.

“Summer, it is true, he–”

“You heard him,” Summer spat, turning her fury toward Clover. “Fuck off, harlot!”

Clover seemed to bristle, and even opened her mouth to respond, but Nova gave her a pleading look, please, you are only making this worse!, and she listened, trotting hastily back down the steps into the castle.

Leaving Nova alone with his future nemesis.

“Out of everyone,” he whispered to himself, “why did it have to be you?”

Summer grabbed him with her magic and slammed him against the parapet, glaring furiously at him. If looks could kill, he would have been atomized on the spot.

“You were supposed to be different from them!” she screamed at him. “You were better than them!”

“I am leaving,” he moaned. He knew it would mean nothing, knew that she had already seen enough. “I told Clover I was leaving, but then…”

He shook his head pathetically.

“Things happened. Steelshod, the princesses…”

“Yeah,” she growled. “You fought Steelshod to marry her! You fucking LIAR!”

She swung him into another parapet, though thankfully he didn't hit it nearly as hard.

“Summer please listen to me–”

Summer just scoffed angrily, before letting out a wordless angry yell, throwing him to the ground, and dashing off.

“Summer!” Nova called after her, but he made no move to give chase. What was the point now? It was over. In a few hours, she would try to murder Clover over this. But… why Clover? Why not him? He was the one she thought was the two-timer.

The whirlwind of emotions within him threatened to burst, but he fought them back as best he could. He could still hear the sounds of the celebration down below, hear Puddinghead telling some joke that had a crowd laughing uproariously, could see paramours stealing away from the party to go and enjoy each others’ company. He could see revelers spilling out into the courtyard, taking the party with them. Everyone, it seemed, had been having a good night.

Not him. All the joy in his life was gone.

With hooves as heavy as lead, he plodded his way back into the castle. Stayed away from the Great Hall, avoided the ponies he saw in the corridors, walked as miserably as he could toward the castle dormitories, until he raised a shaking hoof and knocked at a door.

Clover opened it just enough to peek out, and on seeing it was Nova, opened it further, only to freeze when she saw the condition he was in.

“Nova Shine! Are you okay? What happened?”

Without waiting for his response, she grabbed him by a hoof and pulled him into her room, sitting him down on her bed to stew in his negativity while she checked outside again. He didn’t answer her, focusing on keeping himself from breaking down at the awful way the night had come completely undone.

“Is everything alright?” she asked, shutting the door and locking it behind her. “What did she do? Oh,” she gasped slightly, before running to a cabinet. A few seconds later, Nova felt something begin to dab at his mouth. He hadn’t realized Summer had busted his lip.

“What did she do?” she asked, kneeling down and grabbing hold of his hoof. “Are you okay?”

“Broke my heart,” was all he could muster.

“How did she know?” Clover asked, more to herself than anything, before she tensed, and her alarm was replaced by dawning horror. “No…”

“What?” Nova asked, looking up.

“She… she accused me of stealing you away,” Clover said, starting to take shallow, jagged breaths. “We were speaking some weeks ago, and we started joking about ways we could attempt to court you. I had mentioned that I had learned Seduction Scent for academic purposes and to attempt to research countermeasures, and…”

Now it was Clover’s turn to look stricken.

“Nova, I fear she may believe that I have enthralled you the way Shimmer tried to!”

Nova clenched his eyes shut. It seemed, for what little comfort it was, that the misunderstanding was far worse than he feared, but not entirely his fault.

He stood up and began to walk toward the door.

“I’m sorry, Clover.” He began to unlock the door. “I think it’s best if I–”

“Wait!”

He paused, hoof on the door handle, just before he felt her approach. Her hoof reached up and pulled his down from the handle, before turning him back to face her.

She looked like he felt, on the verge of tears, but was staring at him as desperately and pleadingly as she had on the battlements.

“Please,” she whispered. “I… I just wish for one night, Nova Shine. That is all I am asking for.”

One night with a mare he loved. After what had just happened, it was far more than he deserved. Nevertheless, knowing what would happen in a few hours, he knew he couldn’t deny her.

“Okay,” he said softly.

She reached up and gently placed a hoof on his cheek, before leaning forward and kissing him once more. Under normal circumstances, he would only have been too eager to return it, but not now. Not tonight.

Nevertheless, she led him back into the room, and he heard the light rushing of her horn, and in an instant, the two of them were bathed in darkness as they fell into her bed.

No more words were needed nor exchanged that night, and it ended all too soon as Nova and Clover drifted off into a restless sleep.

---

“We didn’t,” Nova added, his voice barely above a whisper. He couldn’t meet Twilight’s eyes, although he was sitting close enough for her to sense his energy, and nothing was changing.

Twilight let out a long, slow breath. It was easy to brush off everything about Clvoer before. But here they were, nearing the end of his tale, and after everything, Nova confiding in her that he genuinely felt conflicted about staying behind or coming back was taking root in her mind and never wanting to let go.

The rational, logical part of her brain pointed out that Nova had left Clover behind and had come back.

“Didn’t what?” asked Spike, looking between them. “The same thing as before, whatever that was?”

“Yeah,” Nova replied dully. “That.”

“How much more is there?” she asked, hopefully keeping the creeping jealousy out of her voice. There would be time to work through this later. It was late and she had no idea how much was left.

“Still a bit, but we’re getting close. I’ll definitely be able to wrap up the main part. Might even have enough time to talk about how I fought Nightmare Moon.”

“I thought you were joking,” Twilight admitted, her curiosity overriding her jealousy. This was good. Something to help her smother these feelings before they festered.

Nova shook his head, but he wasn’t smiling.

“No. I’m not.”

“I thought that would be the coolest part,” Spike said, noticing Nova’s lack of feeling. “Is it.. not?”

“It’s just…” He shook his head again. “A lot happened. And then a lot more happened.”

“We can wait till tomorrow if you want,” Twilight cut in, reaching out and grabbing hold of one of his hooves. It was getting close to bedtime for Spike anyway.

“No,” Nova shook his head, pulling it free. “No, I can finish most of it tonight. But now we have to talk about the parts that hurt the most.”

---

Steelshod strode across the battlements of Everfree Castle feeling oddly relieved.

It was so odd to him that he was feeling this way. Only a scant few hours ago, he had sat in his quarters in a complete and despondent haze, unable and unwilling to move or even sleep as he allowed his defeat at Nova Shine’s hooves to replay over and over and over again in his mind. What could he have done differently? How could he have turned that stallion’s cockiness to his advantage?

Yet over and over and over again, he kept arriving at the same conclusion.

There was nothing he could have done.

He had trained with Nova Shine, he was the youngest Captain of the Royal Guard in its lengthy history. Yes, he had been promoted because of circumstance, but had he been unfit for his role, he would have been stripped. He had earned this rank.

And Nova Shine outclassed him in every way.

It was a bitter pill to swallow. But once he accepted that there was no path to victory, a sense of calm and peace overcame him. It was over. He had gambled it all on one last show for Clover and one last battle for himself. He had fought with every fiber of his being to prove to her that he was worthy, and to dispel his own doubts. Nova had beaten him, but he’d hoped he had at least gotten her to open her eyes. He certainly had done himself proud. Of that, he was certain.

Still, no matter what, that was it. There was nothing more that he could do, and all he could do now was move forward.

So he had left his room and come out into the early morning outdoors to get himself some air and just… relax.

For the first time since he still lived in Canterlot on the southern coasts of Dream Valley, Steelshod felt unburdened, and the metaphorical weight that had been lifted off of his shoulders was palpable.

It’s such a nice night, he thought, smiling as he gazed up at the stars, before glancing toward one of the upper-floor windows where he knew Princess Luna resided. She’s really outdone herself.

He knew Princess Celestia had to be awake at this hour. No doubt dawn was coming within the next hoofful of minutes. Still, it was his first time being awake and having an opportunity to just enjoy the night. The cool air, the slightly gusty breeze, the starlight and moonlight being cast upon the Everfree Castle Courtyard, the shadows cast along the ground to give–

Steelshod’s eyes snapped toward the shadow of the castle chapel as something caught his eye, It had looked as if the shadow had shifted for a moment, but the longer he stared at the tower’s silhouette, so long that it nearly reached all the way to the Keep, the less certain he was that he had seen anything.

Hmm… maybe I’m imagining things, he thought to himself, still staring suspiciously at the shade. Can’t even go one night without my instincts kicking in.

He was just about to turn away completely and resume his nighttime stroll when he definitely did see movement. A cloaked figure darted from one shadow to the next, only barely illuminated by moonlight for perhaps half a second, yet so quick that a distant observer might simply mistake the shadows for blending together. Steelshod, however, was no ordinary observer.

His senses were screaming at him that something was very much amiss as the shadowy figure slunk their way to the castle’s doors, left slightly ajar to accommodate late partygoing guests as they exited at so late an hour. Thus, he listened.

As quickly as he could, he vaulted himself off the castle walls, thankful that he wasn’t wearing his armor anymore as he landed a few meters below. Stealth was the aim tonight, and his grey coat and black hair made it remarkably easy for him to blend into the night around him, perhaps less conspicuously than the shadow up ahead.

He followed the figure inside, just catching sight of the hem of their cloak as it disappeared around a corner atop the mezzanine. At the corner, he saw it drag up some stairs in the distant stairwell. He dashed upwards as quietly as possible, following the figure as they slipped out onto the sixth floor.

The Princesses’ floor, he realized with a frown. And Clover’s.

They moved a lot more slowly now, seemingly examining the different doors and the plaques bolted to them. The princess’ doors were much more obvious, given the contrasting paints against the featureless grey stone.

The shadow moved further and further down the hall.

Not the ninth door, not the ninth door, he repeated in his head. He was going to stop them one way or the other if anything nefarious were about to happen, but…

The figure stopped at the ninth door, then lightly pulled it open.

NO!

Steelshod raced forward, silently praying the figure was truly up to nothing nefarious in the slightest and that this was all a misunderstanding.

What does this pony want with Clover?

As he silently stepped to the side of the door, he peeked in.

The cloaked figure stood at the side of Clover’s bed. Clover and Nova lay before her, unaware of the danger that lay right in front of them in their sleep. An eerie red glow began to shine, blanketing them with its light.

And then, a silver knife was raised.

“NO!” Steelshod roared. The light blasted from his horn on instinct, catching the knife right in the blade and sending it flying into the wall, where it embedded itself. The figure whirled around, and Steelshod slid to a halt. Beneath the cloak, eyes bulging with rage and horn glowing red, was Summer Blossom.

“S-Summer?” Steelshod asked, aghast.

The commotion had roused Nova and Clover, who looked up at what was going on blearily. Nova, however, looked oddly cognizant for someone who had been asleep.

“Wuzzgoing–?” asked Clover, wiping away the drowsiness.

“RUN!” Steelshod barked, hurling himself at Summer as her magic yanked the knife out of the wall.

Clover was instantly roused, and she bolted away, fleeing into the hallway just before Summer’s knife stabbed downward where she had been moments before. Nova Shine’s shield appeared behind Clover, stopping the knife before it could catch her.

“LET ME GO!” Summer yelled, flailing underneath Steelshod, before managing to throw him off. She tried to bolt out the door after Clover, but Nova’s beam hit her on the side and sent her flying into Clover’s bookshelf, where she crumpled to the floor, conscious but dazed.

“What the hell is going on!?” Steel demanded, his magic already conjuring all manner of restraints around the cloaked Summer, binding her in place and preventing her from moving.

A blast of red magic caught Nova Shine under the chin, sending him reeling and falling to the ground with a grunt, but Steelshod prevented a similar attack from hitting him just in the nick of time.

“Summer, what the hell are you doing!?” Steel roared, striking her in the horn with his hoof to interrupt an attempted spell before it could unleash whatever nasty effects she had in mind.

Only now, however, did Steelshod notice something blood-chilling.

Summer Blossom’s eyes, normally a pleasant shade of brown, had gone a bright, eerie red.

Steelshod had heard of effects like these. Reportedly, these selfsame effects had corrupted the King of the Northern Empire. Summer Blossom’s eyes, however, didn’t seem to be saturated with Dark Magic, but if her hatred was enough to stain her eyes…?

The sound of clattering armor reached their ears, and Steelshod’s focus slipped for just one critical moment. A blast of red energy hit both him and Nova Shine, and Summer Blossom sprang free, scrambling out into the hall after Clover. Nova and Steel both chased after her, with Nova snagging hold of her tail in his magic and Steel bodily slamming into her and tackling her once again just as, to their shared relief, a number of guards came dashing around the corner.

Even as Summer thrashed underneath him, the guards very quickly subdued her and dragged her off, all while she tried everything she could to escape and throw herself at Clover once more.

The hallway was now buzzing with activity as the people who actually slept in the other dormitories were roused, including the princesses,. who had come out to see what had just taken place. Nova slumped against one of the walls but quickly recounted things to Princess Luna, while Steel stepped away to stare out into the night-covered city of Everfree.

“Thank you, Steelshod.”

Steel blinked and looked over. Clover was standing beside him, also looking out at the city. She seemed to have reverted to the emotionless mask she always hid behind before, but he had been around her long enough to see past it. Summer’s attempt at murder had unsettled her significantly, and she was trying to keep things together. He couldn’t begin to imagine what it could have been like, to see someone you had once called friend try to kill you in your own bed.

“You were right,” she said softly, and yet he heard it clear as day despite the din around them.

“About what?”

“Even with Nova Shine right there, I was not as safe as I felt.”

“You were,” he reassured her. “Even if I wasn’t there, I think he would have been more than enough to subdue her. I only helped make it faster, I guess.”

“You woke him up,” she shook her head. “He helped you, but if you hadn’t roused him, I might have…”

She fell silent, staring back out at the city. Steelshod frowned. No, he hadn’t woken Nova up. Nova Shine had already been awake. Could he have…?

“So… from the bottom of my heart, thank you.”

She stepped up and kissed his cheek.

He had wanted this for years. For so long, he had chased after her, desiring her affection. And yet this one night, the circumstances made it the worst feeling in the world.

After that, everything was a complete blur. Steelshod felt as if everything had entered a dreamlike state. Or maybe it was all a nightmare. He didn’t know how many times he recounted what he had seen to those around him, he didn’t know how often he moved from room to room to room to answer even more questions, but eventually, he stumbled his way out into the castle courtyard, following a small crowd as they trotted out to bear witness to the sentencing.

Summer was dragged out of the dungeons, out of the castle into the late night, over in front of the chapel where Princess Celestia and Princess Luna were standing, with six radiant gems floating around them. Steel had never seen these before, but a chill ran up his spine just seeing them. Whatever they were, they were powerful.

It was still dark, which meant that the gems’ glowing colors illuminated everything around them,

“For the crime of attempted murder, Summer Blossom,” Celestia said solemnly, “thou art sentenced to judgment from the Elements of Harmony. For thy attempt to steal away the life of another, thou shalt wander this land forever as a shadow, unable to harm others ever again, unable to partake in the lives of ones such as the one you tried to kill. SO DO WE DECLARE.”

Celestia’s voice thundered around the courtyard. Summer’s eyes widened and she attempted to struggle against her binds all the more, but she was locked up good and tight. She wasn’t going anywhere.

Celestia and Luna both nodded to each other gravely. Nova Shine bowed his head.

The Elements began to glow with light, each one shining brightly in the morning sun, before a beam of white light erupted from each one of them, connecting it to the two elements on either side. In seconds, a ring of light had been created around Summer, who was watching them with terrified eyes.

Until…

“YOU DARE!?”

Steelshod was driven to his knees by the sheer thunderous power of a Voice that rang out all around them, though he very quickly got back up. Elsewhere, Clover had fallen over at the sound of it, Summer Blossom winced under its weight, and Princess Celestia and Princess Luna had been startled into dropping the elements from their magical grip. The only one in this courtyard who seemed unaffected was Nova Shine. All he could do was stare at Summer on the ground, looking halfway between crestfallen and furious. As if he didn’t know whether to yell or cry at the events happening.

Summer looked around, trying to figure out what was going on. Nova helped Clover to her hooves, but otherwise wordlessly watched. Celestia and Luna picked up the Elements once more, but they did not glow with light as they had a moment ago.

“What was–?”

“YOU WOULD USE MY ELEMENTS TO PUNISH!? TO ENACT YOUR WILL!? YOU WOULD DARE!?”

The Elements began to violently shake in the Princess’ grasp, and they dropped the gems once more, each one landing on the ground with a soft thud. Light blasted outward, connecting them once more, before each one fired a third beam upward, each connecting above Summer to form the brightest, whitest light Steelshod had ever seen. A whiter so powerful, he could see dancing colors within it, With a groan, he covered his eyes with one of his hooves and tried to look away due to how intense it was.

“HARMONY IS NO WHIP, CELESTIA, LUNA! YOU MISUSE THE ELEMENTS WITH THIS ACT!”

A blast of force erupted from the source of this magic, and it shook Steel enough to fall to his knees again. Around him, he could hear Clover cry out and Summer Blossom’s terrified screaming, and he could feel the twisted wrongness in the air. The thunderous voice could penetrate him down to his very soul, and he silently promised never to find himself on its bad side.

Fortunately, the light began to face, and Steel chanced opening his eyes again. The light glowing above Summer was shifting and roiling. Celestia and Luna were staring up at it, then at each other in confusion. Clover looked as though she could not believe what was happening in front of her. And Nova…

Nova was watching everything, looking not the least bit surprised by things. What did he know!?

“FOR HER TRANSGRESSIONS, YOU SHALL HAVE THE JUDGMENT YOU HAVE ATTEMPTED TO ENACT! BUT PREPARE, CELESTIA! PREPARE FOR UNFORESEEN CONSEQUENCES AS A RESULT OF YOUR ACTIONS TODAY!”

The light shot downward, and struck Summer directly with the whisper of wind being the only evidence of what had happened. Summer did not cry out or otherwise react. Instead, she stared down at her hooves, which were disintegrating into shadow. Then her arms and legs. The chains binding her slowly began to phase right through her as though she weren’t even there. Summer began to thrash and struggle once again as the shadow crept up her body, and this time, she came loose, but instants after her chains fell to the ground, there was nothing left of Summer Blossom but a faint cloud of shadow floating above the ground, barely visible in the morning light. It was almost as if she wasn’t even there at all.

“YOU!”

Clover blanched, and every one of Steelshod’s combat instincts kicked into overdrive as Summer’s voice rang out. The cloud began to darken.

“YOU THINK THIS WILL STOP ME!?”

Finally, a pair of horrible red eyes appeared out of the shadow, staring down at Nova and Clover with pure, unmistakable loathing in them.

“I’LL FOLLOW YOU AS LONG AS I HAVE TO! YOU WILL NEVER BE SAFE!”

To Steelshod’s horror, the cloud of shadow began to thicken and shrink… and take on shape! Summer Blossom was willing herself back into the form of a pony before their eyes! Had the Elements only cursed her so far!?

Clover shot a beam of magic at the shadow-mare, but the beam passed harmlessly right through her. Luna yelped and threw up a shield out of pure reflex.

It was only then that Nova Shine finally acted. His horn blazed with blue light and something appeared out of thin air in front of him. Was that… was that a glass jar? Steelshod knew better than to question Nova Shine’s sanity, but all he could do in the moment between summoning and action was prepare for something to happen.

He was not prepared for what did.

The jar began to glow a bright orange light, an unsettling shade that made the hairs on the back of his neck prickle. Even as Summer Blossom was recomposing into an equine shape, the shadow that was forming into her suddenly began to fly toward the jar as if it were sucking her in. Summer let out a screech of anger, before galloping toward Clover. Steelshod and several others charged forward to head her off, but they needn’t have made the effort.

Mere instants before Summer could lay her hoof on Clover, she was yanked backward, and whatever willpower she had was broken as she once more disintegrated into a cloud of shadow, flying neatly into the glass jar. The moment the last of the shadow vanished from sight, Nova Shine’s magic capped it with a cover and runes began to glow all over the surface before fading.

For a long moment, there was silence as everyone processed what had just happened. Nova Shine’s magic faded and the jar was settled onto the ground, where he stared at it in exhaustion, a despair in his eyes that he was not used to seeing also present. Clover looked stunned by what had happened. Celestia and Luna appeared shocked, as did the other guards, and Steel himself felt thunderstruck.

In less than an evening, his whole world had been turned on its head. He didn’t know Summer well, only well enough to be on a cordial basis with her up in Unicornia and infrequent interactions with her here, but he still had counted her a friend, if not a close one. And if he could call her a friend, what about Clover and Nova Shine?

“Clover,” Celestia said, her voice firm and even despite everything that had just happened, “taketh that to Vault 982 in the Everfree Vaults. There thou wilt find other Soul Jars, and thou must place it among them. Her Soul Jar shall be locked away in the depths of the Everfree Vaults for as long as possible.”

Clover nodded.

“Nova Shine…” she turned to the Night Apprentice, who was still staring at the jar. “Come with Us.”

With that, she simply strode back into the castle briskly. Clover finally picked up the jar with her magic and trotted off as ordered, but not without one last glance back at Nova Shine. Nova said nothing to anyone else and instead turned around and marched inside, following the Princess. Steel had to wonder what was going through his head. But the one thought that he had lingering at the back of his mind after everything that had happened was simple, and he was going to get to the bottom of why.

He had known.

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

Celestia sat on her throne, her head buried in her hooves. There were no guards in the room, no other staff, not even another princess, but there was one pony who stood before her, feeling dead inside, and staring out into the city through a stained-glass window.

“What have We done, Nova?” she asked softly.

“The only thing you could have done, Princess,” Nova replied, eyes shifting ever so slightly at the blurry movement behind the glass.

“That does not ease Our minds at all,” Celestia shook her head. “These Elements… We were told they were meant to protect and defend Our subjects. We believed that this was part of their purpose, Nova Shine. We knew there would be crime, but… to try and take the life of another pony? What other punishment could We dole out?”

Nova said nothing. He knew that this Celestia and Luna were new to this, but they were still capable. They would eventually grow into the wise and powerful Celestia and Luna of his own time, but there was still plenty of time for self-doubt.

“And you knew.”

Nova nodded his head.

“I knew,” he affirmed quietly.

“How?” she asked, glaring at him. “How could you have known? How is it possible that you could have known this was coming!? For that matter, Nova Shine, why did you not come to Us with this knowledge!? We could have prevented this!”

“No,”: Nova shook his head. “What happened today had to happen, Princess. Because…”

He took a deep breath, then looked up to meet her gaze and made his second confession of the last several hours.

“Because I’m from hundreds of years in the future, Princess.”

Celetia’s glare vanished. Her eyes widened, her mouth parted, and she stared at him in disbelief.

“If what had happened today hadn’t happened,” Nova continued, hoping that she understood the causality of everything involved, “then I would have had no reason to come back. If I don’t come back, then everything I’ve done for the last year and a half doesn’t happen.”

“Including Summer Blossom’s attempted murder,” Celestia added bitterly.

Nova fought down the spike of self-loathing as she said that. She was right, of course. Everything had come from his failure to simply turn them both down when he’d had the opportunity. But he could punish himself later. For now, there was still a lot to do to return to his own time.

“And,” he fired back, “the conspiracy. The rescue of Princess Chrysalis. The negotiations with the Three Tribes. Helping your sister! What happens if I am not here, Celestia? Who returns Chrysalis to the Changeling Hives? Who unearths the evidence of Sombra’s meddling? Who stops Silas Silverblood? Clover maybe, but does she solve it in time to rescue Princess Platinum?”

“Then if you truly are from the future, Nova Shine, did you come back to fix what went wrong, or were you here to ensure that Summer Blossom tried to take another mare’s life!?” she demanded.

“I didn’t even know it was going to be Summer!”

Celestia’s anger faltered for a moment, replaced by surprise, but was quickly followed by suspicion as she glared at him through narrowed eyes.

“You did not know what was going to be Summer?”

“Look, Princess,” Nova started to pace around the room as an outlet for his growing frustration, “in my time, there’s an enemy who’s been around for centuries. I didn’t even know she existed until she tried to kill me. Then I learned she was tied to the first Night Apprentice– to me– and that at some point, she cursed herself to make everyone forget her, and she ensured that there was nothing written down that could give her existence away. So when I came back, knowing her origin, I fully expected to see the one who would call herself Envy try to murder someone, and I would be prepared to stop it.”

He bit back a moan as the guilt and shame came back once again.

“I didn’t know it would be Summer. I had suspicions about who it would be, and it wasn’t her. And now… now my work here is done, and I have to go.”

Celestia stared at him as he sat down, letting his head droop. He couldn’t beat back the tide of self-loathing for long. If only he had just told Summer to stop at the beginning… if only he hadn’t come back at all… if only he hadn’t stood up to Shimmer that first day…

If only, if only.

“So what now?” Celestia asked, her rage gone. “If your work here is done, then… is it time for you to return to your own time?”

“Yeah,” Nova nodded. “It is.”

Celestia stood up from her throne, trotted down to meet him, and, to his surprise, hugged him.

“We cannot pretend to understand the burden you bear. Not yet, anyway. Perhaps in time. Nevertheless, if your mind is made up and it is truly time for you to go, then We shall miss you.”

“Even when you’re violently angry at me, you still won’t address me like a subordinate,” Nova observed.

“Neigh, We won’t,” Celestia replied firmly, helping him to his hooves. “You must understand, We are angry that your actions, or perhaps inactions, led to Our apprentice being in danger. But we all make mistakes. We do not see why that does not make you any less a trusted friend and equal.”

Nova felt the guilt decrease slightly, felt the shame wane, but in its place, there came a great rush of warmth and affection for Celestia, and he pulled her back into a grateful hug, which seemed to surprise her. She squeaked and very quickly tried to extricate herself.

“Nova Shine, We cannot do such things here, it is improper!” she protested with a mischievous smile. “‘Twould be better to retire to Luna’s room and persuade her to take part!”

Nova let out a quiet laugh, but let her go. However, her admission of seeing him as a trusted friend reminded him of something.

“Before I go, though, I need you to remember a date.”

“A date?” Celestia’s eyebrows rose. “Are We to assume this is the date you expect to return to? Or perhaps something more romantic?" she added with a suggestive wiggle of her eyebrows. Nova admired how she could keep a brave face on and keep joking in the midst of everything that was going on.

“Sort of,” he bobbed his head from side to side, not taking the bait. “It’s more… I have a plan for how I’m going to return to my own time. But if I go too far, I need you to come pull me out so I don’t overshoot it.”

“We see,” Celestia nodded in understanding. “Very well. What date is it?”

“December 16th, 1003 ANM.”

Celestia pondered over the date, pacing around the room like he did, before casting him a confused look. “What does ‘ANM’ mean?”

“Unfortunately,” Nova held back a wince, having forgotten how awkward explaining what the term ‘After Nightmare Moon’ meant, “that is something you’ll understand later. But as you might assume, it’s not for a long time.”

“Then We guess…” Celestia smiled sadly, “until we meet again, sir Nova Shine?”

Nova nodded, then turned and strode toward the castle exit with a wave.

“Just so, Princess.”

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

Steelshod knew that Nova could sense him, so he didn’t make any sort of effort to hide the fact that he was tailing the Night Apprentice. Rather, as soon as he had an opportunity, he jogged up to walk with him. Nova kept his eyes front despite this. He had been acting off all morning, though Steel supposed he couldn’t blame Nova for that after the last few hours.

“Steel,” Nova grunted, keeping his eyes front as he trotted up to the northern parts of the city.

“Nova,” Steel answered back, falling in line as they walked up toward wherever he was going. “Was hoping to catch you before you disappeared on us.”

Nova gave him an odd look. “Disappeared?”

“I have it on good authority that you’re a time traveler from the future,” he replied. Not even two hours ago, that statement would have sounded utterly absurd, but here they were. Nova’s nostrils flared, but otherwise he didn’t react. “I was wondering how you might have been awake and ready for Summer’s attack this morning, I was wondering how you could have known about that, but when Clover told me that, it all made sense.”

“Does tend to put things in perspective, doesn’t it,” Nova remarked.

“And am I to understand that you’re going to be returning to your own time soon?”

Nova grunted in an affirmative. Not exactly the answer he was hoping for, but then again, it was like he was a completely different pony today. Steel couldn’t blame him.

“Are you mad at me?”

Steel looked over. Nova hadn’t so much as looked his way since they had started trotting alongside each other, but now his eyes were glossed over and he was just staring at the ground, seemingly unaware of even where he was going, as long as it was along the road.

“Mad at you? Why?”

“You tried to fight me for Clover. Despite knowing that I was leaving, I leaped in to fight you anyway. And I won. I could have let you win, it would have been a graceful way to ‘bow out,’ so to speak. You even had me backed into a corner toward the end. I still beat you. Are you angry with me for that? Knowing that I’m about to leave so soon after?”

“Nah,” Steel shook his head, reached over, and gave him a friendly pat across the shoulders. “I told you. It wasn’t about winning. For the last several months, you’ve been better than me in just about every way. Magical talent is obvious, you showed up and figured out the lead on the investigation into Princess Platinum’s disappearance within minutes, you beat Silverblood, and you got further with Clover in mere days than I had in weeks. I guess…” His smile turned into something sour for a moment, before it returned to normal.

“I guess I just wanted to prove to myself that I could stand and face you and hold my own. I just needed to prove that to myself.”

“You sure seemed pretty torn up about it last night,” Nova pointed out.

“I was, at first,” Steel nodded, remembering that eternal moment after he had shouted his submission. The despair, the crushing feeling of defeat after he had thrown everything at Nova, only to come up short right at the end. “I had victory in my grasp. I could sense it. And then…” He let out a hard breath through his nose. “And then you beat me. It hurt, to be that close and come up short.”

“You did very well,” Nova assured him, giving him a light bump with his shoulder. “Had me on the ropes there for a bit. But… well, not to be a braggart, but I’m me.”

“You are,” Steel’s mouth twisted. He had done everything right, and it hadn’t been enough. “Still, I’m glad. You won, fair and square. But I think I gave a good account of myself, and that’s all I wanted. It’s over now, but I gave it my all, so I have no regrets.”

“I don’t think it’s as over as you think it is.”

Steel clenched his eyes and let out a long breath.

“Nova, don’t do that. I threw everything I had at you, and you won, and now she’s all yours. I just hope you treat her well.”

“Steel…”

Steelshod blinked, then turned back to see that Nova had stopped and was giving him a meaningful look. Steel stared at him for a moment, wondering what exactly was going on, and then…

He realized they were following the path to Lord Star Swirl’s tower. The mage who had been working on time travel spells.

“You’re going back,” Steel realized, mouth parting. “You’re going back today.”

Nova wordlessly nodded.

Steelshod stared at him, not knowing how to feel. The biggest emotion was sadness, that much was clear. He was about to lose a good friend, and someone he could trust Clover with. But there were a myriad of others. Deep down, some small part of him that he was trying to smother couldn’t deny that he felt happy that Nova was going, but it was microscopic compared to everything else.

Steel found himself staring downward, eyes flicking every which way as a thousand different thoughts raced through his head. Everything had turned on its head in the last several hours. Why? Why did everything have to change like this?

“She’s going to need someone,” Nova said, stepping past him and continuing along the path. “Summer’s gone, and I’m going to be gone as well. She’s going to need someone to be there for her, Captain.”

The emphasis on the word jolted him back to attention, and he trotted after the stallion.

“She’s wanted nothing to do with me,” Steel shook his head.

“That’s why you let her come to you,” Nova rebutted, giving him a nod. “She’s going to need you, Steel. Give her time, but be there when she needs you.”

Another realization hit him. If he was leaving already, then where was she? Surely he’d want to say goodbye?

“She doesn’t know, does she?”

Nova shook his head. “Not yet. I want to tell her when it’s time to go, but I don’t know when that will be,” he admitted. “If you want to tell her yourself, be my guest.”

“Why not tell her yourself now?” he asked indignantly.

“Because I have work to do,” Nova replied simply. “It must be today. And I don’t know how long this will take. And quite frankly, it already hurts this much saying goodbye to you.”

Steel stared at him for a long moment in disbelief. This was a stallion who had faced down Sombra and his lackeys, and now here he was, seemingly sapped of all desire to even say goodbye to someone he loved?

Was this morning’s incident truly something that weighed so heavily on him?

“In case I don’t see you again,” Nova stopped and turned toward him once more, holding out a hoof. “It’s been an honor, Captain. I want you to know that.”

“You’re gonna get a proper goodbye,” Steel growled at him, disregarding the offered hoof. “You think you can just run away without saying farewell to Clover?”

“I hope that I get that opportunity,” Nova smiled sincerely at him. “Go do what you must, and so shall I.”

And with that, he turned tail and continued on his way, leaving Steel to stare after his departing friend for what might have been the final time.

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

Star Swirl the Bearded’s tower had been enchanted with all sorts of contingencies, redundancies, and alarms on the off chance that someone feeling a bit mischievous, or perhaps malevolent, or perhaps merely in a malcontent’s mood, decided to forcibly gain entry to his tower to say hello, He had been quite diligent with the spellwork, but there were always vulnerabilities to any system due to biases or simple oversights, and his system was no exception. Thus, of all the methods Star Swirl had prepared for someone to invade his tower, simply opening the front door was not one of them.

The stallion sat in his office, looking quite surprised that Nova had gained entry, before laughing at his brazenness.

“The nerve of this stallion,” he chortled, standing up and moving away from the diary on his writing desk and walking over. “To what do I owe the pleasure of your visit, Nova Shine?”

Nova Shine, however, did not share in the stallion’s levity.

“I need Time Stasis,” he stated.

The smile slid off Star Swirl’s face, and he took a step back to give him a searching look.

“Time Stasis,” he repeated slowly. “Do you have any idea what you are asking for, Nova Shine?”

“I have some idea,” Nova said softly, meeting his gaze unflinchingly. “But it’s time, and I need a way back.”

Star Swirl’s mouth parted, and his heart sank. Ah, he thought. A shame. The day did have to come eventually, but he had been hoping to spend more time around this stallion of the future and glean some of the information that he could. What was the world like? How had Equestria changed? Was he merely a passable spellcaster in his own time, showcasing how far magical education had come? Or was he an anomaly even then?

“Disappointing,” Star Swirl shook his head. “If I may ask, why now? Does it have to do with the events that transpired this morning at the castle?” He did not miss the way Nova Shine’s eyes clenched shut for the briefest of moments as he said that.

“Something like that.”

Star Swirl surveyed Nova Shine. Gone was the lax and goofy yet insecure and self-doubting stallion of previous weeks, and in his place was someone else entirely, someone teetering on the brink of despair. Star Swirl did not know the specifics of what had transpired, only that a murderer had been caught in the act before anything could happen, and that there had been some sort of a kerfuffle.

Knowing he would find out in due course, he sighed.

“So you come to me for one of my most precious spells, seeking a way to return to your own time. I trust you have thought about the risks involved?” he asked, giving Nova a meaningful glance.

Nova nodded tersely.

“Yeah. If I screw up, I could be stuck there for a while. But I know I’ll get it right.”

“You’re certainly not lacking in confidence,” Star Swirl sniffed. “Nova Shine, do you know you will be returning to your own time?”

“I do,” he nodded.

“Are you certain you returned in one piece?”

“Positive.”

“Hm.”

At that moment, a thought occurred to him. All this time, he had known that Nova Shine had come back to the past and was returning to the future, but never had he bothered to ask the most important question.

“Why, Nova Shine?”

Nova Shine blinked, looking confused.

“Why what?”

“Why did you come back?” he clarified. “I.. well, I surmise it must have something to do with what happened at the castle today. It would certainly explain why your departure is so abrupt. What was the purpose of your visit to this period?”

Nova closed his eyes and let out a sharp exhale when he mentioned the castle’s events, but it told Star Swirl more than enough. Something devastating had happened there.

“Not exactly,” he shook his head. “Originally, I came back because this book told me I would.”

His horn shimmered and a small book appeared in his outstretched hoof, which he offered to Star Swirl. Star Swirl took it, flicking it open and leafing through the pages, only to find that not one part of it was written in Equish. In place of every letter, there was a mixture of dots, dashes, and little triangles. Star Swirl’s mouth parted slightly as he pondered this for a moment, before he let out a quiet laugh, hoping not to conceal how impressed he was too much.

“Enciphered and encrypted! How clever, Nova Shine. You avoid the problem of letter frequency, thus making each series of characters much more difficult to decrypt, but even if they were decrypted, it would be next to impossible to determine what you are saying without the cipher. If I may ask, is it encoded as well?”

Nova stared at him, before letting out a disbelieving laugh of his own.

“Finally, someone who knows the difference between them!”

Star Swirl couldn’t help the twitch of his brow. What did he mean, knows the difference?

“But… they mean different things. How could anyone confuse them?”

“Beats me,” Nova shrugged. “I guess something changes between now and then. Speaking of…”

He turned his gaze back down to the book.

“I need this diary to make it from now until my time. Like I said, it’s instrumental in ensuring I come back in time to begin with. I invented this way of keeping what I have to say a secret when I was younger, and just seeing it in a diary that was supposedly uncrackable was enough to convince me to come back, so it needs to make it in one piece from now until then.”

An impenetrable wall of text that he invented…?

No, Star Swirl frowned. Inventing an encryption is easy, but while Nova Shine is intelligent, he isn’t quite brilliant enough to invent a cipher this thorough. However, to combine two methods to cover each other’s weaknesses…? Very clever, Nova. Very clever indeed.

“Surely even if I reject this, it will inevitably find its way to your own time?” Star Swirl couldn’t help himself as the teasing smile spread across his face. “Why not simply bury it in a hole somewhere?”

Nova shook his head, once again rejecting the tiniest level of mirth he was trying to add to the conversation.

“Your family keeps watch over them. At least, they do by my time. I don’t know what happens between now and then, but at the very least, I figure I can entrust this diary to you to make sure that it is watched over until I find it in my own time.”

Star Swirl stared down at the book and pondered the encryption and the text that lay therein. It was an admirable attempt to keep secrets from being discovered by the wrong being, but no encryption and no cipher were perfect. If he had time, perhaps he could crack it and see just what Nova Shine had hidden in here. If what he said was true, then the text alone should be enough for him to see, which means the diary could be filled with all kinds of gibberish and nonsense! Or… perhaps it could be filled with his thoughts, feelings, insights, and experiences, which would make it truly priceless.

One way or another, perhaps he could take the time to try and crack it.

That said, Star Swirl doubted he would truly have the time to devote to this task. The seed he and his fellow Pillars had created was flowering, he had come to watch over its growth, and that meant it could be left in Celestia’s and Luna’s capable hooves henceforward, but other concerns demanded his attention.

Sombra’s recent actions were alarming. To try and engineer a war between the Changelings and ponykind? What was he after? Why had Vorak and Centauria, far to the east of Dream Valley, not contacted him in recent months? Was Tirek free once again? Were they also affected by the Windigoes as Dream Valley was? What had become of the kirin? Why had his correspondent Rain Shine suddenly cut off all communication with him? And why were storm clouds gathering to the southwest, across the seas?

Something was very, very wrong in the world. So much was happening all at once, and though he knew many of these different concerns could take decades, perhaps even centuries to fully materialize, darkness needed to be smothered before it could fester and grow.

Which, of course, led to his current travel plans. He had been keeping a watchful eye on Stygian ever since he and the other Pillars had cast him out, but now Stygian had disappeared as well. This was most disquieting. Stygian wasn’t the stealthiest pony, nor was he capable of simply vanishing off the face of the map like this. Which meant…

“Lord Star Swirl?”

Star Swirl blinked, returning his attention to the diary he had been staring at for several moments now.

“Forgive me,” he shook his head, the little bell on the end of his hat jingling softly. “A lot has happened and a lot more is happening, and I find myself more concerned than most about what I am hearing from the distant corners of the world.”

He nodded to himself, before placing Nova Shine’s diary on his desk, next to the one he had been working on.

“I do not believe I can watch over this diary myself, I have been making travel arrangements as of late,” he gestured over to a corner of his tower where his bags were, indeed, packed. “However, perhaps I can send it along to my daughter Lucia? She and her wife currently live across the sea in Prancia, but I believe they are making arrangements to journey to Unicornia soon. If my family truly does watch over these books until you find them, then perhaps they are safest sent to her.”

Nova nodded. “That’ll work. Thank you.”

“And, one treasure trove of knowledge in exchange for another,” Star Swirl added, holding out his hoof as a small paper scroll appeared in it, which he offered to Nova Shine. “Time Stasis, as requested. You will, however, notice that the spell is incomplete.”

Nova took the scroll, opened it, and scanned the page. Star Swirl watched him closely. Would the stallion panic at the sight of something so complex? Would he realize just what he had asked for?

“So the spell isn’t finished yet?” he asked, looking up and seeming slightly confused.

“Oh I didn’t say that,” Star Swirl replied airily. “I have cast it a few times already. I have left out certain parts on purpose. Nova Shine,” he smiled warmly at the young stallion, “I believe you are more than capable of finishing the empty portions of the spell, so consider this a test of sorts from me.”

Nova’s eyes returned to the text, and he nodded, before the scroll vanished in a brief flimmer of blue light. And with that, he turned around.

“Where are you going now?” he asked as Nova turned to leave.

“The spell clearly requires more energy than I have at my disposal,” he replied. “I will complete the spellwork, but I still need the energy since it requires quite a bit by the look of things. And fortunately, I know just where to get some.”

He paused for a moment, frowning, before he turned back with a sad little smile.

“I guess this is goodbye, Lord Star Swirl.”

Lord Star Swirl shook his own head at this. “I don’t believe so, Nova Shine.”

Nova cocked his head. “You don’t?”

“I can’t explain it,” metaphorically true, “but I wouldn’t be surprised if, by some chance of fate, we do meet once again.”

“You think you’ll make it until then?”

Star Swirl sardonically inclined his head. “I have made it this long, after all. What’s a few more centuries?”

Nova frowned and scrutinized him now, and Star Swirl felt a mite self-conscious. He was a brilliant stallion, this was true, but…

“Oh, don’t go giving me that look,” Star Swirl shooed him away. “Leave an old stallion his secrets, and I shall leave a young stallion his own.”

“Fine, fine,” Nova stepped back, preparing to turn to leave properly. “Don’t blame me for being curious after you tried cracking my diary right in front of me.”

Lord Star Swirl chuckled, before doffing his cap and bowing his head. “It has truly been an honor, Nova Shine. I am glad to have met you.”

“The honor was mine, I assure you,” Nova replied, giving him one last smile, before stepping back toward the steps.

“I guess I shall see you… out there,” Star Swirl muttered once more under his breath. After all, he thought to himself, the future always does hold many surprises…

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

Nova Shine sat alone on a flying carriage as it descended from Mount Canterhorn back to Everfree. Outside, the late afternoon was giving way to evening, and soon he would likely have one last look at a sunset in this time before it came time to return to his own There was nothing more for him here, and he truly wasn’t in the mood to be comforted, yet he had nowhere to go to sit in solitary confinement so that he wouldn’t be found. Clover knew him far too well for him to have anywhere to hide.

All that remained was to return.

Was returning to his own time his punishment? His failure to break things off resulted in Summer’s scorning, and thus in the birth of his archenemy. It was a period he loved, and he had ruined things here, so was it not a fitting punishment to leave and never come back?

Burlap sacks, fat with their contents and tied tightly at the top, rustled slightly as the carriage hit some turbulence.

“Sorry ‘bout that,” the pegasi carrying him called back. “There’s a storm due tonight, we hit some gusts from the pressure!”

“Might not be as bumpy a ride if he hadn’t brought back all those things in those sacks,” the other pegasus commented.

Nova didn’t have any motivation to comment back at them. All he could think about was this morning. Watching his friend be cursed by the Elements, only for whatever consciousness that existed within the Elements to decide that Celestia and Luna had violated their use and turn their “discipline” into a curse against them instead.

“Coming in for a landing soon,” the first one called back. “Get ready.”

Nova thumped the door to acknowledge.

A few minutes later, he was safe and sound back on the ground just inside Everfree City limits, near to the grove he spent so much of his time in, and no sooner had he landed than he had hoisted the sacks up and started trotting away. The last thing he wanted to do was weaken his resolve any further.

Despite this, as he neared his final destination, he saw Princess Celestia and Princess Luna fly out of the castle in the distance and set to lowering the sun and raising the moon. For one heart-stopping moment, Nova paused, suddenly filled with a desire to dash back to his own home, bury himself in his bed, and just continue living here as if nothing had changed…

But that desire passed, and he continued on his way as the sky began to darken.

He trotted quickly, avoiding conversation with any familiar faces, making his way toward the Royal Bank, operating out of the building that would one day be known as the Everfree Vaults when it fell into ruins. He already had a plan in motion, having given Celestia the date of his emergence earlier. As he strode through the doors into the lobby area, noting the familiar sights of the room he, Trixie, and Twilight had trotted through so long ago, and made his way up to one of the tellers, a slouching green earth pony wearing a smart red uniform like all the other bank staff, sitting behind a stall.

“I’m here to visit one of the Royal Vaults,” he stated flatly.

“The reason for your visit?” the teller asked, clearly bored from the day’s proceedings.

“Confidential,” he replied, flashing the Night Apprentice brooch. “I’m afraid that business is between myself and the princesses.”

The teller gave him a once over, suspiciously narrowing his eyes as he surveyed Nova from head to hoof, but shrugged, evidently not paid enough to care.

“Which vault?”

“Vault 713 was the one I was asked to use,” he answered.

The teller flipped through a book that listed certain vaults and the registered owners of them, before nodding to himself when he found the right one. “Very good, it all appears to be in order. Do you need a guide, or can you find your way down to that level alone?”

“I’ll be fine on my own,” he assured the teller, before picking up his sacks and trotting off without waiting for a response.

The trot down was agonizingly slow. There were elevator systems, but he was trying to stretch out as much time as possible, trying to eke out a few final moments here in this time he had grown to love.

But after what felt like both an eternity and only a few moments, he now stood in front of a massive vault door, staring up at the gothic 713 carved above it.

This was it.

A quick burst of magic, the grinding of stone on stone as the vault doors opened, a deep breath to calm his nerves, a flash of blue light as he called forth the spell matrix of Lord Star Swirl’s design, the light clacking of the gems as he set the sacks down within the vault, ready to serve their purpose, and one more deep breath as he prepared to do something precious few ponies had ever done in history, and he was preparing to do it alone.

Time Stasis was a ludicrously complex piece of spellwork. Nova stared down at the page with uncomprehending eyes at the tangled mess of lines, runes, matrices, and nexuses of energy that the spell would be drawing from, trying as much as he could to make sense of the mess. This was going to be difficult, he knew that much going in, but he was unprepared for just how difficult.

He was essentially telling the magical energy he was working with to grab hold of something in this place and simply hold it still for nearly 1300 years. What on earth was his magic grabbing, though? He tried to grab hold of what the matrix told him to, but only found himself snatching at midair in vain.

With a heavy sigh, he realized he was going to have to trust Lord Star Swirl’s spellcraft on this one, and with one more sigh of resolution, he set to work. He was doing a lot of sighing today.

It was grueling work. He only made it about halfway in on his own magical reserves due to the sheer magnitude and complexity of this spell. But that was what the gems were for, and as he continued to add the intricacies and complexities of this mass of magical mystery, he made a mental note to thank Chrysalis for inadvertently helping return him to his own time. At least some good came out of her ordeal, however small.

As Nova allowed the energy from each gem to flow through him, he watched as the multicolored crystals full of sparkling energy drained and became dull and lifeless, an empty and fragile clear mass of minerals, many of which simply crumbled to dust.

He had nearly made it through all the sacks, and was starting to worry he wasn’t going to have enough, when he finally finished. With a satisfied wipe of his brow, he went over it again, making sure every metaphorical I was dotted, every figurative T crossed. The third time he went over it, he found nothing. But he went over it again. And again. He was stalling now, he knew that.

Eventually, he stepped back. It was time to test his work. He located the trigger space on the spell, took a deep breath, and gave it a flick of magic. The ground shone blue, and ripples began to spread out from the center of the spell’s matrix, invisible to the naked eye, ending at the edge of the matrix, with just enough room for one pony to sit inside.

With a swallow and another wipe of the sweat from his forehead, he picked up a few gems from the last remaining sack and tossed them into the circle. The moment they crossed the threshold, they froze in midair. He had done it.

He, Nova Shine, a pony once robbed of his own future as a student at Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns, had comprehended and cast Time Stasis alone.

“You are truly incredible.”

Nova’s eyes clenched shut and he fell onto his haunches as her voice drifted in.

“I’m really not,” he shook his head. “This morning’s enough to prove that.”

He heard hoofsteps, energy sensing failing him due to the complex spell he had just cast and how saturated with energy it was, but paused. Not just one set, but two.

“Both of you come to see me off?” he asked, turning back to see Clover and Steelshod both stepping into the vault, through the illuminated glowstone hall and into the vault proper.

“You were going to leave without saying goodbye?”

She was trying to maintain a neutral expression, but even her best effort couldn’t disguise the fact that she was on the verge of tears. She had known it was coming, but that made it no easier at the moment that he would leave her forever.

“Not exactly,” Nova shook his head. It was true. He had planned to go back and say final goodbyes. At least, he had at first. But he had realized it would hurt too much, and he probably wouldn’t have been able to go through with it if he’d have just stepped outside. But now with them there, he was starting to have second thoughts about going through with it here. “I had a lot to do. It’s taken me hours to do everything I needed to Now…” he gestured at the affected stone floor, “now it’s time to go. But the spell could wait for a few minutes.”

“I have never seen nor felt a spell like that before,” she said, stepping past him to stare down at the suspended gems. “Is that… is that one of Lord Star Swirl’s time spells?”

“It is,” Nova nodded. “Time Stasis. I step inside and the spell will freeze me in place for approximately one-thousand two-hundred fifty-six years. And inside these vaults, I’ll be protected until then no matter what may happen out there,” he pointed with his hoof in the general direction of outside, before wiping the sweat away again. “Celestia already knows, I gave her the date I need her to pull me out by, assuming the spell doesn’t end before that.”

“So you are willing to bend the fundamental fabric of spacetime to make it back to your own time and a mare you love?” Steel asked, looking thoroughly impressed. “Considering everything you did for Clover, this mare must be something else.”

“You don’t know the half of it, Captain.” Nova closed his eyes and let himself imagine Twilight Sparkle once again. That night in Trottingham… the walk in the park… their reconciliation and confessions… “My beautiful star,” he whispered to himself.

“Then…” Clover stepped forward and pulled him to his hooves. “I shall not delay you any longer.”

With that, she stepped forward and, like Summer had, kissed him for the final time, chastely and over far too soon. Nova almost chased after her, feeling his heart thundering in his chest.

“I don’t want to go,” he finally admitted, feeling tears sting his eyes. “I… fuck, I don’t want to leave.”

Clover and Steel looked at each other, then moved as one, embracing him firmly, and holding him up as he worked to compose himself. He almost broke down yet again at the support and clung on to them as though he would be tossed into a tempest if they were gone, all while he choked back his tears.

“Goodbyes are never easy,” Steelshod said in his ear. “Don’t feel bad for feeling this way. It only makes you just like the rest of us.”

Nova let out the tiniest of chuckles, a tired and sad little thing. “It ruins the whole mysterious time-traveler thing I’ve been putting on,” he commented wryly.

“That’s the Nova Shine I know,” Steel gave him a firm clap on the shoulder, and stepped away.

Nova and Clover met eyes one last time, and he felt so much well up inside him as they said so much without saying a single word. He felt the familiar jittering in his chest once more, and eventually took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and turned around to face his way home.

“I’m going to miss both of you. Love you both. Hope you never forget that.”

“Thank you,” Clover whispered. “For everything.”

Nova delayed yet a moment longer, before turning back ever so slightly.

“Take care of her,” he said. Steelshod nodded.

And with a trembling hoof and feeling as though his whole body were leaden, Nova Shine took his final step.

The magic began to swirl beneath him, rooting him to this singular moment in time in this singular spot. In just a few short moments, Clover and Steelshod would be gone, and he would be hundreds of years in the future, in his own time, and they would be nothing more to him but memories.

As visions of Luna, Celestia, Steel, and Clover played through his head, he clenched his eyes shut and choked back a sob. No, no, no, he didn’t want this! HE DIDN’T WANT TO GO!

But…

He remembered who he was returning to. Aegis, Trixie, Spike, his own Luna and Celestia, and…

Twilight.

With one last sigh, Nova Shine raised himself tall and smiled. He was leaving a period he had grown to love, and ponies he had grown close to. And it would hurt to see them go. But he was returning to where and when he belonged, and to the mare who was waiting for him.

Finally, with a flash of blue light, the magic was triggered, and his last thoughts were of Twilight Sparkle.

The next thing Nova knew, he was suddenly yanked forward, falling into a heap on the cold stone floor with a groan. His knees stung slightly, having been skinned by the momentum, and he got to his hooves slowly.

If he was pulled out of stasis like this, then that meant he’d overshot it, and Celestia or Luna would have had to come retrieve him. Still, better to have overshot it than undershot it.

“Could have pulled me out more gently,” he grumbled, noting dimly how dark it was. He’d figured there at least would have been some daylight that had filtered all the way down from up above, but he figured he’d get his fill of daylight soon enough. It was probably just that late in the day, so his rescuer had come to check when he hadn’t shown up.

As he looked up to see Princess Celestia there ready to greet him, he froze.

Her mane was pink. She was taller, but not as tall as he knew she would become, and her mane had not yet taken on the ethereal, free-flowing quality and multihued shades it would in his own time.

He hadn’t gone all the way forward.

“You…” he stared at her, before snarling. “You pulled me out early! Dammit, Celestia, I specifically told you not to pull me out until the date I gave you!”

Princess Celestia winced under the sharpness of his tone, and Nova was startled to see tears at the corners of her eyes. A sinking feeling began to spread in his stomach. No… no, don’t tell me…

“How long has it been?” he asked, reaching out and grasping her shoulder.

“Two… two-hundred fifty-three years,” she said softly.

“Where’s Luna?” he asked, already knowing the answer, the one answer he feared most.

Celestia shook her head, giving him a desperate look.

The sinking feeling turned into an icy stab of dread. There was only one reason she would have pulled him out so early on this day of all days. The earlier lack of lighting now seemed even more ominous as he realized why the darkness pervaded everywhere.

It was the night of Nightfall.

Author's Note:

And that's that! The rewrite proper is complete. Eight-plus years of work, and it's all done.

All that's left to do is a couple of bonus updates that were voted on earlier, but they're gonna be smaller. No grand big chapters or anything, just a redone finale fight and a bonus few scenes in a new chapter (plus some rearranged other scenes). I'll have those finished when I can, and then all my work on Apprentice will finally be at an end.

Rytex out. Have a good day!