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Princess Luna takes on a Night Apprentice, her counterpart to Princess Celestia's Faithful Student, Twilight Sparkle. Nova Shine, a wandering unicorn from Canterlot, is given the position for the first time in a thousand years. What neither of them know is that there exists a long and secret history between the positions of the Faithful Student, the Night Apprentice, and a mysterious shadow that seems to keep popping up in Nova's and Twilight's dreams. This shadow, whatever it is, and the dreams it appears in do not bode well, but the Princesses remain tight-lipped about these nightmares.
Nova and Twilight agree to investigate the nightmares themselves, and this mission occupies them for some time. But as they continue their search, their relationship starts to develop into something more than just fellow students. As if to make matters any more chaotic, Trixie Lulamoon arrives on Twilight's doorstep announcing that she, too, has been dealing with nightmare problems.
Finally, there's also the shadow itself. An ancient and dangerous enemy, it has lain dormant for the last thousand or so years. Why it chooses to reveal itself now is anyone's best guess, but unless Twilight and Nova can stop it, there's no telling what will happen to Equestria...
First featured under the old system on 25 November 2013, with occasional reappearances in the new system.
Featured again on 19 November 2022, on its 10th anniversary, and again on 19 November 2023 when the final chapter of the rewrite was published. Many thanks, everyone.
nice
I lost sleep just to read this chapter....WORTH IT!!!
Cant wait for next chapter....and this one was worth it!!!!!
eh Celestia's a bitch
3353936
I disagree. She's doing what's best for Equestria, and that involves tough choices and sometimes a negative approval rate.
3354032
I know, It's just my personal decision I haven't really liked Celestia since the start of the show, plus I think my views have been put Celestia in a negative light thanks to certain fics.
3354032 I agree with you on you statement about Celestia having to make the tough choices, but I personalty think that she could of handled the conversation with a little more tact.
It's interesting, seeing so many people leap to Nova's defense. Maybe it's because so many people dislike Celestia, they'd rather stick to the side of an OC. That or I may have actually designed a good character with relatable flaws. Eh, probably the former.
3354592
It was wording, Nova's personality, a bit of a test, Nova's personality, and Celestia's eye on the future. And Nova's personality. He's got some minor entitlement issues that surfaced at just the wrong time, and his own little issue with ponies controlling his destiny that's been around since Chapter 1. A recipe for disaster that Celestia inadvertently mixed.
3354745 I am not defending the way that Nova acted towards the princesses. I just think that the way that his parents were in his colthood would make him want to forge his own path in life and to find out that somepony is trying to for lack of a better term, force a path on him without telling him were the path was going to end up, would prompt the hostility that was shown by Nova.
This is how i know that i would act if someone was making plans for my life without consulting me
Crap I miss read you comment so none of the above was needed
Sorry about that
3359161
Related.
3378003
Well, I'm in the process of editing, so it may or may not end up happening that way. I'm doing what I can to take my story and make it as good as possible, with my goal being getting this thing on EqD. But let's face it, I'm still a long way from that.
3378009>>3354745
I agree with Nova here. Nobody likes being a pawn, especially when they find out the chess master was a trusted friend.
:Because, my little pony,” said Celestia, kneeling down to meet him at eye level, “being the Bearer of Laughter is more than simply being happy all of the time.”
Bullshit. I know Pinkie Pie.
Haha funny.
Kingdoms Hearts 2 reference. Nice!
I absolutely Love this Story!!
3441304
Ya caught me. I even threw in the Showdown at Hollow Bastion music for good measure, Nice to know my shout-outs are appreciated.
3442706
((yes I just did that)
I love it when authors use references like that. it make the story exciting and fun. Keep up the Great and Powerful work!
3445878
Well, I referenced the music, I referenced a few moments from the games, and there are some more elements I'll be bringing up later. So, only naturally, I brought up the actual lines of dialogue. Love the series that much.
A feather fall enchantment on one of his pieces of Gear would work well enough.
Although it's not likely, maybe the princesses helped him while they were saving the townspeople, but that would be boring.... But would make slight sense considering it says Ray isn't skilled in performing magic...
3459284
I have in my head what I thought he would do, but I forgot to put it. Then I decided, "Well Imma let the readers think about it for themselves. That way they can make him as big a badass as they want."
3462322
I do have quite the imagination. I have over 4 ways he could have landed safely.
Ya no, now that I think about it, I feel sorry for summer blossom. She seemed like a great pony, well she always was until that incident and a huge misunderstanding.
If it makes you feel better Summer Blossom, I still think you're a great pony.... If you're not trying to threaten or kill anyone, I'd totally date you if I were a pony! :)
Well, at least you didn't go the extra mile and make him an alicorn.
Sequel.........YES! HUZZAH, A SEQUEL! Thanks Rytex!
Sequel...Hoo-Ah!!!
earlier in your story celestia hinted that they both become alicorns is that going to happen? or are you just going to elevate twilight? or is it a secret?
3495768
No, but there was a lot of Sue-ness involved. Let's see, the obvious appearance, first person POV, in a romantic relationship with Princess Luna, fighting gods, etc. etc. After a while, I started realizing what I was up to, so I started to change Flare Dancer's character. He kinda developed into his own, but I wanted to change him into a normal pony, and then I was like "You know what would be cool? If he and the Doctor regenerate." And then I was like "Oh, wait, that's exactly what I'm trying to avoid. Screw this, I'm done with it."
Whereas Flare was the one who would say all the actual funny things, and generally be a Red Oni, Frigoris was Flare's Blue Oni. Cold, calculating, reserved, and more of a deadpan snarker
Completely amazing. I enjoyed this story from start to finish! It kept my interest the most out of the hundreds of fics I've read.
10 out of 10 for romance
10 out of 10 for adventure
10 out of 10 for grammar
10 out of 10 for overall story
Amazing job Rytex. I hope it makes it to Equestria Daily.
I know I'm going to feel stupid for asking this, but does this have any significance?:
{T} {A} {T} {S} {A} {T} {C}
3879530
Can you edit your comment to add Spoiler tags around the name? Let's not spoil it for people on the front page. Just use "[ spoiler ]" and "[/ spoiler ]" (no spaces between brackets, though).
I just died from laughing.
Right
Freakin
There
this was an amazing story and i enjoy reading every word of it!!!!!
i can´t wait to read the sequel.
Congratulations, amazing job
3553531 it meansThe Apprentice, the Student, and the Charlatan
4770291
Ooohhhhhhhhhh......
I got followed by Ausbrony. A large part of me died inside from happiness.
5151975
I do have an editor going through it.
And yeah, my writing definitely improved over the course of me writing this. Comparing a fic I wrote before this on FF.Net to the ending of this is a prime example. My writing style changed so much for the better, it's almost unrecognisable.
Normally I would ask to reconsider about the second fic (namely that it isn't quite HiE, and more like amnesiac humanised ponies on earth), but that's your decision. Thanks for reading.
This. Just.... This.
This story is a prime example of why I read FanFiction about anything. It flows well, next to no noticeable errors, and it was written well enough to compete as its own novel if given the chance.
This is definitely something that I would want a bound copy of for my bookshelf. As it stands, If you read this Rytex, I would like to ask your permission to print it off to keep on my bookshelf.
~Tschloken Out.
5477893
Probably could have been worded better, yeah. I may not be the best writer now, but I was in the process of improving over the course of writing this. Nova decided to give "them" a shot. Twilight has been vocal about her feelings for Nova up to that point. Ish, at least. Nova had no desire to be with her, but after Chapter 5, after both the date and the encounter, he's starting to realize what she means to him.
This chapter really, really irritated me. You turned Twilight Sparkle into a damsel in distress. The beginning of the story was rough, and had the relationship happen in abrupt spurts, and far too quickly, and I was irritated that he fell for Clover like that too, but most of the story was pretty good, especially the writing in the latter half. I was all set to upvote and fave this, but this chapter made me want to downvote instead. I'm so annoyed! I mean, obviously Twilight should have teleported away from Envy and the knife. OBVIOUSLY. You never mentioned any magical restraints on her. Furthermore, she and Nova both ought to have been sensing magic and detected the trap. Even after the pathetic scene with helpless Twilight, you continued to make her helpless. Why couldn't SHE levitate the soul jars, hmm? Or teleport them away? Why couldn't she simply levitate Nova out of the fissure? This chapter you made her a wimpy female for Nova to rescue. That's a terrible way to handle writing Twilight Sparkle.
I like this version much more than the other. It is much more detailed and we get to see Nova do a good deed. five eeyups and five mustaches!
5585793
That was the intent. The idea was to take the slower, less-good first few chapters and bring them up to standard. Plus, I followed the advice of the EqD prereader I sent it to.
Are we not supposed to know why he "fled" Canterlot at this point?
5592671
Nope. Now's not the time for knowledge. That comes later. I would be a poor storyteller if I revealed my hand in Chapter 1. Gotta keep the audience speculating, right?
This looks good so far, giving this a try!
5695390
Beware, the quality drops off for a while before getting back up. My writing improved while doing this, and it's very evident early on.
You could easily break this down into several shorter chapters and make it more readable;
Luna taking Nova as her apprentice seemed a bit unexplained; especially given that Nova has been doing everything he can to keep off the charts for the last few years. Maybe Celestia has been giving considerable effort to keep tabs on him all this time if she thinks she knows him well enough to choose him as Luna's apprentice; but if that's the case, and she's known he's that special for that long, you'd ask why she hasn't tried to recruit him in some other fashion before now.
Then skipping the first three years just like that?
5792562
There are reasons for it all. It all gets explained later. The time skip was because Nova was dreaming about that day. Need to make that more obvious. As for why he was only recruited now, suffice to say, for reasons gotten into much later, Nova was always meant to be Luna's apprentice, and Celestia knew it.
Plus, I'd be a poor storyteller if I showed my whole hand in Chapter 1. That's not to say that I'm good, but I know I'm not bad.
And I like longer chapters. More storytelling to do with more time to develop characters.
As for the quotes, thanks for catching the error. Remnants of the unrevised version of the chapte that found their way back in.
if I may be so bold? I honestly prefer the original. It gave nova more depth and made him feel original, instead of happy go lucky. Just my opinion though
5904103
I will say this, and this may just be author's bias, but I can't see what you mean, so you'll have to explain a little further.
However, the main thing here was that when I first wrote "Reunion" almost three years ago, Nova Shine was not a true character just yet. Nova was a concept of what I wanted him to be. As such, he was a fair bit exaggerated in that regard until he settled in. Plus, at this point in the story, you really haven't gotten to know him much, yet. Chapters 4 and 5 are where things are supposed to start getting clearer, maybe even a bit more at the beginning of Chapter 3 too.