History Fanfic / TheArchmagesLastBow

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** Harmonia actively steps in to protect Gleam when Gleam is threatened.

** Nova Shine is frozen due to an energy crash for an indeterminate amount of time at the end of Chapter 9. He can barely breathe, can't move at all, and can only gasp out whispers to call for help. If it weren't for his current HealingFactor keeping him alive but not doing enough to break him free, he would have died in such a state. Had he not been found, he could have suffered for far longer.
* AngerBornOfWorry: When Aegis finds Nova in the Everfree Forest after Nova foes missing following his mental collapse the previous night, the first thing he does is attack Nova in self-defense to neutralize Nova's spellcasting before he can hurt himself, before screaming at him about how worried he is and how Aegis doesn't want to be forced to have to attack Nova like that again.

* BattleCouple: Nova and Twilight.

* ThePerfectionist: Nova has fallen back into this, being unable to see his worthiness for the position of Archmage behind every single tiny mistake he ever makes.

* SpiderSense: Energy-sensing, again.

* SuperSenses: Energy sensing, carrying over from the previous story

** Trixie is the most apparent example so far, as she routinely tries to drive Twilight up the wall when the moment isn't serious, and calls her pretty much anything that sounds like her name but isn't her name just to mildly annoy her.

* ViolentGlaswegian: Star Swirl the Bearded, more matching his canon voice, has a faint Trottish note in his voice, though he has yet to have been seen genuinely angry in this story.

%%* BeamOWar: Nova and Envy in Chapter 2.

* BeamOWar: Nova and Envy in Chapter 2.

* RomanticRibbing: Nova Shine and Twilight Sparkle banter their days away. Nova in general is TheGadfly, but Twilight can dish out as well (such as "admitting" that her favorite soccer team just happens to be Nova's favorite team's arch-rivals to see his reaction).

* LanguageOfMagic: The verbal precursor that Princess Luna uses to comedic effect on Nova and Twilight in Chapter 8, as well as the language of magic used to arrange traps and other enchantments.

* {{Nerd}}: In addition to Nova and Twilight, Bright Gleam is quite the geek when it comes to all things magic. Later on, she sounds thrilled to be talking about Marevel comics as well.

* AdvancedAncientAcropolis: Elysium, the capital city of the Alicorn Empire, a city crafted almost entirely out of orichalcum and located next to the Wellspring.

* HeroicRROD: In a desperate attempt to squeeze more time out of his [[LivingOnBorrowedTime limited supply]], Nova overdoses on Elixir of Energy, suffering from a catastrophic energy crash in which he doesn't even have enough energy in his body to keep his own heart pumping. The end of Chapter 9 sees him whisked away to the hospital to deal with this.

* ModdWhiplash: We go from a scene where Nova and Aegis are watching soccer and bickering about their favorite teams, who are heated rivals, to a scene where Twilight vents her fury at Luna again before discovering that Nova has been using Elixir of Energy to try and sleep less to buy himself more time, and has suffered a catastrophic energy crash.

* WaxingLyrical: Gleam, being silly, manages to cajole ''Star Swirl'' into doing it with her.
-->'''Star Swirl''': For starters, what ''is'' love?\\

* BreakingTheFourthWall: Twilight has a feeling that the readers themselves are being directly addressed at one point, but compares it to the same feeling she gets whenever Pinkie Pie mentions them.
* BrokenHero: Nova Shine utterly collapses by the end of Part 1, finally having a full breakdown when he learns he is dying.

* TheGift: Nova's magical ability is expanded on to the point where he is a total savant with magic. As Twilight puts it, Nova could metaphorically sing with magic on his worst day. It turns out, however, to be a byproduct of his arcane oversaturation, and his greatest gift is ironically what will ultimately kill him.

* GuiltComplex: Nova carries a supreme amount of guilt over his foray into the past and his relationship with Clover, and Twilight carries the guilt of leading on Flash Sentry to make Nova jealous. This comes to a head in their visit to the Empire.

* LemonyNarrator: Compared to the previous story, the narrator has toned down a lot of the snark, although in more light-hearted moments, he still dishes out.

** An alicorn named Ars Arcanum for a brief moment as he finds the Crown of Life within the King's Vault in the city of Elysium.

* ThemeNaming: The Knightmare Brigade, with the exception of Starstep, are named after the Lunar Mares.

* MortalityPhobia: A large part of the reason Nova's crossing of the DespairEventHorizon is because he is afraid to die and he's now LivingOnBorrowedTime because of his .

* PetTheDog: Despite going out of her way to antagonize Nova, Envy tries to convince him to keep Bright Gleam out of harm's way. He doesn't, and she takes it out on him afterward. She also takes time to play with Flurry Heart in the middle of this conversation, and while Nova panics and assuming she's threatening Flurry or trying to kidnap her, she just settles Flurry back into Nova's arms and asks her to be good for her uncle. Based on Flurry's reactions to seeing her, she's been playing with Flurry for some time.

* RunningGag: Gleam's MotorMouth apologies whenever she makes a trivial mistake.

* SensoryOverload: An effective way at neutralizing energy-sensing is shown to be simply letting loose an intense but harmless bit of magic so that it temporarily blinds the one doing the sensing, as before. Sombra uses it to his advantage when it comes to his hidden lab, blinding any would-be sensors who find his lab to keep them unaware of any traps he may have in store for them.

* SuperSenses:Energy sensing, carrying over from the previous story

** Bright Gleam has total admiration for Nova, and not even the horrible thing he shouted at Twilight is enough to make her abandon him.

** In terms of physical prowess, the Crystal Guard are established to be a badass PraetorianGuard for both Princess Cadance and King Sombra before her, and their leader is Captain Cinnabar, personally trained by Sombra and a self-described Master of the seven Styles. She holds her own against Envy at first, but Envy is still able to easily defeat her and slash out her eye.

* ByronicHero: Nova remains a textbook case. Intelligent, likable, and a good-natured sense of humor, but all of that to [[StepfordSnarker mask]] his great insecurities and to avoid getting on the topic of his family issues and past.

* MortalityPhobia: A large part of the reason Nova's crossing of the DespairEventHorizon is because he is afraid to die.

* KnifeNut: Envy still likes to use her silver knife in conjunction with her magic. She is even responsible for the loss of Captain Cinnabar's eye.

* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: As the author puts it in the comments, the characters in the cover art are just the characters with the most screen time.

* GracefulInTheirElement: Twilight muses to Gleam that on some days, Equish feels like Nova's second language after magic. Later, we see Nova locked in battle against Gleam, and Gleam describes him as being utterly graceful in his dodges, precise in his cast spells, and likens all of it to a symphony of magic and movement. Later on, when Nova is hiding away atop Mt. Canterhorn from everyone, he isn't crying or showing emotion, but the magic he is casting is expressing everything for him through color and sound.

* TheWorfEffect: Zig-zagged. Nova gets utterly trounced in a two-on-one battle against both Sombra and Envy right after Twilight just finished telling Gleam (and the audience) that Nova Shine uses magic for much more than just spellcasting. When star Swirl appears and levels the playing field, we see Nova become a terrifyingly competent spellcaster almost instantly.

* AntiMagic: Anti-mages are apparently specialists in magic neutralization, and the higher-ranking ones carry tools of Inmanipulon, the better to ward off any errant enchantments.

* BabySeeBabyDo: Flurry Heart mimics things Nova says thoughout a good portion of Chapter 5.

* ForgottenFirstMeeting: Averted. It takes him a bit of prodding, but Nova is able to remember the first time he met Bright Gleam, four years ago on the day of his first visit to Celestia's School.

** Nova still enjoys messing with Twilight.
** Trixie also goes out of her way to annoy Twilight every chance she can.

* LoveTriangle: Nova and Twilight clearly love each other, but Nova still can't get over Clover, and Twilight has been leading Flash Sentry on to make Nova jealous because of this.

* PalsWithJesus: Bright Gleam now finds herself with personal connections to all four princesses and the Archmage.

* ThePerfectionist: Nova has fallen back into this, being unable to see his worthiness for the position of Archmage.
* PetTheDog: Despite going out of her way to antagonize Nova, Envy tries to convince him to keep Bright Gleam out of harm's way. He doesn't, and she takes it out on him afterward. She also takes time to play with Flurry Heart in the middle of this conversation, and while Nova panics and assuming she's threatening Flurry or trying to kidnap her, she just settles Flurry back into Nova's arms and asks her to be good for her uncle.

* {{Precursors}}: The Alicorn Empire that came before, an ancient civilization that reached godlike levels of power, and then vanished.
* RageBreakingPoint: Three instances in the first half thus far for Nova.

* RebuiltPedestal: Bright Gleam watches her views of Twilight and Nova crumble, but they're rebuilt shortly thereafter when she sees firsthand ''why'' she idolizes them. She simply now sees them with their flaws, as normal ponies.

** Trixie remains the Seductress, as she is very outgoing and as much of a braggart as ever.
** Twilightremains the Wife, as she is ever the devoted student and librarian.

* TraumaCongaLine: '''Boy howdy!''' Part I is utterly devoted to tearing Nova apart. He first learns that Shimmer Silvermane pulled a GrandTheftMe on Summer Blossom, and is holding her hostage in a [[SoulJar Spirit Gem]]. Then his relationship with Twilight is damaged due to him lashing out after accidentally witnessing the moment Flash met Twilight and Twilight continuing to prod hm for an answer he doesn't want to give. Then he's [[CurbStompBattle demolished]] by Sombra and Envy until Lord Star Swirl arrives to turn the tide. After that, the Trial of Black and White completely deconstructs him and rips him apart on the things he is most insecure about, causing him to go into a full HeroicBSOD. After that, he learns he is dying because of the surge of magical energy inside of him. All of this pushes him completely over the DespairEventHorizon.