Fanfic / The Archmage's Last Bow

Image created by Winterline13^note From top to bottom, left to right, we have Sombra as the Evil Overlooker, Celestia, Twilight Sparkle, Nova Shine, Luna, Bright Gleam, Star Swirl, Envy, Aegis, Trixie, and Sharp Eye

I speak to you, the final emperor of the alicorns,

I speak to you, the bringer of our doom,

I speak to you, the one who would wear life,

I speak to you, the one who would rule over all,

I, Verita, speak to you.

Beware the god-shattering star.

—The Final Prophecy of Empress Verita

Following the petrification of the Terrible Trio, but before her coronation as Ruling Princess, Twilight Sparkle finds her life in the midst of a great upheaval. She and her fiancee of four years, Nova Shine, are preparing to make their final, permanent move to Canterlot, leaving behind the home they've known for the last several years, and Nova has been promoted to the position of Archmage of Equestria after being in training since their previous adventure, and has begun training an apprentice of his own, a young unicorn mare named Bright Gleam.

This upheaval, unfortunately, brings even more trouble with it. Their old nemesis Envy returns to cause them even more mayhem. Nova Shine finds himself wracked with a sudden crisis of confidence. On top of all of this, Equestria itself is still reeling from the attacks by the Terrible Trio, and are laughably unprepared for the new threat Envy represents. And on top of all of this, a familiar foe reemerges and begins to openly pursue an item known as the Crown of Life, an artifact that could bring untold ruination and destruction if assembled the wrong hooves.

Racing against time and against their enemies, and battling themselves just as much as their foes, Nova and Twilight, his apprentice Bright Gleam, as well as their friends Aegis, Trixie, the Princesses, Star Swirl, and Sharp Eye, have their work cut out for them. They must find the Gems of Being that power the Crown first, or at the very least, keep them out of the hooves of Envy and the other interloper, in order to win a battle that will determine the very fate of the entire world, and everyone in it.

The Archmage's Last Bow is an ongoing My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic fanfiction written by FIMFiction user (and troper) Rytex, and is the sequel to The Apprentice, the Student, and the Charlatan, taking the place of a separate sequel that had taken too long to write and been overwritten by canon in the process. It can be found here.

---

This Fanfic Contains Examples Of:

A-F

• Ab Urbe Condita: Nova and Imperius' first meeting has them try to establish when Imperius comes from, and the only date system they both know is ab urbe condita for the city of Roam nearly 12,000 years in the past, which allows Imperius to realize he woke up nearly 10,000 years after going into stasis.
• Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder: Twilight is having several doubts about Nova's previous relationship with Clover in the previous story, believing that he is still not quite over Clover after Twilight was absent from his life for so long.
• The Ace: A great emphasis is placed on just how powerful Nova Shine is with magic. Twilight even makes a direct comparison to Starlight Glimmer to get the point across to Gleam. Star Swirl believes that Nova Shine can work wonders when he has even a modicum of self-belief. Sombra expresses disappointment that Nova fails to live up in a two-versus-one battle, but admits he underestimated Nova in a battle on even footing after Nova trounces Envy. Ironically, the only one who doesn't think Nova Shine is this powerful is Nova Shine himself.
  Twilight: On her best day, Starlight could metaphorically read and write the language of magic. Maybe she could compose something original. On his worst day, Nova can sing in magic.
  • Deconstructed, in a manner of speaking, as well. Nova himself is only so powerful because of a "gift" from Harmonia, that is granting him so much magical energy and potential that if he does not ascend to become an alicorn and inhabit a body that can actually grow to accommodate this much power, it will kill him. The only problem is, it takes more than sheer power to ascend, and Nova flatly does not want to.
• Action Duo:
  • Nova and Twilight against Envy as early as Chapter 2.
  • Nova and Star Swirl kick ass when fighting against Envy and Sombra, who are a villainous example of their own.
• Action Mare: Captain Cinnabar, formerly Sombra's unwilling captain of the Crystal Guard, who prides herself on being a master of several styles of combat and is ready to defend her home to the death. Even after she gets her eye cut out by Envy, she has surgery and returns to service as Gleam's bodyguard during what's supposed to be her recovery period.
• Added Alliterative Appeal: Huati engages in some alliteration in the After Action Patch Up, which gets Nova laughing.
• Advanced Ancient Acropolis: Elysium, the capital city of the Alicorn Empire, is a city crafted almost entirely out of orichalcum and located next to the Wellspring.
• Affably Evil:
  • Envy, when she isn't overtly attempting to get under Nova's skin or murder him or those he cares about, is actually rather friendly toward him when she's "off the clock".
  • Sombra is also nothing but respectful toward Star Swirl, and even Nova Shine, until Nova Shine disappoints him.
• Affectionate Nickname:
  • Nova likes to refer to Twilight as "Twi" (he starts calling her "love" as well once they reach that stage), and Cadance as "Cadenza", just like the previous story.
  • Aegis calls Trixie "Bea", and according to Trixie, only he is allowed to do that.
• After Action Patch Up: After the battle on the way to Mount Glacia, there's a brief moment where everyone is patching up after the Nuckelavee attacks. This is where Nova discovers his Healing Factor.
• The Alcoholic: Nova has become much more dependent on drink this time around, having developed into a full-blown unhealthy coping mechanism that he tries to hide.
• All Girls Want Bad Boys: Fluttershy still does, but she's apparently broken up with Sharp Eye since Apprentice.
• All-Powerful Bystander:
  • Averted by Star Swirl, who leaps into action every time he's near it.
  • Harmonia actively steps in to protect Gleam when Gleam is threatened, and she takes steps to meddle in what she calls the "Great Game". Otherwise, she describes Harmony as a reactive force.
• Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: Timber Feller and Golden Glow to Gleam, but not on purpose.
• Amicable Exes: Fluttershy and Sharp Eye have broken up by the time of Last Bow, though they still remain on good terms, simply wanting different things out of life. According to Sharp Eye, Fluttershy wanted to "tame" him, but Sharp Eye, being a Bounty Hunter, loved his job too much to want to change. Thus, they parted ways.
• And I Must Scream:
  • It is revealed early that Envy is actually Shimmer Silvermane, and that Summer Blossom, whom she's been impersonating this whole time, is sealed within the ruby Spirit Gem Envy always wears.
  • The brief viewpoint we get of Envy, she is experiencing constant whispers for her to kill or otherwise attempt to cause harm and bloodshed, and every moment she isn't, there is a constant pressure.
  • 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 Healing Factor 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. He even almost references the trope by name in Chapter 10.
• Anger Born of Worry:
  • 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.
  • After he wakes up from his energy crash, Trixie smacks him with a pillow over and over for making them all worry.
  • When Twilight sees him for the first time after his energy crash, she's just as angry at him for scaring her out of her mind. Nova calms her down by flirting with her, and she's so taken aback, she lets him off.
• Angst Nuke: When Nova finally learns that he is dying, he seems to lose his mind, before utterly demolishing the room they're sitting in as he teleports away.
• Anti-Magic: Anti-mages are apparently specialists in magic neutralization, and the higher-ranking ones carry tools made of Inmanipulon, the better to ward off any errant enchantments.
• Anti-Villain: Of all ponies, Envy turns out to be a Type-2, being Sombra's direct thrall.
• Apologetic Attacker: Envy, when she is forced to attempt to kill Bright Gleam, after trying to keep Gleam out of the line of fire for a few chapters.
• Apologizes a Lot: Bright Gleam, who launches into a fast and wordy apology every time she believes she messes up in front of Nova, begging him not to reject her as his pupil.
• Applied Phlebotinum: Up to this point, we've seen functioning airships powered by magical fire propulsion, as well as a much more practical look at how the magic of the world works.
• The Apprentice: Bright Gleam, to Archmage Nova Shine.
• Arc Words:
  • "Harmonic Convergence approaches."
  • "What will come will come, and we will be ready to meet it when it does.", linking back to an identical phrase from the previous story.
• Armor-Piercing Question: The way Star Swirl gets Nova to at least return to civilization is by challenging if dying pathetically is how Nova wants to be remembered. Nova, at first, spitefully replies affirmatively, but eventually concedes.
• Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: Implied. Harmonia once was a pony of flesh and blood, but something happened to her and she ended up becoming the Spirit of Harmony.
• Ascended Fangirl: Bright Gleam, from the moment Nova Shine showed up at Celestia's school and wowed her and her classmates in the previous fic, practically worshipped the ground on which he and Princess Twilight walked. According to her mother, she never missed a guest lecture from either of them, and even was able to attend his Ascendancy Ceremony. She then used the opportunity to ask to be his apprentice (much to her own embarrassment), which amused and impressed Nova enough to accept. Unfortunately for her, this lets her see her idols up close and all of their flaws, but being around them and witnessing what they're like even in their non-public moments only reinforces her opinions of them despite this.
• Asleep for Days: Subverted. Nova wakes up after suffering his energy crash and finds Trixie there waiting for him to come to. His first instinct is to ask how long he was out. Trixie hesitates, looking like she doesn't want to answer, and reveals it's only been eight hours. Nova tries to chuck a pillow at her for it.
• Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: At any point when we're following Bright Gleam's POV, expect her thoughts to go off on a tangent due to something she sees before she tries to force herself to refocus on what's going on around her.
• Audience Surrogate: Bright Gleam, who serves as the viewpoint when something is about to be explained, and may or may not make the references that the audience is probably thinking of.
• Axis Mundi: The Alicorn city of Elysium is given all manner of epithets that refer to how magnificent a city it is, such as "Scala ad Caelum", or the "Apex of the World", and even "Where the Cosmos Met the Earth". While the city itself is more of an Advanced Ancient Acropolis than anything by the present day of the story, it was deliberately built next to a massive hole where the mana that circulates under the planet's surface would erupt to protect the planet during an event known as Harmonic Convergence. King Sombra's plan is to assemble the Crown of Life, a ludicrously powerful magical artifact, and to use its power in conjunction with the massive amounts of power set off by Harmonic Convergence to bend the entire world to his whims.
• Baby See, Baby Do: Flurry Heart mimics things Nova says throughout a good portion of Chapter 5.
• Back-to-Back Badasses: Nova and Twilight during the battle with the Nuckelavees. However, while they try to aid each other multiple times, their opponents do a good job of dividing them.
• Badass Cape: Nova's Archmage's Cloak, which he uses to teleport, ward off spells, and look cool. He even handed down his old Night Master Cloak to Bright Gleam for her protection.
• Badass Teacher: Nova Shine, when Bright Gleam is threatened, will move heaven and earth to make sure she's safe.
• Batman Gambit: Envy places a Teleportation Trap spell on the Alicorn Amulet that she's "gifted" to Nova, knowing that Nova would be incredibly suspicious of it and due to his temporary blindness to energy sensing, he would probe it with magic rather than touch it directly. It works, but Bright Gleam is almost able to warn him out of it before he does it.
• Battle Couple: Nova and Twilight, full stop. When fighting the nuckelavees outside the Crystal Empire, they cooperate to take down their opponents and clearly show unshakeable trust in each other.
• "Be Quiet!" Nudge: Twilight still has to elbow Nova after he says something stupid or rude to someone else, usually the princesses or Lord Star Swirl.
• Beam-O-War: Twilight intercepts a blast from Envy in Chapter 2 with her own beam, rescuing Nova and Gleam from her attacks. It only lasts as long as Nova takes to recover and re-enter the fray himself.
• Becoming the Mask: Referenced by Zecora, who believes Nova is faking his mental recovery to even himself in the hopes that at some point, it will actually take.
• Berserk Button:
  • For Nova, hurting children or threatening Bright Gleam. When it looks as though either Flurry Heart or Gleam may be in danger, he becomes much more focused and serious in a given combat situation.
  • When Princess Luna and Princess Celestia reveal that they've known Nova had arcane oversaturation and didn't tell them, Twilight goes into such a rage that her Flamelight form, normally red/yellow/orange/white, burns so hot that her fires are closer to blue, purple, and black.
• Beta Couple: Aegis and Trixie. Both are close friends of Nova and Twilight, but while Nova and Twilight are going through no shortage of trouble and their relationship is becoming more and more strained, Aegis and Trixie seem to have comparatively few troubles with each other in their relationship outside of the physical distance, with Aegis living and working in Canterlot and Trixie living and working in Ponyville. According to Aegis, they have needed a break at times, but they've never been shown to be anything less than completely enamored with each other when they've been together.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Whenever Nova has been forced to take combat seriously and finds himself on even ground, he becomes a force of nature, utterly trouncing Envy and even making a battle difficult for Sombra.
• Big Bad: Sombra. Envy has been relegated to his dragon, but still very much remains The Heavy.
• Big Brother Instinct: When Nova screams at Twilight, Shining Armor is very quick to rough him up for it.
• Big Damn Heroes: Star Swirl shows up just in the nick of time to turn the tides against Sombra.
• Big Sister Mentor: Twilight is shaping up to be something like this to Bright Gleam.
• Bizarchitecture: Twilight notes that the city of Elysium has buildings that seem geometrically impossible to build.
• Blood Magic: Soulular Magic requires a "Blood Cost", though according to Nova, it doesn't necessarily need to be paid in actual blood. For example, Soul Implantation shatters the horn of its caster.
• Blunt "Yes": Bright Gleam asks Harmonia rather directly if she is gambling on Nova Shine living up to the hopes she has placed on him. Harmonia responds thusly.
• Book Ends: Part 1 begins and ends with an echo of Nova laughing unexpectedly.
  • In chapter 2, Gleam slams the door in Nova's face.
    There was a single heartstopping moment, where she could feel her heart beating a mile a minute as she processed what she had just done, when the most unexpected sound she could imagine started coming from outside the door: laughter.
  • In chapter 7, Nova learns he is dying.
    Before any of them could respond, however, the one reaction they never could have expected rang out.
    Laughter.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall:
  • 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.
  • At one point, Gleam is explicitly noted by the narrator to be repeating the previous sentence.
• Broken Hero: Nova Shine utterly collapses by the end of Part 1, finally having a full breakdown when he learns he is dying. Part 2 opens with him still suffering from major panic attacks and nightmares.
• Broken Pedestal:
  • Gleam idolizes Nova and Twilight, and when she starts to see their flaws and their friction with one another, wrestles with it for a time, but ultimately remains starry-eyed with them.
  • When Celestia and Luna reveal that Nova is dying, and that they've known or had suspicions for some time and never told either of them, Twilight becomes completely hostile to both of them, even speaking uncharacteristically harshly to Luna while trying to organize a search for a missing Nova.
• Brooding Boy, Gentle Girl: Nova forms this dynamic with Twilight, Trixie, Luna, and Gleam all there trying to help him whenever he is having trouble.
• Burning with Anger: Twilight's Flamelight form becomes a recurring ability of hers, and when she's angry enough, the flames burn even hotter shades of blue, purple, and black.
• Byronic Hero: Nova remains a textbook case. Intelligent, likable, and a good-natured sense of humor, but all of that to mask his great insecurities and his fears of dying.
• Can't Hold His Liquor: Between Apprentice and now, Nova Shine's alcohol tolerance has taken a drastic turn (partly because he drinks stronger things), and now he is an extra-surly drunk.
• Card-Carrying Villain: Envy remains a Type-3, though she has a distaste for it now that the circumstances of her villainy are known to the protagonists.
• Cast from Calories: Solidified, after being implied in the previous fic. The energy balance maintained by sleeping, resting, and eating factors into the amount of energy available for spellcasting, and Nova's catastrophic crash causes him to be barred from all but the most basic spellcasting until he's back on his hooves.
• Catapult Nightmare: Nova has a horrible nightmare at the opening of Chapter 8 and catapults upright, before launching himself out of bed and making a mad dash to a nearby bar.
• Character Catchphrase: It's practically once a chapter that Gleam will go off on a mental tangent, before stopping and telling herself "Focus, Gleam." to get herself back on track.
• Character Tic: As before, Nova tends to rub around his horn whenever he's in deep thought. Similarly, Twilight taps her chin when doing some serious thinking. It rubs off on Nova, because he starts doing it too. As well, Bright Gleam picks up on the horn-rubbing from her master.
• Child Abuse Is a Special Kind of Evil: Envy implicitly threatens Gleam to get to Nova in their first meeting, and when Nova finds out about their meeting, he hurries off and tries his damnedest to smush Envy to a pulp without playing the usual banter game that Envy is expecting. This lasts until Envy drops the bombshell that she's Shimmer Silvermane and has been possessing Summer all along, where Nova's anger gives way to desperation instead.
• Classical Anti-Hero: Nova, even more so than before. Far stronger and more skilled than he was in Apprentice, just as intelligent and cunning, but severely plagued with self-confidence issues, alcoholism, and his relationship with Twilight is falling apart.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: When Nova came back still with a soft spot for Clover, Twilight did not get over it so easily, and it causes a lot of friction between them.
• Cloak of Defense: The Archmage's Cloak functions just as the Night Apprentice/Night Master cloak did, and Nova even bequeaths his old cloak to Gleam to protect her.
• Cloth Fu: Nova uses his cape in combat with Envy as a magical shield.
• Clothing Combat: Nova uses his cloak as a shield to deflect spells.
• Cold Ham: Sombra in canon is a scenery-chewing Laughably Evil Smug Snake. Here, however, he is calm as can be even in the midst of battle, and never once raises his voice even when delivering normally-bombastic except in a brief moment in which he is in pain.
• Color-Coded Characters: Nova is blue, Twilight is magenta. Bright Gleam is green.
• Color-Coded Wizardry: Magical resonances enforce this, as before. Everyone's resonance is uniquely theirs.
• Combat Pragmatist: Nova continues to try to take every advantage he can in battle, including attacking while Envy's in the middle of her villainous monologue, among other things.
• Conlang: In the first part of Chapter 10, Verita's final prophecy is transcribed into High Alicornian, and Sombra even notes some of the intricacies of it as he ponders the language of the prophecy.
• Continuity Nod: The story takes place between "The Ending of the End -- Part 2" and the present-day parts of "The Last Problem." Canterlot remains under reconstruction, Twilight isn't coronated as the ruling Princess just yet, the statue of the Terrible Trio is on display not far from Celestia's and Luna's temporary house, and so on.
• Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: While she still is pitted firmly against Nova, Envy is Sombra's personal thrall this time around, and while Envy was an Ax-Crazy Large Ham and very much a Card-Carrying Villain, Sombra is subdued, pragmatic, and is convinced he is doing everything towards a greater goal only he knows.
• Cool Teacher: Bright Gleam thinks the world of both Nova and Princess Twilight, even after watching them slowly fall apart.
• Cooldown Hug: Gleam and Twilight to Nova atop Mount Canterhorn after Nova fully breaks down when he learns he is dying.
• Cosmic Chess Game: According to Harmonia, there is one being played between two mysterious players over the Gems of Being, neither of which are aware of the other's existence. This game has been going on for so long that it predates even Star Swirl and Sombra by millennia. One of them is implied to be Ars Arcanum.
• Cruel to Be Kind: Referenced by name by Aegis when he is trying to convince Nova to stop fake-having fun and start actually having fun to let himself relax and mentally relieve himself of his burdens. Nova notes that Captain Steelshod also gave him bitter truth pills to swallow at times.
• Cry Laughing: Upon learning he is dying, the four mares in the room at the time (as well as the thestral guards outside) are startled to hear that Nova's first reaction to the news is to laugh. The laugh gets more and more unhinged until he starts sobbing.
• Crystal Prison: Nova, when inside Shimmer Silvermane's head, sees Summer Blossom's soul trapped in a crystal the same shade of red as Envy's pendant.
• Curb-Stomp Battle:
  • Nova gets utterly demolished by Envy and Sombra together. When Star Swirl arrives to even the playing field, he and Nova utterly trounce Sombra and Envy, though Sombra hadn't adjusted to his new body at the time.
• Curtains Match the Window: Nova's mane, tail, and eyes are the same shade of deep blue.
• The Cynic: Nova falls back into it as his life falls apart.
• Darker and Edgier: While it still has plenty of goofy moments, the fic takes a much more serious approach to Nova's many issues and antagonists compared to Apprentice.
• Deadpan Snarker: Everyone has their moments, but mostly Nova. Even Bright Gleam gets in on it, though it takes her a while to mouth off to Nova. Nova finds it Actually Pretty Funny and is glad she's loosening up around him.
• Department of Redundancy Department: Lampshaded.
  Still, she had come out here expecting to learn magic, not defense.
  “I thought you took me on as your apprentice so I could learn magic, not self-defense,” she said, redundantly repeating the previous sentence almost word-for-word redundantly.
• Despair Event Horizon: When Nova learns he is dying, he crosses it with somewhat explosive (yet harmless) results.
• Didn't Want an Adventure: Gleam bemoans that all she wanted to do was go to the library at the start of her POV section in chapter 5, only for the mysterious voice in her head to nudge her somewhere into the Crystal Spire.
• Dismantled Macguffin: The Crown of Life, an orichalcum crown with sockets for the three Gems of Being. A semi-direct comparison to the Infinity Gauntlet is made to describe it.
• Doorstopper: Seven chapters in, already over 100,000 words, with lots more to come.
• Dream Weaver: Luna and Nova, as before.
• Driving Question: Imperius is said to have been haunted by a question that drove him for his entire life, one born of the prophecy written in the page quote. "What is the god-shattering star?"
  • Sombra is also pondering its meaning, though unlike Imperius, who is implied to have believed the god-shattering star would destroy the Alicorn Empire, Sombra believes the god-shattering star could be something he could control and use, and he even believes the god-shattering star may not be something and may instead be someone.
• Drowning My Sorrows: Alcoholism catches up to Nova hard this time round after mostly not being touched on in the previous story. Nova drinks to cope, and this has a serious effect on his relationships with Twilight and Trixie.
• Eldritch Location: Star Swirl describes the Crown of the World this way, a desolate icy plain north of Yakyakistan. He indirectly mentions things such as sun dogs, the aurora borealis, the ever-shifting magnetic north, and the fact that, on a plain as featureless and flat such as that, there is no visible way to tell one is making any progress. Notably, even Star Swirl seems haunted by his experiences with it. Add to this that the Alicorn Empire constructed their capital at the very heart of it, quite literally just to prove that they could.
• Elemental Powers: Carrying over from last time, everyone still has their elemental powers. Nova's and Twilight seem to evolve between then and now.
  • Blow You Away: Nova's wind abilities seem to have expanded to being in control of even gales atop mountains.
  • Playing with Fire: Twilight's Flamelight form goes as far as burning blue, purple, and black when she is truly enraged at Luna and Celestia.
• Energy Ball: In addition to his uses from the previous fic, Nova now uses them as physical stepping stones to gain altitude and as shields. Their shape boils down to personal preference, as Lord Star Swirl uses his in the shape of lines, which he can form into a magic whip.
• Establishing Character Moment: Bright Gleam's first appearances are her asking to be Nova's apprentice, followed by her being down about embarrassing herself, and then reacting with utter glee when Nova and Twilight arrive to accept her request.
• Everyone Has Standards: Hurting foals is the one line Envy does her damnedest not to cross, but Sombra leaves her with no choice in the matter.
• Evil Redhead: Envy disguises herself as Summer Blossom much of the time, whose mane is a maroon color, even though hers is naturally silver.
• Evil Sorcerer: Sombra returns as the main antagonist of the story.
• Exact Words: Nova cautions Gleam to watch her tail during training. He never said there would be an attack from that direction. Gleam isn't amused.
• Exactly Exty Years Ago: Lampshaded, then justified. Harmonic Convergence happens every 10,000 Years. Nova finds it convenient. Star Swirl then notes that it was an event so significant to the alicorns that they oriented their entire dating system around making it line up.
  Twilight then felt the strangest sensation, the same she usually did whenever Pinkie went off on these long tangents about whoever these mysterious “readers” were, as if they were being directly addressed.
• Eye-Dentity Giveaway:
  • Envy taunts Nova over the fact that he never realized who she really was, given the pony Nova thought she was didn't have red eyes at all up until her supposed Face–Heel Turn.
  • Bright Gleam's eyes are normally green, but after she allows Harmonia to take over in desperation as she's attacked by Envy, her eyes turn white when she's under Harmonia's influence.
• Eye Scream: Envy slashes out Captain Cinnabar's eye with her silver knife during their fight. Captain Cinnabar doesn't treat this as much more than a mild inconvenience.
• Eyepatch of Power: Captain Cinnabar now sports one as of Chapter 8, after having her eye taken out by Envy in Chapter 6.
• Face Death with Dignity: Star Swirl indirectly challenges Nova to do this rather than die ignominiously. Aegis later reinforces that idea, since Nova knows that he's going sooner rather than later, he can make sure that he does everything he feels he needs to and goes to his grave in peace.
• Face Hoof: Just about everyone's standard reaction to someone else's stupidity.
• Fantastic Caste System: In Ars Arcanum's flashback in Chapter 9, it's revealed that the alicorns sit on a tier above non-alicorns in their empire, whom they call "Subservients".
• Field Power Effect: According to Star Swirl, Harmonic Convergence causes any spellcasters in its affected area to have their power magnified by hundreds of times.
• The Final Temptation: Said word-for-word by Star Swirl. The Crown of Life is an artifact so fantastically powerful that it could rewrite reality to be the way the pony who wore it would want. It is not omnipotent, but it is powerful enough to represent everything a pony could ever want being within reach. Even free will could be overwritten with the Gems of Mind and Soul. Twilight recognizes immediately what a truly dire threat it is that Sombra seeks it.
• Flare Gun: A magical example in the Crystal Empire, used to call for emergency aid and reinforcements on the trek to Mt. Glacia.
• Foe Romance Subtext: Envy outright says she exploits this to make Nova uncomfortable.
• For Want Of A Nail: Ars Arcanum's flashback all builds up to Imperius requesting that he look into what would become the Crown of Life. The final line makes it clear that this simple favor for a friend would lead to their doom.
• Forgotten First Meeting: Averted. It takes him a bit of prodding, but Nova can remember the first time he met Bright Gleam, four years ago on the day of his visit to Celestia's School, when he came to talk with Tantalus Lulamoon and Thomas Hoofman.
• Free-Fall Romance: Nova and Twilight share an intimate moment at the end of Nova's little skydiving moment in Chapter 4.
• Freudian Trio: At almost all times, closed-off Nova is the Superego, warm Twilight is the Ego, and excitable Gleam is the Id.
• Friend to All Children: Expanded from before. Now, Nova wants a foal of his own with Twilight, a daughter named Glimmer. He also particularly enjoys spending time with Flurry Heart, who thinks of him as her favorite uncle "Uncanoba", and just being around her is enough to calm him down after the previous day's fireworks.
• From Hero to Mentor: Nova Shine becomes Equestria's latest Archmage, having previously been Princess Luna's Night Apprentice only a few years earlier in The Apprentice, the Student, and the Charlatan, and one of the first things he does is take on his own apprentice, Bright Gleam, a unicorn filly he briefly encountered in Apprentice's early chapters.

G-M

• The Gadfly
  • Nova still enjoys messing with Twilight during lighter points.
  • Trixie also goes out of her way to annoy Twilight every chance she can when it isn't a serious moment. And when Nova wakes up after a catastrophic energy crash, she scares him by making him think he's been Asleep for Days, when in reality, it's only been an evening.
• Geek: 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.
• Generation Xerox: It's unknown if he is descended, but the brief snippet of King Imperius' appearance we get in his small flashback describes him as being white-coated and blue-eyed, with a blue mane and tail, making him extremely similar in appearance to Nova Shine, whom he is sharing headspace with.
• Gentleman Snarker: Aegis, who will routinely mouth off to Nova but be so gosh-darned polite about it.
• The Gift:
  • Nova's magical ability is expanded on to the point where he is a total genius 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.
  • Ars Arcanum's arcanosmithing talent is apparently prodigious, to the point where he states that he would have to advance arcanosmithing forward by centuries when working on the Crown of Life, something that he ultimately succeeded in doing.
• Glowing Eyes of Doom: Nova, on top of Mount Canterhorn, when he is channeling his magic in an attempt to cope with the news he's just learned. Gleam is able to give him a Cooldown Hug.
• God Is Flawed: To call her a god would be quite the stretch, but Harmonia represents the closest thing in the story, and she herself freely admits that due to Harmony being a reactive force and due to her still being equine in mind and soul if not in body, she is still fallible and prone to errors. Nova Shine's current predicament is due to a miscalculation on her part, as she did not know that her gift to him would accelerate so quickly.
• God Save Us from the Queen!: Twilight's brief vision of a world under her rule with the Crown of Life at her disposal. On the surface, it's an idyllic world. Harmony and friendship reign supreme, everyone cooperates, and she and Nova enjoy a long and happy life. But the more she thinks about it, she realizes that as long as she were to wear the crown on her head, she would be coercing everyone, whether she realized it or not, to accede to her will. After all, with that much power at her disposal, who could deny her?
• Good Hurts Evil: At one point, Harmonia herself uses some kind of spell of pure piercing light on Shimmer and it causes Shimmer to suffer excruciating pain. According to Harmonia, it's because she is attempting to forcibly remove Sombra's soul from corrupting her, but it wouldn't let go which causes the pain as Shimmer's soul is being torn apart.
• Good Is Not Nice: Nova is a very snarky and goofy stallion, but the few times he's been legitimately angry, he's taken the culprit to town.
• Graceful in Their Element: 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 Envy, 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.
• Graceful Loser: When it becomes clear that Nova and Star Swirl have him and Envy defeated, Sombra bows out with a humble acknowledgement of their victory. When he sics three Nuckelavees on Nova and co. a chapter later, after Nova bests his Nuckelavee and meets Sombra's gaze in a direct challenge, Sombra merely inclines his head with a smile and takes his leave.
• Grand Theft Me: At the beginning of Part 2, we finally see what Nova saw in Envy's head: Envy's soul is slowly being usurped by a portion of Sombra's soul, visualized with Envy's body being half-Shimmer, half-Sombra. As well, we see Summer's soul, trapped behind a wall of crystal.
• Gratuitous Iambic Pentameter: A habit of Nova's that still hasn't gone away. Also apparently the preferred speech pattern of King Imperius.
• Greater-Scope Paragon: Harmonia/The Consciousness Of Magic/The Spirit of Harmony, a being to whom even Celestia bows as before, who is now whispering advice in Gleam's head and keeping her safe from harm. In addition, King Imperius seems to be hanging out in Nova's as well.
• Guilt Complex: 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 Flash Sentry on to make Nova jealous. This comes to a head in their visit to the Empire.
• Hearing Voices:
  • Nova seems to now be letting Imperius, the erstwhile King of the Alicons, take up space in his head, and they've had a few conversations.
  • Gleam hears the whispers of Harmonia in her head as well.
• The Hecate Sisters:
  • Bright Gleam is the unambiguous maiden, being a tiny bit ditzy, starstruck over Nova and Twilight, and simply wanting to learn magic from her idols, not get caught up in a grand adventure.
  • Twilight is the Matron, trying her damnedest to hold everyone together as everything around them goes to hell in a handbasket.
  • The role of the Crone typically falls to Trixie, despite her not being any older than anyone else, but being particularly sarcastic and not afraid to snark to anyone and everyone, but also willing to comfort Nova and Twilight whenever they need it. At times, Captain Cinnabar acts this way, being an experienced soldier who previously served Sombra, who is professional and deadpan on the best of occasions, but does still earnestly believe Nova is the best teacher for Gleam.
• Helping Would Be Killstealing: More or less Star Swirl's exact reasoning for not sharing the location of the Gem of Mind with Nova. Nova calls him out on not helping them despite this quest they're on being on a time crunch, but Star Swirl simply rebuts that Nova would be robbed of the lessons learned from figuring it out himself, and all of its logical extrapolations. However, he does concede that Nova has a valid point, and promises that if Nova has not figured out the answer himself in a few days, he will point Nova in the right direction.
• Heroic BSoD: Following his trial at the Shrine of Black and White, Nova completely shuts down as he tries to process and cope with his failure.
• Heroic RRoD:
  • In a desperate attempt to squeeze more time out of his 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 heart pumping. The only reason he's even still alive is because of his Healing Factor just barely keeping him so. The end of Chapter 9 sees him whisked away to the hospital to deal with this.
  • The ultimate fate of Nova's arcane oversaturation, if he does not ascend to become an alicorn, is that he will be unable to contain all of the magical energy within his body, and it will cause him to explode.
• Heroic Self-Deprecation: Nova's self-confidence issues have gotten even worse as he's gotten closer to becoming the Archmage, to the point where he doesn't even think he's fit for the position.
• Hidden Depths: In addition to being Nova Shine's apprentice and gunning for the valedictorian spot at Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns, Bright Gleam is also a massive Marevel Comics nerd behind the scenes.
• Hideous Hangover Cure: Trixie uses the same hangover cure that Nova's father used in the previous story on him when they find him drunk and hiding in his room.
• Holding Hands: Hooves rather than hands, but Twilight is still rather fond of curling a hoof around Nova's.
• Hope Is Scary: Lord Star Swirl cautions Nova that hope of survival for someone condemned to die can be more dangerous than helpful, because it can drive a being to do worse and worse things for the sake of staying alive.
• I Did What I Had to Do: Sombra justifies his actions to himself with The Needs of the Many. It remains to be seen who "the many" are.
• Imagine Spot: A few times while around Flurry Heart, Nova imagines what it would be like if he and Twilight had a daughter named Glimmer. Twilight indulges in one of these to see what it would be like if she were the one to wear the Crown of Life on her head.
• Insecure Love Interest:
  • Twilight, after letting Nova's feelings for Clover hang unaddressed following his return, decided to make Nova jealous by leading Flash Sentry on, though she never truly pursued him.
  • Nova himself is extremely insecure about the status of their relationship because of this, and just the mere sight of Flash is enough to set him off, culminating in him screaming at her after she continues to press the issue.
• Insult of Endearment:
  • While not exactly an insult, Nova called Cadance "Cadenza" just to spite her when he was younger. Even after he stops loathing her very presence, he still calls her that, but with absolutely no spite involved.
  • Envy starts calling Nova "bonehead" early on, and it becomes less and less of a genuine insult over the course of the story.
• Intangibility: Envy continues to use this to her advantage, but Nova is ready to force her into a solid form whenever she's around to make sure she can be hurt.
• Invisibility Cloak: Nova's Archmage Cloak, and Gleam's inherited Night Master Cloak, though we have yet to see them be used.
• Jade-Colored Glasses: Nova's cynicism comes out when he's feeling particularly down, as most times, he's fairly realistic.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: We see Nova at his worst several times in the beginning, but he is still ultimately trying to be as good as he can.
• Knight of Cerebus: Outside of some light quips or Black Comedy, whenever Envy or Sombra are around, things take a far more serious turn.
• Laughably Evil: While nowhere near as goofy as the main cast and she is still firmly a Knight of Cerebus, Shimmer Silvermane can snark and complain about as much as the main cast whenever she's not up to anything nefarious.
• Lemony Narrator: 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. At one point, the narrator goes off Waxing Lyrical about Twilight considering herself the very model of an arcane expert general.
• Like a Son to Me: One reason Nova latches onto Gleam is due to his own desires for a daughter.
• Like Cannot Cut Like: One of the rules of magic, as established before.
  • The First Fundamental Law is that, no matter how powerful one source is compared to the other, magic cannot pierce or go through magic through natural means. Magic can push other magic back, but it can't go through other magic.
• Living Lie Detector: Anyone who has basic energy-sensing. A being who lies generates a physical reaction that causes a change in the energy the body is giving off, referred to as "the telltale flareup," that an energy-sensor can detect. But it's not infallible. If someone knows what to shield, then there's no telling whether or not they're lying, but the presence of shielding magic makes it suspicious all the same.
• Living on Borrowed Time: Nova. He knows that he'll die, but not when.
• Living Shadow: Envy, the result of her curse from the Elements in the previous story, and Sombra as seen in the show.
• Lost Technology: Orichalcum-mining. Modern ponies can shape it, but nearly all orichalcum was extracted from alicorn ruins.
• Lotus Position: Nova, in his trance atop Mt. Canterhorn.
• Love Triangle: An interesting case. Nova and Twilight love each other very dearly, but Nova still can't get over Clover despite her being gone from his life for years, and Twilight has been leading Flash Sentry on to make Nova jealous because of this despite feeling no attraction to him.
• Magic A Is Magic A: Nova and Twilight spend some time pondering over the Alicorn Amulet's spontaneous auto-repairing of itself, and Nova spends several paragraphs muttering and musing to himself about how, from a logical standpoint, this amulet's ability to just create energy out of nowhere completely contradicts every law, physical, magical, thermodynamic, and so on, and thus they're looking for the point that the logic kicks back in.
• Magical Guardian: Harmonia, the Spirit of Harmony, takes an active role in ensuring Envy cannot harm Bright Gleam.
• The Main Characters Do Everything: Somewhat averted. While Celestia and Luna mostly sit back and ensure Canterlot and Equestria rebuild after the Terrible Trio's attack, everyone else is very active in terms of the story's events.
• Major General Song: Not in song form, but the narrator puts together several sentences recreating the structure and rhyme of it to describe Twilight's magical knowledge and intelligence.
• Master of All: Captain Cinnabar describes herself as a master of the Seven Styles, personally trained by Sombra himself. However, as good as she is, Envy is far more deadly.
• Meaningful Name: It turns out Shimmer Silvermane isn't called Envy for nothing. She's King Sombra's Envy, one of his seven servants named after the Seven Deadly Sins.
• Mistaken for Cheating: Twilight led Flash on, but tried to put a stop to it when she started feeling guilty. Nova stumbled upon it in her dreams and assumed she actually had gone behind his back, and this causes no shortage of friction in much of the beginning of the story.
• Mood Whiplash: 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.
• Mortality Phobia: A large part of the reason Nova's crossing of the Despair Event Horizon is because he is afraid to die and he's now Living on Borrowed Time because of his arcane oversaturation.
• Motor Mouth: Bright Gleam, when she gets flustered, speaks a mile a minute while she tries to apologize for being disrespectful.
• Mr. Exposition: It usually falls on Twilight or Nova to explain goings-on when Gleam is asking questions.
• Mr. Vice Guy: Nova has some serious alcoholism issues this time around.

N-Z

• Nerd Action Hero: Gleam's opinion of Nova, who backs it up.
• Nervous Wreck: Nova was already one, but Part 1 just puts him through the wringer until he falls apart entirely and has a total breakdown. Part 2 picks up with him having another one.
• The Not-Love Interest: Trixie and Nova remain Platonic Life-Partners.
• Nuckelavee: Summoning these made out of shadow is something King Sombra and Envy demonstrate multiple times. Early on, Envy summons one to keep Twilight occupied while she enjoys a one-on-one conversation with Nova to torment him. Later on in the story, King Sombra sics three of them on Twilight, Nova, and co. to both test their ability and to keep them busy while Envy is sent to assassinate Bright Gleam. They are described as being horned and are protected from exterior attacks, so Nova, Twilight, and several members of the Crystal Guard are forced to find ways to strike at their insides, which they do via the mouth.
• Official Couple Ordeal Syndrome: Nova and Twilight's relationship gets put through the wringer in Part 1, and while there are signs that it is repairing, it still hasn't properly been allowed to heal by the time of Part 2.
• One-Steve Limit: Thoroughly averted, and even lampshaded by Shimmer Silvermane, who wonders aloud why unicorns seem confined to the same several names, coupled with how there are supposedly two Shimmers running around (herself and Sunset Shimmer), and then wonders if there's a third out there somewhere (there is, Nova Shine's mother Shimmer Novus).
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
  • Twilight loses her composure with Celestia and Luna, and gives them an extremely loud and furious What the Hell, Hero? when they reveal Nova Shine is dying, and they've had suspicions for some time.
  • Nova, when he has seriously been upset, becomes belligerent, and is constantly at risk of finding himself a bottle to try and find solace in. Twilight does everything she can to try and keep it from happening whenever she senses it.
• Orichalcum: A perfect arcane conductor, and a highly sought-after metal in modern technology. The Crown of Life is forged from it.
• Pals with Jesus: Bright Gleam now finds herself with personal connections to all four princesses and the Archmage, as well as having the Spirit of Harmony talking to her in her head.
• Papa Wolf: Nova Shine as well, although he isn't a literal father to Bright Gleam. But whenever he finds her in danger, he goes berserk to defend her.
• The Perfectionist: 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. Aegis also shows shades, expressing dismay that he is to be promoted to Captain of the Guard which would put him close to Shining Armor in terms of his career's meteoric rise, when he feels he doesn't deserve it.
• Pet the Dog: 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 assumes 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.
• Posthumous Sibling: Nova has a deceased older sister that he doesn't remember much about. It isn't a source of emotional baggage for him, but based on his point of view narrator, it still affects his mother and father quite severely.
• Power at a Price: Soulular magic, a branch of Dark Magic that takes a "Blood Cost" from its caster.
• Power Degeneration: Nova's arcane oversaturation is growing. The more magic he expends, the faster it replaces itself and adds more to his system. Eventually, his body will explode from the amount of energy that he physically cannot contain.
• Power Glows: The three Gems of Being are said to have an eerie glow so brightly that it completely overshadows the brightness of a pony's magical aura.
• Power Nullifier:
  • There is a stone known as inmanipulon that magic is 100% ineffective against, as it absorbs magical energy. High-ranking anti-mages reportedly carry tools made from the stuff to sniff out and nullify any potentially harmful magical enchantments.
  • Nova and Star Swirl routinely use a spell to prevent Sombra and Envy from entering into their intangible shadowy forms, to keep them vulnerable.
• Praetorian Guard: The Crystal Guard to Sombra and Cadance after him. Two of them take down a Nuckelavee on their own, while the third holds her ground against Envy for a brief time, before having her eye slashed out.
• Pragmatic Villainy: Mused upon by Sombra. He ruthlessly kills anti-mages because they're in his way, but he allows the last one to die with a vision of a happy life, wondering internally if it were mercy or pragmatism. Moments later, as he contemplates giving an order to kill Bright Gleam if Harmonia interferes with his plans, he muses again, "was it cruelty or pragmatism?"
• Precursors: The Alicorn Empire that came before, an ancient civilization that reached godlike levels of power and then vanished.
• The Prophecy: See the page quote. Empress Verita left one final prophecy that young Prince Imperius stumbled upon that has haunted him ever since, as it speaks of a doom and "the final emperor", and Imperius wishes to defy it, or at the very least, he doesn't want it to be speaking to him. It is unclear whether the prophecy has been fulfilled yet (given the first flashback to finding the prophecy was 10,000 years before the present day), or whether it remains unfulfilled.
• Rage Breaking Point: Two instances in Part 1.
  • Twilight continues to press the Flash Sentry issue as Nova tries to cool down, and this eventually goads him into screaming at her.
  • The princesses hiding information about Nova's current condition causes Twilight to just let loose on them.
• Rapid-Fire "Yes!": Gleam, when Nova accepts her as his apprentice, goes full Twilight in her reaction. Twilight remarks on the similarities.
• Rebuilt Pedestal: Bright Gleam watches her views of Twilight and Nova crumble, but they're rebuilt shortly thereafter when she again sees firsthand why she idolizes them. She simply now sees them with their flaws, as normal ponies.
• Red Shirt: Some anti-mages show up in Chapter 9, one of them even as the viewpoint character. Then Sombra shows up. He doesn't last long.
• The Reveal:
  • Summer Blossom is actually a victim, trapped in the ruby Spirit Gem around Envy's neck, and Shimmer Silvermane is the one in control.
  • As well, Envy is Sombra's apprentice, but is also a victim, as he keeps her loyal under threat of pain.
• Romantic Ribbing: Nova Shine and Twilight Sparkle banter their days away. Nova in general is The Gadfly, but Twilight can dish out as well.
• Running Gag: Gleam is the source of several of these.
  • Her Motor Mouth apologies whenever she makes a trivial mistake.
  • Her mental tangents before telling herself to focus.
  • Her geek-outs whenever they're talking about a topic that excites her.
• Screw Destiny: Zig-zagged by Imperius. Haunted as he is by the prophecy of the god-shattering star, he is attempting to defy it. Or at the very least, he is trying to ensure that the prophecy is not referring to him as the "final emperor".
• Self-Punishment Over Failure: Nova does this to himself, just like before. Even after screaming at Twilight, Twilight refuses to let him do more harm to himself by going off and isolating and punishing himself, so she sends Gleam after him and still comforts him, even though she notes that he isn't forgiven for what he said.
• Semi-Divine: Harmonia is not a god herself, but she considers herself a partner of Harmony. She speaks for it, she acts on its behalf, but she is still equine in mind and soul.
• Sensory Overload: An effective way of 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.
• Set Bonus: Each of the individual Gems of Being grant a boost to its namesake (body, mind, and soul) at the cost of draining from another. Together, however, the three gems' boosts override their counterparts' drawbacks, making the holder of the three gems together far more dangerous.
• Seven Deadly Sins: Sombra has seven servants titled after each one. Only three have been explicitly named so far.
  • Most obviously, Shimmer Silvermane is King Sombra's Envy.
  • A mare named Esmeralda is referred to as King Sombra's Lust.
  • A near-invisible pony named Auric is called King Sombra's Pride.
  • The other four, yet to be titled, are named Pronssi, Saphira, Rubeus, and Platina.
• Shapeshifting Seducer: Zig-zagged. While she can change shapes at will and flirts with Nova relentlessly, and even tried to use this against him in the previous story, it's never genuine. Envy is always trying to unsettle him.
• Shout-Out: Shares a page with the first story.
• Snark Knight: Nova, full stop.
• Soapbox Sadie: Ars' opinion of his friend Harmonia. He is at first somewhat annoyed with her, but he privately reveals he is afraid for her, given she has suddenly come out against the segregation of alicorns and non-alicorns by the time of the Chapter 9 flashback, and such views could be construed as heresy and lead to her being exiled from the Empire.
• Soul Jar: Nova speculates to Gleam that the reason Sombra survived his destruction twice is because of the spell Silas Silverblood cast on him back in the past, as he believes that spell forcibly implanted a portion of Sombra's Soul onto Nova's, making Nova a walking soul Jar for Sombra and thus ensuring his survival and allowing him to be brought back down the line.
• Sour Outside, Sad Inside: As Nova breaks down more and more, he lashes out much much more harshly at those around him.
• Spam Attack: In the battle against Sombra and Envy, Nova Shine fires off flurry after flurry of spells at Envy with no indication that he is tired until it is all over.
• Spider-Sense: Energy-sensing, as in the previous fic.
• Stepford Snarker: Nova's modus operandi when it comes to dealing with uncomfortable topics.
• Stock Visual Metaphors: In Chapter 6, Nova finds himself standing in the shadows of every previous archmage's statue, all of whom are looking down on him.
• Stone Wall: Nova is teaching Gleam how to have an impenetrable defense, because he knows that protection is more important than attack, and that unicorns can win battles simply by wearing down their opponent.
• Summon Magic: Envy has been taught how to summon shadow nuckelavees by Sombra.
• Super-Senses: Energy sensing, carrying over from the previous story.
• Switching P.O.V.: Thus far, we have had point-of-view chapters for the following:
  • Nova Shine, with his psyche slowly unraveling over the course of the Part 1.
  • Twilight, trying to stay on top of things.
  • Bright Gleam, utterly excited at getting to work with her idols.
  • Trixie, her braggart nature even overflowing onto the text.
  • Aegis, worrying about the large changes going on in Equestria and how they affect him and his loved ones.
  • Envy, giving us insight into what's going on in her head.
  • King Imperius, in the days of the Alicorn Empire, though we have only seen one so far.
  • 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. He later gets a long flashback, showing Imperius asking him to craft something to harness the three Gems of Being.
  • King Sombra, as he wanders around Elysium and muses over the God-Shattering Star, and then again when he breaks several of his servants free.
• Sword of Damocles: The wearer of the Crown of Life becomes this to everyone in the world, just due to their sheer magical power. Who could stand against them, and who would deny them what they want?
• Taken for Granite: The Terrible Trio remain this way to start the story, and their statue causes Nova some unknown feelings, considering his history with Chrysalis.
• Talking to the Dead: Nova "introduces" Trixie to the graves of Steelshod and Clover.
• Teleport Cloak: Nova's Archmage Cloak still allows him to "tag" a temporary location, so he can teleport to a more permanent fixed location and back.
• That Man Is Dead: Star Swirl calls Sombra "Luxius", referring to his old apprentice. Sombra jokes that perhaps he keeps returning from the dead to spite Star Swirl for using the name of "the weakling of a prince."
• Theme Naming:
  • The Knightmare Brigade, with the exception of Starstep, are named after the Lunar Mares.
  • Sombra's seven servants are titled after the Seven Deadly Sins, but three of their names are after precious stones (Rubeus, Saphira, and Esmeralda), and four of them are named after precious metals (Shimmer Silvermane, Platina, Pronssi, and Auric).
• The Three Faces of Eve:
  • Trixie remains the Seductress, playful, light-hearted, and not afraid to tease anyone whenever she's around them.
  • Twilight remains the Wife, as she is ever the devoted student and librarian, and very nurturing to both Bright Gleam and Nova.
  • Bright Gleam is the Child, the young, wide-eyed, and naive character who slowly realizes that the ponies she looked up to have flaws.
• Trauma Conga Line: Boy howdy! Part I is utterly devoted to tearing Nova apart. He first learns that Shimmer Silvermane pulled a Grand Theft Me on Summer Blossom, and is holding her hostage in a 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 him for an answer he doesn't want to give. Then he's 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 Heroic BSoD. 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 Despair Event Horizon.
• Troll:
  • Notably averted (so far) by Nova Shine, after his goofiness and general gadfly behaviour in the previous fic, though he still apparently uses Gratuitous Iambic Pentameter to annoy Twilight.
  • 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. Later on, she pretends as though Nova's been Asleep for Days to scare him after his energy crash, only to reveal that it's only been a few hours.
• True Love Is Boring: After their courtship takes up a major part of Apprentice, there's very little in the way of romance and courtship between Nova and Twilight this time. Instead, their relationship here takes an utter battering with four years of baggage and Nova's own Trauma Conga Line causing Nova to lash out at her several times. There are still moments, however, which demonstrate that their bond runs deep, but nothing quite on the level of a full love story like the previous fic.
• Undying Loyalty:
  • Nova and Twilight both begin the story with this toward Celestia and Luna. By the end of Part 1, that pedestal is broken for both of them.
  • Bright Gleam has total admiration for Nova, and not even seeing Nova's flaws and shortcomings firsthand is enough to make her abandon him.
• Urban Segregation: Non-alicorns are not allowed to step foot into Elysium, but the alicorns allow their "subservients" to live outside of its city limits, giving rise to a city outside of the city.
• Vertical Power Play: During the Trial of Black and White, Nova Shine finds himself face-to-face with a much harsher version of himself, who lays into him about every way he's not fit to be the archmage, and who caps it off by causing statues of all previous archmages to erupt from the ground, cover him in their shadows, and look down on him while he stands atop one of them.
• Villainous Crush: Envy relentlessly flirts with Nova, but it all seems to be done to make him uncomfortable.
• Violent Glaswegian: Star Swirl the Bearded, more matching his canon tone, has a faint Trottish note in his voice, though he has yet to have been seen genuinely angry in this story.
• Virtual Soundtrack: As before, Rytex uses a lot of Kingdom Hearts music to add to moments.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Nova and Aegis, Nova and Twilight, Nova and Trixie, Twilight and Trixie, and that's just scratching the surface. Basically, Nova's friendships are built upon mutual insults.
• Waxing Lyrical:
  • Gleam, being silly, manages to cajole Star Swirl into doing it with her.
    Star Swirl: For starters, what is love?
    Gleam: *thinks for a moment* Filly, don't hurt me?
    Star Swirl: *confused* "Filly don't hurt me?"
    Gleam: No more. Well, we almost got it.
  • The narrator does it next chapter, going on a short bit about how Twilight considered herself the very model of an arcane expert general.
• Wham Episode: just like the previous story, every chapter in some way alters things, though several moments hit particularly hard.
  • Chapter 2 - Envy is actually Shimmer Silvermane, and Summer Blossom has been trapped in the Spirit Gem around her neck this entire time.
  • Chapter 4 - Nova and Twilight engage in a shouting match that takes a sledgehammer to their relationship.
  • Chapter 5 - Sombra returns, Envy is revealed to be his unwilling apprentice, and Nova finds something in Envy's head that terrifies him.
  • Chapter 6 - Harmonia, the Consciousness of Magic/Spirit of Harmony, takes control of Bright Gleam to save her life. Nova discovers he has a healing factor. He then undertakes the Trial of Black and White and fails.
  • Chapter 7 - Nova learns from Celestia and Luna that he is dying from arcane oversaturation.
• When the Planets Align: Harmonic Convergence occurs when the planets align every 10,000 years. According to Star Swirl, this creates an alignment of each planet's leylines, which causes a surge of cosmic energy to come flying toward their planet, which is repelled by teh energy already contained within the planet. Being near where the magics collide causes a massive power boost to any affected spellcasters.
• Wizard Beard: Star Swirl the Bearded, having grown his beard out since last time, where he was an aversion.
• Woman Scorned: Twilight still feels somewhat cheated on by Nova due to his brief relationship with Clover, and seeks revenge by leading Flash Sentry along to make Nova jealous. This all culminates in Nova demanding she just go fuck him if it's what she really wants, and they both realize just how badly they've screwed up following some chats with Cadance.
• The Worf Effect:
  • 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.
  • In terms of physical prowess, the Crystal Guard is established to be a badass Praetorian Guard 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.
• World of Snark: The only character who doesn't is Bright Gleam, and even then, it's just because she's too intimidated by those she's around to do it, and she's showing signs of loosening up.
• Would Hurt a Child: Shimmer wouldn't, but Sombra has no lines he wouldn't cross, or make her cross for him. Fortunately for Bright Gleam, she is protected.
  • Later on, as Sombra frees his other six apprentices, we get some time in his head and find that he finds it equally distasteful, yet reasons that he does what he must.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Lord Star Swirl has unshakeable faith in Nova Shine, as do Twilight, Cadance, Luna, Celestia, and so on, but Nova just cannot see or accept their insights.
• Your Days Are Numbered: Nova Shine is informed that he is dying because there is too much magical energy in his body, and it's only growing. He starts laughing, which rapidly turns to sobbing, and even a few weeks later, he is still completely despondent, from which Star Swirl gleans that Nova fears dying and offers him a small, fragile chance at survival.

---