YMMV / The Apprentice, the Student, and the Charlatan

• Adaptation Displacement: The audio drama overshadows the original fic by a considerable margin, but it may have a lot to do with the Colbert Bump the audio drama was given.
• Awesome Music: The audio drama's theme song, "Into the Tower." The two credits songs from Episodes 2 and 3 are also well-done.
• Creepy Awesome: Envy, whose Stalker with a Crush Card-Carrying Villain characterization won her a fair share of fans.
• Cry for the Devil: In the past arc, we see Envy as she was before she went off the deep end. By the time he returns, Nova feels more than a little angsty about his hand in creating her.
• Friendly Fandoms: Due to being put on by an important member of the Bride of Discord team, the audio dramas share fandoms. DisneyFanatic2364 even does blind commentaries of the new episodes.
• Growing the Beard: Even Rytex is aware that Envy's appearance forced the story to evolve beyond its original premise and characterization.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: A few moments.
  • In an older blog post, back when the first My Little Pony: Equestria Girls trailer first came out, Rytex noted how Twilight developed a crush on a guy with a penchant for coats that had blue hair, just like Nova.
  • Rytex, like many fanfic writers over the years, gave the Changelings a central hive in the story. Well, along came the Season 6 finale, in which Chrysalis captures and holds the Mane 6, Shining Armor, Flurry Heart, Cadance, Luna, and Celestia in a changeling hive in the Badlands...
  • In Chapter 7, a young filly named Bright Gleam is introduced, and is described as being pink with a golden mane, who attends Celestia's school and who grows to idolize Nova Shine. Come the series finale, we meet Luster Dawn, a pink mare with a golden mane who is Twilight's top student at her school and idolizes her. Not a terribly big deal, until Bright Gleam went on to become a main character in the second sequel as Nova's apprentice.
• More Popular Spin-Off: The audio drama, done by several cast members of the Daughter of Discord cast, has drawn in far more viewers in mere months compared to the original fanfiction in five-plus years.
• Portmanteau Couple Name: NovaLight is the name Rytex uses to refer to the Twilight and Nova pairing.
• Romantic Plot Tumor: In the original versions, some people weren't thrilled about Nova and Twilight's romance taking precedence over saving Trixie and defeating Envy. This was mitigated when Envy decided to go after Nova in the middle of one such date. In addition, things were more streamlined regarding this, as it's shown that Envy isn't just sitting around doing nothing while Nova and Twilight fall in love.