Black Sun

October 29th

"So I think that...Hey, you awake?"

Trixie reached out and shook Scootaloo's shoulder gently, flinching slightly as the pegasus jumped in her seat. She had been staring at the opposite wall for several minutes now, only blinking on occasion. It wasn't that there was anything of worth there, just the bland wall of a hospital waiting room that it felt like they had all had to stare at far too many times recently. Trixie understood why she was so quiet, so unfocused and weary. She herself had only suffered some minor damage to her house during the attack on Ponyville, that made her one of the luckiest ones.

"Yeah, sorry," Scootaloo replied as she rubbed her bad eye, shifting in her seat to face Trixie. "Was just thinking...Didn't see mom for over fourteen years, then a few months later, this. It's not something you can express, coming that close to never making peace with her before it was too late."

"I understand," Trixie said gently. "I was never that close with my father, but it still hurt to learn he'd passed on. Of course, it wasn't in anything like this..."

"And you probably never lost friends at the same time. Derpy, Quick, Archer..."

"Wait, but," Trixie raised an eyebrow in confusion. "But Quick's still alive isn't he?"

"In a sense..." Scootaloo sighed sadly and looked down, dragging a hoof along the edge of her chair. "He's not the same pony anymore though. Two days and I don't think I ever saw him go fifteen minutes without either crying or blaming himself. Apparently he's among those who've been recommended for extra psychiatric support, probably already in Canterlot for it."

"Poor guy. He was nice." Sweetie Belle's voice came from the other side of the room. The two looked over to see her waiting by the door, looking down in thought.

It took a moment for Trixie to remember why the other unicorn was there, having gotten so caught up in her efforts to keep her friend distracted from her dark thoughts. Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo were here as support for Apple Bloom, she was here as support for Scootaloo. That was a lot harder than it sounded at the moment. She couldn't explain it, but for the past few days she had been plagued by a lingering sense of dread. Everypony she'd talked to seemed to be going through something similar as well. Of course the attack on Ponyville had left all of Equestria shaken, but everything had been peaceful since then. Repair and reconstruction efforts had already begun outside and the news that the Crystal Empire had managed to fight off a surprise attack by Tantabus had been invaluable for morale.

Despite all this, nopony seemed to be smiling. She couldn't blame them either.

Once all of Ponyville and the surrounding area had been searched, the final death toll from the attack was fifty-two ponies, plus another twelve lost at Crystal City. Hundreds more had been seriously injured or affected, one of Equestria's symbols of peace had been ravaged and most concerning for most ponies, for the third time in as many weeks an Element of Harmony had been critically injured. It was small wonder that virtually everypony they met looked like this was their darkest day, and it wasn't hard to assume most of Equestria felt the same way.

"So...What were you two talking about?" Scootaloo asked as she straightened up in her seat, looking over at Sweetie Belle.

"Actually, Trixie was mostly talking to you. But you had zoned out." Sweetie admitted, getting up and trotting over to them.

"It was mostly just nervous rambling, nothing you need concern yourself with," Trixie hastily added, shifting awkwardly for a few moments. "There was a point to it though and...Well, you're the only pony I really feel I can say it to right now."

"Call it a hunch but, it's connected to everything that's been happening?" Scootaloo asked as she leaned back, looking over at her friend with concern.

"Yeah..." Trixie looked down and took a deep breath before looking back at the two of them, looking more resolute than she had for some time. "I don't think I'm cut out to keep doing this."

"What?" Sweetie exclaimed in surprise, tilting her head slightly. "You mean saving Equestria? Which you basically did once already."

"Heroism is a young pony's talent," Trixie replied, pausing as Scootaloo put a hoof on her shoulder to support her. "Well, and Twilight's since she's basically immortal. I'm forty-eight years old and struggling to keep up. Also the threats just keep getting bigger and...What do you mean I already did?"

"You were the single most important pony involved in the battle for the Alicorn Amulet. Your illusions were able to fool Tantabus and keep us going when she had us trapped. It would have been over right there without you. I owe you my life, so do Rarity, Aurora and Starlight!"

"Maybe, but let's be honest here. Do you really think it'll turn out that I'm the one who separates Tantabus from Sunset Shimmer, returns her to Princess Luna and saves Equestria?" Trixie countered, shaking her head. "That's Twilight's thing, coming in and saving the day in circumstances that'd probably kill any other pony."

With everything they had seen their sisters and sisters in all but name go through, it was hard for Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo to argue that point. Twilight had played a direct part in dealing with all seven major threats between Nightmare Moon's rise and the Starlight incident, and the record hadn't been broken so far.

"That's a good thing though," Sweetie said after a few moments. "Twilight's already on the verge of being able to do that, studying almost nonstop. At this rate, she'll be able to deal with Tantabus tomorrow."

"And if she doesn't, then we'll just have to go in and try helping her do it," Scootaloo added. "What'd you think, Trixie. You want to show her that you're better at bailing her out?"

Trixie looked back and forth between them, still looking unconvinced. Before they could attempt to continue, the door opened and Apple Bloom stepped inside. She was clearly trying to put a brave face on, though her damp forelegs and bloodshot eyes gave it away. Her fellow crusaders instantly got up and moved over to her. Trixie got up as well but hung back.

"How bad is it?" Scootaloo asked gently, hesitant as if she didn't know how to say it. Apple Bloom looked over at her flatly before managing a weak smile.

"Well, coulda been a whole lot worse," She replied, her voice sounding rough. There was no denying just how much she'd been struggling to keep her composure. "Good news...Pinkie's still alive."

The other three all made sounds of relief, the sight making Bloom smile a little more. Nopony had been allowed to see Pinkie since the night of the attack, her condition being described as too delicate to allow visitors. Most ponies had feared the worst, considering it a miracle she had survived the explosion at all.

"It's...Not good though, is it?" Trixie asked cautiously. Scootaloo shot a glare back at her, only for Bloom to raise a hoof and continue.

"Not as good as ah hoped. Part of why I nicknamed her Pinball was cause she bounces back from everything ya throw at her, just an unstoppable ball of joy. She...She hasn't woken up though. The docs have fixed everything they could but...They don't know why...How long it might be. She...She said she wouldn't leave me...Pinkie promised..."

Any further words Apple Bloom had failed her as she buried her head against Sweetie Belle's shoulder, fighting back further despair. Her eyes remained dry though, she didn't have any tears left to shed. The unicorn gently wrapped a hoof around her friend's shoulders, hugging her closely for a minute. Scootaloo came in at the same time and hugged Bloom on her other side.

"Has anypony actually told you she's going to be leaving?" Sweetie asked gently after another minute, waiting for Bloom to lift her head slowly and shake it. "So it's just a worry in your head at the moment?"

"Y-yeah..."

"Do you actually believe it? That Pinkie Pie would just leave without giving you an absolutely foolproof reason she had to break her promise? At the least, without throwing you any kind of party?"

Bloom looked up at her for several long seconds, dawning realisation creeping into her expression. She quickly nodded and hugged her friends in return, managing to smile again slightly.

"You're right. If she knew I was getting all sad because of her, she'd be twitchier than Applejack during a short harvest season. Guess I'll just have to make it up to her when she wakes up..."

Spike couldn't bring himself to look up.

He'd been standing at the foot of the castle he called home for at least twenty-five minutes, simply staring at the entrance that had remained unscathed. The last trace of normality in a world of growing chaos. To look up would see his home, Twilight's kingdom, a symbol for the peace of all ponykind, broken and scarred. To look around would see the same; buildings damaged or destroyed by stray magic, fire and falling debris. As well as all the places where innocent lives had been torn apart or cut short. That was the worst part for him. As terrible as it felt, he knew in his heart that Twilight was feeling the same a hundred-fold and no-one knew just how to help her right now.

He didn't know how he broke his self-inflicted trance, but eventually he straightened up and started to head inside. It was a lot less painful to walk upright at the moment. Fluttershy must have taken lessons in dragon anatomy from Ember, considering just how well she had been able to treat him before. There wasn't much that could be done about lost scales on his shoulder and the whole arm still felt stiff to use, but she had been able to patch him up well otherwise. Even that was just a reminder of how lucky he had gotten though.

"Hey, hold on!" Somepony called to him as he stepped inside the foyer. He paused and looked back to see Peace Walker running in behind him.

"Peace? What's wrong?"

"S-sorry Spike, overreaction," Peace panted as she stopped next to him. "I was keeping a watch on the castle, making sure nopony went in and got hurt. I'd gone for some water and came back to see you heading inside. I thought you were somepony else."

"Don't worry about it," Spike told her as he headed toward the map room, Peace by his side. "So...Is it really that dangerous in here?"

"Not down here, or for somepony as big as you. The library took the worst of it, though I wouldn't risk the third floor until somepony's checked it over."

Spike nodded, looking a lot more sullen at that news. Twilight had spent years gathering rare tomes and ancient scrolls in the castle, both to continue her eternal quest for knowledge and for personal enjoyment. There was no telling how many had been lost for good. The state of the map room didn't help his mood either. He looked down sadly and picked up one of the memory gems that had fallen loose, turning it over in his hands. The imagine within was of the rest of the elements and his younger self back at the Golden Oak Library. He remembered it being from his first birthday since moving to Ponyville, the one that had seen him give into his draconic nature, rampage across town and almost get himself and Rarity killed. The idea that something like that once seemed so significant was enough to bring a weary smile to his face. Sometimes he missed the simplicity of it all.

"You know, I never knew the map could disappear." Peace commented as she walked past him, snapping his from his thoughts. He looked up to see her taking in the round table the cutie map normally rested on. Now though, it was little more than a drab, gray and white crystal table.

"Yeah, it does that," He told her as he came over, placing the gem down on his former throne. "Usually when there's no need of it at the moment...Or if we don't have the ponies to use it."

"Well, we still do in a sense. None of the Elements of Harmony have actually died and we've been through the worst already..." Peace's voice trailed off slightly as she looked up at the root chandelier, her expression momentarily unreadable. "We have to have. Twilight will have a solution soon and by the time Pinkie and Rarity wake up, we'll have sorted Tantabus out and everything will be as close to normal as we can get."

As hopeful as that sounded, Spike knew when a pony was hoping against hope. Peace was being weighed down by just as much as anypony throughout all this, arguably more. She had been repeatedly thrown into some of the worst situations of this crisis, had her husband taken from her by Tantabus and been unable to keep others from suffering the same. All capped by the ever-lingering sense that it all may be for nothing. Combined with everything she had endured in the months before, a lesser pony would have been crushed by such a burden. Even if she was only showing signs of improving on the outside...

"Can I ask you something, slightly personal?" Spike said cautiously. Peace looked over at him and hesitated for a moment, concern momentarily flashing in her eyes.

"Sure..." She replied, still trying to sound as though nothing was wrong.

"Well, I know how much of a strain this kind of thing can be on a pony. Moreso if they're new to it. Do you, have some kind of coping mechanism in place? Or something to focus on for comfort? It helps you stay sane when it feels like the world's falling apart."

Peace looked at Spike thoughtfully, her lower jaw shifting slightly as if she were grinding her teeth. After a few moments she nodded to herself and focused on him again.

"Do you have one too?" She asked. Now it was his turn to look at her in thought, though his response was much quicker.

"I used to think about Rarity. I mean back then I was a kid with a crush, thinking about what I imagined a future would be between us, that was great motivation. Nowadays though, I remember everything that Twilight's worked toward. Twenty years of peace, a harmonious world for all races. I just on what she might still be able to do once that's over, and it steels me to make sure it happens."

"Very noble," Peace commented, smiling slightly before sitting down. "Well, fair's fair. If things get too dark for me, I usually turn to my gods and find a reading that counters my fears. When it's lighter, like it is now, I just focus on my small victories. I'd go crazy if I thought about trying to save everypony in a situation like we all just went through, so I focus on what I did manage to do. I saved quite a few lives by getting them out of the line of fire, I kept the promise about Pinkie that I made to myself...And I stand by my belief. We have to be past the worst."

Spike nodded as he listened. Privately, he wasn't sure what affected him more. That she was able to maintain such a determined, almost naïve outlook after everything that had happened, or that he wished he could share it.

As the world flashed back into existence around him, Aurora sighed in relief at the familiar surroundings of his home. At this point he was more used to arriving at the Crystal Castle via the room of teleportation than the front doors. After the day he was having, such a welcoming space was just what he needed. It didn't look as though he'd be getting any time to relax though, if the pair of ponies waiting for him at the entrance to the room were any indicator.

"Afternoon, Flurry," He said calmly as he approached. The figure on the left, a white unicorn mare with light blue eyes, red-violet mane with icy blue highlights and a snowflake held in a pink glow for a cutie mark. "Any news?"

"Only related to your task, my Prince," Flurry Heart replied, bowing her head briefly before motioning to the other pony. A golden yellow crystal stallion with amber mane, green eyes and cutie mark of a diamond under a magnifying glass. "This is Citrine. I thought he could be of help due to his former connections to Onyx Dawn."

"Former," Citrine pressed, sounding nervous at that part of his background being brought up in the presence of royalty. "I may have agreed with their ideal of an independent empire but I walked away in the face of their more recent, radical views."

"If only more ponies were so rational," Aurora replied, smiling reassuringly. Utilising his magic would probably unnerve the stallion more and he couldn't afford to lose any support right now. "I'm glad of your help. Both of you."

"Of course. Though next time you see them, pass those thanks on to Applejack and Fluttershy," Flurry explained, smiling over at Citrine. "They're the only reason we're even talking anymore."

"I will. Now, are there any fresh developments I should know about before we continue?"

"O-oh, yes!" Flurry quickly straightened up and bowed her head again, immediately returning to her duty as a Royal Aide. "Queen Cadance and King Armor requested that you meet them in the throne room as soon as you returned."

"Alright, let's go," Aurora said as he lead them out into the hallways, the two others flanking him. "So, Citrine, I hope you don't mind if I get to the point. The assistance Princess Celestia sent only made things worse, didn't it?"

"I'm afraid so," Citrine replied, sounding disappointed. "If this attack was deliberately timed with the one in Ponyville, whoever's behind this got it almost perfect. We know now that Ponyville was attacked first and I get why they sent all their medical aid there, but most ponies didn't learn that until dawn. That left Onyx Dawn himself hours where he was free to convince ponies that Equestria knew about the attack, yet refused to send more than a token group when it mattered."

"I feared as much..." Aurora sighed, glancing out of a window as they continued on. The view was of the main thoroughfare through the west of the city, thousands of ponies currently gathered upon it.

The vast majority were Onyx Dawn supporters, emboldened by their interpretation of recent events and their misguided desire to make the Crystal Empire an isolated superpower. Their vigorous protests had drawn the ire of ponies that still supported Cadance and Shining Armor, resulting in a counter-protest at the same site. Tensions were flaring and the surviving sections of the Crystal Guard had been sent in for peacekeeping efforts, backed up by Lightning Squadron. Equestria Defence Force members being involved risked exacerbating the situation further but there wasn't much choice. The guards were weakened from their losses during the attack and the destruction of their headquarters, they needed all the help they could get to keep things from turning ugly. Aurora himself had been down there to try and defuse the situation but it had been of little use.

"If it's any comfort, they still lack the support to attempt anything big," Citrine continued. "Even Onyx himself knows that he's up against two of the most powerful unicorns in the world and an alicorn. He would effectively need the whole empire on his side to overcome that by force."

"And how many ponies does he have backing him?" Flurry asked cautiously.

"At a rough estimate...Between twenty and thirty-five thousand ponies in Crystal City are supportive of his goals by now."

Aurora's frown deepened as he hastened his pace. He'd been going through the numbers in his mind ever since he'd arrived at the protest site and knew that his parents were waiting for his opinion on the situation. As he reached the doors to the throne room he quickly motioned for the others to stay with him before opening them with his magic.

Although the castle itself had managed to avoid any damage, his parents hadn't been so lucky, the extent of their struggle evident as he looked up at their thrones. Shining Armor looked even more exhausted than he had in the past months, the strain and magic wear of the night before catching up with him hard. Cadance was in even worse shape, resting on a plush cushion in front of her throne as she was unable to climb onto the seat in her current state. Her wounded side had been stitched up and healing magic applied to it, but it was looking at though the scar would remain with her. And yet she was refusing to abandon her duties when she was needed most, supporting her subjects in this time of crisis. Aurora couldn't help but be amazed by her determination.

"Aurora," Shining said as they came in, getting up from his throne and stepping down to equal ground. "It didn't go well, did it?"

"Wish I could say otherwise," Aurora told him. "Flurry Heart and Citrine have a better understanding of the overall situation, but Onyx Dawn has a lot more support than we thought."

"Then, tell us how you see it..." Cadance asked with concern, watching from her position. "Do you think he'll try anything stronger? Does the Crystal Empire risk civil war?"

Aurora closed his eyes and thought about his response. His mind raced with the possible variations of how this situation could proceed or escalate. In his heart though, he knew very few of them were viable.

"I think not," He eventually replied. "Onyx likely wouldn't dare attempt a forceful coup against you, mother, since being unable to walk unaided doesn't affect your magic. It would basically take everypony in the empire for him to have the numbers to attempt something against all three of us. If he tried anything political, then his numbers are even less. Rainbow Falls is completely supportive of our alliance with Equestria and we're here. Any theoretical separatist movement would be left with no safe haven but the frozen north. His only chance of an uprising in that state would require the support of the yaks, and I highly doubt Chieftain Yona would look kindly upon him disrupting the peace of her lands like that. I believe we're safe for now."

"I'm glad you see it that way too. You've got a good head on you." Shining told him, smiling the smile of a proud father.

"Only because you taught me well." Aurora admitted.

"Still, it's a relief to hear you say it," Cadance replied, looking toward Flurry and Citrine. "Though, we'd still need to hear the exact state of things before taking any course of action.

As they stepped forward to tell her about their experiences, Aurora looked down slightly and took a slow breath. His parents were doing their utmost to counter the negative effects of the Crystal Heart and return it to its former glory while preventing the mounting tension in the empire from getting worse. He had to do the same when it came to stopping Tantabus. Even if they succeeded, he couldn't shake the feeling that he was going up against increasingly impossible odds. Everypony had already sacrificed so much, and yet to save Equestria it seemed like there would need to be even greater ones to come.