Ponyville
November 4th

An unexpectedly warm morning was rising across Ponyville, scattered rays of light breaking through the cloud layer and illuminating the area with a faint golden glow. On almost any other day, it would have a striking sight. Now though, all it served to do was highlight how close the town and it's residents had come to being broken. Little over a week had passed since Tantabus had engaged in her night of terror and few ponies, if any, had chosen to come back. Efforts to make sure that damaged buildings were safe was still ongoing and repair efforts were only just beginning to get underway. The streets were quiet as the ponies that remained did their best to maintain their day-to-day lives, but there was no denying the atmosphere of the town had shifted to something deeply sombre. Perhaps irrevocably.

Deep Note slowly looked around as he made his way past the wreckage of town hall. This was one of the worst hit areas. Scores of the gravel pathways had been gouged out by hooves digging in or magic impacts. All the surrounding buildings bore scorch marks or the remains of fire damage. Rubble and wood were spread everywhere despite the best efforts of cleanup crews. Over half of the hall itself was missing, much of that damaged by Tantabus' actions and the rest removed to prevent further collapse. It was a fitting representation of the overall situation, everypony was trying to stand strong but their will was being steadily eroded by everything that had happened.

A rush of wind blew through the open space and Deep shivered slightly, readjusting his wings. It may just have been his imagination but every time he felt the wind these days, he always felt a little unsettled. Maybe it was the effects of the Crystal Heart steadily spreading southward, circulating fear and uncertainty throughout Equestria. If that was the case, then he wasn't the only one who was picking up on this feeling. Everypony on the continent could be feeling this right now. He knew that fixing that particular part of the whole situation was in the hooves of Cadance, Shining Armor and Aurora, but it still would have been nicer to know he could do something. Anything to feel like he had a reason to be here right now.

"Excuse me, sir?" A voice came from behind Deep. He blinked himself out of his thoughts and turned to see a mauve earth mare approaching him, amber maned, brown eyed and carrying what looked like a small sheet of cardboard on her back.

"Can I help you?" He asked, hoping it didn't sound too much like he'd been caught by surprise.

"I hope so. I'm looking for a stallion called Quick Fix. He lives somewhere in town. Red coat, yellow mane, slightly shorter than you. Have you seen him?"

Deep paused as he remembered the last time he had seen Quick. On the night of the attack, huddled up on a chair, looking so utterly shattered by his ordeal that a faint gust of wind would send him into a total breakdown. As painful as the memory was, it suddenly gave the pegasus an idea of what this might be about.

"Yes. Yes I know him," He replied, tucking his wings in slightly tighter. "He's currently in Canterlot, receiving help he needs after what happened here."

"I see..." The mare looked down in thought for a moment before looking back at him. "Do you think you know anypony that can contact him?"

Deep nodded. If he wasn't able to talk to Quick, then one of the others surely would. Twilight would probably welcome the positive break as much as he was. The mare smiled and took the sheet off her back and passed it to him. He took it in his hooves and looked it over. It was actually a hoofmade card, drawn by a foal from the looks of it. The front had a silver earth filly on it with a happy look on her face and the words 'Thank you!' written above her.

"My daughter, Silver Shine, made this for Quick while she's recovering in hospital," She explained. "He pulled her from a collapsed building that night. Saved her life. Please, let him know that her entire family can't thank him enough for what he did."

"Of course, I'll make sure this gets to him. He could use the good news," He told her, smiling softly as he looked down at the card. "What about your name? I'm sure he'd appreciate knowing who's thanking him."

"Clematis. A-and thank you too."

Deep nodded and stepped back to take off, holding onto the card tightly. As Clematis headed back the way she'd come from, he watched her go with a steadily growing smile. After everything that had happened, all the steps backward, it was easy to forget that they were still doing good for many ponies. He himself had been doing his best after the attack, working with Sweetie Belle to comfort lost fillies and colts until they could be reunited with family or guardians. Seeing the looks on their faces when they were safe again, held in the hooves of their parents, those were the kind of small victories he had to take with both hooves. They would keep him going. Just as this would help Quick at a time when he badly needed it.

He took to the air and headed back toward Twilight's castle, wondering if anypony was headed to Canterlot today. Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle had chosen to stay in the capital for a few days and Fluttershy was completely occupied with personal business in Cloudsdale. Maybe Aurora would be willing to quickly take it, but Trixie was an option too. She looked like she was already headed out of town. He blinked as he realised what he'd been thinking and stopped in mid-air, looking again.

He could definitely see a wagon that looked a lot the one kept at Trixie's house, headed on the main road leading west out of Ponyville. Though he couldn't see the face of the pony pulling it, her old magician's hat and cape were unmistakeable. If what Scootaloo had told him about her was true, she hadn't worn those in years. What exactly was she doing? Deep dropped into a glide and brought himself back to the ground, landing at a quick walk. He quickly tucking the card securely under his wing and moved to catch up.

"Trixie, hold up!" He called as he came up alongside the wagon. It gave him time to get up alongside her. She was trying to hide her face with her hat but it was evident she was cringing about being caught like this. "What're you doing?"

"Well, ah, see...Trixie is...Just...One thing..." Trixie stammered before sighing and lifting her hat back up. She looked as though she'd had a restless night, her eyes filled with concern and doubts. "I was, leaving. I didn't want to make a big deal out of it for everypony and with everything going on, it'd probably be days before anypony noticed."

"W-what?" Deep asked in surprise. He had a gut feeling that he wouldn't be able to convince her to stay on his own, but he didn't want to let her go without reason. "Why?"

Trixie stayed silent for a few seconds before looking back toward Twilight's castle. Although it was still standing strong, it looked like it had been partly skinned with roughly a third of its exterior crystals missing. Then she looked back at her wagon. The silence hung between them for a good twenty seconds as her jaw moved wordlessly. As if she was struggling to admit it to herself as much as she would be to Deep.

"I'm scared," She finally admitted, looking back at the pegasus next to her. "This, what I'm wearing, what's in here, they're all I have left. Everything else is now in a pile of crystal crushed rubble that used to be my house. My best friend in the whole world is lying in a hospital bed, half-blinded, and she's far better at dealing with this kind of thing than me. Add in what happened to Rainbow Dash and...I-I don't think I could take staying and losing anything, anypony more."

"Where would you go though?"

"Las Pegasus. I have some friends there that I haven't seen in a long time. Some old regrets I need to clear up. At this point, I don't know if I'm going to get another chance," Trixie paused to adjust her cloak with her magic, pulling it a little tighter against her neck. The way it rose above that obscured her face slightly. "I know what you must be thinking...And you're right. She was right."

"She?" Deep asked with gentle concern, doing his best just to keep up with what he was hearing. Her fears were understandable, but what was this about? "What do you mean?"

"Tantabus. 'A sentimental fool with the strength of an infant, and a coward.' That was what she said to me and Sweetie Belle in the vault, when she had us with our backs to the forcefield. Anypony who even suspected who was there can tell the second one was referring to me. I've tried to prove otherwise, I really have. But, I just keep running whenever things get too tough. This is the third time I've run from this town with my tail between my legs. Because I couldn't do the right thing when it mattered. I just can't be a hero, I can't be anything more than a coward."

"Trixie, listen to me," Deep told her, moving in front of her without thinking and placing a hoof on her shoulder. "If you had focused only on saving yourself in the vault, or in Ponyville, or if you'd refused to fight at all, those would have been the actions of a coward. But you chose to help. You stayed standing in the face of evil when it mattered most. Heck, if what the others said about the vault was true, you were the first pony to actually counter Tantabus with your talents. The only one besides Twilight to actually hurt her. You might be looking at yourself as somepony who can't measure up to Twilight, but a lot of ponies would consider you a great and powerful hero, just one who needs some time to collect herself."

Trixie froze slightly at those words. Deep paused, wondering if he'd said the wrong thing, until he realised that she was smiling. It was a small one and she was trying to hide it at first. Then she lifted her hat back and it became a more genuine smile as she relaxed again.

"Thanks," She finally said, looking back again. "I mean, I still don't think I could do much more if things got serious again. But it's nice to know somepony believes in me."

"Everypony needs somepony like that. If you need to go, you can. I'll make sure the others understand."

She nodded and looked down. Several awkward seconds passed as they both tried to think of how to make any further farewells. Eventually Trixie simply nodded in thanks and started to continue on her way again. Deep stepped aside and waved to her, though his mind was roaming elsewhere already.

She'd had a point. For all they knew, Tantabus could drop the moon on Equestria tomorrow and they would all be dead, leaving so many things unfulfilled. While he had a few regrets of his own, most of them were petty things that he could live with. One though, nestled deep in his heart for the past year, was a question that he needed to hear an answer to. Up until now, he'd been putting doing his part above all else. Now though, with this lull giving him the chance, he realised that he needed to find out what that answer was. While he still could.

He took off again and headed for the castle. It would only take a minute to find out how to get the card to Quick and he'd been waiting so long for this moment. What was this little bit more. For once though, he would be savouring the wait instead of supressing it.

The wind was picking up, the howls it made rushing between the trees audible throughout the whole orchard. It used to scare her when she was a foal. Too similar to the eerie howls of timberwolves that plagued her nightmares. Nowadays though, it was comforting, a sign that the chaos of the world was elsewhere instead of concentrated around her.

Applejack smiled to herself as she lay back on the grass, panting softly as she cloudwatched. She'd needed some time to step back and get her thoughts in order, away from the pressures of being an Element of Harmony. She'd been falling behind on her workouts too, so getting in some exercise to unwind was filling two apple buckets with one buck. There were few things that made her truly relaxed anymore, but keeping herself strong and simply appreciating the world around her afterward were two of them. As she spotted a pegasus in the sky above, headed toward the farm, she smile more as she remembered a third thing.

More specifically, a third somepony.

As she realised it was Deep Note dropping down toward her, she felt a comforting warmth emerging inside her that held off the chill in the wind. She hadn't felt this inside her for months, since that frozen January day where they had briefly hugged before he had left for home. She'd felt a flicker of it on seeing him again in Canterlot weeks ago, feeling it in full was like being in her most pleasant dreams. She'd missed that feeling. With that thought in mind, she rolled back onto her front and stood up, watching him come in to land.

"Howdy!" She called up once she was sure he was in earshot, stepping back to let him gently land in front of her.

"Heya AJ," He said happily as he straightened up in front of her, taking her in. "Not wearing the hat today?"

"Nah. Gets in the way when I'm exercising."

"Ah," Deep smiled more as he took another look at her physique. Her muscles were slightly less toned than they had been in the winter, but she was still a powerhouse of a mare. It suited her. "Glad to see you feel good about your looks."

"Glad to be around somepony who doesn't mind it," She countered, looking down for a moment before looking back to him. It wasn't worth dwelling on right now. "So, what's happening?"

"Well, I actually wanted to talk to you. I've been doing some thinking..."

Applejack nodded, sitting down and readying herself. Even with her rather embarrassing lack of a love life, she'd picked up enough from being around Big Mac and Apple Bloom to know that this was leading somewhere important.

"It's about us, right?" She asked gently. Deep nodded and sat down in front of her, looking like he was thinking through what he wanted to say in his head, yet not sure if he should go through with it. She did her best to flash him a reassuring look, silently telling him that she would listen to whatever he wanted to say.

"Yeah...Well, that and a discussion I had with Trixie. She helped me realise that I've been holding onto something I've needed to ask for some time," He finally told her, doing his best not to sound nervous. "Applejack, firstly...There is still something between us, isn't there?"

"Of course, sugarcube. That feeling's still there." She told him warmly, placing a hoof on his shoulder.

"Okay, cool," Deep blushed as he looked down at the hoof and placed one of his on top of it. "So, we both still have those feelings, and I'm not very good at this kind of thing. But, I want to be able to explore those feelings further. I feel like there may be something more between us, if you wanted to find out."

Now it was Applejack's turn to blush, blinking in surprise as she took his words in. Deep down, she knew that she wanted to see where her feelings went too. Most of her hesitation had come from being uncertain if her feelings were stronger for Deep or for Bounty, but that decision had already been made for her, much as it hurt to admit. As it was, she wanted to say yes. But she had to be sure he knew just what he was getting into if he was serious.

"Are...Are ya sure?" She finally asked, thinking through her words so as not to drive him off. "It ain't exactly an easy thing to date an element ya know. You've seen what we can be up against, and the risks involved. Being away from each other for days at a time, easily more. Don't get me wrong, ah know I want to see what we have too. I just don't want to hurt you by subjecting you to something you're not ready for."

"I know..." Deep replied, looking up in thought for a few moments before looking back at her, determination etched onto his face. "But if one day, you come back from a tough friendship mission, worn down and ready to just shun the world for a bit, and the sight of me waiting for you lifts your spirits again...Then I think it'd be worth it."

That welcome warmth in her heart was flooding back in with those words. She wanted to hold onto him and not let go this time. She had to settle for bringing her other hoof up and pulling the pegasus into a tight hug. She could feel him bring his hooves round to return the embrace once he was over the initial shock, how firmly he held it telling her all she needed to know. If they both made it through this, they would be able to see just how far their bond went.

"Thank you." She whispered softly.

Author's Note

When I started writing Black Sun, 100,000 words was the benchmark for my final word count. The fact I've managed to reach it 2/3rds of the way through is a huge relief to me, as is the fact everyone still seems to be enjoying it is too.

And then I go and mark it with this chapter. Sorry about that