Sunbringer

Days, weeks, moons passed... With nopony to even tend to the flames, pacing around the village was no different than the depths of wilderness. With such desolation, there wasn't a single soul who could bother to keep track of time when every single one of them was like the last or the next.

That is, until one morning Square woke up feeling funny and she had no idea why. And it wasn't the usual funny feeling which was really just her body's pleas to not do any more work. She felt like she’d forgotten about something... something very important. She stared for a few seconds into the gloom of her room, but time for thinking was a precious resource these days, so she quickly left her daydreams behind and hurried across her room to eat her meagre ration—a few chewy potatoes and a sad-looking carrot. She blessed her kind's physique for still being able to keep going on this little, but even an earth pony had her limits and she knew this much wouldn't suffice for much longer.

As she ran her tongue across the inside of her mouth to get the bad taste of dry potatoes out of it, she walked to the other end of the room to gather her ropes and supplies. She finally steeled herself and opened her door, the chilling frost smashing into her face like a hammer... only for a moment later to be almost actually smashed in the face by another pony, who came to a skidding halt in front of her home's entrance. Square didn't like stumbling into ponies like that. From her experience it always resulted in more trouble than it was worth. The pony muttered something like an apology, then hurried away, leaving Square to stare after her and wonder what the reason could be for such a rush.

She was about to resign herself to another snow-grey day, when she looked around and a moment later her mouth fell open. Square blinked twice in disbelief and even rubbed her eyes into her fetlocks thinking she might have gotten snow blindness, but no, she wasn't seeing fantasies. She was witnessing a miracle. In the distance at the very edge of the village, the Tower stood tall and proud, finally finished.

What? How could it be? Square thought to herself. I could swear yesterday it was still much shorter... She pawed at the ground a little, trying her best to recall the recent past. Or was that two weeks ago. She stood there stunned for a few seconds, then she shook her head slowly. Gawking there stupidly would only get her a cold. Instead, she carefully locked her home and began trotting towards the base of the Tower.

By the time she arrived, most of the tribe was already present. Nopony really noticed her presence with everypony's eyes glued to the stone monument before them. Barren Earth stood in front of the group, her usually gloomy face contorted into utter awe. The wind wailed undisturbed in the pregnant silence, until the gate of the tower began to glow in a faint yellow magic and opened, revealing Light inside.

Amidst loud gasps of the crowd, the Celestial walked out, silencing them with a mere wave of his hoof.

"My ponies," he said solemnly. "Today is the day. We shall have the Sun."

With that he turned around and entered the Tower once more, deafening cheers following him.

The jubilation was slowly taken over by an uneasy silence as ponies tensed with bated breath for Light to arrive at the top of the Tower. Many thought back to the work they accomplished, others imagined they already felt the sunlight on their faces. Square herself remained silent even when Light appeared at the summit, hardly visible from down below.

Everypony stared in awe as Light walked to the edge of the Tower. Though they couldn't see it, his face was one of utter serenity and concentration. He had been preparing for this moment for quite some time, after all. Flaring his wings, his horn burst into flame and magic began to gather into it. Even from down below, one could see how it became brighter and brighter, like a beacon in the desolate wasteland of snow. The spell tensed like a bowstring. And then, it snapped.

For a moment, the world waited with nervous anticipation. Even the wind itself seemed to die down, humbled by the display of force.

Then...

Nothing happened.

Light opened his eyes for a second, confusion spreading across his face, before closing them again and regaining composure. He tried again, this time his horn glowing even brighter than before. Magic crackled in the air, manifesting as bolts of yellow lightning which arced across the sky. The clouds around him swirled in a panicked hurry. When the Sun was still no closer, he leant forward a bit, as if those five or so inches were all that kept him from wresting his celestial opponent into submission. He even took a step forward, without letting his magic blink out for even a second as a bead of sweat rolled down his face despite the frost. Then another... Then...

The ponies who were present nearly all described it as if time stood still in that moment. One second the pony they all put their hopes and dreams upon was a hoofstep away from victory, the next he plummeted with a scream that made the howling winds seem like lullabies. Those who hadn't instinctively cowered on the ground or closed their eyes spoke of witnessing a miracle, just not one that anypony, including its recipient, had expected.

Light continued screaming for seconds after he stopped falling. He still screamed as he looked down and realised his body was lying on the ground, broken into pieces. His wails turned into something of a dumbfounded grunt as he beheld the bush that had sprouted in mere moments to break his fall. He slowly quieted, closing his mouth and forcing a modicum of decorum upon himself as he followed the bush's roots, his eyes finally coming to a halt upon one mare. Square was panting, body tensed up as her every breath wafted away in hazy clouds. She looked down, noticing great wines wrapped around her hooves which slowly began to wither away, causing a still completely-dumbstruck Light to find himself soon lying on a pile of mush.

"How?" he muttered as he looked up at the Tower, then at Square. "Why?" No answer followed. The dejected stallion rose from the ground and tore off his wings, which fluttered to the ground, nothing more than paper as the illusion cast on them faded away. "I really thought it would work," he said quietly, as if such a sentence could begin to excuse all that happened.

"Don't tell me." Square scoffed mid-speech. "You sold a lie of your own creation to my tribe and you grew to believe in it?"

Light hung his head. What was there for him to say? "They said I was gifted," he muttered. "That I could accomplish anything I believed in."

Square felt a storm of emotions inside her. She felt grateful that Nature had come to help her even in its dying moments. She desperately wanted to be angry at the pony in front of her, but in truth, one feeling overpowered all the others. She was afraid that they were out of time for any of it to matter.

"I... don't see any point in passing judgement on you." As she spoke, she turned towards her tribe. "Any of you. I know that all you did, you did out of wanting to survive this horrific winter, but don't you see that all we did was drive ourselves even further apart?" She felt a sense of hot anger ignite in her chest. "And for what? This oversized tombstone?" She spat the last word out. "Was this truly our only option?"

"Filly... I—" Barren began to speak, but Square interrupted her.

"No." She stomped and her tail flicked. "No more 'Filly'. I... no, all of us put our necks on the line for the past ten moons. I will no longer take your condescension. You allowed this charlatan to wrap you around his hooves and allowed this tribe to nearly fall to its own mistrust!"

"I only did what I thought was necessary to survive," Barren countered, but Square was taking none of it.

The others were staring at them in dead silence, their gazes dangling between Square and Barren.

"No, you followed your own fallible judgement and never once listened to my or anypony's problems." Square stomped once more, her tail fluttering, but not from the wind. "You've almost doomed us all. You are no Tribesmother of ours."

This elicited a series of overlapping gasps in quick succession from the tribe, yet this time, nopony came to the crestfallen Tribesmother's defence. Barren opened her mouth and closed it a few times, but no words came out.

It was finally Light who broke the silence, seeking guidance from Square. "But then... what do we do?"

Square turned towards him and soon towards the others, scanning across them and her disappearing village. "We must leave this place, all of us, if we don't want to perish with it. This pony—" she pointed towards Light "—is the living proof that there are more of us out there and the only way we stand a chance is if we seek them out and survive together. Not by bringing down the Sun, nor by putting our faith in any one saviour, but by working as ponies, no matter whether they have horns or wings or neither."

Just as she spoke the words, a column of pink flame burst out on the horizon, followed by a shockwave which, at least briefly, banished the clouds from the sky. Square was ready to say more and yet she didn't need to. For the first time since forever she, Barren Earth, Light Bringer, and every single pony present felt a sense of true optimism and the same exact calling in their hearts:

Ponykind was out there, waiting for them. The Tower was abandoned.