It was not a sunrise.
While their time in the endless plains of grey had been all but undefinable, the approach to the glow on the horizon seemed...almost entirely too short. Half Note couldn't tell what that meant, but it hardly mattered. Something had finally appeared and broken the monotony and hopelessness, and that mattered more than whether they'd spent five hours or five lifetimes searching.
What did matter was what it was, and as the three fillies drew closer it became clear it wasn't the sun - it grew notably larger as they approached, but the light go no brighter or warmer, and it remained solidly fixed in its position at ground level.
In fact, as they closed the distance it seemed more and more like -
"Is it seriously a ROCK?" Half Note nearly screamed as she skid to a halt, a small cloud of fine gray dust kicking around her thrashing tail. Vaguely round, lumpy, and glowing softly, but steadily, it offered no response as she looked up at it. "Is this some kind of joke?"
Tornado, flitting above it and regarding it from different angles, offered a strained grin. "Um, well...it's glowing, so that's something, right? It's probably magic-"
Half Note interrupted her with a wordless snarl, pawing at the ground with her ears flat on her head. Firelock stood some distance back, eyes darting from the vaguely pony-sized lump of glowing something to her friends. She bit her lip, but said nothing.
Snorts and stomps punctuated Half Notes sputtering. "Everything we...all of it! And it's a rock. A blasted rock." She spun around and rushed toward Firelock, who fell back on her haunches as the Earth Pony pressed her face close. "It can't be a rock! It can't!"
The Unicorn, flat on her back, watched as her friend shook her head above her, nearly thrashing about as she rambled. Firelock trembled as the words gave way to whinnies and neighs, and she only saw the tears falling out of the wild eyes as Half Note threw herself to the ground with a whimper.
"It's supposed to be more than a rock..."
Tornado was by her side before the second sob, leaning against the Earth Pony as she trembled. Firelock had to take a moment to stand up, legs trembling, and catch her breath. Half Note had buried her face in Tornados shoulder, and Torando had a wing draped over her, pulling the two tighter together.
Firelock curled up on the other side, pressed herself against her friend, and turned her gaze to the offending object.
And it was offensive in its simplicity, if she was honest. Compared to the monotony of the gray dust it was certainly a big deal, but...on its own merits, it was hardly more than a novelty. While the glowing aspect was certainly unusual, producing light was one of the most basic applications of magic - Unicorns did it by default when they even tried to do anything magical at all - and the lumps and divots and creases in the glowing object might have meant something, but...if there was a language or intent to the irregularity of the thing, it wasn't apparent. For all intents and purposes, it was just a glowing rock.
Firelock felt a snort of her own as the bitter thought echoed in her own mind and on out.
"It should be more..." Half Note hiccuped, and the thought rebounded, and Firelocks eyes sharpened. "It should be...so why isn't..?"
She stiffened, and a few moments later, Half Note turned her head enough to look.
The Unicorns eyes were darting about, and it took a moment before she noticed the attention. She inhaled sharply, held her breath and looked away for a moment before she let it out and looked directly at Half Note with a tight jaw.
"I...I think I have an idea. But -" her voice cracked, her eyes darted away, and she had to swallow before she continued. "-but I don't know - I don't want - Half Note, I - " She spluttered, stammered, before she was able to continue. "-I'm scared I'm wrong, I don't want you to get your hopes up and then crash them, I think we're all scared and - and - I'm sorry, but I can't check, it has to be you, Half Note, I don't know how to check -"
Tornado snorted, and gave Firelock a look. The Unicorn shook her head and looked back at th Earth Pony, who was still giving her full attention, tears stymied. She swallowed, and continued.
"...I think maybe there is more, but...do you remember how, um, with the Buffalo, you could...hear, or, or, feel the beat to their um, spirit song?" Half Note blinked and gave the smallest of nods. "They were surprised that you could but...but you did, and they believed you and trained you and then at the end of the big ceremony there was Zephyr...Um, can you...can you hear anything? At all? Even if its...not the same, as it was before...maybe what's special with this thing is...kind of the same? Maybe you have to...look somewhere, for something Tornado and I wouldn't know to look for."
Half Note turned and looked at the rock, and her ear twitch as she sniffled. Firelock continued nervously, "I don't know what, what all you were taught, I kind of thought maybe it was just dancing, but that music had to be some kind of magic and, and you picked up on it and I don't-"
Half Note stood up, and Firelock stopped talking. The Earth Pony walked up to the object of her ire, ears twitching and eyes intent as she did so. She got right up to it, and Tornado and Firelock got themselves off the ground and watched her nervously, holding their breath.
"...I think you're right, 'Lock." Half Note Half whispered it. "I didn't think about it, but the silence here is...it's deeper than normal. Like...like when the ringing of your ears or the sound of your own breathing is missing, something so quiet and always there, only it's...it's the music that went missing...she told me there should always be a drumbeat, even in winter, something you can build on..." She trailed off and let her eyes wander over the lumpy, glowing rock.
"I didn't think about it, because it was quiet even when it was at its loudest, but it's so empty. And I guess that makes sense, here, that that'd be missing, just like everything else. The dust doesn't make much noise in its own, but..."
She turned her head around to look at her friends, and there was a light in her eyes that they hadn't seen in a while. The grin that accompanied it was disconcertingly tense, almost vicious, as she continued. "But the thing is, not everyone - Buffalo or Pony, can hear it, so they play the drums. The drummers and the dancers match the beat, they play add their own parts, and that's what makes it a song." She closed her eyes and sighed. "And it's weird, not to have that here, underneath everything, but now that I'm thinking about it..."
She reared up on her hind legs and snarled at the rock and at the empty world around her as she brought her hooves down -
"- I can make my own damn music -"
And the stone exploded in sound.