An Equestrian Journey

by Aslfrasle

The Goddess of the Sands

Purple was trekking through what seemed like endless dunes of sand though she was always had the mountain in the distance to keep her on track. Every dune she traveled over seemed the same, climb one side slowly but surely, and then slide down the other side.

After she was several dunes away from the ruins where she had discovered the story wall, she noticed the winds were blowing differently. Instead of the normal desert breezes had changes to fiercer winds. The sands around her were being picked up by the stronger than usual winds and began to obscure her vision. She tried to keep the mountain in her sights so that she would know where she was, though the now budding sandstorm was obscuring her view of the mountain more and more with each passing second. Eventually the sands succeeded in fully concealing the mountain, as well as everything more than a few feet in front of her. She was glad she had her robe as it protected her face and body from the brunt of the storm.

She kept trying to venture forwards in the direction she had been going through it was an arduous ordeal. For every step she managed to take through the storm, she seemed to have to take several moments to buckle down in the sands to keep from getting knocked over. She had taken a couple of steps through the dunes during the storm, though once she reached the top of the dune, she realized that going down the other side would be problematic. Her normal plan of sliding down the side of the dune would not work right now, if she tried she strong winds would knock her over while she slid. She resolved to try to walk down the same way she had come up, and though it had worked well for the first couple of steps, she ended up faltering as one of her hooves fell out from under her.

As if sensing a moment of weakness, the winds chose this moment to pick up and become even fiercer. The now stronger winds blowing against her now prone form ended up pushing Purple around and causing her to be blown off of her original path. Knowing she would not be able to get up and right herself, Purple buckled down and focused on keeping herself wherever she was so that she would not be knocked further off course. Once she had found herself a sufficiently protected location, half buried in the sands, she waited while making sure she would not get fully buried under the roaring sands.

---

Purple waited for what seemed like forever for the storm to die down, and after a great deal of waiting and preventing herself from being buried, she no longer heard the fierce winds of the sandstorm. She proceeded to uncover herself and continue on her way to the mountain, though she would need to find out where she was first. After making her way out of her sandy bunker, Purple surveyed her surroundings. She could still see the mountain, it even seemed closer than it did before. The surrounding area seemed to be the same though, all around she was surrounded by sand, dunes leading into more dunes as far as the eye could see.

She noticed something different though it was small and she almost missed it, though it was definitely there. Resting among the sands, nestled between two collapsed pillars of some forgotten building was a single yellow flower. She had never seen anything like it. A flower should need water and soil to live and grow, yet here was this simple flower all alone in one of the harshest areas imaginable, just like her. The flower should not have bee able to grow...and yet it did, a testament to anything being possible. Purple took this flower as a sign that no matter how far the mountain seemed, if a flower could grow in this climate, then her journey was certainly possible.

With renewed vigor thanks to the lone flower, she began making her way towards the mountain again. After traveling the whole day, though she could not tell how long it had been as the sun never seemed to set in this world. She had never seen the sun even move the slightest bit in all her travels here. Correcting herself, after traveling for what seemed like a full day, she came upon the most whole and preserved ruins she had seen yet. There were multiple structures and though they were slightly decrepit, and falling apart she could clearly see that each on was some sort of tower, and each one seemed to have some sort of glowing light inside of it.

Purple made her way towards the central structure which was a small cylindrical platform in the middle of the circle of towers. A part of it was crumbling and had created makeshift stairs for her to climb to the platform. Once she made her way to the top of the platform and looked around at the other towers. There were no bridges or paths connecting them to the central platform, and this caused her to wonder how those who used this, which she assumed to be the lost people of her kind, got from each tower to the other. Another thing she noticed was that the were strange ribbons made of cloth sticking out of the floor of the platform. The ribbons looked very worn and ragged, and any designs that may have been on them had long since disappeared.

She approached the ribbons to inspect them, though when she took one of them in her hooves, the area around where she touched suddenly lit up and looked like new, pieces no longer missing, and the runes adorning it were clearly visible. Upon seeing this mysterious transformation, Purple felt that tugging feeling, which seemed to happen anytime her horn was about to burst with magic. She let the magical force flow through her to her horn, and it n longer felt weird or pushing as she had learned to channel the feeling through herself, when her horn lit up the magical energy manifested itself as another wave of energy. As soon as the wave touched the ribbon, it sprung back to life like it had when it had been in her hooves. The light covered the entire ribbon and once the whole thing looked like new Purple heard a machine like whir, and the ribbon started sliding into a whole in the ground. It seemed that returning the ribbon to it’s past state had jump-started whatever mechanical process it was part of.

Purple used the magical wave to renew the other three ribbons on the platform, which all slid into their own holes in the floor. Once all the ribbons had entered the slots, she heard a clank and the spinning of gears inside the structure. A grate that was in the center of the platform opened up and pieces of cloth flew out of the hole. The pieces of cloth look almost like the ribbons had been shredded into tiny rectangular bits. They floated aimlessly in the air until Purple approached at which time they began to swirl around her, which caused the runes on her scarf to light up and shine. She let out another burst of magic, assuming these cloth bits reacted the same way the ribbons would, and when she did the bits lit up very brightly and began to lift her into the air. While she floated she saw another one of the glyphs nearby at which time she glided over to it. When she reached the glyph it lit up and was absorbed into her body like the others, though this one came with another light that attached itself to her scarf, adding another rune to it and extending its length. After returning to the platform she grabbed another glyph that was hidden over one of the sides, after which she cantered back to the cloth bits.

After using the bits to float into the air, she looked around quickly and noticed another altar across a broken bridge. She floated across to the other side and walked towards the altar, as she approached the stone monuments around the altar began to light up. Once all the monuments had lit up, an otherworldly circle of light appeared in front of the altar. Purple looked around and the only other place she could go was barred by a massive golden gate of gilded metal. Since she had nowhere else to go, she stepped into the light and as she did her vision suddenly blanked as she fell over.

---

Purple awoke in a blindingly white realm and she could see nothing around her in any direction. As her eyes adjusted to the white she noticed there was a faint outline of something in the distance. As she approached it the outline became more defined, and she realized that it was a large white creature. The strange creature was the same shape as her, she even had a horn like she did though she also had majestic wings. The creature approached Purple, its wings flared, and looked down at her. After studying her for a few moments the creature nodded its head to the side, as if to point out something that she should be looking at.

Purple saw a massive mural appear nearby with pictures of things she had seen on her journey here, though something was different. She saw the mountain with the light at its peak, though the skies above it were brightly lit by the same marking she had seen on the glyphs and story walls. On the ground a ways from the base of the mountain there were drawings of creatures who looked like her, they were together as if they had formed a town or village. They were working together in a field to harvest what looked like crops. There were also creatures leaving the town heading towards the mountain on their pilgrimage. They were headed through what looked like the hub area she was in towards some sort of bridge through the gates she had seen. Purple assumed that this creature was showing her how her kind used to travel their pilgrimage in the past, perhaps in an attempt to help her with her journey. After showing her the mural, the creature nodded again and began walking back the way she came as everything flashed white again.

When Purple came to and her vision cleared, she way lying next to the altar, and the gates in front of her began to creak and grind as they opened. She got to her feet and began walking towards the now open gateway. As she walked through the archway towards the next legs of her journey she knew there must be a reason that the white creature was so intent on her getting to the mountain. She added this to her list of questions she hoped would be answered when she arrived as she made her way towards to light at the end of the tunnel.

Author's Note:

I can't really think of anything to put in this author's note...Hope you enjoy.

Comments

[Rainy_Daze]

Awesome chapter.
A couple of things to fix, that I saw.

Eventually the sands succeeded in fully concealed the mountain

Think ya ment "concealing"
and

She was glad she had her robe as it protected her face and boy from the brunt of the storm.

Ya dropped the "D" in body.
Can't wait for the next chapter, bro.

[AngelFreddy]

First Rarity now it's Twilight's turn.