//------------------------------//
// Choses Mortes 
// Story: Quete 
// by Comrade Bagel Muffin 
//------------------------------//

An hour before dawn the wind joined the desert night's chill. The two of them knelt down and pulled the tarp over them as dust began to blow in from the west. The wind didn't stop, but once the sun broke over the horizon to the back they got up and started walking into the dust. Hoping to get a little further before the blazing noon day sun stunted their progress until nightfall. The sand had begun to form small dune, which ranged from half their size to three times their size. They didn't try climbing over them, instead opting to walk along the sides of the large dunes using them as a buffer against the wind blown sand. They were making slow progress as the sun rose behind them. Before the first hour of day the cold of night had vanished.
"Escutcheon, are you alright?" Dusk looked over her shoulder. He was falling further and further behind.
"I'm fine." He trudged through the sand. "Just a little tired."
"We can stop if you need to." She wiped the sweat from her brow. "I'm starting to get tired too. We can rest till sunset and continue."  She waited where she was waiting for him to catch up.
"No, it's fine we just need to get a little further."
"You're pushing yourself to hard." She stepped in front of him. "You're going to burn yourself out."
"Fifty more dunes, just fifty more and I'll rest."
"Five more." She didn't break eye contact, her yellow irises were already becoming blood shot from the sun's bright light. He looked away. "Look at me. Five more."
"Ten more and we'll stop for an hour." Dusk sighed but nodded her head. "We'll find water just on over this next dune. We'll find water, and bat ponies." He promised himself under his breath. So long as it was just on the other side of the dune he could make it. They could make it.
The two of them pushed deeper into the labyrinth of dunes. Something caught Escutcheon's eyes at the top of one next dune. Dusk seemed to have seen it too. "What is that." The wind continued to blow sand off of the dune and back onto it again, uncovering and recovering the strange thing.
"What is that?" Dusk looked up covering her eyes with a forehoof.
"I don't know." Escutcheon headed up the dune. Dusk followed him up the hill of sand. They crested the dune the hot desert wind blowing sand against them. The thing was a peace of cloth. It was attached to something. "Will you help me get this thing uncovered?" He asked as he began shoving the sand off of the thing. Dusk's wings soon started wiping more and more sand. She screamed as the final load of sand came off of the thing. Escutcheon's blood froze. It was a sun bleached skeleton. the cloth was the same type of tarp that Dusk had. On the skull was pair of goggles, with three thin slits with black glass in them.
"It's a scout. It's one of our scouts." She took the goggles off of the skull. "Night Sky." She read. "I remember her, she was one of the scouts that came back and told the colony about the desert." She looked across the dune sea. Several other dunes had shreds of tarps flapping in the breeze. "They didn't make it across the desert."
"No." Escutcheon guided Dusk down the dune. "They made it, just a few of them didn't I'm sure of Dusk. Your dad's still alive." She looked up at the skeleton of Night Sky  which was quickly being recovered in desert sand. "Dusk." Escutcheon guided her gaze back to his. "He's alive you can't give up." He wiped the tears from her eyes and helped her around the next two dunes until they couldn't see anymore of tarps. She never let go of the goggles. They set up camp. Here at least she wasn't able to see and of the tarps.