Amethyst Star wasn’t sure if it was the same day or if she had been out all night. She tiredly dragged her hooves and agonizingly pained body across the sand of the desert. More than just stomach pains from drinking that water, her flesh was blistered and raw and her eyes were dry. The unicorn looked like a pony that had been tossed around in an oven. Maybe she even had been if she was lying on that hot desert sand for as long as she suspected she was. What she thought was a reprieve and a spot of luck had turned into a disaster that left her even worse off than she was before. And there was still no end to this desert in sight. The sand shimmered on and on in front of her, telling her nothing.
“I hate deserts. More than swamps, or hills, or rivers… or dumb jerks that play bocce. I hate deserts,” Amethyst Star glared dead ahead.
The good news was that she had gotten really good at fighting through her own fatigue and pain. The Amethyst Star that started this journey would be really proud of her. She was far too annoyed to be happy about her increased stamina and durability right now though, and the still hot sand under her hooves was a constant bother, even moreso with their soreness and redness after her “nap”.
But still she plodded on. That was all she could do right now until either the desert ended or her body failed her.
Whichever came first.
“I hate deserts,” she repeated. That nauseous and sick feeling in her head that was somewhere between a headache and the fog of a fever still hadn’t fully abated. Amethyst Star wasn’t sure if when she inevitably keeled over if it would be from her sickness or plain exhaustion. She just wished there was something more out here that she could see, something to strive towards and force the last bits of energy out of her. It would be so much easier to get through this if she could at least see the finish line.
Her stomach grumbled but it might have been more from what she had drank earlier than from hunger. She rubbed her stomach and did her best to ignore the feeling, thinking instead of how embarrassing it would be if her adventure ended here. The thought of that more than anything kept her moving. She didn’t want her friends or anyone else who doubted her proven right. And if she couldn’t handle a little desert then it was like admitting she was wrong about herself. Which was just an impossible, unacceptable thought. Amethyst Star believed in herself and her ability to conquer this desert! Absolutely everyone else was wrong about her.
“That’s right,” she nodded to nobody. “And that’s how it’s gonna keep being. I’m totally capable of crossing this dumb desert and getting back to a real adventure.” She thought if she repeated that enough times it would have to be true. “So no more dillydallying, I’m done with all this dumb sand!”
Maybe the world had decided to take pity on her, for once, but the shimmering sand and light ahead of her stopped being so blurry, and like a mirage disappearing in front of her face she saw something appear in the distance as if it had come out of nowhere. At first she looked on in shock, not registering exactly what she was seeing, but eventually the landscape fully revealed its true nature and she recognized the steady blue-green of a desert river with several small wooden buildings that had been set up along its edge, all of it only a short jaunt from where she was standing now.
“Okay,” Amethyst Star shrugged and walked towards the buildings. This worked for her.
Bits of grass and weeds started rising up out of the sand as she got closer to the river, there must be soil just slightly underneath. The wooden buildings also looked shoddy and clearly dilapidated, possibly even abandoned. Amethyst Star walked between them to get to the river for now, the water a goal she cared far more about than checking on any random buildings. It turned out that behind the buildings however sat a small dock built over the water that she was previously unable to see.
And a single pony stood atop it. Dusting sand off the wooden planks with a thinning broom missing most of its thistles.
When he turned around he noticed Amethyst Star, eyebrows rising into his forehead, the stallion was tall and lanky with a pronounced adam’s apple and a mane and tail that had gone white with age. “Well hey there, you come for the ferry? Haven’t seen many ponies lately.”
Amethyst Star held up a hoof. “One second.” She ran to the river right next to the dock and dunked her head into the water, taking a huge gulp of it. “Hahhh!” She pulled her soaking wet head out of the water and sighed in relief before dipping her hooves in too and splashing water all over her face and the rest of her body. “Oh yeah, that feels good.”
“Must’ve been in that desert for a while...” the stallion leaned on his broom while he watched her.
The old stallion went by the name of Latch and apparently he was the only one who lived around these parts. Once upon a time some ponies got the bright idea to build a rest stop out here, but the problem was that it was far too remote even for that and the whole thing went up in smoke. Latch was the only one who stayed around to operate his ferry for any pony or other creature that happened to make their way out here. Now Amethyst Star stood at the edge of his dock, ready to hop out onto that ferry and go somewhere else.
“So like, how far will you take me on this thing?” Amethyst Star asked him. The river flowed almost directly north, she didn’t want to get too far off her path of “west”.
“Far as you want to go,” Latch shrugged from beside her. “You know anything about this area? Doesn’t seem like you do.”
Amethyst Star frowned at him. “Okay, no, I don’t.”
“Right. Well down the river is the City of Opportunity. Still technically in the desert but a much more lush and fertile part of it,” Latch told her.
“City of Opportunity?”
“Yup, that’s what they call it. Supposedly you can find anything and everything you’re looking for there. Huge city with all kinds of creatures living in it, it’s the first and only major city you’ll find going downstream from here. Only problem is I can’t take you the whole way.”
“Why not?” She tilted her head at him.
“Well cause a bit further down the river you get to a point where the river’s full of sandbars and a bunch of tiny islands poking out of the water. It’s impossible to get my ferry through,” he shrugged. “Still, I can take you a good portion of the way down. It won’t be a problem for you to walk the rest of the way, they even got dirt roads leading to the city from that far.”
“Sounds good to me,” Amethyst Star said and walked from the dock onto his ferry.
“Barge” may have been more appropriate. It was a square collection of boards all nailed together and stuck on top of some floating barrels with nothing more than a rudder at the back for steering and a few wooden posts at the corners with ropes tied around them to create a rudimentary railing to keep any ponies from accidentally falling into the water. Latch walked on right after her, a thick rope wrapped around one of the posts of the dock also had its other end looped around a metal stub on the barge, Latch pulled it off and threw the rope onto the dock so they could start floating free. The river was calm so they only slowly started to drift down without that rope, giving Latch plenty of time to make his way over to the rudder and steer them into the center of the river. Amethyst Star was happy to be making some progress while she could also rest but the going would obviously be sloooow.
“So where are you going if you don’t mind me asking? Trip is gonna take some time, figured might as well make some small talk.” Latch said to her. “Since you don’t know the area at all are you lost or something? Even got a destination in mind?”
Amethyst Star scowled as she looked downriver. “No, I’m not lost. I’m just heading west. Not looking for anything in particular.” It was more or less true.
Latch was silent for a moment from behind her. She wondered what he might have been thinking about before he started talking again. “Hm, you remind me of a filly I ferried out here a while ago, she was just heading west too,”
Amethyst Star looked back at him. “Yeah?”
“Yup,” Latch nodded. “Pretty memorable since so few come around this river. So if you’re just going west then where might you be from originally?”
“Oh, well I’m from Equestria. I guess technically this whole place is already the west to me but I’m going even further. Looking for adventure,” Amethyst Star smiled at him.
“Equestria, huh? That’s where the Princesses live. Not sure if I ever heard where that strawberry colored filly was from.” Latch rubbed his chin as he got a far away look in his eyes.
“You know about it?” Amethyst Star was kind of surprised. Should she really be though? It was true that everything out here felt so disconnected from the rest of the world but surely they must know who raised the sun and moon, right? Maybe most actually didn’t. Every little place seemed so independent and didn’t give Amethyst Star any inkling that they knew about Equestria. The Undiscovered West truly was on its own.
“Heard about it, never been there,” Latch shrugged. “Word of advice though, you can’t really go that much farther west from here. Whether it’s adventure you want or not.”
“What do you mean?” Amethyst Star raised an eyebrow at him.
Latch grinned. “Well this here might be the west to you and the rest of the ponies from Equestria, but to me and the others who live out here there’s no such thing as the west until after Al-Karamaretel. The lands past it could be considered the Far West to you.”
Amethyst Star chewed on her lip, mulling over his words in her head. “Al-Karamaretel… I keep hearing about that place. What is it?”
“Hmm...” Latch’s eyes roamed around for a second. “I guess you could say it’s a cross between a city and a fortress? It lies on the eastern edge of a wide and bottomless chasm that spans through the entirety of these lands from north to south and they guard the only bridge across it. Used to be you could cross that bridge no problem, except you might have to wait a while, but for years now they’ve stopped letting anyone over it. Maybe you could get someone to fly you across but I hear they look to stop anyone from doing that. And make sure no one else builds any bridge across the chasm. Search me why though.” Latch sneezed. “Anyways, that chasm cuts the “west” as you would call it clean in half. But there isn’t any getting past Al-Karamaretel for you so you might as well forget about it.”
It wasn’t what she wanted to hear entirely but Al-Karamaretel definitely sounded like a pretty adventurous place to her. Maybe she would still head to it after that “City of Opportunity” that was coming up. And if he was telling the truth and the Undiscovered West was cut in half by that chasm then that meant there was still a huge amount to explore and journey through. Even if she couldn’t make it to the other side she knew how much area there was still in the eastern half she was already in that she hadn’t gone through. Her adventure may not have gone too swimmingly so far but there was clearly so much more out there waiting for her.
For now though she decided to get a little real rest. “Hey, Latch? Thanks for the trip and the conversation but I’m pretty worn out by… everything. I’m about to pass out anyways so I’m just gonna curl up down here and take a quick nap. Wake me when we stop.”
“Can do,” Latch saluted her.
She waved back to him and promptly lied down on the barge, easily falling to sleep less than a minute later. And this time dreaming of nothing. Good.