Sand.
Endless sand. It had started up maybe a mile or two back. The plains of yellow grass had started to bleed away, the dirt beneath them replaced by sand. Slowly the full plains became patches, then spindly fingers, then the grass fully disappeared and it was just sand and more sand. For a while the sandy ground was still flat but eventually that turned into the rolling dunes that Rainbow Dash was now flying over.
The Great Camel Desert. Rainbow Dash had reached it. It was early in a brand new day too after she had spent the previous night shivering in a hole back in the plains. Rainbow had made good progress so far with the only issue right now being that she was pretty thirsty. Of course that issue was one she was probably going to be struggling with for a good while. There wasn’t just “less” water around now. There was no water. An ocean of sand had replaced the world.
And of course the desert was hot.
Really, really hot. The sun sizzled down at her with an even greater intensity and Rainbow Dash knew if she set her hooves down on the sand that they’d come away burnt in seconds. Waves of heat just poured in from above and made the entire desert shimmer and waver as Rainbow Dash flew over it. Oh was she supremely thankful for her wings right now. Not having to touch the sand directly and not having to crawl and pull herself up and down the massive dunes over and over. How awful that would’ve been, Rainbow wouldn’t have made it half a mile before she collapsed in a pile in the sand. Some of these dunes were just huge and she really didn’t envy any camels or earth ponies that had to travel by hoof over them, maybe pulling wagons too.
Camels had hooves, right? Twilight would know…
And it sounded like it wasn’t just camels and ponies that lived in the desert, Rainbow would have to see for herself what other creatures made this place their home. She wouldn’t think anyone would want to choose to live in a place so hostile if they had a choice, but then again there were plenty living in the frozen lands of the True North. There were a lot of different creatures in Klugetown too and that was in the middle of a desert. But that was also the sort of place where it seemed like creatures went that had nowhere else to go in the first place. The trip through the desert to get there had been miserable too.
There were some clouds overhead where Rainbow Dash was now though. Not enough to provide cover or comfort but at least it was something new, something to break the monotony if she felt like looking up. They were just little tufts of cotton in the air that broke the sunlight and cast weak shadows over the dunes every now and then. Maybe if she needed to she could make some kind of shelter or bed with them if she didn’t find One Hump Oasis or anything else by night time.
What was missing completely now though besides just the water was any animals. Rainbow hadn’t seen any signs of life since leaving the plains.
Rainbow Dash wasn’t even really sure what animals actually lived in the desert. She couldn’t remember ever asking Fluttershy. There were lizards and prairie dogs back at the plains, and she probably figured the reptiles would like a warm place like this. But maybe it was too warm for them. Just another question to ask one of her friends when she got home.
For now Rainbow was going to focus more on overcoming the heat and not let it get to her, since it was progressively getting hotter and hotter as the day carried on. She imagined by the time it hit noon it would be at its hottest and she still had a few hours to go before that happened. So it would be best to make her body acclimate to the heat before that. The sand below her though reflected a good deal of the light and heat from the sun right back up at her underside, making it like she was being cooked on both sides as she flew.
That wasn’t a very good job she was doing on overcoming the heat...
Twilight would say mind over matter, right? Well Rainbow Dash had known from her adventures through the snow that that didn’t really work too well. At least not for her. She just wasn’t the type or was never in the right mood to deal with things that way, she had to do it physically. There still wasn’t a breeze or anything either but maybe she’d be able to acclimate to the heat in just a day or two. With luck, One Hump Oasis wasn’t even more than a day away. Wheatie and Wood Chips had said it was in the northern part of the desert and she was traveling by air so she had to be covering ground faster than they would expect a pony to. If that oasis was the last stop before the desert ended, it had to be fairly close by.
Looking ahead she still couldn’t see anything but sand and shimmering air though. Yet. Some of these dunes were just huge, like gigantic frozen waves of sand. The valleys between them dipped down fifty--a hundred--feet sometimes. The Great Camel Desert was no longer flat, it had become a monster of rolling sand waves. And it made it more difficult to see ahead unless she wanted to fly up a little higher. But honestly she didn’t have a whole lot of energy and wanted to stay closer to the surface, even if it meant not having clear vision. With the way the heat warped the air it’s not like she’d be able to see far anyways. She wasn’t sure how mirages worked but she had heard about them too.
The heat now as she flew over the dunes was just killing her. She almost wanted to set down on the sand just so the burning sensation on her hooves would give her something else to focus on. But that was probably a dumb idea. Maybe she could walk down the next dune she passed that had some shade on the other side. It had to feel better than flying through this murderously hot air. And if she waited too long the sun would get into a position that would erase all the shadows on the sand.
Hopping from tiny cloud to tiny cloud was also becoming more appealing, even though with how thin they were she’d probably accidentally dissipate them entirely once she came into contact. That was still an option. Or a way to kill time if she got bored enough.
The heat was going to fry her brain the longer she was out here so more stuff like that that would keep her mind active was probably good. If only she had a book to read or somebody else to talk to right now. But she was alone on her journey. Like usual it was just Rainbow Dash.
Usual, huh? More often than not she had a friend around. Just not while she was traveling, only when she stopped somewhere and had somebody showing her around. If she could travel with somebody or a group of ponies through this desert, it might be pretty nice. Better than dying of thirst or heat exhaustion all on her own at least, skeleton left for the vultures to pick at.
She glanced up at the sky--not that she had seen any vultures.
Rainbow Dash continued on like that for a while longer with the heat getting worse the whole time. She was dried out, thirsty, hungry, and weak. Her mind was foggy--the heat getting to it worse than the cold ever did. Something she was going to blame on the dehydration. She just couldn’t think straight in the same way she usually could.
Exhaustion. She didn’t want to admit it after her earlier boasting, but the heat was wrecking her worse than the cold. Except for her brief time in Raalzeron’s homeland. But it was certainly much worse on her than the rest of the True North had been.
It was still just the weather though. Just a hot climate. And Rainbow Dash absolutely wasn’t going to let something like that beat her.
She passed over a tall sand dune and descended a little bit down to its backside. There was some shade back there, covering the slope of sand. The moment her hooves hit, Rainbow Dash sighed in contentment. She couldn’t exactly say the sand was cool, but it wasn’t as hot as the air and it felt pretty nice to sink her hooves into it. She just folded her wings in and stood there for a moment, relaxing and looking south. The air shimmered. Golden-yellow sand spread in every direction.
Endless.
Except on the horizon.
Rainbow Dash narrowed her eyes. Was she seeing things? Were her eyes playing tricks on her? No, they weren’t. Through the shimmering air, far in the distance, she could make out shapes that broke the monotony of the sand. And more than that, but the colors of green and blue as well.
She was making progress.