Starlight couldn't last for much longer.
It was midday and she had no water left. She was exhausted, sunburnt, (who would have thought ponies could get sunburnt with hair covering their entire bodies?) and in just the last hour she had tripped on a stone and sprained her left hind leg.
Starlight was beat.
It's been three days now, she thought. Three days all alone, wandering in the San Palomino Desert.
After finding a map showing the location of a lost unicorn settlement, Starlight Glimmer headed out to search for it. She had heard that some unicorns had, many centuries ago, developed or practiced certain strange forms of magic. Magic that Starlight hoped would help her understand the origins and purpose of cutie marks.
After tracing the story to Manehatten, she found out the location of this mythical unicorn settlement which was, she also discovered, a secret that had been kept from the general population. Starlight was not, at the moment, concerned about why it was kept secret. All she knew was that there was powerful magic in a cutie mark and maybe, just maybe, this unicorn ghost town held some answers.
As she made her way along the hard packed sand, Starlight couldn't help but start to second guess herself. Maybe I made a mistake while copying that map. She thought to herself, I should have come across that village already.
She paused and sat down. "Ouch!" she exclaimed as she quickly stood back up on all four hooves. "That sand is hot." Starlight rubbed her bottom where it had touched the sun-baked earth. Reaching into her saddlebags, she removed a worn cloak and laid it down, providing a protective barrier between herself and the ground.
"Ah," she said as she finally had a chance to take her weight off the injured leg, "That's better."
How could I have been so stupid, Starlight thought as she proceeded to massage her sore leg. Tripping on a rock. Come on Starlight, she admonished herself, you really need to pay better attention. You're all alone out here and if you're not careful, you could just as easily end up being an unsolved mystery yourself.
Having rested as much as she could afford to, Starlight packed up her cloak, checked her map against the compass she bought before leaving Manehattan to be sure she was on course, and continued on her way.
Squinting against the sun's glare, Starlight almost missed seeing a rather strange-looking stick poking up out of the ground directly in her path. She stopped to examine it, using her magic to free it from the earth.
It was almost the length of her body with a shaft that twisted like a corkscrew and terminated at one end in a perfect fork shape.
"What an interesting stick." she said. "Finally a good piece of luck. I really needed something to help me keep the weight off my leg."
She picked up the object and, using it as a hiking staff, the way some mountaineering ponies did, continued on her way at a slightly faster pace.
Starlight was quickly approaching a small mountain range when she spotted something nestled in a valley between two hills. The closer she got, the more she realized this was some kind of pony-made structure. There was a large pavilion as well as a series of low buildings; At least she assumed that they were buildings at one time. All that was left of them now was a series of weather beaten low walls not much taller than herself and the same color as the surrounding ground.
Even though it was well worn from centuries of disuse, the pavilion was still recognizable - thanks to its construction of white marble, which was less susceptible to wear. It had what looked like gold-colored accents in the style favored by unicorn architects.
Starlight headed past the pavilion toward the center of the town (if it could still be called that) where there was a short, round stone structure she recognized as a well.
With some trepidation and no small amount of hope, she used her magic to levitate layer upon layer of sand and debris out of the hole.
As she got deeper, and more exhausted, she started to notice that the sand was getting darker, a telltale sign that there was still moisture down there.
"Yes!" Starlight exclaimed. "Success!"
She removed a few more layers of sand until she saw real water beginning to pool at the bottom of the old well. Taking a well earned break, she decided to explore the ruins while the well filled itself and the sediment in the water cleared.
Walking around the ruined buildings, Starlight noticed broken pieces of pottery, gardening tools and other items scattered half buried in the sand. Things a pony would not leave behind if they were moving. That, along with the pavilion, erased any doubt in her mind that this was the lost unicorn village she was searching for.
After an hour spent poking around the smaller buildings, Starlight returned to the well to see how things were progressing there.
She was pleased to see a large pool of clear water had gathered at the bottom of the newly excavated well. With her magic, Starlight levitated her canteen down below the surface of the water, filling it. She brought it back up and carefully sipped some. "What a relief!" she exclaimed as the cool water soothed her cracked and dry lips. The water tasted fine. Careful not to drink too much too fast, she spent the next hour sipping and refilling the canteen until she was no longer thirsty.
Digging through her saddle bags, Starlight removed a large sack full of oats. Having consumed the last of her fresh food over a day ago, it was all she had left to eat. While somewhat bland on their own, oats were the perfect travel food, light and full of vitamins and minerals. One just needed some water to make them more palatable - which, Starlight was happy to say, she now had in abundance.
The unicorn quickly gathered up some of the sticks scattered about and used her magic to start a fire with them. Taking a small pot from her belongings, she quickly heated some water from the well and made herself a nice porridge.
After finishing, Starlight noticed that the sun was quickly nearing the horizon. "Time to find somewhere to bed down for the night." she said.
She walked over to the pavilion and examined it more closely. It was a circular structure about twenty meters in diameter. Built with a floor about one meter off the ground, it was encompassed by a series of steps made of the same marble as the structure itself. The walls were just smooth marble columns supporting a domed roof that was about four meters high and partially collapsed. In the center of the pavilion stood a dais about half the height of a full-grown pony. Tumbleweeds, sand, and other debris littered the floor.
Starlight started cautiously up the steps, watching them crumble slightly under her weight. "Not good" she said aloud. But she made it to the top and carefully walked around the dias, looking for a good place to roll out her sleeping bag for the night.
Crack! Starlight froze as she felt the floor under her move with the sound. She looked down to see a large, uneven crack forming beneath her hooves.
All of a sudden a section the floor gave way and she felt herself falling! Her hooves flailed in a momentary panic but being a quick thinker, Starlight regained her composure, closed her eyes and enveloped herself with a levitation spell, pausing safely in midair.
She she waited a moment for her eyes to adjust to the darkness. When she was again able to see, she noticed the whole area beneath the pavilion was hollow! Just below the earth's surface, an underground chamber spread out before her.
Starlight lowered herself to the stone floor and examined her new surroundings. There was a circular staircase that was fixed to the walls and led to a hatch in the ceiling above. Hanging from the walls were several tapestries. They were worn and faded, but with some light from her horn, she was able to make out the various scenes they depicted. All of them featured some variation of ponies grouped together and raising either the sun or the moon. Magic auras emanated from their horns and converged before being directed to the heavenly bodies. Starlight realized that these ponies in the tapestries had horns but no wings. They were not alicorns, as she would have expected, but just regular unicorns!
Along one wall was a bookshelf with few dozen volumes left on its shelves. There were also marble tables and benches to sit on scattered around the floor. Everything was covered in centuries worth of dust. In the center of the room was a marble pedestal and sitting on top of it was a statue. It was sculpted in the shape of a unicorn rearing up on it's hind legs. It was slightly smaller than a filly, made of gold with rubys for eyes.
The unicorns must have had to leave this place in a hurry. Starlight thought, Otherwise they would have never left all of this behind. It's far too valuable.
Starlight decided to explore this place further in the morning. It had been an exhausting day and she really needed to rest. This room had been here for more than a thousand years; it would still be here tomorrow.
Starlight carefully made her way up the staircase and using her magic, opened the hatch. From above, it was indistinguishable from the surface of the pavilion. She placed the fork-shaped staff on it so she would remember where it was.
She decided to sleep in the open, in the corner of one of the ruined buildings. Gathering up a load of sticks, she started another small fire to keep the cold at bay as the desert got very chilly after the sun went down.
Curled up in her sleeping bag near her fire, Starlight drifted into her first good night's sleep in weeks.