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The Beginning1,949 words
The Bridge1,645 words
The Desert1,273 words
The Descent998 words
The Tunnels1,249 words
The Temple1,259 words
The Mountain1,035 words
The Summit940 words
Epilouge596 words

The Beginning

I was lost. Despite my efforts to make sense of what was going on, I was useless. I was nothing more than an essence, weightlessly floating in an empty void. My name is Rarity, by the way. A citizen from a quiet town called Ponyville. The last I remember was a bright light... but I knew I was doing something. I couldn't have just appeared here. What happened to me?

I looked around, and things remained the same in every direction. White. Endless. Silent. I tried calling out for anyone, but my voice froze at any attempt to speak.

"Where am I? Am I asleep? Unconscious? Oh dear... could I be... dead? I don't know what to believe." I wondered, the sound of my own mind breaking the silence. I merely drifted in the empty area, losing sense of time and location. "If something doesn't happen anytime soon, I'll surely go mad..." I thought, growing bored of my state.

But as if on cue, I got my wish. The white abyss regained color, shape, and form. I felt myself laying on the ground. Sand, apparently. I found myself in my physical body again, laying on a dune of sand. The sun harshly beamed down over me, and the sky was cast a dry orange, scattered with wispy, dull clouds. I sat up. There was a cloth wrapped around me. A white cloth, that covered my head like a hood and gently draped over myself. The trim of the robe was similar to my cutie mark. Light blue diamonds bordering the edge of the cloth. My face had also been covered, a gray veil that let my eyes peer out and held my mane back, while allowing my horn to rest gently on my head. It felt odd, but it kept the harsh sunlight off me. Fashionable, yet functional.

"What is this place? Am I even in Equestria anymore?" I wondered. My voice still wouldn't work. I stood up, and got a better look at my surroundings. Sand. Nothing but orange dunes of sand stretching on for eternity.

"Wonderful. I'm lost in the middle of nowhere." I thought, pouting behind the soft veil. Something then streaked over my head, leaving a trail of light in the air behind it. As I turned to see where it came from, the view was blocked by a very tall dune. Nothing could fly that fast except for Rainbow Dash... but there's no way she made something like that. I wondered what to make of it. I started galloping up the sandy hill. As I reached the top, I began to trudge, and tried to catch my breath.

What was on the other side made my own eyes widen. A tall mountain loomed in the distance. It seemed to be bifurcated near the peak, as if some towering god had took an axe and cleaved it right at the top. Between the edges of the split, there was a light. A beacon that stretched up into the sky, and dulled at it's apex.

By simply looking at the pillar of light, I felt overwhelmed. It was beauty and bliss combined into a single essence. There had to be a way up to it. I didn't care if it took forever. I had to climb that mountain. It was my only hope. After a short moment of thought, I took a moment to look down at the desert that separated myself from the mountain.

Endless dunes and sand filled the gap. Near the bottom of the hill where I stood, small markers stuck out from the ground. I slid slowly down the dune, beginning my trek. Upon closer inspection, the markers were simple stone slabs buried in the sand. Each one bared a hexagon hole near the top, and a unique mark underneath. The marks were simple images, etched into the stones. They consisted of a few rectangular lines and squares making up a glyph of some sort. Was this some sort of writing? How can anyone possibly know what this is? It was a language that I did not know existed, let alone translate.

I had to kept moving. More markers and sand. I soon approached an odd stone structure. Chucks of rock shattered to form a small altar. But it wasn't any regular stone. From the looks of it, there was a building here, decayed and crumbled by the relentless ravages of time. I found myself hopping up the chunks, expecting to get over the obstacle. But something rested on the top. A glowing symbol, similar to the ones on the stone markers.

Stepping closer,I felt captivated by the golden shimmer of the symbol. The sign melted into a shining dust that swirled behind me. I turned to see what appeared behind me. A short purple strip of cloth, clinging to the cloak and gently flapping in the desert wind.

"Curious..." I thought. I looked in front of me again. Smaller strips of red cloth drifted around in the air, paying no heed to gravity. They hovered around my ribbon, emitting a pleasant hum that made the purple strip glow dimly. I hopped off the stone building to keep moving, but slowly ascended upward.

Shocked, I hovered a few feet into the air, before dropping, and landing lightly on my hooves. I saw a few more red ribbons floating ahead. Perhaps they would work again...

I trotted closer to some more flying ribbons, letting them hum and glow around me. I lept once more, resulting in the same short moment of flight. I couldn't help smile a little as I found this a little fun. I began trotting forward and glided across small distances of the desert, but I realized something else. The stone buildings... were they part of some civilization? Were the markers... graves? It felt awful for me to think about it, but for once, I felt well and truly alone in this arid wasteland.

It wasn't long before I lost my train of thought and slid down into strange building. An arena? A stage? No matter the purpose, it was clear of it's shape. A large, circular wall of stone. Despite its towering, unclimbable walls, the open air gave her a good view of the distant mountain. In the center was another large altar, were four cloth ribbons, suspended with the hot wind.

Slowly climbing the stone column, I looked at the rags. They were dried, faded, and tattered. A metal grating made up the floor, with something moving underneath. I held the cloth in my hooves, inspecting it's dry surface. What a waste of fabric...why would somepony bother using them like this? They could have been a tapestry, or a flag, but no. They were just drifting.

The cloth I held began to warm up. Where my hooves grasped it, the red and yellow color and softness returned. Soon, the entire thing began to regain an essence. It almost seemed... 'younger'. The cloth retracted into the metal grate, and the structure shook as a CLANK resonated within. Some sort of mechanism, perhaps.

I mused over a thought and decided to give it a shot. I rapidly approaching the remaining three cloths. As I brushed against them, the same process took over them. They too retracted, and more mechanical rumbling. The metal grate seemed to open slightly, allowing a swarm of cloth to flourish out.

Each one darted in the air above, and made an odd noise. Was it music? An animalistic language? I felt compelled to speak, or at least cross the language barrier. I tried to say anything, but my voice failed. I tried again, with more force. Nothing. I took a deep breath and expelled it, like I was screaming at the top of my lungs.

I did in fact make noise, but not the one I expected. It was a calming hum, and the clothes above seemed to notice. They stopped in mid-air, pointed toward me, and swirled underneath myself. The clothes glowed and formed an odd whirlwind of the strips, and lifted me into the air.

Surprised at the sudden ascension, I flailed my hooves for any sort of leverage. This struck me as an opportunity. I leaned forward, and the swarm followed. I managed to descend to a ledge that faced the mountain, leading to a giant closed door. I landed, and looked up. Three stone markers sat on both sides of me, and led to a statue. An intricately carved statue of a slanted figure.

What could this be? It had eyes...but it's a statue. Could it be... alive? As I stepped closer, I had unknowingly caused the markers to glow, and form a circle of light in front of the statue. I took a deep breath and sat in the circle, looking up at the carving in front of me.
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More white. Again a misty white area. But this time, I felt the tug of gravity, and saw the mountain, towering in the distance of the void.

"Wonderful. I'm stuck here again." I said aloud. I perked up, happy hearing the sound my own voice again.

"Welcome, traveler..." A voice spoke, but it was not my own, but it seemed familiar.

"Who's there?! Where am I?" I asked, looking around for the source of the mysterious voice.

"You are not in your own world. I understand your goal." the eerie voice said.

"How did you know?"

"Every being that wanders into this world wants to get back to their own. The key is the mountain."

"Well, why? What's at the top of the mountain?"

An image took up my entire view. A dark surface, etched with lines of light. It appeared to be some ancient picture, painted on a mural to see. It showed a shape similar to the mountain in the distance, with light pouring out the top.

"Long ago, the mountain created an energy. An energy that descended from the sky in the form of symbols." The voice said, and the story told itself.

"That energy created all life in the land." The symbols rained down on the picture, forming crude pictures of birds, plants and... robed figures. People, perhaps. "The sentient beings were able to harness this energy. They compacted the energy into strips of cloth that held the very essence of life."

I wondered how all this was possible. The mountain... what if the streak of light I saw earlier came from the summit?

"You are aware of your task, Rarity. Find the brothers and sisters. They will show you the path."

The imagery faded away, and soon, I felt the white world collapse around me. "Wait!" I yelled. "How do you know my name? What happened to the energy? I still have so much to ask!" I shouted at the remnants of the void.

"All in good time, traveler. This is just the start of your journey." The voice said, fading from the world.

"Journey.... ." The last word echoed through my mind, as I snapped back to reality.

The wall behind the statue had opened, revealing a hallway. I stood, and took a deep breath, and walked down the path, taking time to reflect on what I heard.

Author's Note:

For those of you who do not yet grasp what I'm getting at, it's the PS3 game Journey.

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