Chapter 1: Lost
Cruel. So cruel they were, to shut me out and leave me to die without the decency to do it themselves. Such thoughts arose to my head and came out in the form of curses, followed by a gulp of excessively dry air that made me cough and wheeze out even more curses. I was miserable, from the soreness that licked at my hooves to the sand that rose and fell on the wind like waves that broke on my skin so that I had to shield my eyes, to the eternal day that beat down on my back with all the hate and damnation of the tribe long behind me. I decided to add the sun princess to my list of things to curse at.
I would give anything in moments like this (I’d had so many already) to go back to the tribe. That, or to die in a swift and merciful manner. However, my exile was absolute, and were I to go back the death I would receive would be in no way swift or merciful. I still had a chance, they said—those that still bore pity for me. If I could make it across the desert and through the forest to the pony land of Equestria with my life intact, I had every right to start a new one in the land ruled over by the one who rose the sun and moon each day and night… I decided to remove the sun princess from my list of things to curse at.
Relief washed over me without warning, first as cooler air began to rush through my matted fur, then as the relentless sand that bore at my skin began to fade. I convinced my hesitant hoof to fall from my face, and my eyelids fluttered in response to the still dry air. Once my eyes adjusted, at least in part, from the blackness I’d kept them in, they began to fill with a dusty, dark green.
“A cactus,” A voice, probably my own, spoke in disbelief. True to my word, a lone cactus rose mere inches before my muzzle, a shield from the merciless sun that hovered just behind it and shrouded us both in a deep shadow. This was my godsend. I was about ready to let loose another curse until I realized just how pleasant it was to be standing in its shadow, my hooves planted in the slightly cooler grains of sand; they were still scalding hot, but you’d think they’d have been flakes of ice if you could see my face in that moment. My legs gave way beneath me, and I wondered at how they had ever even held my weight to begin with.
I found the sand closest to the base of the cactus to be coolest, so I rubbed my cheek against it, as close as I could without pricking my nose on the sharp thorns. I became agonizingly conscious of the saddlebags weighing down on my flanks, and I let them slip unceremoniously to the ground beside me. I was sure I’d managed to find the most heavenly place in all of hell. Still conscious of my saddlebags, I pulled them closer to me and began to rummage through the sparse contents until my teeth grasped the edge of a canteen. I pulled it out and shifted onto my back so the contents of the canteen could drain into my mouth, but all that came was the same dry air that molested every inch of my being; just as it had the last three times I’d tried to pinch one last drop from its depths. This was more than enough to warrant another curse, but I was growing tired of cursing things.
Spitting out the canteen onto the ground next to me, I sunk even further into the sharp sand, my fur once more starting to feel like a burning straitjacket. Fat chance, getting to Equestria. Even if Equestria did exist, even if I could survive another night, even if there weren’t another thousand miles just between me and the forest, I was lost. No one had any idea where I was, I had no idea where I was, and, worst of all, no one cared. In every sense of the word, I was lost.
That was when I decided I was perfectly happy letting go.
~
“Will you help me?”
I could not tell if my eyes were open; either way my eyes were wrapped in darkness and my ears in silence. Perhaps I misheard.
Then I heard.
There was no mistake; the voice was there. My heart stopped, if it had ever been beating to begin with. I was running, this I could tell—I’d always been told not to run in the dark, but I was desperate to get far away from that voice before it could repeat that cursed-
“Will you help me?"
I felt my hooves catch, and suddenly I was tumbling across the ground like a ragged doll, and felt as though I was collecting enough sand in my mane to look like one. I lost all sense of direction, and by the time I stopped my hooves were flailing in all directions, trying to find the ground beneath me; there was none.
“Will you help me?”
The voice now came from just above me, as though its owner were standing over me. I could feel its breath on my ear, its gaze on my face, waiting expectantly for an answer.
“I can’t.” The words were torn from my lips with a cruelty so gentle even I could not hear them, but they were enough. I felt the air beneath me begin to give way. Wind spiralled all around me and bit at my limbs with feral fangs, tearing at my skin with a familiar heat…
~
My eyes flew open as my whole body was blown forward. My body began to tumble across the sand, grains flying all about me and digging into my skin with a newfound hatred. My hooves slipped across the loose grains until they successfully turned my body all the way around. I expected to find the owner of the voice looming over me; what I hadn’t been expecting was the dark form of a cactus standing watch before me. Nor did I expect to see the sand come to life, rising around the cactus in swirling tongues to lick at its thorns. Moments later I was buffeted by another powerful gust of wind that threatened to send me off my hooves once more.
All the light I had to see by was that of the stars, but it was enough to notice my saddlebags sliding across the ground with growing speed. I leapt towards them, but the moment my hooves left the ground I was blown away, as though I was but another grain of sand to the wind’s mighty voice. When at last the air came to a still, I scrambled desperately across the sand until I found my bags.
From a pocket I pulled a flimsy fabric that flapped in the wind, spreading to its full size all on its own. I fought the wind, which was now beginning once more to grow in force, for control over the object. I had no chance against such power; the cloak flew from my grip and rose into the night sky, soon blending with the darkness that encased the many stars in the sky. The wind let up just in time for me to see my saddlebags slipping away from me. I tackled them once more, and this time I fastened them to my flanks with all the haste I could muster.
I heard the audible hissing of sand moving across sand as the wind began to pick up once more, daunting wisps of yellow rising all about me. Despite all my whispered denials, I knew the next lull would be the last. I’d heard legends of the desert’s storms—winds so strong the ground itself began to pick up and run in terror, and swallow up any who ran alongside it. Now that I was faced with it, letting go didn’t seem like such a good idea.
Running was not such a good idea either, but somehow this was all I could muster the strength or will to do. My hooves refused to cooperate, sinking into the pale sea beneath them with each stomp. It wasn’t long at all until they caught on a sharp rise I could not see—I’d always been told not to run in the dark. There was nothing I could do as the wind slowly rose to its full force, and the sand rose up around me.
It wasn’t long until my whole world went black.