She opened her eyes and looked up. The tan sky- discernibly different from the sand around her and yet indescribably so- was broken by a bright light. A shooting star. A comet. Flying overhead. Tears of light trailed in its wake; scattering to all sides before vanishing into the ambient glow of the relentless sun. The sun! The sun smeared the color of the sky into the soft, wispy clouds and never relented in its heat. The heat that had been with her since she started this journey.
The journey. The exodus. The trek. The physical movement of her body to mirror her desire. The stars falling from the sky were not falling. They were rising and soaring. They came from parts unknown and they called to her. She had entered this desert to to answer the call. How long had she been crossing the sands? A day? A year? A month? It was impossible to say. It was of no consequence, however. What mattered was that she could keep going.
Withdrawing her gaze from the sky, she looked down to see the edges of her dark red cloak buried in the sand. It must have piled up around her as she meditated. The soothing process of merging mind, body and soul, rejuvenating her in all ways, often left her unaware of her surroundings.
She rose to her legs and subtly shook her flanks, knocking off the sand that clung to her cloths. It wouldn't irritate her and it would probably do nothing to impede her movement, but she wanted her robes clean. Her robes were there to protect and care for her. She needed to protect and care for them.
She was rested and rejuvenated now. The previous leg of her journey washed away from her muscles by her meditations. Now she looked ahead to the marker that had drawn her attention before. It had inspired her to rest and rejuvenate for more moving. The pillars on the dune. Tall and proud some might say. Quiet and forlorn others. But they were there, and she knew they were for her. What they were, she could not say, but she would go to them. They were the first things she had seen in this desert that were not sand. They were unique, they were new.
Her hooves moved through the sand, kicking granules aside and moving her forward. She almost swam in the sand, yet stayed above it. Her soul was light; it kept her afloat. Even when she reached the steep slopes of the dune where the three foreign figures waited, beckoning her as the banners upon them waved in a breeze she couldn't feel. She was on the leeward side of the dune and the bits of sand floated down to greet her as the air stirred above and caused them to dance.
Her hood and mask protected her. The black fabric she wore beneath the red hood kept the tiny particles from her face and eyes. She was able to see beyond the sand and persevere. And she did. She, with her own body and spirit, rose above the sands and to the pinnacle of the dune. To the three forlorn statues. She cleared the summit and beheld the light.
Brighter than the sun and more wholesome than her own spirit. She stared at it for a time, its sheer beauty all but calling her name. She looked to the stone she had climbed to see and beheld a disturbing site. The three figures were not simply statues placed to guide the wayward traveler. They were graves. Tombstones. Erected presumably over the final resting place of a poor soul.
But was the soul poor? Or was this a self sacrifice made to guide those who were lost? She knew that had it not been for these markers in this exact spot, she would not have come this way. Her initial path would have taken her in a wrong direction. She might never have seen the light. She might never have seen the mountain from which another falling star erupted.
She sat before the tallest of the three graves and mediated for a short bit. She was not restoring herself now. To do so would be to shame those who had died in this place. She prayed for the spirit who had shed their mortal form here. She thanked them for their sacrifice and expressed her gratitude for them showing her the way.
She rose once more and crossed the tip of the dune. Down below was a graveyard. Unofficial but unmaskable. A small sea of death amid the dunes. Tombstones pocking the ground between her and a tan blur. The tan blur had a light glowing upon it. Not so bright as the mountain on the horizon, but she could feel its power. Its wholesome glow.
She stepped forward and leaned back. The sand shifted under her weight and gravity pulled her down the slope. Despite the fall she stayed above the grains. The cemetery of souls drew closer and soon she was among them; the last vestige of life in the sea of death.
Some might wish to stop at each grave and offer their prayers. She knew better, however. To do so would be to waste the gift of life that had already been squandered en masse. She silently walked through them, drawn towards the lesser light. She could see clearly now what it was. The remains of an ancient temple. A holy ground. Were those who lay in the sand beneath her ancient worshipers of this place? Were they pilgrims seeking enlightenment? Or were they, too, just travelers far from home and drawn by the light?
Such answers were beyond her and she let go of the need to know. She only did what she could do, and that was to emerge from the tombstones around her and climb the ruins. One hoof tapped stone and then another. She stepped upon rubble and half shattered slabs until she was level with the light. The shattered stone from which it came was familiar to her. It was an ancient statue of the Transcended. Those who had come and gone before.
She stepped into the light and lowered herself to the ground once more. She meditated in its glow. She felt the purification and the ascendance flowing through her spirit. She was rejuvenated once more and she rose, feeling lighter. The glow was gone but she did not fret. She could feel it. It was within her. The oppressive heat that had been her memorable existence had lessened a bit. At once she could feel the spirits of those that had passed this way around her. They flowed about her and, when she offered them the soft call of her heart, they swarmed her.
They pulled her towards the light. The farther light. The brighter light. The calling light. She saw through the sand more death. More fallen souls. But they were not forlorn travelers lost in the desert. They led her. They showed the way. They each in turn sacrificed themselves so that the next might make it to the light.
She followed their lead, each one showing her the path to the next. The light on the mountain guiding her every step. She climbed another dune though this was far less taxing. Her spirit carried her more than her body and she felt no strain on her hooves.
The ground seemed to fall away before her and more ruins appeared. These made the small shrine she had left behind seem like little more than a pile of rubble. Massive arching structures supported by columns of grandiose carvings sprawled out in the pit below her. Another glow was visible. Lesser than the mountain light, of course, but still wholesome and calling for her.
The ground gave way before her and the world pulled her down into the ruins. The sand hissed as her hooves slid through it. Shifting her weight from one side to another, her mane slipping out from beneath her hood and fluttering in the air beyond her.
She stopped near the center of the remains of ancient beauty. The light came from above, a place she could not reach. But she felt the presence of others. Those that had come this way before her. Not the Transcended, but fellow travelers. The spirits of the dead.
The guided her and showed her the way. The central column was broken and crumpled. The harsh environment had worn it and it now matched her body. She could reach lesser portions and climb it. The physical challenge was invigorating. She wanted to lift her body as her spirit was, and she forced herself to climb. One hoof sliding across loose stones almost sent her tumbling back into the sand, but the body was a vessel of the spirit, and if the spirit soared the body could not fall. She didn't fall. She made it to the peak of the center column. There was a distance, a gap, between her and the light. She could see it though. It was another statue the Transcended. This one was not broken, however. This one glowed with the wholesome light and promised to illuminate her soul.
The spirits that had called her this way were loud. they were around her, but she could not see them. She called once and felt them stir, but nothing more. She called louder. They stirred and the swarmed. The feeling of them lifting her spirit returned, but even more potent than before. Her body floated up, high off of the ground. They carried her across the gap and she gently came down onto the fallen stone of the far side of the gap.
She walked across the weather worn stones and came before the statue of the Transcended. It glowed in the light of the mountain and it radiated its own wholesome aura. As she approached, she saw six polished pillars. More tombstones. These were different from the prior ones, however. These were not the fallen on a journey, leading her to the light. They were the graves of the Transcended. They held a wholesome power about them. The light within one of the resting six shone forth when she came nearer to it. It called for her, but it was not alone. She could feel them all. They called to her, so she called to them.
She called as loud as she could, desiring them to awaken. They heard her call and she felt their spirits envelop her. The statue of the Transcended exploded with light and ancient glyphs. She knelt before it, opening her mind and meditating on the feeling within.
The world was white. Pure. Empty. Barren. The Transcended stood before the light of the mountain and called for it. The light illuminated the sky and cast the shadows that made the world. Weather formed and the world was created. Plants grew where there was naught but sand and creatures came to love with the Transcended.
The Transcended toiled and worked. They grew and developed, becoming at first one with the world, then overtaking it. The world became theirs as they harnessed the light. A great power was developed from the light by the Transcended. A power to change their fate.
She opened her eyes and rose to her feet. A loud, grating sound filled the air. The carved stone beneath her feet trembled under forces too old and too great to comprehend. She looked behind the statue of the Transcended to see what it was. A great stone gate split down the middle and opened. It opened for her and she could see the mountain beyond.
She stepped around the statue and paused. Why would the Transcended turn their back on the light that had created and sustained them? Again, this was something she could not know and let go of the need. The light called for her and she was free to travel to it. Her journey would continue.