Dawn Glimmer slowly slipped out of the comfortable bed that she was laying in, shaking out her long bright green mane and stepping onto the cold wooden floor. She walked over to the little bedside table and tilted her head sideways, her unicorn horn glowing an icy blue roughly the same color as her coat, as the small coffee machine sitting on the table took on the same cold blue glow and sputtered to life; shaking and shooting out puffs of steam as it tried to warm up in the cold temperature. She put a small foam cup under the shivering coffee machine and walked over to a small mirror at head level, using her magic to levitate a blue brush over to her. She tilted her head back as she started to slowly brush out the small tangles in her long mane,
"One, two, three, four…" She counted aloud in time to her brushing, occasionally tilting her head to a different angle to brush a different part of her cold blue mane. Her voice was smooth and accented, like a bow slowly drawing over a string on a violin, melodious.
"Ninety-Nine, one hundred," She paused and floated the brush back to its hiding place, a small saddlebag on the floor next to the bag, "Ah, much better." She smiled at her reflection in the mirror, shifting around in different poses, making her straight mane cover the left side of her face, accentuating her strikingly turquoise eyes. "What a pretty pony. " She calmly enunciated, closing her eyes and nodding her head as she finished her sentence. Dawn sniffed the air as the enchanting aroma of coffee filled the air. She then turned away from the mirror and with a brief glow of light blue magic, flicked the switch on the coffee machine off and then levitated the steaming cup over to her lips, pausing to close her eyes before taking a light sip.
Dawn suddenly opened her eyes wide with a light sputter, making a few drops off the hot coffee spill out of the cup onto the floor, making small dark blotches. She let out an almost primal growl as she used magic to thrust the cup of coffee away from her. "H-Hot! How could anypony drink something so disgusting?" She asked aloud as she used magic to make the steaming cup glow blue, the air around it glowing with frost. She closed her eyes and let out a soft sigh as frost grew slowly over the top of the faintly-steaming coffee, frost covering the outside of the cup, fog spilling out and disappearing in the air. "Much, much better." She purred aloud as she brought the now-iced cup to her lips again and took a slow drink, this time greedily gulping the cold liquid down without a second thought.
After Dawn had finished drinking the cup of cold coffee she had crumpled it up slowly and lazily tossed it into the small wastebasket in the corner of the room, humming under her breath as she did so. She walked away from the coffee machine and looked down at the stains of coffee on the floor with a grimace, "Useless waste. 'Tis a shame indeed." She used magic to sweep a cloth from the washroom to wipe it off the floor, setting the cloth back into the washroom afterwards. She then took her saddlebags out from under the small bed and laid them out on the bed, opening them up to reveal the brush from earlier, two small books; one a paperback book, the spine reading "A Traveler's Guide to Northern Equestria." The over book was a small leather bound book, probably a journal of some sort. The other saddle bag, which was connected to the first, contained a small worn black cloth bag full of shiny gold coins. It also had a small dark blue dagger, sheathed in dark worn leather.
"Everything seems to be in order, I am thoroughly glad I did not take out any of my belongings." She mused as she took a scathing look at the room, eyes glancing over the coffee machine, the worn walls, and the doorway leading to the washroom with a sink and a bathtub in it. She then used magic to levitate the saddlebags onto her back, locking straps into place around her stomach and hind legs to prevent the bags from moving at all. She faced the door and smiled as it unlocked with a click and glowed bright blue, slowly creaking open as she walked out of the small room.
Dawn Glimmer closed the door behind her and locked it with another click; she then walked down the hallway of the small hotel. She soon reached the front desk in the main room of the hotel, looking at the receptionist with a smile, "Thank you for your services." She said with a nod.
"Oh thank you," The dark brown Pegasus said with a smile in return, "Not many ponies spend time at our hotel anymore, we're very glad you chose us!" The female receptionist nodded quickly, "Is that all you want ma'am?" She asked.
"No thank you, that's all that I need." Dawn replied smoothly smiling as she walked out of the hotel lobby and into the street of Manhattan. She closed the glass door behind her and let a sneer slide over her face, "Hah, damn shorn wing, at least she wasn't rude." She shook her head and started walking down the street, soon coming into a main avenue, ponies shuffling quickly about, they had places to be, appointments to make. That's city life for you, after all.
As she slowly walked down the street she noticed how the ponies traveling the other way noticed her, and apparently went out of their ways to not bump into her. "My, the city seems to have learned from the last time I was here." She thought to herself with a gentle chuckle as she continued to walk, enjoying the affects her presence had on other ponies. She slowly bobbed her head to an invisible song, smiling to herself as she kept walking.
After walking for a short amount of time, Dawn had come to the end of Manehattan, stone road leading out of town that she remembered turned into dirt about a mile out. She kept following the stone road, humming to herself softly. She turned around and looked back at the bustling city, seeing ponies everywhere, walking, talking, not even caring about anything but themselves. She smirked at the thought and started walking, not even caring about what happened in the city she just left behind. Manehattan held a past that she wanted to leave behind, for good.
Dawn Glimmer had been walking for about an hour now; the paved road had led her out from Manehattan, into an icy taiga. She had observed the small changes from the plains that she was in, small amounts of snow on the ground, the air with more chill, until the plains had morphed into the taiga she was in; a frozen forest with dozens of small hills. She smiled to herself as she noticed rabbits and other small animals being chased by foxes, "Predators usually win, good job." She let out a little laugh and nodded. She continued to walk past what seemed like endless trees, and soft snow, until she saw a frozen over sign, concealed by ice. "Hosston, five miles, I've been making good time." She mused quietly to herself, nodding once at the end of her sentence.
Dawn looked around suddenly at a slight rustling in the bushes around her; she looked over her shoulder first, and then left to right. She let out a sigh and continued trotting forward, ignoring the small rustles in the bushes. Dawn hummed a melody to herself and bobbed her head softly, making her long straight mane bounce softly. "But I still wake up, I still see your ghost. Oh Sol, I'm still not sure what I stand for, oh… What do I stand for? What do I stand for..? Most nights, I just don't know anymore…" She let the words fade out while she continued to bob her head while she walked, "I just don't know." She said softly, looking down while walking.
She suddenly tensed up when a bush rustled directly in front of her, louder than the rest. She took a slow step back, "Hello? Who's there?" She let out a small gasp when a pony stumbled out of the bush; he was male, with a grey mane, and a light brown coat, his cutie mark was a gear inside of a small box. He struggled forward towards Dawn before falling over, coughing out a spray of bloody mist. He continued to move forward to a shocked Dawn, before grabbing her right foreleg tightly, staining her coat with his blood.
"T-They're c-coming," He coughed again, "They're i-in the forest," He grabbed her foreleg tighter and looked into her eyes, his light brown eyes burning into her own icy blue, "Tell Mauve she was r-right." His grip on her foreleg loosened, and he fell forward into her, his bloodied mane staining her chest. Dawn stood still for a moment, blood dripping down her chest, the stallion's faintly warm body resting against her. Then she quivered, and took a step back, pushing the body away from her. She took deep breaths, inhaling and exhaling deeply,
"I-I'm okay, I'm okay, I'm okay. A pony just died, that's no reason to faint. Happens all the time." She tried to reassure herself, laughing shakily before letting out a dry heave. She paled and coughed before spitting onto the ground. She continued to take deep breathes, before steeling herself. She gently used her magic to levitate the stallion's corpse to the side of the path, and then took another deep breath as her horn grew brighter and closed her eyes as the corpse burst into flames, filling the air with the acrid sent of burning flesh.
She closed her eyes and spoke aloud, with practiced ease, "May your soul reach Valhalla. Unnamed friend, may you dine amongst the kings of old, and the Valkyries." She opened her eyes suddenly, her horn sparking with effort as the flames suddenly dimmed, wrapping around the body until they merged together, transmuting into solid grey stone. Then, with a flick of her horn, the rock shattered, sending shrapnel in all directions. Dawn winced as a few of the sharp stones embedded themselves into her side, "Ouch." She muttered softly. She looked down and spit out to the side, her spit slightly tinted red.
Dawn slowly made her way down the dirt path, not caring about the rustles in the bushes, the burning bright eyes she knew were real, or the muted hushed whispers she knew were really there. She just ignored it all; she didn't want to have to deal with it right now. She let out a shaky breath and smiled when she noticed the trees thinning out, and being replaced by just tagged stumps, and light smoke up ahead. "F-Finally, I was starting to get worried." She said to herself aloud. Dawn steeled herself and casted a simple cleaning spell on herself, cleaning the blood off of her coat and mane. She took a breath and stood taller, straightening out her lithe body.
Dawn glimmer walked into the iced town of Hosston. She had her head held high; her body pose was that of arrogance. She slowly walked past a few Earth ponies and Pegasi, the Pegasi were buzzing around in the sky, pushing around clouds with their innate magic, and the earth ponies were just walking about calmly, some were doing menial labor, but a few were just lazing about. She walked to a small building with a sign swinging slowly outside, with a picture of a bed next to a bottle. Apparently a bar and hotel, perfect.
Dawn Glimmer walked inside and used her magic to pull out a few gold bits that she then threw onto the bar, "There's enough for a night I think, keep the change." She said loudly as she walked past the bartender, who was now giving her a stunned look as she walked past him. She opened the first door that she came to, then opened the door after that, coming into a unoccupied room. She took off her saddle bags and used her magic to throw the connected bags to the floor. With a loud sigh she jumped onto the bed and wrapped the thick blanket around her, "That's enough traveling for one day." She sighed and slowly drifted off to sleep, thinking of the actions to come.