Realities
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.
“You knew I was going to do this.” spoke a fire-red Pegasus softly, his blue eyes looking calmly into the skeletal sockets of the monster across from him: a Velite, a skeleton of a pony animated by dark magic, runes carved along every bleached bone of its body as unnatural blue fire glared balefully out of the undead unicorn's sockets at the living pony. “Come now. It's not so bad, is it?”
“Look at what you turned me into.” the unicorn retorted, gesturing violently at himself, and then he reached out and seized the Pegasus by the front of his black breastplate. The Pegasus seemed unfettered, however, calm as ever and not moving to try and defend himself: and from the bloody crosshatch blades settled over each foreleg, he was clearly capable of fighting back if he wanted to. “I said I wanted to use magic, like... like the Blood Seers, not-”
“You can't become a Blood Seer, Hess. You're born one, or you're not.” the Pegasus reasoned almost gently, and then he reached up and carefully pushed the bony hoof free from his body before he almost absently gestured aside at the bloody corpses of several ripped-apart unicorns laying nearby in the ghostly light of the single massive bonfire that lit up the field, saying kindly: “I did it for you.”
“You turned me into a freak!” Hess snapped back, grinding his teeth together loudly before he gestured at the ripped tatters of what had perhaps once been an earth pony's corpse in the distance, but was now little more than a blanket of torn-up hide over a pile of rotting flesh. “I'm supposed to be thankful that now-”
The Pegasus reached up to gently shush his undead companion with a kind smile on his features, eyes warm. “Yes, now you'll live forever, and you can put yourself back together should something happen to you. And now you may learn unicorn magic... but Hess, please, I am no fool. I know this isn't what you want. Think of it, instead, as a stepping stone towards getting what you want... what you deserve, my friend.”
Hess sighed tiredly, and then he closed his eyes and nodded slowly after a moment, reaching up and scrubbing violently at his face. “Alright, Cardinal. Alright... only because... I trust you. But what do you mean now, stepping stone? Are you saying I can become a Blood Seer-”
“You can't become a Blood Seer.” Cardinal chided, and then he shook his head and chuckled quietly. “All in time, Hess. I've never led you wrong before, have I?”
The Velite grumbled, then he moodily reached down up and rubbed at the unicorn horn fused into his skull before he simply nodded once. Then he scraped at the cold, frosty field under his hoof, grimacing a little before he gestured absently at the torn-apart bodies of the unicorns, all of whom had bloody holes in their heads where their horns had once been. “You tricked an entire platoon of new unicorn recruits into coming out here to do this ritual as a 'test of loyalty,' then killed them all, Cardinal. What are we going to do about the bodies?”
“Absolutely nothing.” Cardinal smiled, gesturing pleasantly at the piles of Velite bones laying here and there. “After all, I came out here to stop a cult who had kidnapped my friend, and arrived too late. They were working with Velites, in the midst of transforming you using rituals stolen from the archives. Sadly, I was too late to stop them in time, but I was at least able to destroy these traitorous and treacherous scum, to stop word of this embarrassment from getting out. Now let us return to Snow Saddle, my friend. My good, good friend. We'll tell them the superiors our story, and I'll vouch for you. They'll be eager to have a Velite under their command. To see what your new dark magic can do.”
Hess grumbled a bit at him, but nodded as he pawed absently at the snow again, muttering: “Feels nice not to be cold anymore. I feel... numb, I guess. You sure this ritual worked right?”
“Of course, Hess. I'd never put you in danger.” Cardinal replied kindly, as he strode towards the side of this small clearing in the mostly-dead, dark forests several klicks from Snow Saddle, and the Helios Mutual Holdings outpost that Cardinal worked for. The Pegasus picked up a few old papers and half-rotted tomes that contained the dark rituals used to create and shape Velites, and then Cardinal tossed a warm smile over his shoulder at Hess, who only looked up at the stormy evening skies overhead with a quiet sigh, rune-covered bones glimmering strangely in the firelight.
Cardinal picked up the satchel and slipped it on before cracking his neck calmly, approaching the Velite and studying him as Hess finally looked down, before Cardinal asked gently: “Do you remember how we met, my friend? Do you remember my promise?”
“I do, yeah.” Hess said after a moment, shaking his head moodily, and then the two turned and fell into step with each other as he said finally: “I need a cloak or something to hide my body. Patrols will attack me on the spot.”
“Later, friend, later. Let me admire the new you. Let me admire the handiwork the unicorns did, and the power you now have. You're very handsome, Hess, even now.” Cardinal soothed, and the undead pony glared at him, making the Pegasus laugh. “I'm serious, my friend! Yes, your skeleton is merely an instrument, a framework, but it is a promise of things to come. That we are on the way, good friend Hess. You shall learn to be a Velite, learn their magic, and then we shall find you a more suitable, enviable form.”
Hess mumbled a little, and then he sighed a bit and said finally: “Alright. I trust you, Cardinal, I do. And I guess... thank you.”
Cardinal smiled softly, eyes warm as he looked across at the Velite before bowing his head in gratitude. The two were quiet for a while as they paced easily through the cold forest, but neither felt it: Hess because he was still getting used to his alien Velite form, and Cardinal because feeling something so insignificant as feeling the weather had long been trained out of him.
Cardinal Virtue had once been a First Rank member of the Phoenix Guild... but after a series of disastrous confrontations with an exile who had finally slaughtered all three Praetors that ran the order and burned down the Order of the Seraphim's headquarters, the Phoenix Guild had been disbanded. Many of the members had been hunted down or made the mistake of trying to take revenge: Cardinal Virtue had only smiled and gone pleasantly on his way, unafraid of any retribution. When the exile, Sol Seraph, had eventually come his way, he had simply bowed his head to her and politely congratulated her on her victory, and she had assessed him with those cold, predator's eyes of hers.
Sol Seraph had cordially invited him to come to a recruitment exam being done at HMH Headquarters, and Cardinal Virtue had known better than to refuse. He had been curious at first why she had asked him to join this company... but now he was all too aware of her motives. Sol Seraph was a high-ranking 'executive head' in the company, but her superiors had her under close watch: she had wanted to make sure she had insurance in case they ever tried to make a move against her.
Cardinal had easily gotten himself recruited, and quickly ascended the ranks. For the first few years, he'd remained in Hoofston: while there, he and Sol Seraph had met on occasion, and he'd done several small tasks for her to prove his loyalty. In return, she helped him secure several promotions and privileges he was interested in, and turned a blind eye to his dealings with Hess.
Cardinal Virtue smiled over at the Velite, who shifted awkwardly under the almost-loving gaze of the Pegasus. Hess had been an earth pony back then who made and repaired equipment for the company, doing most of his living, working, and sleeping in the grungy smithy beneath the supply center. Cardinal had taken an interest in him after learning that Hess did work on the side for ponies who paid well, and he had been all the more interested when Hess had actually recognized the ancient designs that Cardinal had wanted him to replicate onto a pair of crosshatch blades.
Hess had always longed to be more than he was: to have more power, to have magic, to be one of the legendary Blood Seers. Yet he was a master of his craft even without magic, and Cardinal found him to be one of the few earth ponies worthy of respect. More than that, Hess didn't question his methods, could be trusted with his secrets, and he simply liked the other pony... and that was a very strange feeling for Cardinal Virtue.
Eventually, because of HMH's “concerns” about “two superiors engaging in conspiratorial activity,” Cardinal had be reassigned out here... exactly as Sol Seraph had hoped. They were still able to communicate through plenty of methods, after all, and Sol Seraph knew he was loyal: that was why she had allowed them to be seen so often together in public. The only favor he'd asked was that Hess be sent with him, which Sol Seraph had granted with something like pity, and perhaps disapproval. But all the same, she helped him have Hess reassigned as well... and now, here they were.
Sure, this was a backwater detail: but HMH had operations out here for a reason. The barrens were vast and said to contain ancient treasures, there were rumors of artifacts in the mountains, and the evil came from the north, everyone knew that by now. And some of the evils were strong: Cardinal knew that Hess delighted in the enchanted and ancient steel golems that had marched on them more than once, and other. He would love a gift like that, a bodyguard he could augment with his knowledge...
Cardinal Virtue smiled at Hess, and when Hess looked tiredly back, the Pegasus said quietly: “I was never allowed to have friends before, have I told you this? Not like we are.”
“Yes, Cardinal, I know, Cardinal.” Hess said moodily, and then he glanced up and asked after a moment: “You'll... help me master this magic, yes?”
“Of course, my friend. Anything for you... and don't worry. I've brought the rest of the unicorns' horns...” The Pegasus chuckled, glancing back at his bag before he returned his eyes to the newly-minted Velite. “And we'll find you a better body, too. You have my promise on that.”