Counting it all it'd been a very short six hours since they cut their way across the border and escaped into the Rising Sun Empire. She looked around at Ferra's familiar face, and Galena. She'd gone along with them, running away from home when her mother told her to leave the soldiers home. According to her she was tired of being told what to do, but before that she'd also told her about Shengming. It was Galena's idea to cross the border to this strange country in the first place, so Honeybee suspected other motives.
Here in this small hotel, they got to shower and eat, Galena going out and buying clothes for them(since she was the only one normally dressed). It was night when they had come in, so their camouflaged clothes weren't seen. The front desk allowed Galena to simply buy a room, and Honeybee and Ferra snuck under the desk following her. But now they needed real clothes so they'd at least blend in to an extent, seeing as how they didn't look Imperial. Ferra said that their story was they couldn't cross the border because of the blockade, if they were questioned. Simple enough. But now she just waited in bed, on the far side of it with Ferra on the other, who was still asleep. Deciding to doze off as well, she figured Galena would wake them both up when she was back.
When she opened her eyes, Ferra's rust-colored mane was inches from her face. Her hooves were partway around Ferra's body, and Galena was poking Honeybee's thigh, trying to wake her up. She rolled away from Ferra in a bit of disgust at herself...she wasn't attracted to her at all and yet they had to sleep together, and they ended up touching eachother all the time. Galena climbed onto the foot of the bed and sat down her shopping bags, which she was holding with her magic. Oh, she envied unicorns so much for that...their magical prowess and spells...sure, she could fly, but being a unicorn opened up so many more possibilities. It was yet another reason she disliked her body. Another was her black and yellow stripes, which she got from her father's side. He was a zebra, but the classic markings of one only were on the back half of her body. It really made her stand out un-necessarily in crowds, and sometimes her fur would mess up and people would ask if she was sick or infected.
She snapped out of her self-hate and took one of the bags of clothes, pulling out a casual blue dress and some snow boots, in an Imperial styling. It looked beautiful to her. She went into the bathroom to undress, because she was a bit embarrassed of letting her mare parts be out in front of them, switching from her camouflage uniform into the more outside-friendly dress.
She came out, did a small twirl, and let Ferra in the bathroom, as she sat on the bed and tried to start conversation with Galena. However it was a long pause before she actually said anything.
"Hey," Honeybee asked suddenly, looking over at her. "Where does your friend live?" That should've been easy enough for her to answer. Galena only really had one friend.
"Closer to the border..." she responded, looking down at the floor. The topic seemed to upset her a bit. "It-It's probably too dangerous to backtrack right now."
"I know, but...we could go later, right?"
"I guess, she'd be surprised to see me over here and she's kind of law-abiding...I'm not sure how she'll act."
Ferra stepped out of the bathroom wearing her dress as well, in the same style but with purple and white swirls. These dresses were tacky by Equestrian standards, sure, but they'd look somewhat normal in a foreign land.
"You guys wanna go eat?" Ferra asked. It'd been quite a while since Honeybee had food that wasn't from an MRE bag...she couldn't resist.
The hotel had its continental breakfast just like any decent place in Equestria, but the food they served was much different...even a few floors up from the ground floor, Honeybee could smell the many spices they put in their food. When the actually arrived at the bottom the smell was almost offensive to her nose...it was so spicy and she wasn't even eating anything. She had to fight to stay focused, as she walked to the counter and ordered three breakfasts. She reached into her wallet and pulled out the Empire's weird papery money. It had some plastic film over it, because it was somewhat shiny as well. They'd exchanged all their money into it, and had received quite a lot of them. They were much easier to carry around, and didn't jingle. Honeybee got back three paper bags with a dynamite label on them. The strong smell seemed to be emanating right from the bag, but she took it anyway, getting a few forks and sitting down, handing them out.
Inside Honeybee's bag was a small white container. She took it out and opened it, finding the source of the strong spicy scent. From this distance it was actually somewhat pleasurable, and it did smell good. The vegetables inside were coated in the skin of peppers, which let out the intense heat. It actually seemed appetizing enough, so she let her fork sink down into the mix, and she put some in her mouth.
She'd regret that soon.
"This is really good, guys-" Honeybee stopped what she was saying, as her senses literally dulled from all the heat. She had to keep eating...it was so good, but every bite seemed like eating fire. It got to the point where she wasn't paying attention...she was in her own little world. But as soon as she looked away from her food, she simply said: "I need some milk..." seeing that both Galena and Ferra were in the same situation as her. The cook gave them three bottles of milk, and Honeybee downed hers without much thought; not caring what kind of milk it was, or what it came from. She was just glad that her tongue wasn't completely dead. She was able to switch between eating and drinking until she finished both. However, the natives around them thought them to be a little crazy, drinking milk with their meat. She could see their eyes occasionally looking over at her, and she did have to admit she looked kind of odd.
When she was done she was only left with a small sting of spice in her mouth, which was actually somewhat appetizing to her.
With their stomachs full of severely over-spiced food, the three mares made their way outside. Of course it was snowy there too, but not as much...almost like an overflow of Equestria's situation. There sat about three inches of snow, easy to maneuver in, light enough for foals to play in and vehicles to move through with ease. Regardless, the streets were cleared out to the best of the town government's abilities, only to be snowed on again the following day.
Maybe they could start a new life here, get a job or something. They'd be away from the war. But as Galena pulled on Honeybee a little, ushering her back in the direction of the border, she tried to look as nonchalant as possible. She knew exactly what she wanted, and it wasn't souvenirs like the young mare was currently telling her.
No. It was Shengming.