When she finally awoke I was up and had been writing for quite a while, I was better at writing the language than speaking it. I was unsure why, but that was how it was. My studies in speaking the language were incomplete, but the writing and reading were all very advanced.

“Hey, what are you doing over there?” Rain asked, rubbing her eyes with her hooves.

I handed a few sheets of paper that I had written, she looked down and scanned it with her eyes then looked up at me. I just pushed it to her with my hoof.

After a few minutes she finally looked up at my with a curious look. “You… you gave me a list, of things you can do and all?” She sounded surprised, maybe from some of the things I had wrote.

“So you’re name, is Blinking Shadow?” I nodded, “And you were…one of the fastest of your former tribe?” I grimaced but nodded again. “You specialize in unarmed combat and melee weapons, you can make healing potions from herbs and plants that you find, you don’t like killing? Wait a sec… you don’t like killing, or you refuse to kill?”

I thought for a moment and nodded once. She glared at me then rolled her eyes. “Great, first I get kicked out of the Enclave, fall into a xenophobic tribe of Zebra speaking ponies, get attacked by weird, rotting flesh eating ponies, and now I’m travelling with a blank stallion who is being all cryptic and doesn’t wanna kill anything!” She threw up her hooves and then fell to the ground holding her head.

I looked at her in alarm and moved to her side. “Sick?” She shook her head and then held it again.

“Hung over, it happens when you drink too much and pass out, ughhhh I don’t suppose you have anything for headaches in that bag?”

I plucked out a leaf from my things and held it to her mouth, she simply eyed it and sniffed.

“Chew” I said, finally she bit down and chewed slowly.

After she had finished chewing the herb her headache was dulled and she felt much better, so she decided to read the rest of my things.

“Your tribe was known as the Shrouded, you can write better than you can speak, you know several other tribe languages, along with some zebra” she let out a yawn that I couldn’t tell if it was real or sarcastic.

“You would like to continue to travel with me to explore the wasteland and hopefully bring something back to help your tribe?” She finally stopped and looked at me.

“What do you mean? I thought you were banished?” I motioned for her to turn the page and she did.

“Oh…” she said after reading it, “So your tribe, you don’t think they’ll last long on their own anymore, crops are low and attacks have been more frequent from other tribes?” I nodded grimly.

She hopped up and stretched out her wings slowly then retracted. “And how exactly do you plan on helping them? Get them to leave and trade?” I nodded again and spoke.

“Tribe knows how to grow food, know how to eat special plants and creatures, tribe skilled in combat, can do fighting work or farm work”

Rain smiled at me, but it was a sad smile. “I like you kid, I do, but I’m not looking for a marefriend, and you prolly just attract more trouble than me, sorry, but I’m out”

“I’m a stallion” I muttered as she began to walk off with her gear. So now I was alone again, and all at once I felt the crushing feeling once more of being away from my family and home.

I shook hard and packed up, if I was going to help them, I’d have to get out of here.

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

I pushed my way through the crowded bar and outside, the sky was dark but the rain never reached the town, it simply rolled off the massive blue dome.

My Zebra friend was walking up to me, “Ave” he spoke softly, as if he did not want some to hear us. Though several ponies were looking at us disdainfully and whispering.

“They do not like stripes here” he said, “I am leaving soon, traveling to sell merchandise” he motioned to the wagon he was pulling behind him. “Would you like to travel with me for a time? I could show you the way of things here, as you seem to be…naïve to the wasteland at the moment”

Much as I hate to admit it, I almost didn’t wanna go, I wanted to stay and explore this village. But I knew that if I did not leave with him that I may not get the chance to.

I turned back to him and nodded. He pointed a hoof to the clouds and then to us. “We leave when the rain stops” I nodded again and left at that.

“Why were you speaking with that stripe?” A large stallion with a blue mane spoke beside me.

I turned to him and he stared down at me menacingly, “Are you and that stripe planning something? I heard you two talking all Zebra to each other”

He poked at me with a hoof. “Don’t try nothing, we may not look like a lot, but we got plenty of guards here to snuff you out, pass that on to your stripe buddies” I was confused, there was only one Zebra that I had seen, did this large stallion consider me a threat?

Then he grinned at me, “But for a little payment I could forget I ever saw you and the stripe talking”

I couldn’t help but smile back, this pony was obviously trying to trick me. “I am poor” were the only words I needed to say. He stared me down but I didn’t break eye contact. Finally he spit at the ground and walked away grumbling.

For a long time I sat around and waited for the rain to stop, but it seemed never ending. My blade was fantastic, sharp, balanced and well made. I was practicing for a short time, but some looks of ponies made me stop and sit again.

“Hey whatcha doing?”

Much as I hate to say it, I did not see the young colt sneaking up on me. I smiled at him, “Observing” An older mare walked up on us. “Terribly sorry, he’s new here and likes to talk to everypony” she was polite if not a bit overdressed.

“Nana, this is the pony who saved me!” the colt jumped down and started jabbing his hoof in the air. “He was all punch, kick, and jab! He didn’t even need any weapons Nana, he took a bunch of them down with just his hooves, and didn’t get a scratch on him!”

I flushed a bit, although by how he said it, I sounded pretty incredible. “Really?” The older mare said, “Well thank you very much for saving him, it’s a shame what happened, ghouls right?” I cocked my head to the side.

“Rotting ponies, eating other ponies?” she said in an amused tone. I nodded, not really caring what they were called.

“Thanks much, I don’t have anything to give you, but if you ever need a place to stay, you’re welcome to come stay with us anytime” she pointed a hoof to a small cottage.

“Thank you, but I am leaving soon” I said, brushing the colt’s mane back with a hoof.

“So soon? But you only got here last night”

“Yes, searching somepony” I had hoped to leave it at that.

“Who might that be? How do you know they’re not here?” The colt wouldn’t give me a chance to speak.

“A traveling pony, older, bright mane, name of a bird?” I shrugged, not remembering all that much about the merchant I had talked with.

“You mean Cardinal?” my ears perked at the name and I nodded quickly. “Yes”

The older mare spoke, “He left town a while ago, he should be back soon though, he was just out to do some scouting before dawn… actually he should be back by now…” her face immediately took on a look of worry.

“If you’ll excuse me I need to go have a word with security” She hurried off quickly, the look of worry turning worse as the thunder struck.

“Little one, do you know the Zebra?” He turned and smiled at me, “Oh you mean Lani?” I scowled, ‘Lani’ did not sound like a Zebra name
.

“Oh sorry” he adopted a formal pose and spoke in a bad zebra accent. “Xolani” I smiled, that sounded better.

“Yes, can you take this?” I took out a sheet of paper from my bag and wrote a short note then handed it to him.

“Consider it done” he saluted before starting to run off.

“Little one? Which way did bird go?” He pointed vaguely north-east and then ran off.

“I seek… out?” I said to the mare in combat armor near the blue dome wall.

“Name, business and expected return please”

I cocked my head to the side for a moment then understood, “Blinking Shadow, tracking…” I looked up for a moment. “Before rain ends” she wrote it down with a pen and pad that was floating in the air, then a small piece of the dome disappeared enough to let me out, then came back when I was out.

The good thing I noticed, about this large… gorge… was that you could only go north or south. I headed north.

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

Any tracker will tell you, it’s much harder to track anything in the rain, thunder repeatedly sounded and lightning flashed, it was still dark though, even though it was approaching dawn, the gorge and the rain cut out most light.

I followed the faint tracks of pony, not exactly fresh but better than nothing. The steps got fresher as I went, and the thunder got louder.

A glint caught my eye, I recognized the item, it was a ‘shell casing’ as Rain had described it, what came out after most guns were fired.

I touched it with a hoof, it was still warm, which meant it wasn’t fired long ago, I moved forward and found more shells, some warmer than others.

More thunder, more rapid and close together. “Not thunder…” I finally realized as the flashes were in front of me instead of in the sky.

My hooves splashed through the mud and the rain whipped off my coat. “Cardinal!” I tried to yell over the rain to him, not at all sure if it was even him.

With the flash of lighting I saw it, a giant scorpion, only slightly smaller than ones in the hills.

Cardinal turned and fired rapidly at the arachnid with thundering blasts, but his shots simply flattened out against the armor of the beast.

“AH!” he shouted as the stinger found a spot in his armor and nicked his side. I saw blood and pushed forward hard.

“Fuck!” he screamed as the stinger came down, the poison not letting him move fast enough to get out of the way.

My speed was uncanny, blood and poison covered me as my blade removed the poison gland from the beast’s tail.

I landed swiftly on my rear hooves and dashed forward, blade in mouth. I narrowly dodged the pincers and drove the knife deep into its eye, the scorpion scurried around a bit but my hooves were locked around its head and my blade twisting into its eye and then brain. The beast finally fell flat and went still.

I wiped my face with a hoof and looked over. He was poisoned!

I rummaged through my bags and quickly pulled out a small drinking gourd. “Drink, help” I pushed the bottle to his lips and tipped it back slightly. The affects were immediate, his shakes stopped and his eyes came back into focus.

He coughed a few times and spit. “Ugh, what the fuck was that? Tasted like rotten ass!” I frowned at his vulgarism and tucked the gourd away.

“Heh, I guess I shouldn’t complain, it probably saved my life, hell I don’t even know of any anti-venom that counteracts that much poison. So thank you, been tracking that damn scorpion, finally cornered him, but I didn’t exactly have the right shells for the job, what did you use?”

I didn’t speak, a little irritated that he didn’t recognize me. “You used a knife!?” he exclaimed, finally seeing I had no other weapons.

“Wait a sec… well Celestia put a horn up my ass and burn me with sunshine, Blink!” He threw his fore-hooves around me in a tight embrace.

“What the hell? Since when do they let you leave the tribe?”

I looked away for a moment and spoke softly. “Never…”

Footnote: Level Up!
New Perk Added: Travel Light: When wearing light or no armor, you run 10% faster.

Author's Note

Sorry it took so long to put this up. But i also need a proof reader if anypony wants to help me it'd be greatly appreciated.