Finding Cora

Cora picked a small cloth sack from the ground and slung it across her back. No zebra had spoken to her all day. She didn't exactly blame them. They viewed her as a traitor, gone to tell their secrets to enemy ponies. Still, she held her head up and her heart strong. She could bridge the rift.

“And I will be known as the ambassador of ponykind,” She thought aloud. “Then everyone will wonder why nopony thought of this before.”

She repositioned the sack across her shoulders. It was light, as it contained just her journal, a blanket, and the first and only mask she'd ever created. Outside, water still dripped off the trees from yesterday's rain. She slid three bracelets onto her left hoof, a parting gift from Evin. Not that he really cared about her. She opened her front door, stepping out onto the muddy ground. The clearing where she used to study was deserted. She took a deep breath. With a last glance towards her village, no, their village, she ventured off into the trees.

Journal:

I left my village for good today. I've only been gone an hour, but I still feel heartbroken.

I don't see why I am so lonely. I made my decision. I will never return, never. Because I've been rejected. Lea, I will miss you forever.

Cora

Cora closed her journal and put it away, staring out of the cave door. A small pile of berries she had gathered sat in front of her. A soft woven blanket lay on the cave floor behind her. Outside the rain hammered on the ground, leaving little pockmarks in the dirt where the drops fell.

Cora was a fast traveler. In only one hour she had reached the divide of mountains that secluded the zebras from other ponies. The climb upwards, she reasoned, would take longer. The more incline and rocks would make it harder to move quickly, and she would be leaving her familiar jungle terrain far behind her. She could move quickly and silently through the rain forest. Mountains, however...

Cora pulled her journal out again. Evin had said to record her travels, but she wasn't adding this for him. She was writing for Lea.