Neutiquam erro

[DuMourne]

"Galloping huh? Well i'm really one for galloping, but then again i'd rather be out of breath than soaking wet." He moaned, pausing for a moment. "Alright, fine. We'll do it your way."

DuMourne slowly picked up his pace, trotting at frist before his legs began to move fast and soon he was in a full gallop down the path to Ponyville. So far he wasn't getting tired, but his breathing had increase slightly as the wind hit his face quite hard.

For a while he couldn't see Fenris, until the pegasus came barreling past him, even faster than him at what seemed to be less effort. Not wanting to be left behind, DuMourne picked up the pace as best he could, closing his eyes as his legs galloped harder than before.

[Fenris]

Fenris had been running behind DuMourne easily keeping up with him, once he concluded that they wouldn't make it back to town in time he picked up speed getting ahead of DuMourne looking for possible places to take cover from the rain.

It wasn't the first time he had been searching shelter in a hurry and even though this time finding shelter was less critical his old instincts still jumped to the fore. His gaze jumped around him looking for suitable places, he dismissed most of the trees quickly as they mostly had only high branches and the wind would easily blow water under them.

He then noticed a larger tree that had hunched over to one side. He looked at the clouds passing overhead taking in the direction that they were travelling.

"DuMourne! Over here!" He shouted behind him and made a beeline for the tree.

Upon reaching the tree he realised that they had gotten lucky, some animal had made it's burrow amongst the tree's roots sometime in the past, the nest had collapsed creating a shallow pit next to the tree, it was by no means perfect, but it would have to do. He traversed the tree using the blades concealed in his wings along with powerful wingstroke to cut down some of the low hanging branches and dragging them to the pit increasing the cover they would have.

"Well, it's the best I can do, luckily the storm shouldn't last that long."

[DuMourne]

The way Fenris used his wings to cut down some of the branches from the tree made DuMourne's jaw drop. He'd never seen a pony use their wings that expertly and deadly yet still seem like a cool headed stallion made him shellshocked, scared even. Of course, he wouldn't have been able to do it without the use of the metal plates on his wings, but the concept that he could hit home.

"W-wow.....Remind me never to piss you off Fenris. I don't wanna be on the recieving end of those wings" He gasped, looking at Fenris.

Examining the hole made him frown, while it would shelter them mostly from the rain, the idea of being stuck in a pit wasn't exactly ideal. And if he did anything embarrassing or they had to huddle up or something, the whole thing would be extremely awkward.

"Uhmmm.....Just so you know, I'm not exactly comfortable with this. Normally it'd take a few drinks for me to agree to do anything like this and i'm not really -you know what, nevermind i can manage." He moaned and jumped into the hole.

Thought it wasn't muddy, the dust and dirt got onto his coat as soon as he hit the ground, causing him to groan. Still, he shrugged it off and sat down on the ground, grabbing a canteen of water and taking a sip.

[Fenris]

Fenris got into the hole sitting on the other side of it as DuMourne had expressed his reluctance, the groan from DuMourne also let out the fact that he didn't like getting dirty, which considering his profession Fenris found out to be an admirable trait.

"Well, I guess you're lucky it isn't winter and this isn't a blizzard, that would have been mighty awkward for you I reckon." He chuckled a bit.

He looked down his coat and let out a snort.

"This is always the problem with improvised shelters, they tend to be rather... untidy." He grinned at DuMourne.

"I think next time there is rainfall I'm going to go out for a flight." He looked into the storm.

"Though I think I'll choose a day when there's less wind when I do so."

[DuMourne]

"This is why i find it annoying whenever Cloudsdale don't tell us about incorming storms properly. I always end up getting wet or stuck in a hole waiting for the storm to pass. Stupid Cloudsdale....Erm.....Sorry." He said.

The storm began to worsen, rain slowly dropping overhead as the sound of it hitting the ground began to increase. It was times like this he hated going outside, the stress of being stuck outside while risking getting wet made him slightly angry at times. He didn't know how Fenris felt about the rain, but DuMourne absolutely hated it most of the time. looking at the clouds, it would no doubt get even worse, maybe even going into a thunderstorm which is the last thing he wanted. DuMourne groaned as he passed the canteen to Fenris, allowing him to take a swig, but the expression on his face showed he was not enjoying this.

"You know Fenris, next time i pick where we end up taking shelter, because no offense, this right here isn't a very good place." He moaned, rubbing his hoof against his legs to wipe some of the dirt off.

[Fenris]

"Well I'm not from Cloudsdale, so no worries there." Fenris grinned as he took a drink from the canteen he was offerend.

"I was born and raised in Canterlot, I loved the library there as a colt, I used to read about all sorts of things back then, mostly related to flying." He smiled at the memories, remembering the filly he had seen there rather often, but had never been able to gather courage to go and talk to her.

"Though there might have been other reasons as well." His smile turning into a grin as he finished the sentence.

"And sure you can pick the shelter next time, I know I'm rather used to getting dirty, so it doesn't bother me much, as long as I can wash it off by the end of the day I'm fine." He shifted his position trying to find a more comfortable position.

[DuMourne]

"Canterlot? Wow, that's quite impressive. Last time i checked, only unicorns were mainly allowed to live there. I don't know what to say, but one thing is clear, you don't look like somepony who'd be for books. You know, with your size and everything." He put his canteen back into his satchel.

"I myself am from Prance from the west, but i've been living in Hoofington for a while before i came to Ponyville." He began to scratch his ear. "I tell you, moving from place to place just to get an education is tough. I've only been here six months and i doubt i'll stay for much longer."

The rain began to intensify so much so that the sound of it hitting the ground was just as loud as him talking. He hoped that it'll lighten up a little and allow them to move to a better shelter, there was no way he'd keep himsel here much longer, especially if the water began to fill their shelter.

"wait..."He said after a while. "Other reasons?"

[Fenris]

Fenris chuckled at DuMourne's reply about his looks and he was correct as it had been one of the few constants of his life.

"Yeah, I get that a lot, but what can I say, it's something I like doing so I do it, pure and simple." He shrugged as he couldn't think of anything more to say about the subject.

"Prance, huh? Never been quite that far to the west myself, maybe I'll go take a look someday." He tapped a hoof against his muzzle thinking about the journey and how long it would take.

There was a silence after his reply the only sound coming from the rain that had picked up in the short time they had been here. He knew that such an intense rain should spend itself rather quickly.

He smiled at DuMourne's last question.

"Yeah, other reasons..." His smile turned into a grin as he started replying.

"Well, there was this filly that frequented the library as well, I had quite a crush on her at the time, so I visited the library more often than strictly necessary. Never managed to gather enough courage to go and talk to her though..."

[DuMourne]

"Why didn't you go for her, Fenris? You probably didn't have anything to lose by talking to her." He said with a hint of laughter.

"Ahh well. I'm sure you'll find the courage to talk to her soon. Maybe even ask her out....How did we even get onto this subject?" He asked, laughing.

For a moment he'd forgotten about the rain, talking to Fenris and hearing about his shyness took him out of reality, he simply just sat there listening. That was until he felt something cold splash against his neck, sending shivers down his spine.

"By Luna that's cold! This rain better stop soon, those branches aren't gonna stop the rain from filling this ditch up." He took a peak of Ponyville. "Damn, looks like the worst is still to come."

"My two bits, gallop to one of those arches over there near the benches. It'd be a lot better than here." He stated.

[Fenris]

Fenris laughed with DuMourne at the change of subject.

"I have no idea, how we got here and I guess you'd be right I would be able to talk to her, if I had any idea where she is, this happened years back when I was still in Canterlot." He was grinning slightly.

He took stock of the situation and he agreed with DuMourne, if the rain kept like this it would end up filling the hole with water. He looked at the arches visible through the raincover and nodded.

"Well if you feel up to it, I'm fairly certain we'll get wet when we do that though. I guess I'll follow your lead for now." He turned to look at DuMourne ready to gallop for the arches if need be.

[DuMourne]

"You're right. About the getting soaked thing. Hey you don't think you could use one of your wings to protect me from the rain?"

He looked at Fenris for a while before turning his head back to the shelter they were planning to get over to.

"Actually nevermind i think i can manage without getting too wet." He remarked.

To be honest it looked like a long gallop to get to the shelter. There was no denying he'd get wet, not a little but totally drenched. The rain was pouring down around the lake like his shower in the evening. But it was the lesser of two evils, he'd rather spend two minutes in that monsoon than stay there and watch as the rain filled up the ditch. Surprisingly he was in quite a good mood.

"Ok Fenris. Three. Two. One. GO!" He shouted. Instead of running though, he watched as Fenris galloped of while chuckling.

[Fenris]

Fenris had taken off at DuMourne's coun but had quickly noticed that he was going on alone, stopping and turning to look back he notcied that DuMourne hadn't moved at all. He turned and headed back towards him, as the rain plastered his mane flat against his head.

"Well wasn't that funny." His voice wasn't annoyed, but rather calm.

"You're lucky I really don't mind getting myself wet." He opened up his wings letting the rain seep into the feathers as well.

"But still, I think I can't let such a trick go without retribution as it would set a bad example." There was a mischievous grin on his face as he started slowly walking towards DuMourne with his wings spread to his sides.

[DuMourne]

Fenris galloped forward through the rain while he was still in the ditch, and DuMourne couldn't help but burst out laughing. He held his sides at how Fenris had gone quite a bit before realising his little prank. When Fenris turned around he began to laugh harder, clenching his eyes shut. Yet again he'd forgotten about the rain, his attention on Fenris.

"Aww sweet Luna that was hilarious. I'm sorry, that was just so funny i couldn't resist." He chuckled. "To be fair you did fall for it, you- Uh-oh...."

He suddenly twigged that Fenris had his wings spread out and a evil grin on his face, his own smile fading to be replaced with a look of nervousness. If he didn't know better, Fenris was going to get him back and those wings probably had a role in it. He decided it was best to gallop to the shelter before Fenris got too close. He galloped from tree to tree for shade, heading towards the shelter as quick as he could.

For a moment he turned to look for Fenris, unaware of where he was going.

[Fenris]

Fenris chuckled at DuMourne nervousness and while DuMourne kept going from tree to tree Fenris headed straight for the shelter and waited for DuMourne's arrival. He was soaked wey, but he was still grinning as DuMourne finally got to the shelter. He then took a delibarate step back and shook himself forcefully while giving his wings a few good flaps spraying a light showering of water everywhere. He then folded back his wings before looking at DuMourne.

"Even?" His simple question was accompanied by an outstretched hoof and smile, ready to settle things then and there.

[DuMourne]

He'd finally made it to the arch which they'd use for shelter until the rain stopped, when Fenris shook his wings, water flying everywhere and splashing him. He jolted as the cold water hit him and inhaled sharply, Fenris' cheekiness was shocking and somewhat admirable.

"Oh gosh thanks Fenris..."He said with a hint of sarcasm but overall was a little playful. "Really wanted my mane more wet than it already is. You must be a mind reader or something."

After shaking the hoof Fenris had extended to show they were even, he began to remove his uniform, unzipping the belly part and takin ghis hooves out, revealing his cutie mark. He spotted a bucket filling with water within hoof reach. He noted it down and folded his uniform and placed it on the bench.

"Yeah we're even i guess...." He mumbled. "So, what now?"