Dreamer and the Possibility of Impossible

Chapter 1

It was a perfect day.

The sun was shining with its trademark warmth of a warm summer day. Not a single cloud was left on the sky from the scheduled rainy day 2 days before. The flowers were in a full bloom, and the birds were happily chirping in the trees. There was a slight breeze dancing through the meadows, preventing the warmth of the sun from growing oppressive.

The citizens of Ponyville were taking a full advantage of this perfect saturday, filling the many meadows, parks and lakes around the quaint town with chattering, laughing, playing and relaxing ponies. And if you had asked any of the ponies around the Ponyville their opinion on this fine day, all of them would have agreed, that this was indeed, a perfect day.

Well, almost all of them.

He was starting to slowly despise this, his latest endeavor. He should have known better than to try to travel in a broad daylight, especially on a day without a single cloud in the sky. Now his cloak, which had been a faithful companion on his travels, was getting suffocating in the heat, his harness, a fine help on his wanderings, felt like some serpentine beast suffocating him, and his wagon, a small sanctuary in places unknown, was akin to a millstone which he could not discard. Only his wide-brimmed hat, purchased a year or two ago from a clothier in Baltimare, offered any respite from the glaring sun.

And then there were the ponies of Ponyville, which he could already hear beyond the rolling hills and meadows. He had already forgotten how much the residents loved days like these, and how it practically drove them out to the meadows to enjoy the day. At least somepony was going to see him coming unless he took the long way around the village, and that just gave the ponies bigger chance of noticing him, if only from afar. He would really have preferred nopony noticing him arrive, at least not before he got himself settled again. That way he could have simply ignored the ponies who didn’t require his services, not to mention those who would undoubtedly be leery of his coming.

Not to mention the path was simply littered with Tanglekin, just lying there in the glow of the sun, as if to mock his own predicament, while waiting for somepony unfortunate to latch on. Obviously there hadn’t been anypony here to offer his kind of services since his departure 7 years before. He did his best to scatter the pesky creatures, but there was always a few foolish enough to brave a pony of his talent. Those were quickly eradicated with a simple spell. He might have felt sorry for the little critters were they actually able to think or feel for themselves, not to mention if they weren’t in quite so great abundance.

He sighed as he trotted over the soot marks on the road that he had left from dealing with the Tanglekin. He really should have just waited for the nightfall before coming here. But then again, that would have meant travelling near the Everfree Forest in the dark, and although he himself quite enjoyed the beautiful forest with its many different Nightkin and Dreamkin, he was not unaware of the forest’s more dangerous creatures, especially the ones of the Flesh.

But while this course of action was by far safer when it came to his physical health and continued existence, he knew that this particular choice would cost him in his peace of mind. He was already dreading the prospect of getting questioned by every single pony with nothing better to do. With another dreary sight and restrained grunt, he once again started pulling his little wagon along the road towards Ponyville. With any luck, he just might get there fast enough before anypony got curious-

“Hi there!”

Of course not.

Applebloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo had had enough crusading for the day, after they had failed to gain their cutie marks as “Cutie Mark Crusaders Dictionary Writers” (they had found out that it was, in Scootaloo’s words, “ Super-Mega-Ultra Boring”), “Cutie Mark Crusaders Gem Cutters” ( Ponyville’s resident gem cutter, mister Karat Cut, refused to assist them, and threatened to inform their guardians if they tried to help him in any way, shape or form), and lastly, as the “Cutie Mark Crusaders Cloud Watchers” (this too was deemed “boring and useless”, Although mostly due to the current cloudless day; cloud watchers were actually an important part of any efficient weather team).

This long session of crusading, while disappointingly absent of earned cutie marks, had at least momentarily tired out the three normally hyper-active fillies. This in turn had driven them to simply lying down on the top of a hill, watching how a group of pegasi was racing across the sky while waiting for their strength to return.

Thus they had an excellent view to the little, dark blue wagon coming in view from behind another hill, as well as to the pony pulling it.

“Hey, gals, do you know who that is?” Applebloom asked.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen that pony before”, answered Sweetie Belle.

“Looks kinda suspicious, don’t you think?” Scootaloo pointed out, cocking her head as she stared at the pony.

Though this may sound as being a rather rude first thought of another pony, there was a certain truth to scootaloo’s words. The afore mentioned pony was wearing a long, threadbare travel cloak. There was a hint of a blue in its colour, though for the most part the cloak was now grey. The pony was also wearing a wide-brimmed hat that was in a considerably better condition, and was coloured deep blue.

The wagon behind the pony looked like a tiny house on wheels, a small, wooden construct with tilted, tile covered roof, small windows on the side, and a black painted, metallic chimney with a cap and a weather vane shaped like a crescent moon atop of it. The walls were a weathered, dark blue in colour, its window silts, lower chassis and wheels were painted pale yellow, and it’s roof tiles were a very light shade of weather-beaten blue. The wagon had patches of its side a considerably lighter shade of blue, as if something had been furiously scrubbed off of them.

Though the pony’s wagon and attire could be easily observed, the pony to which they most likely belonged to could not. There was no way of telling if the pony in question was mare or stallion underneath that hat and cloak. Any possible horn or wings were also hidden by this excessive clothing. The coat of the pony, or what of it could be seen between the swishing cloths, might have been some shade of grey, though that might have been a visual effect brought on by the brightly lit Sun and the excessive clothing. Only the pony’s mane could be properly identified, a long, black mess, which looked like it hadn’t been brushed or cared for in any way for ages as it swished from underneath the wide brim of the hat.

Sweetie Belle, who had almost told Scootaloo how it wasn’t very nice to say such things about ponies, looked closely at the slowly approaching pony, and was forced to admit the truth in her friend’s words.

“I guess he does look a little suspicious…” She reluctantly admitted. “Or is that she?” she asked, tilting her head in slight confusion.

“Ah have no idea”, Applebloom commented. “Why would any pony need that much clothing anyway?”

“That cloak is so old and dirty, Rarity would throw a fit if she saw it!” Sweetie Belle gasped.

“I don’t know, that hat is pretty cool, I guess. It still looks suspicious, though”, Scootaloo said, narrowing her eyes in a way she thought to be intimidating (it wasn’t).

“I wonder who that is.”

“I wonder why he’s here. Or she. Kinda frustrating when you can’t tell.”

“Wait gals. What is that pony doing?” Applebloom questioned.

The pony in question had stopped his/her slow movement, and was now doing some shooing motions with its fore hoof towards the road it was travelling. Except that there was nothing on the road, or even close to that pony, for that matter.

The three fillies were growing increasingly confused by this odd pony. They simply watched, as the pony in question kept making shooing motions for about half a minute to something that fillies couldn’t see. Finally the pony looked to be growing agitated, as it seemed to snort with frustration before a small but bright lance of blue energy struck from beneath the pony’s hat and to the ground before it with a tiny flash of light.

At this point the fillies gave a collective little yelp at the sudden and unprovoked attack against the soil. Seemingly pleased with the devastation of the strike, the pony again started dragging its wagon back along the road, calmly trotting over the singed and still smouldering batch of dirt.

A moment of stunned silence. Then the three slightly shaken fillies started to speak animatedly amongst themselves, all of their previous tiredness having been forgotten in the light of this magical turn of events.

“Why would anypony do that!?”, Applebloom asked.

“WHAT did that pony do? There was nothing there, except some dirt”, Scootaloo asked in turn.

“Well.. At least we now know something”, Sweetie belle tried to bring up something positive to the conversation, though she was likely the most shaken of the trio.

“Well it’s an unicorn, obviously.” Applebloom said.

“And it definitely doesn’t seem to like roads”, Scootaloo concluded with a small smirk.

“Well… Maybe it was trying to do something, and the spell went wrong”, Sweetie Belle tried to suggest. “Like, maybe it was trying to, umm, clean the road?” She asked with a forced grin.

“What, with fire? That blast left soot marks, for pony’s sake!” Scootaloo replied.

“Ah don’ know, Sweetie Belle. That sure didn’t look like an accident to me”, Applebloom told her unicorn friend. “Besides, what was he or she trying ta do before that? It dun looked like he tried to scatter some critters.”

“Maybe that pony’s a secret agent, and there was a secret message there on the road!” Scootaloo told her friends excitedly. This was instantly followed by a loud gasp. “Or maybe he’s a spy, and that message was from his evil-overlord-master telling here to go to Canterlot, and ponynap the Princesses!” She was starting to sound more and more frantic with each syllable.

“That’s just stupid Scootaloo.” Applebloom deadpanned at her conspiracy-enthusiastic friend.

“Is not!”

“Is too!”

“Is not!”

“Is too!”

“Girls! How many times I have to say, arguing is NOT our special talent! I think we would have already gotten our cutie marks in that if it was,” Sweetie Belle broke the argument before her two friends could continue any further. “Besides, why don’t we just ask him? Or her?”

“Whadda ya mean, ask him?”

“Because that pony’s coming to this direction.”

Indeed, the pony in question was less than a hundred meters away from them, and slowly approaching. They could already hear the sound of hooves hitting the dirt road and the creaking of the wagon as it approached them.

*Gasp* “Quickly girls! Hide before that spy sees us and decides to ponynap us and use us in his evil plans!”

“Ah’m pretty sure that that pony ain’t no spy, Scootaloo.”

“That’s what it wants you to think, Applebloom! Run, before it’s too late!”

“We could just ask him? Or her? What’s so bad about that?” Sweetie Belle once more asked, starting to get rather confused of the actions of her friends.

“Are you crazy? Look what that spy can do! That pony will burn you to crisp!” Scootaloo exclaimed, grapping her friend’s face between her hooves.

“Ah still say that pony ain’t no spah, Scootaloo. But ah still don’t think it be smart to talk to that pony, Sweetie Belle.”

“Why not?” Sweetie Belle asked while extricating her face from between the hooves of her friend, while putting up an adorable pout.

“Well that’s a stranger for one thang. And secondly, Ah don’t think that pony would want to be bothered. Just look at all that clothin’! That pony clearly don’t wanna be noticed,” Applebloom concluded.

“Yeah! That spy is trying to be incon.. inconsus.. ugh, not-noticed by anypony!”

“Did you mean, ‘inconspicuous’?”

“Whatever! The point is, you really shouldn’t get near that spy!”

*sigh* “Why do ya keep on insistin’ on that spy bit? You can’t know fer sure!”

“Oh yeah? Well you can’t be sure that he ISN’T a spy!”

At this point Sweetie Belle decided to ignore her bickering friends in favour of standing up and starting to walk down hill. She didn’t care what the girls thought, just because somepony was dressed like that didn’t mean that you shouldn’t be friendly towards them. (It should be noted that while this might be correct in most of Equestria, in a few choice places, such as Manehatten and Baltimare, you really should leave ponies dressed like that alone.)

With the confidence of a child wanting to show her friends wrong, she quickly trotted down towards the road and the stranger, who had managed to pull it’s wagon almost next to the hill by this point. Sweetie Belle took a deep breath, and just as her previously bickering friends had finally realized she wasn’t with them anymore, she said with a clear, chiming voice:

“Hi there!”