Dreamer and the Possibility of Impossible

Chapter 2

Sweetie Belle’s fearless greeting had left the world standing still.

Her friends couldn’t believe that she had actually gone up and just greeted the scary stranger in suspicious clothing, who also seemed to harbor some kind of vendetta against roads. Both of them simply stood there, frozen in mid-step as they had been moving down-hill to try and stop their erstwhile friend from possibly doing a grave mistake.

The stranger itself had frozen in mid-step as well, as if s/he had been caught on scene of some great embarrassment. The clothing was still covering most of the features, but it was now clear that the pony in question had a black (and very tangled) mane, and a grey coat. The wagon looked a lot larger close up, but this was more due to it’s greater than normal height, and the small stature of the fillies themselves.

Even the world around the scene seemed to grind to a halt and grow silent. The slight breeze blowing through the meadows had momentarily relented, the birds had gone silent, and even the sound of other ponies had, if only for a moment, gotten muffled as if being heard from a great distance.

Then the strange pony gave an audible sigh, it’s shoulders slumping as in defeat, and the be hatted head, which had already been hanging pretty low, seemed to dip even further down. And with this simple action the world started moving again, the sound of other ponies nearby reached the scene anew, the birds were chirping away with considerable enthusiasm, and the two fillies snapped out of their shock, glancing quickly to each other before galloping towards their friend.

Well this was unexpected.

Although Bright Dreams had originally dreaded the coming moment of forced questioning by the townsponies, his shoulders already slumping in defeat as he heard a greeting said to his direction, but as far as overly curious and gossiping ponies went, the little filly in front of him was by far the most preferred option. Little foals were usually either a lot more curious, or lot more scared. Either way most of the little foals he’d encountered so far were usually a whole lot more friendly than most grown stallions and mares. They were also usually a lot more receptive to somepony of his talent. Foals often weren’t burdened by preconceptions of possible and impossible.

The unicorn filly in front of him was a small thing, young enough to lack a cutiemark. Her mane was done in surprisingly elegant curves, having a natural two-tone colour scheme (light purple and light pink). Her coat had a rather pearly, off-white ting to it, and on her face was a bright smile only an innocent could muster.

What was unusual of this foal, however, was the sheer number of Tanglekin that had latched themselves on the poor filly, scratching and grabbling at her, trying to pull her down or sabotage any attempt to even move. There were clear marks of old Tanglekin mischief on her coat, and the number of Tanglekin grapping on her hooves was simply shocking. How she didn’t notice this herself, or how she was even able to move with those Tanglekin hanging from her was nothing short of a small miracle.

Bright Dreams did his best to not show what he was feeling at the moment on his face as to not to scare the little filly. She clearly and desperately needed help, but he couldn’t just blast the Tanglekin away without alerting the filly or other ponies. That would once again spell disaster for him, and he might end getting driven out of the town again if that occurred, even though he hadn’t really even entered the town proper yet.

While he was quickly thinking through his options, he realized that he had been silent for almost too long, and if he didn’t answer to the filly in front of him quickly, he might end up spooking the little thing away.

“Hello, young one.” He quickly managed to say, only then realizing how scratchy his voice sounded, the dust of the roads seeming to have done a number on his throat. Not to mention he had once again spent several days in physical silence.

Giving a small cough to clear his throat and mostly succeeding, he inquired the filly, who wasn’t smiling quite as wide anymore, “What is your name, little filly?” He did his best to try and sound as friendly as possible (not really his forte), hoping that if he at least got to know the filly’s name he might get to fixing her problem later on.

“I’m Sweetie Belle!” The filly replied with redoubled enthusiasm, as if his little attempt to act friendly had actually worked. “What’s your-“

“NOOOO!!”

The sudden cry caused both Bright Dreams and the filly, apparently named Sweetie Belle, to jump a little in startle, though in his case it was a bit hindered due to him being latched on to his wagon. They both looked up to the hill from where the young one had trotted to see two other fillies speeding downhill towards them, with looks of alarm on their face.

Bright Dreams was already preparing himself to throwing a small shield against physical attacks to protect the filly and himself if need be before he actually realized that the two “attackers” were just small foals, hardly older than the one standing in front of him. His initial reaction was shown to be doubly false a mere moment later, when the fillies slowed down their “charge”, the other, an orange, purple maned pegasus, jumping in between him and the Sweetie Belle, while the other, an yellow, red maned earth pony, bit down on Sweetie Belle’s tail and tried to pull her away from.

“Girls! What are you doing!?” Sweetie Belle shouted in alarm.

“Don’t worry Sweetie Belle! I won’t let this spy lay a single hoof on you!” The pegasus shouted, taking a defensive pose that simply oozed “adorable” (probably not the effect she was going for). This prompted a rise of an eyebrow from Bright Dreams under his hat. A spy? Not the first time he’d heard that accusation, but usually the ones calling him that weren’t little foals.

“What?” the ‘protected’ filly asked in utter confusion.

“Wha’h whould you jus’ barge in on a strangah like that?” The earth pony asked through a mouthful of Sweetie Belle’s tail. “Youh migh’ had gotten hurd!” She was struggling to drag her friend away from the scary stranger.

“GIRLS! Seriously! He’s not a spy! I just came over to say ‘Hi!’” Sweetie Belle exclaimed at her two overly protective friends.

Bright Dreams chose simply to observe as the group of fillies devolved into bickering upon his status as a scary individual. He noted that the other two of the foals also had fairly recent marks of Tanglekin upon their hooves, plus what seemed to be very old Nightmare marks on the little pegasus’s aura. Most of the Tanglekin marks were likely from their interactions with the one named Sweetie Belle, and the Nightmare marks were not that uncommon, even on a foal of her age. Likely some irrational fears had opened a door for a Nightmare to follow the pegasus for a while. The Marks weren’t that deep anyway.

As Bright Dreams was making his silent observations, the two particular members of the Cutie Mark Crusaders kept throwing sideways glances to the ‘Stranger’. They now could see that the pony was actually a stallion, he had a light grey coat and black mane. He also seemed taller and leaner than most ponies, though it was hard to say for sure with the way he was kind of slumped in; like somepony who was waiting to get a severe scolding (something the Crusaders had a bit of expertise in). Slowly their panic and bickering started to wane as it was confirmed that Sweetie Belle was indeed alright, no the stranger hadn’t done anything and yes, Applebloom and Scootaloo really should stop panicking.

Finally, all the three little fillies turned to face the strange stallion, who had patiently waited for the foals in front of him to calm down. There was a ghost of a smile on his lips as he regarded the little ones.

“Are you three alright?” He asked, and Bright Dreams was glad that his voice now much closer to normal. Hopefully, he might be able convince the fillies that he wasn’t a bad pony. Maybe he could even get some additional information from the three if he was lucky.

“We’re fine, mister.” the earth pony said quietly.

“Sorry for calling you a spy, mister.” The orange pegasus muttered.

“Please don’t be angry with them. They were just worried”, Sweetie Belle pleaded, with a quivering lip and eyes wide and moist, obviously trying her best to tug at his heartstrings just in case he was actually angry.

Bright Dreams couldn’t help but chuckle a bit. It wasn’t every day that he heard somepony being sorry to him. With a small smile tugging at his lips, he leaned himself just a bit closer to the fillies while tilting his head just a little so that they could see his eyes from under his hat.

“It is quite alright, everypony,” he said with a calm smile. “My name is Bright Dreams. What are your names?”

As he tilted his hat and told them his name, the girls had to admit that the name fit. The stallion’s eyes, though tired and a little weary, were by far the most interesting thing about him in their opinion. They were some light shade of green and blue, and they were very bright, shining, even. It was like looking at two little stars in the darkness of his hat.

Bright Dreams almost chuckled out loud. He knew it was a bit cheating to use the Calming Eyes on the little fillies, but he really wanted to make sure that there wouldn’t be any wide spread panic. And nothing raises the anger of a community like the panic of small foals. Besides, it was just a little bit to help them calm down.

The fillies stared at his eyes for a small moment, before each of them snapped out of it with a simultaneous shake of their heads, none of them noticing that they were now a lot calmer than a moment before, instead focusing on thinking how to answer the presented question.

“Ah’m Apple Bloom!” The little yellow earth pony replied.

“And I’m Scootaloo!” the pegasus in turn answered.

“And together we are…” Sweetie Belle trailed off, while inhaling deeply.

“THE CUTIEMARK CRUSADERS!!” The three little fillies all screamed out in a manner that would have been adorable were it not for eardrum bursting volume. Bright Dreams even noticed a few of the Tanglekin that had been hanging from Sweetie Belle dropped off and skittered away in clear discomfort.

After wincing at the pain in his ears, even under his hat, and after glancing around to make sure that no unwanted attention had been brought to him due to the damn near explosive sound he asked with a an almost visible trepidation: “The Cutie- what now?”

“We’re on a crusade, a mission!” Apple Bloom answered, thankfully with a much lower volume.

“To find our special talents!” Scootaloo continued with considerable vigor.

“And to earn our cutiemarks!” Sweetie Belle concluded, at which point the three fillies clopped their respective fore hooves together with an exited “YEAH!”

Bright Dreams idly wondered if these fillies knew the actual origin of the name they had adopted for themselves, and briefly considered if he should tell them, but he quickly squished that intent. Besides, he needed some information, and these fillies might be able to help in that regard.

“That’s very nice,” he said, while doing his best not to sound condescending, “but could you girls do me a small favour?”

The fillies quickly glanced to each other in slight confusion to this sudden turn of events, then turned back to Bright Eyes.

“What kind o’ favor?” Apple Bloom asked with just tiniest hint of suspicion in her voice and posture.

“Could you tell me is the Mayor’s Office still at the Town Hall? And is Miss Mare still the Mayor?” Bright Dreams asked, while doing his best to sound sincere.

“Yes it is! And Mayor Mare is still the Mayor! Why, was her office somewhere else before?” Sweetie Belle answered and asked with innocence.

“Nonono, I just wondered if anything had changed since.” Bright Dreams answered with a little hesitation.

“Ever since what?” Scootaloo asked with barely concealed (obvious) curiosity and suspicion.

‘Oh horseapples’, Bright Eyes thought to himself.

“Well, I’d love to stay and chat, but I have a lot to do before the day is over. Thanks for your help my little ponies, and have a nice day!” Bright Dreams talked quickly with an obviously forced smile, while starting to drag his wagon away as fast as he could.

“Hey, wait a minute!” Apple Bloom exclaimed, as the stallion started to move past crusaders. Bright Dreams didn’t show any signs of stopping; in fact he was trying to move faster.

“Where are you going?” Sweetie Belle asked with slightly hurt tone.

“To the town.” Came a curt reply.

Where in the town are you going?” Scootaloo inquired.

“Personal information. It doesn’t concern you.” ‘Technically true’ he thought to himself, ’but they don’t need to know that’.

“Can ya aht least tell us why ya blasted that there road before?” Apple Bloom asked in turn.

‘Oh Moon’, Bright Dreams thought to himself, ‘they saw me blast those Tanglekin!?’

“Blasted? Road? I didn’t blast at any road.” He replied with feign ignorance, something in which he had gotten reasonably good. Besides, that too was technically still true.

“But we saw you! We saw you just go, ‘Whoosh’, ‘Shazam!’ and then ‘BLAST!” Scootaloo insisted with overly dramatic re-enactment with waving her fore hooves in the air and everything.

Bright Dreams looked to his side to see the Crusaders somehow keeping pace with him, though to be honest, his wagon was very heavy, and he was not the strongest of stallions. “Look, I am very glad that you girls helped me out, but if you don’t mind, I actually have something important to do,” he replied with rapidly growing panic and irritation.

“What kind of something?” Scootaloo asked with clear suspicion.

“Just some personal business I need to take care off. So, without further ado, Crusaders, Sweetie Belle.” He replied curtly, while reminding himself to try and fix the filly unicorn’s situation even as he started to pull at his wagon even harder in an effort to put distance between him and the three inquisitive foals.

At this rather curt reply the Crusaders finally relented, and stopped following him. That didn’t mean they were done with him yet, oh no. Not by a long shot.

“I don’t care what he says, but that pony is hiding something,” Scootaloo said with furrowed eyebrows.

“But he didn’t actually say much, did he?” Sweetie Belle pointed out.

“Well yeah. But that only means he didn’t tell us really nuthin’, save fer his name.” Apple Bloom reminded her friends.

“Why did he blast that road?” Scootaloo asked.

“Why’s he’s goin’ to town?” Apple Bloom wondered.

“Why he looks so dirty?” Sweetie Belle wondered. This particular pondering quickly gained her a double blank stare from her friends.

“What? Didn’t you see how tangled his mane and coat was?”

“And that is important why?”

I don’t know, I was just wondering.” Sweetie Belle answered with slight rejection.

“Whatever is goin’ on with that pony, we need to find out about it.” Apple Bloom said with conviction.

The three fillies looked at each other for a moment before a grin split each of their respective faces. This was followed by a loud gasp of air, and a shout that could fill anypony hearing it with sheer, blood-freezing terror:

“CUTIEMARK CRUSADERS INVESTIGATORS GO!!”