Bright Dreams was now in the town proper, and feeling if not much better, then at least less panicked. Though the particular three little fillies had sawn him blasting those Tanglekin, it was very unlikely that any of them had actually seen them. If even one would have, they would have likely tried to get rid of those Tanglekin smooching off of Sweetie Belle themselves. And since they were just little foals, the possibility of any grown mare or stallion of actually listening to what they had to say about the weird stranger was less than slim. Besides, considering the usual attention span of young foals, it was unlikely that those three would even remember that incident come tomorrow morning.

That last line of thought showed just how little he still blissfully knew about the Three Fillies of Apocalypse, which would undoubtedly see him damned for later on.

As he traveled through the town, Bright Dreams was proven to be right in his assumption that nopony had tended the Dreamkin of the Ponyville. There was scarcely any Dreamer nests to be seen anywhere, though he planned to do a thorough search and assessment of the situation at hoof later at night. The wards had for the most part either frayed away with time, or they had been carelessly just thrown away when the building they had been part of had been renovated or demolished.

And it showed. The Tanglekin were in abundance around the whole town, either lying in waiting, or clamped on a pony at the very moment. Bright Dreams had to restrain himself from just simply starting to blast them away, so great was his disgust. And worse, there were clear signs of Terrorkin and Nightmare activity on the auras of the ponies around him, some of them quite recent. He had to wonder how anypony could remain as happy as the ponies outside the town had appeared to be in a place haunted by such creatures.

And speaking of the townsponies, Bright Dreams was glad to see that there weren’t many curious ponies on the streets at the moment. Besides the little fillies from earlier, all he had gotten from the ponies around here were some curious looks and a few greetings spoken to his direction. Bright Dreams was dealing with curious looks by simply ignoring them, while the greetings were answered with a slight wave of his hoof, not so slight as to be considered rude or overly meek, nor with enough enthusiasm to give a reason to further communication, all the while keeping his head low and eyes on the road.

Bright Dreams had developed this particular manner of travelling on his journeys, and it practically shouted “Don’t Mind Me, I’m Not Even Here”, save it didn’t, because nopony paid much attention to it. Of course his attempts to move as inconspicuously as possible were a bit sabotaged by the fact he was pulling a rather large cottage-wagon behind him. Nevertheless, for the most part he managed to travel through town mostly unnoticed.

Mostly.

“I must say, Applejack, that I was actually rather surprised that you got the time to join us for a lunch today.” Rarity replied to her farmpony friend.

“Ain’t nuthin’ to it, Rarity. I’ve done mah fair share of runnin’ the market stall this week, an’ nearly all of this week’s harvest has been taken care of. ‘sides, it was Big Mac’s turn to mind the stall today anyhoo.”

“I’m just happy that we could spend some time together, since none of the animals need me at the moment. And it is such a nice day.” Fluttershy added to the conversation.
The trio was enjoying “a little get-together” as Rarity put it, to enjoy the day and each other’s company. They had chosen the Prancing Mare, a popular (and a bit snobby by Applejack’s opinion) little restaurant just next to the Ponyville’s Mane Street.

“By the way, girls, did you hear the news? There are some new ponies from Canterlot moving in Ponyville”, Rarity inquired her friends, excitement clear in her voice.

“Yeah, an’ another family comin’ in from Fillydelphia. Ah heard a couple of cows, Molly an’ Milena, talkin’ bout it yesterday at the market. Said that one of their cousin from Fillydelphia heard that a family was moving here.” Applejack answered.

“It seems like the cows see everything, or at least it would look like that at times, wouldn’t it?” Rarity tittered good-naturedly.

“Ain’t nuthin’ to it Rarity, just families keeping together no matter what. Though Ah myself ain’t all that pleased of all tha gossiping they do, but Ah guess that’s just the way it is, ain’t it?” Applejack replied while taking a sip off her drink.

“Indeed. Though returning back to the original topic, have you heard anything else of the ponies moving in?”

“Nuthin’ more than that their moving in in a couple o’ months, an’ from where their comin’ from. Ah ain’t so intent on gossiping anyhoo, ‘specially when there’s apples to sell.”

“Umm excuse me, but, ummm, why there are so many new ponies into town?” Fluttershy asked with a slight trepidation.

“Why Fluttershy, it’s cause Ponyville’s a great place ta live!” Applejack declared with a humorous smile.

“Well while that is ONE reason, perhaps it is because we are so close to Canterlot, but still a ways away from the city? That could be a good reason”, Rarity pondered while giving a small smile to her friend’s antics.

“There seems to be a lot of ponies moving in Ponyville these days, though. Their buildin’ some new houses at the edge of tha town, an’ Mayor Mare’s talkin’ bout renovating the Train station… Seems like lot of folks want to move to Ponyville these days”, Applejack pondered, Fluttershy’s question having piqued her interest.

“True, but seeing how often Princess Celestia has visited our little town ever since Princess Luna returned, and the fact that Princess Luna was saved from Nightmare in here might have something to do with it. It seems like our little Ponyville is getting quite a reputation”, Rarity said.

“Oh, I just hope that nopony is coming to look for me. I don’t want everypony looking at me, especially after I stopped modeling!” Fluttershy exclaimed with a terrified whisper, looking just about ready to bolt.

“Don’t you worry none, sugarcube! I doubt that any of them ponies movin’ in even know you live here!” Applejack said while putting a calming hoof on her friend’s shoulder.

The conversation carried for quite some time in this fashion, only being broken by occasional bite of their respective dishes. It was in between one of these silent moments when Rarity noticed something large moving on the other side of the street.

“Oh look girls, another traveller.”

“Kinda big wagon for a pony that size.” Applejack commented.

“Well, at least he looks… Nice”, Fluttershy offered meekly.

“I suppose so, but look at that cloak! And that hat! How he could have gotten clothing of such high quality so dirty and torn!? Simply dreadful!” Rarity exclaimed in what her friends had learned to be an overly dramatic manner.

“Well whadda ya think happens when travelling by hoof, Rarity? Most o’ the roads around are just dirt roads, oh course yer gonna get dusty on them”, Applejack answered with a slight exasperation. After a moment of consideration she added, “Wait, ye can tell that’s a stallion? Kinda hard to tell, to be honest.”

“Oh darling, you should know by now that I have an eye for these sorts of things. But back to the point, the state of the roads is no excuse for keeping care of the clothing you choose to wear,” Rarity answered matter-of-factly.

“I just hope the poor dearie isn’t too exhausted. That wagon looks very.. *gulp* Big.” Fluttershy interjected before Applejack could give a heated comment back to her designer friend, in an effort to dissuade the growing tension between her friends. She really didn’t like to see them arguing. (But considering their natures, it wasn’t a too rare of an occurrence.)

“Actually,” Applejack said, stroking her chin thoughtfully, “that wagon ain’t actually that big. Just a bit taller than most travellin’ wagons. Though it’s no doubt seen better days”, she concluded while eyeing the wagon critically.

“On that point we agree, darling. And it clearly used to have such a nice colour scheme! Shame that it’s in such disrepair” Rarity answered to her farmer friend.

Applejack rolled her eyes while smiling slightly, of course Rarity would first care of the colour of a wagon. Never mind that the wagon in question needed some new roof tiles, the rear axle was obviously a bit skewed, along with the left rear wheel, the chimney was clearly not properly insulated, and some the wallboards needed to be replaced. Not to mention that the harness was a bit too large and heavy for pony that size.

Suddenly a thought occurred to her. “By the way, Rares, does that wagon there remind you of anypony?” She asked thoughtfully.

“I can’t say that it does. Does that wagon seem familiar to you, Fluttershy?”

“I-I don’t think so,” she offered in her usual manner.

“Why are you asking, Applejack? Have you seen that wagon before?” Rarity inquired her friend.

“Ah honestly don’ know. It kinda reminds me o’ the wagon that blowhard, Trixie, was using. ‘Course, Ah might have seen somethin’ like that outside o’ Ponyville, too. Ah don’t even know,” Applejack concluded giving annoyed sigh for her own inability to remember.

“I think I know what you mean, Applejack, that colour scheme and exterior does slightly remind of that little imposter”, Rarity agreed, while taking a sip of her tea. “However, I must point out that despite this stallion’s similar choice in clothing he is obviously nothing like her.”

“How come?”

“Well for starters he hasn’t made any dishonest boasting yet,” Rarity answered, and both her and Applejack had a slight chuckle for that remark. “And secondly, he is obviously trying to be inconspicuous. See how he is moving? Silently, eyes to the ground, just moving along rather quickly. Clearly doing his best to be unnoticed,” Rarity concluded. “But that begs the question: Why?”

“Umm, maybe he just doesn’t like attention? Ponies looking staring at you can get very unconformable,“ Fluttershy answered her friend’s question, having some expertise on what anxiety unwanted attention could cause.

This comment stunted the conversation for a while, as both of Fluttershy’s friends considered her words.

“Ah still get a feelin’ Ah seen that pony somewhere before. Though Ah might be wrong…” Applejack shaked her head in mild frustration. “Let’s just git back to eatin’. So what you were sayin’ ‘bout dem other newcomers, Rarity?”

Bright Dreams couldn’t believe his luck. He had almost gotten to the Town Hall in the middle of a day on a Saturday in Ponyville, the most gossiping village on the face of the world, and not once he had been stopped and questioned after entering the town proper.

All though he had to admit, as he quickly glanced again at his surroundings, it looked a lot different to what it had been all those years ago. The buildings were larger and there were more of them. A lot of the buildings around the Town Hall had been either renovated or just outright replaced. There a whole lot more ponies and the population seemed to have a lot more unicorns and pegasi as opposed to being almost exclusively earth pony village in the past. Ponyville was certainly growing, and Bright Dreams hoped that it had done so in more ways than one.

He was starting to feel unusually hopeful, when suddenly, he heard a voice amongst the murmur of the town. Moreover, he heard a certain accent…

‘No.’

He listened more carefully as he trotted down the road, and soon enough he could hear that voice and accent again on the other side of the road.

‘NONONONONO!!’

Bright Dreams very nearly bolted out of his harness when he realized to just whom did that voice belong to. The very thought of it filled him with dread and panic.

‘Calm yourself!’ He thought to himself, doing a conscious effort not to look at the source of the sound, nor to stop moving or to bolt away from it. ‘You knew that she might still live here when you decided to return. Just move on, don’t draw any attention to yourself, and if things go badly, DENY EVERYTHING.’

Taking a calming breath and just moving on EXACTLY as he had just a moment ago, he proceeded to drag his wagon towards the Town Hall that was already visible as the tallest building in the exact center of Ponyville.

Author's Note

I've finally managed to cobble together a new chapter, along with a whole lot of headcanon notes to myself so that I can stay consistent to my writing.

And by the way, if you notice something horribly and disgustingly wrong with my grammar, feel free to point it out for me, and I shall seek to fix it.

Also, writing the lines for the members of the Main 6 is hard. I was constantly fighting NOT to write their lines in the same manner as I myself speak, that is, ramble on and on and going off tangent. I don't think I was very successful.