A brown and white stallion pulling a covered wagon walked up to the outskirts of Ponyville.
"Hmm. Ponyville. Seems like a nice place to settle down for a couple months."
He muttered out loud. Being a traveler, the stallion never liked to stay in one place longer than he needed to. He never stayed long enough to make friends or find love. He wasn't that kind of pony. He would stay for a couple weeks before traveling again. He had visited every part of Equestria. He often visited places he liked multiple times. He had never visited Ponyville though. He would get the chance to now. He was now on what he would consider a vacation. Two months to rest his hooves. Up until then, he had been traveling for three days straight with little food and water. He was ready to stop, rest and refill his food and water supply and maybe, just maybe, rent a motel room.
It was midday and a young pegasus mare was enjoying coffee at Sugar Cube Corner. She was about to take another sip when she saw a brown and white stallion walk past her, into the shop. Her wings shot open and her eyes went wide and her mouth hung open. He was the most handsome stallion she'd ever seen. She needed to talk to him. She just had to. She flew out of her chair and into the shop. She spotted him at the counter and Pinkie Pie was taking his order. She straightened up her mane and walked calmly behind him.
When the stallion finished telling Pinkie his order, he took a seat at a nearby table. Pinkie rushed to the kitchen and the pegasus nonchalantly walked over to the stallion. She sat down next to him.
"Hello Miss. Is everything alright?"
She nodded.
"Yeah, I've just been having a bad day and I just needed somepony to talk to."
She lied. The stallion nodded.
"Well I guess you could talk to me for a bit. Just until my order's ready."
He smiled a bit.
"My name's Blank Canvas by the way."
"Nice to meet you. I'm Foggy Morning. So what brings you to to Ponyville? I've never seen you around before."
"Just a traveler. I'm looking to take a little break. I prefer to travel alone though."
Blank Canvas said.
"But why alone? Don't you have any friends or a significant other?"
He shook his head.
"Never stay in one place long enough to. I don't mind it though. I never liked the idea of making friends and finding true love. It's never been my thing."
Foggy Morning's ears drooped a bit.
"So how do you survive if you're always traveling?"
She asked. He chuckled a bit.
"Why do you think my name is Blank Canvas?"
"Because you're a painter?"
Foggy asked. Blank nodded enthusiastically.
"I sell paintings and use that money to pay for food, pay my taxes and whatever repairs that I need to make on my wagon."
Foggy nodded in understanding.
"Wow! That seems like a lot of fun! Being able to travel all the time, make money off of your special talent and best of all, be free. I wish I could do that."
"Well why can't you?"
"I never have enough money to and I'm actually kinda scared."
"You should never be afraid to fulfill your dreams. Just go for it."
He told her encouragingly.
"I was actually wondering if I could join you. That's what I was actually afraid of. Being alone while traveling."
Foggy told him shyly.
"Don't you have any friends who would like to join you?"
"No, they'd prefer to stay here in Ponyville."
Blank Canvas thought for a few seconds. He let out a heavy sigh. He really didn't want to say what he was about to say.
"I...I guess, you could come with me. To be honest, I was starting to become a bit lonely traveling by myself."
He lied. He saw the light grey pegasus' magenta eyes light up and her wings shoot out.
"Really!?"
He nodded, trying to look as happy as he could.
"Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you so much!"
She sprung forward wrapping Blank in a hug that could only be rivaled by Pinkie Pie herself. She certainly caught him by surprise and he started to regret his decision. Especially if this was a window into the kind of pony that she was.
Soon enough, to his relief, she let him go. He let out a small cough as he was released from her death hug. She continued to smile widely. He returned it with a nervous one.
"Order up!"
Pinkie Pie called from the counter.
"Order for a Blank Canvas! Blank Canvas! Where are you?!"
Blank sighed in relief when he heard that his order was ready. He walked up to the counter and picked up the bag with his mouth and placed it on his back. He paid Pinkie the five bits that he owed for the pastries. Before he could walk away, Pinkie pulled him back.
"Is that your new fillyfriend? Foggy sure is a cutie. She's number five hundred fifty."
Pinkie said slyly.
"Actually she's- wait, what?!"
"Nothing!"
Pinkie chimed, sing-songingly.
"She's not my fillyfriend. She's more of a traveling partner."
"Eh. Close enough."
A stallion in line cleared his throat. Pinkie snapped back to attention and Blank Canvas snuck away muttering a,
"Sorry."
to the other stallion. The other stallion growled. Blank made it back to Foggy and asked,
"Hey, do you know any good motels here?"
"Ponyville doesn't have any motels."
"Oh. I guess I'll have to find room in my wagon. Along with my food supply. It's all right though. Lots of towns don't have motels. I usually end up sleeping in my wagon most of the time anyways."
Foggy's face took on a very upset look. She had to do something. She couldn't bear the thought of somepony spending two months in a possibly unsanitary wooden shack on wheels.
"Umm, you can stay with me. I mean if you want to. I have one bedroom but, I can sleep on the couch."
"Oh no. You don't have to. I don't want to be an inconvenience."
"I insist."
"Oh. OK. I guess I could stay with you. As long as we don't do anything, umm you know."
Foggy's face turned beet red. She shook her head frantically. Her wings were flared out. She was clearly uncomfortable.
"Hey...are you okay?"
Foggy snapped back to reality and folded her wings back down.
"Yeah. I'm alright. Just don't say anything like that again. It just makes me very uncomfortable."
"I'm sorry. I won't say that again. To be completely honest, it makes me uncomfortable too."
They both chuckled nervously. After a moment of awkward silence, they decided to go back to Foggy's place. It was a simple one story house with one bedroom, a medium size kitchen, living room, dining room and bathroom.
"Welcome to my humble abode."
Foggy said as they entered the house.
"This seems like a mansion for me."
Blank said looking around. Foggy was about to respond with a rather rude comment, but she stopped herself and responded with what she was going to say but made it more polite.
"I actually have less than the average citizen of Ponyville. I'm okay with it though. I'm actually pretty happy with my life."
She said, smiling. Her smile faded when she realized that she would have to sell all of her stuff and her house when she left with Blank in a couple of months. For now however, she would forget those thoughts and focus on the fact that she now had the most handsome stallion in Equestria living with her. She cleared her mind of those thoughts as well and decided to give Blank a tour of the house. It wasn't a very long tour but, she still showed him around. When the "tour" was over, the two ponies sat down at the dining room table. The expertly balanced bag of pastries on Blank's back was now on the table. Blank took out a pastry and started eating it. Foggy had a simple cup of coffee and a pastry the blank had offered her.
"So, sorry I made you feel uncomfortable back there at uh, Sugar-Sugar Cane-"
"Sugar Cube Corner?"
"Yeah. There. Sorry about that."
"It's alright."
She said. The two ponies smile as they ate their "lunch". Blank asked Foggy if he could have some water and she returned with a cold bottle of water. They continued to chat, laugh and joke for the remainder of the day. They occasionally had to get up to use the bathroom or refill their drink. The days seem to speed past them. Before they knew it, Celestia began to lower the sun and Luna began to raise the moon. They decided it was time to hit the hay. Blank headed out to his wagon to grab a toothbrush and then went to the bathroom with Foggy to brush his teeth. Just because he was a traveler, it didn't mean that he didn't care about personal hygiene. The two ponies brush their teeth and headed off to their respective sleeping places.
Over the next few weeks, Foggy began selling and donating her belongings. Eventually all that was left was the bed and the couch. There were two days left of Blank's vacation and Foggy had to put the house up for sale. When that was done, all that Foggy had left was a locket her mother gave her, her first aide kit, a picture of her family and her toothbrush and toothpaste.
She was now ready to travel Equestria with Blank. She was very excited and nervous. The two son off at dawn and planned to return years later.