Okay, so here's the first part of chapter one, The Pegasus Artist. To those who reviewed when I originally posted it in January, make sure you review here as well, okay? Thanks. Plus, I changed Fillis' name to Fictionary.

---

Chapter I: The Pegasus Artist

Written by Zack Wanzer and James Riddle

Part 1: Meeting Vincent

Our story begins in the city of Liverhoof, one of the busiest in all of Equestria, and it is well-known for being the birthplace to perhaps the land's most famous music group, the Beatrots; John Gallop, Paul McHoofney, George Mareison, and Ringo Joggs (with two G's).

One February morning, the winter winds were blowing fiercely in the streets of Liverhoof. Everypony who was outside was struggling to keep warm as they went about their lives.

In a flat at the Liverhoof City Center, a unicorn filly and a Pegasus stallion were doing their best to keep warm. The filly was light blue with freckles, a light gold and pink mane and tail with magenta eyes, a red bow in her mane, and no cutie mark. Her name is Fictionary. Her older brother is the yellow Pegasus with the blue mane and tail, blue hooves, dark green eyes, glasses, and paint brush and palette for a cutie mark. This stallion is our protagonist, Vincent van Colt.

Now, some would think it's strange that two ponies of different species could be siblings, but there is a reason for it; their mother was a Pegasus, and their father was a unicorn. Vincent and Fictionary were born in Fillydelphia, but their mother came from Cloudsdale, and she was a single parent pregnant with Vincent. She married a unicorn stallion, who would eventually become Fictionary's father.

At a young age, about four years old, Vincent was first in his class to obtain a cutie mark, but many other foals were quite jealous of him. As he got older, Vincent was either ignored or teased by other colts and had very few friends. He and Fictionary were disheartened upon hearing their parents got involved in a cart crash, and thought they had been killed. To cope with his pain, Vincent moved away from Fillydelphia with Fictionary joining him, and traveled Equestria to find a newfound life, eventually ending up in Liverhoof.

Vincent is a good sort, but he's very sensitive and doesn't like bringing up "certain topics". Despite being a Pegasus, he is ironically afraid of heights! Fictionary, however, is more of a joker, is brave, independent, and she doesn't care what others think about her.

Back to the story; for this morning, Fictionary's job was to keep the fire burning brightly whilst her older brother was wearing a blanket, reading the Liverhoof Daily Post.

"Oh, why can't it be warmer?" Fictionary moaned as she used her magic to put a fresh lump of coal into the fireplace, "It makes me wish it was summer already! Why don't you join other Pegasi in controlling the weather?"

"Even if I wanted to," scoffed Vincent, rolling his eyes, "there's no way I'm going more than ten feet in the air!" He knew Fictionary was only teasing him, but didn't say so.

"Do you think there's anywhere else we can go that's hopefully warmer?" asked Fictionary, continuing to stoke the fire.

Vincent looked into the newspaper. His eyes scanned the pages until something caught his eye.

"Hmm? What's this? 'Help Wanted: Ponyville in Search of Artist…'" Vincent read on, absorbed. After a few minutes of reading, he put down the paper with a hopeful smile on his face.

"Pack your bags, Fictionary!" he declared, "Next stop; Ponyville!"

---

A few days later, Vincent and Fictionary stood on the platform of Liverhoof Central railway station. They had filled a cart hauled by Vincent with about six bags of their stuff, food, clothes, and his art supplies; blank canvases, easel, paint brushes, paint palettes, paint bottles, you name it.

"Let's hope Ponyville's full of friendly faces like in Liverhoof," Fictionary said eagerly.

"The Liverhoofians are nice ponyfolk," said Vincent, "but it'll be a shame to leave them. One day, we might return."

There was a crackle as the announcements came on.

"Attention, passengers! The 10:15 service from Liverhoof to Ponyville shall be departing in ten minutes from platform three! Please mind the gap between the train and the platform when boarding."

The siblings quickly got to platform three where the porters loaded their luggage into the luggage car. They then got their tickets, boarded one of the carriages and got their seats.

As the clock struck the quarter-hour, the conductor's whistle blew and the train departed for Ponyville. For Vincent and Fictionary, there was no going back now.

---

Around the same time at Canterlot railway station, Twilight Sparkle sadly walked onto the station platform, shortly followed by Spike.

"Uh, prepared for what, exactly?" the baby dragon asked, puzzled. Earlier, Twilight had a word with Princess Celestia at the castle, and the pure white alicorn had assigned Twilight and her friends to help save the Crystal Empire, which was far north of Ponyville in the snow. Twilight looked back sadly at Spike until a voice called out for her.

"Twilight! Uh, did you pass?"

Twilight gave a slight grunt, receiving a hug from Applejack. She and the other four mares were anxious to know what Princess Celestia had assigned Twilight. Spike stood where he was until he was knocked aside by Pinkie Pie. With her was what she called her "party cannon." It was bright blue with pink wheels.

"Are we gonna celebrate your awesomeness with Princess Celestia?!" Pinkie exclaimed as her party cannon set off, blowing confetti into the air. She jumped in excitement as it did so.

"Not quite," said Twilight. Pinkie landed back to the platform on her bottom and the confetti went back into its cannon. The pink Earth pony looked at Twilight, confused.

"We're going to the Crystal Empire!" Twilight declared. Her friends looked at each other, confused.

"Crystal what?" asked Rainbow Dash.

---

Back to Vincent; he was in his coach with Fictionary. Right now, he had out his easel, palette, paint bottles and brush and was painting on the canvas with the brush in his mouth. He was an extremely talented painter; he could even paint with his hooves and wings! Right now, his painting was of the train he and Fictionary were aboard right now. Vincent always had a fascination of trains since he was a colt. He thought steam locomotives were beautiful machines and a sight to behold. Sometimes he'd talk about trains to anypony who would listen; some were interested, others weren't.

"According to the paper," said Fictionary, who'd brought the newspaper with them, "anypony who's willing to volunteer as an artist must have a word with Mayor Mare at Ponyville Town Hall in the Town Square."

"Should be easy," said Vincent, applying the finishing touches to his newest painting, "we do have a map with us, right?"

"Got it right here with me!" said Fictionary, producing the map with her magic.

"Excellent; soon we'll be starting a new life before you can say 'Summer Sun Celebration'!"

---

About two hours later, the train steamed to a halt at Ponyville railway station. Vincent and Fictionary's luggage was unloaded – by now, Vincent's newest painting was complete – and they set off to find the Town Square.

"We've just arrived at the station," said Fictionary, looking at the map, "now we need to find the Town Square."

"It should be easy, given we have this map with us," said Vincent, "how hard could it be to find it?"

That was easier said than done. After about an hour, they couldn't find the Town Square.

"Me and my sense of direction," Vincent groaned, facehoofing in embarrassment.

"Can't you just fly?" teased Fictionary.

"Out of the question," her brother retorted, "we'll ask for directions."

As if by coincidence, he noticed a light amber stallion walk by.

"Excuse me, sir," called Vincent, "can you direct us to the Town Square?"

"It's to your left," the stallion replied, and pointed. Vincent and Fictionary looked; there was the Town Square.

"Right, thank you, sir," said Vincent gratefully, and he and his sister unicorn walked over to where the stallion pointed.

"You really could've just flown us over there yourself," Fictionary joked again. Vincent rolled his eyes and didn't reply.

---

Mayor Mare is a pale, light grayish amber Earth mare with a light bluish gray mane and tail, phthalo blue eyes, yellow glasses, a white collar with a greenish-blue tuft, and her cutie mark was a tan scroll tied with blue ribbon. She was in her office at the Town Square when somepony knocked on the door.

"Come in," said the Mayor, and the door opened to reveal her deputy mayor.

"Good day, Mayor," he greeted, "a Mr. Vincent van Colt is here to speak with you, to volunteer as the town's local artist since Stalliono da Vinci's left for Canterlot."

"Oh, a volunteer!" gasped the Mayor, "How splendid! Send him in!"

The deputy mayor nodded, and then called in for the blue-haired Pegasus to enter the Mayor's office.

"Good afternoon, Mayor," said Vincent politely.

"Mr. van Colt, I presume?" said the Mayor.

"That's me name."

---

Outside the office, Fictionary sat waiting while the Mayor interviewed her older brother. She didn't mind the wait – it was grown-up pony stuff, after all – but after half an hour, she began to feel bored.

"When's the interview done?" she moaned to nopony in particular. She was just about to fall asleep, when a voice called out to her.

"Come on, Fictionary!" called Vincent, "Hitch me up to our cart; the Mayor's going to lead us to our new home!"

Fictionary stood up in an instant, an eager look on her face.

"Did ya get the job?!" she exclaimed.

"We'll explain everything on the way," said Vincent, "the Mayor's leading us to our new home."

"Oh, okay!"

---

"This shall be your new home," Mayor Mare was saying to Vincent and Fictionary, "Stalliono da Vinci left this place about two months ago when he was hired as a painter in Canterlot. The building's a little dirty on the inside, but some touch ups will restore it to former glory."

"Did Stalliono run a business here?" Fictionary asked.

"Suppose you could say that," the Mayor shrugged, "but either way, this place is yours now."

"Thank you, madam," said Vincent, shaking hooves with the Mayor, "we'll take great care of it as well!"

He was true to his word; over the next two days, he and Fictionary first cleaned up the building's interior, and once that was done, they began to unload their luggage and had brought in their furniture they had from their Liverhoof flat.

After two weeks, Vincent and Fictionary had finished transferring all their furniture from Liverhoof to their new Ponyville domicile.

"That's it, our job is done," smiled Fictionary.

"And it's the start of a new life," Vincent agreed, "now Vincent van Colt's 'Metrostallion House of Art' is open for business!"

"Metrostallion House?"

"It's a good name, I thought."

"Pretty catchy; I like it!"

"Glad you think so. Now I wonder where we should start…?"

---

Two days later, Vincent was out in a grassy field. He was now painting still life, his painting itself consisting of a lake, some trees, and birds flying in the sky with clouds in the background.

"What a peaceful morning," he was saying to nopony in particular, "the sky's clear, and you're deep in your thoughts, wondering about the mysteries of the world today… Today's got perfect weather for painting! Better than about a week ago with crazy pink mares jumping around all over town saying 'fun, fun, fun' all the time…"

Not too long ago, Pinkie Pie used a magic mirror pond to clone herself after being overwhelmed with having to choose one friend to spend time with, but Vincent had yet to understand this.

He was so focused on his painting he didn't notice a light purple unicorn standing right next to him.

"Oh my, that's such a lovely painting!"

Vincent jumped in surprise, his wing dropping the paintbrush.

"Ah! Who said that?!" he exclaimed in surprise.

"I did, to your right!"

Vincent turned to his right, and he noticed the voice came from Twilight. She was out to run some errands whilst Spike was looking after Golden Oak Library.

"Oh," Vincent exclaimed, "sorry, didn't see you there."

"It's alright," said Twilight, "I was just saying your painting looks very lovely."

Vincent gave a small smile; it was the first time in a while that somepony had complimented his artwork.

"Thank you, miss," he said at last, "my name's Vincent van Colt, but you can call me Vincent for short." He held out his right hoof.

"I'm Twilight Sparkle," said the light purple unicorn, and she shook Vincent's hoof, "but mostly everypony calls me Twilight. I don't think I've seen you before; have we met?"

"No, actually," said Vincent, "I arrived from Liverhoof to Ponyville two weeks ago with my sister Fictionary."

"Two weeks ago?" exclaimed Twilight, then had a realization, but didn't say it out loud.

"What, is there a problem with that?"

"Er, no; my friends and I were at the Crystal Empire two weeks ago too," Twilight admitted.

"Huh, what a coincidence, I- Wait a minute... Crystal Empire?" Vincent looked at her with a puzzled look.

"It's in the arctic north of Equestria," explained Twilight, "vanished for a thousand years by a curse placed by King Sombra, defeated by Princesses Celestia and Luna. My brother Shining Armor and Princess Cadence lead the empire together now."

"Oh, I see," said Vincent, "it makes sense. I never heard of such place until now."

"I'm not surprised," said Twilight, "hardly anypony's heard of it up to two weeks ago."

"Well, anyway," said Vincent, "I've just finished up my painting of some still life. I'll just pack up me supplies and head back to the Metrostallion House. Wanna come with?"

"I don't see why not," smiled Twilight, "I've just finished up with my errands for the day and I've got some time to kill before I'm due back at the library."

---

Vincent van Colt's name is inspired by the Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh. Liverhoof is the Equestrian variant of Liverpool; it also spoofs the real-life British city's Center, Daily Post newspaper, and Central railway station. The Beatrots is a reference to the Beatles. The Metrostallion House of Art references the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.

So here's the first edited part of The Pegasus Artist. Keep an eye out for the next five chapters!