Prolouge: A visit from family
It was a beautiful summer's day in Ponyville, it was bright and sunny, and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. An old stallion walked up a dirt path up to a moderately sized house by the edge of town. He looked at the front of the house, a simple white coat with green shudders, and a black roof, a bit different from the houses found in town, but hey, home is home. The stallion turned his head to see five young fillies in the yard, three of whom were playing double dutch, while two were watching. One of the bystanders looked behind her to see the old stallion behind them. The filly's eyes instantly lit up when she saw him.
"GRANDPA!!" shouted the young filly as she made a galloping jump up to the old stallion ensnaring his leg with a hug and nearly knocking his fedora off of his head.
The old stallion instantly made a sour face, and in his best cranky old pony voice said "What are you rotten fillies doing on my lawn!?" Which was met with a choir of giggles from the fillies.
"We're playing double dutch grandpa." said one of the older fillies.
"No, what you're doing is playing double dutch wrong!" said the old stallion. He suddenly walked up to the three with the rope. "Let a double dutch master show you fillies how it's done!" exclaimed the stallion as he stepped in the middle of the two fillies with the rope as he handed his fedora to one of the bystanders. The two started to swing the ropes, and started singing as the old stallion was doing a very good job keeping up, alternating hooves as he jumped while singing along with the fillies. Suddenly, the old stallion's upper hoof immediately shot down to his thigh as he gave a painful cry and dropped to the ground.
All of the fillies gasped in horror as they ran up to their fallen grandpa. "Grandpa are you ok !?" asked one of the fillies with a great deal of worry to her voice.
"Girls, there's something very important i need t say." said the old stallion in a hoarse voice."Come closer please." he requested as all five fillies were now close enough to feel his breath. "I.....I...." stuttered the old stallion as he looked p at them with puppy dog eyes. "Can't believe you fell for that!" just then the old stallion immediately pulled all of the fillies into a large hug, as he brought them all to the ground.
The six of them all laughed and rolled around on the grass for a while, until a voice caught their attention. "Well you look like you're having fun." said the voice in an incredibly snarky tone. The fillies and the old stallion looked up to see a pink stallion with a black mane and glasses standing over them.
"Oh, hiya big bro!" said one of the fillies who was still laughing."We were just playing double dutch with grandpa!"
The pink stallion chuckled "Wow, the rules of double dutch must have really changed since I was a kid, anyway mom said it's time for you five to come home, it's almost time for dinner."
This sentence was met with a disapproving choir of moans by the fillies and the old stallion. "Awww, C'mon Vivi, just a little longer" asked the youngest filly.
"Yeah, we want to play with grandpa some more." said a different filly.
"Sorry girls, you know how mom gets when you're not home by dinner." said Vivi. "She'll have my head on a silver platter if you"re not there."
All of the fillies started to get up and walk to town, but not before each gave their grandpa a goodbye hug and the youngest one gave his fedora back.. The old stallion watched as the five fillies started to walk away, he looked up at the sky and saw that it was of many different colors, beautifully marking the end of day, and the coming of night. He didn't realise how long he and the fillies were playing before Vivi came. He then looked at Vivi who was watching the fillies walking towards their house. "So, are you going to dinner too?" asked the old stallion.
"Phfft, no, I can eat whenever I want, whenever I want, I'm a grown stallion." said Vivi. "Besides, mom made spinach casserole, yuck!" said Vivi as he made a gag face, to which the old stallion grinned.
"Well, if you want, I was about to have some pizza before I played with the girls, would you like to come in for a slice?" asked the old stallion.
Vivi's ears perked up, "You had me at pizza." he exclaimed happily as the two walked into the old stallion's house.
The house was big, it had a large living room, a decent kitchen, a dining room, two bathrooms, and three bedrooms including the master bedroom. The two walked into the kitchen and started to work on making a pizza. After it was done, the two walked into the dining room. The dining room was filled with beautiful paintings of sunny landscapes, beautiful cities, the ocean, and a few of Ponyville itself. They sat at opposite ends of a large oak table as they began to eat.
"Mmh, you've outdone yourself again Grandpa Slate." said Vivi between bites of his slices of pizza.
"Thank you Vivi." said Slate. "I did have a wonderful teacher."
The two continued to eat in silence until they were finished, and then they took their conversation into the living room.
"So how have you been Vivi?" inquired Slate as he sat in his favorite red recliner.
"Good grandpa, everything is going great!" said Vivi as he sat on the large couch opposite of his grandpa.
"What was that surprise you wanted to talk to me about? I've been waiting forever to hear about it, but everypony's leaving me in the dark!" said Slate
"Well, I wanted to wait to tell you." said Vivi in a very sly tone as he reached for a bag by his side, from which he pulled a letter. "That I got into the Hoofington Institute for the Fine Arts!"
Slate helt a long gasp, after which he jumped out of his chair and started jumping around. " Dear Celestia! my grandson got into one of the best art schools in all of Equestria!" he yelled excitedly as he pulled Vivi in for a back breaking hug.
"I knew you'd be happy." said Vivi, chocking out the words as his grandfather let him go. "Vivid Virtue is now a student of HIFA!"
Slate snickered as he took another good look at Vivi, his oldest grandchild by far. It feels like only yesterday, he was a little colt, learning how to hoof paint for the first time, now he's going to the finest art school in Equestria thought Slate. He snickered as he took another look at Vivi "Dear Luna, you make me feel old boy." he said as he cracked a smile.
"Don't blame me, you're the one who said I should chase my dreams." said Vivi. "I wouldn't have gone into art if you didn't inspire me." he said as he looked at the paintings in his grandfather's living room, all so vibrant ,colorful, and filled with life.
"You know, they weren't always like this." said Slate as he turned to face the gallery of paintings on the wall. "My art used to be a lot sadder than before I came to Ponyville."
"I've always wanted to hear that story grandpa" said Vivi. "You never told me why you came to Ponyville, or why you changed your art style so drastically in the first place."
"Oh I don't know, It's a very long story, I'm not sure you'd want to hear it." said Slate.
"I have time." said Vivi as he sat back on the couch behind him.
Slate gave a small smile "Very well, I'll tell you what I remember."he said as he sat back in his recliner and looked out the window. "It all started a long time ago, back in Manehattan."