It was a summer afternoon in Canterlot. Unicorns dotted the streets. In a castle suite, a young grey stallion looked outside his window.
"If only I wasn't so busy with my studies, I could join those other Canterlot ponies in their lives," said the stallion nonchalantly.
"But you're not busy now. Now are you, Spellweaver?" said a strong yet kind feminine voice. Mildly surprised, the grey stallion turned around and bowed.
"Princess Celestia." Spellweaver said, acknowledging the princess' presence.
"Formal as always," Celestia giggled, "Now come, there is much we must discuss."
The two ponies walked through the halls of the Canterlot castle into the throne room. There, Princess Luna awaited for their arrival.
"Ah, sister, you brought Spellweaver, I see," the black alicorn turned to the grey unicorn, "there is something amiss in Ponyville. The Tree of Harmony, as you know, was saved by Princess Twilight Sparkle and her friends. Now Discord has discovered something in which may aid in his ability to take back Equestria. We have no idea where it is, but we do know that you must stop him. Princess Celestia and I are sending you to Ponyville. You will stop Discord. You must, Spellweaver."
"Yes, Princess Luna." said the grey stallion, who bowed.
"Then we must be on our way." said Princess Celestia.
After arriving in Ponyville, Spellweaver was surprised to see the calmness of the town. Ponies, mares and stallions alike, were walking up and down the street shopping, taking care of foals, and minding their own business, as per usual of Ponyville residents. Just then, walking the streets, he saw a white earth pony with an orange and yellow mane and tail. Spellweaver's face flushed with color, making his dark grey face look like a deformed foal. He walked up to the mare, who's Cutie Mark was a blossoming flower.
"Why hello there, Miss." Spellweaver said to the mare. "What is your name, may I ask?"
"Hello, there, good sir," the mare replied, "I am Amber. Who are you?"
"My name is Spellweaver. I am the Princess' current student in the field of magic." Spellweaver showed Amber his flank, one that boasted a magic book with a wand overtop of it. "As seen by my Cutie Mark."
"Well, Spellweaver, I don't know much about magic, as I am not a unicorn, but I am sure you are good at what you do." Amber's head suddenly turned left. "Oh, dear Celestia, who's that?"
"Who's who?"
"Look!"
Spellweaver turned his head to look where Amber had directed. Once the pony in question had become clearer, as the flying of the pegasus was faster than the blink of an eye, he saw a dark purple mare with a dark blue mane and tail sporting even darker purple looked at the two, then slowly, at least slow for her, flew over to Spellweaver and Amber.
"Who the flip are you two?' the mare snapped.
"I am Spellweaver, a student of the Princess'," Spellweaver introduced. "And this is Amber. We just met, but I have to go. I have a mystery to solve. I am on a mission given to me by the Princess herself."
"Well I'm Yoruichi. And Spellweaver, you really need to lighten up. I guess I'm gonna go with you, 'cause I wanna help you."
"Fine. I don't really care. I have to go to the Everfree Forest, anyway. There's nothing here that is out of the ordinary."
The two ponies walked, Yoruichi flying instead of actually walking, through the town. Not long into the walk, they were stopped by a red stallion flying at full speed, chased by a golden mare, both pegasi. The stallion had art supplies in his grasp, his fore legs wrapped tightly around them in an attempt to keep the immense amount of stuff from falling.
"Anthony! Give me back my art stuff! I need that for my work today!" yelled the mare.
"Haha, no way, Valffetta! I'm gonna use them at football practice!" yelled the red stallion, who was apparently the one named Anthony.
"Valffetta? Anthony?" asked Yoruichi. "Who the flipping heck are they?"
The two pegasi stopped, went over to Spellweaver and Yoruichi and introduced themselves. The golden one landed softly, and the red one had continued to fly, this time hovering in place, trying to keep the art supplies away from the mare.
"I'm sorry," said the golden mare in a depressed tone. "I was just trying to get my stuff back from Anthony." She suddenly came to a calm state. "I am Valffetta, but please, call me Valff. I am an artist pegasus born in Canterlot to Cloudsdale natives. I moved to Ponyville two years ago. Oh, my mane." Valff then blew at her milk chocolate brown mane until her mane flipped back into its original place, her blue-green eyes determined.
"Anyway," the red one interrupted. "I am Anthony," he said with a cocky attitude. "I am the smart, strong and great pegasus that plays football." Anthony showed his flank to them, followed by Valff. Anthony's Cutie Mark was a football helmet over a football, Valff's was a pencil over a six-pointed cyan star with two semi-transparent red four-pointed stars diagonally across from each other. Valff had the larger Cutie Mark. Anthony then flipped his dark brown mane, his glasses following the motion. The eyeglasses fell into position far down his large stallion snout. He looked confident enough to have been a movie actor, though he was only a football player in Ponyville.
"Now, Anthony, give me my gosh darn art supplies back! I have thirty portraits to finish by tomorrow afternoon!" Valff snapped at Anthony, stamping her golden hoof to the ground.
"Pfft, no way, Valffetta. They're mine now. Haha!" Anthony laughed back.
"Well, each pastel pack was forty bits, and you have twenty pastel packs, so if you break them, that's eight hundred bits you owe me, Anthony."
"How expensive is your job?"
"Very. I make enough to get by, though." Anthony suddenly looked scared out of his mind. He apparently knew something about Valff that Spellweaver and Yoruichi did not.
"What's wrong, Anthony?" Valff said ⧿ nearly snapping ⧿ with anger and sadism building in her facial expression, eyes, and tone of voice.
"Uhm, n-nothing. Nothing, Valffetta." Anthony replied, obviously still scared. Anthony dropped the art supplies and did something like a crabwalk backwards as Valff was stomping her way to him, the obvious anger and sadism at their full peak by this point. Valff raised a hoof and punched Anthony across the face, causing him to have not only a bruise on his cheek, but to also have a surprised and quite confused expression on his face. He turned to Valff.
"V-Valffetta? What the fuck, man?" Anthony snapped in reply to the punch Valff threw. He was obviously still very surprised at what had just happened.
"Is she always like this?" Yoruichi asked, stunned at the golden pony's behavior and mood swings.
"Often times, yes. She doesn't quite control her moods well enough to be a calm pony most of the time. She usually goes up and down with her moods. Her behavior follows closely." Anthony replied. He obviously knew a lot about Valff, and given the circumstances of the way Yoruichi and Spellweaver had met them, the two had obviously known each other for quite a long time.
"Well, that gets rid of Anthony taking my art supplies for awhile. Now, where did he drop them?" Valff said after a long pause of silence. She walked around, looking for the pastels. She spotted them, picked them up, and started to fly.
"Bye, guys. I'll be at my studio if you need me." Valff said goodbye to the three ponies and flew east toward a large art studio. Spellweaver turned to Anthony.
"I think we're gonna need her, Anthony. Do you know a way to get her into our company?"
"I do," Anthony replied. "We need to be calm with her and be friendly. However, I won't go into her house. She's probably still angry at me for taking her supplies. She holds grudges easily."
"Alright, then, Anthony," Spellweaver said. "Let's go. You lead the way."