FiM Cast Night Glider (Ready)

[SteelEagle]

Name: Night Glider
Sex: Female
Age: Young Mare
Species: Pegasus
Eye Color: Baby blue
Coat: Blue-gray and well kept, short and otherwise unremarkable.
Mane and Tail: Deadly white with a spiked mane and well kept tail.
Physique: Athletic to a degree with strong wings, though not exceptional in any sense.
Residence: Born in Seaddle, lived in Bareback Gulch, currently Starlight's Sanctuary
Occupation: Former Night Weather Specialist in Bareback Gulch, currently seeking a role within
Cutie Mark: Partial solar eclipse with two wind currents around it.
History:

Night Glider was born to a lower class family on the outskirts of Seaddle, on one of the many islands that make up and surround the central city. Both of her parents were older by the time they conceived her and as much as they loved her and she loved them, they had little they could give her besides that. As a result she had a tough time in school and even before she got her cutie mark she ended up finding whatever work a little filly could. Whatever she made was funneled back towards her family to help them get by, and she worked long and hard doing what she could to make it that way. The end result was a filly who felt more comfortable working than being with friends or classmates, ostracizing her on a day by day basis for much of her younger life.

She felt lost, disconnected from those around her. While other ponies discussed what they had watched and played together she could barely keep her eyes open and took naps during recess. When she did try to get engaged she would find that she often put her hooves in her mouth. She wasn't disliked or bullied(at least very often). Rather, she was just separate. Alone. Only a few ponies ever came to her birthday parties and she was only ever invited to a few herself. The only real unique solace that came her way was when she discovered her cutie mark.

While working with a Night Weather Specialist in Seaddle, paid to keep logs and keep track of the flight pegasus' work, the pegasus she was following around ran into serious trouble with a wild storm in the moonlight. Night Glider leapt to his aid. The moon interacts with weather differently, giving a very different vibe and magical energy. Day weather specialists are capable of handling it but to no great degree, meaning wild storms are often worse at night than the day. A Night Weather Specialist is an important piece in the weather control machine and are as capable in the night as other members are in the day. Night Glider knew this instinctively. What she did not know as she went to help him was that this would be her destiny, her abilities far outstripping what she thought possible as she helped corral the storm and prevent her boss from getting into any real danger. Her cutie mark appeared and she was more than happy to finally have a way forward.

A Night Weather Specialist is much rarer than day specialists, requiring a small and specialized academy for their training. She was quickly offered a position and bid her parents a fond adieu, traveling to Hoofenheim to attend the academy. There she learned the ins and outs of her job and was growing in confidence, placing near the top of her class in almost every way. It was near the end of her training when she heard that her had passed away, hitting her with a ton of bricks that made it hard for her to stand and focus on the rest of her training. Despite that she still was top of her class and was assigned a job. Unlike other academies that rewarded the best and brightest with the cushiest jobs, the Night Specialist Academy sent its best to the toughest places and Bareback Gulch was without a specialist of her type.

It proved to be an unmitigated disaster in every way save for the quality of her work. A small roughneck town that didn't generally become open to strangers easily, her severe lack of social skills meant she was often alone. It didn't help matters that she was one of, if not the only, ponies up at night and sleeping during the day. Days could go by without her meeting another pony in between her meetings with the Mayor and even more than before she couldn't claim to have any real friends. She was respected by those who did know of her but her job was on the whole thankless and difficult, with wild storms from the Pinto and the Everfree converging often. She worked hard, long, alone, and with little to show for it. Night Glider became a loner less by choice and more by lifestyle and was aloof, blaming her accursed cutie mark for the lonely life she was leading.

One day a wild snowstorm approached from an odd direction, the Painted Pinto. As is normal procedure for unknown storms, she chased it back out of town and kept going in the direction it came from. Generally after a little while the storm takes off on its own accord and the specialist can return home. But this storm did not- every single time she backed off, the storm kept on heading towards town. She had to chase it further and further out over many hours. When she was tired she made a mistake, bucking when she instead should have flicked, and was hit by a stray bolt of lightning and caught up in a vindictive cross section of wind. She was sent hurtling down into the mountains and was hurt terribly by the fall.

She was found by Starlight Glimmer and nursed back to health, all the while getting her unique brand of philosophy stuffed into her mind. It didn't take much- the cutie mark she had meant she worked alone, away from others, in a bad place, and kept her away from her parents when they needed her. She willingly gave up her cutie mark and joined Starlight's cult, living for an extended period under her dominion. For much of her time there it was near bliss. She had so many friends and nopony thought her any different. For a mare who was always alone and separate it was a whole new world, a bright new day.

It was only much later when she started to feel the void in her that the loss of the cutie mark, both her talent and the hard-charging attitude that had bred it and came with it, left in her. She came to regret her decision when a vicious storm ravaged the town and forced many into their basements or the caves, something she could have prevented had she had her cutie mark. Night Glider realized that her cutie mark hadn't made her miserable, it had made her useful and unique- she had made herself miserable by not seeking out others and being personable. She met up with a few others who felt the same and together they kept alive the memory of their cutie marks, meeting in the basement of a local bakery. Alas, they could do nothing but remember. And remember.

Twilight and company arrived. A misadventure later and everypony had their cutie marks and the town was free of Starlight's influence. Choosing to remain in town, Night Glider is seeking to make some real friends for the first time and to use her unique talent to keep this small town isolated from Equestria safe from the storms that threaten it.

Personality:
Night Glider is an awkward mare in most social situations. She has comparatively little experience with others and can often be the one who makes the awkward comment or makes the awkward move. She means well but is just so naive and incorrect when it comes to social cues that she is almost afraid of it. With a place to live that is free of her previous obligations she feels a little more excited about the possibility of making good and honest friends for perhaps the first time. She is a night owl for work and this has resulted in her having a preference for those like her which, in a small town with no real night life, can be a considerable problem.

Her lack of honest life experience means that while she has interests- comics, reading, and plays- she has so little time to tend to them that she has very few hobbies. Her life has revolved around her often thankless work, which leads to her downplaying what she does. It is rare for her to explain just what she does at any length as her sense of pride in it has been shattered. She hopes to eventually get to where she was before and maybe then move on in her career, perhaps assembling some sense of pride along the way. She realizes she should be proud, but a combination of experience and the remnants of Starlight Glimmer's indoctrination act as a terrible obstacle for her to overcome.

For all of her poor reading of social cues and her general inability to get it right, Night Glider is extremely kind and forgiving. She has a self-deprecating and absurdist sense of humor masking a great deal of social anxiety, and an easygoing persona that sees her get involved in whatever the group does. In this way she is almost spineless and easily led, almost incapable of saying no even if her heart isn't in it. In her more excited and devoted moments Night Glider is capable of great kindness and generosity. This almost turns around on her, as Night Glider can be convinced to give pretty much every bit she has to good causes or those she considers friends. She doesn't consider this a poor outcome. Her needs and desires are few.

 

[RarityDash]