Halide

Snapped from a bus window on the way home. It was nice.

Roleplay Type: Mane Name: Matchie Sex: Female Age: Mare Species: Unicorn Eye Color: Dark blue Coat Color: Royal purple Mane/Tail/Markings Color & Style: Magenta and dark lavender; long, styled to look just a little tumbled, yet not enough to look messy. Physique: Somewhat slender, somewhat tall. Cutie Mark: A heart, cut into two puzzle-pieces. Origin/Residence: Fillydelphia Occupation: Self-employed; Matchmaking service Motivation: Helping ponies find where they should be in life, mostly in terms of who they're likely to work well with. Likes: Dating, romantic stories, flirting, puzzles, candles, matches, February and snowboarding Dislikes: Cheating, prudishness, mud, being alone in the dark. Character Summary: There are a great many ponies in the land of Equestria, and many other sentient species aside. Apart from living in Equestria, though, they all have one thing in common, and that is love. It is love - romance, passion, compassion, brother and sisterhood, devotion, all of these synonyms - that Matchie feels truly enamoured by, and thus, it is her vocation. Matchie the Matchmaker Mare, some call her. A pony compelled by, if not obsessed with, the idea of love being in the air, a constant and benevolent control in the lives of everything around her. She is an optimist eternal, a darling dame whose passion is passion itself, whether that passion burns bright with amorous intent or simply glows in eternal contentment, it is the single most important thing in the whole world to her, and for her, the greatest thing of all is for ponies to find it. Not that Matchie started off this way, no. As a young foal, the daughter of a fairly quiet, somewhat well-to-do trades-ponies in Fillydelphia, Matchie grew up happy amidst her brother and two sisters, the youngest of them all. She loved her family, and they loved her - her mother adored her, her father found her naivety and optimism endearing, and though her siblings might have squabbled with each-other, they seldom found reason to squabble with her. It's not that she was a perfect little filly, but it was as though her very foundations were made of compassion, sprinkled with respect and humility. In any time where she and her family were at odds, seldom as this was, she realized that she loved them, and they loved her, and really what harm would it do to just back down, smile, and respect what they asked of her? Of course she had to avoid backing down too much, and if she insisted (rare as the case was), she often got her way. School, of course, was another matter. She may have loved everypony around her in some way, but other students did not necessarily love her back. Some found her very creepy. She learned rather early on that it wasn't okay to show everypony as much affection as she showed her family, and that some ponies would rather not be told that they were loved at all. It took her by surprise, of course, and having to learn this lesson was somewhat difficult at first, but it was a lesson she took to heart nonetheless, and well before those around her started taking 'love' to mean things that none of them really understood yet. But, for all that she had a bit of a rough start in school, she found ways to express herself better, to show that she truly did care about everypony and everyone that she shared her life with. As she and those around her started growing up, there was the lesson that ponies can love what they do in life every bit as much as those around them, and so she started paying attention to that, too. What better way was there to help somepony find love than to help them find what they love in life? That wasn't so hard! Of course, being a filly, she wasn't all that good at it, but she wasn't bad, and there was no question at all that she meant well, even if her own cutiemark had yet to appear. A couple more years went by, and then a third type of love started to emerge. She knew about platonic love, she knew about a love of one's life, and yes she kind of knew about love between ponies, but then there was something new, and something she hadn't really appreciated before : true love. Yes, she fell head over hooves for a few stallions, and even a filly or two, but that wasn't quite true love. No, true love hadn't found her yet, but it had found two of her very good friends, and neither of them quite had the courage to face both the intimidating idea that they were truly meant for each-other... and the massive fear of rejection should either of them say no. It was time to take matters into her own hooves, and make sure everything was just right for the two of them. So she masterminded. She plotted and puzzled and pondered and pontificated and schemed and sauntered and solved and thought. Everything had to be set up at least reasonably well, and it was her one shot to make them both happy for the rest of their lives! And so she put together a blind date. She brought him to the park, where the filly he adored was waiting. A few gentle suggestions, a push, and a date put together for the both of them... well, that is another story. Suffice to say, she nearly worked her flank off getting them to realize true love so early in their lives, and with enough work, she succeeded. A young colt and filly, united. A cutiemark gained, and a vocation found. They were happy as could be. She was happy they were happy. It felt right, and if the cutiemark was anything to go by, that was what she was meant to do! However, not everything was fairytale romance and high drama with happy endings! That was just the most fun. No, Matchie kept up with helping other ponies around her figure out what they loved in life, and to some extent tried to help them to get it. She knew almost everypony in her school, and just the same everypony knew her to some extent. She was a counsellor, of sorts, for matters of crushes, cutiemarks, classes, and as time went on, she even did a bit of help with career counselling, especially for those ponies whose cutiemarks weren't really cut out to be a decent job. Although she could figure out what suited whom, though, how they'd go about actually getting it was not her forte, and so her future as a counsellor wasn't one that seemed likely. School ended, she moved out of her parent's home, and Matchie realized that her own career was somewhat uncertain. She hadn't been a stellar student, her magical abilities were just a touch below average, she hadn't actually spent a huge amount of time really thinking of how she'd get what she wanted in life, and for all that she had a great many friends in school, none of them could really offer her work right off the bat. So, she did hairdressing, because she was decent with a brush and scissors, and it turned out she was good at figuring out what styles suited which ponies. Unfortunately, her actual hairdressing skills were nothing of any real note; she could find the right sort of image for her customers, in her mind, but actually turning that image into a reality wasn't entirely practised, and so she didn't get anywhere with it. But, at least she had ponies to talk to, and while styling some of her regular customers, she at least could give them a bit of cheerful conversation. By chance, one of her favourite customers was having trouble finding a stallion in her life. She didn't really know how to find what sort of pony she wanted, and there wasn't any real way of meeting one without going for the old-fashioned ways of going to festivals, parties, get-togethers and juice bars in some hope of finding a decent single stallion. That was it. That was what Matchie could do. That was what she was good at, what had felt so harmoniously right above and beyond all else. That was her vocation, and with some investment money from some of her richer clients, she set up a matchmaking service, finding most of them a stallion, and helping one more ease her way out of the closet, making them all far happier than any of her hair-styling had. And so, here she is. Matchie the Matchmaking Mare once more, with her own little office in Phillydelphia, mail and fill-in forms scattered in every city for mares and stallions who feel like filling one out, doing exactly what she loves doing most of all, almost for free.