Unicorn Elderflower [Ready]

[Elderflower]

Roleplay Type

World of Equestria

Name

Elderflower; friends call her El.

Sex

Female

Age

Younger Mare

Species

Unicorn

Eye colour

A warm, pale gold.

Coat

Light Cream.

Mane/Tail

Elderflower's mane and tail are both very soft and voluminous. Both are fairly straight, but tend to curl towards the ends. She likes to tie off her mane loosely, in order to keep stray hairs in check, and often she will pin flowers into the ribbons she uses for tying. Her tail, being somewhat long, she likes to keep in a loose, loopy bun in order to keep it from dragging on the floor. She could always get it trimmed, but she has become fond enough of her typical tail-bun that she'd really rather not cut any of the hair off!

Physique

El is a little bit on the tall and slender side, though she hardly towers over others – she’s mere a few inches above the average pony height. Her stature coupled with her serene demeanour and delicate gait, the best way to describe her in terms of her appearance is “wispy.”

Residence

Her home in Canterlot is a small house connected to the side of her teahouse!

Occupation

El runs a small but enchanting teahouse called the Elder Tree Teahouse designed to capture the very essence of serenity. The shop is designed mostly with wood, and many of the beams and counters have relief carvings of tranquil natural scenes: willows hanging over ponds, finches poised for flight on slender branches, and similar scenes are alive on the surfaces of her shop! The shop’s biggest draw is the tea, but El’s got a few sweets infused with her tea flavours on the menu as well!

Cutie Mark

A cluster of pink and white elderflowers in full bloom with curving lines underneath them, dotted to represent the berry-bearing branches of an elder tree.

Like most fillies, El was always eager to find her calling and her cutie mark! Being the daughter of two unicorn baristas in Canterlot, she loved to help them out around their café/bistro for many reasons, one of which was getting to chat with the locals! El was great help waiting tables, and every time she brought a drink or a sandwich or a bowl of soup to somepony, she loved getting them to talk about their cutie marks. As a young filly, having an endless stream of Canterlot locals to talk about how they discovered their callings was fascinating – and educational! Unfortunately, it seemed like a surprising amount of their clientele had gotten their cutie marks purely by accident. But what did that mean for her? The longer time went on without her cutie mark appearing, the more she worried it would never come. After all, if so many ponies found their mark completely by accident, and she wasn’t getting into accidents, what if that meant she’d never ever get hers?

It was a stressful time for the little filly, but she didn’t let it distract her from helping her parents. Day in and day out, she learned how to brew coffee and tea and how to cook and bake, but day in and day out her flank stayed bare. She loved helping out her parents, but her frustration mounted every day as she walked into school to find fillies and colts with shiny new cutie marks. She was so envious! It quickly reached the point where the thought of getting her cutie mark was consuming every moment of her life! She was always thinking on it, wondering what scheme she could come up with to trick her flank into shining. Nothing could distract her from her one-track conviction. Until, one day, a rather frazzled earth pony made her way into El’s parents’ establishment.

El did her best to cheer the mare up, using all the charm a filly could muster to try and win a smile, but all of her efforts were in vain. It wasn’t until she brought the mare a cup of tea that she calmed down. She even looked…peaceful? After that moment, El’s single-track thoughts were halted, and all she could think about was the immediate peace and serenity that earth pony mare had found in a single cup of tea.

After that, all she could think about was tea. She continued to help her parents, but soon enough she found herself keeping an eye open for every disgruntled pony to walk into the café. As soon as she spotted a target, she’d dash behind the counter and pop open the loose tea canisters, blending the leaves to make flavours she thought would soothe the soul! It worked, sometimes, and every time it did she felt unbridled joy. Her tea blends may have been lacking at first, but she got better with practice, and most ponies appreciated her efforts even when her teas were lacking.

One day, a particularly unhappy pony trotted into the café. Large, wet tears rolled down his face and even though he tried his best to stop, he just couldn’t. He seemed so down! El immediately knew what she had to do, and went back to the tea canisters to make something extra special. She kept it simple – floral, sweet, and lively, something that would remind the stallion of spring and rejuvenation – she wanted it to be soothing and uplifting! What she came up with was very, very simple: two parts green tea and two parts jasmine, steeped to perfection and with just a little splash of elderflower cordial for flavour. She trotted up to the stallion, floating the cup of tea carefully over her head, and plopped it down.

“On the house!”

He took one sip of the tea, and something in it must have charmed him because the stallion immediately seemed to calm down! Whether it was due to the kind gesture, the simple fact that the cup of tea was a distraction for sad thoughts, or the tea itself that he was cheered up has always been unclear. As a filly, El was convinced it was the latter and that her efforts alone had helped him feel at ease, and that was when it happened! Her flank began to shine, and the cluster of elderflower blooms appeared on her flank, symbolizing her love of healing the spirit through bringing peace and serenity to others.

History

As a filly, Elderflower’s life was very routine. She would wake up, go to school, help her parents with the café, do her homework, and go to bed. Things stayed that way for a very long while, until the day El earned her cutiemark in fact! Then her life became dedicated to researching and smelling and drinking teas, so that she could learn to make her own blends as well as perfecting existing blends! While she plunged into this world of tea, she also expanded upon her magical talents. So eager she was to work with teas that her two hooves were not enough. She trained herself to become quite adept with levitation and physical magic in order to improve upon her multitasking skills, and though she was never quite talented enough to make it into Celestia’s school for gifted unicorns, she was very satisfied with her abilities. They perfectly served her efforts, after all!

El did her research in Canterlot until the day she was finished with school, when she was free to take her research wherever she pleased. That “wherever” turned out to be all across Equestria! Though still young, her parents knew that she was capable, and so she set out on her own to explore the Equestrian wilderness in search of the ideal tea-brewing plants. She spent a good few years doing this – hunting down the places where tea plants grew, harvesting them, preparing them, and brewing them. If they inspired her palate, she would harvest the seeds with the intention of bringing them home to Canterlot for her garden, or sometimes with the intention of breeding their qualities into other specimens she had found which impressed her.

During her travels, while she was in the process of finding the perfect jasmine tea plant, Elderflower stumbled upon her closest and dearest friend – or at least his egg! Blue the fairy wren, her beloved companion, was just an egg when she found him. In fact, she almost stepped on him! Luckily, she had been looking down while she was walking, and noticed a little egg poking out of the grass before her hoof had fallen. She looked around, curious as to where the nest was that the egg had fallen from, and when she could not find it she lifted the egg with her golden magic and wove a part of her mane into a little basket to carry it in. During the last half of her travels, Blue was at her side – a loyal and faithful companion who was quite good at spotting the plants she searched for!

Finally El returned home and began her efforts to start her tea shop. She chose a plot of land wedged in between two fanciful and gilded Canterlot shops, because despite its smaller size (well, smaller size compared to most Canterlot restaurants and cafés) the land had a tall and proud elder tree growing in it! First, she began her garden and built a little shed for preparing teas. It didn’t take her garden terribly long to mature, and once it had Elderflower took a loan from her parents and had her teahouse built: The Elder Tree Teahouse.

She has been running it by herself ever since. Though the work is hard and very tiring, it is rewarding. The wispy mare would not have things any other way, for every day she sees the positive results of her hard work in the peaceful faces of her patrons. Ponies come to the Elder Tree Teahouse in order to unwind and relax, to soothe their souls and bask in the serenity of the place. Truth be told, however, El sometimes finds herself longing for her days of travel and adventure. She discovered so many wonderful new things journeying across Equestria that despite how happy she is with her current situation, sometimes she longs to take a vacation. When you’re running a busy teahouse on your own, however, vacations aren’t an option.

Character Summary

Between her physique, her soft-spoken nature, and her wispy demeanour, El often gives the impression of being a delicate and frail mare. Nothing could be further from the truth, however. She is very passionate and dedicated: a hard worker who is fiercely independent and impossible to rattle. After all, she spent three years traveling Equestria almost as soon as she became a young mare, and opened up her teahouse very soon after that! She may not look like much, but she’s a tough cookie! And clever to boot.

She’s terribly stubborn though, and very particular. Running the teahouse by herself, though it gives her a chance to meet new ponies and get to know her regulars, has something of a negative impact on her social life. She’s a homebody – the shop is only closed once a week but still demands her attention when it comes to cleaning and tending her garden. That’s not something easily remedied, though, considering how particular she is. The mare could, logically, hire on a second set of hooves to help her out around the shop, but she’s so very fussy about every last detail of how she runs things that she is hesitant to hire somepony else. Besides, this dilemma is only a real dilemma to other ponies! Despite how tired she can get, El loves every moment of her life working at the teahouse – especially the many hours in the garden.

Besides, Blue the fairy wren is a much greater help than most would consider upon seeing him. He keeps an eye on who comes and goes into the shop as well as who is ready to order and who is finished with their tea. He has little distinctive chirps that tell her what the situation is, and she need only follow his voice in order to do her job. It’s a great help!

It’s stamped right on her flank that El lives to help others. She has a warm and generous spirit that drives her to heal and soothe others, whether it’s in times of trouble or over trivial every day affairs. Sadness and stress and frustration are all emotions she wants to drive away with her teas and her teahouse. Everything was meticulously planned, down to the very last detail, to best serve the ponies who visit her shop and help them to feel calm and at peace. Elderflower’s business, then, deals as much with atmosphere as it does with tea!

Tea is more than just a means to an end for her, however. After dedicating years of her life to learning every detail of every tea that she could, tea has become one of her greatest passions – it is second only to her desire to heal and help. She herself prefers floral teas, the light and fresh flavours of lavender, elderflowers, chamomile, and jasmine in particular strike her, though she is also partial to hibiscus.

It’s hard to El to find things she doesn’t like. She has the type of personality that tries to see the good in everything, and in turn she struggles to outright say “I don’t like this!” She is open minded to trying new things and seeing the positive side in the most trying times. That said, when she is pushed she can become quite prickly! She is defensive of the things that are precious to her, and while somepony who disagrees with her opinion is somepony she can accept, if they try to simply force their view on her she can become very prickly and curt. It is a rare occurrence, but that doesn’t make it impossible.

Aside from her obvious interests in tea, gardening, atmosphere-setting, and helping other ponies, El has a fondness for poetry, fiction, and botany (which stems from her research into tea plants). She loves to sing, though she isn’t an astounding vocal talent – mostly she likes to sing for Blue and her plants. She also likes to stay in shape, and on her rare days off can be found jogging.

Edited June 11, 2013 by Elderflower

[Rosewind]

I don't say this very often (actually, this will be the first time): This character is of perfect quality for World of Equestria. Are you sure you don't want to change the roleplay type to that? You would be welcome to play her in any of our roleplay sub-forums, Crossovers included.

If you're interested in doing this (and I highly suggest you do -- you seem to be a great roleplayer with a nice character), edit the roleplay type to World of Equestria by using the Edit button at the bottom of your post. You will need a minimum of 3 posts before the forum software will allow you to edit your post proper, so I might suggest introducing yourself to the community? We'd love to learn more about you!

[Elderflower]

I'm honoured, thanks a lot! I've edited the post, and I'll get on that introduction right after my class this afternoon, I'm actually just about to leave now.

Thanks again! I'm looking forward to joining the community!

[Rosewind]

Welcome to the game!