Ratan [Ready]

[RexDraco]

Roleplay Type: WoE
Name: Ratan (Emerald Shard in pony form)
Sex: Male
Age: Stallion
Species: Changeling
Eye colour: Salmon Pink
Coat: Sickly Olive Green
Mane/Tail: Transparent Robin’s Egg Blue
Physique: Sickly

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Residence: Manehatten
Occupation: Glass Blower

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After losing his close friend the Changeling took over his work and shop to continue creating the beautiful masterpieces he loved watching the older pony make.

 

 

 

Cutie Mark: N/A

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In his pony form the cutie mark generated appears to be an emerald shard with a flame tongue peeking out from behind it. It resembles, almost point for point, the former owner’s but there is a distinct difference in the shape of the shard. Where the original owner’s was a natural, triangular point, Rat’s is more shaped.

 

 

 

 

Unique Traits:

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• Aposematic Coloration: Being from a hive unrelated to that of Chrysalis’ his bright coloration invites challenge, likely due to his birth hive being venomous.

 

• Stunted Growth: His stunted growth has attributed to many of his malformations: such as short, stunted wings that haven’t the capacity to fly, hollow, poison barbs on his forelimbs that lack venom, as well as a half-formed and hollow horn.

 

• Partial Albinism: A disfiguring trait that makes his eyes pink and gives him a lighter hue than what his hive mates may have had. He is sensitive to bright lights and his carapace is easily burned by heavy sunlight.

 

• Speech Impediment: Due to his canines growing longer on his lower jaws it makes it difficult for Rat to speak clearly or move his lips properly. He also bites his tongue to fight back his feeding urges, leaving it pockmarked and swollen much of the time.

 

• Kleptomania: He suffers from kleptomania, onset by his desire to fill the emptiness he had often suffered growing up. There is no rhyme or reason behind the thefts and oft times he does not notice he has taken an item until it is too late. They are arbitrary, typically being objects that glitter or glimmer when moved just right.

 

 

 

 

History:

 

There was much of his history he did not know. From his adoptive father Ratan, fondly called Rat by those that live in his neighborhood: the Changeling learned he was found alone, without a hive. He was a lone egg, uncared for, unloved…

 

But such words are blasphemous and a traitorous scar on the gentle world Equestira stands to be. A time before Changeling were seen as amicable beings they were seen as invasive pests. In some parts of the world they were more oft seen than they were hidden as within Equestria’s borders who rarely fought infestations. Or the peril that came with having predatory neighbors. The Changeling eggs were a prize. Those who saw them as fetid bests would do to capture them and tame, but never did such endeavors go well -- until Ratan’s egg. Spirited away from his hive he was carried across the seas under the protective hoof of ne’er-do-wells and crooks who sought to make a fortune on these feared predators. One such egg made its way to Manehatten to the home of a collector of the rare and illegal. In his small apartment sat mounted goods he has traded for and would trade for more precious booty that could be found in the dank, unforgiving alleys of the busy city. Without the proper care from a Queen and workers his egg was deprived of necessary, magical energy. The only love carried by the Earth Pony who had laid claim to Ratan’s egg was a corrupted love of greed and wicked covetousness. When the Changeling hatched he was, in all rights, quite sickly.

 

Enraged to see such a pathetic worm crawl from the slimy, brittle shell the Pony dropped it, causing the hatchling to cry out with a squeak. Looking upon the crumpled mess, egg fluid sopping the ground with a sticky film. Looking into its large, pink eyes it was like looking at two gems. Ratan was named so. Without proper sustenance, or reserved amounts: Ratan was prone to violent outbursts and biting the hoof that fed it. Over time Ratan learned to curb his behavior as it kept neighbors from looking at him with the affection they once had, a sort of curiosity he was: those large eyes like gems always inviting and shining. Ratan fought his nature and as he grew more and more accepted his presence, though he was never more than a prized belonging, though he never felt as such. Being a misguided crook the pony Ratan called father would send him off into the city to make deliveries of a questionable nature. Growing up in the neighborhood and being a withdrawn, but amicable fellow: Ratan was never looked at twice by those as being capable of doing harm, purposefully anyway. He wasn’t a pony after all. The only thing Ratan could do: was what he was told and his father, being a shut in as he was, never was seen as the sort to do wrong, just a rather unsociable fellow.

 

Rat, as he was called by the neighborhood thrice over: often made deliveries to an older pony who lived as a glass blower making beautiful sculptures of colored glass. His work did not often sell, so he had made a deal with Ratan’s father that his goods would be shipped out to Long Kong with other merchandise inside. The glass works would sometimes end up in stalls or sold in shops in Long Kong along with the merchandise crawling its way to the back alleys… The old fellow was never happy to send his work away in such a way, but he hadn’t any other way. He was always happy to see Rat. He loved the Changeling like one loved a nephew yet still it was not a pure sort of love: one corrupt by his remorse for using the critter like a beast of burden. Rat had many lovely thoughts and ideas. He loved to buzz on about this and that -- he wasn’t some mindless parasite. Rat was never aware.

 

He never knew what others thought of him.

 

He was a Changeling.

 

He fed on love. He fed on kindness… he was always hungry, and never knew why.

 

He was small, and a little broken, but despite it all he was a good -- pony.

 

It had happened suddenly. There was no warning. The pony he had always visited, whom he had felt the most love from of anypony he knew -- had stopped. That was how his father described it to him. “He stopped Rat, and there ain’t a thing you can do but forget ‘im.” But how did you forget? It wasn’t like when you lose numbers or lose letters. This was a pony. Rat would wonder if he too would be forgotten when he stopped. “I do not want to forget.” Were the words he wished to say, but his father was gone and he was left there to ponder his next step.

 

It was the first time Rat had been able to use his illusion magic and transform into another pony. That pony was Emerald Shard, the glass blower. And while this was a complete transformation Rat felt it was wrong for him to steal his friend’s cutiemark so changed it for his own. The unshaped, raw, green sapphire that marked Emerald’s flank was changed into a cut gem befitting Rat’s own growth and change. And so Rat -- got his own cutiemark. He took up Emerald Shard’s name and role. He began to travel and try to make something that other ponies would call beautiful. But -- Rat was Rat. He was gullible, pure, and a danger to himself and others. Constantly on the verge of starvation he often shut himself away trying to calm the hunger pangs. When he had just enough he would do most anything others asked of him to receive that praise, that affection: however corrupt it may be. Rat was a good pony, but he was also a very bad Changeling.

 

Character Personality:

Rat was a happy-go-lucky chatter box, always buzzing about something he was thinking of. He loved to collect things that sparkled and shine, having a particular fancy for colored stones! He did well to control his fits of anger when he was hungry, often biting down on his tongue to draw away the urges, which left him with a silly looking face that caused others to chortle and laugh giving him a bit of reprieve. Generous and thoughtful Rat always wanted to help others, desperate in fact. If Rat was unable to help or was accused of being bad he has been known to wail in sorrow, unable to handle rejection in the slightest.

 

Character Summary:

Rat was hatched in Manehatten and lived an unremarkable, questionable life delivering unescorted goods to ne’er-do-wells. Never learning to be a Changeling he struggles to maintain a balance between hunger and being fed, not realizing it was in fact what he needs to survive. After losing a close friend the little Changeling would learn to transform, but he was only capable of that one transformation: and become a pony once and for all, earning himself a cutiemark, even if it was homemade! Moving on to live his life, still occasionally returning home to his father, he tries to learn how to be Rat.

[Bellosh]