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Opal Shards


Davroth

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Name: Opal Shards (stage name: Killer Frost)

Sex: female

Age: mare (mid 20s)

Species: pegasus

Pelt Color: brilliant white

Mane/Tail/Markings Color & Style: different shades of blue, long

Eye Color: red

Cutie Mark: a shard of ice

Physique: unusually tall, well trained.

Origin: Roughrider Ridge

Roleplay Type: Mane RP

Occupation: Shadowbolt reserve

Motivation: Earning bits with her flight talent and weather manipulation

Likes: Bits, independence, cold weather, mountains

Dislikes: flat land, draughts, heat

Character Summary:

Disheartened and bitter from her time in Cloudsdale, Opal Shards in only ever happy in the freezing cold. She doesn't talk much and tends to think little about the ponies around her, but she is loyal and honest (sometimes to a fault), and always works hard for her craft.

Origins:

Where she came from nopony knows. On a routine flight, a weather team found young Opal, still a little filly in an oasis close to the outskirts of the Roughrider Ridges. There were no settlements in a several hour flight radius, and after waiting for some hours, the leader of the weather team, an aging mare by the the name of Stormy Days decided to take the Filly with them. She didn't seem to want to stay there anyway, and was very weak. They decided to call her Opal Shards, because of the curious way her mane naturally curled, resembling crystals.

They brought her back to their weather station: a series of lodges in the Roughrider Ridges. It was very secluded and only populated by a handful of pegasi who took care of all the weather around the mountain. Mail and supplies were brought in by monthly couriers. Stormy Days decided to keep Opal around. In the desert, it would be impossible to find her parents, and she always wanted a filly of her own, but never have had a chance to bear a foal herself. Her job up here in the mountains was well paid, but didn't allow for much of a social life. The others didn't object. It was rare for anything interesting to happened here in the mountains, so this was particularly exciting for all of them.

For the first few months, Opal didn't talk at all. They didn't know if she hadn't learned how to talk yet, or if she perhaps didn't trust them, because all she did was staring at them, all the time. She observed everything they did around the station with keen eyes, which, coincidentally, made it very easy to look after her. She never wandered off or left the proximity of the camp.

However, all that would change when winter came. Out in the desert, it wasn't such a big deal, but here in the mountains, it was a busy time for the weather teams. Lacking the big weather factories of Cloudsdale, the weather team instead had to rely on other means to start the winter. There were powders to fill the clouds with water and to cool the atmosphere, and they had perfected different flying techniques to bind the clouds together to black out the sun. Although looking indifferent at first, once the first snow fell, Opal couldn't be stopped. She jumped around in the cold, catching snow with her tongue and rolling around in the snow. For the first time, they saw her happy. Stormy Days was delighted, and even more so a few weeks later, when Opal showed growing interest in her trade.

And so Stormy Days taught Opal in the art of weather manipulation. She was an eager learner, and showed big talent with the mixing of the different powders used by the weather teams outside the heartland. Not only that, but she was a natural flyer, too, learning to fly before the end of the winter.

Now that she spoke, Stormy Days tried to ask her about where she came from, but with no results. Either she didn't remember, or she didn't want to talk about it, but either way, Stormy Days would never know.

All facets of weather manipulation fascinated Opal. However, she was only really happy in the cold, and longed all year for the return of winter. So much so that one night, Opal sneaked out of her hut, and made her way to the nearest mountain top, to the snow border. Once the coldness crept back into her body, she felt alive like never before. There was little to no wind up there, and she flew up, soaring through the icy winds.

It took the weather team hours to find her. She felt very cold, but was more lively then they had ever seen her. Stormy Days explained to her how dangerous her actions were but Opal wanted to hear nothing about it. Only when she heard how worried they all had been did she give in, and promised never to just run off again. In all the chaos, they almost didn't notice that Opal's cutie mark had appeared: a pointy shard of ice.

And so the years past, and Opal grew into a big, strong mare, helping out the weather team, and waiting for them when they went on their routine flights. She sometimes went out to the mountain top with a tent and some equipment, just to be close to the cold. Stormy Days wasn't too happy about that. It was dangerous out there in the Roughrider Ridges all alone for a young mare. That's why she started to work on a little side project.

One day, in the midst of summer, it started to snow outside Opal's window. She stormed out to find that there was a cloud over her hut, snowing down and covering it in white. She was confused, but when she thought about it and saw Stormy Days flying over her hut, she realized: Stormy Days had found a way to make snow clouds in every season. And not only that, but she would teach her how it worked. It was a very careful variation of the formulas the weather team used all the time. However, she made it clear to Opal that she had to be careful with this technique, since it could influence the natural seasons.

Now that she didn't have to leave the camp anymore to have the cold around her, she was happier then ever. She would casually lower the temperature around her, even in the winter, but the team didn't mind, since it made her so happy. And aside from that, she worked hard, and delivered excellent results when helping the team. However, it occurred to Stormy Days that the life of the weather team wouldn't be enough for Opal. She saw that she longed for more, and she showed a lot of talent and promise. Stormy Days decided to send her to Cloudsdale, sending her to the central, so that she could learn even more about the weather, and maybe become part of one of their flight crews.

So Opal set out, under lots of tears, to find her destiny. She traveled to Cloudsdale, heading straight for the weather center. However, without the credentials that are customary among the citizens of Cloudsdale, nopony was willing to give her a chance to prove herself. Luckily, the letter Stormy Days had written for her brought her a job in one of the cloud factories, where she would work for some time. It was hard work, which she didn't mind so much, but it was terribly monotonous.

The pay was bad, and for the first time, she had to buy her own food. She lived in a small room in the worker district of Cloudsdale. On her tiny desk under her window, she carefully kept on working on the formulas she had learned from the weather team of the mountains. Opal hoped that one day, she would be given the chance to show her findings to her superiors, but that day would never come. She could hardly afford the raw materials needed for her experiments anyway, and had already started to hoof some of the stuff she needed from the factory, which was starting to get dangerous. She felt miserable, but she didn't want to crawl back to her family; she didn't want to fail Stormy Days, the mare who had shared her rations with her for years, and spent her free time making her happy. She wrote a letter every month to the weather station, but she left out the bad parts. It would only worry her family.

She realized that she would need bits in order to live the life she wanted. Her talents were wasted here, she knew that, and she searched for a solution. It was then that she heard of the Wonderbolts, an esteemed group of pegasi, the finest fliers in all of Equestria. Surely they didn't have to worry about food and shelter. And so she started to train for the tryouts, continuing to work on her cold manipulations, learning how to shape hail and snow in the air and improve her flight capabilities.

The great day finally came. She woke up at dawn and waited in front of the tryout area, eager to show the routine she had worked on for so long. When her number came up, she flew up, preparing the clouds and watching in delight as the judges and the other competitors shivered. She flew complex figures around the clouds, compressing the frozen water in the clouds and causing a hailstorm in her wake. However, this is where it all went wrong: she had never tried it on such a large scale before, and although confident, she lost control. The iceshards she had formed in the clouds started to rain down on the onlookers. She wanted to suspend them in the air with little swirls of wind, but it was just too much.

The Wonderbolts interveened and pulled her out of the sky. Opal was furious, and hadn't even noticed the mayham she had almost caused. She barely listened to what they told her, something about "raw talent" and "lack of discipline". She stormed off and buried herself under her pillows at home. The Wonderbolts would never accept her, she was sure of that. She would find a way to make bits with her talent, no matter what it took.

Days later, Opal found an anonymous letter under her door.

I saw you at the Wonderbolt tryouts.

There is an alternative.

-The Shadowbolts

'Maybe this is my chance to make a big break' she thought. She asked around, and soon found her way to the up and starting new flight team, the Shadowbolts. They were holding tryouts near the outskirts of the Everfree Forest. Without skipping a beat, she quit her job and made her way to the tryouts.

After watching a few of the other competitors, it was finally her turn. Her performance at the Wonderbolts tryout had earned her this chance, so Opal decided to eleborate on her previous routine. This time, things went far better. She deepend the already creepy atmosphere of Everfree Forest by lowering the temperature even further. Then she proceeded to swell the clouds with water, swirling through them, collecting hail and snow in her wake. She hadn't gotten to this point the last time, but now she would be able to show her masterpiece. Flying in circles, Opal created localized cyclones that suspended icecrystals in the air, forming small crystaline structures. She then proceeded by pushing the individual cyclones together, forming a huge, sharp-looking ice sculpture, still spinning in the air. She then reversed the cyclone, bringing it to a halt, with her beneath it. As the ice fell to the ground, she raced down to the ground in front of it, stopping right before the floor, right underneath the only hole in the structure. She flaoted a few inches in the air, as ice spike stuck into the grass around her.

She was sure it looked impressive, and it was very controlled overall. She had guided the structure with flight wind, and although she had never tried it on this scale before, she didn't even flinch as shards of ice just barely missed her head.

She was put on the newly formed team. It was dangerous work, but the pay was great, and she could finally afford all the materials she needed for her experiments. And best of all, she didn't have to worry about food or keeping a roof over her head any longer. She left that part out of her letters to Stormy Days, this would worry her for sure, and that was the last thing Opal wanted.

But overall, life was good again.

Addendum:

Established Powders:

Atmospheric Cooler: White, crystalline substance that is sprinkled into the air, and then in combination with wind lowers the surrounding temperature. Used a lot, because Opal is only really comfortable in the cold.

Cloud Humidifier: light blue powder used to increase the moisture in clouds. Almost never used without the Atmospheric Cooler.

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I feel kinda special that my app brought Shadowbolts into the RP, of course it wasn't just me... It was the awesome staff! Anyway, about the app. Your OC seems to like money, maybe you should consider being the funding for the wonderbolts? Or maybe the second captain? (I'm the first, and there's a male and female, my OC being the male) Your choice though ;)

PS: Holy crap, after the SBs got okayed, there have already been like four apps XD

EDIT: MyLittlePonyTales has applied for the second captain, so if you do want the female captain, you may have some competition ;)

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This app is looking good! My only questions at this point was how she actually got into the Shadowbolts (unless she isn't in just yet and just got an invitation to try out), and what she hopes to do with her life. Does she have a desire to be a stunt/aerobatic pony in Shadowbolt shows or just doing it "for the bits"? Does she have other goals, such as perhaps working some particular weather teams or making snow? How is her current relationship with her adopted mother and family back home?

With that little tweaking and clarification I see no reason why this cannot get approved ASAP, as I dig the character. :)

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