Cubbage

Heyo!! Pleased to make your acquaintance! Can't wait to start RPing with you!

At long last, she was finally here! Cloudfeather pressed her face to the window of the airship as the towering buildings and attractions of Los Pegasus came into view. Sure, it would have been cheaper and easier to fly herself, but then she would have missed out on the experience that all other ponies got when they made the journey to the most toured city in Equestria! Her wings flapped involuntarily out of excitement and anticipation as the airship crawled slowly towards the city. She gathered up her bags and items and prepared to exit the airship, though an attendant informed her it would be at least a half hour before they landed. 

When at long last the doors opened and the platforms descended, Cloudfeather shot out of the ship like an arrow, flying as high as she good to get a perfect view of the city. It was amazing! Everything she ever could have hoped for! She saw eager tourists of all shape, size, and species wandering about, chatting excitedly! Flashing lights and sounds, a wide enough variety that it was liable to give a pony sensory overload! Buildings taller than she had ever seen! As quickly as she had bolted to the sky, she tore for the ground, landing quite ungracefully yet still maintaining a bounce in her step. Anypony else in her situation would be singing an improvised song, complete with self-harmonies, full instrumentation, and even some cool choreography right now, but Cloudfeather decided to keep the song in her heart and her head. Her coworkers tended to dislike it when she sang (something about being "tone-deaf"), and she doubted the Los Pegasus ponies were any different.

In any case, this did little to decrease the spring in her step as she jaunted to her hotel and got checked in. Oh the sights she would see! She tossed her bags onto the bed and then flew out the window, surveying the town to decide where she wanted to go first. After a few moments' deliberation, she decided on the building directly across the street. Down she dove and directly into the building, leaving the rotating door behind her spinning faster than the eye could detect.

The building was essentially what she had expected: an arcade full of ponies eager to trade their bits for the chance to win tickets. All sorts of entertainment floated between the machines, including performers, ads for shows, and of course, portraits of the owners, Flim and Flam. What to do first! She supposed she could see a show... Her wage as an engineer afforded her plenty of bits for the journey, so she didn't want to blow them all on the slot machines and arcades just yet... Looking around the room, she spotted a poster advertising "The Greatest Dancers in Equestria!" Now that was something she'd pay to see! She exchanged her bits for tickets and was entering the auditorium in no time at all.

Yes, you are worth it

"Well..." Cloudfeather started. "Well, your friends aren't in any danger. In fact, we play soothing sounds in the water to help keep them calm." That last part was a lie, but the first was true. The animals rarely showed signs of distress after adjusting to the tank. "When we're done pumping water, we'll return the tank to the ocean and set them free. That way, they don't accidentally get sucked up again! They're safer now than they would be if we let them go!"

Meanwhile, at the Ponyville train station, Morning Glow stepped onto the steaming platform, levitating her luggage behind her. She breathed a sigh as she took in the town before it. It appeared the tallest buildings around were Twilight's castle and the school itself. No other building looked over two stories tall. "Well, no use prolonging the inevitable, Morning Glow. Might as well get started." And with that, she trotted her way toward the school.

The school itself actually provided her with some reassurance. It seemed very regal and reminded her of home. Other than the castle, it was the only building that didn't look like it belonged on a farm. She sighed again as she walked in. Immediately, she was greeted by the chaos of new students from across Equestria and beyond trying to find their bearings, chatting excitedly, laughing, and even yelling. She recoiled at first, then, after pulling the hood of her traveling cloak over her head, proceeded into the crowd. "Stay calm," she muttered to herself. "Just go to your dorm and everything will be fine." Having practically memorised the map on the train ride, she knew exactly where she was going and found it with ease, managing to stay undetected by using a deterrent spell that caused ponies not to notice her or pay her any mind. 

It appeared her dorm mate hadn't arrived yet, or at least hadn't found her way in yet, so Morning Glow took the opportunity to get herself settled. After assessing the space, she magically unpacked and stored all of her items in a matter of moments. She then looked around the room. "Something's missing..." she said. "Aha!" Her horn began to glow turquoise as a magical beam shot from it to the floor. She directed it around the room until she had divided the space exactly in half with a solid, white line, leaving a small space around the door for neutral ground. "Perfect!" she said. And with that, she went back into the hall with the book her parents had given her as a parting gift in search of the library, where perhaps she could read without interruption. 

she's ready for inspection!

let me know when you're ready! how is it going to start?

alright, i'm definitely in!

awesome! What is it? xD

Roleplay Type: WoE
Name: Morning Glow
Gender: Female
Age: Filly
Species: Unicorn Pony
Eye colour: turquois
Coat: #ffea4d (yellow)
Mane/Tail: #78d0ff with a streak or two of #2eb6ff (light blue with a streak or two of darker blue). Pretty Starlight Glimmer's in manestyle, but not exact. It's a little shorter and not as poofy.
Physique: Fairly normal physique for fillies her age. Think the CMCs.
Residence: Formerly Canterlot, currently the School of Friendship
Occupation: Student
Cutie Mark: A white, glowing circle (filled in), orbited on either side by turquoise comet-like shapes. It appeared one evening when her parents left for the Grand Galloping Gala, leaving her home alone with her two siblings, Nebula Star and Starshine, both of whom were younger than her. Starshine was still a baby at the time, and Nebula Star was only a couple years beneath Morning Glow. Morning Glow loved her siblings, of course, but they could be a bit... much. Nebula seemed to have nothing better to do than to follow Morning Glow around and marvel at her every action. Had he not been a colt, he would have even copied her manestyle. She much preferred having a sitter. That way, she could shut her door and read or practice her magic while an older pony looked after her siblings. But this time, her parents decided she was old enough to be responsible for them, and so did not go through the trouble of asking anyone to look over them. While she was occupied with changing Starshine's diaper, Nebula Star snuck into her room and looked at the open book on her desk. It had been left open to a spell she had been practicing. In an effort to impress his older sister, he attempted to cast it. However, instead of reversing the decay of a rotting apple on her desk, he missed and hit the desk itself, causing it to begin to revert to a tree. Hearing her brother's cry for help, Morning Glow raced to her room and assessed the situation. Nebula clearly had no idea what he was doing, and the tree was already beginning to push against the ceiling. In desperation, she attempted to cast a failsafe spell her father had taught her, which essentially neutralized any magic currently active in a given area. She had never successfully cast it before. But that night, either because of the weakness of her brother's unrefined magic or because of the sudden necessity behind her concentration, the spell echoed from her horn, bathing the room in her turquoise aura and reverting the tree back to a desk instantly. 
Unique Traits: Morning Glow has an uncanny ability to pick up on organization systems, particularly in libraries, without having them explained. It makes her very good at finding things in what appears to others to be chaos. It also makes it easy for her to navigate unfamiliar buildings without a guide, so long as she can get a general idea of how the building's various rooms are organized.

History: Stardust was born and raised in Canterlot to two ponies of fairly high status: Evening Star, an alumni of the School of Magic, and Shining Stardust, an astronomer of good reputation. Though she was interested in both, she leaned more heavily towards her father's discipline, magic. For every one book on the sky that she read, she read two or three on magic and its history. When her mother would take her to the observatory, Morning Glow always brought a book along to read while her mother aimed the telescope. Though she always had an affinity for magic and a heavy interest in it, she was always harder on herself than she needed to be, always focusing on her inability to cast spells perfectly instead of seeing how well she was really doing for a filly her age. Her father always complimented her on her efforts, and her mother praised her diligence, but their words fell on deaf ears. Even her younger brother Nebula Star had no positive effect on her self esteem despite his constant reminders of how much he admired her and wanted to be like her. She mostly just found him annoying. At school, she focused on getting her homework done in class so that she would have as much time to study as possible when she got home. As such, she made no friends, which didn't really bother her. In fact, she hardly thought about it. When some foals in her class approached her about joining their Cutie Mark Crusaders club they were forming (following in the footsteps of the real CMCs), she payed them little attention, barely looking up from her book to tell them "No thank you." It wasn't until she received her own cutie mark that her self esteem began to grow, and with her confidence, her magic abilities also flourished. She was accepted into Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns, where she determined to become the top of her class. Unfortunately, despite her grit and constant study, she was unable to achieve that goal. She was still a straight A student, but was always eclipsed by more talented unicorns. Her parents were delighted with her nonetheless. One day, however, her instructor asked her and her parents to visit outside of school hours. Her instructor told them that after counseling with the Princess herself, they had decided a new course of study would be better for Morning Glow. They said she had the potential to do so much more, but was holding herself back by isolating herself. The counselor strongly recommended transferring her to the School of Friendship outside Ponyville. Her parents reluctantly agreed, and arrangements were made. As they helped her onto the train, they tried to be optimistic, but she could tell they were disappointed in her. They told her to do her best and to learn all she could, but what she heard instead was, "Finish as fast as you can so you can get back to your studies," which was precisely what she intended to do.

Character Personality: Slightly uptight from living in Canterlot and introverted, though not shy. She enjoys studying more than socialising and is not very happy to be at the School of Friendship. She feels she has better things to do, and at some level, feels none of the creatures attending there are worth her time. She doesn't have much of a sense of humor. 
Character Summary: Morning Glow is a studious, level-headed pony who loves books on magic and astronomy (the former more than the latter). She is talented with magic, though she can often sabotage herself by being overly hard on herself, causing her confidence to reduce. For this reason, her councilor at Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns has sent her to study at the School of Friendship. She feels this will help Morning Glow excel better than any book. Morning Glow is, of course, not excited about the downgrade, and is determined to graduate as quickly as possible.

Tempest was pretty fun! I admit, though, I wasn't a huge fan of the Storm King himself, nor did I like the first city they came to. But that's alright!

Sounds good! I'll shoot you a PM right now!

Cloudfeather sighed. She crouched down next to the pony and slowly put her arms around her. "Look... I know you're scared. Anypony would be. But I promise you're safe here. We just need to take you to the infirmary to make sure you're ok, have you fill out a form so that we can compensate you later, and then you are free to go. I promise nothing else bad is going to happen. You can trust me."

"It's ok," Cloudfeather said. "We'll get you checked out in no time and you can be off on your way. By the way, my name's Cloudfeather. What's yours?" She extended a hoof to raise the other pegasus up as she introduced herself.

"Huh?" Cloudfeather responded, recoiling a little at the response. "You're... friends with the fish?" Cloudfeather looked around the other pegasus's head. "I think we'd better get you to the infirmary... You must be disoriented."

ooooh i’m a pegasus! what’s this? may i join??

"Oh! Well that first part is easy!" Cloudfeather replied. "You're in the Weather Factory at Cloudsdale, Equestria! You got sucked up by our harvester by mistake and pumped into the sorting tank. We keep any fish and other sea creatures there so that they're safe until we can bring them back down to their habitat. As for your friends, you were the only pony I saw in there... Maybe your friends escaped the vortex before they got sucked in?"

Ohhh dear. Cloudfeather did not handle crying well. She flitted down to land softly on the floor and approached the pony slowly. "Hey," she said gently as she got closer. "Please don't run away this time. I promise I just want to help."

The pegasus was gone. Gone! Where could she have gone?? "This is bad... This is really bad!" Cloudfeather took off down the hall, searching for the aquamarine of the pony's coat until she heard a scream. 

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!! Why am I up so high?! Where am I?! I wanna go home!!!"

Aha! she thought, then raced in the direction of the sound. There, at one of the emergency exits, was the pegasus, hysterical with fear. Here we go again... Cloudy thought as she prepared to pursue this pegasus wherever she decided to run...

Cloudy stopped for a moment, confused. Then a thought hit her. The poor girl must be shell-shocked! After all, she was sucked into a giant vortex, pushed through a dark tube, and into a large tank without any warning. Cloudy smiled warmly and continued her approach, hoof extended, but slower this time. "It's ok," she said, "There's nothing to be afraid of. I'm sorry you got sucked up, but you're ok now. You're safe."

Unfortunately, she was startled and stopped in her tracks as the blaring of the intercom interrupted her consoling. "Management to harvester: The harvester has been down for several minutes. Do you require a technician?"

"Oh dear!" Cloudy exclaimed. "Um... Just a moment! I'll be right with you!" She darted to the control panel and searched until she found the intercom button. "Uhh no! Everything is fine! We just had a little... uh... fish situation. But everything's good now! I'm powering it back on." She proceeded to go back through her checklist for start up procedures, then turned back around to face where the pegasus had last been. "Sorry about that. Where were we?"

Cloudfeather grew concerned. "Hey, are you alright? Did you get hurt or anything when you got sucked into the vortex? Lemme take you to the infirmary. You could have a concussion or something." She trotted toward the other pegasus with her hoof extended.

Cloudfeather coughed again as she rose, muttering, "I'll take that as a yes..." 

"Thanks for (*cough cough*) saving my life. I was seriously scared I was going to drown!" 

She shook herself off before continuing. "By the way, how did you survive? I mean, you were under there waaaaay longer than I was... And you were talking, too! And I could understand you!"

Cloudfeather was barely conscious as they breached the surface. She immediately began coughing, sputtering, and gasping for air. What a backwards position she was in right now. She had gone in after a drowning pony to save her, and ended up nearly drowning before being saved herself!

As she began to catch her breath, she pulled her goggles up and looked at the pony who had saved her. "Are you ok?" she asked.

This was not good. She was swimming back into the main vortex channel, away from oxygen access. With the vortex port sealed, there would be no way for her to escape. And she was clearly a very adept and strong swimmer. After all, she had resisted the current of the sorting tube. There was no way Cloudfeather was going to catch up to her. "Wait! No! Come back!" she shouted, but only a muffled cloud of bubbles and distorted sound escaped her lips. Now she needed to breathe.

She made her way back through the pipe to the surface and gasped for air before tossing her helmet aside and diving back under. It was a good thing she was wearing goggles. Otherwise she wouldn't have been able to see anything in the darkness of the tube. The only light source was the open observation window.

Frantically, she swam into the cylinder that made up the bottom portion of the main body of the harvester. It was much more open than she would have expected. Above her, she could barely make out the filter grate that prevented fish and other animals from being sucked into the rest of the mechanism. Below her was much more spacious; she couldn't see the bottom of the chamber.

Looking around in a panic for the other pegasus, she bumped her head on the grate, causing her to release some precious air in surprise. She would need another breath very soon. She was by no means a good swimmer. But she had to find the other pegasus!

There! Movement! She started toward what looked like it may be the endangered pony, but by now, her need for oxygen was winning out, and her vision began to tunnel. Just... a little... further... she thought. But it was no use. Her lungs gave way and exhaled her breath against her will. Help... she thought.

Cloudfeather awoke suddenly to the sound of a pressure alarm going off. After staring at the meter for a moment, still groggy from her nap, it suddenly hit her what the meter meant. "Oh!" she exclaimed. Quickly, she checked the alarm code, which indicated a clog in the fish net (as the sorting tube was known). Something strong must be caught in there. She had known the net to take in all sorts of marine life safely... Quickly, she hit the emergency stop button and the mechanism ground to a halt. She first checked the collection tank, as sometimes a buildup of fish inside could cause a jam in the conjoining tube. But there was nothing out of the ordinary. An octopus, numerous smaller fish and shrimp, etc. The largest creatures in there were a couple tuna, but the tank still had plenty of space.

Next, she flipped open the circular window latch that allowed her to peer through the observation window directly into the sorting tube. She gasped at what she saw. Inside was a real live pegasus pony! "Oh dear! Ohhhh dear!" she said. "Hang tight! I'll get you out of there! I just need to... um..." She needed to act fast. She didn't know how the pony had gotten caught in the vortex, but she could find out later. Right now, she had to focus on making sure she didn't drown. Cloudfeather banged on the observation window and shouted, "Swim down the tube!" she pointed in the direction of the tank as she yelled. "I'm going to come in to get you!"

And with that, she darted to the top of the tank - which was left open so that aquatic reptiles and mammals could still breathe - and dove head first into it, not even bothering to remove her hardhat.

(Cloudfeather image coming soon...)

Cloudfeather yawned as she punched her time card and removed her helmet from its hook. Why had she taken this shift again? Oh yeah. One of her friends was visiting family and asked her to cover for her. The things she did for her friends...

She entered the large room where the water harvester operated and took in the sight. The huge, golden cylinder extended from the ceiling all the way through the floor. Pipes protruded at various angles and many levels, through which water was pumped to the labs for treatment before being turned into clouds. A large tank on the side prepared to receive any fish or other creatures that may be unfortunately sucked into the vortex so that they could be safely stored until they could be returned to their watery habitat.

Cloudy wasn't as familiar with the harvester as she was with the actual cloud making machines, but she had fixed it enough times that she had a general idea of how it functioned. Plus, Cumulous had made her a checklist of operations for the day, so she was confident she would be able to manage. All that was left to do was wait for the signal to start the initiation sequence.

Hovering by a window, she looked out over Mount Aris, one of the homes of the hippogriffs. They had requested some showers to help get their spring crops in gear, and management determined it was easier to just move the city to them than it was to ship boxes of storm clouds out that far. 

It didn't take long for the red lights around the room to come on, signaling that it was time to start the harvest. Cloudy sighed as she looked out over the seascape. The desalinators would be working extra hard today. She would probably have to fix at least one of them during her own shift. No bother. She yawned and put on her goggles, then took  her position at the control panel, clipping the checklist to the dashboard so it would be easily accessible. "Alright, let's get you up and running."

The machine gave a deep groan as it powered up, then began to whirr with ever switch she threw and button she pressed. Soon, the water was flowing from the sea, into the harvester, and through the pipes, which shook slightly as they received the flash flood. "Alright, now I just have to monitor the pressure and temperature levels! No big deal! Should be easy!"

A few stray fish found their way into the collecting tank, looking disoriented but otherwise ok. They weren't Cloudy's concern, so she didn't pay them much attention. After the harvest, some other pegasi would deposit the tank back in the sea and they would continue with their lives. She watched the pressure meter hover in the green line for several minutes before the monotony of the task began to remind her how tired she was... It wasn't long until she rested her head on the dash and let her eyes slip shut...