Trilobite

Name: 'Par' Parhelion

Sex: Male

Age: Stallion

Species: Pegasus

Pelt Color: Light gray

Mane/Tail/Markings Color & Style: Long, braided, and white for both.

Eye Color: Bright blue

Cutie Mark: A white circle around a star. Two smaller rings on either side are bisected by the main ring, and have their own, smaller stars inside. There's a faint opalescence in the cutie mark. (Please see below).

Physique: Long of limb, slender and graceful, with very long wings for a pegasus his size.

Origin: Cloudsdale born, living in Stalliongrad.

Roleplay Type: World of Equestria RP.

Occupation: Weatherpony.

Motivation: The freedom and silence of the highest flights, the shifting beauty of cloudscapes, the bracing feel of ice and snow on hide and feathers, and being part of a good team.

Likes: Long, high-altitude solo flights, playing in the snow, seeing new places.

Dislikes: Loudmouths, short-sightedness, and ewww, bugs!

Character Summary:

Born and raised in Cloudsdale, Parhelion was proud to be a pegasus and certain he would become a weatherpony. He'd always liked cold winds and snowy days, so he had thought he might work in the snowflake smithy when he was older.

A weak-winged, clumsy flier, Par always had trouble around other foals, but his parents, both former racers and now top weatherponies, never showed an ounce of disappointment that their son did not seem to share their talents.

After a particularly frustrating day of cloud-and-sky sports at school, Parhelion took off on a solo flight, just to get away for a while. Solo flights away from the city were strictly against his parent's rules for the young colt, but they were at a storm-building conference and wouldn't be home until late that late, and the young colt desperately needed time alone.

As usual, Parhelion's wings quickly grew tired. Resigned, he started to turn back when something happened. A wind tickled his wings in a way he'd never felt before, inviting, almost beckoning as it moved up through his pinions. It was a great stream of air lifting up and over a set of high hills. Parhelion caught the wind, and found that somehow, his wings settled right into into, that it buoyed his body up effortlessly. The slightest adjustments let him move side to side, and he circled back instinctually, easily gaining altitude. This was what other pegasi felt like! He'd never flown this way before. He rose higher and higher, slipped from the upward stream to a thermal, his heart rising with him.

A high-altitude wind beckoned, and he angled into it, then into another, and another, each time moving higher, each time in a slightly different direction, until he was racing high above Equestria, watching the sun set far below and feeling the indigo sky embrace him. Far below was a bank of ice clouds, and as the sun caught them the lit in a magnificent ring that flared out on either side, the flares stretching and splitting off to become two bright miniature suns. Parhelion watched, entranced, as the spectacle blazed brighter, shifting through every color of the rainbow and into the brilliant hues of sunset. He felt as if Celestia herself were looking on him with proud approval, and in that moment he knew he had found his own special joy in flight, a type of flight he'd never even heard of before! He knew he wanted to glide here, in the high, thin air, so darkly beautifully blue, and that he would remember this joyful moment for the rest of his life. It was then that his cutie mark appeared.

It was a long, happy journey back to Cloudsdale, which had grown quite tiny and was very far below. Exhausted but happy, Parhelion returned just after his parents. He thought he would be in serious trouble, but upon seeing the cutie mark on their son's flank his parents exploded with pride.

Of course, Parhelion was not the only pegasus to take to extreme high-altitude flight, and his parents enrolled him in a special after-school program for high flyers as soon as possible. Surrounded by pegasi who felt as he did (and had remarkably similar life stories), Parhelion made many friendships that last to this day. He took every course and went to every camp he could, and as he got older, filled much of his spare time with jobs that let him fly high or glide far. After a summer volunteer weatherwork project in Stalliongrad, Par fell in love with the area and returned for the winter as well, one of the only pegasi from outside the region ever to do so.

Now, Parhelion lives and works in Stalliongrad, where the weather is wonderful and the winds perfect for a bracing challenge. He's still a bit of a clumsy flier, but he's at home riding the currents far above Equestria for hours on end, and his work as a weatherpony mostly takes place in the near-black he considers his true home: collecting information on high-altitude conditions, gathering raw ice crystals for snowflake manufacture, helping to manage the jet stream, and sculpting cirrus clouds. He's been known to spend all day aloft, even when off-duty. Some other pegasi may find him a bit odd, and for his part he feels a bit sorry for others who don't feel the same soul-deep connection with their work that he does.

The confidence he's gained since discovering his special talent has turned him into a fairly outgoing pony, especially toward earthbound ponies, who don't expect him to go flapping around everywhere with them. Altough he loves his new home, he writes his parents every month, and travels back to Cloudsdale (usually meeting other long-distance high-flyers on the way) for the Summer Sun and Hearthwarming Celebrations.

------

Parhelion's cutie mark.

I think this sounds like it could be a lot of fun. There may be difficulties in reaching a conclusion. Perhaps Rainbow and Pinkie, after a time, realize that they're essentially conning innocent people? I don't think either of them would want to do that...so how do they get themselves out of the act, and make amends? There's also the issue of their friends, who I'm sure would be looking for them, and perhaps you can leverage that for a satisfying ending. All told, sounds like a story I'd enjoy reading, with elements of road trip movies and the self-discovery they often entail. Nice idea!

Whether you did it yourself or someone did it for you, you've put up something handmade as your avatar and that shows a willingness to put yourself into things that's right in line with the spirit of MLP.

Thanks for putting all that together in one place, not to mention all the other work you and other mods have to do to keep this place looking as smart as it does.

Hey there! Gotta say the music that's made by the people who love this show is one of my favorite things about the fandom, so good on ya. Hope to see you 'round!

Ha ha...well met, then. And thank you. Really like the stylized look of your avatar, there, too.

Thanks very much. Like the cutie mark and the slightly older-style look to the whole avatar!

SkyMunki, I'm sure you contribute through being (for example) very friendly to newcomers, as well as through putting up some art. Also you have a great name.

Hey, new users got to use, too, right? Might as well contribute a bit if I'm gonna use something, and as I am utterly without talent, I can at least contribute monetarily.

So far, you're right. Love the avatar!

Hey there! I'm also new here. Allow me to confirm your estimation of My Little Pony. It is, in fact, adorable. Out of curiosity, have any country recommendations? I like a lot of the older stuff, like Kitty Wells, early Willie Nelson, stuff like that. You?

Dude! Awesome song, great dance. You are a braver man than I, Gunga Din. Looking forward to seeing you 'round. That song's going on my running mix now.

Hey there! I'm new here too, and a fellow fan of various electronic music. Any recommendations or personal favorites?

Heya! I'm also a newbie and big fan of evolutionary science. High five brohoof!

I think we've all made that mistake. A friend of mine once actually got into someone else's car because of that! Regardless, hello! I'm new too--let's see what this place is all about, eh?

Heya! In answer to your question about what you call a female "brony": my limited understanding is that "brony" actually came from a message board--b/r/ony. I think this was a sub-board of 4chan created by fans of the show not long after its premiere. I might be remembering wrong, but if that's the case it's a pretty gender-neutral term. Still a female friend of mine who's a fan calls herself a "pegasister", which I think has a nice ring to it.

Be well, and hope to see you 'round!

About myself.: A simple man and fan of good food, good friends, and good stories.

How did you hear about Canterlot.com?: From the most excellent Bronyville podcast!

How did you became a fan of FiM?: A fellow posted about in on forum I frequent, and I checked it out. Hooked after the second episode.

My one favourite main cast pony?: Twilight Sparkle

I am an inveterate roleplayer, champion procrastinator (tri-state procrastination championship 1997-1999), voracious reader, and am equipped with a brain that's more a repository for trivia than an organ of cognition.

I dig the show because it's well put-together by people who love it, and you can see this not just in the visuals, but in the sound production, and, even more importantly for me, in the feeling that there is a whole world and entire characters in it, with the stories flowing out of those two facts. That's hard enough to do when writing, and for a television series, with all the pressures and influences the creators are subject to, I imagine it's darn near impossible.

It's because of that intriguing world and those well-told stories that I'm here: I want to see more of the world and help make some stories myself that I and other players will be able to talk about fondly long after they've been completed.

I see a little note here suggesting talking about passions. I am a simple man (part and parcel of having a dim intellect) and my passions are for simple things: peace, good food, sleep, conversation, interesting ideas and hot running water.

As part of what I suppose is a passion for roleplaying, I'm part of a very modest podcast called Porcelain Llama Theater, which presents actual play sessions of different games. Don't worry, I won't podcast anything from here! Well, it might be mentioned during normal talk on the show, but that'd be about it. Have no fear.

I'm also a fur--what can I say? I dig on some of the art, and I liked the community back in the day. I trust you're all smart enough not to buy into the nonsense that's floating around about furs, or assume that an aspect of a thing is the thing in total. Love and tolerate. I mention it up front out of courtesy, and if I'm not welcome, let me know and I'll be happy to move on, and good luck to you all.

Hope everyone (everypony?) is doing well. Stop by here and say hi! I'm off to do the same at a few other introductions.