Pegasus Nimbus Claypot

[Chonico]

[ Pony Related Character ]

Name: Nimbus 'Claypot' ('Clay' for short)

Gender: Male

Age: Young Stallion

Species: Pegasus

Pelt Color: An extremely light blue gray color.

Mane/Tail Color & Style: Mane and tail are orange. He likes to keep them both long so that he can feel the wind rustle through them while flying. His tail, like the rest of him, more often than not is covered in dry clay, but his mane is impeccably clean.

Eye Color: Yellow

Cutie Mark: A ceramic pot on a cloud.

Physique: By average Pegasus standards, Clay is somewhat on the small side of the spectrum.

Residence: Being a Pegasus, he lives in his cloud home located above the Saddleveil Plains which he set up after hearing rumors of pristine clay deposited existing somewhere in the area. His open air pottery studio/workshop is located directly underneath his home on the ground.

Occupation: Against his parent's better wish, Clay is a potter by choice who crafts earthen wares for ponies to buy and admire. He is secretly an extremely skilled baker as well, although more often than not his baked goods have a certain earthy taste to them.

Motivation: Being a Pegasus who grew up in Cloudsdale, pottery goods were never something he saw while growing up, seeing as such earthen things would have undoubtedly fallen through the clouds. He hopes to someday be able to create, what he refers to as, 'cloud'-wares that, unlike regular pottery, will not fall through the clouds.

Likes: The smell of wet clay, baking, flying, rainy days, styling clouds into different shapes, receiving praise for his work.

Dislikes:Waking up early, getting his mane dirty, plain flower pots.

Character Summary:

Clay has lived alone in the Saddleveil Plains for close to a year now but has yet to find the rumored pristine clay deposits that lured him out to the plains. Considering himself a rather skilled craftsman, Clay's philosophy is that the body is the greatest artistic tool available. Because of this, he will use anything from the tip of the his nose to the tip of his tail to texture and form his earthen wares, causing him to always be covered in dry clay. This, combined with his solitary living, has earned him the label 'the clay hermit' by some of the ponies that have seen him venture into nearby towns such as Ponyville and Fillydelphia once every month to buy supplies. Most ponies will admit however, that for a hermit, his mane is impeccably well kept, even by mare standards.

Still, his hermit status could not be further from the truth. Clay has simply fallen in love with the open space and clear night skies that the plains offer over the hustle and bustle of town-life. He is in fact a rather friendly gab-gifted pony more than willing to invite other ponies to his workshop to show off his wares and have them try their hoof at making some. Needless to say, given his appearance, no pony has yet to take him up on his offer although most will agree that the earthen wares he gives out as presents when he meets somepony for the first time, although small and simple, are rather exquisite. Also, if anypony were to take him up on his offer of visiting his workshop, they would see that Clay has managed to make a hefty amount of wares, which he now intends to begin selling on a mass scale as he begins to visit the surrounding towns more frequently. He simply needs to find a satchel or cart suitable to gently carry more than a few pieces at a time.

Yet, given his appearance and title not many ponies would guess, however surprising, that Clay 'the clay hermit' was in fact from a wealthy family in Cloudsdale. His family, known as the Claytons, ran a successful rain renting business that moved rain clouds all over Equestria for an adequate price, guaranteeing next day delivery no matter what. His mother and father started the business in their younger days and quickly built a reputation for being some of the fastest cloud movers around. Throughout Cloudsdale, they were known for their speed, and oddly enough, for their dirt phobia, something that they instilled into their children. They hoped for their two sons, Cumulus and Nimbus, to take over the business when they reached stallion-hood, but it seemed that only one was apt for this... It wasn't Nimbus.

Nimbus as a young colt, just like his brother Cumulus, was an extremely gifted flier. When most colts his age were busy attending flight camp, he and his brother were already tagging along with their parents to learn the intricacies of delivering rain clouds and were often trusted to handle small nearby jobs. For his brother Cumulus, who had already earned his cutie mark, this was the next best thing to apple pie. For Nimbus however, who had yet to discover his own cutie mark, this was always a chance to 'goof-off' doing the thing he loved most.

Nimbus, not being content with just moving clouds, would often wonder off, leaving his brother to do all the work, and would begin forming the nearby clouds into odd shapes, trying to imagine how the Earth Ponies below would react upon seeing them. He liked to think the Earth Ponies appreciated his work, admired it, and he constantly thanked them for their praises, even if none were ever truly exchanged. Whenever his brother overheard him thanking the non-present earth ponies, he could not help but be concerned that Nimbus might have a screw loose, a concern that has not subsided over the years.

One day, while moving a rain cloud further than they ever had before, Nimbus and Cumulus decided to take a break and sat down to rest atop a rather large cloud. Quickly relishing in the opportunity, Nimbus began to shape the cloud while his brother still sat atop it and formed it to the spitting image of Cumulus sitting down on the cloud. Laughing at how silly it looked, his brother sitting atop his own cloud head, he could not help but look down at the earth to see if anypony else found it amusing. Much to his surprise, he had not realized that they had decided to take a rest over the town of Ponyville, and was even more surprised to see a few ponies looking up at his work. Unable to contain his glee at the thought of finally hearing praises in person, he quickly flew down and landed smack down in the center of the marketplace.

As he folded his wings, he looked left and right expectantly, a huge smile forming on his face. 'I wonder who made that?' Nimbus' eyes darted in the direction of the voice. 'I did!' He screamed hardly able to contain his glee. The voice had come from a small filly which now looked quizzically at the young colt. 'You? Liar!' Said the filly with a somewhat snide tone to her voice as she gave the colt a quick once over with a judgmental eye. Nimbus' smile quickly disappeared and was replaced with a confused frustrated look. 'No, seriously, I did do it!'

A small crowd had begun to gather. Nimbus was making a scene as he argued with the small filly that refused to believe he had made the cloud look the way it did. 'I did do it!' yelled Nimbus. 'Did not!' yelled back the filly. 'Did too!' Replied Nimbus growing more frustrated by the minute. They were at a stalemate, the kind only fillies and colts can reach, the childish stubborn kind. Suddenly, the face on the filly changed and letting out a light scoff looked at Nimbus dead in the eyes and challenged him. 'Oh yeah? I bet I can make it better than you.' Nimbus' eyes narrowed as he looked at the filly. 'Oh yeah? HOW?! You can't even fly!' The filly was now smiling, almost bordering on full blown glee. 'I don't have to. Come on, I'll show you.' Confused by the sudden change in the annoying, yet oddly now charming filly, Nimbus followed her, completely forgetting about his brother Cumulus who had now taken it upon himself to deliver the rain cloud alone.

They arrived at a carriage that was set up as some sort of vendor stand. Atop it lay many small and big ceramic pieces as varied in color as they were in shape. Whatever Nimbus was thinking at that moment, it completely left his mind as he slowly walked up to carriage, mesmerized by the small little artifacts that it displayed. He had never seen such trinkets back home, what were they? The small filly noticing his amazed faced only smiled at Nimbus as she claimed them to have been done by her. All he could do was blink as he kept staring at the piece. 'How did you make them? They're beautiful!' let out Nimbus, hardly audible. Tapping his wing, the small filly kept smiling and began to tug at him to follow her. She led him around to the other side of the carriage where her father was.

'Who's your friend Porcelain?' Asked the somewhat mid-aged stallion, as he looked up from his current project and noticed his daughter tugging on a somewhat still mesmerized Nimbus. 'He says he made that up there! I think he's lying so I wanted to show him what a real artist does.' Replied the small filly with a giant smile adorning her face. The stallion looked up in the direction his daughter pointed. Contemplating the giant cloud sculpture of an unfamiliar colt, he quickly looked at Nimbus and asked if he indeed had made that. Nimbus, finally snapping out of his mesmerized state looked at the stallion, and, as a smile formed across his face at the thought of finally getting praised for his work, he practically screamed at the stallion 'YES, I made it! Isn't it awesome?!' Before the stallion could replay, his daughter cut in. 'YEAH? Well, it's not as beautiful as mine are!' She stated as she waved a hoof in the direction of the ceramic pieces that had captivated him earlier.

The stallion simply raised an eyebrow and laughed as the two began to pick up their argument from before. With a smile on his face and in a somewhat defeated tone, he address both Nimbus and his daughter. 'You know better than to be showing off like that Porcelain.' Nimbus couldn't help but taunt the small filly further by sticking his tongue out at her. 'And you shouldn't be so eager to hear praises for your work.' Nimbus slightly blushed and pulled his tongue back in as the small filly took her turn at sticking her tongue out at him. The stallion simply laughed at the whole scene, which only made Nimbus feel a bit more ashamed for his behavior. As he turned his gaze towards the ceramic pieces again, he couldn't help but admit it, they were actually really good. Far beyond anything he had ever done with the clouds.

'Can you teach me how to make these?' Nimbus simply blurted out as he kept staring at the ceramic pieces. The stallion simply laughed and placed a hoof on his shoulder, causing Nimbus to feel a little bit ashamed for having asked so bluntly. 'Tell you what little friend, because my daughter likes you..." Porcelain quickly opened her mouth to protest but was cut-off. 'And because I think you have a lot of potential. I will teach you on the condition that every time you come here, you make one of your cloud sculptures for Ponyville to enjoy.'

With a huge smile on his face, Nimbus could hardly contain himself as he agreed and shook hoofs with the ceramic crafting pony. He had his first lesson that same day, and after he was done, he flew back home covered in clay and was hardly recognized by his parents. Not being allowed back into the house until he washed up, he used a nearby rain cloud and was shocked to find that the huge smudge on his flank that he mistook for dried up clay that refused to wash off, was in fact his cutie mark.

From that point on, every time his parents asked Cumulus and him to take care of a job, he would leave his brother to do the work and would fly as fast as he could to meet Porcelain and her father in Ponyville. Eventually his parents, although reluctantly, accepted that he was not destined to be in the family business and allowed him to follow his own path as he promised that one day, he would bring his art up to the clouds for all to enjoy. As time went on and he grew older, opting to be known as Nimbus 'Claypot' instead of 'Clayton', he began to follow Porcelain and her father as they moved to different towns across Equestria, always learning new things, and always leaving a trail of sculpted clouds along the way.

(My attempt at a second character. Sorry again for the wall of text)

[Skye]

Most of this reads like a fic, and I'd recommend for the future to keep the fics for posting somewhere else as we don't really need all of that for a character summary. Just a summarization of where the cutie mark came from would be fine. I feel rather sorry for his brother being left with all the work meant for two, though. But approved!

[Chonico]

Hmm, maybe I should try my hoof at a fanfic. Thanks for the tips though, I'll keep them in mind for next time. Would do a lot to reduce my wall of text considerably.