Changeling Guardsbane [Finished]

[Halide]

Name: Guardsbane

Gender: Male

Age: Mature

Species: Changeling

Eye colour: dark emerald

Character colour: Black

Mane/Tail/Other: Short-trimmed, black, free of holes.

Physique: Sturdily built, lacking in holes

Residence: Nomadic

Occupation: Sky pirate

Cutie Mark: None

Unique Traits: Specializes in subterfuge, infiltration and reconnaisance. Extremely talented with voice acting, capable of shapeshifting to any sort of pony necessary to get in and get the information he needs.

History: The failure of a changeling hive is a terrible thing to bear witness to, but it is even more terrible to try and survive it. It is the loss of order and structure, a loss of rule or regulation. Infractions become problems, injustice becomes commonplace, and abject chaos follows not long behind, many of the drones forced to choose between abandoning the hive or attempting to adapt to a constantly changing and increasingly hostile environment.

It was one young drone that decided to leave - not in fear, but in confidence. Slipping away was easy, as no-one would really miss yet another worker, no matter whom he may be. It's the survival thereafter that gets difficult. But, this drone had a plan, a set of skills, and a number of ideas. He did not start out his independence glamorously though; in fact, at first, he had to beg an earthpony family for shelter and water, barely disguised as a sickly-looking pony wearing a discarded hood. But, it was a start - as he regained his strength and secretly fed off the love the family had for one-another, so too did the appearances of his disguise improve. As he heard them chatter and talk amidst themselves, he learned their voices and their mannerisms. As visitors wandered by, he learned more of the lay of the land and what might be found in it. It was not a glorious victory, nor a heart-wrenching goodbye; it was a learning experience and an opportunity to begin his journey, and for that he was grateful enough to bid the family farewell before he quietly left one autumn afternoon.

This cycle repeated itself, with a few modifications - he arrived in Manehatten, taking the guise of a youth who had run away from home, never to go back. That's what he was, after all, why not put a more approachable spin on a hidden truth? But this time, he managed to find work in a bustling marketplace, and his mind was flooded nearly to bursting with the sounds and mannerisms of ponykind. He drank it all in greedily, learning accents and colloquialisms and names and faces and figures and places. Love was easy enough to siphon from couples young and old, from families of foals and from the teeming city life. With so much affection and so few changelings to feast upon it, he had more than plenty.

The days became weeks, the weeks months, and day and night cycled into a year of constant learning and growth. The drone had grown cunning, strong and wise to the ways of Equestria, far moreso than most changelings were often allowed. But there was one lesson he learned that truly caught his attention : Ponies loved more than just eachother. Some loved property, others loved power, and others still loved money. While these affections were perhaps twisted and impure, their imperfection allured him more than the normal fare, and so he became more interested in following these ill desires.

Perhaps it was fate, be it good or ill, that led him to a shadowy warehouse one evening. Perhaps it was destiny that caused him to find one who loved power and money with more passion than most ponies loved their betrothed. Whatever the case was, it was one night that the drone found a pirate captain and his crew, hiding in shadows, riches and their misguided obsession with riches and power. But it was chance that they spared the drone when he was caught watching their collection of spoils, and it was a silvered tongue that convinced them of the worth an unparalleled spy might have whilst finding new riches to plunder and new ways to foil a guardsman's post - not through sneaking and hiding, but through trickery and deceipt.

Thus ended the story of the lonely drone who had abandoned his withering hive, and so began the story of Guardsbane the Changeling.

Character Summary:

Guardsbane is, first and above all, a confidence trickster. He is polite, he is somewhat surely, he is cunning, and he is as slippery as a newborn eel. His interests and well-being comes first before other things, both in the short and long-term whenever he can manage to calculate such. Whenever he is not pretending to be someone else, however, he is a calm and reasonably pleasant evil individual, though one that does not have much of a measure of compassion or sincerity in his heart. It is not that he is cruel or callous, it is simply that such values that might have brought him to be otherwise were never taught to him, nor were they ever useful to him. That aside, he is of markedly above-average intelligence, though his education is markedly lacking at times due to his lack of pony upbringing, and he'll occasionally misinterpret some colloquialisms out of lack of familiarity.

That all aside, he has a somewhat clumsy eye for fashion, though he secretly admires those ponies who can put together outfits of elegance or particular impression. Though he has by no means any desire to involve himself overmuch in clothing or dressing up, he still keeps a small trunk of outfits for several of his favored personae, most of whom are unicorns due to the fact that most of his interaction with ponies stays on the ground. Though he's a reasonably proficient flier as far as changelings go, he's never considered himself a terribly convincing pegasus.

As far as his personal interests go, apart from his own gain, Guardsbane considers himself something of an intellectual, enjoying art and philosophy whenever he can spare the indulgence. Though his own philosophy is one of self-centrism and ensuring his own quality of life while he has it to enjoy, he still reads up on other philosophies and ideals - not only to broaden and adapt his reserve of personalities to draw upon, but also for engaging his own mind. Despite this, he doesn't have much of a taste for fictional works, finding them not to be of terribly high value as far as his time is concerned.

[Armony]

How is this application coming along?

[Halide]

Well, Zaphod's just this guy, you know?

Haven't forgotten about it, still thinking up more to say about him.

[Armony]

How's progress going?

[Halide]

Spent the last few days fixing my vehicle. Also drinking.

I'll work on it tomorrow.

[Bellosh]

Any further updates on this app?

[Halide]

Ok, so when I said 'tomorrow' two days ago, I actually meant ambiguous scorpion valve time.

So, uh.

Yeah I haven't abandoned it or anything.

Don't worry. I will specifically say 'you know what forget it just delete it' when I mean to abandon it.

I'll work on it when I have something more to say about the character.

[Bellosh]

Ah, I see you're ready! All in all, very good app. This changeling is very-well realized and I'll love to see more of him in RP. The only thing I really need to ask is that you remove the reference to an absent changeling queen in your History. Changeling lore hasn't been finalized yet, and until it is, we ask that users refrain from creating generalized aspects for changeling society like multiple queens. Aside from that though, good app.

[Halide]

P'kow, did that thing. C'est bien?

[Bellosh]

That'll do it! Thankies!

[Armony]