Sky Crack (Ready)

[SteelEagle]

Name: Sky Crack

Sex: Female

Age: Young Mare

Species: Pegasus

Eye Color: Blue

Coat: Magenta, though often hidden behind armor.

Mane/Tail: Blonde, closely kept and cropped in the tradition of ancient pegas, though almost universally behind a helmet.

Physique: Exceptionally fit and athletic

Residence: Acroneighos at the quarters of the city Strategos, her mother.

Occupation: Scout Accompli to the Acroneighos Tenth Pegtasi.

Cutie Mark: A shield surrounded by lightning. During her First Scout Trials, an errant storm rolled over the forest south of the city where the fillies and colts were trying out for greater selection. With her wingmate hit by an errant lightning bolt, Crack followed his broken body to the forest below. For three days and night Crack protected him amidst the worst wild storm in years, emerging at the end of the forest battered, bruised, and with a heavily wounded wingmate on her back and a cutie mark on her flank.

Notable Talents/Unique Traits: Gifted with the use of sarissa, hasta, doru, pugio, pilium, javelins, and bows. One of the most athletic pegasi in all of Maretonia with exceptional, even for the Acroneighi, stamina and endurance. Talented singer, poet, engineer, philosopher, and dancer.

 

History/Summary:

 

Acroneighos is a city that gives birth to a very tough breed of pegasi, and Sky Crack is no exception. Born to the family of the newly elected Strategos of the city, Sky Crack from an early age was trained to follow in the wingflaps of her elders. Getting the finest education and the best diet a pony could ask for, she was bred for athletics and trained for war. As her family grew more and more successful expectations for the young Crack only grew. This consistent pattern of self-replicating growth in expectation could not have fallen upon a more eager pony's shoulders.

 

Her parents were not the only ponies Crack was expected to follow. In their private estate there was a room of wax sculptures made of their ancestors, each one immediately after one passed. Lines on the wall from one to another ancestor were decorated with the names of achievements and battles, honors and wars, triumphs and campaigns they cherished. These ancestor rooms are not uncommon, but ones such as the Crack's are rarer than most as dozens of great leaders and soldiers are counted amongst the family line. It is said that an Acroneighian pegasus foal's spirit burns like flame with the passions that the ancestors stoke within them. If that is true, then Sky Crack's burns as a star.

 

Knowing what she must live up to and what she must be capable of, Sky Crack has always done more than others to prove herself. She gets up earier and stays awake later and while awake does more in less time. She possesses an intense amount of energy that is propelling her forward at nearly every waking moment. Rest and relaxation are times truly enjoyed by Sky Crack because she fills every other moment with such an all encompassing work ethic that others are intimidated by the verve with which she lives.

 

It is this energy which her parents put their hoof on early and have leveraged ever since. She was given the best personal trainers and members of the Acroneighian guard were given special assignments for the young filly. While other fillies and colts were expected to undertake certain tasks in preparation for their service in the military once older, Sky Crack started younger and was given a greater weight of responsibility and risk. She was the youngest pony at the time to be practicing with real weapons once they transitioned from wooden test weapons to the real thing and she was the first in her class to grade out as exceptional above in most weaponry. Most fillies spent a few hours a day in their armor as they grew older to get acclimated to the feel while Sky Crack would spend whole days or weeks in it, changing out only under orders.

 

From her parents and their advisors she learned strategy and tactics, learning the different wargames she could play and competing against any older pony she could find. Sky Crack was less skilled as a strategist than she was as a combatant but the repetition and persistence of the filly paid off and it wasn't entirely too long before she started defeating first others her age and then some of the older ponies. While her training and teaching along the path of Strategos has lagged behind others, she is still considered to be further along than others her age. She is no different from most of her city in that she believes war to be a casual event- much better to wage war and solve an issue in one decisive conflict so enemies can become good friends than allow divisiveness drive a wedge for generations between creatures. Better to fall in an honorable engagement than survive to live in a dishonorable peace.

 

It was not just in the ways of war that her parents had her educated. The city loves athletic competition and Sky Crack was one of many who sought honor and glory. From an early age she met with various coaches and trainers who poked, prodded, and helped mold her body into the physical specimen of pure athletic capability it is today. At times the process is painful- one particular incident involved her father tossing out a birthday cake an admirer had made for her- but the first time she had beaten somepony in a race the sacrifices that followed seemed little in comparison. Now she stands as one of the most athletic and accomplished pegasi in the 'nation' of Maretonia.

 

Her parents did not neglect her mind and several tutors were hired to broaden her mind. Equestrian professors and Arabian engineers mingled with Unyasan philosophers and Griffon scholars. Her energy and insistent need to know, coupled with an argumentative tendency, burned out a few tutors along the way. The whole operation almost ended when a suave Arabian colt was found in her bedchambers, resulting in the expulsion of his poet father. Regardless, she has a worldliness about her that belies the traditional view of the Acroneighians as an uncultured bronze behemoth. She has also traveled the world.

 

This worldiness is important to the city now. With her parents among the leadership pushing for a greater degree of contact and friendly relations with other ponies, Sky Crack has an acute understanding that it will be up to her generation of leaders and heroes to make that dream a reality. An important step for her was her acceptance into the Scouts of the Tenth Pegtasi. Each Pegtasi refers to one of the armed formations of the city, with the tenth being for those who just came of age. Being named a Scout is one of the highest honors a pony of any Pegtasi can ask for as that combination of speed, skill, intelligence, and reliability is considered the linchpin of the successful campaigns that the city is known for.

 

Sky Crack is very open to the cultures and ideas of others, but is very quick to resort to the ideals of her own culture when conflict of any kind breaks out. She honors debates, duels, jousts, marksmare competitions, races, relays, wrestling, and pugilism with the same gusto. When there is nothing to challenge her beliefs she will seek out other beliefs so she may study and learn from them, and can and will indulge in the aspects of other cultures if she sees a benefit to her family and city.

[RarityDash]