Gritstream (Ready)

[Blueblood]

Roleplay Type:  World of Equestria
 

Name:  Gritstream
 

Gender: Female
 

Age: Adult
 

Species: Earth Pony
 

Eye color:  Sand-yellow
 

Coat: Burnt Orange
 

Mane/Tail: Black
 

Physique: Not really any bulkier than average, but slightly larger overall than the average mare.  Tough as teakwood, though, if you ever have the misfortune to run into her.
 

Residence:  Blueblood's Manor
 

Occupation:  Maid/Parolee
 

Cutie Mark:  A coil of rope
 

Unique Traits: None

 

History:  Gritstream was born to a couple of salt miners near the western, mountainous border region of Equestria.  She'd describe her birthplace, upbringing, and the surrounding ponies in the same phrase she'd use to describe the soil of the place: "dull and hard."  She didn't know much about the outside world, only that she'd be a fool to pass up any opportunity to live anyplace else.  From the day she got her cutie mark fixing the knots that kept the pulley system running, Gritstream feared the day the foremare would assign her to this job every day for the rest of her life.

Good fortune, however, seemed to smile upon her once she came into young adulthood.  Princess Celestia had opened up a new swathe of the frontier for homesteading, and quite a few earth ponies from all across the country were eager to get their own land, and do their part in making it fruitful.  She didn't have much of a green hoof herself, but at the sign up office, she met a handsome young stallion, Verdant Wind, that did, and they hit it off right quick.  So quick, in fact, that in the four weeks between application and approval they'd already got hitched!  Married couples got a better selection of the lots, after all.

 

So, it was with high hopes that they hitched their wagon, and said goodbye to the salt flats.  However hard they'd have to work to make their new lives a reality, both of them knew that they were up to the task.  After all, frontier couldn't hold worse for them than the dull drudgery they were leaving behind, right?

 

That seemed to be so, for the first few months.  The ground, though not as rich as heartland soil, was at least breakable, and wasn't choked out with salt.  They had their first lot sown by the end of spring, and a cabin and barn built by mid-summer.  Even better, Gritstream was carrying her first foal, and felt full of hope for the future for the first.... and last time in her life.

The year that followed was the worst that she could have imagined.  Gritstream fell sick towards the end of summer, and not wanting to risk the life of her foal, Verdant insisted on doing all the outdoor work himself.  That led to him working in the fields late, and being completely alone when a bear came through the fields.  It wasn't until the next day that Gritstream felt well enough to go out and look, only to find his remains.  But half the harvest was still left to bring in, so she had to work the fields herself, despite the risks that came with carrying a foal.  The late Verdant's fears proved to be well-founded, as the hard physical labor on a body weakened by disease led to a miscarriage, leaving Gritstream in the coldest and loneliest winter she'd ever known.

Spring did not bring a renewal of hope, but only the tax assessor.  Apparently, since she was no longer married or a mother expectant, all the tax breaks they'd counted on to be able to afford the lot of land they'd settled were no longer valid.  Sick and tired of all the crap she'd been shoveling so far, Gritstream was pretty sure that this official was full of it, but knew she could neither afford the lawyers to back her claim, nor the full tax burden should she acquiesce.  So, she did the only thing that made sense at the time, and leaped on his smarmy face to pound it into the dirt 'till he didn't get up again.

Turns out doing that to a tax collector is the surest way to get the full force of the law after you.  She fled her farm ahead of the posse, wandering the badlands before falling in with a group of hardscrabble outlaws not too bothered about bringing in a mare who'd made an enemy of the ERS.  She spent the next couple of years living life as a bandit, robbing passing wagons, running from the law, and pretty certain that this would be the rest of her life until she starved or got caught and sent to the hoosegow for good.

Then the unexpected happened.  The bandit group leader decided to run a ponynapping job on Prince Blueblood as he was passing through the badlands, based on the rumor that he'd left his honor guard at home.  Unfortunately for the bandit group, the reason the Prince had left behind his guards was that he'd brought along Niilaavin, his Sphinx, instead.  It was no contest.

 

After witnessing the rest of her gang get served with frontier justice, Gritstream decided the smart thing to do would just be to get it over with, and threw herself on the mercy of her captors, being pretty certain she wouldn't get any.  But Blueblood surprised her, in being willing to listen to her story, and offer a way to clear her legal record.  Of course, that involved becoming one of his personal servants, but it was preferable to all other possible fates she was likely to face after capture by the authorities, so she figured she might as well take the offer.

 

And that's how a frontier bandit ended up stuffed in a maid uniform, waiting hoof and paw upon a Sphinx and his master.  If there's one lesson this mare has taken from her experience, is that life doesn't have to make sense and is never fair, but living is still better than dying.

 

Character Personality:  Cynical and bitter as black coffee, she still clings to life with the stubbornness that would do a donkey proud.  She views the world as largely an arbitrary place where justice doesn't mean much, and bad and good both rain upon the undeserving more often than not.  She'll freely acknowledge that she's had both, and at times when she couldn't claim to have done anything to earn either.  She feels the best she can do right now is the tasks that are in front of her, and maybe prevent the silly little mares that share her uniform from doing anything too stupid.  Stupid always gets punished.
 

Character Summary:  A wasteland bandit given a second chance by Prince Blueblood to earn an honest living as his maid.  She's not exactly happy about it, but does prefer it to her former life or any alternative fates that would have befallen her.

[RainbowFoxxy]