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Saffron

flutterscotch

By flutterscotch
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flutterscotch Equestrian

flutterscotch

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Name: Saffron

Gender: Mare

Age: Older than her roommates, who are the same age as the main cast, around Cheerilee's age.

Species: Earth Pony

Pelt Color: very warm pale golden-yellow

Mane/Tail Color & Style: Rich deep sunset tones of dark fuschia, deep orange-red, a brilliant orange, and a brilliant golden yellow.

Eye Color: Very deep plum, almond-shaped (similar to Celestia's) and darkly lined.

Cutie Mark: A purple saffron crocus

Physique: Petite, more curvy than athletic.

Residence: Hoofington

Occupation: Chef, sort of. She is an aspiring chef but has been saddled with a dilapidated boardwalk that she needs to repair and run.

Motivation: To get her grandsire’s beloved boardwalk back up and running, and then opening a fabulous café focusing on seaside favorites.

Likes:

Dislikes:

Character Summary:

Saffron was born to seasonally nomadic ponies near the shores of Seasaddle Bay. Her romantically-minded sire Busker, a wandering musician, and slightly flighty baker/cook of a dam, Rosemary, were less concerned with being liked by the community than they were of raising their only child in a carefree environment where she would learn to interact with the world around her. They felt that living within nature and following the freshest food sources as they became available was in the best interest of their growing foal, so they sold their house in Ponyville, and joined up with a ragtag caravan/commune of wanderers to form kind of a pony-drawn wagon train that moved from town to town with the seasons. Even though the ponies had never heard of the Earth band, the Beatles, their motto was still “I’ll get by with a little help from my friends”, and get by they did in their small adopted, traveling family. Everypony had a job, and helped each other out using their special talents so there was very little need for bits in her family.

When she was quite a young filly, the caravan went to an abandoned field near her Grandfather Barker's (her father’s sire, they had not been on speaking terms, as Barker doesn’t quite approve of his son’s chosen lifestyle but then they reconciled, which is another story) Boardwalk amusement park, Luna* Park, in the beachside community of Hoofington for an entire summer. The rich scents of fried foods, the flashing lights reflecting off the waves, and the aura of excitement surrounding the rides and the games enchanted Saffron. She especially loved the carousel, and her grandfather who was kindly to her and let her help out by selling tickets to it.

After that every summer she and her parents set up camp on the outskirts of Hoofington for the duration of her summer holidays. Additionally the field, which was part of the parcel of land that Barker had purchased to build his amusement park way back before even Busker was born) had at one time been a small farm with an orchard, so perennial crops like leeks, kale, sweet potato, olives and fruit trees still grew there, so there was always plenty to eat. Saffron always looked forward to these summers where she could be with her grandfather, and wrote to him often.

As a school-age filly she was made fun of for not exactly having a traditional home (for her parents did send her to school, but she would have to switch schools every season) quite a bit, but Saffron was never a pony to let what others thought about her get her down. Sometimes it was difficult, but there were so many interesting things to see in the world, and so many ways for her to occupy herself that the opinions of a few misguided foals ruin her cheery disposition.

She learned to cook at an early age, helping her mother with stews in the giant cauldron full of delicious stews, giant roasted pumpkins, braised greens. It was clear that while being a cook was Rosemary’s special talent, her pretty young daughter would surpass her pretty quickly, as Saffron was much more open to experimentation, and just had a flair for knowing what flavors went together. One of their journeys one spring brought them to the place where the crocuses that provided the spice that she was named after grew in abundance. She got to watch the harvest, awed at how much had to be harvested to just make a little amount of She was eager to try her hand at cooking with it; after all, if you plan to be a chef, and you are named after a spice, you might as well try to incorporate it in a dish at least once in your life! The harvesters also gave her a number of bulbs once they found out why she was so interested.

Later that summer, she took some seaweed, various rices, the almost meaty textured seaflower, some watercress and some thick-bodied mushrooms she found in the camp in Hoofington and she had delectable paella. She presented her dish to the caravan. They instantly loved it, and it became a summer favorite. With a tingle on her flanks her cutie mark appeared, and she was quite content that it was something so predictable and straightforward in her zany life.

Also that summer at Luna Park she also met Brass Ring, who had by that time not decided on the name Calliope, and did not yet have her cutie mark. The two fillies had been admiring the carousel, and chatting as young like-minded filles often do when they meet by chance during summer vacation. They would probably have been instant best friends if they had both lived locally. Alas, it was a brief moment in time, but both of them would always wonder what happened to the other, and regretted not getting each other’s address to be pen pals.

The seasons drifted on, and Saffron enrolled in culinary school in Fillydelphia, a larger city but still not too far from the shore. She still kept in touch with her parents and her uncle Barker through the mail, but as she grew up and pursued her dreams of being a chef in the "big city", those letters got more and more infrequent. The young mare was simply too busy with her own life, and lost touch as young adult often do. After a few seasons had whipped by, each bringing their own unique flavors based on the foods available, summer rolled by yet again, and with it her hankering for her favorite dish, the one that earned her her cutie mark.

She sublet her flat in Fillydelphia to her good friend Beautiful Dreamer for the summer, taking only her travelling tent and her outdoor cooking utensils, as well as her satchels of previous spices and a few carefully wrapped specimens of herbs she could grow in the sandy soil, and hopefully establish a few herb beds, and add to the already planted saffron crocus bed in the old orchard where her parents had camped year after year when she was young. With some luck, she'd be able to come back year after year herself!

When she arrived back in Hoofington, she was astonished to see just how long it had been since she'd last been there, and just how old Barker had become. His health was deteriorating fast, almost as fast as the once beautiful boardwalk. She agreed to stay in the town, and put her dreams on hold to help out her grandsire, both out of love for the old, silly pony and nostalgia for the park

Today she lives in the top of the carousel house, in a flat arranged around a central hub with her two best friends, Beautiful Dreamer (who had previously sublet her flat in Hoofington), a debutant who, let's face it, had nothing better to do, and Calliope, who opened the first boutique store in the work-in-progress that was the old arcade building. When she is not trying, with the help of her friends, to restore the boardwalk to its former status of jewel of the Sea Saddle coast, she is busy inventing recipes. Once the boardwalk is repaired and bringing in revenue again, she will settle down to her real dream of opening a cute little seaside café on the premises.

Personality:

Saffron is the kind of pony who almost always sees the best in any situation. In fact about the only thing that has ever gotten this mare glum is the realization that her grandfather was sick, and how in disrepair the boardwalk had become. Because she had an unconventional upbringing, she sometimes gets a little shocked about how much things cost, and how sometimes other ponies are unwilling to help or trade with others, as she is used to her "family"'s selflessness when it came to each other. The fact that real life is not quite as idyllic as her family doesn't get her down though. She has a lot of hard lessons to learn now that she is going to be having a career where one is EXPECTED to make money off other ponies.

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*Any name similar to a certain pony is merely coincidence.

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flutterscotch Equestrian

flutterscotch

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Ah, curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal!

For the final time, Christopher, she is not based on Christina Hendricks. Keep it up and you will get noogies!!!</fluttermom>

I actually grabbed her name from listening to Donovan's Mellow Yellow.

She's final now.

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