The team (A/N please read)
Name: Viola Heartstrings
Nic: 'Pegasith' 'Minion'
Species: Pegasus
Age: 18
Hair: grey at the roots bleaching to white at the tips, mid length
Coat: Terracotta
Bio: In her past life Viola was known as Katrina Maxwell, who was the last surviving human in the celestial equivalent of I'm A Celebrity. She knows nothing of this past life however.
She was adopted by the Heartstrings family and renamed Viola, in course with the family tradition of naming females after various musical instruments. Her mother, Cleo, would have liked for her to take a career as a Violinist after her namesake, while Artemis, her father pushed for her to join the Royal Guard with him. Viola herself took an insatiable interest in engineering, in particular mechanics, and spent much of her early years trying to get into the Royal Equestrian Academy of Mechanical and Electrical Engineers (REA-MEE).
Both she and her parents believed her entrance exam to be rigged, in that she was instructed to produce a golem, an act impossible for anypony other than a unicorn, and even the illegal due to the need for a 'soul gem' to power it. During the Sonic Rainboom, an imitation soul gem was produced that allowed the golem to work properly, annoying the possibly tribalist principal, Professor Grinding Gears.
Professor Gears continued to be an antagonist to 'the feather-brained pegasus' throughout her five years in the academy, sending her on summer assignments he believed impossible for her in a bid to give himself leverage to remover her from the school. Time and time again however she completed the assignments to a degree the even Professor Gears would have been proud of, if Viola was a unicorn.
Viola is an avid reader, having read the Elder Scrolls, Lord Of The Rings, and many other fantasy series, despite this she still follows the pegusai stereotype, keeping fit with frequent athletics sessions either on her own or with a group through the Equestrian Athletics Association.
Since being tricked into coming to Ponyville by Professor Gears, Viola has opened her own business: Practical Solutions Inc. the name being a pun as it's initials can also be use in the unit Pounds per Square Inch.
Combat Skills: Viola is proficient in the use of dual blades, one of which being her signature red lightsaber. The use of two weapons requires her to keep both front hooves off the ground, she has trained herself to walk in a bipedal fashion, using her wings as a counter weight. Viola prefers to take a cautious approach to the fight, keeping an opponent at bay with the lightsaber and defending herself from a counter attack with a short sword, while looking for exploitable weaknesses in her opponent’s form.
Name: Starsteel Sprint
Nic: 'Star' 'Metal Head'
Species: Unicorn-Golem
Age: 5
Hair: Fiber Optic Rainbow
Coat: Stainless Steel
Bio: Star was created by Viola aged thirteen as her entry assignment for REA-MEE, her creation was an accident revolving around a mana receptacle and the Sonic Rainboom. The newly created mare immediately came to life and destroyed seven walls in a mad dash out of Canterlot. Star then proceded to do a tour of Equestria before arriving in Ponyville five years later.
Starsteel's body had since undergone several upgrades, from replacing the outdated clockwork the gave her movement with more modern hydraulics, to allowing the mechanical unicorn to use a limited amount of magic.
Since reuniting with her creator, she has come to view Viola as her own mother. Much to said pegasus' chagrin she wishes to become a real pony, even if it means she must experience foalhood, as such when not helping out at P.S.I, Star can be found at the library looking through historical texts looking for some obscure ritual to help her reach her dream.
Combat Skills: With her first upgrade replacing her original Iron shell with Starsteel (from which she was named), Star is impervious to any physical assault; due to the materials extremely high density though speed is her weakest point, not to say she isn't going to ruin somepony's day if she hits them at full pace though. Her effective use is that of a wrecking ball, either charging into enemy positions, or being thrown at them by Midnight.
Name: Midnight Eclipse (Formerly Nightmare Moon)
Nic: 'Chibi' 'Midget Moon'
Species: Alicorn
Age: 1
Hair: Starlight, long and wavy
Coat: Black
Bio: Having been ripped from Princess Luna by the Elements of Harmony, Nightmare moon was left significantly weakened, so much that it took four weeks for her to be able to reform herself. Having located what she believed to be the largest part of her power she brought the rest of her energy that she had collected and attempted to completely rebuild herself, it worked partially. While she had reformed herself she was unable to integrate with the power leaving her at only two hooves in height. Nightmare awoke from the procedure trapped under the flank of a now much larger pony.
After freeing herself from under the pegasus, she attempted the wake the mare in order to claim her as a minion, the results of which left Viola with a headache and a very large bruise on her forehead.
Nightmare then ordered her 'minion' to take her to Celestia so that she may Seize the throne. Finding humour in being ordered around by the miniature dictator, Viola complied and was on a train to Canterlot within the hour.
It seemed the Nightmare Moon was completely ignorant to the fact she was smaller in stature than a newborn foal even after a run in with the princesses, which left her incarcerated within the palace dungeons for several days while her sentence was decided on. It was during this time reality finally caught up with her.
After a week of debate it was decided that rather than banishment, that Nightmare moon would learn humility at the hooves of a common pony, the most readily available pony being Viola ironically enough. In order to help her 'fit in' she adopted the name Midnight Eclipse
Midnight can be seen as condescending and apathetic outside of any job labelled 'high risk', and even on one of those she only looks out for herself. She has developed a love hate relationship with Starsteel, whom most of the she sees as little more than a guard dog. It is well known she has a malicious streak, taking control over an opponent's movements and causing them to beat themselves into unconsciousness.
Combat Skills: while only possessing a fraction of the power she once had, Midnight is still a formidable battle mage, though focusing more on subversion than frontal combat. Her magical strength is shown many times where she lifts and throws the two and a half ton golem Starsteel.
Her diminished size could be seen as a detriment, Midnight however uses it however to move around the battle field unnoticed, she does occasionally find herself trapped under the bodies of the fallen however.
Name: Nitrous Oxide
Nic: 'Nitro'
Species: Earth Pony
Age: 25
Hair: Acid Green, Cropped Short
Coat: Emerald Green
Bio: Nitro worked as an chemist in Fillydelphia before moving to Ponyville after hearing of a Zebra alchemist in the Everfree Forest. Chemistry, while seen as the lifeblood of the Oxide family, was far too dangerous to the explosion causing stallion, thus Nitro it was time for a change of scenery and by extension career.
While the rumours were somewhat false, Nitro vowed to learn what Zecora could teach him about the various potions she made, it would after all be a shame to have come all the way for nothing. The fact that a healing tonic couldn't blow up in his face was another deciding factor.
Nitro found his calling in Ponyville under the employ of P.S.I. where his connections as a chemist allowed for alternate sources of materials for the various jobs they took, such materials generally being highly corrosive or likely to explode.
Combat Skills: As a chemist Nitro was well known for making explosives from otherwise unreating materials, there is still a debate going on as to how he was able to level the lab with only a pint of milk and some broccoli; and as such finds himself on call as a pyrotechnic technician (or in less fancy terms: 'the guy who blows huge holes in stuff').
Nitro is also the team's medic thanks to what he learned from Zecora, while he can't cure the effects of Poison Joke, he has a variety of mixtures that do everything from clotting wounds and numbing pain, to full body paralysis.
Name: Ditzy Doo
Nic: 'Derpy Whooves'
'How in Tartarus' Name do you keep hitting that target with your eyes like that?!'
Species: Pegasus
Age: 27
Hair: Blond
Coat: Grey
Bio: it may be surprising to note that Ditzy was once the best archer in the entire royal guard, it's even more surprising to many that she in not her sister Derpy. Ditzy's career in the guard came to a close after an unknown assailant bucked her in the temple, while a team of surgeons managed to save her life it was not without it's drawbacks; due to the trauma her eyes are now permanently unfocused limiting her effective use as an archer. She would have been quite happy to remain in the guard as a regular soldier, if not for the comments made behind her back.
Regrettably not even one as focused as Ditzy could ignore the snide remarks and at the age of twenty terminated her contract and moved to Ponyville with her sister, whom she worked alongside of in the town's mail services. If it were not for her cross-hair cutie mark it's likely the entire town would never remember which Twin was which.
After their official opening, Ditzy began to take a small interest in the workings of P.S.I. And at one point assisting the, at that point, four pony team in an excursion to the griffin kingdom with Princess Luna. During some drunken revelry alongside the griffins of Windshear Hold, Ditzy and Viola had a heart to heart talk about the things they were most guilty off, Viola pointing out her strained relationship with her family, while Ditzy wished she could have stayed in the guard. While Ditzy convinced Viola to sort out her missuses with her family the younger mare's mind was awash with ideas on how to assist her fellow pegasus. With some drunk science and a griffin 'firearm' as a base idea, Viola was able to procure a weapon which would allow Ditzy to continue her career as a markspony even if she had one eye.
Combat Skills: While the majority of the skills she learned with the guard have diminished over her seven year period as a mailmare, Ditzy is by no means a ditz when the fighting starts. Despite her disability she is still the best markspony in all Equestria, thanks to her new sniper rifle (or rye-full as everypony seems to pronounce it) she is able to pick out targets from just under a mile.
Close quarters is her only weakness however due to a seven year period of inactivity, she has slowly been training herself back up to the standard for the royal guard, and is the only one showing skill diversity in the team, as show by frequently being the others in a friendly spar.
Name: Elm Sap
Nic: 'Elm'
Species: Unicorn
Age: 16
Hair: Sky Blue spiky
Coat: Sandy grey
Bio: Elm was an serial arsonist before being caught trying to burn down the old Ponyville clock tower, which had long since been renovated to be a workshop for P.S.I. The young colt was released on bail by the shops owner in exchange for working off the damages.
Elm spent most of his life growing up in foster care, and had a rough upbringing because of it, his pent up aggression eventually leading to his destructive hobby.
Since working with the team Elm has struck up a semi familial bond with Ditzy, who has been unable to have a child of her own, with a 'small' betting pool of 358 bits on when she'll actually adopt him.
As much as he doesn’t want anypony to find out, Elm is really good at poetry, in particular haiku, and has a several hundred page scrapbook of his works hidden in a lock box under his bed.
Combat Skills: If he doesn't get his cutie mark for writing love poems, then setting things on fire has to be Elm's special talent. With an entire shelf on fire related magic, it would come to no surprise to see him set fire on fire. Elm's dependence on magic however will be his downfall, even Ditzy has to agree he is awful scrawny for a colt his age.
this is what I've been working on since my USB died, not playing Borderlands 2 (Much). I looked back over the previous chapters and as well as finding myself dissatisfied with them, I also came to the conclusion that I'm bad at portraying characters, as such I'm making a list of the main characters that will appear in The Pegasith.
I've tried to make the members of P.S.I. as balanced as possible, though there are three others, and the main enemies. Given my choice to make a reformed Nightmare Moon as one of the 'good guys' I'm considering the possibility of doing something similar with other villains.
other than that tell me what you think do these guys need more work, or is this half of the team ready to kick some jedi flank?
Darkness. That was new. Just need to sit up and-
“Ow!”
Okay, low ceiling. Viola fumbled about her claustrophobic environment and found walls too, she was in a box not much bigger than herself. At least it was comfortable. A stray hoof movement told her she wasn't alone in the box either. There were several items tucked away to her left, but the two that interested her were the sheet of paper and bulbous ended tube. A flash light.
Viola made sure to point the light away from her face, she didn't have time for the pain that would erupt in her eyes if she did otherwise, before hitting the button on it. Light erupted forth from the bulb illuminating her predicament. She wasn't in a box. It was a coffin.
Gulping back the panic she turned to the paper she held,
Dear Viola, I am really sorry for what I had to do, If I didn't they might catch on that I haven't been assimilated. The sedative on the knife should make if so you wake up an hour after the master plan has been carried out, I know you would have wanted to fight against the jedi, but you've already been 'killed' once, I don't think that next time they will give me that job.
I found out why they wanted Star's soul gem, Zirconium is going to use it to power a huge machine that'll brainwash all of Equestria, not even my tinfoil helmet is going to protect me this time, but I can hope that being unconscious and a couple of feet below the ground will spare you the torment, I've seen first hoof what it does to ponies.
To make life on the run a little easier for you I manage to smuggle away your swords, even the glowing one, and Ditzy's fire arm, along with some basic survival gear. Please Viola don't try and fight them, just run, I couldn't bear the thought of you dying if I could do something about it,
Lyra
Lyra, her own sister was forced to bury her after falsely killing her, just so she could save herself?
“Sorry Sis, I don't work that way” she mumbled as she manoeuvred a sword into a workable position, “Equestria comes first”
Viola smashed her sword into the lid of the coffin, barely scratching the wood, 'of all the times for the republic to show me some respect' she seethed while continuing her frantic chopping, the noise echoing loudly around the cramped space, 'It's like they were expecting me to rise from the grave'. Viola paused to catch her breath and admire her handiwork, smiling at the small crack above her stomach, 'if that gets bigger' she thought to herself, ' I might be able to buck my way outta here'.
It took Viola a further ten rounds of striking her sword against the ceiling before any real progress was made and the crack was large enough to be kicked out, the air had started to stagnate however and Viola's breaks were becoming longer and longer as the remaining oxygen started to become used up. Now was the time to panic.
Viola placed her back hooves against the lid, ignoring the discomfort that came with such a task, she pushed and she kicked doing everything possible to break through the wood and into the dirt above her; She was the last of the sith for Tartarus'
sake, she could not afford to die of asphyxiation inside a box underground.
On a small hill in the shadow of Mt. Canterlot a patch of recently disturbed earth began to move, it jumped and it shifted for a minute before collapsing in on its self.
Despite what she may claim, it was Ditzy not Midnight who was the de-facto leader of the group, at this point however the petty rivalry she had with the small scale alicorn was the least of anypony in the groups concerns: less than a day ago they had been ambushed while trying to steal the elements of harmony from a convoy headed into the republic, it was a trap. And now Viola was dead, and Star was going to be used as a power source for some doomsday device Ditzy wouldn't pretend to understand that would be used in a few minutes during the ceremony that added Equestria to the republic's sphere of influence.
Like many of it's current patrons, the group had come to '' to get too drunk to care about their problems. Nitro, Ditzy, and after the owner relented, Elm had spent the evening chugging down mugs of cider, Midnight meanwhile had passed out in a shot of what could be assumed to be the strongest and most expensive drink available. The Alicorn's tastes in such matters were too extreme for Ditzy's tastes.
After several hours of pickling their livers it was only natural that Ditzy would start hallucinating, and as such the cross eyed mare didn't bat an eyelid when the image of her earth stained boss running down the street with her rifle came into her peripheral vision.
Canterlot's streets where uncharacteristically quiet, 'hardly surprising though' Viola thought to herself, 'The rich will be brown nosing at that ceremony, nationalists have given up and are getting wasted, and everypony else is just hiding away at home hoping this just blows over' The lack of anypony on the street was both a blessing and a curse, on one hoof there were less ponies out able to see her, on the other hoof she'd already had to knock out one set of curious guards, she'd made sure this time to bag 'em and gag 'em then hide them at the back of an alleyway so they wouldn’t be discovered.
Naturally when the Canterlot elite host a party it's on the royal commons, being such vain creatures they want to be as close as possible to the ruling body without sharing a room (such a practice allows them to moan about the rules and policies set by said body), so finding where the republic's rite of acceptance party would be held was the easy bit.
The hard part was creating a distraction so she could slip in unnoticed. From her vantage point in the clock tower -seriously what was it with her and clocks?- she had noticed a ridiculous amount of guards, one of whom she recognised as Lyra, causing her injuries to flair up in pain from the memory.
Viola propped the rifle up against the corner of the room and sighed,
“where in Tartarus' name is Discord when you need him?”
“You called my dear little Pegasith?” while Viola held no grudge against him, she had to admit the draconequs had a voice suited to an evil master mind, the chaos spirit had chose to posses her shadow for reasons know only to him,
“Perfect timing!” Viola laughed to her now buffalo shaped shadow, “Discord I need a distraction”
“I'm afraid we both have other things to worry about than cheap party tricks, even if that would liven up that dreary gathering, look for your nemesis, he's about to unveil the jedi's mind control weapon”
Viola lowered the weapon onto the windowsill and looked back down at the party, sure enough Professor Gears was making his way to the podium with a rainbow glowing rock in his grasp.
“I got a plan” the Draconequs motioned for her to continue, “I'm about to commit a murder, I need you to steal Star's soul gem in the ensuing chaos”
“My dear, you had me at chaos!”
“Get ready, things are gonna start happening as soon as he uncovers that tarp” Viola muttered at she levelled the sights at her old teacher's head.
An unnecessarily large bang and a trip to the floor courtesy of the recoil, Viola was back on her hooves and looking back at the scene below.
While Grinding Gears wasn't dead, he would forever be impaired by the loss of his left fore leg, his pain distracting him from realising the soul gem he was to place into the mind ray was rolling down hill away from him.
“Ditzy makes that look easy” Viola sighed, “Okay Discord I'm outta here, grab the soul gem at your earliest convenience and get it back to Star, then bring her up to speed, I'm gonna try and get to Zirconium without being spotted.
The two temporary allies parted ways, the draconeqqus slipping into the shadows, while Viola bolted down the stairs, making sure not to leave the rifle behind.
While she had now gotten to Zirconium, Viola couldn't help but wish it was under a different situation.
She was currently bound to a chair, being forced to listen to the deranged zebra spout drivel about how it was his divine right as master Jedi to rule the world. He had literally copied the generic evil genius speech word for word.
The fool had just gotten to Viola's favourite part of the entire forty five and a half page monologue that had by now put his own troops to sleep, insulting the hero:
“Foolish wench, can you not see my reasoning?” He gloated, taking a pause to browse a table full of torture tools “Perhaps I will have to remove your eyes then, it's not as if you need them if you are blind to the truth!”
with that he jammed a knife into her right eyeball, twisting the blade into the muscle behind it and ripping the bloody mass from her skull, her screams woke up the guards and caused one zebra, a little younger than Viola to become violently ill.
“What say you, bastard child of the Sith? Are you willing to surrender and tell me where you have hidden the gem?”
From the looks of things he was anticipating that the pegasus would cave by now, what he wasn't expecting was for the cycloptic equine to start laughing.
“Lets just look at this from my point of view shall we, there's me-”
“And you're not even capable of defending yourself”
“Then there's the Markspony, Ditzy; the Battlemage, Nightmare Moon; the Pyromaniac, Elm; and our Healer Nitro-”
“All of whom have been defeated, they pose no threat”
“And finally Starsteel, the Golem”
“Who requires the soulgem we are now missing!” it was easy to tell Zirconium was starting to get angry,
“Force is equal to mass times acceleration my dearly beloved enemy, Star weighs 5000kg and in the space of that hallway I was dragged down can reach a top speed of eighty five miles per hour” Viola smiled cruelly, her empty eye socket making the visage much worse,
“So how much force are you about to be hit with?”
“That's impossible! There's no way you could ha-” one could imagine that Zirconium would have finished his denial had a certain golem not battered down the door and crushed him into pink jelly against the wall.
“Wrong answer, it was 425000 newtons assuming the resistance from the door was nothing.”
the guards over the shock of having their great leader killed in front of them drew their cardboard cut out weapons and proceeded to drop them in surprise,
“what happened to our weapons!” the youngest cried out in alarm
“That would have been me” Discord's voice floated in from behind Viola as she started to loose conciousness,
“now would you be so kind as to give up the foolishness before I decide to become , Chaotic!”
