Moonshadow

Note: This is an alternate universe MLP:FiM character, hence why the cutie mark isn't a simplistic styling of some talent symbol. In this universe, the world is knows as Equis. Equestria is a country much like Canada or the US while our story mostly takes place in the pony version of the United Kingdom, but mostly Great Britain/Ireland. I haven't really ponified the names yet :U LOL. 

Her image is still a work in progress, hence the WIP watermark

Name: Moonshadow
Age: Young adult (approximately 24)
Sex: Female
Gender: Female
Race: Unicorn
Birthplace: Small harbouring town of Bridlington (fun fact: there is a real town called Bridlington in Great Britain)
Birth Date: December 16th 1798
Cutie Mark: arcane symbol of magic
Special Talent: Dark magic (not necessarily evil but certainly questionable)
Alignment: Lawful neutral

Pseudonym: Thistle Dew
Job: Gatherer of herbs for medicine/secret bounty hunter of rebellious dark unicorns
Current Residence: Kenmare, Ireland 

Brief back story:

The world outside was calm and serene, with not a single sigh of a breeze dared to disturb the piles of snow so content to rest in peace. Yet inside the small cabin home of a young unicorn mare of barely twenty was all chaos and blood. She panted and moaned, trotting around the tiny room only adorned with a bed and a stove. Her contractions were getting closer and closer yet there was still no sign of her beloved, let alone the midwife.

"Please!" she breathed harshly as though she were truly urging them on, looking out the window while she had a brief moment of relief. The fire in the stove was about to go out and she had neither the strength nor the desire to pile in more wood. Even her magic was too difficult to control. "Ah!" crying out with the wave of pain that clenched her belly, her instincts told her it was too little too late. If she were going to have this child, it would have to be now.

The young mother-to-be stamped her way to the mattress on the floor, carefully lowering herself down until she was laying on her side. The baby, she could feel, was eager to come out. "My child," she panted between spurts of sharp, cramping pain. "Darling, be kind..."

A few hours later the door burst open and an older Earth pony mare stumbled in, trailing in some snow with her dragging hooves. "Do not fret, my dear! I have arrived, I have arrived! Now then-" the older mare paused, her jaw dropping at the sight before her as she slowly shut the door from the cold. Laying on the bed was the unicorn mother, her bright white fur was dark with sweat as her long blue mane was disheveled and sticking out in all directions. The bed was stained with a mixture of blood and other various birth liquids while a newborn baby filly was nestled against her mother, who weakly and tenderly nuzzled her.

"Is she not the most beautiful girl?" the unicorn smiled weakly, watching the midwife as she walked over and sat beside the bed, setting down her bag of supplies gently.

"How can this be?" she frowned. "The child is not due for another few hours." it wasn't all that strange when a baby came before its time or even late, but this was a special circumstance.

"I guess she just did not want to be cooped up." with a gentle smile, she lay down her head on a pillow, taking a deep breath. The midwife carefully pulled the young filly towards her, inspecting her for possible deformities or health risks.

"Female," she started, scribbling down the information on a parchment for her birth certificate. "Unicorn. Eyes, red. Mane and tail, both of blue." scribble, scribble, scribble. The young mother sighed and rested. "Body, black." shivering, the old mare stood from her spot and abandoned her work for a short moment. It was getting cold and the fire had gone out not too long ago, from the looks of it. With all the sweat she had, the unicorn on the bed would soon be too cold to properly recuperate.

It took a bit of struggling but the midwife lit the fire, managing to throw on a hefty pile of wood. Hopefully it would last long enough; she was old, after all, and if it were not for the small population of the town she would have retired five years ago. Stoking a fire was one thing, but lifting the limited number of logs to the fire was hard on her frail body.

"I do not think I will make it."

The midwife paused, a chill running down her spine. Turning to face the mother on the bed, she noticed that the baby had found her mother's teat and at least could conjure some nutrients. But the mother's breath was raspy and slow, as laboured as the birth had been and the earth pony couldn't help but feel a pang of guilt. If only she had been there sooner- "Now, now, dear~" she cooed with a smile; she needed to be convincing. "Most mothers feel as though they have arrived at Death's door after their first birth. I promise you will be just fine. Let me have a look at you!" sauntering over, she sat once more before the other mare and began to write the birth certificate again. "December sixteenth, seventeen-ninety-eight. Time, four o'clock in the morning."

"Please..." the young mother breathed, her body wracked with a terribly shudder. "Tell him..."

"Moonbeam," she pleaded, fetching a cloth to wipe away the sweat from her brow. "You will be alright, I promise you."

"Please." Moonbeam closed her eyes as her final breath escaped her. The midwife stared in disbelief as memories of the first loss of a mother came to the forefront of her mind. However, the shock ended rather quickly and she moved to scoop the cooing babe from her dead mother, wrapping her in a fresh and warm blanket. Later, she would find it curious how not once did the child cry.

An hour passed and the door burst open rather abruptly. A large, cloaked stallion stood in the doorway with the morning sunrise behind him. He stepped in, conjuring a bright green essence of magic to shut the door and lower the hood. The world outside was waking to a brand new day, while the world inside the cabin was coming to an end.

No words were exchanged as the black stallion with the short green mane walked towards the covered corpse of his beloved. His knees trembled and his vision blurred with tears. "Moonbeam?" he chocked out, shrinking to the floor as he began to crawl towards her, his magic pulling back the sheet to view her face for one last time, despite what the midwife had to say about it. He barely even noticed, at first, the bundle beside her on the bed. The baby was hidden in the shadow of her late mother.

"Ahem." moments passed as the stallion grieved his loss, sobbing into the sticky mane of Moonbeam. He barely noticed as the midwife attempted to get his attention. "She needs a name."

"I beg your pardon?" he wheezed through his sobs, raising his gaze to the mare who just gestured to the bundle on the bed which held a tiny, sleeping filly. The stallion father peered into the shadow, carefully replacing the sheet over his late lover's face. With a few sniffles, he rose from the bed and walked around to the other side, sitting down and simply staring at the bundle of joy. Or, rather, that's how he knew he needed to feel. The grief of losing his beloved was proving to be too much, for he felt no attachment to the baby in the least. No matter how long he stared, not even when he tried to hold her, not even when he nuzzled against the squirming child did he feel nothing but emptiness and loss. He knew what he needed to feel and was afraid that he couldn't. It felt as though he lost everything in this night.

"Thunder?" the midwife called his name rather loudly. Apparently he hadn't heard her the first few times.

"Moon's shadow." he whispered.

"Pardon?"

"Her name." Thunder set down the baby, standing up and heading to the door. "Moonshadow." and with that, he fled. Before the earth pony could even ask him his intention, he was gone. She watched him run from the cabin, his cloak flailing behind him before he gathered enough energy to teleport away. Wherever he was, it was clear he was not coming back.

If any other pony had been there, they would have seen the old mare age by ten years from this morning alone. Yet with a shaking jaw she managed to write the name legibly on the paper. Moonshadow.

Within half an hour her bag was packed and the baby was tucked into the empty side of her satchel. She knew she needed to move as quickly as her old hooves could carry her, but she was exhausted. Exiting the cabin and making sure Moonshadow would stay warm for the journey, the old mare trudged her way through the snow and toward Bridlington. She would need to go immediately to the constable and report the death of Moonbeam and the desertion of Thunder Hooves, placing the child into the care of immediate family or (in the King's name hopefully not) an orphanage.

The sun was bright in clear blue sky. Seagulls hoverred by the docks as the early rising ponies began their work in the small town of Bridlington, unaware of the young mare's death and soon to be disappearance of a well respected apothecary pony.

----------end----------

BUH! That was long D: But yeah. XD I didn't bother to really edit it, sorry. The back story is just for my records :3 nothing too serious! However, I can give you some brief things about her life up until where she is now:

1. She was a child born in secrecy between Moonbeam and Thunder Hooves. However, Moonbeam's family of course knew of her condition but after much begging agreed to keep it to themselves. They moved from Buckton to Bridlington so that their daughter could be with the stallion she loved and apparently loved her, too. The baby was to be had in secret, for Thunder didn't want his family to know of the connection he made, and foolishly Moonbeam agreed. She loved him so dearly and trusted him wholly. Now, there is no denying that he did love her, though. The issue was his arranged marriage to a young mare from the largest farm suppliers to Bridlington. If the families could merge, much money could be made! And the potential for a business in the big city of London was enough to charge the batteries of love.

2. Thunder Hooves went on to marry the other mare after the death of Moonbeam and continues to deny fatherhood of Moonshadow. He never signed the birth certificate and there were enough stallions around to disprove the claims of likeness. Thunder was very immature and afraid. He would rather drag his beloved Moonbeam's name through the mud before tarnish his family. Once he married the young mare to whom he was intended, they both moved to London on a mission to gain riches. And they were successful.

3. Moonshadow was raised by her grandparents on her mother's side. They never let the events of her birth inhibit her from anything, such as going to school or even having friends. In fact, her mother's reputation died shortly after Thunder left the town, proving that it was mostly him causing the controversy he protested so much. She grew up in a fairly normal atmosphere and visited her mother's grave often. However, despite her grandparents trying to keep the old stories away, it was no secret what had happened to her father.

4. Cutie mark! Yay! Moonshadow got her cutie mark after an event in school that triggered a magical reaction. She and her fellow classmates were on a field trip to tour the first bank of Bridlington (est. 1802 like in real life) when one of the trickier ponies managed to get himself locked in a time-activated safe. The safe held many treasures of the ponies in town and was only able to activate at a certain time of day when the sunlight would react to a magical stone set atop the steel door that, when powered, made the door disappear. And alternate spell made it teleport-proof as well. As the ponies panicked, Moonshadow was struck with an epiphany that sent an inner shock wave of magic through her. She placed herself in front of the door, concentrating on the stone at the top. Gritting her teeth, her horn began to activate with magic. A bright blue light flickered at the tip a couple of times before the young filly sent a precise bolt of bright, white magic at the stone. The light magic was enough to trick the stone into believing it were day and the door disappeared. The young colt saw his opportunity and ran from the room as Moonshadow ended her spell and flopped onto the floor, panting from the effort. Soon she was surrounded by her classmates, gleefully impressed with her power as well as congratulations on her cutie mark. However, the older ponies around were more worried.

5. Moonshadow was sent to a new school the following week. Her cutie mark was representative of arcane magic, something that was forbidden in Equestria as well as the United Pony Kingdom (I'll work on that name). And so, she was sent to an academy for unicorns who showed exemplary talent in the magical arts, which was just a nice way of saying an academy for ponies who could be potential threats and needed to be trained properly under a sacred jurisdiction of unicorns who knew how to control their abilities.

6. It wasn't all bad, though. She showed great promise in healing spells but her talent for battle was severely frowned upon. Because this magic was banned, the treaty between the UPK and Equestria meant they had no use for her in the military. And if she were to go rogue, there was no telling the damage she could do. These old, cranky stallions were so focused on how bad she could be that they didn't seem to notice how good she was. The only stallion who seemed to care for her was a dusty old butt named Magi Grey Muzzle. (Magi being his title).

7. Grey Muzzle taught her personally, taking her under his metaphorical wing and teaching her what magic truly was.

8. In the year 1818, when Moonshadow was 20 years, she stilled studied in the academy. To give a brief back story on that, the academy in question is a single school that acts as an elementary school, high school, and college/university. Moonshadow was entering her years in the college degrees, graduation from her former class with honors. However, tragedy struck one month into her newer studies. She was woken in the night by her mentor in a panic, begging her to take what she had and leave the academy. There was not even a moment for her to ask why as he threw her a cloak and already packed saddle bag with enough supplies to last her in the wild for a few days, at least. Explosions began outside. Moonshadow donned the saddle bags and cloak, attempting in vain to ask him what was going on. Instead, he used his magic and levitated a piece of chalk into the air before drawing an elaborate symbol on her bedroom floor. "Stand within the lines and do not move until I tell you." he demanded, watching her carefully step inside. "Hurry!" once she was in, he joined the circle beside her, warning her to not panic as he cast a spell that transported them from her bedroom to an open field she didn't even recognize.

9. Up to date to recent picture days: Grey Muzzle left her to live in Kenmare, Ireland (which is a real place! Didn't have to pun it XD;; ). She lives now in a rather lovely town house, working part-time as a gatherer for the hospital, fetching rare plants used for medicine under the name Thistle Dew. However, she led a secret life with Grey Muzzle. While he never appeared at the town house, he often sent her letters concerning his daily life to assure his safety as well as often sending her missions. By night she was bounty hunting the rogue unicorns who betrayed and attacked the academy.

Character belongs to me, Chai-Wolf, Kim Wilson
MLP:FiM belongs to Hasbro and Lauren Faust

You do not have permission to copy, edit, trace, or otherwise reference this character/image for anything.