Zephyr Stormwing

By Scribblegroove

• July 28, 2015
, No, Not Cast young stallion

Colored brightly red, Zephyr's coat is one of his most characteristic aspects. Along with his abnormally large wings, he becomes a sight to behold when he takes off into the sky. In fact, it's hard not to spot him when he's in the air. The rest of his appearance is rather unremarkable however. A simple sub-blonde mane and tail, and a slightly discolored muzzle are his final features.

 

Zephyr has a rather heavy build for a pegasus, lacking the inherent finesse and dexterity, whilst clearly showing a stronger and tougher build. This reflects upon his wings, which are larger and less flexible than most, but tougher and more muscular, being able to produce more lift, and withstand stronger currents without losing control.

 

(See picture for reference. His wings should be about 1.5x larger)

male Pegasus Stormwings cutiemark depicts 'the winged wind', his ability to fly very fast and high minimal effort by making use of the wind currents under his abnormally large wings, and predicting the wind like it is an extension of himself. Along with his endurance he can use this talent to remain at high altitudes comfortably for extended periods of time.

His talents are a result of his strange physique and powerful fortitude, allowing for a less agile but more tenacious means of flight. It was necessary for him to teach himself this unorthodox technique, and this also rooted his passion for weather prediction. https://buffy.mlpforums.com/067a80f120404a1c381fa7e108e69983.png

Stormwing is a little shy and awkward, and not the brightest, but he is very honest and has a good moral compass. He separates right from wrong very accurately. He can also empathise others really well, though he generally fails to use this talent since he lacks the social skills and wit. He simply doesn't know what to do with it.

 

Stormwing is very patient, and sometimes even a little slow, but if he works on one thing for a long time he eventually accelerates, similiar to the way he flies. This makes it a little hard to educate him, because he only starts to assimilate information really quickly when he's been busy doing it for a long time. Prolonged practice causes him to make great jumps in skill. He just takes his time to pick up the pace. This brings many strange situations. For instance if he were to be part of a conversation that constantly changed subject, he'd have trouble keeping track of what everypony is talking about.

 

Because of his strange physique, stormwing is very clumsy. He is wary of this, and feels embarrassed whenever somepony points out his large wings, though he likes receiving compliments about them.

 

Stormwing doesn't have many friends, and he doesn't mind being alone too much.

Likes: Being forced into social events, too many impulses, hyper ponies, headaches, reading, talking about himself

Stormwing grew up in cloudsdale as the son of an earth pony mountaineer and explorer, his father, and a high-ranking weather director, his mother. When Stormwing was born, it was already clear that there was something strange about him. His wings were already so large that he could wrap himself in them. At first this was seen as a good thing, because it warranted a really good flier. As he grew up however, his parents were disgruntled by his exponential growth, starting to grow to the size of his very large and strong earth pony father.

 

This became a real problem when he showed more interest in weather control. Stormwing wanted to be a weather pony, but to do that he had to be quick and agile. His large and stiff wings didn't allow for such maneuvers. Whenever the weather teams rolled out with Stormwing helping, they had usually finished the job when he'd finally gained enough altitude. It was a disappointment to him that he couldn't fulfil his aspirations as a weather pony, and his parents were saddened about this as well, but the thankfully managed to find a new way to utilise his talents.

 

One day, when he was playing in the clouds with his friends, they did a dare in who'd be able to fly the highest. Stormwing was hesitant at first, but once his friends had promised they would slow down the pace he accepted the challenge. They climbed higher and higher, far above the lower cloud decks. Two of his friends gave up at that point, saying that they'd rather rush over the clouds than spend all their energy ascending. With two more friends remaining, they entered the higher atmosphere with lower levels of oxygen. The third friend decided to stop, feeling light in the head, but being able to take the pressure. Then they entered the wild skies, uncontrolled by pegasi, with strong winds free to roam above the highest clouds, the sun high above in the clear blue. His final friend was knocked back down by the strong currents, but Stormwing managed to take control of the wind, using the knowledge he had acquired when he had studied to become part of the weather control. His breath was slow and steady, and his heartbeat controlled. He could stay up here easily and float on the wild winds. Alone with only the Sun to look down on him. He had found his element, and his talent.

 

However, he couldn't stay that high up in the sky for long. He had to get used to the lower amounts of oxygen. His first time in the wild skies ended in a fiasco because of this, because he almost fainted and fell down from an enourmous height. His friends were able to rescue him, catching him in his fall. This danger did not deter Zephyr from unlocking his true talent however. He spend a lot of time practicing meditative techniques and improving his endurance by flying for hours on end, making sure he kept his breath under control at all times. He even spent a few days on a few of the highest clouds he could find to meditate there and get used to the environment. Eventually he became strong and calm enough to fly in the wild skies for as long as he wanted. After all that training and hard work, he acquired his cutie mark.

 

He got a job as a courier rather quickly because of his great long-distance flying capabilities. He was very happy with this job, but his parents weren't. They told him that if he chose to do this, he'd have to do it on his own. He was relatively young when he left his family for adventure, stepping into the hoofprints of his father, exploring the world. His talent to make use of his large wings to fly along the strong air currents far above the clouds that the weather pegasi produce made him very popular for high priority packages.

 

Because of his large wings he could fly really fast, but he always accelerated really slowly and was very immobile, pretty much only being able to turn when air currents allowed it, usually flying in straight lines, tacking on the wind. This made him a very reliable and fast courier across the vast stretches of equestria.

 

He doesn't have a very strong connection with anypony, not even his parents. He doesn't hold a grudge against them either, but since he left them at a young age he doesn't connect with them that often. After becoming a courier he didn't have much time to visit them, and he grew up with several friendly ponies across Equestria teaching him interesting things and life lessons.

Stormwing is an excellent long-distance race pony, achieving great speeds over a long time, and being able to keep up that great pace through his strong endurance and fortitude.

 

Even though he left cloudsdale at a young age, he did study a lot on how weather and air currents worked to make his technique better. It wasn't a very extended study, but it interested him a lot, so he knows quite a lot about it.