Cliff Chaser

By . eris .

• April 2, 2013




Age: 21

Gender: Male

Species: Pegasus

Appearance: Cliff Chaser is a strong, well-built pegasus with a thick forelock of ice-blue mane hanging into his amber eyes. He’s a bit scruffy about the jaw and his golden brown eyes are decidedly lazy, and he as a mussed tail that he often twitches to get attention from fillies. His coat is a rich, stunning cerulean color, exactly the color of high noon, and his wingspan is certainly impressive. Cliff is a bit shorter than most stallions his age, but he’s stockier, with a thick chest that makes cloud-bashing easy. There is a scar across his left cheek, bright pink against his dark coat.

Cutie Mark: His cutie mark is a snow-capped mountain, which he is exceptionally fond of. The day he received his cutie mark was an unforgettable day: Cliff had been racing a few other pegasus colts around Cloudsdale, and had seen a distant twinkle out of the corner of his eye. It turned out to be the glitter of snow on a far-off mountain, and when he mentioned it to the other colts, he was soon dared to touch the mountain and fly back. He didn’t even consider saying no, and took off for the glittering snow without a word. Soon, Cloudsdale was out of sight. Once he reached the mountain, breathing hard and blinded by the glaring sunlight against the frigid snow, his cutie mark had appeared on his flanks. He returned with his wings covered in ice and a triumphant grin on his face as he shook the snow off his coat onto his amazed playmates. There is no challenge he will back down from, even to this day.

Personality: If you can’t tell already, Cliff is quite the daredevil. He will not refuse any challenge and hasn’t yet found the limits to his courage. This was often exploited when he was younger, as his friends would often dare him to do risky or impossible things; because of this, he bears the scars and broken bones of a rough-and-tumble childhood. The scar on his cheek was due to a dive he couldn’t pull out of in time, when his friends dared him to take the weathervane from the Ponyville Town Hall without getting caught. He came back with the weathervane, but also a broken wing and a bleeding cheek. However, these many injuries haven’t given him any sense of wisdom – if anything, they’ve made him even more brash and cocky about his abilities. <br /><br />He’s also very flirtatious. There’s no filly who’s off limits, unless they’re related, and even then there’s a bit of harmless teasing. He hasn’t yet settled on a “type”, as he’ll really chase after any filly who shows interest. At the same time, he’s never committed to any one filly, and mares usually know that when they get involved with him. Unfortunately, over the years his confidence towards athleticism has steeped into his confidence towards mares; therefore, he’s more than a bit arrogant when it comes to flirting with fillies. Having a mare shut him down has never happened before, and he’s positive it never will. As far as he’s concerned, he’s Celestia’s gift to mares everywhere. <br /><br />With that flirty attitude comes a deeper sense of protection towards family members. His sister, Cloud Chaser, is his best friend in the world, and while she’s just as tomboyish as any other pony, he often finds the need to defend her. His trust and respect needs to be earned, otherwise he’ll lump you into that careless ‘acquaintance/friend-with-benefits’ category. When it comes to family, he’ll defend his rather dysfunctional family through thick and thin, and you’d better not badmouth them or you’ll find yourself pinned to a cloud within seconds. He also cannot sympathize with ponies who have bad families; in his mind, a family cannot be bad or messed up, it’s simply a family, and you must stay loyal to your family above all else.

Backstory: His family is sorely dysfunctional – by all standards, they’re a very selfish family. His father, Thunder Chaser, was a Wonderbolt athlete for many years. Unfortunately, a risky trick sent Thunder Chaser plowing into the ground, where his left wing was irreparably damaged. Bitter and defensive, Thunder spent the rest of his life yearning for what he had been, and what his career could have been like. Cliff was his only son, and the only child Thunder showed any love or affection towards, but for purely selfish reasons – his daughter wasn’t as fast of a flier and showed no interest in racing. Cliff was supposed to have the career Thunder missed out on, and Cliff spent most of his childhood being trained by his father. <br /><br />But then came the rebellious teenage years: Cliff resented his father being so focused on his career and nothing else, and put the pieces together that his father was living through him. He stopped entering races and quit training to spite his father, and the two of them argued bitterly. Thunder tried to kick his son out of the family, but Cliff wouldn’t leave his mother and sister behind, so the four of them stayed in a brooding, argumentative household for several years. In order to get back at his son, Thunder started rebuilding connections with his long-neglected daughter, Cloud Chaser, who by that time would have nothing to do with her father. It took another year to build trust back up, but Cloud Chaser finally started training again to sate her father’s thirst for a challenge. <br /><br />Cloud Chaser became quite good at racing, making Cliff both jealous and proud of her. He missed his father’s attention, and wanted it back, but wouldn’t stoop to apologize. Cloud Chaser went into her father’s arrangement with a wiser head on her shoulders: She knew her father was just using her abilities to try and relive his career, and she truly did want his attention. It was a good deal for the young filly, and Cliff often laid away at night, wishing he could make peace with Thunder Chaser and their family could resolve their issues.<br /><br />But for now, they’re lumping along, the model family on the surface. Only the family itself knows how messed up they really are, but all of them are too proud to let any other pony know.