Dust Devil

By TerminalObsession

• May 30, 2016

Age: ~19

Gender: Female

Species: Pegasus

Appearance: Physically, appears to be an earth pony, lacking wings of any kind, or even stubs. <br /><br />Has a moderate, dull tan coat. Her short, poofy mane is a dull, darkened shade of aquamarine. Against the sky, it seems tan and translucent. Her eyes are a light apple green. Dust has a light build and thin frame, and small, brown spots on her shoulders that are invisible unless looked at closely.<br /><br />Dust Devil normally wears a brown cloth harness like the ones used to pull carriages. Attached to its shoulders are two round, brass plates, curved slightly so that they fit well and don't move. Etched into each plate is the outline of a pegasus wing in flight. When flying, her 'wings' are only vaguely wing-shaped, made of translucent yellow light and coming directly from her shoulder plates.<br /><br />She normally wears thickly brass-rimmed flight goggles on her forehead.

Cutie Mark: A tornado of a shade of tan slightly darker than her coat. It is pierced by a yellow lightning bolt. It superficially represents Dust's ability to handle weather, particularly the wind and dust storms that are common in her hometown.<br /><br />She can both summon and stop dust storms, with a little effort.

Personality: Dust Devil is headstrong. When she sets her mind to something, she tends to work tirelessly at it until her goal is accomplished. This same determination makes her hopelessly stubborn. Deterring her or changing her opinion is surprisingly difficult.<br /><br />She's also defiant and passionate. She follows her own personal moral code and has no qualms about breaking others' rules for it. Telling her to do something generally has the effect of making her do the exact opposite, and she generally ignores others' opinions of her.<br /><br />Dust has no problem doing practically anything to get her way. Thankfully, her motivations are usually altruistic or harmless. However, when she gets an idea in her head (right or wrong), she'll follow it to ridiculous extents. Dust doesn't believe in diplomacy, instead using her raw ability to prove herself superior. This often gets her into trouble.<br /><br />Being rather crude, Dust has never really pursued romantic interests, though she's more than willing to put herself out for the masses, as much for her personal pride as for altruism.

Backstory: Dust was born in Appleoosa to an earth pony farmer and a weather worker. Though she worked on the farm when she was younger, she never showed any skill or desire for growing apples, instead preferring to watch her mom and the other pegasi at work. She'd always admired them, and was a huge Wonderbolt fan as a filly. Her only regret was that she wasn't a pegasus. <br /><br />But she felt like she could be. That was when she started having a defiant streak.<br /><br />Fiercely determined, Dust started reading everything she could about pegasi. Though her mom was fine with this, her father was constantly nagging her to help with her chores. She ignored him, for the most part. She'd never really disliked him, they simply disagreed on work ethics and such.<br /><br />Though she was always interested in pegasi, Dust Devil never realized their importance to her until after she'd gotten her cutie mark. She'd gone out to watch the weather team dispel a particularly strong (if small and self-contained) dust storm. However, she had gotten too close and was soon lost in the swirling dust. Following a whim, or perhaps a hunch, she started to run straight into the storm, despite its fury.<br /><br />She ran straight into the wind and dust for hours, or maybe it had been a few seconds. She wasn't sure. All she knew was that she had to keep going into the wind.<br /><br />Something changed.<br /><br />She hadn't been sure what it was at the time, but the wind seemed to lose its fury. With the ease of a boat on a wave, she broke through the dust storm and ran into the sunlight. The storm settled into spilling dust as she jumped and laughed.<br /><br />It wasn't until later that she realized she'd gotten her cutie mark. Remarks about how she might get onto the weather team inspired her. Filled anew with determination, Dust Devil researched what made pegasi tick until she passed out. It was the same for quite a while.<br /><br />Eventually, new knowledge in hoof, she made her first wing prosthetic plates out of wood. She astounded her fellow foals with a brief airshow, even if her crude plates made her awkward and one failed in midair, causing her to crash.<br /><br />She has continued refining their design and working on the Appleoosan weather team ever since.