Galatea

By ReverieRiver

• October 14, 2013




Age: 32

Gender: Female

Species: Earth Pony

Cutie Mark: A wrench and a screwdriver crossed over a steel cog. It represents Galatea's talent for engineering.<br /><br />Galatea has loved working with technology ever since she was a little filly: showing a penchant for tinkering with items, taking them apart and figuring out how they work. She obtained her cutie mark at an early age, when she was only seven years old, after she had created a simple wind-up toy from various parts she had found (her father being an engineer as well, he has some spare parts lying around; though she had to work to get some of them). Her parents liked to spoil her and afterwards did whatever they could to nurture this talent she had.

Personality: At first, Galatea tends to come off as a serious, no-nonsense mare. She prefers to focus on the task at hoof, and usually doesn't put up with any unnecessary antics while she's working - the reason for this being that she is prone to stress and knows it. She also has somewhat of a temper that tends to go off whenever she feels that she or somepony she cares about was wronged (or if she is bothered whilst feeling particularly stressed). <br /><br />On the other hoof, she has the mind of a scientist, as one might say; she questions everything, and she has an inherently strong sense of curiosity (which sometimes actually ends up overriding her own reasoning if she lets herself get caught up).<br /><br />In respect to other ponies, she does try to be polite and somewhat friendly towards others. But in forming friendships, it seems as if she always keeps a little emotional distance; let alone relationships, which she doesn't even entertain thoughts for.<br /><br />But at heart, she has the potential to be caring, loving even - however, that is reserved for very few ponies. She rarely opens her heart to others, instead maintaining that polite demeanor of hers, all the while denying that somewhere deep inside, she feels as if something's missing.

Backstory: Galatea was born and once resided in what would be considered the future of Equestria - 500 years in the future, to be more precise - as it is known today. She was born to a wealthy family that granted her all she could ever want or need. But when a civil war* broke out - the unicorns against the Earth Ponies and pegasi - it placed a financial strain on everypony, including Galatea's family. When making ends meet became harder and harder to do, Galatea (still only a filly at the time) was sent away to live with her aunt across town who was somewhat better off financially.<br /><br />During her high school years, Galatea met a pegasus stallion named Chrome Spirit. She fell head over hooves for him, and he, touched by the sincerity of her emotions, soon fell for her. They became a couple, and remained together even after they both graduated. Galatea was happy, and had even begun to have thoughts of marrying and starting a family with Chrome Spirit. However, all it took was 24 hours for everything to fall apart.<br /><br />It began with a phone call one night. Galatea received the horrible news that her mother, a mare that had always been a delicate soul, had passed away from illness. She barely had time to recover from the shock; the very next day, the police found her to identify a body. The body belonged to Chrome Spirit. He had been ambushed out on the street the previous night by a small group of unicorns that had managed to slip past the night guards that patrolled the area. As it turned out, these unicorns were part of an elusive group that plotted their revolution against technology in the shadows - the very group that had sparked the civil war to begin with. Some of those in this group, like the ones that had attacked Chrome Spirit, were so zealous as to attack any pony that didn't align with their extreme beliefs.<br /><br />It was too much for Galatea to bear. She crumbled, her spirit crushed. And afterwards, when she managed to pick up the pieces of herself, she stayed at the lab she worked for and started working virtually non-stop to escape the pain. She stopped only rarely to eat or tend to other physical needs, and slept at her work area only when she was utterly exhausted.<br /><br />She poured all of her energy into one ambitious project. Day in and day out, she worked, until finally her ultimate creation came to life: A fully sentient robot pony with a conscience, with emotions and the ability to learn - a robot pony which she came to call Nano. Galatea, satisfied with her work and completely drained of energy, slept peacefully for the first time in months.<br /><br />The next morning, she woke refreshed, and craved some fresh air; she hadn't had a taste of that in a long while. So she went outside for a little walk, wrapping a cloak around herself to fend off the winter chill. While on this walk, she discovered a somewhat shocking sight. There, on the sidewalk, was a small unicorn filly, starving and shivering in the cold. Galatea, overcome with sympathy and pity, immediately took the filly back to her home.<br /><br />The filly's name was Ariel. She was only eight years old, and Galatea was unable to find out why the filly was out on the street in the first place. Either way, Galatea took care of Ariel. At first, she tried to find Ariel's parents, but with no luck. Then she tried finding another home for the filly, but no one would take her; the foal was too timid, too nervous for most prospective parents' tastes. So Galatea adopted Ariel herself, and soon began to love Ariel as if the little filly were her own daughter. Even Nano took a liking to Ariel as they developed a relationship similar to that between siblings.<br /><br />However, there was one slight problem. Ariel suffered from mental illness, due to a defect she was born with, and it only worsened with time. Galatea desperately sought a solution - but even in the future, doctors still struggled to fully comprehend the nature of the mind, and there was nothing they could do for Ariel.<br /><br />Over the course of ten years, Ariel's mental condition continued to gradually decline, bits of her sanity slowly slipping away... until there was none left to lose. On the day that Ariel went insane, she unleashed chaos upon Galatea and Nano's world. She let vicious Diamond Dogs into the lab by some irrational whim Galatea has yet to figure out to this day.<br /><br />Galatea was shocked, scared and confused. But she had to do what she had to do. She tackled down Ariel, who was about to literally take Nano apart piece by piece, after which she pushed Nano into a one-time-use emergency teleporter that would take him to safety. Not long after that, she was captured by the Diamond Dogs.<br /><br />Galatea still isn't sure why the Diamond Dogs kept her rather than kill her, although she believes it was because they wanted to keep her as a pet. She was kept in a cage and fed scraps by the Dogs, just enough to keep her alive. They laughed at her suffering. <br /><br />For a period of time, all Galatea could do was reflect upon her life up until that point. Her biggest regret was that she hadn't been able to help Ariel. She took the blame upon herself for what Ariel had done, convinced that she could have helped the young mare's mental condition somehow; she felt that she had failed Ariel in failing to do so. Wracked with guilt and sorrow, she often wept silently when she was alone. In this time, her only comfort was that she knew Nano was somewhere safe - and even then, she desperately wished to see him again.<br /><br />But one day, she suddenly realized that she didn't want to spend the rest of her days trapped in the Diamond Dogs' cage, withering from malnourishment and self-pity. And so she began devising a way to freedom.<br /><br />It wasn't that hard to outsmart the Dogs. They were dim-witted creatures. All she had to do was play dead, and wait until they came in to investigate - and then she made a run for it. Her body was exhausted, her energy minimal... but all she needed to do was outrun those slow, muscle-bound creatures. They were too dumb to figure out where she went after she left their line of sight, and she had been able to confound their scent tracking by masking her own scent. <br /><br />After she got free from her captors, she returned to the lab; it was a mess, torn up by the Diamond Dogs from the earlier incident, but most of the equipment was still functional. It was enough for her to do what she felt she needed to do. She began seeking a way to track Nano down, so she could be with him - her creation, her son - once more. Eventually, she found that he was in present-day Ponyville. She built a device to teleport herself there, and thus she leaped through the portal and ended up in Ponyville. Little did she know, though, that somepony had followed her...