Gold Rush

By Raven Rawne

• April 12, 2017

Age: 27

Gender: Female

Species: Non-Pony

Appearance: <p> A batpony mare, Gold Rush is averagely built, maybe a little bit more padded in places than usual, but by no means fat. She sports the trademark, slate grey coat of her kin, paired with ruby red mane and tail. The tail is long and straight, nearly reaching to the ground, while the mane is kept short, with pointed bangs and trimmed back. She has lemon yellow eyes, covered by sunglasses when she comes out durig the day, and her wings have a reddish tint to them. As all bat ponies, Gold Rush has a pair of small fangs that stick out of her mouth. </p>

Cutie Mark: <p> A busted padlock, looks like broken in half, with a keyhole in the middle. </p> <p> It symbolises her passion and drive to "break the locks", or simply put, to overcome obstacles and reach her goals with sheer determination and boundless confidence. She just doesn't take failure into account. Everypony who knows her can confirm that she's like a locomotive fuelled by gunpowder. </p>

Personality: <p> True to her name, Golr Rush is always first. First to be born, and staying ahead till then. She's a leader type, setting her eyes on a prize and pursuing it, even if takes a lot of effort. Confident andshameless, she will use every leverage, even her own charm, to get what she wants. When she walks into a bar, it;s in a way hat others notice - Gold Rush doesn't mind attention and feels good in the spotlight, even if her work is usually far away from it.  She keeps a ladylike, or at least, what her shameless self presumes as ladylike, attititude, acting like a noble who she thinks she is. Which is hilarious, because of already mentioned confident shamelessness, and the factthat he seems to only vaguely grasp what "personal space" is. Still, brushing against another pony like a total flirt makes it easier to reach their wallets so better hold on to the shinies when she's around! </p> <p>   </p> <p> So she's an overconfident noble wannabee with a snarky wit? How cliche! Sure, but that's not all there is to her, right? She has depths! Or so she's been told. Gold Rush enjoys parties and likes to dance, and just loves to express herself through "batpony singing" - screeching is a primitive form of long distance communication that allows to express emotions and basic information, but it's also an art form in the batpony society. Screeching serenades are common when expressing love and affection, since the recipient can easily tell if the feeling is true. Second Wind says she could be a succesful singer among bat pony audiences, but she keeps her hobby to herself and "sings" privately. Gold likes to listen to music, but, unlike her brrother, opts for rock and metal as much more powerful genres. She's not much of a reader, but when she does pick a book, it's usually a gothic horror novel or something along the lines. She needs passion and powerful emotions in her entertainment. Oddly enough, she also writes anonymous letters to the Police to notify them of rival gang activity, and is an active member of the local community, which earned her good rep amongst the neighbours.  </p>

Backstory: <p> Born and raised in Hollow Shades, the largest bat pony colony in Equestria proper, if you rule out the underworld colonies in the Badlands that is. daughter of working class family of agricultural workers, tending to the huge treess providing shade that keeps the town in eternal gloom, and rare fruit both. Fraternal twin with her brother, Second Wind, she's older by a single hour. She keeps reminding him that he's "Second" for a reason. As the more outgoing one, she's the speaker of the pair and leads the way, often dragging her brother along till she likes it on his own. Not that he's complaining, or at least she didn't hear anything of the sort. Even if they seem to be bickering all the time, she cares about him a whole lot, and the arguments are just their way of talking and none have bad feelings about it. Only natural when two snarkers try to beat each other in sarcasm. </p> <p> Growing up in Hollow Shades was peaceful enough, with occasional stir. She was average in school, only really good in what she deemed interesting, and stealing homework from Second Wind when she didn't feel like doing it herself. The siblings kelt together at school and well into adult life, so, even though she could, she didn'd make a group of friends of her own but rather had mutual friends with Second. She's too intense for some ponies anyway.  </p> <p> Back to major life events, she earned her Cutie Mark together with her brother, when they broke in to an abandoned manor in the woods after hearing the story from their uncle, who claimed that their family descended from the nobles who lived there, but wasted their fortune on all kinds of selfish ends. Both young ones got so inspired by the thought that they're nobles that they try to find the evidence for that to this day, occasionally diving into libraries and official records. But back to the break-in: she was the force that led to the event, and mobilised Second to help her. Being the more up close and personal type, she led the expedition and didn't take closed doors for an answer. She just broke them down to see what's on the other side. The mark appeared after they got back home, knowing they succeeded. </p> <p>   </p> <p> By a twisted hand of fate, they gained their marks by tresspassing, and later got into locksmithing. Her Mark sure matched the profession, but her attitude, not exactly. Nopony wants to pay a locksmith for breaking down the door or blowing up the safe, right? She had to larn some patience and self restraint, but er stubborness became some sort of a legend, after she spent three hours straight picking a client's lock until she did it. In a town covered in eternal gloom, losing keys was quite common, so the siblings didn't sit idle. Plus, as licensed professionals, they could have lockpicks legally - something that came very useful after they decided to to move to Manehattan. </p> <p>   </p> <p> When they were 21, the twins, or more truthfully, Gold Rush, decided that they won't get rich and reclaim their ancestral home by opening doors in Hollow Shades. They had some savings, so they took a leap of faith and moved to Manehattan, into a cheaper, and as it turned out, shadier part of the metropolis, where they rented a place to open their shop, "No Keys - No Problem!". Life in the brightly lit city was difficult at first, but thick blinds and sunglasses proved enough to give them a measure of comfort. Soon afer moving in and opening the business, there was an incident when a pony came in for "protection money". Gold Rush saw an opportunity, and instead of paying up, demanded to see the boss and offer them a deal - opening locks for protection and pay. The gang couldn't pass on this offer, and soon after, shady figure started making house calls to open up things that most certainly didn't belong to them. They were safe and well paid, making more from "favours" than honest work, but she wasn't satisfied - manors and titles are expensive, after all! So the mare took another leap and dived deeper into Manehattan crime, raising the stakes and her own prestige, till she started taking part in high reward burglaries with her trusty lockpicks, and the loyal brother, and the other gang members called her "Countess". She doesn't have reservations like her brother has, so robbing a bank owner's house is a breeze for her, same as pickpocketing a rich kid who dosed off, drunk, in a back alley </p>