Linus Von Leiben

By Dust and Memories

• April 15, 2015




Age: 27

Gender: Male

Species: Unicorn

Appearance: A spontaneous, free-spirited soul, Linus moves fluidly and smoothly, but always with a sense of poise. Sometimes, you believe you're watching a ballet, whether dodging poisonous darts or actually on the dance floor. Usually, he has a smile or a smirk on his face; when he's wearing a smirk, you should watch out for his finely-honed and all too sharp sense of sarcasm. He has a pencil and a ruler alternating places behind his ears, half-buried in the tangled thicket of golden hair he attempts to tame every morning with the forceful application of a hairbrush; the perennial joke is that the pencil is there to give him a "classy" look, usually accompanied with a knowing grin, waiting for you to get the pun. Has a penchant for wild hand gestures to illustrate every point he makes, and will sometimes trip over his own hooves when really excited. The only time you'll find him serious outside of life-or-death situations is when he's writing or at the piano; and when he's focused and serious, it requires distinct effort to pull him away if he's not finished whatever he's doing, anything else be damned.<br /><br /><br />

Cutie Mark: A maroon and gold book embossed with a quill pen, situated on top of a compass rose.

Personality: Currently Writing; will complete very soon, followed by Adult Life and then anything else.

Backstory: Early Years:<br />Born in Muneighch, Germaney, to a middle-class family, Linus was the middle child of three. His two brothers, Franz von Leiben, now sixteen, and Theodore von Leiben, married with two foals and now thirty, overshadowed him in many ways, from Franz's unrelenting adorableness and later, painting expertise, to Theodore, the brilliant and studious colt groomed to be the heir to the family business. Over nine years, Linus became more and more adventurous, sneaking out of the house under the nose of his priest and entrepreneur father (Augustus von Leiben) and pianist mother (Beatrice von Leiben, neé Lake). On the tenth year, trekking across the streets of Muneighch, young Linus found what would be his three callings; adventure, writing, and piano. Linus, in between lessons with Sergei Cherenkov, (an old maestro retired from the Muneighch Orchestra), worked on a comprehensive map of the city. From the sewers to the highest rooftops, the young unicorn carried his paper and pencil, alternating between sketching the city and adding fantastical stories about towering Nazi robots, strikingly beautiful mares, and mysterious ancient artifacts in the margins. Linus colored his life in sweeping strokes, some of which would cover most of Europe.<br /><br />Adolescence:<br />When Linus was thirteen, he applied to the most famous orchestral school in the world at that time, the Russian Philharmonic Academy in Stalliongrad, with his family's reluctant blessing. After a tense wait, he was invited to audition; in itself a rare opportunity. His family saw him off at the train station; unknown to him, Linus would not see them again for several years more than he expected. On the train ride, he met several of the ponies whom would be his greatest rivals in the next years at the Academy; all talented, all rich, and all snobbish. Linus, from that moment on, resolved to prove them wrong, and with this conviction, went to the audition holding his sheet music tight in hoof. Linus was up last; after witnessing the superior performance of his classmates, he simply walked up to the stage, a comparatively short piece of music on the agenda (Trot's Prelude and Fugue in C Minor), and played like the prodigy he was, the ending flourish accompanied with the sound of furious applause, not just for his brilliant performance, but for the fact that when he stood back to bow, he had stood up from the bench with a new addition; that day, Linus earned his cutie mark. After a short discussion on the part of the judges, the final class choices were put up, and along with nine other colts and fillies, Linus had made it into one of the must competitive academies for the musically inclined in Europe. Needless to say, he was elated both at his acceptance and at his new cutie mark, though simultaneously realizing that this meant he would be taking his classes with the rich colts who had teased him on the train... For the next three years.<br /><br />Adult Life and Adventures:<br />Coming Soon to MLPF!<br />