Post by Moxie on Jul 15, 2015 14:53:05 GMT
Name: Moxie Foxfeather
Age: 26
Gender: Mare
Species: Pegasus
Place of Birth: Cloudsdale
Location of Home: Current: Camp New Hayven Past: Moxie's treehouse inside the Everfree Forest
Occupation: Currently: Perimeter Patrol & Cavern Explorer Previously: Painter of the forest for spring and fall with the magic of unicorn paint.
Allegiance: To the princesses (even if they are gone, she still believes in their vision of Equestria)
Relationship Status: Single
Mane: Long curled brown hair with lime green streaks running through it.
Coat: Light yellow
Eyes: Bright green
Living Relatives: Genesee Rover, Wild Range, the rest are possibly dead - uncertain.
Skills: In this new world of war, Moxie has found a talent for thinking quickly on her hooves as well as acting as a voice of reason in the refugee camp.
Faults: Moxie can be stubborn and quick to act without permission. She is used to living in the woods by herself and doesn't always do well in a role expected to follow others. She is also a terrible cook.
Equipment: Moxie always has a saddlebag with her spring and fall unicorn paints inside (her quantities of these have become very small since the defeat of Celestia and Luna and being forced to relinquish most of her healing spring paint to Camp New Hayven for injured refugees upon arrival). She has also begun to carry a dagger in her bags for protection now and has experience training with it. She dreads taking it out, knowing its capabilities to inflict harm and refuses to use a weapon any larger or more dangerous.
History: Raised in Cloudsdale, Moxie started out her youth knowing only the company of other pegasi and her mentally ill and possessive mother. As a filly, she often had new ideas of ways to clear the skies, of ways to make rainbows, or even ways to form the clouds. But her ideas were always seen as unnecessary or far-fetched. Even though she would try some ideas out and they worked, they were ignored or put down by her mother, who never liked the idea of change.
Moxie lead a rather solitary life, going from school and quickly back to home, never bringing friends home in worry that her mother would become jealous. Silly as it may sound, Moxie's mother could not stand the idea of her enjoying other ponies' company more than what she could provide, and often lashed out in unpredictable ways if Moxie's attention was with another. Never fully understanding her mother's schizophrenic and passive aggressive behavior, Moxie learned to be ever cautious of what might set the mare off. Because she loved her mother and only wanted her to be happy, she sadly sacrificed the notions of ever bonding deeper with other foals.
Having nopony to really talk to besides her mother, and often left to find entertainment on her own, Moxie became a vivid day dreamer and obsessed over the contents of a small box her mother kept by her bedside. Careful to avoid being caught, Moxie would often look into the box at two mysterious items in particular. This first was a lone, faded golden feather that didn't match her mother's pale yellow fur or her own. She had often seen her mother with the feather at night, staring at in her hooves, lost in thought. It filled Moxie with unbearable curiosity about what her mother was thinking and who the feather belonged to.
As mysterious as the feather was, Moxie's thoughts were more often pulled to the second item in the box. Faded with shredded corners from being held over the years, the box contained an old picture of of her mother standing with a dark brown stallion, who she could only guess was her father, and by their side, a small brown and tan colt.
Moxie had a brother. An older brother. But her mother would neither discuss it or try to convince her otherwise. Moxie had begun to recall fleeting memories of the colt the moment she first saw the picture. By the sixth time she had snuck a peek at the photo in the box, she had remembered his name. Ranger. She tried to ask her mother if she had a brother with that name, but her attempts had ended in verbal abuse for asking and a cold shoulder for 5 straight days afterwards. Lesson being learned, Moxie fell to her over-active imagination to try to answer the questions burning inside her. Daily she would envision herself finding her long lost brother and doing all the things she could recall them doing together again. Seldom did she walk home from school and not waste every moment daydreaming about the way he might talk or joke with her. And maybe her father would be there too. If he still wanted her of course.
A day came when Moxie began to realize that every memory she had of Ranger had placed them in a dense forest. It became clear that if she was to see her brother again, she would have to descend down from Clousdale against her mother's wishes, and search for him in the woods of Equestria. But there were forests everywhere across the land.... where was she supposed to look first?
When Moxie was about 11 years old, and her wings were beginning to strengthen into maturity, she overheard a brood of traveling mares discussing a crazy stallion that lived in the Everfree on his own. Thoughts immediately going to her brother, Moxie edged closer to hear more of what the mares had to say. After listening for several more moments of the gossipy mares' chatter, they began to describe the forest wanderer in more detail. Brown hair, lighter brown almost tan fur, brilliant blue eyes.... Memories of the caring blue-eyed colt that had once caught a frog just to show her flooded Moxie's mind. It was him. She knew it was. It simply had to be.
Moxie wasted no time. Setting off without telling her mother where she was going or when she would return, Moxie took both the feather and the picture to show the pony in the woods. She knew that going back home eventually would not be pretty, but right now it didn't matter. She flew her heart out to reach the Everfree Forest and began to search for the landmarks the mares had talked about seeing during their encounter with the strange colt. After searching long and hard, her quest paid off. Moxie found her long lost brother.
Their reunion triggered something inside of Moxie. For the first time in her life, she began to feel at home. The woods, though they were dark and full of dangerous creatures, felt safe and welcoming. Compared to what she knew her whole life in Cloudsdale, this place was filled with wonder, and to Moxie, was perfect.
Days went by and Moxie refused to go home. Ranger took Moxie to reunite with their father, Genesee Rover, on the edge of the Everfree Forest where Genesee lead a nomadic herd of earth ponies. After a celebrated reunion, Genesee revealed the secrets behind the items Moxie had carried away with her, leaving both Ranger and Moxie with more questions than they had come with and a different view on the world. Moxie made up her mind that she was never returning to Cloudsdale in light of everything she now knew. Understanding her decision, Ranger took Moxie back with him into the Everfree Forest and set to the task of showing her how to live off the earth and take care of herself as well as the woods around her.
As the season's passed, Moxie began to see the problems that plagued the wild forest. With such extreme and unregulated weather, and with no ponies to naturally intervene, the Everfree forest's plantlife bloomed well into the fall, never dropping its leaves in time for Winter's arrival. When the snow came, the weight of the accumulated flakes bent and snapped hundreds of branches from their trunks, shocking and many times killing the tree, demolishing creature's dens, smashing plants and sending out poisonous spores into the air, and cluttering the ground with dangerous splintering bark that could puncture a pony's chest. The Forest was a hostile yet predictable environment in the summer, but the winter was at a different level.
To make matters worse, the winter hung in the Everfree for far longer than it should. Even though spring was in full bloom across Equestria, the Forest remained in it's dormant state. The trees had not prepared for the winter by receding to their dormant states and diminishing the water supply stored in their trunks, and not they were frozen through. The time it would take to thaw placed the Everfree's spring at the beginning of the rest of Equestria's Summer. It made for a miserably long winter, and Moxie had seen enough problems by the end of it to wish to do something about it.
Ranger's time in the Everfree was complete and he prepared to move on to another forest. To his surprise, his young sister said that she would be staying and said her goodbyes to him. She loved her brother and would never keep him from his mission of helping every forest in Equestria, but now she felt her purpose was to stay put and make a difference in the forest that had been the only place she had ever felt home in.
Her brother parted ways and Moxie set to the task of studying the EverFree in the summertime to try to find a plan for the impending winter ahead. During Moxie's summer of experimentation and investigation, she happened upon an abandoned baby red fox who took to her like she was it's mother. Unwilling to leave such a young and sweet animal on its own in such an unforgiving place, Moxie happily accepted it's company and named him Forest. They became great inseparable companions and shared an amazing Everfree summer with each other.
By the time Fall was beginning to creep its way across the land, Moxie had thrown out countless ideas and plans to help the forest. It had become increasingly obvious that the task was something bigger than any pony could do on their own without the help of a greater magic..... magic. Magic was what Moxie believed was the cornerstone to finding a solution to the Everfree's problem. Spending countless nights writing out possibilities and pushing the limits on what she knew about unicorn magic, Moxie had devised a hypothesis of a system that just might be crazy enough to work. But it wasn't something she could do by herself. In fact, the idea was so crazy and unheard of she came to the decision that the only way it was going to even be feasible was if she somehow won the help of the princess sisters. And so, the ever persistent mare set to work on drawing up her plans to present to the princesses. How she would weasel her way into the palace she had no idea.... but that would just have to be figured out later.
Fall was beginning to get into full swing by the time Moxie entered the gates of Canterlot, layden with schematics and idea proposals to present to the royal sisters. Time was of the essence and she wasted none of it to rest before heading on to the palace. Greeted by guards at its doors, the ragged and very young forest mare was heavily questioned about her purpose for wishing to speak with the princesses. Her age and appearance discrediting her reasons for an audience, Moxie was quickly loosing hope that her mission would be a success, when the doors to the palace opened unexpectedly. Exiting the chambers within were the two royal sisters, who soon found Moxie held up by guards in their path. Seeing the fear in the young mare's eyes, Celestia dismissed the guards and questioned the pegasus as to why she was seeking their attention.
Grasping on the the best chance she would ever get, Moxie quickly dove straight into what she had come for. Flinging open her large schematics and plan flow charts across the stone floor of the palace's door steps, the young pegasus began explaining the plight of the Everfree to both Celestia and Luna. Though she had never spoken to or even seen the princesses in person before in her life, Moxie's passion for the forest carried her on and pushed aside the nerves and dread of rejection in her stomach. By the end of her explaination of the forest's problems, Moxie had the princess's attention.
Celestia and Luna exchanged a look only the two of them could understand, and the princess of the night prompted Moxie about what it was that she wanted to be done about such a large problem. The question filled Moxie with hope and butterflies all at the same time. Quickly pulling out the plan she had been contemplating for weeks, Moxie held out the paper of the two items she would need the princess's help to manufacture. Unicorn paint. A paint that would store concentrated magic of two different mixtures. One that's magic would stimulate warmth, strength, and growth for spring, and another that magic would stimulate dormancy for the fall.
The princesses were both amused and moved by the young mare's passion and thoughtful, out of the box thinking. After a few moments of contemplation, Celestia announced that they would do what they could to prepare such a concoction for the ambitious filly.
Filled with joy and excitement, Moxie waited patiently as Celestia set some of the most talented unicorns to work on mixing the two magical paints. Many tests and trials finally resulted in two products that were largely experimental, but the unicorns had confidence that they would give the results the little mare had desired. Her magic paint created as she had requested, it was now up to Moxie to hold up her end of the deal.
Taking the paints back to the Everfree with her, Moxie had only a few weeks before the Everfree's winter would begin. The unicorns had given her three cans for the fall, each one containing a swirl of reds and oranges. Moxie dipped her wings into the paint, while Forest dipped his tail. Wasting no time, Moxie ran hard, giving her wings the lift they needed to propel her high into the sky. Forest ran along the forest floor taking cues from Moxie as she soared above. Giving the signal to Forest, she began to spiral through the air, the paint on her wings raining out onto the trees below her. Forest lashed his tail as he ran, hitting the leaves tucked under the trees. The two companions continued this, until the whole forest was painted in its fall colors and the magic of the paint had begun to affect the trees. Each tree struck with the paint now began its systematic preparation to enter dormancy for the upcoming winter. As Moxie spun the last bit of paint down to the leaves below, she felt a sense of peace and accomplishment she had never felt before. Her flanks began to glow, and her cutie mark appeared. She knew this is where she was meant to be.
When winter came that year, the forest was prepared. The weight of the snow merely stripped the trees of their weakened leaves, allowing the branches to remain strong and unweilding against the weight or the snow. The animals of the forest's homes where safe, and the forest was a better place with Moxie in it.
Now Moxie continues her method of bringing winter to the forest, and spreads her spring paint during the beginning of Spring to bring in the season on time. The Canterlot unicorns continue to supply her and improve upon the magical unicorn paint. The royal princesses have even given Moxie they're blessing to be the forest's voice within their palace. Some ponies say Moxie is the spirit of the forest, in the life she brings it, and the beauty she creates in it.
Note: Moxie has two types of unicorn paint that have been perfected by the unicorns of Canterlot. However, due to the onset of war, her supplies are severely limited. Originally she used them to help the forest and to keep herslef save in the Everfree, now she uses them to defend herself and other camp members as well as to help heal the severely injured.
The first kind is the unicorn paint for bringing in Spring:
(a lively mixture of bright greens and evergreen blues)
This paint has the power to activate re-budding or heal an entire forest or pony. It has the ability to give the strength of a forest to a pony for a short amount of time, because of the unique properties it has for strengthening the forest from harsh winters. With ponies it is used by Moxie as a last resort to heal and have the strength to defend one's self to get away. In unicorns specifically, the magic in the paint CAN be absorbed into their magic reserve to resupply magic, but at the cost of removing the additional strength benefit (if the magic is absorbed, it can only heal so much before it is totally absorbed into the horn, thus it has to be a conscious decision by the unicorn of how much to absorb and how much to leave to heal wounds). Some ponies abuse the strength given, however, and use it to fight but may find themselves in a bad position when it wears off after an hour.
The second kind of unicorn paint is for bringing in the Fall:
(a shimmering mixture of bright reds, oranges, and yellows)
Moxie does not bring this one out for defense much at all, it isn't her style of defending herself, but of course she uses it each year to bring in fall to the forest. The effect it has on the forest is much like signaling to the trees that it is time to kill off their leaves in order to prepare for winter. It is a natural effect the trees bounce back from in the Spring, however, on ponies it is not something their bodies are used to at all. When a pony is painted purposefully with this paint, it will begin to tell the body to shut down internal organs, but like a tree it will not die, but become extremely weakened and feel close to death. The effects wear off after an hour once the paint completely absorbs in the body, but can potentially cause terrible long term effects on the organs without treatment.
Prelude: Five Year Backstory for Moxie Foxfeather
Five years of war. Five years of devastation. Five years of watching everything she knew and love get swept from her hooves. Moxie had never seen anything like it, nor had she ever fathomed that ponykind would ever get to a state such as dire as this. She had had faith knowing the developed Equestrian government and city life would provide for itself and do its best to protect its citizens, it was one of the reasons Moxie saw her place inside the Everfree Forest, where ponies did not help tend the land and where she could be of help. But now... the terrible creatures inside the Everfree's depths had nothing on the horribly malicious monsters that now ruled the lands and decided the cruel fate of its inhabitants.
When the war began, Moxie had been in search of the royal princess sisters to warn them of the omens seen building in the Everfree as well as the villainous plans she had overheard in her temporary imprisonment. Believing her mission to be critical to save the lives of innocent ponies, Moxie spent months in her search, traveling across the land and seeing more and more rising threats to the realm. By the time Moxie had reached the princesses, she had been too late. The Tree of Harmony had been destroyed, and the Princesses already knew more than she could ever tell them about the threat to Equestria. After helping how she could with the small amount of information she still had, Moxie, rather defeated by her failed mission, began her journey home.
On her way back towards the Everfree, Moxie passed through the forests of the western slopes. It was in the cover of the redwood forests that she ran across the path of a herd heading up towards the Smokey Mountain Range. Recognizing a little more than an eighth of the herd, Moxie was surprised to find herself in the midst of what used to be her Father's nomadic tribe of Earth Ponies. Now, ponies from all races and walks of life mingled within it, strapped with all the belongings they could carry with them.
Moxie found her father within the large group, Genesee Rover, and began to warn him about the impending dangers. Her father, shaking his head to stop her from going on, told her that he was already well aware of the war that plagued Equestria. Introducing Moxie to his extended herd, he told her where they had all originated from. All the new faces were refugees. They had lost more than anypony could imagine; many had been beaten, scarred, mentally tormented, tortured or had nearly starved to death in the wild. Now, he vowed to find them a place they could all stay hidden in peace without the constant fear that prowled the lands.
Trying to sway Moxie to travel with them to the Smoky Mountains, Moxie found it hard to turn down her father's offer. She believed in her father's mission and knew the plight of the ponies he sheltered were beyond what she could ever imagine, but she had to get back to her home. It was selfish, she knew it was, but her love for the forest and the home she had found in it was pulling her back to it. She had been away so long, she had to get back to her home and to her fox companion, Forest. The Everfree needed her more than ever to help it fend off the evil influences that had emerged from the dark.
Parting ways with her father and his herd, Moxie flew onwards toward her home. But as she flew over the grassy hills of the White Tail Woods and the entrance to the Everfree opened up before her, she was met with a terrible sight. The destruction of the Tree of Harmony had caused the forest grow into something ghastly. No longer kept in check, it's more hostile fauna had taken over, vines of spikes and poisonous plants littered and choked out the tree canopies, dangerous smog had risen and reduced the forest floor into rotted wood and carcasses. The great beasts of the Everfree had been enraged and forced from it's depths, now no longer tied to the confines of the dark forest that used to be their dominion. The forest that Moxie once knew was no more. She hardly even recognized it.
Taking a solemnly slow flight over the devastated forest, Moxie could hardly hold back tears as the weight of what it all meant set in. The Everfree was beyond repair. Her home.... was gone... Her mind flicked to something even more horrifying. Forest! Letting out a cry, She bolted through the sky and dashed towards the location of her treehouse, desperate to find her companion.
Bursting through the rotting front door of her home, Moxie covered her snout and held her breath, the green fumes of the smog was everywhere, even in her home. Searching the home in frantic gallops, Moxie made several trips in and out to catch her breath before returning to look once more for her fox companion. He was nowhere to be found.
Resting in a brown cloud to catch her breath above the poisonous smog of the Everfree, Moxie let her tears flow freely as she tried to think. Forest wasn't in the treehouse, but that was a good thing wasn't it? He got out.... he had to have gotten out! Looking over the tree tops of the Everfree, Moxie tried to tell herself she would see Forest again. The Everfree may be gone, but her real home was with Forest - as long as they were together they would be home. But where could he be?... Gathering all the supplies she could, and the remaining cans of fall and spring unicorn paint she still had inside, Moxie left her once beautiful treehouse and set off in pained silence.
Over the course of the next year, Moxie searched high and low for her companion across the land. In her journey, she became well adjusted to a life of staying invisible. Sneaking into cities to search for Forest, she began to take on the task of obtaining intel on enemy whereabouts, motives, and anything else she could overhear from stationed troup's gossiping. The more she learned, the more she developed a sense of understanding for their new leaders. They were beings to be feared, but they were also not without weaknesses.
Moxie met her fair share of scraps with dark soldiers and changelings she ran into on occasion. Her fall paint and it's magical, and a bit gruesome, effects on live beings was her main source of protection. Many times she could hit them with a splatter and count on it to render them so weak they could not stand in moments, leaving her enough time to flee. Other times she would push herself to try to fight back on the opponents she might actually beat. Using an old but strong steeled dagger she had acquired in her search, she would occasionally defend herself with the weapon to both blow off the anger she felt inside her, and for practice. Many times she was wounded, and twice she came near death before she managed to heal her morbid wounds with the power of her spring paint. It felt like cheating, but it was the only way she was going to get better in this dog-eat-dog world she now found herself in. Stubborn and unwilling to upgrade to a weapon more deadly than her dagger or fall paint, Moxie was determined to train just enough when necessary to become a worthy foe.
As time wore on, her hope of finding her dear companion had waned. There came a day when Moxie realized she wasn't even sure where she was going anymore, or what she should be looking for. The constant scene of burnt and broken cities, or dark soldiers and changelings marching slave ponies to their next tasks had chipped away at Moxie's once joyful nature and had left a bitterness in her heart. Seeing her reflection in a muddy puddle just outside of the town of Appleoosa, it struck her hard how little she recognized the solemn face that stared back at her. What had happened to the happiness she used to know? Moxie knew it wasn't here, not in this way of life. It was time to move on. Forest wasn't coming back.
It had been a long time since she had flown into the ever-watched skies. Using the cover of nightfall, Moxie flew through the clouds towards the Smoky Mountains, the last place she knew she might find family. Making her way to the caves her father had spoken to her of, Moxie stumbled into the young Camp New Hayven by early dawn.
Life in camp was a breath of fresh air. The sense of kinship the tight-knit community had stirred hope inside of Moxie, and she began to believe she might actually find happiness again. She took to the role of Perimeter Patrol during early morning scouts, and found a new sense of love for the role of Cavern Explorer in the evenings and afternoons. She made friends and was able to find solace and comfort in the company of others that had experienced the pains of loss that she had. Within a few weeks, Moxie began to feel like her old self again in bits and pieces.
Moxie has been in camp for three years now, and often offers advice to her father and camp mates. There have been rising tensions between Moxie and Genesee, though, mostly stemming from her father's reluctance to consider fighting back in the war as well as his use of her spring paint without her consent. Genesee has nearly dried up her supplies of spring paint, using it to heal wounds that would have healed with normal first aid care or doctor unicorn magic.
Camp Divisions:
After being with the camp for over 3 years, Moxie has strong feelings about the camp's duty to eventually fight back in the war. They can't stay in the caverns forever, its just not a natural place for ponies to live in long term and the lack of resources and space are unsustainable in her mind. She believes the ponies should take actions to start planning and training for a fight that may come to them in the end anyways.
Moxie is forever faithful to the princesses who gave her meaning in her life by giving her the magical paint to care for the Everfree Forest, a place she could no longer call home thanks to the horrors Tenebris has brought upon it. Moxie strongly believes in the princesses' vision of how Equestria should be and hopes to get it back to the way it once was.
Moxie feels a nagging worry that the amount of ponies in the camp has begun to grow too large and has concerns about over crowding. She became a cave explorer to try to expand the camp's capacity or to find another cavern system that the group could split between.
Moxie feels tethered down by the amount of rules and restrictions on where she is allowed to go, used to being completely free in the Everfree Forest and able to go where she felt she needed to. Now she cannot leave camp after dark or go further then allowed on the mountain side. This is another reason Moxie took on the role of perimeter patrol and cave explorer, to try to have say in how far their camp's territorial reach is. She dislikes some of the secondary tasks, but understands why they must be done.
Age: 26
Gender: Mare
Species: Pegasus
Place of Birth: Cloudsdale
Location of Home: Current: Camp New Hayven Past: Moxie's treehouse inside the Everfree Forest
Occupation: Currently: Perimeter Patrol & Cavern Explorer Previously: Painter of the forest for spring and fall with the magic of unicorn paint.
Allegiance: To the princesses (even if they are gone, she still believes in their vision of Equestria)
Relationship Status: Single
Mane: Long curled brown hair with lime green streaks running through it.
Coat: Light yellow
Eyes: Bright green
Living Relatives: Genesee Rover, Wild Range, the rest are possibly dead - uncertain.
Skills: In this new world of war, Moxie has found a talent for thinking quickly on her hooves as well as acting as a voice of reason in the refugee camp.
Faults: Moxie can be stubborn and quick to act without permission. She is used to living in the woods by herself and doesn't always do well in a role expected to follow others. She is also a terrible cook.
Equipment: Moxie always has a saddlebag with her spring and fall unicorn paints inside (her quantities of these have become very small since the defeat of Celestia and Luna and being forced to relinquish most of her healing spring paint to Camp New Hayven for injured refugees upon arrival). She has also begun to carry a dagger in her bags for protection now and has experience training with it. She dreads taking it out, knowing its capabilities to inflict harm and refuses to use a weapon any larger or more dangerous.
History: Raised in Cloudsdale, Moxie started out her youth knowing only the company of other pegasi and her mentally ill and possessive mother. As a filly, she often had new ideas of ways to clear the skies, of ways to make rainbows, or even ways to form the clouds. But her ideas were always seen as unnecessary or far-fetched. Even though she would try some ideas out and they worked, they were ignored or put down by her mother, who never liked the idea of change.
Moxie lead a rather solitary life, going from school and quickly back to home, never bringing friends home in worry that her mother would become jealous. Silly as it may sound, Moxie's mother could not stand the idea of her enjoying other ponies' company more than what she could provide, and often lashed out in unpredictable ways if Moxie's attention was with another. Never fully understanding her mother's schizophrenic and passive aggressive behavior, Moxie learned to be ever cautious of what might set the mare off. Because she loved her mother and only wanted her to be happy, she sadly sacrificed the notions of ever bonding deeper with other foals.
Having nopony to really talk to besides her mother, and often left to find entertainment on her own, Moxie became a vivid day dreamer and obsessed over the contents of a small box her mother kept by her bedside. Careful to avoid being caught, Moxie would often look into the box at two mysterious items in particular. This first was a lone, faded golden feather that didn't match her mother's pale yellow fur or her own. She had often seen her mother with the feather at night, staring at in her hooves, lost in thought. It filled Moxie with unbearable curiosity about what her mother was thinking and who the feather belonged to.
As mysterious as the feather was, Moxie's thoughts were more often pulled to the second item in the box. Faded with shredded corners from being held over the years, the box contained an old picture of of her mother standing with a dark brown stallion, who she could only guess was her father, and by their side, a small brown and tan colt.
Moxie had a brother. An older brother. But her mother would neither discuss it or try to convince her otherwise. Moxie had begun to recall fleeting memories of the colt the moment she first saw the picture. By the sixth time she had snuck a peek at the photo in the box, she had remembered his name. Ranger. She tried to ask her mother if she had a brother with that name, but her attempts had ended in verbal abuse for asking and a cold shoulder for 5 straight days afterwards. Lesson being learned, Moxie fell to her over-active imagination to try to answer the questions burning inside her. Daily she would envision herself finding her long lost brother and doing all the things she could recall them doing together again. Seldom did she walk home from school and not waste every moment daydreaming about the way he might talk or joke with her. And maybe her father would be there too. If he still wanted her of course.
A day came when Moxie began to realize that every memory she had of Ranger had placed them in a dense forest. It became clear that if she was to see her brother again, she would have to descend down from Clousdale against her mother's wishes, and search for him in the woods of Equestria. But there were forests everywhere across the land.... where was she supposed to look first?
When Moxie was about 11 years old, and her wings were beginning to strengthen into maturity, she overheard a brood of traveling mares discussing a crazy stallion that lived in the Everfree on his own. Thoughts immediately going to her brother, Moxie edged closer to hear more of what the mares had to say. After listening for several more moments of the gossipy mares' chatter, they began to describe the forest wanderer in more detail. Brown hair, lighter brown almost tan fur, brilliant blue eyes.... Memories of the caring blue-eyed colt that had once caught a frog just to show her flooded Moxie's mind. It was him. She knew it was. It simply had to be.
Moxie wasted no time. Setting off without telling her mother where she was going or when she would return, Moxie took both the feather and the picture to show the pony in the woods. She knew that going back home eventually would not be pretty, but right now it didn't matter. She flew her heart out to reach the Everfree Forest and began to search for the landmarks the mares had talked about seeing during their encounter with the strange colt. After searching long and hard, her quest paid off. Moxie found her long lost brother.
Their reunion triggered something inside of Moxie. For the first time in her life, she began to feel at home. The woods, though they were dark and full of dangerous creatures, felt safe and welcoming. Compared to what she knew her whole life in Cloudsdale, this place was filled with wonder, and to Moxie, was perfect.
Days went by and Moxie refused to go home. Ranger took Moxie to reunite with their father, Genesee Rover, on the edge of the Everfree Forest where Genesee lead a nomadic herd of earth ponies. After a celebrated reunion, Genesee revealed the secrets behind the items Moxie had carried away with her, leaving both Ranger and Moxie with more questions than they had come with and a different view on the world. Moxie made up her mind that she was never returning to Cloudsdale in light of everything she now knew. Understanding her decision, Ranger took Moxie back with him into the Everfree Forest and set to the task of showing her how to live off the earth and take care of herself as well as the woods around her.
As the season's passed, Moxie began to see the problems that plagued the wild forest. With such extreme and unregulated weather, and with no ponies to naturally intervene, the Everfree forest's plantlife bloomed well into the fall, never dropping its leaves in time for Winter's arrival. When the snow came, the weight of the accumulated flakes bent and snapped hundreds of branches from their trunks, shocking and many times killing the tree, demolishing creature's dens, smashing plants and sending out poisonous spores into the air, and cluttering the ground with dangerous splintering bark that could puncture a pony's chest. The Forest was a hostile yet predictable environment in the summer, but the winter was at a different level.
To make matters worse, the winter hung in the Everfree for far longer than it should. Even though spring was in full bloom across Equestria, the Forest remained in it's dormant state. The trees had not prepared for the winter by receding to their dormant states and diminishing the water supply stored in their trunks, and not they were frozen through. The time it would take to thaw placed the Everfree's spring at the beginning of the rest of Equestria's Summer. It made for a miserably long winter, and Moxie had seen enough problems by the end of it to wish to do something about it.
Ranger's time in the Everfree was complete and he prepared to move on to another forest. To his surprise, his young sister said that she would be staying and said her goodbyes to him. She loved her brother and would never keep him from his mission of helping every forest in Equestria, but now she felt her purpose was to stay put and make a difference in the forest that had been the only place she had ever felt home in.
Her brother parted ways and Moxie set to the task of studying the EverFree in the summertime to try to find a plan for the impending winter ahead. During Moxie's summer of experimentation and investigation, she happened upon an abandoned baby red fox who took to her like she was it's mother. Unwilling to leave such a young and sweet animal on its own in such an unforgiving place, Moxie happily accepted it's company and named him Forest. They became great inseparable companions and shared an amazing Everfree summer with each other.
By the time Fall was beginning to creep its way across the land, Moxie had thrown out countless ideas and plans to help the forest. It had become increasingly obvious that the task was something bigger than any pony could do on their own without the help of a greater magic..... magic. Magic was what Moxie believed was the cornerstone to finding a solution to the Everfree's problem. Spending countless nights writing out possibilities and pushing the limits on what she knew about unicorn magic, Moxie had devised a hypothesis of a system that just might be crazy enough to work. But it wasn't something she could do by herself. In fact, the idea was so crazy and unheard of she came to the decision that the only way it was going to even be feasible was if she somehow won the help of the princess sisters. And so, the ever persistent mare set to work on drawing up her plans to present to the princesses. How she would weasel her way into the palace she had no idea.... but that would just have to be figured out later.
Fall was beginning to get into full swing by the time Moxie entered the gates of Canterlot, layden with schematics and idea proposals to present to the royal sisters. Time was of the essence and she wasted none of it to rest before heading on to the palace. Greeted by guards at its doors, the ragged and very young forest mare was heavily questioned about her purpose for wishing to speak with the princesses. Her age and appearance discrediting her reasons for an audience, Moxie was quickly loosing hope that her mission would be a success, when the doors to the palace opened unexpectedly. Exiting the chambers within were the two royal sisters, who soon found Moxie held up by guards in their path. Seeing the fear in the young mare's eyes, Celestia dismissed the guards and questioned the pegasus as to why she was seeking their attention.
Grasping on the the best chance she would ever get, Moxie quickly dove straight into what she had come for. Flinging open her large schematics and plan flow charts across the stone floor of the palace's door steps, the young pegasus began explaining the plight of the Everfree to both Celestia and Luna. Though she had never spoken to or even seen the princesses in person before in her life, Moxie's passion for the forest carried her on and pushed aside the nerves and dread of rejection in her stomach. By the end of her explaination of the forest's problems, Moxie had the princess's attention.
Celestia and Luna exchanged a look only the two of them could understand, and the princess of the night prompted Moxie about what it was that she wanted to be done about such a large problem. The question filled Moxie with hope and butterflies all at the same time. Quickly pulling out the plan she had been contemplating for weeks, Moxie held out the paper of the two items she would need the princess's help to manufacture. Unicorn paint. A paint that would store concentrated magic of two different mixtures. One that's magic would stimulate warmth, strength, and growth for spring, and another that magic would stimulate dormancy for the fall.
The princesses were both amused and moved by the young mare's passion and thoughtful, out of the box thinking. After a few moments of contemplation, Celestia announced that they would do what they could to prepare such a concoction for the ambitious filly.
Filled with joy and excitement, Moxie waited patiently as Celestia set some of the most talented unicorns to work on mixing the two magical paints. Many tests and trials finally resulted in two products that were largely experimental, but the unicorns had confidence that they would give the results the little mare had desired. Her magic paint created as she had requested, it was now up to Moxie to hold up her end of the deal.
Taking the paints back to the Everfree with her, Moxie had only a few weeks before the Everfree's winter would begin. The unicorns had given her three cans for the fall, each one containing a swirl of reds and oranges. Moxie dipped her wings into the paint, while Forest dipped his tail. Wasting no time, Moxie ran hard, giving her wings the lift they needed to propel her high into the sky. Forest ran along the forest floor taking cues from Moxie as she soared above. Giving the signal to Forest, she began to spiral through the air, the paint on her wings raining out onto the trees below her. Forest lashed his tail as he ran, hitting the leaves tucked under the trees. The two companions continued this, until the whole forest was painted in its fall colors and the magic of the paint had begun to affect the trees. Each tree struck with the paint now began its systematic preparation to enter dormancy for the upcoming winter. As Moxie spun the last bit of paint down to the leaves below, she felt a sense of peace and accomplishment she had never felt before. Her flanks began to glow, and her cutie mark appeared. She knew this is where she was meant to be.
When winter came that year, the forest was prepared. The weight of the snow merely stripped the trees of their weakened leaves, allowing the branches to remain strong and unweilding against the weight or the snow. The animals of the forest's homes where safe, and the forest was a better place with Moxie in it.
Now Moxie continues her method of bringing winter to the forest, and spreads her spring paint during the beginning of Spring to bring in the season on time. The Canterlot unicorns continue to supply her and improve upon the magical unicorn paint. The royal princesses have even given Moxie they're blessing to be the forest's voice within their palace. Some ponies say Moxie is the spirit of the forest, in the life she brings it, and the beauty she creates in it.
Note: Moxie has two types of unicorn paint that have been perfected by the unicorns of Canterlot. However, due to the onset of war, her supplies are severely limited. Originally she used them to help the forest and to keep herslef save in the Everfree, now she uses them to defend herself and other camp members as well as to help heal the severely injured.
The first kind is the unicorn paint for bringing in Spring:
(a lively mixture of bright greens and evergreen blues)
This paint has the power to activate re-budding or heal an entire forest or pony. It has the ability to give the strength of a forest to a pony for a short amount of time, because of the unique properties it has for strengthening the forest from harsh winters. With ponies it is used by Moxie as a last resort to heal and have the strength to defend one's self to get away. In unicorns specifically, the magic in the paint CAN be absorbed into their magic reserve to resupply magic, but at the cost of removing the additional strength benefit (if the magic is absorbed, it can only heal so much before it is totally absorbed into the horn, thus it has to be a conscious decision by the unicorn of how much to absorb and how much to leave to heal wounds). Some ponies abuse the strength given, however, and use it to fight but may find themselves in a bad position when it wears off after an hour.
The second kind of unicorn paint is for bringing in the Fall:
(a shimmering mixture of bright reds, oranges, and yellows)
Moxie does not bring this one out for defense much at all, it isn't her style of defending herself, but of course she uses it each year to bring in fall to the forest. The effect it has on the forest is much like signaling to the trees that it is time to kill off their leaves in order to prepare for winter. It is a natural effect the trees bounce back from in the Spring, however, on ponies it is not something their bodies are used to at all. When a pony is painted purposefully with this paint, it will begin to tell the body to shut down internal organs, but like a tree it will not die, but become extremely weakened and feel close to death. The effects wear off after an hour once the paint completely absorbs in the body, but can potentially cause terrible long term effects on the organs without treatment.
Prelude: Five Year Backstory for Moxie Foxfeather
Five years of war. Five years of devastation. Five years of watching everything she knew and love get swept from her hooves. Moxie had never seen anything like it, nor had she ever fathomed that ponykind would ever get to a state such as dire as this. She had had faith knowing the developed Equestrian government and city life would provide for itself and do its best to protect its citizens, it was one of the reasons Moxie saw her place inside the Everfree Forest, where ponies did not help tend the land and where she could be of help. But now... the terrible creatures inside the Everfree's depths had nothing on the horribly malicious monsters that now ruled the lands and decided the cruel fate of its inhabitants.
When the war began, Moxie had been in search of the royal princess sisters to warn them of the omens seen building in the Everfree as well as the villainous plans she had overheard in her temporary imprisonment. Believing her mission to be critical to save the lives of innocent ponies, Moxie spent months in her search, traveling across the land and seeing more and more rising threats to the realm. By the time Moxie had reached the princesses, she had been too late. The Tree of Harmony had been destroyed, and the Princesses already knew more than she could ever tell them about the threat to Equestria. After helping how she could with the small amount of information she still had, Moxie, rather defeated by her failed mission, began her journey home.
On her way back towards the Everfree, Moxie passed through the forests of the western slopes. It was in the cover of the redwood forests that she ran across the path of a herd heading up towards the Smokey Mountain Range. Recognizing a little more than an eighth of the herd, Moxie was surprised to find herself in the midst of what used to be her Father's nomadic tribe of Earth Ponies. Now, ponies from all races and walks of life mingled within it, strapped with all the belongings they could carry with them.
Moxie found her father within the large group, Genesee Rover, and began to warn him about the impending dangers. Her father, shaking his head to stop her from going on, told her that he was already well aware of the war that plagued Equestria. Introducing Moxie to his extended herd, he told her where they had all originated from. All the new faces were refugees. They had lost more than anypony could imagine; many had been beaten, scarred, mentally tormented, tortured or had nearly starved to death in the wild. Now, he vowed to find them a place they could all stay hidden in peace without the constant fear that prowled the lands.
Trying to sway Moxie to travel with them to the Smoky Mountains, Moxie found it hard to turn down her father's offer. She believed in her father's mission and knew the plight of the ponies he sheltered were beyond what she could ever imagine, but she had to get back to her home. It was selfish, she knew it was, but her love for the forest and the home she had found in it was pulling her back to it. She had been away so long, she had to get back to her home and to her fox companion, Forest. The Everfree needed her more than ever to help it fend off the evil influences that had emerged from the dark.
Parting ways with her father and his herd, Moxie flew onwards toward her home. But as she flew over the grassy hills of the White Tail Woods and the entrance to the Everfree opened up before her, she was met with a terrible sight. The destruction of the Tree of Harmony had caused the forest grow into something ghastly. No longer kept in check, it's more hostile fauna had taken over, vines of spikes and poisonous plants littered and choked out the tree canopies, dangerous smog had risen and reduced the forest floor into rotted wood and carcasses. The great beasts of the Everfree had been enraged and forced from it's depths, now no longer tied to the confines of the dark forest that used to be their dominion. The forest that Moxie once knew was no more. She hardly even recognized it.
Taking a solemnly slow flight over the devastated forest, Moxie could hardly hold back tears as the weight of what it all meant set in. The Everfree was beyond repair. Her home.... was gone... Her mind flicked to something even more horrifying. Forest! Letting out a cry, She bolted through the sky and dashed towards the location of her treehouse, desperate to find her companion.
Bursting through the rotting front door of her home, Moxie covered her snout and held her breath, the green fumes of the smog was everywhere, even in her home. Searching the home in frantic gallops, Moxie made several trips in and out to catch her breath before returning to look once more for her fox companion. He was nowhere to be found.
Resting in a brown cloud to catch her breath above the poisonous smog of the Everfree, Moxie let her tears flow freely as she tried to think. Forest wasn't in the treehouse, but that was a good thing wasn't it? He got out.... he had to have gotten out! Looking over the tree tops of the Everfree, Moxie tried to tell herself she would see Forest again. The Everfree may be gone, but her real home was with Forest - as long as they were together they would be home. But where could he be?... Gathering all the supplies she could, and the remaining cans of fall and spring unicorn paint she still had inside, Moxie left her once beautiful treehouse and set off in pained silence.
Over the course of the next year, Moxie searched high and low for her companion across the land. In her journey, she became well adjusted to a life of staying invisible. Sneaking into cities to search for Forest, she began to take on the task of obtaining intel on enemy whereabouts, motives, and anything else she could overhear from stationed troup's gossiping. The more she learned, the more she developed a sense of understanding for their new leaders. They were beings to be feared, but they were also not without weaknesses.
Moxie met her fair share of scraps with dark soldiers and changelings she ran into on occasion. Her fall paint and it's magical, and a bit gruesome, effects on live beings was her main source of protection. Many times she could hit them with a splatter and count on it to render them so weak they could not stand in moments, leaving her enough time to flee. Other times she would push herself to try to fight back on the opponents she might actually beat. Using an old but strong steeled dagger she had acquired in her search, she would occasionally defend herself with the weapon to both blow off the anger she felt inside her, and for practice. Many times she was wounded, and twice she came near death before she managed to heal her morbid wounds with the power of her spring paint. It felt like cheating, but it was the only way she was going to get better in this dog-eat-dog world she now found herself in. Stubborn and unwilling to upgrade to a weapon more deadly than her dagger or fall paint, Moxie was determined to train just enough when necessary to become a worthy foe.
As time wore on, her hope of finding her dear companion had waned. There came a day when Moxie realized she wasn't even sure where she was going anymore, or what she should be looking for. The constant scene of burnt and broken cities, or dark soldiers and changelings marching slave ponies to their next tasks had chipped away at Moxie's once joyful nature and had left a bitterness in her heart. Seeing her reflection in a muddy puddle just outside of the town of Appleoosa, it struck her hard how little she recognized the solemn face that stared back at her. What had happened to the happiness she used to know? Moxie knew it wasn't here, not in this way of life. It was time to move on. Forest wasn't coming back.
It had been a long time since she had flown into the ever-watched skies. Using the cover of nightfall, Moxie flew through the clouds towards the Smoky Mountains, the last place she knew she might find family. Making her way to the caves her father had spoken to her of, Moxie stumbled into the young Camp New Hayven by early dawn.
Life in camp was a breath of fresh air. The sense of kinship the tight-knit community had stirred hope inside of Moxie, and she began to believe she might actually find happiness again. She took to the role of Perimeter Patrol during early morning scouts, and found a new sense of love for the role of Cavern Explorer in the evenings and afternoons. She made friends and was able to find solace and comfort in the company of others that had experienced the pains of loss that she had. Within a few weeks, Moxie began to feel like her old self again in bits and pieces.
Moxie has been in camp for three years now, and often offers advice to her father and camp mates. There have been rising tensions between Moxie and Genesee, though, mostly stemming from her father's reluctance to consider fighting back in the war as well as his use of her spring paint without her consent. Genesee has nearly dried up her supplies of spring paint, using it to heal wounds that would have healed with normal first aid care or doctor unicorn magic.
Camp Divisions:
After being with the camp for over 3 years, Moxie has strong feelings about the camp's duty to eventually fight back in the war. They can't stay in the caverns forever, its just not a natural place for ponies to live in long term and the lack of resources and space are unsustainable in her mind. She believes the ponies should take actions to start planning and training for a fight that may come to them in the end anyways.
Moxie is forever faithful to the princesses who gave her meaning in her life by giving her the magical paint to care for the Everfree Forest, a place she could no longer call home thanks to the horrors Tenebris has brought upon it. Moxie strongly believes in the princesses' vision of how Equestria should be and hopes to get it back to the way it once was.
Moxie feels a nagging worry that the amount of ponies in the camp has begun to grow too large and has concerns about over crowding. She became a cave explorer to try to expand the camp's capacity or to find another cavern system that the group could split between.
Moxie feels tethered down by the amount of rules and restrictions on where she is allowed to go, used to being completely free in the Everfree Forest and able to go where she felt she needed to. Now she cannot leave camp after dark or go further then allowed on the mountain side. This is another reason Moxie took on the role of perimeter patrol and cave explorer, to try to have say in how far their camp's territorial reach is. She dislikes some of the secondary tasks, but understands why they must be done.
