Lightning Calculation
Gender: Mare
Species: Pegasus
Mane: Auburn. Kept clean, but is often unkempt and overgrown.
Tail: Auburn. Much like her mane, basic maintenance is maintained, but not much effort is put into it beyond that.
Eyes: Light-Green. Wears a pair of dark-rimmed glasses.
Body: Dull Yellow. A slightly light-build. Usually wears a multi-pocketed, dark vest. Often has ink-stains on her wingtips.
Cutie Mark: An addition symbol, multiplication symbol, subtraction symbol, and division symbol, arranged in a diamond. Starting at top with addition then moving clockwise in that order.
Age: Early-20s
Personality: Lightning Calculation enjoys her math. That's what a great deal of her time is spent around. She enjoys everything from simple arithmetic to complex equations to geometry, and especially enjoyed her work as an accountant in Canterlot. She's a very academic mare, not given to physical pursuits or weather-work as many other pegasi (including her parents) are; she'd sooner walk than fly. She's honest, hardworking, and does not like cutting corners. Of course, she's managed to turn most of these traits into liabilities. She has no trouble pointing out errors others make or speaking her mind, and often get aggravated when others take offense. She'd sooner crunch numbers than go have a night on the town, and often ends up incidentally snubbing others.
All that being said, she isn't mean, by any stretch. She'll help others if she's in a position too, even if it's something she finds particularly unpleasant(and she won't pretend that she wants to do it either), simply on the basis she's in a position to help. Indeed, she'll often turn down attempts to reward or thank her, often going on about her business without even giving her name. She usually tries to be understanding and reasonable, provided she believes that others, at least, mean well. She has no problem being charitable (provided, of course, that she can keep track of what she's given out) and while she recognizes that she's not very good with ponies, she will attempt to comfort distraught ponies, if she doesn't believe someone more suitable can be found.
Some sidenotes, despite her fondness for schedule and routine, she's somewhat unevenly organized. When it's part of her day-to-day life she scarcely misses a detail. When it's something radically new or out of the norm for her, she can quickly become scatterbrained and stressed. While she has a more than fair amount of natural talent for flying, owing to her parents, her lack of interests leaves this potential largely wasted. Also, she rather dislikes holding writing instruments in her mouth, like most non-unicorns do, thinking it feels awkward and clumsy. As such she has a habit of dipping her wingtips in ink, and using them to write. She's actually gotten quite good with this method.
Likes: Mathematics, walking, routines and schedules, spicy foods, calligraphy, Ponies that respect her boundaries, spending time with her mother and father.
Dislikes: Ponies that deride mathematics or suggest that what she does is boring, ponies invading her personal space, social gatherings, adventure, mathematical errors, ponies that take criticism or honesty poorly, flying, ponies making assumptions about her, sour foods, using her mouth to write.
History: Born to a high-flying stuntmare and a respected weather coordinator in Cloudsdale, most would have figured the young filly to be the quintessential pegasus growing up. They would be wrong. Growing up she was quite bookish, and enjoyed academic lessons to the point of being seen as the teacher's pet, in most non-physical classes. Her differing interests often set her apart from the other pegasi foals, leading to few friends her age, and even the occasional bullying. While none of this particularly bothered her, being far more interested in learning, particularly when it came to math, her mother took it rather personally when her daughter was picked on. This lead to Lightning's mother taking her under-her-wing, hoping that helping her daughter to become an expert flyer would help her fit in more. There were mixed results early on. Lightning's lack of interest and relatively poor fitness made mastering flight difficult, despite clear potential. It wasn't until her mother tried entering her into a Young Flyer's competition that she had a breakthrough. Instead of looking at flying through the lens that her mother did, Lightning Calculation realized that really flying was really just a whole bunch of math anyway. With this epiphany she came to the realization that really everything, the whole world and everything in it, was just math. And it was awesome to her. The air over the wings, tiny course corrections, velocity and so forth, all became much more easily understood in that light. While this didn't turn her into an expert flyer, Lightning Calculation didn't embarrass herself, and at the same time received her Cutie Mark. Soon after she finally broke things to her mother and father that she just wasn't interested in the usual pegasus pursuits. While disappointed by this, they quickly accepted her and encouraged Lightning Calculation. And while she doesn't enjoy flying per se, she still goes out flying with her parents on a regular basis.
When she became an adult, she eventually decided that her particular talents wouldn't find much demand in a place like Cloudsdale. Looking abroad she soon moved to Canterlot, taking on a job as an accountant in one of the city's major banks. She easily excelled in this field, crunching numbers and tracking data like few ponies could. And while finally happy to have a place to explore her talent more fully, she later realized the difficulties in trying to get by in life just on what you're good at. While a very capable accountant, her inability to let even the slightest of errors go, often drove her co-workers and employers up the wall; she had no patience for 'estimates'. Worse yet, she was often very critical of the errors made by her co-workers, particularly if they tried to suggest that they weren't a big deal. And while some did try to reach out to her and befriend her, she wasn't used to such attempts and they often went over her head or she neglected them. Eventually she was 'let go' after an incident where she cataloged
all of the errors she had found in the bank outstanding accounts, and then publicly, and loudly suggested that about half of the workers there needed to be put through remedial classes in math.
Now having too many difficulties finding work in Canterlot, and starting to re-examine herself a bit, she's moving to Ponyville, with an offer from the mayor's office to handle the town's bookkeeping.
Example RP segment: It was another late afternoon in Canterlot, the workday over and the sun making it's steady descent towards the horizon. Right on time.
Lightning Calculation had been making her way to her Canterlot apartment, walking through the winding streets of the capital, and as usual she was right on schedule to get home as the sun completely set. She was ahead on the work assigned to her, had her paperwork sitting comfortably in her saddlebags, and everything was proceeding like clockwork.
Right until she got knocked in the head.
After shaking the stars from her eyes, and adjusting her glasses, she spotted the offending object. A knife, or perhaps a dagger, she wasn't an expert on such things. Fortunately she had been hit squarely by the handle of the weapon, leaving her with a mere bruise. Picking up the weapon, she looked up for the source of the weapon. She barely spotted the sight of a pony's tail flitting out of sight over the edge of a rooftop.
Huffing momentarily, she shouted up to the mysterious pony "What in Equestria were you thinking?! Carrying around an unsecured weapon like that could have easily gotten someone killed!"
After several moments, she realized that she wasn't getting a response, and glared down at the weapon resting in her hoof "I suppose, I really should report this kind of thing."
Turning around, in the hopes of finding a guardpony to report this incident to, she was quickly rewarded when she almost bumped into a very taciturn looking guard. Calc blinked in momentary surprise, before speaking "Oh-...well you certainly have excellent timing. I-"
"Where did you get that weapon, miss?" The guard quickly interrupted.
"I- That's what I wanted to-"
"And just what are you doing out and about so close to an active crime scene?"
"Crime scene?"
"The 1st Canterlot Investment Bank?"
"I work there. When was there a cri-"
"So you're admitting to an inside job are you? That makes things simpler. Please come with me." The guard again cut her off, before setting his horn alight and taking the weapon from her.
"What? Now hold it, sir." Lightning quickly batted the guard's hoof away, as he reached for the mare, eliciting a frown from the guard.
"Resisting arrest will-"
"I am not being arrested." Lightning Calculation firmly stated, finally getting a chance to interrupt him.
"Miss, you-"
"No. I'm trying to make my way home. Nothing more. Why would you think I was a criminal?" She quickly asked.
"...an armed and bespectacled pegasus was seen leaving the bank moments after it was robbed. Eyewitness accounts confirm the weapon and that the robber in question seemed familiar with the layout of the bank. This was mere minutes ago." The guard begrudgingly supplied.
"Minutes ago? How many minutes?" Lightning asked as she peered at the guard over the top of her classes, finally seeing away to convince the stubborn guard.
"...less than five minutes ago." The guard again supplied.
"Well, there you have it. I couldn't possibly have robbed the bank. At a trot or even a full-gallop I couldn't have made it to this street in under five minutes." Lightning explained with sureness.
The guard looked at her as if she were crazy, before pointing a hoof "The bank is right there."
Which was true. You could, in fact, still see the bank. The winding streets and many levels of Canterlot often made it so that even if you could see a building a short distance away, you could still be in for a fair walk.
"Well, obviously, it's not physically very far. But, I still would have needed to go down three different streets, four sets of stairs, and an alleyway just to get here on hoof. There's no way a pony like myself could travel that distance so quickly." Lightning Calculation finished with confidence.
The guard glanced towards the mare's two, apparently, functional wings.
Now if you'll excus-" Lightning Calculation began.
"Do you take me for some kind of an idiot?" The guardpony suddenly asked.
In retrospect, the correct answer might not have been "yes", as Lightning Calculation found out, when the guardpony dragged her off.
It would only be a day before the real robber was caught...
Three days before any of Lightning Calculation's co-workers noticed her absence...
Four days total, before anypony showed up to convince the guards to let Lightning Calculation out of the Canterlot jail...
[Acceptance]
Subject: Lightning Calculation 
Tue Jun 03, 2014 11:14 pm
