Here is a little character reference sheet for an OC I’ve been playing in a Tails of Equestria (pen and paper role playing) game lately.

A while ago I posted an earlier design of the character (at the time as an entry for a contest to find a mascot for a brony forum’s “Art of the month contest”).

The new version comes with a different cutie mark and a somewhat darker red fur color.

The name “Multi Purpose” is in fact a nickname which real me was given by a class mate during a students exchange and I do admit that I like the nickname a lot. Trying out many different things is kind of my thing (at least when it comes to artsy stuff), so I really embraced the name and made sure to give this OC some of my own quirks.

Unlike my other pen and paper OC Pony Leafhelm (who is in a time setting about a 1000 years before the events of friendship is magic) Multi Purpose is a contemporary of the mane six.

He is originally from Baltimare. His father is Gear Wheel, an earthpony who used to work as a carpenter for a dockyard but later on became more of a general mechanic. His mother is Ocean Fog, a pegasus (yes, I am making a point of this being a very multi tribe family with two grandparents having been unicorns) who is working for the coast weather patrol of Baltimare (in my head canon the weather along the coasts is in need of special attention by the pegasi as it is a lot more prone to go rampant by the laws of nature without without constant pegasi supervision).

He also has a few minutes elder twin brother, Focus Flash, who looks pretty much identical but for the cutie mark but is totally different in character. Multi Purpose is pretty much interested in everything and anything and is constantly fiddling about with some more or less promissing or crazy inventions. This, along with the inspiration by his parents, probably formed his cutie mark. He very much appreciates the special talents of the different pony tribes and some of his “inventions” are aimed at trying to allow for representatives of one pony tribe to share in some of the benefits enjoyed by others. So his cutie mark consists of three gear wheels, one made of magical lightnings, representing the unicorns (and being set on top not to suggest any kind of “ranking” but simply because he happens to be a unicorn himself), one made of feathers, representing pegasi and one regular gear wheel, representing earthponys.

And to get the elephant out of the room with all this three tribes symbolism, no Multi Purpose has absolutely no “becoming an Alicorn” type of fantasies. In fact he is not very ambitious when it comes to his career.

Both he and his brother Focus Flash were sent to take an entrance test to Celestia’s school for gifted unicorns. Neither of them passed the test, but for different reasons. In the test Multi Purpose was attested to be versatile, but with none of his gifts being deemed distinct enough to qualify as “gifted” in the sense of the school regulations.

With his brother Focus Flash it was quite the opposite. Focus Flash is absolutely brilliant when it comes to “lightning magic”. It is his cutie mark talent and he is so utterly focused on this one that he might be one of the best in this particular field. However, he is also so fixed on this one talent that he lacks the broader scope of interest of his brother. Since the entrance text to the scool didn’t involve any lightning magic Focus Flash was not accpeted either.

Instead the two brothers were sent to the more “down to earth” Hoofcraft Academy in Fillydelphia. Multi Purpose sort of shrugged this off and was quite happy at said academy while Focus Flash, more ambitious and quite aware of his extreme talent in his one field, saw it as a harsh setback. The very different mindset became a bit of a strain to the relationship between the two brothers in the following years.

After completing his studies Multi Purpose planned to go “waltzing” (as in moving through the country and offering his services as a crafts pony on the way in order to see more of the country). He didn’t get further than Ponyville though where the generally friendly atmosphere (and a Welcoming Party by a certain pink earthpony) made him feel so welcome that he decided to stay a bit longer. His arrival in Ponyville would have been not long before the fateful summer sun celebration of the first season.

I’m looking forward to get to know Multi Purpose a little better in the upcomming pen and paper RPGs. Our group is close to finishing their first adventure (set shortly after the beginning of season four), but since I was the one game mastering it, I made sure that the part played by this very talkative unicorn was somewhat curbed by him running through a field of poison joke which left him incapable of uttering anything but all kinds of animal sounds (neighing, barking, meowing etc.) for most of the adventure ;)