Birthday Bios: Noble Metal · 5:35pm Sep 9th, 2016
And on your right, you can see one of the better father-of-a-canon-pony characters that I’ve got. Noble here is a chill guy, a kind and charming stallion, and a devoted father of four. He takes pride in his job as a lighthouse keeper, and is beloved by the ponies of Halterside.
It’s a shame that he’s too good to be alive. 
No, seriously… he’s also one of my dead OCs.
Time to detail his entire life…
Noble Metal was born in Fillydelphia during his parents’ day out at the park. They weren’t expecting him to come out for a couple more weeks, but the quick birth had them scrambling to find some privacy, since they realized that there wasn’t enough time to get to a hospital. Thankfully, there were several passersby kind enough to help them, and several stallions blocked the ends of the tunnel they took refuge in as a couple of mares sacrificed picnic blankets to catch and wrap little Noble in. It’s a story that his parents liked to tell over and over again, even when he was an adult.
Noble was a curious and friendly colt, waving to everypony he met since he was a baby. Growing up, he was always fascinated with the historical relics that were everywhere in his hometown, and liked to learn what things like Harmony Bell were used for in the past. That would extend to anywhere that his family traveled to, as he liked to see how whatever city he was visiting was founded. Of course, it bothered him that he couldn’t read plaques explaining history when he had to stop his younger twin siblings from getting into trouble.
He was not one for taking things for granted, so he lived for helping others. As a matter of fact, he earned his cutie mark after a day in the park of cleaning up litter and helping strangers with mundane problems, and it seemed to be a literal badge of honor. There were few ponies he didn’t like, like his ever-entitled classmate Herbage Sweet. If there were any fights that Noble got into, it was usually with Herb.
Among his hobbies were making wooden crafts—despite his name being Metal—playing sports with other colts, and stirring up concoctions in the kitchen. While his chili was infamous for causing heartburn and the runs, he more than made up for it by creating a delicious hot cocoa recipe. He has since made it a Hearth’s Warming tradition to make it for his family and friends, and has even sold cups at Hearth’s Warming fairs.
When he was a teenager, his family had to move, as his father lost his job and got a new one in Baltimare. The family settled in Halterside, a little town which was a short train ride away from the city. While Noble was sad to leave behind his friends and neighbors in Fillydelphia, he went straight to work in making new friends in Halterside and learning the history of the place.
He took a job in Halterside’s rotating roster of lighthouse keepers, due to it being a shining beacon for boats in the rough waters. He loved the view and the chance to watch the sun rise, though it always scared him when winds made large waves crash high enough to nearly touch his nose. He had to be reminded by older contemporaries to stay in the lighthouse during a storm.
He had noticed that one of his new neighbors, a chubby mare named Sunny Crystal, was rather shy. He had to coax her out of her shell when they bumped into each other at the beach, and asked her to show her things that she did as a Halterside native. He had relative inexperience with any beaches, given that he had only been to one or two in his entire lifetime up to that point, so it was a good excuse to start a friendship with her. What resulted was a day of getting wet, sandy, and seasick, but he still enjoyed getting to see the bubbly girl under the shell.
While he has dated several mares, none quite captured him as much as Sunny had. A few years passed, and his interest in her didn’t wane, enough that he considered her his best friend. In fact, he decided that perhaps she was the right mare for him to marry.
Since she worked at the local jewelry store, he decided to make his own necklace to propose with. He wanted to keep it a surprise, after all, and he performed painstaking work between finding the perfect seashell, nabbing a couple of real pearls for it, and making sure the colors matched so that it’d be a work of art worthy of her. He chipped his hooves and scratched and bruised his forelegs in the process, not to mention he had to shoo his brother and sister away so that they didn’t ruin it. When he was finished and presented it to her, seeing her smile and agree to be his wife was well worth it.
A couple years after their marriage, their daughter Platinum Pen was born. A serious and stoic filly, Noble and Sunny tried to get her to smile. It took Noble having a mishap with eggs to get the little filly to smile, and Sunny was quick to get a picture. Noble, aside from being covered in egg, was too focused on Penny’s dimples to notice. As she grew older, he was proud of how intelligent and responsible she was, and started a college fund for her in case she wanted it (if not, one of her siblings could take it).
Penny got a sister, Pearly Whites, when she was a toddler. As cute as Pearl was, she was incredibly fussy. Noble has stayed up for hours trying to calm her, though he was used to it seeing as his duties at the lighthouse required up awake late at night. Still, Pearl had a way of ripping off patches of hair she deemed uneven, and even tried to tear his mustache off. At least when she was older, she didn’t have to be told twice to clean her room or brush her teeth.
The third foal was the only son, which was named Silver Shill. While he was miffed that the hospital messed up ‘Shell’, he took to pretending Shill was short for Shilling. As Silver was a timid, awkward nerd ripe for bullying, Noble was quick to be a friend for him when he needed it. Both enjoyed father-son time, and Noble liked seeing Silver discover strengths like a quick wit, an ability to showcase another’s qualities, and a way with food (Silver’s chili was better than Noble’s). Noble tended to call his son by the nickname of ‘champ.’
The youngest foal was Comedy Gold, who had him laughing from the moment she was born. While she had a tendency to get into trouble, she always behaved for her father. He could never find a dull moment when spending time with her, as her lively personality and frequent mischief could keep him on his toes. He was the one who discovered that she needed glasses when she bumped into graves at the cemetery, and her lactose intolerance when they went out for ice cream.
His eighteen years of marriage to Sunny were what he always considered the best. The craziness of the kids did drive him nuts from time to time, especially when he was cranky after a long night at work, but he loved them all. Between Hearth’s Warming cocoa, summertime beach trips, camping, and frequent visits to Baltimare (and a few to Fillydelphia to show his kids where he grew up), he wouldn’t have had it any other way.
Aside from spending time with his family, his general friendliness and helpfulness during his down time from lighthouse duty had him gaining a reputation as one of the best ponies in town. He made a lot of friends, and he enjoyed playing mock gambling games (where they gambled treats instead of money), playing pool, and bowling with them. He’s cleaned up around town and often shared his special cocoa during the town’s Hearth’s Warming festival.
He and his wife have planned to save up for a trip somewhere other than Baltimare for their 25th anniversary, though that was still more than five years away. Still, Noble has thought about visiting Manehattan, or even Canterlot for that anniversary. As always, he wanted to learn more history behind those places, as that curiosity is never fully satisfied.
One Nightmare Night, he and the other lighthouse keepers decided that it’d be fun to make a ‘Haunted Lighthouse’ for the Halterside foals. Silver and Goldie were among the foals who got to participate, and they were having a blast being ‘scared’. Noble couldn’t help but smile at his two youngest having fun together, even if Silver was getting jumpy.
However, when he noticed storm clouds outside, he went to investigate, discovering some pegasus teenagers having stolen some clouds from the local weather department. Despite their protests that they were just creating an atmosphere for the Haunted Lighthouse, he demanded that they remove the clouds, as stormy weather and ocean were a dangerous combination. Unfortunately, the teenagers’ attempts to comply made the storm worse, and Noble had to gather any stragglers and herd them into the lighthouse as it was put on lockdown. However, Noble couldn’t make it in before the waves started to crash, shoving him against the lighthouse walls. The sheer force and frequency of the waves literally pounded the life out of him, ending it that night.
The whole town was in shock after Noble’s death, but none more so than his family. Seeing their big, strong husband/father fall like that was unbelievable, horrifying, and heartbreaking. Sunny and the kids all fell into grief, whether it showed in depression like Sunny and Silver, anger like Penny and Goldie, or overcompensation of talent like Pearl. While they eventually settled into some semblance of normal, they’ve never really healed.
Years later, Noble’s memory is kept alive, mainly through two kids: Silver is still sharing the special cocoa recipe with others, and Penny has named her oldest son after him.
I lovely bio. It's sad to here of his death at the end, though. I bet those poor pegasus teens were haunted by that.
the Gods grant their favorites an early death. (often misquoted as "only the good die young, which isn't quite the same thing). Phraphrased from the original quotation by Lord Byron.
Requiesct en Pace, Noble Metal.