Birthday Bios: Saline · 2:56pm Jun 21st, 2016

I remember when first creating her, I was struggling to come up with a synonym for ‘salty’ (as I was working backwards from her grandson Saltworth). It’s a very good things that thesauruses exist.

Saline was the synonym that sounded the most feminine to me.

Anyway, let’s go.

She was born in the desert settlement of Laketown by a lake called Big Salty in the Salt Lick Valley. She and her siblings were trained in the salt harvesting trade since they were small, and learned about all the things that salt was used for—examples being table salt, road salt, and mineral licks. Raking the salt from the evaporation ponds was backbreaking work, and Saline grew tough from the job.

She was the rough and sarcastic sort of filly, having comebacks for just about every occasion. She was rather bitter toward her siblings, and picked fights with them (often getting a soft boot to the flank or extra minutes with the evaporation pond). One of her brothers often joked that she was so “salty” that she should be put in the delivery wagon to be carried off to some faraway town. She was never amused with that one.

She liked working with the ponds with her father, but she also liked to cook with her mother. She learned to cook plenty of dishes, especially those with a bit of zing. Salty and spicy were her favorite flavors, though sometimes she went a little overboard with it. While she could handle it, her siblings couldn’t.

There was one pony that she was sweet to, and that was her friend White Sand. When chores were done, the two would play together, imagining themselves in Canterlot in Princess Celestia’s court, swinging through jungles, or fighting off dragons. They liked to study geology for fun, and explore another part of the lake where Saline’s family didn’t work, and played in the mud there. White Sand was especially fond of building things out of mud, which greatly impressed Saline.

Saline’s cutie mark wasn’t a big event, rather just appearing on a normal workday when she declared that she enjoyed salt harvesting. And she spent much of her life doing just that, marrying White Sand in her early adulthood. Her precious ‘Sandy’ would build their house, as well as a new houses for new residents.

Saline was pregnant three times—unfortunately, the first two ended tragically in painful miscarriages, and the last one banged up her insides so badly that she couldn’t have another foal. As a result, Saline and Sandy were overprotective of their son Bucky Brackish from foalhood until he was nearly a stallion.

While Saline tried to teach him how to harvest salt, Bucky wasn’t very interested. Still, he wanted to help with the family business, so he suggested to be involved in the business part of it. Saline raised an eyebrow at him suggesting he join the “boring part” of the salt industry, but she agreed to it when White Sand didn’t see a problem with it.

When Bucky moved to one city to work the salt trade there, things were quiet for Saline and White Sand, as they missed their boy. They received letters from their son, and on occasion they’d travel to that city in order to visit him. One visit had them meeting Bucky’s friend Sweet Spice, a unicorn mare that he’d end up marrying. While Saline was initially suspicious of how nice Sweet Spice was, they eventually bonded over cooking with, well, spices.

A couple years passed before Bucky and Sweet Spice had a foal, a little unicorn colt that they named Saltworth. Saline adored her grandson, who was as sweet as his mother and as smart as his father. She was happy to watch him when his parents went out, whether it’d be grandparents visiting Bucky’s place or parents visiting Gramma and Grampa (Laketown grew over the years and got a few nice restaurants and diners). Saline would giggle every time White Sand jokingly scolded Saltworth for growing so fast.

During one visit where she and Sandy were watching four-year-old Saltworth at their son’s house, they received horrible news: Bucky and Spice had encountered some bandits that had been on the run, who had killed them and several other witnesses to keep their mouths shut. One witness survived to tell the tale.

Saline and Sandy gained custody of little Saltworth. Initially, the couple was planning to take him back to Laketown, but then they decided to stay in the city to see if the salt trade was doing well. Saline handed off the salt farm to her younger brother, Sandy left Laketown’s construction company and joined the city’s, and geared herself up in case a repeat of the bandit incident happened (even though those were rare). But, she wasn’t prepared for having to enter the business end of the salt trade.

Though Saline was stubborn and initially wanted to figure things out on her own, Sandy wouldn’t let her, and got help in the form of a Mr. Tomato Sandwich. Saline didn’t like Tomato at first, especially since he was prone to sarcasm and kind of a weirdo. Still, that stallion was immense help for helping her figure out the business thing, and she slowly grew to like how quirky he was.

At one point, Tomato had introduced his daughter Bell Pepper to Saltworth in order to keep the bored colt company. Bell soon frequented the house, especially when the two foals started school. Saltworth also liked going to Bell’s house, and went there whenever his grandparents were busy.

Saline and Sandy, though sad that they lost their only son, were pretty happy with raising Saltworth. Sadly, Sandy succumbed to a heart attack and left Saline to raise their grandson on her own.

She watched the colt grow into a stallion. Though it was disappointing that Saltworth had absolutely no interest in learning any part of the salt trade, his efforts to become a police officer instead were noble enough for Saline to be proud. She was happy that she lived long enough to watch him be able to support himself on his own. That he’s a supportive and helpful member of his community was just a bonus.

Though, she does admit interest in living long enough to see Saltworth get married and have foals of his own. She wouldn’t mind getting to meet her great-grandfoal(s).

Report Sketcha-Holic · 390 views ·

Comments ( 2 )