Birthday Bios: Saltworth · 2:40pm Aug 31st, 2016
Whew! Am I glad that the insanity of August is all over, and I can get back into a sane schedule.
And thus, I go on to a new Birthday Bio, one for Bell Pepper’s best friend and partner in the force, Saltworth. To be honest, I only named him that to make a stupid “salt and pepper” joke. Even so, I assure you that this stallion is worth his salt (hurr hurr).
Let’s dive in!
It was a stormy night when Sweet Spice gave birth to little Saltworth, and his father Bucky Brackish ran late thanks to working on last minute reports and the weather causing a ruckus. Even so, once together, the new family found peace in each other’s presence, especially when baby Saltworth touched his parents’ faces for the first time, cooing in delight over the smiling ponies greeting him.
He was adored by not only his parents, but his grandparents as well. Sweet Spice’s parents lived quite far away, so they and Sweetie’s many siblings visited them rarely. Bucky’s parents, White Sand and Saline, lived closer, though Laketown was still a ways away from the city that the family lived in. Even so, Sandy and Saline visited, or were visited, quite often. The extended family loved playing with little Saltworth, as he was so sweet and happy with an infectious laugh.
Though he did have the classic toddler tantrum from time to time, he was mostly the happy and curious kind of toddler. He liked to capture animals and bring them to his parents, taste the salty ponds his grandmother and her co-workers harvested salt from, play with his mother’s makeup, and entertain any babysitter of his (whether it was his grandparents or a neighbor). He was quick to learn how to talk, and hold a coherent conversion before his third birthday. And when he was four, he was counting down the days before he started school and met new friends.
One night, tragedy struck. While his parents were out for dinner, some unicorn bandits on the run rolled into town, and when somepony recognized them, the crooks seized the restaurant, and performed a horrifying slaughter with various lethal spells. There was only one survivor left to recount the tragedy.
While his grandparents explained to him what death was, Saltworth remained to silently sit in front of the door, waiting for Mom and Dad to burst in and give him hugs and kisses (despite the fact that he attended the funeral). He always answered the door, only to be disappointed to see a mailpony or a neighbor coming by to do favors for the bereaved family. While his grandparents were often busy cleaning around the house, one or both would sit down beside him and talk with him. Sometimes he’d break down into tears over something that reminded him that his parents weren’t coming back.
His grandparents gained custody of him and stayed in the city, with Gramma Saline handing off the salt farm to her brother. Saltworth simply colored and practiced using his fledgling magic while his grandparents permanently settled into his home and went about taking jobs in the city, such as Grandpa with the local construction company and Grandma handling the salt business, getting some pointers from a Mr. Tomato Sandwich.
Tomato had noticed Saltworth at some point and thought that he might have been lonely, thus coming to his regular meeting with Saline one day with his young daughter, about three weeks older than Saltworth, riding his back. The filly, Bell Pepper, was won over by Saltworth’s charm and they started playing some rough-and-tumble games and making a mess in the kitchen making snacks. Soon enough, they were regulars at each other’s houses, with Bell’s folks considering Saltworth a member of the family and vice versa.
The two foals started school together, and it was apparent that none of the other foals could handle Bell’s roughhousing like Saltworth could. While he was nice enough for the other foals to like him, his association with Bell sometimes pitted him against everypony else. He didn’t want to leave his first friend alone, and he essentially became her anchor when she got mad. He lost count of how many times he had to restrain Bell from trying to hurt somepony.
Even though Bell was learning how to cool down from her mother, Saltworth had the job of making sure the lessons stuck while at school. Sometimes, foals trying to rile up Bell would get on his nerves, and he often had to shoo them away. And then there were the times where some would come after him, which got Bell jumping in to save him, getting into trouble in the process.
During some of Bell’s groundings where they weren’t allowed to play, Saltworth occupied himself by exploring the neighborhood and finding things with a few of his neighbors. The foals that joined him were typically younger than him, but they all enjoyed pretending to go on Daring Do-esque adventures in the nearby park. Sometimes he ended up having to keep the younger kids out of trouble, but he mostly had fun.
His grandparents made sure that he got to visit his other grandparents on the other side of the country, and interact with the many cousins there. While he couldn’t visit them often, he still makes a lot of hilarious memories that he looks back on fondly. Whenever he got back, he’d usually tell Bell all about his adventures with his cousins. In return, Bell would tell stories about her crazy cousins, and even got him to meet them when they came for a visit. On that day, he got a little miffed at Bell for not telling him that her uncle was Cheese Sandwich.
He also loved to read, as a curious soul who liked to learn. Some of his down time during rainy days typically consisted of him cracking open an encyclopedia for whatever he was curious about that day. Sometimes he’d go for whatever fiction book he got from the library, whether it was Daring Do, or the adventures of the sailor Bulwark Mist. He even introduced some of his friends, including Bell, to these books.
When Bell became the school playground monitor at age eleven, Saltworth was confident that she could control her temper enough to do her job. However, when he noticed that some of the jerk foals of the school were acting up just to get a rise out of and overwhelm Bell, he decided that maybe she needed a partner, as there were too many classmates for just one filly to handle. So, he asked the teacher if it was all right if he was a playground monitor too, and was allowed to be by his friend’s side.
For the most part, Saltworth managed to deescalate any conflicts that threatened to explode between Bell and the jerks. However, when he turned his back to settle a fight between a couple of kindergarteners, Bell ended up getting into a fight when protecting a malnourished colt from bullies went wrong. Alarmed, Saltworth jumped into the fray as well, and without even thinking about it, used his magic to grab everypony involved with the fight (which was about five ponies) and split them up, holding them until the teacher arrived and dragged the fighters inside for a lecture.
He was sad that Bell got suspended from playground monitor duties and had to work a bit to regain that job; but, on the other hoof, he was amazed on how strong his magic was, and wondered if police unicorns used it to hold bad guys. In thinking that he might make a good cop, his cutie mark appeared, which sealed the deal for him. He discovered later that Bell also got her mark, which also indicated that she was meant to protect ponies, thus she decided that she’d be a cop as well.
Saltworth managed to earn his cutie mark before his Grandpa White Sand died from a heart attack, and is at least happy that his grandfather got to see it. Even so, he fell into a similar depression that he did when his parents had died, though he understood death better this time. Once again, neighbors visited to do favors and give their condolences, and Bell’s family came over to help them in their grief.
Nevertheless, Saltworth felt that he should become a stallion that Grandpa would be proud of, and he spent his teenage years saving and preparing to go to the city’s police academy. And when he went in as a young adult, his friend Bell Pepper was by his side.
General classes and field training were things they got to do together in the academy, and they helped each other study so that they could understand the law, proper police protocol for specific events, and how to use each tool on their belt. Tribe-specific training had them attending different classes (Bell being an earth pony and Saltworth a unicorn), and Saltworth learned and practiced an arsenal of spells to help him in his work.
Soon enough, they were out on the field, and would serve for the next couple of decades. Being partners on the force, Bell and Saltworth were typically keeping the unruly under control, ticketing wrongly parked carts, and nabbing robbers and vandals. His magic could easily catch whatever troublemaker he encountered, though it sometimes resulted in a bit of envy from Bell.
However, whenever he was investigating a more serious crime, he could be nothing but grim the entire time. Murder especially brought out a cold fury in him, as his parents’ death always came to mind when he encountered the body of the victim. While he was typically considered the “good cop” to Bell’s “bad cop”, he shows absolutely no sympathy for any murderers they caught, no matter how much they tried to excuse it or regret it or anything. If there’s a foal involved in the crime, whether as the bereaved or the victim, he gets even angrier. When Saltworth grows cold, it tends to scare Bell.
However, as murder is not a very common crime in Equestria (with the kind of slaughter Saltworth’s parents died in being less so), it’s safe to say that cold Saltworth is not very common either. Most of the time, he tends to be pretty cheerful and goofy, especially on slow days where he could ramble on about whatever subject to Bell, munch on a donut to satisfy his sweet tooth, or have a little fun with some neighborhood foals. He’s usually the one that goes to schools in the city and educates foals about the law and basic safety, as he is the most approachable.
He has gotten a little embarrassed by his Gramma Saline asking him to settle down with a mare and give her some great-grandfoals before she dies. But, he does like the idea of having a family.
I can't help but imagine some pony TV executive hearing about these two:
Seriously, a crime procedural drama with these two would probably be a lot of fun.