Birthday Bios: Fallow Track · 4:06pm Sep 30th, 2016
*weeping tears of joy over how well that eagle turned out*
Heh, he looks like he’d be one of those old Animal Planet hosts that’d be showing you how amazing wildlife is and pointing them out in action while still remaining respectful of them. And given how much he loves and respects animals, if Equestria had television, he’d definitely be doing a show like that. Fluttershy would be proud.
And now, onward!
Fallow Track was born in a town called Sorrelsteed, sitting at the mouth of the Unicorn Range’s Sorrel Canyon (just a train ride away from cities like Vanhoover, Tall Tale, and Seaddle). Sorrel Canyon was home to a variety of creatures from the mundane such as bugs, squirrels, and rabbits to the more awe-inspiring like elemental birds, little winged or horned serpents, and botanokinetic elk. On occasion, the Breezies would come to collect pollen from the canyon, much to the delight of the townsfolk.
As a foal, hiking in Sorrel Canyon was a favorite pastime of Fallow’s. Alongside his parents Trail Dust and Color Canvas, as well as his sisters Wysteria and Wildflower, they’d explore the canyon. Half the party would be studying the creatures’ behavior, and the other half would be painting. Sometimes, Fallow would be looking for the canyon’s Mysterious Spring, which was said to possess magic that only activated under the strongest moonlight. He wanted to know what exactly the magic even does, but as he never found it, he wouldn’t know for a long time.
He has had some run-ins with some hostile animals from time to time. Scars on his chest and back from various incidents led to him wearing a shirt at all times, seeing as they were ugly. He’s often had to protect his sisters from particularly vicious creatures, often having to risk his life to pull a thorn out of some poor manticore’s foot or even pulling some other creature’s sore tooth. Magical urges seemed to have led him to the problem, even though he usually had to visit the doctor for stitches afterward.
One day, he found a lost elk calf. Seeing how clearly upset she was to be separated from her mama, Fallow attempted to soothe her and lead her to her mother. As they looked for the calf’s mother, Fallow found himself following directions from various birds and rodents, and was surprised by how much he understood what they were saying. Sure enough, he found the mother, and was happy to see mother and daughter reunite. In thanking the other animals for their help, marveling at his ability to communicate with them, and realizing what his previous magic impressions were for, his cutie mark appeared.
His grandma Toola Roola, being his confidant, was the first to see the mark when he returned. While he told the others about helping the calf, he didn’t mention the talking to the animals bit to anyone but her. He thought it was weird. However, Toola Roola assured him that with the size of Equestria, it was likely that there were others like him.
When he was still in his teens, he went through an education to become an animal researcher, and joined the Society for Perservation of Rare Creatures. Not only was it a chance to meet different kinds of amazing animals, it was also a chance to meet others like him. He got to go all over Equestria to see and study all kinds of animals and magical creatures. His visits to the Everfree Forest in middle Equestria were always interesting—after all, it was the place that tried to kill him the most!
One day, when exploring a Coltifornian Forest, he discovered a very ill mare who was too weak to move. Moved with compassion, he carried her for some time, asking birds to lead them to help. The nearest town, Aura Springs, didn’t quite have a hospital, but the townsfolk directed him to the very springs that was the town’s namesake, explaining that they were magical with healing properties. So, he complied with their directions, and within a half hour of being dipped into a spring, the mare was cured.
Fallow stuck with the girl to make sure that she was okay. She felt embarrassed for having messed up her own special talent involving plant identification and living among them, having accidentally eaten a type of fungus that induced starvation-like effects. However, she was grateful for him coming to his rescue, and the two became friends, bonding over a sense of wonder about nature.
Seeing as she didn’t have a home, as she talked about leaving her “horrible” family, he allowed her to come along on his trips. The research trips had them teaching each other about each other’s specific areas in nature knowledge, and Fallow often brought her home to Sorrelsteed to meet his family and show her the canyon. In time, there came a relationship that led to marriage.
Things were blissful for a while, with them officially settling in Aura Springs, run a nature park there, and have a son, Grapevine, together. However, when Grape was old enough to walk and get into trouble, Fallow discovered a problem with his wife. Though little Grape was not the rowdy type, his mother seemed to put too much faith in his ability to take care of himself and didn’t set any rules for him, thinking that they’d restrict Grape blossoming into his true self. It often led to Grape wandering off and encountering some sort of angry animal, which Fallow always had to shoo away.
It didn’t help that she didn’t really know how to cook, clean, or anything besides nursing and playing with the baby, which Fallow had assumed was a result of her abusive family at first. However, he soon noticed that through him going through with the chores anyway that she always had an excuse for skipping out of normal parts of domestic life—the only thing that even remotely resembled work was planting the garden. The excuses always seemed too convenient, and he wondered if her family truly had been abusive instead of just nagging her to do chores like any other family.
However, getting her to talk about it was not easy. There were always crocodile tears, accusations of wanting to worsen her poor health (despite him knowing that she was restored to full health in the spring) or ruin little Grapevine’s life with unfair restrictions, or even redirecting the conversation to whatever nature fact she came up with or getting intimate with him. She sometimes even ran off with Grape to the nearby hippie commune, trying to convince him that it was the perfect life—even though Fallow didn’t care for it.
Weary from essentially doing everything in the house by himself on top of his research and running the nature park, he decided to bring in his still pretty spry Grandma Toola Roola to live with them for some extra help. He ended up wondering if it was a mistake, seeing how his wife only got lazier. A daughter, Lemon Zest, soon became part of the mess of a family, and she proved to be pretty rowdy and kind of bossy, enough for even her mother to object to some of her behavior.
Sometimes Fallow wondered if his marriage wasn’t worth all the stress he was going through. Day after day, he kept his kids out of the forest, worried that his lessons on wildlife weren’t sticking and their mother’s philosophy was. He didn’t get to spend much time studying or nursing animals back to health, instead trying to clean up this mess or that or cook dinner or take care of his kids and increasingly weaker grandmother. Eight-year-old Grapevine has casually took to brushing off any rules he made and thinking authority was inherently bad, though thankfully he was mellow, while four-year-old Lemon Zest seemed to take them too far and adopt some sort of militaristic attitude. And then he was worried about his wife’s third pregnancy for multiple reasons, one of which was that it made her more sluggish than the other two. Sometimes, he went off on his own in order to vent to his animal friends.
After his grandmother passed away, Fallow finally got to have a discussion about family with his wife. It seemed that she was moved by it, as she mentioned that she had a sister and wondered what was going on with her. Fallow made her promise three things: one, if their new baby was a filly, they’d name her after his grandma; two, Fallow would get to meet his in-laws; and three, actually be a mother instead of a lazy mare-foal.
Two of those promises would never come to be. The day of the birth arrived, and it turned out that she was having twins. It was too much for the mare to handle and she died from the stress and the bleeding of the entire thing. As a double whammy, one of the twins was too weak to survive. So, Fallow only came home with baby Toola Roola, and buried his wife and younger son.
Fellow rangers of the nature park took over while he grieved, and his friends from town and his wife’s hippie friends came to give the family help with the new baby and their condolences. And Fallow admits, for all her frustrating laziness and “no rules” philosophy, he still loved her for her gentleness and curiosity (though he admits it probably was an unhealthy relationship).
After a few years, he went on research trips once again, entrusting the care of his children to the rangers. He eventually became one of the board members for the Society of Preservation of Rare Creatures, and went around citing the importance of preserving the environment. Later on, his son Grapevine would join him, as well as his hippie friend Tree Hugger. One of Fallow’s favorite members of the society was a pegasus named Fluttershy, who was probably one of the kindest ponies he ever met.
Running the nature park is a great joy in life, though he wishes that more ponies would visit it and appreciate its beauty. Sometimes, he worries that the city of Aura Springs would close down the park due to little revenue and replace it with something else. He often hopes and prays that it doesn't happen.
While he’s not all that fond of the hippie lifestyle, he still doesn’t stop Grapevine from living it, so long as he visits. Lemon Zest, despite her love of rock music and energetic sports, was one who wanted a sense of order in her life, and Fallow agreed to help her save up to send her to a prestigious school in San Franciscolt, which they managed to do. Toola Roola turned out to be an artist like her namesake, and thus, they’re saving up to send her to an art school.
Now that almost all of them are grown up, Fallow can have a bit more peace in his life. Still, he does want to find his in-laws in order to see what they’re like and tell them about what happened to their daughter/sister. He figures that they deserve some closure.
Hmm. A mare who insisted she was horribly abused by her family, constantly made excuses to get out of doing anything she didn't want to, and believed that discipline was something that happened to other ponies...
Nope, can't think of any of your characters who might fit that description.
In all seriousness, I do wonder if Fallow ever did find out who Honeydew's family was. If nothing else, it'd be interesting to see the Sandwich siblings encounter the cousins they didn't know they had. Especially Lemon Zest, if her human analogue's musical tastes are anything to go by...
Also, that is indeed a majestic eagle.
Poor Fallow. For a pony who dedicated his life to identifying animals, it sure took him a long time to recognize a leech.