Birthday Bios: Peppermint Stride · 4:11pm Dec 24th, 2016
And a Merry Christmas Eve to you guys! Wow, time sure does fly when you’re having fun throughout the year, and it’s especially fast at Christmastime. Weird, it used to take absolutely forever when I was a little kid, and now I don’t have time to properly enjoy the holiday like I used to.
Anyway, our next birthday bio is… an outlaw? That looks like toothpaste? 
And he’s Christmas colors, so he’s basically a pony-shaped pile of Christmas toothpaste that more than likely wants to punch your teeth out. Yeesh.
Fair warning, this one’s a little strange. Okay, here goes…
Peppermint Stride was born in Baltimare, alongside twin sister Wintermint Bliss. Throughout their foalhood, they were referred to as Pepper and Minty respectively, being two strange and mischievous peas in a pod that did everything together. As babies, the scamps tended to get into everything and put whatever they could find in their mouths. A favorite was toothpaste, and they’ve gotten sick quite a few times from eating their parents’ toothpaste.
Now, the family could hardly be called rich; as a matter of fact, they were downright poor. They lived in a storage room of the sock factory that their parents worked at, and thus, a lot of their personal items were spare materials from the work day. Mishaps that caused giant socks to be made were a blessing to the family, with the socks becoming sleeping bags. Spare socks were made to be toys for Pepper and Minty, used to carry items, and even used as napkins at dinnertime. The twins were taught to always clean their socks and make sure they lasted, and they both always carried around a lucky sock.
They lived in that sock factory for years, seeing all the socks made for the fashion scene over the years, usually to complement some fancy boot. The twins made friends with the workers, and knew enough about textile work to sew some presents for schoolmates out of some old sock material. And then, when their mother was in labor (the twins were six at the time), everyone banded together to make sure the birth of the Mint Twins’ baby sister went smoothly. Minty caught baby Ginger Mint with a sock.
However, unlike his sister who embraced the world of socks, Pepper wanted to be known by something other than the place he lived. He was getting teased for being a weirdo, and he often let his temper get the better of him. He was often grounded for the fights he got into, which let him entertain ideas on what kind of schtick he could do. Somepony once told him to use his name for inspiration, which made him wonder if he was meant to be a professional runner, a candy maker, a dentist, or the next Santa Hooves.
When they were preteens, they were entrusted with an allowance to buy whatever they desired, so long as the price was reasonable. After cleaning his teeth with a toothpaste-splattered sock for so long, Pepper bought himself and his sisters toothbrushes to clean their teeth easier. After all, he prided himself in having a nice, strong set of pearly whites, and wanted the same for his sisters.
He and Minty helped each other have nice, clean teeth by looking in each other’s mouths and telling them where they missed. They also practiced flossing with spare strings, and they always strived to have some fresh minty breath that matched their names, be it by toothpaste or having a mint. Teaching Ginger how to do so was how Minty earned her cutie mark, and helping her pull out a tooth was how Pepper earned his.
Realizing that their destinies pointed towards dental work, the twins worked together to scrape every last bit they could find in order to go to dental school. They saved the allowances that their parents gave them, they sewed together toys out of spare sock material to sell, they helped around the factory, they babysat the other workers’ children, did cart washes throughout Baltimare, and much, much more. They were so prolific in saving, their parents were worried about their health.
However, as a teenager, Pepper had a secret, underground job in order to earn money: he was getting into illegal fight clubs in the shadier parts of Baltimare. It allowed him to let off some steam while earning plenty of bits with his wins. While he told himself that it was for the dental school, he did enjoy knocking the teeth out of his opponents, and he let out his meaner and angrier side during that time. The side that was always frustrated with being stuck living in a factory’s storage room with little progress to an actual house. The side that was sick of being identified with socks. The side that was going to break through that ceiling and achieve a better life once finished with glorious dental school.
Adulthood came, and both Pepper and Minty had saved plenty of bits to attend the local dental school. They both applied, excitedly awaiting their acceptance into the school. Unfortunately, Pepper’s years in the underground fight scene caught up with him, and somehow the staff at the school found out about it—thus, he was denied, while his sister was accepted.
Pepper was upset by this turn of events, with Minty equally disappointed that her brother wasn’t attending with her. She tried to comfort him and express hope in a better future for him, but Pepper lost his temper and roared about how society had failed him, and that he lost his one chance to attain a better life and a career he’d love. He even let slip that he was insanely jealous of her, and decided that they were better off separate anyway, since she was a good girl and he was a bad boy.
And thus, he ran away, ready to accept the hobo lifestyle.
He travelled west to the San Palomino Desert, where he ended up meeting other outcasts who felt that Equestrian society had failed them—just like him. One outcast was a mare named Roanie, a rough tomboy hailing from a wealthy Alfalfaston family who had been forced into being a prim and proper lady whose only role was to be married off to some other family’s heir.
Pepper had been confused as to how a rich pony could be miserable, but realized that feeling like a prisoner could make any lifestyle miserable. So, he was friendly with Roanie, eventually to the point where they fell in love. They never officially married, but took to considering each other husband and wife. Pepper even accepted being called “Stride” instead, as Roanie thought it made a better nickname.
The couple and their gang would go on to terrorize the Equestrian Southwest for years. They ganged up on innocent travelers to rob, and if said traveler turned out to be wealthy, they were dead, as punishment for being an elitist snob (whether or not they actually were that way). It didn’t matter if the victim cried or begged or even pleaded for his family to be spared, the gang did not show mercy. Many a pony had been beaten and left for dead in the desert. Stride typically collected the teeth of the victims.
There were moments of mercy, though that usually required the rescued having to pay them a reward or joining the gang. An example of the latter option was the young Jasper Horseshoe, who’d be useful with his speed and agility. Stride took a liking to the young stallion, and they had a nice friendship that had them racing each other for sport and exchanging stories.
As much as Stride felt at home sleeping under the stars in that desert, his mind often wandered back to Baltimare. He didn’t dare admit that he missed his sister Minty, and still kept his lucky sock in one of his boots as a keepsake. He often wondered what Minty was doing then, and if she managed to launch the dental career they had both dreamed of. Was she still obsessed with socks? And what was baby sister Ginger up to?
These were questions that he never told Roanie, as she obviously didn’t hold similar sentiment about her older brother. He didn’t even trust anypony else in the gang with his thoughts, thinking that they were all the same kind of resentful of their families. He was even wary of telling young Jasper these things.
They lost gang members over the years, but Stride was still strong. He was sad when Jasper got caught in a failed robbery at Nickerlite, but he listened to Roanie when she said that he had it coming for being stupid enough to ogle the unicorn mare there. After all, you can’t really afford to get distracted when performing a heist… though, the pencil stabbings from that incident did hurt. Still, Stride had survived much worse, and was still by Roanie’s side for years to come.
He got to visit Alfalfaston when Roanie got curious about how things have changed there. He thought that it wasn’t too shabby of a place, though they had to leave quickly when ponies started recognizing Roanie’s distinct roan coat. The visit made him wonder what he’d see when revisiting his childhood home.
They struck Nickerlite again, only this time to bully the simple-minded mayor out of the town and letting Roanie take over. They bribed Diamond Dogs to help with the scheme, and thought that it’d be easy since Nickerlite had lousy law enforcement. Unfortunately, they didn’t count on the Pie Sisters, who could go toe to toe with the Diamond Dogs, and of all ponies, the son of Jasper Horseshoe, Bluejinx.
While Roanie contended with Blue, Stride dealt with Blue’s friend Tomato Sandwich, who had made the mistake of shoving Roanie. It would seem that Stride’s bulky frame and rage would easily break Tomato’s thinner build, but he underestimated Tomato’s flexibility and cleverness, which resulted in Stride getting spit in the eyes with mud and stalled long enough for Tomato to get help.
The Pie Parents and Tomato’s brother, Cheese Sandwich, joined the fray and ended things quickly, resulting in the arrest of Roanie, Stride, and the entire gang. They were put into prison on Alcatrot Island, which Stride has idly remarked that it reminds him of home.
But Roanie says not to worry, as she has got an escape plan in the works.
Meanwhile, while Minty is fairly happy in her dentistry work in the little town of Halterside, her sock collection still going strong, and is raising a wonderful family, she is sorrowful over the fact that her beloved twin brother had fell into criminal ways. It hurts both her and little sister Ginger to see him on a Wanted poster, knowing that everypony else would just see him as a bloodthirsty criminal.
They wish that things had turned out differently for him.
Stride is like a weird reflection of that evil dentist in Little Shop of Horrors. It makes you wonder if he would actually have settled down and been happy as a dentist if he had been accepted, or if his bloodthirstiness would have ended up with him being a criminal no matter what.