Equestrian Profile: Captain Ardent Sentry, SPOILERS FOR ECLIPSE TIMES CHAPTER 3 · 6:30am Jul 14th, 2017
DO NOT READ SPOILER PARTS UNTIL AFTER READING ECLIPSE TIMES CHAPTER 3!!
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Ardent Sentry, pre-Changeling conflict
Title: the First Captain
Alias: Captain of the Celestial and Lunar Guard, The Root of the Sentry Line
"Talk like a breeze, strike like a typhoon."
Stats:
Species: Pegasus
Height: 1 meters
Weight: 225 kilograms
Length: 3 meters
Wingspan: 3 meters
Relatives:
Speedy Service - Mother
Commander Hurricane - Biological Father
Stalwart Sentry - Distant descendant
Indigo Zap - Distant descendant
Flash Sentry - Distant descendant
Faction: Equestria, Commander Hurricane's Pegasi brigade (pre-founding)
Morality: Ardent Sentry was a consummate professional when she matured, even if she had a stubborn streak a mile-wide when she was younger and was prone to outbursts. Quieting down after joining the military, she's was known as a very reserved mare while putting up a pleasant expression, often keeping some things unstated as she knew it wasn't wise to state so.
Bio:
Born out of wedlock to a tavern worker named Speedy Service, Ardent spent her youth helping her mother at the restaurant before joining Commander Hurricane's forces as a teenager due to a calling she felt since she was young. After the founding of Equestria, she eagerly embraced the new racial unity and functioned as a guardian to many of the civilians during the conflict with Tirek, Discord, and Chrysalis; despite her wish to serve on the front lines where she might help more. It was in the conflict with the Changelings after Nightmare Moon's attack she'd get her chance.
Ardent Sentry's conception was caused by Speedy Service enjoying a wild night with a young officer whom was celebrating his recent promotion and success at the tavern with his platoon. They weren't, nor never did date, and didn't have any attraction to one another other than physical. As such when Speedy Service found she'd been pregnant with Captain Hurricane's child upon seeing how similar the newborn Ardent's hair and eye color was to him, she was unsure of what to do. She considered approaching him about it, but opted out of confronting the newly promoted Commander Hurricane with it for multiple reasons. Though she did feel bad about keeping him in the dark and did tell her daughter with the promise Ardent herself might tell him one day, but only when it was right.
Curious, Ardent did try to find the day when she felt a calling to join the military. Both to do good for her society and to possibly get a bit closer and see just what kind of stallion she was sired from was really like. Ardent and Hurricane first met when he came to inspect the new recruits and briefly locked eyes in a standstill. Hurricane didn't recognize her, but he did take a pause momentarily. In the years that followed, especially during the conflict with Tirek, Chrysalis, and Discord; Ardent would sometimes wonder if Hurricane had suspected something and was keeping her off the front lines to protect her.
In the years in her later life, she and her husband agreed to keep Ardent's parentage a secret. Both to further protect Hurricane's legacy as well as not put undue pressure on their children feeling they had to live up to some high pedestal society often put the founders on. As such, each generation of Sentrys has maintained the secret, usually passing it only to spouses or parent to child when the time was right and they'd already proven themselves, though on some occassions a generation might have been skipped for a variety of reasons and thus it was given grandparent to grandchild. It carries the moral that Hurricane was a normal pony, just like all of them, having a child out of wedlock he was unaware of until she was a teenager and never publicly legitimized her, even if it was at her own request he not. And he did it without any spite or foulness, just a very 'mortal' moment for a historical figure so often immortalized. If the secret was told too soon, a Sentry might feel undue pride or arrogance on one hoof, or extreme pressure on the other hoof. It would also be seen as pointless as it was still Ardent's upbringing and moral character that determined what she and other Sentrys did for heroics, not genetics. Hurricane himself agreed to that part.
Trivia:
-Ardent and her mother are aware of who Ardent's biological father is and have been aware since right after Ardent was born so she grew up knowing. The fact Commander Hurricane is her father was kept secret was because at the time Speedy Service caught up to him a few months after Ardent was born, Hurricane was quickly rising through the upper ranks of the pegasi military and had many suitors. Speedy didn't love Hurricane and didn't want to risk roping him into an unhappy marriage, damaging his reputation, or putting off a good suitor; so she kept quiet about it.
-Despite being raised by a single mother, as Speedy never married, Ardent did have a father figure growing up in the form of the tavern owner and other staff; whom all pitched in to help raise her. In fact given her mother was one of only two mares in the tavern and in aside from the late-middle aged owner's wife, a lot of fathers figures or honorary uncles probably is what made her into a tomboy.
-Despite it being a family secret, Commander Hurricane being Ardent Sentry's father is hinted at in the family manor's portrait wall. All the paintings and pictures show families in happier moments, and a rare smile can be seen on a present Commander Hurricane as he watches his Ardent's promotion to the newly formed Celestial Guard. Not just a proud former-commander, but a proud father.
-Because Ardent grew up without Hurricane around, did what she did without him being her father playing a factor, and lead a successful career as the first Captain of the Guard; she is still considered the founder of the Sentry lineage. The whole secret of Commander Hurricane being her father is mostly a tantilizing bit of trivia for the family and a only told to those who've already proven themselves; as a means of keeping down any arrogance or haughtiness that exists in some other founder lineages.
-Ardent did not have an issue with her mother frequently flirting or even sleeping with other stallions, calm enough about it to crack jokes with her over it once she became a teenager.
-Due to the notoriety of her name after becoming the Captain, her husband actually wanted to (and did) take up her name when she married in later years. They had other reasons for doing so, namely the husband did something he was not proud of in later years and taking up the new name was to distance himself from it as well as keep their children free of association.
-Her weapon of choice after becoming the Captain was Commander Hurricane's weapon, the Hurricane Lance. The weapon would become something of a de-facto family heirloom used by numerous other Sentrys across the centuries.
So the Sentry line has Hurricane's blood running through them.... Interesting...
4601103
True, though doesn't really play a factor all things considered. It was just kept secret because
A. Didn't want to tarnish Hurricane's image across the nation, especially after he retired
B. Her being his biological offspring didn't really play a big role in her personality and upbringing
C. Keep any haughtiness that occurred in some founder families from sprouting up in the Sentry line, since they value deeds and character so much as their legacy, rather than genetics.
4601108
Makes sense
And now I wonder what is it what Ardent's husband did. Curse you, Grendelson! Your hints and teases drive me insane!
OK so not a dead beat dad, just some pony who couldn't keep it in his non existing pants and was kept in the dark by the mare he F***ed so he wouldn't have to suffer a shitty life, now technically Hurricane is more Justified