Ponies and friends set out to explore legendary floating islands, travelling in two experimental airships capable of piercing the permenant storm wall. A new world awaits them, populated by strange creatures and filled with unknown magic.
I'm quite fond of the character/scenario builders posted to r/makeyourchoice (among other places). Most of them are just the static image kind - there's an old one for MLP, but fairly simple and lacking content from the later seasons.
Significant characters (to date) in Expedition to the Cloudbreak Islands. Princess Twilight Sparkle does make a cameo in the first chapter, but other than that it's all-OC, at least on the pony side. A handful of dragon characters from Skylanders do make an appearance about 20 chapters in.
Significant characters (to date) in Expedition to the Cloudbreak Islands. Princess Twilight Sparkle does make a cameo in the first chapter, but other than that it's all-OC, at least on the pony side. A handful of dragon characters from Skylanders do make an appearance about 20 chapters in.
Main Protagonists
Summer Scribe : Unicorn mare, archeologist and adventurer! Excitable, analytical, endlessly enthusiastic, knows a great deal but not as much as she thinks she does. Became the expedition's lead scientist, and somehow lead diplomat, after all the senior staff were lost in the crossing to Skylands. Causes and solves disasters in roughly equal measure. Negotiated successfully with the gill folk, remnants of the Sklanders and even the hypercapitalist dirt sharks, but met her match with the sphinxes. Friendly with everypony, but finds it hard to make a true connection.
Azure Feather : quiet, stoic unicorn guardsmare. Combat mage and member of the Lavendar Blades, Twilight Sparkle's elite squad, deployed when friendship is no longer an option. Obsessed with flying and pegasi; an expert with the butterfly wings spell. Has issues forming connections with other ponies after losing all her old friendships. Azure was the first to be affected by the strange magic of the Cloudbreak Islands, developing new and dangerous air-based powers. Got the chance to fulfill her dreams when the ponies found the Temple of the Four Winds - she successfully completed the trials and was granted real wings, but at the cost of her horn. The change from unicorn to pegasus knocked her for a loop, and she's still adjusting. Becomes close to Cloud Cutter, and admires Sunburn.
Reef Skimmer : Hippogriff stallion, junior naval surgeon in Queen Novo's navy, amateur but keen naturalist. Has trouble fitting in with the ponies, due to his size, culture gap and difficulty reading expressions on mammal faces. Reef is endlessly fascinated by all the strange creatures in the Cloudbreaks, often to the point of distraction, although he's very protective of the little ponies around him. Reef was horribly transformed and mentally scarred when he sacrificed himself to protect the crew from an outbreak of hazardous magical waste. He's slowly been pulling his mind and body back together and learning to deal with his new situation. Finds Set Sail adorable, reluctant to do anything about it due to strict military code of conduct and later loss of confidence from his transformation.
Nutmeg Inferno : Kirin mare, leader of a band of engineers. A technical prodigy, she was taken from her village at a young age and put into an intensive training program. Nutmeg puts her natural fire immunity and opposable cloven hooves to good use, and is a surprisingly effective leader - as long as the task at hand is a technical one. Living with ponies her whole life, she can be painfully naive about other creatures, even other kirin. Since coming to the Cloudbreak islands Nutmeg has been getting strange insights and technical knowledge from sources unknown - useful, but unsettling. After a rough start, becomes friends with Reef Skimmer.
Secondary Protagonists
Set Sail : Pegasus mare, acting captain of the expedition, after the original captain and first mate were lost in the crossing, and the second mate was badly injured stuck in sickbay. A simple deckhand, she feels inadequate to the challenge of navigating drow pirates, dragon attacks, crazy magical transformations and being stranded and alone in a harsh and unfamiliar land - but she pushes through and rises to the occassion. Set Sail has won the trust and admiration of the crew, and joins the away parties when her skills are required (or in truth, when Summer Scribe needs extra supervision). Starting to find that big grey hippogriff rather attractive, even if his front half is a giant eagle.
Grenelda : Griffon hen, deckhand, ex-con. A stereotypical griffon from a rough-and-tumble background, Grenelda likes hunting, fighting, explosions and tasty meat treats. Despite the captain's reservations, the need for creatures who know how to defend themselves means she's been repeatedly assigned to exploration missions. In fairness despite her total lack of tact or diplomacy, she's caused fewer disasters than Summer Scribe. Grenelda is straightforward, easy to please and must never be given any kind of a leadership role.
Clashing Gale : Originally a pegasus stallion, became a batpony and undead to boot after the crossing to the Cloudbreaks. Leader of the team that operated the 'storm piercer device', he was a charming, dashing figure. After two weeks in a coma and finding he needed to drain other creatures of their life to survive, he's become quite depressed and cynical, thinking the ponies should do whatever it takes to survive. Able to charm other creatures and implant suggestions into their mind, though as yet he doesn't realise he's doing it - likely to have a full-blown ethical crisis when he realises. Acts like Summer Scribe is his special somepony, but unclear whether he still feels real attraction or is just going through the motions.
Cloud Cutter : Pegasus mare, member of Clashing's storm piercer team. Nearly died, or perhaps actually died in the crossing, now animated by the magics of the Cloudbreak Islands. Originally a meteorologist and researcher of weather magic, she's heartbroken by the loss of her weather powers, and horrified by her lack of emotion or most bodily functions. Bereft of everything that had previously given her life meaning, Cloud Cutter is searching for new purpose. She's thrown herself into helping Azure Feather adjust to her pegasus form, wanting her to experience what she herself can no longer have.
Blaze Trails : Earth pony mare, explorer and guide. Missed the first few encounters due to injuries in the crossing, but keen to make up for lost time. Enjoys exploring, subduing and surviving nature in equal measure. A practical, gregarious non-nonsense kind of mare.
Supporting Cast
Melonwater : Teenage earth stallion, undergrad geologist. Total nerd, happy to come out and look at new rocks, but totally unprepared for giant monster attacks. Makes all the expedition's maps.
Gustus : Male griffon, deckhand, Grenelda's mate. Rather thoughtful and tactful, as griffons go. Gustus can handle himself in a fight but doesn't have the experience or passion for it at that Grenelda does. A griff of many surprising skills, including rallying the crew when the ponies around him inevitably panic. Rumour has it that he was formely a con artist before 'going straight', though this is unconfirmed.
Blue Type : An older earth mare, assistant researcher, Summer Scribe's closest friend. Not adverse to field work but prefers to stay on the airship until any monsters, pirates and ancient magic have been completely dealt with. Sifts through all the documents and artefacts the others bring back and renders them down into exposition. Denies that she has a crush on Summer.
Gearshift : Earth stallion, second in command of the engineering team, Nutmeg's closest confidant and big-brother figure. Unhappy that Nutmeg is putting herself in danger by leaving the ship, tries to protect her as much as possible.
Sprocket and Static Signal : Unicorn and pegasus mares, in a poly relationship with Gearshift. There are a dozen or so supporting characters in the engineering team, but Sprocket and Static get their own scenes and come along on missions, mostly in case the copter breaks down. Static is excitable and a little ditzy while Sprocket is a little more shy and thoughtful.
Winter Hope and Bluebell : Unicorn stallion quartermaster and pegasus mare cook, they're both emergency nurses who spend a lot of time in the sickbay with Reef Skimmer, due to all the injuries sustained in the crossing. There are a lot of background crewponies but these two have had more dialogue than most.
Encounters
Abernathy : Male troll, owner and apparently sole inhabitant of Blissful Pastures, the island where the pony's airship was stranded. Cynical and depressed from isolation and poverty, Abernathy slowly warms to the ponies - despite his house getting destroyed, twice. Eventually reveals a heart of gold and a wicked sense of humour.
Jagged Blade and Silent Arrow : Female drow, slavers, pirates. Only survivors of an attempt to capture the Equestrian scouting party. Jagged is unrepentant and eventually goads Azure into revealing her darker side. Silent is more pragamatic, attempting to ingratiate herself with the ponies, although it's clear she doesn't really understand friendship. Perhaps she with more time she'll be able to overcome her cruel upbringing and harsh culture.
Smoothfin : Leader of the gillfolk. Several gillies were characterised, but Smoothfin is the most important to the plot. Canny, determined to survive but wary and weary after everything her tribe has suffered, including the loss of her son to the drow raiders. Superficially welcoming to the ponies, but convincing her to offer meaingful aid or to resist the drow will be difficult.
Spyro : Legendary dragon, six-time saviour of Skylands, leader of the few remaining Skylanders. Relentlessly cheerful and charming, to the point that you have to wonder what psychological issues he's covering up by sheer force of will. Asks for the pony's help as a last-ditch attempt to turn things around, but is he as trustworthy as he seems?
Sunburn : Feathery phoenix-dragon. Bitter and burned out after three centuries of fighting to defend Skylands and watching things fall apart. A dragon of few words, only a few remnants of his once sharp wit remain. Devoted to Spyro, lives only to toast bad guys. Assigned to work with the ponies, slowly forms a quiet friendship with Azure Feather and begins to believe there might still be hope for a better future.
Cynder : Ruthless dragoness determined to save Skylands at any cost. Tries to kidnap Nutmeg Inferno for her technical skills. Reined in by Spyro, her former mate and nominal superior, but still has no patience for the ponies and their notions of 'friendship'. Cynder was once a dark, evil dragon who was redeemed to become a Skylander - it seems she's somehow fallen back into her old ways, even if she tries to justify everything she does by saying it's for 'the greater good'.
Whirlwind and Flashwing : The final two dragons remaining in Spyro's group, both bear the mental scars of living through the fall of Skylands civilisation, and the famine and wars that followed. Flashwing has gone off the deep end in her pursuit of 'elegance' and 'culture', believing in the ponies she has finally found fellow connoisseurs, only to fly into a rage when their tastes don't match hers. Whirlwind is superficially fine, cheerful and helpful, but there are hints of a radical hidden agenda that will set her at odds with her friends and allies.
Firesteel : Chief Execushark of the Triskellion Mining Company, a bunch of hyper-capitalist ultra-macho burrowing anthro-sharks. Loves to do donuts in his executive monster truck, hates air pirates and 'fancy-prancy elf ecomentalists'. Oozes confidence and a testosterone-soaked brand of charisma, would never admitt that he does actually care about his sharks, albeit not as much as he cares about his profits. Seems to be in a gay relationship with his second-in-command, Pitchblende.
Ne'kuno : Female, leader of a group of sphinxes, guarding the 'Oracle's Tomb'. The local sphinxes are only griffon sized, but still quite deadly. Ne'kuno is torn between a distrust of outsiders due to the dire situation on her ravaged island and her pride in her ancestors, who wanted the Oracle to be open to all. The sphinxes seem to treat every meeting as a transactional exchange of 'secrets', a tricky adjustment for the ponies who are used to sharing knowledge freely. The sphinxes' hospitality is strained even further after their temple is invaded and Summer accidentally breaks the seal on the tomb.
Incidentally if you'd like your OC to be featured in the next illustration (a scene just before the airship departs from Vanhoover), feel free to comment on the story. This will be commissioned from Margony - any character that could plausibly be wandering around canon Equestria is ok. If multiple people go for this, then the contributors will pick the most interesting comment.
Interesting. :) (And I hope you're all enjoying the game!)
"Originally a metrologist and researcher of weather magic," Er, just checking, though: should that be "meteorologist"? I mean, the other could make for an interesting combination, but I'm guessing it's more likely a typo.
Also, I think your link to the artist may be bad. Does this work for you?
That was indeed a typo, though perhaps Cloud Cutter will evetually find solace in the study of light rail systems, after she comes to terms with the tragic loss of her weather abilities. Thanks. :)
5516553 Ah well they've had a hard time of it, in the ~200 years since the Skylanders games. Right now there are about eight chapters left in the Confront the Air Pirates / Rally the Fringe / Aligning to the Elements arc (which we've been in for the last year). We'll then be taking a closer look at what's up with the Skylanders - some of the above bios are referencing material that hasn't been published yet.
Interesting. :)
(And I hope you're all enjoying the game!)
"Originally a metrologist and researcher of weather magic,"
Er, just checking, though: should that be "meteorologist"? I mean, the other could make for an interesting combination, but I'm guessing it's more likely a typo.
Also, I think your link to the artist may be bad. Does this work for you?
That was indeed a typo, though perhaps Cloud Cutter will evetually find solace in the study of light rail systems, after she comes to terms with the tragic loss of her weather abilities. Thanks. :)
5446276
Heh, as far as I know that's also not a meaning of "metrology", but perhaps; maybe she didn't know that either? :)
And you're welcome. :)
I feel mixed? After reading the Bio's for the "remaining" Skylanders ( Specifically the Dragons ).
I DON'T like what's going on here. Seriously, what the f*** happened to them, and our precious Skylands??????!!!!!!!
5516553
Ah well they've had a hard time of it, in the ~200 years since the Skylanders games. Right now there are about eight chapters left in the Confront the Air Pirates / Rally the Fringe / Aligning to the Elements arc (which we've been in for the last year). We'll then be taking a closer look at what's up with the Skylanders - some of the above bios are referencing material that hasn't been published yet.