[b]Name:[/b] Silver Scalpel

[b]Species:[/b] Unicorn 

[b]Gender:[/b] Male

[b]Coat/Eyes/Mane/Cutie Mark:[/b] Silver Scalpel’s coat consists of a dull industrial grey with his mane colour consisting of burnished copper with strands of muddy gold. His eyes are a deep watery blue, with flecks of sea green, and he has sharp, refined aristocratic features due to his Canterlot upbringing and family ties. He dresses well, but his clothing of a red and gold paisley pattern waistcoat, silk shirt and formal black tie, and long styled coachpony’s coat show the wear and tear of the road. He wears a cracked Nazar amulet from Saddle Arabia, and carries with him a worn doctor’s satchel made of crocodile skin. His Cutie Mark consists of a book, scalpel and singular teardrop of blood.

[b]Special Talent:[/b] Silver Scalpel’s special talent lies mostly in the fields of surgery, anatomy and haematology; thus he has a talent for intensive work on the most mangled and damaged of creatures and thus has an expansive magical talent for healing. However, a more abstract interpretation is his own studies into changing the body from one state to another, or metamorphosis through physical transmogrification upon the bodily form, represented in his darkest experiments into forbidden, and “blasphemous” learning.

[b]Occupation:[/b] Medical practitioner/Occultist

[b]Affiliation:[/b] Silver Scalpel’s loyalty is only to himself, he uses the other houses where he is welcomed as a means to an end for his own immoral experiments and for access to esoteric information. He has extensive connections in Moon and Star territory through his family who have benefited from Twilight’s dictatorship as well as minor connections with the Cult of Laughter (although not a member), Stormwing and Everfree. With war ravaging Equestria, doctors are in short supply and an asset amongst all factions after all, no matter their unsavory history.

[b]Personality[/b]: With his upbringing in Canterlot, Silver Scalpel inherited the aloof and cold personality of the Canterlot nobility, as well as their growing prejudices against many non-unicorn ponies. He has a barbed tongue and asides from disapproval or disinterest rarely shows any positive side to him. In his work he is clinical and emotionless, occasionally muttering macabre observations whilst working but mostly acting in a semi mechanical fashion. The only time he becomes animated is during his studies in which he will pace and speak emphatically on obscure pieces of information, or occultic passions. Silver Scalpel also expresses grave distaste of Earth ponies, almost to the point of bigotry due to the Earthborn’s dehorning and execution of many of his family members, as well as the actions of desperate ponies in the Moon and Star slave domes. 

He is ambivalent about Pegasi and dragons, but is disparaging of Griffons, viewing them as bestial savages. He does however, not let prejudice cloud his judgement in terms of work, so long as you pay him he will at least be civil, if not friendly with other species of pony and griffon. With the elitist personality also comes a tendency towards secrecy and paranoia, much of his work is in a secret code of his own making and designed to be obscure and vague. Silver Scalpel cannot stand being stared at by ponies directly, or long durations in tightly packed crowds due to certain unpleasant memories of his work for Moon and Star early in his career. Silver Scalpel also expresses a complete lack of moral codes in regards to his research, if you provide to know something he wants, he will not cease in his efforts to gain it. Due to his secrecy, he frequently goes by pseudonyms and has frequently dyed his coat during his long history to maintain anonymity. As it is, those who know of him only know him by many different names, and so no definite description of him has ever been created by certain authorities that might wish him dead. 

[b]Back-Story:[/b] born in Canterlot six years before Celestia’s disappearance, Silver Scalpel was raised with all the expectations a noble family of his standing was deemed to abide by in societies standards. He was however, a sickly, frail foal but with studious edge and great aptitude in both magic and biology, so was sent to Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns. Despite his intellect, he had very poor relations with his close family, specifically his father, who viewed him as a disappointment for not fitting to the militaristic standards he expected of his first born colt and was extremely abusive. Silver Scalpel kept himself chained to the library for most of his period of study in the School and rarely made many friends, instead focusing on learning and improving his magical abilities. His social impairment lead to frequent bullying, and he grew to hate crowds and children equally from this period of time.

With the disappearance of Celestia and the chaos that followed, Silver Scalpel’s education was disrupted before being taken over by Moon and Star ministrations, which propagated a distinctively racial edge to his studies. With his early graduation ten years later and a further three in university and another two at medical school due to his skill, he became a practicing surgeon in the Moon and Star slave domes and thus gained an outlet for far less moral work in the study of biological magic and unorthodox research. He became infamous for his work in altering the base magical properties of his subject’s flesh, the altering and adapting their forms, and the macabre study of death, frequently working in brutal conditions without aesthetic. Due to this he quickly earned the name amongst the Slaves as “the Red Death”. Knowing of the possibility of the failure of Moon and Star before entering his duties, Silver Scalpel requested the government classify his name and work, and dyed his coat and changed his name before entering the domes. As it is, few knew his real name, and retribution would be hard to enact by opposing parties interested in assassinating him if he happened to go into hiding.

However, this semi loyalty work for Moon and Star was to change following an especially traumatic experience during a slave rebellion. Following this Silver Scalpel increasing cane to distrust and resent the government, who used his studies to further their own means and disallowed him access to his own private research notes despite his involvement. Silver Scalpel in the following month overheard whispering from the slave pens about another revolt in a few days and decided to use it to his advantage. The night before the rebellion he stole his research notes from the government safes and enacted one last experiment. This experiment however proved to be an extremely important discovery in his research field and he struggled to get down even half his observations before the riots ensued. Forced to leave his surgery as the riots overwhelmed the guards, Scalpel fled through hidden tunnels out of the slave dome and onwards to freedom. The Moon and Star administration declared him legally dead and hailed him as a martyr for the Unicorn cause in the newspapers, using his pseudonym instead of his real name. Through official channels he was relieved to find that his researches theft had been put down to Earthborn treachery.

Following this he practiced as a freelance surgeon across the war torn nation, collecting information to further his goals, but always seeking another chance to recreate the conditions he found on the day of the riots. Known as a butcher, and monster and a manipulative creature, he has gained a reputation under dozens of names as nightmare itself, as his massive web deceptions begin to crack and collapse, and tales of a dark doctor spread. With the arrival of the Alicorn’s, he sees a prime chance to further his own immoral bloody research, who knows… perhaps he shall finally know the blood and flesh of a god under his scalpels and thus complete his research...