Name: Astral Gleam
Species: Crystal Pony (Unicorn)
Age: ?

Source: MLP

Appearance Description: Astral's cutie mark depicts a stylized nebula. It's a rather fitting representation of his field of astronomy, but also his obsession with mystery and puzzles, as nebula's are very mysterious space phenomena.

Personality: Very studious and seemingly a cynic, but that's really only the surface. Around friends or those he is close to, Astral is still a kindhearted pony, par for the course for his kind really. His main issue is having a bit of an obsessive personality, particularly with puzzles and riddles. He views everything as just another question to answer, or another puzzle to solve, and that typically means treating people or ponies like a chess player treats his game pieces. This rubs most ponies the wrong way, many not wishing to stick around someone so controlling or hard to work with. There is a nicer side, it's just buried underneath a thick layer of ice and thorns.

Backstory: Astral's personal history is a little strange. Like most Crystal Ponies, he was actually born over a thousand years ago during the reign of Princess Amore. As for how any Non-Alicorn pony could live for so long, well he actually has King Sombra to thank for that. A unicorn named Sombra embraced dark magic and used its power to usurp the throne of the Crystal Empire from Amore. Amore's fate to this day remains unknown, but before Sombra could turn his attention to the rest of Equestria he was defeated by Princess Celestia and Princess Luna.

Unknown to them at the time, Sombra put a curse on the Crystal Empire that caused it and its citizens to vanish right along with him. The Empire didn't reappear again until a thousand years later. When it did, Sombra reawakened along with it, and he tried to regain his grasp over the Empire and the Crystal Ponies. Thankfully, the Empire was saved by Princess Twilight Sparkle, though she wasn't a Princess yet at the time. Her efforts, or more specifically those of her assistant Spike, allowed for the resurrection of the Crystal Heart which destroyed King Sombra once and for wall. After this, the Crystal Empire was then ruled by Amore's descdent, Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, or Cadence for short; along with her husband Shining Armor.

It was the experience of Sombra's curse that perhaps turned Astral Gleam into the cynic he is now known for being. Enslavement on top of finding oneself a thousand years out of time is understandably a traumatic experience. Really it's a miracle that more of the Crystal Ponies didn't turn out the way Astral did. But that experience has caused the Crystal Unicorn to live like a recluse more than most of his peers and colleagues. He was still quite brilliant in his field, but Astral's eccentric and often controlling behavior made him near impossible to work with. Also thanks to Sombra's curse, Astral can barely even recall how he got his cutie mark. He remembered it being at night, and that was he was star-gazing while also studying the Crystal Heart, but the rest is a haze. Not that it really matters anymore, Astral knew even a thousand years later that his passion was space and solving the mysteries that lie beyond the stars.



Skills: Astral is an avid star-gazer, not surprising for one within his chosen professional field. He is quite knowledgeable of constellations, the stars themselves being what fascinates him more than anything else. After all, the Sun and Moon are functionally controlled by the Royal Sisters and so there isn't much to be learned about them. The stars? They simply are just there, and so far no pony has discovered any kind of explanation for them, magical or otherwise. Other celestial bodies too, such as comets, asteroids, or meteors, are also steeped in mystery and do not appear to be linked to any form of magic like the Sun and Moon are.

Traits: Astral has an eye for little details, quite useful for someone who's job involves watching the night sky and actively looking for any strange phenomena. This sometimes also translates to reading facial expressions and spotting little tells that someone maybe lying or hiding something.

Powers: Apart from the basic Unicorn magic, Astral has practiced some of the more advanced spells such as teleportation, though he will freely admit that his mastery of such spells are a bit lacking. Although there is one particular spell he quite fond of, a projection spell that allows him to generate virtually any kind of scenery within a room. They are just illusions, and the content is generally tied to his own knowledge of whatever it is he is projecting, but it is quite useful for creating visual aids when giving a lecture or similar scenario.

Equipment: Spellbook, a handful of Astronomy books, a handheld telescope, and a quill and several notebooks for recording notes and other such research entries.