Profile
Nox
Spy
Info
Bat Pony ✦ Adult ✦ ✦ He/Him
Fluent in deception and a master of improvisation, Nox is a pony with a talent for acting that has found what he considers a far more exciting use for his skills. As far as friends and family are concerned, he's an office worker at the Equestrian Ministry of Investigations. What they don't know is that he's really field agent in the ministry's Espionage and Infiltration Division. Day in and day out, he's writing reports, gathering information, and finding contacts; sometimes stepping in and putting everything on the line to complete his mission objectives. When Nox was just a young colt, he never would have imagined himself in this line of work—for stars' sake, he got his cutie mark performing in a musical. But what is an actor if not a professional liar?
Nox is the kind of pony that prepares for the worst. In his experience, plans almost always go sideways so you might as well let yourself be pleasantly surprised when things are okay. He is never without a backup plan as well as a backup for his backup. Growing up, Nox never had much of a childhood; he always had to be the responsible one and make concessions, and even now, it's hard to break out of the mindset that he has to carry everyone else. Nox prides himself on being perceptive when it comes to others, but he's clueless when it comes to himself and his needs. He never wants to bother people with his problems, especially when they seem so insignificant in the grand scheme of things. He has a terrible habit of bottling up his feelings, but he's working on it.
All in all, Nox is a pretty chipper pony, coming across as rather carefree. He's very extroverted and loves meeting new people and trying new things. Nox is the first to break into song when the music kicks in, and he's the last to leave a party because he'd want to help clean up. He'd invite a stranger out for a drink on a whim just to hear their story and talk with them through the night if they were willing to. Nox is selfless, loyal, and a kind-hearted soul; always looking out for others and trying to make himself useful. And while he genuinely enjoys helping someone out, some small part of him is doing it more to ease his conscience.
Nox is a quick learner and has picked up quite a few tricks and hobbies over the years. The ukelele to audition for a school talent show; lockpicking to steal baubles for extra bits; gardening to cheer his sister up; ice sculpting to impress a former crush; and so on and so forth. Nox isn't particularly great at all of them, but he enjoys them nonetheless, and every once in a while, one of these skills comes in handy. He's always willing to try something at least once, and most of the time Nox is too stubborn to give up until he's at least somewhat mediocre at it.
As the firstborn child of Lord Nightcroft and Lady Accumula, Equinox lived the better half of his childhood wanting nothing. For the longest time, he was the center of attention and was prepared to follow in his father's hoof steps in the merchant business. Things changed after his sister, Wisteria (now Lavender), was born though. She was tiny—so tiny and noisy and always needing constant care; the little lord despised her. To make matters worse, his mother's already poor health plummeted not long after Wisteria's birth. Accumula passed away the following year, but not before having her son promise to look after his sister. Nightcroft, on the other hand, resented Wisteria. He was grieving and needed something to be angry at; he blamed her for Accumula's death, wondering if his wife might have lived had she not insisted on keeping the child. Despite Equinox's pleas and attempts to reason with his father, Nightcroft planned to send Wisteria away to live with distant relatives or, if they couldn't take her in, to give the filly up for adoption. In a desperate last-ditch attempt to keep his sister in his life, Equinox kidnapped her and ran away from home, forsaking the life he'd been born into for one of being shuffled from street to orphanage to foster home and back again.
He's only ever seen his father a handful of times since then, most of them at a distance or in a crowd. In private, he's been offered the chance to rejoin the family—even his sister would be welcomed back—but that world he was once so eager to be a part of now seems so far away; he doesn't think he could ever go back to his old life even if he wanted to.
Nox has always been good at hiding in the shadows and blending into crowds, so much so that when he stumbled into the middle of an investigation headed by then-special agent Brass Tacks, he proved himself to be quite a valuable chess piece. Nox still considers this chance meeting one of the best things to ever happen to him as a good word put in by Brass got him recruited by the Ministry, and the world he knew grew tenfold. Nox wholeheartedly believes in the Ministry's mission: everything he does is for the greater good and to keep Equestria safe. The opportunity to travel the world? That's just a welcome bonus.
Of course, every job comes with its laundry list of downsides. It's a dangerous occupation, and Nox is very well acquainted with that fact. After all, a mission gone wrong cost him an eye. Every choice is a calculated risk, and any plan could fall apart at the last second. Sometimes good ponies get hurt, and sometimes Nox is the one doing the hurting. He is by no means a fan of the more extreme measures. At times he even scares himself with what he's capable of. But when there's no other way forward, when the only alternative is failing—well for his loved ones' happiness and security, there is no price too high to pay.
Then there are the missions where it's not the dangers of the job that get to him. Moments where he's alone and halfway around the world in a damp rat-infested wine cellar, earpiece smashed, and hooves fumbling to unlock the hidden passageway. In times like those, he misses home and is kicking himself for continuously lying to people about his life or where he is. Sometimes he wonders what his life would be like if he'd never met Brass and had joined his buddy's acting troupe like he'd planned. But then the lock clicks open, the sound of hoofsteps catches his ears, and there's no time to dwell on such thoughts.
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