Makuru
Makuru.png
Name: Makuru
Race: Zebra
Glyph-Mark: A bubbling evaporating flask
Talents: Potioncraft
Weaknesses: Nosiness
Description:
The little zebra colt standing here is tall and gangly, as one might expect from a pubescent foal. His coat is a darker gray than one might normally expect of a zebra but not so dark as to render the black stripes that denote his species difficult to see. His golden eyes are often wide with a mix of curiousity, happiness and excitement, and his face is framed by alternating black and white dreadlocks that often fall between his eyes. His build is lean but defined, as one might expect from a distance runner or similar athelete.
Player: ThirdAnguis

Makuru is a Horseshoe Harbor native, the son of two Zebrican immigrants who came to the town shortly before he was born. His father, Bamidele, is an herb gatherer and his mother, Kirabo, is a potioner. Together they supply and run a stall in the Harbor's market square which Makuru helps in when he is not hanging out with his friends in town or going go to school.

The little colt is an incredibly outgoing zebra who makes friends easily and wants to be friends with everypony. Oftentimes if a pony is the same age as him simply introducing oneself is enough for Makuru to count them as one of his buddies. Considering that foals in town tend to gather in large groups for inexplicable reasons this usually means that he "makes new friends" at an amazing rate, at least in his mind.

Makuru likes helping ponies, oftentimes without being asked (or occasionally wanted). When not running errands for his parents he often gets his nose into other ponies' business to find out what is going on in their lives and what he can do to help make it better. This can make the colt easy to manipulate as his desire to do good by his friends overrides his common sense.

Talents

Notable Relationships

Freeze-Frame is Makuru's best friend. The two foals spent an awful lot of their childhoods around each other because Freezey's father often comes to Makuru's parents' stall to buy hangover remedies after spending the previous nights drinking his sorrows away. He loves the pegasus filly like a sister and the two can often be seen getting into mischief around town together, whether it's stealing cookies from cookie jars or having impromptu photo shoots of ponies' embarrassing moments.

Makuru has the biggest crush on Sadaka, stemming from wing envy for the flying zebra filly and an accidental kiss they shared while being rescued from the NICE factory. He does a terrible job of hiding his fondness for her and it may or may not be an "open secret" among his friends. At least she doesn't know he likes her, if only because they're both totally oblivious to what getting quiet and blushy in each others' presence when Siyana starts making fun of them means…

Hoarfrost is another of Makuru's close friends, the two having met during the summer when Makuru was playing volleyball and dove into the sand at her hooves while she was hiding under her umbrella. The two foals share a common bond in their dual apprenticeships; Makuru to Sodium-Fizz, the town's resident alchemist, and Hoarfrost to Snowfield, a local ice sculptor and "forest witch". Makuru loves having a friend who knows her way around the Wintersong Forest and often spends time with the filly exploring the woods looking for herbs.

Having learned the fine art of medicinal potioncraft from his mother, Makuru is now apprenticed to Sodium-Fizz, the town's resident mad alchemist for more advanced study on magical plants and how to use them. He holds a deep respect for Miss Fizz and her trade and he obeys her orders without complaint. Unfortunately, Sodium's occasional habit of following up on incredibly bad ideas has gone generally unnoticed by the zebra colt even after she explicitly warned him to keep her reined in when she starts talking about running experiments on the town's water supply and other such alchemical shenanigans. In fact, his desire to be as helpful as possible can lead to positive feedback loops where he and his mistress encourage one another to do some pretty stupid things in the lab. He also thinks her oversized wings are really pretty.

Dream-Daze and Makuru have an interesting relationship, in part because of how they interact with each other. The zebra seems to have exceptionally weak mental defenses and the unicorn, being mute, often communicates by putting her thoughts directly into other ponies' heads via magic. These two things working together have led to the discovery that Makuru is extremely susceptible to Dreamy's suggestions and will assume that her broadcast thoughts are actually his own. It takes a specific effort on her part sending entire "mental narratives" to him before he realizes that he has somepony else in his head. Though initially wary of Dreamy's ability to make ponies "think things they weren't thinking" he has since warmed to her presence in his mind ever since she rescued him from a nightmare.