Halp! NPC creation troubles!

I think this is the right forum...

So, in my in-person campaign, the players have just arrived in Canterlot, and unbeknownst to them, they are about to have to escape it. They can either A) try and cut straight through the city, at the unavoidable risk of fighting off the Herdmind, or B) go out through the underground caverns, at the much more avoidable risk of getting lost or fighting some cave monsters.

I had an NPC encounter planned if they got a little too lost; a Crystal Pony comes and helps them find the way out. The trouble is, I can't figure out for some reason how or she got there or why. I need some help with personality too; all I've got for details is "Crystal Pony" and "Knows the caverns".

Someone help me brainstorm?

Maybe she was much more comfortable underground, and found she enjoyed the caverns when she visited there. You know, kinda agoraphobic.

^ She left the Crystal empire before it disappeared, but remnants of Sombra's curse echoed out, putting her in a state of timelock (suspended animation, or she just disappeared like the rest, whatever fits). So she's been down there (or she just reappeared there), because she was there 1000 years ago and was visiting the caverns. Crystal Pony in Crystal caverns basically writes itself. She may have been trying to steal some, as well.

Or, make her a hermit. Again, Sombra's spell echoed, but to a lesser effect. Instead it grants her extended life (like the ponies in the Crystal Empire, but without disappearing) her long life, which she spent in the caves, making them her home away from home (again, crystals. Too easy.)

Personality wise, that's up to you. Bitter and irritable- especially at the new intruders- would work, and she wants to speed them along out of her home, so she helps them escape (if you've ever played Star Wars KOTOR, Jolee Bindo is a good model.) If it takes a decent bit of time, have her start to assist more than with directions, misleading pursuers or setting traps. Uninterested in whatever's going on on the surface, she just wants to be left alone- but sprinkle in that loneliness, with a touch of longing for companionship. Nothing too major, which would make the players get attached to her, but enough to maker her believable. If it takes a decent bit of time, have her start to assist more than with directions, misleading pursuers or setting traps.

a) The pony is a crystal miner or crystal researcher, or similar "underground passage researcher". She's probably doing this for the thrill of SCIENCE! or RESEARCH! and will drag the party into danger if they let her go willy-nilly with researching.

b) The pony is actually a thief / looter / similar criminal, on the run from the law in the same method as PCs. She's trying to keep this hidden from the party, but subtly reveals hints that she's awfully good a thievery skills.

c) Changeling, left over from Canterlot invasion. She's terrified of the PCs and is helping them purely to get the focus/heat off of her. Her anxiousness and panic may make her slip up on her bluffing and disguise.

d) She's suffering from "super directionless" flaw: She doesn't just get lost, she breaks reality/physics to appear somewhere she shouldn't ever be able to appear. Hence why she somehow stumbled into the Canterlot underground passage after deciding to go grocery shopping to Ponyville, whilst in Appleoosa. Luckily, this same skill at getting epically lost will allow her to "navigate" the party to somewhere several miles away from Canterlot. When asked how she got to the caves, she'll start to speak, then realize she doesn't know the answer to the question.

e) She's a smuggler, using this passage regularly to avoid customs on certain frowned-upon goods (bridles, crops, salt-drinks...).

f) She's part of secretive agency that keeps world-ending threats and mythic eldritch horrors away from the public eye (Mares in Black), on an assignment to contain one such monster within the passage. She knows how to navigate the tunnel, and may or may not have to memory-wipe the party afterwards. Or employ them. Or need their help to fight eldritch horrors.

g) She's a villain or working for a villain. She's collecting energy materials, ingredients or similar seemingly mundane stuff within the tunnel, which will later turn into a weapon the PCs will be forced to deal with. She'll be very kind and nice for their help, which will only make the situation worse when they later learn who she is.

Zarhon wrote:
d) She's suffering from "super directionless" flaw: She doesn't just get lost, she breaks reality/physics to appear somewhere she shouldn't ever be able to appear. Hence why she somehow stumbled into the Canterlot underground passage after deciding to go grocery shopping to Ponyville, whilst in Appleoosa. Luckily, this same skill at getting epically lost will allow her to "navigate" the party to somewhere several miles away from Canterlot. When asked how she got to the caves, she'll start to speak, then realize she doesn't know the answer to the question.

Yeah, but once you master the left turn at albuquerque, then suddenly you've discovered pan-dimensional rift-tripping, and are a god of some sort. So be careful with that one.