It's been a while since I last post here, let alone get any interaction in this app! Anyways since I am here I'll share you the latest art, this art is a special birthday redraw for my greatest girlfriend[we are not dating, that's our calling for each other]. Anyways here is the art I did!
Well for everyone you'll see this is a great improvement if you see the old art, don't worry I'll be showing you guys the art! Anyways here is the art I made 2-3 years ago for this special redraw! You guys will get the glow up!
Anyways, I hope you enjoy this one, this art will be special for my friend and I believe it made their day even better! For now that's all for today and I'll see you guys the next art! Bye!!!
It was an odd feeling. On the one hand, it was reassuring to think that the completely unnoticed presence of monsters near Horseshoe Corners was not a lapse on the weather team's part. On the other, this kind and stunningly handsome pony might be able to bring monsters here without even thinking of it.
I was spared the need to come up with a response by Sunset Breeze emerging from the patient room. Noting everybody present, she nodded to Star Bright. "He's awake," she reported, "but let's say, not by much. You can talk to him if you wish, but make it quick."
"I shall," the alicorn promised. "He's suffered enough on my account as it is."
Somewhat unexpectedly, he beckoned me in with him. That was uncomfortable. I've not really had much time around seriously hurt ponies, and I don't like seeing anypony in pain... But I followed.
Gingerly, he stepped over to the side of the one occupied bed. "I'm here, Cloud Cover," he murmured.
The stricken pony turned his head. "I'm sorry," he forced out, his voice unsurprisingly ragged. "I failed you... slowed you down."
Firmly, Star Bright shook his head. "You didn't fail," he insisted. "You succeeded in your mandate beyond anything I'd hoped to ask of you, and your commander will hear of your bravery. As for slowing me down, I've found help from the ponies here so that I can continue on." He gestured over me with a wing; I was half expecting him to pull me forward with it like the Mayor had, but this he did not do.
Unfortunately, some distant part of me thought...
"Strong, alert, and capable - he's agreed to fly in your stead. No soldier, and he certainly couldn't replace you, but you having performed your duty will not slow mine."
For a moment, Cloud Cover's orange eyes sought out mine; the corners of his mouth turned up, perhaps as he, too, got a chance to appreciate how similar we looked. "That's something, then," he managed. "Thank you..."
In a moment of crazy bravado, I promised, "I won't let you down. Either of you."
At that an actual smile crept over the pegasus's face, so I think it was the right thing to say. His eyes slipped shut.
Gently, Star Bright leaned in to nuzzle his cheek, as a big brother might for a hurt colt. "You rest, Cloud Cover. I must go in the morning, but I will be wishing for your swift and full recovery."
"Glad to oblige... Sir..." Cloud Cover's voice trailed into a barely-perceptible mumble. Star Bright turned to go; partway there, he turned, looked at me, and just went on his way when it was plain that I didn't need chivvying along to follow him out.
Once out in the hall, he shut the door, gazed at its surface for a moment, then took a breath. "Well. Time is short, and there's still much to be done." He nodded to me. "I think it'd be best to get you in harness, make any adjustments that may be necessary - and then see how well you adapt to life in a carriage team."
Under other circumstances, the completely unfamiliar work might have made me quail. As it was, the distraction was welcome.
Sunset Breeze is not a mare to let herself be distracted when there's a pony in need. Once she got over her initial startlement, she was all business, rummaging in her bag and producing a small flask. Leaning over the carriage, she said, "Here - help is here for you, now. Drink this, and it will ease your pain."
One coppery eye forced itself open briefly, and Cloud Cover shifted somewhat, taking the tip of the flask in his mouth as Sunset Breeze lowered it for him. A swallow and a few moments later, and he shivered, sighed, and went still.
"I'm afraid he's going to be spending a lot of his time asleep, for a while - or wishing he was," she sighed. "Let's get him to the hospice, then. Gently, now."
In that regard, it was somewhat convenient that he was already in the carriage. And since they were on the ground, the thing wasn't nearly so finicky to keep balanced with an imbalanced team. Under the nurse's deft supervision, the guard was moved to a cot in the hospice and divested of his armour.
As Sunset Breeze went to work, with Blackberry and Tumbledown drafted to help, the rest of us fetched up outside for some continued introductions. The other pegasus was Cold Front - he, too, was pretty close to me in colouring, though with blue streaks in his mane and brighter yellow eyes, and he was enough bigger in build to not look quite so eerily similar. The other two, well, obviously Star Bright had gone with a pretty strict colour scheme. The bat-winged ponies were briefly introduced as Heartsblood and Crimson Tear, which combined with their lurid red eyes made nopony really eager to push past their taciturn silence.
Cold Front was a little standoffish, and sounded like he thought Horseshoe Corners to be not worth he or his patron's time, but he was at least willing to put a few words in, detailing where they'd run into that beastie that had savaged his partner. They were a bit short on details of the actual beastie, but I promised to have the weather ponies keep an eye out - and to send word to Croupenhagen. Storms we could deal with, but hostile wildlife? None of us were fighters.
It was enough to leave everypony a bit subdued, really. Which might have been why Star Bright went on to change the subject.
There was someone else in the carriage. Everyone's eye had gone to the very obvious, very distinctive figure getting out of it, but there was still someone else there, sure enough...
Asking about a doctor sent a murmur of something between concern and alarm through the small crowd of watching ponies. Truth is, much as maybe we should, Horseshoe Corners doesn't have a doctor as such. We do have a nurse, who does what she can - and "what she can" has always been enough to at least give time to get an actual doctor from one of the neighbouring villages; there are a few around.
Now Sunset Breeze's name got floated around, and the crowd shifted somewhat - by the sound of it, at least three ponies were running off to get her. The mayor took a step forward, saying, "We'll have the town nurse here as soon as we possibly can, Pr - uh..."
She'd probably been about to say "Princess," or why would she have cut herself off? But before she could try again, the newcomer spoke up. "Oh, I'm not 'Prince' of anything just yet. I'm a student of Princess Luna; call me Star Bright."
Rough Rider had mentioned a few upper-class ponies he'd run into in Croupenhagen. This didn't sound like them. Oh, the voice was another matter - I could certainly picture that voice at all those fine fancy celebrations everyone hears about in Canterlot. But he didn't sound distant, snooty, or like talking to simple ponies was a waste of his time. He sounded warm, friendly, down-to-earth... the sort of pony you could dream about sweeping you off your feet and whisking you off to a fancy ball.
And he was an alicorn. As much trouble as my mind was having connecting "he" and "alicorn" together, it certainly helped that particular fantasy...
Not that I had much time to entertain that fantasy right then. This was maybe the most important visitor Horseshoe Corners had ever had, and I'd been summoned as one of "the important ponies," as Stormwind had put it.
Which presently got worse. "Sunset Breeze will be along shortly, I'm sure. I'm Trade Winds, mayor of Horseshoe corners, and this-" She reached out with a wing, hooked it over my back, and hauled me in, going in, "is Stormchaser, our weather captain. What happened, Pr - er, Star Bright? Our weather ponies work hard to keep the skies clear, but things can change so quickly this close to the Reef..."
"Weather doesn't normally have claws and teeth," said one of the guard ponies, the one with normal pegasus wings. He was giving me an odd look for no reason that I could see - it didn't make me any less nervous. "Whatever it was, it was on us fast. Cloud Cover saw it first, slipped out of his harness, and got in its way before it could get to the carriage. He sent it scampering off, but not before it roughed him up pretty badly."
Oddly enough, the guard sounded more like how Rough Rider had described upper-class ponies. Which, combined with that look he was keeping fixed on me, really didn't make me any less nervous.
Sunset Breeze bustled up with her medical bag, Stormwind and Dewdrop's older brother Oak Heart tagging along - no sign yet of the other two that had run off to find her. "I'm here, I'm here," she announced. "Is someone... uh..." She boggled a little, taking in the carriage, the guards, the alicorn. "Is someone hurt?"
"Over here, miss," said Star Bright, pacing back to the side of the carriage. Sunset Breeze hustled along; the mayor advanced as well, and, having not taken her wing back - probably afraid I'd bolt, and given how tense I was I can't really blame her - took me along with her - brought me with.
When Sunset got close enough to peer in, she started, and gave me a sharp look. It was starting to get even more unnerving than the rest of it.
Then I got close enough to see for myself, and things made a little more sense.. The pony in there was a medium grey with a dark, short, stiff mane - just like the other pegasus guard, and just like me. If he'd been wearing the crested helmet that was lying beside him, I probably wouldn't have been able to tell that he didn't have the white streaks in his mane that I did. As it was, with the armour covering up whatever his cutie mark was, I could see exactly two differences between him and me: the blood staining his coat and feathers on his right flank and wing, and the wholly unnatural angle that that wing was bent at. He was curled up in obvious agony, eyes screwed shut, trembling.
The resemblance was uncanny, and I wasn't seeing him almost side by side with me.
