Some Art For Scarlet. · 8:44am Feb 23rd, 2021
As you all know, Scarlet Broken Pedestal was canceled a ways back. However, before I canceled it, I had drawn up some images to go with it, and even a hypothetical third story that, sadly, will probably never see the light of day. I figured I'd take a little bit to share the pictures I drew and their significance.
Scarlet threatening Twilight? What the hay is that about? Well, at the point in the story when this scene would have taken place, Twilight's faith and confidence in their mission was so dramatically shaken that she's basically given up. Compound that with Twilight having routinely failed to accomplish her goals and Scarlet's advice routinely being ignored, Scarlet finally snaps and decides to beat some sense into Twilight. She isn't actually trying to kill her, merely force her to finally start playing by the rules of the new world.
"Why, Scarlet? I thought we were friends!"
"We are friends. But you tell me, Princess; is that reason enough for you to let me kill you?!"
As a fun side, this is the music I imagine going to their fight.
Aaah, and here we have the final, ultimate villain of Broken Pedestal. Or, well, the villain in the rewrite of the outline that eventually got scrapped. The last of the Kirin, and one of their royalty at that, this mare was going to be driven by a sense of rage and grief, pinning the blame for the downfall of her kind on ponies, and seeking to exact vengeance for her loss on New Equestria by assassinating the councils and allowing the nation to tear itself apart in the aftermath.
"Really?! Four hundred years and now you finally show up, and it's because one of yours died!"
"You ponies thought we were all dead, and you didn't even bother to check!"
"You never even sent anyone to help bury the bodies!"
She was going to be a very sharp contrast to Silent Edge. Where Silent was calm, calculating, composed, and largely devoid of emotion, this Kirin would be unhinged, wild, unpredictable, and driven entirely by grief, rage, and wild emotions she had no means of controlling.
This depicts the final battle between Twilight and said Kirin in the skies above Newcanter, with the whole city looking on. Two Princesses of nothing fighting over the fate of a kingdom that belongs to neither of them.
This here is Archbishop Luminous Sanctum, and he was to be a secondary antagonist in the story. As the head of the New Equestrian church, he would have carried no small amount of power in political matters, even if New Equestria isn't a theocracy. He'd be routinely pulling the strings, trying to undermine the efforts of Twilight and co. out of a fear that they will take his power away by proving the religion he leads rooted in falsehoods. If the truth comes out, he loses power, and he cannot accept that. Further, he would have been an unwitting pawn in the Kirin's machinations.
Finally, we have Queen Interitus. While she would not have made any appearances in story 2, her existence was to be heavily hinted at due to unusual behavior exhibited by the Ferals, culminating in an entire swarm of them suddenly stopping everything they are doing to stare blankly ahead. And then, a minute later, bowing as if to nothing. This would be in response to her, as the first Queen to reach adulthood since The Fall, gaining control of the curse and, by extension, all of the Ferals, and issuing her first orders to them.
"STOP!"
...
"W-what? What is...? Why are you...?"
"We hear. We obey."
"O...obey?"
...
"I see... Then... Bow."
She was to be the central antagonist of story three. As a Queen, she was unaffected by the Feral Curse, and as such, did not behave in the same way as the Ferals did. As such, she was the runt of her swarm, barely got to eat, and is lucky she wasn't killed for being a liability to the pack. She was to be a mare who is barely more than a traumatized, scared little child lashing violently out at a world that has tortured her at every turn because she doesn't know any other way, and doesn't know any better.
As you can guess by the axe, her fighting style would be that of a berserker. No finesse, no skill. Just raw, uncompromising strength, like a raging bulldozer. Anything stupid anything to be in front of her when she strikes wouldn't still be standing when she passed.
Alas, none of these ideas are going to be fully implemented. At least not in the mainline Scarlet stories. Those are done and dead, ending with Scarlet 1, now. However, whenever I decide to come back to the setting, some of these characters or ideas may get recycled. We shall see.
Just wanted to share some of this with all of you.
it a pity you cancelled it i really enjoyed the world you built
5459756
I do plan to come back to the world - someday. I have an entire story idea based on the 'assassin' who kicked off the War of Retribution. And indeed, there is a chance - however small - that another might be writing a different version of the original Scarlet. No guarantees yet, but it's a neat idea that has seen some thought from someone I know.
Really enjoyed Scarlet, so it's cool to see some behind the scenes stuff. I'm a little sad we didn't get to see this all play out, but I understand if the muse wasn't there.
'reads first explination of the piccture' ah... this is on twilight then, different worlds follow different rules, and she's going out of her way not to follow them. nice picture tho
5459849
She can't make the world better if she goes native. Still, she does need to at least understand the rules.
5459889
agreed.
Thanks for sharing!