nikofortuna

[nikofortuna]

Did I just take inspiration from myself and mash 2 ideas into a new au?? Yes, yes I did.

Au where Twilight loses control over herself and her magic right after becoming an alicorn and ends up casting irreversible spells on her friends. (except applejack) She teleports herself away, leaving Applejack to deal with the aftermath.

[nikofortuna]

Neither unicorn nor pegasus, Alicorns appear to have traits from both species, but are so much more beyond that.

The first alicorns are known as The Two Sisters, a pair of unicorns with magic so potent, they changed the face of the sky forever. After growing wings, the young alicorns were called princesses and treated like royalty, thanked for their gift of the sun and moon. But as time went on, it became clear that these were not simply horses with extra features, but something else entirely.

When mature, alicorns are massive deities that stretch across the sky, ferrying the sun and moon to all corners of the world, leaving magic and dreams in their wake.

Being larger than the tallest mountains, goddesses generally don't interact with ponies on an individual basis. When they do, it is a terrifying honor; one that will alter the course of your life forever. Listen to the Sun speaking into your mind, and pray you are still the same pony when she is done.

[nikofortuna]

Posting this here first because i know for a fact instagram is gonna make is illegible. Spent far too long on this! Little lore bible for my AU cantergale. I'll do more of these eventually but i wanted something that answered a lot of general questions and put names to faces.

also ive seen the asks some of you have been sending and i plan to make posts answering them!! i always enjoy AU questions!!

[nikofortuna]

I would not be so bold as to say the Mane Six need redesigning…so this is just my interpretation of Twilight Sparkle and Spike!

This Twilight Sparkle was a famous yet reclusive Alicorn mage in Canterlot, working alongside Celestia to raise the moon. She’s less awkward and more outwardly unfriendly, thinking herself a far cut above the rest.

After Princess Celestia finds out Twilight Sparkle was experimenting with magic on unwitting civilians, Princess Celestia seals away her Alicorn magic and banishes her to the remote village of Ponyville (with her faithful apprentice Spike) in hopes that she will learn to gain some empathy, and, if she’s lucky, friends. Twilight Sparkle has a lot more to learn in this interpretation!

Not sure if I’ll do the other Mane 6, but maybe?

[nikofortuna]

JTTW Chapter 86 Thoughts

Chapter 86 for the @journeythroughjourneytothewest Reading Group!

I just noticed how the names of the mountains and caves themselves evoke an image of how the place might look. This mountain likely sees a lot of mist and has a broken looking peak. The cave has some sort of ring aspect to it, perhaps the rooms inside the cave can all be considered circular and might also overlap with each other.

Honestly what did those fiends think was going to happen? Even with all the flattery and nice words in the world, if you go against the people Sun Wukong cares about you are done for. That none of them ever just admit ‘Well that plan did not work, let’s just give the monk back to at least preserve our lives.’.

So is that fiend a leopard?

This time the subduing is done pretty peacefully with just putting all of them to sleep. Since it is all meant as an allegory it does look like Sun Wukong is still having some small difficulty with deciding what to do first, the slaying or the rescuing, hehe.

That is a pretty nice use of the woodcutter. I was expecting the fiend to kill him and present him as Tang Sanzang, but this is a bit nicer.

It is a leopard!

[nikofortuna]

part 3 and 4 of termina girls in armor, Samarie and Olivia. (i am so sorry, i forgor to post them here djgndnx)

Not very keen on their designs and I think I need to remake Samarie after I finish the others.

Erm tried to give Livy floral themed stuff but failed lol

[nikofortuna]

part 2/5? this time it's Marina!! I enjoy making and drawing the designs, so it's rather a cool and refreshing thing to do ^_^

I'll probably make abella or samarie next, I don't really have an idea for sam yet but im pretty sure I'll whip something up

btw if u have any questions/ides pls lmk lol

[nikofortuna]

More modern au stuff!!! Rag is kind of just standing there caus i was gonna draw pav next to him flaunting but he drowned caus big bear man too big…

Sorry for Not posting i kinda forgor + exam periods starting and i Dont have Time!

Also the sketch caus I kind of like it:

[nikofortuna]

Junkies and dark priests

Why isnt there more crossovers between funger 1 and 2? And why arent they modern too?

[nikofortuna]

JTTW Chapter 85

Chapter 85 for the @journeythroughjourneytothewest Reading Group!

Awww, they are having fun! The pilgrims all laughing together is so cute.

This last one was definitely more of a comedic little mini-arc of the story, more of a light hearted intermission between longer parts with more difficult hurdles. With how regularly these kinds of small one-chapter adventures are interspersed they help the pacing of the story quite a bit.

I certainly love these dialogue exchanges late in the story, they now feel so familiar between the pilgrims. Also Tang Sanzang now is not just careful, but actually able to recognize when a place might have fiends! He is learning and growing.

Awww and Sun Wukong manages to reassure him, in a very sweet manner too!

Once more the dragon of the group does not really do anything. If he was utilized more he could really elevate the conflicts, perhaps by being a bit of a wild card where you do not know if he will intervene this time or not.

And when he does the fiends have to think around the surprise opponent, either making a new plan altogether or adapting on the spot which the latter would elevate their cleverness and resilience. It would also be interesting to see him interact with other dragons, even if it is just a brief greeting. Would he still be frowned upon by them for the incident that got him into the pilgrimage in the first place or would they react casually or even amicably like they do with Sun Wukong?

As good as the whole story already is, there are still huge amounts of potential such as this left on the road.

They really have quite a few elderly folks that are above the age of seventy or eighty. Given the high standards for hygiene and medicine back then in this part of the world specifically I am inclined to believe those are not necessarily exaggerations of the actual life expectancy of people.

[nikofortuna]

FINALLY FINSHED!! YAYYY

(DemiGod AU)🌿🌊

Enjoy the reference sheets!

(also made a few design changes)

[nikofortuna]

Ask and ye shall receive!

[nikofortuna]

more royal au lol

first concept designs!!!

rambles about the designs under the cut :)

various discussions feat @doink-boink and @martincrushcameback :)

i will try and make this a fic guys

[nikofortuna]

JTTW Chapter 84 Thoughts

Chapter 84 for the @journeythroughjourneytothewest Reading Group!

Hey, Tang Sanzang did not fall of the horse this time! Truly a solid way of showing off his progress.

Guanyin as always is so much fun, she just is the coolest!

Oh I love the character development shining through with Tang Sanzang being more confident and also wise to Sun Wukong’s planning by now.

And they go ahead with the disguises, nice! I was half-expecting a minor conflict along the lines of ‘oh but we should not pretend to be laymen when we are monks that would be lying!’ or something. That might be because in some other stories people hold onto the moral high ground way too much, when here it is acknowledged that it might not be Tang Sanzang’s preferred way of handling this but it is not like they are doing this for fun, they are trying to preserve their lives after all so it’s all good.

He heard there be fruits and sweets and said ‘I’ll take it!’ and who would not have done the same.

Hehe, that sure is a poetic comeuppance for the king now being bald himself. And quite a smart plan, now everyone will think the pilgrims simply have met the same fate as them overnight instead of thinking they are monks.

[nikofortuna]

dreamed there was this big moth with the soul of a 3 year old girl in it and when she wanted to be held she’d do this

[nikofortuna]

JTTW Chapter 83 Thoughts

Chapter 83 for the @journeythroughjourneytothewest Reading Group!

Zhu Bajie also thought of chestburster Sun Wukong?! Well, would you look at that! I know that Journey to the West likely had no influence on the Alien franchise whatsoever, but it is interesting to see that ideas like this crop up individually in multiple places regardless of where exactly in the world or when in history.

Oh, so ‘Third time’s the charm.’ has already been a saying back then and in that region of the world, interesting! The rule of three seems to have always been quite widespread.

Sun Wukong has bells on his skirt? Neat! Also since when does he have them? This is the first we ever hear of them and surely they would have been a bit of a liability during all the moments where he was trying to use stealth to get around. Perhaps they are a newer addition? Or he can just mute them as he pleases.

Ah yes, another case for Ace Attorney Sun Wukong!

Oooh, we are getting Nezha’s full backstory here! Heh, the way it is summarized here makes it sound really funny despite the very serious topics included. It very much reads ‘I killed myself out of spite, threw my bones at my father and filed a complaint. In that order specifically. And then I got revived, became overpowered and wanted to seek vengeance against my father for me having killed myself.’.

The casual reviving of people will never not be enjoyable when you have a Western impression of necromancy.

Although I feel like this recounting of the events sounds so silly because it is lacking some details. Oh well, the author probably expected any readers to already be familiar with the story, so it is a case of being fair enough.

Ah, I see where Guanyin has the tendency to adopt troublemakers from now.

Huh. Well I suppose if I got adopted and my adopted father completely forgot about my existence, I too would start acting out again.

The whole “[having to] lose first, and then win” reads a bit like meta-commentary, but also like the in-world requirement of having to overcome a bunch of obstacles on the pilgrimage.

It is wonderful to see that the fiends this time are not just murdered, but actually get due process! That is what I would call progress!

[nikofortuna]

Emissary of the Apocalypse 🐦‍⬛