#PonyFest16 – Running Toward Illumia

#PonyFest16 - Running Toward Illumia by Angel Leya | www.angeleya.com

Meet the cast of Running Toward Illumia, a la My Little Pony!

PonyFest is here again! It’s a chance for authors to reinvent their book’s characters, setting, or theme as a My Little Pony. Super fun, and some of these authors are pretty spectacular. I chose to create the cast of Running Toward Illumia for this year’s competition. (You can see my entry for last year, which was based on Skye’s Lure – though the contest got cancelled.)

Description

Where do the Banned go when home’s no longer home?

Astrea always felt like an outcast, but when her parents actually cast her out — making her take the unicorn she caught, the last hope for her tribe’s survival — her path to Illumia becomes a journey towards discovery, both of a new land and of herself.

Characters

Windmane

Starting with the upper right corner, we have Windmane. He’s actually a unicorn, so turning him into a My Little Pony wasn’t that difficult. He’s a big guy, pure white, but I added some silver detailing to make his pony self shine. He’s a snarky character, but only Astrea can hear him.

Gander

Below Windmane is Gander. He’s an elf with plenty of swagger, despite some misgivings and a past that’s not as innocent as he might lead you to believe. He has a tatoo, but I honestly haven’t designed it. Too bad for his pony, but since he’s not my pick for creation, I think he’ll survive. :)

Astrea (My Pick)

Astrea is opposite Gander, and she is my pick for creation. Since she’s the main character, it only seemed right. Her hair is intended to fade from an orangey red to a blond at the tips, but since the creator didn’t have that option, I wove blond strands into her pony hair instead. She’s also a little low on freckles, but since she’s not full red-head, I figured the generator created enough.

Xia

Above Astrea is perhaps my favorite character, though her presence in this book is minimal (I have plans for a sequel, maybe even a trilogy with this story). Xia is a dragon fae, and stepping in for the moon elves (who have been mysteriously disappearing) as the voice of the Mythics. She has black hair and eyes, but fairer skin and red scales running up her body.

To keep things simple, I just added some red highlighting to her skin and hair (though her skin should be a bit lighter – unfortunately, I’m not very patient, and with two young kids, time is just to short to go correcting things). I also should have added wings, but since she doesn’t have her dragon tail either, I just left her. I think she’s pretty cute the way she is. She’s short on stature and temper, but she more than makes up for it in power.

In Conclusion

All of my ponies have the abbreviated version of my author logo as their cuties.

If you want to participate or have questions on how the contest is run, head over to Rebecca Enzor’s site. I look forward to browsing and voting on the adorable ponies, and hope you enjoyed seeing mine come to life.

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