HOME | DD
SpyroConspirator β Twilight's Library
Published: 2012-09-12 14:07:26 +0000 UTC; Views: 21319; Favourites: 1110; Downloads: 1355
Redirect to original
Description
This is the piece I've been working on pretty much exclusively for the last couple of weeks. I tried to put a lot of little hints at a story into this piece, and a lot of detail.Feel free to criticize in the comments below!
Update: Wow, thank you all for the wonderful support!
~flameydramon has written a lovely short story inspired by my picture (and it's just been updated with a 2nd chapter
)! You can read it here: [link] ~Woven-Word has also written a fanfic based off of this picture! [link]
Be sure to check them out. I think that they're both very interesting interpretations.
Related content
Comments: 144
Wow! This is impressive! What did you take as inspiration to do it?
π: 0 β©: 0
Welcome to reality Twilight...soon it'll consume you
π: 0 β©: 0
Season 5 put a whole new perspective on this old thing!
π: 0 β©: 0
This is so creepy. This exact image had formulated in my mind a few months ago, and then I see it today...
I swear that I've never seen this image before.
π: 0 β©: 0
Let me give an attempt at exegesis:
The mill and the smoke stacks obviously imply a sort of industrial revolution. The rest of the picture implies that something was lost when technology progressed.
The tree house in the picture implies that the treehouse no longer exists (that was oddly prescient). The presence of pipe (a steam pipe?), square windows, and what looks like a river (I'm not sure) out the window give further evidence that this takes place in a different location than the library in the show.
The windows, pipes, and columns are covered in muck. I'm guessing spike is gone. The poster is decayed and old. Clearly this building has been around for a while, implying this is in the relatively distant future, and the mills did not spring up over night.
Rainbow Dash is holding goggles, so evidently she has a job that relates to flight, most probably as an airship pilot or some sort of profession related to the evident technological progress.
The words "Final Show" on the Wonderbolts poster is the most hauntingly tragic detail in a picture full of hauntingly tragic details. This just further emphasizes the running theme of "progress came and took its toll."
Rainbow Dash and Twilight are both sad, Rainbow Dash more so. This doesn't seem to be the sadness of a longstanding feeling of detachment and loss (which the other imagery in this picture invokes), but from a recent event or revelation. My guess is that Rainbow Dash has stopped by, wearing her work goggles, to see Twilight for the first time in years. They are both lamenting their lost friendship, a friendship lost because technological change has caused them to pursue vocation in different cities. Rainbow Dash's side glance indicates awkwardness, shame, or guilt, and Twilight's view over the railing indicates reminiscence.
Twilight's tiara is on the shelf. It's presence in the open (unlike in the show, where it was locked away) implies that it has recently been used or is expected to be used, but its location on the shelf indicates that Twilight doesn't have much love for it or what it represents any more.
Fluttershy's cutie mark is on a book. Did she write a book? Iβm not sure what to make of this.
By far the most bizarre aspect of the whole picture is the fact that the ponies don't look a day older than they do in the show. Every detail, from the lighting to the dirt on windows works towards building a sense of loss. Why not invoke the image of lost youth as well? It looks like decades have past, but they are still young adults. Are they immortal? This is just a small oversight, I guess.
Not a thousand words, but definitely a respectable number. I guess a person could say a whole lot more about Rainbow Dashβs expression or that haunting poster, which alone is enough to put me into a miniature depression, but this was my attempt. I hope I did it justice.
π: 0 β©: 1
Thanks for taking the time to look at this so thoroughly and to share your thoughts! Β As far as why I didn't age them, that's probably a combination of simple oversight and my desire to make them clearly identifiable, though I don't remember my exact thought process so it's entirely possible I had a more thoughtful justification for it at the time. Β You definitely did it justice. Β It's comments like yours that make me want to go back and try to do more things in this vein even years later.
π: 0 β©: 0
As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words.Β
But this? This picture tells much, much more than that.Β
π: 0 β©: 0
This feels like Ponys lost to something evil, the question is it there own and someone else. Very good artistic work, keep it up.
π: 0 β©: 0
I can't even begin to say how much I love this, a dark industrial undertone, heavy expressions denote the weight of the world and framed pictures of what was home at one point. Change. I feel change, heavy heavy change. Very well done!Β
π: 0 β©: 0
That is amazing I can already think of a good story for it in my head, keep up the amazing work
π: 0 β©: 0
The official ruling is in: You are too good at art. Please stop being so awesome.
Oh wait, that's totally wrong!
Keep on being awesome! Never give up on what you do well.
π: 0 β©: 1
^^ Thanks, that means a lot to me!
π: 0 β©: 1
Well I love your artwork. I encourage all that try art to continue, and I support those that make fantastic art.
π: 0 β©: 0
the effects: cool and doom
the background: very very doom
the reality is dark
π: 0 β©: 0
So beautiful. And with the fics to acompany it, even more so.
Perfect example of "A picture is worth a thousand words".
π: 0 β©: 1
I'm literally speechless...I can't think of a thing to add. o.o
π: 0 β©: 0
What a deep feel to it with the background and the shading and facial expressions. Very awesome piece, great work!
π: 0 β©: 0
Reminds me of London in the second half of Nineteenth Century.
Beautiful.
π: 0 β©: 0
I saw this on yet ANOTHER story today, Good job!
π: 0 β©: 0
Great work, man!
I know everybody else has their interpretations, but this picture reminds me of Fallout for some reason. Maybe it's the googles in the foreground, or the ancient looking Wonderbolts poster? Anyway, it's not really Fallout (they wouldn't have had smokestacks and stuff, they would've used nuclear power), but it just reminded me of it.
π: 0 β©: 1
Thanks! I didn't mean to make it Fallout-y, but I confess I was still kind of obsessed with Fallout: Equestria, and probably put about 20 hours into Fallout 3 between starting and finishing this piece, so there's probably something there if you think so.
π: 0 β©: 0
-Sigh- I turn my back for /two seconds/ and you post something amazing!
π: 0 β©: 0
And you inspired a second story. This time the ponies and their world lost "magic" and thus the technology and industrial revolution came to be.
[link]
π: 0 β©: 1
Ah, thank you very much for linking this! The author had shown it to me a little bit ago, but I didn't know it had passed the submission-system-thingy already. I'll add it to the description! ^^
π: 0 β©: 0
I like these drawings that gives off a story on its own. You could intemperate this picture anyway you like. It could just be the begining of the industrial revolution and and end of simpler times for Twilight. Now that there is more machines there is a not much of a need for magic. It would be bad for Fluttershy sense more trees would need to be cut down for buildings. There would be more work and less play for Ponyville and especially Pinkie Pie.
Listening to Rarity Is Industry [link] You could say this is a result of a friend being corrupted by capitalism and they have gained high amounts of power. This could be Rainbow Dash and Twilight disusing how to stop her
π: 0 β©: 0
Well drawn, the emotions can be seen and felt. Like the detail and "dark" feelings you put into the colors.
π: 0 β©: 0
I know we've traded a few messages in Notes, but I would like to comment here the story which you inspired has been published here:
[link]
Everyone who sees this picture needs to know how awesome it is and how inspirational it was for the construction of this story.
π: 0 β©: 0
Wow. This is pretty good. I really like it.
I don't know why, but this drawing reminds me of a scene in Pearl Jam's "Do The Evolution" videoclip.
π: 0 β©: 0
realy love the lighting. why do they look so grim though?
π: 0 β©: 1
It just seems like the industrialization of Ponyville has the best of them. The Wonderbolts last show, probably due to a shift in concerns from the ponies, and Twilight is probably sad because of loosing the Library (but having a new one constructed) and most of the books with it. The harsh realities of Industrialism.
π: 0 β©: 0
That is lovely. I like the style, and the lighting is masterful.
π: 0 β©: 0
It's quite a different view of Ponyville, is it?
π: 0 β©: 0
Seems to me that this is Fallout Equestria: the precursor. A time of war, where industry becomes the primary focus (background factories), and the elite fliers of the Pegasi join the draft (Wonderbolts final show). The Mane Six gradually drift apart, as each of them are called upon to assist in the conflict in their own way.
Then again, I love Fallout Equestria so much I could find interpretations for it anywhere.
π: 0 β©: 0
sure looks like ponyville has grown in the last couple seasons...
π: 0 β©: 0
Is that "Sands of Destruction"? It looks like it might be.
π: 0 β©: 0
Well the library looks bigger I'll tell you that much. Twilight doens't look particularly happy though.
π: 0 β©: 0
The dreary landscape made me think of "Eleanor Rigby" played near the beginning of "Yellow Submarine".
All the lonely ponies...
[link]
π: 0 β©: 1
By some strange coincidence, I actually listened to that song a bunch while drawing this.
π: 0 β©: 0
Poor Twilight... It's as if the world she knew has changed forever. And it's making everypony feel miserable.
I take it Dashie's feeling a bit bored with all this lack of activity.
π: 0 β©: 0
Oh, wow, this is awesome. I love searching it, trying to figure out the story--and theres so many interpretations....
π: 0 β©: 0
Wow, this is amazing. Love the use of lighting and shadow in this image, simply fantastic. Also like how you detailed the mane and tails, all in all fantastic.
π: 0 β©: 0
| Next =>