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The Old Moorlands

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In the south and east of Equestria there is a stretch of mist covered, swampy land known as the Old Moorlands. Much like the Everfree Forest, the Old Moorlands are not cared for by ponies but somehow the land seems to care for itself. There is a small village on the edge of this misty, mysterious land and the ponies who live there know that the Moor holds many secrets but they also know better than to try and discover those secrets by wondering into mists. But there is one secret that they do know, that there is a mare, the Grey Mare, who will guide them home should they stray too far and protect them from the many dangers the Old Moorlands hold.

Lamplight wasn't always the Grey Mare. At one point she was mocked and outcast as "the silly grey filly who grew too many horns". Orphaned at a young age and shunned for her "deformity", she decided to take her chances with the Moors. There she made an enemy of the beautiful and dangerous Kelpie, a creature who's beautiful song enchants any who hear it into following her deep into the marshes where they will certainly meet their end either by drowning or by becoming her next meal. Part of Lamplight's special talent is that when she uses magic, all eight of her horns glow at once, creating a light that Kelpie cannot stand. The light is also strong enough to be seen through the thick fog of the swamps and so can be used both to fend off Kelpie and guide ponies who may have lost their way. (In case you haven't guessed, Lamplight is the one in the upper left and in the upper right we have Kelpie in both her monster form and enchanting form.)

On the lower half of the page we have some relatively recent additions to the Old Moorlands. For some of them I had given myself the challenge of taking animal and human hybrids from folklore and mythology and replacing the human bits with pony bits. The result is a pony version of Melusine (just bellow Kelpie), a much more pony version of the Minotaur who is actually a hard worker and quite the sweet heart and (with Lamplight's help) lives in the Moorland village alongside normal ponies, the harpy, who I actually don't know much about yet and finally the gorgon who has actually appeared in my gallery before. Lastly we have the Peryton. A hybrid between a deer and a bird, a Peryton traditionally has the shadow of a human and must kill a human in order to gain it's own shadow. For my Peryton I've changed it so that he has the shadow of a specific pony and he must find and kill the pony who matches his shadow in order to gain his own proper shadow, in order to feel whole. The trouble is the shadow is Lamplight's, the first creature to show the Peryton kindness.

Timeline wise Lamplight had been around for about 30 or 40 years before Aurora and Corona ascend to the throne of Equestria.
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Comments44
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Riverfox237's avatar
I like how Lamplight's horns form a sort of crown-shape on her head. These are really neat designs! The minotaur ends up looking pretty close to a regular bull, but I still like his look a lot, and the Peryton's story is very sweet. Are you in the process of writing this story, or is this just worldbuilding information at the moment?