another work from this past year that i'm still super proud of \m/

SECRET REVEALED, PEN IS AN ALICORN DISGUISED AS A NORMAL UNICORN. er, kinda. he used an ancient incantation to turn the magic of his earth and pegasus parts in on themselves, basically using that magic to repress the manifestations of that magic, rendering them practically nonexistant. he keeps this up for a long time through all his adventures until he finally returns home and, after bonding back with the split parts of himself, once again becomes one of the Alicorns of Might. he immidiately uses his reclaimed abilities to fly far north to a small village in the mountains, where one of his best friends (and love interest) lives, and had gone back to when pen went back home.

the earth stallion he's protecting is silver mist, my boyfriend's ponysona. i drew this before we moved in together when he was being horribly abused back home. pen will do anything to protect silver, including picking a fight with his much larger and stronger father. i like to think i'd do the same.

genderally when drawing pen & co it's before pen returns to alicornhood and to his family, back before he ever let anyone know that was who he really was. sometimes i just wanna draw him as an unstoppable magic warrior though. uwu