Neonverse

Neon the Pegasus

Bio:

Neon is a young pegasus mare who has lived in the fantastical world of ??? and served The Queen as a lucky steed for as long as she can remember.

Her story begins when The Queen and guardian of the land falls under a mysterious curse, and Neon, with her steadfast bravery, ventures to find the cause and cure of the affliction. She travels through colorful worlds meeting friend, foe, and uneasy allies alike, in particular forming a rivalry with the trickster wolf, Cyan.

On her quest, as well as helping The Queen, Neon learns to master her capabilities and becomes more intimately familiar with the workings of her world. Though graced with wings they had never been able to aid her beyond a gentle glide and boost. She'd rarely minded this as the ground was where her loyalties lie, but on her journey she unlocked the power of flight, and soared to the heavens and met the guardian of the realm.

After passing many trials and proving herself to be a true hero, she was given the opportunity to watch over her beloved home from the heavens beside the guardian. There she could watch The Queen from a distance and give her room to grow into her own.

Neon is a rather straight character who values loyalty and honesty more than all else. Except maybe a nice apple. She isn't very talkative on her adventure and not much of a jokester like some of the characters she meets, but her interactions with Cyan start to bring out some spunk in her.

As well, later on when she returns to the story to guide Onion, a strict and wizened (yet somewhat stubborn) side of her emerges.

Origins & Inspirations

Neon was my very second sona, though at first she had the appearance of a purple and lavender pony pegasus rather than white and blue. After leaving behind my old pre-move characters, she was the first I can remember making as an MLP OC. Neon represented me, but in a more detached way than Onion did, so I began seeing her as more of a companion than myself in late 2016, the time-frame of her story.

In 2017, as I struggled with a multitude of real world issues I began romanticizing the previous year when I felt that Neon had really been beside me and guiding me through wonderful creative worlds and adventures from my bedroom. After the worst of that year had past and I was stuck trying to force positivity into my life in 2018, I used her to express the side of my brain that told me to continue falling back on old habits, while Swoocey represented trying to push through and develop better coping mechanisms. Hence is the conflict expressed in the final chapter of Neonverse with her stubbornness in dealing with Swooce and Onion on her return.

Neon's design has a rather long and interesting history being that she's effectively one of my oldest active OCs, and it is one that runs parallel with a long, arduous journey of learning and relearning how to draw and cartoon horses. In her first iterations she was entirely in the style of the Friendship is Magic cartoon, or at least my child artist attempts at replicating it, which slowly developed into my own artstyle. After a while though, that design for her grew more abstract and less pony-like, until I decided I needed to start fresh with a sona rather than trying to make her design something she isn't.

Ever since her revival as a character in 2018, I'd tried to make her actually horse-like now that she was part of diverse cast and needed to look distinct in physique. Her being a horse fortunately ended up serving well in giving her a commanding stature compared to her peers, as well as affording her an air of grace or goofiness whenever needed. In redesigning her and learning to draw horses in general I cannot thank real reference enough, but as well a large source of inspiration has been the horses of Fantasia (1940), the great grand-daddies of all cartoon pastel horses, straight from the eve of modern cartooning. The mix of simplification and character with attention to anatomical detail should be the envy of all little ponies really.

Her personality is that of a rather straight but still lighthearted heroine that is meant to emphasize the quaint and traditional role she represents - an archetypal hero to aspire to, but whom you won't be happy to meet once you challenge the traditions she's defined herself by. She used to have a personality more like Onion's when she was my sona predictably, but with even more of a fiery edge, much of which she's swapped with Cyan, who for a period of time was the more stoic of the duo. Though simple, her character and what it represents is deeply important to me and the story of Neonverse.