Back over on my Tumblr, I'm working on a fanfiction/comic hybrid based on Spike from My Little Pony. I started about a year ago, and have worked on it on and off. Reason being; I wanted to get better artistically while I was working on it.

The inspiration for making the story was: "What would happen if Spike had bros to hang out with?" And so I went about designing five other teen dragons for teen Spike to hang out with, loosely following the pattern set by the original cast of MLP of each one having an archetype. Which then lead to: "How does he meet these guys?" So instead of them just showing up, the story is about how teen Spike heads out in exploration and meets these guys on the journey.

So here are the characters of the story and my interpretations of them:

Spike: Purple magic dragon. Since he was raised by ponies and knows the value of friendship, he's the one who's becomes the sort of go-between of the differing personalities. He still has a naivety about him and makes decisions quickly without thinking things through. But it's his devotion to his friends that causes them to change their ways. A self-less dragon is an oxymoron, but Spike strives to change that conception of dragons.

Sharp: Blue flying dragon. Sharp is a dragon who looks out for himself but out of fear. He's the kind to run away, even it meant abandoning others to save his own hide. He doesn't have confidence in his own strength and follows others who do.

Magma: Brown land dragon. Magma is a prideful hardworking dragon. He relies on his own strength and whenever that strength is challenged, he feels he must overcome it alone. He also lets that pride get in the way of his thinking, causing him to go into fits of rage when he gets too angry.

Snort: Green land dragon. Snort is an aloof and easy-going dragon. Being lazy, he doesn't put effort into much other than keeping himself fed. He also craves social interactions, often becoming overbearing if he thinks he's being left out.

Mangle: Red flying dragon. Mangle the youngest dragon, and the most daring and brash. He's mischievous and a trying to always have fun, even if it's at the expense of others. Energetic and being a bit too blunt with words, he can sometimes rubs others the wrong way.

Barius: White magic dragon. A reclusive dragon, Barius tends to obsess over his studying and his work over interacting with others. While being very resourceful and thoughtful, he can lose sight of the bigger picture. He's also the weakest physically. For a dragon, he's surprisingly pleasant if obsessive over his interests.

In the story, they're all mid-older teens, kind of how ambiguous the main characters are in MLP. I added some lore to the story to help facilitate it, which some folks might not agree with. For one, I've mirrored the dragons to the ponies, in that there are three types; land, flying, and magic. Magic dragons differing in that they can use their magical energy through their flame-breaths (which is how I explain Spike's instant messenger fire). It's also more adventure-y and not slice-of-life, except when I do AU stuff with these characters.

When I'm not working on the story, I draw these guys in the "epilogue" of the story, when they're all friends and doing slice of life stuff. They tend to be AU because I'll draw them more anthro-y and less cartoon-y, with an AU where they wear clothes, and they're even older and doing suggestive things. So this whole explanation, is to understand when I post pics of these guys half-naked, it's not that way in the story, it's afterward when there's an established relationship and I want to do something sexy with them.