A turning tide
A streak of light
Arms open wide
The end's in sight

And someone cares
Yes someone cares
-The Alan Parsons Project, "We Play the Game"

So yeah, wow! hibbary has always been an artist I've dreamed of getting a full blown digital painting from! I've been a fan of hers since allll the way back in my mid-2000s Deviantart years, when she drew some amazing anatomical studies of Mewtwo that captured my imagination. I've actually commissioned her once before to draw one of my SFW Mewtwo OCs, but that was just a sketch comm that I didn't feel would be relevant to the interests of most of my followers here on FA. But when I hit up MFF in 2022, I got to meet hibbary again and grab another comm, and this time I decided to finally splurge a little and dump a chunk of my savings into upgrading a sketch comm into a full painting. Of course, who else could I choose for this than my main gal herself?! I gotta say, Hibbs really fucking knocked it out of the park on this one! That's one Goddess-tier artist checked off of my bucket list! Though if I end up going to MFF again next winter I may just end up grabbing another one if my budget allows it!

This picture also has a background that is far more important than first looks might imply. I know very few people here have read my SFW Mewtwo/Zelda fanfic trilogy but Lightest as a character originated from that trilogy, and got her start as a SFW hero character from the first book in that trilogy. The first book, "Crossing of the Paths", has two main arcs in it; the first one takes place in a post-apocalyptic desert wasteland version of Hyrule and the second takes place in a verdant green untouched version. Lightest plays a major role in the second arc, but also appears in the first arc. I thought it fitting to depict her straddling the border between the desert and the forest since it symbolizes her place in both arcs and the timelines they take place in. Though she technically isn't a Goddess yet in these stories and doesn't have a halo in them, she still does have her wings and leads the fight against evil wherever she finds it.

And these stories all have always been steeped in the inspiration brought to me by music, including a lot of music by The Alan Parsons Project, which is why I chose the quote above. The song that quote has been taken from can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4A_EkXZzeVs

The song does a good job at capturing some of the spirit behind Lightest as a character, if you listen to the lyrics. Before she became the beautiful sexbomb that you all know and love, she was a warrior who fought hundreds of years of war against her own evil alter ego named Darkest, who was a genocidal galactic tyrant with a penchant for conquest and torture. She fought him for more than 800 years, and during that time fought to save countless worlds from Darkest's clutches. Yet even though the experience of fighting that galactic-scale war was tremendously traumatic, she never lost her love for helping people and showing them kindness. The song kinda reflect that, some lyrics could fit her disdain for all evil and her unwillingness to back down or treat it with kid gloves, but also her willingness to care for people and help them if they show a willingness to work toward redemption. And hey, it just so happens that Hibbary's art captured all these feelings perfectly too, I think!

And if any of this was enough to make you interested in reading the story, please let me know! I just finished the rewrite of the first arc and IMO it's one of the finest things I've ever written! I will gladly share it with you!

Art is by  hibbary

Lightest belongs to me!