Lady Minty's Explanation of Rainbow of Light: As many of my MLP-collecting friends know, I love taking in abused and neglected Little Ponies whose faults would classify them as being in overall "poor" condition. To me, no pony is ever worthless. There's always something that can be done to help even the worst-off MLP to regain some of her former beauty. Most of the time, I prefer restoring abused ponies to their former appearances. For a long time, I refused to customize "real" MLPs at all, because I felt like I was stealing their identities. However, every so often a special pony finds her way to me, a pony who has been loved (or hated!) beyond all normal repair. There's only so much I can do with permanent marker stains and the like. One such pony arrived in a lot of poor-condition ponies sent to me by TJ (thanks so much again, TJ, if you happen to read this! You're a pony-angel!). Most of the bunch just needed a new tail, or a symbol touch-up, or a re-maning. However, poor Sunblossom, the pink glittery Sweetheart Sister, was in terrible shape. You can see a scan of her to the left. Her symbols were gone nearly completely; her mane had been mostly torn off, her tail was frizzy, she'd been slightly chewed, and worst of all, she was covered in orange scribbles. I tried a good scrubbing/bleaching, but the stains were permanent. I realized that this poor pony needed a make-over. So I set to work. My first step was to remove what was left of her original mane and tail, and clean her up so that the paint would apply evenly. Then I used the hair from two dollar-store "donor" fakie ponies to give her a new pink/purple striped mane, and a pink/purple mixed tail. Her new hair is permanently applied (when I reroot hair, it's staying put!) and can be brushed/styled with ease. It's slightly rougher than "real" pony hair, but displays beautifully. Next, I mixed up some acrylic paint until I got a light lavender color. I painted several coats onto the pony to conceal the orange stains. The paint smoothed over many of the chew marks, as well. While the paint was still wet, I sprinkled iridescent micro-fine glitter over her, concentrating most of it along her back and the upper part of her face, but getting a fine dusting of it all over. It gives her a radiant sheen that just isn't captured by photographs. Then it was time for the symbols. I wanted something really meaningful in the world of MLP; after all, this girl had been through a lot -- she deserved something special! I decided on the Rainbow of Light. I had a pair of three-dimensional red heart earrings which I used for the lockets themselves -- the effect is a raised symbol, rather like the Sundae Best Ponies, but not so pronounced. Then I used gold ink for the locket's chain, and acrylic paint to create the rainbow pouring from the locket in a Twice-As-Fancy type of design. Finally, I touched up her eyes with blue-black pen, replaced her chewed earring with a blue crystal, gave her a deep purple ribbon for her tail, and named her Rainbow of Light. Viola! A new, original pony had been created, and poor Sunblossom had been given a new lease on her pony life. :) Here's how she turned out: The question might arise as to why I didn't make her a Rainbow Pony. My philosophy behind this is simple: The Rainbow of Light is immensly important to the Little Ponies. I wanted the custom's symbol to be the most eye-catching part of her design; I wanted the Rainbow itself to stand out. Therefore, I kept up a more muted, dusky color palette with the rest of the pony. Return to Minty's Custom Ponies!