As an author, one thing that I've thought long and hard about was the cover that my stories would be first judged by. Because as much as we say not to, we still instinctively judge books by their covers. So when I had begun my My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic fanfiction series The Elements of Friendship, I knew that I would need to draw people in with cover art. I did find one artist in the past who I'd hoped would be the face of _The Elements of Friendship, but they've since pulled the cover art down from their DeviantART account. I anticipate that this was a result of cleansing their gallery and wanting to start over fresh, and I will not push them by attempting to request any further cover art out of them.

So I went to thinking. Commissioning cover art would not be a problem for me financially, but I worry that I would nitpick the commissioned artist about the characters not looking quite how I envisioned them. Requesting artistically inclined friends would be inappropriate as well, since I would have nothing to offer in return. After much navel-gazing, I settled on the prospect of drawing the covers of each successive Elements of Friendship story myself.


The character designs here are based on designs that StarryOak and I collaborated on over Skype. Twilight Sparkle's muzzle takes its color from Midnight Sparkle from Friendship Games, Fluttershy's "painted" muzzle is derived from her brother Zephyr Breeze's mane color, and Rarity's "dappled" back is a lighter version of NightMare Rarity's coat.

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Twilight Sparkle, a ward of the crown ever since she accidentally turned her parents into plants, is dispatched by Queen Celestia to the small hamlet of Ponyville; the Unicorn has expressed fear that an eldritch Alicorn of the past will arise there. And when Twilight Sparkle fails to defeat the fiendish NightMare Moon in the two Queens' former palace of Concordia Arbos, the planet is plunged into night on one side and day on the other. With only shards of rock to her name and a band of ponies at her side, she sallies forth to bring back the Sun. She will traverse field and mountain, desert and labyrinth if she needs to. Will she be able to solve the mystery of the Elements of Harmony? Who was NightMare Moon, and what evils come to Equestria apart from her everlasting night? And why does Queen Celestia believe that making friends takes priority over everything else for Twilight…?

Cover resources:
Twilight Sparkle (without dwimmer shimmer or magic light-ball)
Applejack
Pinkie Pie
Fluttershy
Rarity
Rainbow Dash
Spike
NightMare Moon's eyes

Moon resource: misteraibo.deviantart.com/art/…
Field resource: quasdar.deviantart.com/art/Equ…

MLP:FiM © Lauren Faust and Hasbro