I was gonna draw and reveal who Mac’s parents are… but then I got sidetracked. My focus is fickle, and right now it wouldn’t let me do anything but this. So I guess Mac’s parents will remain a mystery for a little while longer. I could just say it, but I kinda wanna do a longer piece about it. (Oh, and no use in guessing based on her physical design, the canon characters in question adopted her~)

So anyway! Introducing the “Band That Never Agreed on a Name”. As I mentioned in my Mac art dump thingy, she created the band, and forced Zodiac to join. She plays drums (…somewhat okay. She’s mostly self-taught, but since they’re currently playing in living rooms and barns most of the time, it’s enough to get by), and made Zodiac the lead singer when he revealed he couldn’t play any instruments. (Zodiac kinda wishes he’d just pretended to be able to play something -faking that seemed like the preferrable option to now having to be in the front and center).

Snowflake, Capper’s son, joined pretty much right after -he and Mac are old friends, and he loves to play guitar. Since both his dad and Mac’s parents work at the school, they often hung out when their parents had staff meetings and they had to come along and wait outside -so they knew each other from even before they both started going there. And unlike Mac or Zodiac, he actually knows how to play. As in, years and years of lessons. Add to that how his hands and fingers allow to play a lot more complex chords than hooved people, and he's good. (He is probably way out of the rest of the band's league in terms of skill, but music is fun time for him, not work time. He’d take being in a band with Mac over some talented acquaintances anyday)


After a little while, two more people joined the band. And since this is their first appearance, I guess they’re also officially joining the nextgen-verse. Introducing Breakin’ Bones, whose hobbies include skipping school, listening to sad music and complaining about his parents, alongside Sweet Summer, a kirin who decided that since she turns into a literal flame-begin when angry, the only right solution is to stop feeling. At all. No emotions. She is calm. She is tranquil. She is… prone to literally explosive outburst as her bottled up emotions finally boil over. But, you know… aside from that, her plan’s going great. She’s a bit of a punk, and freaks others out by daring to criticize the diarchy of Equestria.

They’re both nextgen kids of canon characters. And unlike Mac, you might even be able to guess their parentage based on their designs! Though, it’s worth noting that Bones’ mane and tail is dyed here. But to make up for it, his name is also a roundabout clue to his parents -maybe too much roundabout =P

He’s actually quite an old concept, but I’ve never been quite happy with his design until now. And he was originally supposed to be a younger kid (in the same age bracket as Mari and CC) but when I started to develop Zodiac more and made him join a band, I decided to make Bones a teen so he could be a member.

Sweets parents are a bit trickier, ‘cause only one of them is a canon character. The other’s just a genetic donor, so I haven’t given them a concrete design and they play no part in the story. Oh, and Sweet’s a full kirin -the reason for her slightly different design is that she’s a teen, not all of her mane and fluff has grown out yet. She just has a lot of chest fluff and fine strands on her head and neck. If she had emotions she might be embarrassed by this scruffy appearance, but since she doesn’t, it’s fine. She definitely doesn’t care. Nope.

You might be able to guess who her canon parent is. I understand that it’s hard, with so many kirin characters with important roles to the story, but I think you might be able to guess. I believe in you.


The two of them had been friends (?) for as long as they’d been in the school, and never really interacted with others much. Bones’ abrasive nature had quickly driven other students away -Sweets was the only one who could put up with his crap. Sweets had in turn both creeped and scared others away with her lack of emotions and extreme sudden bursts of fire -Bones didn’t seem to mind at all though, never even blinking at her expressionlessness or explosions. Together they were a… match made in heaven? Sitting off to the side, either in silence or with Bones grumping about something or other.

They joined due to happenstance; Mac stumbling across the mythical occurance of Bones’ playing his bass on school grounds. He usually never played outside of his room, but Sweets had gotten a programmable (Equestrian equivalent of a midi keyboard sort of, but I cannot think of a good name… Rectangle-of-buttons-press-for-sounds) and asked to record some notes for it. So Mac invited them to play some sessions with her and the others, and just got a grunt in response. She assumed they wouldn’t come, but the next day they both showed up. They were just as abrasive and silent as usual, with Bones providing plenty of eye-rolls and sighs, but they did play. And it was quite good actually! While they didn’t have the best social skills, they certainly knew how to play well with others. And then they just kept coming back. Almost every time they had practise sessions.

Eventually, Zodiac had to tentatively ask if they wanted to be a part of their band, or… He got an eye-roll from Bones and a serene nod from Sweets. And thus, the band was finally complete!



The only thing left to do was pick a name. But really, how hard could that be?