Alphabittle’s parents react to their son’s first family portrait ✏️🦄

I’ve always wanted to draw a scene like this, where I can show a glimpse of their personality.
While Mighty Spruce clearly enjoys the outcome, whereas Mallow Mist is apparently not too keen on her own portrayal.😅 She doesn’t want to hurt little Alpha’s feelings tho, so she’s trying her best to cope her feelings.

I’ve always wondered where Alphabittle’s confidence comes from and in my headcanon it’s because of the way he was raised. For one thing, Spruce is such crazy doting parent, he absolutely adores his son, no matter what, he always encourages and compliments him, even if he has little to zero talent in a particular activity.

*”If I can make you smile, it makes my whole heart shine!”* That’s Mighty Spruce’s main motto, and he pretty much applies this to everypony, especially his loved ones. (Thus poor Misty had such a hard time back then, when Spruce was courting her, she couldn’t decide if he actually wanted something from her, or he was just trying to be nice as usual. XD ) Not to mention, in contrast to her, who’s much more critical (even towards herself), sometimes even fussy, he’s actually rather easy to impress. Long story short, among the unicorns of Bridlewood, he was one of the few exceptions, who wasn’t depressed and his joyful persona had and some effect on every pony he got in touch with.

As for Mallow Mist, of course she also loved his son, but due to her completely different personality, her way of showing affection was quite different from Spruce’s. Also, she was constantly worried back then that her husband was spoiling Alpha with his overly indulgent approach (which kinda ends up true 😅).

***

The jovial Spruce works as a baker in the Bridlewood bakery (which is an actual place according to the book, “Izzy comes home”), and has a rather chill, carefree personality. Out of the two, he’s definitely the more permissive parent. Since he was born in the mountains surrounding Bridlewood, he has a natural fondness for winter and snow. (They went sledding together every winter when Alpha was a kid.)
While Misty collects herbs, plants and mushrooms to make all sort of herbal products i.e. homemade herbal cosmetics, essential oils, phytomedicine, etc. Even though she’s quite down-to-earth, deep down she’s still got some playfulness within her. Also, despite her soft appearance and motherly nature, she tends to be fairly strict and feisty.

By the way, these two met when Spruce once burned his elbow rather badly during work and then he was told about Mallow Mist and her “natural pharmacy”. He visited her in her cottage and she gave him some homemade calendula cream for his burns which worked wonders for him. Later on Mighty Spruce wanted to repay her kindness (not to mention she made quite an impression on him and vice versa) by inviting her to a picnic and well, the rest is history… ;)