Thousand yard stare

— From the journal of Sworn Shield, entry entitled: “The Night of Lightning” —

“…Like a waking nightmare it was, and even the memory of it so vivid and real and terrible that no other nightmare can compare. They call it a victory, but the dead are beyond the counting, the kingdom burned and all is lost. I remember only the howling and gnashing of teeth, a hell beyond description, as if we stepped into the farthest and most insane realm of the Fae and emerged under such panic and ruin that our minds merely invented the battle as a means to cope. And yet in the morning I stood in the blood-red shallows with His Majesty, and together we wept at the mere sight of the battlefield… how did I ever pass through such a hurricane of arrows when it seems every inch of the field is part of a corpse and every inch of corpse stuck with a feathered shaft… What monsters did we become that we should even survive, much less break the ranks of the enemy?”

—-

EDIT

This was originally drawn for EQD, and was very much toned down in the violence and gore department. As I’m consolidating all the journal entries here, it’s time to update this image with the finished version, which is itself three years old now.

END EDIT

Drawn for the Artist Training Grounds on EQD (I participate every year, because :iconwynaughtplz:).

The Bloody Pasture is the vulgar name for the Battle of Pastern Vale. It is there, hock deep in snow, that rebel forces clashed with Equestrian Loyalists over a political conflict. The Guild of Wizards instigated the battle as a testing ground for powerful war spells (since outlawed) and the rebel host was nearly wiped out. A young Red Pommel participated in the engagement and was awarded for valor. Casualties were catastrophic for both sides. Princess Celestia (horrified that such a conflict had even occurred) issued royal pardons to the survivors. Historians believe the battle was directly responsible for spurring both Princesses into taking direct action against the High Nobles and several Guilds.

_{August 17, 2013}