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Description by StarryOak from source:
MASSIVE SPOILERS FOR THE IRONY OF APPLEJACK. (SPECIFICALLY CHAPTER 9)
IF YOU HAVEN'T READ THAT YET, GO AWAY FROM THIS PAGE.
IF YOU HAVEN'T READ IT YET, READ IT. ITS AMAZING.
*HERE IT IS. READ IT!

The Irony of Applejack is made by Mister Friendly. Who is amazing and writes incredibly well despite apparently coming up with the story idea while drunk (btw now the best thing to come out of someone being drunk since forever).

OK, with that out of the way, I'm going to assume anyone left now is totally ok with spoilers for a series they haven't read/already has read this amazing fanfiction and now is ready to read this description.

The Irony of Applejack is one of the many 'What if X was a Changeling' stories, with a twist; Applejack, first of all, never knew what she was her whole life, and second, she isn't just any changeling drone. She's a Changeling Queen.
Things escalate from there. It's a story of intrigue and fighting and lore and fighting and the power of love to conquer all, including your own nature.

This is Queen Carnation; Applejack's biological mother and Queen of the hive known as Freedom, located in the Everfree Forest, long abandoned after her death. She died protecting Equestria from her cousin Queen Phantasma, the Queen of Queens, leaving Applejack with her most trusted drone, who left her on the outskirts of Sweet Apple Acres during the Apple Family Reunion, directly leading to the infamously adorable scene. You know the one.

“I’m Appwejack! Mo appwe fwitter?”

So obviously, like Applejack’s parents, Queen Carnation is also gone. Man, Applejack sure did get a bad luck roll with all the dead parents she’s got. Most people are limited to two dead parents at most.

Anyway, while her chapter of the Irony of Applejack came before Steven Universe’s pilot short was even announced at all, Queen Carnation shares a lot in common with Rose Quartz, not just because of her name (Her name being due to apples being roses, as far as I can tell.).

She’s the dead mother of the main character who came to the place she would eventually settle down in with the intention to conquer, but grew to realize that the place she came to held a beauty of its own that she could not take, and grew to believe that her child would never fit in as one of her own kind, instead wanting her to live the life of the main inhabitants of this land rather than inherit her own toxic culture, who also murdered someone to protect the place she grew to love. The main difference being she died fighting that someone and that Applejack spent at least a year maybe with her before being taken away.

Not only that, but the descriptions given of her are also much like Rose Quartz.

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Sitting across from her, the other changeling listened patiently to her speaking, smiling slightly. Her red mane – though not nearly as long as her companion’s – just barely touched her shoulders at its longest point, but what it lacked in length it made up for in volume. Her mane was bushy and unkempt, like a curtain of crimson hanging moss.

Her pink eyes watched her companion’s every little move, and where the purple-maned queen was confident and self-assured, she sat with a subdued dignity unlike anything Applejack had ever seen before.

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Immediately she could tell that some years had passed since the last memory. Carnation stood almost a foot taller from before, causing her to tower over Hyacinth’s perspective. Her red mane had grown out rampantly, causing it to drape down past her chest. Her tail dragged along the floor like a train.

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For the first time, Applejack felt intimidated by the creature standing before her. She stood taller than anything AJ had ever seen before – seemingly taller than Celestia herself. She stood taller than life, and with a resolute determination to match.

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Those are the descriptions given for Queen Carnation which I based her off of; I also added a bit of Rose Quartz to her, mainly her eyes, which are based off of the eyes seen in ‘We Need To Talk’.
I also, while this is extremely subtle as I wanted to stay as true to the text as possible, made her less skinny than Chrysalis’s body type, though her height makes up for it, having much longer legs than Queen Chrysalis.
Her wings are fuller and while still full of holes, I wanted to give her a healthier look than Chrysalis. Her horn is based on the Queen!Applejack seen in the Advent of Applejack cover art, with an extra crook.
Another thing I added mainly for aesthetics were very light freckles. While she was not described with freckles, she also was not described to lack them, which was good enough for me to make her aesthetic resemble her daughter’s a bit more.
After all, both cover arts for Irony of Applejack and the sequel Advent of Applejack feature Changeling!Applejack with freckles despite being a changeling. So that happened.

One of the things I did to make her pop more is her mane; when I first figured out the colors (Find the color guide here), I realized that the description of her hair as mosslike made me feel like a gradient of sorts was in order; it felt like just crimson wouldn’t do her… justice.
The brighter color just didn’t work for how soft she was, so it’s a lighter shade of crimson, and the effect was better… but it still felt incomplete, lesser than how she should have looked. So I added a lighter orange to the end as a gradient, and it just… worked. The description of mosslike made me lean towards the orange so it would look more organic.

So, meet Queen Carnation, Starryoak's depiction. I might draw more of the characters, since I absolutely ADORE this fanfiction. Sorry for the Miracleverse followers; I have like, 14 unfinished sketches for it, so it's not a matter of not having anything to do, I have a huge backlog, but I got the inspiration for this.

Anyone want to submit this to Derpibooru or somehow contact Mr. Friendly? I want to show him, but I don't know how. So yeah, tacit approval of uploading this to Derpibooru.

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Approval accepted, Starr! Upload commenced! I hope that Mister Friendly notices this for you.

Upvotes at import: 57 | Stars at import: 43
Posted previously at: 2018-03-20T20:28:22 | Posted previously by: AmrasFelagund