edit: smoothened shadows on Catharsis, reduced sparkling a little (no sparkling at mane and tail anymore).

There are twentyseven Layers in this picture - must be a new personal record I think

Contest entry for =life-d-sign's Masquerade Ball
RESULT: 2nd Overall Winner and 2nd Best Story

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Music playing in this picture
[link] Era - Hymne

Story

David had saddled and warmed up his mare early enough to watch the performances previous to his own.
He was sitting on Catharsis in a dark corner next to the entrance, unseen by the audience but with a perfect view on the stage.
Catharsis stood still while David watched the show of the Black and the Red Death. He was fascinated by the fear he could see on the people's faces when the Red Death blowed away the cheerful atmosphere during his performance.

People are scared of the Red Death because they can feel the heat, smell the rough taste of burned substances. Their instinct tells them that they should be alarmed by the obvious danger, not even the beautiful dressage performance can mislead them to feel safe. It's the Red Death - even the small children know how dangerous he is.

But what about the invisble dangers? What about the apparent beautiful things people are attracted to? They feel secure, but it is a deathtrap. The greatest danger...

The Red Death left the stage, his proud stallion snorted and walked away with powerful steps, leaving smoky footsteps in the sand of the arena.

The audience seemed to hold it's breath, the tribune was deadly silent, waiting for whatever was coming now.
David patted Catharsis and entered the arena in the same moment when his music began to play.
A sigh of relief went through the audience, the people relaxed visibly and then noticed the mysterious sparkles that flew around the mares legs. A new tension increased and from now on their attention was drawn to the glittering figures in the dimmed light.
Fascination.
Catharsis movements were perfectly flowing into each other. A fiery tail of tuquoise and purple sparkles followed every movement of her legs, conserving her route for a short moment before the lightspots slowly disappeared. Full of grace, Catharsis presented the half pass in trot, perfectly bend into travel direction. Her crossing legs left beautiful lines of light in the dark. An expressive piaffe was following, accomplained by dancing sparkles around her legs, mane and tail.
The continued their perfomance with another half pass movement, this time in passage, followed by a smooth change into the extended trot.
Suddenly, the light beam was turned off and Catharsis changed into canter, now everything was invsible except of her glowing legs dancing through the arena.
Her flying changes and the perfect pirouettes matched perfectly to the pulse of the music. After the canter tour, the light beam softly lighted up again.
Catharsis and David finished their show with a final tour in Spanish Walk, ending with a majestic levade.

As the mares frontlegs touched the ground again, the audience honoured the performance with thundering applause.

... the greatest danger is the White Death.

David smiled and turned Catharsis to leave the arena.

Seen on this picture
EDS Catharsis, Unicorn mare P.R.E type
David, the owner of Elbdale Stables
Dark Lake Stable's arena ;-D

Picture Information
27 layers
Time: 8 hours
Tools of trade: Adobe CS 4, Wacom Intuos3
Brushes: Sparkles: ~KeepWaiting, Sparkles, LightBeams: *redheadstock
Reference: a picture of a P.R.E. in the Pesade

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Masquerade Ball by