Military 'Milt' Defunct

Here's another addition to my collection of OC pony characters. You may have seen him in my Pony Kart collab submission thing. The sketch for this was actually done before that, but I've only just gotten around to doing the vector. xD Since that pic, I've cleaned up his colors a bit and made them fit together better than before (At least I hope.)

Anyway, bit of backstory to the character, I imagine him as the surly, retired Vietnam-vet type. He was a paratrooper (hence the red beret), and he got to about the rank of Staff Sergeant (hence the patch on his sleeve) before he suffered some form of accident and lost his left-front hoof. Not entirely sure if that qualifies someone to be retired from the military, but he did get a purple heart (cutie mark) afterward, making him sort of a late bloomer.

Part of his surly attitude is the fact that him losing his leg sent him straight home (we're gonna go ahead and say this is how the Pony Military works to be on the safe side.) in the middle of the war. He's feels like he left before he was done serving, and deep down, he paritally blames his country's loss in the conflict on himself. As far as he's concerned, his cutie mark is only a reminder of that.

<sub>Yeah, I guess the inspiration for his design did sort of stem from Left 4 Dead's Bill, perhaps subconsciously. Expecting this, I tried differentiating his design from Bill's by as much as I could, while still holding to the image I had in my mind. A few key differences -- His beret is red; Bill's is green. He has no cigarette in his mouth, which seems to be one of Bill's trademarks. Bill wears a plain green jacket and white undershirt; Milt wears a green army-style shirt. Milt has a prosthetic leg (arm, by human standards); Bill has all of his limbs intact.

I know, I know...those are all petty things, and the overall look is still very reminiscent of Bill, but he's just not Bill, alright? Alright.</sub>