.Father.

"Blessed indeed is the man who hears many gentle voices call him father!"
~Lydia M. Child, Philothea: A Romance, 1836

This is so many things: an early birthday gift to ~Amaris--Miakoda, a thank you gift to *Shebashi, an "I love you" gift to ~Ponymadgal, and a way to inspire me to make The StarLight Realms an active RP group once again.

Akshay clouded the picture, so it's just Lightning and the foals. Perhaps she needed some time off? I've never drawn Lightning with a genuine smile either; I think he reserves them for rare occasions. I really did have fun with this one.

Here's a list of who's in the picture from left to right:
Lightning is the brain child of ~Amaris--Miakoda. He is the mate to my red mare, Akshay and the leader of the Draak herd.
Britama is the brain child of *Shebashi. She is the first "child" of Lightning and Akshay. She was adopted by Akshay after her real father tore her up and kicked her out of her old herd.
Ryhan is the brain child of ~Ponymadgal. He was adopted by Lightning and Akshay not long after Britama and the two are fast friends.
Corcoran is also the brain child of ~Amaris--Miakoda and shared by moi! He's (in this picture) the only biological child of Lightning and Akshay. He's the youngest of the foals and gets left out a lot, the poor little guy. Don't worry, he doesn't stay the youngest forever: he get's to pick on a little sister soon!

Lightning, Britama, and Corcoran were all referenced by some fabulous stock images by ~kittykitty5150.
Ryhan was referenced from an adorable stock image by ~linka064
The field in the background is also stock (I got really lazy at the end...) from ~DeathlyRain.