Last time I posted about my fixfic concept, I announced that Draft #2 was done and I was going to return to the basics. Rather than completely go forward, I want to take the issues that I discovered while looking back and fix them. A good project doesn't get finished in one go, and I want to make it good.

Earlier this year, Parental Glideance introduced us Rainbow Dash's parents: Bow Hothoof and Windy Whistles. This episode shows how families don't have to have a naming convention in order to officially be family. Previously, it was speculated that many families (specifically parents) needed one, either as a prefix or suffix, even though there might've been exceptions (ala Twilight Velvet and Night Light, Twilight and SA's parents). PG's leeway gave me an idea on the family names.

Originally, Sunset's family (all OC's) was narrowed to a Shimmer surname. As structured in Drafts #1 and #2, her family was like this:

Mom: Sunrise Shimmer
Dad: Dawn Shimmer
Brother: Solstice Shimmer

I decided to change that. Their new names are as follows:

Mom: Venus Sunrise
Dad: Dawn Shimmer (still the same name)
Brother: Summer Solstice

Moreover, I decided to do something that I haven't done in years: draw the characters. This is where I envy the artists. I don't know how much they practiced, but a good chunk can draw ponies regardless of the pose. Drawing has traditionally been a struggle for me. Twenty years later, I still can't draw a realistic thumbs up!

(Thank God for painting nature landscapes. Unless you're Picasso, everyone's gonna notice that one square eye.)

After watching a few amazing tutorials, I decided to give myself a stab at drawing Venus and Dawn. After I was done, I scanned them and vectorized them in Illustrator.

Here's the result:

(Link to the drawings and credits.)

Dawn's on the left, Venus on the right.

Not bad after not working on any pony drawings, period, for over four years.

Their bios remain the same:

1. Dawn: a stay-at-home dad.
2. Venus Sunrise: a lifeguard during the warm and Summer months.
3. The Shimmer family lives in Grazewood, a small village along Equestria's west coast. Their two-floor home's perched at the top of a hill southward, with a patio and each of their bedrooms facing the ocean, providing an excellent view of the sun as it sets. Venus and Dawn raised Sunset, but five years after Sunset ran away and seemingly put her Equestria past behind her, Venus gave birth to a colt, Summer Solstice.
   
   After Sunset reunited with her Equestrian family eleven years later, she was able to successfully mend her relationship with all of them and became close with them, especially Solstice.

Before moving on to Solstice, Caveno, and others, I'm gonna practice first.