Part 2 of my series on Starlight Glimmer’s backstory, check out part 1 on her grandpa:
 

 
Starlight Glimmer’s two dads!!!
 
Firelight grew up in a small mountain town dedicated to one thing: mining coal. The town’s coal was used to fuel the trains that connect the cities of Equestria. It wasn’t easy or particularly fun work, but most of the ponies who lived in the town had marks that related to coal mining, so they found decent enough fulfillment in it. Problems began to arise when Firelight reached his teenage years. Mining had become more and more dangerous as coal became harder to find, something that deeply affected his father, Golden Canary. More personally for Firelight, he had met someone special during his late teenage years…and that someone had caused his perspective on his father to shift. Firelight had always looked up to, even idolized his father. The father and son had always been close, after the death of Firelight’s mother it had been them against the world. He had always known his father worked hard, and that times were often tough for them, but the two had always stayed positive about it. Mining was hard work, but it was good work. At least, that’s what Firelight had always thought. He knew that mining could be dangerous, he was no stranger to death and had attended many funerals with his father after a fatal accident occurred in the mines. Even more personally, his father had nearly lost his own life in the accident that claimed his eye and horn. Firelight remembered the terrifying days that had followed the accident, when he held his breath before every update on his father’s status. He also remembered how surprised, shocked he’d been when his father returned to work mere weeks later. But he had never really questioned it all, not really. At least, not until he met one very passionate pony….
 
 
Starflower grew up in the same small mountain town dedicated to mining coal…on the other side of the tracks. You’d think such a small town wouldn’t have much difference within it, but Starflower might as well have grown up on a different planet than Firelight. He grew up in a family of, for lack of a better term, hippie ponies. They were the last remnants of the group of ponies that had lived in the mountains nearby, long before the formation of any coal town. Their family had watched over the settlement of the town, the rise of the mines, and all the good and bad that had come with it. Their overwhelming consensus on it all? The bad far, far outweighed the good. While Firelight’s side of town was overwhelmingly favorable towards the mines, idolizing the ponies who worked the dangerous jobs within as heroes. Starflower’s side of town considered the mines to be a blight on not only the town, but the whole Greathoof Mountains. The mines did nothing but bring up coal from the earth, which was used in the trains that brought more ponies to occupy the once sparsely populated land. Those ponies then went on to work in the mines bringing up more coal, creating an ever faster cycle. Starflower’s family knew that, within a generation, the home they once knew would be all but unrecognizable. Not to mention that, as the town had grown bigger, it seemed that the space they had to live grew smaller and smaller. The ponies of the mining town weren’t too tolerant of them, and they especially didn’t like how often they questioned their main source of income and prosperity. Needless to say, for the few years they were around each other Starflower and Firelight’s father, Golden Canary, did not get along. Firelight and Starflower’s relationship put a significant rift between the father and son that actually resulted in their estrangement for a few years before the birth of his granddaughter somewhat forced the two to reconnect. Towards the end of his life however, Starflower and Canary do begin to somewhat get along, something that definitely has to do with how much Starlight loves her grandpa.
 
 
Notes:
 
Both Starflower and Golden Canary are meant to have an Appalachian accent…I’m not an expert on the dialect tho so it might come off kinda goofy. Firelight probably has a slight accent too.  
Golden Canary’s issue with Firelight and Starflower doesn’t have any homophobia behind it…I don’t want to say homophobia doesn’t exist in my Equestria because it might if I ever care to do a story that involves it…but most likely not. The closest thing my version of Equestria has is maaaaybe traditional gender roles in some sects of society, encouraging men and woman to pursue each other as some “completing two halves” type bullshit. But yeah, Golden Canary might not be the friendliest horse (he’s at his worst in his 30s-50s) but he’s not really hateful.  
Starflower is an equalist, the same ideology Starlight goes on to follow. He sees cutie marks as just a way to make ponies content with their oppression and misery through a vague sense of purpose. Firelight supports him even if he’s never fully agreed, Canary thinks Starflower is a dumb head in the clouds hippy for it till the day he dies…or at least that’s what he always said.  
Starflower is inspired/based on G1 pony Starflower , who I have on my shelf :3 I bought her as one of the 35th anniversary rereleases  
Feel free to ask questions about anything in the comments!! It helps me iron out the kinks in the story when people ask me to expand on stuff >:3 but also feel free to read through the stuff linked at the bottom, in case I’ve answered your question before…and if there are discrepancies? ASK ABOUT IT!! The most recent stuff is probably the most accurate, all of this is basically “concept art”, so ideas are always shifting and changing between each post.
 
If anyone’s wondering what my grand scheme for all this is…I’m not sure yet! I think I’ll either start doing bigger story pieces like other people do, like full rendered scenes with mini fanfics in the description instead of my little notes, OR (and I’m leaning towards this…) a COMIC!!! I’d love to do a MLP fancomic of Starlight’s full tragic past, the events that occurred in her little hometown near the mountains. I also have big ideas for her mentorship under Celestia and the subsequent falling out between the two…really highlighting Starlight as a prototype, “failed” Twilight Sparkle…a pony who could have been the princess of friendship if she hadn’t asked so many questions…
 
DRAMATIC STUFF!!!