🎶 You’re a canary, I’m a coal mine 🎶  
A very important character (to my story anyway) and an OC I’m pretty proud of..here are my notes for Golden Canary, father of Firelight Glimmer and grandfather of Starlight Glimmer.
 
Starlight’s beloved grandfather. Her memories of him are brief and blurry, but no less influential on the pony she becomes as an adult. When she hits her teens, she starts remembering and, more importantly, questioning those memories and their context, leading her to research her grandfather by pouring over the piles of historical documents her father hoarded. What she finds out is a huge factor in radicalizing her against cutie marks and the system they represent…  
After he died, Starlight would often visit his grave to chat, talk through her problems and ask for advice. Or at least, she did until they were forced to leave the town, relocating to Sire’s Hollow after another sudden tragedy that resulted in the death of Starlight other father, Starflower.  
His mark is a singing canary, symbolizing how his abilities are similar to those of a canary: a heightened sense of smell, sensitivity to changes in air pressure, and the ability to detect odorless gases in the air.  
Canary worked his whole life in the coal mines, both as a miner and, once he realized his talent, a scout ensuring the safety of the other miners.  
He lost his eye, horn, and part of his ear in an explosion that happened on the job. Firelight doesn’t know exactly what happened, it’s unclear if Canary remembers either. He continued to work after recovering from the accident, he only “retired” when the mines closed and forced him out of a job.  
Doesn’t talk much. Works hard and respects his elders, thinks you should as well. Doesn’t question authority much, if ever. Not to say he isn’t curious, he’s always been curious about the world around him. He was taught that he could understand and tame the chaos of the world through willpower and learning, and he’s never wavered from that goal.  
His wife (also the mother of his son Firelight) was a sweet mare named Milk May, who had a heart as golden as Canary’s mane…until she died suddenly. The doctors said something about prolonged carbon monoxide exposure, Canary doesn’t like to talk about it…“Ain’t no use dwellin’ on a past you can’t change”. Firelight only vaguely remembers his mother, but he treasures those few memories.  
All ponies “grey out” as they age, in coat and mane, but Canary is a particularly dramatic example of this. (I made a little mistake on his lil’ young colors headshot, the light face marking should extend below the mouth like it does in the other pics, markings don’t change with age)  
more to come but I already posted my headcanons/notes for Starlight’s two dads on my patreon . I’ll probably post them here sometime this week, that post will give y’all more insight into both this guy as well as the town he comes from…but in the meantime, feel free to ask questions in the comments. I’m getting a lot less anxious about replying/talking to people on here, feels good man :~) anyway enjoy my Starlight Glimmer backstory bonanza it brought me a lot of joy to create and I’m hoping to continue fleshing out her story