Starlight Glimmer, as we all probably know, started out with an immediate rough past.
 
It wasn’t that Starlight had bad parents or a terrible accident- no, nothing like that. It was the fact that her parents were too involved with everything. Starlight doesn’t recall a single time when she did anything alone. Whether it was house chores or making friends, Starlight’s parents, specifically her dad, did all of the talking for the young filly.
 
Giving tasks to Starlight to do things at the store? Maybe that’s what it sounded like, but it definitely wasn’t what it looked like. “Go get the milk, Starlight,” a simple task, but one her father was unsure she could perform. So he went with her to go get the milk, and she ended up not doing a thing.
 
Starlight’s confidence level was almost nonexistent. The way her father treated her made her feel insecure, like she was broken and couldn’t function, unable to do even the simplest things right. He made all of Starlight’s friends for her, but most left her behind. After all, she didn’t really have a personality.
 
It wasn’t until Starlight and Firelight (father) met Sunburst and his parents. Sunburst had just recently watched his sister leave for a unicorn school, and the colt was in desperate need of a friend. Though Firelight mostly arranged the friendship for the two, they actually got along.
 
Starlight and Sunburst were left alone for many hours of the day, to which Starlight slowly started developing her own personality, letting her colors show. She was funny, Sunburst noticed, having the best timed jokes and saying the most humorous things without even realizing. And Starlight liked Sunburst, too- first of all, he was cute, and Starlight never had a crush before, and second off, he was awkward and quirky. She didn’t know why she liked him, but it just seemed like a perfect match.
 
The two would do everything together, to the point where Firelight finally stopped doing things for Starlight. Sunburst and Starlight instantly became best friends, sharing common interests and just knowing each other. Which is why Starlight was so confused, so hurt, when Sunburst just left.
 
For a long time, without Sunburst, and at a young age, Starlight became depressed. For weeks, months, years, she wasn’t getting her cutie mark, Not a single color on her flank except pink. Sunburst never called. He never wrote. He never visited. And Starlight was heartbroken.
 
Eventually, Starlight finished homeschooling, and once she reached the legal age, she left her hometown. She couldn’t stand to be there, where her father had reverted to babying her and doing everything for her, even speaking for her. Things had ended as they’d started.
 
Everything was just so… messed up. As Starlight travelled far from her home, she came across a very small village. Still, as a fully grown mare, a cutie mark just wasn’t there. So the unicorn thought of the first thing she could, painting equal signs on either side of her flank and inventing a personality for herself. Telling everyone in that village that she’d removed her cutie mark to make herself equal with everyone else, and that she was the happiest living pony in all of Equestria.
 
All of the ponies there, well, they were instantly sold. The village had been one that demanded a separation between classes based on their cutie marks. The village was miserable living in competition with one another. They just wanted to be happy, calm, like Starlight appeared to be.
 
Their thoughts got into Starlight’s head. She promised she’d remove their cutie marks, all those who were willing. She studied, reading up on every spell known to unicorns, until finally, the spell was perfected. Finding a staff in the desert to use as the “removal tool”, Starlight met a young foal who’d just received his cutie mark and wished for it to be removed. He was working the life of which would be considered “Low Class.”
 
Despite having never performed magic before, the spell was perfect on the first try. So perfect, actually, that the foal’s cutie mark was successfully removed, and Starlight finally earned her cutie mark.
 
Her cutie mark was irrelevant at this point, but was she actually going to remove it? Oh, no. After waiting so long to get it? Never.
 
For years, Starlight lived happily as a dictator of the village, controlling the lives of everyone without anyone realizing. Everyone got their cutie marks removed, and it was no longer those who wanted them removed.
 
Starlight was happy, in that village, for once. Finally, finally, she felt some pinch of joy in her heart.
 
Until a certain purple alicorn came to ruin everything.
 
 
Side Notes
 
-Because of how Firelight treated Starlight like a baby for her whole life, she has unresolved issues with him until she and Sunburst are called by the Cutie Map to fix their issues with their parents. For years, Firelight hadn’t heard a word from his daughter, until she came to visit that day. And much to Starlight’s dislike, he treated her like she was an idiot.
 
-There were many, many accidental deaths when Starlight performed the removal spell.
 
-Though her crush on Sunburst was pretty real, she doesn’t feel that way when they reunite. Sunburst’s sister, though, gives Starlight a whole bunch of butterflies. Starlight is actually the reason that Sunset Shimmer returns to Equestria.
 
-Starlight is still a little bit of a control freak, and if you mess with her enough, she’ll probably destroy you.
 
 
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YESSSS MY FAVORITE GIRL
 
I tried to give her a reasonable backstory for why she did what she did, and why she was so obsessed with cutie marks. A cutie mark did in fact ruin her life when it had finally become happy
 
I think I drew her head too big for her legs and body but I’m happy with the drawing for now x3  
I hope her backstory isn’t too messy, I was kinda still waking up when I wrote it xD
 
I really hope you enjoy! Thank you so much for stopping by to take a look! ^^ I appreciate any and all feedback