The Silver Dawn

Life is an amazing vessel that all of us living things ride. We all hang on as tightly as it will allow and we carry on and strive to be the best that we can be. However, like all good things, not everyone can afford or be subjected to such luxuries. The short end of the stick, the bottom ten percent, the poor and unlucky. All these phrases describe the same group of ponies, who for every minute of every hour of their lives, beg and suffer on the streets of cities all over Equestria. They are the ones who, no matter how hard they try, can never catch the slightest break. They are the individuals who have never known love or wealth. they are the ones who starve and weep for a single ounce of love, a single crumb of bread. These individuals were once my family, my kin, my home. They were what I called mom and dad, brother and sister. No longer. For I have been saved! A beautiful dawn of shining silver rays has taken me from my dark, dreary prison and shown me light. It has saved me from the evil and corrupt masses of those who wish to look down on us.  The light as proven to me that life itself truly is an amazing thing. It's proven that miracles really do exist.

I was born, well I say born but in reality I was basically dumped, the in wealthy and prosperous city of Canterlot almost two decades ago. Now, contrary to what everypony will say, growing up in Canterlot is not all sunshine and rainbows. No pun intended.  Poverty is a major epidemic that the high class ponies call an ever growing and spreading disease that has plagued the city. The incompetence and Idiotic arrogance of the corrupted mind of the so called 'higher class' is insulting and revolting. They complain to the Royal Court daily about how we do nothing to further ourselves in society. That all we do is beg and cry because we are to lazy to work for ourselves. They complain that we stink up their streets with our filth and they say we have infested their city much like rats infest sewers. This ignorance is far from any plausible and believable truth. We look day in and day out for jobs to feed our families, for shelter to keep us dry, a feeling that we actually have a purpose in this miserable existence that we call life. They have the gull to complain about us not having jobs and yet they take one look at us in their work place and turn us down. I went as far to say that if those stuck up, good for nothing ponies had the chance they would certainly vote each and everyone one of us out of the city. They know nothing of our struggle, our suffering and yet they do nothing but complain and exile us for being poorer than them. They don't even bother to stop and think about us. If we aren't lining their pockets then we become nothing but expendable liabilities that have no purpose but to die and advance their own financial gains.

Anywho, back to my introduction! I was born a cute bundle of dark blue maned, black furred, science loving, joy who had all the innocence in the world. My father was a nameless nopony who tried his hardest each and every day to provide for his family. He loved us every much and even to this day I cannot even remember his face. My mother was a street begger. She was the parent who actually could have made a decent living. She graduated after six long years at Canterlot University but she never made an attempt to make it in life. She had the biggest job interview of a life time and she got denied. Her mind imploded afterward with failure and self pity. By the time I was born she was no saner than a squirrel locked in a small room. She stayed alive long enough to push me out but she didn't live to see my face or hold me in her hooves. Her name was Midnight Shadow and she had always dreamed of having a colt. So in honor of my late mother the doctors had named me Shadowbane.

Since I didn't have any parents to take care of me anymore I was immediately sent to a foster foals home in the central district of Canterlot. The Central District, also known as the Slums, was and still is today the most disgusting and horrible place in the entire city. Some could even say that the entire area is governed by rats and ponies are just the minority species. Even as foals me and the other unwanted children learned that it was safer to be surrounded by crumbling, mold infested walls of cheep plywood and rusted sheet metal than surrounded by the dominant rats that would swarm the streets at night. Each pack lead by a fat and dirty leader as they moved unafraid through the night and into ponies homes and beds. The stench and putrid rotting appearance of area was revolting and absolutely infuriating to each and everyone of us. We kicked, we screamed, we cried, we wept, we did all we could to try and get just an ounce of attention and love so we could feel like actual ponies and not just exiled creatures that no one likes. We wanted to feel like we were apart of something that could eventually get better but, alas our hopes were in vain. Everyday the rats got fatter and the swarms got larger. The walls got moldier and the roofs hung lower. Each and everyday of my young life was filled with this disgusting images and for years I had to put up with it. To me it seemed that there was no end in sight.

And thus my journey through this world had begun. Little did I know that I would have the hardest and most amazingly dangerous life ahead of me. My life ahead filled with crime, starvation, and sadness that would never ever seem to end no matter how hard I try. It was a life that would be filled with discrimination and hate as every high class pony I passed on the street spat on me and beat me for being poor. It was a life that would almost drive me to the breaking point and make me think of any way out of the noose of life. But it also would lead to the greatest and happiest moment of my entire existence. It would truly prove to me that life is most certainly worth living.