30th of March, 977
Princess Celestia's personal chambers

"Bong, bong, bong!"

Were it not for the twitching of Princess Celestia's ears at the sound of her antique clock one might have thought her asleep, but the princess was awake and lost in thought. She was brought out her mind by the disruption and began to listen for the time.

"Bong, bong, bong, bong, bong, bong, bong, bong, bong!"

"Midnight already? I could have sworn that it was only nine," Celestia spared a glance towards the archaic timepiece, a gift from a griffon ambassador two or three centuries back,

"The spell should be finished any day now, I must be there to greet him when he awakes," Grabbing her teacup she took a long sip, "Bitter, but it keeps me awake."

Setting down her tea and rising from her chair, Celestia strode across her chambers towards her vast collection of books. She scanned the shelves she finally spotted her prize: a small book with a dark blue cover. Grabbing it, she ran her hand across the cover, feeling the embedded piece of bluish silver mithril shaped like a moon.

Celestia took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and began pouring magic into the book. She sensed the charm inside activate and then felt the always strange sensation of a teleport. She smiled a small hopeful smile before she disappeared in a flash of light.

She felt no midnight breeze, heard nothing of the hustle and bustle of the city far above, and Celestia's smile widened into a grin. Once more, she was in her sanctum, hidden deep in the crystal caverns beneath Canterlot. She opened her eyes and was greeted by the familiar sight of shelves upon shelves of books: her personal diaries made over the course of a millennia.

Though valuable beyond imagination, these were of little importance tonight. No, only one item here mattered in the slightest to Celestia now. Finally reaching the end of the forest of bookcases, she reached her prize: a small crib that oozed so much magic that she could almost see it, and inside of this immensely powerful artifact was a single small thestral colt, a few months old at most. The child had a grey, almost silvery coat, and an off-black mane. The young foal slept soundly, as he had since that fateful night so many years ago.

As Celestia watched, the magic surrounding the crib began to disperse, having completed its purpose, eventually unravelling entirely, and vanishing into the aether. Celestia watched, filled with hope and no small amount of anxiousness in her heart. Slowly the colt stirred and opened his eyes, Celestia sighed in relief and smiled in joy as she watched the little pony take in his surroundings. His eyes landed on hers and she knew that, no matter what she would protect him.

"Welcome back to the world, my nephew."

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Far above, in the maternity ward of Canterlot General, a stallion sat next to a mare as she held their newborn daughter. They were both tired but happy as they watched their child sleep.

"What will we name her?" the stallion asked the mare.

"I'm thinking something about the sky." she responded.

"How about Dawn Glow?" He offered.

"No, no that won't do," she murmured, "I've got it!"

"Go ahead."

"How about Twilight Sparkle?"

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14th June, 984
Canterlot Castle

Silver Shadow was not a happy pony. Quite the opposite in fact; he was a thestral living in upper Canterlot, it was a wretched hive of scum and villainy with few redeeming qualities. The only good parts were a few nobles, the guards, his cousins, and his aunt. Today was worse than usual though, his cousins were attending to important matters, his aunt was overseeing the entry exams to her school, and he knew better than to bother the guards while they were on duty. He wished he had somepony his age to spend time with, but many nobles saw him as a beast, a monster in a pony's body, never mind that he was the nephew of Princess Celestia herself. So, they forbid their children from playing with him, all he could do was wander the halls and think. He paused in front of the castle library, they always had comfortable cushions and, more importantly, it was quiet, he would not be disturbed here.

"A nap sounds nice." he thought.

Entering the great hall of knowledge, he sought out an isolated corner in which to rest his eyes. Finding his prize, he curled up on a pillow and slept.

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He awoke to the feeling of being prodded, turning his back on the offender he tried to return to the land of dreams, but they just resumed poking him. Finally growing tired of this he jumped up, whipping around to bare his fangs at the one who would intrude upon his slumber.

"WHAT!" he practically screamed, he was sure he would be on the receiving end of a lecture later from the librarian but found that he didn't care.

"What are you?"

This question gave Silver pause, nobody had ever asked him that question like that, it had always been with disdain or fear, but never genuine curiosity.

"Huh?" was the intelligent response he gave as he finally took in the pony before him. She was a unicorn filly, about his age, with lavender fur and a blue mane with a single off-center pink stripe.

"What are you? You look kind of like a bat." she told him

"I'm a thestral, and we're closer to dragons." he replied with mounting confusion.

"That's super interesting! Is your magic like pegasi's or different? Do your eyes allow you to see in the dark? Can you cloud walk? How good is your hearing?" she excitedly began to interrogate him.

"Whoa whoa whoa! Slow down! Who are you?"

"Oh, sorry," she said nervously "I'm Twilight Sparkle. Who are you?"

"I'm Silver Shadow. How did you get in here? I thought most of the castle was closed to the public."

"Oh, I'm Princess Celestia's new personal student!"

"..." he simply stared at her "When did that happen?"

"Oh, um, earlier today, I kind of hatched a dragon egg," She failed to meet his eyes.

"Well, uh, nice to meet you. I get the feeling you'll be around the castle a lot."

"Yep! Going to be taking personal lessons with her! Have you met her?" she was practically bouncing up and down.

"Seen her around," he responded with a deadpan, "here or there."

"Oh no, I'm late getting my stuff! Bye, it was fun talking to you." she called out as she ran off.

"Weird," he thought, and then went back to sleep.

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For nearly a thousand years she had watched the sun rise over her home. She had seen every sunrise, every sunset, every single day, and she loathed them all. They were symbols of her defeat, of her failure; at what should have been her greatest moment of triumph she had fallen. Victory had been snatched from her jaws and replaced with the bitter taste of defeat. She hated Equestria, she hated her little ponies, and most of all she hated her sister. For centuries she had given blood, sweat, and tears to defend them, and they repaid her with neglect and insults. They had believed her a monster, and so she had given them what they wanted.

Author's Note

"You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy." Obi-Wan Kenobi