"It started before my parents chose to abandon their home and move as far away from prying eyes as possible. My father once described to me how accident prone I was as a baby. On the surface I was a naturally curious little colt, getting myself in all sorts of weird places; not few were the circumstances when either of my parents were frantically searching for me all over the house, only to find me on top of the bookcase, under the pile of clothes to be washed or hidden inside one of the kitchen cupboards. That's just one of the reasons why my parents did not see my lack of magical ability earlier, they simply assumed that my untamed powers included somehow instant transportation (and the occasional jail-breaking from the crib) and they always laughed it off - after all, such shenanigans were well within the wild domain of baby unicorn mischiefs.
But something happened, an event that lifted the veil that blurred their vision and made them realize the true extent of my disability. As I am sure you must be aware (unless, of course, unicorns have vanished completely from your world by the time you read these words), the magic of a unicorn always begins with the horn and manifests itself through shimmering lights that envelop both the centerpiece of magical power and the object which is being manipulated through the arcane fields. Well, from what I managed to extract from my parents as they were naturally reluctant to admit that I have been the cause of their great embarassment in front of some other important unicorns, I caused quite a scene at my 3rd birthday. And everypony was shocked at the sight of me wreaking havoc without the slightest magic. Even the most level-minded ponies saw something disturbing in my actions, however horryifying a baby smashing plates and squishing a birthday cake might not be.
And as I grew up, the troubles only diversified in scope and size. I was consistently avoided by foals of my age simply because, outside of my possibility to act upon it, their toys got smashed and they were pushed away simply for being in my near vicinity. Looking back on it I must have appeared as being an incredibly obnoxious kid, in spite of my constant pleas for forgiveness; I did not want any of these things to happen but other than my parents no one wanted to give credit to my words. I was singled out as the freak child, the unicorn with unholy powers, especially since there were only a handful unicorns around the area that was much later to become the grand city of Coltrein. And in that state of loneliness, something began to give way in my being. Not only did I abandon any hope of ever achieveing the smallest feat of magic, but I rather began to appreciate my misery. I did not wallow in self-pity nor did I become depressed - but as it happened, I did something even worse: I enjoyed getting into trouble and around the age of 6 I became the black sheep of the town, sort of speaking. Oh, I did not do anything bad myself, but rather I let the ghost do its thing towards people that were mean to me, knowing that I would always have the excuse of not being able to control whatever was going on. It wasn't my fault that an invisible entity messed up the things around me, now was it?"
By the time Twilight reached the final word, she found herself floating in the air, lifted by a strong pair of hooves. She immediately turned towards the hugging assailant, putting her front hooves on Shining Armor's face. Laughing, he gently put her back down, asking:
- Now, what has my little-sister-best-friend-forever found in the realm of books?
- You won't believe it, giggled Twilight in excitement. It's an old story written by a most unusual unicorn, a loooong time ago. The book was under a bookcase and no one ever saw but me well maybe except some other pony that must have read it before me but what matter is that ...
Laughing heartily, Shining Armor cast his spell of levitation, surrounding both Twilight and her book and placed them both on his back. Picking up the leftovers of the green bok in his left hoof and handing them back to Twilight, he exclaimed:
- Oh, Twilight! You know, you should also get out in the sun more often, spend some time with other ponies of your age. I mean the books are fine and all, but you must remember that there are other things that weigh more in the threads of life than the words written by ancestors long past recollection...
Twilight pouted but then immeditaley grinned. "Two can play at this game, brother!". Turning her back against Shining Armor, she said in a mocking upset tone:
- Well, if my BBBFF won't read me any stories at night so I could actually go to bed and sleep, what can I do? At least Philomena helps me from time to time, concluded Twilight while poking out her tongue.
- Ok, ok, sneered Shining Armor back at the filly that kept poking him in the back of his head. I do have a plan for us together this afternoon. What do you say about a walk to the lake, and perhaps a bit of boat rowing?
Twilight's wide open eyes spoke for themselves, and both set out to the lake. While they were still halfway through, she grew incresingly puzzled at the complete disappearance of the words from the pages of the book. As much as she tried, no other letters appeared on the pages; one after another, the blank pieces of paper presented themselves as bare as they must have been before they were bound in the rugged leather cover of the tome. Scratching her head, Twilight was just about to ask her friend if he could do something about it, when the edges of the fence that surrounded the lake started to profile in the distance. Almost forgetting about the book, the little filly jumped off Shining Armor's back and gallopped as fast as she could towards the water. The guards let them both inside smiling, quickly regaining their composure as they caught a glimpse of her Majesty observing the scene from her balcony, but as soon as she went inside they loosened up and resumed the chat they were engaged in before Twilight appeared before their eyes. Meanwhile, the brother and sister hopped in a large enough boat and were on their way to the small outcropping that stood in the middle of the lake.
It was one of the best places to read, in Twilight's opinion. For her, it was a veritable island, the small tree in the middle of it offering more than enough shade for the small pony in the hot summer days. For Shining Armor, it was a patch of grassy dirt with an overgrown bush and he barely had any room to turn around, but he and his little sister managed somehow to find room and lay down on the grass. Closing his eyes, Shining Armor relaxed for a brief moment before his face got flattened by the book dropped off Twilight's small hooves. Picking it up with a quizzical expression, he asked:
- What it is it, Twilie? Do you want me to read it to you? Where were you left? I see no bookmarks on the pages or anything...
In Shining Armor's hooves, the words were once more visible; hurrying to absorb their knowledge, Twilight slithered between the book and her big brother, demanding with the all-persuasive power of the nudges-in-the-ribs that he must immediately commence to read. Adjusting his voice with a deep cough, Shining Armor started:
"Again I find myself in the position where I must congratulate you, and perhaps this time two-fold because it took the other pony (I should mention, the only one so far) quite some time to reach for these words. And as it is with you right now, so it was with that particular other mare. Both of you share (I hope, I have no knowledge of the other's continued existence) a connection with someone else, a bond that I sorely missed when I was around your age. Before I resume my story, I must emphasize the strength that both of you, reading these words, now have in common. Have faith in your connection, for it is stronger than whatever magic may be found in this world. I know that after I'll have finished this book I'll embark in other journeys to explore the depths of the magic that permeate this land, but so far I have yet to encounter something sturdier than this. Well... maybe there is one other, but that's more personal and I must let both of you discover it for yourselves. It's just one of those things that cannot be taught, only experienced. Onwards with the events of my life, then.
I wasn't going to stop being that incredibly annoying any time soon, I must admit that. Their mean looks only fueled my reactions, their fear of even making eye contact with me delivered to my mind a sweet aftertaste to all the bitterness that I spread through my actions - or complete lack thereof. It is realistically conceivable that I might have met an early demise under the hooves of the angry pony folk had there not been that gripping terror of the unseen powers that could have unleashed an unspeakable wrath should anything approach me. Nothing would have changed me if it wasn't for my mother's sudden sickness. She fell ill, partly due to a disease that rampaged the land, and a greater part - I feel - due to the suffering my behaviour caused. You see, in spite of their best efforts, not even their magic was able to reach me. And their words of reprimand fell on deaf ears, and I refused to see the tears rolling down on their faces - not until I saw them closer as my mother was laying on the bed, weak and frail. If anything, my mind went completely blank at that moment, blocking anything and anyone that wasn't related to my mother. Even my own father was unable to separate me from my mother's bedsheets which I gripped as tight as I could.
She spoke to me in soft whispers as I held her hoof in front of my sore eyes. In those precious moments, I had no tears left in me nor any other kind of feeling in my heart other than the simple and horrifyingly beautiful suffering. She wanted me to become better, she wished from the bottom of her heart that I would turn out a good stallion, a unicorn of true value - even if I would have to face a life without any magic powers. I don't remember when I feel asleep beside her, but it was dark outside when I was jolted awake. My mother's calm breathing reassured me that there was nothing to be afraid of, and I rose up as quietly as I could. Taking a glance out the window, I caught the glimpse of a shooting star: right then, under the staryy sky and in the darkness of my mother's chamber, I truly wished (for the first time in my life) that I could get rid of the ghost once and for all. As the trail of the sparkling dot vanished, so did the minuscule star on my flank, and so did I collapse on the bed. I wasn't going to wake up at home the next morning."