One must wonder once in their lives where the illustrious beauty of the endless world before them came to be. What cosmic event in long, ancient history could have brought birth to such a grand, ancient land such as Equestria. This knowledge was privy to few, not even to the likes of Starswirl, yet the origins of his world didn't deter him from cherishing it any less, and seeking to protect everything close to him - both his family, and his home. Once again, as the aged-wizard does every morning of which he wakes, he gazes towards the distant southern lands from his small balcony, and thought as to what beauty could be hidden in those undiscovered forests that even the great Princesses had not dared to venture toward. "Those distant lands... what could lie beyond those grand mountains and endless rivers of woodland? Maybe soon I will find out..." He gave a calm sigh, and retreated to his chamber, soon hearing the noises of his students as they had awoken moments ago.
Wild, now entering his teenage years, was once again wandering through the quiet halls of Starswirl's Oak-wood home, gazing his eyes across the quaint patterns of the bark as it spiraled endlessly across the walls, with some spots forming bright circular formations of lighter wood with strange brown marks dotting them, and then returning to the ever-endless spirals and curves around the bark of the wood. The outside pattern resembled beautiful leaves, surrounded by a florid arabesque. Wild perceived it like a toadstool in joints, an interminable abundance of toadstool fungus, budding and sprouting in numerous versions. Wild's eyes simply puzzled along as if the walls were a maze for him to solve, being entranced by the never-ending wonder of Starswirl's home.
His wandering gaze halted when his eyes gained focus on a brightly-lit blade upon a rack on the wall. The florescent lights seeping into the hall-way coated the steel blade, glaring with blinding intensity as Wild peered over it. The hilt was a midnight blue, the scabbard resembling the emblem of the two sisters who together united Equestria under one banner. The tip of the blade in particular shined with distinct finesse, entrancing Wild's curiosity as to its sudden existence in his mind. Inquisitively, he began to slowly reach towards the blade.
"Do not touch that blade."
Starswirl was behind him in an instant, as if moving like a quiet breeze, as Wild had not picked up so much as the faintest trotting of hooves behind him. "I- I was just wondering why it was there all of a sudden, sir, I-"
"Do not touch that blade!"
Starswirl's yell bellowed throughout the dormant halls with a grinding force. Wild's foreleg had gone from reaching for the blade, to hiding his face in shame and fear. Clover had emerged from her nearby dorm, frantic to see what the commotion was over. "What's going on out here? Why are you shouting at Wild?" She spoke with a hint of defensiveness to her tone, not afraid to protect her best friend, even from Starswirl. "You dare question my authority when I give you an order? I am your teacher first, and your father second!" Clover immediately stepped back, and found herself just beside Wild, who was still cowering behind his foreleg. She spoke up for his sake once again, "Why must you be so harsh on him? You never shout at me like that even if I do something awfully wrong! You are always so distant with Wild, and you've never once told us how you found him!" Wild slowly began to raise his head, yet kept his eyes firmly aimed towards Clover, inspired by her determined retaliation.
Clover slammed her foreleg to the floor in anger and her voice raised twofold. "Even if you are our teacher, we are still your equals! You don't have the right to hide his origins from him anymore, tell him the truth!" Starswirl's dominance had seemed to dissipate, and his stern glare had subsided into a soulless expression. He closed his eyes slowly, and sighed. "...I am sorry. I had convinced myself that even now, you would not be ready to learn of Wild's past... why he is here, why I found him and took care of him." Starswirl took a step back, and lit his horn within seconds. The dazzling wisps of his bright blue magic swirled around the hilt of the blade above their heads, and he lowered it, levitating it beside him. At that moment, the two young ponies noticed him staring at the blade with a look of sadness.
"This blade... belongs to me. It is the blade I used many years ago, when you two were only just beginning your lives in this world. It is called Twilight's Edge. It is the blade with which I... saved Wild's life when he was merely a foal." Wild looked up, confused as to why this blade held any relevance to him. "Saved my life...? What... what do you mean?"
At that moment, Starswirl's magic swirled around the three of them. A spacial dimension began to fade into reality, and the three were floating within the time-space pocket. Wild was shocked, and for a moment wondered why he wasn't falling, yet once his fears were abolished, his instinctive curiosity once again peaked, as he looked around the dimension. Beautiful streaks of bright blue and turquoise clouds coated the atmosphere, and bright stars dotted the almost endless space. Within the center of the three ponies, Starswirl's magic began to swirl into a circular formation, and the two young ponies could make out a vision within the swirling ether. "This night... was the night when I had found you, young Wild... observe through my sight the events that transpired that day."
Wild could make out two ponies in a desolate field, the younger Starswirl observing from behind a battered rock. One was cloaked and little of his features could be made out. The other, a tall, dark-grey stallion with a vibrant viridian mane that flowed in the winds. After mere moments, Wild noticed what he wished he knew for so long... This pony was his father. Even Clover noticed this, hiding her expression of shock behind her foreleg. She saw that this stallion was a spitting image of Wild, their mane being slightly darker, with a brighter coat than Wild possessed. At that moment, both ponies within the vision charged, and the younger Starswirl's vision was averted. The vision then warped and distorted, before returning to what could be made out of Starswirl's past vision. The younger Starswirl was gazing at his blade, covered in the eerie green blood of his fallen foe. Starswirl had intentionally hidden the creature's identity, still not believing they were ready to comprehend the threat that faced young Wild. This however, did not occur to them, as they merely gazed back up at Starswirl, and the blade held in his magical grip.
The spacial dimension around them began to fade into nothingness, and they found themselves back in the dimly lit hall within Starswirl's home. He raised Twilight's Edge above them, and placed it atop the rack once again, not once having his eyes on the blade. "That blade... I had slain the pony that killed your father and mother. When I ran away from the battle... I had found your Mother... She was slashed... across her chest." Starswirl could say no more. He levitated a small piece of paper from the saddle-bag underneath his cloak, something that looked like a photograph, and placed it solely within Wild's hoof. "I found this... on your father's corpse."
Within the picture, Wild observed the late stallion standing proud, with his left foreleg around the neck of a bright-blue Pegasus, with a beautiful brown mane that fell all the way to her wings. Within one of her folded wings, a small grey foal was curled up in a little ball, sleeping as he snuggled into his mother's wing. She wore a neat pair of glasses that gave her sea-blue eyes a distinct sparkle. Written in the bottom right corner was a small note.
"To my beautiful Takara, thank you for giving me the life I had always cherished, and the family I had always dreamed I could have. I love you."
Signed, Emerald Wisdom.