*Celestia's sun has vanished from the sky leaving Luna to take her shift. Stars blink quietly to themselves and the arctic wind screams at anything left in its path. A group of ponies sit by a fire inside. Having finished their meal it is time to catch up on the daily gossip and small talk for the day. But tonight boasts something different. A story, a biography of sorts. Four ponies gather around a table close to the fire, leaving a notable glow on one side of their face. Two of the ponies are made of flesh while the other two are made of crystal, the fire sparkling off of the crystal ponies creating an unfathomably beautiful pattern on the ceiling. One of the crystal ponies begins the conversation, remnants of his dinner still spilling out of his mouth.*
"Hey Storm, I saw you in the yard today. You fight like a monster out there—"The other crystal pony interrupts him "Yeah! I'm sure glad you're on our side!" The first pony continues his sentence pushing the excitable pony back onto his spot on the bench. "Where did you learn to fight like that?" A red coated Pegasus waves the question away with his hoof saying "It's too long of a story you don't want to hear it." The crystal pony replies by pointing to the outside "You think we are going anywhere? Even we crystal ponies freeze up in this sort of whether and we won't be given any shifts till morning light. Besides, we barely get anyone new up here it will be nice to hear a new story." The Pegasus smiles, the fire leaving a strange effect on his mane that makes the fire seem as though it emanates from his body. "Alright then. Really the story begins from where I was born. Canterlot."
Canterlot, any pony that sees its majestic walls are amazed from the moment they enter to the moment they leave. Built into a mountain the castle of the two sisters, which is actually one sister at the current time, shadows the rest of the city. In the light you see the high end, mainly powerful and rich unicorns. This is also where the train for the capital enters, leaving tourists with the best image. But to run a capital you need twenty ponies for every rich unicorn. This leaves the rest of the city built lower and living in the shadow of the castle wherever they step. That is where I was born. A half-blooded unicorn I was born with the wings of a Cloudsdale Pegasus quite like my Dads. I was born in this lower end of Canterlot, living in the working class it can seem nice as the Princesses don't rule with an iron hoof on anypony. Yet while this brings some comfort it can also be a hindrance. While every unicorn need twenty other ponies working for him/her there are thirty living in these lower end neighbourhoods. You do the math and find out that leaves ten ponies unemployed and fighting for survival. My mum and dad cared for me the best I could but I wasn't able to do much. There was not non-magic education in the city even though 90% of its populace was non-unicorn. This meant that the unicorns got all the education they required while the rest of us struggled to master half of our unique abilities.
While attending magic school pegasi and earth ponies do whatever they can to gain an education on their abilities. At night they run classes for pegasi and earth ponies on topics such as flying and machine work as well as horticulture and weather patterns. These classes were run entirely by volunteers using gifts as props and teaching equipment. We had many special guests such as the wonder bolts to teach the pegasi fillies flying and members of the apple family to teach horticulture. It was not that education for non-unicorns were illegal in Canterlot. The problems came down to economics and the balance of money. The rich unicorns loved helping out the disadvantaged of their own kind but "Could not afford to acquire specialized equipment to help other species of ponies" while simultaneously buying a meal expensive enough to run their own small town. During the day at magic kindergarten, I, a slender pegasi would sometimes be asked to provide a demonstration on my advancements in magical abilities. I think even you can see how that debacle ended up, either in tears or harsh "Non-filly" words. I was finally kicked out of magic school for showing disrespect to teachers about their teaching methods. I felt ashamed for disappointing my parents who shoved what little money they had at this opportunity for a formal education, but the day I left for the final time I could see the largest, most relieved smile on their face.
After I left magic school I worked from home. During most days Mum would teach me basics like words, writing and numbers as she gained a formal education (Being a unicorn helped) and at night I would attend the flying classes as well as learning possible new and varying skills. On weekends I would fly with Dad and he would teach me weather patterns and how pegasi control the weather, that being his job during the week. I was lucky enough to be an only filly so I didn't have anypony else to contend with my routine. This worked up until my teens when Dad said I should learn proper flight at Cloudsdale. He explained that the flying college regularly came to watch the night classes here and that I was good enough to be accepted with a Canterlot scholarship. I was excited to no avail but the news also frightened me to my core. This would be my first time away from my mum and dad and it would prove to be the hardest.