shadow groaned as he finally came to. What the hay had he been doing before the blackness? Something involving fighting? He couldn’t be sure what he’d been doing. It was all a blurry haze. His head hurt and his body felt heavy, almost as though  "almost as though his body was made of lead," holding him pinned to…the soft bed he was lying upon? Shadow tensed, trying to focus through the aching heaviness to find out where he was. His eyesight wasn’t helping since opening them revealed nothing except a bright, white haze. Instead, the young colt felt around, using hooves. A soft, springy something pressed down under his hooves, only slightly resisting his push. Definitely a mattress. Something warm and heavy was covering  him, almost like…a blanket? Where the hay was he?

“You’re awake then?” Asked a light-hearted voice. Shadow blinked, attempting to clear the haziness. With a small sigh of relief, the Unicorn watched the haziness clear. He was lying in what appeared to be a large infirmary. Stretching across the rectangular room were several beds, set across the walls in groups of three. Each bed was covered with a thick quilt and two pillows. Warm, orange light was filtering through the long windows on one wall. Shadow frowned. This wasn’t his house but it also wasn’t his house. Where was he? “Hey kid, this way.” Shadow’s head whipped round as the voice spoke again….and nearly jumped out of his fur as the bipedal creature sat down next to him, flashing the Unicorn a cheery smile, showing pearly white teeth.

The creature sat next to him had, chocolate, brown skin and light brown eyes, full of a playful light.  "A mop of short, spiky black hair sat atop its head." framing the eyes that watched Shadow with that quiet, yet playful light. A pair of long arms swung lightly, ending in a pair of long fingered hands, which folded themselves on the side of Shadow’s bed. Covering the bipedal creature’s upper body was what looked like a leather jerkin, though the left sleeve had been rolled back, revealing a muscled arm with a large, bloodstained bandage wrapped tightly about it. A pair of thick, navy blue trousers covered the creature’s legs, the feet of which were covered in a pair of thick leather boots which ended at the creatures knees.  Shadow knew immediately who this creature must be. The resident human, Zyon.

Every young colt and filly that lived in Canterlot had been told of the mysterious creature that lived inside the castle. A bipedal, dark-skinned creature, the rumour had flown around the city that Many months ago, Celestia had announced to the entire city that she had indeed taken in a human boy, though the purpose of his presence was unknown.". Many of the youngsters had written off the story as laughable, since humans mostly resided in fairy-tales or night-time tales. But this time, the rumors had been right. Many months ago, Celestia had announced to the entire city that she had indeed adopted a human boy, though what his position was had never been revealed. Many ponies had questioned Celestia’s decision and many had attempted to gain access to the castle, simply to see the strange resident. Only Celestia seemed privy to the humans audience. Until…Shadow blinked. So Twilight had been telling the truth.

Since she’d become Celestia’s student, Twilight-Sparkle had bragged about knowing the strange human that lived in the Castle. She’d bragged about knowing Celestia’s secret brother and that they’d become close friends during the few weeks that the studious young mare had been studying with the Alicorn. Up until this point, Shadow had never believed her, thinking it had just been one of those teenage bids for attention. But now, here the human was, sitting beside the bed-ridden Unicorn with a small smile on his face, scrutinizing Shadow as though the young Unicorn was something of great personal interest to him.

“So you’ve finally woken up Shadow?” Asked Zyon, winking at the young Unicorn. He reached up and gently pushed Shadow back. The Unicorn had attempted to rise out of the bed, succeeding only in drawing a sharp stab of pain through his skull. Zyon smiled. “Twily told me you’d used the fire-wall spell but I never believed…” The human sighed, pulling the blanket higher over Shadow’s body. “Such a young Unicorn should’ve never been able to cast that spell. But if Twilight said you did….” Zyon smiled as Shadow frowned questionably at him. “Yeah, I know Miss-Twilight Sparkle.” He chuckled, waving away the unsaid question. “But I’m just a friend of hers. You’re the stallion she talks about so much huh?” Shadow blushed, turning his head away. Zyon chuckled again, standing up and pacing over to one of the large windows.

“Did…Twilight come to see me?” Asked Shadow, attempting to sit up again. Part of Shadow was worried that whatever he’d been doing before he’d blacked out had hurt Twilight. If he had hurt her... Zyon turned round, so that his body was framed by the evening light. “Oh…Are my parents okay? They’re not worried about me are they?” Asked Shadow fearfully. The last thing the young Unicorn wanted was to make his parents worry. Zyon smiled, pulling a small, golden envelope from his pocket and moved back over to the bedside. Shadow could see his name, written across the front of the envelope in a loopy, black-inked scrawl. “What’s this for?” He asked, feeling slightly annoyed that the human hadn’t answered his questions.

“Well, Twiley’s been busy with the Lunar Eclipse ceremony,” Zyon smiled, tossing the envelope over to Shadow, who caught it between his hooves. “That’s your invitation to the royal celebration I think.” Zyon said. Shadow started. Of course…The Lunar Eclipse. How He’d forgotten about the Celebration, Shadow had no idea. It was such an important Celebration after all. The Lunar Eclipse was a special celebration, though not too many ponies knew what it actually was about. The story was that when Nightmare-Moon, the Wicked Mare of Darkness had attempted to overthrow Celestia and bring about the eternal night, a single warrior, a human warrior no less, by the name of Eclipse had stepped in to defend Celestia. Alongside a brave army, Eclipse had battled the terrible Mare of the Night, sacrificing his own life to seal away Nightmare-Moon.

“So that’s my invitation huh?” Asked Shadow, smiling as he slit open the envelope with his hoof. He smiled at the small square of pink parchment. Twilight had beaten him to the punch. The young Unicorn had been planning to take the studious Unicorn to the Celebration for a few weeks but he’d always chickened out at the last minute. Looked like Twilight had gotten the hint however and taken charge of the situation. “So…um…Zyon?” The human smiled indulgently but did not speak. “I’m not in any danger of losing Twilight am I?” Zyon froze, his faced fixed in an expression of half-surprise. Then the human began to shake. Then a loud, bubbly laugh erupted from between the human’s lips and he tumbled over the chair, holding his stomach from laughing so hard. “What’d I say?” demanded Shadow, leaning over the side of the bed to watch the human rolling around on the floor.

“Really Zyon?” Asked a refined voice. Shadow looked up as Zyon, still struggling to hold in his laughter, scrambled to his knees. A large, White furred Alicorn had appeared in the doorway to the infirmary, dressed in a large golden dress that covered most of her snow-white fur. Princess Celestia smiled as she looked down upon the sniggering human, then back up at Shadow. “Greetings Young Unicorn.” Celestia said, blinking good-naturedly at the young Unicorn.