As many already know, Princess Celestia has sought for centuries to help young unicorns find their way in the world of Magic- she’s founded a school dedicated to just such a goal. She’s mentored many over her thousands of years of rule- many a great sorcerers have been made under her guidance- but there is one who stands out among the rest.  
Twilight Sparkle, a gifted young unicorn who applied to Celestia’s School for Unicorns with the hope of furthering her Magic studies- a pony who managed to gain much more than admittance to the school- in a sudden spark of pure, raw Magical Power- the young Twilight Sparkle accelerated the growth of a Dragon’s egg and caught the attention of Princess Celestia herself.  
The span of a few moments of uncontrolled, wild Magic- a young pony found herself suddenly under the wing of Equestria’s ruler herself.  
Her Prized Student  
Of course, nopony knows that Twilight, as gifted as she is, as important as she has become- harnessing the Elements of Harmony, defeating evil all around Equestria, becoming a Princess herself…..  
None of this may ever have happened, if one chance encounter with a pony inside the Canterlot Royal Library had not come to pass.  
Twilight was not Celestia’s only student at the time she had been taken in- before that time there had been another pony who Celestia had taken in, housed, raised, mentored…. And the Sun Princess did all of this without any particular reason anypony could place. There seemed to be an odd interest in the life of the strange going filly the Princess had brought up off the streets- an orphan, and one who seemed useless to all others at that.  
It was this orphan, a small, insignificant foal with no name, no family, no standing in the world- a foal who could not even see, she was blind since birth.  
A foal Princess Celestia raised as her own, followed closely for many years, helped her to learn Magic… To hone such raw, incredible Magical Capability that even the likes of Twilight Sparkle could not match.  
The young filly had such aptitude for Magic she was able to quickly learn the most complex spells with ease- she pulled off nearly impossible feats that even had Princess Celestia reeling. In her early life the foal had begun to create new Magic, magic that would allow her to ‘see’, to read, to transfer information off a page and into her mind through Magical means- the foal found a way to see, to move past her blindness, to prosper.  
No ponies outside the most trusted guards and servants within the Castle ever knew of the strange orphan foal Princess Celestia took in off the street- as it happened, the foal even at a young age seemed to prefer solitude and kept to the empty corners of the castle- en-wrapped in her learning, always honing her skills, keeping to herself.  
Flare, as Princess Celestia chose for her name- Flare never went looking for trouble, in her later years she became more distant with the Princess, she stayed away from her and especially kept from socializing with the Princesses new Student- Twilight Sparkle.  
As chance would have it- Flare played a large part in the early studies of young Twilight Sparkle, saved the young ponies life as it happened….  
.:+:.  
Twilight doesn’t remember it. She doesn’t remember ever having met Flare, which may be for the best….  
But I will recall the event that made clear to me just how powerful chance encounters can really be, the moment I realized…. That that small little orphan brought up inside the Castle, that pony had much more talent than even I ever realized.  
Instantly after Twilight had been taken in as Student to the Princess, she was very fond of having access to the Canterlot Library. She would spend hours there, reading every book she could, always discovering more things… She nearly spent more time on that Library than Flare ever did.  
Odd, seeing as being blind would limit anypony from enjoying a Library. But not Flare. She never let her lack of sight hinder her- Her Telepathic Information Transfer Spell, when she first perfected it…. It was astounding. It had been a thousand or more years since anypony was able to create a new spell, and that pony did it when she was only a filly…  
… Twilight, one day while immersed in her studies, picking through the books and the tomes tucked away inside the Canterlot Library- by some odd chance, stumbled upon an old, dark leather bound book that should never have been inside the library at all.  
The moment Twilight’s Magic reached out for the book…. The Dark Magic Magic hidden away that had been festering inside the pages for near two centuries was suddenly let loose- latching madly on to the force that had brought it back to wakefulness. The corrupt nature of the evil trapped inside that book began to eat away at Twilight, causing her raw talent to bubble to the surface, her Magic to go out of control, ths Magic tearing out at her body, wrenching away at her on the inside, tears bubbled in her eyes as she let out screams of pain…..  
Given time she would have been consumed completely, her life would have been lost to that ancient, evil Magic…. Twilight Sparkle would never have become what she is today- not if Flare hadn’t been just there, at the right moment.  
So enthralled with the new discovery, Twilight had failed to notice the silent form of Flare not far from where she was, a candle lit beside her in the dim of the Library when night had long since fallen. Flare’s attention had immediately snapped to the sudden feel of dark Magic in the room- her attention had immediately cast to the young pony who was being eaten away by such dark and ancient power it would have only taken a few minutes for Twilight’s body to be broken, her Magic destroyed.  
I had felt the sudden flash of darkness appear in the castle and rushed to find my student on the verge of destruction inside the darkened library- an unnatural wind had started inside the building, papers were being blown about, I could hear Twilight yelling out in pain-  
I rounded the corner to see my student wrapped in a glow of pink, calm, powerful, soothing Magic that was being fed life from the horn of the same pony I had raised.  
Festerings of dark Magic infused with Twilight’s own was pounding away at the circular dome that Flare had erupted around Twilight in nearly an instant- the powerful blows doing nothing to the strong shell of Magic keeping Twilight’s out of control Magic at bay. I stood in awe as Flare’s Magic slowly wrapped about the book that had begun to corrupt Twilight, a flash of sudden green existing before it was destroyed- the wind stopped, Twilight’s Magic died, her screams of pain ceased, and Flare pulled the offending book toward her with an expression of utter calm.  
Her Magic gently wrapped about Twilight, its warmth and soothing feel slowly lulling the pony into the pits of unconsciousness-  
A containment spell, and a healing spell all in rapid, calm succession from the horn of a pony who didn’t even flinch at what had happened. Two severely advanced spells that would take the most famous unicorns years to perfect- had been used on a single instants whim by Flare.  
Thinking on this now, and from further research into that same book…. I know if Twilight had been alone, if it hadn’t been for the immediate and precise action of Flare- who had only come to the Library that day for some peace and quiet…  
Twilight Sparkle may have, and probably would have died that day.  
Hardly nopony knows about this, hardly anypony even knows about Flare and her studies in Canterlot at all.  
It seems a shame such an immensely talented pony like Flare not got any recognition for her prowess, she never got any thanks from Twilight herself- who never recalled the incident at all.  
But… I don’t honestly believe recognition was something Flare ever wanted.  
At least, I know what she did. And I will always, remember.
 

 
Another ‘Memory Days’ Piece that’s been sitting in my Stash for waaaaay too long- I never wrote anything for it until just today- but I decided it was time so here we are!
 
A Little insight to Flare and her life ^^