My little pony: the Shadow veil saga

After the girls left the spa, feeling fresh and rejuvenated, they were lead to the royal dinning hall by a Pegasus guard. The royal dinning hall was a large room with stained glass windows, put together to depict moments in pony history. One of them were of the girls when they first acquired the elements of harmony, another depicted their battle against discord, another was one of Princess Celestia and her sister Princess Luna, and so on. The girls all sat together at one end of the table, about several ponies away from the head of the table.

Amongst them were members of the royal family as well as royal members from neighboring kingdoms. Twilight immediately saw her brother, Shinning Armor, and her sister-in-law, Princess Cadance. She waved at then from across the table, they smiled and waved back, but still tried to keep a level of proper educate. Some of the royal family separated then, including to Rarity's discomfort, Prince Blueblood. She remembered how rude and disrespectful he had turned out to be at the Grand Galloping Gala the last time they attended. And to make matters worse, he ended up sitting next to her.

She tried desperately not to catch his attention. But as hard as she tried, she wasn't able to hide under his radar. "I dear say" he began, looking at the white mare unicorn "haven't I seen you somewhere before?"

Not wanting to bring up the gala, rarity answered without making eye contact "I do t believe so, I think I would remember meeting a member of the royal family..."

"Ah, good" he commented. "So you know who I am. Yes, it is good to know royalty, isn't it, especially for some pony such as you, am I right?"

Rarity couldn't contain herself "and what, pre tell, do you mean by 'some pony like me'?!"

"Well I happen to know every member of the royal family, the royalty from the crystal empire as well several royal members from near by kingdoms. I don't recognize you, so you are either a student of princess Celestia or you are a guest of one. Because you are no royal pony."

Rarity was on the brink of hitting the stallion in the mouth when a thought hit her. And she calmed down enough to ask "wait, did you say students of Princess Celestia's attend the royal dinners?"

"On occasion, but they are just here to take up space. You know, to help make us royals, the crem de la crem, look beter. Why-"

Before the pompous prince could finish what he was saying, rarity backed out of her seat and cautiously walked over to where Twilight was sitting at the other end of the table,having a pleasant chat with some bright blue unicorn with a star and moon cutie mark.

"... And then the potion blew up! Could you believe it! His mane didn't grow back for 4 weeks!" Both the blue unicorn and twilight laughed loudly.

When she could, twilight gathered herself, wipped away a tear of laughter and spoke "that's professor, always blowing up the lab."

"Oh you should have seen it this one time-" the blue unicorn began, but was interrupted by rarity, who spoke quite nervously.

"I'm sorry to interrupt, but we have a problem" Rarity said shakily quietly whispering to twilight.

"Who's is this?" The bright blue unicorn asked with a smile on her face. "Are you a student from another kingdom?"

"Oh I'm sorry" Twilight said, ten introduced the two unicorns to each other. "This is my friend Rarity, she runs a dress salon back in Ponyville. Rarity, this is my friend, Stardust from Celestia's school for gifted unicorns."

"It's nice too meet a friend of Twilight's" Stardust said and extended a hoof.

Rarity met that hoof and shook it politely, but with great hast. "Charmed, the pleasure is all mine." Then she immediately trend her attention back to her alicorn friend. "We have a problem."

Twilight looked quesgionly at rarity before cautiously asking "what kind of a problem?"

"I just heard from Prince Blueblood that Princess Celestia's students attend the royal dinners on occasion!"

"I know" Twilight said "that's why Stardust and some of the others are here from my school. Why?"

Rarity looked around nervously, expecting the grey unicorn to pop out of the shadows at any given moment. But then she spoke her fears out loud "wouldn't that mean that Shadow Veil could attend?"

"Oh no worries" Stardust reassured both twilight and rarity. "He doesn't like coming to these events. Says it cuts into his work. He mainly eats in his room."

Rarity and Twilight shared an awkward glance with each other.

Stardust saw this and clarified what she said "he lives here in the castle."
She looked at Twilight "I thought you knew that?"

"I don't even remember gone to school with him" She answers honestly. "Was he really with us in class since we were fillies?"

"Yeh, but you were so indulged in studying and he kept to himself so much you might not have noticed him. But if you don't mind, let's not talk about him." Stardust said nervously, looking into the far corner shadows of the too as rarity did earlier, "he makes me kind of nervous. Actually, he kind if makes us all nervous."

"Who is 'us'? You mean the other students?" Twilight asked, concern present in her tone as she looked at her fellow student.

The bright blue unicorn looked around nervously again, then answered Twilight's question. "Kind of. Every-pony ranked above him. Since you've been gone, we set up a point system to encourage the students there to try better and study harder. I'm ranked 4th in the class, Moon dancer is 6th, Snow top is 8th-"

"What rank is Shadow Veil?" Twilight interrupted, not trying to be rude, but rather wanting to get to the point.

"That's the thing, we are graded on both comprehension as well as test scores. And even though he knows even more then some of the teachers about the spells we study, he doesn't always do well on the tests, so.... He's 27th out of our class of 33."

"Really?!" Rarity explained astonished by the fact. "He's an egotistical jerk, but he gave Twilight a run for her money. Why so low of test scores?"

"He just seems to choke on written and field tests. I don't really know why, but no pony really knows much about him other then he is one you don't want to mess with." Stardust stated, a worried look in her eye.

"Well as long as he isn't going to attend, I suppose it's alright. I better take my seat next to... Eh... Prince Blueblood... Dinner should be served soon." Rarity began to walk back to her seat.

As she sat back down next to the annoying prince, she overheard him speaking to another one of Celestia's students about one of his expeditions to a nearby kingdom. "... The food was mediocre at best, and the town itself left a lot to be admired, but the palace was decent at least. Although nothing compared to Canterlot, although hardly anything could compare to Canterlot's castle." He turned around to see rarity taking her seat. "Ah there you are, you missed one of my more entertaining stories of one of our neighboring kingdoms. I'll kindly start it over-"

"Don't repeat yourself on my account, prince. I just had to have a moment to speak with my friend about something." She said, forcing a grin.

"Something more important than my briliant description of another kingdom?!" The prince said exasperated. "What could be more important?"

"Just had to talk to Princess Twilight about another student." She said, then sipped some of her tea.

"Ah, my aunt is far to kind. She let's such riff-raff attend such important gatherings." He said pompously, shaking his head. "Well at least no one has to lay eyes on that one student of hers. He's an absolute disgrace. And to think, she allows him not only to study under her, but to live in the castle as well! It's utterly preposterous!"

Raising an eyebrow at the Prince,Rarity asked "you mean Shadow Veil?"

"Don't say his name!" The Prince shoved both his hooves into Rarity's face in an attempt to stop the uttering of the dark stallion's name.

After a moment of him looking around nervously, he released his hooves, allowing rarity to gasp for air. He exiled his held breath and swooped his main back over to one side, trying to look as impressive as he always does. He then turned back to Rarity and told her "you shouldn't speak of the lower class, especially ones as disturbing as that one. Honestly," he began to speak out of his backside again. "I could never understand what was going threw my aunt Celestia's head when she allowed that penniless pony into the castle, even worse she-"

"I would watch what you say about Princess Celestia, dear Prince Blueblood" a voice emerged from out of nowhere sending a shiver down the spines of the obnoxious prince and rarity.

Out of the shadows it seemed, the very pony hey were talking about manifested as if summoned by their words. He looked as if he had showered and cleaned himself up for dinner, wore a chained neck less with a golden sun dangling from it, and stood up strait and tall. He carried himself with more nobility rather then a swift and cunning sense . Prince Blueblood shook nervously from the presence of the dark stallion. Then when Shadow Veil turned and locked his eyes on the frightened Prince Blueblood sank deep into his seat, beads of sweat dripping down his face like a leaky faucet.

This brought a slight smile to Shadow Veils face, and as he spoke, his words seemed so slither out between a forked tong. "So, do my ears deceiving me, or were you talking about me before you began to question Princess Celestia?"

"No, no. We weren't talking about you at all!" Prince Blueblood stuttered, which was a sight for Rarity to behold.

Shadow Veil's eyes pinned the prince down while his smile continued to intimidate. "Really? I could have sworn I heard my name uttered?"

The Prince immediately shot his hoof up and pointed at the white unicorn pony. "S-she d-did it!" He stuttered with great panic. "I tried to change the subject, but she insisted!"

Shadow Veil's eyes wondered over to rarity, his threatening smile dissipated,altering his appearance to a nanchalont look as he gazed at a rather annoyed Rarity. Who she was more annoyed with, weather the cowardly Blueblood or his own presence, Shadow Veil neither could tell or care.

His eyes then shifted back to the quivering Prince. He leaned in closer and whispered just loud enough for him, Prince Blueblood and rarity to hear. "If I were you, I'd not only never question her highness, Princess Celestia again, but I'd find a different subject to speak out your flank about. Otherwise, you might hear your own secrets exposed. Am I clear?"

The shaken prince nodded heavily and immediately.

"Good" Shadow Veil said as he withdrew his head from the prince's ear shot and spoke in his regular volume. "Now if you'll excuse me, it seems her highness wishes an audience with me."

As the dark pony walked away, Rarity looked from him to the shaken prince who wasn't just now sipping from a cup that he lifted with magic. Despite the use of magic though, it seemed he prince was so nervous that he even had a difficult time keeping his magic from shaking.

As he walked up to the Princesses Celestia and Luna, who sat at the head of the table, all three kept a formal atmosphere about them, but Princess Celestia couldn't help but smile as she saw the neckless that Shadow Veil.

"I remember giving you that for your birthday years ago" she spoke softly. "I was beginning to think you didn't like it."

"It's my most treasured possession, your highness." He exclaimed, bowing his head in respect. "But I don't wish for harm to come to it. So I don't wear it except to social events."

Even though she knew he was really fond of her gift to him, Princess Celestia knew this was maybe the third time he had wore it. She was more then aware Shadow Veil very rarely left his room or the class room, much less go to any social event. The princess was beginning to wonder if she had a talent for selecting students who too easily become inthralled in their studies.

"Please have a seat" she told her stallion student. "And do keep in mind what we spoke of earlier."

"I will do as you wish, your majesty" he exclaimed before raising his head, and began walking down to the end of he table, both away from the royal family and where there were available seats.

As he made his way to an open seat, Shadow Veil couldn't help but notice a blue unicorn pony sheepishly sinking in her seat next to Twilight sparkle. He stops, and turned to his fellow student, wearing a stiff, emotionless face. "Greetings, miss Stardust, number 4 student. It's been a while since I've seen you."

Without making eye contact and holding her head low, Stardust replied "W-w-well... Uh, I've been... I've been out sick. Yes, very sick. Couldn't work my magic well."

Shadow Veil's expression did not change, but a slight spark flickered from his horn. "You don't say? Well there must have been something terrible going around. Numbers 5,6,7,8 and 12 have also been absent for a while. I'm glad to see you are feeling better. And you'll be happy to know that I have gathered all the field data I needed from all of Princess Celestia's students, and will no longer need neither your not our fellow student's help with field testing."

"Wait?!" She shot up. "You mean no more magical duels?! Like, ever?!"
Stardust held her breath as her eyes grew wide at his last statement.

"That is correct, I have squired all the field data I need." Shadow Veil states, his voice flat and deprived of emotion.

Twilight eyed the dark stallion carefully as he watched the light blue unicorn's reaction. Unlike Stardust, who was overcome with since so joy, relief, and a slight since of disbelief at he great news, Shadow Veil just remained as cold and emotionless as he presented himself when he first walked into the room.

He then bowed his head to the mares. "If you'll excuse me, Princess Twilight Sparkle, and number 4 student, miss Stardust. Dinner will be served shortly, and I will need to find a seat." He began to walk away, leaving both twilight and Stardust alone, to which they relaxed and let third guard down.

"Oh but miss Stardust" Shadow Veil turned his head back to the two girls. "Next time you and numbers 5,6, 7,8, and 12 try and attend class via invisabluluty, you may want to allow yourselves a little more time to wake up in the morning. You were still barely visible."

With that, he left stardust sitting in a puddle of her own sweat, teeth shattering and goose bumps breaking out all over. Twilight knew ten that she defiantly couldn't trust that dark stallion, and had to keep a close watch in him.