Chapter 6: decision making

After the dinner party was over and all the guests were leaving, a royal guard delivered a message to twilight from Princess Celestia. It requested her and her friends to meet with her and Princess Luna in the royal study.

As the 6 mares all made their way to there down several twisting hallways, they arrived at a pair of golden doors with the image of two alicorn sisters engraves on it. Before they grab hold the door handle, it opened from the other side, and emerging was the dark stallion, Shadow Veil himself. He looked at the girls with the same poker face he used at dinner, plainly said "pardon me", and stepped threw the 6 girls as he and his dragon assistant made their way down the hall and out of sight.

A strong since of concern overcame Twilight and her friends as they entered the royal study, fearing that the reason they were summoned involved the dark unicorn.

"Thank you all for coming, girls" Princess Celestia greeted then as they all entered into the room. The door shut slowly behind them as the last one entered. "May I say first that I thank you for coming and joining me, my family, and my students for dinner."

"pleasure's all our's, ma'am" Applejack said toPprincess Celestia.

"Indeed" Rarity added. "It was a pleasure to sit with royalty. Well" she whispered under her breath "some with more pleasure then others..."

"Yah, like that Shadow guy" Rainbow didn't bother to whisper, anger still fueling her words.

"Rainbow"Ttwilight shot at her, but the princess cut twilight off.

"I'm very sorry about Shadow veil" she began. "He's... Rough around the edges, and doesn't always get along with every pony."

"Some of us more then others, sister" Luna commented. "But we must find a way to overcome such obsticals."

"Do you agree,Princess Twilight Sparkle?" Princess Celestia asked her most faithful student.

"Yes, I do." She answers whole heartedly, not just from the spur of the moment.

"Then I will ask for advice from all of you" the princess of the sun lowered her head for a moment then met all of their eyes. "I need to punish Shadow Veil for what he has done, not just for Twilight, but to all of my students as well. I've let him go on unpunished long enough, but this time some pony could have been hurt."

"We have spoken for a while now on the subject," Luna interjected. "And we decided on one of three possible, and suitable punishments. But we need you 6 to help us."

"Why us?" Twilight asked.

"You 6 not only represent the spirits of the elements of harmony, but you also have saved several kingdoms time and time again, as well as proven to have a great sense of justice and heart." Princess Celestia honestly said to the six young mares. "If there is anyone I can trust with such judgment, it all of you."

Feeling extremely proud and honored that the princess thought that of them, the girls all smiled back at the two princesses, having twilight answer "we'll do our best, Princess Celestia."

"I know you will" she smiled back at her student.

"The first punishment is banishment" Princess Luna began, using her magic to create a image of a barron waist land. "He would be banished forever, in a land beyond the ever-free Forrest. There, he will bring no harm to any pony ever again."

As the girls viewed the desert landscape, they seriously thought about if they could actually send any pony there to live forever. The place where they would banish him seemed to terrible and barren. They might have been willing to banish queen Chrysalis or king Somba there, but maybe not Shadow Veil.

"The next punishment is being recruited into the Canterlot army" Princess Celestia replaced the unpleasant desert image with one of a training area where stallions in armor were training in various ways. An image of the general from earlier appeared. His gaze stretched over all the solders training as he smiled, took in a deep whiff, then released in threw his mouth.

"I love the smell of back breaking hard work I the morning." He said as he stood proudly.

"That might set him strait" Rainbow dash commented.

"Yes, but.. Well..." Fluttershy began. "I don't think they, well, nessisarily like each other."

"Plus he hasn't even talked to me about the surprise party!" Pinky Pie popped in.

The girls stared at her for a moment, then twilight turned back to face Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. "What's the third option?"

Princess Celestia closed the image portal, then looked at her student and her friends very sternly. "The third is we sent him to Ponyville to perform a month'a worth of community crevice, without magic, as well as to learn about friendship from you six as well as any pony else who might get threw to him."

"Are you serious?!" Rainbow dash flew into the air, shocked and dumbfounded at the princesses' third option. "No offense your highness, but I don't think someone like him would even want to learn about friendship."

"I hate ta' admit it ma'am, but I think it's a lost cause" Applejack agreed

"...he does seem a bit... Scary" Fluttershy mumbled.

"He keeps a lot to himself" Princess Celestia commented. "But I have seen good in him. He just needs to be put back on the right path. And I believe you and your friends are the only ponies who could do it. But I don't want you to feel obligated to choose the third option. Sleep on it. Think long and well, not just for what's best for him, but for all of you."

"Yes, Princes Celestia" all the girls answered in unison.

Not long after the princesses left did the girls begin debating about what the fate of the dark and dangerousness unicorn should be.

"I think the Canterlot guard is just perfect" rarity began. "He'll learn discipline and put those violent outbursts to good use."

"'Ah agree" Applejack added. "I know the feller' don' like the General much, but it's better then being exiled. What do you thinkTwilight?"

The purple unicorn shook her head. "I have no idea. I mean, he put all of you in danger, but he claims to have his power under control."

"Yah, that worked so well at dinner" Rainbow dash added. "The guy is a menace. He's dangerous. But as much as I don't like him, I don't think exiling him would be the best thing."

"Of course not" Pinky Pie added. "He still hasn't had his party yet! I bet that's why he's so sad."

"He's not sad, Pinky" Rainbow dash added. "He has some serious mental issues."

"And I believe being recruited into the canterlot guard would help him straitened out" Rarity commented.

"Maybe I could even see if Princess Celestia would let him go into the Crystal kingdom guard." Twilight sprang the idea. "That way he can get the discipline that he needs and he won't have to be subjected to the general!"

"That's brilliantTtwilight!" Rarity said.

"And yer' older brother's the captain, so ya' know he's in good hoofs'" Applejack added.

"That sound like an awesome plan, if anyone could control that pony, it's your brother." Rainbow dash commented as Fluttershy nodded.

"I'll go talk to the princesses about it right now, I don't think there would be a problem." Twilight said as she began to leave the room.

"We'll keep on discussin' idears till ya' get back, just in case" applejack said.

"Sounds like a plan" Twilight replied. "It should take me too long. I'll be back in a sec."

Twilight made her way down the twisting hallways that she thought her and her friends came down before to get to the royal study but found herself lost. The castle looked unique and different from the outside, but some of the hallways looked to be like a never ending laboratory of identical doors. Then something fought the ear of the purple alicorn princess. It was yelling that seemed to slither out of a door that was slightly cracked open. She walked up to the door cautiously and quietly, knowing full well who it was the voice belonged to.

Twilight peered threw the crack cautiously to see what the fighting was all about. Envy was standing with her back to the door and seemed to be in a fit of rage, while Shadow Veil looked to be packing an averaged sized suit case with books, vials of strange colored liquids, and papers that easily over flowed the suit case.

"...how can you act so calm?! We could be exiled! As in, beyond the Everfree forest!" The dragon assistant hissed at the unicorn. "And your just going to let it happen?!"

"And what could I do about it, Envy?" Shadow Veil commented in a monotone voice. "Beg the Princess for a lesser sentence? By all rights, she should have exiled me long ago."

"No, instead she left it up to those mares to decide your fate! And you won't even try and influence them?! Cant you, i dont know, use your magic to brainwash them or something?!" Envoy's words were cold and sharp.

"I could easily use magic to brain wash the five ponies into voting me to just community service, that would allow me to eventually return to Canterlot after a short month." Twilight almost gasped at the words spoken by the dark unicorn. She's seen magic used to brainwash others before in the other world by Sunset Shimmer, but she didn't think anyone here could do that. She had to stop him.

But right before she burst into the room, the harsh words of Shadow Veil's assistant stopped her. "But you won't. I don't under stand you, you study all these spells, spend countless hours every day either making potions, studying or practicing spells, and yet, you don't even use most of them! What's the point?!"

AsTtwilight stopped, she listened again to what the dark unicorn had to say. "I have studied many spells, especially ones that the Princess deemed 'dangerous' or 'forbidden'. But I believe it is better to know the spells and only use them if you absolutely need to.Not for one's owmn personal gain. Besides" he said as he took a vile of powder and sprinkled it over the large stack of his personal items that easily overflowed the sit case, and would have filled it five times over. "We knew this day would come. We don't really have a home. So weather they exile us or condemn us to the Canterlot guard, it won't matter..."

"We did have a home you know! Here! In the castle." Envy hissed. "You just had to go off though and ruin it with your whole 'I have to prove my self to Princess Celestia' tangent and attack her students."

"Now your starting to sound like the general" Shadow Veil's voice grew annoyed and sparks flew from his horn. In the back, Twilight watched as the powder that Shadow Veil sprinkled over his luggage caused it to shrink down till it all fit perfectly in his suitcase, with room to spare. Shadow Veil turned to his assistant, anger glaring in his eyes "I've told you a million time now envy! Magic is not a weapon! It is a gift that one uses to make the world a better place!"

"Is that why your sparks aren't magic?" Envy calmly and cockily said, pointing at the dark unicorn's horn.

Shadow veil then shot envy with a small lighting bolt that he created from his horn, sending the little dragon flying out the door. Shadow veil then went out the door and called out to his assistant "while you're out, make yourself useful and gather more ingredients for potion understand 4 and 6, we'll need them!"

After he called out to her, he looked around the hallway. He thought for a second that he heard something. After a few moments of silence, the dark stallion shook it off and went back into his room. Twilight was glad she had practiced more with her gravity spells before coming to Canterlot. She had use them once before in the crystal kingdom, but had no major uses for them after. She was standing upside down on the ceiling, watching as shadow veil walked back into his room to finnish packing.

She thought she knew what she wanted to do before, sending him off to learn disaplin as a solider. But something he said made her think that that would be a bad idea. His words echoed in her head, making her lean towards the decision she didn't want to make.

Twilight returned shortly to the royal study where her friends were waiting. Applejack noticed something was wrong first and asked her friend "Everything alright, sugar cube?"

"Yes darling, you look like you just spent an hour listening to Prince Blueblood's trip to Las Pegusus"Rrarity commented.

Twilight took a deep breath, raised her head, and met her friend's gazes. "Girls, I need you to trust me when I tell you this..."