Princess Celestia sighed at the scene before her. Two of her guards were currently escorted a pink unicorn to a holding cell were she would await her judgement. After the incident in “our town”, Twilight sent a letter with details of Starlight and her escape. It didn't take long for the royal guard to track Starlight down and take her into custody. However, the efficiency of her law system didn't lighten the load on Celestia's heart. How many unicorns has she seen corrupted by the power of magic? She opened her school for gifted unicorns in hopes of teaching would be power mongers moderation and a respect for magic, and while it certainly slowed the rate of new criminals popping up, it did not stop the most talented unicorns from seeking their own more sinister paths.
The Princess would always be thankful for discovering Twilight, her one in a million student who sought knowledge for the sake of helping Equestria. She even succeeded in becoming a Princess herself, when there had been so many dismal failures. “Is something wrong, sister?” Luna asked, approaching the older Alicorn.
“Oh? Sorry Luna, I didn't hear you coming. I was just thinking about all the unicorns that have had to be imprisoned over the years, a lot of which were my own students.”
“Yes, I have seen the records. It is a shame. It seems that every unicorn either has no interest in pursuing magic, loses interest before becoming great or attempts conquest.”
“All of the most talented ones, the ones that could change Equestria for the better all end up fleeing the land or getting stuck in our prisons,” Celestria sighed once again. “Why does it always end up the same, save Twilight of course.”
Luna, wanting to cheer her sister up, wracked her brain for until she remembered something.
“What about your other student? The one previous to Twilight?”
“Sunset?” Celestia asked, “She lives on the other side of the portal now after her attempts at stealing Twilight's crown.”
“Yes, but hasn't she learned the magic of friendship and even assisted Twilight in defeating the Sirens?” Luna countered.
Celestia thought to herself. It was true. Sunset is the only other magically talented unicorn that lives a peaceful and satisfied life, despite her past wrong doings. Maybe there was hope. If Sunset could be reformed, then why not the others? But how could Celestia do it? Her ideas over centuries failed, but all it took for Sunset was for her to... meet... Twilight.
Celestia beamed at her new idea as a grin formed on her face. “Um, sister? Are you feeling better?” Luna asked cautiously.
“Much, thank you Luna,” Celestia responded without even looking her sister's way. “I have some things to do now, so please excuse me.”
“Um... Sure?” Luna shrugged, watching her sister's retreating form.
Celestia walked towards her chambers, already working out the details of her plan. “I'll only experiment with it first. Maybe only two or three ponies at first to see of she can handle it. And I already have three in mind. I can have two transported from the dungeon to Ponyville, but Twilight will need to contact Sunset. Yes, if the others can see how Sunset's life has been turned around, it'll set a great example for the others. Maybe, just maybe, this will work! But first, I need to send a letter to Twilight.”
The next day, over in Ponyville, Rainbow Dash sped through the doors of the castle and quickly took her seat only to be met with the disapproving stares of her friends. “What?”
“Yer twenty minutes late, Dash,” Applejack said blankly.
“So I took a nap and lost track of time. No big, right? Right? ... Anyways, you've got some big news Twi?”
Twilight rolled her eyes and cleared her throat.
“Yes. Last night I received a letter from the Princess who has a new task for me and I-”
“Hey, is that the portal?” Rainbow interrupted.
“I was getting to that,” Twilight grumbled.
“ Oh, hehe, sorry.”
“As I was saying, the Princess tasked me with taking charge of a new program to rehabilitate criminal unicorns and requested that I even bring in Sunset Shimmer to be an example of what these other unicorns could be. So I invited all of you here today to formally introduce her to you.”
“Wow Twilight, you got a new responsibility and you're still so calm?” Pinkie Pie exclaimed. “You've come a long way.”
“Thank you,” Twilight smiled at the compliment.
“You should of seen her last night. She was practically crashing through the walls in her panic,” Spike chuckled.
Twilight's cheeks reddened as her friends all laughed. After the mirth subsided, Fluttershy spoke up. “If you're that worried, why not ask for help?”
“Oh, I probably be fine with Sunset around. And besides, I'm also supposed to be helping them with advanced magic. There's not much you guys can help in that department.”
“You know, I'm a unicorn, Twilight” Rarity said with a slight frown.
Twilight smiled nervously at her friend. “Uh, yes, but you see, I didn't think you'd care about teaching magic...”
“I care enough to help a friend. I could be your assistant. Ooh! I even have the perfect outfit!”
“Well, um, you know we'll be dealing with criminals. Do you think you can keep them under control?”
“Might I remind you of who my younger sister is?”
“Right,” Twilight sighed in defeat. “Okay, you can be my assistant. How about the rest of you?”
“To much work t'do on the farm.”
“Sorry, but I gotta go back to the Wonderbolt's academy in a few days.”
“The cakes are going out of town and I have to babysit.”
“Eep! I mean, they are criminals and, I, uh, need, um, watch... my... table?”
“Alright,” Twilight turned to Rarity, “The pris, er, um, 'students' will be arriving tomorrow morning at nine. Is that good with you?”
“Of course, darling. I'll be ready and willing,” Rarity smiled back.
“Good,” Twilight sighed again.
She thought Rarity might be a little... delicate when it came to dealing with common criminals, but there was no backing out now.
At that moment, the portal next to the table flashed and spat out a bacon-maned pony. Sunset picked herself up and looked at the others. “Um... Hi?”
Not one second passed before she was tackled by a pink blur and bombarded with questions.
After the greeting passed and the others left, Twilight turned to her former enemy. “Are you sure you want to do this?”
“After all that you've helped me with, this is nothing. Besides, summer break just started, so I have plenty of spare time,” Sunset responded cheerily.
“Well thanks, it really means a lot to me. Tonight you can stay in the guest room, but when the others arrive, you'll have to bunk with them.”
Sunset rolled her eyes. “I know, I know. I'm supposed to be another student that will help influence the others into changing their ways. I got it all in your letter.”
“Good. Just one more thing,” Twilight looked nervous as she levitated a ring over to Sunset, “put this on your horn.”
“Why?” Sunset looked at the ring suspiciously.
“It restrains your magic. The others have to wear them too. Don't worry, the attuned to my magic so that I can release you at a moments notice.”
“Restrains, huh? Didn't think you were into that, Sparkle,” Sunset replied with a smirk.
It took a moment for Twilight to catch on to what Sunset was implying, but when she did, her face decided to resemble a tomato. “That's not, I mean, it's standard-”
“Relax, I'm just messing with ya,” Sunset chuckled. “So where's the guest room?”
Twilight sighed as she started leading her friend. “I hope I'm not in over my head,” the princess mumbles to herself.
Snarky Sunset Shimmer.. I have no words. Jon? Would you like to say something?
I know your going to do this. But may I ask why you considering Trixie a criminal? I mean the Ursa Minor was never her fault. Snips and Snails did that. And with the Alicorn Amulet, not only was Trixie being corrupted and influenced. She stated herself she wasn't in control of her actions. And the final nail is that she was forgiven at the end of the episode. So how can Trixie be considered a convict?
The Flim Flam brothers are way more criminal then she is with all their shady businesses. Starlight glimmer on the other hoof is indeed a criminal as so far her actions have been slightly hinted to be selfish rather then miss guided. You could also put Sombra in but he already paid the ultimate price at the end of Crystal Empire for his misdeeds.
Perhaps Trixie had been arrested without Twilights knowledge. If that's the case then if you play your cards right you can actually make this story even more intriguing. What is Twilight to do with Trixie, a pony she knows is innocent yet is considered by society a criminal. Just food for thought.
Great story! I can't wait till the next chapter btw. Also, I've noticed a few errors. If you want any help, I'm proofreader and am always looking for people to help.
Looking forward to how this goes.
Also, there were a few small errors:
I'm pretty sure that's not what Sunset was doing prior to learning Friendship.
I know a lot of people don't really say it right, but it's supposed to be "supposed."
No. Just no.
It's only "suppose" when you're talking to someone who is supposing.
Like, "What do you suppose did that?"
Either you're missing a word here, or Sunset suddenly thinks Twilight is narcissistic.
Hope this helps you to avoid these kinds of mistakes in the future.
[/grammarnazi]
I am looking forward to the next chapter. Besides the small mistakes already mentioned though, not trying to be rude or anything, I did catch another one.
Just a small mistake here. Its "their", not "there". Again, not trying to be rude, just thought I'd point that out.
Still, this story is great. I can't wait to see what happens next.
Good start! Promising potential.
If Sunset is reformed, why must she wear an inhibitor ring?
Besides, she is too casual about it. For an unicorn, being deprived of magic is like forbidding a pegasus to fly, is negating a part of their own being.
Need I remind you that Spike got his own room?
5942127 Thanks, I'll try to make her snarky as possible.
5942513 I already have a plan for that and I'll answer your questions in the up coming chapters, but I'm open to new ideas if you have a suggestion.
5942619 I'd welcome the help. I'm terrible at proofreading my own stuff
5942766 Thanks for pointing those out. I fixed them as soon as I could. I'll try to get future chapters proof read.
5942883 Dang it. Thanks. I'm going to try to avoid those mistakes in the future.
5943022 Thanks. I hope I don't disappoint.
5943036 I figured that if she didn't have magic as a human, she wouldn't miss it as a pony. As for why she needs to wear a ring, I planned on explaining that next chapter.
5943374 Why? Did I miss something?
5943983 If you watch Tanks for the Memories.
5943933
Well too early to give any suggestions because the story can go anywhere yet. Still I guess I could give you a few since you want to hear them. It would indeed be more interesting if you make the cast bigger of unicorns that used their magic for wicked ends rather then just two. Perhaps create a few OC's for it. For Flim Flam can't actually be used for they use the silver tongue with their criminal activity rather then their magic.
As for Trixie I would actually suggest you made her scape goat. You know someone whom is convicted for a crime where they are actually innocent for? We know from magic duel pony society can be rather biased. That way you would create more conflict to deal with. Namely Twilight realize that not only need criminals to see the error of their ways but so need society to give them a chance to redeem themselves. So to make the story more interesting you could make it that some of the convicts only became evil because of circumstances. If you have read the comic "Magic is Fiendship" issue #1 (Sombra origin story) you have an excellent on how a person can be forced to become evil. While the last comic "Magic is Fiendship" issue #5 (Chrysalis origin story) you have the example on how person was simple born evil.
Although I like the idea of using Twilight to rehabilitate other ponies with cutie marks in magic, there is one big flaw in this story--the idea that there are no worthwhile ponies with a cutie mark in magic. Just the thought of it is ludicrous, like saying that there is no one on the National Honor Society who won't use their good grades to evil ends.
This is such an outrageous statement that I've rewritten this sentence fourteen times trying to adequately describe it, only to fail each time.
On another topic, will Rarity actually be of any help? I suppose that if she has free use of her magic and the others don't she'd be able to help reign them in, but she isn't a student of magic--she just uses it. It's most likely that everypony there will be better at magic than she is.
But magic is her special talent. As a human she didn't even have a cutie mark--but now she does, and when confronted with the opportunity to use magic again after years of deprivation, can't.
That aside, she's already been reformed, rehabilitated, and has suffered for her crimes. Unless she's supposed to be snuck in with the others as an example, there's no reason to put her under that.
5942513 I agree with this person. Trixie is, for all purposes, reformed already (particularly if you consider the comics canon), so forcing her to undergo "reform lessons" seems redundant. The idea of her getting dragged in by the legal system and Twilight trying to help her holds merit, though. Or if you have something else interesting planned. Twixie is best ship, so I'm optimistic on that front.
Horn rings feel so cruel, though. It's really not going to help the reformation process if you treat them like dangerous armed criminals. Admittedly, Glimmer is that, but...
Yeah, a few things here feel leery, but I'll stay hopeful and read on.
Twilight*
How do you convince Starlight Glimmer to do good when in her heart of hearts she sees herself as DOING GOOD already, and that it's the mane six who did evil by ruining her 'perfect' society?
"You should do good."
"Yes. And cutie marks are evil. Therefore, removing cutie marks is doing good."
"But you use your cutie mark."
"And changelings used violence, and you used violence back, does that make you as bad as the changelings? Cutie marks already brainwash ponies, I merely wash off the filth that cutie marks have programmed into ponies."
I have not much that I think about it right now, but it looks like it could be interessting enough.
5944276 do you have to buy them, or can you watch them online? I still have to see if I get the money to buy something like that in a few months.