//------------------------------//
// School Days 
// Story: The Thousand Year Change 
// by Darthvalgaav 
//------------------------------//

Rainbow flew through the air near Cloudsdale. The city of clouds looked awesome as always to the speedy Pegasus. All around she could see the winged ponies flying from cloud to cloud as they went about their day. Part of her wished she could hang back and just chill with them since this was her hometown before she moved to Ponyville. Sadly she had no time to waste.

A few miles away from the aerial city, Rainbow stopped in front of a cloud home that stood alone in the middle of the sky. Unlike her home, or the homes of any other sky dweller for that matter, this house was made completely out of dark thunder clouds. It had no windows, no rainbow waterfalls, or anything that would make it look friendly. But then again, that was the point of its appearance.

Rainbow landed in front of the only door and knocked four times. A moment later she heard several looks being unlocked before the door opened to reveal her cousin Color Scheme. Like Rainbow she had a multicolored mane. But instead of it being striped like hers it looked like a tie dye style shirt with blood red in the center followed by dark green, purple, and then black. Stuffed between both ears of the midnight blue mare were several colored pencils and pens. While she couldn’t see it, Color’s cutie mark was a paintbrush covered in rainbow colored paint.

“Hey Rainbow,” said bat pony with a grin. “What’s up with the visit? You usually stop by at the end of the month to pick up my transcript.” In order for Color Scheme to actually have a job, practically the entire family had to help out. For example, Color’s mother went shopping for her once a week. Rainbow’s job was to pick up Color’s transcripts for X-Ponies and deliver them to her publisher.

“I, ah, need to talk to you about something,” said Rainbow as she looked a bit embarrassed. Color said not a word, she just moved to the side to allow her older cousin to come in.

As Rainbow entered the house, she couldn’t help but notice the differences from the outside. Inside it was bright and colorful. She had managed to fuse paint vapor into the clouds so that each room was a different bright color that didn’t match the furniture. In the family room, for example, the room was a bright red while the rugs were green, the tables were pink, and the sofa was orange. Sometimes Rainbow wondered if her cousin was color blind or just plain weird.

As the two walked into the kitchen, a green room with neon pink seats. Color pulled out two mugs before filling them both with hot chocolate. Once she handed one of the mugs to her cousin, Rainbow began to go into the details of what had happened yesterday as well as this morning. Color sat there, not saying a word, as Rainbow told her about Twilight and Shadow and what had happened with Princess Luna. By the time Rainbow had finished Color picked up her mug to take a sip only to find the liquid had turned ice cold.

“Well it looks like it was an eventful Summer Sun festival,” said Color as she set down her mug.

“I know,” said Rainbow. “And the weirdest part about all of this is that I feel…confused. I really liked them both. They seemed cool and all, but then they go up there and say that the Republic shouldn’t join Equestria.” Rainbow then let out a sigh. “I just don’t know what to think right now. It’s all so confusing. Lunar ponies are supposed to be these big jerks, but neither Shadow nor Twilight seemed to be that bad.”

“Maybe things got out of hoof back in the day,” said Color as she got up. She then walked over to cabinet and then pulled out a pad of paper. She then returned to her seat so she could be comfortable as she began to draw something.

“What do you mean?” asked Rainbow.

“Well,” began Color slowly. “Remember when you had to do that project with Sunny Sky back in Flight School.” Rainbow nodded. Sunny Sky was a big time fillyfooler back when she went to school. One day the two of them had been assigned a big project for class that was worth a major portion of their grade. On the first day Sunny had asked Rainbow to meet her at a café close to school to talk about what they were going to do. Wanting to get it over with as soon as possible Rainbow had agreed. Once they got there, Sunny had tried to flirt with Rainbow every other minute. While she had rejected every advance others in the café, including three very annoying stallions who she hated, saw everything. By the next day ever Pegasus in Flight School had heard about her ‘date’ with Sunny.

“It was horrible,” grunted Rainbow as she crossed her forelegs. “No pony would listen to me when I said it wasn’t a date! I was being hit on by mares, parents would give me dirty looks, and don’t get me started about what they did to my parents home! After over a year of that crap I had to drop out.”

Color nodded. “And you moved to Ponyville only to find that they had also heard the rumors.”

Rainbow groaned. “It was so unfair! They never met me before and they already assumed that I slept around with every mare I could get my hooves on. It took years before they realized that I was into stallions.” Rainbow paused before raising an eyebrow. “What does any of that have to do with what happened at the Summer Sun Festival?”

Color shrugged. “I was just thinking that it could be the same,” she said. “I mean, we only know what the history books said happened back then. But most of them were written long after Nightmare Moon or Princess Luna left. Who’s to say that what we have learned about wasn’t a small thing that was later blown out of proportion? Also, most of what we know about moon ponies is mostly guesswork. This is the first time in a thousand years that we have ever had any contact with them. I guess they didn’t like the rumors that were being spread about them like a certain blue Pegasus I know.”

Rainbow felt her ears flatten against her skull. She had never thought about it like that. She had assumed that they, the ponies of Equestria, were in the right. It had never occurred to her that they might be wrong about the Republic and that Twilight was just making a scene. As always, Color was able to give an outsiders perspective on the subject.

“You are really good at this,” said Rainbow.


“I have to be,” said Color as she set down one of her pencils. “I tell stories for a living. Maybe I can incorporate some of this into the next saga of the X-Ponies. Like having the tensions between the ponies and the mutant ponies become so bad that Magneta feels like she has to create an asteroid that will be the new home for ponies like her. A place they can be safe. Who knows, maybe that’s what Princess Luna did a thousand years ago.”

-x-

Princess Luna’s School for Gifted Ponies was one of the largest buildings Scootaloo had ever seen. It was shaped like a giant silver dome with thousands of windows on it. Off to the side there were several athletic fields as well as dorms. According to Twilight, they were for students who didn’t want to commute from different Domes everyday.

When Scootaloo had first heard about this school she had assumed that it would be similar to Princess Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns in the way that it was just for unicorns. She couldn’t have been more wrong! Watching from the sidewalk she saw hundreds of student leaving the building. Most were walking while the pegasi flew through the air along with some earth pony that were on devices that Vinyl called hover cycles.

After gawking at the sight of these machines for a bit the young Pegasus felt someponies hoof gently touch her side. Looking up, she saw it was Twilight. Wordlessly the three of them left the sidewalk outside of the school and began walking down the long walkway towards the school. On both sides of the walkway were stone statues of various ponies. They were each posed in some epic fashion while their names were engraved below their feet.

“So who are these guys?” asked Scootaloo as they passed the statue of a Pegasus who had his wings extended. As she looked a bit closer she noticed that one wing looked a bit smoother, like it didn’t have any feathers.

“These are all Princess Luna’s previous prized students,” said Twilight. “Once a prized student graduates, a statue of him or her is built so that they will always be remembered as well as their achievements.” She then pointed at the statue of the Pegasus. “That one, for example, was called Jet Wing. He went on to create cybernetic attachments so ponies who had lost limbs could once again function.”

Scootaloo was about to ask another question when they passed by the only broken one. No, broken wasn’t the right word. It looked like somepony had tried to smash it up a long time ago. It also looked like no pony either noticed or cared. The ruble looked like it had been left there for a long time. Only an inscription remained, ‘Genetic Code: May you Suffer till the end of time for your Crimes’. Just passing by this spot made Scootaloo shiver.

Once inside the group decided to split up. Twilight was going to find the Dean while Vinyl was to show Scootaloo around. Once the Dean was ready to see them, Twilight would then teleport them outside of his office.

To be honest, it looked like any other school to Scootaloo. Student’s lockers were on both sides of the hallways and the doors seemed to just lead to the various classroom. It didn’t look very impressive, just bigger than the one back in Ponyville. As they walked, Vinyl began to tell stories about her time here with Twilight. However, some of the things Vinyl said made no sense to the filly. Like, for example, how the two of them made a fusion reactor for a science project and how somepony name Star Scream tried to steal it from them right before them could turn it in. He had not only failed, but also almost caused the reactor to malfunction. While the thing was about to blow, Twilight had been trying to fix it not only to save the Dome but also their grade.

As the two walked, Scootaloo began to hear the sounds of ponies her age. She ran towards two doors that lead to a large gym. Looking through the window she saw three ponies standing in the middle. One was an adult wearing a black and white striped shirt. The other two were closer to Scootaloo’s age. One was a bright red unicorn with a black and red striped mane. The other was a white Pegasus with an orange spiky mane. Both of them were holding metallic sticks, one by magic while the other held it in his mouth.

“Alright, I want a good clean fight,” said the adult as he took a step back. “Begin!” What happened next caused Scootaloo’s eyes to widen in utter shock. Both metallic sticks began to emit a light that seemed to take the shape of a sword. The unicorn swung his light blade downwards at his opponent’s skull. The Pegasus, on the other hoof, backed away before taking to the air. Scootaloo watched in awe as the white one circled around before making a diving motion towards the unicorn. The unicorn managed to block the attack but was pushed back by several yards due to its force.

“Awesome, right?” said Vinyl who was now standing next to Scootaloo.

“What are they doing?” asked the orange filly while keeping her eyes on the fight.

“Light Dueling,” answered Vinyl. “It’s a sport up here in the Republic that is very popular. The point is to strike one of your opponent’s vitals first with just the light blade. The ref there decides if the attack was a glancing blow or a serious blow.”

“This is…the most awesome thing I have ever seen!” exclaimed Scootaloo. The sports back home were not nearly as cool as this. Or at least the ones that Ponyville Elementary would let them play. Mostly it was straight up racing. Hoofball was alright, but it was more of an earth pony sport since ponies weren’t allowed to fly or use magic. Light Dueling didn’t seem to have that restriction.

“You should see the team matches,” said Vinyl with a grin. “Twilight and Shadow took the championship three years in a row.” Scootaloo’s head snapped in the direction of the DJ as her mouth dropped open. Twilight had done this to?! Scootaloo was about to start asking questions when the two were suddenly covered in a purple glow. A moment later there was a flash and the two of them were standing in front of Twilight.

“Well I hope you two had fun,” said a smiling Twilight. “And I hope you like the school because now we get to meet the Dean.” She then knocked on the door.

“Come in,” said a stallion’s voice from inside. Twilight opened the door to reveal a bare office. The only things in it were a deck and a couple of chairs. Sitting behind the desk was a light brown earth pony with a white beard and mane. When he saw Twilight entering, he smiled. “Well, I never thought I’d live to see the day you would walk through these doors again.”

“It’s nice to see you again Dean Learning Curve,” said Twilight as the group walked towards him.

“Hiya Deany,” said Vinyl, causing the Deans smile to flatten.

“Vinyl,” he said in a less cheerful tone. “What are you doing back here?”

“Just chilling with my friend,” said an oblivious Vinyl.

“We’re here to see if we can enroll Scootaloo into the school,” said Twilight quickly as she gestured to the orange filly.

“I see,” said Learning in a more pleasant tone. “But you must know that we are in the middle of a semester right now. Putting her in might be a little difficult. Did you bring her transcripts?”

Twilight bit her lower lip. “There are none,” she said. “Well, there might be. It’s just that I don’t have them. See I adopted Scootaloo from Equestria.” When she said this, the Dean’s eyes grew very wide. He then began to stare at Scootaloo for a moment before turning his attention back towards Twilight and clearing his throat.

“Well that, ah, complicates things,” he said. “Twilight, you know I would do anything for one of the brightest students ever to enter this academy. But I just can’t allow a filly into the school who has no written transcript halfway through the semester. It just wouldn’t be fair to all the other students who studied hard to get in. But…I’ll tell you what. Come back at the end of the semester and I’ll give her the entrance exam. If she gets above a seventy-five we’ll accept her. Does that sound fair?”

Twilight thought about it for a moment. Doing this she would be able to give Scootaloo some time to adjust to live if the Republic. She would also be able to help Scootaloo study so she wouldn’t be so far behind. For Scootaloo, it seemed like the best thing for right now.

“It does,” said Twilight with a nod.