More Random Worldbuilding: Equestria A&M · 5:14pm Jul 21st, 2024
Celestia established the School for Gifted Unicorns and the Wonderbolts to help educate and train particularly talented unicorns and pegasi--perhaps even to screen for especially talented individuals she could recruit as advisors or agents. However, one of the biggest open secrets in Equestria is Equestria A&M, a college established to do the same for Earth Ponies.
The Ag, as it's often called, was established in a remote part of Equestria, with lots of wide-open spaces for fields and so forth. It was initially started as essentially a trade college, i.e., to train Earth Ponies for jobs in agriculture and mechanical work (i.e., "A&M"). However, most families didn't see the point in sending their kids so far away when they could learn the same stuff working the family farm. For this reason, enrollments were low, and the school nearly folded--until Bright Future, a hippogriff, took the reins. She realized they were going to put in a lot of work if they wanted to save the school.
Nowadays, The Ag still caters primarily to Earth Ponies, and agriculture is still a major part of the curriculum, with most students required to take at least a few classes on the topic. However, the school has expanded dramatically, and offers a much wider variety of courses, including teaching, chemistry, writing, meteorology, art, potions and magical theory. Additionally, they have a rather aggressive recruiting program, which has brought unicorns, pegasi, griffons, and aven yaks and dragons to the campus. Students not only learn from some of the best teachers in Equestria, but build friendships (and relationships) with creatures all over the world. The classes tend to teach, not just scientific principles, but also mutual respect for nature in all its forms (including magic and the weather) and compassion for your fellow creatures.
Despite all this, the college remains fairly low-profile. May creatures pass it off as a simple farmer's college, where ponies go to learn how to water their flowers or weed their garden. And yet, in some communities, attending the Ag is basically a rite of passage. Most Earth Ponies can, say, crack a joke about Professor Fiddlesticks' early-morning AG101, and get a laugh out of at least half of the Earth Ponies present--and at least one or two from the other tribes.
That makes a bunch of sense, yes.
I can see it emerging under Twilight, not Celestia, as narratively it seems too similar to what School of Friendship was attempting to accomplish -- and, especially considering ponies' fairly conservative nature, that School seemed to be innovative enough to be ground-breaking
Collaboration of races and active presence of hippogriffs is too new-age for old Equestria, even if it's low-profile. Other than that, great idea! I can totally see it work in canon
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...now that you mention it, it does seem a little similar to the school of friendship, though that wasn't the intention.
In my head, the school would be founded under Celestia, who, for one reason or another, stopped paying such close attention to it, perhaps after it started to look like her experiment was going to fail. Because she wasn't paying such close attention, the hippogriff president--perhaps born to an Earth Pony mom, and a Griffon dad, as opposed to coming from Seaquestria?--was free to experiment. It may sound a little cynical, but much of the diversity is due to business decisions, in particular the need to increase enrollment to keep the school open. That is, she started trying to appeal to a wider audience in order to get more students. However, once Celestia / Twilight figures out what's going on, they don't stop it--it has the nice effect of creating a more unified people that way.
Plus, I was thinking it would be fun to have some in-show earth ponies, e.g. Big Mac or Cheerilee, have this common link together, which would be harder to do if it was Twilight who set up the school.
Hrm... went back to see what names I hung on the other schools in Canterlot in my various stories. Morari Polytechnic is, from the name, I think, a rival unicorn school to Celestia's. Farrow is a more generic, aristocratic, elite 'public' school. Based, obviously, on Harrow, but eclectic enough to have the daughter of a hippogriff diplomat enrolled, however uneasily.
(The Fruitier's Guild's school for journeymares and apprentices didn't even get a name, alas.)