If you should see a lavender airship in your sky, hurry to get on board. You don't want to miss being part of Equestria's future, aboard Princess Twilight's School of Friendship...
Princess Twilight's Friendship School proposal has been denied even preliminary approval by the EEA. Fortunately Tempest Shadow and her fleet of warships are back in town, and Tempest has a somewhat unorthodox idea for how Twilight can get around this. Plus, we find out more about how each of the Young Six came to be enrolled at the School. And Starlight ends up with a much better job...
AU reboot of the start of season 8, and sequel to Reformation... It's a Pony Thing.
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Chapters (18)
Did anyone else think of The (original) Wiggles when they say the title?
Tempest helping Twilight flip off Neighsay on a pirate ship? Gimme gimme gimme!
Dude, you had my attention since the title! I am eagerly awaiting updates!
>”Pirate School”
>no Celaeno tags
>mfw
vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/mlp/images/6/68/Captain_Celaeno_eating_a_bowl_of_slop_MLPTM.png/revision/latest?cb=20180115024307
Harlock: Space Pirate: Pony Edition
Heck of a lead, Tempest.
This’ll teach Neighsay to give Twilight’s proposal a big hoof down.
9522763
OK, kind of off-topic, but I just realized that your avatar has a picture of a pony's face in the background.
I have no idea how I missed that in the entire time I was reading Grief is the Price we Pay.
Okay, really liking this Pirate School concept, also sweet trolling of Neighsay by Celestia there! XD
Can't wait to see the young six arriving soon, especially a certain orange dragon.
9522718
Actually, I'm more of a Space Battleship Yamato fan myself, but point taken...
9522944
Ha-ha, I've actually wondered from time to time just how much people really pay attention to the avatar anyway, so don't sweat it.
It's kind of a long story how and why he's there anyway...he's...not quite a ponysona OC...sort of? Anyway, like I said, complicated.
just a thought but as princess, she should have the power to issue a marquis, thus making her pirate school a private(eer) school
ALL AHEAD FLANK! TO BATTLE STATIONS! READY THE GUNS!
... KIDDING! Next class is in three minutes!
A couple of the Mane 6, at least, wouldn't be able to do this.
With it in Ponyville, they can afford to, but they wouldn't be able to do that with a traveling school.
I love the bringing back of the library. It feels like something that could happen in the show. Good job
9523732
Thanks! I miss the Golden Oak Library myself. It's one of the things that got me into watching MLP initially, because it reminds me of my own living room. Yeah, I own a few books...
Ahh, Gilda. We need more of her, now that she’s semi-reformed.
You know, if it was really that simple, I would've thought the griffons would've tried that already by now.
But, in reviewing screenshots of said gorge, I can't say I see anything in what is shown of the surrounding geology to say it can't be done...though since when has the terrain of MLP been consistent with real-life terrain, am I right?
Well, guess who's going to be short two bits before this is all over, then?
9524882
It wasn't quite that simple... before Gilda discovered Arimaspi's skull and the Idol, none of the griffons knew where it had landed. They'd likely long since given up searching the bottom of the gorge themselves. So Gilda, at that point, was the only griffon who actually had a reason to go looking again -- and even she didn't believe the story fully herself, so she might not have made it a priority over scone-baking...
True -- I am kind of relying on the long shots of the Griffonstone mountain, which show the gorge cutting clear to the bottom. And assuming that in the close-up shots it's narrow and twisty enough that it might not be well-illuminated in the middle. Handwave, handwave, etc...
Aha... the real reason Gallus didn't want to go home for the holidays comes out...
Oh yeah, love the introduction of Gallus here with Gilda's help. Nice way of bringing up the idol of Boreas into the fold as well!
One student down, five to go!
9525934
Nice! But seriously... how could you not think of the best flying ship theme song ever?
(Yeah, I totally got sucked into Starblazers. It was no-holds-barred, long-arc sci-fi soap-opera, way before Babylon 5 was even a thing...)
Holy crap what an introduction to my fave orange dragon, also bonus points for finally putting Garble in his place!
lol yeah I can see Tempest & Ember becoming fast friends after this!
Sometimes, to get through to the dragons, you have to communicate in terms a dragon understands.
And yes. Garble totally had it coming. He always does.
And I betcha that, after that, Tempest is the only pony she'll actually get the name straight for without fail, too.
9526913
Thanks much! I decided to take Smolder's "fear" from the What Lies Beneath test, and see where that might have come from. Glad it passes inspection by a Smolder fan!
And yeah, Tempest is such an open invitation to mop the floor with any character I find unpleasant -- though I figured I could get away with doing that literally here, since dragons would respect the show of strength.
Tempest literally mopping the floor with Garble? My dear author, are you trying to seduce me?
It's a joy to see Silverstream so excited & scared at the same time while seeing Twilight's pirate school. Can't wait to see this version of the young six when they all finally meet. Wonder who'll be next?
BTW will you be tackling Spike & Smolder sibling relationship during this story? It has been a blast to see these 2 interact with each other ever since *Molt Down*
Ok, buck being the levelheaded guy
"YO ARSEHOLE!!! PREPARE TO GO FROM HERE TO THE BADLANDS ON 10 SECONDS FLAT THROUGHT BUCKNIGHT EXPRESS"
9526310
OH HELL YES!
Three down, three to go.
Unless you have any OCs you plan to make part of the main group?
Ocellus, you do realize who you’re talking to, right? This is THE Princess of Books! Of COURSE there’s a library.
Also, Pharynx and Tempest. More of that please. That is all.
Ocellus ask Twilight sparkle if her floating ship of a school has a library is like asking Celesitia if she have cake with dinner, or asking Cadance if Shiny armor going to sleep in same bed as her, or asking Discord if he enjoys a little chaos in the morning.......
Ocellus asking Twilight if there's a library up there is akin to asking her if she needs breathing! XD
Also Tempest seems to be batting two for two during this student recruitment trip, first Ember & now Pharynx. I pity the poor fool who tries to take on all of these 3 together.
Thorax! You've been slacking off, man! How can you say you've been telling the other changelings all about your pony friends if the subject of "Twilight Sparkle" and "library" being basically synonymous clearly hasn't ever come up yet before now? I mean, seriously, dude.
9530491
Weeeell... let's think about that one for a minute... if you're telling people about a friend of yours, and you really want them to like and be impressed by this person, and want to know more about them, and you have a choice between "a famous royal with awesome magic powers who's saved the entire world several times over" and "really, seriously, clinically obsessed with reading and owns enough books to choke the Horsehead Nebula", what's your instinctive go-to response?
Uh huh. Yep. There ya go.
(I speak from some amount of experience here, i.e. I own a lot of books.)
9530520
I don't know...the changelings don't really seem that hung up about such details to me. I mean, Pharynx is, but he's Pharynx, the exception to the rule, not the standard. Most of the other changelings that we've seen (post reformation) seem more keen to adapt, fit in, and be accepted into this new lifestyle, and they strike me more eager to hear all about it than pass stereotyped judgment and eager to please in their attempts to embrace it. I would think they would've had a bigger problem of them trying to emulate Twilight themselves, in the mistaken attempt to follow friendship, than the reverse.
Further, this is Thorax we're talking about. I love the guy, but c'mon, he's not going to think to take any of that into consideration anyway, not until well after the fact when the damage is already done and it's too late to go back on it.
And even if he did, he's still Thorax. He'd try and turn it into a good thing and use it to try and politely teach a friendship lesson out of it in that typical Thorax manner of his. I can just picture him doing that.
9530553
Grin... I was talking about us humans... and agreed, the New and Improved Changelings do seem to be a lot nicer than that. (Feelings Forum, anyone?)
Grumpus Pharynx is always great. They're setting up visiting opportunities later with these trips too, right?
9530590
Yeah, actually -- one of my goals with this story has always been to set up an AU basis for stories that make use of the School's ability to travel around. So it's plausible to, for example, do a field-trip or an adventure set in the Changeling Empire, or the Griffon Kingdom.
Because having Twilight stuck in a chair in a Principal's office just never sat right with me. (I'm totally with Spike when he asks "Who are you and what have you done with Twilight Sparkle?")
9526310
For me there are actually 3 themes in mind for the airship school. The reason I picked these because the premise of the games where they are from and Season 8 of MLP in general, be it canon or this fanfic, are surprisingly similar.
First theme, when it was first unveiled to Twilight and is collecting the students.
Second theme is for day to day activities.
Third theme is when things get serious.
9531267
These are great, particularly the second theme, which has a very MLP feel to it. You can almost see ponies wandering around Ponyville, while listening to it.
Given a choice (and no licensing issues), I'd personally go with something stirring and orchestral, like the themes from the Elder Scrolls games -- in particular Morrowind, which I spent many pleasant hours wandering around in, because it's such a wonderfully detailed world.
The theme takes a while to build up, but it's worth it... a mixture of uplifting strength and fading melancholy that suits the game very well.
Smashing success in getting Yona into the school there, I approve!
Guess that leaves our green pony to meet his future creature friends, can't wait to see that plus the school actually running in full swing.
Tempest continues to smash all expectations.
Will Cozy Glow still be the main villain?
Right then! Time to swing back to Ponyville to fetch Sandbar!
Always good to see Yona.
Yaks love smashes? They'd probably be best buds with this guy!
The smash to end all smashes.
Did we already do a meme where yona is hulk`s favorite creature?
The narrative at that point seems to be pointing to Glida being the student. What just happened that changed their opinions to Gallus? Seems a bit abrupt.
9533318
It's reasonably clear: Gilda found the Idol, so she's become the (somewhat unwilling) example of friendship for her fellow griffons. So she can't just suddenly fly off on Twilight's ship. Which leaves Gallus.
(Plus which, of the two he's the one who saw the ship first...)
Neat ... Two little things:
on their own
alright is one word.
9534175
Thanks for the advice! Actually this usage is correct -- "his" refers to Sandbar, not "things":
Perhaps I could phrase it as "when he was on his own" to be more clear, but that spoils the flow somewhat.
And "alright" is a one-word spelling of the phrase "all right", used in dialogue and informal writing. "All right" is preferred in more proper, edited writing. I was leaning towards the latter usage here, though I'll admit it's on the borderline, given the casual air I was going for in general.