After looking through some old books at her home back at Canterlot, Twilight stumbles upon an old book which is unknown why it's here; but she'll soon find out.
A world where it advances the times of Equestria and is the place where all ponies, griffons, and other creatures want to be at. Not to mention it's a school to teach even old folks some new tricks, literally. The school is its own city and has a diverse environment in every corner. Join Twilight as she makes friends and find what this school has to offer.
The story take place before Twilight is a princess and is an alternate universe as the world is exposed to technology and some modern culture. Side note: they also wear clothes... and I need a cover art sooner or later :/
"Okay, discussed important matters with Celestia, check. Got food for Owliscious, check. Checked my checklist for the third time, definitely check."
As she checks her checklist, again, Twilight is walking along the main street that leads out of the the castle which contains Celestia's and Luna's throne room. She decides to check back at her old home before she went back to Ponyville and check to see which books she would like to take home with her (and maybe catch a few reading hours before Spike comes home).
As she walks up the stairs to her house, she notices the front has cobwebs on the door itself. Looking at the exterior of her house, she notices all the cobwebs and dust that has accumulated over the past few years. Stepping to the side of her door she looks in the pot that had once stored a healthy matured plant, which has decayed to dust on the floor, and found her spare key still inside. "Works every time," Twilight says to herself.
After entering her previous home, she sees every corner, book, and bookshelf has either cobwebs or dust covering the sides that are exposed to the atmosphere of the room. "Was I gone this long?" Twilight asks herself. "Time went by so quick! One day I'm studying magic in this room under Celestia's wing, the next I'm living at Ponyville studying magic." Twilight looks around the room once more to let the memories of her life in Canterlot play through her mind. She then walks to the nearby bookcase and examines it.
"These books are so dusty, I don't know what the titles of these books read!" Twilight inhales deeply and blows against the dust to shoo it away. Only to have it come back to her face (-_-). "That was a stupid idea to do," she says to herself, spitting out the dust that went into her mouth. She looks at the bookshelf again and sees the books with their titles much more clearly now. "OOoo, here's one on physiological studies, this one is about transforming one fruit to another, and, oh! The fifth book of Starswirl the Bearded's magical theories! I'm so going to bring that one back home! Where's the sixth and seventh books in my collection?"
After an hour or so of looking at the books on one shelf, and finding the ones she wants to take home, she moves to the next bookshelf and continued her search.
A few hours later...
"There! I got all the books I would want back at Ponyville." Twilight looks around the room and still sees all the dust scattered around the parts she didn't look through. "One of these days, I'll have to clean this place up. Or just let Spike do it," she says with a smile. As she's about to leave the room with all her books, she trips from an empty bottle, unknown where it came from, and hits against the bookshelf in front of her. The hit made the whole bookshelf shake and as she stumbles backward from the hit, she quickly looks up to prevent any books from falling off of the bookshelf. Lucky for her, no books were falling down but she did see a dusty bottle falling straight for her face! With quick reflexes, she catches the bottle in mid-air, right in front of her face.
"Where did this bottle come from?" Twilight asks herself. She wipes the dust off of it to find the fluid the clear bottle holds inside of it. "Why is this bottle here?" She pulls off the cork that is closing the bottle and finds it very stuck. She uses her magic to pull with all her might and manages to open it with it splashing some of the liquid to her face. "Why does this keep happening to me?"
She smells the contents and finds it not emitting any type of odor. "What is this stuff?" She wipes the liquid off of her face and looks up from where the bottle fell from. Sliding the nearby ladder to the area of where the bottle fell and climbs up to the top of the bookshelf. She sees a big book, bigger than any of her books, covered in dust just barely creeping over the edge of the shelf. She blows off the dust and spits out the dust that came back at her face. "I got to stop doing that." What was revealed under was an odd looking book; the book was made out of the same material as any of her other books in the library and her room. Examining the book while climbing down, she notices there's was no title on it.
"Okay, some books don't have titles on the book itself," Twilight says to herself. "Let's she what this book is about." The first page of the book was blank. "Okay, first pages in most books are empty." She flips to the second page to find it empty as well. And the third; as well the fourth, fifth, sixth, tenth, twentieth, and so on. "What!? What type of book has only empty pages in it? Is it a diary?" She looks for any writing in the book. No name, notes, nothing. "What type of pony would leave a book with this large amount of pages without any title or subject written in it?" Before she knew it, the sun was setting and moon was about to rise. Twilight sighs. "If only I had a light or torch to continue my search of this blank book." Twilight shimmers across the darkening room to collect her books and the blank book with the bottle it came with and headed back to Ponyville.
July 24, 2015 20:40 Location: Ponyville's Library
Opening the door to the library, Twilight sets down the pile of books she brought with her and quickly takes the blank book and the bottle to a stand nearby. "Spike!" Twilight calls out. After hearing nothing for a few seconds, she calls out to Spike again. "Oh, Spike! Can you come downstairs please?!"
"Yeah?" Spike replies half asleep.
"Can you find me all the books that is about potions?"
"Are you going to turn into Zecora's ways?" Spike asks worried.
"What? No! I need to find what this bottle contains inside," Twilight says while showing the bottle.
"Where did you find it?"
"Hoo?" Owlicious says waking from his nap.
"No not 'who', 'where'?" Spike replies.
"Spike," Twilight interrupts, "you know he only says 'hoo' right?" Spike grunts and goes to the bookshelves to find any book Twilight asked about.
Twilight starts looking through the book again to find any sort of writing in it. She lets out a sigh after going through fifty of the pages, not even a quarter of the book looked through.
"Hoo?" Owlicious says toward Twilight.
"I'm okay Owlicious, it's just that I can't find out what this book is about. There's no writing or anything to tell me what it is about. I looked through some of these and nothing! Not even inside of the covers!" She flips to the inside of the front cover to show him.
"So, where did you find this book?" Spike asks from across the room.
"I found it back in our old home back at Canterlot. On top of one of the bookshelves."
"Wow really? How did we not know about it?"
"It don't know, that's what I'm trying to find out." She flips to the inside of the back cover to show Owlicious. " See? Nothing! Arrgh. This book has-" Twilight stops as she sees something indented on one of the corners inside the book's front cover.
Make me wet...
"What?" Twilight thinks to herself. "Make. Me. Wet? What does that mean?" Just then, Spike falls with a pile of books he was carrying over to Twilight.
"A little help here?" Spike asks under the pile of books.
"Owliscious can you help him out?"
"Hoo," Owlicious replies.
Going back to the book, Twilight analyses the writing again. "What does it mean?" Twilight glances over shoulder and sees them still trying to pick up the books. "So, how do I make you 'wet'?" She whispers to the book, leaning over it. "Umm, hey there sweet stuff. Do you mind telling me what your purpose is? I can write in you with great complex sentences and good punctuation!"
"Twilight?" Spike calls out.
"Huh, what?!"
"What are you doing?"
"Nothing! Nothing. Just, whispering to myself," Twilight says with an innocent smile. Luckily, Spike had his vision blocked by the pile of books he's carrying. "Just set them down here Spike."
"So, what have you got so far from the book?"
Twilight sighs. "Nothing so far. There's nothing written in it."
"Can I see?"
"Just be careful with it." As Spike picks up the blank book, Twilight starts looking through the books about potions.
"So, nothing is written in it at all?"
"No, nothing." I already checked about a quarter of it already and nothing."
"Where's the bottle you were talking about?
"Over there, next to stand," Twilight says pointing at it. Spike closes the book and grabs the bottle. Owlicious flies over to Spike to see the bottle as well.
"So, did you find what's in the bottle?" Spike asks.
"Hoo?"
"NO! Not 'who', I asked- nevermind."
"No," Twilight replies, "I can't find anything in here so far." Spike tries to open the bottle.
"Why is this bottle so hard to open?" Spike grabs the cork with his teeth and pulls.
"Wait Spike! Don't-" Spike opens the bottle and the contents sprays on Spike's and Owlicious' faces. Spikes drops the bottle, spitting out what ever went into his mouth. "Spike! The bottle! The BOOK!"
The bottle fell on top of the book and all the contents inside the bottle spilled on top of the book, drenching it. Twilight picks up the book from the floor and puts it on top of the table.
"I'm sorry Twilight!" Spike apologizes. "I didn't mean to drop it on top of the book! I mean it!"
Twilight wipes off the excess liquid off the cover of the book. "It's okay Spike, it just spilled on top of the book. Thankfully none of the pages-" The glow from the symbol on the cover interrupts her. "What is happening?!" The glow starts to bring out the details of the symbol and the color. Twilight and Spike look at the symbol to see it in full color and detail.
"What is this symbol?" Twilight says. "It looks more like an insignia. The symbols in it... Princess Celestia and Luna are involved? What is the meaning-" The book interrupts her as it starts to emit an orb of light surrounding it. "Spike, start backing away." The book then starts increasing its light and engulfs Twilight and starts pulling her in. "Spike! Help!"
"Hold on Twilight!" Before Spike can grab Twilight, the light engulfs him as well and pulls him in too. "I'm being sucked in too! What do we do?!"
"I don't know!" The light then pulls them both in and the light, with the book, disperses without a trace on the table.
"Hoo?" Owliscious says looking at the scene.
"Sister," Luna says opening the doors to Celestia's bedroom.
"Yes Luna?"
Luna holds out a letter. Celestia takes the letter and starts to read it. "It's from the school sister. She found it and is in."
Celestia stands up and starts to walk. "Let them know we're on our way over."
The room consists a bookshelves filled with books, certificates hanging on the walls, and a stallion in a suit sitting on the chair working at the desk in the room. The middle of the room has the insignia plastered on the floor that starts at the door and ends to the front of the desk:
However, the insignia has the the sun and the left side of the symbol are colored in black and white to bring out the moon and right side of the symbol.
"Sir," a mare in a formal dress says, walking into an office, "I've gotten a letter from Canterlot from Ms. Princess Celestria and her sister Luna."
The stallion sitting in the office looks up from the desk. "Really?"
"Yes sir, here's the letter." The mare hands him the letter. "It just arrived a minute ago."
"Thank you Ms. Aurora." The stallion proceeded to open the letter.
"The princesses said they're on their way over now. They recommend that somepony that our hopefully 'soon to be' student knows would be better to help introduce her to the environment."
"I see. Well, shall we be on our way Ms. Aurora?"
Ms. Aurora looks with a confused face. "Me too sir?"
"Yes, I'll have to take you with me. We are the 'Nightowl' office staff and the principle, as well as the secretary of the its respective office must introduce any 'soon to be' students to the school, depending of the time."
"Oh, I didn't know that! We don't usually do this type of stuff."
"Soon. Ms. Aurora," the stallion says while walking to her. "Soon, we'll have to have more of this introduction protocol in the near future."
"You don't mean..."
"Yes," he says reassuring her. "It's time we start expanding our size." The principle starts walking towards the door and holds it open. "Now, let us be on our way, don't want to mess up our first introduction now, do we?"
Ms. Aurora smiles. "No we don't sir. Ooo, this is soooo exciting!!!" she exclaims practically jumping towards the door.
July 24, 2015 20:52 Location: ???
The orb of light that previously sucked in Twilight and Spike appeared again in the middle of some sort of quad area. The orb only appeared for about ten seconds, increasing in size enough to reveal the Twilight on the floor as it diminished to nothing, leaving without a trace. Dazed and confused, Twilight wakes up and observes her surroundings.
"Where am I?" Twilight says to herself. The area around her appears to be made out of stone when she started walking across to observe more of the surroundings. "Why am I here? What did i do to come here?" Just then, Twilight heard a crash near her and jumped with a shriek. "Who's there?" She sees a shadow figure running across from the area she heard the crash, only to see the figure trip and land on the floor a few feet from itself.
"Oww," cried the figure. From the sound of the voice, Twilight assumes the figure is a mare.
"Hello?" Twilight called out, "Who's there?" Not hearing a response, she starts walking towards the figure. She heard some rustling and when she came closer, she was greeted by a spray that went directly to her face. The spray ended up being pepper spray. "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! IT'S IN MY EYES!!! WHY IS EVERYTHING SPRAYING ALL TO FACE TODAY!?"
The mare figure tried to make a run for it but collapsed to the ground with a painful cry. "OW! MY TENDON!!!" The darkness that enveloped both mares was emitting two separate painful cries that sounded like the are was haunted.
"MY EYES! WHO WOULD SPRAY PEPPER SPRAY AGAINST ANOTHER PONY?!"
"YOU MADE ME SPRAIN MY SUPERFICIAL DIGITAL FLEXOR TENDON!"
"Oh, don't blame that on me! You're the one who startled me first and brought this pain to me! Just who are you!?"
"I'm not telling you alien!"
"What? What do you mean! Where are you!? I can't see you!"
"Like I would tell you alien! I saw you come onto this planet with that weird teleporting orb of light! I not letting this planet be overrun and destroyed by your own kind! It's too late! I already have my friend coming over to beat you down while we get the security!" Just then, Twilight hear the sound of a door opening and a thump. A mare has jumped from the steps, landing near the mare that sprayed Twilight.
"Misty!" cried the mare that came out of the nearby building. "Are you okay?!"
"NO! The alien made me sprain my superficial digital flexor tendon! Without even lifting a hoof!"
"Don't worry. I brought this bat and I'm not going to let it get away!"
"A bat!?" Twilight thinks to herself. "Oh, she better not do what I think she's about to do!"
"Lavender! NO!" a voice came from the distance. It was too late; Lavender had the bat aim at the side of Twilight's head and swung with her eyes closed.
"Take this!" yelled Lavender. Next came a big impact from the bat against something else. Twilight starts regaining her sight from the spray and looks right in front of her. To her astonishment, the bat didn't hit her head, but something else. In front of her was a stallion that blocked the blow with one of his hooves.
"Lavender," said the stallion out of breath, who was also an earth pony, "what the hell do you think you're doing?"
"Let go! This unicorn here is an alien!"
The stallion looks at Twilight then back at Lavender. "Are you shitting me Lavender? What makes you think this pony here is an alien?"
"She came from an orb of light out of nowhere!" replied Misty, still on the floor.
"So?"
"What type of pony comes from orb of light in the dead of the night?"
"Clearly a unicorn as depicted from this horn that is attached to her head that she was born with," the stallion says pointing at Twilight's horn. "Here," he says handing Twilight a water bottle and a rag, "use this to clean out the spray from your eyes."
"Thanks," replied Twilight.
"Besides," continued Misty, "why aren't you going to get the campus security like we planned?"
"Because I don't believe in your alien shenanigans. Also, you mares almost knocked out a unicorn in the central square with a bloody head and worst case scenario: brain damage!"
"Excuse me Mr. Mystery," called out another voice, "What in the moonlight is going on here? Also, why does Ms. Lavender have a bat?"
"It's a confusing story Mr. Leaf."
"Well now, shall we all go into the visitors' dorm and explain what happened these past few minutes?"
"Come now," said the mare in the suit. "What happened to Ms. Rose?"
"I sprained my tendon..," replied Misty.
"Come along now," Mr. Leaf said to the group, "you all have some explaining to do." The stallion guided all the ponies to the nearby dorm doors and went inside.
"Just what has happened these past few minutes?" Twilight thought to herself as she entered the building.
"And that is what happened," finished the stallion.
"I see," replied Mr. Leaf, "Ms. Aurora."
"Yes?" answered Ms. Aurora.
"Jot down a small note: make a new way for transporting newcomers to the school."
"Yes sir."
"Also, radio in to bring Ms. Rose to the room please." Without hesitation, Moonlight called out for Misty through the radio. A minute later, the door opened with the nurse bringing in Misty in a wheelchair, sitting down.
"Now you need to keep off your feet except when getting on and off your bed for a few days for it to heal Ms. Rose," said the nurse to Misty.
"Okay," replied Misty. The nurse left Misty next to the stallion and Lavender and left the room, closing the door behind her.
"Now then," said Blue Leaf, "it's probably time to explain what has happened to everyone and who I am to this young mare here." Mr. Leaf stands up to face Twilight. "I am Mr. Blue Leaf. I run the 'NightOwl' office with my secretary: Ms. Moonlight Aurora."
"Hello there!" says Moonlight.
"Me, Ms. Aurora, and the rest of the staff in my office section make up the 'NightOwl' offices. We run, as depicted by the name, at the times when the moon rises and sets. The school mainly doesn't sleep for one second but as of this night, most of the ponies scattered to the music festival across town and is also summer vacation. I am the leader of this tour that you all are about to have." Ms. Aurora then whispers into Blue Leaf's ear. He shakes his head in understanding. "Now onto what happened with this young mare here," Blue Leaf says pointing at Twilight. "Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, you may come in."
The doors opened and both princesses came into the door. "Princess Celestia! Princess Luna!" exclaimed Twilight. "What are you two doing here?"
"Its princess Celestia and Luna!" yelled Lavender. Everypony, except for Twilight and Misty, bowed down to the princesses. Misty was having trouble bowing down from her wheelchair and just bowed her head instead.
"It's okay everypony, you may stand now, except you Ms. Rose," said Celestia. Everypony did so. "We are here for you Twilight Sparkle. We felt coming into this new place would be rather shocking to you." Blue Leaf then whispered into both Celestia's and Luna's ears for about a minute. "Oh," Celestia said surprised. "I see this was a surprise to you all. Well now, some explaining to do." Both Celestia and Luna then sits on a couch, still facing the group.
"First, the book. Unlike you, the other ponies here came on a bus. However, we didn't want to send you on a long trip to a place you never been to. The stress and anxiety can really get to some ponies."
"Also we saved some money on transportation this way," commented Blue Leaf.
"The book," continued Celestia, "was a magical book that would teleport certain ponies that came into contact with the potion that was enclosed in a bottle that came with it. Then, when the book was soaked with the contents of it, it would react with it, emitting a bright light and teleporting the ponies to a certain location."
"Wait a minute," interrupted Twilight, "Where's Spike then? He didn't come with me!"
"He did," replied Luna, "He was also the 'certain pony' or in this case dragon that was teleported to a certain location. Don't worry. We took care of that first before coming here."
"Where is he?" asked Twilight.
"He's in the school's bakery. We gave him the title of a special guest to the bakers at the place. They'll serve him anything he wants and we'll pay for it."
"We also order some crystals on the side for him so the jewelry stores here don't freak out about a dragon eating all their crystals," commented Moonlight.
"What about the book? What happened to it?" asked Twilight.
"Right here," replied Luna, handing the book to Twilight. "You forget to pick it up when you were teleported."
"Now," continued Celestia after Luna, "why you are here Twilight." She looks at Twilight. "You're here because we thought you could live here for a couple of years or so studying other subjects, especially magic in your case, and spread the magic of friendship to a large area."
"Wait," interrupted Twilight again, "what about my friends back home?"
"We'll tell them you are on a special assignment about spreading the magic of friendship to other places," replied Luna, "Which is entirely not all a lie. We don't want them to be jealous of you because that's one thing that can ruin friendships, no matter how strong they are. Plus, we will also send them on special assignments as well according to their talents."
"Also," Celestia continued, "testing your distance when some of you part away for a while is a great test on friendships in the long-run. Passing this sort of test will show that your friendship can last a while and almost nothing can break it. Now we hope that you will consider it for you can continue your studies as a regular unicorn and the magic of friendship."
"Um, excuse me princess Celestia," Blue Leaf called out, "the 'NightOwl' tour is about to begin and I need to round up the rest of the group."
"Of course Mr. Leaf. We must go now Twilight. If anypony sees us with you, they'll see you as an important figure and will bombard you all day and everyday."
"And we don't want that to happen. All of these 'fake' friendships," added Luna.
"We gave special procedures to Mr. Leaf and Ms. Aurora for sending you back home. We hope all you ponies have a fun time here and hope to see you this coming semester." Then both Celestia and Luna went out of the door, closing it behind them.
"Now then," Blue Leaf said, "Ms. Aurora can you bring out the rest of the group to the lobby while I bring this group with me?"
"Yes sir," answered Moonlight, standing up and walking out the door.
"Now, follow me to the lobby!" Everypony stood up and started walking outside the room. Twilight also brought her book before she forgot it.
"Shall leave this whole incident behind and start over as friends?" asked the stallion to everypony including Twilight pushing Misty's wheelchair.
"Yeah," grumbled Misty.
"Sure," replied both Twilight and Lavender. They both looked at each other and laughed at the coincidence.
"Oh, I have a good feeling we all with become good friends for the next few years," said Blue Leaf.
"So," said the stallion, while waiting in the lobby. "I think we should introduce ourselves. I'm Ivory Mystery, but you can call me Ivy, it sounds like a girl's name, I know." Twilight giggled. "This here is who almost gave you brain damage and a concussion: Lavender," he said pointing at Lavender.
"Hi! Sorry about that. Are we friends?" asked Lavender.
"Sure, the more friends the better," replied Twilight.
"And this pony," Ivy said pointing at Misty, "who sprayed you in the eyes with pepper spray and somehow sprained her tendon is Misty Rose."
"Sorry about that," said Misty. "I thought-"
"It's okay," Twilight interrupted. "I forgive you and yes, we can also be friends."
"Yay!" cried Misty.
"And that is about it," finished Ivy. Just then the rest of the group started coming into the lobby lead by Moonlight. After everypony was here, Blue Leaf called the attention for everypony in the lobby.
"Attention guests! My name is Mr. Blue Leaf and this here is my secretary, Ms. Moonlight Aurora!"
"Hello there you all!" said Moonlight.
"We work at the 'NightOwl' office and we are you guides to the tour of the campus tonight!" The whole group gave a 'whoo' that echoed the dorms. "Now now, calm your excitement for now, we still have students sleeping in at this hour and we don't want to wake them up. At around this time, the students that going to night classes in the summer is about to attend and leave their classes. This is a perfect time to start tour! Now, follow me to the small quad!"
With some new friends and an energetic group, this is when Twilight realized this was going to be an interesting day. Or night in this case.
July 24, 2015 20:15 Location: Quad (Vistors' Dorms area)
"Now, if I can have you all stay in one group throughout the tour, I'll have a great surprise for you all!" Blue Leaf says, projecting his voice for everypony to hear.
"Having one of my friends almost knocked out another pony with brain damage is one surprise too much for this evening," Ivy says to Twilight and her new group of friends.
"I said I was sorry!" exclaimed Lavender!
"Ms. Lavender?" Blue Leaf called out.
"Y-yes sir?" Lavender answered with a surprised expression.
"I'm not saying you can't talking amongst your friends, but do keep it down please."
"Yes sir," Lavender grumbled. The whole group started to giggle at Lavender's direction.
"Now then, I have a surprise for you all." The whole group focused their attention to Blue Leaf. "Even though this group is small, especially for this time of day, we, the 'NightOwl' staff have something that you all will enjoy to have with you, no matter where you go in life. If you would please follow me to the gymnasium please," he said walking. The whole group went along with him.
"So," Ivy started to say to Twilight, "where are you from?"
"Me?" Twilight replied.
"Yes, the purple unicorn that I saved from dieing," he said in a jokingly matter.
"Yeah, where are you from?" Lavender added in.
"Oh, um, I come from a small village called Ponyville," Twilight answered.
"Ponyville?" Ivy questioned. "Wow, that's a long way from where we live."
"Where do you guys live at?"
"Lavender and I both live back at Manehatten."
"Really? Were you two friends for a while?"
"Um about that..." Lavender said, looking away.
"What's wrong?" Twilight asked.
"Believe it or not," Ivy continued, "all three of us became friends on our way here, in the bus ride."
"Me and Ivy here lived in different parts of Manehatten," Lavender added. "The town is so busy, nopony there has time to really make any friends. Maybe for job purposes, but not a 'get-to-know-you' friend."
"That's also where we also met Misty here."
"Where are you from Misty?" Twilight asked.
"I'm from a far-away town called Vanhoover," Misty replied.
"All three of you became friends just a few hours ago?!"
"Like I said," Ivy replied, "believe it or not."
"Wow," Twilight said under her breath.
"If you think that's crazy, just look at our group for this tour here," Ivy says waving his hoof around the area. "There are all types of intelligent creature here: there are unicorns, pegasi, earth ponies, griffons, and even zebras."
"Griffons and zebras?!"
"Yeah," Lavender cutted in, "this place has zebras and griffons living together at one place! Maybe not live in the same rooms together but in one area at least! At least it's a start!" she says with a smile.
"Where do they come from?"
"Apparently zebras and griffons have their own homelands," Ivy continued. "Sort of like us except they both have their own islands."
"Where are these homelands at?"
"Wow, you really do not know do you?"
"Well..." Twilight says looking away in embarrassment.
"Anyways," Ivy continued, "the zebra's homeland is located west of here, across some ocean, and the griffon's homeland is east of here, across some ocean as well."
"Oh," Twilight says surprised. "Wait a minute..."
One minute later...
"Is she still pondering or something?" Ivy questioned.
"I don't know, she has been like this for like a minuter or so," Misty said.
"That reminds me," Twilight finally says.
"Oh, it's about time!" Lavender exclaimed.
"Where is this school located?" Twilight asks.
"It's south of the 'Macintosh Hills' across the 'Great Inland Sea'."
"Macintosh Hills?!" Twilight shouts.
"Um, Ms. Sparkle, would you mind keeping it down?" Blue Leaf says, ahead of the group. "I can hear you from over here."
"Sorry," Twilight apologizes, not before the group starts giggling again.
"Yes, Macintosh Hills," Ivy responded.
"That's far from Ponyville, Manehatten, Vanhoover and Canterlot!"
"Yep. That about sounds right," Ivy says with a smile.
"How did ponies get to here?"
"Like I said: bus ride."
"Don't forget the boat ride too," Misty added in.
"Oh right!" Lavender came in. "Misty here got seasickness on our way over here!"
"Stop. I don't want to talk about it," Misty grumbled.
"So yeah," Ivy continued, "it was a small bus and boat ride to get over here. Air quotes on the small part."
"Okay!" Blue Leaf exclaimed to the group. "We are here! The school's central gymnasium!"
The gymnasium was huge nonetheless. None of the ponies in Twilight's group of friends noticed it as they were too busy talking to one another. The gymnasium was large. Looking to one side of the gymnasium from the front seemed as though it went on forever. It was like a huge castle, with a more modern look obviously, and had lights beaming out of it, penetrated the night sky from below. It was like a huge landmark that can be found from the night sky and hard to miss.
"Careful with the steps here!" Blue Leaf continued. "There may be a few, but you won't believe how many of our students trip each day and night! Our infirmary staff had countless incidents of broken bones, bloody noses, and muscles being sprained over this small set of stairs! Speaking of sprains,"Blue Leaf turns towards Ms Aurora at the bottom of the steps, "Ms Aurora, would you kindly guide Mr. Mystery and Ms. Rose to the ramps?"
"Yes sir!" replied Moonlight. She comes to where Ivy and Misty are at. "The ramps are down over on this side, follow me!" Without hesitation, Ivy pushed Misty's wheelchair, follow Moonlight. Twilight followed the group up the stair with Lavender at her side.
"Isn't this exciting?" Lavender said to Twilight.
"Yeah, it sure is so far," Twilight replied walking up the stairs. "This school, its... its hard to believe it exists at all!" Both Lavender and Twilight reach the top of the stairs. "I wonder what exactly this school offers?" Twilight says still at Lavender.
"Oh, this school offers way more than what meets the eye!" Blue Leaf added in to Twilight's conversation. "Just wait until you come into the gymnasium. We have a special surprise for you all!" Blue Leaf said holding the door open for the mares and Ivy, as they came up the rails in the same time. "Just you wait! Isn't that right Ms. Aurora?"
"Yes sir!" replied Moonlight.
The group then entered the gymnasium into the huge lobby area. The lobby displayed huge LCD screens on the walls above the front counter, each displaying different menu items for its respective food shops at the front counter. Not to mention the vending machines on the sides for quick service and snacks on the go. As Blue Leaf said, students are still awake at this hour. Some grabbing a bite to each before class, after class, or on their way late to class (Yikes!). Nonetheless, this gymnasium was just a small part of what this school has to offer to Twilight and the rest of the group. There was students going back and forth, through the lobby area, each with different destinations in mind. It reminds Twilight of the busyness of Ponyville that occurs just outside of her doors. Except there's food right in front of her.
"Okay students!" Blue Leaf called out. "Follow me through this hallway!" As commanded, the group of students followed Blue Leaf to their destination.
They arrived to some solid double doors which led into a basketball court. Inside waiting for them was a set of five tables near the entrance with one worker, an earth pony, a unicorn, a pegasus, a zebra, and a griffon, standing in the back of a table with a box on the floor next to them.
"Now then! In front of you is a set of five tables that have that special surprise that I was talking about earlier. Each table has an ASB member that will give out a gift to you guys. From left to right, line up if you're an earth pony, unicorn, a pegasus, a zebra, or a griffon. Give your name at the respective table and a member will mark off your name from the list and give you your gift."
After Blue Leaf finished, the group split up and went to their tables. Ivy took Misty to the earth pony table and Twilight went with Lavender to the unicorn table.
"What do you think they'll give us Twilight?" Lavender asked to Twilight.
"Huh?" Twilight replied, confused.
"I said, what do you think they'll give us?"
"I don't know..." Twilight said, looking over ahead to see the gift they all are about to receive.
"Look! One of them is opening a box!"
The table for the pegasi had their member open a box and the member pulled out a saddlebag.
"Aww," complained Lavender, "it's just a saddlebag."
Upon closer inspection, Twilight noticed the saddlebags had a hexagon shape for the buckle that closed the bag. Before she realized, she was next in line.
"Excuse me. Miss?" called out the mare unicorn at the table.
"Huh? What?" Twilight replied. "Smooth Twilight," Twilight thought to herself, "real smooth."
"May I have your name please?"
"Oh, it's Twilight Sparkle."
"Let's see... Twilight Sparkle...Twilight Sparkle... Ah! Here it is!" The mare then marked the paper in front of her. She then reached in the box and pulled out a saddlebag. "Here you go!" she said, handing it to Twilight.
"Thank you." Twilight inspected the bag as she walked to the back of the line. The saddlebag had nothing unique to it from just looking at it directly around it. When Twilight observed the buckle of the bag, she noticed it had a symbol on it. The symbol showed a horn of a unicorn, pointing to the top left side of the hexagon. The horn itself emitted an aura, surrounding as if it was levitating something. Twilight then casually puts her book into the bag; it fits perfectly.
"Ms. Sparkle?" Blue Leaf called out to Twilight that was about to run into him. "Are you okay?"
"Um, yes sir," Twilight responded. "It's just-"
"I know Ms. Sparkle. This experience may have been a little overwhelming to you this evening. I've noticed you seem to be out of it this past half hour, or you're just too much into your own thoughts to realized your surroundings," he said with a smile. Twilight blushed. "Now then, your friends are waiting for you on the first row of these set of bleachers," he said pointing to its direction.
"Thank you Mr. Leaf," Twilight said while walking toward her group of friends, who are waving at her.
"It's about time you got here!" Lavender greeted to Twilight when she arrived.
"Yeah, you were about to bump into Mr. Leaf there," Ivy added in.
"What do you think of the saddlebag Twilight?" Misty asked.
"I think it's nice of them to give them to us. It even has a symbol representing my kind..."
"I know right!" Lavender said, agreeing with Twilight. "Look at Ivy's and Misty's bag here!" She pulled Twilight to where they held out their bags. "See? They have two pony hooves standing on the ground, while we unicorns have our horns on our buckle! I take back what I said about these bags! These are just so adorable!" Lavender says hugging her saddlebag.
"I wonder what the other students have?" Twilight thinks to herself.
"Attention please!" Moonlight says, speaking into a wireless microphone. "Mr. Leaf would like to speak a few words to you." Moonlight then hand Blue Leaf the microphone.
"I see some of you like your saddlebags as depicted by this pony here," he says pointing at Lavender, still hugging her bag. "Now, thanks to our wonderful NightOwl ASB members for raising enough money to spend on these beautiful saddlebags for you to keep. Since you all are the first night tour we had, we decided to give these saddlebags out to you all as a token of appreciation for considering coming to this school. We do hope you decide to come attend this school for the bags match perfectly with our school uniforms."
"School uniforms?" Twilight thought to herself. "I haven't even noticed the students had uniforms on!"
"Now, some of you that have a keen perception, you would've noticed that both buckles of the saddlebag has a symbol in a form of a hexagon that represents your own kind, whether it be a zebra, griffon or the different ponies. Now, don't let that discriminate you from the others for it signifys something else. If you mind taking a quick look behind you, you'll see why."
Everypony, griffon, and zebra looked behind them to see a massive flag hanged on the wall. The flag had six hexagons connected together with just the top missing. The center hexagon had the insignia of the school with all of its color.
The top left connecting piece had the background of the zebra's race design of their fur. The center of its hexagon had the zebra's tail to signify one of the zebra's unique feature, coming down from the top right of its shape to the bottom left of it. The top right connecting piece had the flag symbol of the griffons from the equestria games except the lightning bolt was pointing to the bottom left of the shape and the griffon claw to the bottom right. The bottom right connecting piece had a pegasus' wing open, facing from the bottom left of its shape to the top right. The background had a sky design with a few clouds along with it. The bottom connecting piece had two hooves standing on the ground layer of the design. The background had a forest green color and the dirt was colored in brown (for obvious reasons) with some details of the dirt. The last piece, the bottom left connecting piece, was the same symbol as on Twilight's saddlebag buckle.
"Here in this school," Blue Leaf continued, "we believe that although we are different creatures on the outside, we all share at least one thing in common: We want to learn whatever our hearts desire and can be achieved here in this school, The University of Southern Equestria." The group now focused their attention back at Blue Leaf. "Here in this school, we can help encourage the movement of all different, intelligent, creatures to live and learn together as one. This school is one big stepping stone for our future generations to live in a new world, together and in harmony."
Without any order, the whole group applauded at Blue Leaf's speech.
"This is so unbelievable!" Twilight thought to herself. "Griffons, zebras and ponies living together as one? How has this school slipped under my nose?" Twilight races her hoof to ask a question.
"Yes? Ms. Sparkle?"
"I had a question. When has this school been established?"
Blue Leaf pondered for a few seconds. "Would you believe me if I told you?"
The whole group stayed silent, waiting for either Blue Leaf or Twilight to say something.
"I don't know," replied Twilight, "I would have to find out."
Blue Leaf chuckled. "I knew somepony would ask. That's why we'll have princess Celestia and Luna explain the story of this school. For the sake of time, I would like for you ponies to not to bow down to them for we are on a tight schedule and we'll be here all day. It's okay, I won't tell your parents." The whole group chuckled. "Ms. Aurora, would you mind?"
Moonlight trotted to the double doors and held it for both princesses to come in.
"This has got to be interesting," Ivy whispered to Twilight and the others.
"Hello there," Celestia started out. "I am here to explain how this school came to be."
"She must known you would ask," whispered Misty to Twilight.
"Back at the founding of Equestria, when the conflict of the three tribes was settled, my sister, Luna and I started planning for a way to have all three tribes educated and learn how to live with one another. Sadly, we didn't have the fiance nor labor to build such a school. We did plan however to shift the tribes to a castle south of what is now Canterlot, past the Macintosh Hills. Unfortunately, we didn't want to move our weak tribes over a long distance and not have a certain future. The castle here, was inhabited by on tribe who lived a long, long while. However, hundreds of years back, the tribe died off and the castle was kept uninhabited and kept as a landmark and a small tour magnet. After my sister came back from the moon, we started planning for a university for our subjects to learn at.
"Thanks to the civilization here on Southern Equestria, they already had two already built small universities for the zebras and the griffons. Yes, the schools had a mixture of all three species in each, but it was in a small scale. When we presented our plan to convert this castle to a huge university, the board saw nothing wrong with it. The castle was too old and was soon going to be taken down for public safety. When the school was being built, we also discovered some ancient text hidden in the castle itself. It contained diplomacys and diaries of the tribes of ponies, zebras, and griffons communicating to each other, but at different areas of the region.
"A few years later, the school opened with the original castle grounds being the huge office, board, and the president of the university working in there. Along with the huge are that covered the land with the castle, we added five sub-sections for each creature that is attending this university. As Mr. Leaf stated, it's not to discriminate each creature, but to learn each culture in a unique environment. Some of our students will feel uncomfortable with others and we can respect that. That's why we designed this school to have seperate principles and presidents for each section. The principles consist of the same creature as their type for both the day and night so our students feel more comfortable with them.
"However, in Mr. Leaf's and Ms. Aurora's case, they run the NightOwl staff for the entire school. There is also a Diurnal staff for the day time. We have separate offices for the school and each section so when it comes to making decisions, it involves both the school's and the section's side, respectively.
"This school opened about two years ago, but as a private school. We didn't want to immediately open it to the public for we wouldn't know the outcome of it. With the success of the the past few years, we now decided to open it for the public, providing countless scholarships and ways to pay for the tuition. And with the collaboration of each regions' rulers, they had their subordinates pick out a few of its region's subject that showed excellent intelligence. This group is one of those few.
"As I said, we are opening this school for the public, but you all have priority registration if you choose to attend this school. And some of you even have your whole tuition already payed for."
The room stayed silent for the information they just received.
"Any questions?"
The whole group shook their heads.
"I will now leave you with Mr. Leaf here for the rest of the evening." Celestia faces toward Blue Leaf. "Thank you so much for having us over, it has been an honor."
"No,no," replied Blue Leaf, "the honor is all mine."
Without hesitation, Celestia and Luna left the room. The room still stayed silent.
"Wow, I did not expect that," Ivy said to the group.
"That was an amazing presentation," Lavender said with tears in her eyes.
"I guess we all are special then huh?" Misty asked the group.
Twilight however was still pondering on what Celestia had just said. "Opened to the public? All three species to live in harmony? This has got to be made-up! Just what does this school really have to offer if I choose to leave my life at Ponyville?"
"Now then!" Blue Leaf called out to the group. "Let us continue with the NightOwl tour! This way!"
