The last pony barely made it into class on time, the bell ringing soon afterwards. The classroom was relatively messy, compared to some of the other classes, and the pony had to weave to avoid bumping into stacks of paper. Incomprehensible writing was on the board, ranging from a random picture of the teacher in a straitjacket to lessons taught to other classes.
Several ponies were talking among themselves, discussing previous classes or the standardized test that they would have to take the next day. Two ponies were sitting in the back of the room, repairing a model of an airship that had been broken the day before by a falling dictionary, levitating glue and pieces. The two ponies were like everyone else. Anyone who looked in the class may think that the reason it was an all-unicorn class was because it was a magic class; however, times have changed in Equestria.
As the teacher who was also an unicorn walked into the class, the silence fell over the class. His lanky figure crossed the front of the room, his head bobbing to the music that was on. Tapping the picture of himself lightly, he smiled and put his face next to it as if to compare. He took a moment, turning down the music before sitting down and taking role. Finishing, he looked up at the students.
“Good morning, everypony,” he said calmly, “Today, we will be continuing our discussion about the Twelve ALR Revolution. Which you should identify to be the revolution twelve years After Luna’s Return.” As he said this a crazy grin was forming on his face. He paused, staring at each of the students in turn. Suddenly jumping up, he pulled at map which wrapped up to reveal a complex timeline. Without hesitation, he levitated a pointer at the first date with a light click.
“At zero ALR, Nightmare Moon returned. Desensitized by her banishment by Celestia, she attacked and terrorized several ponies in the historical town of Ponyville. Only with the arrival of Princess Sparkle against Celestia’s wishes was she stopped. This is important, as it underlines the consequences that may have been true had Our Princess not intervened.”
The teacher glanced back before tapping another date. “Two ALR! Our Princess was once again turned down, after discovering that the princess that was marrying her brother was an imposter. Despite her achievements and her history of success, Princess Celestia once again disputed her findings, almost causing and Equestrian collapse. In fact, everyone except her brother whom Crysalis had incapacitated did not believe her.”
The teacher looked to the back of the room, in awe with disbelief that somepony had their head down. Walking to him, he tapped his head.
“Oh, wha—? Oh. Sorry, I didn’t get much sleep last night.
As the teacher walked back to the front of the class he kicked a stack of papers, cursing under his breath.
“Alright, where were we? Ah, yes. By Ten ALR, Princess Twilight Sparkle had already become a prominent figure, winning the hearts of many citizens. Celestia, however had been falling from her role. As ponies realized the potential Twilight had to be a ruler, they became filled with unrest. As Princess Luna watched the state that Equestria was in and how it changed from what she was used to, she deserted our nation, forming the New Lunar Empire. We do not know where this “empire” is, but experts guess she may not have anything more than a town that she dazzled with her magic.”
“With Equestria having three princesses, there was a thin line on who had power. This way of life continued for only a few months. Weeks after the Nightmare Night that year, Twilight Sparkle presented the idea of Celestia resigning to the popular radio station. You may of heard it, anyone listen to DJ Pon3? Ah, good. Celestia accused Princess Twilight of stealing her power and shut herself in. We’ll talk more about the actual revolution later in this section, but in a shortened version, Celestia was finally defeated by our Princess. She was deemed to be crazy by most political analysts unsurprisingly, considering her decline from sanity. Following the change of power, Equestria burst with innovation. The industrial revolution has begun, and with the assistance of the Flim and Flam brothers, several technological advances have been prominent.”
“Although what I just told you may sound like a big achievement, but what is going on this very day may be the turning point of our nation. On the first day of 15 ALR, Twilight Sparkle signed the Uniform Act, requiring all non-Unicorns to have papers at all times designating their purpose. This was to promote peace, as tensions had been rising between all races. Naturally, Pegasi and Earth Ponies were quick to fight and easy to anger. Eventually the violence was too much and with gangs threatening innocent Unicorns, Twilight Sparkle was forced to move all non-Unicorns to live in carefully selected areas. Now the crime rate has fallen to below one percent, aside from the occasional magical blunder.” He scowled as he watched the two ponies in the back of the room drop the bottle of super glue.
“Alright, it’s about time to leave anyway. Tomorrow we will be discussing the motive of Princess Sparkle, so be here! Reread the chapter tonight and maybe do additional research.”
As the bell rung, he sat back down at his desk, smiling as he watched his students go. He wondered if any of them would make him proud.
The school group was standing in the spacious atrium, admiring the carefully crafted architecture in wonder. They hardly ever left the school, most teachers never finding a reason to, however, their teacher was able to find a relevant topic that he could use and he took it. There was a pleasing blend in the interior of the atrium that consisted of modern art to what seemed like ancient Roaman styles that they found no reason not to enjoy. The teacher made his way to a desk, and as he did this the students either admired the museum or conversed between themselves. They waited, and within moments after he had left the teacher returned, his crazy smile displaying that he was clearly just as excited to explore and to learn. As he gave them each a small ticket and a thin paper band to fit around their hoof both with Canterlot National Museum clearly typed, he explained.
“Today we have the pleasure of experiencing our school board’s generosity. Don’t tell them that.” The teacher narrowed his eyes, giving them a stern glance before continuing. “Well, as smart ponies like you have probably deduced, we are visiting Canterlot National Museum of History. Let us begin!” he said,
As the teacher made his way through the doorway, his students followed. Some made audible gasps as they passed, others craning their necks to see the several suspended models of old Equestrian airships. The teacher was not any different, admiring the aircraft with a schoolboy glee.
Breaking off to look back at the class, he addressed the ponies. “Ok, I know you’ve only known me for half a year, but by judging the model airships in the back of the room and the war games that have been set up, you should know that I’m quite interested in this stuff. Alright?” None of the ponies answered, just watching him to see if he had anything else to say. “Anyway, if I start to bore you or begin digressing, just tell me.” The ponies look among themselves, however being with him for half a year meant that they knew him enough that they could know how he was usually like. As they made their way to the first exhibit closest to them which happened to be a newspaper clipping, the teacher began with his usual enthusiasm.
“Oh! I remember when the original scare happened,” the teacher said. He turned away from the display, acting very much like a curator and began to explain. “When Princess Twilight was first crowned all was good and nice. That was because it was good and nice to Celestia, I’ll explain more later. However, what most ponies don’t think about is that when Twilight became princess, it gaveeverypony a chance! Let me explain further. See it this way: Celestia was a princess for however many millennia. Could you even begin to imagine how that would be like? How many traumatizing and heart-wrenching experiences that is? How eventually you would become desensitized to even the most horrible of events? And then think of how insignificant a little riot here, a little murder there would be! She became effectively an uncaring god! And the problem was that if you looked at Luna, placed in what effectively was solid confinement for athousand years. The pony mind just isn’t designed for that! Do you think that she would be able to withstand the punishment, or even keep her mind? And then there is Candence: a new princess, specialized in a topic that had no influence in major politics, which put her at a disadvantage. If you then factor in that she was young and relative to the others had no idea what she was doing, she was useless! And then put that all together and you have one princess that pretty much doesn’t care in charge of everything! This created a tyrant! A dictator!
It wasn’t until Twilight was coronated that the ponies had somepony to express their troubles to! All the riots, the murders, the general discord that was Equestria! Don’t underestimate how important a icon is, everypony. There’s a book that’s pretty popular right now, The Mocking Games or whatev—”
“The Hunger Games!”
“Oh, yes, that. If I understand correctly, it’s all about a symbol for society. Princess Twilight was our symbol. She became the image of purity, of strength. Her story of becoming from an everyday unicorn to a princess inspired everypony. She began to become the face of Equestria. The face of all the ponies whom the princesses had turned a blind eye to.”
Pausing for a second, the teacher looked to the next exhibit and started making his way to it. Completely different, an old Equestrian airship was placed so that its large envelope was the first thing that a pony would see entering the room. Its gondola was sitting on a large, roped off area, but there was a plaque that the teacher barely glanced at. His attention was held by the size of the airship. Although the gondola couldn’t have been larger than a nice classroom or two, the balloon was the size of the school. The teacher turned back to the students, apparently having his own lesson to teach.
“To begin with, back when Celestia was in rule, we need to understand that the nation’s technological advances weren’t something to brag about. Most of the ponies had to use things that apparently you bunch wouldn’t be able to live without,” the teacher said, grinning. “Sure, there were ponies who were ready, for example, the Flim and Flam brothers who designed this airship. They were the face of innovation, much like the pony Steed Jobs is today. However, some ponies weren’t ready and a stunning example would have to be Princess Twilight Sparkle’s own friend. Back when Flim and Flam were young, they were already very, very ingenious. Their inventions were designed to help several different aspects of life, including making cider. In the basic idea was that two unicorns with a machine could do what ten other earth ponies could do, and it could very much so! However, Twilight’s earth pony friend ran them out of town, even destroying the machine just because it would mean she would go out of business. Think about that. If you relate that to what’s behind me, think about how many pegasi objected to it. Think of how many earth ponies objected whenever the unicorns did anything that they could. They were literally holding back innovation. It wasn’t until Twilight Sparkle was coronated that she gave the Flim and Flam brothers patents, grants, research and development buildings. That jumpstarted everything. We’re still in Classical Griffin Era, but when we get to the Equestrian Industrial Revolution you’ll realize what this means to our nation. Look at the airship, think about what was opened to ponykind when it was introduced. Let’s move on, then, shall we?
The group continued on throughout the day, all of it interesting, all of it the teacher had something to say. Whether it be his own experiences or how it influenced Equestria, he made sure the importance of it was known. As they progressed, the exhibits went from being a general coverage to more personal accounts of the changes in Equestria. As they finished with this the tour group ate lunch at the restaurant that was down the street. The students were enjoying the day, conversing among themselves.
As the teacher watched, he noticed that as his students were eating, they were also discussing what they saw earlier. Although he hadn’t expected them to be bored of it, he didn’t expect them to be as interested as they were. Feeling pleased with himself, he began to eat.
“Alright, who can tell me what this is?” the teacher pointed at a small crystal in a display case. The several wires that were branching off it gave it the appearance of a huge virus, or a futuristic technology. The teacher waited a few moments, but seeing no one give any answer, his face fell. “Oh come on, someone’s got to know!”
“Is it a recording crystal?” a student asked, a blind guess.
“No, but very close. Very close.”
“Is it a memory crystal?”
“Yes! It is a memory crystal, hooked up to a projector,” the teacher said as he gestured to the large, white spherical room that they were in. “It’s designed to display actual memories of ponies, living or dead, although living in our case. We’ll be seeing a short segment of the life of Flam, who has donated the memory to this museum. According to the description, this is supposed to be his view of the first time he presented his idea for an airship. Which I do believe was at a Equestrian science expo... Oh well, we’ll see.”
Saying this, the teacher put his horn to a control surface, shooting a spark of power into it. Immediately a burst of light radiated from the crystal, illuminating the walls around the ponies. A scene materialized around them, as if they were in an invisible bubble moving through it. As they got their bearings and realized that they were in a huge convention filled with every sort of invention and technology, they watched as Flim unveiled a huge display, a full size airship that took up most of the vertical space that the expo had to offer. The scene sped up to another point. Unicorns gaped at the airship, monocles falling from their eyes. Pegasi surprised, knowing that they would no longer be the only race that could dominate the skies. And finally, earth ponies shouting at Flim, ridiculing him for what they thought was a direct violation to Celestia’s good sky. The students watched as Flim and Flam both tried to convince earth ponies that it was science, a natural progression. The students watched as Flim and Flam were almost forced out of the expo… almost. The students looked on as a younger version of Twilight Sparkle appeared before Flim and Flam, both bowing nervously.
“This was after the incident I told you about with Twilight’s friend,” the teacher explained.
They watched as Twilight seemed to tell them go get up, obviously embarrassed. Although the students didn’t what Flim and Flam were explaining about the airship, Twilight obviously did, muttering phases of unbelief. They watched as Twilight offered them support in their research, money to fund it, and a place to house it. Just as Twilight waved the brothers goodbye, the scene ended and the students found themselves once again in the spherical room.
The students walked the short distance that they needed to get back to the school. It was early December, so it was cold enough that the ponies were pushing to enter the warmth of the school’s lobby. As they made their way to their individual lockers to hang their clothing and then to their teacher’s classroom, the teacher went ahead to unlock the door. As the students filed through the doorway the teacher was placing a prompt on their desks.
“I know you just got back from Hearth’s Warming Break, but I would like you to read chapter seventeen and relate something from what you say today to it. It should be fairly easy to write two pages, so I would like that if not more. Any questions?”
As the teacher was used to, there was no questions. There never seemed to be any questions from the soft spoken group of students.
“Good! Now, we just have to wait for the—” The bell signaling the end of the period and the end of the day sounded, cutting off the teacher’s words. “Have a nice day, everypony! That essay will be due on Wednesday!”
Once again the teacher sat down at his desk. He watched them leave and thought over the day, still joyous about it. It wasn’t every day that he remembered what seemed like a turning point of Equestria. All the artifacts sparked memories of change, a comparison of then and now. He looked out the window just in time to see an airship pass over the Equestrian skyline, casting a shadow on homes. The technology of Equestria amazed the teacher. Ah, what a time to live!
