School of Knock Hards

"Seventeen, eighteen, nineteen...."

The moon hung quietly over the land of Equestria, blanketing everything in a soft white light.

"Forty-two, forty-three, forty-four...."

With the exception of a small number of those who worked their employment's night shift, or simply enjoyed that time of day, most of its inhabitants were sound asleep.

"Seventy-nine, eighty, eighty-one..."

In a certain tower room of the Royal Palace of Canterlot, the center of the nation's government, two such individuals were up. One was a white alicorn mare with a mane composed of shades of blue, green, and pink. The somewhat gauzy white nightwear she had on was enough to let the sun-shaped cutie mark on her hip show through. She was currently sitting at an easel, going over what apparently were blueprints.

The other was an alicorn mare as well. Though, this one was dark blue with a sapphire blue mane. Dressed in a simple t-shirt and panties that showed off her own crescent moon cutie mark, she was busy counting out a bag of coins in her lap.

Princesses Celestia and Luna, the current rulers of Equestria.

"One hundred!" she quickly jotted down something on a notepad beside her, muttering to herself. "Plus fifty...carry the nine...'Tia!" she yelled happily, bouncing out of her chair and dumping the bag to the rug. "WE DID IT! We've finally saved up enough bits to start!"

Celestia quickly looked up from her own work. "Really!?"

"It's taken me a couple of months, but I checked and double-checked. " Luna's expression gained a hint of smugness. "Three hundred million bits!"

"You're joking...that-that's enough for us to build and then some!" The squeal of delight was followed by a quick spin around in the desk chair she was in.

"Are are the plans coming along?" Luna asked, stepping over to the desk.

"Almost finished." Celestia picked up the blueprints so they could both see it. "Just a couple quick additions and we're all set. And I believe I've found just the spot for it as well; the old Baywheat farm."

"That old dump??" Luna asked skeptically. The Baywheat Farm was a three-thousand acre plot of land located between Ponyville and the White Tail Woods. A Manehatten family had purchased the land a century ago in an attempt to create a commercial farm. Unfortunately, bad planning by way of attempting to farm too much of the area on the first go, and a lack of workers, caused them to lose a significant portion of the crops. They nearly went bankrupt the first year and attempts to recover failed over the next two. Finally they simply packed up and left, leaving the buildings to nature.

However, with the suddenness of their withdrawal and failing to tell some when they did, rumors started to spread about their departure having a more sinister origin. Even after they were shown to be back home and fine, the more excitable citizens simply switched it to something diving them away. To some, the place was still considered bad luck to enter either

"Why not? No one really wants that place so we can get it cheap. The area is nice, quiet, out of the way. It's a good five miles from Ponyville, so there's no worries about the construction bothering them."

"True, but how are we going to go about getting everything set up? I mean, prepping the area alone is going to cost a fortune."

"Um, hello." Celestia tapped the tip of her horn. "If we can get out there tomorrow, we should be able to clear some, if not most of it, ourselves in a day or two."

"Oh, right." Luna chuckled sheepishly. She looked back at the blueprints. "You know, it's so close now, it's almost unreal."

"Yeah, years of saving, designing, and planning..."

"All the work of keeping the nosier nobles out of it..."

"Trying to anticipate anything that might go wrong..."

"It's finally going to be a reality!" The duo squealed, hugging each other and bouncing around in excitement.

"All that's left to do is think of a name for it!" Celestia looked at the plans fondly.

"Ooh! I think I know just the thing!" Luna beamed.

---------------------------------

"Spike? Spike!"

A spiky green faeuxhawk rose from the nearby couch, followed by the lime green eyes of the eighteen year old they belonged to, "What is it, Mom?" he asked

"It looks like you finally got a response from one of the colleges." an elaborate-looking envelope was held out to him.

"Huh? But it's only been a few days." he said, confusion evident in his voice as he got up to get it.

"Well, this one made it back, so either they didn't have too many applicants or you managed to get their attention fast." his mother responded, watching him open it.

"Mr. Spike von Jager, On behalf of yadda, yadda...I've been accepted?"

"Say what?"

"It's an acceptance letter. They want me..."

"Oh, sweetie, that's wonderful!" she yelled as she hugged him. "I have to tell your father!"

"Yeah, but..." unfortunately, she had already hurried off. "But, I don't remember applying to a college called the Global University of Equestria."