Equestria Girls: The College Years

Night has fallen around the campus of Equestria University.  And with freshman orientation coming to an end, most of the students would finally enjoy a few days of freedom before classes start, giving time for the upperclassmen to check in.  But tonight was a time for others to bond and experience what the campus life, and its surroundings, were really like.  It was here that Sunset Shimmer, Applejack, Sour Sweet, and Flash Sentry decide to spend some time with Aria Blaze at the coffee lounge on campus, just next to the food court.

The coffee lounge has lots of tables and booths with students chatting away.  At the small performing stage was a projector screen showing one of the movies that was being played from the campus movie channel.  Two TVs were hanging on the walls behind the counter showing a news channel on one TV and a sports channel on another.  At the counter were Aria Blaze and her co-workers, handing out free coffee for all the freshmen to enjoy for tonight only.  Our four friends found several empty stools in front of the counter and decided to join Aria working the area.  Flash sat at one end, with Applejack next to him.  Sunset sat next to Applejack, and Sour was on the other end of the group.

Aria said, “Here for some coffee?”  All four of them nodded in agreement.  “We have regular and decaf.  How do you want it?”

“Regular.  Extra milk and sugar,” said Sour Sweet.

“Decaf.  Little milk and sugar,” said Sunset Shimmer.

“Decaf, with some milk,” said Applejack.

“Regular.  Black,” said Flash Sentry.

“On it.”  Aria took their orders and served them to what they wanted to drink.  “Just so you know, we’ll have more opinions starting tomorrow.  Your credits should be active by then.  So, what’s everyone else doing tonight?”

“Well, Dash, Zap, Pinkie, and Lemon are chilling in their room,” said Sunset.  “And don’t worry.  They plan to keep the noise level down this time.”

“Flutters is having tea with Rarity and Sunny,” said Sour.  “Sunny has several kinds of tea with her.  Don’t know why she needs that much.”

“So does Rarity,” Applejack added.  “She’s not much of a coffee person, ya know.”

“And Twilight and Sugarcoat are trying to get the old magic scanner working again,” said Sunset.

“We’re not going to have more Equestrian magic on campus, are we?” Flash asked Sunset.

“Not to mention having our magic taken away again,” Applejack added.

“Don’t worry.  It’s her old scanner she was using when she appeared days before the games,” Sunset explained.  “It only detects anomalies like magic and spirits.  I rather feel confident that magic won’t be popping up out of nowhere.”

“As long as Cinch doesn’t get her dirty hands on magic again,” Sour said with a mean look.  “But, better safe than sorry.”

“What about you, Flash?” Aria asked.  “Are the guys doing other things?”

“That’s right,” Flash replied.  “And I’m still waiting on my roommate to show up.”

Aria said, “Let me guess.  Centaur Archer.”

“I guess Sonata told you about our conversation in the cafeteria,” said Sunset.

“Yep,” answered Aria.  “Nice guy to talk to.  Cute too.”

“We heard that he has a learning disability,” Sour said to Aria.

“That’s right.  He’s good with anything math related, but anything that involves words becomes a problem for him to remember.  Disability services help him with those problems, and I have spent some time with him here when he needs help preparing for a test.  And trust me on this; it has helped me learn some things that I never knew.  Most of it was from Biology classes, and some Lit classes as well.  He even let me keep a book of noir stories from one of his Lit classes that he no longer needed.  And when they plan to issue updated books and place the old books on the clearance rack, I plan to buy some of them and start learning a bit more of this era.  Adagio has been doing the same.”

“Sounds like you want to attend college yourself,” said Applejack.

“Not really,” Aria replied.  “I like where I’m working at.  But having reference materials is nice.  We even keep an eye out for old cooking books from yard sales for Sonata to use.  She’s been hooked on cooking since she started to work in the cafeteria.”

“So back to Centaur,” said Sunset.  “What else can you tell us about him?  We’ve become curious about him, being a special student and all.”

“Oh really,” Aria said as she raised her eyebrow.  “Well, he’s just your average student with a learning disability.  Nothing much else to say about him.”

“Do you know what he’s majoring in?” Flash asked Aria.

“He was undecided when he first came here, but Professor Discord recommended a guidance consoler for the time being in helping with deciding what major to take.  Her name’s Professor River Song.  She teaches history, archaeology, and astronomy.  Before he finished his spring semester, he decided on astronomy as his major, keeping the same guidance consoler to help him out.”

Sunset asked, “Have you met the professor?”

“Why don’t you ask her yourself,” said Aria as she pointed to the lady behind them.

A lady with pale yellow skin and orange locks was walking towards them.  She was wearing a white blouse, jeans, and black boots, along with a jean jacket.

“Good evening, sweetie,” she said.

“Good evening to you too, River Song,” Aria replied.  “Same as usual?”

“Make it a double.  I’ve had to deal with Discord’s staff meeting going on this late.”

Aria went to fix River Song her coffee with extra milk and sugar.  She handed it to her, saying, “These are a few old friends of mine.  Flash Sentry, Applejack, and Sunset Shimmer.  And this is one of their friends, Sour Sweet.”

River Song said, “So this is the one who made you human, right?”

Aria said to her friends, “Don’t worry.  She knows about what happened to my sisters and me.  She’s been helping us get adjusted to our new lives.”

“Oh my.  Where are my manners?  Professor River Song at your service.”

“My friends were curious about your “prized” student that you have,” said Aria.  “He’s rooming with Flash Sentry.”

“Oh really?” River Song said as she raised her eyebrow.  “Well Flash, I think you’re going to like having him as your roommate.  But I’m surprised that a few young ladies are interested in him as well.”

Sunset replied, “Oh, Sour Sweet and me are majoring in psychology, and we learned that he has a learning disability.  We were hoping to meet him in person sometime and understand how he struggles with classes, if he’s willing to show us.”

“Well, we don’t discuss students’ personal issues in public, but he likes to help out at times, so I’m sure he can show you if you ask nicely,” said River Song.  “Just don’t force him into doing something he doesn’t like to do, ok?”

“Oh we promise that we’ll be really nice to him,” said Sour, “unless he decides to cause trouble.”

“SOUR!!!” Sunset replied, nudging her elbow into Sour’s ribs.

River Song said, “Let me guess, bipolar disorder, right?”  Sour Sweet’s jaw dropped.  “When you spend most of your time with Professor Chrysalis, you understand what to look for in a person.”  Sour decided to close her mouth.  “But there is one thing that Centaur likes to do.  Archery.”

Both Applejack and Sour Sweet’s eyes went wide open.  Then they remembered what happened at the friendship games and started to stare at each other, with Sunset in the middle.

“Will you two just stop it,” Sunset said to the two girls.

“Tell it to Sour Sweet, who used three arrows to hit the bulls-eye,” said Applejack.

“At the same time, might I add,” said Sour Sweet.  “And you took your sweet time in hitting the bulls-eye with one arrow.  How long did that take, a minute?”

“Mere seconds,” said Applejack, “Since my target went in a circle.  Yours went back and forth.”

“You think you could do better?”

“Darn right I can.”

Aria interrupted and said, “How about six bulls-eye on six targets with six arrows?”

Sour Sweet and Applejack looked at Aria and said, “Are you kidding?”

“From last I remember, Centaur did that in quick succession,” Aria replied.  “It’s the only talent he truly has.  Too bad we don’t have that kind of sport in college.”  Sour Sweet and Applejack’s jaws dropped.

“Looks like you blew their minds,” Flash said to Aria.

Sunset said, “It looks like college life is going to be pretty interesting.

Back at the Clover dorms, Twilight and Sugarcoat were busy inspecting the damaged locket and checking to see if Twilight could still use the programming chip back in her old scanner.  Rarity and Sunny Flare were sitting on Twilight’s bed and Fluttershy on one of the extra chairs from Sugarcoat’s room, drinking some herbal tea.

“I must say, do we really need that device working again?” Rarity asked Twilight.

“Don’t worry.  I don’t plan on letting it take your magic like before.  My old scanner was used to detect anomalies like the school statue being an actual portal.  Nothing more.”

“The only question is how much damage there is to the main programming,” Sugarcoat added.  “Sunset really threw it down hard when she took that same magic and transformed her into Daydream Shimmer.”

Twilight looked at the programming chip and carefully reconnected it back to her scanner before putting the cover on and testing it.  When she turned it on, it started to work.  “Good.  Now I need to make sure it can detect any anomalies.  I wonder if I can find any near a graveyard?”

“Well, it did work when we pony up,” said Fluttershy.  “But that was when we showed our own personal element that we were linked to.”

“Or when we played music.”  Then Rarity had an idea.  “Fluttershy, did you bring your tambourine with you?”

“Why yes.  Yes I did.”  She started to catch on to what Rarity was thinking.  “Of course.  Let me go and get it.”  Fluttershy handed her teacup to Rarity and left the room, returning to her own room.

“Rarity, dearie.  What reasoning is there to this,” asked Sunny.

Rarity explained.  “After the Battle of the Bands, Sunset wanted to…experiment with how music causes us to pony up.  She did so with each one of us separately.”

“And what was the results of the experiment?” Twilight asked Rarity.

“Not sure.  I think being blasted by rainbow paint and electric balloons took its toll of Sunset.”

Twilight set her scanner on her desk and grabbed her teacup.  She took a sip of her tea and said, “Rarity, this herbal tea is nice.”

Sugarcoat took a sip of hers as well.  “I must agree with Twilight.  It has a nice taste to it.”

“Why thank you, ladies.  I hope next time we can use one of Sunny Flare’s tea selection.”

“I’ll be more than happy to serve some up next time, Rarity,” said Sunny.

Fluttershy came back in with her tambourine.  “Ok, I got it.  You ready Twilight?”

Twilight placed her teacup on her desk and picked up her scanner.  “Ready.”

Fluttershy started to get into the rhythm with her tambourine.  As she was feeling the beat, she started to pony up.  This caused her scanner to go off the radar, enough that the screen went dead and smoke was coming from the inside.  Fluttershy stopped playing and her ears, wings, and mane disappeared.

“Oh no, no, NO!”  Twilight went to remove the cover of the scanner and saw smoke coming out.  She waved her hand to clear the smoke and saw that the programming chip was fried.

“Looks like it was in bad shape from the beginning,” said Sugarcoat.

“Either that, or what it was scanning was too much to take,” Twilight said as she placed the broken scanner on her desk.  “Not only will I need new parts, but some upgraded parts as well.  I guess having a scanner is no longer an option.”

Fluttershy went up to Twilight and placed her hand on Twilight’s shoulder.  “I’m sorry that I broke your scanner.  But maybe it’s time to move on to other stuff that can be helpful to someone.”

Twilight looked at her and said, “It wasn’t you, Fluttershy.  My tech feels like it’s out of date.  I guess it’s time to focus on getting my degree and move forward.”

“Twilight, I’m sure that it’s great to move on, but even curtain technology has to be upgraded,” Sugarcoat said.  “Look at televisions, radios, cell phone, even computers.  All of them have to be upgraded at times.  If your scanner needs upgrades, then we find what is needed to upgrade.”

“Even so, it would cost more money to buy, and I need to find the parts to fix it,” said Twilight.

“Twilight, do you have any diagrams on how you designed the scanner?” asked Sunny.

Twilight looked over her papers and found the designs for the scanners.  “Here they are.”

“Sugarcoat, do you think you can help Twilight in finding out what needs to be upgraded?” asked Sunny.

Sugarcoat looked at the designs and said, “Maybe, but I’ll need time and research to do so.”

Sunny said, “If you two can create a newer scanner and find out where we can get the parts, I’ll purchase what you need to make it done.”

“Please, I don’t want to trouble you with all this,” Twilight told her.

Sunny said, “Think about it.  We may not be around our own high schools, but what if some unknown event happens.  How can we be prepared?  I’m not saying that it would happen, but it helps to be safe.  Maybe we can be ghost hunters or something.  The world is filled with mysteries, and you were able to make something to help discover it.  I know it was something that you or anyone else had any knowledge about, and it almost cost us our lives, but now that we have each other, including Sunset Shimmer, we can be prepared for anything.”

Twilight looked at Sugarcoat, in which she gave Twilight a nod, then looked back at Sunny and said, “Alright.  We’ll do it.”

“That’s the Twilight that we like to see,” said Sunny.

“Sunny, you sure you have enough money to do this?” asked Rarity.

“More than enough for two scanners.  How do you think I got these?”  Sunny pointed to her data bracelets.

“I stand corrected,” Rarity replied and she took a sip of her tea.

Twilight said, “With you girls around, I might enjoy the college life.”