Luna’s Academy for Young Unicorns (also known as Luna's School for Gifted Unicorns) was a school for unicorns prior to the Littlehorn Massacre. It was gifted to Princess Luna by Princess Celestia, and placed in Littlehorn Valley so Celestia could make a joke about sending Luna's students to the Moon. The school was designed by Apple Bloom.
History[]
Before the War[]
Princess Luna was first told about the school when the design phase of the project was already complete and it had been revealed to her as a surprise gift. The school was be the counterpart to Celestia's own school of magic, and represented another step forward in the two sisters journey towards reconciliation after Luna had been cleansed of the corruption of Nightmare Moon. The added responsibility of managing the school would also show Princess Luna was getting closer to returning to her old role as co-equal ruler of Equestria.
Construction of Luna's school started long before there was any tension with the Zebra Empire because Celestia describes one of the benefits of putting the school in Littlehorn Valley was that friendly zebras would be nearby to help if there was ever any trouble at the school.
During the War[]
By the time trade embargoes and diplomatic tension between Equestria and the Zebra Empire escalated into military skirmishes along their shared border, Luna Academy for Young Unicorns had finished construction, and was already full of unicorn foals studying there. Despite its proximity to Zebra territory, the school was still considered safe due to the extensive magical defenses installed around it, and the war had not yet intensified to the point it was considered necessary to evacuate the students. Then one fateful day, a convoy of zebras were spotted coming too close to the school. These were refugees, consisting mostly of mares and their foals, fleeing a recent battle along the border, but the school's caretakers had mistaken them to be an attacking military force. The school's magical defenses were activated and the zebra convoy was annihilated. The only surviving zebra, an elite commando who had been escorting their own family in the convoy, snuck into the school after its defenses were lowered and exploded an experimental Pink Cloud talisman inside as a suicide bomber. The ponies inside the school, including every single student, whom Steelhooves described as being too young to have their cutiemarks, all died in the most horrific way possible.
The incident was called the Littlehorn Massacre. And it shocked both sides of the conflict as neither pony or zebra had imagined the other was capable of committing such an atrocity. The existing border conflict quickly escalated to total war as each nation now developed a deep hatred for the other. Princess Celestia held herself responsible for allowing the massacre to happen, and abdicated the throne in shame to her sister Princess Luna.
It is unknown if any attempt to reopen the school was made after the zebra forces were pushed back deep into their own territory far away from Littlehorn Valley.
After the War[]
No mention is made of the state of the Luna academy for Young Unicorns after the megaspells destroyed civilization on The Last Day. When Littlepip met with Princess Celestia inside of the SPP control tower, she learned that the tragedy at Luna's School could have been avoided altogether had it been built in another location. Princess Celestia cited that there were two other possible locations that the School could have been built at, but she chose Littlehorn because of the nearby crescent-shaped canyon which she told to Luna as a joke that Celestia would be sending all of Lunas' students to the Moon.