diff --git a/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/common/io/stream/StreamInput.java b/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/common/io/stream/StreamInput.java
index 300b42153dc47..d30b226dfb2dc 100644
--- a/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/common/io/stream/StreamInput.java
+++ b/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/common/io/stream/StreamInput.java
@@ -38,9 +38,10 @@
 import org.elasticsearch.common.geo.GeoPoint;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.settings.SecureString;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.text.Text;
+import org.elasticsearch.common.time.DateUtils;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.unit.TimeValue;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.util.concurrent.EsRejectedExecutionException;
-import org.joda.time.DateTime;
+import org.elasticsearch.script.JodaCompatibleZonedDateTime;
 import org.joda.time.DateTimeZone;
 
 import java.io.ByteArrayInputStream;
@@ -768,9 +769,12 @@ private List<Object> readArrayList() throws IOException {
         return list;
     }
 
-    private DateTime readDateTime() throws IOException {
-        final String timeZoneId = readString();
-        return new DateTime(readLong(), DateTimeZone.forID(timeZoneId));
+    private JodaCompatibleZonedDateTime readDateTime() throws IOException {
+        // we reuse DateTime to communicate with older nodes that don't know about the joda compat layer, but
+        // here we are on a new node so we always want a compat datetime
+        final ZoneId zoneId = DateUtils.dateTimeZoneToZoneId(DateTimeZone.forID(readString()));
+        long millis = readLong();
+        return new JodaCompatibleZonedDateTime(Instant.ofEpochMilli(millis), zoneId);
     }
 
     private ZonedDateTime readZonedDateTime() throws IOException {
diff --git a/server/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/common/io/stream/BytesStreamsTests.java b/server/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/common/io/stream/BytesStreamsTests.java
index aad01d56f2496..94e2801df8cee 100644
--- a/server/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/common/io/stream/BytesStreamsTests.java
+++ b/server/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/common/io/stream/BytesStreamsTests.java
@@ -27,11 +27,14 @@
 import org.elasticsearch.common.lucene.BytesRefs;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.unit.TimeValue;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.util.PageCacheRecycler;
+import org.elasticsearch.script.JodaCompatibleZonedDateTime;
 import org.elasticsearch.test.ESTestCase;
+import org.joda.time.DateTime;
 import org.joda.time.DateTimeZone;
 
 import java.io.EOFException;
 import java.io.IOException;
+import java.time.ZoneId;
 import java.util.ArrayList;
 import java.util.Collections;
 import java.util.HashMap;
@@ -49,6 +52,7 @@
 import static org.hamcrest.Matchers.endsWith;
 import static org.hamcrest.Matchers.equalTo;
 import static org.hamcrest.Matchers.hasSize;
+import static org.hamcrest.Matchers.instanceOf;
 import static org.hamcrest.Matchers.is;
 import static org.hamcrest.Matchers.nullValue;
 
@@ -303,6 +307,7 @@ public void testSimpleStreams() throws Exception {
         out.writeTimeZone(DateTimeZone.forID("CET"));
         out.writeOptionalTimeZone(DateTimeZone.getDefault());
         out.writeOptionalTimeZone(null);
+        out.writeGenericValue(new DateTime(123456, DateTimeZone.forID("America/Los_Angeles")));
         final byte[] bytes = BytesReference.toBytes(out.bytes());
         StreamInput in = StreamInput.wrap(BytesReference.toBytes(out.bytes()));
         assertEquals(in.available(), bytes.length);
@@ -335,6 +340,11 @@ public void testSimpleStreams() throws Exception {
         assertEquals(DateTimeZone.forID("CET"), in.readTimeZone());
         assertEquals(DateTimeZone.getDefault(), in.readOptionalTimeZone());
         assertNull(in.readOptionalTimeZone());
+        Object dt = in.readGenericValue();
+        assertThat(dt, instanceOf(JodaCompatibleZonedDateTime.class));
+        JodaCompatibleZonedDateTime jdt = (JodaCompatibleZonedDateTime) dt;
+        assertThat(jdt.getZonedDateTime().toInstant().toEpochMilli(), equalTo(123456L));
+        assertThat(jdt.getZonedDateTime().getZone(), equalTo(ZoneId.of("America/Los_Angeles")));
         assertEquals(0, in.available());
         in.close();
         out.close();