The Royal Foal-Hood Chapter 1
Uke-Joe
Six small flames all wavered before flickering out. The non-alight candles were then promptly plucked out of the delicious looking cake, covered in pink frosting, which read "Happy Birthday Tate!". 2 years had quickly passed since the colt had been found by Pinkie Pie, who smiled as the young Prince blew out his candles. Pinkie had invited everypony to Sugarcube Corner as soon as she heard that Tate was to visit Ponyville for his 6th birthday, and thrown a giant party for him, which only stressed Mr. Cake and Mrs. Cake more, having two young foals running wild around the bakery already, but Pinkie had promised to clean everything up after the party.
The "temporary", living arrangement with the Princesses in Canterlot had turned out to become the permanent place of stay for Prince Tate after Princess Celestia concluded he must have been sent to Equestria for a reason, just as she was sent to Equestria to rule over the day. Not long after that, Luna was sent to rule over the night. Princess Celestia and Luna had named him Tate not long after winter had ended, and had expanded the Castle to create room for him.
The first 2 years of his foal-hood with the Princesses went almost as smooth as Celestia had hoped. Tate was a well behaved colt, and learned very quickly. He was also frequently visited by Twilight Sparkle and her friends, who also grew to love the young colt.
Now, sitting in between Twilight and Celestia, he listened to the 8 ponies he loved the most talk about the state of Equestria's government, a subject he didn't much care for, but listened patiently.
"But Princess, shouldn't we be preparing for war with the dragons if what you say is true?", questioned Twilight
The Princess smiled as she happily announced, "No, our recent conference with King Draconis went quite well. In fact, Princess Luna will be staying in Ponyville for a while to make sure things keep going smoothly, seeing as Ponyville is relatively close to the only dragon's village in Equestria."
Fluttershy winced as she heard this, "Um. P-Princess... there are d...d-d....DRAGONS in Ponyville?"
Luna was quick to respond to her scared little friend, "No Fluttershy, remember where Celly sent you and your friends to git rid of that big, mean, scary old dragon? Well the Dragons set up a residency not too far from there, a few miles north of Manehatten".
Rainbow scoffed, "Puh-LEEZE Luna, that weak Dragon wasn't scary at all! Even Fluttershy kicked his tail out of there!"
Applejack was quick to put Rainbow back in her place, "As ah remember it Rainbow, that "weak" Dragon did quite the number on ya', hehe".
Rainbow growled as Applejack burst into laughter. The ponies all seemed rather pleased with how the day was going.
"So Princess Luna, Do you have a place to stay during your time here in Ponyville?" inquired Twilight.
Princess Luna was happy to respond, "Indeed Twilight, with the kingdom doing so well financially we have been able to spend very large amounts of bits on developments in major cities in Equestria, and Ponyville has spent it on adding on to it's town hall, amongst other things. The town's hall now more closely resembles a castle, although not nearly one as large as ours in Canterlot, still a big enough place to hold plenty of ponies, and will easily hold myself and Tate",Tate smiled as he heard his name.
"So Tate is staying with you in Ponyville then?", the ponies all leaned in and waited for an answer.
Princess Celestia sighed, "Well I guess since Luna decided to let the cat out of the bag, yes. Tate needs to start school this upcoming year anyways, hard to believe he is already old enough isn't it?"
Rarity looked rather amused at this, "Hardly Princess, in fact, I believe he his taller than Sweetie bell, and she's two years older than he is!"
Applejack nodded, "Larger than mah sister Applebloom too, ah reckon".
Twilight turned to the Princesses, "Not to question your decisions, but couldn't you have just had Tate receive education from a tutor?"
"We considered it, but then he would be missing out on the... social aspect provided by the school here in Ponyville." Celestia smiled, "You, Twilight, of all people should know the worth of friendship".
"Of course Princess", Twilight smiled at her friends, "I agree entirely, and Cheerilee is a great teacher, I'm sure Tate will find he fits in just fine”.
The group talked until hours after Luna had raised her night. Celestia had wished them all a good night and was taken back to Canterlot hours ago. Tate had been fighting a vicious battle with his eyelids for the past hour, but as it seemed they had won as he lay slumped against Luna.
Luna giggled and suggested that it was getting later to the other mares. Noticing the time, they all said their goodbyes and wandered off to their homes. Luna grabbed the sleeping colt with her magic and placed his hooves gently on the floor. Nudging him awake, she guided him as he leaned against her for guidance. They reached the town hall and Luna tucked him into his bed.
***
“Have fun at your first day at school Tate!”, Luna yelled to him as he walked out the door.
Tate smiled to himself as he speedily trotted towards the school building where he had met Ms. Cheerilee the previous day. Giving his under developed wings a flutter, he tried flying in order to reach the school faster. The result was barely more than an extended jump and a trip to the middle of a rather large puddle.
Shaking himself dry, he recalled Luna remarking how close he was to flying last week. He still had his magic of course, but it was too weak for teleporting anywhere. Sighing, he picked himself up and walked the rest of the way to the school.
Not far away from the school building, he was nearly trampled by an orange pegasus on a scooter, pulling two other fillies along behind her.
“Good morning class!”, said Cheerilee to her classroom full of children, “I see you all remember your friends from last year! To the new students, I'm your teacher, Ms. Cheerilee. Can we all introduce ourselves and tell everypony one thing about ourselves?”.
He learned the names of the siblings of Rarity and Applejack, Sweetie Belle and Applebloom, who he recognized as the fillies being pulled in the wagon. The driver of the scooter introduced herself to the class as Scootaloo. When it reached his turn, he stood up at his desk.
“My name is Tate, and...”, He paused to think, what would everypony think about him was interesting? He wasn't particularly interesting in his own mind. He stopped to think.
“Tate? How about telling the class about your ...wings?”, offered Cheerilee.
“Um,” he began, “Well these are my wings, I can't exactly fly with them yet, but Luna says I'm getting close, that they're just growing.”
He looked around the class, and noticed the looks of surprised and shocked faces in the room. “It's not like at least 5 students here don't have wings...” he thought to himself.
The silence was finally broken by the energetic orange pegasus, “Woah! You have wings AND a horn! That's so cool!”, she blurted, before rambling on about how it still wasn't as cool as Rainbow Dash.
“Ah don't get it, is he a pegasus or a unicorn?”, said Applebloom.
The class broke into discussion on whether the colt was a pegasus or a unicorn. Unsure of what to do, Tate looked hopefully at Ms. Cheerilee. Explanation clearly needed, Ms. Cheerilee quieted the class down.
“Now class, the name for a pony with a unicorn horn AND pegasus wings is an Alicorn. Tate is an Alicorn, as are Princess Luna and Princess Celestia.”
The class, impressed, all had questions for the young colt, “Are you related to the Princesses? Is Princess Celestia your mother? Is Luna? Where do foals come from?”
Overwhelmed by the sudden bombardment of questioning, Tate decided to back away and tried hiding behind his mane, something he had seen from Fluttershy a few times.
“Class!”, called out Cheerilee, hoping to regain control of the class. Startled by their frustrated school teacher, the class settled down. Cheerilee then ended introductions and moved on to her lesson for the day. The bell rang at around lunch time, and Cheerilee excused the students for the day.
Tate started walking his way home, still wondering what all the other students had been asking him. He was stopped when the three fillies he recognized as Applebloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo pulled alongside him in their wagon/scooter.
“Heya, Tate! Is it true what mah sister said, that you're staying with Luna at the Town hall?”, asked Applebloom.
He answered yes. “Oh cool! So is she like your mother or something?” asked Scootaloo
“Well, I don't know if shes my mother exactly, but her and Celestia take care of me”. Seemingly satisfied with this answer, the fillies took a moment to look at him.
“Hey! You don't have your cutie mark either!”, they suddenly realized, looking at his flank. He looked back at it. He had noticed Celestia's shaped mark, and Luna's moon shaped mark, but never wondered about his own.
“So?” he questioned them.
“Well we were wondering if maybe you'd like to come crusading with us?” they asked, after a brief explanation of what that entailed, which was mostly nonsensical adventures trying out new things. He thought it sounded like fun, and Luna wasn't going to mind if he didn't go straight home. Her and Celestia did say making friends was important after all, right?
He agreed, and they made space for him on the wagon. They zoomed off towards Sweet Apple Acres, where Applejack and Applebloom lived. Approaching the farm, he saw Applejack and Twilight talking to each other. He waved to them and they called the group over.
“Well, hey there, sugarcubes! How was the first day of school?” asked Applejack.
“It was GREAT!” replied the Cutie mark crusaders, who then explained how they had met Tate and were on a quest to help Tate find his Cutie mark too.
“Are you sure Luna doesn't want you back at the town hall Tate?” asked Twilight. Tate told her he honestly didn't know, but she had told him to make some friends at school. Seemingly a good enough answer for Twilight, she promised to update Luna on his whereabouts on her way home.
Twilight left the farm and Applejack went into the House, so the Crusaders and Tate ran off to the clubhouse to search for something to do. They ended up just sitting around, talking though.
“So Tate, how is living with the Princesses?” asked Sweetie Belle.
“Yeah!” exclaimed Scootaloo, “Is it awesome? Do you get to do anything cool like raising the sun or moon or whatever?”
“Not really. I don't have enough magic yet to raise the sun or moon, so I was basically just tagging along with Celestia or Luna wherever they went. I'm glad I get to go to school now”
“What is your power gonna be anyways Tate? Ah mean, Luna has the night to take care of, Celestia has the day. That doesn't leave much in between”
Tate hadn't thought of this. “I guess we'll find out eventually. I mean, Celestia said that Alicorns only have appeared when they were needed to maintain order. Celestia when the sun refused to set, Luna when the Moon stopped rising.”
“Wait... Are you saying you just appeared? That Luna and Celestia just came outta nowhere? That you don't have any parents?”
“That's what Celestia thinks happens, and no one has been around longer than her. I don't know about my parents. It isn't something I've ever talked about with Luna or Celestia.”
“Well, it sounds like your cutie mark will reveal a whole lot more about you and Equestria then ours will, where should we start?” the other Cutie Mark Crusaders all agreed with Sweetie Belle's thought.
“I'm afraid nowhere for today girls... and Tate” spoke a voice from the entrance, “Tate has to go back to the Town Hall before Celestia arrives to check on him.
The group turned to find them face to face with Princess Luna, who flashed them a small smile as they turned.
“Awww Princess Luna, but we were just about to start our Crusadin'!” Applebloom whined, putting on her powerful puppy dog eyes.
Luna giggled, “I apologize, but I must get Tate back in time to put the Moon up! Maybe next time?”
The Crusaders agreed and said they hoped to see Tate the next day at school. Tate simply smiled and walked back to the town hall with Luna.
“Did you have a good day, Tate? Did you make any friends?”
Tate looked back at the clubhouse, now shaking with the giggling of fillies. “I think so”, he replied, and broke into a wide smile. Luna smiled too, before pulling him closer with her wing and rustling his mane.