Little Princesses

by SparklingOfMagic

Chapter Two: Rising Storm

Celestia followed the rest of the royal family into a stone-built building. Gazing onward, the little princess could see a table placed in the middle of the well-decorated room, the representatives of each Tribe sitting on a side of it, their ponies flanking them. At the other end, rocks jutted out of the wall, neatly crafted to form thrones for the Alicorns. They were well done, enough to make her parents comfortable. Her mother and father were already sitting on the biggest thrones, gazing ahead at the Tribes with glinting optics. Smaller thrones flanked them, and Luna was already sitting on one of them.

Seeing that she was behind, Celestia quickly rushed up to her family, fluttering up to her throne with the best of her abilities. Hers was placed next to her father's. Seeing how calm and collected he looked, she tried her best to copy him; sitting up-straight and looking ahead with a supposedly unwavering gaze. Soaking in her surroundings, she noticed that one Tribe was missing; their seats empty.

"Where is the Tribe of Earth Ponies?" Commander Hurricane demanded. "We're wasting a lot of time!"

"We cannot start The Gathering with the presence of only two Tribes, Commander," Princess Platinum replied dryly, though she looked annoyed as well. "We might as well wait in silence."

"I'm not going to waste all moonlight waiting for a Tribe with an irresponsible leader!" Commander Hurricane hissed stubbornly. "I bet they're doing this on purpose, so we wouldn't be able to question the lack of food!"

Before Princess Platinum could reply, thundering of hoof steps cut her sentence. Both of the Tribes perked their ears, then averted their gazes to the source. The third Tribe skidded to a halt in front of them, their sides heaving with effort. "We are very sorry for delaying the Gathering," Smart Cookie panted, breaking the silence, as she weaved her way to the front of the crowd. "We faced some… difficulties."

"With somepony like Chancellor Puddinghead as your representative, I'm not surprised," came Commander Hurricane's irritated reply, her gaze raking across the cluster of earth ponies. "And after all of the trouble her Tribe caused, she's still not there."

Upon hearing her response, Smart Cookie's emerald eyes blazed with flames of fury, and she irritably replied with, "Chancellor Puddinghead's checking on the Tribe's progress in farming to make sure that there will be enough food for all of us, including your Tribe, Commander Hurricane. There was a lot of job to be done, and that's why she couldn't make it." The mare's voice was calm, but Celestia could see that she was trying her best not to snap at the Pegasus.

"Couldn't it wait for another day? The Gathering doesn't ha—"

"Enough!" King Astro yowled, interrupting Commander Hurricane. "The Gathering happens during the full moon when all of the Tribes should discuss whatever troubles they have rationally and peacefully. Yelling at each other will make that harder.

"Commander Hurricane," he continued, fixing his piercing gaze on the Pegasus, "I do understand that you are troubled, but that's no excuse to start being disrespectful. I do not want to start treating representatives like fillies." Flicking his starry tail, her father sat back down, his calm expression returning to his face once more.

The Tribes fell into silence, as if ashamed of what they did, except for Commander Hurricane who shot the King one more furious glance before sitting back down, not meeting any of the Alicorns' gazes. Taking a deep, calming breath, Smart Cookie motioned for her Tribe to start climbing up to their seats behind the earth ponies' flag. Even though they looked even more irritated than her, they nodded pointedly and filed up to their section, taking their time to sit down as if to annoy the Pegasi's representative even more. When they were done, her mother said, "the Gathering may start now."

Twitching her ears, Celestia averted her gaze to the Queen, noticing that that was the first time she ever spoke throughout the entire argument. That didn't really surprise her; her mother was always the soft, merciful one, who raises her voice at rare, extreme situations, which was unlike her father, who had his temper ebb away easily.

"… and that wasn't enough," Commander Hurricane continued, snapping Celestia out of her thoughtful daze, "we are an entire Tribe. We need more than just scraps."

"We're trying our best to afford food for every Tribe, Commander," came Smart Cookie's response. "We lowered our prices for it, too. Besides, it's hard to continue farming properly when the weather is so harsh on us." She seemed to say that pointedly, as if indirectly accusing the Pegasus of the bad weather.

"For the hundredth time, it's not us who're making the weather so cold. We're trying to control it, but it's out of our hoof!"

"Can't the Royal Family do something?" A Pegasus mare asked from the crowd, nodding her head to the Alicorns. "They are the rulers, after all."

"We are trying our best to control the situation," came Elysian's calm response, though Celestia could sense doubt edging her tone, "meanwhile, ponies of all Tribes, please try your best to keep things bearable. We will visit each Tribe as soon as we can to make sure that everything's going smoothly.

"Thank you all for attending, and may the sun and moon light your path."

Even with the Queen's reassuring words, tension seemed to keep cracking in the air as the three Tribes made their way out of the Gathering room after their representatives.

"Celestia, let's go," Elysian ordered her as the room emptied completely. She was already fluttering out of her throne, following Astro and Luna to the room's exist where the royal guards awaited them.

"Mother, do you think that there's more into it than weather?" Celestia asked suddenly, hopping out of her smaller throne, and rushing to her mother's side. "The representative sounded nervous…"

There was a moment of hesitation before Elysain replied with, "I'm sure it's nothing that needs overthinking, Celestia."

"But—"

"Let the older ponies take care of it," her mother snapped suddenly, quickening her pace out.

Celestia skidded to a halt, staring ahead at her mother's figure in wide-eyed silence. She never snapped like this unless it was something that's really bothering her. Whatever it is, it's not good…

---

All of the royal family made it back safely. The king and the queen were downstairs, discussing the Gathering with each other, whilst Celestia and Luna were settled in their beds, their rich covers wrapped neatly around them to keep them cozy from the cold.

"Celestia, don't you think that something wasn't right about the Gathering?" Luna asked suddenly, breaking the silence. She was writing what happened in the Gathering in her journal, pausing occasionally to brainstorm her thoughts about it.

"Huh?" Blinking, Celestia lifted her head from her book to eye Luna. "What do you mean?'

"Don't act dumb," Luna said, irritation edging her tone. "I'm sure you noticed it too; how all the Tribes were nervous, even our parents. Seriously, the Tribe of Unicorns didn't even utter a word."

Her sister hauled herself to a sitting position, eyeing Luna with a mixture of curiosity and dismay. "Maybe because the problem didn't involve them," she responded unsurely. "It seems that the Tribe of Earth Ponies and the Tribe of Pegasi are the ones who're having trouble with each other."

Luna lifted her head from her journal to fix Celestia with a piercing, dismayed gaze. "come on, Celestia. It's not like the unicorns don't want food anymore. Just like the Pegasi, they pay for food, too. It seems like they were hesitant to say anything."

Celestia shifted uncomfortably in her spot. "Um, maybe," she muttered, half to herself, as if pondering what Luna just said. She returned back to her book, flipping to the next page with her snout.

Luna furrowed her eyebrows, suppressing an exasperated sigh. She didn't know what was wrong with Celestia. Since they came back, she's been acting weirdly; avoiding her sister's company and reading a book just to make it an excuse so not to start a conversation. "I guess you're no use for my plan, then," Luna said, just loud enough for her sister to catch.

Upon hearing her words, Celestia snapped her head to her sister. "Plan? What plan?"

"The ‘I'll Try to Know What's Happening’ plan," Luna replied.

"How will you do that?"

"I'll ask our parents."

Celestia stared at her in dumbfounded silence before replying with, "Luna, that's not a plan…"

"Yes it is," her sister retorted. "I'll use my innocence and cuteness to persuade them into telling me."

Celestia narrowed her eyes. "Stupid."

"say that when I know what's happening while you stay living under a rooooock," Luna said teasingly, hopping out of her bed and trotting to the exist of her room where she'd go downstairs to meet her parents. Soon enough, she heard Celestia's hoof steps approaching, and a smirk crossed her face. "Came since you want my help to know everything?"

"More like to see you fail," Celestia replied gruffly, cautiously making her way downstairs. "Come on."

Twitching her tail, Luna followed her down the stairs, skidding to a halt at the last stair where her sister paused. Furrowing her eyebrows, she muttered, "move on!"

"Shh," Celestia hissed, shooting a glare at her before turning back to gaze onward.

Narrowing her eyes, Luna followed her gaze to where her patents stood in front of Starswirl the Bearded; their magic teacher, Commander Hurricane, Chancellor Puddinghead, and Princess Platinum, a few guards flanking them. Why are they here at this hour? Luna wondered, straining her ears with hope that she'll catch what he's saying.

"… and it'll be very dangerous," Elysian was saying. "That's why I need your most experienced unicorns, Pegasi, and earth ponies to come; some with us, and some to guard the castle still."

"We get all of that, Queen Elysian, but don't you think you need us, too?" Asked Commander Hurricane, her voice showing doubt than aggression for once, "we know what we're doing."

"And I never said you didn't," their mother replied calmly, flicking her tail. "And that's why I want you to stay here. I want you to make sure that your Tribes are safe."

"But we must protect you," Princess Platinum spoke despondently. "You're our leaders."

"And you're the Tribes' representatives," Astro responded this time. "What will they think when they find out that both their rulers and representatives are missing?"

The three of them averted their gazes to their hooves, their eyes clouded with all kinds of emotions.

"We will make sure that the required ponies are here tomorrow," Commander Hurricane vowed, trying her best to keep her voice from shaking, "and do our best to make sure the Tribes are safe."

"Good," Elysian replied with a nod of her head. "remember that you need to keep some of the stro…"

Luna jerked her head away, gazing at the ground with disbelief. She slowly turned her head to her elder sister, who was staring at her with the same astonished expression crossed on her face.

They both stared at each other with horror before opening their mouths to utter a sentence.

"Our parents are leaving… ?"

Author's Note:

Back with another chapter of Little Princesses! Really sorry for the delay; RL took over and all. Anyway, as usual, please inform me if there are any typos and/or flaws. Thanks!

Comments

[Ellington]

I theorize in the show that Celestia and Luna were those alicorns in the Equestrian flag that some unicorns turned into living creatures in order to have some racially impartial rulers. Which would explain why the Equestrian flag had those two on it despite them not being born yet.

Either that or that statue of an alicorn stallion Spike crashed into alongside those star spiders is their dad.