Chapters Canterlot was normally a very busy place, but with Hearth's Warming just around the corner, Equestria's Capitol found itself bursting with ponies and noises, the snow that sagged on the roofs of houses and was trampled on the streets of Canterlot doing little to buffer the noise. Business ponies stood in their warm shops, inviting ponies in to sample their wintery goods, an offer simply too good to refuse for one pink pony who was surprisingly energetic and joyful despite the dreary weather.
"What do you mean, no cupcakes?", the pink mare exclaimed to an extremely frustrated stallion,"Cupcakes are super delicious! Everypony LOVES cupcakes!"
"I'm sorry Miss Pinkie, but I'm going to have to ask you to leave", replied Toasty Hooves, the rather large fireplace salespony "Our fireplaces are for warmth, not baking cupcakes", He stated in a rather cross fashion.
The scene looked as if hundreds of fireplaces had decided to spew cupcake materials upon dozens of hopeful buyers. Ponies covered in flour wore a rather shocked expression on their faces, and turned to face their overly hyper pink attacker.
The pink mare produced a small giggle to the angry pony she was talking to and glanced up at him with a hopeful smile. The rather large fireplace salespony looked entirely unamused by the behavior of the pink mare, who sighed and grabbed her unfinished cupcakes and shoved them into her saddlebags.
Pinkie ran off hastily into the alleyway, before any angry pony had a chance to act. She began searching for somewhere to dispose of her ruined saddlebags, dripping with cupcake batter. after a small dash through the alleyways, she bounced over to a small trashcan and held her saddlebags in her mouth over it, preparing to drop it in when her ears perked up at the sound of a small whimper coming from by one of the buildings around her. Deciding that she probably had no use for her bags regardless of what created the whimpering noise, she tossed her bags in the trashcan and slammed the lid shut, preparing to search for the creator of the noise.
Pinkie bounced over to the other side of the alleyway and peeked under a blanket.
"Eeep!" She exclaimed as she recoiled in surprise. Quickly recovering, she leaned forward and uncovered the small and shivering object again.
Now uncovered was the face of a startled and cold young colt, even younger than Applebloom or Sweetie Belle. He had a blue coat with a messy bright tan-yellow mane, along with a unicorn's horn protruding from the front of it. He looked shocked, and helpless. Pinkie's hair straightened when she saw the unmistakable marks of tears running down his cheeks. As he was still trembling as the strange mare wrapped him in his blanket and picked him up, Pinkie looked around for the parents of the young colt. She peeked in all the nearby houses, but no pony recognized the foal. She even tried searching under all the rocks and in all the cans in the alleyway, but still had no luck. Realizing the parents must not be around, she shifted the child who was resting in her foreleg and sat down, worried, considering what should be done with the shivering blue mass huddled close to her.
“Ooooo! I know what to do with you!”, she suddenly exclaimed to a still frightened but less freezing little pony. “Princess Celestia knows almost EVERYTHING! Shes been around for like, EVER! I'm sure she can find your Parents!”
The colt, not understanding a single word, simply stared as the mare broke out into a wide grin and her hair almost magically poofed into its original pink curly style. Still not understanding as the same Pink mare swiftly began cheerily hopping down the street towards a castle, he drifted into a warmth induced sleep, snuggling closer against the warm pink mare.
***
"My faithful student", addressed Princess Celestia to a lavender colored mare that had just walked into her castle.
Twilight Sparkle smiled after giving a short bow and walked over to embrace her mentor and princess. Celestia smiled and returned the embrace.
After disengaging, she briefly acknowledged each of the rest of Twilight's group, noticing the absence of one exceptionally hyper pink mare.
"Twilight, where is your friend, the Element of Laughter?"
The rest of the group looked around, only now realizing their missing friend. Applejack spoke up,
"Ah think Pinkie had the idea ta visit the shops before coming here, Princess".
The Solar Princess took a moment to process this, "Very well, I shall have the Royal guards guide her to her room once she arrives. In the meantime, why don't I show you where you'll be staying."
The Princess motioned for a pair of guards to carry the luggage bought by the ponies, and led the group up from the main hall of the castle to the room where they would be staying. Rainbow Dash promptly proceeded to plop down on the sofa, while Rarity exclaimed about how fancy everything seemed. The guards delivered the luggage of the ponies to the room, then exited to stand out in the hallway.
The room was of course, “simply marvelous”, as Rarity put it, but Twilight was more concerned with matters at hand than the room.
“When will we be able to meet you and Luna, Princess?”, inquired Twilight. Why do they have to meet again?
Celestia smiled, “I had hoped you would all come join Princess Luna and myself in the dining hall for dinner or dessert as soon as Pinkie had arrived, if your journey wasn't too taxing on you, that is”
“Oh no Princess!”, a timid Pegasus approached the Princess and Twilight, “We would l-love to join you!... um.. I mean. If you want.... I guess”, finishing her sentence with a soft squeal.
Princess Celestia simply smiled at the small Pegasus who was trying desperately to hide behind her pink mane. “I look forward to your company then, we will have much to discuss I'm sure”, said Celestia before turning around and trotting out the door to join her guards.
The group of mares decided it would be best to take care of their luggage, and Pinkies also, seeing as she had dumped it off with Applejack's before she left. With nothing left to do besides wait for their friend, they all lounged around in the room next to the hallway, Twilight reading a book, Dash and Applejack in a vicious staring competition, Fluttershy unwillingly being the referee for the 2, and Rarity applying makeup to herself.
Suddenly, everypony flinched when a flying pink cannonball came crashing through the window. Causing them all to panic, besides Rainbow, who started celebrating her victory against Applejack, paying no attention to the Pink mare that had just entered.
“Pinkie! Where were you??? We're already late to-”,Twilight was cut off by Pinkie Pie shushing her, pointing towards the center of the bundle of blankets in her hooves.
“Uhhh... Pinkie?”, Twilight whispered, “What is that?”
Pinkie carefully laid down the sleeping foal on the couch in the middle of the room, poking him with her muzzle to prod him awake. The others surrounded her as it awoke, and gave an adorable little yawn. Fluttershy quickly swooped down to pick him up, “Aren't you just the most adorable little unicorn?”, she asked the giggling young colt, before making incomprehensible noises at it.
“Pinkie, you never told us you had a foal...”,stated one awestruck Twilight.
Pinkie giggled before saying, “Oh silly, he isn't MY foal”, as she bounced into her room, followed by everyone except Fluttershy, still with the blue foal.
“Woahwoahwoahwoahwoah, Wait. Are you saying you just TOOK some unicorn's kid?!?”, exclaimed Rainbow Dash.
“Darling, that is simply unforgivable! We must return the poor thing to its parents!”, said Rarity.
Pinkie looked at her friends with a questioning look, “Of course I didn't take it! I found him after being kicked out of Mister Toasty Hooves fireplace shop. Wellllll they didn't exactly kick me out but they didn't want me to make any more cupcakes using their fireplaces, but I was like how could anypony not like cupcakes?!? But of course they got mad when I- UMPH-”, said Pinkie, still continuing to talk in a heavily muffled way.
Twilight stuck her hoof in Pinkies mouth, “Pinkie, back to the foal”, she said, removing her hoof.
“-but I couldn't just leave him there since nopony was around or anything, so I got the idea to ask Princess Celestia, since she must know who our little unicorn's parents are!”, continued Pinkie.
“Um, e-excuse me Twilight... but, I didn't know unicorns had, erm, wings?” spoke Fluttershy from the doorway.
Twilight turned to face her, “Of course they don't, only pegasi and alic- WOAH!”, The ponies stared at the unicorn in Fluttershy's hooves. With the blanket now removed, the group could clearly see a pair of folded blue wings by the colts sides. Double checking, there was also no doubt it had a equally blue horn on the top of it's head.
“So... what... were looking for a unicorn AND a Pegasus now?”, said Rainbow Dash.
Twilight face-hoofed, “No, Rainbow, it has a horn and wings, so at least one of its parents would have to be an Alicorn”.
Rainbow's eyes widened, “But Twi! The only Alicorn I know are-”
All the ponies in the room shared a quick glance with each other, before throwing open the door and sprinting down to the dining hall, Fluttershy a bit slower then the rest, as to not disturb the little colt.
“Celly, did not you say Twilight Sparkle and her friends were going to join us?”, Inquired Luna as she waited patiently at the main table in the dining hall.
“Yes Luna, Her and her friends were just waiting for Pinkie when I left them”, replied Celestia.
They rose to their hooves as the sound of hooves galloping towards them reached the sisters. They were startled when Twilight and her friends suddenly flung open the door and stormed in the hall, screeching to a halt right in front of the royal sisters.
“P-Princesses”, they gave a short bow, “I... We... Have a rather... personal question”.
Celestia and Luna glanced at each other, both wearing looks of confusion. They both nodded their heads to Twilight and asked what the question was.
“Well.... erm. It appears that... uh...”, Twilight stuttered.
“Oh for the love of Celestia's sweet flanks!”, yelled Rainbow, forgetting the suddenly very self conscious Princess was in the room, “Would you just spit it out? Who's been having a bit too much 'fun' with the Royal Guards at night?!”, brashly stated Rainbow.
“Um... Nopony? The night guards aren't very fun at all, even worse than the day guards. They don't even laugh at my jokes or help me tamper with Celestia's royal scale!” Pouted Luna.
Celestia gave Luna a quick death glare before continuing, “I'm afraid to ask, but what has brought this type of.... question... to come to us?”
“Well you see your majesty”, began Twilight, “Pinkie found a... foal in the streets”.
Celestia seemed upset, but still confused, “I see. Well child abandonment is illegal in Equestria, but it still happens, as it is with most things I make laws against”.
“Well, that’s not the only thing about this foal, see Princess, it-”, but Fluttershy, deciding not to wait any longer, simply flew over to the princess and placed the blue colt in her hooves.
Luna peeked over at the tyke while Celestia held it, at first noticing nothing in particular about the small child, it's blue coat, golden-yellow eyes, and tan-yellow mane with a blue horn separating it in the middle. There was nothing remarkable about the foal, besides perhaps how adorable it looked. Or at least she didn't think so, until it woke up it the arms of a new holder, and stretched all 6 limbs out.
“Wait, 6?” thought Luna. She recounted, four legs, two adorable tiny wings.
A horn and wings? But that meant.
Luna finally put 2 and 2 together, and glared at her sister, only to find an equal stare aimed at her.
“Luna-”, started the the eldest of the pair.
“Celly!”, blurted out the younger.
They paused, silence interrupted by Twilight, “So, it couldn't have been either of yours then... Surely you both would have noticed”. It took them a moment to realize that Twilight was right, and neither of them could have had the foal, since they would have noticed the developments.
“Well, Celly has been putting on a bit of weight recently, but nothing that dramatic!” said Luna, then catching sight of a very angry and thoroughly embarrassed Sun Goddess. “Sorry.” she whispered.
“Maybe a Pegasus daddy and unicorn mommy just loved each other very much?”, offered a smiling Pinkie Pie, who was making silly faces at one very amused and happy Alicorn foal.
“I'm afraid it doesn't work like that. The only way for a mare to have a Alicorn foal is if one of the parents is also an Alicorn, and seeing as both of us clearly have never had an alicorn foal, I'm afraid that I cannot explain the appearance of this one.” explained Princess Celestia
The ponies all gathered around the table. “So, what are we going to do about this one?” Asked Twilight.
They all pondered the question. It needed a caretaker for the time being, and seeing as it was scarcely more than a few 3 or 4 years of age, it was incredibly lucky that it had made it through even part of a Canterlot winter by itself. Applejack was too busy with the farm to take care of it, Rarity and Twilight already had Sweetie Belle and Spike to look after, no one considered Pinkie or Rainbow responsible enough to care for it all the time, not even themselves. And Fluttershy, although finding it adorable, simply did not have enough time to care for it and all her animals.
“That just leaves...” All the ponies looked at the Princesses. Luna exchanged a look with Celestia. There was no reason that they couldn't take care of the foal. Sure, they had to raise the day and night, but almost always, one of them was just lounging around, not taking questions from concerned citizens or attending to royal duties, they explained.
“Which is why Celestia's flanks have grown to the size they are now, that and the new chef, who produces the most WONDE- mmph-.. MMPHH!”
As Luna attempted to deal with the zipper that had appeared around her lips, not an easy task with hooves, Celestia thought of a reason not to take the colt.
As Pinkie and Fluttershy played with the giggling colt, the rest of the mares all awaited on an answer from the princesses. Celestia looked at the young colt. She sighed.
“He will stay in the castle for this winter, until we figure out what to do with him”, Celestia waited for the cheers of the ponies to die down, “He will at least be properly cared for by myself or Luna or at the very least one of our servants at all times here”.
Celestia looked at the giggling young Colt. “He can't be any older than 3, could he?” She thought to herself, “Luna wasn't much older when I first found her”. She smiled to herself. He was ridiculously cute, she had to admit, maybe taking care of him wouldn't be so bad after all.
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.
The Royal Foal-Hood Chapter 2
Time passed quickly for the Cutie Mark Crusaders, Tate now included. They had gone all around Ponyville everyday after school, trying new things, but none of them had found their cutie marks. A few weeks after winter wrap up, they were sitting in the clubhouse, tossing a bouncy ball around and trying to figure out what to do that day.
“I'm so bored”, Sweetie Belle sighed, bouncing the ball to Scootaloo.
“Join the club”, said Scootaloo, tossing the ball to Applebloom.
“What club? Is there a club for being bored? Sounds awful if ya ask me”, said Applebloom, who bounced the ball to Tate, who wasn't paying attention when the ball hit him and bounced out the window.
The Cutie Mark Crusaders collectively sighed, when Scootaloo gasped.
“I know what we're doing wrong, everypony!”, she blurted out, met with curious stares. She continued, “we're only searching for our Cutie Marks inside of Ponyville! What if we go somewhere else?”
“Ah dunno Scootaloo, Applejack says Ah can't go to any place outside of Ponyville, at least not by myself”. Tate and Sweetie Belle nodded in agreement. Tate knew that Luna and Celestia wouldn't want him going anywhere without at least asking them first.
“Well what about... Zecora's?” asked Scootaloo, “She isn't even that far from Ponyville, and I know Fluttershy and Twilight visit her all the time!”
Tate thought about it. He had heard of the Zebra that lived just outside of Ponyville, but never visited her before. Seeing as Luna and Celestia didn't expect him back at the Town Hall until at least supper time, he agreed to the idea.
“Awesome! That's two of us coming. Now what about you two- or are you both chicken?”
Applebloom and Sweetie Belle said yes finally, and the Crusaders set off to Zecora's house.
“So, what are we going to learn from Zecora anyways?” asked Tate
“Maybe she will let us make some potions or something!” offered Sweetie Belle
“Ah don't think so, ah may not have made such a great first impression with her...” said Applebloom.
Tate threw her a questioning glance. Catching this, she sighed and told him the story of how she caught the Cutie Pox from stealing some materials from Zecora. Having the reasons why Zecora probably wouldn't show them how to make any potions explained, they tried coming up with something to ask her to teach them.
“How about how to be a Zebra?” said Applebloom excitedly.
“You can't just be a Zebra, Applebloom!” said Sweetie Belle, “It's not like you can teach it to anypony.”
“Even I knew that, Applebloom”, said Scootaloo. Applebloom looked disappointed.
Tate came up with an idea, “How about she teaches us Zebraic?”
The rest of the Cutie Mark Crusaders looked excited at this idea, except for Scootaloo, who looked horrified that Tate would even think of that.
“A new language? Come ON, Tate, I wanna have my Cutie Mark be something cool”, Scootaloo groaned. “Besides, that’s like, a LOT of work”.
“Ah think its a great idea! We could be... hmmm...” Sweetie Belle picked up were Applebloom left off, “ Cutie Mark Crusader TRANSLATORS! YAY!” Tate, Sweetie Belle, and Applebloom all joined in the traditional hoof-bumping ceremony.
Scootaloo, seeing she was outnumbered, reluctantly agreed as the Crusaders trotted towards Zecora's house. Upon arrival, They jumped and knocked on the door.
“Hello there, young Crusaders, I assume you're here to be my aiders?” greeted Zecora.
“Actually, Zecora, we were wondering about some thing different.” said Applebloom
“Could you maybe teach us how to speak Zebraic?” asked Sweetie Belle, eyes on full cute mode.
“Why, of course, my little one; consider our session already begun!”
The Crusaders walked inside, taking a seat around a table, where Zecora had set out some water and glasses. But not water in the glasses?
“Zebraic is an easy language to learn, you are assured to be fluent once you return”, the Zebra continued, “simply rhyme the two words at the middle and end of a saying, and soon a zebraic message you will be conveying.”
“Rainbow Dash is very cool, because... uhhh”, Scootaloo thought for a minute, “her speed can make a whirlpool?”
“Almost there young Scootaloo, the rest of you give it a try too.”
“Eating apples is very great, because you don't have to use a plate?”
“My sister's name is Rarity, but I wish she didn't yell at me?”
“My sisters brought me to the Gala, but it was even less fun than having pneumonia.”
The Zebra smiled and urged them all to continue, and before long they were all speaking fluent Zebraic to each other, with Zecora only participating in the conversation, not leading it.
“Hey guys, did anyone notice it's pretty dark?”, started Scootaloo, looking outside. “Oh! And did anyone find their cutie mark?”
They all checked their flanks, but found that they were all as blank as before. Seeing that the young ponies looked saddened, their zebra friend spoke up.
“You may not have found your cutie mark, but on your excellent progress, I must remark.”
They cheered up somewhat at this, “Ah suppose we did learn a lot today, and Ah did have lots of fun here anyway!” Applebloom said. The Crusaders had to agree, it had been a good time with Zecora that day.
“We probably have to get back to town, before Celestia calls the Royal guard down”, said Tate.
The Zebra smiled as the young ponies walked away, happily conversing in Zebraic to each other. She shut the door as the last of them said their goodbyes.
Tate knew Luna and Celestia had wanted him back earlier, plus he was hungry, so he flew straight home as soon as he left the rest of the Crusaders. His flying wasn't great, but it got him from point A to point B without many difficulties, although he had been caught in the path between Sugarcube Corner and a muffin craving pegasus once since he learned to fly. He landed at the Town hall and walked inside.
“Evening, Tate” said Luna, sitting down at their main table eating a hay sandwich.
“Tate! Wherever did you run off to?” asked Celestia.
“If there's some more of that hay, I'd surely be glad to say”, replied the hungry young Prince.
Luna slid Celestia's sandwich across the table to Tate, just as Celestia had begun reaching for it. Celestia shot daggers at her sister, who in return stuck out her tongue at her. Celestia stood up and walked over to get another sandwich. Tate took a big bite of the sandwich and swallowed before continuing.
Tate recalled the events of the day, all in Zebraic of course, to the Princesses, who seemed rather impressed with his quick mastery of the language.
“It's been awhile since I've practiced my Zebraic” said Luna, “hmmmm... lets see... The other day I thought I saw a massive balloon, when I realized it was Celestia, flying to the moon.”
“You want to see flying to the moon... little sister?”, Celestia responded, putting emphasis on little. Luna scowled, as the elements of harmony which had restored her from her Nightmare Moon state canceled out 1000 years worth of growth and had taken at least a hoof off her height.
Before the hooves and the chance to start flying, Tate spoke up, “Before you two start throwing all the food at each other again, I was wondering if one of you or both of you could come to school with me sometime this upcoming week for family appreciation day”.
The sisters thought about this. It was a quiet time in the year for the princesses, and they were both free all that week, so they supposed that both of them could go.
“Alright, we're both free tomorrow, if that works”, said Celestia.
“But Celly- mfph!”, Luna started to complain, only to find a hay sandwich shoved in her mouth by Celestia, who silently cursed herself for wasting a perfectly good sandwich that she was going to eat.
Tate smiled to them and said thanks before trotting off to his bed. The Princesses smiled back at him, as best as Luna could with a mouthful of sandwich. Once he was gone Luna took a big gulp of water and washed down the sandwich.
“Celly! Why did thou sign us up for such an event?!?”, Luna spoke, deciding that the situation called for the royal Canterlot voice.
“Well you aren't doing anything, are you sister?”
“Well... no. But are you sure we are the appropriate ponies to come for his family appreciation day?”
Celestia sighed, “If you recall Luna, we met under similar circumstances. You were brought to me by one of my most trusted friends when I was still just a young ruler. Nopony claimed you, so you stayed with me, eventually controlling the night and getting every star in the sky to stand out in beautiful form at night, a thousand times better than I could ever do it. The point is, one day Tate is going to grow up and have his own special talent, or his own force to control for the rest of his very, very long life. He's as much our little brother as you are my little sister” said Celestia, nuzzling her sister. “My very little sister”, she added with a wink.
Luna's smile shrunk a little at that, but only a little. She laughed and turned around to face out the window. “Very well sister. I guess it can't be that bad. How long could it take to tell Tate's class about how I put the moon up at night, and bring it down in the morning?”
Celestia laughed, “I'm glad you see it my way” she said as she began her way up the stairs, “Night Lu-Lu”.
“Night Celly”, Luna spoke as she quickly re-arranged some stars in the night sky, waiting to hear the shrieking from upstairs.
***
Applebloom stared out her window, as she couldn't get to sleep. “Ah wonder who Celly is”, she said to herself. “And why does it matter if her flanks are as big as the...” she paused, wondering what that arrow of stars was pointing to? The moon maybe?
She shook her head. It was probably was just some foalish little unicorn getting some immature revenge on her sister or something like that.
Applebloom had ran straight home after saying goodbye to Zecora and walking a bit with Tate before he flew off. She was glad he had been in Ms. Cheerilee's class, and not still in Canterlot. He was an important part of the Crusaders now, and when he had learned to fly, they threw him a surprise party at Sugarcube Corner. They had a good time that day, with plenty of cake and sweets followed by plenty of crusading.
“Of course, every day spent with Tate is a good day” she thought to herself, “Ah mean, spent with Tate AND Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo of course” She corrected herself.
She yawned, “Ah guess Ah am tired” she said, walking back to her bed. She pet Winona, who was laying at the foot of her bed. “Goodnight y'all”, she called, before turning off her light and pulling her covers over her.
The Royal Foal-Hood Chapter 3
“Alright class” called Cheerilee, trying to get her classes attention. “For today's family appreciation day, we are pleased to welcome Tate's family!”
The royal sisters walked into the classroom. The class gasped, and at first seemed shocked, but then remembered that Tate lived with them. The class quieted down and waited for the presentation.
“Hello subjects!” said Princess Luna.
“We're Tate's older sisters, and, as most of you probably know, royal Princesses as well.” added Princess Celestia.
They went on to explain how they raised the day and night at the appropriate times each day, and also told some of their more remarkable stories of ancient days and people from the past.
The class was captivated by the tales of the Princesses, who had clearly told these stories countless times before, and perfected their presentation of them. Tate however, was bored of class, as he had heard all these stories already, and silently wished it was over. Before he knew it, the Princesses had concluded the stories, they were bombarded with questions from the class. Cheerilee interrupted the class and said that there would be no questioning for today, as the class had already gone overtime with the Princesses' stories.
The class picked up their saddlebags and headed out the door, chatting with their friends about the day's events. Tate caught up with his friends as they began walking to hang out at the Library.
“Tate!” called a voice behind them. Turning around they saw Princess Luna and Celestia walking towards them. “Try to get home on time today, we have some guests joining us for dinner.”
“Alright Luna, I'll be home on time. Out of curiosity though, who is coming?”
Celestia answered, “Twilight Sparkle, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy. It's been a while since we've all seen each other at the same time.”
Tate was a little disappointed as he was looking forward to crusading that day. Luna picked up on this and was quick to continue, “Your friends can join you if they have permission”.
Tate looked at his friends. Sweetie Belle and Applebloom said they could probably go, and Scootaloo said she was free to go to. With that, the Princesses said they would see them later and flew off towards the town hall. The Cutie Mark Crusaders resumed walking to the library.
“Okay Spike, I'm trusting you with the library this afternoon, and I won't be back until after you go to bed, so take care of everything.” said Twilight, who was exiting the large tree building.
A little purple dragon gave her a salute. “You can count on me Twilight!”
“I knew I could, Spike.” said Twilight, turning around to face the Cutie Mark Crusaders. “Oh, hey there guys, going to the Library?”
“Yup! We were gonna read up some ideas for late night crusading, but since we're going to be with you and the princesses then, I guess we'll have to wait” said Sweetie Belle.
“Oh, so you all will be there tonight?” asked Twilight. They all nodded their heads. “Well I guess I'll see you then! Just ask Spike if you need anything!”
The Crusaders nodded and dashed into the library, finding as many books as they could carry and sitting down at a table.
“How about Cutie Mark Crusader night fishers?” asked Scootaloo.
“We already tried fishing though!” Tate thought back to a few weeks ago when they decided to go fishing. Long story short, they had all ended up soaking wet and covered in mud, with not so much as a sighting of a fish.
They sighed, and resumed looking for things to try. “Oh! Ah got one! What do y'all think about Cutie Mark Crusaders pony guards?” asked Applebloom.
“Who would we guard though?” asked Tate?
Applebloom looked back at the book. “Ah guess anypony, or anything.”
“Why don't you guard Rarity?” offered Spike. The ponies giggled, knowing full well of Spike and his crush for Rarity. “Oh never mind then.” huffed Spike, before grabbing a ridiculously tall stack of books and beginning to climb a ladder.
Everyone else continued talking, but Tate let his mind wander. He thought about class today. He didn't remember much besides wishing it was shorter, but then again he wasn't paying much attention. He snapped back to reality when the ladder Spike was on began to tip.
“Woa... Woaahhh,” Spike yelled, trying to stabilize the ladder. But the ladder had gone too far, and was sending it, Spike, and all the books he was carrying right towards Tate.
There wasn't enough time to react for Tate, besides to close his eyes and brace for impact. He crouched down and put his hooves over his head, waiting for the impact...
That never came. He opened his eyes. The rest of the Cutie Mark Crusaders all were looking horrified at the sight of a ladder heading straight for Tate, except for Applebloom, who seemed to be the most horrified and was staring straight at Tate. He looked at the ladder, only to yell and fly backwards straight into another bookshelf. It was no less than half a hoof away from him.
He looked at the ladder, and his friends expressions, and wondered what was wrong with the picture. All of a sudden, it hit him like Spike was about to.
They were frozen. Not actually frozen in ice, but they didn't seem to move at all. He walked over to his friends, and tried everything to get them to move. He waved his hooves at them, made funny faces right in front of them, and even did the pony polka on the table. Nothing happened.
He walked over to the door of the Library and opened it, to find somepony who could help him. He ran over to Fluttershy's house, which wasn't so far away, and opened the door. Fluttershy sitting on her chair, reading a novel.
“Fluttershy!” he yelled, before sticking a hoof over his mouth, remembering Fluttershy was an easily scared pony. He expected to hear a scream, but to his surprise nothing came. He walked around to the other side of Fluttershy, and saw that she was as frozen as his friends and Spike were. Puzzled, he walked outside again, only to run right into a small bird, stuck in mid air.
The bird hit the ground and looked up at him, giving him a chirp as if to ask what that was for, before flying away. Tate quickly got up and ran over to a small bunny and touched the bunny. The bunny was still for a moment, but Tate held his breath. He touched the bunny again and the bunny looked at him, tired of being poked, before hopping into Fluttershy's house.
Coming to the realization that things started moving again if he touched them, he ran back to the library and grabbed all the books and the ladders before finally grabbing Spike and putting him on the ground.
“Uh, t-thanks Tate” stammered Spike, who was now unfrozen. “Thanks for uhh...” Spike looked at the ladder and the books, which were neatly put back into place. “uhh... Tate.. how did you do that?”
“I honestly don't know. You were about to hit me on that ladder one second, and when I looked up, everything was frozen.”
Spike looked around the room, just now realizing that everything was frozen. “WOAH! How did you do that?!”
Tate was trying to think of a way to get everything back moving again, “I don't know Spike, I just... don't know.”
“You don't know what Tate?” asked Sweetie Belle
“Tate! You're alive!” yelled Applebloom, tackling him in a hug. “Wait a second, how are you alive? We all thought for sure you were done for”
“Uhh...” said Tate, still recovering from the hug. Applebloom blushed as she let him go “Well I don't really know. Spike was falling towards me one second, and then next second, I looked up, and everything was frozen. So I went to Fluttershy's house and she was frozen too. That's when I realized something was wrong, and I found out I could unfreeze things by touching them after poking Fluttershy's pet. So I came back here and, woah-” Tate sat down, his vision suddenly going fuzzy. “I feel like I just got up after laying down for a while, ugh”.
“Oh! I know what that is! Rarity gets that when she uses a lot of magic.” Sweetie Belle told them.
“But I haven't used any magic!” Tate said, walking over to where he put the ladder, “All I did was put the ladder back in place and- what, are you all looking at?”
The three ponies and young dragon were all looking just behind him. Turning around to see what they were looking at, all he saw was a stack of book, the ladder, and an elaborately decorated gold watch sitting on his flank.
“Tate, you got your cutie mark!” the Crusaders yelled in unison. And so he had. He leaned even closer to examine it.
It was a fancy gold watch, with some design carved into the side of it. Still recovering from using a large amount of magic, along with the shock of finding his cutie mark, he fainted and fell to the floor.
***
Tate opened his eyes. The floor felt a lot softer than it should have it seemed. Tate looked around to realize he wasn't on the floor of the library, but on a sofa in the town hall.
“Hey everypony! I think he's waking up!” cried somepony to his left.
Suddenly the room was crowded with ponies, all questioning him, making sure he was okay, and congratulating him.
“W-whats going on?” he asked, looking at all the ponies in the room. The Princesses were there, as well as his friends, and Twilight Sparkle and all of her friends. “How'd I get here?”
“Fortunately for you, Twilight had forgotten something at the library, so she was able to carry you back to the town hall after you feinted from finding your cutie mark”, said the dragon who was sitting on Twilight's back.
The last 2 words repeated themselves in Tate's head. “CUTIE MARK?!?” he cried, and looked at his flank. Sure enough, there was the fancy golden watch he thought he had dreamed of. He smiled and started bouncing on top of the couch.
“Yeah kid, congrats- that watch is pretty cool looking” said Rainbow Dash.
In midair, he suddenly put on the brakes and came screeching to a halt in a way defying physics so much that even Pinkie was impressed, he asked “What's a watch got to do with anything?”
Celestia smiled. “According to what your friends told us, I think your special talent is over time itself!”
Tate thought about it, “That would make sense. That must be why everything seemed frozen earlier, and why school passed so quickly today”.
Luna seemed mildly upset by the last part of his sentence, but before she could say anything, Twilight spoke up, “It also explains why you were so drained after you stopped time. That must have taken a lot of magic!”
“He should be alright now though, r-right Twilight? I would h-hate to see anything happen to him.” said Fluttershy.
“Yes, he should be almost fully restored by now, there's no reason to worry about him.”
“Well in that case, let's eat! I'm starving!” said the hungry cyan pegasus before zooming into the dining hall, leaving a trail of rainbow colors were she just was.
Laughing at their friend's impatience, the ponies all trotted over to where Rainbow had already started eating. Tate stayed behind to chat with his friends.
“Ah guess you won't be hanging out with us anymore then?” said Applebloom, a tear forming in her eye.
“Of course not! After all, you all need to find your cutie marks, right? Besides, the way I figure, I can just freeze time with us all touching and we can have even more time to hang out now!”
“He's right you guys!” said a very excited Scootaloo, “This could be the best thing to ever happen to us!”
The Crusaders all gave a cheer and dashed into the dining hall to join everypony. They all had a great time that evening, and ended up going to the park for desert. When they had all finished, they were sorry to have to say goodbye and go to their houses. Tate, Luna, and Celestia all set off towards the town hall.
“Did we take a wrong turn somewhere?” Tate asked, “and why isn't anypony here?”
They found themselves right by the Library, with no Twilight or Spike to be found. Puzzled, the retraced their steps and arrived at the park at the same time as everypony else.
“Didn't we all say our goodbyes already?” asked Rarity.
“Ah was walking home when Ah ended up at Fluttershy's house!” responded Applejack, “Ah lived here all my life and not once gotten lost like that.”
“Oh my, I made the same mistake!” exclaimed Twilight. “Well not exactly the same, I ended up at Carousel Boutique.”
As it turned out, they had all found themselves at different places then they'd wished to go to. Rarity and Sweetie Belle went to the Town hall, Fluttershy went to Rainbow's house, Pinkie Pie went to
“Well this is very odd” commented Luna, “But I guess it must be a strange combination of being tired, bad luck, and... erm...”
“The weather?” offered Rainbow Dash, staring at the thick fog closing in around them.
“Now wait just an apple bucking second”, started Applejack, “Ah know ah've seen this type of thing before, it's just to familiar”.
A deep laughter rumbled out of the fog. They all knew that laughter, and slowly turned to face the direction it came from.
“It's so great to see that you all came to greet me, I've been so terribly bored without you”. The creature laughed as it's silhouette appeared in the fog. “Of course, I'd love to stay and chat with all of you, but I can't let all the elements of harmony be together in the same place, now can I?”
The shape stepped out of the fog. Everypony gasped as the creature snapped its fingers . Applejack, Celestia, and Luna were disappeared. Applebloom drove away from the creature and ran to Tate, who kept staring at the creature.
“Discord! What did you do to them? Are they okay? And how did you escape our prison?” asked Twilight.
The creature chuckled to himself, “One question at a time. Your friends are sleeping in their homes, completely untouched, dreaming of apple pies or a beautiful sunrise or … whatever they dream of. For your other question, the six of you wielding the elements of harmony was enough to put me away for a bit, but it was nothing like the combined magic of two princesses I felt all those thousands of years ago. I knew it was only a matter of time before one of you lost connection from your element, and I could escape. That day turned out to be today, all of you at the same time this afternoon for about 2 minutes to be exact, which was more than plenty to wake my from my afternoon nap and escape.” He smiled, showing off his one pointed tooth. “Now, to make sure none of you try any funny business”
With a puff of magic, the fog clustered and turned into a full size dragon. Fluttershy shrieked in terror and the whole group found themselves paralyzed in fear, except for Twilight, who was having no luck with any spells she tried on it or Discord. The dragon roared and reeled backwards, drawing in a giant breath. Applebloom hugged closer to Tate, who was frantically trying to think of anything he could do. His horn started to glow as the dragon built up a fireball in its mouth. The dragon roared as it unleashed it's fireball, the force of the fireball hitting the magical barrier Twilight set up. It didn't last for long though, and with the last of the dragons fireball the barrier exploded, sending the group flying backwards, with Applebloom still hanging onto Tate.
Time slowed for everypony except for Tate and Applebloom, who was still connected to Tate in midair. Hitting the ground, Tate unleashed the final part of the magic, fully stopping time.
He hit the ground. Hard. He didn't black out but was too dazed to do anything else. He hoped his passenger had landed more softly than he did, and heard deep laugh walking up to him.
“Well well, we can't have this can we? Another little Alicorn?”
“H-how are you not f-frozen?” Tate asked
“Well what fun would that be, if everything made sense.” Discord chuckled to himself. The last thing Tate saw before blacking out was a sharp knife slicing the air in front of him, before something hit him in the head.
Discord chuckled and turned to the rest of the group. He had separated the elements of harmony, put the princesses in a deep sleep, and that foolish young Alicorn was nice enough to stop time for him, giving him no reason at all to kill the group of frozen ponies. He teleported the dragon elsewhere, and decided to pay the citizens of Canterlot a visit. Sure they would be frozen, but he could wake them up, one by one. He liked the sound of that, and let out an evil laugh he never got tired of using.
***
It was early in the afternoon when Dr. Whooves was running from one place to another, looking for somepony, anypony who could sell him a pair of socks, when all of a sudden he stopped. Something didn't seem quite right. He paused for a moment before pulling out his electronic screwdriver and taking a few readings with it.
“Oh my. We need to get to the Tardis.” he said to nopony in particular. He galloped away to his blue box, need for socks completely forgotten.
The Royal Foal-Hood Chapter 4
Tate woke up, and was surprised to find it was still night. An awful headache reminded him why he had been sleeping.
“Ugh” groaned Tate, stumbling to his hooves. His head felt lighter than normal.
“Tate! You're awake!” yelled a voice to his left. He turned quickly, a little too quickly, and tripped over something and fell.
“Oh, sorry Tate.” said the voice he now he recognized as Applebloom's. She helped him up, and he looked down to see what he had tripped over.
“Oh my Celestia! Tate, your h-”
“My horn.” he said, aghast. It had been sliced clean off of his head, leaving only a stump. He picked it up off the ground. They stared at it. Wondering what to do.
“So... are you going to be alright?” asked Applebloom.
Tate recalled a conversation Celestia had with a very concerned parent of a young unicorn who had broken his horn. “Yes, I'll be fine as soon as I get someone with enough magic to fix it. It's the same as any other bone”.
“So, you can unfreeze everypony?” asked Applebloom
Tate looked around them. Twilight, Spike, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, both of their friends, and Fluttershy were all stuck in midair. He shook his head.
“That would take too much magic. I can barely channel enough magic through this broken horn to move them down to the ground.” Tate moved them all softly to the ground. “Wouldn't want them to get hurt once we find someway to turn time back on”
“Ah guess so, but how are we gonna do that?”
Tate thought for a minute. “Well we should probably find the Princesses anyways, lets go to the town hall” They began walking in silence.
“So uh, how long was I asleep for?” asked Tate.
“Ah would say, a few hours at least, you got hit pretty hard”
The silence resumed until they got the town hall. Tate walked upstairs to where Luna and Celestia's rooms were. Tate check on both of them, who seemed unharmed and appeared to be resting. A few prods by Tate proved that they were actually frozen, and Tate's ability to resume time for anypony had been disabled too. They walked downstairs.
“Do you want to go check on Applejack?” asked Tate.
Applebloom shook her head, “Ah ran over to the farm when you were still asleep. Her, Granny Smith, and Big Mac are alright. Ah'm more concerned with what we should do to get everypony back moving again.” She sighed and sat down.
Tate was about to say something when he heard a whirring noise coming from outside and walked over to the door. Applebloom followed him. They gasped as they saw what what happening.
The noise grew louder and they noticed a bright flashing light . The light rested on top of a blue box.
***
It was earlier in the middle of the afternoon when the doctor stepped out of the TARDIS. He inhaled deeply and enjoyed the smells of the nearby Canterlot gardens before approaching one of the royal guards stationed at the gate.
“Hello!” he greeted the guard in his usually cheery manner. “ I was wondering if the Princesses were here today, as I'd very much like to meet with them.”
The guard shook his head. “Nope, they're in Ponyville, you'll have to go there if you wish to meet them today”
The doctor frowned, “But I was just in Ponyville!” Deciding to make the most of his trip, he asked, “Well can I at least get in to look at the gardens then?”
The guard thought for a moment. “I suppose so, there isn't much harm you can do from there”. He opened the gate and Doctor Whooves trotted inside. He walked straight past the garden and into the Canterlot Sculpture Garden.
“Ahh, Victory! It's been a long time, old chap!” he spoke to one of the statues, which caused a nearby tour group to give him a strange look and hurry along. Paying no attention to them, he continued until he reached the statue of Discord.
“Hm, looks sound. No structural damage” he said to himself while pulling out his sonic screwdriver, “And appears to be napping at the moment! Splendid.”
With that issue taken care of, he walked away back towards the gates where he had left the TARDIS. He heard a ominous laugh and a cracking noise behind him. He paused, and heard the noise again, a bit louder this time. He turned around and saw a large crack running through the statue.
“Oh, dear.” he said to himself, before running back towards the TARDIS. “That's not good.”
***
“Is somepony out there?” Called Applebloom to the Blue box.
A brown stallion with a hourglass cutie mark walked out of the TARDIS. “Hello there!”
Applebloom recognized the stallion. “Dr. Whooves!”. She ran over to greet him before realizing something. “Wait, just how are you still moving?”
“Still moving? What do you mean?” The Doctor looked around him, noticing that there was no wind, and a few leaves that had fallen from trees were stuck in midair. The animals all around were like statues. “Oh, and how did this happen?” asked the doctor, not nearly as surprised as somepony in his situation might have been.
Tate spoke up, “Well you see, I can sorta control time. Or at least stop it, and make it go faster.
The Doctor grimaced, “Ooh, ah. Well a little Unicorn magic should fix you right up shouldn't it?”
Tate looked in a mirror at his broken horn, “Probably more than a little bit of magic, seeing we have more magic in our horns than most ponies, but, everypony is frozen!”
The Doctor paused in thought, “Well then, how about we go find a somepony with lots of magic?” he motioned to the big blue box he had appeared in.
Tate and Applebloom cautiously stepped forward to look at the box. Despite everything both Celestia and Luna or Applejack and Big Mac had told them about getting into anything with strangers, they both walked into the box.
“Oh hay” said Applebloom.
“Celestia's flanks!” exclaimed Tate, which earned him a glare from Applebloom. “What? Luna says it all the time!” he defended.
They looked around the inside of the box again.
“It's-” began the young stallion.
“Bigger-” continued the young mare.
“On the inside than on the outside? Unicorn architecture, its great isn't it?” explained the Doctor, busy fiddling with various knobs and levers in the middle of the room. Applebloom still looked extremely shocked, but all of a sudden it was as if everything made sense to Tate. “Wow, this must have cost a ton! I mean unicorn architecture... it cost Luna a small fortune just to have her closet made into a walk in.”
The Doctor had no idea if Unicorn architecture was really a thing, but decided now probably wasn't the time to go into details about his TARDIS. “Yes well, I'd recommend you'd hang onto something, this part of the trip gets a little shaky.” The devices in the middle of the room started moving and
“A trip? Where are we going?” Tate shouted at the doctor, trying to speak over the noise of the strange device.
“How about a thousand years ago?” the Doctor yelled back to him.
Tate and Applebloom looked at each other with wide eyes. “What did you say?!?” they yelled at him.
The Doctor groaned, recalling he hadn't said exactly to where, or when, the TARDIS could take them. Preparing himself for the conversation, he began to fill in the ponies on exactly how he had appeared in front of them earlier.
***
The Doctor walked out of his blue box, followed by Applebloom and Tate, who still looked a little shook up.
“Welcome to Canterlot everypony!” The Doctor trotted towards the city.
“This is Canterlot?” Tate asked, awestruck. “It seems so small!”
“Well it hasn't had that long to grow Tate, they only recently moved out of the old palace. Tate remembered the stories about the old palace, which was now in the middle of the Everfree Forest. They began walking towards the palace, the Doctor going on about the history of Canterlot, with neither Tate or Applebloom paying much attention. “Why don't we go pay Celestia and Luna a visit?”
They almost reached the large gates outside of the palace when Doctor Whooves stopped to look a cart full of hats.
“Excuse me, how much for this one?” The Doctor held out a fez to the salespony.
“That one? How does 8 bits sound?” The salespony let out a laugh.
The Doctor paid for it and put the hat on his head before trotting over to where Tate and Applebloom were sitting.
“Ah ain't Rarity, but even Ah wouldn't suggest wearing that hat around here! Ponies are giving you looks already!” said Applebloom, motioning to the ponies passing by, who were all staring at them.
“Fezzes are cool!” complained the doctor. “Besides, its not for me, it's for Tate.”
Tate chuckled, “Oh no, I'm alright Doctor. Thanks though.”
The Doctor put the hat on Tate's head, effectively covering up his broken horn. “I figured that might draw suspicion, as shown by all the ponies that were just staring at you. It's not everyday you see an alicorn that isn't Princess.” The Doctor smiled at Tate.
“I guess you're right Doc, thanks.” They set off towards the palace, passing through the gates. It was still day, so Celestia would still be meeting with concerned citizens. Once they got there, They were lead to a large room Tate recognized as what would become the dining hall. There were relatively few ponies there, waiting for the princess to begin meeting with her citizens again.
They waited for a few minutes, Tate and Applebloom sat down some of the chairs that had been set out for the ponies. Not long after that Princess Celestia returned, and the ponies bowed to her. Tate was unused to bowing for his sister, and stooped too low and barely caught his hat in time to cover up the stub of his horn. He thought he saw the Princess looking at him, but was relieved to see she didn't appear to have done so. He took his seat back again and waited for the princess to meet with them.
Since they had been the last ones to arrive to the hall, they would be the last to be met with. Before too long Tate and Applebloom were already bored, so Tate pulled out a ball he had with him and they began to toss it back and forth.
An hour passed, and they realized they were the only ponies there who were still waiting for the princess. As soon as the princess finished with the pony in front of them, she called them forward.
“My little ponies, what seems to be the concern?”
Tate and Applebloom looked at Doctor Whooves, who spoke up, “Your majesty, it's been awhile”.
Princess Celestia paused for a moment, looking carefully at Doctor and then smiled. “I suppose it has Doctor, I'm afraid I didn't recognize you at first. So what brings you here today?”
“I'm afraid that disaster has struck equestria”, the Princess looked very confused at this, “Oh, but it's not anything you need to worry about for a long time. We just need to borrow some of your magic abilities for a bit.” The doctor looked at Tate, who removed his hat.
Celestia gasped at the sight of the alicorn . “Wh- What is this?”
The doctor spoke up, “Again, something you won't have to worry about for a long time.”
“I don't understand though, only myself and Nightmare Moon are alicorns.”
“Nightmare Moon?” Tate thought to himself, vaguely remembering something in one of the books he had read in Canterlot's library once. Nightmare Moon wasn't a subject Luna and Celestia brought up much.
The Doctor spoke “At the moment, yes. It's probably best if you just heal his horn and forget about this.”
Celestia nodded her head, “Yes, just let me bring the moon up first, as I'm afraid it will take me all of my magical energy to fix. Alicorn horns have a lot more magic than most unicorn horns.”
They waited as the day faded and Celestia brought up the moon. Tate saw what confirmed Luna's presence on the moon from the pattern of the mare on the moon. He suddenly felt sorry for his big sister.
“Now, are we ready?” asked Celestia. Tate nodded his head and took out the rest of his horn, which he had been carrying with him.
A film of magical energy wrapped around Celestia's horn and his broken off horn. The color of the energy shifted from a light blue to pink as the horn began reattaching itself to its owner. Tate felt a tingling at the top of his forehead, and closed his eyes waiting for it to be over.
Celestia took a step back and dropped the magical aura that surrounded her horn. “I'm afraid that's the best I can do. There's some sort of magical energy preventing a full recovery without the assistance of more magic. She looked longingly at the moon. “Until you find another powerful magician, you'll have to make due a fraction of your magical capabilities.”
“How small a fraction?” asked Tate
“Well, you probably can't go flying about through time like you have been.” Celestia winked. “I noticed your cutie mark when you first walked in, I assume your special talent has something to do with time, and you are not a fancy timepiece designer?”
“Ever observant Princess. Yes, he has control over time, and can even stop it, which is one up over my TARDIS” the Doctor said, “of course, being reliant on his magic, which is temporarily hindered, I'm afraid we are confined to it.”
The Doctor and Celestia shared a brief laugh. “In all seriousness though, do not strain yourself. I would estimate you have half of your original power. Still enough to outmatch a normal unicorn, no doubt.”
It was the middle of the night, and the Princess needed her sleep. She bid them farewell as they left. Tate put on the fez once again. They walked outside and Tate looked up at the moon.
“So, Luna is really stuck up there?” Tate asked, “Can we go see her?”
“Yes and no Tate. Nightmare Moon is up there. She is not your sister, but an evil version of Luna. I think we should be more worried about the Luna back in our own time, don't you?”
Tate nodded, but looked down at the ground, imagining the 1000 years of loneliness on the moon. He made a mental note to give Luna a big hug once she woke up.
Applebloom looked at Tate, who was clearly saddened. She put a foreleg over him as they walked, embracing him from the side. He looked up and smiled at her, and returned the hug. She was glad it was dark out, because she could feel her cheeks becoming closer to the color of her hair. They broke the embrace and caught up to the doctor.
“Doctor Whooves, didn't we leave your box around here?” asked Tate.
There wasn't much by them, just outside of Canterlot. A few big trees and some smaller bushes but that was all. A blue box would be pretty hard to miss.
Applebloom stepped on something and looked down, “Whats this?”
The Doctor grabbed it with his mouth, it was a piece of paper. He opened it and brought his sonic screwdriver out for light to read it with.
“Hang on Doctor” Tate said, illuminating the tip of his horn. He shined the light at the paper.
“Oh, right.” said the Doctor, pocketing his screwdriver. “Ahem. Doctor Whooves! By now you have probably noticed the disappearance of your blue box. I took it, as I also have taken your friends and the princesses. But because I am a fair Draconiquis, and beating a helpless enemy is no fun anyways, here's a hopeful message. You can find the elements of Harmony scattered throughout Equestria and time. You should find a package underneath one of those trees there. It contains your one and only clue. Don't die too soon! I want to have fun with you yet.
Your friend, Discord.
“Well that's no fair! Jus' how are we supposed to travel through time? We don't have your fancy box thing doctor, and Tate doesn't have enough magic to get us anywhere!” Applebloom cried. Tate walked over to inspect the package that was supposedly by the tree. He found it and opened it up, a burst of magic hit him in the face.
“TATE!” yelled Applebloom, running over to him, “Are you alright?”
Tate stood up and shook his head, “I think I'm a little bit better actually, that magic went straight to my horn. It might take me a while to recover, but I might be able to teleport us through time now!”
“Well that's good news, but I'm afraid I won't be going with you Tate” said the Doctor.
Tate and Applebloom stood still, stunned at the doctors words. “But, what if we need you Doctor?”
The Doctor shook his head, “You'll be fine together. I saw you two back there when we were walking here” he winked, “You two won't let anything happen to each other. Besides, you can recover from teleports faster this way”.
Tate and Applebloom still looked unconvinced, if a little bit embarrassed. The Doctor sighed, “Look, I'm not normally one to turn down an adventure or a challenge, but I have a feeling that I'm needed here anyways. Tate, you're a good, and powerful young stallion, Applebloom, you're a smart and clever young mare. Now go to wherever that clue in the box says, before I force you to teleport there.”
Tate was still unsure, but if the Doctor had a feeling that he was needed here, that was good enough for him. “Alright, lets go Applebloom.” He looked at the clue in the box, and turned back to the Doctor, who motioned him forwards.
He grabbed a hold of Applebloom and warmed up his horn, searching for the place and date. Releasing the magical energy, he felt the ground around him begin to shake and his horn glow brighter before both he and Applebloom were whisked away in a bubble of blue magical energy.
The doctor looked down at the time and place in the box. Puzzled, he shrugged and walked back towards the palace.
***
Tate and Applebloom reappeared in another flash of blue energy, and fell to the ground. “My landings could use a bit of work” Tate thought to himself.
“Uh, Tate.” said Applebloom, pulling a twig out of her mane, “Just where are we?”
Tate turned around and told her, “Welcome to Ponyville, 930 A.B. (After Banishment).”
“Ponyville?!?!” said Applebloom, “But almost the only people here in 930 A.B. would be my-”
She was cut off by the yell of a very excited green mare, “THE ZAP APPLES ARE COMING! THE ZAP APPLES ARE COMING!”
“family.” finished Applebloom.
The Royal Foal-Hood Chapter 5
Uke-Joe
“Ahhh, what a wonderful night” thought Discord. He had just finished playing a game of pin the tail on the pony, with actual ponies, when an idea hit him. If that young stallion could control time, shouldn't he, Discord, one of the most magically powerful creatures in the history of Equestria, be able to do so also?
“I can't believe I've never thought of this! I should gather all the Discords and create even more Chaos!” He paused, in thought, “No... it's too risky to stay anyplace else where the holders of elements of harmony are able to defeat me.” Thoughts flew about in his head. “There has to be some way to create more chaos!”
“Aha!” a laugh escaped his lips, drawing attention from nearby ponies, who screamed in fear before they were turned into plants. “I can separate the elements of harmony in this realm! They won't be able to come back and defeat me if they are trapped in a whole different time!” He thought to himself.
He teleported himself back to where he had left the holders of the element of harmony frozen, and where he had left the young stallion that could stop time hornless. He unfroze each of the lements one by one and teleported them off to different places in time before they could even get a word out of their mouths. Magic, Kindness, Laughter, Generosity, Loyalty, and finally he teleported to Sweet Apple Acres to teleport Honesty. He chuckled to himself about his fail proof plan and ran off to check on where he had left the Princesses in the town hall. Entering through the top window, he arrived in Princess Celestia's room, where she was still frozen. Next to her room was Luna's room, which also had a frozen princess in it.
“Oh if only you could see your precious Canterlot. The ponies are currently enjoying a chocolate hurricane.” He laughed evilly, something that had never gotten old over the years. His laugh was interrupted by a whirring noise outside of the town hall. He glanced out the window just in time to see a blue box with a light on top of it disappear.
“Doctor” growled Discord. He would have something in store for the pesky time lord pony too. Smiling to himself, he disappeared in a flash and temporarily left a chaotic Equestria behind, promising to return to it soon.
***
“Ah just don't see how we can enter Ponyville right now! What if one of mah family recognizes me?”
Tate sighed to himself, and peeked out of the bush him and Applebloom were hiding in at the town. “I doubt anyone would recognize you, Applebloom. You haven't been born yet, remember?”
Applebloom frowned, “Oh...right.”
“Won't it be fun to see Granny Smith in her prime?”
“Ah guess so, plus the Zap apples are coming, so Ah'm sure they could use all the help they can get. Just keep in mind that we're her to get Applejack.”
Tate walked out of the bush and offered a hoof to Applebloom, which she accepted and stood up. They began to walk down the hill. “And why do you think Applejack is here?” Tate asked.
“Well... Ah guess yer right. It could be Fluttershy or Rarity or anypony else.”
They reached the center of Ponyville, which wasn't very much. After a quick glance in the rest of the town, this point. The had no trouble finding Sweet Apple Acres, and decided to start the search there.
“Ah hope nopony minds us just entering the farm.” said Applebloom.
“I have some bits if anypony asks us, we're just looking to buy some apples.” said Tate.
“Alright. Ah say we go check out the house first. We're bound to run into somepony there.”
They made their way over to the door and knocked. When no reply came, they tried opening it.
“Ah didn't even know we had locks on these doors. Stupid doors.” Applebloom kicked at the door.
“Come on Applebloom, lets try a different door.”
They found a cellar door in the back. Finding it unlocked, Tate opened it for Applebloom, and shut it behind himself after he entered behind her. He lit up his horn.
“Oh yeah, we don't keep apples down here, just cider” said Applebloom.
There was certainly enough cider in the cellar. Barrels were stacked all the way up to the top of it and completely filled the large cellar. Tate walked around the cellar, which took him quite a while. He checked around all the barrels and in a few, before determining that nopony was down there. Unfortunately he also saw no entrance up to the house in the cellar, and returned to where he had left Applebloom.
“Applebloom! What are you doing?!” Tate exclaimed.
Applebloom put down a half finished mug of cider. “Relax Tate, we won't be selling cider for a few months still!” She poured herself another cider, “Besides, Ah haven't had anything to eat since before Discord showed up!”
Tate was parched, not realizing it until now. It had probably been the better part of a day since they had a meal last. He helped himself to a mug of it too, and then another. Before long they were laughing and rolling in a pool of spilled cider.
“Now just what do we have here?” came a voice from the top of the cellar. Applebloom and Tate paused in their laughter, and clumsily rolled over onto their hooves. They looked over to by the entrance. A big, red stallion who clearly was where Big Mac got his genes from was blocking the doorway.
“Uh... We can explain?” offered Applebloom.
“Eeyup. Ah'm sure you'd like to explain why you're stealing cider from mah own cellar.” He glared at them, “Wheres yer families? Ah'll make sure they understand what's going on down here.”
Tate was about to offer an explanation, but nothing could probably convince the stallion that they were actually traveling through time and were just looking for a friend when they found themselves surrounded by thirst quenching cider. Seeing their avoidance of the question, the stallion spoke again, “Ah. runaways or something like that? Well Ah don't take to kindly to stealin', but seeing as it's Zap Apple season anyways, Ah'll be sure to get yer payment out of you one way or another. Y'all can stay here for the night and work it off tomorrow”
He led them outside, where it had grown dark already, and into the barn. He tossed some hay from a pile onto the floor.
“Like Ah said, Y'all can stay here for now, Ah doubt yer in any state to run off anyhow.” He chuckled, “Ah'll be back tomorrow to make sure, and then yall can get to work. Best get to sleep now, it's gonna be a long day tomorrow.”
He left them there, and shut the barn door behind them. It was true, they were far too tired to even consider running away. Tate could have just paid for the cider, but he decided he could do that tomorrow if necessary.
“Sorry Tate, Ah figured they wouldn't find us down there.”
“It's alright I guess. At least we got a free room for the night.”
Applebloom laughed, “You'll hardly be saying this room was free once yer done tomorrow. Ah'm sure they're gonna put us to work!”
They both decided going to sleep was a smart idea, so they laid themselves by the pile of hay.
***
Apples. That was all Tate could think of. He whispered “Apple” in his head. He tasted Apples. He smelled the smell of Apples. He dreamed of the most red, delicious, beautiful apple in history. He took a bite of the apple and- “CLANG! Up and at 'em sleepy heads!”
Tate opened his eyes, and hurriedly spit out the strands of his friends Apple cider soaked mane. He scampered away from his drowsy friend and struggled to get out of his pile of hay. He must have rolled over in his sleep. Either way, he was glad Applebloom was clearly unconscious still. That changed when another Clanging noise sounded from the front of the Barn. She sprang to her hooves and hopped onto the top of the pile of hay/
“Move yer caboose! Get to feeding the pigs and then come on inside and help yerself to some pancakes.”
He looked up and over at the barn doors. Standing there was an green mare, who looked strangely familiar, although he couldn't quite place it.
“GRANNY SMITH!” Applebloom did the recognizing for him. She jumped up and had barely stopped herself from leaping onto Granny Smith before realizing she was probably a complete stranger to the green mare who was no older than Applejack.
“Uh, hello there! Anyways just get a move on and Ah'll see you all back in the house when yer done. We've got a full day of Zap Apple chores to get to.” Granny Smith exited the barn.
Tate caught up to Applebloom, who showed him to where the pigs were. As it turned out not much had changed on the farm in all the years it had been there. Once they finished with that they headed back to the farmhouse.
“Ah thought Ah told you to make pancakes! What is this?!” Tate and Applebloom hurried in the house.
A pink mare simply smiled, “Cupcakes! Everypony loves cupcakes! They're like pancakes except better! I even added some of your apples to them!”
“PINKIE PIE!” Applebloom and Tate shouted. They ran over to where she was standing.
Pinkie Pie looked over and gasped, “Hi Applebloom and Tate! I thought you were off fighting Mr. McMeanypants Discord!” Pinkie bounced over to the pair of young ponies and gave them a
Tate laughed, “It's kind of hard to do that without the elements of Harmony Pinkie. We're still looking for everypony else.”
The Stallion who had found Tate and Applebloom the night before walked up to them, “You know these kids, Pinkie?”
Pinkie Pie giggled, “Yup! Applebloom's grandmother is actually-Mmph!”
Tate and Applebloom both reached to cover Pinkie's mouth, “Uh, mah Grandma is, uh, good friends with Pinkie! Yeah! They share recipes sometimes.”
The stallion looked a little skeptical of them, but decided not to push it. “Well Pinkie here sure is one of the best cooks Ah've ever had the pleasure to meet! These cupcakes are better than any pancake Ah've ever tasted!”
Pinkie Pie just smiled, “I just love Cupcakes! So are these the kids you said you found in the cellar yesterday?”
“The very same. Good thing Ah didn't catch them getting into any of the stronger stuff, or they wouldn't have had it so easy in the barn last night.”
Tate was about to say something about the barn not being that great either, but decided against it, “We're sorry about that sir, we were just looking for Pinkie here and got carried away, I have the bits to pay for the cider right here.”
“Well why didn't you say so last night?” The large Stallion snorted.
Tate gave the Stallion the bits and took a cupcake offered to him by Pinkie. He and Applebloom sat down at the table and waited for Pinkie to join them.
“So, whats the plan now, Tate?”
Tate shrugged, and helped himself to another Cupcake, “I don't know, to be honest. I hoped that whoever we found here would have some clues.”
Pinkie grabbed a plate full of cupcakes and bounced into a chair right in between Applebloom and Tate. “Pinkie, you wouldn't happen to have any idea where we should go to next do you?”
Pinkie wolfed down a cupcake before responding, “Sure do!” Pinkie flipped him a piece of paper. “Can't we wait until after Zap Apple harvest though? I promised I'd help make some Zap Apple jam with Granny Smith.”
Tate shook his head, “Sorry Pinkie, but every second wasted is another second Discord gets stronger!”
Pinkie Pie frowned, “Well, can't I stay here then? Won't it be easier for just the two of you to go?”
Tate shrugged, “If you want to Pinkie. We can just send everypony we find back here your way.”
“Okie-Dokie-Lokie!”
Tate and Applebloom said goodbye to Pinkie and the Apple family and walked outside. They waved goodbye to the farm workers and Granny Smith as they headed for the gates.
“That wasn't so hard! Ah bet we'll be done by this time tomorrow if everypony is as easy to find as Pinkie. Ah mean, all we have to do is teleport all across Equestria, teleport a bunch of ponies over here, and then teleport them over to go have mah sis' an all her friends go zap Discord, an then we'll be Heros! Maybe we, uh, Ah mean, maybe that;s mah Cutie Mark! Being a Hero!” Tate cringed at the thought of using that much magic while his horn was still recovering. He was going to need a long nap after teleporting eight ponies back to his time area, that was for sure.
Tate open the gate and followed Applebloom through it, starting down the road. “What would that even look like?” They thought about it for a minute, but neither of them had an idea.
Once out of view of the barn, Tate suddenly grabbed Applebloom by surprise and teleported them away in a flash of light.
