The gala was now winding down with minimal mayhem having been achieved. Soon, the lights would dim and the whole shebang would transition to a sort of after-party, a post-party fête for heroes. Kisses had been exchanged. Dances had been danced. Punch had been drank. Love, tender and new, had been professed. Hearts had been broken and with luck, none of the rebuffed or refused would grow up to become the next generation of villains. Since Gosling was still busy with his task and would be for a few hours more, a decision had been made to keep the party going.
As for Gosling himself, by Celestia’s eyes, he was having himself a great time. He was a pony in his element and she wondered—just for one deranged moment—what Gosling and Pinkie Pie might do to a party if left to their own devices. It would, of course, be chaos, but a little chaos was a good thing. Gosling’s line had changed; the youngest foals had been replaced with somewhat older foals, ones far less timid and whole lot more outgoing.
With the breaks that had been taken and the sedate pace of transitions, Celestia figured that he’d be going for at least another three hours, maybe longer. In the middle of the ballroom, Rainbow Dash was pulling and tugging on an adorable, flustered Twilight Sparkle, flinging her about in some new, fashionable dance that Celestia did not understand. Twilight bore it all with good grace, even though it was obvious that this was not her prefered method of dancing.
In a somewhat more awkward display, Applejack danced with Fluttershy and was trying to show the gathered foals ‘how it was done.’ Where Twilight had quiet grace and dignity, Fluttershy had shyness and more squeaks than a newly-wedded couples’ mattress. Applejack lavished Fluttershy with the sort of warm, intimate affection that existed between those who had been close for a long time, a sight that warmed Celestia’s heart. Only the occasional nervous giggle that slipped out of Fluttershy revealed that she was having a good time.
It took all of Celestia’s effort to hide her limp and she knew that Twilight had to be suffering as well. Several thumpity-bumpity hearts all throbbed down in her fetlock and hoof—a condition that demanded icing—but that would have to come later. For now, each step was agony and a struggle not to keep her face serene, calm, and tranquil.
Beans and Toast had given up on having fun and were now wrangling the line to meet Gosling. Celestia was both proud of them and disappointed; proud for showing initiative and disappointed that they had given up their night of fun. In the pair of them, she saw future Ravens, little workaholics—ponies who would run the empire. Behind every good ruler were even better assistants, and Gosling had the best assistants. Now, all he had to do was spread his wings and succeed.
Celestia could no longer hold any doubts; Gosling had the right stuff, at least he would with time and maturity. Now, he just needed to prove himself. Cadance, dear, sweet Cadance, she had quite an eye for talent. Somehow, everything had come together. With a sweeping turn of her head, Celestia looked over to where Cadance was engaged in a slow dance with Shining Armor. The music was all wrong for this sort of dance, not that it mattered. Several foals were following the example of Cadance and Shining Armor, and watching them, Celestia felt an ache in her heart. The pony she wanted to dance with was busy. Perhaps later… but later was always a quirky, fickle thing, insubstantial and unreachable. Something always came up that pushed the boundaries of what later was and when later would be. Much of Celestia’s personal life was a later, something that she always intended to do but was always having to reschedule.
With a sigh, Celestia resigned herself to later.
The sugary, fruity punch revived Gosling like nothing else and after chugging down several glasses, he now stood chewing on a half-melted hunk of ice while taking a short break. These short breaks were getting a little more frequent now, and if this kept up, he’d finish up sometime around midnight, if he was lucky. A new line was getting settled in and Seville was hard at work interviewing an intellectual-looking colt with thick, oversized glasses.
Some of these foals had more than one ticket, much to the consternation of their peers, and there had been some whining about how unfair it was—especially when Gosling spent five whole minutes with one lucky, privileged filly. She was charming in her own way, had a cutie mark that showed medical interest, and was already in pre-med preparation classes. During the dance, the filly had whined a great deal about the fact that her father could not buy her a princess title, and how that was just wrong.
“You know, you and Twilight are gonna make the cutest little foals together.”
Lifting his head from his punch cup, Gosling stared at Rainbow Dash for only but a moment before a troublemaker’s grin spread over his face. A nearby foal also seemed to take notice of Rainbow Dash, and watched as the rainbow maned pegasus moved closer to Gosling. The little blue mare was just that, little, lithe, with a body made for speed. Even with her shorter wingspan, Gosling envied her just the tiniest bit, because every pegasus wanted to be both fast and pretty.
“I’m barely responsible enough to look after a tortoise and a few foals that I play big sister to, and I can’t even imagine settling down to raise a family. It’s kinda awesome that Twilight is settling down with you, Princess Celestia, and Princess Luna. If you don’t mind me asking, don’t you think that you are hogging the alicorns?”
“Well,” Gosling replied while he did his best to play it straight, “it’s hard to stop with just one.” Lowering his voice to a mere considerate whisper, he added, “They’re kinda awesome in the sack, as you might imagine.”
“Really?” The sheer volume of Rainbow Dash’s voice caused several dozen heads to turn and look in her direction. After a few tense seconds, Rainbow’s wings sprang out from her sides, rigid as steel poles, and the mare stood scuffling her front hooves together while chewing on her lower lip. “I bet I could match an alicorn’s endurance and athleticism.”
Now, it was a fight to play it straight and Gosling’s lips pressed into a tight, thin, straight line while deep furrows appeared just below the white spot on his brow. “Are you looking to join the platonic relationship I have with Twilight?”
“No!” Rainbow Dash blurted out. “I don’t know…” She continued rubbing her front legs together in a strange display of confidence and shyness. “Maybe? Princess Luna, she’s kinda, well, you know… hawt. Hawt with a double-yubble-yew. And uh, you’re not so bad yourself. Uh, good things come in threes. Sometimes even together. Um, yeah. Threes.”
Nearby, the foal eyeballing Rainbow Dash snorted and had one incredibly sour expression.
The joke had gone too far and with a sigh, Gosling knew that he needed to extricate himself from this trouble before it became a scandal of epic proportions. “Miss Dash, while I am flattered by your attention, I must insist that you go and ask Twilight what the word ‘platonic’ means. Also, I must return to my task.”
“Right, right, of course. Thanks.” Rainbow Dash blinked a few times and then stood there, looking both confused and a bit dejected. “Um, thanks.” Perhaps not knowing what else to say, Rainbow turned about, flicked her tail in a flirtsome way, and then strode off, regaining her confidence with every step taken.
The nearby foal, a colt, let out a final snort and watched as Rainbow departed.
Meanwhile, with a sigh of regret, Gosling made ready to return to his over-eager public.
“There’s this colt I like a whole lot and like, I don’t know how to talk to him or to like, you know, get his attention.” The filly’s breath smelled like bubblegum and her lips were stained from punch. “It’s like, so hard, and I’ve tried all of the stuff my friends have suggested, but nothing has worked.”
In his most neutral voice, Gosling responded with, “And what did your friends suggest?”
“Like, to ignore him and play hard to get.”
“And for some reason, he doesn’t seem to know that you exist?”
“Yeah! Oh my gosh! How did you know? Are you some kind of relationship guru?”
“Hmm,” Gosling hmmed, and he gave some consideration as to what to say next.
“I mean, I’ve really, really ignored him and I’ve played super-hard to get, and I swear, it’s like he doesn’t even know that I exist for some reason! Like, oh my gosh!”
“My advice? Go talk to him. Tell him how you feel. Ask him to dance—”
“But if I do that I’ll look like such an uncool dork!”
“Maybe.” Gosling summoned his patience, drew in a deep breath, and looked the filly right in her glass-green eyes. Each second mattered when there was only sixty of them and time was slipping away with each passing breath. “Look, he has absolutely no way of knowing that you’re interested or that you like him until you tell him. How could he possibly know? Your friends gave you terrible, stupid advice, and if you worry about peer pressure and looking like an uncool dork, he will never, ever take notice of you. You have to take a risk and talk to him.”
“But what if he says no and I look like a spaz?” The filly, bewildered, gave Gosling an imploring, pleading stare. “I don’t want the whole school laughing at me.”
“Some risks are worth taking and honestly, you worry too much. I’m pretty sure that most of the school doesn’t care about you in the slightest—”
“But, like, I’m pretty and popular!”
“And yet, somehow, this colt you’re crazy about doesn’t even have the slightest clue that you exist. What does this tell you?”
Shaking her head, her eyes wide, the filly took a step back, blinked, and just as she was about to say something, the bell dinged. A wordless whine escaped her lips, a sound of protest, and she gave her head a far more vigourous shake. She blinked once, twice, thrice, and then, looking right at Gosling, she gave him a nod.
“Thanks. I need new friends.” Then, without another word, she was gone.
The colt was somehow too timid and too close at the same time. No dance had been initiated, and Gosling got the feeling that this one would be another talker. With each drawn breath there was a faint squeak, and the colt took one step closer. It took all of Gosling’s willpower not to take one step backward when the colt leaned in a little bit more and began to whisper.
“IreallyhaveacrushonyouandbecauseofyouI’vecometounderstandthatI’mgay.”
It took Gosling several long seconds to process what the colt had blurted out, and he wasn’t sure he had it all. He did have the gist of it though, and had lost track of just how many colts had confessed their crushes on him this evening. Reaching out with one wing, he placed it over the unicorn colt’s neck, and then just stood there, listening.
“You’re really very pretty and for the longest time, I wasn’t sure. Other colts kept catching my eye, but I had some doubts and I’ve spent almost a year dealing with this. Then I saw you a few times, and it woke something up in me, and that’s when I knew… I just knew.”
“Knew what, exactly?” Gosling asked while he stood nose to nose with the smaller colt. “What did you realise?”
“That I was queer for pegasus colts,” the unicorn whispered back in response. “Those wings… are fabulous and they just leave me hot and bothered. I feel so much better telling you this and I’ve been really scared about this for a while now. Because I worked up the courage to tell you, I think I can tell my parents now. At least, I hope. I’ve been so scared. My mother, she keeps trying to play matchmaker. I’m about to turn ten and she says I’m getting to that age. Once I turn ten, I’ve only got four more years left, my mother keeps saying, and time is running out.”
With a sigh, Gosling understood and he gave the colt a knowing nod. “You need to tell your mother the truth… now… as soon as possible. She might need some time to adjust. And don’t worry, no matter what she says, she probably won’t die, no matter how many times she might repeat those words. If she gets upset, tell her that she’s getting two sons to fret over and hopefully, once that sinks in, she should be fine.”
“Okay!” The colt’s voice became a high-pitched shrill squeak. “I’m gonna do it! I’m gonna tell my parents! I’ll do it over winter break now that school has let out.” For a moment, the colt’s eyes went glassy, but he blinked a few times until they were clear again. “You’re the best!”
And then, before the bell could go ding, the colt pronked away.