The front door slammed shut and Gale stumbled down the hallway. A CadGo bag hung from one wing. He came around the corner to the living room where he found Call Sign and Thunder Hoof sitting on the couch.
“Gale,” Sign called out. “You’re back. Did you have any luck finding another job?”
Gale set the bag down on a table with a thunk. “Funny you should ask that,” he replied, words slurring slightly, “turns out luck has nothing to do with it.”
Thunder Hoof sat up at that. “Have you been drinking, Gale?”
“Only a little. See, Darach, remember him? Darach got a job at the station over in Ponyville. So I asked if he’d give me a recommendation there. Of course he said he would. So imagine my reaction today when he called me and said the manager laughed at the suggestion.”
Call Sign stood up from the couch. “Laughed? You were the best host we had, and a good technician. If anything, the other stations should be fighting over you.”
“You’d think that.” Gale pulled a whiskey bottle from the bag and set it on the table, it had clearly been opened already and was missing a notable amount. “Darach thought it was strange too, started poking around. And do you know what he found? That I’m blacklisted.” He twisted the cap off the bottle and took another drink. “Apparently Glass Mountain is worried I’ll do the same thing you did.”
Call Sign stood there in shock but Thunder’s voice cut through the silence as he crossed the room. “Gale, how much of that have you had?”
“I can still think, so not enough.”
He laid a hoof on Gale’s shoulder. “Why don’t you give me the bottle, we’ll get you some dinner and we can talk this out. Okay?”
“If you want some, grab a glass but I intend to finish this bottle tonight.”
Call Sign shook the fog from his mind and joined Thunder at Gale’s other side. “Gale, I’m sorry. You… you know I didn’t mean for any of that to affect you.”
“Wasn’t your fault, I wasn’t exactly quiet about supporting you. And now I’m never gonna work in radio again.” He grabbed the bottle again but Thunder put a hoof on it. Gale looked up at the older pegasus and, with a shaky voice, pleaded, “Don’t, please don’t. I’ve already had too much taken from me tonight.”
“Gale, trust me you don’t want to go down this path,” he responded. “I’ve seen where it ends and it’s nowhere good. Please, give me the bottle.”
Gale released it and slumped over in his seat. Thunder quickly tucked the bottle up in a cabinet out of sight and the two older stallions pulled up chairs next to Gale, each laying a leg across his shoulders. “Gale,” started Sign, “we can find something for you, we can get through this. I’ll try and find another independent station or something for you.”
“I already looked, we were practically the last holdouts. This job was my calling Sign, this was something I could do. Now that’s all gone. Now there’s nothing.” He stood up and shook off Thunder and Sign’s legs from his back. “If you won’t let me drink I’m going to bed.” He left down the hallway towards his shared room.
The older stallions shared a look, they knew that tone from Gale. “Call Haki, tell him to get home,” said Sign. “I’ll keep Gale occupied.”
Thunder nodded and pulled out his phone as Sign set off after Gale.
He reached the door but found it locked. “Gale?” He knocked on the door. “Gale, can we talk?” When he received no response he continued, “Gale I know it looks dark but we can fix things. We can find something for you. Please open the door.” Still no response, he lit his horn and reached through the door. He fumbled with the latch for a moment before it popped open and he swung the door wide.
Gale stood on the bed. A scarf was tied around his neck and he was trying to fix the other end of it to the disused ceiling fan. But he froze as Call Sign entered.
Sign’s voice shook. “Gale, please put that down. I promise you this isn’t that bad.”
“Of course you’d say that, your career was already ending. Mine was just starting and it’s already over.”
“That doesn’t have to mean your life has to end.”
“It already has!” he shouted back.
Call Sign slowly walked towards the bed. “Gale, please don’t do this. At least let me try and find something for you.”
“You already did everything you could for me. I’m sorry.” He turned back to the fan but before he could act there was a burst of motion and light. The scarf was torn away in Sign’s magic and the unicorn had grabbed his front legs and knocked him on his side, pinning him against the bed. “Fucking, get off of me, just let it end already.”
“No Gale, I’m sorry. I swore I would keep you alive and dammit I will.”
A half hour had passed, Haki had arrived home and the four stallions now sat around the table again. Gale was slumped over the table, crying into his hooves. Haki sat beside him, his front legs wrapped around Gale. Call Sign and Thunder Hoof flanked the young couple. Around them on the table sat several take out cartons that Thunder had gone out for. They had encouraged Gale to eat but he had barely touched any between bouts of sobbing.
As the crying tapered off Call Sign pushed a glass of water towards Gale, which he gulped down. “Ready to talk?” the unicorn asked?
“Y-yeah, Sorry.”
Thunder Hoof passed one of the cartons to him. “First, try and eat some more, it really will help.”
As Gale started to eat, Call Sign spoke, “Gale, I promise I will find you something. It’s not fair that my actions have affected you like this, and I will find a way to fix this.”