With a groggy sounding yawn, Gosling pulled himself out of bed. His mouth felt dry and something down deep in his ears ached just a little. He yawned again, something in his ear popped, and the ache subsided just a bit. He stumbled, his legs were not yet as awake as the rest of him, but then recovered before he crashed to the floor.
He stretched, extending his wings, gave himself a shake, and then decided that he was in desperate need of coffee. Pausing, he took a moment to get his bearings. How long had he been asleep? He didn’t know. It was now mid morning, approaching noon. As he stood there, his stomach growled, reminding him to get moving, and that some food of some sort might be nice with the coffee.
Pushing open the door, he exited his tiny but comfortable guest room, took a moment to get oriented in the hall, and tried to remember where things were located. He took off, flexing and moving his lower jaw, trying to get his ears to pop again just to see if he could. The pain and the dizziness wasn’t so bad—more than anything, it was a reminder to take things slow and deal with the things in his life that caused stress.
The hall was quiet and appeared to be deserted. There was no noise, no sound of voices, no sounds of life. It was a quiet, peaceful place, perfect for a weary, tired soldier in need of sleep. Sounds were strange here, perhaps because of the crystal floors and walls. The clicking sounds of his hooves on the floor had volume, but also seemed muffled. It was a strange effect.
In a small but luxurious sitting room, Gosling found Hotspur, Hush, and Seville. Hush was reading a newspaper, a pair of bifocals with somewhat darkened lenses sat upon his nose and he appeared to be rather studious looking. He had a raised eyebrow and read whatever it was he was reading with great interest.
Hotspur looked up when Gosling entered, gave a nod, and then gestured with his hoof over at a small, ornate silver bell sitting on a well carved wooden table. With no helmet on, streaks of grey were visible in Hotspur’s mane. His neck, face, and his back bore several scars, reminders of gashes, lacerations, burns, acid exposure, and bites.
Sitting on the floor, Seville had his notes spread out all around him. A look of intense concentration was upon his face as he organised everything. The earth pony was so focused on his task that he didn’t even acknowledge Gosling’s presence, which was fine.
Gosling strolled through the room, went to where the bell was, lifted it, and gave it a ring. He then put it down, turned about and faced Hotspur, who was clearing his throat, no doubt to get Gosling’s attention.
“Hey, yous,” Hotspur said as Gosling faced him.
“Did you get a promotion?” Gosling asked.
“Yeah, I did.” Hotspur’s face almost had a scowl on it for a second, but it softened into something else, some unknown expression. “I wanted to say thank yous, Gosling, for keeping me from making a mistake. That was good of yous.”
Gosling nodded and hoped that this wouldn’t turn into a heavy conversation. He wasn’t awake enough yet to handle soul searching or a complex discussion of ethics. He could see that Hotspur was struggling to say something, and he waited.
“I told Shining Armor everything. I was honest, real honest about everything. He still promoted me. Said I saved lives and did a service to my country. He reminded me that a good leader listens to his troops.” Hotspur’s gaze dropped down to the floor and he no longer looked at Gosling. Shaking his head, he let out a sigh. “I am now Watch Captain Hotspur. Shining Armor insists that he’ll make a Major out of me.”
“Is that what you want?” Gosling asked.
“I’m just a pony trying to pay off his debt,” Hotspur replied, “I never expected that I’d find my true calling in life while being punished for what I did. I’m actually having trouble taking it all in… I did a bad thing… that can’t be denied… and I deserved to be punished… that also can’t be denied… but because of that bad thing I did, I am now a decorated officer. I am respected. And even though I almost made a mistake, things worked out for me. I feel like I owe yous, Gosling.”
“Hey, what are friends for, right?” Gosling gave Hotspur a broad grin.
Rattling his newspaper, Hush snorted.
“Need something?” A maid seemed to materialise out of the nothing.
Startled, Gosling whirled to face the maid. She was small, a bit short, somewhat chubby, and she glowed. Something about the crystal ponies fascinated him to no end. After a moment, he realised that he was staring and he hoped that the maid didn’t get the wrong idea.
“I’m starving and I need coffee,” Gosling said to the small, chubby, glowing mare.
The little mare nodded. “Come with me.”
“Gosling, before you go…”
“Yeah, Hotspur?”
“Thank yous.”
“Don’t mention it, Hotspur.”
After wiping out a dozen scrambled eggs, Gosling grabbed the box of Frosted Mini-Bales. He had asked for some sweet cereal and this is what he got. Some old pony’s cereal with frosting on it. He was too hungry to care.
Tiny bales of wheat and hay, frosted to perfection!
Flipping the box around, he poured some into his bowl, let out a wordless whine at how small the bowl was—it was going to take a half a dozen bowls to fill him up—and then poured some milk into his cereal. It was like he hadn’t even eaten before going to sleep. He grabbed up a spoon and began to devour his breakfast while steam curled up out of his cup of coffee.
Bored, needing something to read, Gosling flipped the box around so he could amuse himself with something. That something was the nutritional information. There wasn’t much to be amused about. He found himself missing the cereal boxes of his youth. There were mazes, fun pictures, Wonderbolts promotional stuff, promises of free toys and prizes.
The back of this box had the words ‘220% OF YOUR DAILY RECOMMENDED FIBRE INTAKE!’ in big bold letters. That was a lot of fronking fibre to be sucking down. This was what was passed off as a foal’s cereal now? Frosted Mini-Bales… if he had eaten this as a foal, he’s spend all day farting in class and would probably get detention. His mother would then tan his backside, and it was the cereal selection that would be to blame.
He felt somewhat worried about the fact that the serving size was one cup and he now understood why his bowl was so small. There was a moment of intense hesitation as he thought about eating more than one serving. Two bowls would be four hundred and forty percent of his daily recommend fibre intake. This cereal didn’t need a toy or a prize in the box, it needed a fronking book to keep him occupied while he was stuck on the head, which he was sure to be if he kept eating.
Deciding to live dangerously, Gosling poured another bowl of cereal when he finished off the first. He was tucking into it when the door opened, and a white head poked its way into the dining room.
“At ease,” Shining Armor said as he stepped through the doorway. He moved with smooth confidence and easy, almost lithe grace. He had the fluid walk of a guard that had spent much of his time on patrol. “Doing okay, Gosling?”
“Just wrecking my colon,” Gosling replied as he gestured at the cereal box.
There were several long seconds where Shining Armor tried to keep his composure, it was a mighty struggle—he even bit his lip—but he failed. He began sniggering and snorting. His sides heaved and then, Shining Armor began laughing.
“Gonna be a long flight home,” Gosling remarked just before cramming a spoon loaded with cereal into his mouth.
“You’ll be getting some laurels for this.” Shining Armor pulled himself together. His eyes still had a merry twinkle and held the promise of laughter, but his face looked stern and serious. “You did well, Gosling. I do believe that a promotion is in order, but that will be dealt with later. As it is right now, your future is uncertain. S.M.I.L.E. has shown an interest in you as a somewhat public face. It’s complicated. Various intelligence branches want you.”
“Anypony curious about what I want?” Gosling asked in a soft voice.
“And what do you want, Gosling?” Shining Armor sounded sincere and not at all patronising.
“I want to fight this war that seems to be happening,” Gosling replied. “I want to go back to school and study history… if I can’t understand the mistakes of our past, then I can’t help fix our future. I want to lead an army to fight our real enemy… things like poverty, a lack of education, those things… there’s a lot of disenfranchised ponies out there, Shining Armor, and so long as these problems persist, so long as the system stays broken, those bastards that attacked the train are always gonna have some sway over others. We gotta deal with the root of the issues and make the common pony feel good about serving the sisters again.”
“And you believe that the guard should be a part of this?” Shining Armor’s eyes glittered with curiousity.
“Yes,” Gosling replied without hesitation. “I swore an oath to defend Equestria against all threats. The conditions of the inner city, poverty, this feeling of desperation that some ponies have, the feeling that there ain’t no future, that’s a threat to us. We need an army to fight it. Perhaps a civilian branch, but we need the same level of organisation and discipline that the guard can provide.”
After a moment of silence, Shining Armor nodded. “I find myself in agreement. And you, you would lead this army dedicated to the cause of civil service?”
Gosling pointed his spoon at Shining Armor and his eyes narrowed into a hawkish squint. “Damn right I would. I pledged my life to the service of this country. Right now, my country needs me. Something is rotten… we have enemies all around us. And you wanna know what they are?”
Shining Armor waited.
“It’s little colts and fillies that go to school in the mornings hungry and have to wait till lunch before they eat. It’s hard to pay attention in class when you're that hungry. You never had to worry about it, but for many of us, that’s the reality. Food in the big city is expensive. Sometimes, school lunch was the only meal I had. Ma tried, she did… and there were times when she skipped a few meals just to make certain that I had something. There was lean times and good times, depending on the job she had.” Gosling’s ears drooped and he shook his head. “There were a lot more lean times than good times though.”
“I’m sorry,” Shining Armor said in a low voice.
“It shouldn’t be like that.” Gosling’s ears stood up and his anger became visible on his face. Several deep furrows appeared upon his brow and his eyebrows formed a incensed ‘V’ over his eyes. “No doubt, these extremists are gaining favour and followers by offering food and services to the desperate. If we don’t address these social issues, things are gonna get worse.”
“I agree.” Shining Armor shifted his weight from his right hooves to his left hooves.
“Now, I understand that not everypony wants to join the guard… but if not the guard, maybe we can have some kind of alternative civilian service. Some kind of civil service corps that will offer everything the guard does… food, shelter, all of your needs provided for, but instead of boot camp, there’s stuff like job training, education, counselling to help some of those troubled inner city types like myself get straightened out. And once this army grows, as it gains members, those members can help more ponies.”
“So you are proposing a purely civilian alternative to the guard for ponies to join.”
“Yeah.”
“Fascinating.” Shining Armor cleared his throat and then changed the subject. “Thank you, by the way, for being patient with Flurry. She can be a real test of a pony’s patience.”
“She didn’t bother me.”
“That’s nice of you to say.”
“No, really, I had fun with her. She didn’t bother me. Not in the least.”
“Really?”
“Really.”
For several seconds, Shining Armor did nothing but blink. Once he recovered his wits, he said, “Well, I don’t know what to say.” Shining Armor shifted on his hooves again. “Cadance was rather upset. She grumbled for quite some time about how you were going to get yours. She doesn’t know what you were thinking making a melon helmet. I got in trouble for laughing.”
Hearing this, Gosling chortled.
“I’d imagine that Princess Celestia might put you in the stocks if you did something like that after your foals just had a bath. Just a word of caution from an experienced father like myself.”
Nodding, Gosling replied, “We’ll have to look out for one another.”
“Gosling…”
“Yeah?”
“I’ll see what I can do about making this civil service corps idea of yours a reality. I think you’re right. We need to re-evaluate our priorities if we want to win this war. And make no mistake, we’re at war. But this isn’t a war that can be fought in the traditional sense.”
“Thank you.”
“I’ll leave you to your breakfast.” Shining Armor paused. “And one more thing. You’ll be flying back to Canterlot with an escort. Think you’ll be up for the return trip today, or should I schedule it for tomorrow?”
“My princesses need me,” Gosling replied.
Both stallions turned their head as the door opened. Cadance entered the room, looking a bit frazzled, but smiling. She lowered her head a bit, nosed her husband, and then drawing herself back up to her full height, she addressed Gosling.
“They most certainly do. Gosling, I have an assignment for you.”
Giving Cadance his full attention, Gosling waited.
“Don’t get any lewd ideas, you strutting peacock, but I want you to write romance reports.” Cadance’s eyes narrowed somewhat and before Gosling could say anything, she continued, “Think of them as being like a friendship report. Share what you’ve learned. Share how you’ve grown. Share your discoveries. Can you do this? And I mean it! Nothing lewd!”
Knowing there was a time and a place for everything, Gosling decided it was time to be serious. “I can do that. I’m not sure what to write, or how to write it, but I’ll give it some thought and do my best.” After a moment, he added, “So, uh, how long will I be doing this assignment?”
Cadance’s ears splayed out sideways and her expression became unreadable. She stared at Gosling, her gaze intense, and after several seconds, she tilted her head off to one side. “These romance reports will continue until the time when you can get Princess Luna to say that she loves you. Then there will be an evaluation to determine if they shall continue.”
“What?” Gosling shook his head. “What?”
“She has a wounded heart. It will be a most difficult, if not outright impossible task. You might spend the rest of your life trying to achieve this. The point is, I want you to try. Luna needs to realise that she is worthy of love. And you, my strutting peacock pony, are going to try and woo her.”
“Um…”
“Good luck, Gosling.” Cadance turned to look at her husband. “Come, let us have an early lunch.”
“This is because of the melon helmet, isn’t it?” Gosling asked.
A dangerous grin appeared upon Cadance’s face but she did not reply. She turned to leave, nudging Shining Armor so he would come along with her. She strutted out of the room, radiating an aura of triumph. When she and Shining Armor were gone, Gosling was left alone with his now soggy Frosted Mini-Bales.
“Aw, nuts!” Gosling snapped as he stabbed his spoon into his bowl and splashed milk all over the table. “What’s wrong with just being friends?” he asked the now empty room around him. He stabbed his cereal again with his spoon.
“Well... fronk… nothin’ to it but to do it…”