“Wait!”
Gosling wobbled after Celestia, his head swimming, and he could feel his legs betraying him. He didn’t care. He unfurled his wings, trying to use them for balance, flapping them as he went down the hall after the one he loved. She was making this difficult. Moving far too fast for his current condition, Gosling stumbled.
He saw the floor rushing up to meet his face and he squeezed his eyes shut, preparing for impact when his snoot was scant inches away. The impact never came. He felt the warm tingle of magic all around him. He opened one eye and saw the floor a few inches away. He opened the other eye and found himself being lifted. In moments, he was at Celestia’s eye level. She had tears streaming down her cheeks.
Not knowing what else to do, he extended his neck and bumped his snoot against hers. Touching her, he felt a spark. He stretched out his lips and gave her a peck and then he found himself crushed against her, pressed against her front and her neck.
“I do need help,” Celestia said in a low voice that was more of a sob than anything.
Suspended in the air, Gosling wiggled around until he had his forelegs around Celestia’s neck. He nuzzled her neck in what he hoped was an encouraging way and the big mare sat down upon the floor. He felt his own backside lowered down and with a gentle impact, he was sat down upon the floor with her.
“I need to be taking care of things and here I am crying.” Celestia wrapped a foreleg around Gosling, over his back, and pulled him close. “I’m sorry… I don’t know what came over me. I’ve been so emotional lately… my emotions are so raw and unfiltered. They’re overwhelming… I just sort of kept everything under control and didn’t allow myself to feel much of anything and then you came along and I started feeling things again, I mean really feeling things and now everything is overwhelming!” Celestia snargled, a snorting gargle, sucking in air through her nostrils as she tried to clear snot from her nose, and it made a disgusting sound.
“I’ve been there,” Gosling said, not knowing what else to say.
“You did a good thing, I’m proud of you.” Celestia snargled again, sounding very un-princesslike. “I think something is wrong with me for me to have placed so much of my own happiness into another pony.”
Pressed against his, Celestia’s body was warm, soft yet firm, and her scent permeated his mind, taking over his thoughts. Gosling pressed himself against her, needing her in a way that he didn’t understand, and he rubbed his neck against hers. The friction brought sparks and he felt Celestia warming in his embrace. He didn’t care that she was snotty. His brain screamed at him that this was a warm, willing mare and telegraphed a powerful need to the rest of his body through a series of jerky, twitchy convulsions that pinged through his limbs.
He knew what was happening, but didn’t care. He continued to rub himself against her, breathing her in, all while rubbing her body with his forelegs. He could feel her moving against him, shifting, one of her forelegs wrapped around him, the other bracing her bulk against the floor.
Almost high on sensation, Gosling allowed himself to go right to the very edge, the very brink, and then he lingered there. He nibbled on Celestia’s neck, just below her jaw, giving her little nibble-nips with his square, flat teeth. He felt her shudder against him, her breathing grew heavy, and the first hints of mare musk filled the air. Feathers ruffled as her wings unfurled and then flapped, their movements caused and controlled by Gosling’s nibble-nipping.
“If this keeps up, we’ll end up going at it on the floor,” Celestia whispered in a breathless voice. She drew in a deep, shivery breath. “I could lay on my back and have you on top of me… it makes the size difference a little easier to deal with, but some ponies think it is strange.”
It was difficult to listen; all Gosling could hear was the velvety rustling of his pelt and Celestia’s rubbing together, the delightful sounds of friction, the faint crackle of static that happened when two pegasi collided in all the right ways. His head was swimming, but he wasn’t sure of the cause. Nausea? Desire? Lust? Did it matter? He only heard a few of Celestia’s words and the most primal part of his mind gave it some real consideration. It wouldn’t be too hard to push her over, she was willing after all, and then take her in conquest.
Faced with the prospect of betraying his own values, Gosling’s inner voices manifested in the form of two tiny alicorns flying around his head, one white, one blue, circling as he continued to kiss and nibble. He could feel parts of him engorging with blood, which dulled his other senses and made his brain burn with a fever born of desire.
“You know you want to,” Tiny Luna said in a shrill voice.
“It would be wrong,” Tiny Celestia said as she shot her tinier sibling a look of disapproval. “Do the right thing, Gosling! Pull back! Remember what the right thing is! You’ve dedicated your life to it! Don’t blow everything now!”
Letting out a moan, Celestia’s hips bucked with need and she crushed Gosling to her. His own sense of need was becoming overwhelming. He pressed his snoot into the crook of her jaw, inhaled, and felt his own hips quiver as the need to mount became almost unbearable.
“Thou wouldst be a fool not to hit that!” Tiny Luna cried.
“She’s right, Gosling, Big Me is making that come mount me face… just shove her over and give her what she wants!” Tiny Celestia let out a hoot and a cheer. “I’m getting laid! If you’re worried about foals, just pull out and put your seed in the fallow field, if you know what I mean, and I think you do!” Tiny Celestia, a pervert, waggled her eyebrows and winked in a knowing fashion.
“Ooh, Sister, thou art a pervert… donkey style… really? Right in the a—”
There was a flash of pink that silenced Tiny Luna and a third alicorn appeared. “Begone, both of you!” Tiny Cadance had a scolding tone and she waved her hooves around at the two sisters. “Gosling, your entire sense of character is based upon your values! Do not betray yourself during this moment of temptation!”
With a grunt, Gosling pulled away and the three alicorns circling around his head vanished. He blinked, let out a needy moan, and then shook his head, trying to clear it. He wondered what was in those pills he was taking. He felt Celestia squeezing him, trying to pull him closer.
“I need a cold shower,” Gosling said, his words a pained groan. There was a fiery ache in his groin that needed cooling.
“And I think I need a colt shower,” Celestia added, her words breathy, “I need it to rain... in my dusty furrow… the fertile earth needs seed...”
“What?” Gosling asked, not certain what he had just heard. The sound in his ears was like a rushing, roaring river flowing.
“Oh, nothing,” Celestia replied in a breathless, heaving voice. “About that cold shower… let’s go take care of that. I’ll help you.”
“Gosling…” Celestia stepped out of the bathroom and into her chambers. She saw Gosling on her bed, preening his wings, and she felt her heart leap up into her throat. For a second, she thought that she might have to turn back around and get back into the shower. She watched him and saw that he was a little self conscious about the act still. They had preened one another a bit, shared a bed, but Gosling still had his moments were he was shy, for whatever reason. He was a creature of contradictions. He had preened himself in public after all. Perhaps he was just reacting to her. She felt a moist warmth blossoming through her nethers. She watched as he smoothed out a long silvery grey primary. The oily sheen of his saliva left behind a glistening rainbow when the light hit it just right. It would dry in time and the effect would be gone. Regular ponies seldom saw the hidden rainbows in pegasus wings.
“Gosling, darling, I’m very proud of you and what you did,” Celestia said as she struggled to compose herself. She cleared her throat and enjoyed the delightful cooling sensation of the moisture left in her pelt evapourating. “You thought of the foal and its needs.”
“It didn’t feel right to punish the foal for the sake of trying to punish its mother,” Gosling replied as he paused in his preening efforts for a moment. He shook his wing and examined his feathers. “It’s innocent. I tried to keep that in mind. It has done no wrong.” Shaking his head, he returned to his efforts to keep his wings perfect and pretty.
“You’re trying to keep them together.” Celestia approached her bed, moving with calm, slow deliberation, her head high. She was still struggling to regain her senses. Parts of her still burned like a desert needing rain. “Might I ask why?”
After tugging a bit on a feather and then smoothing it out, Gosling lifted his head so he could reply. He looked Celestia in the eye, blinked, his right ear twitched, and the corner of his mouth tugged downwards. “I really hate her after what she did to me. I didn’t do this for her. But that foal…” he paused, shook his head, drew in a deep breath, then continued, “that foal might straighten her out. I keep thinking about my Ma. My Ma gave up everything because she loved me and I loved her. You know, I never met my grandparents. When my Ma ended up pregnant out of wedlock, they disowned her. She doesn’t talk about it much.”
“Ponies can have some very strict traditions.” Celestia eased herself down onto her bed beside Gosling, but gave him enough room to keep preening. “I would imagine that it was hard on her.”
“My Ma said it from her own mouth… I was her only friend for the longest time. The only ears that listened to her and her troubles.” Gosling’s eyelids sank halfway down over his eyes and his gaze became unfocused. He started to say something, but remained silent. He went back to preening his wings.
“She had to drop out of school. I remember you saying that on our date. While we were blindfolded.” Celestia sucked in a deep breath and her sides expanded like bellows. The deep breath only stoked her own inner fires. She thought about pouncing Gosling and just taking him. The thought loomed large in the back of her mind. “Your mother had to drop out of school and then take whatever jobs she could just to take care of you.”
Gosling nodded and made a grunt.
“So, the way I see it, you learned from that, and you’re trying to make certain that Skyfire has it a little easier. She’ll have food and shelter.” Celestia’s brows furrowed as she felt a tightness in her loins. “She’ll learn a trade. Potentially, she’ll be able to go back to school herself. You’re using the guard as a social safety net.”
Pulling his mouth away from a feather, Gosling left behind a long ribbon of drool that stretched from his lower lip to his primary. “The guard is a social safety net. I mean, I thought that’s why it was set up the way that it is. The guard encompasses every major career available, from logistics and transportation, to mercantile, to telegraph operation. I thought it was intended to be that way.”
“It became that way,” Celestia replied, “but that wasn’t the intention. Seeing it the way you do though, it does certainly seem that it turned out that way. Perhaps it is time to raise more awareness about what the guard has to offer to ponies… that it is more than just protecting the castle.” Celestia was struck with a powerful idea. “Gosling, you and Seville… your friend… there is something I want from you.”
“Whassat?” Gosling asked as the ribbon of drool broke and little glittering droplets fell.
“I want you to sell the public on your image of how you see the guard. A place that you ran to so that you could find help. Tell them how you found yourself. Talk about the jobs available, the rewards of service, tell the public that it is a lot more than just being a soldier.”
“Well, I did ask for ponies to consider serving their country.” Gosling blinked a few times, thinking about Celestia’s words, and he nodded his head in a careful way, trying not to make himself dizzy. “When Skyfire is formally pardoned, if she accepts, I’ll get Seville and we’ll write out all of the relevant details about her pardon. Why I did it. Why single mothers should join the guard, and confused, messed up teenagers, and ponies that don’t know what to do with their lives. School drop outs that need direction—”
“We could experience a renaissance in the guard.” A hopeful smile spread over Celestia’s muzzle. She thought of the good that could be done if this worked out. “Ponies need to be reminded that the guard is more than rank and file soldiery.”
After nodding again, Gosling went back to preening his feathers while Celestia drew in a deep breath. As he preened, his eyes darted from his wing and then to the alicorn beside him, dividing his attention.
“Skyfire’s pardon could be used for the good of Equestria.” Celestia’s voice was faint, hopeful, and triumphant. “It might give ponies hope in the good that we are capable of. We could use this to give the guard a bit of an image makeover.”
There was a wet slurp as Gosling dragged his lips over an unruly feather.
“And no doubt, Cadance will use this opportunity to grow her army of therapists, counselors, and social workers—”
“We could create an entire wing of the guard dedicated to social services,” Gosling said as he jerked his head away from the feather receiving his attention. “Give Cadance structure and organisation. Call it the ‘love corps’ or sumptin.”
Nodding, Celestia began to see infinite possibility.
Man, if I had any artistic ability, I would try my hand at drawing a recruitment poster for the guard after that press release.
This song fits the chapter very well.
The Clinical Psychologist - Military Occupational Specialty 73B - is a Commissioned Officer of the United States Army responsible for seeing to the mental health needs of the Army, both soldiers and their families. They provide direct patient services including consultation and education to address emotional disturbances; investigation, evaluation and amelioration of mental and behavioral disorders; and the prevention of mental illness and promotion of effective mental health. Their ability to care for soldiers and dependents far exceeds what is available in the private sector with direct access to the latest training and research. And free trips to medical conferences to ensure the latest techniques and ideas are shared and made available to service members.
They certainly saved my life when I was in Iraq...
I think there is an actual 'Social Services' in the Medical Corps...
Oh goodness, this is the new German Bundeswehr campaign all over again. They tried so hard to make themselves look cool and young, no one could take them seriously. Than came the 'We are family friendly'-approach. See below.
Do not get me wrong, I'm on Gosling's side - this is a well of opportunities. But it can backfire in the most horrible ways if executed poorly.
If you portray the army as too friendly, it will be hard to take them as a credible battle force. Happened with the Bundeswehr when Mrs von der Leyen, minister of defense and former minister of family, extensively promoted family friendly working hours and daycare. Again, not per se a bad thing, but most responded with jokes á la Asterix in Britain.
warrantless.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/asterix.png
Mostly because it was very early after Mrs von der Leyen did change ministeries after a long time in her former and it made her look a bit... stubborn and out of her element.
I can think of two ways this can go for Gosling on the top of my head - he either gets ridiculed because of his age and/or psychological and physical problems or his lively story of how it worked for him is going to benefit.
I also wouldn't promote that 'social safety net' too prominently, it can make the guard look bad if all the ponies think when they see a guard is "Great, another one of these wastrels that can't get by otherwise.", not "That's a hounorable fellow protecting me and my family with his or her life." Especially if it gets known that Skyfire, the stupid teen filly of the century, joins the guard.
7232318
The guard faces a split. There will be a mil-corps and a civ-corps. The mil-corps will focus more on combat of course, while the civ-corps will focus on the non combat and civ friendly stuff. The 'social safety net.' You take care of your country, and your country takes care of you sort of thing.
7232333
I see. Sounds good.
I'm mostly concerned about the marketing backfiring somehow. The public eye is a very irritable one.
7232348
It will have detractors and the usual morons saying that that ponies who fall through the cracks of society should be allowed to sink or swim on their own.
......sounds kinky.
7232382
All across Equestria, the ears of various Apple clan members perk up.
Ha, i was worried when Tiny Cely turned. Good thing tiny Cadience showed up.
Could I make a suggestion/request?
Again, I absolutely adore this story, and I feel a little bad asking this, but...
As I'm reading it, Celestia loves Gosling, in part, for his dedication to his ideals. However, every time they are about to go too far, she's always egging him on--in this chapter, even giving him explicit instructions on how to make love to her.
(Possible exception--the twister game. She found a way to relieve(?) the tension, but, IIRC, it was Gosling who said "stop.")
I know we're rapidly closing in on the time when this won't be a problem anymore, but still--I'd love to see this dynamic working the other way. Like, at least once, I'd like to see Celestia be the one to realize that they're going too far and break it off. Yes, Celestia's emotionally compromised in this chapter (and thus gets a pass, this time), and, yes, she's lonely and in the middle of a millennium-long(?) dry spell, but, personally, I'd like to see her take a little better care of the thing she loves most about him--not to mention, to make sure he's comfortable and taken care of.
D'ya think there might be room for that sort of thing, Kudzu?
Thanks for reading, and thanks again for the story!!
7232467
And Tiny Twilight is waiting in the wings...
7232486
The whole point is, as stated, she needs help.
She's starved for attention and intimacy. She'll take it any way she can get it.
That's her flaw. Her shortcoming. It is the challenge she must overcome.
7232494
Ooo, gotcha--subtext. I hadn't thought of Celestia's mindset in those terms--only that she's, um, thirsty.
So, this being the Weed-verse, would it be presumptive to assume that, as she continues to grow and mature, that we'll see something like what I was asking? Or, at least, that she'll learn to cool her jets a little?
Of course, they're about to get married--so, it'e entirely possible that this'll get swept under the rug before long...
Anyways, thanks for the reply!
7232517
It is a problem that will take care of itself, but yes, Celly Belly will be getting some therapy from Cadance.
Think back on both this story and the first story. Think about Celestia's comment about wanking off and finding no satisfaction during one of her more manic episodes after she spent too much time alone.
7232525
Oh geez--if I'm picking up what you're dropping, that detail makes things rather, um... complicated. Well done.
Going to pop more popcorn now
7232555
I have no way of knowing what you mean.
What are you picking up on?
7232572
This might be a little out there, but--
The fact that Celestia didn't get the satisfaction she was hoping for from a wank may suggest that her issues are deeper than she thinks. What she wants is sex, but it might not be what she needs--that is, she's craving physical intimacy, but, even if/when she gets it, it's possible it won't actually scratch her itch, so to speak. She has further knots to untangle that are manifesting as, among other things, the aforementioned thirstiness. If the above is true, Celestia needs to get herself straightened out before a good screwing will actually help. Which, in turn, adds an interesting (and perhaps tragic?) bent to this whole narrative--she's going down the wrong rabbit hole, expecting she'll find salvation at the bottom.
It's possible I'm reading too much into this, but hey--I'm an academic. Reading too much into things is what we do. And it's headcanon until disproven.
7232593
And you would be correct.
7232606
Thinking about it some more...
At the risk of fawning, I just wanted to say--I'm continually impressed by how fleshed out your characters are.
I'm writing my own "Sad Immortal Celestia" fic (completed an arc, so on hiatus ATM), but, other than an astonishingly well-developed case of Impostor Syndrome, my Celestia is remarkably healthy for all the trauma I'm heaping on her.
But you've gone through and picked out deep character flaws, neuroses, even fetishes for each of your ponies. This goes a long way towards making it feel like a real world, populated by actual people. And, though we're dealing with a "micro" plot here--Boy Meets Girl, etc. etc. ad nauseam--you do an excellent job of making it feel like a "macro" story. You wouldn't be willing to reveal your secrets, would you, master?
I haven't been on FimFic long, but this is the story that keeps me coming back, and every time I see a new chapter, I get excited. Keep up the good work!
I feel so sorry for Skyflash, I hope she accepted the offer and that one day Goshling & her become friends again.
Here's a cool idea for a future sequel.
Let's say Skyflash has a colt, than Goshling has a filly. They both grow up different lives but the colt has a bit of a easier life (like money, food and shelter) than Goshling had before meeting Celestia. But! Doesn't have much friends because ponies think of his mother
Anyways it would be a cool new romance story of to ponies who's parents have a hard past, and with everyone against their love.
Truer words were never spoken, Tiny Head Luna.
7233833 well that put an odd picture in my head of a regular sized luna with a small head.
Erm, wut? G-dawg... Wassamattawitchu?! U no hit dat? Zounds, boy.
Lolly-gags aside, yes. Methinks a screwing, while good stuff, will not satisfy Celestia. It is not what she needs, nor Gosling.
Not in the hallway!
Good job, Tiny Cadance.
This is shaping up to be a pretty great idea, actually.
over HIS
Tiny alicorns must have a return appearance.
At this point, the thought of Cadence getting her own branch of the military kinda scares me.
7330190
Cadance: "Alright men, prepare yourselves, we're going shipping!"
Well i do hope that the plan is (was as the fic is complete?) for her to join the army after she gives birth and has some time to care for her child like is needed. Rather then join and go thought training while pregnant and probably closing in on the time of birth.
I assume its addressed in a later chapter but thats bugging the hell out of me as the pardon sounds like a right away deal with Gosling being surprised/annoyed she even needs time to think about it.
7336518
"But... Since when did we join the navy?" random guard
"Oh, Hush"