Chapter 10
It was funny how lunch could make everything better. Well, lunch, friends, and family. Wrapped in his cloak, Gosling made his way to Domestic Services, off in search of Purple Party. A little chat was needed, a little clearing of the air. Gosling thought of his relationship with Hotspur, who was trailing him while he walked. Sometimes, Hotspur was his guard, and at other times, his friend. The ruddy red pegasus was getting Eloquence & Elocution lessons to help sort out his speech, not that there was anything wrong with a Broncs accent.
After a nice meal, Gosling was eager to get things done. The afternoon held promise and he had a full agenda. After clearing the air with Purple Party, Gosling would spend the rest of the afternoon dealing with city related issues, approving budgets, settling disputes, ensuring public safety, and he felt as though he might be ready to tackle the education budget today, which was a real monster of a task.
One thing was for certain. All of this highlighted his need to return to school, which was going to happen. He was in over his head and he knew it, it could not be argued. Without the help of aides, seasoned advisors, and ponies that actually knew what they were doing, Gosling would have fallen on his face quite some time ago. The only thing he brought to the table was a fresh perspective, and he wasn’t bogged down by partisan politics. He was neutral, he was the tiebreaker, he was the decider.
Some of the decisions he had to make scared him a great deal.
“I still have my doubts, Cadance.” Celestia, who was sprawled over a sofa in a most unprincess-like manner, wiggled around while trying to find a comfortable position. “The events of the fall have left me shaken. Adventus has left me with an extreme feeling of unease. The current political situation has me jittery. I’m not having panic attacks, those seem to be better, but I am still plagued by doubt.”
Cadance, her mane done up in a careful bun, leaned forwards a little in her chair, and gave Celestia a thoughtful look. Her pen moved, writing down a few words, and her lower lip protruded somewhat, a sign that she was lost in concentration.
“The bad dreams are getting worse, and Luna has assured me that they are not her doing. They’re just the garden variety naturally-occurring bad dream. I keep seeing bad outcomes… bad ends… from all of the things that threaten us. And yet, there is a feeling that, as a nation, we haven’t been this strong for a while. The turmoil has been good for us. The ranks of the Stiff Upper Lip swell like never before. It… it is a very confusing time and I cannot make sense of my own feelings about it.”
“Hmm.” Cadance turned over a fresh page in her notebook, lifted up her glass of water, and took a short, quick sip. “Closer to home, how do you feel about Gosling and Luna?”
“What do you mean?” Celestia asked.
“Don’t be coy,” Cadance replied.
With an almost foalish expression, Celestia eyeballed her niece while fidgeting on the sofa, trying to find the ever-so-elusive comfortable position. “Very well, Cadance. I’ve found that I have some… feelings about them? That sounds worse than it is.”
“Jealousy?” One of Cadance’s eyebrows lifted.
“Not in the way you think.” Laying on her stomach, Celestia stretched out her neck and rested her head on the plush, overstuffed arm of the sofa. “I find myself a little jealous of Gosling at times—”
“Jealous… of Gosling?” Cadance’s expression became one of intense surprise as her professional mask broke. “That is not something I expected, at all. Please forgive my sudden interruption.”
“She’s my sister…” Celestia’s speech was soft, but not quite a whisper. “I’m her big sister… her protector. Her guardian. I’m supposed to be the one that makes things better. But… Gosling… he… is… better at it than I am. And sometimes, I hate him for it. There, I said it.”
Cadance sat there in stunned shock, unable to respond.
“Why can’t it be me? Why can’t I be the one that makes Luna feel better? Why can’t I reach her? It bugs me! She’s my sister! Do you have any idea how long she and I have been together? I can remember Luna being born and thinking to myself about all of the ways my life was going to change. I’m supposed to be the big sister, the pony that knows her better than anypony else… but the proud peacock just comes swooping in and the next thing you know, he’s a better friend to her than I am.”
“I’m not sure it’s fair of you to say that—”
“But it is true, Cadance!” Celestia’s long, perfect ears drooped until they rested against the sides of her face. “I feel terrible about being jealous over it, because Luna is happy and I want Luna happy… she’s happier now than she’s been in a long time… before the fall even. Now, I understand that friendship can’t cure mental illness, I get that, and I can maybe accept that Luna is bipolar, that she waxes and wanes with her moon, but her moods haven’t been this stable since… well, I can’t even think of a time, it’s been so long. The mania she suffers isn’t as bad and her depressive states, she doesn’t seem to sink quite so low.”
“That’s good.” Cadance smiled and was about to say more, but Celestia kept going.
“Why couldn’t I have been the one? I’m her sister, Cadance… this feels like failure.”
“This has been bothering you for a while, hasn’t it?” Cadance asked, and when she spoke, a strand of her mane slipped free of her bun, only to spill down the side of her face.
With a half-hearted nod, Celestia let out a sigh. “It’s worse than I’m letting on, to be honest. Sometimes, it… it really just eats at my insides. I’ve been angrier lately, losing my temper more, and I understand that I am naturally more aggressive in my current state, but this has been a huge factor in how cross I’ve been as of late.”
“Well then, Auntie, we need to sort this out…”
Purple Party seemed a little nervous, but that was to be expected. The stallion was almost hiding behind his desk. His office was small, cluttered, and crowded, making it obvious that he had been doing this job for a very long time. On the walls, pictures of foals had been hung, a life measured in photographs. Standing in the doorway, Gosling took all of this in with a few sweeping glances, and then he focused on Purple Party himself.
The unicorn was doing his best to act as though nothing was wrong.
“I wanted to apologise,” Gosling said, using his most gracious, most well-practiced voice. “It was wrong of me to holler at you, even if you disappointed me and let me down.” He heard a hard swallow from Purple Party, and the stallion’s jaw began moving up and down. “Something you’d like to say?”
“Am I going to lose my job?” Purple Party asked.
All of the anger from earlier returned, but Gosling held it in. No apology, no admission of failure, no promise to do better or make it right. Nothing of what Gosling expected. With anger came disappointment and the sensation of his ears being on fire. He wanted to rant and rave, he wanted to shout, he wanted to make Purple Party understand just how much he had screwed up.
“I’m six years away from retirement and a pension.” Mister Party’s words held a fearful quaver.
A great many terrible words almost spilled out of Gosling’s mouth, a military-grade chastisement, a real dressing down. But he bit his tongue, and the sudden pain snapped him back into focus. He looked away and looked at a picture of a filly on the wall. She had braces and her mane was done up in pigtails. Why were they called pigtails, anyhow?
“It’s funny,” Gosling allowed himself to say, “for a pony so worried about their job, you’re really lousy at doing it. You were given a simple set of instructions, and you ignored them completely.” While speaking, Gosling’s eyes focused upon a sun medallion, hung from a hook on the wall, an icon of faith. Seeing it gave him a mental pause and both of his eyebrows rose.
Purple Party was hardly even breathing at the moment.
“Say, tell me… how do you think your beloved Sun Goddess feels about you hating her sister? The tenets of her faith state that forgiveness and mercy are the two great ideals. So, let me tell you what I’m going to do. I’m going to forgive you, even though you don’t deserve it, and I’m going to be merciful. You can keep your job, but I’ll never, ever have need of your services.”
In a very calm manner, Gosling backed out of the room, giving Purple Party a parting nod as he did so, then turned around and walked away with his head held high. Hotspur shut the door, leaving Mister Party in his office, alone. All things considered, Gosling felt rather proud of himself for how he had handled this.
Wiping her eyes, Celestia felt better after a good cry. She was laying on her back now, spread out in the most undignified position one could imagine, with one hind leg propped up and resting on the back of the sofa, with the other hanging off of the side. There was nothing regal about her state of repose—and Celestia was fine with that.
Resting on her stomach was a bright red box made of waxed cardboard, and inside, there was a perforated cardboard tray. The box had been full of chocolate covered cherries, twenty-four of them, the really good kind with the bourbon syrup. With Cadance’s help, she had destroyed it.
Cadance, sitting in her chair, had a smear of chocolate on her upper lip, and her fuzzy chin was sticky. Not that she cared. For she and her aunt were examples of the most majestic of all creatures; the pregnant, foal-bearing alicorn. After the intense heart to heart, sustenance had been needed, and Celestia had a stockpile stashed away.
“I need a soda,” Cadance remarked.
“Cadance, darling, gas.” Celestia made a dismissive wave with her hoof.
“I don’t care.” Cadance sniffed. “I’m a princess. Shining Armor thinks it is the funniest thing ever and no matter what I do, I can’t even begin to match the epic grossness that is my daughter, Flurry Heart.”
“You make a fine point.” Closing her eyes for a moment, Celestia scratched her stomach with her hoof, which caused her leg hanging off of the sofa to begin twitching. “Drinking a soda would mean getting up from this position, and I just got comfortable.”
“Relax gravity a little bit and go nuts.”
“Cadance, darling, you’ve become so practical.”
“I had a fantastic teacher.” Cadance concentrated, and with a pop, two bottles of Cadance~Cola appeared, conjured up from the castle cellars. With practiced-ease, she popped the caps and passed one bottle to her aunt. Already, Cadance could tell that one bottle wouldn’t be enough, the twelve ounce bottles were perfect for little ponies, not full sized majestic alicorns who bore the the weight of an empire upon their withers. With a sigh, she knew that she would need to conjure more.
Holding her bottle of Cadance~Cola, Celestia stared at the pink, bubbling liquid and appeared to be lost in thought. The scent of bubblegum and cotton candy perfumed the air, the signature scents of the effervescent pink soda loved by millions. As the sofa creaked beneath her impressive bulk, she rubbed her own belly a bit more, trying to rid herself of a growing cramp.
“I have never felt more beautiful than I am right now,” Celestia announced, and she radiated all of the splendour her reclining form could muster.
“Me too,” Cadance agreed.
“We are beautiful.” Celestia stuck out her tongue and made a silly face.
“We are sexy.” Cadance nodded in agreement and then she began trying to lick away the stickiness from her chin. “Auntie…”
“Yes?”
“It’s another alicorn… I can sense it.”
“Cadance, darling, Sleet deserves a raise. Do it now, before you drop this news on her.”
“I know.” After a moment, she added, “I will.”
Stats
Page generated in 0.026 seconds
Total duration
873 users online
1,119,974 hits today, 2,004,447 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
Sleet will lead the newly found foalwatch... For the foal boom after the fall more will need to service and help with the increase in foals... She will lead the foalwatch special forces... The ones who watch after the alicorn foals
Well... now I know what time zone you're in, kudzhu.
Celestia~cola = gold/orange and citrusy with a tamarind finish if I recall correctly.
Does Luna have a cola? Does Twilight?
I can understand Celestia's feelings, being possessive of people one cares about.
8077700
All of them have been mentioned in different Weedverse stories. Have fun finding them all!
8077703
The hunt...is on.
This universe has gotten so detailed it could probably use a wiki.
8077663 The Fall Feathered'n Foiled (rapier like horn) family, Fierce, Feisty, Forevermore, Foalwatch Forces. Out of ...huff..puff,,. breath ...huff..puff,,. gotta ...huff..puff,,. lie down ...huff..puff,,. now, gasp!
Ahhhh *KLUNK*
8077694 But what planet, dimension and universe?
okay, cadance needs to nolt fuck for the rest of her life. equestria can barely handle one baby alicorn. we don't need two.
So Celestia and Luna birth triples so they can quickly grow a nation. Cadence will birth the next generation of Alicorn Rulers.
So what will Twilight spawn? Dragon-ponies?
8077753 Academic Ponies.
8077817
She Spawns Palette swapped clones of herself that get displaced in time. Perfectly explains Moondancer
8077817 So a bunch of bright-sparks
So, it's less "kicked upstairs" and more "pushed under the rug".
8077854 At least a bunch of Bright Sparkles!
Jump to 2:00 for Twilight.
I forget, has it been explained why Cadance gives birth to alicorns, even though Luna and Celestia give birth to triplet non-alicorns?
Am I the only one who finds as much or more sympathy for where Party is coming from than Gosling? From the perspective of being a somewhat older sort and having a mortgage, being confident about the state of my next paycheck is kind of an important thing. Hot-blooded young Prince could decide in a moment that he wants this bureaucrat gone, and then he and his family would be up a creek.
8077936 Mixed feelings I understand Party's worry but likewise I understand where Gosling is coming from as well. How would your boss react if you ignored their direct orders
8077936
You know how you keep your job?
By doing what your boss tells you. Really. It's that simple. Gosling is now Purple Party's employer. He gave instructions to make preparation for the Winter Moon Festival. Purple Party failed to deliver. Why be sympathetic, exactly?
I'm honestly kinda curious as to why.
8077753
Bookworms, probably...
...
YUUUUUUKEEEES !!!!!!!
8077936 So, lemme get this straight: you´re afraid of losing your job (due to hot blooded prince) and have mortage to pay...so, in order to keep your job you REFUSES to do your job, and even states clearly that you won´t do your job to said hot blooded prince ?
Yeah...not your brightest moment there, bud...
8077992 I think you got some things mixed up there bud Gosling stated that he will let Purple Party keep his job but Gosling will no longer be using Mr. Party
8078018 I´m not sure...but I have a feeling that Gosling is playing a Celestia card on Purple Party. "Yeah...stay there, do nothing. It´s all ok, nothing wrong."
I can sense Purple drowing in a pool of guilty and doing the best party he never did before to Luna, either out of guilty or to just confront Gosling.
Either way, Gosling wins.
8077980
8077983
8077992
I'm assuming there is more to the story than just Party outright refusing orders, because unless I've completely missed something there's been no sensible explanation for why he would presented so far. A career bureaucrat like Party would know that just refusing to put on the requested party would never fly, so maliciously intended or not he'd have something in the works as a cover. Just saying no, with no plan past that? It's not how business politics and office politics work.
Gosling did say in this chapter that he really has no clue what he is doing, so my guess is that as a newbie he is completely missing what is really going on here.
8078328
It was written out exactly what happened, and Party explained himself.
He didn't feel that there was enough interest, so he didn't feel the need to waste limited resources.
He overstepped his bounds, plain and simple.
8078332 Well, to be blunt, that's why I specified no sensible explanation. Either Party has the authority in his job definition and/or historically assumed responsibilities to make that kind of decision, in which case he already has the cover he needs for it (or at least he expected he would), or he doesn't at all and it makes no sense that he would make the decision in the first place or push back against it like he has.
Regarding this particular chapter, it reads to me as someone being afraid he's going to be fired because he did his job as he normally would be permitted to do so and a brand new boss is changing things unexpectedly.
8078350
What's interesting is that I wrote it neutral enough to be seen this way.
8078350 I never saw that way. Interesting point...Party wasn´t being propositally aggressive towards Gosling solicitation...he just made his job as always.
Although, if your new boss come to your desk and asks you to do something, it´s common sense to either obey, even if it´s something out of the ordinary, or explain why such order cannot be accomplished ("that´s not how we do things ´round here"...it´s lame, but it is a explanation, a reason, at least).
I'm a bit lost now, it was probably said in some older chapters, but Cadence is pregnant ?
8078392
The Sun Also Surprises. Final chapter.
8078350
His personal bias factored into his disobeying orders, the situation just gave him what he thought was a good cover for it and a reason to do so. Rather than be apologetic, rather than show he's learned a lesson, rather than show he has or even was capable of change and worthy of renewed trust, all he cared about was keeping his well-paid cushy job and retirement package. Which given the current state of things, is actually extremely offensive, since it's well-paid ponies like Party who've made life a living hell for many, including Gosling himself.
Even though it was not to her face, he insulted one of the absolute monarchs that by the very concept he must serve with his life. If they were not merciful and more forgiving than humans, he could very easily lose his life, and certainly his freedom. And he would deserve it because he made this bed out of his own petty disdain.
I say this and I am a staunch opponent of the overflowing Luna zealotry and accompanying Celestia distaste in this fandom. He fucked up, plain and simple, while you CAN feel sorry for him, there's no reason to, because he hasn't shown any good qualities and has only been selfish. Had he shown some damn sense, and that he felt bad about what he did, that he understood why he was close to losing his job, that he was sorry for betraying his employer, I'm sure that Gosling was prepared to offer him a chance to prove and better himself. But he couldn't even manage that.
8078440
Doesn't help Purple's case that the way he went about it felt very much "Who would waste time to do something for Celestia's inferior sister?" It wasn't that he didn't do what Gosling said, with a solid enough list of reasons even Gosling would have to admit that he made the right call, it was that he did so in the most arrogant way imaginable. If he had spent five minutes explaining that there wasn't enough public interest, and that it would take a matter of years to get ponies to want to attend in meaningful numbers, in a way that didn't make him look like a smug piece of shit, then I would feel a bit more sympathetic.
8078613
It was written in a way that, to me, Gosling knew that'd be the case beforehand. But also that, if you don't start somewhere (preferably now), then it'll NEVER garner enough public interest. But yes, there was that as well. The complete arrogance that he delivered that line with, the confidence that what he said was inviolable while speaking to the man who signs his paycheck...
I think we can reasonably say Party Pooper is an enormous idiot. How many people can keep their jobs after hosing their boss' wife to said boss' face?
8078395 thank you my good sir
8078440 I just went back and double checked his previous appearance, and I feel like you are making as many assumptions about the rationale for Party's actions as I am. We don't know that he has an anti-Luna bias driving his actions, all we know along those lines is that he has a sun medallion on his wall. For all we know he could have been pushing back against the festival because he thought that a sparsely attended festival (as per his originally stated reasons) would do more to harm Luna than help.
Execution for this? Imprisonment for this? Seriously? If that is on the table for this then maybe the anti-monarchist rebels are onto something. No monarch is worth executing people because they feel insulted.
Hell, literally the last thing that Gosling said to Party in their previous conversation back in chapter eight was:
And people think that he was out of line this chapter for wondering if he was going to be fired?
8078665
Friend Thomp, did you read my post? Everything you brought up in your reply was covered by my post already. If you did, perhaps I didn't convey what I was saying clearly enough. That is a problem I have at times, and if so I apologize.
You even copied the bit where I said if they weren't ponies and thus more forgiving than humans, he quite likely could have lost his life. So no, the anti-monarchy faction has absolutely nothing to do with what I said. Historically speaking, quite a few people who deigned do as he did have been tossed in irons or executed.
And every one of us knew what Gosling said. The problem is that, as I said, that was ALL Party was concerned with. His well-paid cushy job, his selfishness, was the first thing presented by him. Fearing for his bonus and retirement package when he all but insulted one of his rulers to the face of his employer (also said ruler's husband) and went against the orders of his employer with nary a word until AFTER the fact. You cannot tell me these are assumptions when they actually happened. Rather than showing he was sorry for what he did, or a desire to do a better job, to make up for what he'd done, all he asks is 'do I still get money?' which rightfully infuriated Gosling.
Yes. He deserves to lose that job. Gosling showed a rather large amount of restraint and mercy, when he was completely within his rights to dismiss the stallion immediately - for incompetence if nothing else, nevermind the stallion's attitude and the context. You can say that I am assuming, but it feels as though projection is being used to try and vindicate Party and wave off what he's done as 'not that bad', which I will not agree with, period.
8078700 It is hardly fair to argue that Party is only concerned about his job in this situation when over the course of both conversations he never mentioned it until after Gosling threatened to fire him. After that, of course he was concerned about it, the young hot-headed Prince had angrily threatened to fire him and after only about one page of dialogue too. That's really fast to go from talking to yelling about firing people, and is a really good demonstration that Gosling is a newbie at this and doesn't know how to manage employees. (Which is, incidentally, why you don't put an emotional fifteen-ish year old in charge of this much responsibility.)
Worrying about being fired is all we got from Party in this chapter, sure, but this chapter is not the only content regarding Party that is relevant. Frankly, I challenge anyone to not be worried about being fired after someone who can fire you threatens it, especially when that someone is emotionally compromised about the subject at hand and has demonstrated no desire or capability to listen to explanations without jumping straight to threats.
I stated that you are making assumptions about Party's rationale for not arranging the event (aka the only thing I called an assumption) because you are. Nowhere in the text does it show that he tried to cancel the celebration on account of also unstated feelings about Luna, and everything posted that assumes he did is just that. He talks dismissively about the time and place of the party in chapter eight, but there are plenty of possible reasons for that outside of just disliking Luna. Could he just straight up hate Luna? Sure, but we won't know that until Kudzu writes that into the story and so far that has not happened.
8078829
We will see Purple Party one last time.
Sisters or not, Luna and Celestia do have baggage that Luna and Gosling do not. Jealousy of Celestia made Luna fall, and the cocktail of emotions might still factor into their interaction.
Purple Party not only fauled to deliver, but asked one of the WORST questions in a situation like that. Most people would have just fired him there.
P
butt : Sleet we are giving you a raise 
butt : Because I'm having another alicorn foal
Sleet : Why?
P
Sleet : *sigh* I'll get the construction ponies brought up to date on the castle blueprints and have the nurses put on standby
8078829
One more time. Thomp my friend. I'm not saying he should not be worried about his job. I never said that and I fully agree with you that he should be.
The -problem- is that is ALL he was worried about. And made things worse with Gosling by that being the first and only thing he brought up. If he had shown he was sorry. Apologized first off. Admitted that he was wrong to not do as he was told to or, at the very least, bring it up with his employer BEFORE deciding to not do as he was told. Then I feel Gosling would have decided the whole thing was cool and they were fine now.
But he didn't do any of that. Instead, he betrayed his orders, showing not the slightest remorse for doing so other than it just might be problematic for him - the blowback of his own foolishness. If that's not worth losing your job, what is? He was told to do something, he chose not to and didn't bring it up with his boss first. That's definite grounds for dismissal, as it well should be. Even if you take nothing else away from this last post, at least agree with that. Otherwise if you ever become an employer I fear people might try to take advantage of you.
We're probably going to see something that makes Party Pooper more sympathetic or something now, or redeems him, but at that point in time he hadn't done anything to redeem himself and only dug himself in deeper. That is fact.
8079689
Sympathy?
No. Not what I had in mind.
Redemption?
Not really what I had in mind either.
Resolution?
Yeah.
8079689 Hm Given the overall theme of bureocracy ineffectiveness and entitlement, yes the point of Purple being a substantial ass is clear. But still the change in managerial style from the laissez-faire of Celestia to the rather hand on of Gosling would take a LOT of time to adjust to.
If up to that moment Purple was fully delegated to make that kind of decisions it makes sense that he would simply do that, additionally it quite depends on HOW the request was brought about, this again ties up a lot with the change in management as Gosling may not have emphatized properly the importance of the job and Purple may have misinterpreted the criticality of it. Obviously it doesn't help that Gosling is just a kid and that would lead to Purple to underestimate his importance, and that is quite the error, but again, up to two months before the boss was a millennia old demigoddess with the huge political experience. All given IT is a BIG upheaval of the status quo. It may be that Purple is BAD for his position and SHOULD be fired, but it is often said that the best way to make your boss fail is to UNQUESTIONALLY obey the order that he give you, especially on the somewhat more technically involved job.
8081187
How do I answer that? Really? I have no idea what you've read and haven't read.
8081201 My bad. I'll just muscle through and hope I'm not to be caught high and dry.
8082098
If you do need help, just ask.
8082280
The marriage was in Princess Twilight Sparkle's School For Fantastic Foals.
Nookie happened off-screen.
It's the moments like these littered through out the story that really just put me in a state of relaxation.
#1 I think you did a FANTASTIC job with Gosling in response to Party Pooper in this chapter!! As a person who is religious it really warms my heart to see him make such a powerful choice. I just wish I had his strength more often.
#2 I think part of the problem with Celestia is that she is not in touch enough with her inner child. Doubly so since Luna's fall since she's so used to being somewhat impersonal, and having to always show a strong and mature face. Gosling has the right amounts of immaturity and maturity. Celestia is still too concerned with Public Appearance, like how she let herself starve so much at dinner, before she finally snapped, instead of going "Hey I'm pregnant and I need MUCH larger portions now. I really need you to bring out more food for me, since I'm eating for more than just myself now".
All this arguing going on. Seems like the sort of thing I’d be doing.
Seriously, though, I still don’t care about Purple Party. I care about Gosling’s development, and the wisdom and restraint he’s showing, and I admire him for it. I just don’t care about Party.
You know, the questions Gosling struggles with are the kind of questions I ask when I think about these things. I’m glad it’s not presented as a simple answer. I wouldn’t expect it to, but I’m glad all the same.
8082284
And still sad the nookie happened offscreen.