Chapter 26
Nopony liked losing, and Princess Luna most of all. Yet, even with her severe dislike of losing, she was known to be a gracious loser. Some ponies loved to win, and Gosling—being like most ponies—fell among their number. As there were gracious losers, there were also the opposites, the gracious winner. While Gosling and Luna stared at each other in profound silence, Beans and Toast were busy helping to sort each other out after the conflict.
“Honestly, I thought you had me during the long stretch,” Gosling said, ending the silence after his victory with a few well chosen, sincere words.
An amused expression appeared on Luna’s face, which caused one eyebrow to arch ever-so-slightly. She shuffled on her hooves, her graceful head making nuanced nods, and it was obvious to anypony watching that she was enjoying herself. “We do appreciate you being a good sport. Now, there is the matter of our wager.”
“Oh, that.” For a brief second, Gosling’s eyes narrowed. “If you don’t feel comfortable with that, you don’t have to. No obligation.”
“We do so appreciate your thoughtfulness for Our well being.” Stretching out her neck, Luna lowered her head a bit, her ears pinned back, and with a surprising calm, she planted a loitering smooch upon Gosling’s cheek, right on the hard corner of his jaw. It took several seconds before she pulled away, and when she did, she was smiling. “That was hard won. Savour it, Gosling.”
“I shall.” Allowing himself a bit of flippancy, Gosling waggled his eyebrows, which earned him a snort from his stand-offish companion. With a quick return to exquisite manners he asked, “May I have the privilege of escorting you to lunch?”
“Sadly, no. There are things We must attend to, and We have already been lax in Our duties so that We might spend time with somepony special to Us. Perhaps we shall meet later under more favourable circumstances. Will you have Us for supper?”
“I’d love to have a double portion of you for supper,” Gosling said.
The red that blossomed in Luna’s cheeks made her face take on a dusky purple hue.
“Go on, get out of here, yous gots stuff to do.” He grinned, delighting in how flustered Luna was, and then continued, “I’m starving… and I should not have slacked off this morning. Now I gotta work twice as hard this afternoon. See ya later, Moonshine.”
And with that, Gosling made his exit, knowing full well the value of leaving a mare wanting.
“Gosling!”
The pretty pegasus paused, delighting in the fact that mares shouted his name when he entered the room. He basked in his own glory, but only for a moment, and then trotted over to the table to sit down. Cadance had said his name, and she was grinning from ear to ear. Twilight was here, sitting right next to Celestia, sitting in his spot. A word would have to be had with Twilight. A kind, but firm word.
“Just the pony I wanted to see,” Cadance said while Gosling trotted to his seat. “I need a foalsitter for Flurry.”
“Where’s my mom?” Gosling asked.
“Having a much needed break. I sent her to the spa for a full treatment.” Cadance looked entirely too happy about this turn of events, and beside her, Shining Armor had a problem holding in his little snorts of laughter. She elbowed her husband and then added, “Come on, Gosling. It will be no real trouble. Surely, if you have time to race chariots around the castle with Auntie Luna, you have the time to look after Flurry.”
“You did this!” Gosling leveled an accusing stare on the white alicorn sitting next to the much smaller lavender one. “You set me up!” This got the smaller purple alicorn tittering, and when she covered her mouth with one hoof, Gosling raised an eyebrow for full effect.
“I did no such thing.” The merest hint of a smile graced Celestia’s beatific face.
“You no want me?” Flurry’s voice had a dreadful quaver to it.
Flouncing himself into a chair, Gosling let out a huff as he leaned forwards, and his forelegs came to rest along the table’s edge. “I can do it. Beans and Toast can help, I suppose. I was planning on picking up the slack this afternoon because I messed around this morning. Luna was in one of those rare moods and I wanted to see her happy.”
“Priorities.” Cadance didn’t sound like she was joking when she said the word, and her demeanour had a dramatic change. She too, leaned forwards, and her forelegs came to rest against the table. With the way her eyes narrowed, Cadance almost looked predatory. “Where is Auntie Luna, anyhow?”
“Skipping lunch to get work done,” Gosling replied, and his ears pitched when Cadance let out a worried-sounding half-growl, half-groan. Ignoring Cadance, he turned and looked Seville in the eye. “How’s your morning, you mug?”
“Me, I got stuff done,” Seville replied, and he sounded tired. “Which reminds me, I’m gonna need some help converting the old brig into the new film and print office.”
“Things are tight and hectic right now… help will come eventually.” Raven pulled her face away from a report on a clipboard. “I understand the importance, but it is low priority.”
“Yet you expect me to get work done now.” Seville, not as meek as he once was, knew how things worked in the castle. “If you expect me to get everything done that you want done, then I need some help. Otherwise, things will slow down and there will be delays. I can’t prevent that.”
“We can’t have things slow down, the release schedule must be kept.” Raven began to gnaw on her lip, and then her face vanished behind her clipboard. After a few seconds, she murmured, “I’ll get back to you later this afternoon. We need that propaganda on the front.”
“It’s not propaganda…” Seville let out an annoyed sniff and tossed his head to get his mane out of his eyes. “It is an instructional, educational film on the Equestrian way of life and the benefits of having Equestria as a protectorate. Every word said is true, honest, and sincere. My integrity won’t allow falsehood or half-truth.”
“Excellent propaganda then, the very best kind, the highest quality.” Raven clucked her tongue from behind her clipboard. “The kind that Equestria needs most of all as we gear up for the coming conflict. Sharp truth, like a sharp blade, leaves behind the deepest cuts.”
“I love it when you talk dirty, dear,” Blueblood remarked to Raven, and she ignored him.
Nudging his friend, Gosling tried to cheer Seville up. “Hey, you do good work. Nopony is questioning your integrity, Seville.” When his friend snorted, Gosling lifted his head and looked around. “Hey, where’s lunch? I’m starving! Do we want another Nightmare Noon incident? Let’s shake a leg, ponies!”
Trying to keep a straight face, Gosling looked upon his army. Some were young, far too young, like Flurry. There were many school-aged foals here, with bright, eager faces. Some were far too old, having seen far too many winters. Old soldiers approaching retirement or having reached it made up the bulk of his army. Gosling made a mental note to treat them with as much respect as possible, so they might be useful to him later.
There were also quite a number of green recruits, waiting for the spring thaw to begin their real training. They were able bodied, and would make excellent chariot pullers. This was also a grand time for them to learn about supply and logistics, transport, and the distribution of goods. It was Gosling’s most sincere hope that these ponies, these green recruits, would use this opportunity to learn.
“We’re going to do the impossible,” Gosling said to his army, “and we’ll do it in service to our beloved alicorns. We have some decorations, and we’re going to distribute those. We need to have a lot of decorations made, too. So you little ones are going work with Hazy Breeze and Soprano Summers to make a whole slew of pretty stuff.”
“Aye aye!” A little unicorn colt raised his foreleg in a ground pounder’s salute.
“This will be our central supply depot.” Gosling looked around the room, at the ponies, at the supplies, at the many boxes, and the chariots too. There was a lot to look at, a lot to take in, and for the first time, he began to understand the enormity of his task. “The decorating teams will travel out from this place on chariot to cover the distances, they will saturate a room with as much holiday cheer as is equinely possible, and then they will return here to fetch more supplies for another excursion. If you don’t know what to do, talk to Mister Purple Party, and I am positive that he can sort out any problems that you might have.”
One old soldier turned to look at a far, far younger recruit and said, “This is a proud moment, son. Put some starch in your stance, you lazy git!”
The younger pony snapped to attention, doing his best to look bright-eyed and bushy tailed. Moving with a smooth sashay, Gosling ventured over and began doing a rudimentary inspection, looking into eyes and faces of those gathered. A few that he passed had to be the very youngest age allowed, fourteen, and he could see the fear they tried to hide. He remembered all too well the fear, the need to make a good impression.
Relaxing, he smiled, hoping to put them at ease. “I have hopes that this exercise will reveal some talent… some skill… and might help you find your place in the guard. We need more than soldiers… I’m looking for the best and the brightest to join my own division…”
He paused to allow his words to sink in, having learned all about dramatic effect.
“The Equestrian Corps of Gringineers.” Somehow, he kept a straight face during the many snickers that erupted. Turning about, he asked, “Something funny, Private?”
“Sir, no, Sir!” the caught off-guard private replied as he was kicked in the leg by his elder superiour beside him.
“I think you’re lying!” Gosling shouted while he got up in the face of a pony that was about his own age. “It’s supposed to be funny! What’s wrong with you?”
“Sir, I am very confused, Sir!” After a long pause, he added, “Your Majesty?”
“Eh, you’ll be fine, kid.” Gosling pulled away, looked left, looked right, and then with the widest grin he could muster, he said, “Let’s get to work! We have a war to wage!”
“—you know, Twilight, I didn’t think this would work. I am pleasantly surprised.”
Confused, Twilight responded by saying, “I don’t follow.”
Her own response had to wait while a chariot went racing by and Celestia watched one of her precious students hanging on for dear life. She smiled, sensing that valuable life lessons were being learned. “All of this. I have done things my way for so long, that sometimes I neglect to consider that other ponies have their own way of doing things… and those ways, while different, can be just as good. Take you, for example. You have your own way of doing things, and I have had to step back and let you work.”
“Hmm.” Twilight looked thoughtful.
“A good leader is one that assigns command and then gets out of the way so it can be done, or so it has been said.” Celestia felt a tightness in her throat, and she had to control her own fluttery emotions. “I’ve been burned by that, Twilight. I have been burned by that and almost all of Equestria burnt down because of that. Civil war. I stepped back and let others lead. For me… this was a recent event… for you… this was something you’ve read in a history book. For me, it is still very fresh in my mind.”
“There’s a lesson here,” Twilight remarked.
“Oh, Twilight, there are many lessons to be learned here.” Celestia spread her wings, hoping for a cooling draft along her ribs and her wingpits. She was hot, sweaty, flustered, and emotional. “Once more, I am stepping back to allow others to rule. Cadance is doing an admirable job, and she is modernising the Crystal Empire, even though they resist her efforts. I do believe this next generation that she guides into prosperity will remember her as the Enlightened Empress. In time, I am hoping that her rule will not have to be so… absolute.”
“They’re a thousand years behind the times.”
“Yes, Twilight, they are.” With a turn of her head, she looked down at her former student, who had that peculiar look of eagerness, that desire to learn the lesson, whatever it might be. “Gosling had a crackpot idea. It was an idea born of utter lunacy, a ridiculous notion, and I let him go through with it because I wanted him to learn something. I thought that, perhaps, he might learn that not all ideas are good ones. I figured that he might have a tough time coming to terms with practicality. Something tells me that Gosling will not be learning any of those lessons. Mark my words, he’ll be strutting later, and wanting his ego stroked.”
“So, the lesson here is, when one of my trusted advisors, like say, Trixie comes up to me with what seems like a half-baked idea, I should listen to them?” Twilight looked stumped.
“Weigh the risks and rewards, Twilight,” Celestia replied. “Letting Gosling attempt his idea was no real risk, no real serious risk, but there were gains to be made. Not every crazy idea should be entertained, but when you need to pull off a miracle, and the cost of failure isn’t too much to bear, what do you have to lose?”
Twilight Sparkle did not respond at all, but stood there in silence, staring at the construction paper decorations adorning the hallway. They were simple decorations, true, but much heartfelt effort had gone into their creation, and something about them was every bit as cheerful as store-bought decorations.
“Even if those ideas don’t work out, you should not give up hope, Twilight Sparkle. It has been a hard, hard lesson for me… to trust, and keep trusting. To share power… to share vision with both you and Cadance. I had to trust that you wouldn’t burn down my beloved country that I’ve worked so hard to preserve. There are many lessons to be learned here, my friend.”
“Wait!” Twilight cried out in alarm. “Let me get my notepad before you keep going!”
Trixie has plans for Ponyville! 
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A touching discussion between (soon to be?) compeers.
Gringineers? I love it.
Stoked to see a comfortably flustered Luna!
Wat. . But. . Race? ;_;
8275137
I am very, very sorry.
I didn’t realise it was going to become a major moment of focus. It was always intended to be a background incident, because the power of imagination is an amazing thing.
It gorgeous to see Celestia is also learning. She keeps balancing risk reward of trusting others and thats been colored by history and the factor our fialures stick with us far longer than our successes
Good chapter but a minor nitpick, Propaganda technically doesn't have to be a lie or half truth, its just about using information (regardless of accuracy) to manipulate public opinion, its just usually not the truth.
8275221
I already know that.
Raven however, was trying to goad Seville into a reaction, because, she’s Raven.
8275160 Nah. Tarnish is kind of a friendly acquantance, because he's always so busy, and doesn't live near Canterlot.
8275224
I'm not sure when this was posted, or if Kudzu updated it, but typically the best propaganda IS Truth, ESPECIALLY since it's easier to swallow and a lot harder to disprove. Even a half-truth is often times better than a total lie. Not only that, but it's a lot easier to keep track of what you KNOW to be truth, than a web of lies.
This is why Raven was saying that Propaganda that is True, cuts the deepest.
8275240 I think it might be a case of preferring Tarnished stays away from the palace considering how he attracts trouble
8275221 there is a certain amount of stigma attached caused by the media mainly using the term in a negative light.
8275252
I haven't seen much evidence of that lately. I mean, propaganda can be true, but blatant lying seems to do the job just fine. You don't even have to be consistent.
People believe what they want to believe, so you just have to put something out there that they'll want to believe that pulls them closer to you.
Better that trixie has plans over pinkie pie......
there would be frosting everywhere O.O
*heartbreak*
Who would have expected Trixie to be the random example source of the theoretical half-baked idea.
8275282
Telling people want they want to hear often times is based on some amount of Truth. For instance, one of the reasons people voted for Trump was because he promised to bring wealth back to the masses, because the poor & middle class weren't making enough money. Fox News manipulates graphs with half truths, such as only showing a partial timeline or truncating.
Even then with all of the reveal of The Truth, approval ratings have shot way down with him, including from many of his voters.
8275122
Don't no why I expected Grincheneers?
8275137 Next race, Shèdo and Conifer join in, they're on their way.
Is Trixie planning to get rid of all the wheels in Ponyville again?
8275224
That's so Raven.
8283043
Nope.