Luna appeared to be nervous, out of sorts, and this made Celestia worry. It also appeared that Luna had not slept, thus further increasing the worry that Celestia felt. It was a big sister thing, one tended to worry about one’s manic-depressive little sister when she had not slept. She also seemed distracted, out of sorts, and fretful.

“Luna, you look a little blue…”

Upon hearing these words, Luna’s head made a slow turn towards her smirking sister. Celestia saw Luna blink—a lot could be said with a single blink—and one ear quivered like a flag waving in the breeze. The other ear stood rigid, defiant enough to resist gale-force winds. When Luna’s nostrils flared, Celestia chuckled.

Before Luna could say anything in response, Gosling entered the room, and Celestia watched as her sister began what could only be described as a near-nervous meltdown. Luna hustled, no, ran towards Gosling, causing the colt to freeze in place, and Celestia wondered what was going on. Luna was acting like… a filly. Yes, Celestia thought to herself, my little sister is acting just like a filly. Remaining where she was, she gave Luna space so she could be free to be herself.

“Gosling…” Luna came to a swaying halt and her horn glowed with a glittering blue light. Something shapeless popped into existence beside Luna’s head, and then she stood there, just staring at Gosling, appearing to be baffled by her own actions. “We read a manual on knitting and We found it was very complicated.”

Saying nothing else, Luna yanked off Gosling’s cloak and dropped it to the floor, causing the pegasus to whinny from embarrassment. Before he could protest, she lifted him into the air while he let out a wickering cry of alarm, and then pulled something over his head. While Gosling fussed in a foalish manner, Celestia realised that Luna was slipping a black and blue sweater over him, sliding it down his neck, putting his forelegs through the sleeves, and then sliding it over his barrel.

When everything was done, Luna began to survey her work, and Celestia saw the all too troubling sign of Luna’s protruding lower lip. One sleeve was longer than the other and the sweater was a lumpy, lopsided, misshapen mess. Celestia found herself taking a step closer, but then made herself stop, knowing that the situation right now was volatile. If she was careless, she could be the one to set Luna off, and there would be fireworks with the tears that were certain to come.

“You made this for me?” Gosling said in a low voice.

“It looks awful,” Luna murmured, “let Us take it off.”

“No.” Gosling’s tone was firm. “Put me down, Moonshine.”

Lower lip trembling, Luna did as Gosling requested, then stood there, pulling and tugging on the sweater, trying to make it somehow look a little more presentable. “It was most difficult. We made it from the finest, softest wool that we could find so it would not irritate your bare flesh. Why must all of Our hard work look so terrible?”

“I like it.” Gosling leaned in and pressed his muzzle against Luna’s neck, which caused her to jump in place. “It’s soft and its warm. I’ve been freezing all day.”

“But it looks dreadful—”

“I don’t care. Thank you, it was very nice of you to do this. I think it looks fine for a first effort. It was very considerate of you to do this for me. Thank you, Night-Wife.”

“Are you actually going to wear it?” Luna asked, sounding both incredulous and a bit flabbergasted. She was also blushing and her cheeks had the same purple-red shade as beets.

“Yeah,” Gosling replied. “If you go through the trouble of making me a sweater, I’m going to wear it. That’s all there is to it.”

Celestia’s heart grew wings and began to flutter around inside of her barrel. She blamed her sudden rush of emotions on hormones, and then began wiping at her eyes with her soft, downy wings while staring at the two ponies necking before her. Luna was stammering now, her lips were flapping together and her mouth was moving, but no words seemed to be coming forth.

Then, with sudden, almost raptorial movement, with a rush of wings and the rustle of feathers, Luna pulled Gosling into a hug and held him close. Luna’s eyes were closed and Celestia, who knew her sister well, saw relief on Luna’s face. The sweater could be fixed with a little magic, but Celestia would speak to Luna about that later, in private, when the emotion she was experiencing wasn’t quite so raw.

“Come on, you two, let’s go to dinner,” Celestia said when Luna began to pull away.

The dining room was small and not the one Gosling expected. There were many dining rooms, enough so that he still got lost on occasion. This one had no windows, but had a fireplace. He had no idea how the chimneys worked in the castle, and liked to imagine that vast sections of endless forests had to be chopped down to get enough firewood to fuel all of these cosy, crackling fires.

Pausing, he looked at the table, which was small, round, and intimate. It seemed they were dining alone this evening, with nopony else. Just the three of them. For some reason, Gosling always felt more self-conscious when dining alone with Celestia and Luna, though he could not say why. Even more so now without his wings. Without his wings, he lacked his usual, graceful means to pull out both Celestia and Luna’s chairs for them.

Before he had the chance to think much about it, Luna seated herself, and then so did Celestia. Blinking once, he realised that he was making a bigger deal of it than those two were, and with a sheepish grin, he sat down at the table, slipping into his chair, which was wood, with no padding. These types of chairs were slippery against his sleek pelt, and he didn’t much like them.

“I understand that you made a friend today, Gosling.”

Startled, Gosling looked over to his right, at Celestia, and he failed to hide his feelings. “Yeah I did. Were you spying on me?”

“Of course.” Clucking her tongue once, Celestia smiled. “I would be remiss if I did not keep a few eyes and ears on your progress as you acclimate to your expected duties.”

This made sense and Gosling nodded. “And do you approve?” He saw that he now had Celestia’s full attention, and he knew her well enough to know that she was thinking, no doubt sizing up the situation to offer advice, or to choose her words with great care. With the small, cosy room and his sweater, Gosling was warm for the first time today.

“It is not what I expected, not in the slightest, but I must confess, I am pleased with the outcome. You and Mister Party found a common ground and a reason to work together. He is a very proud pony that has had decades to become set in his ways. I sort of figured that the two of you would bang heads together.”

“So this was a test—”

“Of course it was, my silly little bathtub toy.” Celestia sniffed. “And I had contingencies set in place to make sure that everything would get smoothed over should things go awry.”

“You have turned an enemy into a useful ally,” Luna said, interjecting her own thoughts.

This was a conversation that Gosling did not want to have. He turned away from Celestia to look at Luna, then back to Celestia once more. Both were close enough to touch, they were within reach, and he rather liked this dining arrangement. It felt more like a family dinner, which he craved. Some of the tables in the castle could be used as runways.

“What’s for dinner?” he asked.

“Fondant potatoes, that dish you like,” Celestia replied, “and a delightful cassolettes bouquetière.”

“Uh…”

“Creamed vegetables with asparagus spears and cauliflower florets,” Luna said, offering up an explanation.

“So, stinky pee, later,” Gosling remarked, giving no thought to his words. His ears perked when Luna began chortling, and when he looked over at her, she had covered her mouth with her wing. When he turned to face Celestia however, he discovered that she was giving him the look. Well, since he was already in trouble, there was only one thing left to do.

“That messes with my plans, see, I was thinking that yous and I could mess around with watersports later. Ya know, a little pegasus rain play, and turning our pee into clouds. But I dunno if I wanna do that with stinky pee, ‘cause that’s just foul.” Grinning, Gosling was proud at how much deeper he had dug his own grave, and he took immense satisfaction from how much Celestia was shaking, trying to hold back her laughter.

“Gosling dear, do you enjoy the sunshine while it’s raining?” While speaking, Celestia gave the brave pegasus her most saucy wink.

“Yous a dirty girl.”

“You have no idea.” Luna, still tittering, struggled to say her next words. “From what We understand, Gosling, once you have worn out her grassy meadow, you like to roll her over to play in the mud.” Still hiding her muzzle behind her wing, she added, “Ah, the blessing of youthful enthusiasm and near-instant recovery.”

“Yous both are dirty girls.”

“We hast accustomed Ourselves to modern hygiene standards.” Luna sounded a little embarrassed. “Our downdrafts are no longer considered acts of war nor aggression and We no longer clean Our teeth with urine.”

“How ‘bout them good old days?” Gosling’s cheeks bulged as he held his breath for a moment, and then he let it out in a huff. He rubbed his naked, featherless wings against his sides and delighted in the sensation of the soft, fuzzy wool in contrast to his own thick pelt. Now, Celestia was snickering, and much to Gosling’s relief, Luna started laughing again, though it sounded a bit like nervous laughter.

Well oiled hinges made no squeak when the meal was wheeled into the room. The server was a unicorn, as most servers in the castle were, and he looked a little tired, as though he had endured a long day. He was quiet, but polite, and kept his ears down in a submissive manner as he drew nearer the table.

“Reme, forgive me for mentioning this right now, but your daughter turned in a brilliant paper in class the other day.” As Celestia spoke, the fatigued unicorn perked up and he began to smile.

“Merci beaucoup, votre Altesse.” Reme bowed his head, but kept eye-contact with Celestia. “You are very kind, it makes my many years of service here meaningful, knowing that all of my hard work for my daughter’s education is paying off.”

“She’s talented at chemical, electrical, and mechanical engineering. Why, she’s a triple threat. I expect great things from her in the future.” While Celestia spoke, Reme began putting the food on the table and making sure that everything was perfect. Turning her head, Celestia focused on Gosling. “Tuition fees are waived for castle staff, Gosling. Many of the workers that look after our every need do so to provide a future for their foals.”

Gosling nodded, feeling as though there was a lesson somewhere in all of this.

With the food on the table, Reme bowed his head to both of the princesses, and then to Gosling last. “Bonne nuit, vous tous.” Then, pushing the cart before him, the server headed out of the room, humming a cheerful tune while he made his exit.

When the door shut, Celestia said, “That reminds me… speaking of gifted students, Gosling, I need to talk to you about something.” Staring at Gosling, Celestia began serving herself in an absentminded manner, loading down her plate with as much food as could possibly fit.

“Yeah?” A whole mess of fondant potatoes landed on Gosling’s plate, and he eyed them, hungry, ready to destroy them. He was glad they were eating in private. Next came the creamed vegetables with the asparagus spears and cauliflower florets. A little dribbled over one side because Celestia was careless and Gosling pretended not to notice. At least none of it landed on him or his sweater.

“I have two students,” Celestia started to say as she began to sprinkle black pepper over her plate with reckless abandon. “Administrative assistants. Secretarial sciences. Both are exchange students, twins, a brother and a sister from jolly old Liverypool. They are fantastically brilliant, but they have reached a stage where they must do, rather than just be taught. Raven says they are ready to work.” The white alicorn’s nostrils flared and for a moment, her tablemates both feared she might sneeze.

In close quarters, such a thing could be devastating and there might be no survivors.

“I’m going to assign them to you, Gosling.” Then, her nostrils still flaring, Celestia shoveled in an enormous mouthful of food and began chewing with great gusto. Smacking and licking her lips, she waited for Gosling’s response while a little sauce squirted out from the corner of her mouth.

“Okay,” Gosling said, distracted by the white sauce dribbling down from the corner of Celestia’s moving lips and he wondered if it was an intentional act to throw him off guard. He didn’t care if it was, and his hormone-addled adolescent brain burned with frenzied, feverish fantasies favouring frantic, frenetic face-fronking. Now, he was far too warm, and his naked, featherless wings wished to be released from the confines of his sweater.

“Good!” Celestia smiled, causing even more saucy gravy to run down her chin. She was startled by a sudden thump from beneath the table, which caused everything to bounce and rattle. “Gosling, are you okay? You suddenly looked pained.”

“I’m fine,” Gosling squeaked as he hunched over, clutching at his lower torso. “Tell me more about my future assistants, if you please…”

Author's Notes:

Chapter 3 of The Sun Also Surprises. Why yes, it is a callback. The boomerang returneth, huzzah!