The room was now very, very crowded and the ponies inside of said room had to be on friendly terms with one another. Intimate, friendly terms with one another. Little Moon Rose sat in the only available chair, holding Flurry Heart. Flurry, a yearling, was almost as large as Moon Rose was, but her mental state was far, far younger. She cried and sniffled a lot, but Moon Rose, who was now fully healed, held on to Flurry like a sister.

Hazy Breeze, Soprano Summer, and Shining Armor all stood together in the corner, near the chair. Shining, who had gone off to visit the vending machines, had returned with a bag of beet crisps, which he was eating even now, and he held a steaming waxed paper cup full of coffee. Luna was near the window, supporting Cadance, who had been left quite weak, her legs wobbling like a newborn foal’s. Beside them, Sleet stood, staring at her son, silent, her face wrinkled with worry.

Celestia looked her niece in the eye, and she heard Cadance say, “Maybe he won’t notice.”

To which Celestia responded: “You think that Gosling won’t notice his wings… the very thing that he is most vain about?”

“Well, I don’t think he’ll be upset,” Cadance replied, sounding very foalish and weak, due to how her voice quavered. “I thought I had more control. I didn’t know I was going to surge again, like last time. At least he didn’t become an alicorn.”

“No,” Celestia remarked, “he just got the wings.” Casting a glance down, she looked at Gosling’s naked, exposed, featherless wings. The radius, the ulna, and the humerus had been extended… considerably. His carpometacarpus was now longer, thicker, and heavier—it had become very much like her own. The flesh was pink, new, and completely smooth. Dense, heavy muscles bulged beneath the taut flesh.

“When his feathers grow back, he is going to violate every single public indecency law in existence,” Luna muttered, more to herself than anypony else.

After licking her lips a few times, Cadance shook her head and replied, “Those laws, they’re all very silly. I don’t even see why we have them.”

“Because, silly, pretty pegasus ponies created the necessity for them.” Try as she might, Celestia found that she could not tear her eyes away from Gosling, and she kept trying to picture what he might look like when he had feathers once again. “Cadance, darling, what have you done? He is never going to shut up about his wingspan now… when he has feathers once again, I suspect that his wingspan will rival my own. Do you have any idea how much anarchy you have unleashed upon the world, my dear, darling, devoted Cadance?”

“Um… er… uh… um…” Cadance shuffled around on her hooves a bit, smiled, and looked her aunt right in the eye. “Happy Hearth’s Warming, Auntie?”

“We are concerned that he has not yet awoken.” Luna reached out one wing and tickled Gosling’s snoot. “If he does not awake soon, We shall be forced to take drastic measures and tickle other places.”

“Give it time, Luna. The medicine they’ve given him was quite strong.” Leaning over, Celestia was relieved to see that Gosling’s face was now unblemished once more. Looking up, she saw Sleet staring not at Gosling, but her. Blinking, Celestia suffered a rare moment of feeling self conscious about herself.

Sleet said nothing, and her continued silence was powerful.

“Once he wakes, we can go home,” Shining Armor said as he crunched on a bright red beet crisp. His snacks had stained his lips red and turned his tongue purple. “You know, this public hospital is going to get quite a boost out of this. They treated a princess and a prince and nothing went wrong. I think it’ll be good for them. You can’t beat something like this for community relations.”

Lifting her head, Cadance gave her husband a peculiar, cool stare, but had no reply, no remark. The pink alicorn glanced at the blue alicorn beside her, and then both alicorns, pink and blue, stared at Shining Armor, who was too busy eating his crisps to notice that he was being stared at.

“Why was my son put in danger?” Sleet asked in a grating, almost growling voice.

Luna had an almost foal-like reaction, and she ducked behind Cadance, only to peer out from behind the pink alicorn’s neck. The muscles in Sleet’s neck quivered, and the corner of her eye twitched while her wings jittered against her sides. Her arctic blue eyes blazed with emotion and her tail swished from side to side, whipping against her flanks.

“Sleet, I must ask that you do not blame Luna.” Cadance, her head high, looked down at the much smaller pegasus mare. “Gosling is a soldier, it is his job to go into danger. Without him, this would have ended in a very different way.”

“Gosling is better at dealing with the public than We are.” Luna’s voice was little more than a shamed whisper. “We feel safer and more secure among the public with him. He is charming, and was able to put Moon Rose’s parents at ease with his grace and wit. Also, We had no way of knowing that such dangers awaited inside.”

“It is part of Gosling’s job to look after assets that the Crown holds valuable.” Shining Armor, still crunching his crisps, swallowed and then crammed a few more in his mouth. After chewing a bit, he swallowed again, then added, “Sleet, I know this is hard. It is every mother’s worry when her sons or daughters go into battle. Being angry about it doesn’t help though. Holding any resentment will only belittle all of the hard work that Gosling does to serve both Crown and country. It’ll create a rift between the two of you. Trust me, I know.”

Hearing this, Sleet’s anger melted away and her face sagged as her whole body slumped. Almost right away, her eyes flooded with tears, and her barrel began hitching. Cadance, reaching out with one wing, pulled the smaller pegasus closer, and began comforting her daughter’s nanny.

“This life he’s chosen,” Sleet said in a strained voice that was on the verge of cracking. The mare shook her head, squeezed her eyes shut, and leaned up against Cadance. “I worry… which bite of his food is going to be poisoned? He can’t ride a train no more, every train ride he’s been on has ended with disaster. An assassin somehow managed to make her way into the castle and she tried to kill him… if it wasn’t for Hush, I wouldn’t even have a son right now. And poor Seville… Seville, he got stabbed… my son’s best friend got stabbed trying to save him. I’m having trouble accepting all of this… I thought I would be okay with it, but I’m not… I’m not.”

Reaching up with his foreleg, Shining Armor wiped his muzzle, then took a sip of coffee from the steaming waxed paper cup. Then, he cleared his throat, took another sip, and said, “Gosling made a choice and now he lives with it. Being a pegasus, Gosling is vulnerable and he accepts that. Your son is distressingly mortal, Sleet. He’s also incredibly brave—”

“The papers call him foolhardy,” Sleet interjected.

“Well, that is a matter of debate.” Shining Armor’s face was graced with a relaxed, easy-going smile, and he beamed at Sleet. “It is my opinion that Gosling is far, far more aware of the risks in a given situation than he lets on. Your son, he’s not stupid, not at all, and I think that he plays the best game he can with the hand that he’s been given. He gambles, Sleet, and I know how difficult that has to be for you, but again, this is his choice.”

“The Four Aces have been a winning hand so far.” Celestia saw Sleet’s eyes open and confusion clouded the small mare’s face. “The Four Aces… it’s a poker hand… Gosling is the Ace of Spades, Hush is the Ace of Clubs, Seville is the Ace of Diamonds, and Hotspur is the Ace of Hearts.”

“Each are so aptly named,” Cadance remarked, and she stroked Sleet’s back with her wing. “Seville shows so much promise as a public relations agent. This is his genius at work.”

“At least the Ace of Clubs is hard to beat.” Sleet sniffled a bit, then somehow managed to smile. “I think I would lose my mind completely if it wasn’t for Hush.”

Celestia, her gaze settling upon Gosling once more, said to Sleet, “We have something in common…”

With much majesty and dignity, Prince Gosling sneezed himself awake when feathers tickled his nose. His body was heavy, his mind was kludgy, and he had no idea what was going on. Somepony was hugging him, squeezing him, and it didn’t take him long to sort out what was happening. His mother was smothering him, as she was wont to do.

“Ma,” Gosling croaked, “equinal space, Ma.”

“You shut up, Gossy!” Sleet snapped in a voice that cracked with relief. “I squirted you out of my equinal space!”

Ears ringing, Gosling heard laughter, lots of laughter, so he himself laughed to join the crowd. His vision was blurry and he had some trouble seeing, but it was clearing up. Blinking, squinting, Gosling began trying to take stock of himself. His face felt whole, his lip didn’t feel split anymore, and his wings felt… weird, so very weird.

How long had he been out?

“Water…”

Within seconds of speaking the word, Gosling felt a cup pressed up against his lips and he pushed his muzzle against it, an involuntary jerk because his body was just desperate for water. It dribbled down his chin, soaked his muzzle, and poured into his mouth, almost choking him. Gulping, he fought to clear his mouth and breathe at the same time. Sputtering a bit, his lips flapped together when the cup was pulled away from him.

A second later, the cup returned, this time with a straw. At last, Gosling was able to drink and get his fill. Wrapping his lips around the straw, he sucked in a mouthful of water and then eased it down his parched, leathery throat. It hurt to swallow, but he didn’t care. More water was gulped down, and each swallow was accompanied by an audible sound. While he drank, his mother rubbed his throat with her hoof, and that helped out quite a bit.

“Mistah Goose?”

Still drinking, Gosling’s eyes darted around until he saw a flash of pale pink. After a few blinks, he focused enough to see the face of Flurry Heart, who was sitting on the bed beside him. He wanted to talk to her, but he continued drinking, consumed with a painful need for water.

“Uncle Goosy-Goose, I was scared!” Reaching out, Flurry placed her hoof against Gosling’s foreleg, then added, “You drink, Uncle Goose. Don’t choke!”

If he didn’t die from thirst, he would die from cuteness soon enough.

“I made a new friend, Uncle Goosy,” Flurry said, babbling as though there was nothing wrong. “Moony is nice. She gives good hugs and she told me a prince rescued her. We had chocolate together and I think we’re besties.”

Almost coughing, Gosling pulled his lips from the straw. “That’s great, Pink Pint. It’s important to have friends.” When the tickle overcame his throat, this time, Gosling did cough, and he felt his mother whack him against his back. At least it wasn’t Flurry whacking him, because she could snap his spine.

Lifting his head a bit, with stars in his vision from coughing, Gosling had a look around the room. There were a lot of faces that he knew, and the room wasn’t very big. After several long seconds, his gaze settled on Moon Rose, the filly he had rescued. Grinning, because nothing could stop Gosling from grinning, he gave her a charming nod, then turned to look at Luna.

“I done rescued me two good lookin’ ponies. I deserve snuggles! Maybe I can get kisses from them both, eh? Eh? Heh!”

Rolling her eyes, her ears twitching, Luna let out an indignant snort and her lips pressed together in a straight line as she struggled to remain silent. Cadance began giggling while poking Luna with her wing, and Flurry Heart laughed even though she didn’t quite know what was so funny.

Celestia, perhaps knowing that this was something that would have to be dealt with sooner rather than later, lowered her head down near Gosling, kissed him once, which made Flurry giggle even more, and then in a whisper she said, “Gosling, darling, we need to talk about your wings… please don’t freak out, Cadance was able to fix the damage, and everything will be better in time, Gosling...”

Author's Notes:

And that's all the material I have for now. All of this was part of the first chapter in its original incarnation. I felt it was too busy, had too many characters, and too much going on. So, I broke it into three parts and these past two chapters have seen some extensive changes to the tone and mood.

Further updates might take a while, as I have other stories that need work.