'Welcome To Harmony'[FINISHED]

Rodeo did notice the mare in the corner, and glanced over to her. He had good perception, he could still keep an eye on Kes through his peripherals. When he turned back to face him, he looked back to his eyes, and continued to rock on the two back legs of his chair.

"Don't we all?" he said with a chuckle. "Survival is all the world has ever been. Even before everything died." He was of course, referring to before the war. From what he had heard, life could be just as difficult then, as it was after the war. Ponies worked, drove the rusted contraptions laying in heaps along the streets, crashed and died in them, and money literally made the world go round. Now, it was the hope of recovering back to another kind of war... and the blood of those who stood against that.

Rodeo nodded, hoping he could get that message across with the few words he used.

Suddenly, another pony sat at the table, and addressed Kes by name. Offered him cola, said something about a Mrs. Sparkle. Rodeo cocked his head to the side and listened, watching to see what she may do. Clearly she was no threat, but Rodeo had witnessed foals toss hand grenades before. He would be keeping his eyes open, at the very least.

Instead, Rodeo tried something else. He smiled, and looked back to Kes. "Girlfriend of yours, Kestrel?... Or an adoring fan?" he asked with a smile.

As Happy led her out of the ballroom, she gave a puzzled look. This all seemed very... Un Happy Trails like, to her. Not that it was unpleasant, she reminded herself, allowing a coy smile as she admired the form of the stallion leading her. The delightful balmy air whisked around them as he brought her to the bow, and he remained strangely silent all the while.

Then he turned and with an odd look on his face looked her in the eye. Her heart began to flutter, realisation of what was going on suddenly coming to her.

He began to whisper, and at that moment she had never focused on another pony's words so much, catching on every syllable he uttered. When he paused to lean towards her, she subtly leaned towards him as well, her face full of mixed emotions.

"Thank you." she replied, after he finished telling her how he felt, her response so quiet it was barely even a whisper. A thousand questions racing through her head, did she want this? Was she ready for this? Was he being sincere? What would the others think? What would they have to do?

Allowing a moment of silence whilst she tried to rein in her emotions, she closed the remaining distance and with reddened cheeks and shallow breath, rested her head against his neck. "What are you trying to say, Happy?"

The gryphon nodded a bit at Rodeo's little proclamation. Personally, Kes did not like the ideas and imagery of old Equestria. To many stories of the old Kingdoms told by his mother when he was young, of the Gryphon Kingdoms and a certain group within. To many announcements over the intercom back in Filly.

Equestria had been too ideal before. It was sickeningly perfect. But Rodeo was permitted his thoughts, just as Kestrel was permitted his own. And Kes kept his thoughts to himself

The stallions thoughts on the tables newest arrival did not earn a reaction from the gryphon, just a low grunt of acknowledgement. Kes could honestly say the mare was not his partner, to small for his liking. Coloration was wrong to. Plus she was a pony, Kes preferred the company of his own species when it came to relationships and intimacy.

That would mean that the little one must have been a fan then, though why she was a fan was anyones guess.

Upon the arrival of Sawdust and her Doll, Kes shifted his gaze rightwards; a single golden eye focusing down on the mare as she plopped her doll down on the table and offered out a cola with a lopsided grin. Apparently Kestrel was far more popular than he initially thought.

Had to be the suit.

At the offering of cola the big gryphon shook his head no, and instead took a sip of his whiskey. He had never liked the flavor of Sparkle Cola. Probably stemmed from the fact that he was a carnivore, and Sparkle Cola advertised its 'delightful carroty aftertaste!'. Bleh...carrots.

Dash sighed once again, "That's nice.. I guess." he said, taking a few more sips of his tea, "I sort of wish I had some friends like yours... Ponies who would be able to help me find my brother. I'm sure I'll find some eventually, I've just been hitting so many snags lately, I just feel like its really difficult for me to do anything."

Scrap’s words about her personality were touching, but Bakewell couldn’t accept them. She knew what she had done and the petty excuse of self-survival wasn’t going to hold up. Bakewell living had brought nothing to the wastes. Scrap living helped ponies. He fixed weapons that saved innocent lives, weapons Bakewell was too dumb to even know how to fire properly. She was also sure that Scrap was exaggerating on his own kill. He was just trying to make her feel better, there was no possible way that a pony like Scrap would enjoy killing. Enjoying beating up helpless ponies was a Bakewell emotion, not a Scrap one.

“Okay then, Scrap. I’ll try my best.” She smiled. She was relieved that dress-wearing wasn’t going to be a mandatory part of the relationship, but as uncomfortable and wrong as it felt, Scrap apparently liked the way it looked on her. The knowledge made her feel… pretty. She had never felt pretty before, it felt slightly nice. Maybe she wouldn’t throw the silly thing into the water after the party ended; it could make a nice keepsake.

“What now?” Bakewell asked. She hadn’t been kidding when she said she had no experience with marefriends. Were they supposed to hold hooves? Dance? Cry into each other’s hooves at the bow of the ship as it slowly and tragically sank into the frigid deep? Maybe… Oh, wait!

Bakewell carefully raised a hoof up to her mane and removed the little fake red flower. Actually attaching the thing to Scrap’s suit proved to take more concentration and one failed attempt more than she had anticipated, but eventually it got there.

"Perfect! Red, just like your mane!"

"I love you, Zestari." Trails whispered back, his mind racing with a thousand actions, a million feelings. Finally he shut out the white noise, decided he didn't care. He followed his instincts and went for it. He kissed the mare he loved and didn't give a shit what would happen after.

Shutter rubbed his chin with his hoof...He thought he got what Starry meant now.

"Well, uh...There's really only two solutions to that which I can think of off the top of my head..."
He mumbled, as he gave a glance around at the party.

"Wait for a break in the conversation, and then do it spur of the moment, and hope it starts a trend...Or wait, and hope a better opportunity comes about to use it...

Not particulary great advice, but it really all Shutter could think of, outside of simply offering to sing for some entertainment...but if it was that simple, then Starry surely would have just done that in the first place.
...Then his mind reminded him of exactly who he was talking to.

"Er, or failing that...you could offer your vocal talents to Winter? A bit of music is always nice at any event, and she would probably be glad that you offered!"

She smiled contentedly and ‘mmm'd’ as she rested her head against Happy's neck, when he said he loved her. At that moment her heart thundered in her chest, and she turned her head to eagerly receive his kiss as he made his move. It was nice; forceful and hungry, yet slow and passionate.

As they kissed she pressed her body against his, enjoying the warmth and masculinity of the stallion that loved her. Her. Just the thought of it sent tingling down her spine, and she wished she could stay in this moment with Happy, forever.

Scrap was overjoyed when Bakewell agreed to be his marefriend. A large and rather goofy grin spread across his face and the happiness that he was radiating was almost palpable. His mental revelry was broken by Bakewell asking what now and Scrap's subsequent realization that he knew next to nothing about being somepony's coltfriend. Attempting to think of something caused a quiet scream of gibberish to try and escape his mouth. Fortunately he was saved from having to come up with something by Bakewell pinning the flower to his suit.

"Thanks, it's really nice." Scrap replied, smiling happily. "You think we should maybe go talk to some other ponies, see what's going on with everypony?"

Starry rolled her eyes, as she held out her hoof for Shutter to hold and he instead put his hoof to his chin. She swiped at him, grabbing his hoof. I wasn't holding my hoof out for you to stare at, silly," she told him, breaking from her formal demeanor momentarily.

"I believe I shall settle for your first option, I do not wish to impose, but I feel the effect may be lost if everypony is warned ahead of time. We should visit with Winter regardless, no sense being asocial, is there?"

Starry tugged at Shutter's hoof as she led him toward Cross, Winter and Amity. She smiled at them, and opened her mouth to speak as they approached. "Hello Cross, Winter. Would you mind some extra company? And you are... Amity, correct? I remember you from Harmony Lane. I cannot express how glad I am that you missed my party there."

Mr. Rum jerked his head nervously as Lucky spoke to him, Mr. Rum nearly tripped trying to maintain his hooves on the controls. Mr. Rum looked nervously down at Captain Sparrow and bit his lip as he turned back to meet Lucky's gaze.

"Ummm I'm not sure I got your name Mister...." Mr. Rum pulled out a little notepad and flipped through the sea-soaked pages till he reached the latest log and his eyes grew huge as he slowly stared at Lucky from behind the sheets of paper.

"Ummm....Mr. McLovin?? From what my records say and from my own personal memory...as Ms. Winter Bell and Mr. Cross Roads were in the shipyard office negotiating ...*ahem* prices.....you and .....Dr. Love slammed the door open at 8:04 PM swinging whiskey bottles about, proclaiming you were the master of ....of....*ahem*....Gay Chicken and so you two roared and began to argue that you needed a.....ugh.....love boat....so you didn't rock the earth.......and when Cross Roads tried to kick you out you offered to cover the whole trip as long as you and Dr. Love had the cargo hold for yourselves....for a marathon session of Ultimate Gay Chicken Butt and Buck Sword Fight....needless to say, we received a lot of complaints about the 'Yeahs!!!' coming from ....Dr. Love.? I dont know these are just the names you signed, but even more disturbing were your screams of 'No!!!'" Mr. Rum paused for a bit to wipe the sweat from his brow and nervously state what he had next...

"Ummm and now we come to the payment part of our discussion, ...now aside from you paid up front, even over the insistence of Roads and Bell that they'd pay, you still owe us 29,678 caps.... now while the law in Manehatten that you must honor the contract...." Mr. Rum dug through his pack with his muzzle and revealed an official-looking scroll that had 'Lucky McLovin' signed in calligraphy at the bottom.

"There is no law agaisnt agreeing to a contract while drunk....so in addition to your agreement with Captain Sparrow, the surcharge of 500 caps to change the name of the S.S. McJigger to the 'The Love Boat' ...We really need to begin to collect the rest of the payment as soon as possible, so on behalf of Captain Sparrow can you please get us the caps as soon as possible? I'd hate to have to go to the authorities again...." Mr. Rum let out a deep breath, nearly gasping as he had to be the bearer of bad news to a poor hunger over buck that he was now heavily in debt.....and possibly the the loser of the most intense game of gay chicken ever!!!

Winter Bell followed Cross as he took her and introduced her to a good friend of his. She smiled and bowed her head curtly before she spoke, "It's lovely to meet you" she said with a smile before she then listened to the two converse a little. As they spoke she did notice that Cross was still a little uncomfortable with telling ponies they were together. It was something that was concerning her as she didn't want him to feel like he should hide from it or feel uncomfortable about it. She would maybe have a talk with him about it latter to make sure he was ok, but for now they should just enjoy their evening with their friends. As she listened to them talk, her thoughts were interrupted as the band had finally entered, set up and started playing. They mainly consisted of Violins and Cellos and Winter looked over with interest as she knew they were about to play her kind of music. It was a beautiful, sad song that demanded appreciation for its beauty. Every string sang with elegance and grace as the sound filled the room. Winter then heard Starry from behind her. She turned towards the blue mare before speaking, "Of course not. I always have time for my friends, Starry" she said with a soft smile.

Lucky looked at the pony before him with a straight face. He stood silent for a moment, thinking to himself.

"May I see the contract myself?" Lucky said in a calm tone. He stretched out his hoof to receive the paper if it was handed to him.

"I'd prefer to read the entirety of the contract myself, just to make sure I'm not missing anything in between the lines, alright?"

Trails reluctantly broke away from Zesty. He held her close, feeling her heart beat against his chest. He never wanted to let go, hated the very idea of not feeling that soft beat. He kissed her again. It was shorter, but the again that wasn't saying much. Then he heard the faint hum of strings from the ballroom.

Trails looked down at his love and whispered, "May I have this dance?"

Mr. Rum wiped his head once more for sweat as he rolled the scroll back up and hooved it over to Lucky...

"Um yea sure...we have a copy back at the Dock office so if you want to 'Rage' so to speak....feel free to take it out on the document"

Mr. Rum wasn't sure what the buck wanted with it, it wouldn't do him any good, when it came to Caps, Sparrow didn't mess around.

Slowly Sparrow began to rise in the corner and spoke up

"Ahh good I see you've awaken McLovin, I give you greetings as captain of the S.S. Loveboat now if you excuses me's I have to go to find some spare fancies so I can attend the Tea Party Ms. Dinner Bell is hosting, I hear shes quite an eyeful" Sparrow hobbled up and managed to get his balance as he went down from the control room into the captain's quarters.

Twisted Vision, after sitting alone for a little decided to go down below where everyone was dancing so she could at least be... polite-ish... She got up, her head hung low and walked down the stairs to where everyone was.

As she got below she looked around and felt as if her heart just tried to tie itself in a knot and hang itself when she saw all the ponies laughing, and the couples dancing on the dance floor. She clenched her eyes shut for a moment, to try and calm herself before coming up with an idea. It was a little out there but whats the harm in trying?

Looking around the crowd she spotted Winter Bell, the one who invited her and walked over to her. When she got there she sort of just looked away, letting her hair cover most of her face before finally working up the courage to speak.

"Umm Winter... I was just wondering if I could sing a song... If that's alright with you that is... I wouldn't want to upset you" She said, her voice cracking slightly mid way through her sentence. "I promise that I won't screw up..." She said looking at the ground still.

Kes perked a bit at the entrance of the band. It had been...years since he had heard a live band. To see that they had managed to scrounge up some functional instruments was impressive the song they played more so.

Kes could see out of one of the Dining rooms windows that Trails was asking his chosen mare to dance. No doubt the others in the room would soon be joining them.

Kes, throughout it all would be seated at his little table, sipping whiskey and watching from afar; unfazed by the emotions of the situation.

Perhaps one day Kestrel would dance with another. Perhaps he would hold the one he loved close and let himself be lost in a sea of sound, rhythm, and emotion. Perhaps one day he would go through the trials that his father had told him about, and be bonded evermore to another soul. Perhaps one day he would know love.

But that day was not today, and that was just fine for Kes. He was content to sit and sip his whiskey and tea, and just...watch.

When the music began to play, Gentle Breeze looked up, and watched the bow, gripped tightly at the frog by a hoof, slide against the strings of the violin harshly, creating a resonation of the sound that struck Gently's ears blissfully. Ah, to play a violin, she thought wistfully to herself. I wish I could do so.

She put away her drawing equipment and sipped her tea, watching ponies begin to pair up and dance. I wish I was more social.

She felt different at that moment, as if she had become more mature in a matter of moments. With a somewhat bored-looking blank expression, her imagination danced along with the ponies, weaving ideas through her head for stories to write; these ideas would tickle the imaginations of any younger colt or filly, she was sure.

She listened carefully to the beautiful hum of the horsehair of the bow striking the strings along the neck of the violin. All that mattered was that violin. How she wished to dance, but there was nopony to dance with. She felt a strong sense of longing, a need for somepony to be with her. But she didn't want to ask anypony to stay with her. She might be taking somepony's enjoyment from them.

She had seen Winter Bell, but she was with that stallion Breeze had seen at the bar. She had seen Happy Trails, but she wasn't very sure of him, and he was passionately kissing a zebra. It seemed everypony had somepony to distract them. Distract them from me, Gentle thought, realizing her feelings. But that revelation only made her feel guilty for being so selfish.

Starry gave Twisted a critical glare. This mare was asking Winter if she could be permitted to sing? That was Starry's plan! But now that Twist had set the precedent of asking permission, Starry couldn't just sing her song without asking first. To do otherwise would simply be in poor taste.

Starry looked back at Winter, smiling at her. "Actually, Winter, I felt it would would be more appropriate if I were to sing. I know several songs I would like to sing, and I felt it would put a smile on the faces of the guests here. Shutter and Cross can both attest to my singing voice."

"I was going to surprise you with it, but I didn't want to break the precedent our... 'gifted' friend has set here." Starry cast another glance at Twisted.

'Of course they'd have a damn copy of the thing.'

Lucky nodded to the captain, unrolled the document on the floor, skimmed it over, and gave it back to the first mate.

"Everything seems to be in order. I'll see what I can do to get you those caps as soon as possible."

'Over my dead fucking body...' he growled inwardly. 'I'm not paying thirty thousand fucking caps for getting assfucked on this rotting tub...'

Lucky took a few steps forward and got directly in the other stallion's face. His poker face dropped and turned into a menacing glare as he looked Rum directly in the eyes.

In a low and threatening tone he said, "If you tell even ONE soul about this contract, I will make it my personal fucking mission to hunt you down and pull out every single one of your teeth, and make a necklace out of them for you to wear for the rest of your days. Am I clear?"

Twisted looked at Starry as she spoke and winced as if struck when Starry suggested the declination and called her gifted in a mocking way. "I... I can sing... And I only wanted one song..." She said, her voice breaking again. This time she could not force the tears back and they brimmed up in her eyes. "B-but... If you don't want me to... I guess I will just go sit down" She said, beads just starting to fall.

Shutter blushed a bit when his hoof was quickly taken...he had gotten so caught up in his thinking, that he had missed the gesture entirely. he mumbled a 'Sorry' as he followed after Starry.

Shutter had to admit...things felt really weird with Starry acting like this...It seemed...well...odd for the hyper mare to act so 'civil' and 'refined', rather then fun and impulsive.
Still, he didn't want to say anything, she was probably trying really hard to help make this tea party go right, and acting like this was probably part of it. Still, he'd ask her about it the next chance they were alone...

These thoughts were cut short however, when he looked up to see where he had been dragged, only to see Starry looking a bit irked for a second, before switching back and talking to the tall unicorn (Did they follow? He needed to stop being so distracted!) about singing...he had been about to try and stay quiet, and avoid trouble...but when he saw a few tears in the taller mare's eyes, he really did start to feel sorry for them.

"...Well...what do you say Starry? It's not like there isn't plenty of time...why don't you both take a turn?"

Sawdust was unused to music being played around her, even though she spent a lot of downtime in bars, the music was usually of the sad lonely guitarist sort, not entire bands. Their arrival was disruptive enough to break her concentration even! What had she been ... oh right!

The mare glared briefly at Rodeo, suggesting such things, the nerve. OK maybe the second one was sorta little right. "Oh, no cola. OK!" All the better, she wanted another bottle anyway. Without a second thought she popped the top and gently poured it into the tea cup in front of herself. Then she moved onto other business, "I made something for you, cause of how you were real helpful when everypony was stuck in that machine."

She turned briefly to her doll, one that bore a striking resemblance to Twilight Sparkle. After a further moment she nodded, "Sorry, not helped, but... You were there and nice so I made you this!" With that said she pulled out a wooden figure of a gryphon, with a big obvious scowl on his beak and set in on the table. As she pulled that one out a second one managed to get caught and land on the table with it. The second one was of a pony with a cupcake mark carved into its flank. The rest was covered in, damage. She bundled that away quickly. And presented the figure to the table with a more normal smile.

Dae started walking toward the Captain's Cabin; he got almost to the door but tripped and fell through the door.

"Woops.... he won't notice."

Door falls off of hinge.

After looking at the door he turned his head, and looked at Lucky, then his eyes widen.

"Lucky, good to see you man!"

As the second kiss parted, she nuzzled the stallion, and smiled up at Happy, the taste of his kiss still danced on her tongue. A relationship with Happy would present so many challenges in her life, she thought, but they could be dealt with in time. For now she was supremely contented to just spend time here with Happy. She sighed, enjoying his closeness.

"Dance?" She looked nervous for a moment. "I don't really know how to dance." That wasn't technically true, but she didn't think he was asking about the type of dancing she knew from the zebra lands.