'Welcome To Harmony'[FINISHED]

By the time Flash and Trails had walked over, Winter's nerves had once again calmed down as she was reassured by Cross's loving embraces. "Oh, Hi Flash" she said happily as Cross had brought her attention to the Pegasus. "Are you enjoying yourself ?" she asked with a soft smile. When Trails walked over she remembered him being one of the patients she had tended too after the battle of Stableton. She vaguely remembered having to reset his rib. "Oh hello Trails. How have you been ?" she asked softly.

Sawdust pulled out a knife, a fold open hoof knife and a rough block of wood. "I dunno, it's OK," she said absently, "I'm kinda crashing it, nopony actually invited me." Seconds passed while she took great chunks out of the wooden chunk. In just a few big cuts a squat h shape was cut. ... Again the doll caught her attention suddenly, ... She responded to its silent reprimand with a sigh and a slow, wave of the knife, "So, what do you do? Aside from the whole guitar thing?" As she finished she went back to carving, roughing out a seated pony shape.

Lightning couldn't help but half smirk at the couple. Quickly, he would give a polite smile and say, "I have been well. It's certainly been a little while." The young stallion would look toward Winter and quickly responded, "Yes, I am. I was just talking to Sky and that black pegasus, Galactic Dash, not too long ago. This is certainly an amazing crowd of ponies you two had gathered here today." Lightning would look back at Cross, asking him, "So, how have you been, Cross? I couldn't find you in Stableton after we got the herb for Zestari."

Dash sat there for a few moments, his mouth wordlessly open. He had heard of awful things like these happening out in the Wasteland before, but he had never actually met some pony who had been a victim of such a thing. He was angry about slavers shooting him and taking his brother, but this pony had lost both of her parents. He had no idea how to even begin to imagine what that must have been like, "Th-that's... Well... Awful!" Dash said finally, "I mean... It sounds like things worked out for you... But... Well... Did they? I can't even imagine if... Well... That happened to me..."

She and Scrap made a good couple? Well that was good news, though Bakewell wasn’t entirely sure how Sky could be so sure so soon. Had Scrap told the Pegasus his intentions? Had those intentions just been to blindingly obvious to everyone but her?

“You can wander however much you want, Scrap. You don’t need to make any changes on my account.” Bakewell insisted with a dismissive wave of her hoof. “But if you still want to, I’m sure we can find you somewhere.”

Truth be told; Bakewell wouldn’t have actually minded Scrap moving into her home. After all, the more friends under one roof the better, right? It would be like a huge sleepover every single night! She and Cream had enjoyed sleepovers with each other occasionally. They were fun. The only thing preventing her from instantly offering the home was the knowledge that as long as she was sharing the house, her housemate should get an equal say in matters concerning it. Three ponies might be pushing the homes small one room borders to their absolute limit, anyway.

“I haven’t really gotten the chance to put much thought into it, either.” Bakewell admitted to Sky’s question. “I mean, I was completely surprised. I didn’t exactly get on the boat planning to become a marefriend." That was the truth, dear Celestia above was that the truth.

"Do you have any plans coming up?”

Sky just simply nodded at both of their ideas and such, and at bakewell for actually everything will still be the same but more time spent together. Bake had the better view of things, either way seems good that both are together.

"Me? not much, just going to do a few more of these guard jobs. And go back to stableton, back to selling Chems out of my shack. Which pays really well by the way, just going to do more jobs that pay i guess." Sky gave a shrug at her excuse to make caps, at least it was something.

Zestari watched as Happy picked up the canteen and key, and her sensitive nose detected the rather notorious odour from the canteen, confirming her earlier suspicion. If Happy had any thoughts of getting lucky in that particular way tonight, there was still a rather large issue in the way that she was yet to mention to her stallion.

She held her hoof out for Happy to take, and allowed him to escort her back to the party, returning his affections as they entered the ballroom, the party still in full swing. She noted the absence of a certain dark coloured griffon and wondered briefly where he'd disappeared to after delivering his 'gift'. The odd couple approached Cross and Winter, who were in idle conversation with the pegasus, Lightning, and Zestari watched them interact with one another, she smiled with joy at how wonderful they appeared as a couple.

Happy greeted the pair, and Zestari echoed her own hello, nodding deeply towards the pair, then she also extended the greeting to Lightning. Curious as to whether they had observed the spectacle between herself and Happy at the bow.

Scrap smiled happily when Sky said that they made a good couple, and continued to listen until they both finished talking before talking again. He responded to Sky first "Everypony needs caps, I suppose. I just make enough to survive off of fixing and selling things."

After he finished responding to Sky he started to respond to Bakewell "I would like to find somewhere to live in Stableton, bouncing around from place to place is a real cap drain and it gets kinda tiring after a while."

Bakewell frowned once more, and fell silent when Sky explained her plans of selling Chems. Bakewell had not gotten any happier about the winged mare’s source of cap income since they first met in Stableton’s tavern. She didn’t want to say anything about it, but every time Sky mentioned the addicting products that had ruined bits and pieces of Stableton the resulting twisting sensation in her belly was terrible. Eventually she would run out of good excuses to give herself and would be forced to attempt dealing with the problem. The results would probably make both Sky and Bakewell very unhappy with each other. When Bakewell resumed talking, it was directly to Scrap as she tried to ignore pretty much everything Sky had just said.

“We’ll see, Scrap. Maybe I’ll be able to find you a really cheap place to stay. I’ll have to ask around first, though.”

"Been...We've been great Flash, I've just been busy helping Winter with her medicine while I've been teaching her some more magic. Cross gently nudged Winter some more. And once again Cross saw more guests come over to greet them. Zestari and Trails, Cross was surprised to see Trails at an event like this...the pony was a bit earth-worn and crude, nonetheless it was a ...real treat. Cross smiled.

"Hey Smackafilly, how have you've been holding up? heard there you had some business in New Pegasus last time I checked"

"I'm doing just fine, can't say I've been taking it easy like you said." He admitted, course he never did really listen to the docs. Call it a stubborn streak. "Is it just me or do the cellists seem to be in an eternally sad mood?" He wondered aloud. "I'll be right back."

Trails let go of Zestari's hoof and walked up to the stage. Just like the cooking staff he ignored the cellists protests. Even more so when he took one of their instruments and sat down. A quick 'don't say anything' look was all it took to silence the quartet.

"Alright everypony, follow my lead."

Mona would give a nod towards the Gryphon, acknowledging his greeting, as she returned one in kind.

"Good evening."

She spoke back in her monotone, as she trotted over to the other railing that would prevent inquisitive or drunk passengers (probably mostly the drunk sort) from falling over the side of the ship. Using her magic to unbuckle her pistol's holster for a second, she checked over the back of the ship, making sure no Mirelurks, or pirates, or other threats could be trying to scale the ship from behind. She prefered to have her pistol ready as she did these searches...it would have been even better if she could draw it, but she was smart enough to know that that was not a good idea around here on a passenger liner, where that could panic guests...so she settled on keeping it ready for a quick draw instead.

Twisted Vision shrugged again "It' horrible but now I know that there was nothing I could do but make sure that I did not get hurt, and even then+ I was at the mercy of Discord. When harmony truly fails in a world who can you look too? Discord never hurt a single pony, never killed. Only the ponies who tried to live against his rules did that. No matter what people may think, Discord has rule, he just chooses not to follow them because he knows how to not follow them." She said simply "Getting over horrible things is simple as long as you can realize that you have no real control, and all you can do is push in the direction you want to go. You may want to push something to happen, but you must understand that sometimes your are just not strong enough, and you must let it go" She said smiling at him, her eyes twinkling slightly.

Dash thought a moment and nodded solemnly, "I understand what you mean about having control over the terrible things that happen to you... I also see how that has helped you over the years... But I have reason to continue being angry about what happened to myself and my brother even by that logic... I can still go after him, there's still a chance that he's still alive..." He sat there a few moments before speaking once more, "But doesn't it bother you how most things were under other ponies control, yet they chose to do things that resulted in bad things happening to other ponies and even yourself? I understand the balance between Chaos and Harmony, but don't you ever wish that it was balanced more in harmony's favor?"

Twisted pondered the question for a few moments then looked at Galactic with a serious look "Everything happens for a reason Dash... And if you are truly destined to find those you love, then it will happen. I know you may feel as if it is giving up, but always remember... We just follow in the wake of Discord" She said. "I never wish to have control, because control corrupts all. I know that as long as I do not corrupt, I will ascend" She said finally.

Starry took a seat next to Shutter, the one he had indicated for her. She has a wide grin across her face, having been encouraged by Shutter's words of praise. She knew there was a reason she chose Shutter over other bucks, and that was that he was so kind... and cute, but that was beside the point.

"Thank you, Shutter, and yes, I would love some tea. I'm not picky, just choose what you'd think I'd like the most."

Trails stood up when he was finished, dropping the cello and tossing the bow behind his shoulder. "That's how you play a cello everypony." He lit a smoke as he walked off the stage and joined Zesty. He wrapped a hoof around her and squeezed, this was a good night.

Dash sighed heavily, "I can't believe in any kind of destiny." he said, "If I let up hope, even for a second, it could have disastrous consequences... I'm not even talking about myself... My parents, Leafrun's friends as well... I told them all that I'd go out here and find him. I know you meant to comfort me with that, but like Chaos, it can just turn on me in an instant, you can understand that, can't you?" he let out a heavy breath, "You've managed to survive as long as you have." he said, "You have to find it within yourself that there must have been some sort of control you had... You couldn't have just been getting lucky all throughout your life."

Winter smiled as the interactions continued between the two couples, and Flash. She listened as Trails played his beautiful music on the cello and had mentally decided that she was going to do as Cross said, and sing. When he returned she smiled at him before she would say, "Trails that was wonderful". She looked to Cross and breathed in deeply, "Well I guess It's my turn" she said giving him a kiss before before she trotted off through the crowds of ponies and up to the staging area. She trotted up to the band and gave a curt nod which they happily returned. She moved up to the mic, taking it off the stand before she would give a short thank you speech before singing.

She gave a short cough.. which was more of a squeak as she was still fighting nerves to be in front of this many ponies. "H-Hi every pony, and griffin" she said giving a curt nod to Kes and Kira, "I would just like to thank you all for coming and I hope you're all having a lovely time. I also want to thank Zestari for providing the tea and Bakewell Tart for providing the food. I'm very lucky to have such great friends" she said with a smile, feeling a little more confident. "Now I'm going to sing a song.. that means something to me. It's a song I didn't fully understand until recently so... here goes" she said before putting the mic back on the stand. She took a deep breath before beginning her song.

"yeah, thats how it is for me. I steal most of the stuff from stableton, since i know most of the ponies i steal from are to messed in the head to fight back." Sky said with shrug, "They messed them selves up trying to get a fix, I rarely sell to stableton ponies since most would rob me." Sky looked at bakewell, and looked at her with a sad expression. "I know you still don't approve Bakewell, its something i do to live, to get by. Im actually the one taking most of them off the streets, So in a away i do a little more good than harm." Sky finished saying her part, to hope Bakewell doesn't get that much angry with her.

Bakewell knew that Sky’s heart was in the right place, but chems were still chems. She was glad that the substances were removed from Stableton, but simply pushing them elsewhere didn’t seem like a proper solution. Other towns and the ponies within them were obviously not as important as ponies related to or within Stableton, but they were still at least slightly important. She considered continuing to give the suddenly drug-centered conversation the silent treatment, but decided that some form of acknowledgement should be given.

“Okay.”

Lightning nodded gently as Cross spoke, "Well, that is very nice." He would watch as Trails and Zestari came over, giving them both a nod and a polite smile. When Trails went to play his song, the pegasus couldn't help but smile a little. He didn't know the stallion could play a cello. And then it was time for Winter to go sing. Wow. So many ponies with a musical talent. It made him wish that he could do something like that. All he knew was how to fly and to shoot. Turning to Cross, Lightning would say, "I didn't know Winter could sing so well. You are one lucky stallion."

Twisted Vision shook her head "I am sorry, destiny was not what I thought I said, for destiny is a plan. Everything happens at random and there is nothing that can be done about that. All you can do is hope Discord creates tat path for you" She said simply. "Discord favours people who honour him, for most think of him as evil. If you allow yourself to follow him, respect him... Then he may give back. That is why I am still alive. I accept that I have no control and that if I accept that my Lord Discord follows his own path, thus he blesses me by changing his path to keep me safe." She said smiling "He really is fair when you think about it" She said

Zestari looked puzzled when Cross referred to Happy as 'Smackafilly' and she looked at Happy to gauge a response. Hmm, certainly an interesting story behind that nickname, she thought to herself. As he left for the stage she remained standing near Cross and Winter, smiling towards the stage, an inscrutable expression on her face.

The music he played still used the same stringed instruments as had been used that evening but the beautiful soulful song he played was so very different in tempo and style. She was very impressed by his talent, and wondered why he didn't have the instrument as his cutie mark instead.

"That's how you play a cello." And there was the reason she loved him. He was bold and unrestrained. She would certainly never behave in such a way were she in front of a crowd.

She frowned slightly as he lit a cigarette but as he drew her into an embrace, she still gave him a kiss on his cheek. "You were magnificent," she whispered into his ear. Zestari turned to see Winter receive a kiss from Cross, and then approach the stage. After a nervous start, she delivered a heartfelt speech and then began to sing. Winter's singing was stunning and mid-song Zestari turned to see the expression on Cross’ face.

"Thanks," he said, putting out the smoke after seeing the look on Zestari's face, "but you're better." He kissed her and turned to watch bell sing. The mare had more than just chops, she had a gift. Reminded him of the hollowtapes his mom would listen to. The song put a smile on his face, as did the shout out to Zesty. He gave her another hard peck on the cheek and kept listening.