Shipper Madness (Bake, Scrap, Cross, Bell, Shutter, Starry, Zestari

"Really Muddle? You really think you can jerk the Khans around like one of your two cap whores?" Trails laughed and rose from his chair.

He didn't like New Pegasus jobs, always meant straightening somepony out that got a wild hair. This particular somepony was a bartender named Muddle. Muddle's problem was creativity, he had figured out a way to make a cocktail that would get you knocked flat on your flank with only a few ships. Sadly for his patrons this meant mixing in several hits of dash and nearly causing an OD with every drink. Trails knew better than to touch the stuff. Just like Muddle should know better than to skip payment and find another supplier.

"I'll make this simple for you, you pay double and tell your new friend the deals off, and i leave. If you don't this joint becomes Khan property and you end up in a shallow grave." Trails grinned at the terrified buck, patted him on the back and walked out of the Wrangler.

The lights of the strip glowed nearby. He lit a cigarette and weighed his options: Red Rock or the Strip. He decided he was too tired for a trip back to Red Rock and made his way to the gate. He held up his fake passport for the securitrons as he walked by. He missed Zesty, and a night in the Tops would help him feel better. He wasn't the luckiest buck, but he liked poker well enough. It was more skill anyway.

Winter looks in the reflection of the mirror as she straightened up the dress she had put on for the occasion. She had never been to New Pegasus before today and she had already seen other ponies walking about in decent cloths. And who was Winter to pass up the opportunity to dress nicely. It wasn't an overly fancy dress but it was one she liked all the same. It hugged close to her frame and complimented her shape while offering a nice color of purples and whites. She brushed her mane before she looked into the corner of the mirror seeing Cross on the bed behind her, "It will be nice to spend some time with our friend again" she said with a smile. After she was finished brushing she put the brush aside before taking out some tweezers, pulling on her eyelashes to straighten them and make them look presentable.

Cross awoke and stirred, when he looked up at Winter, he looked at Winter already preparing in her dress. Cross stood up out of bed and went over to her, and hugged her, kissing her good morning on the cheek.

"Thats true....Winter... you make ponies smile no matter how much time you spend in the mirror, no matter what your're still the finest mare to ever travel New Pegasus... let me go put on my uniform and gear and let's go for a walk." He smiled as he went over to where he had his equipment

Trails rubbed the back of his neck as he turned his guns over to the Tops floor manager. Because of the patch on his back he was given two things in plenty of supply: a wide berth, and suspicious looks. He ignored both as he made his way to Poker table, deciding to go up to his room later. He hadn't gotten a chance to bathe in a week or so, honestly he had lost count, and was looking forward to getting cleaned up. But he was looking forward to sitting back with a drink and a hand more.

He sat down at a table that was almost full and dealt himself in. A few hundred caps, nothing too high stakes. He smiled at his hand: Aces and Eights, good night. He raised another 20 caps and sat back, waiting for the flop. A waitress passed by with a drinks tray, he flipped a cap onto her tray and grabbed a whiskey. A pony from across the table was sizing him up, Trails chuckled and went back to his drinking.

Scrap stirred slowly out of sleep and glanced over to where Bakewell was still sleeping. Sliding out of bed he stretched a bit before truly starting to move and get ready for the day. He let Bakewell sleep as he got on some casual clothes and brushed his mane to a semblance of decency.

After he was finished getting ready for the day he gently nudged Bakewell awake,

"Good morning, sorry to have to wake you up but if we want to find Trails we should probably get moving."

Zestari smiled at herself in the mirror, she felt nervous, twitchy, and maybe even flighty. Her coat was brushed shiny, and her mane was combed carefully and set with an ornate pin. She’d been a part of the group that headed over to New Pegasus to meet Happy. She had been an enthusiastic organiser for the trip. She had originally intended to hire a guard or attach herself to a caravan but by going as a group, it saved caps and effort. She had tried to give the various couples as much space as she could during the trek, still, she’d have to find a way to repay them all at some point for making the effort.

She wasn’t sure why she was in front of the mirror; she normally didn’t even give a second thought to how pretty she looked. She didn’t even think Happy particularly cared about how she set her mane, or how much she’d brushed her tail. She reset the pin in her mane again with a critical eye. She cared how she looked for him though, and that precious moment when he saw her and his jaw would drop and his eyes would take in the sight, well, that was worth all the effort. At least she hadn’t decided to wear any silly dress or anything, just a simple bag with her paltry collection of caps and a few other personal items.

She left her room and paused wondering which couple to check on first, she wanted to get an early head start if they were planning on heading to Red Rock to visit Happy. With a shrug, she made her way to Scrap and Bakewell’s door, and knocked quietly.

“Are you ready?”

Bakewell gazed drowsily at Scrap through half lidded eyes. Words. She wanted to say words. She focused and tried to get her mouth to co-operate, but somehow the message wasn’t quite getting from her brain to her mouth. She tried again, and this time got results.
“fahemurminuuts” She mumbled drowsily through her pillow before rolling over. She had almost succeeded in in returning to her blissful slumber on the soft bed when she heard Zestari knock on the door.

That woke her up. Oh no! Oh no no no! She wasn’t ready!

“Oh no! Scrap, stall her! I’m not ready. My manes a mess! “She exclaimed, instantly on her hooves and rushing to a mirror. She didn’t want her friends to think that she didn’t care about their visit.

Scrap levitated the mane brush to the now very awake and suddenly panicking Bakewell as he walked over to the door to answer it.

"Don't worry, I'll just say we need a little bit more time to get ready." He said as he trotted over to the door.

Magicking the door open slightly Scrap peeked out a little.

"Morning Zestari, we're not quite ready yet, just a little bit longer just have to finish up a few things." He said before remembering Bakewell wanted hin to stall; quickly changing the subject he asked "So...enjoying the trip so far?"

Really Scrap...is that the best you can do...?

Winter looked for a moment longer in the mirror before smiling, "You know what.." she didn't finish her sentence as she took the dress off instead, folding it and placing it neatly on the table. She then walked over to Cross and gave him a long passionate kiss. She broke away and gave a half lidded smile as she spoke, "How did I end up with such an amazing buck" she cooed before she gave herself another look over in the mirror. She didn't need the dress... at least not unless they did anything fancy like going out in the evening to a casino or something.

Cross met Winter's kiss, breaking away only for a moment to slip on the sleeves of his uniform, he smiled as she took off the dress. Still, he loved the fact of how much she cared about just...her appearance, it didn't matter, he loved every moment he spent with the mare she was...

"How did I end up with such an amazing buck?" Cross went up to her and gently stroked her mane behind her ear.

"Same way how I manage to find myself ever deserving a mare like you..." Cross chuckled slightly. Once Winter was done undressing, he led the way so that they could started on a brand new day with all of their friends. As they walked down the hallway, Cross found himself holding Winter's hoof, comforting himself since he never got over separating from her in Harmony, but he smiled regardless, she would always come first

Alarm clocks were ringing in Starry's head. They sounded like kazoos and fizzling balloons. In reality, Starry didn't have an alarm clock, or rather, she hadn't set the alarm on her pipbuck, but the alarm went off in her head anyway.

Starry opened her eyes, and immediately rolled out of bed. The bed covers were dragged off the bed with her, and she had to shake those off before she began shaking Shutter, who was still on the bed.

"Shutter! Shutter! Wake up! Do you know what time it is?!" Starry pushed him around quite a bit, she didn't have the patience to wake him slowly. "It's PARTY TIME!" she shouted.

"That's right! Today's the day we find Trails! We haven't seen that buck since our first date in Stableton, remember? Zesty's probably been dying to see him!"

Starry hopped off toward the wardrobe. Her horn was glowing, as she magically flung open the doors on the wardrobe, and began sorting through the several pairs of clothing.

"What do you think?" Starry asked him, "Sword Mare outfit? Or pink dress with a bonnet? Please say sword mare, please say sword mare, please say sword mare,"

"...Uh...why? Starry? What's goin' on?"

Shutter mumbled, as he slowly pulled himself up and onto his hooves, missing those covers already. Whoever said deserts were always hot had been a Celestia-damned liar, or had never been in one at night...

As he slowly woke up, he half-listened to what Starry said, as he remembered why they were here.

Right...Trails...gotta find him...

However, he VERY quickly woke up when Starry was asking him whether she should wear the Sword mare outfit, or the Pink Dress. He knew Starry, even without the whispers he knew she wanted to wear the outfit...but he also knew the stories of New Pegasus, and that was not going to be a safe outfit to stroll around in.
Fortunatly, he had a plan, for once.

"Starry...I know you want the Sword Mare's outfit...but maybe you should wear the dress this time? You know what they say about New Pegasus, after all...and besides..."

Suddenly, Shutter did something rather...surprising for the usually timid buck, as he trotted over to Starry and leaned right up next to her, ready to whisper.

"...This way, we can keep that outfit ready for 'later on'..."

He whispered, trying to put on his best seductive voice, before giving a playful nip at Starry's ear. Apparantly, the relationship was starting to rub off a bit on Shutter, if the bold move was any indicatior.

Zestari blinked in confusion at Scrap. "Uh... the trip has been fine so far."

She frowned. "If you're not ready I can come back. I still need to check up on Cross and Winter, as well as Starry and Shutter, too." She heard the sound of rapid hoof-beats on the floor. "Is everything alright?" she shifted her head, trying to see past Scrap.

She shook her head at what she saw. "How about I go check on Winter and Cross instead?" She smiled, turned and trotted down the hallway towards the unicorn couple's suite.

Trails knocked back his whiskey and shook himself. He shoud've taken the dead bucks' hoof as a sign and left. But no he'd kept playing and lost all of his winnings. Well he wasn't giving them anymore money, that was for damn sure. When he stood up the buck next to him flinched, Trails looked at them like they were an idiot and walked back to the elevators.

He pressed the call button and let out a sigh. He was ready to go take a hot shower and just crash. The weeks since he got back had been hard, everypony was still in shock from Bitter Springs. There were two minds, retaliation and biding their time. Course everypony knew those were just code for start a war we'll lose and sacrifice our honor for our skins. Neither were attractive options.

To try and recover Papa Khan had started sending the enforcers out on more and more runs to lock the areas cap and chem flow down. To Trails that just meant more work with the scum bags in Everfreeside, not something he was fond of. The elevator finally opened and he entered. Trails leaned back against the elevator's wall and lit a smoke, ignoring the sign.

The hall was empty from what he could see. Trails was just fine with that, not exactly in a social mood after losing enough caps to buy the Khans the firepower they needed. Last time he'd every play that high of stakes. He was tired, sore, and sweaty. Most of all he was lonely though. Soon as he had gotten top side he'd had to get back to Red Rock, no time with Zesty at all.

He turned the corner, looking down as he fiddled with his keys. Finally finding the right one he set it into the hole and turned. The door opened with a satisfying click, he could hear that shower and bed calling in his name. No...he heard something else. Something very different.

"Zesty?" He wondered aloud, turning his head down the hall, letting his smoke fall to the ground.

“22… 23…” Zestari slowly numbered off the doors, looking for the room where Cross and Winter were supposed to be sleeping... Or were they in number 4 and Shutter and Starry in 25? She frowned, “24…”

“Zesty?”

She looked away from the doors she’d been counting and towards the voice. She blinked. At the end of the hallway was a familiar tall brown stallion with black mane and tail. One that she’d been pining after for the past few weeks, “Happy?!” She exclaimed, a look of surprise on her face that was quickly replaced by one of pure joy and the widest grin she could manage.

He looked dishevelled and tired in his Khan jacket, but Zestari didn’t care. She raced down the hallway and threw her hooves around the stallion giddy look on her face. She closed her eyes and planted a desperate kiss upon him, putting everything into it. She’d missed him so much, and here he was in the hotel the group had been staying at. She broke the kiss and opened her violet-magenta eyes as if having to check that she wasn’t dreaming. Upon confirming that her special somepony was there, she said quietly, “I missed you so much,” and kissed him again.

Trails kept silent during the embrace. He was content just to feel her, smell her, taste her. He felt his chest tie itself into a knot with joy at the sight of her, and unclench at her not so tender touch. He nuzzled her gently, taking it all in at once. His heart had been ready to burst from loneliness just a few minutes ago, now it was pounding with the thrill of being reunited.

He finally broke away to ask, "What are you doing here?"

A smile still on her face, Zestari looked at Happy. “We came over to New Pegasus to see you. A whole group of us; Starry, Shutter, Bakewell, Scrap, Winter and Cross.” She smirked, “We were spending the night here before completing the journey to Red Rock and I was about to see if the others were ready to continue. But why bother?! Here you are!” She laughed and kissed him again and buried her head in his mane, nuzzling him for a moment before backing off.

“In fact I think Starry and Shutter’s room is just over there. I think Cross and Winter must be in room 4.” She tapped a hoof to her chin, “How about you take a shower, and I’ll let everypony else know you’re here?”

Winter smiled and leaned herself on him as they walked. It was still strange to her that she could feel this way for a pony. At some point in her life she had been content with loneliness, feeling that there wasn't going to be a pony out there for her. But she was wrong... so wrong and she was very much in love. As they moved further down the corridor they ran into Zesty who seemed to be walking from the opposite direction. She smiled to her as she greeted her friend, "Hello Zesty, everything ok ?" she asked softly.

Her mane wasn’t quite the carnivorous beast she had imagined it being. There was no point in getting it super styled up or anything, since they had to trek across the desert. Still, she wanted her white hair to be at least at its norm.

“Okay! I’m done! I’m ready!” Bakewell finally exclaimed before scrabbling over to the door and shoving her face up to the gap in the door under Scrap’s head.

“Hey Zestari! We’re fine. We’re totally read-“ She started, before noticing the complete lack of zebra in the hallway outside her door. She pulled back and frowned.

“Scrap, I told you to stall her, not chase her off! Where did she go? They didn’t leave without us, did they? We’ll have to catch up. Do you know the path we were going to take?”

"Everythings fine, checking on the others first seems like a good idea." Scrap had replied to Zestari before she had went off to go find the others.

He was about to close the door again when Bakewell announced she was ready and subsequently stuck her head underneath his and into the small crack that was still open between the door and the wall.

"I didn't chase her away, she just went to check on Winter and Cross. We could probably catch her if we hurry, their room is pretty close."

“Oh…” Bakewell muttered as she listened to the explanation. “well, yeah… We should catch her. We don’t want to get left behind because we weren’t ready!” She said, as if that were an actual risk.

“You are ready, right?” She asked before pausing to think to herself. She was doing something wrong here. There was something missing. Oh. Oh ooh oooh.

“Nevermind, that’s a silly question. You’re always ready.” The earth pony purred as she gave Scrap a stiff and unpracticed nuzzle. Couples were supposed to nuzzle and use tones like this, right? Of course they were. She had seen happen with other couples so clearly it was expected to happen in this couple as well. Bakewell still wasn’t used to this whole married thing and found herself having to actually remind herself to give Scrap signs of affection, but she could learn.

“Okay, let’s go.” She said before pulling the door fully open and heading down the hall in completely the wrong direction.

Scrap let out a small squee of pure happiness as Bakewell nuzzled him; before nuzzling her back. The whole experience of being a couple was new to Scrap so his returned nuzzle was just a stiff and unpracticed as the one that Bakewell had given to him. Still the sheer fact that he was with the pony he loved overcame any awkwardness from inexperience-at least for Scrap.

But as all good moments must, the moment ended and Bakewell pulled the door open and started to head down the hall. In the wrong direction. Pulling the door closed behind him he stepped out.

"Umm...Winter's room is the other way..."

“Oh, right. I knew that.” Bakewell chuckled as she reversed and headed back past Scrap with a wide grin. He had quite obviously enjoyed the nuzzle. She liked it when he enjoyed her affections; it meant that she was not only keeping her promise to try, but was also keeping it well.

“From here to Red Rock in a day. Think we can manage it?” Bakewell looked back at Scrap and asked as she trotted, trying to avoid getting far enough ahead of Scrap for her ignorance of Winter’s room number to become any more apparent than it already had while still trying to stay in front. “I guess they aren’t too far away on my pipbuck considering the distances we traveled when Trails was leading us around, but those mountains’ll probably slow us down but good if there’s no proper roadway.”

Scrap stifled a little laugh as Bakewell reversed course and headed back in the other direction. As she passed him he fell into step behind slightly, smiling happily as he walked.

"I think we could probably do it. I'm sure the Khans will have some sort of trail to get thr-okay we turn here-through the mountains" He said as he trotted along towards the others rooms. "19, 20, Winter's room should be number 24..."

He trailed off as he noticed the accumulation of his friends that had formed down by their destination. In fact the only ponies out of the group that they had came with that he didn't see down there were Starry and Shutter. Noticing that Trails was among the ponies accumulated there Scrap remarked

"Looks like we might not have to make that trip to Red Rock after all."

Starry grinned widely. She liked Shutter's train of thought. "Okay, the dress it is!" she quickly threw the dress on, and levitated the bonnet onto her head. Starry was looking forward to putting on the Sword Mare outfit later tonight. She was already envisioning the crazy things the two of them would do...

'Starry the Sword Mare rescues the princess damsel in distress... that'll have to be Shutter. He could pull it off. I should probably hire a mercenary to play the part of the villain holding her hostage, maybe somepony who knows a thing or two about sword fighting. I'd be completely exhausted after the sword fight, but that's okay. I only need to finish the scene by kissing the princess, and then the two of us could go to sleep. Still, the princess will need to look the part.'

"And later tonight, you can wear the dress! It's perfect!" Starry exclaimed. "Now then, get yourself dressed, we're probably running late as it is!"