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

Winters heart jolted as she heard Cross ask her to move in with him. It had been a thing she had thought about a few times but she had been unsure on what to say on the matter or even if Cross wanted that sort of relationship. She smiled and pulled her head back from his chest as she looked to meet his gaze. He was blushing and seemed a little nervous... which she loved. She always found that adorable about him. She moved her head forward, her lips meeting his as she kissed him deeply and passionately in response to his question. She pressed her chest against him as she felt that strange feeling of being invincible in his hooves. She could envision them living together and the thoughts brought her happiness. She smiled through the kiss before she broke away, nuzzling his neck, "I would love nothing more" she whispered.

Cross broke out into a warm smile as Winter said yes ...and profoundly squeezed Winter even Closer. He imagined ....many things that could happen from this point onward, but no whatever happened, he always believe Winter and him were meant to be together.

Once his heart calmed down from the nervousness and looked down at Winter's head pressed against and playfully tugged at her ear simply because.

"...Well ...if you don't plan dress up ...then maybe we should meet the others at the entrance..." He tugged on her ear some more to indicate maybe they'd better catch up.

"...time to get back Wint?"

Zestari blinked when Cross suddenly teleported away with Winter, and then shrugged. “Okay, so we’re going to The Tops then? Sounds good to me."

"Anything I should bring other than my caps? I didn't take much of a look around when we arrived here."

Winter felt her hooves go weak as he tugged on her ear. It was one of her most sensitive places besides her horn. She closed he eyes and let out a soft gasp as he tugged again. A moment longer and she began to feel a creeping heat spread from her stomach to her hindquarters, however her head whipped up as she became immediately aware by it. "W-we should go... now, right now.. to meet them at the entrance" she said nearly tripping over her words. "L-lets go" she said as she headed towards the door, hiding a blush as she went.

Cross nervously looked at Winter as she gasped when he tugged her ears. She seemed to get confused with her choice of words. She broke off the embrace and slowly staggered over to the door in a suspiciously uncanny fashion. Cross wondered what could possibly be going on with her...

"Hey umm Winter? ....you can come back ...I can just ....you know ....teleport us?" Cross curiously asked, still trying to figure out what exactly was going on.

"Are you okay?"

Winter stopped and cursed herself silently as she had forgotten that they teleport most places now. She turned and sheepishly walked back over towards Cross, "O-oh yeah... ha, I almost forgot" she said as she moved closer to him. Her face was the slightest shade of red and her heart was moving a mile a minute. Had she actually gone fully into heat it would have became instinctively obvious to Cross and been quite embarrassing for her. Not that she felt she should be or felt it was anything to really be ashamed of, but she felt that him knowing about her ears might make him think she was weird... or something. She stood next to him and tried to calm herself down, 'come on Winter.. stop being silly... focus!' she thought to herself.

Cross remained expressionless as he tried to measure up Winter's behavior ...which for the moment was highly erratic. Immediately he was set in calculative mode and tried putting together a theory as to why she seemed so ...what was the word ....'flustered?!' because for some strange reason she seemed to go into deep thought and her chest was pounding from what seemed to be a ravenous hearbeart, not to mention her breathing...

The last thing Cross remembered doing ...was tugging on her ear and it seemed to cause some sort of alarm in her. Now he was curious. He really wanted to see what was going inside that head of hers so he decided to test his hypothesis.

He leaned against her as she stood in deep thought and nibbled the corner of her ear.

To see what would happen...

Winter's eyes went wide as she felt Cross nibble her ear. A visible shiver ran down her body as she closed her eyes, a placid state taking over her as her body betrayed her completely by showing a reaction against her will. She felt that same fire begin to build itself again and it brought a more visible shade of red to her face as she felt it. Her heart picked up pace again and her mind reeled. Had it been any other pony it wouldn't nearly carry the same effect but because this was Cross who was her potential life partner his actions carried more weight towards Winter on all manner of levels. She felt her hooves become weaker and she was beginning to think she might fall to her haunches. Through out the moment she knew she should stop it.. but she couldn't help but enjoy the feeling as it was something that she seemed to like allot.

Once Winter froze up after his little 'test' Cross took a step back and glanced at her ...her facial tone was nearly akin to that of a rose... He stood there dazed....

Realizing in shock what he had been doing to Winter the entire time, he couldn't think straight. His breath started picking up and his heart started racing.

"Oh....uh ...um ....I'm sorry Winter!..." He stuttered. He was now blushing even brighter than she was, he was glad ....he found a way to please her, he loved her, but he didn't want to just sic onto her like a primal ...he wanted to be more civilized than that. Looking away he tried to avoid meeting her but the only ones in the room were them two so it was better to face the music now..

"Winter...is there something I should know...?" He asked without any real thought of what she would say. As long as he could hear her talk to him again...

Winter's mind reeled when she realized he knew what was going on. It was silly to think he wouldn't find out but that didn't prevent the moment from being any less awkward. Her ears dropped as her face remained red as he stuttered and asked her if there was anything she should tell him. She coughed before looking away from him, unable to look at him directly as she spoke, "M-my ears are really sensitive... and I..I might be in season" she squeaked, feeling her cheeks burn as she said it out loud. 'Oh Celestia, what he must think of me right now!' she thought to herself as she lowered her head forward a little.

Cross stared at Winter, with his mind drawing blanks '...Shes in season....' Cross couldn't think... he couldn't think at all, his thoughts became fuzzy as the room started to spin and he sat on his flank.

"You're in season ....you mean....?" Cross felt his body flare up, a deep, fuzzy feeling in his gut and his breathing became rapid.... 'what is wrong with me!?!?!' This didn't feel right, ...it must've been a reaction to Winter... he tried to calm down and get his bearings but what he really wanted to do was lunge towards her...

He shuddered and ran over to the bathroom sink, throwing the door aside with a loud and turning on the faucet. Catching the cold water with his hooves and magic bringing it above and drenching his entire head, leaving him soaking... His breathing clouding the mirror as the water dripped from his mane and he stared into it, bouncing as his chest compressed from the intense breathing and his thoughts cleared up, finally able to get a grip on his instincts.

"Alright...I think.... I think....I got it under control Winter....what....what do we do now...?"

Winter cringed as he raced into the bathroom. She knew what was going on, partly because of how she knew Equine anatomy worked and of course as a doctor it was her job to know. She watched as he dropped water on himself and she proceeded to get him a towel. The crazy thing about all of this was how close it could have come to happening if things had gone in the other direction... but then in allot of ways.. she had to ask herself if she would have cared if it had. Her thoughts were cast aside for now as she heard him ask what they should do now. She levitated the towel to him and as she eased on her own desires she focused her mind to produce an answer. "I-i think we should join the others... and maybe... maybe we should talk about this latter ?" she offered wondering if it was a good idea to even have a talk about this. But it could benefit them both if they knew where each other stood about such desires and how to fulfill them.

Cross shook his head and warmly smiled at Winter as offered him the towel, he wrapped his head and passed it through his mane, trying to get the moisture out but the coldness was still there... he felt better though, the pressure his hormones had been putting on him subsided and he let out a deep sigh. He went over to Winter and slumped on her with both his hooves around her in a deep hug, really glad he didn't just throw himself on her...

"Yes, guess we should..." answering to both questions vaguely.

(Teleporting when you're ready, add it to your post)

Winter smiled as he hugged her, glad that the ...tension they had a moment ago didn't change anything between them. She held him close as he answered and before she knew it there was a flash of light as her world melted away from her once more in the way she had come to expect whenever he teleported her. Soon they would find themselves with the group again, a flash signifying their arrival as they joined up with their friends. "Heya every pony, sorry about that.. we had to make sure something was taken care of" she said as she looked to Cross before looking back to the others. "So what's the plan ?" she asked, unsure if anything had changed since.

"Just an appetite," Trails said in reply to Zesty, "I'll show you guys everything the tourists miss. I know a few bucks with some pull. If we can ever get Bell and Cross outta their room that is."

"Not to worry, Trails, I'll get them out of there!" Starry reassured him. Starry wasn't quite sure what to say. This was the first time she had seen Happy Trails in a long while, and this was her first time on a quadruple-date. So naturally, when Trails presented a way to make herself useful, Starry jumped at the opportunity. Almost literally, actually, as she cantered over toward their room.

She wasn't far down the hallway when she noticed the flash, and the two reappeared with the group. Starry cantered back to greet them. "Hey, you two! Good timing, I was just leaving to go get you."

Cross shook his head, to a degree his mane was still wait ....maybe he should of dried up a bit more before Winter and him rejoined the others. They just needed other ponies around at the moment. Luckily nopony said anything about the water dripping from the ends of his hair.

"Oh hey Starry, ...sorry if we took too long. So what have you all decided?"

Scrap didn't even flinch when Cross and Winter teleported back to the group, he had been around Cross enough to get used to the other unicorns frequent use of teleportation.

He greeted the couple once again, taking note of but not mentioning Cross's soggy mane. When Cross asked if the rest of the group decided on what they were going to do Scrap spoke up.

"We did come to a decision, Trails is going to show us all the cool things that tourists normally would miss."

Zestari looked from Cross to Winter when they both teleported back in. Why was Cross wet? That was unusual. She squinted her eyes slightly, shifting her eyes from Cross to Winter and back again, then shrugged slightly and sighed. “We’re about to go. Happy is showing us around.” She smiled at the stallion.

“We’re all here now, shall we go? The day doesn’t get any younger waiting here.” She chuckled slightly and gave a nudge to Happy, encouraging him to lead on.

"Huh wuh? Oh yeah." Trails had spent the past minute thinking about how insanely small the hallway they were sharing was. He had been trying to decide if jumping through the window at the end was worth the broken leg. "C'mon everypony let's get going. The tops just got a good act for their stage show. Some cowpony. Technically he's not going live until next week, and today is just a sound check, but I can get us in."

Trails turned and called the elevator. Before the doors opened, however, he quickly turned for the stairs and trotted down them.

"See y'all on the casino floor, not enough room in that thing for us all."

Winter raised an eyebrow at Trails' behavior. She already knew what his problem was but she knew it wasn't her place to say it. She had seen it many times and had helped ponies get over it on more then one occasion. Although claustrophobia was commonplace among ponies it was still something that interested her. After all it was phobias and the mental stability of the brain which drove her to study into the Psychological part of medicine in the first place. She entered the lift and decided maybe she should reinforce his cover for the sake of him probably being uncomfortable with ponies knowing about it, especially Zestari. "He's right there isn't that much room" she commented casually as she waited for the other to join her. When Cross was in she would lean affectionately agasint him as they descended the floors.

Cross walked into the elevator with WInter, he was bit confused when he realized they weren't just teleporting down...still he felt really comforted as Winter laid her head against him. Relaxed even. He walked in without any real words since Winter pretty spoke for them both. Although he didn't understand why Trails was so eager to take to the stairs, even before the elevator got there.

Those questions, Cross would figure out later, for now he had an evening with Winter and his friends...

The others were doing well enough talking amongst themselves, so Bakewell was content to sit around and idly contemplate various ways of making Cross stop showboating his brain-growth with constant teleportation. The mare was positive that one day he would mess up and end up inside a wall. Part of her wanted to be there to see his face. Well, maybe. Was appearing inside a wall painful? Naw, it would probably just leave a silly looking hole in the wall.

… or would it leave a not so silly hole in Cross? Urrrrgk. Okay, maybe she didn’t want to be there to see his face after all.

Bakewell would follow Scrap, she didn’t want to move before he stopped leaning on her. That would be rude and inconsiderate.

“Ooh, that sounds interesting. Always wanted to see a cowpony.” Zestari followed Happy as he walked towards the elevator, but when he made an abrupt detour and started heading for the stairs, she turned and gave a shrug of confusion towards the group. She followed him as the others started entering the elevator.

“Happy, why are we taking the stairs? The elevator was right there? There was plenty of room for us all.” She noticed he looked a little tense. “Are you okay?”

Trails stopped on the landing and let out a sigh. There really was no dodging it. Especially when they only had 15 minutes before they suffocated. He looked up at Zesty and groaned, he didn't like admitting his flaw, even if it was fairly obvious.

"I...don't like small places." He said through gritted teeth. "I start getting a weird crawling feeling in my hide and, there's only so much air you know. We really should be moving there's only 13 left in this room."