The First Journey: Feelings of Etherealism

by Kaille

Chapter 19

~Chapter 19: Fine Dining~

We left the house that evening - so, about an hour later; we really got into working on art - and headed off to one of the better restaurants in town. It was called 'The Shire'. I noticed the connection to the breed of horse on Earth. We approached the front door and I held it for her, repeating my gesture from before, but there was more meaning to it then before. Chroma also took it this way. She looked at me slyly with a crooked grin and nuzzled me on her way in, and playfully bumped flanks with me. I grinned and followed her in.

It had a wonderful atmosphere, reminding me of an Irish pub on Earth; the furniture was made of twisted trees, from roots to trunks to branches. The flooring was tile, and the tiles designed to resemble leaves. The room was round, and each quarter of the room they were designed to match different seasons, fading into the colour of the next season when you reached the border. There was white tiles to the right, green tiles at the front, auburn tiles at the far side, and the left had tiles were green, brown, red yellow, every colour you could find a tree leaf in. The walls and tables cloths were even matching their appropriate seasonal areas, and the circular bar in the middle was wood with a black paint finish. However, the paint did not hide the grain of the wood; in fact, it somehow managed to make the grain pop more.

I allowed Chroma to choose our table, and I was delighted to find her choosing the bar in the middle, next to the winter season. The monochrome colour scheme allowed Chroma to be the only colour for me to gaze upon. We took our places and the bartender approached, a unicorn stallion, who actually appeared to be of the Shire breed I mentioned, with tufts of fur around his hooves, barrel chested, and a thick, muscly neck. His coat was black, mane and tail dark grey, and his hooves were ivory white. Green eyes, and his cutie mark was a beer stein and wine glass crossed over each other. He greeted us, and had a very gruff, scratchy voice, akin to one of those commercial speakers that sound like they have been smoking for fifty years. But, it didn't sound unhealthy; it was natural. "Hey, welcome to my pub. What can I treat yah too?"

I looked to Chroma and smiled. "May we have a couple of menus? As for drinks, what do you offer?"

Chroma nodded. "Yes, what is available?"

He smiled and levitated a couple menus from behind he counter, which we grabbed with thanks. "Well, we have everything from beer to wine. You know, hence the cutie mark." He said with a wink, tilting his hips to the side, giving us a clearer view.

I laughed. "Yeah, I suppose that makes sense. Tell me, do you make whats called a Crown Float?"

He tilted his head to the side. "That's the one with dry stout and cider, right? It isn't ordered very much, so pardon my foggy memory on it."

I smiled further and nodded. "You got it."

He grinned and turned to Chroma. "And for you miss?"

She smiled. "A rum and coke, and a shot of Goldschläger, to start please."

We were both taken aback by her choice, being an interesting drink to start the evening with, but I recovered first and grinned. "Actually, I will have the shot as well." It looked like we had similar tastes in liqueur so far. I loved that stuff.

The bartender recovered right after me, and nodded. "Alright, lemme get that for you, and maybe you will have chosen what to eat by the time I'm back." He trotted into the centre room filled with alcohol to make our drinks.

We opened our menus and perused their contents to see what caught our eyes. I noticed right away that the menu was split for races as well; there was the standard pony fare of course, plus some finer options. But what I was drawn to, was the Griffin menu; upon seeing this I glanced around the room at the other patrons, and sure enough, among the ponies was a small group of said creatures. I returned to the menu and looked at the options for them, one capturing my attention the most; pork chops. Oh, lordy, pork chops.

He returned with four drinks in tow, floating on a tray. He levitated them onto the counter in front of us. "So, made up your mind?"

I turned once again to my company to see if she was ready. She smiled and ordered. "I will have the vegetable stew with a side order of hay fries please."

He nodded and turned to myself now. "As for you, sir?"

I grinned. "Well, I would like a salad and hay fries please, plus some barbecue pork chops." The ponies in the few seats around me and the bartender all stopped dead, and a few of the griffins actually listening to their surroundings perked up, wondering what pony would eat red meat.

The bartender stuttered for a moment. "Uh- I'm sorry?"

I smiled. "I'm not from around here. Meat was standard fare where I'm from, be it pig, cow, chicken, fish, or a plethora of other creatures."

He blinked, but still appeared unsure. "Oh-kay. . . Sure thing." He trotted off to place our order in the kitchens.

I turned to Chroma who sat there smiling at me, amused. "Really? In public?"

"What can I say? It's been ages since I had a good pork chop! I couldn't resist!" We laughed, and the ponies around shuffled away a bit, obviously disturbed. This made us laugh all the harder.

After we quieted back down to a few chuckles, Chroma shook her head and threw back her shot. I followed suit. The two of us exhaled in contentedness; the burn was wonderful. I could already feel the effect it was having on me, lightening my disposition somewhat. We sat in companionable silence, waiting for our food to arrive. I decided to take the calm for a bit of reflection.

How did I end up attracted to her? Her personality, creativity, kindness, and general disposition. Thats the psychological. How about physical? Well. . . she is definitely well-toned; not beefy, not frail. Curvy in all the right places, to my tastes; not too thin, not too thick. How about eyes and flesh/hair tone? I looked at her for a second, examining her. The pale green of her coat was relaxing. It didn't explode in your face or fade into the crowd. Her mane and tail being a fairly vibrant orange was a tone I always found attractive for hair as a human - had a thing for Irish and Scottish girls, after all - and the cut and style of her mane was pleasant as well, being about jaw length and swept over to one side of her face, and held back slightly by a yellow hairband. After the incident she had to cut it, and appeared to enjoy the shorter length as well. As for eyes. . . there was intelligence incredibly visible by the inquisitive gaze of hers, but reserved enough that she wouldn't let her curiosity take over. And the deep violet of them was incredibly unique; they were nearly black. Now for a more important question:

How did I become attracted to a mare? On Earth it would be considered zoophelia, or in crasser and more judgmental terms, bestiality. This gave me more pause.

I nursed my crown float, sinking deeper into my reflections. Well. . . she simply doesn't come across as an animal. I mean, I know she's a horse, but. . . the ponies in Equestria, what with their human-level sentience, don't feel like the classic view of an 'animal'; when someone says animal, they mean feral, or running on basic instincts and what we teach them. I don't look at the fact of her being a pony; I just look at her as a whole. But it could also be the fact that now, being a pony myself, the chemistry of my body and brain made it easier for me to look past the physical in the species sense.

I noticed movement out of the corner of my eye and turned to see Chroma staring back at me. She appeared to be studying me as I had her moments ago, and she had a small, sideways smile. My own lips began to turn up at the side as well. She appeared to be just about to break the silence, beginning to open her mouth to speak, when the bartender returned, plates levitating over his head. "Alright, vegetable stew for you lass, and. . . pork chops and salad, for you sir. Anything else I can get the two of you?"

I shook my head. "I am good for now, thank you." I turned back to my date to see if she needed anything. She mimicked my gesture.

The host nodded. "Go ahead and give me a holler if you do need something." He trotted off to assist the next patron.

We turned to our food and began to eat. After the first few mouthfuls I turned to Chroma again. "So where you about to say something before our food was brought over?"

She stopped eating for a second then swallowed her current bite. "It's. . . not important." I raised an eyebrow quizzically. She changed the topic. "So how have things been at Sweet Apple Acres? Job going well?"

I was still curious about what she wanted to say originally, but I pushed it to the back of my mind for later. "Good. Still a lot of trees to buck and apples to store, but we have harvested a good seventy to seventy five percent so far. How about you? Art sales doing well?"

We talked back and forth for a while, from topic to topic. At one point I noticed we had finished eating and were simply nursing our drinks, and then at another point later I noticed that the alcohol was starting to hit harder. I looked at the counter next to us and saw several empty glasses, from highballs to shot glasses. A LOT of shot glasses. When did we have all them?

We were giggling uncontrollably by this point, and I decided we ought to head back to Chroma's place. "Alraght, whe shud git goin'." I stumbled out of the chair over to the counter. Wow. It's been years since I've been this drunk! "So haw menni legs are ye takin off meh?" I slurred to the waitress, and Chroma giggled at me, leaning against my side.

The mare across the counter shook her head in exasperation. "One hundred and twenty-four bits, please."

I turned to my bag - wow, forgot I was wearing that - and pulled out the money. Counting it was a pain. I pushed them onto the counter and the waitress counted them out. "I'm sorry sir, there are forty-six bits extra here."

I waved a hoof. "Take em as a tip. Night!" Chroma and I began to stumble the rest of the way out of the establishment, leaning on each other and draping our wings across each others backs to prevent each other from falling. We hobbled our way home, taking forty five minutes when it should have been seven. I fumbled with the lock for a minute and after finally getting it open, I held it for my date - only barely, though; almost faceplanted on the door mat - and gestured for her to enter first after recovering from my stumble. She grinned with half lidded eyes and bit her lower lip - DAYUM, that looked seductive! - and she hobbled her way in the house. She appeared to be trying to swing her hips seductively as well, but being in her inebriated state, it came across as somewhat comical, but then, in my inebriated state, it still looked hot.

We flopped on the red sofa, my back against one arm of the couch and the back of the couch itself, and Chroma sprawled across my lap, looking up at me grinning. I grinned back.

She broke the silence first. "That wush fun."

I only nodded in response before shifting position, snuggling up against her in the classic spooning arrangement; I was the big spoon, her the little. It was only seconds after that we passed out.

~

Ahh, FUCK.

I awoke the next day on the couch with Chroma, lying on my back, head hanging over the side of the couch. Chroma was on top of me again, but somehow managed to slide down my body, between my hind legs, forelegs on either side of my body, and face firmly planted in my stomach. One of her hindlegs was also up against the back of the couch, sticking straight in the air. Her mane was horribly mussed up, tail too, and I noticed that mine wasn't any better.

Of course, the thing I noticed the most,

Was the MIGRAINE.

I groaned, and discovered that Chroma stirred at the same time as myself; we groaned in unison. She went to roll onto her back and clutch her head, but rolled off the couch, thumping against the floor. She grunted upon landing and stayed there. I was in too much pain myself though to register this; all that I was thinking, was;

FUUUUUCK!

After about ten minutes I finally went to extricate myself from the couch, and tripped over Chroma, only noticing her new location now. I flew forward and dropped face first into the wood floor, grunting. We both lay there for another five minutes.

Chroma went to get up first this time, but I got up with so that there wouldn't be a repeat of what I did. She looked at me with baggy, bloodshot eyes, and said a few simple words. "Drugs. Bath. Come."

We lumbered into the kitchen, grabbing some migraine pills each, and dry swallowing them. Before following her to the bathroom I went to the fridge and grabbed a jar of dill pickles and a couple forks. We went upstairs to her bathroom and she filled the tub with hot water. I went to sit outside the bathroom, content to wait for her to finish, but she pulled me in with, and we dropped into the tub. The shock of the hot water was painful at first, but after growing accustomed to it, felt wonderful. I popped open the jar and we started eating the pickles, and upon finishing them, we shared the juice. My favourite hangover cure; a good soft solid in your stomach, and the the juice was good for replenishing your salt.

We lay in the tub for a few hours, relishing the warmth and relaxation. By this point the pickles and pills had their desired effects, and we felt less like beaten shit; more like plain shit now. We looked at each other for a few seconds before nodding to each other in understanding.

Fuck the world. We aren't doing ANYTHING today.

Comments

[Darkheretic]

Is that true with the pickles and juice? Oh and....let me see here *reaches into his back pocket, pulls out his wallet and starts counting out * I'd say you earned 4 for this chapter spend them wisely

[Kaille]

1135378
lol, thanks. The pickle thing is something my sisters fiancee used to do when he had a hangover. I havent had one yet, but it makes sense.

[bocaj518]

true true

[Darkheretic]

1136224 huh....I guess I'll have to add this cure to th list of wierd hangover cures that wouldn't emediatly jump to mind when I have a hangover lol

[Kaille]

1136340
lol, nice.

[Halo Prime]

Fuck the world. We aren't doing ANYTHING today.

Lol XD!! And more carnivorous antics, eh? Can't wait for the next chapter

[Kaille]

1136962
Not quite carnivorous; omnivorous.

Next chapter. . . It will likely take a while to type, for different reasons then why this one did. And it will be.

A DOOZY.

[Halo Prime]

1137291

[Kaille]

1137438
Plus, it will be a hell of a lot longer than any of my others. I'm looking to reach 10k words at least; more if I can. Might even split it into two long chapters.

[jukeboxhero_23]

I'm looking to reach 10k words at least; more if I can.

mylittlefacewhen.com/media/f/rsz/mlfw831_large.jpg

[Kaille]

1139686

Also, that pic is now my desktop background.

[Flutter_Shy]

1140529
like a boss

[Kaille]

Just a question for my few, beloved readers, want me to post chapters 20 and 21 at the same time for the complete story arc, or want me to post the first part whilst writing the second?

[jukeboxhero_23]

1146710
Whatever you think will give the reader the most fulfilling experience wait time and length isn't an issue.

[Kaille]

1146776
lol, kk. I will think about it till I finish the first part, and decide then.