//------------------------------// // Chapter 13: First Date // Story: Chaotic Harmony: Do Over // by shirotora //------------------------------// One thing that about Equestria, communal baths are a very common thing. Ponies are a much more social species than humans, so it wasn’t much of a surprise to see, as social grooming is a key part of most social species, but it still took a little getting used to. What took even more getting used to is the fact that, like everything else here, there is no gender separation. Considering they all walk around naked all day, anyway, it makes sense, but it was still weird for me.  What was even weirder was doing so in the royal bathing hall. What was even weirder than that was having a princess scrub your back while giving you dating advice. “-and remember that a mare like her is very independent. Don’t go overboard with being a gentlestallion. Show that you’ll assist her, but not take over.” The whole time, Shining Armor, his personal butler, a couple off duty guards, and one of the maids laughed. I had to admit, though, it did feel nice having my fur scrubbed. In fact, I was enjoying it so much, I didn’t even mind the constant chatter and teasing. It wasn’t until I heard a certain voice that I got a little tense. “I’d make a joke about felines and moisture, but I feel somepony probably beat me to it,” Jynx said as she walked into the bathroom. “Cadance and Jumper did,” Shining said. Jynx just rolled her eyes and chuckled. “Of course they did.” She sighed in content as she stepped into the warm water. “That’s nice.” She looked at me and snickered. “You look like you’re enjoying that.” “It’s like a massage, and her hooves are magic,” I replied. “You better not be enjoying that too much,” Shining jokingly threatened. “I’m pretty sure that’s out of his paws,” Cadence said with a giggle. “Besides, I’m done, now.” I quickly dunked under the water to rinse the soap out of my fur. “So, where are you two planning on going?” Cadence asked, doing a bad job of hiding her excitement. I looked over at Jynx expectedly. She just gave a sly grin. “Oh... just a place I know.” “Oh, come on, tell!” Cadence begged. “Cadie,” Shining said in a teasingly chiding voice, “Don’t ruin the surprise.” Cadence sighed dramatically. “Oh, fine. I guess I’ll find out tomorrow.” “So... a surprise then. Good, I like surprises,” I said with a grin. Jynx smiled at that. “Well, then if you’re done, why don’t you come over here and help me with my back, so we can head out?” We walked back through the city, looking at the sights. It was a lovely city. It didn’t have the grandiose of Canterlot, but it had a strange mix of big city flair and rustic charm. The people were also just as unique. I say ‘people’, because saying ‘ponies’ would be quite inaccurate. While still the majority, ponies were far from the only race here. There were griffins, minotaurs, gnolls, and others I didn’t know. It was far more diverse than I expected it to be. Still, I managed to stand out. More than a few people stared at me with confused recognition. A couple even looked out right nervous. “They recognize you,” Jynx explained. “There are very few here that don’t know at least some of the story of the fall of the Crystal Empire. The stories of Sombra’s advisor are pretty well known, so Shining Armor and Cadence made an announcement about you.” “Really? Would me comin’ here really cause that much of a problem?” I asked. Jynx nodded, “Most likely, yeah. Like I said, most here know at least something about Tigerians.” “Yet Twilight didn’t,” I pointed out. Jynx chuckled. “Yeah, outside the Crystal Kingdom, it’s extraordinarily rare knowledge. I’m not surprised Twilight didn’t know about them. Remember, before Sombra summoned one, Tigerians hadn’t been seen for two thousand years. Add to that, the Discordian Era that wiped out most written history and how isolated this place is, is it really a surprise that Tigerians are more local legends?” “Ah guess,” I admitted. “So, Shining and Cadence told everyone Ah was comin’ so they wouldn’t think I was here to enslave everyone?” “Well, when the Crystal Spire reappeared along with Sombra’s remnant, it was feared that the tigerian he summoned might have also returned,” Jynx explained. “Thankfully, that doesn’t seem to be the case.” “Then why are folks still scared of me?” I asked. Jynx sighed. “Because some jerks started spreading a conspiracy theory that you’re the one Sombra summoned and you’re just posing as a terran to catch everyone off guard.” “But... I’m white. They were all orange.” “Yeah, well, it’s a conspiracy theory,” Jynx replied with a scoff. “When do any of them hold up under scrutiny?” She had a point. I just had to try to ignore them. We continued on our way to whatever destination Jynx had in store. She insisted it was a place I would love. Eventually, we came to a restaurant called, ‘A Taste of Home’. It didn’t look that special, but when we walked inside, I saw exactly why we came. The entire place was decked out in stuff from Earth. “Every now and then, when someone crosses over, some of their stuff comes with them,” Jynx explained. “Some of it finds its way here. Basically, this is a place by Terrans, for Terrans and lovers of Terran culture.” A pony, obviously our waitress, came up to us and asked, “How many?” “Two,” Jynx replied. “Right this way.” As we went through the place, I admired the decor. There was decades worth of stuff. There were a pair of roller skates, a He-Man action figure, a Star Wars poster, some photographs of celebrities and influential people, and all kinds of other stuff. There was even a Pinkie Pie plush. “See that car in the back?” Jynx asked. I looked back and saw it, a rather beat up looking station wagon. “That was Rarity’s parents’ car, the one they crossed over in. It’s the only fully intact car in the world. That was actually brought in while they were still building the place.” We were led to our table, underneath a tricycle and near a broken arcade cabinet. “Here are the menus,” the waitress said, passing them to us. “Can I get you anything to drink?” “Soda for me,” Jynx ordered. “Same,” I said. With that, she left us alone. “So,” Jynx began as we both glanced through the menu. “How are you liking the Crystal Kingdom so far?” “It’s not what Ah was expectin’,” I answered, glancing through the options. Not surprisingly, everything was inspired by Earth. “Ah mean, Ah wasn’t exactly expectin’ it to be like the show, but Ah also wasn’t expectin’ so many similarities to it. Still, from what Ah’ve seen, it’s nice.” Jynx smiled as she said, “Well, the people here try to emulate the old Crystal Empire’s style, but the technique for growing crystal buildings was lost. That’s actually one of the things we’re hoping to find in the Crystal Spire.” “So, what exactly is the Crystal Spire?” I asked. “Was it just Sombra’s palace?” “Oh, it was so much more than that. The entire building is believed to be a conduit for magical forces. What kind of magical forces, we can only speculate, but it does seem to draw a lot of mana in.” The way she explained it, I could tell she was passionate about this kind of thing. “Once we get inside the sealed rooms, there’s so much we’re going to be able to learn.  “As evil as he was, Sombra was a genius when it came to magic. Many of the things he did led to innovations that have benefited thousands.” “Sounds like Hitler and the Nazi party,” I said. “They did so many horrendous things, but we managed to take great things from their advances. It doesn’t justify what they did by any means, but at least we managed to get somethin’ from it all.” Jynx nodded with a sigh. “I’ve heard a little about that. Still, let’s talk about something a little happier.” Our waitress took that moment to come back with our drinks. “Are we ready to order?” Jynx ordered first. “I’ll have the Indian curried vegetables.” “And Ah’ll have the Greek gyro platter,” I answered. It was between that, the Louisiana catfish, or the Russian stroganoff. All three sounded great, but I probably do stroganoff better and I had fish for dinner the day before “Alright, I’ll be right back with those orders as soon as they’re ready.” “So, what was it like growing up on Earth?” Jynx asked after the waitress left. “Well, Ah grew up in the Southern United States,” I started. “Ah don’t really know what all there is to say. Ah had a pretty typical childhood. I had friends, we goofed off playing around and pretending to be our favorite heroes. Ah always wanted to be Iron Man. “In high school, Ah was into video games, anime, comics, Dungeons and Dragons, you know, nerd stuff. Of course, that brought a couple bullies, but they didn’t last long when they tried pickin’ a fight and got more than they bargained for.  “Been in martial arts since Ah was ten. Ah ain’t talkin’ about the flashy, showy crap that movies make popular, or the fake fightin’ like they do in MMA. Ah learned real martial arts, emphasis on the ‘martial’. “It was somethin’ Ah always loved, ever since Ah was a kid. Ah used to love things like Ninja Turtles, and old Bruce Lee and kung-fu movies. You know, things with guys beating the bad guys with nothin’ but their own bodies. “Anyway, after high school, Ah joined the Navy. Ah was a Nuclear Machinist Mate for a time, but decided to leave after mah six years were up. Not long after that, Ah woke up on a rock in the Whitetail Woods. “How about you?,” I asked. “What was it like for a unicorn growing up in Cloudsdale?” Jynx chucked. “Not easy. Cloudsdale was never meant for non flyers like me. It’s as much vertical as it is horizontal. My school was two hundred feet above my house. Mom had to drop me off and pick me up every day.  “Then there was the fact that I couldn’t do part of the curriculum at the school. I was one of three non-pegasi there, one of which was an earth pony, so they didn’t exactly have classes for magic. “I actually hated the fact that I wasn’t a pegasus. Not only did we live in a pegasus city, but flying was in our blood. I wanted to fly so bad, but I couldn’t change what I was. “Then, Great Granny Earhart told me about when she was on Earth. She told me all about the flying machines humans had, and how she used to fly them all the time. That was when I decided that if I didn’t have wings, I would create them with what I had; magic. “Dad started teaching me what magic he knew. I got my hooves on any books on magic I could find. I studied my tail off. Then, one day, while we were visiting a museum on a school field trip, there was a display from ancient Hippopotamia.” “Wait, like a hippo kingdom?” I asked. Jynx laughed. “No, as in ancient Hippek for ‘horse’. It’s our world’s equivalent of Greek. “Anyway, I was looking at a couple of the artifacts on display when I noticed a broken stone tablet. It was an ancient spell, but it was only part of it. No one knew what the rest of it was, though. “Well, I noticed a design on the edges that I thought looked familiar. I looked through a book of mine and found a picture of a statue from the same region, and wouldn’t you know it, there was a chunk missing from a tablet being held by the statue. “Turns out, the tablet piece did, in fact, go to the statue. The spell that was discovered from that was a spell to repel locusts. While we have a spell for that now, and it’s a little better than the one on the statue, it showed that the origin of the anti locust spell was nearly thirteen hundred years older than we thought. “Anyway, that little discovery got me my cutie mark and helped me get into Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns.” As soon as she finished, the waitress returned with our food. Conversation was put on pause as we dug in. The gyros were quite good. The lamb filling was tender and and the stuffed grape leaves that came with it were amazing, though nowhere near as good as my mom’s. Jynx let me try the curried vegetables. It was quite good, too. Nice and spicy but not so much it hides the flavor. After dinner, we decided to head back to the palace. We enjoyed the evening air, chatting more about our youths. I told her all about some of the stupid things I did as a kid, and she told me about the time the accedently sent her desk to a parralell dimention. You know, kid stuff. Eventually, we made it back to our rooms. “So,” Jynx began. “I had fun.” “Me too,” I replied. She gave me a smouldering gaze. “So... You want to come in?” “I’d love to.” The moment I was inside and the door shut, she pounced, tackling me onto the bed as her lips mashed against my own. I returned the favor as my paws trailed down her back and squeezed her rear. I rolled over, pinning her beneath me before- “-And I said, ‘That’s not... butter...’” We froze, slowly looking to our side where a pegasus stallion that wasn’t there seconds ago sat blinking in confusion. “Uh... Zack, what did you put in my drink?”