Between Two Worlds

“So, what song will I listen?” asked Ethan to himself, walking to his car and opening the door.

He closed his eyes for a few seconds and his black armor disappeared in a blur. He sat in the conductor seat and looked at the media browser with LCD screen. He searched in his files and selected song he wanted to hear. It appeared on the screen. He touched the play button and closed the door. The first notes were those of an electric guitar, followed by a synth.

“Ah, Greyhound, one of the best song ever. And one of my first eargasm too.”

The conductor fastened his belt and pressed the black button to give life at his mechanical monster. He passed the first gear and pressed the gas. He quickly climbed at 40 mph before passing the second gear, in a fluid and expert motion. The seconds, and finally the minutes, elapsed slowly.

Finally, his situation was not so precarious. If he has some luck, Ethan could be at home at the end of the day, or the next morning. The inhabitants of this world were fortunately not hostile to his presence, and pretty well accepted him. Even if they were talking ponies. This would have been very difficult for him to have to fight these “cute” creatures. Anyway, the young Gray was not here to become friend with them. He only needed those ponies to go back on Earth, and hoped they knew it. Because, if it wasn’t the case, then, he would feel obliged to clearly explain the situation and he knew they could not took it very well. Especially the orange one. Ethan had to keep an eye on her.

Yes, he saved her life but, he only does it because she was in danger, nothing else. The human didn’t want any misunderstanding between them.

After a few moments, he passed before a beautiful cottage and quickly looked at it. He whistled.

"Not bad... I wonder who is the lucky one which lives here." he whispered before concentrating again on the road.

Ethan decided to drastically reduce his speed, passing from 104 to 30 mph because he was not very far from Ponyville and it would be dangerous to drive in town at this speed. He gradually pressed the break and changed back to the second gear. The city itself was bigger than he thought. It could certainly contain a thousand people, maybe even more.

"Where the heck are they?"

He looked around for a few moments when suddenly, he saw a familiar purple pony, waving a hoof in his direction. Close to her was a big tree. This one had a wooden door, a balcony and some windows with flowers on them. Two words could describe this thing: tree house.

"She lives in a tree house? Why am I not surprised?"

Then, Ethan stopped his vehicle in front of the construction. A sigh escaped his lips. He stopped the engine and muted the mp3 player. Again, he closed his eyes and concentrated to make appear his armor, thanks to his neural implant and an old equation from a time long ago, called E = mc².

He opened the door and stepped out of the car. All the ponies who were in the area looked at him and his vehicle with fear, surprise and curiosity in their eyes. The young man completely understood their reactions. He would have reacted the same way if something new and, maybe dangerous, arrived from nowhere on his planet. Finally, he closed the door and locked the car, just in case.

“Whoa, what the hay is that?” asked Rainbow Dash, turning around the vehicle. Twilight stayed at the entrance of the library but looked curiously at the car.

Ethan smiled.

“This is my car. Her full name is Nissan Skyline R34 GT-R. She was produced in 1999. She has a V6 that gives 1500 horsepower, in the four-wheel drive. She has a manual transmission with six speeds. I can do the 0-60 mph in 3,1 seconds. The basic model is a 2.8 L Twin Turbo RB28Z2 with only 500 hp. With the help of some friends, I completely modified the engine and the power system. She only uses the solar energy to operate. I also have a plasma energy tank, that I used to come here, but it’s empty. At least, I can say that I'm proud of this 'mechanical monster'. All of this for only 1440 kg.”

The two mares looked at him, dumbfounded. Only one word could describe their feelings and Rainbow expressed it:

“Wow.”

Then, she regained her composure.

“This ‘car’ is so awesome! I really want to race it….”

She was interrupted in her talk by Twilight who closed her mouth with her magic.

“Wait Dash, we have most important matters to do before any of this. Spike sent the letter to Princess Celestia. While waiting for her reply, we have to present him to Ponyville.”

“No.” snapped Ethan, before continuing. “I am not going to present myself to anyone. The less I’m around the populace, the better things will be.”

“Why?” asked Twilight, surprised.

“Come on, it’s pretty obvious, no? I’m a human, an alien for your specie. They could freak out if they see me. You know as me that I need to find a way to go back on Earth and you’re the only ones who can help me. Plus, it’s dangerous to stay around me. You saw my abilities to handle a risky situation.”

“I….understand. But are you really sure that you don’t want to go in front of everypony to say that you’re not threatening?”

“Yes…and no. It’s not that simple. First, I don’t like speeches. Not that I’m shy or something but…I don’t need to do it seeing that I only stay as much as necessary…”

The human heard a sound behind him and turned around faster than anypony could blink, aiming his gun at the source of the sound.

_____

Five minutes earlier

Today, Vinyl was outside. This day was her first day off in one week. Her work as a DJ kept her busy, travelling from town to town in the most famous nightclubs of Equestria. And today, it was her turn to fill the fridge in food. She lived in a modest house with her best friend, Octavia, a grey earth pony. Today was a good day. The sun was high in the sky and the temperature was perfect. Vinyl was at the market since a few minutes when she heard a strange sound, like a growl but more deep and far from here.

Quickly, the sound grew louder and something else could be heard. She recognized it. It was music. But not any type of music, it was techno. She distinguished it because of the bass. They were so powerful that the ground trembled.

The white unicorn stopped her shopping and decided to investigate by following the origin of the bass. She stopped herself when she saw a long and strange grey thing stopping itself in front of the library. Then, a strange creature, walking on two legs opened the door. This was the first time she saw something (or somepony) like this. Her curiosity took the best of her and, carefully, walked toward the trio.

Her left front hoof stepped on a dead branch that broke in two. The black thing heard the sound and turned round, only to meet her. During this moment, she saw his eyes. They were full of sadness, experience and wisdom.

_______

Now

His eyes met a white mare, a unicorn precisely, with electric blue mane and a pair of goggles on the head, covering her eyes. The tattoo on her flank was a musical note.

“Ethan, don’t shoot! She’s a friend!”

“What do you want?” he asked, slowly lowering his weapon.

The mare lightly cocked her head on the side and smiled.

“I heard some music and I wanted to know where it comes from.”

“It was me.”

Then, he ignored her and looked at Twilight.

“When will we have a reply from the princess?”

“I don’t know. Today would be perfect.”

The lavender unicorn walked to the white mare and said:

“I’m sorry he pointed his weapon at you Vinyl but he’s new here and still freak out when he sees a pony.”

“How so?”

This time, it was Ethan turn to answer.

“I am not a pony. I came in your world by accident.”

“So, what are you?”

He inhaled deeply, already bored to repeat the same thing.

“My name is Ethan Gray, I’m a human.”

The DJ nodded.

“Well….cool. You should drop by my house someday. I have some songs you could like. Don’t worry if you don’t know where I live, Twilight will show you.”

“Maybe. If I still here tomorrow.”

“Sounds good. See you later!”

Finally, the white unicorn walked back to the market, leaving the human, the librarian and the cyan pegasus alone. The young Gray put his behind against the hood of his car.

“So, what do we do now? I’m bored.” asked Rainbow Dash, sighing.

“I….Ms. Twilight, do you have a book about all the creatures who lives in Equestria and a map of your world?”

“Yes, of course. There’s no need to call me Miss. Calling me by my name is enough. Why do you need them?”

He shook his head.

“No. I only call the people I know by their name. I have to fulfill the database of my armor. If I have meet again some other creature like the timberwolf, it would be better if I know all their advantages and weakness.”

“I see. And what about your friends? Don’t you call them by their name?”

“I don’t have friends... Well, just two or three, not more.”

The two mares looked at him. They were shocked to hear such words. How somepony like him, who saved AppleJack life without any hesitation, could be alone?

“Why?”

He shrugged.

“Long story, I don’t want to talk about it. Plus, you have to gain my trust to have the right to know about something like this.”

“What….aren’t we friends?”

A loud sigh escaped from his lips. This was going to be more complicated than he thought.

“No. Our concepts of friendship are completely different. In my world, to be able to call someone a friend, you have to get know them first. You have to share laughs, tears, pain and other stuffs with them. Hanging out is also a part of it. You can’t go in the street and ask a random person if he want to be your friend because in the general case, this guy will ignore you and shout at you to go annoy someone else, that’s why.”

“Seems complicated.” said Rainbow.

“I know but…it the life, we can’t do anything about it.”

Suddenly, the door of the library opened wide and Spike walked outside, in hurry.

“Twilight! I just received the reply from the Princess!”

Rainbow Dash and Twilight followed the little dragon. Ethan stayed outside for a few moments, before walking in the tree house. All he hoped was to be at home by tomorrow morning.