Between Two Worlds

“So, what type of music do you like?” asked the DJ, curious.

Ethan turned his head toward her.

“Well, I love Electro, Rock, Metal, Trance, Pop, Dubstep and…I think that’s all.”

“Interesting.”

Now, it was Twilight’s turn to ask questions.

“Do you like read books?”

“Yup.”

“Which kind?”

“Heroic-Fantasy, Post-Apocalypse, Sci-Fi, Slice of life too and Romance but not too much.”

“Wow, I never knew that you liked books that much.”

The ghost of a smile appeared on his thin lips.

“In fact, I love read but I also write books.”

“You do?” she asked, surprised and interested.

“Of course. Mainly Sci-Fi. I tried Adventure and Heroic Fantasy but…It’s not that good.”

“And…could I read one of them, if you want.”

“Why not. I have a copy in the Skyline. I could give it to you the next time you want to see me or when we’ll come back at the camp.”

“I’d love that.”

Then, Ethan looked around him. Twilight was right, the sun was at the edge of the horizon, plunging the world into a beautiful twilight, for the next couple of minutes. He smiled at that. He always loved the moment between the day and night. For him, it was one of the best things in the world. He couldn’t explain it but he really loved it.

The trio continued to walk in silence for a few moments, only the sound of the wind, hoofsteps and footsteps broke the lack of noise. He sighed. This world was a treasure. The Earth was too, but in a different way. The grass and the trees were replaced by buildings and skyscrapers. The sky was covered with space ships of various sizes, travelling between the cities of metal. In a way, the technology also has the utility to make beautiful things. Between the two, the human preferred Equestria even if the Earth was his home.

He knew that this planet was as dangerous as his homeworld. His fight with the timberwolves was the proof of it. Looking at his left arm, he slightly smiled. The injury was not really bad, just painful. The only thing that worried him was the risk of infection. Fortunaly, he had everything to treat this kind of wound but still…

His train of thoughts was interrupted by the clearing of a throat. It was coming from Vinyl.

“Something’s wrong Ms Scratch?”

Even with the lack of light, he could see the blush on her cheeks. Geez, with everyone blush when he try to be polite and don’t call them by their name? He pushed that thought aside.

“I wanted to ask you something.”

“Shoot.” he replied. “I'm all ears.”

“The last time, I heard the music coming from your ‘car’ and I wanted to know if you also make music or only listen it.”

“If you really want to know, I’m full of surprise. Yes, I make music. I had fifteen years old when I tried to create my first song and since this I love doing it. Don’t worry I’m not a Mary Sue-like. I have my flaws, like everyone.”

“And how old are you?” interrupted Twilight before correcting her phrase. “I mean, if you’re okay with telling us.”

The man with blue eyes shrugged.

“Actually, I’m twenty-seven. Not too old, not too young. The perfect age.” He replied, laughing.

They passed before the mysterious cottage. Seeing this, Ethan couldn’t help but wondered who was the owner of the house. He decided to ask Twilight.

“Miss Sparkle, who live in this house?”

Her eyes looked where his right index was pointed and smiled.

“It belongs to our friend Fluttershy. She takes care of injured animals. This place is perfect for them. Between Ponyville and the Everfree Forest, so they can't be afraid to be too close to us."

“I see.”

Finally, the words were replaced by the silence, again. It was one of Ethan's flaws or, advantages depending from the point of view: His lack of talk. Like Big Mac, he was not the guy who open his mouth to say something useless or silly but only the right words. After a good thirty minutes walk, the little group arrived in front of the library. The lights were turned off. Looking around, the human saw that all the streets were empty and a lot of houses void of any inhabitant. Strange.

Then, Twilight opened the door.

"Spike, we're back!" she yelled, loudly enough to be hear in the whole tree-house.

It was the signal, the beginning of Ethan's doom.

All the light in the library were instantly turned on, revealing a big group of ponies, all yelling "SURPRISE" at the same time. Balloons, food, drinks and confetti were everywhere. A banner with write "Welcome to Ponyville" was suspended by two ties in the walls.

"I half lied." admitted the purple mare "I really wanted to question you but also make this to thank you for what you did for Applejack."

He stayed silent, looking at everything that was in front of him with a mask of detachment. Then, the last thing they expected happened. He cried, but in silence. The whole group saw the tears falling from his eyes and his reddened cheeks before he turned around and walked back to his car. Twilight followed him, clearly wanting to know why he was in this state.

"Ethan...please, wait!"

"No." he yelled back, "Leave me alone."

He began to trot and finally, he sprinted. He sprinted like he never did before, leaving a dumbfounded unicorn behind him. Seeing that she couldn't change his mind, she stopped her course. There was nothing else that she could do, and she knew it perfectly. So, Twilight did the only thing to do in a case like this. Explain the situation to her mentor and ask for some advice. Only her knew why the human was acting like this.

She goes back to her house where everypony was waiting for her or their guest. When she stepped inside, she saw the sad look on their face, especially Pinkie Pie. She felt sorry for the pink Earth pony. This party was one of her best and it was stopped because of him. A unique question popped on her mind: Why?

"So?" asked Rainbow.

Twilight meet her rose eyes and sighed.

"I couldn't convince him to go back. I don't why he acted like this. I'm going to send a letter to Princess Celestia."

"Maybe he don't like my parties?"

"I don't think so Pinkie, it could be connected with something else."

Then, the bearer of the element of Magic looked at the DJ.

"I'm sorry Vinyl but it seems that your 'talk' is cancelled."

"Don't worry, I'll have all the time for that. See you later.”

"Ah could go see him and ask him why he fled. Ah can have a better chance than ya."

"No. Actually, he doesn’t trust any of us. He only rely on himself. He won't open himself to you, even if he saved your life."

While she said this, the others guests left the room, only leaving the Mane six and Spike inside. The purple unicorn took a quill and a parchment with her magic and began to write her letter. Forty seconds later, the letter was sent.

"Now, all we have to do is wait for a reply, which shouldn't come before..."

A brown paper, folded in a roll, with a red seal, popped in the air, coming from Spike's stomach. It floated in front of the sender who opened it with her magic.

Dear Twilight,

I understand your distress for Ethan.

But do not worry, I'm going to take care of the situation and reason him.

For the moment, stay calm and don't try to talk to him. His reaction could cause harm to him and you. The same rule applies to your friends.

I'll send you what transpired tomorrow.

Yours, Princess Celestia.

She'd read the letter aloud, so that everypony could hear.

"The princess is right. We can't do anything for him... I have to feed Angel so goodnight."

"Goodnight girls."

The others bearers of the element of Harmony stepped outside of the house. Twilight and Spike were now alone. Too exhausted by the recent events, she walked upside and fell on her bed. The little dragon did the same after turning off the light.

His breathing was fast and short. He had a burden sensation in his legs and a pain in his ribs. Ten minutes have passed since the trap. How could he be so stupid? The proofs were here, in front of him but he didn't saw them. If Twilight really wanted to ask some questions, she would do it before...but not a week after his arrival. Memories of his past flashed before his eyes.

"You can't forever hide from it!" said the false Ian.

He ignored the illusion.

"For one time, in your life, stop running and face your fears!"

"Can you, for once, shut the hell up and let me live my life the way I want?"

Ethan stopped his course. He was in front if his Skyline. He looked back at his false mentor.

"It was not their fault. They don't know. You didn't have to run from their party."

"You don't know how painful it is! When I saw all of them, it reminded the army, the birthdays with the team."

A small smile appeared on the tulpa's face.

"I'm a part of you Ethan. I know what you went through. But still...it’s not because that you're dying that you have to say fuck to everyone and stay in your grotto, like an old teenager no-life."

"Yeah, I'm aware of that but..."

He didn't have the time to finish his sentence, another voice interrupted him.

"Who are thou to hurt the feelings of our subjects?" said a powerful and deep voice.

Looking around him, and precisely toward the origin of the voice, the human raised his eyes to the sky and saw a strange creature, as tall as Celestia, coming to him. He deduced that it was a pony but had wings and a horn. Another Alicorn. Great. The winged unicorn landed not very far from him.

Tall, long horn, dark blue coat, the same for the ethereal mane and tail with some glitter in it and most gorgeous teal eyes he ever see.

"What the heck is that?" he whispered, cautious.

"If I knew, I'll tell you."

The young Gray looked at his left, where the fake-mentor was.

"Shut up."

"By your acts, thou hurt our subjects’ feelings. And for this, thou have to die."

"Oh really? Ok! Time's up, let's do this."

He closed his eyes for a second, feeling the rush of energy from the apparition of the armor on his body. When he opened his icy blue eyes, the black and red helmet covered his head.

[All systems are online and functional]

[Creature detected: known as Nightmare Moon, this being was banished on the moon for a millennia. The levels of magic coming from this corrupted mare are very high, more than those of her half-light, Princess Luna. Her powers can compete with those of her sister, the Princess of the Sun. With your actual arsenal, the escape is highly recommended. A fight with her can leave your armor permanently useless.]

"Shit. I think I need a little help for this one." he thought, before closing his eyes. "Celestia, can you hear me?"

Nothing. Not a sound… absolutely nothing. He cursed. How could he speak to her if her spell didn't work and hell...she didn’t explained how he can contact her. That was bad. He had lived worse than this but the luck was clearly not on his side. An idea came in his mind. A dangerous, life-threatening idea but he was running out of options. The young Gray used the thrusters of his armor to give him the necessary speed to punch her right in the nose. For anyone 'normal', the whole attack was a blur but not for the dark mare. But she was surprised by the sudden movement especially as he didn't gave any sign that he was about to strike. Being the powerful pony that she is, Nightmare Moon stepped aside to dodge the punch.

Quickly, he tried to kick her in the head but only met the wind. Teleportation spell, oh boy, he hated that. She responded with an offensive spell of her own, launching a dark blue fire ball on him. Ethan avoided it and attacked again but failed because of her teleport spell.

"Thou are a great opponent. Even without thy weapons, thou still remain dangerous for those who threaten thy life."

"Wait...how could she know about..."

She laughed, taking another appearance, less tall but still amazing.

"Our prank worked very well, thou didn't suspect anything since the beginning!"

His armor disappeared, leaving him almost harmless.

"Who are you?"

"We are sorry to not present ourselves first, we are Princess Luna, co-ruler of Equestria and Princess Of The Night. Don't need to present thyself, we've heard a lot about thou."

A sigh escaped from his lips and he closed his icy blue eyes for a second.

"Why are you here?"

"She wanted to meet you in person and have a little fun. Lulu always was a good prankster."

"You." he said coldly, turning the upper part of his body toward the voice, only to meet the violet eyes of the Goddess of the Sun. "It seems that I said the things clearly last time or do you need a reminder?"

"Of course not. But the events of this evening left me obliged to intervene."

"I know."

She wanted to change his mind but the harsh words don't work on him. So, she tried by changing the subject of talking.

"How much time do you have before…you know?"

Again, he sighed.

"In the best case, six months. In the worse, any second from now."

"And there's no vaccine?"

"Nope. But I thought that you saw my past?"

"It's true but not all the details."

"I see."

A heavy silence took place between them, for a few seconds before Celestia broke it.

"You have to apologize."

"I don't care."

Her horn glowed for a second and regained her original color.

"You don't have the choice."

That voice. The human narrowed his eyes.

"How can you use Ian's voice against...—"

"That's an order. Any objection, young man?"

A small tear, like a diamond, fell on his right cheek. He  made a 'thumbs down' sign and smiled sadly.

"Of course not, sir."

Her horn glowed gold again.

"Good. I want you in the park of Ponyville tomorrow, at noon, for your speech. Am I clear?"

He nodded.

"Wait! Why the spell didn't work when I tried to talk to you?"

"It worked but I’ve chosen to stay silent, to not blow up her prank."

The second after, in a flash of light, the two sisters were gone. For the third time in less than ten minutes, Ethan sighed.

"Dude, what I go myself into?"

"I don't know but it seems complicated."

"Oh, go fuck yourself Ian. I don't need you right now."

"Okay! See you later!"