Earthbound

by Fallen Angel N

More questions arise

Ethan dropped his tea cup in surprise. The cup crashed spilling it's contents on the ground, but neither of the two paid attention to it.

"You...how did you know?"
Zecora took a sip of her tea and smiled. "The tarot cards reveal more than you think. Apple Bloom also told me an interesting story about an Earth Pony who'd lost most of his memory, not even knowing what he was. Interestingly, he didn't seem to care to get his 'memories' back."

Ethan silently cursed himself, this was already the second time that lame excuse had come back to bite him. His face became serious, as he looked back at her.
"So what do you plan to do?" Ethan asked narrowing his eyes.
"I don't plan on doing anything, your secret is your own."
"Oh sure of course." He said sarcastically. "In exchange for...?"

"Goodness, you really are cynical aren't you? I do not want anything from you, of that you can rest assured."
Ethan paused for a second as if mulling something over. "If you're not going to tell anyone, and you don't want anything...why would you tell me you knew?"
"I told you so that I might gain some of your trust if you saw I had no bad intentions. Of course, you could just keep silent about it like before, but that doesn't seem to be working for you does it?"

Ethan was silent for a moment, still debating whether to or not before giving in.

"Where do I even begin?" he muttered, still surprised.
"The beginning is a good place to start" Zecora said. Her voice was calm, but her heart was rather excited. She had never met someone from another world, who knows what kinds of things she could hear.
"How about the fact I got yanked from my world and thrown into this one in order to play hero."
"Wait." Zecora said frowning. "You mean coming here wasn't your choice?"

"No it wasn't. Worst of all, I don't know if I'll ever be able to go back. I've been stuck here for days now..."
"I...I'm sorry to hear that." Zecora said quietly. "You must be homesick"
"I am..." Ethan said tiredly. "I miss my sister, I miss Trevor, heck, I even miss my house."
"Your house?"

"Yeah, my home is the only place I can relax and unwind or just be me. It's where I go after a long day. Ever since I got here, not ONCE have I felt secure or at home. Even when laying in bed at the Apple family guest house, it's just not the same."
"I understand the feeling." Zecora said turning her head to look out the window. "I know what it is like to be far from home. You feel like a small part of you is missing, like you don't belong."
"Did that feeling ever disappear?"

"Never completely." she said wistfully "From time to time I felt myself missing home. Though, after making new friends, that feelings disappears for a while." Zecora turned towards Ethan. "I hope knowing that helps a bit."

Ethan gave a humorless smile. "You know what they say, misery loves company."
"That is indeed true." Zecora chuckled.
The zebra produced another cup for him and poured more tea. Ethan absentmindedly took another drink, having forgotten the bitter taste. "Ugh..." his face slightly wrinkled.

"How's the tea?" Zecora asked again glancing at him with her teal colored eyes as if expecting something.
"It sucks, how can you drink this stuff?"
The zebra smiled in approval and poured herself another cup.

"Very good. I much prefer your true feelings Ethan, even if you are a bit blunt. You don't need to put on an act."
"Maybe not with you, but this 'act' is pretty necessary for me. It helps to keep things running smoothly."
"What do you mean?"
"Alright. Let's say I was walking down the street and I see someone up ahead. That person gives a small wave and says: 'Hello, how are you?'. Now that person does not want me to actually stop and go into detail about the highs and lows of my day. He doesn't really care, he's just trying to be polite. So I say: 'Hi, I'm doing fine.' and we both move on. That's just how things work Zecora."
"Really? Even with friends?"

"Are you kidding me? ESPECIALLY with friends."
Zecora's eyes widened, starting to become interested in hearing his thoughts. "Is that so? Please enlighten me."
"You're gonna keep what I say confidential right?"
"I won't tell a soul."
"Fine. Everyone has things they don't want others to know, or sides of them they don't want people to see. Even with friends this is still true. We show them our good sides, we're polite when we don't want to be."
"Well..." the zebra said frowning. "You're not entirely wrong but I don't think that's the way it is for everyone."
"That's the way it works for me. The closer you are to someone the more you can show them the real you. As time goes by you can pass off bad things about you as 'interesting quirks' when they're close enough to not care. Until then, as you say I...THEY, put on an act."

She shook her head. "I'm beginning to understand you, but this isn't the way to go about life. Keeping your distance from people until it's safe isn't right. Friends aren't something you carefully prepare and mold to be around you."
"I'll tell you what Zecora, you try living in my world for as long as I have. Then I'll let you lecture me."
"You are telling me you do this with everyone? Even with Trevor and your sister?"
"They're different..."
"How so Ethan?"
"Because I'm really close to them. My sister is a given, but Trevor is a REAL friend, someone I know I can count on. He saw when I was lonely and came...up...to me..." Ethan said slowly, remembering Pinkie and Twilight.
Zecora smiled. "Sound like anyone else you might have met here in Equestria?"

"It...might."
"Listen, no one is pressuring you to do anything, but I do hope you'll give others a chance."
"...I'll consider it, now can we please talk about something else?"
"Yes of course, you said you didn't mean to come to this world. How DID you get here?"

"Well, it was a pretty big misunderstanding. I accidentally volunteered to stop some kind of calamity from happening here. This thing here took me to Equestria." he said gesturing to Navi with his hoof "And now I'm trying to find my way back."

Zecora looked at the spot where Ethan pointed. Not seeing anything she turned back to him with a confused face.
"Ah, that's right, you can't see Navi can you?"
"No...how exactly does this 'Navi' work?"
"Pretty much just follows me around and talks to me. No one else seem to be able to hear it. Ah, this sounds pretty unbelievable doesn't it...?"
That was true, it took Ethan himself falling out of the sky and nearly getting bitten by a bear before he finally believed it. "How am I gonna prove it..." he looked at Navi and then a smile appeared on his face. "Alright, I got an idea. You still got those cards?"

"Yes I still do."
"Take them out and lay them on the table, any number of them you want. Without looking, I'm gonna tell you how many cards are on the table."

This interested Zecora quite a bit, she had her doubts but wanted to see if it could really be done. Walking across the room, she picked up the black cards and laid them out on the table. She then faced Ethan he had his back to her and the table waiting for the signal.
"It is done, now tell me, how many cards did I decide to lay out?"
Ethan took a deep breath.
"Navi?"

"Let's see, ten, twenty, thirty...there are currently thirty-two cards on the table."
"There are thirty-two."
"C-correct..." Zecora said, stuttering in surprise. "One last try, to be absolutely certain." She quickly adjusted the number of cards and asked again.
"How many Navi?"
"There aren't any on the table." Navi replied.
"Trick question, there aren't any cards you put out."

"Incredible..." Zecora turned back the Ethan and looked around him trying to spot Navi. "So there really is someone here helping you...Navi, if you can hear me, my name is Zecora."
"It is a pleasure to meet you Zecora, I thank you for talking with Ethan. You seem to be getting through to him better than I am."

"Navi says hi." Ethan muttered.
"Wait! That's not ALL that I said!"
"Looks like I'm gonna be here a while..."

---

"Good gravy, where is that stallion?" Applejack said with irritation in her voice.
She and the rest of her family sat at the dinner table with food prepared around them. Everything was ready and prepared for them to start eating. There was just one problem...
"Can we PLEASE eat now?" Apple Bloom asked with puppy dog eyes. "I'm awful hungry with all that work."
"I already told ya young'un, we ain't eatin' while one of our own ain't here yet."
The young mare groaned and tried to take her mind off of the food. "Where do you think he is sis?"
"I don't know but wherever it is, it had BETTER be somewhere important if it's taking up dinner time."

There was a creaking sound behind them as the screen door was open and then shut. Apple Bloom excitedly turned around thankful to finally see Ethan come back so she could finally eat. Ethan walked into the kitchen and looked around to see the older Apples staring at him with frowns.
"Look who decided to show up."
"Uh, why is it Apple Bloom's the only one who's happy to see me?"
"We had to wait to till you showed up." Apple Bloom explained.
"Why didn't you just eat without me?"
"I know right? I already tried ask- ow."

Applejack nudged her little sister to be quiet.
"We waited cause Granny said it would be rude to eat when one of us wasn't here. Now come'n take a seat."
Ethan was kinda touched by the fact that they'd wait for him. He went over and took a seat.
'Okay.' He thought 'Let's try this whole 'Be yourself thing'. Tell a joke."
"So, buck any good apples lately?" Ethan said with a sarcastic smile.

"Sure did." Granny said with a proud smile. "The workers on this here farm's been buckin' fer as long as ah I can remember. You'd do well to be rememberin' that."
"Right..." he said unsure of how to reply. 'Well that joke crashed and burned. Okay new plan, just shut up and eat.'
He stayed quiet while the others ate while chatting.
"I heard the price of apples might go up a little."
"Well let's hope it does, even a little bit'll go a long way. We got a few things here that could stand for some fixin'."
"Eeyup."

"Hey sis, anything interesting goin' on with you?" asked the young mare.
Applejack's eyes flickered to Ethan quietly eating and chuckled. "Well me'n Ethan got a bit of a bet goin'."
The rest of the Apples looked up from their food with interest. "Bet?"
"Heh heh, this guy here thinks he can beat me at apple buckin'. We got of a bit of a race to see who can clear their side of the field faster."
"That's right." Ethan said, suddenly seeing a chance at conversation. "And if I win, Applejack has to eat a hat!"
Apple Bloom and Big Mac chuckled. "What happens if Applejack wins?"
"We haven't actually established that." he said thoughtfully. "Applejack, what DO you want?"

"I don't need anything', besides, I ain't gonna lose anyway."
"Oh really? Go ahead, pick a prize, I don't mind."
"Fine, if I win, you gotta clean the entire pig pen without a single word of complaint."
Apple Bloom and her brother turned towards the tan stallion.
"Now Ethan, maybe you should think about this for a second before you..."
"Deal." he said ignoring them.

Granny Smith chuckled.
"Seems we got ourselves an interesting new recruit."
"Interestin' or not, he's goin' down." Applejack said. "I'm almost finished clearin' my side of the field. Better get a good night sleep cause you're gonna need it."
Ethan put on a devilish smile. "We'll just see about that..."

---

The night came and the air was quiet, the once bustling farm was now silent. In each of the rooms slept the residents of the apple farm. All of them except one that is. Ethan looked to the side as a glowing ball of light phased through the wall and hovered in front of him.
"Alright Ethan, the Apple family is finally all asleep. I'm not sure why you wanted me to come and tell you when they did though."
"Oh you'll see soon enough, thanks Navi."
Ethan quietly got out of bed and tiptoed out of his room. He passed Applejack's room and cast a glance at the sleeping mare in the other room.
"Just you wait." he quietly chuckled. Taking another step, the floorboard under him creaked causing him to freeze. Applejack mumbled to herself and turned in her sleep facing him. Ethan stood there expecting to be exposed at any moment but the orange earth pony remained fast asleep. Ethan breathed out a sigh of relief and left the house.

"Okay that was close, but were here now."
He and Navi walked though the apple orchids with the moon hanging high in the sky.
"The apple fields, why are we here? And why did you forget to put the farm equipment away?"
"I DIDN'T forget. This is why."
Ethan reared back behind a tree with a grin on his face and kicked. The tree immediately shook from the force shaking loose the apples and dropping them into the bucket.
"Wait a minute..." Navi said suddenly putting it together. "You came out here to get a lead on Applejack!"
"Correctamundo." the tan stallion said, trotting to another tree and giving it a fierce kick.
"Isn't this cheating? I mean you're even sneaking out at night to gain an advantage over her."
"Cheating? Me? Why Navi I'm hurt." Ethan said with a coy smile. "No one ever said we could only work during the day. The way I see it, I'm simply being more dedicated than she is. Here I am out here sweating in the dead of night while she's off sleeping in her nice cozy bed."

"Does this competition really mean that much to you?"
"Not really. At first it was just something to help make this farm work less boring. But now, I wanna beat that smug Applejack. I can't wait to see the look on her face."
"So why am I here too?"
"Well for starters, you make a great nightlight. It's pretty hard to see this late at night with no electrical light posts. Plus..." Ethan yawned putting his hoof over his mouth. "I'm actually pretty tired...I'm gonna need your help to stay up, cause it's going to be a long night..."

---

Princess Luna stood at the end of her terrace overlooking everything. It had been a long time since she'd started waiting. Since she was often busy in other ponies dreams so she'd often be found sleeping in the afternoon. But she couldn't sleep now, not while she was reminded of her failure at stopping that unusual nightmare. Starting to yawn, she immediately shook her head to rid herself of the drowsiness.
"I shall wait as long as it is necessary. You shall need to sleep soon enough."

No sooner had she said those words when she felt it. The owner of that mysterious dream had finally fallen asleep. Once again she found that she could not enter the dreams of this individual. It was as those there were some sort of wall preventing her from entering. She COULD however still find this person as long as they were sleeping.

"I WILL find the origin of this disturbance!" she declared leaping off of the terrace and taking flight.
Luna had only been flying for about two minutes when the dream she had been following disappeared leaving her confused.
"Could this person be aware of my intentions?"
Sighing in defeat, the midnight princess landed to sort things out. She sat next to a stream and pondered. 'Just what could be the reason behind this? I am at a loss of what to do next. Perhaps it would have been wise to accept the aid of my sister. I am going to ha-' Luna stopped mid-thought as she felt the dream she was chasing.
"Again? I shall not delay!" She immediately rushed towards the direction of the dreamer. This time Luna flew for about six minutes before the dream disappeared again.
"Am I being toyed with?! Is this but a game to them?!"
The alicorn impatiently waited in hopes that the dream would once again appear. Seventeen minutes later it did, and she rushed off full speed towards it.

---

"Ethan, Ethan! Wake up!"
"Ugh whaa...?" Ethan yawned slowly blinking.
"You fell asleep again, this is the third time. If you're so tired, then just call it quits and clean the pig pen tomorrow."
Ethan stretched shaking his head. "No it's fine, I'll stay awake so I can yaaaaaaaaaaaawn."
"You were saying?"
"Aw come on Navi, it's not like you have anything better to do. I mean, if I was asleep at the farm you'd just hover around until I woke up."
"Well, you're not wrong..."
"I've been meaning to ask anyways. What ARE you?"

"I'm..." Navi hesitated. "I am a guide for you."
"Well yeah but still, what are you? No one seems to be able to see or hear you but me. I hadn't questioned it before since I was still adjusting to this world but now I'm curious. Is it cause of some magic you use? Are you dead? Or maybe yo-yaaaaaaaaaaaawn" Ethan was cut off as he was hit with another wave of drowsiness.
"You won't be able to beat Applejack at this rate." Navi said quickly. "I've got an idea, why don't you take a half an hour nap so you can work properly? I'll wake you up when it's time."
"That...sounds pretty good..." Ethan said already nodding off. Was there something he was forgetting? He was too tired to care. Leaning against a nearby tree, he was out like a light.

Navi sighed. "Well I suppose that could have gone worse."
Time passed as no more bucking sounds could be heard Navi quietly floated high in the air starting to feel lonely. Overlooking everything from above, not a single soul could be seen or heard. Navi started to descend when it noticed something in the distance rushing towards the two of them.
"Wait...is that..."
The figure started to become more clear the closer it got.
"Oh no!" Navi immediately shot down to the sleeping stallion. "Wake up! Ethan! Wake UP!"
Ethan muttered starting to stir but it was too late. Above them an alicorn's outline could be seen right in front of the moon. Navi immediately phased through the ground and disappeared. Ethan yawned, regaining consciousness as the princess of the night descended.

"Alright alright Navi, I'm up already." He stopped and looked around. "Navi? Why's it suddenly so dark?"
"You there!" An unfamiliar voice called making him jump. "I have many a thing I wish for you to answer."
Ethan's eyes narrowed. Who was this person? Squinting his eyes, he could barely see anything. 'I'm out in the middle of a farm late at night.' He thought. 'There should be no reason for us to be meeting. Heck, how'd she even find me? I can barely even see my own hoof in front of my face without Navi around.'
Ethan took a few steps back as the figure approached.
"Who are you?" he asked cautiously.
"That is my first question for you." the voice answered, stopping several feet away from his. "Let us find out the answer."
A soft blue light appeared above the the figure's head revealing a dark blue female with a determined expression. The light stopped just at where Ethan guessed his knees were, prompting the girl to take a few steps forward. Ethan winced and raised a hoof to his eyes having been exposed to the dark for so long. The moment the light reached his face however, Luna froze, unable to move a muscle.
"No...it cannot be..." she said dumbfounded.

Luna looked as though she had seen a ghost. She subconsciously took a step towards that face, a face she would never forget. Ethan looked at her with a mix of caution and confusion as she approached. Only a foot away, she finally stopped, slowly reaching out and touching his face.
"What are you-" Ethan started, only to be yanked forward and buried in her chest much to his surprise. Luna held him close with tears running down her face quietly sobbing. As confused as he was to why this stranger would suddenly hug him, Ethan couldn't help but feel comfortable.
"Eden...welcome home." she said after what seemed like an eternity.
'Eden?' he thought. 'How does she know about him?' shifting his eyes, he noticed a pair of wings on her back. 'She's an alicorn! This is my chance! But...first I have to let her down easy...'
Ethan took a deep breath and gently pushed against Luna prompting her to finally separate.

"Look." he said softly. "This is going to be hard for you to hear, but I am not your old friend that you once knew."
"Eden...what are you saying?" The lunar princess said shakily.
"I'm saying that I'm someone else, my name is Ethan. I'm sorry."
"Thou would truly stand in front of me and tell me with your appearance you are not one in the same? If-if this were truly the case, then how are you so well informed as you are? Surely...surely this is just one of your jests?" she said, her voice becoming desperate, refusing to believe it.
"This has happened to me before, another alicorn by the name of Celestia confused me for being Eden as well. I'm sorry, but think about it. Eden looks like me right? Since he's an earth pony, there is no way he'd still be alive after all of those countless years."

"No..." Luna felt as though a cold knife had entered her heart. She fell backward into a sitting position stunned. Ethan approached her.
"I am TERRIBLY sorry to have to be the one to give you this news, I really am. But I need your help, it has to DO with Eden."
Luna numbly looked from the ground back at him.
"I need to know about Eden. Who he was, what he did, what his cutie mark was, everything. All of this just CAN'T be a coincidence."
Luna was silent for a long while, using this time to sort out her feeling and calming down before she responded. "This...is possible." she said quietly. "Not only dost thou share the appearance of Eden, it is undeniable that something strange hath led me to find you." She then sighed, putting away her sadness for a more suitable time. "But as things stand, what you ask of me is something I cannot fulfill."
"What? Why not?!" Ethan demanded.
"Eden did not wish to be known. He hath made that abundantly clear when I knew him. I cannot in good faith relinquish any details until I am of absolute certainty thou bears a connection to him."

"Please! There must be SOMETHING I can do to convince you!"
Luna paused. "Your mark, allow me to see it."
"My cutie mark?" Ethan turned his hip towards her. "I haven't found mine yet."
"Curious..." the princess said thoughtfully. "Very well, go and find your calling in this life. When you've earned your cutie mark and still wish to learn of Eden, then make your way to the castle in Canterlot. Should I judge your mark to be connected to his, then I would be content to answer any and all manner of questions you would ask."

"I have to earn my cutie mark...AND it has to have a connection to Eden's." He frowned, Ethan really didn't like the idea of having to jump through hoops in order to get what he wanted, but he wasn't exactly in a position to bargain. "...Deal."
"Then I shall take my leave then." Luna said starting to walk away.
"Wait." Ethan called after her. "What is your name?"
Normally Luna would've remarked that he would have been quite ignorant to not recognize the rulers of the kingdom that he was supposed to have been born in, but she had a lot on her mind and only gave a small smile. Somehow it hurt for him to ask her name like he didn't know her, perhaps it was his resemblance to Eden.
"I am princess Luna, one of the rulers of Equestria."
Without another word, she opened her wings and took off into the night sky eventually disappearing.

"Well." Ethan muttered. "I don't think I'm going to be sleeping any time soon."
His mind was now buzzing with questions. Once again he had somehow missed a golden opportunity for answers and now he had more questions than when he'd first started with. Ethan yelled venting his frustration by bucking a few trees before he started to feel a little better. An hour later, Navi came back but Ethan was too upset to care where Navi had gone.

---

"Ugh..." A tan stallion made his way into the Apple house with bags under his eyes. The sun hadn't yet risen but had started to peek out from behind the horizon. Ethan dragged himself to the room he had been given. His body sore, he was NOT in a good mood right now. With one final grunt, he collapsed on his bed. A tired smile appearing on his face.
BRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIING!
"...You have GOT to be kidding me."

Comments

[Calcen]

Great chapter! It was worth waiting :)

[CentipedeGhoul]

Pfft, I can make a way better chapter . . . oh shit, put down that chainsaw . . .

[Fallen Angel N]

7913681

Make a better chapter and I will!

[CentipedeGhoul]

7913684

Oh yeah?

[Fallen Angel N]

7947993

Nah it should be changed to hooves. Anyway he spent a long time sweeping all that flour XD and working at Sweet Apple Acres he's gotten a bit better and using his hooves. As for how ponies grab things with them...I honestly don't know. Maybe their hooves bend slightly at the end or something.

[Fallen Angel N]

7988180 Wow. Thanks for reading the all of that and pointing out minor grammar problems. Looks like those were some REALLY quick thoughts. God forbid you actually talk about the story huh?

[Twilight_the_spy]

7988447
Also was on a phone and didn't feel like going through the pain of trying to quote it.
Will do it later (when I get home from work) or tomorrow if I don't get time tonight.

[Texus]

Is this that kind of Crossover I think it is? I just don't remember the character Ethan, can you help me a bit with which game it maybe was?

[Fallen Angel N]

8226012
Actually the story says not a crossover on the summary. Unless you're just joking around.

[Texus]

8226098
no it's alright, I was probably tired.

[Texus]

8231220
Everything I would normally hate, or where I would start to complain takes a suprising or nice turn and it always feels like you stop with something the moment it would start to get annoying.

I normally hate it if the main char is letting themself get manipulated by the actions from other characters like Twilight for example, I hope he continues calling her just Celestia and stuff like that.

[Texus]

8231220

Which main language do you have?

[Texus]

Well shit Navi is really a guide. I still want the interaction to get less at some point.

I partly enjoyed the moment with Luna, but I hate it if they try to control everything. However she completely turned around when she thought he was Eden

[wildlander84]

Guess this story is dead?

[Ryebuck Coppercap]

Ooooh! I rather like the mystery you've set up between Eden and Ethan! I'll track this story just in case it updates again ;)