Son of Eternity

by Secrets and Lies

3

Zack woke up with his head and legs dangling off the tree branch, only his torso and arms held him securely from a long fall. He was known to roll around during his sleep and this didn’t surprise him too much, but what did was the fact he was barely clinging on to the branch itself. He quickly rocked his body forward to adjust himself back to safety. Zack’s neck and back was killing him from the rough night sleep, and he had gotten dizzy from getting up too fast. He took a minute to steady his body while holding on to the trunk of the tree, making sure he wouldn't accidentally slip while dazed. Zack realized he was still in this vibrant and strange world, and that this was no concoction of drugs or dreams.
In a sudden burst of memory, Zack had remembered the little pink horse he held over night. He frantically searched the nearby area. She wasn’t on the tree, so he looked down to see if she had fallen, yet still he couldn’t find her. Zack briskly ascended the tree and stuck his head over the canopy of leaves in search for the pony. All he saw were miles of trees in every direction, tall mountains that towered even the clouds, and rolling cumuli in the farthest distances he could see. The sky above was royal blue—without a white ball of fluff in the air—and the sun was still in its morning position. Zack noticed a pond close by when he turned which gave him the idea that the pink filly would be there getting water.
Zack stuck his head back down beneath the canopy to be met by two frightfully large, blue eyes. Zack jolted backwards a bit, startled by the suddenness of the situation without at first realizing who it was.
“Hi!” Pinkamena exclaimed in a high pitched voice, stepping closer to Zack. She could walk perfectly on the thick branch from being as small as she was compared to Zack. He had noticed she was much more happier and that her mane and tail were now a frizzy, curly mess of locks, unlike last night when it was straight and flat. Her radiant blue eyes intently scanned the human, taking in the odd looking creature, but surly not afraid of him.
“I brought you some yummy, yummy stuff I found in the forest, but it’s on the ground at the moment!” She seemed to be shouting everything in an upbeat and excitable fashion, making Zack flinch at every high note she hit.
“How exactly did you get back up here?” Zack asked.
“Oh, don’t worry about that, sleepy head. You should eat something soon, you look famished!”
Zack sat up to get himself comfortable, then hesitantly questioned her, “You’re not afraid of me?”
She grinned and riposted, “Nope, not after what you did and said last night! I really want to thank you, Mr. Zack, after all, you did save my life.” Zack took great pleasure in this, someone hadn’t made him feel this good about himself in a long time.
Zack smiled and returned, “Well... you’re welcome, Pinkamena.”
“You don’t have to call me that, my sister’s call me Pinkie Pie!” She enthusiastically replied while beaming a smile his way. Zack returned with a slow and awkward grin while trying to maintain eye contact with her seemingly glowing eyes.
“Well,” Zack beamed, “Let’s see what we have to eat!” Zack swung down from the tree and landed directly on his left leg, the one which was bitten by the wolf the other night. He let out a small wail as a sharp pain was let loose through his lower body when he landed on the ground. He fell back on his bottom and held his injured leg.
Pinkie Pie bounded down the tree, branch by branch, gleefully singing, “Laa la laa la laa...”. She landed perfectly on her left hind leg and held herself in a attitude en pointe stance. She noticed Zack writhing in pain and approached him lightning quick.
“Did you fall? Are your hurt? OH, from last night, right? When that mean ol’ timberwolf went and bit your leg?”
“Pinkie,” Zack flustered, “get my supplies. I left them at the foot of the tree.” The pink filly then zipped over to where his provisions were, picked them up using her teeth and brought them to him.
She dropped his supplies over his body saying, “Well I don’t know what you’re going to do with a bunch of useless rocks and vines. Are you gonna eat them? Are they good? Do you usually eat rocks? You know I use to live on a rock fa–”
While the little pony was talking a mile a minute, Zack rolled up his pant’s leg and wrapped his wound in stray leaves and vines. He gave it a nice, tight knot and rolled his pant's leg back down when he finished.
“Pinkie... Pinkie,” Zack called out, failing to get the pony’s attention. She had zoned out completely and was just having a conversation by herself it seemed.
“Pinkie!” Zack shouted.
“And then I said oatmeal, are you craz–... Oh... ha, sorry about that.”
“No problem, just trying to get back on the matter at hand here.”
“Hand?” Pinkie was befuddled by this new terminology.
Zack let out a sigh and explained, “You know, hand... hands?” Zack waved his hand and fingers in front of Pinkie without realizing she had no hands, only hooves. “Well... I guess hooves then...” Zack recuperated, then restated, “Just trying to get back on the matter at hoof here.”
“Ohhhhhh... gotcha, Mister Hands,” she said in a satirizing tone while mimicking Zack’s previous hand waving with her front hooves. Pinkie’s expression changed to a concerned look, she had forgotten all about the food she had prepared for Zack.
“Me, oh my! I had forgotten about your food,” She gasped. The pink filly hastily galloped over and was rummaging in a bush next to the base of the tree. Zack had then noticed something odd about the pony’s body he hadn’t realized before. She had some sort of tattoo above both her hind legs, it appeared to be three stray balloons, the two outer balloons being blue and the center one being yellow.
The pony rushed back so fast he could only see a pink whiz go by, which broke his attention from her rump. Pinkie dropped from her mouth some uprooted daisies onto Zack’s lap. At a loss for words, he then realized that ponies are herbivores. He made a mental note not ask for any meat around any other pony he met. Zack had to make a comment on the pony’s birthmark.
“Quick question before I divulge into this... interesting meal. But what is that mark on your...”
“Oh, you mean this, silly?” She finished while turning to point a hoof at her balloon markings. “This is my new incredible-amazing-fantabulous-superly duper-awesome cutie mark I got around three weeks ago!”
“A... cutie mark?” Zack was even more confused than he originally was.
“Well duh! Did I stutter? Haven’t you heard of a cutie mark before?”
“I... can’t say I have, Pinkie Pie. Enlighten me.”
Pinkie sat on her hind end and expounded upon 'cutie marks'. “According to my Granny Pie, a cutie mark is a symbol of one growing up! Everypony gets one at a certain age, it symbolizes what you're good at, or your personality, or super special talent. Or! For no reason at all!”
Zack pointed in curiosity and asked, “So, what do your three balloons mean?”
Pinkie Pie leaped in front of Zack’s face and into his personal space and shrieked, “To party!”
Zack shifted his head backwards while Pinkie remained to have her hooves up, standing only on her hind legs. She wobbled a bit and soon fell flat on her flank. Zack couldn't help but laugh aloud.
Pinkie Pie shot upward in excitement and blurted, “There are more of you... There are more of you who like to party?”
“Well yeah, but...” Zack scratched the back of his head and looked away. “According to what you’ve told me, I’m the only one of my kind here in this place.”
Pinkie flopped back down on here flank in disappointment, she then emitted a long sigh and asked, “Well, where did you come from and how did you get here?”
“I’m still trying to figure that out myself...” Zack wondered. He then divulged into a summery about where he came from. He told Pinkie about Earth, his home, the people, the culture and tried to describe how things looked differently and less brighter than here. Pinkie let out a yelp of shock when she discovered that ponies couldn’t talk, just like the rest of the animals.
“...And how I got here exactly, well...” Zack then remembered he was on a track to suicide before he was miraculously teleported here. Zack continued, “...well I seemed to have been teleported here. To be honest, I’m not sure what happened. I’m not sure if this is real or not...” Pinkie slumped a little; he didn't realize until then that he had hurt her feelings.
Zack then quickly fabricated, “...but from meeting you, I believe that this is real! I mean it!” Pinkie looked up with a cheerful grin and let out a small squeak of excitement.
She then encouraged, “You should eat these flowers I found for you, they’re mighty tasty!”
Zack tried to hide his cringe as he asked Pinkie, “No, no, you should eat this more than me, I can go on just fine.”
“Thanks, but I had a big breakfast already of flowers! Yum, Yum!” She rubbed her stomach and then insisted, “With that ouchy you have on your leg, you need all the energy you can get!”
As Zack took a flower in hand, Pinkie’s eyes widened and mouth gaped a little open in excitement. Zack knew if he didn’t taste the flower it would make her sad again and he would lose more daylight then he already had. He slowly proceeded to bring the flower closer to his mouth. Pinkie started to breath more heavily in excitement. Zack opened his mouth and almost had a flower petal in. Pinkie Pie was trembling with eagerness of his approval. As he finally bit down on the flower, Pinkie stopped moving and just stared in awe as Zack slowly crunched up the flower and swallowed. Zack gasped a little when the after taste hit him.
“Are you gonna eat that,” Pinkie questioned.
“Eat wha–”
Pinkie reached and grabbed a petal out in between Zack’s two front teeth with her hoof and tossed the petal in her mouth. Zack, in disbelief, inquired, “How did you... how did you do that?”
“What?”
“You know, that! Grab that petal out between my teeth with your hoof?”
“Umm... I just... did!” She smiled and hopped upward.
Zack thought, “I guess I’m just going to have to get along with these antic behaviors in this strange place..”
The pink filly stood tall on her hind legs and pointed in different directions shouting, “Now, which way do we go from here, Mr. Navigator, Timberwolf Beater-Upper Guy?”
Zack stood up and retorted, “Well, let’s go west, when I was up in that tree looking for you, I spotted a pond near by, maybe we can go get some water if it’s clean.”
Pinkie jumped for joy and began prancing around, singing to the tune of “She’ll Be Coming Around the Mountain”.

Zack was delighted to be with this hilarious filly, whom was keeping him sane and momentarily forgetting how he had gotten here. He felt as if she was forcing him to forget his past problems and look ahead in life. Whatever the feeling was, he loved it and let out a hearty laugh when she slide on her knees at the end of the song.
“That was pretty good, Pinkie Pie!”
“It wouldn’t have been the same if you hadn’t have shown up in my life!” She sprang alongside Zack as they walked through the warm, wet forest. Zack finally felt the inner warmth of friendship that he hadn’t felt in years.

They reached the pond in a short time and found that the water was almost crystal clear. Zack dunked his head in the water, which fully woke him up and washed away the dirt on his neck and face. The water was cold to his taste as he drank the pure liquid. Pinkie Pie splashed around in the water until Zack called out for her to continue their trek through the woods westward. They reached the bright end of the woods again, where the animals were socializing and the wild shrubs and trees were lessening. Zack had noticed Pinkie Pie was almost silent as they walked through the sunnier and less dense part of the woods, though occasionally she would hum a little tune while curiously looking at the wildlife and tall trees they passed.
Zack enjoyed this little moment of peace and quiet until Pinkie drew in a deep breath and screamed in jubilee, “Look! The end of the woods! We’re finally out!” She sprinted towards the edge of the forest and to her dismay, she overlooked a sprawling field of grass and hills. The sapphire sky and rolling cumulus clouds were an amazing sight to see as the sun stood high in the eastern sky behind them. The sun beamed down rays which danced upon Zack's skin, warming him and delighting his senses. Zack walked up behind Pinkie Pie and took in a deep breath of mountain air and admired the sight.
“Just beautiful! I’ve never seen such a glorious sight in my life!” Zack lifted his arms out and closed his eyes as a gust of wind blew towards his direction. Pinkie Pie stepped up toward Zack, her mane and tail flowing in the breeze.
“But Zack,” Pinkie hesitated, “We’re nowhere near civilization. In fact, I’m not sure where to go. I thought mama once said Ponyville was near where we lived...” Zack had realized the tone in Pinkie Pie’s voice, he had grown accustom to her giddy and happy self, but for the first time she had shown a concerned emotion, which made him at first feel a little uneasy and worried.
Zack turned and queried sarcastically, “Uh, Ponyville, huh? Must be brimming with intellectuals with a name like that for a town.”
“Yea, it's a small little village where my parents would get supplies at. I’ve never been there, but I’ve always wanted to go!”
Zack turned back to gaze over the rolling hills and far off mountains. “I’m sure it can’t be far. There has to be civilization in this prolific landscape.”
“Pro-liffy...pro-loffy... pro...what?” Zack gave a small smile, knowing she couldn’t hide her conspicuous and vivacious personality from him forever.
“Lush landscape,” he added.
“Ohhhh! Well you learn something new everyday! Come on then!” Pinkie bounced ahead in glee, knowing that everything was going to be alright, because Zack said so. Zack followed behind the adventurous prancing pony.

The duo traveled far beyond their original location from where they woke up from. They plotted their course for between the far off mountains which they eventually got to. During their adventuring, they would discuss random things such as their favorite colors, favorite animals, and of course, partying. Simple little questions to keep the entertainment up and the awkwardness down. They made great time and speed, only stopping every so often to rest awhile.
Zack often found himself carrying Pinkie Pie. Such as when they had to cross a river and the water came all the way up to Zack’s chin while he held Pinkie; or when Zack had to climb a short cliff and Pinkie held onto the top of his head. Most of the time though he had to carry Pinkie because she got tired too often when bouncing up and down all the time. Zack didn’t mind holding her, in fact, he kind of liked it, it made him feel like a father of a very sweet young girl. Zack tried to hide his newly discovered parental instincts in front of Pinkie Pie, but found himself unable sometimes. Trying to wipe dirt off Pinkie’s face or warning her not to run off too far in a father-esque way. For whatever reason, Zack felt these feelings were a good and bad thing.
Sunset had approached after what had seemed like many more hours than he figured. Zack’s legs were tired and his pace was hindered. He felt more hungry than ever before and was starting to feel the pains of starvation which he tried to keep his mind off of while venturing. Pinkie Pie hopped around him with what seemed to be almost unlimited energy, he didn’t know where it came from, but she seemed to be acting more hyper as night was approaching. He thought she would be more worried because they hadn’t found civilization yet, but he came to the conclusion that she had forgotten about it and was loving every bit of this adventure with her new 'best-est friend'.
They reached the edge of another wooded area, which seemed to populated by different trees and greenery than the ones they woke up in. Smaller, yet more curved trees with thin branches blocked out the fading sunlight as they entered the woods. The sun was near setting and Pinkie Pie was still springing up and down around Zack while humming a little tune, “Laa, da daa, tra, laa, da daa–”
She stopped abruptly, it took Zack a couple of seconds to stop walking and realize she had stopped bouncing around him. Zack turned back around and noticed Pinkie’s ears up and alert while her eyes scanned the foliage around her, ignoring Zack’s stare of confusion. Zack cleared his ears to try and listen for something, ignoring the tree top's swaying in the gentle wind and the birds chirping their afternoon calls to their mates. Zack then heard it, a cackle of a small bonfire and two small voices coming from the woods near by. As soon as Zack noticed this, Pinkie galloped full speed towards the noise. Zack ran up behind Pinkie and yanked her tail back to stop her. She took in a breath to say something, but Zack cupped his hand over her mouth and with his other hand he put a finger over his lips to tell her to be quiet. They both then crept toward the bush that blocked the view between whatever it was making the noises.
Zack peeked through the bush and saw two other, taller ponies sitting closely next to each other with a small fire pit in front of them. One pony, which appeared to be a colt was a yellow coated pony with an orange, rustled, short mane. While the other appeared to be a mare with a light, cerulean coat with a pink and light crimson swirled mane. They appeared to be couple, holding each other hoof in hoof.
The female spoke up in a frightened chirp, “Are you sure Everfree forest is safe, Carrot?”
“Of course, Cuppy, my love.”
Cuppy turned toward Carrot’s eyes and said, “If my parents found out something bad happened to us in this frightening place, we are so busted! We’ll never see each other again! Oh, I don’t think I can stand not seeing you for a second, honey buns! Let’s leave this place, please!”
Carrot laughed and replied, “There’s nothing to fear, Cuppy Puppy. Those things you hear about the Everfree forest are just old mare’s tales. Now how about we roast some marshmallows and ‘mellow-out’?”
“Oh te-he-he-he! You’re always making me smile, sugar!” Both ponies began snuggling each other in front of the fire pit as Zack and Pinkie watched.
“Yuck,” Pinkie gagged.
“Shhhh,” Zack hissed while holding his hand over Pinkie’s mouth once more. He began pulling her away from the bush so Pinkie wouldn't do anything drastic.
Pinkie silently quibbled while trying to grab for the bush, “But I wanna see!”
Zack pulled her a good distance away and whispered to her, “Now’s our chance to find civilization and get a place to sleep! Now if they see me, in fact, if any pony sees me in Ponyville, it’ll most likely be trouble! So I want you to present yourself to them and see if one of them could get you a place to stay tonight.” Zack stopped and noticed Pinkie’s facial expression; her wide eyes affixed to Zack’s face with a simple little grin on her face. At that moment Zack was entranced by her cuteness and couldn't help but blushing.
“You are way too cute right now... Stop being so cute. It's distracting!”
“I am?” she said in an uninformed, yet gleeful tone. Those words and the way she said them made Zack fall deeper into her spell of adorableness. Zack heard the two love birds talking again about marshmallows and was thrown back into reality.
“So, do you remember what to do?”
“Yes!” She hopped up and raised her head high.
As she trotted over to the bush, Zack added “Don’t make me get seen or mention me! Lie if you have too!” Zack had thought up much more to add to his instructions he gave Pinkie, but she was already making her way through the bush. Zack prepared for the worst as he wriggled back behind the shrubbery.
“Wait! Do you hear something?” Cuppy panicked while grabbing Carrot’s shoulder and pulling closely towards him.
“Hear what, babe?”
“I heard something in the bushes... I’m scared!”
“I didn’t hear anything.”
“Oh come on! You can't be serious!”
“You’re just trying to get me scared, that’s all! And I’m not falling for it!”
“There it is again!” Her eyes widened, scanning the bushes in front of her, Carrot finally looked up from his marshmallow roasting to see what was going on.
“I don’t see or hear anything. At first it was kind of cute, but now you’re just being annoying.”
“How dare you accuse me of trying to trick you! I know I heard something!”
“Please, Cuppy. At least try and make it convincing!”
As quick as lightning, Pinkie leaped from the bush, landed in front of the two, and promptly yelled, “Hiiii!”
The two jumped up from their seats and turned around towards the voice in utter terror. Carrot pushed Cuppy in front of him as a shield and tightly closed his eyes. Cuppy shrieked in horror, but soon both saw the real origin of the voice, a little pink filly with bright blue eyes stared at them with a wide smile of curiosity.
Carrot leaped between Cuppy and the filly. He panted from the shock of the moment and asked the filly in breathless stammers, “Wha– where did you come from? Who are you?”
“I’m Pinkie Pie and I was wondering... uh... “ Pinkie looked directly at the bush Zack was hiding behind and tilted her head in confusion as to what to say. Zack sat there as still as he could holding his breath, thinking that Pinkie had given away his location. The couple turned their heads toward the bush, and as soon as they did, Pinkie jumped in front of them and said, "I’ve been lost for so long and I’m so hungry and tired and lonely and helpless and pink!” Zack thought she was really putting on a convincing act while he witnessed his plan unfold. Pinkie gave a downtrodden guise while her eyes began tearing up in front of the dumbfounded two.
Cuppy spoke up, “Wa-well darling, we could figure out something to do! Here let’s get you home.” Cuppy stopped, reevaluated his thoughts and said out loud, “Wait, my parent’s wouldn’t allow me to bring in a little filly, they would flip!”
She turned towards her date and averted, “I know Carrot would be delighted to handle you for the night.”
“M-Me? Are you loco in the coco?”
“Pleaseeee, sugar!” Both Cuppy and Pinkie gave a mournful jester, but Cuppy’s was more hinted towards, ‘do it, or our relationship is over’.
Carrot sighed, thinking how his date night was ruined by this little pink problem and that he had to deal with watching after her for the night.
“Fine,” he sneered in disgust. Pinkie jumped for joy, as well as Cuppy. Carrot grabbed a pail of water he had brought to extinguish the fire with and did so while mumbling indistinguishable words of anger. As they slowly walked off, Pinkie became hyperactive again while hopping around the two romantics as she did with Zack. Zack foresaw this was going to happen, and Pinkie—once again—forgot Zack was hiding behind the bush and not once did she stop and look back to see if he was following behind. Zack proceeded to do so, stealthily creeping behind tree after tree, far from the three ahead.

Night had fallen and the three had made it out of the woods. They walked into the dark, quiet streets of the empty Ponyville. The shadowy town was already near vacant of denizens, only a few ponies were waddling the streets, trying to get home after having too much cider. Not much detail could be seen in the dead of night though, though Pinkie focused intently on Carrot and Cuppy. The couple split ways before Carrot lead Pinkie back to his house. They didn’t use the front door, instead, he opened the back window to his kitchen and let Pinkie Pie hop in while he went in behind her. Carrot closed the window and draped the blinds over it.
“Be quiet, Pinkie. I don’t want to wake the ‘rents up.”
“Okie, dokie, lokie!” she whispered very loudly.
Carrot cringed a little at the sudden noise and quickly replied, “Shhhh! Quiet!”
“You’re just like my friend Za–” Pinkie swiftly shoved her hooves over her mouth to silence herself, making a little ‘peep’ noise of surprise.
She had forgotten again all about Zack, she turned to look back toward the window, but before she could walk over there, Carrot took her by the hoof and said, “Come on, off to bed!” Carrot lead her out of the kitchen while she looked back at the window and gave a long sigh. Carrot had made a bed for her in the basement and tucked Pinkie Pie in. He left a candle lit next to her make shift bed, because Pinkie had asked for it in advance.
“No snooping around, or making noise, please,” Carrot begged. “Just get some rest, we’ll figure out things tomorrow, alright?”
“Okay...” Pinkie gave a fake yawn as Carrot headed back up stairs. “Goodnight Mr. Cake,” Pinkie whispered loudly and waved her hoof towards him.
“Uh... night. Whatever."
He closed the trap door behind him to the basement and left the pink pony alone in the candlelight. Pinkie immediately jumped out of bed and took the candle by mouth once it was safe. She made her way up the stairs and quietly lifted the trap door, she then peeked through the crack to see if Carrot was out of sight. She soon lifted the trap door completely and closed it behind her gently with her hind leg. She cautiously slipped silently into the kitchen and laid the candle down on the dining room table. She opened the curtains to reveal Zack waiting patiently next to the window with a raised eyebrow. Pinkie stepped back in fright, but calmed herself when realizing who it was and opened the window.
“Thank Celestia you are alright! I’m sorry I had forgotten about you back there.”
“Oh, it’s fine.” Zack replied while climbing into the kitchen through the reasonably pony-sized window. He had noticed everything was smaller and the thought had completely evaded him about his height compared to the rest of the ponies and how that might affect their living quarters.
“This way,” Pinkie whispered as she lead him out of the kitchen. Pinkie grabbed the candle as Zack began to follow her, but was soon impeded by the door frame as he hit his head while trying to follow her. He rubbed the area where a knot would soon form and this time ducked through the doorway. Pinkie then opened the narrow trapdoor into the basement as Zack followed behind. It was a tight squeeze, but Zack managed to fit. He had to arch his back to avoid hitting the small ceiling of the basement. Zack realized he wouldn’t be able to sprawl out much due to the tight fit, but managed to curl himself into a ball next to Pinkie Pie’s bed.
Pinkie gave a serious yawn from fatigue, “I’m glad you’re here with me, Zack.” He looked over at her squinting eyes and wide, tired grin.
Zack replied, “I’m glad you’re here with me too.” She gave a sigh of relief and nudged herself into Zack’s open chest. He smiled and drifted off. He hadn't fallen asleep so quickly and comfortably in his life, even though he was scrunched up on the floor of a cold and hard basement.