Trip didn’t know what to do or say. The tube devices moved as his arms would have moved. He felt the sensation of his fingers moving, but saw nothing resembling a hand.
They cut off my hands, Trip thought. Those sick f... Those sick people!
“Why did you do this to me?” he yelled. But as he looked up, he saw that the horse was gone. He leaned forward and tried standing on his legs. He could manage it a little bit, but it felt extremely awkward, and just wrong. He felt as if his legs weren’t made to bend as far as he needed them to. Balancing on them was a real chore, but trying to walk on them was even harder.
“What did you do to me?!” He yelled. There was no response. “Where did you go?” as much as she freaked him out, he still wanted the horse there, so at least he could get something resembling an answer. Even though she... it seemed to know just about as much as him. Where could it have even gone to? He was in the middle of a field. An animated field. All he could see around him were trees and sky. There was no way it’d be able run away as quickly as it would have had to, especially without making noise.
Without warning, Trip’s legs gave out. His arms caught him, and he found himself on all fours. Strangely, he found this position comfortable and natural. His shoulders probably were reconstructed in the crash, along with his legs. He crawled forward, astounded how easy it was to move like this.
As he was surveying the land around him, Trip came to a strange realization. There was no road. There were no cars. Should he have been surprised? Was he in the same place as he had crashed? Was he even still... no, he was still on Earth. He couldn’t even entertain the idea that he wasn’t. It was a stupid idea to think that he wasn’t. Obviously, what had happened, was something in his brain had been knocked out of place, which caused him to see everything as animated, and had him hallucinating about horses. Maybe he was still in a coma. Any explanation was better than... whatever crackpot theory his mind was trying to make him accept.
He tried crawling around some more. He was disturbed by how easily he could do it. If he was in a coma, then this grass felt very real. And if he was hallucinating, then he probably looked very strange, crawling around in the middle of the road, unable to see the car crash anywhere near him.
He raised his head to the sky. His neck was a lot longer then he remembered it being. But that didn’t mean anything. Body perception could get all skewed in dreams, or after car crashes. At least, he was pretty sure they could. Trip tried to focus hard on stories about the human mind being fooled or altered after trauma. He was trying as hard as he could to not put an equation together in his head.
I’m standing on all fours, I have no hands, and my neck is really long. The grass beneath me feels very real, and the same goes about the sun and the wind around me. I think I’ve been- no, that’s ridiculous. But it’s still a possibility that- no! No it’s not! It’s not possible at all! But maybe there’s a chance that-
While Trip was thinking, he heard a very loud ripping noise from behind him. He looked over and saw a tear in the sky. As if the world were a drawing, and the piece of paper it was drawn on was being ripped in half. The tear revealed a white void, and just the sight of it gave Trip a sensation of dread and fear.
The tear started extending down, to the ground, near where Trip was. Without thinking, he tried to stand up and run away, except he couldn’t manage to get very far while on his feet. Eventually, as the tear started getting closer, he gave in, and got on all fours. Somehow, in this position, Trip ran faster than he ever remembered running in his life. He felt wind against his face unlike any time he had ever felt it, and at times, he almost felt as if he was floating in short bursts.
But it didn’t seem to be helping him at all. Behind him, the tear had sped up and reached the ground, and was starting to split the land, opening up a canyon behind him, as if it were chasing him. And even with this new speed, it was gaining in on him. He wasn’t sure what happened if he fell into the hole, but he wasn’t particularly interested in finding out.
He turned to his left. He didn’t make a very sharp turn, but just enough to get out of the way of that thing. As he ran, he looked behind him and saw the tear continue in the direction it was travelling, away from him now. If he had kept running straight, he would have been swallowed by it in no time. Not only did he see that, but he also saw that the tear was mending itself. At the point where the tear started, the tear was closing in on itself, leaving the sky, and eventually the ground, as it was before.
As Trip was watching, he was forced to a complete halt by a tree. His body swung around it, almost as if he were giving the tree a hug, and he landed on the ground with a loud THUD.
He moaned in pain on the ground. He tried standing up again, and faltered. He kept on forgetting about standing on all fours.
“I guess you are kinda clumsy, aren’t you?”
Trip jumped and turned towards the direction of the voice. There it was again, sitting down, back against a tree, the gray, red-headed horsicorn.
“What was that?” Trip yelled, out of breath.
“Oh, the sky thing?” It remarked, casually, looking up at the sky where the tear had materialized. “I don’t know, really. Those things just happen sometimes when nothing’s really going on.”
Trip stared at it with shock and disbelief. How could it be so calm about the world just being torn open?
“You’re not from around here, are you, mister?” it asked.
“I... I don’t know. Where is here, exactly?” he responded.
“This is a forest.” She answered, matter-of-factly. Trip rolled his eyes.
“Well, gee, thanks for the helpful insight, b-” he tried as hard as he could to force out the “itch”, but couldn’t. “What’s with that?”
“What’s with what?” The horse asked, confused.
“Why can’t I swear here?
“Oh, you can.” The horse closed its.eyes and started nodding. ” You can swear all you want. But I just don’t see anything to swear on.”
“Really?!” he yelled. “I’m pretty sure the universe ripping itself in half is something to swear about!”
“Well, I still don’t think there’s really anything you can make an oath on.”
Trip couldn’t believe his ears. This horse was not only an abomination, it was annoying and clueless. But he wasn’t freaked out at it anymore, oddly. As if seeing almost being eaten by a singularity made this Heck-Horse seem tame.
“Okay, okay,” Trip muttered. “Where is this forest? Like, what landmarks is it near?”
It opened its eyes and pondered the question. “Well, we’re about a twenty minute walk from Canterlot.”
“No.” Trip said. “That’s idiotic. Canterlot...that’s like...no, that’s something from that stupid... Hed. His ehis eyeswidened, and then he closed them and put his hands over his head.
“Stupid what?”
“...no. No. No no no no no.”
“What’s wrong?”
“This. This... situation, this place, this... everything. This is shouldn’t be-”
“What do you mean?”
“-happening. This is like... something out of... like... one of those crappy fan fictions my sister makes me sit through or something.”
“A what?”
Trip looked up. “What would you call yourself?” he asked her.
She looked confused. ”You mean, like my name?”
“Yeah. Sure. What’s your name?”
She searched for the answer, and looked very stressed as she did. “You know, no one’s ever asked me that before.”
Trip gave her a look of angry confusion. “Well, you still have one, right?”
She shook her head. “I don’t think so.”
He wanted to cathel her out on this, but he really didn’t feel a reason to. She was probably so stupid she forgot her own name. “Fine. Do you have... a mark? Or like a symbol?”
“Oh, you mean a cutie mark? Yeah, I’m pretty sure I have one, lemme see...” she stood and turned around, exposing the image of a rose on her left... side.
“Yup. That’s what I thought. Tell me, am I in Equestriville? Or whatever?”
“Equestria?” She laughed at that. “Yes. Of course!”
Trip stared at her sternly and unflinchingly. It obviously made her uncomfortable. “Do you realize how stupid this is?”
“How stupid what-”
“How stupid it is that I have found myself launched in a fictional world ruled by talking horses that have superpowers granted from magical tramp stamps!” he screamed. It surprised him that he could say ‘tramp stamp’, but he couldn’t focus on that right now. “I am existing within a show being created by a team of writers and animators for children. Somehow, I’ve been teleported into something that should not- does not exist. This is like, level 80 unfair karmic punishment.” He stepped closer to her. “Tell me, what have I done, what is my sin, that made me wind up here?
She averted eye contact with him. “I... I don’t know. I wouldn’t know, I’ve never met you before in my life.”
“That’s right. Of course you don’t. I have to come to that realization myself, or some b- stuff like that.” he turned around and started walking away.
“Wait, where are you going?” She called from behind him.
“If I know how stories like these work, I’m gonna have to go learn a lesson or find a spell or something to take me home.” he looked back and saw that she was walking right behind him. “Why are you following me?” he asked impatiently.
She looked away, embarrassed. “Cause I don’t have anything else to do. I have nowhere else to go.”
Trip wanted to scold her for that answer, but there was something in the way that she said it that made him feel pity for her. “Fine. Whatever. I’m probably gonna need some kind of ‘spirit guide’ anyway.”
She smiled and picked up her pace so she was walking next to him. “Yay!”
Did she forget about me calling her an abomination? Trip thought. “But in all seriousness, do you really not have a name?”
“Not that I know of!” She said cheerfully.
He rolled his eyes. “Fine. From now on, you’re... Rose. Like your mark. Simple enough?”
Her smile turned into a look of disappointment. “Rose? Just Rose? That’s kind of a dull name.”
“It’s all I’m going to call you.”
“Hmm. Well, what if we gave me a name that emphasized my beauty. What about Rose... Entrance? It makes me sound like people will become entranced if they look at me too long!”
Trip didn’t have the heart to tell her that he didn’t find horses attractive, and that she was no exception. “Sure. Whatever you want. But I’m calling you Rose. And you call me Trip.”
“Okay. Just Trip?”
“Yes. Just. Trip.”
“Okay. That’s pretty boring too, if you ask me.”
“Are you gonna be like this the entire walk up?”
“Be like what?”
He gave a resigned sigh. “Never mind.”