//------------------------------// // Utter confusion // Story: The Anti-Friendship Lesson // by Ezekiel Namuh //------------------------------// 'Ow. What happened? Well, I can say two things for sure. One, my neck really hurts. Two, I can't tell if my eyes are open or closed. Everything feels weird, out of place, mangled.' "Huh," I thought out loud, managing to actually sit up. Vision returning somehow, as if I had been hit by a flashbang, I noticed a few things. One of them being that I wasn't in a bus anymore, but instead a forest. This one much darker than any other one I remember though. What did happen? Oh, right, I was dealing with Caden. At least I don't have amnesia, though that doesn't mean I understand what's happened to me. Did the bus crash? Is this purgatory? I'm definitely not getting to heaven now. I can't tell right now anyway, so all that's left is speculation. The bus probably just crashed, sending me out the window and into these woods. Hopefully if I do have any injuries, they aren't major. Doesn't mean I shouldn't check. I started to get up... Only to fall flat to the ground. "What the?" I said, trying to rub my face with my hand to see if I had something wrong with me before abruptly freezing and widening my eyes. I might have a few things wrong. Or flat-out missing. "Dear Lord." "Hey, look Ed!" "What do you want sis?" I replied. "Your little 'episode' is on TV!" "Oh," It had been two days since the incident in question. Most of it had been spent on video games with Zackary, while the rest was going over the crash with my parents. 'BHHS school bus crashes, breaking the door, stop arm, and windows.' The headline distracted me from my sister's babbling, though one line in particular stood out. "And you would have had so much fun on that trip. You would've had fun with Zack, and Ty, and..." It made me wince to hear that name, causing her to stop. "What's wrong, Eddy? Is something wrong with Zack?" "No, it's just... Ty." "What's the deal with Ty?" "They couldn't find him." I stared, slack-jawed, at something I couldn't quite say was my hand. After all, it didn't feel, look, or function like my hand. Instead, I saw a pure white stub on both my former arms. "Ah, come on!" I exclaimed, slamming one into the ground. CLOP "Wait a minute, these are hooves!" I near-shouted. Rubbing them against each other showed they were covered in fur I could barely see. Probably due to the cartoonish gray outline... Cartoonish black outline. Cartoonish. Cartoon. 'Oh, you've gotta be joking kidding me.' I was in a cartoon. Nonetheless a cartoon I was somewhat familiar with, but does that make this better? Or easier to grasp? Now that I was contemplating the usefulness of certain aspects of my, er, unique situation, maybe it would be a good idea to make sure that I'm not just hallucinating. Reluctantly, I made another attempt to stand up. And another. And another... It makes sense that someone, as in a human being, would have trouble being a quadruped. This all just feels uncomfortably real. I think I might need to sit down for this. "Well, I'm pretty sure the hallucination theory is out the window," I whispered to myself, glad to actually hear something other than a faint crackling in the distance. Actually hearing things sparked another question. I reached up to the top of my head, fairly unsure of what would happen. Good, I could feel my ears before they uncontrollably flattened. Not okay, they were completely different, alongside what I could tell to be my mane. There was a lot different, as you'd expect. My usually pale skin was fitted by a white coat, which was the exact same color as what I could see of my mane. That was fairly curly, unlike my usually shaggy, parted brown hair. As I looked around, I could tell I had little to work with. Nothing but trees and shrubs and a bush with something sticking out of it. 'Now that's intriguing.' I did my best to walk a couple feet over, only stumbling about four times. Finally reaching the bush, I attempted to pull it out. "Okay, this is ridiculous," apparently this bush is like superman or something. It probably didn't help that I didn't have fingers. After a whopping thirteen attempts to yank the mystery fabric out, I finally succeeded. I don't know if you knew this but accomplishment and underwhelming don't go particularly well together. I busted my butt, uh, flank, for my toque. "Well, at least I still have something," I frustratingly slipped the teal hat over my mane, though a portion remained outside it. I don't have the time for this, however. I need to elaborate on my situation. 'So, I'm stuck in a forest which I may as well say is the Everfree, doesn't matter all that much since the Everfree is pretty big. I'm also a pony. And if I'm stuck with a bunch of other ponies, then I might be in trouble. If ASPD isn't received well on Earth, it's probably ten times worse in a show about interpersonal relationships.' "Okay, you've avoided any chance of social relationships before, these are just ponies. They can't do anything that bad. Nor would they, I don't think I'm in a parody. If this were something like Pony.mov or My Little Pwny, I would understand. As far as I can tell, my hooves are in the original art style, not like any parody Zach's ever shown me. Besides, why would they even want to know where I come from?" I slapped myself in the face again. "Ugh. Because if they don't, I'll be considered an antagonist. That's probably the only thing I could be here. Ugh, I still have no idea what I'm doing or what I should do. Well, guess it's time to change that."