Your eyes pop open and gaze upon a bright blue sky, clear as glass, and take a deep breath. You can hear the haggard undertone of your respiration, despite you yourself not feeling tired at all. Rather, it would seem that it would hurt to speak if your breathing wasn’t already so hoarse. Rolling off your back and standing up straight on all four hooves, you take a look of your surroundings.

Panning your head from left to right, you notice that you’ve woken up in the exact middle of a large clearing surrounded by lush evergreen trees. The tops of the trees and the blades of grass dance nimbly in the easterly breeze, rolling with the invisible force fluidly. The cool wind tickles your mane and fur, while still providing a sense of comfort and relaxation. As you enjoy the comforting air, the shadows on the ground started to grow in length. The afternoon sun appeared to be approaching the horizon, signaling dusk. You really should be thankful you didn’t wake up at the peak of noon, where your eyes might have met directly with the sun’s blinding light.

You cough, and your throat burns in response causing you to wince in pain. Turning around backwards in search of some source of relief, you find a small pond with crystal clear waters. You take a hearty swig and relish the soothing of your sore throat. It feels like it must have been several days since your last drink, or anything for that matter. The small ripples dance about on the waters, obscuring your reflection. When they finally settle, you retract in absolute horror.

You’re pale, everywhere. Your fur and mane don’t know where to stop and start and even your eyes would be completely white if it wasn’t for a small grey circle indicating where you were looking. You rotate yourself to get a decent look at your flank (strange as it may sound) and even your haunches are completely colorless. You’d scream, but your sore throat prevents you from making any noise other than another painful cough.

Then, it hits you like a thrown rock; you don’t remember who you are. Part of you can’t help find that cliché for some reason, but the other part of you is frightened that it knows the word cliché without really even knowing what it actually means. Trying to overcome unnecessary stress, you relay a list of questions to yourself. Name? Unknown. Address? Unknown. Birthday? Unknown. Why did you wake up in the middle of a clearing? Obviously unknown.

What do you know? You’re in a field, there’s a small pond with cool water, you’re as pale as a ghost (whatever that is), and you can’t speak thanks to a horrendously dry throat. You have knowledge about common things and yet know nothing about them.

Looking up, you notice the sun is setting at a quickening pace. It isn’t safe to be out in a place like this at night, you know that much. Taking another look around, you observe that there are two exits out of the clearing, parallel to each other on exact opposite sides of the circular field. There is one that appears to lead to a much denser (and creepier) collaboration of trees, possibly a forest, and the other looks more traveled, based on the hoof prints in the ground that seemed to have leveled the dirt.

Keeping this in mind, you form three logical conclusions about what your next plan of action should be:

You could stay here in this clearing and wait here for…something? While it isn’t necessarily ideal, it’s probably safer not to venture into the unknown, even if it’s not safe to stay here anyways. You have plenty of water, plenty of grass, and you could possibly use some of the trees on the ring of the clearing as some sort of a makeshift shelter. And by that, you really mean huddle close to them and hope it doesn’t rain tonight. It could be smart to stay where you are, knowing that you have what you need to survive tonight and maybe travel the next day. No need to push yourself.

You could go down the path that looks recently traveled. Chances are that you’ll meet somepony else who can help you, if they don’t freak out about your unfortunate color scheme of course. Then you could maybe figure out what’s going on. While you leave behind a source of water, something that really helps your throat in its current condition, it’s possible that you’ll find something else along the way. But, you’re also not sure how long that path is anyways or if it reaches any sort of civilization.

You could go down the gloomy, eerie path. You’re not exactly sure why you’d go down in there, but if there is a path leading into it, something has to be there. Paths aren’t built for nothing you know, they are made to get from point A to point B. The problem is, you don’t know or have any clue what point B is. But if you’re going to go that way, you should go while there is still some light left. If it’s a dense section of trees, that likely means creatures live in it. And if creatures live in it, you want to be able to see them.

You sit your pale flank on the ground and ponder your thoughts, raising your hoof to your chin.

What should I do next?

Updated A/N:

Admittedly, it’s a slow start, and for that I apologize. At the time I was writing this, the comments below helped me dictate where the story would go next because this was mostly experimental so if the format at the end of chapters seems weird, you know why. When it is re-written, that will not occur. Thanks for your time and patience.