The Lightbringer

Arthur’s head shot up as a creaking noise echoed in the barn. Memories drained from his head as his mind raced to take in the situation. The flame of a lantern cast long shadows throughout the barn as a pair of ponies entered; one with red fur and the other orange. Arthur pushed himself flat with the loft he occupied, watching the two through slits between the floorboards.

“Alright Big Mac, let’s get everything set up. Applebuck season’s comin’ ” The orange mare said, at least he assumed she was female from her voice. There was a certain country twang to her words that Arthur couldn’t place.

The red stallion, identified by the deep voice, responded with a simple ‘eyup’. Truly, a man of few words.

That seemed to be the extent of their conversation. The only sounds the two made as they worked were various grunts and one-word replies to those grunts as they loaded a cart up with wooden basins. It seemed like they knew what they were doing and had been doing it for quite a while, to know each other so well.

Arthur’s ears twisted as he took in the bits of conversation, hoping the pair would give him a clue as to where he was. Instead, the pair just hitched the orange pony up to the cart and she hauled it outside. Big Mac, he thought that was what Orange had called him, paused as he went to shut the barn doors behind him and glanced around the barn. There was an inquisitive look on his face, as though he thought something was out of place.

When Red’s gaze passed by his hiding spot Arthur pushed his body as flush with the floor as he could. He held his breath, afraid any sound might betray his location

Don’t see me... Don’t see me... His mind echoed,

“Big Mac? What's tha holdup?” Orange called from outside. Red took one final glance around the barn before picking up the lantern he had entered with and leaving. Arthur didn’t raise his head until he heard the clunk of the barn doors shutting.

Slowly Arthur let out his held breath and began to draw in fresh air. Red was observant, if Orange hadn’t distracted him then Arthur might have been spotted.

Would have been spotted, he reminded himself. The only cover he had was a wooden floor. If Red had walked upstairs there was only one way for that to go down.

Arthur listened to the fading conversation, making sure the two were actually leaving and not setting up a trap for him. He only let himself move after the voices faded away.

Arthur stood up as his heart pounded in his chest and his eyes adjusted to the darkness. It wasn’t much, but some starlight filtered in through shutters fixed into the side of the barn. As he walked down the stairs he wondered what had given his presence away. Had he made noise when he woke up or…?

He hadn’t bothered to cover up his hoofprints.

A groan came from his mouth as he smacked himself. He hadn’t covered his trail, it was that simple. A trail, plain as day, was set into the dirt and hay floor leading right to the steps of his hiding spot. It was something so simple, so obvious, and yet he hadn’t thought of in his exhaustion. Red must have caught on while loading the cart.

The revelation didn’t do much to solve his situation, though. Now that Red had spotted him it was only a matter of time until Orange caught on to him as well.

That meant he had one option. Find a new place to hide. Security would tighten up and even if it meant just two ponies keeping an eye out for him, he wanted to avoid it.

I need to find some food and a place to crash. Maybe a source of information too, Arthur thought as he reached one of the shutter-covered windows in the barn. He carefully opened the shutters, pleased to hear that they only made a small metallic creak as he pushed them open.

The light of the moon flooded in through the open shutters, turning vague shadow forms into real objects. Arthur took one final glance around the barn he had hidden in before moving to climb out of the barn. A glint of metal caught his eye before he could leave.

Resting atop a dividing wall in the barn hung a backpack, a silver buckle hung from a loose strap and reflected the moonlight. Silently he moved for the object and lifted it up. Upon closer inspection, it was a saddlebag. Or was it a set of saddlebags? Arthur shook his head, he didn’t care about the specific wording. All he knew was this was a godsend; Something that’d let him store the supplies he desperately needed to survive.

Arthur tossed the saddlebags onto his back and fumbled with the latch, finally securing it with his mouth and one of his hooves after minutes of awkward work. He didn’t have to do much to get the straps sized properly, they were only a little loose on him. If he had to guess these were Big Mac’s saddlebags.

The brown cloth they were made from -burlap? Arthur wondered idly- was well maintained, if showing signs of age. These were probably years old, and now they were Arthur’s. He’d have to remember to return them later or get the guy some new ones. He was only borrowing it, after all. He fought through the pang of guilt he felt. No time for that now.

With a bit of Effort Arthur managed to tumble his strange form out of the window. Even with all the expertise, he showed walking in his new body, other motions were still clearly a work in progress. After all, getting used to four legs wasn’t much different than getting used to having four arms. Still didn’t make learning trivial, though.

Arthur listened as he picked himself back up and casually dusted his slate blue coat off. He could hear in the distance where the two ponies were working, the rhythmic sound of the wooden basins being placed on the ground as the wooden cart groaned from being pulled. They were some distance from the front of the barn, so he’d head in the opposite direction and skirt around the edge of the farm.

Along the way, he stopped occasionally to snatch a few apples from the orchard. He kept a mental count of those he swiped, promising to himself that he was only borrowing them. That made it okay, right? By the time he reached the edge of the farm he had around fifteen apples, enough for two days he hoped.

It would have to last. He couldn’t keep stealing borrowing from these ponies. And yet, he couldn’t just live off the land. What little he had seen of this world on the way here made him intimately aware with how little his survival skills from Earth would translate to here. Some of the plants looked similar to those back home, but more often than not the plants were completely alien to him. He was just as likely to find a good meal as poison himself and it’d do nobody any good if he got himself killed before he got back home.

Arthur stopped and put a hoof to his face as a yawn overpowered him, he wanted to get more sleep but three or four hours would have to be enough today. Maybe tonight he could camp in the forest or under a bridge. Somewhere.

Climbing the fence to get off of the farm was more troublesome than the window. His success at climbing only marred by the half dozen apples that slipped from his pack onto the ground. With a groan, Arthur quickly gathered the filched fruit and started on his way.

Arthur circled around the farm, deliberately keeping enough distance away from it so that he couldn’t be spotted in the waning darkness. The stars sky had already started to disappear as the horizon purpled with the impending twilight. It would be dawn soon.

After what felt like an hour of stalking around the farm Arthur reached a hilltop overlooking both the town and the farm. He finally felt like he could relax and with a grateful sigh, he sat at the base of one of the trees atop the hill. The horizon was beginning to glow with shades of orange, dawn was only minutes away. He decided to take a moment and rest.

It’s not that he was tired or anything, he rationalized. Certainly, the sharp pain he felt in his side with every step wasn’t the reason either. He just… Wanted to watch the sunrise. Yeah! Sure.

Besides, he was hungry.

‘You’re still a growing boy’, his mother would often chide him. He needed to eat right and eat well. In this instance he would have to agree with her wisdom, he hadn’t eaten anything since he had arrived and it was taking a toll on him. Arthur placed the saddlebags on the ground and pulled one of the apples out. He stared at the fruit before forcing his feelings down and taking a solid bite out of the red fruit.

He chewed for a moment and shrugged. It wasn’t that they tasted bad, just that they tasted… off. Like maybe they were not quite ripe, or too ripe. He wasn’t sure, but with how hungry he was he really didn’t care. He polished off one of the apples before starting on a second. Even with his hunger at such a peak, he forced himself to eat slowly, pacing his meal so he wouldn’t overindulge and run out of food. This was a survival scenario, even if he was in some mimicry of civilization. He needed to eat just enough to make it through the day without fainting.

After his third apple, Arthur closed the saddlebag and leaned back into the tree. It wasn’t enough food, his stomach grumbled as it started to digest the apples. Arthur ignored it and closed his eyes tight in concentration. He tried to pull a shred of his power forth, an iota of what he had been blessed with just two weeks prior. His efforts went unrewarded, the harder he pulled the more the knife in his head was twisted. He fought through the pain he pulled harder and harder at his power, trying to force it forth. Eventually, pain won over his will and he exhaled in frustration, rubbing his head with his hoof to ablate the headache he had given himself.

These events had transpired several times recently, each with an identical outcome. He would push and push until he thought he felt whispers of the power on the edge of his sensations but it would never come. Then, the headache would hang like a shadow over his thoughts for the rest of the day, making him aware that there were only two possibilities. Either his power couldn’t be wielded by a pony or his power was well and truly gone.

Arthur didn’t like either explanation and so he would always push those thoughts out of mind and focus on anything else. In this case, that was the sunrise.

The sky was painted in broad strokes of red, yellow, and orange. The clouds were outlined in golden sunlight as the sun finally crested the horizon. Arthur couldn’t tell if this sun was different from the one back home, it was bright and warm and that was all that mattered. The sun warmed his fur and brought a smile to his face. Somehow he just knew everything would work out okay.

Curiously he saw the sun glow brighter for a moment before it quickly traveled along its path over the horizon. A vague sense of wrongness seeped into Arthur’s senses. Something about that sun was wrong. It was as though someone was forcing the sun along its path. The echo of a memory not his own came forth, incensed at the very notion. The sun was invincible, unconquerable. No mortal could tether it to their whims. The shade of someone who was somehow both him and yet separate cried out.

"Whoever dared to...!"

The memory disappeared as quickly as it had arrived, leaving Arthur confused at the alien thoughts that were bouncing around his head. Memories like that had been common since he had acquired his power. He didn’t know why his past self held the sun in such reverence. Had he been some kind of cultist in a past life? A religious figure?

That is what they were, after all. Memories of a past self, of places and people he had never seen. He decided not to dwell on the memory as he couldn’t discern any use for it in his situation. For now, he needed to figure out where he was and find a way home. Arthur put the saddlebags back on and began his trek down the hill

By the time he entered town the streets were alive with ponies walking to and fro. Occasionally one of the natives would wave at Arthur and he would return it, matching their smiles with his. Everyone was so neighborly and nice here, welcoming him as though he had always lived in this town. Surely in such a small village they noticed he was an outside? He almost wondered if he was being paranoid.

He noticed as he walked through the town that some of the winged ponies moved the clouds in the sky, cycling out fluffy white clouds with dark clouds filled to bursting with rain. There must be a storm scheduled for today, or at least for tonight.

Arthur was so caught up watching the strange choreography of the weather being prepared that he failed to watch where he was going and who was around him.

“Woah! Watch out!” exclaimed a girl’s voice, from somewhere in front of him. The voice was just enough to pull Arthur out of his sky gazing and let him jump out of the way of an oncoming scooter. As it passed he gave a quick glance at the rider, a small orange pony with, a purple mane on her head. She looked to be fighting to maintain control as she came to a stop right past him. For a moment she gave Arthur an apologetic look. She must not have been paying attention either. Then she glanced at his flank and got an excited gleam in her eyes. Before Arthur could ask any questions she rode off on the scooter, propelling it with her tiny wings.

If they had scooters here, maybe there were not as backward or low-tech as he thought.

Really shouldn’t let myself get distracted. Even if it is cool, Arthur thought as he continued his journey through town. At this point, he was wandering aimlessly. He was hoping to find a library, find a map and see that he was just on some island in the Atlantic. Or the Pacific.

He wouldn't play favorites.

Arthur’s shoulders noticeably hung low as he sighed. Maybe he should ask someone for directions before getting his hopes up.