The Guild of Light

The first thing I remember was the screaming alarm, the sound was high pitched, loud and frankly the sound of it pissed me off really badly, like that one guy who has a really annoying voice that won’t stop making bad jokes all the time. The second thing I remember is the horrible cold feeling that shot through me, like I’d been pushed out of a warm shower and into snow. So it’s excusable that I may have yelled slightly, you can’t really blame me for it. I pushed myself to my hooves and shook my head, my wet mane splattering water everywhere. I opened my eyes and looked around the large room to get a good look at where I was. The room was just over ten metres in all directions with a roof that must’ve been twenty foot tall with large white lights glaring down on me. My breath frosted in front of my face and I began to shiver, nearly freezing my cock off just from standing on the cold metal floor.

“Where… where am I?” I asked myself, my brow knitting from confusion. As I tried to search my mind I couldn’t form a clear image of where I was. Then it hit me like a slap in the face, it wasn’t that I didn’t remember where I was it was the fact I couldn’t remember where I was and in fact I didn’t remember anything at all. I had no idea who I was or where I was, how old I was or what I even looked like. I looked up at my mane which, thankfully, was quite long making me able to easily see the crimson red colour of my do. I looked at my legs and noticed I had crisp and clean white hair. There was no mirror nearby that I could examine myself in and gain a better look of my face but I noticed a door at the end of the room. I shook myself down again before taking off over to it, my hooves feeling lighter than I felt they should have and they seemed to move faster than they should have normally. Maybe it was because I just couldn’t remember how fast I run normally that it seemed weird to me so I pushed it to the back of my mind as a useless worry. I slid to a stop in front of the door and examined it, the surface was smooth and blemish free with no visible handles, knobs or ways to open it. I began searching for several minutes to try and find a way to open it before feeling my temper beginning to build rapidly, meaning I was an impatient person, a quality I didn’t fancy having to be honest. It gave up with an angry yell, cocking back my hoof and slamming it into the door. The sound of metal creasing filled my ears and made me jump before I looked around for what made the sound. It was only a few seconds later I realized that the sound had come from the door as my punch had made a large dent in the metal from what seemed like minimal effort to me. I raised an eyebrow, at least I think I did but I might’ve made some stupid face instead, before pressing my hoof against the door and with a sudden push another dent was knocked into the metal. A grin spread over my face as I got an idea: knock it down. I pulled back my hoof again and punched the door as hard as I could which created a huge dent in the door. I attacked it two more times, denting it again, before twirling around and bucking it with my back legs. The metal shrieked horrible as it was blasted out of its position, almost folding half as I hit it, before crashing loudly to the ground and producing sparks as it scraped over the metal floor.

“Awesome” I grinned. I realized that my voice sounded young but I had obviously finished puberty and was fully grown but I had no idea how tall I was as I had no one to compare myself to at the moment. A sudden wave of cold flooded the room which made me feel even colder than I already was. My teeth began to chatter and I growled angrily as cold fog filled the room. I scratched my head; the cold had made goose-bumps appear on my head under my mane, and my hand came in contact with a long and sharp horn. I was a unicorn which meant I could use magic. I shrugged and decided to try and cast a fire spell to try and warm myself up. I was about to perform said spell when I realized: I can’t remember how to cast magic. It slapped a hoof to my face and groaned at my own stupidity. I could’ve been the most powerful deity on the face of the earth with unlimited magical strength at my disposal and here I was unable how to remember to make friggin sparks. Unbeknownst to me at the time I wasn’t exaggerating too much on that little joke I just made, seriously it’ll blow your mind.

I continued on through the maze of corridors that looked exactly the same for nearly ten minutes before getting angry.

“Ok fuck this!” I yelled, slamming my fist into the nearest wall and punching my way through all of them until I found a door. This process took me another ten minutes to find what looked like an elevator, by this point I was certain I’d caught hypothermia from the cold, and I pressed the button to call it. There was the sound of ancient gears grinding and a lot of dust fell elevator shaft, clattering surprisingly loudly on the solid concrete below. As the waiting dragged on I began to try and whistle which was an easy thing to do to pass the time. At first I was just making spitting noises as I’d forgotten how to whistle but I soon got the hang of it and was just making high pitched noises with no tune. I soon got annoyed with the music-less noise and stopped, tapping my hoof impatiently for the elevator to get here.

“Is it stopping for coffee or something?” I asked irritably “Why is it taking so long?” There was a loud crashing noise before the elevator lowered itself into my field of vision and I sighed loudly.

“It better go up faster” I growled “Or I’m calling customer support” I realized I was one of the guys who made jokes at just about everything so I decided to try and get better with the one liners if I was going to make them as that one was stupid. The gate opened and I stepped inside, jabbing the button for what looked like the ground floor or the lobby and the gates grated shut again, the gears rumbling as the elevator began to rise slowly.

“I’m going to be in here a while” I said, making a disappointed face as I dropped onto my haunches and began the wait.

When the elevator reached the floor I wanted it to I had nearly grown a beard in the time it took to get there. I had lost count of how many times my teeth had been chattering and several other mini-games I had played while waiting for the elevator to get its ancient ass to this floor. I stepped out and looked around half expecting to be in a swanky hotel lobby with beautiful mares at every door and a nice bar with a glass of scotch waiting for me. I learned that I had a taste for alcohol right then as the thought of scotch made my mouth water. It was much warmed where I was but the place looked like shit. It was in ruins, I was unable to tell what it was supposed to be when it didn’t look like someone had nuked the place. The walls were falling in on themselves; there was no roof which made the warm sky visible to me, several fluffy clouds floating around the blue expanse which made me hungry for sandwiches. I’m weird I know, you don’t have to remind me. There was a counter across the ancient room and I went to go look at it, hoping that I’d find something of interest. What I did find however wasn’t useful but it looked cool so I decided to keep it. It was a black trilby with a red band around the middle of it. I placed it on my head, tilting it back to make it look more stylish before searching around the room for anything else. I found an old mirror lying in pieces on the floor so I put the pieces back into place and looked at myself for the first time. Now I’m not being flattering to myself or anything but I think I was a very handsome young man, bold red eyes with a muscled frame, a strong jawline and sparkling white teeth that felt as if they had just been cleaned. They tasted minty now that I thought about it, very fresh. I walked around for a while longer to try and find anything useful but once I declared that nothing was indeed useful I ventured out into the summery area outside, eager to find something cool and interesting. My hooves landed on lush grass as I had to drop several feet from the floor I was on. I rolled over my shoulder and onto the soft grass, taking in the smells of fresh air for the first time in god knows how long. I pressed my nose to the fresh grass and smelled it, getting used to the scents of the outside again. It was at this point I realized how stupid I must’ve looked, a grown ass man sticking his face in the dirt, so I pushed myself back to my hooves and straightened my hat. I set off at a soft trot through the grass, having no idea where it was I was going, and began to hope I’d get somewhere quickly before it got dark. The wind carried the scent of food and it when I realized how hungry I really was, my stomach roaring loudly.

“Alright, alright I’ll find us something to eat” I sighed, trying to strike a deal with my stomach that if it was quiet I’d get something to eat from wherever I smelled the food. I took a deep breath before following my nose and sprinting off, hoping that my nose wasn’t playing tricks on me. The grass shot by as I gained speed for several minutes, almost seeming to go faster than possible with the wind almost blowing my hat off but it somehow stayed on. It was strange that I could run for so long but not even feel a slight strain on my lungs or muscles. I must be something different I guess which was what I thought at the time and I wasn’t wrong in thinking that. But I’ll save the spoilers for later from now on. I had been sprinting for five minutes as I wondered how strong my sense of smell really was for me to smell food from that far away. I was too wrapped up in my thoughts to realize I had sprinted into an apple orchard and was heading straight for one of the trees. I tried to stop running but I hadn’t enough time to stop myself so I did the smart thing. I tried to put the part that would hurt less when I got hit in front of me. It turns out that getting hit in the flank hurts a hell of a lot more than I thought it did but the fact that instead of slamming into the tree I went straight through it made me forget about the pain. The metre thick tree was snapped in half and we both tumbled through several more trees before grinding to a halt. My head was pounding and I thought I might’ve broken a few of my ribs in the crash but I was alive at the most part. And then someone grabbed me by the back of the neck and yanked me up into the air. And at that point I knew I wasn’t going to live much longer.

I was sat down outside of a large barn with my back against a wall with three very angry looking ponies glaring daggers at me.

“Now wadda ya’ll think you’re playing at?” the female with an orange coat and a brown cowboy hat demanded “That’s our livin’ ya’ll are destroying right thar!”

“We need to harvest the apples from those trees to survive, that’s a lot of money we just lost right there!” the old green pony snapped “What do you have to say for yourself?!” I looked at all three of them, my tongue tied in a knot from nervousness before I took a deep breath and spoke.

“There’s no point in what I have to say because me apologizing isn’t going to bring those trees back now is it?” I asked.

“Don’t get smart partner” the orange pony growled, getting in my face “We’re asking the questions here, now the question is what are ya’ll going to do to fix this mess?”

“What do you want me to do?” I asked, trying my best to not grin. I’m going to put this out here right now, I found this pony very attractive and I wasn’t really regretting her being that close to me. I wish we’d been introduced on better terms but that was it really, I wasn’t going to gripe anymore.

“We know we’re gonna lose money because of them apples you killed so you’re gonna help us out with extra jobs to earn extra money” the green pony said. I nodded curtly and accepted the terms.

“When am I starting?” I asked. I was roughly grabbed and dragged into the barn where I had a large harness strapped around my neck and having a metal pair with a pair of reigns attached shoved in my mouth.

“Right now” she chuckled, climbing onto a large cart “And this will be humiliating for ya’ll” I growled angrily, biting down hard on the metal bar, crushing it in my bite before spitting it out.

“No reigns” I said “I’m not into fetishes” My comment obviously embarrassed the orange pony as her cheeks flushed pink but her angry expression stayed on her face.

“Off to Ponyville now” she said.

“Where?” I asked, genuinely clueless.

“Just walk where I tell ya’ll and we’ll be fine” she sighed “Mac, load up the cart”

I was stood there for ten minutes while they loaded up several hundred sacks of apples and other fruits onto the back of the cart before I had a small pebble bounced off my head.

“Mush pony” she chuckled “And don’t worry, we’ll take regular breaks so your little legs don’t get sore”

“How long does it normally take to get there?” I asked, an idea forming in the back of my mind.

“About twenty minutes” she estimated.

“We’ll be there in fifteen” I chuckled, flexing my legs before bounding off, using my superior strength to haul the cart at a steady speed. The pony was obviously surprised at how fast I could go but I knew she was thinking I couldn’t keep it up for long. I was going to enjoy proving her wrong.

Proving her wrong was a lot more fun tha I’d anticipated. We made it to the small town within fifteen minutes and I was still buzzing with energy despite the effort I had put into it. I looked around as I pulled to a stop and saw many different ponies staring at me in shock.

“What?” I asked “I’m not that good looking am I?” The joke gained a few chuckles and everyone carried on walking past. The orange pony jumped down and untied me from the cart, examining me from head to hoof.

“Ya’ll have got a lot of strength for your size” she commented “I think ya’ll are as strong as mah big brother”

“I take it he’s strong?” I asked, bending my legs slightly to release some built up tension in my knees.

“The strongest” she nodded.

“Not anymore I guess” I chuckled, stepping backwards. I felt a strange vibe in the back of my mind and I froze in place which was good because if I had taken another step I would’ve stuffed my rear into the face of a pink alicorn. I turned around and apologized before stepping to the side. Admitting again, she was really hot and I wasn’t lying to myself but she was probably in a relationship. I shrugged my shoulders and was about to walk off when the orange pony bit down on my tail and yanked me back over to her.

“Where do ya think ya’ll are goin’?” she asked with a smirk “Ya ain’t finished workin’ yet” I mumbled several dirty words under my breath and folded my arms over as I sat down, my eyes locking down on the ground.

“I’ll just wait until you finish talking then” I sighed, tapping my hoof on the ground.

“What did he do?” the alicorn asked the orange pony, looking at me with a sorry expression.

“He destroyed some of ah apples” she said.

“Hardly” I sighed “I was running too fast to stop and I went through a few of the trees and I’m very sorry for it”

“How could you go through trees?” the alicorn asked “You would’ve just face-planted into one”

“Nah Cadance, he went through six of our thickest trees like they were paper” the orange pony said, dusting her hat off “Now get of ya butt and help me unload these apples” I couldn’t believe she hadn’t brought the big red pony along with us to help out with this and I didn’t know how this was going to earn back the money I’d made them lose. I decided to hold my tongue and climbed into the cart, unloading the heavy bags of apples onto the ground softly. The process took a good ten minutes to do before we were done and I was allowed to rest for a while.

“So Applejack, have you seen Twilight anywhere?” the alicorn asked “Shining needs to talk to her about their parents coming to visit”

“Sorry Cadance, ah only just got here a few seconds before ya’ll came over to me” she said with a shake of her head “But ah think she said she might be with Princess Luna today”

“Would you like to come with me?” she offered.

“Sure” the orange pony nodded “But we’ll have to bring him with us” The alicorn looked at me with a polite smile; my response was to give her a cocky half-smile. What the hell was wrong with me? I must’ve been some kind of womanizer before I lost my memory or I was just an asshole. At this point I was stuck between those options.

“Ok fine” the alicorn nodded, turning to face me “What’s your name?” I opened my mouth to answer when I realized once more that I didn’t remember. To give myself more of an air of mystery I looked over my shoulder and shrugged casually. The alicorn looked at me with a confused gaze and shook her head.

“What do you mean?” she asked “You don’t know your name?”

“I knew it I think I just… forgot it” I said.

“Do you remember where you come from?” she asked. I figured she was going through the different strands of simple questions to see if I remembered anything but like I’ve told you several times I couldn’t remember anything that had happened before waking up in that underground room.

“No, all I remember is waking up in some metal chamber underground soaking wet and freezing cold” I answered. I’m just repeating myself right now aren’t I?

“Maybe we should go and see my aunt to see if she can use some of her magic to help you get your memories back” she said “I’m Cadance by the way” I shook her hoof before using my other hoof to sort out my hat. I took it off and checked the inside of it and noticing a brand name inside it.

“Drake’s Boutique?” I read aloud, pondering something in my head for several seconds. I set the hat back down on my head at its angle before grinning happily.

“Just call me Drake from now on” I said, liking the sound of the name “Now let’s go see your aunt”