Dust Rider looked around, frantic. “Thunder Strike?” No response came from the darkness. He flicked down his night vision lenses, but they did nothing. This wasn't a natural darkness. This was something entirely unnatural. “Glimmer, please, somepony be out there…”

He lifted his lenses, faced with a wall of fog and haze. He passed into it, squinting. What had caused this? Had that thing gotten to the heating units too? He trudged forward blindly, his heart racing. He might be trained for hunting Absentia, but there was only so much to prepare for. Moments like these, he felt… lost.

A shriek came from far to his left, causing him to jerk away, his teeth clamped shut in a trained action, one of the few things he could be prepared for. Whatever had caused that scream could use his own to track him. No need letting on where he was anymore. Silence from here on out.

He looked around; it was still too foggy to see. Lights seemed to flicker in the distance in front of him, and it sounded as though a mare was whimpering down to his left, where the scream had originated. Definitely female… His eyes widened. Could that be…

Was Star still alive?

Absentia had been known to survive for weeks without Spectra, after all. It was possible that Star had managed to get to a healing unit in time and the Absentia had spared her until now. Recovering the body was one of the goals… If he was the one to find and bring back a worker… Not only that, but Star… She would need help. Healing units were good and all, but she needed serious medical attention.

Feeling drawn to her, he began to walk to the left, ignoring the flickering orange light that seemed to creep up his back as he entered the dark hall. The whimpering grew closer slowly. “Star?”

“H-Hello?” The voice echoed down the hallway towards him. She sounded relieved - it was definitely Star’s voice, no doubt about it. He knew her voice. “P-Please, I need help! B-bandages…”

“Help? Yeah, I know, I’m coming for you!” He walked faster, trying to get closer. It seemed to be getting more hazy the further he went; she must have been absolutely terrified, all alone down here! “Don’t worry! I-”

He saw a figure in the mist, curled into the corner. He smiled. “-can-”

He galloped close, but…

There was nothing there but a corpse.

His eyes widened, face paling, as he stumbled back. Star… Star was…

“- help.”

There was a flutter of movement behind him, a chill up his spine. He turned quickly, ready to attack-

He didn’t get a scream out before the Absentia plunged it’s hoof through his chest, rendering him speechless. He felt the blood seep out of him, bursting out at one second before becoming a steady flow from the hole. He coughed involuntarily, his mind both racing and standing still as he felt mucus and blood spray from his lips, staining them but falling through the nothingness in the air, despite the monster that held him.

The Absentia leaned in close, her eyeless, twisted face watching him closely. He shuddered in its grasp. It whispered to him. “P-Please,” Star’s voice murmured. “P-Please, I need help!”

Dust began to shake. He’d been… tricked. He was… He was prey. He was bleeding out and… and dying.

He found Star.

He was… . . . . . .

The Absentia pulled its hoof back, a shining light held in its grasp. The body crumpled to the floor atop the other. The heart no longer pulsed. The soul did.

This was brighter than the other, she noticed. Less worn. He was younger, for one thing. Purity came with youth, she noted, though that was not always the case. After all, she thought with mild amusement, she had been a child once.

The amusement faded as she took in the Spectra. She licked her lips, her body wavering. It was… so good. So good to hold. To watch. It was so beautiful. Each separate line of color blended into the next; each color shone as bright as possible, surviving despite the gradient nature of its very being. Magic, condensed into the very soul of a pony, the very living nature of each beast.

She was so hungry.

Hunger.

She needed it.

But the workers - they would find-

Hunger

She shook her head, trying to back away - yet still, she clung to it, it was so beautiful, so full, she needed it, needed food, she leaned forward, pushing, tugging it clos-

And it pulsed through her, easing, relaxing, filling her with solidness, refreshing the parts of her that had begun to fade. She felt renewed, her eyes widening as the world burst with color, feeling, sound… She was no longer hungry…

Yet tired.

So tired.

A brief rest would… never…

Hurt.

She opened eyes she had not known she’d closed. Pain. Hurt. Hatred and disgust. These ponies were murderers. She was the only one who knew to stop them! If she went to sleep - god, she wanted to sleep, her body wanted to rest - if she did that, they would win.

They would keep killing.

Memories flashed before her. Aurora - she had been injured. They should have helped her, but something about that demonic machine, that need for morale had erased morality. She had deserved better. Orion, that lovestruck colt that she had befriended in school, that fool that had sacrificed himself… All of the other ‘failures’, all of those she… she never even learned their names…

Rainbow Dash.

Her sister.

Her idol.

Her murderer.

Her voice became a growl, present in her ears and throat, yet she didn’t realize the sound she heard was her own for a moment. A ringing sound overtook her. Her heart - she felt it now, pounding, pulsing - raced faster in her chest, beating against the skin that didn’t exist. She felt warmth across her, the warmth that she used to feel. Sunlight.

No.

Sunlight after rain.

No.

Happiness.

Close.

Rainbows.

Spectra.

Magic!

She gasped, her eyes widening, as she suddenly felt it, a flood within her, disorienting her, waking her to the core and making her realize her job was NOT done. She couldn’t sleep. She couldn’t wait. She had a job to do, and she was going to do it. Nopony would stand in her way. And if they did…

Her eyes flashed to the bodies beneath her. She stepped over them, uncaring, her hoof phasing through them and crushing the bones in their hooves as she did, as though they were nothing more than crunchy dolls… She moved past them, a small, almost giddy smile taking to her face.

If they did stand in her way, they would not stand much longer.

She rose her wings and, flapping once, she disappeared. The hallway went to normal, and the haze was gone, leaving two bodies to rot, alone, together.

In the void between worlds, the void she traversed, the void of death that birthed this beast, Absentia realized what had happened. It was new. It was needed. It was hers.

A Surge.

The power to resist nature and become stronger.

Absentia loved it.

*~*~*~

Rainbow Dash was disoriented. That wasn’t a state of being she found herself in often. But now, in this fogginess, this darkness that no light seemed able to penetrate, she found herself lost, and even, somehow, a bit scared.

She steeled herself. She still had 4 of her team remaining. Absentia wasn’t going to stand a chance. Once that monster was gone, she could go back to life as it was supposed to be. Free. She would be able to spread joy the way she once found elegant and beautiful. Rainbows. Spectra. And Scootaloo would finally be dead and gone where she was supposed to be.

“Miss Dash!”

“Yes?”

“I propose the left fork ahead - I believe we’re close to the machine. Judging from the damage to the lights and fixtures, the Absentia might have tried to damage the machine.”

Rainbow felt her blood chill in her body. That Machine was priceless. She wasn’t sure when it had last been maintained. If that was damaged as badly as everything else… “Lead the way.” The mare who had spoken nodded. Rainbow glanced back once more, counting her team. Everypony was present still. Good.

They continued forward.

And kept going. Onward and onward. To the point that… this was suspicious.

Rainbow raised a brow before her eyes narrowed. This wasn’t right. If this was a path to the machine, they would have reached another fork eventually - but they didn’t. It was just.. Straight.

She glanced behind them again. All of them were still together, bathed in the red emergency light that had somehow remained on above them. The faces of her team were varying, but mostly, she could sense the fear in them, evident or not. They had noticed the oddness as well.

She turned forward. Was she just wrong? Had her mind played a trick on her?

They kept walking.

“Something’s wrong,” she whispered. A murmur of agreement came from the group.

“You’re right-”
“Yes, m’am-”
“This hallway is-”
“Yeah, I know-”
“Goes on forev-”

“Wait.” Rainbow Dash froze, eyes widening.

Everyone else paused.

“That voice.”

A chill was in the air.

Rainbow Dash looked behind them again. All of her team was there. All 4 of them. There had been 5 agreements. Dust Rider’s voice. But… He had been off on his own for long enough that… “You.” Another mare on her team - she hadn’t wanted to learn their names - jumped. “You’re a specialist they sent in, right? Absentia powers, list them.”

“O-Oh! U-Um-” She cleared her throat, standing taller. “T-Too many to really list, but common ones are flight, strength, temperature alterations, haze, m-mimicking-”

“Mimicking, mimicking, mimicking-”

The mare’s voice left her as the whispering began, all around them. Rainbow’s ears pressed back against her skull as she hunkered down protectively. “It’s here!”

The team pulled out their Spectral Guns, weak against an active Absentia, but some form of protection, at the very least. Adrenaline pumped through them all, their hearts pounding. They all paused, waiting to see the Absentia.

Rainbow huffed. “C’mon, c’mon… Show yourself, beast! We know you’re there!” No response came from the stillness around them, other than the cold. She suppressed a shiver and a growl of frustration. She shut her eyes. “Show yourself, Scootaloo!”

She gasped as something changed.

Her eyes opened.

She was outside.

“Rainbow Dash,” a familiar filly with bright, shining purple eyes said before her, orange wings tucked at her sides and a beaming smile on her face. “Rainbow Dash, big sis, I passed!”

Author's Note

I tried some formatting, but I don't know if it'll show up. I also wrote QUITE a bit of planning, as well as a half-complete guide to Absentia as a monster I might use again one day for a novel of mine. Thanks so much to Rainbowandscoots for the comment awhile back that made me start working on this again! It took awhile, but that's because I had no direction for this fic. I now know how this is going to end thanks to you, so many thanks and please, enjoy!