The wind rustled through the branches of the trees overhead as the Unicorn made his way down the dirt path toward a bush of sought-after plants, pink flowers blooming brightly under the sun. Or rather, what little sun made its way through the thick canopy of branches overhead.

“Peonies! Perfect!” He called out, rushing toward the bush and plucking the flowers, placing them inside of a grass-woven basket. Deep purple magic lifted each flower, green eyes inspecting it carefully before placing it inside its new home.

Irradiance had been living in the Everfree Forest for nearly a decade. After the incident in grade school, he’d sworn off associating with other ponies and decided he’d only return after he’d cured his curse, ridding himself of anything crystal covering his purple frame. Unfortunately cures to curses didn’t just appear out of nowhere, so Irradiance hadn’t made much progress in all his time spent alone.

“Peonies, stream water, lightning in a bottle… what was the last ingredient for that fabled Kirin Cure? Oh!” Irradiance shuffled through a bag slung over his back with his magic, reaching in and grabbing a small vial. “Tears of sorrow! Great! Back to the house and into the pot!”

Through trade and trial and error, the Unicorn stallion had collected shelves stocked full of strange magic elements, each with a specific use to help with a potion that could cure miscellaneous curses. Traveling salesponies had traded gold or other items for their recipes that Irradiance had tried at least ten times over, sure that the reason they weren’t working was due to an error on his part, not because the cure didn’t work.

Irradiance made his way through the dense forest, pushing through toward the small cottage saddled between two very large trees. It had a straw roof and walls made of sticks and salvaged scraps of wood, thrown out by the ponies in the neighboring towns as they built their own private manors and mansions. Irradiance couldn’t help but feel somewhat angry at all of the ponies living peaceful lives, never saddled with any trauma weighing them down or forcing them into hiding. Granted, Irradiance easily could have continued his schooling, but after such a violent incident, who would want to?

“Honey, I’m home!” The stallion called out, greeting the empty home. Slamming the door shut clumsily, the purple Unicorn rattled the several bookshelves of ingredients that lined the walls, narrowly catching one before the glass shattered on the ground. “Gotcha!” He called out triumphantly, once more to no one in particular.

Living alone in the woods wasn’t exactly what Irradiance had been up to. He’d made the rare trip into town to buy things he couldn’t find or trade for in the forest. Some hygiene items, for example, or extremely rare magical spells and ingredients. So socialization remained minimal, but not entirely at zero.

“I’m telling you, the Crystal Beast isn’t real!” A voice suddenly made itself known, just a few hundred paces from Irradiance’s cottage. Amidst his start of mixing up yet another attempt at a cure, he stopped to see who was disturbing him this far into the Everfree Forest. Ponies did know coming this deep was dangerous, right?

“If the Crystal Beast isn’t real, then what ate that student all those years ago?” Another voice. Was it just two ponies? Was it more? Irradiance began to nervously fidget where he stood, never having come across visitors.

“Maybe nothing ate that student, Hibiscus! And he just went missing like normal ponies do!” The first voice spoke again. It was a mare and a stallion, Irradiance concluded, the mare being named Hibiscus. He stood still, glancing outside his window to see if he could catch a glimpse of the newcomers.

They were easy to spot. Though Irradiance sported a purple coat, his fur had been stained with dirt after living alone for so long, allowing him to blend in just a little bit more with his surroundings in the forest. A blessing, really, as it helped him escape plenty of timberwolves on more than one occasion.

The stallion was a light blue Pegasus with a short, deep blue mane, a single yellow streak running right through it. He looked like one of those Wonderbolts Irradiance had seen a poster for when he’d visited Canterlot a few months ago. He wondered if that was this stallion’s profession.

The other pony– Hibiscus, was a pink Unicorn with a curly pink mane, made up of several shades of that magenta color that seemed to match her name perfectly. Irradiance scoffed. They were looking for a Crystal Beast, weren’t they? Seems like someone would have to break the news to them that the beast was less monster and more pony. Rolling his eyes in annoyance, the Unicorn opened his door swiftly and started stepping out toward the colorful pair.

“Hey!” He called, voice filled with irritation. “Why are you two so far out into the forest? Don’t you know it's dangerous out here?” The stallion called out, not quite close enough for the ponies to see him in full. His insecurity about not only his horn and hooves but the scars on his sides were enough to prevent him from showing himself if he didn’t need to.

“We were just exploring!” The Unicorn called back, voice dropping off toward the end. “Now that you mention it, how far into the forest are we, Cobalt? Did we come from there or there?” She pointed to two directions opposite of where the pair were walking, resulting in her partner freezing where he stood.

“Oh, no,” The Pegasus– Cobalt, responded smartly. “I think we might be just a little bit lost.”

Irradiance groaned, realizing he’d need to show them the way out. This wasn’t the first time it had happened and it wouldn’t be the last, he was sure of it. Still, it was annoying all the less. “I know this forest like the back of my hoof, don’t worry,” The purple Unicorn called out, blowing a strand of turquoise hair out of his face.

“Thank you so much!” Hibiscus called back, walking toward the direction of her and Cobalt’s savior. “Usually we aren’t so careless! But with my studies coming to an end and Cobalt’s internship, I guess we didn’t prepare properly!” She laughed heartily and Irradiance couldn’t lie; it was infectious. He let a smile spread across his face as he made the final steps into the light, a beam of sun catching on his hoof and shining into the Unicorn’s eye.

“Hibiscus! It’s the Crystal Beast!” The Pegasus shouted suddenly, hovering closely above his friend in what appeared to be both shock and fear, to Irradiance’s dismay.

“No!” Irradiance quickly stepped forward further to show the rest of his body. “There is no ‘Crystal Beast!’ It’s just my curse!”

Silence followed the sudden explanation and Cobalt and Hibiscus just stood, mouths agape as they stared at the student that had been missing for nearly an entire decade. Irradiance knew the rumors that followed his disappearance: sudden death, eaten by a monster, took his own life… nothing was new. He’d never met someone who had known precisely who he was, though. Hibiscus’ mention of her studies implied that she was a student of Celestia’s Magic Academy, where the rumors about Irradiance sure were spread like wildfire.

“You’re the student from the school!” The pink Unicorn gasped, stepping closer to see Irradiance’s crystals up close. Her face morphed from shock to what Irradiance could only describe as… pity. “What happened to you?”

The purple Unicorn flared up, stomping forward further. “None of your business! Things happened and I live here now. Do you want my help leaving this forest or not?”

The pair of newcomers glanced nervously between one another before turning back to Irradiance. “Yeah, if you’d help us get back to Canterlot that would be great,” Hibiscus smiled, eyes shimmering in the low sunlight. Irradiance just sniffed and began walking in the Eastern direction, back toward his old home.

“So how long have you been living out here?” Cobalt asked, his voice calm as he followed the guide out of the Everfree Forest. Hibiscus shot a look at her friend and was met with a confused expression. “What? Not very many ponies live out here anymore! And we thought he was dead!”

“Maybe it’s a sensitive subject, you moron!” Hibiscus rolled her eyes and huffed a sigh as she looked back toward Irradiance, who was actively avoiding looking at either of the ponies. “I’m sorry about him.”

Swallowing, Irradiance sighed deeply as he continued walking, slowing his pace a bit. “You saw my hooves, right? And you see the horn?” The blue and pink pair nodded wordlessly as Irradiance looked back to gauge if they were listening or not. “I wasn’t born like this if you couldn’t guess. When I was younger my friends and I came out here and I ended up coming in contact with a freaky tree that turned me into a statue. When I broke out, I had this,” Irradiance gestured to his unfortunate new appearance details, “All over me.”

Hibiscus and Cobalt shared a concerned look as they continued following after the Unicorn stallion. “So you stayed here after that happened? You didn’t go back?” Cobalt asked.

“No, I went back. I actually was at the top of my class at the Magic Academy. I’m sure there’s still a couple of leaderboards with my scores on them, aren’t there?” Irradiance turned to Hibiscus, who nodded. He smiled somberly as he continued, “The rest of my class was angry with me. I had gotten these super magical boosts all of a sudden and, well…”

“And they chased you out?” Hibiscus finished.

“Not exactly. They bullied me out. They just wanted me to stop overachieving in class but the bullying got to me and so I gave up. I ran out here and I wasn’t gonna come back until I could get rid of these stupid crystals.”

Light began to filter heavily through the edge of the forest and Irradiance felt himself become more at ease as he realized this was the end of his interaction with these strangers. He’d never see them again after this, free to continue testing different cures from other cultures.

“So we just need to find a cure!” Hibiscus shouted, stopping in her tracks as she happily grinned at the purple Unicorn. “We find a cure and then you can come back and ace your magic exam and come back to Equestria as a real citizen!”

“It’s not that simple,” Irradiance shifted, turning to face her. “I’ve been trying all sorts of cures for the last several years. I have shelves of ingredients back at my house and none of them have ever resulted in even a few minutes of crystal-less…ness,” Irradiance’s voice fell toward the end, unsure of the proper terminology, but the point had been made. Hibiscus and Cobalt nodded thoughtfully, sure that this explanation made sense.

“Maybe you haven’t been looking in the right place,” A new voice sounded from deeper into the forest. Irradiance’s head shot up as he turned to look at the newcomer: a deep green Pegasus with a short, emerald mane. He was smiling as he approached the trio and Irradiance couldn’t help but feel as though this was a threat.

“Where did you come from?” Cobalt asked, confused as much as Irradiance was. Golden eyes narrowed in a similar sense of nervousness.

The green pony just kept walking forward, slowing to a stop just a few steps away from the trio, “I was looking for the merchant in the woods. I had a few things I was hoping to trade with him but the cottage was empty. Figured you might be in town so I kept walking!”

Irradiance wasn’t famous by any means, but local traders from the other side of the forest as well as those that traveled through every so often knew he was a native. It wasn’t completely unheard of that someone would be looking for him specifically.

“And you’ve been eavesdropping for how long?” Hibiscus raised an eyebrow, clearly with the other two ponies about how strange it was this newcomer suddenly showed up.

“I’ve been near you guys for a little while. I heard the last few sentences pretty clearly. Figured I’d chime in with what I knew!”

Irradiance scoffed. “And what exactly do you know about a cure for this strange, rare disease?”

The green Pegasus smiled knowingly, taking another step forward. “I know where you can find the cure.”

Author's Note

chapter TWO!!! im trying to keep the word count pretty consistent. a couple thousand per chapter seems long enough, right???? idk. I'm sure it'll get longer as I write this bad boy. ur meeting my second fav character at the end. prepare yourselves!!!!