Irradiance was in trouble. Two days with this new character in his life and suddenly all of his mantras about how it was better to live alone were flying out the metaphorical window. Waking up before Emerald Shield, the stallion narrowly avoided stepping on the other pony as he made his way out of the tent and treated himself to his morning rations.

“He’s charming, isn’t he?” A voice called from one of the trees above the tent. Irradiance nearly jumped out of his skin as he shot his head up to confront the voice.

Amber had woken up. Celestia knew how long she’d been awake at this point in the day. It was hard to tell when it was exactly dawn in Everfree, but Irradiance knew enough to understand he’d trained his body to wake up as the sun rose. So it was close enough.

“Who’s charming?” Irradiance dismissed the comment, tossing his saddlebag over his back mindlessly, shaking free a piece of hair that got caught in the straps.

“Emmy,” Amber clarified, flying down and landing right beside the Unicorn. He readied his horn with the purple magic in preparation for another sudden attack by the Dragon. “Oh, please. I’m not going to hurt you.”

“Right,” Irradiance scoffed, glaring at the golden Dragon.

“He’s not all he says he is, you know,” Amber mentioned, drawing Irradiance in. He cursed himself at his curiosity, looking expectantly at the beast, wanting to hear more. “He and I didn’t last long. Not because of anything I did wrong, but because he’s awful at telling the truth. You’re made for each other, I think.”

Irradiance laughed out loud at that, “Made for each other? What, because we’re sharing sleeping arrangements for the trip to the monument?”

“Because you’re both lying. Starlane? Really?” Amber laughed, “Ponies have silly names but none of them have something as far-fetched as that.

Irradiance spluttered, cheeks reddening. Obviously, he knew he was lying about his name, He didn’t trust these ponies! Two of them were awful at following directions into a mysterious forest, one was a royal guard who was looking for mysterious ingredients, and now there was a Dragon in the mix! Why would he tell them all his real name? What was the point? He was never going to see them again after this. He would cure his curse and find his way back into society. Maybe even become a royal sorcerer.

“Are you guys ready to go, already?” Cobalt called from his tent, looking over at Amber and Irradiance. “I’m starving. Once we make it to this monument can we get breakfast at a real restaurant?” The blue Pegasus groaned, stomach following shortly behind with a loud grumble. Irradiance let out a small chuckle, throwing one more uneasy glance at Amber before shaking the two tents with his deep purple magic.

“It’s dawn, let’s go!” He called out, waking Emerald and Hibiscus. After last night, Irradiance felt uneasy walking beside the former pony; would he think any less of the Unicorn stallion after he revealed why he’d been so strange after the Dragon attack? It was a fair response after having a traumatic experience as a child, Irradiance thought. If he was weird about it that was his fault! The purple Unicorn had no reason to feel ashamed!

“Hey, are you okay?” A pink hoof tapped on Irradiance’s shoulder, spooking him.

Hibiscus Dream, green eyes soft, was looking at Irradiance. He smiled appreciatively at the other Unicorn. She and Cobalt had been there when he’d first explained the crystals and the scars on his sides. She was such an empathetic mare and the purple stallion was just the slightest bit grateful she had come along for the journey.

“Yeah, I’m alright. I just dropped some details on Emerald, last night,” Irradiance explained.

“Oh, is that why he left earlier?” Hibiscus tilted her head. Irradiance thought to the moment of absence before their talk. He shook his head.

“No, he said he had to pee.” Hibiscus’s face shifted to something Irradiance couldn’t name.

“Hm, alright. Oh!” Her face lit up, magenta hair flying away from her face. “Another day! We can guess more letters!”

“Oh, awesome!” Cobalt chimed from behind the brightly-colored pair. “I’ll go first–”

“Remember which letters we guessed yesterday,” Hibiscus stopped the stallion before he could guess. “Um… T, O, and A have all been guessed. And we can’t go in alphabetical order.”

Emerald Shield made his appearance, walking alongside Amber, who had made her way toward the back of the group as Irradiance and Hibiscus chatted. “Does it start with a G?” He shook his head, smiling at the first guess. He’d pick a name starting with G today.

“What about Z?” Cobalt asked. Hibiscus shot him a look. “What? We might as well get rid of the end of the alphabet!” Fair strategy, Irradiance considered.

“Okay, um…” Hibiscus thought. “I don’t think it starts with a consonant… how about I?”

Irradiance froze, halting his slow venture into the forest.

“It’s I! Your name starts with an I!” Emerald cried, enthusiastically flying into the air. His blue eyes glittered in the small glints of light shining through the canopy.

“Why are you making them guess letters?” Amber asked, red eyes squinted. She did not like Irradiance, the stallion decided. That was fine; he didn’t like her either.

“He never let us know his name but we were curious, so he’s making us guess one letter a day until we got it right, which we did!” Emerald hovered in front of the Unicorn, grinning wildly. Irradiance felt if he looked into his blue eyes for too long, he might fall in love.

Maybe that was the lack of pony connection for ten years or maybe it was genuine attraction, he couldn’t tell. All Irradiance knew was that Emerald was a very handsome pony and that he would have no issue if their sleeping arrangements became sleeping arrangements.

“Do we guess the second letter now?” Cobalt asked, gold eyes looking toward the stallion intently. Irradiance hadn’t thought about that. Clearly, the ponies were enjoying guessing his name, huh? He thought for a moment, humming to himself.

“Sure, why not.”

“Can we do hangpony rules?” Cobalt asked once more, leaning forward expectantly. “Like, if there’s more than one letter you tell us?”

“Ooh, good one, Cobalt!” Hibiscus agreed. Emerald just smiled, waiting for an answer. Irradiance nodded, resulting in cheers from the trio.

Amber just rolled her ruby eyes, watching the small group of ponies from behind. “You confuse me. Guessing names? Why not just tell each other?”

“It’s more fun this way,” Emerald explained, not looking at the Dragon as he responded. Irradiance wondered how much there was to their relationship.

All eyes were on the purple stallion and he spelled his name in his head quickly, recounting how many of each letter there was, “There are two I’s.”

“Can we know how many letters there are?” Irradiance shook his head. “Darn,” Hibiscus kicked the dirt with a hoof, thinking for a moment. “Is the second letter… an M?” A shake of the head.

Cobalt and Emerald didn’t speak for a moment, each thinking. “Is it an R?” Amber guessed from her place in the group, startling Irradiance.

“Woah, it is an R!” Cobalt gawked.

“How did you guess that?” Emerald asked, clearly confused. Amber just smirked.

“Haven’t you all heard of the pony that went missing? It made the news across most of Equestria. It was a tragedy when Celestia lost a student. His name was plastered on all sorts of posters. I saw it in every nation I visited.”

Irradiance cursed. That wasn’t fair. That’s how she knew he was a liar about his name, wasn’t it? The stallion sped up, swallowing angrily. “That’s enough guessing!!”

There were “awws” of disappointment and Emerald sped up to keep in line with Irradiance, “Come on, buddy! You can tell me your name. I’ll keep it a secret!” He whispered the last line, blue eyes sparkling. Irradiance grinned. He leaned close to Emerald’s ear and took a breath before speaking, causing the other pony to shudder. One point Irradiance, zero Emerald.

“My name’s actually Ornament,” He whispered, holding a hoof up to the guard’s ear to prevent the others from hearing. Emerald just scoffed and pulled away, rolling his eyes.

The journey continued, mundane and long. There was about a day’s walk left and the group was losing energy after the initial joint excitement about finding this curing monument. Irradiance found himself gaining curiosity about what exactly awaited him at the edge of the forest.

“You said you knew a pony with this curse, right?” The Unicorn asked suddenly, causing the rest of his troupe to look up, waiting for an answer. Emerald seemed caught off guard.

“Uh, yeah,” He thought back, likely recalling exactly the process in which she had been cured. “She had touched this… thing, and it caused her horn to end up being a big crystal.”

“Thing?” Irradiance cocked an eyebrow. “Was it a tree?” Emerald nodded.

“Yeah, it was a tree in the forest. She got curious and touched it. Caused the curse to set in place, and stuff.” His voice sounded a lot less confident since the original encounter. Irradiance couldn’t help but continue to probe.

“And how did she find out about the monument? Was she the one that told you about it?” Something felt off about this all of a sudden. Not enough to turn around, but enough to want to know more.

“I told him about it,” Amber suddenly butted in, causing Emerald to look more relieved. “I travel the forest and surrounding towns to scope out any enemies and ways to mark our borders. I saw the giant thing in the forest and ended up exploring. I dropped one of the crystals I was snacking on on top of it, and it turned the thing into a normal rock.”

That… made a surprising amount of sense. If this incident happened several years ago, then it made sense the pair would confide in each other about things they found in the forest. “Oh,” Irradiance said, smartly. “Well, that’s neat.”

Emerald huffed a loud laugh, “Neat? That’s a good one. You’ve been so articulate thus far into the journey, and now you’re just saying ‘neat?’” The green Pegasus teased, clearly amused at the change in mood.

“Oh, please. Coming from the pony that said thou.” Irradiance fired back, rolling his eyes.

There were a few laughs and Emerald’s face reddened. “That was proper speak for a Dragon Lord! I wanted to appear professional!”

“You did sound ridiculous,” Amber agreed with the former stallion, smiling at the mention of their introductions, “I have never spoken like that in my life!” The yellow Dragon claimed.

Emerald just groaned, admitting defeat and pushing his ears backward on his head. He couldn’t defend himself further and lacked a clever response to further irritate Irradiance.

Once more, the group settled into silence as they made their way through the forest, everything much darker now than at the start of the journey. If they were nearly there, should things start getting light soon?

Irradiance was lost in his thoughts again, thinking back to last night and his short conversation with Emerald. If they stopped again tonight, extending the journey by another day, would the group really hate him? Would it be so bad to lengthen the short journey and savor the moments with this pony he’s grown infatuated with? He was a victim! Even the Dragon Lord knew it! No one would blame him if he asked to pause and wait another day. Maybe the cure wasn’t necessary in the end. Irradiance had gone this long without a cure, right? Couldn’t he suck it up and just live like this for a little while longer?

“AH!” Lost in his thoughts and unfocused on the ground in front of him, Irradiance was soon met with a face full of dirt as he tripped over a root, twisting his front hoof and smashing his face into the forest floor.

“Oh, my Celestia!” Hibiscus rushed to the aid of the Unicorn, helping him up with pink magic that originated from her horn, “Are you alright, Ornament?”

Irradiance couldn’t help but laugh. It was incredible how these ponies managed to only use the updated name he gave them each time they asked. As he went to place his left hoof back on the ground, he let out a pathetic whimper.

“Maybe we should take a break,” Cobalt suggested, reaching toward Irradiance to see what healing salves he had in his saddlebag. There was a bottle labeled “sprains.”

“What?” Emerald looked visibly upset at this suggestion. “But there’s just a little bit left to walk! I can help you if you need it!” Irradiance disliked this response. Why was Cobalt the empathetic one here?

“I think we should sit for at least an hour,” Hibiscus stated, opening the bottle and pulling out some of the salve with her magic, spreading it across Irradiance’s front hoof, the area already red and somewhat swollen. “He needs the medicine to set in. Once he’s feeling better we can keep things moving, okay?”

Begrudgingly, the group came to an agreement. Irradiance let himself lay on the forest floor beneath a nearby tree, limping to his resting place. The others all busied themself with exploration around the current location, others also sat and rested.

Getting injured wasn’t ideal, Irradiance knew this. Glancing around at the others, he could see he was becoming a burden. It was his curse that needed curing. The others didn’t need to be here! Emerald seemed like he was actually growing tired of leading the small collection of characters around. Irradiance needed to lose this newfound infatuation sooner rather than later.

Just as he thought the salve was taking effect, thunder crashed overhead. A storm had arrived.

Author's Note

i LOVE the random names I give irradiance. its my favorite running joke in this fic. also cliche silly little main character injury! hmmmm i wonder if we'll run into any new ponies? gotta find out tomorrow :p