Irradiance’s head was pounding. He blinked a few times, opening his eyes only to be met with near-complete darkness surrounding him. He tried to illuminate the area with his horn before remembering the issue he was facing, magic sparking out in green and purple flickers.

“Right…” He groaned, standing up slowly, moaning as he felt an ache overtake his body. Shaking off the dirt that had stuck to his coat after falling, the stallion took stock of what was around him. “Leviathan?” He called out, squinting into the darkness.

“...diance!” A voice called. Irradiance couldn’t place who it was, but he could hear. He turned his head to and from the noise, trying to see which direction he needed to walk to find it. In the darkness, the purple Unicorn recognized a series of tunnels in front of him, leading in six different directions. Taking a step toward one of the tunnels, Irradiance heard a sinister chuckle in the background of his mind. He stopped, hooves clacking on the ground.

“Who’s there?” He accused, steadying himself for a fight if an opponent came out of the darkness. A silhouette slowly grew before him, glowing purple with a grin splitting across its face. “Luster Dawn,” Irradiance hissed, stepping forward rather than back in an attempt to show confidence in his ability to fight (even if he had no magic to fight with).

“Foolish pony,” Luster Dawn spoke carefully, in her non-corporeal form, she swished around Irradiance, nearly tangible but not quite. It was like watching a ghost move. “You think finding me will be easy? Much less defeating me!” Luster Dawn let out a sinister chuckle, high-pitched and long. Irradiance pushed his ears back against his head to avoid being bombarded with the sound.

“I defeated Queen Lilith with ease. What makes you think defeating you will be any different?” Irradiance confidently remarked, trying not to shake under the intense gaze of the tall Alicorn. Luster Dawn puffed another laugh, walking toward the short Unicorn and tapping the tip of his horn.

“Because, silly pony,” Luster Dawn leaned down against Irradiance’s ear and whispered, “You have no magic,” With a sudden shiver, Irradiance felt the last dregs of magic slowly seep from his horn, collecting in Luster Dawn’s form, slowly making her more opaque. She sighed, closing her eyes in satisfaction.

Irradiance shook, falling to the ground as he felt dizziness overtake him. “What… what did you do?” He looked up at the Alicorn.

Luster Dawn grinned, “I took the rest of my magic! It shall take merely a day for it to fully absorb back into my body and then I shall be physical once more. From there I will take over Equestria, proving to that stupid princess that I am the rightful ruler!” Irradiance groaned in frustration, trying to stand up and falling down once more. Luster Dawn tutted, mock pity on her face.

“We’ll stop you!” Irradiance insisted, trying hard to regain his balance but the figure before him was suddenly a twin… No, a triplet.

“You will only stop me if you can find your friends. Farewell, fool. I look forward to making you one of my guards in my kingdom-to-be!” With another rush of wind through the underground system of tunnels, the Alicorn disappeared and Irradiance was alone once more.

It was about another hour (or, at least, what felt like an hour. Pure darkness was hard to tell time in) when Irradiance finally stood up, no longer weak and dizzy from having his magic drained. Without waiting to hear anything, the Unicorn chose a tunnel and began walking through it, searching for his friends.

“Leviathan?” He called out, squinting his eyes to try and see in the dark. “Marigold? Amber? Cobalt?” As he walked deeper into the tunnel, Irradiance saw a pink glow slowly glowing brighter the deeper he walked. Eyes widening, Irradiance sped up, “Hibiscus! Is that you?”

“Irradiance?” A small voice came from within. This was definitely Hibiscus! The purple stallion sped up, walking through the tunnel and finally managing to wind up in another small cavern, filled with creatures surrounding the pink Unicorn, who seemed fearful of everything around her.

“Hibiscus! Thank goodness I found you! I didn’t know where I was–”

A sob cut the stallion off, and he looked closer to see that Hibiscus had tears in her eyes. She wasn’t looking toward him either. She was looking down. Irradiance slowly approached the mare, trying to see what was causing her such sorrow.

Laying beneath the pink Unicorn was a rabbit, breathing unevenly, with a large slash against its side. Irradiance twisted his face up in uncomfort and sorrow. It was never fair to watch a creature suffer. “Hibiscus…”

The pink Unicorn pulled the small rabbit to her chest, curling around it. “It’s just a little thing. It wasn’t even the circle of life that caused this! It was her!” Hibiscus spat, clearly referring to Luster Dawn. Irradiance’s eyes widened. Villains were villains, sure, but harming innocent animals? That was another form of villainy entirely.

“Did you see any of the others?” Irradiance probed. Hibiscus shook her head, sniffling and shaking her mane as she did so. Irradiance sighed and resigned his inquisitiveness, choosing to sit beside his friend as she cuddled the small creature in its final moments.

“It didn’t deserve this. I would have loved you,” Hibiscus petted the rabbit carefully, soothing it to the best of her ability. “I would have given you treats every day and cuddled you every night. Who needs foals when you have pets, you know?” She joked tearfully, squeezing the rabbit tighter. It let out a small squeak, though Irradiance could swear it sounded more like a squeak of happiness rather than pain.

“We should start looking for the others, Hibiscus. Luster Dawn–”

“Shhh!” Hibiscus ignored her friend, choosing to rock the rabbit slowly in her arms as she hummed. “He needs to be sent off respectfully. If he had to die in pain at least we can comfort him into death.” The rabbit let out a few more squeaks before rolling in Hibiscus’ arms and halting suddenly, squeaks ceasing alongside his breath.

The pair was silent for a long time. Wiping away tears, Hibiscus slowly stood up, laying the rabbit down carefully against a nearby rock before smoothing its fur and saying something under her breath that Irradiance couldn’t hear.

“Luster Dawn is evil,” Hibiscus said aloud, not looking at Irradiance.

Brows furrowed in concern, Irradiance nodded before responding verbally, “I know. We’ll stop her, don’t worry.”

Hibiscus turned slowly, taking a deep breath before letting it out carefully. “You said you haven’t seen the others?” Irradiance shook his head, horn and hooves sparkling under Hibiscus’ magic. The pink Unicorn nodded in thought before looking around and recognizing the tunnels before her and behind her.

“We should keep moving forward. I woke up alone and walked through that tunnel,” Irradiance pointed behind him with his hoof, “And found you. Odds are that someone else is through the next tunnel.” Hibiscus nodded and began walking without another word. The purple stallion felt anxiety take over his body. If Hibiscus was stuck alone with a hurt animal thanks to Luster Dawn, what was everyone else alone with?

As the pair began their travel through the tunnel, Hibiscus spoke up, “You know, Luster Dawn is probably misunderstood.”

Irradiance scoffed, green eyes narrowing, “Didn’t you just say she was evil?” The pink Unicorn grimaced and nodded.

“Yes… but I was angry. Ponies do things all the time and while hurting animals is a telltale sign of a psychopath, Luster Dawn couldn’t possibly have started out like that. The old textbooks… she wasn’t always like this? Was she?”

Irradiance supposed Hibiscus was right. No pony was born evil, were they? Things happened that made ponies the way they were now. Irradiance wouldn’t have left his home and became rude toward new friends had he not been hurt as a young foal. “You’re right. She does bad things but maybe she’s not bad on her own. Maybe once we defeat her she’ll return to being normal, like Princess Luna did.” It was optimism without knowing any of the facts, but the pair were fine with the assumption. Better to assume the best rather than the worst, right?

Eventually, the tunnel gave way to yet another cavern. Irradiance scanned the new environment before realizing… “Hey, this is where I just was!”

“What?”

“Yeah!” Irradiance looked at the several tunnels he’d been facing initially, where Luster Dawn had stood, and spoke to him with that threatening tone. “I just went down that tunnel,” He pointed forward, gesturing to the tunnel in which he’d just found Hibiscus.

The pink Unicorn stepped forward, looking inside of the tunnel before the rock structure crumbled, closing off the entryway.

“Looks like we can’t go back through there,” Hibiscus and Irradiance shared an uneasy glance. “Thank Celestia we weren’t inside of it!” Irradiance nodded, eyes wide.

“Guess we should just start going in order, huh?” The purple stallion stepped away from the now-blocked entrance and walked toward the next one to the right. “Hopefully no one else deals with something traumatizing!”

Author's Note

and if the chapters are short you can sue me. i write how i deem correct. i think its fine.