mylittlejamjar | Seventh Starfall: Beyond the Pale [Visual, postdated for after the Closing Ceremonies]

[It's about two hours after the appearance of the Pale Pony, and everything that came with it. You might think that things would calm down again, but no.

This time, Flare Star fires up a scroll ~~that she basically pulled straight away from Dust~~ and starts talking, about as seriously as many ponies have ever heard out of her - the exceptions being Queen Chrysalis (who got to hear the tone when she was attacking the pegasus) and Zecora (whom she helped during Nightmare Night).]

The cards've been played. I don't know what kind of feeling that was that I felt back there, but I know it is evil. No more playing around, no more wasting time trying to understand.

I'm not saying that we don't still need to research this nag, far from it. In fact, we need to centralize our research, so that everypony has the same access to it. It's only right in times of war to allow your soldiers to know of the enemy they fight.

She pulls us all in at random, focusing on those with powers, and then every month, she culls. A few more get drawn into her, possibly for keeps. By standing before us today, by proving that she exists, she has declared war. Not on Equestria, but on every last one of our worlds.

Buck compassion, and buck caring for a pony so far gone that she'll steal souls for her own gain.

She needs to die.

Who's with me?

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[And then Lucifer is gone from the scroll and right in front of Flare. Little announces its entrance; she's simply there, her face close to Flare's, snarling. The fact that 'Hikaru's' body is a bit shorter than Flare's, forcing Lucifer to look up, doesn't matter to it.

Doesn't really quell how boiling its rage is.]

You. Know nothing. Of which you speak. Nothing, of the war that has preceded this.

You, as always, assume, and then act as if your assumptions are objective facts. Do you believe I intended to return in this pathetic form. Had expected that, when given the chance to chose their destinies, mortals would chose to end all life and send it screaming into the void? To have fought against it, and for it to have been nothing, for all the potential they had shown to be nothing, because of the actions of one who had inherited his title?

[She doesn't say who the "his" is. She feels, and hopes, there is no need to.]

I will not see another world be annihilated because of the possible faults of mortals.

[Lucifer doesn't notice it, but it's voice changes with that last sentence. Her voice stops reverberating.

And becomes more mechanical. Like a machine that hadn't paid attention to certain programming for a long time, only for the code to resurface. Code that was slightly twisted and corrupted, but still there.]

[Flare doesn't wince back, to her credit - even though the "mare" is staring up at her, she can feel the force of that glare, and the power of that voice. At first, at least.

She understands what Lucifer is saying, and while her expression softens, she doesn't step back. She takes the verbal berating.]

I told you not to underestimate mortals. You just proved yourself right; you believed a mortal would act for the greater good, and instead when they were given power, they took all the toys and went home.

[That's basically what nonexistence is, right?]

We're undependable. We're random. We're selfish. We have no capacity to learn anything and assume we know everything. I admit those faults. Those faults are also the same things that make us as strong as a certain few can be. Stronger than anything else.

[Flare doesn't back down, but to her credit, she doesn't advance, either. This is a conversation, two ponies glaring death at each other but not going on the aggressive. She makes a conscious effort to keep her wings down, her voice even, and her gaze trained on the other pegasus.]

Do you think I didn't know that? That you're selfish creatures, base creatures? But it is also that selfishness, that baseness, that makes you grand as well.

[Lucifer narrows her eyes, deep, warm breath snorting from her nose as she speaks for a moment.]

It is those traits that links you to us. That gives birth to the weaker of us, the mirrors of yourselves and your desires. Without you, the majority of us could not exist. I need your kind on that level.

But I respect your kind on another. You say that you have no capacity to learn? You are wrong. Mortals, alone, possess the capacity to grow. I know. I have seen it, from the firmament that lies beyond the stars to the expanse that reaches through worlds. I have seen your kind and not once - not once - had you failed to grow.

Do you know what it is like, to look at something that by all logic should be smaller than yourself, only to realize that it reaches as high as the heavens, and you were always but a shadow looking up? Can you imagine how thrilling a thing that is, to realize how much greater it is, and how proud you might be of it should it climb still?

I do not understand. Do you creatures not understand how glorious you are? Are you really that enthralled with believing you are just some speck of a macrocosm, of a universe that does not care? Do you not realize you are the universe, yourselves? That the lights of ecstasy that are within heaven pale in comparison to the light within you, enough to make angels fall in the hope they might always keep such a fire alight?

It is not your strength that I question. But I question your sight.

Why choose to fail? Why choose the path of hopelessness, when the way that leads towards hope is so close?

[What is happening? Lucifer cannot begin to fathom it. There are so many beliefs that it had held buried for so long that it can no longer contain. And behind them, fear. Fear of the beliefs it had thought long dead, long held in check when it abided in Heaven, that arise again. It does not understand. What is this?

The tone of it's voice as is agitation, quick and bird-like in the way she spits her words out.]

Why choose death when life is so much more? I do not understand it. Explain it to me.

[But underneath that, just barely scratching the surfaces of its words, is true despair.

And grief.]

Edited 2014-08-16 05:31 (UTC)

[At first, Flare says nothing. She even breaks the line of sight, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath. She thinks over the question. She's no great philosopher, just a pony who's spent far too long gazing into her own personal abyss. And at the same time, that abyss is what gives her the answers she feels Lucifer seeks... even if it doesn't understand.

After that painfully long moment - possibly as long to Lucifer as the Pale Pony's stare was to other, mortal ponies - she opens her eyes with another sighed huff.]

If you take a step forward off a cliff, you fall. You can fly, or use demonic power to stay afloat, but you're still fighting reality. You're still resisting forces that will always exist.

If mortals understood their power, if they had the sight...then it would create a paradox. We grow because we don't know we're meant to be static. We achieve greatness because we do not accept something as unachievable.

A mortal keeps their eyes closed, and steps off the cliff. They do not fall, not because they are resisting gravity, but because in their reality, the ground continues to exist. There is nothing they need to fight.

In that one moment of selfish, unpredictable weakness... that one you put your faith in opened his eyes.

And he fell.

[At that, Lucifer just stares. It understands what Flare is saying. Deep down it had always acknowledged it. Belief was power; that was a core tenet to the supernatural world.

And yet it is still so hard to comprehend a faltering of faith. Lucifer is quiet for a few seconds before responding.]

I will speak with you again when the time comes to further prepare for action.

[And then it returns to being Lucifer, as cold and detached as it ever was.]

[Despite herself, Flare lets out a quiet huff of relief, and even cracks a slight smile.]

Don't mention it.

[She took that as a 'thank you', as it tended to be, in Lucifer's language.]

You probably won't understand all the way unless you start looking around at folks as more than just potential sources of power. Emotion plays a lot into it, y'know. So do those things like friendship and love. You're tryin' to see the full picture while covering half of it with a tarp.

I have no need for friendship or love.

Many demons, to their detriment, embrace it. I do not.

[This time, it's hard to tell if this is part of Lucifer's natural cold nature, or if it's intentionally being spiteful.

Either way, it heads for the door this time instead of choosing to teleport, heads for the door. Before it opens it, however, it speaks one more time without turning to face Flare.]

Flare.

Stay strong.

[Which, perhaps, is 'take care' in Lucifer speak.

It doesn't matter much anyway, because it leaves then. Not through the door like it was motioning, but teleporting as usual.

What an asshole.]

Seventh Starfall: Beyond the Pale [Visual, postdated for after the Closing Ceremonies]

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