“Yer sayin’ you were already down here?" Applejack asked. "And that freaky meteor almost hit’cha?”
“Exactly,” the stranger answered with a single nod.
“What were you doing at the bottom of a canyon?” Pinkie Pie asked.
Lucifer shrugged. He was good at this part. “Oh, you know. Enjoying the natural beauty. I'm of the opinion that life must be lived in the constant presence of beautiful things."
Among his small audience, Rarity lifted a brow.
“And I had hoped to spot a nest of Quarray Eels,” the stallion continued. “I have something of an obsession for strange and exotic animals.”
Fluttershy’s pupils grew.
The stallion suddenly laughed. “Not to mention the acoustics down here are the best I’ve ever heard! Why, just before the meteor hit I was singing at the top of my lungs about how happy I am to be alive!”
Pinkie Pie’s smile pushed her cheeks against her eyeballs.
“And, of course,” he added with an audacious grin, snapping his featherless wings to their full extension, “the obstacles within the crags create a perfect course for me to practice my speed, agility, and…” He whipped his charcoal mane and struck a pose. “…awesomeness.”
Rainbow Dash pushed her jaw to one side.
“You from out o’ town? I reckon I ain’t seen ya in Ponyville before,” Applejack said.
“Yes, of course, I flew here from, uh... Hoofland just this morning.”
Twilight's brow furrowed and she opened her mouth, but Applejack spoke first. “I ain't never heard of it. How long was the flight?”
Lucifer grinned. "Oh, yeah, you wouldn't have. It's a little place, up the mountains. For the last few months I’ve been flying all over Equestria, you know... enjoying the landscape, y'know. Trying to be alone."
"Alone?" Pinkie asked, leaping forward. Lucifer stepped back. "What do you want to be alone for? Sounds like your the making of a good friend!"
"Ah-heh-heh-heh!" A flighty laugh, an awkward shifting of heavy hooves. "Yeeeeah, no. I'm really not one to make friends." He sneered in Pinkie's direction. "Ponies bore me."
"I'm not boring!" Pinkie promised, bouncing even closer. "None of us are! And just your luck, we're the new Committee of Equestrian Friendship! Our whole job is to find ponies like you and make sure they're as happy as they can be."
Lucifer grit his teeth. "Oh, I assure you, I'm plenty happy." He stretched his wings out and flapped experimentally, rising a foot or two above the ground. Grinning, he turned back to the group. "Well, I best be off and leave you to your investigation. Hope you find out where that terrifying meteor came from. I didn't even see it coming!" He flapped harder. "Bye now."
Rainbow Dash was suddenly in front of him. He yipped and fell to the right, flapping frantically before coasting to a rough landing behind the mares. They turned and watched him straighten up.
"He flies worse than you, Twi," Rainbow muttered.
"I heard that," Lucifer said, "and it was rude. I'm just... in shock, is all."
"Oh dear," Fluttershy cooed, hurrying forward. "Do you think you'll be all right? I've been working with Nurse Redheart to understand pony health as well as I do animals'. Why don't you lie down and tell me about some of the creatures you've seen down here. You said you're interested in them, right?"
"Ohhh, yeees," Lucifer said, grinning crookedly at her. He held out a wing to prevent her from reaching him. "I find them so much more tolerable than the obnoxious ponies trying to fix all my problems."
Fluttershy gasped. "Really? Me, too!" Her wide eyes turned and found her friends. "Er, I mean... not that I think ponies are all that obnoxious..."
"Well, I do," Lucifer said, and turned his back to Fluttershy. "Now if you'll excuse me--" He tried once more to fly upwards, but couldn't quite angle himself right. Landing a little better than his first try, he took off at a brisk pace towards the wall of the gorge. "I think I'll just climb out."
He began to do just that, lifting and grunting and flapping from ledge to jagged ledge. The six mares drew closer to one another and watched with tilted eyes.
"Is it just me," Pinkie asked in a harsh whisper, "or is there something funny about this guy?"
"I don't think he's very funny," Rainbow said, crossing her forelegs as she hovered above her friends. "More like grumpy."
"No, I've dealt with grumpy before," Pinkie said, "and cranky and grouchy and angry and stinky. This guy's more like..." Her lips pursed as her hidden tongue searched for the right word.
"Dark," Twilight said.
Pinkie beamed. "Yeah! Exactly! He seems super dark and gloomy. But not in a sad kinda way, more like he's--"
"We get it, Pinkie," Applejack said.
"Goodness me, Miss Interruption," Rarity scorned. "Why the impatience?"
"Why all the useless ramblin' from y'all? You don't have to explain every little thing yer thinkin', y'know."
"All right, girls, hold on," Twilight said. "First things first. Let's check this crater, and then we'll turn our attention to our... new friend."
They watched him climb a few more strained feet before trotting to the new hole in the ancient canyon's bottom.
~~~
"This'll be too easy," Lucifer grumbled through a tight smile, lifting himself onto another rough rock. "As long as I can figure out how to get these clunky hooves to work, all I gotta do is avoid everypony. Er... everyone. Dang it."
Another grunt, another rock. He looked down and looked up and decided he was halfway. "Wow. Not bad, old horse. I'm barely even sweating." He wiped said sweat from his brow and took on another ledge. "Weird to be... breathing hard..." He wasn't sure who he was talking to. "Haven't felt... warm inside, for... whew... eons."
"Who are you talking to?"
"Gah!" Lucifer slipped from his new perch and landed on his rump one stone down. "Dang it!" He tossed an angry glance at Rainbow Dash. "What do you want?"
"There's no meteor at the bottom of that hole thing," Rainbow said. She was able to point a hoof behind her without getting it in the way of her wings. Lucifer watched closely, wondering if he could copy her techniques.
"So?" He sighed and turned back to his task. "It probably blew up. Meteors do that, you know."
"It wasn't a meteor," said the voice of Twilight Sparkle.
Lucifer didn't turn around this time, hopping up the rocks a little quicker.
"Meteors come from outer space," Twilight continued. "This came from a hole in the sky."
"Creepy," Lucifer said.
Twilight snorted. "Where did you come from?"
"Hoofington."
"You said Hoofland before."
"Yeah, whatever." He hoisted himself, got his balance, and waved a dismissive front hoof. "Hoofland, Hoofville, something like that. I told you, it's a tiny town. We don't really care about what it's called."
“Speakin’ o’ names,” Applejack shouted, following the Devil's path ten times as fast, leaping from one elevated stone ledge to the next, “you haven’t yet told us yers.”
He glanced down to watch her for a moment. The effortlessness bothered him.
"So what is it?" she asked as she caught up, standing on the rock below his and flicking a drip of sweat from the tip of her yellow mane.
His snout twitched. "What's what?"
"Yer name, stranger.”
The others were close behind her. Fluttershy drifted on quiet wings, whispering to Pinkie Pie who bounced up even more carelessly than Applejack.
Lucifer cleared his throat to buy some time, wringing his imagination in search of a believable name. Every soul in Hell was given a new name upon arrival, though those were strange, indecent labels meant to debase their self-worth. Names like Wormwood, Screwtape, Moistturd, Blackbile… nothing like Twilight Sparkle or Rainbow Dash, let alone Fluttershy.
Pinkie’s voice suddenly blasted through the silence. “And Fluttershy wants to know what your Cutie Mark is! Well, I wanna know, too, and I’m sure everypony else wants to know, but Fluttershy’s been wanting to ask you for a while!”
Pressure dropped onto the Devil’s shoulders. Cutie Mark? Wasn't that the tattoo on their butts? He hadn’t even noticed his own. What had God branded him with? A pentagram? 666? Nervously, he twisted his head around, lifting a long batwing out of the way to survey his decorated flank.
There, stamped among his wine-red coat, was a simple clay lamp. At its spout glowed a single star. He gawked at the symbol for a moment, instantly understanding its literal implications. “Lucifer,” after all, meant “light-bearer” and was once the name for the Morning Star—later identified as a planet and renamed Venus. But why was it the symbol of his so-called “special talent”? What about a star and a lamp told of who he was?
“Well?” Applejack urged. All six mares from their various heights leaned toward him expectantly.
Lucifer shut his eyes and sighed through his nose before giving in to the obvious.
“Morning Star,” he spat, using his wings to thrust himself up another level. “My name is Morning Star, and my Cutie Mark… is a long story.” Forcing a conclusive smile, he ignored the gaze of Twilight Sparkle.
"Think he's telling the truth?" Rainbow Dash whispered to her.
A few flaps passed in silence.
"Yes and no," Twilight answered.