Flare Star

How'm I doing? Is Flare rubbing you the wrong way, or is there something I'm not consistent about? Let me know here! Anonymous comments are screened, but will still be listened to.

If you need to contact me for plotting or more one-on-one discussion, I'm available in the following ways:
Plurk: kataranisword
AIM: Bahamut725
E-Mail: katarani@gmail.com

OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
Player Name: Sword
Player Journal: swordianmaster
Age: 29
Contact: kataranisword
Characters Played: IT'S A NEW GAME

IN CHARACTER INFORMATION
Name: Flare Star
Canon: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
OU/AU/OC: OC (Slight forum game AU)
Canon Point: Post-Season 1
History: There's no telling how Flare foaled so big - teasing whispers of dalliances with a Trottish Shetland Earth Pony filled the gossip bars of Cloudsdale, but as far as the doctors expressed, she was simply a strange case of being built bigger than your average pony. Naturally, like any other 'unusual' pegasus in Flight Academy, she was harried constantly about it. However, where other misfits would end up fleeing from Cloudsdale or, worse yet, fall in with the griffons, Flare just swallowed her pride and took it on the chin all the way through her schooling, though there were the occasional outbursts of the larger filly bucking her classmates across the clouds after being particularly provoked. But Flare knew she had to keep on the straight and narrow - like any other pony, Flare had dreams and aspirations. Hers were to, one day, become one of Celestia's royal guards-ponies, the most elite of the elite.

Thus, it was no surprise that when those fearing the return of Nightmare Moon came looking for potential candidates to bear the Elements of Harmony, Flare jumped at the opportunity. Naturally, such plans were doomed to failure - the Elements choose their wielders, and Twilight Sparkle and her friends hadn't even been born yet, much less come into their own. However, these groups of ponies were tasked to fighting monsters that had escaped the Everfree, keeping Diamond Dog banditry in check, and such things. Flare was assigned to one such group as the proxy of Honesty, still lacking her cutie mark but proving herself to have the strength of a pony twice her age. The group managed for a few weeks, before they ended up having to quell an angry starbeast that had woken up on the outskirts of Baltimare: A Cygnus, an avian cousin of the Ursa Major and something almost equalling its size, had started whipping up gale-force winds in the area and needed to be placated.

The fight raged for almost a full day between the Cygnus and the combined forces of Baltimare's citizens and the Proxy Harmony group, with little to no headway being made - the ponies simply couldn't keep their footing against the tempestuous winds. Then, a single, frustrated bull rush changed everything. With a force that sliced through the wind like a bullet, Flare charged straight at the beast, knocking it off balance - enough for the other gathered ponies to get in and restrain the beast, sparing Baltimare from a windy fate. Before she could even notice the new mark on her flank, Flare was getting congratulated for saving the day and winning the fight - forever planting the seed that it was the fight itself that earned her her cutie mark, not her newfound power.

Unfortunately, the flaws of the system became apparent with Flare's group - not only was the idea of a blank-flanked filly being sent out to fight monsters met with overwhelming outcry, but it was revealed that Celestia herself had absolutely no hoof in these dealings - it was all being performed by paranoid scholars and court members worried of the prophecies of her sister's return from imprisonment. The Proxy Harmony groups were quickly disbanded, and any information regarding the prophecies of Nightmare Moon's return was buried in the royal library where it would be safe from those who might cause more harm by seeking to protect Celestia. Meanwhile, Flare was left chasing her goals once more, and took to bleaching her coat - after all, guardsponies had crystal-white coats, and her brick red coat wouldn't do in such an organization.

In the following years, Flare graduated flight school (barely - while her control and finesse was good, her top speed was pitiful due to her size) and then went on to attempt to join the knights of Canterlot. Once more, reality slapped the filly around, as Flare was presented with the cold, hard truth - royal guards were hand-groomed from Canterlot's finest, undergoing training all their lives to take on the honor of protecting the Princess. Even if Flare had proven herself in combat, she simply didn't have the discipline required for such a role, having grown up incredibly rough and forceful. The rejection tore Flare apart inside, and she quietly left her home and her mother behind in Cloudsdale, living in a worn down shack outside the Everfree by herself for several years. Her coat would never recover from the bleachings, leaving that deep red watered down into a sickly, pale pink, though Flare herself would eventually allow herself to open up to other ponies again.

After a few years of sulking, she went where everyone goes when their dreams lay shattered on the ground around their hooves - Fillydelphia. There, she took a job as a town guard, keeping the peace and helping around town doing odd jobs, but keeping to herself for the most part. More years passed. The one thousandth Summer Sun festival came and went, and so too did Nightmare Moon's return - the evil forces inside Princess Luna were quelled by Princess Celestia's prized pupil and a cadre of her friends, meaning the trials Flare faced were ultimately for naught.

Not long after, Fillydelphia had an infestation of "incredibly bothersome creatures" - not parasprites, but rather a similar pest known as taurmites, and yet most of Fillydelphia's higher-ups were helping with the reparations of Ponyville from their own parasprite problems. Due to bungled communications all around, Princess Luna came to the town on a diplomatic visit and was surprised to see the town in disrepair. More notably, both the Princess and a small group of ponies still present in Fillydelphia - Flare included - got caught in a tangled mess involving the local church, a faction of Nightmares (ponies with dreamwalking powers faithful to Princess Luna) and artifacts buried deep underground from the war between Celestia and Nightmare Moon a thousand years prior. Amongst those artifacts, an artificial starbeast alicorn - known as "the First Stallion" - was reactivated and led to believe that Luna had returned in order to reawaken her powers as Nightmare Moon.

In the days that followed, Luna was rescued from her imprisonment and the First Stallion was deactivated, perhaps permanently. At the same time, Flare was given a few rather harsh reminders that power is only what you make of it, and that the ability to fight doesn't just mean harming others, it also means protecting them. In the aftermath of the incident, Celestia offered her blessings to those who aided her sister, and with that (and a hefty amount of Flare's snark), Flare was offered a position of her own - not as a royal guard at Celestia's side, but as a Searchlight, a member of the same inquisition group that had helped start the problem to begin with. The princess's logic was simple - the Searchlights needed to be fixed, but it would take a strong pony, one stubborn as a mule but with a clear sense of justice, to help clean up the group's act.

Unfortunately, the game petered out and died around that point so we'll never know how that turned out. oops.

Personality: If there was a word more severe than "brusque", Flare would fit that word to the letter. Tactless, rude, and bluntly open with her feelings, Flare is best described as "rough" in her most social moments, and "a lout" in her worst. She's also got a severe case of cutie mark confusion - for her entire life, she's been led to believe that her talent was in combat, in fighting, something frowned upon by pretty much every pony alive. In turn, she's got an inferiority complex a mile wide, and is self-sacrificing to a fault, seeming focused on martyring herself out or drawing negative attention her way to self-actualize how she feels about herself. In her mind's eye she sees herself as a monster little better than the creatures she's fought in the Everfree, scarred outside and in. Of course, that "she who fights monsters" mentality has left her rather intolerant of non-pony species, as well - a griffon, dragon, or diamond dog is just as likely to get her scorn as a manticore or hydra.

That doesn't mean that Flare is completely devoid of happiness, however. Much like many other pegasi, Flare enjoys watching Wonderbolts performances and lazing about, and enjoys games of tactical strategy like chess - even if she's no good at them. She keeps most of her positive emotions pushed down, though, only letting them free around friends. In general she displays a very snarky, neutral 'having to put up with your crap' attitude in all but the most relaxed of company, though she's quick to anger.

Flare is a little self-conscious about her size - she's a tall, broad pony, and even if she wasn't, she's pretty solidly packed. It's a minor insecurity, though, and it pales in comparison to her self-awareness of her coat. Repeated bleachings in her teenaged years have left her coat faded, ratty, and drab, and it hangs upon her shoulders like a badge of shame, one she doesn't feel comfortable entirely shedding.

Strengths: Flare is built like a brick wall, and hits about as hard as one. She's easily as strong as a stallion her size, and has faced down creatures of the Everfree Forest on her own before. In addition, she's got a knack for survivalism, able to manage on her own when she's isolated from civilization for months at a time. Despite being highly underutilized, the pegasus magic that actually got Flare her cutie mark is still perfectly active - when she reaches the needed speed to achieve a trail like other pegasi, she leaves a mirage-like heat-trail in her wake, working as a distrail to "erase" other weather in the area.
Weaknesses: As noted in her personality section, Flare is antisocial at best and downright abrasive at worst. She has absolutely no skill in diplomacy and while she can certainly argue her way into getting folks to agree with her - argument is another form of fighting, after all - she certainly doesn't do a lot to earn herself friends. She also lacks finesse in her actions - even if she thinks a problem needs a delicate touch, her own hooves are far more likely to destroy than they are to gently handle. Finally, she's a bit slow for a pegasus - while she's not quite as bad in the air as Fluttershy would be, she's certainly in the lower ranks of wingspeed, her form built more for momentum than velocity. In turn, she's pretty much guarunteed to lose any race she'd be foolish enough to attempt.
Pony/Animal Type: Pegasus pony
Cutie Mark: A blue, phoenix-winged comet shooting downward
Pony Picture: Here. It's worth noting that Flare is a quarter-head taller than Big Macintosh, so "pretty big" for a pegasus mare.

SAMPLES
First Person: Magic scrolls? Pfeh, what happened to using the post? If we rely on magic and dragons to do all our work, the Pony Express will be out of business before you can say "lizardbarf". I guess I should put some effort into actually making folks aware of me, though, since somepony went to all the trouble of doing this.

Name's Flare Star. I'm a pony by birth unlike most of you lot, though I'm hearing murmurs that this ain't my Equestria, either. Probably for the better that way, a place as cloyingly sweet and saccharine as Equestria doesn't need a cursed mare like me. Anyway, I didn't come here to whine, so...

I'm a fighter. I'm a pony. Not many ponies do that junk where I'm from, but I'm catching wind that a lot of you green-hooves are from rougher worlds. Worlds that have more in common with the Everfree or the diamond dog badlands than with the towns you're caught in.

I'm issuing an open invitation. If anypony needs help getting used to their body - not just for walking and running, but how to actually throw a kick in this form - I'm willing to teach. That said, as long as I'm stuck here, I'm keeping my eyes on all of you.

Don't raise trouble and trouble won't find you.

Third Person: Anything from this forum but notably this reply here