The Deity Star

by Laarsgaard

Return of the Mad Stallion

The next year was a depressing one for Celestia. The message she had presented to her parents had pushed them into a state of desperation that Celestia didn’t know could have existed. Every minute of every day either Ferrus or Ventia spent with Luna, teaching her magic or pushing reading material onto her. It might have seemed odd for them to be pushing their incredibly young child so hard, but Luna ate up everything. It took her very little time to master any magic, read any book, and comprehend anything. Before long her intelligence level had outstripped any foal in the whole of the city. But just as her mother had promised Ventia would bring anything they taught Luna to Celestia.

Celestia did not progress nearly as quickly as Luna. For her it was a struggle to understand any of the complex concepts in the massive tomes her mother gave her. The spells were time consuming and difficult, she just couldn’t do some of them, but she tried.

Every day was a struggle as Celestia felt she had lost her parents to her forever. Celestia didn’t understand why the message was so important. She didn’t want to study so hard, she just wanted her life to go back to what it was before the day in the mountain. Every day she saw Luna she could feel a little bit of her heart break. She knew that her father would love Luna more than herself. Celestia hoped against hope that if she could somehow beat Luna, somehow be better than her sister that maybe, just maybe her father would love her again. So it went on like that for the year, Luna making leaps and bounds, destined to be the greatest while Celestia struggled, and pushed herself to the edge trying to keep up.

Finally the day came when the prophet returned.

The multi-hued stallion stood in front of the palace as before, pacing and shouting for the ponies to gather again. He appeared somewhat haggard and disheveled even for an insane ranting mad pony. Celestia was glad to see him, maybe he would understand her more than her father, maybe he could be her father and he might even love her. Celestia smiled at the thought of leaving with the insane stallion who had managed to flip the whole city onto its head with his message.

“The star is almost upon us my fellow ponies!” he called out waving his hoofs in the air wildly. “The time is here, and I ask that you would please bring your offspring before me. I am sent by the star to test them, to make sure they are worthy of true judgment.” That comment raised some eyebrows but the prophet continued on instructing the parents to bring their children to him.

One by one the children were placed before the prophet until there was an enormous semi-circle of confused and frightened foals enveloping the mad stallion. All of the foals in Canterlot must have been there, all ready for the test, all except Celestia. She sat next to her father watching Luna’s back. Ferrus was overjoyed, he did his best to hide it but he was jostling around with impatience to begin the test.

The prophet reared up, his colors morphing about quickly. He came down with a massive boom, a serious look across his face.

“It is excellent that so many would hope to be the next.” He walked up and down the line of foals, inspecting each and every one of them. Every now and again he would stop and look harder at one of the young ones but never for more than a second. Finally the mad stallion turned around and produced a rock from thin air. He placed the rock in front of him and turned back to the crowd.

“The test will be simple.” He stated aloud. He beckoned to the first foal.

“Come child,” the little colt got unsteadily to his feet. He moved slowly to stand in front of the rock, his bright yellow colt shining in the sunlight. He turned his little head up to meet the eyes of the crazy, colorful pony.

“Now child, do you see this rock?” the prophet lifted the rock with his magic. The colt nodded. “Good, I want you to make this rock a diamond.” The colt looked confusedly at the rock. There was a murmur from the crowd. The prophet looked angrily at the gathered Allicorns.

“Silence!” he yelled. The noise died down immediately. “Allow the foal some peace so he may concentrate.” The prophet looked back down at the colt. The colt was concentrating, his horn glowing brightly. The rock, ensconced in a yellow glow, lifted slightly off of the ground. There was a ‘pop’ and little flash of light. The colt looked satisfied with himself until the rock hit the dirt completely unchanged.

The colt was crestfallen and tried again. Another little ‘pop’ and another flash and still the rock remained unchanged. The colt began to cry and ran through the other foals to his parents. There was an outcry from the crowd with claims of the test being too difficult or obscure. The prophet took a massive inhale and yelled out.

“Silence!” the crowd died back down, there manes, in some cases literally, blown back from the force the shout was delivered. The prophet’s coat had turned black as his rage filled him.

“This is the test, if you do not like then you may take your child and leave and forever remove his or her chances of glory.” Some of the more outspoken families stepped forward and grabbed their foals. The prophet made no move to stop them, in fact he encouraged them.

“Leave, you know not what you do, but leave, you ignorant, pathetic parasites.” He called after them.

Celestia inspected the line of what foals were left. Nearly half of the colts and fillies had been removed. With the removals it put Luna as the last in line for the test. Celestia looked up at her father. Ferrus was obviously not happy, but he was not about to pull his one and only hope out of the potential to become the next ruler of the Allicorns. Ventia was
nervously biting her hoof, trying to calm herself in one way or another
.

The prophet shook his head and his body resumed its normal erratic color change. He beckoned to the next foal in line, a little filly the color of a bright sky. She only tried once before she gave up.

The rest of the afternoon Celestia spent watching foal after foal step up to the test and fail miserably. Some would try multiple times, some only once. In the end they would all leave with their parents in defeat.

The sun began to set as the prophet came to Luna, the very last. The only ones left of the crowd were Celestia and her parents to watch. Luna stepped up to the rock and didn’t begin casting right away. She inspected the rock. She poked and prodded, she lifted and rolled, she did everything imaginable to analyze the unchangeable stone. Eventually her horn lit up intensely as she tried to change the rock into a diamond. Her first attempt was a sad mimicry of her competitors. She tried again to no avail. Luna screamed in frustration and tried again. She did not relent her magic assault upon the rock for what seemed like hours as she tried and tried to turn stone to diamond.

Eventually, with tears in her eyes, she turned away and ran to her parents. Ferrus knelt down and scooped up his weeping daughter. Promising her that she would be fine and she did the best she could. Celestia could hear the disappointment in his voice, however.

The sun had set long ago and the family turned to return home. Celestia looked over her shoulder at the prophet and his unchangeable rock. His eyes locked with hers and his color began to drain again. He visibly shook himself and the color returned. Celestia stopped and turned back. She slowly made her way back to the testing area and sat in front of the prophet and his rock.

“Doom bringer.” He said. Celestia only nodded in return not quite knowing how to greet this incredibly crazy pony that had managed to cause such uproar.

He lifted the rock with his magic.

“Do you wish to make my rock a diamond?” he asked the question as if it was like any other day. Celestia nodded. The prophet dropped the rock in front of the filly and stepped back.

Celestia had watched all day as the colts and fillies of her city had failed to turn this simple rock into a diamond. It was a rather easy task for a race as skilled in magic as they and the task should’ve been completed by the yellow colt. But why was the rock not responding to any stimuli at all. Celestia had one idea. She placed her hoof above the rock and stomped down on it. The rock broke apart to reveal a beautiful diamond in the center.

The stone was massive and brilliantly cut. The prophet lifted the diamond and inspected it, holding it close to his face.

“Excellent, doom bringer.” He stated as if she had just told him what time it was. “Return home child,” the prophet locked eyes with her. “I’ve some news to deliver this night.” The prophet turned and vanished into the air. His voice rang clear in her mind though, leaving her a distinct message.

“Look for me a year hence, Doom Bringer. I shall only return for you.”

Comments

[CDR]

"Outside the box. Inside the rock."

[silvadel]

This is a good story that has lost a lot of potential readers etc for two simple reasons. One, you owe it to yourself to space out the first chapter like you did the other chapters. Two, change allicorn to alicorn. Seriously this should be 30/2 not 11/3.