Princess Luna is slowly recovering from her thousand year exile. Meanwhile on another world entirely Princess Elspeth of Valdemar is trying a new sort of portal spell, which will eventually turn Luna's world upside down. Now she has to face her past and choose her future, all the while dealing with the excitement, adventure, danger, and Pinkie Pie parties.
As featured on Equestria Daily.
Mercedes Lackey's Heralds of Valdemar meets Friendship is Magic. Although you do not have to be a huge Valdemar fan to understand and enjoy the story!
If you liked this, you might also enjoy the technically-a-sequel-story, The Spark to Light a Candle.
Cover pic by Vermin06
Chapters (7)
Generally well written. One problem which I find is the bad habit of many crossover writers making their favorite characters be able to master the abilities of others far too easily. I have never read the crossed-over series (that I remember), so everything here is a guess based on what you've written.
To begin, the most glaring thing (at least for me), is the example of Rainbow Dash. She's an athlete that trains daily at what she does. Her primary strength is speed while her main weakness is control/timing (it's why she crashes so much). So a visiting former thief may prove to be able to fly fast, and even faster than an amateur, but not as fast as a semi-pro like RD. Conversely, he'll have greater timing because a thief/roof runner is going to have a very good eye for timing. And mastery of timing is more mental (at first) as muscle memory.
It could also be a good chance for RD to pick up some skills.
Second bit is with Dale/Luna. For a while it seemed that you were going to ignore Luna's responsibilities. She's too important in the scheme of things for that. She should know that, and should be very hesitant to do anything like that with Celestia's permission (especially given the history). Moreover, Twilight and the others should know that doubly. They should be asking if the Princess is crazy for even thinking about it. This isn't some theoretical problem for them -- as far as they know she is the moon.
Of course that all depends on interpretation. If you can write your way around the general concerns that any fans of the show might have, you can pretty much do whatever you like without ruining things. It's just that I'm half-expecting the ending to go something like this:
As Luna recovered from her transformation into a donkey -- albeit a pretty one -- she heard cries of horror from the Heralds gathered around her. She had just enough time to glimpse through the gate a darkened sky before the surface of the moon, a surface she knew intimately, filled the gate, destroying it alongside all of Equestria.
THE END.
...you're criticizing me on what I haven't even WRITTEN yet? Geez. Thanks.
Thank you for re posting.
Valdemar was one of my favorites.
I would add this to tracking and favorites, but I don't know how to do so with this site, it's different then ff.net.
I enjoyed your story so much that I went out and bought Arrows of the Queen, and now I'm enjoying that, too.
Only complaint I have about this story is that the ending seemed kinda abrupt. Other than that, it was a pretty good read. Nicely done!
overall, a VERY good story. it need a bit a spit polishing though to raise it up to the level of a Heralds of Valdemar book. some places felt like they had been skipped over and others just had a certain lack of depth. still very much a good start. for book one. any chance we will see a continuation? you've clearly left room for at least another story line, possibly a 3rd
44496
"any chance we will see a continuation?"
Look at my current story. :)
Pinie Pie was setting out snacks,
You might want to fix her name.
Wow, this is one crossover I would never have expected.
Naturally I am a fan of Mercedes Lackey and the valdemar novels.
Rainbow Dash a pro? Ha, that's perfectly ridiculous, she may very well be the fastest flier in Equestria, but it's not like we've seen much of the competition.
It doesn't seem likely that the moon would fall out of the sky if she wasn't there, after all Celestia has been handling both the sun and the moon quite handily for some time, at least as appearances go.
Honestly, I though it would be interesting to send Luna to Valdemar, even if it was temporary. Also, I felt like there wasn't enough emphasis on Elspeth's princess-ness. Sure, she's not a physical goddess, but she and Luna both technically have (or in the case of Elspeth, had, depending on where this is placed chronologically) common experience with the pressures of the court and dealing with politics.
In any case, the concern over her disappearing from most of the populace and or the resultant behavior of certain elements of the country might be more significant.
After reading this, I went to a library to read the books.
Easily one of the best crossover fics I have read!
"...Elspeth looked up, and could just see the tip of it. A cream-colored horn, projecting from her forehead.
"Well you have wings," she told Skif.
He blinked and turned around to look at them. "So I do." He spread them, then folded them up again. "That feels very strange."...
Hmm, Isnt' the symbol of Valdemar the Windrider Unchained? (Here's an image I took from the art for "Magic's Pawn", and painted on a shield...)
Or am I reading wrong and they know Pegasi, just not Unis? (AFAIK, Companions are the closest thing their planet has to a Unicorn, and would look the part more if they werent supposed to blend in with normal horses at the original time of their creation...)
I am going to guess that when I read further on, they'll find Equestria is brimming with magic, its just so alien to their magic rules, either they just cant sense it or cannot realize they are doing so...
This could get..."interesting"
I wonder when some bright spark among the visitors will remember that, barring accident or murder, Companions live and die at the same time as their Chosen. I suspect Dale will be standing strong at her side a thousand years from now...
Cant wait to see if they are Lifebonded too!...
Right. First thing as soon as I'm not bedridden is to buy the books. Who're they by?
Anyway, well done. I'd not heard of any of these characters at first, but you explained the system of Heralds very, very well. In the begining I was extremely confused, but it was worked out over time.
However, that initial confusion made it hard to grasp the beginning. I ended up rereading it after finishing the story and it made mich more sense, but I'd love if it was introduces more gently. Thankfully, none of the characters had overly similar names, so I didn't confuse them.
Overall, four
out of five.
4156532 These books are by Mercedes Lackey.
4247525 Thanks!
4248002 No prob!
4156532 Sorry you found it confusing. Honestly if I were to write it today I'd do it a little differently. It's a slightly older story and it shows a bit.
Glad you liked most of it though! 
4252084 Eh, it's pretty hard to avoid confusion when doing crossovers and your readers haven't read the other books. I tried to write a DW/EG crossover and it failed miserably because I expected too much background knowledge and too few people have read the Ender's Game series.
Forgot to comment on how much I liked this and just now faved it.
4882996 Thank you!
4883065 Welcome
*reads*
neat
*accidentally looks at description, forgetting it's not a one-shot*
oh lun above
oh sweet lun save me
what have started reading
oh sweet lun above have mercy
it's.... it's a crossover with that world
hoh-boy, time to not have a single clue as to what is going on
HUZZAH
shit
Found and reading again. Forgot what the Crossedover characters are from. could you give me an example?
6396960 They're from Mercedes Lackey's book series, the Heralds of Valdemar. There are a dozen+ books in the series, but this is specifically set during the Mage Winds series, (Winds of Fate, Winds of Change, and Winds of Fury.) Honestly it's been so very long since I read those, and since I wrote this, that I can't pin it down any more precisely without going back over both the books and my own story, sorry!
6396982 that is okay, thank you for letting m know.
cdn-img.fimfiction.net/story/dy6x-1432419283-271-full
sounds like is but broke 
IS IT THIS?
7265969 males me wonder what that thing IS
Very entertaining! Looking forward to the sequel(-ish). I might have to go find some of the Heralds of Valdemar books now.
7859976
DEFINITELY read the Heralds of Valdemar books. They're really good! Well, TD might not like them, but they're good. Be warned, though, the evil enemies are evil and known to do things not appropriate for children to read about.
8072058 They're pretty YA, in my opinion. I wouldn't give 'em to a six year old, but a six year old isn't going to be reading at that level anyway.
You forgot poor Skif in Luna's assessment of their assets!
8072073
I dunno. Some of the books are fine, and some of them... Well, in the last Arrows of the Queen book, for example. What happened to Talia. And Vanyel's books. More of something similar. Those are...definitely not for...well, I guess I can see people late teens to young adult (hence the YA genre) reading them--I know I did--but not early teens, I don't think. That particular topic...is very NSFW.
8074294 Dude. You can say "torture" and you can say "rape", they're not forbidden words, and neither book is at all explicit about it. Frankly, they're things that have happened to some teenagers, and I don't think there's anything wrong with people knowing that bad things happen before they turn 18.
Can't say we are familiar with this "Valdemar", but it seems interesting enough so far. Let us see where this ride takes us.
Well all know that the secret ingredient is pony. Cats out of the bag, Pinkamina.
Took me long enough to read this. Especially since those books are among my top 10 favorites while having all of them that have come out. Turned out to be pretty good, though it did feel a bit lacking in interaction between most everyone Fromm both sides of the gate.
Wow this was an oooold story. Felt so weird going back and reading something that only had Season 1 stuff to draw from. That said, it was rather nice. A bit simplistic and bare bones maybe, but in the 'early work' kind of way, still a lot of good heart, and did make me interested in the Heralds series, so did a good job as a crossover. Nothing all that amazing here, but some good, simple, well done enjoyable pony. I liked it.
8428878
Thanks! I wouldn't have written this today, that's for sure, but I don't regret it.
.
there = location
Been quite awhile since I read any of Lackey's Valdemar stuff but IIRC Companions were the spirits of former Heralds reincarnated in the form of a white horse. They can see your inner self, which is why Heralds are always chosen by Companions. It is, in fact, that choice that DEFINES a Herald. You can no more have a Herald without a companion than you can have a sword without a hilt
https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=cost+of+the+crown+lyrics&&view=detail&mid=B557E9A2713FC6149600B557E9A2713FC6149600&&FORM=VRDGAR
I knew & liked this video long before I knew Lackey wrote it.
WHAT responsibilities? WHAT importance? This was written S1 or S2. Celestia has been running things solo for1, 000 years. Last chapter, Luna hadn't even resumed raising the moon yet
Why oh why didn't you bring the CMC into the mix. Adult ponies without cutie marks?!
8892933
Because this was a story written immediately after season one, when the CMC were barely characters.
I haven't read any of this (yet!), but I have to ask since I'm in the middle of writing my own Valdemar crossover: did you manage to write an original song in here?
Lackey's filking background makes songs a staple of her works, and I love it when an author's signatures like that are carried over into fanfiction.
(I... have no idea how I'll manage to do that, myself, TBH...)
9853912
No, I have filks in a few of my stories, and quite a few are based on songs, but this one is not musical.
Well, not counting a few thousand years
"Here's the ritual King Valdemar used to summon the first Companions. Have fun establishing your own order of Heralds, byeee~!"
Y'know, since the Companions kept their powers in Equestria, that would presumably include the Gift of Tongues. You could have had Dale act as translator for Luna, rather than bringing in deus ex Celestia.