Valley Dale (part 2)
Luna stood in the central plaza of Valley Dale and watched with an expression of disbelief as carpenters and construction workers went about their work, erecting a large wooden stage at the far end of the open area.
The alicorn had assumed that the show would be a low-key affair with the entirety of the preparations consisting of a small team of workers would spend less than an hour nailing together a few wooden crates in a corner of the plaza. Not the spectacle that was unfolding in front of her.
She didn't know many carpenters and construction workers who occupied the town, but a non-insignificant percentage of them had to be working on the goliath of a performance stage that slowly came into being in front of her eyes.
It was enormous. Similar in scale to the sort of structure that might be found in a theatre house in one of Equestria’s major cities, but obviously lacking in the same sort of refinement and durability due to its temporary nature. Numerous market stalls in the plaza also appeared to be temporarily disassembled or moved away.
Between the evident enthusiasm of the workers for the project, the general buzz of excitement around the event and the sheer scale of preparation, it was apparent to Luna that she had severely underestimated how much of an event this magic show was turning into.
"If I had known how much of a fuss this would be, I would not have agreed to it," Luna muttered quietly to herself.
"Is something the matter?" The mayor asked, standing next to her. An expression of concern crossed her face at the possibility of something potentially not to Luna’s liking.
For the past two hours, the mayor of Valley Dale had personally given Luna a tour of the town. The former Princess had attempted to dissuade the politician, not comfortable with the special treatment and calling even more attention to herself, but the mare had been insistent. Taking her to all of the town's locales, detailing the rich history of Valley Dale and extolling the settlement's virtues.
Luna had been confused at first as to why the mayor spoke so unreasonably passionately about her town. Initially assuming her to be weirdly patriotic about Valley Dale and keen for outsiders to share in her love for her home. However, it was only after the pegasus started talking about the low housing market prices and various incentive programmes the town ran,in which highly skilled ponies could easily settle into the town through low-interest start-up loans, that Luna caught on to her game.
The mayor seemed to be doing her absolute best to entice the alicorn into staying permanently in Valley Dale. It was only a hunch, but it would make a lot of the other pieces of the puzzle fall into place nicely. Such as the special treatment and the overblown scale of the magic show.
This irritated Luna slightly, but not too much, because although it attracted far more attention than she was comfortable with, she did have a ready-and-waiting exit strategy if things went awry. It was also somewhat amusing to watch the relatively harmless conspiracy unfold, after spending a century combating the ruthless, cutthroat politics of the Royal Court, the bumbling and transparent attempt to execute what the mayor probably thought was a super sneaky political manoeuvre, was almost cute in a way.
Luna didn't begrudge the pegasus too much for the attempt. Having a powerful Legacy Mage living within its walls would be an incredible boon for Valley Dale or any town like it. Both in terms of pure practicality and prestige.
"Not at all. Everything is fine," Luna replied, not wanting to break her facade of a confident Mage with nothing to hide.
"There is something I wanted to ask you about," she continued, pivoting away from the topic before any further inquiries could be made. "What did you mean earlier when you mentioned that recent tragedies had befallen this town?"
The mayor looked pained at the question and didn't immediately reply to Luna. After a few seconds of silence passed, the alicorn was about to retract her question before Wind Chill suddenly took a deep breath and finally answered her.
"It happened just over three weeks ago," the mare began. "A roving pegasus raiding colony came for us in the dead of night. The rolling fog bank that they created disguised the approach of their cloud fortress. By the time the town's sentries saw them, it was too late," The mayor spoke in a sombre tone. The memory obviously causing painful emotions to resurface.
Luna nodded in understanding. Pegasus Reavers were an incredibly unpleasant phenomenon that seemed to manifest during times of instability. Since it was impossible for pegasus cloud cities to produce enough agricultural output to sustain their population, they often turned to raiding to survive without regular imports. Many of Old Equestria’s pegasus cities originated as raiding colonies before the Wendigo threat and the Second Unification of the Three Tribes forced their integration into the Kingdom of Old Equestria. The nation's dissolution at the claws of Discord was enough for many of them to re-embrace their cultural heritage of raiding and pillaging.
Getting a handle containing the threat of the Pegasus Reavers had been one of the Princesses' biggest challenges of their reign and one that was still ongoing. Some cloud cities, like Cloudsdale chose to peacefully integrate, while others, like Rainshire, needed to be forcefully subjugated. A few still roamed free to this day.
"The looting lasted a full day with Valley Dale's militia guard being unable to stop them at that point. We rebuilt most of what was destroyed, but many ponies lost their lives during the raid," the mayor continued after taking a few moments to collect herself, her tone implying feelings of self-responsibility and guilt over the incident.
Luna empathised greatly with the mare's pain and self-loathing. The power that came with being the ruler over a large group of ponies had just as many burdens as benefits, perhaps even more so. The feeling of utter inadequacy for not being smart enough, strong enough or wise enough to defend those that entrusted her with their lives, was not something she would wish anypony.
"I'm so sorry that happened. Is there anything at all that I can do to help?" Luna said in a soft tone. She wished that she could offer words of wisdom or advice to her as somepony that knew what it was like to be in her position, but she could not without massively breaking character. What would a travelling Mage know about the burdens of leadership after all?
The mayor smiled at the offer but shook her head. "Helping to lift the spirits of my little ponies with your show is more than enough," she said with a lighter tone. The change of topic removing some of the grimness of the conversation. "Unless of course, you could magic into existence a town charter for Valley Dale," Wind said in a joking manner, but with a subtle undercurrent of bitterness in her tone.
Luna wasn't surprised that Valley Dale didn't have a town charter. The Noble houses that governed each of Equestria’s provinces were notoriously reluctant to issue charters to New Towns like Valley Dale. Not wishing to allow the settlements under their control any more autonomy and self-governance than what was absolutely legally required.
The alicorn could well understand why the mayor would covet the powers and privileges that came with such a piece of legislation but didn't comprehend why she had brought it up concerning the Pegasus Reaver raid. As if the document could have somehow prevented the attack from occurring.
"Would a charter have made a difference in the outcome of the attack?" Asked Luna, knowing that it was probably best to move on from the topic, but she could not help but felt as though there was more to this story than she had been told thus far.
The mare looked surprised for a second that the alicorn had inquired further about her off-the-cusp remark, but ultimately decided to indulge her with an explanation. "Without a town charter, there are incredibly severe restrictions on our ability to raise a militia or organise a Town Guard. We barely have enough guardponies to police the town on the best of days. A battle-hardened colony of raider pegasi is so far beyond our ability to defend with what we have."
Wind Chill had turned to look across the town plaza as she spoke, which prevented her from seeing the pained wince that marred the alicorn's face upon hearing her explanation.
Luna took a moment to settle her expression and calm herself. As a ruler, she had always known that her actions would have unintentional consequences on her subjects. However, hearing first-hoof about the suffering that the Militia Disarmament Treaty, which she had personally written, had caused was painful.
It had been one of the few major reforms to the governance of New Equestria that she had been able to implement with relatively little opposition. Though that was mostly to do with the fact the Council of Nobles were all too happy to rubber-stamp a law that would severely restrict the rights of New Towns to arm themselves.
It had made sense eighty years ago when she signed it into law. In the first few decades after Discord's reign, the interior of Equestria was a mess of Old Towns trying to rapidly expand their power over a depopulation countryside before official provincial borders could be drawn, newly established New Towns trying to lay competing claims to the most strategic and resource-rich parcels of land and noble houses using barely, plausibly deniable mercenary bands to undermine each other's interests. The entire country was a single flashpoint away from civil war.
It had seemed like such an elegant solution at the time. To fold all of the various militias into a single Grand Army that could then be used to suppress rebel elements and bring stability to the nascent kingdom, while the massive population centres and seats of powerful noble houses, the Old Towns, would be tasked with the protection and administration of the newly established towns and villages in their provinces. The New Towns as they would become known. Further flare-ups of violence between feuding New Towns caused further restrictions on their autonomy and militias, like the disarmament treaty that Luna personally created.
These were only ever supposed to be temporary measures until internal stability could be achieved in Equestria, but once the treaties were signed into law it became almost impossible to repeal them, with the Council Nobles closing ranks and vehemently opposing any attempt to dilute their power by granting self-governing autonomy to New Towns.
Normally Luna and her sister were able to achieve their legislative aims by deceiving, dividing and pitting the nobles against one another. Anything to keep a critical mass of them from uniting against the Princesses and their small loyalist faction. However, the existential threat of losing control of their vassals caused a seldom-seen unity among the nobles that rendered any attempt by the Royal Sisters to introduce comprehensive reform to the New Town / Old Town political dynamic utterly impotent. Setting a dangerous precedent in Luna’s mind.
For decades this wasn't too much of a problem, since none of the New Towns were large enough, powerful enough or influential enough to provide any meaningful challenge to the authority of Old Towns. However, this has been changing in recent years with some New Towns, like Manehattan and Baltimare growing so large and powerful that they rivalled or perhaps even surpassed the population and economic output of their provinces' Old Towns, Haven Hope and Starfall respectively. For every day that passed, the reasons for their continued, complete subservience to their Old Towns grew less and less plausible.
The noble families of the Old Towns were not ignorant of the narrowing power disparity between them and their vassals, causing them to only further close ranks to strike down any of the Royal Sisters' reforms. Some noble families even actively tried to sabotage and stifle the growth of the New Towns. This all boiled over four years ago, when Manehattan imported a massive quantity of weapons from Griffinstone and started to illegally train a large militia. They threatened to revolt, unless granted their own town charter.
Haven Hope eventually relented and granted their request, but actually gave Manehattan even more than was initially asked for. Carving out a small province for them, granting them control over the other, smaller New Towns in their immediate vicinity and petitioning for them to gain a representative seat at the Everfree Court. Effectively making Manehattan a honorary Old Town. It was a move that baffled many, Luna included, until the nobles' propaganda machine whirled into action. Recontextualising the Manehattan Mutiny, not as a defiant act of revolution against oppression, but rather as a cynical attempt at a power grab, by leveraging the threat of violence against civilians and civil war as a means to getting a seat at the table, taking over the role of the oppressor to the nearby New Towns and becoming the very thing that they swore to fight against. They were effective at poisoning the legacy of the Manehattan Mutiny and prevented others from following their example.
The peace continued to hold for now, however, Luna couldn’t help but wonder how long that would last. Especially if the results of the difference in power dynamic between New Towns and Old Towns, left settlements unable to protect themselves from attack, like Valley Dale. Luna worried that in attempting to prevent one civil war, she had unknowingly laid the catalyst for another.
"I don't think that I can help you with a charter, but hopefully I can put on a performance that will make up for it," the alicorn declared with the mask of a large smile on her face, trying not to let a hint of her internal turmoil bleed through to her external expression.
The mayor accepted the statement in good faith and the two continued on their guided tour around the town, making light conversation about unimportant topics. Allowing a much lighter mood to descend upon them.
Eventually, as they made their way back to her trailer, Luna realised that their tour was coming to an end and that this would be her last opportunity to ask the mayor a question that had been bubbling in her mind for some time. She didn't know why it felt important to ask this particular question, but it did. "Do you know the name of the cloud city that attacked Valley Dale?" Luna asked in a tone that she hoped did not sound disrespectful or intended to resurface painful memories.
Mayor Wind Chill looked a bit surprised by the sudden pivot in conversation but didn't appear to be too put upon by the question and decided to answer.
"Las Pegasus"
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Does Nightmare Moon appear in this story at all?
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Maybe I'll have her show up in a dream or hallucination or something, but Luna isn't going to lose her mind and become NMM.
Nice bit of lore with the Old/New Towns dynamic. Also seems like a realistic political scenario to have happen.
great chapter i hope when this is done we see it in the era when twilight and her friends are around in
"Las Pegasus" - Yeah, that checks out considering what City that floating fortress is an expy of... Something tells me that Equestria might be getting a brand new city soonish. All of their own accord of course. They certainly weren't bullied into it no siree!
Also, hah! Looks like Luna was getting a sales pitch for a new home. Good lord I WISH it was that easy to get a home.
Ah, some nice political problems, well explained. Nice one, that's tough to get right!
I like the lore dumps. I like the story as a whole. I want more.
Are we going to have a chapter to see more in detail Celestia’s reaction to Luna’s departure?
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Eventually the mask will come off, but not soon.
Looks like Las Pegasus is going to be getting a visit from an irate former royal in the future. I hope they practiced evacuating recently because I suspect their cloud foundations are going to suffer an abrupt failure.
As for that mess of a treaty, well that is what happens when you give an aristocracy - regardless of how its formed - power. They use said power to get more at the expense of anyone else. Hence why so many medieval kings encouraged cities and towns to create their own militias backed by professional soldiers acting as the watch. Come civil war many a noble was kept from fighting the king due having to seige loyalist cities.
And of course neither sister considered the best way to deal with rebellious aristocracy. Kill them all along with their families in a single night. Kind of hard to threaten revolt when you, your heirs, and your two dozen closest conspirators are swinging from ropes for attempted treason among other charges.
Loved the update! Cant wait for more you epic writer youuuu!
Thanks for the chapter!
Have a great day!
Oh, of course that gambling den would do something like this.
Love the story, perfect as always!
Really nice chapter, really liked it.
And as people already said, (and I agree with them), Las Pegasus being the ones that did the raid is not surprising at all (freaking gambling Ponies)
By the way, is which region of Equestria is Valley Dale located at? Considering that Las Pegasus is raiding then, I'll say they sre kinda towards the western side of Equestria ( I know that it said that Cloud cities can move from one side to the other, but I don't think they can move that fast.)
did you mean to write non-insignificant?
Honestly I liked this "lore dump".
You kept it short enough to be quick to get through and digest.
And it shows you are putting a great deal of thought, and effort, into the structure of your world building.
I love the lore you are building. XD
Cool more lore.
A thousand years later, when raiding another settlement is illegal. They started raiding the pockets of individual ponies out for some fun at their casinos. What happens in Las Pegasus stays in Las Pegasus, I suppose. It never changed. Maybe this time, Luna would come and give them a good whack in the head.
Anyway, love the lore. I always love intrigue, power struggles and politics. Beautiful sprinkles of chaos.
Hum I thought it was going to be the bat ponies who were the cause of the trouble here, I think this could work well though. I want Luna to eventually get an apprentice to trane and maybe get some followers I know she probably doesn't want to but it'd be nice to be loved in that way.
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I kinda doubt that it already is a gambling den at this point in time. Why go around raiding villages/towns if you want to attract ponies so that they can empty their pockets? Just makes you harder to find.
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Competent wizards must have it easy in that regard. After all, they’re valuable assets to basically any town and not all that common even in Equestria with its part-unicorn population, and Luna’s already made more of a splash in Valley Dale than she originally meant to. (Plus, with the recent losses in pony lives from that raid I can actually see the town making an active effort to repopulate in general, and “Starry Night” sure looks like quite the potential catch.)
That was a good chapter.
it's funny that after 1000 years Las Pegasus will continue to rob the people. Only to do it will be more cunning method.
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I figure they're just gambling with each other.
A significant percentage, not a non-significant percentage
Author, sorry for the question, but how many chapters are there left to publish?
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Currently zero, because I'm still busy writing the next one. I write and publish as I go.
As for how many chapters there will be in total. I have no idea. As you can probably tell from my previous author's notes, I have a tendency to wildly miscalculate the length of each chapter, so i cant even give an estimation. Definitely more than 50 chapters. Maybe as much as a 100. I don't know.
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I guess you've planned a great novel - very noble of you (sorry for the pun). I wanted to translate it into Russian, but I don't think I'll make it until I'm conscripted.
And this, folks, is why Americans have the second amendment.
Fucking based as shit. I can't stop grinning like a shit-eater.
Can I just say that I think this has been such an amazing read! I really wish you the best and hopefully you can continue to work on this!
Don't feel bad, Luna. I thought so too.
Honestly I can't blame the mayor.
A very interesting, but unfortunately rare concept. I look forward to see how you will implement it.
Assuming you choose to explore it further. Not sure what your plans about this are.
I'm sure most people (including me) actually like or even love things like this.
Creating an believable background and solid world building is hard work, so it's always a pleasure to see authors going through with it..
Edit: after reading the comments most folks seem to think likewise.
Good chapter!
I enjoyed reading it.
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Thanks for the explanation. However...
If you want to reply to a comment make sure to put your reply into the same chapter as the original post.
Otherwise the author of the original comment won't receive a notification. If he doesn't stumble upon your reply by chance he won't ever know you replied to him.
Hang on, wasn't Luna the one who supported allowing the new towns to self-govern? Celestia was the one who chose to placate the nobles and let them keep control.
11690128
Recently yes, she had been campaigning for more rights for New Towns, but it was decades ago when the law came into effect.
The top priority back then was to prevent internal civil war and border conflicts by attempting to disarm as many settlements as possible. Now Luna feels bitter and regretful about her part in making the New Towns unable to defend themselves.