Valley Dale (part 3)
It was late afternoon when Luna found herself pacing up and down the narrow length of the interior of her trailer. She ran through the plans for her upcoming performance in her mind. She would have preferred to not do the show at all, but with how many of the town's residents seem to be almost bubbling with excitement, she did not want to disappoint with a poor showing.
Starswirl had always detested magic shows, seeing the pretty lights and showy tricks as insultingly shallow imitations of the true majesty of the sacred magical arts and viewed performance magicians as washed-out failures of Mages. Charlatans and amateurs that could not achieve fame and prestige the "proper" way, resorted to deceiving the uneducated masses into believing that they are great and powerful practitioners of magic through cheap parlour tricks.
Had Starswirl been in Luna’s position today, he would have flat-out rejected the mayor's request and asked if there were any real problems that he could solve. Perhaps he would have even been insulted by the request. At his heart, he was a stallion of pure practicality and utilitarianism. Caring very little for the emotions and opinions of others. The most famous example of this being the infamous bells that he attached to his cloak and his hat. Every pony that he ever met had told him how incredibly stupid they looked, but because the bells' Arcane-Grade metal could hold enchantments far better than ordinary cloth, he never cared about what they had to say.
Her old mentor would most definitely scold her if he was here now, but Luna didn't care. She always had a soft spot for magic shows. Their ability to inspire wonder, awe and whimsy in their audience was a magic unto itself. It was something that Starswirl would not have understood. As a stallion that had been born and raised in the College and had taken its views and ideology to heart.
The belief that the highest echelons of magic were something that should only be wielded by those deemed worthy enough. There were tiers to the value of the lives of unicorns, measured by how powerful they were and how deep they plunged into the depths of secrets of the mystical arts. With the unicorns of the College being at the top, of course, and peasants who could barely use their horns beyond telekinesis and illumination spells, being at the bottom.
That's not to say that Starswirl was completely apathetic to the citizens of Equestria. He took his duties to protect the ponies of the kingdom and to fight evil wherever he may find it very seriously, but there was a detached superiority to his interactions with the towns and villages that he helped. Like a kennel master that had to make sure that the hounds in his care were well looked after and healthy.
Luna was self-aware enough to recognise that despite the love and gratitude she held toward Starswirl, who had sheltered her and saved her life, he was a cold and rigid stallion. Had she and her sister not possessed a peerless magical potential, he likely would have dropped them off at the nearest orphanage without a second thought, if he had chosen to help them in the first place. Though, she assigned greater blame for that mentality on the College as an institution as opposed to the stallion himself.
For a very long time, the organisation buckled and strained against the oppressive weight of three thousand years of legacy, expectations and traditions. It became a vast, unrelenting machine that hollowed out and broke the spirits of everypony in its care into being as compassionless, unyielding and intolerant as it. There was a very good reason why Luna and her sister had chosen not to revive the College of Sorcery when they had ascended to power and instead stood by, doing nothing as it suffered its final death throes in the wake of Discord's defeat.
Now all that remained of the once mighty College were the memories contained within the minds of the alicorn sisters and a single dark spire that stood as its silent, eternal tombstone.
Luna thought that perhaps this was for the best.
A knock on the trailer door stirred the former Princess from her thoughts. It was not the first time this afternoon that somepony had been at her door. Mostly foals and yearlings that wanted to meet this supposedly great and powerful wizard.
The disguised alicorn took a quick moment to moment to check her disguise in a small mirror on the side of the trailer. Her azure blue coat was still the correct shade and texture that she had initially set it. Her platinum blonde, almost silver hair was unchanged in its length and style and her purple/pink eyes had not deviated from when she had first crafted her illusion.
Once certain that her disguise was flawless, Luna took a further brief second to glance around the trailer, making sure that nothing on display in the room would hint at her deception.
She then walked the brief distance to the door, opened it and stepped out to see a young pegasus mare that stood outside. At least Luna assumed that the pony was an adult, she looked young enough to potentially be a teen on the cusp of marehood. Her coat was a dark green and her mane was a bright, electric blue.
However, the most interesting detail about the mare is her Talent Mark. The pattern looked like stylized vortexes of wind that twisted and entwined with each other to form the image of a set of balanced scales. Most ponies had Talent Marks whose meaning was readily apparent at a glance. Such as a farmer having the image of a piece of fruit, a weather-pony having the image of a cloud or a noble having the image of jewellery. Her's was vague and open to interpretation, though held a slight aura of mystery to it that intrigued Luna.
Throughout her long life, she had often found that the most interesting ponies she had ever met also had the most mysterious Talent Marks. Now thoroughly curious, Luna decided to engage the pegasus in conversation, as opposed to rebuffing her as she had done with the other visitors that she had received this afternoon.
"Is there something I can help you with?" Luna asked the young mare in a kind tone.
The pegasus, who suddenly stood eye-level with the alicorn's chest, took a step back in surprise. Arching her head up and up and up before finally making eye contact with Luna.
"Oh wow, you're really tall!" The mare exclaimed in astonishment.
The former Princess gave an embarrassed chuckle in response. While it was easy enough to change the colour of her coat, mane and eyes or disguise her wings. Creating an illusion to alter the height or shape of her body was a far harder task. Not only would it require her to make her head invisible, but she would also need to create an illusionary false head in the middle of her neck that perfectly mirrored her real one, while actively compensating for variables like the origin of her voice being higher than it should be or direction that her eyes pointed being inconsistent.
Even that would not be enough though, since her entire build was lanky, Luna would have to cast illusions to alter the proportions of her entire body. The top of her back would have to be made invisible, her legs would need to be visually shortened and a fake torso would need to be projected under her real one. Beyond that the illusion of everything from her walking gait, to the shape of her shadow, to how she moved her limbs would be so catastrophically out of sync with her actual body and require such an unfathomable level of focus to mentally account for and actively change the illusion to reflect every single variable in real-time, guaranteed that any such attempt would be doomed to failure.
The simple alternative that Luna had chosen was a rudimentary mental compulsion spell that would cause any pony that looked at her to not find her height especially remarkable. Perhaps a bit taller than most ponies, but nothing abnormal. The spell wasn't remotely infallible though, as this pegasus had just proven. However, it was a lot easier to explain away being deceptively tall, rather than somepony trying to touch a certain part of her body and having the illusion crumble away before their hoof.
The mare's surprise wore off as she finally processed the question that Luna had asked her and eventually replied in a friendly tone.
"Hi, my name is Wind Scale."
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And yet another great chapter, I look forward to what you'll write next.
Great chapter
11637616
Same
It's nice to hear more about Starswirl. I didn't see much of him on the show. He sounds crabby and rude.
Did you mean to say telekinesis?
a repetition of the "moment to"
Did you mean to say illusion?
I liked a lot your dissection of all that have to be taken in to account in order to create and implement a illusion spell, to me, it truly was the highlight of this chapter.
I gotta say, I do find the worldbuilding in this story very interesting. The whole deal with the college, wizards, old towns and aristocracy is an interesting look into early Equestrian society.
Ahh Phantasmare. The story that made me like Trixie as a character.
Ok so I suspect that wind Scale and that unnamed filly who spoke to Luna first will be the first to see her without her mask on im also guessing this show is not going to end well and Luna Scale and that filly are going to be on the run before long.
11637687
Interesting prediction. Let's see how it plays out.
11637681
Such a great story.
Nothing to say abozut this, it is a great, albeit short chapter.
Still really want to see Luna found and spread some kind of, if not a nation or cult, at least a religion or ideology, to have some ponies more openly follow something other than Celestia.
11637718
Luna will indeed start to make waves in the world and maybe even collect a few companions or followers. Just remember that Luna’s motivations for this journey is to seek happiness and personal fulfillment, not necessarily to build a large following or power-base to challenge Celestia. The two aren't mutually exclusive, but I dont want people to have the expectation that Luna is destined to create the Lunar Republic or something.
11637722
I am aware and expect that. But putting an alicorn into the world on its own will diminish Celestia`s power regardless of what Luna does.
11637737
She is talking about the collapse of Old Equestria.
Next chapter.
I love reading the comments. The longer the better. You could write entire essays on your thoughts about every chapter and I'd eat that shit up.
11637629
It's my headcanon that Chrysalis impersonated Cadance herself because she was the only changling tall enough.
Always happy to see this story updated.
I do wonder how Wind Scale will come into play.
That was a good chapter goodluck with the next one.
I just noticed, Luna’s disguise sounds very similar trixie. Light blue coat, platinum blonde almost silver hair, and purple/pink eyes. Is there a connection?
I hope you plan to include a scene where Luna watches the moon rise and her feelings about it.
lovely update, just wish the chapters were longer, I read these in like five seconds XD ^^
11638053
I've been dropping so many hints....
11638159
Next chapter is going to be a lot longer.
Luna's disguise is an amusing coincidence. I'm amused by the thought that our modern-day Trixie might take inspiration from this mysterious traveling wizard, dying her coat and mane to match in the same obsessive hero-worship that Twilight gives to Starswirl. (Just my personal fan theory. There are many other possible connections that could be made.)
Agreed. IMO any organization founded for noble purposes only lasts until the founder passes. Then it falls to the next generation that misinterprets the goals and objectives until it is unrecognizable.
It's odd how much I enjoy this. It a refreshing and wonderfully new perspective of the setting. I really can't wait to see where this will go.
Uhh, what question? ^^;
Seems that Celestia absorbed Starswirl's best and worst traits much the same way as he did the College's. Something tells me that she wouldn't see the flaws that Luna sees in him.
11638860
I look forward to it!
You know, whenever I see your story (especially the cover art) I have to think of the brony song "My only Friends":
Always love seeing powerful characters hide their true abilities. It just makes for some great character interactions generally. Anyways, keep up the awesome work, loving the story so far now that I finally caught up on it!
Azure coat? Platinum blonde to nearly silver mane? Purple-ish pink eyes? GASP!!! Trixie!
Oh, this is an interesting change of pace. Haven't seen a story that tackled cutie marks by changing their name. I'm guessing that, over a thousand years, the name will either change to be cutie marks or there's something else going on.
11656325
Things are bound to change over 1000 years, so seeing how the culture of past Equestria would differ from modern is quite interesting
As much as I love the lore dumps I am curious as to why no one tried to resurrect Old Equestria as many countries in our own history have tried to emulate Rome.