Valley Dale (part 8)
Basking in the adulation from the crowd before her, Luna felt numbing adrenaline pump through her veins as a strange sense of euphoria washed over her.
She had been afraid that she would stumble and falter as she put herself on display before the assembled mass of ponies that had come to witness her. She had always been incredibly uncomfortable whenever she had been at the forefront of attention at royal events. She had felt fraudulent, like an imposter with no business to be there. A scared, lonely filly that was poorly masquerading as an infallible ruler with a mask of confidence and wisdom.
Now that she wore an actual mask and was currently more fraudulent than at any previous point in her life, she had secretly expected her performance to fail. For her to wither in the face of her charade coming under the scrutiny of hundreds while simultaneously trying to conjure enough of her previously non-existent charisma to deliver upon the once-in-a-lifetime performance expected of her.
Yet, now that she stood upon this stage and embraced the cheers emanating from the audience, she felt like she was born to be there. Free from the weight that had been burdened upon her from the very moment that she had a crown placed on her head. Like it was the most natural thing in the world. Her mask didn't suffocate her now. Here, there was no judgmental older sister to look over her shoulder, no parasitic nobles waiting to pounce on any perceived weakness, and no crowd of her dwindling supporters that she was desperate not to give another reason for them to abandon her.
The citizens of Valley Dale were here to see her and her alone. To be entertained. No ulterior motives, no using her as a stepping stone to reach her sister, no attempts to manipulate her. They didn't know who she was, and with only the promise of a good show, Luna had drawn the masses in their droves. Her slate was wiped clean, and she could be anypony that she wished to be. The opportunity to shed her moniker of Princess and all the expectations that came with it almost made her delirious with excitement.
What would she choose?
She could be anypony right now. Reshape herself into any identity that she fancied.
Perhaps a stern academic that would enthral her listeners with the hidden secrets of magic? Or a wise and mature sage who would share the bountiful wisdom she had collected over her life? Maybe even a mysterious and seductive enchantress leaving her audience yearning to learn more about her?
Then she remembered the grandiosity with which the mayor had introduced her and wondered whether it would be fun to play into that.
"Come one, come all, come and witness the amazing magic of THE GREAT AND POWERFUL STARRY NIGHT!" Luna exclaimed in the most overly dramatic voice that she could muster. The words had been made up on the spot, but they seemed like something a bombastic showmare would say. She strode with what hopefully looked like a confident swagger to the edge of the stage as she continued.
"Watch in awe as I perform the most spectacular feats of magic ever witnessed by pony eyes!" The disguised alicorn finished with aplomb. Allowing her horn to flash, she caused illusionary fireworks to rocket into the sky from behind the stage.
They erupted into a kaleidoscope of colour and sparks that filled the sky above the audience with waves of iridescent luminosity. Coloured sparks danced across the fading twilight sky as their glowing contrails traced patterns and shapes that themselves seemed to come alive and join in the grand ballet that suddenly unfolded across the heavens.
As the pulsating, incandescent afterglow of the fireworks faded and the iridescent constructs of the sparks dimmed into nothing, the crowd erupted into applause. Luna grinned as she took a moment to indulge in their renewed adulation. However, a small part of her was slightly taken aback that this relatively rudimentary illusion garnered substantially more praise than either her smoke or fire illusions, which were objectively the more difficult and impressive spells. Perhaps the added showponyship of her entrance and announcement had been more effective in exciting the crowd.
Luna held out her hoof in a placating gesture for the crowd to calm down as she contemplated her next move. However, the more she slowed down, allowing her thoughts to catch up to the energetic start to her show, the more her bravado faded and her anxiety grew.
She was a bit lost on how to proceed from here. In her initial planning, she had scheduled this next section of her performance to be the part where she would engage with her audience, trying to excite them and charm them. Except now that the prowess of her magic was no longer on display and it would fall solely to her personality and charisma to win over the massive crowd, the task suddenly felt daunting. Words turned to ash in her mouth as she struggled to find her voice. The jokes that she prepared suddenly didn't seem worth the paper they were written on and her previous ideas for how to engage the crowd now felt utterly cringeworthy in how out of touch they would demonstrate her to be.
Perhaps she was a fool to fashion herself as a great entertainer. She didn't know the first thing about how to entertain a crowd, how to speak to them, or how to read their moods. Her victorious smile started to dim as her act lost momentum, and the adrenaline-fueled confidence that had followed her grand entrance began to give way to the crippling self-doubt that she was all too familiar with. The weight returned to her shoulders, her mask was suffocating her, and self-loathing burned within her as she stood temporarily frozen on the stage.
This was a mistake. Why did she think that she could do this? It always ended in the exact same way. Her apprenticeship under Starswirl, her relationship with her sister, and her reign as a princess. All ending in catastrophe. Was there any other pony in this world so prone to utter self-destruction as her? Why could she not just…
…' No!'
Luna grit her teeth as she tried to banish the dark thoughts.
She could not allow herself to implode.
Not here…
Not now…
She was stronger than that…
She had learned from her mistakes…
No longer would she get bogged down in the lament of her shortcomings or lose herself to despair…
Things were different now. She had a clean slate.
She needed to believe that. She needed to believe that she could choose to be better. Choose not to be a victim of her own self-destruction. She just needed to press forward.
So what if the audience interaction section was a bit of a bust because she wasn't an especially efficient entertainer?
That was fine. She had other stuff prepared. It wasn't the end of the world, and this could still be her moment of triumph. She just needed to play to her strengths.
Stories.
Luna was a storyteller, not a performer. Her nerves calmed slightly as she realised exactly what she had to do next. Readying her next illusion, she scraped the banter and cantrips that she had pre-planned. If she wanted to make this a show to be remembered, then she needed to make it her own, not blindly basing it off some half-remembered information about how show ponies performed their craft.
Forgoing the concealment spell that disguised her aura, her horn glowed ominously with barely restrained power.
"P…Perhaps some of you still doubt the p…power of the GREAT AND POWERFUL STARRY NIGHT!" Luna’s pronouncement started somewhat uncertain before she managed to get back into her groove towards the end.
"So let me tell you about how I performed one of the GREATEST feats of magic and heroism that New Equestria has ever seen!" The lines came easier now that she had a functional plan of action that didn't involve directly interacting with the audience.
It reminded her somewhat of the dozens of oral theses and dissertations that she would have to present before the Masters of the College in her trials. Speaking as though she had absolute confidence in her knowledge of the subject matter at hoof was a vital skill that she had learned well, and with that sort of mentality, her bravado grew progressively less manufactured.
"Years ago, when I was a mere adventurer in the Eastern Wastes, I encountered and slew one of the most dreaded beasts to ever walk this world!" The alicorn allowed the atmosphere of suspense to hang in the air for a moment before continuing, revelling in looks of interest and eager anticipation from the crowd.
"A GREATER SAND WYVERN!"
The crowd gasped in unison with fright and astonishment at the reveal. Many ponies had grown up hearing stories about the fates that had befallen those who had the supreme misfortune of chancing upon such a menacing creature. The desert-dwelling, bestial cousins of the dragons had gained a well-earned reputation for their savagery and hyper-aggression.
"As a young Journey-Mage, I would roam the inhospitable far reaches of the known world, fighting evil and searching for enough prestige to earn my title of Master."
Luna released her prepared spell, and the night sky shimmered for a moment as an illusionary dome encased the market square, displaying a perfect recreation of the sky that replaced the real one.
A few ponies had been observant enough to notice that something had changed, and as they had their heads tilted up to gaze upon her construct, pale lines began to trace themselves between some of the faux stars.
Utterances of surprise drew even more attention to happenings above, and soon, nearly all focus was directed at the small cluster of scattered stars that were increasingly connected to one another by mysterious lines of ghost light.
Eventually, the newly formed constellation coalesced into a recognisable shape. A tall unicorn mare wrapped in a thick travelling cloak and wearing a large pointed hat.
Suddenly, the mare in the night sky took a step forward and then another, striding across the sea of stars as though the heavens were merely a stage for her to grace with her feats. Her cloak of starlight flapped in the nonexistent wind as her head swivelled in all directions, searching for something.
"From the unending jungle of the far south to the Badlands of the Western Expanse! From the Grand Division in the east to the Glacial Mountains in the North! I've seen it all!" More constellations formed and dissipated as she spoke. The illusionary starfield connected itself into a visage of dense foliage before reforming to a landscape of dunes, then a frigid tundra cast in the shadows of impossibly tall mountains. Yet, the mare strode defiantly through it all with steps of unwavering determination.
"I've walked the glamorous streets of the Crystal Empire!" The mountaintops sharpened into crystal spires as the deep snow hardened into the sidewalk of the legendary, near-mythical city.
"I've stood upon the shores of the Churning Sea!" The cityscape washed away as the lines of pale ghost light between the stars broke apart and reforged themselves erratically until they solidified into the writhing and broiling currents of a stormy sea. The thin strip of coast on which the unicorn stood served as the only bastion of stability among the churning rapids. The source of the deadly tides was also depicted in her illusion as the Great Malevolence loomed with foreboding menace in the far background.
"Yet, to a skilled Mage, harsh environments and long travel can be rendered trivial by the application of advanced spells." Luna continued in a quieter voice. Every other constellation washed away, leaving the unicorn alone once more.
"The true peril for Mages lies not in their journey, but rather, in the evils they seek to slay. Monsters that dwell in desolate corners of this world." A subtle use of her Royal Everfree Voice meant that, even though she spoke in a near whisper, her words still carried across the whole square.
The illusion that served as Luna’s canvas shifted once more as a new series of shapes emerged. Beasts and horrors that she had seen haunt the dreams of foals since they were told as bedtime stories. Ursa Majors, Hydras, Windigos, and more.
"I encountered such a creature once within the scorching deserts of the east!" The cadence of her storytelling accelerated as she approached the section of her tale wherein she would describe her epic battle.
Unlike most magicians who would fabricate or exaggerate their deeds, almost everything that Luna said had been mostly true. Throughout her time as a diarch, she had conducted many diplomatic excursions into distant corners of her fragmented kingdom. She had also slain a Greater Sand Wyvern, though not many ponies knew that she had accomplished such a feat. This is precisely the reason why she had chosen this tale to tell, as opposed to one of her more recognisable heroics that would immediately compromise her persona, such as her battle against Lord Tirek. Also, Greater Sand Wyverns were common enough and the Eastern Wastes isolated enough that it was perfectly plausible that a Mage could have accomplished such an escapade without the tale being widely shared in the Equestrian heartland.
Her military campaign into the Eastern Wastes might have ended in catastrophe and served as one of her first major humiliations in the eyes of the Everfree Court, but at least she got a great story out of it.
The crowd looked enraptured at the display, which gave Luna the confidence to press onward.
"The wyvern, forced from its mountainous lair by a migrating dragon, preyed upon any travellers and merchants that crossed its path."
The constellations that made up the cadre of displayed beasts broke apart and reformed into a single entity. The newly created creature bore little resemblance to the stocky and hulking physique common amongst their dragon brethren. The lithe, serpentine torso of the Sand Wyvern coiled like a ready-to-strike cobra, while its long, spindly limbs belied the vicious speed and strength that it was capable of. It had large folded wings tipped on the elbows with dexterous clawed digits that allowed its wings to serve a dual purpose as arms. A sleek profile that aided it in burying itself below the sand in preparation for ambush. As well as an almost supernatural contortionist ability that made it accustomed to hiding amongst the canyons and crevices of the Bone Mountains.
The conjured reptile paced across the sky in a stalking manner. Pony prey instinct, though it had dulled over centuries of disuse, caused deep discomfort among the gathered crowd at the obviously predatory gait of the creature.
"When I heard about the plight of the villages who were ravaged by the monster, I saw no choice but to save them by hunting down the foul beast myself!" She announced in a magnanimous tone.
Broken away from their focus on the menacing teeth and claws of the wyvern, the crowd cheered at the pronouncement. They were now fully invested in the story and Luna felt vindicated by her decision to dive straight into her main performance as opposed to fumbling around with crowd interaction beforehoof.
"I wandered the scorching deserts for ten days and nights in search of the creature, visiting every location where an attack had been reported!" Luna continued.
The visage of the wyvern faded into the starfield. Not disintegrating like the other constellations, but camouflaged. Ripples could occasionally be seen in the space between stars as the beast stalked the lone mare amongst the stars.
The dune and desert constellations from earlier reformed as the unicorn began to trek through the barren wilds in pursuit of her quest.
"And just when I was prepared to abandon my hunt, I discovered, to my horror, that it was I who was the hunted!" The alicorn exclaimed loudly with feigned distress.
The wyvern emerged suddenly from behind a dense star cluster with alarming speed. The unicorn whipped around to face the danger but was barely able to muster a magical shield before the creature's jaws struck the conjured barrier with calamitous force. The stars themselves shook at the impact and a growing spider web of cracks in her magical shield, emanating from the point of impact, evidenced its dismal structural integrity following the strike.
The crowd gasped in terror and fright at the ambush, but the mare wreathed in a cloak of starlight was given no time to recover as a series of follow-up strikes landed in the blink of an eye. Still reeling from the first strike, the unicorn could do little but feebly try to reinforce her shield. However, her efforts were hindered by rapid, viper-like strikes from the wyvern.
By virtue of being thrice the mare's height and ten times her length, the mass behind each attack was tremendous and the Mage quickly withered under the utterly oppressive barrage of impacts.
"A lesser sorcerer would have fallen to the onslaught, but I was no novice and my years of study and training allowed me to escape certain death!"
The mare vanished from behind her shield in a flash and then reappeared a short distance away from the wyvern. After taking a moment to recover from her shell shock at the ambush, the unicorn constellation adopted a battle-ready stance and prepared to engage in combat with the beast.
Luna wasn't sure whether she would have died or not in her actual real-life battle, had she reacted slower to the assault. Her alicorn fortitude and the armour that she had been wearing at the time afforded her a fair degree of protection, but she was glad that it wasn't something that needed to be tested. Her heightened sensitivity to vibrations in the ground due to her Earth Pony attributes had likely saved her life.
"Its speed and power, combined with the magical resistance of such a creature's hide would be an insurmountable task for most other Mages, but my mastery of the Arcane was too much for the wyvern to endure!" Luna exclaimed with triumph as the audience continued to fixate their focus on the battle that was unfurling above them.
The beast lunged at the mare, but this time she was not caught unprepared. The star that formed the tip of her horn collapsed into a black hole before erupting into a mono-directional quasar whose energy beam struck the wyvern constellation head-on with devastating power. The resilient scales of the Greater Sand Wyvern prevented the strike from becoming lethal, but it temporarily blinded the creature enough that its lunge missed by a wide margin.
Now lost in an animalistic frenzy of pain and rage, the drake rounded on the Mage and renewed its attack. The unicorn was only able to occasionally pepper the creature with sporadic spells as she was forced on the defensive and had to continually teleport out of the way of the rampaging wyvern.
With powerful coiled limbs and large wings to propel its sprint, the beast rapidly closed the distance between it and the mare each and every time she teleported away. Giving no time for a counterattack.
The unicorn's defeat seemed almost inevitable, but as she teleported away to evade the latest strike, she re-emerged, not in one location, but in three.
The wyvern paused in its unrelenting assault as its bestial mind tried to sluggishly process the fact that its prey had split into 3 identical clones. That split second of indecision was all that the real unicorn needed to finish her spell. The two other illusions of the unicorn constellation faded as the Mage conjured a spear of hardened magic that flew towards the creature with terrifying speed.
The spear pierced the wyvern's hide and impaled its heart with deadly accuracy. A final, silent roar of agony and futile defiance was all that the drake could muster in its last moments before collapsing dead in a heap.
The crowd cheered with jubilation at the mare's victory.
Luna grinned at the exuberance of the crowd. The story was a real event that she had experienced, though heavily modified to cover up the use of her wings in the battle and the fact that a spear of Arco steel had been the true killing weapon. Both of which would have been hard to explain away.
"And from that moment on, no monster has dared to prey upon the fair ponies of those villages for fear that they would meet their end at the hoof of THE GREAT AND POWERFUL STARRY NIGHT!" Luna exclaimed in the third person with utter bombast as the cheers grew even louder.
It was a claim that was a blatant lie as the area was still rife with animal and monster attacks by the time Luna and her army had left the area, but it seemed like a good way to end the story.
Her performance continued long into the night as she grew more and more confident and as she cast ever more outrageous displays of her illusionary prowess. Her near falter at the beginning proved to be little more than a brief stumbling block as she finished flawlessly.
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Great chapter worth the wait
The more Luna goes on with this act, the more I wonder if many years later Trixie followed what Starry Night did to the letter or possibly be a descendant of Luna. Both show and share very similar traits during their performances.
I hope Luna doesn't end up boasting and telling such a tale that it gets her into hot water and in over her head. Or have two idiots bring an actual threat to the town and somehow she gets blamed for it in the end despite it not being her fault.
I need more
PD: Nice cap
11732013
Except, in this case, she would be the one to defeat said monster.
She is an alicorn, just in disguise.
So (and I have no problem with it) are we not giving a fuck about Celestia anymore heh
11732046
That'll be coming later according to the author. There will be a focus on her again eventually.
What a nice show from The Great and Powerful T̶r̶i̶x̶i̶e̶ Starry Night ! Can't wait to see more of this.
My goodness
the more i see Luna acting like trixie the more im convinced in 1000 years, somehow trixie will end up with Luna old job
Trixie: Write that down! Write that down!
Ok cool but, Im a little let down to see her just doing an elusion than some actual spell craft, the past three chapters when comparing to the first part of the story have been far too light hearted. It a very good story but I was just excited and hoping for more grit and heartache. I was thinking she was gonna have to fight off some bandits or accidentally stumble and get chased from town. Also I feel like we need a bit more context on her supposed failed rule so we know more about what made her so unpopular.
11732217
You want more action?
Just wait a bit...
You want more grit and heartache?
Just wait a bit...
In all seriousness though, I wrote these past few chapters deliberately to be more lighthearted. Calm before the storm and all that...
Stick around. Things are going to start moving quickly after the Valley Dale arc.
Context for some of her missteps will come later. I was going to go on a tangent in this chapter about her failures in the Eastern Wastes, but there will come more appropriate occasions later on when we can dive into that stuff.
11732149
I'm convinced Trixie will be a descendant from Luna. Both act and have similar personalities when they perform.
11732149
Personally, I'm of the opinion that Trixie IS Luna. That she's just Luna's next disguise. I can't help but feel that would be a hilarious way to break her cover, having her need to actually save Ponyville from the Ursa Minor. As a bonus, enough time would have passed by then that Luna should have overcome her problems and found some inner balance.
This is… I love this.
The wait of this story is worth its weight in gold.
It’s such a phenomenal way to write, I just can’t.
I need more.
Way more.
Like a heap-ton more.
11732273
Well, in canon they’re definitely two different ponies; “To Where and Back Again” at the latest should have established that. How things may turn out that far into the future as far as this story is concerned is very much up in the air, though; if a butterfly flaps its wings to the effect of the Mare in the Moon never becoming a thing, who knows what sort of accumulated consequences that could have a thousand years further down the line. (A pretty easy one could be a lot of the more mortal canon ponies never even getting born in this timeline in the first place, simply because the chances of none of the changes to it ever impacting who meets and has foals with whom over multiple successive generations should by all rights be close to zero.)
11732400
Maybe in canon, but this is fanfiction. Our dreams shall become reality! And while the timeline implications COULD have an impact, I'm still betting that "this is how it always was" for this particular timeline/story.
11732273
I find that hard to believe. Luna can't keep up the charade forever and may be forced to show herself again sometime down the road. Remember, Luna wants to also fight for Equestria to be truly united and help out the New Towns that are being forgotten by her sister and the Canterlot Council. Consider too what happens with Celestia and what could happen to her. I've got a feeling that she's not going to keep being the so called benevolent ruler she is right now. A darker side is brewing in her and Luna will have to face it.
Something I'd like to nitpick about is the existence of fireworks that can only be seen at night, if you want to make it believable that ponies don't come around at night I think it's highly improbable that they would be willing to watch a fireworks show "at night" I think it would be a nice touch if sometime later you would say Luna invented fireworks and that Celestia was highly against it as it serves no economic purpose.
Choosing to not just rewrite Trixie and her performance was a good choice. It helps your story stand up on its own, and is more interesting as a result.
Is the Great Starry Night going to duel the Great and Powerful Trixie?
No bad idea?
11732013
So I'm not the only one with that hunch.
Very enjoyable chapter and story. I look forward to future updates. Thank you for your hard work in making this story come to life.
Looks like we might have found Trixie's or her ancestor's inspiration. The show sounded so cool,I wanted to see it!
11690163
At the time it was the best idea for peace they had but some people decided to use it to their advantage in hurting others.
The magic show was really nice, especially the descriptions of the effects. who says written stories cant have visual effects??
Wow, amazing story so far. Can't wait for more. :D
It turns out that Luna was definitely either Trixie's great-great-great-...-grandmother, or a hero who inspired Trixie and provided a benchmark to look up to.
If the first option, then I’m interested in seeing a character who will be a great-great-...-grandfather. :3
11736589
Not a romance story.
A lovely update
That was a good chapter.
Well that was very cool! Seeing the wonders of a master illusionist in a show similar to Trixie's, but with boasts backed by truth? An incredible experience in person and delightful to read. You have a very interesting setup here with the characters of Luna and Wind Chill, and perhaps Celestia as well. Consider my follow upgraded to Following with Great Interest.