//------------------------------// // Meeting an Old Element // Story: A World of Colorful Feathers // by The Psychopath //------------------------------// When Luster and BasKas left the grumpy stallion's home, BasKas grabbed the mare and swung her around. "That's where we live," he said nonchalantly. Luster's mouth dropped open and air disappeared from the surrounding area. "It's like in a fantasy book!" she said. The grumpy stallion's house was a giant, rocky tower of wood, stone, metal, glass, and various other random resources. It leaned heavily in one direction then twisted in another. Grass grew on one wall while a lot of multicolored cloths and banners fluttered on a higher floor. It had no rhyme or reason to it. "Fantasy book?" BasKas repeated as he put the mare back on the floor. "It's a wizard's tower," Luster explained. "Held aloft by magic." Her foal-like expression of wonder changed to an adult's disappointment. "It's held by runes, isn't it?" The avian shrugged. "Definitely, but I don't know what kind." BasKas took one more look up and flinched at the light. "Besides, you might see more like this. There's homes like this everywhere in this part of Canterlot." "Really?" Luster said. "I can't wait to see." BasKas wasn't joking. Much like the rest of the district, magic-like elements permeated every block. The mare yiped when grass suddenly erupted in a wave under her hooves and covered the rest of the road she could see. Yellow and red vines rose from the rolling green carpet and climbed the building walls like hyper-active mountain climbers. Buds emerged from their stems and almost instantly burst open into orange flowers with fluffy petals and golden pollen everywhere. Multicolored trees started erupting from the top of the buildings and multicolored bushes pushed out of the creases and crevices that time had made in the stonework. The mare screamed when several vines thicker than a sequoia tree rose higher and higher, surpassing the height of the floating isles. Gigantic flowers bloomed at irregular distances on their surfaces, adding even more color to the already blindingly vibrant area. "What is this? What's happening?!" Luster screamed in confusion. The avian put his wings to his hips and grunted. "So the sorcerers went with a floral motif this time." The mare looked to BasKas. "They what?" "The sorcerers that live here have the right to modify the look of these living quarters every so often." He tapped the ground with his feet. "Looks like they're trying to imitate a Floral Forest of one of the continents in the south." A hum escape him. "I don't see the semi-transparent vines floating the air. I like those things," he complained. BasKas stopped Luster before she could ask. "Runes and their own special magic." "Their own?" BasKas crossed his wings and huffed. "Fizzy doesn't want to tell me. Says it's only for 'sorcerers'," he mocked. Luster heard a noise akin to blowing raspberries, but she couldn't see anything coming from BasKas' face, or beak, or whatever his elongated head was. They had started walking through the Sorcerer's quarters, taking in the new sights while going to the primary merchant lane of the quarters. "There must be something that you recognize here," BasKas said. Luster shook her head. "I told you already. This Canterlot is absolutely gigantic compared to the one I know." She stared at an island above flashing green before unleashing a small bubble of dissipating green energy around it. "I don't even know what those things up there are. It's like a fantasy story here." BasKas' feathers ruffled. "That's problematic." He froze in place. "Wait, weren't we supposed to talk about how you got here?" Luster's eyes twitched. "Yeah...We didn't do that?" The avian shook his head. "We got distracted by the runes and grumpy going haywire. We'll have to bring that up again when we get back." BasKas resumed his walk. "He probably would have just told you to walk around here until he got an idea anyways," he said with bored intonations. "Well, going back to this weird Canterlot, I don't even recognize the creatures he-ah!" Luster was terrified by another of the quadrupedal, insect-like creatures vaulting over her and BasKas casually. "What even is that?!" The avian chuckled. "Never seen a gilliag?" Luster shook her head in response. "Really? Do you at least know where they come from in your Equestria?" "They don't exist in my world. In fact, the closest 'insect' creature we have are changelings," she explained. "The princess said they used to be very aggressive in the past, but now they're friendly." BasKas grunted in disgust. "Sounds terrible." Luster stared at the avian. "We've never seen your kind of creature either." The avian remained silent for a moment. "Well, you don't need to worry about the gilliags. They tend to be very focused on whatever it is they planned for the day, so anything that bothers them will be ignored if it's brief." "What happens if they're constantly annoyed?" Luster asked. BasKas chuckled but didn't respond. "Okay..." "So...what exactly did the artifact you mentioned look like?" the avian asked. "Maybe I know about it. I like to get around and learn new things." Luster stepped to the side to avoid another self-driving carriage. "Well..." Her eyes widened. "Actually, it kinda looked like you," she said. The mare heard several cracks coming from BasKas, but he didn't change his composure. "Really? So there are others like me in your home world then? I thought you just said that you had never seen anything like me" he asked. The mare shook her head. "We haven't, but the odds of a magical artifact looking like you is probably just a coincidence." "Yes, I'm sure," BasKas trailed off quietly. "Anyways, you don't know the giliags." He rubbed his 'chin'. "What about-" BasKas and everyone around were deafened by a loud screaming noise. Luster felt like thousands of wendigos and banshees were howling all at once. It sounded familiar, but it was far louder. When the noise subsided, the mare looked up to see colorful streaks vanishing into the distance, and everyone around her were complaining angrily about the noise. "They went too low!" the avian complained. "Stupid idiots!" he yelled. Several around agreed with the avian, although some had an apprehension towards the avian himself that went unnoticed by Luster. "What are those things?! There was one at the castle," Luster asked loudly. "Zelytoy," BasKas answered. He rubbed the sides of his head and grunted in pain. "Suck in air through openings on their chests, inflate like a balloon, then do something that launches them in the sky." He started to yell really loudly. "But they don't know when and where to do it!" He huffed. "At least the babies sound like they're farting when they try to do it." Luster snorted in response. "What about the giant porcupines?" she asked. "Porcupines?" BasKas repeated. "Yeah. The gigantic, minotaur things covered in spikes?" she added. The avian stared at Luster. "I...don't know what a 'minotaur' is, and honestly the name sounds ridiculous." He scratched his head, ruffling the feathers. "You must be talking about the turantiga. Big, huge creatures. Super strong, too. An easy way to tell them apart is that female spikes go up, and male spikes go down." His smugness turned to uncertainty. "Or was it the other way around...?" The mare remained silent, taking in the information and looking around. So many different creatures. Gilliag, zelytoy, and now turantiga. It sounded like weird names out of an old mythology or a fantasy novel. Luster was honestly more perplexed about the creatures she could see than the world she lived in. At least she could somewhat predict what this titanic Canterlot would be like. Well, she thought she could predict it until she was pulled out of the way of a flying stallion twice her size. "Th-thanks," she gasped at BasKas. The avian looked onwards towards a crowd of an assortment of creatures cheering something on. "Looks like that earth pony came flying from over there." Luster thought that BasKas was smiling. "Let's go see!" he chanted energetically. He tried to get past the group, but no one wanted to let him through. BasKas clenched his 'fists', although to Luster and other observers, it only looked like long feathers curling up. "They're awfully rude," the avian complained. "I could throw the ponies and the Zelytoy around, but I can't do anything about the gilliags and turantiga." His near featureless face tilted towards Luster. "What?" she said. "You could use your fancy sparkle forehead wand to make it look like I'm pushing everyone to the side," he suggested through a quiet tone. "Alighty," Luster conceded reluctantly. "That doesn't even need any complex spells to begin with. I just--" BasKas gestured down with his wings. "Calm down and just do it." The mare snorted and did as suggested. Several of the onlookers complained about the pushing, but the mare found it amusing to see the look of shock on the turantiga's faces when they saw a creature far smaller than them push them aside. "Oh ho, it's a street boxing match," BasKas said. He rubbed the back of his head, ruffling his feathers and demonstrating just how long they really were. They were as long as her legs, if she had any actual estimate to give. "Or is it a paid street brawl?" "Let me see," Luster strained as she squeezed past the giant. There were two ponies fighting in a large ring defined by a poorly drawn white circle on the ground. It was enough for five ponies to stand in side-by-side, but it seemed that one of the fighters found the space to be suffocatingly small. A stallion of white with a tuft of brown mane dangling in front of his face was panting heavily and doing his best to dodge his opponent who was clearly more apt and experienced at battle than he. The people around cheered with every passing second, admiring every movement and action taking place. The student grew bored very quickly. "Can we go now?" Luster asked BasKas. "They're just hitting each other." She looked to the fighting then back at the avian. "Really hard." "It's almost done," the avian responded. The stallion had his hooves swept then kicked out of the ring and against BasKas. The avian bounced back slightly but watched the pony thump heavily near his taloned feet. Luster heard some heavy panting growing louder and turned to see the fighter walking towards them. She looked rather angry, but it was more from her exhaustion. Her orange fur was pulled out in a few spots and her golden mane and tail were roughed up and dirtied from her fighting. "Howdy there," she greeted them. "Ah guess yer here ta fight me, little miss?" she queried. "Wh-what?!" Luster panicked. "No! I don't even know how to fight! I just know how to use magic." "That's perfect, then!" The fighter and BasKas both pushed the mare into the ring. "Ya can help me with my counters ta magic." She cracked her neck and back shoulders. "Ah'm getting ready fer a tournament at the coliseum up in Canterlot Castle, figured a street fight'd be the best way ta train. Punching bags don't punch back. Now let's go!" she shouted. "W-wait, I--!" Luster reflexively erected a barrier around herself when the fighter lunged at her. The strike wobbled through the shield, inciting awe from both the mare and the crowd. "What in tarnation kinda spell is this?" the fighter wondered. "Ain't never seen nothin' like it." She looked around, then a grin formed on her face. "S'good, but it's weak." She drove her hoof forward, shattering the barrier and knocking Luster back. Luster responded by wrapping the fighter in a coat of magic and nailing her down into the ground with four pegs at the corners of the coat. "Y'all pulling out some strange magic, but ah can't see no weird changes on ya," the mare commented. She seemed more excited by the battle than intrigued by the mare's magic. "Jacked Apple!" a mare shouted from behind the huge crowd. "If we don't go now you'll be late to the tournament and have to forfeit!" "What?!" The mare rolled around until Luster freed her. Jacked jumped towards her and put her forelegs in the student's shoulders. "Ah'll be gone fer hours, but ah want ta find ya and that bird later on. Ah'm real grateful that ya did this fer me, even though t'was fer just a few minutes." She took off, bulldozing through the crowd. "Maybe we'll get better acquainted later on!" Luster was left dazed and confused while the crowd started to disperse. BasKas stepped in the ring, shaking Luster gently to knock her out of the confusion she was trapped in. "You seem to have made a friend." The mare slowly raised her head at the avian, completely baffled. "How? I didn't even get to say anything." "Aaaah, friendship," the avian cackled. Luster huffed, but the appearance of that strange fighter seemed oddly familiar to her. It was nagging her at the back of her mind.