A World of Colorful Feathers

by The Psychopath

The Wrong Rulers

"I--"

Luster tried to introduce herself, but the captor cut her off.

"Your majesty, this intruder," he spat. "has been causing trouble all over the city. The guards at the gates have reported them t--"

The white stallion raised a wing to stop the captor. He was an alicorn. Luster was speechless.

"I did not ask who you were, sergeant. Hm?" the alicorn said with a relaxed tone. The sergeant shrunk away under the stallion's gaze. "I want to know who you are and why exactly you would infiltrate my castle." He cleared his throat. "Well, my and my wife's."

"Your castle?!" Luster said. "This is Princess Twilight's castle!"

There was a pause. "I'm sorry, but I don't know of any such pony of that name. I would know who has inhabited this castle before then."

The captor stepped forward. "Maybe she is one of those supporting the usurpers to your throne, my lord? Should I take her to the word smith?" He glared at the mare. "He would get some much needed information out of her."

The alicorn shook his head. "No. I've had my fair share of usurpers and supporters of such characters." He patted Luster on the head. "This mare is not one of them. She holds no rage or contempt towards me despite being caught, and she is not making some obscene claims," he mocked.

"Don't touch me!" Luster shouted. "You...you stole Canterlot from the princess. And now you're claiming her castle is yours?!" The distraught mare looked around, visibly crying. "Or you're just trying to hide her!"

The alicorn glared swords at the shrinking mare and spoke with an explosive voice. The Royal Canterlot Voice. "Listen here, pony. I am King Daegcandel, Avatar of the Sun itself, and I will not have some nopony intruder making outrageous accusations in front of my own guards and disgracing my own home!" His voice 'quieted'. "I don't know how you got in here, but I will find the culprits, and I will have you taken to the dungeon in the meantime." The king turned to the sergeant. "Take her away. I've had enough for the moment."

"No!" Luster Dawn teleported beyond all the guards towards the stairs and rushed downwards. "Princess Twilight!"

Everyone, including Daegcandel were slackjawed.

"Did she just teleport?" Daegcandel asked.

"Y-yes," one of the guards said.

"I saw her thoroughly. She had no runes embedded within her body," the king mumbled. He shook himself out of his stupor and raised a foreleg. "Well? Catch her! And bring her to the throne room afterwards. I want to know exactly who or what she is."

"Yes sir!" the guards yelled in unison.

All, including the pegasi, left, but the nigh two-dimensional creature walked forward. Its dangling face mask hiding all details save for two eyes in a single socket hiding beyond glass lenses. "My lord, should I call for the wizards?"

The king thought for a moment then nodded. "Yes. I'm sure they would be able to find use for a unicorn who can do more than levitation without runes."

The creature took in a large influx of air, inflating its body. "I've heard legends and myths that those who could wield magic could do so without the needed for specialist runes."

Daegcandel shook his head. "Those are legends, and even if they weren't, it's clear that such times are long passed. Now go. Send the message." The creature burst out of the room in a sudden blast of wind. King Daegcandel started wreathing himself in his overflowing magic, turning his eyes into bright spotlights and his body into a miniature white sun. "Time to find and catch her before she hurts herself. I was too hasty to burst out in rage." He tapped his broad chest. "The molten core of the sun bubbles too fiercely within me," he chuckled.

The hallways of the castle were tremendous, and the mare couldn't help but get lost within them. Carpet, wallpapers, massive windows. Indoor gardens and house-sized crystals being filed down and polished to be placed within hollow openings in arches and walls and ceilings and floors.

"What is wrong with this place?!" Luster shouted. "It's too extravagant!" She hid behind a large stack of potted plants waiting to be moved and resoiled. "If I focus, I can find the princess' aura somewhere." She peered through the thick leaves of the many plants. "Preferably before anypony finds me." Luster closed her eyes and peered through the 'veil' of magic surrounding her. Many different colors and auras of various sizes existed in this castle. Hundreds of thousands, actually. "I'm glad the princess taught me to distinguish magical auras," Luster thought. "There!"

She instantly teleported multiple times throughout the humongous complex. From its deepest caverns to the greatest constructs above, the mare was determined to find her teacher, even at the expense of her own health. She would find the princess, and that was final. Luster teleported one final time to where Princess Twilight was located.

"Princess Twilight!" she shouted.

Her voice echoed in the room she had just entered, and thousands upon thousands of heads turned to face her. Her ecstatic smile slowly ebbed away the more she looked around. There were seven different floors with balconies filled with a large variety of different creatures. Stained glass windows occupied the spaces between these balconies, each depicting several different tales on top of each other. A large crowd had gathered on the floor and were listening to the audiences attributed to the one standing at the throne. Luster ignored the crowd of finely dressed people yelling at her, crying out for her teacher instead. When she was blocked, the mare pushed herself for one more teleportation, casting silence upon the thousands present and destroying her hopes of seeing her teacher once again.

In front of her was a podium fifteen times the size of the one in Canterlot castle. Two thrones the size of houses sat upon them, rising only twice the size of a pony, but fused together and stretching to encompass the walls next to and behind them. They were made of a polished and sculpted metal of unknown composition. The one on the right changed colors to that of the night just as the one on the left changed to those of the sun. They followed the same morphing patterns as the castle walls outside. The left's base and main structure were shaped into small congregations of ponies swarming through thickets and overgrown forests, often stepping over each other to reach several other ponies surrounded by a disc of light. The right had them coming from deep swamplands and broken quarries. The figures grew brighter and taller the closer to the backrest of the throne they came, and the backrest of the thrones themselves were shaped as two alicorns of indiscernible appearance. However, both were surrounded by their respective element. The left had a faceless alicorn looking towards the crowd with its belly exposed and the right wing outstretched. Surrounding it were tendrils covered in thick thorns. Bright yellow fluid seemed to flow constantly through them towards the half-sun above the alicorn's head. The right was similar, although the veins were covered in curved blades and filed with a bright liquid that changed from bright blue to white in several spots and eddies. They led not to a sun, but a crescent moon.

"Who...who are you?" Luster said meekly.

Sitting upon the right throne was a giant mare of a deep night blue. Her mercury eyes produced a silver flame that Luster felt was burning her just by being in their presence. This was an alicorn as well. Her horn was just as long as that alleged king's, but her silver crown created an impression that she had antlers that parted towards the rear.

"And who are you to casually cut in front of my audience members and ask me so strange a question?" The alicorn stepped off the throne, revealing similar hoofware to Daegcandel. Where he was gold, however, she was silver.

Her dress kept itself over her body, scintillating like the many stars in the sky, and not one sparkle stayed the same color for long. They came in various sizes and brightness and ranged from whites to greens and purples. Sometimes, Luster would see one 'explode', then vanish and be replaced by many others. The student fell on her rear and flinched backwards while the crowd dispersed and the alicorn leaned her neck towards her. Luster could hear the seems of that fabric around the alicorn's supple neck popping and straining thanks to the silence of those present and her stress heightening her senses.

"You even teleported beyond my people. Why?"

"I-I-I'm looking for Princess Twilight!" Luster shouted. She scampered to her hooves and frantically looked around at every face she could. "I don't get it. I felt her magic aura here."

The alicorn's aggression lessened at the sight of the distraught and confused pony. She grabbed Luster in her magic and locked the mare's face towards her own. "How did you see their aura with no rune within you?"

There was a long pause. "Rune in me? That sounds...painful."

"So am I to understand that you can cast magic with just your horn?"

"Anypony can do that," Luster said matter-of-factly. "Why?"

"Nopony can do that," the alicorn stated.

The doors to the chamber burst open, and everyone but the alicorn had to shield their eyes to not be blinded by the white light.

Daegcandel spoke in the Royal Canterlot Voice, assailing two of one's senses. "I see you found her."

"You're searching for this mare?" the mare alicorn asked.

"Yes. The one that can use magic without runes and keeps mentioning a princess of unknown name and lineage," Daegcandel explained.

The alicorn dropped Luster while swaying her head in annoyance. "Lessen your magic. You're blinding the vassals!" she said.

The king lowered his head in acknowledgment and dimmed, inciting sighs of relief amongst the crowd. He walked towards Luster, his eyes not looking away from her own. "This is my wife: Queen Heofoncandel. And, as you can see by what is around you--"

"This is our home," Heofon interjected.

Luster looked between the two while the audience stared. "I've never heard of either of you."

The crowd was outraged, many claiming that Luster was trying to incite something. A boom of 'Silence!' by the two rulers was enough to quiet all voices.

"Are you sure of your claims?" Heofon asked.

"I don't recognize Canterlot anymore, either." Luster looked back at the two befuddled rulers and squinted her eyes. "Although you both look very similar to princesses Luna and Celestia, but they retired." The mare paused to regain her thoughts. "Nopony has actually seen them in several years. We don't really know where they went."

Both rulers became intrigued.

"Perhaps the--"

"Wizards can help," Daegcandel said. It was his turn to interrupt his wife, despite the annoyed expression she gave him. "They'll help determine who she is and what she's babbling on about." He passed a hoof across his facial hair. "You're more interesting to us here than elsewhere."

The queen pushed her husband aside. "If my husband takes such an interest in your magical capabilities, then I want to know about the full extent of your powers through the word of the wizards." She stomped the ground, and armored guards came rushing in. "But you will be kept in the dungeons for now." The alicorn poked Luster's horn and shook her head. "But I would advise you not to use your magic at any point. You seem to have stressed yourself far too much. I'll have food and drink brought to your cell shortly."

"Take care to not harm her. She could be an asset to us," Daegcandel ordered the guards.

They bowed and escorted Luster out of the room. She was utterly speechless and wide-eyed, leaving the rulers to their own needs. The barred cells were just underneath ground level, with barred windows being the only thing giving the occupants any sort of fresh air. The stones were humid and the air was heavy, and Luster was almost gagging on the damp smell of moss and other substances she preferred not to think about. Her stomach grumbled for food. All that effort drained her thoroughly, and her body was starting to ache. Surprisingly, there was nopony else in the area, but she could still hear barely muffled cries through the cracks of the roughly cut stone beneath her cell.

Being left in a calm and isolated area gave Luster Dawn enough time to gradually calm down and start to think clearly. "This...This isn't my Equestria..." she finally realized. "How am I supposed to get home? I don't even remember the spell properly." She frowned and stared at her hooves, cracking and flaking from all the excess efforts they weren't used to. "I...maybe I should stay here. These wizards might know how to get me back, or what I'm even doing here."

"I wouldn't count on them having your best intentions at heart," a voice warned.

Luster turned around to the barred opening outside. It was BasKas lying down at the window in plain view. He 'winked' at the mare.

Comments

[Paladin Redflare]

Well, atleast they're still avatars so it's not so much heresy as it is simply different from the norm. This is fine, this is okay, I like this king and queen.

[Kryostasis]

10159739
Redduflarru

But yes, I agree. They are certainly an interesting twist on the 'rulers of Equestria and masters of sun and moon'-schtick.

[The Psychopath]

10159739

10160643
They're also better than the originals :3