//------------------------------//
// Chapter 21: How Come You Never Smile? 
// Story: The Side Character is a Deer 
// by Deergenerate 
//------------------------------//

"How come you never smile?" 

Platina slowly opened his eyes blinking twice. He turned his gaze to the one who said it, cocking his head to the side. He was sitting in a courtyard in Aeternum's palace, far to the north of his old home. It was summer now, which meant that the clearing in the castle's architecture was vibrant and brilliant, filled with dozens of different colors of roses and other flowers. He had come to appreciate it while it lasted, the garden was buried by snow every other season of the year. 

Looming over him was a green alicorn with a black mane, a single yellow streak going through it. The alicorn had a goofy smile on his face as he bounced from one set of legs to the other. He was young. Same age as Platina in fact.

Platina looked up at him before returning his gaze down to his hooves. They were covered in cyan fur instead of the carapace of his people. He had been barred from taking on his original form the second he had landed in Aeternum's palace, forced to permanently take the form of an alicorn. Keeping his spell going for months on end without break had taken a toll on his mind, leading to a headache that never went away... but he had come to be able to ignore it... mostly. 

"E-excuse me?" He returned slowly, shrinking slightly, a shiver running up his spine.

"I've known you for ten years, and I've never seen you smile once. How come?" the alicorn said, sitting down in front of him. The alicorn's smile faltered as he cocked his head to the side and raised an eyebrow. "It's not something I'm doing is it?"

Platina flinched when he said that. He quickly shook his head. "N-no not at all Auream... it's just that..." He trailed off. Had it really been ten years since the changeling had been abducted? Forced into his new role as Aeternum's youngest son? He guessed it only made sense... it had been so long that he had forgotten what his mother and father's faces looked like... he had even forgotten what his own face originally looked like. 

"Auream? What are you doing?" A deeper voice said, causing both of them to turn their gaze to its source. Standing on the other side of the garden were two other alicorns. One was a stallion and the other a mare. They were both 20, making them four years older than them. 

"I thought I told you not to talk to that... thing without father around." The stallion said, eyes narrowing. He had brilliant orange fur. His short mane was flowy and filled with magic, just like his father's, though instead of being a field of rich metals, it seemed to be made of a roaring fire that glowed yellow, red, and orange.

"Oh come on Solaris!" Auream hissed as he sat up, crossing his forehooves over his chest. "Is it so wrong that I want to cheer up my little brother?" The alicorn pouted. 

"Let us get something straight," Solaris said marching forwards. "Something I have been trying to hammer into your head for ten years. That bug is not my brother, and neither is it yours. It's an animal father scooped up to be his pet." 

Solaris then suddenly jabbed a hoof out at the changeling turned alicorn. Platina didn't even flinch. He knew Solaris talked a big game, but he had learned to tune out his verbal abuse... he only got physical sometimes after all. 

"When I am king, the first thing I am doing is throwing him out into the wild where it belongs," Solaris said, a smirk coming to his face.

"Back off!" Auream suddenly shouted, stepping in between Solaris and Platina. "You know, you can be a real dick sometimes. Father told us to be nice to-"

"I don't care! Father's an idiot sometimes!" Solaris returned but he was stopped by the mare suddenly clearing her throat. Slowly, and elegantly, she stepped forwards. She had a beautiful silver coat of fur, which reminded Platina of the moon at times. Her mane was a similar white color, with grey dots that invoked craters. She smiled as she walked up to Solaris.

Mundus, Solaris's wife by betrothal. Apparently, she was not an alicorn by birth and was born as one of the primitive equine tribals the alicorns ruled over. She had cast a spell or done something similar to that that had earned her horns and wings. Aeternum had quickly picked her up after that, raising her as a daughter and betrothing her to his son, something about wanting strong grandchildren. Platina had always liked her, mostly. She was never as cruel as her husband. 

"What did we talk about dear?" Mundus asked, her eyes narrowed. Solaris looked at her for a second before he frowned and shook his head. 

"I know... kindness..." He sighed, looking away from her sheepishly. 

"Yes, if you want to be a king, you have to be kind to your subjects... even the weird ones." She said with a small smile directed at Platina. Platina merely stared back at her with his usual blank stare. 

Solaris sighed. "Fine..." he said, turning around. He was about to walk away before the door to the courtyard opened, and Aeternum walked in, flanked by two golden armored alicorn soldiers. 

"Ah, perfect. All my children, all in one place." Aeternum said with a warm smile, which was primarily directed at the other three, not Platina. "Come along children. I have a surprise for you all. Your first diplomatic meeting! How exciting!"





U'val looked down, the memory fading back into the recesses of his mind as he awoke. He took a deep inhale as he did. He was back home... or rather... back to what was left of it. U'val sat up in his sleeping spot and shook his head, glancing around the ruined, dusty room. It had been his mother and father's room long ago... but now it was a barely standing stone square at the bottom of a pile of rubble. A hole smashed through the ceiling, letting a freezing breeze roll into the room from the night. 

He had grown numb to the cold centuries ago, so it didn't bother him. 

U'val sat up and slowly turned to the hole in the ceiling, spreading his wings and quickly flying outside. Time had not been kind to his former home... though... there wasn't much to spare anymore. Where there had once been an elegantly carved castle that dominated the horizon, now sat a pile of eroded stone, the occasional still standing wall, and snow and ice. In another couple centuries perhaps, there would be nothing left of this place he supposed. Not even ruined architecture for archeologists to blindly make guesses about.

They'd probably think it was made by ancient ponies. The thought sickened him. U'val shook his head and sighed. 

He had left Chrysalis and her changelings to their own devices for now... he hoped that wouldn't explode in his face later. Now he had traveled with his two remaining platinum guards to the far north, to find the next crucial piece in his plan. Night had arrived faster than U'val had expected, no doubt Celestia wanted to sleep early today, which meant that they needed to find shelter and make camp fast... his parent's castle was the closest they could find. 

It had been a rather bad coincidence. 

U'val looked down to the alicorn amulet hanging around his neck. Though it offered him no additional power, not that he needed it, it was easier to carry it this way. He shook his head before raising his gaze back to the horizon. The distant glow of the Crystal Empire permeated the skyline. It only made sense, the 'Empire' was only about two or three hundred miles away. 

"Can't sleep eh?" A voice behind him said. Slowly U'val turned to someone standing on his left (no wonder he didn't see them approach.) It was General Mandible.

The black and hole-y changeling was wearing his navy blue beetle-shaped armor, as was typical of his kind. Over it was a black greatcoat, the only thing keeping the cold-blooded ling from freezing. That and U'val's magic which was providing a barely noticeable shield around the ling from the cold. His death to frostbite would throw a wrench in the god's future plans after all.

Chrysalis had ordered him to accompany them north. She claimed that she wanted U'val safe and deployed Mandible to keep him as such, but a toddler could have seen through her ruse. She wanted someone spying on him. 

"Either you aren't as divine as you say you are," Mandible said as he put a cigar in his mouth. The changeling general's horn sparked as he unsuccessfully tried to light it amidst the snow pouring down around them. "Or even gods can have bad dreams."

U'val's eyebrow raised. He then shook his head and snickered. "You're lucky I'm not your queen. She would have killed you the second you opened your mouth then." U'val said as his antlers glowed white for a split second. Instantly the general's cigar lit. 

Mandible looked at it for a second before taking a drag. The general held it in for a second before the smoke escaped his nose. 

"True, she can be cruel." He said eyeing the taller ling. "But I promised to be loyal to her mother, and I will be the same to her. No matter how she acts."

"Loyalty is a two-way street, Mandible," U'val said, looking down at him. "There will come a time when the lie you just told yourself shatters."

Mandible chuckled at that. "You could have killed Chrysalis in the forest the day before yesterday. That's the only reason I'm not going to tell her about what you just said." Mandible took another drag of his cigar, then used his magic to flick it off the pile of rubble the two were standing on into the snow below. 

"I don't care if you are a minor demigod or the literal creator of the universe," Mandible said as he tightened his coat around him. "You should get some sleep. Something tells me whatever it is we are after is going to be hard to find."