The Side Character is a Deer

by Deergenerate

Chapter 18: The Artifact Vault

Johan couldn't help but widen his eyes as he took a bite of Night Light's cooking. This was actually the best thing he had eaten since he arrived in Equestria. The deer instantly turned to the unicorn, who was sitting at the head of the table.

"This is excellent! What's in it?" Derek asked, turning to Night Light. The unicorn merely smirked.

"Secret family recipe!" He said with a smirk, but Velvet instantly elbowed him in the side.

"Not at all." She giggled. "Night here just asked a nearby restaurant for their recipe, I think it was some Saddle Arabian-inspired place called The Tasty Treat. The owners are just so nice."

"Zaniskari mom," Twilight replied with a smile. "It's actually Zaniskari food they are serving."

Johan paused. "Zaniskari? And can I assume that Zaniskar is a large, densely populated landmass, that is surrounded on nearly all sides by deserts, mountains, and the ocean, which also produces almost all of the world's spices?"

Everyone at the table froze, staring at Johan with wide eyes.

"What? We have a continent back home that is exactly the same, just like every other country or continent here." Johan explained, in between small bites of his food. "Not to mention, the rice and curry tipped me off."

Silence remained for a couple of seconds before Twilight let off a slight chuckle. "I must say, I am fascinated by your world, I never really spent much time studying human history when I was with Sunset Shimmer, I was too caught up on the technology."

"Well, warfare was a lot more common," Johan said, looking up at her. "To be honest, I don't know why you make your royal guard carry around spears if you never use them. I read up on it, and apparently, Equestria has been war-free for the past millennia."

Twilight nodded. "Indeed, Celestia's position as the controller of the sun means that to challenge Equestria is to challenge the sun itself, not to mention Luna now. As such only the most powerful magic users risk a war with Equestria, and as the only known magical races asides from ponies are Centaurs and Changelings, we've never really had any prolonged wars. Centaurs are almost entirely extinct, and the Changelings were defeated within a single day on both occasions."

"Yeah, Earth ain't like that. We didn't have anything that could end a war in a single movement until about sixty years before I was born, and before that, it was nearly constant warfare for years and years and years. The first three thousand years of our history was basically twenty-four-seven genocide, first by the Assyrians, then the Babylonians, then the Romans." Johan casually explained, picking at his food. Almost instantly the mood at the table grew dim. All four of the Sparkle family members stared at Johan wide-eyed.

"G-genocide?" Spike finally asked, dropping his fork.

"Yep, the number of cultures and people in our world that were completely wiped out... whoof. I can't even begin to list it off." Johan said shaking his head.

"That's just... awful," Night Light said, pursing his lips. "I'm just glad that our history has been more civilized."

"I wouldn't be too sure of that." Johan said staring up at him. Instantly the mood in the room shifted. Johan straightened up, his previously slumped over and downtrodden look replaced by a straight back and a glazed over, judgemental stare. Everyone's eyes widened even further as he seemed to gaze down on Night Light with a look of disgust.

"You ever wonder why there are no records of your history from before a thousand years ago? Or why no one knew about those new changelings that just appeared out of the woodworks these last two days?" He said, his voice taking on a much... darker, more refined tone. An accent seemingly appeared out of nowhere as he rolled his Rs and Hs. "I have a simple explanation. It's most likely your 'civilized' history was based on a foundation of bones that the Alicorns covered up."

The second the last word left his mouth, Johan gasped, dropping his fork and collapsing slightly, grabbing his head with a grunt of pain. He started hyperventilating slightly as an image filled his head, the same one he had experienced a month ago when he first arrived in Equestria.

Pale blue and white fire, and what he now recognized as the silhouette of an antlered changeling staring down at him with glowing white eyes.

"Johan! Snap out of it!" He instantly looked up, his gaze turning to the one who called to him. He saw a green alicorn wrapped in a full suit of golden plate armor, he was bleeding out of a verticle slash that ran from his throat all the way down to his stomach. His eyes, the only thing peeking out of his armor were pale and dead.

Suddenly the Alicorn reached up and grabbed him by the shoulder and, instantly, his vision disappeared, replaced by Derek. He was back in the dining room, and everyone was staring at him with worried eyes. Johan's mouth was dry and his breathing deep.

"Are you ok?" Derek asked, his brow furrowed, and his horn glowing. Johan looked around the table for a second, everyone had the same look of concern.

Johan gulped. "What happened?" He asked his voice sullen.

Derek opened his mouth to answer but just then there was a knocking at the door.

---

"When did you notice the Amulet was gone?" Starlight asked as a guard walked her, Twilight, Trixie, Derek, and Johan through the halls of Canterlot Castle.

"Shortly after we started taking stock of the damages, a guard found two others who were killed by magical attacks, not in line with the statue's normal attacks, and followed a trail to the artifact vault. The door was opened and it was gone." The guard explained as they rounded a corner.

Round the corner sat a hallway leading to an ajar door, inside were dozens of pedestals with crowns, amulets and scepters, though Johan paid them no mind. What really caught his attention was the massive vault ahead of them, the door cut open by intense heat. The inside of the vault was dark, so he could only see a single display case sitting in the middle of the darkened room. It was empty.

Johan frowned as he approached. Something about the way the door was cut open seemed familiar to him. Suspiciously so.

"So, what, do you think the statue just ripped its way through here and cut open the artifact vault?" Johan said with a chuckle. Everyone in the room just stared at him for a second.

"Uh... no. It would be too big to fit in here." Trixie said with a raised eyebrow. Instantly Johan let out a groan of pain and walked away, towards one of the pedestals to look around, maybe for clues.

"But that is a good point, Johan." A voice called out from behind the group, all of them except for the deer quickly spun around to see Celestia approaching. "The statue must have been a distraction so that this... U'val character could get his hands on the Alicorn Amulet, though I have no idea why he would want it."

Derek raised a hoof. "I mean... this thing does have a connection to Alicorns, who are the most powerful magical creatures around, right? Why wouldn't he want it?" He asked, rubbing the back of his head.

"For one simple reason," Celestia started, turning her head to Derek, concern filling her eyes. "The amulet is only usable by ponies. Other creatures, even magical ones like changelings, simply cannot connect and thus use it."

"Ah." Derek suddenly smiled. "Then what's the problem? The idiot just got his hands on a useless piece of junk."

Twilight quickly spoke up. "Just because he himself can't use it, doesn't mean it's not extremely dangerous. The amulet can amplify a unicorn's magical power to ludicrous degrees. Even a pony who is completely incapable of casting even basic levitation spells can reach alicorn levels using the Amulet. Of course, that power comes at a cost, otherwise, we wouldn't have had it locked away."

"Yeah, those costs are some nasty side effects," Trixie replied, shivering slightly.

Derek's jaw dropped. "Oh no... we have to get that thing out of his hands quick!" The alicorn said. Everyone in the room barring Johan raised an eyebrow at the mention of 'hands'.

Johan, in the meantime, was walking through the non-dangerous section of the artifact room. Though he was listening to what the others were saying, he was focusing on the pedestals. There had to be clues somewhere in here right?

Something instantly caught his eye as he neared the vault itself. Resting on a marble pedestal was a crown of some kind. It was a rather tall cylinder of solid silver, that much was obvious by it's shiny nature. The top of the crown was crenelated with elegant carvings that were evocative of branches... or something else maybe. A headdress sat cushioned up at the bottom of the crown, which looked like it would cover almost the entirety of the wearer's head, baring their face. Perhaps the most evocative part of the crown, however, was the image of a winged dog on the front. Most specifically, a caucasian shepherd dog.

Johan couldn't stop himself from approaching the crown. Gently he reached for it. The deer slowly raised the crown for a second. As his hooves touched the metal, he felt tingles run up and down his forelegs, like little shocks, but they didn't hurt at all. The deer couldn't help but smile slightly as he felt it... for some reason, it felt right.

He let in a silent inhale, closing his eyes as he set the crown back down. He'd definitely have to inquire with Celestia and Luna about the origins of this particular artifact.

As Johan opened his eyes again, however, he caught sight of something in that had been haphazardly thrown corner of the room. Something that instantly gave him pause. He quickly started walking towards it, a frown rapidly forming on his face.

"The statue came from the south," Celestia said, the conversation she had held from earlier still carrying on in full swing. "So our best bet would be to head there first. If we send enough guards we might be able to head them off if they are coming northwards."

"Hey, Princess," Johan called out. All eyes were on him now. "Something tells me that the statue guy wasn't the one who did this."

"And why do you say that, Johan?" Celestia responded staring at him with confusion on her face.

"Well, I personally don't know the guy but," Johan slowly held up an empty gas canister and a welding torch. "Something tells me he is a little too sophisticated to be using blowtorches."

Instantly Celestia's eyes widened. "You don't mean..."

"I saw the statue pick up a briefcase out of a tower and throw it southwards during the scuffle in the courtyard," Johan said, dropping both items onto the ground approaching the alicorns and unicorns. "So the bad guys probably still have the amulet regardless, but even then, this means that either they had help from someone or..." He trailed off staring up at Celestia.

"Or there is someone else after it too." Celestia finished a grim look on her face.

Author's Note:

Have a song;

Hope you enjoyed the chapter, though it was a little on the short side, eh?

Comments

[Starlight Nova]

10978759
What color would that be?

[Starlight Nova]

Will this story be as long as the original?

[NagaShark]

11113857
That would be Cyan.

[Mitril]

"I wouldn't be too sure of that." Johan said staring up at him. Instantly the mood in the room shifted. Johan straightened up, his previously slumped over and downtrodden look replaced by a straight back and a glazed over, judgemental stare. Everyone's eyes widened even further as he seemed to gaze down on Night Light with a look of disgust.

"I have a simple explanation. It's most likely your 'civilized' history was based on a foundation of bones that the Alicorns covered up."

This really needs to be addressed

Especially with this

"Indeed, Celestia's position as the controller of the sun means that to challenge Equestria is to challenge the sun itself, not to mention Luna now. As such only the most powerful magic users risk a war with Equestria, and as the only known magical races asides from ponies are Centaurs and Changelings, we've never really had any prolonged wars. Centaurs are almost entirely extinct, and the Changelings were defeated within a single day on both occasions."

It raises a lot of questions

Generally, it's a scenario where pony, alicorn Hitler won and established a complete rule where only "one true race" and his descendant are the ones in the control forever.While also killing other races that could be a threat .

He needs to call it out.It can't be ingored.

I hope that Johan will change sides because of that,to join the oppressed and wronged.

[yonalkaru]

awesome chapter dude, keep up the good work!!!!

[Deadpool1]

Derek's jaw dropped. "Oh no... we have to get that thing out of his hands quick!" The alicorn said. Everyone in the room barring Johan raised an eyebrow at the mention of 'hands'.

He reacts like this even though he never used it or has seen it being used.