The Side Character is a Deer

by Deergenerate

Chapter 27: Ride the Lightning.

Johan grunted as yet another one of his lightning bolts missed its target, a tin can on a fence post, striking a tree in the distance. The deer face hoof as he watched the tree burn away. Derek and Twilight both walked up to him.

"Any advice?" Johan groaned as Spike quickly rushed towards the tree with a bucket. The fireproof dragon was probably the best firefighter they had.

"Hmmm, I can't really think of any. You are using a type of magic we ponies have no idea how to use," Twilight said, scratching the side of her head.

"Surely there is someone out there who uses lightning magic. Or just lightning in general," Johan sighed, frowning slightly.

"Well..." Twilight went silent for a second, pondering. "There are stories of unicorns who actually properly break this horn, instead of, well..." She looked up to her own cracked horn. "That."

"And this gives them lightning magic?"

"No, but the natural arcane magic in our horns instead gets released as a type of arcane electricity. It's almost impossible to control, but apparently, some with extreme willpower can learn to manipulate it properly," Twilight said, shaking her head. "But I don't think there are many parallels between the two besides being unruly."

"And I'm guessing horns are pretty hard to break huh?" Johan sighed.

"Yes. Extremely," Twilight exclaimed as Spike returned to her side.

"Maybe you're going about it in the wrong way?" A voice rang out. The gathered four turned to see Starlight and Trixie approaching. Surprisingly, it had been Trixie who spoke out.

The Deer blinked twice. "Do you have any idea of the right way?"

"Well," Trixie said, flicking her cape and letting out a smug laugh as she approached. "The Great and Powerful Trixie, is well-versed in pyrotechnics!"

She was quick to throw her hooves into the air, fireworks shooting out of her cape into the air.

Everyone else blinked.

"Oh... ok," Derek exclaimed.

"And that helps... how?" Spike asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Well, when you are learning pyrotechnics, it's important to figure out how electricity works. I learned that the hard way." Trixie said with a slight laugh.

Starlight, who had been following her, was quick to look at her and ask; "Hard way? What do you mean?"

"Well, I skipped that part in the manual when I was learning about this stuff... it turns out, static electricity can activate fireworks if you touch the fuse... I lost my first cart because of that." Trixie bashfully explained, rubbing her head. "But don't worry, the crowd thought it was an amazing show, and thanks to that I could afford a new one."

She shook her head and approached the tin can on the fence. "For starters, lightning is just pure electricity, and tin is a bad conductor," Trixie said as she knocked it over with a hoof. "Since lightning is obviously hard to control, there is probably a way to force it to cooperate."

Everyone else was quiet as they stared ahead at her.

With a magic trick, Trixie placed an aluminum soda can on the post instead. She quickly pulled back, hiding behind Starlight slightly.

"Try it now!"

Johan stared at her for a second, then glanced over at Spike and Derek who both shrugged. Then at Twilight who nodded.

He braced himself for a second, spread his legs, and then charged his antlers. The smell of ozone filled the air around him as electricity bounced from branch to branch, then from antler to antler. There was a pause, before, with an audible crack, a bolt of lightning slammed from his antlers. It branched through the air, before striking true, hitting the can square on the label.

In an instant, it was melted to slag metal, fusing with the post while at the same time setting it alight.

Johan's eyes widened. At first, it was in shock, then glee. "I hit it! I can't believe I hit it!"

"Hah!" Trixie cried. She quickly turned to Starlight and turned up her nose. "Told you I was right."

Johan smiled and laughed for a second, before his smile quickly faded, replaced by a look of disappointment. He was quick to look up at his antlers. "So, you're saying I can only use these things on conductive metals? That... seems useless."

Twilight shook her head. "I wouldn't say that. I think with time you will be able to aim your lightning better and actually control where they go."

"But... say we get attacked again by those... what did you call them... changelings. What if that armor they wear is non-conductive?" Johan asked, frowning slightly.

"Well, in that case," Derek said, wrapping a hoof around his shoulder. "Why don't you carry conductive metals along with you?"

Johan blinked. "Like... carry cans with me everywhere?"

"Nah nah, imagine this. You carry javelins of metal around with you, and you like, throw um at the ground near the guy you're fighting. Then bam, you shoot your lightning at them." Derek said, a goofy smile coming to his face. "Man, that sounds anime as fuck."

Everyone else paused.

"What's anime?" Spike asked.

"It's a human thing," Johan sighed. "A degenerate human thing."

"Don't you mean deergenerate?" Derek said, elbowing him in the side. "Get it? 'cause you're a deer?"

"I hate my life."

---

U'val stopped on a hill overlooking the Crystal Empire, his eye narrowing slightly as he looked down upon the frolicking crystaline equines and the Alicorn ruling over them. He let out a disgusted grunt as he did. He was silent for a minute, Mandible and Tril'ik standing silently behind him.

"Sombra..." He suddenly said, turning to the red horn, which was being held aloft by his guard. "It will take the magics of myself and my followers a month to reconstitute you a body. Then I will set you loose on the empire, do we have an agreement?"

There was no response, for obvious reasons. U'val merely smiled and looked back to the empire as the horn was picked up by a platinum white energy and lifted into the air.

"I'll take that as a yes, but... I do have one caveat for this deal, I hope you understand." U'val spoke with a light tone and a small smile on his face. "During your invasion of the Empire, you will likely encounter a deer."

Mandible flinched slightly as U'val's eye suddenly darkened, a new aura surrounding him. A snap suddenly rang out through the air as a crack appeared in Sombra's horn, running from tip to base.

"He. Is. Mine." U'val said, his magical grip tightening. More and more rifts formed across the horn, causing Mandible's eyes to widen. "If you so much as crack one of his antlers, I will ensure that every last trace of you is eradicated from history. Understood?"

The horn quivered in his grasp.

U'val smirked before half hazardly throwing it over his shoulder, where it was quickly caught by Tril'ik.

"Far be it from me to question you," Mandible claimed, furrowing his brow. "But what was the point in coming all the way out here if you're just going to damage the horn like that?"

"It'll be healed in a month." U'val laughed. "But, for the time being, it never hurts to get a point across. For now though, come. Chrysalis has been left unchaperoned for far too long."

U'val then took to the air, Mandible and Tril'ik following after him.

Author's Note:

Sorry for the long wait! I have been going full steam ahead with a different story I am working on, which should be out soon! I hope you all enjoy that one too, it's a steampunk war story I've had rattling through my brain for months now, and I think it'll be well received.

Until then, have a nice day and I hope you enjoyed the chapter :3

Comments

[Vaalintine]

11316782
Whether or not that's true, it feels like a glaring omission that nobody has even attempted to figure out how they were transported and transformed. They were somewhere else and had lives there, which are now gone. For nobody to do anything says either there is something magical going on to make them act that way, or they just don't care at all about either of them.

Derek may be perfectly fine turning into the mary-sue alicorn possessing him, but whatever is inside Johan has been a dick. Personally neither of those seem positive. Plus Johan himself doesn't seem very happy to be in Equestria or keen to stay, so for there to be nobody looking into how to turn him back at least also seems strange since Derek is an Alicorn and could just order ponies to try and help Johan.

Although if the lack of anyone looking into fixing them is a symptom of whatever was going on between Johan and Derek in the original story, then that's certainly interesting.

[yonalkaru]

i wonder how Johan fits into all of these?

[Deergenerate]

11323436
I wanted to give each one of them a chance to shine on their own (and accidentally ignore or be rude to poor Johan) individually XD

[TigerTrainer]

“as spike returned to her side.”
“spike” should be capitalized.

“Johan started at her for a second”
‘stared’

[Deergenerate]

11316972
Technically they did certainly try to get him back to the human world, but that certainly blew up in their face, and was proof enough that there is no going home for out poor little side character deer.

Though to be fair, I feel like the term 'fixing' is a little odd. While I'm sure Johan would like to be returned to being a human, I feel that now that he's actually got some magic in him finally, returning to being a regular old human in Equestria would be boring to say the least lol. Hands don't make up for losing the ability to alter the world around you with the arcane. Or whatever it is Deer magic is, because it obviously doesn't seem to work like pony music.

And yes, while Derek is an Alicorn, and alicorns did historically hold a far greater role over regular ponies, he isn't a prince or a noble right now.

Also, Johan's possesser is a majorly important character, getting rid of him seems like a waste of a plot XD