The Side Character is a Deer

by Deergenerate

Chapter 37: Dir-Kelukia

"Are we there yet?" The Storm King hissed as he picked at his teeth with the nail of his pinkie. He was relaxed in a lounge chair in the aftercastle of an airship, the room decorated by countless skulls, weapons, and trophies from his conquest. A storm beast stood off his side, slowly fanning him with a somewhat oversized fan.

His flagship had been floating over the Bonedry Desert for almost a day, and even with the breakneck pace of the airship, it still felt like it was taking forever for the Storm Monarch.

"We will be there shortly my lord," Tempest Shadow said as she stood staring down a map of the desert spread out over the flag, staring directly at a second of it that was clearly crossed out, with a large 'never go here Tempest' written on it. It had been her main tool for navigating and expanding the Storm Empire. She had written that months ago, but now she was, defying her better instincts at the behest of a master she barely tolerated.

She inhaled deeply, no. This was for her own good. If this worked, she'd get her horn back after all.

The Storm King narrowed his eyes and opened his mouth to speak, but he was interrupted by a sudden commotion on the deck above, causing them both to quickly snap their gazes to the door.

"Ha! I see it! Finder's fee is mine! Pay up!" The voice of Grubber called out from above, prompting both Tempest and the Storm King to lock eyes.

A smug smile split across the King's face as he rose to his feet. He nodded down at her, before he and his servant quickly made their way to the door to the aftercastle, and stepped out onto the deck. Tempest took a moment to gulp, before gathering herself and following after him. The two pushed through a crowd as they made their way to the front of the airship. Whispering and grumbling from the crew filled her ears.

The closer she got to the bow of the vessel, the more palpable her feeling of discomfort became until she found herself staring down at the city below. Thanks to the vector of their approach, the storm beasts and unicorn got a bird's eye view of the ruined city, and it wasn't pretty. It was built into what looked to be a massive volcanic crater, with cliffs surrounding it on all sides. The buildings themselves looked to be made of a white and cyan stone of some kind, possibly microcline bricks.

The layout of the city was mind-numbing, to say the least, with the streets themselves seemingly spelling out words in an ancient language. There were dozens of massive plazas, each filled with pavilions, gardens, and forums that dwarfed any found even in Canterlot. At the very center of every Plaza was a ruined ziggurat of massive scale, each being almost as tall as a Manehatten Skyscraper. Many of the Ziggurats appeared irreparably damaged, but they all had a similar motif in the middle. A massive spire rose from the very tops of the pyramid-like structures, and emerging from the sides of the towers were pairs of mandible-shaped antlers.

However, in the very center of the city, where one would expect to see the largest building in the city, there was simply nothing. Just a massive oval-shaped crater. Yet, it didn't look like the ground had been displaced by an explosion or digging. Instead, it had seemingly been simply... deleted. Four similar craters sat around the central crater, these ones resembling hoof prints, and they were far far deeper. It was as if a truly gargantuan creature, as large as a mountain, had stood over the city at one point, and then had fallen directly on top of the center. Or... maybe it emerged from the center? Whatever it was, it was gone now.

There were obvious signs of battle throughout the city. Crashed airships, rubble in the streets, and collapsed towers were spread all around. There wasn't a single part of the city that didn't have some kind of destruction around, and yet... for a place that apparently predated Equestria itself, it didn't look nearly damaged enough. There was no sand in the city, period. It was as if there was an invisible force surrounding the canyon walls that prevented the wind from filling the crater with sand, burying the ancient evil within.

Her breath caught in her throat when the ship started to lower. That's when she saw the bodies. Every street in the city was filled with them. Skeletons spread throughout the roads, some piled so high that they blocked the arteries and walkways of the metropolis. Many of them were of creatures she knew. Ponies, Gryphons, Buffalos, and more. Some were a complete mystery to her, creatures of a kind she had never seen. Still more, however, were a grizzly sight, to say the least. Empty exoskeletons of changelings of the reformed variety, hollow and bleached white. They were the vast, vast majority of the bodies.

Spread throughout the bodies were also scattered pieces of armor and ash, the armor being cyan in color, featuring white antlers emerging from the sides of the helmets. She recognized these immediately. They belonged to the platinum guard creature that had broken into her King's palace and given them the note telling them to meet them here. She froze at the sight. That guard had been powerful enough to ignore the Storm Empire's soldiers as they tried to stop her, yet here was their legacy. Empty suits, covered in dirt and debris, as if the wearers had been disintegrated to a fine ash, while their armor was left almost entirely unscathed.

The more Tempest took in, the more the feeling of wrongness permeating her psyche grew. It grew and grew until she started to feel the base of her horn throb as if the magic inside of her body was starting to squirm and writhe.

"Tempest," The Storm King asked, staring her down slightly. He understood what she was feeling almost immediately. "Is it dark magic?"

Tempest flinched, arching her back and clearing her throat. "T-there is definitely dark magic here, your majesty. But..." She trailed off, trying to find a way to describe it.

"But?" The Storm King's eyes narrowed suspiciously as he turned toward the city. Neither of the two noticed as a bird landed on the guard railing closest to them, cocking its head to the side. In fact, the only one who did notice was Grubber, who raised an eyebrow and approached.

"It feels like it's being buried, sir. By something... something worse. Something unnatural. Something that shouldn't even exist." Tempest said, shuddering as she did. "I... I can't even begin to explain it."

It was then that Grubber reached out a hand to touch the bird, but he quickly pulled it back when it started talking.

"I can't help you with that part, but I can show you where to go," The bird said before with a flash of green fire, the bird disappeared, and in his place was a very much alive changeling. A black changeling, with holes in his hooves. It gave a quick bow, even as the guards quickly rushed forwards, pointing spears at its head.

The Storm King quickly stopped his beasts from eviscerating the poor bug by raising a hand, quickly prompting his warriors to lower their weapons.

"Who are you?" He hissed as Tempest and Grubber both rushed to his side.

"Dactylus, at your service," The changeling said with a bow. "Former loyal servant of Queen Viscera, now loyal servant of Queen Chrysalis after her apparent death. I have been chosen by my queen to find you and bring you to meet our benefactor."

"Benefactor?" The Storm King raised an eyebrow. "Your queen isn't the one who called this meeting?"

"No, sir." The changeling said with a slight bow. "My queen is in a similar position to yourself, in that she has been recruited to participate in the plans of our benefactor, U'val. The only difference is she has been working with him for longer than you have."

The Storm King's eyes narrowed, his teeth baring. "I haven't been recruited to anything, bug. I am merely here because I was offered the Staff of Sancas to come here, nothing more."

The changeling smirked. "Even so, sir. I think you will find U'val's pitch rather convincing. Nonetheless, I ask you to follow me to your landing zone. You are the last to arrive, so I feel it best if we hurry." Dactylus said as he turned towards the guard rail and prepared to leap off the ship, his wing case snapping open as he did.

"Wait, wait," Tempest said, stepping forwards, her horn crackling with energy. "Explain the dark magic, now."

The changeling merely turned to look over his shoulder. "You'll see that when the meeting starts, now, follow me please."

Then he lept off, taking to the air and quickly making his way towards the city below.

The Storm King let out a loud bestial snarl, turning back towards the after castle. "Tempest, hurry this up so we can get this over with. I can already tell this is going to be very annoying."

"Right away, your majesty," Tempest said, as another shudder ran up her spine. This place was evil, no question.

---

"Buncha weirdos here..." Grubber grimaced as he and Tempest both glanced around the room. They were in a massive hexagonal room, full of intricately carved wooden furniture. The room itself was inside the top of a minaret that emerged from one the four corners of a ziggurat, a small one on the edge of the massive crater that had consumed the city center. Unlike much of the rest of the city, this room, and infact the entire building for that matter, were completely free of the damage that so plagued their surroundings. She supposed it had to be because their mysterious benefactor lived here and had thus done some repairing of a sort.

The room, as previously stated, was a hexagonal shape, with five thrones along the walls. Most of them were filled, but several were empty. There was but a single door into the room, with two statues flanking it, alongside three additional statues along the outer wall, most featureless, only having eyes and a mouth to set them apart from one another. The ones by the door featured a changeling with two antlers emerging from his head and, of all creatures, a deer. The other three featured three alicorns This made her raise an eyebrow.

She turned her head to stare at the other parties that had arrived for this meeting, and what parties they were.

Closest to her and the Storm King was a group of four griffins. The lead one, sitting in a large chair, was an elderly lord, with grey feathers and black fur. He was wearing a suit of dark grey plate armor, that covered his chest, legs -back and fore- and rear, with a red cape emerging from his shoulders. In his hands was clasped a longsword, the tip pressed into the ground as he almost seemed to use it as a brace to keep himself upright in his chair. Tempest watched as he slowly scanned the room, suspicion in his yellow eyes. He was flanked by two knights in similar dark grey armor, also wearing red capes and tabards that showed a black fist holding up the idol of boreas on a red background.

It was the griffin standing next to the older one that gave her the heeby jeebies. He wasn't very bulky or strong, actually appearing very lithe, but there was something off about the way he carried himself. A seeming confidence that put her off slightly. It seemed to her like this griffin felt he could take on anyone else in the room and win with little difficulty. She silently scoffed. Such pride would be his downfall, she thought. Nonetheless, he was wearing a suit of black armor, forsaking the cape and tabard his fellow griffins wore, with a sword on his waist. She raised her eyebrow when she saw his hindquarters. Rather than the normal lion or feline back legs and tail griffins normally had, his seemed to be wolfish or canine in nature. It seemed her confusion was obvious as she watched as the griffin turned to face her and the two locked eyes. His eyes were, just like the lord's, a deep yellow. He gave her a wink, causing her to grit her teeth and growl slightly.

Then the lord buckled over, coughing into a closed fist. The one in black armor quickly turned to him, concern written on his face. He turned and lowered himself slightly, reaching down for the lord's shoulders, but he stopped when his elder merely waved a hand and gestured for him to back off. The younger griffin stared at him for a moment before sighing and doing as instructed.

Next to the griffins were the changelings. Their Queen was sitting in a throne similar to the griffin lord's similarly flanked by two guards. Tempest frowned at the sight of them, she didn't know much about the bugs, she ran away from Equestria far before their attempted invasions of her homeland, but she had heard of them as second or third-hand rumors on the fringes of the Storm Empire. While she was never particularly patriotic, the sight of them still filled her with unease.

Following them, however, was a species she had never seen nor heard of before in her life. They in some ways resembled Deer, but they had paler, multicolored, coats and blacker noses. Unbeknownst to her, these creatures were known as caribou, led by their king, King Dainn. The king himself, wearing a crown and a suit of iron armor, lounged back on his throne, a head propped up on a hoof. He was flanked by two stags in far less ornate armor, who in turn were flanked by two soldiers each. Tempest watched as Dainn periodically fidgeted, turning his head to stare down both her and Chrysalis with disgust. It made her eye twitch.

Finally, she turned her head upwards to stare at the room's ceiling. She was greeted by a massive ball of shadows. Neon green lightning danced across its surface as dark magic crackled and hissed. She took a step back as a pair of eyes turned to stare down at her from deep inside the ball, a head made of shadows very slowly forming around it. It became obvious to her rather rapidly that this was where the dark magic she had felt earlier was coming from.

She flinched as the eyes turned scanning over the other gathered figures. She followed his gaze, ignorant of the others, until suddenly the Storm King slammed his fist down onto the armrest of his chair, prompting her to jump slightly.

"As much fun as it's been staring at you inferiors in silence, does anyone actually know when this 'benefactor's going to show up? Because contrary to popular belief, I have important business to attend to that I can't deal with in this crappy run-down ruin." The Storm King hissed, barring his teeth.

As if on cue, the room's only entrance suddenly slammed open, and the two platinum guard marched in, their heavily armored hooves making loud bangs on the mosaic floor of the room. They both came to a stop, heads raised high, staring down their noses at the gathered dignitaries. There was a pause as an ethereal operatic singing filled the room. All noise was quite literally silenced. Just to test it, she opened her mouth to scream. Though she felt her vocal cords move, and the air leave her mouth, she still heard nothing but the music.

Through the doors to the room emerged something she couldn't even parse. It was a tide of... something. A color she couldn't understand, something far beyond the color spectrum her mind could see, and yet she saw it all the same. It shot into the room, like water filling a cup. It quickly covered the walls as the room's occupants, barring the Platinum Guards, flinched in fear, covering their faces with their hooves and hands.

Tempest watched as the statues the energies slowly shot up to cover the statues around the room's walls, prompting them to suddenly spring to life. Tempest stared in horror as they started to writhe, throwing their heads back and letting out silent screams as they thrashed their limbs. What made it worse for her, was that she couldn't tell if they were writhing in agony, or pleasure.

She quickly turned her head upwards, back to the ball of dark magic, deciding that of the two evil forces in the room, it was the more pleasant. It didn't avail her much. She watched as the arcane lashed out toward the energy, only to be devoured and consumed, ripped apart at a cosmic level. The ball of dark magic screamed, the only noise she heard over the music, and shrunk in on itself.

Then the singing reached a crescendo as the energy started to retreat just as quickly as it entered the room. It pooled at the door, before rising into what almost resembled a solid shape. It went through many form as it did, a wall of screaming faces, an alicorn, a deer, an eagle, and then it finally took the shape of the silhouette of a changeling, with two mandible-shaped antlers. The silhouette slowly opened a single eye, turning to stare her down. Her specifically.

Then finally, the singing stopped. There was a snap as all sounds returned, mostly the sound of screaming. The silhouette of alien energy was instantly covered in a shell of cyan and white carapace, and standing before them all with a smile, was their benefactor.

"Greetings," He said, slowly striding forwards. "Welcome to Dir-Kelukia, the ancient capital of the Platinum Empire. I am your host. U'val."