Synch

by sunnypack

46 - Sharp: Looking Sharp, Sharp (Part 1) (Part 2)

Sharp looked at the remnants of her left shoulder scale and exhaled sharply. It stung but it wasn’t extremely serious. Dragon scales although attached to blood vessels and nerve fibres, were incredibly resilient and can be quickly cauterised by a puff of dragon flame. Sharp growled in annoyance.

She remembered the good old days, when members of her necromancy guild were more interested in ethics, morality and good will. The guild now was full of ambitious, greedy and vengeful ponies that barely adhered to the code of ethics she had so painstakingly set down. As a matter of deference they had resurrected Sharp but not the rest of her council. Sharp was glad for that for thousands of lives would have paid for that.

Even so, loved ones, families, even their pets were resurrected with wild abandon and the crafting of spirits, though not of Equestrian origin, had left families and loved ones of a sapient species devastated.

Sharp knew what death brought to others for she was a living reminder of death itself. When she had queried her Elder on the mechanics of dragon death, he had simply replied in amusement with a tilt of his head and the flick of his tail.

“How long do you wish to live, Sharp?” he had asked of her.

To this day, Sharp had not known the answer. She had died whilst battling an End Flame. The End Flame was one of the few natural catastrophes that could end a dragon’s life. Through her dying moments, she had made her successor promise to resurrect her, if they had ever found out a way to do so without a soul from beings in Equestria.

She had no idea that her words were taken specifically and too late, the newest necromancer master, after resurrecting her own family and loved ones had finally come around to resurrecting Sharp. When Sharp had found out about the souls, she had been horrified. She pleaded to return the souls to the humans. One resurrected guild member even offered to sacrifice himself to do so.

Unfortunately when they had tried, the souls were merely cast asunder and wasted away to nothingness. Sharp was determined to end the spell casting. She began to dismantle the necromancer guild.

There were those that opposed her and through silver tongues and promises of power, many turned against her and her supporters. Disgusted, Sharp had left, hoping to get away from the insanity of those perverted by the sway of soul magic.

She made a mistake in fleeing. She should have stayed and tried to finish them off. Now, gaining influence and power, with a real means to raise the dead. The necromancer guild was now performing services to the highest bidder. So far, they hadn’t acted on resurrecting another dead soul and Sharp knew that this small chance would be all that was left before the guild would start ripping more souls from that alternate world.

She had fought fiercely and had diminished their numbers significantly. None could hope to match a dragon in strength or ferocity. But Sharp was only one dragon and she could not keep the battle for long.

Dejected, she had left the weakened guild, unable to finish them off. Ironically, she was near death again. She decided that she needed help to deal with them. Before long they would have bigger plans.

After all, death was but the ultimate drug for the living.

-----

“Maellorn”, Sharp hissed, flicking a tail in agitation. “Thou dare.”

The aged unicorn eyed Sharp warily but held a hoof up in a placating gesture.

From the depths of the cave that Sharp temporarily inhabited, Sharp’s fearsome orbs pinned the unicorn in his tracks.

“Peace, Sharp”, he sighed, placing a weary hoof down. “There are more pressing matters that concern us.”

Sharp growled but otherwise kept silent. Maellorn took this as a sign to continue.

“There is a threat to both us and the lives we have raised-“, he began, only to be cut off by Sharp.

“Thou meanest thine souls thou hast damned!” Sharp accused, her foreleg coming down with a crash that echoed throughout the cavern.

“Peace, Sharp!” the unicorn roared again, the situation getting wildly out of hand. Sharp subsided slightly, but a thin trail of smoke drifted from her nostrils, signalling dragon breath only minutes to being unleashed.

“You are aware of the original intent of the spell for harvesting souls?” Maellorn continued, backing a step as Sharp regarded the unicorn more thoughtfully.

“Thou hast mentioned the bringing of a null being”, Sharp commented, her claws clicking impatiently on the stone floor.

Maellorn kept silent, letting Sharp come to his conclusions, the devastating conclusions.

The clicking on the floor stopped and Sharp jerked her head upwards in realisation.

“Thou hast- thou hast succeeded?” she asked, incredulously.

“Impossible!” she cried, jaws gnashing in agitation.

Maellorn waited a few minutes longer before closing.

“Sharp, we need your help”, he pleaded. His gaze grew hard.

“I will not let it destroy everything we have worked for. I will not let my Lilac die again! Not again!”

Sharp regarded the unicorn with a mix of pity and anger. It was an ugly cocktail of emotions. On one claw she fully understood his actions but on the other claw she couldn’t accept them. What was the cost of a life?

“Maellorn”, she began sadly. “Dost thou knowest the bargain thou hast struck?”

Maellorn shot Sharp a quizzical glance. What was this old dragon saying now?

“I will help, but only on one condition”, Sharp growled.

“Name it!” Maellorn said firmly, shifting his stance to one of anticipation.

“You cannot use anymore souls, this world or another, after I have dealt with the null being”, she proposed, as she bent her neck towards him.

Maellorn paused as he was met eye to eye with the dragoness. The golden iris flecked with emerald danced within her knowing gaze.

“Upon your honour, upon your soul, Maellorn”, the dragoness intoned, her aura radiating with the gravity of the agreement.

Maellorn nodded.

“It shall be done”, he replied, sweeping around and exiting the cave.

Outside he glared at the skies.

“I have no honour and I have no soul. Those have all been given to my dear Lilac”, he whispered, trotting off into the surrounding forest.

With a flash he was gone.

-----

Sharp saw the retreating unicorn and doubted his intentions. He would not honour her agreement, for that she was sure. Sharp just required no interference for the next stage of her plans.

This was one that she would not like.

It involved meeting Princess Celestia.

Author's Note:

I would say more but I'm tired, dead tired. Har har.

I would like to say thanks for all the support so far, it's been a pleasure to write Synch.

The plot is starting to thicken from many different directions at once.

How does it all tie together? Well, you'll have to read on!

EDIT: The parts have been combined because I thought it wouldn't be fair to update with another short chapter. Instead, I will be releasing a bigger chapter involving Celestia and Sharp meeting in tonight's (AEST) update.

Next Chapter: The Apples grow Oranges. Rarity puts on a mud mask but finds out there's worms in it. Sweetie Belle learns how to cook but not how to prevent her dishes from spontaneously catching on fire. Twilight invents a flame-retardant, just in time too.

As always, my firm followers, thanks for reading!

Comments

[sunnypack]

Hello, Synchers!

I have updated Sharp's chapter with the next part because (well check out the edited A/N for the reason but I'll say again here anyway) it wouldn't be fair to post a short chapter as an update again.

Thanks everybody (and anypony reading this), see you in a very short period of time!

[sunnypack]

4859517 I live to please. Thanks!

[PiMan]

Just occurred to me that the protagonist could do a lot of damage by hugging the crystal heart. The harmony tree too, but he's nowhere near that.

Doesn't seems like the sort of thing he'd consider doing, but should he ever want to destroy everything then it remains an option.