Souls Apart

by GnollReader


Chapter 45: The end

As the battle in Ponyville continued and as six ponies and the paladin fought their way through the streets of Canterlot... Discord, the deity of chaos found himself confronted with something unlike anything he had seen before.

Inside Canterlot castle, a tornado of fire and brimstone engulfed the throne room and rained down destruction upon him.

He had faced both Celestia and Luna before... and he had won, but this was very different. This creature, even though Discord could not comprehend how it was possible, he somehow wielded not only both of the alicorns' magic... But unlike the two sisters, he did it with the intent to kill.

"How is this possible?!" Discord snarled as he pulled up a shield of prismatic colors, "You should be dead!"

"I'll be the judge of that." Aergad pulled back his arm, a spear of pure light forming in it. As the spear started to bristle with energy, a blue glow surrounded it like a spiral, encasing the tip like an arrow head, "Hey, Discord." he sneered, "Catch."

The Lich hurled his spear, the projectile leaving his hands with an explosion of speed and shattering Discord's shield, enveloping him in an explosion as it struck his chest.

Aergad watched Discord fall down in a ball of smoke, but at the same time sunk to his own knees and watched his arm with worry. Normally a necromancer would do well to stay hidden during his transcendence, there simply were to many risks... especially in a fight.

Even though dead, his body still wasn't capable of channeling these amounts of mana... and the results were quick to show themselves. The flesh on his arm had nearly completely burned off at this point, he could even see bones... and the rest of his body wasn't in any better condition.

He concentrated for a moment to make sure that his connection with the alicorns wouldn't cut off and realigned some of the energy to make sure he could move his body even without muscles. There was no point in using any energy on protecting his body, not in a fight with a god.

Discord in the meanwhile, had risen from a smoking crater on the ground and it didn't come as much of a surprise to Aergad to see him unharmed. "What a foolish mortal you are..." Discord cackled, "I wasn't sure before, but now I can see what you did." a candy cane appeared in one of his hands and he pointed it at Aergad, "How long do you think you can survive with this amount of power running through your body?"

"Long enough to kick your ass." Aergad replied with a chuckle as he got to his feet again.

A snarl escaped Discord and a projectile of whirling chaos shot out off the cane towards Aergad, but the Lich simply disappeared with a silent word... only to reappear directly in front of Discord with both of his palms hovering in front of his chest.

"Ignite my cosmos..." the necromancer whispered, this time pulling power from his own reserves as black mana burst from his palms.

---

"There's no end to this insanity!" Calindria brought her sword down on a huge chocolate egg charging for her, covering her surroundings in cream filling as the shell burst into pieces, "This is taking too long!"

Around her, the mane six were all locked in their own fights with huge vegetables and other walking deserts. Through the confetti explosions caused by Pinkie's cannon, the paladin realized with dread that the castle was still far away. "We're not going to make it in time..." she whispered in defeat.

A buzzing sound reached her ears... and it slowly grew louder and louder. When the paladin finally looked up in wonder, she was surprised to see an army of changelings descend onto Canterlot and into the battle against Discord's creations. She and the ponies were even more surprised to see Chrysalis herself lead the charge.

"Spare none of these grotesque creations!" Chrysalis barked her orders as she landed next to Twilight Sparkle, "Go! Help Aergad! We will hold them off as long as we can!"

---

He couldn't feel his hands... The Lich sunk to his knees, staring at what remained of his fingers and finding that nothing but bones remained. "Black fire..." he chuckled softly, "One hell of a recoil..." he looked up and a lipless smile crossed his features, "But it sure does its thing."

On the ground before him, Discord was screaming and flailing around wildly as the black flames danced over his body.

Aergad shook his head with a small laugh, "You know... we two could have had a lot of fun together..." he tried to get to his feet again, "But I think my time is about to run out..." He was at his limit, already nothing more than bones, torn robes and magic. Any more... and he would fall to dust.

"Aargh!" Discord screamed as he rose again, the black flames still dancing over his body, "Who are you?!"

"I already told you..." Aergad fell onto his knees again, feeling his own spirit fading, "I'm the necromancer... " he leaned back his head with a laugh, concentrating all of the mana he had left and every ounce he could still grab from the alicorns in the bones of his fingertips, "And I'm all about explosions!"

He brought his hands his hands together in a clap, "I'm sorry, mom."

---

Both in Ponyville and Canterlot, imps, skeletons, ponies and changelings alike watched in horror... as Canterlot castle was engulfed in a sphere of pure, radiating light... a star shining for the world to see as somewhere inside, a small pebble broke to pieces.