.........
Clawing.
.........
Tearing.
.........
Biting.
.........
Ripping.
.........
KILLING.
.........
With a jolt, Celestia swung upright, her face contorted in a painful scream.
"NO! PLEASE, NO MORE! NO MORE..." she screamed, begged even. An overwhelmed Cadence hurriedly galloped forwards and wrapped her hooves around her, crying tears of joy to see her foster mother return to the world of the living. Celestia calmed down slowly, perspiration drenching her divine visage. She darted her head to the left and right, only to see her chambers within the Crystal Palace.
Shining was here, smiling as his wife hugged the newly gotten life out of his aunt-in-law.
Luna was awake, barely. Her form was clearly weathered still, but capable of supporting life once more. She lied on her bed, likely resting from her resurrection.
Resurrection...
Oh.
Right. She had died.
Speaking of resurrection, she wanted to thank the one responsible before she collapsed from exhaustion.
........
And pain...
........
Kel'Thuzad was in the corner...
But he looked... different.
Were are his ornaments?
.........
Suddenly, pain.
LOTS OF PAIN.
From her niece's exertions.
"AGH!!!!" Celestia spasmed horrifically, her body reacting with every muscle available. She wound up on the floor, her head ringing from the impact, her eyesight blurry and unfocused...
"CELESTIA!"
Lal'theron...
Lal'theron channeled what little of the Sunwell's powers his brother had sacrificed he had left within him, and aimed it at the hastily cauterized wound adorning his friend's barrel. The wound, surprisingly, reacted violently.
VERY VIOLENTLY.
The alicorn shrieked once again, her Royal Canterlot Voice shattering the windows of the room, and making the occupants wince from the volume. Kel'Thuzad threw up a soundproofing ward around the mare's windpipe quickly, effectively cutting off her obscene volume, but not her oxygen intake.
"Ugh..." Kel'Thuzad groaned. His ears, while non-existent, were quite sensitive to sound. Loud noises and voices annoyed and agitated him.
One of his very few natural weaknesses.
Upon the Sunwell's energy hitting the wound upon Celestia's chest, the wound reopened fiercely, the dark decay of necrosis hinted slightly as the wound expanded. The solar alicorn whimpered now, pain quite obviously abundant in her body at the moment.
"Stop, brother! Frostmourne's wounds are not natural!" Kel'Thuzad boomed, smacking the revenant lightly away from the alicorn, plague magic's coursing through his arms. With a grunt, he attempted to redirect the necrosis to the princess' exterior flesh only.
"KEL, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" Shining roared, the Lich King's voice booming unnaturally once again. The lich was startled by the noise once again, his diminished power from the loss of the Sunwell's energy causing his weaknesses to become more pronounced. Kel'Thuzad growled, slowing the rapidly expanding patch of decaying, blackened skin that was spreading across Celestia's barrel.
"Keeping the necrosis from reaching her organs, master! I need something to redirect it..."
Kel'Thuzad's now solid blue eyes darted around quickly, finding only the skeletal forms of him and his brother, and the fleshy form of the collapsed Princess Luna.
No. She wouldn't survive...
Shining would never let Cadence do that to herself.
Which left one person.
Er... pony.
"Sire! Place your hoof upon her barrel! I have to redirect the flow!" Kel'Thuzad grunted, his weakened powers straining to hold back the infectious plague that Frostmourne's wound had caused. Shining looked to Kel'Thuzad. Then to Cadence. She was quite obviously terrified. Her entire form quaked, and was being held back by the struggling form of Lal'theron, who was attempting to console her as best he could.
She doesn't deserve to lose her a second time...
A single alabaster hoof placed itself against the crumbling chest of Celestia, the goddess' form quaking with pain...
"DO IT, THEN!" Shining roared, bracing himself for pain...
Kel'Thuzad roared, his fingertips literally starting to disintegrate from the magical overload. Slowly, the plague drifted to it's new host, enveloping Shining's left forehoof in the dark abyss of death and decay. Kel'Thuzad snarled, pushing more power into the channeling process as the rot got closer to Celestia's internal organs.
Well, I'd hate to die again... but I have to.
Kel'Thuzad growled slightly, and started to pour his vast arcane power into the spell. Slowly, his body began to unravel itself, the lich drawing the energy used to construct his magical body for his spell weaving...
Shining was pleasantly surprised that he felt no pain once the necrotic plague of undeath hit his flesh. Just... nothingness. A void of feeling. He looked down to his forehoof, watching the skin and flesh peel away from him, his white bones revealing themselves. He had hoped that the damage would be... minimal, but if it meant saving Celestia, he would gladly have his body stripped clean.
Kel'Thuzad's form was rapidly disintegrating now, the lich's magical body not designed for handling the sheer magnitude and damage of Frostmourne's powers. With a sigh, he felt the plague run dry, the quivering form of Celestia lying still. She was bloody, and had a rather ugly scar along her chest.
But she was alive.
Not many creatures can say they survived a mortal wound from the Blade of the Damned.
As the last of his body unraveled, Kel'Thuzad sighed in relief, shooting what little power he had left towards his king before he entered the void, ready for resurrection.
She... she will live. Keep her... warm...
.........
Darkness.
.........
Shining gasped as the plague dissipated, the ivory bone of his skeleton reveled up into his mid barrel, the top of his right foreleg already rotted away.
But Celestia was alive.
Cadence was happy.
And he felt...
Tired...
The prince collapsed, his bony forelegs clattering as he impacted against the crystal flooring.