Twilight Sparkle's Lessons in Azerothian Magic

by Lich-Lord Krosis

Chapters

Introduction to Necromancy: Adapting to the Craft
Lesson 1: A Loss of Innocence
Lesson 1: One Teacher to Another
Lesson 1: The Fresh Corpse
Lesson 1: Perseverance Unmatched
Lesson 1: Recap Between Liches
Lesson 1: Building Bridges
Lesson 2: Forms and Characteristics of Undeath, Part 1
Lesson 2: A Cautionary Tale
Lesson 2: The Plague of Undeath
Lesson 1: Complications

Introduction to Necromancy: Adapting to the Craft

"Twilight."

.........

"Twilight."

.........

"TWILIGHT!"

The violet mare wrenched her head up from the desk, her mane a mess from the all-nighter she had pulled the previous day. Her bloodshot eyes darted around, searching for the cause of her disturbance. She eventually stared into the scarlet red eyes of her teacher, who's skull was plastered with a look of 'Really?'.

"Twilight, if you are not well, we don't have to continue today..." Kel'Thuzad explained, floating back up to his full stature. Twilight's eyes widened even further at the thought of cutting her lesson early, and she used a burst of magic to slap herself lightly, the drowsiness leaving her body for a few moments.

"No! I'm fine!" She exclaimed, a tired smile adorning her face. The lich looked down at his apprentice curiously, before chuckling lightly, and floating back to the front of the room, his icy form leaving a small trail of frost behind him. Kel'Thuzad turned to the mare once more, a smug grin decorating his skull.

"Really!" Twilight urged, her eyes already falling.

"If you say so, Twilight." Kel'Thuzad said. He turned back to his makeshift desk, sifting through the papers that were gathered on top of the frosted wooden surface. The lich glanced back up to his apprentice, only to see her head gently fall to the desk once more, disrupting the small pile of notebooks and papers atop it. Kel'Thuzad grinned.

"Twilight, what did you stay up reading this time?" he inquired in a snarky tone, his arms crossing in front of his ribcage.

.........

"Twilight?"

.........

"Mmmmm... five more minutes, Spike..." Twilight groaned, her forehoof coming up to her closed eyes to shield them from that little extra bit of light. With a half-irritated, half-amused groan, the lich slowly floated to the unicorn's side, a single pointed finger igniting with cold fire. Chuckling evilly, the archlich poked her left flank slightly, the unicorn almost squealing in surprise and mock-pain, the intense cold of the cryomancer's magic jolting her awake.

"Got your attention now, Miss Sparkle?" the lich mocked. The violet mare nodded quickly, her eyes wide from the jolt of frost magic. "Good. Now, if you will be so kind as to tell me why you are falling asleep during class?"

"I... I was reading up on Equestrian necromancy. Anything I could find. There are records here and there of how the process of reanimation is performed, but I spent hours trying to figure out how to..." the lich stopped her with a raised hand.

"Twilight, I won't lie. Compared to Azeroth, Equus' magic is... lacking. Quite poorly, in fact." Kel'Thuzad proclaimed, the mare already looking saddened beyond words from the insult. "In terms of complexity, the magical schools of Equus' teachings and spellbooks are choppy, and simple. If you are to learn necromancy, I will need you to forget nearly everything about Equestrian magic. Save using your horn, of course." the lich smirked.

"But... I... I've learned everything from Equestrian spellbooks! How am I going to forget EVERYTHING?!" Twilight groaned, her head slamming dramatically to the desk, making her teacher's red pupils roll in their sockets.

"Twilight, you misunderstand. I'm going to teach you to dig far deeper than you could before. Teach you how control forces you couldn't even comprehend existed. Teach you to control life and death!" Kel'Thuzad proclaimed, his claws rising further to the ceiling for dramatic emphasis. Twilight's eyes widened in fascination at the lich's promises.

"Ok... I'll try!" she happily exclaimed, her teacher smiling down at her in silent praise.

"That is all I can ask, Twilight." Kel'Thuzad said. "Now, tell me. What do you know of necromancy, from what you've read?"

Twilight's hoof raised to her chin, her head propped atop it.

"Well... I've learned that necromancy is a quite intermediate school of magic. Arguably the most difficult to learn, it requires an extensive knowledge and degree of control over arcane energies beforehand." the lich nodded at her, beckoning her to continue silently. "It is a combination of restorative magics and conjuration, blended perfectly together into a sort of hybrid magic. It is versatile, volatile, and extremely dangerous if used incorrectly."

"Good. GO on, please." Kel'Thuzad nodded, scribbling a few notes down on his own notepad.

"While I originally thought of necromancy as a vile and disgusting perversion of magical law, the fact is quite the opposite. Necromancy is a careful intersection, a sort of bridge from one school to the other."

"Well spoken, continue." Kel'Thuzad praised once again, his quill scribbling away on it's own, suspended by a cloud of frosted air.

"Necromancy, as far as Equestrian records go, is primarily a summoning school. It is used to rejuvenate and restore vitality to dead flesh, creating a sort of pseudo-life, known as undeath. As far as the reanimation process is concerned, I have little to no knowledge." the mare finished, leaning back into her chair. She sipped a bit at the coffee that Kel'Thuzad slipped unto her desk while she spoke, nodding to her teacher as she drank the concoction.

"Well, Twilight. I expected nothing less from a studious young unicorn such as yourself, but I want to make one thing VERY clear..." Kel'Thuzad waved his hand, moving his notes to the side. "I am not teaching your Equestrian necromancy. You will learn as I did, one way or another... minus the torture..." he chuckled. The mare giggled nervously, but listened on.

"You will be taught Azerothian necromancy, a volatile and caustic practice. I will not lie when I tell you necromancy in any case is messy. It will test your limits, and expose them." Kel'Thuzad spoke, the mare nodding once more in understanding. "You will be taught how control the vitality and energy of living and dead things. To bend the ebb and flow of the battlefield to your whims and wants. To raise the dead and cull the living."

"Is the violence really necessary?" Twilight nervously asked, her teacher turning to her.

"Twilight, as much as you may deny it, necromancy is a violent school. Primarily used for warfare and combat. While it has it's benefits off the battlefield, as you've seen before, it was created and engineered for violence." Kel'Thuzad looked to the trembling mare, his heart sinking slightly as he did. He quickly shook it off.

The sooner he got this out of the way, the better.

"You will be controlling life..."

"And death..."

"You already know how to use life, in part. You are amongst the living. To become a necromancer, you have to learn to bridge the gap between the two. To become a conduit for forces of both sides." Twilight nodded. "You have to learn to control the death as you do life..."

"H-How?" Twilight shivered, the room suddenly feeling a lot colder than before. Kel'Thuzad hesitated once, but stood firm.

"Twilight, when I taught necromancy back on Azeroth, I demanded only one thing. Proof of conviction. Proof that you wanted to learn the secrets of a magic, regardless of it's use and properties." Kel'Thuzad snapped his fingers, a single leather-wrapped case popping into existence before him.

"You know how to control life..."

The case popped open, and an item floated over to the desk Twilight sat at. A metallic thud echoed through the room as the object impacted an empty part of the small table.

"You must now learn to control both life..."

Twilight grasped the tool, the sickening sound of metal on leather filling her ears.

"And death..."

Twilight gasped for air, the small, curved form of a dagger impacting the desk once more.

"What... what do you want me to do?!" Twilight whimpered, quite obviously confused and afraid. Kel'Thuzad spoke one word in return.

"Kill."

"Nothing big, mind you. Or sentient, for that matter. But kill. Once you have killed, bring the corpse back to me."

"This is the first and arguably the most difficult hurdle to jump, Twilight. I will think no less of you if you do not come back with it. There are always other schools..."

In an act that surprised even the lich, she spoke.

"NO! I...I'll do it. I'll kill something..." she choked, tears flowing freely down her face. She gently gripped the knife, sliding it back into it's rugged sheathe, shaking horribly.

"Very well. This lesson is through, then."

"Good luck, Twilight Sparkle."

Author's Note

Thank god that I finally got around to making this. I was trying to find a way to separate the lessons in the original story, but I realized that by the third session, it took up too much time and space.

So, these lessons will be posted here, in episode-like patterns. Other characters will make appearances here and there, but it will primarily teacher and student.

Lesson 1: A Loss of Innocence

Twilight sat at her desk back in Ponyville library, her muzzle hung to look at the surface of the table before her. The desk itself was covered in every assortment of book and scroll imaginable, all either worn from use or abuse. At the top right corner of the mahogany desk, a small jar sat filled with pencils and quills. Several inkwells surrounded the jar, most already opened and staining the table around themselves.

But Twilight wasn't focused on her books or scrolls.

She wasn't writing, or taking notes.

Her tired, weathered gaze was fixed upon the small, curved instrument in the center of her desk. The five-inch blade of the dagger glinted in the gentle glow of the candle atop the desk, the strange runes adorning the weapon glowing lightly with light-blue magic.

Was she really going to go that far for magic?

Murder?!

.........

No.

It wasn't murder.

She... she'd go out. She'd find... something!

An old rabbit, or a sickly squirrel!

They... they would die soon, anyway.

She was just speeding up the process a bit...

.........

Twilight shook her head, trying to rid herself of these... dark thoughts. She considered Kel'Thuzad a close friend, even after all that had happened between them, but the lich was instructing her to break a rule that she had been taught from a very young age. Never kill.

Common sense, in hindsight.

"Twilight?"

Twilight's form jumped at the sudden voice form behind her, the mare scrambling to slam the dagger back into it's sheath, before covering it with a scrap of paper. She whirled around, her bloodshot eyes squaring on her little brother, the small dragon looking at her with wide eyes after her little outburst of panic.

"Twilight?" Spike asked, gently padding up to the mare, his eyes and muzzle turning from surprised to concerned in an instant, the small dragon quite obviously concerned for his sister. Twilight sighed, sniffling lightly before falling into her surprisingly strong little brother's grasp, the little guy enveloping her in a hug.

Don't... don't do it...

"Y-Yeah, S-S-Spike?" Twilight sobbed lightly, Spike's grip tightening at her sounds of sadness.

"Twilight, are you okay?" Spike asked, attempting to pull away, only to be pushed further into her embrace by the tingling telekinesis of the unicorn mare. Twilight breathed out slowly, her lungs attempting to refill with new oxygen after crying.

"No Spike. I'm not." Twilight revealed, her eyes opening to see...

"AGHH!" Twilight screamed, her hooves pushing her little brother away from her, the sickening sight of the leather-wrapped handle of the blade protruding from his chest, a small line of crimson life-fluid trailing down from the gash. Spike looked down to his chest slowly, his claw reaching clumsily forwards to smear some of his blood unto his finger. HE shuddered as his pinky brushed against the hilt of the dagger, the weapon cutting deeper into him as a result, producing another small gush of blood to gurgle from the incision from around the blade.

"Twilight..." Spike whimpered, his fingers reaching up to his face, the room's color starting to drain rapidly from his vision. Twilight's hooves twitched lightly, the mare's face almost obscured by her mane. Tears flooded from her eyes, her second-long thought evolving to murder before her. Spike shuddered once more, the small dragon collapsing forward, the curved end of the dagger bursting from the back of his body, along with a sickening crack as the blade dug through the ribs protecting the front and back his organs.

Twilight wept, the mare falling to her knees as she mourned the sudden but planned loss of her brother, no amount of magic being able to save him now...

Not that it would matter...

.........

"Twilight!"

"Spike!?" Twilight's head rocketed up from her desk, the small dragon's voice disrupting the horrifying nightmare she had experienced. Without warning, the mare enveloped the whelp in a hug, the dragon wheezing as the crushing grip of his sister grasped him around the ribcage, before pulling him into her barrel.

"Spike! Thank Celestia! I... I... I'm sorry!" Twilight hysterically cried, the mare squeezing the dragon even tighter to her. Spike shrugged, hugging back as she cried her eyes out into the frill atop his head. He rubbed her back gently, soothing the retching mare, Twilight obviously needing some affection before she would make sense.

"Twilight... are you alright?" Spike asked, his claw reaching under her muzzle to bring it his to look her in the eyes.

"No, Spike. No I'm not." Twilight admitted sadly, her arms wrapping around him once more, the young dragon sighing before returning the embrace, soothing the mare once more.

.........

Twilight marched slowly, quietly through the Everfree Forest, her hooves making small indents in the light white powder covering the ground. Before her, grasped in her magic, the mare held the small dagger, poised and ready to strike if an animal decided to come to her instead. After another long and sleepless night, she had decided. With steel like determination, she had wrapped her neck in a scarf, and galloped off into the forest looking for an animal to...

Kill.

The word felt so horrible to say. Even to think. Twilight wasn't ignorant of her homeland's barbaric and often violent past, but she herself had never particularly enjoyed learning about the extensive and bloody conflict that took place before and after the establishment of the Equestrian nation. While she had learned the basics of combat from her first teacher, and she was heralded as the most naturally magically gifted unicorn in the last several centuries, her aggressive spells were rather pitiful when compared to most great wizards from the past.

A small rustle in a bush nearby alerted the mare, and her heart stopped in her chest. She whirled the blade of the dagger around to face the bush, and she stopped.

For several seconds, all that could be heard was Twilight's ragged breathing, and the pitter-patter of some small animal's feet impacting the snow from within the bush.

What now?

She had never fought anything to the death!

Maybe Kel'Thuzad was right, maybe she should ask to learn something else!

An entire world of magical applications and spells, and she just HAAD to choose necromancy, the magical manipulation of life and death!

"NO!" Twilight yelped, surprising herself at the outburst, half-frozen tears sliding down her muzzle, the frigid winter winds of Equestria biting into her skin from all sides now.

Her heart and very soul ached, the rational part of her mind wanting to run, to hide, to drop the knife and run back to her library!

But her curiosity bit at her brain, hard. She wondered what it would be like? To kill.

The mare shook her head, trying to think straight for even a moment.

As she did, a small rabbit peeked out of it's burrow before her, the entrance having been covered by snow until recently.

"AGH!" Twilight snapped, her curiosity and quick-thinking getting the best of her emotions.

In a snap of magical power, the rabbit was suspended before her.

In another snap, the blade of the curved dagger was through the back of it's neck.

In a final, sickening crack, the mare sobbed horribly, and wrenched the knife to the left, severing it's spinal cord.

With a cry of anguish, Twilight released the creature, it's lifeless body falling to the snow before her with a wet 'squelch'. Sobbing and retching, the mare heaved twice, the small amount of food she had had within her stomach spewing forth from her maw.

She cried.

For how long, she didn't know.

But she cried until the blood from the small animal reached her hooves.

.........

Kel'Thuzad was quite cross.

For several hours, the archlich had been digging through the depths of the Helm of Domination, desperately attempting to grab another fragment of soul that had alluded him. Several times the wailing consciousness had been grasped by his magic, only to slip free from sheer luck.

Finally, the lich conceded for the day, angrily smacking the helm to the floor with a clatter of metal on crystal.

Not that the helm was damaged in any way, however.

Demonic magic combined with saronite made sure of that.

With a start, the lich was turned to look to his makeshift door, the small outline of a pony knocking at it's frozen surface form the hallway. Kel'Thuzad frowned, not expecting company this late at night.

With a flick of his wrist, the magical barrier melted, and the cloaked pony walked in, ignoring the lich's questioning. Before it, a small bag floated in a pool of light purple magic.

"WHO ARE YOU TO DARE..." Kel'Thuzad stopped when he saw a single red droplet of fluid seep from the bag. With another flick of his wrist, the hood on the cloak the pony was wearing folded back, revealing the most distraught mare the lich had seen since he had arrived in Equestria.

Twilight sniffled lightly, and dropped the bag, before running forward.

She embraced the lich.

Why, she did not know.

But her mind didn't care right now.

She needed comfort from a friend.

BADLY.

Kel'Thuzad was taken aback by the mare's advances, but he recovered quickly, the affection being returned by the heating of his bones, and a single arm wrapping around Twilight in tandem. He gazed behind the wailing mare, to witness a slain rabbit inside of the now unfolded bag, the blade he had given her still lodged in it's neck.

Gods... What have I done?

Lesson 1: One Teacher to Another

"Mind explaining why my apprentice has not sent a friendship report to me in over a week, Kel'Thuzad?"

The alicorn had just melted her way through his door, ruining the enchantments over it in the process.

The undead mage snorted, half in amusement, half in annoyance. He pivoted his form to face the solar princess, a look of passiveness decorating his rather plain face.

Really? Friendship Reports?

The complex and time consuming enchantments lost in the blaze of the goddess' fire alone was enough to cause the lich a metaphorical headache. Not to mention the fact that he was not on the best terms with the princess, ever since he had discovered her rather foolish decision to hide the truth about his master's bloodline. Though, for the sake of diplomacy, and to save his king the headache, he had been instructed to at least be civil with the mare.

That didn't mean, however, that he would make it easy for her...

"Don't you mean OUR apprentice, Celestia?" Kel'Thuzad smirked. The alicorn did not look amused in the slightest, her eyes showing her genuine concern for her daughter-in-law.

"Please, Kel'Thuzad. I don't want more bad blood between us, what with all that business with Nightmare Moon..." Celestia pleaded, her eyes showing concern once more. Kel'Thuzad thought for a moment, and came up with a blank as to why he should lie.

"She... she recently passed her first and arguably most difficult test in the art of necromancy..." Kel'Thuzad admitted.

Two can play at this game, Celestia...

"What kind of test?" Celestia's brow raised, only half-buying the information the mage had given her. Kel'Thuzad sighed. Celestia looked at him inquisitively, her face making the admitting of his... 'test' all the more embarrassing.

"I... I had her kill a rabbit."

The lich mentally prepared a balance between a fast and strong ward in his mind. The archlich knew he was most likely no match for the solar alicorn in a one-on-one fight, but the magical shield would hopefully hold up against a few seconds of smoldering heat, should the need arise.

.........

"That's all?"

.........

"Yes?"

"I find that kind of hard to believe." Celestia proclaimed, her flank plopping down unto one of the many half-frozen chairs in the lich's chambers.

Kel'Thuzad couldn't believe it. This mare, who so elegantly preached peace and harmony for centuries, wasn't surprised about her star pupil committing murder?!

"I told an innocent woman to murder something." the lich deadpanned. "You don't think that would scar you?" Celestia looked at him as if he had skin once more.

"What's a woman?"

Kel'Thuzad sighed, laying his large claw over his face.

Damn these subtle differences...

"A human mare."

"Ah." Celestia said, her head swiveling subtly to take in the rather odd surroundings of the room. In the near center of the room, an ornate circle was drawn, the center of which was decorated by a large rune, visibly wafting arcane energies. Opposite the door, a large crystalline throne sat up against the wall, the back of which was literally carved into the shape of a spine. The arms of the chair were made of elaborate carvings of ice and wood. On a desk nearby, the spellblade Kel'Thuzad had used to on multiple occasions was suspended in midair by a magic field. Nearby, a small urn was lain upon the desk, emptied of it's contents. A small pile of books and scrolls occupied the rest of the small table.

"But seriously, that's all she did?" Kel'Thuzad looked at the solar goddess inquisitively, her behavior rather... suspicious.

"Yes... but it was the manner of murder which I gave her that might have... scared her..." Kel'Thuzad guiltily sighed. Celestia cocked her head, not imagining a way this could have spooked Twilight. Blood and gore didn't scare her, that she knew for sure. She was there when she dissected and skinned a frog in several seconds, for gods sake!

Not to mention that she was SIX at the time.

"How did you tell her to kill it?" she asked, uncertain if she wanted to know the answer. Kel'Thuzad stared at her for several moments, before snapping his fingers, the limp form of the recently cleaned rabbit snapping into existence within his frigid grasp. Celestia yelped when he threw the rabbit to the floor before her, the rodent's corpse sending up a cloud of frosted vapor form the impact point.

"See for yourself." the lich beckoned, gesturing to the corpse. Celestia carefully grabbed the rabbit with her own magic, before expertly and efficiently searching the fur of the rodent for any singe marks or magic residue.

None.

She then flipped the rabbit around gently, discovering a hastily yet masterfully stitched patch of skin on one side of the neck of the creature. Parting the fur lightly to examine it, the alicorn was more than surprised to find the marks of a blade.

A very sharp blade.

Whatever had pierced this unfortunate creature's hide and flesh was sharp enough to actually puncture through the skin, not tear it, as a normal blade would.

"What kind of blade did this?" Celestia asked somewhat carefully, not quite sure if she wanted to know. Kel'Thuzad looked up from a book, attempting to think of an answer that would be simple enough to explain.

"Saronite." Kel'Thuzad snapped his fingers once more, a small dirk, identical to the one Twilight had used to kill the rabbit, popped into existence before her. The blade glinted in the gentle light of the blue flames of the hearth, and was wickedly sharp. "A metal forged from evil, essentially."

"And you make this, how?" Celestia asked, her stance turning defensive in an instant at the description of the metal. Kel'Thuzad took note of this, and chuckled lightly.

"Don't be alarmed, Celestia. Even if I WANTED to make more of the metal, I'm missing a very crucial part of the process..." Celestia had meanwhile taken the blade in her magical grip, and was testing the swing. With several, graceful swings, the knife had sliced clean through the air, not a single sound accompanying it. As far as blades go, it was a masterpiece. A work of deadly art.

The blade itself weighed heavily upon her grip, more so than her sparring rapier back in Canterlot. An unusual quality for such a tiny weapon...

But... she felt... wrong. Something about the dagger made her feel uneasy. Like a pair of eyes was watching her from behind.

Her head whipped around to check her surroundings once more, just to be sure they were alone.

"What ingredient are you missing, exactly?" Celestia stammered lightly, her skin growing cold as she gently set the knife down upon the coffee table between them, next to the rabbit.

"The blood of an Old God." Kel'Thuzad near-whispered, his usual tone softened by the mention of the component.

"An... Old God?" the alicorn asked, an unusual chill running down her spine and up her wings at the mere mention of the mysterious entity. She simply shrugged it off as the wind, but that feeling of depression, of anxiety, weighed heavily upon her mind once more...

Kel'Thuzad nodded. "An Old God." Kel'Thuzad was up once more, his arms waving once to conjure a small image from thin air, the surface rippling before clearing to show...

"AHH!" Celestia genuinely screamed and yelped, her magic shooting at the abomination that was just shown to her. She knew not why she reacted so violently, but the horrific aberration that the lich had just shown her had awakened something she hadn't felt in at least...

A thousand years...

"I take you have seen something of the like before, from the look on your face." Kel'Thuzad observed, his arms crossed behind his back. Celestia gently shook her head.

"I... I have not. But... I've felt that fear before. That sense of dread..." Celestia trailed off, her sentence becoming whispers, nearly inaudible.

The lich thought for a long while, before clearing his throat.

"So, Celestia. I have a proposition."

With a jerk of her head the princess indicated her curiosity.

"What is this proposition, Kel'Thuzad?"

"I would like to offer my services to you, for education on whatever you wish to know about Azeroth." Celestia's gaze softened at the invitation. "At the very least, this will help mend the friendship that we both have sullied." For a long while, the room was silent, save for the unnatural rasp that accompanied each of the lich's meaningless, frostbitten breaths.

.........

"I accept, on one condition..."

"Which is?" asked the lich, his arms crossing before him.

" I would like to know everything I can about these... Old Gods..." Celestia stammered lightly, before continuing. "I... I believe I have something that might interest you greatly, Kel'Thuzad..."

Lesson 1: The Fresh Corpse

"Twilight?"

"Yes, Kel?"

"Are you sure you are ready to proceed? I don't want to force you into anything..." the lich began, only to be cut off by the violet mare once more.

"No. I won't let the first lesson deter me that easily. I'm ready to proceed whenever you are." Twilight smiled, earning a chuckle from the alabaster alicorn in the room, humorously sitting at the diminutive desk next to her. Kel'Thuzad took a second to compose himself, the mares before him amusing him greatly.

"Very well." Kel'Thuzad waved his claw once, the small ice block atop his own desk shattering with a sound of glass breaking. As the frosty mist cleared, the preserved corpse of the rabbit that Twilight had killed revealed itself once more, not a speck of decay or rot on it, despite it having been dead for nearly three weeks. At the rabbit's appearance the unicorn visibly cringed, shying away from the corpse. A comforting wing draped itself over her, the alicorn next to her giving her a gentle nod, along with one of her signature serene smiles. Twilight took a deep breath, smiling in return. She scrambled back up, sitting up straighter in her chair, a smile of determination once again present on her muzzle.

"In continuation of our discussions and studies on necromancy, we will begin with the rather simple anatomy and physical effects of the magic." Kel'Thuzad waved his hands once, a small black rat popping into existence upon his desk. The rodent looked about curiously, obviously confused on how it had gotten there. "Now normally, a body's natural magical resistance to necromantic energies has an obvious effect..."

With a snap of his bony fingers, the small rat was in it's death throes, patches of fur turning dull white before falling off. The two mares across the room cringed in disgust and some horror as the rat's squeaks and soft yelps of pain devolved into a dull wheezing sound, followed by silence. Quickly, the rat's body was disintegrated into a pile of light grey dust by the overwhelming strength and volatility of the rather simple spell.

"As you can see, necromantic energies are quite toxic and deadly to living things, unless properly controlled and regulated. For instance, had I wanted to, I could have killed and reanimated that rat without you even noticing the changes! It's all about practice, and how much power to funnel into the channeling process..."

"So... its as simple as that?" Celestia asked, quite dumfounded that such an obscure and powerful form of magic would be so simple to practice and use. Kel'Thuzad let out a guffaw, and sniffled a few times.

"Yes, simple reanimation is as easy as that. When we get to reconstruction, constructs, revenants, blood magic, and artificial sentiency is when it gets difficult, Celestia..." the lich grinned, turning back to pile of dust sitting on his table. "Reanimation is only the first of many steps in the chain..." The lich whirled around to face the two again, a smile decorating his skull.

"So, Miss Sparkle. Have you ever performed a complete dissection of a creature before?" Kel'Thuzad asked, his hand waving once to send the lifeless rabbit towards the mare's desk, floating on a cloud of greyish-blue magic. Twilight nodded quickly, her eyes still rapidly darting between her teacher and the dead rodent approaching her.

"I... I've dissected and skinned frogs, but nothing too serious, no." Twilight chuckled nervously, the rabbit falling the two foot height to hit her desk with a dull *thud*.

"Now... normally, an aspiring necrolyte of the Scourge would have to familiarize him or herself with the anatomy of the dominant species' corpse..." the lich began, earning a look of fear from the unicorn, and a look of minor disgust from the alicorn. "But at the request of both your brother, and your mother-in-law, I have altered the course to first begin on more... benign terms." Kel'Thuzad looked to Celestia, the alicorn giving him a nod to continue, a gentle smile adorning her muzzle.

"So... you want me to dissect it?" Twilight asked, her magic already lifting the small rabbit off of her desk, it's lifeless eyes boring into hers. Kel'Thuzad nodded, and spoke.

"I want you to take it apart."

The mare looked to him in confusion, only to be met with a face of dead seriousness. She laughed nervously, her hooves fidgeting.

"With these..." Kel'Thuzad added, snapping his fingers. When he did, a small portal opened above Twilight's desk. Through the portal, a small roll of cloth fell through, thudding metallically against the wooden table. The cloth unrolled itself, and the mare's looked at the instruments with a dreadful case of morbid curiosity. There must have been maybe ten tools wrapped up in hat cloth, and every one of them was recently sharpened, shined, weighted, and oiled.

From the looks of it, they were the tools of a torturer, a maniac. Several types of knives and scalpels. A wickedly sharp pair of shears, most likely used for cutting flesh and ligaments. A large saw was next to that, the teeth of which were worn and dented, but still deadly sharp. A pair of wrought iron tongs were next to the saw, with uneven edges, presumably to grasp things easier.

"Kel'Thuzad... what are these?" Celestia inquired, holding up a large knife to her face, to examine the edges of the blade, which had several large dings. Kel'Thuzad floated over to the two, and gestured to the tools.

"These, my dear ladies, are dissection and embalming tools." Kel'Thuzad grabbed the small patch of enchanted frostweave cloth they were wrapped in, to display a humorously badly stitched 'KT' on the opposite side. "My personal set, in fact..."

Almost immediately, Celestia dropped the cleaver to the desk, recoiling back away from the blade.

"You've used these?!" Celestia accused, shooting a glare at the lich, who chuckled lightly at her panic.

"Not in several hundred years, no." Kel'Thuzad grinned, snapping his fingers at the though that shot through his mind. "Oh, and that reminds me..."

The lich floated back to his desk, before sifting through a small pile of paperwork and scrolls that adorned it, before grabbing a small iron tool out of the midst of it, no longer than a pencil. He floated over to the alicorn, before presenting her the small rod of metal.

"What is this?" Celestia hesitantly gripped it with her magic, examining it closer.

"A bone rasp. Might want to hang unto that if you plan on courting my brother." Kel'Thuzad smirked. Celestia stammered, and blushed. Twilight slowly turned to her mother-in-law, and gasped.

"You... you're dating Marrowfrost, princess?" Twilight asked, genuine confusion covering her face. Celestia's mouth rose and fell for several moments, before sighing. She nodded, smiling gently.

"Yes, Twilight. Please don't go telling your friends or anything, though. We want to keep it... private, for right now." Celestia insisted, before turning to Kel'Thuzad. "Thank you, Kel'Thuzad. I appreciate the gift." she half-told the truth. While she loved Lal'theron, and certainly didn't mind in the slightest that he was a... well, a skeleton, his pelvic bone tended to dig into her back when he was the big spoon. Hopefully a small 'adjustment' tonight would fix that...

"Not a problem at all, Celestia." the lich chuckled, before looking to Twilight, the mare having enthralled herself in the tools of the trade once more. She currently held a small syringe up to her face, trying to examine the clear liquid within more closely.

"Kel, what is this?" Twilight asked without looking away from the needle. Kel'Thuzad chuckled at her childlike curiosity, before indulging her question with an answer.

"Formaldehyde." Twilight looked to the lich, quite obviously not knowing what the chemical was. The lich remedied that quickly.

"Embalming fluid, Twilight." the mare quickly put the syringe back into it's original space on the cloth, and then turned to the rabbit.

"So... do you want me to begin?" Twilight asked, the mare seemingly anxious to start. Kel'Thuzad nodded, and floated backwards, giving the unicorn mare some room to work.

"Yes Twilight. I want you to carefully and meticulously take this rabbit apart, and organize it's body parts into three groups."

With that, the lich humorously held up the only three fingers on his claw.

"Bone."

"Skin."

"Flesh."

Lesson 1: Perseverance Unmatched

Shining Armor snorted violently, his massive hooves crashing down unto the crystalline flooring of the palace. An influx of cold entered the Royal Quarter as the Lich King strode past the stone-faced guards at the entrance. The guards themselves, while trying desperately to ignore the cold, the sheer frigidness of the otherworldly wind seemingly pouring from their monarch caused them to shiver uncontrollably.

Still, they saluted their prince as he stormed past, valiantly attempting to keep their forms from shaking in the cold winds that followed him.

The Lich King paid them little attention, merely snorting once more in acknowledgement of their respectful gesture.

Now, Shining Armor was not mad at his Archmage.

He wasn't mad at the aged wizard's rather... unorthodox methods.

He was mad at himself.

Logically, he knew he shouldn't be. But somewhere in that chilled brain of his, he thought of this incident as a product of his own doing. He was the one who gave the OK for Kel'Thuzad and Twilight to begin their lessons. HE was the one who gave Kel'Thuzad his undivided trust.

HE was the one who wanted Twilight to be happy...

A lot of good it did now...

She was probably scarred for life now!

Not only had she ended the life of another creature, she had ended the life of three of it's future offspring!

The thought brought Shining back to his first... kill...

Not his proudest moment...

.........

He was still just a recruit in the Royal Guard back in Canterlot, on street patrol with a senior officer by the name of Glamor Blade. They were on their last hour of duty when a mare had run up to them, screaming and wailing like a banshee about her coltfriend trying to kill her. A large gash was cut down the side of her muzzle, the skin sickeningly peeling away from her face, exposing the soft flesh beneath. While Glamor Blade consoled the mare and called for a medic, he was ordered to find the coltfriend. He galloped away to the entrance of the building the mare had retreated from, drawing his shortsword as he ran.

As soon as he entered the apartment complex, he followed the blood. All the way up to the third floor. He could smell the sweat of the mare that had ran for her life, and the metallic stink of the blood that smeared the floorboards of the halls...

He was assaulted the second he reached the top of the third flight of stairs, the hot sting of a knife penetrating his left pauldron, digging in a few centimeters.

Without even hesitating, Shining had blindly swung several times with his shortsword, the first time hitting nothing but the plaster of the wall. The second and third time, however, the stallion had hit flesh. He opened his eyes to a horrific scene, straight out of one of the slasher horror films he forced Cadence to watch with him.

Only this was real...

Too real...

A large flap of muscle and flesh hung from the stallion's neck, exposing the filleted remains of the esophagus, and the gushing bottom half of the jugular vein. A second wound ran along the stallion's barrel, the front of his shoulder blades clearly visible through the deep wound. As Shining saw the panicked, crazed look quickly leave the dying stallion's eyes, he realized that he had just killed another pony. For the first time in his life, the young soldier felt the rush of killing, and the blissful sickness that accompanied it...

.........

Shining shook himself back to reality as he turned the corner into the dormitories.

There would be time to feel sorry for himself later. Besides, he had killed plenty since then, and not once did he regret his actions. In combat, it was you, or them.

Nothing personal, just survival.

Anyways, BBBFF duties awaited him.

His eyes darted around the long hallway, their azure-cloaked irises locking on to his wife's dainty form. With a smirk, the king rocketed forwards, using his massive wings a sort of catapult. Before his princess could even register his presence, he was kissing her, expertly using his wings' massive area to slow him, as well. Cadence pushed away, only to be met with the cocky grin of her husband.

"Shiny, not right now. This is serious! Twily is REALLY upset!" Cadence argued, although half of her mind was still stuck on the slightly peppermint taste of her husband's mouth on hers, the prince probably having partaken in a sizable amount of the Hearth's Warming treat recently. Shining's face turned to concern almost immediately, his form twisting to gaze into his archmage's room.

Twilight sat in a corner, the alabaster form of his mother-in-law wrapped around her protectively. Upon further inspection, the stallion saw...

A completely gruesome scene. Blood was all over the small crystal table Kel'Thuzad had used for Twilight's "Project". A neat pile of bones was next to a sickening pile of flesh and muscle, the life-matter still dripping blood. Next to that, a simple pile of skin sat, the white fur adorning it telling him that it was the rabbit's...

That's my little sister...

Never one to leave a project or assignment unfinished...

A gentle smile now adorning his face, he stepped forwards, entering the room.

.........

"No, for the last time, you are NOT allowed to touch me!"

The lich batted the prying stallion's ridiculous looking tools away, the unicorn huffing once, before attempting his examination once more. He was, once again, swiftly repelled by one of the archlich's chains, the metallic snake batting the stallion away. Undaunted, the rather proper looking stallion pleaded once more.

"But sir! Surely you can see the scientific gains of studying another creature? Of discovering things about magic that you have not yet seen?" the stallion scowled at the uninterested look upon the lich's face, wanting nothing to do with the stallion and his authoritative ways.

Ugh... This fool doesn't know how to take a hint!

The archlich reclined in his temporary ice throne, looking over the nearly empty throne room, court having mostly dispersed several minutes before, leaving only Lady Emerald Trot, himself, and this lunatic of a doctor, claiming to be from the 'Imperial Mage's Guild' of Canterlot...

Of course, Kel'Thuzad had done his homework on this 'Guild'. Founded several hundred years after the initial banishment of Nightmare Moon, its chief purpose was at first noble, wanting to unite a group of experienced and powerful wizards to advise the Celestia in her day-to-day activities and duties.

But of course, like all politics, the organization quickly went sour.

They began attempting to seize power for their chief race, unicorns, in a an almost racist fashion. They would blackmail and frame their injustices and crimes on Pegasi and Earth Ponies, attempting to siphon money away from the already struggling government. Power lead to corruption, and when Princess Celestia caught wind of it, she was quite unforgiving for the wrongful treatment of her little ponies.

In short, she had the head of the organization executed, and his prime underlings jailed for life.

Oh, and she cut their horns off. Not something that was particularly fun for them, seeing as their entire lives were magic.

Now, nearly seven hundred years later, the organization was watched closely by the Solar Goddess. It was but a shell of it's former self, the majority of the members not even accomplished wizards! Just greedy politicians and businessmen attempting to mask their greed through the gaining of knowledge...

Which is exactly what the stallion before him was trying to do...

Well then. I guess I'll just give him a little lesson, then...

"Now, are you going to comply, or am I going to have to get a Royal Order to examine you?" the snobbish stallion proclaimed, a shit-eating grin plastering his muzzle.

HA! Oh... this should be fun...

"Very well, then..." Kel'Thuzad smirked, bowing low out of his chair.

"Let us begin..."

In an instant, the pitiful excuse for a wizard was suspended before him, valiantly attempting but failing to break free of the chain binding him.

"UNHAND ME THIS INSTANT! GUARDS! GUA..."

With a snap of his fingers, the stallion's muzzle was blocked completely by the clear form of an ice block, two small holes left so that he could breathe.

"Now now, you were the one that said they wanted to learn, right?" Kel'Thuzad grinned evilly, wrenching another chain upwards, pulling his limbs in every direction, imitating a torture scene. Wriggling and squirming, the stallion's muffled screams only got louder, to the point of actually irritating the lich.

"Now, first and only lesson..."

"I'm dead." Kel'Thuzad droned emotionlessly, his scarlet eyes boring into the terrified gaze of the stallion suspended before him. "The law that gives you your 'Royal' power specifically requires the subject to be living, and therefore, doesn't apply to me...

"Which also means..."

Kel'Thuzad unfurled one dagger-like finger from his fist, the tip of which now rested below the stallion's frozen muzzle, threatening to puncture the soft flesh of his throat.

"I can kill you..." Kel'Thuzad dragged the finger downwards, imitating the slicing of his flesh. "And NO ONE can do a thing to stop me when I rip the soul from your husk..."

"Enough information for you, worm?" he smirked, the stallion's terrified eyes wide open, his body shaking from fear. He nodded up and down furiously, attempting to convey his understanding.

"Good. Now hold on."

A look of terror befell the stallion's eyes as he realized he was falling.

With a magical pop, the portal to Canterlot in the floor dissipated, the archlich sighing in relief at the absence of the pest. Without another word, Kel'Thuzad flopped back into his temporary throne.

.........

"These are the things that make me wish I could still enjoy a nice brandy..."

Lesson 1: Recap Between Liches

Kel'Thuzad rubbed the brow of his skull lightly, awkwardly watching the prince sitting next to him loudly chug the large bottle of lager that the bartender had forked his way mere seconds ago. With a smacking of his chilled lips, the prince brought the heavy glass container down upon the bar with a resounding *thud*.

"Another." Shining droned, his voice even and calm, despite the fact that he had just drank enough alcohol to kill a minotaur. The bartender, unsure of what to make of the spectacle, shakenly replied.

"Sire... I don't think..." he was cut off by the prince's hoof forking another several bits towards him. The middle-aged stallion looked up to his prince, as if questioning his actions.

"Another, please." he insisted, not looking up from the empty bottle before him. The bartender opened his mouth to reply, but closed it, a sigh exiting it instead. He nodded, trudging off to get another of the bottles from the back.

"Sire... I'm sorry for what I did to Twilight." Kel'Thuzad bowed his head in respect, the lich ready to accept his punishment. Shining snorted, but chuckled soon after, looking to his archmage.

"It's fine, Kel. I overreacted, bigtime." Shining turned back to the bar quickly, nodding in thanks for the chilled lager awaiting him. Holding the sizeable bottle up in respect, he downed half of it in a single gulp, barely a trickle escaping his maw. With a belch unbefitting a king, he announced his wish to speak once more. "And I thought I told you to call me Shining, Kel. We're a bit beyond formalities, yes?" he chuckled, taking another gulp of the burning drink.

"I'm sorry, Shining. It's been... difficult, adjusting to normal life."

Kel'Thuzad took a moment to look around the room. A large array of equines and other sentient animals covered the rather crowded bar, signaling the end of the work week.

"Well... normal is a subjective term, I guess." Kel'Thuzad and Shining shared a chuckle.

"So, how did Twily do, despite everything?" Shining inquired, his muzzle once again turning skyward in a futile attempt at intoxication. Kel'Thuzad took a moment to ponder his king's... addiction.

Now, it wasn't his place to judge, or to pry. But Shining had consumed more alcohol within the last few weeks than all of the Empire combined.

Kel'Thuzad did the math. Being the vizier of the Crystal Court gave him the access he needed to prove it, as well.

The only thing was...

It didn't matter!

Just the fact that Shining was an alicorn would have saved him from this unhealthy plight! The things he had learned from the small OUNCE of blood Lady Cadence had gifted the archlich on Hearth's Warming had revealed more about the immortal species than any philosopher or chemist in the history of Equestria had!

Of course, he was ordered to not publish any of it. Civil unrest at the fact that one of their beloved goddesses bled themselves for science would become a colossal problem. Regardless, Kel'Thuzad was honored that he was considered trustworthy enough to be given such a gift.

Back to the point, Shining's alicornhood along with his lichdom practically made him immune to all forms of weight gain or negative health effects, what with being dead and all.

In short, the prince could drink 200 proof moonshine for the rest of his immortal life, and not have a single side-effect.

Well, despite Princess Cadence probably insisting he stop drinking so heavily, seeing as such a change in diet would surely sour her taste for his lips.

"Kel, you alright?" Shining asked, waving a hoof in the lich's face rather rudely. Not that the lich minded, after all.

"Yes, sir- I mean, Shining?"

"How did Twilight do, despite everything?" Shining asked once more, nodding to the barkeep as he took his bottle away.

"Well, considering what she went through, what with all the murder, she performed amazingly." Kel'Thuzad explained, a hint of pride poisoning his echoing voice. "She missed only several small scraps of flesh on the ribs, and was remarkably thorough with her skinning."

"Good. I... I just didn't want her to freak out on you." Shining admitted. "You're already working overtime with the Helm, seeing as Cadence has been increasingly paranoid about my outbursts after... well... Chrysalis..."

Kel'Thuzad recognized a faint snarl from within his monarch's chest, indicating that it was not just the volatile and powerful magics of the Lich King influencing his thoughts and actions scarcely a week ago.

Kel'Thuzad, on the other hand, was rather on odd ends with Chrysalis and her... king. While the lich and the nerubian were colleagues back when they both served under the banner of Arthas' Scourge, and they were colleagues now under the banner of their new king, their relationship since their little scuffle had soured. Sure, the lich didn't blame Anub'arak for protecting his mate, even if it was a misunderstanding, but he was getting rather tired of being killed nearly every week now.

But, thanks to his brief instruction to his king on the fundamental basics of lichdom several weeks beforehand, he was able to return to the land of the living within an hour of his death, rather than the tedious week or so a lich normally requires on their own.

"Sire, if I may interject?" Kel'Thuzad asked, cursing himself for his forgetting of their agreement already. Shining seemed not to mind however, gently nodding as he stared at the new bottle of ice cold lager before him.

"Is there a reason besides the fact that Chrysalis attempted a hostile takeover of Equestria that you hate her?" the lich asked. Shining turned to him, a look of seriousness across his muzzle.

"The following conversation never happened." Shining commanded. "Are we clear?"

"Crystal, sir." Kel'Thuzad inclined his head. Shining sighed, beginning his tale.

"Do you know what changelings primarily feed on, Kel?" Shining asked, before taking a swig of his bottle, the icy liquid swirling down into his dormant stomach, only to be 'digested' into nothing by the caustic necromantic energies within him.

"Well, from what I've read, they feed on emotions. Particularly love, if I'm not mistaken. If love is not available, lust... will... suffice." Kel'Thuzad looked to his king, a look of sadness staring him back in the face. "Sire... did you and Chrysalis... fornicate?"

"Yes and no." Shining admitted, a choked growl coming from within his stomach. "I should have seen it... should have known..."

"Shining. Look at me." Kel'Thuzad uncharacteristically asked. Shining begrudgingly looked to his friend, waiting for the berating...

.........

Instead... he felt a pair of arms wrap around his barrel.

"It wasn't your fault."

"But I..."

"IT WASN'T YOUR FAULT, SHINING." Kel'Thuzad more forcefully commanded. "It won't happen again, either. A few subtle changes to Cadence's everyday appearance that even you wouldn't notice has assured that. If Chrysalis or anything else tries something, I'll know."

Kel'Thuzad withdrew from the embrace, and nodded to the king.

"Don't worry, I won't tell Cadence. Your secret will stay with me to the grave, no matter how long it takes me to reach it." Kel'Thuzad chuckled.

"Thank you, Kel." Shining smiled, bashing his hoof on the bar.

"Yes, sire?" the aging stallion asked, cleaning a mug with a wet rag.

"Get a shot of whiskey for the both of us..." Shining smirked, looking to his archmage's confused face.

"Shining... I can't..." Kel'Thuzad stopped once Shining held up a hoof. The whiskeys were placed before the two of them, and Shining gestured to his drink, before levitating his own.

"Not to drink, to toast, Kel." Shining smirked. Kel'Thuzad smiled, and carefully balanced the small glass cup between his pointer finger and thumb.

"To... to friends." Shining and Kel'Thuzad nodded, before clinking the small glasses together.

Maybe I'll let Cadence know about her husband's secret.

Considering that she already told me she knows, anyway...

Lesson 1: Building Bridges

The simple vial floated between the two immortals, the archlich stunned beyond words. To the untrained eye, the somewhat bluish-tinged red fluid filling the vial could be anything from slightly discolored blood to food-coloring, Kel'Thuzad knew better.

While not exactly saronite, the fluid within the vial was the closest comparison he had ever seen to the unearthly metal. Or at least it's liquid form.

The fact that Celestia owned this small vial of liquid surprised him greatly.

It also concerned him, but it intrigued him as well.

And his interest grew even more at the alicorn's hesitance to speak upon it.

"Where did you get this?" Kel'Thuzad's eyes diverted to the alicorn, her form reclined in a now thawed armchair near the hearth. She snorted, looking into the magical blue flame.

"The guards dispatched to oversee the reconstruction processes in the village of Ponyville found a puddle of it in their cleanup."

Kel'Thuzad set the vial down upon the desk, the blood within swirling about at the motion. Floating over to the goddess, he coughed lightly.

"The cleanup of what, exactly?" Kel'Thuzad asked.

"Discord's antics." Celestia huffed. Kel'Thuzad's left upper eye socket raised in question.

"Discord... as in the living embodiment of chaos?" Kel'Thuzad inquired, sitting in the armchair on the opposite side of the fire. Celestia nodded without looking away from the fire.

While Kel'Thuzad knew of the trickster and unpredictable entity through both Shining and Cadence's passing remarks about the creature, his actual knowledge was limited.

Well... if this IS actually his blood...

Maybe an Old God inhabiting Equus isn't so far-fetched after all...

"Celestia, I... appreciate the gift, but what exactly does this have to do with your visit?" Kel'Thuzad asked, his voice slowly growing softer as he thought.

Then, it dawned on him.

As any Azerothian scholar would know, Old Gods were unpredictable and violent, using immense and powerful magics and illusions for their own personal gain. They cared little to none about the often times catastrophic consequences of their actions, and would often times relish in the misery of mortals.

Either way, the Old Gods usually embodied an aspect of suffering, or other dark and malignant purpose.

Yogg-Saron was the physical embodiment of Death.

N'Zoth was the physical embodiment of Corruption and Impurity.

Y'Shaarj was the physical embodiment of Rage and Anger.

But the one Kel'Thuzad was most familiar with, was C'Thun.

And as he distinctively remembered, C'Thun was the Old God of Chaos. Madness in particular...

While the commander of the Scourge in the Eastern Kingdoms, the archlich had even actually COMMUNED with the aberration, the horrific, lidless eye seen from the other side of the spell seemingly whispering to him from inside his head. The two rulers of their respective lands agreed to a hastily formed truce, forging the ONLY peace treaty the Scourge ever honored.

Regardless, Kel'Thuzad had arrived in Equestria nearly two years after Discord's return and swift defeat. After seeing what liquid and solid saronite did to mortals and living things if left untreated...

It was nothing short of a miracle that Celestia was even remotely sane.

"Celestia... this blood came from Discord, correct?" he asked, the mare jumping in her seat. Shaking, she turned to the lich, her eyes wild and wide. "Celestia?"

"YES. Er... yes, it did." she exhaled, as if physically exhausted by the short conversation.

Now, Celestia was not exactly his favorite alicorn at the current time, but he knew better than to make enemies with her, for a number of reasons.

One. She would likely be more than a match for him in a one-on-one fight. Still, the two still had yet to have their friendly duel, as Celestia was still recovering from having her spine severed and insides ruptured and rotted by Frostmourne's unholy powers.

Two. If things continued to go well for both her and Lal'theron, she would eventually become his sister.

Three. Kel'Thuzad was smart. He knew that if he made an enemy of Celestia, it would do nothing but come back to bite him in the metaphorical ass, seeing as he lacked any flesh, or a pelvis for that matter. She co-ruled the most powerful single nation on Equus, and was immortal.

So was he, but that's besides the point.

She would be around as long as he was, perhaps even longer. Besides, she had already done him an immense favor by pardoning him of his 'murders' of the Cake twins.

He could deal with being an outcast, seeing as he was one for the large portion of his life on Azeroth, but Celestia...

Such an action lost her the respect of most of Ponyville for the foreseeable future.

So...

If Kel'Thuzad could help his... friend, he would. Even if that meant physical comfort.

I refuse to see why ponies like hugging me so much...

I have no problem with it, but it has to be uncomfortable, seeing as I'm literally nothing but bones...

"Celestia... are you alright?" Kel'Thuzad asked, carefully raising a claw to rest on her shoulder. Her ears perked up at the sound of his echoing voice, and her neck slowly turned to the lich, her eyes beginning to water. She shook her head, and quickly lowered her visage as she realized her tears, attempting to hide the sign of weakness.

"N-No..." she whimpered, her voice shaky and uneasy, her form trembling, the cold of the room suddenly much more apparent than before. Kel'Thuzad sighed, before getting up to float to his desk. Grabbing the first empty bottle he could find, he conjured some water, before pouring it into a hastily made cup of ice.

"Here, drink." Kel'Thuzad softly said, his voice startling her once again. She whipped around, her ethereal mane starting to droop around her head with sadness, providing a heart wrenching yet silly scene. Holding back a chuckle, the lich relinquished the cup to the goddess' magical hold, her muzzle tipping back before chugging the water quickly.

"Thank you, Kel'Thuzad." she started. "I... I've just never been seen as a... a..."

"Monster?" Kel'Thuzad finished, sitting back down.

She nodded, a sniffle sounding from her nose.

For a time, the room was quiet, save for the magical pops and crackles coming from the fire, and the gentle sobs from the princess.

"Kel'Thuzad?" Celestia asked. The archlich was quick to respond, his eyes looking up from a lengthy report on the total income of the mining industry for the empire in the last month.

"Yes?" he asked.

"Do you ever... regret anything?" she inquired, her eyes turning back to the fire.

.........

Good gods... were to begin...

"Yes. Yes I do." he responded, joining her in gazing into the fire. He gulped uselessly, waiting for the follow up question he knew was to come...

.........

"G-Good."

With a sob, the princess broke down, her wings and mane drooping completely, tears flowing down her muzzle to fall to the chilled floor far below. In move that surprised the lich, she lunged at him, embracing herself to his ribcage. Startled, the archlich canceled the ward that he was preparing in his left hand, before wrapping her in his bony arms.

"K-K-Kel?" she sobbed, her teary eyes looking up his sternum to his face far above, his stature easily dwarfing even her impressive height.

"Yes?" he softly replied, heating his bones to a comfortable temperature.

"I regret things too..."

"A lot of things..."

With another sob, she buried her muzzle in his chest, crying once more. Kel'Thuzad sighed, before levitating the least petrified blanket he could find from his useless bed over to them, before draping it over them, the heat from his magic warming it.

This needs to stop... I... I'll give it to him soon.

He's ready, and the Helm can't wait any longer...

Author's Note

GOOD GOD.

FINALLY.

I FINISHED THIS CHAPTER.

I'm sorry for the extreme delay, but ADHD combined with the loss of my muse temporarily left me crippled when it came to writing. Hopefully, I can get back to my schedule of two or three times a week for updates, but if not, bear with me.

Regards,

Lich-Lord Krosis
Dragon Priest of Sorrow

Lesson 2: Forms and Characteristics of Undeath, Part 1

"Ok Twilight... are you ready?" Kel'Thuzad asked, his claws clacking together with glee at their current location. Celestia eyed him diligently from beside her student, his gaze flickering to hers once.

The unicorn nodded, uneased yet fascinated with the monstrous and complex building that she sat in. On Celestia and his king's orders, Kel'Thuzad once again had to dial down the lessons, as he risked losing his only pupil in centuries.

Upon his hearing of Twilight's willingness to continue their lessons, the archlich decided that they would do less...

Hooves-on work...

Finally starting to get the hang of that...

They were currently in the construct quarter of of an imaginary Naxxramas once again, a few piles of 'materials' behind the archmage.

I would much rather do this aboard the REAL Naxxramas, where I can oversee others projects, but the Scourge’s presence would probably not be well received by the outside world...

Yet...

Still, one benefit of doing these lessons in his mind, Kel'Thuzad noted, was that it was easy for him to make examples.

And easy to acquire supplies...

Waving his claws slowly, methodically through the air, the archlich reached out for one of the piles behind him, deciding to show his student one of the most basic of all necromantic creatures.

With an eerie blue glow illuminating his claws, the lich started to form the structure of the construct, his student and her alicorn guardian watching as the seasoned necromancer turned a dusty pile of bones into a museum-quality unicorn skeleton, it's eye sockets flickering to unlife as it turned it's head to acknowledge it's master.

Satisfied with his work, the archlich finished his spellweaving, and cleared his throat.

"Ladies, allow me to introduce the skeleton, one of, if not the most basic necromantic minion at a necromage's disposal." at that, the skeleton turned to the mares, it's lifeless eyes studying them.

"Simple, yet fragile unless properly reinforced, the skeleton's role in a combat situation is incredibly malleable, able to learn quickly from instruction and command." Kel'Thuzad stated.

"What do you mean by 'reinforced', Kel'Thuzad?" Twilight asked, her quill and parchment already hard at work. Kel'Thuzad nodded in acknowledgement, a simple wooden table popping into existence before the mares, several tools and materials adorning it's surface.

Leather straps, long spiked rods of iron, and several scrolls, magic foreign to the mares wafting from the paper.

"Usually, a basic, pre-battle skeletal soldier is equipped with whatever it's role requires. Footmen are usually given heavy reinforcement, such as rods of iron fastened to their spines or other vital areas." Kel'Thuzad explained. "If their role requires simple archery or messenger work, they may recieve little, if any reinforcement, usually restricted to leather or linen straps to help fasten arms to shoulders or legs to pelvises.”

“Doesn’t your magic keep the skeletons together though?” Celestia asked, eyeing the construct warily.

“Yes, for the most part. But complications during battle, mainly damage sustained by the enemy, can inhibit the construct. While they are still incapable of feeling pain, that doesn’t stop their limbs from being removed or damaged.” Kel’Thuzad explained, lifting a rod of iron into his claws. “What would normally be a devastating blow to the spine is negated by a simple addition to the skeletal construct, preventing soldiers from falling in battle too quickly.”

As Twilight scribbled the last of her notes down, she raised her hoof.

Chuckling lightly, Kel’Thuzad responded to her act.

“Yes, Twilight?”

“You said that the basic, pre-battle skeletal soldiers received reinforcement and weapons...” Twilight faltered, biting back doubt as she prepared to ask the second half of her question. “What about the the other skeletons?”

Kel’Thuzad faltered just slightly, a sideways glance asking Celestia if revealing something so... morbid, was allowed.

She nodded, so he spoke.

“Well... generally, my necromancers were told to prepare their soldiers for combat before the battle began. But of course, as war usually goes, things do not always go according to plan...” the lich explained, Twilight beginning to regret her question.

“So, if combat was forced upon our necromancers or their acolytes, their were instructed to use burial grounds, churches, and graveyards to... improvise...” Kel’Thuzad spoke, hoping Twilight would not dig any deeper.

“So... if none of those were available, what would your soldiers do then?”

.........

Damnit...

“If none of those sources of bodies were available, my necromancers were told to find the least defended villages or towns nearby, and... make do.” Kel’Thuzad explained, clearly uncomfortable with continuing on the matter.

Nodding shakily, Twilight scribbled the disturbing bit of knowledge down, a shiver running down her spine as she did. She understood that the things that Kel’Thuzad and her brother’s predecessor had done were... atrocious, hearing the logic behind it was even more sickening.

Yet... logical.

A military force would be much more likely to resist an attempt to ‘create’ bodies than a civilian population would be...

“Twilight?”

“Yes?” Twilight jumped, her teacher’s echoing voice shaking her from her thoughts.

Kel’Thuzad frowned, his stature returning to full height.

Twilight was definitely... rattled.

Whether she would admit as much remained to be seen, but Celestia told him before the lesson that Twilight was very stubborn.

That she was quite incapable of thinking something was beyond her learning capabilities.

But still, Celestia had given him her blessing to teach the young unicorn, and until said unicorn said otherwise, he would assume she was willing to recieve his instruction.

Kel’Thuzad cleared his nonexistent throat, and in a burst of magic, the skeleton was gone, it’s ashes blowing away in an arcane breeze.

“Continuing on your question, I think I will show you something that may be the cheapest form of ‘soldier’ that the Scourge ever used.” Kel’Thuzad explained, his arms bathed in a spectral glow as he prepared the summoning.

“Miss Sparkle, are you more comfortable with a human or pony corpse?”

.........

“P-Pony?”

“Very well...” the lich droned, an arcane snap signifying the arrival of his latest... demonstration.

“Ladies, this is a zombie.”

.........

A gurgling groan filled the room, obviously startling Twilight, who’s eyes were deadlocked on the corpse standing before her.

While at first glance, the pony seemed normal, a thorough look over revealed the truth.

A sickening gash, about a foot long, was carved into the undead mare’s neck, exposing the side of the vertebrae, and the jugular vein hung from the wound, small drips of brownish life fluid still leaking from it. The front of her muzzle was rotted off, exposing the pony’s broken, bloodied teeth.

The mare’s eyes were dull and glassy, a yellow pinprick dominating he area where the iris was. They lazily drifted around, studying the two living ponies before her, before returning to their sluggish, erratic movement.

Her reddish pink fur was falling out in clumps, particularly around the ribs, which were clearly visible behind a thin layer of skin.

Her cutie...

Twilight gagged.

Her cutie mark was... it... it was...

Three small, smiling flowers...

“Goddesses...”

It was Cheerilee.

The zombie was Cheerilee.

“Twilight?”

The purple mare ignored the lich, slowly trotting up to the undead creature.

The zombie, reacting lightly to her presence, groaned, a small splatter of congealed blood leaking from it’s maw and throat.

Undeterred, Twilight walked up to the undead schoolteacher, ignoring the gut-turning smell of decaying flesh that assaulted her senses. With a gently shaking hoof she touched the pony’s left cheek.

It didn’t respond.

Kel’Thuzad and Celestia were silent, thoughts spiraling through their minds, attempting to decipher why Twilight had developed such a fascination with...

“Why?”

Kel’Thuzad regarded his pupil once more, her watering eyes staring daggers into him.

“Twilight... what are you?” Kel’Thuzad didn’t get to finish the thought as Twilight sobbed, falling to her knees before the undead earth pony.

“W-Why...” Twilight sobbed, and in a sickening display, wrapped her forelegs around the zombie, it’s skin and fur coming free at her rougher touch.

Twilight quietly admitted to herself that she didn’t know how to properly respond to this. Cheerilee has never been a close friend, or even a friend at all, but she had a friendly relationship with her.

She... she cared for her. Not out of love or lust...

But kindness.

Seeing the schoolteacher like this was... haunting.

A mockery, yet the same...

A shambling, rotting corpse...

But still Cheerilee.

.........

Kel’Thuzad dug deeper into his mind, recalling exactly WHERE he had come up with the template for the zombie, and he nearly smacked himself in he head for his stupidity.

He had seen her at the Hearth’s Warming party, chatting with Titus for a while.

Twilight knew this mare...

Shit.

Already, Celestia approached her student, wrapping both the zombie and the unicorn in her wings, braving the smell and sight to comfort her pupil.

Kel’Thuzad honestly did not know how to approach the situation.

So he just... waited.

And as Twilight’s sobs grew louder, he knew he was in for the long haul with his first pupil in almost a millennia.

A particularly loud wail made the mage wince.

The very long haul...

Author's Note

Due to popular demand, I am starting lesson 2 a little early. I had wanted something else to happen in The Crystal Vizier first, but chose this path instead.

Lesson 2: A Cautionary Tale

Kel’Thuzad awkwardly consoled the crying mare, her mentor having had to depart for an emergency meeting in Canterlot.

Hopefully it isn’t about Nightmare... the mare likes to live a little... too dangerously...

Twilight’s first movement in minutes besides sobbing alerted the lich, his attention now refocused on his pupil.

"Twilight?"

"Y-yes?"

"I'm sorry for doing that to you." Kel'Thuzad said, looking down his sternum into the mare's tear-filled eyes. Twilight sniffed again, her head slumping back into his ribcage for another hug.

"I... It's fine, Kel." Twilight tearfully chuckled. "I know it wasn't your fault."

Kel'Thuzad grimaced slightly at the remark.

But it WAS his fault...

He was the one that so stupidly used a mare that Twilight knew as a shambling, reanimated corpse.

For all the thousands of times he or his underlings had done something similar during the Third War and beyond, he could never imagine what it must have been like to actually experience it on the opposing side.

To have someone you interact with every day suddenly reduced to a rotting monstrosity hellbent on ripping you apart.

To know that no matter what you do...

You can’t bring them back...

.........

“Twilight?”

“Y-Yes, Kel?”

“I... I think I want to tell you a story, before we continue our lessons.” the lich softly explained, looking down into the mare’s face. Twilight sniffled, a hoof coming up to wipe her nose as she backed away from her teacher.

“What kind of story?” Twilight asked, her interest piqued at he prospect of any story that the lich deemed she was worthy of listening to.

Her brother had pulled her aside before their lessons had begun, and had briefly, yet sternly explained that she was not to go digging into him for stories about the things he had done under the previous Lich King.

Shining seemed... unusually stern with her.

Now, she loved her BBBFF, but something about the way he had spoken to her was... alien.

Even when she was a filly, he always chose softer words to warn her of danger, even after the mistakes were already made...

The way Shining spoke... it sounded...

“Twilight?”

Twilight’s head jerked up from her thoughts, her teacher having watched her little daydream for a few moments before interrupting her.

"Yes, Kel." Twilight smiled,tears still sparsely flowing from her eyes. "I'd love to hear a story."

The lich nodded, a quick muttering under his breath revealing a portal behind them.

"Twilight, I'm going to tell you the story of a man." Kel'Thuzad started, humorously carrying the small mare like a cat against his sternum with one arm as he turned to the portal, the warping reality beyond unformed and shapeless.

"The story of a man who's curiosity cost him everything..."

Twilight looked up to the lich, a mix of confusion and wonder filling her eyes as the lich started his tale.

"What was the man's name?"

The archlich laughed to himself, but the mare heard immense sadness behind the facade of joy.

"His name..."

The teacher and his student melded into the portal, their forms disappearing as the lich uttered the man's name.

"Was Kel'Thuzad..."

.........

Twilight watched with an awkward look an her face as a human Kel'Thuzad was berated by the Council of Six in his personal chambers.

"Why were they so angry at you, Kel?" Twilight asked, turning to the skeletal figure next to her, his eyes not having left his mortal form's plight since the moment they arrived.

Kel'Thuzad scoffed, a single pointed finger aimed at the robed figure of Antonidas, who's form was the closest to the desk, and who's voice was the loudest in his criticism.

"That is Antonidas, Leader of the Council of Six during my time in Dalaran." Kel’Thuzad spoke, his arm returning to his side. "While he was an brilliant mage, he had a tendency to... limit the Kirin Tor, in my opinion."

"How so?" Twilight asked, looking up at her teacher. Kel'Thuzad sighed, an image of Karazhan flashing into existence nearby.

"In my world, Twilight, there was a place called Karazhan. A place were all manners of powerful spells, tomes and books were sealed within when the tower's owner died."

'Spare my sister what you can about that place... for now...'

Kel'Thuzad faltered in his words, the cold chill running down his spine and the darkness in the back of his mind signifying that his king was, in fact, watching.

'Of course, my king. I will attempt to keep my example brief.'

Then, something odd happened.

Something that neither Arthas or Ner'Zhul EVER did.

His king laughed.

Not madness induced guffawing, or an ominous chuckle.

But a light-hearted laugh, presumably at his sister.

'Twilight is a stubborn mare, Kel'Thuzad. Just... be easy on her when you deny further inquiries.'

'Of course, my king.'

"Kel'Thuzad?" Twilight asked, head cocked to the side to stare at the lich. Kel'Thuzad chuckled lightly to hide his mental conversation's end, and held his claw to his chest.

"I'm sorry, Twilight. I admittedly lost my train of thought for a moment." he spoke, returning to his story.

"Now, when the previous owner of Karazhan, Medivh, died, a curse of unknown origin shrouded the tower." Kel'Thuzad explained, the mare nodding once to herself as she scribbled away on a piece of parchment.

"What did the curse do, exactly?" Twilight asked, looking up from her notes.

"Well... we were never able to figure that out." the lich admitted, his arms crossing behind his back. "All we knew, was that whoever chose to venture into Karazhan, would never come back out."

"Why were you unable to figure out a counterspell?"

Kel'Thuzad growled, an accusatory finger unfurling once again to point at his deceased colleague's memory.

"He forbade it." the lich snarled, an anger that the mare had never heard come from her teacher's voice present in his tone. "He told us that no good can come from the knowledge that Medivh, an immensely powerful mage, had collected in his library. He told us that demonic magics most likely tainted the collection, and that it was probably dangerous to even go near them..."

"Why would he think that?" Twilight asked, a frown on her face as she tried to make sense of the reasoning behind leaving an absolutely massive collection of books behind magical lock and key.

"While Medivh was a powerful mage, Twilight, he experimented in many different forms of magic, some considered... unsavory."

Twilight nodded, the pieces clicking together.

"Like necromancy?" the purple unicorn questioned. Kel'Thuzad nodded, memories that he had kept buried for centuries finally resurfacing.

"You see, Twilight, my mother was killed in a great conflict, known as the First War." Kel'Thuzad attempted, but failed to contain his emotions, hatred nearly FLOWING from his words. "The main perpetrators of the First War, and the adversary of my kind, were a race known as orcs..."

With that, a picture of an orc warlock appeared to his right. The mare nodded, her notes once again her focus.

"They arrived on Azeroth from a planet known as Draenor, via a portal." Kel'Thuzad explained. "At the command of their warchief, they began the process of attempting to take Azeroth for themselves."

Kel'Thuzad looked down, an urge to sob crushed by rage at the memory of his mother's death.

"Kel'Thuzad?"

The lich straightened himself, coughing once to clear his throat as he continued.

"My mother was one of the first to meet them in battle." he explained. "While she was an accomplished mage, and more than capable of handling herself, there was something that the orcs had that we had not expected..."

"Magic?" Twilight asked, her notes forgotten for the moment. The lich nodded.

"Magic." he growled.

"They raised our dead against us, Twilight. They used the bodies of our fallen against us." Kel'Thuzad explained, a tingling feeling filling his eyes, the remnants of what it would feel like to cry.

"My mother was run through from behind by a risen soldier."

.........

"Kel... I... I'm so sorry..." Twilight apologized, only to be stopped by the lich's hand, smashing the table next to him into splinters of frosted wood.

"Now... now you know why I wanted to learn..."

"I wanted to make sure that... that they would never be able to do that again."

"You wanted to learn a counterspell..." Twilight gawked, the truth finally dawning on her.

Kel'Thuzad nodded, his eyes raising to meet Antonidas' form one final time.

"And what did I get for my attempts?!"

"Abandonment... Criticism..."

With that... a frigid wind blew into the room, obscuring everything but a small figure in the distance, plodding slowly through unimaginably thick snow.

Before Twilight could even question where her teacher had gone, his voice echoed into her mind.

'I was cast out... exiled...'

'Forced to wander the frozen wastes of Northrend to seek my answers...'

The figure stopped, a shiver running through it as it's knees buckled, collapsing it into the snow.

'But... I was not alone...'

'Not entirely...'

"Kel, whats going on?" Twilight shivered, the figure she now recognized as Kel'Thuzad returning to his feet.

'The voice... now my only companion, guided me to my destination...'

'Icecrown...'

With that, the scenery changed, two gigantic, spider-like beings looking Kel'Thuzad's shivering body over as he passed them, venturing into a tunnel bored into a mountain.

'Inside, I witnessed truly horrific acts.'

'Experimentation...'

A horrific, patchwork creature was revealed to Twilight, it's stench alone enough to repulse her vision. She gagged, but continued watching through watering eyes.

'Cruelty...'

An image of a human woman ripping a man apart was flashed before Twilight's eyes, the mare feeling quite sick to her stomach now.

"Kel... please..." Twilight whimpered, beginning to shrink in on herself.

'Power...'

An immense army of the undead poured through Twilight's vision, her presence seemingly noticed by them, yet they payed her no attention.

'Power that could be MINE for the asking...'

Twilight openly sobbed now, darkness encroaching as images of Naxxramas were flashed before her.

'Terrified... I ran...'

'But did not get far...'

An image of Kel'Thuzad, beaten into submission by a circle of shadowy beings, was revealed to Twilight.

'All to soon... my choice was made.'

'Too late did I realize that such power does not come... without a price...'

"KEL, PLEASE!!!" Twilight shrieked, her form curled into a ball in the infinite dark surrounding her.

.........

"Now do you see, Twilight?"

The mare's head rocketed up at the real voice of her friend, his form entering her vision as they were returned to his dungeon quarters in the real world.

"Kel... I'm sorry!" Twilight exclaimed, a sob exiting her not long after.

"All I wanted was to learn, Twilight..."

With that, the lich raised his bony hands before him, for his pupil to observe.

"Be careful what you wish for..."

.........

"Kel... I... I want to learn." Twilight resolutely stated, wiping the tears from her eyes as she stood. "I want you to teach me."

"Just... please... please don't let that happen to me!" she sobbed, launching herself into a hug with the archlich, the skeletal mage scooping her up into his arms.

.........

"I will, Twilight."

"I will do my very best to teach you what I have learned."

"And... and I will not let you be taken. Not like I was..."

After that, the lich and unicorn were silent, taking comfort in each other's embrace.

Gods... what have I gotten myself into...

Author's Note

Your curiosity will be the death of you...

Lesson 2: The Plague of Undeath

Twilight cringed in some unavoidable disgust as the zombie in front of her continued to decay, courtesy of Kel'Thuzad's increasingly volatile plague magics.

"Uhh... is there a reason behind this, Kel?" Twilight asked, not sure what exactly to take notes on. As her sentence finished, a large chunk of blackened flesh fell away from the unicorn stallion's ribcage, a groan leaving his quickly decaying mouth.

Kel'Thuzad did not respond, his muttering of incantations cutting short as he finished up his side of the transformation. As the last of the greenish-yellow magics left his hands, the newly born ghoul growled rabidly, chunks of flesh and bone falling free of his body. Twilight watched in horror as the unicorn stallion became less and less recognizable as a pony.

Teeth designed for crushing and grinding were twisted and mangled, their structure reshaping to be used for biting and tearing. Nearly the entirety of the stallion's ribcage was exposed now, scraps of flesh and skin still hanging from a few of them.

The vast majority of the brown fur on his body had fallen out, and what hadn't was now a sickly grayish-white. His eyes, while still intact, were wild, bloodshot, and dominated by a yellow pinprick iris, that was visibly shrunken from the intelligent, appropriate size of a normal pony.

The stallion growled like a feral animal, tearing at the cobblestone floor they stood upon with mangled, greatly decayed hooves, attempting to find something, anything to kill.

While the zombie was a passive, slow killer, this... thing, was much faster, stronger, and violent than that.

Twilight, free of her trance, jotted some notes down as the stallion continued to decay. The horn had fallen off at some point, a jagged hole in the stallion’s forehead the only evidence of his species.

Her note taking was interrupted by another feral growl, bile and slime leaking like a broken tap from the creature’s mouth. A look of intense HUNGER plagued it’s crazed eyes...

And they were pointed directly at her...

Twilight squealed in surprise as the undead creature launched itself through the air with surprising speed and strength, mangled hooves outstretched, as if it were using them as a wolf would claws.

Summoning up a quick ward, the mare braced for the impact, fear and survival instinct pumping through her veins...

It never came.

With a sickening ‘CRACK’, the undead creature slammed into an invisible wall before her, a groan of displeasure leaving it’s twisted body.

“Twilight, this is what is called a ghoul.” Kel’Thuzad began, watching as Twilight relaxed some after her perceived attacker was restrained, the ghoul scratching, tearing, and even attempting to gnaw at the invisible wall before him to get to the mare.

“I... apologize for the surprise.” Kel’Thuzad spoke, guilt starting to run through him as he realized how cruel of an introduction he had performed. Twilight nodded absentmindedly, her form shaking slightly as she watched the twisted creature attempt to get to her by any means necessary.

“It... it’s alright, Kel.” Twilight shakily smiled, her interest in the creature slowly returning as she studied it’s movements.

“Well... as you can no doubt see, the ghoul, by undead standards, is quite... unpredictable.” Kel’Thuzad explained, the undead creature’s growling having calmed down as it realized that there was no way to get to the tasty mare. “They are the result of prolonged exposure to the plague, the biological weapon that was unleashed upon the Northern Eastern Kingdoms during the Third War.”

Twilight shivered, flashes of the magic carpet ride running through her mind, remembering the awful brownish smog that filled the air of what would eventually be called the Plaguelands.

“K-Kel?” Twilight asked, her eyes widening with fear as she comprehended the fact that a simple disease could so drastically change a living thing...

“Yes, Twilight?” Kel’Thuzad responded, his voice echoing through the high walls of the Construct Quarter.

“What exactly... WAS the plague?” Twilight asked, her muzzle turning to regard her teacher for the first time in minutes.

.........

Kel’Thuzad didn’t exactly know how to respond to his student’s question.

For one, the plague is a weapon that, in his opinion, should never be used.

While it was incredibly effective, and all but incurable, it took over the areas it was released in Iike a cancer. It tore apart vegetation, killed and resurrected wildlife, and settled into the soil in such a way that was virtually impossible to remove.

From his extensive research on the potency of the original plague of undeath, he surmised that the vast majority of the Plaguelands would never be suitable for organic habitation ever again.

You see, the problem with the disease, like almost everything the Scourge used in it’s vast arsenal, was that it was undead.

It was ingenious, really.

Antibiotics and medicines would have no effect on something that they could not kill again, and the only way that the holy light could influence it at all would be to do what the light does to all undead.

Obliterate the victim.

Quite the ingenious strategy.

To stop the spread of the plague, you'd simply have to kill the infected host.

And then possibly kill them again if the light isn't used...

To be honest, Arthas surprisingly made the right call with the Culling of Stratholme...

"Kel?"

The lich snapped out of his thoughts, looking down on his little apprentice with a smile.

“Sorry Twilight, stuck in my memories once again...” Kel’Thuzad sheepishly explained, clearing his throat.

“Now, the plague was, for lack of a better term, a weapon.” Kel’Thuzad spoke, the scenery around them morphing from the carved stone interior of Naxxramas to a dreary, smog-filled clearing of the Eastern Plaguelands. “A deadly, biologically-hazardous fungal disease that was used in great quantities in the Eastern Kingdoms during the Third War."

Twilight jotted down some notes, her hooves sinking slightly into the decayed ground beneath her.

“How fast would it kill, Kel?” Twilight asked.

“Generally, within a day.”

“While it was deadly enough as a biological weapon, it’s real purpose was to kill, and then resurrect it’s victims.” the lich continued, morphing the scene into a scene of the battle that took place below Naxxramas during the first siege, toned down just a bit for Twilight’s sake.

Ghouls were seen catapulting themselves through the air with surprising force, one having hit a human paladin with enough strength to knock him to the ground, the undead creature leering down at it’s opponent with a hunger unimaginable.

Nearby, a ghoul, despite missing an arm, stood toe to toe with a human soldier, the ghoul’s lack of pain and ferocity making up for it’s handicap.

The one thing that took Twilight by complete surprise was just how MANY there were...

The human soldiers and were EASILY outnumbered by at least three times, if not more. The ghouls had to literally scramble over their fallen comrades to get at the attackers.

"Once the person or animal succumbed to the plague, the disease would resurrect them, the necromantic energies at the heart of the fungus taking effect." Kel'Thuzad explained, but Twilight only half listened. Nearby, from a destroyed, half-collapsed house, a wagon drawn by ghouls rolled into view. Atop the wagon sat an object, the bubbling, roiling liquid flowing and dripping from the barely recognizable form of a cauldron.

At the mere sight of it, the attackers' courage seemed to waver slightly, some humans simply attempting to run from the battle, only to be pushed or pulled back into the slaughter by the increasingly overwhelming amount of undead, who's numbers were multiplying by the second as they emerged from nearly every angle visible.

"Over the course of a few days, the body, living, dead, or undead, would undergo a sort of metamorphosis..." the lich droned. "Eventually resulting in the decrepit, yet swift creatures you see before you."

“My Thuzadin took to falling them ‘True Undead’...” Kel’Thuzad scoffed. Twilight shivered, watching a ghoul tackle a retreating human mage to the ground from behind, tearing into the back of the screaming woman’s neck with its teeth.

“In truth... they were an incredibly convenient accident.” the lich explained, his gaze turning to the plague cauldron nearby, several acolytes having arrived to unleash the miasma of death that he knew resided within.

"W-why did they not try to cure the plague, Kel?" Twilight asked, her form visibly shaking after seeing the last of the humans disappear beneath a pile of necrotic, wriggling flesh.

"They did try..." Kel'Thuzad simply stated, not looking away from the pile of death.

At that, the acolytes ran from the scene, the plague cauldron boiling over as the energies within exploded forth in a haze of greenish-yellow smoke.

"Oh... did they try..." Kel'Thuzad chuckled, surprising even himself with the coldness he had just shown.

Slowly, but ever so surely, the pile of dead bodies stirred.

.........

"Kel?" Twilight asked, confused as to why her teacher had stopped talking for several minutes. The lich's breath audibly heightened, his eyes wide with worry as he turned to his student, his anxious mind scolding himself for even attempting to summon a frostbolt in surprise.

"T-Twilight, something has been brought to my attention." Kel'Thuzad spoke, his eyes still wide. "Something that cannot wait, unfortunately."

Twilight nodded slightly, disappointed that their lesson was ending.

"It's alright Kel." Twilight smiled, the scenery already reverted to Kel'Thuzad's dungeon laboratory.

"Thank you for your understanding, Twilight..." Kel'Thuzad droned, his mind racing with worry at his sudden lapse into his old mannerisms. When the young unicorn came in for a farewell hug, the lich nearly yelped in fear, and canceled his shadowbolt.

Not for himself, but for his apprentice.

What is happening to me?

Lesson 1: Complications

Princess Celestia cringed in some disgust as the last of the skin peeled away from the rabbit with a sound similar to rending flesh, the muscled form of it's body slowly revealing itself. A few chilled squirts of life-fluid exited the animal as she did, but for the most part, the rabbit bled little. Twilight surprisingly laughed happily in triumph, the mare having failed several times to correctly sever the skin around the...

Well...

The anus of the rabbit. She had tried just simply peeling the skin off, which resulted in the removal of several inches of the rabbit's intestines as well before she realized her mistake. Kel'Thuzad was quick to correct her.

After Celestia had returned from her puking session in the bathroom attached to his room, of course.

"Well done, Twilight." Kel'Thuzad praised in the background, a quill scribbling away on a piece of parchment. She smiled to him, before turning back to her lightly bleeding project. For the next part of the test, Twilight grabbed a simple, long-bladed scalpel next, a bit of frost seeping from the runed blade. Celestia seemed to take great interest in the tool, and the enchantment laid upon it.

"Are all of your tools enchanted, Kel'Thuzad?" she asked. The lich nodded.

"Most of them, yes. Why?" Celestia's eyes lowered in interest, a small smirk adorning her muzzle.

"I am quite the enchanter myself." The archlich leaned his form back, raising to his full height. Enchanting, while more of a small hobby for himself now, fascinated him greatly when he was alive.

His interest in the complicated practice of the ancient high-elven art carried over into undeath, seeing as he always seemed to have extra time on his hands. If Equestrian methods and enchantments were different in design and complexity...

Maybe HE would actually learn something for the first time in centuries...

"Is that so... care if I see an example, then?"

Celestia nodded, her horn glowing a gentle shade of orange, before a snap of magical teleportation echoed through the tall room. When the lich looked down on the sword, his eyes widened at the complex and intricate patterns of alien spells blanketing the golden blade. The sword itself was little more than a dagger to him, about the size of Bloodsurge. A wrapping of ornate... leather.

The handle was wrapped in leather.

Not faux-leather.

Leather.

Something that he had not yet seen in Equestrian culture, for fairly obvious reasons.

Maybe she isn't as peace-loving as she claims...

Ignoring the organic component of the sword for the moment, he moved forwards, up the hilt. An intensely bright orb of what seemed to be... sunlight, floated in a small hole between the handle and blade, chiming gently with a spectral song.

"She's... beautiful." Kel'Thuzad complimented. Sincerely. Never had he seen a blade this heavily enchanted. Barring Frostmourne, of course. The fact that it seemingly drew power from the sun, an aspect he had never before seen within a weapon, exceeded his expectations.

That, and he was a sucker for mixing glamor and beauty with functionality. Something that was quite easy to tell, what with his Nerubian ornamentation.

"Thank you. I've just finished the final touches on it within the last few decades, actually." Celestia smiled, grasping the sword within her telekinesis. With a flurry of movement, the blade was finished its path, a pillow nearby that was formerly frozen solid now charred and smoking from the heat and enchantments of the blade.

Then it fell to pieces.

Charred, destroyed pieces.

The lich smirked at the brutal yet efficient strike, a small round of applause issuing from his large claws.

"Bravo."

Celestia turned to the lich, a smirk of satisfaction adorning her muzzle.

"Thank you. Its been a while. I was beginning to think I'd lost my touch."

Twilight screamed.

LOUD.

They both turned in alarm to their apprentice, and witnessed a rather disturbed Twilight crying heavily, tears nearly flowing freely form her eyes.

"Twilight! What happened!?" Celestia was the first to respond to her hysterical daughter-in-law, the sword clattering loudly to the ground as she enveloped the unicorn in an embrace of feathers and warmth. Twilight was consoled little to none, and continued her rather sudden bout of horror, vomiting once as she pressed her teary face into the celestial alicorn's barrel.

Kel'Thuzad, however, was more interested in the 'why'.

It didn't take long to find out.

Befitting her nature, the studious young unicorn had made a long incision along the side of the rabbit's stomach. Her reasoning was obviously to remove the organs first, rather than risk harming them when she cut apart the rabbit. She had started near the bottom of the creature, and had only removed several inches of intestines when she struck it's reproductive organs.

Three sets of glossed over, quite dead eyes stared back at him, from behind a slightly transparent membrane of muscle.

It was pregnant...

Emphasis on the 'was'...

Damn it all...

.........

"WHAT IN TARTARUS WERE YOU THINKING, KEL'THUZAD!?!" Shining roared, causing several crystal ponies around the throne room to jump. The archlich was unfazed by his master's rage. In fact, he had prepared for it on his way to the court room. While he loved his new life, he was quickly learning that until he purified the Helm of Domination, his master was prone to violent mood swings, that often ended in something getting destroyed.

Sometimes it was a chair.

Sometimes it was a table.

Sometimes it was HIM.

He didn't judge, though. Liches were no strangers to death. Him, least of all.

"Master, I understand your frustration, but your sister is hysterical, and needs affection! I will take over court if I must, but you MUST GO TO HER!" Kel'Thuzad's voice roared. For several moments, the liches stared eachother down. Admittedly, Kel'Thuzad was taking a monumental risk in raising his voice to his king. He was the one being that could rip him apart with the flick of his hoof, and the lich was nearly powerless to stop it if it happened.

.........

"Fine."

Shining turned to his right, looking a terrified-looking guard in the eyes.

"Spear Point, alert my wife of my absence from court, and tell her to meet me in the archmage's chambers." the guard recovered remarkably quickly from his prince's intimidating presence, and saluted him. He then turned from his post, and galloped out of the throne room, off to the Royal Quarter. Shining Armor then turned to the court.

"Court is adjourned until further notice! If you have any concerns or questions, please direct them to my vizier and archmage, Kel'Thuzad!" The prince quickly turned to the lich, and sighed, his temper dissipating. "I leave them in your capable hands, Kel'Thuzad." Shining remarked.

"I will do my best, my lord." Kel'Thuzad bowed, his form reaching below his master's impressive height in a sign of submission. In a frighteningly loud smash, Frostmourne tore itself from its makeshift pedestal of ice and crystal nearby, strapping itself to it's master's side. With that, the prince nodded to Kel'Thuzad, and with several gargantuan flaps of his massive wings, he was out of sight, rocketing towards the Royal Quarter.

The lich sighed, before raising to his full height once more. He turned his skull left and right, breaking the small strands of ice connecting it and his neck. He turned his eyes to the court, whom nearly all stared in either fascination or fear.

Obviously not every one of them has seen me, then. Better make a good first impression...

With a unintentionally menacing grin, and clap of his claws, he chuckled.

"Alright. Who's first..."