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...