Twilight Sparkle's Lessons in Azerothian Magic

by Lich-Lord Krosis

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?

Comments

[ValNitak Choas]

I think kal is falling in love with twilight