Twilight Sparkle's Lessons in Azerothian Magic

by Lich-Lord Krosis

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?

Comments

[SeventhBrony]

Poor Twilight, so much heartache felt for her this day.
When's the next chapter?

[Architect Ironturtle]

Well done. That's really all I can say here.

[Lich-Lord Krosis]

6930438 Thank you. I'm glad you like it.

[DerUbermensch]

Fingers crossed that the bunny was somehow Angel Bunny.

[Brother_William]

6915594
Even Devils can be killed. A proper application of Holy magic and Faith backing up the brute force of Rage and Disgust is, quite often, more than enough to silence a Devil on the Prime Material.

[Dipti]

Well it was a cruel lesson but theres no other way if she wanted to learn necromancy better to get that lesson out of the way early on than later.

[booklover41]

I may be evil but my thought are "please let that have been angel bunny"

[Bronzer]

6931341
My Armor is Contempt,
My Shield is Disgust,
My Sword is Hatred.

Faith is my Shield, Fury is my Sword!