Twilight Sparkle's Lessons in Azerothian Magic

by Lich-Lord Krosis

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..."

Comments

[Diokno44]

6931341 Is that a reference?

[Dipti]

He forgot that a Saronite cant be handle by the living without protection or treatment of the metal else their driven slowly insane.... great going Kel

[DerUbermensch]

6952339
Hopefully he treated the metal so that Twilight won't go even more insane.

Or he didn't.

Cause you know? He's a lich, it's what they do.

[Lich-Lord Krosis]

6952878
Maybe he did...
Maybe he didn't...

Though I will say, whichever it was, he knew of it. He knows way too much about that stuff to just ignore such a crucial aspect of the metal...

[Shadow Valkyrie]

Then Twilight becomes slightly bloodthirsty and kills everything in sight. SHE WILL BURN THEM ALL WITH THE EMBRACE OF DARK MAGIC!! AAAAAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!

*clears throat* Did I say something?

[booklover41]

6968832 just rambleing about burning Angel Bunny. Nothing major.

[Bronzer]

A metal forged from evil, essentially.

More like forged from insanity. I wonder what differences in the process (or different materials that can be made) using the blood of the other Old Gods are.

[Nikolas]

7282780
Very interesting indeed. This story looks very good.