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."
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Okay, I KNOW I have some serious problems! You DON'T have help prove that by making me laugh with a story of a Lich teaching Twilight about necromancy!
Well that explains why most Necromancers are already established mages.There's one hell of a learning curve with Necromancy you screw up a spell and you can kill yourself.
...aren't skin and flesh the same?
Or is it like the square and the rectangle logic. Where all skin is flesh but not all flesh is skin.
6969285
Not to mention the fact that if you incorrectly 'program' a construct or undead thrall, they may rip you apart as willingly as your enemies.
6969921
Basically, he wants her to skin it, then separate the bones and flesh.
what about organs?
6970449 Isnt organs made of flesh?
6985375 nah some are made of muscle
6985468 isn't muscle also flesh?
6985979 don't think so. But this is why we have google.
So, is this story in a different universe than the Crystal Vizier?
7046987 No, it just takes place further along in the universe than the story has reached.
Kel'Thuzad has showed Twilight necromancy before.
Now she has to learn it. From a master, no less...
7047001 Ok, But I thought Twilight was an Alicorn in the Crystal Vizier not a unicorn?
7047013 No. She's still just a unicorn.
Don't worry, she'll ascend, as she does in the show.
Just not around the same time...