//------------------------------// // Chapter XII- Training Part 2 // Story: Schoolhouse Shenanigans! // by Dragonborne Fox //------------------------------// The following day after the Anna-Slime Incident, it was Alexis' turn to train. Her dad was with her and they were in a cemetary, and before anyone asks he did indeed negotiate this issue with Celestia (and Luna was watching them.) "Alright, Alexis." Blake sighed, waving his right hand in circles for no discernible reason. "We will practice necromancy." "What's necromancy?" The curious child asked, small wings fluttering so fast she put hummingbirds to shame. Blake was shocked before he mentally smacked himself upside the head. "It's....well...err....." He shuddered, turning to Natalie like she'd suddenly forgo this whole mess everyone landed in. "Let me explain since your dad is currently derping." Natalie groaned in annoyance, her eyes squinted. "You see all these tombstones surrounding us?" Alexis nodded. "These house...how should I say this... dead people and ponies. Some died....unfairly and others at peace. There are those that should be here but....aren't. They died elsewhere..." "Really?" Alexis asked. Natalie nodded. "Like my parents... they should be here. I guess I have some explaining to do about that..." "Why say that?" Natalie began tearing up. Her hair covered her eyes, concealing them in darkness. She was shaking like a leaf. "Th...They died unfairly..." She choked, her voice sounding as if on the verge of letting off a scream. "Y-you remember....that old...bad woman, r-right?" Alexis nodded once more, vividly remembering the crone. Why did her mother say Isabella was a bad woman? "Sh....she killed my parents...when I was little." Natalie heaved, more tears falling off of her face. The painful memory flashed to and fro in her mind, and she found herself unable to escape it. ________ Little Natalie heard her parents and some strange voices shouting. This was followed by the sounds of quite a many things breaking. Fear overtook her, and she hid under the bed as footsteps were heard marching upstairs. Towards her room. Soon, a strange woman and a few men burst into her hiding place. They glanced around, the woman huffing. In her hand she held two Obsidian Idols by a single, gossamer string. Hissing like a cat, she and the other intruders left. Silence. It was all that reigned. It was all that was there. Slowly, she crawled out from under her bed and flew into the hallway. She looked in all the other rooms and saw no signs of life. "Mommy? Daddy?" The girl called. Yet, nothingness was all that greeted her. Tentatively, she shambled downstairs--and what a horrid sight greeted her. Her parents lay on the floor, their bodies motionless. Tables and chairs lay broken in much the same manner. "Mommy...?" Natalie asked, slowly making her way to her parents. Her legs were stiff, almost as if petrified. Her mother had yet to move. Time seemed to freeze for the little one. Almost immediately no less. "Mommy...?" Natalie squeaked, shaking very badly as she reached a set of hands and put them on her mother's shoulder. She then began moving the shoulder in an attempt to awaken her. The shoulder felt cold. "No! Mama!" Natalie cried as she ran to her father and did the same. He felt cold too. "Papa!" She cried again as the dreaded realization had occurred. Her parents had died. Because of that woman. The idols...they... Natalie screamed in pain. Her head was thrown upwards as the agonized, gut-wrenching howl escaped her mouth and sounded throughout the village. It was not just a cry over the sorrows of parting... No, it was a call to war. The girl reluctantly got up, donned her father's tattered traveling cloak, and ran outside, barely catching a glimpse of a green-haired girl and her best friend Matt struggling to get away from the men who were with her. Natalie made up her mind: to hurt the bad woman the way she hurt her. ~~~~~~ "You big meanie!" Natalie called as the bad people were holding Matt and the other girl. The bad woman, in quite a shock, turned around and glared at her immediately. "You...!" The woman hissed. Natalie's eyes became a brilliant cobalt first, then a searing scarlet, and at last a burning gold. As this happened she was chanting something--a spell--almost subconsciously. The cloak wavered in a breeze as the spell was chanted. "Seize her! We can't let her get away!" The woman cried, pointing a finger at the girl. A circle of the hottest fire formed a protective barrier around Natalie, thus keeping her safe from those meanies. The horrified villagers looked up as the clouds obscured the sun, turning morbidly black in doing so. The men holding little Matt and the other girl dropped the children, who ran into the woodland beyond. Thunder crackled and lightning danced across the sky. Blue bits of hail soon fell in such a torrent it was as if the very heavens suddenly hated the village. "N-No!" Cried the villagers as the fire suddenly spread out in such a way the whole town was engulfed in what was to be called the Storm of Disaster. Only Natalie stood in the village on that very day in that dark moment, the burning embers and snowball-sized hail wrecking houses beyond all forms of repair. On occasion the thunder crackled as though it mocked the bad people. The cloak continued to partially fly in the winds and rain that soon doused out all the fire--and thus, all traces of the entire village. "Mama...Papa..." Sobbed the little girl who was frantically clutching the two Idols in her grasp, hugging them tightly, "I'm s-sorry..." _______ Natalie was curled into a ball now, her face buried into her knees as her frantic sobbing continued. Blake sat next to her, stroking her hair. He looked at Alexis and shook his head, his expression saying it all. Luna could...only sob once the horrid projection of the wizard's memory ended. She stood there, tears falling down her cheeks and mouth hanging open. Having no choice and with Blake's approval, the Lunar Princess put the grieving Natalie into a peaceful slumber complete with good dreams. "Let me show you how I raise...the dead." Blake sighed as he wrapped a blanket around the sleeping wizard. He raised a hand to the sky before pointing it accusingly at a gravestone marked with a cross. He began chanting some strange words before out from the ground a pony skeleton emerged from it. It looked at him with wonder before throwing a wad of dirt at him and promptly going back into its earthen, dark slumber. "You try it." Blake said with a sudden smile despite having dirt in his face. He was busy trying to shake it off. Alexis sighed, getting over her own sorrow, before mimicking her dad. She chanted a few words as a humanoid skeleton emerged from his grave. He shambled toward the little girl and looked at her with wonder. "Speak." She commanded. The skeleton laughed a demented laugh. "Speak!" Alexis cried again, this time with a giggle. The skeleton laughed again. "What's that? You can only cackle?" Alexis asked with another giggle. The skeleton nodded before cackling once more. "Your first familiar...." Blake shed a manly tear at the sight. "And his name is now Chuckles!" Alexis grinned wide.