The Ghost of Cozy Glow- A Redux

by SapphireRose87

7) Someone cared back then

{Norman}

After Betty's gotcha day party, I found a job working at the post office. Even though Discord and Fluttershy had declined my offer to pay them rent to live with them, I still helped out around the house.

One day, when I got off work, I paused when I saw Betty asleep on the couch. She had her head on a pillow and she had a big comforter blanket covering her. From the looks of it, she might've been asleep for a while.

Discord sat on a nearby chair watching a soap opera called Jane and the Killer Bee. I didn't even want to begin to try and figure out what the show was about and honestly, soap operas are a snooze fest to me anyway. Discord looked like he was enjoying it. He cried as quietly as he possibly could. I practically rolled my eyes, because he had a handkerchief in his claw that he was using to dry his tears.

Discord looked up at me and smiled, "Hey Norman, as you can see, Betty's asleep. She's not Death Walking at the moment. Although I'm pretty sure she'll have another summons to the Land of the Dead again. But it isn't nighttime yet and rules say a Death Walker can only be summoned at night. Knowing Betty, she'll want to go right back out and train again when she wakes up, even if Scarlett called quits for the day."

I chuckled, "That's Betty for you. Once she's presented with a challenge, she'll do whatever it takes to complete it."

Discord smiled and nodded. I looked down at Betty to see her ears were twitching. "She's absolutely adorable sleeping."

"Yeah, I know right," said Discord, "I've taken some pictures of her sleeping. It's a shame your mother didn't take baby pictures of her. I doubt she would've given them to us anyway."

I looked away, "Yeah, she doesn't have any baby pictures of me either. But she does have some home videos that are a little creepy. Example, recording our new outfits for school. But I do have some normal videos of us that other family friends recorded for us."

Discord perked up, "Oh yeah that's right! Fluttershy and I have recordings of her when she was just starting to fly. We couldn't get over how much of an excellent flyer, considering she's a half and half. We invited her over a lot so we could watch her fly. Fluttershy would often fly with her. Even though Betty wasn't our child then, we adored her as if she were."

"Well," I said, "looks like your dream came true."

"Yup!" Discord said before giving a snaggle toothed grin..

Fluttershy entered the room and said, "Oh Norman, I'm glad you're here. Just in time for dinner. I'll go get it started." before beginning to trot back to the door.

"You need some help?" I asked.

Fluttershy nodded, "Sure you can help."

And so, I walked to Fluttershy on the other side of the room and soon, I was helping her prepare dinner.

* * *

{Betty}

One night, after I finished my Death Walker training, I had gone to bed and I got summoned to the Land of the Dead. When I got to the Land of the Dead, I looked around to find myself underneath a body of water. I swam up to the surface as fast as I could. Once I got to the surface, I sat down so I could catch my breath. I looked around to see that I had landed in some sort of river and I was at its shore.

"Betty… Betty… " I heard a creepy voice say. "Betty…Betty…"

"Okay!" I shouted. "My name is Betty, I get it!"

I looked to see the ugliest clown I had ever seen rise slowly out of the river. His makeup was disheveled and the wig he wore over his head to give hair on either side of his head were both black and poorly maintained. His laugh sounded like a hyenas that escaped from the zoo and soon, I could sense that this clown wasn't really a clown, but something else. He wasn't that creepy dark presence that's been following me around lately though. That much I could sense for sure.

The clown smiled at me and said in his screechy voice, "Hi there Betty."

"O...Kay then," I said, "hi."

"Oh, where are my manners?" The clown said. "I should introduce myself, my name is Mr. Giggles the clown and I have a question for you!"

I gave Mr. Giggles a wary look, "What might that be?"

"Would you like to come to my circus?" Mr. Giggles asked.

"I'm sorry, but I don't go anywhere with a stranger." I said as I backed away.

Mr. Giggles gave me a toothy grin and all of the sudden, his face changed. It looked like he wore a comedy/ tragedy mask and he was trying to put on a good show. I have no idea why he did this, but it creeped me out.

"Now come on Betty," said Mr. Giggles, "I'm not a stranger since I've introduced myself and we know each other's names."

"Yeah, and whatever you're doing now is creepy." I said pointedly. "And I'm going to have to decline your offer."

Mr. Giggles then examined me. "I can tell you can sense what I am and there's no deceiving you with your kind of powers. You're a pretty smart cookie aren't you?"

"Last time I checked, I'm not food." I replied. "You want to know something creature? I don't go anywhere with someone as creepy as you. So I'm out of here. Hopefully I'll see you never!"

I heard Mr. Giggles laughing in his screechy voice as I ran to the Middle Ground.

* * *

As soon as I got to the Middle Ground, Celestia greeted me, although I couldn’t help but notice that she seemed very disturbed about something as she frowned and narrowed her eyes.

"What's wrong Celestia?" I asked.

Celestia sighed as she glanced my way, "Apparently, it's been decided that you're ready to go on a Death Walker assignment now."

I tilted my head, "Really? But I've only been learning how to be a Death Walker for only a month now! Wow, that was fast!"

"Yeah I know, and usually it takes three months for a Death Walker to be evaluated and then a Death Walker gets assigned to take care of something." Celestia said.

"I was wondering," I said, "what is a Death Walker anyway?"

Celestia smiled and started to explain, "I'm glad you asked that question. A Death Walker is someone that helps keep the balance of life and death in check. This is done by a Death Walker being assigned to take care of threats that would happen in both the Land of the Dead and the Land of the Living. A lot of times however, a Death Walker will usually only protect where they are from. They normally don't like protecting other areas, unless they're told to."

"Well that's not right!" I said. "If I see a threat, I'm taking care of it right then and there! It doesn't matter what country the threat is in!"

Celestia smiled at me, "Although I had a feeling you might say something like that, I still feel it's too soon."

"So, what's my assignment going to be?" I inquired.

"The assignment is, you're going to be put on a tracking team. There's been a handful of breakouts from the prison in the Middle Ground. The tracking team will be responsible for bringing the prisoners back. Two of the main ones that need to be brought back are Tirek and Queen Chrysalis. I wonder why there's been no sign of Cozy Glow?" Celestia asked.

I looked down at the ground, "I know why Cozy Glow hasn't been seen yet. I talked to her myself. She said she died in her statue five years ago. For some reason, she couldn't crossover like Tirek and Queen Chrysalis did. When I smashed Cozy Glow's statue in anger, Cozy Glow's soul became bound to mine. So she's been following me around ever since."

"I see," said Celestia, "why did you smash her statue?"

I sighed a long drawn out sigh, "I'm Cozy Glow's cousin and I get teased a lot because of that. I smashed her statue in a fit of rage. Funny thing is, Cozy Glow is worried that I'd be thrown into jail, if the police find out what I did."

Celestia snorted. "Ha ha wow! Cozy Glow actually saying that kind of thing after being turned to stone for declaring war on Equestria. But, come to think about it, there's been reformed villains, like Starlight Glimmer, Discord and Trixie. Not to mention, Discord was turned to stone and changed back by yours truly, and was reformed by his now wife, Fluttershy. So I guess it would make sense that Cozy Glow would be reformed just by being attached to you."

"Did you know Discord and Fluttershy just adopted me?" I said.

Celestia smiled and nodded, "Yes I do know. Fluttershy told me and I couldn't be happier for you! Too bad I couldn't go to the party because I'm not a Death Walker and all. Oh, that reminds me, I have a present for you!"

Celestia went over to her desk and tilted her head down as her horn lit up. She floated over to me what looked like a black beret hat with a silver star on it.

I tilted my head, "What's this for? I'm not an artist or anything like that."

"It's your Death Walker disguise." Celestia answered.

I raised my right eyebrow, "Okay?"

"Every Death Walker has something to disguise their presence so you're not easily detected by the enemy." Celestia explained. "Since you didn't have that something just yet, Fluttershy and I figured we would make one for you."

I put the hat on and it fit me just right. I could tell by the feel of it as it didn't pinch my ears or make my head uncomfortable in any way. Celestia pushed a mirror in front of me. "See? It's perfect for you."

"Do I have to wear this all the time?" I asked.

"Well yes, it will be with you at all times. When you're not in a battle, it will disappear. It will do this now that you’ve put it on and it is connected to your powers." Celestia answered.

I looked in the mirror to see that my hat had disappeared.

Celestia nodded, "Uh-huh, now you will be doing your tracking assignment in two weeks. Fluttershy already has a list of people that will be on your tracking team. And no, Fluttershy's not on your team. Two weeks should give you plenty of time to decide which people and ponies will be in a group together, but no bigger than five individuals."

"So, I take it I'm the leader of the tracking team?" I asked.

"Yup." Celestia's horn lit up and she sighed. "I would like you to stay and talk more but I can't. It's daylight in the Land of the Living and it's time for you to go."

* * *

When I woke up, I looked outside to see the sun had just been raised as it shone brightly through my side window. So then, I got dressed and went downstairs to see Norman and Discord watching a home video of me when I was about six or seven.

Wait a second! I thought. This isn't a video mom would make! This is when I started wearing that stuffy old shirt to hide my wings after Dad left.

I saw Fluttershy talking to me and from the sound of it, Discord was the one recording the video and I could hear him snickering as Fluttershy chased me around the house, begging for me to fly.

"Come on Betty," Fluttershy begged, "you need to fly!"

"No way!" I said as I ducked behind the kitchen table. Discord couldn't stop his laughter and I don't blame him. It was a funny sight to see.

I smiled while I sat at the bottom of the stairs, watching the video.

In the video, Discord finally composed himself enough to speak. "You know Betty, Fluttershy's right! You have wings so you need to fly. Or the least you could do is stretch them out."

"No!" I shouted. I crossed my arms and sat down, making sure to sit on my tail in the process.

"Betty!" Fluttershy gasped. "Don't sit on your tail like that."

"It's my tail," I snapped, "I can do with it whatever I please! As a matter of fact, maybe I should ask mom to burn it off for me? I'm sure she'd be happy to help!"

"Now Betty," said Discord, "is there some reason why you don't want to fly?"

"Mom gets angry when I fly," I blurted out, "I'm not making anyone else angry."

Fluttershy shook her head, "Oh Betty, you won't make us angry."

"Why does your mom get angry?" Discord asked as he leaned forward and stared at me with his yellow eyes.

I shrugged, "I don't know. Every time I ask her, she won't tell me. I suspect that maybe she thinks flying is bad for me?"

Fluttershy giggled, "Flying isn't bad for you Betty. If you have wings, you should fly. See, I have wings and I fly on a regular basis."

She flapped her wings and rose about a foot in the air. Even though I thought it was neat, I still gave her a skeptical look. "But, what if I crash?"

Fluttershy laughed, "Oh Betty! Even if you crash, it's fine! You wanna know something? Rainbow Dash crashes all the time and she's considered the best flyer in Equestria."

I furrowed my eyebrows as I didn’t very much like the idea of crashing. Discord looked like he picked up on it. "Besides, if you're so worried about crashing, instead of covering your wings, you should put yourself in a big bubble!"

I started laughing as Discord put himself in what looked like one of those balls that you would use for a hamster to roam free around the house. Out of nowhere, Pinkie Pie popped up from behind the table behind Discord. "Hey, I heard laughter, what's going on?"

I jumped back startled at Pinkie's voice. "How'd you get here?"

"Oh," said Pinkie, "my laughter senses were tingling, so I went in the direction of where it was coming from."

"Oh Pinkie, I was trying to show Betty it's okay to fly." Fluttershy said while looking at her to the left. "Apparently, her mom gets mad at her if she flies."

"What!" Pinkie gasped. "If you have wings, you should fly. Is that why you wear that stuffy old shirt?"

I nodded solemnly, "Uh-huh."

"Well, we need to do something about that, wait right here, I'll be right back," said Pinkie, she disappeared by ducking behind the table and then, soon popped back up as quickly as she came. She had a dark gray sweatshirt hanging from her right hoof that had slits on the back of it big enough for my wings to fit through. "Here you go! Put this on!"

"Okay." I went off camera to the left to change my shirt. Fluttershy was smiling at me when I got back with it. Now draped over my body with my wings now out of the convenient slits on the side.

"Good! Now stretch your wings out like this." Fluttershy instructed.

She showed me how to stretch out my wings and I copied her. "Now, let's go out and practice flying."

"Okay, sure." I said and the video soon ended after that and the tv screen went black.

I laughed when the video ended. Discord and Norman turned around and saw me. "I didn't know you had videos of me like that Discord."

Discord smiled and nodded, "Why, of course dear. You were always our favorite half and half child. Why wouldn't we have videos like this of you? This just so happens to be one of my favorites."

"It's too bad you don't have any baby pictures of her." Norman said.

Discord looked like he remembered something. "Actually, we do! Well, they're not baby-baby pictures, but pictures of you after the age of six. Your mother would drop you off so we could babysit while she was at work. Probably because we offered to do it for free?"

Discord went over to the bookshelf and pulled out a picture album. I smiled as Norman and I looked at the pictures. I had to admit, it felt nice knowing that someone cared about me back then.

* * *

{Dae}

I couldn't concentrate on work today. I was one of the ones that approved for Betty to go on her first Death Walker assignment. The process of that is, first the Icebreakers decide what the assignment will be and then it gets sent to the Afterlife Court for approval. Once it's approved by them and the Icebreakers, next it goes to me. I decide whether or not it should be approved then it goes to the manager of the Middle Ground, that's Celestia. At this point even if Celestia says no, if everyone else has approved it, then it will go through. Reluctantly, she approved the assignment. I'm pretty sure Betty will do just fine on her assignment, which is why I approved it.

I couldn't concentrate on work, so I admitted defeat and started pacing back and forth in my office trying to figure out how to properly introduce myself to Betty. This time, hopefully I'll have more to say to her other than hi. I could summon her, but she would have to be asleep before she enters the Kings Chambers. Maybe I could-

My thoughts were interrupted when I got a frantic knock on the door.

"Your highness, it's me Parada!" Parada said.

I sighed and said, "Enter please. " before looking over to the door to my left.

Parada entered the room and bowed to me. I turned my body to face her and motioned for her to stand up by motioning upward with my right hand. Then she presented a letter to me. It was from Fluttershy, letting me know that Betty had got the list names of those who would be on her tracking team that she’s leading. Fluttershy also recommended that I talk to Betty, since I'm going to be her second in command on the team. I would be second in command, just in case Betty got into trouble. I doubt that would happen, although I did tell the Afterlife Court not to mention that I'm the King of Hell on the list. I want Betty to fall in love with me for all the right reasons and not just because I'm the King of Hell, after all!

I gulped when I saw that Betty got her list. "Well, I guess I'm going to have to talk to her sooner rather than later."

"Aww, is the King of Hell nervous to talk to the girl he likes?" Parada teased.

"Seriously Parada!" I snapped. "I'm not in the mood for this today!"

"Okay fine! But, I do have a suggestion for you." Parada said. "Maybe you should ask her out on a date?"

I gave a nervous laugh. I wasn't sure if that was a good idea or not. "Why would Betty go out with a total stranger?"

"Well, you could ask for Fluttershy's help to set it up and not say it's a date." Parada suggested. "Who says it has to be a date? Maybe you could say it's a 'friendly dinner?"

I liked the sound of Parada's idea. Why does it have to be labeled as a date? That would probably put me and Betty at ease. We could talk and get to know each other. "You know what Parada? That's not a bad idea."

So I sat down and penned the letter to Fluttershy, asking for help on setting up this 'friendly dinner' as Parada suggested.