//------------------------------// // Chapter Twenty // Story: The Ghost of Cozy Glow // by SapphireRose87 //------------------------------// I ran as fast as I could towards the portal and braced myself for impact. As I got to the portal I spread out my wings and put my hand on the portal. I could still hear Gorgar laughing in the background andI tuned him out as much as possible. “If I’m going to die,” I thought, “I’d rather die doing this.” With my hand still on the portal I used my wings to push myself forward. I then tried to use my magic to absorb it, but I just kept going forward. I could still hear Gorgar laughing and Dae screaming, but as I kept pushing on the portal I soon heard nothing at all. *    *    * When I got to the other side, I couldn’t believe what I saw. It was like one of the gardens on Earth that I had heard many tales about. The place was so beautiful and it seemed like the place was well taken care of. I turned around to see that an old man was standing beside me. The man cleared his throat, “It’s nice to finally meet you Death Walker. We’ve heard many praises about you all around Heaven, you’ve had songs written about you far and wide.”  “Songs?” I said. “About me? But why?” The man smiled, “I think I should take you to our ruler Divine, she’ll explain everything.” I followed the man in white robes to a gate beyond the edge of the garden. The man then pointed a finger at the gate and it turned into a key. The man then opened the gate and led me inside. Sitting on the Throne was the Divine, it wasn’t a man ruling Heaven like most people would think, it was a woman, the woman then smiled at me. “Is this the Death Walker that I’ve heard so much about Herald?” Divine said. “Yes your Highness…” Herald said. I bowed to Divine acknowledging her as a ruler.  “You can look at me child.” Divine said. I stood up and looked at her. “It’s okay Betty,” said Divine, “you are welcome here…” I then gritted my teeth and balled my hands into fists. “Why am I here?” I said. “Betty!” Herald said. “That’s not the way to talk to a ruler!” “It’s okay Herald,” said Divine, “I’ve brought you here for a reason. It’s to help you deal with what you’ve been feeling.” “But how?” I said. “Just how can you do that? Tell me!” Divine sighed, “You know very little about yourself do you?” I then went to my knees with tears in my eyes. Herald was about to pick me up when Divine put her hand to stop him. Divine similed, “You still mourn over the deaths of your teammates right?” I nodded and tried to stop myself from crying. Divine then continued, “Well, all 23 of them are here.” Divine then swept her hand as if doing an honor salute. I looked around to see all 23 of my teammates standing there smiling. “These,” said Divine, “are the ones singing your praises. The songs that have been written about you, come from these people.” “Hi Betty,” said one of my teammates, “we’re always watching you, always!” “Who killed you?” I said. “Tell me, who was it?” Then there was one name that kept circulating around them, it was Gorgar. “Now,” said Divine, “Gorgar  linking Heaven and Hell together will not only destroy the Afterlife, but it will destroy the universe as we know it. Now, go destroy Gorgar before he destroys everything.” Divine then pointed towards the portal and I nodded and went back to the other side. *    *    * When I got back to the other side, I saw Gorgar smiling at me. “So,” said Gorgar, “did you see the other side?” I spit on the ground as if sealing his fate. “Don’t think it’s not lady-like to spit?” Gorgar said. “Oh yeah?” I said. “And I care about what you think because?” “Oh nevermind,” said Gorgar, “anyway, the portal is almost complete!” “Oh really?” I said. “You know what? I have a feeling that you’re the one who killed my teammates!” “Oh,” said Gorgar, “and how did you figure that out?” “They told me themselves!” I growled. I then pulled out my staff and turned it into a blade. “You really think you can beat me?” Gorgar said. “Like I said before,” I said, “I’ve taken you down once, I can do it again!” “I’m standing by just in case you need me.” Dae thought. “Actually,” I thought, “I think I might need your help on this one.” “I thought you’d never ask.” Dae thought. Dae then ready his sword and stood by my side. “Oh,” said Gorgar with a raised eyebrow, “tag teaming now aren’t we? Let’s see, it’s two against one? I think we can even the odds! Golden Ace!” Out of nowhere came a male Alicorn and he stood beside Gorgar. “I’m right here Master!” Golden Ace said. “Take care of these two for me, will ya?” Gorgar said. “Yes sir!” Golden Ace. “Well whose tag teaming who now?” I said. “That’s not really tag teaming if you ask me.” “Well in case you didn’t hear right,” said Golden Ace, “my name’s Golden Ace and I work for Gorgar. This portal will be complete and I’m going to make sure you don’t get in Gorgar’s way!” I rolled my eyes, “Yeah, and I’m supposed to be scared of you? Oh give me a break.” “Well Golden Ace,” said Gorgar, “have at it, will you?” Golden Ace then nodded, he then flew up into the air in a spiral like fashion. Before, we could do any attacks against him, a lighting bolt shot out of the sky. Dae and I dodged it, but just in the niche of time. We had to keep dodging the lighting bolts kept coming at a fast speed. “Damn it,” I thought, “I can’t catch him.” After a while of dodging the lighting  bolts, I heard a voice in the distance call me name. Spike was standing off to the side with a huge smile on his face. “Reinforcements are here!” Spike said. Now, I was able to catch the lighting  bolts and started throwing them right back at Golden Ace as much as possible. Of course Golden Ace had no problem dodging me. I looked behind me and saw Fluttershy, Discord, Princess Twilight and Celestia right behind Spike. “Uh…” I said “Come now Betty,” said Discord, “did you really think you could do this all by yourself?” “I’m not by myself in case you haven’t noticed!” I said. I took another lighting bolt from Golden Ace and threw it back at him. “Yes, yes, “ said Discord, “I can see Dae but we’re here anyway! Alrighty then, half of you take whatever that is, and the other half take Gorgar!” “Right!” Everyone said. The battle then inestinfied as Fluttershy and Discord backed me and Dae up, while Princess Twilight, Celestia and Spike took one Gorgar. This only aggravated Gorgar and he roared at them in anger.     It was Discord that dealt Golden Ace a severe blow, he snapped his claw and it ripped one of Golden Ace’s wings off. Golden Ace then crashed to the ground, he was clearly in pain but didn’t scream. “Tough guy huh?” I said. “I don’t care what I am to you!” Golden Ace said. It was clear to me the Golden Ace couldn’t fly with just one wing but he tried to attack me anyway. I caught his magic and threw it right back at him. This sent Golden Ace flying into a wall and fell to the ground. When he got up, he spit blood out of his mouth. “Hum,” I said, “I didn’t know dead creatures could bleed.” “I’m not dead you idiot,” said Golden Ace, “I was born here!” I shrugged, “Like I care!” Before Golden Ace could attack me again much to the horror of Dae and I, Fluttershy picked Golden ace up in the air and dropped him from fifty feet. “And stay down!” Fluttershy yelled. “Remind me never to get on her bad side,” I said, “if I haven’t already!” “Oh no,” said Fluttershy, “I could never be mad at you. I was so worried about you when you ran away, I’m just glad you came back home!” “Okay…” I said. Discord then snapped his claw again and a huge boulder dropped on Golden Ace. Discord laughed, “I’d like to see you get up from that one!” I blinked, “Alrighty then, let’s go take care of Gorgar then!” Gorgar saw us coming and shot a couple more attacks at us. Princess Twilight then up a barrier to shield us from the attacks. I then thought of an idea that I thought I should give a try. “You’re joking right?” Dae thought. “Nope!” I thought. We then nodded at each other and exchanged a look. “Princess,” I said, “can let down the barrier, just for Dae and I?” “Are you two crazy?” Princess Twilight said. “Nope,” I said, “I have an idea and it’ll only work with the two of us.” Princess Twilight nodded, “Well alright then!” “Dae,” I thought, “you take the right and I’ll take the left?” Dae then nodded at me and we both jumped out of the barrier. “Hey Gorgar!” I said. Gorgar said, “I thought I told Golden Ace to take care of you!” “Well you thought wrong!” I said. “And you won’t be able to attack without those eyes of yours! Now take this!” I turned my staff into a blade, and aimed it at Gorgar’s left eye. It hit the mark. “Bullseye!” I said. Dae then threw his sword at the right eye and it hit its mark. “Wow,” said Spike, “look at those two go!” “I know,” said Princess Twilight, “it’s almost like they can hear each other’s thoughts or something.” Princess Twilight had no idea of how right she was. “Let’s end this!” I thought. Dae nodded at me and we knew exactly what to do. I made my blade as sharp as I could, then Dae and I both threw our weapons at Gorgar and it pinned him down. Gorgar was screaming in pain and trying to get out from underneath my blade and Dae’s sword. This time it was Princess Twilight that had the crystal prism and it sucked Gorgar right into it. After Gorgar got sucked into the crystal prism the portal shattered into pieces. “Well,” I said, “that’s over with…” *    *    * “It’s time for you to head back now.” Princess Twilight said. I heard someone clear their  throat, Princess Twilight and I both turned around. “Oh,” said Princess Twilight, “Head Councilman, you need something?” “I need to show Betty something before she goes.” The Head Councilman said.  The Head Councilman then nodded for me to follow him, I sighed and followed him. We walked  through the doors that led to the Afterlife Court and past that. We ended our walk when we got to a room that held a huge computer in it and my jaw dropped.  “You’ve got to be kidding me!” I said. “No joke,” said Head Councilman, “I have a question for you.” “What is it?” I said. “Do you know how we keep everything sorted here?” Head  Councilman said. “Let me guess,” I said, “the computer?” “Oh,” said Head Councilman, “you’ve ran into it before? How did that happen?” I looked down, “I tried to kill myself…” “I see…” The Head Councilman said. “When I saw the computer,”  I said, “it was said I was too early to die. Celestia also did voice commands or something with it.” “Oh yeah,” the Head Councilman said, “that, Celestia got a little bit nuts with the voice commands so we took them off. And about you being too early to die the computer was, right you’re expiration date wasn’t due yet.” “So,” I said, “when was it supposed to be?” “Let’s see, Betty Jewel,” The Head  Councilman said, “ah, here we are.” The computer showed my picture and it said an expiration date that was supposed to be two hundred years later. The Head Councilman continued, “We try to predict the future as much as possible, but that doesn’t mean we know everything. Anyway, what I wanted to show you was this.” The Head Councilman then pressed a couple of buttons and it showed the pictures of all 23 of my teammates that died. It also showed that they went to Heaven like I saw when I went through the portal. “I understand,” the Head Councilman said, “that you’re still carrying around the guilt of your teammates dying?” “I was,” I said, “but I saw them already and got payback for their deaths. They told me Gorgar killed them, so I took care of him.” “Oh yeah,” the Head Councilman said, “and you heard that two of your teammates went to Hell?” “Yeah,” I said, “who were they?” The Head Councilman then pressed some buttons again and showed who the two teammates were. When I saw this, my eyes went wide in shock. “Lacy? And Carter?” I said. “But they seemed like pretty nice people. Why were they sent to Hell?” “It says right here,” the Head Councilman said, “that they used the ambush as an opportunity to kill some of their teammates.” “Oh…” I said. For some reason, I remembered the medal that Celestia and Princess Twilight had given me. I still felt that I didn’t deserve it. “I understand,” the Head Councilman said, “that you’ve recently received a medal from Celestia and Princess Twilight?” “Yes,” I said, “I still don’t think I deserve it.” The Head Councilman laughed, “I think you do, you should be proud of the achievements that you have done. That's what your dead teammates would want for you. Don’t you think? I also understand that you don’t like parties?” “It’s not that I don’t like them,” I said, “it’s Pinkie Pie tends to go overboard with the idea, and she tries to make up an excuse to throw one for me every time I see her.” I guess the Head Councilman got a real kick out of that he was doubled over in laughter. “Oh that’s Pinkie Pie for yeah,” the Head Councilman said, “she was like that towards me when I was alive. Now, I’m going to make a request of you, can you please promise me something?” “Sure,” I said, “what is it?” “Will lighten up a little bit?” The Head Councilman. “You’re young only once you know?” I smiled, “That might be a hard promise to keep…” “That may be true,” the Head Councilman said, “but I think you can do it.” I sighed, “Fine, I’ll try, I think it’s time for me to go now. The Head Councilman nodded and then I went home.