{Betty}
Once we checked on the teams that sent out the SOS, all of them were dead. At the hospital I had to identify all of them so I could send them back to the correct families. After that, I sat down in a chair in the waiting room and put my hands on my head and cried.
"Uh, hi Dae-" I heard Princess Twilight say.
Dae glared up at Twilight harshly to his left side, "I know that look princess," he snapped, "and now is not the time for flirting! I have a girlfriend now, so knock it off!"
"What?" Princess Twilight gasped. She leaned forward and narrowed her eyes, "And who might that be?"
"Right now, it's none of your business!" Dae quipped as he attempted to wave her away with his left hand.
At that moment, I started to get angry. I looked at Dae sitting to my left, and the princess as I snarled, "Would you two shut up! I just lost twenty five of my teammates and you two are arguing about flirting? Really?"
"Listen, Betty-" Princess Twilight said and she sounded offended that I would even shout at royalty.
"I don't care!" I roared.
I could see the anger in her face because I shouted at her. "How dare you shout at royalty! It's too bad I can't make that a punishable offense! That's so rude! I guess it doesn't matter right now, given the circumstances? Anyway, this mission wasn't a failure and it isn't complete yet. Your teammates didn't die in vain."
I don't know what the princess thought. Surely, she could've seen that now wasn't the time to be angry with someone for shouting at her? She picked me up in her magic, whatever spell that she put on could strangle someone if they tried to talk. "You know something Betty? Soldiers die in the Military every single day…"
Whatever she started lecturing me about, I didn't hear it. At that moment, my anger started to get stronger as I thought about my teammates that I lost. It pissed me off that the princess had the nerve to lecture me, because I'm upset at my teammates dying. I looked down at my hand to see a black outline around it. I snarled, "How dare you!"
"What was that?" Princess Twilight growled.
"How dare you lecture me when I lost twenty five of my teammates and am visibly upset!" I snarled. "You're supposed to be the Princess of Friendship! Well, you're not acting like it? Or has the position of ruler of Equestria gone to your head so much that you don't know how to act like a good friend?"
"But, you're not my friend, you're my subject." Princess Twilight replied.
"It doesn't matter Princess!" I sneered. "When someone's upset, you don't pick them up in your magic and lecture them because you're angry!"
"Well someone needs to be put in their place." Princess Twilight snarled as she lowered her head again and narrowed her eyes.
As I prepared myself to break out of her magic, Princess Twilight charged up her horn and swung me as hard as she could. I blacked out as soon as I hit the wall.
* * *
{Dae}
After Princess Twilight knocked Betty up against the wall because of her temper tantrum, that pissed me off to the highest degree. Once I checked Betty into the hospital and the nurses and doctors were tending to her, I went to go confront Princess Twilight. I saw Spike and Starlight Glimmer corner her out in the hallway. It looked like Spike was big enough to do all of the cornering himself.
"What?" Princess Twilight growled.
"We saw that Twilight." Spike said. He crossed his arms. "What you just did was unbecoming of the Princess of Friendship."
"But she-" Princess Twilight said.
"Shouted at you?" Starlight Glimmer frowned and furrowed her brow. "Everything Betty said was correct! You let your position as ruler of Equestria go to your head that you would do something so cold-hearted, because she shouted at you? Really! But you're not going to do that to us because we're friends and, that's a double standard, you hypocrite!"
"Yeah, and we were there to witness that," said Spike, "me and Starlight are going to the Royal Court tomorrow and we're charging you with a crime."
"What crime might that be?" Princess Twilight snapped as she looked to the dragon on her left.
"Assaulting someone for something that isn't a punishable offense! Even you, the ruler of Equestria, can be held accountable for something like that. Just because you're the ruler of Equestria, doesn't mean you can get away with everything!" Starlight snarled.
At that time, I felt the need to add insult to injury, "Oh and Princess?"
Spike, Starlight Glimmer and Princess Twilight turned around to see me. "Since you want to know who my girlfriend is, it's the girl that just knocked up against the wall."
"What? She's not even royalty!" Princess Twilight gasped.
"It doesn't matter Princess!" I snapped. "I'm a ruler and I can date whoever I want, just like you can. And since you've harmed her and in a fit of rage, I'm going to be very creative with my punishment for you!” I smiled, “Come near my girlfriend again to provoke her into harming you, I'm going to know about it. If that happens, I will declare war on Equestria! The country will be destroyed and you will have blood on your hooves for every single subject lost."
"You wouldn't dare!" Princess Twilight snarled.
I raised my left eyebrow and glared at her. "Oh really? You're pushing your luck Princess. Now, for crying out loud, stop sending me those marriage proposals! I've been saying no for two years now! Get it through your thick skull that NO means NO!"
After Princess Twilight left, pouting like a four year old, Starlight and Spike looked at me in shock. "What?"
"Wow, the King of Hell and the Child of Prophecy! Not bad Dae!" Spike said with a smirk.
Starlight laughed, "Yup, you picked a keeper, that's for sure. Betty is a diamond in the ruff! She's one of a kind!"
I chuckled, "Yeah, I know. That's why I fell in love with her. Actually, I fell for her the first time I laid eyes on her. I couldn't stand that stupid princess to begin with, which is exactly why I broke the contract. The first time I saw Betty was when I was on a date with Princess Twilight. I didn't think half and halves were good flyers, until I saw Betty fly. She flew right over us because we were sitting at a picnic table. It was shortly after that, that I broke the contract with the princess and started following Betty around."
Starlight and Spike snorted in surprise.
I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, yeah I know. Although Betty does still think I'm a weirdo, at least she doesn't think I'm a robot anymore."
"Wait," said Starlight, "she actually thought you were a robot?"
I nodded. "Yup. The first time I said hi to her I could barely say it. So I'm guessing that's when the whole I'm a weirdo thing started."
Starlight laughed, "Yeah, I would think you're a weirdo too if you could barely say hi to me."
"And I did kiss her on our friendly dinner date." I said.
"Yeah, I would think you're weird too. Since you were kissing someone that you weren't dating at the time." Spike chuckled.
I smiled. "Well, she's mine now and I'm going to do everything in my power to keep her."
Starlight and Spike smiled and said, "Awww!"
"Well, I'd better go and take care of Betty." I said.
Starlight and Spike nodded.
"Sure," said Starlight, "we'd better go too, we need to gather evidence against Twilight to hold her accountable for her crime."
* * *
{Norman}
As soon as I found out Betty was in the hospital, I explained the situation to my boss and she let me take the rest of the day off. I rushed over to the hospital and the nurse told me Betty was in room 4! When I got to the room, Fluttershy and Discord were there on the other side of the hospital bed. I looked to see Betty lying there, covered in a blanket and knocked, possibly in a coma and of course, banged up.
"What happened?" I asked as I turned my head to the draconequus and pegasus.
"We're not really sure about that?" said Fluttershy while looking to her left at me, just beyond Discord, "All we know is that Betty lost twenty five people and ponies on her tracking team."
"What?" I gasped. "How?"
Discord frowned and shook his head, "It's not clear if Betty's going to pull through with her injuries. When she got injured, her vital signs were completely out of whack. Once she's stable, the doctors will wake her up and send her home to finish her recovery."
I looked around the room to see Dae wasn't here. "Where's Dae?"
"Oh, the King of Hell had to step out for a minute. He's pretty pissed off about what's happening to his girlfriend. He just needs to clear his head, that's all." Fluttershy said empathetically.
I paused. "Wait, did you just say that Dae is the King of Hell, and Betty is his girlfriend?"
Fluttershy smiled and nodded at me. "Yup! Those two are dating now. It seems Betty's changed her mind about him being a robot."
I snorted. "I guess so. I wonder how that happened?"
"Let's just say that she finally saw how much I cared about her." I heard Dae say. "I didn't tell her I'm the King of Hell because I wanted her to fall for all the right reasons and not because I'm a King."
I turned to see Dae standing there in the hallway, "I see." I said. "So, how did Betty get injured?"
Dae frowned. "I don't want to talk about it and I'm pretty sure Betty won't want to when she wakes up."
Knowing how Betty is, I knew Dae is absolutely correct.
* * *
{Betty}
When I woke up, I had the worst headache ever. On top of that, my ears were ringing. The fact that I have pony ears only served to make the ringing more intense.
Lovely, I thought, I got a migraine from that spoiled brat that rules Equestria.
You were in a coma for two weeks. Dae thought. When you got injured by that impudent alicorn, your vital signs were completely out of whack. The doctors put you in a coma to get them under control. Now that your vitals are under control you're at home. You're in your room and we're keeping a close eye on you. We thought we were going to lose you for a little bit there.
I heard a sigh from someone who entered the room, "How's she doing?"
"I'm fine," I growled, "I'm awake and I'm not opening my eyes and you can't make me!"
"It's fine Betty," said Norman, "here, this might help."
I flinched when I felt Norman touch the tip of my ears one after the other. I sighed with relief as whatever Norman just did helped calm down the pain.
"That seems to have worked?" Norman said.
Once the ringing in my ears stopped and my headache subsided, I opened my eyes and looked over at Dae and Norman and it looked like there were two sets of each on the other side of my room. I quickly closed my eyes.
"What's wrong Betty?" Dae asked.
"It seems that you and Norman have been cloned now." I replied.
Dae snorted. "Wow Betty, I went from being a robot to being a clone. How nice."
"Ha, ha, Dae." I said with a smirk.
"Anyway, we're probably not going back out again until you finish your recovery." Dae said.
"Great!" I said before looking up and frowning. "If that twitty purple pony ever comes near me again, I swear..."
"Oh, don't worry about her," growled Dae with a cruel smile, "I have a special punishment in mind for her."
"Yeah, I'm not even going to ask." I said as I shook my head. I looked at Dae, "I don't even want to know!"
Norman couldn't stop himself from laughing at what I just said.
* * *
As soon as I recovered enough to finally set foot outside my bedroom, I went downstairs to hear Dae and Discord laughing about something. When I got out into the foyer, I saw them on the other side of a table and walked close enough to see... And then, I looked in horror to see Discord showing Dae my baby pictures!
"Look at this one!" Discord laughed. He flipped to a picture of me when I was three or four years old with his lion paw and pointed with his big nail. I was obviously angry about something, because in the picture, I sat on my tail and Fluttershy had a shocked look on her face.
"Wow, she even sat on her tail back then?" Dae chuckled with a wry grin.
Discord smiled and nodded. "Uh-huh! But back then it was absolutely adorable! That reminds me, I do have a video of her first learning how to fly." he said before turning his head further to look at Dae.
"Really Discord?" I exclaimed as I walked closer. "Dae and I just got together a few days ago, and you're already showing Dae my baby pictures?"
"What? You were absolutely adorable even back then!" said Discord as he looked at me wide-eyed and pretending to be innocent. He looks down at me as he floats and smiles his familiar snaggle-tooth grin, "And now that I'm your proud father, I couldn't help myself! But, now that you're down here, think you might want to watch the video of your first flight with your new boyfriend?"
I groaned as my eyes went skyward, "Fine."
I sat down on the plush green couch to the left of Dae on the other side of the room and Discord put the video into the player underneath the big flat-panel monitor. In the video it looked like I was about six years old. If I recall correctly, dad left that year and I'm not sure if it happened before or after that video took place.
<*****>
Fluttershy and I were standing in the backyard and she flapped her wings a couple of times and I copied her.
"Now, I hear you've had a couple of flying lessons already?" Fluttershy asked with an inquisitive look in her blue eyes.
I nodded. "But only just learned how to get off the ground!"
"Okay then, show me what you've learned." Fluttershy said with a warm smile.
"Okay." I said. I flapped my wings a couple of times, lifted myself a couple of inches off the ground and then fell flat on my face with a thud.
I could tell Fluttershy tried to be nice with her critique just by the tone of her voice. She looked down at me, "Well, that was a good try, but I think I have a much better way to help you."
I looked up at her and scrunched my mouth, “Huh?”
"Well, I actually modified this from when Pinkie was trying to help me to get over my fear of heights." Fluttershy explained.
I got back to my feet and gave Fluttershy a puzzled look. "But you're a pegasus! Why would you be afraid of heights?"
Fluttershy blushed and looked off to the right. "It's a long story."
I shrugged. "Okay."
She looked back up at me and said,"Now, it goes like this, a hop," And she continued, "flap and a jump!"
As Fluttershy demonstrated what she just said, Rainbow Dash zipped in from the skies and landed perfectly, as her hooves touched down on the ground next to Fluttershy, "Hey guys! What's up?" She said before looking at me and then turning right to face Fluttershy.
"I'm teaching Betty how to start flying." Fluttershy replied with a smile.
Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. "Let me guess, the hop, flap and jump technique? You know that's not going to work, right? Half and half's aren't good flyers! It's impossible!"
"Excuse me, Rainbow Dash," said Fluttershy, "being a flying instructor myself, I've taught plenty of half and half's, just like Betty here and they're all great flyers!"
"Oh yeah, that's right!" Rainbow Dash said. "A couple of your students got into the Junior Flyer’s Academy? But I still can't believe you got a flying instructor job anyway."
As Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy carried on with their conversation, Discord trained the camera on me.
"Hmm," I said to myself, "let's see, a hop, flap and a jump!"
I did exactly what Fluttershy told me to do and before I knew it, I took off the ground like a rocket! I was flying! Actually flying! And soon, I started to have fun with it in the sky to see what I could do!
An insane idea must’ve crossed my young mind at that point and after I did a barrel roll, Discord turned the camera back to Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash. Fluttershy looked stunned with her jaw dropped as she watched me fly. She tapped Rainbow Dash on the shoulder with her left forehoof and pointed at me in the air, "Uh, Rainbow Dash?"
Rainbow Dash looked at Fluttershy, "What?"
Rainbow followed Fluttershy’s hoof to see me in the sky as Discord laughed and focused the camera back on me. I was having fun doing barrel rolls again while Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash gasped at me flying.
"Y-You, what? Uh?" Rainbow Dash stammered. "How did she learn to do a barrel roll? Are you sure this is her first time flying Fluttershy?" as she stared wide-eyed at the spectacle.
I noticed Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy staring at me in shock. I stopped flying and hovered. "What?"
"Are you sure this is your first time flying?" Fluttershy shouted at me from the ground.
I tilted my head to the right. "Yeah, why?"
"It sure didn't look like it." Rainbow Dash while her magenta eyes stood there, wide as saucers in my direction.
"Well, it seems Fluttershy's technique worked better than my teachers did. Just flap your wings like a bird and you'll be up in the air in no time! Yeah right!" I said with a chuckle.
"And what about the barrel rolls?" Fluttershy asked. “How did you learn to do that so quickly?”
"Oh that," I said with a shrug, "I've seen dad do it all the time before he left. Since I was up in the air, I figured, why not give it a try?"
"Welp," said Rainbow Dash, "it looks like I put my hoof in my mouth. I take back what I said about half and half's not being good flyers!" She smiled at me. "Hey, now that you're flying, how's about a race?"
I nodded with a devious grin. "Sure."
"Okay, the first one around the cottage ten times and back wins!” Rainbow said as she launched into the air with her wings flapping, “And if you beat me, you get serious bragging rights."
"You're on!"
As we started racing, we were almost done with our tenth lap and were neck and neck when Rainbow lost her flight pattern and crashed into a nearby tree. Fluttershy went into a fit of hard laughter shortly before Discord.
"See Betty? I told you!" Fluttershy chuckled. "Even Commander Rainbow Dash, the best flyer in Equestria crashes. And she does it more than you think. Hence, the nickname Rainbow Crash."
I couldn't stop myself from laughing as I landed gently while flapping my wings. I had tears in my eyes, as I laughed so hard and stopped flapping to bring my wings back to my sides. The video ended after that.
<*****>
After the video ended, I had to admit, that did make me feel better.
"Wow," Dae chuckled, "Commander Rainbow Dash, outdone by a six year old! Don't see that everyday!"
I could feel my face turn red and I looked away to the right. Dae nudged me on the shoulder. I looked back at him and he kissed me!
Discord chuckled, "Well now, I should just leave you two alone."
The next thing I knew, I Dae had pulled me onto his lap and I started making out with him. That was fine by me, as long as he didn't take my clothes off.
* * *
{Celestia}
I groaned and shook my head as I read Twilight's angry letter to me about Dae dating Betty. Twilight basically said it should be forbidden for Dae to date anyone but royalty.
"When is this idiot going to get a clue?" I said to myself before sighing.
"Ahem." I heard Twilight say.
I tried not to roll my eyes as I bowed to her.
"Who were you just calling an idiot now?" Twilight asked with a frown.
I normalized my posture, "That would be you!" I snapped before a smirk began to form on my face.
"I'm an idiot?" Twilight growled. "Dae is dating someone who isn't royalty. And then, that brat decided to shout at me when she lost twenty five of her teammates!"
My ears went flat against my head when Twilight reminded me of what she did to Betty. "You wanna know something Twilight? How would you feel if you lost half of the citizens of Equestria?"
Twilight looked like she realized her mistake when I asked her that question. "Oh… I-I would be unhappy about it and I would probably shout at somepony who's being insensitive." She said as her purple eyes began to widen with the startling clarity that just entered her mind.
"Uh-huh," I said as I nodded, I looked at her fiercely, "don't you think you owe somepony an apology?"
"Well, I would, but Dae wants me to stay away from her." Twilight said with a frown as she narrowed her eyes again. "He also said he had some sort of creative punishment for me too?"
"And I don't blame him!" I said. "You definitely deserve whatever punishment he gives you Twilight! You’ve been very insufferable, as of late!"
Twilight sighed and hung her head in remorse. "I have to find some way to make it up to her…"
"I don't care what you do at this point." I said. "But seriously Twilight, please I'm begging you to stay away from the Middle Ground. I don't want to see you at the moment. I don't care what your visit is about. I'm not going to convince Dae to marry you. I'm also not going to convince him to let you be around Betty either. Now get lost!"
Without another word, Twilight left with her tail between her legs and her head hung in penance.
* * *
{Dae}
The day came for Princess Twilight's trial for assaulting Betty. It surprised me, because the Royal Court actually agreed to charge her with a crime and bring her to trial, although from what I discovered, there were at least a dozen witnesses, besides Starlight, Spike, and me. Not to mention the security cameras. I guess with all the evidence, the Royal Court couldn't turn a blind eye to this?
Betty asked the court to not be there to testify, and the Court allowed it.
Since this trial accused Princess Twilight of a crime, her crown and royal attire were taken away from her and she was to be viewed as a regular pony. It didn't matter if she was an alicorn. As the trial got started and the prosecutors showed all the evidence against Twilight, she had her head on the table and she looked ashamed about what she did. She has been nothing but rude and annoying lately and when she did what she did to Betty, she showed herself to be a snot at the highest degree of being a brat.
The prosecutor was a pale green unicorn named Bumble with a short blond mane and tail and a briefcase for a cutie mark. "Your Honor, there is one more piece of evidence that I need to present for this case."
The Judge nodded at his high wooden desk. "The Prosecutor may present evidence for this case."
"Before I do, may I request to speak to Your Honor first?" Bumble asked.
The Judge nodded. "Yes, you may please approach me."
Bumble pulled out of his briefcase a stack of papers and showed it to the Judge using his magic. He laid them onto the high desk and they soon talked in a low whisper for about 5 minutes before the Judge solemnly nodded.
"If you please," said Bumble after turning away from the Judge, "I would like for Twilight the defendant to please read over exhibit 'E', it's the most important witness testimony of all. It's from the victim of this crime, Betty Jewel. She is not here and understandably so. Twilight, please read over these documents."
Bumble collected the documents from the desk with his magic and trotted over to the table where Twilight sat on her haunches in the small metal chair. He paused and placed the stack of papers onto the desk.
She magically lifted them to her face with a violet glow and gasped after she read them, "Hospital records! Now I know she wasn't injured that bad when I left."
"She was Twilight," said Bumble with a nod, "she was in a coma for two weeks. She almost died because of you."
The audience gasped and they murmured among themselves. The Judge lifted his gavel with his purple forehoof and banged it onto his desk. "Order! Order in the CourtRoom!"
As Princess Twilight looked in shock at Betty's hospital records, I could hear in her thoughts, There's got to be some way I can make it up to her. But Dae wants me to stay away from her? Even though Equestrian Law does say that a person of royalty can't date someone who's not royalty, that's not the Law in Hell. I have no idea what I'm going to do to reconcile this. I guess this is one situation that can't just be fixed with an apology. I deserve whatever punishment I get from Equestria and Dae. What am I going to do?
Well at least she's showing remorse, I thought, but I think she's doing it out of embarrassment and shock. I doubt she's really remorseful. She's not going to get away with assaulting Betty if I got something to say about it. This is way more serious than when Betty smashed a statue of an enemy of Equestria. Even though Betty did it out of anger, that action actually helped Equestria in the long run. But assaulting Betty for no reason other than being pissed off and almost killing her in the process? The Princess won't get maximum punishment because she's the ruler of Equestria.
Princess Twilight sighed and looked down at the table where she sat at. She finally brought herself to look at the Judge. "Your Honor, I know I'm guilty of this crime. I plead guilty of all charges that I'm accused of. I will take whatever punishment you give me. Even if it means stepping down from the throne and choosing a successor before my 32 year mark."
The Judge smiled and nodded. "Very well, because Equestrian Law states I can't send the ruler of Equestria to jail, I can only give you a punishment of 3 years house arrest. Another part of your punishment is that you will not be allowed to wear your royal attire for the duration of your punishment. This trial is concluded."
The Judge banged the gavel once more and trial was over with.
* * *
After the trial went outside and sat down on a nearby bench and didn't do anything but stare off into space. I was snapped out of it when I heard Princess Twilight say, "Dae is there any chance I could… Um…"
My right eye twitched in anger as I snapped at her, "No! You're not going anywhere near her. I don't care if you want to make it up to her. I'm not buying your apology for a second. I’m sure if your friends hadn't charged you with a crime, you wouldn't be apologizing for it! And besides, I highly doubt your apology is sincere. You threw Betty up against a wall in anger because she shouted at you, when you should've been taking things seriously! Betty lost twenty five of her teammates, and you acted like a rotten child, all because she shouted at you! And on top of all that, you STILL want to force my hand into marrying you by sending me weekly marriage proposals! You seem to have forgotten what it means to be the Princess of Friendship. It shouldn’t matter if Betty's one of your close friends or just one of your subjects!"
Princess Twilight's ears dropped and this time it seemed like she showed sincere remorse but I didn't want to hear it. To me she's only doing it because she got caught and she's embarrassed by her actions. I saw it in her eyes and the tears she had in her eyes were fake. Fake tears that only an insolent princess would have, just because she thinks since she's the ruler of Equestria, that she can do whatever she wants. I just wanted her out of my sight at the moment, until I summoned her for her punishment.
"You know what Princess?" I snarled. "Stay out of my sight and don't go near me or Betty and don't even think about summoning her to the Castle. AND DON'T SEND ANYMORE MARRIAGE PROPOSALS! I'M NOT INTERESTED!"
Princess Twilight didn't say anything to me. She simply walked away and I listened to her thoughts. It made me more angry with what I heard. She would continue to send me marriage proposals because she thinks I'll change my mind sooner or later. She also thought that if she started proposing to Betty, then I would follow suit if Betty accepted it and that one only caused me to roll my eyes in disgust.
Oh sure, If we married her we would be the most famous herd in Equestria! But Betty still has to say yes to her and we all know that’s not happening... I smiled determinedly as I knew for a fact, that once again Princess Twilight wasn't going to get wanted, just because she ruled over Equestria.