//------------------------------//
// 9) It's all in the Family 
// Story: The Ghost of Cozy Glow the Third Story 
// by SapphireRose87 
//------------------------------//

{Betty}

"Great! Lovely!" I growled. "I can't believe Mr. Giggles would be so bold!"

I was pacing back and forth in Celestia's office in the Middle Ground, the news about what Mr. Giggles had tried to do to Cozy Glow fresh on my mind. 

"Your Highness, I think you need to try and calm down," said Celestia, frowning and furrowing her brow. "Discord did tell Norman that he had a way to stop Mr. Giggles. Although most of the time I don't trust him, Mr. Giggles is his brother. So if anyone can stop him, it should be a family member, yes?"

"I agree with Celestia on that!" Twilight declared.

I rolled my eyes at her. "Of course you do."

"Hey," Twilight snapped. "Don't disrespect me like that!"

"Or you'll do what?" I sneered. "Knock me up against the wall? In case you didn't notice, I'm royalty now and not you! And I would appreciate it if you stop sending me and Dae those stupid marriage proposals! You've been sending them for over thirty years now, get a freaking clue! WE'RE NOT INTERESTED!" 

Twilight stared at me in terror and gave a nervous laugh. Shortly after she did that, she perked up as if she remembered something. "I think I have a way that can help. You know... in case Discord's plan doesn't work."

I exhaled slowly. "Okay, I'll humor you. What's your plan?"

"It's a whole bunch of different checklists!" Twilight said. She clapped her hooves excitedly and she looked proud of herself.

While Celestia seemed unfazed by Twilight because she's probably used to her stupidity by now, I did a facepalm and groaned. "Do you by chance have a checklist on how not to be stupid?"

Twilight shook her head and looked unfazed by my insult. "No, but I did come up with several different game plans that you could use against Mr. Giggles. With all of these ideas, one of them just might work! See?"

When Twilight lit up her horn and pulled out of thin air several different scrolls, I just about wanted to bang my head on something out of frustration.  

"Let's see, checklist number one..." Twilight said. 

As Twilight rattled off the ideas on her lists, I looked at Celestia and said, "I wonder if I should put Twilight's idea of a battle plan as an idea of one of our enemies' punishments? We could have Twilight read every single checklist she has to them. Yup, they'll be begging for death as Twilight bores them to tears. I should mention this to Dae, I'm sure he would love to put this idea in place."

Celestia snorted, "I'm sorry about Twilight, Your Highness, I've tried to break her of her silly nonsense, but as you can see…"

"Yeah, I know." After what seemed like forever, I decided to cut Twilight off from her rambling. "While your idea is nice and all, Twilight, I think there's a better way to stop Mr. Giggles." 

"Aww," Twilight whined, "but I have four more scrolls to read!"

Before I could respond, Celestia's horn lit up, and a holographic screen appeared with Norman's face on it. I've rarely seen Norman pissed off about something, but today, he looked beyond pissed. 

"Celestia?" Norman said. "Can you summon Betty for me? Discord has an idea to stop Mr. Giggles."

"Norman, what's wrong?" I frowned. "Don't tell me Discord's plan is another round of checklists."

"Oh, good, Betty you're already there," said Norman. "I need you to come to the castle in Canterlot, ASAP!"

I nodded. "I'm on my way!"


*	*	*


When I got to the castle in Canterlot, Norman gave me a big bear hug like he's been doing a lot lately. No sooner had we got to the throne room, Discord popped up. "I have it!"

What Discord pulled out of thin air was a family photo album. I rolled my eyes. "Okay, why did you bring a family photo album?"

"It's not just any photo album," Discord explained. "It's sort of a history book on the Destruction Clan. I figured it might help to stop Mr. Giggles by knowing his background and all. You know, because he's my older brother."

Discord showed us the cover on the photo album and it had a picture of the younger versions of him and Mr. Giggles glaring at each other. 

"Let me guess," I said. "You two hated each other back then, didn't you?"

Discord nodded. "Yup! And I still hate him now!" 

Before we could flip through the pages, two words appeared on the first page: Norman and Betty. 

"Uh, Discord?" I said. "Am I crazy, or did our names suddenly appear?"

Discord looked down at the page angrily. I worried that he might turn into a dragon and breathe fire. "Stupid brother! I wonder how he's going to appear this time?"

"Oh, Discord," Mr. Giggles giggled wickedly, "you know me so well."

"I'm not going to say a word…" Discord growled.

Mr. Giggles laughed.

"I was wondering, Mr. Giggles," I snapped, "how did you escape from the zoo?"

"Ouch!" Mr. Giggles replied. "Now that wasn't very nice, Betty!"

"Like you've been nice to us?" Norman snarled.

"Oh, Norman," taunted Mr. Giggles, "I hope you don't mind, but one of your guards decided to take my invitation to come to my circus. Lewis was his name? We had such a fun time together! I was wondering, do you like nursery rhymes?"

"Don't even think about it!" Norman sneered.

Mr. Giggles giggled. "Too late! I already did! The one I love the most goes like this, three blind mice…"

As Mr. Giggle started singing, the pages of the photo album started to flip on their own. With every flip of the page, the nursery rhyme started to sound more like chanting than singing. The pages kept flipping and the pictures with Discord on them started to fade. 

Soon the pictures just had Mr. Giggles' image on them, laughing. The nursery rhyme said something about a butcher's knife and we looked at the photo album in horror as Mr. Giggles had a butcher's knife in his hand. He grinned a toothy grin at us and before Mr. Giggles could throw the butcher's knife at us, Norman quickly closed the book and threw it. Before the photo album could flip back open, Norman used his fire power to burn the book and his darkness powers to blow the ashes away.

"Why that little-" Discord grit his teeth violently. 

"Well, that was horrifying," I said. 

Norman started to say something, but he paused and looked at me with concern instead. "Uh, Betty?"

I looked at him. "What?"

"You're shaking," said Norman. "Are you angry?"

I didn't notice I was shaking until Norman said something about it. I looked around to see that the building wasn't shaking, so I wasn't angry. 

"I don't know why I'm shaking," I said.

"Are you shaking because you're scared, perhaps?" Discord asked.

I shook my head. "No, I don't get scared."

Norman pulled me into his arms and held me so I wouldn't fall over. If I was afraid, then why would I be afraid of what Mr. Giggles just did? It didn't make any sense to me. I closed my eyes when the world started to spin.


*	*	*


I woke up and looked around to see I was in a room in the castle in Canterlot. I still had no idea why I was shaking earlier but at least it stopped. I looked around and smiled when I saw Dae and Norman sitting at my bedside, nodding off to sleep. 

"How long was I out?" I asked.

Norman and Dae's eyes shot open. They looked relieved to see that I was awake. 

"Ten hours," Dae answered. "And it's about time you took a nice long break. From what I was told, you were shaking before you passed out. What happened?"

"Mr. Giggles decided to possess a family photo album and tried to kill us by way of a butcher's knife while singing a nursery rhyme," Norman said before I could answer.

"Wow, I can see why you passed out, Betty," Dae said.

I tilted my head. "Uh, because I was scared? I don't get scared. I get worried, but scared? That would be a no."

"I didn't say you were scared," Dae replied. "You've been so worried about Mr. Giggles that you don't know when to take a break. You do realize that you need to go to The Church of Satan to replenish your energy every once and a while or you'll become a literal zombie. Why do I keep having to remind you? I don't think Hell needs a zombie Queen for a ruler."

I rolled my eyes and said with sarcasm, "Very funny, Dae."

Norman seemed puzzled by this. "Hell has a religion?"

I shook my head. "Nope, it's nothing like that. It's a place made entirely of dark energy crystals. A demon needs to enter into a crystal and it helps to build up their powers again. If not, just like Dae said, we turn into zombies. Dae and I actually had to do that a couple of times during the war with Shadow Mist. We made sure to change out our soldiers so they could still help with the war. I haven't been going there in a while because of being worried about how to stop Mr. Giggles and getting the Mirror Technique down."

"Maybe I should find a way to knock you out so I can make you go there more often," Dae laughed. "Although I doubt a punch to the gut will work anymore. I'll figure something else out, I guess."

I sighed. "I guess I'll have to go there when I get back to Hell."

"Seriously," Norman agreed, "I don't want to see you passing out on me again. I've never seen you do that before."

Speaking of never doing something before, Dae thought, you really should communicate with Norman by thought. I think it's awfully cute your brother's worried about your safety like that. I must say, he would make a wonderful addition to the family.

He's already part of the family, I thought darkly, because he's my brother.

You know what I mean, Dae smirked. 

No comment. I grimaced.

You know it would be much easier for your relationship with him to bloom if you did communicate with him by thought, Dae teased. As a matter of fact, I think I'll get things started.

Don't you- I started to think. Then I felt a tiny surge of power that signaled Dae had connected my magic with Norman's. I rolled my eyes and thought. You did…

He did what? Norman thought. 

Nevermind, I thought.

Norman! Dae thought. So nice of you to finally join the conference call.

I would say I'm going to kill you for this, Dae, but you're already dead, so I can't, I thought.

Actually, I was never alive because I was born in Hell. It's the same thing with Otis and Ruby, Dae thought. 

You were never alive? Norman thought. How is that even possible?

Well, if your soul never left the Land of the Dead, then you're not counted among the living. Since I came to be in Hell and wasn't born in the Land of the Living, so, yeah, that's how you can never live, Dae thought.

Make sense, Norman thought.

Well, I'll just leave you two lovebirds alone, Dae thought. I'll get out of your heads now. Ha! Get it? Heads. 

Dae started laughing in his thoughts, and then after a while, he got up and left.

When Dae left, there was an awkward silence between Norman and I. 

Now what? Norman thought.

I have no idea. 

I noticed that my back was hurting where my wings were. I figured it was because I had been sleeping for a long time. 

You look like you're in pain.

A little, I just need to stretch my wings out. Just a moment.

I spread my right wing out and stretched it. I did the same thing to my left wing.

Norman gave me a strange look and it wasn't the usual creepy look he gives me. 

Okay, what's that look all about, Norman? It's not the usual creepy look you give me.

I don't give you a creepy look! Norman looked away. I just can't help it, okay? But I guess I could work on not doing it anymore.  

Yup, nothing weird about this at all. 

Without warning, Norman leaned over and shoved his tongue in my mouth. I pushed him away and he gave me a flirting smile. Nope, this is not weird at all.

Norman leaned over and did the same thing again. After that we just sat there staring at each other for a while. Even though I thought it was weird that my little brother just kissed me, I wanted to stay and make out with him, but I felt I should get home so I could start training on the Mirror Technique again. To me, I needed Mr. Giggles at the moment.

I sighed. Norman, this has been fun and all but I think it's time for me to go back home. Don't worry, I'll come back. I have things I need to attend to do okay?

Norman looked like he was dazed more than I was. It surprised me that he could answer me.

Yeah, sure… He reached over and kissed me again and then I went back home.


*	*	*


{Mr. Giggles}

By this point, I was super bored sitting in this cave trying to figure out how to get my next meal. I had already lost three chances to eat: it didn't matter what I tried, I couldn't get those three ponies I almost nabbed to trust me. That's the only way I eat and still live. My food has to trust me, no if's, and's, or but's about it. 

To make matters even worse, sitting in this stupid cave with nothing to do bored me to tears because I had no one to talk to. I couldn't make a copy of myself to talk to like my idiot little brother Discord can. So I did the next best thing, I talked to my reflection in the water.

"Well, Mr. Giggles," I said to my reflection, "what are you going to do for your next meal, hmm?"

I went to the other side of the river that flowed through my cave. I made like my reflection was talking back to me. "I don't know, maybe I can get them to go swimming, and they can follow you to your cave? I mean, yeah, who doesn't trust a clown, but your clown form doesn't seem to win over everyone's trust easily."

"So, maybe I should try changing into one of my other forms?" 

Once again, I pretended my reflection was talking to me, "Maybe, or maybe not. But I wonder if you could change into your human form and your food would be more trusting of you? I'm not so sure circuses are a thing right at the moment." 

Then I thought of an idea. "Well, maybe I could put an ad out saying I could perform at someone's birthday party?"

"That might work," said my reflection in my head, "but seriously, how many birthday parties are there going on this year? Who's to say that's going to bring in more food?"

"Good point," I said, then I thought of something else, "what if I use our balloon son, Johnny, again? It worked on that guard, didn't it? Of course, if all else fails I can change into my human form, I guess. I hate that form! I despise it with a passion." 

My reflection shrugged. "Well... You have to get your food somehow or would you rather be sucked back into the afterlife cave earlier than ten years? You'll be dead for real then and you'll never be able to go outside of that cave ever again!"

I sighed. "Fine, you have a point, as usual. Let's go with our balloon son, Johnny, first before I try the human form."

I pulled out one of my black balloons. This balloon was very different from the other black balloons I have because it doesn't have any black ink in it. It comes to life when I use my magic to make it live. 

I folded the balloon and cast my magic into it. It formed into a small human child. Johnny sat down on the ground as he always does when I summon him. 

"You summoned me, Father?" Johnny asked.

"Why, yes, Johnny, my dear boy," I said, "I want you to go get some food for me. I'm very hungry and I don't want to back to that stupid afterlife cave early."

Johnny smiled his adorable toothy smile. "Yes, Father! I will go at once."

Johnny left. All I had to do now was wait until he brought me back some food.