The Ghost of Cozy Glow

by SapphireRose87

Chapter Sixteen

That night I had the same dream that I’ve had before. I was running after someone, I knew who I was running after, it was my mom. I kept trying to reach her and not to mention it seemed she was getting further and further away.

“Mom!” I was shouting.

I could hear my mom’s voice as she was fading away. “I’m going to kill you, daughter of mine…”

I kept shouting after my mother, I was almost able to grab her hand this time and her image faded from view.

“Mom!” I cried, “I’m right here!”

I sank to my knees as I couldn’t see her anymore.

“I’m right here!” I cried. “I’m right here…”

When I woke up I found myself lying in the fetal position lying next to Dae. I almost scooted away from him but stayed where I was.

“I think I’m gonna hurl!” I thought.

“You okay?” Dae thought. “It sounded like you were having a nightmare.”

“The same broken record every time…” I thought.

I couldn’t hold it in anymore, I went outside the cave and threw up. Dae then came up to me and put a hand in my forehead.

“What’s that for?” I thought.

“You don’t seem to have a fever…” Dae thought. “You sure you’re okay?”

“I’m fine,” I thought, “stop asking me that!

“Okay, okay…” Dae thought.

I heard thunder and looked outside the cave, it had started to rain.

“Well,” I thought, “I guess we can’t head out until the rain stops and we still haven’t found Tirek yet.”

“Don’t worry,” thought Dae, “we’ll find him.”

“There’s one thing that kind bugs me when I fought Gorgar.” I thought.

“What was that?” Dae thought.

“Apparently,” I thought, “I didn’t use any magic at all when fighting him!”

“And that’s a bad thing because?” Dae thought.

“I don’t know,” I thought, “but it just bugs me.”

“Yeah know something?” Dae thought.

“What?” I thought.

“You’re eye not twitching anymore.” Dae thought. “What up with you?”

“I have no idea…” I thought.

Before I could think anything else a man came running up to the cave and he was soaking wet. Once he got to the cave he stopped to catch his breath.

“A message from your other teams,” said the messenger, “they only managed to catch 20 of the escapes and are headed out to catch more.”

“Great,” I said, “that makes 70! Looks like the other teams are doing alright, you stay here and rest.”

“Uh Betty,” said Dae, “ I don’t think he wants to stay.”

“He’s right,” said the messenger, “I really need to send this intel to Princess Twilight.”

“Okay then,” I said, “see you later!”

The Messenger then did a salute and ran off.

* * *

It was the next day when the rain finally let up. I once again found myself in the fetal position asleep right next to Dae.

“You’re cute when you sleep.” Dae said.

Normally my eye would’ve twitched at such a remark, but it didn’t bother me this time.

“You sure you’re okay?” Dae thought.

“I’m fine…” I thought.

Dae then gave me a weird look.

“What?” I thought. “Is something wrong?”

“Nothings wrong,” thought Dae, “I was just testing you that’s all.”

“Well,” I thought, “I think it’s time to head out. Don’t you think?’’

Dae nodded and I started packing things up. I looked and saw Dae smiling at me. I didn’t know why, but it gave me a strange feeling in my stomach.

“What’s up?” I said.

I then heard some clear their throat, it was one of my teammates.

“Uh, don’t mind us.” The teammate said.

“Awe, look at those two,” said another teammate, “they really do make a great couple!”

I gave a nervous laugh and thought, “Remind me why we have a five man team again?”

“You’re the one who set it up.” Dae thought.

“Okay,, okay,” I said, “let’s pack up and move out!”

* * *

We set out to catch the next group of escapes, when Cozy Glow popped up.

“I don’t have time for this!” I said.

“Oh so sorry,” said Cozy Glow, “I’m actually keeping track of your progress and reporting back to the Princess. It looks like you’ve only caught 50 of the escapes.”

“What?” I said. “But the messenger said that the other teams caught 20 more!’

“Nope,” said Cozy Glow, “something’s up and it’s not good.”

As I was running I made an abrupt stop and almost ran into a tree.

“Something tells me that the messenger that was sent to us,” I said, “was a fake!”

“What’s going on then?” Dae said.

“I don’t know,” I said, “ and I don’t like it!”

When I thought of what Cozy Glow said and couldn’t help but worry about it.

“You worry too much.” Dae thought.

“I can’t help it,” I thought, “I have a sneaking suspicion that our other teams aren’t doing so well. They might be dead for all I know. And that’s what I’m afraid of. Maybe we should take a detour and check on them.”

‘Sound like a good idea.” Dae thought.

* * *

“Listen up!” I said. “We’re going to take a detour to check on the rest of the Tracking Team. We have 50 men and ponies to check on and see if they’re okay, the sooner we do this, the sooner we can get back to the job at hand, understood?”

“Yes ma’am!” Everyone said.

“I got a bad feeling about this,” I thought, “a really bad feeling!”

* * *

We went to check on the other teams and were terrified at what we saw. Half the team were injured and the other half were dead. 25 Men and ponies were dead. The Medic ponies came with us to collect the dead and it wasn’t long before Princess Twilight came to see what was going on.

“What exactly happened here?” Princess Twilight said.

“According to the report,” I said, “the teams were ambushed and didn’t get a good look at the enemy.”

“I know what you’re thinking,” said Princess Twilight, “but this mission is not a failure.”

I balled my hands up into fists and was really pissed off after Princess Twilight said that.

“How can you call this mission a success?” I said.

“Excuse me?” Princess Twilight said.

“You heard me,” I said, “25 of my teammates died! And you call this mission a success? If you ask me, it’s a complete failure and I don’t accept people and ponies dying on my watch!”

“You have to understand,” said Princess Twilight, “both Captains and Commanders can lose people and ponies at moments notice! You can’t think that everyone is going to come home alive every single time! That’s especially if you can’t see the enemy!”

“But-“ I said.

Princess Twilight sighed, “I think it’s lecture time.”

Before I knew it, Princess Twilight gripped me in her magic and held me up in the air. I tried to fight against it, but it felt like I was being choked.

“Don’t fight this spell, it'll only tighten around your neck and you won’t be able to breathe for long, so just hang there and listen okay?” Princess Twilight said.

I nodded my head the best I could being gripped in her magic so I stopped fighting and did what I was told.

“When the humans first came over, you want to know what they did? They started a war! We lost half the military force, half!” Princess Twilight continued, “We thought we were done with them when they left, but no, they came back and started another war! That was the war when we lost Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, and they were fighting one the front lines with their subjects! You think they could’ve protected every single one of them? No! They lost some of their subjects and so did I in that war. You think that losing friends and family set well with me? No it didn’t! And the scars form that will never go away! This is the same instance! Your mission was to catch the escapes from Hell am I right? You did your job, you caught 50 of them! You guys were sent to track people and ponies not to fight a war! So your mission was a success! You did great, so don’t lose your head about this okay? Now I think I’m done talking, I wasn’t going to do this at first, but I think you’ve earned it!”

Princess Twilight then used her magic and swung hard, before I knew it the lights were out as soon as I hit the wall.

* * *

I woke up exactly two minutes after I slammed into the wall and groaned.

“You okay?” Dae said, holding out a hand to help me up.

“I’m fine…” I said.

I stood up by myself and was a little shaky and dusted myself off. Feeling woozy I made my way over to a chair and sat down.

“It looks like you got a concussion from that hit.” Dae said.

I once again balled hands into fists.

“Damn it!” I thought. “We should’ve had fewer people! Next time I’ll have a smaller team, and I’ll be able to protect everyone. I promise that!”

My anger boiled up inside of me when Dae put a hand on my shoulder.

“It’s just like Princess Twilight said,” said Dae, “you can’t protect everyone…”

“Next time I will…” I said.

* * *

The next day I was summoned to Princess Twilight's Castle in Canterlot. When I walked into the Throne Room and gave her a bow.

“At ease Betty,” said Princess Twilight, “look at me.”

I stood up and looked Princess Twilight in the eye.

“It seems you need some time off again,” said Princess Twilight, “especially after what happened.”

“But-“ I said.

“Do I have to lecture you again?” Princess Twilight said. “You need to have some time to grieve over your teammates. Although I’m not sure if one month is going to do it. Let it go Betty, like I said, you can’t protect everyone. You think you’ll be able to protect everyone when Tirek comes around? That remains to be seen I guess.”

“I don’t know…” I said.

“One month off at least to attend the funeral if you’re able to.” Princess Twilight said. ”There is one more thing, there’s a surprise waiting for you at Sugarcube Corners. That’ll be all.”

“Yes your highness…” I said.

I turned around and left. I was pretty sure of what Pinkie Pie had in store for me and going to Sugarcube Corners and that was last thing I wanted to do.

* * *

As I was walking down the road in opposite direction of Sugarcube Corners I could sense that a rain cloud was following me.

“What do you want?” I said.

“I heard about what happened,” said Rainbow Dash, “you have a very long face. That’s not good, you really need to be around friends right now.”

“Rainbow Dash,” I said, “I don’t need this right now!”

“Yeah know,” said Rainbow Dash, “this reminds me of the time when my pet turtle Tank was going into hibernation.”

“This is nothing like a pet turtle!” I snapped.

“Anyway,” said Rainbow Dash, “you really should come with me to Sugarcube Corners, alright?”

“No thank you!” I said.

“If you don’t come willingly,” said Rainbow Dash, “I’ll drag you there by force!”

I smiled, “You like to race don’t you?”

“Yeah,” said Rainbow Dash, “why?”

“If you want me to go to Sugarcube Corners so bad,” I said, “you have to catch me first!”

So the race was on and instead of going straight through the Everfree Forest, I took the long way around. Rainbow Dash and I were neck and neck and I was almost back to Fluttershy’s cottage when Dae jumped out in front of me.

“Thank goodness!” Rainbow Dash said. “Dae can you please knock some sense into her?”

Dae put a hand on my shoulder to keep me from going any further. I couldn’t think of anything else except my teammates that I just lost. I sank to my knees and began to cry.

* * *

“Damn it!” I cried. “Half of my teammates died, Princess Twilight wants me to let that go? What’s the point in that?”

Dae held me in his arms as I cried.

“As if I didn’t have enough to worry about!” I said.

I guess at that moment Rainbow Dash couldn’t help herself, she started to cry too.

“Wow,” said Rainbow Dash, “I’ve haven’t seen anybody cry this much since Rarity.”

“Not now Rainbow Dash…” Dae said. “Come on Betty, Pinkie Pie as something waiting for you at Sugarcube Corners and it’s Nightmare night, this should be fun…”

I sighed, “Okay fine, I’ll go..”

Rainbow Dash let out a sigh of relief, “Thank you Dae…”

* * *

When we got to Sugarcube Corners, the lights were off. I rolled my eyes and turned the lights on and in true Pinkie Pie fashion balloons and confetti went everywhere.

“Surprise!” Everyone said.

I blinked and looked around dumbfounded at what I saw.

“What’s the matter?” Pinkie Pie said.

“And what is this for exactly?” I said.

“You silly goose,” laughed Pinkie Pie, “it’s your birthday!”

Pinkie then pushed a giant cake towards me.

“See,” said Pinkie Pie, “it says happy birthday Betty Jewel!”

“You’re kidding me right?” I said.

“Nope,” said Pinkie Pie, “not joking!”

“You were born on Nightmare night?” Dae said. “That’s so awesome!”

I laughed, ”I forgot my own birthday and here I thought it was a bad dream or something.”

“More like it’s or something!” Pinkie Pie said. “It’s okay, I forget things all the time! Then my memory comes back, with cake!”

“Oh Pinkie Pie,” laughed Rainbow Dash, “at least you didn’t get replaced by a bucket of turnips!”

The party lasted most of the night because it was Nightmare Night. As the party died down Dae pulled me off to the side.

“What is it?” I thought.

“I just remembered,” thought Dae, “I didn’t get you a birthday gift.”

“You don’t have to do that.” I thought. “It’s no problem really…”

“Close your eyes…” Dae thought.

“Why?” I thought.

“Just do it okay?” Dae thought.

Dae then pulled me closer to him and we shared our first kiss.

* * *

After that kiss we went to check the other events that were happening because of Nightmares Night. It wasn’t before long that we ran into Mystic Diamond and Silver Whiskers.

“So,” said Silver Whiskers, “this is the guy I’ve heard so much about?”

“Wow,” said Mystic Diamond, “I’ve never seen you smile so much!”

Silver Whiskers then scoffed at us and growled.

“Jealous much?” Mystic Diamond said.

“I’m not jealous!” Silver Whiskers said. “I’m going to go grab some apple cider…”

“What was that all about?” I said.

“Silver Whiskers found out you have a new boyfriend!” Mystic Diamond. “He seems to be the jealous type. So is it official or what?”

“Yes, it is…”. I said.

“You sure about that?” Dae said.

“Yes,” I said, “I am!”

Comments

[Ciphers]

Princess Twilight then used her magic and swung hard, before I knew it the lights were out as soon as I hit the wall.

what the problem with everyone knocked Betty down?

[SapphireRose87]

10281477
Not everyone does to Betty does that to Betty, just Princess Twilight did it