The Ghost of Cozy Glow the Second Story

by SapphireRose87

19) Background Information

The enemy declared a ceasefire at night. No one fighting for Equestria believed that the enemy would honor it. Commander Rainbow Dash and Second Luke assigned certain cadets to keep watch. The king and queen of hell, Dae and Betty along with their army of demons agreed to help sound the alarm if needed.

Even though we had those alarms in play, I still couldn’t sleep. I would nod off here and there only getting about five minutes of sleep. I guessed Jasper couldn’t sleep either, as he came over and sat down beside me.

“You worried about a possible attack too?” Jasper said.

“Yup,” I said, “even though we have cadets and demons looking out for us, I still don’t feel any better about it. I don’t trust their ceasefire because their leader is an idiot. I can’t wait until we get behind enemy lines and kill Shadow Mist! Like I told him, he’s a threat to the princess! I won’t hesitate to deal with him! I intend to do that! I won’t show him any mercy because he’s a king!”

Jasper rolled his eyes, “There you go again!”

“What?” I said tilting my head.

“You can’t stop yourself from saving people,” Jasper said, “It’s almost like it runs in your blood or something! If I didn't know any better I’d say you have the makings of a king!”

I choked as if something had gone down the wrong pipe. Jasper hit me on the back and started laughing.

“That’s not going to happen,” I said. “I don’t want to earn another medal either. It’s your turn for that.”

I could tell by the look on his face that he didn't like the idea of winning another medal any more than I did.

“I don’t think so!” Jasper said. “I don’t want another medal either. I don’t want to be a general like you. No way!”

“Well,” I said rolling my eyes. I smiled, “since you’re my protector and all, that might happen.”

Jasper and I couldn’t keep our laughter to ourselves because the whole thing was too funny to think about. Jasper paused from his laughing and looked up at the sky after that he had a smile on his face.

“Hey look!” Jasper pointed to the sky. “A shooting star! Isn’t that good luck?”

“Yup,” I said, “it’s almost as if the princess is wishing us good luck to get home. I’m not sure it’s helping considering we’ve lost about 5% of our troops already! That includes the ones that got hit with friendly fire.”

“Yeah I don’t want to think about that too much,” said Jasper, “but this is war and it's going to happen. I’m sure everyone is going to grieve for them when we get home.”

“It’s weird,” I said, “having my sister fight side by side with me fourteen years later.”

Jasper raised an eyebrow, “Fourteen I thought it happened twelve years ago?”

“Oh boy,” I said, “were you born yesterday? You and Olivia saw Betty pop out of her grave like a zombie two years ago! Two years later would make it fourteen years ago. I got a chance to visit her grave a month before this war. And I must say Betty’s become quite the grown-up. She did grow up pretty fast after I left her. Now she’s a legend and a queen. That's funny to me because she doesn’t want the legend title either! It’s funny, everyone in the family turns out to be either heroes or psychopathic serial killers!”

Jasper burst into laughter.

“That’s not funny Jasper!” I said.

Jasper quickly composed himself. "It is funny because when a hero is born in your family, they deny it," he said matter of factly.

“I’m not in denial anymore I guess,” I said. “I’m not so sure about Betty though.”

Jasper smiled at me, “Do the killers in your family deny what they’ve done?”

“That would be a no,” I said. “My psycho for a mother, for example, left a special calling card at the crime scene. That was her way of playing, 'catch me if you can,' with the police. Trust me, I’m glad Betty killed her! I’m proud of her actually because now she’s well off. George wasn’t as lucky. Like Olivia, I wish he would’ve told me what was wrong and I could’ve helped him.”

“I heard about that guy,” Jasper said.

“Let me guess,” I said, “Robert told you?”

“Yup,” said Jasper, “I guess he figured since I’m part of the family now, I should know.”

“Great,” I said, “well, I guess he’s right on that one.”

I looked away not wanting to talk about it anymore.

“I bet everyone’s worried about us back home,” Jasper said. “Especially Robert and Sunset.”

I sighed with relief, thank Celestia I thought.

“Yeah, I know,” I said, “and it doesn’t help with that stupid news reporter following us around. The funny thing is with her following us, one thinks that would be a dead giveaway on where we are. But no, they’re a bunch of idiots like Shadow Mist! I’m getting ready to punch out the news reporter's camera!”

I didn’t notice that Betty decided to come down into our trench until she cleared her throat. When we noticed her, Jasper and I jumped about a foot in the air.

“I don’t even want to know how long you’ve been standing there!” I said.

“I’m a queen now Norman!” Betty laughed. “I have to be light on my feet! Or that’s what Dae always tells me. He does the same thing to me! Anyway, you do realize that me and the others out there are watching for an enemy attack? You two should get some sleep.”

“Yeah,” I said, “I don’t think that’ll be happening any time soon.”

Betty then noticed Jasper sitting beside me and smiled.

“I remember you from two years ago!" Betty said. "I can’t believe it’s been that long since I popped out of my grave like a zombie. That was a prank! I got you good didn’t I Norman?”

“That was so funny I forgot to laugh!” I said. “You about gave me a heart attack doing that.”

“Anyway,” said Betty, “I do believe your name is Jasper?”

Jasper nodded, “Yeah…”

Betty looked at us with a puzzled look on her face.

“What’s wrong?” I said.

“Where’s your other friend?” Betty said. “That woman that was with you two years ago?”

Jasper and I didn’t say anything we looked down at the ground.

“Something happened to her didn’t it?” Betty said.

“You want to tell her or should I?” Jasper said.

Although I didn't want to talk about it, since Betty asked, I thought it would be best to tell her what happened.

I sighed, “I’ll tell her. After I made general I gave the job of second in command to Jasper and made Olivia sergeant. Olivia got pissed off by this big time. I gave Jasper the job of second in command and not her because she didn't have enough qualifications to do the job. I had to pull some strings to give her the job of sergeant. She started acting out and not doing her job because of me giving Jasper the higher job title. She got three reports filed against her in one week! One of those was for punching Jasper in front of Commander Rainbow Dashes second in command.

"In her last word to me before facing the board she said she would let her teammates die to complete a job. Commander Rainbow Dash deemed Olivia an enemy to the throne. she told Jasper and I to bring Olivia back dead. We did that, so she’s gone now. I don't know where she got sorted in the Afterlife and I don’t care to know."

When Betty heard this her jaw dropped, “Well then, I can’t believe a soldier would go that far to get a job done. Not even I would do that! I only killed my mother because she was a threat! I didn’t find out that she was a serial killer until after the fact.”

I couldn't believe what I heard. I mean why would Princess Twilight wait to tell Betty that her mom had turned into a serial killer after the fact?

“Princess Twilight didn’t tell you until afterward?” I questioned.

“Yeah,” Betty said, “and she knocked me up against a wall when I lost twenty-five of my teammates on the tracking team. When I became queen of hell I had half a mind to ban her from coming to hell ever again! But Dae told me to forgive her and I did. So we still communicate with each other. I guess it’s a good thing considering we’re at war now. How does she act now? Is she still stupid?”

I chortled when Betty asked that, “I don’t know if she’s stupid but she did force me to take the job of Knight of the Royal Court!”

“Well, I guess she is still stupid. But I can’t say that I blame her cause you did win five medals as a cadet alone! I also heard you won two more medals after that?” Betty said.

"Yes I won two more," I said, "one after saving Jasper and the other one after winning the duel with Shadow Mist!"

Betty paused and looked puzzled after hearing that.

“Wait a second!” Betty said. “That’s the enemy's leader! Is that why he declared war?”

I snorted, “No and you’ll never guess the reason why!”

“Why?” Betty said.

“Shadow Mist declared war because Princess Twilight refuses to marry him!” I said.

At that comment, Jasper, Betty, and I cracked up.

“Well, it sucks to be the princess!” Betty said. “I would cheer for the enemy to be spiteful, but since this war involves you, I have to cheer for Equestria! So who’s the other guy you added to the group?”

Jasper looked like he wanted to hide the fact that he's now part of the family. I snorted as he looked down at the ground and raised his hand like a kid volunteering an answer at school.

“That would be me," Jasper said. When Betty saw that she couldn’t contain her laughter.

“Oh don’t be so modest Jasper!” Betty laughed. “Norman gets around anyway.”

“Hey!” I said.

This time Jasper and Betty started laughing. I bit my tongue because I wanted to tell her that it wasn’t funny but I didn’t feel like getting slapped by her too. Betty picked up on it and laughed even harder.

“Sunset told me she disciplined you a few days before the war even started!” Betty said. “What did you do to earn her wrath?”

“I don’t want to talk about it,” I said biting my tongue again. For some reason, Jasper decided that he did want to talk about it.

“Norman got pissed and flipped the breakfast table over!” Jasper said.

Betty's look of concern made me annoyed. I wanted to tell her to stop giving me that look.

“Wow,” said Betty, “what were you so pissed off about?”

Nope, I thought biting my tongue, I’m not going to say a word.

Jasper seemed like he was itching to say something.

“Some idiots decided to play monkey in the middle when they were training with him in hand to hand combat!” Jasper said.

Instead of giving me a concerned look, her look went to a pissed off look.

“What?” Betty said. “If one of my soldiers did that, Dae and I would throw them in a dungeon for a week!”

“Humph,” I scoffed, “I wish Second Luke would’ve done that! Too bad soldiers don’t have a ball to toss around as we did in school. No, it’s one soldier that gets put in the middle and pushed around. It’s too bad I’m not an actor! Because I wouldn’t need a stunt man to do my fighting! Oh well, it doesn’t matter now.”

“It does matter!” Jasper snapped. “When we get back from this war, if we get back, I’m going to have a word with those guys!”

“That’s to get rid of their jealousy, how?” I said.

Betty looked at me and grinned.

“What’s that look for?” I said.

“I can help with that,” said Betty, “trust me no one wants to see a king or queen of hell when they're pissed off! To add to that you’re my little brother so I can help you!”

“Oh boy,” I said, “no thank you…”

“Oh,” Betty said. “You know we're not twins but we are a lot alike you know.”

“Why’s that?” I said.

“We fight our own battles by ourselves,” Betty said. “Oh, and Sunset will have something to tell you when this war is over.”

“What does she have to tell me?” I said.

Betty shook her head, “I can’t say and she asked me not to.”

“Oh,” I said.

Betty smiled at me. “Incoming!"

“What-“ I didn’t finish my sentence because Jasper decided to kiss me.

Betty saw that and she doubled over in laughter and I could feel my face turning red.

“Well, I guess I should go and leave you lovebirds alone!” Betty laughed. “Have fun you two!”

After Betty left Jasper kissed me again. I looked at him and almost slapped him in the face like Sunset did to me, but I decided not to. I looked at him and said, “Did you have to do that in front of my sister?”

“Sorry,” said Jasper, “I couldn’t help myself!”

* * *

Back at home, the family watched the live broadcast that Aurora gave on the Tv.

“This is the fifth day of fighting. General Norman and Second Jasper have come back trench #12 right where they started. What their strategy is, I don’t know. I received word that they’re supposed to meet up with the rest of the team that is going behind enemy lines.

"The weather team is combining their attacks against the enemy. The reports say that the number of dead on our side is still in the 5% range. We can’t say for sure how high the body count is for the enemy. The longer this war continues the more dead there will be. General Norman and Second Jasper are to another trench now.” Aurora said.

As Robert and the rest of the family watched the Tv they talked among themselves.

“Wow,” said Robert, “those two keep jumping trenches like a game of leapfrog! If I didn’t l know any better, they’re trying to run away from the news cameras. Aren’t there any other generals that she can follow?”

"Norman and Jasper," said Sunset, "are the only ones moving to different trenches. Shadow Mist gave the message of war to Norman, so it only makes sense Norman and Jasper are the stars of the show. Knowing Norman, he’s about ready to break the news reporters camera! My guess is that Jasper’s holding Norman back from turning Aurora into a punching bag!”

Robert couldn’t stop himself from laughing at the thought. He knew that the thought might very well be true. He looked at Cozy Glow and frowned.

“Too bad for Cozy Glow,” said Robert, “she hasn't slept much since this war began!”

“You know,” said Sunset, “I’ll make her some tea to help her rest.”

Sunset looked over to see Cozy Glow wide awake, watching the Tv and hovering.

“Cozy Glow?” Sunset said.

“Yes, Sunset?” Cozy Glow said.

“I’ll make some tea for you so you can sleep,” Sunset said.

“I don’t want to sleep Sunset!” Cozy Glow said. “I want to see dad make it back alive!”

“Don’t worry,” said Sunset, “Norman will be fine, like Discord said Betty’s there fighting with him. And besides, you’ve been awake for twenty-four hours!”

Cozy Glow sighed and mumbled, "Fine."

* * *

“I’m getting tired of that news reporter!” I said.

I had climbed out of trench #12. This time I used my sword, waiting until I had enough strength to use my death walker abilities. As I climbed out of the trench to join the fight, I saw the new cadet Mae take a bullet to the chest.

“No!” I said. I went over to Mae, carried her on my back to the trench, and laid her down by the trench’s edge as she gasped for air.

“What happened?” Jasper said.

“She got hit by a bullet that went through her chest!” I said.

I could see with every breath that Mae took she tried to cling to life.

“Mae,” I said, “you’re going to be okay! Hold on! The Medic Ponies will be here soon!”

“No general,” said Mae, “I’m not going to make it! Tell my family… that… I love them…”

“No!” I said. I couldn’t do anything as I watched the light go out of Mae’s eyes. I once again felt helpless like when Betty jumped to her death.

“Damn it!” I said. “Damn it!”

“Norman,” said Jasper, “we have to jump soon! Don’t get sidetracked! We will end this war and then no one else will have to die! We will meet up with our teammates when we move to the next trench. Come on we’re moving to another trench now!”

* * *

Aurora continued her report on the war.

"This is the sixth day of fighting. There’s no sign of General Norman and Second Jasper. The last time we saw them was when they met with the rest of the team to go behind enemy lines. The king and queen of hell are still fighting on the front lines in the thick of the battle. Coming up next is an interview with Second Luke. He will give us some background on the team of soldiers going behind enemy lines.” Aurora said.

The tv faded to background noise as the occupants of the room tuned it out.

“Well,” said Discord, “they finally made it towards enemy lines. I’m glad Amethyst is asleep now.”

“You don’t have to call Cozy Glow Amethyst around Robert now,” Sunset said.

“You told him?” Discord said.

“Nope,” said Sunset, “Cozy Glow told him herself.”

“I see,“ Discord said. “Well, in any case, I’m glad to see her asleep now. I have a feeling that Norman and Jasper will come back soon.”

They watched the Tv again, curious about the team’s background information.

“Up next is the interview we’ve all been waiting for. We’re giving you this information straight from HQ. Second Luke will give us the information on the team handpicked by Princess Twilight herself.” Aurora said. Second Luke walked into view.

“Second Luke reporting. They have gone behind enemy lines and I can't tell the team’s exact location. Now, I know everyone wants to hear about our star General Norman Jewel. But let's talk about Second Jasper first.”

“Second Jasper’s past first sir?” Aurora said.

“Yes,” said Second Luke, “Second Jasper.”

“When did Second Jasper enlist?” Aurora said.

“At the age of 22,” said Second Luke, “after he enlisted he got forced to take the job of a knight of the royal court. Everyone knows why a soldier gets forced to take a job promotion they didn’t want. He’s won two medals to date. Second Jasper got assigned to General Norman's team. He decided to start messing up on his missions to avoid getting any more job promotions. General Norman named Jasper his second in command. Ever since then Second Jasper's been catching up to General Norman as far as strength goes. Second Jasper’s weapon of choice is a bow and arrow. He’s got more accuracy with it in his training.”

“What about the others that are on the team?” Aurora said.

“Yes,” said Second Luke, “the next one I will talk about is General Ben. He's in the 5th Division and enlisted at the age of twenty-five. He got the job of sergeant a year later and made general two years later! His specialty in fighting is hand to hand combat, he uses daggers in case he gets into trouble. I keep telling him he’s not invisible, but like most of my advice to generals, it goes in one ear and out the other.”

“Who would be the next one on the team?” Aurora asked.

“That would be Lieutenant Xavier,” said Second Luke, “he enlisted ten years ago. He became a sergeant in his fifth year and he’s won a medal for saving a comrade in battle. His weapon of choice is two short blades. The next soldier I’m going to mention is Sergeant Anastasia, she prefers her name shortened to Ana.”

“Sergeant sir?” Aurora said.

“Yes,” said Second Luke, “Sergeant Ana has been placed in the group also. She enlisted about ten years ago and was made sergeant after her first year! Why she hasn’t been recommended for a higher job title I don’t know. Although if she makes it out of this war alive she will be recommended for a higher job title for sure!”

“Well,” said Aurora, “I guess the only left is…”

“Yes, yes, I know,” said Second Luke, “that would be General Norman. He enlisted fourteen years ago and served in the Special Ops Division. He won five medals being a cadet alone! From what I hear General Norman doesn’t like having job promotions either. But for some reason, he can’t help but save people and make sure everyone on his team gets back alive. That's even if he has to sacrifice his own in return. No one knows what drives him to do that, if I didn’t know any better I’d say it runs deep in his blood.

"He was forced to take the job title of knight of the royal court. He won another medal when he saved Second Jasper in the heat of battle. He won the seventh medal, when he protected the princess, from a forced marriage to the enemies' leader Shadow Mist. That’s why we’re at war with Shadow Mist. Now Princess Twilight refuses to marry the guy and I don’t blame her. General Norman is bound and determined to protect Princess Twilight at all costs! This is all I can say about the team that is going behind enemy lines. I hope they make it out alive and that Celestia is with them. I’m Second Luke signing off now.”

Second Luke went off camera and Aurora turned around into view.

“Well, you heard it from Second Luke himself, that is everything he can tell you about the team behind enemy lines.”

After Aurora’s interview with Second Luke, Robert got a phone from Liz again and he wasn’t too happy about it either.

“That’s the third phone call since the war even started!” Robert said. “I know she’s worried about Norman but my goodness! I don’t know any more information than she does and she’s at headquarters for crying out loud!”

“Yeah I know,” said Sunset, “and don’t get me started on Chole! You know Norman and Jasper call them insane Liz and insane Chole.”

Robert started laughing when he heard that. “I can’t say that I blame them. They’re a couple of stalkers. I’m glad Second Luke was able to issue them restraint machines. Did you know Chole assaulted Jasper a couple of times when she saw him and Norman kissing? She’s gotten two reports filed because of it.”

“What?” Sunset said. “No wonder why they got those restraint machines! Too bad it only works for the observation room!”

“Yeah,” said Robert, “and I found out the name of one of the generals that love playing monkey in the middle with Norman.”

“Who?” Sunset said.

“General Ben!” Robert growled. “If he doesn’t die in this war I’ll kill him myself! I wish he would do something to control Liz. I mean she is his second in command after all.”

Sunset looked to see Cozy Glow hovering, her face painted with anxiety. She wasn't even close to sitting on the couch. It looked like she could bump her head on the ceiling because she hovered so high.

“Cozy Glow,” said Sunset, “will you please stop hovering before you hit your head?”

“I’m sorry Sunset,” said Cozy Glow, “I can’t help it!”

Discord nodded agreement while he pulled his beard hairs.

“I agree with Cozy Glow,” said Discord, “I’m starting to worry about Norman and Jasper too!”

“You’re never worried about anything Discord!” Sunset said.

“This time,” said Discord, “I am.”

* * *

Jasper and I met up with General Ben, Lieutenant Xavier, and Sergeant Anastasia who prefers to be called Ana. Betty came so she could help us.

“It’s weird,” I said, “having you fight side by side with me!”

“Dae and I agreed that I will help you into enemy territory. That’s as far as I can go for now. I know Sunset had you train on the simulator, to get your death walker abilities up to par. How many of the enemy can you kill now?” Betty said.

“Three hundred ten!” I exclaimed. “That’s my limit! I tried my best over and over again but I couldn’t get up to the five hundred! Sunset set it that hard to try to kill me!”

“Ha, ha no!” Betty said. “Sunset’s the best in the business. I only want the best for my little brother! She was pushing you as hard as she could because she knew it would come in handy one day and she was right!”

“But-" I said.

“You don’t have to catch up to me Norman!” Betty argued. “I’m a legend and you’re a hero in your own right! It might not be because of death walking. You have your set of strengths and weaknesses. Like I did before I became a legend! If you ask me, taking down three hundred ten of the enemy is more than enough!”