The Ghost of Cozy Glow- A Redux

by SapphireRose87

15) Evaluation Fight

{Betty}

The next time I opened my eyes, I was in the Land of the Dead. Sami was there to greet me this time. I walked to her right, looked at her and said, "What's up?"

"I think it's time we evaluate how well your powers are growing." Sami said.

"Okay, how is that going to happen?"

Sami smiled and we stopped when we got to what looked like a fighting arena there to the right of the road. "This is the fighting arena that's used for different battles that happen in the Land of the Dead." She looked down at the picture of my staff on my arm and smiled. "Well now, that's an interesting way to store your death walker weapon! Anyway, you'll start at one end of the arena and I'll start at the other."

I nodded. I entered the arena at the nearby entrance and Sami went around the corner and entered the arena on the other side. When I got inside the arena, I looked around to see if there were any bleachers for a crowd of people to watch us fight and I smiled when I saw that there were none. I heard Sami laughing, "Yeah this is not a place where spectators can watch us safely, unless they're in the observation balcony."

I looked up and saw what Sami was talking about. I hoped there wasn't anyone up there watching us at the moment.

Sami cleared her throat, "Okay, Betty, ready your fighting stance!"

I smiled and I did what I was told and took out my staff. I looked in awe at Sami when she took out her weapon and it wasn't a sword, but a short blade.

Sami started the fight by charging at me and I jumped out of the way to the left.

I wonder if she has any death walker abilities or if she's a Death Walker herself?

"I know what you're thinking and no, I'm not a Death Walker, but I do have a death walker ability, wanna see what it is?" Sami said.

I gulped, "I have no idea if I want to."

She laughed and I was up in the air as I saw a copper arrow come flying at me and it was attached to a long copper chain. It wrapped around my left ankle and I turned my staff into a blade to slice off the chain and it fell off.

I took a deep breath and combined my darkness powers with my glass powers and shot bullets at Sami. Despite her doing her best to dodge them, a handful of them still cut her arms and one grazed her left ear. I gasped when I saw Sami pulling out bullets so her wounds healed.

"I'm dead Betty, and I don't need a hospital if I'm already dead." Sami chuckled. "That's why my wounds healed so fast. Now with you, since you're a Death Walker, you actually have one foot in the grave, so to speak. Because of this, your wounds will heal just as fast. You can't die that way before you make your Death Walker decision. The only way you can die now and after you make your Death Walker decision is if you stay away from your body for longer than two days. "

I guess Sami decided to make a point by aiming her copper arrow at my leg and it went right through it. "Ow!"

I howled in pain and pulled the arrow out and looked down to see that my wound healed up just as fast as I got it. "My wounds might heal fast, but that still hurts!"

"Oh well too bad, it's going to happen when you're in a battle!" Sami said. "Let's keep going, this fight isn't over yet."

I looked up at her. "Fine, you asked for it!" I growled.

"Well duh!" Sami said after she rolled her eyes.

I took a deep breath and summoned my fire powers and let out my fire powers as if I were a dragon so the flames swirled their way towards Sami and she deflected the attack with one simple swipe of her blade.

Well, good thing Scarlett taught me how to control my powers already.

Sami's next attack was to throw her blade at me and I turned my staff from a blade to a shield. The blade clattered off the front, but before I could throw another attack at Sami, she was able to get behind me and pull me out of the air by yanking on my tail.

"Ow!" I said. "That's my stupid tail you know!"

Sami laughed, "Scarlett told me you say that every time someone yanks on your tail."

"Because it hurts, and it's annoying in case you didn't notice," I growled, "it's attached! I wish people would stop yanking on it!"

Sami snorted which caught me off guard when she threw her next attack at me. I barely dodged it by using my wind power to form a small tornado in front of me and it sent me flying backwards. Sami got behind me, yanked on my tail again and threw me into a nearby wall. I landed with a thud and immediately got to my feet.

Sami put her left hand under her chin and looked at me thoughtfully. "Interesting. You seem to be able to take a hit and keep on going. It seems that the injury that Princess Twilight gave you has only made you stronger."

I took Sami's thinking to herself, as an opportunity to catch her off gaurd when I threw my staff at her and it boomeranged around her and went right through her chest. Still, it only managed to make her fall flat on her back. She got to her feet and coughed a little and then went back to breathing normally. "Not bad Betty! Nice move! But keep in mind that an enemy never fights fair."

I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, I know that already."

Sami threw her blade at me again and this time I used my light powers to connect to it. I threw it up against a nearby wall, but it didn't break when I threw it, which is astonishing as I used a lot of force! I combined my powers and with every attack I threw at Sami and she was deflecting them as if she were swatting at flies. Damn it, she must be a seasoned fighter. And I'm supposed to be the Child of Prophecy! Yeah right! I don't think so, I think everyone's got that one wrong!"

"You know something Betty," said Sami, "we're actually evenly matched. There's hardly any new Death Walkers that can go up against me and actually be able to land a couple of good hits."

I raised my right eyebrow in disbelief. "Yeah, I doubt that."

I summoned my next attack before Sami could react, this time, combining my fire and darkness power. The attack hit Sami right in the middle of her forehead and she fell backwards and I suddenly wondered if she lied about not needing a hospital in the Land of the Dead. Still, Sami just got to her feet as if nothing happened.

"I told you, I'm already dead, so you can't kill me!" Sami said with a smug look on her smirking face.

My jaw dropped. "Wow."

"Anyway, let's keep going!" Sami instructed. "This fight still isn't over yet." Before assuming a low stance on her feet.

As the fight continued, we still had to pause to catch our breath, even though Sami was already dead. Finally, Sami signaled for the fight to end by yanking on my tail and throwing me up against a nearby wall. This time she threw me so hard that a huge rock fell from it on top of me. Although I didn't achieve the Dark Aura this time, I busted through the rock as if nothing happened.

Sami seemed like she was impressed by me as she said to me with wide-eyed approval, "Not bad at all Betty! Your powers are growing quite nicely, if I do say so myself."

I dusted myself off. "Yeah, I'm going to feel that last hit in the morning."

Sami shook her head and smiled, "Oh no, pain felt in the Land of the Dead doesn't transfer over to the Land of the Living. It's interesting that you've developed five out of the nine Death Walker abilities already, oh Child of Prophecy."

I groaned, "I wish people would stop calling me that, because it's not true!"

Sami rolled her eyes. "Whatever you say Betty.” She straightens herself as she glances back, “So tell me something, why were you able to achieve the Dark Aura right after you were recovering from an injury that Princess Twilight gave you?"

I paused. "Speaking of injury, the last time my eyes were closed was when I passed out from defeating Tirek! How long have I been out?"

"Only for a week," said Sami, "the Afterlife Court gave me permission to summon you to the Land of the Dead before you wake up. Oh and before you go, Celestia has something she wants to give you in the Middle Ground."

"Any idea of what it might be?" I asked with a frown.

"No idea!" Sami said while slightly giggling.

I could tell by the look on her face that she was probably lying, but I chose to hold my tongue. Sami dismissed me with a wave of her hand and I soon started trudging towards the Middle Ground.

* * *

When I got to the Middle Ground, Celestia smiled at me. "What's this about Celestia?"

"It's about this." Celestia said. She glanced over to her right and soon floated over a small black box, from her desk to me.

I opened it and gasped when I saw a medal that had a devil's horn and angel wings on it. There were words written underneath it: Thank you for protecting us!

Once I got over my shock at seeing this, I shook my head. "I'm sorry Celestia, but I don't think I deserve this."

Celestia smiled. "Actually, I think you do deserve this."

"But I wasn't there to protect my teammates!" I cried. "They died under my watch!"

As water started to seep from my eyes, Celestia gently put a hoof in my shoulder. "You do realize you're only one person right? You can't protect everyone. It was the same when I was ruler of Equestria. I couldn't protect all of my citizens and there's no way Twilight can protect everypony either. Your teammates went into the assignment knowing how dangerous it was going to be. If it's any comfort, twenty-five new souls were born a week after your teammates were killed."

"But they didn't have to die!" I cried with a start.

"They didn't, but they did. No one knows what the future holds for them." Celestia said. "Do you realize that when you defeated Tirek, you saved every citizen of Ponyville that was there that day?"

I wiped the tears from my eyes. "Huh?"

Celestia nodded. "There were other tough creatures there that day too that could've stopped him. There were Griffons, dragons and yaks and so forth, but they didn't care that the citizens in Ponyville could be hurt or killed because of Tirek. But not you! You cared enough to leap into action the moment you knew there was danger! Not to mention, according to Dae, you made sure you brought Tirek to neutral ground, so no one would get hurt during the fight. You fought Triek when nopony else would. I think you more than deserve this. And if it helps, twenty-three of your teammates went to Heaven and two of your teammates went to Hell. This medal will go with you to the Land of the Living.” Celestia nodded. “Go ahead, put it on."

I sighed and did what I was told. Celestia smiled, "It looks good on you. It's time for you to go. Oh, and more thing Betty, I hate to be the bearer of bad news but you'll have seven marriage proposals from Twilight waiting for you."

"But I thought I was only out for a week?" I said.

Celestia sighed, "It seems Twilight stepped things up a bit, especially after you defeated Tirek and achieved the Dark Aura by it. She's been doing the same thing to Dae. Instead of weekly proposals it's now daily proposals."

"Well, I guess on the bright side of this, I now have more materials to do some more 'artwork' again." I said with a smile.

Celestia burst into laughter, "Nice Betty, but please send me the pictures of Twilight's reaction to them! That was great!"

I chuckled and nodded, beforeI turning serious. "I promise one thing: the next set of teammates I take with me to track down the rest of those escapee's, I will bring every single one back alive."

Celestia nodded, she seemed unsure of how to respond to such a tall order. "Well, it's time for you to go."

When I walked out of Celestia's office, Dae was waiting for me just outside. I looked at him curiously, "How long have you been standing outside?"

Dae smiled. "Long enough, and I saw your evaluation fight. You’re a good fighter since you started fighting Sami. She's trained plenty of Death Walkers and the fact that you were evenly matched with her says a lot!"

"I swear, if people call me the Child of Prophecy one more time! Just one more time!" I said.

"Fine, whatever you say Betty." Dae said with a chuckle. He tilted his head to the right, "Let's go back to the Land of the Living, shall we?"

I nodded, Dae took my hand and we went back together.