The Ghost of Cozy Glow the Third Story

by SapphireRose87

2) Betty vs Mr. Giggles

{Betty}

I kept staring up at the sky where Mr. Giggles had disappeared, seething with rage. I didn't realize how angry I felt until I saw the ground shaking around me.

"Uh, Betty?" Norman said. "You might want to calm down before you level the afterlife."

Even though I heard Norman cautioning me, I couldn't calm down until Dae pulled me into his arms. That's when I stopped shaking.

"I never thought I'd have to deal with Mr. Giggles again!" I growled.

Norman titled his head. "Say what now?"

Dae sighed. "Yup, you heard correctly. Betty met Mr. Giggles before she died."

"Yeah, and Luna turned as white as a ghost when I told her about it," I said.

"Oh, that's right, I remember," Celestia stated. "If Betty had taken a black balloon from Mr. Giggles, then that would've given him license to eat her. It would've not only sent her to an early grave but she would've been trapped inside that clown's stomach for all eternity! Although, there is another way Mr. Giggles could eat someone like Betty… With a technique called the Grass is Greener, he could create an illusion offering her the chance to redo something terrible that happened in her life.”

"But what could he-" I paused before I finished my thought. "Oh, no!"

"Oh, no, what?" Norman said.

"The thing Mr. Giggles could possibly use against me," I said. "Is my past hatred for my mother."

* * *

I could tell by the looks on everyone's faces that they didn't believe a word I said.

"But how could he even use that against you?" Norman gasped. "That's over and dealt with! Right?"

"Oh, I doubt Mr. Giggles will be able to eat a Death Walker's soul just like that." I heard Discord say. Normally I would've been surprised to see him standing there. But since he randomly pops up anyway it didn't bother me.

I questioned. "What are you talking about, Dad?"

Discord snapped his claw and, out of thin air, he pulled three black balloons and three white chickens. "Mr. Giggles would need these to devour a Death Walker’s soul before he could trick you into taking a black balloon or seeing the Grass is Greener in the first place. He would actually need to get double that, if not triple that, to eat Betty. And there's no way I'm giving Mr. Giggles any of my white chickens. Betty's my daughter, and I'm reformed. I would never allow Mr. Giggles to hurt anypony in my presence."

"But if you can pull those items out of thin air, then couldn't Mr. Giggles do the same thing?" I asked.

Celestia lit up her horn and examined everything Discord had pulled out of thin air. "It's because they're copies. Except for the white chickens, of course."

Discord nodded. "See? I would never do anything to harm my children."

"Yeah, there's still no way I'm calling you Dad,” Norman said. “Even if you did adopt me."

Discord rolled his eyes. "Fine, fine, whatever."

"Well, I guess I should get back home now," Norman said.

Once Norman said his goodbyes, he went back to the Land of the Living.

* * *

Much later, I was pacing back and forth in my room, trying to figure out how to keep Norman and his family safe from Mr. Giggles. Dae cleared his throat to get my attention. "You know you're going to bore a hole in the floor with your pacing in circles like that."

"Huh?" I thought I had been going in a straight line but I looked down to see that I was pacing around in a circle. "Oh..."

"You can't sit still right now, can you?" Dae asked.

I didn't answer him because I had gone back to walking around in a circle.

"Wow," said Dae. "I've never seen you this worried since Norman and Cozy Glow got announced as Death Walkers!"

"Well, of course, I'm worried!" I replied. "Mr. Giggles is in Equestria, and who knows how many people or ponies he's going to kill. He's not killing Norman or the rest of his family if I have something to say about it! If something happened to Norman, I don't think I could live with myself."

"I know that, Betty, but you can't blame yourself for everything that happens. Remember what Norman went through with Shadow Mist? You couldn't protect him then, and you couldn't have done anything if Norman had died," Dae said.

Dae's words calmed me down by a fraction, but not much. The thought of Mr. Giggles dragging people and ponies to an early grave didn't sit well with me. This time, since Norman was now the ruler of Equestria, he and I would be working together to stop him. Dae's voice snapped me out of my thoughts.

"I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but the Equestria Day Festival is tomorrow."

I started to panic even more, as I knew what the Equestria Day Festival consisted of. There would be several different attractions there like roller coaster rides, a funhouse, and various other things. It also included different foods that fit in with the festival theme. Mr. Giggles could use any of these attractions to lure people or ponies to their early grave.

Of course, there would be a booth for the Royal family to sit in. That would consist of Norman and his first branch, along with Dae and I's first branch. "That's tomorrow? How did I forget about that?"

"Well, with everything happening with Mr. Giggles lately, I don't blame you for forgetting. I almost did too, until Parada reminded me."

"Lovely…"

"I would say if you keep pacing this you'll send yourself to an early grave, but you're already dead."

* * *

The next day, at the festival, Norman and his family arrived before me and my family did. Since EJ was now Ruby's future husband, he came along with us. After Norman and I gave our interviews for the news media that was there, we took our seats at the booth that was set up for us.

With the festival going on, for two hours, I sat down using my tracking abilities and scanned the whole area and nothing turned up. I was in the middle of scanning the festival grounds again when Norman and Dae started talking beside me.

"Has she found anything yet?" Norman asked.

Dae shook his head. "Not yet, trust me. I can hear her thoughts and nothing's turned up."

"It's amazing that demons can do stuff like that," Norman said.

"Yeah, it comes in handy, and it helps me keep an eye on Betty when I'm worried about her. When she's made up her mind about something, there's no stopping her."

"You got that one right." Norman started laughing. "Looks like Junior could care less about the fact that Ruby's engaged now. He still won't stop making googly eyes at her."

Dae started laughing too. Norman continued, "I've talked to him about that several times. Let's hope he doesn't declare war on Hell because Ruby won't marry him. If he does that, he's on his own. And probably has a death wish."

I was too focused on finding Mr. Giggles to join in on Dae’s fit of laughter. Finally, I spotted him. He was offering a stallion one of his black balloons.

“Over there!” I pointed towards where I’d seen Mr. Giggles. Norman and Dae practically jumped out of their chairs, looking in that direction.

Norman realized first which attraction I was gesturing to and rolled his eyes. “Of, course, it just had to be the House of Mirrors, didn’t it?”

I nodded. My crown transformed into a hat along with the rest of my fighting outfit. I looked over to see Norman gulp when he saw it. He knew exactly what would happen next.

Welp, I'm going to make sure that clown doesn't send anyone to an early grave if I can help it, I thought.

Without another word, I jumped over the front of the booth, taking the guards by surprise as I flew over them.

"Betty! Wait up!" Dae called after me.

"I'm coming too!" Norman said.

"But Your Highness-" one of the guards started to say.

"Don't worry about me," Norman said, "just worry about protecting the rest of my family."

That was the last thing I heard as I flew over to the House of Mirrors as fast as I could.

* * *

Before I could even get to the House of Mirrors, I took my staff and turned it into a blade. I used my glass powers to sharpen it. I was about ten feet away from Mr. Giggles when I threw my staff at the balloon he was still offering the stallion. My staff hit the balloon, popping it, and showering black ink everywhere. The stallion turned tail and ran off. Mr. Giggles spun around and gave me a snide look.

"If it isn't the Legendary Death Walker, Betty Jewel! Oh, and I should add, the Queen of Hell! Tell me, should I bow to you now?" Mr. Giggles laughed.

"If you bow to me, you'll stay bowing for the rest of your life!" I sneered.

"What am I going to do with you? You scared my lunch away, so I'll just have to look for my meal someplace else. How about in here?" Mr. Giggles ran into the House of Mirrors. Right after that, Dae and Norman came up and paused to catch their breaths.

"Did you have to run out of the booth faster than a speeding bullet?" Norman demanded, panting.

I rolled my eyes. "Gee, thanks for the compliment."

Norman looked around. "I don't see that clown anywhere. Where did he go?"

I pointed to the entrance of the House of Mirrors. "He went inside, and there's at least a handful of adults in there to supervise their children, or just in there for fun."

"Lovely," said Norman. "This is the creepiest attraction here. To think people go in here for fun. Good thing we haven't let the kids go in there yet. Thankfully, they seem to be having fun at the booth anyway."

"Well, what are we waiting for?" I said. "Let's go in there and stop him!"

Norman nodded. "Fine by me!"

As soon as I stepped inside, I got stuck in the rotating mirrors. That separated me from Dae and Norman.

Crap! Dae thought

What? I thought.

I'm separated from Norman and I don't think it's a good thing for us to get split up at the moment. Of course, you just had to run in here head first. didn't you?

Sorry. Dae.

Out of nowhere, I heard a loud shriek. I panicked. "Norman!"

"Don't worry about me!" Norman called out. "I'm fine, the scream came from a group of people in the other direction. My guess is Mr. Giggles just ate someone."

I grit my teeth and snarled. "That stupid clown!"

Suddenly, the mirrors stopped rotating around me, and I heard a sinister laugh. Mr. Giggles' face appeared in every single mirror surrounding me. He stood there, dressed in a puffy white suit and pants. His jet black hair was styled in spikes on his head. He had white makeup on his face and black paint around his eyes and his lips.

And I thought we went overboard with the color black in hell. This creepy clown takes it to a whole other level!

I heard Dae laughing inside my head, as he thought, At least it's just the uniforms! Yes, I can see him in the mirrors where I am, too.

"Uh, guys?" Norman said. "Am I crazy or am I seeing Mr. Giggles in every mirror?"

"No, you're not crazy. We see it, too," I responded.

"Nice… Nice…" Norman said. From the sound of it, he was just as disgusted as I was with the way Mr. Giggles looked in the mirrors surrounding him.

Mr. Giggles let out a deep, sinister laugh that reminded me of a hyena. He stuck out his tongue, licked his lips, and grinned. When he smiled, his teeth looked like shark teeth.

I threw up a little in my mouth. "Yuck! Are you trying to gross everyone out?" I gagged.

"No," said Mr. Giggles. "I'm just trying to show how much fun I'm going to have while eating a feast fit for a king! You wanna see where I am?"

I used my tracking powers to see that Mr. Giggles was hanging from the ceiling like a bat.

"You already know where I am, don't you, Betty?" Mr. Giggles cackled. "You're very amusing to me, you know that? Trying to find me and you already know where I am!"

He jumped down from the ceiling in front of me with such force that it broke the ground where he landed. He gave me a toothy grin as he got right in my face. I did the same thing to him. "Am I scaring you yet?"

I rolled my eyes. "Why should I be afraid of you?"

"It doesn't matter, I'll be eating you sooner or later. Boy, you look like you're ready for a fight," Mr. Giggles said. "Why don't we take this outside, hmm?"

Without another word, Mr. Giggles jumped up into the ceiling and punched a hole through it. I flew after him as fast as I could.

"Unfortunately, I don't have any special powers like you do, except my strength. So I say we keep this battle strictly hand-to-hand combat. I would shake on it, but seeing that you'd never make a deal with me, let's just go and start."

Mr. Giggles made the first move by trying to land a punch to the face. I caught it and sent him flying backward. He gave me a smug look and started laughing for no good reason. "That was a starting shot. I'm actually stronger than that."

"Oh, really?" I said. "Why don't you come over here and prove it?"

I readied my fighting stance, tucking in my wings and holding one hand behind my back. I motioned with my other hand for Mr. Giggles to come towards me. As we started to fight, something interesting happened. Every punch, kick and block Mr. Giggles copied me. I laughed when Mr. Giggles had to stop and catch his breath.

"Aww," I taunted. "Does the creature need to take a break? I'm not even breaking a sweat, you're starting to bore me."

We went back to fighting and once again, Mr. Giggles copied my every move.

"Exactly how are you able to copy my moves?" I asked. "I thought you didn't have any special powers?"

"It's not a power," Mr. Giggles explained. "It's a special technique called the Mirror Technique. It's used by my family to take down strong opponents."

I smiled and cocked my head to the side. "Aww, I'm honored, really I am!"

Mr. Giggles rolled his eyes and snarled. "Whatever! Let's just finish this!"

"Oh, I'll finish it alright!" I said. "You started it, and I'm ending it!"

As we kept fighting, Mr. Giggles kept mirroring my every move. It was starting to get on my last nerve, and from the looks of it, it was starting to get on Mr. Giggle's last nerve too.

"What's the matter, creature?" I said. "Is me not dying starting to get on your nerves?"

Mr. Giggles paused from fighting and gave me a snide look. "You know something? Let's call this one a draw, Death Walker. I'm done playing with my food for now. Until we meet again."

A small tornado came out of nowhere, and as soon as it left, Mr. Giggles was nowhere to be found.

* * *

When Mr. Giggles left, I turned around to see Norman with an annoyed look on his face.

"What is it?" I asked.

"He just had to leave tornado style!" Norman growled.

I raised an eyebrow. "Tornado style?"

"A couple of enemies I fought when I was a general, created a small tornado and left in that fashion. I call it tornado style. I've heard reports of some of my soldiers dealing with the same thing," Norman said. "Anyway, you sure showed that clown who's boss! I've never seen someone's opponent get annoyed and leave like that."

"That stupid clown!" I snarled. "I could care less how he felt. I'm finding him, and he's dead the next time I see him."

Before I could cause an earthquake with my anger, Dae put a hand on my shoulder. "Don't worry, Betty, we'll stop him, okay?"

I sighed. "Yeah... Sure..."

"I think we should head back to the booth. I bet everyone's worried about us. Especially since the House of Mirrors is practically destroyed now. I'll notify the guards and let them know," Norman said.

* * *

When we got back to the booth, my fighting outfit turned back into my royal attire. I was so pissed off about not stopping Mr. Giggles that I couldn't think straight. When Ruby saw that I was angry, she abruptly stopped playing cards with EJ and Norman Jr.

"Dad?" Ruby asked.

"Yes, Ruby?" Dae said.

"Why does Mom look angry?" Ruby said.

"We're dealing with a bit of a crisis here. It's nothing you need to worry about," Dae answered.

"Oh," Ruby said. She looked at Norman Jr as he was giving her the googly eyes again and she responded by rolling her eyes. "No, that's not going to happen, Junior!"

"What?" Norman Jr said. "I wasn't going to do anything."

"Yes, you were," snarled EJ. "Not with my fiance, you don't!"

Sunset frowned. She looked at Norman. "What happened, Norman?"

"Remember when I told you about Mr. Giggles the Clown?" Norman replied.

"Yes?" Sunset said.

"Well, that's what happened," Norman explained. "Betty fought him and somehow he was able to copy her every move. He said it was called The Mirror Technique. He said he uses it to take down strong opponents like Betty."

"That doesn't surprise me," Jasper said. "She is a legend after all!"

"The clown actually got annoyed with Betty and left. That's why Betty's angry at the moment," Norman said.

Sunset whistled. "Is that why the House of Mirrors is destroyed?"

Norman nodded. "Yeah. Thankfully, we were able to get everyone out of there safely."

I looked to see Dae looking at me with concern. "Um, Betty?"

"Yes, Dae?" I said.

"You might want to sit down," said Dae. "You're hovering..."

I thought I was sitting down but I looked down to see that I wasn't. "Oh."

I forced myself to sit down even though I didn't want to. All I could think about was how much I wanted to kill that clown.