Glowing in Everglow

by Darkmoon9

Chapter 12: The Haunting at Green Square

Diary of Cozy Glow
The news of me getting attacked by Cipher spread fast throughout Vil and it was soon the talk of the town. That Cipher had attacked the Knight Commander of the Defenders of Taralos and tried to assassinate the King on behalf of Prince Swiftblade soon became public knowledge. None except Sunset and Night's Blessing knew of my involvement in the plot to kill the King. But they did know my warning might have saved his life. No one had seen Cipher since the incident, it was assumed he had skipped town by now to return to whatever hole his master was hiding in. Security at the palace had been greatly increased. I had overseen it myself to make sure it was airtight. Yet I knew I could not sleep well until Cipher was caught, during this time I had the most awful nightmares, one in particular was so horrifying I had to write about it in another journal.

Sunset had told Twilight about what had transpired, causing her to seek me out and offer a formal apology for not giving me the benefit of the doubt. She told me that she had suspected Cipher was up to something, but that she suspected I was the mastermind, not Prince Swiftblade. To be honest, so did I. I had been closer to falling for Cipher's trap than I liked to admit. I was almost set up to take the fall for his crimes. Just because he dangled the carrot of power in front of me. I must not let my desire for power distract me from the fact that someone is trying to manipulate me in the future.

After she saved my life, I offered Night's Blessing the chance to be a permanent member of the Defenders of Taralos. She agreed on the conditions that she would be allowed to go back to her husband between assignments. Which I agreed to.

About a week after the attack. King Shining Horn summoned the Defenders of Taralos to his chambers. He thanked me sincerely for saving his life and the lives of his family. He also told me that there had been certain matters he wanted us to investigate. One matter coming from a town called Green Square thathad petioned the crown for help because of strange happenings at a local inn. The king told us that the innkeeper of the inn called “The Lettuce Head” would inform us more about the specifics once we arrived in town. The other was a report from the Tribe of Bones saying intruders had been desecrating the graves lately and they had trouble catching the culprits so they would like our help. Deciding that the matters at Green Square didn’t require all of us, I told the king that me and Night’s Blessing would investigate the inn while Sunset, Silverwing and Twilight took care of the graverobbers. I thought this mission could make for a nice holiday for both me and Night’s Blessing as a lot of this mission might involve staying at the inn and trying to figure out what was wrong.

I set out towards Green Square with Night’s Blessing in the morning, it was a warm spring day, the sun was shining and there were very few clouds in the sky. I spent most of my time during the journey time talking to my friend, primarily about the nightmares I have been having since Cipher’s attempt on my life. I told her I had seen some truly horrific things, being trapped in a realm of nightmares where I saw people being tortured in ways I previously couldn’t even imagine. I told her that as a result I have had trouble going to sleep. Night’s Blessing told me she remembered, having been the one to keep me company the nights after I was almost killed. She told me having someone to watch my back to make sure that Cipher didn’t plunge another knife into it did seem to calm me, and that I would get through this if I continued to accept help from other people. Night’s Blessing told me that her people believed their dreams were protected from nightmares by their tribe’s goddess, the Moon Princess, nightmares being believed to be sent by the Night Mare, another goddess who represented the darker aspects of night, including nightmares. She told me that it might help if I prayed to the Moon Princess for protection. Night’s Blessing taught me the rituals of worship for her tribe. I hoped that this would help me fend off the nightmares.

We had traveled for about seven hours when I could suddenly hear shouting and the sound of weapons clashing from just around the corner. When we rounded the corner, we could see a pair of earth ponies, running from a pack of gem gnolls. Presumably another pack that used to be part of the Gnoll Kings army, but after the death of their king had resorted to banditry. I had already dealt with many packs like that during the six years since the Gem Gnoll War. Just as me and Night’s Blessing were to jump into action to defend the innocent earth ponies, another individual turned up to help. It was the biggest earth pony we had ever seen, as big as ancient alicorns like Celestia. His coat was brown and his mane yellow, he wore heavy plate armor and carried a greatsword in his mouth, despite its massive weight.

When the gnolls saw the stranger, they fled in the other direction. The two are ponies that had previously been running stopped and thanked us all for driving off the gnolls. They introduced themselves as Apple Patch and Steady Leaf, citizens of the nearby town of Green Square. The stranger also took his time to introduce himself, he seemed relentlessly cheerful and optimistic, he didn’t as much speak as proclaiming things loudly as if he was a superhero in the comic books I used to read as a kid.

“Greetings citizens, I, Strong Mountain, champion of goodness and righteousness in service of the Sun Queen is glad to be of service.”

I decided to introduce myself in turn, trying to match Strong Mountain’s extravagant way of speaking to gently make fun of him.

“Greetings Strong Mountain, I am Knight Commander Cozy Glow, The Rook of Taralos and the hero of The Gem Gnoll War. It was I who made the alliance with the Turves clans possible and who destroyed the Orb of Mathias that allowed for the defeat of the Gnoll King”

If he understood I was making fun of him, Strong Mountain didn’t show it. He seemed to genuinely consider my accomplishments impressive contributions to the greater good.

“Nice to meet you Cozy Glow, I have indeed heard of you, it is nice to meet you in person, for you have proven yourself to be a great hero in these lands, I hope you keep up the good work and resist the temptations of darkness. By the way, I need to go after those gnolls, as long as they live, they are a threat to innocent ponies. Would you mind escorting Apple Patch and Steady Leaf to their home? There might be more bandits on the road, and I would like to make sure they have a safe journey.”

Considering we were going to Green Square anyway, I agreed to escort them. Apple Patch and Steady Leaf thanked me for the offer. With that, Strong Mountain set off in pursuit of the gnolls. But you know As soon as he left, Night’s Blessing smiled and whispered in my ear with an amused voice:

“Paladins, am I right?”

“What’s a paladin?” I asked her, genuinely not knowing what that was.

Night’s Blessing laughed, like she couldn’t believe I didn’t know what that was.

“Paladins… Well… The best way to describe them is that they are holy knights dedicated to upholding the values of goodness and justice. The gods granting them divine power because of their dedication to these values. Much like your friend Sunset’s dedication to redemption grants her favor with gods. I can’t believe you don’t know what that is considering our fallen comrade Shadow Chaser was a paladin, granted… He was more… Vengeance oriented than Strong Mountain. Strong Mountain is a known figure among my tribe, he is a good stallion, but he is also a stick in the mud. Paladins are not known to appreciate the value of a good trick. Not like you or me. Remember this Cozy, just because trickery is your preferred method of getting things done, that doesn’t mean you have to be bad, okay? Regardless of what stick in the mud paladins like Strong Mountain or killjoy wizards like Twilight Sparkle tell you. “

I nodded in agreement and with that we continued our journey towards Green Square. The rest of the journey was uneventful, with no bandits, gem gnoll or otherwise attacking Apple Patch and Steady Leaf while we were escorting them. I asked them if they knew anything about the strange events going on at the Inn in their hometown, they told me that while they haven’t stayed at the Inn personally, they had heard strange reports from there that suggested the Inn might be haunted. I didn’t put much stock in ghost stories, even if Applebloom once told me she had an encounter with the undead, I believed she only made up the story for attention. I was relatively sure we would be able to confirm there was nothing strange going on after we stayed a few days at the inn.

When the evening started to approach, we finally arrived at Green Square, it proved to be a picturesque village with small stone houses arranged around the central square of carefully maintained grass. Many of the houses had neatly maintained vegetable gardens. We escorted Apple Patch and Steady Leaf to their respective houses, them thanking us for protecting them during the journey. We made our way to the Lettuce Head inn, which seemed to be a rather small inn. We immediately approached the innkeeper, a friendly middle-aged and rather overweight pony called Twilight Repose, this would be the second pony called Twilight knew. But she had very little in common with Twilight Sparkle other than being friendly, I guess.

I told Twilight Repose that we had been sent from Vil by the King to investigate the reports of a haunting going on at this very inn. Twilight Repose told us everything she knew about the strange events. She told me that she had been feeling an eerie presence at night, there was red stains in the kitchen that looked like blood and that a maid that worked there had reported seeing a strange unicorn walking through the hallway with a red liquid dripping from its horn. When the other personnel went to investigate, they couldn’t find the apparition, and I noticed one of the guests was missing. When the guest in question had later woken up in a thr garden surrounded by the same red liquid found in the kitchen, he had decided to leave and never come back. Twilight Repose thought that we were dealing with a ghost, but she didn’t know of any recently deceased pony in Green Square. She didn’t know where all the blood came from either as there were no casualties inflicted by this ghost, as far as she knew not even animals. I thanked her for telling us and asked for a room for two ponies. Swearing I would get to the bottom of this.

When me and Night’s Blessing got up to the room, it turned out to be a rather cozy looking room with two beds and a fireplace, with a single desk and a chair, both the furniture, walls, floor and roof were made of wood that creaked slightly when I put my hooves on it. As we were waiting for something strange to happen, Night’s Blessing decided it would be a good idea to tell each other ghost stories, after all, the mood for such a thing was perfect while staying in a supposedly haunted inn. She told me a story about the mysterious Tribe of Bones that lived to the south of Taralos:

“There was a time when my mother Silent Hunter had sneaked into one of the mausoleums of the Tribe of Bones in search of valuables. She had come home with gold jewelry and other valuables and been greeted as a hero. However, this wouldn’t last, as a few weeks after she got back. She was woken up by something in the night, she opened her eyes and in front of her was standing a pony with decayed flesh, speaking with a disturbing moan. It told her she must return what is stolen or it would eat her brains. My mother was scared to death by this and immediately gave back the jewelry. The undead pony disappearing into the night, and Silent Hunter swore to never steal from a gravesite again.”

I thought this was a quite interesting story, but if it wasn’t for the fact that I had seen the undead during our quest to bring down the Gnoll King, I wouldn’t believe they existed. When it became my turn, I decided to tell her the most horrifying story I knew, the legend of the Unmarked:

“In my homeland there is a horrifying place called the Everfree Forest, it’s a lot like the Forest of Dreams. Everfree is filled with mysterious ruins and various monsters. But among all the monsters that terrorize ponies in this forest, the worst are the Unmarked. I originally heard this story from a former friend of mine, Applebloom. One day, when she became lost in the Everfree Forest. She saw a mysterious filly that was watching her and shr decided to follow the filly deeper into the forest. She eventually came across a strange town in the middle of the forest called Sunny Town. The ponies there seemed normal at first, other than the fact that they didn’t have a mark of destiny despite being nearly all adults. Neither did Applebloom though, and as someone who was frequently mocked by her peers for not having her mark, she felt at home. But this was until she discovered the truth. She decided to explore an abandoned house, finding the burned skeleton of a filly sitting in the fireplace. Turns out that Sunny Town was founded by a cult of ponies that rejected marks of destiny. But when one of their own had gotten a mark, a filly named Ruby, they had executed her by burning her alive in the fireplace. The horrific act cursing the town forever. When the sun went down, the moon would reveal the true nature of the village’s residents. They were undead creatures with decaying flesh and bone, they tried to kill Applebloom when she decided to flee in terror. She was only saved by the intervention of the ghost of the filly that had been burned alive. Applebloom fled back to her hometown of Ponyville. But not all ponies were as lucky as Applebloom, as I have found the skulls of young ponies in Everfree, their heads bashed in by a blunt instrument. Presumably they were killed by the Unmarked because of the mark they carried on their flank. I believe the only reason Applebloom wasn’t murdered on sight by the town residents was because of her lack of a mark.”

As I finished my story Night’s Blessing clapped her hooves together in applause. Congratulating me on an exemplary story. But just at that moment, we could hear the floor creaking from outside in the hallway, like a pony just set their hooves just outside the door to our room. We quickly opened the door to check if anyone was in the hallway, but we didn’t find anypony. It was probably nothing, but as we went back to our room, I had this strange sensation of being watched. Despite all of that, it was late, and we were both tired, so we decided it was time to go to bed. Night’s Blessing guided me through a ritual to ask for the blessing of The Moon Princess. After that, despite all the ghost stories, Night’s Blessing fell asleep like a log, leaving me to stare into the ceiling, trying my best to fall asleep. Yet I kept hearing the same strange noises as before outside the door. I decided to go out and check once again, but once more there was no one there. I went back to bed and by some miracle managed to actually fall asleep.

This was the first time since the assassination attempt I didn’t have any nightmares. Just a dream of being a cook and whipping up a delicious stew in the kitchen. But when I woke up, I found to my horror that I was in the inn’s vegetable garden, right next to a cottage, lying next to me was a pot filled with a red liquid that looked like blood. But on further investigation, it didn’t have the consistency of blood, it was far thicker, like paint. I dipped my hooves in it and tasted it, it didn’t taste like blood either, it tasted more like a combination of different herbs and chalk. Definitely not blood. Looking around the garden it appeared like I was in the process of digging up some beetroot and adding it to the paste. This was certainly strange. When I went to check the cottage, I found that the door was locked, but there were hoof marks on the door as if someone was trying to kick it down and failed.

Night’s Blessing quickly met up with me in the garden, she had been worried when I wasn’t in our room when she woke up. I explained what happened and what I had figured out about the liquid that the innkeeper thought was blood. We checked the kitchen, and it was also quite a mess. Apparently, I have been sleepwalking trying to make red paint. Why I had no idea. When I asked Twilight Repose about who was staying at the cottage. She told me that she had hired out the cottage to a famous painter known as Sunset Radiance, seriously, what’s up with this place and ponies with similar names to ponies I already knew? Twilight Repose hadn’t seen him for a while, but that wasn’t unusual Sunset Radiance was a known hermit who didn’t like being disturbed. I asked Twilight Repose if we could have a look in the cottage to make sure that Sunset Radiance was alright. She gave me the keys.

When we entered the cottage we found a horrific sight, the decaying remains of the unicorn lying next to a magnificent painting depicting a landscape with a setting sun and the first colors of spring, it was beautiful, but incomplete. It seemed like Sunset Radiance had died before completing something that could’ve been a masterpiece. Given the fact that I was mixing paint in my sleep I had a suspicion about what the ghost wanted. Though because I lacked the necessary skills to finish painting myself, I could do one thing to allow Sunset Radiance to finish their masterpiece. I could lend them my body to use in finishing the painting. The next night, we would make certain to leave the door to the cottage open so I could get in. I told Twilight Repose what we had figured out and she would make sure that I would be given unrestricted access to the kitchen and the gardens during the night.

Me and Night’s Blessing would spend the day chatting and telling eachother various stories. Both ghost stories and stories of how trickery won the day. I told her more legends from my home realm. Like the story of the headless horse. When it was time for bed, this time I fell asleep like a log, maybe I didn’t get enough sleep being up making paint the previous night. According to plan, I woke up in Sunset Radiance’s cottage, the painting being closer to being finished than it was yesterday, it was even more breathtaking. I spent another day with Night’s Blessing at the inn, I was feeling very tired the entire day, but I needed to remain up until nighttime so that Sunset Radiance could finish his painting.

Towards the evening, while we were both lying in our respective beds, there was one story Night’s Blessing wanted to hear from me, she wanted to know the story of my first crush. I laughed:

“I spent most of my puberty as a statue and before that I was too young to prioritize such things. But if you absolutely must know, I went to a school once, and there I did have a small crush on a colt named Sandbar, as well as a changeling filly named Ocellus.”

This seemed to really amuse Night’s Blessing who fell over laughing.

“So, you are into girls, eh? I guess I better be careful unless you seduce me. Unless I seduce you first that is. I guess I could ask Dawn Rising if he minds me having you on the side.”

That was a proposal I hadn’t even considered before, Night’s Blessing might have been the best friend I ever had, and she was certainly beautiful, but I never considered her a romantic prospect until she said that. I told her:

“I don’t know what to say to that, I don’t think there is anypony I like being around as much as you. But love has never really been my top priority, friendship, yes, but never love. I don’t know if I see you as my best friend or as something more.”

Night’s Blessing threw herself on top of me, pinning me underneath her, her lips uncomfortably close to mine. But I had to admit, there was something to her in that moment that was irresistible.

“What about friends with benefits?” She asked me in a sensual tone. I gave her a mischievous smile

“I think I can do that.”

Her lips immediately met mine, my first kiss, it was better than expected, even if I was too shocked to do anything other than to lay still and make Night’s Blessing do all the work, Night’s Blessing was obviously quite the experienced kisser. The only word I could use to describe the experience was amazing.

Night’s Blessing showed me many wonderful things that night and after it was over, I fell asleep like a log. Not even a trace of nightmares, my dreams being filled with nothing but memories of the previous night.

I woke up the next morning in the cottage with the painting finished. Hopefully that would put an end to the haunting. Me and Night’s Blessing said goodbye to Twilight Repose, her telling us that we could keep the painting as a thank you for our services, as Sunset Radiance had no family to inherit it. Being a masterpiece by a famous artist she suspected it could be worth a fortune. On our way home, Night’s Blessing asked me to never speak of the night we had to her husband, Dawn Rising, as he wouldn’t be too happy with her being unfaithful like that. I agreed, the last thing I wanted was to get myself involved in a marital dispute. It seemed like Night’s Blessing was a free spirit, I wondered if her husband could accept that about her.

The road home was uneventful. When we returned to Vil, we told the king about what had caused the haunting. When I brought up the painting Shining Horn told me he wanted to see it. I obliged and showed the painting to the king, he loved it so much that he offered to buy it for 5000 gold crowns. Certainly not a price I would complain about.