As Twi rejoined the others she couldn't shake the feeling that someone was watching her when she was looking at the Discord statue, her group went all around the gardens and back again, they passed by the statue yet again but thankfully they didn't go towards it. Twi sighed in relief she really didn't want to go near that statue again, she really didn't like the feeling of it watching her even if it was her imagination or not, when they finally left the area the feeling of someone watching her went away.
She smiled at her family, "You know Armor I swear I have seen you before... wait I remember now, you were that unicorn rookie who managed to impress everyone by casting that powerful shield spell getting your cutie mark at the same time." Armor looked at her, "Wait how did you see that without me seeing you? I would have recognized you now if I saw you back then."
"Well I was in the study room looking out the window way above the training area, so I could see you but you never saw me."
"How do you like that you saw Armor before you even knew he was your cousin, talk about a coincidence."
"How in Equestria do you know what that word means Spike?"
"I saw it in a comic book and looked it up."
"A comic book?" Twi asked with a sigh, she sort of hoped he saw it in an actual book, not a comic book. "Hey they can be educational."
"Another word you learned from a comic book?"
"No that one I learned from you when you tried to educate me on the difference between a book and a comic book."
"Spike a book is a real novel while a comic book..."
"Is nothing more then pictures with words and captions, yeah I know."
"Alright that's enough you two, we are in a public place don't want to attract any attention."
"We are one hybrid, two dragons, and three unicorns walking in the streets of Canterlot, we will attract attention no matter what we do."
"You have a point but let's not attract any more attention shall we?" They kept quiet and they reached Violet's home.
"Well we're here, I would invite you in for dinner but I'm afraid I don't carry any pony food being a dragon and all."
"We understand completely, it was nice meeting you all."
"It was nice meeting you to." Armor and his family left, while Twi and Spike went inside.
"After all that walking I'm ready to dig into any meal."
"Spike you were on my back for half of the trip."
"I know but I'm still hungry."
Violet chuckled, "Well it's almost time to eat so go clean up I'll get dinner."
When Twi and Spike finished up cleaning up, they walked into the kitchen seeing their mother had caught their meal, "What did you catch?"
"I caught this stay deer, brought gems and lettuce for a salad."
"I'll take care of the lettuce."
"Thank you Amy."
Twi chopped up the lettuce and mixed it with some gems, "Are we going to visit my father tomorrow?"
"Yes, I need to check on how my husmate is doing."
"Maybe we can tell him how I helped get rid of parasprites."
The next morning they all had breakfast before heading to the treatment center, as soon as a nurse saw them she smiled, "Come to visit Bookworm?"
"Yes we have." They all walked into the room where Bookworm was being treated and they saw many notes pinned to everything they were all reminders on how to do things, "How's he doing?"
"Oh much better than before, he's remembering things on his own now and again, and we found these books on the ponies here."
Violet chuckled, his 'All you need to know about' book series was the very thing that brought them together in the first place, she smiled as she saw him writing things down, "Husmate."
He looked at them, "Violet, Twilight, and who's that?"
"My younger brother Spike, I told you about him before."
"Ah yes I remember now, how's the flying practice going?"
"It's going dad." Spike knew that his biodad was Fang but he thought of Bookworm as his real father so he calls his as such.
"And I have some exciting news for you dad I know how to get rid of parasprites."
As expected he instantly jumped in Twi's face, holding up paper and a quill, "When did you see them? How did you get rid of them? How did you figure it out? Will it always work? How did they react to it?" "Slow down dad, one question at a time, not to long ago, with musical instruments, Pinkie told me, yes it will, they jumped behind us attracted to it."
He wrote this down as Violet laughed, "I'm happy to see you haven't changed, so how are you doing?"
"Just great, I got books on all the different ponies here, this book you have to read, the client's name is Spectera Shine and she can communicate with the dead!" He brought them out and held one book in front of them.
"No she can't dad, she just thinks she can." Twi said pushing it down.
"But I got proof, she talked with Brook!" Violet flinched when she heard that name.
Bookworm didn't seem to notice, "She said he wanted to give me his last boat he said it was in his will under his house then he passed on into the light, and look they found it right where she said he said it was!" He held up pictures of them finding a will under planks of wood inside a house. "So you see she can talk to ghosts, she's not crazy!" Twi sighed, those were probably faked by Shine's friend or family member to make her seem like she wasn't crazy and was telling the truth.
But Twi didn't want to ruin her father's happiness by telling him the truth, "That's great dad."
"You think I'm crazy." They all turned around to see a silver unicorn, her gold mane and tail looked limp, and she was staring at us with bronze eyes, "Everyone here thinks I'm crazy."
"I don't think your crazy Shine."
She came into the room, and Twi saw her cutie mark, it looked like a glowing ball with a bronze core and lighter circles around it, "I'm not crazy, I can talk to ghosts it's my special talent.
What else do you think my cutie mark means?"
"Your cutie mark is very vague."
"Well it's not that is an Equestria bound soul see how it's bronze to represent the earth, and the glow around it is to represent that it's a spirit?"
Twi was about to answer when a nurse came in, "There you are Shine, telling ponies about your cutie mark and special talent again?"
"Yes because I'm not crazy, my name is Spectera Shine, it means ghost light, I can see and talk to ghosts!"
"Shine nopony can talk to ghosts."
"I can it's my special talent, why won't you ponies believe me!"
"Come on it's time to take your meds." The nurse grabbed her with her magic and Shine struggled, "No I'm not crazy, I'll prove to you that I'm telling the truth!"
Her horn glowed bronze and the nurse brought out a magic ring meant to block magic Twi stepped in, "Stop this, you're meant to help her not hurt her."
"I am trying to help her by bringing her back in reality."
As soon as the ring went on Shine's horn the glow went away, "No I was nearly done with my spell, it would have shown you what I can see!"
"Shine your talent is using your 'ghost light' to create illusionary images none of the ghosts are real."
"They are real, let me go!"
"Don't make me put you to sleep again." Shine still struggled until the nurse put a needle in her neck, she passed out and the nurse floated her out, "Sorry you had to see that please go back to your visit."
As soon as both of them left it was quiet in the room until Spike broke the silence, "She's really crazy." Violet hit him on the head. "Ouch what was that for?"
"For saying something rude about Shine who clearly has some kind of mental illness you should never judge anyone who has a mental illness, just because you can't see the problem doesn't mean it's not there, your father has a mental illness!"
"I'm sorry mom." Twi picked up the book about Shine, she was curious about her now.
Was the nurse right and Shine's special talent was making illusionary images with her ghost light or was Shine right and her special talent was communicating with the dead? Also what was with her colors? They looked dull and faded, Rarity would be pleased to know she could tell the difference, also her mane and tail was more limp and lifeless then Shy's style, but why? Why was she like this? Twi entered the office, "Hello Twilight Sparkle, what can I do for you?"
"I want to take Spectera Shine back home with me."
"What, why?"
"I want to do some tests to see if she's truly crazy or not."
"Twilight, she thinks she can communicate with the dead." The nurse said slowly as if questioning Twi's mental state.
"I know but how do we know she really can or not, after all we have ponies with special talents in every possible category some even being uncommon or rare and last I checked there are no limits or rules for what a pony can get as a special talent.
But if I still have not convinced you let me ask you this how was medicine made in ancient times?"
"Um..."
"By using a mortar and a pestle, a simple bowl and a heavy blunt object, they had to grind or crush herbs to get their medicine, and guess what in those times they would call you a witch for even doing this. Because healing others with simple plants seemed to crazy to be true, but nowadays it's a common and well known fact that plants, herbs, and even fungi can heal others."
Twi looked closely at her, "So if we can go from healers being crazy to being a common sight is it really that crazy to believe Shine's special talent is communicating with the dead?"
The nurse brought out a folder and took out some papers, "Just sign here and you can take custody of Spectera Shine you also have to send reports of how her mental state is either progressing or regressing."
Twi read the papers carefully before signing them, "I'll be sure to send a monthly report thank you for seeing reason."
Twi left the office and the nurse rubbed her head as she pushed a button, "Clear my schedule tonight would you? I need to rethink some things and maybe even get a drink or two... why? Because Twilight just used logic to make her case about a talent in seeing dead ponies and talking to them as well... yeah you can join me and I'll go over the details."
Twi walked into Shine's room to see her just laying on a bed, "Oh it's you, what do you want?" Twi looked at her more closely.
Now that she could get a good look at Shine she noticed that she looked a bit different then a normal unicorn besides the dull colors and limp hair style. The white glow on her iris wasn't round like with other ponies, it was diamond shaped for some reason, also her mane and tail wasn't one color, she had different shades of gold Rarity taught her well, "I came to get you, I am going to prove wither or not your crazy!" Shine looked at her slowly as if she was tired.
"So your going to take me with you? To your house to put me through whatever crazy tests you have planned for me?"
Twi laughed lightly, "Sort of you see there is a very easy way I can prove your sane or crazy, one of my friends has dead relatives and if you can see them without knowing what they look like then that will prove your sane, because how can you possibly make illusions of ponies you have never seen before?"
Shine slowly got up, "Alright I'll go with you."
She got together her things, "It will be better then staying here for the rest of my life." Twi happily clapped as she lead Shine out of the center with Spike following close behind them, after gathering their things they hopped on the train and waved goodbye to their mother. "So are you a dragon or a pony?" Twi sighed here we go again... once they got back to Ponyville Pinkie welcomed them back, "Welcome back Twilight and Spike!" Her party cannon went off then she spotted Shine.
Pinkie gasped and went to her, "Oh my gosh are you a new pony? You must be new because I never seen you before, and if your new that must mean you have no friends, and if you have no friends you must be lonely so I must throw you a welcome party!"
Shine blinked, "I'm sorry what did you just say?"
"I said I'm going to throw you a welcome party, I mean duh, what else can make ponies smile? A fun party!"
"I really..."
"And it looks like you need one, I mean you look like you have not smiled in years!"
Shine froze her eye twitched, "Happy? Fun? Smiling? I have never felt joy since I left my home."
"And that's why you need this party!"
Twi gently pushed Pinkie away, "Now Pinkie Spectera Shine..."
"Wow that's a long name how about Shiny? Spooky? Oh I know ghost light!"
"Wait what?"
"Ghost light that's what your name means silly."
Shine eye twitched even more, "How in the world did you know that?"
"Oh that's easy I simply read earlier in this story to find out."
Both Twi and Shine looked at her oddly, "What are you talking about?"
"Are you sure I'm the crazy one who needs to be studied?"
"Oh trust me when I say I already tried once... I ended up crushed under a ton of stuff then burst into flames out of anger."
Shine looked at Twi, "You did what now?"
Twi focused really hard then her mane and tail burst into flames. "Oh cool party trick Twi."
Shine simply looked at her in awe, "I didn't know other ponies can change the way they look."
Twi went back to normal, "Wait other ponies? What do you mean other ponies?"
"I'm sorry did I say other ponies? I must be tired because my brain isn't working properly." Twi looked at her did Shine just look scared for a moment? "How about a nice long rest in a proper bed? I haven't had a nice peaceful rest in years, I could probably sleep for a 1,000 years on a comfy bed."
"That's an oddly specific amount of time." Shine yawned then fainted on the spot sleeping on the ground.
Did she just willingly put herself to sleep to avoid answering questions? Because that's what it looked like, no one can just fall asleep like that, unless they are extremely tired or have trained themselves to sleep on command and it looks like Shine falls into the latter. "Hey wake up!" Pinkie shook Shine, "I want to throw you a welcome party!"
"Pinkie put her down that's not going to work she's a heavy sleeper."
"Oh but my welcome party..."
"Will have to wait tomorrow besides it's already getting late."
Pinkie looked at the setting sun, "Curse you sun!" Twi shook her head as she lifted Shine with her magic and carried her home, after placing her down in the guest bed Twi pulled out book after book to see if anypony wrote about the ability to speak to the dead. Yes there was A Hearth's Warming tale, but that was a story and it mentioned a spirit summoning spell not a spirit seeing ability, so two different things really, but then again Shine is a unicorn... huh maybe her talent wasn't that farfetched.