Ghost Hunter Twilight

by Keywii_Cookies55

1 Light Reading

Sun shone down onto the sprawling urban city of St. Orangeberg, broadcasting the time to anyone unaware of it themselves. To the astute this meant that it was rapidly approaching noon. For some this meant lunch, for others it meant it was time to wake up, for others still it meant being the victim of an armed robbery.

For one particular unicorn this meant it was time to return to her book-saturated warehouse. This unicorn was a light purple colour and had a permanent scowl which had long ago swallowed any other expressions that might bless her face.

Opening a large metal door with her magic, Twilight Sparkle entered her warehouse without giving even a thought to the action, her attention primarily focused on reading a letter in front of her. With an equally practiced motion, the large metal door closed behind her with minimal noise, and the magenta glow around it faded.

Her mouth moving as she read the note quietly to herself, Twilight eyes were drawn to the large stacks and shelves of books that lined her warehouse. She briefly glanced over to the large pile of pallets containing cans of soup, a memento to the original purpose of her current living space. She momentarily considered that the soup probably should have gone bad in the four years since she...commandeered the storage space, but was in no hurry to question what kept her primary food source from going bad.

Returning to the letter for a moment she scanned the paper for the answer she had been internally asking herself. Externally too, as she spoke her thoughts aloud. "Let's see, was that aisle five or seven?" Her hooves having automatically brought her forward past two lines of shelves by this point, she didn't worry about being too far from her objective.

"Aisle twenty-six?!" Twilight shouted in exasperation as she reread the line to confirm the information. Taking a moment to look up and see where she was, she paused to read the marked numbers only to blink. "...good thing that happens to be where I'm standing."

Twilight looked down the row of books in front of her before her eyes narrowed and she returned her attention to the note. "Okay, next," She spoke again, walking up to the books themselves, "the instructions she gave me say it'll be a book on the top shelf."

"Perhaps this one?" She whispered to herself as a book on the top shelf illuminated in her signature magical magenta glow. As she pulled the book down to herself, as well as a few others from the same place she heard a voice come from nearby.

"How specific..." it said, but though Twilight didn't look away from her books, her glare narrowed.

"Lay off Spike, I really don't need your cynicism today." As her eyes read over the title of the book in front of her eyes she shook her head slightly, "No...not this one..."

With a sigh, the voice made itself known as being above Twilight. "Fine, but you're looking in the wrong aisle."

"No...no...no...seriously? How can it be none of these?" Twilight whispered to herself. Appreciating that Spike wasn't being as negative as he normally was, she looked through several other books, all floating around her. She still didn't turn her head to address Spike as she remembered he was there with her. "And what makes you so sure of yourself?"

"Because I'm holding your book in my claws right now."

That got Twilight's attention. She drew her eyes from the dozen or so books floating around herself to look toward Spike. He was a short, bipedal dragon with a mohawk of green spikes with rounded tips. He stood on top of a ladder further down the row towards a one of the metal walls. True to his word, a thick tome was held in his clutches. "I highly doubt that," Twilight spoke, unconvinced.

Rolling his eyes, Spike pointed at the book he was holding. "Take a look and see for yourself." He said without moving his mouth, though Twilight understood regardless.

Surprised, Twilight perked up slightly, "Wait, you seriously found it? I'm impressed."

"Yep," Spike said, looking down at the book on his claws, "The Theorist's Guide to Conspiracies and Other Paranormal Things."

Twilight forced a smile. "Thanks for the help." She offered, her smile fading immediately as her magic glow enveloped the book in Spike's grasp, pulling him with it. "Now give me that!" She snapped impatiently.

"Wha- Hey!" He startled as he was pulled off of the ladder and onto the floor by the book, falling probably fifteen feet down. The impact with the concrete below was hard but not damaging.

"Yes, perfect, thank you," Twilight spoke aloud, reading the cover of the book. "Now, if you will, clean up my mess - I'm teleporting to my reading spot."

"What mess?" Spike thought. His question was answered for him though as, in an instant, Twilight was gone, as was the book Spike had found. Her telekinetic grip on the roughly seventeen books had vanished along with her. The books clattered to the ground In a cascade. Spike stood up and looked dejected at the now present mess around him.

"Oh, well, forget I asked then."

---

Far from Spike, the mess, and the warehouse was an enclosed area covered in overgrown foliage. The sounds and smells of the city were a distant memory from this place. Regardless of where you looked, it seemed impossible to place the location relative to anywhere else if you had to. Wherever it was though, it looked as if it had been untouched for nearly twenty years.

Tall trees blocked out a large portion of the sun, but let enough through the canopy to allow the lost sanctum to flourish. Under one of the trees stood a fortress of solitude in the form of an old greenhouse, clover having long ago taken over the building. Just beside the lone structure was a small clearing maybe fifteen feet from end to end, and at the centre of this clearing sat Twilight, flipping through the pages of the Theorist's Guide.

Stopping for a moment, she tilted her head upward in thought. "I wonder if I was too hard on him," she considered, "he did find my book after all."

"For all I know he's planning revenge on me or something."

---

Climbing a ladder with a small stack of books balanced in his right claw, Spike raised an eyebrow. "What's her deal today? Kind of being a bitch for no reason."

He returned a book to its place, making sure it was organized correctly before shrugging, "Whatever, beats the hell out of working at Newhorseland Post."

---

"Screw it!" Twilight declared, "I don't actually care! Time to read."

Without another word, she brought her attention back to the pages of her tome, flipping forward twice before settling on a paragraph. "Okay, let's see here..." She considered before reading aloud, "There's an old district of St. Orangeberg’s that's haunted by the spirits of dead ponies looking for a good time."

Her face screwed up at the thought, "Good time? The hell?" She whispered before catching herself and refocusing on the book. "By summoning creatures of destruction, monsters of mayhem, and also just having actual ghost get-togethers, the spirits are humbled, and the citizens of the aptly named Partyville neighbourhood are left completely unaware of any ghosts."

Twilight took a moment to absorb this information before she shook her head. "Well that's stupid, why would ghosts have get-togethers?"

"UUUGGGHH..." Twilight groaned as her body slumped and her eyes rolled. "I know I have to show an interest in her hobbies, but this is dumb. Ghosts are dumb!"

Closing the book with a huff, Twilight looked at the canopy above her, frustrated at just the stupidity of the notion. She was about to work herself into a rant before she stopped and sighed in defeat. "Maybe I should meet her?" Twilight thought as she raised a hoof to her chin, the slightest hint of a smile forming on her lips. "She does live in Partyville after all, I'll surprise her."

Her smile began to grow the longer she thought about it. "Okay, just have to teleport back to Spike, and then make the long trek across St. Orangeberg." For a brief moment Twilight almost felt happy, but with the realization of the distance, her mood plummeted faster than she could blink.

"UUGGGGGGHHHHH..." She groaned again, her body slumping once more before she started getting up. Twilight looked back down at the book below her. It stared back at her silently, as if mocking the journey she was about to take. "That'll take at least six hours! Why is this city so stupidly big?!" Levitating the book from the ground, she teleported away, leaving the clearing to return to its isolation.

---

In the years that Twilight and Spike had lived together in the warehouse, and perhaps in all the time she'd lived in St. Orangeberg, she'd learned one very important thing: that you never surprise anyone. Fear of physical harm was ever-present, and so reflexes were honed. For this reason Twilight had never teleported into the warehouse proper, and instead always returned just in front of the door.

Opening the large piece of sheet metal that acted as their door, Twilight called to the purple dragon. "Spike! I hope you're not exhausted, because we have quite the jog ahead of us."

She walked into the warehouse and began to head toward aisle 26 before she spotted Spike lying down in on the floor in front of what counted as their couch. "Hmm?" He thought, not raising his head, "Oh no, I'm perfectly fine, just finished in fact." Twilight could tell he was being sarcastic, but before complaining about it she actually looked around.

She noted that their piles of garbage was gone, and her pile of books were returned to their shelves. She even noted that the air smelled faintly like some kind of room-freshening chemical as she shelved the Theorist's Guide.

Returning to the dragon she smiled as she offered a hoof to help him up. "It shows," She complimented, "the warehouse has never looked better."

Spike took the hoof and used it to stand up, "Glad to be of service," he quipped before looking up at her. "So where are we going, now?"

Looking at him with her signature condescending glare, Twilight spoke in a matter-of-fact tone. "One of the outer districts, Partyville to be specific."

Spike just rolled his eyes, "Ah, I should have known."

Author's Note:

I hope you don't expect an apology, XD cause all you'll get from this Twilight is disdain that you're breathing her air.

EDIT: 11-14-2017 I went back and looked over the first chapter, (and by that i mean people I like did that) and now it's written better, or something. I dunno, that's for you to decide.

Comments

[Real_Atomsk]

Interesting, shall stick around

[PhycoKrusk]

Hm....