Ghost Hunter Twilight

by Keywii_Cookies55

5 Extrications

Twilight scowled deeply as she walked away from Applejack and Rainbow, she didn't really have a direction in mind, just...away. The direction that happened to be was back into town.

After maybe five minutes and a left turn to avoid returning to the bookstore, Twilight sighed, happy that Rainbow hadn't decided to follow her. "Finally away from her," she thought happily, though her expression stayed unpleasant, "WOW was she loud and annoying. At least Pinkie knows when to be useful."

Taking in her surroundings for the first time, Twilight stopped when she realized that she still didn't know how to get home, let alone where she was now. It appeared to be a residential neighbourhood though, townhouses lining the street. "I should probably find her and see if she has a book on being Bound."

---

Applejack and Rainbow Dash were nearly at each other's throats, the way they were staring at each other. "It's your fault she's leaving, you know that?" the pegasus accused, venom in her voice.

This more than upset the farmer as she looked downright offended. "Mówi kobieta, która zawsze stoi na przeszkodzie mojemu rolnictwu!"

---

Strolling through a new street, Twilight had a genuine smile on her face as she looked around. The dirt path she was travelling down was framed by two lines of trees, the flowers were in bloom, so the flowers opening up were all sorts of colours. And with few other ponies in the area, Twilight felt, well, comfortable.

"Well this sure is nice," She thought as she watched a squirrel go about it's day in one of the nearby tree's, "I didn't know any part of St. Orangeburg was able to look this good."

If Twilight had to be honest, she'd been surrounded by cityscape all her miserable life. By the concrete, smoggy skies, brick and metal. The fact that she could see so many trees, and fields was...refreshing. "I haven't even been threatened yet. The people here may be stupid, but-"

"WOAH," The voice of a nearby pony called out, grabbing Twilight's attention, "who are you?"

Her smile fell off a jaggy cliff and exploded as her peaceful walk was stolen by one of the local ponies she was hoping she'd be able to avoid while she was here. "...But that's now the end of my sentence." She thought, completing her observation after having taken into account the nuisance she now had to deal with.

"Nobody important, ignore me." Twilight said, providing her usual response to being interacted with in the streets. It was a well known fact of the survivors of Panhandlershot that you never draw attention to yourself, if you do than you make damn sure that whoever's bothering you thinks you aren't worth their time. You lie, you cheat, you do whatever you can to look as meaningless as possible.

Unfortunately that wasn't how things worked in the outer districts. The two ponies that were staring at here didn't take the the hint that Twilight wasn't worth their time. The yellow one on the left, the one that had stopped her in the first place opened her stupid mouth again. "But you're new! How'd you even get into Partyville?"

Twilight almost groaned at having to deal with another one of these ponies. They weren't a threat to her, and if anything, they only numbed her intelligence the more she talked to them. "I walked," she deadpanned, seeing no more reason to withhold her snark. "Just like I WAS doing before you interrupted me."

The violet pony beside the first spoke up, "How do you interrupt walking?" She asked, Twilight restraining herself from screaming her frustration out loud.

"While you're being stupid, can you tell me which way the bakery is?"

"Yes," The yellow mare apparently missed the insult, which just upset Twilight more, "It's just down Long Street."

---

"And that'll be six bits," Pinkie cheerfully reminded from behind her cash register. "Thanks and come again."

Her smile faltered as her customer didn't so much as utter a thanks when he grabbed his butter tarts and turned to leave the bakery. She wasn't upset in the slightest, it's not like she was constantly underpaid and ridiculed. No, if she got upset, she'd just be crazy. Everyone in Partyville loved working for next to no pay and enjoyed every second of the social excommunication.

Her eye twitched, but seeing as no one else was currently in her store front she allowed her frustration to show, at least for the time being. After all, bottling up your anger, as good as that is for business, isn't healthy for you. It's good to let it out when you can.

Sighing, Pinkie put the coins in her register and turned her head to the back room, she heard the oven open and let a small smile infect her features. "It's been two hours, I should probably give her a break." She thought as she did a final check of the storefront to make sure no one was about to enter. With the coast clear, Pinkie entered the kitchen.

The sight that greeted her was best described by a 5 year old making explosion noises. Flour was everywhere, several mixing bowls were in the sink, and a half mixed pile of batter was hardening to the floor that very second. None of this surprised her though, Applebloom wasn't exactly a master chef, she'd just stay late and do a more thorough cleaning.

At the centre of the mess was Applebloom. At some point she'd lost her signature giant pink bow and as well had gotten probably half a tub of margarine on her hooves. Pinkie noted that the cleanest part of the room was the cookbook. "Hey Applebloom," She greeted, "how are you doing back here?"

Applebloom, instead of answering, closed the oven door, having placed a tray of something in there, and huffed in exhaustion as she set the time. "Horribly, I'm not your slave, I'm just a filly, let me free!" She thought, but she knew tact matters more than emotions, so she let her shoulders slump before turning to look up at Pinkie, "Tired, how do you do this all the time?"

Pinkie just grinned, "You get used to it, plus you get to taste what you make."

Desperation held heavily in Applebloom's eyes, a look that didn't go unnoticed by Pinkie, but wasn't addressed either. "I can't take much more of this!" She thought, "It was fun at first, but I don't want to be here. It's like I'm working here, but I'm just a kid! I don't want a job." She began to lean against one of the counters as she closed her eyes, catching her breath slightly, "How do I escape? Every time I've tried she just smiles at me and tells me I'm doing a good job..."

"I need out!"

---

Standing outside the bakery was a purple unicorn with a scowl on her face. "Well this seems to be the place," Twilight said as she looked up at the name of the bakery. She didn't know what to think, it was a pun, which she hated, but also she wasn't sure anyone here was smart enough to make a pun. They all seemed pretty literal-minded when they talked. Can idiots even have a sense of humour?

Shaking the thoughts out of her head, Twilight saw the open sign and walked into the small shop. There was a couple things on display, but for the most part the main thing that drew your eyes was the manu above the counter.

She didn't see Pinkie, but seeing as the place was open, Twilight assumed she was in the back. Listening for even half a second confirmed this as she heard Pinkie talking to someone. So seeing nobody else, Twilight went to the kitchen door and opened it, only to see the mess and become nauseated. "Wow, this is disgusting, who made this mess?"

Stopping herself from stepping on a glop of batter, Twilight narrowed her eyes, "I swear, if it's not being surrounded by morons, it's walking into a since tornado."

But before Twilight could ask why she was still here, Pinkie looked over from comforting the little girl. "Twilight!" Pinkie cheered, excited to see her friend, "Welcome to my bakery! Applebloom and I were just about to go on our fifteen minute break."

"Lovely," Twilight thought with a mental roll of her eyes, "There's a child here."

Twilight wasn't too against the existence of children, after all, she was one once, and they sort of existed to further ponykind. But she couldn't call herself a fan. They were loud, full of themselves, annoying, and often did nothing but get in her way. On the one hoof it wasn't just kids that did that, on the other, she wasn't a fan of adults either, so it was more a moot point than anything. Age didn't matter, if you got in Twilight's way, she wouldn't like you.

Pinkie motioned to a tray on top of the over, still cooling, "Would you like to try out her chocolate muffins?" Twilight could tell Pinkie liked them, but the unicorn also wasn't hungry, even if muffins were a thing she liked.

"No, I wouldn't," She answered plainly, which from her could have been seen as almost jovial by comparison. Twilight then turned to Applebloom, who had been quietly observing the new pony. "Hey kid, can you go outside? I need to talk to Pinkie alone for a second."

At this Applebloom's eyes widened and a smile exploded onto her her face. She ran up to Twilight and got really close to her face, very excited. "Thank you, thank you so much!" Immediately she ran for the kitchen door, "I'm free! HA!"

Twilight and Pinkie looked at each other. Pinkie shrugged, and as Twilight was about to ask they could hear the front door open and Applebloom laugh even louder, "HA HA HA!" To which Twilight closed her mouth and her features scrunched up in confusion.

After a moment Twilight just walked out of the kitchen and stared blankly ahead, caught off guard and unsure of really what to think. "Huh, what a weird kid," she said to no one in particular.

"Not really, she's just sort of rude and self-absorbed," Pinkie offered, having followed Twilight out of the kitchen.

Twilight nodded, "Yeah," she agreed in a distant sort of tone, "well I can relate to that.”

Pinkie watched Applebloom run off through the store's front window for a moment before she turned to look over at her friend. "So what brings you to the bakery, Twilight?"

Twilight, still lost in thought, didn't answer right away. Applebloom kind of reminded her of herself, maybe not from a younger age, since she was terrified of talking to the people in her neighbourhood, but her current self. Slightly odd, full of herself, wrapped up in something. The kid was worth talking to a second time.

But shaking out of her thoughts she turned to look at Pinkie, "I wanted to talk to you actually."

Pinkie smiled and nodded, moving back into the kitchen, "Sure, let me just close my shop."

Twilight raised an eyebrow as she turned to follow Pinkie, only to see the pink Earth pony return with a pair of keys. "Close your shop? Seriously?" The idea confused Twilight, she'd never owned a shop, but it stands that if it's open then she'd probably make money.

"Well in this town any conversation can turn into a three hour adventure." Moving to the front door, Pinkie turned the open sign over and locked it behind her, Twilight having followed her out.

"If you say so..." Twilight said, a bit disappointed, "right, forgot she's weird."

They were both quiet for a minute as they walked, Twilight because she didn't know what to say, but Pinkie for another reason. She was looking around her as they walked, it almost looked like she was making sure no one was following them. Once she was sure they were alone, at least as alone as they could get on a city street, she turned to Twilight. "So what did you want to talk about?"

Taking this time to drop her neutral expression, Twilight regained a scowl as she began to rant. "Well I could probably ramble on about how stupid the people here are. I've talked to a total of eight other people and every single one of them makes me want to smash my face against bricks." She took a breath and turned to look at Pinkie as they walked, "But I won't waste your time."

Pinkie, to Twilight's surprise actually narrowed her eyes and took on an aggressive tone herself, "Oh please, waste away!" She was just shy of shouting in frustration, "Everyone here is always talking behind my back, saying things about me, I hate them!"

Twilight didn't really expect that reaction, so far Pinkie had been nothing but friendly, even to Applebloom, who basically celebrated getting away from her. She couldn't help a little concern sneaking into her voice, "And yet you stay..."

"Well, Twilight," Pinkie added without missing a beat, "The library and bookstore here have the absolute best material on the paranormal in this entire city."

"Well that's certainly saying something considering how big this place is."

"Exactly."

Twilight shook her head, she was, surprisingly to herself, worried about Pinkie in a new way. When they met she judged too harshly, of course Pinkie was weird, she survived St. Orangeberg's outer districts; that was reason enough to be a bit odd. But Twilight decided she could ask about that later and stopped walking. "Well I'm glad you brought that up Pinkie, because I need your help finding something."

Pinkie raised an eyebrow, but had calmed down somewhat, it was telling that she knew how to hold her temper on a moment's notice. "You do?"

"Yes, I need information on those that are Bound."

Author's Note:

Yes, I know, the reveal at the end of the chapter is just a mirror of the last chapter, but whatever. It wasn't intended to be a reveal so much as just the moment Twilight asked Pinkie about a thing.

Joke's on you then.

Comments

[My name is R]

The violet pony beside the first spoke up, "How do you interrupt walking?" She asked, Twilight restraining herself from creaming her frustration out loud.

Two things: 1 screaming and 2 is that one sentence or two? If it's one then she shouldn't be capitalized.

Stopping herself from stepping on a glop of batter, Twilight narrowed her eyes, "I swear, if it's not being surrounded by morons, it's walking into a since tornado."

I'm not sure what that is supposed to be. Maybe soup? Sense?

[Keywii_Cookies55]

10649635

Well that's an embarrassing typo that's existing for three years. >.<

Also the 'since' tornado is an intentional spelling; it's to mean a past tense tornado. As in "since a tornado has passed through."