Library Time During Friday the 13th (closed)

[Rapid Quill]

ooc: So yeah I decided to have the library thread set during Friday the 13th. Hope that's cool with everyone. Figure it could be fun/amusing at least especially with my character acting all paranoid and crazy. But yeah this thread is for Rapid, Cloud Drop, and Fleur. By the way, sorry it took so long you guys.

bic: Rapid, whom was fast asleep, was dreaming sweet dreams when all of a sudden he was rather rudely jostled awake by someone calling out his name and shaking him. Startled, Rapid awoke with a start; his heart beating and sweat pouring down his face. It took a few moments for his eyes to adjust to the brightness of his bedroom. There at the foot of his bed, grinning from ear to ear, stood his very best friend and mentor, Free Thinker. In his mouth sat a silver tray with all sorts of breakfasty foods and beverages on it. Letting out a yawn he gave his arms a good, much needed stretch. He thought to himself, 'oh good he's smiling, so that means he's in a good mood today, right? Yeah, that must be it' The blue unicorn felt so certain of this that he returned his mentor's smile. Rapid's eyes then flittered back to the silver tray and he couldn't help, but frown. Free Thinker never gave him breakfast in bed before except on very special occasions or he wanted something and just used the whole, serving him breakfast in bed thing as a way to butter him up. It was a real sneaky and clever tactic that Rapid Quill was ashamed to say worked on him. Since it wasn't a special day, Rapid naturally assumed that his less than subtle mentor wanted something. The question on Rapid's mind, was what? What possibly could his scheming mentor want from him this time? Then again, the blue unicorn wasn't sure what the day even was as days tend to go by rather quickly causing him to lose track of time. Of course this didn't always happen. After all as a writer he did have a schedule to keep, but today he really couldn't remember and Free Thinker wasn't exactly helping matters by standing right in front of his calendar effectively blocking his view of it. Grumbling, Rapid gave his eyes a violent rub. "Free Thinker do you realize what time it is? Why'd you wake me up so early? And not that I don't appreciate the gesture cause I do, but what's with the breakfast in bed? It isn't a holiday nor is it my birthday," inquired Rapid with a yawn.

The black coated Earth pony proceeded to look hurt. "What, can't one best friend do something nice for another best friend without said friend thinking, there must be some kind of crazy ulterior motive behind all this? Tsk, tsk, I am shocked by you and your wild accusations, Rapid. I really am," exclaimed Free Thinker faking offense.

The blue unicorn could tell by the Earthling's tone that he wasn't the least bit upset nor offended, so Rapid saw no reason to apologize. Instead, Rapid just sat there on his bed pondering where his mentor was going with all this...nonsense. He hated it whenever someone beats around the bush. It really bugged him. Thankfully, Free Thinker didn't typically do that since it bugs him too. So why now Rapid wondered. "Well yeah actually you can't. I mean it's not like you do this type of thing all the time. So um why today and so early? Not that I don't appreciate it or anything, it's just... Oh horsefeathers! Well, I'll tell you this much, I'm not going to just sit here playing guessing games with you! If you are up to something, let me in on it!" Free Thinker just let out a tired sigh.

"Well," began Free Thinker in a tired tone, "actually there is this one little thing I need you to do. First I need you to eat your breakfast, then I need you to leave the house for the rest of the day and oh I need you to do this without consulting your calendar."

The blue unicorn thought the last bit an odd request for he wondered, what was so wrong about checking the day? Unless there was something that his sneaky mentor was specifically hiding from him. Rapid Quill looked at Free Thinker funny. "Okay. fair enough. That's not too big of a request, but why don't you want me to see what day it is? What are you hiding?" inquired Rapid suspiciously.

"Uh nothing. I just have this uh little business meeting I need to take care of and my boss is meeting me here and well, you can't exactly be here during the meeting is all," the Earth pony stammered nervously.

Rapid frowned. "Okay good to know, but that wasn't what I asked," Rapid firmly corrected.

"I just thought that you'd have a better day if you didn't know the date, that's all," Free Thinker replied slyly. "In the meantime, here, enjoy your breakfast," he suggested setting the tray down beside Rapid.

Smiling, Rapid leaned forward and took a bite of his delicious heated oats. Unfortunately, Rapid miscalculated the oats' temperature and took too large of a bite. As a result, he yelled out in pain and leaped several feet into the air.

Startled by Rapid's reaction, Free Thinker stumbled backwards hitting the dresser causing a vase to fly off it and land on the poor blue unicorn's head. Grumbling, Rapid struggled to get the vase off his head. Chuckling softly at the display, Free Thinker walked over to his apprentice to help him out. "Sorry Rapid. I thought you liked your oats heated in the mornings. By the way," he said in an amused tone while giving the vase a gentle tap, "how you doing in there apprentice?"

Unamused, Rapid just continued to grumble from inside the vase. "Quit horsing around and get me out of here!"

Free Thinker gave a defeated nod. "Okay, okay. Just hang on and I'll get you out in a sec!" The strong Earth pony then wrapped his front hooves securely around the vase and pulled until it popped off crashing into the room's back wall.

Once freed, Rapid gave his muzzle a wriggle and rubbed it. He looked very much irritated despite his mentor's attempt to comfort him. "Let me guess, it's Friday the 13th, isn't it?" he asked almost knowingly.

Free Thinker, meanwhile, just gave an innocent smile and his ears folded back. "No, of course not! I mean, what makes you think that?" Free Thinker asked rather nervously.

Rapid just rolled his eyes. "Oh come off it! I am not dumb!"

Free Thinker looked dumbfounded from the accusation for it was not his intention to insult, but rather to conceal the truth from his overly emotional apprentice. "What are you even talking about? I never said..."

Rapid's bright yellow eyes flashed as he jumped off the bed and started walking towards his mentor who just backed away from Rapid until he hit the wall. "Oh it doesn't even matter. Just tell me how right I am about today being the dreaded Friday the 13th?"

"Never!" shouted Free Thinker childishly as he quickly pulled down their only calendar from the wall before Rapid Quill could see the date and ran off with it.

Rapid then gave chase and strangely enough the only one to run into things and have things fall on him was Rapid. In the end though, Rapid slid straight into the bookshelf knocking books over on top of both of them giving the blue unicorn the time to sneak a peek at the calendar. To his horror the day's date did indeed say Friday the 13th. Rapid Quill glared at Free Thinker as he jumped off him. "Friday the 13th is today! I knew it! Ugh, I can't believe you! There is no way I am going anywhere today! Don't you know how dangerous today is for me? You've known me for like at least a decade now! You should know by now what this day does to me as does what Nightmare Night does. How could you forget?" demanded Rapid.

Free Thinker just sighed. "Rapid, we go through this every year. I am telling you, you are grossly exaggerating this whole bad luck thing! You are not cursed nor are you jinxed! This, everything that has happened to you so far today and all those other times are as unfortunate as they are, purely coincidental! Now, repeat after me, I am not cursed nor am I jinxed! I am going out today to enjoy myself with a big smile on my face," an annoyed Free Thinker attempted to explain.

Grumbling Rapid proceeded to do as was suggested. He first cleared his throat. "I, Rapid Quill am not cursed nor am I... BANG! CRASH!" Amazingly enough yet another vase had fallen off the bookshelf and landed upon poor Rapid's head.

Watching this even Free Thinker groaned and rolled his eyes. "You've got to be kidding me!" As before Free Thinker managed to pull the vase off poor Rapid's head.

Rapid shook his head. "Now do you believe me?"

Ignoring him, Free Thinker observed the mess around them. "Just look at this mess! My boss will be here to discuss the plans for Ponyville's next hotel any minute! I can't let him see our house like this!" the Earth pony exclaimed, worried.

Rapid felt a pang of guilt in his stomach. "Well maybe I can help clean i up before he gets here then. After all I am partially responsible for this mess," Rapid offered with a smile.

Ar this Free Thinker's eyes practically bulged out of their sockets. "NO!" he shouted right before realizing just whom he was dealing with. He quickly lowered the volume of his voice. "Er I mean I think you should just relax this day whole I worry about everything. Just try to stay out of trouble," suggested Free Thinker as he practically pushed his apprentice outside while ignoring his protests.

With trembling hooves, Rapid stuck on his black helmet that he used to help him survive these most terrible of days. It had a little opening for his horn to poke through. Rapid was also wearing his lucky green scarf. Freaking out, Rapid nervously walked around and every two minutes he would literally take cover under or behind something. Eventually he caught the attention of several ponies who wondered what he was doing. Some assumed he was just playing a game while still others simply brushed him off as a nut.

During his quest to find a safe place to spend the rest of his day while attempting to avoid all things unlucky he came across a botanist offering him a complimentary flower. Initially forgetting what happened to him last year he accepted such a flower he used his red unicorn magic to accept it only to return it seconds later upon remembering all the awful bee stings he received last year. "Thanks, but no thanks! No way am I letting myself attract a swarm of bees like last year! Do you not realize what day it is? It's Friday the 13th!!! Every pony for themselves!" And with that Rapid ran off fast as he could leaving the poor botanist scratching her head.

"Why, of all the silly ideas! Flowers are not bee magnets!" She then was approached by an actual customer who not only accepted her complimentary flower, but also bought a whole batch of them. Not five minutes later the flowers attracted a whole swarm of bees who began chasing the poor customer forcing the poor, confused botanist to retract her previous statement. "Then again..."

Despite Rapid's extreme cautiousness the bees found him and chased after the blue unicorn. Spotting Ponyville's library, Rapid ran in shutting the door behind him. He did so loudly causing just about everyone inside to shush him. "Sorry," Rapid apologized in a hushed whisper. Then he thought, 'this'll be a great place to hide! Nothing could possibly hurt me in here! In fact, I wonder if this place has any books on curses...? Maybe just maybe I can finally find a cure!' Rapid then proceeded to sneak about the library while trying to avoid anything remotely dangerous. He walked up to the librarian and asked her where he could find books on curses and she directed him to the back. Thanking her, Rapid very carefully headed towards the back; his ears folded nervously at every creak.

After making it to the directed section, Rapid went crazy by removing practically every book on curses. He grabbed a stackful of books and sat down at an empty table and opened one of the books up. Rapid Quill then proceeded to skim through in a desperate attempt to find something, anything that describes his curse.

[Deleted]

Cloud Drop had a long day of research before him. He was moving back to Cloudsdale in two days, and had an exam another two days after that. Life at weather school was tough. Luckily he had all the books he needed for his studying right here in ponyville. Just to be sure though, he decided to spend the friday at the library for some cross-referencing, to double check his knowledge and attest it to varying sources. Make sure that everything he knew was as coherent as possible, and not just some jimmy nilly stuff that his Educational recommended textbooks were about.

To his misfortune though, the books were heavy, and left him little space in his saddlebags for carrying his array of cloud-creating potions, so the little gray stallion would have to move to the library on his own hooves. With a grunt, he left his house out into the sunny day, extending his left wing over his head to block out the sunlight. The steps of his hooves passed through the cobblestone and mud roads of ponyville, and as luck would have it, he'd eventually end up walking through a rain-soiled mudpath. Must have rained some overnight. Typical. Normally, this wouldn't be an issue for a pony, but Cloud Drop was easily half the height of an average stallion, perhaps even only half the height of a mare. His short frame cost him a lot of effort to get out of the mud, and keep his books clean. His only Fortune was being able to use his wing to keep his saddlebags on his back instead of his sides, keeping the books a whole lot more clean. With his gray hooves brown with mud, he trotted on towards the library with an irritated sigh.

Continuing on on the cobblestone path, he made his way towards Ponyville's quiet little library. which seemed fine at the moment. He walked towards the entrance, going off to the side to shake his dirty hooves off first. Right before he arrived at the library, however, an unfortunate flurry of leaves blew in his face with the wind, causing him to stumble and walk INTO the side of the library instead of next to it. With a bonk and an irritated yelp, he stepped back and rubbed his nose. He was starting to get irritated. all of this would have EASILY been avoided if he could just travel on his personal mini-cloud. How does everypony STAND walking? He simply did not understand. He smacked his hooves against the side of the library softly, and shook them off before heading inside.

He was one of the very first, being a definite morning bird. He silently nodded his head to the undoubtedly tired librarian as he headed in further inside. He decided to pick a spot deeper in the library, placing his saddlebags next to a seat. He went off to get the remaining books he wanted to cross-reference from for now. While pouring through the tomes on weather, a loud thump interrupted his thought process, although only for a second. he turned his head and blinked, but was far enough away from the entrance to not be able to see Rapid Quill. He shook his head and returned to the shelves. He grabbed the second out of five books he wanted, and while he found the third, a blue unicorn passed by behind him, acting strange. He paid it no mind as he went searching for the 4th and 5th. Finding that the 4th was either taken or not available, he went on to the 5th, grabbing it and heading back to the table where he placed his saddlebags, balancing the 4 books on his back.

A few hoofsteps before he got back to his table, on the other side of the table he had placed his saddlebags, The same blue unicorn placed a large pile of books. Cloud Drop raised an eyebrow at his hurried expression, before noticing he just continued to research silently, and decided it would do no harm to sit at the same table. He placed the books by his saddlebags before grabbing one last book... An intimidating thick Tome!... and he placed it on the chair and clambered onto it himself. With the thick tome under his flank, he was just tall enough to make proper use of the table. Hoisting his saddlebag, the 3 books within, and the 4 books he had picked form the library onto the table and got prepared to study. He grabbed a notebook, a quill, and opened two of the books, shifting one of blue unicorn's books towards said unicorn's side of the table. Cloud drop needed a -little- more space, and the way the unicorn had practically thrown his books on the table had made a few tumble and reserved too much space of the table . Unlike most ponies, who would use their hooves to hold and their mouth to write, he use his hooves AND wings, nimbly flipping through the two books through them, while he used his hooves and mouth for his own notebook. The moment he started working, he seemed in trance.. Even then, he was not completely unresponsive to his surroundings, only somewhat.

[Deleted]

~FLEUR~
(Best viewed on a computer.)

❝Fleur had decided as soon as she woke up that she would go to the library that day, it just seemed like the perfect day for some reason. She nimbly got out of bed and grabbed an apple for breakfast, before shuffling out the door. As she took a step outside, she noticed the ground was unusually wet, and so she decided she would rather fly, keeping her white hooves mud-free. Fleur didn't have much of a problem with mud, but she thought that the librarian would not be happy if she left a trail on the carpet.

She landed not far from the library, and as she was walking towards it, she saw quite a funny, and strange, sight. A small, grey stallion had hit the side of the library, his hooves covered in mud and his wings supporting a load of books. She felt sorry for him, but did not approach him as she followed him into the library. Once she was inside, she let out a sigh. This place relaxed her so much. She steeled a glance around the area before flying over to her favourite section, finding a book about flowers. Before long, she had found three books that she was interested in: one of flowers, another about animals, and a fictional book about a dragon and his pet rabbit. Sometimes, when she was over stressed or needed something to take her mind off of the moment, she would read fiction. It had a sense of magic about it.

As she took her books to a comfy corner of pillows, she heard a loud thud and looked up to see a blue unicorn hastily rush into the library. Please be a bit quieter, could you? She thought, before continuing her 'research' on flowers. She skimmed through the book, finding flowers that she could plant in her own garden. There weren't many she didn't have, but she wanted all of them.

Fleur quickly finished the book over flowers, and decided she wanted to put it back. She got up and started trotting back to the flower section, but as she was trotting, she tripped over a stallion's overly long tail and fell on her face. The book flew out of her mouth and fell on top of her head, which didn't seem possible, but it happened. She shook her head, thinking wow, thats just my luck for everyone. Always falling on my face. She turned to the owner of the tail to apologize, but looking up, she noticed that he seemed deep in thought. She decided she would move along.

[zap4th]

trik woke up and tried teleporting over to the kitchen, but for somehow he miscalculated and ended up in the wall. "crap, this hasn't happened in a while." he said to himself, remembering when he was younger and he teleported into the wall of his old house. thankfully he lived in a house made half of cloud and the kitchen was one of those, meaning it was a simple case of walking through the wall. "maybe the library has something about why my teleportation is on the fritz" he said, thinking out loud. teleporting out onto the street, as his place had no doors to the outside. he wound up in the mud, slipping on the mud and tripping a few people. "sorry." he said. walking to the library. when he made it there he teleported over to the front desk, bumping his knee. "ow!" he said he then looked at the librarian. "do you know where any books on teleportation are?" he asked her. "down there" she said, pointing toward a place that had a pair of ponies, a unicorn and a pegasus, sitting at a table. "thanks" he said to her.(I pmed rapid and he said I could join)

[Rapid Quill]

Rapid Quill paid the grey pegasus no heed for in truth he did not even notice him sitting there across the table with his own pile of books, studying. As far as Rapid Quill was concerned he was sitting there at the table all alone for he was too preoccupied with trying to find a cure to his little curse problem to really notice anypony else in the library. As the journalist obsessively skimmed through the pages, he rather unconsciously began leaning back and forth in his chair.

At some point during his obsessive search, he leaned a little too far back in his chair and fell over backwards landing on the carpeted floor below with a soft thud. The poor blue unicorn just yelled out in pain as he rubbed his now sore neck. "Oh fudge cakes! Why in Equestria does stuff like this keep happening to me?" Rapid complained aloud as he struggled to get back on all four of his hooves.

Unfortunately, his bad luck streak did not end there. As it turned out, some nearby ponies witnessed the spectacle. One of which was a know it all light blue unicorn who annoyingly enough had a four leafed clover for a cutie mark. "Oh dear me, I saw you fall. Are you quite alright? Are you hurt? Are you..." She then let out a startled gasp upon recognizing Rapid. "Oh Rapid Quill what are you doing out of your house today? Do you not know what day it is? It's Friday the 13th," she reminded him in a hushed whisper acting as though he didn't already know. Oh he knew alright and boy did he ever wish that he didn't. Oh if only he hadn't forced the truth of today's date out of Free Thinker. But no, he had to be a smarty pants by making a real mess of things until Free Thinker finally gave in and told the truth. Well technically, Free Thinker didn't say anything, but thanks to a series of events, Rapid did manage to sneak a peek at today's date. Still, maybe Free Thinker was right in keeping the day's date from him. Maybe just maybe he would have been better off not knowing. But no, even if Free Thinker had somehow succeeded in keeping Rapid in the dark about today, he would have found out the truth eventually from somepony else like from the unicorn talking to him now. Plus he wouldn't be nearly as motivated about wanting to find a cure for his apparent curse.

Grumbling, Rapid just glared at the light blue unicorn. "Don't remind me Lucky Day," he just groaned with an irritated sigh. "Of course I know what day it is! I mean, how could I not? But as you probably remember, Free Thinker being a realist obsessed with science doesn't believe in curses and bad luck, and as such insists that the idea that I've been cursed since a colt, is just in my head even though my bad luck practically trashed our house earlier this morning. I offered to help clean up, but he insisted that I stay out of the house for the rest of the day to seize the day or whatever," Rapid calmly explained to Lucky Day who just sort of smiled and nodded. "Oh I see... Yeah, your friend is definitely in denial. And your bad luck already trashed your house, you say? Oh dear me, your bad luck is not just a series of unfortunate coincidences and the sooner your friend finally accepts this, the better. Now then if you'll kindly excuse me Rapid Quill, I really must be going. Not that it isn't nice seeing you again, but I do have a lot of work to do and well, bye," Lucky Day concluded as she began walking slowly away from Rapid while wearing a fake pleasant smile on her face. Once she felt she was far enough away from the cursed blue unicorn, she turned and ran real fast out of the library while shouting, "everypony, it's the town jinx! Run for your lives!" Naturally at this rather unsavory announcement, ponies began scrambling among themselves before following Lucky Day out the door.

Watching the chaos, Rapid felt nothing but, confusion, annoyance, anger, and sadness. There was no reason for Lucky Day to make such an announcement, so why did she? It was stupid and pointless. Feeling like an outcast, Rapid with a lowered head let out a depressed sigh. Turning his attention back to his rather messy pile of books, the blue unicorn finally noticed the pegasus sitting across from him. Rapid wondered why he had not ran off in horror after hearing Lucky Day's warning like everypony else. Rapid's pointed ears flattened to the sides. "Why are you still sitting here? Didn't you hear? I'm a jinx! Cursed! So you might as well leave now before it is too late and my bad luck does something terrible to you," Rapid informed him rather bitterly while using his left hoof to quickly wipe his eyes dry. "And I'm terribly sorry for not realizing you were there sooner. I can sit elsewhere if you want me to. I'll totally understand if you don't want to be around somepony like me. Heck, even I don't want to be near me right now," Rapid added with a depressed sigh as he looked sadly at his disorganized pile of books.

Using his red unicorn magic, he lifted them up very carefully one at a time in an attempt to get more organized. He began to form three different piles on his side of the desk. The lone book sitting in front of him was the book he was currently reading through while the books on the left were the ones he was going to read next. Lastly, the book pile to the right of him were the ones he had already finished. Since he was a fairly fast reader he hoped this cure finding wouldn't take too much longer. Then again there really was no point in him hurrying. He still couldn't return home yet and the world outside the library was super unsafe and just full of hazards and unlucky things like black cats and ponies walking under ladders.


ooc: Yep, I let Zap join since he asked so nicely. Also I hope nothing Rapid says or does offends anyone. This is just how he is. He's totally in character here. Same goes for all the threads he's in.

[Deleted]

The first unique thing to happen to Cloud Drop was someone tripping over his long and abundantly soft tail, no surprise, all thing considered. He turned his head to the poor Fleur, starting his apology "oh, So-" before a loud thump quickly interrupted him, from the other side of the table. With some effort he looked over the table, noticing the other pony had fallen over backwards, Hitting his head nastily. 'wow. that looks like it smarts...' Cloud Drop silently thought to himself. "Oh you alright?" he asked, but Lucky Day had done so at the same time, and had caught his attention more. Not that Cloud Drop terribly minded.

As she continued with what he was sure was comforting the blue unicorn, he turned his head back to where the, admittedly, elegant looking white and purple Pegasus was. "I'm sorry, you alright? Did-" he noticed here that she had already started moving along, and was no longer behind him. Likely to avoid the situation with Rapid Quill and Lucky Day, which was getting notably more.. Sour, sarcastic and some might even say heated. Cloud Drop's eyes passed over Trik Port.. But chose to ignore him and feel a little more sour instead of actually acknowledging his existence. He turned back to Rapid Quill, to see Lucky day walking away. And before long, she started yelling and rousing up some ponies and making them leave. Chaos Ensued, but Cloud Drop didn't feel the need to be riled up, he simply sighed deeply and rubbed a hoof over one eye. "never a dull day in ponyville..." he said, with a heavy tone of annoyance.

He grabbed for his quill again, But Rapid, in a rather stressed tone, informed the pegasus he was a Jinx of sorts. a source of baaaad luck, and all that jazz. "Quite frankly.. I don't care, and what that mare did was more befitting of a bully than a thinking pony. And you seem to be working hard on books about.." he gazed over the other side of the table, and read a few of the titles as rapid attempted to organize his large heap of books, into three nice little piles. "..Curses. Trying to solve the issue, i take it?" Cloud Drop said, rubbing his chin with a hoof and thinking about it. In his continuing conscious ignorance of certain things, he also ignored Rapid Quill's comment on sitting elsewhere, for honestly, he wasn't worried about it all. As many a pony would, he did not realize the naivete concerning how bad this bad luck was. His eyes closed momentarily, in quick deep thought, his lips moving in a silent mumble. before he spoke, his eyes once more opened up, the amber eyes looking at Rapid Quill. "So, who cast this curse on you?" he said, suddenly asking that question as if it was normal. For him, as a matter of fact, it was normal, since he had a rather different view on curses. He didn't believe they did not exist, but he believed they were simply a different kind of spell a unicorn could cast. One that lasted unnaturally long. "Speaking of, why did somepony cast a curse like that on you?" He asked, perplexed at what kind of unicorn would want to do such a thing. He could level with Rapid Quill, to a certain degree, after all, Rapid Quill was working hard and doing his best to solve the problem, and Cloud Drop always respected a pony who worked hard. Not too mention, he's been in his own... comparable situation, although to him, the cause of the misfortune was a lot clearer.

[Rapid Quill]

ooc: Apologies for the long wait and also I hope it did not get too dark. I tried to keep it toned down.


bic: Rapid nodded in reply at the concerned sounding pegasus. "As a matter of a fact, I am trying to find a way to solve this. But to be perfectly honest if there was a way, I would have discovered it by now. I've been cursed for years now, ever since I was a little colt and it's not as if this is my first time trying to find a cure. Oh, I'm afraid it's hopeless," he replied sadly with a depressed sigh. "Lucky Day and the others were right to run and hide from me since my own bad luck seems to rub off onto other ponies. Remember how that white and purple pegasus tripped over your tail just like ten minutes ago or how that unicorn that just now entered the library teleported himself right into the front desk? Didn't think I noticed, did you? But I did! And it's all my fault they tripped and whatnot! My bad luck is already rubbing off onto them! You should probably take Lucky Day's advice and go before it is too late," he rather bitterly pointed out in an obsessed tone.

"Oh, I'm a mess," he admitted in self-realization. He was just about to lean himself back in the chair when he remembered what happened not ten minutes ago. So with a low groan he lowered his head onto the table and banged the table in frustration with his right fore hoof causing the books on the table to bounce.

Still even among all his grumblings he was able to make out the inquiries asked of him by the concerned pegasus. Unfortunately, this was a very sensitive issue for him and the curious pegasus' questions caused the blue unicorn to flashback. Rapid didn't blame the pegasus for his questions. After all, even though they most certainly lived in a magical place, cursing others was still not a very normal thing to do nor a thing most wanted to do to one another. So, the pegasus' questions were indeed valid. Just, Rapid really wished they didn't come with such...uncomfortable memories.

Rapid remembered it like it were yesterday. He was just a little colt, around eight years old at the time and he had been invited to a friend's sleepover. They did the usual stuff that colts their age did. They played, stayed up late telling each other scary stories, and reading their favorite comics. In total there were five of them and even to this day, Rapid could recall all of his old colthood friends names: icy chill, an easy going unicorn who specialized in ice based magic, high score, a hyper competitive earth pony videogamer, maze runner, an earth pony who could run mazes like no tomorrow, and cloud smasher, a rambunctious pegasus that really loved to smash things, clouds in particular. None of them had their cutie marks at the time, so like the CMC they sort of formed a club to find what it is they are best at and enjoy doing.

That night they decided to try their hooves at getting a cutie mark in the paranormal, a huge mistake. Even back then, Rapid wasn't particularly keen on the idea of summoning ghosts. Not because he was afraid, but because he was a huge cynic. Back then, Rapid didn't believe in the supernatural. He saw it all as childish hogwash and as complete works of fiction designed to scare little foals into doing what they're told. In fact, he often teased those hardcore believers, but apparently his friends either didn't get the memo or just didn't care since they invited him to sleepover anyway. course they conveniently left out the bits that they were going to summon ghosts in the middle of the night. Probably because they knew if they had mentioned that part, Rapid wouldn't have agreed to come over. He just thought they were going to do normal hanging out stuff. It started out that way at least. But things quickly took a drastic turn when it was time for everypony to go to bed. As soon as High Score's parents went to bed, Rapid's friends apparently saw this as the perfect opportunity to summon up some ghosts. Why, they couldn't wait until morning to visit a graveyard to do whatever, Rapid had no idea. But suffice to say things got a whole lot weirder especially when his friends tried to get him involved when all he wanted to do was read his comic book. His friends started off by reading from a creepy library book that Rapid had no idea they even had. Normally he would hate being left out of the loop, but in this instance he just didn't care all that much and was in fact glad that he hadn't even seen the cursed thing until now. The next thing they did was light a bunch of candles and incense. His friends asked him to help, but Rapid politely declined and returned to his comic book for he wanted nothing to do with the vile looking ghost summoning book his friends had in their possession.

After that was finished, they drew a summonings circle and sat around it and chanted. When nothing happened after a few minutes of chanting, they read on ahead and saw they were supposed to send a brave soul to do the chant all by themselves in the dark in front of a mirror. Upon overhearing that little revelation, Rapid just sort of snickered as he kept his head glued to his comic book. Trying to sound all innocent, Rapid acted as though his snickering was just him coughing. "Sorry. Allergies. Yet another good reason why I shouldn't be part of your little ghost hunting escapade," young Rapid said with a sneer. Looking back on it, this was definitely one of Rapid's biggest mistakes for his friends did not fall for his little act. Not in the least. Perhaps if he were more supportive and a little kinder they wouldn't have picked him for the task. Rapid felt certain that they would choose Icy Chill or High Score for the task, so when all of his friends volunteered him he was pretty surprised and not to mention just a little bit suspicious. "Uh some reason why you guys picked me? I don't even believe in this stuff," admitted the young Rapid Quill with a bored yawn. Apparently, this was enough to offend one of his friends. Cloud Smasher jumped up on his hind legs. "Stuff!? Stuff!? I'll have you know this...stuff is serious business you know," Cloud Smasher snapped. Luckily Icy Chill stepped in between them before things intensified further. "Cool it you two. I don't want this getting out of hoof. 'sides, we've already been over this. We need Rapid to uh take notes. Remember? Cause he's the best writer of our little group," Icy Chill reminded in a stern voice. That seemed good enough to calm the high spirited pegasus down. "Oh riiiight. Yeah, when you're right you're right. Am I right?" Cloud Smasher sheepishly agreed earning a hoof palm from Icy Chill. Rapid, meanwhile, just eyed the two suspiciously as though trying to get them to admit doing something not so honest. The pegasus sweated under the pressure while the unicorn did nothing. After looking at both friends, young Rapid finally settled his sights on Icy Chill. "Um while I appreciate the compliment, what's so special about being a great writer anyway? I mean anypony can take notes even you guys," young Rapid retorted staring suspiciously at his group of friends, all of whom were colts. Unfortunately for Rapid's friends, Cloud Smasher lacked patience and perhaps more importantly, tact. "Oh come on, I can't take it anymore! Look Rapid, we need you because the truth is you're a cynic and the book clearly states that only a cynic can perform the mirror chant. But then again I am not so sure if you really are a cynic or not. No, I think you're chicken and that is the real reason you don't want to help us," admitted Cloud Smasher in a teasing manner. He made chicken sounds at a now flustered Rapid. The little blue unicorn glared daggers at the impudent pegasus. "I am not chicken and I am not afraid of anything! I am especially not scared of things that aren't even real! Seriously, have any of you have any sort of hard, concrete evidence of spirits existing? Face it guys, if ghosts were real then we'd have proof of their existence by now," the young, cynical Rapid pointed out amidst all of Cloud Smasher's obnoxious chicken noises. "Ha! I knew you were too chicken to do it. Looks, like we'll just have to pick someone else to give it a go you guys. And by someone else, I mean me," Cloud Smasher continued to tease. The others exchanged worried looks. "You sure about this, Cloud Smasher?" asked Icy Chill. "Yeah, no offense, but this doesn't really seem to be your thing," High Score interjected. Cloud Smasher nodded. "Yeah, I'm sure. Unless one of you have a better idea," the pegasus confidently stated. "Okay, I get it already! I'll do it! I'll do it to prove to all of you once and for all how silly you are all being and more importantly to prove that I was right all along, that ghosts aren't real," the young Rapid declared full of confidence. Naturally the obnoxious pegasus teased him for it only for the others to tell him to leave Rapid alone.

They then led Rapid to the downstairs bathroom and told him what to say and how to say it. Rapid was shocked to learn that the ghost they wanted him to summon up was none other than The Beldam, the taker of foals herself. According to legend, the Beldam is a beautiful, but evil spirit of a mare that steals the souls of unhappy foals, but it was just a story to scare foals into being content with what they have and to scare them from running away from home. She would lure them in with fake promises and with things that they like. But because young Rapid thought it was just a story, he didn't believe in any of it! But boy was he ever wrong! Still, Rapid found it both odd and disturbing that his friends who were believers wanted to summon up such a deceitful spirit in the first place. When questioned, his friends assured him that she wasn't the spirit they wanted persay, that any spirit had the potential to appear following the mirror chant and they were excited to see which one it would be. Although, Rapid failed to see any sense in their reasoning he had already promised them he'd do it and it wasn't like he believed in ghosts anyway, so he didn't really see any risk. Plus, he wanted to see the look on Cloud Smasher's face when he proves them all wrong!

Rapid remembered entering the downstairs bathroom alone...in the dark and locking himself in; which was part of the ritual. His friends gave him a couple of candles and incense to light up that he placed around the sink. Taking a deep breath he looked himself in the mirror and calmly said The Beldam's name three times in the same tone his friends told him to. Big mistake! For the first few moments nothing happened and Rapid just sort of smirked at the mirror and was just about to leave to let his friends know how right he was and how wrong they all were when the lights began blinking on and off. Initially Rapid believed his friends were messing with him. He opened his mouth to call them out on their game when his own curiosity stopped him. Then something that actually was unsettling occurred. The lights all at once stopped blinking while a beautiful ghostly mare stepped through the mirror wearing a smile. It wasn't a nice smile. And although she was beautiful, she was also scary. Stunned, Rapid's mouth dropped. He couldn't believe his eyes! The Beldam looked exactly how the book described her. Still, the blue unicorn wondered if this was some kind of prank set up by his friends to get him back for his cynicism. Even so, Rapid backed himself into a wall as The Beldam drew nearer. The look on her face said it all. She was not at all happy about being summoned and by a non-believer no less. "Who dares disturb my slumber? You know the penalty for..." the ghostly mare's booming voice echoed off the walls. She only stopped upon seeing a terrified blue unicorn colt shaking in fear and in confusion up against the back wall. Rapid remembered things getting even stranger and more frightening from there. Long story short she left him with a curse and a warning: that only he will be able to see her. That is to say his family and friends cannot see her, but he can. She then left as quickly as she arrived.

However, his friends claimed he was in there for an awfully long time and when they found him he was in a state of shock, pale-faced and staring blankly at the mirror muttering incoherently about lights. Upon being snapped out of it, Rapid lied about what happened. He claimed he saw no ghost and that he must have dozed off with his eyes open. Even though they remained skeptical, Rapid's friends let it go since none of them got a cutie mark for the summoning of spirits anyway. So, it was back to the ole drawing board for the five friends. Rapid suggested they try to get their cutie marks in racing and so the gang prepared for the upcoming Running of the Leaves.

In truth, Rapid wasn't even sure if the ghost he saw was real or just his imagination running while. In fact, it took Rapid a couple of more years before he started to believe he had indeed been cursed by The Beldam and along with that he became a fierce believer of bad luck. When he tried to tell his friends that he may have seen The Beldam and that she cursed him, they didn't really believe him and just thought he was saying that for attention; which Rapid could not believe! Why in Equestria would he make something up like that? Really, if he wanted attention he would have shown off his unicorn magic. And of course proving it proved nearly impossible since The Beldam didn't allow others in Rapid's life to see her and still years later he felt just as stuck with no way out.

He wasn't sure what to do. Maybe just maybe this pegasus could help him out. Pegasus? That was about when his rather lengthy flashback ended. The blue unicorn could only imagine how crazy he must have looked just staring blankly into space for several long moments. He was only snapped out of his flashback from the sounds of other ponies tripping over themselves. Letting out a depressed groan, Rapid once again hit the table with his right forehoof. "All those poor ponies must have caught my bad luck," he moaned with a shake of his head. Lifting up his head some he looked at the pegasus sitting across from him. "Who cursed me, you ask and why? I uh I know who cursed me and it isn't good," he admitted in a hushed whisper. Before continuing he first looked around to make sure nopony was listening and then he gestured for Cloud Drop to get closer. When he did so he whispered into his ear, "a living pony did not curse me. It was an evil spirit known as The Beldam, the taker of foals that did it." He then casually sat back in his chair. "And I guess she did it because I was a stupid colt that played a stupid game with his friends because they egged me on and she didn't like being awakened from her sleep. There. I admit it. I was dumb and gave into peer pressure. Oh and I was too proud to admit to seeing her until years later. But of course by then it was too late and nopony believe me when I told them. They claimed I was just saying that for attention or something; which is just ridiculous! But hey, that's my old colthood friends for you," admitted Rapid in a calm, unsettling tone.

His yellow eyes then settled onto the pegasus' own books. "And I see from your choice of books that you are trying your hooves at the weather academy. Good luck! I hear it's tough!" observed Rapid clearly trying to change the subject before the pegasus could respond. "Oh, what's it like to fly? To be able to go wherever you want whenever you want without having to wait for a taxi? It sounds so...so amazing!" Embarrassed by his outburst, Rapid glanced away. "Forgive me. I must sound so silly to you. In truth though, I've thought about flying often. Just looks like a lot of fun to me! And those clouds look awfully soft! Wish I could feel them," he said wistfully with a sigh. "Name's Rapid Quill by the way. What's yours?" Rapid at last formally introduced offering the pegasus his hoof to shake.

[Deleted]

As rapid zoned out, Cloud Drop could only lift an eyebrow. he tried waving his hoof in front of rapid a few times, but it was obviously no avail. Rapid's episode of whatever it was, lasted quite long, enough to make Cloud Drop somewhat concerned. Should he alert a medical pony? he found it all very odd, especially since Rapid was so visually irritated just a few seconds back. Before he could really finish his thought, Rapid came back to reality. He swore and insisted his misfortune was contagious. By now, Cloud drop was already half-continuing his own studies, not about to waste his time here merely because rapid quill was spacing out. Aside from him accidentally closing a book which his wing was still between, nothing had gone all too wrong. Folding the wing to his face and softly blowing on it, he looked to Rapid as the most surprising information was dropped. Rapid insisted he knew who cursed him, which made Cloud Drop stop blowing and fully focus on Rapid himself.

Rapid beckoned him closer and whispered the name a ghost in Cloud Drop's ear. Cloud Drop didn't believe it. Just like anypony else, and Rapid went on to tell how exactly he got pestered into summoning a spirit. However, Cloud Drop's reply was simple. "what." he said, in utter disbelief. Rapid just continued on and ranted on his colthood friends. Although it seemed Cloud Drop was no better a pony. Cloud Drop couldn't even continue on the subject before Rapid hastily and succesfully switched it, wishing him luck... Cloud Drop supposed that was the politest thing he could do... before his expression went sour at the mention of flight, and speaking of it's greatness. Cloud drop didn't even let Rapid finish completely. "Yes. Flying is absolutely fantastic." he said in a dry, sour voice, not looking Rapid in the eye. He had secrets, secrets he wasn't about to tell rapid. Little did he realize how fortunate he was to not tell those. Rapid extended his hoof and introduced himself after happily quabbling on about flying. Cloud Drop could only reply with the first thing that came to mind. "Yeah, those clouds are very soft, and much easier to enjoy without somepony babbling nonsense and foals' horror stories next to you." he said, Packing his books and placing the others back. Without any words other than that, he left, utterly disinterested in Rapid Quill for now and for the rest of the foreseeable future, although it was completely without reason. Cloud Drop sought no eye contact anymore, not with Rapid, definitely not with Trik port and with nopony else either. he wordlessly left and made his way home, to study in the lovely confines of isolation, where nopony would accidentally remind him of his own shortcomings.

[Rapid Quill]

ooc: Sadly this thread died faster than I thought and so after discussing it with Fantasy the thread ends with my final post. Good news is we will be continuing it in a sense in a private board for anybody interested in reading it.


bic: Initially, Rapid Quill was totally oblivious to the fact that he had offended the long tailed pegasus. In fact, it was not until Cloud Drop began to pack up and leave that it finally donned on him that he may have said the wrong thing. Wracked with guilt, Rapid slid out of his chair and began to follow the pegasus. He hoped, prayed that he could somehow convince the other to stay and to accept his apology. "Oh sir, wait! Please. I didn't quite catch your name, but it is obvious to me from the way you packed up and are leaving in a hurry that I offended you. I now realize that I shouldn't have went on so much about the Beldam, clouds, and flying and I apologize. You must surely think me insane, selfish, and silly for going on like that. As well as maybe some other things. But maybe if you come back we could start over and talk about things we both like?" Rapid apologized and pleaded. But it was of no use for Rapid Quill's sincere apology and pleas apparently fell on deaf ears due to the short, long-tailed pegasus not even stopping to hear Rapid out.

Unsure of what else to do and feeling desperate, Rapid Quill leaped after the exiting pegasus and grabbed ahold of his back legs. Immediately, he was forced to hang on tight as Cloud Drop dragged him towards the library's front doors. "Please don't go! I'm sorry! So very sorry for the awful, terrible things I said that upset you so! But please, please I beg of you to stay here with me and not leave! Please, you gotta believe me when I say that I am not usually this needy and desperate! It's just today...today I...I need...help to get through today and some support would be nice. Even if you don't believe in ghosts, I just need someone to help me get through the day in one piece otherwise I'll probably go insane! Normally, I'd just ask my best friend for help, but sadly he can't today. He's in the middle of a meeting, so um...could you please?" Rapid further pleaded and begged with the hopes that his little speech would be enough to convince the pegasus to remain in the library with him as emotional support. He currently didn't even care how bad and weak this made him look to any outsiders that may be watching. For the moment he had only two things in mind. One, to find a cure for his curse and the second, to get through the rest of the day unscathed.

Sadly all his attempts to persuade the grumpy pegasus to stay and keep him company had all been in vain for Cloud Drop managed to shake the desperate Rapid Quill off his back leg as though he were merely an annoying flea, before rushing out of the library leaving the blue unicorn all alone with only his thoughts for company. All Rapid could do was watch helplessly from the library's front steps as Cloud Drop hurried away. For several long moments the small blue unicorn sat on his haunches looking sad with his ears folded back and head lowered. 'Oh shoot! So much for making a new friend! You just had to scare him away with all of your selfish whining, didn't you?' Rapid mentally scolded himself as he watched Cloud Drop flee down the streets. Not saying another word and feeling dejected, Rapid slowly stood back to his hooves and with his head still lowered he made his way back into the safety of the public library. Already his mind buzzed on what to do next. Plans were most certainly forming in his mind, just not all of them were very er good or legitimate. Some were in fact, downright nasty and plain evil. But Rapid failed to see his ideas as evil and just viewed them all as necessary. At this point he really felt as though he had no other choice in the matter, but to go forth with this plan. If he couldn't find a cure then he would find a way to become more powerful than the ghost. Perhaps then he would be strong enough to defeat it and get it to leave him alone.

After going down the rows of books he happened across just the book he was searching for. The book said it had spells to help the user defend themselves against bad things; which to Rapid seemed like a good idea. However, what Rapid didn't realize was there was more to this particular book than meets the eye. The book wasn't even supposed to be in there. It was meant to be in the restricted dark magic section at Celestia and Luna's castle, but was somehow brought over to Ponyville's public library by mistake. That or someone stole it and purposely stuck it in the library for somepony to find, somepony desperate like Rapid. Using his red unicorn magic, Rapid brought the book with him over to a table located in the far back of the library. Taking a deep breath, Rapid plopped down in one of the chairs and opening up the book he began to read. 'Let's see, there's gotta be something in here about ghosts and escaping curses...' he thought to himself unaware that the more of the book he reads, the more it will affect him. Rapid had no idea that this book was full of dark magic.