Exorcism, Inc.

by PegasYs

Intro: Rude Awakening

“Hello?”

Ermm…

“Hey, Reel! Wakey wakey, sleepy head!”

Ugh, what is that unbearable sound invading my ears…

I quirked my ears and shut my eyes tighter. The obtrusive intrusion seems to have stopped. Ah, silence…

Whomp!

I jerked my head from the wooden paneling that my head had been resting on for Celestia knows how long. My blurry vision was filled with stacks and stacks of scrolls and parchment, all thrown about in disarray on my desk. I groaned, my head swimming and beyond groggy from my short snooze. I rubbed my eyes and looked once more at the workload before me, but instead found a white face staring up at me with a huge obnoxious grin. My feminine friend was lying on top of my desk, her hue-less horn nearly skewering my jaw.

“Y’know, you’ve been getting worse and worse about this sort of thing; you used to get on my case all the time about my sleeping habits, and then I catch you passed out on your desk?" She clucked her tongue and shook her head. "And look at the problems you’ve caused yourself!” She retreated from her position on top of my work station and made a big display of pointing out the huge mess, waving her hooves around in front of her in a 'why did you let it get this bad' sort of fashion. It was then that I gathered that the piles of paperwork were the source of my very rude awakening.

“And look who’s talking, little miss Never-Gets-Anything-Done-Ever. I might as well call you an intern, but I don’t even think you deserve that title. You won’t even grab me coffee when I ask you to,” I said with a slight smirk. She just sighed and rolled her eyes. I piled the mess into a neater stack on the edge of the desk surface. She took a seat on the cushion in front of me—the one that was usually reserved for clients—and began looking around my admittedly blank office with a characteristic, but slightly misplaced, fervor.

“You really need to open a window in here and let some light in. We spend too much time indoors, and I’m starting to think the lack of sun you are getting is a little unhealthy,” she said matter-of-factly before pulling back one of the blinds of my window with her magic. The light filled my vision, causing my sleepy head to spin slightly with the change. I groaned aloud and thumped my head against the desk once more.

“Wicker, I know you’re looking out for me and all, but I was having a really great dream until you showed up,” I said into the wooden surface. “And as for the work, I can get this done whenever, it’s not like we get many jobs anyways.” I paused. “I suppose that’s a good thing, but still... you know what I mean.”

“Well, you may want to get that stuff done soon.” I perked up my ears once more. “We received a letter a couple of hours ago from a family in Baltimare.” I looked up to see a completely new mare standing in front of me. Wicker’s face had gone from her usual expression of jocularity to that of almost austere character. She closed the shades on the window shut, staring at me with a very hard gaze that I knew not to mess with.

“I’m listening.”

She paused for a good moment, staring at the floor off to the side. “I went ahead and scheduled a meeting with them tomorrow. Their train should be arriving in Canterlot around noon. They explained the whole situation in the letter, and it’s not a pretty one.”

I rose up a hoof to silence her. “I’ll wait for them to show up to hear the details. You know it’s easier for me to discern the situation from those directly involved.” Wicker nodded and gave a reassuring smile.

“I will tell you one thing: it was a foal this time. She wasn’t too young, but she was still considerably younger than you and I. We should plan accordingly.”

I applied pressure to my temples with the news and sighed. Wicker sat down and gazed at my still trashed writing table. She opened the window once more and smiled.

“I would say get some rest, but I don’t think that’s gonna be a problem,” she said with a small chuckle and a shuffle of her hooves. I remained silent and closed my eyes; I appreciated her effort, but this was the sort of news that I didn’t take very well. I unrolled the nearest scroll and began reading.

“Thanks, Wick. I’ll be ready for the meeting tomorrow. You should take the rest of the day off, get some rest. Celestia knows you need it...” I said it with no sort of tone or any hint of jest. She turned to leave, shrouding my room in darkness once more with her horn. In an instant, all the candles in the room were lit by the same stark white envelope that closed my shades.

“I’ll be in my office if you need me.” She trotted out, closing the heavy wooden door shut behind her.