The Curse Named Desire

by Cookietheif

The Gypsy's Deal

Desire leads us to either great achievements, or great despair. It’s what drives us to try to do great things that benefits us all, or forces us to do devilish deeds that gain nothing in the end. We all must decide wisely when desire comes knocking on our door. Could what you desire most be worth the pain and hardships it might have in store for you? I know mine wasn't...

Uh... Sorry, I haven’t introduced myself yet... My name is Lost Beat. Great name, right? Well it’s the perfect name when you’re a grey earth pony with a dirty blonde mane that listens to music almost all day and night, lost in the world your dark mind built to escape reality with the help of music... My cutie mark is even a planet inside black headphones.

This story begins at my last year in school. I'm 18 and throughout my life I only had a total of two ponies I could consider being real friends. A blue unicorn colt with glasses named Cool Stream and a red pegasus mare with mass power named Blazing Sky. They are the only friends that stayed loyal to me throughout my rough years of bullies and personal tragedies...

"Ok class, today I have a special surprise for you all... I called it a... Pop quiz!"

The entire class groaned as our math teacher began drawing out today's equation. All, except for me. I was in the back of the class, staring into my own world with my headphones on, like every other day. The teacher took notice, not surprised but getting tired of this daily routine, so he yanked off my headphones and the classroom was filled with wubs, nearly shaking my desk with the power of its bass.

"You're going to go deaf if you keep blasting this filth into your ears!" He said, as he also nabbed my music player and shut it off. "You can get these back if you can solve for X in 10 seconds..." He pointed at the chalkboard, feeling confident as if the equation would literally make my head explode.

It was 2 equations, both with 2 variables, so I had to find Y in order to find X... Childs play.

"Well... Y equals 6 so X will equal 3... Thaaank you!" I put my headphones back in their rightful place, and the wubs resumed making my head rock in their rhythm. The entire class stared at me as if I became an Alicorn right then and there, but my friends near me just tried their best not to burst out laughing. This is the third time this week I won the teacher's "challenge."

The teacher on the other hoof wasn't so impressed... he sighed and spoke as he walked towards the front of the class, it was lecture time. "Lost Beat is just an example of a pony that is wasting his talent... he does nothing but wander Celestia knows where in his head when he can make something of himself! Whatever you do, please don't end up acting like him. Now take out your textbooks and let’s review chapter 6."

I felt a nudge on my sides, both Stream and Sky shoved notes onto my desk and I laughed silently to myself. "That was awesome!!!" Was the mare's note. "Even though it was funny to see. He is right about you wasting your knowledge. Why can't you just do what he says every now and then?" That note was of course from my other friend. I didn't answer them, just glance at them with a small, amused smile. How can great friends think so differently?

After school I began walking home, silent and my focus just on the ground before me, listening to some of Vinyl's latest songs. Whenever I looked up I felt like every pony's eyes were burning into my pelt, judging every inch of my being. So on my trip home the road was my third friend every day... until I walked right into a sign. "Ow! Who put that there?!" I demanded, rubbing my head. It also knocked off my headphones and unplugged it from the music player.

It was a sign for fortune telling, but not for Pinkie's part time tent. "I believe the gypsy that owns the sign put it there." I turned to see who spoke, and when I did I entered a critical shyness overload. Before my eyes was a beautiful indigo unicorn mare with a lovely smile and a long, black mane that flow elegantly in the wind... Her cutie mark was a crystal ball, swirled in a white mist.

If her enchanting looks wasn't screaming the answer already, her gypsy clothing told me that the sign was hers.

"My name is Crystal Clear... for when I see your future through my crystal ball, all of your answers will be clear. What is your name? Would it happen to me Sign Bumper?" She said with an amused giggle. The way she looked at me... It was like putting me under a spell, and I wasn't planning on stopping it from being casted upon me.

Before I could give an answer something dragged me out of her invisible grip. Cool Stream and Blazing Sky had me by the shoulders and was dashing me off towards a little cafe that we would hang out some days after school, but before they took me out of her sight she said something that destroyed my world with questions. "I'll be seeing you soon, envious Lost Beat..."

"Are you crazy?! Do you want her to steal your soul or something?!" My pegasus friend was making the biggest scene the cafe has ever witnessed since a waiter accidentally poured hot coffee on her; let’s say nopony took the new waiter position... She had me pinned to the wall and shook me until the entire place was spinning. "Easy Sky, how can he hear the rumors when the sound of an explosion wouldn't even reach his ears?" Stream, the savior, came back with coffee and doughnuts and got us a table near a window.

After a sip or 2 of my extra sweetened espresso I decided to ask what the hell was Blazing Sky screaming about. I was bracing myself for over exaggerated tales but thankfully the cool headed unicorn chose to answer for her. "There has been rumors that gypsy has the power to grant a pony's desire, but at the price of the pony's mind, body, and possibly soul. In other words being her servant until the end of your life."

"Worth it." I thought aloud. It equaled both of them to hit my shoulders, hard.

"No way! You got to stay away from her!" The table got oddly silent after they just did and said the exact same thing. They've never been so in sync before! I had to break the silence with laughter as the two stared at each other but I got what I deserved for it, another pair of hits in the shoulders. "Ow! Sorry, sorry!"

After a while of going off topic from the whole gypsy slave owner rumor and a few more cups of coffee, we went our separate ways to our homes. It was already dark when I got inside, but I couldn't find the will to get some sleep. First of all the gypsy was still fresh in my mind...

How did she know my name? I never had the chance to say it... and I couldn't sleep knowing I left my super bass headphones back there with her! What my friends don't know won't hurt them, right? Plus I just needed to listen to their most important piece of advice they told me before they left... "Think with the head on your shoulders, not between your legs!"

To my surprise her tent was still light and the sign said she was open. I wanted to go in, but the thought of seeing her beauty again made me weak in the knees... "Just go in, get some answers and the headphones, and get out!" I repeated silently as I finally walked inside the gypsy tent. The smell of incense filled my nostrils and the sound of Crystal's sweet voice filled the air. She was singing at her table him.

"Got a secret, can you keep it? Well this one you'll save. Better lock it, in your pocket, taking this one to the grave..." She sat before me, her eyes piercing through my body and into my very soul. "I've been waiting for you, Lost Beat." She laid out a set of tarot cards down before her, humming the rest of the song to herself. My voice was lost, and my body sat on its own. "Pick 3 cards, if you may."

I stared at her, wanting to ask the questions buzzing about in my mind. Instead I decided to put them aside for now and do as she asks, picking three cards that seemed to call my name and put them in a neat row... She flipped the one on my left and revealed a drawing of a shadowy figure of a mare, tears forming an ocean around her. The card made the feeling of pure sorrow pierce my heart.

"Misery..." Her voice was quiet, almost just a whisper that glided into my ears. "You are completely filled with it. You're life isn’t so bad but you can't find happiness..." The card was an echo of my feelings, and she put it into words... Before I knew it the middle card was revealed.

A green colt wore so many masks in this once. Many fake cutie marks covered his flanks so his identity was forever hidden... "Envy... You do not wish to be you; something about yourself makes you want to run away from reality... This is way you are Lost Beat. Because you are lost, trying to find a new face, and using music to drown out truth that this is who you are... You are so jealous of your friends for the ability of using magic or flying, while you are stuck with nothing as special as that... Am I correct?"

I wanted to leave, forget what the last card is, forget my headphones, and forget how she knows my deepest secrets. I felt like a diary that was opened by somepony else and everything inside me was being read... I tried to get up but a force kept me in my seat, shaking, blinking back tears, and made me stay in reality. Then the final card was shown. It was blank.

"The deal..."

She levitated her crystal ball onto the table after taking back her cards. The inside of her precious orb was clouded and nothing could be seen, until she rested her hooves on it and it glowed brilliantly. The light banished the fog and a feeling of peace finally entered my body... "I can grant you your deepest desire. You can be somepony else, a pony that does not have the need to hide from the world, and have the ability to make something of yourself for all of Equestria to know..."

In just one minute this mysterious mare ripped out something I never even told my friends and offered freedom from my mental prison... could I trust her? One thing I knew was certain... if she did hold such a power, what must I agree to do for her to use it? "What’s the catch...?" My voice had returned at least. Now of all times.

Crystal Clear smiled at me and stayed silent... Our eyes were locked for minutes and neither of us seemed to breathe. After what felt like decades she gave an answer... "I don't know what I desire from you yet, my dear, but when I do you will find out..." She said simply. Not a single hint of what she had planned was given off from her expression, but if I had to guess... It would be something really good or something really bad... Would being HER servant for life be so bad...?

I gave it a long thought... I expected all of the worst case scenarios that she could do with this deal to happen if I said yes. Leaving right now seemed like an obvious choice then... but I couldn't stand the idea of walking out, knowing I could change who I am. To be something more than a simple earth pony that is only good at solving math problems and escaping the world that he was so desperately afraid of...

"It’s a deal..."

The tent lit up and shone brightly as if we were inside her crystal ball... Crystal began speaking something that I couldn’t understand and then everything went dark... The gypsy's voice echoed throughout my mind as I faded away... "When you wake up. Your desire will be achieved, and your life will change for all of eternity... Rest well... Poor little Lost Beat..."

The devastating wubs from my alarm clock woke me up with a jump. On Friday, the remix of the song "Rainbow Factory" blasted from the speaker modified into an alarm that played a certain song depending on the day. I stumbled out of bed and shut it off. Something was different... "Why is my fur hot pink...?" I thought aloud... At first I thought Blazing Sky painted me pink... Again... but then I realized that my voice wasn't my own. "Why do I sound like a mare?!" Panic woke me up more than my alarm. I ran to my bathroom and looked into the mirror. My scream then broke it...

I'm a bucking pink unicorn!!!

Comments

[Cookietheif]

Just an fyi. most traits from myself was put into Lost Beat. The love for music, losing mself into a world built from my mind, and desire to be somepony else because i dont exactly enjoy my few skills. Making ok stories (don't get my wrong, i love making them, but i just wish i had the ability to make them better) and being good at some math isnt what i wished to have as a talent. not to mention the walking with my head down for basicly the same reason.

But Lost Beat does have some amazing things that i dont got. i think my head would explode if bass of that power was blasting directly into my ears. or solve one of those math problems in just 10 seconds... maybe in 30

Please let me know how you think of the story and dont be afraid to toss out ideas for chapters or how to improve it. Thank you so much