Icarus' Fable - Chapter 8 - Unexpected Additions

Archie sat in the living room of Icarus and Cogs' house, rolling a small potato around on his plate. About twenty minutes ago, Cogs had left for something "Special" only rush in ten minutes away and take Dad- uh, Ditz away for some urgent matter. Whatever it was, it was important enough to leave Archie alone in the house with all of their dinners getting cold.

"Ugh, I'm so bored!" Archie groaned and rolled off his chair melodramatically. He pulled himself to his feet and walked into the living room, sitting on the couch and staring out of the window into the woods outside. He gazed out at the dark treeline, illuminated only by the light being reflected off of the moon. 'What a beautiful night it is' He thought, continuing to look out into the night. That was, until and bright blue shimmer sped through the trees and into hiding.

Archie fell back off of the couch, smacking his back onto the carpet and crawling away from the window in shock. What the hell was that? He could feel his heart racing away in his chest, his head still filled with fear. After a while of sitting there motionless on the floor, he slowly crept back to the window and peeped up, gazing out at the treeline in fear. Something was out there.

He sat staring for another five minutes or so before he gave up.
"I-it was probably just a bird or something... Nothing to worry about, right?" He stammered to himself. Just as he sat down on the couch again, he heard something. Hoof-steps? Maybe his dad- shit, maybe Ditz was back! He galloped to the door and swung it open, only to immediately slam it shut again.

"DADDY!"


Over at the other house, Scribble, Cream, Ditz and Cogs stood in the living room, taking care of an unconscious Icarus. The proposal had been such a shocking revelation to her that she had hyper ventilated and lost consciousness. As Cogs sat next to her on the couch, levitating a small cloth to his possible fiancés forehead, Ditz and the other two ponies stood on,  worried. Creams proposal to Scribble had not been entirely forgotten, but the shock proposal of Cogs to Icarus, paired with her getting herself knocked out was a much more urgent matter.

"Do... You think she's OK?" Ditz muttered quietly to any-pony who was listening.
"I'm sure she'll be fine, Ditz." Cream replied, placing her hoof around his withers. "This was just a little... Too much for her, I guess."
The roles seemed a little reversed in this situation. Usually it was Icarus making sure that they all felt happy or fixing a problem that they had trouble fixing on their own, not the other way around...

Icarus began to stir a little, regaining a little consciousness and rousing the attention of all the ponies in the room. She pulled herself up a little and rubbed her temples with a hoof.
"Shit... What... What happened?" Icarus said while still massaging her aching head.
"You passed out. As soon as I... As soon as I asked you that question, you fainted. We took you inside."
She looked at Cogs in a daze for a few seconds before her eyes shot wide open.
"Oh crap! Oh gosh...."
"It's OK, Ic, you don't have to give an answer right now. Just get some rest."
"I want to give you an answer though. Not just want, need. Not in a million years would i ever-"
She stopped there as a desperate cry rang out through the camp grounds.

"DADDY!"

"Archie!?" Ditz shouted, eyes full of worry. He galloped as fast as he could, out the door. Cream and Scribble looked at each other in worry and quickly followed after. Cogs looked down at Icarus, his mind swimming with both of the things he just heard. He desperately wanted to go see what was wrong with Archie, yet he wanted to know if there was any more to what Icarus had to say. He looked back to her worriedly but she waved him away.

"Go, Cogs, go help Ditz. I'm fine, OK? Just go."

He hesitantly stood up and walked to the door, looking over at her one more time before galloping off after the others.


Cogs approached the rabble from behind and stood next to Cream, watching Ditz as was backing some-pony into the corner of the porch. A pony that looked like... Him?

"I'm not fooled, you monster! Now get away from Archie!"

The thing that Ditz was cornering looked up at Ditz revealing its face for the first time. Tears were streaming down its (his?) face and his eyes were soaked with fear.

"I didn't mean to!" The thing with Ditz' face shouted. "I don't know how to stop it, please don't hurt me!"

Ditz' face wavered for a second but was soon determined and angry again.

"How do expect me to believe that?"

"I promise, I didn't do anything to your foal!" The thing pleaded.

Ditz raised a hoof and the thing cowered further into the corner while covering its face.

"Ditz, stop! What the hell is going on?" Cogs shouted. Ditz looked over and stared in confusion at Cogs.
"Don't you see, Cogs? This thing's a changeling! He stole my face!"

"Daddy... Please"

Cogs looked down at the changeling, conflicted about what to do. Scribble held Cream tight and the both of them looked on, filled with apprehension. Ditz slowly lowered his hoof and looked over at Archie who had been watching on, too scared to say a word until now.

"Did you just say..." Ditz started before tears began to flow from his eyes as well. His gaze lowered to meet that of the fear filled changeling and realized what he had done.

"Oh god. I'm so sorry." Ditz said and held out his hoof to the changeling. He/She cowered at first, thinking that Ditz was about to hit her again, but soon realized Ditz' change of heart. Suddenly, a green flame erupted from the center of the disguised changeling, revealing the black, chitinous skin beneath. She took Ditz' hoof and with his help, lifted herself to her hooves. She brushed herself down and looked at Ditz with a nervous smile, causing Ditz to hang his head in shame, covering his face from her view.

"Are you OK?" Cogs asked the changeling while leading her away from a defeated looking Ditz.

"Yeah, I'm... Sorry." She said, her voice sounding like a weird, lightly buzzing version of a normal ponies voice. It was a little hard to tell whether the voice sounded more like that of a females or a males, but it definitely swayed more toward the female side.

"There's no need to be. It's OK." Cogs said reassuringly.

She nodded her head cautiously as Cogs lead her up the porch steps, past Archie and inside.




Back at the other house, you sat comfortably awaiting Cogs to return with news of what had happened. Your mind wasn't just focused on what might be happening, but what had just happened as well. Did Cogs really just propose to you? Your heart was filled with a thousand butterflies as you thought about it. You could have a wedding with flowers and nice music, a huge cake, and all of your friends would definitely be there because all of your friends were ponies!

All of these ideas and thoughts that were flying through your head suddenly ceased when you heard a shout from outside. You stood up and stumbled tiredly to the door, opening it just in time to see Cogs walking into your house with a strange Black looking pony. Who was that? Was this one of the ponies that Celestia had mentioned would be coming?
In any case, you were determined to be a good host. Time to go meet the new pony!

As you approached your porch, you felt a twinge of apprehension spread through you. There was just something that felt different with this pony. Was it the black color, or the way that its coat seemed to shine when you caught a slight glimpse of it in the moonlight? Shaking these worries away, you step up onto the porch and walk through the door.

As soon as you open the large wooden door to the cabin, a large cream colored blob encompass your vision. You looked up to see Scribble looking down at you with a nervous smile.

"Something wrong, dude? I wanna meet the new pony!"

"You can, but promise me one thing before you do, OK? Don't scream."

You look at him, confused, for a few seconds before nodding and smiling. Was the new pony horribly disfigured or something? You didn't really get why you would scream after seeing- Oh god. So this is what he meant. Before you, cradled in Cogs' arms was a crying changeling.

You stood there, shocked for a brief moment before stepping towards her(?) and smiling.

"Hey there." You said with the awkward smile still on your lips. "I-I'm Icarus. I'm sure the others have already introduced themselves?"

She nodded slowly while still huddled close to Cogs.

"So what's yours? We'd love to get to know you better."

She gazed up at you and then looked away nervously.

"It's OK, we don't mean any harm at all. We wanna make you feel more at home, OK?"

What was making her so nervous? Did something happen? You looked around the room, seeing Scribble and cream standing side by side, but there was no sign of neither Archie nor Ditz.

"Hey guys, where are the others?"

"Well, Ditz had a little bit of a... Misunderstanding with our new guest. He thought... She was here to hurt us because of her being a changeling. He went to his room as soon as we got inside and Archie followed after. Cogs has been looking after her since."

Suddenly, the changeling piped up.
"I'm not a girl."

Cogs looked up at you, a little confused at what she had said.

You had to admit that both her look and voice were somewhat androgynous, but it definitely all pointed more to a girls features than a guys.

"It's OK, nearly all of us here aren't of our right genders. Since we turned into ponies, everything got muddled up." Cream put in.

"No it's not like that, " The changeling muttered in defiance. "It's just... Complicated."

You shook your head.

"Never mind, we can sort that later. What happened between you and Ditz?"

"Well... He thought I was bad, because I'm a changeling. But he's right... I'm a terrible pony- Uh, I mean, person."

Hmm, she was still calling herself a person? Had she been on her own this entire time?

"So how did you get here? I was told that you talked to Archie online? He said you lived far away."

"That was Archie? Well, I did. I lived in Paris."

Holy crap, Paris? That was on the other side of the damn world!

"Did you come all on your own?"

"I had a friend with me, but...."

"But?"

"Ugh, it's still complicated."

"It's fine." You smiled at her reassuringly. "We'll talk about it later, once you've settled in better. For now, I think I'm gonna have a little talk with Ditz."


You opened the door to Ditz room and saw him sitting on the bed, his arm around Archie’s withers. He saw you walk in and after a look from you, he nodded and stood up.
When Ditz joined you in the hallway, you immediately closed the door and frowned at him.

"So what happened, Ditz? What did you do to scare her so much?"

"I'm sorry, Icarus, I had no idea what i was doing. It's just, after I heard Archie cry for help, was so worried. When I saw that the pony was a changeling, all I could think of was the ones from the show who were all bad. I'm so sorry, Ic. Can you let her know how sorry I am? I need need stay with Arch- no. My son."

"Well, I'm glad." You said, smiling. "Just be a little bit less... Prejudice-y next time, hmm?"

As Ditz walked into Archie looked up at Ditz and nuzzled him. Everything seemed to be happening, didn't it? Cream proposed to Scribble, Ditz has decided to take in Archie as his son and... Oh Celestia, you almost forgot. Cogs had proposed to you. Your heart was racing at the idea. You? Some-ponies wife? It sounded ridiculous but something about it just felt... Right. This whole thing was happening so fast. It was only about a week ago that this had started and you and Cogs had not just fallen in love and were now going to be wed, but there was even the possibility that you had a foal on the way! How crazy is that, huh? You... A mother. Something about that thought made you feel so warm and fuzzy, you just wanted to run up to Cogs and kiss him right now. You had been standing in the doorway doing nothing for about 3 minutes now, it's probably time to move.

You entered the room carefully as not to startle your new guest and sat down on the couch next to her where Cogs had been comforting her. She smiled nervously at you as you sat and tried to avoid eye contact.

"So... Would you mind telling us your name?"

"I... Don't really have a name."

"Well, what did you call yourself on the pony creator? That's where we got our names from."

"I didn't exactly... Finish making my pony. It's just a little... Complicated."

You rubbed your chin with an idle hoof. "Hmm... How about we think of a name for you?"

She nodded "Sure, I guess."
It was going to be a little difficult thinking of androgynous names, but you could do it. Probably.

After half a minute, Cogs piped up.

"How about a flower name? Acacia? Delphine? Lily? Lotus?"

"That one." The changeling said.

"Lotus?" You questioned.

"Yeah... Lotus was my mothers name."

"So, Lotus it is, I guess. Welcome to our little... Thing. Whatever it is that we have here is yours too."



Over in the other room, Archie sat on the edge of the bed, his hooves on his lap. After Ditz had finished talking to Icarus, he had walked back over to the bed and put his foreleg around Archie's back. They sat in silence for a while in silence, both thinking about what had happened before. Archie had called Ditz... Daddy. Archie not only hadn't seen his real father in years, but he had just called Ditz- A pony that he had known for only a short while *and* used to be a woman.
Archie looked up at Ditz to say something but hung his head instead.

"Look... Archie... I want you to know that I love you. Ever since I became a pony, I didn't feel like I had much of a purpose. Looking after the crops is fun and helps the others, but that's also not all I meant when I said purpose." Tears began to drip from his eyes and he brought his hoof up to wipe them away.

"You're... My family now, I guess. I care for the others a whole bunch as well, but you... If something happened to you, I have no idea what I'd do." Ditz pulled Archie closer to him.

"And if you want a dad... I will happily be your dad."

'R-really?"

"Absolutely."

Archie threw his hooves around Ditz in a hug and squinted his eyes shut.

"Thank you so much. I... I love you, Daddy."

"I love you too, Archie."


Lotus had decided to sleep on the couch for the night while Coffee Cream and Ink Scribble had gone off to their new house, most likely to spend the rest of the night in romance. You were in the kitchen, preparing a hot chocolate for you, Lotus and Cogs when Cogs walked into the kitchen.

"Icarus... Can I talk to you?"

You turned around to face Cogs and smiled.

"Back at the other house, just after you woke up, you... Were going to answer my question. When you said 'Not in a million years would I ever' and then we were interrupted. I wanted to know if... There was any more to that sentence?"

You giggled, making Cogs blush.

"Of course there was, silly. I was going to say... Yes."
Cogs froze, his eyes locked with yours.
"Yes, Cogsworth, I will marry you"

He breathed out heavily and wiped his hoof on his forehead. "Oh God... Icarus, I love you so-" you cut him off as your met his lips with yours and kissed him passionately. He reciprocated and the two of you continued to kiss. The outside world disappeared and the only thing left was you and Cogs, kissing alone and undisturbed. That was until your wings extended, knocking a mug of Hot chocolate to the floor. You looked down at the mug and then back to Cogs, both laughing at what you had done. He dove back in, his muzzle brushing against you as he kissed your neck.

"Are you OK in there?" Lotus said as she walked into kitchen, eyes drifting around until they saw the two of you in an embrace.
"Oh, uh, sorry, I didn't mean to intrude..."
"No, no, It's fine." You say, pulling away from Cogs a little.
"Oh, OK. Umm, I just heard something break and thought something might be wrong.
"We're alright. Just went a little overboard." Cogs said, looking back to you and giving you a peck on the cheek.

Lotus looked down at the mug and sighed.
"Don't worry, I’ll prep another mug for you." You separated yourself from cogs' embrace and went about making another mug of hot chocolate. As you went about your business, Cogs and lotus began to talk.
"So, you and Icarus are... Romantically involved?" Lotus asked nervously, scraping her chitinous hooves on the linoleum.
"Yeah, we just got engaged about... Five minutes ago."
You blushed a little and giggled as you went about your task.
"Did I interrupt your... Oh god, I’m so sorry!"
"Hey, don't worry about it! It's fine, really."
"So Icarus... You used to be a man? Like me? I mean, I still am... Kinda. Is it actually... Weird? You know, being with a man?"
You turned around for a second and smiled at her

"Only if we let it be weird. I just think of it like I've always been a woman, you know? It doesn't matter anyway. Even if I was a man, I’d still love him just as much."
Cogs gave you another peck and you got back to making the drink.

"That's good then... Cos... I really think I need to share this with you guys before it becomes... Weirder, I guess. I know I said that I was a man before was a lie, but... To say that I’m a woman would also be a lie. When I’m like this, I’m kind of... Neither."

"So you're a hermaphrodite? We won't judge you at all, alright?"

"No, it's not like that either. I'm... Not anything. I don't have any... Parts."

You and Cogs both stood there in disbelief. You both were frozen still, unsure of how to react. Lotus stood, watching you both nervously.

Cogs was the first one to open his mouth.
"So... It's all smooth down there? Like an action man?"

You kicked Cogs in the foreleg and he wrenched it towards his chest.
"Ow!"
"Shut up, Cogs, that's no way to act! I'm sorry, Lotus."

"It's OK. He's kind of right though... When I turn into other ponies, I... Take on their gender. I don't even know how to control it either, it just happens. I've lost one too many a friend because of this happening to me and I'm still clueless as to why and how."

"All we know is that it had something to do with the pony creator we first used when we started to turn." Cogs said, rubbing his hoof on the floor. Well, you knew more than you were letting on... If Cogs was comfortable enough to propose to you, then he must be comfortable enough to hear about the Equestria situation, right? It was still too early to tell him, you still needed to do something about Cogs' mother.

"Oh..." Lotus sighed and drooped her head. "I was hoping that you might at least have a little more information than me... So... What now? Do we just... Sit here and wait for something to happen?"

Cogs bit his lip "That was kind of the plan... We really don't know what else to do but... Live our lives."

"Oh..." Lotus sat and stared, her eyes beginning to moisten. She squinted and hung her head, a few drips falling to the floor.

"Lotus, don't cry, it'll be alright." You said softly and put your foreleg around her. "You're with us, and while you're here, we won't let anything bad happen."

"T-thanks." She sobbed and sniffed once. "It really means a lot to me."

Two loud knocks echoed through the house and startled all three of you.

"That's gotta be Scribble or Cream, I’ll go see what they want." You smiled, trotting out of the kitchen and toward the door. You reached up with your hoof and tugged, swinging the door open.

"Hey, guys, what-"

You froze.

And looked up.

And then looked down.

Standing in front of you was someone you'd prayed would never find you. At least, not like this.

"Hey Cogs." You called to him from the doorway.

"Yeah?"

"Guess who's here."

"Who is it, honey?" Cogs said, walking out of the kitchen before stopping in his tracks.

You gulped
"Hey, mum."