Icarus' Fable - Chapter 1 - Trying New Things

You lie in bed, ever so slightly awake as the beams of light from in between your blinds catches your eyes. You squint drowsily and roll over, now too awake to fall asleep again but too tired to get up. Last night was probably the weirdest night of your life. Last night, you had watched every single episode of My Little Pony. For as long as you have known of the fandom, you had hated both it and the show. What had started as "I'm gonna watch this and hate it, i know i will" to "I CAN NOT STOP WATCHING THIS AWESOME SHOW." Surprised at your self and at how good the show actually was, you start to get up from your bed. Pushing the covers to the side, you see your laptop open still to the last episode of the fourth season, one that you had enjoyed way more than you care to admit. You find yourself wondering what could be in store for all of the ponies next season? Would Rainbow Dash finally join the wonderbolts in full? Would the CMC get their cutie marks? You couldn't wait. You drowsily walk into the kitchen and pull out some cereal. You look at your box of Aplle Jacks and laugh where you previously had sneered. Your gaze slowly drifts to the clock. 8:30... 8:30!? You were almost late for school! It was nearing final exams, you couldn't miss a second of class for fear of failing! You quickly scoff down the bowl, grab your Backpack and sprint out the door. You grab your bike and start peddling as fast as is humanly possible. While riding, you can't help but feel exhilaration as you speed down the street towards your school. You tie up your bike outside and sprint in. You check the time. 8:50, good, you still have time. You walk to your locker and quickly open it to see the terrifyingly bland interior. Now that you actually liked the show, you contemplated putting some RD stickers up, and maybe a picture of a muffin or Balloons, something still MLP bu not so spaghetti inducing as a plush or poster. You hear a knock on the locker door next to you and close it to see your friend Stephen staring at you.
"Sup man? How you been?"
"Uh, alright..."
"You feeling OK man? You seem kinda nervous this morning. Something happen last night?"
You definitely did NOT want to tell him you were now liking MLP instead of outright bashing it.
"Nah, man, just didn't get much sleep. Can't miss school though, what with exams and all"
Swish. God damn you were good.
"Yeah, gotta get those hours, man. I once fell asleep in class."
"You fall asleep in class all the time!"
"But this time, i was in the middle of presenting something in front of the class."
"You're a fucking idiot, you know that?"
He playfully punches you and you head towards your first class.

At lunchtime, you and Stephen sit together, apart from the rest. You weren't exactly nerdy, you weren't a jock, you didn't belong to any clique or club, you kind of just hang out. You snack on your leftover steamed vegetables, now terribly Luke warm and disgustingly mushy. You ate them anyway, for a lack of anything else to eat. Stephen sips at his drink, slurping as it reaches the end. He points over at a group of jocks sitting about five tables away from us.
"It's game time man, you ready?"
Stephen and you would always play a game where you tried to tell what the other group was talking about, whoever came up with the funniest idea won. You smile at him slightly and look behind you.
"Sure man, you're on. "
As a trade off for you letting him insult him on his height, you always let him start first.
"They're excited about the game coming up. They can't wait to show their boyfriends how far they can throw a ball."
You smile slightly and try to think of something witty.
"The one on the left is stressed out because he got someone pregnant. The worst part about it is that his mum will get really angry at her daughter for not wearing a condom."
Stephen laughs loudly at that.
"Oh wow, dude, fuck me, that was good. Gonna have a hard time besting that. Ok, how about this. The one in the middle is about to file a complaint to the council for not letting him get married. They sent him a letter saying that it is not in state law to let him marry a cartoon horse."
He laughs ecstatically at his own joke and looks over at you. You try and force a snicker, but after last night, you feel like you'd be laughing at your self, to an extent.
"Hey, whats wrong man? Usually that kind of shit gets you in tears!"
"I dunno man, I’m just not feeling it"
"OK, now i KNOW something happened last night. What was it, you get rejected again? Wait, don't tell me that YOU got your sister pregnant!"
"No it's that that, you twat."
"Then what is it! Tell me! I'm your best friend, we've been friends ever since preschool, you can tell me anything, i can assure you i won't laugh"
"Oh you're gonna laugh, alright..."
"No way man, i promise you, twenty bucks, i will NOT laugh"
"Ok fine. You wanted to hear it? This is gonna be the easiest twenty bucks i've ever made. Last night, i watched all of the episodes of My Little Pony. And, i really liked it."
Stephen looks at you, unblinking. You start to sweat, getting really nervous about what he's gonna think of you.
"Dude."
He says that in one of the most serious ways you have ever heard him speak.
"*I* watch MLP. And *I* like it. I just couldn't tell you because i knew how much you hated it. I just went along with the jokes whenever you made them, laughed and then tried to change the subject!."
You stare at him not unlike how he stared at you before. Well, this was going to change a lot in your friendship.

You ended up spending the entirety of the next few classes and lunch talking all about the show. You got a couple of funny looks from other people who also still thought that you hated the show, but you didn't care. You had a new found freedom and joy, where all previously you had done was make crude jokes and made fun of people. Not that you changed in that aspect, you just had a lot more to talk about with Stephen rather than just that. You discussed who your favorite pony is, your favorite episode, your least favorite episode, predictions for the next season, anything, you name it. You just can't get enough of this show. You invite Stephen over to your house after school to stay over for the night. You're going to have a season 2 marathon and you couldn't be happier to be sharing it with your best friend. You and Stephen walk into your house after school, throw your bags onto the floor and head straight into your room. You instantly turn on your computer and open up your folder full of the episodes from season 2. It's about 12 at night when you finish the finale and you and Stephen go get something to eat.
"Dude, so how about that. I still kinda can't believe that after you pretended to hate the show that much that you actually loved it."
"Well i kinda did hate it. I just didn't realize how good it was until i had actually tried it."
"Fair enough."
You yawn a bit and start heading back to your room with your newly prepared cocoa and toast. You decide to watch a couple more episodes before you head to bed. While watching one of the episodes, specifically the one where the CMC go around finding out the stories to how the ponies got their cutie marks, you spy something in the chat log. Something about the 4chan "/mlp/" board being offline. You had been on 4chan many times before but had no idea that ehy had a board dedicated entirely to MLP. You show it to Stephen and decide to check it out together, just to see what it was like. You open up your browser, head to the 4chan site and click on the "Pony" link.

You are instantly greeted with something that you had never seen on a 4chan board before. A picture of a gray, featureless pony standing on a hill is shown to you aas well as a message that pops up.
"Create your own OC... OC?"
"Oh i know what that is. A lot of people create their own ponies. They use it for stories and they make it somewhat like their own personalities. I guess you need to use this to get into /mlp/. I've never been here before, so i dunno."
It kind of makes sense that he knows more about the fandom than you.
"Well, I’ll let you go first"
You say, handing him the keyboard and mouse.
"Hmm lets see... I guess I’ll make him...Red... with a Lime green and purple striped mane. There we go!"
You look at the pony that he had just created in a very short time. The colors seemed to blend perfectly, they didn't seem off or weird at all. You pull out your laptop and start to work on your character.
"OK, so I’m gonna- Wait, you can make it different genders?"
"Yeah, there must be some people who are girls and like MLP, duh."
"Yeah, I’m gonna make mine a girl, just as a joke. It'll be hilarious to see these nerds fumbling over someone they think is actually a chick!"
You open up the color wheel and make her mane a pale blueish white. You give the mane a straight but still frizzy style, color it minty green near the roots and make it fade out to white near the tips. Somehow, this color scheme felt... Yours. You were sure that someone else had maybe a similar scheme to this, but this one was yours alone. You press the next button at the bottom of the screen and it leads you to a page that reads "What will your cutie mark be"
Of course, how could you forget that all ponies had a cutie mark? It asks for you to list your talents in a box and you start to wonder what you would put there. You weren't good at sports, you only played games a little bit, you didn't read a bunch of books, what could your talent be? The only thing you could think of was..
"Ah, yes!"
You type one word into the box: "Speed"
You remember back to how exciting it was to be riding down the path on your way to school this morning, the wind in your hair, the sheer speed of it was incredible. You pressed "ok" and a cutie mark appeared on the flank of your character. It was a pair of wings, shining pale purple and green with a halo positioned right above it.. It was perfect. Not a single line seemed to be out of place, not a single color could have fit as well as these did. You look over at Stephen. He had finished his as well, a small gear and a flower, connected together.
"Wow" He says, mouth slightly agape.
"That is... weirdly good."
"Yeah... same here..."
You see a next button down the bottom of the screen. You click it and it takes you to a screen with three boxes. In the left one, there are a pair of wings, the center one is a picture of a pony/human arm flexing it's muscles, and the right one has a picture of a glowing unicorn horn. Ah, so you can choose to be a Pegasus, unicorn or earth pony!
"An earth pony? Why would anyone choose something boring like that?"
Stephen looks like he's thinking.
"Well, they have sort of semi-super strength, plus they can run for miles on end and not get tired!"
"Well, i guess that's pretty cool."
You can't take your eyes off of the wings though. The thought of flying throuigh the air excited you so much that you didn't think that there was even a doubt you would pick the wings. You clicked on the wings and a pair popped up in just the right place on your pony. It was weird, seeing your complete pony. Somehow, you felt that there could be nothing different to it. It was both completely perfect and completely... You. There is one thing that you still have to do and that is give your pony a name. You decide that since it is a flying pony, it's cutie mark has wings AND a halo, the most fitting name you can think is Icarus. You again look over at Stephen, he's decided to give his pony a horn and is currently typing a name in.
"Cogsworth."
"I know it's kind of a weird name, but it just feels... Right. It doesn't feel like i should call it anything different."
You can't help but agree with him. Your name feels right, on so many levels. You both click on the "finish" button at the same time and a message pops up on the screen in front of you both. "Congratulations!" it reads. "You are one of the first 10 people to use the OC creator on this site! You will be receiving your prize over the next week!"
Over the next week? What the hell did that mean? Maybe you would be rewarded with a special icon for the board? You were way too tired to think, but you both click accept at the same time. Suddenly, you jolt back in pain as you feel a spark of electricity come from your mouse. You hold your hand out, looking at it, wondering what the hell that could have been. Stephen looks over at you as well, holding his hand with his other.
"What the hell was that"
"I have no fucking idea. Maybe we tripped the power for having too much shit on at the same time. It's getting late, maybe we should go to bed soon"
"Yeah, feeling pretty tired right now."
You shut down your computer and move sleepily towards your bed. You lie down on your bed and immediately fall asleep. While asleep, you start to dream. In the dream, you are Icarus, strolling through Sugar-Cube Corner and saying hello to all of the other ponies. You felt strangely at home and happy. You wish that this could last forever. Unfortunately, it is just a dream and you wake up, the light from the windows shining into your eyes just as it did last morning. As you slide out of bed you can help but notice a tingling feeling and the sense of pressure in your fingers and your toes. Oh well, maybe you slept funny last night. You walk to the kitchen and can't help but feeling off balance a little bit. You reach for a knife and see something quite peculiar. A collection of blueish white fur growing on your hand.