Icarus Fable - Chapter 7 - An Awkward Proposal

You lay still in bed, staring blankly at the wall. Your mind was swimming
with thoughts about last nights dream and questions flew about inside your
head. So far, you could deduce that Equestria was, in fact, real. In who
knows how long from now, you and your friends would be taken
there to live in relative peace. Or at least you hoped...

You suppose that for now, you'd continue to live like you had, coasting
along in relative peace, hoping nothing went wrong.

What if some human got lost on their way to somewhere and happened upon
your home? They might go in and ask for directions, see you all and call
the police or animal control and they would take you away and... And you
might never see Cogs again.

What the hell were you thinking? Getting worried about all of these stupid
things was distracting you from what really mattered.

You'd have to tell the others about your dream, they'll be so excited to
find out! But wait... What if they're not? What if *you're* not? However
exciting this whole thing was, if you traveled to Equestria, would you ever
see your parents again? You'd never be able to live a life that you had
dreamed of having since you were a child if you went to Equestria.
You'd never touch a computer again, not that you would be able to use it
that well anymore now that you had hooves.

You'd never meet the perfect girl and find some place to settle down and
start a family.

But... You were *Cogs'* perfect girl now. You had found somewhere to settle
down and from last nights activities, you may or may not have a family in
the future.

What about your mum? She would have gotten back from her holiday a while
ago and would be worried sick about you right now. She had no idea at all
about what had happened and might never know.

And what about Cogs' mum? She was sick and alone with no-one to care for
her. You'd have to find some way to make that right before you went to
Equestria and /if/ you went at all.

Your life in Equestria would be amazing though. You'd have a small little
cottage in Ponyville where you supposed that the others would also be
living. Cogs could start up a repair shop or something and you could join
the Ponyville weather team. Maybe you'd even get to meet Rainbow Dash and
the other ponies from the show.

If the show was real, did that mean that the ponies were real? Would you
really be able to have a party with Pinkie, some tea with Rarity, a picnic
with Fluttershy, hang out with Rainbow Dash, help Applejack work on the
farm and even stargaze with Twilight Sparkle? It was just... So surreal. A
dream came true!

The pros seemed to outweigh the cons here, but your mind was still not made
up about this. Whatever Cogs decided, you would go with him. No matter
what happened, you wanted to be with him one hundred and ten percent of
the way. This wasn't just your choice but his as well.

Maybe you should break it to him slowly. Let him settle down and feel
properly at home before you made such a shocking announcement... Yeah,
that's what you'd do. Wait a while, then tell everyone. There's no point in making every-pony feel uncomfortable or putting extra pressure on them.

The only problem was that is was going to be hard as fuck trying to keep
such an unimaginably huge secret bottled up inside for so long.

You decide to finally get out of bed and shake Cogs awake.

"Wake up sleepy head." He rolled over while grumbling and pulling the duvet
over his head.

"In a minute..."

"Or... You could wake up now and we could have a little morning fun."

You slide your hoof up the inside of his legs and start to fondle his balls
as much as was possible with a hoof instead of hands.

"Urghh. You make this so hard for me." He said sleepily while sitting up
and smiling. He leaned forward and planted a kiss on your lips while
putting his foreleg around your neck and pulling you closer.

"Hmm, as great as this is, I am starving, Ic."

"Aww, cock-tease."

"Hey, I don't think you can say that anymore. It's probably... I dunno, clit-tease?"

"Ha ha ha, very funny." You shoved him back. "Just for that, I’m not gonna suck your dick. Oh, and you have to make /me/ breakfast."

"Now you're the cock-tease, not me." He laughed and pulled himself off of
the bed and on to all fours.

The two of you walked together groggily into the kitchen and sat down at the table while Cogs pulled out a box of cereal from the cupboards with his magic. You stared out the window at the morning sun and smiled contently as he pours the cereal into large bowls. He put the box of cereal away and lifted a bottle of honey across the room.

"Heheh, gimme some honey, honey." You say in a singsong voice and sway back
and forth sleepily.

"Maybe you should have a comedy cutie mark, Ic. That was truly the greatest
joke I’ve ever heard." Cogs said sarcastically and levitated a bowl across to your side of the table.

You quickly dug in to the breakfast and let your mind wonder back to your
dream.

How and when were you going to tell everyone else? Cogs would definitely
want to do something about his mum. He loved that woman as much as he loved
you and you respected that wholeheartedly. Maybe you could take her with you to Equestria.
Wait, no, that meant turning her into a pony, something that her body might
not even be able to handle in it's current state.

You were almost so engrossed in your thoughts that you nearly didn't notice
Scribble walk in and sit across from you. You raised you head up and finished
your mouthful of food.
Something was wrong, Scribble looked pale and bleary eyed. He seemed quite jittery
as well, his eyes darting around the room.

"Hey Scribble, something wrong, dude?" You said and placed your hoof on the
table.

"I'm... It's fine, I just... had a little bit of a freakout. I completely
forgot I had a.. Thing between my legs. Woke up with it acting up and
scared the shit out of myself. It'd be more easy to handle if it looked like a humans, but it's just so.. Big."

Cogs laughed heartily and grinned at Scribble.

"You'll get used to it." He chuckled. "It freaked me out the first couple
of times too. It's a lot larger than I was used to it being. Plus, the
whole way that it goes inside you, like a sheath, it's pretty-"

"Please, guys, this is not breakfast talk." You interrupt them.

"You sure didn't have a problem with it last night." Cogs whispered to you
and you shoved him playfully.

"Dude, again, not breakfast talk."

"Fine, fine. Let's change the subject. We got anything planned for today?
All I can really think of for the moment is tending to the veggie patch.
Yesterday, we could see a few tiny shoots from the newly planted seeds and
we can check today how well they're doing. I'll make sure that the
coffee plants are doing OK in their new habitat as well."

"It shouldn’t be a problem, moving them to the new patch." Scribble added.
"As far as I know, they take well to being transferred. Unfortunately, it's
winter, so we might have to wait a while before the beans are ready for
roasting and crushing for drinks."

Cogs laughed and leaned back in his chair. "I forgot how much you actually
know about coffee stuff. You should teach Cream some more stuff about it,
I’m sure she'd love that."

"Uhm, maybe later."

"Anything else planned for today?"

"Well, I was gonna go out for a bit of a fly. It's been a while since i
could properly stretch my wings out." You demonstrate by flaring your wings
and closing them by your sides again. "And tonight, I'm gonna help Scribble
with something."

"Oh really? What's that?"

"He's gonna-"

"It's just dinner." Scribble hastily interrupted you. "Yeah, it's just
dinner. I wanted to make her feel a bit more welcomed and try to
brighten her up. She's been a little down since we got here."

"Fair enough." Cogs lifted up his spoon and took a scoop of cereal. "I'm
not needed that much for the field work so I was gonna take a look at
Archie's car to see what I can do. He messed it up pretty bad when he crashed it."

"Is he planning on using it again? He's a foal now, probably not too smart
to let him drive just yet."

"I wasn't going to exactly fix it, per say. I'm going to strip it apart and
see what I can build using the parts."

You nodded. "Sounds like a good idea.”

You got up off of your seat and flexed your wings out, blowing wind through your mane and tail as you did so.

“Well, I'm off to have that morning fly.”

"Hey Icarus, do you mind if I join you?" Scribble asked.

"If you don't mind walking while I hover above, sure."


You dove in and around trees, feeling the exciting rush of wind pass by
your slicked back ears. This was one of the true moments that you felt
alive. Leaves brushed past the tips of your wings and a squirrel rushed to
get out of your way as you flew past it.

Suddenly, your wing clipped the side of a tree, causing you to lose control
for a second so you were unable to veer out of the way of a
bush. You crash landed with a loud bang in to the bush and lay there, dazed.

As you tried to pull yourself out of it, you heard Scribble walk up behind
you and a tug on your hind legs. You were pulled out of the bush and landed
with an "oof" on the soft forest floor. The glow from his horn dissipated
and he laughed at you lying on your back, covered in dirt.

"Hey, it's not funny! That hurt, you know."

"Ha! You should have seen it! You were flying so fast and just went
"Whoosh!" straight into the bush. You're lucky that you didn't hit a tree!”

You looked at your dirty and debris covered wings and sighed.
"I've gotta learn how to preen these feathers, I’ve heard it takes a lot of effort to
keep them in tip top shape."

Scribbles horn glowed and a few of the leaves stuck in your wings lifted
out of them and were thrown away.

"You're getting pretty handy with that magic. Have you... Well, I know you
might not want to, seeing as it not your body and all, but have you tried
drawing yet?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, you have your boyfriends cutie mark, right? And he has yours. We've
already found out your cutie mark dictates what special talent you have,
just like in the show. What's the bet that you have inherited some of your
boyfriends drawing ability?"

"Well, maybe..."

"Come on, what's the harm? I'm sure he'd be excited to see what kind of
stuff you can do."

"OK, fine. You've convinced me. When we get back, I'll have a crack at
drawing. Just don't expect anything amazing."

"I'm sure you'll do great." You smile and flap yourself up to your feet.
"For now, let's continue."

You beat your wings a couple of times to start hovering just above the
ground and the two of you continued forward on your walk/fly through the woods.


The morning mist still hung around the bases of the trees and the sun shone
it's rays through the gaps in their leaves. It created a beautiful effect,
quite romantic really. You'd have to take Cogs on a walk one morning, maybe
even fool around a little while you were here. Something about being out
here in nature was just so... Raw, so powerful. Cogs was going to love it.

"Hey Icarus."

"Yeah?"

"I was thinking about tonight..."

"Go on?"

"I just want to make sure that everything is perfect. If something goes
astray, she might say no and if she say no then-"

"Dude, stop fretting. Nothing will go wrong."

"I know... I just want her to say yes so much."

"And I’m sure she will. Just make sure that you don't freak your self out.
Play it cool."

"Er alright. Cool. I can do that. I think."

"Good. Now let's head back. We've been out here for a while, I'm getting
tired and I’m sure you are too."

Scribble nodded and you turned back towards the cabins.


You walked in the front door with Scribble and saw Archie and Ditz sitting
on the floor in the lounge room. They were holding paint brushes in their
mouths and slapping them against the paper. Scribble trotted over to them
and sat down.

"Hey guys, what you doing?"

"Werr paimtin!" Archie shouted with a brush still in his mouth.

"Do you mind if I join in?"

Ditz put the paintbrush he was holding in front of Scribble and smiled.

"Sure, go ahead. I have to go tend to the field, do you mind watching
Archie while I do that? I could use your help too, Icarus."

Scribble nodded and you walked outside with Ditz.

Similar to how you had done a few days before, you flew up into the
air to gather a cloud. One of the extra perks of being a Pegasus was definitely this whole 'being able to touch clouds' thing.

With a little bit of effort, you managed to compress the cloud again and
placed it above the field of flowers, letting it rain on the plants and
water them.

Ditz clapped his hooves together, leaning against the fence post while you hovered down, landing softly next to him and folding your wings up against your side.

"Good job, Ic. Let's head inside."

"Before we go back in... I have something to tell you. It's important that
you don't mention it to anyone, OK?"

"I dunno, I don't want to make any promises I can't keep."

"Please, Ditz. You're the only one I can tell."

"Fine... What is it?"

"Last night, I... Had a visitor."

"Somebody came here?"

"Not somebody. Some-pony."

"Wait, all the ponies we know are already here... Who was it?"

"It was..." You sigh. "It was Princess Celestia."

Ditz stared at you blankly. He blinked a couple of times and his mouth fell
open in shock.

"Are you... Are you serious? Princess Celestia?"

"Yes, Ditz. She told me so many things."

"Like what?" Ditz said excitedly, bouncing up and down.

"Well, Equestria is real, for one."

Ditz stopped bouncing and gasped, bringing one of his hooves to his mouth.

"And here's the most exciting thing but the thing that you gotta be secretive about the most, OK?"

"Go on, spit it out, I won't tell!" Ditz whispered harshly and bit his lip in excitement.

You sighed. Might as well tell him now, you'd gone too far to go back now. "We're going
to be taken to live there."

Ditz's face exploded with happiness and he squealed in delight.
"Ohmygosh, ohmygosh, oh my gooooosh!"

"But you can't tell anyone, OK? There's a few things I need to... Figure
out before I promise anything to Cogs."

"That's fine by me, Ic. My lips are sealed." He demonstrated by drawing his
hoof across his lips and grinning ecstatically.

"I can not believe that nickname stuck."

"What? It's a good nickname!"

"Heheh, you're only saying that because you came up with it."

"Yep!"

"Now let's go inside. And remember, not a word to the others.”

The two of you laughed together and trotted back inside.


When you got back in, you could see that Archie, Cream and Cogs had all
gathered around Scribble and were staring wide eyed at something.

"Hey guys, what's up?"

"Quick, Icarus, come take a look at this!" Cogs said impatiently and
motioned to you with his hoof. You trotted over to where they had gathered
and your mouth dropped in amazement.

It was a painting of Archie playing with a ball, but it wasn't just some
child’s painting.
It was absolutely incredible. You could almost read the joy on the face
that had been painted. His eyes were bright, defined and beautiful, his body round and bouncy with the light shining perfectly.

"Scribble... You made this?"

"Yeah, I... I guess I did."

"It's incredible! You should put this up on the wall!"

"Eh, I dunno."

"Don't doubt yourself, man! It's great! Hmm.. Speaking of walls, I think that it's time that we go shopping some walls of your own, guys."

Cream looked up at you and smiled ecstatically yet scribble had a worried expression on his face.

"I dunno, are you sure we're ready? We're moving pretty fast..."
Cream frowned at him.

"What are you talking about? This is a house, it's not like we're...
Getting married or anything."

"Yeah... Yeah, exactly." Scribble looked away from Cream "OK. Let's go get
a home."


"Well you only really have two choices." You told the two home seeking
ponies while hovering above them. "The one on the left or the one on the
right? As far as we know, they're the same on the inside as well."

Scribble walked up to the door of the left house.

"Why not this one? It looks fine to me and it's further away from the cliff
than the other."

"Sounds good to me." Cream said bluntly and moved to stand next to Scribble.

You flew down to the front of the house that they had picked and looked around the porch. Now to find where they put the key... No, they wouldn't put it in the same place for all of the houses,
would they? No one was that stupid. You slipped your wing under the front
door mat and sure as the sun would rise tomorrow (unless Nightmare moon
had a little personal breakdown again) , the key was there.

"Would you look at that. Some people really are that stupid."


The inside of the other cabin was pretty much the same as the main cabin,
minus the spare room and half of the living room. The three of you walked
around the new abode, checking it all out and making sure that everything
was in order. All of the lights beside the one in the living room worked
and the microwave turned on with no apparent problem as well.

Ink and Scribble seemed to be happy enough with it, they sat on the bed and
talked together about what they could do with the house. They decided to
move the coffee machine there as Cream would be using it regularly now.
They also decided to remove the drab paintings from all of the cabins and
systematically fill the empty frames with paintings done by Scribble.

Once they were finished talking, they called you into the bedroom.

"So, Icarus has decided to make us a romantic dinner tonight for... To
celebrate us moving in here. How does that sound."

Cream smiled and put her hoof on his thigh.

"That sounds wonderful! I can't wait!"

"Great. In the meantime, we should start moving our stuff over from the car
and the main house to here. We can't very well keep going into their house
whenever we need something."

"Ah, but you're always welcome to visit and your staying here doesn't mean
we won't be able to see you, of course."

“Thanks, Ic.” Scribble grinned and kissed Cream.

"It's getting pretty late now and Icarus and I have an amazing dinner
planned for you. Go talk to the others until we come get you, I have a...
Surprise that I don't want you seeing until it's ready, OK?"

Cream jumped up off the bed and walked to the door.

"I'll see you in a while, Scribble."

As soon as the door had shut, Scribble sighed and fell back heavily onto
the bed.

"I dunno if I’m ready..."

"Oh come on, dude! You can't get cold feet now! Or uh, cold hooves.
Whatever, you know what I mean! "

"But it's not the same thing as before. I'm worried that I won't be able to
care for her. What if we have a foal and we can't make enough food to
support it? Wait, what am I thinking? A foal? I can't even imagine getting
pregnant or... It wouldn't be me getting pregnant. It would be my boyfriend."

"Well, do you want a child?"

"If we were in any other position, then yes. But I’m a man and Cream is a
woman. I feel a little weird having sex with her, imagine how distraught
Cream would be if she got... Oh no. You don't think she could already be
pregnant? I didn't use any kind of protection either, what if she's in season?"

"I have no idea. She could be, but I’m not the one to ask."

"I might have to ask Cogs about some of this stuff."

"Hey, I was a guy for all my life, I know just as much as him."

"I guess, but.. I don't feel as... Comfortable talking to you about this
kind of stuff."

"Hmf." You frown at him."Well you may want to ask for my advice soon. It
just happens that I may already be pregnant."

"What? Really? How do you know if it's even possible?"

"I don't, but as far as I can tell, I’m 100% mare. I've been going over it
my head, and I really want to have a foal. Cogs agrees with me."

"Oh gosh, I don't think I could handle such a life-changing decision... But
i might not even get the chance to decide if Cream is already pregnant."

"Well if you ask me, I think you'd make an excellent father."

"R-Really? You think so?"

"I think you'd be wonderful. Your kid would be the luckiest in the whole
world."

"I think your right. Hopefully, Cream isn't pregnant, but if she is? I
think that we'd be able to do it. Together."

"That's the spirit. Now, let's go get ready for tonight. You got a proposal
to make."


The sun had just dropped below the horizon when you had finished preparing
the dinner for Scribbles proposal dinner. He requested a simple dinner,
just a daisy salad and bread-sticks for the main, which wasn't a problem for you, but his
next request was little more difficult than the last.
He had asked for a simple sponge cake with jam. Sounds easy, right? Not if you don't have
hands it's not.

You definitely had to commend the Cakes on their cake making abilities, this was
nearly impossible to do! You had to cart around the utensils and bowls only using your face, a feat only achievable because of your extended muzzle.

It looked messy and sat on an awkward angle, but you were pretty proud of
yourself. It was a miracle that it wasn't just a mushy pile on the floor,
opposed to the glorious mushy pile that it was now. Scribble walked into the
kitchen and stood beside you, inspecting the hap-hazardous cake that you had
made.

"That looks great, Ic. I couldn't have wished for a better cake."

You pouted at him he smiled at you, confused. "What? What did I say?"

"I can tell you're being sarcastic and I’m sorry it can't be perfect."

"I'm being serious. I know it's not the best cake ever, but I didn't expect
that. I expected something worse than this, and this exceeded that expectation. This is great!"

"Oh, so now you're insulting my cake making skills, huh?" You grin jokingly
and look up at the tall unicorn.

"Oh, shut up, you. And thanks. I just hope this is enough for Cream."

"What are you on about, of course it'll be enough. We've prepared a night
that would make any young fall immediately in love. Speaking of that, you should go get her for
dinner, lover boy. Good luck, OK?."

Scribble closed his eyes and sighed as he walked slowly towards the door.
"I'm ready for this. I just hope that she is..."


Cream and Scribble sat at the table and chatted away happily while you
cleaned up the dishes in the kitchen. They mostly talked about new things
that they had discovered about being a pony such as getting the ends of
their tails caught under their hooves if they walked backward too fast or
getting weirded out when their ears moved to pick up sounds.

"This all so weird and strange, but... I'm glad that I’m with you. I'd go
mad if I had to take this crap on alone." Cream laughed nervously.

"Yeah, it sure is... I'm glad too. I love you so much, Cream."

You heard Scribble sigh heavily and laugh as well. "So, you ready for some
desert?"

Ooh, that was the cue! You reach into a scarf you had wrapped around your
neck for a makeshift bag and pull out the box containing the ring. You
carefully place it on one side of the cake, slide it into the sponge
where you had cut a hole then dragged the cake carefully onto your
outstretched wings.

You surprisingly managed to keep your balance the whole way to the dining room and placed it in-front of the two happy looking ponies. Scribble cut the cake, making sure that Cream was given the piece with the ring in
it and you trot out of the room, stopping just past the door to listen in.

It was quiet for a few seconds and all you could hear was the clacking of
cutlery and squishing of cake.

Suddenly, Cream broke the silence.

"Uh, Scribble, what's this? I think Icarus might have dropped something in
the mix or..."

“It wasn't a mistake, Cream.”

You heard Scribble get up from his seat and the faint hum of magic as
he lifted the box out of Creams hooves. You could hear the creak of the box
opening up and Cream gasping in surprise.

"Cream..."

"Oh my gosh."

"I know that times have been hard..."

"Yes."

"But I've loved you for so long and was wondering..."

"A thousand times, yes."

"If you wanted to be my bride?"

"Oh my gosh, yes! Of course I want to be your bride!"

The excitement over loaded you and you bounced into the room, jumping in a
circle around the two new engaged and confused ponies.

"I can't believe it, this is so amazing!" you shouted loudly. "You're gonna
get married!"

"Hehe, yes, Ic, now can you please calm down a bit?"

"Oh, sorry" You smile and the two ponies began to kiss passionately. You
turned to leave the room so they could have their privacy but a hoof
knocking on the door stops you in your tracks at the entrance to the kitchen.

Scribble opened the door to reveal Cogs standing in the light from the porch
lamp, carrying a small bag with his magic.

"Cogs! Is everything OK?"

"I... I need to talk to Icarus."

"I'm here." You say and walk towards him, slowing to a stop when you reach
him. You can see his face contort and a tear runs down his face.

"I need to ask you a question. Are... You really happy being a mare?"

"Of course I am, you know tha-"

"I need you to look me in the eye and tell me the honest to god truth."

You place your hoof on his cheek, stare into his eyes and smile.

"Yes. I am very happy being a mare."

Cogs sighed and smiled nervously back at you, your heart beginning to pound for some reason.

"What's this all about?"

"I just needed to know before I asked this next question."

You feel all of the blood leave your face as he pulled a small square box
from the bag he was holding and opened it in front of you. Inside is a gold
band, shaped like tree roots, spiraling around to a diamond flower.

"Icarus. Will you marry me."


"H..."

Blackness started to fade in from your vision and you felt incredibly dizzy.

"Holy fucking shit."

The last thing you saw was the world falling on its side before you lost
consciousness completely.