Icarus

At the Seaddle General Hospital, working hours were long and hard. Job openings were constantly available because of staff getting injured, sick, taking maternity leave, or just finding the job too stressful to handle. At some points it seemed like the staff would be permanently short of ponies, but it would always pick back up. There were only a select few who were veterans of the staff and who had never permanently left. These were the ones truly dedicated to their jobs and the most respected. They were called the 'Elder Staff.'

Among the 'Elder Staff' was Diamond Heart. Diamond was a thirty-four year old mare with a snowy white coat and a pale lavender mane that was usually kept up and out of her face, and had a sort of shiny complexion to it. Her large, rose colored eyes would often mesmerize any who would stare into them, and they would have a beautiful twinkle whenever she was happy. Unfortunately, the happy twinkle in her eyes hadn't been seen for a solid two months.

Ever since her son, Ash, had died.

It was the worst time in her life, especially coming home with her husband, Oak, to an empty house (whereas Ash would be home with a few friends), and having to bear it for the next eleven hours until she went to work again. It was taking a toll on her and her husband's marriage, as well. Lingering feelings of blame and anger would arise at random, and the two would argue pointlessly until one left in a huff for a few hours, or went to bed.

A worried Oak, realizing this, proposed that him and Diamond take a trip down to their childhood town for a visit, as a way to get away from the city and all of the bad feelings, and spend some much needed time together. Today was the day they would leave on that trip, and Diamond had been given permission to leave work early by her boss.

Despite all of the stress and emotions, however, Diamond kept herself strong and fought any kind of breakdown, living up to her cutie mark, a diamond heart, representing her strength in any kind of situation.

"Diamond, I'm going to need that ibuprofen."

"Right here." Diamond chirped without looking away from her clipboard, tossing the bottle toward the other nurse, who caught it and stepped back into the room she came from. Diamond had been doing paperwork on an unfortunately failed surgery for the past hour, and it was finally at an end. Just the conclusion.

Crack.

Orrrrr her pencil could break. With an irritated sigh, Diamond yanked open the top drawer on her wooden desk and fished her hoof through it for another pencil. She pulled one out and slid it into the electric sharpener, being sure to press her other hoof on the blasted thing so it wouldn't fall off. Like the last time she tried to use it.

After finally finishing her report, Diamond stapled the papers together and left them on her desk. She gazed up at the clock. 3:24PM. There was another sixteen minutes until Oak would arrive to meet her. Tucking her chair in and grabbing her jacket, she made her way to the door.

Passing the other rooms in the sickly green hall, with its shiny floor and wooden frames, Diamond greeted several colleagues and co-workers with 'Hey's,' 'Hello's,' and 'How are ya's.' She stopped in the lobby; large, wide open, the same sickly green as the halls with the same wooden frames and dozens of black chairs, at the front desk to talk to her friend, Quill for the next few minutes. The usual stuff, how the day was, plans for the weekend, exchanging a few laughs, until it was already 3:38PM. Diamond said her byes and stepped out of the glass doors.

As expected, two minutes later, Oak arrived on the dot.

Diamond smiled her usual cute smile and trotted up to her husband. "Hey," she cooed, giving him a tender kiss on the lips, with him returning it.

"Hey, hunny," said Oak softly, finishing their embrace with a hug and holding her left hoof with his right. He caressed it gently and looked her in her shiny rose eyes with his emerald green ones. "So, are you ready to head over to Ponyville?"

Diamond nodded. "What are we going to bring?"

The burly earth pony with the green mane paused and put his other hoof on his chin. "Hmm... Well, it all depends where we'll be staying. Probably a motel or something," he thought aloud.

"So I don't think we need to worry about food." Diamond added. The two of them began their walk back to their house before leaving.

"No, definitely not." Oak nodded, sounding a little off. All that was running through his head was telling her. Telling her he wanted to have another baby. She would surely agree! No doubt about it!

Oak opened his mouth to bring it up, but suddenly remembered what he promised his brother, Aspen. He would ask Diamond how she felt about it. He decided to wait until they were at home before asking her. For now, the two would just plan their living conditions in Ponyville.

It hadn't gone as well as Oak had hoped it would. Once Diamond and him had packed their stuff into two bags, Oak decided to finally bring it up. It wasn't met well. Diamond had snapped and accused Oak of trying to replace Ash, which hit a nerve and upset him. He snapped back, which only fueled the fire.

As the two of them left their house and walked to the train station, they argued and argued, getting more and more heated every minute, until it seemed like either or both of them would end up screaming. Finally, they stopped and walked along in bitter silence.

Why does she have to be so stubborn? Why can't she see it the way I see it? These, and many other thoughts toward his wife went through Oak's head, and he cast an occasional side glance at her. Whenever they'd catch each others eyes, Diamond would humpf and look away crossly.

It was only around the point where they reached the forest path that Oak started to feel guilty. He hadn't asked, he had just tried to force what he wanted on her selfishly, and he was seriously considering apologizing. But Diamond had never been the kind to just accept like that. It took much more than a 'Sorry.'

Oak and Diamond stepped onto the squashy dirt path that lead to the train station and was met with a cool breeze that massaged their faces, rustled their manes, and sent shivers up their spines. The multi-colored leaves on the trees rustled and crinkled as the wind passed through them. The afternoon sunlight was slowly sinking into the sunset and all around it changed from sky-blue to evening-orange. It was an average fall/autumn evening.

Oak was brainstorming up various ways to try and apologize to Diamond, but most of them seemed unlikely to work. Still, he had to try. He allowed himself a few more minutes to think, before sighing. Here we go.

"Diamond..."

"What?" Diamond answered grumpily.

Oak sighed again and stared ahead, the wind blowing in his mane. "I just... It wasn't right of me t--"

WHOOSH!

A rather heavy and unusually sudden gust of wind blew them back. Diamond almost toppled over, only to be saved by her husband. A strange whistling sound rang out ahead of them, not too far away, followed by an odd golden aura that formed behind a wall of trees. Oak and Diamond stared in curiosity and mild alarm. The golden aura grew curiously until it gave off a visible glow that flooded the area around them with this strange light. The whistling sound grew louder, and was immediately followed by a humming sound so loud it caused the ground to vibrate and made the two ponies witnessing this fall over. They gaped at each other, both with unease in their eyes. The aura grew hugely, and spontaneously shot off bolts of energy, which hit the trees and vaporized whichever part of them instantly. Several of these bolts impacted close to Oak and Diamond, who cried out in alarm and jumped to their hooves.

Just as it seemed like this aura would explode or something similar, it dissipated with a shrill and loud whistle, sending a cascade of sparks flying in all directions, and a huge wall of smoke where it had been. All that was heard now was the gentle rustling of the wind in the trees.

Oak and Diamond stood rooted to the spot, paralyzed with shock and alarm. Their hearts pounded hard in their chests, their eyes glued to the wall of smoke. Oak shook out of the trance and pulled Diamond by her right foreleg.

"Come on, let's go. Fast," he said churlishly, yanking her leg to go faster, but not very effectively. Diamond was still rooted to the spot, staring at the smoke. She seemed to be muttering something.

"Diamond, come ON!" Oak barked apprehensively, pulling harder.

"Wait."

"What?! Diamond, let's go!"

"Oak... Look..." Diamond said in a whisper, pointing toward the now-thinning wall of smoke.

A small figure could be seen through the smoke, but what it could be was unclear. Oak gaped and squinted his eyes, trying to get a better look.

"What is it?" he asked his wife in a whisper. Diamond didn't answer.

After a few seconds, the smoke cleared completely, to reveal a light-brown figure, which seemed to be curled up, laying completely motionless. A black tail could barely be made out, along with something gold-colored.

Oak went wide-eyed and gasped. "It's...i-it's a pony..."

They stood there, their eyes transfixed on the small pony laying around eight meters from them. It was either a colt or a filly.

"Should...should we...see if it's alive?" Diamond asked anxiously.

Oak, without taking his eyes off of the pony, nodded. "I will, you stay here," he whispered, stepping forward slowly.

As he got closer to the pony, he started to notice more of it. He was a colt, for sure, a small one, and he seemed to have a black mane and tail. His light-brown coat was neat and shiny, and his mane was sort of poofy, but short and straight. The most eye-catching and noticeable part of him, however, were his wings. A pair of bright, golden-colored wings stood out from the rest of his darker colors. Oak tilted his head curiously at this and leaned in to get a better look. The feathers on his wings were preened and shiny. It's as if he had been recently groomed.

Oak leaned further and spotted a piece of slightly crumpled parchment laying beside the colt. Oak picked it up, and looked it over. The scrawl was untidy, sloppy and stained with tears, as if some poor, dismayed pony had rushed to write it.

Please, whoev whomever you may be, please please PLEASE take care of this colt. My son. Our world is unsafe too dangerous for him, for he is invloved involved in something that no colt should be, and his death demise is inevitable as long as he is here.  As a mother, I canot cannot tell you how much pain this brings me to have to part with him, but I am hoping with all my stregnth strength he will have a good home. Please, take him in, love him as one of your own. Give little Icarus a good life.

Oak reread the note over and over, staring wide-eyed at it in wonderment. He was so fazed that he didn't realize his wife had been shouting at him for the past ten seconds.

"OAK! WHAT DOES IT SAY?!" Diamond shouted angrily but fearfully for the seventh time, almost screaming.

Oak, unfazed by his wife's tone, turned around slowly, a look of pure mystification plastered on his face, and raised the note slowly to show her. The snowy-white pony trotted forward quickly and snatched it from her husband's hoof. She read it over four times, before looking up frenzily at Oak, but saying nothing.

Oak returned the look and the silence. He peered over at the colt. He had been left, taken away from a different world that is apparently too dangerous. That's what got the two of them. "Our world is unsafe too dangerous for him" ... "Our world" ...

Icarus...

Could it be possible that this colt, this 'Icarus' was not from this celestial plane? He DID appear out of thin air. Well, not even. Out of some kind of energetic aura. Regardless, this was something serious, a lone baby colt was laying in front of them whom is apparently from another world, and with him is a note pleading for him to be taken care of. To be loved. To be raised. Where would they find someone who would take him? Should they go to the adoption center? What would THEY think about this? How--

An explosion of cognizance boomed in Oak's head and he went wide-eyed. This was it. This was the answer they were looking for. This was their chance to start a family. He looked over at his wife, his beautiful, gorgeous, amazing wife, and smiled hysterically.

"Hunny... Hunny, this is it," he mused softly.

Diamond looked at him, puzzled. "... This is what?"

Oak chuckled and shifted so that he was completely facing his wife. "This is our chance... Our chance to be parents again!"

Every feeling Diamond was experiencing at the moment was instantly replaced by shock and agitation. She glared.

"No. Nuh-Uh," she grunted, shaking her head.

Oak scoffed. "Diamond, come on, this--"

"No, Oak!"

"--is an opportunity being served to us on a silver platter!"

"I said no! We can't just do this! We need to discuss it first!" Diamond debated heatedly.

"Well, we're discussing it now!" Oak countered quickly and pleadingly.

Diamond simply shook her head and turned around. Oak was losing her. He looked down at Icarus again, and back up at his wife.

"What about him? What will we do with him?"

"We'll take him to the orphanage."

Oak groaned and put his hooves on Diamond's back. Time to go full force.

"Look, hunny... You know I loved Ash. We loved Ash. He was the best thing that ever happened to us, and he brightened our lives up. Every day with him was special. And these have been the best sixteen years of our lives. Am I correct about all of this?"

Diamond said nothing, but nodded.

"Exactly. Now, PLEASE believe me when I tell you that nothing can or ever will replace Ash. He's indented into our hearts, our memories, and always will be." Oak made clear. "Now, what if we could relive all of that? Not just for us, but for him-" he pointed down to Icarus, "-as well."

Diamond kept silent, this being a sign she was coming around. Oak held back a joyful giggle and went on.

"We could give this colt a good home. We can be his parents, we can love him, feed him, give him whatever he wants, and give him the best life we can give," he elucidated pleadingly.

The snowy-white mare standing in front of him turned around, and, very very slightly, that little twinkle could be seen in her eyes. She gazed down at Icarus.

"Ash would've wanted us to go on, to live on, and I'm positive he'd want us to give to another colt the same thing we gave to him." Oak added in as a final point.

To Oak's great surprise, his wife gave a tiny smile, and looked down at Icarus once again.

"You're right... Ash would've wanted us to move on. For one reason or another, this colt has been left here, and we happened to be here when he was," she said in a soft voice, not looking away from Icarus.

Oak smiled.

"So." Diamond continued. "Let's call him our son..."

Oak couldn't contain himself as he burst into a fit of happy giggles. He hugged and kissed his wife lovingly, and she returned the gesture. This went on for a few minutes, before Diamond nervously scooped Icarus up and stared down at him. He was sleeping, with an expression of contentedness, both him and the couple completely unaware of the horror he had been taken away from. They watched the rise and fall of his tiny chest, and smiled.

Things would sure take a change now.

Written by Kerry Leventis, AKA Minimoog Voyager