Icarus

17 years later...

Seventeen years had passed since that night. The night when Icarus had arrived, apparently delivered from another world, into the care of Oak and Diamond. The task of raising this colt with golden wings was as difficult as taking care of any other young one, but also much easier because of the fact that the couple had experience from their son, Ash, whom had passed away over seventeen years ago. They knew all the tricks and needs and always kept their eyes on Icarus.

At first it felt strange, eccentric, because of Icarus not being their blood child, and for a few very brief days, the couple actually reconsidered, and almost ended up bringing him to the orphanage. After a few weeks, however, the colt grew on them, and they grew to love him to no bounds as their true son. Icarus had blessed their life; everything seemed a little brighter once he had arrived, for he had given Oak and Diamond a new-found strength and a new lease on life, and shared an incredible child-parent bond that seemed unbreakable.

When he started kindergarten, Icarus was instantly liked and accepted by his fellow classmates and teachers, and he made many friends whom he would play with both in-school and after school in the backyard, or, if Oak or Diamond brought them, at the park. He was invited to every birthday party (especially the birthday parties of fillies who had a cute crushes on him), and his own birthday parties would be big and exciting.

He was a well-behaved and good-mannered boy, and Oak and Diamond were actually envied by other parents for having such a good child, and praised by teachers for raising him to well. ("I've never seen such a kind little boy!")

Once the colt had reached reached the age of thirteen, however, he had become slightly hostile toward his adoptive parents, his good manners had mostly melted away, and the 'Unbreakable' bond had faltered significantly. He had become rebellious and moody, often getting himself into fights and other forms of trouble and completely disregarding his parents' and his teachers' words of warning. Didn't help that his friends would always egg him on.

Icarus wasn't completely normal, either, and it was something himself, his parents, and his friends observed, too. Though they were things one would have to be paying attention to see, they were still noticeable. Icarus' icy blue eyes would sometimes give off a faint golden glow when angered, he would get random bursts of strength, and objects would move of their own accord when he was bored. Not to mention that he seemed to be capable of flying for unnatural lengths of time.

That was another thing. His wings. The only known pegasus in Equestria to have golden wings, Icarus was the subject of gossip and mild teasing from those who were not his friends. They would make rude or sarcastic comments toward how they looked, why they were gold, and many other things. Icarus usually avoided and ignored these people as best he could, but it sometimes wouldn't be enough.

Despite Icarus' attitude and rebellious nature, he still loved his parents more than anything and often wanted to apologize for everything, but hadn't had the guts to do it.

It was 2:18AM. Another sleepless night. Icarus had been laying in bed for the past three hours, wide awake, worried about the day to come. A court hearing.

Icarus and a few friends had fought a large group of students from a rival highschool in the streets, putting a portion of them in the hospital. Worst part was that he had provoked it and egged his fellow students on, and taunted the rival ones. He was arrested and taken home, but was ordered to appear in court in two weeks time. The next day was the day of the court hearing.

"Idiots should've stayed away." Icarus grumbled to himself, staring up at the ceiling of his bedroom. "None of this would've happened if they would've just took my warnings and left, but no, they always want to test me. Well, their loss," he tittered quietly. "They're the ones in the hospital."

Drip. Drip. Drip. Drip. Drip.

Icarus only just noticed the faint drips of the tap coming from the bathroom just outside his door, which was left open. He groaned. He didn't want to get out of bed. He was sleepless, but comfortable.

Drip. Drip. Drip.

"Fffff..."

He sat up and looked around his bedroom. The pale moonlight gently illuminated the room.

Directly to the left of his bed was the window, and his bed was pressed against the corner and wall. On the far right wall and corner was his wooden dark blue dresser. To the right of it sat his desk, littered with an assortment of papers, quills, a spilled ink pot, Sports Equestriated magazines (which he had forgotten to hide from view) and a picture of his parents, Oak and Diamond, with him as a young colt. To the right of that, at the end of the rectangular shaped room, the blasted mahogany door that never stayed shut. The pale-blue walls were plastered with posters of The Wonderbolts, Dungeondweller, Blue Stahllion, and various other famous icons.

With an irritated sigh, Icarus sat up and stepped out of bed. He made his way through the shaded room and toward the door to go into the bathroom and turn the damn tap all the way off. Before exiting his room, Icarus looked left and right down the dark hallway. He shook his head and entered the bathroom.

He flipped the light-switch and the small room was flooded with a luminescent glow from the automatic lantern. He looked at himself in the mirror.

Icarus, now seventeen, was rather small for his age, but was still quite the stunner to the mares, and well-intimidating to stallions, with his stocky face, and piercing, icy-blue eyes. His black mane was untidy, mainly from laying in bed for so long, and his bangs rested down part-way over his right eye. He had bags under his eyes. The feathers on his golden wings were not preened and jutted out on random spots.

Icarus turned the tap and a stream of cold water flowed down into the bowl and down the drain. He put his hooves under the stream, leaned forward, and splashed his face with the coldness. Not like he would get any sleep anyway. He turned the tap again and dried his hooves and face on a towel, sighing.

"What are you doing awake so late?"

Icarus nearly jumped out of his skin as he heard the voice, and turned toward the source. Diamond was standing in the door frame, wearing a white housecoat and looking groggy. She hadn't aged very much during these past years, and was still as beautiful as ever. Her pale-lavender mane was done up in a ponytail.

Icarus sighed softly. "Can't sleep. And the leaky tap was bugging me."

Diamond nodded. "You have to try, though. Big day tomorrow."

"Yeah, I seem to have been reminding myself all night." Icarus said softly, rubbing his right foreleg with his left hoof and looking to the left uncertainly.

Diamond blinked. "I know you're nervous."

"How could I not be?" Icarus said coldly,  inciting a sigh from his mother.

"Why did you do it, Icarus?" Diamond asked airily, leaning against the door frame and crossing her forelegs. Icarus raised an eyebrow.

"Mom, we talked about this a thousand times," said Icarus blandly.

"And every time, you only told me parts of the story." Diamond added quickly.

Icarus shook his head and moved toward the door. "Nevermind..."

Diamond moved out of the way for him, but stared. "If you want to plead your case tomorrow, you're going to have to tell the truth."

Icarus grunted and spun around to face her. "Mom, can we just stop this conversation?"

"Alright." Diamond sighed. "But I'm only trying to help you. No matter how angry I may be with you, I still love you very much."

Icarus stopped and looked down. Celestia, he had to apologize some time...

"And nothing will ever change that." Diamond said as she turned and stepped down the hall toward her and Oak's bedroom.

Icarus watched her walk away and shook his head sadly. He inhaled slowly. "M-Mom..."

Diamond stopped and looked back to her son. "Hm?"

Icarus sighed and opened his mouth to speak, but the words wouldn't come to him. What would be the best way to start this?

"It was me," he said feebly. "I started it."

Diamond walked back over to Icarus and nodded.

"We were walking down main street, and so were they." Icarus said softly, not making eye contact. "We...I thought it would be funny if we throw them a few wisecracks. What harm would that do? We were just goofing around."

Diamond said nothing, listening intently.

"One of them challenged one of us to fight, and like the stupid idiot I am, I egged him on." Icarus said shamefully, staring at the carpeted floor. "It broke into something much bigger than we expected, and before you know it, the police are there, most of us are being loaded into ambulances, and the rest of us are being arrested."

Diamond nodded and put a hoof on his shoulder.

"And now..." Icarus murmured, and chuckled pathetically. "...Now I'm...we're screwed. So screwed."

Diamond tsk'd. "No, hunny, you're not screwed. Don't think so negatively. Yes, you did something...ehhh...not so good, and it was a mistake. And you are NOT stupid, you are NOT an idiot."

"Mom, we put ponies in the hospital," said Icarus sadly. "And I AM an idiot for getting into this mess."

"No, you aren't," shushed Diamond. "You simply made a mistake. All of us--"

"Have made much simpler mistakes that are easily resolved." Icarus butted in.

"--make mistakes. And you know what we do? We take responsibility for our mistakes."

Icarus looked up at his mother. "Take responsibility? So, just let them send me to prison."

"Icarus, they won't send you to prison. You're not of age yet." Diamond assured him.

"I will be in a week." Icarus said quickly. Diamond blinked.

"Your hearing is tomorrow. Not in a week," she said soothingly.

"Mom, I--"

"Icarus, you have to trust me. Things will work out. You won't go to prison. We got you a good lawyer. The most you'll have to do is community service. You know, maybe helping at the old folks' home, or cleaning up parts of the city." Diamond explained positively. "That doesn't sound so bad, does it?"

"Well...n-no, not really." Icarus said hesitantly, rubbing his foreleg with a hoof and looking to the left again.

Diamond put her right hoof under his chin and tilted his head up to look him in the eye. "Exactly. It'll all work out, Icarus. I promise you. Just be honest, stay calm, and try to comb that mane of yours," she said, smiling and playfully tousling his mane.

Icarus chortled and playfully swatted her hoof away.

"There's that smile. I love you a lot, Icky," cooed Diamond.

Icarus smiled sincerely. "I love you too, mom."

Diamond kissed her son on the forehead. "Now, get to sleep. You need your rest."

Icarus nodded. "Goodnight."

"Night."

Icarus stepped back into his shaded room feeling a lot better, and much more confident. He plopped himself down onto his bed and pulled his cozy blanket over his body. He rolled into a comfortable position. Now, he could sink into a deep sleep and be fully rested and alert for tomorrow... He closed his eyes.

Drip. Drip. Drip.

"UUURGHH!"

Ares trotted down the grey stone steps with a saddlebag on his back, and a nervous look plastered on his face. The further down the steps he went, the narrower the stone walls to his left and right became, until he could see the bottom and it was difficult to move through.

Luckily, Ares hadn't needed to worry about anyone following him (Though, because of his paranoid nature, he did anyway), because these stone stairs were located in the outlands of Domus.

Domus was a vast world filled with utopias, cities, temples, and castles, ruled by the majestic Queen Alcyone, whom fought tooth and hoof to keep everypony safe and well after what had happened seventeen years prior... Although, the past ten years have not been successful for her.

A series of murders and robberies were committed, crimes which broke the peace and prosperity that had been rebuilt over seven years. For the first while, it resulted in a huge uproar from many cities; death by anything other than natural causes, or accidents, were unheard of since the powerful tyrant, Ceyx, died seven years earlier. Some even assumed Ceyx had returned and had his followers doing some dirty work. Little did they know, they weren't far from the truth...

Ares was one of the last living followers of Ceyx, and had taken it upon himself to revive his master as quickly as possible, by stealing hidden artifacts that Ceyx himself had cursed and using them to revive him, a feat Ares assumed would be simple.

He had underestimated.

These artifacts, it seemed, had been placed under protection in royal castles for isolation, and the guards stationed in the castles wouldn't just let Ares walk in and take them. He had been given no choice but to kill any who tried to stop him, and discard any evidence against him.

Now, over the course of ten years, Ares had found fourteen of the eighteen artifacts required to revive Ceyx. Every artifact the weakened tyrant absored, the more strength he gained, but not enough for him to be able to overthrow Alcyone, like seventeen years ago. He would need ALL of them.

The paranoid stallion finally reached the bottom of the steps, and was met with a collapsed, faded-yellow wall. With one final glance behind his back, Ares stepped forward, and a second later, the debris was pulled out and floating mid-air. He casually stepped inside, and the debris stuck back into the spot it was seconds earlier. So noone could find this place.

The path ahead was illuminated by torch light, and the enclosed space was a cramped, musty, dirty tunnel that led into a dark drop. Ares had come here countless times over the past years, and this was routine to him. As he trotted toward the hole, feeling much more relaxed now that he was out of the public eye, his reflection in a puddle caught his eye. He kneeled down.

Ares, being a twenty-eight year old pegasus, had lost his youthful complexion to stress and fear. His face was muscular, but sunken, and his icy-blue eyes showed nothing but exhaustion and worry. His dark-cobalt-blue mane was thinning like never before, and his dark-grey coat always seemed to be messy. Same applied to the feathers on his wings.

With a sigh, Ares stood back up and jumped down the hole, spreading his wings half way down to slow his descent. He landed with a gentle 'Thud' in a giant circular room made of stone.

Clumps and patches of moss stuck to the decayed, dark-green stone. It looked as though the room was ready to collapse at any time. Ahead stood a bridge made of the same material that connected the side Ares stood on to the other side, which had a door. Two voices could faintly be heard from the door.

Ares walked forward onto the bridge. It seemed as if the the side railings had decayed and crumbled. He looked down the side. Nothing but darkness below. Many ponies had perished crossing this bridge, falling and impacting the ground below, however far down it may be. Ares pictured a pony hitting the earth from that high and his innards splattering all over the surrounding ground. He shuddered at the thought and shook it off.

As Ares neared the door, the voices became clearer. One was angry, the other was fearful. One was soft and weak, the other was shrill and strong.

His master, and another follower.

"How many times must I warn you, Callias?!" hissed the smaller voice. It belonged to a male, but it was very raspy, rusty, and weak, and the owner of it had to stop and take in breaths of air during every sentence.

"M-Master, forgive me, oh, forgive me, master! I-I tried!" weeped the shrill voice.The voice of a mare.

"Tried?! With my state, just 'Trying' is not enough, Callias!"

"M-Master, please..."

Ares walked through the large door frame and examined Callias worriedly. She was a unicorn, with an auburn coat and red mane, both of which were very dirty and messy. Even through the unwashed look, though, she was very pretty. Ares felt dismay bubbling up inside his chest. His master was sitting in a crumbled and decaying stone throne, cloaked in shadow. Heard, not seen.

"I've had enough of your failures, Callias," hissed the raspy voice, disregarding Ares' entrance. "I've been relying on you, and you've done nothing but fail me!"

"I-I-I know, m-master, b-b-b-but I..." Callias was stuttering horribly, making her hard to understand.

Ares noticed tears streaming down her face and her trembling legs, once he stepped closer. This only increased the feeling in his chest. The worry visibly crossed his face. His master noticed.

"Can you not see that I am busy, Ares?" hissed the voice, causing Ares to flinch.

"Errr... Y-Yes... Sorry... It's j-just that I...I just..." Ares struggled for words, fidgeting his hoof.

"What? Say it already!"

"I-I have...uh..." Ares stuttered, but facehoof'd and threw his saddlebag down.

Its contents rolled out. A purple crystal ball with what appeared to be a hazy lavendar fog floating and curling around inside of it, along with some cloth to protect it.

If Ares and Callias could've seen their master, they would've seen his lips curl into an unpleasant grin.

"Yes... That is perfect, Ares... This makes, what, fifteen?" his master inquired raspily, sounding pleased.

Ares nodded quickly, but his expression remained nervous.

"Excellent," his master chuckled weakly, before turning serious once more. "Do you see, Callias? Ares knows how to do his job, unlike you!"

Callias whimpered, her face tear-soaked and her hazel eyes shining with evident terror.

"M-Master Ceyx... Y-Y-You have to und-understand--"

"UNDERSTAND what?" Ceyx hissed cruelly. Callias whimpered again and kneeled.

"T-That I-I searched exactly wh-where you told me to, a-a-an-and it was not there!"

Silence.

"P-Please, master Ceyx, you must believe me, t-th-th-there wasn't anything!"

Silence again, and then a scoff from Ceyx.

"Enough. Ares, kill her," he rasped casually.

Ares felt his heart sink to his stomach.

Callias whimpered shrilly and muttered something along the lines of 'Please... No..."

"NO!" Ares blurted out desperately.

Ceyx gaped at him in surprise. He had always been too terrified to speak to Ceyx with anything louder than a regular indoor voice.

Ares felt his cheeks grow hot instantly, and his heart pounded quickly. Before his master could say anything, he spoke again.

"C-Could you give Callias one more chance? I-I swear, I will accompany her on the next scout out, and I promise you we will bring you back something," he assured Ceyx.

There was a long silence from their master. He seemed to be considering. Ares was hoping with all his might that Ceyx would spare Callias, and that he wouldn't have to end her life. The reason?

Ares and Callias had been lovers for a while, now, and Callias was pregnant. With something like fatherhood approaching, Ares couldn't bare to live without her, let alone have to harm her in anyway.

The silence was carrying on for a worrying amount of time. Seconds felt like hours. Ares HAD to convince his master. No question, he HAD to.

"A-Actually, if you spare her, we'll bring you back TWO artifacts," he added in, trying to hide desperation from his voice. Next to him, Callias was trembling in fear, tears still streaming down her face.

"Mmm..." Ceyx hummed. "Very well. Callias, you may leave. Ares, I need to speak to you."

Callias let out a mix between a sob and a laugh of relief and backed away. Ares looked back wistfully and gave her a warming look. She nodded shakily and left the room without another sound.

Ares let out a silent breath of relief and stepped forward, the fear having left his body almost completely.

"You've done a fine job bringing this to me." Ceyx rasped softly. "I'm all the more closer to coming back."

"Yes, father." Ares nodded his head. Ceyx growled.

"You will call me master," he snapped, making Ares flinch in nervousness again. "I created you, but I am still your master, and you shall address me as such."

"Y-Yes... Sorry, fa--master... What is it you need?"

A long pause followed, and Ares thought for a moment his master hadn't heard him. "What is it y--"

"I heard you, fool." Ceyx said bitterly. He inhaled. "I've been out of power for seventeen years," he said weakly. "A long, miserable seventeen years."

"In which we have been trying to restore you, master."

"Yes, and for that, I am grateful, and will reward you once I am in power again."

Ares nodded gratefully and shifted his position uncomfortably. What was Ceyx getting at?

"Now," his master continued. "You know the sole reason I faded away all those years ago."

"Yes." Ares answered cautiously. It surely couldn't be that time already?

"And you know what Alcyone did to HIM?" Ceyx asked, emphasizing 'Alcyone' and 'HIM' with extreme bitterness.

Ares tilted his head worriedly. "Err...yes, he can't be touched until he is of age. But--"

"Exactly." Ceyx sighed. "His wings. They hold the power I needed to stay alive."

"That is something that's made me curious, master." Ares said dreamily. "Why didn't you just send someone. Me? Why didn't you send me to get him?"

"Because of something that his stupid mother did to him." Ceyx rasped bitterly. "It made him invulnerable, and frankly useless to me, until he was of age."

So, that time WAS drawing near.

"Now, if I've calculated correctly, he will be of age within mere days," he finished."

Ares stepped back. "M-Master...what are you suggesting?"

Ceyx stepped down from his throne and into the light. To anypony new, he would've been a horrifying sight. Ceyx was small, well under four feet, but he looked undead. Only skin and bone. His coat was all but gone, and his skin was a sickly rotten color. His face was sagging and his eyes were bloodshot and yellow-ish. He shook unpleasantly with every step he took, as if his legs would give out any second.

"I am suggesting that you prepare for a journey shortly, Ares," he rasped simply.

Ares shifted uncomfortably once more and looked down.

Ceyx painfully waddled over to the crystal ball resting on the cold stone floor. "Now, leave me. Go and comfort your mare."

Ares' heart skipped a beat, and he felt his face grow hot again. "M-Master, what-what do you mean 'My mare?' Callias i-is merely...a friend."

Ceyx chuckled weakly. "Do not lie to me, Ares. I know about you and her. I only spared her because of you. You had better be grateful that I am generous."

Ares stuttered and struggled for words, but ended up letting out a feeble and nervous giggle. "T-Thank you...master..."

Ceyx grinned. "Now, leave. I must be left alone."

Ares didn't argue, and bolted out of the room and across the bridge. Callias was sitting on her rump, wiping her eyes. Ares stopped right in front of her and pulled her up and into a hug. She wasstill trembling.

"Ssshh sshh sshh... It's alright, love..." Ares cooed, rubbing her back soothingly. Callias continued to cry for the next little while, until which she calmed down, and her and Ares left the underground temple.

Written by Kerry Leventis, AKA Minimoog Voyager