“So you come here when you have had enough of my sister, or does she drive you out into the forest like some sort of fairytale vagabond herself?”
 
“A little bit of both.”
 
“You prefer my birds over Canterlot?”
 
“Yeah, always. The birds are my friends.”
 
Icarus opened a hatch into the observation room of the aviary. A small room with a clean paved floor and a few benches. A glass ceiling revealed the aviary in all of its glory, a massive dome of glass and mesh netting, taller than most of the forest trees at its highest point. Birds of all shapes and sizes inhabited the dome, flying,trilling and calling back to one another, filling the space with their distinct sound.
 
“It’s where I go to relax.” Icarus ignored the benches and fell down onto a large pony sized plush pillow she had laid there weeks before. “I never told you because I just like being alone sometimes, hope this doesn’t harsh you too bad.”
 
Cerulean contemplated this before he shrugged. “I suppose I don’t mind. If they don’t mind.” He said, indicating all of the blithely ignorant birds fluttering in the upper hemisphere of the aviary dome. Icarus smiled and slid the bizarre mish mash of welded junk in front of her.
 
“Come my friend,” Icarus patted the ground next to her. “Sit with us and dispel your troubles.”
 
“Us?” Royal glanced questioningly at the strange object in front of Icarus. It wasn’t until she unhooked one of the hoses from the side that realization suddenly dawned on him.
 
“Oh I see! is that a- is it supposed to be a…,” His voice hung on a note as he pointed at the strange object. “A Hookah?”
 
Icarus winked. “That’s correct.” Royal Cerulean’s eyes brightened as imagery of pretty zebra sheiks with beckoning eyes flooded his mind. Endowed in lace, reclining on satin pillows, encircled in the light vapor of foreign incense that he might have only smelled once from the cargo holds of his father’s airships. But this wasn’t the weird yet alluring curvy elegance he had expected to see.
 
“You must excuse my blunt inquiry, but I have to ask why this one looks like a pile of junk randomly stuck together with a blowtorch.”
 
Icarus’ smile widened. “I’m so glad you noticed. That’s because it IS a random pile of junk. And it is the best!” Royal Cerulean sat across from her, eyeing the hookah curiously.
 
“Is the bottom half… a coffee pot?”
 
“Yeeeeaah, works like a dream, a true dream, Cerulean. Have you ever inhaled coffee essence before? Nettle Roast, oh yeah, it’s pretty wicked you should know.” Royal Cerulean smirked. “I’m sure it is. But when did you make this?”
 
“Oh, you think I am the progenitor of this creation of the sublime? I totally appreciate the comment but I cannot take responsibility. My mom made this years ago, like, before I was even a notion actually. It was her first attempt at fulfilling her place in her family’s glass blowing business.”
 
Royal Cerulean rubbed his chin, dubious. “I see…” Icarus chuckled “Don’t be fooled by its spasmodic appearance, my friend. This simple creation is merely the first step in my mother’s spirit journey. She discovered that glass blowing was not her truest talent, so compromises were made here and there, the end result sits before us here, she passed it on to me as a gift.” She sighed, her face giving something away. “I feel like I’m with her when I use this.”
 
Royal hesitated as he looked down at the ever swaying fluid inside the water jar. He never asked her what was exactly inside this thing. His stomach rolled as the unsettling prospects of what he could be about to inhale leapt upon him.
 
“I can feel your chakras wavering on the precipice but you have to trust me on this, cuz. This is no poison joke or anything off the wall like that but it tastes just as rad.” Icarus exhaled slowly letting a billow of green smoke thick as soup hit Royal Cerulean in the face, making him cough.
 
“That…doesn’t smell too bad to be honest.” Cerulean admitted, although the thick vapor made his eyes water.
 
“Trust me this is more than “not to bad.” Icarus adeptly made shapes in the air with her exhale. “This is the best shit you have ever had.” A fresh puff of smoke and Cerulean had to wave away enough of it to see his cousin again. “More like the first…well…shit. I’ve ever had.” He coughs again. “You know my father runs a clean ship.”
 
“Yeeeaah, don’t remind me.” Icarus took another long inhale. “Such a drag.”
 

 

 

 
Loosely running off of my last submission. I decided to go on and draw an older Icarus. The idea being that in the future, Zephyr Breeze ends up leaving Icarus with Fluttershy and Blueblood for a while as he tries to start his life over in Canterlot. They keep in touch, but due to her abrupt separation from Tree Hugger, the relationship between daughter and father is very strained. She eventually finds her place in the house hold and even gets her cutie mark in blacksmithing. Unfortunately you can drag a crazy hipster girl out of the forest. But you can’t drag the crazy forest hipster out of the child. Causing…problems. Especially with Winsome. But not Winsome’s younger brother, a sir Royal Cerulean.
 
He is a very polite and well spoken type of guy who manages a giant aviary on his family’s property. He finds his cousins strange/sage hipster-isms interesting. This kind of stuff is a low-key thrill for him. I’ll hopefully get around to formally introducing him later.
 
Last but not least, props to Magello for the initial sketch of the weird coffee pot hookah XD.