The Strings Of Life:
Chapter 43- Starlight’s Return:
With a flick of her tongue, she glided through the slightly turbulent air. Guiding herself back home as she had been in the air for an awfully long time now. Her wings were starting to bother her, so she shifted into wherever she could merely glide her way down to the lower altitudes of the atmosphere. She faces towards the sun and its greeting warmth, as she lets the suns rays shine on her face, giving off a tiny shimmer of her mane.
She kept thinking about her home as time continued to pass on, thinking of how Maestro had been holding up all this time. She was as well thinking of meeting his girl, and his family, both foster and real family members.
She wondered how the ruins of her home and Canterlot would be from her view. Though chances were most of the rubble and ruin would be cleaned up and cleared by the time she got back. Though come to think of it, what kind of destruction could possibly be in Cloudsdale? It’s made of clouds for goodness sake, though for Ponyville and Canterlot…they’re obviously not made of clouds.
“I can’t wait to finally be back home! It’s gonna be so great! I’m just happy that I’ll finally get to meet Maestro’s family!” she said to herself outloud, trying to hear herself talk amidst the wind rushing past her ears. It had been in fact a week after the events of Canterlot’s bloody battle since Starlight was able to return back to the premises of the area to begin with. There was still a good amount of security put in place for sky and ground patrols too. Never did a single soul that experienced that battle; whether it is citizen or soldier…they never wanted to experience something like that again.
“Great, just great…wings are cramping up and I’m just miles away from home.” She said to herself again, as the wind and turbulence had died down.
She descended further and further to the ground, closer to what Pegasi were not exactly too comfortable with, especially where she was. She was right outside of the Everfree forest, but on the complete other side of the entire lush green canopy. She didn’t even really feel good to simply just fly over it; the place just gave her the creeps. She remembered when she was a filly; her pet bird flew into the forest and never came out since then. Because of that experience, she didn’t like to fly over it, and flying through it would just be suicide. Timberwolves, wild Manticores, Cockatrices, you name it, all the bad stuff that could possibly thrive in such a terrible and unforgiving place it seemed to her lived there.
She decided to take a bit of a rest out onto a flat-topped hill, comfortably away from the mysterious forest. Resting beside a stream nonetheless, she could get herself a drink of water whenever she needed to. With this, and the addition of a rock ledge hanging over where she was resting, if she wanted to, she could stay the night here. A good balance of transcendence seemed to reside at this location, almost like this location had been the work of a master land sculptor. There were also some rocks here and there to give her a bit of privacy under the area where the ledge overshadowed her location.
“I’m certainly tempted to stay the night here, this place seems so pristine with nature, almost like a natural resort. But again, that’s Equestria for you in many places across the kingdom.” She smiled a bit, thinking about if there could be even more naturally beautiful rocks and stone formations than where she was.
“Eh…I need a bath too, if only there was a…oh…never mind ha-ha!” she walked around the enormous ledge casting its shadow over her rest site, and saw that there was a pool of water just behind it. A waterfall cascaded over some rocks, as the water came hundreds of feet down to land in the large pool. It made large splashes as the impact even cause a bit of a mist to form around the impact radius, and drift off to other wet rocks.
“Whoa…” her eyes had seen some neat things back in her hometown and Cloudsdale, but never had she seen such a beautiful oasis in such a small and somewhat secluded spot.
“To think something so beautiful could be close to something so, uh…scary.” She said again as she looked back to the forest. She got closer to the waterfall and to what appeared to be a secret cave behind the rushing water.
She journeyed closer and closer over to the waterfall, but wasn’t sure if she could get through that water with her being a Pegasus and all that, she couldn’t swim either.
She kept looking around for any ways around it and found none, until she saw what appeared to be a very faded pathway that led behind it.
“Oh …I knew that.” Starlight rolled her eyes to her own stupidity.
This secret cave was sure to lead to something she thought to herself, but would it at all?
She walked behind the waterfall, and looked back at the heavily blurred forest through the crystal clear waters rushing down in front of her down to the large pool of water below her. The path was on an inclining ledge, and getting higher and higher the further she walked up it. It appeared to have stairs, but they looked awfully ancient and wore down from the weathering of the water and weather in general. She then stopped herself at the mouth of the caves pitch-black mouth.
“Maybe I should stop by here some other time, this place gives me the creeps too, and not just that dumb old forest.” she said. Starlight had no way to light her way down there, but she found what looked like very old writing chiseled into the rock wall just outside of the entrance.
“Cave of Two Sisters…whoa…this does seem old. I bet this cave was around when Princess Celestia and her sister were little I bet. But uh…maybe I should check this out later or something.” she says to herself outloud. The cave seemed well formed out, since the echo of her voice could be heard easily from her tone of voice.
Starlight found herself hours later back into the air rather than spending the night under that massive rock ledge, she didn’t want to even want to sleep in the shadow of that forest.
Flying through a stray cloud here and there, she found herself catching sight of the mighty city in the sky, Cloudsdale.
“About time, I’m just gonna take a shower, then hit the hay…”
She trailed off in her speech as she caught glimpse of Canterlot in the distance.
“Or I could pay Maestro a visit…just need to find out where he lives.”
Starlight soon then immediately shifted her flight course, and on her way towards Canterlot.
She flew above occasional sites still being rebuilt and reconstructed, some structures still in rubble, but the city was livable now.
“Halt there!” a security officer flew up to her after he caught sight of her flying towards the city.
“Um, yes?”
“Oh, my mistake, you talk…go right ahead.” The officer then flew off waving saluting back to her awkwardly.
“Okayyyy? What the hay was that for?” she wondered.
She knew Changelings were terrible at speech, and mostly made due with their hissing and other noises of communication. So she figured they still had security doing checks even after all of this time of recuperation and rebuilding society.
She managed to land softly onto a plush patch of grass, with made her hooves feel delighted to land on something so soft as genuine Canterlot soil, couldn’t go wrong with how they kept up the place. Even the mere grass was treated as best as possible from many gardeners and other ponies having to do with plants and such. Starlight approached a military tent, looking much like the one she knew back at her hometown that kept track of current soldiers in the area.
“Hello? Anypony there?”
“Yes, need someth-…oh! My apologies Sergeant, uh…” the pony stopped having to focus a bit on her nametag.
“It’s fine, at ease.”
“Thank you ma’am, what did you need to know?” the corporal asked.
“Yes, I need to know where I can find Maestro.”
“Specify…” he added, as he began to quickly sift through military files and records kept under the letter M.
“Er…is he a private? Private Maestro I suppose?” she didn’t fully know, since she wasn’t sure whether or not he might have been promoted.
“Ah, of course…well he has been stripped of his ranking, and dishonorably discharged ma’am.” he replied.
“What?! Surely that couldn’t be him?!”
“I’m looking at his file right now ma’am, he was going to be dishonorably discharged, but he got let off lighter than usual, since he actually ended up saving a life or two I believe when he went AWOL.” He replied to her once more, this time looking back up at her with eye contact.
“I…I see…” she begun facing towards the floor halfway.
“Sorry ma’am…but I have nothing else to say other than if you would like to find out his current residence?”
“That’d be nice Corporal, thank you.” Starlight smiled a bit.
“My pleasure Sergeant, now then let’s see here…” he turned page after page of his records till he found what he was looking for.
“Okay, here it is…” he flipped the file around to show her his current address on where he lives.
Starlight quickly grabbed a pencil and a piece of paper to scribble down the information.
“Thanks a lot Corporal, that is all.”
“Ma’am.” the Corporal stood up out of his chair and saluted her.
“Oh come on now, ease yourself up a bit. I’m not like those others as you can obviously tell.” She rolled her eyes giggling a bit.
“Oh, right…sorry ma’am, have a good night Sergeant.”
“Thank you once again Corporal.” She replied back, as she left the tent in a fairly brisk hurry.
It was around nine or so, and she definitely had some things to talk to him about. She had questions, for there was no doubt about that, but she wanted to meet some of his family first.
“Ah, here we go, this must be the place.” she looked at it in awe; certainly better looking than her place that’s for sure. She approached the front porch and noticed that nopony was there. She saw that the fireplace inside seemed to be recently put out.
“Well goodness Maestro, didn’t tell me you were this rich…making me look bad are you?” she told herself with a sarcastic tone, being jealous in a playful way.
The interior inside was gorgeous, but no sign of Maestro or anypony else. She saw that a note had been taped to the front door.
“Huh? What’s this?”
She took the note off to read it, realizing this note was for her foster parents.
“The…the Canterlot Hospital?! What in Tartarus is he doing there?!” her mind would then be caught off guard at what he was actually over there for. Maestro wasn’t over there on his own accord, but rather somepony else’s from the way it was written.
“Whatever this is about, better get moving to uh…wherever the hay it is?” she then zoomed off to find the hospital, leaving the note behind on the front porch. Surely it wouldn’t be too hard to find, considering how big a hospital building is to begin with.
Minutes later, she caught site of the hospital in the distance.
“Now on a mission to find out which room he’s in…oh what joy.” She thought to herself, as she made her way inside and up to the front desk.
“Excuse me, I’m looking for a pony by the name of Maestro.”
“Of course miss, I believe a pony by that name checked in with another pony I believe?” the pony at the front desk looked back to her, trying to recall the info she hopefully wanted.
“Another pony?”
“Yes…I believe a mare by the name of…Octavia Melody in fact, if I’m not mistaken that is.”
“What room are they in?”
“Room four-sixteen, take the stairs or elevator up to the fourth floor and proceed down the hall from there.” The front desk pony then pointed her towards the elevator just around the corner
“Thank you ma’am.” Starlight not caring either way, she quickly rushed up the stairs, rather than taking the elevator up to the fourth floor.
“You’re welcome dear.” The cream colored pony smiled, before making her way back to her station.