Star Catcher

December 5, 2017

Have something I wrote up a while back. Figured it'd be worth a read.<img alt="" src="https://store.canterlotavenue.com/file/file/attachment/2017/12/4f2cd5c84570eb64f76f674149cefae9_view.png"; />

Star Catcher was born in Butterfly Island – a vacation resort roughly 70 miles off the coast of Manehattan to a unicorn named Serene Cosmos and a Pegasus named Graceful Waltz – a dance instructor and a politician who lived in Canterlot. In the city of the high-class, Star Catcher was born and raised, the parents hiring a live-in teacher to make sure she was well-educated. Life was easy for Star Catcher, and she probably would have remained in the posh lifestyle had she not caught a glimpse of what life was really like for most ponies; as the family was heading out for dinner, the carriage they were riding in was came across a number of ponies scrounging to get by. Immediately she wanted to stop and help however she could, but her parents held her close, attempting to calm her protests as the carriage drove off past them with promises that they would do nothing but harm to her in return.

At the age of 12, Star Catcher was sent off the flight camp, however the instructors found that Star Catcher’s wings had become unusually big, already the size of a fully grown pony’s, and she would be unable to fly for very long even if she did eventually grow into them. Nevertheless they contacted her parents, and with their permission allowed Star to stay through another flight camp cycle to make sure she could safely take off and fly about. Of course, because of this safety precaution Star’s advancement through the camp was slowed, and because of this she had to see the ponies she had gotten to know in such a short time graduate and head off, only to be replaced by another batch as she continued her training – and whereas the first group had been understanding of her condition, the second group teased her about her wings, thinking her some kind of cripple when they found out she was a student just like them, rather than an instructor who was here full-time.

It wasn’t until the last week of the second group’s flight lessons that Star Catcher realized something – one of the ponies she was learning with wasn’t doing too well, and figuring that making friends was better late than never, she approached the mare, a wave of despair washing over her as she asked what was wrong. Of course, being one of the ponies who had been more vocal about Star’s “deformities”, and surrounded by her peers, she refused to say anything, instead resorting to vehement insults to drive the filly off. Nevertheless Star stood there, a sensation in her heart welling up as she craned her neck down, the white mare’s words seemingly not her own as she spoke to the other filly, before contacting the instructor and requesting that she be allowed to leave the camp to visit her mother in the hospital.

As the three of them checked into the hospital, the young pony quickly ducked into her mother’s hospital room, with Star and the instructor close behind. Her mother, a violet Pegasus, wasn’t doing very well, and Star began to wonder if there was anything she could do to help. Of course there was nothing she could do, with no medical background or knowledge outside of what to do to prevent a cut or scratch from getting infected, but the mare still felt the urge to help, as if something deep in her heart was urging her to make sure the mare would be alright. Slowly she approached the mother and daughter, the older Pegasus glancing up at Star with a pained, weary expression.

Immediately Star Catcher reeled back, possessed by the same urge that had driven her to speak to the other filly, and to inform the instructor that she needed to go to the hospital. Without thinking, she pressed the button to call the nurse, an annoyed-looking earth pony trotting in as she glanced about, before demanding to know why she had been called. Flinching a bit, Star began to have second doubts about her actions, but since she had already done this much, she decided to speak up, telling the nurse what her heart was driving her to say. It was a wild rush for the mare – there were a number of words she didn’t even understand, and a few that no filly her age should know how to pronounce, but the nurse stood there, her hardened expression softening as she recognized the words, quickly rushing out to inform the doctors of the possibility of being able to find something with another test.

With the visitation over, however, the three ponies left the hospital – they still had to continue their training. On the final day of flight camp, however, as the young graduate fillies walked up to the small stand to receive recognition of passing the camp, Star Catcher caught a glimpse of the mare who had been in the hospital, healed, with the young filly nestled up against her forehoof, wings wrapped about each other in a hug. A warm feeling began to nestle up in Star’s heart, and quickly she looked down at her flank, which now showed the sparkling heart.

Upon returning to Canterlot, however, her parents were shocked to find the mark on her flank was not the only markings that Star had received at Flight Camp, the two of them setting her in front of a mirror so Star could see the markings upon her forehead, hind legs, and under the wings as the two of them peppered her with questions about what she had been up to, the two ponies demanding she remove them as if they were tattoos – however after an intense and rather painful scrubbing, the parents finally gave up when they realized that the markings were not something she had done to herself, but rather a part of her cutie mark – the mare realizing her talent in sensing the emotions of others, empathizing with their pain, and acting to help ponies feel happy. Of course, with this newfound talent, Star began to sense much more than she would have ever wanted – after all, every pony had problems and issues – and some were so much more desperate for help than the filly/mother had been. It was driving the mare insane, and the fact that her parents would not only do nothing to help others down on their luck, but forbid that she help them was killing her inside.

On her nineteenth birthday, Star finally lost her temper, demanding to know why, if her parents had the wealth and resources to help some of the ponies with their problems, why they wouldn’t do so – only to be reminded that the ponies who were down on their luck were less important. Star, however, refused to believe this, the filly continuing to argue with her parents, who refused to bend on the matter, until Star, who couldn’t take it anymore, stormed out of the home and took off into the night sky, flying off in an arbitrary direction. She had some funds saved up – after all, her parents had taught her the importance of saving money – but nowhere to go now. At this point, however, anywhere but Canterlot would do. After flying for a good 3 hours – or more specifically, gliding from the Canterlot mountainside with her wings unfurled, catching as much air as she could, the mare finally touched down around a small town that looked cozy enough. She’d need to speak with ponies tomorrow, introduce herself – and perhaps speak with somepony about seeking employment. Surely they’d take in an awkward Canterlot Pegasus with massive wings, right?

As it was, thankfully they would – well, one would – a bright pink earth pony who greeted her with a gasp and a loud hello that had woken her up, almost causing her to roll off the cloud in alarm. The mare greeted herself as Pinkie Pie and asked her to come down, the Pegasus wondering what she had gotten herself into as she obliged, descending down to the dirt road below and greeting the mare and explaining she was new in town – a big mistake, Star soon found out, as the pink pony began to squeal excitedly and immediately began to make plans for a party, dropping her off at the Carousel Boutique with an apology and explanation that she now had plans to make. The proprietress of the Boutique, however, was more than happy to show her around – even if it took her the better half of an hour to calm the mare down once she had let slip that she was from Canterlot, the mare sorry to let her down and tell her that the high life wasn’t all she was romanticizing it to be.

After the brief tour around town – Rarity explained that she needed to stretch her legs anyway, as well as restock some fabric – the unicorn left Star Catcher in front of the Weather Control office, explaining that just about any Pegasus could find work here, since weather control was a government-funded job nowadays – and after speaking with the Pegasus at the lobby and signing some paperwork, Star Catcher was taken up to the skies for orientation – a brief reminder of the things she had learned in flight school as well as a few tips on how clouds were kept separated from each other to prevent any sort of incident. After a few days on the job, however, it was clear that staying aloft was too difficult with her wings, and so the weather captain offered her a job on the night shift – it would be harder to stay in the air, and visibility wasn’t as good, but she wouldn’t be as pressed for time as the day shift demanded of her and could clock out when she was finished, rather than have to stay awake to wait out the entire shift.

As it was, the night was much easier for the mare – not only was the night air considerably cooler, but the lack of sunlight made things easier on her eyes. She wasn’t alone either – there were a few ponies who had also taken the night shift, many of whom were curiously drawn to her; she was the new mare in town, after all, and by now Star Catcher had become accustomed to the stares of the other ponies, as she nervously introduced herself, the mare finally making a few friends in a more relaxed setting. Happy with her job, Star told the weather captain that she would prefer to stay on the night shift, the mare continuing to work alongside the other ponies. The mare’s life was uneventful – wake up, do what needed to be done in the day, go to sleep, wake up around 9:00 at night, and help with the night shift – which mostly comprised of positioning the clouds so that the day shift would have an easier time with the weather from 7-10 in the morning.

One night, however, as she was setting up the thunderclouds to the east of Ponyville, the mare, out of a mix of not watching where she was going and not being able to see very well without any sort of illumination other than a vest she wore to radiate light to help prevent collision, turned a corner about one of the clouds and collided into cold metal, the mare losing control and plummeting to the ground below, only just able to catch herself before hitting the ground, coming to a hover before touching down and glancing up, the mare unable to see what she had crashed into until the pony finally touched down in front of her – a thestral, clad in the uniform night-guard blue armor. Quickly Star apologized for the accident, asking him if he was alright, but the thestral remained silent, the stallion gazing upon her intently, as if checking for any injury, before muttering a single word in apology and taking off, leaving Star alone in the dark field to continue her work. When she got back to the other ponies, she explained what had happened, the ponies exchanging glances amongst each other before telling her the guard’s name, explaining that Whisper Wing had just been transferred over to Ponyville’s night watch. They’d seen him a few times while doing their rounds, but he never spoke to them or got in their way, so they really didn’t know anything about him.

The next time Star met Whisper was after a particularly tiring day, the mare trotting back toward the cloud that the Weather Team had given her as a temporary home when the sound of hooves stampeding about the alleyway caught her attention. Curious, the mare trotted over, her eyes widening as she was struck head-on by a running pony – an earth pony stallion. She’d only just caught a glimpse of him before the collision, the mare grunting as the force knocked her back, causing her to hit the ground hard as she winced, curling up to nurse her wing as the earth pony began to yell something out to the pony who had been persuing him – she was still too dazed and distracted by the pain to make out what it was, but she could tell just from the tone it hadn’t been pleasant.

Once the stallion had been arrested, the property that had been stolen confiscated to be returned, Star finally shuffled herself up, limping just a bit. The crash had done some serious damage to her right wing, bending it to a painful position, and had left her right side sore, the mare barely able to see the bruises on her forehoof, even if she was certain there were more. Wordlessly Whisper approached her again, looking her over without as much as a wince as he glanced at the bruises upon her shoulder, the underside of her wing, and along her right legs, before wrapping a wing about her and walking her to the hospital so that the nurses could take a proper look at her and see to it she was properly patched up. This time, however, Whisper stayed with the Pegasus, however even now he refused to speak, instead opting to stand vigilant as the nurse finished applying the bandages and offered to allow Star to rest to ease the immediate pain.

At last Star spoke, the mare unable to figure out anything about Whisper – even with her talent for empathy, she hadn’t been able to sense anything from Whisper other than a tinge of guilt over her injury. She introduced herself proper to the thestral, spoke of where she had come from, and even prompted him for a name or to tell her more about himself – but nothing came from him until the following morning, when Star Catcher was cleared to fly back home, the nurses advising she take the next few days off to allow it to heal. It wasn’t much, but the thestral offered his name, a pause, and then a curt apology before seeing her off.

Days turned into weeks, weeks turned into months, and before long, Star Catcher had grown to befriend Whisper Wing. He wasn’t much in the way of conversation, but it didn’t matter; Star rather enjoyed the silence, and just the fact that Whisper was so quiet meant that she could speak to him as if she were speaking to herself. He never paused her, never asked her to stay quiet, and the two of them were happy; of course as time passed, news of the two of them began to spread, and soon rumors began to surface that the two of them had become a couple – and with Whisper never around to comment, most of the ponies flocked about Star, who continued to deny the claims, saying that she didn’t know what Whisper thought of her. It wasn’t until Star’s twentieth birthday that Whisper finally began to speak up, the normally stoic thestral unusually shy and uncomfortable. He explained that even in his squadron, rumors had begun to surface of the two of them – and moreso so he could shut them up rather than anything, he leaned in, asking Star if she would be his marefriend. Happily she accepted, wrapping her hooves about his back as the two of them cuddled up upon the cloud.

Months turned into years, the two of them continuing to spend time together when they both worked at night. By then, everypony in town knew of their relationship, and Pinkie, after a fair bit of convincing, had even refrained from throwing the two of them a party. Over time, the two of them began to live together, until at last Whisper finally dared to ask for Star’s hoof in marriage, which the Pegasus happily accepted.

Last update on December 5, 10:35 am by Star Catcher.