A Search For Something More

Chapter 60: Welcome Home

"Attention passengers, this is your captain speaking. We are about to land momentarily. Please stay seated until the plane has made a complete stop. We hope you enjoyed your flight and thank you for choosing Cloudsdale Airlines."

I sighed in relief after the captain makes the announcement. I've probably flown a hundred times by now, and yet I still haven't gotten used to the thrill of flying. Yet at the same time, I'm glad when I see everyone begin to unbuckle their seatbelts and grab their stuff to let me know that I can do the same after several hours on this plane.

It's been ten years since the encounter with Eternal War and graduating from Canterlot High School, and so much has changed in that time. After I graduated from college, I began to write my own original stories and began to try to publish them. It took several tries, and there are many times where I thought it would never work out, but then Twilight just happened to be starting her own publishing company and asked me to be one of her clients. While I'm no means as skilled or popular as the likes of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, or J.K. Rowling, my stories have gotten a fair amount of popularity over the past few years. I am currently heading home after flying over for another tour for one of my latest books.

As I leave the plane with a flight attendant kindly telling me to have a nice day and I politely tell her to do the same, I begin to walk down the halls until I see through the large windows the high and mighty Canterlot Mountains that I've missed so much during my trip. I've been gone for about three months, but it feels like it's been years since I've stepped foot in my home again. I smile as I look forward to seeing my house and my family again.

"Look, it's Rough Draft!"

I turn around to see a little boy stare at me happily in surprise with his mom and dad standing next to him. I smile as they walk over to me, and I bend my knees to be at eye level with the boy.

"Well, hello there," I greet. "And who might you be?"

"My name is Rough Cut, sir," the boy says enthusiastically. "I'm a huge fan of your Varpathion series!"

"Are you now?" I say. "What book is your favorite from the series so far?"

Rough Cut stutters nervously.

"I guess I haven't chosen a favorite yet," he answers. "I guess if I had to pick one from the top of my head, it would be a close tie between The Battle of the Master Watch and Candronia's Revenge."

I smile again at his answer before he continues.

"My mom and dad and I are actually in the middle of reading your teenage story, The Tale of Cellos and Phoenix Wings."

I chuckle a little at the mention of that title. Four years ago, I decided to write an alternate version of what happened at Canterlot High. It was more of a side project to one day just read to my kids when they got older, but my wife and Twilight encouraged me to publish it when it was done. Many of the names of the people and places were changed to avoid any suspicion that it really happened and that Equestria exists, and I even made contact again with some of my old friends in high school to make sure I got the full story. I started with Vinyl, who has become a famous music artist though she still lives in Canterlot. A lot of my story was written from her perspective since a lot of what happened revolving around Eternal War was because of her. She was reluctant at first, but my wife and I were able to convince her that her story should be told on behalf of everyone from Canterlot High.

"Yes, it's a curious read, to say the least," Rough Cut's mother says as she walks next to her son. "Not that it's bad at all, Mr. Draft, but it is a little different from your other books."