Grounded for Life

by Supremechief

Chapter 1: The Earth Pony in the Sky

Grounded For Life
By: Surpremechief
Reviewed By: TP-Night

Chapter 1: The Earth Pony in the Sky

***

Riiiing. A school bell sounded off as it signalled all of the colts and fillies to head outside for recess. It was a usual routine at Cloudsdale elementary as the young pegasi flew off to have races in the air or other sports and activities. Everyone was showing how well they can fly for it was the ability to fly that makes pegasi unique among the other ponies, other than the Royal alicorn sisters in Canterlot. Well, all but one colt was in the air. He was light blue colt with a white muzzle and pale blue eyes. He had a messy dark brown mane with blue highlights at some tips with a long tail to match the colour while his cutie mark was still waiting to reveal itself. He was lying down on the ground that was made of cloud, which of course everything that wasn’t alive in Cloudsdale was made of, while reading a book.

“What lame book are you reading now, Steelbolt?” said a voice as the colt looked away from his book and saw two colts standing in front of him with a fiendish smile on their faces. One was thin and had a yellow coat with a short white spiky mane and tail and a lightning bolt cutie mark. The other was large with an indigo coat with a long smooth black mane and tail with a thunder cloud cutie mark.

“Why would you care Blitz Strike?” Steelbolt questioned the yellow colt with an annoyed look. He was all too familiar with the two colts and the one thing Steelbolt can always count on, is that these two were no friends of his.

“Aw come on Steely. Don’t tell me that you’re still sore about us giving you flying lessons last Friday. That was almost a full week ago.” said the indigo colt trying to sound friendly while grinning about the event.

“You pushed me off a cliff! And you call that flying lessons? If memory serves me right I never asked for lessons from anyone, let alone you two. So yeah I am still sore about that Rai Boom!” Steelbolt shouted angrily at the indigo colt.

“Don’t worry I have another plan to get you airborne.” Blitz said with a sinister smile as quickly grabbed the book Steelbolt was reading and started to hover a few feet off the ground. Rai followed suit as Blitz Strike began to taunt, “If you want your book back so much you just have to fly up here and take if from us.” He began to start laughing as he tossed to book to Rai Boom. Steelbolt tried to jump as high as he could to catch his book while it was in the air but Rai caught it.

“Yeah, come on flap those wings of yours. Oh that’s right you don’t have any, you freak of nature!” Rai Boom mocked Steelbolt as he began to laugh with Blitz Strike. Those words were the awful truth to Steelbolt as he turned his head around to look at his back lying bare, wingless. It was true; he was a pegasus without wings or an earth pony with the freakish ability to interact with clouds. Either way it made him too different to avoid unwanted attention, especially if the attention came in the form of the Storm Brothers. They continue to toy with Steelbolt until tears of frustration began to well up in his eyes. “Ok, fine here is your stupid book back.” Rai said as dropped the book onto Steelbolt’s head.

“You should stop reading those fairy tales. Everyone knows that the so called legendary kingdom of Capalltalamh that existed thousands of years before the rise of Equestria is all made up. Why read about a civilization that has nothing to do with today? Let alone a foal’s myth!” Blitz shouted to Steelbolt who was now holding the book tightly in his forelegs all the while trying to hold back his tears and gritting his teeth in anger. “Let’s go Rai, let the freak read his bedtime story.” said Blitz as he and his brother flew off to join a group of colts and fillies who were getting ready for a game of tag.

After the two bullies left and Steelbolt managed to calm down his nerves, he opened up his book again which was titled Stories of Capalltalamh. He flipped through the pages until he found his favourite story in the book, The adventures of Nyx and the Midnight Guardians. Nyx of the Night was known in other Equestrian folktales as a guardian of a town from night creatures. Although the Nyx in his book and the one from the other tales were different as both stories are told in different time eras, one from a time where even the Princesses would consider being a myth, the other was from a more recent time that the Princesses can claim witness to, Steelbolt had always enjoyed reading about this story.

The story tells of an order of guardians during a time of civil war in Capalltalamh known as the Sky Knights. Although their name suggests that they were comprised of pegasus ponies, there were also unicorns and earth ponies among their ranks using personal high speed flight gear to soar in the clouds of Capalltalamh. The Knights each led individual team of warriors to defend the free ponies of Capalltalamh in separate areas called Riochts. But there was a single group of warriors who took it upon themselves to not only protect the ponies of a single Riocht, but all of the free ponies from the tyranny of the Nightmare Legion led by the intimidating Lord Nightmare. These warriors were called the Midnight Guardians and they were led by Nyx, Warrior Maiden of the Moon. Nyx and her Midnight Guardians traveled in a unique war airship called the Breaking Dawn it was described to be a small vessel compared to others warships of the age. It was able to support about a seven pony crew and was fitted with only four magic cannons for defence, but what made it unique was that it was the fastest ship in existence. Breaking Dawn was said to reach a max speed to be on the verge of a sonic boom, making it an ideal choice for the Guardians carrier ship allowing them to reach any location of Capalltalamh to counter any Legion threat anytime anywhere. But it was not Nyx, her team or any pony in particular that keeps him drawn to this story, it was the flight gear and the airships that always perked Steelbolt’s interest. The description of the flight gear and airships was vague as well as the illustrations as they were more archaic than the medieval style illustration in other equestrian story books. Still they always seem to ignite something in Steelbolt’s mind, as if they were offering the solution to his grounded state.

After the final bell rang, Steelbolt made his long walk home while the other fillies and colts flew over his head. Seeing his classmates fly excitedly into their friend groups and talking about what to do for the rest of the day made Steelbolt feel lonely which he made himself bear and often forced a casual smile to help lighten the mood. The words of Blitz Strike and Rai Boom still echoed in his head. They have called him a freak before but he never got used to it. While he can keep a straight face as he took the taunts, each word had always made his chest feel tight as if the air was being sucked from his lungs. At times he wished that they would just call him a blank flank instead like some of the filly bullies do to their classmates. He would prefer that over being called a wingless pegasus freak because at least a blank flank status can go away with time. But being wingless is something he has to deal with for the rest of his life.

***

“Hey Mom, I’m home.” Steelbolt calls out as he enters his house.

“I’m in the patient’s room with your sister. Just give me a moment.” A mare’s voice responds to Steelbolt’s call. Steelbolt’s mother was a doctor, but with his father working away from home, his mother used the extra rooms in the house to allow the house to double as her own medical clinic which allowed her to work while being close to home. While she can treat most injuries and sickness that were common among pegasi, for more serious cases she can only stabilize the patient until they can be transported safely to Cloudsdale Hospital which is on the other side of the city. An adult mare soon steps out of one of the rooms. She was about average height for adult mare pegasi with a white coat with a wavy short black and green mane and a long wavy black and green tail. She also had light green eyes, had a gold coloured collar around her neck, wore a medical jacket and had a cutie mark of three red crosses. She was followed by a teenaged stallion with a cast on his left wing, obviously her patient. “Okay Mr. Bolt, just don’t use that wing for a few weeks and you should make a quick recovery.” She says to her patient.

“Thank you Mrs. Nightingale. Sure a lot quicker to get treated since you opened your clinic to our neighbourhood.” The stallion says to Steelbolt’s mother before walking politely passing Steelbolt before exiting the clinic door. After the stallion left another pony came out of the room wearing a simple nurse outfit. She was a teenage pegasus mare with a purple coat with short light green mane while wearing a pink headband and a long straight tail with the same green colour with pink highlights. Her eyes where the same as Steelbolt’s mother which were seen through her black square framed glasses and had a cutie mark of a red cross with a dog, a cat, a rabbit and a bird in each of its corner.

“So, what happened to him Vetrini?” Steelbolt asked the purple mare.

“Just some hotshot trying to show off some air stunts and crashed into the ground hard when he spun out. What about you little brother. How was your day?” Vetrini asked Steelbolt with a happy smile. Vetrini had often helped her mother as her assistant as she herself had talent in medical practice. But her real dream is to be a veterinarian and would sometimes make weekend trips to a pegasus in Ponyville named Fluttershy at her cottage to help take care of the animals who live with her.

“Well, we learned how weather pegasi manage to coordinate warm and cold fronts.” Steelbolt replies while returning a smile.

But Nightingale had a concerned look on her face as she asked her son “Is there anything else you would like to talk about Steelbolt?”

“No. Why do you ask Mom?” Steelbolt answered confused while he cocked his head to the side a bit.

“Sorry just had a feeling that you wanted to say more.” Nightingale assured her son. In reality she had come to know when Steelbolt was forcing a smile. As convincing as it looked, she knew it meant that her son was being troubled. But she also knew that it may not be appropriate to force it out of him with Vetrini in the same room. She planned to tell her husband this when he comes home while she looked at a picture of Steelbolt and his father. The stallion was named Paragrim and he had a straight blue coat with a white muzzle like Steelbolt but had white hooves. His eyes were the same as his son’s plus he wore a simple mustache and styled a short light brown mane and tail with shades of dark blue. His cutie mark was a kite shield with for quadrants, the upper left and lower right were dark green while the other two were a bright red, and had a blue lightning bolt moving across the red quadrants. Steelbolt and his father would often have father and son hangouts after dinner so Nightingale had decided that then may be a good time to discuss what was troubling Steelbolt. Even though she already knew what it was, Steelbolt was being bullied again. She had always feared that her son was going to be an easy target for bullies since he was born.

***

Nightingale remembers the day giving birth and holding the colt in her forelegs with her husband and her filly daughter at both of her sides. It was a happy moment until a curious Vetrini peeked at the backside of her baby brother and asked “Mommy, where are my brother’s wings?” Nightingale’s eyes opened in panic and looked at her son’s back as well as her husband with the same look.

Her husband shook his head in disbelief and said “Oh great-grandma Thorn Rose, your earth pony genes had to kick in while I was raising a family in Cloudsdale.”

“Is there a problem?” the worried young Vetrini asked her parents who still had a concerned look on their faces.

“Sweetie, I don’t know how to tell you this but your brother is an earth pony and since earth ponies can’t…” Nightingale began to explain the situation until the infant Steelbolt began to cry.

“Aww, shush little brother. Here’s a piece of cloud. It’s soft and plushy and fun to play with.” Said the filly Vetrini as she took a fluff of cloud from the floor with her mouth and began to hand it over to the crying Steelbolt.

“Ah Vetrini, that’s not going to work. You see earth ponies don’t have the ability to…” Her father began to explain when he saw a now quite foal giggling as he began to play with the fluff of cloud Vetrini had given him and began to suck on a piece of it. The concerned looks on the parents began to change to an expression of relief and surprise. Their earth pony son is interacting with clouds, much like any newborn pegasi. The two adult ponies looked at each other and gave a small smile to each other and no words were spoken for they both knew that the other thought “It seems we won’t have to move for his safety.”

***

Although Paragrim was happy about his son’s ability, Nightingale was concerned about another thing as many things began to build up in her mind. “Will he be alright when he gets older? How with the other children treat him? Will he have any trouble making friends since he won’t be able to fly? Will he be able to cloud walk as he gets older?” These thoughts had stayed with Nightingale for years and most were answered with undesirable outcomes. She remembers how even before Steelbolt started school some of the neighbourhood colts and fillies made fun of Steelbolt for being wingless. She also remembers that whenever he tried to play with them or make friends they would say that they don’t want to be grounded by an earth pony that was in Cloudsdale only because he can walk on clouds. The years of growing up were hard on Steelbolt and often thought about discussing to move to a new home down on the surface below with Paragrim. Things got a little better when Steelbolt purchased that one book from a used book sale at the local library. The book had an interesting title, Stories of Capalltalamh. It had stories about an ancient kingdom the preceded Equestria by millenniums and Steelbolt was drawn to them as it talked about great heroes who endured great suffering on the road to greatness as well as stories of other heroes who became famous after rising from a simple humble state. These stories had always comforted Steelbolt in certain ways but Nightingale knew that Steelbolt needed real friends and a book will not be enough to cure loneliness.

Author's Note:

The physical appearance of Blitz Strike and Rai Boom were based of Lightning and Thunder respectively from the television series “Teen Titans”. The first words of their names are Lightning in German and Thunder in Eastern Asian language

The name of Capalltalamh is a fusion of the Gaelic words Capall and Talamh which mean Horse and Land respectively in order to give this pre-equestrian kingdom a feel of mythical history.

Riochts is the Gaelic word for Kingdom

Nyx of the Night is a direct reference to Pen Stroke and Batty Glooms’s “Past Sins”

The story of “Nyx and the Midnight Guardians” is a reference to “Storm Hawks”

Steelbolt’s home was based off the Kurosaki residence of the “Bleach” manga and anime series.

Paragrim’s cutie mark is a re-colour of the US Army Rangers crest