Grounded for Life

by Supremechief

Chapter 3: A Glimpse Of Darkness

Grounded for Life

Written by Supremechief

Reviewed by TP-Night

Chapter 3: A Glimpse of Darkness

***

It had been two days since his evening discussion with his father as Steelbolt resumed his usual routine during recess, reading tales from Stories of Capalltalamh. Only this time things were a bit different. Instead of just reading the book, he was also writing something down in a small notebook. After taking his father’s suggestion that within these stories held clues to how Steelbolt may find a way to fly on his own, he has been analysing the texts for these hidden clues. With regards to his bullying problem, he took his father’s suggestion on that as well. Steelbolt had a talk with his teacher about how the Storm Brothers, Blitz Strike and Rai Boom, had been picking on him during recess. Although she understood his situation, she explained that she could not take immediate action against them unless she saw it for herself. However, she did give the two a fair warning yesterday and so far they have been leaving him alone which allowed Steelbolt more time to work on his investigation. To top, it off it was the weekend tomorrow and Steelbolt could start trying to apply some of his findings without the Storm Brothers tormenting him.

As he read through his book, his notes were growing as it was filled with small comments about any details of how the ponies of Capalltalamh flew. Such hints or clues included vague lines such as “…their wings folded, changing from mighty dragon wings into nothing as they disappeared into their sides…” and “…a bright light was seen emitting from their chests as a great power flew throughout their armor and into their wings…”, to Steelbolt anything that made reference to the characters who flew in the stories had to give some kind of hint.

“Hey Steely, what’s up my pony?” said an all too familiar voice as Steelbolt looked up in annoyance and saw the his two least favourite colts descending from the sky as they approached him.

“You two are either brave or stupid if you plan on trying any funny business after that warning you got.” Steelbolt said reminding the brothers that they couldn’t bully him freely during school hours anymore.

“Aw come on Steelbolt, we came to apologize for our rotten behaviour towards you.” said Rai Boom as he tried to be friendly.

“Yeah, we even thought of a way to make it up to you.” A genuinely happy Blitz Strike added.

“Really? Enlighten me then. I look forward to hear what you have to say.” Steelbolt replied in a sarcastic tone as he was sure that they were up to something.

“Well, what would say if we could convince a few other colts and fillies to come down to your level for a few rounds of tug-of-war?” Rai offered while trying to sound sincere about it.

Steelbolt thought about it for a moment. Although he may have appeared to not have much interest in sports, he still had a sense of competition. Whenever his family got together for a family board game he always had a desire to win. Now that desire to win was starting to build up in Steelbolt’s head. But then again, he remembered who he was talking too. Although he may like to take part of an event, there were still some possibilities that the Storm Brother may sabotage the event to humiliate him. They could be on opposite teams and have the class’s power houses on their side, or they may have conspired with those they recruited to participate into joining his team. Then as the rope grew taught, they would let go so he would be dragged across the clouds. But as much as Steelbolt wanted to not be made a fool of by the Storm Brothers, the temptation of being in an actual competition was too great. He decided to take that chance along with hoping on an outside chance that some of the other classmates may take notice of him outside of school.

“Alright then.” Steelbolt sighed as he closed his books and placed them in his saddle bag. “If you can convince a few other colts and fillies to join us then I’m in. But don’t think this will make me forget everything you put me through.” He said while giving the two pegasus brothers a serious stare. “It’s only a start.”

The two pegasi nodded as Rai Boom went to collect the rope while Blitz went into the air to recruit some more colts to make up the two teams. From the ground Steelbolt saw that Blitz was taking some time talking to the other colts and fillies. To him it meant the possibility that Blitz’s is conspiring with them to humiliate him was very likely.

When Blitz Strike finally came down with a larger group of colts and fillies than Steelbolt had expected, the yellow colt said, “Sorry that took so long Steely. It took some time to convince these colts and fillies to play tug-of-war on the clouds and to have them agree to not use their wings when playing.”

As much as Steelbolt liked that these colts have agreed to handicap themselves for a fair game, Steelbolt was still unsure on how Blitz had convinced them to join and in such a large number, let alone restrict them from using their wings. “I wonder how you managed to do that.” Steelbolt questioned Blitz while he gave him suspicious look.

Blitz placed his foreleg around Steelbolt’s neck and brought him closer, while the light blue colt was clearly uncomfortable about this level of “friendliness”. “Let’s just say that they wanted to prove me wrong that flying was the only advantage they have over you.” He said with a smile. Steelbolt nodded before politely putting some space between him and the yellow colt.

Soon enough Rai Boom had arrived with a borrowed rope with a flag in the middle. With all the colts present and the rope ready Blitz, Rai, and two more pegasus colts that were among the school’s leading athletes began to pick their teams. To everyone’s surprise Rai Boom chose Steelbolt as his first pick, while Blitz and the other colts chose the other classmates. The teams were soon finished with four members each. While Blitz’s and the other two colt’s teams were content with their group, Rai’s had some doubt among them as they, other than Rai Boom and Steelbolt, believed that they have the weakest player on their team.

With the teams set Blitz drew a line into the cloud they were standing on as a marker of when a team loses should their member in front cross it. The first match up was Rai’s team versus Blitz’s team. On Rai’s team Rai took anchor position while Steelbolt was in front with their two other members in the middle. On Blitz team it was Blitz who took the lead while the rest were behind him. The third and fourth team sat along the sidelines to watch and cheer for their preferred team.

When the signal was given both teams began to pull as hard as they could. At first Blitz’s team appeared to be gaining ground but as Rai’s team was approaching the divider line they began to lose some steam and eventually ground to a halt. Steelbolt was nearly touching the divider line when he shouted to his team with the rope in his mouth, “You guy better not be giving up already! That includes you too Rai! You better not be slacking off just to let you brother win!” It was for a few more seconds until Rai’s team began to gain ground by catching on the rhythmic pull that Steelbolt was creating from the front to synchronize their efforts. Until a near full minute had passed the match was over as Blitz was dragged across the line signalling his team’s loss. While everyone else was on the ground panting, Steelbolt was still standing although he too was breathing heavily. “Whew, you guys… sure have… low stamina.” Steelbolt said to his teammates while giving a small laugh.

“It… was… perhaps… that… earth… pony… stamina… that… helped… us… win.” said one of his teammates who was trying to catch his breath. Although Steelbolt would like to think that his stamina was natural, he thought it was more to do with him walking to school and back so often. As a result he had built up endurance within his legs whereas the other colts had most of their endurance built up in their wings. Therefore once they were restricted from using them, Steelbolt had an advantage in a long match.

Steelbolt was grateful now that Blitz had managed to get enough players for four teams. While the other two teams had their match it gave time for Rai, Steelbolt and their two other teammates to rest up a bit as they would be facing the winner of this match. Although the next match was short compared to the previous one Steelbolt still enjoyed watching the games as both teams fought. In fact he enjoyed the match so much that he failed to notice that on the sidelines there were only seven colts and fillies including himself.

As Rai’s team prepared themselves for the winning match it was apparent to the spectators, which now seemed to have attracted attention of the other colts and fillies, that Rai’s team was still tired from the first match while their opponents were in better shape from their shorter match. Still despite of their disadvantage Rai, Steelbolt, and their two other team members had put up an impressive resistance as they dragged out the competition to over a minute before they lost.

Recess was soon over and Steelbolt seemed to have managed gain some respect among some of his classmates. Although he was still not a friend to any of them, they now appear to have acknowledged him. As Steelbolt collected his saddle bag which was still leaned up against the school building he noticed it was a bit heavier than usual. “Whoa, I must have really pushed my limits. I barely have enough strength to carry my own saddle bag.” He said with a smile as he thought that this may have been the best school day of his life.

***

After the dismissal bell rang Steelbolt began to make his way home along his usual route. He trotted with a sense of achievement since it was the first time that any of his classmates offered a compliment a little as a, “not too bad” or even said, “see you later” as they all left at the end of the day. It was not a solid friendship with his classmates but still it was a start. Along a way he came across a sidewalk bench and decided to do some more of his research of the contents in Stories of Capalltalamh since he was in such a good mood. When he got onto the bench, he opened up the bag and took out a large book from inside. To his surprise the title of the book was not he was expecting. In fact it was a completely different book. Steelbolt’s mind began to race as he tried to figure out what had happen. First he thought of when the books could have been switch which was most likely during the tug-of-war event as he knew the book was in the bag before the event and it was after that he noticed that his bag was heavier. At first he thought the culprits were the Storm Brothers as they were the only ones who would do such a stunt. However when he left his bag alone to play Blitz Strike and Rai Boom were with him during the entire event. Rai was his teammate and he never had left Steelbolt’s side while watching the other competition, and Blitz was sitting beside Rai during the second match on the sidelines as well. No, it was not Blitz beside Rai Boom during that match. It was one of his other teammates.

“Why those no good…” Steelbolt mumbles under his breath as an unprecedented level of anger build up inside of him. “You two may insult me, taunt me, but when you mess with my books, my research, you had better be ready to give them back.” He placed the book inside of his bag as he races off towards the Storm Brother’s home as fast as his colt legs could carry him.

***

“I can only imagine the look on his face when he realizes that we switched his book.” Blitz laughed at the thought. He and his brother were flying home along a path that leads from the school to their house.

“Yeah, I bet he is losing his mind on how we managed to pull it off.” Rai added as the two of them flew a bit further down the path. “So what are we going to do with it know? Take it home and wait till he comes back and act like they were switched by accident?” Rai pondered on how they may avoid trouble.

“What are you talking about? We never had the book.” The yellow colt smiled as he took a familiar book out of his saddle bag and tossed it onto a passing delivery cart. “Now if Steelbolt accuses us of taking his book, he will look like a fool pointing hooves at other ponies. Plus if he tries to give back the book we switched on him, it will look like he stole if from us.” Blitz began to laugh again at the thought of the good mannered colt looking like a crook while he and his brother will be seen as the victims.

They had only flown a bit further until they came across a vacant patch of clouds with a good view of the main city of Cloudsdale. They decided to stop for a moment and bask in the scenery and the moment believing that they had just pulled of their greatest work on tormenting that freakish earth pony. “Although we may have to admit that this may be our last stunt with that freak. It‘s getting boring to just call him names and the only leverage we had to make him entertain us was that book.” Blitz smiled as if he was an artist who painted his masterpiece.

“You know, you shouldn’t really talk so loud.” said a voice behind the two brothers. They looked around and saw a familiar light blue colt with a very angry look on his face. “Someone just might overhear you.” Steelbolt continued while breathing heavily after such a long run. “Now… give me my book back. Now!”

“What are you talking about Steelbolt?” Blitz said acting innocent of the matter. “We don’t have your book.”

“Don’t play dumb with me Blitz. I know that you swiped my book and replaced it with another during the tug-of-war event that you two just so happen to have organized for me.”

“We still don’t get what you’re talking about.” Rai said while acting confused, “If you sure that someone switched books on you, what made think it was us?”

“Apparently you two jerks forgot that when you borrow a book from a library, there is a record of those who have checked it out on the back cover.” Steelbolt said angrily as he threw the other book at the Storm Brother’s hooves.

“Oh there’s my book.” Rai said in a surprised tone. “I thought I left this at the school building and had to wait till the weekend was over.” The indigo colt said as he picked up the book and placed it inside of his own saddle bag.

Blitz smiled as he thought of a way to drag on the act, “You know Steelbolt. Perhaps your book is at the school. It could still be there so you’ll just have to wait until the weekend is over to pick it up.”

“Enough games Blitz!” Steelbolt shouted as he tackled the yellow colt who was taken by surprise by his sudden speed. “Return my book to me now!”

Rai Boom came to his brother’s rescue as he quickly grabbed Steelbolt and placed him in a hold after he had recovered from Steelbolt’s sudden attack. “We have told you already Steelbolt. My brother and I don’t have your book.” The big indigo colt said.

“Then tell me what you two have done with it!” Steelbolt demanded as he struggled to get out of Rai’s hold.

“This is too easy.” Blitz Strike thought to himself. “Well, if you really want to know. It’s on a delivery cart that’s halfway across Equestria by now.” He laughed evilly expecting a look of despair on his favourite prey’s face. What he found instead was perhaps one of the most terrifying images he had ever seen.

What happened next went by in almost an instant. When Steelbolt heard what the brothers had done with his favourite book he quickly threw his head back, slamming it against Rai Boom’s lower jaw. As the pain surged throughout his mouth, Rai Boom slacked his hold on Steelbolt and allowed the now furious colt to escape. Steelbolt then jumped and tackled Blitz Strike with such force that the yellow colt skidded a bit on the cloud.

Blitz was now pinned down by this raging light blue colt as he was given an intensive stare. The yellow colt was terrified by the look in Steelbolt’s eyes. The stare he was given was not a simple angry stare, it was worse. The stare that Steelbolt was giving was a death stare, as if he no longer valued his opponent’s life. Blitz could only tremble as Steelbolt brought his head closer and gave an animalistic growl.

Once Rai Boom had recovered from the sudden attack from Steelbolt he went over to his brother in an attempt to help him. Unfortunately for the indigo colt, Steelbolt saw him coming and gave him a powerful kick to the face and knocked him out.

Steelbolt soon returned his attention towards the frightened yellow colt that he has pinned down to the cloud. Steelbolt gave another growl before he spoke. To Blitz, as he sweated heavily with fear, Steelbolt’s voice was unnatural. It was as if the light blue colt was possessed by a dark entity. “Did you ever wonder Blitz, why I offered little resistance when you and your brother had been picking on me?” Blitz shook his head quickly. Fearing that while under the deathly stare of his captor, refusing an immediate answer could result in his death. “It was because I thought you guys had boundaries on how far you would go to make me miserable. Call me names, and you’ll stop once I started to cry. Take my belongings, you would return them once you had your fun. But now you have crossed those boundaries. I will not take any more of your crud. So let me make it clear for you to understand.” Blitz prepared himself for what this crazed colt may do to him. “Leave. Me. Alone.” Blitz nodded quickly as Steelbolt got off of him as he made his long way home.

It was perhaps half a minute later that Rai Boom gained conscious and by the time he came to he saw that Steelbolt was long gone. “Oh man, I didn’t know that the little freak had it in him.” He said as he placed a hoof to his head as he was recovering from being knocked out. When he looked towards his brother he saw him sitting up as he was mumbling something under his breath. “Hey bro, you okay?” Rai asked his brother with a concerned tone in his voice.

Hearing his brother’s voice helped Blitz to snap out of his troubled mind as he said, “What? Oh, yes. I’m okay.” As Rai walked closer to his brother, Blitz asked him a question, “Hey Rai. Did you see his eyes?”

“His eyes? The only thing I saw was the back of his head then rear hooves slamming into my face. Why?”

Blitz didn’t answer. He was thinking about what had happened just before Steelbolt left. “I could have sworn that his eyes became like a cat’s or a dragon’s for an instant.” He thought to himself. He vowed to never mess with Steelbolt again. There was no way that he was going to get on the bad side of something that may not even be a pony.

***

Steelbolt trudged home as his head now hanged low as now tears of sadness had replaced his fury that had existed earlier. He was upset at two things. The first was that his favourite book was now gone and was lost forever on a delivery cart bound for who knew where. The second was from the realization of what he just did to the bullies.

Although he may now have scared them into letting him be, he felt awful about it. While it was true that in his rage he was acting more on instinct rather than reason, he could not help but feel sick to his stomach as he recalled that for a brief moment that he wanted to literally “break” the Storm Brothers. His stomach churned at the thought as he could not the stand the thought of hearing breaking bones as he developed avoidance to brutality ever since walking in on his sister and her friends watching a horror movie. With the first thing he saw was a teenage stallion murdered with an ice skate wedged into his face, it traumatized his colt mind into becoming sick at the sight of large amounts of blood.

He neared his home and he still was unsure of what to tell his parents about his day or when should he say it, or even if he should say anything at all. It could be possible that the Storm Brothers were scared enough to keep their mouths shut about the event and as long as now one else knows about it, the event had never happened. Then again his mother had the ability to know when something was upsetting him and even if they don’t find out about what he had done to the brother’s they may be curious on why he was not reading Stories of Capalltalamh in a few days.

“I’m probably just over thinking things a bit. I mean, it’s not like she’ll be waiting for me right at the door right?” he thought to himself still uneasy. “Oh horse feathers.” He thought in exhaustion, “I won’t be able to keep it secret for long anyway. Heck, I may not even last ten seconds if she starts to question me casually.” thinking back to what a bad liar he was. Whenever he played a game of secrets he always had a bad habit of either smiling or giggling whenever he tried to lie or hide something. He would just have to face it, there was no way off keeping the event under the rug for good.

***

“Hey Mom I’m ho… WHOA!” Steelbolt said as he was about to announce his arrival as usual when something small and fast flew by his head. He turned around and watched what appeared to be a small hawk, an infant that just recently learned how to fly landed near the family sofa in the living room.

“Hey mom, why is there a baby hawk inside our house?” he asked as he called out to his mother.

His mother walked into the room from the kitchen as she was preparing dinner. She looked towards her son with a smile and said, “Your sister had just adopted him during her recent visit to Fluttershy in Ponyville.” She looked towards the kitchen as Vetrini was making dinner in her place then back to the infant hawk. “Apparently this little guy was orphaned so your sister decided to take him in as a family pet.”

“Does he have a name yet?” Steelbolt asked looking at the infant hawk that was still near the sofa.

“Your sister thought that you would like to name him. She thought that you may like him and perhaps give you some company when your father and I are busy and Vetrini is out with friends or seeing Fluttershy.” Nightingale said with a smile thinking that although it was not another colt at least her son now had some form of company he can rely on.

“Hmm, well having a hawk for a pet would be pretty cool, although Vetrini is going to have to help me raise it.” Steelbolt said to his mother as he approached the raptor. “So what should I call you?” he said as he brought himself closer to the baby hawk. Steelbolt was fixated on the bird’s eyes and they had a feel of intensity like it would never joke around. “How about I call you, Mihawk, after one of my favourite anti-heroes from “Stories of Capalltalamh”? For a pony, his eyes were described to be hawk like too and he was always serious. Yet he was still a good pony in his own way, honouring his promises even though it had placed him on the wrong side of things.” The small bird gave a small screech before it flew towards Steelbolt and landed on his back. The colt winced a bit as its talons dug into his hide before it started to rub its head against his neck. “I’ll take that as a yes then.” Steelbolt smiled while he held back tears of pain as he made a new friend

“So Steelbolt,” Nightingale began now focusing on Steelbolt. “Now that you have made a new friend, care to explain why you are over an hour late from your usual arrival time?” Clearly she was not happy about the late arrival of her son as he would come home while she was still working and not during dinner preparations.

“Saw this coming.” Steelbolt thought to himself recalling on how he was going to face his parents. “There is something I would like to talk to you about what happened today.” Steelbolt began to explain still uneasy about how his parents my react. “But can we talk somewhere a bit more private? I don’t want Vetrini to overhear us.”

Nightingale was curious of why her son wanted to talk in private. When he came home much later than usual she would have expected a child’s excuse like taking a detour along the way or hanging out with friends. If Steelbolt wanted to give his reason for being late in private, it was likely that his reason for being late was serious.

So they headed into Steelbolt’s bedroom and closed the door so Vetrini would not overhear them. Once Steelbolt was comfortable enough he began to tell Nightingale about his day. At first she was pleased that he was involved with a school event and how much fun he had. But soon her smile was replaced by a gaping mouth when she heard about what Steelbolt did to the Storm Brothers, especially on how he recalled on how much he wanted to hurt them.

She let out a sigh as she put her hoof to her face. “Steelbolt, why didn’t you just come home and tell me what had happened before you went after those colts on your own?”

“I’m sorry Mom. It’s just that, that book meant so much to me and I just didn’t want anything happen to it.” Tears were welling up in Steelbolt’s eyes as he thought about losing his book.

“I’m going to have a talk with your father about this after dinner but I can see that you are sincerely not proud of what you have done.” Nightingale sighed as she thought about what should be done to mend the problem her son had created. She knew eventually if not tonight one of the Storm Brother’s parents or both of them may approach her and cause her problems for what Steelbolt had done to their children. “I think the best option is to visit them tomorrow and so you can apologize to them for your actions.”

Steelbolt nodded. He was secretly happy that this may be the worst punishment he will receive for picking a fight. “And don’t worry about your book. I’m sure after you apologize properly their parents may be willing to pay compensation for a new book. If they don’t we’ll still get you a new copy.”

Steelbolt smiled again at the thought of getting a new book, though this made him more shameful of his actions earlier. If he had been calmer he may have thought about making the brothers pay compensation too and he could have just gotten a new copy. Still, first he had to apologize. It was something he knew he had to do to make things right, but still didn’t like having to admit to his bullies that he was in the wrong.

“Honey, I’m home!” a familiar voice called out. Paragrim was home now and Nightingale had to go out to greet him and assist Vetrini in finishing dinner.

“Although you may had plenty time to think about what you have done, I suggest you take a bit more time to reflect on you action” Nightingale said in a stern voice as she made her way out.

As she left Steelbolt’s room Steelbolt looked over by his bed which laid a work desk with drawings of sorts. He still had a few minutes till dinner and with a promise of a new book he walked over to it and pulled out his note book with his current list of hints to the secret of the Capalltalamh Sky Knights. He opened up to a page and read his copied line, ““…their wings folded, changing from mighty dragon wings into nothing as they disappeared into their sides…” He quickly sketched a simple pony base with his mouth on a sheet of paper as he talked to himself. “Their dragon wings folded, perhaps they look a bit like this.” as he began to draw an appendage on his pony drawing. “Then perhaps in order to fold they may have this as well…” He continued to sketch as he tried to make clear of his clues as more and more of his drawings gained more shape by the pencil stroke.

Author's Note:

Steelbolt’s fury is based off one of my own character flaw. Like Steelbolt I don’t usually approve fighting but get me angry enough then I “Hulk out” as my relatives put it.

Also the bit about Steelbolt walking in on his sister’s horror movie was based off an actual event in my life. I was five and it was my older cousin’s birthday, though instead of walking in at the murder scene I was actually watching it along with the rest of the guests. It was about ten minutes into the movie when the scene showing the victim’s older sister investigates their home and found her brother sitting in a chair with an ice skate in the middle of his face. Since then I have been unable to bring myself to watch horror films unlike my younger sister who Vetrini was loosely based off who enjoys them. And this is the reason I rated this book for Teen readers just in case.

The name Mihawk is based off one of my favourite characters from “One Piece” other than the main cast, Dracule “Hawk Eyes” Mihawk

Lastly, this may be the final major appearance of the Storm Brothers. I did not really like them as they were just there to make Steelbolt miserable and had no long term plan for them. So I thought that it be better just to dispose of them in a way readers won’t question their lack of appearance later on. Plus I began to think I was just making colt versions of Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon.

Comments

[Praetorian4Hire]

Not really, you disn't make the colt version of DT and SS. The two are brats, the brothers are just straight up cunts.