Grounded for Life

by Supremechief

Chapter 5: A New Drive

Grounded for Life

By Surpremechief

Reviewed by TP-Night

Chapter 5: A New Drive

***

Knock, Knock, Knock

“I’m coming, I’m coming.” Vetrini called out to the pony who was knocking on the front door of her family home.

It has been nearly a month since Rainbow Dash returned Steelbolt’s book, and so far things had resumed their usual routine for Vetrini’s family. Her father spends most of his days training his new recruits in the Equestrian Rangers and her mother was taking care of patients with her providing assistance.

It was about mid-afternoon when a pony knocked on the door and when she opened it, she can only smile at who the visitor was. “Hey Mom, our favourite patient is here for his treatment.”

“Really? Can you give me preliminary diagnoses on his condition?” Her mother called as she poked her head out of one of the examination room.

“Well, I say he is suffering from small bruises on his left foreleg and a small scrape on his right knee. Also his left wing is bent while his right is completely torn off. In fact he is carrying it in his mouth as I speak.”

“You know Vetrini, if I didn’t know who the patient was, I would be making an emergency call to Cloudsdale Hospital ER right now with that kind of condition.” Nightingale said with a smile.

“Yeah come on Sis, no need to get Mom worked up with graphic descriptions.” Steelbolt tried to say while he held the fake wing in his mouth as he walked into the house.

Over the past two weeks Steelbolt has been trying to construct a flight suit based on his designs that he had come up with from reading Stories of Capalltalamh. His earlier designs where childish at best which ranged from helium balloons to homemade wings strapped to his forelegs. His current model, the mark six, used his sister’s old saddlebags where skeletal bat like wings with kite fabric for the skin membrane were protruding from the bag on each side strapped to his body.

Vetrini gave a small laugh as she gestured her little brother into one of the empty examination rooms. “Come on Steelbolt, I’ll clean up that scrape for you.”

Once inside, Steelbolt took off his flight suit as his sister began to run clean water over his leg, even though it was only cloud fluff that could have contaminated it, followed by dabbing the torn skin with cotton ball soaked in peroxide. “So what were the results if this test flight?” she asked Steelbolt as he occasionally winced as she put presser on his tender skin.

“The Mark Six was able to achieve better lift than the Mark Five, but it was still not able to glide faster than it was falling even after I tried to alter its shape and size. In the end, all I was able to do after I jumped off the launch pad was to try weaving around to make my flight a long a possible. Unfortunately, during my weaving I hit a cloud column and knocked my right wing loose then I spiralled into the ground level clouds beneath me.” Steelbolt said as he gave his test flight report while remembering to write down his results in his personal report log back in his room.

Vetrini sighed as she tossed the cotton ball into the waste basket and grabbed a bandaged roll with her wings, “You know Steelbolt. I think you should take a break from being your own test pilot for some time.” Vetrini expressed her concern as she placed the bandage on her brother’s leg. “If you keep testing your designs and having results like this in such short intervals, eventually your injuries are going to leave a permanent mark.”

“Oh, I think they already have.” Steelbolt joked looking back towards his flank. There was his cutie mark in the shape of a wrench and a screwdriver crossing over each other in the form of an “X”. It made its appearance when he was testing the flight suit Mark Five model a few days ago. It was much like the Mark Six but it had a smaller frame. Unfortunately the frame size was a bit too small for proper flight. Yet it was the first real success of his designs. During that flight test he was able to glide some distance while riding it before he tumbled across the clouds because he was coming in too fast for the landing. Still that mark five, or what was left of it, became the base for all his upcoming designs.

“I’m serious Steelbolt. If you don’t give your injuries time to heal properly, then your coat is just going to be covered in scars. Before you say anything, let me tell you this from a young mare’s perspective, fillies don’t dig scars.” Vetrini said while giving her younger brother a serious look.

“Okay, fine.” Steelbolt sighed after a brief silence. “I will not perform any more test flights until my injuries have healed.” Steelbolt said in a near sarcastic tone as he was not enthusiastic about taking a break from testing his designs. Sure he would occasionally take time off to play with Mihawk, but what his sister was asking him was that he would take nearly a full week off. While he can focus more on the designing stage of his next model, without a regular field test he would have to wait some time to see how the new mechanical system of the model works.

“If you’re worried about being bored, then you must have forgotten that Dad got us reserved seats for the “Best Young Flyer Competition” at the Cloudiseum in a few days.” Vetrini said. She smiled at Steelbolt’s face when he realized that he had indeed forgotten that the competition was coming up soon. It was one of Steelbolt’s favourite annual events that were held in Cloudsdale.

“Seriously?!” Steelbolt exclaimed.

“Yeah, Check the calendar if you don’t believe me.” Vetrini said in a matter of fact tone. “Also, this is another reason for you to take a break from testing your designs. You can’t go to the competition if you happen to break a leg from your next crash.” She added to her argument why her brother should take a break from his activities.

“Okay, okay Sis. No needs to guilt trip me any further.” Steelbolt said as he raised his hoofs in front himself like he was making an invisible barrier. “I’ve already said I would agree to take time off from the test runs.”

“Good.” Vetrini says as she made her way to the door of the room. Once she had the door opened to let Steelbolt out she said, “Now run along Steelbolt. I have to help Mom take care of her other patients.”

***

When Steelbolt arrived in his room he was greeted by Mihawk as he flew down from his perch and hovered in front of the colts face for a bit before taking a spot at his work desk. Smiling Steelbolt placed the damaged Mark Six flight suit up against the bedroom wall as he made his way to his work desk himself as he gave the infant hawk a good rub around its feathery head.

Once the bird of prey seemed content with his head massage Steelbolt look over his desk and at the state it had become recently. Over the past few weeks the desk that had once contained just a small pile of sketches had now transformed into an organized mess of files, with most of them being named after each flight suit model. He went through his stack of files until he found the one labeled MARK 6 and went through the pages inside until he came across the sub file he was looking for which was labeled TEST RESULT and began to fill it out with his analysis of his flight earlier that day.

From what his result had yielded, he was getting closer to achieving the desired shape and functionality of the flight suit for the gliding purpose, yet still his biggest mystery was the means of takeoff. With all of his current designs, in order to get airborne Steelbolt had to go into a deep dive first to build up speed before leveling himself out to create the amount of lift needed for him to glide. If only he could find a way to create some means of self-propulsion for his designs, he would be able to take off from where ever he stood. Steelbolt would prefer that method of testing his flights suits as he felt like a colt climbing up a hill with his sled in the middle of winter with his current method of diving off a high altitude cloud above the city. The way down was fun but the journey up was getting tiresome and boring.

Once he finished his report and filed it away, he took out a familiar green book from his shelf. He flipped through the pages until he came across the passage he was looking for. “…a bright light was seen emitting from their chests as a great power flew throughout their armor and into their wings.” This passage was referring to whenever a Sky Knight of Capalltalamh was about to take flight. I seemed that whatever the light the book was describing may have something to do with how the non-pegasi ponies had achieved flight. Except the problem was just there was no clear description of what was the source of that light. It could be some form of a power source, or it could be a reaction to some kind of flight magic. There was still so much that Steelbolt could not understand just from the book. Still, it was the best lead he had.

***

When the day of the competition came, the crowd was pouring into the Cloudiseum as pegasi from all over Cloudsdale came to see what may be the next generation of performing flyers. Among the crowd was a familiar family of three pegasi and an earth pony as they made their way through the crowd. “I sure hope there are a lot of speedster pegasi this year.” Steelbolt said happily while he and his family look through the crowds to find their seats to watch the competition from the massive stadium.

“You will little brother.” said Vetrini, “According to Fluttershy, her friend Rainbow Dash had been practicing all week to perfect her routine and her finale is going to be a Sonic Rainboom.”

“A Sonic Rainboom? Are you sure?” Steelbolt asked his sister as they sat down on an observation cloud. “I mean, from what I heard there was only one Sonic Rainboom in history, and that was almost ten years ago!”

“That part is true Steelbolt.” Paragrim explained. “The last and only Sonic Rainboom to have occurred was when your sister was still a foal. Also according to the rumors that were buzzing around the neighbourhood at the time it was a filly with a rainbow coloured mane that did it.”

Steelbolt suddenly remembered that Rainbow Dash had a rainbow mane herself. ‘Was it really her that did the only Sonic Rainboom in history?’ he thought to himself.

“Hey look! It’s Miss Fluttershy and her friends from Ponyville.” Vetrini points out to a group of four ponies in the stands across the Cloudiseum.

Steelbolt snapped out of his train of thoughts and looks to see the group that his sister was pointing to and to his surprise three of them were not pegasi. They were two earth ponies, one pink with a pink curly mane and the other orange with straw blond mane in a low ponytail wearing a Stetson hat, and a unicorn with a lavender coat and indigo mane. But what surprised him the most was that they were sitting on the cloud much like he can.

“Hey Dad, I thought that natural non-pegasi cloud walkers were rare.” Steelbolt asked his father.

“That is true Steelbolt. As far as your mother and I know of you are the only non-pegasus pony that can walk on clouds.” His father confirmed his son’s inquiry.

“So then how come there are two more earth ponies and a unicorn that can do the same thing?” Steelbolt asked his father.

“My guess son, is that they are able to walk on clouds due to a unicorn spell.” Paragrim began to explain to his son. “It’s not a spell that’s not used very often as the last time I seen it used was when an unicorn pony general did an inspection of my unit’s training camp and explained that he cast a spell on himself to allow him to walk on clouds. It’s only temporarily of course and it would eventually fade in a few days.”

Steelbolt nodded in understanding as he looked back at Fluttershy’s group. ‘It’s strange in a way. It seems like today, magic is a large part in our lives. There’s now so much that magic can do now and that just about any problem can be solved by a unicorn with the proper knowledge of the art. Yet the ancient Capalltaliamhs seemed to have been less reliant on it and created a grand society, one that used more technical and innovative arts than the mystic art. As a result, they created a civilization greater than Equestria in terms of culture, military and science, according to their stories of course.’ He thought to himself.

Eventually the competition began with the arrival of Princess Celestia and the celebrity judges The Wonderbolts with Captain Spitfire taking the lead. The first three performances were a mixture of well done and a bit of a flop as the first contestant put on a small air ballet that was done well but only used simple moves while the second had a minor spinout during some fast pace air acrobatics which threw him off for the rest of his routine. When the fourth flyer came out Steelbolt was surprised it was number seven who came out of the curtains.

“What happened to number four?” Steelbolt asked out loud.

“Maybe he or she got a bad case of stage fright and decided to back out of the competition.” his mother guessed. It was not long until the order of contestants corrected themselves but still contestant number four was nowhere seen.

As the competition neared its close Steelbolt’s favourite by this point was contestant thirteen who did some cloud sculpturing during his routine. To Steelbolt, that kind of flying takes skills as good sculpting of anything depend on how little material you have to remove until you have the final shape. And this contestant showed this of well as he removed so little that it was as if the cloud already looked like a giant pegasus.

When they announced the final performance of the day Steelbolt was excited to see that the fifteenth contestant was Rainbow Dash but then became surprised when number four came out as well and whoa did she look out of place. Unlike the other competitors who just went out without wearing any costumes, this mare went overboard in Steelbolt’s opinion. She wore a feathered headdress, pink pearl earrings, a thick furry neck collar connected to the rest of her dress which Steelbolt had no idea how to describe it. Plus she was wearing lipstick and large eyelashes. If her appearance could have a general description, it would be that she looked like a Mardi Gras dancer.

“Well, now we know why they went out of order for a while.” Vetrini said “You would have to spend hours to put on that much makeup and costume that mare is wearing.”

Steelbolt agreed with his sister as the both of them did not enjoy the idea of “excessive physical appeal”. But what caught Steelbolt’s attention the most was the fact that number four was a unicorn with what appeared to be a pair of butterfly wings. Steelbolt was confused about this. Although he would admit that they were indeed pretty he couldn’t help but wonder how she got them. Perhaps since she was a unicorn she may have used a spell to make her own.

‘Wings made from pure magic, interesting.’ Steelbolt thought to himself. ‘This just confirms my theory that magic had evolved so much that just about any desire can be achieved through a spell. However, if those wings were used by a spell, then they may only be temporarily like that cloud walking spell those other ponies are under.’ Steelbolt said as he looked over to Fluttershy’s group. ‘Still, perhaps I should try looking more into magical theory myself as it may hold some of the solutions to my problem.’

As both Rainbow Dash and the unicorn were both performing their routines at the same time, with the unicorn showing an exceptional display of elegance, while Rainbow kept on choking near the end of each stage of her routine. The first was flying into a tree shaped cloud as she was almost finished showing off her maneuverability by weaving through long row of them and the second was when she accidently send a cloud spinning towards Celestia which she managed to evade along with her guards.

As the music that was being played was beginning to reach its finale both Rainbow Dash and the unicorn began a long ascension into the sky with Rainbow Dash soaring faster and higher where the unicorn flew into the sight of the sun. As the unicorn stopped her ascent she yelled out to the crowd, “Look upon me Equestria. For I, AM, RARITY!” with that last statement she opened up her wings to the fullest and the sunlight shun through them and created a marvellous array of lights mesmerizing the spectators in the Cloudiseum. But this only lasted for a few second as her wings suddenly burned up and turned ash in an instant.

Steelbolt and his family was stunned like the rest of the Cloudiseum spectators were as they saw Rarity falling from the sky and though the Cloudiseum. When The Wonderbolts scrambled to rescue her, they were quickly knocked out by her flailing limbs. Just as everyone thought they were going to crash straight into the ground of the surface below a sudden whoosh came from the sky as Rainbow Dash hurried to rescue the falling ponies. Many pony spectators either turned their heads away or covered their faces as so they would not witness the coming disaster while others found themselves unable to turn away. Then all of a sudden a sonic boom was heard with a large circular rainbow was formed as Rainbow Dash suddenly doubled her speed and saved all of the falling ponies. From the crowed Steelbolt heard Fluttershy screaming at the top of her lungs while jumping on her cloud “A SONIC RAINBOOM! SHE DID IT! YAHOO!”

After Rainbow had returned to the Cloudiseum with all four ponies with her, Steelbolt joined the crowd as they started to applaud Rainbow Dash for saving Rarity and The Wonderbolts. Steelbolt sighed with relief in seeing that the white unicorn was not injured in any way as she was carried by a couple of pegasi. A few minutes later, after Rarity found a seat in a hot air balloon, Princess Celestia approached Rainbow Dash and her friends as she declared Rainbow as this year’s Best Young Flyer. The crowd erupted in roars and applause as Celestia placed the winner’s crown on the Cyan mare’s head with Steelbolt and his family joined them. ‘Well done Rainbow Dash, you showed me an important lesson. In order to achieve greatness, you have to work for it and use your own natural abilities.’ Steelbolt thought to himself as he clapped his hooves together.

***

“That sure was an eventful day.” Paragrim stated as the family walked into their home.

“Yes it was, but you lost a grand opportunity to show up The Wonderbolts by rescuing that unicorn and the Bolts yourself.” Nightingale smiled knowing that her husband could have been the hero if he reacted to the falling unicorn sooner.

“True. Then again, we had an entire stadium full of pegasi and the Princess who were capable of recusing them. I guess we were all too shocked on what happened that nopony was able to move.” Paragrim said as his family giggled at that last comment.

Steelbolt walked ahead of the group and started to head to his room. “Hey son, did you not enjoy the competition this year?” Paragrim asked Steelbolt.

“Of course I enjoyed it.” Steelbolt said as he looked back to his family with a smile. “Especially with the last performance, but with all the excitement over a near fatal accident and a Sonic Rainboom, I’m just feeling like taking a quick nap.” His father smiled and nodded in understanding as Steelbolt closed the door behind him as he entered his bedroom.

Steelbolt took a deep breath as he sat down with his back against the door as he was going over his personal highlights of the competition. The one highlight that continued to replay in his head over and over again the most was when Rarity’s wings evaporated. For some reason his mind cannot move past this event and kept playing the scene like his brain had just became a broken record player. He would see Rarity fly into the sun, then she would open up her wings then they would burn up and become ash. Then just as she was falling past the bottom of the Cloudiseum, the scene would start again in a continuous loop.

It was perhaps a few minutes later that Steelbolt had finally shook himself out of his trance and turned his attention to his work desk. He got up from his sitting position from the floor and walked over to the desk as he gazed over all the drawings and notes he had made about his designs and possible theories to make them work.

After picking up a drawing of one of his designs he let out an exhausted sigh. “This may be bigger than I originally intended.” he said to himself as he placed the drawing back on the desk. “It never came across my mind that others would want the same thing that I do.”

It was true. While Steelbolt was busy designing his flight suit he never really thought of doing it for any other reason than to satisfy his own desires. But after he witnessed somepony else flying despite not being a pegasi, Steelbolt began to wonder if there was anypony else had the same dreams as his own somewhere else in Equestria. This project was no longer just about getting him airborne. It was now to get any Earth Pony, Unicorn, and handicapped Pegasi to the skies with the same desire as his own.

Although he had just witnessed that those who want to fly can with a spell, Steelbolt began to have second thoughts about the evolution of magic. He knew he cannot deny that magic was life itself in Equestria but the idea that just about any problem can be solved with a spell concerns him. He may still look into the theory of magic arts, but he’s was not going to look for any shortcuts. As convenient as using magic as a solution sounds, they were only short term gain and could possibly end up as long term loss. As he witness with the white unicorn Rarity, in the short run she was able to fly to get around in Cloudsdale, but in the long run they failed her when she needed them most.

Once Steelbolt had come to terms with a new drive to create his flight suit and his outlook on the use of magic, he looked at his design for the upcoming Mark Seven flight suit. Like the Mark Five and Six, it had a similar shape with bat like wings for the skeletal structure strapped to his body using his sister’s old saddle bags to hold them in place. The main differences this time was that he made the wings collapsible so that they can fold themselves into the bags for more compact storage. Also it can be the first step to allow more control over his wings like folding them in mid-flight to pass through restrictive spaces.

The reason Steelbolt wanted to make the wings collapsible was to make it easier for him to carry the suit as it was feeling bulky as he traveled from his home to his testing area. Plus, by making it collapsible he was closer to achieving what the ancient Capalltaliamh Sky Knights used in their own flight suits as according to his book, their wings folded as well. At least that’s how Steelbolt was interpreting the texts. As for using kite fabric, Steelbolt reasoned that if he wanted to achieve a proper glide he would need a tighter fabric to catch the wind flowing underneath the wings and kite have long showed that they were made for that purpose at the parks.

Seeing the design for the Mark Seven just about finished, Steelbolt looked at his legs and felt them with his hooves feeling for any remains of his scrapes from his previous test flight. To him he was almost completely healed as he had been off needing bandages since yesterday, but he still wanted to keep his promise to Vetrini about not doing anymore test flights until he was completely healed.

“It will still take me a day or two to make this model before it is ready for its test run.” Steelbolt said to himself. “Perhaps once I have it finished, I could have Vetrini make a physical examination on me. If she says that it’s okay for me to fly then that means that I’m all healed up in her book and I’ve kept my promise to her.”

Steelbolt went over to his closet and pulled out a box full of plastic tubing parts and had his sister’s old saddle bags in the bundle. “Hmm, along with getting a new sheet of kite fabric along with some tension coils for the wing’s extension feature, I may also need to get some new tubing for the frame of the wings. Although I had managed to salvage most of the parts from the Mark Six, there is not enough materials hear to make a new set.” Steelbolt went over to his piggy bank and checked its contents. “Looks like I’ll be straining my allowance this week.” Steelbolt sighed before giving out a small giggle. “If my injuries don’t restrict me from performing test, it’s going to be my budget.”

After fetching his saddle bag, Steelbolt emptied out the contents of his piggy bank and opened up his bedroom window as he whistled for Mihawk to come to him from wherever he was. When the infant hawk came into the room he landed on the leather blanket on Steelbolt’s back that Vetrini had sewed onto his saddle bag strap as a protective layer from his pet’s talons. “Come on Mihawk, we’re going on a small shopping trip.” And with that the two of them are off to begin another chapter of their story.

Author's Note:

Finally this chapter is finalized. I had this Chapter done for some time but my Reviewer/Editor/Publisher was caught up in some personal business but now it is over.

This chapter was the one I was most looking forward too as it was the first chapter I had conceived before I began writing. Although it was not my best work, the fact that I finally got to the “Best Young Flyer” competition which had been in reserve since I created my OC on DA is like making it to the first major point in the story’s plot.

As for some of the performances made by other contestants, I hope that there are not any objections as I chose to make up routines for the contestants that were not shown in “Sonic Rainboom” just for storytelling. Must have watched the scene nearly ten times to make sure I had the quotes and events right to some specifics.

As for my reference to Rarity’s costume, I mean no offence to any Rarity fans. It was just my personal opinion on her look. Again I sometimes base Steelbolt off myself and often his opinions on cannon events would sometimes reflect my own so like him I don’t find much attraction to “excessiveness”.