//------------------------------// // Chapter 4 // Story: LPRR - The Classified Mission // by Kaciekk //------------------------------// Returning to the scrapyard, they can see the gold Earth Pony returned to his spot guarding the gate, sitting this time. His ears flicker at the sound of their hoofsteps approaching. “Well, looks like you made it back,” he says in a mocking tone. “And in record time. Didn’t think you boneheads could do it.” “Shut up and let us in, pipsqueek,” Rhythm snaps. “Huh, last time I checked you weren’t the talker,” the colt snorts as he stands up. He opens the gate. Inside, Slate barters with Gear. Rhythm sits on a steel railing, tending to his wounds with the medicine and bandages he brought. Slate confronts him and shows the poster tube in his purple magic’s grasp. Rhythm nods, and stuffs his supplies back into his saddlebags. Both of them head out. “You sure you don’t need any patching up?” Rhythm asks. Slate replies, grimacing “I told you, I’m pretty sure most of my injuries are internal.”  “How’s your side?”  “Hurts like hell, obviously,” Slate says, “and it’s also hard to breathe.” “Might be some broken ribs,” Rhythm guesses with his eyes closed, trying to get the thought of that pain out of his head.  “Can’t really do anything about it right now,” Slate tells. Several shouts and energy fire are heard behind them. They swivel around to see the sentries fighting Hybrids in the distance. Slate is unbothered, and continues on his path. Rhythm stays put, but looks back to the grey stallion, dazed. “Dad, wait. We gotta help them.” “What? Are you crazy?” Slate reprimands. “We’re done with our mission, so we report back to headquarters.” “But-” Rhythm looks back the the battle. “They helped us, we should help them.” “Hey, look at me,” Slate barks. “Weren’t you the one worried about my condition?” “You don’t have to fight, but I will. They need help. We’re part of the Resistance, we help others and fight Hybrids, dammit!” Rhythm asserts. He begins to trot towards them. “CharmingRhythm, stop! It’s not worth our time. They’ll handle it on their own,” Slate urges in a loud, irate voice.   “You were the one who taught me to help others when they were in trouble. Now you’re going to tell me to let them be? Ah- forget it,” Rhythm whinnies while shaking his head. He gallops towards the fight. Several meters above them, an echoing shot is heard. Rhythm stops to eye the sky. A yellow and black Pegasus holding a rifle aims towards the Hybrids. The rogue gives Rhythm a signalling nod, and he replies with a smile. Continuing on his path, he runs into the attack with the rogue Pegasus right behind him. Slate watches in awe. “A rogue helping the Resistance. Isn’t that something,” he remarks to himself. Rhythm notes to himself that there are five sentries; two Pegasi, two Unicorns and an Earth Pony. The latter is being chased by a Hybrid, which Rhythm quickly strikes down with his energy. The yellow Pegasus rogue sends a bullet straight through the neck of another Hybrid.  There is a Pegasus Hybrid who is dueling one of the ariel sentries. The enemy attempts to grab its victim but is far too slow. The sentry takes a shot at its left wing, which leaves the Hybrid falling to its doom.  “Come back here!” A silver Hybrid gnarls as it chases an Earth Pony guard. Racing from side to side, the little pony dodges the shots of Hybrid energy. The Earth Pony slips into a fence, where the Hybrid crashes into, its armor too large to fit through the hole. At that moment, a thunderous bang of a rifle sounds, and the Hybrid collapsing. One of the Unicorn sentries is not as lucky as she attack, for a Hybrid has struck her down. Its claw bashes against her chest armor, and swipes across her face. Not even attempting to retaliate, the Unicorn curls up in fear. Abruptly the Hybrid above her falls to the ground, stunned by electric energy. The sentry opens her eyes and searches to find the source of the energy's sound. Slate is standing there, with his leg outstretched. Rhythm also notices the sound and yellow color of the energy. He meets up with the grey stallion who sent it out. Rhythm’s face lights up to see that Slate decided to aid afterall.  “I’ve got an idea,” Rhythm declares. “Hmm, always like to hear that,” Slate retorts, interested. “We need to gather the Hybrids together, I’ve already told one of the sentries. Can you use your electricity for me?” Rhythm asks. “Just tell me when.” The grounded sentries step back while the Pegasi bait the remaining Hybrids who chase after them. They fly in circles, nearing the space between two buildings. Rhythm's gaze locks onto a cylindrical generator which is still functional, identifiable by its glowing lights. Cyan magic cradles it, and swings it over to the Hybrids.   The blue Unicorn shouts “Dad, now!” Slate immediately catches on to Rhythm’s plan and strikes the generator with electricity. All of the unicorns create their own shields as the generator explodes with pure, blue energy. Gusts of dust rush out from the epicenter, and smoke begins to fill the air. When dispersion of debris ceases, the Unicorns drop their shields.  All of the resistance sentry guards start cheering. One of the Pegasi even bump hooves with the rogue. The Unicorn duo meets up again. “That was good thinking, Rhythm,” Slate compliments. “Now can we leave?” he asks without any harm.  “Now we can,” Rhythm says, a big grin on his face. Many minutes later, the Unicorns retrace their steps and come to the cab stop at the corner. The sky is now much brighter than it was when they stood here last. There’s a small, light spot in the sky where the sun might be. “I highly doubt they run in this neighborhood,” SlateMeasure mumbles, referring to the cabs. “That’s why we signal one to pick us up,” Rhythm says as he steps up to the pillar at the stop. He touches a blank screen on the wall of the pillar, but nothing happens. “Shit, it looks like it’s broken.” “Oh, wonderful,” Slate’s voice rumbles in agitation. Looking for a solution, CharmingRhythm glances upwards, to the top of the pillar. He remarks “it’s missing its panel.” He refers to the solar panel that charges the stop. While the sun may never show, the panels are still able to soak up some of the light in the air. Rhythm twists around to the other side of the pillar and discovers a metal plate. A blue hoof attempts to remove the plate, but it remains shut.  “Hey, Dad, do you have a screwdriver?”  Slate doesn’t speak for a moment, and then replies in slight surprise, “Of course you would know that I carry a screwdriver with me.” “Hey, you’re an engineer, right? And what if you’d have to work on your leg?” remarks Rhythm, proud of his guess. Slate digs a screwdriver out of his saddlebag and telekinetically floats it over to his partner. Rhythm unscrews the plate, carefully placing the screws next to his hoof, sure not to lose them. Not long after, he places the metal plate next to them. Brown eyes study the components inside of the pillar. He places his bionic hoof inside the compartment and gently charges his energy. Watching in astonishment, Slate simply wonders, “there’s a crystal in there?” Rhythm nods. Slate puts his head down in defeat, wondering how he didn’t think of recharging it.  “How’d you know there would be a crystal in there to charge?” He questions. “With most technology, there usually is,” Rhythm says. “SpinningNote taught me that. I thought you would have known that?” “I guess… I didn’t really think of it. I didn't really think of how a cab stop would work. I only work on EPDs, okay!” Slate defends.  “Okay, okay,” Rhythm retorts with a chuckle. Putting his leg down, Rhythm begins to replace the metal panel. When he is done, he circles back to the other side of the pillar. He taps the screen, and bright blue letters pop up. A blue hoof presses the screen a few more times before stepping away. “Alright. We should be set. It’ll take probably around 20 minutes to get here,” Rhythm tells his father, who he returns the screwdriver to. As they both wait on the curb, Slate mutters, “I’m actually kind of hungry now…” Rhythm scavenges through his saddlebag and picks out a small bag of sunflower seeds. He hands them to Slate with a smirk. With a glance of disdain, Slate reluctantly takes it.  “And you were unsure of me bringing food, huh?” Rhythm teases. “Oh hush,” Slate quips. Eyeing down at Slate’s saddlebag, Rhythm notices the item they were set to find. The long cylindrical container is clipped to the bag. With magic, Rhythm carefully unclips the tube to get a better look. He pulls off one of the yellow caps. It takes a few moments before Slate notices his item is gone, but when he does, he becomes infuriated. “Wh-what are you doing?” Slate gapes. “I want to know what’s so important that we risked our asses for,” Rhythm says as he pulls papers out of the tube. “Put those back!” Slate pleds. He attempts to grab the papers with his magic, fighting with Rhythm’s, but surrenders in fear of ripping them. Rhythm’s eyes scan over the unraveled documents and blueprints. There are several drawings, graphs, numbers and paragraphs. He reads the top title of the pages: Project Paladin. He reads some of the plans. “It’s designs for armor. Very complex armor,” Rhythm murmurs.  “Give that back!” snaps Slate, on edge. He attempts to take it and fails again. “Do you know what this is?” Rhythm asks him. “This looks… dangerous.” “CharmingRhythm, give those back this instant!” Slate roars.  Rhythm peers over with shock in his eyes. “You do know what this is, don’t you?” “I… I- just put it back! It’s classified information. You shouldn’t know about it,” Slate demands.  “But what about you? Or do you already know?” Rhythm’s brain turns. “You’re one of the designers who’s been working on this, aren’t you? That’s why they sent you to find it.” Slate doesn’t respond. Rhythm continues to unravel the information. “That’s why you weren’t at the workshop when I looked for you. That’s… that’s why you’ve been taking so many late shifts. You’ve been working on this project.” “Rhythm, you don’t know what you’re talking about, give that-” Slate finally captures the papers and rolls them back into the container.  “But is it true? You know what this is?” Rhythm requests with growing anger. “I-I… can’t tell you. I’m-” “You’ve been keeping this secret. You lied to mom about being in the workshop at night. You’ve actually been working on this, huh?” Rhythm deduces. “That’s why you didn’t want me to come on the mission!” The final gear turns in Rhythm’s head. “It should have remained a secret,” Slate growls while looking away from his son. “You shouldn’t be looking into stuff that’s not your business.”  “You’ve been lying to us.” “No I haven’t,” Slate defends. “This had to remain a secret for my job.” “Why’s it so important anyway?” Rhythm says, his voice level but upset. “I told you, it’s none of your fucking business!” Slate rages. He stops for a moment as he fumes, eyes jotting from side to side. “Oh, you’re going to be like that, huh?” Rhythm snarls in a low tone. Slate clips the poster tube back onto his saddlebag. The Unicorn looks away and crosses his forelegs. Neither of them speak for several minutes. The cab they signaled arrives at the stop. “We’re going to the clinic at HQ,” Rhythm tells the driver. “What?” Slate snaps. “I need to return this to Merit.” “I can do it. You need medical attention,” Rhythm instists.  “No,” Slate struggles to keep his voice down. “This is my mission. I return this to her. The clinic isn’t far, I can walk there on my own.” Slate swipes his attention to the driver and instructs, “We’re going to the central building.” The driver nods and Slate adds, “Sorry for the inconvenience.” None of them say a word on the trip to their next stop.