Chapter Nine: The Mending Part 1
Applejack was the first to wake up, seeing the bunk above her and sighed. She rolled off feeling her hooves hit the ground as she walked over to the desk seeing her hat laying on top next to her datapad. She reached for her hat before she put on the datapad, with two straps attached to it, and headed out. She headed down the hall towards storage. It has been at least a week since they had been forced to leave their world. Applejack noticed that for the last few days food had been dwindling faster than it should and she was going to find out why.
“You’re up early.” a voice spoke from behind her causing her to turn around seeing one of the humans, Hunter, leaning against a wall a distance away.
“Ah’ve noticed thet our food stocks is gittin' low.” Applejack explained as she headed towards the room before looking back at Hunter. “How about a-helpin' out? Looks like ya nee something ta do.”
Hunter looked at Applejack carefully as she waved him along, keeping in front. He followed after her. The walk was silent and Hunter noticed that they were going towards the storeroom. When she had asked if he wanted to help out he was expecting something else. Yet he followed because he was curious of what she was up to. When they arrived at one of the storerooms Applejack stood outside and stared at the door.
“This is why you were up early?” Hunter asked, keeping his voice low and Applejack nodded her head saying. “Most ponies aren't up this here awful early except faw crooks ayn' farm ponies. Ay haven't see othuurr farm ponies around.”
“So we’re catching a thief.” Hunter mused before standing next to the door just as it opened and a unicorn walked out with several packs of food hovering behind her. More was shoved in her saddle bag and a young filly was next to her with a smaller but equally full sack. Applejack didn’t recognize her and figured she was not from Ponyville. Applejack didn’t give time for the mare to look up from her escape saying. “Now ay know that there those there don't belong ta y'all. Why don't ya turn around ayn' put them back where they’re done supposed ta go?"
The mare looked startled and the filly looked like she was about to cry. That was when the mare took off quickly, her daughter trying to keep up with her. The pack was slowing the little one down and lost sight of her mother quickly. Tears welled up and the filly sat down sobbing loudly crying for her mom. Hunter continued the chase but noticed that Applejack stopped to relieve the filly of her pack, placing it back into the storeroom before comforting the filly. "Looks like we've done got two jobs ta do now. "
Hunter walked back over and knelt down, the filly hiding herself behind Applejack. She looked back at the filly before looking at Hunter saying. “This here gentleman is gonna help us find your momma. I’m sure she’ll be mighty glad that we keep an eye on ya.”
“Mommy says that they’re bad.” the filly said and Applejack shook her head. “They’re not.”
“We can’t be judging them based on what others did. They made sure I was safe even though I was suspicious of them.” Applejack led the filly closer to Hunter saying. “They sure did not want anything to happen to us.”
The filly stared up at Hunter with her pink colored eyes before asking quietly. “Will you really help find mommy?”
“Yeah.” Hunter said and the filly moved out from behind Applejack and gave him a hug earning a look of surprise. He reached out and patted the filly on the head as Applejack went over and found a way to lock the storeroom door. She walked back over saying. “Alright then, let’s go look for your mom and git back the rest of those supplies.”
The little filly cheered as they headed out to find the filly’s mother. Hunter glanced off to the side seeing Fluttershy just sitting there her head drooping. Her slight breathing gave away that she had just fallen asleep. She was unaware of something coming her way until a hand swept her off the floor causing her to panic. Her wings began to flap as a voice said. “You’ll do!”
The male’s voice was booming, but Fluttershy began to calm down somewhat as she recognized the armor of the one who was holding her. Though she didn’t feel safe, it was Wrecker, one she knew to have a personality similar to Rainbow Dash’s.
“Where are you taking me?” Fluttershy squeaked trying to get comfortable in the hold. The large man looked at her saying. “I need to find a room for training, I was told you could help me find one.”
Fluttershy squeaked out wondering who told Wrecker such a thing.
“Am I heavy?” she asked, trying to remain as still as possible, though the question was met with boisterous laughter. Wrecker shook his head saying. “I’ve carried heavier, in fact you are quite light.”
Fluttershy blushed as they began to search the rooms for a space big enough for what Wrecker wanted to do.
“I’ve seen you sit there everyday, does anything catch your attention?” Wrecker asked and Fluttershy looked away mumbling. “No… I don’t actually know why. I… I miss everything, my animals, my home, Discord is still resting, Twilight….”
Fluttershy let out a choked sob, this caused Wrecker to halt in his tracks, he set her down not sure what to do. Fluttershy curled onto the floor crying a lot harder now. Wrecker sighed before sitting next to her. He honestly didn’t know what to say.
“I miss her so much.” hiccuped Fluttershy rubbing at her eyes. “I never thought that she would die like that.”
Wrecker was quietly thinking for a moment before saying. “None of us know how we’re going out. We just try to stay alive as long as possible.”
Fluttershy thought about it before sitting up and glanced at Wrecker before reaching out hesitantly with her hoof and placed it on his arm.
"You wanna know why they call me Wrecker?" He asked, glancing up at the sky. "In the Clone War, me and my brothers would get in all sorts of fights together and I was the one always loving to blow stuff up. Thing is, that was mostly against the clankers, never really did fight a lot of actual flesh and blood. Makes you think sometimes."
“Clankers?” Fluttershy asked in confusion, blinking for a moment before looking away thinking about what clanked a lot. “Like a machine?”
"Yeah pretty much, that's what me and the boys call em. They were a bunch of cheaply made robots as you might call them engineered for battle." explained Wrecker. Fluttershy nodded her head before asking quietly. “So, would you say your talent is blow things up?”
Wrecker rubbed the back of his head glancing down at Fluttershy. "You might say that."
“I don’t think that’s everything about you.” Fluttershy told him before looking at her Cutie Mark. “I mean mine is my talent to communicate with animals. I may be shy and soft spoken, but I will do what I can to help others. Even if I feel lost and alone.”
Wrecker's eyes widened as he said. "You can speak to animals? That's awesome! Maybe if we run into that blasted Gundark that stole my food once you could tell it a thing or two!"
“Was this Gundark hungry?” inquired Fluttserhy trying not to chuckle. “Harry starts grabbing food when he’s hungry.”
A sad look appeared on Wrecker's face. "I suppose when you put it that way, I guess I shouldn't be too upset."
“Everyone does have their own side of the story.” Fluttershy assured him before humming a little under her breath. “Are you and the others… related?”
"More than that you could say. We're clones. Bred using the DNA of the same person and trained for battle. Myself, Hunter, Crosshair and Tech are what was called the Bad Batch because we weren't made correctly so we have much different personalities. Echo wasn't one originally but after some stuff happened he's one too." Wrecker told Fluttershy as he patted her on the head. Fluttershy blinked as she tried to understand but looked up through his fingers saying. “So you’re a copy of someone but you are different.”
"Yeah, pretty much. Say, you're starting to look much better!" Wrecker pointed out seeing no trace of tears left. Fluttershy nodded her head saying. “I’m just glad you were here to listen. You actually remind me of Harry, despite your appearance and strength you’re actually really nice… oh that was rude.”
Fluttershy hid behind her hair before climbing to her hooves. “We should find the area you want to train in.”
Wrecker let out a laugh. “It’s okay, I get it a lot. Do you know a good spot?”
“I would know one watching Rainbow Dash… how is she?” Fluttershy asked her mind shooting straight towards what had happened to the fast flier. Wrexer shrugged his shoulders saying. “I haven’t seen what happened since I brought her in, but I heard that General Skywalker was working on her.”
Fluttershy frowned before moving forward, she did catch a bit of what some ponies had said. Rainbow Dash had woken up but it didn’t sound good. She just hoped that Rainbow Dash wasn’t pushing herself too hard.
Rainbow let out a grunt as she fell to the floor pushing herself up but it felt like the prosthetic limbs weren’t listening to her. Her hoof, the only one left, was pushing herself up. Her body ached but she couldn’t let herself remain idol. She gritted her teeth trying to ignore the one limb that completed her life. Her wing, her left wing, was gone. Many Pegasi who lost their wing, there weren’t many ways to make a working prosthetic for that. There were prototypes but there were stories of them not working properly or being very uncomfortable.
The door flew open as a voice said. “I heard the crash and…” The voice turned out to be Echo as he went over to help Rainbow Dash. “You shouldn’t be trying to move miss, we’re still working on some final touches. General Skywalker is just preoccupied at the moment.”
He lifted her up and placed her back on the bedding she was on. Rainbow Dash gritted her teeth as she found herself back in her original position. On the bed doing nothing, once again.