//------------------------------// // Chapter 37 // Story: Linkin Pony - Recharge: Revamped // by Kaciekk //------------------------------// Feeling groggy and disoriented, CharmingRhythm woke up the next morning. He had not expected the inn room at first, and had to gather his thoughts before waking up all the way. The journey the day prior had left him exhausted, but he knew he couldn’t sleep any more. There were still things to work out. First, he would meet with the mayor. HyperBlitz and SweetHooves were still asleep when he left. Entering the town hall, Rhythm could pick up the echoing sounds of his hoofsteps. The morning was much more quiet than the day before. Only a few ponies occupied the large room, one of them being mayor Hazel. She too had heard Rhythm’s steps, for when her ears flickered, she glanced over to him. “CharmingRhythm. Come with me. We’ll go to my office,” Hazel said. Rhythm followed suit to a door underneath the two staircases. “I’m surprised you didn’t just meet me in your office to begin with,” Rhythm noted. “I prefer to be more open with citizens. Make myself more approachable,” Hazel explained. “I guess that makes sense.” Rhythm admired her honesty. Once inside, Hazel handed over a sealed envelope to Rhythm. “Here. This is the letter.” “I’ll keep it safe,” Rhythm replied, taking the envelope in his hoof. He tucked it inside of a pocket in his saddleback. “Thank you. And, as promised-”  Hazel’s pink magic lifted up a box from her desk. It levitated over to Rhythm, wear he captured it in his own magic. He opened it and a soft blue glow emitted from crystals. “Thank you, I really appreciate it,” Rhythm said. “And I appreciate what you’ll do. Are you certain you can get it to the president?” Hazel questioned. “Of course. I’ve worked with the president before, she knows me. I don’t know if I’ll get a chance to talk with her, but I should at least be able to get the letter to her,” Rhythm assured. “That’s all I can ask for. Stay safe on your trip back.” Rhythm left the town hall feeling conflicted. Although he was grateful that the mayor was so considerate, he couldn’t help feel disappointed that their sector didn’t have a better leader. If only some way Hazel could replace Clarity as president. She seemed much better suited for the job. Would Clarity even give aid to Haythorn? She has to, Rhythm thought. There’s no way she could leave a city helpless to the attacks of rogues. When Rhythm got back to the room, he saw Hyper and SweetHooves awake. What he didn’t expect were the two other ponies in the room speaking to them. One was the lime green Pegasus he had seen before. The other was a dull purple Unicorn, who wore a healing gash on his lower foreleg.  “Here,” Rhythm said as he placed the box of crystals on one of the beds. “We have plenty of crystals. You can recharge your weapon and wing,” he told HyperBlitz. As Hyper reached towards the box, SweetHooves stepped up to CharmingRhythm. “Rhythm, these are my teammates. Gale and NightWave.” “It’s nice to meet you,” Rhythm said to the two ponies with a nod. The green Pegasus, Gale, spoke up, “They said you guys can take us back to Los Pegasus. Is that true?”  “Yeah, but… we’re going to have to figure out how to get back to our cab. I really don’t want to have to walk all the way back there,” Rhythm stated in a groan. “We had a wagon,” NightWave, the purple Unicorn, stated , “but the rogues destroyed it.” “Seriously?” Rhythm let out. “That’s… fucking despicable.” He remembered the wagon a Pegasus was pulling when he arrived at Haythorn. That must have been the kind the Unicorn was talking about. “I guess we could borrow someone’s here,” Gale suggested. “But we’d have to bring it back. That seems like too much extra work,” SweetHooves chimed in.  “Not if I do it,” HyperBlitz offered. “I’m fast. I can get it back here and meet you guys down the road.” “Hyper that’s… that’s a lot of flying to do,” Rhythm argued. “Either that, or I go fly to the cab and drive it back,” Hyper said. “That might work…” Rhythm considered. “It’ll still take some time.” “We may want to go with that option,” NightWave said. “It’ll probably cost bits to rent a wagon. We don’t have any bits to spare.” Gale murmured agreement and then looked to Rhythm. “Your cab has four seats right?” When he nodded, she stated, “Then I guess that means we’re flying.” She was referring to herself and Hyper. “Drizzle still can’t fly.” Drizzle must have been another member of their team. That would make four ponies on their team, three of which couldn’t fly. Rhythm wondered why Drizzle couldn’t fly. Were they injured? He questioned the ponies about this. “Hybrids,” NightWave muttered grimly. At that, SweetHooves glanced away, still distressed by the thought of the attack. “We were trying to help some ponies move from the north. We wanted to keep them safe from rogues, but it was the Hybrids that ended up attacking.” The Unicorn lifted up his wounded foreleg. “It probably was the rogues then,” Rhythm thought aloud. “What are you talking about?” Gale asked. “The mayor said that the rogues have been leading Hybrids to ponies. They’re letting them attack ponies for them,” Rhythm clarified. “Of course they would,” NightWave snorted. “They’ll do anything to terrorize the ponies here.” “I wish I could do something about this,” Rhythm said, shaking his head vigorously. “These ponies don’t deserve to be attacked! Those rogues have to pay…Maybe- maybe we could-” “Rhythm, there’s no use,” Hyper addressed. “There’s nothing any of us can do. These ponies are injured, and we’re only a third of our team.” “We have to do something!” Rhythm refuted. “We’re getting them back up, that’s as best as we can do,” Hyper assured. “I know you want to help these ponies, I do too. But if we end up facing rogues, we’ll probably lose to them.” “I know…” Rhythm sighed. “I just wish I could help more.” Hyper placed a red hoof on his friend’s shoulder. “We’re doing what we can. Let’s help these ponies first.” He was referring to SweetHooves’ team. “But we can’t do anything if we keep sitting here. We need to get moving.” The five of them met up with Drizzle from the other room and set out on their journey home. Rhythm noted that Drizzle, the light blue Pegasus, did indeed have an injured wing, with bandages wrapped around it. She didn’t talk much as they moved out of the city, she almost seemed afraid of Hyper and Rhythm in fact.  Rhythm levitated the box of crystals into Hyper’s saddlebag. “Alright, we’ll meet up with you later. We’ll walk while we can to close any gap.” “Alright. I’ll be back before you know it,” Hyper replied with a nod. As HyperBlitz flew out of sight, the rest of the ponies walked along the road to the west. Gale was the only one who flew, only a few meters above them. Rhythm hoped they didn’t have to walk for too long. A few minutes later. Hyper’s yellow shape reappeared on the horizon and floated over to them. “Wow, you are back!” Rhythm called out sarcastically. “What’s up?” “Hybrids. They’re by the bridge,” Hyper reported. “It’s just like the last time we tried to leave,” NightWave growled as Drizzle glanced anxiously at her wing. “We’ll have to fight through them,” Hyper said. “And I’m not leaving you guys until that’s done.” “Alright,” Rhythm sighed. “How are we supposed to fight them? We got injured last time we tried,” Drizzle stated. “We have two other ponies to help us this time,” SweetHooves pointed out. “And I know the two of them make a great team.” Rhythm returned her a grateful smile. Plum trees started gathering around them as they continued. When the bridge approached, so did the shapes of four Hybrids. They were all standing on the near side of the river, and still hadn’t taken notice of the party. “Let’s push them into the river,” Rhythm suggested. “That should give us enough time to run away.” They began closing in on the Hybrids, but Hyper circled around above and flew back the way they came. He turned around and dived downward. A streak of bright blue followed him as he extended his foreleg. Hyper hurtled into a Hybrid with a burst of energy. The force was enough to knock the Hybrid over the river, sending it crashing on the shore. “Hyper I said in the river!” Rhythm shouted. “Sorry!” Hyper landed so he could budge the unconscious Hybrid into the water. The three other Hybrids were now charging towards the traveling party. Gale and Rhythm shot energy at them, but it didn’t slow them down. Gale dodged as a grey Hybrid ran right past her. It swirled around, disoriented. The second Hybrid that had run towards them was now brawling with Rhythm. The third Hybrid stayed close to the river. He lifted a gun which was part of his foreleg. A shrill, searing sound grew louder as Hybrid energy swelled up in his gun. It was aiming towards Rhythm, who was still busy with his enemy. A heavy blast of red energy shot towards the Unicorn. NightWave was quick enough to create a dome shield around them with their magic. Rhythm jolted from the sound of impact, and caught the last glimpse of energy dispersing.  After collapsing the shield, NightWave then fired his magic at the Hybrid who just attacked. A wave of magic sweeped under the cyborg’s hooves, knocking it off balance. There was still some space between him and the river, so Hyper flew down and began dragging him towards the shallow ravine.  Rhythm was still occupied fighting the Hybrid next to him, dodging it’s bladed swings. He lifted his foreleg and poured energy into its eyes a few times, enough to blind it. Violently it swung it’s blade around, in hopes that it would somehow hit Rhythm. Instead, Rhythm circled to the backside of the Hybrid and began budging it with his magic. Once the Hybrid was close to the ravine’s edge, Rhythm used both of his forelegs to thrust it in. Water splashed as it still flailed around in the water. One last standing Hybrid remained, the grey one that was after Gale. “Don’t think you’ve won just yet,” he sneered. “I’m not reporting back without taking at least one of you with me.” By now the Hybrid began to chase Gale again. The green Pegasus led it towards the river’s edge. She swooped over the river and turned around to see the Hybrid glaring up at her with bared teeth. Hyper quickly rammed into his backside and threw him headfirst into the water.  Some of the Hybrids still attempted to fight back, firing their weapons and failing to climb up the ravine side. Rhythm urged the party to cross the broken bridge on the narrow path that still stood. They ran some way so that they could guarantee retreat from the Hybrids. They all stopped to take some breaths.  “You guys got some real skill,” NightWave said to Hyper and Rhythm. “Thank you,” Rhythm replied with a head dip.  “I’ve never seen a Pegasus do a dive attack like that!” Gale remarked to Hyper. “Eh. That’s my special move,” Hyper smirked.  “Wish I could have helped in some way,” SweetHooves spoke in a disappointed tone. “Maybe you still can,” Gale told her. She raised up one of her back legs, which was bleeding from a gash. “I got snagged by one of them. You think you can patch this up?” “Of course.” Gale sat down on the ground next to SweetHooves, who was pulling items out of her medical bag. Rhythm overlooked them and the rest of their team. Drizzle was still several hoofsteps away from them, looking nervous as ever. While she held an EPD, she didn’t take part in the attack. “Has she always been like this?” Rhythm whispered to NightWave. The purple Unicorn waved his hoof in a ‘so-so’ gesture. “She got more jumpy after the first Hybrid attack.” “That’s understandable.” Hyper’s shadow fell over them. “Okay, I’m gonna go now. I’ll see you guys in a bit,” he said from the sky. “Alright, see you then,” Rhythm responded. Floating downward, Hyper hovered near SweetHooves who was wrapping Gale’s leg in a bandage. SweetHooves turned her head to face Hyper. The stallion gaver her a kiss and backed off. Once more he darted into the air and sped down the road. Once Gale’s leg had been treated, they continued their journey west. The rest of the way was quiet, with no more enemies to disturb them. It was about an hour until they saw anything else. The white cab drove up to them, with Hyper inside. “Oh, thank Luna, it was still there,” Rhythm mumbled to himself. Even though Hyper hadn’t heard Rhythm, he said “I told you it would be fine,” as if he knew exactly what he was thinking. Hyper exited and Rhythm gave him a teasing glare as he replaced Hyper in the front seat. “What’s with the X?” NightWave asked, looking down at the door. “Oh, that’s the initial of our team, ‘Xero’,” Rhythm explained, somewhat proud. “Isn’t that… with a Z?” “Not our team. It’s an X,” Rhythm confirmed. “Xero with an X?” Drizzle spoke up for the first time since they attacked the Hybrids.  “Don’t you guys have a song on the radio?” “Yeah, we do,” Hyper said, and then glanced at Rhythm. The two of them exchanged amused smirks. “That’s actually kinda cool,” Drizzle added quietly. Hyper trotted over to Gale. “You good to fly?”  “Yep.” “Good, because we’ll be flying the rest of the way,” Hyper told her. SweetHooves sat next to Rhythm in the front seat with Drizzle and NightWave in the back. Hyper flew ahead of the cab while Gale trailed behind. All of the ponies were quiet for the most part as they continued their way back home. Rhythm shifted his gaze over to SweetHooves, who was just staring blankly into her lap.  “I’m… sorry about your eye,” Rhythm finally said. SweetHooves shrugged. “It’s not your fault. I just wish this mission didn’t go as bad as it did.” “Not all missions go right,” Rhythm sighed. He knew all too well the injuries his past missions held. “You gotta make the best of it sometimes.” “I wish I could have helped more,” SweetHooves lamented.  “You stayed there for a couple weeks more than intended. And you were helping at the hospital the whole time, right?” Rhythm stated, and SweetHooves nodded. “Then I’m sure that’s more than enough. But I understand where you are coming from. When I saw how bad it was in Haythorn, I wanted to help more too. Not like there was anything I could do. Maybe if I had my full team…” Rhythm trailed off and stared ahead where Hyper was flying. “I know Hyper is upset about this. About me,” SweetHooves stated, forlorn. “Of course he’d be. He’s your husband,” Rhythm said. He thought for a moment. He couldn’t actually recall seeing Hyper genuinely upset, as if he was hiding it. Perhaps SweetHooves had seen something Rhythm hadn’t.  As if reading his mind, SweetHooves added, “I know he’s trying to tough it out, and stay strong for the rest of us. But that can only get him so far. I just hope that… that it doesn’t drag him down on the rest of your mission. I don’t want to drag him down.” “Don’t say that. It wasn’t your fault you got hurt either,” Rhythm countered. “He’s going to make sure you're okay first and foremost. You need to be there to look after him too. I think Hyper will be okay, but he’s got to be honest to himself with his feelings. I’m sure you’re able to help him through that.” “I hope you’re right,” was all that SweetHooves said.  The two of them were relatively quiet for the rest of their journey. Rhythm knew this was a new challenge that could possibly slow down his own mission. Right now, he didn’t care about that. All he wanted was for his friends to be okay, somehow.