Linkin Pony Recharge: The Catalyst

by Kaciekk

Chapter VI

The ponies had been at the base for five days. It was three days after CharmingRhythm had lost half of his leg. It was become very dry, and it had not rained the whole time. Rain was needed. Though the rain wasn't healthy; standing in a shower could cause illness, even if it was drunk. But the ponies had a water filter to clean it. The filter used little energy, but they used what ever they had left. The ponies had plenty of bottled water, but it was better to save what they had. There was a river that wasn't that far off, though the water in it was worse than the rain.

SpinningNote paced around in the meeting room and halted by the counter. His indigo magic lifted up a bottle to his mouth and he took a gulp of water. It wasn't the best tasting water, but at least it was clean. Clopping came up next to Spinning and FeatherTune gave a somewhat annoyed glance.

"Don't be drinking all of our water!" The Pegasus defended.

"We have plenty," Spinning said as he rolled his grayish-brown eyes.

"CharmingRhythm said that we should be careful with what we use. For water, save the bottled for later, and use our filtered. It's possible that we may need it later."

"Wow, I never thought you could say an unscrambled sentence," Spinning taunted, a bit sarcastic.

Feather didn't give a remark, he just still gave an annoyed expression.

"You know he's right," A voice stated as it came into the room. CharmingRhythm stood by the door from the mainroom.

"Wait, who? Me or him?" Feather cocked his head.

"My point exactly," Spinning mutter quietly.

"I'm talking about you Feather, how we have to save out supplies."

"Yes!" The cream Pegasus said with a smug whisper.

"But like he said, we have plenty of water!" Another voice jumped in, coming from the left of Rhythm.

"But Blazing," EchoBeat's voice came from the same direction, the supply room. "We don't really have any filtered water left. We need that not just for drinking, but cooking and washing."

"Than we need too go out and get some," Rhythm announced. "If we get a little more with what we have now, we should have enough until it rains again. And I guess it wouldn't hurt to have some bottled water. It's just that we just got here, and we don't need to waste things right away."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Going outside is dangerous! Haven't we learned that already!" Blazing pointed out.

"But somepony gots to take the risk," Spinning retorted. His magic lifted up two clear, plastic jugs and put them in a saddle bag. "It shouldn't be too hard."

"But Spinning, it is dangerous," Echo said with emphasis.

"Whatever," The red-violet Unicorn started his way to the door.

"Spin," Feather tried to stop him.

Then he went passed Rhythm and out the door and stood in the mainroom for a few moments. He looked around and saw HyperBlitz sitting in the computer chair. His brown eyes looked to him with confusion.

"Sup, Hype."

"Um.. hey," The half Pegasus said uncomfortable.

Then suddenly Spinning flipped around into the meeting room again. He shouted out while shaking his head rapidly. "Anypony coming with me?!"

Again, he went into the mainroom. SpinningNote clopped pass the hard floor to the entrance. He slipped to the outside world and stood still again. The Unicorn waited for a few minutes, wondering who would come with him, because he knew that someone would come with him. Spinning began to grow impatient .

Soon enough, the door flew open. The bulky orange stallion looked with wide eyes.

"And you said it was dangerous," Spinning mocked Blazing.

"We all know it's dangerous," Blazing said. "Lets just get this over with before Hybrids find us."

Spinning started to trot next to Blazing. He had a saddlebag tied to his waist also, and it had a few plastic jars in it too. Blazing's green eyes just stared forward with uncertainty. Spinning led the way to the west, where the river was. Hopefully they were not going to be out too long.

After a while of traveling across the dry terrain,they had found the river. It was horrid how much trash was stacked up along the way and at the river. Spinning watched the dirty water flow slowly. He took out his jars and and scooped up the dirty water into them to be filtered.

"This isn't much water," Blazing exclaimed.

Spinning looked over to the pony to see him take the jar with two hooves and scoop up water. He then would twist the cap back on.

" This will be enough until it rains. We just gotta be careful how much we drink," Spinning retorted.

"Well, look who's finally being supply conscious," Blazing told him with a smirk.

Spinning's ears pricked and he looked past the orange stallion. A dark figure came over him from the back. It's mechanical clanks were covered by the sound of the rushing river.

"Blazing!"

"What? It was just a joke."

"NO!" Spinning swiped his hoof into the air and pointed.

BlazingFlair flipped around and saw the Hybrid. He suddenly freaked out and ran the other direction.

"We need to save out jars!" Spinning announced as he took both his own ans Blazing's water with magic and hid them under some wooden boards.

"SpinningNote!" Blazing called out and the Unicorn raced across the surface.

"Fuck! why do we keep getting attacked?!"

"This is just one Hybrid. There are two of us," Blazing commented.

"Yeah, but look at how huge he is!" Spinning shouted.

The Hybrid was a dirty red Unicorn. Its horn was covered with metal and a blade in front. It was heavily built, with dark metal shoulder pads. Its eyes gleamed red at the other ponies and it crept forward with huge thumps.

"Get to the other side of the river!" Blazing shouted randomly.

The orange stallion quickly ran forward past the Hybrid, and jumped off a boulder, almost falling into the water.

"Blazing!" SpinningnNote called with irritation.

He then followed his friend to the other side. The huge Hybrid turned and took a swing at Spinning. The red-violet pony swiftly ducked down and ran to the boulder to jump off. He turned his head as he stuck his landing to see the Hybrid coming towards them. Its metal hooves crashed into the river making enormous splashes. The water didn't affect it at all.

Spinning saw BlazingFlair still running. He had no idea why he didn't want to fight; a battle would be easy enough with two ponies, the Hybrid being slow, and it had no guns. But Spinning followed Blazing again. They ran across the dusty ground and came to one more stop.

"Blazing! We shouldn't be running. We can fight it. Maybe trow things at it," Spinning told him .

BlazingFlair then skipped over and picked up a piece of wood with his forelegs. He stood on his back hooves and tried to keep his balance. Then the orange pony threw the wood towards the Hybrid. The attack missed, and the wood thudded right in front of the Hybrid. SpinningNote glanced with annoyance.

The Unicorn tried to think of an idea as the large Hybrid came closer. Its eyes beamed red, and its wide shoulder plates made it look larger than normal. Spinning kept pacing backwards, and shot a few blasts of indigo magic at the Hybrid. Nothing seemed to slow it down. Spinning bared his teeth and tried to think. All they wanted to do is get some water.

The Hybrid took a lung forward and its speed got faster. Both Blazing and Spinning ran again. When they looked back, it was slow again. It still wasn't as slow as a gun Hybrid.

"Oh, shit."

Spinning glared around as he heard BlazingFlair. He then looked behind him where Blazing was looking. They were on a rocky cliff, and it stopped only a few steps away.

"This is not safe," Blazing muttered with fear in his eyes.

Spinning studied the enemy once more. "Neither is it for a Hybrid."

"What?" Blazing stuttered. "Are you saying we should jump off?"

"Hell no! What's wrong with you, do you have the brain of a Hybrid?" Spinning scolded.

"Then... what?"

"Go over there," Spinning exclaimed. "Distract the Hybrid, then I'll divert it from you."

"So I distract it, then you distract it?"

"Just do it!"

Blazing galloped quickly to the left and swirled around and shouted. "Hey MetalHead!" He waved his golden hoof in the air.

The Hybrid grunted and turned to Blazing. Hybrids were usually attracted to more commotion. This gave a chance for Spinning. The red-violet pony looked over the cliff. He could see an old tree trunk sticking off the side. Spinning trotted over and looked at it, hopefully it could take a little weight. He then looked to Blazing who was still flailing his hoof around, but with more panic.

"Hey!" A shot of magic it the side of the Hybrid. It turned its attention to Spinning and he did it again.

Blazing watched as the foe started towards his friend. The Unicorn kept using weak magic attacks to keep it occupied. It came closer and Spinning backed up. He felt the tree trunk hit his back hoof, and steadily climbed onto it.

"SpinningNote, be careful!"

Spinning ignored his friend, because he knew that was exactly what he had to do. The dirty red Hybrid's metal hoof pounded onto the tree trunk, and Spinning could feel it shift downwards. His heart raced as his enemy took a few more steps and the tree creaked. The Hybrid raised it foreleg for a swing, and with some help of magic, Spinning took a daring leap. He bashed his back hooves into the shoulders of the Hybrid, and took one more jump.

He scrabbled his hooves across the dry terrain, almost losing his balance. His grayish-brown eyes just caught a small glimpse of the the Hybrid falling with the tree. The ground that it was connected to cracked, and fell with it. Spinning cantered away, afraid he would plummet off the cliff.

"That was insane!" BlazingFlair called out.

Spinning nodded with agreement, and only walked, out of breath. They both went back towards the river to get their jars of water. Spinning took plastic jars from under the wooden boards, putting them in his saddlebag, and giving the others to Blazing.

"Should we tell the others about this attack?" Blazing asked.

"Probably... I don't know," Spinning admitted. "Should we really worry them more? I mean, they would want to know whats going on around here."

"I guess we should be honest though," Blazing retorted, and walked at his friend's side, with their heads down.