Linkin Pony - Recharge: Revamped

by Kaciekk

Chapter 30

“Hey! You’re back!” CharmingRhythm greeted as he saw Jet and FeatherTune enter into camp.

“Glad to see the camp is still in tack. Well, not worse, that is,” Feather joked.

Rhythm only rolled his eyes.

“I got a tent and a mattress like you said! Oh, and I recruited three ponies. Actually, no, four. There was a couple,” reported Feather.

“Awesome! Sounds like we’re set for a while on recruits then. Well, that is if the ponies I recruited actually come…” Rhythm trailed off into his maze of thoughts.

“I’m sure they will. You said they seemed trustworthy,” Feather pointed out.

“Yeah. Well, we better get this stuff together.” Rhythm took a few steps towards the cab.

“Oh, yeah!” Feather exclaimed. “I got a surprise for you.”

Stopping in his tracks, Rhythm stared at Feather as he raced back towards the front seat. He scooped up what appeared to be a deep blue cloth in his forehoof. He passed it over to Rhythm, who unfolded the cloth in his magic. Brandished on it was the Resistance emblem in cyan; a lightning bolt in the hexagonal face of a crystal. Rhythm’s face lit up.

“A flag! This is perfect!” Rhythm leaned forward and hugged Feather around the next. “Thanks, Feather!”

“Eh. Thought you might like it,” Feather replied, patting his back.

“We gotta go put it up.” Rhythm spun around in the other direction.

“What about the other stuff?” Feather extended his wing towards the cab.

“We’ll get it later,” Rhythm said while walking away, his muzzle raised high.

While Rhythm knew there was a flagpole in front of the base building, he wanted to hang it up at the one in the center of the village. He attached it to the rope and pulled it up above the roofs with his magic. The flag hung there, lifeless.

“Oh. I got it!” Feather called out and took to the sky.

Facing the flag at the same altitude, Feather began thrusting his wings. Wind from his flaps caught in the flag, animating it. It flew vibrantly in the air, it’s deep blue contrasting against the dull sky.

“Fantastic!” Rhythm expressed.

Ash and ThunderCharm came to admire the flag too. It continued to fly a few moments after Feather descended to the ground, then it became still again. Strangely there was no wind coming in from the sea at the moment. Rhythm knew that wouldn’t last long, and the flag would proudly wave on its own soon enough.

“Hey, Rhythm,” ThunderCharm spoke up, taking a few strides closer to the Unicorn.

“What’s up,” Rhythm said as he shifted his body to face her.

“I’ve been thinking about it and… I want to join the Resistance!” Thunder grinned.

“Seriously? That’s great!” Rhythm replied, pleased. “But you’ll have to go through recruitment training,” He informed.

“Oh,” Thunder let out, not sure how to respond.

“But…” With a hoof placed over his mouth, Rhythm thought for a moment. “You may be able to do it here, or at least partially.”

ThunderCharm’s aqua eyes brightened again. Rhythm was ecstatic too. The first pony to be recruited in the Resistance from his camp! It really felt like they were finally making progress.

CharmingRhythm was out moving furniture the next afternoon. Two shapes in the sky caught his eye. He knew that since they were coming from the south, that they couldn’t be rogues. Sure enough, it was ForestWind, a stallion he had interviewed, accompanied by a grey Pegasus. As he galloped towards them, Rhythm got a better look at the second Pegasus. She was a light grey mare with a blue mane, who wore an expressionless face.

“Sorry I came so late,” Forest began. “I had some family business to take care of.”

“Hey, it’s no problem,” Rhythm replied casually.

“I wanted you to meet my wife though.” Forest extended his wing towards the mare left of him.

“Rain,” the stoic mare stated as she placed her hoof up.

Rhythm shook her hoof and returned with, “Rhythm. So why’d you come here?”

“I just wanted to know where Forest was at while he was away.” Rain’s eyes settled softly on her husband.

“And I basically begged her to come with me,” Forest smiled at her. “ I knew you’d do it for me.”

Once again, Rhythm noted how short Forest was. Rain appeared huge next to him, but she couldn’t have been much taller than the average mare.

“I shouldn’t stay too long. I don’t know if I trust that foalsitter we got,” Rain commented.

Forest said goodbye to her and she flew off. Rhythm couldn’t read Rain very easily, but he felt like she was a strong, intelligent mare. She was quiet, but seemed to care about her husband. She’d make a good recruit when she’s ready, Rhythm decided.

The next day SunSwirl arrived. She explained that she had gotten over a cold that she didn’t want to bring to the camp. The day after that, Terra came to camp late in the afternoon. Both mares were getting along with the other ponies and setting in. With all the new ponies, work was speeding up. Rhythm began feeling more confident in his camp. Their work continued for a few days before any other pony showed up.

Outside, in the shade of a building CharmingRhythm sat working on a generator. He diligently worked with the wires, attempting to hook it up to an electrical panel. All of his attention was on the equipment ahead of him.

“Hey, Rhythm!” sounded a voice he had not heard in over a month.

Frightened out of his focus, Rhythm sat up straight. He whipped his head around to see SilverFlash standing over him. He waved a violet hoof.

“For fucks sake Flash, don’t do that! You disappear for months and then pop up out of nowhere!” Rhythm scolded.

“Heh, sorry,” Flash replied, only halfway meaning it.

Rhythm raised to all for hooves. With his mood brightening, he pulled Flash in for a hug. “Hey, bud. It’s good to see you.”

“You too!” Flash accepted the hug.

“Whatcha doing here? Just stopping by for another visit?” Rhythm inquired.

“Actually, I needed to ask you something,” Flash began. “Do you have room in your camp for another pony?”

“Um… I guess so?” Rhythm pondered. “I mean, we’re sorta short on good living space. Why do you ask?”

“Because,” Flash exhaled, preparing his explanation. “We picked up a pony on our last citadel mission. We were going to take them back home, but they come from the North sector. Turns out their town was overtaken by Hybrids. It wasn’t worth sending them back. Thought maybe they could stay in your camp.”

“Wait, hold on. How did a pony from the north end up here? I’m assuming you're talking about Vanhoover. I heard about that,” Rhythm recalled.

“I have no idea. Guess the Hybrids must have shipped them off or something,” Flash theorized.

“That makes no sense. It seems so inconvenient.”

“Hey, it’s not like we’ll ever understand the Hybrids. They make irrational decisions all the time,” Flash pointed out, shrugging. “But you can take another pony?”

“Sure,” Rhythm said. “Are they with you?”

“Yeah. C’mon.” Flash tilted his head in the direction to follow.

Down the street was Lance, who stroked his crimson mane when he saw the others moving towards him. Next to him was a dark blue Pegasus with a short, lighter blue mane. Rhythm was surprised to see the Pegasus had a prosthetic left wing. Maybe someone Hyper could find something in common with.

“Rhythm, this is BlizzardBlast. Blizzard, this is Rhythm. He runs this camp,” Flash introduced.

“I can really stay here?” Blizzard wondered, eyes wide at Rhythm.

“Yeah. We’re kinda lacking good places to sleep, but I don’t want to turn away a pony,” Rhythm answered.

“As long as it's somewhere safe, I’m okay with it,” Blizzard assured.

“Alright,” Rhythm said, and then mumbled partially to himself, “But we really do need better beds. Among other things.”

“Hey, if you need help moving supplies, I’d be glad to lend a hoof. Or…. magic,” Flash offered.

“You mean like, from the city to here?” Rhythm questioned and Flash nodded. “If you could I’d really appreciate it.”

“Yeah. Of course!” Flash beamed. “Just show me where to go.”

“Let’s find someone to go with you,” Rhythm stated.

As Flash began to step forward, Lance poked his side with a hoof. “If you go, I wanna stay here with Blizzard. Make sure everything goes okay.”

“That’s cool with me,” Flash replied. “I’ll see you later.”

The grey Unicorn gave Lance a quick hug, then dashed off. Rhythm could tell, even though they had only known each other for a short time, that they had become close. Flash could really use a close friend who’d look out for him, especially with how dangerous his missions got.

Flash was about to partner up with HyperBlitz to go to Los Pegasus when Rhythm intervened. “Hyper. There is a new pony here. You are the welcomer, remember?”

“Oh, come on,” Hyper pouted. “I haven’t hung out with Flash in months. I wanna go with him! Besides, there’s plenty of other ponies to welcome. It doesn’t always have to be me.”

Rhythm sighed with a smile. “Alright. Go ahead. But you better bring back some good shit.”

“You got it!” Hyper grinned.

After Hyper and Flash left with the cab, Rhythm returned to speak with Blizzard. The young Pegasus wasn’t far from where they first spoke. Even Lance still stood close to them.

“Aren’t you going to miss your old city?” Rhythm spoke with sympathy.

“Not too much,” Blizzard said, peering at the ground. “I’m an orphan, and I’ve always moved around. I had a few friends, but we weren’t super close.”

Rhythm noticed how timidly Blizzard spoke, and their body language was anxious as well. He tried to soothe them. “I’m sure you’ll make plenty of friends here. We’ll get you a room to stay in. At least until we situate everyone.”

“Sounds good to me,” Blizzard told him with a grateful bow.

Rhythm paired Blizzard up with ThunderCharm, hoping the two young ponies could find something in common. After they had been situated, Rhythm returned to speak with Lance alone.

“So, you and Flash getting along?” Rhythm questioned, even though he knew the answer.

“Oh, yeah, totally. We make a good team. But…” Lance trailed off, his orange eyes thoughtful.

“What’s up?” Rhythm pressed.

“I’ve been worried about him,” Lance admitted. “Ever since we found out about Blizzard’s town, he’s been… off. He acts like he’s fine but he's been so discouraged and down.”

Rhythm blinked. At first he didn’t detect any odd energy coming from Flash, but he thought for a moment. Flash was a bit too eager to get away. Looks for a distraction, perhaps?

“Maybe he’s upset he couldn’t help Blizzard anymore,” Rhythm guessed.

“Maybe. I also think it has something to do with not being able to help ponies in Vanhoover. He wants to be able to help ponies, but it’s hard when they are out of our sector,” Lance explained.

“I will say it’s pretty messed up the Resistance doesn’t send aid to other sectors. I mean, I get we’ve gotta look after ourselves, but we have to look after each other! That’s our job!”

“I know other sectors help out, and our’s used to. I think maybe it’s our president,” Lance added.

“I wouldn’t put that past her,” Rhythm sighed, knowing all too well how enigmatic their president was.

“I just wish I knew what to do to make him feel better,” Lance lamented.

“Hey, it’ll be alright. He gets into these slumps from time to time, but he always comes right back out of it. He’ll be back to himself in no time.” Rhythm reassured.

“Yeah,” Lance said, still caught up in his mind.

He really does care, Rhythm realized. That was such a relief. This was a different side to Lance. He was confident, maybe a bit full of himself, but also very caring. Rhythm hadn’t got to spend much time with Lance before, but he found himself wanting to get to know him better. Lance was a good pony.

The two of them talked off and on into the afternoon. BlizzardBlast got along quickly with ThunderCharm and her friends. Hyper and Flash returned with supplies, including several boxes of food and a water filter. Both of those would be very useful with all of the newcomers in camp.

Rhythm didn’t bother asking Flash how he was feeling. It was best not to bring it up and let him work through it himself. As Rhythm expected, Flash announced that he and Lance were heading to Los Pegasus.

“You two don’t get into too much trouble,” Rhythm told them as they were leaving.

“Oh, we’ll get into all the trouble,” Lance smirked, which made Flash’s eyes roll.

The two Unicorns trotted down the slope towards the train tracks. Rhythm spun around, almost bumping into HyperBlitz.

“Hey. I was wondering if you could help me move some stuff,” Hyper requested.

“Uh, actually, there’s something I need to finish. I can help you after,” Rhythm replied.

“No problem,” Hyper said, shrugging.

Rhythm resumed working on the generator he had been setting up earlier that afternoon. Although he was not sure how long it would take for him to finish, he didn’t want to decline HyperBlitz completely. He wanted to help anyone whenever he could, but it was best to finish what was already started before moving onto something new.