Linkin Pony - Recharge: Revamped

by Kaciekk

Chapter 33

Team Xero brought the two ponies they rescued into their camp. Like the other refugees, they would allow them to stay for as long as they wanted. After a couple of days, RoseTwist found out about the Hybrid camp up north. She pleaded for the ponies to go search it for any signs of her husband. CharmingRhythm was reluctant to send anyone there since it was unknown territory. Just to appease Rose, he chose HyperBlitz and FeatherTune to scout the area. ForestWind eagerly asked to come along with them.

The three Pegasi were able to follow the stream northwest to the dried lake bed. Reminnets of the lake water still remained, but it was barely a meager pond. All around that pond were Hybrid structures, sheds, fences, piles of scrap material, and energy nodes. Hybrids swarmed among the camp, there could have easily been at least two dozen of them. The Pegasi noted that the camp was practically a maze. There would be no way to search through all of the structures without having to fight through many Hybrids.

That’s when the Hybrids took notice of them flying ahead. Several Hybrids fired their guns at the aerial ponies, and pointed their turrets to the sky. At first, prompted by HyperBlitz, they began firing energy back. They were able to take out a couple turrets, and injure a Hybrid, but the crossfire from the lake bed became overbearing.

As they retreated back to their own camp, a few Pegasus Hybrids began chasing them. Luckily they were slow, and flew low to the ground. Hyper made a distraction, fighting them off in the air while his two allies gained distance. He was able to take out one of the Hybrids, which fell to the earth once it gave up. Another he was able to damage its wing enough so that it quickly descended to the ground in a crash landing. The last Hybrid gave up fighting and returned the way it came.

When they arrived at their own camp, they described the maze of obstacles in the lake bed. They determined it would be impossible to infiltrate without a well thought out plan and special backup forces. Luckily, FeatherTune was able to take some pictures of the layout from the sky, which they could use for future reference.

RoseTwist was crushed when she heard the news. At first, she became enraged with Rhythm’s team. She accused them of not doing their job, and not doing all they could to help her family. Those accusations hurt Rhythm to his core, but he tried to remind himself that there truly wasn’t anything they could do without risking many more ponies. He began to think of how selfish he was, not risking his ponies’ lives to save one life.

As the week pressed on, Rhythm’s teammates continued to reassure him that it wasn’t his fault. After all, there wasn’t even any proof that Rose’s husband was in that camp. After a few days, Rhythm regained his confidence. He knew there were many other things they had to do. Rose too had settled down, but became depressed instead. She neglected LilyMist, who the rest of the camp started to look after. Rhythm hoped that the mare and her filly would be able to recover from this loss.

Soon enough, it was time to pick up ThunderCharm from Los Pegasus. She had sent a message saying she was done with her initial training, two and a half weeks after she left. Rhythm agreed to be the one to pick her up. As he prepared himself, Hyper bursted into his room.

“Rhythm!”

“W-what?!” The Unicorn glared up at Hyper, startled.

“I wanna come with you!” Hyper grinned.

“Alright,” Rhythm said with a sigh of relief. “You could have said that without scaring the shit out of me!”

“Sorry. I’m just excited.”- that is what Hyper did best- “SweetHooves should be back from her mission by now! I wanna see how everything went,” Hyper explained.

“Go to SweetHooves place with Thunder…” Rhythm muttered.

“We can stop by before picking up Thunder. I promise I won’t take too long,” Hyper promised.

“Alright, cool,” Rhythm replied with a nod. “I do want to see Heartfelt, too.”

Once again, Hyper sat next to Rhythm as they drove to the city so they could chat on the way there. They made their way to Hyper’s old apartment.

The door opened. Heartfelt’s brown eyes darted between the two stallions, almost in shock. She did not smile and greet them like usual. Instead, her expression was filled with dread, and she remained silent as stallion entered.

“What’s wrong?” Hyper asked, then looked around the room. Heartfelt was the only mare standing there.

“SweetHooves isn’t back,” Heartfelt informed hesitantly.

Hyper snapped his head back to face Heartfelt. “What?” He exclaimed, his eyes widening.

“She was supposed to be back over a week ago,” Heartfelt said, gazing at the floor. “No messages either from her team. I thought I’d at least get an update if something didn’t go right…” She trailed off.

“You mean SweetHooves is still out there?” Hyper replied in a shrill voice. “If she’s not back, something could have gone wrong! She might be in trouble. She might be hurt!”

Rhythm stepped up next to Hyper and placed a hoof on his back, attempting to ease him. Heartfelt exchanged a look with Rhythm. Her worried eyes flooded with guilt of being the bearer of bad news. Neither of them would be able to calm Hyper’s fear.

“What if she doesn’t come back?” Hyper fret.

“I’m sure she will,” Rhythm told him in a mild tone. “Maybe something slowed them down. They’ll come back, and if not, they’ll at least update us.”

“Then why haven’t they sent an update already?” Hyper refuted. “Something happened to them… something bad. I… I have to find them!”

“What?” Both Heartfelt and Rhythm expressed.

“Hyper, you can’t just go off and look for them on your own,” Rhythm warned. “Think logically. Haythorn is a Resistance town. They’ll be safe there, and she has a team looking after her.” Rhythm realized what he said was useless. Hyper wasn’t a pony to listen to logic, he was one who was driven by emotion. Right now, his emotions were controlling him enough to take action.

“But they went there to help them to begin with! If they can’t help them, how can the town give help back? Someone has to go find them! I’m fast, I can get there quickly!” Hyper proclaimed.

“No way, that’s still a long way away. And you can’t just go off alone!” Rhythm argued.

“Then come with me! If you cared enough, you’d come with!” Hyper retorted.

“Of course I care. And that’s why I can’t let you go, it’s too dangerous,” Rhythm responded. He was slightly hurt, but more irritated than anything.

“You may be my team leader, but you can’t make me do anything. If you don’t want to go, I’ll just go by myself,” Hyper said with furrowed brows.

“Hyper, it’s for your own safety.” Rhythm placed a hoof on his friend’s shoulder. “SweetHooves will be okay. She’s a strong mare, she knows how to look after herself. They’re probably just running behind.”

“My safety doesn’t matter.” Hyper shook his head. “I’d risk anything to make sure SweetHooves is okay.”

Rhythm couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “Of course your safety matters. Do you really want to put yourself at risk? Just to have SweetHooves come home and find something happened to you?”

Finally, something seemed to get through Hyper’s walls. “Fine,” he muttered. “But if we still get no updates, I’m going to go, and you can’t stop me.”

“Please, just think before doing anything too extreme,” Rhythm stated.

Hyper said no more and stormed out of the door. Heartfelt’s head followed him, her ears still pressed back. Her eyes then locked onto Rhythm’s. He stepped forward to her.

“I’m sorry this meeting couldn’t be better. I would have liked to talk to you more,” Rhythm told her with disappointment.

“It’s okay. It’s not your fault,” Heartfelt said, still stiff after watching the argument.

Rhythm rubbed his horn against her horn. “Next time we’ll talk more. I promise. If you get any updates about SweetHooves, can you send a message to our camp?”

“Of course,” Heartfelt replied.

As Rhythm began to walk away, Heartfelt outstretched her hoof to him. Turning to look back at her, her eyes pleaded what her mouth couldn’t say. He returned to the spot he was in a moment ago.

“Stay strong, babe. Things will be better next time.” Rhythm wore a weak smile, and then gave Heartfelt a kiss. “I love you.”

“I love you, too,” Heartfelt responded in a soft voice.

Rhythm exited the apartment and glanced left and right when he didn’t see HyperBlitz. To the right, he could just make out the small shape of Hyper flying several stories about the ground.

“Hyper!” Rhythm called out while amplifying in voice. “Where are you going?!”

Hyper swirled around in the air. “We have to get Thunder, don’t we?!” He shouted.

There were ponies staring at Rhythm from across the street. He ignored their eyes and jumped into the cab. He shook his head, frustrated that Hyper had left without him. Slowing his flight a bit, Hyper soon became parallel with Rhythm. They traveled to the recruitment building.

ThunderCharm, who was sitting in the waiting area, jumped up when she saw the two stallions enter. “Hyper! Rhythm! It’s good to see you!” Thunder quickly galloped over to them, her face beaming. “I got my own EPD!” She lifted up her right foreleg. “But they also gave me a training one too.”

“That’s great, Thunder,” Rhythm acknowledged, mustering up a smile.

Thunder lost her own smile, and her eyes became concerned. She had picked up on the odd energy between them, especially since Hyper, the normally vocal pony, wasn’t speaking at all. Hyper only took a glance at Thunder, and turned around to face the door.

“What’s wrong?” Thunder asked meekly.

“I’ll tell you on the way back,” Rhythm murmured. “Don’t worry, it has nothing to do with you.”

Rhythm and Thunder rode into the desert as Hyper flew above them. It had been silent between Thunder and Rhythm for a few moments before anyone spoke. Not liking the awkward silence, Rhythm spoke up first.

“So, can you tell me the difference between a normal EPD and a training EPD?” Rhythm inquired.

“A training EPD uses less energy, so you can fire it much more for practice. It’s also a lot less powerful, so you can shoot ponies without much consequence,” Thunder reported. She blinked at him, a bit confused by the question.

“Good, good,” Rhythm said, nodding. “And you do know what EPD stands for, right?”

“Uh- yeah. Energy Power Device. Why?” Thunder responded.

“Just schooling you. Making sure you remember your training,” Rhythm replied with a smirk.

His smile quickly faded as his eyes rested ahead of him once more. HyperBlitz was gaining distance between them, not caring how fast he flew or if he left them behind. That was not usual behavior for him. He was usually loyal and stayed by his friends’ side. Caught up in his extreme emotions, he acted upon rash decisions and distanced himself from ponies.

Thunder noticed his sudden change in mood. “Are you going to tell me what happened with you and Hyper?” She asked in a polite tone.

Rhythm explained to Thunder what happened to SweetHooves, and that Hyper was gravely concerned. He left out the part about arguing with Hyper, but did mention Hyper wanted to fly to Haythorn to find his wife.

“He wants to go alone?” Thunder mused. “Isn’t that dangerous?”

“That’s what I said,” Rhythm muttered. “I mean if he really does end up going, I’ll follow him if I have to. I can’t let him wander into the wastelands unprepared.” He gazed distantly at his front hooves for a moment. “I just hope SweetHooves comes home before he tries anything. And I hope she’s alright…”

“What would really cause a mission to be extended?” Thunder questioned.

Rhythm contemplated that for a moment. The only times his missions had been stalled was due to someone getting injured. That produced a knot of fear in his belly. He remembered SweetHooves was a medic; she knew how to treat injuries. “Maybe someone from the town was still in trouble, and she had stayed to help,” Rhythm thought aloud. “Either that or their way was blocked somehow.”

Thunder attempted to understand. She was a brand new recruit, and didn’t have the experience Rhythm had. I hope it was the right decision letting her become a recruit, Rhythm wondered. She doesn’t know how dangerous things can get. I don’t know if she’ll ever be prepared for that.

CharmingRhythm knew that at one point he was an inexperienced rookie too. He had grown used to the hells that the wasteland threw at him. He wished he didn’t have to know, that things weren’t this way. He had seen the horrors that ravaged ponykind. The terrible once-pony creatures that were Hybrids. Injuries that occurred, both the loss of his leg and Hyper’s cut off wing. Ponies taken away from their families like RoseTwist’s husband.

Celestia, please let SweetHooves be safe.