Linkin Pony - Recharge: Revamped

by Kaciekk

Chapter 35

The cloudy sky grew brighter as CharmingRhythm and HyperBlitz rode throughout the desert. The road split at one point, but Rhythm was able to determine which path to take. Along the way they passed a village with a small population of ponies. A few waved to them as they passed by. After over an hour, Hyper became restless.

“I want to fly now. I need to stretch my wings. Wing...?” Hyper stopped a moment to question what he said.

As he extended his foreleg towards the half door, Rhythm exclaimed “Nah, nah, nah. You aren't exiting at this speed! Let me slow down!”

Rhythm proceeded to do so and Hyper shot out of the cab. He bounded into the air and Rhythm began to follow him.

“I would have been fine!” Hyper yelled down.

“Do I need to teach you a physics lesson?!” Rhythm hollered, his head out of the side window.

‘Probably! I didn’t go to school!” Hyper shot back.

“No broken bones allowed on this mission!” Rhythm teased. He put his full body back inside and shook his head with a grin. He whispered “Sheesh,” to himself.

They continued to travel for another two hours. Hyper stopped a few times to rest his wings and sat beside Rhythm again. They passed a few small forests filled with yucca trees. After crossing a stream, Hyper took to the air again and flew for another thirty minutes or so.

Suddenly the cab came to a stop, everything powering down. Blinking, Rhythm sat inside, confused. He hopped out to investigate. Hyper didn’t notice at first and continued to glide. Only when he heard the sound of the door closing did he realize what happened.

“What’s going on?” Hyper called out as he began circling above Rhythm. He landed into a trot and halted next to the cab.

“I don’t know. It just stopped,” Rhythm said, rubbing the back of his neck. “How do you get this thing open…”

Rhythm faced the front of the vehicle and started telechnetically budging a hatch on the steep hood. It opened with a clink and Rhythm peered inside. All of the crystals that powered the cab were dull, missing their vibrant blue glow.

“You’re fucking kidding me,” Rhythm muttered. “We got supplies and out of all the things, we didn’t get extra crystals!” He waved his left hoof into the air, almost smacking Hyper. “I don’t understand. This thing has been going for months, and it gives out now! How fucking convenient!”

“Hey, calm down,” Hyper placed his hoof on Rhythm’s back.

“Maybe I could transfer energy from my crystal…” Rhythm picked up his right foreleg and stared at the gem embedded in it.

“What? No way!” Hyper argued. “You need your crystal so your leg will work! And there’s no way there’s enough energy in it to keep this going for very long.”

“So what am I supposed to do? Walk the rest of the way?” Rhythm spat.

“You might have to,” Hyper replied, glaring at the road behind him.

“What about your crystal?” Rhythm pointed to Hyper’s EPD with his muzzle.

Hyper sighed as he picked up his left foreleg. “I don’t think it will get us very far.”

“A little further is better than where we are now!” Rhythm retorted.

“Alright, alright.”

Kneeling down, Hyper placed the bottom of his hoof against a crystal inside the compartment. He began transferring energy, the dull crystal beginning to glow again.

“I want to keep a little bit,” Hyper said, standing straight again. “In case we run into any Hybrids.”

“I’ll put some energy from my leg in it too, to help,” Rhythm spoke.

“Be careful Rhythm-” Hyper warned

“I’m only putting in a little bit!” Rhythm snapped and knelt down. Once he was done, he turned his head to Hyper. “What about your wing?”

Extending his left wing, Hyper stared over his shoulder. “What? Hell no! I’d argue I’d need my wing more than your leg.”

Rhythm rolled his eyes and stated, “Just a little bit. C’mon, you’ll be fine.”

“No!” Hyper quipped.

Hyper began backing up as Rhythm held out his prosthetic foreleg. Swirling around, Hyper broke into a gallop, Rhythm still following him.

“Hyper!” Rhythm shouted.

“No!”

Rhythm began chasing him faster, and the Pegasus took flight. He continued to fly around the cab as Rhythm waved his hoof in the air.

“Hyper, you can spare a little energy!” Rhythm called through a smile. Hyper fleeing from him was a bit amusing to watch. Hyper groaned and Rhythm gestured his hoof back towards him. “C’mon. We’re wasting time.”

Finally Hyper landed. He glared at Rhythm with a pout as he placed his right foreleg over Hyper’s folded wing. He sucked some energy out of his crystal into his leg, and then placed that energy inside of the cab.

They began traveling along the road again in their vehicle. Hyper sat in the seat next to Rhythm for as long as they could drive. After a few kilometers, the cab halted again. Both Hyper and Rhythm grabbed their saddlebags and hopped out.

“I don’t want to leave it. I just painted it,” Rhythm frowned.

“That’s why you don’t want to leave it?” Hyper questioned with confusion.

“I don’t want anyone to steal it…”

“Rhythm, we’re in the middle of nowhere!” Hyper expressed with an outstretched hoof. “Nobody is here to steal it!”

“I hope you’re right,” Rhythm murmured and turned around.

“Can I see the map?” Hyper requested.

Rhythm levitated it out of his bag and over to Hyper who grabbed it in his teeth. He crouched down and pushed himself into the air. He unfolded the map in his red hooves and glanced around the wasteland.

“I highly doubt you can figure out where we are,” Rhythm exclaimed. “We just have to keep following this road.”

Hyper returned to the ground and gave back the map. “We still have a lot of daylight. We’ll be able to make it there before night.”

“We better,” Rhythm mumbled. His eyes glared ahead, dark under furrowed brows.

“I don’t understand why you’re in such a pissy mood,” Hyper said.

“I’m the one who has to walk!” Rhythm expressed. “You could just fly. Why aren’t you flying?”

“You came with me. The least I could do is walk with you,” Hyper replied.

Rhythm tossed his head in front of himself, now smirking. “Alright. Fair enough.” His smile quickly faded. “I guess you were right. I am going to just slow you down.”

“Hey, it’s not like we knew the cab would run out of power,” Hyper protested.

“We should have. I should have,” Rhythm growled.

“Rhythm, I appreciate that you came with me. Even if I have to go at your pace. We’ll get there eventually. One thing for certain, I’m not leaving you behind,” Hyper insisted.

Rhythm gave him a weak smile. He was grateful for Hyper’s loyalty, something that always bounded them together. No matter what happened, they would face the road ahead as a team.

They continued to walk for about two hours. They stopped a few times to rest for a couple minutes. HyperBlitz once again took to the sky. Soon enough, they were nearing another village on their right. It didn’t appear to have any pony population. In fact, it seemed to have Hybrids living among it. Nodes were visible behind a long fence. HyperBlitz decided to scope the area out.

“Hyper, what are you doing?” Rhythm called out to his Pegasus friend.

After circling around, Hyper returned to Rhythm. “I was looking for a sign. I saw one. I think it’s ‘Chestnut’ something. It was hard to read.”

Rhythm stopped in his place and levitated out the map. His eyes scanned the area between Los Pegasus and Haythorn. “Chestnut View,” he reported. “We’re getting close. There’s supposed to be a river close to Haythorn.”

Suddenly, there were voices shouting from the village. A gate banged open and three Hybrids stormed out. One Pegasus Hybrid flew overhead. Rhythm quickly put the map back and started running. Hyper spun around and flew over him. Blasts of energy shots came from the direction of the Hybrids, a few landing on Rhythm’s back legs. The Hybrids were surprisingly fast.

“Leave us alone!” Hyper shouted.

Facing the Hybrids again, Hyper began shooting at them. Rhythm too followed his example and attacked the Hybrids. They were able to get the Pegasus out of the sky, but the three on the ground were still chasing. As Hyper continued to fire, his energy began to weaken, and finally stopped altogether. He stared in shock at the dull crystal on his EPD.

“Rhythm!” Hyper blamed, his face furious.

“Sorry!” Rhythm snapped with a grimace.

Once again they were fleeing down the road. They passed the last house of the village, and both sides of the road became barren. The Hybrids chased for a few hundred meters more as the distance between them and the stallions widened. Finally, the Hybrids retreated to the village they had left behind. Heaving, Rhythm stopped to catch his breath. Hyper floated down towards him.

“If you didn’t fly overhead they wouldn’t have seen us!” Rhythm snapped, still breathless. He fell to his haunches.

“Well, Sorry! I wanted to know where we are!” Hyper defended.

Rhythm unclipped the bottle from his saddlebag and guzzled down the water he had left. After a few moments, Rhythm regained his composure and stood up. He resumed walking east, Hyper flying near him.

Almost another hour passed. Hyper glanced down from his place in the sky. He noticed Rhythm dragging behind, his hoofsteps slow. Angling his wings down, Hyper slowed into a descent and landing trotting. He let Rhythm catch up to him at his own speed. The Unicorn’s head hung low.

“We can stop to rest again,” Hyper offered. Flying didn’t wear him out as much as walking did Rhythm. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah. Just… tired. Running from those Hybrids took a lot out of me,” Rhythm huffed. “And I’m all out of water.”

“Went through mine too…” Hyper stated.

Rhythm found a rock on the side of the road to sit on. Hyper peered around the wasteland in search of a source of water. There were only shrubs and short trees. A few patches of yellow grass were scattered here and there. Remembering that there was a river up ahead, Hyper took to the air again in search of it. He flew east for a while, but only far enough to where he could still see Rhythm. Ahead of him the desert continued, the road separating it into two. Hyper returned to Rhythm.

“I don’t see the river,” He reported.

Rhythm sighed. “It’s probably still some distance ahead. We’ll have to go without water.”

Hyper could tell how dry Rhythm’s mouth was just by how he spoke. He too felt uncomfortable with a dry throat. Hyper searched around again. With eyes set on the path ahead, his vision began drifting upward. With his head craned all the way up, Hyper took in the sight of the lumpy grey clouds that blanketed the sky.

“Clouds have water,” Hyper said.

“What?” Rhythm let out. “You aren’t thinking…”

“I mean why not?” Hyper replied, shrugging. “I can go up and collect some in our bottles.”

“But, don’t you know how polluted the clouds are?” Rhythm gaped.

“Our bottles have filters. Can’t be much different than taking it from a river. Besides, the top of clouds aren’t as polluted as the bottom,” Hyper explained. “Lemme see your bottle.”

Levitating his bottle up, Rhythm stared at it with uncertainty. It floated over to Hyper. After strapping it to his saddlebag, Hyper bounced upward. With his chin up high, he flew as straight up as he could. The clouds lay two to three kilometers up, which Hyper was able to scale in a matter of minutes. Closing his eyes and taking in a deep breath, he flew into the clouds.

Bursting out on the other side, Hyper could feel the cold droplets fling off of his fur. Some drops of water still hung to his body, but his wings and hooves seem to deflect the water. Focusing on his task, he tried hard not to get distracted by the beauty of the blue sky. He strapped one bottle onto his right foreleg, but only could do one at a time since his EPD covered his left hoof. Hyper stretched out his foreleg as he flew above the clouds, the rest of his legs tucked in. Once one bottle was full, he did the other.

Doing like he had done not too long ago, Hyper arched his path up, and then downward to break through the clouds. He realized his descent was too steep as he hurtled towards the ground. He angled his wings and began gliding horizontally. He swirled around Rhythm a few times and found a place on the street to land. He stumbled a bit at first, but was successfully able to land without crashing.

Rhythm was about to meet up with Hyper, but the yellow stallion started walking towards him and the rock he was sitting on. Lifting up a foreleg, Hyper displayed Rhythm’s bottle which was strapped to it. Cyan magic grabbed it and held it up. Rhythm scrutinized the water inside to make sure it was clear. Hyper was already drinking his own before Rhythm was done examining it. He decided it looked fine and took a drink.

He blinked and placed the bottle down again. “I wasn’t expecting it to be that cold.”

“Yeah. Clouds are cold,” Hyper said. “It tastes fine, right?”

“Yeah,” Rhythm responded.

Rhythm went back to the rock to sit down. Hyper did the same.

“That was a neat trick. You’re pretty smart for someone who’s never gone to school,” Rhythm remarked, bumping Hyper’s shoulder with a hoof.

“Eh. Or maybe school just isn’t necessary.” Hyper shrugged.

“I’m sure there’s plenty of kids in the Resistance that wish that was true,” Rhythm commented.

Rhythm glanced down as his side and opened up his saddlebag. He levitated out a bag of pre-packaged apple slices. “We may as well eat something now. I’m glad Heartfelt made us take food.”

“She’s probably smarter than both of us.”

“Oh, definitely,” Rhythm chuckled and began munching on the apple slices.

Hyper searched through his bag for something to eat too.

“Now if only it wasn’t so hot. Why do we have to live in a desert!” Rhythm threw his head up and groaned in annoyance.

The heat didn’t bother Hyper too much, and when he flew, he was able to catch a breeze. He noted that Rhythm wore more clothes than him and had darker fur and hair, which absorbs more heat. Hyper realized he had it much easier than Rhythm when it came to traveling.

Standing up again, Hyper backed up to give some distance between him and Rhythm. “What if I do this?” He began fanning Rhythm with his feathered wing.

“Dude, you don’t have to do that. Really,” Rhythm grinned and waved his hoof.

“You sure?” Hyper continued to fan Rhythm, now with faster beats.

“Hyper, seriously!” Rhythm laughed.

“Alright, if you say so. I was just trying to do you a favor,” Hyper teased.

Both of them rested for a few more minutes. When they had finished eating they began journeying east again. Another hour and a half passed. The shrubs and trees began to become more dense the further they traveled. Soon enough, desert pines bushes took the place of the cacti. A river traveling west was beginning to near the road the stallions were traveling on.

“Is that the river we have to cross?” Hyper wondered when it was a dozen or so meters from the road.

“Yeah. It must cross up ahead,” Rhythm said.

“Well I don’t see where,” Hyper replied, observing from above.

“We’ll get there eventually,” Rhythm sighed. He was growing increasingly irritated just from how much he had to walk.

Finally HyperBlitz spotted the bridge that crossed the river ahead of them. As they approached the bridge, Rhythm noticed something was off. The stone bridge was badly destroyed, it’s walls collapsed. Only a small portion in the middle remained, just wide enough for a pony to walk over. There was no way for a vehicle to cross it.

“What happened…” Hyper gaped at the destruction.

“I don’t know… it’s weird,” Rhythm stated. “Why would they leave it like this, as close as it is to Haythorn? Ponies need to cross it. Unless… it’s recent damage.”

“What could even do this?” Hyper asked, hovering just above.

“I’m not sure. It definitely doesn’t look like deterioration over time.”

Rhythm carefully tread along the stone bridge. Below him, water gurgled at the broken pieces of bricks. What looked like burn marks streaked the edges of the bridge. Rhythm was able to make it over to the other side with no issue, but the sight of the bridge made him uneasy. Something definitely was not right.

Once again they were stranded in the middle of the desert. Rhythm had hoped that Haythorn was close, but no sign of the city appeared. Maps always made things look closer than they actually were. At least the trees were growing healthier here, indicating more life. Purple plum trees were blooming, their color striking against the tan desert.

Something was moving between the trees. Both Hyper and Rhythm cautioned as they heard the creaking of wheels. A wagon appeared at the side of the road, with an Earth Pony inside, and a Pegaus drawing it. The Earth Pony noticed the travelers and waved a hoof.

“Howdy there! You need a ride?”

“Please,” Rhythm croaked.

“You guys going to Haythorn?” Hyper questioned.

“Yup,” The Earth Pony said. “We were out here picking some plums. C’mon.” He waved them over with a hoof.

Rhythm hopped into the wagon and felt relief in his legs once he rested. The Pegasus drawing the wagon flew just above the ground, effortlessly pulling it along the road. At last the buildings of Haythorn came into view. They weren’t even half the height of the towers in Los Pegasus, but their size still indicated a larger town. The spot where the sun hid was past midday now. There was still enough time in the day to scout out SweetHooves and her team.