Linkin Pony - Recharge: Revamped

by Kaciekk

Chapter 47

Another week had passed since the Hybrid ambush on the camp. There had been no other signs of Hybrids, nor any of rogue ponies. CharmingRhytm’s injuries were feeling better, and he knew now was the time to take important action. The mine that contained Hybrids must be sealed off.

Rhythm had gathered team Xero together on a late morning. They set out in their cab to the east. With them, they brought explosives that they obtained from Headquarters. The explosives were quite difficult to get, and it took a careful persuading attempt by SpinningNote to achieve them.

Once they had arrived at the mountain base, the ponies took their positions. Rhythm, HyperBlitz, FeatherTune and SpinningNote all helped to carry the dynamite packages to the mine entrance. BlazingFlair watched for suspicious activity to the north, while EchoBeat watched the south.

All the stallions gathered near their cab a few hundred meters from the entrance where the dynamite now sat. All except for Feather, who hovered over them, waiting for action.

“FeatherTune! Get down here!” Rhythm shouted.

“What? Why? I’m out of the blast range!” Feather quipped back.

“Come down here unless you want your ears blown out!” Rhythm gestured with his hoof to guide the Pegasus down, then stomped on the ground.

Feather huffed, rolled his eyes, and floated downwards.

“I don’t get why all of us had to come,” Echo muttered. “Shouldn't one of us stay in camp to overlook?”

“Eh, we won’t be gone for long,” Rhythm assured with a wave of his hoof.

“Are you sure we have to collapse it?” SpinningNote whined.

“Do you want the Hybrids inside to get out?” Rhythm countered.

“No. But the mine could be a good resource. There were energy crystals in there. And there could be other things in there too,” Spinning explained.

“We have a whole energy mill! What’s that compared to a mine we can’t navigate?” Blazing pointed out.

“I just think it’s cool…” Spinning mumbled.

All of them huddled around as Rhythm cast a mute spell dome around them. As the cyan faded, Rhythm turned to HyperBlitz.

“You ready?”

“You got it,” Hyper confirmed. His foreleg was raised, his EPD aimed towards the pile of explosives.

Hyper charged his weapon, and then fired out a single shot. Just as he fired, Spinning placed up a magical shield for extra precautions, although he wasn’t instructed to. A split second later, one of the crates of dynamite exploded as the energy met it. The blast caused a chain reaction, the rest of the crates exploding with it.

While the roaring sound in the air didn’t travel past the invisible mute spell, some of the sound came up through the ground. A low rumble vibrated beneath the stallions. The ground trembled slightly, as if it was another earthquake, but all of the stallions kept in place.

Once the explosions ceased, a large cloud of dust fumed from the side of the mountain. As it began to clear, some of the rocks were still scattering. After a few moments, all was still again. The mine entrance was covered in broken stone. The end of the tracks outside it were just barely visible under the debris.

EchoBeat opened his eyes, which he had just realized he had closed.

“That was awesome!” Hyper grinned.

SpinningNote sighed in disappointment. Rhythm gave him a few pats on the back.

“C’mon, let's go make sure it’s completely sealed,” Rhythm said. He cantered down the slope back to the mountain side.

Team Xero surrounded the pile of rocks to inspect it. Feather kept watch, hovering in the sky above them. Rhythm, with his hooves on the boulders, peered over them to see if there was any sign of gaps. Perhaps ponies couldn’t make it out of the cave in, but some Hybrids had heightened strength.

“Uh, guys,” Feather announced in a drawn out tone. “I think we have a problem!”

“What?” Rhythm flicked his head up to Feather.

To the north, on the horizon, Feather spotted movement in the mountain side. While it was so small in his vision, Feather knew how large the red creature actually was.

“We woke up the dragon!” Feather shouted while flailing his forehooves around.

“What?!” Rhythm croaked. All of the stallions on the ground paused to stare at Rhythm. “C’mon, let’s get out of here!” He waved his team in his direction.

Hyper darted into the air as the rest of them charged towards their cab. Once on the small ridge, Rhythm glanced out to the north. He too could see the creature flying towards them.

“Fuck, I should have thought of the sound disturbing it!” Rhythm cursed.

“I don’t think any of us would have thought of that!” Spinning snapped as he hopped in their vehicle.

When the dragon had made it halfway between them and it’s den, it let out a mighty roar. Then it puffed out a plume of blue flames.

“Whoa… awesome!” Hyper gawked.

“Hyper, no!” All four stallions from the cab called out.

Both Pegasi raced after their team who rolled out into the desert to the west. Rhythm stared out the window, eyeing the dragon that drew closer. Blazing kept his vision forward as he drove.

“So, uh, how do we get rid of it?” Spinning questioned from the back.

Rhythm’s eyes suddenly opened wide. “Shit! Shit! Shit!”

Rhythm quickly leaned over Blazing and used both hooves to snag the wheel. The cab took a drastic turn to the right.

“Hey!” was all Blazing let out.

“What the hell are you doing?” Echo exclaimed.

“We can’t lead it to the camp!” Rhythm hollered.

“Then where are we supposed to go?” Blazing asked as Rhythm gave back the wheel.

“What’s going on? Where are we going?” Feather’s voice spoke from the radio intercom on the dashboard.

Rhythm pressed one of the buttons and spoke back. “We can’t lead it to the camp. It could destroy everything we worked for!”

Above them, Feather contemplated what to do. He glimpsed behind his brown tail to see the dragon gaining on them. He stared forward again, analyzing the desert ahead of him. He pressed the button on his headset again.

“I’ve got an idea. It could be great or disastrous.”

“Shoot,” Rhythm replied.

“We lead it to the Hybrid camp in the lake bed. The Hybrids could distract it and we could circle back around to camp.”

There was a pause. Finally Rhythm spoke again. “That might just work. Let’s give it a shot.”

The cab turned more towards the right, around the edge of the forest. Feather and Hyper followed, although Hyper watched his friends in confusion.

“What’s going on?” He called out to Feather.

“We’re leading it away from camp!” Feather attempted to shout back.

“What?” Hyper yelled. The rushing air between them caused their voices to be drowned out.

“For fucks sake Hyper, this is why you need your own radio,” Feather muttered to himself with a head shake.

Once again, Feather glanced at the dragon. It was closer than ever. It must have been at least ten times larger than a pony. It snarled, displaying massive, sharp teeth. I wonder if I could slow it down, Feather considered.

Feather stopped flapping his wings, letting himself glide upwards and slow down. He rose above the dragon. He curved his neck into his chest and peered past his own belly. The dragon was now below him, but still behind. He held out his EPD and fired a streak of electricity at the dragon’s wing. The dragon roared and faltered, but then continued to fly.

Rhythm’s voice blurted out in Feather’s headset. “FeatherTune, what the fuck do you think you’re doing?!” There was anger in his tone.

“I’m trying to slow it down!” Feather responded.

“I swear to Luna, Feather, if you get yourself killed... Or burned…”

Feather ignored him and quickly fluttered his wings. He darted forward to get ahead of the dragon again. In the corner of his eye, he saw brilliant blue building up in the dragon’s mouth. It spat the flames towards Feather. The Pegasus dodge rolled in a panic, out of the range of the flames. The heat nearly scorched Feather’s fur off.

Hyper had noticed Feather’s struggle. For a moment, he drifted in place and sent a blast of energy at the dragon’s head. Hyper continued to fire, enough to irritate the dragon’s eyes. The creature grumbled in distress, using its claws to swipe at its eyes. It began to slow down.

Hyper signaled Feather with his hooves to keep flying forward. He then tilted his head to the dragon. Feather knew what he meant. He returned Hyper a nod, and continued flying ahead.

Team Xero passed the forest and kept to the north. Hyper was blasting energy shots at the dragon behind them. He was successful in slowing the beast down, but couldn’t stop it altogether. Hyper finished and shot forward to catch up with the rest of them.

The dried lake bed came into view. BlazingFlair drove the cab just before the steep slope downward. Feather noted all the buildings the Hybrids had built. A few metal bodies flickered into the light. While the cab and two Pegasi passed by them, the dragon was much more noticeable.

The Hybrids began gathering outside their buildings. Several of them began firing their guns at the red beast. It began to notice the attackers. A few Pegasi Hybrids rose into the air to fight the dragon. With a quick slash of claws, a Hybrid hurtled out of the sky and back into the lake bed.

“We’re gonna keep going,” Rhythm had said over the radio. “You stay back and make sure it stays distracted.”

“Got it,” Feather replied.

The Hybrids had aimed their turrets to the sky. With a large thump, the dragon landed on the plateau above the camp. In a rage it began to spew fire at the Hybrids. Blue flames quickly engulfed the wooden buildings. One of the Pegasus Hybrids flew over the dragon. It quickly swooped down and sliced the dragon’s wing with a bladed hoof. Another wicked roar came from the beast.

Feather knew he couldn’t stay for long. He didn’t want the dragon to take notice of him again. So he flew directly behind the dragon and after his friends who had driven to the south. He was able to catch up with them in a few minutes. They must have slowed down.

Soon enough they arrived at the west edge of the camp. Feather and Hyper landed as the rest of the team exited the cab. Near the training course, Ash was standing staring at the group of stallions. Her face expressed confusion. She pointed to the east, the direction they left in, and then pointed back at them. Defeated, she just waved her hoof in a “whatever” gesture, and swirled around, walking away.

“Holy fuck, that was insane!” Hyper exclaimed as the team gathered.

“You can say that again,” Rhythm grumbled.

“Holy fuck, that was insane,” Hyper repeated with a cheesy grin.

“Hyper, I swear to fuck-” Rhythm shook his head but supressed laughter.

“A fucking dragon, guys! A dragon!” Spinning expressed, waving a hoof.

“Did you see it’s fire? It was blue! That’s so cool!” Hyper said, ecstatic.

“You say that like our lives weren’t in complete danger!” Echo snapped.

“Hey, that’s our lives on the daily,” Hyper countered, shrugging. “Do you think it’s fire was blue naturally, or because it ate energy crystals?”

“I’d rather not try to figure out,” Echo muttered.

“Feather!” Blazing trotted up to where the Pegasus was standing. He placed a hoof around Feather’s back. “Your plan worked! We got rid of it! Well… we did, right?”

“I didn’t see it following us,” Feather reported. “The Hybrids were definitely intent on injuring it. Which means it may not be able to fly after that.”

“You guys realize we just dealt with three of our problems in one go, right?” Echo pointed out. “We sealed the mine, we dealt with the dragon, and the dragon destroyed that Hybrid camp.”

“Damn, you’re right,” Rhythm let out. He then perked up, beaming. “This is amazing!”

“I wouldn’t count completely on the dragon being gone for good,” Spinning advised. “I don’t think the Hybrids could deal with it just like that.”

“Maybe it will know not to mess with ponies anymore?” Blazing commented.

“We can only hope,” Rhythm said. He stepped up to Feather and patted his shoulder. “Good work, bud.”

“Eh, I just did what I had to.” Feather shrugged.

“Don’t sell yourself short,” Blazing told him.

“Yeah. Your quick thinking saved all of our asses. And the camp!” Rhythm added.

Feather held his chin a little higher and puffed out his chest. “Yeah, I guess I did.”

“C’mon.” Spinning jerked his head in the direction of the camp. “We gotta do something to celebrate.”

“Let’s have another bonfire!” Hyper suggested.

“Hyper, your obsession with fire is a little concerning,” Echo stated as they all began to trot into camp.

FeatherTune was glad he was able to be a hero for once. He really was needed for the team. After a moment of reflection, Feather charged after his friends, deeper into camp.