Silent Hill looked up from her papers and spotted a pink... pink and pinker mare trot into the library. Nothing about her seemed right. Especially not her hat, which actually floated about her head in it's barely-matching size. Right as she took to studying the mare, right when discerning that she had a thin, yet dense musculature, their ears started twitching. Silent Hill would've looked away. When she didn't break her stare, the pink mare twisted her neck one hundred and eighty degrees. She literally stared at her from behind. Silent felt a bead of heat prick her scalp. Their eyes were fish-like. And yet, there were concentric lines of glowing pink all around them. They moved and functioned... like a camera focusing it's lens.

That's when the pink mare tipped her hat, she took a bow before trotting off elsewhere. Bubblegum slipped through the crowd of cowponies in town and snaked her way through the various regulators suddenly amassed in Jail Seed. How many were there. She climbed the local saloon by leaping, gripping loose air-conditioning fixtures and windows. Her ghostly step allowed her to find the roof and establish a vantage point. It was there she counted, making sure to include the capable gunslingers, too. Seven regulators. Five pistol ponies. All the regulators used cowboy repeaters at that point. Ooh, but some of them had grenades holstered at their belts. Unable to resist, she clapped her hooves together, bursting with glee.

Bubblegum trotted off the building and scaled off it, using her hindlegs to land with one, ghostly thud. It came to that, for some reason, there were no wanted posters of her anywhere. Instead, she saw, inspecting a nearby saloon wall, they set out for someone called 'December Snow.' Her picture detailed a pair of horizontal slit shades and a gold chain around her neck. For some odd reason, they wore a tiara, too, it being encrusted with many jewels and a twelve-pointed star. She wore a fur-collared coat and boasted a diamond ear ring on her right ear. December Snow was only a bust on a wanted poster, but she could feel the life breathing in and out of her picture. It said her bounty was ten thousand caps or fifty thousand New Celestia Republic dollars. Bubblegum pocketed the poster and tucked it away in her bag. It still felt heavy. Good. Nopony took it out of her pack. Yet.

When somepony walked past the saloon doors, she spotted a familiar, blonde stallion with a lavender streak through his hair. Apfel Schnapps Mondstein trotted into the middle of town square and began to preach something at the top of his lungs, drawing everypony from their homes. Even some of the fillies and colts clung gently to their parents' legs and knees. He climbed atop a large and hefty crate, standing on three hooves and gesturing with one always in the air.

"My fellow Appleloosans...! We've all gathered here today to meet a common goal! When you see these children and look at the hope and fear in their eyes, do you feel good about that...? Do you feel good knowing that the moment you let them grow up and walk out the door, some junkie raider could come by and do Celestia knows what to them?! Chances are, you don't! We all know why we left Appleloosa. We all know how it feels to be under fire or raids or anything like that...! We need to go back to our roots and start being rangers again! We need to make the wasteland a better place before it makes our children's lives a living hell! We found a Grand Pegasus Enclave terminal somewhere in the library not two days ago, and you all know what happens when the Enclave finds a town...!"

A wordless weight took to everypony's face. Their features froze in something like pure, incomprehensible dread. The prospect of the Enclave's return and subterfuge of their town not only frightened them, but it lit them up with desperation. Apfel didn't have to say more. Everypony capable went back into their homes and between town to gather what they had. After watching everything unfold, Bubblegum knew it was too late. She couldn't kill everyone in Jail Seed, much less afford to. They had children. The best course of action she knew was to find and warn remnants. Before she could turn around to move, she bumped into somepony else. Silent Hill rubbed her muzzle and winced at how it bled. Immediately, her pink friend took a stimpak out their bag and hoofed it over. When and only when Silent Hill took her gift, she'd trot off without another word. That is... until Bubblegum Grins spotted their wings.

"That's a cutiemark. A real cutiemark. And you're not a dashite." Hushed Bubblegum, her eyes hanging at their hooves.

"Yeah...?" Silent trailed off, confused and scrunching one of her eyes up.

"You're one of them, aren't you. One of the... pegasus ponies. Come with me. I know where to find some WristBelles. When you get one of those, you can use them to communicate with one of the sanctuaries."

"... Why should I go with you? For all I know, you could be springing an ambush or some kind of sick cannibal baker party." Silent retorted, even keeping her hooves away from the looney beside her.

"Because you wanna kill some muties and I wanna make sure Equestria doesn't stay in the hands of backwoods dickheads that raise their children to shoot at ghouls for fun."

"... Okay. You've got my attention. How are we... all three of us, going to do our country proud?"

------

Saint Michael's was still as rustic and shoddy as ever. It and the rest of the cityscape were the last remnants of the old world in Mini Soda. The rest of it turned to snow and red sand or random encampments for high rollers in the game of power. How and why did they know that? On their way, they passed an eight person unit of what could only be described as the hardest bunch of warriors Silent ever met. Each and everyone toted laser rifles or assault rifles. None of them had small caliber weapons and none of them even cared an assassin was right beside them. Since, at the time, it was a narrow passage where it happened to be a long stretch of tunnel, they all walked instead of flew. And there, in that car-cluttered tunnel, the two parties met. Silent Hill noted, as they left, every member of that squad wore MK II Combat Armor with a white gryphon's print over the chest region.

Bubblegum only tipped her hat to them and spoke when the trip arrived at the hospital. In the elevator, she told her ignorant and blissful friend who they were. While they did it, they shared some Space JAM, which was a pre-war jelly of sorts preserved in a can and dried into a chalky, thick clay clump. Adding water would inflate and enliven the jam and welcome the consumer to a slam of flavorful fruit combinations. The one Silent had the pleasure of tasting was mangoes and pinapple with hints of orange.

"That was Talons. They're a huge company of mercenaries that take most of the contracts in Equestria. The Ivory Judgement, or 'regulators', some call them, do all the clean contracts first usually. And the least amount of contracts goes to Mister Damien Littlehorn. If you need someone to shoot when you're bored, I'd try the Ivory Judgement. But if you wanna avoid being strangled to death or turning into ash, stay away from the other two. Believe me when I say Gawdanya Grimfeathers will send everyone she can to get a contract done."

By the time her explanation finished, she was left with an equine skeleton in the elevator.

"Ooh! Does this mean we're gonna... bone now?" Bubblegum teased, grinning wide as ever and looking sideways at... something.

"No," Silent Hill called, at the other end of the hallway, "we just put it there so you'd be motivated to move faster."

Fine, she sighed to herself. Buddy was dragged along by his hemp leash. Thankfully, he was still dead. She couldn't handle the responsibility of something that breathed. The pink pony pranced about behind her peers before perking up at her precise, little pony ears. Somehow, a sickly thing found it's way into the hospital. It was a mess of writhing, slimy tendrils with phallic tips on every tongue. It's mouth, which housed a head rotting and stripped of most it's flesh, was gaped apart so loosely that it'd fit a diamond dog. The creature towered and scraped the ceiling with it's half-present black mane. Every portion of the hospital floor shook.

Bubblegum Grins took her Plasma Offender out her bag and popped it in the face. It went down in a hail of obnoxious, crimson energy. The high concentration of heated plasma also managed to dematerialize it's mark. A sloppy, viscous wave of goo crawled toward them and stuck to their hooves. Ms. Grins have a perky, open-mouthed smile when her friend asked, in utter disbelief, where she found a plasma pistol.

"I found it in a crashed vertibuck. I have another one here in my bag, but it's not something you should use. Your taint is off the charts. Get one drop of blood into one of these plasma cores and we all go boom."

Bubblegum trotted off before she had the chance to ask questions. And when she trotted after, the damn pony started galloping. They went on a tireless fucking chase to the basement level, following all the stairs and opening all the doors she could slam into. After so many fucking floors of glass bits, mossy water, large insects and grenade piles that actually exploded just minutes behind her, Silent Hill just barely fought to keep up with the ever annoying Bubblegum Grins. Her frail and acid-eaten muscles were dense as rock when she fell against one of the corpse cabinets. All that dizzying, heavy breathing left her a mess of heartbeats and wheezing pants. Subtle, ghostly hoofsteps perked her ears up. Silent turned to look when she saw Grins holding a Clonelestia head with her teeth.

"Luna fucking Starswirl what the holy Hel is that fuckin' thing?!"

A warm, girlish giggle crept out of Bubblegum's mouth and slipped through her grin.

"Hi, Silent Hill. I'm a mutie. I'm a hivemind thing. I dip ponies into my secret sauce and make more of myself. Oops, but you don't know what it is, so I'll tell you.. I use the forced evolutionary virus to alter equine genetic makeup and then it turns them sterile, uh oh! But at least it turns them into me. Oops! I made another dumb! When you mix taint into FEV you can make a chimera! Waw waw waw."

Soon as her explanation finished, Silent asked 'what the fuck is wrong with you.'

To that, she only replied 'nothing at all and everything at once, baby.'

Bubblegum Grins struck one of the sliding storages open. Inside was a corpse with a golden, blue-striped jumpsuit and a wrist-mounted device. It still had a healthy light shining on in some dim standby mode. The light was a shade sky blue. Examining the tech further, she found dials on the bottom of it's bell-shaped frame. The screen itself resembled a vertical rectangle.

It came with all sorts of features, like an inventory sorter, a chemical dietary diagnosis and even a special feature called Belle-Assisted-Targetting-Software. In order to actually utilize BATS, however, she needed to either wear special contacts or spectacles. Silent went with the spectacles. They were box-shaped in frame and even made her look dorkier than before.

"... Bubblegum. Before I tune into this radio or whatever, how did you know all this. How did you... make it so easy to make things work out. Are you psychic. Can you tell the future?"

Well. She never believed in that nonsense before but nothing was implausible anymore. Hadn't her eyes shot magic not a day ago. Didn't her friend just magically approach her and make her dangerous trip a breeze. An answer came, after Bubblegum lifted a manhole cover off the floor.

"I am a little psychic. I get feelings. Twitches right before something happens. And then the voices tell me about where to go or what to do. I guess I am sort of telling the future all the time. But I never know if I'm always right. Knowing... what to do before something happens or what to do when it does is easy to do when you are psychic. But it doesn't mean you have to be. Just make inferences. And analyze the circumstance."

Bubblegum grins sucked between her teeth. That bandaged mare asked another question. One more. And that was the entirety of it, she promised. In fitting words, she asked 'why did you know so much about the muties?' What a bothersome question. When Bubblegum answered, their eyes focusing on the floor beneath and each limb still, she'd recite her story. Silent Hill heard whispering static fill her ears.

"... When the enclave found me, I was in a cage. But I didn't get locked in. I was just in there, holding a Clonelestia head. Singing lullabies to it, Cherry said. Back then, they found me here in this morgue section. Only, the Hive Celestias found the hospital and put their FEV here. Poor bastards.

They put me in a vat of FEV and I just got changed. But why I'm still a pony is beyond me. When you mix taint and FEV, you get a mix of either leftover genetic traits that used to be dormant, but come to life. Or you get a thing like me. An abomination. A god damn mutie. The Enclave Remnants found me and tried to melt me with one of their novasurges."

Bubblegum Grins lit a smoke for herself and watched the embers hover and hover till they fizzed into nothing. Examining the barrel of her Plasma Offender, which was so sleek and silver it looked like gun porn, she realized one of it's sisters almost ended her. One of her own weapons almost took her life away. How could she trust it if it was so evil. So lacking in good intent and direction.

How could Cherry have ever given her a chance.

A freak like her didn't deserve it.

"... When I dodged all their hits and used one of them as a shield, they realized how hard I was to kill. And even when Staff Sargent Summers shot me with his plasma pistol, my gut didn't hurt. I was spilling and melting all over where it hit. It hurt, but I... couldn't feel it too well. Everything was just empty and numb. It made me dangerous. I wasn't thinking when I slipped their sledge swings or hooked them in the temple. I was just a gun without it's safety. They liked that about me. So they all took me in and taught me what I know about the wastes. I uh... I was their cook, their interrogation specialist and- and their... sister. I- I was the only non-pegasus they had and they never yelled at me or called me a fucking mutie and now they're all gone. They're all gone and now I'm just a creep with no one to love me."

Silent reached toward her when she saw water fall down her cheeks. She hesitated when she started giggling in short, blaring bursts. Her hooves finally touched her cheeks when she realized all that laughing and grinning came with tears. When all Bubblegum could do was shutter and laugh the pain away, it meant she was scared.

Bubblegum was just scared.

Next Chapter: Semper Fi Estimated time remaining: 1 Hour, 11 Minutes