Apfel stared at her in disbelief, knowing just exactly where that smell came from. He just plugged his unpleasant thoughts away with her new find. He reviewed the notes she complied not a night ago and slowly realized the implications of some enclave asshole in their town. Apfel's hooves scrunched the paper near torn, only stopping short of it when Silent Hill called his name.

"Apfel...? Apfel, what's wrong?" The mare whispered, her lips wibbly and wobbly when he almost glared down at her in residual rage.

What was he thinking. In a split-second shift, he pretended to drop her findings. A warm, hushed tone took his voice as he complained about how his vision was going to Hades and how annoying it was he has to squint all the time or whatever. It followed Silent Hill saying it was fine because she needed to revise the notes and font anyway. Even if he disagreed, he grinned slightly and nodded his head in big motions, only to inquire why she wore such heavy-looking saddlebags. Why not, she joked, saying mares loved it when somepony packed big. Her real answer was less amusing and more insanely worrisome.

"I'm going to find that veterinarian that Bookmark Bliss told me about."

His lips pursed into a soft 'what?' complete with mismatched brows and everything.

"Why are you gonna go and risk getting pumped full of holes for some weirdo on a hill. Plus, you shouldn't even listen ta Bookmark, okay. That girl says aliens are real and that they took her on a ship with a cowboy, a swordpony and an old Great War soldier. Does that sound like a sane pony to you?" Reasoned her crush, who even held his head with his hooves.

Though he might've hoped for a different response, all she did was shrug and recite a line of prewar nonsense.

"I reject your reality and substitute it with my own." Silent Hill replied, ignoring his many attempts at stopping, reasoning that anypony who lives by themself and loves to study animals might be a creep and even his declaration that she was being completely reckless by going herself.

She dropped her notes and went to retrieve them, spreading her hindlegs just enough to pull her nethers apart. Silent Hill took to a soft, wide grin that made her eyes heavy. She responded after chuckling to herself and holding a hoof over her lips.

"Who said I was going alone? I need a big, strong colt like you to hold my hoof, you know."

He rolled his eyes and followed just behind her.

"Overt flirtation won't get you anywhere. I don't even swing that way, Silent. Not to mention I ain't a colt to have sex with a pony I don't even know. Unlike you, ya beaster." He remarked, crashing face-first into her fishy and horribly feminine crotch.

Oh boy. Well, he said, fixing his wide and leathery hat. He had to go take a very long and cold shower. His mare friend grit her teeth and let him trot away in silence. So he really didn't have the same feelings. Not at all. It wasn't fair, she thought aloud, dragging herself out of the southern Jail Seed exit, speaking of how attractive bachelor stallions were compared to straight stallions. And when she took off, by galloping and keeping her body low for minimum drag, she went in a straight line and never looked back. There was no love there. None at all. If it wasn't there in the first place, why did it hurt saying the truth. It shouldn't have bothered her that somepony didn't love her.

By her side returned the canine mutant that took her first post-awakening. It was a large, dog-like creature with a diamond-studded collar, each of the diamonds stained with dried blood. She hadn't noticed before, but somehow, his body of twice her size had a vest-like article of clothing. It might've been a flak jacket of sorts, just torn by time and use, evidenced by the circular rips and tears. Thankfully, Huge Oh, as she nicknamed him, because he made her mouth a huge 'o', wasn't out for her blood. His claws were no laughing matter. They weren’t absurdly long or spindly enough to be impractical and they were thick enough to have a dull, heavy edge. That splinted armor apart.

"Are you ready to keep me safe, Huge Oh? Because I'm not gonna lie- I can't fight as well as the rest of them-!" She huffed, galloping at a leisurely pace compared to any athlete's.

A warped, jeering sort of smile bore his teeth for her, resembling some sort of nightmarish grin. But instead of doing anything carnal or violent, he barked happily and put her atop his back. There, she rested in complete comfort, needing only hang onto his collar, which had actual handles for anypony riding his back. A curious find, she noted, keeping watch for her Huge Oh.

Atop his back, not only did she enjoy the uninhibited view, but a certain earpiece of sorts lay transfixed right over his left ear. There were a great amount of annoyances in dealing with it's static-drowned output. She couldn't ’t hear anything but a humdrum repetition of steady, rarely spiking white noise. It nearly bored her to death before she sighted a high hill in the snowy distance. Not three meters away lay the lonely home of a hermit. Though she wondered where Mini Soda went wrong with how little of civilization laid intact, she found the vast emptiness comforting. There were no ponies to tie her up or mutilate her. For as far as the eye could see, the badlands were empty. At least, away from the reported magical advances of Whinny Hapless, to the underground laboratories and military encampments of Saint's Fall.

Silent Hill braced shut her eyes and watched Huge Oh tumble to the ground. She held on for dear life and panicked with wide eyes, drawing Hubris from her holster. When they skid firmly against the red earth and dust and ashy snow, she leaped off her mount and assumed her battle stance. Who was it. What was it. What hurt her mate. The answer burst forth from the red soil. Covered in bits of countless pebbles and sediments were two, adolescent Hellhounds. They resembled Huge Oh, but were a head shorter and had warped arms and legs, they being much more compact and built with heavy musculature. They both had a tendency to snort and huff hot air out their wide and powerful jaws. Silent Hill noted their distinctly tomato red coats, remembering the terminal back at Jail Seed classifying them as 'abominations' and not actually mutated animals. If anything, their glowing, white eyes said the same thing about their monstrous nature.

She held her meager, malfunctioning revolver in position. If anyone tried to hurt Huge Oh, such an intelligent and caring creature, she'd have a few, leaden words for them. Even when they snarled wildly and raced toward her, claws tearing and kicking the rocky dirt below, she'd never move an inch. The first shot rang wild as it barely penetrated the closest hound's collarbone. Another shot and it's jawline leaked slobber and blood. Another crackling shot rang through the air. He stumbled and staggered backwards when she managed to rip his right eye open. One more shot before they were seconds away and she managed to ground him by capping the other eye.

In that moment, a wave of memories penetrated her very being. Flashing images of walking on the clouds entered her damaged mind. There were other ponies just like her, with wings and witty observations, slipping into suits of dark, metallic armor that fit around somepony when they struck a spot on the chest and inserted a key of sorts right beneath the hidden codpiece slot. And as ridiculous as that sounded, it worked immensely. A mare of around middle-age stormed past them in her own power armor, which held a thundercloud at the flank, etched into by some rainbow energy. A marching, dozen or so armored pegasi followed just behind her, armed entirely with minigun battle saddles and, in some cases, those same pegasi boasted large, surging plasma cannons crackling with white magic.

The warm rush of blood and numbing, overwhelming pain flung her back to reality. Silent Hill skid along the dirt and tumbled about till every inch of her body felt shattered and ripped open. In some hopeless attempt to stand her ground, she fought her body with broken hindlegs. It was rushing toward her. That red hellbeast was taking a b-line toward her sorry ass and she wasn't even properly dressed to die.

"Do you know who I am, you sorry ass mutant!" Silent Hill roared, her voice even forcing the hellhound to stutter and stop in it's tracks.

"I am Senior Airmare Silent Hill and you are a sorry excuse for a killer! Let me show you what a real killer looks like!" She barked louder, her eyes starting to glow a faint, translucent red.

Something twisted burst out her tainted, morphed eyelids. A coursing hatred of the hellhound and it's kind, of that whole god damn wasteland coursed through her and made her blood boil. That's when the abomination felt a hole rip through it's chest. When that frail, little mare was pushed far too hard and rays of cherry red magic ripped it apart. It's last few minutes of life were spent shuffling toward the hole it'd burrowed out of just before. When it's claw reached the entrance, the rest of the Hellhound stopped moving. Silent Hill collapsed and crashed on her side, hacking and coughing black, oozing discharge. Her eyes hurt the worst. They felt the equivalent of hot nails digging into them from all directions. Bloodied, broken in her hindlegs and most certainly left for dead, she only regretted being such a pansy for so long. For not getting back in shape and wandering the skies like she used to... before the great war forced them all into stasis pods. Her eyes closed for good and she took a deep breath to stop the pain.

Silent Hill jolted awake in a cozy cabin bed, attempting to sit up but reeling over from stabbing rib pain. Her ribs were slashed apart by that god damn mutant. She muffled her lips and coughed firmly into the pillow that used to be under her. Not a few feet away sat somepony in a red scarf and some sort of white, shining labcoat. It was a chemist's coat, composed of material that forced liquids to slide right off of it. His backside was turned shamelessly toward her, resulting in a full view of his rather... heavy sack.

His sack of random technological components he used as a seat. The unnamed stallion tinkered with a few, odd trinkets. Some of which lay beside him resembling a battle saddle, only, there was one overhead barrel with a disc-like chamber and a sliding door mechanism at the top. It had a little lock at the handle for the sliding plate, which probably required an actual key. Her careless gawking left her vulnerable. A stray, booming cough erupted out her stupid face.

The colt jumped in his seat and started an annoying beep in one of his contraptions. He scrambled to take it in his hooves and hop out of the seat. His eyes were open past the normal calm and collected look most scientists had. It didn't suit his soft, almond browns, which was worse because they carried a certain shine to them most fillies would be jealous of. He cursed and panicked wildly in a smooth, almost female castratto that put her at ease. It all seemed a lot funnier than it should've, though.

"Oh shite shite shite why did I have to start working on you, you damn matter displacement core!"

The finicky and almost hysterical colt dashed toward his door and chucked the trinket far, far away. And to Silent's surprise, it arced and flew far, far farther than any other waster could ever hope to replicate. If she didn't know better, he had a few good stones under his coat. When Silent saw the door shut, she instantly barked at him to get near the bed. He didn't understand, but his body complied, jolting him into a baseball slide beneath the cheap and rusted bedframe. Silent Hill covered her ears and opened her mouth before the god damn explosion happened.

The cabin rumbled alive and his door flung wide open, shattering some of his windows and leaving the iron bars completely marred by shards and radioactive snow. Her host crawled quickly out from cover and peaked outside. He let loose a high-pitched cry and rambled loudly while spraying the outside with a fire extinguisher. His planning abilities and useful foresight deeply impressed her. And when he trotted back inside, the colt's bright amethyst mane was a right mess. It was far too oily ans far too dusty to look professional. But it did match his tender, slender features. He wasn't very muscled or broad-shouldered, but he had slim arms and subtle chubbiness around his gut.

"Terribly sorry, miss, I had no idea you would wake up and no idea the matter displacement rifle would be such a mess, so I beg you to pardon my atrocious house etiquette." He rambled, planting his hoof against his forehead.

"... So you're the one that saved my life. What happened to my friend. The big dog thing with pony legs." She yawned, rubbing the grains from her blurry eyes.

"Oh, you see... he's still asleep. But he has lost a tremendous amount of blood. I'm still making sure he recovers. I attached a few sensor module stimpaks on his back, where hopefully, when he has enough strength, he can tear them off himself. They'll activate naturally if his body is low on blood or his nerves receive an overwhelming pain stimuli. R-right so, excuse me, I never asked your name." He rambled again, ruffling the back of his mane.

Silent Hill wondered how such a capable man could be so dorky.

"I'm Senior Airmare Hill. Silent Hill. One of the last real daughters of Equestria. And you, sir...?"

"I'm uh, well, I'm Doctor..."

"Doctor... Who?"

"Doctor..." He trailed off again, swallowing a hard, dense lump in his trachea.

"I-I'm Doctor Brown. Doctor Hot Brown."

Silent Hill chuckled and let her eyes wander sideways.

"So you're a shit doctor?" Next Chapter: For Auld Lang Syne Estimated time remaining: 1 Hour, 22 Minutes